Friends, as most of you know by now God is calling me and my family to a new church for a new season of ministry. I thought I would take the time todrop you a quick note to tell you about it. I recently took an Associate Pastor position at Countryside Church in Michigan City and Missio Dei in Valparaiso (I’ll explain the two names in a bit).

Bethel has been church home to Pam and I for the past 10 years and hold a special place in our hearts. We met each other at Bethel, became Christians while at Bethel, were baptized at Bethel, were married in the auditorium, have both been on staff at Bethel and our family has grown from 2 to 5 during our time here at Bethel. For us, this transition is bittersweet and especially true for me as I have been at Bethel ever since my family moved to this area back in 1986. Bethel truly is our home.

Over the past 10 years God has used this church, its leadership and its people, as the primary means by which to grow us, challenge us spiritually and equip us for this new work. The sad part comes as we reflect on all that God has done over the past 10 years knowing that God is taking us somewhere else. Deep friendships, memories, inside jokes, countless conversations, times of prayer, encouraging words, challenging words, shared laughs, tears shed, ministry opportunities and special moments. These things will always be dear to us and we will miss everyone and everything.

The exciting part for us comes as we look forward to serving at our new church. Countryside Church in Michigan City is a Christ-exalting, gospel-centered, missional community. Over the past three years, under the leadership of lead pastor, Kevin Galloway, the church has been brought through deep, significant changes and has experienced a tremendous amount of gospel growth while seeking to transition into becoming a missional church.

Countryside is a church that truly sees itself as the people of God sent out to love people in both word and deed and God has been doing some amazing things there recently.

Part of Countryside being a missional church is the desire to plant new churches, which is what they did back in November of 2009 when they planted Missio Dei (latin for “Mission of God”) in Valparaiso. Missio Dei is not an autonomous church, but an extension of the Countryside community and is seeking to love God and love others in Valparaiso. We currently are meeting in the Boys & Girls Club building on Campbell Street.

My immediate responsibilities as an Associate Pastor are to lead the student ministry at Countryside and to assist in leading and shepherding God’s people at both Countryside and Missio Dei. This will include teaching, preaching, disciple-making, connecting people in community and helping them to discover their giftedness for the mission.

Pam and I have truly seen God’s sovereign hand in this process, opening doors and preparing us for this new opportunity. I am very excited to be able to use my passions and gifts in both of these communities. Please pray for us as we transition into our new church home. May we all continually trust in God as he works out his will in this world, in this region and in our own lives. I praise God for the past 10 years that I have been here as a Christ-follower, it’s been a great joy to spend it with you.

Whether at Countryside, Missio Dei or Bethel, it’s all about Jesus, it’s always been about Jesus and it will forever be about Jesus.

- Tony, Pam & family

Check out Countryside on-line at http://www.countrysideonline.org/ and check out Missio Dei at http://www.missiovalpo.com/

Read a little bit more of my new church’s story from lead pastor Kevin Galloway here  http://www.acts29network.org/article/countryside-church–michigan-city-in/

I know everyone’s calendar is packed in December, but for my wife and me especially. On top of all the normal Christmas stuff like shopping, wrapping, decorating, multiple parties with family and a variety of other parties, I’m on staff at a church that makes a big deal about God becoming a man, and…our first two boys were born in December (the 22nd and the 14^th).

Major planning fail!

It really is crazy what we do for our boys to ensure that their birthdays are separate from Christmas. We don’t want them to feel cheated like a number of other kids who, though they’re older now, have expressed deep emotional hurt over the blending of the two.

Why do we do this? Because my wife and I (like most parents) love our children and think that they are the greatest and most adorable kids ever, but in reality…are they really the greatest and most adorable kids ever?

See, despite what I or my wife think about our kids, the reality is that they are very ordinary and average kids with snotty noses that can’t stand still for Christmas pictures. Every once in a while they do or say something funny right before they get poop all over the bathroom or hurt their sister.

Do you know what else is crazy? The baby whose birth we celebrate on December 25^th, Jesus, appeared to be the same way – very ordinary, very average.

I find it odd how a lot of older paintings of baby Jesus would have us believe that there were yellow glows around Him and a halo over His head. The truth is, in appearance, Jesus was a very ordinary and very average looking baby.

If anything, you could say that Jesus, according to human standards, was born into a below average scenario. His mom was a young, unwed teenager. She was known as the crazy girl whose excuse for getting pregnant out of wed-lock was that the Holy Spirit did it. His dad, Joseph, was a simple, small town carpenter. Definitely not the kind of guy you’d see on HGTV, wearing V-neck t-shirts and designer jeans with a $100 hair cut and a new pair of Chuck Taylors.

Jesus was born in a below average, dumpy, rural, dirty, smelly manger, to a below average, poor family. He grew up in the trashy, hick town of Nazareth (which was said back then that nothing good could come from there) where he was a simple carpenter like his dad.

To me, that’s the amazing thing about the birth and life of Jesus. He would appear to us to be so very ordinary and average when in fact, as the scriptures tell us, He is very distinct and unique, unlike any other person that has been born into this world.

Let’s consider the uniqueness of Jesus from the gospel of John.

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:1, 14

John refers to Jesus as “the Word” and he starts off his gospel by telling us about the uniqueness of Jesus. The first thing he mentions is that Jesus has a unique past.

Notice he says, “In the beginning was the Word.” In the beginning of what? The beginning of time? The beginning of the universe? John has in mind the beginning of creation. Before the world was created Jesus already “was.”

So John tells us that this “Word” Jesus, whose birth we’re supposed to be celebrating this Christmas season, did not begin to exist at his birth but that he has always existed, eternally existed, before the creation of the world…. now that’s a unique past!

John moves from telling us about the unique past of Jesus to now tell us what a unique person Jesus is. Look at what he says further in this passage “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now the uniqueness of Jesus unfolds a little further as John tells us that Jesus, though very average and ordinary in appearance, was in fact very unique in person and in nature. He is God!

Notice that John says “the Word was God”! Now it’s pretty unique to be God, because there’s only one!

John’s words here just echo the prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament as he prophesied hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus as to what kind of child this was going to be.

Isaiah writes this:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

John and Isaiah are not referring to some ordinary person. This was no ordinary baby born into the world. This is Jesus! This is God – a unique person, no doubt!

We read on further in the gospel of John and see that this God, who existed from eternity past, came to us in the form of a baby and became a man. John describes the birth of Jesus this way “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

And that’s what this whole Christmas thing is about, celebrating that truth right there, the incarnation, that God became a man. The God who existed in eternity past, created the world and everything in it, exchanged his heavenly throne for an earthly home.

It was this truth that caused Charles Wesley, one of the most famous hymn writers and evangelists of all time, to write this verse of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing:

Christ by highest heav’n adored

Christ the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold Him come

Offspring of a Virgin’s womb

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

I would like to think that Wesley was meditating on John 1 when he wrote that.

Jesus Christ, no doubt, is unique, one of a kind, unlike any other, supreme and matchless, God in human flesh, but the birth of Jesus is only half the story; why he was born is the rest. As the life of this baby unfolds in the scriptures we see that this unique person with a unique past also had a very unique purpose in coming.

In Luke 19:10 we find the exact reason & purpose for Jesus leaving heaven to come to earth

“For the Son of the Man came to seek and to save the lost”

Any discussion about the coming of Jesus must end up where His very own life ended up, and that’s at the cross. Jesus sought the lost in his coming and saved the lost through the cross.

And while Jesus did a number of wonderful and amazing things throughout his life, it was the cross that was chosen by Christians as a symbol to represent the very life and lasting legacy of Jesus.

The cross was historically a very horrific, excruciatingly painful, shameful, and for most, an unspeakable thing. Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished when he died there, it became for many a very awesome and wonderfully glorious thing – celebrated as the highest expression of God’s love.

John, later in his gospel, says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

See, It was God’s love for broken, lost, undeserving sinners (like me and like you) that sent our good and sinless God and Savior Jesus Christ to the cross. In our place as a substitute, He paid the penalty of death for our sin and was raised from the dead after three days.

In so doing He purchased for us our salvation, (something that we all so desperately need) so that we can have forgiveness of sins, a right standing before a Holy God, a restored relationship with our Creator and eternal life.

This Christmas  see the cross of Jesus Christ as a gift, a gift from a loving God to an undeserving sinful people.

But just like any gift, it needs to be received – personally received by faith.  John says that this gift is available to “whoever believes in him”.

Every once in a while i talk to someone who hasn’t been in a church in a long time and they’ll say something like this – “if I walked into church i’m afraid that the walls would come crashing down on top of me”

translation: “I have done some really bad stuff that I am ashamed of and I’m not sure if God could forgive me for that.”

If that’s you, I want to say to you that there is no sin, nothing in your past that God, through the cross of Jesus Christ, will not forgive. Christ death was sufficient to pay for all sin.

Let me also say that there is no life so jacked up that God, through the cross of Jesus Christ, cannot restore. What is most impressive to me is not just what the cross does for you but what the cross does to you.

How Christmas Changed Me

By the time I was 20, most of my life had been devoted to breaking commandments and living recklessly. My time was spent partying, drinking, frequently, driving while drinking, drugs, being sexually immoral and everything else in between. My life was absolutely saturated with sin.

I had absolutely no regard for anything or anyone else. I continually lied to, offended and hurt those around me and those closest to me. My sin had consequences not only in my life but consequences in the lives of others as well, something that I failed to recognize all too often.

While all this was going on, I was at church every Sunday – this church. I grew up in this church and knew all the things that I just shared… but I lived as if it was all meaningless. I intellectually understood it and at times I seemed to have received it, but it had no effect on my life at all.

And, yeah, there were times when God would start to work and tug on my heart to truly embrace Him and to live for Him. At times I tried and wanted to, but I always loved and treasured those other things more than Him and I just pushed Him away.

Until that one summer night in 2000 (I remember it very clearly) when God weighed down on my heart so heavy with guilt and conviction because of my sin. He literally broke me down. Never before had I felt so personally sorrowful and remorseful over my own sin.

That night He opened my eyes to see beyond the mere facts of the gospel and to truly see the value and the worth of His Son, Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice for me.

That night, with tears running down my face, I said words that I had never said before, “Take it all, take it all.” In that moment all the things that I had held onto and valued over and above God for years seemed so undesirable compared to Jesus.

Leaving everything behind me, I embraced Christ by faith, genuine faith.  I surrendered my entire life to the God that I had resisted for years.

After numerous times of trying to make changes in my life and behavior and failing every time, I finally realized that it wasn’t my actions that needed to change – it was my heart. A very significant and noticeable transformation took place in me because God changed my heart. He gave me a new core, a new center. He gave me a new heart with new desires – desires to love God and desires to change, desires to worship Him and to serve Him.

My entire life changed.

I suddenly became interested in God’s word. I started going to bible studies, studying on my own and having discussions about things concerning God. I started learning about Him and His promises and purposes for me.

People that I used to think I was way too cool for became brothers and sisters to me.  (I was doing stuff now that I used to make fun of other people for doing.) But I didn’t care because for the very first time in my life I had a sense of purpose. I was standing for something true; I was living for something good…Someone good, someone true.

And that’s what this baby came to do. He came to seek and save lost sinners. To redeem and restore broken lives, and He did it through the cross.

The only thing I would ask of you who read this is to consider Jesus Christ…A unique person with a unique past who came with a unique purpose. And he can change any person, forgive any past and give you purpose in this life.

One of my favorite albums is from a band called As Cities Burn titled “Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest”, which is a phrase I like to use when I talk about Romans 5:8.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV)

I love thinking about how God loved us when we were at our absolute worst, when we were at our darkest, when we were still sinners. I heard Tim Keller say once (kind of paraphrasing) “If God can love us when we were at our worst, then nothing we can ever do will wear out his love for us.”

This truth is amazing to me.

But in the ACB album, there’s this one line where the singer is talking about struggling with being spiritually apathetic and indifferent and he says…

Oh how sweet the sound

I know it saved, but is it changing a wretch like me?

Oh my God how sweet is the sound

I once was blind, but now I just look away

I thought it was an interesting play on the words from the song Amazing Grace to talk about the struggles that he was having, at the time, with just not caring.

I think what he’s saying is that “my excuse for sinning and running from God used to be that i was blind, but now I see and I just don’t care.”

Have you ever been in a place like that, spiritually?

Have you ever been in a place where you don’t care?

Have you ever not cared that you don’t care?

I think all of us have. And even if you haven’t yet – you will.

Depression, apathy and indifference are difficult places to be as a Christian, and they’re difficult places to get out of, but not impossible to get out of.

I praise God that his Word has the wisdom, insight and truths necessary to help us when we’ve seemingly returned to our darkest place.

In Psalm 42 & 43 the Psalmist is struggling with depression and he’s in a very low place spiritually and he says things like this…

“My tears have been my food day and night” 42:3

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” 42:5 & 11, 43:5

“My soul is cast down within me..” 42:5

He even says at the beginning in Psalm 42:2 that he is thirsty for God like a deer that is panting after flowing streams of water, but can’t foresee a time in the future when he will be able to come and drink and be satisfied

He asks…“When shall I come and appear before God?”

He’s saying “I need you, I’m thirsty for you, but I’m not sure when i’ll be able to come before you.”

To the Psalmist, his heart has sunk low. God seems very distant (My tears…say to me…”Where is your God?” v.3)and He seems to be ignoring him (I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? v.9)

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a place like this, but if Psalm 42 & 43 sounds familiar to you, I want to show what the Psalmist does to overcome this difficult season in his life.

1. He Challenges and Questions Himself

Notice what he asks himself in 42:5, 11 & 43:5 – “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”

He asking why? He’s questioning himself, evaluating himself.

“Okay, why are you feeling this way? How did you get here? What’s the root? What’s the cause?”

“Is there a sin? Is there an idol? Is this an excuse to sin?”

He doesn’t give in and let his apathy and depression completely dominate him, he fights it, wrestles through it and questions himself.

2. He Preaches Truth to Himself

Notice what he does after each time he questions himself, He tells himself what he has to do.

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” 42:5, 11 & 43:5

I like to think he’s preaching at himself, telling himself what he needs to do. He’s already questioned and evaluated himself and now he’s telling his own heart the truth he needs to hear and obey.

“You need to hope in God! You need to start praising Him! This is your God, you belong to Him! He’s your salvation!”

And then in 43:3-4 he puts into words what he’s been doing

Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!

Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

Notice that it’s God’s truth that is leading him back to God, where he once again becomes his exceeding joy.

The worst thing you can do in moments of apathy and depression is to let your feelings and emotions dominate you. To allow your own heart preach to you about life and about God. Instead, we ought to challenge and question ourselves and preach the truth of God’s word to our own deceitful hearts, that are easily led astray.

I have had many moments like this, and in those moments I have found preaching the truth to myself very helpful, specifically the truth of the gospel.

I remember the cross: that in our place for our sin, God, left heaven to live, die and rise and I don’t need to any further than a bloody cross and an empty tomb to see that God loves me. He loved me enough to crush and raise his own son.

And to think that God did this for me when I was at my worst, while I was still a sinner. And to remember that no thing I ever do, and no season I ever go through will separate me from his love

The truth of the gospel is enough to bring you out. Remind yourself of the sinless life, sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus on your behalf. That God has bought you by the blood of his Son and brought you into his family where he loves you like his own son or daughter.

And that he’s coming back one day to make all things new, and there will be no more struggling with God being distant because “the dwelling place of God [will be] with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” Revelation 21:3 (ESV)

And there will be no more mourning or apathy because “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4 (ESV)

“The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” Psalm 19:7 (ESV)

“Send out your…truth; let [it] lead me…then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you…O God, my God.”

“Hope in God…my salvation”

This picture is of my 3 month old daughter, Anna Lisette Sorci, the night we brought her home from the hospital. I took this picture and shared it on twitter and facebook with the caption “and so it begins”. Anna is our third child and it’s funny how quickly you forget the challenges of having a newborn in the house.

If you have, have had or have ever been around a newborn baby you know that they pretty much do three things: Eat, Sleep, Pee/Poop and then repeat, and this simple three-fold process requires a ton of work.

Newborn babies, for the most part, are pretty uneventful and kinda boring. Early on, they don’t really do much except lay there, which is why I spend a lot of my parenting time wrestling, tickling, squeezing,

hanging up-side down and throwing around my two boys (I know the tea parties are coming).

But you will have a hard time searching for a louder, more furious, and even more violent display of desire than a baby who is hungry for milk (see picture).

The Apostle Peter, in thinking of this very same thing, wrote these words “like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation -” 1Peter 2:2 (ESV)

Peter, here, is of course talking about the way in which Christians should desire God’s word – he’s telling us to intensely long for the Scriptures just like a newborn baby longs to eat.

There are other passages in the bible that talk about the kind of desire that we should have toward the scriptures, but there isn’t a more vivid and descriptive place than Psalm 119, below are just a few.

“My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.” Psalm 119:20 (ESV)

“I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments” Psalm 119:131 (ESV)

“My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.” Psalm 119:148 (ESV)

When I read passages like these I think and feel a number of things like – Realization (I don’t desire God’s word like this.), Conviction (I should desire God’s words), Wonder (how can I get a desire like this?), Frustration (will I ever want God’s word this way!?)

Maybe you’re like me. You see the need you have for taking in more of God’s word. You really want to desire it like Peter and the Psalmist describe, you even recognize other things in your life that you desire like this and you wonder why you have such a hard time transferring that desire over to the bible.

If that’s you, I want to share with you just a few things that have helped me grow in this area (though I am far from panting for God’s word).

Pray/// I have often prayed Psalm 119:36, “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain.”

Be honest. Cry out to God. Tell him you want to desire his word like this and that you feel helpless to do it. Ask him for help.

Dig/// So often we casually read the word. We open our bibles with no other intention than to just read a chapter. We don’t really expect to see God there, be amazed, be encouraged and grow.

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Psalm 119:18 (ESV)

God’s word contains wondrous, amazing things and sometimes it takes asking God to show you those wondrous things to you and sitting there and meditating long enough for him to answer that prayer.

Friends/// Sometimes my friends who love God’s word and want to desire God’s word the same as I do encourage me when they share how and what they’ve been learning. Surround yourself with friends that love God and his word and conversation that are centered on God’s word.

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)

Everyone knows who Michael Jordan is, even people who have no interest in sports, whatsoever. In fact, you don’t even have to say his full name and people know who you’re talking about – all you have to say is “Jordan”.

Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever and few (coherent) people will argue against that and when you span his career it’s kind of hard to argue against that.

Six-time NBA champion (1991-93, 1996-98); MVP (1988, ‘91, ‘92, ‘96, ‘98); 10-time All-NBA First Team (1987-93, 1996-98); All-NBA Second Team (1985); Defensive Player of the Year (1988); Nine-time All-Defensive First Team (1988-93, 1996-98); Rookie of the Year (1985); 14-time All-Star; All-Star MVP (1988, ‘96, ‘98); One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (’96); Olympic gold medalist (1984, ‘92).

Most people thought that he tarnished his legacy when he came out of retirement (for the 2nd time) to sign with the Washington Wizards but even at the end of his career when he was beyond “a veteran”, he was better than most guys in the NBA, averaging over 20 points a game.

I remember the last year that he played, he made the all-star team but he didn’t get voted in as a starter, instead, Vince Carter did. It was cool to see the rest of the Eastern Conference starters who were willing to forfeit their starting position to Jordan as a sign of respect to an NBA legend.

I remember the networks always showing Wizards games, tracking Michael Jordan’s farewell tour. It was interesting to see the respect that he got on road games from the fans, the same fans that most likely had their hearts broken by him at some point during his career.

I was at Michael Jordan’s last game at the United Center when he was with the Wizards. They introduced Michael before the game started, but they introduced him as if he was starting for the Bulls – you know “from North Carolina…!” The place went crazy! It took about about 5 minutes before he could even get a word in.

Finally, we all got a little quiet to let him talk and then he’d say one thing and everyone would go crazy again. The fans delayed the start of that game by at least 15 minutes.

It was really cool being there. Growing up as a young Bulls fan from the chicagoland area it seemed appropriate to be at the United Center that night along with thousands of other Bulls fans giving Michael his due praise, thanking Michael for all the years, all the memories and all the championships.

It’s curious the kind of praise we gave to a guy who was real good at…a game.

When you read the Psalms you’ll often come across phrases like this -

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name” Psalm 96:8

“Praise is due to you, O God” Psalm 65:1

“I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness” Psalm 7:17

What kind of praise do you think is due God?

What do you think should be our appropriate response to an eternal God who created this universe, this world and us with a word from his mouth?

A God who set-out to rescue even his own enemies after we rebelled against him by leaving the comforts of heaven to become a man?

What kind of praise should we offer to a God who made our sin, which was our responsibility, his responsibility, in order to pay its price in full in our place on the cross?

A God who came on our behalf and took on our biggest enemies of Sin, the Devil and Death and defeated them through the sinless life, sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus.

Give God the glory that is due his name.