“By 1914, the brothers quit the Ford motor company…”

I saw this commercial while I was on the mainland and it made me think…

I bet that the Dodge brothers leaving the Ford motor company wasn’t done quietly.  I bet there were plenty of heated meetings, and emotions involved.  Most likely relationships severed, and harsh words were said, and feelings were hurt.

It made me realize that I always see conflict as a bad thing.

But in the case of the Ford and Dodge brothers, conflict led to innovation.

The Biblical example of conflict that comes to mind is Paul and Barnabas.

Acts 15:36 “Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”  Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.  They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.  Barnabus took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.  He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”

The happy ending of this biblical story is that there was reconciliation.  Paul calls for Mark in 2nd Timothy and calls him helpful.  And also in Colossians, Paul mentions Mark as a fellow prisoner.

I read a quote by Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM.  “Disagreements don’t cause disunity, a lack of forgiveness does.”

Another quote that Ed Funderburk posted on facebook recently was:

“Weak, arrogant leaders feel offended when you disagree with them. Strong, humble leaders explore dissent!” (via @ricklgodwin)

I don’t quite know what I’m trying to say in this blog post.  I guess I’m thinking outloud about conflict, disagreements on how things are done, and strong very opinionated clashing personalities, which are a part of life.  The raw emotions that sometimes rear their ugly heads during these times are a part of life too.

I wonder if we would have found Jesus’ tone of voice when He was rebuking Peter offensive.  I’ve often said that if the Apostle Paul was alive today, we’d probably think that he wasn’t pastoral enough.  He’d probably be kicking our butts, and not mincing words.

I wonder if  we would think that Jesus and Paul needed to mature in their character, to be more wise in their speech.

Can you imagine being the other disciples that were there when Jesus rebuked Peter?  When Jesus says to Peter, “GET BEHIND ME SATAN!”  And the other disciples are like… uh… awkward turtle, and try not to make eye contact with one another.  One of the more empathetic disciples thinking about how to tell Jesus that Peter didn’t have bad intentions…

I often pray for wisdom and discernment, of when to be loving, and when to give tough love.  Because giving tough love and being disciplinary is a part of being a leader and an adult, and it’s not fun.  It’s interesting though, when I worked with at risk high school kids, I had no problem, at times using a harsher tone or raising my voice when dealing out discipline.  It almost seemed necessary at times.

So what does conflict and discipline look like from a Kingdom perspective?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

[This is a photo of my dad from 10 years ago.  I loved that I captured a genuine smile.]

I woke up this morning feeling discouraged.  Not feeling like I had much vision or excitement.

And then I had to take myself back to my life verse.  John 15:9  which is Jesus speaking.

“As the Father loves me, so I love you, remain in my love.”

So I stood in my room, leaning against my bed, trying to be awake and I reminded myself of God’s radical, audacious, and scandalous love for me.  And of God’s purpose and plan for my life.

It’s not anyone else’s job to cast vision for me.  The vision has already been cast.  I am loved by God, He initiated that while I was still a sinner, and He has a plan and a destiny for my life.

Revival isn’t hype, its cultivated first in our own lives, not based on outward circumstances, but on the truth that God is radically in love with us and those around you.  He wants to use us as his mouthpiece, and His hands and feet to deliver that message of ridiculous love and grace.

Even though the BBC news reports that the Euro is falling, and that oil prices have dropped again (even though we don’t feel that here in Hawaii, gas is still $3.39 a gallon) and that the Russian Ruble is falling as well…

He promises that His kingdom will have no end.

God’s economy isn’t falling.

Where’s my focus?  Is it on the good news?  Or the bad news that’s being reported.

2 Corinthian 10:5 says “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

As I did my morning walk this morning I felt like God asked me to review my past years of ministry through the filter of what He did, not through my usual filter of a lot of the hurts that came along with it.

It was beautiful and freeing.  To remember, what God did in those times, the relationships that were built, and the truth that was revealed and the breakthroughs that were seen.

Life is full of bad things.  But it’s also full of really amazing things as well.  What I choose to dwell on is my choice.

Negativity is disgusting.  Bad things do and will happen, but by choosing to dwell on those things, talk about those things, and replay those things in your head, we are choosing to relive those bad things too.

My prayer for you and for me as you read this is that you’d be filled with joy unspeakable.  That we’d take every thought captive, and cause ourselves to dwell on the good that God is doing and has done.

Thankfulness is spiritual warfare.  The devil would love for you to stay focused on what he’s doing.  Let’s tell him to shut up.

Comment and share with us three things that you’re thankful to God for and let’s make it a daily discipline.

When you reflect on the Christmas story, what part of it is God highlighting to you this year?  If you haven’t gotten a chance to take some time and reflect on the Christmas story, take a few minutes now and read through the Christmas story and share with us what God’s highlighting to you.

I used to be a real scrooge about Christmas.  But 5 years of being married to my wife who LOVES Christmas, I happily sing along with Christmas carols now.

Jess was decorating her classroom with Christmas decorations generously donated from our church while listening to Christmas carols and was overwhelmed by some of these lyrics from Christmas carols.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth – Oh Holy Night

Let earth receive her King! – Joy To The World

King and God and Sacrifice – We Three Kings

Something that got me recently was a quote that my friend Mike Cook pointed out as we are reading the The Cross of Christ together – “At the birth of the Son of God”, Douglas Webster has written “there was brightness at midnight; at the death of the Son Of God there was darkness at noon.”

What is standing out to you this Christmas season?  I’m excited to see what you share!  Merry Christmas!

Since the Fall Jess and I have been planning to surprise Jess’ mom, step dad and grandma for Christmas.  Here’s the video.  A HUGE THANK YOU to Janie and Ron for helping make the surprise a success

30 degrees here in Ohio… but I had chipotle for lunch.

IMG 4766 from Jim and Jess Baker on Vimeo.

So this morning I went on my morning walk, I only did one lap because I kept coughing.  Breathing in the “cold” high sixties ocean air was causing me to cough.  I’m getting over a cold.  So we headed back and I stopped by the store to pick up some eggs.

I came home and remembered that we were out of coffee.  So Jess and I went back to the store and picked up some ground dunkin donuts coffee which costs $9 for a bag here in Hawaii.  (There are no dunkin donuts on the islands)

We get to the check out and my conversation goes something like this:

Me:  Good morning
Cashier:  Good morning, oh this coffee is on sale for $5 on Friday.
Me:  Oh, cause it’s like $9 today right?
Cashier:  Yeah, you don’t want to buy this today, unless you need coffee today.
Me:  Well yeah, we need coffee today, we’re all out, so I’ll just go ahead and buy it
Cashier:  (Clutching the coffee to her chest)  No you really don’t want this coffee, come back on Friday, just go get a cup of coffee today and come back on Friday (she wasn’t going to take no for an answer)
Me:  (Looking around, there are now 3 people behind us in line)  uh… okay and we left.

And we walked to Starbucks, and spent $4 on two cups of coffee… which brings us to $9 dollars for a $5 bag of coffee and 2 cups of starbucks coffee.  Yup…
While at starbucks I retell the story that just happened at the grocery store, and then one of the baristas tells me that if I buy any two coffee products from them that they will give me a $5 gift certificate, and then the manager tells me that if I buy one of their certain cups that I will get free coffee for all of January… completely overwhelmed because I hadn’t had any coffee yet, I simply asked to buy my two cups of coffee and returned home.  Jess and I giggled at the craziness of our coffee adventure as we crossed the crosswalk back to our car.

Anyway, the reason we wanted coffee this morning was so that we could have “butter coffee” which is all the rage with hipsters right now.

Basically instead of using cream, you use some coconut oil and some grass fed butter.  It brings a very different flavor to the coffee and supposedly helps you metabolize the caffeine better.  A lot of times coffee makes me anxious, but I’ve got a pretty solid productive coffee buzz going on right now, so who knows.

Anyway, thanks Hawaii for your Aloha and everyone trying to save me a buck so I can write blog posts about my experiences.

Aloha.

Happy December everyone!  Time is FLYING.

Here’s some photos from my 30th birthday celebration.  I seriously felt so loved, thank you to everyone who came and hung out in person and blessed me, and everyone who sent birthday wishes!

Here’s some photos from the day.  Thank you to Stacy, Sara and Sumi for sending me photos from the event.

RK I love your karate chop cake skills.

My amazing Korean cake!  Thank you Hyungsook, Kuntae, Sumi and Jun!

My beautiful wife

My twin sister.  This is Erica, she’s a friend from church who also shares the same birthday.

Saturday is my 30th birthday.  I feel good about turning 30.  I truly feel that I have learned so much about myself in this past year and I hope that because of that, my 30’s will be a real time of accelerated growth.

In my twenties I made some arbitrary goals to reach before I was 30.  At the time I didn’t think they were arbitrary, but I also thought that I had to reach all of my goals by the time I hit 30 because I figured life would be over by then.  Not death, but in my immaturity I thought my chance of fulfilling dreams would go out the window once I hit that age.   I figured I’d be “settled down” by then.  This is the most “settled”  I’ve ever been, but I no longer think that being settled is a hindrance to fulfilling my dreams, in fact, it’s just the opposite.  Having consistency in my schedule gives me a stable launching pad to live my life.

I wrote about those goals in a post a couple of years ago.  I also wrote that my twenty something year old self didn’t know very much about my almost 30 year old self.  Even since writing that post two years ago, another huge part of me in my twenties is gone.  I no longer do photography, even though I once truly identified myself with that passion of mine.

Anyway, here’s 3 things I wish I would have done in my 20’s.  I probably wouldn’t have listened to myself though… stubborn, know it all, twenty something.  

1.  Had a consistent exercise schedule and eaten healthier

I’ve been getting up every morning and walking around Magic Island for an hour.  This week I added some push up and crunches and stretching to that as well.  In my twenties I wasn’t consistent at all with exercise, and I ate whatever tasted good instead of caring about nutrition.  As I’m turning 30, fast food really doesn’t taste as good as it used to and I now feel the different effects when I eat non nutritious foods and when I eat healthy foods and exercise.  My mood and productivity are really affected by what I eat.  It’s an ongoing battle to choose nutritious food and exercise.   What would life be like today if I would have made the hard choice to make those changes in my twenties?  Life would probably have been easier and more productive in some ways.

2.  Saved at LEAST 15% of my income for retirement

We JUST this month were able to start saving for retirement.  Like good Dave Ramsey followers we’ve been following the baby steps.  Starting to save now for retirement is better than nothing, but it’s later in the game than I’d like to have been.  We would be in a much different place if I would have from the time I started working at 15, been saving at least 15% for retirement.  I can think of some really dumb ways I wasted money in my 20’s.  15% or more, would not have hurt at all when I had a “disposable income” and was living at home.  15% over those years, wouldn’t have been a huge lump sump, but it would have been a nice nest egg that would have really added up with compounding interest.

3.  Been consistent about reading the Bible

I’ve pursued a lot of things.  Music, photography, and poured hours and hours into studying and practicing those things.  Even though I see those things as a tool in my tool belt that might come out again someday, I wished I would have been consistent in my study of the Word.  If I would have been disciplined about reading and studying the word of God I would be much more familiar with it now.  The Bible is hard, and it requires focus and discipline to sit down and read and study, but the more you read it, the more familiar it becomes, and the more the dots get connected.  What would life be like if I had put in the time and effort to be consistently disciplined about being in the Word?  How would my life be different because of a consistent pursuit of truth.  How would my mind and life have been transformed?

The good thing is that I’ve got the next decade to do all of this.  Well, really the rest of my life.  I feel much more focused now.  I’ve dabbled enough in life to know what I value, and where I want to invest my time and energy.  My twenties were awesome, I’m blessed to have travelled the world, and met a ton of people and to have experienced more than people get to experience in a life time.  I want to spend less time doing mindless things like staring at facebook and read real books and gain real knowledge.  I’ve realized that I FEEL the best when I’m productive.  I want to be healthy so that I can keep up with the call of God on my life.  I want to be wise with my finances and save for the future.  I’m grateful for God’s miraculous provision and I want to be faithful and generous with it.  I want to value God’s written revelation of His character and Truth and His story.  I want to be a student of the Word of God, I want to know it, and have it radically transform who I am, to be more like Him.

I’m looking forward to my 30’s, I’m expectant for them to be amazing.  

What three things would you have wished you did in your 20’s?

4.  Jess and I are going to do the Whole 30.

This is a “paleo diet” that limits you to clean meat, fruits, vegetables and nuts.  No sweets, or dairy, or other carbs for 30 days.  Jess did this a couple of years ago and it completely healed her sciatica because it took all of the inflammation out of her body.  That dutch oven is going to get a work out.

I really love meat.  As of late, we try to buy as much organic produce as we can.  It’s usually only 10c more a pound so I figure that for 10c more for no chemical pesticides in my food is a good idea.  But we’ve never bought antibiotic and hormone free meat knowing it’s expensive.  But again, as we’re getting older we’ve been thinking that the less chemicals we have in our food the better.  It will be interesting to see if you can taste a difference.  There is a HUGE difference between organic and non organic bananas.

We went to whole foods and I looked around.  It’s nice to know that all the meat in there is antibiotic free.  It’s expensive, but Hawaii has conditioned me to expensive.  Hopefully the expense on this end will save in doctors bills later.

I found safeway has “open nature” brand meats which also is antibiotic free.  I found 5 decent looking steaks in the clearance bin at 30% off.  I picked up 5 steaks for $20 and threw them in my freezer for my upcoming meat party.  I should probably patrol that clearance bin looking for deals like that daily.  Actually I also saw some open nature chicken the other day too that was marked down, so I bought that up and froze that as well.  Hopefully that will be how it goes.  I’m thinking about running to the store right now just to see what’s marked down.  (I did and got two 2 packs of safeways organic chicken breasts for $4.50 a lb because it was marked down 50%)

Do you want to do the Whole 30 with us?  We’re starting November 15th and going until December 14th.  Comment and let us know you’ll be joining us!

3.  We’re taking Korean Lessons And I Made Kimchi

I wanted to learn a new language by the time I was 30, well I’m not going to be fluent in any languages but our neighbor is so generously meeting with us every week to teach us Korean.  It all makes sense when we’re being taught and then when she leaves we forget everything.  It reminds me of that Tiger Woods commercial, do you remember that one?

I also decided last week (when I originally wrote this blog post) that I wanted to make kimchi, so Sunday I did it.  If you don’t know what kimchi is it’s fermented spicy cabbage, a staple in Korean food.  People either love it or hate it.  I enjoy it, its a great way to get more vegetables and fermented foods are a good probiotic.

Saturday I never did get out to the stream to get any fish, but we did have a busy Saturday.  Jess and I took our friend Cortney to the airport.  She was here from YWAM Kauai.  Then Ana (one of Jess’ fellow staff members), Jess and I hiked diamond head.  After, we went to the pearl ridge mall to look around since I had never spent any time there.  And then we went to palama which is a korean market to buy napa cabbage, and the korean red chili pepper flakes to make kimchi.  We also ate kimchi jiggae (kimchi stew) and Ana liked it.

[Our friend Madison said that Ana is a good hypothetical visual of what or grown daughter might look like.  Haha… a Sweede and a Korean make a Mexican?]

One sets of our housemates (we share a house and a kitchen with two other married couples) is Korean and I like watching what they prepare for meals.  If you’ve ever eaten Korean food then you know about all of the side dishes or banchan.  Korean meals are usually a small portion of meat, usually cut up into bite sized pieces and a variety of vegetable sides.  Seems like a good way to eat.  All of the store bought kimchi has sugar and or msg in it and I don’t want either of those things.  I found a recipe for kimchi that looks fairly easy, so I gave it a try.  I actually just ordered some seeds to grow cabbage which I sowed yesterday, and just ordered daikon and Korean red pepper seeds so who knows maybe I’ll be a homemade kimchi making machine soon.  That’d be pretty awesome.

My kimchi passed the test.  Both my house mate and neighbor, who are from Korea said it was good.  I haven’t tasted it yet but will soon.

What has been your most recent culinary creation?  Let us know in the comments.

[a photo from a previous stream cleaning]

2.  There’s FISH in our stream!

The other night our other house mate Spencer and I were walking around the park and I shined my flashlight onto a part of a fence that had a hole in it that overlooked the stream and all of the sudden we heard all of this commotion.  I honestly was freaked out and was afraid to look over.  Spencer went to look and there were fish that didn’t like the light and were swimming upstream.  After watching more closely I thought they were mudpuppies, because they didn’t really look like they were totally swimming.  We then walked around some more and saw a bunch of toads.  In my mind I thought a mudpuppy turned into a toad, like a tadpole turns into a frog.  I’m wrong.

Fast forward to this past weekend.  YWAM Honolulu volunteered at the Manoa Stream Cleaning.  So I was sent with a small group of people up stream from where we live to pick up trash.  As we were wading in knee deep water we found the fish that I thought was a mudpuppy.  I had to go home and look it up.  I found out that its plecostomus which is an algae eater.

A student and I tried to catch them with our hands.  When I touched one it was not at all what I was expecting, it was really hard.  After I found out that the fish was plecostomus I instantly googled if they were edible.  People have said it’s better than tilapia and almost taste like lobster.  I guess it’s related to the catfish.

I only have had catfish once, in North Carolina, when I was young, with my Great Uncle Danny and Great Aunt Paula.  I don’t remember being a fan.  But I’d try it again.  The only downside is our stream has lepto because of the pigs in the mountains.

I recently got my air pump fixed and have put airstones in the 5 gallon buckets for the baby tilapia so I could do the same with the pleco.  I might put them in a rubbermaid container.  I figure if I feed it and change its water often that if there are any toxin in it they will come out after a month or two.

So tomorrow we are taking a friend to the airport early, and then we’re going to hike up diamond head and then go upstream to catch some fish.  I’ll take my fishing net and a 5 gallon bucket and walk upstream to catch some invasive pleco.  Don’t worry I’ll keep doing more research about quarantining him before I eat it, but I feel like people have probably been eating fish right out of streams with lepto or similar diseases for ages right?

I think raising fish is my favorite part of aquaponics.  I was at whole foods the other day and they had tilapia filets on ice, about the size of some of my bigger fish for $10.99 a lb.  I felt like a rich man.

I visited a friends aquaponics farm that he’s working on and loved that they had two 2000 gallon tanks.  Some of the tilapia were HUGE.  And to see giant grow beds was pretty amazing too.  Fish of all different sizes, and different experimental aquaponics systems being set up.  It was really cool.  I enjoy gardening and doing aquaponics, but I don’t think I could recreate my system.  But now that it’s set up and running, I do enjoy it.

I got some azolla and mint today from my friends farm.  And I’ll be sowing some cabbage and green onion seeds tomorrow.  I actually just came in from outback with a flashlight and found 3 snails and 2 slugs munching on my plants.  That was the last thing they did… jerks.

Here’s to catching fish with a net, because I’ve never caught one with a pole.

Do you enjoy fishing?  What’s the best thing you’ve ever caught?  Tell us in the comments.