The Blog of David Hausknecht

Go to the Ant

2010-02-24T23:09:00.005-07:00

When I lived in Virginia as a kid, I would love to spend my summers outside. Even if I could only ride my bike up and down the block, I would enjoy every second of it. For some reason I had a keen eye for stuff on the ground. One time I even found a bullet in the middle of the street as I was riding my bike - apparently I had stumbled on the location of a police-criminal showdown from the night before. There's nothing cooler for a 7-year-old boy than finding a real bullet from a gun.

But one thing in particular I enjoyed looking for was ant hills. I could literally sit next to an ant hill and watch the little ants for hours. The formation of their perfectly-created mounds was such a mystery to me. I'd watch ant after ant go back and forth from the nest, bringing back pieces of food or material for the hill. This memory is so vivid for me because I remember being amazed at their work-ethic. I'd even conduct my own experiments by destroying half of their hill (keep in mind the curiosity of a 7-year-old is rarely diminished). It seemed like it didn't even affect them. They'd stop, adjust their movements, and keep moving as if nothing happened. They took it in stride and started re-building. They didn't stop to complain, or throw up their arms in defeat. (Granted, they don't have arms to throw in the air, but the euphemism fits the point I'm trying to make.) No outside influence could deter them from accomplishing their goals.

It seems logical, then, that the writer of Proverbs uses ants to communicate timeless wisdom:

Proverbs 6:6-11 - Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

The writer is very clearly as to whom he is addressing: the sluggard. It's clear he is creating quite a contrast. The sluggard is the one who sits on his butt and puts no effort into anything. He's a spectator of life. He's not one to take action. He is, as the writer puts it, a sleeper.

The danger in being a sluggard is what he misses while he sleeps. Scarcity surprises the sleeper as poverty invades. Because the sluggard refuses to get out of bed, he misses out on the richness of life. (It's important to note here that the writer uses the word "sleep" and not "rest." A wise man will rest as God did on the Sabbath, but a fool will sleep through life. That is a key distinction.)

A sluggard, in my opinion, is the man or woman who sits by idly waiting for someone to transform his or her faith for them. A sluggard spectates as others are fueled by God's fire, expecting the same to happen to them while they are asleep. Initiative is not a popular word in the sluggard's dictionary; Complacency is a better fit. "I'm sure that could happen to me one day," the sluggard says.

As I read this passage I was instantly convicted. How often do I sit on the sidelines and spectate as God moves around me? Instead of jumping in and joining the kingdom work (as an ant would), I justify my laziness and let others enjoy the blessings and rewards of serving the Lord. I have this unconscious feeling that somehow someday this fire for God will explode within me, but without any effort put forth by me. I would venture to guess that I am not alone.

We have to wake up! We have to stop waiting and get in on the action. We need to devour the Word of God and spend every waking moment in the presence of the Lord. We need to encourage those around us in their walks and serve in whatever way possible.

Tonight at youth group I talked with a guy who has been in some of my small groups and is searching for how God wants to use him. He told me how he's becoming good friends with an atheist at school and how he plans to build a relationship with him to have more influence in his life. He's not sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone to do the kingdom-work in front of him; he's taking the way-of-the-ant and waking up to the opportunities ahead of him. And he's only a freshman in high school! That's inspiring!

Sometimes I think we use prayer as a cover-up for our laziness or lack of boldness. We pray ourselves into the ground and forget that God can use our actions to bring forth results. Now, don't get me wrong. Prayer is vital to our growth and we should pray before making big decisions, but there is also a time to stop praying and start acting.

In Exodus 14, the Israelites are escaping from Egypt with their former slave-drivers in hot pursuit. They start to complain about what they think is their impending doom. I can picture it now: a bunch of whiny Israelites doubting that God is truly protecting them. Of course, they vocalize their complaints and yell at Moses for helping them leave. They even talk about going back! Moses reassures them that the Lord will fight for them and they need to wait and see. Then, verse 15 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on."" In other words, tell the sluggards to wake up! Once they finally wake up and move across the Red Sea, the Egyptians are swallowed in the water and the Israelites are free as promised.

God is waiting for us, his people, to wake up from our sleep and start actively seeking Him out. There can be no more waiting, no more excuses, no more complacency. Will you wake up from your sleep and learn from the ant?

Qualifications

2010-02-12T21:39:00.003-07:00

I'm finally in my last semester of college, and I'm obviously doing a lot of forward-thinking. Where is God leading me? Where has He called me? What will I be doing after I finally get that special piece of paper in exchange for 4 years of grueling studying? Thankfully, these aren't new questions to me. These are questions I've wrestled with for several years now.

But there's a new question I've been facing in the past couple months: How am I qualified? Really... how am I qualified to do anything, to take a job, to shepherd a group of students? That's what college is designed for, right? To qualify people for jobs. Apparently, the letters B.A. mean PAY DAY... But this seems so superficial to me, and I don't think I'm alone here.

It doesn't seem right that because I major in Christian Educational Ministries and take a bunch of Bible and youth ministry classes that I'm suddenly qualified to shepherd/pastor in a church. If that was the case, then any ill-intentioned guy could come off the street and severely damage the people of God because he had the right letters behind his name. There has to be more!

I've been soaking up scripture lately, and I've kept a keen eye out for anything that will teach me about the character of God as I interview for jobs. I've been learning that the Old Testament stories have a lot to teach on this subject. Here are a couple things I've learned:

God's presence qualifies you.

In Exodus 3:11, Moses says to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" God's response? "I will be with you." Think about that for a second... Moses asks Who am I? and God seemingly ignores his question completely. Instead he directs Moses' attention to the more important fact: God is with him. That's it. God doesn't say, "Oh, well you are Moses the educated, the strong man who killed the Egyptian!" He says nothing about Moses himself, except for the fact that Moses will be walking in the presence of the I AM, God Himself. How awesome is that?!
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit qualifies you.

In Genesis 41, Joseph, a prisoner in Egypt who fell upon some unfortunate events and had no guilt in the matters, gets the chance to explain Pharaoh's dreams to him. No one in Egypt could explain the dreams, but Joseph was able to explain them because the Spirit enlightened him. In verse 37, it says, "The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?" Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."
Joseph, a Hebrew prisoner, was put 2nd-in-command over all of Egypt. I don't know about you, but that makes me go, "Say WHAT?" Again, he didn't have some education that made Pharaoh give him the job. It was the Spirit of God inside Joseph that qualified him for the job! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with education; in fact, I think it is absolutely important. However, when we put our hope in education to qualify us for a position, we have gone astray and forgotten the One who gives us a mind for education.

Thank God we don't have to depend on ourselves and our actions to qualify us for anything in life. Don't give into the secular pressures of the world. Remember where your worth comes from! The only letters that qualify you are YHWH - God's holy and precious name.

I want to commit my life to spending time in God's presence and asking for more of the Spirit's indwelling presence. He will draw near to us if we draw near to him. That's a promise!

(As a final note, I've been listening to this song called "Burn Us Up" by Shane & Shane, and it is truly inspiring. It is a unique rendition of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel. Please listen to it, download it, watch it, love it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70PDuymQ_h0)

Book Review: "Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity" by Mark Batterson

2009-12-28T20:53:00.003-07:00

Recently I received a book for free in exchange for a book review on my blog. The book is called Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson. And I have to say, I’m really glad I had the chance to read this particular book. I’ve had friends who told me to read some of Mark Batterson’s books, but this was the first one I had the pleasure to read. After reading Primal, I fully plan on reading his other books. But let me explain why I loved this book so much.

Primal is all about returning to the very beginning, the essence, of what Christianity is supposed to be about: the Great Commandment in Mark 12:30. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, is the truly the foundation of our faith. It sounds like a very simple idea, because it is! But Batterson insists that the problem within our churches is that we’re not great at the Great Commandment. Because of this, he writes about the four elements of the Great Commandment. He writes on page 7:

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion.
The soul of Christianity is primal wonder.
The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity.
And the strength of Christianity is primal energy.

Batterson notes, “But one thing is sure: loving God in one way isn’t enough. It’s not enough to love God with just your heart or soul or mind or strength.”

Along with the idea of returning to the primal form of Christianity, Batterson urges the reader to return to the first time and place where God spoke to you or did something powerful in your life.

So before going forward, let me encourage you to go backward. Go back to that place where God opened your eyes and broke your heart with compassion for others. Go back to that place where the glory of God flooded your heart with wonder. Go back to that place where thoughts about God filled your mind with holy curiosity. Go back to that place where a God-given dream caused a rush of adrenaline that filled you with supernatural energy.

Basically, the book is not an exegetical commentary on the Great Commandment found in the Gospels; rather, it is a “reimagination” of the four primal elements. Each element (heart, soul, mind, and strength) has two chapters dedicated to it, and Batterson creatively presents a new perspective on each.

That’s the book in summary, but let me add some of my personal thoughts and comments. I particularly enjoyed this book because I’ve taught/preached on the Great Commandment and the importance of understanding each element as distinct from one another. I’ve tried to stress what Batterson very creatively articulates in this great book. I know for a fact I’ll probably adopt some of his ideas into my next lesson or sermon on the Great Commandment.

I especially enjoyed the sections on loving God with our heart (compassion) and loving God with our strength (energy). In the section on the heart, one of the things that Batterson challenges the reader about is how we as Christians use our money. He constantly asks, how much is enough? When it comes to income, do we know how much we really need to live and how much we can give away? I felt convicted and excited at the same time about how I can use my money to love God. On page 44 Batterson writes:

What if, instead of sound quality or lyrical creativity, our litmus test for worship was a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God? What if we saw compassion as a form of worship? Worship without words. Worship beyond words.

In his section on loving God with all our strength, I couldn’t help but imagine what God was teaching me through his words. He kept talking about the “God-ideas” that the Father instills in us to pursue. At some point we have to stop thinking and second-guessing where God is leading us and finally go for it. That’s what it means to love God with our strength. On page 138 he says:

Are there any God ideas you’ve given up on? Any God-ordained passions that
you have stopped fighting for? Any God-sized dreams gathering the dust of
obedience?
Through powerful illustrations and stories from his own experience, Batterson communicates timeless truths about the Great Commandment. Using Scripture as his guide, he takes us down a familiar path while pointing out the creative and re-imagined elements we may have missed along the way. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a little encouragement or new perspectives on how they live their Christian faith. But one thing I can guarantee: you won’t ever look at the Great Commandment with the same eyes. You will be rejuvenated and excited about your faith and about what God wants to do with your life.

Distinctly Christian

2009-12-06T12:09:00.003-07:00

What makes you distinctly Christian? What makes our churches distinctly Christian?

I have been wrestling with these questions a lot recently. When I read in the Gospels and Acts about the first Christians, I can't help but notice a disconnect between the then-and-now. When I use the phrase "distinctly Christian," I mean, what separates you (or your church) from, let's say, a Muslim (or a Mosque)? a Jew (or a synagogue)?

Let's face it. There are a million belief systems throughout the world, from Christianity and Islam to moralistic therapeutic deism and pluralism. Almost all of them teach some kind of moral message... love other people, treat the earth kindly, be patient, etc. Christianity is not an exception. Jesus taught his disciples morality. A quick glance at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) will show many instances. I don't think anyone would disagree here.

But here's where the problem begins to surface. In our attempts to teach Christians about the faith, we often teach much of the morality presented in the Bible while leaving the Christ out of it. Think about it... have you ever heard a sermon preached that didn't reference the cross and Jesus' sacrifice? I bet almost everybody has. If you're 100% sure that every sermon you've heard has referred directly to Christ and the cross at least once in the presentation, I am amazed.

Recently I observed a Friday service at a mosque near Indianapolis with my World Religions class. The "sermon" was in English instead of Arabic so I got to hear what was being presented. The presenter talked a lot about patience and not giving into wrath. He talked about how important it is not to take our anger out in different situations. The emphasis was on self-control. Overall, it was a very nice - as I think that is the only appropriate word for it - presentation.

On the drive back I reflected upon our experience with my professor. We asked the question, could that sermon have been presented in a Christian church too? The obvious answer was yes. It did not teach anything contradictory to the Bible. (I don't even think he mentioned Muhammad.) But this got me thinking... and lead me to writing this blog!

There is something to be learned from this experience. The reason we gather in our churches as Christians is because Jesus Christ died on the cross. Neglecting to mention this in our worship songs, sermons, Bible teaching, etc., is neglecting the only reason we are here.

We cannot be content to teach Christianity to people in our churches without explicitly referencing Jesus and the cross. Don't misunderstand me. We must still teach the morality of the Bible, but we must also explain why we pursue this kind of morality. The "why" is what makes us distinctly Christian. It's what separates us from the religion of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. We cannot take the CHRIST out of CHRISTIANITY.

Moral messages won't cut it in the church. The early church in Acts was enamored with the love and power of Christ. Everything came back to Jesus. If we are to create lifelong disciples of Christ we must intentionally re-introduce the disciples to the person they are following at every chance we get.

With Christmas approaching I have heard the phrase, "He's the reason for the season!" (A big thanks to Bri and the Youth Conference cabinet for that one!) While a bit cheesy and trite, it is so appropriate. Jesus is the reason for the season. But he's also the reason for every other season, especially within our churches! The second we neglect Jesus and the cross, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is the second we lose our identity. If our worship songs and our sermons could be sung or preached in a mosque, synagogue, Buddhist temple, etc., we need to re-think our approach and embrace our Savior Jesus Christ once more!

CHRISTians, embrace your identity!

Do you want to get well?

2009-11-25T19:28:00.002-07:00

"One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?""
John 5:5-6

It's not news to anybody that Jesus is the master at asking questions. As I read through the Gospels I can't help but marvel at his adept ability to ask probing questions that would cut right to the soul of the hearer. He moves past the easy surface level Q&A sessions and into the self-revealing discovery learning that forces the person to delve into the depths of their heart and motivations.

The question that Jesus asks in this story in John 5 has been doing just that in my life. It echoes in my ears. On the outside it's easy to reply in the case of the invalid, "Of course he wants to get well! He's been disabled for most of his life. Why wouldn't he want to get well?"But Jesus being, ya know, divine, he knows the secrets of the heart. His state of invalidity had become so entrenched in who he was that inwardly he couldn't imagine his life without this condition. His condition became his identity.

As we cry out to God for help to change us, are we really desiring exactly that? Or are we just praying for change because we know that's what a good Christian should do? Or maybe we think we can fool God into thinking that we are really ready to give up whatever is holding us back from a more intimate relationship with Him.

Whatever the real motive, we should let the question from Jesus carve its way into our hearts. And, of course, I only say this because I need to do the same. If I want God to heal me, purge me of my sin, release the power of the Spirit in my life, I need to make sure that's what I really desire in my innermost being.

We cannot fool God. As Tozer says, He waits to be wanted.

The Veil is Torn

2009-11-14T21:26:00.003-07:00

The presence of God is awesome.

And when I say awesome, I mean it draws us into awe of our Creator. I think that word - awesome - has lost some of its meaning because we use it for the latest American Idol winner, our favorite NBA player, and the last Taco Bell meal I consumed. But truly, there is nothing more awesome than Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, who died on the cross for us.

It sounds so basic. But lately I have been so convicted about how I do not practice the presence of God on a daily basis. I reserve those "unique" times for big worship events or prayer nights... but why? Is there something keeping me from pursuing God and entering his presence?

I'm on a big A.W. Tozer kick right now. I'm reading both the Pursuit of God and the Knowledge of the Holy. If you can pick up either of these books and read a couple chapters, I guarantee you won't be able to stop. This blog is a culmination of what I've been reading, coupled with the biggest lesson God has been teaching me lately; that is, God desires me to bask in his presence and just be with him. I've been too busy doing for God lately that I forget to stop and say hi.

Rather than attempt to put into my own words what Tozer has already eloquently communicated, I'm just going to list a couple quotes from both books that have impacted me recently:

"With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, "Be still, and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century." -p.viii - Knowledge of the Holy (I would argue that this issue has extended beyond the middle period of the twentieth century when Tozer wrote it into today's church as well.)

"And yet...to push in sensitive living experience into the holy presence, is a privilege open to every child of God. With the veil removed by the rending of Jesus' flesh, with nothing on God's side to prevent us from entering, why do we tarry without? Why do we consent to abide all our days just outside the Holy of Holies and never enter at all to look upon God?" -p.39 Pursuit of God.

The veil that Tozer references is the veil used in the tabernacle, where God's presence rested before Jesus came and changed that. There was a veil between the first outer courts and the second, more intimate room where there was incense and prayer. Then there was another veil to separate the second room and the Holy of Holies, the resting place of God's presence that was only entered once a year by the high priest. When Jesus came and died for all mankind, God's presence became tangible and available for everyone. He tore the veil to make a way for mankind to experience the tangible presence of God in daily life. This is perhaps the most exciting thing I have ever heard.

"God wills that we should push on into his presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day." p.34 Pursuit of God.

I heard this analogy from my friend Kristen Eckhout. If God is truly our Father, wouldn't he act in a way familiar to all fathers? A father who loves his children will not force them to work for him all day and want them to be constantly doing for him. No, he would want to be with them and spend time with them and have the chance to love on them. I get so busy doing ministry and other things for God that I forget to stop, slow down, and sit in His presence. And I'm missing the best part too!

Father, may I never replace being with doing. Help me to seek your presence and live in that presence daily, reflecting on your love and majesty.

Hebrews 10:19-22
"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

**As a final note, I just wanted to give a shout out to Phil Wickham for putting on a great worship concert tonight in Indianapolis. It really reminded me how powerful the presence of God is, and how the death of the True Love created a new freedom for us that we've never experienced! Listen to his song "True Love" sometime... Better yet, listen to the song while you read Tozer's Pursuit of God! Haha... **

Not a Boring Bible

2009-10-15T21:52:00.003-06:00

Well hello to anyone who manages to stumble upon my blog after I haven't updated it in about 3 months. I really would like to blog more, but there's something about college classes that manages to distract me... maybe it's the work load and all the papers I have to write... but who knows.

In an effort to blog more, I plan on writing shorter, concise blogs that express ideas I've been thinking about. And in that way, if I actually come up with a somewhat intelligent and creative idea then I can actually take credit for it.... but that's not likely. In fact, that won't happen, but if you will humor me and actually read some blogs of mine then maybe you'll start to understand why I am the way I am.

There has been something on my mind recently that was really triggered by a big city-wide youth event that I attended with the youth group I work with. At this event the worship music was good, the testimonies from students were authentic, and overall I sensed that the hearts of the people who put on this event were pure and Christ-centered. However, the main speaker at the end was the "hype-up" type... you know, the kind that comes up and gets everyone screaming "Jesus" in some sort of competitive, yelling frenzy without anyone really knowing why we're doing it. I don't mind this for a little bit, but we went on screaming for about 10 minutes without him preaching from the Word at all.

In fact, the rest of his 5-10 minute sermon afterwards was completely motivational and "attractive," and did not include a single verse from the Bible. This really disappointed me, because the kids that night did not hear the actual words of God except for maybe through the songs that were straight from scripture. Even if he used only 1 scriptural reference, I think that would have been alright, because the kids could remember that one verse. But no, the Bible wasn't even mentioned.

This got me thinking... Why do we (especially in youth ministry) fall into this trap of trying to make everything attractive by human standards, appealing to hype and excitement and emotions? Why do we think that the Jesus Christ and the Bible are not attractive and appealing on their own? Sure, there is room for having fun and sweet lights and technology and all that jazz... But if it is replacing the Bible, then we are far from what I believe is true Christianity. We rob the gospel of its inherent power.

Isaiah 55:11 says, "...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God did not give us a boring Bible. He did not curse us with something that we would have to add to and change in order to grab the attention of those who listen. God's word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and will accomplish God's purposes if we don't get in the way! I wonder how often we get in the way of God's plans by adding our own plans and agenda.

Similarly, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." If we are relying on the Spirit in our teaching and presentation of the Gospel, we have no need to fear that the students won't hear. We feel the need to fancy-up our preaching and events like a car or house to attract people. But the fact of the matter is that God will attract people to Him based on His beauty and glory, and not our own. No more relying on entertainment... let's open up the Word of God and let it speak for itself. I know that students today are yearning for more depth in the Bible, and still we doubt how much they can handle.

Entertainment and hype cannot replace the Word of God. They have their place, but if we are to make real disciples of Christ, the Word of God is not an option; it's an imperative.

Nothing New Under the Sun

2009-07-27T19:31:00.004-06:00

For any of you who follow my blog consistently, you might remember a post I made about Saint James a couple weeks ago. In my interaction with this man, God illumined a great truth about the role of apologetics in evangelism. To sum up, here is what I said:

"Apologetics, the rational defense of the faith, is designed to plant seeds. You will never argue someone into the Kingdom of God. That's not what God's love created us to do. His love will win someone to the Kingdom of God. Intellectual assent, while it is an important aspect of faith, is not a pre-requisite for belief. Apologetics will merely break down faulty logic and weak arguments in order to create space for the Holy Spirit to convict the heart. The mind will either serve as a bridge or as a roadblock to the heart."

Simple truth, yes? Well, thankfully, there are much smarter men and women on this earth than me... men and women with more experience than me. I love to read, and this summer I have been soaking up just about as many books as I can. I was forced to laugh the other day while reading Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere. Deere recounts a situation he encountered while witnessing to an intelligent woman on a flight to Dallas:

"An hour and a half of apologetic arguments did not even come close to equaling the force of the simple statement, "You are a sinner and you need a savior." There was a power behind that simple declaration that was absent from all my carefully reasoned arguments. The power came because God had suggested those simple words to my spirit... That experience of power began to teach me, a philosophy major, the relative powerlessness of intellectual arguments. While they may occasionally remove genuine obstacles to faith, they are ultimately fruitless unless the Holy Spirit convicts the heart of sin" (309).

Huh. Sounds familiar...

But it doesn't stop there. I read that a couple days ago. Today I bought a new book by Norman Geisler and David Geisler entitled Conversational Evangelism. As I began to read through the book (written by two of the top apologists in America, mind you), I stumbled across this paragraph:

"This distinction has major implications for how we do evangelism. Apologetics cannot argue someone into the kingdom. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit must work in a person's life if he or she is to accept Christ. Jesus said in John 6:65, "No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." Therefore, faith and reason must work hand in hand to effectively reach others for Christ. Apologetics can help someone "believe that" Jesus is the Messiah, but it can never force one to "believe in" Him" (163).

I love how they distinguish between the phrases, "believing that" and "believing in." A simple change of words essentially holds eternity in its hands. It is easy to believe that something happened, given strong evidence and clear logic. But to believe in something, to base your life on a cause, requires faith. That faith can only come through the Holy Spirit.

I'm reminded of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 - "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." Rationality is beneficial to an extent, yet it is fleeting without the Spirit. As John 4:23 tells us, God desires worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth. There must be a balance between the two.

Please do not misunderstand me. I love apologetics still. I am going to continue to read and study the arguments on both sides of faith. I believe studying apologetics not only strengthens my own faith, but it also puts my fears toward evangelism at ease.

What I am attempting to communicate is that the Holy Spirit is at work today in miraculous ways, and the biggest miracle in life is when someone passes from the old life into the new. The Holy Spirit is not absent from the mind and apologetics; on the contrary, He relishes the opportunity to transform a life while utilizing a tool for breaking down intellectual barriers. He works on both the heart and the mind. Don't forget, God is the one who gave us a mind and intellect in the first place.

If God gave us a mind, should we choose not to use it? And if God gave us his Holy Spirit, should we choose to neglect Him?

I thank God for people like Jack Deere, David Geisler, and Norman Geisler, who fluidly articulate my thoughts for me in such brilliant manners that inspire me to wrestle with the topic even further.

Until next time...

The Power of Testimony

2009-07-11T21:56:00.005-06:00

Last night I got the opportunity to preach at our weekly coffee house outreach we hold at the Dream Center. There are several homeless men and women that attend, as well as the men and women in our discipleship program that have come off the streets in order to turn their lives around. I spoke about this very topic, the power of testimony, and it's been on my mind so much that I thought I would blog a little bit of my thoughts.

Never underestimate the power of someone's testimony, someone's story of God's power in his or her life. Being in Los Angeles working with such a wide variety of people has given me the chance to hear just about every possible testimony. From drugs to alcohol to prostitution to murder, I've heard it all. And let me tell you... I've never been as confident in the power of God to change lives as I do right now.

Take my friend Arlan, for example. Arlan works with me here at Hope for Homeless Youth. He and I lead outreaches together, and let me tell you, when he starts praying with the short-term groups to begin the outreaches, you better be prepared to feel the Spirit moving. I don't know if I've ever met someone more sure and confident of God's power on the streets than Arlan. He is on fire for Christ and I learn more from his example everyday. But he wasn't always a Spirit-filled, passionate disciple of Christ.

Arlan grew up being harassed by classmates for having more effeminate qualities, which of course included accusations of being gay, whether he even understood what that meant or not. Long story short, he ended up cross-dressing in an attempt to become more of who everyone else claimed he was. He left home with a full-time job doing drag queen shows around the country. He told me that he could barely remember anything from those trips because he was always tripping on some drug and drinking more than a human being should. When he couldn't do the drag queen shows anymore he would end up prostituting himself on the streets where he would end up homeless after losing all of his money either to drugs or a crazy party lifestyle. He was beaten, raped, and left for dead on multiple occasions. He remembers these days as being absent of meaning and hope, always knowing he would end up going home alone and in need of something more.

The one thing going for him in life was that he had a mom who prayed for him everyday. And let me tell you, when there is a mom praying for her child, God works in incredible ways. The prayers of a loving mom are unmatched. Eventually Arlan came home to his parents' house, dressed as a woman. He expected them to drag him to church, but they didn't. In his own words, he said he went to church with them just to spite them for not forcing him to go. After going to the church, he felt a love that he has never felt before. The people at the church loved him for who he was, and they looked right past the cross-dressing. They treated him as he truly was, a child of the living God.

He started to attend the church more and more and actually got involved in painting murals there (he is a very gifted artist). He said the others who worked with him talked to him and loved him just as any other person in the church, and he could never figure out why. But he liked it. And eventually the love of Christ gripped his heart, and he gave his life to Him. He put away the former lifestyle he had adopted full of drugs, alcohol, homelessness, prostitution, and partying, opting for the better life God had always planned for him, a life full of joy, purpose, and true love from the only One who could give it to him unconditionally.

Not long after that he started attending another church in Phoenix and felt a calling to go into vocational ministry. After months of training at a pastors' school, Arlan began serving the Lord at his home church as a youth pastor. From there God called him to work with Hope for Homeless Youth, reaching out to the homeless here in Los Angeles, extending the same hope he received from Christ to everyone he meets. He knows exactly how to speak into the lives of people who are in similar situations as he was years before.

Full of humility, Arlan possesses a personable quality that attracts everyone around him. He is never ashamed of the gospel that literally saved his life. He gives God glory everyday as he walks the streets, sharing Christ's love with every soul that needs a glimmer of hope in a world that only offers a cheap substitute. He understands the realm of spiritual warfare, and he storms the gates of Heaven in every prayer. I know without a doubt that the Father is pleased with this man of God.

Try to tell me that God doesn't work miracles today, and I will laugh. Arlan is a walking testimony of God's faithfulness towards all of His children and of His matchless power to change lives. I have learned that no person is permanently lost, no situation is too big, no scheme of hell is too wicked for the Holy Spirit to come in and change everything for God's glory. It reminds me of the line from the song "In Christ Alone":

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Til' He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I stand.

Every situation that Satan intends for disaster and pain God will turn around and use to bring love and glory to to Him. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man who doesn't even know who Jesus is. When questioned by the Pharisees about the event, he proclaims, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I do know - I was blind and now I see!"

You don't have to be a Bible scholar to tell everyone about Christ's love. You don't have to be perfect to commit your life to Him. All you need to do is give your pain, your hurt, to God and let him transform your life. Then you'll have a testimony that no one can take away.

You can always argue point-counterpoint, logic and reason, until you're blue in the face with frustration, but you can never argue with a changed life.

Revelation 12:11 says, "They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..." After hearing Arlan's testimony, as well as the testimonies of countless others, I know for a fact that God wasn't lying when he gave us this verse. Do you believe he can do the same with your testimony?

As a final note, I really want to encourage everyone to share your testimony with others. People need to hear about God's awesome power to change lives.

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Hay-soos

2009-07-07T23:10:00.002-06:00

God continues to use people to teach me timeless truths as I walk the streets in Los Angeles. Last week's lesson came from a homeless Hispanic man ironically named Jesus (pronounced, "Hay-soos", in case you were you confused about the quirky blog title). From here on out, I will refer to him as "Jay" so as to avoid any potential misunderstandings between the man I met and the Jesus who died for mankind on the cross.

I met Jay at our weekly outreach to Santa Monica. Each week we go out there with the church teams and canvass the entire area, inviting all the homeless to come to the pier for free food and testimonies about God's love. Once we get to the pier, we have two individuals from the church teams share a quick 5-minute testimony about how God has changed their lives, and someone from our staff shares a quick word (or sermon), offering everybody the chance for prayer. After that we break out the food and enjoy some good eatin' and fellowshipin' under a sunsettin' California sky.

It was at this point when Jay made eye contact with me as he ate his food on a nearby bench. Jay was wearing a gardener's hat and spoke with a little bit of an accent. He was also holding a brown paper bag and smelled a bit like the alcohol he had been drinking (though, he wasn't drunk). He said something to me that I couldn't quite understand, so I moved closer to him and asked him to repeat.

"Do you really believe we will see each other again someday in heaven?" he asked.

"Of course! Whoever professes that Jesus is Lord, believes that he died on the cross and rose again from the dead, and commits their lives to Him will go to heaven and have eternal life," I replied. I showed him Romans 10:9 to assure him of this truth. I've found that there is true power in reading the Word and allowing others to read it for themselves.

"But what if you do something really bad? Do you think he forgives you then?" His tone was so sincere, so innocently inquisitive, that I couldn't help but wonder where this conversation was headed.

"I know he forgives you. If we repent and ask him for forgiveness, we receive it instantly. It's as if that sin never happened in God's eyes. It says so here in 1 John 1:9..." Again I showed him this verse to give him assurance that God is indeed "faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" if we confess our sins.

To this, he looked up and with a rush of emotion declared, "But I feel so bad! God cannot forgive me when I feel this bad!" He continued on to explain that he had done something horrible (without explaining the details), despite the fact that he had been a good boy when he was young. He kept repeating the line, "My mom always told me to do right, but I didn't listen. Why didn't I listen?"

It broke my heart to listen to his story. Emotions are so deceiving. Just as the mind can serve as either a bridge or as a roadblock to the heart, as was the case with "Saint" James in my last blog, emotions can either enhance one's faith or destroy it. Misleading emotions take the here-and-now circumstances and use them to trap the unexpectant traveller in lies that attempt to annihilate timeless truths. They deceptively shroud absolute truth with clouds of subjective thought and relativity. The timeless truth in Jay's story was that God had forgiven him, but because Jay did not feel forgiven, he could not believe that he was forgiven.

This is precisely why God has blessed us with His Word, the Bible. In his great wisdom God knew we would somehow forget the promises he gave the early believers and recorded them in a great book that is the eternal record of truth. He knew Satan would use our emotions against us and try to get us lost in our "feelings." Romans 10:9, 1 John 1:9, and John 3:16 are all promises God gave us to remind us in times of doubt that we would not be forgiven for whatever reasons.

I encouraged Jay with these promises. I told him a thousand times that since he had asked for forgiveness for his sin he was forgiven. I even showed him the example of David in 2 Samuel 11, when he sins with Bathsheba. I gave him Psalms 51, which was written by David as he desperately sought God's forgiveness for his sexual sin. I told him a thousand times that God loved him more than he could ever fathom. I showed him verse after verse that promised God's love for him.

"But I still feel so bad!" he replied.

At this point Jay's emotions had him in such a vicegrip that his mindful was unfruitful in understanding God's promises. It's one thing to feel forgiven; it's another thing to know you're forgiven. It sometimes does not make sense to our limited human minds that a perfect, infinite Creator would erase the errors of our past without another mention of the mistake. The parable of the prodigal son, which might better be titled the "parable of the incredible father," illustrates the unmatched compassion our Father has for us. I pray that one day Jay will run into the open arms of the Father who did not send his Son to condemn, but to save (John 3:17).

In the meantime, we have to carefully take a toll of our emotions and examine how they are leading us into truth or guiding us into confusion. John Piper writes in Desiring God:
"Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers... On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship."

Emotions are a vital aspect of faith, but we cannot naively trust in them to define our theology or we will never truly grasp how deep, how wide, how great is the love of God!

As tears flowed down Jay's face, I could not help but cry out to God with a spirit of gratitude for his love, and for the realization of that love as articulated in the Word of God. I urged him to replace his feelings of worthlessness with Jesus Christ himself and see how God changes his life. I exhorted him that it is never too late and that God never gives up on us. I prayed for him fervently right there on the bench he was sitting that the Holy Spirit would move in his life so powerfully that his misguided emotions would be replaced with the timeless truth of God's love, grace, and forgiveness.

Please join me in prayer for Jay as you finish this blog, for the "prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective" (James 5:16).

Living in faith...

"Saint" James

2009-06-30T21:34:00.003-06:00

For my blog today I thought I would tell you about a homeless man I met on our Venice Beach outreach named "Saint" James. He always makes sure to add the "saint" part when talking to me.

It's actually a miracle I even know his name. The first time I ever saw him he was sitting in the area where we were holding a mini-service for anyone interested. Basically, two of the short-term participants get up and tell part of their testimony and we offer to pray for anybody who wants it. Afterwards we hand out about 80 sack lunches. While we were handing out the lunches I saw him sitting by himself, dressed nicely in a t-shirt that said "Addicted" with a giant marijuana leaf under it. I thought it might be interesting to talk to this man. He has been wearing this shirt everytime I see him.

I extended my hand to him and said, "Hi I'm David," which led him to wave his hand at me, indicating he wanted me to leave. "We don't need to be introduced," he replied.
"Oh no, why not?" I asked.
In a very angry and confrontational tone, he said, "Because you Christians are so arrogant coming out here claiming that Jesus died on the cross and that he's the only way you can have eternal life. You can't say that anymore than any Jew or Muslim could say that."

Based off of his tone and attitude towards Christianity, I instantly knew this would be an interesting conversation. Before I even got to Venice Beach, I had prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide me to conversations and within those conversations as well. As soon as the conversation began, I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me, "You're not going to win him with your arguments or reason. If anything you will win him with your love and respect." It seems as if he hadn't met any loving Christians from the things he was saying.

He continued on with his tirade on Christians, insisting that we cannot claim to be heading in the direction of heaven because we haven't done anything to help the AIDS crisis in Africa. (He also claimed that George Bush Sr. is the antichrist and that he was the one who created and sent the AIDS virus to the African continent. He was full of many conspiracy theories, to say the least.) I told him that I agreed that Christians could be doing much, much more to make an impact on the earth in the name of Jesus, and that the AIDS crisis is one of those areas where Christians have the opportunity to spread the love of Christ. I also told him about my good friend Matt Taylor (and several others) who is a committed Christians that is studying for the express purpose of helping AIDS victims. This seemed to surprise him.

I hear this argument from unbelievers all the time:
There are desperate situations in the world,
Some Christians don't seem to care about these situations,
Therefore Christianity is not a valid belief system.

While it breaks my heart that people get the impression that Christians don't care about the world, sometimes it is a reality. I must say, it is not the majority by any means. But there are some people who profess to be Christians and have no desire to care for the world. However, it is faulty logic to believe that because Jesus' followers have sometimes fallen short and been hypocritical that Jesus is not truly the Son of God and the only way to salvation. His Word still stands, whether mere humans follow it or not.

I continued to explain to him that I understood his problems with Christians, but I also took the chance to explain to him why all 85 of us out there that day were there because we cared for our homeless brothers and sisters and we wanted to make a difference in the world. I urged him not to lose faith in Jesus Christ because some of his followers have lost their way. It is the same reason my parents explained to people as to why we chose to remain at New Life Church in Colorado after our pastor, Ted Haggard, fell into sexual immorality.

The conversation continued, and he told me how he based his life on the book of Revelation and how he himself was fulfilling one of the prophecies. He also told me how he doesn't believe the rest of the Bible. Obviously, that didn't sit right logically in my head, so I asked him, lovingly and respectfully, "How can you base your life on the book of Revelation and the writings of the apostle John and still say you don't believe Jesus died on the cross when that same apostle John said in his gospel that He did in fact die on the cross?" To this question he had no answer except for a theory that John was forced to lie in his gospel. We talked about this a little further, and I saw his confidence in that theory begin to wave. But he still did not change his mind at this point.

It was here that God taught me a very valuable lesson. Apologetics, the rational defense of the faith, is designed to plant seeds. You will never argue someone into the Kingdom of God. That's not what God's love created us to do. His love will win someone to the Kingdom of God. Intellectual assent, while it is an important aspect of faith, is not a pre-requisite for belief. Apologetics will merely break down faulty logic and weak arguments in order to create space for the Holy Spirit to convict the heart. The mind will either serve as a bridge or as a roadblock to the heart. For James, it was a roadblock.

At the end of the conversation, and after some friendly discussion during which I encouraged him and thanked him for his passion to see the end of the AIDS crisis, I extended my hand once more and said, "Now what's your name?" He took my hand and smiled, "James... Saint James."

I continue to pray for James and for the Holy Spirit to work in his life. I hope that I helped to remove some roadblocks to faith in Jesus for him, but I know that the rest is up to God. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." That last part is true wisdom... it's exactly what I needed to remember that day because, as I felt God telling me, I will not win someone over with my reason or logic, but with my love and respect.

I saw "Saint" James again today, and we had a nice conversation about his week and his dreams of being a writer. Please join with me in prayer for James as you finish reading this.

Living in faith...

A Little Overwhelmed

2009-06-26T17:10:00.004-06:00

Reports have been released that approximately 90,000 people are homeless and sleeping on the streets on any given day in Los Angeles.

Skid Row, a section of about 10 blocks by 10 blocks near downtown LA, consitutes the most concentrated location of homelessness in America.

Those are just stats. But living here has been an eye-opener in itself. It is nearly impossible to go anywhere... whether I'm going to a movie, to the beach, or somewhere to eat (probably Taco Bell!) without seeing multiple people living on the street. Because there is so much need and poverty here, the ones caught in homelessness are forced to be more bold with their panhandling. Multiple times in the last week I have been sitting in a restaurant and a homeless man has walked straight to our table asking for change. Instead of giving out money, potentially contributing to alcohol or drug problems, I (or someone with me) bought them a meal and talked with them. It's amazing the stories I have heard while being on the streets here.

Those times I was at the different restaurants were not "ministry" times. I wasn't on an outreach. We weren't with short-term teams from churches. We were using our time off to enjoy fellowship and good food (Chipotle!). And yet still I met multiple homeless men and felt the need to care for and serve them.

To be completely honest, I feel a little overwhelmed. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, but I've never experienced something like this. It is difficult to have a "day off" from the outreaches and Dream Center ministry and be faced with the same issues and the same things that break my heart during the rest of the week. Sometimes all I can do is stop and pray, because I feel powerless to do anything else. (And of course God is powerful in our weakness).

I really don't have a positive twist to this blog or some great nugget of wisdom to share. I guess I'm just learning what it is to be broken for others. Sometimes it feels like we're barely putting a dent in the problem of homelessness, and my heart continues to break. I think God is teaching me to rely on Him and take every problem I see and give it to Him. I can't hold on to these burdens myself... I'm nowhere near strong enough. God cares for these people even more than I do. I need to be reminding myself of that. His love is deeper and thicker than my love ever could be. HE is the one who sustains, provides, heals, and saves them, not me. It is my duty to be faithful and serve in whatever way I can. God will do the rest.

Please pray that I don't get discouraged or burnt out, but that my love for God is freshly anewed everyday. Pray that I am reminded of His incredible love for these people so that I am not overwhelmed with burdens that I can't carry.

Isaiah 1:17
"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

The Plentiful Harvest in the City

2009-06-19T17:08:00.004-06:00

Being in Los Angeles has already taught me so much in just 3 weeks of ministry. I was encouraged (one might even say "threatened") by my good friend Jordan Bolte (jbolte.blogspot.com) earlier today to share and blog some of my thoughts that I was talking to him about. I'm learning so much and God is speaking to me about my future that I will try to slowly talk about on here.

Los Angeles is a big city. I know this may be news to nobody, but it is huge. It takes a navigating genius to get around here. There are also millions of people that live here. With that amount of people there comes a huge opportunity for the Gospel. I am reading a book called Cities: Missions' New Frontier. The authors attest to this very idea; that is, some big cities have more people than the rest of the state it rests in and there is a huge need for the light of Jesus Christ. Naturally we'd expect that there'd be a good ratio of ministries/churches to the number of people, but this is not the case at all. There is a huge need for good Bible-centered, Jesus-centered churches in the city.

In Luke 10:2, Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." This one sentence could not better describe the situation here. There is a giant harvest field, but we simply do not have enough people to reach them all. Los Angeles defines so much of our culture through Hollywood. Can you imagine the potential to influence the nation for Jesus Christ in a city like this? We just need committed disciples of Christ who have a desire to reach the cities for God.

I had this same feeling when I was in Chicago during the school year working for Emmaus Ministries. There was so much need on the street, but there was hardly a Christlike influence. I'll never forget one of the questions the Emmaus staff asked us as we debriefed our experience: "While you were out on the streets, where was the church?" I have not been able to shake that question since I saw what I saw that night... hurting, broken people... some starving because they can't afford a single meal or because all of their money goes to their alcohol and drug addictions. It's the same here every single day I go out. We see new people every single outreach we do who have never heard the gospel or heard the news that Jesus loves them just as they are. It breaks my heart.

Yesterday I met a 17-year-old homeless girl who had nothing to her name and is sleeping on the streets at night. Oh, and did I mention that she's pregnant, 5 months along? She is about to have a baby and she doesn't even have a bed for herself. She looked exhausted, beaten down from the stress of the streets. My heart especially broke for her as I saw her walk across the street with the little energy she still has. How can this be happening?? Where is the church?

That's exactly why I love working here at the Dream Center. This is a church that's not waiting for people to come to us; we're going out to them and finding them. With the huge missions field of Los Angeles, we'll continue to minister to the homeless, the broken, those in need. But the workers are still few.

Jesus called us the "light of the world." We are inherently different from the darkness in the world. When a lightbulb is turned on in a room, the darkness is completely changed to light. Everything is affected. Usually one lightbulb can light an entire room. A second might help uncover some of the darkness. But at some point you stop putting light bulbs in the room because the light has reached every crevice and corner. Instead you'll put those lightbulbs in other dark rooms that need them.

I think in Christianity today we are surrounding ourselves too much with other lightbulbs - Christians, if you will. Please don't misunderstand me. We need each other. We are designed for fellowship and to be together with other Christians. I am not condoning lone-ranger-ministry. However, there is a point where we need to branch out and find where there is darkness, and plant our lighted-selves in that area to bring the light of Christ to that area. If we surround ourselves entirely with other light, how will we make a difference?

I love being in Los Angeles because of the potential for the greatness of God to be revealed. There is a lot of darkness here that needs the light of Jesus. There are other places like this all over the world. We need to be stepping out and going head on into the darkness with the full strength we have in Christ. I am excited about what God is teaching me in this area. I am excited to work in a city where the harvest is plentiful.

After Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few," he continued on to say, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." What an encouragement; it is HIS harvest field! And we get the chance to be a part of it! But this is also my prayer. Please continue to pray for more workers and churches in this harvest field.

Living in faith...

Do You Love Me?

2009-06-15T22:30:00.000-06:00

There is one lesson I've learned after being involved in ministry for the last several years. It's a lesson that transfers across every kind of ministry, whether you're involved with youth, kids, the homeless, or whoever. It's one that I try to remind myself every single day, especially while I'm here in L.A.

It is simply this: We cannot minister to people without falling in love with Jesus Christ first.

Sounds simple, right? But then why do we find ourselves going through the motions of daily ministry? Have you ever found yourself "doing" ministry because it's what is expected of you or out of obligation? I only ask these questions because I have had to grapple with them myself.

The other day I was driving somewhere in the city and my mind wandered to some scripture that I've actually preached on before. But for some reason the Holy Spirit illumined a part of it that I hadn't focused on before.

It's in John 21, one of my favorite passages in the Bible. At this point, Jesus has been resurrected and shown himself to the disciples. In this setting, Peter and some of the other disciples are out fishing. The sheer irony of the setting is enough to raise some eyebrows. Think about it... Peter and the other disciples have just spent 3 years with Jesus, seen the miracles he performed, heard his incredible teachings, watched him die on the cross, and met him after he raised from the dead. And what do they do? They go fishing. They go back to what was ordinary or safe in their lives. I realize that Jesus told them to wait for the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, before they went out, but at the same time it just seems like an interesting activity of choice by these disciples, especially Peter, upon whom Jesus said he would build his church. But that's another blog, another sermon, for another day. That isn't the part of the passage that stuck out to me.

It's when Jesus starts talking to Peter that I realize the importance of Jesus' implications. We pick up in verse 15:

"When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?"
"Yes Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.""

The key thing to notice here is the order of Jesus' words. He first asks Peter if he loves Jesus. Only after Peter says that he loves him does Jesus commission him to "feed my lambs," "take care of my sheep," and "feed my sheep." Jesus does not tell him to begin his ministry until he knows for sure that he loves him with everything. The action words of feeding and taking care are synonymous with doing ministry.

In other words we are not to even presume that we can take care of God's flock, or the church, before we fall completely in love with Jesus Christ. How can we do ministry in the name of the one we do not love with heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Every morning now I wake up and pray that I will fall freshly in love with Jesus Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit before I start any ministry. The second part of being filled with the Holy Spirit comes from Jesus telling the disciples the same thing; that is, they should not go out and minister until the Advocate, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit falls upon them. I've come to the realization that without these two things I can never be effective in ministry.

Again, I say these things because I am learning this in my own life. When the Holy Spirit opens my mind to something fresh in Scripture, I can't help but talk about it! Hopefully I will keep the aforementioned prayer alive in my walk and ministry everyday. I also hope that this encouraged you and that you fall in love with Jesus more every single day!

And, as promised, some verses that keep me going in ministry to the poor and broken:
1 John 3:17-18
"If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Week 1 Reflections

2009-06-10T17:38:00.003-06:00

The schedule of an inner city missionary has turned out to be very busy. My hands are full everyday, but it is in such a good way. The only problem is that I don't have as much time to blog as I was hoping. My goal is to blog at least twice a week, though, so I can keep my family and friends informed about what I'm experiencing and learning. I don't have a lot of time right now, but here are a couple thoughts.

First of all, I've never felt as spiritually strong as I do right now. The people here are on fire. I don't say that lightly either. I thought I had seen what it looked like to be consumed with a passion for the gospel, but I've only now been able to see the real thing. I've been convicted about where I fall short in my personal faith, and I'm so glad too. I wanted to grow this summer, and working with the people here is pushing me incredibly. Praise God. One of the other interns/staff members here will break into prayer at any given moment if he sees something that needs it or feels the Holy Spirit convicting him to pray. It took me off-guard at first, but I've grown to love the constant conversation he has with God during the day.

Secondly, my heart is breaking for the men and women on the street that I am meeting. Take Joe for example. Joe has been living on the streets by Santa Monica for about 3 weeks now after moving from Florida. Joe developed a form of cancer last year and had to go through a lot of treatment. The treatment and chemotherapy have dried up his bank account, and he has no family to turn to. There was a mess-up when his papers went in for social security money he could receive because of his situation and now he won't receive any money for weeks, maybe even months. He refuses to go downtown where drug and alcohol usage is rampant on Skid Row, so he's staying close to the beach where it's safer. He still has faith left over from his childhood when he went to church with his mom. He knows God is taking care of Him, but it's hard not knowing whether he'll live much longer with the cancer on the streets. After talking with him I could see how tightly he was gripping onto the hope that comes only through Jesus Christ, but I fear for how long he can pull on the hem of Jesus' garment before his strength gives way. I had such a good conversation with him, and I even got the chance to pray for healing in his body. With that said, it is so hard to walk away from someone like that without wanting to do everything possible to get him off the street and help him find a home. Even more than that, I want him to be in the fellowship of other believers who will encourage him and point him to Christ when it gets difficult. I haven't figured this all out completely, but I know this is just one way I have to trust in the power of Christ for his life. I am still praying for him, as well as all the other homeless men and women I've been meeting on the street.

On that note, prayer has been one of the greatest parts of this internship. We pray all the time, and I'm not talking about the kind where we go around the circle and pray for 5 minutes. I'm talking about the kind of prayer that storms the gates of Heaven looking for the presence of God! It's very Spirit-filled prayer. I'm learning so much about prayer still, and being around this ministry is teaching me even more. A big thing I wanted to do this summer is pray about the direction God wants me to go after I graduate college in May. There are so many options but I think He is slowly showing me more specific things.

Finally, I wanted to add something for any of my Christian Ed classmates that might be reading this and make fun of my loud voice. Last night we had a service for the homeless by the Santa Monica pier outside. We share a couple testimonies, someone preaches, and then we break out the food and eat and fellowship. Well, last night I was asked to preach. Normally we have a PA system with a mini-microphone to blast the sound, but it wasn't working when we got there.... which of course meant that I had to preach in an outdoor park to a group of about 100 total people with only my loud voice. I was definitely shouting the gospel out there, haha. I was laughing and wondering the whole time how my CE 2010 classmates would react to that scene. Turns out God gave me a loud voice intentionally so I'd be able to preach with no microphone outdoors.... haha. Some people mentioned to me afterward that they had trouble hearing the two people who shared their testimonies before me, but that they didn't struggle at all to hear my sermon. I know my classmates will get a good laugh out of that.

But anyway, I'd like to leave my blogs with verses that are pushing me to do this kind of ministry and what motivates me to continue.

James 2:14-17
"14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

First Impressions and a little C.S. Lewis

2009-06-03T16:06:00.003-06:00

I don’t think it’s truly sunk in that I’m in Los Angeles right now. But I have been here for a full 24 hours, incident-free! I am really enjoying meeting so many new people (and trying to remember a thousand names). There is a genuine sincerity about the people here that you can feel. I love to hear about their love and passion for God. They are truly consumed with a fire for Him in every conversation. I think much of this is due to the fact that many of the people who volunteer here have been saved off the streets themselves and know what it’s like to be in desperation and without hope. Now that they have that hope that comes only through Jesus Christ, they won’t ever let it go and they want to talk about it all the time! It’s been a huge encouragement to me.

On another un-related note, I’m reading through several books right now, one of which is the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I wanted to re-read them now that I can catch the analogy and metaphor behind the story. There is an interesting correlation I noticed in Peter and Susan’s conversation with the professor at the mansion they’re staying at. They are asking the professor’s advice about how to deal with Lucy, their sister who keeps talking about a “magical” wardrobe she found that leads to another world of fauns and evil witches. Her brother Edmund keeps calling her a liar and makes fun of her even though he saw exactly what she saw.

The professor, Peter, and Susan determine that Lucy is not known for lying. The professor’s response: “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume she is telling the truth” (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 45).

When I read this, I thought, “Hmmm… this sounds so familiar…” In C.S. Lewis’ well-known book Mere Christianity, he proposes this same logic for determining the validity of Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah. This is commonly known as the lord, liar, or lunatic logic:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, 52).

And So It Begins

2009-06-01T21:11:00.002-06:00

It’s finally here. I am officially in Los Angeles, California, for my summer internship with Hope for Homeless Youth at the Dream Center. I had a road-trip experience that could have come straight out of a movie, but that'll have to come a different time.

I am really excited for this opportunity. It’s kind of surreal right now, but within a matter of hours I’ll be doing ministry on the streets in L.A. It was fun to connect with some people in Colorado in the past couple days with whom I went to L.A. in high school on a short-term missions trip to work with the Dream Center. I had a great team with that team, and now I’m off to do it by myself. Sure, it’s a little intimidating, but I want to be stretched this summer.

When I started to think about why I am going to Los Angeles (besides the academic requirements for Taylor), I simply want to love God and love people. It’s so easy to over-complicate things, but I am intentionally simplifying things this summer. I want to learn simplicity, and so all I want to do this summer is love God completely and love people genuinely.

I’d like to ask you to pray for the ministry this summer. Many people have expressed concern for my safety in Los Angeles. Prayers for safety are very appreciated, but to be completely honest, I have faith that God will protect me. I’d rather you pray that people’s hearts would be opened and that they would come to know the incredible love and salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ.

I have been re-reading the book of Acts this month and I have been inspired by his courage. At one point Paul is dragged out of Lystra, stoned and left for dead (Acts 14). And what does he do? He gets up and walks right back into the city. The first time I remember thinking, are you serious?! It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that one can go out and have this kind of drive and passion for ministry that puts one’s own life in danger for the sake of Jesus Christ. I want to have the kind of passion that Paul had! “For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Tim 1:7).

I really just want to serve this summer. I want God to break me of my pride and break my heart for these people. I have a lot of growing to do, so I’m looking forward to being a little uncomfortable to push me.

So, with this attitude and many prayers, I go to L.A. In the words of Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me.”

Nostalgia

2009-05-26T17:38:00.000-06:00

Summer 2009 is finally here. I just finished my junior year of college, and I'm now trying to mentally prep myself for the fact that I'm now a senior in college. It's a little bizarre to me to think that a year from now I will be graduating and looking at the rest of my life from a very different perspective. As a result of this realization, I have been experiencing several moments of nostalgia.

For instance, a couple days ago I went to my old high school's graduation. Watching this year's seniors graduate was entertaining. The little antics they pulled and listening to the speeches that were fumbled through was a good reminder of the innocence and humanity behind this formal event. It also reminded me of how much I treasured my own graduation at the time and how big of an event I thought it was. Now, graduating is a big deal, but it was a bit comical for me to remember how much thought I put into it, and how much thought is put into it every year. It was a big moment for us, and looking at the big picture, graduating high school is a big and necessary step that leads to much bigger and better things.

Last night I also got the chance to play in the alumni vs. current-students soccer game with my old high school. It was such a fun game, and yes the alumni won (I had to include that...haha... although I also have to add that I was really impressed with the current team and I can't wait to see how they do in the fall). It was also fun to see all the old teammates and remember the fun times we had and the memories we made. "Kick it to the cotton-pickin' corners!"

Needless to say, I've been reflecting a lot about how I got to the place I am today. In a couple days I'll be driving out to California to spend my summer in Los Angeles ministering to the poor and homeless. When I think about how I got to make this decision, how I'm at this place in my faith where I want to spend my summer like that, or how gracious God truly is to allow me to participate in the work He's already doing, I tend to think back on the climatic events in my life and faith that have led me here.

What's the point? It's good to remember. In fact, reflecting on the past is so important to move rightly into the future. It's why we have history classes in our schools; that is, we remember our successes and failures so we can build and do things right from then on. From a biblical worldview, we also see how God intervened in those times and brought us through trials.

As I thought about this, I remembered a chapter in the book of Nehemiah. At this point, Nehemiah and the post-exilic Israeli community have rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, accomplishing a tremendous feat for the Israelite nation. There are many great things that come from this, but one highlighted factor is God's hand in the completion of the wall and his faithfulness to Israel despite how they fell away from him and worshiped other gods.

Chapter 9 shows the Israelites worshiping God and praising him with a prayer of confession offered by the Levites. This is such a great example of prayer for us today! The Levites begin re-telling the history of Israel, starting with Abram and moving all the way to the present day. They praise God for the way he shows his compassion on Israel. They reflect on how gracious he has been towards them. They exhibit a little bit of nostalgia by remembering the great things that God has done. (Seriously, go read this chapter. It's incredible, and a great model for confessional prayer.)

Now get this... After praising God for speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, they say this, starting in verse 16:

"But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them... But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love" (Nehemiah 9:16-17a; my emphasis added).

What a revealing and potent statement... the Israelites failed to remember what God had done for them. Inevitably they ended up worshiping false gods and falling away from their true Creator. If you ever read the books of Judges and Kings you will see how often this happens. It blows my mind to think that they could ever forget what God did for them!! It's not everyday that you're brought out of slavery in Egypt and given the Promised Land!

But as I thought about Israel and their mistakes, I started to feel very convicted that I do the same exact thing. I fail to remember the miracles God has performed in my own life. I fail to remember the incredible moments and experiences of God's love that I've had in my life. I walk right back into sin, forgetting how God has already forgiven me for this before.

I realized at this moment that I need to create a habit of reflection. I need to intentionally remind myself of the work God has done in my life. It is so easy to forget if we don't! It is so easy to look at Israel's mistakes and wonder how they got so dumb without looking at our own lives for the same mistakes.

What I am calling for is a renewed spiritual discipline of reflection. Take time everyday to remember what God has done. If you've been prophetically spoken over, write down those words and look at them often. If you've experienced God's presence in an amazing way, bring yourself back into that glorious moment and feel Him once again. Don't let yourself forget!

Hibernation

2009-04-21T21:25:00.003-06:00

Apparently it's not easy to blog while taking on a full load of college classes. Go figure.

I enjoy writing, and I love blogging. But for some reason I simply do not find the time to get on here and continue posting my thoughts, incomplete as they might be. This is but one reason why I am excited for this semester to end and for summer to come. The onslaught of free time will inevitably lead to more blogging and word-vomiting, leading you few readers to evaluate whether it's better for me to be consumed with classes or with free time. The jury's still out on this one...

One significant thing I have done this semester is a spring break missions trip to Dearborn, Michigan, where thousands of Arab Muslims have immigrated. It was a one-week intensive experience where our team learned about Islam and we had the opportunity to work hands-on with Muslims in the community. This trip taught me a lot and helped me come to a deeper appreciation of the cross and its unique part in the Christian faith. Excerpts from my conversations with the Muslims to come in future posts.

Another big topic I've been studying and thinking about this semester is the Holy Spirit and his daily role in the life of a believer. How does the Holy Spirit work and speak today? How does God still work miracles today? I recently finished a book entitled Surprised by the Power of the Spirit by Jack Deere for my Historic Christian Belief class. Deere is a former cessationist (one who believes the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to exist after the death of the last apostle) who changed his view completely after a thorough study of Scripture and several key experiences. It encouraged me and challenged me in several ways, and I am planning on reading Deere's second book called Surprised by the Voice of God this summer.

I am also preparing for my summer in inner city Los Angeles working as an intern with the Dream Center and its Hope for Homeless Youth ministry. I will be helping with outreaches to the homeless in the city and across the wider region of L.A. I am excited and somewhat nervous, and I know that God is going to work a lot in my heart. Much of my blogging this summer will most likely come as a result of this ministry.

Anyway, this is my report from hibernation. I look forward to blogging more often as summer draws nearer. I leave you with a verse - really think about its implications. What is this verse suggesting and implying? More to come later...

John 14:12 - "Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

Northern Ireland Re-Cap

2009-02-16T12:18:00.007-07:00

"Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithful-

ness." -Psalm 115:1

Before I begin telling you a little about my experience on a missions trip in Northern Ireland, I'd like to apologize for not doing this sooner. It's difficult to fully process trips like these until weeks afterward. I never felt right about writing something out until now. Also, for those of you who were praying for us and/or supported us financially, I cannot thank you enough. You had as big of a part in this trip as any of us on the team did. This would not have been possible without you, and I mean that with everything in me. I thank God for family and friends like you.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we were in Northern Ireland all of January working with a ministry called Project Evangelism. The people at the ministry were incredible servants of Christ. They brought so much joy and passion to their work, and it was very contagious. We stayed in a beautiful house called the Murlough House, out of which the ministry works and the short-term missions teams stay. It was about a 2-minute walk from the beach, so in those times we had for our personal devotions many would go down to the beach and experience God's beauty in nature.

A typical day for the team would look like this... In the morning we would each have specific jobs to do around the house to keep it clean and looking nice. We'd then have a teaching time with John Moxen, who preached the Word with a fire that I haven't seen in many people. After that we'd have time for personal devo's, lunch, and a team meeting. By the afternoon we were breaking into 3 teams (work project team, community team that handed out gifts like Operation Christmas Child, and a kids' club/VBS team). After our ministry times we would head back to the Murlough House for "tea" (dinner) and have about an hour before we all headed to the "drop-in center" to hang out with teens from Dundrum and present the Gospel in different ways every night. This was basically the same schedule from Monday-Friday every week.

I want to tell you a couple significant stories that happened to me. The first was at the kids' club. I had the responsibility of teaching everyday. The kids' club experience humbled me everyday and made me realize more and more why Jesus used a child to show the disciples how they must have faith to inherit the kingdom. I taught stories about creation, the Fall, Jesus’ ministry, and the crucifixion and resurrection. They received and listened to these stories as if they had never heard them before. (I’m constantly amazed at how much religion exists in this country, but not many of the people have experienced faith. It’s almost more academic or unemotional than anything else). I will never forget what happened that day. I was teaching the kids about Jesus’ life and ministry by using 2 stories, one about him healing a paralyzed man by the pool and the other about the religious leaders wanting to stone the adulterer. I really emphasized his love for us and how he wants a relationship with us, not a religion.

As I was finishing, Connor raised his hand and asked, “Why did Jesus have to come and die for all of us if it was just Adam and Eve who started the sinning?” Amazed, I took a step back, looked at the other leaders, and explained to him how we all sin now and we all need forgiveness after Adam and Eve started the trend of sinning. That led another kid to ask a great, deep question. And then another. And then another. Before I knew it the kids had been asking deep, incredible questions for a good 15 minutes after the teaching!!! We talked about how God created the Bible, how Jesus wants an intimate father/son or father/daughter relationship with us, how we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and much more.

At the end, Connor raised his hand again and asked, “How do we get the Bible?” Confused, I asked him if he was wondering how they created the Bible. He said, “No, how can I get one? How much does it cost?” Instantly all of the other kids raised their hands and said that they wanted a Bible too! I almost started tearing up as I looked at the other leaders in disbelief. This country is rampant with religion but the kids had no idea what the Bible really was, how to read it, or how to get one. I wasn't sure what to tell him about the practical steps of getting a Bible there, but I told him I would make sure they got Bibles. Later that night we got Bibles from Richie at Project Evangelism and personally wrote in the cover for each kid that wanted a Bible. We underlined and wrote out special verses and gave them encouragement about how to read the Bible. The day we brought the Bibles to them looked like Christmas morning. I have never seen such excitement to hold the Bible before. They all began reading them and asked others to read it to them if they couldn't read it themselves. Later that day I overheard two 8-year-old little girls trying to figure out how they could have a sleepover together that night so the girl who was able to read could read the Bible to the other one! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. God was moving among these little kids. It definitely wasn't something we did... the Holy Spirit was ready to come upon these hungry children who wanted the Gospel. "Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness..."

Later the next week one of the kids named Rhyss asked a great question about how we can actually get eternal life. We were very adamant about not asking for any group conversions (having the kids raise their hands with eyes closed if they wanted to accept Christ), so we told them that they could always talk to us after the teaching about what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ and how they can have that too. In no way do we define our trip based on numbers, so please do not confuse my motives in telling you that 5 kids individually came to leaders and received Christ into their lives during our weeks with them. It's just to show you the power of God in every situation. Rhyss was one of those that gave his life to Christ, as well as Connor. "Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness."

The last story I want to tell you happened with the teens at the drop in center. I had a great conversation with a great guy named Chris after I shared my testimony. We told the kids that we wanted them to write out any questions they had about Christianity so we could have a Q&A question the next night. Doug was walking around passing out slips of paper as I was standing next to Chris. When asked if he had questions, he said that he honestly didn’t have any questions. I told him that maybe he should be the one to answer everyone else’s questions then. He looked at me with a smile and said, “Go ahead, ask me any question.” So that’s exactly what I did. I asked him – how do you know if there’s a God? He thought about it for a second and said, “There wouldn’t be anything here or around us if there wasn’t a God.” I was pretty amazed at his answer and we talked about the idea of creation and how everything has a Creator. Then I asked him – how do you know that Jesus was the Son of God? He said he’d have to think about that for a second, but then he gave another great answer. We talked about the resurrection and how that is really the crucial point. If the resurrection never happened, Jesus couldn’t have been who he said he was. We talked about that for a while. Then I asked – why is there so much pain and suffering in the world if there is a God who can stop it? He gave yet another great answer that people make bad choices because of free will and inflict pain on others. I was so amazed at his perfect answers. He knew apologetics better than any other high school kid I’ve talked to. So then I looked at him and told him that he knew the stuff really well and he understood about faith better than most I’ve met. We talked about the reality of heaven and hell for a while, and I could tell how much he believed in all of it. I told him plainly, “Look, it’s obvious you know this faith stuff really well. You get it. You get it better than most kids your age. So have you made the personal decision to follow Christ and commit your life to Him?” He said that he had not made that decision, and I asked why not. He said he didn’t know, and that he just couldn’t do it yet. I was torn to pieces on the inside as I watched how close he was to making a personal faith decision. I asked him that if in the worst-case scenario he walked home that night and got hit by a car and died, how he would spend eternity. He didn’t know how to answer and I could tell he was really thinking. I found out later from Steve that his brother had been hit by a car earlier in the year and had been in-and-out of school, so this was apparently something that hit close to Chris’ heart.

I am confident that God is still working on his heart and I really want to keep him in my prayers. He's right there, at the line, ready to step across, but something is holding him back. At times I wish I could just give him a gentle nudge towards making the decision, but God reminded me a lot that I needed to be patient and allow God to do what He does best. I'm not the one bringing him salvation; it's Christ alone that can do that. I'm just an agent that God sent to continue a conversation with Chris that will keep going whether I see him ever again or not. I trust God fully in his situation, and I will keep praying for Chris to make that final decision. "Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness."

There are so many more stories I could tell. But these were the ones that really stuck out to me. If you want to know more please don't hesitate to e-mail me or ask me about it. Thank you all again for your support and care. And to my team, if you're reading this, I love you guys.

Northern Ireland

2009-01-10T15:33:00.003-07:00

Hello to everyone!

As most of you probably know, I am in Northern Ireland right now. I am with a program called Lighthouse from Taylor that sends out multiple teams across the globe on short-term missions projects. We left on January 7 and will be back on January 28th.

Our team is working with a ministry called Project Evangelism headed by John Moxen. We are staying at the Murlough House in Dundrum, right outside of Belfast. We will be working with kids ranging from kindergarten to end of high school. Our programs consist of school assemblies, after-school VBS, and coffee bar outreach for teens during the nights. We also help the ministry at Murlough House, out of which Project Evangelism operates.

Our first couple days have been going great. Many of us (myself very much included) are still adjusting to the jet lag and trying to get on good sleeping patterns. We've had a lot of time to practice our dramas and prepare for our VBS program that starts on Monday. Tomorrow morning we'll be attending a local Presbyterian church in Belfast, and in the night we'll be working with a youth-group-type program.

Please continue to lift our team up in prayer as we go about our missions work. Also please pray for the missionaries we are working with and the kids that we will talk to and give the Gospel to. Pray that their hard hearts will be softened and receptive to the message. Pray that we would all be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in everything we do as we are here.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us both financially and through your prayers! Until next time...

Faithfully,

David

Boiling Point

2009-01-04T00:31:00.005-07:00

Welcome to 2009! Another chance to make (and break) new years' resolutions with hopes of going through with them next year! Bring on 2010!

Sorry, I'm being cynical already. I guess I'm just speaking from personal experience, and I tend to be very critical of myself.

In all honesty, though, I am very optimistic at this point. I'm really excited for what this year is going to bring... the end of my junior year of college, 2 missions trips to Northern Ireland and Dearborn, Michigan, a summer of inner city ministry in Los Angeles, my sister's wedding ceremony (which I get to perform... she's crazy, right?), the building of friendships, the continuing of youth ministry at Oneighty, and much, much more. God is opening up doors all over the place. He is always blessing me in so many areas of my life. He is like the dad that can't (or won't) stop buying his kids toys at the Toys 'R Us because his love for them is overwhelming.

And, yet... how much time do I truly and genuinely give back to Him? More specifically, how much time do I dedicate to prayer and solitude every week to bask in the presence of the Most High?

While preparing for my missions trip to Northern Ireland with a group from Taylor this month, I have been spending a considerable amount of time in prayer. I've been spending more time in prayer and solitude in the past couple weeks than I ever do when I'm not about to go on a missions trip. And I've never felt so encouraged and empowered by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. I feel like I'm on a constant spiritual high.

Now, I am not saying this at all to point all the attention on my spiritual life to show how good I am. Because in reality I am nowhere near the point where I should be. In fact, I am saying this because I've now realized how much prayer is absent in my life on a daily basis. While I have an amazing opportunity daily to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit and feel a transcendent power that only comes from God, I still do not take it. It's a free gift that I hardly take advantage of. I mean, sure, I pray a little here and there everyday, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the fall-on-your-face-in-awe-of-God type of praying that leaves you breathless. I'm talking about the boiling point of prayer.

I'm working my way through a book called Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. While reading today, I came across this "boiling point" terminology and it hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden I could vocalize and put-into-words what I've been feeling and what I long for when I'm not in that place. Sanders uses boiling point to describe Romans 12:11, which says: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." The spiritual fervor that Paul talks about here is the boiling point of our faith. But just as any material or liquid is difficult to keep at boiling point, so it is with our faith.

Sanders says: "Most leaders know times of great spiritual excitement, of the burning heart, of special nearness to God and more than ordinary fruitfulness in service - but the problem is staying there! Verse 11 holds out the alluring possibility of living "aglow with the Spirit." We need not go off boil if the Spirit is the central furnace of our lives" (111). How true of a statement! I bet we can all point to times in our lives when we felt a spiritual fervor never before experienced. And yet, what happened to that feeling? How has it disappeared? We have let our spiritual temperature, so to speak, drop below the boiling point. Of course we do not do this intentionally, but our inaction has inevitably become our action that produces a spiritual cold.

Because we do not intentionally take steps to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives through passionate prayer, we allow our spiritual fervor to dissipate into a luke-warm, and sometimes frigid, farce of a communion with God.

We need to be seeking the Father in diligent prayer and humble petition for the Holy Spirit to overwhelm our lives. Luke 11:13 says, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" When we do this I sincerely believe we will experience the boiling point, the spiritual fervor, that Paul talked about in the Romans verse. And what a great experience that is!

I marvel at how much extra time I have everyday of my life, despite how much I might complain that I need more time. My desire for this year, my "new years resolution", is that I intentionally use a larger chunk of my day to find solitude and pray. This is not a legalistic, fundamentalistic obligation I feel. It is for the reward of the inexpressible joy and purpose I feel when I am at the boiling point of my faith. Think about how often Jesus left everything he was doing to find solitude and pray... It is truly incredible how easily we miss his teaching-by-modeling here. Jesus, who was and is God, probably did not need to do this. I mean, he's God, right? But he desired to be with His Father in holy conversation. And I don't think these were by any means cookie-cutter prayers either... These were prayers of sweat, blood, and tears that comforted, consoled, and empowered Jesus for his earthly ministry. These were prayers at the boiling point.

I truly hope that I can be in a constant state of daily passionate prayer. I have found that I need to set apart an extended amount of time (at least 1 hour), find a place of solitude, plug in some worship music, and just meet with God. Lately I have made sure to bring paper and pen with me as well because it is in these times that God reveals great truth about my life to me. I cherish these moments of boiling point spiritual fervor more than anything.

If you have felt the spiritual boiling point in your life, I pray that you will do everything in order to experience the Holy Spirit's furnace again, and that it becomes a constant in your life. If you feel that you have not experienced the boiling point in your spiritual journey, I urge you to pray and ask that God would overwhelm you with the Holy Spirit, keeping Luke 11:13 at the forefront of your mind. The experience of the Holy Spirit in your life is one that goes unmatched.

God is great. Here's to New Year's resolutions!

(I figured that I would continue to include the books at the end of my blogs that I reference to encourage reading the primary material yourself.)

A Heart for the Poor

2008-12-24T15:40:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas!

I really do love this time of year. Being with family, relaxing with no school work, catching up with friends in Colorado, and turning our focus back on Jesus Christ collectively make this season great. In my human frailty I am prone to point my attention on other things besides Christ throughout my daily life. And when it comes to Christmas time, there is a thick tension between my two trains of thought, one focused on the worldly view of this holiday, and one focused on the true origin and meaning of this holiday.

I've been thinking a lot in the past several months about what it means to have God's heart in respect to the world. How much more important is this during the Christmas season! What does it mean to have God's heart during a season dedicated to the birth and gift of His Son?

Before we look into one of the answers to that question, let's backtrack a little. A little over 6 months ago I started praying that God would break my heart for what breaks His heart. Some of you may have heard the line in the song Hosanna asking just that. I had a difficult time singing that line while not really wanting God to do that. It is a dangerous prayer because it opens up your eyes to the unjust things of this world and starts to tug at your heart and compassion more than you've ever felt before. Despite my fears and reservations I decided that I wanted to have God's heart in respect to the world because part of discipleship is learning to deny myself and take up my cross (Luke 9:23). I want to be focused on righting the wrongs that we have brought upon the world because of the Fall and our sin.

Well, God heard my prayer, and He has done just what I asked for. I never would have thought I'd come to the mindset I'm now in, and it's both difficult and exciting at the same time. Slowly but surely my heart has been breaking for different issues around the world that just aren't how God intended. Probably the biggest issue on my heart is poverty.

Poverty. So many thoughts and emotions come up when I hear that word. Thoughts of hopelessness, burdens, darkness, and sorrow. Questions of "Why?" flood my thinking. Why are some people poor? Why are some people rich? Why are there people who barely have enough to eat while others have fridges and cabinets stocked with enough food to last them several months? Why are there people sleeping on the streets while others have extra rooms in their houses? Why are there people in the world who have no shoes when America (by itself) buys enough pairs of shoes in 1 year to "shoe" almost half of the world's population? Why are there children around the world dying from curable-common-sicknesses like the cold while others at a distance can buy the medicines for these sicknesses for almost nothing? Why, why, why??

The truth is, I can't really give a good answer for these questions. It's easy to justify our actions out of guilt or conviction, but that just won't suffice. Some hold to the answer that people are poor because of their own bad decisions, and they have brought poverty on themselves. In some cases, this is true. There are several verses in Proverbs that support this notion, such as Proverbs 12:27: "The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt." Laziness can lead someone into poverty. That is a given. However, that is not always the case. Oppression can also lead someone into poverty. In fact, oppression of the poor is one of the main reasons God led Israel into exile. The prophets Amos and Jeremiah warned the people of this injustice, but they did not listen. Jeremiah 7:5-7 states: "If you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow... then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever." But Jeremiah 34:8-17 says that the Israelites went back on their word and continued to oppress the poor (their slaves). God yearned for freedom for the poor amongst His people, but the Israelites refused to listen to God. They were more concerned for their wealth and affluence than for the poor (who, ironically, were their own race and blood).

Does that sound just to you?

It is the responsibility and privilege of those who profess faith in Christ to care for the poor and the oppressed! In joyful obedience we should desire to bless those with a lack of resources (financial, yes, but also emotional, physical, spiritual, etc.). Isaiah 58:6-10 says,

(**If you read nothing else in this blog, read these verses. These verses have transformed my thinking and I have not been able to forget them since the day I read them**)

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."

That is powerful stuff! "Then your light will break forth like the dawn..." In other words, as a result of our care for the oppressed, the poor, and the hungry, our Christian witness and the glory of God will burst upon the landscape of our lives as never before. The whole passage speaks of an irrepressible light that will overwhelm our lives when we spend ourselves in behalf of the poor. There is such hope! As desperate as the situation may seem, all God wants is our faithfulness. Notice that there is no legalistic mention of "success" in the passage. God does not say our light will shine only if we solve the world of all poverty. He says that our light will shine when we simply respond to His call to care for the poor. Sometimes I think we can get overwhelmed with thoughts of hopelessness when thinking about this issue. But the important thing, as always, is that God calls us to be faithful, not necessarily successful. How are we being faithful right now to this calling?

This was obviously not just an Old Testament word for God's people. James 2:14-17 says this: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." This is one of the most practical exhortations we can read in the New Testament. Additionally, 1 John 3:17-18 says, "If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Last week at the Mill, the college ministry here in Colorado Springs that I attend while I'm home, the people really accepted this call. Aaron Stern, the Mill pastor, spoke about giving sacrificially, not out of obligation but out of love and joy. Aaron had asked us the week before to bring pairs of shoes to this week's service. At the end of his sermon, he told us about a ministry called Soles for Souls, which provides shoes for those in poverty around the world who cannot afford even one pair. The Mill is partnering with Soles for Souls, and Aaron asked us to bring our shoes to the front. Aaron did say, however, that many of us probably forgot or didn't know that the Mill was collecting shoes for this ministry. He then reached down, took off his own shoes, and threw them in the pile, asking, "What about the ones you are wearing?" He challenged us to give up the shoes we were wearing, again not out of obligation but out of love and joy. I watched in amazement as at least half of the 1,200 college students there gave up their own shoes in order to bless someone who didn't have any. Now that is love in action and in truth and not just in word or tongue. (I think there were between 800-900 pairs of shoes collected that night.)

Christmas is the season for giving, right? Let's look outside of ourselves and the materialism that easily comes with this holiday and start blessing those in poverty both around the world and right in our backyard. Take intentional steps to give to the poor and oppressed. If you need a gentle nudge in the right direction, check out Compassion International and their work with children in poverty around the world. You can sponsor a child monthly and build a relationship with them through letters, pictures, and other things. It's a great ministry that I highly recommend.

For some great reading on this topic, I also highly recommend Ronald Sider's book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Another great book that will challenge your thinking is Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution. Happy birthday, Jesus!

My Semester in Retrospect

2008-12-17T15:58:00.002-07:00

It's been a while.

It's amazing how much I don't feel like blogging after writing papers for class all day. Go figure, right?

Well, in any sense, I have very much missed blogging. I hope to take advantage of Christmas break to blog a little more. And since I have been in blog-hibernation for the last couple months, rather than trying to explain a hundred thoughts that have been on my mind, I am going to list the many things that I learned or thought about over the course of this past semester. Some will be serious, some not-so-serious... but they all have had some impact on my life.

What I learned (or learned again) or thought more about this semester:

Taking classes I'm interested in, even though I don't need the credits, is one of the best decisions I could have made. It gave me a much larger work-load, but those classes have had a huge impact on me. (Urban Ministry and the Kingdom of God; Communicative Perspectives on Preaching; and yes, Intro to Int'l Ministry)
I have an amazing core-group of friends, both at Taylor and not at Taylor. I learned a lot this semester about appreciating and pouring into those friends who I know have always been there for me and who won't turn their backs on me when I'm not doing well. I thank God daily for those friends He has blessed me with, and I'm especially glad that I have my 2010 Christian Ed graduating class to go through classes with! (Yaaaaahhhhh....)
God is always faithful, even when I am not.
I love doing youth ministry, and God has constantly confirmed that calling in my life. The students, staff, volunteers, and others at Oneighty youth ministry in Muncie are a constant blessing in my life and I'm honored that I get to spend so much time with all of them.
I really like Taco Bell and I'm a sucker for a Mountain Dew. That's nothing new, but I thought I'd repeat it on here. Haha.
Prayer is an absolute necessity. There are so many things going on around us, and spiritual warfare is constantly waging against us and the ones we love. We are missing a huge opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit's work in our lives when we choose not to pray, even when we don't know what exactly to pray for.
Life Span Development (PSY 250) is a hard class. I just got the first C+ of my life. But it's over. Thank God.
God cares about the poor and oppressed beyond what we in the American church are recognizing. There are a tremendous amount of verses in the Bible about money, the dangers of wealth, God's care for the poor and oppressed, and His call on believers to do something about it. This has been so huge on my heart this semester. I will probably blog soon about this important idea of having God's heart in respect to the poor.
I had a great opportunity to preach at the Junior class Chapel this semester, and I am very grateful that they asked me to do it. I really enjoyed the chance to preach.
Planning ahead and scheduling my life is one of my greatest strengths and also one of my greatest weaknesses. This is a new lesson I'm learning, and I'm still figuring out what to do with it.
It's great when one of my best friends gets engaged. Congrats Matt and Amanda!
Churches need to embrace a missional mindset and acknowledge themselves as God's embassy (to borrow a term from writer Leslie Newbigin) in the neighborhood/community God has placed them. Everyone is a missionary in the culture and society they are in right now. More on this in a future blog...
Night classes suck. They really mess up your schedule. I hate night classes. Haha.
Patience. Like I mentioned above, I like to plan ahead and schedule my life, so I don't do well with ambiguity. God really taught me about patience this semester.
I love my family. I've always loved them, but I realized it more and more the past several months.

I'm sure there are several more things I've learned, but that's all for now. Enjoy the Christmas season. Cheers!

The Candyland Gospel

2008-08-29T21:31:00.004-06:00

There are few things that really "irk" me when I hear them. To be "irked" is the kind of feeling where you seem to fidget in your seat and become consumed with the sentence or sentences that make up an idea you can't agree with. It also begins to discredit the speaker in your own mind and puts an asterisk on everything else he or she might say.

The thing that's been irking me lately is what I like to call the Candyland presentation of the Gospel. What is the Candyland presentation of the Gospel? It is the presentation of the Christian faith as the easiest, most happy-go-lucky, and narcissistic journey you could choose. There are no true risks in Candyland. I mean, seriously, it's Candyland. The worst thing that could happen is that you fall into a mudpit of chocolate. There is no daring, on-the-edge-of-your-seat moment.

The fact of the matter is that the Bible very clearly articulates the Christian faith is not the easiest path to take. Yes, it is the absolutely best path you can take that will lead you to your God-given purpose and eternal life. But no, it is not about making you as comfortable as possible until you die. It's not about hitting cruise-control and gliding safely into eternal life. My dog back home will often find a blanket on a bed and pull the cloth and spin around several times before finding or creating the most comfortable spot possible. This, unfortunately, is how many Christians are approaching their faith. They're pulling and pushing the blanket of support around them, spinning in circles, trying to find the most comfortable spot they can be in until this life ends.

I don't know how we got here. I have a theory that it has a lot to do with the Americanization of Christianity. We're taught to hedonistically find our comfort and safety and look out for ourselves. Only in rare moments of compassion do we hand out $5 to the homeless man on the corner or clean up a street (and yes, I am very guilty of this as well). The Gospel should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. If there comes a point in our faith journey that we would describe as comfortable, something is wrong. We don't truly understand that discipleship unto Christ is a call to revolution.

In John 21:18, Jesus says to Peter, "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." In verse 19 it says, "Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"" In other words, Peter would be martyred for his faith. Tradition says that Peter was actually crucified upside-down. Something about that doesn't make me too comfortable.

The greatest part of that exchange between Jesus and Peter is how quickly Jesus tells Peter to follow Him after describing the death Peter would experience for following Him. It's almost as if Jesus was testing Peter's devotion. Just before this conversation, Jesus had asked Peter three times if he loved Him. And now he's telling Peter he will surely be martyred for his faith if Peter really does love Him and follow Him. Let's just say - Jesus doesn't mess around. He doesn't coat a Candyland picture of faith for Peter. He lets him know straight off that discipleship will cost him. And it won't be comfortable, either.

I could show example after example from the Bible of the Gospel's call to live beyond our comfort level. But I don't think it is that necessary. Instead of tuning into Joel Osteen's health-and-wealth message, we should be reading the Bible for what it actually says. While thinking about this heavy topic, I was pleased to run across a paragraph in a book I'm reading by Leonard Sweet called the Gospel According to Starbucks:
"Maybe we should warn spiritual seekers in advance that Jesus is not for the faint of heart, instead of "cooling down" the gospel so we can all sip religion comfortably on cushioned, suburban pews. The gospel was not meant to be comfortable or safe. Jesus does not invite lukewarm faith, the brand practiced by the Church of Laodicea. Instead, God promises to spit the lukewarm out of God's mouth" (33).

Yes, exactly! In evangelism we can often fall into the trap of persuasion that waters down the gospel in order to "close the deal" or obtain the conversion. This is not what God calls us to in the Great Commission. We are to make disciples, and not converts. And Jesus makes it very clear what the cost of discipleship is in Luke 9 and Luke 14. Please familiarize yourself with these passages if you don't know what it says. It'll revitalize your view of comfortable Christianity.

Last week I was at a Hillsong United worship concert in Indianapolis. One of the best parts of the night was in between songs when Joel Houston spoke to the crowd. He proclaimed that our worship cannot be contained within these walls, the walls of the church. If we come to a concert like that one and leave our worship there, we are living out a selfish faith. Our worship needs to expand beyond the walls of the church into the community. He exclaimed that we have so many resources and opportunities to bless and love other people, and we need to take hold of them. (They then did a plug for Compassion International, and hundreds of people signed up to sponsor a child in poverty somewhere in the world for $32 per month. I love that they didn't just talk in theory, but accompanied it with a challenge to act. 1 John 3:18 - "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.")

We have to take risks as disciples! We need to get out of our safety zone and embrace the call of the gospel. Sometimes this will mean doing things that don't make much sense rationally. Risk is sometimes defined by unrationality. That's what makes Christianity exciting! How exciting can it truly be when we're comfortable? Let's stop tailoring Jesus to our own interests and accept the cost of discipleship. The reward will far outweigh everything else we think we want. And God will smile on us as we reach out to the homeless, the oppressed, the lost, the downtrodden, and the outcasts. We'll run in answer to the call into Samaria where no one else will go. There is a huge need for disciples who will give up their own comfort to spread the Good News. Will we answer?

Leave Candyland to the board game creators. It is much more suited as a toy for a child than as an interpretation of the Christian faith.

Dealing with Death

2008-08-11T17:22:00.002-06:00

On August 1, 2008, my grandma, Trudy Hausknecht, passed away after 83 full years of life and a brutal fight with cancer.

This is one of many factors that has contributed to my hiatus from blogging for the past couple weeks. Hopefully you understand why. I'm planning on being very vulnerable through this post, and I pray it is not too much to bear.

This was the closest family member I have ever lost to death. And, yes, I was very close with her. I don't exactly know what I can say on here in light of this event, but I have felt a need to express the experience and process it through writing.

I never realized how much her death would affect me until I arrived in Arizona. I was on a backpacking trip near Aspen when she passed, and when I got back and heard the news, I still had 4 full days left of my internship. I guess I could say I took the news in stride as I headed back to work to engage in the last pieces of internship work I would do for the rest of the summer. There was so much to do that I think I never even came to grips with what had actually happened.

Thankfully the church let me off a day early so I could fly out to Phoenix, Arizona with my mom to meet my dad and sister who had already driven there earlier in the week. I literally went straight from the end of my internship (which was a lot to process by itself) on Wednesday night at 10:00 PM to flying out for my grandma's funeral Thursday morning at 7:30 AM. It might have been one of the most difficult transitions I've ever had to make, as it seemed like everything in my life was changing within the span of 24 hours.

We met up with my dad, sister, and grandpa in Mesa (where my grandparents live) and spent a couple hours just chatting and talking about life. Then came the first true test: the 3-hour viewing at the funeral home. I was not prepared to see my grandma in an open casket, eyes-closed and lifeless in the middle of some random room at the funeral home. Until the moment we walked in, everything I knew about life and death was as simple as something you could read in a book.

The very moment I took my first step into that room and saw my grandma there I teared up and lost control. This rarely ever happens for me, and normally I'm somewhat prepared for it. As a man I often feel the pressure to keep it all together and bear through the pain even when it hurts the most. Well, that night there was nothing I could do. Everything about death that seemed so surreal prior to our arrival there became reality in a matter of seconds. Life doesn't slow down for us; it just keeps going and waits for us to catch up.

I could barely get within 5 feet of her body. I was full-out crying by then and had to find a seat, secluded from the others. I was not prepared for such an influx of emotion. Talk about a reality check... this was more like a reality tackle. With nothing else to do but grieve and reflect on my grandma's life (and life in general), I opened my Bible to find some words of comfort. (I had brought my Bible not knowing how much I would need it but in the hope that I would find some sort of encouragement from it). I turned to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (thanks, Keri), which reads:

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

It's amazing when the Word of God becomes active and real in your life and the words become reality. I sat there amazed at that very fact that we can go from weeping to laughing, mourning to dancing, embracing to refraining, all in the matter of hours or even minutes. Wednesday night I was laughing and reflecting on a great summer with the students. Thursday night I was crying over the loss of a loved one. Talk about a myriad of emotions...

I guess that's really what makes humanity personal. God gave us emotions, feelings, and free will out of the respect He has for us. He gave us seasons and times for joy and for sorrow. But I wrestled the entire time in Arizona with the fact that I was crying and grieving when I knew full well that my grandma was dancing in heaven with Jesus. I felt that I should be overcome with joy, and yet I still cried. I've come to grips with the fact that I simply cannot truly fathom the idea of eternal life and glorification to the degree that I wish I could. Heaven is still a lofty concept for me, even after 15 or so years of being a Christian. It is a subject of hope and purpose for me, but when I try to think of it tangibly, it becomes more difficult than almost any other topic. It is just so much easier to say that we should celebrate her new life with Christ than to actually physically do it. I never realized this until I personally experienced such a close death.

Thankfully, the Word of God does say that there is a time to mourn and a time to grieve. God knew we would wrestle with these emotions, and thank God for it. He knew the personal closeness that we experience with loved ones would tear us to pieces when it was ended by physical death. God deals with this everyday as His lost children who have never given their lives to Him die and are eternally separated from Him for eternity. But by the grace of God we have hope for eternity with His glory and for reunion with our loved ones.

At the actual funeral on Friday, each of us in the family got a chance to share memories and any last thoughts. I was much more composed and comforted after a night's rest from the Thursday viewing. As I stood behind her casket I shared my memories of her and her love of the Phoenix Suns (she should have been with the team management headquarters... no joke). Before I finished I felt it was right to share from Romans 6:1-10. The Scriptures had come alive to me in new light that I couldn't have understood before my grandma's death. Verses 8-10 say: "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God." That phrase, death no longer has mastery over him, brought tears to my eyes because of the hope it brings. My grandma was not mastered by cancer and by death; no, she was victorious in life and went back home with the Father. She beat us all to it. She finished the race marked out for her and is dancing in heaven. Christ overcame death so we would not succumb to it. It's just as the line in the song Marvelous Light: "Sin has lost its power, Death has lost its sting." Amen and amen.

In the words of my grandma at the end of every phone conversation (bless her soul):
"Is that all?"

Yes, grandma, that is all. I'll see you soon.

David

A Little Boy with a Huge Impact

2008-07-25T23:45:00.005-06:00

Let me introduce you to my friend Pierre Ndona Svoboda.

(This is his funny face. He charges $1 to every person who just so happens to glance at him while he is making this face. What an entrepreneur...)

While in St. Louis our group would do one-on-one tutoring/mentoring every morning for 3-4 hours. I was fortunate enough to be paired with Pierre, a 12-year-old from Congo, Africa. I went in thinking I would change a kid's life forever. Turns out he was the one who would do all the changing in me. Humbling, yes. Impacting, yes.

What started off as a somewhat awkward meeting at the beginning of the week turned into one of the most difficult good-byes I've had to say. As I got to know Pierre more and more during our times together, I learned that he used to be a shepherd in Congo. That's not something you hear everyday. Our conversations went from sports to girls to school to money (his funny face is almost unavoidable... he'll catch you looking at it no matter what). He's a genuine 12-year-old kid loving and living life just like every other kid there. But it was his unique story that I will never forget.

Please take a little time to read his story here: http://www.catholicdigest.com/article/a-second-family-for-pierre/1

This short article tells his story better than I ever could. To sum it up, though, in case you were too lazy to click on it, Pierre has scoliosis. While in Africa it had come to the point where he could barely move because his back was so out-of-place. He probably would have died in a few years, had New City Fellowship (see my last blog) not come in and brought him to St. Louis in an act of love. One family took him in (the Svobodas, a white American family) and doctors from all over agreed to operate on Pierre free of charge. After several procedures, Pierre's condition was much better. He could walk and was much taller. The Svobodas became so attached to him that they adopted him as their 5th child in the family.

(Again, the article does the story much more justice, so go back and read it... now... thank you!)

Pierre's condition still affects him slightly. While we were hanging out I noticed the slight limp in his step and the brace on his much smaller leg. He liked to jump on my back when we were playing basketball so he could dunk on the 7 foot hoop. He had to jump one-legged when all the kids were playing jump-rope. But not once did it affect him. And not once did he complain.

I realize now that God made this divine meeting happen. I needed to see the love of the family that took him in. I needed to see their willingness to embrace another child of another race and another nationality. I needed to see the response of the church and the genuine communal love that the members express towards each other and those outside the church. I needed to see the real Jesus at work amidst busy lives right in my own backyard.

It's easy to wear the WWJD bracelets and sing upbeat songs every Sunday to a God that we call Father... But to live it out daily, pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zones, dying to self, and taking up our cross to follow Him? Now that's another story.

It's another story that is embodied in the Svobodas and New City Fellowship. I was challenged in St. Louis with how I live my everyday life. How comfortable am I, really? Do I go out of my way to bring the love of Christ to someone who might need it that day? Some days, yes. But what would it mean to truly invest in the life of an orphan who would otherwise not know the love of a family? Again, I am reminded of James 1:27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I am convinced that James deliberately said "God our Father" to remind us of our role in the divine relationship between man and God. We were (and some still are) orphans in need of a family and in need of a dad. We tried to live our lives without it, stubbornly grasping at the thin air of false hope. But there was still a gaping space in our lives. And the only true Father of all never gave up on us. He reached for us, pulling us up when we fell, brushing the dirt of our shoulders, and blessing us as we run off again. Some run off in rebellion still after seeing the love of the Father. It is the hamartia of humanity, the pride that destroys.

But in our brokenness, He is still waiting there with open arms. He calls after His sons and daughters, much like the parable of the prodigal son. We were orphans for so long, but he has redeemed us and brought us back into his family, the body of Christ. And He does this for every single person on earth, calling out to the orphans of the world, you and me, to enter into His family. Our heavenly Dad has paid the ultimate price, giving up His own Son, so that we orphans could enter into His family.

And that is exactly where my conviction lies. That is why my eyes have been open. That is why I want to adopt an orphan child. If I truly confess to believe in Him and desire to live as Christ did, I need to die to self and bring the love of Christ to a child without a family, just as I was before I knew Christ as my own Savior.

And as I mentioned in my last blog, I want to adopt a child from Africa. Some have asked, "why Africa and why not here?" There are a couple reasons for that. First of all, Pierre truly touched my heart, and although God is not leading me physically to the African country as a missionary, He has certainly put a burden on my heart for the children of the country. Secondly, in my personal journey for racial reconciliation, I not only want to cross racial lines, but cultural and national lines as well. I want to embrace someone into my family who is nothing like us except for the fact that we are all children of God. I want to truly learn what it means to be nothing like me at all. Thirdly, a child is a child, American or African. Either way I decide, one child would be left alone. Perhaps one day I will adopt more than once, but only God really knows. I don't know exactly what it will look like, as this decision is several years down the road. But it is burning brightly within my heart, and I sincerely hope that others' eyes are opened to the thought of adoption just as mine have recently been opened as well.

I truly thank God for my St. Louis experience. It's amazing how He works and opens our eyes to the needs of His people through different people. Thank God for churches like New City Fellowship and families like the Svobodas.

Galatians 3:26-29 - "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Lessons from St. Louis: Living the Gospel through racial reconciliation

2008-07-21T18:04:00.005-06:00

Hello again blog.

I've finally had a full week to process my missions trip to St. Louis. Add that to the fact that I just got back from the Desperation Conference, and you could say I've been challenged tremendously in the last couple weeks with the gospel.

We worked at a church called New City Fellowship in the inner city. And let me tell you: this church was incredible. There was nothing aesthetically spectacular about the building, facilities, or even the pastor. But there was a special element within the church that took me only a couple days to realize what it was. What was it?

The experience and heart of every single person truly living out the gospel on a daily basis.

Let me explain with one example. The man in charge of the program that brings in short term missions teams to help the church/school has had a very compelling journey. Andrew Stern is a white, late 30's seminary-grad (Covenant Seminary) with a white wife and 3 of their own biological children. On paper he sounds like a very likely candidate for a picket-fence house in the suburbs. In reality, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Andrew and his wife have adopted 3 other children... three other African-American children, that is. In case you're keeping track, they have 6 children (3 white, 3 black). And no, they don't live in a big house in the suburbs. They live in the heart of the inner city. In fact, they have chosen to be right in the middle of the worst and dangerous part of the city. They might be the only Christian family on their block, and they are for sure the only caucasians.

What I don't want to communicate is any idea of racial superiority or "here's the white man to save the day" at all. Please do not get me wrong. My point here is that they have decided to take the gospel into an often-ignored region in the city. The important term here is relocation. They could easily live in comfort and safety in the suburbs if they wanted to. But they have taken the road less traveled into the inner city. Andrew's heart burns for racial reconciliation as well, and they have deliberately adopted 3 African-American children to begin steps towards this goal.

Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week. Each race goes to its own church. It's comfortable that way, so it's easy to see why that's the case. Sometimes there's a language barrier as well. But New City Fellowship is one of the most diverse congregations I have ever seen. They even sang worship songs in many different languages (some dialects from Africa too!). The genuine love emanating from the people in that church as they pour themselves into each others' lives is awe-inspiring. They truly are color-blind in that church. Is this the case in general for the American church? It's an interesting question to address. My critical side wants to say no. It's really a result of personal preference and comfort. What do I want? Where would I "fit in" and be comfortable? And let me make an important note here: I am very much so guilty of this as well. That's why I'm talking about this. I felt so convicted about this idea. What steps am I sincerely taking towards racial reconciliation? There is so much quiet racism in this country... whether you want to accept it or not, we all have tendencies to fear or distrust or even hate other races. I couldn't tell you why this seems to be the case, except for many historical reasons. It just saddens my heart to see it, even in my own life. I am so happy God put me on the St. Louis trip to teach me more ways I can fully understand what the gospel means. There are no stipulations or conditions on Jesus' command to love your neighbor. And you can't deny the fact that Jesus was indeed color-blind as well. And if we accept this, and understand our mission to be Christ-like, then we must endeavor to emulate Jesus in this area of our lives as well.

1 John 1:6 - "Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."

Acts 10:34-35 - "Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do what is right."

Revelation 5:9-10 - "And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth"."

Notice the Revelation verse says, "You have made them to be a kingdom." It doesn't say "many kingdoms" or "separate kingdoms." We are one body of Christ, one kingdom of God, one people under one God. New City isn't perfect, but they have definitely grasped this part of the gospel. Practically-speaking, what steps can we take towards racial reconciliation for the cause of Christ? I think this is a personal question that only you and I can answer for ourselves, but since this is my blog and not yours (haha), I'm going to tell you one of my solutions and convictions that I've felt very strongly about after this trip:

At some point I want to adopt a child from Africa.

I feel strongly that this is one of the most practical steps I can take to live out the gospel in a tangible way. James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." There are so many orphans throughout the world who will grow up with no family, no positive male influence, and probably no love. My heart burns for these children. I can't think of a better way to share Jesus' love than to adopt and bring one of these kids into my own family. I also believe that bringing a child who is not my race into my future family will bring about racial reconciliation in my own life and the loved ones around me. Yes, it is a huge investment and risk. Yes, there will be questions from people who just don't understand. Will this deter me and what God has put on my heart? No. To truly love takes risk. You expose your heart and there is always chance it will be cut or hurt. But can you imagine living life without really experiencing love? I cannot. If I can bring the hope and love of Christ and a family into a kid's life, there is not a good enough reason not to.

Not many people know this dream of mine, but I am glad to share it on here. I want to expand on what has brought me to this point with a story from St. Louis, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. For now, here's a preliminary picture from my trip that will give a little insight into the path that led me to this point.

Until tomorrow...

Defender of the Faith

2008-07-13T18:47:00.003-06:00

Welp, I'm back. I'm still exhausted, but the missions trip to St. Louis was amazing. I need to process a lot of what I learned and experienced on the trip before I try to write on it. Hopefully later this week I'll be able to talk about the trip on here. I can say one thing, though: my perception of ministry and living out the gospel will never be the same. More to come...

On another note, while on the trip I got to do a lot of reading. Ever since I started college I've loved reading. Now it's become something I need to schedule time for every week or I just don't feel right. My book of choice for the trip was the Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. This is a fantastic apologetics book. As I've mentioned before, I have become very interested in the realm of apologetics, the rational defense of the faith. This book addresses 8 common objections to Christianity such as "If evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot", "Evolution explains life, so God isn't needed", and "A loving God would never torment people in hell." For each of these objections (each has its own chapter), Strobel interviews an expert or professor on the issue and dialogues with him or her while playing somewhat of a devil's advocate role. Strobel is a former atheist turned Christian, so he remembers and can articulate much of his own doubts from when he was an atheist. It's a very intellectual and philosophical book, and I've learned so much. I think we as Christians underestimate the need to be able to speak scientifically and philosophically about our faith. While living in a postmodern and relative-truth era, it is becoming more and more necessary to explain rationally why we believe what we believe. If we can think of a doubt or question in our own minds that we have no idea how to answer, we need to take this as a challenge and discover the answers for ourselves. Just think... if someone who is not a believer comes to us with these same questions, how can we truly witness to them in the name of the gospel if we can't answer the questions for ourselves? At the National Student Leadership Conference at Taylor this past spring, J.P. Moreland specifically addressed the imperativeness of this situation. To truly love God with all our mind, we must engage ourselves intellectually to affirm our faith. We do not have to abandon our intellect to have faith. In fact, our minds are a crucial teammate to our faith. Reading this book has reaffirmed my faith in ways beyond explanation. I have full confidence that I can address some doubts about Christianity and engage someone in a conversation about these issues. In fact, I have already had the opportunity to talk to some non-believers about their doubts and things that I've read and studied.

This is just another way that God is molding me and preparing me for ministry. I'm so thankful for the passions He gives us. We just never know what curveballs life is going to throw our way, but at least God gives us some practice pitches to swing away at.

1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect"

Also, I got to jam out on the drums today, and it felt amazing. I hadn't played in a while, and it was sweet to play again. Music is such a mode of relaxation for me. I'm listening to some John Mayer right now and loving life.

Living in faith,
David

Missions Trip! and Wild at Heart

2008-07-04T14:18:00.007-06:00

Tomorrow morning at approximately 5:30 AM, I will be leaving in a 15-passenger van with the youth group for a missions trip to St. Louis. Briggs and I have been planning and prepping for this trip for a while now. I'm really excited and nervous all at the same time. This will be the first time I'll be on a missions trip where I'm a leader... second-in-charge basically to Briggs. I've been praying a lot for wisdom and discernment for myself and the other leaders while we're out there. I'm pumped to see how God is going to move in the students and how they will be challenged on a daily basis. Short-term missions leads to accelerated spiritual growth, and I have complete faith that this will be the case in St. Louis.

While we are there we're going to be doing service projects during the morning/afternoon, and towards the night we're leading a Bible club (VBS-like) for kids. I don't know much about the dynamics of the location, but I believe it's inner-city. I'm personally leading the teaching team with 2-3 other students. We're teaching a new Bible story each day (Noah's ark, David and Goliath, Shadrach/Meshach/Abednego, and Zaccheus). This is the hardest it's ever been to prepare a lesson... when you're teaching little kids, there are so many other dynamics you have to think about. We'll see how it goes and what I learn about children's ministry as well.

Please be praying for our team as we go out for the next week. Pray that we would be challenged to grow in different areas and that we'd all grow closer to God. Pray that would be a pure example of Christ to the people we minister to. Pray that we would find rest in Him when we are tired and don't feel like going anymore. Pray that we leaders will have discernment and wisdom in making decisions for the team. Pray for safety!

Thanks for taking a little bit of time to pray for us! It says in James that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. If we believe the Bible to be true, then we can have faith in the prayers of our fellow believers.

On a final un-related note, have you ever been presented with a decision that in every sense seemed completely straight-forward and right, but then there were "asterisks" or questions that seemed to prevent you from making the "right" decision? When or how do these "asterisks" lose weight in the decision? Or is that even possible? I feel that to truly live you have to take risks. This absolutely applies to our faith as well, but that's not the topic in question right now. If we always make the safe decision, will we ever be fully satisfied? In the book Wild at Heart, John Eldredge talks about the 3 desires of the man's heart: a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. Somedays I feel like I'm the brink of all three, while other days I feel like I'm not seeking those desires of a man's heart at all. And then somedays, I don't feel like I'm in charge of those categories at all.... that my schedule (or life in general) dictates a different kind of life. Maybe this is the adventure I have to live; that is, it's trying to figure out how to seek the true desires that come with being a man while working, interning, going to school, living life. Who really knows...

Unfortunately I won't be able to blog again until I'm back from St. Louis. Thanks again for the prayers and I can't wait to blog about how it went!
Until next time...

Student-run church at Taylor? Let's talk...

2008-07-01T15:12:00.003-06:00

I love how God always keeps us guessing.

I love the fact that we will do something without the slightest idea of why we feel empassioned to do that thing... all the while God is smiling down on us, molding and shaping the clay (us) with a divine purpose in mind.

I'm constantly reminded of how much God's preparing me for life with individual situations, training, and reading. One of such reminders happened very recently to me this past weekend. Unfortunately, I can't go into the details on here, but please ask me individually if you're interested. I'm bursting with excitement over what happened and is happening.

On another somewhat-related note, one of my favorite things to do is to go to some fast food restaurant (Panera's, Chipotle, Taco Bell, etc.), get some food and a drink, and sit and read a book for hours. There's something about the restaurant atmosphere that calms me and stimulates my thinking. I've been trying to do that more and more lately. Just last night I went to Panera's (free wifi too!), grabbed a good ham & swiss sandwich with a Mountain Dew to drink (ooh yes), and sat down for a good two hours, reading 2 books: the 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity by Alex McFarland and the Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. I am fascinated by apologetics and love the philosophical side of it as well. I highly recommend both books to any believer. They really hammer down some important information that you might need to know down the road. They've strengthened my faith on numerous levels as well. I really wish that Taylor offered a course completed dedicated to apologetics. I took Evangelism in Youth Ministry this past semester, and we covered some apologetics topics lightly, but not really to the degree I was hoping. (By the way, in case you just don't know, apologetics is the rational defense of the faith. It is using intellect and reason to establish a basis for faith). More to come on this topic in a later blog...

To shift gears a little, I'd like to tackle a subject that my good friend Jordan Bolte and I have been talking about for a while now. For some background information on what I'm talking about, go to HIS BLOG HERE. Jordan and I have been talking in conversation about this a lot, and I'm excited to share some thoughts as well.

What is this idea? Well, simply put, we want to start a student-run church at Taylor.

Why? I'm glad you asked. When I came to Taylor, my faith was rocked. Everything I knew about the church, worship, and the body of Christ was partly-tossed out the window. I have grown up in the church... my dad was a pastor for several years and I was involved at the other churches I attended. My family currently attends New Life Church in Colorado Springs. (I don't go with them anymore since I started the job at Vanguard Church, but that's still important to know about where I came from).

For me personally, New Life Church jump-started the battery of my faith. After so many years in the church (the general church, not New Life), I had become very comfortable and complacent in my faith. Then I got to New Life and was shocked at what I saw in worship. People were raising their hands, jumping and dancing, kneeling right where they were, etc. At first, this sight really turned me off to the worship. It was just a little "too much" for me. Fortunately for me, God didn't care what my flesh felt. After a couple months I found myself raising my hands in worship. Then a little bit after that I became so joyful in worship that I started jumping and dancing with my brothers and sisters in Christ. And wow, what a freeing experience it was. All of a sudden I wasn't consumed about what other people thought of me or how "silly" I might look to that one person in the back. Worship became an intimate encounter between me and God. It was no longer what I wanted; it was what God wanted. Am I saying that God commands everyone to raise their hands and dance during worship? No, not necessarily. Or at least, not all the time. I do think their is something humbling and freeing about completely abandoning your own pride and giving all of yourself physically to the God of all creation. It really does come down to one's own pride. In worship, are we sincerely thinking about God and giving all of ourselves to Him? Or are we worried about what people will think about us if we start to become a little... charismatic? For me, I finally realized that I had been apprehensive about being too overtly, physically passionate during worship. By letting worship become an emotional experience for me instead of solely intellectual, I could truly worship God for the first time in my life. John Piper says in Desiring God, "Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers... On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship." If you want some great reading on this subject, go to the chapter on "Worship" in the Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.

And that's exactly where I was challenged at Taylor. I actually tipped the scale maybe a little too far on the emotional side of worship before I came to college. Taylor renewed in my mind the importance of worshiping in spirit and in truth. John 4:23-24 tells us very clearly that God desires people who worship in spirit and in truth. We mostly equate "spirit" with "emotion", and "truth" with "intellect or the mind". I realized that I needed to love God with my mind just as much as with my heart and soul. This was a difficult process, but one that needed to happen in my life. I began to examine myself during worship, trying to discover where my mind was focused. I could easily raise my hands in worship to make it look sincere, but I had to meditate upon Him in order for it to be true, biblical worship. I've made a lot of progress in the last several years.

I think the majority of Taylor (and I believe Jordan would agree with me) does great at the worshiping in truth aspect of biblical worship. But how does the Taylor student body as a whole respond to God with our emotions or spirit? Some days you can see it, like on worship nights. Other days, not so much (think chapel...). Jordan and I strongly believe that we should be encouraging each other to become worshipers who embody God's call. Some may need to be reminded about the importance of the mind in worship (like I needed when I came to Taylor). Others may need to be reminded that it's okay to let go of their composure and worship with emotions as well. Either way, we cannot continue to be mute on this subject as a student body. We must do something about it and fight the complacency.

Our answer: a student-run church on the very campus of Taylor University. A church where everybody is valued in their own gifts. There is no one "head" of the church besides Christ Himself. The students would run worship; the students would preach; the students would lead communion; the students would pray for each other; the students would be in true fellowship, meeting each other where they are. This is Acts 2:42-47, the passage that describes what the church was intended to look like:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

This is exactly where our vision originates! Could the Taylor community of students mirror the early church? Absolutely! There would be no church politics, leadership-arrogance, or putting one person or pastor on a pedastool. We'd be a community of believers, pushing each other towards Christ as we deal with the same struggles and temptations as college students.

Would this student-run church have to run on Sunday morning? My thought is no. Personally, I am plugged in at a local church and help with the youth ministry there on Sunday mornings. I would love to see a Saturday night student-run church service at like 6:00. But in the end, we have to pray about it, and see how God wants this to go. Both Jordan and I have been praying about this and feel very strongly pushed this direction. I'm reminded of Paul in Acts when the authority allows Paul to keep on doing what he's doing and says something to the effect of: "If it's of God, it will succeed. If it is not from God, it will fail." That's exactly where we are. Please be praying about God's will for this, and if He wants you to be a part of it.

I will definitely be blogging more about this in the future. This is a really, really long post. If you read all of it, thank you! Haha!

Living in faith,
David

My Looming Future (& the American church)

2008-06-28T01:44:00.003-06:00

Hello again BLOG, I'm back for some more personal thoughts.
Tonight I went to the Mill, the college ministry at New Life Church here in Colorado Springs. I love the Mill. I love the fact that 1,200+ college students and 20-somethings give up their Friday nights to go to church and worship God together. I don't know who would ever think a college ministry would be this effective on a Friday night, but God is definitely moving through the Mill. The worship is amazing, the sermon is always challenging, and the presence of God is real.
Tonight Evan Martin talked about the Africa missions trip that the Mill just got back from. He shared some light stories, some heavy stories, and how missions applies to all of our lives. He explained and urged everyone to participate in some form of missions during their lives not only because of the huge effect on the people ministered to, but also the "accelerated spiritual growth" that you yourself will experience. I could go deeper into his message, but that's not what I wanted to write about. Evan simply stimulated a thought process that I've been experiencing for quite a while now.
That is, where am I headed in my life? I've always wondered why I don't feel called into full-time missionary work. I have so many friends that feel this calling strongly in their lives. They are going to give up every comfortable luxury we take for granted here in America to go live in huts, heat, and humidity (okay, maybe not all of them, but you get the point). I admire my good friend Stephen Groves (or Narco, for you Taylor-ites) for his passion and selflessness in his desire to be a missionary. To me, he embodies the call on believers to die to self and pick up our cross daily (Luke 9:23-26). I hope that I can learn more from him about what I can do in my everyday life to emulate his attitude.
But the fact of the matter is that I am drawn to the church. To be more specific, I am drawn to the American church. Let me clarify here: I'm not drawn because of the idea of living in America (although that definitely isn't a point of complaint either). I'm drawn because the American church has one of the largest mission fields it could possibly want. There are millions of lost souls here on our own turf, seeking for answers and redemption in places they won't find it. Many have also had terrible church experiences because of hypocrisy, power abuse, and arrogant traditionalism. I know Christian Ministries majors at Taylor who desire above everything else to work in full-time ministry, but they refuse to work in the church because of problems they have witnessed or experienced. I strongly believe God has called me to the American church to help be part of the solution. We could talk for days or even years about the problems, but what can we actually do to help? I think it all comes down to truly and genuinely loving God and loving others. What does this look like? Well, that's a topic for another day and another blog.

I kind of got off on a tangent there, but I want to explain to anyone reading how much I think about my future. Two years from today I will have a college degree and my life ahead of me. Evan's talk at the Mill really got me thinking about it again. What will I be doing right after graduating? It seems so far away, yet so close at the same time. Here are some of my options/dreams:
-Become a youth pastor
-Go to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup (a month after I graduate) with a group of guys/girls and lead a short term missions team for one of the greatest opportunities for the Gospel the world experiences every 4 years
-Go to seminary for my Masters of Divinity
-Go on a soccer DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM to Argentina for 6 months, using soccer as a ministry tool and serving YWAM in whatever capacity needed

When I look at that list, I am filled with excitement. I have no idea which way God is going to lead me... or even what more options are going to be added to that list... but I am fully confident He is going to lead me in the way that will most glorify Him and His will for my life at that point. For some reason I feel like dreaming tonight and writing about it on my blog. Let me give you insight into my life and how I think by explaining each of those dreams in more detail.
"Become a youth pastor" - This has been a strong calling on my life as long as I can remember. At three or four points in my life before college I knew God wanted me to be a pastor. Even my third grade teacher prophesied this calling over my life! I love the idea of pouring into high school and junior high school students as my full-time job. I honestly can't see myself doing anything else.
"World Cup 2010 - South Africa short term missions" - This is the most recent dream of mine. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to go to the World Cup in Germany on a short term missions team, but decided to go to L.A. on a missions trip instead. Now, I get these glowing feelings about going to South Africa for the next World Cup to spread the Gospel. I mean, think about it... how often do millions of people from all over the world come to one place with no agenda but to watch soccer? What a chance for conversation!! Add that to the fact that I love soccer and would get the chance to play some pick-up games with people to initiate conversation as well. I want to get a group of people together and head to Africa with the sole purpose of spreading the Word at the World Cup. If this sounds like something you'd want to be a part of in 2010, please come talk to me!
"Go to seminary" - I'm just going to say it: I love learning. Call me a nerd. But I do. I want to be trained theologically at a higher level so I can be better prepared for ministry. I've also played around with the thought of being a senior pastor someday. I strongly believe seminary is part of my future someday.
"Soccer DTS to Argentina" - I've always wanted to be able to use soccer as a ministry tool in order to give back to God what He has blessed me with. This would be a great chance to use soccer in evangelism and also to utilize the years of Spanish classes I've taken as well. This would be a 6-month commitment, and I think it would deeply affect the rest of my life and ministry.

So that's where I'm at! I don't know why I felt like explaining my dreams and aspirations to you all in my blog, but there it is. Now you can hold me to it! Haha! Sorry if it felt scatter-brained, but that's honestly how I feel at times too. At some point soon I'd like to explore more about the American church and the idea of genuine love. Soon to come...

Welcome to blogging?

2008-06-26T12:45:00.003-06:00

After years of confining my thoughts to my own mind, I have finally decided to start my own blog. I'll be honest, I don't really know where to start. I guess I'll give a little background information on where I'm at right now to better explain why I think about the things I do.

Right now I am the High School Ministry Intern at Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs. This is fulfilling some of my education requirements at Taylor, but it's also just great experience for what I want to do the rest of my life. I'm learning on a daily basis what it really means to be in full-time vocational ministry. I say "vocational" ministry because everyone is going into full-time ministry in whatever profession they're called to. Vocational ministry simply means that ministry is my profession or career that God has led me to. I believe we do a disservice to God's intentions for the body of Christ by differentiating between "ministers" and engineers, businessmen, musicians, teachers, etc. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 makes no distinction as to who should "Go, and make disciples..." If we allow ourselves to think, "Oh, I'm just a (fill in the blank), I'll leave the ministry to the church...", then we've been ensnared by an un-biblical mentality. The first disciples of Christ were fishermen, physicians, and tax collectors... These are the people who wrote much of our New Testament and have forever influenced the Christian faith. Jesus said, "Come, follow me," and they did just that. Essentially Jesus is saying this to all of us. It doesn't matter where we are, who we are, or where we're going. Our first focus should be to follow in the steps of Christ and the rest will follow. Paul, one of the most prominent evangelists, church planters, preachers, and disciples in the history of Christianity made tents! As a tent-maker Paul ministered (and still does minister) to trillions of people if you consider his impact through his writing in the New Testament. The body of Christ is unique and diverse for a purpose, but we are all baptized by the blood of Christ. An important passage to consider is 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Paul uses the analogy of the human body to describe the body of Christ. Can the ear say to the nose, "I don't need you"? Can the hand say to the foot, "I don't need you"? Absolutely not! So it should be within the Christian family... The church cannot exist and pastors would not be able to effectively minister without the congregation, the body of Christ, the pinkies, and the big toes of the family.

The question to ask, then, is what is my role in the body of Christ? What is your role? In the Bible study my friends and I started here in the Springs, we talked two weeks ago about the unique giftedness we are all endowed with by our Creator. We've all been given gifts to use to bless other people. Our spiritual gifts are not purposed for ourselves. While they can help us grow at times, that is not their first purpose. If you're reading this and haven't taken a spiritual gifts test, I strongly encourage you to do so right now. It will reveal to you incredible information about yourself that you may not have thought of before. It will encourage you in your strengths as well. Are you the mouth in the body of Christ? The eyes? The hands? The stomach? (I think most guys would like to be the stomach in the body... haha).

It doesn't stop at figuring out your gifts, either. If I could encourage the students at Taylor to do one thing while at school, it would be to get involved in some form of ministry. Ministry looks different for every personality and giftedness, but there is always something that you can be making a difference in. A selfish faith is not a biblical faith. Sacrifice some time to bless others. To bring others closer to Christ is truly fulfilling Jesus' commission.

So those are my thoughts. I might enjoy this blogging thing.