Northern Ireland Re-Cap

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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