Where Are The Faithful?

May we be counted among the faithful!

Small But Powerful

Last week Sarah Grace and I read the book of Titus. The book, although small, is quite powerful. I know that seems like a ridiculous statement considering that it is part of the very Word of God. Of course it is powerful! The reason I bring it up is that I think some of the smaller books of the Bible get overlooked sometimes. More words means more power, right? Don’t think like that when it comes to the Bible. I would recommend you read through Titus today. It has some powerful words, instructions for right living, and beautiful Gospel statements.

Here are a couple of the mini Gospel statements that I loved so much in Titus.

“He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.” Titus 2:14

“But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.” Titus 3:4-8

All I can add to that is…Amen!

God Is A Wild Man!

After my encounter with God on Wednesday, I have been watching some videos of Rich Mullins speaking and sharing his heart at concerts. You may be thinking, “Seriously, again with Rich Mullins?” But I love the way he words things. I love his brutal honesty. I respect the way he lived his life. Here is one of the quotes that I really liked from one of the videos and the video will be below if you want to watch it.

God takes the junk of our lives and makes the greatest art in the world out of it. And if He was cultured, if He was as civilized as most Christian people wish He was, He would be useless to Christianity. But God is a wild man! --Rich Mullins

Spiritual Shipwreck

From my post yesterday you probably realized that I was going through something. I will try to put to words what was going on.

Yesterday morning I locked my door and sat down at the computer to check e-mail and read a few blogs. My few moments of peace and quiet before the students arrive. It was in this 30 minutes that God opened my eyes, broke my heart, and then ministered to my soul.

I stumbled across(and by stumbled across, I mean God put it right in front of me so I would trip over it and take notice) a blog post from 5 years ago about the death of Sarah Grace’s grandma that had been written by one of her cousins. As I read it something started to change inside. Something subtle about how I was feeling. I didn't know what exactly it was or how to explain it. I then went over to a blog that Sarah Grace and I read titled A Holy Experience, which is written by Ann Voskamp. She recently went on a Mission Trip to Guatemala with Compassion International. As I read her words and looked at her pictures from the trip I paused. The faces were somewhat familiar. Their smiles and their tears were familiar. The pictures from the mission trip I went on to Honduras are pictures filled with the same smiles and tears. Pictures filled with the same poverty.

I started thinking about Mario, who owned the little restaurant across the street from the school where we would go get cokes after working all day. I thought about his smile and the time I sat outside of his restaurant drinking a coke after a long day of work and trying to use my 25 words of broken Spanish to actually have a real conversation with this man. This is the same man who on another trip down there caught up with us after we attended a worship service at his church. He came to me, because he recognized me and hoped I could convey the message that he was trying to give. Unfortunately I was unable to translate what he was saying. Finally one of the youth picked up on one of his words. The word was “cantar” which means to sing. He wanted us to tell Jeff Phillips that he sings beautifully. He didn’t understand the words that Jeff was singing, but he understood that Jeff was singing with all of his heart to the God that they both loved, and it was a beautiful sound.

As I thought of those moments during those trips and I remembered their smiles, I cried. I didn't know exactly why. Maybe it was for Mario, maybe it was for us, and maybe it was because I just wanted to be with my family at that moment. I think it was all of these, paired with wanting something different. Something different for us, something different for Mario, something different for the world, and something better for God. In the silence and tears I sat pondering the brokenness and fallen state of our world. I thought about that this is not what God intended. He intended a paradise for all of his creation, but that is not possible because of our sin. So we are left with this world that is full of brokenness, hurt, illness, poverty, and sin, instead of what God planned for us. I wasn’t really hurting I just think God was breaking my heart and sharing His about the world that we live in.

After God opened my eyes it was then that He ministered to me. Later in the morning, Jared Wilson posted a blog titled A Thick, Thick Heaven. The post was a reminder about how much better Heaven is than Earth. It was beautiful. It was just what I needed to see after spending so much of my morning thinking about our broken world. God wanted to remind me that there is something better, far better, than I can even imagine. This post soothed my soul. It provided medicine and bandages to my wounds.

That afternoon as my conference period was starting I came across a post that was a tribute to Rich Mullins. The author ended the post with all of the lyrics from the song, If I Stand. When I pulled up the video on youtube, I wept as I saw Rich singing the lyrics to that song. It was as if God had been sitting beside me all day. I know God is with us all day, but I felt like he pulled up a chair beside me and said

1. Look at the brokenness of this world. Hate it. Want something better!
2. Remember that Heaven is better than anything this world has.
3. Fight the brokenness of the world for as long as you can but know
that there is more.
4. Always long for Heaven.

It was the first time in a long time that I was a spiritual wreck, but when the day was over I felt closer to the heart of God. My request for prayers is still open. I now know what I want you to pray for. Pray that these things are not quickly forgotten. Pray that I will keep my eyes open for God’s will on this Earth while longing for Heaven.

If I Stand

There is a reason for me posting this video right now but I can't even put it fully into words. Not yet anyway. Maybe soon all the right words will come. I love this Rich Mullins song. Here is the chorus.

And if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

Watch the video for the rest.


Pray for me today! Please Pray!

Something is wrong...

I am currently reading a book titled Crazy Love by Francis Chan and another book Compelled by Love by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation. While reading them this week I came across statements in both of them that started out by saying, "Something is wrong..." Both of these statements really stuck out and I think we should ask ourselves if these statements are descriptors of our lives.

"Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." --Francis Chan in Crazy Love

"Something is wrong when a person claims to belong to Christ and yet fails to love others." --Ed Stetzer/Philip Nation

Does your life make sense to unbelievers? Does the way you spend & save your money make sense to the lost world? Do the things you watch, say, and do make sense to the world? If we are truly living out our faith, the answer should be and emphatic "NO!" Unfortunately I would have to say that much of my life has made perfect sense to the lost world.

What about your love? Do you love others as Christ does? Not just some people, but all people. Remember what Jesus says in Luke 6? "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same…Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:32-33, 36. If I am claiming to be a Christian, I need to see people differently and love people differently. If not, then can I actually say that Christ is living through me?

Let us look at scripture to see what we should look like, compare that to our lives, and ask ourselves “What’s Wrong?”

God help us line up with your will and your ways and not the world’s will and the world’s ways.

Upside of Messy

When you look at the Pharisees in the New Testament they were disturbed by the fact that Jesus would eat with the tax collectors and sinners. More literally translated “scum.” Their thoughts were, “How can he be from God if he is willing to stoop so low?” Jesus’ response in Matthew Ch. 9 is “The healthy don’t need a doctor but the sick do. I am calling these people to repentance.” Yesterday I was reading a sample chapter from a new book coming out called Church Planter by Darrin Patrick. I liked this quote that he included in the book.

We are able to see the “upside of messy” only because Jesus went into the mess first in order to heal it. He left heaven for a womb, a stable, a wilderness, and a cross, so that the world would be saved through Him. We are able to love and pursue the healing of messy people because Jesus did it first—befriending tax collectors, sinners, pimps, and prostitutes, and then making many of them His apostles! --Scott Sauls

That quote just really hit home what I have been feeling lately. I don’t want to ignore someone because of their mess. It is easy to overlook someone because of their differences, problems, or strange behavior, but that shouldn’t be the case.

Christ stepped into the mess of my life and yours to save us. Shouldn’t we in turn step into the mess of others’ lives with that Good News?

Yours

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. --St. Teresa of Avila

If you believe this, what are you doing about it?

Teller of Tall Tales

My wife says I am a liar. We disagree with each other on this subject quite regularly. I don’t think I am a liar at all. I am a teller of tall tales. They aren’t lies but stories created for someone’s enjoyment, especially mine, but others are invited to enjoy these stories also. I inherited this gift. I don’t know if I genetically inherited it, or if it was willed to me from my grandfather, but either way it is part of who I am and who I will always be. My grandfather’s stories were wonderful to listen to. Even when I knew that he was telling a tall tale, I would listen and ask questions. My grandmother would make sure that we knew that none of it happened, but that didn’t matter to me. The story, real or not, is what I wanted.

As the years go by I am certain that my stories will grow and hopefully will get better. I hope my children and maybe one day grandchildren will listen to my stories and hang on every word just like I did with my grandfather’s stories. I hope that no matter how fantastical or exaggerated the stories are, they will ask questions knowing that their questions will just cause the stories to grow even more. That will make me smile, just like it made my grandfather smile and I am guessing just like it made the man who passed this gift on to my grandfather smile as well.

I have a reason for bringing this up. It is not just so you will start questioning the truth of what I tell you. I started reading Crazy Love this week by Francis Chan. I loved this quote. It made me smile!

Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate? --Francis Chan

It made me smile because I am a teller of tall tales and an exaggerator by nature. It made me smile because no matter how tall a tale I can tell about God, it will never be an exaggeration. My stories would never be able to exaggerate the Love of God, or the Wrath of God, or the Wonder of God. The tallest tale I could tell about any aspect of God could at best only scratch the surface of the reality of who God is. And that is great news for all of us!

Watch This

I found this video and liked what it had to say. A lot of it is geared towards men, some towards pastors, but if you don't fit either of those categories, it still applies to the church as a whole. Good thoughts about vision for your church and community and passing on the faith that we have to younger generations.

Check It Out