"He is no fool..."

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

What an incredible statement. This came from a man named Jim Elliot. Jim Elliot was speared to death, along with 4 of his friends, in the jungles of Ecuador, by people from the Waodani Indian tribe. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Flemming, and Roger Youderian were five young guys, fresh out of college that all followed God's call to missionary service in Ecuador. These guys were not the proverbial "super saints". They were regular ordinary guys...newly married, loved to laugh and have fun, looking for significance and adventure, and obviously mortal. They were not super heroes fighting evil and able to make a comeback no matter how many times they seem to be killed. There was nothing about them that made them special or extraordinary. At least not anymore so than anyone else...except for one thing. These guys were willing to follow God, WHEREVER He led them to go. They understood what Paul was saying in Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". They were not seeking to be killed and escape this world. They were seeking to truly live in this world and they knew that the only way to truly live was to truly be following Christ...wherever He led, doing whatever He commanded. That is the stuff of true heroes.
The lives which they offered eventually led to the salvation of nearly the entire Waodani people group. Jim Elliot's wife and Nate saint's sister later went into this tribe and were able to share the truth of Christ with them and completely revolutionize this people group. These 5 men truly lived Christ...and their death was gain for the Kingdom of God.

I Need A Hero

Most of you parents probably remember that 80' song by Bonnie Tyler...I need a Hero. Though that song was quite popular in the 80's I think if it was written today it would be an even bigger hit. I think that's what so many of the teens in our culture today are screaming out..."I Need A Hero!". I think they are tired of the heroes of the last couple of decades, people from sports, politics, or Hollywood who have all sorts of fortune and fame. Those people are not so much cutting it for this generation. I think they are wanting to find people who are truly making a difference in their world. That is what they want to see in a hero. The problem is, I think they are all too often struggling to find those people.
That is the heart behind our new series called "Missions Heroes". I want to take a few weeks and share with the students about some people that are probably not on a list of Top 10 Heroes, but absolutely have lived heroic lives, lives of sacrifice and/or significance that were totally surrendered to following God no matter what He called them to. I believe that these often forgotten people are more than worthy of this next generation looking up to and modeling their lives after. Each week I want to share about the lives of couple of these potential heroes. Last night I shared about Eric Liddell and Bethany Hamilton.
Eric Liddell (pronounced like 'little') was a hero of the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He became the first Scotsman to ever win a Gold medal...but not before creating a bit of controversy. He had qualified for the Olympics but just before the event he refused to run in 3 events because of the fact that they were scheduled to be held on Sunday and that went against his Christian convictions. WOW...what a bold stance to take. This did not make his British compatriots very happy as he was the favorite to win in at least the 100 meter dash and maybe more. In a matter of days he had gone from being a national hero with many expectations, to a coward and traitor in the eyes of so many. He ended up running in the 400 meter dash as it was not held on Sunday, but he was not expected to do very well. He ended up winning the gold and setting a new world record which brought him back to hero status again among hi people. 18 months after the 1924 Olympics, with people already talking about what he could do in the 1928 Olympics, Eric made the decision to give up athletics and follow where God was leading, which was into missionary service in China, a country that was in extreme turmoil with communist fighting desperately for power. That level of conviction to walk away from such gifts and opportunities in order to follow God's calling...that is the stuff of heroes! Eric's died in 1945 in a camp in which the Japanese had forced him to live. Check out the movie Chariots of Fire, as it is the story of Eric Liddell.
Bethany Hamilton may be a little more familiar name right now as she is the story upon which the current movie, Soul Surfer, is based. (Go see this movie...not only is it a really good movie, but we also need to support this kind of quality, Christian friendly media) Bethany hamilton at the age of 13 was well on her way to a very successful professional surfing career. She had already been signed to a sponsorship deal with one the leading surf company's. One day while out surfing for fun she had part of her board and her entire left arm bitten off in an instant by a 14 foot tiger shark. For most people this would have been a devastating tragedy. Bethany allowed God to use this to give her an incredible platform from which to turn glory back to Him. She did not wallow in self pity, but rather seized this opportunity to glorify God. I don't want to ruin the movie for you, but she came back and acheived that professional surfing career and has used the opportunity to share and point people all over the world to Jesus Christ. Again, the stuff of heroes!

Step Up Dad's

I have just found and read a book over the last few days that I really want to STRONGLY recommend for you dad's out there...particularly if you have a daughter. The book is called Interviewing Your Daughter's Date by Dennis Rainey. It is a really short book (65 pages plus an Appendix)that will probably take you less then 2 hours to read but it is more than worth your time. It is basically a call for Dad's to step up and take seriously our God given responsibility to protect our daughter's heart and purity, as well as invest in the lives of young men who take an interest in them.

Soul Surfer

So I went and saw this movie and I have to give 2 thumbs up. It will probably not win any awards for the acting or anything, though it was not bad at all. But in a time that is severely lacking on good positive media...this movie is a standout. This movie is based on a true story of the life of Bethany Hamilton, a teenage girl who had a dream of becoming a prfessional surfer. As that dream was just beginning to come to fruition she was tragically attacked by a shark while fishing that took off a piece of her surf board along with her entire left arm. This movie depicts the struggles and the come back that she went through.

There are not many movies today that have absolutely zero curse words that are not cartoons, but this one has none. The story line places a significant emphasis on Bethany's faith in God. There are numerous scenes in church and youth group settings, scripture quotes (Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13) and even a mission trip scene. This was definetly not your typical Hollywood feature. It is also not your typical low budget movie. It is very well done with some beautiful scenes and some very intense scenes. I highly encourage you and your familiy to go and see this one...and if you hit a matinee it is only $5. Well worth the money!

WrestleMania

When I left the Annex Wednesday night I felt like I had been involved in WrestleMania. Actually, thats sort of how this whole series examining "The Sovereignty of God" has felt. I think we have truly been "wrestling with Scripture". Not that I feel like I have been beat up, but more that I have really had to take hold of this subject, and wrestle with it, and think on it, and meditate on it...and think on it, and meditate on it, and think....you get the picture. Unfortunately, I can't say I have been completely victorious in my grappling either. I certainly can't say that I now fully understand God's sovereignty. However I can say that I understand it better, and I don't use the word sovereignty as flippantly as before.

This past Wednesday was our final lesson in the series and probably the most challenging to think through, not just for me but for the students as well. In previous weeks we have discussed the fact that God is in control, He is all-knowing, and He is all-powerful. This week we looked at the idea that God is all-loving. I asked the students to really try to think about what that means...God is all-loving. I asked them to try as much as possible to set aside all of their previous thoughts, assumptions and biases on this topic and try to really come at it, as much as possible, from a blank viewpoint. I asked them what that means...God is all-loving. Does that mean that He loves all? Stop and think about that question. Does God love all? Does He love all animals...even mosquitos, rats or spiders? Does He love all plants...even briars, poison ivy and seaweed? What about Satan and the demons? Does God love them? What about all people? Does God love ALL people? If you are like me then you quickly respond with an emphatic "YES, of course He loves all people". But is that true? And more importantly, why do I think it is true? Did He love the criminal on the cross next to Him that mocked and rebuked Him? We know He loved the one and assured him of a place in heaven, but did He actually love the other man? What about the coming antichrist. Does/will God love him? He is, after all, the "anti" christ or the opposite/against christ. What about Romans 9:13 which quotes God as saying "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (a reference to Malachi 1:2-3).

Two of the greatest components of God's demonstrated love to us is seen in His mercy and His grace. Does God give His grace and mercy to all people equally? Scripture seems to be full of examples where God did choose some and not others to receive His mercy and grace. He chose Israel over the other people groups of the day...and certaibly not because of any obvious merit on their part. He chose Jacob as the recepient of his favor and not Esau. In John 5:1-9 Jesus chose to heal one invalid man among many. He could have healed them all but He healed only one. Why? He raised Lazarus from the dead. Why didn't He raise all people? Romans 9:15 says that He will have mercy on who He chooses to have mercy.

I certainly would not say that God does not love all people, but I do believe we need to think about that issue. If we believe that He does love all people...is it because we just think He has to, in order to be a good God? That is a problem if we do think that way, because then we are the ones dictating to God how He must act. At that point we have taken His sovereignty away and placed it on ourselves. If God were to choose to love some and not others...He would be justified in that because He is sovereign. I encourage you parents to talk with your students about this idea of God's sovereignty...spend some time with them wrestling through this concept. Spend some time wrestling on your own with it. It is more than a worthwhile topic to wrestle with.

The All-Powerful God

Continuing this week with our look at the Sovereignty of God, we talked about the fact that God is all-powerful, or omnipotent. Again, just like the previous weeks, this is a statement that I think most any Christian would have no problems agreeing with. "Yes, of course God is all-powerful." It is easy for us to agree with...but what does that mean? Well...the obvious answer is that He has unlimited power. That is easy to see all through Scripture. Creation, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus, the Red Sea, provisions in the wilderness, Jericho, Samson, Elijah, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions den, Shadrach-Meshach-Abednego, the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus' miracles, Jesus' resurrection, Pentecost...just to name a few demonstrations of God's power. It is easy for us to point at those times where God showed up in a huge way, usually to rescue or deliver someone.

But what about Acts 7, where Stephen is stoned to death for his faith in Jesus...or Acts 12, where James is murdered by Herod for his faith...or the people described in Hebrews 11:36-37 which says "Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated...". Why were these believers not rescued or delivered from their afflictions? Is God not that powerful? Or what about the current situation in Libya and the rest of the Middle East...or the recent disasters in Japan and other places? Are these situations beyond God's power to control, or even prevent? Or could these also be demonstrations of God's power as well?

Another thought provoking question that our world puts forth today for us is that if God is all powerful, why doesn't He just save all people? Why do some people supposedly have to go to hell? It is an interesting question, but one that we must be very careful how we answer as it is very easy to emasculate our God with our answer. I think that a common Christian response looks something like this:

-because, if God is love, (and I think that Scripturally that is true, though maybe not in the context that we want to think of it), then He has to love all people and therefore He has to try and save all people as a demonstration of that love. If some choose not to be saved and accept Him, then that is their free choice.

But if all that is true, then the real power in that statement actually lies in our hands, thus making God no longer omnipotent but simply a cheerleader on the side lines routing, very enthusiastically, for us to call the right play. That does not seem very powerful to me (no disrespect to cheerleaders...you are all quite powerful...but not what I am looking for from an all-powerful God!). At the very least that seems to make God a spectator and we are the all-powerful ones.

As we discussed this idea last night, I shared my desire to be able to give an all encompassing understanding and articulation of God's power as a demonstration of His Sovereignty. But I unfortunately can't do that as I struggle myself to wrap my mind around this Sovereignty thing. The basic idea that I tried to communicate to the students regarding the omnipotence of God (which I must confess, comes from some reading of AW Pink) was that God does whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, where ever He wants to, how ever He wants to! That power may not always be obvious to us, or make logical sense to us, or feel good to us. Is God required to give us an account or a justification for His actions? Not if He is all-powerful (just ask Job). If He was required to give us an understanding of all His actions, that would again make us more powerful than Him.

The bottom line, as I see it...God is all-powerful and does what He wants to, when He wants to, where He wants to, and how He wants to. We can't fully comprehend all of the implications of that statement, but we would do very well to think long and hard about it. We need to also be careful about the way that we try to force God in to boxes that we can explain and/or feel good about as this creates a weak god (lower case g) that our world will have no desire to follow.

All-Knowing God?

This week at BNX we continued to look at the Sovereignty of God by discussing the idea that God is "all-knowing". This is one of those things that I think most of us have no trouble buying into...at least in our heads and in our words. After all, who would ever say that they don't really believe that God knows everything. But do we really think about what that means, and more importantly do our actions really say that we truly believe it?
I shared from Genesis 12-16 where we see the account of Abram. He was given a promise of great blessing from God in 12:1-2. God tells Abram, a man with no son, that he was going to be the father of a great nation. What an incredible promise from God! And I am sure that Abram was pretty excited about this. Over time, that excitement turns to anxiety as Abram begins to question and doubt this promise as he does not "know" how God plans to make it happen...especially for an old man with no son. In chapter 15:2-3 Abram decides he needs to explain his situation to God...as if He did not really know the whole scenario? But God tries to give him a little reassurance and tells him that he will not only have a son but that his offspring will be so abundant it will be like trying to count the stars. Now that is a pretty serious promise! But as more time passed, and Abram and his wife Sarai got older, they just did not know how God would be able to keep his promise...they forgot that God knew exactly how He was going to do it. In chapter 16 They decided to take matters into their own hands rather than trusting in God's Sovereignty. They decided that they "knew" a better way. Sarai gives Abram her maidservant Hagar, to bear them a child. This one poor decision on their part is still impacting us today. Through his own plan (along with Sarai) Abram did bare a son, Ishmael, who is the father of Islam. They were not able to rest in the sovereignty of God and trust in the fact that God did "know" how He would achieve his promise.
We often have those same struggles. When we do not know how God plans to do something...we tend to doubt or at least question Him. When he tells us that we are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, we want to know step by step what that looks like. Where should we be going, when, with who, what safety protections will we have? We want to "know" all the details. Doesn't that reflect that we don't really trust that God "knows" all those details? Or maybe we want to do what we "know" will help and we just send our money. And this is a great thing...unless God wanted us to GO. I wonder if our lack of faith in the Sovereignty of God could have similar results to Abrams lack...and impact generations of people to come?

The Soveriegnty of God

Last Wednesday we started a new series on "The Sovereignty of God". This is a topic that I have been wanting to teach on for well over a year now. To be perfectly honest though....I have been struggling with just how to teach on this topic. I feel like this is a term that we use all the time in our Christian circles, and maybe we even think we understand what it means, but if we look at the way that we live our lives...most of us demonstrate in our actions a severe lack of understanding about the "Sovereignty of God". But then again, I also believe that this is a term that we will never be able to fully understand...at least not the scope and implications of such a term. So as I was preparing to teach on this topic I thought that I had figured out a good way to teach on it that would challenge the students to assess their own lives as a reflection of the Sovereignty of God.
And then the "Sovereignty of God" happened. March 11th saw one of the largest recorded earthquakes in history hit Japan. We have, of course, seen all the images of the devastation that resulted and continues to mount. As I was sitting last week, watching the news footage of this disaster, and each day hearing of the rising death tolls, I received an email from a close friend of mine and Tracy's who is a missionary from New Zealand. She was actually in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22nd when an earthquake rocked the city, causing significant damage and taking at least 166 lives. Her story of serving in that city over the next days and weeks was...heart wrenching. As I was reading her email it hit me...this is the Sovereignty of God. As I watched the footage on TV from Japan, and thought of this account from New Zealand, all I could think of is how these people must have thought that their world had gone completely out of control. Many of us are thinking that also as we see what seems to be a barrage of disasters happening around the world. Over 300,000 people killed in the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean...over 200,000 people killed last year in the earthquake in Haiti...20 million people losing homes and businesses in the floods in Pakistan last summer...chaos erupting throughout the Middle East...school shootings on the rise...terrorism all over the place...and now Japan and Christchurch. Has our whole world gone completely out of control? It certainly seems that way sometimes! And our fears often cause us to buy into that way of thinking.

But "God is Sovereign. He is in control." We say that all the time don't we? But do we mean it? I think we probably do mean it...at least to the extent to which we have thought about it. We believe that He is in control of the weather and the seasons in some way that we don't really have to fully understand or appreciate. We believe that He is in control of the spiritual world as it applies to angels and demons and the stuff we really can't see. And we probably believe that He is in control of all the blessings in life like when a child is born healthy, and when we get a raise, and when we arrive at our vacation spot safely. But do we believe that He is in control in Japan right now? Do we believe that this was not a surprise for Him and that He may have actually orchestrated these events or at the very least allowed them to happen? We have a hard time claiming and believing that don't we? We tend to think that this would paint God in a bad light and make Him look cruel and unjust. But if He is truly Sovereign...doesn't that mean He controls EVERYTHING? Good, bad, happy, sad, logical, illogical. He is in control of ALL things. Not just the good things. Not just the happy things. And certainly not just the things that make sense to us. We talked about Ephesians 1:11 that says that God works all things according to the counsel of His own Will. Basically...He does as he sees fit based on who He is. We are not a part of that equation at all. What we think is irrelevant (thank goodness for that).

We also talked about Job. He was a righteous man of great wealth and prosperity. God was proud of Job, but God not only allowed but orchestrated events in Job's life that look pretty to horrific to the human eye. He lost all of his material possessions. He lost all 10 of his children in a tragic accident. He lost his health. He even lost his wife who abandoned him emotionally at the very least. Job struggled with all of this. It made no sense. It seemed unjust. He began to question God and even accuse God. And God reminds Job of who He is. Job 42:5 reveals to us what I believe is the purpose behind all of what happened to Job. Job says "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you". Job knew of God. He had heard the stories. He even lived a good life seeking to follow this God. But through this whole process of heartache and tragedy, Job actually saw God. He was brought into a more intimate relationship with God. This is ultimately what God wants with all of us. No matter where we are right now. No matter how good we may be. God wants to know us more intimately. And ultimately, God may use some tragedy to bring us to that point.
God is truly in control of all things. No matter how out of control our lives may seem at times. No matter what tragedies occur...Hi is still in complete control. will we always understand...NO. Will it always make sense to us...NO. Do we have to always be happy about things....NO. But can't we take some level of comfort knowing that the things that don't make sense and disturb us, make total sense to Him and are all a part of His greater purpose? The pain is real and our heart still breaks for the people of Japan and other tragedies...but knowing and believing that He is ALWAYS in control of ALL things should give us hope to rest in.

Smoke

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update from this past weekends DNOW. We had a great weekend! Our theme was "SMOKE". The idea was that in scripture, where you find smoke, you find fire and where there is fire there is God. And the speakers talked about 'The Power of God', 'The Presence of God', 'The Provision of God', and 'The Priority of God'. The messages were powerful and I am confident that each student experienced some level of encouragement and conviction throughout the weekend. I know I certainly did. I encourage you parents to ask them about those sessions and what they learned and what the experienced from God.

I also wanted to let you all know about some ministry opportunities that the students were involved in. As a planning team we wanted to use this gathering of 25 churches and over 1500 students in our county to do more than just receive something from God. We wanted to leverage those numbers for ministry to our community and to the world, and we chose to do that by partnering with two organizations that are ministering in our world today. One partner was the Real Life Center in Tyrone. We collected hundreds of canned goods to be distributed by The Real Life Center to families in need in Fayette County. The other organization that we partnered with was charity:water which is an organization that is building wells in parts of the world where people have no access to clean drinking water. The students had the opportunity to learn that more than 1 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. One of the cool things about this organization is that 100% of the money that is given to them goes towards building wells. Not one cent is set aside for administrative needs or other purposes. The students at DNOW gave $5796 to go to charity water thus far. It takes $5000 to build one well that will supply water for 400 people for the next 20 years. You all can still give towards this event and cause by going to charitywater.org/dnow. You can also go here to get updates and see where the money is being used.
I of course have to thank the many people who were involved in making this weekend possible for our students. Thanks to our host homes...Rick and Valerie Ellis, Sonya Moste, and Tracy Davidson. Thank you to those who provided meals...Connie Huddleston, Joyce Kendrick, Elizabeth Highsmith, Melissa Nelms, Audrey Warr, Michelle Goergen and probably some others that I have forgotten (I am very sorry). And a special thanks to those who helped to lead small groups... Brittany Rampy, Matt Herget, Lindy Woodruff, and Kelli Bailey. These guys all did a great job with our students!

Good Resource

Hey Parents....
This morning I was looking through a site that I occasionally go to to see some info and thoughts about a variety of "pop culture" issues. As I was reading through this article and researching some of the info myself I had a couple of thoughts.
Thought #1 -How many of you are out there trying to find out the truth and reality of what your kids are daily being bombarded with? If you are...awesome...what resources are you using? Please comment and share those resources. The rest of us could probably use them. If you are not trying to learn about this stuff...why?
Thought #2 -I realized just how "uncool" I have become. Do you remember the days when you did not have to "research" pop-culture? You just knew it...and you actually were a part of pop culture. Those days are long gone for us...but that does not excuse us from trying to understand it. Once we have become so uncool that we no longer get pop-culture we tend to either try to ignore it or we paint it as 100% bad and a detriment to society. But isn't that the very same thing that we despised about adults when we were that age? I for one would rather be "uncool" and try to research this stuff some in order to better understand the world that these guys live in. That does not mean we condone or accept it all...but we at least try to understand it.
Thought #3- I thought that maybe this site that I was reading might be useful to some of you... as always, I do not endorse or agree with everything that these guys say...but I have found it useful and thought provoking and maybe you will also.
http://interlincresources.wordpress.com/

7 & 8 - 9 & 10

I missed last week so this will catch up for two weeks. Last week we studied chapter 7 & 8. Actually I divided the students up into small groups...gave them a section, and let them teach it. This was just another reminder of me about how capable this teens are. They brought out some great points and some great applications. We tend to baby them and maintain pretty low expectations and I was reminded that students will almost always live up to the expectations that are placed upon them...no matter how high or low they are.
In chapter 7 we see the wall completed and we see Nehemiah remembering where the Israelites had come from . In chapter 8 we see an absolutely amazing account of the power of God's Word. I would really encourage you to go read this chapter. We see how the Word of God impacted the people and how it brought them face to face with their sin. We could all use some of that...but parents...I think there might be a lesson there especially for us. We get so angry at our kids and we harp on them constantly about the things we see in their lives that bother us. Things that we don't like. I can't help but wonder...should we be doing less talking, and more scripture reading with our kids in order to let His Word open their hearts and convict them. I think that might sometimes work better than our lectures and scoldings.
Chapter 9 & 10, I thought, said a lot about how important the church is. In chapter 9 we see that the Israelites are truly broken over their sin. So what do they do...they come together as a people (no outsiders) and they confess, worship, and pray together. I could not help but to think of the church today as I read this. Maybe we need to take more time to come together as the body, and really take a hard look at ourselves. Not to complain about, judge and point fingers at the world around us...but to really focus on ourselves. What would happen if we were more concerned about the sins in our own lives and not so worried about the sinful people in our communities? What if we were more upset over the sins that we have committed today, than we are with our politicians in Washington? What if we were coming together for the specific purpose of confessing to each other and being accountable to each other...rather than just expecting the world to come and conform to us?
Chapter 10 describes a covenant that the people of Israel then wrote. It seems to very heavily focus on the temple and the things that were supposed to be regularly happening at the temple...but for years now had been neglected. Again, I could not help but reflect this idea back to the church today. The people of Israel had rebuilt their wall. They now felt safe and protected as a nation again. In their mind and in their hearts, life inside the walls could now be purified and return to what God had intended...a life which revolved around activities at the Temple, God's dwelling place. Shouldn't our churches be like that today? Shouldn't we view our churches through this same light? The church should be playing a vitally important role not just in our lives but in the lives our communities. I think we would do well to remember that!

Chapter 5 and 6

I am going to try to make this a little shorter today. Last night we studied chapters 5 and 6 and here are the highlights:
Chapter 5
Nehemiah has been dealing with persecution all along from the surrounding people groups. In chapter 5 he has to deal with sin and oppression coming from within the the Jewish ranks. When Nehemiah finds out that the Jewish nobles are making profits and interest off of their very own Jewish brothers and sisters (this is the sin of usury - Leviticus 25:35-37), he is "angry" to say the least. But isn't that true for all of us? It is always more difficult when your own people, the people you love the most, disappoint you and hurt you. Nehemiah had gotten the people to fully buy into his vision, and he appreciated their efforts and wanted to protect them. He thinks he is doing that as he has set up a system to guard them and keep them safe. Then he gets blindsided from his own people. Unfortunately, we probably do similar things in the church to our own brothers and sisters. As always, Nehemiah deals with the issue and leades the nobles to repentance.
Chapter 6
This chapter touched my heart personally in a big way. We see Nehemiah absolutely getting blasted in this chapter. He is being attacked from all sides it seems. He deals with temptation (1-4), false accusations (5-9), deception (10-14), and intimidation (17-19). It is almost like a scene from the life of a conservative running for office in Washington D.C. today. Talk about a smear campaign. And Nehemiah deals with it beautifully. Because he is close to God, he is able to discern the truth of these situations and his vision from God keeps him focused and not distracted by temptations. Our leaders inside the church and outside the church need our prayers desperately. They are getting this same treatment. They are being attacked from all sides. Maybe we don't hear about the attacks...but they are happening, I assure you. Lift those leaders up, and be apart of their defenses.
Then in verses 15 & 16 of this chapter we see a miracle. The wall is completed...in 52 days! There is no way these poeple could have made this happen on their own, in the midst of persecutions and distractions, were it not for the mighty hand of God. Even the surrounding peoples we forced to recognize the God of the Jews and His involvment in this feat. God was glorified...and Nehemiah's impossible vision was made a reality!

Are You Raising A Leader for God?

I was forced to ask myself that question this week as I was preparing to continue in our series on Nehemiah. This week we looked at chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 is an account of many of the men and women who are physically involved in the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. At first glance it is an easy chapter to just blow through and pay little attention to but I think there are some great leadership principles to be found here.
First of all, we see tremendous diversity among the people involved. Men, women, nobles, common folk, even priests got busy working on this project with Nehemiah. Nehemiah knew that he needed a team of people to make his vision become reality, and he assmbled quite a team with tremendous diversity.
Secondly, one name that we do not find in chapter 3 is 'Nehemiah' (at least not the Nehemiah that this book is titled after). This is not a story of how Nehemiah actually built the wall of Jerusalem himself. He was the leader of this project, but he understood the importance of delegating. He gave other people the opportunity to be a part of his vision. It takes a compelling vision to get people to join in, but if you dont give them room to carve out their own piece of the vision, they will not see it through. Nehemiah gave them the chance to buy into the vision and the freedom to make it their own.

We also studied Chapter 4 of Nehemiah. In this chapter we see the opposition to the vision intensify. Initially it starts out as just some insults from some of the surrounding leaders as they try to incite their people against the Jews. Nehemiah does not lash back at them but goes to the Lord in prayer, with a pretty emotional and spirited prayer in verses 4&5. But the building continued and the opposition grew as the surrounding people began to actually plan an assault against the Jews. Again, Nehemiah first goes to prayer (vs9), but this time they take some actions of their own and set people on guard. As the Jews begin to be overwhelmed and cower in fear, we see Nehemiah's leadership again shine as he reminds the people of 2 things. First he reminds them of the power of their God and then he reminds them of the vision for which they are reaching. Those are two very powerful tools to help people persevere. And we see that happen. The work is slowed as they have to now protect them selves while they work, but it does not stop! This chapter finishes with a pcture of Nehemiah in the trenches with his people, working to see the vision become a reality.
We see Nehemiah continually going to God in prayer, we see him always preparing for what may come, we see him staying focused and always returning to the vision, and we see him in the threnches leading by example. Those are some great lessons for the future leader to learn.

So, I come back to that question, 'Are we raising leaders?'. How often do we look at our kids and say, "No...my Johnny...he is not a leader"? I wonder how God plans to use that same kid in the future? I believe that we do not spend time teaching our kids how to lead. Nehemiah was a cupbearer. He was a slave. A man who had to potentially take a bullet, or drink of poison in this case, for a king who was not even his own king. He had no authority. He probably would have had no obvious leadership potential or experience. Yet God intended to use him to lead an amazing movement. Maybe we would do well to view all of our young people as the next potential leader of a great movement of the Lord.

Calling and Vision...Any Difference?

Last night we finally got to dive in to chapter 2 of Nehemiah. We started the night off reviewing last week and then spent some time discussing the difference between our calling and our vision. I am sure there are many people who are much more versed and educated on this topic who could eloquently pontificate (good blog word) on the subtle nuances that make these concepts so beautiful and crucial to truly live out the fullest Christian life. But for our purposes, here is what I sort of see as the difference. Our calling or callings are those things in scripture that God unquestionably calls us to.
For example:
1) We are called to share the gospel and make disciples throughout the world Matt 28:16-20, Acts 1:8
2) We are called to pray - 1 Thes. 5:16-18
3) We are called to love others - 1 John 3:11
4) Husbands are called to love their wives - Ephesians 5:25
5) Wives are called to submit to their husbands - Ephesians 5:22
6) Children are called to obey and honor their parents - Ephesians 6:1-2

I could go on and on...but the point is that there are certain things that the Bible clearly calls us to do in our lives. We do not have to debate the neccesity of these things. They are, for the most part, explicit callings on our lives and to not do them would be an act of rebellion against God (of course there are always a few gray issues that some may consider a clear calling from scripture and others don't).
But then there are all sorts of other things/questions we have that really are not the same clear cut types of callings from scripture.
1) Am I supposed to go to college...and where?
2) Am I supposed to get married one day?
3) Should I be in full time ministry or missions? Here or overseas?
4) What church should I go to?

These are all questions that we sometimes answer with a "calling" description. "We were 'called' into fulltime overseas missions"...or "I know now that I was 'called' to go to XXXYY University to study pre-med and be a doctor one day". These statements might actually be very true in regards to the path which God has led that person down, but can I back either of these statments up with Scripture? I don't think so. So there is something different from this and the first "callings" that I listed. I think these latter statements fall more into our vision...which hopefully is from God. I think the person in that first statment has been "called" (just like the rest of us) to share the gospel all over the world. The "vision" that God has given that person for how and where to actually carry out that calling is in full time overseas missions work. Could that very same person carry out that very same calling in a very different vision that places them in corporate america somewhere boldly sharing the gospel with colleagues? I don't claim to be able to definitively answer that question, but I at least think that it could possibly be true.

With Nehemiah chapter 2 we are beginning to see Nehemiah taking hold of a vision that God has given him based on God's calling for his life. God has given Nehemiah a calling as a Jew to love, follow and serve Him...Yahweh...both as an individual and as a nation (Deut 6). He has also been called to love and protect his people (Deut 7). Nehemiah hears of how his people in Judah are in "great trouble and shame" and not following their calling to love and serve Yahweh. He is deeply disturbed by this as we saw in Chapter 1. As Chapter 2 begins, 4 months have passed while Nehemiah has prayed for the situation and wept for his people, and God has begun to develop a vision and a plan for how Nehemiah might be able to act on what God has called him to. When the opportunity to share that vision with someone who can make it happen (King Atraxerxes) comes along, Nehemiah pounces on it! He is scared to death, but he does not let that fear stiffle him. He prays and moves forward with a bold...almost ridiculous...proposition for the king. The king accepts it and grants Nehemiah the opportunity not just to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city walls, but he provides him with protection, authority and resources to do it! Talk about God moving to accomplish what a man could not!

When Nehemiah finally gets to Jerusalem he does what any good leader would, he accurately assess the situation and puts together a plan. Only after that, does he share his vision with the poeple, and they buy in 100%. What a great lesson for us. What was considered an impossible, or at least unrealistic, idea of rebuilding the walls before, is now a source of excitement among the people. Something that they can rally behind. Good leaders know that a compelling vision is critical to motivate people! The people knew what their calling was, but they needed a compelling vision to motivate them to action. We also see at the end of the chapter that this kind of vision not only motivates us, but it spurs us to persevere in the midst of pain, persecution , and trials...just as Nehemiah did in verses19-20.

The Holidays Are Over

As much as I love it, the craziness and chaos of the holidays is over and part of me is quite happy about that. We can settle back into a little bit of a routine again in BNX. This week we started a new series in our bible study time on Wednesday's that I have been looking forward to for several weeks. I did not want to start this during the holidays because I knew how many would miss out and I think this is going to be very good for the students. We are going to be studying the book of Nehemiah for the next several weeks. We are going to pretty much cover the entire book almost verse by verse. Last night we started that series with a bit of an introduction to the book and we dove into chapter 1.
I wanted to study this book with the students for several reasons. 1-This book will serve as a great follow-up to our series on the "God of Wonders". Nehemiah was burdened with a significant, monumental problem that he really could do nothing about on his on. However with God's guidance and strength he did something amazing. 2-Nehemiah is a book that gives us a great deal of insight into seeking and following God's will in our lives. God is sovereign and He does have a plan for us. How do we find it and follow it? Nehemiah can help students with those questions. 3-Nehemiah gives us some great leadership principles that we can apply to our own lives. Nehemiah was not a man that many would have likely thought of as a leader (as is the case with many teenagers) yet that is exactly how God intended to use him.
We looked at much of the historial background of the book, the setting in the Persian city of Susa and the situation in Jerusalem as reported to Nehemiah by his "brother" (vs 1-3). We spent the bulk of out time looking at Nehemiah's reaction to that report (vs 4-11). This reaction gives us numerous applications for today.
1) We see that Nehemiah had a real heart for his people. He wept and mourned for them...for days. We will never be able to lead people that we don't truly care about. Nehemiah was not necessarily equipped or trained to be a leader, but he loved his people, and God used that.
2)Nehemiah had a significant concern. His concern was so significant that he was moved to action. What are the things in our lives that we are so significantly concerned about that we are willing to take action to change them? These are the things that God may be placing on our hearts to show us his plans for our future.
3)Nehemiah knew exactly where to go with his concern...to his knees. Leadership always begins on our knees in prayer. Also, the process of determining God's will for our lives always begins on our knees in prayer.
4)Remember the promises of God in scripture. Nehemiah reminded himself of the promises that God had made generations before regarding the nation of Israel (vs 5 & 9). In difficult times we often need to fall back on His promises to sustain us and motivate us to persevere.
5)Sin is serious business. Nehemiah knew what the cause of Israel's struggles was their sin. He saw the need to confess not only his own sins, but those of his family, and even his nation.
6)God is sovereign. Chapter one finishes with a short statement that almost seems out of place in reference to the rest of the chapter but it has significant implications. "Now I was cupbearer to the king". This was a fairly high position...for a slave. A position where Nehemiah had to potentially lay down his life for the king of a foreign nation? A position where he was ultimately viewed as potentially disposable. Not a position most of us would sign up for but it was the perfect position for the plans that God had for Nehemiah. We may not be exactly where we want to be in life or where we think we should be...but we are exactly where God wants us to be.

Evangelism...Really?

Recently I have found this word, concept, command, calling, (whatever it is) very interesting, intriguing, frustrating, scary, CONFUSING and DIFFICULT. I think most people kind of have a similar feeling about evangelism. It seems to strike up so many emotions and so many questions. And the bottom line is that it just seems to not really be happening much. Why is that? We hear about it nearly every Sunday in some form or another. There are countless different evangelism strategies out there for us to learn, and yet we seem to be doing very little of it and when we do it, most of us (me included) rarely get the results we were hoping for.

Last week I started a new series where we are going to take a few weeks and try to look at this idea of evangelism and try to understand it just a little better and take a bit of the fear and confusion out of it. We spent some time asking the question "WHY should we be doing evangelism"? What is our motivation? We looked at some of the statistics which say that more than 4.5 billion people in the world today are without Christ and over 1 billion of those have never even heard of Christ or the gospel story. That should motivate us. People dying without Christ and the fact that God loves these people, should motivate us.

Something else that should motivate us to do evangelism is that fact that scripture tells us to do it. We discussed several passages (Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 10:10-18, I Cor. 9:19-24, Matthew 28:16-20, and Acts 1:8) and saw that ALL people, not just the professionals, are called to evangelize. This call from scripture is ultimately why we should be evangelizing.
This week we are going to discuss the question of "HOW do we do evangelism?" Hopefully we will learn some very simple, critical concepts that should make evangelism much easier and definitely more productive.

God Wants to Use You

This week we wrapped up this series on "The God of Wonders". As I was reflecting on the last few weeks of this series, I was reminded of the incredible potential that lies within this generation of students. It is truly amazing. There is so much that they can do in their lifetimes. My biggest fear is that they just don't see it. But even if they did see it, and had a desire to use it, I don't think it would be enough to drastically impact some of the biggest issues facing our world today. It truly is going to take an amazing move of God to change the scope of issues like poverty, AIDS, persecution, slavery, etc. But that is good news for us...potentially. God is wanting to move in these issues, and the best part of it is that He would love to use us to make that impact. The question is...are we willing to be used??? Are we willing to open our arms wide, throw our hands in the air and say, "God I can't do it, but I am totally available for You to use however You would like to." That is what I challenged our students to do this week. Make themselves availble to Him to be used however He may choose. I gave them the opportunity to spend some time quietly reflecting on what God wanted them to do with this series. I encouraged them to write out what God spoke to them and to at some point share that with someone...maybe their parents. Please help me to pray for these students and encourage them to make themselves availableto Him...no matter what He wants to do with them.

But What Can I Do?

This week we continued with our "God of Wonders" series and asked the question, "Alright, I know there are some major issues in our world today that need God's intervention, but what can I do about them?". It is easy to look at the issues that we have discussed (poverty, christian persecution, AIDS, human trafficking and slavery) and feel overwhelmed to the point of disinterest and detachment from these issues. However in 1 Kings 16-18 we read about how Elijah dealt with a pretty serious issue and asked some pretty ridiculous things of God...and God answered in some "God-sized" ways. Elijah sets an example for us of just what we can do with big issues in our world today.
First of all Elijah very boldly confronted the issue (I Kings 17:1). He did not hold back at all as he confronted King Ahab, even though he had no earthly authority to do so. He knew that he only had to answer to the true "living" God.
Elijah also obeyed God, even when God asked him to do something that sounded pretty ridiculous by human standards (1 Kings 17:2-7). I believe Elijah's obedience is quite noteworthy. Verse 5 begins by saying "So he went". He did not need any further explanation. He did not need to take some time to pray about this. He did not need to seek counsel from anyone. God told him to go...and he went.
Elijah's obedience allowed him to get away from the hustle and bustle and, in his case, the dangers of this world, so that, he could spend some time alone with his creator. (1 Kings 17:5-7)
And finally Elijah shows us how important it is to pray to God. James 5:17 tells us that Elijah spent time in prayer before this whole encounter Ahab and I Kings 18:42 tells us that he also ended this encounter with prayer.
It may seem pretty cliche-ish, but Elijah really does give a pretty good example of how to deal with these big issues in our world today...1)Boldly confront the issues that God burns on our hearts. 2) Make ourselves available to God and obey His call on our lives. That call is understood and clarified through 3) time alone with God and 4) pray to God.

Prayer Night

What an awesome thing it is to see God move and stir in hearts. I don't want to say too much as I think it minimizes it...but parents, ask your students if they saw God moving at the annex tonight (6/29). Tonight we had a "Prayer Party" of sorts, to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our Youth Ministry Prayer Team. Chuck shared a great devotion for the students tonight. He really highlighted some of the biggest issues we deal with that distract us from our prayer lives. I know it sounds crazy... but tonight our pastor said that he wanted to see these teenagers become rebellious. Sound crazy? Have you ever heard a pastor tell teens that he wants to see teens rebel. Don't get too worked up, as I am absolutely in full agreement. Again, ask your teenager what Chuck meant by that...and then, please, please, please encourage them in their rebellion!
Thank all of you for your efforts and prayers and please, if you are not already a part of our prayer team please contact me or Sheila Wright about how you can join.

The Audacity

I have really been challenged recently by a book written by Steven Furtick called "Sun Stand Still". The gist of the book is that in today's world we could really use more of the audacious faith that Joshua displayed in Joshua 10:12&13 where he actually asks God to make the sun stand still in the sky and extend a day. When I read this I thought it so perfectly fit with the series that we are currently doing that I knew I had teach last night from Joshua 10. (it would be well worth your time to go read this account right now)

Live out an audacious faith and pray audacious prayers. This is basically what this whole "God of Wonders" series has been calling our students to do, and Joshua 10 shows, from Scripture that God approves of this thinking. There are some huge needs in our world today that are going to require some HUGE interventions from God. But the cool thing is that God apparently Big enough to do just that and answer some big requests. We talked a lot last night about the fact that most of us have never seen God move in ways that are similar to what we read about in scripture. Think about the miracles that you have seen...any of them look like the parting of the Red Sea, water turning to wine, manna falling from heaven, fire coming down from heaven to burn an alter, or the sun stopping in the sky for about a day. Why do we not see things like this? I am not minimizing the miracles we do see today... a child being born, a person healed from disease, someone surviving a horrific car accident...but, many miracles in scripture seem to look a bit different to me. Why? Maybe it is because we are not asking BIG things of God. That's what this series is all about. We have a Big God, who has the power (and I believe the desire) to do big things in some very difficult situations.

Think about it. These issues we are talking about (poverty, AIDS, human trafficking, the persecuted church) are setting up the perfect recipe for God to move. These issues are way to big for us to do anything about them...most of us have already succumbed to that fact and become apathetic already. Now God has the perfect opportunity to move mightily and intervene in miraculous ways so that only He can receive the glory that He deserves. Maybe he is just waiting for a generation of Christians to step forward in humility and obedience and ask some big, audacious things of God. It is my prayer that this generation might be that generation... if we will empower and encourage them to be.

Slavery Today

Continuing in our series on "Our God of Wonders", this week we looked at what many are now calling the fastest growing crime in the world, the modern day slave trade and human trafficking. There are currently about 27 million people held captive around the world as slaves. That is more than at any other time in history. 80% of those people are women and half of them are children. This issue involves slavery of all different kinds. Many are laborers in an endless variety of industries. Some, mostly children in Africa, are abducted and forced to serve as soldiers under barbaric regimes. Some, actually the vast majority of slaves around the world today are held in the sex-trade. This is a huge business said to be around $32 billion a year. That was $32 billion...with a "b". To put that in perspective, it is more than the yearly profits of Google, Nike and Starbucks combined!
Even more significant in this issue than just the shear vastness of it...is the fact that each of these 27 million slaves are precious, individual lives...most of which are helpless to improve their own situation. They are in dire need of help. Can we just ignore this issue? Can we just ignore these women and children? For how long? But how can we help? We discussed three organizations that are trying to inform people about this issue and help some of these people get out of these situations and start new lives. Chack them out if you can: 1) Takenoglory.com 2) wellspringliving.org 3) Olivia's Song (info on Facebook and Vimeo)
As with each week of this series we have looked at another issue that is so big, we could never impact it on our own. We would have to have a big God intervene on our behalf. Do we really believe that our God is that big? The even bigger question though, that I asked our students is..."Are you willing to surrender your life and ask God to use you as His vessel to greatly impact this issue?"

What We Are Talking About

For the last 4 weeks we have been going through a series called "The Wonders of God". The first week we looked at several scriptures (Job 38-41, Psalm 113, Psalm 145,) that talked about what a wondrous God we serve. We focused on Deuteronomy 10:21 which says, "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome works your eyes have seen." (HCSB) The Israelites had seen many times and situations where they needed a great and mighty God to come and act because the strength and works of man would not have been sufficient. They asked for this, and according to this scripture they had seen His works with their own eyes.

I asked the students several questions. I asked them why they believe that our God is a mighty God of Wonders? Is it just because they have been told that? Or is it because they have read that in the Bible? Or is it because they have truly seen the wonders of God as the Israelites had? Do our lives reflect that we believe that our God is great and mighty? How?

Then I challenged the students with this question that will be the platform for the rest of this series... "If we really believed that our God was great would we not ask great things of Him?" What have we asked of God lately? For the next (and past) several weeks we will be looking at some of the incredibly difficult (even impossible) issues facing our world today and looking at it through the filter of this question. I want to present some information that maybe we don't hear about too often. I also want to present some of the people and organizations that are attempting to get involved in these issues...people that are truly asking great things of God!

We have already spent one week talking about poverty (hunger, poor sanitation, lack of drinking water, communicable disease, etc) around the world. Another week we talked about the persecuted church around the world and last week we talked about the impact of the AIDS epidemic around the world especially in Africa. The bottom line is that these issues are WAY to big for any of us to do anything about them. Because of that most people throw their hands in the air and ignore them. But, as Christians, if we do that what does that say about our beliefs about our God? Is He not big enough to impact these issues? Of course He is...and maybe, just maybe, He wants to use some of us...even our teens... as His vessel to bring that impact into these issues.

We have talked about how God is using organizations like ONE, WorldVision, and Feed the Hunger to make an impact on poverty. We talked about the underground church and how an organization like Voice of the Martyrs is making a huge impact for these people. Last week we talked about how God is working (RED), AIDSLink and Mike and Carolyn Ennis with Rafiki Foundation, to shine the love of Christ into a horrific situation.

We will continue to look at some of these issues each week leading up to the Global Impact Celebration November 3rd-7th. It is my prayer that these students would see that our world is full HUGE issues, but more importantly that our God is big enough to reach into those situations and make an impact through people that are willing to obey and surrender everything to Him. Are we willing to ask Him to use us that way?


Remember, to check back each week as I will try to give you a synopsis (briefer than this) of what we are discussing on Wednesday nights.

New Focus

One of the big things that God has shown me in my time in youth ministry is that it should really be thought of as family ministry. God has just really convicted me that there needs to be more focus on parents and specifically encouraging, challenging and assisting them in their call to disciple their children. One of the ways that I want to try and do this is through this blog. I want to try and incorporate more time "blogging" for you parents. Not everything they I put on here will be for you but much of it will. On Thursday or Friday of each week I will try to give a little synopsis of what we studied at BNX on Wednesday night. This has two purposes. The obvious first purpose is just to "keep you in the loop". But a second more important purpose is that hopefully this will give you guys some platforms from which to start some discussions with your kids. I think we have a tendency to sometimes make the process of discipling our kids more difficult and daunting than it should be. We don't have to be Biible scholars and theologians to disciple them. We really just need to love them and have a willingness to talk to them about our lives and theirs. We need to talk to them about how God is working in our own life and how that effects our thinking and our daily decision making processes. Hopefully this will help you with that sometimes.

'Fake Christians'

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html?hpt=T2
I have copied a link to an article that was sent to me that I thought was quite interesting. This is certainly something that I think needs our prayerful consideration...and our down right attention and focus! I want to really appeal to parents to read the part under the heading that reads... "How 'radical' parents instill religious passion in their children"

They offer some great points for us as parents to ponder. I must say though, that it struck me what they were refering to as "radical". As I thought about it I had to ask myself, is this really radical? Or is this just what the basic life of a Christian should look like. Sure, some decisions are certainly radical, but are we sometimes making things seem so extreme when they really don't need to be? Is it really that hard to explain to our kids why we do things and let them know that our daily decisions in life are influenced by our faith? Or maybe we need to be vulnerable and talk to them about the times that we did not let our faith influence a decision like it should. Is that really a "radical" concept for us? I hope not. It does not take a special book by James Dobson and a prescribed daily agenda for us to disciple our children. Live life, and share with them how God is impacting you each day. I guess in our culture today, that is a pretty radical concept.

The Beauty of Humility

We just had D-Now this past weekend (yes I realize that it has been a year since I had a blog entry). As always it was a great weekend. The speakers did a great job. The bands were awesome and lead some incredible times of praise. I think the curriculum was better than we have had at DNOW for a while. Small group discussions were intense. The support from parents and volunteers was phenomenal. Just a great weekend. I think God truly had an opportunity to speak. But none of those things are what I will remember. Those things can been seen more or less every year at DNOW and other events...and that is great. But there was one thing about this DNOW that was a little different for me. We took some time to do a little service project Saturday morning along with some students from Grace Evangelical Church. I think I actually got the chance to see a glimmer of Christ that morning. We went to downtown Atlanta to work with a homeless ministry called Safehouse Outreach. It was a fairly typical ministry to homeless people, which I have seen a lot of lately. We provided a sack lunch for some men and women living in some difficult scenarios. We provided some basic hygiene kits for some also. We sat and had some conversations with the hope of sharing the gospel of Jesus. What Christ does with that is up to Him. I am sure there were some physical needs met that day. Maybe there were some emotional needs met. Hopefully there were some spiritual needs met. However, i know that I am too much of a septic at times and have to remind myself to just surrender all of that God as best i can. But there was something else I saw that was seered into my head. On one side of the small meeting room we were working in there was a row of chairs set up. Men and women could come over to that row of chairs and receive a free pair of new socks. There was one catch. To receive those socks they had to allow their feet to be washed. When I first heard we were going to be doing this I was really curious how our students would respond. I figured a couple would agree to do this and maybe they would...but probably only for a very few minutes and then they would move on to one of the other tasks they could be involved in. But I saw several of our students take part in this opportunity and I was blown away by the humility with which they did it. And not just to one person but one after another. I wish I could describe the way these peoples faces lit up as our students would remove their shoes and socks and then wash and care for their feet...some terribly rough, ragged and abused feet mind you. I could not help but to picture Christ as He did the same for His disciples. I know that those men and women getting their feet washed saw Christ. I was reminded of what Christ can do with a life that is humbly surrendered to Him. Once we get out of the way with our material selfishness, He can truly be seen and He can bring to Himself the glory that He deserves.

Redefining Normal

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being a part of a county wide D-Now event sponsored by FAYMA (Fayette Area Youth Ministers Association). I thought it was an awesome weekend. I had prayed for many weeks that this years Disciple Now would not just be another event to "get the troops excited", but that it would actually make an impact. I felt like the theme and curriculum for the weekend could truly do just that. Our theme was "Redefining Normal". The students were really challenged to repent, which one of the speakers pointed out means to "rethink" or change the way we think. This is exactly what I hope comes from this weekend. I hope that we see some students truly repent. And I am not just talking about the standard church definition of "turning from their sins". I hope this weekend really causes these students to begin to rethink the way they view everything. We have all been trained by the world around us to view and think about things a certain way. The question is whether or not Jesus thinks about things the same way. I believe the answer to that question is a big fat NO! So much of what we do and think, is absolutely contrary to Christ. When He came to earth as a man He totally flipped this world upside down with statements like,
"if anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mark9:35),
"Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you" (Luke 6:27),
"anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life" (John 6:54), and
"the one who loves his life will lose it" (John 12:25).
Jesus so dramatically challenged the norms of the time that the world has still not recovered from it some 2000 years later. If we are going to truly follow Him and take on what He views as normal, the world around us just may call us crazy! It is my prayer that this weekend might have caused a few students in our community to absolutely go crazy! Only time will tell.

OMG!!!???

I feel like I am seeing this statement more and more recently and I have to be honest...IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!! Why is it so easy for us to casually and flipantly throw the Lord's name around so irreverantly? Do we not have any concept of what we are actually saying? I regularly hear people saying, "Oh my God". I think I read it even more on blogs and facebook. Most of the time it is not really even used in a very dramatic context. I can't see where God has anything to do with what they are talking about. I find myself dying to just ask them, "What does god have to do with this?", and see if they even realize what they have said. How do we so easily disassociate this statement with the 3rd commandment in Exodus 20 which very clearly says "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." How have we become so desensitized to this? I am quite certain we are all creative enough to come up with a better way for expressing ourselves. At least I hope so!

Why Are We Not Suffering

I have spent a great deal of time over the past days, weeks and even months thinking about the whole idea of suffering. I am coming to believe, more and more, that this is a topic that Christians do not have an appropriate perspective of...especially Christians in America. As I read through God's Word, I find very few, if any, examples of people who go through a life devoted to Christ Jesus and experience a very easy, comfortable, and cushy life, with no suffering or persecution. On the other hand I find example after example of people who suffer through tremendous pain, heartache, and even death for their devotion to Christ. That seems to be a major pattern in Scripture. Are we Christians today experiencing the same things? Do we experience that same pain and heartache and even death because of our claim to Christianity? I don't think so. At least not to the same degree. Yes, we deal with pain such as disease and the deaths of friends and family, which is natural to all people, but are we experiencing any hardship that is the direct result of being a follower of Christ? Not really in this country. We might occasionally have to deal with someone making fun of our beliefs or calling us a name (not to make light of this kind of persecution), but we do not really have to worry about being beaten, jailed, or even killed for our beliefs (though that day may be around the corner). There are believers around the world who truly do know what it means to "share in His suffering". Are we missing something when we do not really experience any persecution in our lives? I think it is a question that is at least worth asking.

Why would God want us to experience suffering on His behalf? In some ways that seems totally contradictory to what we think God should do. God is supposed to be about love and mercy and compassion and grace. How do those things jive with suffering? That is so hard for us to understand. However, God's Word is very clear that God uses suffering to groom us and teach us things like obedience (Hebrews 5:8) and perseverance (Romans 5:3). Can our faith really grow and develop in a lifestyle of comfort and security? Are we really forced to turn to Him and totally depend on Him as our Sustainer? It does not seem very likely to me. I can't help but believe that the Apostle Paul's intimacy with Christ was grown to a whole different level as he was chained in prison, beaten and alone. I can't help but believe that Peter's devotion to Christ was proven to be far greater than my own, when he was hanging upside down on a crucifix because of his bold stand for Jesus. I wonder if I am missing something when I hear stories about believers in places like Vietnam, China, and Iran who know that they will suffer intensely when people find out that they are a Christians. And yet I can sit here and openly write this blog, never thinking of any physical consequence that could come my way because of it. Do I have that kind of faith to stand so strongly for Him? I hope so...but I have never been tested on that level to know. Part of me wants to thank God for protecting me from that, but part of me can't help but wonder if that is just an indication of how weak and infantile my faith in Him is. Had I been jailed or beaten because of my faith in Jesus, I think that my reliance upon, and trust in Jesus, would be far stronger than what they currently are.

Should we be praying for God to send us some suffering? Would that be a prayer that would honor Him? Part of me really thinks it would. I think suffering may be what we need, not only to sift out the phony Christians in our churches, but also to cause our own faith and love for Christ to grow exponentially. Suffering seems to be something that people of the New Testament not only expected, but actually rejoiced over, because it was a sign that they truly were associated with Jesus Christ (Acts 5:41). Much of the church in America today verbalizes an association with Christ. Is our lack of suffering an indication that Christ does not recognize that association, because it is actually just a head knowledge and not a heart knowledge? If we are truly indwelt by Him, we should expect His sufferings to overflow into us (2 Corinthians 1:5). Ultimately that forces us to ask the question, "Do I truly want to be associated with Him?"

Are You Going to be Green?

It seems like every time I turn around I hear something else about "green". It seems like everyone in our world today is into this whole thing. I can't watch TV, listen to the radio, or even go to the mailbox without being bombarded with something about being "green". Just yesterday I saw a bank and cell phone company using "green" as their advertising gimmick. Is that really what I am looking for in a bank...that they are green? Right now I just want a bank that is not going to go under anytime soon.
This has caused me over recent months and weeks to really put some thought into this whole concept. I actually spent the last few weeks doing a series in BNX on some of the conclusions that I have come to. Just as I have shared with the students I work with, my point in writing this is not to say that it is either right or wrong to "go green", but rather to understand your basis for that belief from a Biblical position and not because of what the world is telling us. Here are a few things I have found as I have researched this.
-Anything that the world is overwhelmingly supportive of we, as Christians, should immediately be concerned about. We know from God's Word that Satan is the ruler of this world (Matthew 4:8-9, I John 5:19), that he is the father of lies (John 8:44), and wants nothing more than to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9). Therefore, I think we need to seriously question anything that is so supported by the world around us. Now, that does not necessarily mean we should not support the green movement...only that we should be skeptical and do some praying and research.
-The motivation behind the overwhelming majority of environmental organizations is to basically stop and reverse the effects that humans are having and have had on planet earth. Go checkout the mission statements of any environmental organization and see if that is not true. This idea is one that I think very much goes against specific Biblical doctrine. Let me explain...In Genesis 3 we read the account of the "temptation and fall of man". Part of that account involves the judgement from God for the sins that were committed. We read, in some detail, what was cursed and affected by sin. In verse 17 we see that not only was man cursed and condemned to death (physical and spiritual), but so was the rest of creation. This seems to me to indicate that we can't "stop or reverse" the decaying and death of this world as our environmental groups suggest they want to do. Now, I also believe that we should not needlessly expedite that process either (the key word here being needlessly).
-We have all heard, from our friends like Mr. Al Gore, the doomsday timescales of when we will destroy our own planet if we do not stop living the way we are now. This thinking, I believe, is also very UNBiblical. If we read Romans 8:18-22 we again see references to Genesis 3 where creation was cursed to death and futility, just as man was. We also see that creation is "eagerly awaiting" the second coming of Christ (vs 19) where it can also be delivered from it's "bondage to decay" (New International Version). We can trust then, that before we as humans completely destroy and obliterate this world as so many environmentalist suggest we are doing, Christ WILL come back to deliver us...and creation! There will be no "Doomsday" (at least not for true believers and creation).
-My biggest concern with this movement lies in the shear enormity of it. It is an incredibly vast movement. I fear that this whole issue is rapidly becoming one of idolatry, where we are becoming more concerned about what we are doing every day to destroy the earth, than what we are doing every day to passionately know, love, and worship our God, Creator, and Lord Jesus Christ. For many of us it is easier and more important in our daily lives to recycle an aluminum can and minimize our carbon footprint, than it is to open our Bible and spend some intimate alone time with Jesus our Savior.
-Some might say, "But how can that many people be wrong?". I would first point back to my previous point from John 8:44. I would also remind people of what Romans 12:2 teaches us. We should not be conformed to this world. The NIV says the "patterns of this world". I think this movement may be just that...a "pattern" of this world that maybe we should not be conforming to, at least not for the reasons that this world gives us. Instead we should be "transformed" (which I think means we should look at least a little different???) by the renewing of our minds. Maybe we need to research this movement a bit, and see if we are just conforming or if we need a little transforming.
-I also do believe that we are called to stewardship as one component of our worship to God. In Genesis 1 we are given authority and responsibility over all of creation as we are set apart and created in God's own image. This is something that I think all Christians need to put some serious thought and prayer into, and one area that I think most of us are lacking in. If God leads you through sincere prayer and study of scripture, as part of your worship through stewardship, to recycle, drive a hybrid, or pay for a carbon offset, then by all means do it. Do it to the Glory of Jesus Christ. And if by the same method you are lead to throw away your trash, drive an SUV and hunt deer, then by all means, fire away (hunters, by the way, were some of the first conservationists and naturalists). I think we, as Christians, also have a responsibility not to judge each other's decisions on this issue, when they are legitimately founded in prayer, scripture study and comprehensive information research. The last thing in the world we want is to do something just because the world says it is right or good!

Rethinking Things

This is sort of a theme in my life right now... "rethinking things". So why not carry it over into this blog. I know most of you thought that I was completely done with this blog thing since I have not done anything with it in so long...but hah...you are wrong! I am back! I am moving back into the blogosphere once again.
Here is the deal..1st of all, where have I been in my time away from blogland? Well basically I have used this blog in the past to post pictures and stories of different events (mostly youth related stuff). But that is no longer needed. For the past few months we have been working on a new website for all of that kind of stuff. Go check it out and let us know what you think about it. www.bnxyouth.org. So that explains where I have been, but now I want to explain where I want to go. My game plan for the future of this blog site is to just simply use it to blog. Makes sense I think...a blog site to blog on! I do not intend to put up pictures or videos on here like I have in the past (again, checkout the website for that). I just want to share some of what is going on in my head. I know, I know...that is the one place that most people who know me don't want to go, but we will see how it goes. I want to also try to periodically share summaries of things I have recently been teaching on. Sooooo..parents take a look sometime and see if you can use some of this stuff to start conversations with your kids. I am curious to get feedback on some of these thoughts so let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy the new direction. Thanks JD

Fall Festival

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone that helped out with this years fall festival. It was a great night. There were, of course, some great costumes and it looked looked like kids were having fun and filling up with candy. We again had some awesome trunks and games for kids to enjoy. I must admit that Governor Sarah Palin showing up was a highlight of the night for me! (No it was not really her but it sure looked like it!) The cake walk was once again a huge success and the youth ministry was able to raise $150 that will be donated to a local pastor dealing with some significant health issues. Also from this, dozens of people won some pretty amazing baked goods. Overall, the evening was a blast and a it was a great opportunity for us to serve our community!