Friday, June 1, 2007
What the summer holds...
I have been asked that question quite frequently by some new friends of mine. This summer for me and for our staff team holds a little bit of student ministry and a whole lot of support raising. I have never raised support full-time before and am unsure what sin it may reveal in my heart. I am sure that is will reveal much! I already know how much my heart resists being a beggar continually in need of grace... Well, it seems God would have me proclaiming that everyday for the next two months. So yes, here we go humility (hopefully!) and needed finances (hopefully!). Pray, and if God leads you to give or if you want to hear more about what God is doing through us, please contact me. Or if you have a friend that may be interested, send them my way as well... or if your friend has a friend... or if your friend's friend has a friend. You get the point!
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you , as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you."
God has brought this verse to mind frequently in the last week. My church, Crossway Fellowship, has been going through the Sermon on the Mount for the last few months. It has been very convicting and refreshing. It has also served to prove that though I teach through this passage frequently with our journey leadership students, I am still in need of much grace to apply its truths to my life.
Anyways, back to the verse. It seems I have been more aware of some "needy people" or "needy situations" in my life as of late. As I relate to each of these, I hear God calling me to a higher level of trust, humility, forgiveness, patience, or surrendering. In response, I have felt more resistance in my flesh-- wanting to grasp at and clinch in my fist the security of material wealth, my own comfort, my own rights, my own schedule which has myself as the supreme benefactor, and my own determining of whom I will love and whom I will avoid. Because our God is unending in goodness, his grace still calls me to crucify my flesh and walk in obedience amidst my childish temportantrums.
Still with all that grace, I have noted in myself the tendency to be all too observant of the ways God is asking me to serve or mortify my sin or love or obey. As if I have a calculator in my pocket and I am keeping a tally, so as to justify my two wrong responses to God: The first is entitled, "The Demand for the Hollywood Lifestyle/ The Opposite of a Submitted Life". This is when I tell God he needs to stop messing with my life now... My flesh mourns, laments, and yells while God peals my hands off my Hollywood lifestyle-- where everything is easy, nothing makes me depend on him or grateful for him, and I am made much of, instead of him. The second response I call, "The Self-Righteous Trumpet Player". I think to myself, "Wow, you're pretty impressive, look at how much you're giving here and here and here and...You deserve a break." How arrogant those words seem when scripture calls me an unworthy servant who only does the lowest requirement for the Master.
Gross as it is, that is where my heart goes... averting my eyes, not away from myself and to my God, but towards myself. Following my friend, JohnMark's sermon on Sunday, I listened to a sermon by John Piper. He spoke of the glory of God when all things are restored, commenting that one thing that will become characteristic of man is his self-forgetfulness in the midst of praising and looking to the glory of our great God! Oh, how my heart needs that! Pray for me that self-forgetfulness would be my first inclination amidst God's pruning or increased call to love and live the Gospel. Self-forgetfulness-- so much so that my left hand would not realize what my right hand is doing. Pray hard, for my pride does not make this process an easy or natural one. Pray hard, for I fear that the God I serve is very jealous over his glory and demands that I be as well.
God has brought this verse to mind frequently in the last week. My church, Crossway Fellowship, has been going through the Sermon on the Mount for the last few months. It has been very convicting and refreshing. It has also served to prove that though I teach through this passage frequently with our journey leadership students, I am still in need of much grace to apply its truths to my life.
Anyways, back to the verse. It seems I have been more aware of some "needy people" or "needy situations" in my life as of late. As I relate to each of these, I hear God calling me to a higher level of trust, humility, forgiveness, patience, or surrendering. In response, I have felt more resistance in my flesh-- wanting to grasp at and clinch in my fist the security of material wealth, my own comfort, my own rights, my own schedule which has myself as the supreme benefactor, and my own determining of whom I will love and whom I will avoid. Because our God is unending in goodness, his grace still calls me to crucify my flesh and walk in obedience amidst my childish temportantrums.
Still with all that grace, I have noted in myself the tendency to be all too observant of the ways God is asking me to serve or mortify my sin or love or obey. As if I have a calculator in my pocket and I am keeping a tally, so as to justify my two wrong responses to God: The first is entitled, "The Demand for the Hollywood Lifestyle/ The Opposite of a Submitted Life". This is when I tell God he needs to stop messing with my life now... My flesh mourns, laments, and yells while God peals my hands off my Hollywood lifestyle-- where everything is easy, nothing makes me depend on him or grateful for him, and I am made much of, instead of him. The second response I call, "The Self-Righteous Trumpet Player". I think to myself, "Wow, you're pretty impressive, look at how much you're giving here and here and here and...You deserve a break." How arrogant those words seem when scripture calls me an unworthy servant who only does the lowest requirement for the Master.
Gross as it is, that is where my heart goes... averting my eyes, not away from myself and to my God, but towards myself. Following my friend, JohnMark's sermon on Sunday, I listened to a sermon by John Piper. He spoke of the glory of God when all things are restored, commenting that one thing that will become characteristic of man is his self-forgetfulness in the midst of praising and looking to the glory of our great God! Oh, how my heart needs that! Pray for me that self-forgetfulness would be my first inclination amidst God's pruning or increased call to love and live the Gospel. Self-forgetfulness-- so much so that my left hand would not realize what my right hand is doing. Pray hard, for my pride does not make this process an easy or natural one. Pray hard, for I fear that the God I serve is very jealous over his glory and demands that I be as well.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Somebody shoot me or I'm gonna to die!
So typically, at the end of the year our students are stressed to the max with finals and end of the year papers and such... Meanwhile, we get to breathe easy the last week of school. This is not the case this year.
I had a mini-panic attack in staff last week when I began to think of all the things on my plate as of late and all the things that may change for our ministry next year... House hunting for next year, throwing wedding showers, decorating for New Members Lunch for Crossway, planning for 28/20 Conference in 2 weeks, having a leadership dessert and book discussion in a week, doing an end of the year picnic for our journey students, visiting my parents before they leave for Tiawan, Pastoral interviews to become a member of Crossway, Restoration (Worship through dance) rehersals and performances, all the normal ministry stuff that's in every week, and the list goes on and on... "Let him who serves, serve cheerfully" AMEN! Pray for the peace of God to guard my heart and mind. God has constantly called me into communion with him this week-- and I am thankful! Pray though that he would help me finish well and live in his spirit! ...and no more panic attacks in the name of Jesus! Thanks! Love you all!
I had a mini-panic attack in staff last week when I began to think of all the things on my plate as of late and all the things that may change for our ministry next year... House hunting for next year, throwing wedding showers, decorating for New Members Lunch for Crossway, planning for 28/20 Conference in 2 weeks, having a leadership dessert and book discussion in a week, doing an end of the year picnic for our journey students, visiting my parents before they leave for Tiawan, Pastoral interviews to become a member of Crossway, Restoration (Worship through dance) rehersals and performances, all the normal ministry stuff that's in every week, and the list goes on and on... "Let him who serves, serve cheerfully" AMEN! Pray for the peace of God to guard my heart and mind. God has constantly called me into communion with him this week-- and I am thankful! Pray though that he would help me finish well and live in his spirit! ...and no more panic attacks in the name of Jesus! Thanks! Love you all!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Repentance on Legion Field
Last night, we finished our most recent 21 days of non-stop prayer with Tribe Issachar. We ended with a time of public worship and repentance at Legion Field on campus. Young and old made it out, a group of 60 year-olds and 20 year-olds-- a beautiful site before our God. Below is a prayer my director, Mike Satterfield encouraged us with. I wanted you to read it, so you could know how to pray for us. Again, if you live in Athens and want a quiet place to pray, come downtown to the prayer room and join us. (For more info: http://www.tribeissachar.com/)
Repent:
To agree with God about sin; to turn away from and change one’s mind about sin
To be done with worldliness
For do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For the wickedness of a nation
For the thousands of unborn lives that are sacrificed on the alters of convenience and choice
For the Pulitzer Prize winners, and Nobel Laureates, for the Diplomats and Heads of State, the elementary school teachers and college professors, the athletes, the mothers and fathers of future generations whose lives have been snuffed out before they had a chance to be heard
For the rivers of innocent blood that flow in our streets
For our lack of moral outrage as a people
For valuing the amassing of wealth over and above the value of human life
For striving to become rich in finances instead of poor in spirit
To him whom much is given, much is expected
I can think of no other nation on earth in the last 5 decades that has been given what we’ve been given and it terrifies me to think of the Judgment of God that is yet to come
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For the waywardness of a generation
For buying hook, line, and sinker every lie that our TV’s and radios tell us
For allowing ourselves to become so anesthetized to violence through the media that school shootings and the murdering of one’s own parents would become common place in our culture
For becoming not just tolerant but enamored with pornography, so that what passes for PG-13 in movies today would not have been given a showing 50 years ago
We prosecute the sick deviant who watches through the window of a private residence under cover of darkness and then we enter into a dark theater and do the same and call it entertainment
Woe to a generation that calls evil good and good evil
Repent!
For clinging to an entitlement mentality that believes that everybody owes us something, especially God
Woe to this generation for getting that right, for what the Holy One owes to us, what we rightly have earned by our repulsive sin, Scripture says is death and Hell
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For our corporate sins as the Body of Christ
For our pride and arrogance, looking down our noses at people who are “different” from us
For the naiveté that would presume that this present generation of college students and 20–somethings will eventually settle down and return to their Christian roots when they have been given no roots to return to
For the rampant spirit of religious ambition that keeps pastors and ministry leaders focused on their little “k” kingdoms instead of our Master’s Capital “K” Kingdom
For the same spirit that makes us divisive and suspicious of one another instead of submitting to the Holy Spirit who longs for us to embrace one another in Christ
For the club-house attitude that is pervasive in much of American Christianity that puts the happiness and contentment of its members above and before being missional in a community
For ferociously guarding our favorite padded pews instead of falling on our knees before Almighty God
For seeking comfort and complacency instead of going and serving and wading out into the muck and mire of humanity up to our elbows in an effort to love people who are made in the Image of God
For being ashamed of the Gospel so as to water it down and make it about happiness instead of righteousness
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For our individual sins – the pet sins that we keep chained up and hidden away that we think no one sees, that we rationalize about and stroke and feed and nurture
You know which ones
Even now as I speak God brings them to your mind
Be done with them
Repent!
For our apathy about sharing the Gospel while 9 out of 10 people around us on this campus is dieing and going to Hell
For making time to watch 24 and see Jack Bauer save the world when we won’t go to the trouble to see one person saved from the wrath that is to come
For sitting down to watch Grey’s anatomy every week when we put forth little or no effort to invite the Great Physician to examine our hearts and lives
For ritualistically gathering to see this week’s episode of Lost when we don’t even see those right next door to us who are eternally lost
For choosing worldliness over Godliness
For indulging in the lust of our flesh instead of crucifying it
For rallying to the battle cry of this generation when they say “Live for self!” instead of embracing the heart-cry of our Lord who says “Die to self!” Tonight, men and women, we must repent
God is ready to move now
The time has come now
The tide is sweeping in now
The dam is breaking and the enemy can no longer hold back the flood of the Holy Spirit
We cannot make it happen
We cannot manipulate our God by our cajoling and vowing like the pagans do
We cannot be strong enough, kind enough, smart enough, relevant enough, or good enough
Tonight, there is one thing, and one thing only that we can and MUST do
Repent!
Repent:
To agree with God about sin; to turn away from and change one’s mind about sin
To be done with worldliness
For do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For the wickedness of a nation
For the thousands of unborn lives that are sacrificed on the alters of convenience and choice
For the Pulitzer Prize winners, and Nobel Laureates, for the Diplomats and Heads of State, the elementary school teachers and college professors, the athletes, the mothers and fathers of future generations whose lives have been snuffed out before they had a chance to be heard
For the rivers of innocent blood that flow in our streets
For our lack of moral outrage as a people
For valuing the amassing of wealth over and above the value of human life
For striving to become rich in finances instead of poor in spirit
To him whom much is given, much is expected
I can think of no other nation on earth in the last 5 decades that has been given what we’ve been given and it terrifies me to think of the Judgment of God that is yet to come
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For the waywardness of a generation
For buying hook, line, and sinker every lie that our TV’s and radios tell us
For allowing ourselves to become so anesthetized to violence through the media that school shootings and the murdering of one’s own parents would become common place in our culture
For becoming not just tolerant but enamored with pornography, so that what passes for PG-13 in movies today would not have been given a showing 50 years ago
We prosecute the sick deviant who watches through the window of a private residence under cover of darkness and then we enter into a dark theater and do the same and call it entertainment
Woe to a generation that calls evil good and good evil
Repent!
For clinging to an entitlement mentality that believes that everybody owes us something, especially God
Woe to this generation for getting that right, for what the Holy One owes to us, what we rightly have earned by our repulsive sin, Scripture says is death and Hell
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For our corporate sins as the Body of Christ
For our pride and arrogance, looking down our noses at people who are “different” from us
For the naiveté that would presume that this present generation of college students and 20–somethings will eventually settle down and return to their Christian roots when they have been given no roots to return to
For the rampant spirit of religious ambition that keeps pastors and ministry leaders focused on their little “k” kingdoms instead of our Master’s Capital “K” Kingdom
For the same spirit that makes us divisive and suspicious of one another instead of submitting to the Holy Spirit who longs for us to embrace one another in Christ
For the club-house attitude that is pervasive in much of American Christianity that puts the happiness and contentment of its members above and before being missional in a community
For ferociously guarding our favorite padded pews instead of falling on our knees before Almighty God
For seeking comfort and complacency instead of going and serving and wading out into the muck and mire of humanity up to our elbows in an effort to love people who are made in the Image of God
For being ashamed of the Gospel so as to water it down and make it about happiness instead of righteousness
Repent!
It’s what we need to do tonight
For our individual sins – the pet sins that we keep chained up and hidden away that we think no one sees, that we rationalize about and stroke and feed and nurture
You know which ones
Even now as I speak God brings them to your mind
Be done with them
Repent!
For our apathy about sharing the Gospel while 9 out of 10 people around us on this campus is dieing and going to Hell
For making time to watch 24 and see Jack Bauer save the world when we won’t go to the trouble to see one person saved from the wrath that is to come
For sitting down to watch Grey’s anatomy every week when we put forth little or no effort to invite the Great Physician to examine our hearts and lives
For ritualistically gathering to see this week’s episode of Lost when we don’t even see those right next door to us who are eternally lost
For choosing worldliness over Godliness
For indulging in the lust of our flesh instead of crucifying it
For rallying to the battle cry of this generation when they say “Live for self!” instead of embracing the heart-cry of our Lord who says “Die to self!” Tonight, men and women, we must repent
God is ready to move now
The time has come now
The tide is sweeping in now
The dam is breaking and the enemy can no longer hold back the flood of the Holy Spirit
We cannot make it happen
We cannot manipulate our God by our cajoling and vowing like the pagans do
We cannot be strong enough, kind enough, smart enough, relevant enough, or good enough
Tonight, there is one thing, and one thing only that we can and MUST do
Repent!
Monday, April 2, 2007
oh the variance of ministry...
Holy Ghost revival, a 17 with a baby on the way, an additional disciple, beach evangelism, and a equipping conference for pastors... What do these things have in common? They would be the things that have kept my schedule full lately.
Revival??
God broke our students this past Tuesday... last week everything was running as normal until the end of our meeting-- then the Holy Spirit broke loose! Normally, we have a time of prayer and ministry after the talk... our folks can pray with a staffer or let whatever truth they just heard settle into their hearts. But last week, when we dismissed our students no one left. All 40 of them sat in the presence of the Lord-- still and quite as the Spirit descended on us. For the next 45 minutes, students prayed with one another, repented, sung, and read scripture, aloud. We are so thankful for God's ministry and grace to us. Please keep praying our students would be sensitive and obedient to the Spirit!
Under-aged Daddy?
My church, Crossway Fellowship, did a bit of street evangelism on Friday night. My friend Alan and I encountered three 17-year-old guys. Our conversation begun by one of them sharing he had recently become a father. Alan has 4 boys, so they bonded immediately. God opened their hearts to listen as Alan explained the gospel and the impact of our church on his life. Each teen intenly listened and admitted that they were not walking with God, but wanted to. We gave them a book called "50 Reasons Why Jesus Died" and invited them to our church. Please keep these boys in prayer. I hope that we will see them again or God would bring someone into their lives to disciple and love them.
Another Disciple?
I'm picking up a girl, named Sonya. She is a Pre-med student at UGA and has been discipled by another staffer (who has recently resigned) for the last 2 years. Pray that God would give us deep love and trust for one another. Pray also that God would give me wisdom to discern how to help her grow.
Is there a beach in Athens?
There is if you live in Brumby... or a grassy hill at the very least! My small group that has been meeting inside Brumby this semester is moving out! Out to "Brumby Beach" where freshman play and sunbathe-- to meet girls and share the gospel. Please pray God would prepare hearts-- that of the girls we meet and the girls in my small group. We will be out there every Monday afternoon for the next 5 weeks. This will be the first time some have shared the gospel before!! Pray for boldness!
28/20 Conference??
Our staff team is prepping for a conference designed to equip local pastors and leaders in discipleship. The conference wil be in Athens, the first weekend in May. God has been stirring hearts and a few key churches are very excited and have committed to come. These training weekends are key to WDA's overall mission to serve the church and do discipleship. We have encountered frustration from the enemy in some areas, so pray God will have his way and that churches would come. I fear too often, we may be labeled as a "classic campus ministry" that takes away from the local church; this is not our goal, heart, or strategy. Please pray God would knit our heart with the hearts of local churches here in Athens. We are filled with faith that God is opening doors for us to work through and with them, not apart from them. If you are interested in the conference, go to http://www.2820conference.org/ I know that it will (and has in the past) greatly benefit all who attend!
Revival??
God broke our students this past Tuesday... last week everything was running as normal until the end of our meeting-- then the Holy Spirit broke loose! Normally, we have a time of prayer and ministry after the talk... our folks can pray with a staffer or let whatever truth they just heard settle into their hearts. But last week, when we dismissed our students no one left. All 40 of them sat in the presence of the Lord-- still and quite as the Spirit descended on us. For the next 45 minutes, students prayed with one another, repented, sung, and read scripture, aloud. We are so thankful for God's ministry and grace to us. Please keep praying our students would be sensitive and obedient to the Spirit!
Under-aged Daddy?
My church, Crossway Fellowship, did a bit of street evangelism on Friday night. My friend Alan and I encountered three 17-year-old guys. Our conversation begun by one of them sharing he had recently become a father. Alan has 4 boys, so they bonded immediately. God opened their hearts to listen as Alan explained the gospel and the impact of our church on his life. Each teen intenly listened and admitted that they were not walking with God, but wanted to. We gave them a book called "50 Reasons Why Jesus Died" and invited them to our church. Please keep these boys in prayer. I hope that we will see them again or God would bring someone into their lives to disciple and love them.
Another Disciple?
I'm picking up a girl, named Sonya. She is a Pre-med student at UGA and has been discipled by another staffer (who has recently resigned) for the last 2 years. Pray that God would give us deep love and trust for one another. Pray also that God would give me wisdom to discern how to help her grow.
Is there a beach in Athens?
There is if you live in Brumby... or a grassy hill at the very least! My small group that has been meeting inside Brumby this semester is moving out! Out to "Brumby Beach" where freshman play and sunbathe-- to meet girls and share the gospel. Please pray God would prepare hearts-- that of the girls we meet and the girls in my small group. We will be out there every Monday afternoon for the next 5 weeks. This will be the first time some have shared the gospel before!! Pray for boldness!
28/20 Conference??
Our staff team is prepping for a conference designed to equip local pastors and leaders in discipleship. The conference wil be in Athens, the first weekend in May. God has been stirring hearts and a few key churches are very excited and have committed to come. These training weekends are key to WDA's overall mission to serve the church and do discipleship. We have encountered frustration from the enemy in some areas, so pray God will have his way and that churches would come. I fear too often, we may be labeled as a "classic campus ministry" that takes away from the local church; this is not our goal, heart, or strategy. Please pray God would knit our heart with the hearts of local churches here in Athens. We are filled with faith that God is opening doors for us to work through and with them, not apart from them. If you are interested in the conference, go to http://www.2820conference.org/ I know that it will (and has in the past) greatly benefit all who attend!
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For more Info on WDA and for personal devotions, visit to our website... www.disciplebuilders.org