Hope

In light of the holiday season so quickly running upon us, and also in light of my current sermon series REACH, with the finale entitled, “Hope”, I have been really thinking about and praying about several different things. First I have been thinking about the current condition of our society. About how the economical state has caused so many people to lose faith due to loss of jobs or restrictions in their personal finances. Second, I’v been thinking a lot about how people have lost hope. They have lost hope in people. They have lost hope for their future. And they have lost hope for God.

Hope literally means, a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. According to Hebrews 11:1, Faith is the substance of things HOPED for... The evidence of things NOT seen... WOW. Faith & Hope go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Hope is literally denying what the physical eye sees, or better yet, DOESN’T see, and trusts what the minds eye sees. And no!!! This is not a “New Age” approach to ministry. I am referring only to the aspect of Godly faith that says, “I will trust in God, the one I do not see with my physical eye. Trust in his word. Hope for the future he has for me.(Jeremiah 29:11) And believe that things will turn out according to his will for the good of my life and my family.

Hope says, “I don’t care what other people are saying, I will trust in the word God spoke to me and through me.”

Hope says, “Even though I am a planner and normally need to see physical evidence to support the idea of a secure future, I will trust in the word of God that HE alone is my rock and sure foundation.”

Hope says, “Even though my marriage appears to be on the rocks, I will hold true to the word God spoke to me and through me upon entering into the sanctity of holy matrimony.”

Hope says, “I CAN!”

Hope says, “I WILL!”

Foreign Substances

Today, I started reading the book “The Bait of Satan” for the second time. It brought back to remembrance the scripture in Revelation 3:18 where God instructs us to break free from deception by “Buying from him, gold refined by fire”.

Here we need to understand that gold that is refined by fire is very soft and very pliable. The reason it’s soft and pliable is because there isn’t any corrosive materials or any other foreign substances that were never meant to be mixed with gold. However, when corrosive materials and foreign substances get mixed inside the gold, it becomes hard. Immovable. Impossible to mold into anything other that what it already is....

Can we see what God is trying to communicate to us? There is a parallel here between our hearts and gold. Our hearts are intended to be soft & pliable. Something that God can to mold into what He needs. But as we get further away from the word, foreign substances begin to taint our gold.

We also see this metaphor with salt...

Matt 5:13 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. The Message

We are here on this earth to be salt, a taste of God, to a godless world. We are meant to be a GOOD taste, not bitter. We are meant to leave a desirable after taste in the mouth of believers and unbelievers alike, not the taste of sour milk.... Colossians 4:5-6 tells us

Be wise in the way you live around those who are not Christians. Make good use of your time. Speak with them in such a way they will want to listen to you.

We must be a good experience for everyone who comes in contact with us at all times. But we see in Matthew 5:13 that when salt loses its flavor, it’s good for nothing but to be thrown on the roadside to be trampled by men. Flavorless salt was used to keep weeds from sprouting. They would throw it by the roadside and literally use it like “Round Up”. There is a point, when we have lost our flavor, that the only thing we are useful for, is for killing!!! Just like gold mixed with impurities, we become hard.. We become unusable. Like salt that’s lost it’s flavor, we become only useful for hurting others. Offending people. Killing relationships.

One day, a few years back, I was watching one of my geek channels, (which completely annoys my wife) the Discovery channel, probably because there was nothing on the Travel channel. There was an interesting episode about salt mining. They we showing how salt when it is mined in the earth is right next rock and water. While it is next to rock, the water is able to keep the salt pure. However, if the salt is moved away from the rock, the earthly elements break down the salt and cause it to lose its flavor and ultimately becomes unusable.

WOW!!!!! What a parallel!!! If we stay right next to the rock, we can always keep purified by the living water. But as soon as we begin to pull away from the rock, the earthly elements WILL begin to consume us. They WILL begin to remove our flavor and ultimately, eliminate our influence and usefulness in our communities.

The greek word for “Unsavory Salt” according to Matthew 5:13 is moraino, which is translated “To become foolish”. This word is found only 4 times in scripture, Matthew 5:13, Luke 14:34, John 8, and Romans 1:21. Let’s look at Romans,

Romans 1:21-23. Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools.

Bottom line.... As we allow the earthly elements to overtake our lives, and allow the foreign substances that were never intended to be in our lives to take over our lives, we begin to become hard in heart and completely unsavory to those around us. We literally lose our influence in our community and become like fools!!!

This is such a dangerous state for “Christians” to be in because of our positions in the church body. When I say “Positions in the church”, I am not speaking about pastoral positions or staff positions in a church, but rather, positions as believers of the living God. As believes of the living God, we are put here to be the only taste of God to a godless community. We have also been placed to edify the body of Christ. But if we have allowed the earthly elements to take over, we are in jeopardy of not only leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the community of unbelievers, but also of hurting the body of Christ.

Hurt or offended people who have allowed themselves to be distanced from the rock and have become tainted with the earthly elements, are much like trapped animals. Trapped animals, are dangerous. They are in jeopardy of hurting not only themselves, but others...

The Good News!!!!

Thankfully, we serve an amazing and gracious God. We have sung the song “Amazing Grace” for so long but have some how lost the meaning of the words.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

I am so thankful that God has this kind of grace for me. A grace that forgives me when I don’t deserve to be forgiven. A grace that sees past my imperfections and gives my life new meaning.

At any moment throughout our lives, if we get disconnected from the rock and lose our way, we can call on Jesus. He will reach down and lift us right back to the top of the water just like Peter. Keep your eyes on him, and the size of the storm that is raging around you, will never matter.

Stepping Out of the Boat

July 24th, 2011

Sitting in a small room at a youth camp in Chicago, I had a revelation. I have been one of the eleven disciples who DIDN’T get out of the boat! There was God! RIght there in front of me! All I had to do to experience the supernatural, was to step out of the boat. I mean, what is so hard about this concept “Get out of the boat”? What’s the worst that could happen? Forfeit our income? Forfeit financial security for my family? Move into the desert alone and be thousands of miles away from all of our friends and family?

For the past 9 months, we have been asking God to show us where he would have us for this next season of our life... We sent resume’s all over and we had a few bites we seriously considered, but at the end of the day, we did not hear the voice of God... I am going to be 32 years old soon and one thing I know, is at this point of my life, I do not care to just “Find a pastoral position for the sake of being in “Full-time” ministry. I NEED, I desire the RIGHT place for us to do ministry for years to come. A place that we can have a real impact on a community. A place my daughters can grow up in and call home. A place where we can see God do the impossible. After much prayer and MANY tears, we found that place!

About a week and a half prior to my youth camp experience, Charity and I were in Cottonwood Arizona at a small church that asked us to come and see if we might be the right fit for the position of lead pastor. But this story should really start six months ago... Six months ago to the day to be exact!

In the early morning hours of January 24th, God gave Charity a dream. She was standing in front of a packed church speaking. She spoke about expecting the unexpected. Expect to hear from the Lord. To pray like Job did, without ceasing until he heard an answer from the Lord. Be willing to wrestle with the angels for the promise of God like Jacob did. She woke up the morning of the 24th and immediately began to write this dream down in her journal. I want to share a quote from her journal entry that morning. This entry was the words she spoke to the Church in her dream. “I have been praying for this group of people for six months! I know that this is an encounter at this time, for this place. It is an unexpected encounter from God.... God promised his provisions and his blessings on us if we would wait on him”.

Here we are, exactly six months to the day from Charity’s vision. It just so happens that the church in Cottonwood Arizona voted this morning for us to come to Arizona and help re-plant this small church. I do not wish to over spiritualize anything but I can not ignore the voice of God. I can not ignore the way he has orchestrated the events leading up to today. I will not ignore his plan for our lives.

August 3rd, 2011

Here we are. Only a couple of days from loading a UHAUL and heading to Cottonwood. We have felt God's leading and believe he is in this... However, there is still a storm raging around us. We sometimes forget the fact that when Jesus pulled Peter out of the water when he "Lost faith" or took is eyes off of Jesus and got focused on the surroundings, the storm did not stop until AFTER they got back into the boat. Yes, Jesus saved Peter from drowning. Yes, Jesus taught him a lesson on faith. But more importantly, He is teaching you and me that even though he calls us to specific tasks, the storm does not stop raging around us! Sometimes the winds keep blowing and sometimes the financial problems keep coming, but the difference is, JESUS IS WALKING WITH US BACK TO THE BOAT! Showing us what it feels like to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and not have one concern about it because we know that we are walking hand in hand in the creator of Heaven and earth. STEP OUT OF THE BOAT! FOLLOW THE VOICE OF GOD! DO NOT BE AFRAID! DO NOT BE CONCERNED ABOUT FINANCES.

Matthew 6:30-33

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. - The Message

Reflections

In 2010, God took me on a journey. This journey was one that would ultimately change my perspective on life and ministry. Over the course of the two weeks I spent in India, God showed me several things about myself and about the way I viewed ministry. For years, I had been operating in ministry according to what I thought “Ministry” was supposed to look like. Wow, was I wrong.

Each morning I would start my day with personal devotions. One morning in particular, I was on top of the water tower at Ankoor when God brought up a question in my heart. “What does it really mean to be made in my image?” God’s image! Then the questions came up in my mind; what does God look like? What does God act like? What kind of jokes would he tell? What kind of jokes would he laugh at? Would he brush someone off because they annoy him? How does he treat people? How does he react to tough situations? If he drove, would he have road rage? Would he serve or wait to be served? These were questions that began to immediately change the way I thought about life and ministry all together

Over the course of the next couple weeks, I spent time with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, (Kirti, Kishore, Vinay, Aishwarya, Snahail, Soulie) and I began to notice a common theme, “Servant hood”. In everything these people would do, it was wrapped in service to others. It was handled with care for everyone else but themselves. Each morning that we woke up in Lasina, we found the children washing our clothes. The most amazing part about them washing our clothes was the fact that they did it with enjoyment, with excitement, and with love. Each morning we would also see them gathered in the courtyard with sacks gathering all the leaves and various items that fell from the trees throughout the night, by hand. No rakes, just their little hands. Just as they did with washing our clothes, they did this with huge smiles on their beautiful faces. They were proud to serve. They were happy to serve. They were called to serve. There was nothing they would have considered “Lowly”. These people, young and old, showed me the true meaning of the word “Servant

In May of 2010, I was in Atlanta at a pastor’s convention. There was a speaker by the name of Francis Chan who told a story about a youth pastor named Vaughn. He goes on to say “I’m not called to be an awesome mega church pastor, but am called to be a picture of Christ.” He takes inspiration from the story of Vaughan, a youth pastor whose trips to impoverished villages are described by youth as “the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to walking with Jesus”. He realized, “my life does not look like Jesus”. In the same way, I quickly realized that I too look nothing like the image of Christ. But after my time at Ankoor, I believe I now know what that truly looks like. After my time with Mommy, (Nalini) Daddy, (Kirone), David, and Pricosh, I now believe I can explain what the true image if Christ looks like here on earth. Thank you Lord for this experience. I will never be the same again.

A Young Punk

I was in the hot tub tonight thinking back on my life in ministry. I began to think through what events took place in my youth that ultimately brought me to a ministry career.

I preached my first sermon at the age of fourteen. Well, actually I stumbled through that first sermon with horrible form. Over the next couple years, I spoke only a handful of times at various youth functions. Needless to say, I was by no means a “Preacher” and definitely not a preacher pastors thought of when they said, “I need a speaker for our upcoming event”. In spite of my limited resume’ at the time, I received an interesting call one day from Fred Abbott. Fred was the regional youth director for the Pacific Northwest Church of God. I had grown up over the past several years in the youth camps and winter retreats that Fred organized. He was a high energy, go getter, youth director and I really looked up to him. During this phone conversation, Fred invited me, a young eighteen year old punk, to be one of the speakers for the 1998 PNW youth camp. Youth camp was definitely much bigger than the few other speaking engagements I had done prior to this youth camp. Also, this youth camp was the one I had attended since I was nine years old. With a huge amount of nerves and a great deal of excitement, I accepted his offer. Now I ask, what would cause an influential and well known leader, to ask a no-name eighteen year old to speak at an important event with over 400 plus in attendance?

Looking back at over sixteen years of ministry since the time I spoke my first message at South Union Church of God in Olympia Washington, I can definitely see how God had been calling me into ministry. I can see many different ways throughout the last sixteen years that God extended favor to me in ways that I definitely didn’t deserve, especially when I look at it through the natural eye. I can also see how God placed certain influential people in my life, like Fred, to help bring my ministry to a launch.

One of the most amazing aspects of this whole story is the amount of power there is in our words. The day I received the phone call from Fred Abbott, was the first day I truly began to believe that God was calling me to something real. When I saw how much trust and how much influence Fred was placing in my hands, it changed my life. It changed the way I thought about myself. It changed the direction I thought I was going in life. The power of his words that told me how much he believed in me, and how much he recognized the anointing that God had placed on me was astounding.

This is a great lesson for every one of us as we get older. It is a lesson to keep our eyes open and our hearts soft toward the generations to follow us. We need to know that God has placed power in our words and he has given us influence. We must use that power & influence to help raise up the next generation. We need to let them know that we believe in them. We need to constantly remind them of how important they are to the kingdom of God. We must not be afraid to stick our neck out and put our names on the line to help mentor them and bring true discipleship to the table. This is an investment, but the return on this investment is measured in eternity.

India Missions Trip 2010

Don't Talk About My Creation Like That!

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” “Ah sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, “I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appointed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:5-10 NIV

How many times have we read this portion of scripture? How many times have we gotten the same old thing out of it? Thanks to Francis Chan, I finally heard something different. Something fresh. Francis began to open up the reality that whatever God has called us to, no matter what social standing we currently hold, no matter how old or young we are, no matter how influential we think we are, God has something for us to do. Something for us to accomplish. More importantly, a purpose for us to live out.

“Before I formed you in the womb”
What does this mean? Are you telling me that, literally, before I was even created, before I was even conceived by my parents, before I was even a thought or glimmer in my daddy’s eye, God knew me? He had a specific plan and calling for me? That’s so hard to believe. So hard to understand. Is it really that hard to understand?
God is the creator of all. He is a master builder. An engineer. This idea is for anyone who has ever created something and thought through the details of a building plan in advance. They thought through not only the construction of that creation, but also the future USE of that creation, or the purpose for that creation. They knew what it would be specifically created for.
For example, a few years back, I decided to build my oldest daughter an oak toy chest. I knew exactly what I wanted that toy chest to look like. I knew exactly what color I needed it to be to go with the layout and color scheme of our home. I knew the size I wanted it to be. I KNEW THE FUTURE OF THAT PIECE OF FURNITURE!
I sat down with a tablet of paper, pencils, erasers, and rulers. I mapped out the specific design of this toy chest. Laying out what type of wood I would use, each angle, each hinge, each rosette I would put on the corners, the trim, and even what type of stain I would put on it. I then went to Lowes and purchased all materials needed for this project, went home and begun this creation process. Two days later, there it was. My creation. It was beautiful. It looked even better than the original plans.
Now, what would it have been like if after the creation of this piece of furniture, there was a conversation between me, it’s creator, and the toy chest? Kinda weird to think like this, but follow me here. I begin to tell the toy chest how amazing it is. How one day, a child will begin to fill it up with wonderful little toys and gadgets that would bring amazing joy and delight to the heart of this child and to the hearts of the child’s friends… I tell it that it will ultimately be an icon of fun. A picture of joy. I began to tell the toy chest how nothing else in this room or even this house, was created like it. It is specifically created for this job and for this purpose…. I also tell it about how much time and thought was put into the creation of it by me, it’s creator. I also begin to tell it how proud I am of it. And that one day, as people would come into my home, I would brag on it. Brag about it’s beauty. Brag about it’s usefulness and how it has brought so much joy to my daughters life. Then, the creation speaks back to the creator…..
“I can’t do all that!!!! What you’re telling me about my future, sounds amazing. But again, I can’t do that! I’m not good enough for all of those dreams and aspirations you have for me. I have a scratch on the bottom front corner, the whole world will see. I’m not big enough. I don’t have the right color stain. I’M JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!

What a ridiculous story, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, this story is all too true in the lives of God’s creation. He took so much time and thought in the creation of you. Once you came into existence, and God began to tell you his ultimate plan for your life, and He began to tell you of the very specific reason you were created, you immediately began to tell him how much he screwed up! How he didn’t do a good enough job. You began to put God’s craftsmanship down. ß
God told Moses to go speak the Israelites. Moses replied, “I Don’t speak good enough!” God replied with, “Who made your mouth!” God made you specifically and perfectly for a job and task that no one else can do. You can’t use a blender to make coffee! You can’t use a toaster to vacuum the carpet. So why do you think someone else can do the job God created YOU to do? “Do not say, “I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. The the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

GO! Walk in the purpose of God. Know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Go and know that you are going to impact specific people in ways that no one else can…

Be strong… Be bold… Know that you are great at what you were made to do. This is not arrogance. Arrogance simply means, - having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities - Exaggerated! Do not exaggerate what God wants you to do. Do not try to do someone else's job… Do what He created you to do. Be yourself and be exactly what he create you to be. Do it and you will see God move. You will see lives changed.