Update from 2 weeks ago

Hey friends,
Two weeks ago I (nick) told you about a pastor in Texas named Matt Chandler. They had found a tumor in his right frontal lobe. He encouraged his church and all watching that he was blessed because he got to make much of Christ in the face of trials. He said that Jesus was greater than anything else he could lose. We talked about Romans 8:18-25 and suffering that leads to glory.

At the time doctors did not know if it was cancer until they had the chance to take it out. I wanted to update you. The tumor was malignant (that's bad news), and he will be starting chemo in January. I've posted links to a new video from his church, as well as the one we showed in service. Pray for his family (Lauren, his wife, and his kids Audrey, Reid and Norah), that they will feel the peace of Christ and His church. Pray for the Village Church as their pastor is suffering. Pray most of all that Christ be glorified. May we draw near to Jesus in our times of blessing and suffering.

New Video

The Video we showed in Service

Tiger

Anybody tired of hearing about Tiger Woods yet? I heard one reporter say that Tiger has now joined a fraternity of famous people who while on “top”, have still “fallen far”. I have heard more jokes, read more articles, and seen more sports center reviews on this one man that I could have ever cared too. Here is my issue: all awhile, we know exactly what is going to happen. It happened to Alex Rodriguez, it happened to Kobe Bryant, it will happen to Tiger. At the moment that he returns to an athletic achievement…his image will be restored and he’ll be a national hero once again. Unbelievable…

I have been dealing with how to draw spiritual implications and applications from this. I don’t know Tiger’s faith, but I do know that he lived a life of secret, hidden, patterned sin. Let’s assume for a second that Tiger is a follower of Jesus Christ. He would not be that different than many of us. While we may not be having affairs with multiple women, many of us do entertain secret, hidden, patterned sin. We think we are fooling everybody around us…and worst of all, think we are fooling God.

Rather than give you an opinion, I’d like to point you to a text. 1 Timothy 5:20 says:
“As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the
presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear”.
Lets go from end to start. First off…we are too live in FEAR. Fear of the Lord is a common theme that runs throughout scripture, and I think finds its climatic definition in passages like this. Our sin will find us out. A DEEP love relationship with God and a habitual life of sin cannot co-exist. One should and will cancel out the other. Our fear should also lie in that our sin will come to light. Therefore, when we see people fall…it should turn us inward and call us back to a fearful response of motivated righteousness. Our second response is active rebuke. This is tricky, and one that I find a lot of comfort in being a part of a community called the Church. The Church is an active mechanism of not just teaching us of righteousness, but holding us to it. One of the Churches key functions is the accountability of believers. In cases of secret sin, accountability looks like bold, public rebuke by Church leaders of the individual that the rest of the body can 1) respond in fear leading to righteousness 2) come around in hard love and support of the individual. Both are necessary…both are needed. Both are being the Church.

I wonder if Tiger is getting either. If the only spiritual take away is that we fear our own secret sin ….than I think some worthy good has come from it. Definitely will change the way I watch golf…

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
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Spiritual Life

by Eugene Peterson

“Our Spirituality begins in Theology (the revelation and understanding of God) and is guided by it. And theology is never truly itself apart from being expressed in the bodies of the men and women to whom God gives life and whom God then intends to life a full Salvation Life (spirituality)”.

Holiday Hocus Pocus

Can you believe how quickly the Holiday season changes? The second Thanksgiving is over, a title wave comes called… Christmas. The trees are up, wreaths are hung, coffee shops new flavors are simmering, stores are crazy. Wow. You would think that with all of that instant changeover, the lingering emotions of thankfulness would find their way through as well. But rather, we label “the next day” (after thanksgiving) as BLACK FRIDAY titled for the early bird, caffeine crazed, warrior mode woman hitting the shopping courageously checking off their own buy lists. Not that you need it from me, but let me take a second to give you the permission to maintain a spirit that you have always craved. Sit back and rest a little, savoring Jesus and the Rescue he did unto us. Let this steam into a sentiment of thankfulness and reflective worship. The “Christmas Spirit” doesn’t begin the 24th… it has begun now. So take a moment to reflect on the person you were, want to be, and will become this Holiday season.

~Deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
mn

Listening, Running, Turning, Following and a Side of Fish Vomit

We have begun to move forward from our journey of draw near…and although it is our heart that each of you would continue to draw near to God, we then have to ask ourselves the question…As we are continuing to draw near to God, how would He have us live? How would He have us speak? What would He command of us? How would He send us forward?

I think a lot of these questions we are hoping to answer and pursue over this next three weeks as we look at the life of Jonah. Jonah is given a command from God that within a moment’s notice he turns and runs away from. God commands him to go to a hard group of people…a group that we would only know how to describe as the worst of sinners & really scary dudes. But within our own realm of influence, who we encounter day to day, even those in our surrounding neighborhoods and families, we all face “scary dudes.” Mostly I think it just stems from our own unwillingness to get comfortable and really love the way Christ calls us to love. We love by sharing; we love by PROCLAIMING AND DEMONSTRATING the gospel to those around us.

So as we think about this and we realize we are all called to “go”, the question remains will we obey or will we run? I think the answer to this question really can help us search our heart with how much we have truly allowed God’s grace to transform our hearts and give us a love for the lost and really “bad dudes”. In the book “The Radical Reformission” I am reading right now the author Mark Driscoll talks about this in relation to looking at Jonah’s life. He says…

And Jonah leaves us to ponder who we would be if God had stopped running after us and simply left us to ourselves. In what ways are we running from God’s call to bring the gospel to others? What will repentance look like for us? What could happen if God captured the hearts of people in our town because you pointed them to Him? What if the heart God’s people had for their cities was like Jesus’ heart for Jerusalem instead of Jonah’s heart for Nineveh? (pg. 107)

This pretty much cuts my heart open because I realize I don’t break for the lost in my town. I don’t seek to proclaim and demonstrate who Christ is to those around me when God calls me to everyday. Think for a minute about how much you run & draw near to Jesus…if it’s a lot, and I hope it is, now think about the people who don’t have that hope, peace, contentment, security and love because they don’t know the good news.

Now, as you move forward in continuing to abide in God, I pray that you would move forward in pursuing others in the name of Christ and sharing His love & grace with them. I pray that unlike Jonah you would say “yes” to the command of God as he calls you to move forward & live as His ambassador.

~Bold thoughts from a loud woman
ew

T.R.I.B.E.

We had a fantastic time this weekend on our Camp Trek trip. The subject we discussed while picking marshmallows out of our teeth, wafting at smoke in our eyes, and anxiously waiting for “that girl” to realize someone put a bug on her shoulder…was…MISSIONAL LIVING.

It’s a topic we have been circling for a long time now, and feel like it’s time to start landing the plane. Therefore, over the next 4 weeks on Saturday nights, we are going to look at an Old Testament example of this in the book of Jonah. You may hear us as well discuss an acronym giving us confident steps in the “how to go about” it. Here it is:

T. arget (who is the Lord putting on your heart to minister to due to: friendship, circumstance, similar talents, etc…)

R. elationship (What steps do you need to take to develop a deeper trusting relationship with them?)

I. nitiative (What are some gospel steps or situations you could be proactive in?)

B. aby steps (What small steps need to be taken in the process of “them having the full gospel”.

E. engage them with Truth (What hard questions are being presented that the Word is the ultimate answer too?)

We’d like for you to process and pray through this on your own, in your small groups, and with your monk mentors. We are trying to wrap out hearts around Christ’s missional charge to Go and Make Disciples out of every TRIBE and nation.

~deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
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The Meaning of 'in me' in John 15

Last Saturday night, we looked at John 15, the story of the vine and the branches. We hit a snag (no pun intended) when we came across a controversial element of the passage. Theologians have long debated the meaning of “in me” that is used throughout the passage, as in “every branch in me that does not bear fruit” (John 15:2a). We said that there are traditionally two ways to understand “in me.” In this article, we want to explore these to interpretations and see if we can learn anything about them. The first interpretation is that “in me” refers to our salvation. To be “in Christ” is to be a born again child of God. In the second interpretation, “in me” refers to fellowship or relationship with Christ. The difference is something like this. Compare it to the relationship between children and their parents. We can talk about whether or not children legitimately belong to their parents. Or we can about their relationship. Children can have a bad relationship with their parents and not lose them as parents.

Now, I am no theologian. Most of what I will discuss here come from Joseph C. Dillow’s article “Abiding is Remaining: Another Look at John 15:1-6.” Let’s consider first the idea of “in me” meaning salvation. This reading makes sense to us because we so frequently hear “in Christ” refer to salvation, as in “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17a). Under this interpretation, when Jesus says “every branch in me” He is referring to saved believers. There is a bit of a problem with this. Verse 2 says that “every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away” and later in verse 6 “if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers.” If we understand this passage as talking about salvation and heaven and hell, we have two options. Either Jesus is saying that genuine believers will lose their salvation if they do not abide or somehow the “in me” in verse 2 must be different than the other “in me’s.” We know the first option cannot be correct because of the overwhelming amount of Scripture that teaches that we cannot lose our salvation. Therefore, most theologians who take the salvation view of “in me” claim that the branches that do not bear fruit merely claim to be “in Christ” but are not so. This is difficult to justify, but there is another option for interpreting this text.

We must recognize the context of Jesus’ teaching. Judas has left to betray Jesus, and the only people with Him the 11 faithful disciples. Therefore, He is speaking to those who are all genuine believers who will serve Jesus faithfully all of their lives. But, they are scared and confused over the news that Jesus will be leaving them soon. Jesus is teaching them how to follow Him and bear fruit when they can no longer see Him face to face. It would make sense that Jesus would not need to teach these men about being saved, but rather how to maintain this wonderful relationship they have been building for 3 years. There are at least 4 reasons to understand “in me” as being good relationship.

1) The various passages in which “in Christ” refers to salvation are written by Paul. We have to look at how John uses the phrase, which is mostly to talk about relationship. This does not mean that they teach different things, but rather that they use words differently.
2) The context lends to the idea that Jesus would want to give His disciples practical, comforting words about how to stay with Him.
3) The command to abide means that Jesus thought that the disciples had to work to “remain in Him.” This does not make sense in salvation, but makes perfect sense in relationship. The whole of Scripture teaches that salvation is God’s work in us. We are not saved by our works, but by faith in God’s grace. However, we do strive and work to know the Lord more fully in our lives.
4) It removes the problem of interpreting the branches not “in Him.” We then see that Jesus is using the dried up branches to describe the relationship between Himself and non-abiding believers, not the state of their soul.

Though there are good reasons to follow both interpretations, I believe that understanding “in me” as referring to fellowship with Christ is the most accurate interpretation. It explains that Christ is urging the men He dearly loved (and also us!) to stay close to Him by abiding. He longs for relationship with us. This abiding relationship yields fruit, which glorifies the Father (John 15:8), witnesses to the world (John 15:8) and gives us joy (John 15:11).

For His glory and our joy,
nr

Subculture

What a great week my wife and I had on our anniversary in Portland. One interesting statement was said to me: “Portland is a land of subcultures. Anything you want to find here, whether it is pirates, kickball leagues, hippies, clowns, ANYTHING…that subculture exists”. It was actually pretty funny to witness and intriguing to process.

My walk away was this: a lot of times I think we live in this fib that we have to move away and change everything to live missionally. This can be true and false. TRUE: many of us need to change everything if we were to really live this way. FALSE: we need to move away to accomplish it.

We have subcultures here! We have neighbors, teammates, coworkers, friends, and (listen up) enemies that need to be loved with the purest love of Jesus. To be honest, high school can be a highlight time for this because students are already immersed with these subculture opportunities. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he pulled a child on his lap and said we need to learn from them.

Living missionally means living on the edge…changing how we do this life thing…and figuring out how to intersect the ordinary with the extraordinary, bringing the kingdom of heaven to the hearts, souls, and realities of needy people.
Amen?

~deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
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Saved to Join the Game

There is this theme that has been floating around here a lot lately. Newman came back from Rwanda and really starting challenging us to join in with what God is doing in saving the world. I’ve been continuing to chew on this idea, and it is rocking my world. You see, when Scripture talks about our participation it opens a deep well of theological significance. Embracing what God has called us to do teaches us a lot about who God is. Let me point out just a few passages…

First of all, there’s this little encounter that Jesus has with a Samaritan woman who is burned out, dried up and beaten down by her own sin and brokenness. The conversation that Jesus has with this woman is amazing, but there’s one part that has stuck with me. You see, Jesus starts telling the woman about the “living water” that He could offer (they were standing by a well, so the metaphor seems appropriate. There are actually a lot of other great reasons for choosing “living water,” but that’s another conversation). Jesus goes on to tell her that when anyone drinks this water it will become in him or her a “well springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Now, what’s the purpose of a well? It’s where people come to get water. So, when we receive from Christ, he transforms us into something He uses to give to others. From the very beginning, before this woman had believed, Jesus is saying, “If you believe in me, I’m going to use you to minister to others.”

Later, Jesus is sitting around having dinner with His disciples. It’s just before He goes to be crucified, and He knows it. So, He takes this time to pass on His final words to the disciples. He tells them, among other things, that there is something different about how they are to follow His commands. He explains that slaves obey their masters but don’t really know his plans or why they’re doing what they’re doing. He says that He doesn’t call the disciples slaves, but friends, because He’s let them in on His plans. You see, God has made known to us His plan to redeem the world and has invited us to join Him.

Finally, in a letter to the believers in Corinth, Paul wrote that God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (1 Cor. 5:18). You definitely need to read the whole thing, but the key is this. God saves and redeems us, and then He invites us to be a part of His plan to save and redeem others. How tragic is it that we so often view ministry as mere “church work!” As if it is some chain of obligation that we wear! The God of the universe has shown that in His grace He extends His hand to invite us into the most exciting story ever told! As Newman has described it, the game is set. The winner has already been determined. We have just been invited to join the team and be a part of it so we get a ring at the end. So, you wanna play?

For His glory and our joy,
nr

If You Don't Feel As Close To God...Who Moved?

By Paula Pinto

An anonymous author posted a quote on the Internet that said, " If you don't feel as close to God as you use to, who moved?" The words of the quote penetrated within me and perhaps you can understand why. There have been moments when I did not feel the presence of God. There were times when the struggles of life, the setbacks, the disappointments or even my own decision to give more priority to the busyness of "life," took precedence over my relationship with the Lord. Instead of my attention being focused on the things that are vital to our relationship with the Him such as praying and reading my word, I chose to do my own thing.

Other times I found it difficult to understand why, as God's people, we are not "always" consumed by His presence, and was challenged to accept that in life sometimes bad things happen to good people. Perhaps, to an extent, my anger about that distanced my relationship with the Lord. And then in the midst of that I stood there saying, "But God where are you?" Instead of the situations pushing me closer to God, I pulled away. I stopped praying as much, reading as often, and my worship started to seize.
There have also been times when maybe I was in prayer and didn't feel this overwhelming feeling, so I questioned as to why, if I am doing this, don't I feel anything. Why if I am making this effort to spend time with him, don't I feel like He's there to spend time with me, and so I refrained from doing it as often....bad move.

You see, in our Christian walk we can hold many positions. Some are called to be ministers, others to be teachers, there are some called to be evangelists, others to lead ministries, but the most IMPORTANT position that one must find himself in on a day to day basis is knelt down before the Lord in prayer and worship. That is what will always be the direct line of contact between God and ourselves. It is when we put that secondary and all of the other things before it that we fell the "drought" from his ever flowing goodness, mercy, peace, joy and ability to continue on in our Christian walk.

Does that mean that when we make a choice to do this on a daily basis that we will not feel "numb" at times or hard to feel the closeness of God? No. Having done all that, there are still times when our nature will battle against our spiritual being. But when we apply these principles to our life, we are not so easily defeated.
We know, as the word instructs us, that we ought not go by feelings. Let's face it, we can feel great one minute and moments later something could happen that changes our mood. Sometimes something doesn't even have to take place for our mood to change. As Christians, we cannot go by feelings, because feelings change, but when we are continually feeding oneself with the things of God, we know that our feelings at the present moment do not determine whether or not God is there or has left us abandoned. When we can adapt to the realization that it is not Him that moves away from us, but we that move away from Him, we can better get ourselves back on track by seeking him more frequently and rejecting those things which so easily try to beset us.
If, at this moment, you are feeling that you are alone, that God has turned His face on you, be encouraged my brother or sister that He is still there, and feelings of abandonment from Christ are lies. Truthfully, it may be either one of two things and that is that we have strayed away from investing in those precious moments with Him or going by our feelings. Nevertheless, both reasons should remind us to take the opportunity to kneel down before him, where He is certain to meet us and let everything else be secondary.

Paula Pinto is the Managing Editor and a writer for a New York newspaper. She is a member of the Christian based writing community Faith Writers, and writes a column called Christian Food For Thought, published monthly on Christian News Today.
Ms. Pinto can be contacted at pintopaula7@yahoo.com

Sharing within the Body

Have you ever been close enough to someone that their joy was also your joy? Where their pain was your pain? I remember sitting at a friend’s wedding recently. He literally jumped for joy when his bride walked through the doors. I remembered how I felt when I saw my wife walk down the aisle, and I felt his joy. I was not directly affected by them getting married, but their joy became mine as I watched. I’ve also experienced the opposite. I had another friend recently receive some devastating news. This news would not directly touch me, but my heart broke with his. I felt nauseous thinking about how bad my friend must be hurting. In a small way, his pain became mine. In both situations, I felt closer to these friends by sharing their joy and their pain.

I’ve been studying through the letters to the Corinthians recently, and it has been massively challenging and convicting for me. I’d love to share one little passage that has shaken me up a bit lately. It comes out of 1 Corinthians 12.

“… so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” – 1 Cor. 12:25-26 (NASB)

Paul has been teaching about the value of every member of the body, which is the church. It’s a simple idea, but my question is, how big is our idea of the church? Saturday night students? Fellowship Saturday night? Or even all believers in Northwest Arkansas? What would the implications of this passage be if we saw the church the way Scripture teaches that God does? When God views the church, He sees all people everywhere who will follow Him. According to Scripture, if we embrace our role in the church, when another part of the church suffers, we all suffer. When they are honored, we rejoice!

I’m scared that we are so concerned with what’s going on here in our little corner of the world that we miss out on being a part of something so much bigger. It’s a simple challenge. What if we started learning about what’s going on in the rest of the world. Where is the church exploding and doing great? Where is the church being persecuted and suffering? How can we make their honor our joy and their suffering our suffering? I think the first step is that we learn about what’s happening and we pray for the church. Who knows what God will do from there? Below are a couple of websites you can check out to see what’s going on in the church across the globe.

For His glory and our joy,
Nr

www.voiceofthemartyrs.com
www.win1040.com
www.compassdirect.org

On Drawing Near

As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. It’s the promise we are claiming during our 50-day journey. And as I have begun thinking, it is the promise in which He will make Himself known. As He makes Himself known to us however, it is His desire that it would overflow into the lives of others.

The overflow would speak of God’s desire for us to live with purpose and mission. I think sometimes in my life there is a disconnect. A disconnect that is described also in James 4:8 “purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
I often like to pretend that there is somehow a secular part of our days or weeks and then the part that is sacred with God. But God cannot be fit into our lives; He must be that which fills our life.

This would mean that how I treat people, all people; my spouse, my children, my family, closet friends, or a complete stranger would come from the same bond of love which is Christ. We must all understand that we are called to be a vessel that overflows with the love of God, Christ Himself. So the next time you are at a restaurant, at the movies, a coffee shop or grocery store, realize that the smallest encounter can be used for the greater purposes of God.

As we draw near, He will draw near to us, which means we have to also be willing and open to allowing Him to change our hearts, minds, attitudes and lives. As He does that, you will begin to see, taste and experience a purity of heart. A purity of heart will lead us towards a love for God and for others.
Now the question to ask ourselves, “is the love that is overflowing from your life as you draw near to God, double-minded?” Be willing to become single-minded for the purpose of God and the love of others.

~Bold thoughts from a loud woman
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Paint by Numbers

To most of us, the luxury of “artistic ability” is not even in our vocabulary. We can’t even trace let alone be expected to draw. The whole journey from an object being viewed by our eyes, then being translated down through our finger tips onto paper clearly has some potholes in it. How else could the intended drawing of an elephant look a lot closer to a bloated clown than anything else?

That is why, at the invention of “paint by numbers” a whole new world of possibilities is open to us. Rather than creatively originating artistic thought, we instead merely have to follow instruction and stay in the lines. If we do what they tell us, things will turn out well in the end.

I think the process of Drawing Near to God is very similar. Many people are trying to blaze their own ways to experiencing God for the sole sake of edginess, creativity, and recognition. Where I can appreciate that God crafted some to be trail-blazers…he also gave us very clear “paint by number” instructions to how we can experience Him. As we practice our 5 disciplines (Read-pray-serve-gather-worship), our expectations should be simple. God promises blessing when we pursue Him authentically and whole heartedly through these means. It brings relief that there is clarity. Lets face it…we are simple minded people (Psalm 19:7) and need all the help we can get.

So what do you say? Let’s give this a try together. Let’s begin our journey of cultivating faithfulness (Psalm 37:3) as we do as the Word says, believing fully the results will be the NEARNESS of the Lord.

Amen?
~Deep thoughts by a Shallow guy~
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Jesus the Evangelist

Jesus told us that as the Father sent him into the world, so he is sending us (John 17:18; Acts 1:8). How then did the Father send him? Essentially he became one of us. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). God didn’t send a telegram or shower evangelistic Bible study books from heaven or drop a million bumper stickers from the sky saying, “Smile, Jesus loves you.” He sent a man, his Son, to communicate the message. His strategy hasn’t changed. He still sends men and women—before he sends tracts and techniques—to change the world. You may think his strategy is risky, but that is God’s problem, not yours.

In Jesus, then, we have our model for how to relate to the world, and it is a model of openness and identification. Jesus was a remarkably open man. He didn’t think it was unspiritual for him (fully realizing he was the Son of God) to share his physical needs (John 4:7). He didn’t fear losing his testimony by revealing to his disciples the depths of his emotional stress in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-52). Here is our model for genuine godliness. We see him asking for support and desiring others to minister to him. We must learn then to relate transparently and genuinely to others because that is God’s style of relating to us. Jesus commands us to go and then preach, not to preach and then leave. We are not to shout the gospel from a safe and respectable distance, and remain detached. We must open our lives enough to let people see that we too laugh and hurt and cry. If Jesus left all of heaven and glory to become one of us, shouldn’t we at least be willing to leave our dorm room or Bible study circle to reach out to a friend?

by Rebecca Manly Pippert

"In Regards too..." - Reflections on Psalm 28:5

“Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the works of his hands,
He will tear them down and build them up no more.”

I have been reflecting on this brief passage with 2 different trains of though.
1) Not Regarding the work of the Lord: it is a common thing today to exist in a culture that claims spirituality, but lacks authenticity. The title that comes to mind for the common mode of man I steal from Revelations 3:16—Lukewarm. They are not hot. They are not cold. They just exist. They go through the motions of life acknowledging a higher power, but not making it the center of their surrender. In short, they do not REGARD the work of the Lord. They give way too much credit to the spontaneous, the random, and the unnatural. If they can’t dial up experiential spiritualism in an instant, it must not exist. They give no credit to where credit is due: the sovereign, glorious plan of God almighty.

2) What he will do….NO MORE: For me, I’m interested in the process of things. I’m interested in the way LIFE plays out, and how I can get the most out of it. As a believer, this means I pay attention when the Word gives me a “heads up” to how things are going to be. Here, we have a very distinct glimpse into what the Lord is going to do to each of us. It is a steady balance of two things:

1) tearing down, and 2) building up

Crazy thing though, when I picture a “good God” I often imagine anything referencing the words “tearing down” surely cannot exist. Does that mean God is intentionally ripping us apart, beating us up, and making things bad…on purpose? As a collective chorus lets answer this together: YES! Any theology that teaches differently is simply messed up. God tears us down SO THAT he can build us up. He causes us pain, so that we will return us to being needy of Him. He breaks bones so that we may return to rejoicing (Psalm 51:8). Make sure you set this as your spiritual alarm clock, because this should
WAKE US UP!

AMEN?

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
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Timing is Everything

I am a bit caught off guard by the two conversations that take place in John 2 and John 7. In both, Jesus encounters family members with less than kosher words. Both his mom (John 2) and his brothers
(John 7) seem borderline pushy for his “revealing himself” to the world. His answer in both cases does not waver: “My time has not yet come”.

While I find his responses fascinating, I am equally full of wonder that he ends up making himself known soon after. To me it brings up the phrase TIMING IS EVERYTHING with a bold sharpie marker. I guess more and more I find myself asking this very thing from the same Jesus that was then and there: “When are you going to answer me”?…”When are you going to show up?”… “How is this going to play out”?...”If you can hear me, you would be doing something, and I mean NOW”! Often I frame current theological emotions on what I expect to happen regarding timing.

I feel therefore the most theologically accurate phrase of either of these passages is Mary’s response to Jesus’ answer. (which is funny because before this week…I could see myself writing on this same phrase from a totally pessimistic, questioning perspective. Amazing what a week of God’s TIMING does…)
She says: “Whatever He says to you, do it”.

She did not know what He was about to do or say, yet in regards to the timing…she told the people simply to listen and obey. That is a model we need to live by. Rather than question God’s timing in our lives…we need to lean on Him by Faith saying submissively: “Whatever He says to me…I will do it”.

So today…let’s start by breathing out our anxious fret, and breathing in the patient, kind, loving, understanding, all powerful, all knowing, will and knowledge of God. Let’s trust that His TIMING is the PERFECT TIMING. Let’s seek His will through His Word. Then, I’m convinced the TIMING will take care of itself.

Amen?

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
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Final Rwanda Update

Family and friends

Sorry that you have not heard from us the last few days. Power has been out all over the city the last 2 days. Typical Africa! We are at a coffee shop now, eating lunch and preparing to board our 4:00 flight. and 2 days later, we will be back home! Thanks for praying for us!!!

Pray for:

1) Safe trip

2) Great, comfortable, exit row seats (some of us need the leg room)

3) transition period back into the states

We love you!

Matt and the team

Rwanda Update #7

The downward slant has begun. We made it through the middle hump and now have 2 days left to love the socks off (or in their case flip flops off) these kids. in the last 2 days, matt, Colin, Ryan, and Ty have all spoken and/or shared their testimony. God has been and continues to be so good. All of us did great. I was so proud of our guys. Besides general coolness...they are really gifted as well. They spoke clearly, creatively, and confidently. The Lord was glorified for sure in their effort.

Tomorrow we have tournament day! Final games along with an all star game in the afternoon (all the team mvp's vs. the counselors). should be fun. Then Friday morning is the kids championship game in the the big city arena. the whole town turns out to cheer them on...pretty cool. We then begin the journey home, from driving to kigali to boarding the plane saturday afternoon. Then it is back home for a ton of stories and pictures. Wo

Prayer Requests:
1) We have made it this far with only minor cuts, strains, and sick tummy's...pray we finish the race well
2) Salvation of students. Tomorrow especially! Last year, there was significant spiritual warfare on the last night. tomorrow we are doing the crucifixion skit along with a bold gospel.
pray pray pray! Neat story tonight....the entire city we are in lost power tonight ACCEPT for the building we were in for our klife. the Lord clearly wanted something communicated.

with love...and sleepy eyes :)
matt and the team

Rwanda Update #6

Friends and family-
We are into the second day of camp now and things are finally smoothing out. There is definitely challenges you don't expect to face (kids sneaking into camp, coaches recruiting for their team from kids not at camp, beans and rice for 17 meals straight) but as a whole, things are going really well. Our basic schedule is:
8-breakfast
9-athletic principles with fun activies (taught by my dad)
1130-lunch
1-leave for soccer fields, skills and games
5-back from games, short break
6-dinner
7-k Ubuzima (klife)
9-devos with cabin
10-bed

it is a good full day...and we are having a blast

Moving moment: yesterday, the doors to camp opened at 9. yet at 6:30 400 kids were waiting in line to get in. you can imagine when only 150 are called...the look of disappointment that the other ones experienced. I walked through the crowd a bit just to try to lift some spirits when i encountered a group 0f 10 or so girls. they said in very broken english: "big problem! they not let me in!" "didn't know had to sign list. where list?" as we closed the big metal doors they began pounding on the doors hoping maybe we would allow them in too. you can imagine how hard it was.
it was also convicting. it sent my thoughts instantly to heaven, with a different kind of gate, and a different kind of list. let our friends not be the ones saying...i didn't know how to get in, nobody ever told me!

prayer requests:
1) matt and Colin speak tonight for klife. pray for strength, and time to prepare!
2) Ryan S. has had a sick tummy. He is recovering well and will be back in the mix shortly. Pray for his and the rest of the teams health
3) Energy-we are getting tired. Pray for deep restful sleep and spurts of holy spirit energy throughout the day

4 more days! keep praying
matt and the team

Rwanda Update #5

Friends and Family-

The kids come tomorrow! wow...in less than 12 hours, 150 kids literally expecting the best week of their life will be coming through our doors. they will be given shoes, balls, jerseys...it is going to light up their world and be a fantastic platform of loving them with the love of Christ. Get excited!

We had our final coaches clinic session today. it was a fun day: church this morning, then to a city wide soccer semi final game that was absolutely CRAZY. like the world cup without fences, meaning when they won, 10,000 people charged the field and carried off the team on their shoulders. It was so fun. We then practiced our night time program with games, skits, bible stories and more...all done by rwandans! pretty neat seeing life transference take place minutes after it was taught.

Moving moment: While at the game, one of the players (john Paul) leaned over to me and said: "on this field, during the genocide, they rounded 100,000 people and killed them in a one day massacre". how do you respond to that? it is daily shocking how everything is so connected to the pain, and therefore also so connected to the redemption. Even to see the people celebrate on the same field that their worst memories exist upon...something meaningful about that.

Prayer Requests: 1) Strong Stomachs-we have become very prophetic when it comes to predicting the next meal. We have had beans, rice, and potatoes for 10 meals straight! I think some of the guys are getting a little burned out on it, and their tummies are getting sick because of it.

2) Registration tomorrow-we will have to make massive decisions very quickly and with authority. Pray for a keen sense into the nudging of the Holy Spirit

3) The kids! This is why we have done everything we have for the past 4 months. Every dollar raised, every mile road, everything...for these kids to experience a clear and love filled gospel of Jesus christ!

We love you all...thanks for you prayers!

Matt and the team

Rwanda Update #4

Friends and Family-

In so many ways it is very hard to believe that we have already been here for a week. Then again...i cannot remember the last time that i have had a meal that did not have rice, beans, and potatoes as 95% of it. So it seems in some ways we have come a long way. We have been in the coaches clinic now for 2 days. The missionary honeymoon is definitely over :) We are taking shower"s" (i plural it because it won't happen often) with buckets, mowing fields with machetes, and getting pretty familiar to how we each smell. it's great! We played the coaches in a soccer game tonight, and although expecting to get absolutely smashed... we tied them! it was actually very good for the sake of earning their respect in the soccer department. Where at one point there may have been a sense of "don't tell me these white guys are going to teach me soccer", now they are connecting with us as equals in many ways. Praise God! Play of the day: Ryan Schatzman was playing goalie and made an unbelievable one handed save over the top of 3 Rwandan headers...i had to look under his jersey to see where he was hiding his jet packet. pretty awesome

Tomorrow, we will go to church at the bishop of Rwanda (Bishop John-neat Christian) church, then drive out again to the KAA-Rwanda property, go to a city soccer game, and then have a Klife practice (our night time program with song-skits-and messages). After that, the kids come monday! wo--and we thought it was intense now? add 150 kids ages 12-18 to the mix. That's why we are here though...and we are loving it.

Prayer Requests: 1) continual safety and health for our team...especially with some of our fields being in pour condition (not kidding-we built a soccer goal today out of 3 trees and there is massive volcanoe rocks holding it steady. good luck goalie!)

2) Coaches-there is obviously a language barrier. There is a spiritual barrier as well though. 3 coaches left the first day because they were muslim, and one still remains. He is the head coach at the school we are operating at, so it is a bit of a sensitive situation. We need him! but he is challenging in these regards. His name Hevuna...pray for his salvation!

3) half way point lull: We need the spirit to energize and unite us. our naps are getting longer and our bed times earlier. We won't even have these luxuries though as of monday. Pray the spirit + an adrenaline dose kicks in.

We love you all! i will keep doing the best to update as often as possible.

Matt and the team

Rwanda Picture Link

Hey guys,
Click here to look at pictures from the Rwanda team.

Rwanda Update #3

Hello friends and family-

We had a great day today! the last one before the coaches come and then it will be a beehive of craziness. You would have all been so proud (especially all you biking fanatics-lawson, are you reading?) we went on a 30 mile bike ride today to the property that KAA-Rwanda is going to be built on. it was georgeous! got some unbelievable pictures. Our guys are doing great. Ryan Schatzman and poppa Newms both pushed it a little hard with the riding and had to take extra long naps when they got back...all around pretty impressive though. Everybody is still feeling safe and doing great. I am so proud of our team...wowsa

Moving story to share: yesterday, we went to the churches of the genocide. churches were the place alot of people fled to as the attackers were coming. Unfortunately, they then became the large group killing points for the attackers. Many pastors and priests gave up their congregations to the killers to save their own necks. some absolutely awful stories. We talked to a 25 year old man named Charles who was one of these that ran to a church (when he was 8 years old). 10,000 people ran into this tiny church and were literally laying on top of each other. He watched as his twin sister and mother were raped and murdered in front of him. his oldest brother picked him up and ran him through the crowd to the back of the room. (this gets graphic...i apologize). while running, his brothers arm was cut off with a machete. Only thinking about charles, the brother used his own blood to cover charles, making it look like he was already dead. He then hid Charles underneath a concrete slab with a hole in it. While shoving him in, he was stabbed through in the back with a spear. in his last breath, he fell on top of Charles to protect him from the grenades that were at that moment flying through the window. Out of 10,000 people...7 survived. Charles was one of them. Talk about an image of Christ on the cross...taking his last dying breath, to give it that we may live. I will not forget that...

Prayer requests

1) continued health and rest. schedule will now get alot harder while beds and food much more "missionary mode"

2) 150 kids and 20 coaches get here this weekend (coaches tomorrow). Pray for spirit led quick reactive decisions to spontaneous needs...and that we would continually "lead out of the overflow"-great quote by Mark Schatzman

3) Speaking and ministry. Matt and Colin will speak on Faith tuesday night for the whole group, while Ty and Ryan Schatzman will be giving there testimonies each 3 times to 50 kids at a time on wednesday ( i believe)

God is so good! protecting us and giving us great hope. Thank you for supporting us with your thoughts and prayers! Spread the word that God is moving!!!

matt and the team

Rwanda Update # 2 - Day 3 and no sunburn yet!

Rwanda is amazing friends...so many pictures and stories can not be captured in this short paragraph, although i hope you are anxious for the long debrief when we return. i did think you would like to hear these 2 stories:
1) Our Driver, DiaDonye...is one of the coolest guys ever. yesterday we went to the genocide memorial which honestly, was brutal for all of us. At one point I asked him how his story fit in, and he told me that both of his parents, his brothers, and all of his cousins would killed by machete. I was shocked! surely all of the movies, books, pictures, etc...wouldn't include this man that has now become my friend. EVERYBODY is effected. EVERYBODY has lost somebody. at the end of the tour, i sensitively inquired how he handles walking through the memorial. What he said moved me: "Matt, it is very hard every day...but every day i must choose to forgive again". Wo-i have never experienced a truer picture of Redemption than what i have seen and heard here. Just wait for the story tomorrow about Charles! Bring the kleenex...

2) Today as we were driving into the mountains to get to our camp, where we will spend the second half of the trip, we stopped by a nearby village off of the highway to play a soccer game with the locals. we all wore the same bears soccer jerseys, and sang loud as we ran down to the field. the ENTIRE village came out to play. we were hopeful we would be playing against 10 year olds, but would not be so lucky. there was a team of 20 year olds already on the field. therefore, the entire village go to see us get whooped 3-0. it was great...lots of cheering and laughing. in fact...somehow i have gained the nickname everywhere i go of: Yao Ming. Since i am the tallest person they have ever seen, obviously i am connected to him...right?

Collin-Ryan-and Ty are incredible. What young men of God...servants to the core. Schatzman has carried a box with a projector in it now for 72 hours straight. Still leaning in to hear complaining, never will happen though. I love these guys! Be proud fellowship.

I will continue to update the blog! Keep checking and praying. Tomorrow we tour the land, scrimmage a local team, and go on a 12 mile mountain bike ride. Translated in rwandan: who took the oxygen and why didn't i pack the icy hot.

With Love,
Matt and the team

Selah Update

During the month of July, Saturday night students have been gathering on Tuesday afternoon for Selah, a time of teaching and training on worship and worship celebration. It has been a special time of growth for all of us. We have spent time in the Word studying what worship is, and we have also spent time working as a group to learn how worship expresses itself in music and how to lead others in that.

This last week we talked about the mystery of what is at the center of our worship. We often walk away from a worship service and judge the “success” of the service based on how it affected us emotionally. Worship is “good” when it stirs up something within us. Some feel that there is something very wrong with this kind of statement. It is very popular to say that worship should not be about us at all, that it is only about God. Is this the case? Is worship more about the worshipper or the worshipped?

Though this difficult question is one that I believe I will continue to wrestle with for the rest of my life, I believe scripture does have a few very clear things to say about it. Time and time again, scripture teaches that at the core of a pleasing offering to God is the state of our heart. Specifically, our worship is a response to something God has done or revealed about Himself. In Psalm 90:14 Moses prays “O satisfy us in the morning with lovingkindness/That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” Our hearts matter! God satisfies us and we respond in joy. God is glorified when we are satisfied in Him and joy spills out of that.

However, there is another side to that. Notice that it is God’s lovingkindness that satisfies us. Not gifts from Him. Not wealth or health or prosperity but God. Colossians chapter 1 says that Christ is “the image of the invisible God… he is before all things, and in him all things hold together… He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Christ is the center of all things. He is the center, the focal point of our worship. He initiated the relationship by dying for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). He sustains us as we abide in Him. He fills and sustains us. Because of Him we receive the Living Water, which is the Holy Spirit (John 4:13-14, John 7:37-39). When Christ is at the center of what we do, His glory and our joy because the same thing as we celebrate His saving work in our lives.

Still working it all out…

Grace and peace,
Nick Roland

Rwanda Update #1 - We Made It!

We made it! After an absolute marathon of travel...we made it to Kigali safe and sound today around noon (rwanda time, which is 7 hours ahead of Central time). It brought back reminders of 35 hour bus rides to Mexico, although this time...we had our own seats, pillows, great meals, movies (when they were working :), and bathrooms that worked. It really was one of the most comfortable flights i have ever been on. Why Ethiopian air fly from NWA to Cincinnatti? that's my real question...

Today was a day of rest. We have definately not entered into the "roughing it" state yet. We have been eating at good restaurants, staying at a hotel, traveling in a great bus. It really has been calm and pleasant...good thing too because we are pretty wiped. All day has felt like we stayed up all night at a lock in, and then took a 2 hour nap. the rest of the day is this endless haze of weird tiredness. thats us. Definately motivating us to go to bed early (new record! Colin Jackson, Ryan Schatzman, and Ty Nafziger in bed by 8:30!) They said it could never be done...anything is possible in africa though.

I will continue to check in daily with a brief update of how the day went via the blog. that of course assuming that the internet is going to be working great and always available (good luck with that one).
Keep us in your prayers for the next 2 days. we are in the team training and educational piece of our time where we are going to the genocide museums and genocide churches. Both of these are horrible, yet important things to give us accurate perspective.

We love you all! Pray for us!
Matt and the Team

Antidote

“You see, the prayer that Christ taught us to pray is the antidote to sin”.

I know I sin. I am that puddle pusher C.S. Lewis so eloquently describes as peddling in the mud while living in view of the ocean. Lets be honest…we all are! Somewhere between Paul’s “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31) and “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) we find ourselves attempting active response to the Lord’s Prayer. For it is not to be by our kingdom that we live and move, but by His: His timetables, His agenda, His pre-eminence. For if God is before all things (Colossians 1:17) than I play the humble role of follower. I wait to see Him move…and I Follow. I do not instigate His will, beckoning it to submit to my own. But rather, the banner of my life is to remain: “THY Kingdom Come, THY will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”.

Amen?

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy…
mn

It's a God Thing

My ears have been tickled at this phrase over the past few months regarding its meaning and the effect it has on its user. Every now and then, in a state of perceived contentment, as somebody shares a big win story-one in which the outcome was obviously favorable—the story will be bow tied with a: “it’s just a God thing”. What is a God thing? I wonder who first coined the phrase and how it became airborne. Admittedly overanalyzing the phrase, my follow-up impressions are: 1) are their certain God things which have always been established? 2) What are not God things? 3) Could a God thing for me be a bad thing from somebody else’s perspective? 4) Why “thing”. 5) When it’s not God’s, whose is it? (And so on and so forth…) Without trying to be critical, but merely specific, my thoughts go to Colossians 1:17:

17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
NASU

If 1) He is before all things, and 2) all things in Him hold together, then very plainly, all things are God things. All individual “things” become apart of a much bigger story which in the end, is the ultimate THING. So…Suggestion: Be cautious in identifying any singular event the thing you declare as one of those “God’s things”. For potential lies to only see Him in the positive. Rather, let’s be unified in a God who is wholly BEFORE, holding life together, intent on revealing all little something as mile markers to the thing: the journey story of salvation.

Amen?

-Deep thoughts by a shallow guy-
mn

Near and Far

If our lives were a case study, if we were a lab rat, we would recognize obvious trends that result in consistent outcomes.
FAR: In the moment of temptation, we have a free will choice coming on the heels of expected symptoms. When we choose far (meaning: far from the will of God), it is a choice for and towards self. We choose to indulge our laziness, lusts, and sin. The instant fallout of this is DISCONNECT FROM GOD. Amazing though how this also trickles into disconnect from those closest to us. It’s as if we deplete instantly our compassion, love, and mercy focusing, instead, that energy into sin. Once we fall, attempts to restore those tanks end miserably. We are then empty of the presence of the Lord, and simply put: full of ourselves.
NEAR: When our energy is put instead to the storage tanks which only Christ can fill, then our desires for self fulfillment are limited, and promises of presence (Isaiah 11) are fulfilled. Literally, drawing near to Christ results in a physical experience of Him reciprocating drawing near to us (James 4:8).
Why would we ever choose far? What motivation is there for that? Why are we so much like Paul, who does what he does not want to do.
Lord: forgive us. Replace our empty, vain, pursuits and replace them with the filling of you.

- Matt Newman

Para-Church ministries

As we launch into our new series on Vintage Church, we have posed a looming question of “What is the Church”. In reflecting this question, one quickly will go the opposite direction asking: “What is not the Church”. In particular…lets ponder a biggy: “What about para-Church ministries?” Are para-Church ministries the Church?
This question lies near and dear to my heart. My parents have been in full time ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ for 35+ years. Hundreds to perhaps thousands have come to Christ through their commitment, faithfulness, and leadership. The question we pose however is not whether or not para-Church ministries like these have been blessed by God or are effective, this goes without saying. The question we ask is: are they the Church.
I like the definition Pastor Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle) gives to what makes up a Church. He says:
The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great commission as missionaries to the world for god’s glory and their joy.

Operating under this definition, I think it is clear that para-church ministries such as Campus Crusade for Christ, New Life Ranch, Young Life, and Lightbearers are NOT the Church. The beautiful thing about organizations such as these however is that GOD IS USING THEM FOR KINGDOM MOVEMENT. They have clearly throughout the past 100 years been some of the most significant missional movers in Western Christianity.

So-what-do-we-do-about-it?
I think we call these ministries for what they are: When done right, they are missional arms of effective Churches. In no way is it wrong to support or be involved in these. We should back them with our time, effort, and finances. They should not however become a replacement for the Church but rather a pipeline too it. The most healthy para-Church ministries I have seen are the ones who come alongside the Church, pushing new believers into its Discipleship and Accountability strategies. In this, para-Church ministries live out that which they are defined for (para-Church: of the Church).

Deep thoughts from a Shallow guy-
Matt Newman