The Strong Christian

The past month or so I've been trouncing through Colossians with the Jr High on Sundays. It isn't like a normal exposition, though. I study the text, outline it in Greek, try to get the nuances, and then take it in to Sunday School. It is there that we go through the text as a group and outline it together and try to piece together Paul's argument. I remind them of the context Paul is writing in and what Colosse was like. The basic purpose is to get the kids to understand how to understand the Bible on their own. So far, so good!




Well, last week I was teaching through verse 9-14 of chapter 1 and we planted on verse 11 for quite awhile and I thought I'd plant my observations down here. The first part of the verse says "in all power you have been made powerful." The words are the same in the greek, being used as a noun and a passive participle. The first observation is that it is with a power outside of ourselves that we are made powerful, or strengthened.


The second thought was an explanation of "according to" versus "out of". Paul says that we are stregnthened according to His glorious might. It is an observation that I think is important when understanding the significance of the phrase "according to". Here's how I illustrate it. Picture a homeless person on the side of the road. He has nothing except a cardboard sign pleading for money and a dirty cup. The man is sitting there, begging for money, and what do you know, Bill Gates walks by! The homeless man looks up and recognizes this man as being wealthy and thinks to himself, "payday!" He watches as Bill Gates slowly reaches into his pocket. The homeless man imagines the hundred dollar bills that must line Gates' pockets, and wonders how many were going to end up in the cup. He begins to imagine the warm clothes and food he could buy with this man's money. In the middle of his imagination running wild he notices that Gates reaches out his hand and drops one bill down. The homeless man tracks the bill with his eyes, trying to see how big the number is. as it finally drops into his lap he sees a big "1" but no "0" following it. One lousy dollar.

The homeless man is absolutely depressed. Normally he'd be quite happy with a dollar, but not now. This is Bill Gates after all! He wasn't giving according to his wealth, but out of. One dollar means nothing to Gates. One hundred dollars means nothing to Gates, but it would mean everything to this man who has nothing. What would it have looked like if Gates walks by this man and gave to him "according to" his wealth? He would have stopped, taken out a checkbook, and written a check for over $1,000,000! That is much more in accordance to his wealth.

So how does this understanding of "according to" and "out of" relate to God stregnthening us according to his glorious might? It means that God has given us all the strength that we could possibly need! God doesn't give us stregnth out of his might in order that we might float on through life. God gives us stregnth according to His glorious might so that we might live life with endurance and patience. This strength isn't in us, in and of ourselves. it is a foreign strength that originates from God's glorious might, and is granted to us in abundance, according to His glorious stregnth.

MacArthur on Nancy Grace Show

For those of you who care, John MacArthur will be on the Nancy Grace Show on CNN HeadlineNews tonight at 8 eastern, 5 pacific. He will be on a panel discussing "A Sinner versus a Hypocrite," regarding Pastor Ted Haggard (i know, very timely). He'll join a local reporter to give the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective), Mike Jones (the gay escort), and someone from the New Life Church. Apparently there is a chance it will be canceled, so just be aware of that.

And if you are in the San Gabriel area, you're welcome to come to our showing of "Invisible Children" from 7-9pm. Representatives will be here with their merch and will have a Q&A session after the movie!

Back to Life as Normal....?

Yesterday we got back from our last winter camp and now it is on to life as normal, or as normal as it can get. Before I go one, let me discuss what our Jr High Camp was like.

Teaching

Unlike the previous year, the teaching was great. The speaker was Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason. His main teaching point was communicating that truth is not subjective, but is objective. He taught that you can know what you believe and its not a blind faith. He did a great job at getting the point through to the kids that Christianity is exclusive and it is ok to say that it is the only way.

Wycliffe

The camp partnered with Wycliffe this year and it was based a really great idea. While there were issues is how it was carried out, I loved the idea behind it. And most importantly, the kids were really struck with the idea that there are thousands of languages that don't have the Bible available in their own language. The Wycliffe people did a great job at communicating the sense of need and urgency to the kids, and also showed them what they can do. We have decided that we will continue to give through the organization under Wycliffe called OneVerse. Under OneVerse, they have figured out how much it costs per verse to translate a Bible into a new language. For $24 you can get one verse translated. On their website you can determine which people group you would like to help.

We were already running a program where the kids bring in bottles and cans and we turn them in for money. the good news is that CA approved a bill where each can gets an extra cent. Now we will regularly be putting the money earned through that to OneVerse. At the camp, the kids wanted to get it started and gave $67! That's 27 kids putting forward $67.

Fun and Games
Like most camps, we also had our share of fun and games. The camp had a thing going where if you went to special things, or did different things, they would give you a pin. By the end of the weekend, most kids had around 20 pins they earned doing different things. Either you'd go to meetings, get spirit pins for cheering at rec, get pins for winning games, get pins for solving translation riddles, or even eating flavored grasshoppers. My grasshopper was bacon and cheese. And no, it tasted nothing like bacon and cheese. It was like a bad corn nut.

During free time we entered two teams into the dodgeball tourney. We all cheered each other on, and ended up steamrolling all the teams and our two teams met in the finals. It was fun to play our own group in the final, and our kids really stood out as good sports. Actually, the whole weekend, the staff of the camp kept telling leaders how great our kids were. One missionary was sitting at our table during a dinner and she asked the kids what they thought of the speaker. They said they liked him and he was nice. She asked if they had ever heard teaching like that, and they said, "Yeah, Tim is like that all the time." That was good to hear about :)

We also had fun playing in the game room, playing Mafia, or on the Bungee Run. The kids all stuck together and had a great time. Overall, the weekend was fun and a good weekend of growing relationships with the kids. The kids were really struck with the challenge of having a part of bringing the Gospel to the whole world.

Back to Life
Now I'm able to concentrate on classes. I was looking at having this semester a little easier, but it appears that I was incorrect. I now basically have four significant classes. I have Theology IV, in which we're covering Ecclesiology and Eschatology. I have a few books to read for that, a big term paper, along with a few other things. Then I have a Biblical Counseling class i added late. I have ten hours of observation on dvds to do, a day of pastoral counseling observation in person, read a few books, a term paper, and a couple other papers as well as 20 verses to memorize and three HUGE tests (25 page study outline each). I also have an Old Testament Intro class, which covers textual concerns, canon formation, and all the background stuff. I have a huge term paper in that class, a few tests, a few books, as well as a few other things. Then on top of all of that, I have to add a class to take arranged, in which I will have to watch all of the classes on dvds and do all the homework. If I don't finish that class before May 13th, I don't graduate.

So what I thought would be a good last semester will in fact be a bloody fight to the end. Oh, and we're having a baby in 8 weeks. So if you will excuse me, I need to write a paper!

...and as I return from camp.

Thank you for all of you who were laboring in prayer over our high school winter camp this past weekend. God worked through His clay jar and the Word was heard and applied to the hearts of many high schoolers. We ended up bring 30 high schoolers, including a few who had never really come to anything at our church before. God granted us safe passage there and helped us overcome more bus issues the day before we left. The reservation that I had made was apparently never made official and they would not return my calls. So the day before I was faced with the decision to either cut bait and hire a new company, or hope that the other one would show up. I decided on the former, and the latter never happened.

But we set off and the weekend started well with the first session. I spoke about how we should define sin and how our society and culture views it. We looked at quite a few passages that spoke on the subject and hopefully better defined such a frequently used term. The next morning we spoke on what Christ did and how it relates to our sin and our battle with our sin.

During the afternoon we were supposed to go tubing at a ski area down the street. We got everyone excited and drove there, only to find that there were hardly any kids over 9 there, they had one little dinky hill open, the snow was more brown than white, and you could about walk faster than most were going. I decided that we would not be spending $15 on each kid for two hours of waiting in lines to cruise down a 150 foot hill. So we packed back into the cars and made our way back to the lodge. Conor, one of our leaders, decided to lead an expedition into the woods in search of snow. I had initially joined them, but had to turn back when we could not account for a kid that was thought to be hiking with us. Thankfully, he was at the bottom of the hill, keeping himself occupied.

The rest of the kids hung out in the lodge, and we started the fire in the lodge. We decided that we'd bring the kids to the local mom and pop grocery store and let them buy $5 worth of whatever they wanted. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever, which was nice in light of the failure of the tubing. the store kept being amazed every time I walked in with 5 new kids that I would shuttle back and forth. Most kids either stocked up on Ben and Jerry's or just pure sugar candy. This inevitably brought the insanity that too much sugar consumption can lead to.

That night we came together for another session. This one focused on dealing harshly with our sin and not entertaining it. We used the story of Samuel killing Agag as an illustration on how to deal with our sin after Saul refused to obey the word of the Lord and follow through. Too often we let sin sulk around and keep it as the shameful pet in the closet. We know that our sin is bad, but we keep it accessable just in case we need that pleasure.

That night brough a ton of good conversations. We told the kids that the leaders would be available if they wanted to talk and for the next half hour, almost all our leaders were talking to kids somewhere. I had the awesome opportunity to explain salvation to one young man and he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. We had a great conversation about sin, forgiveness and repentance. Afterwards I got snagged by another young man dealing with things in his life and had a great long conversation with him.

That night we played more games and it almost felt like a celebration in the room. The next morning we spoke about how we will never have consistent victory over our sin in our lives until we are in love with God and regularly pursuing a knowledge of God. We must first love God, and then desire godliness. If we become enthralled with the beauty of Christ and the holiness of God, then our lives will automatically change in light of that.

The camp finished with some worship and a time of testimonies where people talked about what they learned this weekend. Please pray for the decisions that these kids made and that they would attempt to do this in their own stregnth and power, but rely on the power of God to live for Him!

As I Leave for Camp...

Just wanted to write a few notes before I left for our high school winter camp. Though I have been looking forward to this and have known what I'm going to be teaching, the closer I get the more terrified I get. The terrified feeling that I have before I speak has nothing to do with my lack of faith that God will use it, but more with my feeling of ineptitude and unworthiness. We have a good group of kids going. We have 32 high schoolers going with a good mix of regulars and new kids.

There are a few kids that have a great need to hear this message. i can't get into specifics, but it just raises my overwhelming feeling of inadequacy. We're talking about the power of sin and how to overcome sin in our lives. I know that it is a very timely message and that Satan would very much like to keep a strangle hold on some of these kids. This week I've had to deal with a failed bus company, we had to move the camp a couple months ago because we got double booked out, and this morning I found out that the freeway will be closing at 9pm for freeway construction. We have some kids coming up late and now we're going to have to figure out another way to get them there.

So I would covet your prayers for myself, for safety and that everyone will get there, but most of all, that the message of forgiveness and mercy will be heard and lives will be changed by God's message!

The Glorious Appearance of Our Savior... Who Cares?

Sometimes there are moments in ministry when it feels like a big light goes off. It usually happens in preparation to teach God’s Word, and sometimes it even happens in the process of teaching. This past month I had one of these moments while I was teaching about the return of Christ to our High Schoolers. The funny thing is I wasn’t even supposed to be teaching, but I got a call that morning that the teacher wasn’t going to be able to make it due to sickness. So I didn’t have the time to really internalize what I was teaching until I was going through it again with the youth.

As I was going through the section on Christ’s return it dawned on me that we don’t anticipate Christ’s return like we are supposed to. We have surrounded ourselves with so many comforts that distract us and steal our yearning to see Christ at His return. Paul gives us a great challenge in his letter to Titus:

Titus 2:11-14- “For the grace of God has appeared… training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

We should plead and yearn for the day where we can meet the Savior of our souls and kiss the pierced feet of the One who bled for us!

And it isn't just about desiring to be in Heaven, but anticipating the appearance of Christ. Paul said in II Timothy 4:8, "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing."

When I was talking about the return of Christ it was like I had just said what I was going to be having for lunch. There was no reaction, and it scared me. And I realized that it isn't just the high schoolers that were somewhat bored with the topic. It was me, too. I suddenly realized that I have let myself get too disctracted with the present. Do we truly anticipate Christ’s return like we should? Does my heart leap at thought of seeing my Savior face to face?

What would happen if the apostles had the same perspective that we do? What if Paul decided to settle down and start a tent making business and just assumed that someone else would do the work? What would the church have looked like if Paul lived for the day and lived like tomorrow was a guarantee? Imagine how different our lives would look like if we anticipated the return of Christ like the apostles did! So take a moment to ask yourself, do you really anticipate Christ’s return?

One Semester Left!

This week I finished my second to last semester of seminary. This semester was a great one, and even though it presented its share of problems, it was still a great semester of learning. Probably the biggest thing was my increasing love for preaching. I figured it out, and I would be averaging 8 sermons, sometimes 9 a week. I would have 4-5 in my preaching lab, two chapels, Sunday Morning and Sunday School, Wednesday night, and Jr High chapel on Fridays. And one would think that I would have 'sermon overload', but it actually heightened my excitement to hear good preaching. A side effect of that is a distaste for poor preaching. I get frustrated when i see people waste opportunities in the pulpit and even more frustrated when I see people settle for that.

I'm not going to mention names, but recently I heard a sermon that wasted an amazing opportunity to minister the Word of God to a body of believers in flux. Instead, they got a half hour of personal stories and observations. Illustrations drove the message, and brought up questionable applications.

The reaction to such preaching could be devisive, but I choose to focus on making my preaching better. My greatest goal has become to be a preacher who preaches Christ crucified in a Biblical and clear manner. I have become more aware of the preparation process, the presentation, and application of God's Word and love every opportunity I get to exercise it. I just ask that you expect the same from your pastor. Don't accept pep talks and cute stories in place of the clear, expositional presentation of God's Word.

A Ministry Update

Before I get into this I'd like to give a shout out to Bonny. Heard you frequent my blog, proving you never know who's reading!

Let's starting by backing up to last Sunday. It was truly a highlite of my mininstry as I had the chance to baptize five high schoolers. I'd like to take the time to tell you about each one.

The first was Sean Fenderson. Sean is a freshman who was in my small group when he was in Jr High. Sean has a great spirit and has always been able to make everyone laugh with his random humor. He also has a great heart for friends who do not know God.

The second young man was Aaron Kappe. I had the opportunity to live in Aaron's backyard for about two years between college and getting married. He is also a giant. It was a good opportunity for everyone to laugh at the fact that I had to baptize someone who was so much taller than me. We practiced the dunk backstage to make sure he could bend his knees enough.

The third one was Matt Dorado. Matt has had a special place in my heart since he came up in 7th grade. He had a tough year last year that saw him walk away from where he should be. But this summer God miraculously worked in his heart and it has been such an encouragement to see his growth and his desire to praise God.

The fourth guy was Parker Hall. Parker was a friend of Matt, Aaron's, and a couple other guys in his class. He came to the christian school at my church, and through events and camps started coming to the church. He eventually got saved through the Jr High ministry and has been faithfully coming, though his family does not. Those kids are some of the biggest encouragements because you know they want to be there. He's also very skinny.

The last guy was Ricky 'Richard, Rico del Blanco' White. Ricky was also in my small group in jr high and has been such a joy to watch grow in Christ. I was able to lead him to Christ at summer camp during his 7th grade year after talk about what made David a man after God's own heart. That night a few of the guys wanted to stay up and talk and ask questions. That night is one of the greatest moments in my ministry.



Later that night we had our monthly Pray 'n Praise. This is a time for everyone in Student Min. to come together and just worship. It has honestly been lacking lately, but this was one of the best in over a year. we started off with a block of singing, then broke into groups for prayer, but we only praised God through our prayers. we left our problems and issues aside and just worshipped God. Then we came back together for singing and then broke into groups for more worship. It was a great night and made us really look forward to next month's.


Fastforward to this past weekend. Friday night we took the Jr Highers ice skating. It is always an adventure teaching 7th graders to skate. Before we left church we played everyone's favorite game, Human Bingo! I made a bingo sheet with human talents, oddities or experiences and they have to find someone that matched the description in each box. What they didn't know is that I was going to make them prove they could do the talent. It turns out we have quite a few kids who don't mind stretching the truth. It was funny to see them get called out for what they said they could do and then fail attempting it. We went from there to the Pasadena Ice Skating center. At first I wasn't going to lace them skates up, but then I was watching them and had to get out there. Good times!


The next day we had our high school Thanksgiving Dinner. We were at church all day prepping for it and it went off really well. We offered a free dinner to the families and were able to get a few of the families of the kids who don't go to our church to come out. We had a puzzle at each tabel for them to work at as a table and after dinner played a scavenger hunt composed of anything that they had on them. That turned into a hysterical time watching what some families would do to win. The next day we heard some great things about the evening and how much everyone enjoyed it.

But now its back to classes and trying to get everything done for this week!

Gone Fishin'

This past Wednesday I planned on the spur of the moment that we should go fishin' on Friday night. When I told the kids this at youth group, I got a mixed reaction. One kid, Ricky, said, "YES! I love fishing!" But most kid just had somewhat of a blank stare like they were thinking, "umm... why are we going fishing?" What they didn't know, and I didn't explain, is that 'going fishing' is my new phrase for street evangelism. Christ told His disciples that they weren't going to fish for fish anymore, but He was going to make them fishers of men.

With it being totally last minute, I wasn't really expecting much turnout. One of the local high schools where most of the kids go was having their homecoming dance or something like that. And Ricky, who really wanted to go, had to work his school's football game for ASB. I told them to meet me in front of the movie theater at 7 if they wanted to go. So Leah and I showed up, she got a bite to eat, and we waited.

As I was expecting, there weren't any kids there. But I was fine with that. I know they would do it, if I gave them some more notice, and it might be better, because I was going to be testing out this new 'Way of the Master' method. So the wife and I prayed for boldness and we started talking to people.

The first young man we talked to was named Tino. He said he was a soldier and would be going back to Iraq soon. he also said he was married and had a few kids, but didn't have a ring and also said he was living in a motel room. My skeptical alarm went off, but continued ignoring that. I asked him if we could ask him a few questions. When they realized that I was witnessing to them, the girl that was sitting next to him perked up, and it turned out she was a pastor's daughter from a local church.

When I asked him where he was going when he died, he said I didn't have to worry, because he had a relationship with Jesus. I decided to pry a little further and asked him what he would say if God asked him, "Why should I let you into my Heaven?" His answer gave me all the info I needed. He gave the normal, "I've been a generally good person..." So I asked him if we could ask him a few questions to see if he was right. I asked him if he'd ever lied, and he admitted he was a liar. I asked him if he had stolen anything, and he admitted he was thief. I asked him if he'd every taken the name of the Lord in vain, and he admitted he was a blasphemer. I asked him if he'd ever lusted after a woman, and eventually he admitted he was an adulterer.

Then I asked him again, what would God say to you if you asked to get into Heaven. this time it was a little different. He realized that he wasn't good enough at all. He realized that even the stuff he did awhile ago still mattered. I told him the illustration of him being in a court room and the judge telling him he must pay a $70,000 fine, and if he didn't he'd go to jail. What would the judge think if you said, "well, i've tried to generally be a good person." Obviously he'd show you the door to your jail cell. But what if a man you didn't even know came in with $70,000 came in and said, "I love this man and I want to pay his penalty."

By the end of the conversation he knew he had quite a bit to think about and I gave him my info to contact me if he needed to talk. Please pray for Tino.

Then we talked to a group of for high schoolers, Leroy, Jake, Georgie, and Alorra ( i have no idea how to spell the two girls names). We ended up giving them the same talk for over a half hour. It was great! They asked questions, seemed really interested, and all of them were really struck by the end. I gave them the info for our youth group and a couple of them said they'll come on Wednesday.

I think one of the most refreshing things for them was for them to hear someone go through the Gospel in a logical progression, clearly explaining why they were sinners, and letting their conscience condemn them instead of us starting the conversation with telling them they were sinners. They were refreshed to hear someone say something that actually made sense and was authoritative. By the end of the conversation I told them i really enjoyed talking with them and really liked them. Please pray for Leroy, Jake, Georgie, and Alorra.

Battle of the Bands IV

This past weekend we were able to host our fourth annual Battle of the Bands. When I took over the Student Ministries I knew that I would have to make a call on whether we were going to do Battle of the Bands again. I wasn't sure if it was really what we wanted to spend our time on and whether it was something that matched up with our missions statement.

Then through the winter I was greatly convicted that we could greatly use this event to minister to the bands and the visitors in a way that we never have before. As far as evangelistic events, this one wasn't a great atmosphere for an upfront sharing of the Gospel, and I wanted to change the way we looked at it. Instead, we should them Christ through our actions, still gave a short Gospel message and gave some of our high schoolers the opportunity to brush up on their street evangelism. I figured that would be a more beneficial way of doing this.

There were a lot of things that we decided to do to make this event special. First, we decided we weren't going to take any money from this it was all going to go to the bands and a special guest we invited. We also decided we weren't going to sell water bottles like we did in the past. We're going to give it away. We set a bunch of cookies and free water out for our guests. We were able to provide free pizza for the bands, as well as a stage that many of them were not able to use. Most of these kids play around in small coffee shops or clubs, not big rooms with big sound systems and room for hundreds of people. It was great to give them this opportunity.

Lastly, we invited the group "invisible children" to join us. We gave $2 from every person that came through the door and then they also had merch they were selling. We ended up being able to give them $480! "invisible children" is a movie that was made by three surfer guys from San Diego. They went to Sudan to find film what was going on there, but when they got there, there was no one to be found. They made their way south to Northern Uganda and discovered a heinous crime that was being committed. they discovered the LRA.

Now the LRA is something that I remember from my time in Uganda. They are the Lord's Rebellion Army and they are savages. They kidnap small children and make them into killing machines. They commit horrible atrocities and dream of over throwing the government. They have connections within the government itself so no one is taking action on behalf of these children who are getting kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Hence 'invisible children'.

These guys have done some amazing things. They have been able to show this video to many in our government and have an increasing voice in this cry for help. You should all follow my link to the right to invisible children and check it out for yourself. We're going to be hosting a showing of their new 'professional type' movie hopefully in January. There, they will answer questions and talk about what is being done to interject ourselves into what's going on.

Having 'invisible children' there made such a huge difference. the kids were able to see that this was about something greater than them and even though they were having fun, they were able to support this great cause. We had 8 bands, over 240 people, and a whole lot of fun and good music. Now we're prepping for next year and how we can do this thing better and better show Christ to our visitors.

Back in the Saddle

Wow, 27 days since I've posted. I guess that should tell you all how busy I've been. This semester has proven itself to be quite the time sucker. I'm balancing full time school, full time work, and now a pregnant wife. All have presented their share of difficulties and issues to deal with. Here's an update on each:

School: last week was the week from Sheol. I had a sermon to do on Tuesday, which took probably over 20 hours of prep and made me skip a friends bachelor party weekend in the mountains. Then I had a class presentation later on Tuesday, a book and a paper due on Wednesday, a book and paper due on Thursday, and then an exam on Friday. Now I'm trying to get everything done in time for my sister and nephew to come out and visit.

Work: it's going great, but there is a lot to do. Our Wednesday nights are doing really well. About a year ago we had four or five kids on a Wednesday night and this fall we had over 30 kids out. We've started a series in I John in High school, James in Jr High and then a series on finances in High School on Sundays. We have a couple big events coming up in the next couple of weeks: Ice Skating and Lazer Tag on Saturday and then a Battle of the Bands on next Saturday. We have a staff meeting this Sunday and our Pray 'n Praise Sunday night. I love my job and just wish that I had more time to commit to it. Soon enough.

Wife: we've come across some issues, but everything is ok. We've had a few scares this past couple of weeks, but God has proven Himself faithful again and again. The first sermon I preached in my class was about trusting the Lord in times of trouble and He has definitely given me plenty of opportunity to live that out. The wife is ok now and is resting on bed rest for the rest of the week. We had the opportunity to get a 25 minute ultrasound on a good machine on Saturday. I say she's doing all of this on purpose so she can keep seeing the baby. We saw it a lot and it was just kicking back with the occasional poke, probably trying to claw its way out.


So as you see, things have been a little crazy. I've had plenty of things that I've wanted to put on, but just haven't got the opportunity. Hopefully I will be able to do those soon enough. soon enough.

How Deep the Father's Love

I wanted to share one thing that really struck me when we were at Hume, but have been so busy that I haven't gotten the chance until now. One of the things that Francis Chan really emphasized was focusing on the love of God. One night that was probably the most moving he was talking about the love of a father for his child. He spoke of how great the Father's love for us is. On the first night he started with talking about how great and powerful God really was by exposing us to the magnitude of the creation.

With that in mind he went into how great the Father's love for us is. He talked about how he never really understood the love of God until he had taken his daughter out camping. As he was playing with her and cooking food he realized that the love of the Father for His children was so much greater than the love for his own child. He brought up his ten year old daughter and had her play a worship song she had written. Everyone was absolutely blown away by this little girl and you could see how proud he was as a father as he stood on the stage and watched.

He said that he realized that the Father looks down on His children with such love and is so happy when they do things that please them. He just glows when the person is doing something that would make Him proud.

hearing all of this was something that really struck me. I thought, man, my wife isn't even two months pregnant and I already love this child so much. And the Father's love for me is so much greater than that that they can't even be compared.

One of my students talked to me afterwards and said, "you know, whenever I pictured God, I always pictured someone who was always disappointed and upset with me. Now I understand that God isn't always like that, but takes joy in my obedience and my life." Deep thoughts for a kid that is going to be a freshman.

Surviving Summer Camps

We just got back from 11 days straight of camps and we are ready for a break! For jr high we took about 30 kids to a camp where we run everything. We do banana boating, jetskiing, alpine and water slides, mini golf, go-carts, played football and frisbee, and more. Our theme was "Run the Race" from Hebrews 12:1-2. We had a chapel time every morning and evening. I'd include some pics, but it isn't letting me.

For those of you who don't know, a couple weeks ago we bought a 99 Corolla and we definitely broke it in the past couple of weeks. Kind of literally. There is this stump that is not marked in the parking lot of the Lodge we were staying at and I sort of backed into it not knowing it was there. It crunched up my muffler. It dislocated the pipe from the manifold and the exhaust was leaking from the front. I decided I couldn't drive down with Leah in the car so I went down during the day on Friday and got it fixed and drove back up in time for dinner and evening chapel.

Then Saturday we drove back down at night and left the next morning for Hume Lake with the high schoolers. I love Hume because I don't have to do much and we just get to hang out with the kids and relax. It ended up being really good for Leah because she didn't have to cook, got to nap whenever she could, and didn't have any responsibilities.

The speaker for the week was Francis Chan. If there was a speaker I could choose for a camp he'd be one of my first choices. The kids discovered new depths to the love of God and greater lengthes to the majesty of God. It was awesome to see some of the kids react mentally and worship God for the first time. there were some kids that I just wasn't used to seeing worship and they were standing raising their hands in worship. it was an awesome sight.

Hume has all kinds of things for people to do. Our group loves playing frisbee golf. My previous record was playing 99 holes in the week. This time I played 108, but due to unforseen problems I got to play 126.

Well, it kind of sputtered at the end because there were problems with the bus company. There was miscommunication and they had down that they were picking us up a day later than they were supposed to. So there was no way we could leave so we ended up staying an extra day. We had the whole camp to ourselves and we ended the time with a campfire and had some smores and worshipped. the kids had such a great desire to worship the Lord and wanted to do it every night. We couldn't do it the last two nights of camp and this provided an opportunity to do so.

Camp was great and now its back to the real world and back to work. I start seminary again next week, and hopefully this will be the last fall that I will be in school for a very long time.

Another Busy Weekend

This past week has just been a crazy week for me. Last weekend we had our Jr High Lock-In, followed by my finals week, followed by Guy/Girl Retreats this weekend. The guys went up into the mountains and camped for the night and the girls drove out to Riverside to do girl stuff. On the way up the mountain, my car decided to eject its transmission fluid at an alarming rate, creating a wall of smoke behind my car. My friend Conor went down to get me more fluid thinking that might help. So we added a pint and got about five more miles before we pulled over and it was just pouring out the bottom. So we pooled the guys to the camp site, and Conor and i got it towed back down and I drove the church van up the mountain. Why we didn't just take that to begin with, I don't know.

So you could all pray that we take care of this car situation. I may have to drop my summer class, as I will not be able to get out there for it. It starts Tuesday so unless something is done soon, it isn't looking good. So the prayer is, "God, your car broke down. Time for another one." We had been looking into getting a new (new to us, that is) car, but couldn't afford it and were hoping to make it through seminary on this one.

But this didn't completely dampen the guys trip. We enjoyed wrestling, throwing rocks, eating meat, playing with fire, and talking about what it means to be a man biblically. We had a real good group of guys and it was a good time to allow them all to continue to bond and grow into a tightly knit group. Pray that God would use these guys to step up into leadership and make a difference in this valley for the Gospel.

Leah hasn't gotten back yet, so I'll be sure to post what happened with the girls!

Urban Submersion

Sorry for not posting. It may have something to do with the fact that I was in LA this weekend and couldn't post. For those of you who care, here's how it went.

The big secret of the weekend was that it was going to be a poverty awareness simulation. The kids were told that they were going to be playing the role of a single mother of two, and that they have 'lost' all of their things. They were allowed to keep two items. They were given $25 to spend on used clothes, meals, showers, and lodging. No one ended up purchasing lodging or showers, so they all had some meals and warm clothes. One person was made homeless, meaning they had no items and no money. They had to rely on the charity of the others to give them money for food. Throughout the weekend they also got 'chance' cards. These cards would tell them about something bad that would happen and they'd lose something. They'd get a chance card for being late, or just for the heck of it. One card said that they got arrested on false charges and released, but lost their belongings, so the kid lost his personal items. Another card for everyone said that the sweat shop got closed down and everyone lost all their money that they had saved to use on other things. Other kids lost items and sleeping bags.

The kids slept outside behind someone's house, and it got cold and wet at night, so no one slept too well. On Saturday they helped out with some work projects and did a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt had them going to the area of the Staples Center (where the Lakers, Clippers, and LA Kings play) and they had to beg for money to buy lunch, interview a homeless person, an elderly person, find out what WIC, SSI and other things were. They had to find out where a person in need would go for help, ride a bus, and help out someone in need. They had to collect recycleables and find something usefull out of a dumpster. The hunt was very challenging, but the kids realized what the people go through on a daily basis.

Each night we went on tours of Skid Row, which was very eye opening. We did a prayer tour, praying for different things at each spot. The kids were told about the cycle that the homeless find themselves in and how hard it is to work your way out of that situation. They were told about the addictions that are formed and the kids that have to grow up in that environment. We hope to return there in the future to the Union Rescue Mission and help out with the homeless services there.

I could go on and on, but I don't have the time for that. I will end with this interesting bit of info. While my group was on a scavenger hunt, we saw this really nice Rolls Royce on the side of the street. The kids were talking about how nice it was, and I looked at the driver and I said, 'He guys, I think that's Simon Cowell.' We went back and sure enough, it was. He rolled down his window and gave the kids autographs and chatted with them. He was a really nice guy, not what I was expecting. I told him to tell Paula to calm down and he said, "I know, I know... I do!" So after meeting him, the kids in my group weren't really thinking about poverty simulation anymore. oh well...

Narnia Night

Last night we had a little schindig called 'Narnia Night' to celebrate the release of the DVD. We just had a new projector hung in the youth center, so we officially broke it in and showed Narnia up on the big screen. Mix that with the subwoofers turned up a bit to make Aslan's roar shake the ground a bit, and it was like we were at the Theater. We brought couches from around the place and popped a ton of popcorn, sat down and enjoyed the movie with over 34 kids. It was a night that really makes youth ministry fun, just hanging out with kids and having fun. At the end we had a raffle and gave the DVD away to one lucky kid.

One thing that did bug me was this group of 8th grade boys. It seemed like through almost the whole movie they sat there and just mocked it, because that's the cool thing to do. I know that I was exactly like that, but these guys were just bitter and angry. Its this attitude that our culture breeds in young men. They always have to be critical and mock anything they can. This makes it difficult to do anything that is serious because their first reaction is to mock it. This critical attitude only bitterness and anger, which doesn't make them any better, but may earn them good standing in the eyes of some of their peers because they can mock anything.


on a different note, this weekend we're having a little thing called Urban Submersion. We're taking a group of our high school leaders into inner city L.A. and opening them up to inner city ministry. Its going to be a challenging weekend with what they'll be doing, but I think it will be great. I'd really appreciate your prayers for safety and effictiveness this weekend. I'll be sure to give more details later!

Update on Life Itself

As most of you have noticed, I haven't really been posting a lot lately, so here's a rundown of what's been going on. We're going through a lot of discussions and changes in our youth program. I've had a couple meetings with some staff members to pick their brains and to see what their opinion of what was going on. The staff has been great with the change of leadership and I've been refreshed with the discussions about what we are going to do.

It has been pretty difficult to get my mind around everything that i'm supposed to be in charge of. I pretty much have that feeling like I have to be missing something, and hopefully that something isn't something big and significant.

This upcoming weekend we're having an all day staff meeting where we're going to bring everything into question. We're going to talk about all the staple events that we have, see what the purpose of it is, if we're meeting that, how we can better do that, and even maybe asking ourselves if we should be doing that. It has been a relief being able to step up into this position with a knowledge of how things work. I'm not new to the program. I know the way things go and I know the staff and how they operate, so its been easier to evaluate things right away.

In high school we're about to start a section of Theology Proper in Sunday School. I'm looking forward to teaching deeper theology to some kids that can think on a deeper level. We're going through Grudem's Systematic Theology, and they just finished Bibliology.

I'll give a little more of an update after Saturday, when we make our decisions. But please pray that this meeting will go well, and that I won't abandon school because I'm doing what I love to do!

Aicha, Blood Bowl, Bungee Run, a Broken Bus, Snow, and Sin(?)- Just another Jr High Winter Camp

Yesterday we came back from our yearly winter camp and it was definitely an experience unlike I've ever had. Here's a rundown of the weekend.

- On the way up, our bus broke down on the mountain. The radiator started leaking and water was pouring out of the back of the bus. Thankfully, we were in an area where we got cell phone reception. I called the camp up and told them we were stuck and they didn't have a bus or van to shuttle kids up. but thankfully there was a guy there that had just dropped off a group of kids and he said he'd come down and get us. Total sovereignty of God moment there. So we unloaded our bus, waited for awhile for the bus to get down to us, and then loaded it up, and eventually got to camp 6 hours after we left church. By the way, it took us two and half hours to get home, which is a normal time.

- we get to camp late, missing the first session, but safe and sound. The next day we had two sessions. The sessions were quite odd and shallow, and even the kids noticed that. Then that night was 'decision night' and he went through the two sessions without mentioning the word 'sin'. it was more of a message to have kids turn to God to get rescued from the situations they find themselves in life or from the culture around them. It was a very incomplete Gospel. I was really frustrated because a lot of kids stood up, but didn't know why. We had one kids who sensed that his relationship with God wasn't right, and at the end of the night asked us, "So how do you get saved?".

the speaker gave three alter calls, one to give your life to Christ, one to 'rededicate' their life, and another to committ your life to service. I was joking later that he should have given an alter call for those that want to pray or evangelize more. Just keep going until you've made everyone in the room stand.

Russ and I talked to the speaker the next morning, and it didn't go how we thought it would. He said that it was never his intention for it to be a salvation message. This surprised me because that's almost what camp is all about. And then why would you give an alter call if it wasn't your intention to preach salvation? He pointed to the logo of the camp that year, and it had words like 'discipleship' and 'love' and other words on it and he said it didn't say anything about sin or salvation. Then I pointed to it and said, 'It says faith!'. How do you come to faith without realizing your sin.

He said his intention was to get the kids to trust God with their lives, and I asked him how that's possible without dealing with your sin first. He asked me how Christ dealt with the disciples. I said that was a different time and before pentacost, but that Christ still called them to repentance. He kinda rolled his eyes and said, 'Oh...ok...' like he was saying 'you're one of those dispensationalists' or something.

The conversation finished with him saying, 'well, we could go around in circles about this all day.' Russ and I were a little shocked and we talked to the camp director right after and he said he was surprised that he said that and that he'd talk to the speaker. I guess it ended somewhat well, because in the last session, he talked about sin for the first time and really explained well the day after 'decision night'.

- one great thing from the weekend was 'Aicha', which is a video on stupidvideos.com. It is basically this freshman aged kid singing to this girl named Aicha and then adding this fantastic dance at the end. you should find it and check it out. Now the song is stuck in all our minds. Also, search for 'numa numa' and watch the video. just funny stuffy.

- our team made me very proud, as we once again walked away with the Rec Time Title. The thing is, though, is that we did it with our 7th graders, who are mostly all smaller than the wife. Our boys were slit into two groups, and it was basically our 7th graders on one team and the big 8th graders on the other. We ended up teamed up with a group of awesome girls from another church. They were so hardcore and together we almost swept every game we played, and we won every spirit award we could. Our other boys and our girls' teams tied for 3rd. Our tiny tirants just whooped up on everyone. It was funny when they announced it beacuse all the little guys jumped up and you could almost sense that everyone was thinking, 'they won the rec time?!' Good times...

Well, we got back down the mountain in one piece (just one girl with a sprained ankle acquired in a cabin incident). It was a good weekend and it was really good to see a lot of the kids use discernment and recognize when they were hearing something that wasn't right and not being content with the shallow teaching. that at least told me that they have been paying attention when we teach them.

Joy in All Days

This morning I heard that today is officially the most depressing day of the year. The reasons this psychologist gave were the following: It is dark for a long time; New Years resolutions have mostly been broken; Christmas debt have shown itself, and the poor weather has gotten old. This psychologist's conclusions are enough for me to not want to listen to one. The reason is that they would encourage our joy to be found in things or in ourselves. But what we see from the Word of God is that true joy and satisfaction is only found in one place: the throne of God.

For the last six or so months the Jr High has been going through the book of Philippians. WIthin the book of Philippians, Paul repeatedly shares the command to rejoice. And as every Jr Higher can tell you, he's writing this book from jail, not usually a setting that encourages joy. What do you think the reaction of the believers in Paul's time was when they found out he was in jail? It probably sounded something like, "OH NO!! Paul's in jail! Is God in control? Why would this happen?" Remember how important Paul was to the church. Remember what he meant to these young believers. If we were in charge of organizing Paul's life, I doubt any of us would have planned for a couple stays in jail. But we aren't the ones in charge of planning our lives.



Some people think that Paul should not have gone down to Jerusalem, and was in jail as a result of Paul's own sin. This view is definately a valid thought. Look at Acts 21:4. Men were telling Paul in the Spirit not to go on to Jerusalem, but he did not listen to them, and continued on. In Jerusalem he was arrested, and shipped off to jail. Eventually he found himself in Rome, where he penned these books.

Was Paul in jail as a result of his disobedience? i think that conclusion can be drawn and is safe. Did God use Paul's sin to bring about a greater good? absolutely. Without this stay in jail, we may never have had the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, or Philemon. God used Paul's own failure.

And Paul's joy was increased in the situation. He was humble to admit that the work would continue though he was in jail. And his present situation did not steal his joy. Paul's joy was not in the success of his ministry. Paul's joy was obviously not in material things, personal pursuits, or his position in life. Paul's joy was "in the Lord".

If Paul's joy was in anything else, it would have been rocked. If Paul's joy was found in anything else, it would not be a lasting joy, because nothing else in life is reliable. Let this heart of Paul be a lesson to us to make sure that our joy is found in God alone, and cannot be lost no matter what situation life brings us.

An Intimidating Opportunity

Well, as a couple of you know, and most of you don't, as of February 1 I will be the new Student Ministries Director at my church. This past week was one of a lot of overwhelming situations that came up, and on wednesday I found out that our Youth Pastor, Dave Halverson, was going to be moving on to fill a new Outreach/Evangelism Pastor role in the church. This isn't because he feeled that he had failed or wasn't qualified for the youth pastor position, but he knew when he took the job that it would probably mean moving on to fill a new pastoral position when the opportunity presented itself and the church was ready.

This lead them to ask me to fill in this role that he was leaving behind for at least the next year and half, until I graduate in May 2007. This situation was very very intimidating and I felt a large feeling of inadequacy as to the role. I did not feel like I was really ready to be 'the man' and be the one that everyone looks to and the one who sets the pace. The way things are going, our youth staff is going to be really young, but its a great group of people. They are all commited to the goal of bringing the youth to Christ and presenting them complete in Christ.

Then in chapel on thursday R. Kent Hughes was going through II Corinthians 12 and how God was the power that was behind Paul. We are easily misled to think that people of power are the people that God are behind. That shows through the popularity of crusades and healing shows and the like. But the thing is that God is the power behind the weak. even though I feel like I'm very much not ready for this, I know that God will be faithful to be the strength and somehow allow us to be successful with this ministry.