the REAL joy of the Lord

Many times in my life I have heard the expression "the joy of the Lord." And like any good Christian I have put on a smile and front that shows just how "joyful" I really am. However, this past Sunday night at our church we had one of the missionaries we support here to let us know what was going on in his and his wife's world. And in this man I saw the joy of the Lord. His name is Joel Khopang and he has been a missionary all over Asia for the past 30+ years. His wife Marilyn grew up in a family full of missionaries, in fact her family has been on the mission field for more than 80 years. As Joel talked about everything that has been going on over the past few years with his ministry I was in awe of his passion, his stories, and his joy. Now, I am not talking about a superficial, fake type of joy, but I am talking about a genuine, real, and life-changing joy. Every word he spoke in his broken english was drenched in the love and grace of Jesus. Whether he was talking about trying to learn to use a microwave or having too many pieces of lasagna, or whether he was talking about refugees who were coming to hear the word of God or teenagers hungry for the word of God, there was just something about his joy. 

After the evening service Joel let us know that he needed a place to stay for the night, so Heather and I offered our home to them. When we all got to the house Joel and Marilyn were amazed by our DVR, they just didn't understand how you could rewind and fast forward live TV. As we sat all there watching the olympics I continued to see that joy, as they would root for every countries athletes to do well - that was until the Chinese gymnasts kept receiving scores that completely didn't deserve. But I remember Joel and Marilyn having their own little conversations in different languages, I remember them shooshing each other so they could hear what the commentators were saying about every little thing. But I also remember them sitting on my couch and praying for the American athletes to do well because they had worked so hard (I didn't have it in me to let them know that this was DVR'd and actually happened several minutes earlier). 

All in all when they left the next morning I was a little more thankful for my amazing wife, a little more thankful for my beautiful baby girl, and a little more thankful for the call that Jesus has put on my life. From now when I think about Joel Khopang, I promise what I will think is - I want that passion, that love, and yes - I want that joy.

i feel old...

I just found this website that really opened my eyes to my life. 

It told me that I am:

9621 days old

813,254,400 seconds old

13,854,240 minutes old

230,904 hours old

1374 weeks old

dang....

420 days

It has been 420 days since I have been to a movie theatre. However I am just 11 days from being able to take my wife to the movies and I am absolutely stoked! I have no idea what we will go see, we have had a lot of people trying to get us to go see the Dark Knight and right now that is probably the direction we are leaning, but there are still 11 days to change our mind.

Scariest Part of Revelation

Recently I started a new guys group and while we were talking about what they wanted to study in our time together the first thing out of their mouth was Revelation - I thought they were nuts, but decided to do it anyway. During our first meeting on the book I asked what all they knew about Revelation. They went on to tell me who the author was and that it was a scary book about the end of the world. Anytime I have ever asked people what they know about Revelation I always seem to get that same answer. People look at the beasts, dragons, marks, and all types of other things when in reality if you look at the big picture you don't see a scary book, instead you see a book of love. Revelation is a book that screams even when times get tough God is going to be there. In the words of Mark Moore "any believer who reads this book (Revelation) and walks away scared rather than strengthened has misread it."

However, there is a part of Revelation that does scare me a little. In chapters 2 and 3 while Jesus is writing letters to 7 churches there is something that grabbed my attention. In these letters Jesus talks about 3 different dealings with the church. 1. Jesus says it is I who bring these words. More or less you better listen to what I'm about to say... 2. Jesus gives an evaluation of the church - where they are at the current time (this part is amazing to me, because Jesus paints a picture of the modern day church). 3 Jesus says if you don't get your act together you will never make it when you have to face the dragon and the beast. Basically Jesus says if you are not solid you will not make it. 

When I read all this my heart began to sink. I can't speak for everyone, but most churches I know have many of the qualities found in these churches. To the church in Ephesus Jesus says you have gone through some tough times and stayed the course, but I hold this against you because you have forgotten your first love. As a church we get so caught up in "making it" that we forget why we are the church in the first place. We are the church of Jesus because we love Him, we need Him, we count on Him - and we cannot forget our first love.

Then to the church in Sardis Jesus says I know what you do; I know you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! WAKE UP! Remember what you have received and what you have heard, obey it and repent! God is not interested in us going through the motions for the sake of filling an hour on Sunday, but He wants us to know and remember what He's done. And once we get to that point that we are going through the motions we must repent and turn back to Jesus.

Jesus, I need you today. Move in me God. Forgive me when I become complacent and just go through the motions. Bring me closer to You so I can lead others to You. Thanks for grace! 

Amen 

ps. If you want to do a group study of Revelation I highly recommend Mark Moore's How To Dodge A Dragon. It breaks it down and makes it very applicable to us today.

My Baby Girl Is Walking!!!

I can't believe it! This past Sunday night is a night that I will not soon forget. Heather and I were sitting at home watching TV when all of the sudden we looked over and saw Whitley stand up stronger than ever, we both just looked at each other with a holy trash look on our face. As we continued to watch her she took a step. My baby girl took a step. Heather flipped out and I stared with a dumb look on my face, but Whitley took a step and looked back at her mom and dad and just smiled. It was awesome! So for the rest of the night Heather and I both sat in the floor and had Whitley walk back and forth, back and forth, until even I was getting dizzy. It was an awesome night on so many different levels, but I still can't believe that the little baby girl we brought home from the hospital a year ago is now walking! She's growing up, but I guess that's the only healthy thing to do.

My Chains Are Gone

I did something I had never done before yesterday. I preached nearly an entire sermon in chains. For someone who is as spastic as I am, not being able to move your arms is a bit uncomfortable. I am not going to write about the sermon right now (if you are interested go to www.cherryvalechristian.org and click on downloads - it will be there tomorrow), but instead I am going to talk about the feeling of being in chains. It is something that I didn't expect and it is something that really made me thankful for the grace of God. Over and over again the Apostle Paul talks about being a slave to sin, about being in bondage - literally about being in chains. I now know why that's so powerful. Of course Paul would of known this much better than I, since he spent a lot of time in prison and in chains, and I only spent about 25 minutes during a sermon. 

I was about 10-15 minutes into the sermon when I realized just how uncomfortable I was. My hands were tingling, it felt like there was no blood flowing from my elbows down. I was sweating terribly, at times had a hard time breathing, and couldn't believe how heavy 15 lbs. of chain can become. It was one of the most restricted feelings I have ever felt. 

We did this illustration as a visual to show people what sin can do, how sin can make us feel. However, I now have a completely new appreciation for the freedom Jesus offers. Man, while we live and allow our pasts to eat at us, while we beat ourselves up and think God has given up on us, we are living in chains. While we think we are too bad to deserve the grace of God or we give Satan a foot hold by not forgiving ourselves for the stuff we have done - we are living in chains. We are living an uncomfortable, restricted life that is no where near the life Jesus had in mind when He said "I have come so that you may have life, and have it to the full." Jesus wanted us to live free, but so many times we choose chains.

One more thought. The most powerful thing that happened to me, was not wearing the chains. To be honest, that wasn't very much fun. The most powerful thing to me was when I took the chains off (I tried to explain the feeling to my wife and did a horrible job). It was so cool to feel the blood rush back into my hands, it was an amazing feeling getting my arms free and unstuck from my sides, it is something that I can't explain any other way than to say "I felt free." 

And then it hit me. I was in the chains for 30 minutes and it felt great to be free and I hope that every single person who is living everyday 24-7 in those chains will decide to experience that same freedom. A freedom where you can breathe, move, and most importantly feel the blood going through your body. That's what it's all about - we are never too chained up or too far gone for God to stop caring. He wants us to be free.

An Eye Opener

I would encourage you to go and read Robin Sigars' blog entitled "Speaking at OCC." In it Robin talks about the motives of many young preachers. He talks about how young preachers want to go places based on the size of the church, the size of the city, the amount of staff, even the proximity to a Starbucks. 

As most everyone knows I have been sending out resumes and interviewing with various churches for the last several months. And I must admit for much of this time I have been guilty for being one of these "young preachers." I have continually told myself that I wanted to go to a "healthy" situation. Now I have come to realize that the health of a church is very relative. No church is going to be completely healthy because it is ran by sinners. 

Long story short, God isn't wanting me to go to a glamorous situation right now. Honestly, I don't think He ever will. If I ever take a ministry because of the stature it will bring then I hope my mentors and those who love me will tell me just how stupid I am being. Ministry is a dirty job not a glamorous one. I have accepted the Lead Minister role in Cherryvale, KS. It's not a glamorous big situation, but it is a situation that can be used to bring many people closer to Jesus. That's why I want to be in ministry - to help bring people to Jesus.