Psalm 24

My response to Psalm 24, our morning reading assignment at Re:Train.

Father thank you for sending the Son. As I look at today's reading assignment, it really brought to life the reality of Christ's atoning work on the cross. I find it very easy to remain stuck in my sin, to allow feelings of 'I'll never be good enough' to leave me stuck in place and unable to be in the Father's presence.

What I think I'm loving about this Psalm (and noticing for the first time) is that in part one, David is lamenting that he may NOT ascend the hill of the Lord. After all, who does have clean hands, who has a pure heart and who never swears deceitfully? Certainly not me, and if you're reading this I have to assume you are human and therefore, not you either. These questions are not literally looking for the guy in Israel who actually can ascend the hill of the Lord. These questions are rhetorical and lamenting the fact that there is NO ONE in Israel or really in all the world who can stand in the presence of God the Father on his/her own merit.

Where many of us would leave off in despair, David responds with the hope of the coming Saviour - the King of Glory! You and I have the blessing of history, David didn't have it, he had the hope of what was to come. But for me, as I look back, I can see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the hope that David is declaring. Jesus can ascend the hill of the LORD!

And Jesus invites you and I into relationship with him so that he may apply his righteousness to us as well. As I ponder this thought I realized something - something that I've known in my head for a LONG time - I can do NOTHING to earn enough to get me into the presence of the Father. Where I suppose I could despair over this, I realize that their is tremendous freedom in this realization. When I trust Christ for my right standing before the Father, it has nothing to do with what I do or more importantly, what I have done. Because Jesus lives in me, God looks on me and sees, not my rags and soiled garments, but the cleanliness and purity of Jesus. THANK YOU JESUS!

There are implications for this. Because we can do nothing to gain favour with God, we can do nothing to maintain favour with God. Our nature will always be oriented to rebellion against God and therefore we will never 'get over' our need for Jesus' righteousness over us. The way I live should change though, because of gratitude, not because of duty. I do good works as a response to the work of Jesus in my life. I love people because He first loved me, I make Him known because He is the most important part of my life.

Father, thank you for sending your Son to come to earth to live a perfect life, die my death and be raised, defeating the power of death, therefore making a way for me, a broken, hurting, sinful human, to be in relationship with you. Jesus, thank you that you did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but willingly traded your kingship for a life on this earth where you would never be recognized for all that you are. And Holy Spirit, thank you that you make this known to my heart, that you convict me of the times where I am rebelling and that you lead me in the paths of righteousness.

Now, everything must change.

Youth Guru

I'm still waiting for that day that I create the perfect youth ministry model that works beautifully in our church's context - or any church context for that matter - and that I will never have to change again because it works so great! When I come up with it, I'll let you know, and I'll probably even give it to you for free because I'm just nice like that!

Until that time comes, I'm going to stumble on pretending like I know what I'm doing. The last two years we've been doing this youth service on Saturday nights that nearly got me beat up by many of our youth when we changed to it. The first year it flowed very naturally out of our leaders and I think it worked quite well. Last year it felt like we were pulling teeth to make it happen every week.

So here we are, a new year is upon us and all my prayer and planning has left me with very few ideas. We're going to go back to Fridays again this year. I read a book in which the author was cautioned to not begin a Saturday night service because he and his leaders needed time with their families. So I started to think about how that encouragement could be important in our youth ministry as well. My kids are both in school this year from Monday to Friday and most of our leaders are either in school or work Monday to Friday with Saturday being their one day off in the week. And then we were taking that one day away from them with another youth meeting. So we're doing youth on Fridays again.

Plus, I understand anew every summer that we need to do more events so that we can attract new kids to hear the good news of Christ. The last couple of years I've really bought into the 'not a babysitter' mentality - which I still agree with, but there does need to be some attractional component to our ministry in order to encourage kids to come and bring their friends.

I'm really getting excited about a new year of ministry and I'm very hopeful that this could be a good year. But It's going to take a lot more preparation to be able to do attractional events and not be a babysitting service - or be a VERY expensive ministry.

Home, and not sure I’m lovin’ it.

Well, I mean, I am lovin' it, I love my family and I'm really glad to be home with them. But I would be just as happy to be in Guatemala with them. I think I'm really struggling now with what to do now that we're home. Magdalena was truly a life changing experience.

I know it's only been two days since I've been home… and that my body is definitely not adjusting well to the food at home… and I realize that probably a lot of people wrestle with this stuff when they get home from a developing country as well, but I really miss it. I miss the simplicity, the idea that you can talk to people and it matters big time. I miss that I walked everywhere. I miss not looking around EVERYWHERE and seeing excess – and I mean, I am so guilty of it too, but there is just SO MUCH here! Even the poorest of the poor among us can at least find a water fountain and drink clean water!

Keep in mind that there are likely useless meanderings and that I will say some things that easily fit the title. I'm not renouncing the first world and all its comforts. I just want to know how to bring those to the people I met.

I think what I miss the most if the people's simple faith in God. They have nothing else to have faith in! There is no medical system that will help them, there is no welfare, there is only God. And realistically, for us too. But we hide behind all the things we have. God is often our last resort here. It's like, 'you're sick, let's go to the Doctor.' I appreciate Doctors, I love that we have health care so readily available. It's just that I think it's made us spiritually lazy. If we could figure out how to go to the Doctor for physical health and somehow grow our spiritual health, we would be so much better off!

If you are a pray-er, pray for me. I think God has a job for me to do here right now for Guatemala, and I need to discover it. They told us to expect to feel like I am now, but I didn't. I am sad to be home and trying to figure out how to get my whole family down there next year… or permanently?

Worship at 6800 Feet

I'm writing from Guatemala today on our Church's Missions Trip to Magdalena with Students International. This has been a great trip. Today our team is out on their various ministry sites and I had to stay back to do a few things around here.

This outreach has been more than eye opening. On the first day of our outreach I went with the Social Work team. Basically this team does the work of visiting people. It was such a blessing to be a part of. We went into El Gorreon, the poorest place I've ever been, and had the most amazing time. The people there have very little, and yet they have faith like I've never seen before. One woman told us about all these terrible things happening in her life and then finished it off with "But I trust God, I know he will make everything right." Wow!

On day two I was with the medical team. They set up a clinic in El Gorreon and people come to the clinic and pay Q5 (about $0.62US) to see the Doctor and receive the needed medication. After the visit with the Doctor they come out to the Social Work team for a visit and prayer (so technically I was with the SW team, but we called it medical). Again, to hear people speak in faith despite their situation was powerful.

Day three was my turn in Appropriate Technology. What that meant this day specifically was pulling electrical wire in the Community center that SI is building. To be honest, I needed a break from the emotional work. I'm not a crier and it's already happened a couple of times, so it was a nice break.

On Saturday and Sunday were our days off. I learned so much from the church service on Sunday. Pastor Mario invited us up to sing a couple of songs, which was a ton of fun, but better than that was the people's worship. The music was led by Marimba, trumpets and drums. Everyone was singing (except for the Gringos who didn't know the words) and obviously having a good time. I really loved the feeling that it was a joy for these Christians to be there worshipping God - such a privilege to be a part of. And let me tell you, that place was ROCKIN'! It was pretty darn loud in there (louder than my loudest Sundays)! People accepted us and made us feel so welcome which was just great!

Over and over I have been impressed with the need for greater faith. If these people can believe that God will work everything out, why in the world can I not trust that as well? All in all, I think the biggest lesson I'm learning is the life of worship. These attitudes and actions that I'm seeing here everyday must be so pleasing to God. Now, obviously, I'm only pointing out the good, but that's what impresses me the most. Our host families are so generous with their things and money.

My only regret is that I came here to try to bless these people and I will likely go home more blessed by them than they were by me.

Us Backward Christians

In the aftermath of our annual general meeting in which it was emphasized that our music teams don't know how to play together, I've had some thoughts about us backward Christians.

First this: We like to talk about our faith as if we are in a battle. Imagine going into a war with your army - who coincidentally was entirely willing to blow your head off if you do something that they don't like... (your gun is too loud!). Seems a little ridiculous doesn't it?

Mostly this: We talk about 'music' and 'worship' interchangeably. Firstly, not all music is worship, and not all worship is music. I agree that it is often the most easily accessible form of corporate worship but there needs to be a more distinct understanding of 'music' and 'worship.' Romans 12 tells us that we are to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices. Would not, then, EVERY act of the body - done unto the Father - be an act of worship? Then why do we spend so much time arguing about music? Shouldn't we also argue just as vehemently for better parking spaces? When I park farther away in order that a visitor can park closer for the glory of God, that is an act of worship. So I think we should all park farther away from the building! In fact there are some really old parking spots in the far corner of the lot, we should all use those...

Here's the biggest thing for me. No wonder Christians miss the boat on good, relevant evangelism. We spend so much time arguing with, accusing and hurting each other that the world is quietly making their way to hell with no one to stop them because the very people that God has chosen to bring the good news to them (Matthew 28) are beating each other up.

Wow.

Let me say this too, this is not aimed at anyone in particular. I'm just so frustrated, hurt and caught off guard right now that sometimes I just need to rant. I may even delete this post in the near future, so no one should take this personally.

God's Goodness to my Family

I could write an entire blog, not just an entry that tells you how good God has been to our family. Aside from the fact that I now have three beautiful kids (who sometimes drive me a little crazy, but who I love to bits none the less) and a smokin' hot wife, His provision extends so far!

I know there are a lot of Christians who say thanks to God for the things they have and I don't doubt their sincerity, but sometimes I wonder if those people can see God in those provisions as clearly as we do. Our van was given to us, our house was provided for us (without us even looking for the place!), and even so far down the line as little things like this one.

On Tuesday I learned about Clearly Contacts doing a giveaway to people in Surrey - free glasses! So I ordered a pair - they came today. Now, I paid some for them - upgraded lens and shipping, but $68 is negligible for glasses, wouldn't you agree? If that's not enough, my wife also qualified and received a pair of free glasses too! If you ever need glasses, check out clearlycontacts.ca. Aside from the fact that they were free (yours probably won't be, but they're SUPER cheap!), they were here in 2 days!

Anyway, I just wanted to point out God's goodness to us. There are some days when I feel like everything sucks, like I wish I was paid more and that I could buy a house. But the things that I listed are not small things. He continues to provide.

Thank you Father.

Grace v. ???

Some thoughts after what might be possible my most disappointing night of youth ministry so far. *More reasons to hate all-nighters!*

While talking with one kid who showed up drunk, I learned that another kid had showed up high. The drunk kid is a fringe guy who we only see when he has big stuff going on in his life. He shows up consistently to my office for a couple of weeks, and then I won't see him again for six months. To him I'm inclined to show grace. We put him upstairs on a couch in the church to sleep it off. He lives on his own, so sending him home would be almost mean, and to send him back to the party he was at would be stupid.

High kid is the one that really hurts. He's one that I've been working with and praying for the last couple of years. I took him home and had to sit by myself for a few minutes after he went inside. I don't even know what to call that one, but I have a hard time thinking of it as grace. At the same time, I think that I responded as graciously as possible and may have even really showed grace to him. I told him to get a few hours of sleep and then come back in the morning for breakfast, I hope he does.

Sometimes I love this job, other times I hate it. Oddly enough, tonight I love this job and hate some of the things I have to see because of it. It really comes down to sin I suppose. The world has seduced these two guys with their 'goods' and they've both fallen for it. Please, don't take the world at its word.