Audacious Truth

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Had an incredible week last week at Student Life Camp located at University of Texas at Arlington, where we put on a VBS in the projects through Mission Arlington.

God ministered greatly in our group as well as in the lives of many people there, saw God do what only He can do and call people from dark to light! Saw prayers get answered! Peace given! Worlds rocked with the Gospel, and Christ’s love go out to a group of people different from us and, saw students love and love and love on them.

As I’m still trying to process the week; here are a few Gospel Truths (nuggets) given to us last week:

All from Camp Pastor: Afshin Ziafat

  • Some of you will miss God’s will because you are mindful of the things of men and of God (Matthew 16:23)
  • “Follow Me” is the call of Christ on your life
  • We are really good at keeping commands, doing the “good” Christian things, but God says you must give it all up to follow Him
  • God has a plan for your life, and if you’re not careful you can miss it
  • A Christian out of God’s will, is like a fish out of water, he will struggle until he gets back in water.
  • Just because you have something in your life doesn’t mean it’s of God, sometimes God will give you what you desire to show you how much you really don’t want/need it. 
  • God’s will is much deeper than who you will marry; where you will work, live, etc.
  • Sin is anything outside of Gods best for you
  • If your goal is the American Dream then there is no good in suffering, but if your goal is to be more like Christ, then there is hope in suffering. 
  • You will either stand on what you have done or what Christ has done.
  • Integrity: honoring God regardless of the circumstances
  • Epidemic of youth ministry is that Jesus isn’t your Lord but an event is.
  • Don’t be an event-to-event Christian, be a day-in day-out Christian. 
  • Noah’s ark was a visible representation of his faith, whats yours?
  • Every step we take walking with Christ is another nail in our Ark of Faith
  • If you don’t live our your faith, you forfeit your right to witness for Him.
  • The greatest miracle of Jonah, is that God would take a man who was running from Him and have him only walk 1/3 of the way through the city and preach only 5 words (in the original language) and the whole city would repent! That’s the power of God!
  • The Gospel will compel missions.
  • When I understand the Gospel, I forfeit the right to cheer anyones death, who didn’t know Him.
  • We shouldn’t be surprised by lost people acting lost.
  • The weight of the stewardship we have been given compels us to go.
  • The Gospel will compel you to get out of your comfort zone and go to others.  

Just some random thoughts/ quotes from camp last week. Was an incredible week.

Thoughts from Haiti

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Last Friday, I returned home from spending a week in the Mountains in Haiti, I have been meaning to post an update just haven’t got to it until today.

Let me first just start with the fact that has been so evident in my life over the past few years that God is Faithful! He is Faithful, in ways He uses us and answers our prayers. Over the past few years I have found myself praying, “Ok, God if You want me to go somewhere, please show me where and provide the means, time off work etc., and I’m there.” And He has been faithful in answering that request. And for the second year in a row He sent me to Haiti, to a group of people who I have absolutely fallen in love with.

As I was praying first of this year for an opportunity to go somewhere, I got a call from a Ministry that I went to Haiti with last year, asking me if I would be willing to lead a church from Crossnore, North Carolina back to Haiti. One of those times where you don’t have to pray long about it, because the Command to Go has already been given to all believers, not just the special select few who are “called” to be missionaries. As believers, we are all called to go, whether around the world or across the street we are all missionaries. Charles Spurgeon says:

Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor.

In Spurgeon’s mind, and I agree, we can’t separate the idea of being a Christian and being a Missionary, they are one in the same. As a believer we have a story that God has done in our lives, and we see God for who He is, so we go and tell! We go and share the good news that Christ has commanded us to go, and we go in the His promise that “He is with us, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

 

So two Fridays ago I landed in Haiti, 373 days since I was there last, hoping the trip would be as great as last years, hoping and praying that God somehow and someway would use me to help show His love and His grace to all He would put in my path.

The trip didn’t disappoint. Once again, God is Faithful! We were there to do a VBS with the kids there and then in the afternoons do whatever it was they needed or asked us to do. So we put on a VBS, we cleaned their school, unloaded bricks, played cards, played soccer and basketball, ran electrical wire for lights throughout all the property, and mostly loved and served the people there at Canaan Christian Community, in Haiti. The people there have become very special to me, it was a blessing to be there again to love and to serve.

Here are a few highlights of the trip, and things God was showing me:

1. Was there maybe 15 minutes and heard, “Nick!!!” my heart leaped knowing that many of the kids there remembered me from last year.

2. Loved throwing my phone in my backpack for a week and being disconnected from the world, focused on the Lord and loving and serving the people He sent me to.

3. The team was a blessing, that I was asked to lead. Made friends that will last.

4. Highlight of trip: God allowed me to be part of Him drawing someone to Himself, when He saved a member of the team. Sent a member to Haiti to serve Him and saved him in the process. God’s love and pursuit of us always amazes me

5. That as believers wherever we find ourself that is our mission field, and we are to serve it well. We don’t have to wait to go to Haiti to serve Him, but that He has a plan and purpose for us everywhere we find ourselves.

6. God kept asking me, “Where are all the dads/men? The ones who are supposed to be spiritual leaders?” As it seems most trips I go on and know of going it’s mostly moms and college aged girls. When will the men raise up?

7. Experiencing a church service in a different language and grasping the fact that currently there are people all over the world worshipping and praising God in their language and He understands and meets with all of them.  Also the first time I can ever remember singing, “This is the Day, the Lord has Made” and there was actually joy in the room. They were actually rejoicing in the fact that God had given them another day.

These are just a few thoughts, from my trip. It was a great week, I absolutely love the people there and can’t wait to go back!

 My Boys! Love these guys!

Praying like crazy for Yolde, for healing!

It was a great week! God showed me a lot, and continues to show me a lot from it. I’m sure I will be sharing more over the next few weeks, and already praying for a return trip. One last thing that God showed me on this trip was a quote from a team member as she was leading our devotional the first night:

When stepping into the mission field, you don’t have to be afraid because you are stepping into your calling.

~ Whitney Boone

God had this on my heart and mind all week!

Only if or Even if

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How do I know God’s will for my life?

Can I know God’s will for my life?

Whats God’s will for my life?

Hang around a church for a short period of time and you will hear this question in some form or fashion. “Whats God’s will for my life?” And this is a good question, a question we should think about and seek after. That Creator God has formed us in His image (Genesis 1:26) and has even formed for us the very days we will live before there was anything (Psalm 139:16); He has made us for a purpose, and we find our ultimate joy and peace when we are walking in that. In the place of walking in His will is where we find true life (John 10:10). Everything else simply won’t satisfy. But I have been dwelling on another question, I think sometimes we have this idea that if being in God’s will is the ultimate place for life, joy, and peace then being in God’s will must also be easy, comfortable, and possibly prosperous. But the question I have been chewing on is how bad do we want to know His will, if it isn’t easy, isn’t going to be comfortable, and won’t lead to the worlds definition of being prosperous? Do we still want to know it and seek after it then? Or do we only want to know His will when it lines up with what we really want to do anyways?

A little of two weeks ago, Monday, April 9th marked the 67th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (have also written about him here ). He was hanged for his part in trying to assassinate Hitler, what has stuck with me since that Monday two weeks ago is a quote I read in Bonhoeffer’s Biography, from a doctor over seeing the killings. He said that:

 “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” (BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; by: Eric Metaxas; page: 237).

As I read the biography, and as I thought about this two weeks ago, my thought has been that he knew he was right in the middle of God’s will for his life, and he knew it where it was leading and he was still submissive to it. That’s obedience! That’s faith. Day before his death he told a fellow prisoner:

“This is the end. But for me, the beginning of life.”

If that was me, would I still want God’s will for me then?

A few years ago I listened to a sermon from Francis Chan at his first Passion, in 2007, where he asked:

“Do you want to know God’s will for your life? Do you really want to know that? Honestly, think about this, would you really want to know what God in heaven, would want with your body if He had complete control over it tonight? To send your body wherever He wanted it to go? To say whatever He wanted it to say? Would you really want to know where God would want you to go tonight? Would you really want to know His desire of what time He wants you to wake up tomorrow morning? Would you really want to know, if it was totally up to Him, where He would want you to go after the Passion Conference? You really want to know that? Or isn’t there a side of you that really doesn’t want to know?

Do we really want to know God’s will for our lives? Even if it cost us everything? Even if it’s a complete 180 from what we want to do? As I have thought on this, and thought through scripture on this it appears over and over that people in the bible when in the middle of God’s will it cost them a lot, if not all.

  • Prophet Isaiah: Sees God on Hs throne hears the question, “Whom shall we send?” Says here I am, and his reward! I’m sending you to a group of people who hearing won’t hear and seeing won’t see (Isaiah 6). Basically I’m sending you to say what I tell you to say, but they aren’t going to listen. Isaiah was asked not to have a fruitful ministry but a faithful one (Chandler, The Explicit Gospel, pg. 74).
  • Joseph: Genesis 37-41, we know that Joseph was sold by his brothers, and found favor, then falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, and thrown into jail, and forgotten, before finding favor again with Pharaoh by interpreting his dreams and being placed in charge of all of Egypt. If asked if you wanted to be second in control over an entire country would you want it? Would you still want it, if you had to endure all that Joseph had to in the midst of it?
  • Mary: Found favor with God (Luke 1:26-38). Finding favor with God is good right? Mary understood that this meant that she was going to become pregnant while unmarried in a society that could legally stone her to death for it. She knew that in a few months she would start showing she was pregnant and wouldn’t be able to hide it, and that would bring whispers and gossip about her. And even if she tried to say what was happening, no one would believe her. But yet she found favor with God.
  • Paul: List out all his hardships in 2 Corinthians 11:21-33  Beaten, stoned, ship wrecked, hungry and thirsty, etc. He endured all of this, even one point ship wrecks onto an island, get to the shore and is shortly after bitten by a snake, but yet starts out his letter to the Colossians that he is an apostle by the will of God! Why did he live his life the way he did? Even after everything that happened to him, because he was living out God’s will for his life
  • All the Apostles, except for John, were martyred, and they tried to martyr John and he survived so they sent him to an island to be alone and die.
  • And there’s more, but I’ll stop here.

And I’m sure we can come up with a list of people in history and in the bible where they were in the middle of God’s will and appears their life was one of ease. But the question I’m asking is do we want God’s will for our life, even if it cost us everything? If this side of heaven life isn’t easy, comfortable or prosperous? What if the good He is working for us (Romans 8:28) is to simply call us home, to be with Him?

Do we want God’s will for our life, only if He _______(does this or that); or do we want it even if ______ (it cost us everything)?

Related Resources:

The Great Exchange – Luther

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“This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.”   

 –Martin Luther

No Conditions, Just Do!

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A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

~ John 13:34

Jesus says this at the end of a well-known passage of scripture. And God has been teaching me somethings on this idea of “Love” for a while now. And with teaching through The Gospel of John recently with our youth at church and also a new cd from Todd Agnew its all coming together.

This is the passage (John 13) where Jesus washes His Disciples feet, normally when we think of this passage we immediately go to Peter putting his foot in his mouth again. But what jumped out at me when studying this passage was something different. Verse One says that “..Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father…” Ok, I understand that Jesus being God in flesh knew all things and knew what was going to happen to Him and why He was sent. So He washes HIs Disciples feet, and in verse 15 tells them that He has set an example for them to do also; He then rejoins the table to continue with the meal, and there tells them that one of them, a Disciple there eating with them, will betray Him. He then passes bread to Judas and tells him in verse 27, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

After Judas leaves Jesus says:

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

~ John 13:31-35

This is what jumped out at me, that Jesus washed His Disciples feet and said now I am about to depart from here but you love one another as I have love you. Jesus, God, got down on His hands and knees and washed His Disciples feet….even Judas Feet, the one who would betray Him; catch that. Jesus washed Judas’ feet. As hard as it is to think that God would wash His Disciples feet, a chore for slaves, it’s even harder to imagine Him washing his feet. Verse one, Jesus knew that hour, He knows all things so He’s washing Peter’s feet knowing that he will deny Him three times but also that he will then preach and 3000 will come to faith, and he will eventually die for his faith. But to wash Judas’ feet, the man who would betray Him?? Then Jesus says ok you go do the same, and here’s why: so that the world will know that you are My Disciples.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another

~ John 13:35

Francis Schaeffer, in his short essay, “Mark of a Christian,” states that the way we love is the true mark of whether or not we are a Christian. He argues that in Jesus stating this in verse 34 & 35, He is giving the world a test to hold up to us to see if we are real.

The fact that Jesus would wash Judas’ feet then say go love as I have loved, takes away all excuses from us. No matter what someone has done against us, or who someone is, or  _____ (fill in the blank), none of us have been betrayed to the point of death.

Because His command to Love our Neighbor has nothing to do with our neighbor! But has everything to do with His Name and His Love being extended. So this command focuses on our hearts and whether or not we are willing to submit to Christ and His Command to Love our Neighbor. This is what the Lord has been showing me over the past year, that this command isn’t about them, but do you submit to My Commands?

Last week Todd Agnew had a new album come out called “how to be loved” (great album you should check it out). Song number 2 is titled, “Love Your Neighbor,” on his blog about the song he wrote: (here’s the entire blog)

 I don’t know that God is nearly as concerned with the truth of the sign held by the alleged homeless, the supposed poor, as He is with His glory and character being reflected just for a moment at that intersection.

So the moments we have to extend God’s Love, is not about them and who they are, where they are from, what they have done to us or others, but it’s about us submitting to Gods Word and reflecting Him in that moment.

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

~ I John 4:12

No one has seen God, but if we love, then maybe they get a glimpse of Him.

What are we reflecting into the lives that God has ordained that we cross paths with in this life?

“Love Your Neighbor”

Chorus:

“Love your neighbor

Doesn’t ask me if I fully understand

Doesn’t ask if he’s a working class kind of man

Love Your Neighbor is a little about him

Probably more about me

But its a lot, a lot about You

Love is a lot about You”

The command to love those around us, has nothing to do with the ones around us. Has a lot to do with the condition of our heart and who He is.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

~John 13:34-35

How Will We Be Remembered?

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Quote I read last night:

The prison doctor at Flossenburg, having no idea whom he was watching, later recalled: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer kneeling on the floor, praying fervently to God . . . so certain that God heard his prayer. . . . I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” (BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; by: Eric Metaxas; page: 237).

What a legacy! What a way to remembered; is what I kept thinking as I read this last night. I told it to a friend and she stated, “wow wouldn’t you love to have that on your tombstone.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian  in Germany during the rise of Hitler, who fought against the Nazi’s and challenged the Church to take a stand Biblically. This would ultimately cost him his life, as he was arrested and ultimately martyred for plotting against Hitler.

He is probably most well-known for writing, “The Cost of Discipleship” in which he states that:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die

Living his life this way ultimately cost him his life. Could of perhaps fled Germany to somewhere safer, but chose to stay; and is remembered as one who died entirely submissive to the will of God.

How submissive am I?

How submissive are you?

Even if it means death?

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

~ Galatians 2:20

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

~ Philippians 1:21

How will we be remembered?

Bonhoeffer Resources:

Put to Death…

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3  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,seated at the right hand of God. 2  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

~ Colossians 3:1-4

I have been stuck in Colossians all year so far, have read it and reread it and read it again, and the Lord just keeps showing me more and more. Last year I was in Philippians most of the year, so I guess that this year I will be camping out in Colossians. But something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about is a verse in chapter 3. I love chapter three, really all of Colossians is so full and great, but chapter 3 starts out talking about the new life we have in Christ as believers, and how in this new life we are to set our minds on Him and the things that are above. For our old self has died and we are now alive in Him, so we are to think on Him and not on things that are on the earth. Then verse 5, the verse I’ve been stuck on, Paul takes it a step farther:

5  Put to DEATH therefore what is earthly in you:…

~ Colossians 3:5(a)

All things in you that are earthly, Paul says to kill them! This goes beyond, simply not thinking of earthly things, or trying to avoid earthly things that are in us, Paul says go ahead and kill it!

This has been my thought as I have chewed on this over the past few weeks:

Our pursuit of Holiness must be violent!

In order to pursue Holiness, and to pursue Him as we should we must be willing to kill the earthly things that are in us, not simply, hide, put away, avoid, but kill. To rid our selves of! Since we have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, and kill the rest.

Pursuit of Holiness is a war!

Shouldn’t We All ….

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It looks like he just came down Mount Sinai

That was a text message I got from a friend last week. A text message that has rocked me and made me dwell on it all week. Last week there was a conference for college students, and all the main sessions were streamed online (technology is great!). As I sat in my house watching the night session, I received that text from a friend who was also streaming, as soon as the speaker walked on stage. And it hit me hard, I dwelled on it all night and the next morning driving to work I was still chewing on it. So I text my friend and told him I couldn’t stop thinking about that, and his response was “Nick, as soon as he walked on stage, before he even said anything I was convicted.”

WOW! As I have thought on this, the thought is what a complement! For someone to walk on stage, or to walk up to someone and their first thought is this person has been spending time with God is amazing. If you don’t know the story, its out of Exodus 34, Moses is up on the Mountain meeting with God, and when he comes down his face is shinning, so much so that all the people of Israel were afraid to come near him. After he tells the people what God had said, he covers his face with a veil. And this was his practice that he kept his face covered except when he was meeting with God or telling the people of Israel what God had said. Because his skin was glowing!

Here are my random thoughts as I have chewed on this all week:

  • Would anyone in their right mind ever say that about me?
  • If you were to ask someone to describe me, how long would the list be before they got to Nick loves God and spends time with Him? That Nick loves like Christ loved?
  • Why don’t we look like this to the world? If God really is who God says He is, and if we really believe that, shouldn’t our lives look different?
  • How much would you love for that to be said about you? – Not for bragging rights, but because you were that in LOVE with Christ it was evident in your life
  • Reminded me of another story I heard one time of a man who said spending time with a pastor he knows gives him the feeling of this is what is must have felt like to walk with Christ!
  • Why don’t we live like this?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abide in us and His love is perfected in us.   ~ 1 John 4:11-12

No one has ever seen God, but if we love His love is perfected. How are we perfecting His love in our day-to-day activities? We are the remaining evidence of the love of Christ in the world today. How are we doing?

All this made me think of Acts 4:13 where is says the Council knew Peter and John were uneducated and common man but were astonished and took note that they been with Jesus! I have always loved this verse, but it’s also convicting, can anyone take note of the fact that I have spent time with Jesus?

If God is who He says He is; and if I believe this, then my life should look different. 

When I talk with someone, or get up to preach, I want people to be able to say, he has been spending time with God!

To get there, we must spend time with Him, be willing to dwell in His presence.