Mission Conference

My heart has been so blessed by our mission conference at church this past weekend.
I love missions. I think our life is absolutely considered missions. We should always be living like missionaries. I believe that The Lord has placed us where we are, right now, for a reason. I truly believe that. For some--it's in a school, a hospital, their own home, in Africa, in a cubicle, in Russia, at a park, with their kids, with their parents, with their friends, with their attitudes, there's so many  different "faces" to missions--and, so many missions.

From my time in Haiti with Joni & Friends Disability Ministry (you can read all about my trip here)

Friday evening, to kick off the Missions Conference, we headed to the church to hear Richie Session's preach. This man, he can preach! That's all I can say.
We read from Luke 5:12-16 and talked about "The Missional Heart of Jesus"
(as always, sharing my notes)
"12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.[a] And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray."
If we don't get Jesus’ missional heart, then we won't have a heart for missions.
The missional life is not just a conference--it has to start with your heart being warmed with the mission of Jesus is your own life.
If you aren't a missionary, then you're the mission field.
In this passage, we see three things:
1. Desperation--the best word to describe a leper. They were the lowest caste of the population--"The Untouchables"
This man was FULL of leprosy; his was a long-term condition.
"Living death" is what leprosy used to be called.
Now days, we don't know what it's like to have leprosy---but, we do know what shame is and what that feels like.
When he saw Jesus (vs. 12) he fell on his face and begged Jesus.
Jesus had people like this constantly around Him--people that were desperate for healing, cleansing and peace is a glimpse into the heart of Jesus. 
Desperation is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus. Our need is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus. 
In our generation, our time, we hide it all. We try to appear "together" and keep it all inside but we. are. broken.
Need brings us to Jesus.
2. Compassion--Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man. He has gut wrenching pity on him--He has compassion on him.
Am I desperate? Have I fallen on my face before God? How will Jesus respond to me? He has pity on me. He has gut wrenching compassion on me--that's WHY He came to this earth! He came so low so that any "untouchable" could come to Him. He came TO me.
He doesn't just touch the leper, He grabs him. He grabs him before He even heals the man--can you imagine? No one has touched this man for years...and Jesus touches his filth.
What Jesus is saying by touching this man is--I am prepared to become what you are to show you and give you what I have and what I am--and He does the same for us.
I will become dirty so that you can/will become clean.
ALL authority is MINE--everything--and He has come to touch us.
Jesus hates what sin has done to His creating and He's come to renovate it--healing the leper--changing the untouchables.
Have I tasted the compassion of Jesus Christ in me? It WILL change you.
People miss Jesus because they don't want to go down to Jesus--they don't want to be needy. 
3. Fellowship--He's going to bring us back together. After He heals this man, Jesus sends him back into the community--to family, to church, etc.
Ultimately, He is bringing us HOME--into fellowship of joy into The family of God--that's what missionaries are for.
Richie then spoke about the story of Mary of Magdalene and Jesus and their relationship. She was a woman who was possessed by seven demons--she would have been a terror and Jesus went to this tiny town of Magdalene to free her, to deliver her and after that, she followed Him through it ALL. All the way to His tomb (John 20:1-18) where she was the first one to arrive the day after He was put in there. She went there to care for Him, even after death. But lo, she sees that the body isn't there and through her emotions towards the situation, she doesn't even realize that Jesus is the very one talking to her, asking her why she's weeping. Then finally, all He does is say her name and she realizes that it's Him. Mary was the FIRST person that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection--there were a ton of people who would have been considered "better" choices--but He chose Mary.
He did not come so that we could "make it some day"--He came to the broken, to the needy, to renovate, and to captivate us. 
This is FOR ME--experience the JOY of His salvation. 
That is the missional heart of our King Jesus.

Even rereading my notes now for this post, my heart is pounding.
WHAT A GOD we serve! Wow.

We sang this song Sunday morning during the worship service and it doesn't matter how many times I've sung it--I tear up.

"Come People of The Risen King"
Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in. 

Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice! 
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.

Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice! 
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”! 

Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice! 
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

I've got to end with Richie's sermon from Sunday morning because it...it blew. me. away.
That's why I love the Bible. That's why I love that Jesus calls people to preach His word and blesses them with the words to say to His children. I've heard of Peter as long as I can remember and this sermon just brings a whole other aspect to just how rich Jesus’ love for those He loves truly is.

We read from Luke 5:1-11 and talked about "How God Makes Missionaries: The Calling of Peter"
"On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”[a] 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him."
Once the biggest failures experience forgiveness, they make the best missionaries.
Peter was a fisherman. His domain was the sea. He was not only a fisherman, he was THE master fisherman. In this passage, we see that Jesus was preaching from Peter's boat and then He asks the "master fisherman" to take him fishing.... in this passage, Peter is about to get caught.
Jesus pursues us. 
He has left heaven to pursue us.
The place that He pursues us is the place where we are most confident because that's the very place that we are hiding. We hide behind what we are good at & Jesus comes there, where we're hiding (even though we don't know we're hiding--self deceiving). He knows where we're hiding and how to catch us.
What am I hiding behind? Some talent, some strength, some gift...in every culture, in every land, we are hiding.
This goes all the way back to Genesis 3--where we see that the very first response to sin was to hide from God...but, He pursues those who are hiding...He asks Adam & Eve, "Where are you?" Do we really think that God didn't know where they were? NO! He wanted them to know He was looking for them; He wanted them, even still.
Jesus exposes us.
He exposes Peter with His sovereign, shocking power.
"God has authority over all the fish in the sea"--and here we see all the fish coming into the boat--more fish than these men can actually handle and Peter realizes that the one who's with him, sees his soul, and he is exposed.
He came into Peter's turf--He came in a way that Peter would understand and He exposes him in a way that will mean the most.
We find later in Isaiah 6:5 that Peter says: "I am a man of unclean lips" that here we have this marvelous preacher that's spreading the good news of the gospel and he knows that even this "best" part of him, is filthy.
A deconstruction of self is to experience the plague of our hearts.
This is what happens when we are exposed.
Jesus sees it all, and more. He exposes it to us.
The more you sense your need of Jesus, the closer you are to Him. 
"True knowledge of self brings true knowledge of God which brings true knowledge of self."
In John 4, we have the story of The Woman at the well and as we read and see where Jesus exposes her, she says: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
If we don't become exposed to Jesus, we will have no part of Him.
Jesus frees us. 
"Don't be afraid" is what He tells Peter.
He knows us, so that He may forgive us.
He exposes us, so that He may heal us, so that He may free us. 
Peter tells Jesus to depart from Him and we can relate to that! We don't want to be who Jesus exposes us to be--we can't handle who we truly are!
We become more and more in touch with our sinfulness and we weep and weep and yet He STILL meets us there--He will never let us go.
Jesus already knows all that we have done and will do and He chooses to continue to love us still.
In John 21, when we find Jesus back in Peter's boat, Peter doesn't push Him away this time--he jumps in the water and swims to Him because, he knows that he is freed in Jesus.
Those who know the depth of their sin and know how good the gospel is, those who are amazed by grace are the ones who make the best missionaries.
John Newton once said: "There is no greater joy to me than to comfort one of God's precious children"--the writer of Amazing Grace, who was once a slave trader with many stories to go alongside his career choice, was a great sinner who tasted forgiveness and made a wonderful missionary.
Jesus pursues, exposes, and frees us over and over and over again. 

Amen & amen. 

RYM-"Hope in a Hopeless Age"

This past week, Jason and I chaperoned our youth group to RYM for the 2nd year! (last year)

It was a pretty awesome week. Lakeland took the largest group we've ever had. We had 25 guys, 16 girls, and 7 chaperones--48 people! World record as far as we're concerned.

Riding on the bus will in fact make one crazy

The theme for the week this year was "Hope in a Hopeless Age". Which I thought was a great theme for high school aged kids (& adults all the same). We do indeed live in such a hopeless time, more so than we probably realize. We all need it, but where do we actually put our hope? Who or what do you put your hope in? 

I'll try not to overwhelm you with all of my notes but here are some of the key things that I learned/heard from Ricky during our large group sessions:

What is your hope? Eternal hope? Heaven is about being in a spiral of delight with God. God is delighted to have you in His presence and you are delighted to be in His presence and you are delighted, that He is delighted. That's a spiral of delight and we get caught up in that with God for eternity. 

The hope of glory is that we can enjoy this, even now. John 17:20-26 says that His precious prayer for us is that we would be with Him and see His glory. The reason I exist is to share in this spiral of delight with The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. 

Jesus came to get me. He came for you. He comes to us--and when you believe that, it changes you. It makes you want to love people...not for them to like or accept you, you will want to love and help them no matter what because of Jesus. 

Why is this world hopeless? 

Because of Genesis 3, because of the fall of man and not only did it happen in the Garden of Eden but it spread to every end of the earth that day & would effect everyone. 

We live in a very broken world and at it's very best, it will never satisfy me, ever. 

There is hope for this world. But, it's nothing we will find in this world. It's in the Lord who had mercy when it fell. 

Our churches are broken, our bodies are broken, our personalities are broken, our work place is broken, the Earth is broken--we need to talk to God about our brokenness because our hurts and brokenness hurt God too. He's been there. He's felt all of my brokenness personally when He died for me. He felt it more fully and wholly than I ever will (thanks be to God!) He voluntarily took it all, for me.  

The Resurrection is the true hope for this world. 

Brokenness is real, but so is the resurrection and our hope. 

We believe things, most of the time, because they make us feel better--but, we have to look at history because history triumphs inspiration. 

Most of us believe in the resurrection because our families do--we never questioned it--we just believed it.  IF we don't question that and come to figured out and believe that ourselves, it will never have the magnitude to carry us through this life. 

Don't hold on to the resurrection as tradition or inspiration, it's truth. 

Doubt is okay in the bible--look at "Doubting Thomas". But, we need to doubt honestly and be sure to not stop there because it's not okay to doubt things cynically (just because). It's not okay to doubt selfishly. 

There is very good reason to believe that Jesus got out of the tomb and is living with His Father:

The craziness of the claim--no one expected it. People stay dead! All but one, Jesus. 

The Jews began to call Jesus, Lord--Jews would have never just succumbed to that and called Jesus Lord.  

People die for this belief--Would you die for a lie? Every disciple but 1 died for this truth. 

Because Jesus' influence grew after He died--How many other religious leaders can you remember who's followers grew once they were gone?  

So what are we looking forward to?
A healed creation. Healed bodies. Healed emotions.  Healed relationships. Healed psyche (self image).

Amen and Amen. I am thankful for a lead speaker who was able to really able to relate to our kids and allow the Lord to use him to stir their hearts. 

Each day there's a large time frame of free time. There's so much to do. Go to the beach. Go to the pool. Play basketball. Play volleyball. Play Gaga ball. Take a nap. Walk around. Go to the book table. Go to the snack shop. Play Mega-Rec. I mean, we did it all! 

We also sign up for two elective classes throughout the week.
Mine were both really amazing.

One was "Freedom from the Paralysis of Doubt" with Joey Stewart.

Doubt is a major problem with Christians.
Too often, when asked the question "If you died today would you be with Jesus?" there's uncertainty.
But, praise Jesus, our confidence is not found in ourselves, it is in Jesus Christ ALONE.

Are you a true believer or a self deceiver?
Where is your foundation? What is it built on?
The false security of a bad foundation: We build our lives on things that will fail us.
We place our confidence in right answers & right actions and all that does is produce false security. 
We've made His laws "humanly achievable" which they aren't.  He does not demand that we do our best, He demands that we do His best and that's done only through Him. 
Jesus is the only solid foundation upon which we can build our lives and He alone fulfills God's demands for us. Jesus came and basically told me to enjoy His joy, forever through what He's done. 

Our struggle with sin
What is saving faith? It is knowledge and understanding of the gospel, agreement that the gospel is true, and trust and reliance in it. 
A life with Jesus is a life of struggle with sin. Regardless of our sins we need to know (and hold on to) the fact that God does not love me more because of a good day or less because of a bad day. He loves me because of Jesus, and Jesus alone. 

Union and Communion with Christ
You can never lose your salvation once you have it--bottom line. 
But, what are the benefits that Jesus has won for us?
The benefits we can enjoy now: God's love, peace of conscious, joy in the Holy Spirit, growing and persevering in the grace of God. 
The benefits we will enjoy in death: we will be made perfect in His holiness, we will immediately go into glory, and our bodies will have rest until the resurrection.
The benefits we will receive at the resurrection:  We will be raised up in glory, we will be openly acknowledged and acquitted, we will be made perfect and be in full enjoyment of God forever. 
A lot of people look at all of this and it's so abstract to them that they don't long for these things. We don't fully understand them and see the magnitude of it. The truth is, the full enjoyment of God that comes with the resurrection is better than anything this world can/will ever offer us. 
Jerry Bridges wrote: 'While our union with Jesus can't be taken away; the enjoyment of it comes from communion with God" 
Being in prayer and daily reading of The Word is God's way of drawing us closer to Him and His heart for us. When reading scripture, ask yourself "what does this scripture say about the heart of God for me; because of Jesus?"

Rest for the weary
 If we are not grounded in The Word of God, we will run when doubt and difficult circumstances come our way. 
We need to remember the truths about God and His heart for us. 
Remember His Goodness--Psalm 23:4-6
His power--Isaiah 40:12, 2 Timothy 1:12
His love--Zephaniah 3:17
When we doubt our salvation we are not doubting ourselves, we are doubting God and His promises. It is arrogant. It is saying that you understand the gospel and that it might be true for everyone else but what God did isn't big enough for you and your sins. God didn't pick and choose. What He did is big enough to cover ALL sins. 

My other class was entitled "The Hardest Prayer You'll Ever Pray" with Jean Larroux.

I was so excited about this class. It was all about The Lord's Prayer and the meaning of it all. I chose this one because as a congregation we recite that prayer every Sunday and I wanted a better understanding of it. 

Matthew 6:5-15

vs. 9-13--"This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name"

The two words, Heavenly Father change everything. When we see God as our father, it changes everything. "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father.  If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well." J.I. Packer

Think of the magnitude of calling the God of the universe, your Father. 

Jesus says, "Yes, He is holy!", "Yes, He has all power!", 'Yes, He is a consuming fire!", But when you address Him...When you are so bold as to even speak to Him...When you pray, you call Him Father; your Father. 

Does that change the way you pray?  We usually feel the need to talk to our parents, you want to talk to them and tell them things. God is greater than the worst father and the best father earth has to offer. 

When we are praying "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.." we are taking His name upon us and when we do that it must mean something. It's weighted; it's heavy. 

"Your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"

When we are praying "thy kingdom come" we are asking God to arrange the world as He meant it to be. To petition God to usher in His Kingdom is a request of rightful ownership--all that He created, all that He intended, all that He decreed, thy kingdom, thy monarchy, thy people, under thy hand--Thy Kingdom come.

The most sweet and most bitter truth of in the kingdom of God is that Jesus is coming back. 

There are two parts to this section of the prayer: a statement and a modifier.

The statement: "on earth". The modifier: "as it is in heaven".

When we pray, "thy will be done" we are essentially saying that whatever He decides is okay with you. It's as if we are saying, "I don't understand this, but I do trust Jesus".

When we pray "thy will be done," we are showing our submission to God's control, not giving Him permission to be in charge.

Asking God to make our lives just like He wants it to be is part of what makes this the hardest prayer you will ever pray.

"Give us today our daily bread. 

 In this prayer, we request that God only give us enough today to keep us dependent on Him tomorrow. 

When you look back in Exodus 16:1-5, 12-26 we read about the manna that would come daily to God's people and how they had to depend on God daily for the bread they would eat. Which then cause daily dependence on God. Why would God do that?  Because in Exodus 16:12 He says: "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God!"

God gives His people only enough to keep them dependent on Him--daily. 

Are we really ready to pray for daily bread? Are we ready to ask God  to only give us enough to keep us dependent on Him?

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"

In the Lord's prayer, with regard to forgiveness, Jesus reverses the order and teaches us to pray saying: "forgive me like I forgive others."

Think about making that kind of request from God: "Dear God, I want you to forgive me, but please Sir, first look at my heart, look at how I have forgiven others, and then forgive me like that."...makes you think! 

When we forgive others we are showing them that we have tasted salvation and we want to share that with them. 

We need to leave justice to Jesus and show evidence of a forgiven heart by forgiving others. 

Jesus' point is that if we can not, do not, or will not forgive those who sin against us, then it's likely that we have not tasted or seen the true forgiveness of God in Christ."

This isn't hard praying, it's impossible praying...except that God served up our forgiveness first! 

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Genesis 6:5 informs us that when we are left to ourselves we will chase our sins until it kills us--we've been freed, in Christ, from the consequence of sin, but we need to be freed from it's control as well.  Jesus is our master, our "debts" have been forgiven, and we live with Him, but many of us "sit on the porch chasing every car that comes by--it's in our nature. It is our basic instinct to sin. Without restraint man will naturally do the very thing that will end his life. 

Keep us from deceiving ourselves.

This is a prayer or protection for our souls from the very thing that almost killed us forever, sin. 

The only thing more attractive than our sin is God's grace and His mercy He's had on us. 

The world, the flesh and the devil will convince us of everything that God doesn't want us to believe. The devil doesn't care what you do, as long as you don't love Jesus. The only virtue sin has is its emptiness but for some reason, we are drawn to it. 

You abuse your body, abuse your heart, lust, worship your "idol" of the week, have deep discontentment, and discontentment with the fact that your heart is discontent, you repent, but take pride that you repented, and then repent of your repentance and hope God noticed how well you knew your sin...Who will deliver us from lives like that?

Jesus did. 

When we say Amen we are just as well signing a contract, we are committing, we are agreeing. 

Think about what we are agreeing to--

To call the God of the universe our Heavenly Father

To keep His name holy and set apart

To live for and desire His kingdom

To tell others about the return of the King

To let Him be the pilot, the co-pilot, and the air traffic control

To submit to His will

To content myself with daily bread

To ask for only enough today to keep me dependent on Him tomorrow

To measure out forgiveness the way He measured it to me

To have Him restrain my natural tendencies towards sin

To "protect me from the world, the flesh, and the devil

and to that you say, "amen, amen, and amen"

Something super exciting happened during our free time one day! We won our first sporting event at RYM! (at least since I've been going). Our volleyball team did some kind of awesome!

Look at these winners! So proud of our Lakeland team pulling out a W for us. 

Loved having this beautiful lady as a chaperon with us this year!

The ever so delicious Wednesday night BBQ.

Every church that comes to RYM is assigned a meal to either serve/clean up after or do both.

Thursday night is the "night out" at RYM where the groups get to go out and eat, shop, see a movie, whatever they please. Our group makes this night extra special and we give it a theme and then everyone (most everyone) dresses up accordingly. Some of our guys are still "too cool" for that. ;) This year's theme was cosplaying and/or superheros.

To end the week, RYM puts on a big ole' dance on the beach.
I love it and the youth love it just as much!

I am so thankful for the week I got to spend with the youth hearing wonderful teaching, singing amazing songs, having fun, playing on the beach, and worshiping together.

I want to end with this awesome video.

 Hearing hundreds of student's proclaim that they "are bound for the promised land" tops the charts of wonderful things to happen this past week!
What a joy it is to serve such a gracious, good God that gives us that promise!

Throwback (C4L Internship)

A year ago today,  Jason and my family were taking me to the airport to make my cross country flight to LAX in California and make my way to Agoura Hill to the Joni and Friends International Disability Center to intern with them for the month of June. 

At the Joni & Friends International Disability Center

Beautiful, beautiful hike we did one evening

Mrs. Joni Eareckson Tada 

Mission Springs Joni & Friends Family Retreat

 Waiting on our campers

 My little dude and I at the Barnyard Dance

These ladies were life changing. I am so thankful for them and the lasting friendship we all made. 

 In Haiti with our translators

Here's the link to the blog I kept while interning last summer (http://happeningsinhaiti.blogspot.com) I can never fully express how much I learned and how God used those experiences in a mighty way. Spending time learning what His word says about individuals with disabilities and how we are to love them all the same and even more so, how He loves and cares for them. Spending time in Mission Springs at the Joni & Friends Family Retreat where I was stretched more than I could have ever imagined but saw so much love and received so much gratitude from the parents of those individuals. Spending time in Haiti, with people who love the same God we do and praise His name in a way like I've never seen before. God is so good and I am so thankful that He chose my heart to love people affected by disabilities. 

I saw a post on Facebook today for the Joni & Friends page and the new C4L interns have arrived! This will be an amazing month for them.