Uganda…an invitation

Cornerstone has been partnered with an amazing community of faith in Buloba, Uganda. My good friends Brian and Kristen Johnson, Josh Agerton, and Christopher Slagley took a trip last year and put this video together. it tells an amazing story that has been unfolding over the last few years and will continue to in the years to come.

i believe you have a part to play in their story as well. i hope you’ll accept the invitation.

there are two trips this summer, one at the end of May and another a few weeks after that. if you want more information, email or call me and I’d love to share with you what God is doing there and how you can be involved this summer.

who am I?

i’ve been living in this verse this morning…feeling much the same way that i think David would have felt (well…truthfully, my family hasn’t tried to kill me…so maybe not to the same extent).

“Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” 1 Chronicles 17:16.

before i go on, maybe a quick recap of the last two years is in order:

• January 08 – Lace and I head to Colorado Springs for Discipleship Training School with YWAM.
• March to August 08 – on outreach in China
• September 08 – We move back to Auburn after seeing small Chinese man wearing hoodie and God speaking “go” to the both of us (let me know if you’ve never heard that story).
• October 08 – God provides miraculously for our family with two amazing jobs here on the plains.
• January 09 – begin volunteering with university students at Cornerstone Church.

Which brings us to today. We’re both still working at our respective jobs – Lace for Young Life and me for AU In-House Construction…for now. I’m pretty stoked to share with you that Cornerstone has offered me a job as the Director of University Student Ministries, and i accepted it this morning.  So…after accepting and turning in my two weeks here at AU, i’ll be transitioning into a full-time ministry position at a church that I am so incredibly passionate for and about (which i’m sure you guys could tell by the amount of tweets, Facebook updates, and blog posts i’ve thrown out there over this past year).

I wish there was some way for me to put into words exactly how excited I am, so i guess you’ll have to take my word for it. There are so many things that I’m ready to dive in and do here on this campus and with these students…and i can’t wait to share them with you. In the meantime, thank you so much for all your prayers for me and my family over the years. They mean so much to both Lace and I.

Who am I, my King, that you would be mindful of Lacey and I? Who are we that you care for us so?

God bless you guys.

can you explain it?

“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit” – Francis Chan

Truth is, my God asks for my everything.

Do people look at my life and say, “The LORD – He is God!” the way they did when fire came from heaven in 1 Kings 18 because of Elijah’s faithful prayers?

Because if i live a life FULLY committed to the Spirit of God, then people should look at my life and say, “The Lord – He is God!” As a disciple and one who has been transformed, shouldn’t there be a difference in my life and one who has not been made new? Shouldn’t the world should be experiencing the power of God because of the Spirit’s movement in my life?

Jesus asks for nothing short of radical faith….ruthless trust in Him alone. ”Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). That’s radical…crazy talk to those who do not keep in step with the spirit (Galatians 5:25).

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.

but i don’t “hear” God…

you hear people say things like, “God said” or “i heard from the Lord” or even, “God put on our heart to do ___” (you may have even heard me say things like this). only this morning did i let what that sounds like to someone who had never heard God before really sink in. truth is, however, that God is speaking, even in these days, the same way He did to David, Isaiah, Paul, and His own Son, Jesus.

Does that mean you audibly hear from God?

Yes.

Yea…ok…checking out now…

And i believe He’s speaking to you, too…

…

I’m not saying that we hear a booming voice from heaven the way we read about in the old stories, although that is possible. I’m not saying that I actually hear with my hears (my physical ones) either. but what I am saying is that my spirit, the one put inside me by the Father, now hears the Father’s heart through the Holy Spirit. (aside: i do not hear all the time from the Father…could it be my lack of hearing is has to do with me? more on that later). Jesus didn’t promise to send his spirit to His disciples (and us) once he left for nothing.

It is for your good that I am going away. Unless i go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you…

…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

John 16: 7, 13-14

but i’ve never heard God…

i have to give the rest of this post to Francis Chan and the book of his i’m reading, Forgotten God (link at right). This is a book about the Holy Spirit – don’t check out – i’m not about to go Benny Hinn on you. Chan gives two reasons as to why most Christians don’t hear God speaking (mind you there are many, but these are too good to let go):

• Comfort – maybe you’re life is too safe. “Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?” “If we are never alone or feeling like we need Him, how much do we care or need to know that God is with us?” (107).
• Volume – maybe your life is too loud. We are kings and queens of multi-tasking. And we even pride ourselves on it. But maybe our lack of intimacy and communion with the Father is because everything else in our lives takes priority and/or drowns out the voice of the Spirit. “Our lack of intimacy often is due to our refusal to unplug and shut off communication from all others so we can be alone with Him” (109).

On a day to day basis…I fall victim to both of these. My life as an American is comfortable. Truthfully, i could stop believing in Him today, and depending on the day, continue on with life as if nothing had changed.

My life is also wide open, 100 mph, all the time (just ask Lace). I tweet, blog, email, text…and i can do it all from my phone. God is speaking to me everyday and more times than not i have ten different things going on at once and fail to hear Him. I believe that God loves His children and never stops attempting to lead us through his Spirit. We simply need to start listening.

So my prayer this morning, for me and for you, is “God make us uncomfortable… lead us into places and situations where we have to depend on you. Father give us the wisdom and discipline to unplug and be still before you…daily…Jesus just as you did.”

1 Peter

This semester at Cornerstone, we will be reading through, praying through, and walking out the book of 1 Peter as a university student community (that being said, if you would like to join us and you’re not a student, please feel free to join us anyway).

I’m excited about this journey with these guys for so many different reasons, all of which make me come alive just in writing these words to you. My hope and prayer is that at the end of these 15 weeks together that we would a) know God’s heart for his people through the words of Peter, b) grow closer to the King, c) grow closer to one another, and d) advance the kingdom on our university campuses in Auburn and Opelika.

Peter writes this letter to the churches of modern day Turkey that he personally knew and planted. But even more than that he was writing to believers everywhere (truthfully, we are part of the church that Peter planted). The backdrop for this letter is suffering for the sake of Christ as “aliens,” “strangers in the world, scattered…” When i read these words, I hear, “nobody, wanderers, vagabonds, homeless.”

I know of no other group that is more bent on finding their identities in the face of insurmountable pressure than university students. No other group in America fits this description more fully.

I see university students as wanderers, homeless, with a creator that is longing for them to find their home in him. Christian university students face one of the toughest uphill climbs anyone could face. They have every possible opportunity to do and be whatever they want to do and be. It’s here that they will make some of the most crucial decisions of their lives. There is never again a greater concentration of choices packed into a 4-5 year span than at this crossroads in life.

An entire generation depends on their choices…whether it knows it or not.

There could not be more at stake in this world than their decision to choose life.

The rewards could not be greater.

do i hunger and thirst?

Cornerstone typically does a good job getting the word out on new series to anyone who may be interested (i tend to see them via tweets…yes, our church tweets). anyways, something i try to do on Sundays prior to going to a worship service is read the scripture we’re going to be working through that morning, or at least get in that book somewhere. Today, the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount have called my name…

that being said however, i didn’t even get to the end of them. verse 6 stopped me dead in my tracks:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. – Jesus

almost immediately, the Holy Spirit spoke, ‘what are you hungry for? where are you trying to fill yourself?’ note that trying was the word that He used. immediately, my response was not, “in you, Father,” but on whatever else i think is a good idea. sure, i abide in Him sometimes, maybe even a lot of the time, but not the continuous, life giving way that i was made to be filled.

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fair.

Isaiah 55:1-2

i don’t know where you seek happiness, peace, and joy from, but I do know that there is only One who can fill you the way you were created to be filled. There is only One that satisfies.