A Boys World

I’m a Published Photographer!

Check out the cover of Voice of Martyrs Spanish Edition. I snapped that picture on a 2008 trip to a remote village in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. VOM’s Spanish Publisher found it on my blog (with this post) and requested to use it. I was honored for them to do so because I’m a fan of the work of Voice of Martyrs and I’m burdened by the tremendous needs in Chiapas. The current issue will be on the persecution of Evangelical Christians in Chiapas. Sign up to receive their free newsletter here.

Hope Church of Waldheim has been on two trips to the region, providing medical care and cultivating the ground for church planting among the Tzotzil Indians in the Highlands of Chiapas. Bridge Church, the new church we are a part of in West St. Tammany Parish, recently sent a team back to the Lacandon Jungle to continue the work. We hope to return in 2009. Keep in touch for info about future trips.

Check out our partners at http://gled.net/.

Proud Member of the Junky Car Club

If my dad had an iconic symbol (i.e. Lincoln’s hat, Churchill’s cigar, etc.) it would have been the beat up, worn out, broke down truck that he had to work on for an hour before work everyday. He constantly drove clunkers and suffered greatly when he finally got to the point in his life that he was able to afford a new vehicle and purchased one. After a few months, he threw in the towel and gave the new truck to his teenage son (that’d be me) and came home with a school bus yellow ‘70 something dodge.

I always despised the old trucks and vowed to never drive clunkers when I grew up. Now, 18 years later, I’m 35 and I’ve never owned a new vehicle. I find myself working on mine regularly before work and I can’t stand the thought of driving something brand new. I can’t believe it! What happened?

Standing Where It’s Already Burned

One of the favorite titles I’ve held in my life (behind “Dad” of course) is Volunteer Fireman. I was honored to volunteer with one of St. Tammany Parish’s finest Volunteer Fire Departments for a number of years and still like to provide spiritual care for our first responders as a Volunteer Chaplain. One night I was out with our guys for a woods fire near Abita Springs. The fire was away from a road so our trucks couldn’t get close. The chief says, “I need to know how close that fire is, two of you go see.” Since I hadn’t volunteered for any assignments involving burning buildings, I jumped out first and took off through the thick woods. As we approached the fire, the wind picked up and we noticed that it was coming at us fairly fast and the way we had come was too thick for us to be able to make a quick escape. We began clawing as fast as we could parallel to the fire until we found a spot that was burning low enough for us to jump over. The environment at that point changed from scarry to eery. The ground singed and scarred, smoke rising, but we were safe. We were standing where it had already been burned and the fire would not be able to burn there again. We followed the fire up to the trucks at which point it was quickly extinguished.

That night I was reminded of 1 John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” The word propitiation is used only here in the New Testament and it is filled with meaning for the real Christian. The word means “the appeasement or averting of God’s wrath or justice.” So, Jesus, through His death on the cross, appeased, absorbed, and averted God’s wrath toward me. Because of my sin, I faced the fire of God’s judgement (Romans 1:18, John 3:36), but in Christ I’m moved over to where the fire has already burned. Jesus took my judgement, He took my sin, He took my penalty, He took my justice. In Christ, there’s an eery safety. There’s been fire here, but it can’t be again.

Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” On that day of judgement, which side of the fire line will you be standing on?

I know what God says, BUT…

I know what God says, BUT…

• “my situation is different.”
• “that will never happen to me.”
• “everyone else does it.”
• “that was a long time ago.”
• “they deserve it.”
• “god understands my needs.”
• “who really does that anyway?”
• “that’s just not possible for me.”
• “I’ll get around to that one day.”

When you disobey God it means there is a gap between where you are and where you know God wants you to be. “I know what God says, BUT…” or “I know what I should be doing, BUT…” reveals that gap for all that it is. When you excuse your disobedience, you are saying more about what you believe about God than anything else. What you should just go ahead and say is, “I know what God says, BUT…”

• “He really doesn’t matter that much to me.”
• “I know better than He does about this issue/situation. I’m so much wiser about these kind of things.”
• “God has changed since the Bible was written and all that stuff doesn’t really matter anymore.”
• “I’d rather do what my friends say than God. They are so much smarter than him.”
• “I don’t really think He can provide for this need. I’ll just do it myself.”
• “I don’t really believe in God at all. Since he’s not real, I can do whatever I want.”

If you can easily excuse a pattern of disobedience, blowing off the word and will of God, the book of 1 John says you are a liar, deceived, and in darkness.

The real Christian responds to God’s word with obedience. He’s revealed Himself in Christ who is willing to transform our lives. The transformed one responds to God with obedience.

Chiapas Team Update, Free Museum Day, etc.

I just skyped with Sergio Matassa, the missionary in Chiapas, Mexico. Our Mission team just arrived back into the city from the Lacandon Jungle and were getting ready to go out on the town (San Cristobal de las casas, incredible city). They had 33 professions of faith and other cool things take place. Can’t wait to hear the personal testimonies next Sunday from Derek Kitterlin and Eddie Koch, our own guys on the trip. And of course start planning the next trip to the Jungle – any takers? For more info on the work in Chiapas, check out gled.net.

FYI:Saturday is FREE MUSEUM DAY nationwide. Locally, the D-Day Museum, LA Children’s Museum, Lake Ponchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, and a few others will be participating (here’s the list). At the Maritime Museum in Madisonville they will be unveiling the official T-Shirt that volunteers will receive for free for their work at the Wooden Boat Festival on October 10-11. If you’d like to volunteer with Bridge Church and the Boat Fest Children’s Village, download and fill out the Volunteer Registration Form and bring it Sunday (check out the Festival Poster to the right). For 4 hours of volunteering you get the free T-shirt, a meal pass, and you get to help Bridge Church serve thousands of people in our community.

Join us Sunday as we continue our study of 1 John. Last Sunday we talked about the Real Jesus, this week we’ll talk about the Real Christian. Our questions will be, “How can I be certain that I’m a Christian?” and “Should I be so certain that I’m a Christian?”

Download last weeks message from our website and check out a few supporting articles on my blog here.

Chiapas, Mexico – VOM Restricted Nation

This week we have a small team from our church traveling to remote villages in Chiapas, Mexico, bringing physical and spiritual care and supporting the church planting movement taking place among the Tzotzil Indians in Mexico’s southern most state. While I was unable to go on this trip, I had an interesting opportunity to contribute to the mission of spreading the Gospel in Chiapas this week. Voice of Martyrs, Spanish Edition, asked to use one of my pictures from a previous trip on the cover of an upcoming issue. The picture (to the left) was taken at a village called Nuevo Sabanilla in the Lacandon Jungle, where a team from Hope Church of Waldheim, Oak View Baptist Church in Irving, TX, and Willow Bend Church in Plano, TX, traveled with a few Mexican doctors last June. It was an incredible experience that included a five hour ride on a dirt road (that’s a long dirt road even for someone from LaSalle Parish), breath taking scenery, waking up inside a passing cloud bank, being the first Americans to travel to the area, and knowing that because of our trip lives were saved physically and spiritually. This week our team is back in the jungle village of Nuevo Sabanilla to continue the work and help solidify the planting of a healthy church in the region.

I hope you’ll join me in praying for Chiapas. To be on the cover of Voice of Martyrs means that it is not a safe place for evangelical Christians. See this story about their status as a restricted nation. And pray for our team that will be making the trek out of the jungle starting tomorrow. Can’t wait to hear the stories of God’s work and to start planning the next trip!

For info about our partnering organization in Chiapas visit gled.net. For more of the story and pics click here.

Ages Old Falsehoods That Are Still False

In the book of 1 John, one of Jesus’ closes associates debunks a view of Christianity that threatened to undermine the spread of the life-changing message about Jesus Christ. The false teaching was called Gnosticism (more here). It has crept back into our belief systems in the modern era through academia, but also subtly into the lives of those who claim to be followers of Christ. Briefly summarized, three of the main tenants of gnosticism were: 1) Jesus was NOT real, 2) SIN is not that big a deal, and 3) It’s really about what you KNOW. Let’s take a closer look and talk about how they apply to us:

1) Jesus was not real. Gnostic believed that Jesus only seemed to be a person, but He was not. He couldn’t be, because the absolute god would never enter the muck and mire of the evil earthly matter. This, of course, changed his purpose and the implications of God sending his Son to rescue us from sin.

To believe that Jesus is something that He is not is quite common today. Jared Wilson in his book Your Jesus is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel Good Savior addresses some of the more modern version of shape shifting Jesus to fit ourselves. Here’s a few:

• The Stern Taskmaster Jesus who is waiting to smack your knuckles with a ruler when you get out of line.
• Postcard Jesus who has a perfect tan, white teeth, wavy hair, and a halo.
• Get-out-of-hell-free Jesus. We say a prayer to him, kind of like putting money into a machine, and then we get to bypass hell without having to follow any of his desire for our lives.
• ATM Jesus who just wants you to be happy and successful but most of all RICH.

Many would argue that they believe rightly about Jesus, but they are PRACTICAL ATHEIST because they live their lives like he doesn’t exist.

It Makes A Difference When Things Are Real

Our three year old son, Hudson, is a swordsman. His favorite target for destruction is, of course, ME. The plastic and nerf versions of the sword have yet to inflict much bodily harm, but a few weeks ago that almost changed. We were browsing in one of my favorite Hardware/Army Surplus stores in our area, when Hudson spotted a row of REAL swords. The kind that cut. And for some reasons they were hanging low enough for a three year old to draw. He picked the one he wanted, unsheathed it, and turned around looking for “the bad guy.” That’s me. Fortunately, he listens well and didn’t take a swing and we still remain below our insurance deductible for 2009. There are serious implications when something moves from plastic to REAL.

Our faith is no different. What if Jesus is real? What if God really did send His Son to earth? What if sin is such a big deal that Jesus had to die an unimaginably brutal death? What if Jesus really did beat death and is alive today? If all this is really true, it has serious implications for all of our lives.

This weekend, our church began a series of sermons on the book of 1 John. The book delves into the implications of a Real Jesus. John seeks to confront the false teachings of his day and to give assurance to believers about their faith and future. Interestingly enough, some of the same thinking and uncertainty has snuck into our lives today.

You can download these and other messages from our church here.

Pastorpreneur

I love this term – Pastorpreneur (Pastor/Entrepeneur). It describes the kind of leaders we need in the church today. Saw it first in Dave Brownings book Deliberate Simplictiy. Here is how Browning describes the pastorpreneur:

• a kingdom-minded leader who has a heart for people and the ingenuity to reach them.
• so concerned about reaching lost people that they will launch a new ministry endeavor to save them.
• self-inspired and self-directed to fulfill God’s calling on his or her life.
• comfortable being a trendsetter rather than a replicator.

Asking God to raise up more pastorpreneurs.