Off to Germany...

Tomorrow we leave for Hamburg, Germany. As Student Ministry Pastor at First Baptist Church Kaufman, I am privileged to lead a team of 13 students and 4 adults on a 10 day trip to work with a church in the town of Bad Oldesloe, Germany. We will be visiting schools three days in the week, visiting an orphanage one day and helping pull off an evagelistic Texas Night at the end of the week. I know that most of you reading my blog do so to keep up with Bethany and I and I would tell you that we covet your prayers while we are away.

The goal of our trips to the school will be to do some cultural exchange, let them practice their English with some "real English speakers"-- by "real English" I mean we are bringing some girls with the thickest East Texas twang you've ever heard- that will be fun! But we are hoping through a short presentation & video (link below) about American culture we can talk about somethings that are unique about America in contrast to the German culture- specifically the prevalence of Youth Groups and teenagers seeking a relationship with God in Texas. We will then invite all the students we speak with to a Texas Night at the end of the week where we will serve tacos, two step, dosie-do and then share the gospel message of Christ.

If you know me at all you know that I am a planner and organizer, but with this trip I am forced to rely on the German contacts we have to do a majority of the planning, and must be flexible to do what they have planned, not what I have planned to do. Often I rely on my own strength and my own plan without relying on God's divine will for what's ahead. I know God is teaching me to rely on Him. Just the other day I was reading through Isaiah and came across the passage in chapter 30 where God rebukes Israel for relying on Egypt for their needs and pharaoh for their protection rather than trusting God. It says this
"1 Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;
2 who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge.
...
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
...
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!"

I want to be part of a team that relies on God's will and God's plan, that we would go and be used by God to do exactly what He wants to see accomplished in the city of Bad Oldesloe this week, that we'd love on orphans with the love of Christ, that we'd encourage the youth group and leaders of this church with the truth of God's goodness, and that we'd share the undeniable good news of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and through his resurrection with all those who we encounter, that we'd live love, that we'd serve well and teach well, and that we ourselves would be stretched by God's plan and find strength in trusting in the Lord. 


I pray these things and ask that you'd pray them over us for the next ten days as we do Kingdom work in a foreign land.

The Gospel According to Jim...

Last night Bethany and I drove to Hurst so that Bethany could pick up her brother's car and continue on to Abilene in route to a family road trip to Phoenix (I will be flying out Thursday). But with Bethany away for the night it gave me a chance to hangout with my friend Jim. What started out as an excuse for a man night sitting in front of the TV watching the Mavs game at his apartment turned into one of the most meaningful/gospel conversations I've had in awhile.

Jim is one of my 5 roommates from my Junior & Senior year of college & has always been an encourager and good friend, but last night we just sat and talked Jesus, talked gospel, talked discipleship, talked sin, and talked grace- in a time I really needed it. Ministry is great, but its a challenge, and these last few weeks have been challenging- and Jim encouraged me that what I am doing is right and good and godly despite the challenges and despite those who wish to discourage.


One of the many conversations of the night centered on just the nature of the gospel- that even we as Christians don't fully grasp the magnitude of the gospel message- because until we are desperate to hear from God, until we are desperate for God's grace we don't fully get it- we act like we are okay on our own, we act like we're not sinful- because we compare ourselves to others and say "I'm not half as bad as that guy, so I'm good." No! The Bible would say "no one is good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3) And its not even about degree of goodness its that when we really start to understand God's love, God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice it's that we become more and more aware of how sinful, wretched and evil we are. Romans 7:21-25 would say it this way..."So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.For in my inner being I delight in God's law;but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

For those of us who aren't struggling with a crack addiction or sleeping with anything that can walk- we act like we've got it all together- but our pride, arrogance, and selfishness- the roots of the outward visible sin- is just as wretched and causes just as much separation between us and God. Jim was talking about how the 10 Commandments can really be captured in just the first one: "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME." Because every other sin is in someway worshipping something that is not God-  when we are prideful, arrogant and selfish- we worship ourselves above the true God, and the one who died to save us. When we lust- we worship the creation rather than the creator, when we envy we worship stuff, when we disobey God we worship our wants above God's will. I am sinful and wretched and need God's grace as much as the meth-addict in the slums.

We talked about the nature of youth ministry is getting teenagers to a place that they finally become desperate for God's grace- that often the kids who "have it all" and are "good kids" aren't very good Christ followers, because they aren't desperate for God- they aren't desperate for his grace, they aren't desperate to walk with Jesus. Jim kept saying over and over- "you're job is to preach the gospel and pray that it takes hold in some kids lives, it will for some, it won't for others, you may never see the fruit, but its your job to preach the gospel, over and over and over again, preach the gospel."

So friends, in my ministry when I talk about sin, when we address sexual sin in our youth ministry and we address drunkenness in our youth ministry and pride and selfishness and gossip and disobedience- its not because I like to talk about sin and its not because I want you to be "good"- its because I want us to all come to a place like Paul and say "What a wretched man I am!... but thanks be to God, who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord!" Screw goodness, pursue godliness. But we first have to be desperate- and we become desperate when we acknowledge our wretchedness in comparison to God's holiness.