4/20...

Yesterday was 4/20. This day is known for different things around the world. Hitler's birthday- a once wildly celebrated "holiday" in German culture- now one synonymous with evil (read this article- great Op Ed- concerning Hitler and a now German Theological Hero- Dietrich Bonhoeffer). The 1999 Columbine School shootings happened on 4/20. 4/20 is also National Weed Day. Yesterday Bethany subbed at the Jr High and a lot of kids were wearing green. Bethany jokingly asked if they had moved St Patricks day or something- the 12-14 year olds in her class giggled and one told her- "no miss, it's national weed day." So proud Jr High Students are wearing green to support this day. 4/20 for me marks my brother in-law's birthday- Happy Birthday Will!

But 4/20 this year marked our church's Tennebrae service- this service of shadows- where we walk through the Passion narrative scripturally- walking to the cross- from Jesus' last supper with his friends- in which we participate in taking the Communion Elements- for me a shockingly realistic experience this year- thinking about this being the last meal with a friend before he was to die. We read through the Garden of Gethsemane account, the denial, the trial, and throughout we sang hymns about the reality of this week in the life of Christ.  I was given the responsibility to read the John 19 account about the cross- the mocking, his crucifixion, his death, and finally his being placed into a tomb in a garden. It was a spiritual experience for me to hear for probably at least the 200th time- the Easter story.

But 4/20 & the Tennebrae experience was much different for Bethany last night. Last night Bethany sat with one of our High School students who just recently accepted Christ. And although this freshmen in high school girl has placed her faith in Christ as her Lord and Savior- last night was the first time she heard in detail the Easter story- she had no reference for why we took the Lord's Supper till last night, she was shocked to hear one of Jesus' own disciples took a sword out and tried to kill somebody, she sat with amazement to hear how brutal the cross was and what Jesus went through on her behalf. Most of our teenagers sat and giggled through the service "for old people." But this particular student sat with jaw open in amazement at what her new found Savior had done for HER.

How numb we have come to the story of Christ- his sacrifice and his love for us. I pray that we look on the Easter story this Sunday with the eyes of one hearing it for the first time- again. The Gospel is great news- whether you've heard it for the first time or the 1000th.

"In the gospel we discover that we are far more wicked than we ever dared believe, yet more loved than we ever dared hope." (Timothy Keller)

It was for Freedom...

This week, as I was studying for a sermon I'm preaching on Sunday night over Galatians 5, I was considering the imagery that Paul uses in Galatians of being a SLAVE to the Law. Thats a pretty radical analogy- a pretty harsh metaphor. And so as I was preparing to speak on this passage I was doing some research in order to illustrate a few different stories of slavery- trying to bring this imagery to the forefront of our minds- without just glazing over the metaphor as this distant concept- but one that is abusive & degrading.

I started with a story of an African slave who remembers being kidnapped from his village, thrown on a boat and sold into slavery in a distant land he had never heard of and will tell his story, and then to think his story is one of over what 10 million stories just like his. And although this is shocking & we cringe at the reality that people could have done that to other people- we look at it as a dark cloud on our country's history and treat it as a distant past mistake that we could not be making in our modern day society.

But then as I continued to do research I ran across some shocking truths of modern day slavery. Experts estimate that there are currently 27 million people enslaved worldwide- 80% of which are women and children sold into not just manual labor type slavery but into sex slavery.

I ran across this video- I won't show this in my sermon Sunday- but we should be aware of this- and we as the church should do something about it. Because "It was for freedom that Christ set us free..."

You can visit their website at love146.org

love protects. love defends. love restores. love empowers.

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

On Wednesday nights in our Student Ministry we are doing a series called DUST- focusing on the saying "May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi, Jesus" - the idea that we follow our rabbi so closely that we are covered in his dust- that we don't just know what he knows, or do what he does, but that we become like Him. And so we are looking at the ways Jesus taught His disciples to follow Him- these core spiritual disciplines and this week we focused on prayer. The obvious text was from Matthew 6- the Lord's prayer- but I didn't want this to be overlooked by our students as a "religious prayer"- something that has become meaningless because we have said these words so often- so I taught line by line through the prayer and then had them "practice" each line of the prayer by writing out a prayer at 6 different stations and doing some physical act that represented that

We took some pics from each station that I thought I'd share.

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be thy name,

(here we had students write a prayer of praise on a sticky note and pray it as they put it on the wall)

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

(here students write a prayer for God's will in their life and prayed like they were at the Wailing Wall, wrote a prayer & stuck it in the crack of the "wall"- some pretty awesome prayers written here)

Give us this day our daily bread

(here students wrote a prayer for their needs- and took a piece of BREAD as a sign of God providing for their needs)

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

(here students wrote a prayer for forgiveness and nailed it to the cross)

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

(here students wrote a prayer of where they are tempted & then burned the paper with a candle to symbolize God getting rid of that temptation. This station won the award for most dangerous station)

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. AMEN

(We finished the circuit where we started with a prayer of Praise:God we praise you because..)

 It was a pretty great night. I couldn't tell whether the teenagers took it seriously or not- it takes a long time to get 50 Junior Highers and 90 High Schoolers through 6 stations- but in reading some of the things they prayed- our students MET with God that night, and that's exciting.

May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi, Jesus.. as we pray like he taught us to pray.

Pluralism? Religion? Salvation?

Aren't all religions the same?
Don't all paths lead to the same god?
All world religions claim to have heard from God, so aren't they all the same in the end?
If we are sincere about our faith (in whatever religion) won't God reward that commitment and effort?

Or

Is there a specific world religion that saves?
Is it only Islam? Is it only Confucionism? Is it only Christianity?
And how do we know which one is right?

Paul addresses RELIGION and PLURALISM thinking in Galatians. It wasn't a book written only for people 2000 years ago, but written even for the modern (and post-modern) man to answer these type questions.

I recently addressed these issues in a sermon on Sunday night entitled RELIGION SAVES? (audio can be found here). I would love your feedback as we continue this conversation in our world.

Religion Saves & 3 Other Misconceptions of the Church

So most of you know, I'm a young pastor. I've been in ministry for almost 2 years now at First Baptist Church in Kaufman, TX. And I am loving what I am doing. Telling teenagers about the love of Christ- what a great job! There has been a lot of ministry firsts for me in Kaufman- First time leading a mission trip, First time coordinating adult volunteers, Its in this church that I preached my first Sunday night sermon, and since I guess I didn't screw it up too bad, they let me preach on a Sunday morning eventually- my first Sunday morning sermon- ever. This past Sunday was another first- the first Sermon Series. Last Sunday morning I preached a sermon entitled "Religion Saves and 3 Other Misconceptions of the Church" (Audio of the Sermon can be found here) as the start to a Sunday night sermon series covering the book of Galatians.

I have really enjoyed studying the scriptures in depth and having the opportunity to teach through them with a church that is so kind and gracious to put up with this 25 year old learning what he's doing. Looking forward to the weeks to come. You can join in praying for me as I preach this series over the next few weeks.

Wherever God guides, He provides

Bethany recently left her job in Dallas in February feeling very much called to be in Kaufman, to do ministry here and to love on our community. She felt like her effectiveness in reaching students & the lost in Kaufman was being hindered by her job in Dallas & the toll the commute took on her each day was wearing her down physically and spiritually. So we planned and budgeted and determined if this is where God wants her, then He will provide. In quitting her job, we had figured she would start substitute teaching and then work towards securing a job teaching full time in the fall. The same week Bethany put in her notice at Northwestern Mutual, my assistant Kim put in her notice at our church- this opening in the same week provided a part time position for Bethany to jump into while she substitutes in the schools the other days of the week- This allows her to be in Kaufman, to be in the schools, and to do ministry (exactly what she felt God was calling her to do). God called, and God provided.

Due to the Education budget crisis in Texas, Kaufman's first and second year teachers recently received notice that they may not have their contracts renewed for next year. This means Bethany's chances of getting a job in the school district for next year are even more slim than we thought when she left her job in Dallas. Bethany has been in full confidence that God has called her to be in Kaufman and God will provide. I trust God and I trust my wife, but I've kept saying "I just want to be wise with what God has given us," and, I have worried about the Fall semester coming and going without a full-time job for Bethany.

Over the last several days God has been hitting me over the head with two subjects: God's grace is sufficient and God provides. In my personal time of studying the Bible I am reading Galatians- all about Grace, and 2 Kings- God continuing to provide for His people (see 2 Kings 4,6 & 7). There is no doubt in my mind that God has me in these places in scripture to teach me these lessons specifically for this time in history.

This is not to say that I think Bethany will for sure have a teaching job in the fall, because I don't know that that will happen, but rather I am confident that God's grace is sufficient and God will provide even if she doesn't. God has called us to be in Kaufman, and God's grace & provision is enough.

So I trust God, I trust my wife, God's grace is sufficient & He provides.

18 Pages

The Apostle Paul took 200 words and conveyed a life-changing, revolutionary message to the Gentile believers in Ephesians 2:11-22. On the heels of one of the most memorized passages about our salvation in Christ, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God..." (Ephesians 2:8), Paul goes into an amazing argument about where we were before Christ, what Christ did and the ramifications of his saving grace.

In my studies at Dallas Seminary I am currently taking NT104, otherwise known as Greek 4, other-otherwise known as "a beatdown," and our most recent assignment was a 20 page exegetical assignment dissecting and breaking down Ephesians 2:11-22. My paper is currently 18 pages and almost 8500 words. It took Paul 200 words to convey a life-changing message and it has taken me 8500 words to dissect it.

One of the things I remember from High School biology is that sometimes when we dissect things (frogs for instance)- it gets messy, and because we've cut things open we damage the body, maybe even forget some of the parts that we just cut, and usually someone in the class is more excited about cutting things open then actually learning something from the assignment. I've spent up to 40 hours on this assignment over the last month and feel kind of like I've dissected a frog- its messy and at times I've kind of forgotten the point of it. I talk to people in my class who are so excited about it and argue with each other over the proper interpretation of this participle or over that clause in heated debate. But what I haven't heard much of is: HOW is this life-changing? HOW do we APPLY this to our lives? I don't think Paul wrote it so we'd dissect it, he wrote it to be applied and put to use.

This passage is life-changing and eye-opening, not a frog to be dissected. I am in awe of the clarity and brevity in which Paul was able to communicate some deep issues in only 200 words. So from 18 pages to some quick life-changing applications:

- Jesus didn't just come to die for YOUR sins so YOU could go to heaven- Jesus came so that he could renew relationships both vertically (between God and humanity) and horizontally (amongst men).
- Jesus' death on the cross purchased not just our freedom but unity & peace among all people. If you are living in disunity over racial or cultural differences- you are living in opposition to what Jesus died for.
- Jesus is our peace, Jesus is our peacemaker & Jesus preached peace-   Therefore we should be peaceful amidst a violent and troublesome world, we should be peacemakers in personal and corporate conflict, and we should preach peace in all circumstances. 
- And in the end- we serve a God who dwells amongst us in the Spirit- not a high and lofty disconnected God, and not a God who is confined to a temple built by human hands- but a God humbled himself to die on the cross, and God who through the Spirit, now indwells those who have placed their faith in Christ.