Thursday, July 23, 2009

Mountains, Hate, and Prayer


Location: Camp outside of Grenoble France, in a little room I found trying to find a quiet corner on July 23, a little before 8:00am.

It will soon be breakfast time, and my work will begin. Often I have to help set up breakfast, but today others are doing it. My day will include washing dishes for all three meals, cleaning bathrooms, any other service chores necessary, laundry, watering flowers, and when I have some free time, joining in the activities with the campers in order that they may have the best camp possible. My day begins when the rooster wakes me up, and only ends when the next day is about to start. There are four of us on the service team, and three of us share the sleeping quarters.

Tucked in the Alps, this camp is beautiful. Build on very old ruins outside of an athletic vacation town, the temperatures are comfortable and the weather varies nicely. The camp facilities are what you would expect from a camp, but with more than adequate space and resources, thanks to a God who provides. I think this camp has been here some thirty or fourty years, maybe longer. You can look out over the mountains, listen to the creek, or enjoy the wind blowing in the trees.

The first day I was here was between camps, and thus pretty much a free day. I took a long hike up a mountainside, and if I remember, I will include a photo of a ruined house or dam I found that had a large tree fallen through it. The staff are mostly young people from the United States, though we also have France and Australia and Canada and maybe some other nations represented. There are around 20 young adults here as campers working on their Engish, and they will be here for another week-and-a-half or so.

I understand that God has done some pretty neat things in this place. I must say I am not surprised, for at least two reasons. One, God is amazing, so He usually wows me! Two, I can tell that He brings big-heared, specially-gifted people to this camp, who He then uses for His glory. I am looking forward to see what He will do in the next month or two!

That said, He and I have been having intimite time together. As you know, it is very hard for me when my personal time and space is constricted, and with two roommates and a long "To Do" list, it certainly is here. But as situations get tougher, I have learned to lean more heavily upon my God, which is resulting in our time together.

It has been a pleasure to watch Him work in the situation with S.'s health, and I praise Him. However, I cannot help but think that He is teaching us more about prayer. How often do we turn to every human solution possible (doctors, pain medication, ice packs, internet research, etc.) before we ever turn to God in prayer? I am striving to go first to God, then respond with everything He gives me. Prayer is a powerful tool in a humble posture, and I have never regretted making it a priority.

I was reading this morning in the Bible's Book of Luke. In Chapter 14, there is a tough passage about what is necessary to follow Christ Jesus. He says that unless you hate your father and mother and wife and children and sister and brother, then we cannot be His disciples. I was pondering that as I read further. He goes on to say that we cannot be His disciples unless we take up our crosses and follow Him. Then He tells an anecdote about calculating resources before a building project or a battle, and He sums it all up by saying that we cannot be His disciples unless we renouce everything. Tacked onto the end is a pithy saying about salt losing its saltiness.

I do not think our God of love wants us to act hatefully toward our families. I do not think He intends for us to drag large wooden perpendiculars through the streets. I do think that He is trying to warn us that whenever we try to mix our faith with our own desires, we are bound to make ourselves miserable and unsuccessful. Like salt, our faith is only useful when it stands out in stark contrast to the things around it. Only when we let God's amazing love for us season our lives so strongly that it encompasses all familial love will we truly be able to love our families. Only when we surrender ourselves with our desires and plans and possessions will we truly be prepared to follow Jesus as He leads us.

Your surrender may not take you to a camp in the French Alps, but I hope it takes you to the foot of the cross where you can let the mercy and love of Jesus Christ wash over you. It is with that love that I am able to wash towers of dishes and loads of laundry and damp showers and oft-used toilets. It is with that love that I write to you, thanking the Lord for having made you to be part of His perfect plan, His good Creation!
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A Rose From Home

A Rose From Home

My Story (As prepared for my church congregation this spring--2009)


I have a story to tell you. I am the main character, but the story is not about me. I have traveled several parts of the world, but my adventure has been closer to home. I am twenty-six years old. My story begins like many of yours…

I grew up going to church. I had been born into a family who labeled themselves “Christian,” in a country that labels itself “Christian.” Every Sunday found me attending a worship service and Sunday school in a mainline denomination church. I served as an acolyte, attended Vacation Bible School, helped my dad count and record the offering money, sang in the youth choir, was a leader in the youth group, and occasionally served as liturgist. Baptized as an infant, I was confirmed at the age of twelve, thus becoming an “official” member of the church. Then, hurt by the church, my family left to find another.

Have you ever been hurt by the Church?

After months of searching, we settled into a very large independent church. Things were different there, and I was quickly welcomed and at home among new friends that truly had a passion for Jesus. The Word of God was taught boldly from the pulpit, and I was introduced to a missions-aware lifestyle. So it was with regret that I said goodbye only a couple of years later to move with my family to another church. I purposely remained aloof, not wanting to make new friendships before I left for college a year later. Besides, I was loosing my faith—or so I thought—and I didn’t want anyone to know. I was asking scary questions like “Is there really a God?” and, if so, “Is He the Christian God?” and “Would I be Christian if I had been born in another part of the world?”

Have you ever asked yourself unsettling questions about what you believe?

So I headed into college under a cloud of confusion that only worsened for the next two years. Though I didn’t know what I believed anymore, I continued to go to church every Sunday, and to help lead worship in chapel. Most importantly, even during this questioning, I continued my morning habit of daily study of the Bible. I had begun at age twelve, reading at first a chapter per day, then ten minutes each morning, then an half-hour, and so on. So, only by the grace of the very God I doubted, I remained anchored in His Word and in His community, though I felt like a fake most of the time. Since then I have learned that “fake” is the worst insult the world can give us; that is why the label of “hypocrite” is so offensive.

Have you ever felt like a fake?

Six weeks with missionaries in South Africa followed by a year in France began to teach me what life with God is all about. I began rebuilding my faith, this time it belonged to me, in contrast to me borrowing the faith of my parents, church, or anyone else. In my parent’s basement in 2003, on either Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, I invited Jesus to live in me; perhaps I had done so before, but I didn’t recall—but since 2003, I have never forgotten that moment. Unfortunately, nothing changed. I continued to do my best to act like a Christian, as I had done for so long.

Have you ever found yourself “doing your best” to be a good person, or to act like a Christian?

Though I did not realize it at the time, I was quenching the Spirit, even though I had welcomed Him into my life. During the next few years, the LORD continued to nurture me, and slowly things began to change. Several tough months in Idaho birthed my prayer-life. I spent three years being humbled in a job that was my informal seminary training. In 2007, a short stint in Mexico helped me to see things as they were, and not long afterward, I was baptized by immersion. No baptism of any kind can save a lost soul—only Jesus can do that. However, this baptism was an important covenant between me and God, symbolizing not only my death and resurrection with Jesus and my public profession of faith, but it also my life change, the beginning of my bearing fruit. “For each tree is known by its own fruit…”according to Luke 6:44. During the past year and a half, the LORD has provided me with an informal pastoral internship in my church, teaching me every aspect of discipleship. Simultaneously, I have been studying unceasing prayer and worship. I am now very different than I was five years ago.

In the Book of Acts (which tells the story of the earliest years of the Church) every time a person decided to follow Christ, two things took place—though not always in the same order. Each person experienced a life change, which I call the “baptism of repentance,” as well as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which I call the “baptism of the Spirit.” Looking back, I realize that the Holy Spirit was living in me in 2003, but it wasn’t until I surrendered everything to God, as represented by my immersion, that I allowed the Spirit to have His way in me and transform my life. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)”

Have you invited Jesus to live in you? Have you allowed the Spirit to transform your life?

I tell you this story for two reasons. First, I tell this story in order to boast in the LORD! May God our Father get all praise and glory forever! Second, I tell this story because it is relevant to you. Likely you have heard that I am leaving the country: I have let my light shine before you; please let your light shine within the Church, too! This congregation is in revival, and as each of you allows the Spirit to revive you, the entire Church will be revived and utterly transformed, to the glory of the Most High God. And for His glory is the reason He created us; the reason He sent His only Son to reveal Himself to us; the reason He became Sin for us and died for us on the cross—while we were still sinners; and the reason that He conquered death and offered us eternal life with Him.

It will cost you a lot—in fact, it will cost you everything, your very life. But if you have never surrendered your life to Christ Jesus, if you have never invited Him to send His Spirit into you and to transform your life, then do it right now. Just let go of everything to which you are desperately clinging; stop trying to do it yourself! This is the very reason you are still breathing in this physical life—God has been delaying His judgment of this sinful world because He is waiting for you—2 Peter 3:9 says He wants none to perish!

If you have already invited the Spirit into your life, then live like it! Bear fruit! Anyone and everyone who meets you or knows you or sees you or hears you should know immediately and clearly that Jesus the Christ lives in you and loves them! That is how stark the contrast should be between your life and the world around you!

Have you immersed yourself in God’s Word and in prayer in the last twenty-four hours?

If you call yourself a follower of Christ, then there is no excuse for not communing with Him daily! Anchor yourself in the Word! God has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Bible is a complete and accurate record of that revelation. And prayer is humbly letting Him love us. Let Him love you! God doesn’t need us, but He wants us! God doesn’t need us to live for Him—He wants to live in and through us! Let us love and fellowship with one another, even when you disagree! Pray for each other—the names in the church directory are a great place to start! Church, we are not only the Body of Christ, but we are the Bride of Christ. We have allowed ourselves to get bedraggled and stained—now let us stand to the glory of God! Let’s let Him purify us, restore us, and love us!

My dear Brothers and Sisters, if you have ever once been blessed by God our Father at work in me, then I urge you, please, take seriously His desire to love and work in you, beyond anything you can ask or imagine! I have told you the beginning of my story—may it end in glory to the Father, in the Name of Jesus, by way of His Spirit.

Now, what is your story?