” Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ”

2 Corinthians 4:1-2

Share life.

Our home is a vital part of our ministry.  Students meet here for bible study, to eat, movies, games, food, to hang out, snack, etc.  And also to watch our family and be a part of our family.  We want them to see how real life works around our place and teach them about how real life works.  And how we walk through real life with God.

This means our door is open.  This also means we can go through a lot of food.  And it is food well spent when we can share stories, have relationships that are more than superficial or event related, pray together, let students see what we are like at home, talk about how God is working and involved at present, answer questions, laugh.

This is discipleship beyond content and our hope is that it helps all be ready for living their entire lives in light of eternity and God’s purposes, helps many know God personally, helps some become healthy.  It means we are transparent and vulnerable and open for inspection and correction.  Changing the world through God-honoring relationships.

This also means our schedules look a little different.  Its not 9 to 5 and then home.  Our ministry is our life.  We don’t have many early morning meetings with students (at least at CU), we often tell students to lock up when they leave, we never know who may be around for supper, Our ministry is our life. Our life is our ministry.  In fact, many of the things students said they remember learning from us happened in the midst of mundane, unplanned times - not a planned meeting.  So every conversation and comment counts and maybe some of the most teachable moments are those we haven’t scheduled.

I will look at evangelism and discipleship in the next post of What We Do.

Changing the World through God-honoring relationships

We do this first by helping students have a growing, intimate relationship with God.  For some this means entering a relationship with God  for the first time by hearing the Gospel and receiving Christ. For others it means understanding for the first time what this relationship entails and taking it seriously.  And for others it is simply coming along side them and walking with them in the god-ward way they are already moving.

And for all we want to help solidify a foundation of connecting to Christ and looking more and more like Him that they can build on for the rest of their lives.

We also fulfill the objective by helping them know how to be in relationships that honor God.  To be a blessing, to initiate, to practice a holy curiosity,  to clear up relationships, to forgive and ask forgiveness, to serve, to do well in school - these are just some of the areas in which we mentor students.

And then changing the world.  As we practice God-honoring relationships in the places where God has us, people are changed.  But the scope of our vision goes beyond just our present location. We give students a vision for the people’s of the world.  Some can only be informed and pray, while others are able to spend a summer or semester in another country.

This is just a brief glimpse at our overall vision.  In following posts I will describe what this looks like more specifically.

Derek:

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
• The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoffer
• The Complete Book of Discipleship by Bill Hull
• The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth
• Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Julee:

•  A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers
• So Long Insecurity by Beth Moore

Caleb:

•  Generous Justice by Timothy Keller

Josh:

• Shadow of the Almighty by Elizabeth Elliot

Kylee:

•  An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers

Zach:

• Every Ranger’s Apprentice book by John Flanagan over and over

Hudson:

• The Pearls of Lutra by Brain Jacques

Happy reading everyone!

Zech. 14:⁹ The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

Now this is a statement of fact that everyone will acknowledge, now or later.  As I was thinking on this a song came to mind.  I have put it below, not so much for the video as for the music.  Isn’t this good?  and Aren’t you Glad!!  Enjoy

Here are the lyrics

In the first light of a new day
No one knew He had arrived
Things continued as they had been
While a newborn softly cried

But the heavens rapt’ in wonder
Knew the meaning of His birth
In the weakness of a baby
They knew God had come to earth

As His mother held Him closely
It was hard to understand
That her baby not yet speaking
Was the Word of God to man

He would tell them of His Kingdom
But their hearts would not believe
They would hate Him and in anger
They would nail Him to a Tree

But the sadness would be broken
As the Song of Life arose
And the Firstborn of Creation
Would ascend and take His Throne

He had left it to redeem us
But before His life began
He knew He’d come back
Not as a baby but as The Lord of every man

Hear the Angels as they’re singing
On the morning of His birth
But how much greater will their song be
When He comes again, when He comes again

Hear the Angels as they’re singing
On the morning of His birth
But how much greater will their song be
When He comes again to Earth

When He comes, When He comes
When He comes to rule the earth

When He comes back
When He comes back
To Rule the earth

Hudson was reading verse 24, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb…” but then  his eyes dropped to the second half of the next verse “but its end is the way of death.”

“Uh dad, this doesn’t sound right…OOOHHHHHH!”

We had a great laugh over that one.  It sure is fun to be reading the Bible with my kids and laughing.  And then talking through how they make sense for daily life.

What is a Habitude you may ask?  That is a good question. Habitudes are images that form leadership habits and attitudes which have been developed by Tim Elmore.  You can check them out here.

Dr. Elmore developed an edition for sports teams which is being used around the nation.  I was able to attend a certification conference and now have an opportunity to present these to Josh’s wrestling team.  The coach is all for it and has embraced it.

This has been a great chance to be around the players and coaches and parents.  Pray for opportunities to move them closer to Jesus.  Just the other day a mom shared some hard things concerning her son with me - and we had just met.  So it seems as if God is using me as a sort of unofficial chaplain.

Pray each Monday you remember.  That is the day each week the team spends time talking about a Habitude and how it applies to them.

This would be one of those times that knowing God’s Word is full of hidden treasures would keep you going and striking new treasure.  For there is a gem hidden when you have finally dug down to verse 35 (really! the last verse) and read the last phrase. (or if you are like me some you may skip to the end quickly).

 ³⁵“The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The LORD is there.’”

Now to chew on this (or meditate, or marinate as a good friend says) is richly rewarding.  I want to be where the Lord is.  To be in His presence.  I want this to be true of my family.  I want this to be true of CU.

Spurgeon has a great sermon on this verse

I know that there is a company who can truly say that they feel only happy when they are conscious that God is with them. The place where they meet with the Lord is very dear and precious to them, because of his unveilings. The memory of holy convocations is sweet, because the Lord was among them. They would not care to go where God is not. If there were a place forsaken of God, however gay and full of merriment men might think it, they would not be found among its guests. Where we cannot enjoy God’s company we will not go. Our motto is: “With God, anywhere. Without God, nowhere.”

You can read the whole thing (which is long and is like digging again, but really great; even the letter at the end) here.

1 Chron. 10¹³ Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, ¹⁴ and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

We just read about how the Philistine archers wounded Saul and he, out of fear that they would find him and harm him more, killed himself.  Yet this tells us that the Lord put him to death for being unfaithful and looking for guidance from spiritists instead of Him.  So is it Saul or the Lord.  Yes!?! 

God is eminently sovereign. Conspicuously and prominently.  Transcendently.  The choices of people fit with what He desires.  Saul decided to kill himself of his own will.  Yet this was in the middle of God’s will as well.

Would Saul have died if he had been faithful and sought God’s guidance?  Hard to say.  It seems it was David’s time to rise to the throne, so God’s will was being done in this as well.  Did Saul really have a choice in the matter?  Yes he did.  Or was he just a unwitting pawn in God’s grand chess match?  No.  Was he robotically moving to the divine decrees made before time began?   No

Being image bearers of God necessitates that we have choice in matters of our life.  We can decide to be faithful to God, to inquire of Him, to love Him, to obey Him, to honor Him, to disobey Him, to choose another way opposed to Him, to enjoy Him.  Much of the Bible wouldn’t even make sense if this were not true. (John 3:18-20, 36; Ex. 19:5; Lev. 18:4-5; Deut. 6:1-9, 32:46-47; and so on).  For the Bible to command us and use verbs that are our responsibility and yet really mean that God is controlling us and that we have no choice to believe in Him or not is an evil idea. 

Yet at the same time God is directing things as He purposes.  So we must live with two seemingly contradictory truths and not worry about trying to reconcile them.   That would be God’s domain.  Or as Spurgeon said like trying to reconcile friends.  We must choose to strive to obey, to be willing participants in Christ’s transforming work, to yield to the Spirit, to proclaim Him, to deny self and use our freedom to serve one another in love, to pray, to take delight in the Lord, to resist temptation, to resist the devil, to submit to God, to not slander, to make the most of our time, to be faithful, to inquire of the Lord.

Let me know where your thinking goes.

He is in very stable condition now, but in much pain (as you can imagine).  They are slowly moving him between a chair and the bed.  He will have to wear a back brace for 3 months.  His parents are also with him.  In the next few days he will make a decision between remaining in school or withdrawing for the semester.

Andrew is a delightful young man and we always enjoy when he is around.  You can also pray as his friends in the dorm have taken this pretty hard and many may be open to some good conversations.