Newsletter - February 2013

Newsletter - November 2012

Newsletter - August 2012

From Honduras!

Well friends, I am officially in Honduras.  I wasted no time getting to work.  I spent my first day deconstructing a church (which, fyi, was not what I expected to be doing on my first day, but it's a long story), and I spend my second day surveying and laying out foundations for a pavilion which will be built in the coming weeks.  

I wanted to let you know that my blog will kind of be changing directions.  I will be using this space to post updates from my time in Honduras, to post newsletters, to ask for prayer, and to tell stories of how I see God working here.  In the coming days, I plan on posting each of my first three newsletters that I sent out.  In case you aren't signed up to receive my quarterly newsletters, or for some reason didn't get one and were supposed to, you'll now be able to read them!  

Disfruten, amigos!

"The grave that held you will master you no more.  The Lord will not see in you a fiend or a whore, and you will be a son, a daughter.  Wake up, O sleeper, and Christ will shine on you.  Rise from the dead and His light will shine upon you.  There is hope, so sing"

The Watchman

I have sort of delayed writing this post for a while.  I am moving to Honduras in two days, what do I say?  This is a moment that I have prayed about and waited on for three and a half years; so what do you say when three and a half years of waiting and preparing is two days away?  I have asked for your prayers and support and you have faithfully offered it, but before I leave, I will ask one more thing of you...

A friend of mine recently turned me on to Ezekiel 33, the Watchman.  In this passage, Ezekiel is commissioned by God to be the watchman of Israel.  A watchman's duty is exactly that, to watch and alert.  If a people appoint a watchman, he is to alert the people of coming danger.  If anyone hears the alert, but does not heed the warning and he is killed, his blood is on his own hands.  But if the watchman does not alert the people of coming danger and they are killed, then their blood is on the hands of the watchman. 

Well, that makes sense.  If the watchman doesn't do his job and people die, it's his fault.  Simple enough. 

There is more to this though.  Why have a watchman? Is there an enemy attacking? What is he warning the people of?  What is out there that's so dangerous that will destroy the people, but that they are blind to? 

This watchman isn't there to warn the people of a foreign attacker.  He isn't even there to warn people of their sin.  He is there to warn people of the wrath of God, a wrath, which, if goes unsatisfied, will lead to eternal damnation.  This doesn't sound like good news.  This doesn't sound very warm and fuzzy.  This sounds harsh, and unloving, and evil.  God can be accused of none of this however, because he gave his son to appease his wrath and he appointed us all as watchmen to alert the unrepentant of the coming destruction.

We must tell them.

We are not bad.  We are dead. 

We are not sick and in need of medicine.  We are dead and in need of a miracle.

We are all dead.  Hondurans.  Americans.  Those in the 1st century.  Those in the 21st. 

This truth--we are dead--is the reason for the gospel.  It is the reason for Christ.  We can't leave this out.  We can't overlook the wrath of God for the love of God.  Without wrath, there is no love.  Without love, there is no wrath.  They are inseparable.  They are equal parts of God's character.  To share the gospel and leave out the wrath of God is to be a watchman and report sunny skies on the horizon even when you can see the attacking army.  The gospel minus the wrath of God is not the gospel--it is no gospel.

So why all this talk about the wrath and the watchman?  What does this have to do with me moving to Honduras? 

Well, quite simply, I'm going to be a watchman.  There are people in Honduras who are dead.  They need to hear the good news that although they are headed down a path that leads to eternal destruction, their debt has been paid.  I may be going to do this in Honduras, but in reality, you and I will be doing the same thing.  It doesn't matter where you call home, or work, or play, if you claim Christ, you too are a watchman.  You are responsible for the eternal state of the souls of those around you.  Right around you, wherever you are, people need to hear this news.  When you approach life this way, suddenly, the location becomes less important.  The amenities and comforts seem arbitrary.  The only thing that matters are the souls around you.  It doesn't really matter if the souls around you live in the suburbs or the slums.  It doesn't matter if the souls around you have showered today.  You see, rich or poor or clean or dirty, there all dead.  That is why my "mission" this year is no more important than yours.  God has given us the same task each and every day: to alert those around us of impending wrath as a result of their wickedness. 

I covet your support of me this year.  I will ask you to pray for me.  I will ask you to pray for the Hondurans.  However, the main thing I ask of you, is that you do not fail in your duties as a watchman because, after all, if you claim to be a follower of Christ, you are one.

The only question is:

Will you sound the alarm?

The Thing That Won't Change You

As I type this, Passion Conference 2013 is exploding in Atlanta, GA unlike it ever has before.  I attended Passion 2010, 2011, and 2012, and I am eternally grateful for the truths I learned during my times there.  Louie Giglio and the Passion team truly do a great job of, first and foremost, preaching the name of Jesus and his renown above the "Passion" name or the "Louie" name or the "Chris Tomlin" name or any other speaker/band/movement.

As much as I learned and grew in Christ at the three Passion conferences that I did attend, I think that I am learning just as much by not attending this one.  Here's why:

If you're anything like me, you're impatient.  Fast food sometimes isn't fast enough.  High-speed internet sometimes isn't "high-speed" enough.  Urgent care takes all day.  Traffic jams are headache inducers.  In my world of "now," I find that sometimes I want my share of Jesus "now."  Sometimes, I don't want to sweat and struggle and pray for hours on my knees only to have God not answer my prayer the way I want him to.  Sometimes, I don't want to spend hours and hours studying scripture when the TV is calling my name.  Sometimes, I don't want to be obedient to Christ when it's much easier not to be.  

But here's the think about instantcy: it fleets.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

No pressure, no diamonds.

You pick the cliche; the point is all the same.  For the most part, things that come quickly are usually less permanent/durable/quality than those that take time to develop.  My walk with Christ is the same way.  My nature wants it to come easily and quickly and painlessly.  My nature wants to be at Passion because I can get an enormous dose of Jesus.  My nature wants to be on high for Jesus, because  a high feels so good.  After all, what could be better than instant satisfaction that feels permanent and immortal?  (For the record, I'm speaking about a spiritual high.  I have no experience with any other kind of high!)

But remember the thing about instancy?  It fleets.  It is neither permanent nor immortal.  Instant satisfaction turns out to be deception.  Permanent turns into temporary.  Immortal turns out to be very, very susceptible   

By not being at Passion right now, I can see how differently I am approaching Christ.  Instead of running to a fire hydrant of Jesus, I am steadily growing closer him little by little, day by day.  I have to learn to grow in Christ painstakingly because there won't always be a Passion to go to.  There won't always be a podcast to listen to or a book to read.  Sometimes, all I will have are my bible and my Savior.  If those two things aren't enough for me when they are all I have, then all the Passions in the world can't help me.  

This is where I want to be careful.  I do not want it to seem like I am saying that God can't change a
person through a conference like Passion.  I have seen in my own life, and the lives of others, tangible change as a result of Passion and conferences similar.  I will definitively say, however, that if you leave Passion with nothing but emotions, by the end of the month, you will revert to the pre-Passion version of yourself.  That is to say, if all you take away from Passion are some one-line quotes from Francis Chan, a heart full of emotion, a picture with your community group, and a digital all-access pass, then you will not change.  All the preaching, all the music from the best worship bands, all the lights, and all the fog in the world is not enough to change your stony heart.  Only Jesus can change your stony heart.  Jesus will be preached at Passion.  You only have to make sure that you're following him, and not your fleeting emotions.  If you are blessed enough to have attended Passion this year, please don't waste what God is trying to do in you by letting your emotions convince you that there is no work involved.  If God is doing a work through you, it won't be completed at Passion.  In fact, it won't be completed until "the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).  Don't let your emotions fool you into thinking that it's smooth sailing here on our.  Expect to have to work.  To have to go against the grain.  To probably have to endure some painful or confusing hours in prayer.  There is no such thing as instant faith.  Satan would like nothing more than for you to attend Passion and leave deceived by your own emotions.




Please, don't think for even a second that I have all of this figured out.  I say these things only because I have seen the spiritual high deceive too many people, including myself.   It pains me to see people fired up for Christ, only to find that their intensity was rooted in their own ability to stay high. If you attended Passion 2013, I pray that you will continue to thrive in Christ long after the high has faded.  If you didn't get to attend Passion 2013, don't worry.  You may not be sitting a room with 60,000 people, but the time you spend in prayer and in the Word glorifies the same God being worshiped in the Georgia Dome.  If you have no clue what Passion is, that's perfectly alright, because Passion isn't the point.

Jesus is the point.