Easter Week

I sit here tonight Asian style, praying. It's pretty terrific really.

I'm praying through life. I'm praying through upcoming trips, I'm praying through where God is leading me. I'm asking for grace for new deep wounds, and for healing to come again.

And then I I'm just praying. Just sitting with God.

This week is the week we celebrate the wonder of what our Maker has done for us. I could write a book about it if I had the time.

This week, 2000 years ago, Jesus, the pure and perfect one died. But He did not stay dead. He CAME BACK TO LIFE! And He lives today!

This is the reason I sit with God. Because the wonder of the beauty of what Jesus has done for me has come back tonight.

I read 1 Corthians this morning. This stood out "All God's promises are 'yes' in Christ..."

The reason this verse can be is because Jesus loved me enough to make me holy. He died for me.

That is the most beautiful thing. My Savior loving me so much He died for me. Him taking my punishment so justice could be satisfied and I could be free.

Beautiful.

Thank you Jesus.

The Great Beach Reach

Results. It’s something that I looked for when I was reading over my journals for Beach Reach. I can’t say that I found what I was looking for. But when I stopped looking I found so much more. It’s kinda crazy how that oxymoron works.
I found that my perspective of beauty had changed. I found that I want to love the unlovable, because I learned how to stop “me” love and start letting Him love. I found that God gives potential to every person; my job is to find it, and see them with His eyes. I realized all the more how just my God is along with His love and mercy.

I read the prayers that showed how He had broken my heart. I thought back over how what I had seen before had become so much clearer to me. I saw more about how sovereign my God is. I cried for the innocent and defiled. I learned how to pray differently. I felt how much I had been hurt my own people, and how God used that hurt to bring a desire for healing.
When I went to Beach Reach I desired a new heart. I came home with just that. So in a way I did get a result. But putting all that God did—through van rides, beach sharing, pancake breakfasts and beach clean up, into the word result would be a gross understatement.

My friends, the Great I AM gave miracles, he reached out through His beloveds to touch the lives of the hurting, Trent, Edward, Sean, and Amy. Then He used them to touch my life

Like every other trip I’ve been on I walk away from this one different. I do walk away with a new heart for the innocent; I do walk away with new eyes for the unlovable. I am filled with courage to create change and waves. But no matter how much I have changed, I can still change some more. No matter how much I have shared Jesus love, I can still learn to share it more.

Beach Reach was a gift. It was painful. It was miraculous. It was beautiful. I’m thankful for the adventure. I’m thankful God wouldn’t let me get away with staying home. Because He did it—He broke my heart for what breaks His.

This is beauty.

Six hundred people total. Fifty young people crying out for this island. Thirty vans picking up anyone who needs a safe ride. Being gathered together in His name.
Beauty is loving the unlovable, caring when no one else does, staying up until all hours of the night picking up trash off a beach when few might notice. Beauty is sun burnt faces, hurting feet and broken hearts all because others need Truth.
Beauty is the indescribable, boundless love of Jesus Christ.

This is an adventure

I love adventure. I don't think that's a hard thing to figure out, I mean I moved overseas at 18. You kinda have to love adventure to do that. I blame my dad, he was the one who raised me like this anyway. He wanted me to be a seeker of Christ, and he wanted me to desire to bring people into the Kingdom of Heaven. Nothing really thrills me more than to be able to travel and see new things. I love meeting new people, and seeing more of the heart of Christ.

But there is something I don't like. I don't like not knowing what to expect. And basically that means I don't like to have to walk completely by faith. In two days I will be taking off on another trip. One that will have to be lived completely on faith. Yes, I have been given a run down on what will happen, I have been meeting to practice what I need to know. But I've never done anything like this--so it's scary. It's like I am starring in to a vast black tunnel and there is no light in sight. So I want to cover my eyes and just pretend that I'm in control...

Beach Reach. It's the name of a spring break ministry for South Padura Island. And in two days I will be climbing in a van and taking off to serve on this mission trip. I've heard about it, I've prayed for people who have gone on this trip before. But still, I've never done anything like this before, so I [and all my experience] don't know what to expect.

When I was in Manila, I met this little guy. He's an orphan. Hopefully he will soon be up for adoption. He was a kid who was full of life, 3 years old, but convinced that he is 15. He would act all macho, run across the room and slide on his knees to a stop in front of anyone he could impress. He would stand with his shoulders back and march like a soldier, then he would suddenly run and hang on to a black pole for dear life. He loves to cuddle, and give hugs, but it takes a little work to get him to give the first one. He reminds me of me.

It's easy to think I have it all figured out. I am a well traveled person after all. But I think that so many times God gives gifts of not knowing, or gifts of being scared to remind me that He alone is in control. My little friend in Manila is so brave when things are going his way, but really the place he loves the most is be loved on by someone who is willing to take over and lead him. I need to be that way for Beach Reach. I love it when I'm in control, but I want to love it more when I'm not in control. Because it would me I'm being cuddled close to my Jesus heart, and I don't have to do stunning moves to impress anyone.

It just takes faith to love, faith to see, faith to know God more. So my friends I'm asking for prayer. Please pray for me and my team as we head off, pray that I will have eyes to see. Pray that God will give me His heart. Pray that I will know how to love and follow the Spirt's leading. Pray that the God who is the Great I AM will come and make Himself real to these people. Pray for safety, pray for health. It's going to be a insane week. But I'm excited for the results. They will be worth it, no matter the adventure it will take to get to them.

'That Theory' part 1/2

I’ve been thinking this morning about that theory I mentioned a few posts back. Well, it’s not one of those theories that can be put into a paragraph; its better title would be ‘ramblings of my heart.’

And as I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve done something that I think every Christian has done—put myself in Jesus’ parables. I like to retell the story and add details that I think would have been there on the day it took place like suspense just because I know what the end of the story is (the good guy wins). Yes, I know I have an overactive imagination, but hang in there with me, I want to share with you the way the Parable of the Good Samaritan played out in my mind. [based on Luke 10:25-37]

Hello! I’m just a normal everyday Jewish man living in the city of Jerusalem. Really, there is nothing that special about me, I work, love my family, attend synagogue, and try to follow the law and serve Jehovah God. This is just a story of one of the days in my life out of many, but one that I think you would like to hear about.

One day, early in the morning, business required me to go to Jericho; it’s not far, but a quite treacherous journey really. So I did all that must be done in the morning, from scooting my boys off to school to praying and kissing my wife. I then packed my bags, and being the forgetful me, couldn’t find my walking sandals, so I scurried around the house looking for them. Of course by then, you can imagine I’m much later than I intended, so after stopping to talk to just a few friends on my way out the gate, I was off at a canter for Jericho.

It was an uneventful trip, really, I kept an eye out for robbers, but none were around. Until, suddenly something eventful did happen. You see I was walking along when my senses came to high alert. I started looking around, slowly creeping by each rock so nothing would jump out at me. The bend in the road became my worst enemy. Fear had my pulse racing! I rounded the bend, and saw them. Buzzards. They were flying circles, and inching up to something that was lying on the side of the road. I came close and saw it was a man. Beaten, robbed and left for dead. At that moment, as the smell overwhelmed me, I covered my face, moved over as far as I could and walked right on by…..

And that was when my mind came to a screeching halt. Wait! Hold it! I know how this story ends!

I wanted to be the Samaritan. I wanted to be the one who Jesus wanted me to be. I wanted to make myself feel good. But I was the Levite. I passed by the needy, the hurting, and the lost.

So today, the deep pondering of my heart is this: What if I’m so busy trying to dissect Jesus’ teaching and figure out how to make it work in my life today that I’m missing out on what He is really saying. What if I’m “doing good” simply because I’m “not doing bad” and I’m not even recognizing that there is a desperate cry from the darkness for me—us followers of Jesus Christ—to rescue them.

I do want to make it clear that I’m not beating myself up. Soon, when I work up my courage, I’ll share what it is that I have been passing by. But, like my good friend and mentor, Christina, said, “Deep pondering is often painful, but always necessary.”