Engaging God –week 4

Tonight is our final installment of our Engage God series for our youth group. Our congregation has been considering what this means since January, and will continue through the rest of this year.  What a great year it has been at Chisholm Trail, we have began Sunday night small groups and have had on average 80 percent of Sunday morning attendance coming back Sunday nights. Also, in the youth program, I feel like things are clicking well, and we are navigating big change coming up next week that will affect the way we do our Bible Bowl and LTC ministries. What we have is a mindset of event driven youth ministry, I along with some fantastic folks, are trying to change our thinking from event to ministry and relationships. We are excited about the Quest (our name for our Wednesday night ministry training and Family Bible studies — more information to come on this)…

Engaging God @ “out there” week 4

• A couple of observations: Review
• Open Question: tell me what it means to engage something?
  • What then does it mean to engage God?
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of the whole self
    • All your heart, all your soul, and all your mind
    • Not a part-time, Wednesday and Sunday endeavor only
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of selflessness:
    • Loving our neighbors – we will talk more about this in a couple of weeks
    • But for tonight here this: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. In other words, the Bible can be summarized is ENGAGING God fully, and ENGAGING others fully!
  • ENGAGING God is about relationships
  • ENGAGING God is a matter of priorities
• We’ve talked about engaging God at church, at school, and tonight we close this series by talking about engaging God “out there,” outside the church building.
• Turn your Bibles to Matthew 28:16-20,
  • What does this passage say? What is the first thing we are told to do? To Go!
  • If we are to make disciples and teach others about Jesus, we can’t do it if we don’t leave the church building
  • For the most part, lost people aren’t flocking to churches
  • Jesus has called us to go and find them
• Turn to Matthew 25:31-46
  • What happens in this story?
  • I think this story can be summarized by two words:
    • See – notice, the sheep are the one’s who saw a need and they met it
    • Be – they were living out their faith
  • The goats, saw the need, but didn’t really see
    • They ignored an opportunity to serve
  • One final observation: service matters! Where we end up for eternity is determined by how take care, love, and serve the least of these
• Let me be clear, we aren’t saved by our good works
  • Doing good follows becoming a new creation/a follower of Jesus
  • Look at Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
  • Doing good demonstrates whose we are, it is central to our DNA as Christians
    • You remember these words from Matthew 22:36-40, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
• We have 24 hours each day, 24 hours of opportunities to let somebody see Jesus in us, or to be Jesus for someone else
  • Consider 1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
  • Even though this world is not our home, we are still called to reach out to other people. We are called to be examples, and you need to know that people are watching.
  • Are you an “everywhere” kind of person?
    • “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” – 2 Cor. 2:14
• So, what can you do starting right now to engage God “out there?”

Chisholm Trail: Midweek Update

I pray that your week is going well, or at least better than mine. I have a sick Pre-K kid at home. The new school policy is that they have to be at home without fever for 24 hours without medication! And this morning, I woke up with a sore throat, has to write four book review this week and I have exam on Friday. I guess this week is one of those weeks. We all have them, have had them and will probably have them sometime in the future. When life gets a little overwhelming, we need to stop, take a deep breath, pray and refocus our lives on Jesus. I do covet your prayers this week! God is good, and is able to bring rainbows when all we see is rain!

I wanted to remind you or inform you of a couple of things that are up and coming this week and the next:

Sunday, September 27 is our area wide worship in the evening. This will be at Chisholm, there will be a youth devotional following. Tad and I are attempting to reserve a picnic shelter over at Halliburton Park, and would like to invite any of our parents to join us Sunday evening for our devotional time, and fellowship time. We are planning on having the kids bring food and drinks. This will be weather permitting, and I will let you know more tomorrow!

Thursday, October 1 is our next scheduled service project at the Compassion Center from 5pm to 7pm. When we go, besides doing any odd jobs they have for us, we also pray for the patients there. So, if you can, please plan on meeting me at the C.C. at 5pm.

Sunday, October 4 — is Sunday Morning Live for our parents. This year instead of regular Sunday Night Live, we are having a parent seminar for our parents, our church family and our teens. I have invited Dr. Robert Oglesby to come up from ACU, to spend several hours with us, talking about youth culture, spiritual formation, and the important job that parents have! Dr. Oglesby will preach during our worship time, teach an all together Bible class, we will have a pot luck lunch and then we will have one final session with him. Invite your friends, all are welcome for this special day!!

Wednesday, October 7 — The Quest begins…
Join us Wednesday Nights for a night of ministry training, leadership development and a family Bible study. We will be incorporating our LTC ministry and our Bible Bowl preparation into a new endeavor that will provide an opportunity for our parents and kids to be together, to study together in a small group setting, and get involved in ministry together. This is new, and I invite you to come. One of the desires I have is to provide our families a regular weekly devotional guide for further study at home during the week. This will be a great opportunity for you as a family to engage God together. The schedule for each evening will look something like this:

6:30-7:15 will be a ministry training focus, for example, LTC events practcing. Not all ministry events will practice weekly, the kids not doing these particular ministries, will be working on a serving project of some type, writing cards to shut ins, notes of encouragement, washing windshields, and just looking for ways to serve!
7:15-7:25ish I will introduce the 2 Samuel chapters we will be focusing on
7:30-8:00 will be a small group, family Bible study and discussion.

Each week, each family will get a take home study devotional guide to encourage/aid your family in having regular family devotions.

Teens without families will in a small group with Life Guards that will serve as surrogate parents and love on them, and help them discover God through time together in the Word of God.

I hope you have a good rest of the week!

Enagaing God — Part 3

• A couple of observations: Review
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of the whole self
    • All your heart, all your soul, and all your mind
    • Not a part-time, Wednesday and Sunday endeavor only
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of selflessness:
    • Loving our neighbors – we will talk more about this in a couple of weeks
    • But for tonight here this: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. In other words, the Bible can be summarized is ENGAGING God fully, and ENGAGING others fully!
  • ENGAGING God is about relationships
  • ENGAGING God is a matter of priorities

• Did you go to syatp today?
  • A nationwide gathering of students praying for their schools, and for our nation
• Tonight I want to talk about engaging God at school
• First, let me say this: Our relationship with God was never meant to be confined to the church building, or a Sunday and if we are really devout, and a Wednesday night endeavor.
  • If ENGAGING God is a commitment of the whole self, then we understand that who we are outside of the four walls of the church building is IMPORTANT! Maybe, even the most important!!
  • God can’t be put in a box
  • Turn with me to Psalm 139:7-10, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
• Secondly, I believe that God is alive and active and working in the world, and working in and through you
  • God is alive
    • Luke 20:37-38, “³⁷But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
    • 28 times you will find the phrase “the living God” from Deuteronomy through the book of Revelation
      • Jeremiah 10:10a, “But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.
    • What does it mean to you that God is alive?
  • This means that as a Christian when you go to school, you take God there with you
    • Acts 2:38 – through the presence of the Holy Spirit
    • 2 Cor. 3:3, “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
    • Col. 1:27 “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
    • 2 Cor 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
• ENGAGING God at school
  • Be His:
    • Remember who you are and what you are!
    • Romans 12:9-21
    • Let you lights shine at school (Matthew 5:13-14)
  • Pray: (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
    • You can still pray at school
    • You can pray any time, anywhere
  • Bring your Bible to school:
    • This is not illegal
  • Be a servant:
    • Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
    • In other words, be willing to give yourself up, in order to serve others
      • The two questions*:
        • Ask often, what is the best thing I can do for you right now?
        • Ask, is there anything I can be praying for you about?
  • Have new eyes:
    • This world isn’t our home
    • As new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), we have a new way of looking at the world and those around us, through the eyes of Jesus
• Prayer: May we learn to care about what he is concerned about, and to see others the way he sees them!

* idea for the two questions comes from Patrick Mead, I heard him suggest this at the 2009 Tulsa Workshop

Engaging God — part 2

• A couple of observations: Review
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of the whole self
    • All your heart, all your soul, and all your mind
    • Not a part-time, Wednesday and Sunday endeavor only
  • ENGAGING God is a commitment of selflessness:
    • Loving our neighbors – we will talk more about this in a couple of weeks
    • But for tonight here this: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. In other words, the Bible can be summarized is ENGAGING God fully, and ENGAGING others fully!
  • ENGAGING God is about relationships
  • ENGAGING God is a matter of priorities

• Why do you come to church? (this is a tricky question)
  • What is the church? (The people! right?)
• Well, what sets this place that we met Sunday and Wednesdays, from all other places?
  • What we do
  • The stories we share
  • Our beliefs
• How do we engage God when we are here?
  • Through the Bible –
  • Through worship /singing
  • Through the Lord’s Supper
  • Through giving—
  • Through service
• Do you like stories?
  • Your probably like me, and like movies
  • What do movies do? Movies tell a story…
  • Think about the church for a minute, when we are together, what do we do?
    • We share a story – what is this story that we engage week after week?
    • (the story of God – God coming to rescue humanity, restore  us, make us new, and put the world to rights)
      • The center piece of the this unfolding drama is Jesus
        • His incarnation. Crucifixion and his resurrection
    • Everything we do Sunday morning is to point us toward the story
      • We are called to remember
      • Listen, over and over again throughout Scripture, we are reminded to remember the Grand Story, we are told to remember who we are and to remember our place in that story
• The church is the body of Christ –1 Cor. 12:12-14
  • We are those who have engaged this story of Jesus, it is our story
    • 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Romans 6:3-4
    • We have become part of the unfolding drama of God’s work in this world
    • The church is not a building, but its people
• This building that serves to house the church, when she comes together is to a place of hope and healing
  • Luke 19:10, Jesus said that he came to seek and to save the lost
  • What is the goal of Jesus? To find every lost one, then it would mean that after they find Jesus, he wants to them to become part of His church, his body
  • So, the body of Christ is to join this mission of Jesus of looking for the lost, and also taking care of one another
    • Acts 2:42-47; John 13:34-35
    • Matthew 25:31-46,
      • We are called to make a difference in this world

• Engaging God at this place isn’t just about sitting in the pew
  • Christianity isn’t a religion, it is a relationship
  • Following Jesus is supposed to affect every area of our lives
    • I don’t know about you, but there is more to me than my time here on Sunday and Wednesday
  • What if God is more concerned with who we are on Monday, than if we worshiped in the right manner on Sunday?
    • Because if worship correctly on Sunday and then go treat everyone else in our life like dookie on Monday, our worship doesn’t matter any more
      • We are like the Pharisees who Jesus compared to whitewash tombs, and full of dead men’s bones
  • So, how are you doing on Monday through Saturday?

• Engaging God at this place, with these people is journey we take together
  • Jesus invites us all to “follow him,” to take up his cross, and die to ourselves – we do this together
  • We need our brothers and sisters in Christ
  • We are family

Enagaging God part 1

Our theme for the year here at Chisholm Trail, has been Engaging God. Our Sunday worship times and class times have helped us to delve into this topic. In September, I am working on a series gear specifically for our teens. I am gonna post it in three parts:

Here is part one:

• You have heard now for several months, Leonard talking about engaging God.
  • What does it mean to engage something?
    • To interact, to commit, to enter into relationship
  • What does it mean to ENGAGE with God?
    • To interact, to commit, to enter into relationship or go deeper in our commitments and relationships.
• SYATP is coming up on 9.23.09 @7am, at your school flag pole
  • The theme this year is ENGAGE*
  • 2 Kings 22:13a, “Go and pray to God for me and for the people…”
  • Josiah:
    • A young man named Josiah began on the greatest revivals and awakenings in the OT.
    • King at age 8
    • At the age of 16 he began to passionately pursue God
    • Listen to 2 Kings 22:2, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the walls of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”
    • Josiah then begins to clean house, so to speak
      • Tearing down idols, and competing places of worship, purging Israel of the idolatry that had been so prevalent and challenging the nation to rededicate, or to reengage with God
• Over the next several weeks, or till the end of September, I want to talk about ENGAGING God in three different places: school, community, and our church
• Tonight, though, I want to us to FOCUS exclusively on what it means to Engage with God, and what this looks like
• Turn with me if you will to Matthew 22: 34-40
  • These are familiar words, but they speak so clearly to what it means to fully engage with God
  • “ ³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
  • A couple of observations:
    • ENGAGING God is a commitment of the whole self
      • All your heart, all your soul, and all your mind
      • Not a part-time, Wednesday and Sunday endeavor only
    • ENGAGING God is a commitment of selflessness:
      • Loving our neighbors – we will talk more about this in a couple of weeks
      • But for tonight here this: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. In other words, the Bible can be summarized is ENGAGING God fully, and ENGAGING others fully!
    • ENGAGING God is about relationships

• Turn with me to Luke 14:25-35
  • As we consider this commitment of the whole self listen to the words of Jesus from Luke 14…
  • ²⁵Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. ³⁴“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
  • Matthew 6:33 fits right in here (seek first his kingdom…)
    • God’s rule over your life
    • Jesus has said that love for Him is above all other relationships
      • Not to be entered into lightly
      • Following Jesus is a full-time commitment
    • Jesus has said that love Him is above all other things
      • “In the same way, any of you who does give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33)
  • ENGAGING God is a matter of priorities
    • Where are your priorities? What do you hold dear?
    • Any people who you love more than God?
    • Hate: not like kill hate, but a love that competes for first place in your life
    • Jesus wants full devotion, not half-hearted disciples

    *From the See You At the Pole annual brochure, 2009

Mark 7:24-30 — this was my outline for last Sunday

“Bread, dogs, and crumbs”

Mark 7:24-30

I. Mark’s story:

• Key themes:
  • New exodus, in-breaking of the kingdom of God, Jesus’ identity, his death
• Context: Mark 6-8 is a literary unit
  • Framed by discussion of Jesus identity and discussion of John the baptizer and the Elijah the prophet
  • Ministry to the Jews (6:31-56)
    • Feeding miracles (6:31-52)
    • Healings (6:53-56)
  • Redefinition of clean/unclean (7:1-23)
  • Ministry to Gentiles (7:24-8:9)
    • Healings (7:24-37)
    • Feeding miracle (8:1-9)
  • Summary: sight and blindness
    • Outsiders are blind and deaf (8:10-13)
    • Insiders are blind and deaf (8:14-21)
    • Sight to the blind (8:22-26)*
    • *I borrowed this outline from Shayn Dowd’s commentary on Mark in Reading Mark

II. What we learn from the Syrophonecian woman:

• She is nameless
• She had heard about him (7:25)
• She is a Greek and Syrophonecian (7:26)
  • She is a gentile
  • She is a pagan
  • She is a religious outsider
  • She is a woman, probably from high society, approaching a Jewish traveling preacher
  • She is unclean
• She is determined to find help for her daughter
• She crosses social boundaries
• She humbles herself
  • Falls to his feet
• She accepts her dog-status (7:28)
• She is a mother
  • Concerned for her daughter
  • Willing to do anything to find help
• She has faith
  • Leaves having heard that her daughter is made well
  • Notice the transformation: there is a move from dog to daughter
  • Doesn’t ask Jesus to come along to verify his work

III. What we learn from Jesus:

• Typical Jewish boundaries protected against defilement
• Jesus turns these social boundaries on their ear
• Jesus’ mission not limited by geography, social boundaries, nationality, economic status, race, or gender
  • He will go anywhere for anyone, anytime
  • He removes barriers
• Jesus’ word is powerful (7:29)
  • He heals this little girl from a distance
• Jesus is not afraid of saying the hard things
  • Pharisees – called them hypocrites to their faces and calls them to task over their tedious keeping of traditions of men
  • Gentile woman – he calls her a dog
  • Only when we recognize the truth about ourselves will be open to get the help we need

IV. What do we learn about ourselves?

• We too have great needs
• Many of us have heard about Jesus
• We too live in a day and age full or prejudice
• Prejudices keep us from responding to other’s needs
  • Prejudice is really fear, and believing information that may not be true about a particular group or person
  • Prejudice is prideful – we think that our group is better than everyone else’s
• We are equally unclean before God (Mk. 7:17-23)
• We have equal opportunity to be made clean by God (Mk. 7:24-30).

random ramblings:anniversary, school, and healthcare

This week my wife and I celebrated our 6th anniversary of full time ministry with the Chisholm Trail church of Christ. It has been an awesome ride, full of twists, turns, tumbles and triumphs. We have had a great time here, and look forward to what God has in store for us in the future.

My middle daughter will start Pre-K tomorrow. She is excited, and a little nervous. She has lots of questions about how things will work, she is a lot like I am, when it comes to dealing with a new situation. She will do great. Our oldest is going to be a first grader. Both girls got to meet their teachers last night. It should be an interesting year. And the little one will have to adjust to being home with mommy only.

We are officially launching small groups at our congregation this Sunday. While this week is just an introduction meeting, I am still excited. Jen and I, and one other couple will be working with our MS, and HS kids. Things will be a little different for our kids. We have had to multiply groups even before we’ve started. I have been praying for this new endeavor, and see some great potential for our congregation through meeting in small groups.

I have been thinking a little about heath care reform. I see the news coverage, and get the panic driven e-mails about this conspiracy or another. But, what if there was a third way? A way the church, the body of Christ could do more to meet the needs of the heart broken, poor, uninsured, immigrant, and sick? I believe that there is a greater capacity for the church in our day and age to be Jesus to our neighbors.  The early church is portrayed as caring for one another, taking care of anyone who had need. The mark of a christian community is its love for one another (Jn. 13:34). Isn’t this part of what it means to love our neighbor? Jesus calls us to action in Matthew 25:31-46. What if caring for the poor, displaced, depressed, down and out, diseased involved meeting their needs no matter how great or costly? A couple other Scriptures to ponder are Luke 10:25-37 and James 1:26-27, and Deuteronomy 15:1-11. To truly be the body of Christ we have to be willing to go to the places where Jesus went, spend time with the people he came to rescue, touch the untouchable, love the unlovable, care for the sick, feed the hungry, and love “the other,” regardless of race, economic status, religious experience, gender, etc.

some early thoughts on Jeremiah

I received a Daily Reading Bible for my 32nd birthday this year. I read the Bible, don’t necessarily fee like another Bible to sit on my shelf. But, I like this one. In 365 days, all of Scripture is presented in chronological order. I am a history nerd, always have been and always will be. I like things in order, and well, this is interesting to me.

The last couple of days, I have been reading Jeremiah. A couple of things jump out of me.

1. Jeremiah’s call — he is a young man and feels ill-equipped to do the work he is called too. I can’t tell you the times I have felt this way. The challenges are great, surely someone else could do this better? God’s response to Jeremiah, “I am with you in this.”Jeremiah’s ministry was unpopular. He is forecasting doom in an environment of prosperity and peace. People are attacking Jeremiah, and he begins to feel the strain of his call and voices his worries over and over again. God reminds Jeremiah of his task, and renews his strength.

2. Israel’s unfaithfulness –God is heart broken over Israel’s adultery. They have forsaken God, and judgment is coming upon them. Jeremiah’s message is unpopular. By the end of chapter 15 Jeremiah tells the people that God isn’t going to answer their prayers. Wow! But, here is a moment when we see God hurting for his people. He had watched them over and over again turn from him. Some were even brazen enough to think that just because they went to the temple of the Lord, that were saved! Location isn’t salvation. God is not pleased, and as a result punishment is coming. This breaks Jeremiah’s heart, and as a result of the message he is given, he is also required to give up alot to perform his duties. God’s call comes with a price.

After reading up to chapter17, things appear desperate. The nation has been unfaithful, and while judgment is coming. God doesn’t completely abandon his people. I got to thinking through all of this how much God loves us, his patience, and how incredibly undeserving we are. Israel’s problem is no different than ours –selfishness is at the root of their unfaithfulness. It is no different with us. While we live in the midst of an economic recession, we live for the most part in a time of prosperity and peace. We have been lured away from trusting in God completly to trusting in man for our well-being. I want to close with the words of Jer. 17:5-8:

⁵ This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶ He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷ “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

getting reacquainted with old friends…

Summer is a rough time for me to blog. As a youth minister, I am out of the office a bunch. This week, I was gone four weeks, plus one week of personal vacation. So, I haven’t been home much, or at a computer much either. This week, I am back in the office, and well I have a lot I want to say.

I want to begin with talking about last week in Houston. Seeral months ago, I signed up our youth group to help put on Impact’s VBS. We went down as the lead group, and we were partnered with two other congregations. The Quaker Ave. congregation from Lubbock Texas, and the Weatheford church from Weatherford, OK. Well, this trip with our teens and adults was the best trip I’ve taken with a group of kids anywhere. I will be honest, there was a time even as late as the night before that I had thought about canceling the trip. Long story really, but basically there have been lots of things going on in my life, as well as the general unknown associated with a new trip to a new place, etc. But, we went and we loved the experience, the kids, and each other.

As I mentioned above about possibly not going through with this trip, I went to bed the Friday night before we left asking God for help with my attitude, and for a sign that the week would go well. I don’t how weak it sounds to ya’ll, but at moments in my life I have asked God for reassurance, and well in my faith wavering right before we left, I asked for a rainbow. It was Wednesday of the following week, before I saw one, or should say noticed one. Wednesday comes along, we were in our reading groups, and the man teaching the class I was in, handed our kids a book on Noah and the ark. I got chills. I knew what was coming. At the very end of the book, displayed in all its glory was a rainbow. I about collapsed. It get’s better. In the room I was sitting in, which I had been in all week, but didn’t know it till Wednesday, there was a poster hanging on the wall, which read “Jesus loves you,” underneath a rainbow. I had been in that room all, but didn’t notice the decor. I was floored again.

Very early Thursday morning, on my of incoming 9th graders, Spencer, was baptized into Christ. The hands down highlight of the trip! Later that day, after running our bus routes, walking back to get our van for dinner, Spencer and a couple other kids and I were walking to the parking lot where our van was. It was looking rather ominous over i-10, Spencer looks up in the sky, and elbows me and says, “look,.” There beautifully hung over the interstate, was a real rainbow. I lost it. As early as a week prior, I was unsure we would make it to Houston. Now, in he midst of one of the best weeks in ministry, God revealed himself over and over again. I went to Houston to do a VBS. I met Jesus and got to be Jesus, and was reminded that God is present even in the storms of life. See, for the last several months I had been going through some things, things that weren’t to pleasant, things I apparently needed to go through to see God in and through those things. I am learning slowly that God really does love me. I don’t know, but at times in my walk with Christ, it seems I wonder. I do dumb things still. At times, I act like my little ones do. I am a messy disciple, but know that Jesus enters into our mess to clean us up. He doesn’t just enter in, he dives right in to rescue us from ourselves.

I have seen God this summer. I also have been encouraged to carry on by some of the greatest people on the planet. Our youth group here at Chisholm Trail are among some of the finest folks anywhere this side of heaven. I am so proud of the way they worked and interacted in inner city Houston. Thank you for rising to the occasion and helping me see the good in our ministry when I haven’t been able to see it. One of my big struggles has been one of perspective. Sometimes, I can’t see the forest for the trees. It has always benefited me to hear stories from our kids how our youth group has been a blessing to them and how my own feeble attempts to minister to them is making a difference. God does use broken, flawed people to change the world, even if they can’t always see it.

Jump Week: Camp reflections 2

Jump week @ Camp Lu-Jo is HS kids only. It takes a few days for the high schoolers to let go of their baggage, but by about Tuesday all of the camp begins to really gel and then we go deep. This year, I got to be a part of the 12th grade and graduated seniors class. I have watched my teen guys go through this week, and come back changed and I had waited for so long to get to share it with them. This year at Lu-Jo Jump week was a special week for me. More on that in a minute.

I got to preach Sunday night, our theme for the week was Conquest from the book of Joshua. I spoke from Joshua 3, and tried to relate some amazing things I learned about God from this passage as well as my life over the last few years. One of the amazing things though that jumped out at me was that as chapter 3 opens, Israel is camped at Shittim, 40 years earlier the children of Israel made a major blunder here, and as a result a lot of people died. Shittim was a place of great failure (Num 25), it is interesting to me that God brings Israel back to this place to regroup and have a redo. This time, they get it right, and cross the Jordan.I tried to communicate to the kids that God is faithful, and that will never turn his back on us. I have for the last 6 years got to kick things off for Jump Week, and try to get out of the way and let God work.

Tuesday night we always have a special worship, and this year we set up an obstacle course, paired the kids up and blindfolded one of them and the one blindfolded had to listen to their partner to complete the course. At the halfway point, the blindfolded camper was met with an onslaught of competing voices, and had to find their partners voice through the noise or have their partner tell them who to trust. I was trying to help one of our HS girls at the halfway point, and broke down when she broke down. She was tore up by the distractions, but I got her through. That night after our activity we talked about the distracting voices in our lives, and the need to listen to God, and his people and to learn how to tell the difference between noise and truth.

As the week wore on, the Blue Green War heated up. Three years ago, the camp was divived into a blue team and an a green team with an ongoing competition throughout the week, culminating in a paint war on Friday. We have a trophy and everything. The kids loved it. The first two years the blue team won, but this year the green team won. I was the team captain for the Green team, our leader Sam, couldn’t be there this year. Somehow we emerged victorious! It was a great week.

Here are some pictures!