Leaving on a Jet Plane

This time tomorrow I'll be flying over the Atlantic. And I'm stoked.

In case you hadn't seen my tweets or Facebook updates, I'm leaving with a group from our church to work with church planters in Kiev, Ukraine. We are going to be working in English as Second Language classes in public schools and working with a few local churches doing the same thing. We also have a group working with a soccer club and a group working with kiddos in an after school program.

I'll be traveling with several students from our small group at church and with our small group leaders, whom we love dearly. I'll also be meeting up with my mentor who is teaching a class at a seminary in Ukraine for a couple of weeks.

If you happen to think of Reagan or me in the next ten days say a prayer for both of us. She'll be stateside while I'm gone but she is going to be crashing with friends and such while I'm gone.

I'm going to be working directly with the churches and I'm designated as a "roamer" too so some of my specifics aren't really ironed out. If you've been on a mission trip you totally understand this. (Flexy cookies anyone?)

Pray that we are faithful to the gospel given to us and that God is glorified.

Blessings
J

A Very Real Fear

I'm reading through the book of Judges. If this book was a movie it would have to be directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is bloody and brutal and at some points, a little difficult to read. And then Gideon comes along. The guy starts as a sneak, trying to hide food from the enemy. Then he goes to battle and wins. Not by his own doing, the army he was fighting got freaked out and massacred each other. Then he gets a little cocky and takes things into his own hands and wins. And the story starts to go sour.

"And Gideon made an ephod of [the spoils] and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family." Judges 8.27

He forgot where his success came from and believed the hype in himself. I have a lot of friends that want to go into ministry and the fear for all of us is that we will succumb to success just like Gideon. That we will cause our people to whore themselves out to a variety of things. Evangelicals do a great job of spotting the big stuff. Abortion is evil, corrupted sexuality is ruining families. But I think that the biggest fight that pastors overlook is to disciple flocks and teach followers of Christ that we don't follow a moral teacher. We follow the Savior of humanity. Our morality is a response to, and overflow of what Christ has done in us. We must teach the death and resurrection of Christ as the redemption for our sins. The victory of Christ in his rising brings us to life. Without this, we are left with morality for the sake of morality. Not morality for the sake of proclaiming Christ as the King and reconciler of every broken thing. The Holy Spirit restores. We must proclaim to our people that this work was done by God, not our actions. If we don't, the danger becomes obeying rules under our own power and making an idol out of our behavior.

The story of Gideon ends like this, "As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god." Judges 8.33

What will our people do when we leave? Act nice to people, or find their hope in Christ alone and go forth proclaiming His name in all nations.

It's been far too long...

One of my passions is writing. I write a lot in my journal (read man diary) but it's been quite some time since I've put any thoughts into the interwebs.

The thought that has been driving me lately comes from Revelation 21.5. The verse reads "And he who was sitting on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' And he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'" I don't really want to get into a massive eschatological discussion, I'll just say that I believe Christ makes things new now, and some day the whole earth will rest in this newness.

This is such a beautiful thought! And what is even more amazing is to see this come true. I see this in my own life as I die to myself daily, but I see it in people around me constantly. I am marrying a woman in a few months that the Holy Spirit has used to remind me of this daily. She loves Jesus so much that it intimidates me but makes me press into Him all the more. The Holy Spirit has made so many things new in her life that, quite honestly makes me jealous of her. I would love to tell you her story, but that is best left for her to do. Someone else prompt her to write it down. She won't listen to me.

Weddings and Kidnappings

So I'm in seminary now. Very cool. Not cool on the free time front.

This blog will basically be a recap of the summer and to put me in the right frame of mind, Dave Matthews Band's "Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King" is playing through the earbuds. *Side note, my amazing and beautiful lady friend Reagan Elaine Faught got this album for me on vinyl for my birthday last week. I've been telling people for months, I WAY out-punted my coverage on this deal. Girl is incredible. Side note over* It's a great album. Fun summer listening.

This was a summer absolutely filled with bittersweet beauty. Two of my very best friends got married (not to each other, that would have really changed the dynamic of our friendship). Both were great ceremonies and prayers and blessings go to Kevin and Kelly and Matt and Dana. You fellas did well.

I loved seeing these couples enter into covenant with each other and God, but I must be transparent and say that selfishly I'm glad they were wed because it brought friends back from all over the country. One of my favorite things to do in life is to sit back with friends and reflect on what God did in our lives together and to see what God is doing now. Some of the situations aren't easy, some are joyful new experiences but it is so very encouraging to see how God is working in the lives of the men that God put in my life as a 19 year old kid. I pray for these men often and Paul's words in Philippians 1 reverberate often. I look forward to sitting around at 70 and acknowledging our Father and His blessings.

In the midst of all the nuptials, my favorite couple of all time, The Bullards, moved across the pond to Cambridge, England. Meet these people. Do what it takes. Go to Cambridge. They will probably let you stay with them. I grew up in a house of hospitality, but these two take it to the next level. These next few years will be an adventure, but I'm kind of ready to do life together. Growing up is tough, but worth it I'm sure.

The summer ended with me getting tazed. Several times. My girl planned a surprise birthday/going away party and left it up to my brother Garrett, David Thompson and Kyle Forgety to get me there. They chose kidnapping. Or as Kyle called it, oldmannapping. It seemed a fitting end to a great summer, being dragged kicking and screaming to get there, but loving the end result.

How the Mighty Fall

I was just listening to the Hillsong album This Is Our God, and came to the song "Healer." It's a great song of the power of the Holy Spirit and of how our God still heals today. Then I went to YouTube to check out if anyone had covered it or if there were any good videos of Hillsong playing it. What I came across was a video with the tag "Healer (Cancer Faked) Mike Gugliemucci." Naturally, I had to check it out.

It seems that Mike G had written this song as a prayer to God to heal him of the cancer that was ravaging his body. Only, he didn't have cancer. He was addicted to porn and the effects of this secret sin were so strong that they had wrecked havoc on his body.

I must confess here, publicly, that my first response was self-righteous judgment. I immediately decided that I would never use this song in a corporate setting because how could God use a song that was bred out of a sinful mind. Then I thought about myself. See, we never think about ourselves when self-righteousness creeps up. (Never honestly think about ourselves, I should say.)

Hearing this man's story makes the song even more powerful. God is our healer. I absolutely think that He still heals our physical bodies, but what is even more miraculous is that He heals our diseased souls. How beautiful is this! He has taken ugly, horrific memories of ugly, horrific sin in my life and driven them out. This comes from years of begging and pleading that He restore my mind and He has. He still does.

I also want to say that all of us are capable of doing the very thing that Mike G did. None of us are above this. If you think you are, may God have mercy on you, and I pray that your fall from grace is swift. I have seen this happen to friends and acquaintances in ministry and I am not too naive to think that it won't happen again. My prayer in my life is that I continue to surround myself with godly men that will point out the filth in my life. (A stronger word goes there, but we'll keep this PG rated.) I also set up very practical boundaries to protect my character. I am an outspoken advocate for Covenant Eyes and will never have a computer that isn't equipped with this software.

May humility reign in our hearts.

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18.14

Here is the link to Mike's story.



UPDATE
According to this website, the song was actually written as a prayer to heal Mike from His addiction. The way God heals is not always comfortable, but He is faithful to hear our prayers from heaven.

Rich Rulers

"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation."

These words come from Habakkuk, a prophet from the people of Israel around the year 600 BCE. This book is absolutely fascinating and I would encourage anyone to really put some time into studying this arrogant, angry man whose heart is softened by some stern rebuking. (I must admit, I often see Habakkuk when I look in the mirror.)

This passage intrigues and concerns me at the same time. It's the passion and response that I want, but is it the response I have? See, the church in America is rife with the so-called "Prosperity Gospel," even in corners that often don't claim to hold that particular doctrine. How many times are we going to say or sing "God Bless America" before we realize that He has? Maybe we should instead be saying "God let us turn our blessings back to you by giving ourselves away." I know this probably won't make a great, catchy tune or fit nicely on a bumper sticker, but I think we've got enough bumper stickers.

My fear for the church in America is that we, much like the rich ruler, are doing a decent job of keeping up our morality, but we're losing our souls to our stuff.

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Luke 18.22-25

This young ruler kept the law. He did a great job of keeping the law. But he was losing his soul. I've heard this taught by pastors that leave the story right here. Give everything you own away and God will love you for it. But that leads us into another danger, that if we do enough good deeds and give enough to the poor or stand up for the marginalized that we will be saved.

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” 18.26-29

The point of this story is that it is God who saves us. He reaches out and woos us in such a way that everything becomes a shadow to Him. When Jesus and his disciples walk away from this incident, he tells them that he will die. THIS is what saves us. THIS is the crux of the gospel. That neither our stuff, nor our good deeds will save us. Only the blood of Christ. Christ is our salvation.

"I will take joy in the God of my salvation."

Revolution

I just read David Brooks, an op-ed writer for the New York Times quote Michael McFaul, a democracy expert on the National Security Council. "In retrospect, all revolutions seem inevitable. Beforehand, all revolutions seem impossible."

We are witnessing what I believe to be the collapse of an autocratic government in Iran. I don't know that this will happen in the next few days, for that matter in the next few weeks or even months, but I do see this government collapsing sometime soon. Watching this has intrigued me to no end, but at the same time has brought much sorrow as the death toll continues to climb. Revolution is a very violent creature.

Seeing this quote brought to mind the Gospel. This is what the Gospel is. A revolution of the heart. A violent upheaval of the soul. It is complete selfishness given over to the death of self. For many, this seems impossible. For the disciple of Jesus, it is inevitable. "And I am sure of this, that He Who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1.6