520life.org

A few nights ago our team got together.  We sat around on couches in our living room.

We caught up on things that are going on in each of our lives.

We examined passages of Scripture together.

We were greatly encouraged as we shared different visions and prophecies that God has been giving.

We prayed together.

We took communion together.

We encouraged, prayed for, and prophesied over a team member who was trying to discern God’s will in difficult personal circumstances.  God gave her direction and she has since acted according to it.

Our time together didn’t incorporate every possible expression of church life, and it’s not nearly the only model for church.  It is church, though.  Church is not a building, and it’s not a meeting – it’s who we are.  I love the edification that takes place when we meet together with our church family.

God has sobered me a lot the past couple of months regarding the danger of pride.  Pride was Lucifer’s sin, and I think if you could say that one sin is more deadly than all the others, pride would be it.  It is so dangerous because it is so blinding.  Think about this:  Unless your conscience is totally seared, you know it if you’re living in sexual sin.  You know if you’re robbing people, too, even if you refuse to deal with the sin.  You feel the sting of conviction when you gossip about someone.  Few people, though, know they have a big pride problem but refuse to deal with it.  Most people in bondage to pride have very little idea it’s there.

John Bevere explains that a prideful person will always become more religious.  Religiosity covers the pride, and pride keeps a person from seeing the religious spirit.  Nasty little cycle, huh?  That’s why Jesus said that many people who have done all kinds of great spiritual things will be blown away on the day of judgment to be rejected by God (Matthew 7:21-23).  What a scary thought!

I haven’t always taken pride that seriously.  I sort of assumed that as long as I was in “mostly good standing” with God, He wouldn’t be too put off by a little pride.  I recently realized how ridiculous that thought is when I started meditating on James 4:6:  “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (emphasis mine).  In other words, God isn’t just a little disappointed if I’m prideful.  It doesn’t slow down His work in my life a bit.  God is flat-out opposed to me if I’m proud.  Every good thing in our lives comes because of God’s grace, and He gives that grace to the humble, not the proud!  That got my attention.

I am learning that a prayer God is quick to answer is, “God, I don’t care what it takes, please expose every area of pride in my life.”  I never used to have the guts to pray that prayer, but now I do.  I am growing in the fear of God, and I see that pride can separate me from Him without my ever knowing it.  I don’t care what it costs me anymore, I don’t want to fall away from God.  So I’m asking Him to expose pride, and He is.

The trouble with a blind spot, of course, is that it’s hard to see.  Something John Bevere said in a sermon I recently listened to really helped me.  He explained how humility is simply fully trusting God in absolutely everything.  Looking at it that way, I have begun to see my pride more readily, because I can recognize a host of areas where I don’t fully trust God.  Until my life is 100% submitted to God in everything, pride has not yet been fully conquered.

Oh God, keep me from pride.  Expose every single area of it in my life.  Don’t let one little bit hide in darkness.  I only want to do what you want me to.  I don’t want to fall away from you.  Give me your grace as I walk in humility.  Knowing how susceptible I am to falling, I’m trusting you to keep me.  It’s only by your grace.

This past weeked marked the one-year anniversary of my blog. When I started blogging, I stated 3 reasons for doing it:

1. To keep a written record of the journey of our church planting team and the things we learn along the way
2. To better keep in touch with friends and family, giving them a more behind-the-scenes look at our lives and ministry
3. As an outlet for my growing interest in website development

Twelve months and 110 posts later, I’m pleased at what I have been able to do this past year with the blog. I have been encouraged in communication with folks back in the U.S. at how many of you seem to have a greater understanding of our ministry because of the blog. I am also glad that I have been able to record a number of lessons I learned over the past year.

As I look back on the first year, I would love to be writing a lot more about specific things going on with the church planting ministry, including what we’re trying, what’s working, and what’s failing. Sometimes it’s hard to get it all written down, though.

I didn’t start the blog intending necessarily to be its only author. One of these days it will be cool if Erin gets to post some things, so that you can see more of our lives through her eyes. She has her hands full, though, so I’m not putting any pressure on her.

The blog has certainly provided me a chance to tinker around with a website a little bit, although I wouldn’t mind more time for that, either. At the moment I’m starting to dabble with PHP coding a little bit, hoping to aquire a few skills to better customize our site.

For me, the India trip in April was the high water mark of my blogging this past year. I thoroughly enjoyed posting frequently, sharing lots of photos and insights to what I was experiencing and learning. My readership tripled during that time, and I loved the dialogue I had with different friends through the comments. I hope that over time my day-to-day blogging could look a bit more like what I pulled off while in India. Those two or three weeks were a good representation of what I envisioned a year ago when 520life was born. It was a significant time commitment, however. (If you missed the India posts, you can check them out by clicking through to the India category.)

All in all, blogging has been at least as enjoyable and about as effective as I had hoped it would be. As long as God allows me to continue, I pray He will be glorified through the pages of this website.

Is there certain news you want to hear or a certain topic you would like me to address on this blog? If so, leave a comment below, because I would be interested to know.

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.

1 Peter 2:13-19

God has been nailing me with this passage lately, speaking to me about my attitude towards all kinds of different authorities. He has commanded us to submit ourselves to every authority instituted among men. In the second paragraph, note that He doesn’t just command slaves to submit to good masters. Even harsh masters are worthy of submission. Ultimately, it is God that we are submitting ourselves to when are subject to those over us.

I have recently learned that submission is not the same thing as obedience. Obedience is our outward actions, but submission speaks to our heart attitude towards those in authority.

To paraphrase Peter a bit in today’s terms, I think we can say: “Honor every authority above you, including every authority in the government, including those you don’t like or with whom you completely disagree!”

In this presidential election season, another good post regarding our attitudes as followers of Christ has been provided by Brian Bailey. Here is an excerpt:

At some point, though, we have to take responsibility for the tone of politics. Even though our discourse is largely a reflection of what we hear from the parties and the media, why should we descend to that level? Why can’t we do better? If you are fed up with how politics is practiced, let’s start changing how we practice politics.

The candidate you support is motivated by political calculation and a desire to win just like his opponent. He has compromised when he shouldn’t have, ducked when he should have stood up, and made many mistakes (and will continue to do so). Like all national politicians, he is a flawed man surrounded by flawed advisors. The nation’s problems will not be solved by his election, but he can and hopefully will makes things better, improve the political process, and appeal to our better natures.

The candidate you oppose is not stupid, senile, dangerous, different, or corrupt. He loves this country and has served it most of his life. He will defend our nation with honor and always do what he thinks is in the best interest of America. He does not deserve to be mocked, belittled, or hated. The snide and snarky only serve to make intelligent debate between reasonable people impossible, while escalating the smack talk arms race.

There are endless arguments to be made for and against each of these candidates on the issues, but why do we have to demonize and deify them in the process?

Good words, don’t you think? If you don’t agree, I challenge you to consider what it is you disagree with and why.

I encourage you to read Brian’s complete post. I commend him and others who are taking a stand this election against the slew of negativity all too often coming from Christians. If you think the message of honoring our leaders is for Kingdom people, then do your part to positively influence those around you.

A few weeks ago, I shared my two cents on following Jesus during this election season in my post Who would Jesus vote for?. If you happened to read that post, you’ll know why I appreciated the recent post Church and Politics Don’t Mix by Kevin Hendricks, which included the following excerpt:

“…our cries should not end at God bless America, but continue to include God bless Iraq, God bless Afghanistan, God bless Ethiopia, God bless Haiti, God bless China, God bless Peru–as Christians we should seek for God to bless all the people of the world.”

We wholeheartedly agree and would chime in with an emphatic, “God bless Mexico!”

You can click through and read the rest of Kevin’s post, which mentions missionaries who have have seen a decrease in funding because of people not agreeing with their political views.

There are so many things I could write about for which I’m thankful, but I will share just one.  It came to my attention a few weeks ago through a question a friend asked me in an e-mail:

Do you wake up most days with a strong sense of your purpose and excitement about how God is going to use you that day?  Most days, do you feel strongly that you’re right where God wants you to be?  Or do you mostly feel that way sporadically when you take a step back?

Here is the response I sent back to him: 

I would be lying if I said that every day I wake up with a strong sense of purpose and excitement about how God is going to use me.  Some days I wake up and wonder why on earth I’m so tired still, or how I’m going to get done everything that I need to that day, or if the Broncos will win…I think that would be my fault for not always keeping my eyes on God and His purposes, and instead getting caught up with all the day-to-day tasks.  I can say overall, though, that I absolutely have a strong sense of purpose and excitement about what God is doing.  Because I and the rest of us have such a heart for the unreached and for God’s purposes among all nations, I just can’t think of anything more important that I could be doing with my life or anything that I’d rather be doing, so that continually excites me.  And yes, I haven’t had a doubt in several years that I wasn’t right where God wanted me.  That’s a testimony to God, because by nature I’m more the type who would probably question that a lot.  But I haven’t had a doubt about that in several years, praise God.

I’m so grateful that God has allowed us to be a part of His kingdom work here in Oaxaca.  His calling gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment each day that I can hardly even describe.  I often take that for granted, but I think there are a lot of people who don’t feel the same way about their lives.  There’s nothing like knowing your life counts for something.  I hope to help many others live with the same sense of purpose I have.  After all, where I am, the purpose I feel, and the burden for the nations I have is largely owed to other people God worked through, such as the founders of GFM, Grant and Jenn Haynes (to name just two).  And for that, I’m thankful.