A New Beginning

It was once said that “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” I’ve had the joy of experiencing both of those over the past couple months. College, and life as I have known it, ended last month when I graduated college.

But that ending has quickly become a new beginning.

Almost a month ago, I started my new job as Assistant High School Pastor at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, CA, and it is awesome. I’m quickly learning how busy full-time ministry is, but I cannot imagine anything else I would rather be doing!

Here is a little bit of what I have been doing lately.

I have already been able to preach in True North (the high school group) for two weekends since coming on staff. You can listen to the sermons here:

http://www.compasschurch.org/hs/sermons/

I have also been feverishly preparing for Revival ‘09, which is our summer camp! I’m praying for and expecting God to do great things in the hearts of the students as Pastor Mike brings it from the book of Daniel each night. And I’m also thinking it will be one of the most fun weeks of my life. I made a promo video with some of the students. You can watch that here:

http://www.revival09.com

Who Do You Trust?

Contemplate how incredibly bad a real epidemic disease would be.

I imagine it would begin with rumors and fear. You would begin to hear about the disease–where it is, how it is affecting people, how fast it is traveling, etc. While it may seem distant at first, the questions would begin to creep into your mind. Will it spread to where I live? Will people I know or interact with get sick?

Then, if the disease should spread to your area in a true and deadly epidemic fashion, I can only imagine how bad the terror could become. And more than that there would be an incredible internal conflict within each individual between fear and care. As loved ones began to get sick and even die, how would people decide whether to stay and care for them or to flee and avoid the contagious disease? The paranoia would be unreal.

That brings us to the swine flu–the current “epidemic” that is making headlines in our world today. How do we as Christians respond to the possibility of an epidemic? In the face of something so potentially scary, do we respond with worry or peace?

It’s easy to base our trust and peace merely on rational thinking. We tell ourselves, “The swine flu is not that big of a deal. People in America aren’t really dying from it. The statistics aren’t really worse than the regular flu, which kills thousands every year. Honestly, this whole thing is overblown.”

Personally, I would generally agree with those statements. It sounds like this swine flu thing is a bit over-hyped. However, I’ve been really challenged about the basis of my lack of anxiety. Am I not anxious because of rational thinking, or is there also an underlying foundational trust in a sovereign God?

Let’s face it. Someday we all might face something that we cannot reason away by saying, “It’s not that big of a deal.” Where will our trust be then?

Will it be in some comforting statistic we got from FOX News?

Or will it be in the God described in this Psalm?

1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be moved.

2 Your throne was established long ago;
you are from all eternity.

3 The seas have lifted up, O LORD,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea—
the LORD on high is mighty.

5 Your statutes stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days, O LORD.

*P.S. I just wanted to be clear that by saying the swine flu is “over-hyped” I am not trying to negate or minimize the real people who are really suffering and dying from this disease. It is a serious thing that deserves our prayers and concern.

Good, Gracious, and Faithful (and McDonald’s)

This year my Resident Director (Ona) and myself have developped a habit of eating breakfast at McDonald’s. (Sidebar. The Southern Style Chicken Biscuit is one of the most delectable things you have ever had for breakfast. Wash it down with a small parfait, and wow, your day is off to a good start. End Sidebar.) This morning, we ate there and reflected over the last four years. We tried to name every guy from every wing I’d ever lived on (and came pretty close, too!) We also discussed the future a bit by working through the dorm staff for next year.

When we got back to the dorm, I sat down with my Bible and journals. While looking at journal entries from the past couple Aprils, great memories began to fill my mind from all four years of college. Fun times. Spiritual lessons. Ministry opportunities. Relationships. Hard times. Tough lessons. All these things flooded my thoughts, and as they did I was just overwhelmed. Here were a few conclusions:

-I am very thankful for God’s goodness, grace, and faithfulness over the past four years. As I look back over the last four years, I’m really speechless. The Lord has been very kind to me even though I do not deserve it. He has blessed my time at TMC more than I could have imagined.

-More than just being thankful that God has demonstrated goodness, grace, and faithfulness to me over the last four years, I need to worship God because he is eternally good, gracious, and faithful! As is true in all areas of life, we should never just be thankful for what gives us, but also we should worship God becaue of his characteristics that have been displayed. He does not just do good things–he is good.

-As I look forward to the future, I should expect God to continue to be good, gracious, and faithful–even if all my plans for the future collapse tomorrow. God’s faithfulness is faith inspiring. Not only should it give me peace about the future; it should also inspire radical acts of faith.

McDonald’s and meditation…not a bad way to start the day.

Earth Day: Remember Your Creator

Today is Earth Day.

Disney is coming out with a nature documentary from Planet Earth footage called “Earth.” It looks pretty sweet, it’s narrated by James Earl Jones, and it apparently contains no evolutionary material.

The cafeteria run by Bon Appetit here at The Master’s College celebrated by serving some kind of environmentally friendly lunch. I opted out of that and used an In-N-Out gift card instead.

But all of that is neither here nor there. The point is this: On this Earth Day in 2009, how many people will acutally think about, give thanks to, and worship the One who created this planet?

Don’t let Earth Day go by without giving glory to the Creator!

Truth Endures

Today was a special day at my church. We celebrated John MacArthur’s 40th Anniversary as the Pastor of Grace Community Church. The day was full of thanksgiving to God through song, exposition of God’s Word through preaching, and reflection upon God’s work through Pastor John (affectionately referred to by me and other collegians as “J-Mac.”)

While getting ready for church this morning, I remember praying that Christ would be glorified through the events of today. And as I get ready for bed now, I praise God for how He has answered that prayer. This showed itself even in how other people expressed their appreciation for Dr. MacArthur. He is thanked not for his own ingenuity or cleverness, but for his unwavering commitment to boldly preach Christ and faithfully proclaim His Word. His ministry is not about a method or a plan; it’s about the person of Jesus Christ.

That is why I think today’s events not only expressed appreciation to and thankfulness for Dr. MacArthur but also gave the ultimate glory to God.

Therefore, I go to bed not only thankful for answered prayer, but also challenged to follow in those Christ-honoring footsteps.

R&R

Don’t you just love returning home after being away for a while? That’s exactly what I’m experiencing right now. Just yesterday, I returned to Hotchkiss after three weeks of Christmas Break. Yes, I am psyched out of mind about being back, but this blog is about the break I was blessed to enjoy.

All in all, I would say this was the most refreshing Christmas Break I’ve had in college. Here are some of the highlights:

-Sleep. Yes. Sweet, uninterrupted sleep. In that sense it was a physically refreshing break. I thought about sleeping less and getting some more stuff done, but everytime I realized this could be the last break like this in my life, I continued to sleep in.

-My parents’ DV-R. (Ok, so I’m getting some of the more trivial things out of the way first.) Arsenal-Liverpool. The Dolphins making the playoffs. It’s a Wonderful Life. I was able to watch all these things thanks to the wonder of advanced technology.

-Time to read. To understand this, see the previous post.

-Catching up with high school friends. I was able to have some great conversations with some friends from high school. That was really encouraging and a lot of fun!

-Seeing “Frost/Nixon” with my mom. This is a film about a series of interviews in the 1970’s. Sounds boring, right? WRONG! I was fascinated by the story of Frost’s interviews with the former-President Nixon. The drama was thick, and the acting/directing was excellent!

-Watching USC beat the daylights out of Penn State in the Rose Bowl. Enough said.

-Visiting the Bolens and having a mini SPO’7 reunion. We stayed up late into the night discussing the ins and outs of Isaiah chapter 7. If you want to learn more about the book of Isaiah and see the story of redemption unfold from its pages, check this blog series out.

-Having time to reflect and remember priorities. After the fall semester, I was pretty tired and I guess you could say “burned-out.” Being able to read journals and the Bible and serve in church over the break all helped me remember what I am passionate about, and now I’m returning home refreshed and ready to serve the Lord!

-Revival: Winter Edition! This last weekend I went on the Compass Bible Church student ministries winter retreat. It was a blast. It’s the most fun I’ve had on a high school retreat since being a camper meself. The preaching was excellent, and I loved working with the guys in my cabin and the worship band. I also got to help choreograph a massive high school dance routine. If you want to see that, check out the latest video in the True North group on Facebook.

Well, that’s enough highlights. Back to living life in Hotchkiss!

PEACE!

I Don’t Have Time to Read

Once again, it’s that time of year when people frantically bust out a pencil, a sheet of paper, and a list of resolutions for the new year. One rather common resolution is quite simple: read more. I know this has been a goal of mine in the past. However, this lofty aspiration eventually becomes a victim of this daunting creed:

I don’t have time to read.

Enter this article a couple of days ago. On New Year’s Eve three years ago, Karl Rove decided it was time to read more. (His original goal was a book a week.) He told this to the President, who joined in the resolution and effectively turned it into a contest between the two. The totals for 2006? Rove: 110; Bush: 95. They repeated the contest over the last two years, and Bush read 51 and 40 books. For those of you keeping score, he has read an average of 60 books a year over the last three years. Not too shabby for the leader of the free world.

I like to think of myself as a busy guy, but I cannot bring myself to say that I am busier than the President of the United States. I feel as if my “I don’t have time to read” mantra has been incontravertibly refuted.

So as my white flag of surrender, I am going to resolve to read more in 2009. A book a week seems a bit ambitious, unrealistic, and probably a set-up for failure. So I think I’m going to start out with a goal of reading 20 books in 2009. (Baby steps, right?)

Who’s with me?

Happy New Year, everyone!

The Joys of a Fan

For those of you who think I’ve been so bored this break and read so much John Piper that I’m contemplating how that thing on your ceiling that keeps you cool during the balmy summer months helps you see and savor Jesus Christ, think again.

I like sports.

I mean, I really appreciate sports. I think it’s awesome how God designed us physically and how he gave us that drive to compete, and I love participating and watching good athletic competition.

But even more than than, I love being a fan. Now let me define the term a little bit. Being a true fan goes beyond appreciation to a certain level of commitment. Beyond just appreciating an athlete or a team or a sport, real fans will cheer and support their team. A real fan does not just enjoy watching a good game, he follows every match his team plans. A real fan does not just jump on the bandwagon of the latest dynasty, he sticks with his team through thick and thin. And this is where the joy of being a fan kicks in.

The joy of the fan (while bittersweet) is there in defeat. Even though you are upset (maybe severely so) that your team lost, the silver-lining satisfaction you still have is that you were there with your team. You may be mad that your team lost in the championship or did not even make the playoffs, but you were there with them on Opening Day, and you will be there again next year.

The joy of the fan is magnified in victory. When your team is hoisting the trophy, that’s your team. No real fan actually even says, “My team won!” He says, We won. And sometimes the glory of victory is all that much brighter because of years of defeat. I learned this from my Grandpa. He was born in 1922, and as a life-long Boston Red Sox fan, he did not see them win the World Series until 2004. (For those of you keeping stats on this blog, that’s over 80 years.) That’s the joy of a fan.

Tomorrow I will experience the joy of a fan. As I Miami Dolphins fan, I have had the (dis)pleasure of watching my team be terrible for last few years. (Especially last year, when they went 1-15) But tomorrow the Phins have a chance to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2001. If they win, they’re in. If they lose, they’re out. Simple as that. So either way, I’ll know the joy of the fan.

Maybe it’ll be sweet victory. Just maybe they will complete the Disney-esque season of going from worst to first. Oh, that’d be great.

Maybe it’ll be defeat. Then I’ll know that I was there when they were 1-15, and I was there when they barely missed the playoffs. And as the Brooklyn Dodgers used to say, “There’s always next year.”

What fun…

Semester’s End

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I almost forgot my WordPress password…sheesh… I could begin by listing some excuses for my lack of blogging, but they would probably be lame and unacceptable, so let’s just dive into a new era in Step Onto Liquid.

I just finished my seventh semester of college; that means I have ONE left. Wow. Time flies.

Last night I read through my journal from this semester. (I strongly recommend journaling, but that’s another blog.) It was both an enjoyable and encouraging experience. One fun thing about reading through an old journal is remembering funny things you forgot about. But more than that, it’s refreshing to see what you’ve been through, both in your relationship with God and with others.

One thing I noticed about this semester was that it was a tiring one. For starters, I came into the semester tired. There wasn’t really any “break” last Summer break. I came straight from two weeks of Summer Camp back to school. Once back at school, things stayed busy. The weeks leading up to the beginning of classes is always a whirlwind full of meeting with the Servant Leadership Staff, welcoming the new students, and winning The Master’s Cup (well, only if you live in Hotchkiss.) Then classes began. On top of a full-load, I was heavily involved in Dorm Ministry as well as at my Bible study.

Fifteen weeks later, I’m tired. I’ve come into Christmas Break exhausted and got sick as soon as I got to my parents in Texas. It’s times like this that questions start coming up in my head. What am I thinking? Is what I’m doing worth it? Where is my motivation in this?

And it’s times like that where reading back through my journal is encouraging. It brings back Scriptures that have encouraged me over the last semester. It brings back events that have done the same. It helps remind me, “Oh yeah, this is what I’m thinking, this is why what I’m doing is worth it, and this is my motivation.”

One particular happening the encouraged me was in my Sermon Prep class. Pastor Scott Ardavanis was critiquing one of my sermons when he recalled one time when he got to meet John Piper. He asked JPipes, how do you preach like that? Piper responded, “You just have to fall more in love with God.” And that’s the advice Pastor Scott passed along to me and one thought from my journal read-through that I’m trying to take with me through Christmas Break. As I think through things and ponder the future this Christmas Break, I think that is a good thought to keep central.

Well, that’s it for now, hopefully I’ll be doing some more blogging over the break. Peace!

Pay Attention ‘08–The Hour Approaches

I went to Israel over almost two years ago, and I remember watching presidential debates the first week I got home–debates for the election that is about to happen on Tuesday.

Yes, the eternal campaign is almost over! And now the whole world waits in suspense to find out the outcome.

Some people predict an Obama blowout; others are saying it’s gonna be a close one. But your average yokel is basing those predictions on some (probably unreliable) national poll. As we all know, the President is not elected by popular vote, but by the electoral college. So the national polls are not the best means of making an informed prediction.

So if you look at a good electoral map (check out this and this), it’s not looking good for the McCain/Palin crowd. When the returns start coming in next Tuesday, be looking for the results from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida. If the news starts projecting all these states for Obama, you might be able to go to bed at a reasonable hour this election day, unless you really want to stay up and find out how big the Democratic advantage is gonna be in Congress.

The moral of the story is this: Brace yourself for a big day for the Democrats on Tuesday. An Obama loss would be shocking, and the Democrats are going to make huge gains in both the House and the Senate. Some conservatives are still predicting a close election and a big swing to McCain in the closing days, and that could possibly happen, but don’t hold your breath.

I’m curious to see the national response, whatever happens, especially among evangelicals. I’ve got some thoughts about the church, politics, and America brewing, and hopefully I’ll post those soon.

May God shed his grace on America. PEACE!