Psalm 119 True North United Tonight!

At True North we’ve been going through Psalms on Scripture of the Day. Today’s Psalm is Psalm 119.

So one day at True North Headquarters we debated what to do with this chapter. Should we break it up over a few days and go through it slowly? Should we just hope that the students eat up all 176 verses on their own?

Obvious answer: no to all of the above options. Instead, let’s get all the people of True North in one room and read the whole thing together.

So that is what we are going to do tonight at True North United. We will eat, we will hang out, and we will sing worship songs, but the main course of the evening is a feast on the longest chapter in the Bible.

Last night and this morning (partly after reading this article), I was remembering some of my main desires before going into youth ministry. I wanted students to be excited about the gospel and excited about God’s Word.

I pray that tonight bears much fruit towards that second end. My desire is that the students of True North would be students of the book, and that every day they would cry out, “Oh, how I love your law; it is my meditation all the day!”

Merry’s Crying Face–An Unforgettable Motivation to Ministry

Today I turned in a 7-page report on my recent missions trip to Uganda. This was one of the questions:

What person or event has impacted your life the most during this time? Please explain.

This was a hard question to answer, but I answered it with a journal entry I wrote on our last day of ministry in Uganda. I thought those that read this blog might enjoy this window into my brain on the trip. This is what I wrote:

6/27/08 Friday

“I just had the most heart-breaking conversation of the trip. We visited two nearby schools today with our program. They both felt like business as usual.

“After the second school, we were talking with kids. My group dispersed, and I was waiting for everyone else to finish up. To pass the time, I sat down on the edge of the building to be available if anyone else wanted to talk.

“Eventually, one boy came up to me with a very soft, high voice. He told me his name was Merry. He began asking me the standard Islam questions. Are the Bible/Quran the same? Is Allah God? So I gave him my standard 2-point answer:
1) the Bible says Jesus is God and our Savior, and
2) the Bible says we get to heaven through faith, not works.
At the end, I began to question him about what he believed.

“This is where the conversation took a new tone of intensity. This talk was no longer normal. He told me he believed in Allah. I then proceeded to remind him that Allah is not God. Jesus is the only way. If he wants to go to heaven, he must believe in Jesus.

“Merry sat there in silence as I found myself hating the cultural barrier once again. What was going on inside his head? Where was he coming from? Where was he going?

“I began to notice a sadness in his eyes. He remained silent as his eyes began to tear up. The tears began to form on his eye lashes, and they slowly dropped down his face.

“I did not know what to feel or think. What was going on with this boy? What kind of persecution will he face if he believes? Who will remain there to help him? Who will teach him more about Jesus? Who will be there for him if he believes?

“All these questions began to tear me apart. Our conversation was fairly silent til the finish. He asked another question about whether Moslems go to heaven. I again explained that Jesus is the only way, and I tried to say that as many ways as I could.

“Merry never came to the point where he said he wanted to be born again, but I pleaded with him to believe in Jesus. I encouraged him to find others who are born again to help explain more to him.

“Our group began to leave, so I prayed for Merry and said good-bye. As I left, I could not feel right. Something about that conversation broke my heart, and I knew something was wrong. Just like the feeling I had when I broke my collar bone, something is not right, and I want to wrestle with God now until I know what it is.

“Why did that conversation break my heart so much, and what difference will this make in my life?

“For starters, it put a crying face to all the ministry we have done this week. When I think of this week, I will not think of crazy questions and laughing kids; I will picture Merry’s tears. How many more are there like him? I can never, ever take ministry lightly. Souls hang in the balance. People are really going to heaven or hell.

“Again, this conversation challenged my faith. I am so frustrated by the fact that I am leaving tomorrow. I have planted a seed, but what will become of it? Do I really believe that God is mighty to save? Do I believe God can work here when I am gone? There is so much tendency to doubt, but I must live in faith that God will bring the increase and produce fruit from this ministry.

“I have often said that God does not call us to success; he calls us to faithfulness. Ultimately, I cannot be successful. It is God who works. God is the one who changes hearts. God is the one who brings people to repentance. And God will be faithful to complete what he started.

“BUT he calls us to be a part of the process. He calls us to go and make disciples. He calls us to be his ambassadors. This conversation with Merry has only increased by desire to be faithful. It has given me a whole new sense of urgency. The battle is real, and it is the most important thing in the world. Every comfort, every song, and every sporting event (that I might think is important) looks like rubbish when I think of Merry’s crying face. Nothing is more important than the work of Christ and the ministry of the gospel.

“And that ministry is more than just evangelism. God calls us to make disciples. I have so much opportunity to do this in the States. I have ministry in front of me at Compass. I have a year as Head RA of Hotchkiss in front of me. And I have a whole new sense of urgency about it.

“But I pray this conversation does not quench my desire for evangelism. I don’t want to pass up any opportunity to share the good news. Again, I must have faith in God. He will continue to work even when I can’t.

“At the end of the day, to live is Christ. My life must be about kingdom work. I pray for Merry, but I will most likely never see his face again. I pray that God saves him and uses him to bring others to Christ. But I must be radically faithful to the work of Christ. I must have a whole new passion about the phrase ‘to live is Christ.’

“This will look like a commitment to discipleship—whether reaching out to unbelievers or nurturing younger Christians. I have plenty of opportunities to that over the next year. This will look like commitment to the church. The church is Christ’s body, and it is where discipleship happens. This will also look like a commitment to missions. I cannot help but think of the Hurleys and the Conovers. They are working to make disciples who will make other disciples. I want to give my life to ministries like that.

“I thank God for my encounter with Merry. I pray that his life is forever and eternally because of it. And I pray that mine is, too.

“GOD, HELP ME!”

Summer ‘08–One Thing

This summer is going to be full of lots of things for me–good things. On Sunday, I leave on a missions trip for Uganda for six weeks. As one friend recently put it, the trip will be full of ministry, ministry, and more ministry. When I get back, I will be working as a youth intern at Compass Bible Church in Orange County for six more weeks; this time will also be filled with ministry. My last three weeks of the summer will actually be spent back at school and filled with–you guessed it–more ministry. I will be getting ready for another year as an RA and helping out with the freshman orientation, known as Week of Welcome (or WOW). All of these are good things.

But all these good things are worthless without one other thing. Check out these verses

Psalm 27:4

“One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.”

Philippians 3:13b-14

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Even though, my summer will be filled with many good things, only one thing really matters: Christ.

Will I grow closer to Christ this summer? Will I love him more? Will I long to gaze at his beauty every day this summer?

And this one thing will be the most decisive element in everything else. If I am not seeking Christ more and genuinely loving him and being devoted to him, my ministry will be uneffective and joyless.

So if you want to pray for my summer. Just pray for one thing: that I would grow more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

That’s the one thing I want.

Outlines: Done.

Yesterday, I finished one of the most monumental school projects I have ever had to complete–Outlines for Doc Halstead. Here at The Master’s College, this assignment is almost legendary. Each semester, Doc offers a New Testament Survey course, and Outlines is the main assigment.

Let me give you a little glimpse into Outlines. I just finished the first set of Outlines for New Testament II. In this set Doc breaks the books of Romans and 1 Corinthians down into 57 sections (29 in Romans and 27 in 1 Corinthians.) For each section, the student must come up with a title for the section, analyze it (or interpret it), and respond to it (or write how to apply it.) By the end of the project, each outline was taking me about 30 minutes. It took me longer at the beginning.

While it is a beast of a project, it is a great assigment. I loved going through Romans and 1 Corinthians section by section and analyzing it and trying to truly grasp the meaning of these rich texts. I also enjoyed how the “Response” section of the Outlines forced me to see how God’s Word applies to my life.

Yesterday was somewhat of a reflective day as I did outlines. I was finishing up, so I was in 1 Corinthians 15. A year ago yesterday, I remember reading the same passage of Scripture–but in a very different setting. I was visiting the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem for the first time. This chapter makes a compelling case for the importance of the resurrection. It makes clear what the consequences would be if there was no resurrection, but it also shows the wonderful consequences that are true because the resurrection DID happen. We have a reason to put our lives in danger for the sake of the gospel. We know that death has been defeated. We know we have glorified resurrection bodies to look forward to.

One of the most encouraging parts of this chapter is in the last verse, where Paul reminds the readers that their labor for the Lord is not in vain. As we get caught up in the routines of life, it is easy for us to think of many of our consistent, mundane labors as “vain.” But the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case. To understand this, we must think with an eternal perspective–or a resurrection perspective. We might not understand the purpose of many of our labors until eternity. Until then, we must–by faith–always give ourselves fully to the Lord.

This verse gives me so much encouragement in the midst of the busyness of school. Whether I am working on homework, talking to a guy on my wing, or having my devotions, I know my labor for the Lord is not in vain.

It’s pretty cool I got to learn that for homework.

Do You Crave It?

One Monday night this last semester I was walking down Hotchkiss Upper Front when I stopped to talk to my friend and wingmate Adonis. We discussed our night classes, and he asked me if I liked my major (which is Political Studies.)

“Yeah,” I responded.

He replied with one more question, and these words have stuck with me ever since. His follow-up query showed that he understands that a vast difference exists between liking something and longing for something. He asked, “Do you crave it?”

On Christmas night, I had a long conversation with my brother Billy, his wife Cory, and my father. We discussed various aspects of ministry and noted the importance that every Christian understand the gospel and desire the Lord. A key sympton of these deficiencies is a lack of time in the Word. As we conversed, I began to think to myself, “When it comes to the things of the Lord, do we crave it?”

Do we really seek to glimpse the beauty of the gospel? Each and every one of us is a sinner deserving judgment, but even while we were in this hopeless condition, God sent his son to die for us. Everyone who repents and believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of their sins. They find eternal life and are reconciled to God through adoption as children. And as children of God, we have an inheritance that cannot fade away reserved for us in heaven. Do we crave the gospel?

Have we really tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Everything we have is a gift from God. Each day he unloads his goodness and mercy upon his children. He tells us that no matter what happens to the Christian, God will work it out for good. No matter how long we live, we will never see the end of God’s faithfulness. Do we crave the Lord?

Can we get enough of the Bible? No one can truly glimpse the beauty of the gospel or taste and see that the Lord is good without the Scriptures. Through his word, God tells us the gospel and communicates who he is. How can it be that many Christians neglect to read the Bible? These words are our life. Do we crave God’s Word?

As I return to The Master’s College for the Spring 2008 semester, I want it to be characterized by an intense, personal craving for the Lord. And as I serve on Hotchkiss Upper Front, I pray that we collectively long for the Lord, glory in the gospel, and meditate on God’s word.

In the midst of an environment like a church or The Master’s College where liking the things of the Lord is easy, there is an important question we must all ask ourselves:

Do you crave it?

Why I Thank God for John Piper

During my junior year at Believers Academy, I started meeting my Bible teacher, Tyler Sultze, once a week at Taco Cabana for breakfast. While the food was scrumptious, the fellowship was also delectable. The first book we went through and discussed over breakfast tacos was Be Satisfied by Warren Wiersbe. Next, we decided to tackle Desiring God. It was then that I was introduced to the writings of John Piper, for which I frequently thank God.

Why do I thank God for the ministry of John Piper? Let me put it this way: I often tell people that if you would have asked me at the beginning of high school why I was a Christian, I would have said something like, “I’m a Christian because that’s what I’m supposed to be.” But if you asked me the same question at graduation, I would have said, “I’m a Christian because that’s what I desparately want to be.” Piper’s writings were instrumental in this change or perspective.

Piper helped me see God as desirable. The gospel is great because it reconciles us to him. Sin is worth fighting because the pleasures of sin are utterly incomparable to the superior pleasures of God. Giving your life to Christ is worth it because by losing your life, you find it.

And it is not as if he was making this stuff up. He was simply pointing out how obvious this concept is in the Scriptures. The Psalms overflow with language that delights in God. Even the “hard” teachings of Jesus reveal the superiority of living for Christ. Whoever has left houses or lands or family will receive a hundredfold and eternal life. The man who finds a treasure in a field does not sell all that he has out of obligation, but with joy over the treasure he has found.

These concepts are crucial for Christians to understand. The Christian life is not one merely of obligation, but of joy. As my dad likes to say, “It’s not a ‘got-to’, it’s a ‘get-to.” And yes, the Christian life is hard–Scripture makes that clear. But denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Christ is worth it because nothing compares to knowing him.

This Christmas Break, I have started reading Piper’s Future Grace, and I have been greatly refreshed and energized by it. This post was primarily the result of one quote I read last night:

Christian hedonism [or pursuing ultimate satisfaction in Christ] is the final solution. It is deeper than death to self. You have to go down deeper into the grave of the flesh to find the truly freeing stream of miracle water that ravishes you with the taste of God’s glory. Only in that speechless, all-satisfying admiration is the end of self.

I thank God for John Piper because of quotes like this and books and sermons that teach that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Happy Christmas!

This time of year many people flip open their Bibles to the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke. There is good reason for this because these passages beautifully recount the good news of the events of the Savior’s birth. It is unfortunate that not as many people turn to the opening chapter of John because it helps us understand much of the spiritual significance of the incarnation.

It says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (1:14) John tells us many interesting things about the Word, who is Jesus. He was in the beginning with God; in fact, he was God from the beginning. And in him is life and light.

Christmas is life coming into the world because it is through Jesus that we can experience true, eternal life, which is knowing the Father. (John 17:3) Christmas is light coming into the world because we can truly understand the truth through Christ.

These are only the beginning of the blessings Christians should celebrate at Christmas time. Through the incarnation we have beheld the Father’s glory, which is full of grace and truth. From him we have received grace upon grace. And if we receive the Word, if we believe in him, John tells us that we have the right to be called children of God. Try wrapping your mind around how awesome that is this Christmas.

Last night at Believers Fellowship’s Christmas Eve service, the prelude was a piano performance of the Hallelujah Chorus. Hearing this melody reminded me of an experience I had in Israel. Our group had the privilege of seeing Handel’s Messiah performed for the first time in Hebrew. I enjoyed the performance, but I will never forget one thing that happened at the end of the Hallelujah Chorus. The crowd had risen to sing with the choir, and as the song ended I noticed one choir member near the edge of the risers. One arm was raised to the sky, and he was looking up with tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t just singing Handel’s Messiah, he was singing about his Messiah.

We have so many blessings because the Word became flesh. Therefore, we have every reason to sing hallelujah this Christmas. We have every reason to ponder in our hearts the wonder of what God did for us by sending his Son into the world. And we have every reason to have a very, very, happy Christmas.

Sanity in Insanity

Let’s face it: sometimes life gets CRAZY! Lately, my schedule has been filled with papers, books, exams, soccer games, Bible studies, and all the random things that college life entails. In addition to that, Southern California has literally caught on fire since Sunday.

A couple weeks ago, I was able to sit down and write out a few things I wanted to remember during the busiest time of the semester.

Remember that it’s all about God, not about you. It’s easy for me to start thinking things like, “I have so much I have to do.” I quickly forget that everything I do should ultimately be for the glory of God. Remembering that it’s all about God can be a very liberating thought. Suddenly, all the things I have to do are no longer boxes on my “to-do list;” they are ways to glorify God.

Remember the gospel. Whether life is good or bad, busy or calm, Christians always need to remember the gospel. When my life is crazy, there is nothing more important for me than to recall that I was dead in my sins and headed to hell but God saved me and gave me eternal life in Christ. The beauty of the gospel always helps to give perspective, and nothing brings joy to a stressful day like remembering that all my sins of been forgiven.

Keep your best friends close. My brother gave me this advice. When life gets busy, you lose touch with your closest friends–even your roommates. You might still see them, but conversations are brief and sometimes rushed. In the midst of craziness, I have found I must fight for time with those closest to me. Taking a break and making a Wal-Mart run with your roommate can make a big difference in the midst a research paper and an exam.

Enjoy. If you want to learn this principle, read Ecclesiastes. There is nothing better than for a man to enjoy his labor. Whether I’m practing music for Bible Study, sitting in class, or researching Harvard Law Review articles in the library at 11pm, I need to remember to enjoy what I’m doing! All the different work God has given me to do is a gift!

That’s all for now. Until next time, seriously pray for the fires in Southern California and all those that are displaced. Also, pray that this situation would create opportunities for the gospel!

Gospel Me

Last week, my small group started a new exercise we like to call “Gospel Me.” It was inspired partly by Scott Burns of NorthPoint EV Free in Corona and partly by Peter Barber of Generations–my Bible study. “Gospel Me” works like this: When you see another small group member in the hallway, in their room, in the bathroom, or around campus and you say, “Gospel Me,” they have ten seconds to give you the good news of Jesus Christ.

In order to help prepare us for this, we looked at a number of passages that capsulize the gospel, like 1 Cor. 15:3-4, 2 Cor 5:21, John 3:16, Titus 3:3-7 and many more.

Yes, the exercise may seem a bit silly, and it has not caught on like wild fire, but the point of this practice is crucial. Christians must constantly be reminded of the gospel! If we do not constantly refresh our minds with the truth that we were dead in our sins but made alive in Christ, our spiritual lives will suffer. Our joy will be weak, and our anxieties will be strong. Our evangelism will slack. Our worship will grow cold. Our sanctification will slow down.

If we want to avoid these pitfalls, we need to be continually preaching the gospel to ourselves and our friends. Memorize some of those verses that capsulize the gospel. Write the gospel on a 3×5 card and look at it daily. Preach it to yourself as your reach for the alarm clock in the morning. Instead of beginning your prayers with the standard “thank you for this day,” thank God that he delivered you from this present evil age.

Until next time, gospel me.

Don’t Be Lame

One of my favorite things in the world is The Master’s College. One of my favorite things about TMC is chapel. And one of my favorite things about chapel is Dorm Chapel. A few times a semester, instead of meeting in the gym with the entire student body, all the students divide into their dorms for chapel. While chapel is always sweet, I have particularly loved the mornings I have spent with the men of Hotchkiss in BSC 100. Hotchkiss Men dorm chapel usually consists of singing, testimonies, a word of exhortation from Ona (our RD), and an offering for Yiga (the Compassion International child we sponsor.)

Last Friday, Ona ended dorm chapel with “23 Ways to Be Lame.” Clearly, he was exhorting us to stay away from these ways of lame spiritual living. One particular way that stood out to me was #15–Don’t share the gospel. It seems that evangelism is always a convicting topic for me. It is so easy for me to get comfortable and forget about the world around me that is perishing without Christ. That’s lame.

Along with Ona’s exhortation came an opportunity. Earlier in dorm chapel our ASB Chaplain, Ryan Patterson, presented an opportunity to share the gospel that night through Skid Row Ministry. After debating for while (and taking a nap after class), I decided to go. So Friday night came, I drove downtown with friends, we passed out tacos, we shared the gospel, and we came back.

I do not have any incredible stories to tell about Friday night. Nothing too monumental happened. I did not see anyone get miraculously changed. But as I went to bed late that night, I knew that I had changed. My trip to Skid Row taught me the importance of action. Again, it is easy for me to make excuses like “Going down to Skid Row on one Friday night won’t make a difference” or “That person probably won’t listen” or “There is no way I could follow up with this person, so why share the gospel at all.”

All of those excuses are lame.

Yes, there are certainly things to be said for commitment, persistence, lifestyle, and follow-up in evangelism, but another crucial element is simply getting of your rear and taking the gospel to the streets. There are so many things I do not know about evangelism–so many ways I know the Lord will have to lead. But it’s easier to be led by the Lord when you are moving towards him and towards others than when you are sitting on the sidelines.

Moral of the story: Don’t be spiritually lame. Get in the game. Share the gospel.