OBEY

There are certain times in life when God commands us to do something and we, without fail, give Him the "Say what?!!" response. I know that there have been several of these instances in my life, from Him telling me that football wasn't what I was supposed to do at university (He led me to something infinitely better - rugby) to the fact that I wasn't supposed to pursue a degree in biochemistry any longer to His constant reassurance that everything was for His glory as my mom succumbed to terminal cancer. In all of these things, after the initial questioning of God's goodness to His children and attempts to do things on my own,  I came to see how good it is to obey what the Lord commands.

As I sat in the lush garden at the pool area in Monte Compania outside of San Jose, Costa Rica, the scripture that I had gone over that morning with several of our high school students on the mission trip with NEXT kept echoing in my mind. I Samuel 15 is a hard chapter for many people, especially those who might call themselves "Emergent," "seeker-sensitive," or even good-ol' "post-Modern," in the sense of what God commands from His people, namely the king who He has set over the nation of Israel (Saul). Our infantile minds simply cannot comprehend why God would do something like wiping out a people known as the Amalekites. Nonetheless, that is exactly what He demands from Saul and the people of Israel.

Saul goes down to wipe out the people, and for the most part does, choosing to bring back their king, Agag, as well as the best of the spoils of war, namely the prized livestock of the Amalekites. But, Saul didn't carry out exactly what the Lord had commanded. "'Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have.'" All that they have? Saul brings back their king and their livestock as a sort of blessing for himself. He even goes so far as to set up a monument to himself at a place called Carmel!

The real moral of the story lies in what the prophet Samuel tells King Saul in 15v.22: "'Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.'"

My wife and I have heard the Lord's calling on our lives for some time. Even before we were married, we knew that our ultimate calling was to become missionaries and see the world rocked even more with the Gospel. Our hearts beat for Asia, especially the southeastern portions of that vast continent. We are so incredibly excited about what God has in store for us in the next few years. 

But, at the same time, it is tempting to stay where we are most comfortable. Laura Kate's grandparents are all here in Lubbock. We love our church. We love ministering to the families and especially the kids who are under our care. We love our CORE Group and the friends that we've made there. We love the fact that at any time, we can drive a couple miles and walk around the beautiful grounds of our alma mater (Texas Tech). There is a lot to enjoy here in Lubbock. And yet, we know that to stay here, where we are most comfortable, would be a tragedy in that we would be setting our own plans and ourselves about the One we worship and live for.

Although it's hard (and it's an incredibly hard season, right now), we know what the Lord has commanded. Who are we to disobey the One who has given us so much in life? Obey what the Lord demands, follow where he leads, reach those who He uses you to reach.

Booyah... Achieved! (in the words of "Minus the Bear")

After quite a good bit of travel, I am finally home from my adventures in missions with NEXT Worldwide, planting two churches and five "cell groups" (future home-churches) in the Costa Rican towns of Birri and Heredia. It was an incredible trip!!!

The streets of both Birri and Heredia were ripe for the Gospel, as we saw 126 new Believers come to Christ in the four days we were amongst the people. Some of the evangelism that took place was none less than incredible, as there were numerous people who seemed to just have been waiting for someone to tell them about the Gospel. 

This brought to mind the passage of Romans 10v.14-15.

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.'"

One of the other Lead Missionaries with NEXT, Matt, was telling me the story of a couple of friends of his who trekked some two weeks into the jungles of Vietnam to find a specific tribe of people who had not heard the Gospel. They faced numerous obstacles to get there: malaria, suspicious Communists, and even blood-borne diseases from a certain people who enjoyed three day-old congealed goat blood (they did not partake of that "delicacy"), but they finally arrived. When they got there, they began to notice, over the course of a couple of days, that the people really didn't seem to have any sort of religious belief system. There was absolutely none... no Buddhist leanings or Shintoism, nor even Communist belief in deifying "the State." The missionaries were bewildered and began asking some of the villagers where the rain came from ("The clouds...") or who made the sun come up ("It just does..."). The people didn't even have a bit of animism or ancestral worship. When the missionaries finally asked them why they didn't believe in anything, they responded, "Because no one has come to tell us what to believe."

There is a lost world out there, and my brief sojourn in Costa Rica only amplified the dire need of a fallen people to know and embrace the Gospel! May God again and again call us to the far reaches of the world (even if that's right in our own backyards!) to bring others to worship Him and bring Him glory forever more!

The Abominable Snowstorm

This past week, I had a thought roll through my head that hasn't been there in at least a year: "Today would be the perfect day to go to the park and fly a kite! I wonder where I could get one?" Lubbock's weather, Thursday through Saturday of last week, was absolutely beautiful. The tinge of spring was most definitely in the air, there was certainly no blowing dust (quite an anomaly this time of the year), and the sun was making everything a gilded tint of utopian beauty. 70's and on into the near 80's yesterday afternoon. And then? This morning, we wake up to near-blizzard conditions! So it is on the South Plains, the place where God patted Earth with His mighty hand and completely flattened it for some 250 miles! At least, that's what I like to tell people...

But seriously, a snowstorm following some of the most beautiful days we've seen in quite some time? You've got to be kidding me! Not that I don't like the snow (I love it) or the blustery cold and blasts of arctic air, not to mention how cute my bride looks all decked out and bundled up (especially with that baby bump!), but weather, please, make up your mind!

This reminded me, though, of something that I read in my study time last week. In Ezekiel (34v.26), we are reminded this: "I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing."

God is sovereignly over the seasons, and knows the patterns of the weather we face, physically as well as within ourselves. I would venture to say that the majority of us feel that we are going to constantly be blessed with the things we want in life, and that it is God's obligation to give us these things, since we believe in Him and trust in Him. We like to think that we deserve to be blessed constantly with material things. What we often refuse to look at is that the blessings of God come in their season. Our material well-being and feeling good are not obligations of God's. We know that, just as He takes care of the birds of the air, that He's going to take care of His children; this is a promise. But it is not always going to be material. Where we are constantly blessed is in the spiritual realms, where there is no longer (nor every has been) any merit of our own accord. We are eternally blessed by the sweet, precious blood of Jesus Christ. 

As the snow continues to come down in blankets that simply don't stick from the sweeping winds, I'm reminded: God's blessings come in their season, not when I, a dumb and selfish man, want them to. They'll be here when they're supposed to be. Do I still worship, though, when the landscape is arid and dry; when it seems like there's nothing but drought in my life? We are promised that we will have showers of blessing, because our Father loves us; but will we still worship when those blessings aren't in season and the ground is choked?