The Journey

Kresha & Les "Expecting"

Yup!  You heard it here.  We are 'expecting' a foster child to be delivered to our house this week.  It is a long story (about 10-years long!) of opening our hearts to a child in need.  We have wanted a daughter for that long and have never lost that desire even as each year has passed.

    

We have come close to fostering but nothing played out.  We know the grandparent of this child and were able to see the baby over Christmas.  Our hope is to serve the family by fostering the child for several months.  If CPS does not allow the child back into the home we will have first option to adopt and make her ours. 

    

Please pray with us for this baby who is 11-weeks old and was born with drugs in her system.

    

Kresha and I wanted you to know right off b/c you're family--so, go ahead and start praying for this old couple!

    

She may be with us this Sunday at church for our celebration 'sending' service.

We love you guys!

Life Without Church Attendance?

I have been reading through much of Genesis the past several days and was amazed that Abraham had no church affiliation, no denomination, no spiritual designation other then Man Who Knows God, and no list of rules regarding behavior, morality, worship, and/or sacrifice. 

    

His children and his children's children had no religion either.  Abraham had a running conversation with God for well over 100-years yet God never felt it necessary to tell him how to live, how to worship, or how to raise his children.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were without a religion yet all three had mighty encounters with God.

   

God told Abraham to leave his country and to follow Him (Genesis 12); Abraham obeyed and was richly blessed for the rest of his life.  Isaac was so blessed that even the heathens in the land recognized that God was with him (Genesis 26:28).  Jacob, following after his dad's pattern, was quite the deceiver yet God gave him much in children, finances, and favor.  Even Esau (Isaac's favorite son), from whom Jacob stole the blessing and the birthright, prospered far above those around him.

      

None of these three men attended church.  All of them used deceit to get what they wanted.  The scripture never mentions that they followed a pattern of what we would consider worship, tithing, or sacrifice.  None of these men benefited from living in a country that was Godly or from teaching tapes, great preaching, or what we would consider spiritual gifts.

   

Yet, all of these men walked with God in the middle of a heathen and violent culture.  They more then survived; they were wildly successful to the point that surrounding kings took notice.

    

When reading the story of Abraham and his children it almost feels as if they have no way to know God expect through a real experience with God.  There is no Christian worldview for them to be intellectually swayed by; there is no excellent worship service that would draw them in emotionally; and there are definitely no cultural benefits of serving just this One God.

    

Their relationship with God was raw and real; open and honest.  They were rugged men who heard and responded to the voice of One they came to know better and better.  They did not base their knowledge of God upon what someone else told them but rather walked according to Who they knew God to be from personal experience.

      

What has gone wrong with God's people in this day and age?  We have leadership books, marriage seminars, get rich the Christian way conferences, healing tapes, Charismatic CD's, religious schools, spiritual entertainment, and a myriad of other tools to help us maintain a Christian walk in the midst of a world (at least in America) that is fairly kind and accepting of how we live our lives. 

      

We abuse, get drunk, divorce, lie, live gluttonously, cheat, steal, hate, dishonor, get sick, engage in sexual immorality, and use anti-depressants at about the same rate as the world.

   

What has gone wrong? 

       Have we accepted the idea of God intellectually without the deadly life transforming experience found through repentance?

       Have we felt the Spirit of God in the music and melodic message of well-trained communicators and emotionally agreed with the kindness and peace within that Spirit without accepting the life-giving death of Christ at the cross?

       Have we accepted all the cultural Christian trinkets without accepting Christ; replacing the reality of a blessed Jesus connecting us to God with just another religious pattern of how to look clean while remaining sick and filthy?   

       Have we industrialized God in such a way that we cannot find God in the midst of all the religion?  In the midst of everything we need to do, need to know, need to say, need to wear, and need to act have we forgot the simplicity of just living life with Him?

Help me here.  Challenge me to live LARGE.  Challenge me to DEATH.  Challenge me to POVERTY of slef so that GOd can be seen in me.

Help me 'hear'.  Challenge me to clean out my ears of the religious rubbish that I seem to be addicted to.  Challenge me to shut off the voices of great preaching and deep teaching so that I may be able to hear the voice of the Great Teacher.  Challenge me to hear what God is saying instead of what God has said.

   

Maybe the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is our story—as they were God's people outside of a church setting so we are called to be.  The New Testament church lived within community but it was always meant to benefit those outside the community (and never meant to be an introverted, self-serving group like it became in a few centuries).

    

Maybe this story of Abraham, a man living and moving as God's temple (even before 'you are the temple of the Holy Spirit'), is the story of Jesus also. He was brilliant at an early age and could have used it for position within the current church structure yet Jesus founded His church in the midst of heartache, misery, pain, and defeat.  Jesus gave us the model of how to BE THE CHURCH yet even today we are more concerned with how to do church (spending more time learning how to do church then how to experience God in the midst of our lives).

         

Our story is guaranteed another page and another chapter; there are more opportunities to be explorers, heroes, great dancers, and mighty fighters; there are more mountains, valleys, rivers, and deserts to travel; and there are more pages to be written no matter how many pages you are into your book.

      

As we move to the next page let us be sure to write something new instead of re-writing what we already think we know. 

Church Plant Update #2

Sunday, February 11, 2007 @ 10:10 AM those of us who are venturing out as 'church planters' will meet for our first equipping service.  Note the word 'church planters' used in that last sentence as it is very important as it means we are calling the mature, the giving, the compassionate, and the bold to move forward and become the Church instead of asking people to come and join a church.  See the difference? 

We have secured a great little meeting place called the Main Street Crossing.  It is located at

111 West Main Street

(W. Main is 2920 as it goes thru Tomball—just west of the RR tracks).

Join us February 11th @ 10:10 AM if God is calling you to this new adventure.

Join us Saturday, January 27th @ 8:30 AM at Kresha and Les' house if you want to pray with us, ask more questions, or just hang out.

Sunday, February 4, 2007 we will be sent out from FF to begin a new journey.  This will be a blessing and a sending by our FF family.  Kerry Kirkwood will be there to speak over us (Reids, VanPelts, and Herrons) as God moves us forward. 

Join us @ 10:30 AM for this exciting time...even if you have connected with another family. 

Responding to God's Call

God calls us to go to places we have never been.  He calls us to do things that are far out of our comfort zone.  God even asks us to become someone that is completely different then who we are now (or maybe He is just asking us to be who we really are?).

 

And when we take that step towards God's call (His 'calling' out or His 'summoning us') it is the beginning of a fantastic journey and the beginning of the end of us. 

    

It would be so cool to be able to say that I have always responded with enthusiasm and complete confidence that God can provide.  Well, I guess I could lie and go ahead and say it!

 

But life is much messier then that.  Even the hearing can be unclear.  But remember, God is not asking us to hear Him perfectly or to respond perfectly.  He is asking us to hear and to move in a love response to knowing that He will be there.

   

God just had to tell Abraham to leave his country and Abraham responded by simply calling Mayflower Moving Company, packing up his furniture and family, and leaving everything he once knew (Genesis 12:1-5).

   

Isaiah heard God asking the question "Who shall I send?" and he jumps up and down shouting "HERE I AM!  SEND ME" (Isaiah 6:8-9). 

   

Like I said, I wish I heard and responded to God's call in such a clear and passionate way.

   

Moses is probably a better picture of how I have responded to God's call to full-time ministry. 

   

Moses, minding his own business in the desert, sees a burning bush and hears God's clear voice as he is called to free his nation that is enslaved in Egypt.

   

Moses' response?  "God, do you know how unqualified I am for this job and how unlikely I can do this?"

 

Strike One.

   

God gently assures Moses that He will be with him but Moses does not buy into the "God will be with you" thinking and responds with "When I tell people that God sent me they will ask Who is this God?"

 

Strike Two.

 

Instead of striking Moses dead on the spot God takes the time to gently explain Who He is (I AM WHO I AM) and then tells Moses exactly what to say to the Jewish people when he arrives.

   

Moses, probably understanding that God is Who He says He is, falls back on the excuse of how unqualified he is for the job and begins to ask God what will happen if the Israelites call him a liar.

   

Strike Three.

   

What a loser.  Most of us would have quit asking Moses to lead after the first or second attempt to motivate him and give him confidence.  But not God.

   

God responds by turning Moses' walking stick into a snake and back into a rod again.  God has Moses put his hand inside his shirt and when he pulls it out his hand is completely leprous; put it back in again and pull it out—perfectly normal.  God assures Moses that if the Israelites do not believe the first miracle then God will give Moses another miracle.

   

But Moses just became more specific with his excuses and explained to God (as if God did not already know Moses' limitations) how bad of a speaker he was and how poor of a communicator he would be.

   

Strike Four.

   

God, literally as patient as the day is long, lets Moses know that He made his mouth and will teach him to speak and will tell him what to say when he is without words.  Moses, trying to trump the hand of God and finally end the conversation, says "God, please just send someone else". 

    

Strike Five.

   

God becomes angry and tells Moses that his brother Aaron can speak for Moses when it comes to the Israelites.

   

Finally Moses goes to his employer (his father-in-law) and asks for a leave of absence in order to go and free the Israelites from Egyptian rule (Exodus 3:1 thru 4:18); and thus begins the incredible story of the exodus of the children of Israel.

 

Let me assure you that as a Believer God has already called you and that life has been equipping you to BE the person you dream of being.

 

You are called like Abraham to leave all that you know and enter into a new land of promise.  You are called like Isaiah to speak the words of God to a people who are living a life of compromise and religion.  You are called like Moses to bring people out of captivity and into a land of freedom.

   

More specifically you are called, and can be, that loving father and caring mother.  You are called to be an excellent employee and a generous employer.  You are called to be the loving neighbor and the peaceful brother. 

   

Respond to God's call in your life.  Do not wait around but begin to respond right now to who God has made you to be. 

Remember When Jesus...

When Jesus showed up church seemed to happen right there.  It did not matter if He was at the local watering hole and a woman with a bad reputation joined Him; church happened.  Amazingly church happened without a program, without a building, without a 3-point sermon, and without a worship team playing the latest CD that is the 'next best thing to really being in heaven' (Remember the Memorex commercial?--Is it heaven or is it Hillsong?).

Like it or not we are the church: you and me.  As simple as that sounds, as odd as it may seem, and as ugly as it looks we are called to be the church.  The ‘church’ is not a building, a program, or a day but a people: you and me.  When we show up church should happen and no amount of programming and marketing and spiritual shuck and jiving is going to change that.

Is there ever a time in recorded history where Jesus invited someone to church to receive the truth, sight for blind eyes, or for any healing?  I don’t think so (feel free to let me know otherwise).  He was the first fleshly temple of mankind that all of us are meant to be today but we strain so hard to calendar and program what a living, vital, intimate relationship with Almighty God looks and feels like.

(Sometimes it all just feels like compromise to me…like I have traded in an incredible vibrant relationship available 24/7/365 for a scheduled weekly meeting with Someone I love).

And trust me when I say it does not look like attending church on Sundays!  Vain repetition is hated by God because it breeds staleness.  God is real and alive and desires for us to know him relationally in the everyday smallness of life.

I think it was that crazy Christian writer Donald Miller who said (and I hate to ruin what he said so blame me if I get this wrong) that if we have a relationship with God than it is going to be uncomfortable and messy and always changing. 

And, I’d like to add, just because we have a sense that we know Him now does not mean that after one-minute in His presence or one-minute in conversation with Him won’t make my head spin, my heart go pitter patter (Or is that Santa’s feet on the roof top?), and make me feel like I don’t even know this amazing Father that is so dazzling that He can only give me little tiny bits and glimpses of Who He is.

God is huge.  He cannot be contained within tens of thousands of Sunday morning services or even in millions of Christians.  His reflection is seen in every good deed that was done today and His hand is seen as the sun rise, the moon shines, and the wind blows. 

God is so massive that He is even seen in the unbelieving (another story altogether).

God is huge so for Christ sake get Him out of the church.

Different Ways We Respond to Change

There are some, very much like myself, who would love to have life change every month or so.  This would include a different job, new home, and new challenges.  I thrive on changes and must be attuned to God just in order to stay in one place faithfully.

 

There are others, very much like Kresha, who would love to have life remain the same year after year.  This would include attending the same church and living in the same house until Jesus returns.  She creates stability wherever she goes and must be attuned to God just in order to leave a place (or people) she loves. 

 

One trait is no better then the other even though typically we both think how we respond to change is the best way!  God uses the combination of the two extremes in order to bring about a radical life balance that propels us forward in safety.

       

As we move forward in this new ministry venture we must take note of how we respond to change.

Some of you are thrilled and your responses went something like this "It is about time!  Glad you're finally listening to God!"  I laughed when I heard this because I knew that this group had already heard God's direction and were appropriately waiting for leadership to hear also.  I was pleased at the maturity in these individuals in that they saw something in the future yet waited for others to catch up. 

   

There are others who cringe each time they hear of any change at all and when they heard about this new ministry plant they went "Whoa!  Another change?"  Yet I am so pleased that this group is allowing us to pull them forward into a new venture and is in fact asking the right questions that will bring safety to all who take this journey with us.

   

Kresha and I represent the extreme ends of the spectrum in how change is viewed.  I love change and would rush foolishly ahead if not submitted to the input of others.  Kresha loves stability and could grow roots in the wrong ground if not submitted to the input of others.

   

Consider where you are in this spectrum when it comes to change.  Do you love change or do you love stability?  For those who love change, be careful that you are hearing God before you move; He may be asking you to stay put.  For those who love stability, be careful that you hear God before you stay; He may be asking you to move out beyond yourself.

   

Hearing God is the key.  What is He saying to you?  Do not make a decision based on who you like or even on what you want to do.  Hear God and follow Him regardless of what you want; regardless of what you think; regardless of how you feel; regardless of who is doing what.   

   

Hear the Father and then line up your emotions, your thoughts, and your actions according to His words.  You will never regret that.  He will keep you safe.