Passages

Today I decided to pass on to others a ministry that I have given a lot of my heart, soul, mental and spiritual energy to over the past 4 years.

It is time.

This ministry has student officers now, they are organized and getting things prepared. I am not truly a student at that community college anymore, even though I still have an ID.

I have my doubts about how effective I have been after these four

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, almost five years and definitely about how well I have prepared these students. I only have them around two years

, tops. Some are brand new. I don’t know what will happen.

“Faithful yet ineffective” may have to be good enough as an epitaph on my time there!

God surprises me all the time. I hope I am very pleasantly surprised by how well things work in this ministry without me (I hope that makes sense). We come and go. We have moments of triumph and regret

, deft action and woeful mistakes. He, on the other hand, does all things well and works all things for good.

I am at peace. I have other ministry before me and still so

, so much to learn, so much more love, grace and humility to gain, so much decreasing to do while He increases.

A little sad, but at peace. Thank you Lord!

Kept from stumbling

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. – Genesis 20:6 NASB

There is something astounding about this statement of the Lord to Abimilech: “I also kept you from sinning against Me.”

When I look back on my life

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, I can recount a lot of instances when I sinned. Heck, when I look back on today I can recount a lot of instances, and I haven’t even had my morning coffee yet.

But what takes my breath away is the remembrance of all the instances in the past when I had opportunity to sin and somehow God made the way of escape. This includes times even before I came to Christ.

It wasn’t me not wanting to sin. It was God keeping me from tremendous future trouble and regret.

He didn’t have to do that. I would have deserved the consequences of my actions. But he loves me and he knows my name and he cares for the glory and honor of his Name.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24‭-‬25 ESV

Knowing and being known

But now thus says the Lord , he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers

, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” – Isaiah 43:1‭-‬7 ESV

We are not accidents. We were created and formed. Because of this, we can know and be known by our Creator. And it is a very good kind of knowing; redeemed and called by name

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, a precious possession of the Creator.

Not called to a life of ease, but called to a life of intimacy, of knowing and being known as we walk through floods and flame with the One who promises never to leave or forsake.

The One who calls us precious and honored and loved. Us!

He promises to restore, to bring it all back, to make all things new and as they were meant to be at first, for his glory and for those who call his name and are called by his name.

Praise be to God.

Grateful

I was tired yesterday evening when I walked onto the Lone Star College University Park campus. It was time for our weekly Core meeting (the Core is the Christian club I help lead at LSC UP). I was lugging my backpack and a carry-case of thirty Chick Fil A sandwiches that Lone Star generously provided fo us. They are good to us.

It didn’t matter that I was tired. When i walked into the building i had the same energizing feeling that I get every week: deep affection for this great little community college campus and gratefulness and wonder that I get to do this.

Here is a picture of the group last night. They devoured the sandwiches

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, by the way. I’m blessed a million ways.

Be there

Back on the bus; it’s been a few days. I spent a lot of time in cars over the long weekend. Trip to Waco Friday. Unplanned trip back to Houston Friday night to deal with an attic leak. Saturday drive to Dallas to meet back up with the family. Marathon one-day road trip on Sunday with Bethany to get her car back to Chicago. Flight back home yesterday. It was a gauntlet but I made it, and there was a lot to enjoy along the way. I think I did a decent job at not missing out on the good things happening in the moments that made up what was, physically, a fairly stressful weekend. Being present in each moment doesn’t always come easy for me. I’m still learning.

There is a balance to be found between thinking only of the future or only of the past at the ends of the spectrum

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, versus being where you’re at, now. The past offers wisdom and experience. The future is something to press toward, but the present is where all the real action is.

Be there.

Encouraging day

Today I got to have lunch with a brother who has spent decades serving, mentoring, encouraging, teaching, leading, and befriending young people. There are few people I respect more. He wanted to talk about ministry to college students and young singles – they are starting a community for that at their church. I left that lunch wanting to explode with the encouragement and excitement. I love it when churches invest in college students and young singles, and remain confused and disheartened that so many don’t.

Tonight I got to be with these wonderful people (pictured below) at the Core, a Christian gathering that was started by a friend at our local community college

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, Lone Star. He has become very busy (he works for Ted Cruz’s campaign) and so I have gotten to lead it this semester.

Tonight we talked about Romans 6:3-6, and the newness of life brought back from the dead by Jesus. Several of them shared their stories, and others shared the newness of what God is doing in their lives now. Several people shared with me before the session started that their day had been really difficult, and during the session we had several moments of hilarity – snafus in the worship time, one of our girls getting her foot tangled in her purse and performing one of those hilarious slow motion tumbles from her chair (she was never in danger of getting hurt). We laughed and laughed and I thought about how kind of the Lord to de-stress those of us who have had stressful weeks.

It was a great night. I can’t believe I get to do this.

20160209Core

You didn’t join a club

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. – Romans 6:5-11

Play the funeral dirge, and play it with gusto and joy, in cut time and in a major key.

“Why?” you ask.

Because you’re dead.

Your old self, that is. Feel free to give the eulogy, but don’t talk well of the not-dearly departed and please do wear a large smile. This is both good riddance and good news. It’s OK to shout. Throw some dirt on the grave. If you’re inclined, feel free to do some mudding in your ATV over the grave site tonight. Laugh long and hard while you’re at it. Then drive off and never look back. No need to refresh the flowers.

You are united with Christ. You didn’t join a club, and he’s not your CEO. Your body of sin went with him to the cross, and it died there. Your new self rose with him at his resurrection and now you’re free in him. And by “in him” I mean united closer than flesh and bone. And by “free” I mean freer than you’ve ever imagined, if you can only see it.

Free at last. No longer a slave to sin, but free to live to God, free to follow your Lord in love, forever free in Jesus. If you’re wearing shackles, you put them on yourself and the key is easily within reach, in your hip pocket.

Drop those blasted things and enjoy!

An observation about utopians

I think Dennis Prager is on to something:

Utopians will always be less happy than those who know that suffering is inherent to human existence. The utopian compares America to utopia and finds it terribly wanting. The conservative compares America to every other civilization that has ever existed and walks around wondering how he got so lucky as to be born or naturalized an American.

Whatever you think of his larger point, I do think there’s a certain lack of gratitude in the utopian mindset, even about their own plight, let alone that of the truly less fortunate. Not that I have anything against utopianism, of the right sort. As a Christian, I’m a utopian, but I don’t expect the new earth to come from, of all things, political action.

Life is hard. Some of us in the West have been blessed to be born into an extremely wealthy, healthy, and peaceful society when compared to most all other places and certainly to most all other times in history. For those to whom much is given . . . We’re to work hard to make the plight of others better.

But we’re not going to be the saviors.

On a more positive note . . .

What a great day in the College and Young Singles class! We had more singles there than I can remember in a long, long time. The worship by Molly and Zach was very good, and Charles did a tremendous job finishing up his two-part teaching on stewardship, ending with our stewardship of the Gospel.

It was a really good morning. Very encouraging. We also announced the starting up of HomeGroups in early February.

It was a good end to a pretty challenging and tiring weekend. I think I’ll cap it off with some time spent organizing the attic (that’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of fun, right?) 🙂

And, after that, time to get ready for a challenging and tiring week. There are lots of big doings at work and I’m in the middle of some of them. Whew.

Oh, I almost forgot. Congratulations Colts!

Привет!

. . . transliterated “Previet!”, or “Hello!” as we say in the United States.

I’m writing to you from Simferopol, Ukraine, where we are visiting Jill’s parents, Loys and Virgil, who are missionaries here reaching out to the Crimean Tatar people.

I must say, Ukraine is amazing. We left home on Christmas afternoon and arrived here on December 26th, with only a few mishaps (for instance, a lost bag – perhaps I’ll write of that adventure later). When traveling to the former Soviet Union, one of the first things you realize is how blessed we are in the United States. There are many people here who are living in poverty, day to day. The Ukrainians we have met have all been great people, and I could listen to them speak their beautiful language all day long. The kids and I have been having fun trying to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and some basic Russian words.

There are two main groups of Ukrainians here in Simferopol. The first group is native Russians. They are generally fair-skinned with brown or blond hair. The other group is the Crimean Tatars, who generally have darker hair, dark eyes, and more of a Mediterranean tint to their skin. The Russians tend to be Eastern Orthodox, and the Crimean Tatars are almost all Muslims, although both groups seem to be relatively nominal in their faiths. To the Tatars, being Muslim is part of what makes them Tatars, so it is rare to find a Christian Tatar. They are a beautiful people – Ukrainian women are renowned for their beauty.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we went to the University to sit in on the English book club that Jill’s parents run. We spent our time in three different sessions answering questions about the United States and asking questions of our own. The students involved in the book club are all learning English, so we got to converse in our own language. They were wonderful to us, and were especially interested in our Christmas traditions, how weddings happen, what music we like, US politics and what we think of Ukrainian politics and, in a somewhat random moment of the question-and-answer, vegetarians!



Some of the book club students. Our translator, Nata, can be seen sitting between my girls on the front row.

The University itself was once a military school, and still is adjacent to a Ukrainian military installation complete with lines of tanks. The school is in a condition that would generally not be tolerated in the US, but on the first floor there is a fantastic marble (or marble-appearing) floor with flowing Cyrillic script etched in it, and sculptures of famous people inset in the columns. I’m told the students designed it. One hall was also festooned with artwork from the students. I am no artist, but I will say that this artwork depicted realistic subjects (people, primarily) drawn with great skill, and I’ve decided already that if this is Russian art I like it a lot better than most of the art in the US, which seems to all be of the abstract variety.

Outside of the University is a monument which commemorates May 18, 1944, which is, as the students solemnly told us, a “very black day” in Crimean Tatar history. I will write more about what happened on that day in a later post.



The girls and Nata

Last night we went to a “youth group” meeting at Nata’s church. Nata is Loys and Virgil’s translator and is absolutely precious. She is an amazing servant and has been with us much of the time here. Here, “youth” encompasses college students as well, and most of the dozen or so students attending were from the University. We had a wonderful time. They taught us a Russian praise song, and we in turn showed them a song from our children’s services – Molly and Bethany led them in the singing and Andrew played guitar for them. They loved it! After that, we talked about “presents”, and the leader, Roma, talked about the presents we can give Jesus. As Nata directed us by translating, each of us wrote down a present we can give Jesus, and also a prayer request, and placed it in a gift box. Roma ended by praying a very earnest prayer in Russian. While we didn’t understand a word of it, it was beautiful to hear.

After this, we played a couple of games. The first saw us divided into limons, Banans, and Yablockas, or Lemons, Bananas, and Apples. It wasn’t long before I recognized the game; it was Fruit Basket Turnover from my way-back youth group days in San Antonio. We then played another game that I won’t describe, but it was also something I recognized.



Singing with the students

A thought popped into my head at this point. This entire youth activity, from the songs we opened with to the short message to the games we ended with, would be dismissed these days as hopelessly cheesy by most student ministries in the United States.

We’re a bit too cool for those things, you see . . .

But these beautiful young Ukrainian Christians were joyfully playing, talking, and participating. During fruit basket turnover they were laughing their heads off!

I’ll take last night over most of the student services I’ve been in – and I’ve been in a lot, having done student ministry as a volunteer for years and years, up until 2005. And this is not an indictment of what we do in the US. I understand the reasons why student ministry is done the way it is done here. But to see these beautiful friends, with not one thought to how relevant or cool they were, just having a joyful time in the Lord . . . well, it was refreshing.

I went to bed happy last night.

Today we met with Sergey, a friend of Nata’s who had also been at the service last night, and played some Futbol! Sergey is a professional soccer player for a team in Kiev and he and his thirteen year old brother-in-law joined with Andrew, Jill, Bethany, Blake and me for a great game of field soccer – in the snow! I haven’t had that much fun in ages. Sergey, who is in his twenties, and Blake, who is ten, really went after each other – in fun, of course – and it was a great game. After the game, Sergey told Blake that he has great technique and complimented him on his left foot, and encouraged him that if he wanted to persue a professional career, he should do so. What an encouragement! Blake really did play well, and I think made himself a little sick in the process – he now has a cough.



Sergey, Vlodie and Blake



Blake and Sergey going at it



Andrew, goalkeeping



Sergey with his lovely wife and Vlodie. The apartments they live in are in the background.

After this we went ice-skating at an outdoor rink, again with Nata joining us. Only Molly, Bethany and I skated, while the others sat inside and watched. It was awesome. I haven’t skated in awhile and I’m not very good at it, but we had fun, and enjoyed the New Year’s decorations. They really celebrate New Years big here, and they even have New Year’s trees, decorated just like our Christmas trees. They have Father Frost and the Snow Maiden too; Father Frost is basically Santa Claus. For those who celebrate Christmas, it is celebrated on January 7th.



Iceskating! Notice the New Year’s tree in the background.

After skating, Andrew, Molly, Bethany and I rode the Marshutcka bus with Nata back to Loys and Virgil’s apartment. On the way, Nata told me her testimony. It was a beautiful thing to hear. She was raised Orthodox but didn’t know Christ. She was invited three years ago to a camp by Americans who had come here and she saw the Russian language version of the Jesus movie. It was because of that that she accepted Christ, though it cost her much to do so; her parents are not supportive and her father nearly disowned her. But she has the joy of Jesus in her heart and serves with such humility and grace.



Marshutka bus!

We went to eat dinner tonight with Jason, Anya and their baby daughter Lilly. Jason and Anya are friends of Loys and Virgil’s. They are believers – Jason is American while Anya is from Ukraine. After dinner, Anya told the story of her conversion and it also involved having seen the Jesus film. I’m beginning to realize what a great impact that film has had on people around the world.

We’re now settling down for another night. It’s about 11pm here, and we’re looking forward to a quick trip to Yalta tomorrow. I hope to write more as our time here continues.

I love being in Ukraine.