Extraordinary.

This past weekend was that: extraordinary. I’m still trying to process how much God moved in my heart this weekend. It was incredible.
My youth group that I am a leader in participated in Fine Arts and received three nationals invites to Orlando in the Drama, Human Video, and Short Story categories. They are so talented!
I had a talk with four students in my youth group which was really good. One girl grew up in a broken home and shared her story with us. She has been a Christian for a year-and-a-half and it is really sweet to see the how much God has strengthened her through this, and how much she has grown during the time I’ve known her. God really used me to speak truth into her life and encourage her and point her towards the Cross. We ended praying for her and it was really powerful and amazing to see the love and support the students had for her.
Then on Sunday my pastor preached on John 21:1-14 when Jesus appeared to Peter and John on the boat after His resurrection. The service was powerful, the worship was powerful, and the altar call was powerful.
Recently, I have been doubting where I am going with my ministry in the future because I want to be a youth pastor. My heart says “yes” but my flesh is doubtful. Throughout this weekend God really reassured the path He has for me. During the altar call one of students and his dad, who is a deacon, prayed for me. God really broke down my selfish doubt and I was able to tremble and weep in His presence. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually weeped before the Lord. I pray that God would continue to break my heart for His Kingdom. I want to be used by Him, because He uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am thrilled that God would use a broken sinner to do His work. I am eternally Yours, Lord.

may I seek You Lord…

I was reading through John chapter 5 yesterday, and there was a portion of scripture I want to share. Let me give you a little context first:
In Jerusalem, Jesus had just healed a paralytic man and told him to take his mat and get up. Some Jews were upset with Him because He did this on the Sabbath, and you aren’t allowed to pick up your mat on the Sabbath. They persecute Him, and Jesus responds by saying “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” The Jews were outraged because Jesus was making Himself equal to God. Jesus began to tell them that He can do nothing apart from the Father, and says that whoever hears His word and believes in Him will have eternal life. Jesus then began to talk about those who can testify about Him. The part that hit me the most was verses 39-40. “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” This just spoke so much truth to me right now in my life. Some times I feel like we all look to studying the Word as a routine. It becomes something we don’t look forward to, but something we do habitually without meaning. For me, it is quickly becoming a way to satisfy my “works righteousness.” It’s hard to say that, because I need the true Gospel everyday, not depending on my works to complete me, but Christ. It just happened so subtly. I should want to read God’s word because through it I will become more like Christ and He will be revealed to me, not because it is a check off my to-do list. We should become diligent in studying the Word so that we may be saturated with Christ!

God, I pray that I would be diligent in studying Your Word. Not for the sake of routine, but so that I may continue to seek and find you. I pray also that you would protect me from any false truths that may arise around. I am not saved by my works, but by Christ, from my sins, for the sake of making Him known to the nations.

What stirs your affections for Jesus?

A couple of weeks ago at BULL (Campus Outreach meeting) Matt Chandler (Pastor of the Village Church in Texas) challenged us to not be complacent as to thinking that we gain our salvation by our works (legalist view), but to remember that Christ died to save us from ourselves, and the only way to receive salvation is through faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It was a great reminder of the Gospel, and I need to be reminded of it every day!
He also challenged us to think of things that stir our affection for Christ so that we may continue to find our joy in Christ. Here are a few of mine…

1.) Starting my morning early in the Word.
2.) Spending time with youth from my church, and seeing them grow in their walks with Christ. (I want to be a youth pastor after college.)
3.) MUSIC:
-Playing my guitar (sometimes I play outside when it’s warm. love that!)
– Singing (in worship, being goofy in the car/shower [thanks to katie backer for introducing me to the “singing with headphones in your ear really loudly and not being able to hear what you sing” game… fun stuff!), in choir, or while walking to class
– Listening to music and doing nothing else but sit in the presence of God…
– going to concerts, etc, etc, etc……
4.) Spending time with other guys…
5.) Getting time in the word with Drew Kirch every tuesday morning, and just talking about life, and encouraging each other in our walks with Christ.
6.) taking NAPS.
7.) driving my motorcycle and enjoying the scenery
8.) Seeing others pursue an active faith instead of being complacent in their walk with Christ!

I did 8 things, because 8 is my lucky number!
I want to encourage you to think of things that stir your affections for Jesus, and dwell on those things, and rid yourself of things that rob your affection for Jesus.

Let me know- what things stir YOUR affection for Jesus? Be blessed!

I am blessed.

At Christmas Conference I roomed with Drew Kirch and it was great! I am just so thankful to the Lord for bringing him into my life. We just “hit it off” you might say. Every day we would have devotions together, and most of the time ate our meals together. We were able to get in the Word with each other and just be guys, and enjoy each other’s time. I’ve been seeking more older guy friendships in my life, and this friendship with Drew came at the perfect time for me.
After Christmas Conference I really felt like the Lord wanted me to pursue a deeper and more intentional friendship with Drew, and not just leave it at the conference. (You ever have those friends at camp that you spend your whole week with, and get to know and love them, and then when the week is over you go your separate ways? If you have, then you know what I’m talking about.) I prayed about it and asked the Lord to guide me towards this friendship if He willed it. I felt an urgency to go for it so I did.
Drew and I meet every Tuesday (and sometime Thurs) morning for breakfast and we talk about life and just get in the Word together. In order to do this every Tuesday I have to sacrifice my precious sleep in order to spend time with Drew. It’s really hard, but the fruits of it are amazing, so it’s totally worth it. It’s really great, and the Lord has just been great at blessing our friendship and time together. We are each at our own level of maturity in our walks with Christ, but we are both growing and learning through each other, so it’s great to see the Gospel lived out in each of our lives. I wanted to share this, cuz this is what God is doing in my life right now, and I pray that He would continue to work in and through myself and Drew. Not to us, but to His Name be the Glory.

The true Gospel

“The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely.”

-Tim Keller

Praise God we are not saved by our own works, or doing cuz we would somehow screw it up. Save me Jesus, everyday I need you.

The True Message of Jesus

“Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.”

- Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God

(I got this off of Of First Importance. It’s a sweet Gospel blog site that gives quotes or verses for the day that lead us to the Gospel.  Check it!)

something to ponder

I was talking with my neighbor in my hall last night and it was just a really interesting convo.  I was telling him how when I ‘m so buried in myself that God reaches down and gives me a love tap, well- more like a smack upside the back of my head, to remind me of His sovereignty and grace.  God is so good!  I was reading Psalm 24 and talks about entering into God’s presence, and in the second half of the chapter it says “lift up your heads… so that the King of Glory may come in.”  LIFT UP YOUR HEADS. That’s so true for me.  Lift up your head, look past your self, and see the King of Glory, the Lord strong and mighty.  As I continue to approach the throne, broken and selfish, I pray that the Lord would continue to decrease myself and increase Himself in my life. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Galatians 2:20.

“Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He has done.”   (To God Be the Glory – hymn)

Each day I am saved from myself, to God, and for others.  to God be the Glory.

“Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.”

Recently, Northwestern college’s cafeteria, “Cafe Naz,” has been weighing the food everyone wastes from their meals, just cause.  It made me start to think, “wow, we really waste a lot of food!”  You always hear people say to not waste your food because there are people all over the world who don’t get to eat.  It’s usually not hard to shrug off that comment because we are selfish and it’s very easy to attain that necessity, food.  It’s not easy for everyone though, which is really sad.   There are families all over the world who suffer and are malnourished because they don’t have money to feed themselves.

I went to Feed My Starving Children tonight with my youth group and God just began to re-open my eyes to the hurt that is around me.  For those of you who don’t know, Feed My Starving Children is a Christian organization that packages food, with the help of volunteers, and sends them to malnourished families over the world.  One package of food is able to feed six people, and tonight our group boxed enough packages to feed 44 children for a year.  Praise God! It was amazing to just be with friends while serving God, and know that the work we were doing is going to build up the Kingdom.   It was really heart-breaking to see all the suffering, but it was sweet to see the enthusiasm of the friends I was working with and the passion they have for Jesus.  We can rejoice that God has, and is, providing opportunities to feed the hungry and impoverished.

God, open up my eyes to the things unseen.  And, show me how to love, like You, have loved me.

-Dan

the Bachelor…

One of my friends was watching the show ‘The Bachelor” and had commented to me that she just loved the show.  I, being a “good friend,” watched a minute or two with her and that was enough for me.

I was apalled by this show.  Something inside me just made me sick from watching this show.

Here’s what I see from watching this show:

The guy is basically a male prostitute.  He is giving himself up to all these women in search of the “right one,” while using them to help choose which one he could see himself with.

The women on the otherhand are desperate for a relationship so they flaunt themselves for this guy, who is made out to be their savior, or this “ideal man.”   WOW.  Drama.

It’s really sad to me.  But I would love to hear your thoughts on it.  Anyone?

*I realize I’m just venting, but it’s just really interesting to me. and I’m wondering what others think.*

Ethics is Unethical…

Really??  No.

I just wanted to give the top 5 highlights of this 1st week of 2nd semester. (In no symbolic order)

1.  Not having to wake up for class before 10:00 every day.  Great!  (If I want to sleep in.)

2.  Getting to eat a bag lunch every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because I have no time for a lunch break…

Along with that, eating my bag lunch during class, and probably annoying the persons on each side of me as I eat my lunch while debating about Ethics…

3.  Weekly- Thursday night trips to Eddington’s with the boys to eat soup, laugh, and talk about Jesus.  I look forward  to Thursdays every week for that reason.

4.  Getting back into the swing of classes, and Campus Outreach meetings.

5.  Dying to myself each day so that Christ may increase in my life.  “…It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me…”  (Gal. 2:20)

I pray that you would be encouraged this semseter and that Christ would continue to reveal Himself to you, and that it wouldn’t be us who live, but Christ in us.  OUR Hope of Glory.

-Dan