Knowing God

God has really been working on me this week. He has hit me with some huge realizations about the Christian life, and even more about a life as a pastor. I have been convicted about my lack of passion for the Word. If I'm going to be a pastor, I have to be as awesome pastor. By awesome, I mean that I have to know the Bible because I will be held accountable for how I teach it. If I am to be an awesome pastor and really know the Word, I must dig into it with a ferocity I have not yet grasped. This week, through a couple different things, God confronted my laziness in regards to digging into his Word, and has renewed my mind through his Word. He showed me just how important knowing him is. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). I guess it's good that right now I'm reading "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer. Hopefully God will continue to pull me closer and closer to him as I begin to dig into his word and get to know him better

Co-Labourers

Last week I went to Canada with my church planting class. We went to the baptist seminary in Cochrane which is just outside of Calgary in the province of Alberta. The purpose of the trip was to learn about church planting in Canada, and to learn more about God's grace. I think the mission was accomplished.
We arrived at the seminary late Saturday night and went to sleep pretty quickly. Early Sunday morning, James Hoskins and I left for Lethbridge, a city of 80,000 people 3 hours southeast of Cochrane. We attended A Place Called Hope (http://www.aplacecalledhope.ca), which is a southern baptist church. The church meets in the gymnasium of an elementary school there in Lethbridge. In Lethbridge, about 40% of the people attend some sort of religious service on Sunday mornings, and about half of those are Mormans. The percentage of born-again evangelical Christians is estimated between 7 and 10%. The church is about 3 years old. Having been born and raised in bible belt Texas, I have developed a very small world view, and have a hard time believing the numbers that people claim about Christianity in the world. I don't understand how there are parts of America that don't have very many Christian churches, and that there are places in America where the name of Jesus isn't proclaimed out of love. Going to Canada gave me a fresh glimpse of the difficulties of planting a Jesus-loving church in a place where so few other Christ-followers live. Pastor Scott Dollar left his job here in the States to move to a city where I believe he is the only Baptist church, and one of the few evangelical churches in the city. He moved to a city where he knew the Gospel would meet resistance. He chose to move his family to a different country with a different culture because he believes that Canadians need Jesus just as much as Americans do. He left behind everything he knew to proclaim the Gospel in a place where, at many times, he would be the only one doing so. I thank God that there are people out there that are willing to say, "Yes!" to God. People who are willing to go no matter where He sends them, and proclaim the Gospel to the dark parts of the world. I pray that my life will be reflective of my Saviour, and that all I will know in this life is Christ and him crucified. "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." There are workers out there, loving Jesus in the darkest places of the globe.

On a different topic, one of the highlights of the trip for me was when James and I drove down a rocky road that was heading towards the rocky mountains and a snow storm. While we were driving down this road, we spotted a moose grazing. It was beautiful.

An Ode to Chris

26 years ago today, a little squirt of a boy was born, and his parents named him Christopher.
He wasn't anything special right out of the gates, just a normal, homeschooled boy.
As he grew,
Some people knew
That he might be different.
Some people laughed while others got on board.
Soon he had a fan club, even though it never got bigger than 4 people.
He kept on growing,
the world not knowing
that he might be different.
As he entered the strange land of high school/college/home school, things started changing.
His hair started falling out, his guitar skills got crazy mad, and he fell in love.
People started to see a man forming out of mushy stuff and muckyness.
Those around him began to admire the great words of wisdom that came out of his mouth.
He would say things like, "What's that over there?" and, "If God were a pretzel, what shape would he be?"
We didn't understand, but we thought it was funny, so we laughed.
Then, only a few days shy of his 26th birthday, that's right, just a few days ago, he had a son.

I know this ode to Chris is not all encompassing for the man many of us know and the rest wish they knew, but he means a ton to me and so I wanted to show him some love with an ode.

Chris. I love you, and will be walking right beside you for the rest of your life, even though we probably won't live on the same continent and we'll never see each other except when we iChat. You've been there for me when I needed you and I will do my best to always be there for you.

Happy Birthday!!