This may have been one of the fastest summers of my life. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were in the thick of planning for summer camp and now the summer is over. I spent over five weeks this summer away from home and as the fall semester comes closer and closer I am getting excited about having a little more structure in my schedule. I am writing this blog from a different angle from most of the blogs I’ve written. My goal is just to inform you all of our heart for the ministry this semester.

The Village Student Ministries staff as a whole has been praying for what the Lord wants to do in and through us this semester. We landed on the theme of evangelism, more specifically “Do Work” (“as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:5). In our culture today we want to leave everything up to professionals. So evangelism is the job of pastors only, right? Well, we believe that it isn’t only the responsibility of those specifically gifted in evangelism but the responsibility of all those who are in Christ to share the good news of the gospel. Our heart for this semester is that our students would take hold of that truth and learn to share their faith. We realize that evangelism isn’t something that we can control the outcome of. We can’t determine whether or not an individual or group of individuals we share with will come to faith because salvation belongs to and comes from God. But, we can be obedient to the prompting of the Spirit and be open to share with those around us.

That truth, the truth of the gospel, the truth of our healing in the blood of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53) is the reason we should evangelize. Because without it we remain fatally ill, and we are still sick. If we have indeed been redeemed by the blood we will more and more fall in love with the God of the scriptures, we will understand the estranged nature of our hearts outside of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary, and we will earnestly desire all those we know and love to trust in the only thing that can save them, Jesus. So we share, and we pray. We pray because the Scriptures tell us that salvation comes from God. Without the movement of the Spirit in our sharing nothing happens.

As a staff, we take hold of this reality and have been begging God to move in and through the lives of our students and in our lives personally.

Sin made way for separation but separation gave way to LOVE. Lets tell people about the Love.

Since waking up this morning, I haven’t been able to get II Chronicles 7 out of my mind and meditation (not that I was trying to).

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land”

The context for this passage is a promise God gave specifically to Solomon for the children of Israel. God had sovereignly called His people to great suffering:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people.”

Suffering for the purpose of awakening their idol-filled hearts to the reality of their great dependence on Him.

How could I not make a parallel to what God was clearly calling Israel to and what I know He is calling the students of The Village to? The calling is clear, a complete surrender of ourselves, deep and authentic repentance, and a walk that that is transparent to the healing that God has graciously initiated in our hearts and lives.

Would you join with me in praying for the students, leadership and pastors of The Village Student Ministry? Would you tape this to your bathroom mirror or kitchen sink and be in constant prayer for us?

Specific prayers –

• Pray for salvation for our students
• Pray that we as a student ministry would be deeply burdened for the lost
• Pray for the deep discipleship of those who God has already called
• Pray for our incredible leaders
• Pray for the VSM staff members
• Pray for the families of our students
• Pray for the incoming ninth grade class
• Pray against the enemy; influence, strongholds, idols
• Pray for Crave, HomeGroups, Basic Training
• Pray for our High School campus’ – Marcus, Flower Mound, Lewisville, Liberty Christian
• Pray that we would be a people that are deeply devoted to prayer –  II Chronicles 7:14

It is day 5 and our students are doing great! Today we all got to go to a junior high/ high school and share the gospel with about 100 Guatemalan students. You could really tell that our students are getting comfortable with their translators, and they are doing a wonderful job sharing their testimony. God used our students today in ways they have never experienced. Almost every group had the amazing opportunity to lead someone to Christ. While the students were sharing, I had the opportunity to step back and watch and you would not believe the joy that filled that gym. Our students were beaming from ear to ear because they are being used by God and finding joy and satisfaction in Him and nothing else.

It’s amazing to me how often our students will complain in the midst of plenty, but you take them to Coban, Guatemala where they have no cell phones, no video games, no malls… and they become the happiest students I have seen. The joy of the Lord is overflowing in them because their pursuit is in Him and not themselves, and it doesn’t stop there. They are taking the truth that God is giving them and they are sharing it with everyone they come in contact with. They are truly being the salt and light to this city! My prayer now is that it doesn’t stop here.

Please pray for our students! Pray that the passion that God has ignited inside of them will carry on into their homes, friends, schools, community and on. Our students are experiencing joy they thought was not possible and everything inside of me hopes that the thorns of “stuff” will not choke that out. Flower Mound ,Texas needs the gospel just as much as Coban, Guatemala needs it, and if our students could catch that vision they could transform our city as we know it. Thank you for your prayers we look forward to being home!

As a representative for the for the team of students, staff, pastors and translators allow me to communicate a Texas size !Hola! from the beautiful mountains of Coban, Guatemala. Friends, family and prayer warriors, we have arrived safe and sound!

Well, this has been the first time that we have had internet availability, and I wanted to give you a quick follow-up on our arrival to Guatemala.

We landed in Guatemala City around 8:30 p.m. Passing through customs was simple and quick. We received all of our luggage and boarded the huge shuttle bus that was awaiting our arrival. We had a 30 minute ride to a Lutheran Seminary where we stayed the night. It was simple, comfortable and perfect for our short night’s rest.

By around 9:30 a.m. the next morning we were on the road and headed for the four hour trip to Coban. It was a quick trip in which we achieved at least six intense and grueling games of Mafia. We arrived in Coban around four hours later, just in time for a great lunch at one of the local pastor’s houses. It was wonderful! (Parents, have your kids tell you about our adventures in swinging in the rain forest of Coban).

After lunch we headed to the hotel where we quickly got settled in. But boy do we have a story to tell about the bus breaking down right in front of the hotel, perfect timing and causing epic traffic in the streets of Coban.

After getting settled in we started our first two leadership training sessions, and I must say that it was in Coban, Guatemala that we have been learning some of the most excellent and challenging teaching on the topic of biblical leadership, it is simply phenomenal. The Next Worldwide team is excellent!

We had a very delicious and untypical Guatemalan dinner, spaghetti and garlic toast! After dinner we had some very hands-on training of sharing the gospel. This time was rich, and for the first time for many of our students, I began to see overwhelming courage and excitement at the tremendous opportunity of sharing of the great salvation that has been given us. I do not think that I will soon forget that moment.

After the third session we had an incredible, bilingual time of worship and prayer. How I love to see my students unashamedly worship our great and worthy God. To see them lay hands on their Guatemalan brothers and sister and pray for them, and then have the Guatemalan people turn and lay their hands on us, lifting up our time of ministry and service to the Lord and asking Him to redeem it for His glory, was simply a honor to take part in. How blessed am I to be called to this ministry with your students!

Saturday morning was an early one, we were at breakfast for at 7:30 a.m. and were out on the streets of Coban an hour later. What an incredible experience it was to see the different team groups with their translators just opening their Bibles and sharing with the Guatemalan people of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I could tell you story after story of how God glorified Himself through our students just this morning.
It is Saturday afternoon now, I am sitting on the floor writing you as the students are on the other side of the wall in the meeting room in their last leadership training session of the day, they are loving it. I will write more soon.
I want to thank you for your continued support and prayers, I do not take it lightly that you have open-handedly given the Village Student Ministry the opportunity to take your student to a third-world country and allow them to give testimony for the gift of grace that has been given them; what an honor.

As you continue to pray, pray for:

• The Holy Spirit to continue the work that He has begun in us as a team
• Pray for the ministry that we are doing and the people we are engaging
• Pray for salvations
• Pray for the new church that is being born this week in Coban
• Pray for our safety and unity
• Pray that the work and hunger that the Holy Spirit is developing in our hearts for the nations and the lost, that it would continue to grow when we come home.
• Pray that God would use these students to create a culture at home of evangelism and discipleship.

“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” – II Corinthians 5:11

The more and more I read, the more I become a “quote guy.” I can’t help but appreciate the way a certain sentence or group of them stirs my affections for the Lord. It’s clear that the Lord has wired us to live on words, His Word. Words can encourage us or break us down. They can work their way into the inmost parts of our souls and impress themselves there; we need them to live, “Man shall not live by bread alone…” (Matthew 4:4). One of the quotes that has made its way deep into my spirit recently is one originally spoken by Henry Varley and expanded by D.L. Moody (quoted to follow):

“The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. I will try my utmost to be that man”

After reading this the first few times and allowing it to soak in, I found myself encouraged – at current, I’m not sure why. I guess it warmed my heart to read the words of a man who wanted to be used by God. But why is that so striking? Why is a love of God a rarity? Short of Christ, no man has ever found himself fully consecrated to the God who created the universe (not that there are others). The truth is I would love to be that kind of man. I want to be a man who longs only for God’s purposes in my life; a man who longs to be used by Him in my every step. I want to want that but when it comes down to it, most people – myself included – are missing something. We are missing the point somewhere along the way that prevents us from living in such a way that we are radically devoted to our King.

What is it?

By no means do I think I have the answer to that, nor do I intend to provide the remedy for a problem that started in Genesis 3. However, I am confident in the Spirit to voice where I have been missing the mark. I am confident in His ability to encourage you and, “stir you up towards love” for God (Hebrews 10:24). I must love the Word of God more.

“But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2) We can’t miss that. If we want to be the one to whom God looks we have to tremble at His word. We don’t use the word “tremble” often, but it is more than necessary here. Do you open your Bible (to any page) and before you even look at the pages feel the weight of what is about to happen? I often pray this would happen to me. That I would be moved to tears at the nearness and heaviness of the Scriptures. God’s Holy word … it is holy, and we are not without it. The prophet Jeremiah trembled at God’s word. “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 5:16). Jeremiah found God’s word, consumed it and to his joy those words became the delight of his heart. This moves me to tears. Are we consuming God’s word? Are we finding wisdom and correction in the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and allowing it to shape us?

I pray that God would make His word dearer to me than bread. We want to call ourselves followers of Christ, but after our laziness steals our “quiet times” in the morning, we are more concerned with providing for basic needs (eating, using the bathroom, showering). Why? What need is more basic? I pray for a passionate desire for the Word of God within us all, that we would rise early in the morning with an ache in our spirits, a hunger from hours spent without it while we were sleeping. How many days have you gone in your entire life without consuming food or drink? How many have you gone without consuming God’s word? God help us.

In Matthew 17, Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him up a mountain. Then, right before their eyes, Christ transfigured revealing not even the full amount of His glory and holiness, Moses and Elijah appeared, and the Presence of God arrived in a cloud and spoke to them. God spoke and all three of them “fell on their faces and were terrified.” God spoke and they trembled. Those were the ones to whom He looked…the ones who trembled at His word. We have to tremble.

That would have to rank pretty high on the all-time spiritual experiences list. But Peter, in light of that experience, says that “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty…and we have something more sure, the prophetic word” (2 Peter 1). Peter is saying we are better off with the word of God than to have been present during the transfiguration. Does the word of God have even a taste of a Matthew 17 affect on you? We have to be consumers of the word like Jeremiah was, terrified of it like Peter and try our utmost to be fully consecrated to it.

Tremble at His Word,
Klint Ware
Village Student Intern

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

– Revelation 10: 9-10

Having the honor of working with high school students in the community in which I live and have been called is a grace that leaves me amazed and incredibly thankful. Getting to hang out with these kids—listen to them, talk to them, pray with them, play with them, live in biblical community with them, and lead them—is what God has graced me with as a calling.

In doing this day-in and day-out, I have gotten to know these students, their parents, teachers, coaches and their community really well. It’s incredible how much I learn about these kids by not talking at all, just listening. Listening to their conversations with each other, actively listening to them when they are in conversation with me. Listening to their questions and what they are interested in and (one of my favorites) listening to them pray. In all of this observation and listening I have noticed trend. When life gets difficult and the deep abrasions that are caused by living in a fallen world are overwhelmingly painful, the body of Christ is one of the last places that a student wants to go to in order to seek refuge. I’ve seen this inclination in our culture when divorce affects our families, when a eating disorder is unconquerable, when a relationship becomes lustful, when a student is feeling depressed, unloved and unforgiveable. For some reason during theses valley seasons the body of Christ is not seen as necessary, comforting or inviting to suffering and broken people.

For the past few weeks this reality has had me broken and in prayer for the hearts and lives of our students and also for my own heart.

Much of my prayers and devotional readings have been focused on this trend that seems to be pervasive in the church as a whole. Why, when we are in the valley of the shadow, do we not run to the Lord in great desperation? I think the answer is as tragic as it is simple: We do not see Jesus as the answer. The problem is sin and the solution is Jesus. But I think many of my students see the problem as being personal and circumstantial. They view the church as a place where ‘good’ people get better, where hypocrites pretend and the Bible—although true—is irrelevant and incomprehensible. All the while Jesus is beseeching their hearts saying “take My word and eat it.”

I don’t think the book of Revelation is promoting a mass physical consumption of the Holy Scriptures. What I believe the invitation is saying is, do not just have the Bible on your bedside table; don’t just read it when you need to feel better, don’t just study it for the sake of knowing things. The invitation in the book of Revelation is compelling us to take the Word that has become flesh and hold it up as a mirror to our souls; it is an invitation for the words of Scripture to penetrate our hearts and lives. Bonaventure said it well, “to know much and taste nothing—of what use is that?” My fear is that our students ‘know much’ but they have not participated in a lifestyle of opening the inspired and living word of God and letting it read their hearts and revealing to them as if it were a mirror. I fear they do not see their own participation in the metanarrative.

My heart has been incredibly burdened for our students, that they would see Jesus as their only their only answer. I hope that they would not see the Bible as an owner’s manual but as the Word that “became flesh and dealt among us” and is now living in us.

Lord may my every heart’s desire be to accurately teach the word of God to the student body that You have entrusted me in a way that promotes their hearts to crave more of You, that they would see You as sovereign, that they would claim You as their supreme joy. I pray that when they’re in the valley they would run to You above all else. Father, I confess that all this is a work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of my students, so Holy Spirit, open the eyes and hearts of my students that they would “take it, and eat it” and treasure You above all.

A Great Resource

Eat This Book – Eugene H. Peterson

I imagine everyone at some point reflects on their parents’ generation and imagines how they will do things differently. Anything from “I’ll never grow a mustache!” or “I’ll never drive a mini-van!” to “I’ll never touch alcohol.” or “I’ll never lay a hand on my kids.”

I’m sure every parent looks at their children and hopes for them to have something better. Hoping they trust you about the snares of teenage hormones or that clothes that make you cool, don’t make you cool.

The pessimist would say that things are worse now than ever for the next generation. That the environmental problems, the pervasive wars, the finite amount of mineral resources, the unrivaled access to debaucheries via technology, and of course the epidemic of “Bieber fever” leaves them with an awful minefield to navigate.

Many of us still hold on to hope for the next generation.

Hope they won’t make the same mistakes.

Hope they’ll know what’s right.

Hope they’ll witness a personal and worldwide revival to the truth of the Gospel.

What legacy are we leaving for the ones that follow us? Have we left them susceptible to the same pitfalls we tripped through during our formative years? Why aren’t we more intentional in leading from our scars? Why did no one ever tell me that having a “bowl cut” for my senior pictures would lead to lifelong embarrassment!? (too personal?)

One thing is for sure, there will be a next generation. There’s no stopping them from maturing and growing in influence. Ok, maybe they won’t necessarily mature, but for certain, there is no stopping present generations from withering, fizzling, and passing.

This is why I LOVE the book of Deuteronomy. After God gives his hand written Law to the people of Israel in Exodus, one generation passes away in the wilderness. Just that one generation later, God sees it is necessary to repeat his law for the new group of leaders.

Deuteronomy is God’s book for saying, “Your parents messed this up. They didn’t get it. Don’t make the same mistakes.” That’s why I believe this book is a great place to camp out in and study with our teenagers.

We’ve just started our summer home groups and I could not be more excited about studying Deuteronomy with these young men. If we’ll listen, we can learn so much from the mistakes that were made by the first generation of Israel to leave Egypt and see what God’s hopes are for each new generation.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (the Shema) is foundational to our entire theology. Jesus quotes it as the MOST IMPORTANT of all the things stated in the Hebrew bible.

“Hear oh Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words I command you will be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Read it again and just let it sink in, the profundity of God’s desire for us to know truth and to share it diligently.

A crucial part of our philosophy of ministry in The Village student ministry is that our students would give. We long to see high school students serving and giving in their homes, schools, communities and here at the church. Student serving is one way we are able to gauge the overall health of our ministry. If we have hundreds of students sign up for camp, but only a few that are interested in service and mission work in our city, we have a disconnect here.

Serving is not something that we can just white-knuckle. We need the gospel to free up our hearts from pride and selfishness. If we have a bunch of students just trying to serve to “be good” or be like Jesus because that’s what they’ve heard growing up in church, this isn’t going to produce lasting change. As student pastors this falls on us to preach a crucified Savior. If we are only presenting Jesus as a good model for how to live our lives we are completely missing it. Jesus died the death that He died because we cannot live the life that He lived. It is an exhausting thing to try to follow the example of a Jesus who may not even be your Savior. I fear that this is where a lot of evangelicals (not just high school students) could find themselves today. Many men and women are trying so hard to live out the way of Christ, who may not even be reconciled to Christ.

The gospel saves us from our sin, and then calls us to live out the way of Christ. It is important that we get it in that order. Jesus is first our Savior, and then our example. We need to be transformed from the inside out in order to serve others with gospel love and humility. After this occurs, a believer in Christ becomes captured by their love for the Savior and constantly challenged by the example He left us.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he become poor; so that you by his poverty might become rich. -2 Corinthians 8:9

We have become rich through the grace that has come to us through the blood of Christ.  May this grace compel us to follow the example of our Savior who came not to be served, but to serve others.

I had a day a few days ago that has left a verse branded in my heart and is continually being used to sanctify my own heart and transform my philosophy of ministry.

“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:15-18

This day was not innately abnormal from other days in my life. I started off working a few hours in the office, then I then spent three hours at school lunches with our students at a high school in our community. I left there and went back to the office and worked for a few more hours. After that I went and picked up a friend from work who wasn’t able to drive. I finished my day with a two hour workout with some of my students; afterwards I went home and cleaned my house, and went to sleep, a pretty typical day.

What was so significant about this ordinary day was how the Holy Spirit began to teach me the incredible significance of Leviticus 19:15-18 to the ministry of reconciliation that I (you) have been called. The Holy Spirit had started the evening before in a conversation that I was having with a dear friend who was gently and relentlessly rebuking me for sin in my life that I was somewhat blinded to. You would think that in that admonishment that I had received that I would feel angry, hurt or even condemned. Quite to the contrary, because of my brother’s deep love for the Lord, his commitment to me and his enmity towards sin, my response was one of repentance, joy and encouragement. My brother had loved me enough and hated sin enough to rebuke me out of his own passionate love for God.

So as I found myself in ministry with my students the next day, this Leviticus theme continued at school lunches with my students, during a car ride with a dear friend, and even at the gym during a grueling workout, the Lord continually gave me opportunities to admonish my students in the same Christ-like way that I had been rebuked the night before – out of deep love for my students, driven by a profound enmity for sin, and founded in a immense desire to honor and glorify the Lord. 

What exactly is the writer of Leviticus (most likely Moses) saying in Leviticus 19:15-18? The essence of this passage parallels with Ephesians 4:15 “Speaking the truth in love.”

 The first part of this passage talks about perverting justice by not rebuking our brothers based on their status, financial position or favoritism. It highlights our motivation in our admonitions in two part; first out of love for God and our brother, and secondly,  that we ourselves become involved in the sin by not speaking against it. 

Now what is the message we are speaking? It is truth. Truth is not our opinion about where we feel our brother should be or not be in his spiritual walk. Our own opinion is the least significant tool that we have been given in our toolbox of reconciliation. The truth is the word that we hold up for our brother as a mirror that the word may read his own heart and through that convict and transform.

Lastly, the driving force behind this culture of rebuke is love. It is first founded in our love for our holy and righteous God and his violent pursuit of our own righteousness. And secondly, because He first loved us, our motivation for rebuke is out of immense love for our brother. To not biblically confront is a motive deeply rooted in passive and subtle hatred.

“Our failure to confront one another biblically must be seen for what it is: something rooted in our tendency to run after god-replacements. We comfort unbiblically (or not at all) because we love something else more than God. Perhaps we love our relationship with this person so much that we don’t want to risk it. But, if we love God above all else, confrontation is in extension and expression of that love.“ – Paul David Tripp

May the inherent words found in Leviticus 19:15-18 propel us into a culture of admonition and rebuke. May we as parents, pastors, youth leaders and even students walk in a deep love that relentlessly combats sin and promotes holiness, and may this confrontation be intergenerational.

Martin Luther very articulately conveys a truth that we at The Village desperately desire to teach. He says, “Most certainly father and mother are apostles, bishops, and priests to their children, for it is they who make them acquainted with the gospel. In short, there is no greater or nobler authority on earth than that of parents over their children, for this authority is both spiritual and temporal.” In short, there is no greater influence, outside of the Holy Spirit, on the spiritual development of a child than the parents.

The influence, however, does not end with spiritual development. Studies have shown that parental influence is also strongest in curbing high risk behaviors such as sexual intercourse and drug and alcohol use, as well as in bolstering academic success. All of this boils down to time.

Remember that you are teaching your children regardless of whether or not you are spending time with them or not. The important thing to remember is that we must never mistake mere presence for time. Like all things, time with our children should be active and intentional. While many families today struggle to find time together for a myriad of reasons, the good news is that massive amounts of time are secondary.

According to Mark DeVries studies have shown that there are five parental habits that help increase the likelihood of the successful spiritual, behavioral and academic development of a child.

1. They are engaged in their teens lives. Helping with homework or attending teen’s extracurricular activities.
2. They have at least 5 sit-down meals together weekly.
3. They attend religious services together weekly with your teen.
4. They set curfews
5. They see drug use as dangerous and morally wrong.

While the second habit may be difficult for many, the others are attainable. Try it this week. Spend what little time you do have with your children engaged in their world. Talk about spiritual things. It won’t be easy, it won’t be comfortable at first, but by God’s grace it might just pay dividends.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4: 14-16

This verse hit me like a ton of bricks this week. This is why I love the power of the gospel; the life, death, and resurrection of Christ never ceases to amaze me in its enormous relevance to my own very personal context. What left me in awe about this passage that I have read so many times is Jesus’ thirty years of life before His ministry began. The four gospels do not go into great detail about the years between one and thirty in the life of Jesus.

Everything about Christ’s life on earth from day one was deeply intentional and premeditated from an eternal perspective. What was the intrinsic, intentional motivation of Jesus’ day to day life as a maturing young man? This is what is so powerful about this passage of Hebrews “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus  Christ, the all knowing, all powerful, Creator of both the most intrinsic, microscopic neutron and also the same Creator of the galaxies that are too vast to be measured, came down to earth to live a sinless life, identifying himself completely with the weaknesses and temptations of humanity.

What baffled me in this passage is that Jesus understands the depravity, weakness and temptations we are subject to because He entered our world. For thirty-three years, He lived among us, gathering data and experiencing the nature of fallen humanity. Not even a second of Jesus’ time on earth was wasted or without intention. Not only did Jesus’ life pass the test that Adam failed, but in doing so He acquainted Himself deeply with the life that all of us live as a result of the fall. He entered our world and His understanding is first-hand and complete.

I was so deeply convicted once again by the incredible and perfect example of the life of Christ. He spent over thirty years living, identifying, being tempted so He would know us. At this point this knowledge not only comes from His attributes of being omniscient but also His experience, through His incarnation.You may be a bit inquisitive as to why I would be convicted by this. Allow me to explain; Christ spent 90 percent of his life and ministry on earth identifying with and knowing us. I am humbled to say that my own personal ministry with the students at The Village, at times hardly parallels with Christ’s ministry on earth.

I pay much tribute to my “intuition” and “spiritual discernment” that a student hardly finishes telling me of their personal dilemma or crisis and I have already listened, assimilated the information, and come up with a plan for action, all the while quite impressed with my ministerial gift and spiritual discernment. I was convicted with this passage in Hebrews because if my ministry philosophy paralleled with Christ’s, then after carefully and actively listening to my student’s personal crisis I would begin to engage in knowing the student and the crisis better. My goal would be to take inventory of my student from a 360 degree angle in order to most accurately bring them to the knowledge and truth found in the Scriptures.

“Since Christ is our model for personal ministry, we too want to understand people so that we can serve him in their lives. We too must be committed to entering their worlds.” – Paul David Tripp

Let me encourage you, parents, student pastors, youth leaders, and all those called to this great commission, to parallel your philosophy and strategy of ministry with that of Christ. To engage, to listen, listen some more, ask open ended questions that reveal the heart, and in this to know your student well that you may lead them well and accurately to the inspired word of God where through the ministry of the Holy Spirit true transformation and reconciliation is found.

A Great Resource
Eat This Book – Eugene H. Peterson
Instruments in the Redeemers Hand – Paul David Tripp 
War of Words – Paul David Tripp 

When I was in college I worked for a man who was a devout believer in Jesus Christ, whom I respected very much. During my employment with him, we had a situation that arose about sharing our faith in a specific arena in which it was not welcome. His appointed leadership chose to go the route that we would not verbally share our faith in this specific domain. In all my vast wisdom as a 19 year old college sophomore I vehemently disagreed with their call. I did not make a scene or outright disobey them. Rather, I didn’t enforce their decision, simply allowing things to carry on, as if naturally. My boss sat me down at the end of the day and had a very firm conversation with me. This is a nice way of saying he chewed me out in the name of the LORD. He told me that I was out of line and in sin. I quickly replied with a passage of Scripture (Acts 4.20) to support my case which I had recently memorized. After all, what was he going to do, argue with GOD? He opted not to get into a theological debate with me (now looking back, that was lucky for me) but rather showing me that by not submitting to his leadership, I was sinning against the LORD.

I have thought about this instance for years now as he still has an impact on me as well as countless others that I know. Up until this past week I have always believed or made myself believe (which ever you want to insert here) that I was in the right. I was the one that made the right call. My decision was the godly one. Isn’t it interesting how the LORD won’t let go of some things. He’s not over bearing but just so patient and gracious with us. I spent some time studying 1 Peter 2 this week and it speaks of this issue of authority. I’ve known for some time, maybe since before that summer that GOD institutes all authority figures (Rom 13.1, 2 Peter 2.13-14), the good and the bad. This truth still seems strange to me at times. For instance, on my recent trip to Sudan I saw a GOD-instituted government that was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people. Yet still under GOD’s sovereign control, millions of others fled the country into other parts of the world with the gospel firmly planted in their hearts and fresh on their lips. Ah yes, GOD is in the heavens and does all that He pleases (Psalm 115.3). So maybe we don’t know everything. And we can’t see everything. (Isaiah 55.8-9) This is why we must simply trust in Him – He knows everything. Sometimes He institutes unjust authority figures into our lives in order to perfect and complete us (James 1.2-4), or to sanctify us. Sometimes He institutes these cruel authority figures simply to get His glory in other ways. One thing is for sure – He is going to get His glory. And when we stand in opposition to His appointed authority figures, we are standing in opposition to Him, and Him getting His glory. I firmly believe this is true. This is true from children disobeying their parents to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the assassination attempts on Hitler. I believe that our aversion to authority is not bound up in the will of GOD but in our will. I can’t speak for Bonhoeffer but I can speak for that arrogant 19 year old previously mentioned. As I have searched my heart regarding this issue, I can see several ways in which I was about my own will rather than GOD’s. I wanted to be right. I selfishly wanted to see revival and miracles like in the book of Acts. I wanted a story to take back home to tell. Then when pressed by an authority figure, I got defensive and proud, and misused Scripture to support my rebellion.

I am indeed rebellious in nature, I have often wanted to extricate authority as if a weighty yoke tied upon my back. This may be related to my American individualism but probably more so connected to my sinful humanity. The truth is it’s humanly impossible to be completely submissive to authority. This is not an excuse, but rather an opportunity to run to GOD for help. Submission to authority is a supernatural activity that cannot be done outside of Christ. It is now apparent what enables me to submit to authority. It’s not what I used to think – a worthy authority figure to submit to. I have had plenty of worthy authority figures that were godly and loving toward me, and yet I still found myself rebelling against them at times. What enables me to submit to authority, whether liberating or oppressive is by looking past them to the Ultimate Authority – GOD, who lovingly calls me to submit and serve. That’s hard truth at times. This may or may not be for my benefit, but I can rest assure in that He will get glory from it. Now we find out if that’s what we’re really living for.

I think I need to let you in on a secret. If you have been reading The Village Student Ministry blogs for a while you have noticed that I have had a bit of a theme in the past few weeks. The theme has been focused on the dialogue between two agents of change, behavioral modification (modifying behavior in order to see change) and heart transformation (training and leading with a reliance on God’s sovereignty as the only means of heart change). I am currently working on my grad work at Redeemer Seminary and have been taking a pastoral counseling class taught by Paul David Tripp. So if you have noticed the theme in topic and recommended resources, now you know why. This is really where God has me right now and because it is what it so vibrantly on my heart it is what is being shared with you via blog.

If you have been reading the blog for a while you know where I believe the biblical response to this dialogue is, heart transformation. Yet, with this seemingly so clear in scriptures why are the Christian book stores, church libraries, Christian counselors, and even sermon outlines so blatantly focused on outward change and modified behavior? I believe the reason is found in the church’s theological foundation of the sovereignty of God. If true change only comes from a heart that has been redeemed by the salvific  work of Christ, then the church’s theological banner will boast in the reality that God alone is the transformer of hearts and we are used as instruments in that work. But, if the church believes changed lives are the direct responsibility of the church then you will find a body of people highly focused on modifying behavior, deeply rooted in the self-help culture. Why is this? Because we simply cannot transform or redeem, and if the belief is that the responsibility for a changed life falls on our shoulders, we will always resort to modifying behavior as a synthetic antidote to the problem of sin.

If our pursuit of transformation is the heart I think we have drastically disadvantaged ourselves if we overlook the spoken word. In the parenting, shepherding and discipling of our students, how closely do we listen to what they are actually saying? When in an argument or conflict, how carefully are we taking into consideration the actual heart motivation behind what is coming out of our students’ mouths? Jesus tells us that the mouth is an incredible revealer of the condition of the heart, “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  If modified behavior is not our final motivation then we must utilize the art of communication as a redemptive tool to lead our students to the cross.

How many times a day have we heard or overheard a student saying something disturbing or inappropriate and we jump right into, “Hey don’t talk like that,” or “Don’t say that word,” instead of engaging them as to why they would say such a thing and more importantly, what was the heart motive behind what was said? There are real opportunities here. I can’t tell you how much I have learned about my student without saying a thing. Just listening to them, listening to what they talk with each other about, listening to them pray, and I could go on and on, the words that come out of their mouth are incredibly self-telling and invaluable to me as I continually engage them in ministry. I encourage you in your daily interaction with your student to listen, to ask intentional question and listen for their responses. We have much to learn from the insights of the tongues of the students.

In class we have been reading War of Words by Paul David Tripp, I highly recommend this book as a resource to the biblical truths found on this topic. There are lots of books written on communication techniques, but few deal with the heart issues, and as the Bible teaches, it is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. War of Words does deal with the heart issues of communication and in the process touches on so much more. Writing with a passionate desire for godly obedience, Paul Tripp communicates biblical truth clearly and practically through his use of illustrations from his own family and his counseling ministry.

This is a week of celebration.

This is a week of Celebration because we were dead.

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

This is a week of celebration because we were separated from God.

Colossians 1:21 And you were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…

Ephesians 2: 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

This is a week of celebration because, in spite of us, God loves us.

Romans 5:6  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Ephesians 2:4-8 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is a week of celebration because where there was no way, Christ made a way.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is a week of celebration.

Celebrate.

I’ve been wrestling with something recently and it has driven me to the point of frustration and left me feeling perplexed. The dilemma I am having is this:

I want to be able to explain what happened to me when I first came to know Christ.

It was miraculous and mysterious to me, and I would love to put some skin on this inexplicable skeleton. I’ve talked with some of our high school students recently about this phenomenon, and they have expressed similar frustrations. I hope this post encourages you to dig into John 3 and see how Jesus responds to a late-night visitor.

In third chapter of the Gospel of John a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus enters the scene. His conversation with Jesus is a peculiar one and a bit unsettling. Jesus tells him that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Churchgoers should be wary because this is Jesus’ response to an extremely religious man. In verse 2, Nicodemus said that he knew that Jesus had come from God. The Pharisee saw supernatural power in this Rabbi and said that God was with Him. However, despite this recognition, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he cannot see the kingdom unless he is born again.

What do we do with these words from Christ? What does it really mean to be born again and what would that even look like?

I think a beautiful example of this being fleshed out in the Scriptures takes place in Acts 16. Paul and several others had gone outside the gate of Philippi to talk to a group of women gathered by the riverside. One of these women was named Lydia. Verse 14 tells us that she was a seller of purple goods and a worshiper of God. Immediately after this description, the text says that “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul (Acts 16:14). It was in this moment that the Lord worked a sovereign miracle. He gave Lydia heart-eyes. He turned on the light switch in her heart and awakened her soul. Soon afterward, Lydia and her entire household were baptized.

There are a few things to take into account about this new birth.

• The first is that the very nature of this new birth is mysterious to us. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:8 that being born of the Spirit is a lot like the wind. We can feel and hear the wind – but we don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going.
• The second is that this new birth is totally a work of God. 1 Peter 1:3 makes this crystal clear: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again…”
• The last thing is that this new birth brings new results and new evidence into our lives. In other words, our lives bear new fruit. The Book of 1 John is full of these evidences. A few of them are:
   -A belief in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:13)
  -We cannot continue to walk in habitual sin (1 John 3:6)
  -We have a God-like love for others (1 John 4:7)

By no means are these descriptions intended to be exhaustive. For further information I would encourage you to check out the book Finally Alive by John Piper, or check out Wayne Grudem’s chapter on Regeneration in his Systematic Theology work.

When I lack words to describe the mysteries of God in my life, I dig into the Scriptures. I want the Bible to help me unpack and understand what the Lord is up to. I have come to the conclusion that I can’t wrap my head around all the Lord did inside me at my conversion. What He did really was a miracle and I am totally ok with saying that Ephesians 2:4-5 is about the best description I can come up with it to describe it.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved –“

He took my dead heart….and shocked it to life.

This week at Crave we are going to be starting 1 Peter. As I was reading through the first couple verses of 1 Peter, I became burdened for our students. The reason I am burdened is because I know as soon as we start reading the first couple of verses, some students will begin to check out because they hear the gospel so often.

It is this mindset that I want to come against though! Why do we find ourselves bored with the gospel and completely entertained with our sins? Maybe it’s because we have become bored with the gospel that we find sin so appealing. It’s the same people who say to me, “the gospel again?” that I find myself saying, “that sin again?” I am not saying we won’t struggle because we will and we do, but the gospel is the only thing that can set us free from that monotony of sin.

I find it very interesting that people will say to me that church and the gospel are boring when they are using every penny and every second to find something in this world that will entertain them. They are striving so hard to find the one thing that satisfies and yet they say they have this gospel thing figured out. If we ever get past the gospel, one of two things has happened. Either we have died, or we are wrong. This blog is more of a request for prayer than anything. Please pray that as the gospel is preached week in and week out, that our students’ hearts would be changed by the power of the gospel. Please pray that we would never find ourselves in a place where the gospel has become boring or no longer applicable. Please pray that God would open the hearts of our students to become receptive to the gospel.

My challenge to you is to always keep the gospel front and center of everything you do and say. What are we doing if we do not have the gospel in all we do? Lives are not going to be changed, hearts are not going to be filled, and life will most definitely not be full if we move away from the gospel.

There’s a lot at stake. I don’t typically feel like there is when I’m just going through my day to day, driving down 35, but when I open up the Scriptures; I feel gravity.

Jesus said, “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

Does this verse bother you at all? What bothers me is that this verse doesn’t bother me more. Jesus said His coming will be like the flood’s coming in Noah’s day that swept away all who weren’t in the ark. Everybody was carrying on with the normal routine of life until the rain started pouring, then everything changed. I feel that so often we’re doing the same thing that people in Noah’s day were doing. We’re carrying on with the daily routine of life like everyone else around us, neglecting the weightiest matters in the universe. We don’t feel the weight of what’s on the line. This cannot be for the body of Christ.

There are roughly 6.8 billion people in the world, with one third of that number claiming to be Christians. Even if that number is true, that still means two thirds of the world don’t believe in Jesus Christ. And roughly 250,000 people are dying every day. There’s a lot at stake. But I think what we want to do when we hear things like this is pass off our responsibility to the sovereignty of God. But our sovereign God is the One who tells us to go everywhere and make disciples.

I have these thoughts of what it might look like to go hard for The Lord, and then have thoughts of what people might say if I actually did that. Crazy. But with verses like the one I shared above from Matthew 24, how can we not feel a burden to live crazy for God? And really, what we call crazy, Jesus simply calls obedient. If you really lived as if Christ’s coming will be like Round 2 of Noah’s Ark, people would most definitely call you crazy. Even Christians will think you’re nuts. But the One we follow tells us to deny ourselves, take up our instruments of execution, and follow Him. That’s not fluffy, that’s not light. It’s weighty, there’s a lot at stake. But it makes total sense in light of what the Bible has revealed in regards to the cross of Christ and eternity. If there were no cross and no eternity, we might have an excuse to live like everyone else. But that isn’t the case.

Revelation says, “The kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” We can live as though verses like this one aren’t in the bible and carry on with our daily routine; or we can live like it’s true and sprint in this race ‘till our lungs collapse. We must give everything to His cause. We must lose our lives for the gospel and live recklessly for the sake of Christ. We must. There’s so much at stake. Call me crazy.

Coming off a weekend of intense spiritual focus (SPIN Weekend – 2 weeks ago) tends to create the “spiritual high” that leads you to love anything that has to do with Jesus. You find yourself wanting to pray and read your Bible and hang out with other believers that encourage you in the fight of faith. The only problem is… for the majority of people, that high begins to fade within a few weeks, and you find yourself right back where you were before. You fall back into old sin. You stop coming to church, because you feel guilty or you find something better to do. You distance yourself from your brothers and sisters in Christ, and start to countdown the days until the next Bible study or retreat or camp to “get back on track.” Sound familiar?

This breaks God’s heart. For those of you that He has saved, it does not have to play out like this. Sure you are still going to struggle and fight against sinful desires. God’s people will wrestle against sin until the day that they drop. The fall in Genesis 3 really happened and it really fractured the world we live in. Through Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself. But we are not home yet. We long for the day when we will be done battling our flesh and Christ will “make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

The Scriptures shed some light on what happens inside of us when we become a Christian. Ezekiel 36:26-27 points to the new covenant found in Christ Jesus.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

The Bible is going to say that when you become a Christian, the Lord removes your old heart and gives you a new one. He gives you new desires. These are deep desires to worship Him in life through prayer and Gospel community and studying Scripture. You actually start to want to go to church and be around other Christians. The Lord does this crazy thing inside of you and turns your world upside down!
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

So why the wrestle with old sin? If I have a new heart, why do I struggle? Having a new heart does not mean you have a perfect heart. You are still going to war against your old sinful nature. You will still have desires to do things you shouldn’t do. These are really conflicted desires. They are lesser desires than the deep desires God has given you. The reason it grieves God’s heart when we sit in our sin is because Christ came to set us free! (Galatians 5:1) Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can now have victory over sin. You’re still going to struggle and stumble and sometimes fall. But when you fall, get back up! The Bible is full of men and women who messed up big time that the Lord still decided to use. The next time you have a desire to sin, call it what it is – a conflicted desire. Preach to yourself and tell yourself that deep within you, you really desire Christ more than sin! Your new nature makes this a reality. And as you struggle well and the Lord sanctifies you, maybe you won’t be counting down the days until the next retreat because you are experiencing the pure joy of living in a daily relationship with Jesus Christ.

In Mark 4, Jesus gets into a boat, sits down and begins teaching a crowd a parable about a sower. The story is about a man who goes around and scatters seed that falls in different places on different types of ground. The outcome of these seeds is different, but there was one outcome in particular that caught my attention more than the others. It’s what happened when Jesus describes the result of the seed that fell among thorns. He says that these thorns grew up and choked out what would’ve been a shock of grain. He later goes on to tell his disciples that the seed sown was the word, and that the thorns are: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. These three are the killers that keep people from ever blossoming into ripe stalks of grain and becoming true, fruitful followers of God.

The first killer I want to attack is the cares of the world. This is the first thorn Jesus mentions, and that for good reason. In 1 Peter 2, the writer tells us that Christians are classified as aliens and strangers in the world. Believers are to be concerned and caught up with the affairs of a world, just not this present one. The outcome of the seeds sown among thorns shows that the gaze is not toward the city that is to come, but the distractions of this age. The obsession with the glitter of the here and now has caused a preoccupation with things that are passing, not eternal things. Paul calls this getting “entangled in civilian pursuits.” This is what happens when we get too excited about and consumed with created things rather than the Creator. Our pursuits, our cares and our concerns become shallow and we end up with what John Piper would call “a wasted life.”

It seems to be a popular topic of conversation among some Christians to talk about the kingdom of God being right here, right now, which is fine; it’s partly true. But I think it the idea is run with so far that people will say that heaven is “not a place we go to when we die.” I think what we need to remember is that the kingdom is already here, but it’s also not yet. The rule and reign of Christ exists now in the hearts of those who believe, but we’re still in tents, or what Paul would call a “body of death.” He himself said to depart from this world would be a gain for him. And he also states that if it’s only for this life that we have hope in Christ, people should pity us more than anybody else. I believe the proper perspective to hold is found in Colossians 3. We’re told, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” We’re called to put our minds in heaven as our bodies work fervently in a country not our own. Minds above, bodies below. What Jesus warns against in the thorns analogy is minds below, bodies below. The worldly focus has its mind set on all that is passing away. But the call of the Christ-follower is to live like this world is not home. The call is that of a sojourner in a foreign land that lives differently than those around him who do belong to this world. We must pledge allegiance somewhere. It’s either the kingdom of this world or the kingdom of heaven; no dual citizenships. The call to the believer is to hold a temporary visa in this world and citizenship in heaven.

Any attempt to belong to this world, while claiming the name of Christ, will be choked out and prove unfruitful, as Jesus said. Our interests must not, indeed cannot, be divided. No one can serve two masters; no one can belong in two worlds. A.W. Tozer says that for many of us, our problem is that we feel “too much at home in the world.” We don’t feel that holy homesickness, were content with the forms and fashions of this world. They’re enough for us. But this shouldn’t be. The saints of old didn’t have their cares wrapped up in the world….they didn’t care about the cares of this world. They were too busy fastening their gaze on their God, their treasure, who prepared a city for them. They were homeward bound. The scriptures even say that the world was not worthy of them. These pilgrims, aliens and strangers had their faces set like flint toward heaven, and now, they’re Home. May our feet follow in their steps while our eyes are fixed on Jesus, because, “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is it come.”

At the beginning of the month our staff has a time of worship, teaching and prayer called Restore. During our time of prayer, the youth staff was talking about how we wanted to be more like Elijah. The main story we were focusing on in our conversation was in I Kings 18:20-40 when God sent fire from heaven to burn the sacrifice that Elijah had built. The reason we were talking about this was because when God burnt the offering no one turned to Elijah and started worshiping him, rather all the people fell on their faces and worshiped God. This is how we want our ministry to be. We want God to do amazing things, even supernatural things that only point to Him and not to us.

After we were finished talking we began to pray, and as we were praying God gave me a very vivid vision of myself. The vision was of me standing in front of a water soaked altar with a bucket in my hand that had water dripping out of it. Above the altar were numbers, plans and schedules flying around, symbolizing all of the things I needed to get done in order for God to burn up the altar. As I saw myself standing there I could hear the Lord shouting in my mind, throw water on the altar! As I thought about this vision I could see all of the plans and schedules that I needed to go through in order for God to do a big thing among our students. But the one thing that stuck out was God saying throw water on the altar.

The reason I think this stuck out so much was because it doesn’t make sense to throw water on the altar if I want it to burn up. Throwing water on the altar was not part of my plan, but that is what God wanted me to do in the vision. I understand this is just a vision, but I really think God is trying to tell me something about myself. The real question is, would I be willing to throw water on the altar if God called me to it? Would I really be willing to go against my plans if God called me to do it? In your life and in your job are you willing to go against your plans if God calls you to do so? It’s easy to see in I Kings 18 what happens when a man of God follows God’s plan instead of his own; people worship God! But are you willing? What is God calling you to do for His glory? It may be time to throw water on the altar and forget your plans.