Musings on Faith

Faith is something I've been musing over for the past while. Being a broke seminary student trying to support my family while following Jesus on the adventure of a lifetime is quite the roller coaster ride. There is definitely some amazing highs, but the free fall turns your stomach into knots, and then back up the track you go. As you have read previously this month, God had provided us with a van we have been praying for, but just like Elijah, after a great spiritual high, there comes a low. During my musings, I think I realized why God lets us do the free fall in the roller coaster car - to grasp tightly onto Him! God is teaching us more and more, it's not what I am going to do in Medicine Hat, it is what Christ wants to do through me, and He can't work through me if I am not grasping onto Him. In my weakness He is strong. The last thing I want is for people to come to church because Jason is the pastor. I want people to come to church because Jesus loves them immensely, and Jesus loves them through Jason. Even though the roller coaster ride can be frightening, I always seem to hear, "Fear Not, I am with you." Remember, when the roller coaster is going down - Jesus hasn't forsaken you, He's telling you to hold on to Him. Faith is hoping against all hope, and trusting against all odds and trusting because Jesus told you to. Giving the reigns to Jesus sometimes isn't comfortable, but it is definitely worth it!

Relaxing Evening

Let me set the scene for you. Our Christmas lights are on, our Christmas tree is up and its white lights let off a soft glow in the living room, Bing Crosby's Christmas album is playing and my wife and I are drinking peppermint tea, enjoying each other's company as we pray and read Scripture to each other. God has a way of speaking to us in that kind of setting. Guys, there is something awesome that happens when you pray with your wife. There is a deeper sense of intimacy when both you and your wife come into the presence of God in prayer and Bible reading. In our quiet time together we both agreed that we will fast together once per week to pray for the people of Medicine Hat. We aren't too good at fasting, so to start we will miss one meal together per week because we love the people of Medicine Hat, even though we have not met them yet.

Technology can be great so instead of just praying for people without a face in Medicine Hat, we went onto facebook and typed in Medicine Hat. There were over 500 people that popped up that live in Medicine Hat. Tonight my wife and I started praying for real people - people with names and faces - in Medicine Hat. We are going to pray through one facebook page of people per day for their salvation and that we might get the chance to minister to them. We know that God loves these people. As we pray for them, can you pray that we can love them the way that Jesus does. Maybe you can do the same thing and start praying for the same people we are praying for in Medicine Hat. Leigh and I also want to thank all of you who are visiting our website. We have been blogging since April, but only put the counter up on October 7, 2007. I never realized how many people have been taking interest in us and the ministry that God has given us. Thank you for your prayers.

Book Review - New Beginnings

I needed to do a presentation on a discipleship resource for one of my seminary classes today and once I was finished I was amazed at how many people went to go and purchase the book I just did my presentation on. The book - New Beginnings: Things to Know to Become A better Christian by Don Dilmore.

We will be using this resource in the new church plant in Medicine Hat to help disciple new Christians, not because Don Dilmore is my wife's uncle, or because he was Vice President of Development for the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary, but because this is a solid resource. It is a 13 week study that we will use in our home groups and I will be the facilitator, not a teacher of the book. The book is priced at $10 per copy, but really is worth much more than that - it is a hidden jewel that is only 165 pages and that includes the 13 weeks of Bible Study.

Each chapter has a daily assignment plus a weekly assignment that we would end up discussing at each home group during the course of the study. Here is a breakdown of the book:

Chapter 1 :Am I Really Saved?

Gospel presentation 4 Spiritual Laws
Lightly touches on why Christians suffer
Encouragement to start new life in Christ

Chapter 2: Who the Holy Spirit is and What He Does

What He does
Lightly touches on talking in tongues - it is biblical but not necessary for Salvation

Chapter 3: The Holy Bible

How to pick a good translation
What the Old and New Testaments are about
Get on a reading plan

Chapter 4: Why Do I Need To Go To Church?

What church is
How the church helps its members
Sunday School
Baptism
Moving Your Letter

Chapter 5: Repentance

Repentance is more than feeling bad
Repentance is more than being sorry
The Importance of repentance

Chapter 6: What is Expected of Me as a Christian?

The biggest error that Christians make
Love God more than anything else
Change your lifestyle
We need to have complete faith and trust in God
Study God's Word

Chapter 7: Make It a Matter of Prayer

Just don't pray for self and family
Pray for pastor, missionaries, and government
Spend time thanking God
The importance and the power of prayer

Chapter 8: Why do Christians Sometimes Suffer?

These times are opportunities for growth
No one has all the answers to why Christians suffer
Denounces name it and claim it / health and wealth preaching
God's perspective is different than ours
Sometimes we suffer because of our sin and wrong choices
Not all of our suffering is our fault

Chapter 9: Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Differences in opinion on Baptism and what the Bible says
Passover related to the Lord's Supper

Chapter 10: Southern Baptists - Who are they?

A quick church history lesson from 1170 AD to 1997

Chapter 11: How Southern Baptist Are Organized

We are a theocracy (explains difference between theocracy and democracy)
Many churches start off as missions/church plants
Pulpit/Pastor committees and other committees
Job of music minister as church grows
Different ministerial positions and their roles
Deacons
Business meetings
Associations and Conventions
Lifeway
NAMB/IMB, seminaries, Annuity Board, Ethics and religious liberty commission, WMU

Chapter 12: Where The Money Comes From

It comes from God
God uses people
Tithing
Budgeting
The importance of Debt-Free Living
Church Expenses
The Cooperative Program
Different SBC Offerings (Annie Armstrong / Lottie Moon etc.)

Chapter 13: It's Up To You

Being a cheerful giver in money time and talents
Volunteers that built the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary
Use your talents and gifts to minister to people

If you would like to order the book you can click on the picture of the book at the top of this article or you can leave me a comment and I can get you in touch with Don Dilmore.

Answered Prayer

For the past month we have been praying for a minivan. We have a little car that we brought up from Texas that is good on gas, but it is little and with a family we just need something bigger. As students, our financial portfolio says that we can't buy smoke off a cheeseburger, yet we know Scripture to be true. Jesus tells us to seek the Kingdom of God first and then seek His righteousness (not our own) and all of our needs will be met. (Not all of our wants, but all of our needs) So after a month of praying for a minivan, someone we don't know gave us one. We didn't take out a loan, we aren't making payments and we didn't ask him to have his van. God knew what we needed and gave it to us - a 7 passenger minivan! God is good. Where are you with God right now? Are you relying on your own strength to get through life or are you relying on Him? Scripture is true, and when we surrender our lives to His will, miracles happen. To seek His Kingdom first means to love God above everything - your spouse, your kids, your bank account, your golf game, your vehicle - and then have that self sacrificing love for people especially those that don't like you. The only way we can love God above everything is to realize that He first loved us. When we were His enemies, He sacrificed His Son by going through the worst torture possible in order make us right with Him. He has every right to send all of us to Hell because that is what we deserve, but because of His love and mercy and grace He is willing, able and desiring to reconcile us to Himself. Only when we humble ourselves to receive that gift of salvation through Jesus Christ can we love people the way that He does. You may think that many people in this world don't deserve your love, but remember nobody deserves the love of God, but because of His goodness He loves us.

Fear and Great Joy

I usually don't blog what God is telling me in my quiet time, but this morning was amazing. For the last hour I have been weeping over the lost in Canada - broken because they don't know Jesus when Jesus had his body broken for them. As I read the resurrection story from Matthew, I began to weep again because I know somewhat of the feelings these people were experiencing.

"Don't be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here! For He has been resurrected, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead. In fact, He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there.' Listen, I have told you. So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell His disciples the news." (Matthew 28:5-8 HCSB)

After seeing the angel, these ladies had fear and great joy as they went to tell their friends about Jesus. I know that I am working by myself and not with God when I don't have fear when I tell my friends about Jesus, but there is an inexpressible joy that comes when I tell someone about Jesus. My job is not to tell them how bad of a person they are - the Holy Spirit will do that - my job is to tell them that Jesus paid the penalty for their sin, so they can experience the extreme joy of having an intimate relationship with the God who created them. The God who cannot look upon sin loves you so much that He had His sinless Son pay your penalty so He cannot just look upon you, but walk with you, talk with you, love on you and have you tell others about Him. Yes, it is going to be fearful because we don't know what the other person is going to say, but yes there is going to be extreme joy when we do that. "I pray that you will be active in sharing your faith so you will know every good thing we have in Christ Jesus." "Philemon 6

Strategy Coordinator Training

I just finished 9 hours of Strategic Coordinator training at the Canadian Convention. I will be the strategic coordinator for church planting in the Medicine Hat area. I have another 2 more days of this. I am very encouraged about what God is doing in Canada right now. So far in 2007 the Canadian Convention has planted the most amount of churches it has ever planted in a single year with less funds it has had in previous years. This is only something God could do. Please continue to pray for Canada. God is doing a mighty work here. Pray that God may use you in Canada also. To be on the frontier with God is one of the most exciting things one can experience.

Drive It Like It's Stolen

I was reading a friend's blog yesterday and I'm pretty sure you can identify with him, because I sure did. He is struggling in his walk with God, it's hard for him to pray, get into the Word, even go to church. He knows what he's supposed to do and he wants to do it, but he is very depressed about his walk with God right now.

For the first 2 months the Mazda RX-8 was out, I was the top RX-8 salesman in Texas, number 4 in the United States. I understand RX-8's. Do you know that the manual transmission model has 6 gears and you shift at 9,000 RPM? You are doing between 40-50 mph in 1st gear alone! I had one up to 120 mph in 3rd gear on HWY 290 one time, and there were 3 more gears to go! The RX-8 was designed to be driven like that. If you drive it like a granny car, it will end up not performing well at all. It's designed to be driven fast.

We are not designed to have Jesus as part of our lives. We are designed for Jesus to be our life. Big difference! (Deut. 30:47) If we keep Jesus as a part of our life - then our life is in granny mode and we will never get to the performance we are designed for, but when Jesus becomes our life - well then we're shifting at 9000 rpm.

Winter fun

This past week we received some snow. Riley loves playing outside and really enjoyed playing in the snow. He would try to throw a snowball, but the snow would stick to his mittens. I tried to have him make snow angels but he did not want to do that. These pictures were taken in our front yard. He had so much fun. I could not forget about our youngest Sawyer. He has not played out in the snow but we sure have to bundle him up which he does not like

Winter Wonderland

Well, the snow has come heavy this morning. We were only supposed to get 2 cm today and we already have it by9:00 am and it is supposed to snow through the week. I worked an extra 2 and a half hours today. I could have went home to bed before church, but I had a great opportunity to earn the right to share the Gospel today. I am working night crew at Safeway and it was just me and my supervisor. I could have left when my shift was over, but I worked the extra 2 and a half hours, then I brushed the snow off his car for him and left before he could thank me. It's just the 2 of us tonight again and he is starting to ask questions about the church we are starting and about seminary. I anwer his questions, but I have not yet got to the point where he has permitted me to share the Gospel with him. Maybe this was the the door God wants to use.