true religion

This is a great story of a couple of folks within our community who have started a ministry to single moms and widows. We have been teaching through the book of Acts and we keep seeing how God gives the apostles impossible tasks and then provides so that His people can be on a mission. Here is their story of being on a mission.

“We began trying to contact our single mom on thursday to no avail. We spoke with her mom in California, and her high school age daughter here, multiple times everyday but she had disappeared. We originally said that we had to be able to come see the apartment by Friday afternoon to be able to help get her out by her eviction date but kept pushing back the deadline hoping she would show. Finally she called me on Saturday evening and said the apartment was too messy and she wanted to get it cleaner before we came. We said we would rent the storage unit on Sunday and come on Monday morning to move whatever she had packed. She called Sunday evening to say that she was overwhelmed and couldn’t even begin and we would just have to come and do it all for her. We showed up Sunday morning at 9:30 expecting a somewhat messy one bedroom apartment and found a two bedroom apartment filled with unpacked boxes and trash. Only a small walkway led to the two equally full bedrooms. She admitted to us that she hadn’t done dishes in over 6 months. One of our team members called a friend who owns a moving company and on Labor Day morning, he personally came and delivered a 24 foot trailer and his personal truck to help us out. We tore into the apartment and it was filthy. God provided though, two ladies that our single mom had not seen in over a year unexpectedly dropped by and offered to pitch in cleaning the kitchen with our one female team member. We worked until 5:40 p.m. packing the trailer completely full and hauling two pickup loads of trash to the dumpster. We went to the storage unit and unloaded everything, finishing at 7:45 p.m. The next day, I went back to take the last truckload, the apartment was then completely empty. During the process we threw away 12 signs that the mom had held on street corners asking for money. She told us of her struggles with depression and how she had been robbed and her best friend had been murdered. We prayed for her and told her this was a new start that God had given her. Our single mom asked her friend who was cleaning the kitchen if she knew Jesus. Her daughter was working at TGI Fridays to try and buy a car for them, she had to miss work to help pack so we reimbursed her for her lost wages. We bought them lunch and hugged her before we left in the evening. This lady’s mom in California was so thankful, her exact words were “I know that we are the body of Christ but I cannot comprehend the kindness that we are finding down there.” She is part of a weekly prayer group and will now be praying for our ministry. We were blessed beyond our wildest dreams. There are a lot of dumb ways to spend Labor Day and I have spent many a Labor Day that way. But when we three guys stood in the rain outside of that storage unit after 10 hours together, we felt a bond that surpasses brotherly love. We stepped out together and God did the impossible right in front of us, to show us His glory. We saw it. He provided an unexpected trailer, two ladies, and somehow, He moved an apartment, that should not have been done in one day. We each know that God moved on Labor Day and we got to see it. We believed we would find purpose in serving single moms and widows together as brothers, and our inaugural mission of PURE legitimized that belief. If that was the last need God used PURE to meet, praise Him for one incredible day.
The PURE TeamPure Undeilfed Religion EnactedA ministry of James 1:27

Death by Ministry

I have really enjoyed Pastor Mark Driscoll's blog series called "death by ministry." His statistics in week 2 are sobering if not scary. It comes out of his experience of the difficulties and depression often associated with ministry. His thesis is that if you don't take a sabbath, God will impose one on you. I find his reminders helpful for all of us in a busy productive culture who don't allow ourselves to rest.

Looking at the last month of my life, I am convicted that I have had little time of Sabbath and even fewer moments of reflection. In Austin, we are entering the most exciting season of the year - Fall: cooler weather, football, ACL, etc. But for most of us the fall is the busiest season of the year and we need to be reminded that the Sabbath is a gift from the Lord for us. You can find Mark's entire series on his blog.

A good read:This week I have really enjoyed: Real Sex: the naked truth about chastity by Lauren Winner. I honestly recommend everyone to read this book whether single or married. It is great on chastity but also great on a gospel understanding of married sex. The whole thing is great, but here is a quote that I think particulary pegs our false thinking.

"We are not sure whether bodies are good or bad: it follows that we are not sure whether sex is good or bad. The Christian view of bodies - that is, God's view of bodies - cannot be abstracted from the biblical account of creation. God created people with bodies, and God declared that they were good.... we've learned to reduce sex and everything else bodily, to something that has only utilitarian function."

choosing both

This last week in the Gathering we had a guest preacher, Matt Blackwell, who continued our series on Acts. I have always loved Acts 3 and the story of the lame beggar at the gate who was healed and went away leaping, jumping and worshiping God. It is such a beautiful picture of our response to salvation. When I think about how God intervened through Jesus when I had no hope - I want to leap, dance and worship too.

On Sunday night, I realized that Acts 3 is also the perfect combination of our call to gospel ministry: the creation mandate from Gen 1:26-28 and the disciple-making call from Matthew 28:19-20. My friend Jonathan Dodson has a great post on this to explain it further. When we truly understand the gospel, we see ourselves as the empty-handed beggar and want to tell other beggars about the love of Jesus -- the evangelism or disciple-making mandate. But also we have to see our ministry like that of the apostles who looked into the beggar's eyes and restored justice to his life -- the creation/restoration mandate. Both kinds of ministries have their foundation in the redemptive message of the gospel. Historically churches have either done really well at evangelism or social justice but rarely both.

It seems like the apostles saw both as part of their redemptive call from Jesus. Jana personalizes that struggle so well in the Gathering Blog and I have felt the same conviction as I walked the streets of Bangladesh or even today when I drive the streets of Austin. I recognize that I need to be intentional to live both mandates in order to have a full picture of the Gospel ministry of reconciliation.

Only 2 more to go...

Do you remember cutting out UPC's from your cereal box to collect prizes when you were a kid? I would get all kinds of things like toys, baseball cards, and posters of athletes. That was the greatest way to collect some junk that you would end up selling in a garage sale.

This morning I looked at my cereal and I literally saw..."Free cholesterol test kit with 3 UPC's." I began to wonder how old am I that I eat cereal where the toy is a cholesterol kit? I don't think of myself as that old, but I do have some old traits not even counting my few gray hairs. Last week I was talked into joining Facebook and I realize that I am too old for it, because I had to ask my younger friends how it works. Then to top it all off, Mandy and I went to dinner on vacation this weekend at 5:30 and were back in our condo by 7 every night. We laughed all weekend about how hold we are. 1997 Jeff would be so disappointed with 2007 Jeff. Oh well. What would 1997 you be ashamed of that you do now?

Oooh Aaaah

Have you ever thought about Jesus' miracles. I have always known that Jesus' miracles were to authenticate his message and to show that He was the Son of God. But have you ever thought about what kind of miracles you would do so that people knew you were the Son of God. I mean obviously healing the sick, feeding the 5000 and giving sight to the blind are pretty awesome miracles, but is that the most spectacular thing that He could have done? We live in a culture where only the most spectacular and outrageous make it on TV. I mean I am sure that David Blaine is dreaming up some other trick to get on Primetime TV.

But what we miss is that Jesus did not do his miracles strictly to be the most spectacular. He didn't suspend the natural order so everyone would ooh and aah. In fact He didn't suspend the natural order of things, but instead Jesus restored the natural order of things through these miracles. You see God didn't make the world to have blindness, poverty and disease - He is restoring what the Old Testament calls Peace or Shalom. Shalom is the harmony and wholeness of the world or in other words - the way things were suppossed to be. So Jesus is not only proving that He is God, but He is showing His redemptive power and His redemptive purpose. You see the ultimate purpose of salvation is restoration of the entire world.

So how do we join in on God's redemptive work in our world? Maybe we need to get busy "seeking the shalom/peace" of our world and being less concerned with the spectacular. In Jeremiah 29 God commands the exiles to go into the cities, keep their identity and spend their lives seeking and praying for the peace of the city. We need to be reminded of this passage so that we can live in Austin, keep our identity as Christians and seek the peace of Austin. Maybe then we would be joining in on the redemptive work of Jesus. Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. This is convicting to me and hopefully to all of us.

You work where?

When you meet someone for the first time; the first question that everyone asks – is what do you do? When I tell them that I work at First Evangelical Free Church, most give me the same perplexed look as they respond to “evangelical” and especially “free.” Some assume that I am one of those “free” types that they see on TV and others think they have me pegged politically. Then I try and explain it and I realize that no one knows what “evangelical” truly means.

“Evangelical” has become in our culture a word which primarily alludes to particular political views. After the 04 election, the Daily Texan (The UT paper) called our church mainly because our church has the word Evangelical in it and they interviewed us about our political views. Of course we told her that our church does not affiliate with any political party or any politician and she was shocked. Unfortunately, others associate this word with Televangelists. Needless to say, this word has negative connotations in our culture these days.

It is unfortunate not only because our church has the word in the title, but because evangelical is such a rich word theologically and historically. The evangelical movement was a response to German Theologians in the late 1800s who wanted to take the authority, truth and inspiration out of the scripture in order to make Christianity more relevant. The evangelicals worked really hard to maintain their commitment to Scripture and more importantly the “evangel” (gospel) of Jesus Christ. The way I understand church history informs me that the evangelical movement had nothing to do with politics. So I am evangelical in my theology. I have a very conservative view of scripture and the gospel of Jesus is the most important thing to me and my faith. I am on one hand very happy to be called “evangelical,” because of the commitment to the gospel. But on the other hand, I don’t like the negative connotations associated with the word. So what is the answer? I wonder if there is a way to reclaim that word so that it could be associated with the love, reconciliation and grace of the gospel of Jesus as it was originally intended.

And then I try to explain “free.” That is another blog for another day.