the GOSPEL

Oh GOD, full of beauty, full of grace

who sent His son to die in my place

took beating, slashes, and wood to his back,

not only mine, but the entire worlds that were stack 

with every nail, one of my spots fell off

until all His blood shed was enough

as He breathed His last our doubt was great

and how we can still disbelieve, i do hate

But His love was greater than death

down to the enemys home He took the keys and He left

He opened the gates to our true eternal place

While meeting with His father face to face

But He didn't leave us here alone, 

He gave us His spirit, were all His power is shown

filled with His consuming fire and might

it's the means by which we can be called light

accompanied with the sword of His Spirit we go forth every day

winning lives for His kingdom along the way

until the day He comes back or calls us home

we stand tall on the only sturdy stone

we live and wait only for you 

because you O God are all we know to be true.

What happened to because?

Amongst the steam of the espresso machine, the anxiety sighs of test minded college students, and garbage magazines sits a man reading Hemingway amongst a dozen chocolate wrappers. Besides his 10 year cargo pants and 60's sporting cap, this man is wearing the things in life he enjoys, he is wearing simplicity. As his friend tries to converse with him over his Machiatto, this man continues to read hoping that with the next turn of his page his friend will leave him to his literature.

Amongst a world of doing things because [insert worldly reasoning here]…..he is doing things because he enjoys it. What happened to enjoying a book because of the beauty that is the story, and not the end grade, what happened to intentional conversation, because the desire to learn about someones heart is greater than the need to fill an empty time gap of words, what happened to because?

I'm learning the beauty that is in the things that my heart loves and doing them because of the joy it gives me alone. Why waste another second doing something not worth while when you can spend it doing something that YOU want to do because it's what you want to do. How has the world completely made us feel like if we don't live by their rules we're wasting time or doing something wrong. NO. I mean the Lord gave us each unique and beautiful things that only OUR hearts desire, so living by the rules of the world will NEVER fill the desires of our hearts and will ALWAYS leave us unsatisfied. God wrote the rules, and the world is trying to break them, yet we are slow to call them out on it. So maybe no one will understand why i love sitting at central market on a saturday morning with my best friend who is almost a decade older than me, when i could be catching up on my non existent sleep, maybe no one will understand my desire to live in Angola, Africa amongst a people group that could kill me tomorrow, maybe no one will ever understand why i'd take a drive to Alaska and back just to say i did it despite the gas and the tests i have the next week, and maybe no one will understand how a mid 70's year old man would compel me to start writing despite the 5 chapters of homework i need to read….but i desire it because….because just that, The Lord put it there and this life is way too short to waste it filling it with what the world says is needed.

 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." -1 john 3:1

I am a child of God, i am unique, i am not like his other children, so i will not live like his other children, because i am not them, i am me. The world might not understand my life, but it's because i am not living by their standards.  I'm living by His.

On my way to Ephesus ….

Okay i'm just going to spit it out raw...

so i have been wrecked from every piece of flesh in my being by the all consuming powerful, captivating love and redemption of The Holy Spirit who is JESUS CHRIST. 

yeah. 

Lets take it back a few steps….. My recent time with the Lord has revolved around a door, a door you say? yes, i was confused to. 

"I know your works and have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it for you have a little strength have kept my word and have not denied my name." - Revelations 3:3

" But i will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me and there are many adversaries…"  - 1 corinthians 16: 9-10                                                                                                

So, i am continually asking and praying for the Lord to just show me what this door was, what were the adversaries that were going to come up against it? Naturally i get frustrated when the Lord decides to be his beautiful self and only reveal himself to me in his good timing, so i began to ask him to speak boldly to me and, to rock my world with an interpretation of this message….this is where he takes me. 

"Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. " -1 kings 19:11-12

God did not reveal himself to Elijah in a spectacle, but instead with gentleness. I then decided okay, Lord i will be patient, i mean you've kind of made it clear….

Weeks pass

Then this weekend i attending a missions conference called World Mandate held by the Antioch Church in Waco, Texas. This is where the Lord changed my life!

During worship a friend of mine speaks truth to me on the Holy Spirit and his power and reads to me scripture,  which reads.

"So i say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Luke 11:9

See Paul was planning a journey to Corinth, however the Lord opened an unexpected and effective door in Ephesus for him, and these past few weeks i have felt as though i am on my way to Ephesus, a place i was not expecting to go or dwell in on my way through life; to Corinth. So i have been knocking, inquiring the Lord to reveal and open up this door to me and he did and behind that door was the Holy Spirit and just like Paul waiting until Pentecost, i was waiting for the Holy Spirit to fall upon me. The door was finally able to open to me despite the enemy trying to press against it; my adversary. 

An incredible door has opened up to me, it has changed my life forever, i am forever changed. Never stop knocking because i finally made it to Ephesus and now i face forward journeying to my next destination on the way to Corinth. 

 

The dream

A few things worth sharing…and yes it's about Bali (i know i'm so sorry….i can't help myself)

• The Balinese students all bring brooms to school and they were completely shocked to find out we one do not bring brooms to school, and two do not spend time cleaning the school ourselves.
• The balinese keep their ethanol for their motor bikes in vodka bottles along the side of the road.

the vodka bottles filled with ethanol

We spent the last day of our trip on the beautiful beach of Jimbaran. This was an incredible scenic and breathtaking beach, however, no one was on the beach for the majority of the day until the sun began to set. All of a sudden the entire city and all the many resort guests were present. I couldn't help but think where in the world these people were possibly hiding all day…? It's so interesting, we [americans/europeans] come to Bali and fall in love with the peace of the villages and the simplicity of their life although completely acknowledging how difficult their life is, while at the same time their dreams are going to Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, whatever media shows them on television is the life, and "America"… When in reality it is all fleeting because at the end of the day the thing that everyone comes back to is the sunset on the beach in Jimbaran. In the end its all God. Apart from God nothing is lasting, nothing satisfies. The world is so desperate for him, if something like the simplicity of a beautiful sunset can send people running to it, can cause people to revolve their schedules around it. i can't imagine the revolution it was cause for people to know all of Him, every bit of his beauty, the warm sunset that is his spirit everyday.

"America that's the dream" they all say, but that's not it at all, man its so much better, so much greater!

In OUR image

Men preparing a wedding feast

I think there are those things in life that the Lord just looks at shaking his head saying no you have it all wrong. ( I also believe the Lord has a sense of humor…. [insert ALL my embarrassing moments here] )Yes there is sin in this world, and yes it fractured everything, but i think there are still things we can fix, we can change and try a little harder to image it in the way God crafted it to be.

When in Bali last week the main thing my godmother and i wanted to experience was the true authenticity of the balinese lifestyle, what their culture looked like, their daily life felt life, and get to know what this beautiful place truly was outside of a top tourist destination. We were blessed with a guide who lived in one of the villages of Ubud who took us around the city. He taught us all about the different villages, how there was a wood carving village, a silver village, a fabric village, a painting village and many more. He took us into households where we got to talk to all the families that lived in them and see what their lives actually looked like. I was completely taken aback by their lack of hostility and absolute overpowering sense of hospitality. We were complete strangers and yet for the most part these people were more than willing to open their homes for us to see.

Village rehearsing for a cremation ceremony

When seeing inside all the villages something i admired was their value in community. Their villages are all they have so they use it as survival. When someone passes away the entire village contributes money to pay for the funeral and the eventual cremation (cremations are expensive so every 5 years cremation ceremonies are performed for loved ones once enough money has been saved).  When there is a wedding, families gather days before to begin making offerings, killing their livestock, and preparing foods. They take pride in celebrating one another and helping each other, they don't see it as a burden they see it as a priority as something that is completely natural and necessary. The Lord made life to be lived in community, in community with the Lord and with fellow believers. When God created man, he said "let us create man in our image" he did not say in my image. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, that is the community. God created man to be lived in community like the one it was created from. All these villagers have is their community. Life has not been easy to these people, however,  i imagine the stress of it is not as heavy knowing they have an entire village on their side to overcome whatever battles lie in their path. I think it's easy to think we can do this life on our own, but it wasn't designed that way. It's almost like our selfishness, our pride is causing us to make life harder than it was intended to be. I think community is wearing each others burdens so one person isn't being crushed by it alone, community is acknowledging peoples gifts, its not jealous, but its wanting to further the people around you because they're your brothers and sisters. The balinese have everything to fear and also nothing to fear at all because they're rooted in something deeper than themselves; each other. 

I think the Balinese have preserved idea of community and i absolutely admired it, it made the reasoning for their joy despite their situation understandable. 

Oh bali you've done it again...

Common and Unlcean

Entrance to a Balinese home, the gate and walls in
the entrance are  reminder to gather your thoughts before
entering the home

Bali.
Bali.
Bali.
Oh my goodness Bali.
Bali  has literally stolen my heart and i don't want it back, i want to move with it...to Bali. Bali is not only beautiful, it is authentic and raw. I think the beauty comes from the culture itself. Bali is 90% Hindu and everyone lives in villages. Within these villages are houses that multiple families live in, each with their own temple. Bali therefore, has over 1,000 temples because of it. The Hindus strongly acknowledge the presence of good and evil spirits, they therefore, leave multiple offerings daily to the spirits. If they want to give praise to the good spirit they will set the offerings (made of grass, flowers, even cigarettes, anything they value) on the high shrine and If they want to keep the bad spirits happy for protection, they leave the offerings on the floor. While i was in Bali something i was convicted by was my desire to tell our guide Madee about the Lord. However, i have never felt more out of place doing so. I think it was easy for me to completely dismiss the idea of sharing the good news with this man due to his strong hindu beliefs and my lack of belief that i had any place to. The Lord made me aware of this by once again leading me to Acts. Let me set up the scene…

A woman making offering's

There lived a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea; a pagan city. Cornelius, a gentile and godly man, desired to know God, he gave alms to the Lord who therefore came to Cornelius in a vision. In this vision he told Cornelius to "send men to Joppa, and send for simon whose surname is Peter." (10:5) Peter was a jewish man who lived in the city of Joppa. Peter fell into a trance where where he saw "all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air." (10:12) Then a voice told peter to kill and eat of the meat which Peter refuses by claiming it "common and unclean" (10:14). Peter, being jewish, had always followed the strict laws on clean and separate foods, he therefore could not imagine going against past scriptural and his known ways. The Lord told peter however, that "What God has cleansed you must not call common." (10:15) Peter eventually went to Caesarea with the men to speak with the gentiles (it was against the law for jews to to associate with gentiles). Peter shared the truth of Jesus to the gentiles present, how he had broken the old laws and that "God shows no partiality." (10:34) and the Holy Spirit fell on all the gentiles present!

Our guide made (maud-ay)

Peter was used to doing things in the way he had always done them until the Lord commanded him otherwise. By the blood of Jesus we have all been made clean and what God has cleansed is by no means common. I think there is so much about this chapter that can be unpacked and beautifully applied, but in in my experience it had everything to do with Peter setting his ideals and ways aside and following God. God who "shows no partiality." Everyone despite who they are, what they believe deserves to hear of the good news and i am no one to put my own excuses in front of that.  I think it is easy to quiet our responsibility of doing by the loud voice we hear of excuse and  inadequacy. What a beautiful thing it is that there is no limit to who truth can be told to, however we make it limiting by placing our own barriers on it, the barriers Jesus came to take away. Yes the Hindus are religious, yes they acknowledge a God, yes they give alms to this God, but they have not acknowledged salvation just like Cornelius.  Like Peter, I think it's time to stop justifying and start evangelizing.

The wet market

Now is this not the sweetest man you ever saw

A few observations, First asians are everywhere and to say i stick out would be a huge understatement. Everyone here is about five foot tall (maybe), oval eyes, and dark hair. I however, am five foot nine, round eyes, and light hair; hello foreigner. This morning we went to a wet market which is basically a market where produce, fish, meats, and even indian clothing is sold in an open market. I assume it is called a wet market because the floor is soaked from fish guts to water from splashing crabs and who knows what else. But I loved the wet market. If i could buy all my produce and groceries this way every day i would. The working class of Singapore only buys their goods this way. I was thinking to myself why would this not work in America, and then i realized the visual of seeing all the meat being handed around, touched and tossed by many, and the heads of all that is to be consumed being dismantled in front of your eyes might not appeal to many, but for some reason it made me appreciate my food even more. Being able to pick out and sample the raw seasons and spices made the whole concept of cooking so much more exciting, because you're truly putting work into what you are preparing and in the end get to see the reward of the whole process. Something i have been observant of is how most of the community is glad within their jobs. Even some of the most unexciting jobs are performed by the most thankful workers. I think alot of the world has lost the blessing behind what working is and what it does to your soul. We were made to work, there is reward and discipline that feeds us from working. My godmother lead me to the most perfectly summarizing verse.

"and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you."   -Thessalonians 4:11

Nancy choosing our squid

Paul could not put this more perfectly. I don't think he meant literally be quiet, i think he meant let your ambitions be simple and good, a life not run by your day planner or the next step, but one that is glorifying and thankful. So to make it your ambition to lead a life that is simply good stop worrying about everyone else and do your work, do the labor with the two hands God had blessed you with. I think work is a beautiful thing that we have made into a burdensome one because we seek what pays, we seek what society says is smart but we don't seek what is ambitious for our own hearts, and simply satisfying for our own selves or if we do we get lost in the glory of it.  These market workers have blessed me with the reminder of thanksgiving, being appreciative for what i do have even if it does not compare to what someone else has. Working hard and attending to what is in front of me is a beautiful thing.