A couple of things

Hi there! Sorry once again for taking such a long break from blogging. Here I am and promise to blog more in the future. Here are a few thoughts for the day.
The new Casting Crowns CD is in stores now. I haven't bought it yet. Have you?
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Today is Wednesday, so please especially remember to pray for the AIM students. Pray for all of those who are on their mission fields and those who are in Lubbock.
A few of the AIMers on the field write blogs and I have been reading some of them and a few send me their newsletters on email. A few of them are experiencing culture shock. Please keep all of them in prayer this week about that. Pray also for the Sunset students in Lubbock and those who are working around the world. Please keep my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team as they get ready to leave the US to go to Auckland, New Zealand to plant a church there. Pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their team as they go through Advanced Missions at Sunset and as they prepare themselves for mission work in Moscow, Russia. Pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they study at Sunset and as they prepare themselves to be missionaries somewhere in this world. And lastly, please pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers for the harvest field.
"... The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field" (Matt. 9:37-38).
Grace and peace.
Zack

Faith: Living without the answers

Greetings one and all! I pray all of you are having a great day.
This past Sunday my dad delivered a wonderful sermon about Habakkuk and his prayer of complaint. In this book, Habakkuk talks to God about Israel and their disobedience to God and what He's going to do about it (vv. 1-4). Then God says, "Don't worry about it. I'm going to send Babylon to capture and punish them" (vv. 5-11). Habakkuk seems to say, "They're worse sinners than Israel is! How can You punish us with those who are worse than us?" (vv. 12-17).
Even when we complain to God, we must still praise and honor Him as God and as Lord of our lives. In 2:4b it says, "...the righteous will live by his faith". No matter what, we must still have faith that God is good, that He knows what He's doing, and trust Him.
All of this makes me think about Job. He had a huge family and lots of possessions. In a span of a couple of hours all of it was taken away (Job 1:13-19). Job is left stunned, but still praises God in all of this. In chapter two Job loses his health and gets boils (2:1-10). At some point he tells God, "we need to talk about this. i am being treated unfairly here. let's talk this thing out". In chapter 38 God begins to talk to Job. In verse 2 it begins with, "Who is this that darkens my counsel, with words with out knowledge. Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me". And on it goes. In all of it God doesn't tell Job why all of this happened to him. Even if God told him, he wouldn't have understood it. In fact he probably would have questioned more.
All of you who are parents, when your children are young, they ask, "why this?" or "why that?". A lot of times they won't understand while they are little. So you say, "because I said so" and they have to live with that answer until they can understand. God is the ultimate "because I said so". There are so many things out there that we will never understand. We will have to make due with that answer.
Faith isn't living with the answers, but learning to live without the answers. That's what real faith is.
God bless! Peace out!
Zack

AIM students

Greetings everyone! Today is the day the new AIM students move to Lubbock. Monday is the first day of school for them and all of Sunset International Bible Institute. Most of the Sunset students should already be there in Lubbock already.
AIM is an eight (8) month program. Sunset has a two (2) year program as well. Please keep all of these in your thoughts and prayers.
Be blessed!
Zack

Pray for Missionaries :)

Yo, yo, and hello there everyone! Please be praying for the AIM students everyday, but especially on Wednesdays. Please pray for the AIM students who have been on their fields for a year. It is possible that many of them are making plans to leave their fields to go back to the US. This can be a vary hard time for them. Pray for the AIM students who have just arrived on their fields. These are just getting started on their ministries, learning the native language, and so forth. And please pray for those who are making preparations to move to Lubbock to start their own "adventures in missions". Many of them will possibly be leaving home for the first time. All of the AIMers (those on the mission field and those going to Lubbock now) are taking steps of faith to do what they are doing. Please keep these men and women in your daily prayers.
Also please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team as they make their last preparations to leave the US and go to Auckland, NZ to plant a church there. I think they plan to leave in September. Please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they are about to begin Advanced Missions at Sunset this Fall. They are doing this as part of their plans to enter the mission field in Moscow, Russia. And lastly, please pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy. They are enrolling at Sunset this Fall to prepare to be missionaries.
We need a lot more men and women in full time ministry all around the world. Please pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more workers for His harvest fields around the world (Matthew 9). God's richest blessings be on each of you.
Zack

Things on my mind

Well, hello there everyone! I pray everyone is having a great day today,
Before I get to the subject of the day, let me tell you a few jokes about some of our US states. Here are a few:
The IRS state: taxes (TX)
The gambling state: I owe ah..... (IA)
The veggie states: Ockrahoma (OK) and Arkanslaw (AR)
The question state: I'll ask ah... (AK)
The cheese state: Swissconsin (WI)
The small coke state: Minni-soda (MN)
That's all I've got so far. If any of you have any good state jokes, put them on my "comments" section on this blog please. But now let's get down to business. The US has become a real mission field. A lot of our churches are loosing people right and left. A lot of churches are closing their doors for good. This is a real problem brothers and sisters and we need to do something about this. The Northeast region of the US is the most populated area and least evangelized. The Northwest region isn't too far behind. Both of these areas need new churches to be planted and there are already existing churches that are dieing and need to be revived. And now even the "Bible Belt" has churches that are going down and need our attention.
This country is a mission field like any other country around the world now.
Lord-willing next August I plan to enroll at Sunset International Bible Institute and hope to get on board with a team of missionaries in order to plant a church in the Northeast. In time I also pray to join a church staff as Outreach Minister, or Spiritual Development Minister, or Education Minister. We need more workers in the Lord's harvest fields all around the world. But we can't forget about our own country too.
"... The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field" (Matthew 9:37-38).
Zack
ps. Dwight Whitsett (Bible teacher at Sunset) has written a great blog on this subject on his blog site at dwhitsett.wordpress.com. Check it out. Be blessed!

Who Am I part 2

Greetings one and all! Sorry once again for the long delay in blogging recently.
Thank you Colby for letting me know it's OK to post the whole lyrics of a song on a blog post. So here it is.
Who AM I.

Who Am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who Am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wondering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You told me who I am
I am Yours. I am Yours

Who Am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

I am Yours.
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
'Cause I am Yours
I am Yours

This song has immediately become one of my favorite Christian music worship songs. And Casting Crowns one of my favorite Christian music groups. This song is absolutely incredible! I love it! All of you reading this blog, do yourself a favor to go buy this CD at your local Christian bookstore or go to castingcrowns.com.
God bless!
Zack