Zack's Blog

This Blog Has Moved!

2008-05-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

I've moved this blog over to wordpress (www.zackblaisdell.wordpress.com). Please come check out the new blog!

Madelyn's Birthday Party/ Uncle Zeebo

2008-05-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! On Saturday we celebrated my niece Madelyn's first birthday party. Lots of fun! We all met at my brother in law's parents' house. The party was a huge success! Lots of good food. Good cake and ice cream. Madelyn enjoyed her birthday presents. A good time had by all!
Happy birthday Madelyn!
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Of course all of you know my name is Zack. My mother calls me Zeebo sometimes. That has become a nickname of sorts. My brother in law has an older sister who is married and has three children of her own. The oldest is called Zack as well. So I have decided to have Madelyn call me Uncle Zeebo to avoid confusing her.
And now my youngest sister Katie is pregnant, I have decided to go with Uncle Zeebo with all of my nieces and nephews that come along the way.
That is the story behind "Uncle Zeebo". I love being an uncle!
Peace and God bless!

Answer/ Madelyn's Birthday

2008-05-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all.
Now for the moment everyone's been waiting for: the answer to last week's riddle. What do May flowers bring? Pilgrams!
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My niece Madelyn Grace Chism turns One year old tomorrow May 14. Can't believe how time has been flying by in one year's time. It only runs faster from here on. My brother-in-law has a really awesome tribute to her on his blog risefromyourslumber.wordpress.com. He has a really awesome song posted on it by Steven Curtis Chapman (one of my personal favorite Christian song writers/ singers). It's really touching and you'll be crying your eyes out by the end of it, so get a hanker chif before you listen to it.
Happy first birthday sweet Madelyn! Your Uncle Zeebo (I'll write a post about the "Uncle Zeebo" thing some time later) loves you!
Peace!

April showers and May flowers

2008-05-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. I know we are six days into May already, but this is really funny.
April showers bring May flowers. What do May flowers bring? Think about it. The answer is obvious. Even if you rack your brain trying to figure it out, when you hear the correct answer you'll say "oh yeah, that's so obvious". The answer coming next week.
God bless!

SIBI News/ Prayers

2008-04-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I forgot to post about this. I got accepted to attend Sunset International Bible Institute this Fall. School starts August 11th. I need to be in Lubbock sometime before that. I am very excited about being challenged and getting opportunities to develop some skills. I will post about ambitions to fulfill after Sunset at a later time. I am really excited about this great opportunity! Still need some support. If there is anyone interested, please email me (dxddgr9800@hotmail.com) and we can talk about it.
Also, please remember to be praying for the AIM students and my friends on the mission field all around the world. Thanks for that!
More news later. Grace and Peace.

Pepperdine Lectureship

2008-04-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I guess most people already know this. The Pepperdine Bible Lectureship starts tonight in Malibu, CA. I pray everyone gets there safe and sound. And that everyone has a spiritually uplifting experience there. And finally that everyone will make back home safely and use what they learned in their churches back home.
Quite a few people I have met in the blog world are there. I wish each of them and everyone who is there God's blessings. I hope to read about their personal experiences there. Lord-willing I will get to go to Pepperdine for the Lectureship at some point in the future.
God bless you all!

The Shack Book

2008-04-25T11:08:00.001-07:00

Greetings everyone! I hope and pray you are having a good day. Some time ago I finished reading a book called The Shack. It is really (and I mean REALLY!!!!!) intense! My parents got my brother, brothers in law, and I a copy of the book for Christmas. It took me a really long time to read it. The book was way too intense for me. I've heard of people who read The Shack in a day or two. I just couldn't handle a huge chunk of it in one sitting. I could only read a chapter of it and have to sit it down to digest it, plus that it was INTENSE.
The Shack is about a man who takes his three youngest children (one son and two daughters) on a camping trip in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon near the end of the summer before school started up again. On the last day they were there the youngest child ( one of the two girls) is kid napped and brutally murdered. The body is discovered in an abandoned shack. A few years pass and the rest of the family has taken their time recouping from such a devastating tragedy. The wife (Nan) has developed a deeper relationship with God. She even calls Him Papa. That will play a major role into the book. The husband (Mack) seems to have drifted off from his relationship with God. The kids seem to be in different stages between their parents' to extremes. Several years pass by and Mack discovers a note addressed to him from Papa, inviting him to meet Him at the shack, the site of the vicious murder, for the weekend. He discovers Nan is taking the kids to their grand parents for the weekend to spend time with them. Mack decides to stay home. He finally decides to go to the shack. What he finds there will change his life forever. He gets there and God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all there in human form. God even calls Him self (in this case Her self) Papa. Jesus is Him self. And the Holy Spirit calls Her self Sarayu. Mack discovers the peace and love of God all over again, and discovers God had a plan in this devastating event. God still loved him and his whole family and wept as they wept when ever they missed their deceased family member who died so tragically.
I can see how this book could be such a great comfort to those who have lost family members in similar ways. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks for reading! God bless!

7 Practices of Effective Ministry

2008-04-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I recently finished reading 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones. This book is very practical. It is very similar to Simple Church by Thomas Rainer and Eric Geiger. I highly recommend every church leader read those two books. I think I have blogged about Simple Church some time ago. I will blog about 7 Practices of Effective Ministry here now.
This book is divided in to two parts. Part one is Getting in the Game: Ray's Story. This story is fictional. It is about a man named Ray. He is the Senior Minister of a church he helped plant ten years ago. The church has grown a lot over the years. With each step in the growth, the church has added new programs. Most (if not all) of these new programs are headed by Ray. Now he is simply worn out by all of these new hats he has to ware. And now the church has a board meeting about a new pre-school the church will host. Of course Ray would head that too. Another hat for him to ware. A friend of his gave him a ticket to a baseball game for Sunday. It was supposed to be a day game. But a current win streak has the home team with in a game of first place in their division. ESPN TV picks up the game and game time is moved to 7pm. Ray was excited about the game before the game time change. He is considering not attending the game and going to the meeting. His friend who gave him the ticket calls him and they talk about weather Ray should go to the meeting or go to the game. His friend says he needs to do what he's got to do, but he thinks Ray and the whole church would benefit better if he went to the game. They hand up. The next call is from the head of the board. Meeting is canceled. Ray is very relieved and goes to the game at peace. He finds out he gets a pre-mo parking spot and discovers he's siting with the owner of the baseball team in the owner's box! Ray even gets the VIP treatment. Pretty awesome deal! During the game the team's owner Pete gives Ray the 7 practices of effective ministry.
Part two is Putting the 7 Practices to Work. Now the seven practices of effective ministry are:
1. Clarify the Win: Define what is important at every level of the organization.
2. Think Steps, Not Programs: Before you start anything, make sure it takes you where you need to go.
3. Narrow the Focus: Do fewer things in order to make a greater impact.
4. Teach Less for More: Say only what you need to say to the people who need to hear it.
5. Listen to Outsiders: Focus on who you're trying to reach, not on who you're trying to keep.
6. Replace Yourself: Learn to hand off what you do.
7.Work On It: Take time to evaluate your work- and to celebrate your wins.
Each 0f the chapters discusses each of them in great detail. It is a wonderful volume that every church leader should read, along with Simple Church.
Let's get in the game! God bless!

Praying

2008-04-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. I pray everyone is having a great day today.
Today is Wednesday so please especially remember to pray for the AIM students. I think many (if not all) of them have gone back home now to begin fund raising for their time on their mission fields all around the world. BTW, if any one knows where all them are going, please email me (dxddgr9800@hotmail.com). Thanks! Pray for those who are planing to go to Lubbock in August to begin there own adventure in missions. Pray for those who have been on their fields for some time now. And please pray for my friends that I usually ask for (the Hindmans and their team in Moscow, Russia; the Peters and their team in Auckland, New Zealand; and others). Thanks everyone!
Tomorrow I'll write about a book I just finished reading called 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. Until then, God bless!

Do Hard Things

2008-04-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I just finished reading a very exciting book called Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. The book is written by 19 year old twin brothers Alex Harris and Brett Harris. It is written by teens for teens.
The book is broken down in three parts: Part One is Rethinking The Teen Years. Part Two is Five Kinds of Hard. And Part Three is Join The Rebelution. Let's take each of these one at a time and chapter by chapter.
The first section of the book is Rethinking The Teen Years. It has four chapters. The first chapter is Most People Don't: A different kind of teen book. This chapter serves as an introduction to the book with a brief overview of what you find. Chapter two is The Birth Of A Big Idea: Rumblings of a rebelution. This chapter tells how they got started with this refreshing ministry of the rebelution. Actually, the term "rebelution" is the joining of the two words "rebellion" and "revolution". Thus you get "rebelution", or rebelling against low expectations. They rightly say that the teen years were intended to be a training ground for what we want to be in life. It will certainly force us to grow up fast. Search for your purpose in life early and start fulfilling it. The third chapter is The Myth of Adolescence: Exposing the low expectations that are robbing our generation. This chapter greatly expounds on the idea of the second chapter, that the teen years are to be a training ground for life. They tell the stories of George Washington, David Farragut, Clara Barton. All three were just kids and very shy when they were thrust into responsibility and grew up into there respective roles in life. In chapter four ( A Better Way: Reclaiming the teen years as the launching pad of life) tells what all three of them became later in life due to there young life training they received as children. This expounds more fully on the teen years as the training grounds of life. It introduces the term "kidults"meaning those who are all grown up, but have never accepted responsibility for themselves or their actions. It also talks about Five Kinds of Hard (things that are outside our comfort zones, things that go beyond what is expected or required, things that are too big to accomplish alone, things that don't earn an immediate payoff, and things that challenge the cultural norm).
All five of those hard things (see above in the perentheses) are the subjects of the second section (Five Kinds of Hard) and each one is talked about in great detail in the five chapters. Chapter five is That First Scary Step: How to do hard things that take you outside your comfort zone. It talks about finding out what you want to do and taking the first (and scary) step to work at it. When that first step is taken most of the others are a lot easier. It can be a major step of faith just to get started. The sixth chapter is Raising The Bar: How to do hard things that go beyond what's expected or required. Better known as going the extra mile Jesus talks about in Matthew's gospel. This talks about setting the expectations bar high and achieving excellance in what ever you do. Chapter seven is The Power of Collaboration: How to do hard things that are too big for you to do alone. This is about dreaming big things and working with family members and friends to accomplish those big dreams. There are a ton of awesome examples of teens who dreamed big, and got the help and encouragement of family and friends to accomplish those big things. Chapter eight is Small Hard Things: How to do hard things that don't pay off immediately. These things include things that many people don't think of as that important but really do build character and integrity in ourselves. And those are things we will all need later on in life. Chapter nine is Taking A Stand: How to do hard things that go against the crowd. This chapter talks about truly living as Jesus would live. In many other countries around the world those who live for Jesus are being persecuted all around the world. Culture accepts immorality across the board, but to truly live for Christ we have to turn away from all of that and make an impact for Him in that culture.
And Part Three is Join the Rebelution. It has three chapters here. Chapter ten is Generation Rising: Creating a counterculture from scratch (and a dash of salt). This is where the rubber meets the road. It is about finding your purpose in life and doing something about it right now.
Chapter eleven is A Thousand Young Heroes: Stories of new beginnings, impossible challenges, and the teens who are living them. This talks about finding the answers to how to get started on how to solve our purpose in life. As other chapters have discussed, get together with family and friends on a project together and solve this. In this chapter you'll read about several teens who have. In chapter twelve we read World, Meet You Rebelutionaries: Transforming your mission from a decision into a destiny. This chapter is truly about letting the rubber hit the road and get started on rebelling against low expectations. Let's encourage each other to reach higher than we ever have before. To live outside our comfort zones. To truly walk by faith and not by sight (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians). To learn more about this book, the others, and the teens they talk about please see their website at therebelution.com.
Thank you Alex and Brett for writing this fantastic and refreshing book! Peace and God bless!

Blue Like Jazz part next

2008-04-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. I hope and pray all of you who are reading this are having a great day.
I have read the remainder of Blue Like Jazz and will finish blogging about it here.
In chapter 11 Miller talks about Confession: Coming Out of the Closet. He said he and several friends made a confession booth for the students at Reed College. He later explained that the students weren't going to confess to them (the Christians on campus), but the other way around. The Christians (Miller and his friends) were going to confess to the students. They were going to confess that they weren't being a good example of Christ on the campus. They confessed to all the terrible things that other Christian groups had done in the name of Christ, and other things as well. This was received very graciously by those they confessed to. Miller said "it was relieving".
In chapter 12 we read about Church: How I Go Without Getting Angry. In this chapter Miller talks about church is supposed to help us to change our behaviors and actions from worldly points of view to that of Christ. We're supposed to be out there making a difference in the world. Developing Christian habits that help us build ourselves stronger spiritually.
Chapter 13 is Romance: Meeting Girls Is Easy. Here Miller talks about all the guys he's been friends with over the years and about the girls they met and got married to and how happy they are at the present. Then he talked about his own view of girls and marriage in general. He discovered that while marriage is a beautiful thing, he didn't want that for himself.
Chapter 14 is Alone: Fifty-three Years in Space. Miller talks about being alone and how unhealthy it is for all aspects of our lives. Miller discovered that God never meant for man to be alone. God made us to live in community with other people. He never wanted us to be alone.
In chapter 15 Miller talks about Community: Living with Freaks. Here he talks about some of the people he lived with through the years and the impact they have had on him.
Chapter 16 is Money: Thoughts on Paying Rent. Here he talks about the importance of giving money to the church were you are a member at. The Bible calls it tithing and it should be the first thing we do every month. When we put God first, we will never lack anything we need.
Chapter 17 is about Worship: The Mystical Wonder. This talks about all of life as worship. That all we do should be focused on God and give to glorify God.
Chapter 18 is Love: How to Really Love Other People. This about living in community with other people and learning to deal with them and love them as Jesus would love us.
Chapter 19 is a spin off on that. It is Love: How to Really Love Yourself. Miller says you can't love other people if you don't love yourself. It's like what Jesus said numerous times, "love your neighbor as your self". You can't love others unless you love your self too.
And the last chapter in Blue Like Jazz is chapter 20 Jesus: The Lines on His Face. This is about really and truly knowing, loving, and following Jesus. When we seek to be true disciples of Christ.
Sorry it took be so long to finish this book on the blogging community.
I am reading other books right now too and hope to blog on them in the next couple of days or so. Please be looking for that.
Lastly, please be praying for the AIM students, their mission fields and coordinators. And please pray for all missionaries around the world who preaching the whole counsel of God. Thanks!
Grace and peace to you!

AIM/ Missions

2008-04-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Sorry it's been so long since the last blog.
Please especially be praying for the AIM students today and this week. I think all of them will leave Lubbock to go back home to focus their time and energy to fund raising for their time on their mission fields around the world. Many of them will leave for their fields in May and June most likely. That will be their biggest changes there. Working with their field coordinator, the local church there, and the community at large.
Also please be praying for friends of mine: Rob and Denyce Hindman (and their children) and their team heading to Moscow, Russia. For Elijah and Kristen Peters and their team in Auckland, New Zealand. And Craig and Tomya Peters in Sydney, Australia.
And also pray for other mission teams serving around the world in Olomouc, Czech Republic (teamolomouc.com), Vienna, Austria (viennateam.org), Wollongong, Australia (aussiemission.com), and Kigali, Rwanda (rwanda08.com). A few of these teams are already on their fields and a few of them are still in the States. Please pray for them too.
And sorry I haven't written about Blue Like Jazz in a long while. I am finishing up the book and write one blog to finish up the book and than start on other reading projects.
Thanks and God bless!

A Few Things

2008-03-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hello blog world! Here are a few things.
For one, I just turned 32 today.
Two, I went to a preachers' lunch deal with my Dad yesterday. There we learned about Missions Resource Network (mrnet.org). There are a lot of teams that are presently on the field right now and a few more that are about to leave for their fields. Please pray for all of them.
And third and last (but not least), please pray for the AIM students and my friends.
Thank you all and God bless!
Zack

AIMers and missionaries

2008-03-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! Today is Wednesday, so please especially remember to pray for the AIM students who are on their mission fields and those who are in Lubbock preparing to leave for their respective fields. In fact, I think the AIM students are done with school now. They are currently having Camp Adventure now at the Sunset Church. Next week they have a mission and recruiting trip. I think that includes going to the Tulsa Workshop (if someone knows other wise, please put that on the comments page and I will correct myself). Then the teams go on their AIM challenge week. Then they go back to Lubbock and meet together a few more times as a class with their teachers and to clean there apartments. Then they will leave Lubbock to go home to raise their necessary support for their mission field apprenticeship. Sometime during May and June they will all leave home to go to their mission fields. Please keep all of these men and women during these next few weeks and months. And especially for their field times on the mission field all over the world.
Also please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce Hindman, their family, and team as they prepare to go to Moscow, Russia (see their personal blog at robhindman.com).
Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan Peters and their team in Auckland, New Zealand (see their personal blog at lijandkris.com).
Please pray for Craig Peters and his family as they prepare to go Sydney, Australia to work with a Sunset branch school there (see their website at australiaforhim.com).
And pray for all missionaries all over the world who are faithfully preaching and teaching the whole gospel in their parts of the world.
Thanks and God bless!

You are God Alone

2008-03-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! This is something that I've been thinking about for a few days now.
The song You are God Alone I think was written by the Christian group Phillips, Craig, and Dean. I don't know all of the lyrics of the song, but the chorus is really cool!
You are God alone
Since before time began.
You were on Your throne
You were God alone!
And now
In the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone!
I get chills all over listening to and singing this song! It helps me remember God is on His throne and is in control at all times. In the good times and bad times. He was on His throne when the Oklahoma City bombing took place. God was in control when all those horrible things happened on September 11, 2001. He was on His throne when the tsunami hit Thailand and other places. He was in control when the hurricanes hit New Orleans and Mississippi. And He's in control right now too.
Even when it doesn't seem like it, God is in control and is on His throne!
God bless!

Green

2008-03-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone! Better wear something green today or risk getting pinched!
Green me!
God bless!
PS. More posts on Blue Like Jazz are coming plus posts on other random things. Stay tuned.

A Gathered People: Epilogue and AIMers

2008-03-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings! I will go a head and finish blogging about A Gathered People here. The last part of the book is the Epilogue. Here they talk about some of the questions that they anticipate would come. They list several topics that are hotly debated among a lot of our churches. Most of the things they listed are not worth dividing over. It is very sad that some of our churches have split over some of these issues. These things are certainly worth talking about. Great learning can be gained through discussing issues as brothers and sisters seeking to learn from others who have a different point of view on different issues.
But these issues weren't the reason this book was written. I completely agree that "Assembly as transforming, sacramental encounter that calls us to participate in the mission of God is the foundation for discussing all other questions about the assembly. It is the 'weightier' matter". That is the most important topic to discuss. This book sets the floor for future discussions for discussing such things as they listed.
"We realize, of course, that our position regarding the assembly as sacramental encounter is itself controversial- though it is the historical position of the church". I greatly appreciate the three brothers who wrote this book and stepped out and write this book. I am indebted to each of them. I am thankful they seek bring "... the peace of Eden rather than the confusion of Babel within the assemblies of God; we pray for encounter rather than dissension". Thanks John Mark, Johnny, and Bobby for writing this fantastic book!
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I also want ask for everyone reading this to pray for the AIM students. Pray for those who are on their mission fields around the world and for those who are in Lubbock preparing to leave home to go serve God on various mission fields all around the world to serve and work along side missionaries. All of these are stepping out on faith. Please pray for them.
Thanks and God bless!

A Gathered People chapter 7

2008-03-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged again. Chapter 7 in A Gathered People is Contemporary Gatherings: Assembling Worthy of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul wrote the Philipian church the following words, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ ..." (1:27). The biblical narrative points us in a worship sense to the Christ Event (the life, death, resurrection and exaltation of our Lord Jesus).
Too often churches look down on other churches because they don't do "church" or "worship" in the same way. There are many issues. Instrumental music has always been a big one. One cup or many in the Lord's Supper. Praise teams. The list could go on and on. Hicks, Melton, and Valentine give "a way of framing the question of 'regulated assembly' that, hopefully, provides a helpful and biblical context for dialogue". Here are some ways to Divinely Regulate our Assemblies.
The Nature of Scripture says that scripture tells of all of God's mighty and saving acts and all that Jesus did for us. It is all in a narrated style and written in such ways that everyone in that day and age could understand it. I really like how they say that "the nature of scripture is covenantal". The Bible is relational and regulatory in function. It bears witness to and for us. It has it's roots in God and His saving power for us.
Regulative Worship says that all of life is worship (see 1 Cor. 10:31-11:1 and Col. 3:17). Our whole lives are under the covenant rule of God and must be shaped by Him. All we do is to be done "in the name of Jesus". "All worship - all life- is regulated". First Corinthians 10:31-11:1 suggests three questions that we should ask ourselves about worship. One is does it glorify God? Two, do we please ourselves or others? And three, do we point unbelievers to God? "In all of these questions, Paul calls us to imitate him as he imitates Jesus, who is the true worshipper of God".
The next part is Regulative Principles. "How does the gospel function to shape our assemblies?"
is a great question to be asked. Neither the gospels nor epistles give a program that must be followed like what Leviticus did in Old Testament days. Paul's epistles do though point that worship is for "edification (concern for others) to the chaotic situation in Corinth (1 Cor. 14). Paul applies the principle of the gospel meal (1 Cor. 11). These applications result in the contextualized rules ...".
Another really good section here is Contextualizing The Gospel in our Assemblies.
Enculturated Assemblies says, "worshipping assemblies function within culture". This can be pushed to bad extremes, but we have to take culture into account to some degree so the people you are trying to reach out to will understand what is being said and done.
Diverse Enculturations talks about inter-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-economic churches. All of these can be really good for the churches that have them. But they will have problems. Worship wars is certainly one of them.
Diversity like this is really good. It will be a great selling point for the church. It will certainly bemand "mature discipleship". This will mean at least four things. One is tolerance. Two is mutual edification. Third, appreciation. And forth, appropriation.
The next section is Gospel-Regulated Assemblies. A gospel-regulated assembly will be Theocentric. This means we focus on God, meet with Him, engage with Him, and delight with Him in a sacramental encounter.
It is also Christocentric. We also meet with Jesus through whom we go to God the Father. Jesus is our mediator (2 Tim) and High Priest (Heb.). We go to Him and through Him to the Father.
A gospel-regulated assembly is also table-centered. Through the table we meet and eat with the triune God. He is our host. He invites us and we eat with Him.
It is also Word-Shaped. "The assembly is a time for instruction and exhortation. I guess it would be like a pre-game speech before a big game by the coach to get the team fired up. It helps the team remember what they prepared for and perform well during the game. The assembly for the church helps us meet with God and we get "fired up" (for lack of better words) for the week ahead.
It is also Praise-Saturated. We get to praise God in the best ways we know how through prayers, songs, and studying His Word . It is up to great debate on our posture during these times. A lot of times we stand when we read God's Word, or pray, or sing. Sometimes we sit during those times. And sometimes we get on one (or two) knees when praying or singing.
It is also Gospel-Enacted. The assembly is how we enact God's redemptive story. "God speaks and we praise, He invites and we dine at His table". Baptism is how we enter into the covenant relationship with God and the Lord's Supper helps us renew and remember that covenant.
Lastly, tt is Gospel- Embodied. This helps in the way we "do" church. We help and serve the poor, out-casts, sufferers, and those who need encouragement. We are to bring the good news to those who have suffered so much with bad news.
Finally, the Assembly functions to help us be communally conscious. We focus on the Body of Christ during worship time and the Lord's Supper.
It functions to help us be transformed. We meet with God and He meets with us to transform us into the people He calls us to be.
It also functions to help us be Missional. That means we are missionaries in our own zip code (as it says in another book I was reading some time ago). We, like Isaiah, say "Here am I, Lord, send me" (see Is. 6).
We also meet Authentic Encounter. We, like the Psalter, seek to meet God face to face.
And lastly we have Doxological Evangelism. Assembly is where we meet with God and He with us, but we also help the lost encounter Him through the assembly as well. We can use that as the starting point where we can talk to a lost person about their relationship with God.
In closing, the church and assembly will look different in different cultures and places. We need to let them do "church" and "assembly" differently.
One more post for this book. A few more to go with Blue Like Jazz too. There are some other ideas and topics flooting around in my head to blog about in the future too. More on all of that later to come.
Thanks for tuning in for this post. God bless!

Blue Like Jazz part next

2008-03-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the Great Chicken Fried Nation! Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I was going to blog yesterday. But then realized I had already done what I was going to do and was supposed to blog about something else.
But, anyhow, I have now read the next two chapters (9 and 10) in Blue Like Jazz and will now blog about them here. Chapter 9 is called Change: New Starts at Ancient Faith. Everyone at one point in life or another has a crisis of faith. All believers come to a time of doubt and wonder if what we believe about God and Jesus is really true. This is a time to deeply and truly investigate the Bible and what we believe and see for ourselves if any of this is true.
In chapter 9 of Blue Like Jazz Miller tells of his cross roads of faith in his life. He was a Bible class teacher and says he was saying and teaching the right things, but didn't think he meant them. He said he felt like a fake. And that he needed to get out and find himself again.
He said that he and his friend got in a car and drove out. They went to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and walked down into the canyon. He said he was tired and sore. Then he just started praying out load to Him as he looked up at the sky and stars. That seemed to be were he found himself and found God again. He realized that man kind suffers because we live in a fallen world, a world that largely chooses to follow Satan, but that God wants to rescue us wants to find us if we will search for Him.
Chapter 10 is Belief: The Birth of Cool. In this chapter Miller talks about some of the things people choose to do because it is the "cool" thing to do or because the "cool" people are doing it. He doesn't seem to like that very much. If we choose to do something it should be because we are convicted by it and thus choose to do something about it.
He says that most of the world doesn't care or listen to people who say what they think if it isn't backed with conviction or belief. They might not care what you believe regardless, but they will listen if we are convicted by it and are doing something to solve it.
I love this statement by Miller, "I am learning not to be passionate about empty things, but to cultivate passion for justice, grace, truth, and communicate the idea that Jesus likes people and even loves them". That is what we need to be about too.
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I have come to realize there are other blog series's that I have started that haven't been continued in quite some time. I am almost finished reading and blogging about A Gathered People (2 or 3 more chapters to do there) and have 10 more chapters to read in Blue Like Jazz (5 more blog posts there, since I do 2 chapters per post). Than I will start finishing those other blog series's. So please stay tuned in for those.
Thanks so much for reading. God bless you all!

A Gathered People 6

2008-02-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have read another fascinating chapter in A Gathered People and will talk about it here.
Chapter 6 in this book is Gathered to God: Divine Presence in the Assembly. In this chapter the authors eloquently discuss the assembly in the New Testament and about it's historic backgrounds in the Old Testament as well. The book of Leviticus talks about sacrifices that are to be made by the priests through out the year and the worship that is due to God during those sacrifices. The New Testament book of Hebrews draws on those themes in the "context of assembly (Heb. 10:19-25)". The authors also talk about the importance of worshiping in spirit and truth and what that meant then and now. In John's Gospel chapter 4 Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman. She asks Him where worship should take place, in (literally "en") this mountain (like the Samaritans do)or in ("en") Jerusalem (like the Jews do). But Jesus seems to say that it doesn't matter in what physical place one may be, but in their spiritual state. Are we worshiping in the Spirit and the truth.
An important thing to remember in worship, is that isn't not just Theocentric- directed toward God. It is also Christocentric - directed toward Jesus the Messiah. In his gospel account Matthew draws this out perfectly in stating Jesus is the Messiah. The writer of Hebrews does as well in showing that Jesus is higher than all of the Old Testament heroes.
As we enter the Holy of Holies, we enter a sacramental encounter. In Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy we see that only the priests can enter the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices. Hebrews draws on this theme and also states that we don't need priests to worship God. We can do it ourselves. And we don't have to give sacrifices like they did any more. We just need to live our lives for God with all we have.
Just as we are gathered in the Spirit, so we must be mediated by the Spirit. We do this when we worship in spirit and truth (Jn. 4). We are to pray in the Spirit, wait on the Spirit, and so forth. In Ephesians 5 we are told to "be filled with Spirit" and that way we can "speak to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks to God in the name of Jesus submitting to each other in the fear of Christ". We are to "be filled with the Spirit" and not with things that can do bodily harm to us.
And the assembly helps us focus on the end of time and dawn of eternity where we will be in eternal assembly at the throne of God. What an awesome thought!
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Thank you for reading my thoughts on this chapter in A Gathered People. This a very thought provoking study. It is really making me think and turning me to the Bible. I highly recommend this book! Next time I'll blog about Blue Like Jazz. I am also reminded of other blog series I've started but haven't continued in some time (opps!), so we'll get back on those in the coming days. So please stay tuned in for that.
Thank you all and God bless!
Zack

Missionaries

2008-02-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone! Like I said yesterday, the AIM students are in Mexico City right now working with the missionaries there and helping them out. The AIM students drove from Lubbock, TX all the way to Mexico City. Holy cow! That's a long way! Please pray for all of them as they're down there and that they get back to Lubbock safely. I think there are two groups of the current AIM class that will serve in Mexico for their mission experience. All the teams have been announced, so pray for all of them as they learn to work together as a team and getting ready for the mission field. And please pray for all of the AIMers who are currently on mission fields all around the world. Please pray for my friends who are preparing to leave for their mission fields: the Hindman family and their team as they go to Russia, the Peters family and their team as they go to Auckland, NZ,
and all other missionaries who are preaching the gospel the world over.
And lastly please pray for Craig Peters and his family as they prepare to go to Sydney, Australia to work with the Sunset Branch school there, as well as Charles and Tamara Cook as they prepare to go to Singapore to work with the Sunset Branch school there. Thank you all! God bless!
Zack

A Gathered People 5

2008-02-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! Chapter 5 in A Gathered People is Assembly Among Churches of Christ: Our Formative History. This chapter addresses Churches of Christ in the US and about the assembly and it's role in the church. Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell are father and son. They both grew up in the Presbyterian church. They and Barton W. Stone sought to restore the ancient order of things. They aimed to sanctify the Lord's Day. They said that "every occasion of the 'assembly of the saints' is a 'meeting with the Lord'." They believed people couldn't be so casual on Lord's Day and believed that we were aware of the Lord's presence we wouldn't be so causal when we met together. Gathering in the Name of the Lord was serious business. The Regulative Principle stated "Restoration of the Ordinance of the New Institution to their place and power". Divine Ordinances for Christian Assemblies echoes the Five Acts Model (of sorts) mentioned earlier in the book. They stated five acts that were included in worship services (singing, praying, preaching, communion, and contribution), but wasn't mandatory. At least these five things were included, but sometimes more than that. Word and Table was a special time that included those five things and a lot more involved. Christian Assemblies as Test of Loyalty seems to go on among some. One church does worship one way, another does things differently. And both churches go to war over it. How rediculous! Thus, the Regulative Principle is clarified. Acts 2:42 is seen as the most basic worship needs. Everything else is do-able. Positive Law and the Assembly is big. Positive Law states, "the highest test of respect for divine authority since it tests the condition of the heart as it penetrates deep down in to the in most depths of our hearts". Meaning, it tests our attitudes and desires. Here they read from different parts of the Bible and test themselves there. The Sanctity of the Assembly is where we encounter the presence of God in the assembly. We are not to rush into God's presence, but must ready our selves and make we are sanctified to meet Him in the assembly.
In conclusion, worship is where we encounter God. He meets us there and transforms us as we worship Him. What a marvolous thought!
This is a facinating book! Please get it and read it! You'll be blessed!
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On another note, the current AIM class in Lubbock is in Mexico City this week. The AIM students go there to work with missionaries there for a week to gain a world mission. Please keep them in prayer especially during this time. They will get to go on the buses, the mass transit system, and lots of walking. Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world. Please keep all of those who are there in prayer. More about AIM on Wednesday. God bless you all!
Zack

Missionaries to South Pacific and Asia

2008-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all. I would like to take a moment and tell y'all about two families who are about to do mission work. Both of these families need our prayers and financial support.
Craig Peters and his family are going to Sydney, Australia to be part of the School of Preaching there. This school recently signed on with Sunset International Bible Institute to use there ciriculum, books, and so forth. I believe they are aiming to leave the US sometime in March. Please see their website at australiaforhim.com.
The second family is Charles Cook's. He and his wife are preparing to go to Singapore to help train ministers to take the gospel in the continent of Asia. Asia is the largest and most populated continent of the world. China and India are the most populated countries in the world (1.3 and 1.2 billion people respectively). The Lord is opening doors for missionaries to go to these two countries and all over Asia. Are we ready to take the gospel to them? Please see Charles' website at focusonasia.net for more information.
Please keep these two families in your thoughts and prayers this week. God bless you all.
Zack

Blue Like Jazz

2008-02-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I have read three chapters (4, 5, and 6) in Blue Like Jazz that we need to cover. So let's get started on that.
Chapter 4 is called Shifts: Find a Penny. In this chapter Miller talks about wanting to attend Reed College. Some people called Reed one of the most ungodly places on earth. He grew an interest in auditing a few classes there over time. One of his buddies decided to take some classes there and asked Miller to join him. And he did. He met a lot of people in his classes there. Some believed in God and some didn't. One girl he met there, her father was a Methodist pastor and most of her family believed in God. But she didn't. This girl really struggled in life and just couldn't find it in herself to believe in God. He talked about another girl who grew up not believing in God. That was until she went to a semester abroude program in France. There she met a fellow Reed student who did believe in God. They didn't know each other while in the US, but met and became good friends while they were in France. They talked about life and their struggles in life. But the girl who believed in God turned their conversations about Him. Eventually the girl who had grown up not believing in God turned her life to Him during this experience. All because a friend of hers shared her faith in Him and showed her God can help her in her struggles in this life. That is truly a commentary on how we should evangelize today.
In chapter 5 Miller talks about Faith and penguins. There isn't any one on earth (including myself) who can explain God. If any one could, God wouldn't be God. He is uncomprehendable and unexplainable. And the same is true with our faith in Him. We can do our own research in our Bibles about Him. We can find the sites mentioned in our Bibles on world maps. But there isn't any scientific evidence we can point to. Can't see Him, touch Him, taste Him. All the things that science says proves something is real can't be done with God. All of that to say there is a great deal of faith that goes along with believing in God. Near the end of the chapter Don talks about penguins and how they hatch their eggs. The momma penguins give the eggs to the papa penguins. And the momma penguins go off somewhere to get fish while the papa penguins all sit around in a circle with all of the eggs to keep them worm. But the momma penguins instinctively know when the eggs are going to hatch. After a while they start back home and always get back at the correct moment when the baby penguins are going to be born. Absolutely amazing! No one can explain how they just instinctively know when the eggs are going to hatch. They just know. Miller says it's the same way with us. Some times we just know that God is real.
And lastly is chapter 6 and this chapter talks about Redemption: The Sexy Carrots. Here Miller talks about an experience he had with two high school friends of his who got him to do some crazy stuff. That experience was a turning point in his life. It got him to be serious about God and about life in general. He talks about a little children's book he had written (included in this chapter with very funny animated characters). It was a bunny rabbit who was chasing the sexy carrot. The rabbit chased the rabbit across the US and even to the moon. Eventually the rabbit got the sexy carrot and ate it. The moral of the story is if you chase your dreams for long enough, you'll get it eventually. Of chourse, another moral is some of the things we want in life will kill us (the story ends with the sexy carrot killing the rabbit- so sad).
More on Blue Like Jazz later on next week.
Sorry I haven't talked about the AIM students in a long while. The AIM students in Lubbock know who their teams are now and where they will be going for their mission fields. So please be in prayer for them as they prepare for their mission fields with their teammates. Pray for those who are on their mission fields right now all round the world.
Be in prayer for my friends who are heading Moscow, Russia: Rob and Denyce Hindman and their two sons; Mike and Lucy McDougle and their son; and David and Olivia Nelson. These are all dear friends and they plan to leave this summer.
For all missionaries who are preaching the gospel all over the world.
And lastly that the Lord will raise up more workers for His harvest fields (Matthew 9).
Thanks and God bless!

A Gathered People chapter 4

2008-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been such a long time since I've blogged. No excuses.
I have decided to write about A Gathered People today and blog about Blue Like Jazz tomorrow. It's been longer since I've blogged about it. So, to keep this blog entry from being incredibly long I'll write about A Gathered People here today. With out further adieu, here we go.
Chapter 4 in A Gathered People is Assembly in Christian History: Word and Table. In this chapter the authors look at the assembly in the second and third centuries. They look indepth at Justin Martyr and Tertullian two of the outstanding church leaders in those days. It is very important to note that there are no formal orders of worship in the New Testament nor in the second and third centuries either. Justin Martyr and Tertullian write about worship, but their reasons for writing is to tell non-Christians about Christian worship and life. It wasn't to strengthen and encourage brethern like what the apostle Paul did in his letters back in New Testament days.
Then they talk about Assemblies in the Imperial Era. Here they talk about the Western Order and the Eastern Order in light of the Basic Liturgical Order. The basic liturgical order has four things. 1. Assembly-Greeting-Entrance; 2.Liturgy of the Word; 3.Liturgy of the Table; and 4. Dismissal-Benediction. This is basically about reading passages in Psalms, or Acts, or the Gospels. Pretty much a good mixture of all three of those interspersed with prayers and singing.
The Western and Eastern Orders represent the two religous bodies at the time: the Greek Byzantine Church (Eastern Order) and the Latin Roman Catholic Church (Western Order).
The authors list the order of worship most previlant for the two religous churches (including the entrance and biblical readings from Psalms, Acts, and the Gospels, weaved into and out of prayers and singing).
Then they talk about The Assembly in the Reformed Tradition. These talk about other religous groups that come on to the scence: Lutherns, Anabaptists, and Anglicans. First we read about The Reformed Regulative Principle. This talks about John Calvin and Huldrich Zwingli and how they used this principle. First, the Reformed Regulative Principle says that the Bible and the Bible alone says how we are to worship God. There are no other methods allowed other than what is written. Next is the Liturgical Reformed Tradition and how Calvin used it. Then we read about the Puritan Reformed Tradition and how Zwingli used this tradition. And lastly we read about the Eighteenth Century Dissenters. These were John Glas, Robert Sandeman, and Archibald McLean. These three ministered in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom and apparently stirred up trouble in a religous since.
In a few days we'll look at chapter 5 and see Assembly Among Churches of Christ: Our Formative History. This book is extremely enlightening! I highly endorse this fine book!
Tomorrow we'll talk about three chapters in Blue Like Jazz.
Before I close, please be in prayer for the nation of Kenya. I know there has been a lot of political turmoil in there the past few weeks, including people being killed and church buildings being burned down. There is some really intense stuff going on there. Let's all be praying for our brothers and sisters there and the nation as a whole.
And lastly please be praying for the AIM students on their mission fields all around the world and those in Lubbock preparing to leave the country. More about that tomorrow. Until then, God's richest blessings on each of you!

Life house

2008-01-25T06:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all. I just wanted to take a brief break from the usual series and blog about something that I've been thinking about. My brother-in-law Jake wrote an awesome blog about a song by a group called Life house. The song is called Everything. You can read his blog at risefromyourslumber.wordpress.com.
I can't remember all of the words to the song, but the chorus goes like this:
How can I stand here with You and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
On Jake's blog he even has the music video of this song on it. You gotta watch that video. Every time I see it, it makes me cry. Very moving song.
Anyhow, Jake makes an obvious connection to one of Jesus' disciples Judas Iscariot "who would later betray Him". It is hard to believe that he could live, walk, eat with, and talk with Jesus for two or three years, and not be "moved" by Him. To our knowledge all of the others remained faithful to Jesus all of their lives, but even if one is lost is one too many. Judas even had a promenat roll with Jesus too. He was the keeper of the money bag. But the Bible also says that he would just help himself to what was put into it.
It gives me chills just thinking about if I am as close to Him as I should be. I have done things that I'm not proud of, but hope and pray that I will always be penitent and turn back to Jesus and beg for forgiveness.
And lastly, I get chills thinking about people I know and love who once followed Jesus so closely, but now don't follow Him at all. We probably all have people in our lives like that. Let's all pray for those friends of ours that God will some how some way wake them up spiritually and make them see that He is real and He really does love them.
"How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?
Would you tell me how could be any better than this?"
Peace!
Zack

A Gathered People/ Blue Like Jazz 2

2008-01-24T05:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings! I hope everyone has had a great week so far.
In A Gathered People the next chapter looks at Christian worship assemblies in the early church.
At first we look at Practicing The Kingdom of God in Luke- Acts. In Luke's Gospel we read about Jesus preaching and teaching. In Acts we read about the disciples preaching and teaching those same things. In Acts 2:42 we read how the first Christians were "devoted ... to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers". They were deeply engaged into there preaching and teaching! Acts 2:43-47 tells what the nature of their teaching and fellowship was. They had fellowship in community. They were, in every since of the word, "together". So much so that there was no needy persons among them (Acts 2:45). And when extreme needs arouse some of them sold properties or houses to help alleviate those needs. Truly remarkable!
Breaking of bread was the central theme of Jesus' ministry in Luke's Gospel. It started with John the Baptist's ministry (Luke 7:33-34) and continued through the Last Supper and meal at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). In the Gospel of Luke we see the Word and Table in Jesus' ministry. Briefly quoting from the authors' "The ministry of Jesus practiced the kingdom of God and the early church followed that model. ... Practicing the kingdom is following Jesus in proclamation and action, in word and deed". Then we see the Word and Table in the Early Church. What Jesus did in Luke the early church does in Acts. In Acts 2:42-47 the early church was "praising God". This theme continues all throughout Acts. The apostles' teaching (word) and fellowship (table and prayers) is always part of the life of the community of the new believers.
The next section in this chapter is The Corinthian Assemblies. First we look at the assembly in Corinth. This church assembled. They assembled to hear Paul's letters read aloud. The word for church is ekklesia and is used frequently in 1 Corinthians (1:2; 4:17; 6:4 and others)."The church is an assembly, a gathered people - baptized believers, filled with the Holy Spirit...". Also "Assembly constitutes the body as visible reality". The next section is The Communing Table in Corinth. This was one of the many problems with the church there. Evidently they met at a home of a well-to-do member. These houses could accommodate 40-60 people. The rich would get there early and those who were slaves or middle class workers would get there later. The problem arouse when they would observe the Lord's Supper. The rich would start whenever they wanted to and would eat and drink so much that there was nothing left for those who couldn't be there when everyone else got there. This was something Paul would spend no small amount of time harping on. This was an extreme problem that needed to be corrected before it tore the church there apart. The next part here is The Edifying Word in Corinth. Here Paul addresses another problem: order in the assembly. Each person there has something they want to say. One person feels "moved" to sing a song. Some one else wants to read a scripture. And another person feels "moved" to speak in tongues (with no one to interpret it). For one thing, Paul says that everything should be done to edify the whole body (14:14-15, 19). If it doesn't then keep it quit. There must be order. God is not a God of disunity, but of order. There was a problem of members of the church valuing certain spiritual gifts over others. Obviously they liked speaking in tongues pretty well. But Paul tells them that it's better to interpret than it is to speak a tongue. But everything should be done to edify the whole body, not just build up one's own self (chapter 12). All things should be done in love (chapter 13).
In conclusion of this chapter, the assembly should be saturated in prayer and fellowship, in word and deed.
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Now on to Blue Like Jazz. This is the third chapter: Magic: The Problem With Romeo.
I would guess that every good magician knows that all magic is an allusion. Which I also would guess would take some of the joy out of doing magic.
Then he talks about the play Romeo and Juliet. He seemed to be saying that it was like a magic act. The two of them fall in love, when it was socially unacceptable for them to do so. At the end though they both kill themselves.
Than near the end of this chapter he talks about the different parts of writing a story: setting, conflict, climax, and resolution. And closes with this profound statement: "Perhaps, I thought, Christian spirituality really was the difference between illusion and magic.

A Gathered People/ Blue Like Jazz

2008-01-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! This is a post I intended to write a couple of days ago, but somehow didn't make it. Better late than never I guess. Anyhow, here it is.
I have read the first 2 chapters of these books. A Gathered People is a book authored by three men: John Mark Hicks, Bobby Valentine, and Johnny Melton. The book is about worship and how it was meant to be a sacramental encounter between worshipers and our Father God. The first chapter in this book is False Dichotomy: Life and Assembly in God's story. In this chapter Hicks, Valentine, and Melton define, discuss, and refute two common theories of worship. One of these is called the "Five Acts Model". It says that there are five acts that must be in the worship assembly (singing, preaching, praying, contributing, communing). Any less and it's not scriptural worship. Any more and it dilutes it.
The second is the "Edification Model". It says that all of worship is for the edification of the saints. It isn't to glorify and praise God. It is to lift us all up.
Both of these are flawed ideas. Let me quote from the authors directly here, "Just as we believe that all of life has theological significance before God, we also believe the assembly has theological significance. As much as we endorse the idea that our lives are living sacrifices, the assembly is more than mutual edification, it's an encounter with the Triune God". Couldn't agree more with those sentiments there.
They gone on to talk about three Hebrew and Greek words that biblical scholars have translated into three English words referring to the assembly. One of them is "worship". The second word is "serve". And the third is "ministry".
The second chapter is Assemblies in Israel: We Shall Assemble On The Mountain. This chapter talks about the assembly themes all throughout the Old Testament and it's roots in the New Testament.
A Gathered People is a purely brilliant book! I love church history and especially the Restoration Movement! This book is the third book in a trilogy of books. Each of the three is based on the theme of Alexander Campbell's idea of three things that every Christian should understand. Those are: the Lord's Supper, Baptism, and the Lord's Day. Each of the three books has sought to revision those. Come to the Table re visioned the Lord's Supper. Down In The River To Pray re visioned Baptism God's transforming work. And now A Gathered People revisions the Assembly as transforming encounter. I hope each of you who read this blog will read these brilliant books and look at the Bible verses and you will see what these gentlemen are talking about.
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Now let's look at Blue Like Jazz. It is by Donald Miller. I am reading this book, because I am deeply interested in working with young adults because they are in a very serious period in life where they are seeking their own identity and finding there own faith for themselves. Most (if not all) of them are what we tend to call "post-moderns" and Blue Like Jazz brilliantly addresses the post-modern frame of mind.
At the start of this book Miller says that you can't really love something until you see someone else who loves that something. It's like they are showing you the way. He talks about not really liking jazz music. That is until he saw a jazz player intensely playing a song with his eyes shot. He didn't open them during the entire time Miller was listening to him play. Ever since them Miller says that he likes jazz music. He also says that he didn't like God. That was until what he talks about in this book started happening.
Chapter one is entitled :Beginnings: God on a Dirt Road Walking Toward Me. In this chapter Miller talks about how he envisioned God to be when he was a child. That He was like a rich man who's daughter was the cheerleader caption and others.
He chapter two he addresses Problems: What I learned on Television. Here he talks about the problems in society today. But then he turns it to himself and advises all of us to do the same. Am I doing something to find a solution to our societies' problems? Or am I part of the problem? If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem, Miller seems to be saying.
Please tone in next time when I'll talk more about these brilliant books.
Thanks and God bless!
Zack

Dream: Have You Caught God's Vision?

2008-01-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Yo, yo, and hello from the Great Chicken Fried Nation (that is the opening line of one of my favorite local radio sports talk show hosts). I hope and pray all of had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The following is the first of (hopefully) many book reviews of what I have read this year. I have been reading the above (in the Title line) mentioned book since the middle of 2007 or so and just finished reading it today. This book is authored by Kenny Luck. He is one of the ministers at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forrest, CA. The theme of the book is that God has a dream for what we can become and living through Him to fulfill that dream. The book has fifteen (15) chapters. In each chapter Luck lists a few of the dreams God has for us to fulfill through Him. In chapter one (When God gives glasses) the we are told that we are programed to dream big dreams of what life could be and should be. God programed us to dream big. Some times we think we think we have to go to some remote place to be a missionary or something to achieve God's dream for us, but that may not be necessarily true. We can be certain that God's dream will mean we have to endure through trials and tribulations in this life. He is a lot more concerned that we grow to be like His Son Jesus and preparing us to live with Him in heaven then with earthly comforts. To close out the first chapter Luck leaves us with this acronym for DREAM: Decide to let God decide for you, Reside in the glory of your reality, Exchange your vision for God's, Accept God's process, and Move your borders in continual growth.
Chapter two is Leaking Jesus. One of the dream facts here is that "what's inside will eventually come out". Whatever we feed ourselves spiritually will show through someday. "Our human weaknesses provide occasions for the triumph of divine power" is the second dream fact here. What Paul says in 2nd Corinthians is certainly true that "when we are weak than through Christ we are strong" (my paraphrase).Christ has given us a new purpose in life. We aren't supposed to to try to please ourselves or other people. Our new focus is to make God proud of us.
Chapter three is "No Neon". "To be humble and dedicated day in and day out is the stuff of God's men". God wants us to be true to our commitments in life. When Kenny is writing about this he talks about some people he met on a church mission trip to Mexico. They worked with a group that was going through some tough times in persecution. But these church workers there were sticking it out and making a huge impact for God there. Jesus certainly didn't need to have neon. In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul talks about the attitude that Jesus had during His time on earth and that we need to have the same. In the Gospel accounts Jesus had no problems being calm and cool at all times. Even when He was arguing with the Pharisees, He controlled Himself and His anger. We must always be on our faces in order to see His face. We must always have a humble mindset and talk with our Big Brother Jesus and our Father God.
The forth chapter is "Not So With You" talking more about being humble before God and taking His road to achieving greatness. "True authority serves" is the first dream fact here. True leaders in the church don't have any "authority". They are supposed to be servants who are helping the poor, the weak, and those who can't help them selves.
Chapter 5 is "Taking A Hit". It's about sacrificing insignificant things to do something for God. One of the dream facts here is "donation without sacrifice is not significant". There is a saying that goes something to the effect of "nothing sacrificed and nothing gained". You have to give something in order to gain something. Next dream fact: "If we are willing to sacrifice now for God, we will experience the joy of our reward later". The next dream fact is: "the ultimate example lives in you". Of course that means Jesus. He alone can give us what we need to achieve His dreams for us.
The sixth chapter is "Fully Qualified". This talks about sacrificing will make us qualified to being more like Christ. One dream fact here is "suffering shows our true character". Luck shares the story of Senator John McCain and how he suffered during his tenure in war and how that qualified him to be who he is and where he his today. He suffered greatly and showed his character worth more than gold.
Indeed "comfort and Christlikeness don't blend".
The next chapter (seven) talks about "My Father's Will". This talks about using our time wisely and to our Father's will. The one who does the Father's will is Jesus' brother.
Chapter eight (8) is "Locking Eyes" meaning to know our Father so well that we can know what He's thinking wright when we look at each other. No one knows us better than our Father does. Indeed Father knows what's best for us. Our Father takes joy in a one-on-one audience with His son.
The nineth chapter is "Aspirin with Skin" talking about how Jesus helps all the time especially when we're hurting. "Compassion should always lead to urgency". That means that compassion should lead us to passion which leads to action. Indeed the "inability to be tender is fear". No compassion and no tenderness means we are tense instead. "Apathy is the glove into which evil slips it's hand" (qoute from Bodie Thoene in Munich Signature).
In chapter ten we learn how to "See Past" talking about seeing past the external and seeing what God sees. We must see that "God's man is simply not interested in surface image" stuff. What we see is only the tip of the ice burg and we must seek to learn what is underneath. We also need to learn that "God gives you insight when your motives are pure". There is a Bible passage in James that says something like, "You don't have because you don't ask God and you don't have because you ask with wrong motives".
The next chapter (eleven) is the "Velvet Touch". Here we see that "God's dream for us is dangerously attractive, inviting, controversial". Just like the velvet, it's smooth and inviting, but unlike it, Jesus challenges us to be different from the world and that brings opposition. Also, "if critics accused Jesus of consorting with sinners, they'll be just as offended by us". Jesus often ate and befriended those who most in that society never would have dreamed of doing so with. And that made those people question Him a lot of times. I'm not very good at being like Jesus in that area. "Jesus Christ embraced the unacceptable" often.
Chapter twelve says Jesus was "Bullish on Reality". "Christlikeness is measured by how much reality we accept". Reality is how things really are, and the sooner we accept the things like they are the more like Christ we become. Also, "God's man channels his aggressive personality". This is a big one for me. I'm a huge sports fan and cheer on my favorite teams with an intense passion. Sometimes too much. We must learn that "denial is our greatest enemy, and acceptance of truth is our greatest ally". The sooner we find and accept the truth the better off we'll be.
"Soldier of Heaven" is the thirteenth chapter. "Jesus is the embodiment of the ultimate evil fighter". We must be willing and able to fight our own spiritual battles and on behalf of others too.
The next to last chapter is "No Thanks" talking about how we are to say no to earthly passions and live for our true home in heaven. "Jesus chose to save His competitive juices for where they really counted". Jesus said no to every earthly passion in order to teach how to so we'll be ready to live with Him in heaven. And the last dream fact here is "This is the greatest wisdom- to seek to the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world".
The last chapter is "The time has come". This means that this is where the rubber meats the road and get done to business. In deed "God's man is driven by an exceptional destiny". We must learn the discipline pursue God's dream for us. We must press on to the goal, as Paul says in Philippians, to which God called us heaven word in Christ (3:14).
I give this fine book my full endorsement. Very good! Since this post was so incredibly long, I'll try to blog about each chapter one at a time. That seems to work better.
God bless each of you today and everyday.

New Posts Coming

2007-12-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Hello there everyone! I have a lot of ideas of things to write about in the coming year.
I pray all of you had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!
Speaking of which, what is your favorite Christmas song to sing? My favorite is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. What about you?
New blogs coming in the new year. God bless!

A few things

2007-12-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! I must apologize for not writing in such a long time. My parents' and my house flooded about four or five weeks ago. There was two inches of water all over the down stairs part of the house. We have put every thing back together as best we can. We still need to replace the carpet, which I don't think will get done before New Years Day. It will get done at some point.
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I guess everyone knows about Bobby Petrino by now. Just about every sports talk show guy I have listened to has ripped the poor guy. I'm sorry, but I've gotta stick up for him. It is obvious to me that Mr. Petrino is a college coach all the way. He decided to leave college coaching and try out the NFL. He has clearly not cut out for the NFL, so he choose to go back to college coaching after thirteen NFL games. No dought he should have waited at least until after the season was over, because the players and personal he left behind are obviously upset. But I think he made the right decision to go back to college coaching. I imagine he wishes he never left college coaching to begin with. But that's another story for another day.
Your thoughts on this please.
I have been reading a lot in the past several days and will blog about those readings in the days to come. So please stay tuned in for that. God bless!
Zack

Relationship Based Ministry

2007-10-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! I hope and pray all is well wherever you are.
Since my last blog entry I have talked with my good friend Ryan Steyn (thusiconfess.blogspot.com), who said that the key to successful ministry is to build it on relationships. I couldn't agree more. For any ministry to be successful it has to be built on good, strong, and solid relationships. This can seen all through out the Bible. In Genesis 12 when God called Abram to leave his home and take all that he had (family and possessions) and go to where God wanted him to be. You know that Abram and Sarai had a good relationship and up root everything and move. Fast-forward to Genesis 22. Abram's name had been changed to Abraham quit a few years back and now has Isaac, whom by now is probably 12 years of age. In this chapter God puts Abraham to the ultimate test of sacrificing the son of promise on an alter to Him. I think Abraham's and Isaac's relationship had to be unbelievable strong to go through an ordeal like this. And of course there are a host of others that we could talk about here from both the Old Testament and New Testament alike. Clearly having a good trusting relationship is the key to anything successful in life. If everyone trusts all of those in the group, they will go to the ends of the earth for one another. A great example of this is Jesus and the disciples. They all had been together for 2 or 3 years. The disciples, no doubt, didn't understand a lot of what Jesus was teaching them at the time, but still they hung on every word He said to them. They were constantly together until Jesus was arrested in John 18 (and various places in the other 3 Gospel accounts). When He was arrested the 12 disciples ran like scared animals. But they could seem to get away. In John 19: 19 we read, "On the evening on the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, ...". It would go on to say why they locked the door, because they were afraid of the Jews. But I say this because they were drawn together and no doubt loved each other like brothers. In that verse Jesus appeared to them alive in that room! Wow! What an amazing sight that must have been. And no doubt that scared bunch got so excited they jumped out of their chairs all at once when they saw Him. When there is trust in a relationship between the leaders and followers and follower to follower, everyone will go to the ends of the earth for one another. I only hope and pray I will be that trusted to lead.
Any thoughts please? God bless you all! Peace!

A Wedding, the Body of Christ, and Natural Church Growth

2007-10-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. Whew! It's been a while, hasn't it. This past weekend my family and I were in Monahans, TX for my sister's wedding. Monahans is in west Texas close to El Paso. My sister Katie looked stunningly beautiful the whole weekend. We had the wedding in the Sand Dunes State Park there. It was a great site for the wedding. The sand was beautiful! Has anyone ever tried to walk on sand before? It was quit a work out. But oh my it was great being out there. We all drank a lot of water, because it was so hot out there. I took one of the water bottles and put some of the sand in it and put it in my bedroom to remember it. The wedding ceremony was beautiful as well. My brother-in-law Jake Chism did the ceremony and did a great job. Everything went according to plan. Jacob and Katie, congrats! I love and miss y'all! Be blessed!
While we were in Monahans we contacted one of the churches of Christ in the area about using a few tables and chairs. Not long after that we saw two vans come through and park. Then they all got out and started pulling out a bunch of tables and chairs for us to use. It was incredibly touching to see that and talk to them. We were all so thankful to that church for their fellowship with us! A bunch of people from our church came all the way out there to celebrate with us and that was very touching as well. We love the beautiful Body of Christ!
The last thing, I was thinking to myself over the weekend about what I could (or should) be doing in ministry. One thing that is of particular interest to me personally is spiritual development or natural church growth. Truitt Adair (the Director of Sunset International Bible Institute) has said that churches that are naturally healthy will naturally grow. My good friend Ryan Steyn has talked about this as well. Thank you Ryan for our conversations about that. To me, spiritual development and natural church growth are one and the same. Churches that are spiritually healthy will naturally grow. If you talk to any parent about their children, I am sure they will tell you that they want there children to grow. Back in May of this year my sister Angie and brother in law Jake gave birth to their first child Madelyn Grace Chism. She was so tiny when she was born. I think at the present moment she is between 17 and 20 pounds. She is beautiful and healthy.For that we are all very thankful! In fact Jake and Angie keep a blog about her as well. Check it out at mynameismadelyn.blogspot.com.
Sorry for that little detour. I think one thing that will help our churches to grow is to look the Saddleback Community Church that Rick Warren started in the Los Angles area. They offer four classes about the church in four different areas. Class 101 is about salvation, baptism, and communion along with the purposes structure, and applications of your church. Class 201 offers necessary tools for spiritual growth by focusing on four basic habits. Every Christian needs time in the Bible, prayer, tithing, and fellowship. Class 301 talks about developing your SHAPE: spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. And Class 401 helps core members learn to share their faith, discover their life mission, and how to serve. All of this is listed in Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren and on his websites purposedriven.com and pastors.com. Does anyone else out there know of any good resources about natural church growth (ie. books, websites, music, radio stations, etc.)?
Here in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area we have KLTY (klty.com) and KCBI (kcbi.com). These are Christian radio stations and they are both very good stations and websites.
Please be in prayer for Jacob and Katie as they start their marriage and as they both finish school at LCU. I think they both want to teach Middle School in an inner city context.Please pray for my friends I usually talk about on here who are preparing to be missionaries all over the world. And please pray for me that I'll get to attend Sunset next year. At some point (after school most likely) I hope to pursue a full-time ministry position especially in the Northeast or Northwest US. In the mean time I hope to develop in natural church growth and other areas.
Any thoughts please? God bless!
Zack

Prayers for Missionaries part next

2007-10-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I pray everyone is had a good day yesterday and will have a good one today.
I remember when I went through the AIM program in 2002. One of our instructors told us about when he and his family moved back to Lubbock, TX after being missionaries in Mexico for some time. He and his wife are Sunset grads and were coming back to teach for AIM and the Sunset School of Preaching. His first time to teach for the AIM students he got up there and started teaching in Spanish. Everyone started laughing at him. Then he finally realized what he was doing. Then he said, "You know what guys? This just isn't working for me today. Y'all can go home". I'm sure the AIM students were really excited about getting off school early that day. But the instructor was obviously having a really hard time. It's what is often referred to as "reverse-culture shock". That means when you have been out of the country for an extended period of time (ie. doing mission work, tour of duty with the Army, or whatever), when you "go home" you expect every thing to go back to where it was when you left. And that's hardly the case. The truth of the matter is you have changed. Tremendously. And so has everyone else in your family too. There are new important things in your life now. And their are new important things in your family's lives too.
Some of the AIM students who are in the 2005 class are making preparations to leave their mission fields and go back to their families again. Some have already done so. Some will later on. Please keep them all in your prayers. This will be extremely hard on them to leave the place were they have spent so much of their time and energy.
Of course, please be praying for the AIM students who are on their mission fields all over the world. Please pray for the AIM students who are in Lubbock now preparing for their time on the mission field.
Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan as they prepare to go to Auckland, New Zealand. Pray for Rob and Denyce as they go through Advanced Missions and as they prepare to go to Moscow, Russia. And please pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they go through Sunset in preparation to be missionaries.
Lord-willing I will attend Sunset next year in the Fall of 2008. I am currently raising funds to attend Sunset. If you are willing to support me please email me at blaisdellzack14@gmail.com. I will tell you more about my plans, as well as a resume and philosophy of ministry statement. If you know of anyone who can help me, please feel free to pass this info on to them as well. And please keep me in your prayers as well. Thanks! God bless you all!
Zack Blaisdell

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

2007-10-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray you all are having a great day today.
I have blogged about 1 Corinthians 1 already, so here is 1 Corinthians 2. "When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power".
It seems to me that this series of verses illustrates Paul's humility. He isn't watering down the gospel or putting any body down. He is simply proclaiming the gospel to them (vss. 1-2). In verse 3, he talks about coming "to you in weakness and fear ...". This might refer to Paul's "thorn in the flesh" in 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 4 further talks about Paul's not watering down the gospel, but he is putting it simply and succinctly. It is obvious he had studied extremely thoroughly and took extra pains to make sure it is easily understood by everyone who would hear him. And lastly in verse 5 he talks about making sure our faith is where it should be: focused on God and His power and not on man and man's wisdom. Verse 5 perfectly leads into verse 6 through the rest of the chapter. We will discuss that the next time I blog about this.
Please feel free to drop a note about what you like and not like; what you agree with and not agree with, and so on. I know Pepperdine's Bible Lectureship was about 1 Corinthians a few years ago. If anyone went to that Lectureship, what were the theme lectures about that year and who were the speakers? And also, feel free to comment on these posts.
God's richest blessings to you all! Peace out. Power to the people!
Zack Blaisdell

Two birthdays and an Anniversary

2007-10-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I didn't mean to take such a long break. A lot has happened since our last meeting. My mother's and sister's birthdays were last week (September 25 and 28 respectively). Happy belated birthday Mom and Angie! And our grandparents (we call them Granddaddy and Nana) celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony! My dad did their re-exchanging of vows. He did a great job! During it he shared a story of Winston Churchill. He and his wife were at a dinner party and everyone was to share who they would most like to be. When it was Churchill's turn he simply said, "If I couldn't be myself, I would choose to be Mrs Churchill's second husband". He took her by the hand and kissed it, and said that he wouldn't change a thing. That he would marry her all over again. That's what my grandparents said to each other on Saturday. It was a great ceremony! Happy Anniversary Granddaddy and Nana!
I remember going to their 50th wedding anniversary 10 years ago in 1997. Granddaddy and Nana are our grandparents on our mom's side of the family. That same year our grandparents on dad's side (Meme and Pop) also celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a great time for everyone in our family! But the next year (1998) Pop passed away from lung cancer. That has been hard on everyone. Especially on Saturday thinking about them and that they would be celebrating 60 years of marriage as well, if Pop were still alive. Pop, we love you and miss you like crazy! Rest in peace.
In closing, life is a wonderful thing. But let us never forget that this life on earth is not all there is. Eternity is on the other side. There are only two choices of where we will be for eternity too. We will either spend it with God in heaven or a way from Him in torment in hell. While we are on this side, we can choose to obey God and love each other. If we don't, we're in trouble. Let's never forget that.
Be blessed!
Zack

It's that day again :)

2007-09-19T07:03:00.001-07:00

Greetings one and all! Sorry for the long wait. Well, it's that day of the week again. It's Wednesday so please especially pray for the AIM students (all of those on their mission fields around the world and those in Lubbock). Pray for Rob and Denyce and their team as they go through Advanced Missions at Sunset and as they get ready to go to Moscow, Russia to be missionaries some time later. Please pray for Elijah and Kristan and their team as they get ready to go to Auckland, New Zealand to be missionaries. They told me a week or two ago they are leaving in January, 2008 now. Pray for Robin and Chrissy as they are in the two year program at Sunset preparing for full time mission work somewhere in this world. And lastly, pray that the Lord will raise up more workers for the harvest fields around the world.
I will blog more later. God bless! Peace be with you.
Zack

A Few Things

2007-09-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hi there everyone. I hope and pray everyone had a good day yesterday and will have a good one today too.
I was just listening to a sports talk show on the radio and they were just talking about a married couple who are Michigan graduates. The husband said that he is already sick and tired of Michigan losing and he's not going to cheer for them anymore. He is putting his allegiance up on E-Bay. If the winning school bids $25 or more, he'll wear the new school's t-shirt. If the winning school bids $75 or more, he'll wear the school's jersey on game days. His wife on the other hand added that she does not support her husband in this matter. She's vowed to cheer for her school win or lose. That her allegiance can't be bought. She's staying true to her school. Thinking about this just now brings to mind what the Bible teaches about staying true God no matter what comes our way. In Hebrews 10:19 and following we see that we who are in Jesus are made holly and washed clean (vv. 19-22). In verse 23 especially says, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful". And in chapter 11:35b and following takes about those who were faithful to God in the Old Testament times, but they were tourtered, beaten, flogged, and other horrible things were done to them because of their faith in God. But they would not sell their allegiance to anyone. They held strong to their faith and so must we when we face struggles and trials in our lives. In verse 38a we read "...the world was not worthy of them ..." They would not back down and sell their loyalties away so easily. In verses 39-40 we read, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect".
In another sports story that came out this week, a NFL team has been found guilty of video taping defensive signals from the opposing team during the game. This same team was caught doing this last season too, but I think only got a slap on the wrist. The tape was taken away and sent off to the league offices were they found the team in question guilty. The commissioner has come down with the strong arm of the law on NFL players who have been repeating doing bad stuff, so a lot of people suspect the commissioner to to lay down the strong arm of the law in this case too since this isn't the first time this team has done this. This brings to mind Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. You remember the story? A lot of people in the church were selling houses and/ or land they owned bring the money and giving to the Apostles. Well these two decided to sell a piece of property they owned, but they don't want to give it all. They wanted to keep some of it for themselves (which, I am sure would have been perfectly allowable). But they give part of it, only they said they gave all of it. They didn't lie to the Apostles, they lied to God. And it was as if God said, Hay! Now that's not cool. We're going to put a stop to this right now"! And BAM! The strong arm of the law comes down hard! It got everyone's attention real quick.
In closing, thank you all who have been praying for the AIM students all over the world and in Lubbock. And for all of my friends I usually ask for. Please keep all of that up. Thanks once again. More blogging later. Peace! God's richest blessings be on all of you.
Zack

Thoughts on John 2

2007-09-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I just read John chapter 2 and saw something very interesting. In verse 1 through 11 Jesus, His mother, and disciples were all invited to a wedding (vs. 1-2). There was wine being served there and it had all run out. I am sure that was a very embarrassing ordeal for the hosts (v. 3a). Jesus' mother approaches Him and asks Him to do something (v. 3b). In verse 4 Jesus asks her why she is getting Him involved in this, that His time hasn't come yet. (v. 4). There is wide speculation as to what "...My time has not yet come" comment means. I guess it means that He wasn't ready to perform any miracles yet or He wasn't ready to reveal Him self yet, or something else entirely. But, in any rate He helped the wedding party hosts out. In verses 6 through 8 we see that there were six stone jars sitting near by and Jesus told the servants to fill each of them to the top with water. Then He told them to scoop some out and take it to the host of the wedding party. By that time it had been miraculously been turned to wine. The host thought the wine was very impressive and pulled the bridegroom aside and told him that everyone puts out the best wine first and the down-sized stuff last, but that he saved the best wine for the end. No one knew but the servants were this came from (vs. 7-10). Verse 11 indicates that this was the first miraculous sign that Jesus performed and that His disciples first started to believe in Him then.
John is a remarkable gospel account, because it was written to help us believe in Jesus as the Messiah. These stories were written by eye-witnesses who wrote so those who come after them will believe in Jesus too.
God bless you!
Zack

John 1 thoughts

2007-09-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I hope everyone is having (and will have) a great day today.
I was reading John chapter one a few days ago and some things there really stood out to me there. In verse 35 when Jesus passes by John the Baptist, he says of Jesus "Look! The Lamb of God!". Two of his disciples heard him say that and immediately got up and followed Jesus. He stopped and turned and said, "What do you want". And they say, "Lord, where are You staying?". And He replies, "Come and see". And they spend the remainder of the day together. The next day we see that one of the disciples who followed Jesus was Andrew. The first thing he did was find his brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah!" (that is the Christ). Now notice what he did next. He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, He gave him a new name: Peter (vs. 35-42). In verses 43 and following the text says Jesus was walking around and found Philip and said, "Follow Me!". And he did. In verse 45 he found Nathaniel and told him they found the Messiah who is from Nazareth. Nathaniel obviously thought Nazareth was so little hick town, because he said, "Nazareth?! Can anything good come from there?". And of course Philip says, "Come and see". And he did and Jesus tells him he is a true Israelite in whom is nothing false. And Nathaniel asks "How do you know me?". And Jesus says He saw him while he was under a fig tree when Philip talked with him. And that convinces him that Jesus is the Messiah.
Now, I told all of this to say, that Andrew and Philip were acting like missionaries here. They brought there family member and friend to Jesus.
Now, with that in mind and since it's Wednesday, please remember to pray for the AIM students on the mission field and those in Lubbock. Please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they go through Advanced Missions at Sunset and as they prepare themselves for their mission in Russia. Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their whole team as they finish up their preparations and get ready to go to Auckland, New Zealand sometime this month. Pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they go through Sunset.
And lastly, pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into His harvest fields (Matthew 9: 37-38).
Thank you all! God bless! Peace!
Zack
ps. If you get the Christian Chronicle newspaper, there is a really cool article about Sunset in this month's addition. Please pick it up and read it. Also Christian Chronicle is on the internet too (christianchronicle.com or org or something). Please check it out. Blessings!

1 Cor. 1 thoughts

2007-09-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I hope and pray everyone had a great weekend and a great Labor Day. My parents and I did. My sister and her family and our grandparents came over. That was a lot of fun! I miss seeing all of my siblings and their spouses (and soon to be spouse).
I was reading 1 Corinthians 1 today and somethings really stood out to me. The church in Corinth obviously had a lot of problems and Paul spends the majority of this letter addressing these problems and questions that they had. One of those problems is in 1:10-17."I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another "I follow Apollos"; another "I follow Cephas" still another "I follow Christ". Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I didn't baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, beyond that I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel- not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of it's power".
Two summers ago I got the opportunity to go to Cameroun, West Africa for two weeks for a mission trip through my church. I worked with a great man of God who preaches the Word there. One thing I remember about him is we both spoke about the church of Christ. We are not supposed to talk about "Paul's" church, or "Matthew's church" or another person's church. It is Jesus' church! It's like when a couple gets married. The wife doesn't keep her maiden name, or another man's name. She takes her husband's name
In verses 18 through 31 we see how great God is and that He obviously has a sense of humor. He will show Himself to those who sincerely are looking for Him, and He will completely frustrate those who think they know it all and don't need anything.
Both Jews and Greeks find God when they honestly look for Him. And those from both camps stumble over the "chief cornerstone" when they (and we) think we know it all and don't need anything. May God help us to remember these things.
I think the Pepperdine Lectures covered 1 Corinthians a few years ago. If anyone reading this blog attended that Lectureship, please chime in here with any insights.
Of course I invite insights and comments from anyone and everyone. God bless!
Zack

A couple of things

2007-08-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

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?
________
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

2007-08-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2007-08-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

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

Who Am I

2007-07-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I apologize once again for not writing as much. I will do better. My Dad got a few Christian music CDs in the mail recently. One of the CDs was of a group called Casting Crowns (castingcrowns.com). Dad told me about one of their songs that really touched him and played for me on his CD player in his car. The song is called "Who Am I". Here are some of the lyrics.
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 here me when I'm calling.
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling.
And You told me who I am.
I'm Yours. I'm Yours.
That is just the chorus. I guess I shouldn't put the whole song on here, because of copy write laws. Something tells me they wouldn't like that. The chorus is beautiful enough, but listening to the whole song will move you to tears. This song is a great testimony to who God is and how much He loves you and me. It is great!
Your thoughts please. Blessings!
Zack
Philippians 1:6

Sorry it's been so long

2007-07-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hello hello everyone! I apologize for not blogging in such a long time. It is Wednesday again, so please pray for the AIMers that are on their mission fields. Also pray for those who will start AIM in August. Pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team as they continue to get ready to leave to go to Auckland, New Zealand later this year. Pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team. They are getting ready to begin Advanced Missions in August. They will do this to ready themselves for the mission field in Russia. And lastly pray also for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they get ready to start Sunset in August.
I'll blog about Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit next time. God bless!
Zack

Song: I Praise You Lord

2007-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well hello and hello everyone! Sorry for the amount of time that has gone by since my last post. But here we are again.
I learned the following worship song while I was a student at Harding. It is one that personally touches my heart. Here it is:
I praise You Lord
For who You are.
And all the mighty
Things You've done.
You saved my soul,
You made me whole.
I praise You Lord!
I praise You Lord!
There's another verse to this, but I can't remember it. If anyone out there knows this song and knows the second verse (and following, if there's more) then please tell me the rest of the song. It really is a good one.
I guess that's all for the day folks. I'll blog about Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit and about missionaries in tomorrow's blog.
Take care. Have fun. Be safe. And be blessed!
Zack

The Memorable Faith of a Forgotten Hero

2007-07-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well hello hello everyone! I pray all of you are doing well today. Let's continue with our Bible study over the life of the Apostle Paul. Through this study I am reading Swindoll's book Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit.
This third chapter is covering "the memorable faith of a forgotten hero". In Acts chapter nine Saul and company were charging toward Damascus from Jerusalem. Saul had just been granted permission and been given papers from the high priest to go to Damascus to arrest any Christians he found there and take them back to Jerusalem. Apparently many Christians fled from Jerusalem to Damascus to get a way from Saul and the impending death that he would surely bring. And now their worst fears were coming their way really soon. I imagine they were scared out of their skulls. Then some time after Saul's miraculous encounter with Jesus and his blindness, the Lord appears to a Christian named Ananias. Acts 9:10-12 says, "Now there was a certain disciple living in Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias'. And he said, 'Behold here am I, Lord'. And the Lord said to him, 'Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight". No dought he knew about Saul and what he was doing and was coming to do. Thankfully nothing like this has ever happened in the USA, but it happens a lot around the world, even to this very day. The Lord definitely knew about Saul and still told him to go. But there is no dought Ananias was scared stiff. He might of thought "who me?!". But God said, "do it".God needed to get Ananias from Point A to Point Be was the challenge. God had chosen Saul for a special mission. Jesus told His disciples, "you didn't chose Me, but I have chosen you, and I have set you apart" (John 15:6). In Acts 9:15-16 we read, "But the Lord said to him, 'go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake'". That was God's clear answer to Ananias' questions that, "I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake". Through out the ages suffering is the tool God has used the most to train His followers. He transforms "raging bulls to bleating lambs" as Swindoll puts it so eloquently. Suffering is where we learn to be humble, tender hearted, compassionate, character, patience and grace. It's true for everyone. It's true for me, you, and as we see through out the rest of the Bible, it will be for Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 we read about Paul's "scar wars" as a good friend, Steve Singleton puts it. Swindoll talks about being the president of a major theological school here in Dallas and seeing many Bible students come through that school. Many foreigner came through and struggled to learn English and read and write in English. Many athletic students learning biblical Hebrew and Greek. But the most touching part he talked about a man and his wife. A young married couple with a new baby. Sometime later they found out the wife had leukemia. Not much time later she passed away. Certainly a devastating lose. That man must of had a load of dreams of ministry and a family. And now most of it was coming to a halt. He was a ragging bull and became a bleating lamb through suffering.
Ananias was the forgotten hero in all of this. If he hadn't been obedient, none of this would of happened. God is full of surprises. We must always be ready for them. They always intensify our faith. They always bring clarity. And they always stimulate growth. We must always be ready for God's calling. Who knows, but that we might encourage the next great preacher or missionary. Any comments? God's richest blessings be on you!
Peace out! Power to the people.
Zack

Praying for Missionaries next part

2007-07-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all is going well for everyone out there. Today is Wednesday so please pray for the AIM students who are on their fields right now. I don't know if the Brazil AIMers have gotten their visas yet or not, so please especially be praying for that. If any one out there wants to know more about AIM (especially any one in high school) please email me (dxddgr9800@hotmail.com) and I'll gladly tell you about it. AIM is a great program.
Please also be praying for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their whole team as they get ready to go to Auckland, New Zealand later this year. Please be praying for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they get ready to start Advanced Missions at Sunset this Fall. They are doing that to get ready to go to Moscow, Russia as missionaries. And please pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they get ready to start Sunset this Fall. I know this will be an exciting time for them.
In closing, let's all be praying that the Lord will raise up more workers for the harvest field. There are needs for missionaries all over the world, including here in the USA. There are so many churches here in the US that are struggling. So many churches here have empty pulpits and other ministry opportunities, there is no one that is stepping up to the plate. So please join me in praying for all of that.
God bless you all!
Zack

Aftermath Of A Giant-Killing

2007-07-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray everyone had a great weekend and start to the week.
Let's continue with the weekly study of David. This chapter in Swindoll's book covers 1 Samuel 17:55 through 18:9. In review, David's life changed forever when he got out there to fight Goliath. He was thrust from teenage nobody to a national hero instantly. I think David was already known by the king Saul at this moment (16:21-23), but the king still didn't recognize him and thus inquired about him to Abner (17:55-56). When David defeated the mighty Philistine giant he gained instant popularity. Before it, he was just known as "David, the son of Jesse"; and then all of a sudden his name was being talked about by everyone. People were even saying "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (18:1-6). Even with all of this popularity he still remained humble with his faith in God. Saul, though, was stewing with all of this. He was saying "... 'They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?' And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on" (vv. 8-9).
Four different relationship experiences are worth noticing here. God used each of these relationships to mold him into His man for the throne. First, David was under submission to king Saul. Soon after David's victory, Saul recruited him for service in the army soon promoting him to commander of a regiment (18:2, 13). In all of this David was faithful and didn't attempt to usurp the throne from Saul or pull any thing hinting he was the successor either. He just went about his business at hand. Second, David's relationship with Jonathan was one of affection. God, in His great wisdom, gave David an intimate relationship with Jonathan, who just happens to be Saul's son (18:1). There are four key qualities that made this a deep relationship. One being a willingness to sacrifice. Apparently Jonathan was several years David's senior (see ch.14), but Jonathan made a special covenant with David and they exchanged gifts (18:3-4). Secondly, Jonathan gave him a loyal defense. Saul tried to kill David a few times, but Jonathan defended David to his father Saul (19:4-5). Thirdly, they had accepting hearts. In chapter 20:41b we see that they wept together and kissed each other. And forthly they consistently encouraged each other. In chapter 23:16-17 we see how Jonathan encouraged David when he was on the run. Just heart to heart encouragement.
Back to the first list. David's relationship with the people of Israel was that of exaltation. David was a star in the peoples' eyes and they took joy in his leadership (18:5). Some even sang, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (v. 7b). Yet he remained humble and prospered in his new role (v. 5). In verse 30 it says that he "behaved him self ... wisely". The Hebrew word here is Sakal which is defined as "wisdom which brings success" (see Proverbs 18:19 and 21:11).
And the last one being David's relationship with Saul was opposition. With David's star on the rise Saul's displeasure also rose. He had the classic case of paranoia here in 1 Samuel 18:8 where he was upset at what the people were saying about David's accomplishments surpassing Saul's. "... What more can he have but the kingdom" he said (v.9).
Lastly let's look at three things about this for our lives today. Firstly, not knowing the future forces us to live one day at a time. Secondly, having a friend helps us face whatever comes our way. And the third thing, a positive attitude and wisdom are the best defense against the enemy.
More on David next week. Any thoughts or comments on this today? I'll do another blog tomorrow. At church tomorrow evening we're hosting an elder from the church in Benton, KY and a gentleman who works with the Preaching school in the West African nation of Benin. I'm looking forward to that. I visited Togo (which is right next to Benin) in 1999. Mission work in that part of the world is close to my heart. I'll share some of what we learn on Thursday. Remember to let go and let God. May He bless your day today.
Zack

The Violent Capture of a Rebel Will

2007-07-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. Some time ago I started a series of blogs on the Apostle Paul using a book called Paul: A Man of Grace of Grit by Charles Swindoll. I wrote one post about it and some how or another I lost the book. I am currently using my dad's copy of the book to resume the posts about Paul. Without further ado here we go.
Chapter one of the book was about introducing Paul, whom we first meet as Saul. This chapter talks about his conversion. Everyone has a story to tell about how he or she met Christ and came to believe in Him. Paul's was seemly a lot more dramatic than even the wildest fairy tale we could come up with. The book of Acts talks a lot about Paul and his life before becoming a Christian. In Acts 22: 4 we reed, "And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prison". In Acts 22: 5 it says, "As also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished". And in Acts 26 Paul said that he "... had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus ..." that he took many as prisoners and cast his vote against them when they were put to death ( vv. 9-10). But as he said in 1 Timothy 1:13 he "... was shown mercy". When he was riding out to Damascus, he was in a rage of furry. His eyes were full of anger and hate and he wanted to bring Christianity to a halt. But before he got to his destination he was brought to screeching halt. There was such a bright light shinning that it made Saul blind. And he heard a voice say to him; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:3-4). God certainly had his attention at this moment. God does this to a lot of us. We get some major tragic news and suddenly we are in such shook we can barely speak. Whatever it is, be it a bad medical emergency; news of a death of a loved one or friend, the news of a national tragedy (ie. what occurred on September 11, 2001) or something else, God can use that to bring you and I to our knees. Then God seems to say, "Now do I have your attention?". Kind of like when Joshua and his troops were going to attack Ai and were soundly defeated and Joshua was like. "What happened here?". At that moment Saul was fully attentive to God and He told him exactly what He wanted Saul to do to be saved. He did what God wanted him to do (ie. repent and baptized) and he was on God's side from then on.
Another part of this deserves our attention as well. In Acts 26:14 we read; "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads". These seem to be slender pieces of timber. They are blunt on one end and a sharp, pointy end on the other. They are used be farmers to urge a stubborn ox. The farmer would use them to get an ox going, but if the ox kicked at it , it would stab him and that would hurt. A lot, I'm sure. But Jesus likened Saul to an ox kicking goads. There are three possible goads He was referring to. One is the goad of Christ's life and words. Saul was one of the pharisees and wanted to see Him dead. He refused to believe Jesus was a live and well and personally saw to it to end the Christian religion. But God saw to it to show Saul the error of his life and thinking.
The second one could be Stephen's peaceful death. He didn't curse or cry for mercy. He simply prayed for God to forgive his killers and not to remember this charge against them. Surely that replayed in Saul's mind. And the third possibility is the Christians' courage and faith in death. Saul arrested so many of them and voted for them to die. Perhaps a few recanted their faith, but a lot more stood firm in their faith, perhaps even prayed for their killers. If so that surely plagued him in his dreams and thoughts. In the end God wins. God won't let the enemy win. He wins. We must listen to God before He does something dramatic to get our attention.
More blogging later. I hope each of you had a great July 4 yesterday. God bless!
Zack

Prayers for Missionaries part next

2007-07-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, hello everyone! I pray all of you are well and good. Happy July 4th too! I pray all of you get to enjoy some fireworks tonight!
Today being Wednesday, please especially be praying for the AIM students, those who have been on their fields for a while and those who are just now arriving on their fields. Please especially be praying for the AIM team heading for Brazil will get their visas soon so they can go to their field there. Pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team as they prepare to go to Auckland, NZ to start planting a church there soon. Please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they prepare to start Advanced Missions in August at Sunset. Please pray for my friends Robin and Chrissy as they prepare to start Sunset in August. And lastly please pray for more workers for the Lord's Harvest fields around the world (Matt. 9:37-38). God's richest blessings on each of you and your families.
Zack

David And The Dwarf

2007-07-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all is well with each of you. Right now I am leading a study of the Bible character David and am using the book David: A Man of Passion And Destiny as the text. Today we will look at the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17:1-54.
As you read the text, the first thing we see that Israel's old enemy the Philistines are back bullying them again. They are on top of a hill over looking the Elah valley (17:1-2). The battle ground is "the broad and fertile valley" below. It has a stream of running water going through the middle of it. The two armies just keep looking at each other (v. 3) and then the Philistines part down the middle and their champion steps forward (v. 4). So as to not have an all-out war the Philistines devised a plan: their champion and their opponent's champion would fight until one of them was killed. The side who's champion died would be servants of the winners. Goliath was truly a mountain of a man. He stood nine foot nine inches. He was fully loaded from head to toe with his war gear. He was a lean, mean, fighting machine (vvs. 5-7). Then Goliath gave a very scathing rebuke to Israel and his God. When the Israelites heard all of it, they were dismayed and scared to death (v. 11).
Then David (the giant) comes on to the scene. Earlier David gave Spirit filled comfort to Saul (ch. 16), and now the Faith-filled David will encourage the terrified and faithless Saul too (17:12). At this time David divided his time between shepherding his father's sheep and ministering to Saul (17:12-15). In verses 17-18 Jesse sends David to see about his older brothers. When David gets there he drops the supplies and goes to talk to them (vv. 20-22). At that time all eyes turn in terror to Goliath. (v.23). But David sizes him up according to his view of God and David thinks he can take him (v. 26). But when Eliab (David's oldest brother) hears David talking about it, he puts him down (v. 17:28). Saul hears about it and sends for David (v. 32). He gives a passionate speech about how God gave him strength to fight off a lion and a bear to save his sheep and declares Goliath will end up like them (vv. 33-37a). Saul gives David his blessing and he proceeds to dress David in the king's army attire (v. 37b). David, not being used to such attire, walks around in them and takes them off (vv. 38-39). Both sides of the ridge seem to come a live when they see the two challengers running towards each other. But when Goliath gets close enough to see David he is insulted and begins to verbally degrade him (vv. 43-44). But David yells right back (vv. 45-47). The battle belongs to the Lord not to us. We must trust Him to make wrongs right in His own timing. With his full confidence in God David hurls a stone at Goliath's head and hit him square between the eyes and he fell down dead (17:49). Then David ran over to the giant, drew his sword out , and cut off his head v. 51).
Now some lessons we can learn from this story: 1.facing giants is an intimidating experience. Faith doesn't blind us to reality. It focuses our attention and faith to God to help us overcome what may seem like insurmountable odds. 2. doing battle is a lonely experience. Your Goliaths are your Goliaths. No one else can face them except you. And they may not mean anything to anyone else but you. Your family, friends, and church can't help you. They can support you but they can't do the fighting for you. 3. trusting God is a stabilizing experience. David's sight and faith was on God and Him alone. He trusted himself and the battle to Him. He let go and let God. That is what we must do. Let go and let God. And lastly, 4. winning victories is a memorable experience. Whenever God gave a victory to His people they stacked up some rocks to help them remember what He had done for them through out the years.
I'll stop there for the day. More blogging tomorrow. One more prayer request. I got an email from a girl who is on the AIM team going to Brazil and they haven't been able to go because they don't have their visas yet. It seems like AIMers have had trouble getting visas from the Brazil government in the past. So please pray for this team to get their visas so they can go there and bring more people to Jesus. And please pray for more workers for the harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).
Peace out. Power to the people. Be blessed!
Zack

Praying for Missionaries part next

2007-06-27T04:41:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I pray things are well for all of you who are reading this.
Well, today is Wednesday so please especially be praying for the AIM students today. For those who have just now arrived on their mission fields and those who have been on their fields are a while now. Please pray for those who will be moving to Lubbock in August to start AIM. Please be in prayer for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their entire team as they prepare to move to Auckland to begin their mission there. Please be in prayer for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they get ready to start Advanced Missions at Sunset this Fall. And lastly, please be in prayer for by friends Robin and Chrissy and all of those who will be at Sunset this Fall. It should be an exciting two years for all of them. We need more workers in the Lord's harvest fields, let's all pray for that (Matt. 9:37-38).
On a final note, please pray for those who have been effected by the tragic events that have happened this year (ie. floods in Ft. Worth and Gainsville, VT. killings, and so on). Thank you everyone! Have a great day today. Be blessed!
Zack

My Bible Heroes

2007-06-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I pray all is well with each of you. I am getting back into the blogging mode now. Here is a new series of blogs I've been thinking about: Bible heroes. One of my heroes in the Bible is Timothy. He is someone I want to be like. The first time we hear about Timothy is is in Acts 16. Right after Paul and Barnabas split up, Paul decides to partner up with Silas (15:40) and they go off to Derbe and Lystra (16:1). It is there that they meet Timothy (16:1). His father is a Greek and his mother is Jewish. His mother and him both are converts of Paul's from back in Acts 14:8ff when he and Barnabas were in those two cities. Apparently Paul and Silas both liked him and the brethren there spoke well of him (v. 2). Paul recruited Timothy to join them on their missionary journeys from then on. Before they set out Paul has Timothy circumcised because of the Jews. They all knew Timothy's daddy was a Greek (v.3). Timothy did it and off they went. I just love that about him. Another story about Timothy I love is in Philippians 2:19-24. Paul tells the church there that he hopes to send Timothy to them hopes he will bring back good news about them (v. 19). Paul also says he has no else like him "who takes a genuine interest in your welfare" (v. 20). Other people look out for their own interests and not those of Christ (v. 21). And Paul says that they all now how Timothy had proven himself as he worked with Paul (v. 22). They worked together like father and son (v.22). There were other mission endeavors Paul knew Timothy could do. For example in 1 Corithians 16:10-11 say,"If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one then should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers".
In 1 Thessalonians 3:2ff we read, "We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. ...". And in verses 6 through 10 Timothy gives Paul a glowing report about them and how they are doing. In 1 Timothy 1 we read how Paul commissioned Timothy to stay in Ephesus in order to straighten out those who became false teachers who were distorting the truth of the gospel (vs. 3-7). And lastly, in 2 Timothy. In chapter 3 and 4 (3:10-4:18) Paul gives Timothy a charge to do three things. One, to endure hardship for gospel like he had done (3:10-17). Then, to preach the Word in all circumstances (4:1-8). And lastly, to come and see him, because he as about to be executed (4:9-18). Paul and Timothy were a great team. A dream team if you will. Paul obviously had full confidence in Timothy to full-fill the tasks he gave him to do, no matter what they were. I wonder what it was like for Timothy to travel with Paul, what they talked about, what they prayed about, how they interacted. I love Timothy's servant heart he must of had. I love the passion he must of had. I love the love in his heart he must of had. Timothy is certainly someone I want to be like. I will blog more about Bible heroes in later posts. Who are some of your Bible heroes? Comments please. Be blessed! Peace out. Power to the people!
Zack

Soft Music For A Hard Heart

2007-06-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

How's it going everybody? I am very very sorry for not blogging in such a long time. I got really busy one week and went to see my brother and sisters and their spouses last week. Now here we are again and I promise to do better in blogging.
Let's get back to the book on David: A Man of Passion And Destiny. The third chapter is on Soft Music For A Hard Heart. It is taken from 1 Samuel 16:14 through 23. At this moment Saul has lost the Holy Spirit from God and He gave him an evil spirit to torment him (1 Sam. 16:14). Notice that the text indicates that God took away His Spirit and gave Saul a tormenting spirit. Swindoll says that the Hebrew word there says "... terrorize carries the idea of falling upon, startling, or overwhelming". This happened because of Saul's continual acts of disobedience toward God. The Lord had finally had enough and took away His hand of blessing from Saul. And now Saul has an evil spirit that haunts him on a continual basis and everyone around him seems to know this. They suggest to Saul that he get somebody who knows how to play the harp to come and play for him when this evil spirit comes on him (1 Sam. 16:16). When they do this Saul takes them up on it (16:17) and then someone suggests David (v. 18). It is remarkable how God puts the right people in our lives who He uses to open the door for us to be used for His glory. So, Saul learns of David's credentials and has David brought in (1 Sam. 16:19-20). Keep in mind David is the king-elect, but he doesn't ever try to kick Saul off the thrown. All David did was do his duty (vv. 21-22).
David's music certainly did the trick. Whenever the evil spirit came on Saul, David played for him and soothed his spirit calmly(v. 23). Music has always had a profound effect on people all through the ages.
More on David next week. In conclusion, please pray for a couple of friends of mine. They recently sent out an email saying they want to go to Sunset this year and want to be missionaries. Praise God for them and for people like them who want to serve Him. We need a lot more people like them who want to serve God by speaking His Word through out the world (Eph. 3:7). There is so much need here in the US and all over the world. But there's not exactly a lot of people rushing out to do it. So, please pray for God to send out more workers for the harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).

Prayers for Missionaries part 2

2007-06-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. Once again I am sorry for not blogging again yesterday. Busy busy busy. What can I say.
A group of eight people (three from my home church Buckingham Road Church of Christ) left yesterday to go to Cameroun, West Africa for a World Bible School mission trip. I went on this trip at this time last year. Please be in prayer for them while they are gone. This trip is absolutely awesome! I loved going last year and wished I could have gone this year as well. It is a great experience. Please pray for the AIM students who are just now arriving on their mission fields. And for the AIM students who have been on their fields for a while now. Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their whole team as they go to Auckland, New Zealand in September. Please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they get ready for Advanced Missions at Sunset as part of their preparations for their time in Russia. And lastly please pray for Sunset students as they minister for God and His Word all over the world. I am so very excited about attending Sunset in 2008 with the hope of doing the same things myself. But only with God's help and blessings. I love Sunset's mission statement: Let's go ... Make Disciples! That is mine as well.
I love Matthew 9:37-38 which says, "... the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field". And I love Isaiah 6. There Isaiah is and suddenly the Lord's glory fills the whole place. And Isaiah cries out, 'woe to me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (v5). And an angel flies down and picks up a burning coal out of a furnace and touches his lips with it and says, "see, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Who shall I send and who will go for Us'! And I said, 'Here am I. Send me'!" That is my plea as well. "Here am I, Lord. Please send me"!
How about you? Be blessed!
Zack

A Nobody, Nobody Noticed

2007-06-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello there everyone! Sorry I haven't blogger in such a long time. Been really busy. I pray all of you are doing well. Back to the study we've been in. For a refresher, we're looking at the life of David in a book called David: A Man of Passion and Destiny by Charles Swindoll. Last time we studied the chapter on God's Heart, God's Man, God's Way. Now we're going to look at A Nobody, Nobody Noticed. The first thing we see is that God provides when man panics. When God rejected man's choice to be their king He also is preparing His choice to take his place. Saul, man's choice to be king, is weak and flawed. He had three acts of disobedience that lead to God withdrawing His blessing from him. The first one was when he offered sacrifices, which was a duty only for the priests to do (1 Sam. 13:5-14). The second act was he made a vow that caused his people to sin and nearly cost his son Jonathan his life (14:24-46). And the third one happened when God told him to totally destroy the Amalekites, and he saved the best of their flocks and brought back their king alive (15:7-11).
God told Samuel to tell Saul he was out as Israel's king. And when he told him this, Saul acted like nothing happened and wanted to go about like everything was peachy keen (vv. 12-31). And after this God tells Samuel that it was time to find the new king, the one God Himself had chosen to be the next king. And this one would be a man after His own heart. In chapter 16:1 God tells him to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse's house to anoint one of his sons to be the next king. We see that man only looks, but God truly sees. When Samuel arrives there and talks to Jesse, he has his sons appear before Samuel like a parade. But one by one Samuel replies, "The Lord hasn't chosen this one' (vv 6-10). Each of them looked like king material, but "... God doesn't see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart" (7b). Man all to often looks at appearances, but God looks at their character, values, and how you live your life. We need to do what Samuel did: look to the Lord for guidance and wait for His choice. When man forgets, God remembers. Samuel, no dought thought that the parade was over and that there were no more sons. How confusing. Samuel knew that God had selected a son from this family, but who? So Samuel finally asks him, "Are these all of your sons" (v 11b)? Then we see Jesse's oh-yeah-I-almost-forgot moment. David had been completely over looked. Verse 11b says, "There remains yet the youngest, he is tending the sheep". This reveals two attitudes Jesse had toward David. 1.He didn't appreciate each of his children equally. And 2. he failed to cultivate a mutual respect among the brothers. Despite Jesse's attitude towards him Samuel says, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here" (v. 11b). When he gets there the Lord says to Samuel, "Arise, anoint him; for he is the one" (v.12). Then Samuel takes the horn full of oil and anoints him the presence of all his family. In the story of David we can see that God rejects the self-serving and exalts the God-serving. He doesn't look at outward appearances, but looks at the heart.
In closing let's look at three applications. First of all, God's solutions are often strange and simple, so be open. Second, God's provisions are usually sudden and surprising, so we must be ready. And third, God's selections are always sovereign and surprising, so we must be calm.
More on David next week. Be blessed!
Zack

Prayers for Missionaries

2007-05-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello to everyone out there. I hope and pray all is well.
I'm going to make this one short and sweet. Please pray for the AIM students, especially today. For those who have been on their fields for a while. For those who are just now arriving on their fields. Pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team as they go to New Zealand. And pray for Rob and Denyce and their team as they prepare to go to Russia.
God bless you all! Have a great day. Peace!
Zack

May I introduce to you Saul of Tarsus

2007-05-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I hope and pray all is well with each of you. I found out yesterday that Jake and Angie are writing a blog about Madelyn. I think it's website is mynameismadelyn.blogspot.com. If that's incorrect, then please put a note on this blog and I'll make sure to tell you the correct blog address.
Now, on to another blog series. This one will be over the life of the Apostle Paul studying Charles Swindoll's book Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit. We all know what a great influence Paul had on Christianity in it's early stages. We're all familiar with his letters which are in the Bible. His words of wisdom all throughout those letters are inspiring to me and to many others as well. Knowing what we know about the Apostle Paul from his letters we might be tempted to think he loved Jesus since birth. But if we look closer at the Scriptures we will see otherwise.
In Acts 6 we read about the passionate young Christian named Stephen, whom Scripture says was "full of grace and power" (v 8), and his face shined like the face of an angel (v 15). Stephen talked about his faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ, and at the end of his speech the whole Jewish Council dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death. Now notice what the killers did. They gave their coats to one who the Bible calls "a young man named Saul". He was their and was very glad they murdered him in cold blood. That was the start of his murdering other Christians as well. It is very important that we know all of that to understand why he was so grateful for grace.
No dought he was there when the Jewish Council met with the Apostles in Acts 5 and he heard the speech that Gamaliel gave them, which might possibly saved their lives at that moment.
Everyone has a dark side in their lives. No matter how great someone is, there is a troubled past. That leads us to three final points here. 1.No matter how you appear to others today, everyone has a dark side. 2. Regardless of what you've done, no one is beyond hope. And 3. Even though your past is soiled, anyone can find a new beginning with God.
The Apostle Paul is another fascinating story. I hope you'll stay with this study.
I have decided to take Sunset's Bible courses by correspondence and stay home. I want to stay in contact with Charles Cook, the director of the Focus Northeast/ Northwest Program, and with some of those who plan to move to either of those two regions after graduation. I hope to join with an individual, family, or a team to plant churches in one of those two regions of the USA. This country is indeed a mission field. I desire to stay here and join a family, or an individual, or a group on a church planting effort
God bless you all in Jesus name!
Zack

God's Heart, God's Man, God's Ways

2007-05-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hello there everyone! I hope and pray all of you had a great weekend! After church services were over yesterday afternoon, my dad and I drove out to Krum to visit Jake, Angie, and Maddie. It was so fun! Maddie is a week old today. Hard to believe. It was so late last night that dad and I stayed the night and went back home today. Please be praying for Jake, Angie, and Maddie.
I am going to start a weekly series of blogs over the life of King David studying a book written by Charles Swindoll. The first chapter is called God's Heart, God's Man, God's Ways. Of course, this book is about David. The life of David is truly fascinating to study. He was the youngest son of Jesse. Growing up he was the shepherd of his father's sheep in Bethlehem. Through the years he experienced great victories, but also suffered earth-shattering sorrows. Through all of this God called him a man after His own heart. Before we look at the events that shaped David's life, let's look at what things were important to God's heart and how those things caused David to be after God's heart.
Throughout the Bible God's ways have been in contradiction to the world's (1 Cor. 1:26-29). A classic case in point would be Israel in David's child hood. In those days Samuel was getting older. It was time to appoint a new leader for God's people Israel. But the people didn't want Samuel's sons to do it, because they didn't do what their father did. They turned aside to dishonest gain and perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:3). So the people demanded to have a king reign over them. They told Samuel their demands (v. 5) and of course he wasn't pleased(v. 6a). But the Lord granted them their requests (vs. 7 & 9). According to 9:2 they selected Saul, because he was handsome and tall. Saul's reign didn't last long, and God selected one who was striving to please and follow Him. God got someone who was spiritual, humble, and had integrity.
God's training ground for His man, is in solitude, obscurity, monotony, and reality. In closing, let's look at two important truths. 1. It's in the little things that prove ourselves capable of the big things (Matt. 25:14-30). And 2. When God develops inner qualities, He's never in a hurry.
I'll post more about David about this time next week. Also, I'll do a weekly series about Paul studying a book written by Swindoll starting tomorrow.
Have a great week everyone. Be blessed!
Zack

Jeremiah 31:31-34 I will make a new covanent

2007-05-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! Sorry for the delay in the new post. I was in Krum with the rest of my family because my sister and brother-in-law gave birth to their daughter Madelyn (Maddie) Grace Chism on Monday! We're all so very excited! We all got to hold her and she is just precious!
Now on to the last Jeremiah keynote address. It was done on 31:31 through 34. It reads, "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying 'Know the Lord' because they will all know Me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more". This is a really awesome text! God is making a new covenant with Israel because they and Judah broke it , so He made a new one. He did this because He loved them as He loves us. As He promised to forgive them, He forgives us too.
Lord-willing some day I will get to go to the Pepperdine Lectureship. I hope to get involved in church planting or some other kind of full-time church ministry in either the Northeast or Northwest and hopefully will be able to attend the Pepperdine Lectures someday.
As I said above, my brother-in-law and sister Jake and Angie Chism had their baby girl on Monday. It was so exciting because our whole immediate family was their to see her make her grand entrance. It was truly a special occasion.
And lastly, please be praying for the AIM students and my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team heading to New Zealand later on this year. And please be praying for Rob and Denyce and their team as they prepare to go to Russia. Thank you everyone! Be blessed!
Zack
ps. And pray for more workers for the Kingdom of God (Matt. 9:37-38).

Jeremiah 29: 1-14 The Plans I have for you

2007-05-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I pray you are all having a great day today. The next keynote lecture in the Pepperdine Lectureship series is on Jeremiah 29: 1 through 14. Verses 1 through 10 just talk about that Jeremiah wrote a letter to Jerusalem about Nebuchadnezzer and others and that there were those out there who are telling the people things that the Lord said that were not true. But verses 10 through 14 read, "This is what the Lord says: 'When seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come to pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you', declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you', declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile". I think this is saying that even if others deceive us and try to hurt us, God will never hurt us. His plans are meant to help us, never to harm us. God means to bless us, never to bring us harm. Even when things seem bad, God intends to bless us not to hurt us. Any thoughts on this please?
I just heard that Dirk is going to be named NBA MVP next week. That is a very bitter-sweet thing for me. Yes, Dirk deserves to be named MVP because of the great year the Dallas Mavericks had this year. But, nevertheless, we fell way short of what we wanted to accomplish this year. It's too bad we didn't win against Golden State in the first round. That would have made this allot more sweeter.
And, in closing, to all the mothers (and mothers to be) Happy Mother's Day tomorrow! After church tomorrow we're all going to our grandparent's house to celebrate. Should be lots of fun! Can't wait. What are you going to do to celebrate?
I'll write on the last keynote lecture on Monday. That one will be on Jeremiah 31:31 through 34, which is on "I will make a new covenant".

Jeremiah 3:6-18 Return to Me

2007-05-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! Sorry for the break yesterday. Long day. I just found out my sister might have her baby on Monday! Please be in prayer for her. I'll say more about this at the end.
The next theme lecture covered Jeremiah 3:6 through 18. In verses 6 through 10 we see how faithless Israel and her sister Judah have been committing adultery against themselves and spiritual adultery against God. In verses 11 through 18 God calls them to come back. Verses 12 through 14 are very interesting. They read, "Go, proclaim this message toward the north: Return, faithless Israel' declares the Lord, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful, declares the Lord, 'I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt- you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree and have not obeyed Me' declares the Lord. Return, faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your husband. I will choose you- one from a town and two from a clan- and bring you to Zion". This story also reminds me of Hosea, where God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. She runs away multiple times after other lovers, but Hosea goes after her each time and buys her back. This was to be a visual image for all of Israel and for Hosea of what God wanted to do for them. Though Israel ran off many times after other lovers, God would continually run after them to bring them back to Him.
This story in Jeremiah, like the others before it, stays very well with the Lectureship theme of a call to renewal. In verse 15 God promised to give them spiritual shepherds to guide them in the right way of following Him.
Tomorrow we'll look at Jeremiah 29:1-14. Now about what we talked about at first. My sister Angie and brother-in-law Jake Chism are going to have their baby soon. Maybe as soon as Monday. Last week she was dilated at a one and the doctor said if she was dilated at two, they would induce labor. Apparently she has dilated at two now, and thus will induce labor on Monday. Please be praying for them. They are having a baby girl and will call her Madelyn (Maddie) Grace. They live in Krum, TX (close to Denton, if anyone knows where that is).
Thank you all! Be blessed!
Zack

Jeremiah 2:4-13 Living water & broken cisterns

2007-05-09T05:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all of you are having a great day today. Today we're going to look at Jeremiah 2: 4-13. These verses talk about God's people forsaking Him to follow other gods (ie. Baal). God is obviously not pleased with this. The priests aren't asking where their God is. They just lead His people to what is detestable in His sight. All of this is climaxed in verse 13, which reads, "My people have committed two sins: They have forgotten Me, the spring of living water, and dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water". That is very inditing (spelling error?). First of all, spiritual leaders must be very careful that they lead people to the true source of life (God) and not their own opinions. Leaders must lead people into a relationship with God. Like when Moses was on Mount Sinai with the Lord getting the Ten Commandments and his face was glowing, we need to set people up with having a close and intimate encounter with God.
And secondly, we need to do God's will in God's way. We can't do things our own way. Because if we do that, we'll have given up on the living water and be building our own cisterns. And those cisterns don't hold water.
Before we close, it's Wednesday and time to ask for prayers for the AIM students and other missionaries. Allot of the AIM students will leave their families, friends, and homes to go to their mission fields. Many of them will leave home for the first time. Please be in prayer for them. And for those who have been on their fields. Most of them have been where they are for a year. Some of them will possibly leave their mission fields to go back to the States. Please pray for them to finish their time there strong. Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their whole team as they prepare to leave for New Zealand in September. And for Rob and Denyce and their team as they are preparing to leave for Russia. I think they are taking Advanced Missions at SIBI. Thanks everybody! Be blessed! Peace out.
Zack

Jeremiah 9:23-26 In These I Delight

2007-05-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all of you are having a blessed day today.
Today we are looking at Jeremiah 9: 23 through 26. Verses 23 and 24 say, "This is what the LORD says, 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight' declares the Lord". Here, I think, God is saying we need to be humble and acknowledge what we have is from Him and not from ourselves. I think this might have been what Paul was telling the Corinthians in his first letter that we have that he sent to them. We shouldn't boast that we acquired so much when it was given to us by God.
Verses 25 and 26 say, "The days are coming", declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh- Egypt, Judah, Edom, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart". It seems that these people had dedicated their lives in this act of circumcision, but haven't been truly acting living like it up to this point in their lives. God might say the same things to some of us who have given our lives to Him in baptism, only to act in ungodly ways. Yes, in deed Jeremiah's words can and do speak to us today. May we listen to him and heed his words. Your thoughts on this please.
This is an early call to prayer for the AIM students. Many of them are leaving their families and homes to go to their respective mission fields this month and next. Please pray they will get their visas and adequate financial support in a timely manner. More on all of that and other missionary prayer needs tomorrow. Until, be blessed! Much love to all! Peace.
Zack

Jeremiah 1:4-10 I will be with you

2007-05-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I hope and pray all of you had a great weekend. Jeremiah 1 is a really cool story to me. Verses 4 through 8 read, "The word of the Lord came to me saying 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations". "Ah, Sovereign Lord", I said, "I don't know how to speak. I am only a child".
"But the Lord said to me, 'Don't say, I am only a child. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Don't be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord". This is such a cool story to me. All throughout Scripture God used people who didn't think they could be used. He used ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
In verses 9 through 12 we read, "Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now I have put My words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over the nations, and kingdoms to uproot and tear down to destroy and overthrow to build and to plant".
Here God takes away whatever excuses Jeremiah might of had. God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. Also throughout Scripture God calls people who don't think they can do it, but He gives those people the assurance that He is with them. Most of them believed God and He worked mightily in His. And He still does that today in us.
I hope and pray all of those who attended the Pepperdine Bible Lectures went home encouraged to continually renew themselves and help His people at their respective churches do the same. Wish I could've been there too, but maybe I can one of these days. I'll do another post on the next Lectureship keynote tomorrow. Be blessed!
Zack

Jeremiah's Call to Renewal

2007-05-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well howdy, howdy everybody! I hope all is well with each of you. I'm going to do a series of blogs about the Jeremiah scriptures used during the keynote addresses during the Peppperdine Lectureship. Obviously, I didn't go to it. So, anyone who did go please feel free to add what was said during the Lectures.
The first lecture was given on Jeremiah 7:1-15. This is a very fitting passage with their subject matter. The theme was Jeremiah's Call to Renewal. Verses 1-3 say, "This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 'Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: 'Here the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel says, Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place". That verse all the way to verse 17 talk about how and why the people of Judah need to repent to the Lord and He would let them live in His house. These verses are certainly a call for all of us to renew ourselves before the Lord. Please, all of those who are reading this that went to the Lectureship, add what the speakers said about these verses. May all of us renew ourselves before God!
Be blessed! Peace!
Zack

Becoming Simple & I need a hug

2007-05-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well hello and hello everyone! I hope and pray everyone is having a great day today.
This is my last post about Simple Church. This last chapter is Becoming Simple. Here the authors give a few suggestions about implementing the ideas about being a simple church.
There is a very sad fact that is emerging in our culture. Too many children are growing up who have never heard of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. No dought they have heard of McDonald's and eat there quite often, but never heard of Jesus and never been in church.
Also there are alot of people who develop heart problems and need to have bypass surgeries. These people are often faced with having to change their lifestyles very drastically. Some of these do make the necessary changes, but most don't. They are faced with change or you die. Some churches are like this too. They see the changing culture and so many people who need to hear about Jesus. They study and talk about changes they need to make to reach their culture. Some do make the necessary changes to evangelise their culture, but most don't. Again, they are faced with change or the church will die.
In Malichi chapter one we read about how the people back then offered sub-par offerings to the Lord and He obviously isn't pleased sub-par offerings. He wants our full and undivided attention. He wants to give us His best, He demands our best in return. Mediocrity isn't sufficient. Never was and never will be. Here are four simple steps to becoming a simple church.
Step one is design a simple process (clarity). Step two is place your key programs along the process (movement). The third step is unite all ministries around the process (alignment). And the forth step is begin to eliminate things outside the process (focus). To get a better idea about how to be a simple church, please go out and buy this book. It's great! I highly recommend it. Now, it's time to put it into practice.
Before I close for the day, I really need a hug today. Last night my Mavs lost the forth game to the Warriors. I can't believe it. RIP to the 60 plus win season for the Dallas Mavericks. We'll see who will rise up out of the West this season. I'm pulling for the Spurs until they get beat out.
And lastly, the Pepperdine Lectures end today. I pray it was a very uplifting time for everyone who spoke and everyone who got to go. God bless all of you as you go home and take what you learned and use it at your respective churches and in your lives! Be blessed!
Zack

Focus: Saying No to Almost Everything

2007-05-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I hope and pray everyone is having a great day today.
Today I am going to blog about focus. This is the last and most crucial part of the simple church plan. All of the other parts in the simple church process will matter at all if you don't focus on the process. I remember a few years ago when McDonald's did the Super-size deal. If you got a value meal, they would ask you if you wanted it Super-sized or not. Well, all of that causes congestion over time. It will give you some bad health problems later in life. Churches who don't stay focused on being simple churches will be bogged down by congestion. In the Bible, David said, "I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (Psalm 27:4) and "But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). They were both focused on one thing and it was the driving force in their lives. We need to remember that we are builders. We need to stay focused on what we're building: lives for eternity. To stay focused we need to do five things. We need to eliminate, limit adding, reduce special events, communicate easily, and simple to understand. Tomorrow will be the last post about Simple Church. That last chapter is called Becoming Simple. It will give a few suggestions about stepping out and becoming a simple church. This book has been very enlightening! I highly recommend it.
A few more words and I'll be done. The Mavericks play tonight in a few minutes. Boy am I worried! The Warriors are up 3 games to 2 right now, and we're playing them at their place. I thought we could win, but never thought it would be easy. And now we're on the brink of being out of the playoffs! What was I thinking?! What made me think the playoffs would be any better then the regular season? We were 0-3 against them then! Now we're down 2 games to 3 against them now. So that makes us 2 and 6 against them this season! It's not looking good my friends! I think we're going to loose. I hope I'm wrong! If we loose, I'm pulling for either the Spurs or the Suns to win it all. Don't get me wrong, I still have faith in the Mavs, but it is faltering.
Your thoughts please. Be blessed! Peace!
Zack

Alignment: Maximizing The Energy of Everyone

2007-05-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! Man! Whew! I stayed up last night and watched the Mavericks come back to win last night in the 5th game of their series against the Golden State Warriors. I thought we were going to loose, but Dirk put us on his shoulders and brought us back! But we still have pressure on us to win Thursday night too. We were none 9 points and came back to win at home. It will be 100 times harder to do that in Oakland. I hope we win, but not betting on it.
Now on to Simple Church. The next part of being a simple church is to have alignment. The authors define it as the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process.
We need to build a great team around us. Like Herb Brooks in the classic movie Miracle. We have to be united as a church on the same what (purpose) but also on the same how (process).
To do this we must recruit on the process, offer accountability, implement the same process everywhere, unite leaders around the process, and ensure that new ministries fit.
The results of no alignment can be devastating. Look at Numbers 13. This is the story of when God was going to take His people the Israelites into the promised land. They were on the brink of taking it, but then Moses picked twelve people, one from each tribe, to go and spy out the land. They did and ten of them came back and said they couldn't take it. Only two of them (Joshua and Caleb) said they could take the land the Lord had promised them. But the other ten prevailed in convincing the people with negative reports. They didn't take it. Unity on the process is vital. Tomorrow we'll look at focus: saying no to almost everything.
Now, it's Wednesday. This is the day to pray especially hard for the AIM students. And especially this month. In May (and June too) many of the AIM teams will leave home to go to their AIM fields. Please be praying for them as they make final preparations to leave their homes and families to go to their mission fields. And for the AIMers still on the fields too. And my friends about to leave for New Zealand and Russia too. Thanks everyone! Be blessed!
Zack

Movement: Removing Congestion

2007-05-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I hope each of you is having a blessed day today!
Movement is the next thing Rainer and Geiger suggest churches need to work on in Simple Church. Movement removes congestion. Congestion is never fun. Whether your sick with congestion in your chest or elsewhere, or in congested traffic, whatever else in life that can get congested, it is never good. Congestion can even happen in churches. Spiritual movement gets stopped up. We build up lives slowly. Congested churches are full of people who aren't changed and aren't bringing new people in. There is no change and no movement.
In 2nd Corinthians 3:18 we read, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit". This passage is a reference to Moses in the Old Testament. This refers back to when Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. When he came down from the mountain, his face shined some brightly he had to veil his face. He wore it to cover up the fading glory because when he came back down the glory started to go away and continued to until it was gone. But we don't have to wear a veil, because we can be forever in His presence. We, as Christians, can forever be in fellowship with our Father every day.
When Moses was in God's presence, he was transformed . He went up the mountain to meet with God and He transformed Moses' life during their encounter. Church leaders need to design encounters for people to meet with God so they will be transformed like that. Leaders in the Church need to design a plan of spiritual development that moves people to greater levels of commitment so they will grow spiritually. Movement is defined as the sequential steps in the process that causes people to move to greater areas of commitment. To do this, we must use five prescriptions to remove the congestion in your church. The first one is we must have strategic programming. We must clearly define the process, choose one program for each phase in the process, design each program for each aspect of it, and place the programs in sequential order.
Secondly, we must have sequential programming. Sequencing produces movement. To do this we must order the sequence to the programs to reflect the process, designate a clear entry-point to the process, and identify the next levels of programming.
The third thing is to have intentional movement. This means we intentionally move people from program to program through the ministry process. To do that we must create short-term steps, capitalize on relationships, consider the "now what?", and connect people to a group.
The forth thing is to clear the next step. This means we need to give special attention and nurture to the new babies in Christ. We can't just put them aside and let them defend themselves. No parent would do that to a new born baby, so we shouldn't do that to those who've been born again either.
And the last step is to have a new members class. In this class we should teach them the simple process, and ask for a commitment to that process.
Jesus, of course, was the master at this. In Luke chapters 5 and 6 He called His disciples. In chapters 7 and 8 He built them up to do the work of ministry. And in chapter 9 He sent them off to do that work.
God bless us all in these endeavors!
Be blessed!
Zack

Clarity: Starting With A Ministry Blueprint

2007-04-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! Once again I apologize for the time that elapsed between blogs.
I am going to do a few blogs about Simple Church. This is a GREAT book! Very practical and useful. In this book the authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger suggest four areas for churches to work on and then commit to those things. The first of these is clarity. They suggest that we have a clear plan to evangelism and spiritual formation with easy steps to follow in order to get there.
Church leaders are builders. They are in the business of building lives. Ultimately that is what ministry is all about and what the church is supposed to be about.
We need to clearly define how our church makes disciples and moves them on to spiritual maturity. That means we need to coach people through teaching them about Jesus and show them the way to knowing Him better in maturity. Secondly, we need to clearly illustrate how that happens at our church. That means we draw it out so they will see it for themselves. Third, it needs to be measured. It needs to be charted out. Then it must be discussed. We must be able look at the results and talk about what was good and what needs to be changed. And lastly, we need to increase understanding about the process. Everyone needs to be able to comprehend what's going on. The last thing they say here is really good. We need to be tour guides and not travel agents. If you've ever been on a trip, you talk to a travel agent to book your trip and talk to them about things to do there and whatnot. But a tour guide actually goes along with you on your adventure. More than likely, he's been there before and knows allot about it to talk to you about it. That's what we need to be. Tour guides who guide people into a saving relationship with Jesus and then on to a mature relationship with Jesus who grows to be His disciple.
Tomorrow we'll look at movement: removing congestion.
Tomorrow, I believe, the Pepperdine Lectureship kickes off. I won't be going this year, but it looks like an incredible deal. The theme is on Jeremiah: The Lord's Call to Renewal. I pray for all of you who are going to the Lectureship, all the Bible class teachers, and all the keynote speakers. May all who go find their faith and understanding increased and renewed.
Be blessed!
Zack

How God Answers Prayers

2007-04-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. I found the following poem (or whatever you want to call this) while I was going through some things in my bed room. It is pretty cool. Please tell me what you think of it.
How God answers prayer:
I asked God to send me His friends- He sent you.
I asked God to take away my pain- God said, It is not for Me to take away, but for you to give it up".
I asked God to make my handicapped child whole- God said, "Their spirit is whole; their body is temporary".
I asked God to grant me patience- God said, "Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned".
I asked God to give me happiness- God said, "I give you blessings, happiness is up to you".
I asked God to spare me pain- God said, "Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to Me".
I asked God to make my spirit grow- God said, "You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful".
I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life- God said, "I will give you life so that you will enjoy all things".
I asked God to help me love others, as much as He loves me- God said, "Finally, you have the idea".
Your thoughts:
I finished reading Simple Church today. Tomorrow I'll do a series of blogs about their ideas in the book. Simple Church is a facinating book! I loved it and highly endorse it.
Be blessed!
Zack

Sorry

2007-04-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all! Man! Sorry I haven't blogged in so long! Crazy stuffs been happening. I'll do better.
While at Harding I heard a really funny story about one of my professors. The following story didn't occur in the class I took, but in an other class he teaches. I heard he told his class the next class meeting would take place by the school swimming pool. So for class that day they met at the swimming pool. The professor taught from the diving board. After he was done teaching he went to end of the diving board and jumped into the pool (he was wearing his suit, ty, slacks, the works)!
When he got his head above water he raised his fists and arms over his head and yelled out, "I'm gun ho for Jesus! Now who's with me!". And everyone started yelling, "Yeah! Yeah!" and they all jumped in too! Thinking about that story also got me thinking about who in the Bible was gun ho for Jesus? Of course there were tons of people, but impreticularly the Apostle Paul was. As we all recall Paul heated Christians at first, but was converted in Acts 9. Then he immediately turned his whole focus from hateing Jesus to loving Him. Acts tells of his missionary journeys and all the adventures he encountered in each of them. Each of the letters he wrote to various churches and friends, he instills in them huge doses of his insights and wisdom.
What I want to focus on now is what he said to the Corinthians in his second letter to them that we have. In chapter one verses 8 through 9 says, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not depend on ourselves but on God who raises the dead". Remarkable! Paul and his companions obviously were fighting for their lives every step of the way. But they always believed in God and that He would rescue them, and He did. May we be like that too. Trusting God for everything.
Today is Wednesday, so let me close for the day with a plug to pray for missionaries and especially for the AIM students. And for more workers for the harvest field all over the world too. May God bless us all!
Be blessed! Peace out!
Zack

Information or Transformation?

2007-04-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well howdy, howdy everybody! I pray all is well with you.
Our Church's Outreach Minister has been teaching a Bible class series with the aim of transformation instead of just information. Which got me thinking (I try not to think so much, because thinking too much gives me headaches!) about some things. In John chapter five we read about Jesus healing a man at the pool at Bethesda. The Jews chastised Him for doing it, because it was on the Sabbath day. In the middle of the chapter through the remainder of it, Jesus tells them He does what His Father has been doing and He will continue to while it is still light. In verses 31 through 47 Jesus talks about John the Baptist and the Old Testament scriptures as testimonies about Himself. In verses 36 and following He tells them that the Old Testament scriptures are a weightier testimony than John the Baptist is. I want to focus on verses 39 through 40, which read, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life".
It's amazing and scary to me that these men put their whole lives into studying the Old Testament scriptures and looking for the Messiah. They all must have had an errant view of what the Messiah was going to be, because He was right there under their noses and they all missed Him. Jesus tells them in the two verses in John listed above that they studied their Bibles very diligently, but they missed the Messiah they had been looking for. They thought they knew what He was supposed to be like, but they were wrong. Jesus didn't fit their view of what the Messiah was. They thought the Messiah was going to be a military leader, but Jesus promoted peace and love. They thought he would keep all of their preconceived traditions, but Jesus broke quite a few of them (ie. healing on the Sabbath day, and calling God His Father, and many others). No, oh no, the true Messiah wasn't what they thought He would be at all.
Obviously, the Jews had all the information one would want, but they weren't transformed by what they knew. The Old Testament said He would be a Suffering Servant (in Isaiah somewhere I believe), and that He would be nailed to a cross and mistreated by man (Psalm 22). It was all right there, but they didn't see it for what it was. I pray we will diligently study the scriptures as well, but may we also be eternally transformed by what we read!
May God bless us all to that end!
Be blessed!
Zack

about books

2007-04-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hi! Yo, yo, and hello! How's it going everybody? I pray all is well.
There are a few things I wanted to say in this blog today. Let me put in a plug for The Way Of The Wild Heart by John Eldridge. This book is a map of sorts for the masculine journey. Eldridge says there are six stages to the journey. The first stage is boyhood. Here, a boy needs to know that he is the beloved son, that he is loved, and treasured. The second stage is the cowboy stage. In this stage he needs to be brought along in what he wants to do. He needs to be taught how to fish, drive, explore, and so forth. Next is the warrior stage. In the warrior stage the boy is becoming a man. He is now getting out in the work force. He is a fighter and conquerer (spelling error?). Then comes the lover stage. The man meets a girl, falls in love, and gets married. The next one after this is the king stage. He has faught and conquered. And now he is the ruler of his domain. And the last stage is the sage. This is the man who has a wealth of experience to share with his family, friends, and associates about the work force, church, and life in general. After he talks about most of these he also talks about how to raise your son in that aspect of the masculine journey. Great book!
The other book I'm reading right now is called Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.
These men say that to become a simple church we need to form a strategy of evangelism and spiritual formation that is simple and concrete. To do this we need the following four things:
clarity (clearly stating the process), movement (a sequence that takes you through each step), alignment (each one matches with and is in unity with everything else), and focus (keeping your eyes on the prize of what your aiming for). They talk about each one of these in greater detail in the book. Both of these are great reads!
On a different note, this is Wednesday, so please be praying for the AIM students, those on the mission field and those who haven't left yet. Please be praying for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their team heading to Auckland, New Zealand later on this year. Please be praying for my friends Rob and Denyce and their team as they prepare to go to Moscow, Russia. I believe they are in Advanced Missions right now or starting in the Fall. And lastly, please pray for Jeremy and Craig and their families as they raise funds and get ready to go to Sydney, Australia to work with the Preaching School there.
Sorry the e-book here. I pray God blesses each of you in Jesus' name!
Be blessed!
Zack

Stuff on my mind

2007-04-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello! How's everyone doing today? I hope all is well. Sorry it's been a while since my last blog. Been really busy, but will do better at keeping this thing going.
Lately I've been reading Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger and The Way Of The Wild Heart by John Eldridge. Simple Church is about being simple. It talks about having a very simple and concrete plan to help us evangelise our friends and neighbors and help them along the way to spiritual formation. Too many churches have a wide assortment of programs. Simple Church suggests boiling it down considerably to just a hand full. They need to be sequential. You complete one then go on to the next one. All the ministries of the church need to be united under the church's mission statement as well. It's a great book! I highly recommend it.
Eldridge's book is also very good. It is a road map for bringing boys on a jounrey to being a man, to masculinity (I hope I spelled that right). I'll write more about them tomorrow.
My grandfather (we call him Granddaddy) had an angiogram (however you spell that) yesterday. He needed to have it in order to be cleared to have knee replacement surgery in the future. My grandmother (Nana) is recovering well from her operation a few weeks ago. Please be praying for them.
And lastly, as I've talked about before, we need to be praying for more workers for the Lord's harvest fields. There are so many places in the world that need to hear the gospel. I've heard Asia has 60% of the world's population and is recieving 10% of our attention in regard to mission work. The United States of America is truely a mission field now too. The Northeast is our most populated area, and the least evangelized. The West Coast (and especially the Pacific Northwest) needs our attention. And we can't forget about the South (some people call it the Bible Belt) too. So many of our churches are loosing (spelling error?) too many people. We need more men to become Preachers, Youth workers, Outreach Ministers, and so forth. We need more workers in the harvest fields all throughout the world.
"... The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out more workers in to His harvest field". Matthew 9:37-38
Be blessed!
Zack

Celebrations

2007-04-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'll do better this next week. Last night my sister Katie and two of her girl friends from college came home. It's great seeing Katie! Her friends are cool too. Then my brother Colby and his wife Cheryl came from Abilene. It's great having them here too! We all sat around and talked for a long time. It was so much fun!
Today, we're all going over to our cousin's house to celebrate our grandmother Meme's 92nd and our Great Aunt Mittie's 95th birthdays. And, of course, tomorrow is Easter Sunday. THE Resurrection day of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, there is certainly alot to celebrate!
God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday. Peace. Be blessed!
Zack

More Praying For Missionaries :)

2007-04-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all is well and that you had a great weekend. My parents and I made a visit to Abilene and Lubbock, TX over the weekend. We visited with my brother and sister-in-law Colby and Cheryl in Abilene. We ate lunch with Colby on Thursday and ate Dinner with both of them on Saterday. We had a lovely time! They are doing very well!
We also had a lovely time seeing Katie in Lubbock. She is a sophmore at LCU. She performed in a play that weekend. We had a great time watching that! She is a very talented actress! It was a combination of a bunch of different sences from several different plays. It was very creative.
I was also able to visit Sunset and sat in on a Bible class during the school day there. It was an extremely productive weekend! I was greatly blessed by going! It was great seeing my siblings and visiting with them.
I have just recently learned about some very good missionary projects that are going on now. There are two gentlemen here in the States who are raising support so they and can their families can move to Australia. They will begin work with a Preaching School there that has just partnered with SIBI. SIBI has partnered with several other Preaching Schools all over the world to help teach men and women how to preach and teach the gospel on their native countries. The Preaching Schools will have their own administration and will use SIBI's Bible School cirriculum and text books. I certainly believe this very beneficial for the churches world wide so they don't have to send their people all the way to Lubbock. They can be trained right where they are.
They two brothers have their own websites and I will give them to you now so you can pray for them as well. One of them is Craig Peters. His website is www.austaliaforhim.com. And the second is Jeremy Derjarais. His website is www.aimingforsydney.com. Let's be praying for them that they and their families can move to Australia some time soon. The South Pacific is an area of the world that has few churches of Christ. It is an area of the world that needs our attention. If you have any questions please direct them to Dwight Whitsett at dwight.whitsett@gmail.com. He is the Ministry Coordinator at SIBI. He spent a number of years in that region planting churches and is helping train more church planters at SIBI. God bless you all!
Zack

Pray for Missionaries

2007-03-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

"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: 37a-38).
Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I pray all of you are doing well. I am currently thinking about more reading projects at the moment. In the mean time, I've been thinking alot about missions around the world. The Youth Minister at my home church takes the youth group to Mexico to help build a church building for one of the congregations there. My brother and both of my sisters have been on that trip and they all loved it! Infact all the teens I've talked with who went on the trip absolutely loved it! I'm so glad our youth ministry still goes there every summer. I know of a lot more mission activities that are conducted all around Mexico. There is a couple my church supports in Durango. There are Sunset graduates who are planting churches all over Mexico City (and the surrounding area), Leon, Guadalajara, Toluca, and else where.
Sunset as been sending lots of missionary teams and preachers all over the Northwest US and Northeast US for some time now. The Northeast, I believe, is the most populated area of this country right now.
The Continent (spelling error?) of Asia is possibly the one of the most populated Continents of the world. I think Asia has 60% of the world's population.
These and many more areas of our world need missionaries brethern! We need to do something about it. Who's going to go to these places to expand the Kingdom of Heaven's borders?
I want to do something about it. That's why I going to attend Sunset International Bible Institute in 2008 to be trained to take the Gospel Message to the Northeast or another part of the world where there are few if any churches. Let's pray for more and more workers for the Lord's harvest field.
Be blessed!
Zack
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord, therefore, to send out more workers into His harvest field" (Matthew (9: 37a-38).
Ps. In fact there are alot of our already established churches that are losing members. So, we need to pray for workers to work with established churches too. And we don't have a lot young people who are majoring in Bible or related fields. Nor do we have very many students at our preaching schools. God bless us as we strive in these endeavors!

Seeing The Unseen ch. 22

2007-03-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello, hello everyone! I hope and pray everyone is doing well. I just finished reading Seeing The Unseen. The last chapter (tweenty-two) is on How Does Faith Give The Victory(?). Faith is defined perfectly by Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". And verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him". I love this statement Beam makes, " Faith believes that God keeps His word, rewarding those who are His". We get faith by reading God's Word and believing it. As Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ". We can have faith in the future. As Paul told the Corinthian Christians in 2 Corinthians 4:16 and following that we don't lose heart though our bodies waste away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Faith also overcomes temptation. We must continually believe Jesus will help us beat temptation. We need to have faith to go on. And lastly we must have faith to die. No matter what we've done in our lives, if we gave our lives to Him we don't have to fear death. We belong to Him. What can we fear? Absolutely nothing! Praise God for that!
God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday! Peace.
Zack

Seeing The Unseen chs. 20 &21

2007-03-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello! How's everyone doing today? I hope all is well. My grandmother is doing well. Her surgery went well and hopfully she'll be able to go home today.Thank you all for praying for her. Please pray she'll make a speedy recovery.
Now, let's talk about Seeing The Unseen. Are Good Angles Active In My Life (?) is the topic of chapter tweenty. Angels minister to us as Christians. The angel walking Peter out of the prison in Acts 12 is a good example of that, and a host of others in the Bible. God uses His angels to carry messages from Him to man. Another good example is when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would carry, give birth to, and raise Jesus in Luke 1. God also uses angels to arrange blessings for humans. God answers our prayers. But sometimes we don't pray in faith. Sometimes our requests are outside His plan. Sometimes the answer is more important to us than He is. God uses angels to deliver us from harm.
The last chapter in the book is chapter twenty-one which talks about How Do God's People - Living And Dead- Help Us(?). We need to be there for eachother. Christianity is meant for community. We need to love eachother, care for eachother, and help eachother. That's what Christians do when they are in community together. Here are some ways the living help eachother. Our prayers affect eachother. In 2nd Corinthians 1:8-11 Paul talks about being in Asia and that he and his companions "... were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life ...". He goes on to say God got them through it to show them not to trust in themselves but in Him. And than he says "Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many". God saved them because people prayed for them and because they learned to trust in Him and not themselves. Also, our honesty brings healing. In James 5: 13-16 we read, "Is any of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefor confess your sins to eachother and pray for eachother so that you may be healed. The prayer of a rightous man is powerful and effective". We must confess our sins to eachother so that we can pray for eachother. To do that, we must trust the open doors to confession. We need to pledge to eachother that we won't tell anyone else what is said between the two. We must learn that confrontation of sin prevents defeat. Now, let's look at how the dead help us. They help us by standing with us. They comfort us. There is power in a large group.
Tomorrow we'll look at the last chapter in this book which talks about how faith gives the victory. Should be good. More on that tomorrow. God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 19

2007-03-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I pray all is well with all of you today. I am prepared to talk about chapter nineteen in Seeing The Unseen. It discusses the question Why Does The Holy Spirit Live In Me(?). To answer that we need to have a proper perspective. We need to know that He lives in us. We need to know He leads us. We need to learn how to hear Him speak to us. There are six steps to do this. First of all, we need to love the Law of God. Second thing is obey it with rejoicing. Thirdly, hide it in your heart. Fourthly, understand what it means. Fiveth thing is to meditate on the Word and ways of God. And the sixth step is to reach a level of wisdom and deep understanding. We need to know that He represents us. We need to know that He strengthens us. We must not lose Him. And lastly we need to pray for the Spirit.
More tomorrow.
As always, please remember to pray for the AIMers, and my friends who are preparing for their mission fields in New Zealand (Elijah and Kristan Peters and their team) and Russia (Rob and Denyce Hindman and their team). And lastly please pray for my grandmother. She's going to have an operation tomorrow morning. Thank you all so much for praying! God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday! Until tomorrow...
Zack

Seeing The Unseen: Ch. 18

2007-03-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I hope all is well with all of you. I am now prepared to talk about How Does The Cross Defeat Satan (?) the next chapter in Seeing The Unseen. First we seen the purpose of the cross. Then we see God's limitations. Jesus suffered seperation in our place. We're saved by the blood of Christ. His death becomes our death. Jesus' crowning victory is in His resurrection. In it He made a public spectacle of Satan's forces.
All of that reminds me of a Steven Curtis Chapmen song, "It's my turn now". Great song!
"It's my turn now! It's my turn to give my life away"!
The Mavs won again tonight over the New York Knicks. Yeah! Go Mavs!
One of Final Four teams got beat over the weekend, the Texas Longhorns. Now I imagine this might be the first year all the top seeds make it to the Final Four. That would be cool. We'll see.
We'll see if Kevin Durant (Freshman forward for Texas) will go to the NBA or stay in school. The dude is an unbelievable player! Holy cow! He's amazing! The same with Greg Oden from Ohio State. He's a great and amazing player this year! He's a defensive force in the middle. Very intimadating if you go against him. We shall see.
More on Seeing the Unseen tomorrow. Please remember to pray for the AIMers and my friends going to New Zealand and Russia. More on that tomorrow as well. Until then, God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 17

2007-03-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well howdy, howdy everybody! I hope and pray all is well with everyone today. I am prepared now to write about Why Does God Let Satan Hurt Us (?). This is the topic of coversation for chapter seventeen. Without a doubt (spelling error?) God's ways are way beyond our understanding. But, as the saying goes, Father knows best. Certainly one of the reasons why God let's the devil hurt us to make our salvation more precious than gold. We are put through the fire (so to speak) to burn away the impurities. The impurities are burned away until the goldsmith can see his reflection. That has great meaning for Christians, because God tests us like that until He can see the reflection of His Son, Jesus in us. Also, while we're in the fire we become malleable, formable to be shaped the way He wants us to be. It also increases our strength. It imparts value. And lastly, it makes us a valuable example.
This chapter starts off the last section of the book: Forces At Work For Us.
Tomorrow we'll look at chapter eighteen: How Does The Cross Defeat Satan?
Lastly, I'm sure many of you saw a few typing errors I've made in previous posts in this blog. I greatly apologize for all of them and will correct them in the next day or two.
God bless you all in Jesus' name today, and everyday!
Zack
ps. Katie and her group flew back from the Twin Cities back to Dallas and loaded her boyfriend's car up and drove from the DFW airport back to Lubbock. Thank you all very much for praying for them. I hope and pray their good works there will greatly inhance the body of Christ there in the Twin Cities area. Please keep praying for missionaries around the world and that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers still for there is much more work that needs to be done. Thank you all again and God bless!

Seeing The Unseen ch. 16

2007-03-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! I hope and pray all is well with you today. I am now prepared to talk about How Does Satan Use Families Against Themselves(?) . That is the topic of chapter sixteen in Seeing The Unseen. The family is at the fabric of everything in our lives. Family means everything to so many of us. The devil has wrecked alot of havoc in alot of lives by tearing at the fabric of the family. Divorce will rip families apart. Religious differences can be a barier (spelling error?) in many families. If there's a family that has had no exposure to religione before, and one family member becomes a Christian, and that one member starts talking about his knew found faith in Christ, and the other family members ridicule him for it, that can really put him down. On the other hand though, one family member can turn the rest of the family around and bring many others in the family to Christ. No dought family can either be a great encouragement, or a great discouragement. Family can lift you up or tear you down. Family can influence for good or ill.
That's the end of the third section: Forces At Work Within Us. Tomorrow we'll start the forth section: Forces At Work For Us. We'll begin that section by talking about Why Does God Let Satan Hurt Us(?) and How Does The Cross Defeat Satan (?). Those are chapters seventeen and eighteen respectively.
Well, today starts the NCAA Tournament. For 2 or 3 and a half weeks there will be college basketball. I think the Kansas Jayhawks will go all the way and win it all. My final four is Kansas, Texas, Ohio State, and Florida. Winthrop is my sleeper. What about y'all? Who's in your final four? National Champ? Sleeper team? Comments please. God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen chs 14 & 15

2007-03-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well hello there everyone! I hope this finds all of you well. I have just looked over chapters fourteen and fifteen in Seeing The Unseen. Chapter fourteen talks about how Satan uses pain to hurt us and chapter fifteen talks about how Satan uses religion to hurt us. The devil uses pain to make us angry at God and at the world in general. We get so angry that we just shut ourselves down to everyone including (and sometimes especially to) God. We loose faith and Satan has us right were he wants us.
In chapter fifteen we see how the devil uses religion to hurt us. Sometimes Christians can be brutel. We think we're just being "honest" when we tell something to someone that's just down right mean and turns the person off from Christianity. It's sad when that happens, but it happens more times than perhaps many of us would like to admit. It's sad but ture. I've seen it too many times.
Tomorrow we'll read and write about chapter sixteen and how Satan uses families against themselves.
I was looking at a friend's myspace website and saw a website for her's and her husband's mission team. It is imaginenewzealand.com I think. If that's not correct, please email me and I'll get the correct website. The friends of mine are Elijah and Kristan Peters. They are on a team of four families preparing to go to Auckland, New Zealand. I think they prepare to go there sometime this summer. Please pray for them that they'll find the support they'll need to go there and to stay there for the amount of time they've dedicated to this church-planting mission. Also, please be praying for Rob and Denyce Hindman and their team as they all prepare themselves to go to Moscow, Russia. Pray for the AIM students around the world right now and those that are still in Lubbock preparing to go on their mission fields. And lastly pray for my sister Katie and those she's with this week as they are in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota on a mission trip. Thanks everyone! God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday!
Zack
"... 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

Seeing The Unseen chs 12 & 13

2007-03-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! I hope you all have had a great day. I have looked over chapters twelve and thirteen in the book Seeing The Unseen.
Chapter twelve is called Why Do Christians Sin(?) and chapter thirteen is How Can Pleasure Be Bad(?). Chapter twelve talks about what and how Satan tricks us into working his evil plans. Chapter thirteen tells storys of how he's done those things in our world today. Tomorrow we'll read and tell about how Satan uses pain and religion.
Have any of you listened to Chris Tomlin? He's another great worship leader and song writer! His favorite song of his is How Great is Our God.
How great is our God!
Sing with me, how great is our God!
All will sing how great, how great is our God!
Powerful song! I love it!
What are your thoughts? God bless you all in Jesus name today and everyday!
Zack
Let us all pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into His harvest fields.

Catching Up :)

2007-03-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I must apologize for not blogging in the past few days. It was a crazy weekend, but that's no excuse. I have now finished chapter ten (How Do Christians Overcome The Demonic Today?) and chapter eleven ( Why Do Christians Sin?) in Seeing The Unseen.
Chapter ten talks about those who don't believe that demons are active today. They very much are actively involved in peoples's lives today. They certainly show themselves in African nations today, but they don't show themselves like that in the US. We must always be praying and be people of prayer to defeat the demonic powers in this world today.
Chapter eleven talks about how the devil destroys us. He destroys us by using other people and nature. He uses people who have great influence in our lives to negatively affect us. That ends the second section Forces At Work Against Us. Tomorrow we'll start the third section of the book Forces At Work Within Us. I'll read chapters twelve and thirteen and blog about them.
Until then, God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday!
Zack

Blessed Be Your Name!

2007-03-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! I'm very sorry, but I haven't finished the next chapter in Seeing the Unseen yet. So I'll do double tomorrow. I've been thinking about something to blog about.
I love Matt Redman! He's written a lot of praise and worship songs that we sing at church and hear on the radio. My favorite song of his is Blessed Be Your Name.
Every blessing You pour out I
Turn back to praise!
When the darkness pours out then, Lord
Still I will praise!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
Blessed be Your Name!
Blessed be Your glorious Name!
You give and take away!
You give and take away!
Still my heart will choose to say,
"Lord, blessed be Your Name"!
You give and take away.
You give and take away!
Still my heart will choose to say,
"Lord, blessed be Your glorious Name"!
Powerful! It gives me chills. Love it!
What are some of your favorite worship songs? Old or new.
I've got so many it's not even funny. I love them all. Old and new.
Please keep my sister Katie and boyfriend Jacob and their group as they fly tomorrow to the Twin Cities in Minnesota for a Spring Break mission trip. Today they drove in from Lubbock to stay with my parents and I. Tomorrow they're going to the DFW airport to fly to the Twin Cities. Should real exciting for them. Please pray they're all safe in flying there, safe while they're there, and safe flying back. Then they'll drive from Dallas back to school next week.
Thanks y'all! God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday.
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 9

2007-03-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! I pray this day has been a good one for all of you.
Today we'll discuss Can Demons Still Possess People?. This is chapter nine in Seeing The Unseen. Demons are still here. They never left the scene after the New Testament was completed. They can't possess Christians. As long as we are following Christ, His Holy Spirit indwells us and demons can't possess someone who is Spirit-indwelled. As long we remember we died with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:3-4) then we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. But we can be demonized. This is when a demon "assumes a position of extreme influence and inordinate power over the person's decisions and actions". In Ephesians 4:27 we read, "do not give the devil a foothold". Demons can still tempt us and take us off guard. When we're taken off guard we give the devil "a foothold" and he by-passes our defenses and we fall into sin. We will seem to have "inordinate control". We'll seem "irresistably compelled and helpless even when he or she isn't". But there is help for the demonized. We need God's overwhelming power to deliver us from this.
That is all for today. Tomorrow we'll look at How Do Christias Overcome The Demonic?
God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 8

2007-03-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

Hello there everybody! I hope and pray all of you had a great day today.
I have read What Are Demons ? which is chapter eight in Seeing The Unseen. Mr Beam says that demons are the souls of the dead. That seems to be what the writers of the Bible all say about them. Read scriptures like Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Isaiah 8:19; and Psalm 106:28, and 37 in the Old Testament. And Luke 8:28, 30-31; Matthew 17: 15-18; 1 Corinthians 8: 3-6, and 10:1622 for example. Demons are really idols, false gods. Our God is real. We need to be careful in our present day not to engage in demonic activities.
Please get this book and read it. Seeing The Unseen is really good. Very scary (spelling error?), but very good!
Please be in prayer for missionaries around the world. And for the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers for His harvest fields around the world! Thank you all! God bless all of you in Jesus' name today and everyday!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 7

2007-03-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well howdy everybody! I hope everyone is having a great day today.
I just finished reading about What Do Satan's Angels Do ?. That is the seventh chapter in Seeing The Unseen. The children of God are not immune to the devil nor his angels. A good reading of the entire Bible will wake you up to that. Satan's angels killed God's people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Not only did they kill during the Bible days, they can harm and kill you and me too.
In the book of Job, Satan caused the Chaldeans to take his livestock and kill his servants (1:17). The devil also caused Job to get sick with blisters (2:7). And also Satan caused Job's wife and friends to turn on him too. Satan can harm us useing bad people to harm us. He can use good people to bring us down. He can make us ill. He can use nature. He can destroy our possessions, and lastly he can kill us or those we love.
He can do all of this without miracles. He can manipulate and seduse us. Bad angels will do bad things to us. They have power, dominion, and authority. All of this is very sobering. Tomorrow we'll look at What Are Demons?.
Please be praying for the AIMers on their mission fields and those in Lubbock preparing for their mission fields. Pray for those from Sunset who are also preparing for mission fields. And lastly please pray for the Lord to send out more and more workers for the harvest fields. More on all of this tomorrow too.
Thank you all for reading today. God bless you all in Jesus' name today and always!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 6

2007-03-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend and experienced great worship on Sunday. I am ready to talk about What Power Does Satan Have (?) which is the sixth chapter in Seeing The Unseen. The devil obviously has a lot of power. He can either possess us or seduce us. He incited David to take a numbered census in 1 Chronicles 21:1. Satan kept a woman bound for eighteen years in Luke 13:16 and a host of other things. There is no question about it, Satan "has tremendous influence on any person he is manipulating". We can never dought the devil's power. But, "God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). Satan isn't God. We dare not slander him. He must not look now, because he is after you, and he is after me too. Second Peter 2 and Jude 1 talk about the devil and false teachers alot. We would do well to study them and their relationship to what is going on in our world so we can combate (spelling error?) it more completely.
Tomorrow we'll look at the next chapter which talks about What Do Satan's Angles Do?.
I guess that is all for today. God bless you all in Jesus' name today and everyday!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 5

2007-03-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all! I hope and pray everyone had a great Sunday Morning of Worship to God!
I have read the fifth chapter in Seeing The Unseen. It discusses the question Where Did Satan Come From And Where Is He Now?. Ezekiel 28:12-17 gives a vivide discription of what appears to be the devil. It tells of his rise and fall, perhaps in the Garden of Eden. Mr Beam seems to think that the devil was the guardian of the Garden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and thus when the devil fell too. I don't know if I agree with this or not. But in any rate Satan rules the world. He also rules the air. He is powerful, but Jesus still rules over all. That is important for us to remember. No matter what evil occurs on this earth God still reigns! We must never forget that! Our God reigns!
I was reading the report in the Christian Chronicle about population and church membership increases and decreases from 1980 through now (2006). There are a number of States that have rapidly increased in both of those (Florida and Georgia for example). There are those who decreased in both of those (like West Virgina). Then there are those who have increased in population and decreased in church membership (Tennesse and Arkansas). As many of you know by now, I am hoping and praying to attend SIBI in 2008. After that I would like to start a church planting mission team, join an already existing team, or join a church staff in an area where church membership has been faltering. Perhaps even join a church staff in an area where the population has greatly increased, but church membership hasn't gone up much (ie. Texas or Arizona for example).
I guess that's all for now. I'll write about the next chapter in Seeing The Unseen tomorrow. God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack

Seeing The Unseen ch. 4

2007-03-03T19:11:00.001-08:00

Hello, hello, hello everyone! I pray this finds you all doing well.
Chapter four is the start of a new section of Seeing The Unseen. And that is Forces At Work Against Us. Chapter four discusses Is There Really A Devil?. If we claim to believe in God and believe His Word, the Bible, then we must also believe there is a devil. I imagine there are quite a few of us who don't believe there is a devil. If this is true, the whoever doesn't believe the devil is real is simply naive and vulnerable. If we are completely unaware, then we are prime for the picking for him. We must always be aware of the devil and his wickedness because, ... For we are not unaware of his schemes" as Paul said very well in 2 Corinthians 2:11. So, yes the devil is very much real. If we don't recognize the devil's existance (spelling error?), when we set ourselves up a number of potential pit falls. If we don't know the devil is real how do we address whose to blame? And, "It's Not My Fault. Or, "Everything's My Fault. But if we keep in mind the devil is real we bring balance to our lives and "balance of blame". So, let's remember God is in control, the devil is real, but the devil is no equal of God's. Our great God is ALWAYS in control even of the devil. Praise God for that! God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Your thoughts please.
Ps. I love this time of year. March Madness is in full swing right now. NCAA confrence tournaments are going on as we speak. Soon the NCAA Tournament will kick off. Oh, I love March!
God bless!
Zack