Isaiah 6:1

Tonight on my way home after spending time with some dear friends and new exchange students from China staying with us for the next three weeks, I continued thinking about the great commission. I was raised thinking about the great commission and have spent my entire adult life attempting to lead the church in a great commission mindset.

I must have attended dozens of "cutting edge" type of mission conferences over the years and read twice as many books on missions and one thing I have discovered is that most of these events and resources are lacking in an Isaiah 6 view of God. Most mission conferences and books about mission are primarily on contextualizing the Gospel rather than presenting God as God and then announcing that God has satisfied His own wrath upon His Son. Most mission conferences are presentations of methods and "success" stories of how someone thought up an idea on how to do this without even giving consideration to a right and biblical view of God and the lowly place mankind is in and our grave danger of stepping into eternity having no idea of who God really is.

As soon as I arrived at home I began looking at Peter's call from Jesus to follow him. Here are a few observations from Luke 5:8-11 after Jesus told Peter to cast out the nets after they had spent all night fishing and had caught "nothing" (sounds like most of my fishing trips.) So Peter did as Jesus instructed him to do and they caught so many fish that their nets began to break and tear.

Three big things I notice in these two text (Isaiah 6 and Luke 5) ...

1. Peter's response (Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord) seems similar to Isaiah's (Woe is me, for I am ruined.) Both are in a place of seeing God, both are immediately humbled. God took the initative with both Peter and Isaiah.
2. Peter is invited to stay “Do not be afraid" (Luke 5:10) Isaiah is told his iniquity is taken away (Isaiah 6:7)
3. Peter left everything and followed Jesus (Luke 5:11) Isaiah was told to go and tell the people (Isaiah 6:8)

In both passages there seems this pattern; God is seen as God, God chose, then man is required to respond to what he has seen (both Peter and Isaiah respond without hesitation; Peter left everything and followed Jesus (Luke 5:11), Isaiah said "I am here, send me."(Isaiah 6:8)

Will the church continue to promote methods and strategies and a clever acrostic or will we present God as God and let man be faced with this high and lofty place where God belongs and invite all men everywhere to respond to Him in His glory? I plead with the church to drop all godless ways and preach biblical God to the nations.

Two Weeks of Hard Work

Do your elected congressmen hear from you?

The following letter is an open invitation for your consideration. I am in contact with my congressmen on a regular basis. It may not make any difference but I will not let such an important matter as this without at least adding another letter to express my hope for those I've helped elect.

Dear Friends:
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Financial Services Appropriations bill, H.R. 3170, today. This bill will provide taxpayer funds for abortion in the District of Columbia. Until now, the Dornan Amendment prevented this abuse, but H.R. 3170 will gut that amendment. Pro-life congressmen tried numerous times to restore the ban on taxpayer funding for abortions, but liberals defeated every effort.

In addition to removing the ban on taxpayer funding of abortion in D.C., the bill also removes the ban on the use of taxpayer funds for domestic partnership benefits in D.C. and removes the ban on taxpayer funding of efforts to legalize marijuana in D.C.
We need your help to stop this bill. If you do not want to see taxpayer funds used to pay for abortion, support homosexual couples, and legalize marijuana in the District of Columbia, please contact your congressman immediately and ask him or her to vote no on H.R. 3170.
Thank you for your continuing efforts to protect our pro-life values. Your contacts make a tremendous difference.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

Construction Update: July 13, 2009

Early this morning the Volunteer Christian Builders began setting the trusses. Updated pictures from today are here.

By 4:37pm all trusses are in place and supper is next!

New Preaching Series Begins on Sunday July 12: Ephesians

After spending a full year and a half in the book of Deuteronomy, I will now take our attention to the New Testament book of Ephesians; we will move from a long look at the Law to a long look at grace. This book of Ephesians will take us into public discussion about one of the most controversial words in the bible, predestination. This Sunday (July 12) we will look at Ephesians 1:1-6. The picture of adoption will show us an amazing act of God toward us for His glorification.

There are a hand full of questions I will drive us through in want of answers that may help us understand these amazing doctrines and how they fit rightly into our lives and relationship with God.

1) Questions:

• Is Your church unified as the body serves the Head (Christ)?
• Are you prepared to experience the full power of Christ?
• Are you prepared for God to show you where and how to exercise the spiritual gift he has given you?
• Are you prepared for a new experience in bold praying?
• Will you live your life as an expression of faith and not self-seeking quarreling?

2) Decisions:

• God's grace calls us to total dependence upon Him.
• God calls us to a mature faith that looks at the church differently.
• God's grace call us us to drop our ideas about Him and rather embrace His revelation of Himself.
• Is God going to be Lord of my life or will my philosophy reign above all other reveled characteristics of God.

This and more is what is in front of Eastside Baptist Church over the next several weeks.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Eph 1:3-6 (ESV)

Reflections While Building

I can hardly contain myself as I walk around the new building that is being built at 204 Eastland Drive North, in Twin Falls, Idaho. Upon occasion I will walk through and smile from ear to ear I'm sure. I'm the water boy and chief broom pusher and loving every moment of it.

I'm humbled by the selfless actions of the men and women with Volunteer Christian Builders. They travel the country building church buildings at their expense and give attention to God in all places. "Traveling With a Purpose" is on their banner now attached to the 6,000 sq.ft. building. This group of followers of Christ are retired school teachers, chemist, college professors, firemen, policemen, oil field workers and all faithful churchmen.

As exciting as this is, my attention is driven to Psalm 62: 1-2 "I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken." The days are busy here right now, there are many from Eastside who stop by with meals and just to look around and are shocked to see such a structure here now. I'm thrilled to hear and see this going on.

O God help us not overlook You while we enjoy this blessing from You. You alone are our hope. Thank you for sending help by way of the Volunteer Christian Builders.

Under Construction

Exterior wall construction nearing completion. Click here for updated pictures through today.

The exterior walls are completed.

A view from ground level.

Lord, as these physical walls take shape will You help us honor you by always proclaiming the truth of you, with or without. Help us to always say; "blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Monday, July 6, 2009

This morning the Volunteer Christian Builders and members of Eastside Baptist Church began exterior wall construction of our new 6,000 sq.ft. meeting house. Click here to see updated pictures of the day.

Wall Construction Began July 3, 2009

Today the Volunteer Christian Builders began work.

This Time-Lapse video is the 4 hours of preparation (condensed into 1 minute of video) work for the wall construction to begin on Monday July 6. (and also a trial of my first time-lapse photography)

The Manly Stuff of C.T. Studd

"We will have a masculine holiness."

"Before the whole world, yes, before the sleepless, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God."

The Strong Man and ....

This past weekend at NorthRidge Fellowship we participated in their Strong Man Conference. I was convicted, challenged and encouraged on many fronts.

Keynote speaker Dr. Don Whitney spoke of basic Christian disciplines; prayer, Bible study, and church. He spoke of these primary disciplines in simplicity. About five years ago while re-reading a book entitled A Fresh Encounter by Henry Blackaby I began to see a pattern forming in my life of reading a text and then praying through that text. My prayers became alive, meaningful, insightful, and most importantly, right. Dr. Whitney confirmed this with his conference teaching and encouraged me to continue this pattern with Eastside's Wednesday night prayer meetings.

Matt Boyd, pastor at NorthRidge, spoke about the man and his marriage. Matt spoke from the glorious view of marriage being an illustration that our a man and his marriage represents to the world of God's love for all; loyal, brave, protective, and focused. This was rightly and timely spoken to all men everywhere. I bless God for my friendship with Matt and his resolve to preach the word in season and out of season.

Robert Kohler, leader of the men's ministry of NorthRidge, gave his testimony of his conversion and spoke about a man and his children. Robert spoke from the vantage point of being rescued from his pre-conversion moments to today. God had his hand on Robert as he spoke about our common point of failure most men find ourselves in; not giving our children our best time. This came on the weekend my youngest left home for Omaha, Nebraska to move in with his brother. I could speak with extended silence at this moment about how quickly this time fleas. Robert, thank you for your convicted position and challenge to all in attendance.

My assigned topic for the weekend was the Strong Man and His Battles. (I have a suit case full of them.) I came at this from the Galatians chapter 5. It begins; "Christ has liberated us into freedom. Therefore stand firm and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery." Then by verse 16 Paul begins to tell the Galatians to "walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." The Paul does what is best for us here in verse 19, and he tells us what the works of the flesh look like. He says it is obvious: "sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and anything similar." That about sums up the man and his battles. John puts it like this in 1 John 2:15-16 "Do not love the wold or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. Because everything that belongs to the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's lifestyle - is not from the Father, but is from the world."

Volunteer Christian Builders

Volunteer Christian Builders began arriving on Monday.

This team of Southern Baptists travel around the United States helping churches with building projects. They heard of our building project and began communication with our building committee to come and help for one week in July. God brought us together with Godlike circumstances.
The early workers showed up on Monday to begin the preparation for the others to come through the weekend from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Over the past few weeks some other things have happened in other locations they were also going to help build and now they will be here in Twin Falls for the entire month of July. If God allows walls and roof begin to go up on Monday July 6.

Wilderness Adventure Ministries

Wilderness Adventure Ministries is ready for our annual trek to the top of Idaho. Check out our new site with details about the Mt. Borah hike July 24-25.

A One-and-a-half Year Journey through Deuteronomy

As I came to the end of preaching through the book of Hebrews I became aware of how important the book of Deuteronomy was to the first century church. So in March of 2008 I began preaching through the book of Deuteronomy. A journey that I mostly expected might take about six months. I was aware of the final sermons delivered by Moses, the re-telling of the Law, the strong warnings, the promise of a blessing, passing the leadership on to Joshua to lead the people into the Promised Land.
To read Deuteronomy for the sake of reading it I don’t think I ever stopped long enough to meditate upon its rich description of the character of God. My final observation in Chapter 34 surprised me. I would have historically looked at Chapter 34 as simply the telling of the death of Moses. Where this is true, I now examine the big picture observation to back it up with a deeper insight.

Deuteronomy is simply a collection of sermons from Moses. Much of the book is filled with specific teachings for a people, called by God, to represent His kingdom in a land that is pagan in every way. The specifics are for the nation of Israel, the precepts are for God’s people. Following is my final observation of the book of Deuteronomy.
• God is faithful to Himself
• Everyone must die (even Moses; Hebrews 9:27)
• God allows grieving of others but not the worship of others (God protected humanity from knowing where He buried Moses.)
• God prepares His leaders (Joshua was prepared, by God, to do this work of taking His people into the Promised Land.
• God expects us to follow His appointed leader. (Hebrews 13:7, 17-19)

I discovered from this book that we are not far removed from this same behavior of the Israelites. We say with our lips that God is our God, but in reality we like to keep Him at a distance. We say we treasure God more than anything (so long as He doesn’t get in the way of what we treasure.) I have made more life changing adjustments to my life during the past 18 months that at any other time of my life. I have rediscovered how poor in spirit I am; desperately in need of God, always. It is my prayer that you too are looking at God and not a god we have made for ourselves who meets our standard of what a god would be like.

Now, come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker.
For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture.

2009 SBC Annual Meeting

Watch or listen to the 2009 Pastors' Conference and 2009 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Construction Update

          Before

            After

Today concrete began to flow and then dry again as the pouring of the slab began. Thanks to a hard working crew of young and old alike the work continues.

Islamic Center To Open Soon in Twin Falls

Last night the Twin Falls City Council unanimously passed the zoning request to open an Islamic center on Addison Avenue in Twin Falls.

As I shared yesterday, I am thankful for this constitutional benefit we are guaranteed as Americans. My gratitude for this does not equate to agreement with Islam. I find myself having to face some serious questions this morning in light of this Islamic growth in the Magic Valley. As followers of Christ we are to live at peace with all people (Romans 12:18) and to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:12) How does a Christian live at peace with all and speak truth at the same time, knowing that truth will offend many? This may be an easy answer with words but difficult to live out. So I must humble myself to cry out to God for help in this.

Last night the city council opened the meeting up for public comment on the zoning issues and requested that the comments be held to building use only and for commenter's to refrain from religious comments (I commend the council for their resolve to do their job.) However I found it interesting that they requested two on-duty-officers be present for potential security reasons (I am curious as to how often on-duty-officers are requested for planning and zoning meetings.) The most perplexing part of last nights meeting was when a local (interim) pastor stood up to speak in favor of the Islamic Center and committing his church to help the Islamic Center comply with any demands the city council would put upon them. Where I am in favor of religious freedom and desire to live a peace with all, I find this a compromise of being salt and light. If my Islamic friends need food, clothing, a neighbor, or help in their personal lives I stand ready to help, but I have to draw a clear line between our faiths and speak without any mixture of error, truth.

Islamic Center to Open in Twin Falls, Idaho

Tonight the Twin Falls City Council will hold a hearing on a permit by Islamic followers for a permanent place of prayer. The Islamic population in Twin Falls has been on the increase for many years due to the College of Southern Idaho Refuge Center. My family and I have sponsored a refugee family from time to time (one family while in Boise for religious persecution and another in Twin Falls for political persecution.) Both times have been informative and has helped me understand culture and lifestyles in other places around the world. 

I'm in favor of freedom of Religion. That freedom gives me liberty to express to my Muslim friends about our differences and pray for their salvation in Christ alone. A local Islamic Center is concerning to me in that the growth of Islam is far reaching and this growth of Islam is indeed alarming. 

I will be looking for many oportunities to be in dialog with the growing Islamic population in Twin Falls and abroad.

What Seems Good to Him

When I try doing what seems good to me I behave arrogantly as pride won't release me from doing what seems good to me. In this kind of pride I leave chaos in my path. But when I follow God my pride must be laid down and I pick up His will. I won't know what is good in His sight unless I know Him.

"Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight." 2 Sam 10:12 (NASB)

Church Planting in Eastern Idaho