No Chains on Me…

Gone this weekend to do some camping with the Discipleship Council crowd this weekend. I’d ask for your prayers that we bond quickly as a team and are able to grow together in our relationship with God as we are discipled by Mark Irving. Its going to be an amazing time!

-Lukas

What if God was one of us – by Phoenix Ocean (left)

and

God Hates Sin – by danny.hammontree

(I recommend visiting the link to the second one and reading the caption and comments, as well as looking through the “You’re Gonna Burn in Hell” set. Very thought provoking)

…and so much yet left to do. Somewhat of a relaxing weekend, much of it spent playing with Ruby on Rails to figure out if it would be worth spending a lot of time converting some projects at work to run on it rather than the soup of PHP/AJAX/JavaScript I have going right now. Maybe…

Continued wrestling through another chapter of the Jesus Creed (currently chapter 7) moving over two chapters for now because they were absolutely incredible (see the blog posts dated from the 31st) and I really want to spend a long time on them. This book has been a real challenge for me, especially as I am facing a final year at Cedarville for two reasons:

1. I have to teach this book to a group of eight men next year and that in itself is going to be a huge challenge, mostly because I cannot teach this stuff if I am not willing and actively seeking to live by what I want to teach to them. I’m scared…
2. It is my last year in the shelter of Cedarville (thank God for that) and then I have to live out what I am learning through this time in a real, hurting, and needy world.

There is so much that is going to distract me from either of these goals and beyond that, its an almost insurmountable task as it is.

Much of what I am struggling with involves what I have spoken about in previous posts, dealing with how Christians are to live all aspects of our lives. I wonder what this means for one more year of school, but even more so how it plays out in the real world. A lot of decisions to make regarding how I should be living now and how I will be living in the future. I’m not terribly worried about it, just very conscious that things are changing and it is, very likely, beginning to require a new way of living as well. The rubber piece of the deal is always easy. Its easy to sit here, read, talk and think (although it is tough to work through a lot of these thoughts). But when all that meets the road, it requires more than that, and the transition is not easy. But the transition must start somewhere, and this summer seems as good a place as any.

But the Lord and time with Him has become very sweet during the past several weeks, something I have wanted to have back for some time now. I think that for me is very comforting during much of this upheaval in how and what I believe. Peace that passes much understanding comforts my mind and heart. All praise and glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for this blessing.

Sliding from that, it has been awesome, as I prepare to lead worship next year, to spend time in far more ancient worship traditions. It has really given me a means to worship for once. What has also been an incredible “happenstance” (hah! betcha didn’t think that word still existed!) is that at the same time I start digging into some liturgy, I end up attending (and loving!) an Anglican church here at home. It has allowed me to experience these old prayers, praises, and supplications as the come to life in the church, which has been amazing to see. Its definitely given me an amazing, more meaningful way to focus on and worship God, which in turn is helping me prepare to lead it as well. I’m excited, for the first time ever, to spend time worshiping! And that, my friends, is awesome. Next to work on, prayer life…

So thats a slice of me as we head into the week. I hope God blesses each of you somehow this week with Himself. Much love and peace to you.

Some of you may not care as much, but since this is kinda my journal, I’m tracking some of my thoughts as I work on what is going to become my study for Discipleship Council next year (see post below) with the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

Beginning tonight, simply reading the preface to the book. Pretty simple chapter, doing what most good prefaces do: preface what the author is about to start speaking about/give the purpose of the book.

He’s already started off on the right foot for me, as he outlines the goal of this book is to cause the readers to to “think biblically rather than conventionally […] where radical living becomes the norm.” (pg 18). I’m keeping a record of notes as I read this, especially since in four months or so, I have to remember all this so that I can begin to try to teach other men to live with love for God and for others. So my goal is developed mostly from the opening statements of the book and I have summed it up as follows:

Goal: The goal of this study is to lead the people who join it to surrender totally to God’s purposes and in that, to find that HE brings the most pleasure in this life (and next), give men the desire for more of God, and to give them hope for and a drive to be committed to change in the church and the world around them.

In talking with Derek Hostetter (my DC leader this past year), I’ve decided that my biggest hope for this study is to give men a hunger and thirst for God: to love Him, to desire to please Him, to bask in His love, to acknowledge His presence everywhere, to glorify Him in everything. Then, not to stop there, to move on to spread that “crazy love” all over the world: to their friends at Cedarville and back home, to their families (present and future), to the Church (which needs a healthy dose of it), and to the world (which is starving for it). I suppose I am not looking to teach them new ways of doing things or how to do it better, but rather to make them passionate about doing it, to excite them about loving and serving God with all they are by serving and loving those here on earth, and to give them opportunity to do so! What other calling is there for us as Christ-followers?

As you read my thoughts in the following days, please feel free to comment (pointing out my heresies) and add your own thoughts to mine. It can only serve to build me up as well as the lessons I am trying to create.

Second-to-finally: Thanks to Francis Chan for writing such a book!

And finally: Thanks to God for writing such a Book and giving me a unique opportunity to study and apply it!!

Check this out!!

This is a sweet opportunity I have to be involved in next year. Those of my readers who also pray, please keep this in mind when thinking of me. Its a big commitment and an even bigger responsibility to be leading a group of eight leaders who in turn lead their own Bible studies. Pray for all the DC members who are in doing this with me (Zach Wilkinson, Valerie Talbott, Ryan Samuelsen, Courtney Edmonds, Angie Rill, Jordan Leman, Elizabeth Studebaker, Mark Miller, Pricilla David, Elise O’Neal, Courtney Davis, Jon Juhl). They’re a really cool bunch of people and its going to be a wild year! This is a huge answer to prayer for me to be in this group. Its going to be an amazing growing experience and a heck of a lot of fun. Pray I do well in leading, that what I say and do as a leader is worthy of the God I serve and that I can have humility whilst doing it.

Thanks.

Greg Dyson is quite a speaker! Entertaining yet has an incredibly engaging manner of speaking. Plus he’s got a lot of good stuff to say

This morning’s devo was on 1 Samuel 16. Dyson has actually been using David as his example of leadership thus far. He has done an excellent job of it too. Anyways, today’s message was about the things David exhibited in his service of Saul and the things we need to have as part of our ministry as leaders in our dorms.

The first thing Dyson noted is that when Saul asked for David as his personal armor bearer, David was still working as a shepherd. Remember that David had already been anointed by God at this point. So the main point was that we need to be willing to do the meanial chores, even as leaders.

Next, David, even as a lowly shepherd boy, was know as “a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him.” (v. 18, NIV). We need to be known as all of those things but mostly to show people who we have living in us and driving us, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ!!

Another thing Dyson got from this passage was how David was quickly positioned as Saul’s armor bearer, a very respected and trustworthy position. David, obviously then worked hard to earn the trust of the king by being trustworthy. Dyson gave a personal story of how he had won the trust of a man he knew by showing him that he, Dyson, was willing to put his trust in him. I need to be able prove my trust in my men so that they in turn will be able to respect and trust me.

One other thing Dyson pulled out was the fact that David was allowing the Lord to use his talents to minister to Saul. Surely there was nothing ultra-special about David’s music, but God used David’s faithfulness to use what he had to glorify God. I need to be using the talents I have to minister to those around me, rather than letting them sit around and do nothing. In this way I can also glorify God by using what He has given to me for His glory and praise. Guitar, cycling, computer know-how, teaching, whatever. All these and more are gifts given to me based on no merit of my own but rather the goodness of God. Praise Him for that.

So yeah, lotsa good stuff coming out of these times of teaching. Hopefully it’ll all click in my mind. My focus, I guess, right now personally is trying to find all the places I am weak (and there are many of these) and find ways to improve on them so that I can be an effective leader and bring as much glory as possible to the One living in me.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord who is forever to be praised.

Yesterday night, we had an awesome message by Greg Dyson about leadership. One of the statements that stuck out most was, we are not leaders by accident. For whatever reason we felt we took this job, or whatever mistakes or plans we made to achieve leadership positions, this job didn’t just “happen.” God ultimately decided to choose those who he deemed best to lead the students at CU as RAs of the different dorms.

And I am one of them…

I guess being an RA is a little bit more heavy than I thought. Some of the responsibilities are a good deal more weighty than I would have guessed. I feel like I’ve been told, “You’ve been given 15 men to command and you’ve been dropped into the hottest war zone in the world: a culture that does not desire the things of God. And now its your job to get these men to safety while teaching them to fight.”

Yikes!!

I don’t believe I am uncapable to lead, for I know I am trained well. Years of growing in a Christian home and slowly learning to lead from those who lead around me. But I know I am weak and often helpless, and I hate that. I showed my weakness very greatly last semester. And now to come back and be told that I have to be strong to hold up those under me as a servant-leader, I feel nervous that I might fail.

But I am ready, because I know that the battle is won because the battle was not mine to begin with. God said that He will never leave me or forsake me, so I know that I have nothing to fear. My job is simply to be a tool as God would use. And since I already have the position, I know now I just need to listen for my Commanding Officer to give the order.

More to come as the week goes on.