I Know I'm a Slave, But...

Last night, I was talking with friends about our New Year's resolutions. The first three of us who shared mentioned desires to grow in our relationships with God and listed of ways we hoped to accomplish this. The last person to share, also a Christian, led her explanation by saying, "Well, my first resolution doesn't have to do with God." She then explained to us that her goal over the next two years is to build up enough wealth that she will be on the path to financial security for life. Basically, she plans to invest the next two years of her life getting money.

The other three of us in the conversation quickly began telling her that she was making money an idol--that it would never satisfy her, that it would demand more from her than she ever expected, that true security in lfe doesn't come from money, etc. I shared with her a quote from Timothy Keller, who said, "If you live for money, you are a slave." As we said each of these things to our friend, she agreed that they were true. She even went so far as to affirm the statement that she is a slave to money. The other three of us jumped in, saying she doesn't have to live as a slave--the gospel will set her free from her slavery. And then she dropped the big one on us. She told us, "I know I'm a slave, but just let me be a slave for another 2 years and then I'll be ok."

Needless to say, I was shocked. Why would anyone who knows they're a slave to a cruel master such as money and who has the opportunity to be free choose willingly to continue living as a slave? But as I have thought more about it, I have realized that this is an attitude I take toward sin in my own life much more often than I would like to admit. I know that the gospel frees me from the need to find my value in what other people think of me, and I know trying to please all the people around me makes me a slave to their opinions, but I say I'll start living in that truth only as soon as this person approves of me. I enter into a slippery slope, from which the only escape is the gospel--the one thing I am willfully ignoring at that point in time. In the words of Tim Keller, my idol "begins redefining all of reality in terms of itself."

Just as my friend needs the gospel to set her free from her slavery to money, I need the gospel to set me free from all of my idolatrous behaviors. As we go into the new year, may God give me the grace to rest in the gospel and find my identity in Him alone.

Do You Really Believe It?

One of my friends works on the trading floor of a major bank. He knows a lot about investments. He spends his days studying the markets so he can make the best moves that will be the most profitable for his company. He also uses this knowledge to increase his personal wealth. Recently, he was telling me about an investment he made in a company in Africa that has more than doubled in a little over a year. As he described the factors that went into his decision to invest in this company, he made it clear that investing in this company was an easy choice. They serve a large market of people, sell an item that is always in high demand, and the government kept their IPO intentionally low to encourage people to invest in them. My friend described the situation as them “basically giving away free money.”

Now, let’s pretend. Go back a year and a half, before my friend made this investment. He comes to me, tells me about the investment, and I say, “That’s nice. I hope you make lots of money on this one.” Although my response carries the appearance of believing his story, in reality it proves that I don’t truly believe his description of the situation. If I truly believed that what he said about the investment was true, I wouldn’t simply congratulate him on a good find; I’d ask him how I could get in on this investment as well. If I truly believed that my friend’s description was accurate and someone was handing out “free money,” I would do everything reasonably within my power to get my hands on that money.

Far too often, the response of Christianity at large to the existence of hell is like my hypothetical response in this story—we acknowledge belief in it with our mouths, but lead lives that prove we don’t believe it’s real.

I am currently reading George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards. In the biography, Marsden makes the observation that in Edwards’ opinion, most Christians only believe in hell as an inherited belief. Basically, they’ll say it’s real because it’s in the Bible and their parents or spiritual mentors taught them it’s real, but on a functional level they live on a day-to-day basis as if it wasn’t real. Marsden says that the reason Edwards preached so many sermons that were brutally descriptive of hell is that he wanted his people to constantly remember the reality of hell both so they personally could trust in Christ and be saved from it and so they would live in such a way around their non-Christian friends and relatives that they would point them to Christ as well. This style of teaching has given Edwards a lot of negative press in many circles, but his brutally descriptive teaching was not inspired by a joy in describing the horrors of eternal punishment; it was inspired by a love that desired to keep as many people as possible from having to live that fate. He not only believed that hell was real, but wanted to live his life in such a way that he demonstrated the urgency inspired by the fact that hell is real.

Do your actions back what you say you believe?

Youth Say Some Funny Stuff

In my new job, the group of students I'm responsible for is a slightly younger group than I am used to. Technically, I'm responsible for grade 6 through the end of high school, however there are no students in my church between the ages of 15 and 18, which means I'm in charge of a group of 11 to 14 year olds. Needless to say, with a group this age, some funny lines come out from time to time. Here are some of the highlights so far:

-Tonight during our discussion, I asked each of the youth what one thing is they can do over the course of the next week to follow Jesus in their everyday life. Each took turns sharing, then they decided to recommend ways that I should follow Jesus in the next week. Their suggestion? I need to tell at least 5 people that Jesus loves them... and each of these people has to be smoking as I tell this to them.

-I was talking with some youth about the concept of dying to ourselves and being alive in Christ. I asked these students if they thought their lives would be better or worse if they truly lived this way. One student told me it would be better... but only if he could still play video games.

-During their school break, I took my pastor's 2 middle kids--who are slightly younger than the age range I'm responsible for, but they're close to it--ice skating. After skating, we grabbed some lunch. During our time eating together, this conversation occurred:

Me: So do you know what you want to be when you grow up?

Pastor's daughter: Yes, I want to be a mom, so I can sleep in every day.

Pastor's son: I want to be a cop, because they get to fire guns and drive really fast.

Me (sarcastically to the son): And that's what life is all about, shooting guns and driving fast.

Pastor's son: Yeah, well, that... and drinking beer.

Let's just say there is rarely a dull moment in my life these days.

The Light

This morning, I was at a meeting with our University and Young Adults staff about a worship gathering they will be hosting this coming Sunday night. They were primarily discussing how to set up the space we have and organize the “flow” of the evening to help people experience God through the time together.

The lesson for the night will be on John 1:1-5, so a lot of emphasis on the planning was being placed on lighting: “In Him was life, and that life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This discussion and the reflection on the passage got me thinking:

When Christ came into the world, He was the light of the world, and no matter how hard the darkness tried, it could not overcome Him. His light was too powerful. In fact, the darkness’s best attempt to overcome Him (the cross) led to His greatest victory (the resurrection). Light and darkness are not equal opposites, but rather darkness is a weaker foe that is easily overcome when the light enters into its presence.

This is good, but I then realized something else awesome: when Jesus left the earth, He promised to be with His people forever (“ even to the end of the age”). This means that if we’re Christians, wherever we go, Christ goes with us. And wherever Christ goes, the light goes, and wherever the light goes, the darkness cannot overcome it. As Christians, we are “children of the light” (1 Thess. 5:5). Just as the darkness cannot overcome Jesus’ light, it cannot ultimately overcome our light either. In fact, its best attempts to do so have historically been some of the greatest victories for the faith, which is why the saying exists that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Wherever we go, we bring the light. Darkness cannot stand in our presence, because the light of the world accompanies us. So let us live boldly.

Upward, Inward, Outward

Upward. Inward. Outward.

It may appear cryptic if you don’t know what it means, but for those of us at Watermark Community Church, it is the air we breathe. These three words summarize the process we long to see our people take in their relationship with God.

Upward—we want them to understand the gospel and have a relationship with God. This is the most fundamental step of the process, and without it, neither of the other steps is possible.

Inward—According to Jesus, the two greatest commands are to love God and love others. Once people have a relationship with God in place, our desire is for them to come into the family and engage in genuine community.

Outward—The goal of community is not that it would center solely on us, but rather that it would lead to mission (going out). As we learn to truly love each other within a community of faith, our desire and prayer is that we will learn to love our unsaved friends and neighbors as well, and that we, through proper understanding of the gospel and community, will be moved to live life on mission. In fact, our goal is for our community not to be merely a community, but rather a missional community, where we are living life on mission together.

Ultimately, the process is not meant to be linear, but cyclical. As we go throughout or Christian lives, we need to continually return to the gospel, both for forgiveness as we continue to sin, and as our motivation for our other steps in our walk with God (God’s love for us in the cross should motivate our love for God and our love for God should motivate our love for others). Also, as we live life on mission, our goal is to bring new people into this process, so just as the gospel (Upward) leads to community (Inward), and community leads to mission (Outward), mission always leads back to the gospel.

Everything we do at Watermark centers around the ideas of Upward, Inward, Outward (ie. gospel, community, and mission). This has been incredibly helpful for me as I have started my work there, since I am not responsible for starting the youth ministry from scratch on a philosophical level; instead, my job is to use these three steps as a skeleton and build a ministry where the youth will be encouraged to move through these steps. Obviously, maturity in Christ—not simply moving people through a process—is our goal, but this process is a great summary of how we want to see people mature in Christ and it has given me a great foundation as I have tried to figure out how to start the youth ministry here.

My New Flat

For those of you who haven't heard, I recently moved to a new apartment. Here's what my new place looks like.

This is my living room (with our awesome drying rack drying my clothes). We have a 2 and a half person couch, a chair, a fridge, and we will have a TV in here. That's about all there's room for in this room.

Our kitchen is even smaller than our living room. I have space to walk in, turn around, and walk out. Our fridge, as I already mentioned, is in our living room because it doesn't fitin our kitchen.

My bedroom has space for a bed. As you can see, even

my clothes get hung above where I sleep.

My bathroom is basically a toilet, a shower, and a sink.

The view from my apartment is pretty great, with

a view that lets me watch the full moon rise over one of the world's greatest cities. Overall, I really like the new apartment (despite its smallness). It is in a great location, I have a great roommate, and it is a pretty nice place.

Free Because I'm (Already) a Failure

"I already knew you were a sinner."

Surprisingly, I think that was probably the most comforting line I could have heard at the time. The conversation was with my new pastor. I was sharing with him that I had some issues I had to deal with in my heart that I foresaw potentially hurting our relationship for a while. I went to him to make him aware of the situation and to ask him to hold me accountable as I dealt with the issues.

Going into his office in the first place was difficult for me. Confessing to my pastor (who also happens to be my new boss) that I had issues was not my idea of a good first impression. I tried everything to avoid having to go into his office, but eventually I realized I had too much stuff going on in my heart to not let him be aware of what was going on. So in I went. I told him about my current struggles in this certain area, asked him to hold me accountable, and apologized in advance for any strain that could put on our relationship. And when he opened his mouth to respond, out came: "I already knew you were a sinner."

It may seem weird, but knowing that fact has made a huge difference for me. I'm not sure why I thought I could convince my pastor that I was perfect. In fact, it's actually ironic that I would ever even think to try that, since my job is to help people live in the truth that all of us are sinners, but Jesus offers us free and unmerited salvation. I guess my pride was rearing its ugly head, thinking it was better to appear perfect than to appear broken but be truly perfected in Christ. And, just like the reality of the gospel that our salvation is not something we earn frees us to be real with God, confess our sins, and be healed, the reality of the fact that my pastor already knows I'm a sinner frees me to live a life of honesty with him. When I make a mistake, I don't need to hide it out of a fear that this will ruin his perception of me. He already knows I'm a sinner. And besides, if my failure were to ruin his perception of me, it was probably a perception that needed to be ruined anyway.

It's funny the freedom that comes from knowing that others know we're not perfect.

A Thankful Heart

I think often in our lives (or at least in my life), in the midst of a difficult or confusing situation, it is easy to overlook acts of kindness in our lives that should inspire thankfulness and to let our situations in life keep us from an attitude of gratefulness--toward others and toward God--that should mark us. Two situations in my life right now have caused me to realize this reality and have served to remind me how miserably I have failed to live with an attitude of thanksgiving regardless of my circumstances, especially over the course of the past year.

The first reminder of this comes due to the fact that I am finishing my current internship at International Baptist Church of Hong Kong this Sunday. Over the course of the year, I have received overwhelming support from the church in a number of different ways. People from the church have given me words of wisdom when I needed to hear them, they have bought me meals, they have invited me into their families (this one was especially nice on holidays), they have offered to help in various ways with the youth ministry, they have listened to my complaints (although my complaints often were often due more to my own immaturity than to anything which warranted complaining), and more. Throughout the course of the year, however, rather than rejoicing in the fact that I had such a loving and supportive church family, I have often found it much easier to complain that we didn't have more youth volunteers (a fact which is made even more ridiculous by my recent discovery that the method I most often employed of recruiting volunteers is probably the worst way to recruit volunteers possible), that our kids weren't more committed to our youth group, and that parents often place more priority on their children's academic life than on their spiritual life (this is a legitimate one, but it is part of Hong Kong culture that I need to learn to address properly rather than complain about if I want to be effective at reaching the youth here... But that's a whole different article). My lack of a proper attitude of thanksgiving became apparent to me this week when my pastor asked me to share a few words with my church this Sunday about my time at IBC, what I've learned over the past year, etc. As I sat down to prepare what I would say, I was reminded of the myriad things I had to be thankful for during my time at IBC and felt a deep conviction for the lack of thankfulness I have displayed compared with what I ought to have displayed.

The second reminder of my lack of thankfulness came due to the fact that I have a new friend who recently moved to Hong Kong. This friend's brother-in-law and sister were two of the people who helped make me feel welcome when I first arrived in Hong Kong, and since they are back in the States now, I figured I would do whatever possible to help make her transition to Hong Kong as smooth and comfortable as possible. I really haven't done too much, but for the small things I have done, she has been very thankful and appreciative. By seeing her thankfulness, I was reminded of the numerous times that her brother-in-law and sister went out of their way to make me feel welcome here. I know that I was very thankful for a lot of what they did for me, but I think that in the midst of the craziness of adjusting to a new job and a new city on the other side of the world, I often tended to think of their kindness as something I deserved rather than as a gift I didn't deserve (even if I did say "thank you" to them for the things they did). The way that this couple went out of their way to make me feel welcome in Hong Kong is way over and above what they had to do, and the level of thankfulness that I felt towards them was not anywhere near what it should have been.

Lord, give me a heart that sees that every good and perfect gift in my life has its ultimate root in You, and that each gift is the result of the great grace that You have shown me through Christ on the cross. Let me cultivate a spirit of thankfulness in my life, both toward You and toward those that You use as instruments to bring these gifts into my life. Amen.

Things I've Picked Up So Far

Well, I have begun my process of meetings and readings in researching for my new job. I still have a lot of preparation work left to do, but there are a few very important things I have picked up so far. Here are some of the highlights:

• Nobody has youth ministry entirely figured out. If they tell you they do, they are either lying or mistaken. There is no "one size fits all" plan for how to establish a ministry team, connect with youth, and disciple them in a lasting way. There are certain guidelines that often work as general rules, but in terms of a specific step-by-step process, each church has its own unique DNA that makes it impossible to impose a formula upon it.

• If you try to run the youth ministry by yourself and it has more than 12 kids, you will burn out. Volunteers are essential to a successful youth ministry.

• Volunteers are not babysitters. If you treat them like babysitters and don't let them be involved in helping with important parts of the ministry, you will 1) make them question whether what they are doing is important and whether their gifts would be better used somewhere else, and 2) end up running the ministry by yourself, which doesn't work.

• From talking with people in Hong Kong, it has been a general consensus that one on one time with kids is essential in order to connect with them, especially in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, many kids are raised in such a way that people are concerned about their grades, their athletic abilities, and their musical abilities, but very few people are concerned about them as individuals. One person told me his ministry philosophy for working with youth in Hong Kong is, "To be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." Basically, unless you are able to form a deep relationship with the kids where they feel that you truly know and understand them, they will view you as just another adult in their life who is trying to make them more marketable without actually caring about them as a person. Another Hong Kong youth worker told me it has been his experience that a 15 minute one-on-one conversation with a student in Hong Kong can have the same effect on that student as a conversation that would take a few hours anywhere else.

• Youth workers reaching kids is great, parents reaching their own kids is essential. For all the work I do with kids, I will end up having less than 5 hours a week of influence on almost all of them on average. Depending on schedules, a parent can get that much time with a kid in a night, and more on weekends. If the truths I am teaching the youth aren't being reinforced at home, they are much less likely to stick long-term.

• Just as a good pastor has to do in order to be effective in his city, a good youth worker must correctly identify the idols of the youth he or she wants to reach. It is much easier to point kids to Christ if we know what the biggest hindrance is that is keeping them from Him in the first place.

• While having a lot of kids in a youth ministry is great, we must be sure that we are ultimately drawing them to Christ, and not something else (and there are a lot of other things that we can--consciously or subconsciously--draw them to). One of my former youth leaders reminded me that "what you draw them with is what you will draw them to." Crazy and fun youth events are great, but they must not get in the way of our kids seeing and loving Christ. A school teacher in Hong Kong added the wise advice, "Foster a love for God's Word among the youth, not just a love for fun and fellowship." Fun and fellowship are great, but if they come at the expense of the youth knowing Christ, then they are a fatal distraction.

Hopefully, I will learn more as these meetings continue, but I think this is a good and very useful starting point.

Thoughts on Youth Ministry

Sorry I've been so inconsistent with the posts lately. My summer has been crazy. Hopefully things will begin to settle down for a while now and I should be able to post more consistently (at least for a while).

For those of you who haven't heard yet, I have gotten a new job that will start September 1 as a youth director in a recently started church plant called "Watermark Community Church"... which is also in Hong Kong. Actually, Watermark is new enough that it doesn't have a youth ministry yet, and my job for now is to get a youth ministry in place.

In preparation for my new job, I have become a student again. I have been reading books on youth ministry and mentoring, having conversations about youth ministry with different people, and praying about what the new ministry will look like. I am basically trying to get as wide a variety of views on youth ministry as possible so I can be aware of as wide a range of options as possible and make the wisest decision about which directions to move with Watermark's youth ministry.

I know that many of my readers here are/have been involved in youth ministry at various times in the past. Are there any books or articles you would say I have to read before starting the new job? Is there anyone I have to talk to in order to be fully informed? (Yes, Mrs. Costine, I have sent a message to Tim...) Is there anything I have to know about the job before beginning it? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

A Pink Mohawk

Being a white American who is 6'7" tall and who has has dirty blond hair and blue eyes has always gotten me a lot of strange looks in Hong Kong (and across Asia). None of those looks, however, can compare with the responses people give to seeing a pink mohawk on my head.

It's a funny story. As part of our youth fundraiser, I auctioned off the rights to pick the style and color of my hair for a 3-week timespan. I figured the youth would pool their money and put up a good bid, but I thought the announcement that I would be leading music in church during one of those 3 weeks and preaching another one would inspire certain adults in attendance at the fundraiser (such as the pastor and some of our deacons) to attempt to outbid the youth. What ended up happening is that the deacons and pastor seemed completely at ease with the idea of me preaching and leading music in a mystery hairstyle picked by the evil genius of the youth, and the youth came out of the gate in the bidding making the clear statement that they were in this one to win it all. A few adults made semi-serious bids, just to get the youth to raise their price, but in the end, the youth paid 660 HKD for the right to pick the style and color of my hair for a timespan of 3 weeks. The rest is history.

Like I said, having this hair has gotten some amazing responses. Comments I have received include a man from my church explaining to me that an office worker in Hong Kong could never have this haircut because they would get fired and a witty flight attendant telling me to "watch your hair" as I boarded an airplane (She was so proud of that one, she made sure to point out what she had said to the next few passengers to board so they could all know how witty she was). I also had a man ask me if I could come to his house and paint the ceiling with my hair. One man simply stated the obvious: "You are tall, and your hair is tall." A slightly more colorful man told me, "Your hair is explosive." I've also been told it makes me look like David Crowder, a comparison which I get a lot (although he doesn't have the mohawk), and Shane Claiborne (This is a new one, and I don't see the connection, since he has dreads, not a mohawk...). All of this is in addition to numerous bystanders who stare, either blankly or in awe, in total defiance of all cultural politeness, as I walk the streets.

The added attention I have gotten from my hair has gotten me thinking. From a physical standpoint, it is hard to find anyone who looks more out of place in Hong Kong than I do, even without the pink mohawk. Adding the mohawk, however, has certainly caused a greater gap between what one expects to find in Hong Kong and what I look like. The thing is, I'm different, more so with the mohawk than ever before. And because I'm different, people notice me. They go out of their way to talk to me about my hair. They ask questions about it. They make jokes and comments about it.

As Christians, we are called to be different than the world around us. I certainly don't believe this means we should all walk around town in pink mohawks. What I do believe is that we should live such lives of radical love, sacrifice, giving, community, grace, and service, all driven at their heart by the gospel, that the world around us notices something different about us. What better way to show the world that we're serious about our faith than to actually live lives that are driven at their hearts by our faith? I think this type of lifestyle being truly lived out in our communities would cause people to pay attention to what we are doing and (ultimately) to why we are doing it. People may not get it. They may make negative comments. They may ask questions. I can't guarantee their response (and I'm not suggesting that we stop verbally sharing our faith, just recommending that we be more intentional about living lives that back up what we say), but I bet if we had a community where people truly lived like this, this community would be so distinct from those around them that the people around them would have no choice but to acknowledge the difference and either intentionally ignore it or find out more about it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that as Christians, the lives we live should not blend into the world like an Asian walking the streets of Hong Kong. We should stick out like a pink mohawk on a crazy tall American.

John 13:35

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

A Link and Thoughts on Planning Youth Camp

First off, for those of you who haven't heard it yet, I preached at my church in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago. If you want to hear the sermon, here is a link for it:

http://218.189.239.40:44057/shares/share/12June2011_Nothing%20but%20the%20Gospel.mp3

Secondly, starting this Sunday, I will be leading 2 weeks of youth camp/missions trip with my youth group. From Sunday to Friday, we will have a camp, where we will have times of fun and learning about God's Word. Then, on Saturday, we will go to Manila for a week to work at Kids International Ministries. Planning this trip has taught me a lot of things about myself and about life in general. Here are some of the highlights:

• I am not an organizer. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, and organizing something like this is one of my weaknesses.
• I am horrible at asking other people for help. I'm not sure if I just don't want to inconvenience them or if I want to do the job myself, but I'm just generally not good at asking for help. Which makes more organizing for me. Which is not a good thing.
• It takes a lot of time to plan a camp. When you're planning one for the first time, you don't necessarily realize all that goes into it (unless you're a great organizer) until you're doing it. Which, if you have failed to plan properly, will likely happen at the last minute, since you didn't know there would be SO MUCH TO DO!
• Going to camp is much more fun than planning for camp.
• Good friends who can help you out when you're super busy at work are amazing blessings. Especially when they offer to help without even being asked (see the part about me not being good at asking for help).

That being said, please pray for our upcoming camp. Here are a few things you can be praying for:

• That any youth who come who are not already Christians would hear and believe the gospel during this trip.
• That our kids who come who are already Christians will grow in their walk with Christ during our time at camp.
• That our whole group would have hearts to serve during our time in Manila.
• That we would all remain safe and healthy throughout the trip.
• That any minor details that I may have missed in the planning stages would work themselves out and not turn into big deals.

Already?

This past Tuesday, June 21, marked 1 year since my arrival to Hong Kong. I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it hard to believe that I've been here that long. As I look back over the past year, I see that I have learned a lot (and most of it was stuff that I never expected to learn this year). Here are some highlights:

• God is REALLY BIG-I have had a number of difficult times this year, whether it was the trouble of transitioning to a city where I didn't know anybody or the culture, issues with having no idea how to do my job, or any other of a number of things. Throughout all of them, one of the most comforting things for me to remember is that me being here is not an accident. My presence in this specific place at this specific time is a part of God's plan that He had before He formed the earth, and He has me here for a purpose. Reflecting on that truth makes it hard to stay discouraged by various trials for too long.

• Unity is awesome (and essential)-One of the highlights of my year has been meeting on a weekly basis with youth leaders from churches across the city to pray together for our youth. The people in this group are some of my closest friends in Hong Kong. Despite a number of differences in doctrine, church structure, etc. we are able to recognize the fact that we have Christ in common, and that the common bond of Christ is stronger than any secondary differences that may separate us. Having this unity allows us to work together to see God glorified in Hong Kong, rather than working in competition to see us and our individual ministries glorified. This unity has born amazing fruit in the youth of this city.

• Your heart will follow your treasure-Growing up, I would always read Jesus statement in Matthew 6:21 ("Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also") as saying that where we invest our treasure is indicative of where our hearts are. While this is true on one level, I have learned this year that it works the opposite way as well. When we place our treasure somewhere, our hearts will follow our treasure. This is not an original insight-I read it in a book, but can't remember which one-but I have really gotten to see it in action this year. When I came to Hong Kong, the plan was to stay for one year, then go back to the States. After spending a year of my life in this city, investing in this city, getting involved in the lives of the people of this city-investing my "treasures" here-I have grown to love this city. That is why I will be staying in Hong Kong for another year (although I will be working at a different job here).

There are many more lessons I have learned over the past year, maybe they will be shared in future posts. (or maybe not... time will tell)

Things that Stir My Affections

For this week's blog, I want to share a challenge from a pastor named Matt Chandler. He says that we should identify the things in our lives that stir our affections for God, and the things that rob our affections for Him. Everything in life affects the way we perceive God and the way we relate to Him. For example, sin separates us from God and robs us of communion with Him. Obedience to God draws us closer to Him. However, certain things which are morally neutral (such as listening to different styles of music, eating certain foods, or different conversation topics) also have the ability to create within us a desire to draw near to God or to make us feel a greater gap between us and God. Here is a list of some things I have identified in my life that stir my affections:

Things that rob me of my joy in Christ and make me feel distant from God:

• Excessive caffeine and sugar--In moderation, these things are essential ingredients to me successfully completing most days. When I take caffeine and sugar in excess, however, they have a tendency to make me feel anxious and jumpy and draw my desires away from God to worry.
• Sara Bareilles--Musically, I love her. Lyrically, she is incredibly depressing, and I often cannot help but be in a bad mood when I listen to her music.
• Excessive rest or lack of rest--The balance in life between work and rest is one that must be delicately maintained. Too much work without rest, and I begin to find my identity in what I do rather than in who I am in Christ, not to mention exhaustion. Too much rest and not enough work, and I begin to suffer from sloth.
• Overeating--So many people take me out to eat here and order excessive amounts of food. They eat a little bit and then tell me to finish the rest. Not wanting to appear rude, I usually do my best to accomplish this feat. After the meal, my body is out of its normal, healthy equilibrium, and I am unable to focus on God because of the discomfort I am experiencing in my stomach.

Things that stir my affections for God:

• Anything deeply theological--Whether this is solid preaching, a good book, or music with totally gospel-centered lyrics (although preferably not southern gospel-styled), things that more clearly reveal to me who God is, how He works, and how I can know Him more deeply typically cause me to draw closer to Him and have a deeper desire to know Him.
• Fresh fruit--This may seem weird, but eat a fresh, ripe mango and tell me God's not awesome for creating it.
• Starry skies--One of my favorite things to do while I'm at home is go outside on a night when it is below 0 degrees (so the sky is too cold for clouds) and stare at the stars, pondering the greatness of the God who created them and knows them all by name. Starry skies are one of the things I miss most in Hong Kong.
• A good night's sleep--It's amazing the difference it makes for my day to be able to wake up with a smile on my face rather than having my first thought of the day be how much I hate my alarm clock.
• Self-sacrificial service for the sake of someone totally undeserving of it--Whether it is hearing a story of someone who gave his or her life so that others could live, or seeing a group of 20-somethings give up their weekday evenings to tutor inner-city kids so they can pass school, I see shadows of Christ's ultimate sacrifice in these things, and the joy I find in these stories of self-sacrificing service always cause me to have a desire to dive more deeply into understanding Christ's sacrifice for me.

Thursday's Thought--Sneak Preview of this Sunday's Sermon

I have been asked to preach at IBC this Sunday because last week and this week we have been/will be honoring our graduating seniors during the Sunday morning service. Every time I preach at IBC (this will be the second time), I feel a great weight because of the importance of the fact that I am delivering the Word of God to the entire church and because of the rarity of this opportunity arising. I feel a need to pick not just something important to say to the church, but to actually say the most important thing to the church that I can.

This time, I have decided to preach on 1 Cor. 2:1-5, specifically focusing on the part where Paul says it was his goal during his time among them to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. During my study this week, it has truly amazed me that with all of the issues facing that church--including, but not limited to: intense sexual immorality, divisions, selfishness in approaching the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts, and denial of the resurrection of the dead--Paul continually points them back to Christ as the ultimate solution to every problem the church is facing. He truly understands that, as Timothy Keller so wisely says, "Idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong." Every problem the church was facing was due to the fact that they were taking worship of the true God and replacing it with worship of other things. The only way to fix this problem was to point them back to the true God and replace their idolatry with worship. The gospel was, in Paul's eyes, the most important thing for the Corinthian church to know. If Paul thought it was so important, I guess it should be a safe pick for my time preaching at IBC.

That's the teaser. Check back in next week for the link so you can listen to the podcast.

Thursday's Thought

Last Friday morning, I woke up very early to go to breakfast and hear a man speak who biked over 30,000 miles from Siberia to London via Australia. When I got on the bus to go to this breakfast, I wanted to read a passage from the Bible, since I knew I had a busy day ahead and it would be a while before I would have more time to do it. Wanting to keep my reading (and the process of getting stuff out of my bag) more simple, I simply grabbed my Kindle, turned it on, opened the Bible on it, and read the first thing that was on the page.

When I turned on the Kindle, it took me to 2 Kings 15. It was a random chapter. As I started to read it, I thought maybe I should have been more intentional about the passage I picked. I read about king after king who ruled Israel and Judah—good ones, bad ones, ones who inherited the throne when their fathers died, others who took the throne by force, and lots of other details about each king—and I was confused. What did this have to do with my life, with my understanding of who God is, or with my understanding of how to live a life that is defined by the gospel?

I finished reading the chapter, and I was still totally confused. I spent the rest of the bus ride thinking about what I had read. It’s in the Bible, so it had to be significant, but why? And then it hit me. Everybody in this long list of kings, whether they were good, bad, traitors, idolaters, worshipers of the true God, warriors, or wimps, died. They got a few verses in a random chapter in the middle of 2 Kings to tell about their life and the way they led their nation, and then the story moved on from them to the next guy. This is because the story in 2 Kings 15 is not about Azariah, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, or Jotham. Each of them is a small player in the story of God calling a people to Himself, purifying that people for Himself, and—ultimately—making all things new. The main character in this chapter is God. He is the One ho raised these men to power for a time to fulfill His purposes. He is the One who allows bad kings to reign (for a time) and strikes one of the good ones with leprosy. He is the One who still lives after kings and kingdoms rise and fall. His story is the one that will endure.

And then I got it. I am like one of these kings. My life, in the grand scheme of history, is no more than a few verses in the middle of some random chapter in the middle of some random book. But that’s ok. Because it’s not my story that needs to last. It’s His story that needs to be told and that will endure. And to play the most minor role in His story is much more significant than being famous, powerful, or rich.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!” Romans 11:33

From the Head to the Heart

I’m pretty sure that ever since my second Friday of Pathfinders in first grade I could have recited Proverbs 3:5-6 to anyone at any time. The thing I have been learning this week is that there is a big difference between knowing a truth in my head and knowing that truth in such a way that it sinks into the core of your being and impacts the very way you live your life. Obviously, this is not a new lesson for me, but it is one that God has been pounding me with this week.

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about what I’m doing next year. Crunch time is fast approaching, and my decision is (hopefully) imminent. I have a couple of options that I am considering, and I am confident that at any of them I will enjoy my job, have great opportunities to serve, and will learn a lot. The issue is that (obviously) I want to make the best decision, not just a good decision. And I have been stressed out lately about which one I’ll choose. Which is odd, considering I just finished memorizing Philippians, which includes the verse, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I can recite that verse all day long. The disconnect comes when I try to take the verses I know in my head, such as Philippians 3:6-7 and Proverbs 3:5-6 and actually live them. It’s taking a while for me to learn this one, and I don’t know when it will sink in for good, but I’m now aware of the problem, and I think that’s an important first step to finding the solution (which will involve a lot of prayer and time in the Bible.)

A Video

Yesterday, I made a video to promote our upcoming camp. This week's thought is the content of the video. (I tried to load the video itself to the blog, but it wouldn't work, so I guess I just ahve to give you the youtube link.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLRpd5AMy4

Thursday's Thought-Remembering

We live in a very fast-paced society. We are always moving forward. We can’t afford to slow down, stop, or—God forbid—take a look backwards. We value progress and change above all else and see the past as a necessary step to getting where we are today and nothing more.

If we are Christians, though, should this be our attitude about the past? In the Bible, God was very intentional about making sure His people remembered the past. Starting with creation, God made a weekly celebration—Sabbath—to commemorate His work. He was so passionate about His people remembering His work of creation that in Numbers 15, a man is stoned for gathering sticks to build a fire.

God also gave His people numerous other reminders throughout the Bible of His previous work. The rainbow is a gift to help us remember God’s faithfulness to keeping His promises. The Passover was given to the Israelites to remind them how great a salvation God had given them from the land of Egypt (and that one was such a big deal to God that if someone failed to keep it properly, they were excommunicated from the nation of Israel). When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they built a pillar of rocks next to the place where they crossed the Jordan River on dry ground so when future generations asked about the stones, they could tell the new generation about God’s faithfulness to them in the past. Throughout the Old Testament, God is wildly passionate about His people remembering in an intentional way what He has done for them. This theme even carries over into the New Testament, where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper as a reminder to His followers of His death. Each time we celebrate this, it should be an intentional act of remembering what God has done for us in the past.

But what difference should this make in our lives (besides inspiring us to take communion the next time they have it in church)? One thing that I have found in my life is that reflecting on God’s past faithfulness is one of the best tools available to give me hope of His future faithfulness. Reflecting on times in the past when I was in a situation where I had no idea how anything could ever work out for good but I can now see how God used it to shape me and mold me into who I am today, I am encouraged to persevere (with faith) through today’s trials because I know the same God who got me through yesterday will get me through today.

P.S. As far as last week's post goes, I didn't totally skip it, but it is in the form of an inspirational video, and I wanted to wait until my new computer got here to load it, since my old one would take forever to load it. The new computer is here now, so it should be up soon.

Thursday's Thought-A Thousand Words

Sorry I missed last week’s post. I spent Thursday night and most of Friday at a camp with a group from a local high school, and once I got back I had a very busy weekend.

A couple weeks ago, someone who reads my blog (and will remain anonymous throughout this post unless he or she decides to reveal him- or herself in the comments) sent me a message saying the blog was good, but it needs more pictures. While I am not opposed to putting more pictures on my blog, I am also stuck with a computer that will celebrate its fourth birthday next month, and which takes ages to load anything more than a Word document onto the internet. But the comment got me thinking.

What impact has the camera had on our society? On our understanding of beauty?

How much has having cameras easily accessible caused us to miss out on amazing moments in life because we were too focused on trying to get the best picture of the event rather than enjoying the event itself?

How much less creative does our language have to be now that we have the easy ability to “show, not tell” about everything in life?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why did God not include any pictures in the Bible? And if words are important enough that God decided to use thousands of them rather than pictures, what impact should that have on the importance of words in our lives?

Would pictures more easily allow me to communicate to the world what is happening in my life?

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I think more pictures on here would certainly be beneficial, especially since I’m guessing most of the people reading this have never been to Asia. However, I also think that in our everyday life, our reliance on cameras and the instant and easy ability to capture a moment so we can relive it forever often costs us the chance of enjoying the original moment itself. I think words have a power to express the emotion and feeling behind an event that a picture in and of itself cannot do (have you ever seen a picture that adequately captured the beauty of the setting sun?)

I think it would be a fun (although time-consuming) exercise someday to watch something that would be a photographer's dream, but rather than bringing a camera, I want to bring a pen and paper to see if I truly have the creativity to come up with a thousand words to describe that picture. I haven’t done it yet. The idea still intimidates me. But I wonder what I’d see in that moment if I approached it with my mind, rather than my camera.

Thursday's Thought

This is one of those weeks where I sat down to write and felt like I simply had no great revelations to share with the world, nothing new, original, and exciting to bring to you from my own mind. So, I am reaching back into the vault and pulling up an old C.S. Lewis quote I was reminded of this week as I prepared for my youth group lesson. I hope it encourages you and challenges you in the way you approach your everyday life:

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”—C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”