Tidings of Great Joy

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said the them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.

-Luke 2:10 &11

He is Christ the Lord.... in the most humble of circumstances: a manger. And somehow this was made to be most fitting for the King of all kings and the author of our salvation given through the shedding of his own blood. All for love's sake and glory He became poor.

How amazing, how glorious it is that Christ, Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness. Being found in the appearance as a man he humbled himself and because obedient to death even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I have so much to celebrate this Christmas, O Lord:
Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. you make the heavens even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything and the multitudes of heaven worship You!

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

-Luke 2:13 &14

Just as an indescribable sunset or a breathtaking mountaintop vista evokes a spontaneous response, so I cannot encounter the worthiness of God this Christmas Eve without the response of worship.”

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

-Luke 2:20

I suppose that we should continue to be like the shepherds that night and continually glorify and praise God for all the He is doing in our lives and even for the suffering that we face because we bear His Name. For Christians it is our honor and it's worth it!

Our goal is nothing less than the completion of the great commission so that the Lord Jesus Christ will return for his bride to bring all human history to moment in Scripture where voices are heard in heaven proclaiming 'The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever. That is our goal and purpose and we are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill that goal and vision and be obedient to that calling.

-the persecuted Asian believers the the last year.

Are we willing to do whatever it takes, even if we have
to pick up our "cross" (Luke 9:23) and suffer for Christ's sake?

Merry Christmas!!!!

Prepartions for Sunday

I suppose since I have so much time i can really kick off this new blog. This Sunday evening I have been asked to talk about my mission trip to Brazil. So today I have been preparing a video (which hopefully will be done soon and I can post it on here). I have been trying to pick out a passage from Scripture to use as I talk about Brazil and how my life has changed since that time.

I have prayed and settled on Hebrews 13:11-13. I think I will call the presentation Reflections of Brazil: Moving Outside the Camp. And I must give credit to Dr. David Platt because of his zeal in preaching this message and his heart for the glory and salvation of Christ.

I plan to talk about Brazil and the use this Scripture as a means to share my heart. I must come with the Word of God because I in and of myself bring nothing to the table.

Reflections of Brazil: Moving Outside the Camp
Introduction: Brazil Video

THREE QUESTIONS FOR ____________CHURCH:

WILL WE DIE IN OUR RELIGION
OR DIE IN OUR DEVOTION?

• Two Problems…
• They were driven by formalism .
• They were paralyzed by fear .
• Two Options…
• Retreat from the mission.
• Risk everything for the mission.
  

WILL WE EMBRACE OUR COMFORT
OR WILL WE EMBRACE HIS CROSS?

• Let us go with Jesus to the…
• Dirty places.
• Despised places.
• Dangerous places.
• Do we really want to be where Jesus is?
• Mission without suffering is Christianity without a cross.
• Suffering is not a just consequence of our mission; it is the central strategy for achieving our mission.
  

WILL WE LIVE FOR PLEASURE IN THIS WORLD
OR PARADISE IN THE WORLD TO COME?

• The best earthly security is ultimately insecure.
• The bottom line: It’s worth it!
  

THE BIBLICAL TRUTH:
Jesus calls the church to live according to
a radically different definition of success than the rest of the world.
Jesus calls me to live according to
a radically different definition of success than the rest of the world.

Date	Message Title	Speaker	Audio	Video	Outline
06/11/06	Outside the Camp (Radical Restoration: Becoming the Church that God Intended, Part 1)	David Platt	MP3 File	MOV File	PDF File

Highlights of 2007; Objectives of 2008

Some of the highlights of 2007:

• I learned how to study.
• I quit my job at Lowe's, worked at Sears for like 2 1/2 months and the went back to work @ Lowes.
• I have grown Spiritually and my view of the world has grown.
• I flew on an airplane for the very first time, while at the same time went out of the country for the very first time.
• I was blessed to be a part of a team, by God's grace, that lead over 360 people to faith in Christ.
• I have learned much about the current church culture in western society (at least baptists of the south)
• I think I learned how to prepare efficiently for teaching a small group of middle school boys.
• I have learned in some ways to work outside my introversion; however, at a great cost of energy.
• I was able to see two of my students lead children in Maine to faith in Christ.
• I have come to clarity that I don't have to know God's plan exactly. I just have to, in faith, follow and be willing to risk it all for the glory and salvation of Christ.
• I have a deeper appreciation of the magnitude of how sin really is viewed by God... (thanks to Leviticus and personal experience)
• I lead a group of college students to have a small caring ministry at a local nursing home.
• I learned how to pray more and with a greater biblical understanding.
• I have a biblical basis for worship, and soon to be- Disciple making.
• I have had the opportunity to view the struggles of church life in the local context.
• I have lost friends, with sadness, but have gained new ones.

Goals for 2008:

• To continue to pray that God would do utterly disproportionately more to than I could do on my own.
• To become so dependent upon God's word that if it were to falter I would fall flat on my face.
• To pray that God would continue to saturate my heart for the people i would with, go to school with, and the people I serve with that I might have opportunity to share the gospel with the lost and see that the great commission is understood.
• To move from my Kadesh Barnea and risk it all in obedience for the glory and salvation of Christ.
• To make it through school this last semester.
• To make good on my notes.
  
• Reproduce myself in such a way that the ministry that I have begun here will not end when I leave.
• Mentor a few young men.
• Instill, by the grace of God, the immense value and practicality of God's Word into the hearts and minds of my Sunday School.
  
• To work M-Fuge this summer.
• To acquire the nursing job God would appoint me to in the fall.
• To see where God wants me, if He desires, for me to start school in the fall.
  

Mission Statement

So the question is why do I want to start a blog.... one that I intend to use for at least this season of my life. Well I am not sure, really. Christmas Eve is upon me and I am sitting here wondering how Christmas will be without getting to see family on Christmas Day. I will see them Saturday... but it is just not the same. And if God does one day decide to send me to some other country or even across this one then a time may come when I cannot come to them and their position has become so regressed that they are seemingly not even able to come to me now.

What I do not want is this 'blog' to be something that I start because I am bored. (although today I find myself in such a state) I would say that fitting "mission statement" begins to formulate within the context of who I am today and who I am called to be as a Christ follower who has been called to risk it all in obedience for the glory and salvation of Christ. I would say that, typical to America middle class life, I struggle with a search for "something more" I learned a word while in Brasil, and I apoligize in advance to the Brasillians if I don't not understand the cultural implications of the word; however, what I know is that the word is unique and perhaps describes my seemingly isolated dilemma.

The word is Saudade and is used to describe a feeling of longing for something that one is fond of, which is gone, but might return in a distant future. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return.

Saudade has no direct English translation; its translation is dependent on context. It originates from the Latin word solitatem (loneliness, solitude), but developed a different meaning. Loneliness in Portuguese is solidão (a semi-learned word), from Latin solitudo. Few other languages in the world have a word with such meaning, making saudade a distinct mark of Portuguese culture. It has been said that this, more than anything else, represents what it is to be Portuguese.

In his book In Portugal of 1912, A.F.G Bell writes:

"	The famous saudade of the Portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness.

So you are probably thinking, "Thanks, John for the history lesson. But what are you getting at?"

First, let me define this saudade within the context of my life. It is not something that I find myself in doubt its existence: For I have tasted it and am intoxicated with its holiness. It is the life that I have not attained and will not attain this side of eternity. So I have begun with a taste and I know that one day I will find perfection. A beginning and then perfection; yet, that must mean that their is some sort of transition from the taste of a heavenly gift and a life fully given in pursuit of such perfection. I long to be complete.

i.e. Well... have you ever gotten the feeling that people simply do not have the same philosophy of life as you? Well I have and it is almost as though the eyes have been closed to the truth of the condition of the world. Life is all about them. And they are blind to the vast darkness that covers the earth. Perhaps they are not ingnorant of such truth by their own accord, yet are they without fault?


To be completely transparent, I have been just as blind. Yet, now I fell as though I must communicate to such a people the folly of their way, in love and for a world that lies desolate in darkness. Western society has the mindset of consumerism and a life that is given to me for my own use. It plagues an American Christianity full of hypocrisy and darkness.

"So", you might be thinking, "John you are going to take on the entire American people, eh?" ha ha ha.... well I would be foolish to think that I am the ONLY person who such revelation has been given. Nevertheless, I am resolved to not be "settlin' for less than something more"

Mission Statement:
So if I had to sum this up in a few statements the would follow:

1. Jesus calls the me to live according to a radically different definition of success than the rest of the world. (This world defines success on how much, how big, how great)
   
2. Jesus calls the church to live according to a radically different definition of success than the rest of the world.

Asian believers say this and I type it now:
"We've have noticed that many westerners tend to very excited and motivated by numbers, but we are not. Our goal is nothing less than the completion of the great commission so that the Lord Jesus Christ will return for his bride to bring all human history to moment in Scripture where voices are heard in heaven proclaiming 'The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever. That is our goal and purpose and we are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill that goal and vision and be obedient to that calling.

I'm settlin' for nothing less than something more.....