Keeping our convictions ours… March 31, 2007

Today I was reading in 1 Corinthians from chapters 7 & 8.  It really touched a nerve with me.  I believe one of the most destructive forces in the church today is that which wants to push our personal convictions onto others.  I rarely attend a church service, a bible study or a cell group where I don’t find Christians trying to thrust their personal convictions (not biblical mandates) on others.  At the very core, it is simply heartbreaking.  Christ died to bring mercy and grace into a world wrought with condemnation.  And what do we Christians do?  We resurrect condemnation from the dead and try to pass it off to anyone who will  receive it.  We create rules about what we can wear, say, drink and how we should act.  And it all comes from a point of seeming righteousness.  After all, we did receive these convictions from the Lord, but we forget that we received them for ourselves, not for everyone we come in contact with.  Yet we allow these personal convictions to turn into legalism and condemnation.  And we don’t even have to say one word for this to come to pass.  All we need to do is allow judgements to form in our hearts about others and BAM – the enemy has a foothold.

So my encouragement for you all today is this:  First – Seek the Lord for His will for Your life and when he reveals those things in which he has called you to, walk in them!  Then – Allow others the same freedom.  They will seek after the same Lord and He may not call them to the same things that He has called you to.  So let us not sit in judgement of one another, especially when the Lord isn’t sitting in judgement.

be blessed
-pastorj

A Quick Saga… But Arrived Safe and Blessed March 30, 2007

Okay, first I have to start by telling you of my interesting car saga.  I so wanted to be able to take the Cadillac on our trip down to Mississippi.  I mean, who wouldn’t?  It is big, comfortable, rides nice and believe it or not, not too bad on the gas.  But, alas, there have been a couple issues with the car of late that would make it a pain in the rear to take on the trip.  There was this weird thumping coming out of the front end and the power driver’s seat kept blowing a fuse (so it would be stuck in Amy’s position OR my position).  So I took it in before I headed down to Mexico a couple weeks back.  They fixed the thumping (some bad stabilizing rods – yeah, I don’t know what they are either) and they said that they fixed the seat (some corrosion on the connectors), but that they noticed some problems with the front breaks and we should think about re-doing the entire front end breaks.  I though, no problem, I have done that before.  So, I went ahead and re-did the breaks.  New rotors, new pads – went perfectly.  Only one problem, the shaking didn’t go away.  So I took it in to have the tires balanced and rotated.  This is when I found out that the tires were bad – at first I was sure I was getting hosed, but upon inspection they did need to be replaced.  I won’t even dare to keep a running total of how much this is all costing me.  Okay, now I have new tires, new brakes – the world is right.  Wrong.  So I replaced the front rotors, AGAIN, but alas, the shaking is still there.  Granted it is only like 10% of what it used to be so I am just dealing with it until I return.  But that isn’t the real saga…

Big News and a Busy Week March 27, 2007

By now many of you have already heard that I have resigned my position as pastor of Four Winds Christian Fellowship in Marshall, MI.  For some time now, Amy and I have felt the Lord leading us elsewhere but did not know where or what the timing would be.  After much prayer and seeking the Lord we believed that we found the right time to move on.  We resigned last Monday and are now earnestly seeking the Lord on our future direction.  There seems to be the possibility of a ministry job opening up in Portage for me, but we are still seeking the face of the Lord on that matter.  Amy and I both are so excited to see what the Lord has planned for our future.  As the song says, “our future is wide open”.  Wherever he leads us, we will go!

 On top of all this happening, it has been a busy week.  Yesterday I met with one of the leaders at the church in Portage to see whether the Lord was opening that door.  I am hoping to hear back from them today or tomorrow.  In the mean time, Amy and I are preparing to lead worship on a missions trip in Gulfport, Mississippi.  I am excited for the opportunity we have to work together on this trip.  After the trip, we are planning on taking a brief retreat of our own in Georgia.  Please pray that the Lord will guide us in some of the big decisions we have to make in the coming weeks.

be blessed
-pastorj

The Joy of Travel March 18, 2007

Well, last night was an interesting one.  I knew that I had an early flight back when I left home, but I didn’t know that it was going to cause me the heart ache that it has.  The plan was that I would go to bed at a reasonable time last night, get up early to cross the border and get on my plane.  About 20 minutes before we were going out for our last supper we found out that the border crossing doesn’t open until 6:00AM…  My flight left at 6:30AM so this posed a major problem.  I had to quickly (in about 20 minutes) pack all my stuff and load it into the vehicle.  We dropped Hugh and our friend Gabriel off (Hugh is taking Gabriel to a drug rehabilitation center in Oaxaca, Mexico) and then headed for the border.  My AIM project leader said that AIM would have to buy me a hotel room for the night because of their mistake with my airline ticket.  No problem eh?  Problem – Spring Break.  Yep EVERY hotel room in Harlingen was filled.  It was ridiculous.  So my night consisted of about 2 hours of sleep on the tile floor in the airport.  I am not complaining, but it was quite an adventure.  Anyway, I made it on my first flight and now I am waiting for my last flight home.  I am so excited to see Amy and sleep in my own bed.  Thank you for your prayers.  Please pray for Hugh and Gabriel that the Lord would bless their journey.

be blessed
-pastorj

Matamoros Trip Winding Down March 15, 2007

Hello All!  Thank you so much for your prayers.  I am starting to feel better and expect that by morning I will feel 100%!  The trip here is winding down.  I have to admit that I am a little dissapointed that the church group has decided to spend their last ministry day going to the beach and the market.  BUT I would say that these kids have worked really hard in the days they have been here.  I believe that many learned to hear from the Lord for the very first time.  Tonight, I gave an invitation to the kids asking them to trust that God is “more than enough for them”.  Almost all responded…  Please pray that God will continue to work in their hearts as they leave Mexico and head back home.

Tomorrow I will head over to Reynosa

Ugghh… In Matamoros March 15, 2007

Late last night I started feeling pretty sick.  I think it was a little food poisoning.  So the short of it is this, I still feel pretty poopy.  I slept most of today and just tried to get up.  I had to drive someone to their house to get something and that about took it out of me.  I really wanted to head over to Reynosa tomorrow to see some friends.  Pray that I will feel better.

-justin

What I am Learning in Matamoros March 14, 2007

There is something about being face to face with people that love Jesus that are so different from myself.  As I write this now, there are two mexican translators bunking in the same room with me.  A few short days ago they were merely strangers to me and now they are my friends; guys that I laugh and enjoy life with.  Here in Mexico, I am learning to love…

The church is really screwed up.  I say that knowing full well that Jesus loves the church just as we are.  Yet, when I see the church in action, I realize how much we men have messed things up.  My first reaction to this is to sound an enourmous alarm, jump on a bull horn and yell, “STOP!”  It seems like a good idea, but it is just yet another attempt to fix something that I cannot fix, that we cannot fix – only HE can fix it.  I was reminded this week that if we are not an intercessor, we are an accuser.  The more I have prayed for God to intercede in that which I have seen as broken, the more I have been able to step back and let God be God, and by the way, He is quite good at it.  Here in Mexico, I am learning to let go…

I have to confess, I have lived much of my life in ministry looking for the approval of others.  If someone didn’t like me or didn’t support me, it ate me up inside.  There are so many things broken with this that I don’t even know where to start.  God is putting some big pieces together for me.  Primarily, I am begining to look only for His approval – and here is the awesome thing – I already have it!  Yep, don’t have to earn it, don’t have to prove it.  Isn’t that amazing.  I have been having a great trip down here.  Most all the kids like me, I get along with the leaders – it is great.  Yet there was this one person that I could just tell didn’t like me.  It was starting to affect me and then I realized the Lord was trying to teach me a lesson.  I think I got it!  Here in Mexico, I am learning that He is more than enough for me…

 be blessed
-pastorj

Finally! A Matamoros Update… March 13, 2007

I am so incredibly sorry that it has taken me so long to update my blog.  Things have just been crazy busy here.  I know I always say that, but it is true.  Once the project get’s started I barely have time to eat sleep and breath, let alone post to the blog.  In a nutshell, this is how things are going.

PROJECT DAY 1- Well, day one got off to a great start.  We arrived at the small church that we were going to be ministering with at about 10am.  The groups split up and started ministering in their various assigned areas.  All was good with the world… That was until it started raining, and raining and raining some more.  No big deal you might think, but you would be wrong.  The colonia that we were working with is built in an area that used to be a lake – yep, a lake!  And guess what happened when it rained…  The lake filled up.  It was a total mess.  Everyone had to contend with about 1 – 2 feet of water, including the 2 small children we rescued in our bus.  As the rain continued to come down, we began to ask the Lord what he was doing.  As we did this, we realized that the Lord was showing us that HE was in control of this trip.  When we returned home, the leaders sought the Lord’s face and felt that he was leading us to throw away our plans for the trip.  We did this and then brought the kids on board.  The night ended with about 4 hours of worship at the foot of a big wooden cross.  The kids didn’t want to leave (and neither did I).  God is moving…

 PROJECT DAY 2 – With open eyes and ears trying to listen to the Lord we headed out for another day of ministry, yet today would not be about our plans but rather the plans of the Lord.  It was a beautiful day.  What was even more beautiful than the day was the way that the kids really tried to follow God in EVERYTHING that the Lord led them in.  Some groups trudged through waist deep water to help people clean out their homes, others led an impromptu VBS in our school bus, while others did work on the church that wasn’t expected to be done by us.  The theme for the day turned out to be, “Lord make us uncomfortable!”  He did a good job at this…  The kids were hurting, tired and whipped out, but feeling blessed by how the Lord had moved.  I am now sitting at a table playing bible trivia with an interesting mix of staff, participants and translators – while others wait with baited breath to use my PC.  I am not going to proofread this, so I apologize for any inaccuracies. 

CHECK OUT THE TRIP SLIDESHOW BY CLICKING HERE

be blessed
-pastorj

The Simple Message of Jesus… March 11, 2007

Today’s devotional thought is one that has been heavy on my heart for some time.  As I read 1 Corinthians 2 today, I could not help but think about the simple message of Jesus Christ crucified.  I see a trend developing in the church today that concerns me.  As a growing number of congregations go through “spiritual renewal” and attempt go deeper with the Lord, we seem to be leaving a frightening number of people behind in our wake.  I am not speaking of the hard-hearted that refuse to respond to the new things of God, but rather my concern lays in what seems to be happening to the unchurched, the new babes in Christ and those who have a more simple understanding of Jesus.

Made it to Matamoros – God is so good!!! March 10, 2007

Despite a very early morning start, my day of travel has been downright enjoyable!  Can you believe that they served breakfast and showed a movie on the flight down?  I thought those days were long gone!  I am now sitting in my room at the AIM base in Matamoros, Mexico using my cell phone as a modem and updating my blog from the comfort of my bed.  Technology is pretty crazy.  Now for how I see God moving…

I can’t really get into the details, but let me suffice it to say that God proved that I was supposed to be on this trip within 1 hour of me arriving.  There are some questions that I have been asking the Lord and he spoke into them right away.  It was so cool!  Lanny is our Project Leader and the we had an instant connection when we met.  I can’t really put it into words, but the Lord is moving.

From what I hear, Hugh had a pretty tough bus ride down here.  He has safely arrived and is sleeping.  Please pray for him.

For more information about the Gateway in Matamoros (where we are staying)  Click Here or on the picture above!

I am pretty whiped out.  I am going to try to get to bed early.  Thank you for your prayers.  Be blessed.

-pastorj