Letter from a Faraway Friend

I started writing this in an email, but soon decided I wanted to share it here. It's a letter to my class, but I pray you will find a blessing in it too.

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Dear Class Family,

I just realized that I haven't talked to bunches of you all in a long time. And bunches of us haven't talked to other bunches of us in a long time. This is not good...but we can make it better! 

Just an update from my side...

I've been here in Germany for an internship with Amazing Facts Europe since April. They started the first AFCOE-Europe here then too, and it's been going well and God has blessed. It's been quite the experience working here while these two organizations are in "creation" phase. I've learned so much, about working in a multicultural setting, starting ministries, and living with all sorts of different people. It's really a blessing and privilege to be here. Personally, I've been able to learn some German, and I've had the opportunity to learn new things like social media, photography (anyone want to sponsor my new interest? lol), coordinating church services, and planning trips around a bit of Europe by myself (which would be much more fun if one of YOU could join me! Anyone want to come over in August?). 

Spiritually, I've learned so much and grown a lot. But I think I can sum it up in a few words:

My identity is not in what I do. Even if it is God's purpose and calling for my life, I should not -- no, cannot -- define or identify myself by what I do. My identity is not who I am, but who God is. Who is God? God is love. Thus, my identity is a covenantal, marriage relationship with God -- "Till death do we part"; and my purpose is to be a disciple of Christ, doing what a disciple of Christ does--making disciples. The way to make disciples is to love, because of my identity. Because God is love.

We can never dwell on that thought too much. "God is love" seems so simple, but I think we make life, and much more our spiritual life, too complicated. It's human. I am very much human, I've realized a lot in the past year. But God is very much God, and He is merciful and patient...by His grace working in me, I can live and love and lead more like Jesus every day. Only by His grace!

Life gets busy, distances expand, and time grows old. But once upon a time, in a land far away, between the mountains, across the river, where little people pick up orange orbs from the ground, a group of those little people once lived together. Prayed together. Laughed together. Cried together. That year was a milestone in our lives -- and I also believe it was in our spiritual lives as well. 

So, I want to appeal to you: Remember your identity in Christ. I know we each discovered our identity in a deep way that year, and I believe God has taught us each more since then. But it's easy to forget. I don't know what it will take to remember, but I encourage you, take some solo time, like the time we had in Kauai our last Sabbath there, and ask God to help you remember your identity in Christ. In the past two years, life has thrown trials at me like a whirlwind, and all I could do was cling to God and my God-given identity. I have a feeling it's been similar for you. Remember your God-given identity, and cling to it. Because God is clinging to you.

Perhaps I'm the only one who misses you all so much right now. But I don't really think so. Someday very soon, we will have a real family reunion. Not in Kauai, not in Europe, not at Fountainview, but in the land that is fairer than day -- with Jesus, who has kept us faithfully.

Since that day we marched with purple and black.

To the Class of Twenty Eleven.

With love in Christ,

A Faraway Friend

Sorry, I couldn't resist :)

Broken

Dear Father in Heaven,

Last Wednesday was a day full of experiences. You taught me so much, Lord, and in spite of the necessary pain, I believe it was my best day at ARISE. I went to bed with my heart full and grateful.

It was early morning, and I was preparing for the preaching practicum. It was hard; the message just didn't feel right. Kneeling there, in the darkness of the classroom, I pleaded that You would take it and do whatever You needed to. Then it underwent major surgery. This is what I had been waiting for! The message seemed clearer, concise, and better than anything I had prepared before. Yet there was still one thing… 

During my preparation, I prayed specifically that You would make me humble and do the speaking through me. You reminded me that living the message was most important, so I prayed that You would put it in my heart and enable me to live the message as I shared it. I left the room confident that it would be according to Your will.

Breakfast came and went. The moment slowly approached. 1, 2, 3… 7 sermons preached and critiqued. Then, it was my turn. Sending up a prayer, I walked up to the front, and when the 10 minute timer started, I launched in.

That was probably the worst sermon I have ever preached. 

The content was good, but that was about it. David said that he had expected a 10 from me and got a 7; he was disappointed. Some parts were not clear enough. Most importantly, I needed to spice it up and throw my weight into it—because he didn't believe me. He only believed I was sincere after knowing me for 4 months, but anyone else couldn't have believed me. He knew there was some enthusiasm lurking in me somewhere; he had seen it before. 

Content: solid. Delivery: passable. 

What David didn't know was that I had been intending to make it more relevant to our class. I had been intending to write on the board the very points he said he missed. But it all went down the drain.

After more critical remarks from David, Jeffrey added his two cents (which wasn't very much at all). I felt like the man in the Operation game—and it hurt! But I saw my weakness in speaking and took the pointers bravely. I knew it would help me in the future. 

As I sat down, however, I found it hard to pay attention to the rest of the sermons. I began to question why it hadn't gone well. Why couldn't David believe me? In silent prayer, I realized that I hadn't been passionate about the message. Of course the audience couldn't believe me.

But why wasn't I passionate about the message? The very message itself, which was "Lift up Christ, lift up Christ. He must increase, and I must decrease"—this message was not active in my heart. I was a complete hypocrite. I had fooled myself into thinking I was trusting God, when I had been trusting myself. Then I remembered my prayer that morning: "Lord, please make me humble." Ironically, You knew this was the only way to answer it. You showed me what was inside myself. You made me fall upon the Rock and be broken.

I realized that I had been holding You back by my pride. You couldn't use me to the fullest extent because I would have trusted myself, instead of You. I had fooled myself for so long, thinking I was trusting You when I really wasn't.

It reminds me of what I read in Jeremiah 17. There is the man "who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD" (vs. 5). Then there is the man "who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD" (vs. 7). The first is cursed, the second blessed. But then it reads, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…" (vs. 9). I had deceived myself into thinking I trusted in You, when I actually trusted in myself. God alone searches the heart and tests the mind, and He knows better than we the extent of our self-trust.

Before, my spiritual walk had been locked; it wasn't going anywhere very quickly. But when You let me fall on the Rock, it unlocked the barrier of my pride, and my relationship with You was freed. You brought me to my knees at the cross, and I beheld the Lamb of God anew. This broke me further still. Though I deserved nothing, You declared me worth everything, including Your own life; and still I had been blind and selfish enough to put myself in front of the cross. How could I do such a thing? Yet in the cross, You promised me freedom—freedom from this thing called self and this enemy called pride, which I hated and feared. But You told me to fear no more. Christ won the victory. I have no need to fear the enemy within.

You tried to teach me this before, but You had to wait until this opportunity to stop me in my selfish tracks and humble me before the cross. It was the wrong message, and it lacked the right heart; therefore, it cost me the chance to share a last, meaningful message with my class. But You knew that was what it would take to break me. Though it hurt, I thank You. I can honestly look back and say the cost was worth it. And that's exactly what You said on the cross as You thought of me—selfish, prideful me. You said I was worth it! What wondrous love is this!

Later that day, as I savoured our last classes and visited our contacts for the last time, I rejoiced that You were able to speak to my heart and through my mouth in deeper ways than before. 

I just needed to be broken first.

I'm sorry it took so long. Let me never forget. 

Thank You, Father.

In Jesus' precious name,

Amen.

Time That is Left

Laptop on the floor, plugged into the wall under my window. Behind me, empty room except for a few messy suitcases. Beside me, a bunk bed—one mattress bare.

Messy dorm.
Quiet halls.
Vacant rooms.

Empty,

yet full

hearts.

3.75 months is quicker than you think. It amazes me how a group of 45, plus staff, can become so close in so little time. This will be my second class family now.

May we never forget the times...


when we partied at Jeffery's and David's till the night was long gone.

when we laughed at Cody in class because of a new epiphany he discovered.

when we struggled to understand the mysteries of theodicy and other serious subjects—and through God's grace, we prevailed.

when we laid prayer requests before the Lord in James' class.

when we met with our friends in the community, amazed at how God could use broken vessels like us.

when we sat, spellbound, drinking in Ty's words as he expounded on the deepest facets of God's infinite love.

when we cried
by ourselves in the secret place,
during communion,
at the commissioning ceremony,
in our midnight prayer meeting—our last night together.

Though we are not together in body any more, may we never be apart—
in mind,
in heart,
in purpose.

As Jimmy says, let this be the last ARISE class to graduate. We want to go home.

We need to go home.

What will you do with the time that’s left 

Will you live it all with no regret? 

Will they say that you loved till your final breath? 

What will you do with the time that’s left?

Oh, Hallelujah! 

Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! 

Amen

- Mark Schultz

What will you do with the time that's left? 

"Enter into the joy of the Lord."

"Count the cost."

"Take courage."

Matthew 28:18-20.

ARISE and shine.

Giving Appeals in Class

This is for Amaris' sake :) (I did post that poem, too, Amie)

The following is a pretty straight transcription of the appeal I gave in Gaining Decisions class today. Our assignment was to give a 3 minute appeal to the class, stating our topic (on which we would have preached a sermon in all of our imaginations), and then using an appeal text, story, and making an appeal or call.

I really want to praise God for this, because last night I wrestled with the assignment all evening and seemed to come up with nothing (or too many things). So I went to bed with nothing written down and a thousand thoughts flying through my head. In the morning, during my devotions, I prayed about it, and still couldn't stop thinking about what I should do. I was praying about two specific stories to use, and two different angles to approach the topic of salvation from (it had also taken forever to know which topic to do). I tried telling the two stories that morning, and there was no way that I could tell one of them, the personal one, in 1.5 minutes. I felt that it was the kind of story that needed time to sink in by describing the nuances of what was going on. The other story was simple and straight to the point.

Finally, at lunch, I sat down, prayed, and asked God to lead me. I only had about an hour (we have a nice 2-hour lunch break, so we don't fall asleep in class -- yes, they did even told us that), and I just gave it to Him. This is what came together. Because I have never really given an appeal before, and had just learned how to do it in class the past two days, I wrote out the appeal/call section at the end. (For those of you who know me, I have taken to not really writing out much of what I share up front any more. Just notes in point form, and if there are a few exact phrases that need to be said, I'll write those too.)

Class time came, and we all went upstairs to the area where we always have worship. This is because there is a piano there, and one of our fellow classmates who is awesome at the piano was volunteered to give background music for the appeals. We learned in class that you should always have music (only if you have a good pianist) for appeals, because it helps reach into the heart. It helped us all too, to be in that "appeal mode." It would have been hard otherwise, having not heard the entire sermon beforehand.

As time went on, I began to wonder if I really should have used the other story, because it was more personal. It bothered me more and more, and I prayed about it as I listened to the others give their appeals (we drew names out of a hat). My turn came, and I got up, still praying and wondering, and as I set up my computer I told the class "Sorry, I'm having second thoughts about the one I chose. I was going to do a different one."

While they laughed, I continued to pray. I had come to realize by now that every time I share up front, somehow, God brings me to the place where I feel unprepared -- and I have to trust completely and unequivocally in Him. In times past, He has changed the message less than an hour before, or a day before. Once, He added part (not all) of the punchline during Sabbath School before I shared for the church service. Often, I never have an ending written out -- I have to trust that the message is in my heart and that God will speak His word through me. The last time, I felt totally unprepared and only had a skeleton of notes. Each time, God has taught me to trust more and more in Him and less and less in myself when I speak up front. And for those of you who have heard my testimony or read my identity paper, you'll know this lesson is essential.

So I kept praying, "Lord, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to do the other story, even though I have nothing written out for it at all?" I knew that it could be a possibility. I gave it completely to God.

But He finally said, "Just go for it. Use what you have, and trust Me."

(All of that took about 3 seconds, by the way. Don't you just love our hotline to heaven?)

And so I did. Afterwards, when I thought about it, I could see that God had once again brought me to the place of trusting Him and not myself -- not by feeling unprepared, but by completely giving what I had prepared to Him. I knew that He had helped me prepare it, but I also knew that He could completely change the message on the spot, too. So I let Him choose.

I'm finally starting to understand more fully what God meant in Jeremiah 1:17: "Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you" (NKJV, emphasis supplied). I knew it somehow described a balance between preparation under God's guidance and speaking God's words, including preparation of the heart, but now it means so much more to me. Now I really have experienced this verse. Praise God! I'm so thankful.

So, here it is. I transcribed it from my recording of our class today. Generally, a new line indicates when there was a considerable space in my flow of speech. The appeal, though it was written out, was not always word for word with my notes. Jay Rosario, our teacher, gave tips once in a while between appeals, which slightly changed my delivery. I pray you'll be blessed, and all the glory goes to God.

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My topic is Salvation [remember to imagine that the sermon has already been preached]

[piano starts playing]

Our last verse tonight will be Romans 6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I had a friend, who lives in Iceland, and I heard a story once. He was a little boy, and his friend invited him over for a birthday party. And he was really excited. So, he went to the store, and he bought him the perfect gift: it was a toy car. And he was very excited, and he wrapped up the gift, and he put it on the table in his house, and it was just, it was just sitting there, waiting for the day. Then the day came for the party, so he took the gift and he walked to his friend’s house, and he was excited because he saw other people also going to this party, and he was excited to spend time with his friend, celebrating his birthday.

And he got to the door

and he knocked.

And, the mother opened the door, and she said, “Oh, you brought a gift for my son. I’ll take that. Thank you, but we never invited you to the party.” And with that, she slammed the door in his face.

And he stood there, speechless.

He was sad

and disappointed,

and his hope of spending time with his friend was dashed, and he turned around and walked away.

Jesus is standing at your door, holding the gift of eternal life and forgiveness for your sin.

For those of us here who have already accepted this gift of salvation, I have a question to ask you.

How many of us have taken the gift, but slammed the door in Jesus’ face?

Too often we want to be saved so we can have eternal life, but Jesus in my heart? In my life? Sure, Jesus, I’ll accept your gift so I can live and go to heaven, but you’re not coming in—I never invited you.

And we slam the door in His face.

But He is our Friend. He wants to come in and spend time with us. He doesn’t just want to give us the gift. He wants to celebrate the joys of life; He wants to be with us in trial, for He went through the greatest trial so we could have that privilege.

Friends, will you slam the door in Jesus’ face today? Or will you let Him come in—bringing not only the gift, but Himself? What would keep you from fully inviting Him into your life?

Maybe you’re afraid of what changes might happen.

Maybe,

maybe this love is just,

it’s, it’s too hard to grapple with, but it’s simple:

How could you shut out the one who gave up His own life for you? Will you slam the door in His face?

Even if you have never accepted this gift before, or, or if you have,

and you want to respond to God’s infinite sacrifice of love for you again today,

and accept not only the gift, but also the Giver,

into your heart, and into your life today,

would you please stand with me.

Let’s pray.

The Best Class...for the Umpteenth Time!

Yes. For the umpteenth time. If you were to ask me what my favourite class has been so far at ARISE, I'm afraid I'd have to give you a list. It would look something like this (in chronological order):

Who is God?
Abiding in Christ
Does God Exist? (Apologetics/Faith and Reason)
Sabbath
Dos and Don'ts of Evangelism
Marriage, Family, and Relationships
Music
Origin of Evil
Theodicy
Understanding Homosexuality
Building Community
Sanctuary
Nature of Inspiration

And for today's best class ever: Nature of Christ.

No, the list above is not a list of all the classes we have had (but it does contain the majority). I've especially enjoyed these, and it would be really hard to pick my favourite from the list. So I thought I would let you have it all, as it also gives a bird's-eye view of the kinds of classes we are taking.

But back to today's best class! Awesome insights poured into my mind and created a fountain into my heart, as the beautiful truth of Christ as our High Priest who can ultimately "sympathize with our weaknesses," and was in "all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), became clear for the first time (along with Romans 8:3 which says God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh"). After being informed on the controversy over the subject and the two extreme views, we learned that truth is found in the tension between two extremes—like having a string on an instrument perfectly tuned by finding just the right tension (not too tight, not too loose).

It took us about 4 hours to explore just one aspect of the subject, so this won't do it justice, but I'll try to summarize in a few paragraphs.

THE ISSUE: Did Jesus have our pre-Fall human nature or our post-Fall human nature? That is, was He like Adam before the fall—able to form a righteous character by obedience to God's law? Or was He like Adam after the fall—with all the same sinful propensities and inclinations as we have? The two extremes take sides on opposite sides of a huge chasm, using SOP and Scripture to defend and disprove. But the conclusion we came to was simple, Bible-based, SOP-confirmed, true gospel, and life-changing.

First, we studied Jesus in the wilderness and discovered that He was tempted in the three leading temptations found in 1 John 2:15-17: lust of the flesh, pride of life, and lust of the eyes. (All other forms of temptation come from these three leading temptations.) Not only that, but He was tempted to the most ultimate extreme at His weakest and loneliest moment, facing temptations a hundred times greater than anything we will ever have to face.

This surely was eye-opening, but before we could move on we had to overcome the hurdle in our minds that Jesus was not exactly the same as we are. He was God. He actually hated and recoiled from sin and sinful things. We love and run to sin and sinful things. However, when tempted, His human will longed to do something good (like turning stones into bread) both to satisfy His hunger (lust of the flesh), and to answer the devil's "if you are the Son of God" challenge. If He did this, He would have relied on His own divine power, and this was not His Father's will; thus, it would have been sin, because anything that is not God's will is sin.

In summary, I wrote in class:

Christ's human will was His human nature, which is the same as our human will. Our human will is inclined to rely on our human self; Jesus' human will was inclined to rely on His divine self. Thus He meets us at the ROOT of our fallen human nature: SELF.

Then, He took that fallen human will/nature to the cross and left it crushed through the second death—rising only with His glorified human body and divine nature. And in Christ, we can have the same experience. "Christ took our fallen human nature so that He could overcome in our nature in our behalf, and give us perfect obedience as a gift" (James Rafferty, our instructor today). Nothing we do can add to what Christ did in our behalf. This is the true message of righteousness by faith, clearly seen in the truth about the human nature of Christ! And now I understand both truths more clearly. Today's class was truly life-changing, paradigm-shifting, and heart-filling.

This was the best class ever. 

**If you want a more detailed version, or some texts and quotes, just ask, and I'll try to get them to you. For more "Best Class" synopses, stay tuned! Eventually, I will get to that list...or I hope to, at least :)