Adventures...

I have had the opportunity to get a couple of days away from Lakeshore in the past few days. Friday I took my first trip to New Orleans with my pastor's wife and another volunteer. I had a great time walking around New Orleans and stopping in some of the stores along the way. I could have walked around all day just taking in the sights. I also ventured into my first tattoo shop, no tattoos for me though. But I did get a chance to play a couple decent guitars that were in a little hole in the wall guitar store.

Today I ventured off to Mobile, AL. I just felt like taking a ride, since I have gotten my car back and the a/c works! and I had never been to Alabama. I didn't stop really to do anything. I was content just to drive around and enjoy the beauty of God's creation. It's bit different than the surroundings here in Lakeshore.

Pastor Don began this week a series through the book of Nehemiah. I am really quite excited about this.

Work here in Lakeshore continues to go on. And this weekend we were able to get Ms. Bula into her house, so that is really exciting. We still have a few teams coming and going, working here on the church property, in the warehouse, and in people's homes. The distribution center is still a very busy place, many folks are still in need of the basics.

A Mighty Fortress is our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

-Martin Luther
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Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength,a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam,though the mountains tremble atswelling. Selah

Uniforms, distribution, and Mississippi's largest M

As time goes on we are getting closer and closer to moving into the new office and out of the camper. We recently got the power on and air conditioner running, this morning it was a brisk 65 degrees in the office. Though there are still a few things that need to be done before we can fully move in.

Our team from Texas has been working hard doing many different tasks. A team of 11 is spread pretty thin between helping in the kitchen, helping in the distribution center/warehouse, and putting up drywall, but they are doing a good job. Tomorrow we will give away uniforms for the Gulfview elementary school children, which we have been collecting over the last couple of months. The other day we were blessed with a few hundred uniform shirts, shorts, and pants.

The distribution center saw another busy day. I’m not sure of the final count for the day, but around 11:30am about 310 people had already come through. This is the line that started forming around 8:30am, a half hour before the store opens.

When interns get bored... (which doesn’t happen often):
So we filled in the bog that was behind the Quonset hut with part of the crushed up elementary school from down the road. Now we have the highest point in Hancock County behind the cemetery, well maybe not the highest but gave me a hill big enough to build on. I’ve told them back home we have the worlds largest “M” and they have seen my “I’ve climbed the worlds largest “M” t-shirt” so I decided to bring a little bit of home to Mississippi. The side of the hill gave me a place to put it.

What the gospel is not...

I came across this as I was reading the other day and thought Mark Dever made some good points about what the gospel is not. The article can be found at http://marks.9marks.org/overview.php?mark=3

1. I’m Ok, you’re OK

Sin is humanity's biggest problem, not self-esteem.

• Sin does not just make my heart desperately sick. It kills me as a person apart from the gracious and saving influence of God's Spirit. I was DEAD in my trespasses and sins, and I was earning death as a paycheck for my diligent disobedience.
• Humanity's biggest problem is that our own sin has shut us up to spiritual death - eternal separation from the God whose fellowship we were created to enjoy, and servile slavery to the power and penalty of sin.
• If we consistently or deliberately omit sin from our preaching or from our evangelism, we are preaching a different gospel, and need to repent of this sin and preach God's truth with bold, counter-cultural clarity. The gospel is NOT that we are all OK with God.

2. God is love

• "God is love" is commonly misinterpreted and therefore misused. It is increasingly popular today to trot out 1 John 4:8, "God is love," and then assume that God's love is the only divine attribute that has any functional significance in the way He relates to people.
• Simplistically equating God with love leads to error.
• Mathematically, if God = love, then love = God. If God becomes equated with love, then love has become God.
• Theologically, we know that many other things characterize God besides love - the Bible presents God as holy, sovereign, and a whole host of other things.
• So to reduce God or His gospel to just love is crass idolatry that caricatures the King of Kings.
• It would not actually be good news for sinners to learn that the only attribute out of which God acts towards His created people is love. If God were so singularly amiable, from whom would we seek retributive justice for wrongs suffered? Is it really good news to learn that Judge of all the universe is willing to forgive sin without punishing it? The gospel is NOT simply that God is love.

3. Jesus Wants to be my friend

"Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship."

Ever heard that? It's true enough, isn't it? God has taken us in as His adopted sons and daughters (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:4-7). Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers (Heb 2:11-12). And whoever does the will of the Father is considered by Jesus as family (Mark 3:31-35).

But have you noticed that some people attach the implication that Christianity is simply Jesus wanting to be my friend or brother, along with a subtle appreciation for the irony of casual familiarity with the divine.

• Yet Christianity is not simply a casual friendship with Jesus, because the gospel is not simply the cultivation of a friendship or even the following of another's example. The gospel involves God's holiness, our sin, the payment of a ransom, the conferring of an acquittal, the winning of a war, and ultimately the glory of God and the spread of His fame.
• The gospel is referred to in the Bible not only in relational, but in economic, military, and legal language. Thus to pigeonhole Christianity as merely a relationship is reductionistic. The gospel certainly does enable us to have a relationship with God through Christ Jesus, but it is also more than that.
• To say that Christianity can be summed up by the idea that Jesus wants to be my friend is a man-centered way to view the gospel. It assumes that the gospel is only or primarily about bringing man into a personally fulfilling relationship with God, rather than about bringing glory to God for His grace, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, justice, and love. The gospel is not simply that Jesus wants to be my friend.

4. We should straighten up and fly right

Some say that the gospel is simply the message that I need to change my behavior. The good news is seen as consisting in a set of virtues, biblical and otherwise. If I am busily enough engaged in these virtues, I will be pleasing to God and helpful to others.

If the gospel is just a change of outward behavior accomplished on my own, regardless of the state of my inner self - then the gospel is reduced to mere moralism. In other words, we've begun to think that the gospel penetrates no deeper than the level of outward moral renovation, when in reality the gospel penetrates to the level of inward spiritual transformation.

This tendency to moralism is often the danger of preaching that treats Scriptural texts and characters as mere examples to emulate or avoid instead of as integrated scenes and characters in the grand story of redemption writ large on the canvas of human history.

The gospel is not merely an additive that can make our already good lives better. Nor is it a commandment to live rightly that we can obey by digging down deep within ourselves. The gospel is not simply that we should live right.

real quick...

This past week was a bit slower in that we had only one team working most of the week (15 folks compared to 210 is a bit slower). But this team, from Vinton Iowa, worked hard and had fun. Though we were on fewer work sites, the distribution center saw one of it's bigest days ever. On Wednesday 533 people came through the distribution center to get food, clothing, and other items.

Ms. Lynn's house is coming right along as well. Part of the team from Iowa was in there hanging sheetrock this week. Ms. Redford's house is still waiting on a few things before she is able to move in.

For the folks I haven't told yet:
All along I have been considering staying in Lakeshore a bit longer. So in the past week or so after much prayer and consideration I have made the desicion to stay here until December.

The Gospel

I am convinced that many of today’s churches are lacking an essential component. They got the fancy music, a program/class for any age group/gender/problem/etc., comfortable pews/chairs, large/attractive facilities, among other things. Do not hear me say that these things are altogether bad, I enjoy beautiful churches and comfortable pews, too. But these things alone without the gospel are dangerous. I know there are many churches today that rarely if ever preach the gospel, giving their folks a false sense of eternal security by not preaching the Bible, but just getting the folks into the church on a Sunday morning to tell them some nice happy story, never sharing truth with them about Christ, his death on the cross, and the death he died so those who believe would not see the terrors of hell. Sorry folks but just coming to church on Sunday morning does not make you a Christian. No one will get into heaven by just attending one church service or attending church every weekend for their whole life.

There is only way to heaven and that is through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Any good work we do will not get us there, we could try forever to do good, yet fall so short. Romans 3:10-12 says “as it is written “None is righteous; no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God, All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” There is no one who does good, we are all born dead in sin. Romans 3:23 say all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are born into sin, but sin results in death. Not just a physical death but also a spiritual death. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But hear the second part of the verse, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Before receiving this free gift we must recognize that we sinners and that we are separated from God because of sin and we are in need of a mediator. "Your iniquities have separated you from your God" (Isa. 59:2).

Jesus Christ is that mediator and came to this earth to be a ransom for many.
"There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men" (I Tim. 2:5-6).

God sent his only Son to show his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). Christ died upon a cross for the sins of men, though he had never sinned himself. He died that we may have life
"He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness" (I Peter 2:24).

A person must believe that Christ alone died, that he was buried and raised from the dead on the third day for the sins of many. Acknowledge that there is no other way to be saved from the depths of hell, but through believing in and trusting Christ.
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

To this good news we are called to respond in repentance and belief, meaning turning away from our sin and self-sufficiency, and turn toward God and trust that Christ’s bleeding and dying on the cross was the only substitute for the penalty we truly deserve for our sin.
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).