Something Different

Yesterday morning was amazing! I felt like I was wrestling with God all morning. In the early morning hours it was over the reality that I didn’t really have anything to say even though I had put hours into preparing, during the first set of worship it was over not wanting to be fake, in the middle of the message it was over ditching my notes, and during the blessing it was over obedience. I don’t think any of this wrestling was me fighting God but rather trying to grab a hold of him because I don’t know what I am doing.

The morning took a different tone once I shared a report (you can see it below) from our missionary in Cambodia. We took time to pray for her in the middle of the message and then it was like the gloves were off. I just poured out thoughts that I believe came from God all the while revealing my own heart. We ended with a song and then I brought the cross out and gave the blessing. It was crazy loud and everyone started spontaneously cheering. All yesterday and this morning I have been getting comments on the conviction and motivation they received from the morning. It was crazy awesome. To God be the glory!

Last week I received an e-mail from Molly a missionary we support in Cambodia reporting some very sad news. Below is her e-mail. I’m not sure if that is Vatana in the picture below but it is Molly.

We have had a tragedy hit us here in Battambang. One of my students and friends, Vatana, 21 year old Cambodian guy went swimming on Sunday in a river with his church friends. Although he was a good swimmer the water was very dangerous that day and around 3:00 I received the news that he went under and they couldn’t find him. His friends went out to get him, but the current was sucking him under and he told his friends to get back because he knew want them to risk their lives. The two friends tried to save him, but had to retreat to the shore. They searched for his body and 24 hours later they found him.

Vatana was on my outreach team. For the last 6 months he’s been someone that I’ve been focusing on and pouring into. Our very friend, our younger brother has gone to be with his Dad in Heaven just two days after the completion of his 6 month training. Most of the students and all the staff have come back to the base to be together and seek the Lord. Please pray for us as we continue to grieve and celebrate a life so alive in Christ.

Vatana was an evangelist, he made me tired, he wouldn’t stop, we went to everyone’s house when we would go out to share the Gospel. He was an amazing worship leader, the only time he didn’t have a guitar was when he was sleeping. He had dreams of planting churches in Cambodia, deep into the villages where the Gospel had not been heard. He was responsible, a hard worker and bold. He was also kind and encouraging. He could make anyone feel special by just smiling. He was planning to come back and be on staff with us in September. We don’t understand why this happened, but we continue to focus on the Lord, because his thoughts are higher than my thoughts and his ways are better than mine. Please pray for me, Vatana and I were very tight and he shared lots of his heart with me in the last 6 months. I miss him a lot. Please pray for peace.

I’ve owned this book for a few years and never really had any interest in reading it. I think it was because I had a feeling I knew what the author would say. He would share that Jesus was a story teller, He had a heart for people, and He was close to God. For some reason though I felt compelled to pull this book off the shelf and give it a whirl. What I found was exactly what I listed above. Frye unpacked different characteristics of Christ and shared personal stories of how it has looked in his own life.

BUT

There was so much more! Around the halfway point Frye became more direct in his writing about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He jumped into an exploration of spiritual warfare on a Pastor and their family and the reality of the ongoing conflict we are in with the evil one. He shared a deep conviction on the presence of Christ in our lives that goes beyond your token talk of God is with us. These are all concepts, experiences, and beliefs that I hold to but have rarely seen discussed by Pastors who have come from a traditional seminary educated Pastor.

AND THE KICKER

He closed the book with a few shorter chapters that talked about the ongoing role and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Frye took a direct approach at shooting down the arguments of the Cessationist, sighting frustration, suspicious fear, and resisting the Holy Spirit as the primary attitudes of the cessationist system. One of my favorite quotes was, “Cesationism is vasectomy of the Spirit.”

In closing none of this was new for me but rather a joyful and refreshing read of one’s journey in wrestling with all of this which is what I think Frye wanted to accomplish all along. I highly recommend this book to all who want to explore the more because the truth is – THERE IS MORE!

Last Friday I had coffee with a friend I had met while in or Orlando. He’s from Chicago and was passing through on his way to Kansas and thought he would check out what we were doing here at thebridge. It was a great time of encouraging one another and as we parted ways we both shared how we were excited for the next time our paths would cross. Little did we know that would be in 30 minutes.

Bruce calls me up shortly after he had left to inform me that a woman had run out of gas about 10 miles outside of Ottumwa. He wanted to know how he could help. I told him I would be there in a few minutes with a gas can.

I have to admit that upon arriving I wasn’t all that excited about the change in plans. The woman kept complaining about her gas guzzler while two little guys tried to keep themselves entertained in the car. After gassing the car up and giving the two boys a fist pound I went home and didn’t think much of it.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and who should walk in but the lady, her grand-kids, and their dad. Thanks Bruce for the phone call. It was totally worth it. One gas can = 4 visitors.

side note – after the service this woman came up and showed me that her Bible has Acts 10:30 as four days and the Bibles we were using had three days. I went home and all of the other Bibles I own also have four days. Anyone else ever have that happen?

A couple days ago Toby and I were invited to go fishing. This was very exciting for Toby as Caillou had recently gone fishing with his grandpa. I was really glad we got to go with Steve because I am horrible at fishing. We went to a pond just outside of Ottumwa and it was perfect. We saw frogs the size of softballs, a tractor, an airplane, and play with worms. As to be expected Toby caught the largest fish as pictured below.

When we remodeled our home we changed a small room in the upstairs into our bathroom. Never having done this before we positioned the stool right next to a window. The other day Toby had pulled the roller shade down to the floor so I was doing what you do and thought I’d just fix the shade. That thing shot out of my hand so fast and flew to ceiling. I sort of went into shock not knowing what to do – do you stand? do you duck? do you just act like this is normal and you don’t care? Jenny got a pretty good kick out of the story.

Last night I was trying to calm Toby down to go to bed and the conversation turned to him wanting to eat chips. The problem was I couldn’t understand if he wanted one or not. So I asked do you want one or none? He said none in response but it was clear he thought that meant he would get some. I said none is the same is zero. He just starts screaming, “I want zero. Give me zero chips!”

I got a warning ticket a little while back. After 8 speeding tickets and 7 warnings in the first 8 years of driving I am happy to report only 2 speeding tickets and 4 warnings since. This warning ticket was pretty standard – I was going 77 in a 65. What jumped out as odd though was a box that was filled in next to ethnicity. For some reason what was written in was “not Hispanic” to which I’d like to point out that I’m not a lot of other things either. I’m not sure what kind of profiling this but don’t you think that is a bit strange. I’ll put a picture of the warning up if I can find it.

Lydia is officially a teenager- I state this because of her new favorite toys: the phone, the remote control, my car keys, and my wallet.

I went on my first motor cycle ride ever on Sunday. A Vietnam Vet who attends thebridge regularly (I think he just likes the coffee – jk) asked if I would go for a ride with him. I figured why not. My father-in-law would point out that this was a Harley which I think is motor talk for louder. Anyways, he shared that he wanted to take me somewhere. I said sure. After driving a bit and trying to figure out how to make sure I didn’t fall off (something about a tall guy sitting high on the back sit makes you more likely to fall and catch bugs in your face) I asked where we were going. He mentioned a place about 10 miles outside of Ottumwa. YIKES! Side note – how in the world do you see on one of those things when you are going 65 mph? The wind just sucks your face back. The place he took me was pretty cool. It was a historical landmark that I had driven by hundreds of times but had never stopped to look at. It turns out it was the burial site of Curtis King, the oldest man to serve in the Civil War at age 80! You should take a minute and read his bio here. I love curve balls like this. They just stop and make you think. They also remind you why you don’t want a motor cycle.

Friday night Jenny woke up to get Lydia at 1:00am but I told her the noise she heard was coming from outside and that it had been going on for at least 20 minutes. She took a peek out our window to discover a police car right outside our house on the street with a man and a woman yelling at each other. The entire dispute went on for another half hour with an additional police car showing up and both individuals taken away. It turns out that neither person lives in the area and they just happened to pull over in front of our yard to continue their fight. Still processing this one but Jenny and I still laugh at ourselves because we were peeking through our curtains watching the whole thing.