One Year In: Perspective in Layers

As promised, I wanted to look back over the last year to show you, with amazement, what God has done in our lives over this time.  At times Amanda and I feel like things are going so slowly.  We want more ministry and want to impact more people for Jesus, but it doesn’t seem to happen at the pace we desire.  When we step back, however, we more clearly see what the Lord has done and how much He really has accomplished.

Layer 1:  Edwards Family

One year ago at this time, I had received a call from a school district in Everett, Washington regarding a job interview.  I had been in prayer since returning from Seattle in early August that the Lord Himself would pick my future job.  I agreed to only apply for jobs and wait.  I would know He had picked the city for us when I would get the call that they wanted to hire me.  My faith was simple and solid:  if he can resurrect from the dead, He can certainly cause me to get, or not to get a job.

If you followed this blog early on, you may know how things transpired from this point.  The district wanted to interview me over Skype only to learn that I had already planned on coming back to Seattle on the very week they were interviewing.  I already had my plane ticket, purchased more than a month before when our plan was simply to return to Seattle to see the area and get more ideas on where the Lord was moving.

As a family we had talked about the idea of moving to Seattle.  Amanda and I had sat with the boys to talk about the possibility of God moving us to Seattle to tell others about Jesus.  I remember that we had the most support from Elijah, Isaiah, and Josiah, and that makes a lot of sense.  They have experienced nothing but change in their life and are used to it, having had to hop among 5 foster homes.  Samuel and Zachary were a bit more reluctant since they loved their family and friends in Houston and were trying to imagine the idea of leaving them.  We talked with them about this and they quickly came around to the idea that Seattle might actually be what is best for our family.

Layer 2:  Everett, Washington at Everett Family Church

On a totally related note, it is important to know what was going on in Everett at the time of this phone call.  The pastors of Everett Family Church were meeting to discern whether EFC should remain open or close forever.  The church had reached a crossroads in commitment from its members and enthusiasm was waning.  They met together one night and Mike asked the team whether they thought EFC should close.  Some were for it and others were not.  Those opposed seemed to have this undefinable idea that God wasn’t finished with EFC yet.  They prayed for direction and for people who would come to help in their ministry.

Remember that we didn’t know anyone at EFC at the time and we didn’t even know it existed.

Layer 2:  Summer Creek High School

At work during this time I was totally lost.  I had lost all will to continue doing what I had been doing.  Having had the curtain pulled back on what life is all about, I now realized that the entire kingdom I had built with my career and specifically at Summer Creek High School was worthless and useless.  Why continue building a sandcastle that would ultimately be washed away in a wave, signifying nothing of eternal significance?  I loved the people I worked with every day, I just no longer cared for the work itself.  I was so torn in my heart, knowing that God would soon be taking us away from everything we knew to experience everything He had for us.  Many questions.  No answers.  

Here’s an excerpt from my personal journal, written on September 28, 2013.

I found myself to be tired and discouraged this week.  While I still felt God’s presence and worshipped Him all week, I just wasn’t seeing much fruit.  I longed for spiritual conversations, salvation for others, and change, but I would just look up to see myself in the midst of my daily work.  That was tough.

In the end, I found that I was tired.  Very, very tired.  I continue to wake up in the middle of the night, sometimes at 2:15, 3:15, or 4:15 and am unable to go  back to sleep.  Whil e I am super-excited about Seattle, I am missing a lot of sleep.  On Wednesday, I was just exhausted.  I felt “fuzzy” on the rain.  I wasn’t alert and couldn’t think clearly.  I had a normal day at work, but that combined with the assessments I took for the North American Mission Board just took it out of me.  I decided to quit working and watched some Myth Busters instead.  I almost felt as though I should apologize to God for it, but in doing that I was overcome with a significant sense of His love.  I believe He really wanted me to stop and rest, and truthfully I haven’t done that in a long time.  When I search the Bible, I consider Elijah who ran into the wilderness 100 miles to escape Jezebel.  He fell asleep and God woke him, providing food and water.  God told him to eat because the journey was too much for him.  God knows what we need.  I believe He doesn’t want us to work 24/7 because He knows we need rest and are more effective for Him if we have rested.  He is incredible.

The job I applied for in Everett has been reposted.  Still waiting.

Layer 3:  A Replacement

Though I was in despair and had no idea in October of 2013 when God would bring us to Washington, he had already begun moving people into place who would replace me.  One of the most significant of those moves involved the district moving an associate principal from another high school over to my building.  She was equal in position to me.  The circumstances involving her move to us were beyond her control and initially we were in this awkward place of working together while occupying the same position.  However, it dawned on me pretty quickly that what God had really done was to provide my replacement  at work prior to me actually leaving.  It was as though He sat me down at a table face to face to look me in the eye, stating “Paul, I have a plan for you.  When it becomes apparent to you what I have done, you will be amazed.  As a start I have already put your replacement in place at work.  I can take you to Washington at any moment.” 

That sent shivers down my spine and still does to this day. I remember talking privately with her and suggesting that her story might just wind up being that of a modern day Joseph from the Bible.  In a 20 year period Joseph went from favorite son to slave in Egypt, servant in a house, jail inmate, and finally to second in command of Egypt.  I can confidently say that the Lord used this situation to look out for both of us with equal care.  His strategy and planning were without equal. 

Genesis 50:

¹⁹ But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. ²¹ No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.”

Now I examine where we are one year removed from these events.  I am a Community Pastor, regular preacher, street evangelist, mission team leader, and church planter.  A year ago I was a Sunday School teacher, deacon, and associate principal at a high school.  What a year!  What a God!

I hope this slice of our story brings you some encouragement.  Perhaps you are in a place where you just can’t figure out where God is taking you.  Maybe you have been waiting on him to move you to something greater for a while now and can’t figure out what that thing is.  Our story should show you that God hasn’t forgotten you and isn’t surprised by your circumstances.  He has you exactly where He wants you at this moment, and He can literally turn your entire life upside down in a matter of months.  He may already be moving in situations and “layers” behind the scenes on your behalf.  While the picture is blurry or completely dark to you, it is active and crystal clear to Him.  What He wants is you.  His love for you is passionate, limitless, priceless, and everlasting, no matter what you have done or not done in your life.  Surrender everything to Him and see what He does in that.

Confessions of the Unqualified

I continue to be amazed at the swift change in seasons here in Western Washington.  Only one month ago the sun was coming up around 6am and would set around 8pm.  Now, it comes up around 7:15 am and sets at 6:45pm.  Over the next month we will lose another 2 hours of daylight as the clouds continue their steady march back into the skies here.  Winter is coming.  On top of that, our clear weather is gradually giving way to fog that lasts for half the day, and the rain has been on the increase since fall officially started in mid-September.

As daylight hours have disappeared so have the people.  There are not nearly as many people out on the streets now as there were a month ago.  Over the last few weeks I have taken several opportunities to go out on the streets during my lunch break at work to pray and see if I can talk to anyone.  For the last several weeks I have had no encounters with anyone.  This initially is hard for me because I have always had this sense that I need to be talking to everyone I can about Jesus, but that thinking really diminishes who God is and what prayer is about.  It diminishes God because I have said before that I believe He can control conversations I have or don't have on the street.  If I am saying in my mind that I haven't "accomplished" anything when I don't get to talk to someone, I'm saying that, even though God was at work with me, it wasn't good enough.  I'm learning that sometimes He draws me to the streets to pray for the city and for areas of the city.  This mindset also connects to a poor view of prayer.  Prayer is never wasted time and it does have results as the person who prays gets to talk directly to God.  I have seen my own prayers get answered over and over again here in very specific ways, so it is clear this is not wasted time.

 In talking to people at EFC I found this week that so many of them were burdened with depression in some form, or were carrying burdens that they are struggling to bear.  This has hit our family as well.  While most people point to the weather as the cause, and it definitely is a factor, there is something more to it.  Spiritual opposition and oppression is significant here.

The Bible describes in Daniel chapter 10 what happened "behind the curtain" when Daniel prayed to God.

Daniel 10

12 Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince[c] of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels,[d] came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.[e] 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”

While I am not the type of person who believes that there are demons behind every corner and tree, I do know they are real.  I can't describe the sense one gets while on the streets here, sometimes on particular blocks or specific areas of the city, but it is almost as though evil is right there in that place.  For many years, the Pacific Northwest has experienced significant oppression at the hands of these forces of evil.  But God is here, and He is stronger.

I mention this partly because of some moments recently where we as a family were feeling a sense of suffocation and pressure.  At the same time, I have been praying a lot more and in a lot more places in our city.  I know that's what God wants, but as I am learning firsthand, prayer isn't just words muttered to the air.  It is actually in many cases is engaging in a very real spiritual battle.  Just as engaging in a literal battle with a sword or shield would be exhausting, I have found that prayer can feel the same way.  I don't mean that I feel drained after prayer, but I sense resistance to it that is intangible.

Artwork on a sidewalk near a local bus stop.  This truly captures the feeling many people here have about what the good life is all about.  That kind of deception is powerful in this place.

The other big work that I find myself doing these days has to do with pastoring.  I have shifted my own mindset and now see our community group as a little church.  We have a great group of people from all over north Everett including neighbors and others who live within about 2 miles of us.  I pray for these folks daily and am really trying to keep up with the guys each week by at least talking to them on the phone or going to lunch.  This is particularly difficult with men because they all have jobs just like I do, and when they get home they take care of their own kids just like I do.  Keeping up with them and spending time with them will be an ongoing challenge, but this work is so worthwhile!  I am hoping over time that we are able to develop discipleship between us, and I believe that is already happening to a degree.  We're now beyond small talk and in some cases are getting into sharing our current burdens and stressors.  Discipleship is the thing that the global Church doesn't do very well these days, but it is the one thing we can do that brings everybody closer to the Lord.  This church that the Lord helps us to build here will be a discipling church.

One thing that will separate this church from others is in how we view the role of "pastoring" and discipleship.  While I love visiting people, keeping up with their lives, visiting hospital rooms, etc, I don't see anywhere in scripture where these things are limited to pastors in the church.  We all are supposed to be doing these things because of our love for each other.  I hope to instill that value in our church plant quickly.  Pastoring isn't just for pastors.  Missions work isn't just for missionaries.  We are all pastors and missionaries.

What Faith Now Means to Me

As the Lord brings us closer to His purpose for us here in Everett, He is grinding us down.  You may read that and immediately think of that in the negative, and it certainly hurts.  But God knows that if we are to fulfill His purpose here in Everett, we can't be the same people who moved from Huffman, Texas.  Pride must go.  Self-sufficiency must be laid to rest.  In their place, love must grow.  In this area that is so cynical about religion in general and Christianity in particular, the thing that will change people is real love.

This may sound funny but over the last few weeks I have finally come to the conclusion that I can't do this.  I am not equipped or prepared to be a pastor to anyone.  I am not patient, not always kind, and don't always love people regardless of the situation.  I can be fickle and moody and selfish and rude.  If you were to go out among churches and try to identify people who would be the best candidates to plant churches in the Pacific Northwest, I would not stand among them.

My conclusion, however, has come with the opposing realization that God can.  I think it is entirely possible that He is putting the old Paul to death so that a new Paul can be born, one that is good for His use.   Think about it:  if I am incapable of doing this work, and yet it still happens, who gets the glory for the work?  God, and that is as it should be.  I was asked this week what my vision of a Paul Edwards church is.  I knew the answer immediately.  I don't want any part of a Paul Edwards church!  Nationwide there are too many examples of "fill in the blank with person's name" Church, and they all are nothing but monuments to the ego of the pastor.  Instead, we must be about lifting Jesus up and bringing people to Him by being pipelines for love.

The U.S.S Nimitz at sunset.   This is an interesting contrast when you think about it.  The beauty of God's creation in the background.  One of the most powerful weapons ever created by man in the foreground.  If mankind really is improving as a species and becoming more moral, why then do we require machines like this?

While before I knew and could give examples of how God took people from the Bible and put them into periods of solitude so that He could change them, now I know why that is necessary.  In the past I could give you examples of how God changed the name of a person because they were beginning a new journey in their lives, I now see why that action was so meaningful.  He wants all of us to be truly new creations, redone in His image, seeking His glory, and proclaiming His name in all the earth.

What does this have to do with faith?  Everything!  I cannot see specifically what the Lord is bringing us to do, but I know He is moving forward.  On my toughest days I wonder why He chose us and brought us here to the Northwest, yet I know it was Him who brought us and called us and provided the way for us to get here.  I would go so far as to say that I have no idea how He will use us to establish a church here in North Everett, but I know it is coming.

Hebrews 11:1-  Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

A Time of Learning

 

I took the boys to this park on the edge of Puget Sound this week.  While there you have great views of the Naval Base and can hear sea lions barking in the background!

 

I wrestle each week with what to post here on the blog.  It isn't that I have to search long and hard to find things that God is doing here in Everett.  He moves every day and is quite active here, both in our hearts and in the hearts of people around us.  The challenge is that there are things that go on behind the scenes that sometimes are personal to people around us because the circumstance deals directly with their life.  I don't ever want this to become a place where we trumpet good deeds being done in an effort to make us look good.  That's popular in this age we live in but is totally inappropriate as a follower of Jesus.  We are commanded to not "do your good deeds publically, to be admired by others..." (Matthew 6:1), so while many great things have happened this week, because of their personal nature with people in our church they won't be posted here.  However, please join us in praising God that He is moving in lives here in Everett, and they are changing for the better!  Only He can do that.

I can focus instead on a great learning experience from Saturday.  A group of us from EFC went down to Renton to experience a training event titled "When Helping Hurts", which is based upon a wonderful book of the same title.  The basic premise of the training is that the world and the church don't do a good job of helping the poor because we are only treating symptoms of a much deeper problem.  We unfortunately have experienced this firsthand here.  Consider the homeless for a second:  many of them request money but when money is provided it only goes to alcohol or drugs.  The alcohol and drugs are often their "medication" to treat the deep sense of aloneness and spiritual emptiness that they feel.  When many people learn this lesson the hard way, their response is usually to back away from the homeless and stop giving anything because, after all, they won't use the resources the right way.  But doing that is also wrong, because the problem still hasn't been addressed.  On top of that, to back away in horror or disgust is to lack love for that person.

We learned to instead view the problem as a person being disconnected from God, themself, other people, and the community.  But before we get to this point, we have to view every human being in the world as being poor.  You might argue with this point, especially if you've heard me teach, by reminding me that you yourself aren't poor.  Economically you probably are not since all of America is in the richest 20% of the world population.  But how about spiritually?  Like it or not, you and I are spiritually broken people.  While we may attempt to know God and become like him, we still have this thing called sin which, no matter what, is a disease that persists in our bodies until the day we die.  So in light of this perspective, are you poor?

Or maybe you still don't consider yourself spiritually poor.  Are you poor in relationship with the rest of creation?  We were commanded by Jesus to:

John 13:34-35
³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

And yet we have a global church that isn't meeting the needs of orphans, widows, or the poor.   You are right in thinking that some in the church are doing these things, but not many in proportion to people who regularly attend.  Jesus also said that our neighbor is everyone around us (Luke 10:25-37), and yet how many of us can name a single thing we have done to show love to someone who is NOT in our family or group of friends.  Can you think of any recent examples in your own life?

Matthew 5:46-47  

46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[s] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 
If we are all poor, then we are in this journey toward Jesus together.  We can walk alongside someone else who is poor and lead them toward Christ through discipleship.  This also was a command of Jesus.  Instead of giving money away, we can find ways to empower them to make lasting change in their lives, through our love for them.  However we must remember that a person who is barely surviving through 30 years of a broken life will not change overnight, just as you and I haven't changed overnight.  It may take years and a lot of frustration and persistence, but even if it does, is there any better way to demonstrate the love of Jesus to someone?  Isn't He doing that very same thing to you?

Our team is challenged with this new perspective, and I believe that the Lord brought this training to us at just the perfect time.  We are praying and considering His vision for our ministry in Everett, and what better way to do that than to constantly consider the best way to "love our neighbor as ourself"?  The more I read the words of Jesus the more I see that He calls us to give our lives away in love to Him and to others.  Our job now is to figure out what that looks like in our specific neighborhood and context.  I am convinced the Lord will show this to us.  Please join us in prayer as we seek the Lord's vision for this new ministry.

Further Information

If you are interested in this new way of thinking about loving those around you, I would encourage you to listen to my recent sermon on this very topic.  You can access it by clicking on the Sermon Recordings tab at the top of this blog.  I believe the Lord spoke in a fresh way through this lesson, and I personally learned a lot in just putting it together.

Sundown over the Port of Everett with the Naval Base in the background.

A Work in the Heart

Fall is on its way here in the Seattle area.  The leaves are beginning to turn and our morning temperatures this week dropped into the 40's once again.  Our weather continues to be second to none, but you can tell a change is already happening.  We have already lost almost 4 hours of daylight and the sun now comes up after 6:30 AM and sets around 7:30 PM.  Whereas people currently can be found outside enjoying the sun, very soon we will head inside to endure a cold and dark winter.  This reminded me again of our challenge in being here to plant a church.  There is a limited amount of time here to find people outside and connect with them.  Once they disappear into their houses, you might not see them again until next May!

 Sunrise over the Cascade Mountains.  The Lord drew me out onto our back porch several mornings this week to show me what He can create.  Psalm 19:1

Men's Retreat

Last weekend many of the men from EFC gathered together for the Men's Retreat. We drove to Maple Valley, Washington, a town pretty close to Mt. Rainier, and stayed at a resort with lake and mountain views. Friday evening started with some teaching from "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan, which is one of the top 3 most influential Christian books for me. All weekend we wrestled with the idea of what a lukewarm follower of Jesus looks like from Revelation 3, and were challenged by some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus including:

Matthew 16:24-25New Living Translation (NLT)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Luke 14:33 New Living Translation (NLT)
33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. 

Matthew 7:21-23 New Living Translation (NLT)

True Disciples

²¹ “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

 Left to right:  Shawn, Steve, Dan, Me, John, Steve, Mike, Mike, and Darrell.  These are some great men and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

We played paintball (in the name of the Lord).  Here I await yet another opportunity to be painfully gunned down by a fellow brother in Christ.
We were challenged by these words because the American church largely doesn't teach on them. We are told that we must give up everything we own but that it's okay to hang on to much of the silly stuff that we buy or pay for on a regular basis. Yet Jesus commented that it is very hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:23-24), and here we are the richest society that has ever been on the face of the earth. Even the "poor" in America are among the richest 20% of the world's population. We in the American church have been blinded by success and material things, forgetting that the only thing that truly matters is a relationship with Jesus. We "honor him with our lips, but our hearts are far from him." Matthew 15:9

I walked away from this experience thinking hard about where I am as a follower of Jesus and about what He might have me do next.

• What are we supposed to do with this big house we have?  If I say this place is His, what does that mean for us?
• What kind of work does He want me to do? 
• Am I supposed to cut back financially so we can be stretched in our faith?  Am I supposed to give more?
• What do we do with our neighborhood?

Then I got to some tougher questions like:

• Have I given up everything I own to follow Jesus?
• What in my life right now requires faith?

As I got back to the routine of this week, I encountered a great quote from a church leader here in America. He stated quite simply: "attempt something so great for God that it is doomed to failure if He is not in it." Wow. That really challenged me and was like a not so gentle nudge to me to step out in faith as we look to plant a church here in Everett. I'm going to continue pondering those words for quite a while.

Determining a Vision

In this interim time of waiting, I have felt pressed by the Lord to ask Him for a vision regarding what we will do here. I have to admit that my initial reaction to "mission and vision" statements is one of cynicism. In the world of education these ideas have unfortunately been perverted as an end-all, be-all way of making a great school. I've seen many good vision statements in schools and school systems that the employees didn't care about or aren't aware of. Worse yet, I have been around numerous school leaders who disengaged themselves from implementing these statements once they were created because they had suddenly completed the magic task of creating them. However, vision statements have a real purpose when it comes to starting a church. They define things like what we are striving to be in a community, what we will spend our time doing, and what kinds of people we will work with. I believe that if leaders will sincerely pursue the creation of a vision and mission by laying it before the Lord, the world should look out!

For me that has taken the form of prayer with the Lord and writing down ideas that come to mind. I have a lot of great ideas on what a church should look like in this community, but the worst thing we could do is start a carbon copy of another church. That doesn't work because every neighborhood is different and contains a variety of people from various backgrounds and cultures. If we want stale and boring, we will copy someone else. If we want vibrant, different, and real, we go to the Lord! It is my intent over the next few months to jot down ideas during prayer time and gradually meld those into a vision statement for our church. Hopefully once that is created I will be able to take it to our church leaders for their input. It has always been my belief that the Lord speaks through your peers, and this instance will be no different. If I'm off track they will be able to tell me. While this is one of those things that is done in quietness initially, I'm very excited to spend this time with the Lord.

With this in mind, last night I got home from the service at EFC and just felt that the Lord didn't want me to turn on the TV and disengage from the world. Instead, I opened the book of Acts and began to read it in a totally new way. Instead of doing my usual thing of reading it chapter by chapter, I decided to devour the book in just a couple of sittings, particularly examining what the New Testament church looked and felt like. If you have never done that I would encourage you to do so. While I knew that their church looked different than churches of today, I was really struck when reading the book in a huge chunk about how startling the differences are. They didn't have a building apart from the temple, instead meeting in homes. Needs inside of the church body were known and dealt with immediately as people sold possessions to help those in need.  The apostles were invited to local synagogues in various towns and preached to large crowds, and people committed to Jesus via repentance and baptism. And on top of that it seemed that the Holy Spirit always seemed to know those who had truly committed to Him at the moment and He entered them when He recognized a changed heart. I can't help but contrast all of these things to the churches in front of us today, and dare I say, how we sometimes flippantly say we have committed to Christ by simply saying a prayer. Now that's something to really ponder.

I had time to compare these ideas to what the Lord had me teach on this week, which is on giving to your neighbor who is in need.  I suspect that the world today is skeptical of Christianity because often we don't appear to be any different from the rest of the world.  We don't care for each other enough, we aren't known for our love for each other (John 13:34-35), and often are blinded as the world is by ambition and the collection of more things (1 Timothy 6:9-11).  When it comes to providing for the needs of our neighbors, we would rather throw money at a problem and remain disengaged and separated rather than be like the Samaritan in Jesus' parable who interrupted his life to help someone (Luke 10).  This challenges me because, if we are to be different here in Everett, what will that look like? 

I hope that you can see as I do that the Lord is working on hearts here, mine included, and is drawing us to something new and amazing.  Praise the Lord who called this family to do his work, and who is patient in teaching a hard-headed person like me so that He can "make all things new."  (Revelation 21:5)

And on the 7th Day...

God rested.  It's that simple.

Our family is exiting a very busy season of life and has experienced tremendous tiredness over the last week.  We failed to follow God's commandment of keeping a Sabbath rest time and paid the price for it over the last week.  It began with us having to return the block party trailer to a location 90 miles from home last Sunday only to return home completely drained.  It further intensified for me with a very stressful week at work as the district gears up for the school year ahead.  I quickly switched back to my old way of relying on my own strength to get through the week.  The fruit of that is usually lost sleep, anxiety, irritability, and intense frustration.  Yep, I experienced all of those this week, and it was of my own doing.

I don't believe that God wants us to take a Sabbath rest specifically on a Sunday, but I do believe His word clearly indicates that one day of the week is supposed to be for rest and devotion to Him.  Yesterday we heeded the call and had a much better day of recharging and refreshment.  We had no obligations, nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to see, and no plans.  And in spite of the usual stresses of having 5 boys in the house, the day really was great.

Where did all of this come from?  These are further lessons from the Lord Himself as He prepares us for our current and future ministry.

We can't do it alone.
We can't do it in our own strength.
We can't generate "positive feelings" and have them carry us through.
We can't do it.

And that's exactly why we are here in Everett, Washington.  It's because He wants to show all of us that while we can't do it, He can.  That's exciting to me.

 

The grapevine on our back patio.  It has made so many grapes that we don't have room for all of them.  And it is a constant and visible reminder to us that we can bear no fruit for the Lord apart from what He does through us.

John 15:5 (NLT)

⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

The Week Ahead

Next weekend I have been given the honor and responsibility of leading the Men's Retreat for Everett Family Church.  We will be studying God's word within the framework of the awesome book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.  It stands among the top 5 works of Christian writing that have been most influential to me.

The central idea of the book is that if we say we love God, it is evident and looks a certain way.  There is no such thing as a Christian that bears no fruit.  You may want to read that last sentence again.

Scripture indicates repeatedly that at the end of time there will be people who went to church and even did good works in God's name who don't make it into heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).  Why?  Because they never really knew Jesus.  They were just doing a lot of things and making a big splash (1 Corinthians 13:1).  Or, they attended church because that's what we do on Sundays.  But church attendance won't get you into heaven either.  Only Christ can get you there as he covers you with His blood and pays the price for your sins (Romans 3:25, Romans 5:9).

Many people point to that idea and say "good, I'm covered."  And yet their actions 99% of the time don't indicate that they know Jesus at all.  Chan puts it very succinctly:  if they suddenly stopped believing in God, you would see no difference in their lives.  The thing that needs to shake you and me up is that the Lord knows who are His and who are not His (John 10:14, 2 Timothy 2:19).  While we can fool each other, we can't fool Him.

This teaching carries great weight and it is supremely important that the men own what the Lord tells us about those who are His.  Please pray for us next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as we study His word and come to Him.

Life in the City
In previous posts I have simply posted scripture because I believe it speaks for itself.  This will be another one of those times.  In the last post I described some characteristics of people who come to work with us to plant a church, noting that they need not feel that they have to pastor a church and preach.  This passage describes the work better than I could ever do.  This is what we must do in Everett.

 Jeremiah 29:4-7

⁴ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: ⁵ “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. ⁶ Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! ⁷ And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

The only way to change a city is to change the people living in the city.  The only way to change the people in the city is to, with obedience and submission to the Lord, follow Him as He leads us into being involved in their lives.  To be involved in their lives, we must live and work among them.  And most of all, we must pray for our city because it is the Lord's limitless power that can change it.

May the Lord continue to glorify Himself as He draws people to Himself in Everett.