Wow!

I have been so caught up in the business and concentration of preparing for today’s message, that I did not realize until tonight what actually happened! And now that I realize it…I am pretty excited!

Today, God answered a prayer that I have had for years and years and years and years!

No, I’m not anywhere close to competent in speaking Spanish…that one is still to come. I cannot have any real meaningful conversation in Spanish…that one is still to come too. But God allowed me to share His Word in Spanish, and that is totally out of this world amazing!

Ever since I was young I have had a desire to learn Spanish. Maybe it had something to do with my parents taking us to Mexico regularly. Maybe it was the Hispanic neighbors next door. Maybe it was my dad’s co-worker that we got to minister to as a family. Or maybe it was God from the beginning using all types of things like this to plant the seed.

Off and on throughout the years I have tried learning Spanish, and laid it aside frustrated. I have read most of the Bible in Spanish, setup daily routines, taken a class or two, listened to Spanish music, listened to Spanish talk shows, watched movies dubbed in Spanish, married a gorgeous woman who speaks Spanish, watched Spanish movies (like Mi Padrino), etc.

All throughout I knew it was something God had put in my heart…but it was hard to persevere. So I would be encouraged…pick it up…try learning some more…and then lay it aside feeling like I learned nothing. Yet I would still have this desire, to learn. More times than I can count, I have had dreams that I was teaching a Bible study in Spanish.

One thing that I kept holding onto was a promise that God gave me in 2 Kings 3:9-20. In this passage the kings of Israel and Judah come to Elisha because they are going to battle, but there is no water for the armies or their animals. They are dying of thirst, and Elisha responds with this word from God…

2 Kings 3:16  And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’

When you are thirsty, do you like to dig ditches? But God had a plan. They had the job of digging the ditches, and God’s promise was that the ditches would be filled with water.

2Ki 3:17  For thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’

A long time ago God directed me to this passage and encouraged me to dig ditches. It is dirty work. Hard. You are thirsty. But keep digging…and one day, at some point, God is going to fill those ditches with water.

2Ki 3:20  Now it happened in the morning, when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.

This evening it hit me…I shared it with Kim as we were driving…Today God fulfilled His promise and filled the ditches! How amazing is that?! Our God is good, and mighty and wonderful and I look forward to seeing what He will do next!

If you would like to listen to the message, you can click on the link below. To say that I have much to learn and much more practice is required would very possibly be the understatement of all history. So don’t expect too much please.  ;-)

Génesis 22 – La Adoración Sacrificial

And now…back to digging some ditches…Preparing for the next round of God pouring out His Spirit!

Lately God has been challenging Kim and I to take some steps of faith. These are times of stretching and testing that are exciting, but tough. I often refer back to a quote from Jon Courson regarding steps of faith…

“Every Christian ought to be involved in something that will fail unless God is involved.”

I love to refer to this quote…and I share it often…but it gets uncomfortable when God wants me to apply it.  ;-)  Before I share more about what steps of faith are before us, let me take a moment to review what a step of faith is.

A step of faith is not doing something crazy and hoping it works out. A radical choice is not a step of faith just because you do not know how it will turn out. For sure, we often do not know the how and the why in a step of faith, but every time we do not know the how and the why it is not automatically a step of faith.

Faith is obedience to God at His Word. And a step of faith is taking a step of obedience. God has given instruction, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but God said to do it, and so we obey. It is a step of faith. We may not know the outcome of our obedience. Or God may have told us what the outcome will be, but it does not seem possible for that outcome to be accomplished with the step that God has given us.

For example, the priests stepping into the water as God was using Joshua to lead the people of Israel into the promised. The outcome was going to be a parted Jordan river. Priests stepping into water does not normally part rivers. But that is what God said to do, so that is what they did, and then the Jordan River was parted. They took a step of faith, and God accomplished something miraculous.

A step of faith can be a big bold one-time action, but it can also be a seemingly small action over a long period of time.

So what are you doing in your life that requires faith?

Steps Of Faith For Kim And I

I share these things not to declare that we have it all figured out, but to share that we have some challenges before us and appreciate your prayers. I also share it to encourage you to be obedient to what God speaks to you.

Step 1: Goodbye Citibank!

This has been a huge item of prayer and discussion for Kim and I. She has been working at Citibank for the past 5 years. Things have changed a lot over the years, and the position she is in is not at all what it once was. So Kim has been more and more uncomfortable over the past couple of years. And we have been praying for a change.

Recently God answered that prayer, but not how we expected. Instead of opening a door for another job, God asked us to live off of one income. This was a pretty radical request, so we went back to prayer…are you sure Lord? Kim and I both agreed that God was saying that, but wanted confirmation. So we asked God to confirm it to us both at the conference we were attending in February.

Guess what…God confirmed it! Being a husband and wife, we always sit next to each other, read each other’s notes, write notes to each other, etc. during the messages. But there was one message where we were separated, and in that message, God spoke to us individually, without knowing what the other was receiving. When we compared notes afterward we knew that God had confirmed His Word to us.

So Kim handed in her resignation, and her last day is on Friday. It is a big step of faith for us. We don’t know the end result, and we don’t know all the details in between here and there. Like what will we do for health insurance. But we are excited about what God may want to do in this new season!

It is a step of faith…does that mean that nothing bad will happen? Nope. It just means that we are where God wants us to be, and if bad stuff does happen, it is part of His plan and work in us.

Step 2: ¡Hola Español!

I have never worked so hard on a message in my entire life…At the same conference God spoke to Pastor Cisco and I about swapping pulpits for one Sunday. He would teach the two English services, and I would teach the Spanish service. That service is tomorrow morning.

This is a step of faith for me because God told me (and my wife and Cisco confirmed it to me) to teach the service in Spanish and not have someone translate it. That is big time trouble because I do not actually speak Spanish!

This week I have had to push my mind to the edge of what it can handle. I will be teaching the special message I gave a couple weeks ago from Genesis 22. So I listened to that teaching (listening to yourself is always weird), transcribed it point by point, and worked on translating one point every day.

I do know a little bit of Spanish. I have studied it off and on for many years, but never seem to actually get anywhere. I can read and understand fairly well, and writing in Spanish is difficult, but I can do it a little. The real trouble comes when speaking or listening to Spanish. I just have no real experience and anyone who tries for more than 5 seconds to have a conversation in Spanish can tell you that.

With a lot of prayer, and help from Pastor Cisco and my wife, I have completed the translation and will be sharing it tomorrow.  Paul said that he beat his body into submission…this week I have been beating my mind into submission…focus…focus…focus!

I have been very tempted to take the easy way out all week and have someone translate it for me (either translating my notes, or translating my message). But I want to be faithful to what God has put before me. Now I’m prepared to make a complete fool of myself and share the message…My prayer is that in the end they would not be talking about me (whether good or bad) but about God and how He is worthy of worship.

“Every Christian ought to be involved in something that will fail unless God is involved.”

So what are you doing in your life that requires faith?

Here are some points to consider about lukewarm people that Francis Chan makes in his book Crazy Love. If you think these are challenging…he goes on in the next chapter to suggest that lukewarm people are not saved at all. Good food for thought and prayer.

1.  Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly.

2.  Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.

3. Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict.

4.  Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.

5.  Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they assume such action is for “extreme” Christians, not average ones.

6.  Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends.

7.  Lukewarm people gauge their morality or “goodness” by comparing themselves to the secular world.

8.  Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives. But only a part.

9.  Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. They try to love God that much, but that sort of total devotion isn’t really possible for the average person; it’s only for pastors and missionaries and radicals.

10.  Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves.

11.  Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money and energy they are willing to give.

12.  Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven.

13.  Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.

14.  Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty.

15.  Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control.

16.  Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America.

17.  Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to.

18.  Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever.

I came home on Saturday to find some guys fixing a segment of our fence in the back yard. The owners of the home next door are fixing up the house to rent it out and decided to take care of the fence.  I was so excited to see it fixed, because I had no idea how I would be able to do it.

This is how the fence looked after this last rain storm..

And here is how it looks now!

Mi suegra came over yesterday and blessed Kim and I with a beautiful gift! The pictures do not do it justice, but if you would like to see it in person you are welcome to come on February 6th for our housewarming party and birthday party for Kim.