Stand 4 Freedom

Last Friday, I joined UCF students as they took shifts literally standing on their feet for 27 hours.  We did this to represent the estimated 27 Million people who are enslaved around the world. 

UCF was one of over 400 campuses across the country who participated in the Stand 4 Freedom campaign from March 5-15.  The IJM movement I've been coaching at UCF just started meeting this semester, yet they were able to gather enough people to fill the slots for all 27 hours! 

The event is geared to raise awareness about slavery and it did just that.  During the few hours I stood, I was able to have several good conversations with some people who were aware of the issue and others who were not.  Even more, one student I talked to, John, reminded me why a partnership between Cru and IJM can be so powerful. 

John came up to us asking what we were doing, so we told him.  He had recently heard about an anti-slavery movement started by a church that he felt was a bait and switch effort to try to get people to convert to Christianity without doing any real work to fight slavery.  He was happy to hear that IJM is an organization that is actively freeing slaves around the world. 

Since he knew that IJM is a legitimate organization, not just a group using a ruse of caring for the oppressed while hiding an ulterior motive, he stayed around for another minute or two.  As he did, we were able to explain that Christians are engaging in the fight because the Bible is clear that we are all made in God's image and He calls us to "do justice" and "love mercy." Then he sailed away on his skateboard.

With such disdain for religion, unless God does a miracle in John's life, he will never attend a Cru meeting or a church.  In order for Christians to reach him with the truth of the gospel, we must go to him and people like him.  Engaging in things that students like John care about is one way to bridge the gap.  As we do, we can have wonderful dialogues about the love of God.  That is why it is so crucial for all believers to "do justice" and "love mercy" and "give the reason for the hope that you have."  By doing so we show people a fuller picture of the God we follow.  It is why I love the partnership that Cru has with IJM!

March Prayer Update: Break it up!

Fights among students were common at Ashley’s school.  The teachers at her inner-city elementary school debated on the best way to handle the situation.  In the midst of competing suggestions, she thought, “The students need Jesus.” 

After graduating from college, Ashley spent a year interning with Cru’s High School ministry where she learned how to have a ministry in public schools.  This gave her the tools she needed to start a Good News Club where kids learn about God in a fun, engaging way after school.  The response has been tremendous.  The club quickly grew from 50 to over 100 students regularly attending!  With such a great turnout she quickly learned she could not do it alone.  She needed God and others to help her!  She meets 2 other teachers to pray regularly for the students and several volunteers from the Cru ministry at UCF help facilitate their meetings.

Last year Ashley overheard one of her Kindergarten students telling her friends what she was learning in the club - that Jesus died for our sins.  Through her ministry, God is touching the lives of children and using them to plant the seed of the gospel in the hearts of their friends!

God’s call to be an educator is extremely significant for college students.  As a result, we have been working diligently with Cru’s Middle and High School ministry to help prepare these students for what lies ahead.  As teachers, they have the potential to impact their students’ lives for eternity.  They will invest in hundreds, if not thousands, of students throughout their careers and we want each student to see Christ living in and through them.

Cru has a wonderful coaching center made up largely of former teachers who train educators and future educators how to live out their faith in the classroom.  We recently directed the production of a video with three of these educators here in Orlando.  You can watch it at cruoncampus.org/called-to-teach.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning how to invest spiritually in the lives of elementary, middle, or high school students, please let us know.  We would be thrilled to connect you to one of our coaches!
 

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Praises:
• For Godly teachers who impact students’ lives with the gospel daily
• Ashley’s ministry at her school
• Our partnership with Cru’s Middle and High School ministry who train teachers well
• Our Adoption Home Study was approved by U.S. Immigration!
• God’s grace in our lives

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Prayer Requests:
• For Ashley and all Christian teachers to see God use them mightily
• For many future educators to receive training and to be ministers of the gospel in their schools
• Please continue to pray for our adoption process. Our documents are being reviewed by the Chinese Consulate. Once everything is approved, our dossier will be complete to send to China!

OOPS - January Newsletter - finally!

In the busyness of life, I forgot to upload our January Newsletter to our blog.  Sorry about that!  That month we shared a cool story about how 5 of our grads spoke to graduating seniors at the Mid-Atlantic Winter Conference in Baltimore.  Alumni can speak powerfully into the lives of students, so it was great to make it happen!  Read it all here!

Little More Jesus

It's always fun to sing Christmas carols with our kids but this year has been great to see little Addy learning the words and singing along this year.  By far, her favorite is Away in a Manger.  Here's her rendition of the classic tune...

...I love how she says "little MORE Jesus" because that's what our world really needs.  Merry Christmas!

Emmanuel, God With Us

Last Friday was a big day, I had the opportunity to share about the realities of human trafficking to 1800 high school students.  Doing so forced some of them to open their eyes to the evil that is in our world and, I hope, prepared them to protect themselves and their friends from being victimized by those who would want to harm them.  What I didn't know until I finished speaking was that evil had hit our nation's children in Connecticut in a way that would be impossible for anyone to overlook.

If we weren't already keenly aware of the brokenness of our world, the shocking evil of last Friday has brought it to the forefront of our minds.  I read many Facebook posts saying, "Jesus come soon!"  I join in that prayer.  I hurt for the families who have lost their dear little ones and can hardly imagine the pain they are going through - in fact, I don't want to empathize with them because it would hurt too much.  It was tough to let Aiden go to school this week.  The reality of my inability to be in control and protect my family every moment of every day is humbling.  It forces me to slow down and look up to the One who is always there and is truly in control - for my control is merely an illusion.

One thing, among many, that Friday taught us is that true evil exists in our world.  We may live in relative safety in a "good part of town" and sometimes this sense of safety causes us to forget the fallenness of the world we live in.  Any problem must be seen before it can be solved. We'll never make our world a better place with our heads stuck in the sand, avoiding the realities of its brokenness.  Jesus was our perfect example, He entered the mess with eyes wide open.  

He left the Father's side in Heaven, a place of perfect holiness and glory to come to our side on earth, a place of utter brokenness and pain.  As Philippians 2 states about Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 
 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. 
 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!  

He gave it all up for us so that we might have it all.

I'm forever grateful for Jesus' willingness to leave the safety and security of Heaven to come down to this dark, evil world.  He could have chosen the easy route and continued to enjoy unbroken fellowship with the Father.  He could have said, "Oh, it's too terrible!" and chosen not to come.  However,  He stepped into the darkness to redeem and restore this broken world.

This redemption, this restoration is still His work; it's still His plan and He has entrusted it to His followers.  Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).  We are sent to  shine light into our dark world. 

Gary Haugen, the Founder and President of International Justice Mission said: 

"In God’s mission for this world, we are the plan. There is no Plan B. We carry out God’s mission be being salt and light in the world. This includes going to the suffering of this world. For people in the midst of suffering, when they receive meaningful help from a Christian, they are seeing the body of Christ show up on their doorstep."

As I think of Emmanuel, God with us, I am challenged to consider how I am following Jesus into the darkness of this broken world.  I am quite comfortable in the "safety" of my suburban life.  Where am I to shine His light?  What dark places might He be calling me?  Where is He calling you? 

Jesus showed up on our doorstep.  He lived among the suffering to bring healing and restoration physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Who needs Jesus to bring healing and freedom in their lives?  What can you and I do to shine light into the darkness?  This is what happened at Christmas.  Love came down into the evil and shined His light into the darkness.  Let us do the same and enter into this beautiful mess. 

Our Partner in the News!

A few months back, we shared about one of our 100% Sent partners, Apartment Life.  They were recently highlighted in an article in Christianity Today!  The article begins with, "In order to love one's neighbors, one must first know who they are—a teaching that's much easier said than done...."  We all feel this difficulty, but as we shared in our newsletter Apartment Life is set up to train our graduates to do just that.  Take a look at the full article to see how God used our friends in ministry to help a Phoenix couple reach their neighbors with the love of Christ! 

Love God, Love People: Simple but Not Easy

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:35-40

As a black and white thinker I have often read this passage and put 2 and 2 together and found they do, in fact equal 4.  If you love God and love people without ceasing, then you will fulfill God's law. It makes logical sense so that's where my analysis ended.   

However, first we must realize that we will never love God or people perfectly, so we will never fulfill the law of God in this way.  That's why we must have Jesus' redemptive work on the cross, he did this perfectly and took the penalty I deserve so I don’t have to. 

Jesus did this so that we might have eternal life with him and so that his Spirit might live through us to make a difference on this earth.  As we love God more deeply and truly love people more genuinely, God's Kingdom will come and His will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  I believe that Jesus taught us to pray this so that we, the church, might be the answers to our prayers.

Recently I have been wrestling with these truths and my revelations aren't that surprising; Jesus actually meant what He said!  But this isn't about obedience in a legalistic sense as I first thought.  It's about the embodiment of the gospel in our daily lives.  2 Corinthians 5:14 says, "For the love of Christ controls us."  Christ's love for us so compels us to the degree that we are controlled by it.  We experience His love as the greatest thing in our lives, not to be outdone by our desire for power, control, or comfort. 

This great love for God is demonstrated through a life of love for others.  This is what James meant when he said that "faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26).  We don't earn God's grace by our works; however, we prove that we love God and have been rescued by Him through our loving acts of kindness towards others. 

Can you truly love someone and watch them be abused without stepping in?  Imagine seeing a child you love, possibly your own, being physically assaulted.  You would intervene, right?  Of course, because you love the child.  

Along the same lines, can you care deeply for the well being of a friend who is addicted to drugs and not confront them?  Of course not. 

Now what about people we don't know?  Would you feel uncomfortable and look the other way when you pass a homeless beggar if you actually loved them?  If you really loved your neighbor, would you continue to smile and wave to them like you've done the past 3 years without ever having a real conversation with them?   Would your life to go unchanged with the knowledge that people live in slavery in your city if you really loved each an every one of them the way God does?  Would it be loving to never bring up your faith in a conversation with your friend just because you think it might be uncomfortable because they're not a Christian? 

When I say "you" in these questions, I mean "I/me."  The answer is humbling.  I don't love others the way they God does.  Why not?  The answer is simple: I don't love God the way I should.  For who He is and what He's done for me, He should be second to none but often He is second to my desire for control or comfort.  These same idols cause me not to love others well either.  It's difficult to step into the messiness of people's lives and to love them well.  It's not comfortable.  It's risky.  But God didn't say our lives would be comfortable, but He did tell us that if we lose our lives for His sake, we'll find true life and that life will be abundant.  I don’t know about you, but I'm tired of living a legalistic life, trying to manufacture a relationship with God by my actions.  I'm ready for the real life, a real relationship with God, risks and all, so that my life will truly be abundant. Join me.