²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

What is this I see? Inviting people into their home, eating and discussing Scriptures…Sounds like Jesus liked Life Groups too! Just sayin’

      “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

      Freedom. Freedom from sin. Freedom from bondage. Freedom from death. Freedom is what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. He burst of out of the tomb bringing freedom! Christ came to set us free! “Rejoice in the Lord always: I will say it again – rejoice!” Phil. 4:4

      So, it begs the question: why are so many Christians still in bondage? Seriously. Why are there so many Christ-followers longing for freedom? I think that part of the reason is that we’re afraid – we’re afraid to look deeply and honestly into the depths of our souls to see what lurks beneath the surface. We’re terrified, actually, to be faced with the reality that we’re failures – we’re wretched – we’re supremely selfish – we’re lustful – we’re angry – we’re nauseatingly prideful – we think we know it all – we don’t think we need anyone else – we’re rebellious – and on and on and on. We are depraved. To the depths.

      One of the most beautiful treasures about the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ is this: when brought in to the life-giving light of Christ Jesus, even the truth about our darkness sets us free. Even the truth about our darkness sets us free! And until we are willing to come face-to-face with the full reality of our darkness, we’ll never be able to sufficiently mourn and grieve over our sin. And until we are heartbroken and sorrowful over the depth of our depravity and sin, we’ll never be able to fall on our faces in God-honoring repentance. And until we repent, we’ll never truly be able to be restored. And unless we are fully restored, we will never enjoy the freedom that Christ intended to be ours.

      In order for Christ to bring us freedom, He had to humble Himself – a humbling that we can’t even begin to wrap our minds around. We must be willing to humble ourselves, as well. To accept what is true – about Christ and about ourselves. It’s not easy. It may take a whole lot of time, a whole lot of wrestling, a whole lot of energy, a whole lot of tears. It’s messy. It’s hard. It’s not glamorous. But there’s no other way.

      One of the seasons of greatest transformation for me came almost 20 years ago, when I began praying the last two verses of Psalm 139. I prayed them for weeks and weeks on end: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” God answered my prayer. And it was one of the most painful, eye-opening, gut-wrenching, wonderful, difficult, amazing, life-changing seasons in my walk with the Lord. I learned during that season to cherish introspection – deep, soul-searching introspection. Because I learned that, when brought to the feet of my sweet Savior Jesus, even the truth about my darkness set me free! And I am free indeed!

      The other day, while reading My Utmost for His Highest, I came across a breathtakingly beautiful rewording of some of the verses of that very psalm (139). I pray that it will bless you…and that you will resolve this year to pray it unceasingly. God will hear and answer such a prayer!

      “Thou are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of the earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature – Thou Who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at – my God, search me out.”

      He writes just a few sentences later: “Cleansing from sin is to the very heights and depths of our spirit if we will keep in the light as God is in the light, and the very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits.”

      Oh, may it be so in me, Lord! May it be so in me.

Sounds a little extreme, I know, but let me explain. We, the church, have considered for generations a discipleship option that doesn’t exist. You see, Jesus has always given us two options. There is the wide gate and the narrow gate. There is the wide road and the narrow road. There is destruction and there is life (Matthew 7:13-14). It seems we have invented a third option that Jesus never offered or intended. That option is the middle road. Rather than committing fully to Jesus, we keep our commitments to the things of this world and add Jesus to our list.

When Jesus invites us to press through the narrow gate, He requires that we drop everything. That is the only way through. We can hold on to nothing when we choose His way. Our allegiance and obedience are all to Him or they are not at all to Him. There is no middle option. When we hold on to our plans and our stuff, we are saying, “Sure, Jesus is important, He has value, but so do these things.” We essentially put Jesus in the balance and put our jobs, possessions, relationships, plans, future, etc. also in the balance. We weigh Jesus against everything else and see to what degree He is worth committing. We test His value against things. We measure the value of the Creator against things of His creation. As the Almighty God, He is worth everything to you or He is worth nothing. There are no degrees of His worth and, as such, there can be no degrees of discipleship. He will not share glory with anything or anyone. All your worship is God’s or none is.

Back to that narrow gate. Yes, you have to drop everything to press through and follow Jesus, but take heart. Jesus will pick up the things you have dropped. He will give you back whatever you need. He will return to you the relationships, the job, even the possessions that will help you follow Him. This time, however, you will see them for what they are – gifts. Then, the Giver will receive glory not the gifts.

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

I get where this is coming from. I celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. I call the day Christmas. If you are not celebrating the same thing, please don’t call it Christmas. Be bold enough, though, to call it what it is. Whatever you are celebrating that day, call it by its name. If the generic holiday is the best you have, you probably don’t have anything to celebrate and you might as well go to work. Good news, traffic will be light.

You see, Jesus is not an ingredient to be added to some “Holiday” recipe. He is everything or He is absent. This is by His command. We can’t simply take this holiday mess of presents and decorations and TV specials and food and debt and stress and Black Friday brawls and add a dash of baby Jesus and pretend it is Christmas. If the best you can do is squeeze a little manger scene in between the inflatable Santa and the pile of gifts arranged as a monument to materialism, please don’t call it Christmas. This is no more than taking the name of Christ and using it in vain.

Jesus commands this of our lives, holidays included: either it is all about Him or it not at all about Him. It is not possible to keep your self-made, self-centered life and add enough Jesus to make you feel good. It is not possible to keep your celebration of consumption and materialism and add enough Jesus to make you feel good.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

If you are not willing to lay it all down and start over with Jesus Christ at the center and lifted high, please don’t attach His name. His name is too precious to cheapen this way. Call it Christmas when your holiday is all about Him. Call yourself Christian when your life is all about Him.

It is so easy to get so caught up in the works of life. I mean really…I work for the church. My office is next to the pastor. I’m life group coordinator and life group leader. I have like 15 Bibles not including Bible Explorer on my laptop. I listen to sermons all the time and read every book I can get my hands on. I do stuff to help people…blah blah blah blah! Stinkin’ ridiculous really. It sounds pretty spiritual but, in reality, you can do all those things and still not know Jesus.

Now before everyone freaks out and starts praying for my salvation…rest assured that I do know Jesus and He loves me so much that as I opened my heart and prayed for Him to teach me how to know Him better…He rocked my world. There have been many things I have learned in just two weeks. I will give you a quick summary of some.

Mark made a statement in one of his sermons that went something like “you pray for God to speak to you, to give you a word but you won’t even open your Bible and read the word I’ve already given you.” Ummm but I’ve been listening to all those sermons and reading all those books with Scripture in it…Am I really going to be content eating the fruit of other people? NO! I want my own fruit!

How about this one…Lord, how come I just can’t seem to appreciate worship music? His reply…maybe it has something to do with the fact that mixed in with worship music you have titles of songs such as Fergalicious and Like a G6. These songs don’t bring me closer to God…they draw me away from Him to places in my mind that I don’t need to go. The song that Shannon has sung in the past “The More I Seek You” has been a song that I want to sing every day of my life. It is my prayer that everything I do, everything I say, everything I think…I do so with the image of me laying back against Him listening to His heartbeat. Please don’t ever take Your Hand off of me Lord! I say this not to boast but to hopefully inspire someone to get serious about Jesus by flat out saying no to some things that you are hanging onto. “My music” has been something I have hung onto my whole life…it has been a hindrance in my walk with Jesus. I went thru my iTunes and deleted 1000 songs. For me, that hurt. But I love Jesus and I want to show Him in any way that I can. I’m not playing y’all!

Here’s another lesson I learned this week. He showed me that I know more about other people and their business than I do about Him. I meditate more on how to help someone solve their problems than I do on His Word. I analyze how I may or may not have handled a situation than I seek out Christ and rest in Him. Say what? But it is true. I love to help people or should I say I really want to help fix people…you know…I like to sport the jacket “holy spirit junior” around. This is starting to get me into trouble as it well should for crying out loud. Just who do I think I am?

Y’all had no idea I was such a mess did you? Somehow, I feel like I’m not alone…you all are just too chicken to say it about yourselves! Now please…don’t start feeling sorry for me. As stinkin’ painful as these two weeks have been, it feels good to know that He loves me enough to discipline me. I am thankful that He doesn’t just drop me like a hot potato when I don’t get it right but instead He gives me another chance and never stops loving me. Frankly, for the last two weeks, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Jesus which is why I finally blog. I want everyone to know that I love Jesus and yes, Mark, I do know Him but I have a long way to go…so keep teaching!

Deuteronomy 4:29 ²⁹ But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Hebrews 11:6 ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Click here to hear Shannon sing “The More I Seek You”

During this time, our youth will be watching and discussing some pretty heavy videos. This is not taken lightly by our leaders. This will be a difficult study because there is no way to take an honest look at the condition of mankind without shedding tears. Let me tell you, there will be tears shed by my kids and yours. There will be a sick feeling in the pit of many stomachs. I pray that this happens because if it doesn’t happen, we have not taken a realistic look. We should be sickened by what is happening to man at the hands of man.

We often lament the fact that our kids are being desensitized to violence and blood and death and crime and the list goes on. If I can be brutally honest with you and with myself, we are fully implicated in this. When we allow our kids to watch the dozens of police, crime scene, medical examiner, blood and guts television shows followed by playing shoot, kill and blow up the other guy video games we are taking part in desensitizing our own kids. The only way to turn back this effect is to sensitize our kids. To sensitize means to make sensitive. The way to do this is to first take an honest look. Second, engage what you see with all of your senses. If what you see results in pain, you process that pain. I believe senses, feelings and emotions will be exposed this weekend. I pray that after exposure, they will be processed. Our leaders are preparing now to talk about the feelings and emotions. Deal with the shock and the horror. Deal with the sadness and outrage. After processing comes the time to act.  Upon realizing that these horrors are going on right now, how will we act? We can’t stop with saying, “That is really sad.” We can’t stop with hoping things change. It is my prayer that after becoming sensitive to the problems like never before, these young disciples will be motivated to act like never before.

As a parent, I know we will all handle this differently. Every parent wants to protect his children from pain, but at what cost? If pain breaks the cycle of complacency in my kids, bring it on. If it is painful for our kids to realize that the rest of the world isn’t blessed to live in the Disney World bubble of comfort and privilege that we know, so be it. If they don’t know, they will never feel. If they never feel, they will never care. If they don’t care, they won’t act.

As a parent, you will decide what to do with this. I respect your decision because you know your kids better than I do. One reason for writing this was to make sure no parent is surprised by the hard work being done this weekend. Make your decision based on prayer, your kid, your relationship with your kid, and the reality of the fallen world we live in.

Please lift this group of amazing, world-changing young disciples in prayer CONTINUALLY this weekend.

Lets widen our view, Wall Street occupiers. You may not be in the top 1% worldwide, but I am willing to guess you are in the top 5%.

• If your household income is $35000, you make more than 95% of homes in the world.
• If you have plumbing and electricity in your home, you live better than 80% of the world.
• US accounts for 6% of the world population and over 50% of the world’s wealth
• More than 50% of the world’s inhabitants live on less than $2 per day.

I know we have truly poor families in the US. Hearing these statistics doesn’t make this any easier to bear. The vast majority of Americans and I dare say the vast majority of campers on Wall Street, have no idea what it means to live in true poverty.

May I suggest you stop playing this social activism game and go home. Occupy your own street. Reach into your wealthy, privileged, blessed American pockets and impact the needy within your sphere of influence. You have been complaining about the wealthy hoarding their share. You are guilty of the same. Making cardboard signs and sleeping in a tent changes nothing. Change your perspective, thank God for His provision, and cause change.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Future Brides

Co-leader of The Power of a Praying Wife life group

Hebrews 3:12-13

Email from Pastor Hummer:

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the work you are doing in supporting widows and orphans. God bless you.

CHILDREN

Thank you for the children programs for sponsorship. I believe this will make a child to benefit more. We appreciate all the financial support towards the teachers and the children. It has created a great change. May God bless who ever is contributing towards the support of this ministry. We have opened the postal address for children which shall be handling children’s letters and gift. RAY OF HOPE CHILD CARE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, P.O BOX 244 KYAMBOGO, UGANDA. So you can write to the children through this address. we have done this for transparency and it’s accountability so that whatever we receive goes to the right place.

WIDOWS

Thank you for the widows finances. may God bless you together with summit church for endevouring to sell the widows jewels. I know it’s not an easy job but it has been Gods grace.This fund is going to help widows and expand their activities. We are handing the money to the widows leader on Thursday to further their activities. She will be communicating to officially about the progress.

pastor Hummer.

Today I received a letter from the missions coordinator of their local church.

Dear Great Servant of God, we at new hope in  Christ write to thank you for  the great work you have done and you are still doing to the children of God. we have received your  support for the children with  great joy, happiness and a lot of thanks and in  this respect  we want to say from the bottom of our sincere heart that may the Almighty God open the doors of heaven for  your needs. this help will be used to puchaes beddings for the  children and the balance will be used for food and  treatment

we are so happy , may God bless you and the entire team and the church, we are continuously praying for you and the church for God’s divine protection
thanks a lot once again
Michael Eladu
Mission Coordinator
New Hope In Christ  Community Church Kampala

That makes me smile! What about you?

We currently have 5 more orphans that need sponsors and 7 more students. You can sponsor an orphan for $40/month which will provide food, clothing, bedding, education, medical care and mosquito nets and/or a student for $10/month which will provide two meals a day, school supplies, and uniform. If you would like the opportunity to sponsor a teacher at Ray of Hope, you can sponsor them at $80/month which will provide them with their salary and meals. One of the great things about this ministry is they get 100 percent of your donation. I have sponsored kids from other organizations before and they only get a percentage of the money. Also, in sponsoring these kids, you also have the opportunity to go see them on any number of mission trips that The Summit participates in. Our ongoing relationship with Ray of Hope enables us to have a real personal relationship with these children. Pastor Hummer has even set up a personal mailbox just for the kids so that you (as sponsors) can communicate with them as often as you would like. I encourage you to ask questions and to step out in faith and cheerfully give to a sponsored child of your own. The children in our own church have been the most excited about this aspect of our relationship with Ray of Hope. Some are already gathering up treasures for their “brother or sister” and some have even thought to make room at their own homes as they happily thought they would be bringing them home. God is good!

Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It was a difficult study for me because I have a treasure problem. I have a hard time keeping “things” in perspective. I’m certain I am not alone in this struggle, but I certainly wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable, so we will keep this about me. (If I knew how to type a sarcastic tone, you would see it here.)

The first part of my problem is thinking that treasure is mine. I work hard for my money. My home is my castle. I have every right to control my stuff. I fail to understand that all I have is God’s. He is the creator and sustainer of all things including my house and my car and my golf clubs. He is allowing me, for a time, to watch His stuff. I should be thankful for every moment He gives me and I should not expect or assume He will give me one more moment as manager of His things.

Second, when I am not careful how I view these treasures, rather than seeing them as gifts from a loving God, they can become a god in my eyes and in my heart. Treasure can become where I find fulfillment and purpose. Treasure can become where I find security. Treasure can become where I put my faith and trust. Treasure can begin to take God’s place in my heart. True fulfillment, purpose, security, faith and trust are only found in God. Things are temporary. Either you will die and be separated from your treasures or moth, rust, and thief will come and you will be separated from your treasures. Treasures are temporary, God is eternal.

Right now, God is checking my perspective. He has asked me to loosen my grip on a very precious treasure. He is going to separate me from this treasure for a time. Will I hold tight and say, “This is mine! I have the right to hold this!” Will my security and my faith be shaken in the absence of this? Or will I loosen my grip, trust Him and know that the heavenly treasure that comes from earthly obedience is the true prize? Pray for me.

You see, this treasure is my daughter. God has asked her to serve in the mission field for one year. She can not be obedient to the call if I am not obedient. If I stake my claim to this treasure on earth, we both lose. We may never fathom the loss realized by the impoverished in Costa Rica. Jesus, YOU are my treasure. Use our daughter to change the world.

She leaves in June.