Acts 4:29

Acts 4:29

God's word is good. Here's a little bit of what he's been feeding us with:

A prayer by the disciples in the midst of persecution and threats:

"And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word..."
Acts 4:29

They did not cower in response to the threats for preaching the message of the Lord (though it's possible they were afraid). They did not scatter. They did not pray that God would protect them and keep them safe from harm. They did not pray that God would soften their persecutor's heart to cease their hostility towards them. They prayed for boldness to continue to speak his word despite the circumstances.

Lord, may our prayer be one which is kingdom-centered and not me-centered, especially in the face of opposition and circumstances. May our hearts and minds be focused on your will rather than our convenience and comfort. May we be quickened to pray for your purpose to be accomplished and your glory to manifest before praying for our own safety and security.... because greater things will happen.

I will not fear the grinding wheel, for my maker will only refine me and make me useful.

battle wounds

battle wounds

Its month three here in Washington and strangely enough it feels sometimes like year three. Its amazing how quickly things become habit, and how quickly you adjust to the feeling of driving to the same places and seeing the same people every day. Even though its been only three months a lot has happened. We are really excited about how God has been speaking to us and what he has been moving us to do here. He continues to give us guidance about our involvement in the youth ministry we volunteer with. We are currently helping them to design their new youth room in the new church building they will be moving into in a couple of weeks. Its wonderful getting to start with a completely blank slate and pray to God about how he would have it designed and built.

However, in the last couple of months we have met some opposition from Satan like we had never experienced before. Tim has been sick for three months, he had a cold that started the week we got here. We expected him to get better on his own but somehow never did. We have been struggling on and off again with depression from the really cloudy weather. The clouds here block the sun 99% of the time which makes it difficult to feel normal if you were born and raised in a state where the sun shines all year round. Last week our puppy Tiger ate 1/2 of a rat carcass that he found under our porch. Apparently the rat had died from eating rat poison and therefore tiger was poisoned. We rushed him to the emergency vet, where he spent the day in intensive care and was given tons of shots and fluids etc. We are so grateful that he is still with us even though most days when I get home from work and see that he has utterly DESTROYED our kitchen, I just want to throw him outside and wait for one of the bald eagles we have in our back yard to scoop him up for a snack. So far we have only called poison control once and had one ER visit with him. This is pretty good considering that Birdy spent the first year of her life at the vet.

So this week my car went into the shop because it has been leaking mass amounts of oil. It turns out that it needs $1800 dollars of work to get it back up and going again. sheesh. And while it was in the shop...Tims car completely broke down and we had it towed to the same shop. It turns out his isn't as costly of a repair, and I think we might even be able to do it (fingers crossed). So all those things are just the surface issues. In fact they haven't really been bothering us too much they just add to the stress of a stronger, never ending spiritual battle. We have been hit hard continually in our minds, our hearts and our marriage. We are praising the Lord for this opposition as we know that God is using it for his glory. Here is a beautiful excerpt from the book Wild At Heart that reminded us this week just how real and important this battle is.

"You will be wounded. Just because this battle is spiritual doesn’t mean it’s not real; it is, and the wounds a man can take are in some ways more ugly than those that come in a firefight. To lose a leg is nothing compared to losing heart; to be crippled by shrapnel need not destroy your soul, but to be crippled by shame and guilt may. You will be wounded by the Enemy. He knows the wounds of your past, and he will try to wound you again in the same place. But these wounds are different; these are honor-wounds."

Wild At Heart pg 176.

Lately we have been finding ourselves worn out, tired, sometimes afraid and overwhelmed, angry and frustrated. Our spiritual wounds feel far more real than anything that happens in the physical realm that discomforts us. But through all this we are finally learning how to fight together and to use the glorious weapons the lord has equipped us with. Praise His beautiful and awesome name!

For more information on spiritual warfare click here

2 Corinthians 4:2

2 Corinthians 4:2

So finally we write a new post on this little blog of ours. Its not that we have been too busy to write, or that we have lost interest in giving regular updates, its more that we have felt that there has not been anything fascinating going on here that you must know about. However, Tim got an e-mail this week from Ryan. It was a link to a daily devotional with a particularly wonderful entry for May 16th. It really touched us both so we thought we would put it on here to share with you. The basis of the contents of the devotional are 2 Corinthians 4:2. It just so happens that we are studying 2 Corinthians, but we must have missed this verse. God has a funny way of bringing things to your attention if we are too dense to miss them the first time around.
So before you read the devotional here is a quick update on life here in the rainy part of the country. Things here have been moving right along. We are struggling most with learning how to find contentment in God alone and not focus on our circumstances so much. What an impossible task. We are finding the move to be a little more challenging than we initially though, mostly because the weather is difficult to get used to and we feel a little out of our element at times. Because of this we praise God! He has been speaking to us about a ministry that involves getting together people our age, so we are praying about what he would have us to do to be a part of bringing His vision to pass.

Here is the devotional: You can also link to it directly by clicking here.

"Our Approach to Ministry"

We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2)

God has made us His servants under the new covenant of grace. "God…made us…ministers of the new covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Those who desire to serve the Lord by grace have a very distinctive approach to ministry. "We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully."

It is so sad that the many ministry approaches in the church world include motives and methodologies that are kept hidden, because their true character is shameful. Some of these dishonorable approaches involve "walking in craftiness" (such as, manipulating people through carnal enticements). Others involve "handling the word of God deceitfully" (such as, preaching what people want to hear, instead of what the scriptures actually say). If we are going to serve God by grace, we must reject such tactics.

Instead, we want to serve God "by manifestation of the truth." We minister by a candid declaration of God's truth, not by a deceptive operation of man's tricks. Also, we desire that our lives be a commendation of our message, not a contradiction of it: "commending ourselves to every man's conscience." As we proclaim God's truth, we humbly ask God to impact our lives by that truth, in order to become an example of what we preach. The Lord will use this to touch others deep in their consciences.

It is God's will that our ministries impact more than men's minds (which can be reached by mere ideas, concepts, or systems). It is His intention that our testimonies reach beyond men's emotions (which can be touched by exciting stories, condemning insinuations, or inspiring ideals). He certainly does not want us to appeal to people's pride ("let God make you someone others will envy") or to their covetousness ("give to our ministry, and God will give you ten-fold in return"). Rather, God desires to reach their consciences, that "image-of-God" imprint that convicts people of sin and of their need for God: "who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness" (Romans 2:15).

O God of truth and holiness, I long to serve You by grace. I want to reject manipulating people and distorting Your word. Make my life a vessel of honor that confirms Your truth. As I minister to others, touch them deep in their hearts, by the power of Your grace, stirring them to seek after You, Amen.

Tiger

Tiger

He's finally here! Our new little puppy finally arrived Wednesday morning. His name is Tiger. Birdy has already taken him under her wing and already loves him more than us. All they do is play together, sleep, play together, sleep, eat, play together and so on.

He's a cutie for sure. Not like the "oh you're as cute as a button and so adorable I just want to squeeze you" cute. But more like the "you got a crazy look in your eye and all the fur on your head makes you look like you're wearing a helmet, and you look ridiculous" cute. We love him.

Here's a few pictures of him taken on the first day we got him. He's just under 10 weeks old in the pics.

there's less Son here than you think

there's less Son here than you think

We wanted to share with you a little about this town that God chose to send us to. The more we learn about it, the more it seems like no random chance or coincidence at all. We live on the boundaries of a small tight-knit and exclusive city whose foundations seem rooted in darkness. A brief history of the town is this:

A few decades ago several communities were developed around a high class, very wealthy, ritzy country club which lay on a nice golf course. Over time the area developed more communities, most of which centralized around this country club and golf course. Sometime in the 70's this small area managed to become recognized as an official city. A very small city, but nonetheless... a city. It's new, more expensive to live in, and from what we've heard, carries a little bit of the "snooty" attitude, and the people here are extremely liberal and quite anti-God.

The interesting thing about this city is that they have intentionally written in their constitution that there are no churches allowed. None. From what we've been explained, they were quite clever in how they went about this, and covered their tracks perfectly. With the exception of a very few select churches that were sort of "grandfathered" in to the city (that is, they were there before the area became an official city, and therefore they can't do anything about them), you cannot have any church here, nor use a building for the sake of large bible study gatherings. This is just a glimpse of how dark this place is. It isn't just physically dark here.... but quite spiritually dark as well. There's no sun and no Son. This impression gives us just a little understanding to why this state is the most unchurched area in the country.


May the Lord break the rulers of darkness in this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places. May he set at liberty the captive with his unconquerable light.

Romans 13:12
"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."

II Peter 3:9

II Peter 3:9

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness..."

This has been the word God has reminded us several times of since we got here. For the first two weeks we were here Lynsi just couldn't get that scripture out of her head . Perhaps this is because we have already experienced how not slow God truly is in fulfilling his promises, especially those he made to us in regard to moving us here.

Before we even knew God had plans for us to move away from our home in Colorado he gave us a specific vision for a purpose and ministry. He told us that he was going to "send us to the ends of the earth to bring people into his church." He did this through a powerful dream and then confirmed it through several good words. Moreover, while we were preparing for our move we heard from the Lord that there would be people here waiting for us. That is, people would know that God had sent us, and it would be an answer to their prayers for help.

We also knew that God wanted us to continue to pour into students (high school/middle school) as well many people who live in this area.

We hadn't been in this state 3 hours yet when we got the first phone call. It was a friend of a friend who lives in this area, and who knew of our heart for God and for youth. He asked if we would at all be interested in serving in a youth ministry at a church here. And went on to say that the Director of the Student Ministry was currently seeking out people to serve on his "team", and that he had told him about us and that he was excited to meet us. We agreed to go to the church the following Sunday. When we arrived we met a few people there that said some interesting things that strangely related to what God told us before moving here: an elder of the church proclaimed, "Oh, you're the couple I heard about that was moving here right?", the senior pastor of the church found his way over to us after the service because he noticed we were new, and once we told him our names he proclaimed, "OH, you're the couple from Colorado!". We've been to the church several times now, and that was certainly not the end of hearing those kind of remarks... needless to say, it seemed like somehow people here were "waiting" for us and "expected" us. We just looked at each other each time that happened with the expression of "what is going on??"


In the few short weeks we've been here, the Lord has already put awesome, solid people into our lives and confirmed to us in cool ways that we are at the very place he wants us (to live and to serve) at the precise timing that he wants us here, and that he has a plan for us here. It seems he has placed us in a church where their vision for the future lines up perfectly with the heart and vision God has given us for our time and purpose here. Moreover, he has reiterated that our sole reason for being here is for his Kingdom.

It all is happening in such a funny, uncanny way: we haven't really done anything at all. It has all just happened. Somehow we were plugged into the student ministry without doing a thing. Somehow we've been given the opportunity to share our testimonies to the church on Easter Sunday during the service. But we haven't done anything. It's so weird, but God's style.

Besides, we have to believe that no one is really interested in us, they just somehow know that God is moving. That God is in control. And all we know is that somehow God is moving, and God is in control.

not sure what to make of this picture...we've had to entertain ourselves since we are our only friends here right now.

Welcome

Welcome

We really want to be able to share what is going on in our lives with our family and friends. We'll be updating this blog with things that God is doing in our lives, as well as any other shenanigans we find our selves in.

So... we thought it might be appropriate to share some photos of where we just moved to in the great pacific northwest. We'll get some more photos up in time, but until then... Enjoy!




Photos (From Top Left to Bottom Right): Front, From Back Deck, Driveway, Living Room