Encounter

Encounter

If you are a follower of Jesus then I know something about you. I know this something because I know something about me, and you and me aren't much different. Yes, we are both unique and called to different things I suppose, but still we're not that different. I know something about you. This something I know is a frustration that you have with the way in which others in your sphere of influence live their lives in spite of much council from us "religious" folk. You are their friends and you give them council that should lead them into repentance and a life of faith. You live your life to best honor our King and show the world that you are living for this amazing Jewish carpenter who walked the earth 2,000 years ago and is coming back to Judge the living and the dead as the rightful King. You do these things...we do these things. Yet, to your shock and frustration your friends smile and nod at your extremely wise council and the next week are still up to no good or stumbling into the same junk they were in when they last spoke to you. Patience, my beloved friend...patience.

I want to suggest to you (and me) that you shift your hope. Yes, your hope. I believe that your hope is somehow based on your wise council changing your friend's life. I am not suggesting that you stop giving wise council, because, my friend, you have been given wisdom from the Holy Spirit much of the time. These lovely people need to hear wise council from those filled with His Spirit. I wouldn't be writing to you if I didn't believe in a place for wise council. However, I am going to firmly suggest to you that you shift your primary strategy to that of prayer. Yes, pray for your friends and family that God would seriously encounter them. Your hope will shift from your desire to save them from their jacked up lives and move to God's desire to save them into a pure and spotless Bride for His Son. Can we believe that God wants to reveal Himself to your friends in a life changing way like He did with the soon to be apostle Paul in Acts 9. I am suggesting that arguments and evidence are necessary aspects to the radical wholeheartedness for Jesus that we call conversion, but that too many church-goers have been persuaded by our arguments to join us in living better lives, but have never met Jesus personally. These are those who have trouble understanding prayer, fasting, and loving the Bible. They just want to be good people so they can go to heaven and/or enjoy the fellowship of others in their social club called church. This is a tragedy in our day. Let us commit to each other that we will pray for our friends and family members in our sphere of influence far more than we persuade them with wise council. They really need Jesus to addict them to His presence by His Spirit. They really need to love God with their heart, soul, mind, and strength and others as themselves. They need encounter with Love Himself. Can we pray for that? Do you believe that God hears your prayers? Do you believe that God wants to encounter them more than you want them to be encountered? Let's believe for God to encounter our friends and family in an increased way as we pray fervently for them.

Resources of Scripture to pray for your family and friends (believers or not):

Ephesians 1:17-19

Ephesians 3:16-19

Colossians 1:9-12

Philippians 1:9-11

1 Thessalonians 3:10-13

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Other Resources:

Rees Howells Intercessor (specifically chapter 5 and 6) by Norman Grubb

Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill

Power Evangelism by John Wimber

Mikaela's Recent 1st's!

First: time in the grass, camping, Easter, balloon, swing, sun-tan, kid's music concert, pig-tail, Memorial Day.

Matt's Appendectomy!

This is Matt's surgically removed Appendix very inflamed and ready to burst!

Thank you for praying for me during this time of recovery. For those of you who do not know, I had my appendix taken out on May 6th. I will tell you the story:

I was 2 hours north of our home at a Catholic Monastery, Conception Abbey, doing research for a major paper on the missionary St. Patrick. Due to the small amount of factual information on St. Pat, I was very excited to go and use their library in order to find some great sources. I found the sources I needed and got to work. I was going to take the next three days and two nights to be with the Lord and do the research necessary to write the paper. The first day I found all of my sources and wrote a few pages, went to dinner, and then went fishing in their pond (I caught 12 Largemouth Bass!). I had a great time meeting some monks and spending time with the Lord, too. The next morning I woke up a bit sore. I got ready for the day, ate breakfast, and went to the library. By 9am I was feeling a good amount of pain in the center of my gut. I rarely get sick and will avoid vomiting at all costs, so I tried to stay focused and work on my research paper. The pain increased so much so that I couldn't focus any longer on the paper and packed up to go back to my room. My mission was to throw up and get whatever it was out of my system. The problem: I couldn't throw up and when I finally did later in the evening it was only a little bit. I knew at that point that this intense pain was more than the flu. After hours of intense pain and helplessness, I called Melissa to get the go ahead to receive medical attention. At first I was taken by Fr. Patrick to the Infirmary on the abbey's campus, but the nurses suspected appendicitis and knew that it was more responsibility than they could handle if they were right about it. I was in a situation, however, because I do not have health insurance! So, this visit to the ER was going to be either a waste of a lot of money that we don't have, or it was going to save my life and cost a lot of money that we don't have.

So, Fr. Patrick rushed me to St. Francis Hosptial in Maryville, MO...it was only 18 miles away. By midnight I was introduced to my ER nurse, Pat (What's up with all the Pat's while I'm supposed to be researching St. Pat?) and the pain meds started flowing into my body via an IV. I could finally stop fidgeting and could relax a bit while I wait for the next procedure. I was probably annoying them because I kept asking how much certain things would cost. They assured me that I needed everything that I was getting and that I shouldn't worry about it. ;o) They were right. So, after my X-ray and CaT Scan I went to sleep while the results were put together. When I found out that I definitely needed my appendix out immediately I called Melissa again and she began making plans for a friend to drive her and Mikaela up to be with me. The whole time I was in the ER Fr. Patrick was waiting in the waiting room! He is such a servant of the Lord. Thank you, Fr. Patrick. So, at 9:30am I went under and had laparoscopic surgery to remove my dying appendix. I awoke to Melissa's hand in mine with pain meds still flowing nicely. ;o) I left the hospital at 6 or 7 that night and went strait to an important meeting with my team for our trip next year (it was good to be with them after my surgery). After getting home safely I realized again that my wife is such a woman of God and loves me dearly. She has served me so well while I have been recovering (and is still able to nurture Mikaela amazingly, too!). It has been two weeks and the surgeon (who was great!) told me I should be at 50%. I feel much better than that, though. Again, thank you so much for praying for me. Please continue to pray for the favor of the Lord, not only for my recovery and grace for Melissa, but also for the very high medical bills that we need to negotiate away or have paid for before we go overseas.

PS- It has been nice to slow down, but also a bit frustrating to not be able to help out around the house as much as I would like to. So, thank you to all of you who have volunteered your time and energy to help me out. My lawn is freshly cut and the house is getting put into shape for the summer because of the great family God has provided for us in Kansas City. I will be at the necessary strength very soon. Thank you so much.

Controversial Issues - by Matt

Controversial Issues

I am convinced that much of the world and much of the Church are currently in a war over issues. There are many issues and many passionate opinions concerning these issues. Let me give you some examples of what I mean by issues:

Abortion. Oil Drilling. Gun Rights. Poverty. Greedy Corporations. Trillions of Dollars of Debt. Animal Rights. Partisanship. Peace/War in the Middle East. Gay Agenda. Capital Punishment. Religion. Intelligent Design/Evolution. Nuclear Weapons. Environment. Economy. Health Care. Stem Cells. Casinos. Urban Sprawl. Social Security. And many many many more...Many of us have our blood boiling just by reading this list. ;o)

Traditionally, the three things you should never talk about in friendly conversation are: Religion, Politics, and Money. I would like to have some friendly conversation with the reader...that's you...so, I want to put before you the first and most important issue that you and I must have convictions about. This issue deals with religion, politics, and money, but only after you deal with the issue by itself. What is this friendly issue?

Who do you believe Jesus of Nazareth is/was? This is the question that Jesus asked His disciples (cf. Mark 8:27-29; Matthew 16:13-16; Luke 9:18-20) approximately 2000 years ago. So many opinions come down to what Jesus asked them, "Who do the people say that I am? They answered and said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

I want to encourage you to consider your own answer to this crucial question. Who do you say that Jesus is? He taught that He was God. He taught that He was the promised One (Messiah) who would come to restore the universe. He taught about His coming Kingdom. Yes, He was a Prophet, but what He prophesied leads the hearer to turn and believe in Him as the only hope for restoration and salvation. Yes, He was a good Teacher, but what He taught leads the reader to either reject Him and His teachings or worship and follow Him alone. Who do you say that Jesus is?

"Who do you say that I am?"

Cutting Teeth in a Foreign Culture

We finally got a good picture of Mikaela's 1st tooth. They are really hard to see when they just break the surface. Tooth number 2 is now poking through! All of this adventure of our daughter growing and learning so much so quickly has us thinking. We've been studying cross-cultural communication and are learning that being fully immersed in a foreign culture forces you to have to relearn everything! When we go overseas for our year-long trip we will be like toddlers trying to learn the words, customs, currency, etc. of the people that we are going to learn to love so much. We will essentially be on the same intellectual level as Mikaela, except she learns faster than us! We are going to begin learning the language in the next couple of weeks and would appreciate your prayers. Thanks...Enjoy the pics.

Tuesday Night Healing - by Matt

Tuesday night home fellowship worship time

On Tuesday nights we go to a home fellowship group where we, along with other young adults (singles, married couples, and our children), encourage each other from the Scripture, pray for one another, and worship our King together. On occasion (about once a month) the Lord leads us to go out from our home time and minister to the people of Kansas City. We have had many great times with the Lord as we follow Him together. I want to give a testimony of His healing power that came as a result of this ministry time.

We were informed by one of the guys in our group that a family of followers of Jesus who lived across the from him had been going through a tough time. Their 5 year old son (they had a younger daughter, too) had been having bad health problems for three weeks and it was getting worse. The night before we were informed of this situation he had gone to the hospital with a fever of 103.5 and was still having very high temperatures. During worship we began to sing songs of prayer for the young boy (as well as other people we knew were sick) and we asked for the Holy Spirit to come and heal them. After we were done we all decided it would be good to go to their house (which was just down the street) and pray for and sing over this young boy. So we did.

We read some Scripture that would encourage us that Jesus heals people. We sang again for the Holy Spirit to come upon this young boy and heal his little body. My friend anointed the boy with oil while we were singing. The boy wasn't too excited about the oil. ;o) Finally, we brought with us my friend's 3 year old son (who sometimes plays with this sick boy) and he laid his hands on his friend and prayed for him to be healed in Jesus' name. We gave hugs and were encouraged by the presence of the Lord in their home. Then we left.

After a little while we received a call informing us that five minutes after we left the boy threw off his blankets, jumped off the couch, and ran around asking for food (he hadn't been able to keep anything down and didn't have an appetite for a couple days). The Lord completely healed him! This encouraged them in God's power to do what He said He will do...specifically: raise them to new life in a new body for eternity--He will raise them from the dead when He returns. God does miracles as a sign of His loving covenant to His people that He will raise them up to new life and include them in His eternal kingdom. Not only was this family encouraged by this healing, but our home fellowship group was, too. I trust you will find encouragement as you think about God's loving covenant with His creation. He loves us and He's coming back to set things right.

Come Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us these signs to encourage us. We ask You for more. Amen.

Mikaela is 9 months old!

Our beautiful Mikaela had her 9 month check-up today.

Here are her latest stats:

Weight: 17 pounds 3 ounces

Height: 26 1/4 inches

Head Circumference: 17 1/4 inches

Temperature: 98.1 degrees