Goin' Wild!

I must confess that we've lived in Minnesota for 6 months now and I'm

only just getting to my first hockey game! I had a great excuse though, take my beautiful wife out for her

23 birthday...a month and a half late. But it was worth it!

Minnesota Wild vs. Detroit Red-Wing...final score 5-2

Wild, woohoo! Quite a game.

Pictures::

Rachel seated on her ice throne in St. Paul.

Rachel with her Rodeo bull.

Just us at the Arena.

Sacredness of Human Life

Hold up your hand and pretend like you're

holding a peanut between your thumb and

forefinger. Now, imagine in that span of your fingers is a fully formed baby with all it's bodily organs and appendages. That's the size and structure of almost every baby that is aborted in America on a daily basis. (3,000/day) I'm still trying to grasp these silent, unreported realities!

Our pastor compared it to the Haitian earthquake happening everyday among the unborn, because as many babies are aborted daily in this world as people have died in Haiti!! That's staggering...that's horrifying!!

This is all the more real because of two things going on in our lives. Firstly, just this week Rachel and I had a sneak peek into our baby's world. Spread your fingers a little farther apart and that's the size of our baby. As we watched on the monitor for almost an hour my mind raced back to Psalm 139 which we memorized this fall, "You formed my inward parts, you

knitted me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, my soul knows them very well!"

As the Psalmist meditated on the darkest places on earth he thought of two places: 1) his inner parts, 2) his mother's womb. Yahweh God made our inner parts, Yahweh God mak

es every baby, and he does these

incredible works of creation in absolute darkness. If He can see well enough in those places to do those creative works, we should never have to fear darkness in our lives,

Yahweh sees and Yahweh knows and Yahweh does wonderful things in the dark. Wonderful, fearful, sacred, holy creations of God...and we do terrible things in that same dark place! God have mercy on us and our nation. Pray too that God would continue to bless and strengthen Rachel through this pregnancy, she's doing great!

The second thing that gets me thinking about sanctity of human life this weekend is because God has opened an opportunity for a fellow apprentice and myself to lead a worship servic

e at our church for those among us with mental handicaps. Often corporate worship is far too difficult, too distant, and too long for them to glean much spiritual fruit. As a strong symbol that our church values human life inside and outside the womb we're hoping to offer this service every Sunday for these dear people and their caretakers. Pray for us as we step into new territory for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom. 90% of all children who are projected to have a physical handicap are aborted! 90%...they don't stand a chance! (If you want Jesus' perspective on this reflect on John 9:1-7, Ex. 4:11) Yet has not

God made them as well, isn't he the one knitting them together too!? Yet, even with the mental capacity of 3 year olds we want to preach the gospel to them in a way that they might understand. Who knows what God will do in the dark places of their minds, perhaps he will create faith and joy and love for Jesus!

So, I end my reflection on the sacredness of human life for now. Please pray for our unborn child who is a work of God in progress. Please pray for this ministry opportunity with our mentally disabled friends. Please pray for eyes to be opened to the glory of God displayed all around us through people made in His image and likeness. AMEN

P.S.-We closed our eyes when we could have found out our baby's gender so guess you'll just have to wait another 4 1/2 months with us :-)

A Freeing Thought

I've been thinking, praying, wrestling more and more lately about what it means when Jesus says, "you will be my witnesses..." (Acts 1:8). There's nothing terribly complex about it. He sent the Holy Spirit not just to comfort and encourage us but also to empower us in being witnesses! Everywhere we go we are witnesses for Jesus Christ, those telling the good news.

Now, here's where I've been wrestling - "telling". I hear a lot about lifestyle evangelism and friendship evangelism but not about preaching evangelism! Isn't that what evangelism is? Isn't that what it means to be a witness, to attest to some truth before others? Isn't that what the Holy Spirit was given to empower us to do? And yet I find myself tongue tied, lip locked, and just plain cowardly.

"You will be my witnesses..." It's called arrogant by our culture. It's called imposing our wills on other people. It's called rude and politically incorrect. -- We call it love of neighbor. We call it good news. We call it telling the truth.

So, here's the freeing thought. We serve a Great King, his name is Jesus. He's coming back and will demand total allegiance from all people everywhere in every-age. By a work of grace we heard about this Great King, his blood, his mercy, and something changed in us! Now, this King calls us to be his "witnesses" in the world telling others that He's coming, He demands allegiance, He made a way by the cross... Witnesses don't get measured by their response rate but by being witnesses! We must speak this truth in love, call for joyful response, and _________ (what?). That's where we pray and wait for the Spirit to move; we're witnesses not miracle workers. So, would you join me in not being afraid of ________ anymore. Let's be witnesses of the King and not neglect our calling because we're not able to control the result. God grant us joy and boldness for this work, AMEN.

[more to come on this subject]

A New Year, A New Blog

Greetings faithful blog readers, this post is for you. Most of you read because you want to check in on Rachel and me. Some of you read because you are helped by the occasional thoughts from scripture we provide. This is good, because up until now we've had the hope that those who read will both encounter us and through us encounter God.

So, we are head into the new year I've been thinking about what purpose this blog should serve: informational, devotional, conversational? We're hoping all three! Every other Sunday we'll be posting a brief update on our lives, schooling & ministry, and any news on the baby. The alternate Sunday we hope to post something that we've been studying in God's word or encountered while serving here at Bethlehem. Our hope is that out of those two types of posts will spring conversation. May the Lord bless our endeavor.