Do You Love Me?

In John 21, Jesus asks this question three times of Peter. For some reason, we always seem to focus on the question and answer dialog between Jesus and Peter, and neglect the explanation that Jesus gave of how Peter was to show his love for the Lord. Jesus instructed Peter to "feed my sheep". Although we may be in very different Kingdom roles than Peter was to be, I believe that this is still what God's servants need to be concerned with. The key word that I noticed in this passage a few days ago is "my". The sheep are not ours! Whether we are pastors or laypeople, we need to be ministering to our fellow believers where God gives opportunity regardless of whether they are in "our church" or of our ethnic group or even agree with us on all the finer points of Biblical interpretation.

There is of course one other context where Jesus instructs how we are to show our love for Him. In John 14:15, Jesus says "If you love Me, you will obey what I command". We must be obedient, reverent, desiring to let the holiness and righteousness of our Lord shine through us.

We show our love for God by living our own lives in obedience to His Word and by strengthening His Church (our fellow believers). We must have both an inward and an outward focus if we are to be complete in our faith. For a congregation, there must be a passionate concern both for the church and for the Church. And neither one of those is made of bricks or sticks.

It Is Enough

On Sunday morning I woke up with a hymn in my head that I hadn't heard in a long time: My Faith Has Found A Resting Place. As I see God open doors, as I question His next provision, as I wonder where He's leading me, the refrain keeps coming back to me:

It is enough that Jesus died
And that He died for me

Jesus is sufficient. Always has been, always will be. No matter where I find myself or what path God may put me on: "I need no other argument, I need no other plea".

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Welcome to Spring

A lot has been going on lately! I've made some good contacts with people in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I can also see the finances for the PrayerPaddle starting to come together now. Although I can't say that all the expenses are covered yet, I have been able to confirm some funding from the Canadian National Baptist Convention and from the Mississippi Baptist Convention. People from my church have also helped out with the equipment needs from the Wish List. My biggest concern right now is lining up volunteers. Right now I only have people confirmed to cover about 3 1/2 of the 8 weeks. This is really important both for me to be able to make my way along the coast and for the objectives of the PrayerPaddle to be met. Please pray for workers with a servant heart and a passion for the Church!

I've noticed something pretty amazing about my walk with the Lord. No matter how miraculously and mightily God moves and provides and confirms things, I always still manage to find a way to doubt His provision for my next need. I know that He will be just as able to help me tomorrow as He was yesterday. I know that His character will not change or allow Him to turn His back on me. Logically, there are so many reasons for me to trust Him completely, and yet doubts and worries always seem to spring back. Does anybody else have this problem? I guess if doubts and worries are to be my constant companions, then faith is simply to keep on keeping on the path regardless of their heckling.

This last week was the Spring Break for us. We were thrown off a bit during the first few days by the death of a dear lady from church who blessed our family immensely by the many times that she spent with the little ones in the nursery. We rejoice for her being in the presence of her Lord, but yet she will be deeply missed. We did manage to get our family away for a couple days of camping, sightseeing, and fishing. The timing worked out for some beautiful weather and a providential meeting with some Christian homeschooling families from Eldorado, Arkansas. We also spent a couple days working on paperwork: income taxes and passports for everyone. For our family, the new travel requirements effective in June meant spending around $500 in passport fees. Yuck!

And then on Friday and Saturday I went down to the Coast for an overnight trip in the kayak. I paddled out to Horn Island, about nine miles offshore, by way of a couple other islands. The longest open crossing is about five miles. It was a valuable training trip out to a beautiful uninhabited barrier island, with a few mistakes to learn from of course. The paddle out to Horn went pretty smoothly, I got a little practice with surf launches and landings on the Gulf side, and I was able to cook a hot meal over a small fire. But the winds picked up overnight, and it was clear that my return trip would not be so easy. After about 4 1/2 hours of strenuous paddling against 15 knot winds and 3 foot whitecapping waves (plus a couple hours of rest stops on the other islands), I was pretty worn out upon reaching the mainland. I also had my hands and nose burnt to a crisp since the sunscreen bottle that I took barely had enough left to cover me for one day. Although it seemed that every muscle in my body was in agony when I finally got home last night at 10:20, I was amazed to find that I felt great this morning other than the sunburn. Even though contrary winds and waves are always a potential threat or annoyance for sea kayaking, the good news is that there are only a few cases along the PrayerPaddle itinerary where such long open water crossings will be required. Nevertheless, it's obvious that this is not going to be easy.

One more quick note. The book that I'm in now is called "A Time for Heroes". Although cast against the days in the mid-80's when Communism/Marxism was still a global threat to the Church, it remains a remarkably challenging book. Brother Andrew takes the lives of nine Biblical "heroes" and compares them to how God has worked through modern day heroes of the faith. And then he challenges believers to consider applications to their lives. To your life. To my life. Don't think you're cut out to be a hero? Why not? Did God say so? Or did the devil say so? Or do we not have a clear enough concept of what a real hero is?

Marine radios

Thanks to a generous gift from a friend, I now have a VHF marine radio to use for the PrayerPaddle. A VHF radio is an important safety item for an extended coastal kayaking trip for a variety of reasons. Probably the most common use is for routine weather updates from the weather radio channels. It is also an important tool to avoid collisions in areas with significant shipping. A good example would be around the ferry between Caribou, NS and Woods Island, PEI. And in the unlikely event of an emergency, the radio is the best chance for summoning assistance in a timely manner.

Unfortunately I'm relatively limited in opportunities to try out the radio since I don't live in a coastal area. I have been able to tune in the weather channels here, but will have to wait until a trip down to the Coast next week to work with the other channels.

My other problem has to deal with licensing. Within the United States, I am exempted from license requirements. However that apparently changes once I take the radio out of the country. As best I can decipher the regulations, I will be required to obtain both a station license (about $150) and an operator's license (around $50) for international use. The station license is just paperwork and money, while the operator's license actually requires a written exam at a certified testing center. So that's a few more headaches to have to deal with.

Heading into Springtime

I managed to get to the Metro Baptist Association's missions banquet/fair just in time to set up my display about the PrayerPaddle. I guess that there were well over 200 in attendance, with maybe about a dozen who stopped to look at the poster or take an information sheet. The speaker was encouraging about the harvest potential for churches in cities like Jackson, but also pretty convicting.

Yesterday I was busy with "Shine '09", an effort by Transformation Jackson to get Christians from all churches out to do community service cleaning up vacant lots, fixing up school grounds, etc. I was glad that I got to work on a street just south of our neighborhood that I've been concerned about. The weather was perfect. We had a good turnout, although I'm afraid there were still many churches who did not do their part.

I have a lot to get done this week, once I get mid-term grades turned in tomorrow. Then next week will be Spring Break.

For those interested in helping with equipment needs, there have been some items taken off of the Wish List and one new item added.

He Leadeth Me

OK, this is the second try. I wrote up a post a few days ago and lost it when my wireless connection went away. Took me a while to get motivated for a second try.

Since I had to go out to Arizona last month to attend a conference for work, I also spent some time visiting relatives out there. It was a blessing in a lot of ways. While worshipping with my uncle the first Sunday, I was reminded of an old hymn that I hadn't heard in a long time. The words really took on new meaning for me as I try to trust God to lead me in the PrayerPaddle ministry, as well as other areas of my life. It's so amazing to realize that God wants us to follow His lead, not from a distance or through an impersonal set of orders. But we have the privilege to hold to the very hand of God if we are only willing to go where He leads.

"He leadeth me, He leadeth me
By His own hand He leadeth me
His faithful follower I would be
For by His hand He leadeth me"

Learning to trust God to provide is always a challenge. I was challenged (and reminded how small my faith is) recently while reading "God's Smuggler" by Brother Andrew. It was one of those books that I'd been meaning to read for the last couple decades, but had always put off. Wow, what an amazing testimony! Meanwhile I'm trying to be faithful and patient for God to bring everything together for the summer. We had a minor scare/distraction a couple weeks ago when the hard drive went out on our desktop PC at home. Thanks to being given a laptop for Christmas, we weren't completely offline. But it was a relief that we were able to save almost all our files (especially family photos) with some help from a friend.

Today was a relatively challenging paddle for me. I was only out for an hour and the weather was nearly perfect. But the most difficult challenge of prayerpaddling is the prayer part. Today I was paddling in a residential area, passing by many households to pray for. Prayer is such a hard discipline to develop, and yet so vitally important to the spiritual battle!

A New Year?

Well, December sure did fly by. It was a good holiday season, full of blessings and yummy food. We ate trout tonight that the kids caught with their Papa. And I finally got a new update letter sent out. I've also gotten a decent amount of paddling done, even though it's always less than planned. In some sense it seems like I'm heading into the home stretch for PrayerPaddle preparations as we enter a new year. But of course I'll be in denial over the demise of 2008 for a while. Tomorrow we'll be heading back home from my parents' house in Texas. Then I need to take care of some things at work to get ready for a conference in Phoenix. I will spend some extra time out there to visit with relatives.