Catching up with God

I'm waiting out flooding in Central Texas as I am visiting family in Marble Falls and Kingsland. As I type this, I can look out my brother's back door and monitor the level of Lake LBJ which ironically is "down" right now. The reason-floodgates have been opened below us to allow the swelling Colorado River and its chain of lakes here in the Hill Country to continue to empty toward the ocean. They are expecting more rain and more potential flooding, so they have left the gates open to allow for more to come.

I've had a lot of time to read, catch up on my Bible study and study for my bus driver test (more on that in another entry). Isn't it funny how God sometimes forces us to stop? I finally took the time to really get some things straight with God today as I made a new entry in my much-neglected prayer journal. The great thing about journaling my prayers is that I almost always end up making some startling and life-changing discoveries about my attitude, unrealized sins, mistaken ways of thinking, ungratefulness or some other such ugly thing that needs to be dealt with.

As difficult as these times are, they are also so freeing as I finally cast off the old ugly stuff and replace it with God's grace resulting in a whole new outlook and the peace that often alludes. Paul talks about this in his letters to the churches.

• In Romans 12:2, he says not to be conformed to the world's pattern, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
• To the Corinthians, he wrote that they should test themselves to make sure they were in the faith and reminds them that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (II Cor 13:5 and 5:17).
• The Galatians are admonished with these words from chapter 4, verses 8-9, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?"
• To the believers in Ephesus he says, "You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, wich is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24).
• The Philippian christians are told to have the same attitude as Christ Himself in humility and obedience (Philippians 2:5-11). They are encouraged to pray instead of being anxious, to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable and to rejoice in the Lord, rather than depend on circumstancial happiness (Philippians 4:4-8 and 12).
• Colossians chapters 2 and 3 are all about this putting off the old self and putting on the new. Col 2:3-"So then, just as you received Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live in Him." Col 2:20-"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to it's rules?" Col 3:1-2-"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above...set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

There's more, but this is already a pretty long post. It just struck me how many times we're encouraged to remember that we're not who we were, so we need to act and think like it!

The Package Has Been Delivered

Yes, that's right. Monday morning I sent all my paperwork via e-mail to the IMB. I don't know if I should have expected a reply email saying yes, we got your stuff, but I have heard nothing back...I'm starting to get nervous.

No openings...

Many of you know that I am applying to be a full-time career missionary through the IMB. I am excited about the possibilities and although slightly overwhelmed by the daunting application process, I am certain of this, if God has called me to be a missionary, a missionary I will be!

Right now, there are no openings for the two places (Guatemala and Costa Rica) that have entered my heart through mission trips with Houston's First Baptist in the past three years. I know God may have another location for me to serve, so I'm praying that He will show me what that is. (Deep down, I'm praying that something will open up in my beloved Central America.)

This blog entry is a prayer request to all of you out there...please pray for me to know exactly where God wants me and to get through the current step of essay/biography writing for the Mission Board.

Costa Rica...Pura Vida!
(If you're limited on time, but would like to see photos of our trip, you might want to scroll on down to the link at the end of this post, but come back and read what God did in Costa Rica when you have more time.)

PURA VIDA is the saying that Ticos (the nickname for Costa Ricans) use as their catch all phrase. It literally means "pure life," but it can be used for all such common phrases as "you're welcome", "hello", "thanks", "cool", "whatever" and various other things. If you really want to sound cool, you say, "Pura vida, mai (pronounced 'my')."

Our trip to Costa Rica, May 26-June 2 was Pura Vida! Twenty of the coolest single adults from Houston's First Baptist Church boarded Continental flight 14something and sailed to San Jose to share the love of Christ. Here are a few things God did on our trip:

1) The bestest thing that happened (at least in my book) is that our bus driver, Jonathan, received Christ on the last day we were there. We had been witnessing to him and praying for him the whole week. Every time we stopped to eat, we invited Jonathan along. We gave him a Bible, so he'd have some good reading material as he waited for us to do our various ministry activities. One of the days, he left the bus door open and watched us as we did VBS with a bunch of kids at a day care center. We were so excited when he made that step of faith and crossed over from death to life on Friday. He told us that this group was unlike any other he'd ever driven around and he would never forget us. I know it's Christ in us that he will always remember, even if he forgets every one of our names.

2) God taught me (and several others in our group) that we couldn't do this ministry thing on our own strength. Even something as simple as leading a few children's songs and telling a story was a total flop when I tried to do it on my own on Sunday. Thank God we got a second chance with that same group of kids on Thursday and it went much better because we were relying on the Lord to work through us. Here is a quote from Chris Tiegreen that I read in my daily devotional book "At His Feet" on Monday morning:

A lot of us have limited vision. We base most of our activities and plans on what we've learned from experience and the interests, talents, and abilities we know we have. We are reluctant to get in over our heads because of the discomfort we feel in such situations. We don't like having demands placed on us that are beyond our resources.

When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He always pushes us beyond our experience and beyond our abilities...Jesus doesn't call us to do the same things we've always done in the same ways we've always done them. He calls us to launch out further and deeper, to places where we cannot depend on our own experience and abilities. He puts us in places where we must depend entirely on Him...

3) God also gave us opportunities to impact the lives of the staff at the hotel. Although some may question us staying in an "Americanized hotel" on a mission trip, we looked at it as an opportunity to minister and witness to a set of people that might be overlooked by other missionaries. We met so many wonderful Costa Ricans just by being a presence at breakfast each morning and coming in tired and filthy, but happy each evening.

4) We saw the beauty of God's creation as we drove up through the mountains to the tropical rainforest. The sights were breathtaking and I doubt any of our pictures could do them justice. As we rode, we sang praises to God and read Psalms about creation and God's power. It was a powerful time and I know that also had an impact on our aforementioned driver. We got an even better view of all this beauty as we soared over the rainforest on zip lines and in cable cars. You'll have to check out pictures in my webshots album.

5) Finally, we felt God's presence as we loved on children, helped Youth With A Mission (YWAM) move to a newly acquired location, ministered to hurting women at First Baptist San Jose and witnessed to young people in a local park. God worked through each of us individually, using our gifts and often stretching us beyond our comfort zones, forcing us to grow. But He also did an incredible thing by turning us into a team, made up of an eclectic mix of folks from computer guys to teachers to former military to accountants, to contractors, with a few medical folks thrown in, just for fun. We barely even knew each other going into the week, but at the end of the time, we not only worked well together as a team, but we really liked each other!!

So, enough babbling about my trip. There's way more than I could possibly tell and this blog is getting long, so click the link below to see my photos. I pray each of you out there in blogworld gets a chance to have an experience like the one we had in Costa Rica. It will change your life...Pura Vida!

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/559338135igglKe?vhost=good-times