August 31, 2011

The other day, Kaylin said, “Dad, you may not know it but I’m watching you!”  She was trying to get a laugh, but she reminded me of a very important and occasionally scary reality.  We pass so much on to our children.  The good, the bad, the odd…  I have a certain way I like to do Christmas:  stockings on Christmas Eve and presents Christmas morning.  No exceptions…it’s just not Christmas any other way!  One of the best things my parents passed on to me was a love for and commitment to the local church.  Not a requirement but a love.  As I continue to grow as a dad, I want my kids to feel the same way.  There are lots of important things, and then there are some things that are “most” important.  As for me and my house…commitment to church is a most important thing!  What are you passing on to your kids?

Nate

August 24, 2011

The time is NOW!

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven.“  Eccl. 3:1

Seasons have officially changed around here.  Summer is over.  It’s supposed to be close to 100 degrees today, but summer is over and school is in.  Pray.  Plan the fall. Pray.  Recruit and train leaders.  Pray.  Assimilate students.  Pray.  Follow up on decisions made over the summer.  Pray.  Meet new families.  Pray.  Pray.  Pray.

As I was talking with a young man about committing to serve with our high school students yesterday, he said, “I guess it must be God.  I had been thinking and wanting to start helping but never did anything about it.  I suppose since I didn’t do anything about it, and you still asked it must be…”

What season of your life are you in?  What is it time for NOW?  What are you doing to grow, serve and share?  Each season has unique opportunities, and I wonder sometimes if we aren’t like the young man I was chatting with.  Knowing we should do something but not really doing anything…

Nate

August 17, 2011

Back to School…

I have often said that our Christian students in the public school face one of the world’s greatest mission fields.  I have often programmed in such a way as to set our students up to be missionaries in their local context; their school.  I continue to pray for our students – that they would stand strong in the face of great opposition and temptation, that they would serve as salt in a perverse and lost culture, that they would light the way for others to know the goodness of God and the life He offers.

I’ve been doing this a long time.  This is not my first ‘back to school.’  The story of the soils (Matthew 13) that Jesus tells rings especially true.  Some students will have the passion that they now feel crowded out by the concerns of those that surround them.  Others will never take the time and energy to grow roots to their simple and immature faith.  Still others will cultivate their faith.  They will practice.  They will humble themselves.  They will seek integrity.  They will grow.  And they will produce fruit!!!

I will keep working, and I will keep praying.  Will you join me on my knees for our students?

Nate

August 3, 2011

Hume Lake 2011

It’s only happened a couple of times in all my life.

One time, it was under the shade of a small gazebo with a group of young wrestlers on the shore of the Black Sea in Russia.  Another time, it was just after a concert that we held with students here at Sierra Bible.  Well…it happened again.

We had been praying and trusting and hoping all week.  Our two cabins of guys were full of older High School guys that were really trying to figure out the gospel and their place in relation to who God is and what Jesus has done; wrestling to the point of knowing that ‘they weren’t followers of Jesus,’ and that ‘they weren’t ready to commit.’  We did what you do.  We stayed faithful.  We prayed, waited, trusted and we wondered.

Our wondering changed to worship when, just after a time of personal reflection and sharing, one of the guys said “I can’t think of another good reason not to commit my life to following Jesus…I’m IN!”  We stood shocked and thankful.  We then took a moment to stop and pray with this student.  Just prior to bowing our heads, we asked the other young men if any were ready?  “I’m IN,” said another of the guys.  “It’s my time,” said another, and another and another.  A few short seconds later, we were praying with eight of these young men to trust Jesus and commit their lives to him!!!  Eternity changed that morning…so did we.  We cried, we prayed and then we had a hard time walking back up to our dorms to get ready for Hume recreation…

Pastor Nate

June 1, 2011

Remember when you were a kid…

“Dad?” Kaylin asks on our short drive to school yesterday.  “What sweetheart?” I respond.  “I have a question.”  Now, I’m not really sure what is coming; but as most of you know, these are the moments that us dads live for.  Here we are…cruising along to school, singing worship songs out loud, and my eight year old daughter has ‘a question.’

“How is it that we can constantly say all these nice things about God and he never says ‘neener, neener, neener, I’m so great and you’re not;’ but when people say nice things to me, I start thinking I am greater than everyone around me???”  “Why does God seek compliments from us, but tells us not to seek compliments from each other?”

I’m not sure what I was thinking about when from the back seat I heard, “I have a question,” but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the character and nature of God.  I’m pretty sure I was thinking about the list of things I needed to get done, how I wanted to use my time after work, conversations I needed to have…

May God help us all remember to dream, wonder and ask.

Pastor Nate

May 25, 2011

Two Options…

Seems to me the simple choice is one of two options.  There are many choices as to how to spend the moments held within our days.  There are lots of ways to do things.  There are a lot of ways to ‘do’ those moments.  It doesn’t take but a glance back to realize that we win some, lose some and seem to seriously screw a number of others up!

There is a common thread that holds the often random moments, and it is defined with a simple question.  Will I trust Jesus? In this moment, in this step, in this leap, with this rest?  Option #1:  Will I trust Jesus?  The thread begins with the alarm clock in the morning and ends with the clicking off of the reading lamp at night.  It is there in the first conversations with your kids; the landing of some ‘portion’ on the kitchen table; the tasks, outlines, orders, flat tires, memorial services, purchases, storms, hurts, new births and in the waiting.

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.  Psalm 145:13

April 27, 2011

It seems to me that many in our world suffer from a profound loneliness.  I like to think about where it comes from and why we seem to sustain it, but I’ve come to believe that these need to pale in comparison to our thoughts about how to get rid of it.

Small decisions.  As many of you know, I led a small team of volunteers that helped in the parking of our Easter service this past weekend at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds.  It was a very cool group for me to be a part of.  Some of the volunteers I met on the evening before Easter when we did our walkthrough and orientation.  With the hopes of getting to know each other a bit, I asked our men (and my sister-in-law, Sarah) to share their name and one additional thing.  By about the fourth person, I knew what would be even more important than hundreds of cars being parked on Easter morning.

We needed to rid the world of a bit of loneliness.  We needed to listen, to laugh, to pray, and to rub shoulders doing something that mattered…even if only a little.  It was in that moment, as we were becoming friends that I realized we were having a little Church and that God was doing something wonderful.

Pastor Nate

April 20, 2011

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that he appeared…” I Corinthians 15:1 – 5

In the continuing verses of chapter 15, Paul goes on to say that unless this is true, our faith is hopeless and void of meaning.  My prayer is that the Risen Christ would appear to us and through us this Easter season.  He has promised to do this as we serve those in need, search for Him in his Word, and commit our lives in active and intentional ways to His Plans.

I want to remind you…that he appeared…

Pastor Nate

March 30, 2011

Just a dot but a dot nonetheless…

It’s deadline time!  Paper number one is due for my Church History class.  It’s only 20 pages, so one must delineate content and communicate clearly the importance of events and people.  I eat breakfast while pouring over the content of last night’s pages.  My daydreams are filled with early church creeds, martyrs, reformations, indulgences, power struggles and odd happenings within a history that portrays the hand of God in various ways.   Awesome…awesome is our God and his providence.

I’m inspired by those that have given their lives.  I’m challenged by those that gave so much.  I’m conflicted with the crisis of sin that caused in so many a passion for grace.  Looking back, these lives are like dots on a line.  Small stones seemingly thrown together; but from a certain perspective, they become a beautifully intentional mosaic of God’s love and plan.  Dots…faithful, humble, sacrificing, loving, daring…dots but dots nonetheless.

May our lives become stones in God’s unfolding mosaic.

Pastor Nate

March 23, 2011

Freedom or Rebellion…

If I can define freedom as the ability to align my will with that of my (meaning our as there is no me without us) nature, then it seems to me that an action or choice made outside of my nature is rebellion.  If my nature is defined as an image bearer of God, then any choice that would defile that image is rebellion.  If my nature is intrinsically communal, then any act of sheer independence is rebellion.

I have come to see a few other things as key to my nature.  Family.  Service.  Quiet.  Prayer.  Receiving.  With these, I have come to view a few other things as rebellion; rebellion that needs desperately to be repented of.

May your will have the freedom to align your decisions with your nature.  May we live free.

Pastor Nate

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