GR life begins again

Howdy.

My online classes started on Tuesday. It looks like it's going to be a lot of work, but so far no sign of big papers. I'm taking research writing at the CC, so that is going to be a big enough source of large papers. If you could continue to pray for my time management, I would appreciate it. It's not something that I am naturally good at, so it will take some work.

Last week was my "fun week" before I headed off to GR for school. Unfortunately, I was really down about some stuff right when the week started, and it sort of made the week less exciting. Thursday was a real pick-me-up, though, because I got to catch up with some old friends who had great reports of their walk with the Lord.

Now, I begin the process of searching for a church to attend in GR. I found what seems to be a nice Wesleyan church right down the road that I am going to check out. One of the things that I am looking for is proximity. I really want to find a church that is really close to where I am living. Driving 30 minutes or more to church is lame. Obviously, the church must have sound doctrine. I am also looking for a church that is abnormal. Normality is overrated. There are lots of things that could qualify for this. Maybe it's multicultural, maybe it's a house church, maybe they are just willing to think way outside the box when it comes to ministry, or maybe their worship service isn't your standard 3 songs, meet and greet, offering, sermon, another song to close and then leave.
I'm not going to leave a church because I'm not being "fed" adequately by the pastor, if I felt that way I would just listen to sermons from John Piper online. I'm looking for a church where I can connect, love people, be loved by people, and serve along side loving people in ministry.

Putting my face in the dirt

I was driving home from a wedding rehearsal tonight and in the process I listened to two separate sermons on the radio. They were from two different pastors, one out of the book of Job and one out of Romans. They had a common theme, and one that I needed to be reminded of again.

What is our view of God? No, he is not here to help us live a better life in 10 easy steps. Life is not about us and what we can get out of it. Life is about God. God is immeasurably greater than us, almighty, most holy. Why do I not often find myself face down in the dirt, prostrate, bowing down to God's reverence. Not metaphorically, not just a state of mind, but physically in the dirt. How often do we realize our state of depravity and break down, tears running down our faces, unable to do anything but proclaim God's majesty? Too often I take God's grace for granted as I continue to cut corners and sin here and there (it seems ok, because they're not the "big" sins). I should fall flat on my face in tears of repentance every time I disobey the Lord in the small things. We serve a God far greater than any of us can imagine, yet we neglect to give him the praise he deserves.

This thought began earlier this summer when a friend, in tears, opened up to me that this is where he is. As we sat and talked in a mosquito infested swamp for two hours, He said that even the mosquitoes obeyed God's command, yet we cannot. We do not even deserve to kill the mosquitoes biting us right now, because they obey God and we don't. Thanks friend; I thought I was there to help you in that moment, but you don't realize how much you changed my life.

Life Transitions

So I haven't posted on here in a long time, but now that the camp season is coming to a close I'd like to get back into it.

It's an odd thing when something you've known for a long time comes to an end. It's just a strange feeling. Not necessarily sad, but strange. Leaving high school was strange, leaving Cornerstone was strange; and now, leaving camp is strange. Camp is a place that has been a massive part of my life for the past 5 years. It has definitely been the best experience of my life so far. It is where I have met and had fellowship with some of the strongest Christians I know. I've also had so many joyful opportunities to disciple younger people. Spending the extra time to get to know the high school volunteers this year was amazing. I could have coasted through my last summer and just got by with the minimum required of me, but I ended up having an amazing summer because I invested my time in people. I hope that I impacted their lives as much as they impacted mine.

So now I leave on Saturday, with no intent to work here again. The excitement of the unknown awaits me. I am pumped for whatever God has in store for me in the future. This fall I will be busy with 21 credit hours at school, plus a ministry, plus the friends that I have promised to invest time in. I would appreciate prayers for time management, it's going to be crazy. Lord willing I will be graduating with a BS in Biblical Studies next summer. I'm totally filled with joy knowing that I have no idea what I'm going to do after that. College and Camp is what I've known for 5 years. Being done with both of these, I could go anywhere, and that excites me. My plan is to continue serving God with all I have.

It's funny how God changes people. 10 years ago, if you told me that I should go serve God in a remote village in South America, I would have said you were crazy. Now, I'd be down with it.

Random thought of the day: Some of the most important things that I've learned in life have been taught to me by those that I was placed in authority over. Are you willing to learn from those under you? Because, maybe in reality, they are above you.

Life

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

I would like to say that I suck. God, thank you for your saving grace,... please help me to suck less and live more like Jesus.

Life is Unpredictable: an update on nate's life

In case you didn't read it on Facebook

Well, I figured it was time that I told everyone what was going on in my life recently.
I was on track (or so I thought) to get a bachelors in biology by the end of spring 2011. A couple Sunday's ago, as I was driving, my prayers got a little more heated than normal. I was quite frustrated, that after all this time floundering around in college, I still couldn't seem to get a glimpse of God's purpose for my life.
Monday came and it was the first day of class. I sat at the computer in the library and took a closer look at what classes I was going to need for my degree. I realized that the classes I thought were going to transfer, weren't going to work the way I needed them to. It would likely take one more year than I thought to graduate. I took this as a response to my prayer and I was deeply unsettled about the direction I was going. The following 2 days were very difficult as my mind was spinning with uncertainty.
I decided, with much prayer and counsel, to drop my classes and devote my time this semester to spiritual training. I am excited to spend time studying the word and getting to know my creator even more.
Next fall I would like to enroll in a missions training program. I have not decided which one, but Bethany college of missions in MN is at the top of the list at the moment (www.bcom.org). I have known for a while that I would like to be involved somehow in church planting. I have also known for a while that I love studying and experiencing cultures different from my own. It seems only logical that I should put these two passions together and go into missions. Maybe to others it seemed obvious for awhile that I should be a missionary. I don't know. Because they never told me. Or I wasn't listening. Either way, it wasn't obvious to me until a week ago.

I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to discern God's will for my life and follow it.

Slavery to Sin

The school year is well under way and I am a little more overloaded than I would like to be. Nevertheless, I am going back to posting regular blogs, because it makes me write my thoughts down (which is healthy), and it allows me to keep anyone who reads this in the loop.

In my studies I have struggled with the concept of being a slave to sin, then breaking free of those chains as a result of putting faith in Christ, but yet still stumbling into sin again and again. I had a hard time putting into words a distinction between the before and after of sins control in our lives.
Romans 6:6
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin"

I was life guarding the other day when my thought process led me to credit card debt. When someone has a massive amount of credit card debt (an impossible amount to repay), they become a slave to it. The interest raises the debt faster than they can pay it. It causes a downward spiral in their life. Their slavery causes them to continue to use the credit card to pay for stuff. Maybe, they even give up hope, so they continue to use the card knowing they would never be able to repay it anyway.
So lets relate the debt to sin. When we put our faith in Christ, his death payed the debt in full. gone. The downward spiral begins to stop. The money we were pumping into the interest payments can be used for food and rent (instead of using the credit card for all that). We are no longer bound to using the card, we have the choice of putting it away. Maybe sometimes we stumble and swipe the card here and there... but Christ's payment covered all future debts as well.
To make matters worse... it only takes one sin to accumulate this massive debt.
John 8:34
"Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin'."
Thank you Jesus for paying off my debt and breaking the chains of my enslavement!

The moral: I don't matter.

Another season of camp comes to an end. For the past 4 summers this has probably been the hardest part of the year for me. I spend the first part of the summer building this beautiful picture of Christian community. Then the end of July comes around and it gets torn down. It's almost like I go through a period of grieving. I suppose that's a good way to describe it, because something that meant a lot to me is gone forever. There will never be that same community until the new earth.

A healthy part of the grieving process is holding on to the memories. So my favorite part of the rest of the year is getting together with camp friends and laughing about our memories from camp.

I am relieved to hear that, from the outside, people were saying how much better the staff seemed this year. That they were more united, and that they reflected the attitude of Christ. It was an encouraging thing to hear after finishing what might have been my hardest summer. It's hard to compare because the previous summers seem so long ago. Being in charge of the waterfront was something I wasn't looking forward to, but it turned out to be fine. Sometimes it felt like an escape for me from other parts of camp.
I struggled a lot with pride this summer. I would be helping with something and I would get frustrated because I wanted it done my way. If you were there this summer you might not have noticed, at least I hope you didn't. Whether it was the right thing to do or not, I began to do my best to avoid helping with things that would exacerbate this attitude. The waterfront was different, because it was in my job description for things to go my way there; so it was never a struggle. That's probably why it became my escape, in a way.
This struggle was not a surprise to me going into the summer, but it was a little harder than I thought it would be.

Before I finish up this update, I want to make sure that you don't think it was all gloomy for me this summer. It was an excellent summer! I had a great time. It actually doesn't matter if I had a good time or not. What does matter is that a very large number of kids and teens were eternally impacted for Christ. It was a very exciting summer of surrendered lives. Lots of parties in heaven going on. One counselor shared that 9 of his campers accepted Christ at one of their Bible studies. Praise God. I also appreciate your prayers regarding spiritual warfare. It was a very real thing, but Jesus came out victorious time and time again.

Philippians 2:

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.