Walking with Jesus

. What has been the most challenging and/or rewarding event in your ministry? I spent two years in Africa as a church planter and evangelist in the midst of my Master's work. I lived in a concrete house with a tin roof in the middle of a Maasai village. I learned to weld so I could install solar panels and have limited electricity during my second year there. I was alone most of the time, surrounded by people who didn't speak English, and when the drought ended if I had a shower it was cold. During that time I had occasion to eat rice with feces in it, drink after a man who spit a logy into my tea to cool it off, and bury a little boy beside whose doctor decided to take him off his IV because the doctor wanted to go home early and whose father didn’t want his body. Fully two-thirds of the days I spent in Africa were terribly hard. Yet, they were the most challenging and most rewarding days of ministry I have experienced to date and I wouldn’t trade a single one for any other

. Olivia and I have a few blogs we follow. One of them is by a man named Nathan. You can read more about his story , including the struggles his family has faced and the wonderful way God has provided for them and given them the grace they needed to trust in the Lord at Confessions of a CF Husband . But, today I want you to read his recent blog posting for a particular reason. I want you to read it because he is taking a stand (in his own small way) against the kind of teaching that " tickles the ears " of our worst impulses as fallen human beings. Then, I want to encourage you to join Nathan somehow, perhaps through your encouragement, perhaps in prayer, or perhaps by contacting Pat Robertson at CBN to let him know how disappointed you are at this public abandonment of marital commitment and the eternal holiness God desires for us in preference for the shallow and temporary happiness of man. Then, I want to encourage you to say a prayer for the man mentioned in the video

. 9-11 8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel. 9 All the people will know — Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria— Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: 10 “ The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars .” 11 Therefore the LORD shall set up The adversaries of Rezin against him, And spur his enemies on, 12 The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still. 13 For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts. 14 Therefore the LORD will cut off head and tail from Israel, Palm branch and bulrush in one day. 15 The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. 16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed. 17 Theref

I dreamt I was standing on an empty stage. There were no props. No scenery. No frame of reference. Just me. Very often in life when our faith is confronted we also have no frame of reference. All we bring with us is our internal compass. We have no props or scenery, no other actors on the stage, just the bare background of life itself. When life happens, when we are confronted, what will we say? I think people should be able to do what they want to do. That may surprise you, because you know that I am a follower of Jesus, but I think people should be free to make whatever choices they want to make. However, where I differ from the world is in this: I believe there should be consequences for those choices, and I believe our Creator has the privilege of determining those consequences. What would the world be like if we actually allowed God to be in charge (as He will be someday). What would it look like if the holiness code of the Bible was code for real life. What if kidnapping, r