Thunder and Lighting

Reading through Exodus this Lenten season, the one that I have been continually reminded about is the power of God. God shows his power in the miracles that he gives Moses to perform, in the ten plagues that he sends on the Egyptians, and the parting of the Red Sea. Our reading the other day brought us to Sinai and the giving of the ten commandments. These two passages caught my attention: 

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. (Exodus 19:19 ESV)  

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off  and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:18–19 ESV) 

I love that line "God answered him in thunder"! I imagine being in the camp below the mountain. It had to be pretty frightening! What the text describes as God coming down on the mountain sounds like a volcano erupting. If you have never witnessed a volcano erupting, it is pretty spectacular and a little scary. When I lived in Guatemala, I could see three different volcanoes from my house, two of which were active. When they would go off, you could see it, hear it, and even smell it. It was quite a sight to behold. That is the picture I get when I think about these verses. No wonder the people were great with fear when Moses comes down!

We struggle sometimes with the idea of God's power for two reasons. Often in the church today we teach one of two extremes about God's character. Either it's a "hell fire and brimstone" where God is angry at you or it is a "God is all love", with no judgement of sin. Now, before we continue lets clarify a couple of things. Does God get angry,? Yes, sin angers God. The Bible is clear on that. Is God love? Yes absolutely! God is the pure embodiment of love. I mean John 3:16, come on. God loves, but he does not tolerate sin. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get back to his power. We talk so often with children about God being our friend, and in evangelism, we talk about God loving us and desiring to have a personal relationship with us (neither are bad things). But I think it can lead to us missing part of God's character. We serve a God who is powerful, a God who is not bound by anything. I am reminded of the quote from C.S. Lewis' book "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe":

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

Wise ol' Jethro

Having studied Theology and Biblical studies in both college and seminary I often find myself looking for the hidden deep treasures of scripture (both a noble and needed pursuit). So I love it when I am reading the Bible and come across a really practical section of scripture. That is one thing I find so very interesting about scripture is that it contains both the practical and the deep truths. The passage we read last night contains a great practical lesson in leadership.

I will let you read it for yourself:

[14] When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” [15] And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; [16] when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” [17] Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. [18] You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. [19] Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, [20] and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. [21] Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. [22] And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. [23] If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” (Exodus 18:14–23 ESV)

Jethro comes to visit Moses and sees how he goes about his work and offers some great advice! Delegation! Jethro tell Moses to delegate, he tells him specifically how to do it. Can you imagine the line to see Moses before he began to delegate? We think the DMV is bad! Think about waiting in line all day to get Moses to settle you dispute and you finally get a few people away and he closes up shop for the day! As leaders we need to learn to delegate. Now, there is a difference between delegation and laziness. Laziness says, "I'll let other people handle all this so I can relax and not work". Delegation says, "I am going to let others help so I can focus on the main part that I need to be working on so we can all accomplish our goal."

There are some keys though we must follow if we want to delegate effectively. 1) Remember you are the leader and must accept full responsibility for how your team performs, no passing the blame if someone drops the ball. 2) Make sure those to whom you are delegating are capable of the task that you give them. 3) Don't micro manage. Let you team work! 4) But be prepared to step in if needed. 5) Make sure you focus on your part and lead by example.    

What is your Egypt?

It has been a few days since I have had time to write. I am a Student minister and this last weekend we had a student conference and then my wife and I had to travel out of state to take care of a few things for our adoption. Needless to say I am behind a few days but instead of trying to catch up we will just jump into where we are today (a day behind if you are following along with us in our Lent study.)

We jump forward into Exodus 15. God has sent the death angel and inaugurated Passover. Moses has lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Pharaoh changes his mind again and chases after the Hebrews, God parts the Red Sea and now we come to the Hebrews starting their trek to the Promise Land. 

The grumbling of the Hebrews is a constant theme of the Exodus. It happens over and over again. You would think after a while it would have sunk in that God had them, but it doesn't and we get the cycle repeat multiple times. In chapter 15 we see it starting and in 16 verse 3 it says:

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (ESV)

We read that and think "wow, really?!" They would have rather died a full slave in Egypt than been free (they would argue die of starvation free but that would not happen). Now I have never been enslaved to anyone, but I cannot imagine its a "good" life. In fact in Exodus, God says that he heard their "groans". I don't know about you but when I groan its not usually associated with a good thing. But I do know what it is to be focused on circumstances and look at the past with rose colored glasses and forget all the bad. It is easy to criticize the Hebrews, especially after reading about the plagues and the miracle at the Red Sea. How could they forget these awesome things that God has done?

But are not you and I the same way? When our belly gets hungry, bank account gets low, we lose our job, our children lose their minds, our family or friends hurt us, that thing we had replaced God with on the throne of our life lets us down, do we not forget what God has done for us? Oh how often we get bogged down in our current circumstances and miss the big picture. We forget that we serve a God that has brought us out of our own Egypt. But when times get hard and life doesn't go how we planned we can be just as quick to forget. We want to get back to what we can control. When the Bread of Life calls us to something bigger than ourselves how quick we are to beg for bread when our stomachs start to rumble.

I am reminded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 Jesus says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" God tells us following Him will not be easy and it is okay for us to pray and ask God for provision. But let us not long to go back to when we "thought" we were in control. Let us not forget what He has done for us.

-JD

But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.

From the very beginning God told Moses that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened. As you read through the account in Exodus you see that phrase over and over. In just a quick search I found 19 times in the first 14 chapters of Exodus that it is said of Pharaoh. Ten of those times it specifically says that God was the one that hardened his heart. I have always wrestled with this, why would God continue to harden Pharaoh's heart, essentially keeping him from repentance (there a couple of instances that Pharaoh does say that he is the one who has sinned and in one of those agrees to let the people go but changes his course and refuses once the plague is removed). 

I think there are a few things here as to why God did this (I don't have the time or the space here to go into to a full theological explanation so we will keep it short). The first goes back to what we talked about a few days ago. God wanted to engrain in the mind and the hearts of His people that He was THIER God. He went to war with the gods of the Egyptians (Pharaoh was also seen as a god in Egypt) and came out victorious, leaving no doubt in the Hebrews that the was truly the supreme Lord of all. I am sure during their time of slavery that some of the Hebrews had began to wonder if God had forgotten about them. God used the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to remind his people that: 

I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. (Exodus 6:6–8 ESV)

The second thing that God used Pharaohs hard heart for was to bring judgement on Egypt. The Egyptians had enslaved the people of God. The treatment of the Hebrew people by the Egyptians was clearly not good as God says to Moses that He heard the cries of His people. The plagues inflicted massive economic and personal damage on all of Egypt. 

While it can still be hard to understand why God would harden Pharaoh's heart to the point of the tenth plague. We must understand that God is God, we are not and will never fully be able to understand His ways. We also must keep in perspective that God is sovereign and has a purpose for everything He does. 

-JD

"This is the finger of God"

Yesterday's Lent reading brought us to the beginning of the plagues. There were a few things that stood out to me as I read a story that I was very familiar with from the book of Exodus. But there was one in particular that I had not seen before. Before we get to that verse we need a little context. With the first two plagues (Nile turns to blood and invasion of frogs) Pharaoh's magicians and sorceress were able to replicate the plague (at least enough for Pharaoh to believe that his gods could combat this assault by the Hebrews God). But then we read this in Exodus 8:18–19:

[18] The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. [19] Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. (ESV) 

Again with this plague the Egyptian magicians tried, like with the first two, to replicate it. But they couldn't. With all their earthly knowledge and dark arts, they had no answer. The only thing that they could tell their ruler was that it was "the finger of God." This exact term is used later in Exodus when God carves the ten commandments into stone and again in Luke when Jesus cast out demons by "the finger of God". In other places in scripture various author refer to God's hand in reference to both his power and protection. But getting back to the text, there was no explanation and we see the command of the Lord starting to take hold of Pharaoh. Of course, his heart would be hardened because God was not finished with his judgement of Egypt (for their treatment of His people) or showing His power and deliverance to his people (so they would know that He was their God and they were His people, Exodus 6:7).

The world still operates like this today, they have an explanation for everything. We can show the power and beauty of God in nature, the moving of God in history, even the work of the Lord in our own life and often through one way or another people will try and explain it away. Often, we want to stand up and argue, to "prove God right" (as if He needed our help). There is a time and place for us to use persuasive arguments on moral, historical, and scientific issues. But sometimes I think when it comes to sharing Jesus with some people (especially those that we have a relationship with and can continue to share) that we need to simply love, continue to share the gospel, and there will come a time when they run out of explanations and we will be there to lead them to the one who is the answer.

-JD

You will know.

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. (Exodus 6:7 ESV)

Have you ever come through a storm of life and the only way you made it through was because of Jesus? Reflecting back on my life, I can summon to mind more than a few times like that. It may not have been a life or death situation. Maybe it was a season of life that was full of stress and unexpected trials, but you came through it stronger in your faith and closer in your relationship with the Lord.

Reading in Exodus 5 and 6, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and relay to him the message of the Lord. Instead of Pharaoh heeding the Lord's command, he rejects it and increases the burden on the Hebrew people. As I am sure you can imagine, this makes the Hebrews resent Moses. After all, things weren't "this bad" before Moses showed up. But then God says to Moses, "But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh" (6:1) and then "and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment." (6:6).

I wonder what would have happened if the first time Moses walked into Pharaoh's court and demanded the Hebrew people be let go, he would have let them leave? Would David still be writing about the deliverance from Egypt in the Psalms? Passover certainly would not be celebrated as there would not have been a first "passover" of the death angel. Would the victory have reflected on Moses' negotiating skills and leadership rather than on God's power? The people would not have left with the riches that were placed upon them by the Egyptian people as the made their way out. Would they have known the true power of God?

Reflecting back on my life again, I wonder if God allows us to bypass the easy way out so that we can know He is the LORD our God. Does the storm rage on with Jesus asleep in the front of the boat so he can then stand and say "peace be still" and the wind and waves obey? Does Lazarus die so Jesus can bring the dead back to life and show people God has power of death and the grave? Are you in a situation that seems hopeless? Are you wondering what you have done to deserve such hardship? Maybe, just maybe, the situation that you are in is going to seem hopeless until our Sovereign, miracle-working, all-powerful God steps in and delivers you from it. Then you will look back and know that the He is the LORD your God.

-JD

The Inadequacy of the Called

Last nights reading brought us to the call of Moses, a familiar story to students of the Bible. God comes to Moses in the form of a burning bush and instructs him to return to Egypt. The task that the Lord gave to Moses must have surely felt overwhelming. Returning to his place of birth. Returning to his people. Returning to a place that he left as a wanted man. From the text we see that Moses was not only concerned as to what he will say to Pharaoh but also how he would convince the Hebrews that he had truly come on behalf of the the Lord. Many of Moses' excuses seem to come out of honest humility. Place yourself in Moses' sandals for a moment. Sure, at one point you were a member of the royal court of Egypt but now you are a simple shepherd of Midian. The Lord tells you to go and instruct one of the greatest leaders of the known world to allow his entire workforce to leave?! I don't know about you but I would have felt massively inadequate. But regardless of the origin of the excuses that Moses gave to the Lord, they did not sit well with the Lord. In fact, the text states that God's anger was kindled against Moses. Moses main excuse was that he was not an eloquent speaker, to which God responds, "Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:11–12 ESV) God answers Moses' questions by simply telling him to go and that He would take care of the rest.

How often do we, like Moses, hear the command of the Lord to go and instead of rushing to what the Lord has called us to do we sit and make excuses of why we are not qualified to do so. Sure the task may beyond what we thing we are capable of on our own but God has not called us to go on our own. You and I can always come up with excuses as why to not follow the Lord in the calling he has placed on our lives. There have been plenty of times in my life when I have told the Lord, "there is no way, I'm not smart enough, qualified enough, outgoing enough, charismatic enough, etc." Most times it truly comes out of a sense of humility (sometimes stemming from self doubt), not from a desire to not follow the Lord. However, it is still a revelation of the lack of faith and lack of trust in the God that has called. In the great commission in Matthew 28:20, Jesus tells his disciples, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In Jeremiah 1:7-8, God says to a young Jeremiah, "But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” I am sure you have heard the quote, "God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." That is basically what He says to Moses here, "you just go and I'll take care of the rest." He is still telling that to us today.

I had the opportunity to put this into practice today. I had to make a couple of hospital visits today. Hospital visits make me a bit nervous. I am always concerned that I'm not going to know what to say or not going to be able to carry the conversation and have to encounter the dreaded awkward silence. But before I got out of the truck I prayed that God would give me the words to say. He reminded me that I was not there to minister to them in my ability but I was there to express His love to them by showing compassion and letting them know that they were being thought about and prayed for in this hard time. In both instances I was able to sit, listen, and pray for two precious people who are going through a hard time with a loved one. I left feeling blessed, because I was able to simply be a conduit of God's love. That is what God calls us to do, to be a conduit, allow him to minister to other through us. What has God called you to do that you are still offering up excuses about?

-JD

The Covenant

For Lent this year my wife and I are using the SHE READS TRUTH & HE READS TRUTH study that walks through the book of Exodus. Russ Ramsey wrote a great piece on Understanding Exodus Through the Cross here. Yesterday was the first day of our reading through Exodus and it was these two verses that stuck out to me: 

[24] And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [25] God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. (Exodus 2:24–25 ESV)

Two things about this passage stood out to me:

1. God hears- God heard the cries of His people. In my experience I think it is hard to keep our view of God in balance. It is easy to view God as the all powerful creator who is up in Heaven or as our loving Father who is near. But he is both and is always and at all times, both. I am reminded of Paul's sermon at Mars Hill in Acts 17 where he makes the two statements, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.... Yet he is actually not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:24–25, 27 ESV) God does hear, but not only does He hear, he also has the power to act. For believers today we need to remember that God hears us when we cry out to him. Often in the midst of our storms it can feel as through he is far away and cannot (or does not) hear us. But he does and he desires to hear from us.
2. God keeps His covenant- It says that He remembered his covenant. If you read through the Old Testament you see how serious God takes covenants, especially when they are broken (go read the first two chapters of Amos). Our God is a covenant keeping God. He honored the covenant that he had made with the Hebrews forefathers. When Christ came he instituted a new covenant. In Luke 22:20 Jesus says, "And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." Also the author of Hebrews writes, "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15 ESV) We can rest in the knowledge that the forgiveness of our sin and salvation was brought about by a God who keeps his covenants. Our salvation, our freedom, purchased by the blood of Christ, is secure.

I hope that you are joining me in this season of Lent! It is not to late to join in. If you are interested in following along in our journey through exodus you can check it out at shereadstruth.com and hereadstruth.com and catch up or just jump right in.

Grace and Peace,

JD

Love and Lent

Lent starts today. I have, for a few years, seen friends and acquaintances observe this season and have been encouraged by the testimony of their participation. Growing up Baptist, we did not observe the Liturgical calendar and therefore I had very little knowledge of what Lent was, let alone how to observe it. It was a "catholic" thing. I am sure in my studies at university and graduate school that I was introduced to it in Church history. However, it was not until a few years ago that I seriously started learning about it and not until this year that I made the decision to observe it in whole.

If you are unfamiliar with Lent, I encourage you to look it up. There are many resources available on the internet (make sure you choose a reputable source) that can give you a better history that I can in this short blog. But I like this description from The Village Church's 2017 Lent guide (tvcresources.net):

Lent is about the gospel. It is a time to narrow the focus of the Church to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to turn from our sin and trust in His atoning work. The season of Lent lasts approximately 40 days, excluding Sundays, between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. The 40 days have obvious biblical parallels in the flood narrative (Gen. 6-8), the giving of the Law to Moses on Sinai (Exod. 24:12-18), Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:1-12) and Jesus’ fasting and temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:9-12, Luke 4:1-13). The last of these accounts is most relevant to the season. 

Originally a preparation period for those desiring to be baptized, Lent eventually became embedded into Christian tradition as a season for the Church to symbolically follow Christ into the wilderness. It is a time for fasting and self-denial, though not for denial itself. It is a period to empty ourselves of lesser things so that we might be filled with the greater things of the gospel. Whereas Advent is a season of ever-increasing light awaiting the incarnation of Christ, Lent is a season of ever-decreasing light approaching the cross.

Celebrated each spring as the days begin to lengthen (the term Lent is from a Saxon word meaning “lengthen”), Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter Sunday. It is marked by periods of fasting and feasting. Each week, participants traditionally fast during the week and feast on Sundays. This pattern continues throughout the season as the Church journeys toward the Holy Week commencing on Palm Sunday. The final period of Lent is often referred to as the Triduum, beginning Maundy Thursday and continuing through Easter Sunday. 

In our context, it is easy to get lost in the cultural expectations of Easter and miss out on the meaning. Lent is a reminder that the resurrection only occurred after the crucifixion. Rather than skipping over the ministry and crucifixion of Christ, Lent is a season to prepare ourselves for the joy of Resurrection Sunday as we enter the sorrow and pain which preceded it. 

Easter is a big day in the life of the Church and the Christian. Lent helps us to focus our minds and prepare our hearts for Easter. I encourage you to pray about joining me in this season. Lent is not hard to observe. I am sure you could find a list of "rules" if you wanted to but I believe that is not necessary and makes it more of a checklist than a season of preparation. There are two things that I do encourage you to do. This first and well know part of Lent is  fasting or self-denial. Some people fast from food or certain types of food for the season, while other fast from a variety of different things. It is not about what you are fasting from but the fast that you are denying yourself and when that thing is brought to remembrance you reflect on the reason that you are abstaining and on the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. The second thing I would suggest is spending time in the Bible. There are more than I few studies that are geared towards Lent and follow the 40 days until easter. My personal favorite and the one that Bethany and I are doing this year is from SHE READS TRUTH and HE READS TRUTH both are available for free online or you can purchase for you smart phone or order the hard copy of the book (you can listen to the founder talk about the study here). This year we are combining both our fast and bible study. In our daily routine we usual watch TV in our room after the kids are down. However, we are putting that aside for Lent and spending the time we would normally watch a show to be in the word and prayer together. You need to find what works for you, maybe its food and instead of eating lunch during the week you fast and spend time in the word. I could list many examples but what truly matters is that you are preparing your heart and mind. Will you join me?

-JD

p.s. I am going to try and write daily about my reflection of the passage that I read as we work our way through Exodus

A new calling and another move...

Dear Friends & Family,

We hope that your Christmas season is going wonderful, and that the Lord has blessed you like He has blessed us! We wanted to write you to tell you of a very hard decision that we have had to make. Bethany and I have been praying hard for the past couple of months about what the Lord has for us long term. We both feel a strong call to missions on our lives, and we have such great love for the people of Guatemala. However, after being home these few months, I (JD) have seen how much my parents need me to be with them right now. This last year has been very difficult for them. We all had to go through a very difficult situation that I have not previously told to many people. The last couple of years, my brother got into partying, drinking, and drugs. One night, he, along with two or three other people he hung out with, killed a man. Daniel was the primary suspect. He was charged with capital murder and later was able to plead out to life in prison. Thankfully though, his first night in jail he truly met the Lord for the first time! He got saved that night and is now living for the Lord! He is daily in the word and is growing in Christ.

While we are overjoyed that he is now serving the Lord, it was extremely difficult for my parents and I this last year. Bethany and I have been praying for a while now and seeking God’s will in this. We prayed that God would make it obvious whether or not he wanted us to move back. In all of our decisions about Guatemala, God has shown us His will in a big way. One evening, we prayed specifically that God would give us direction and clearly show us where we needed to be. The next morning, we got a call that our landlord wanted their house back. This confirmation, along with counsel from multiple people, has led us to make the decision to move home this next year. We have decided to come home at beginning of March. This was such a hard decision for us- so much harder that even deciding to move to Guatemala. We love the country and the people of Guatemala. It pains us to have to leave. But we know that God is calling us home for now to minister to our families.

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we make this transition back to the states, as this will be our third move in a little over year. We are uncertain on what the future holds, as far as jobs and housing, but God has been so faithful to us and we are certain He won’t stop now. We also ask that you would prayerfully consider continuing to support us through March, as we will have bills to take care of in Guatemala until the end of that month.

We cannot say thank you enough for your partnership with us while we were in Guatemala. We know that God called us and used us in mighty ways during our year in Guatemala, and each and every one of you helped to minister to these precious people through your support. Thank you for being a vessel of Christ and giving so generously to our ministry. We praise Him for our time in Guatemala and all that we experienced and learned while there. We covet your prayers as we make this transition, and continue to pray that the gospel message continues to spread through the country of Guatemala through Clubhouse Guatemala.

Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the Glory),

JD, Bethany, & Karis Jones

Producing faithfulness or the loss of our house.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4, ESV)

Most of you know the setbacks that Bethany and I have had since we arrived in Guatemala. From our car getting stuck in port, cutting short our time at language school to having a lot of our belongings stolen on the container. Through all of this God has continued to show Himself faithful and taken care of us. We were dealt another blow a couple days ago. I received a phone call from our executive director, who informed us that our landlord wants their house back February 1st. We were devastated with this news. Bethany has worked very hard since we have been in Guatemala to make this house our home and we had just started to feel at home before we left to come back to the states for the holidays. Unfortunately we have no choice but to move now and  will have less than a month when we return to Guatemala. 

We have endured a lot since moving Guat and we will make it through this as well. Continue to pray with us that God would give us direction and wisdom as we follow him..

Gracias,

JD, Bethany, and Karis

A little R&R...

Hey everyone! As I have previously stated I am not a good blogger. But I just wanted to give everyone a quick update.

Most of you know that we are back in the states right now. We are in until the 27th of December. I have had a few people ask if we are back permanently and the answer is no. We are just home for the holidays and to raise support before we start into next year.

This past year was great and we are looking forward to next year! God is doing great things with Clubhouse and we are privileged to be apart of it!

JD

Here, There, and Everywhere

If you follow our blog you know that I (JD) am really bad about this whole blogging thing! Mainly because by time I sit down at my computer at night my brain has given up and gone to bed haha. But here is an update of this summer and some upcoming new about the fall!

This past summer was probably the hardest I have ever worked in my entire life! As Field Director for Clubhouse, I run day to day operations in coordination with our National Director. This includes being the team liaison (taking care of teams), doing logistics for team ministry, handling administrative responsibilities, and making decision on daily schedule changes, on top of trying to take pictures and video for our ministry.

This summer, we saw 20 churches come on mission trips with us and we still have 3-4 more teams that will be coming this fall (over 300 volunteers)! God is expanding our ministry faster than we can keep up with! The teams were able to see many salvations and lives changed. Two of our teams alone saw over 100 salvations the weeks they were here. Along with helping people to meet their ultimate need of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ, teams were also able to meet physical needs of many Guatemalans. We built houses, stoves, vertical gardens, chicken coops, and delivered food to families in need. Along with our volunteer teams this summer, we have many other projects going on. We are in the middle of construction on our school and camp. We are already in the planning stages for a fall youth camp for the older kids in our programs and next summers volunteer teams. It has been a busy but incredible summer, and we are so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to be apart of it!

As some of you know, we traveled back to the States in August to renew our Visas and for a little R&R. It was great week to be back and see our families and a few of our friends! We wished we would have been able to see everyone! But only being home for a short time we wanted to be with family as much as possible. We are coming back soon! We will be back in October and will be staying through Christmas. We are so excited to be able to back for an extended period of time to not only see everyone but to also share about what the Lord is doing here in Guatemala! We will be at the Clubhouse booth at the Conclave Conference in Dallas in October. We have a couple of speaking engagements in Texas so far this fall. If you would like us to come share about Clubhouse and Guatemala send us an email at JD@clubhouseg.net or at JD@clubhouseguatemala.com. We will also be having a few small fundraisers while we are back. More info soon on those!

Our little family is doing well! Karis is continuing to grow. She is very close to walking, but still waking up 3-4 times a night which makes for very tired parents. Hard to believe our little girl is almost one! Bethany is doing well (minus the lack of sleep). Mike has asked her to work with our new sewing ministry Clubhouse has started. She will be working closely with Pastor Fernando's wife Swanda to find patterns for the women to sew as well as collecting supplies. I am doing good as well. I started back to seminary this fall after taking last semester off because of our move. I only have 8 classes left for my Masters of Theological Studies and then, Lord willing, I will be done with post high-school studies after 8 years!

Thank you all for your continued prayers! Hope to see you soon!

JD, Bethany, and Karis

Praying in Faith

I started using a devotional last year called "For the Love of God" by D.A. Carson. It is a great devotional that combines a read-through-the-Bible-in-year-plan with a short devotional/ theological observation on one of the passages for the day. Last week one of the selected passages was Acts 12. This passage is the account of Peter's arrest and subsequent release from prison by an angel of the Lord. When Peter is released he goes to a house where believers are praying (no doubt for him and his release).

"When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. (Acts 12:12-16, ESV)"

This really stuck out to me. Here, these believers are praying. Calling on the name of the Lord, and when the Lord answers, they don't believe it. It occurred to me how often do I pray while not believing. Little did I know that this passage would come into play in my life less than a week later. 

Yesterday, we lost power at our mission house. When the power goes out here nothing works. Lights, stove, water, all of it is dead. We have a team of 30 staying there right now. I spent most of the day worrying about it and trying to figure out a solution. About 5pm, we had figured out a solution to power the fridge but we still had no solution for the water problem. We had contacted the power company. They were going to come get us power back, however they couldn't give us a specific time. As we were giving our daughter a bath, I prayed "Lord, please get the power back on", but I found myself immediately going to worrying about how we were going to manage without power. Then this passage came back to me. Here I was praying without faith. I bowed my head and said "Lord, I know that you have the ability to turn the power back on and I am asking that you would do it". We finished Karis' bath. I read her a couple of bed time stories. As I walked out of her bedroom, I glanced through one of our windows and saw light in the mission house! The power was back on.

 And all it took was praying in faith. 

In the middle and in the way:

In January of this year, my father and I hooked up a U-Haul trailer of stuff and drove to Knoxville, TN. The trailer was full of the bulk of what was left of our earthly belongings. The boxes were to be loaded on a container later on that month and shipped to Guatemala. Because of the many different circumstances out of our and Clubhouses' control, the container didn't ship until June. When it arrived in port, it sat for nearly 3 weeks because of the bureaucracy of the Guatemalan government. However, the day finally arrived when the container was delivered to our staging area for unload! We were so excited! As we started unloading our boxes I started to move the boxes that where marked with our name aside. When we finished unloading I noticed a lot of our boxes were missing. I began to think, "Well, maybe I just missed them and we will find them when we go through the bulk of the load." However, after much searching none of the boxes that were missing turned up. To our best knowledge, the boxes were stolen by the "Christian" society that we used to import the container. 

The stuff that was stolen was mostly kitchen things, some board games, and home items. It was things that could be replaced. However, a few of the big boxes were Karis' stuff. Clothes, toys, and other baby items that she never got to use. This was what hurt the most. A lot of the stuff was gifts from other people to Karis. Also, many of the items we received as wedding gifts were also stolen. 

I am thankful to say that the Lord has sustained us through this trial. We know that the things stolen are just "stuff." He has provided above and beyond what we could have asked for. For us, it was another conformation that we are right in the middle of God's will and when you are there you are also right in the way of Satan. I am thankful for this trial. It was brought me personally closer to my Father and given me a greater appreciation for the things that the Lord had blessed us with! 

The first verse that the Lord brought to my memory was from Job 1:21b "...The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." It is an easy verse to say but a hard one to live. Loss hurts. It makes you angry! However, as Christians we should always expect opposition from Satan when we are following the Lord. We should always be prepared to stand firm on the promises of the Gospel. 

JD

New batteries in my toothbrush:

When I was growing up my Dad used to find sermon illustrations in everything. I used to think it was kind of strange until I started doing it a few years ago. I told myself a few months ago I would start writing them down. 

New Batteries in my Toothbrush:

When Bethany and I got married she got me to start using a Crest Spinbrush. They are great. They are a lot cheaper than sonicare but better than an ordinary toothbrush. They have replaceable heads and use two AA batteries. 

I have been using the same head  and batteries on mine for about the last 3 months. Apparently I am really brush my teeth really hard because I looked at the head of my brush and it looked pretty rough. The batteries were also going out on it and if I bit down on it with even the slightest form of pressure it would stop "spinbrushing"(?). So I decided it would be best to change both the batteries and the head. 

Wow!! It was like a whole new toothbrushing experience! The brush actually spun and the bristles were firm and actually did what they were designed to do! Then it hit me. That's what this toothbrush was supposed to be like the whole time. It was my fault for letting it get to the point of being mundane. The toothbrush didn't do anything different, I just let it get worn down. 

How often do we go to a special service at church, or a conference, summer youth camp, or retreat of some sort and have this awesome "experience" with God. We come back and we are on a high and our relationship with God is awesome and then it just gets mundane and ordinary... again. Who changed? It certainly wasn't God. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)

How often does it happen in our churches? How many people will leave an existing church to go to a new church because its exciting? Then in 5 years it is the exact same as the church they left? 

We have to be ever so vigilant as Christians and church leaders that we do not get into a rut in our spiritual lives and in our churches. It is not good enough to do something because  "that's the way we have always done it".  I'm not saying that we do away with church traditions; as long as they have a foundation in the Scriptures. 

"For the word of God is living and active..." Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) 

If we find our time with the Lord to be stale, then change it up. Pray more. Change up your routine. Our God is not stale. He is not mundane. He is the King of the Universe, the Sovereign God over all of creation! How dare we make Him boring. 

A little behind...

Wow. As usual I am a little behind with out updates. May and June have flown by! Like I stated in our last post, we were able to get out vehicle finally! Once we got the Yukon, we had our freedom and independence back! We had plans to take at least a month of language school when we got here. Unfortunately with everything that has been going on we were only able to get in a week of classes. We have both picked up a lot by simply being surrounded by Spanish. We are planning to go back to school once team season is over, for at least a few more weeks.

With teams coming in full force now, our lives have gotten extremely busy. Part of my responsibility is to take care of teams that stay in our mission house. This usually entails picking up at the airport/ welcoming them, going over weekly schedule and house rules, checking in on them daily to make sure that there isn't anything they need. I am also the designated hospital runner. This all translated to being up at between 3:30 & 4am, three out of four days a few weeks ago. It definitely made for some long days, but I love it. I told someone the other day that the longest, hardest day here, doing what I am called to do, is better than the easiest day at a 9-5 job that is not my calling.

We have seen incredible things happen this summer so far! Peoples lives being changed, both Guatemalans and Americans!

In my last post I talk about the school that Clubhouse has purchased and is working on to refurbish. We have had three teams that have worked out there so far this summer. We had a medical team, a team that came in a built 8 stoves, a house, and a chicken coop, and a team that came in and solely worked on the school. (photos by Mike Parker)

We are starting to see the walls being broken down as we are putting up walls around the school. Mike had the opportunity to present the gospel last week and we saw 11 boys accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior!

This is a "long-haul" project for us. As I stated in my last blog, I was working on a video for this project and I finally completed it. 

WellProject from Clubhouse Guatemala on Vimeo.

I am super excited to see what God is going to do the rest of the summer here in Guatemala! It is so exciting to see God's hand at work down here! 

Even though things have been really busy we have been blessed with a week off next week! It is going to be great to be able to just spend some time together as a family and also be able to spend time "outside of the office" with our awesome Clubhouse staff!

Even though everything is going great right now, we do have some prayer request:

• As some of you know our ministry shipped a container with supplies about a month ago. Mike was gracious enough to allow us to put some stuff on it as well. We have had nothing but problems with it. We delivered items to be shipped the first week of January, it didn't ship until a few weeks ago and it has been sitting in port for almost 2 weeks thanks to the Guatemalan tax office. Pray that God will give us favor with them and we can get our container in. I honestly have forgotten what all we sent, however, there are things on the container that are going to allow us to bless people here in Guatemala.  
• We just got our visas extended for another 90 days. This is however, the only time this year that we can extend them. They go up in the middle of September which a month before we have planned on returning to the states (as much as we cannot wait to see everyone back in the good ol' US this is a little longer that we want to be away from our home and longer than I can be away from the day to day operations). We have started the paperwork to apply for our residency here. According to the information that we have received as soon as we submit out paperwork the clock stops on when we have to leave the country. We are currently waiting on some paperwork to come back from the Guatemalan Embassy in D.C. before we can submit everything. Pray that we would get these back quickly and that our applications would be accepted! If we are not able to submit our paperwork in time we will have to leave the country for 3 days. While this is an expense that we have budgeted for it is still an expense that we would rather not have to have. 
• The busyness of this summer is beginning to look like it could possibly migrate into the fall. We are looking possibly having speaking engagements in Texas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. I might be making a couple of trips back to Guatemala for vision trips with Pastor and Student pastors. If you would like to have us come and share about Clubhouse and our call to missions we would love to come! Send me an email at jd@clubhouseg.net

Settling in...

It has been a while since we have posted anything as things have been busy around here. Things have been great here! A little crazy at points but great! We are slowly getting our house put together as we look for good deals and get more confident going out shopping.

We finally have our vehicle. It took nearly a month to get to us but it was well worth the wait! Ewald, Pat, our friend Erick, and I all drove out to the coast and back to pick it up, a total of about 14 hours! It is a beautiful drive and great scenery but it isn't something I want to do again anytime soon.

Bethany and I have begun language school. After being here almost a month I was beginning to feel pretty good about my comprehension of the language (relatively speaking). After a day in language school I was thoroughly reminded how much work was ahead of me to learn Spanish well. Bethany is picking it up faster than I am and will probably be translating for me well before I can understand myself!

Our Executive Director, Mike Parker, was in last week with a preliminary construction crew to look over our new school.

Another missionary here in Guatemala started building a school a couple of years ago and ran out of funds before he could complete it. He listed it on what is essentially Guatemala Missionary craigslist earlier below cost and we purchased it from him and are picking up where he left off. The school is located between two extremely poor areas. Most of the kids in this area do not get a good education and a lot of them end up joining gangs. We are hoping that with the school we can keep this from happening. Also the school has a high capacity water well (non-functioning at this time) that will allow us to supply clean water to the villages and teach the kids at the school business principles.

I was able to go with Mike to take pictures and video. Here are some of the photos (you can find the rest here):

To get the school and well back in working condition it is going to take about $50,000. If you would be interested in helping us with this project send me or Mike an email. This project weights heavy on my heart, the kids in these villages that surround the school are the poorest I have ever been around, but have some of the biggest and sweetest smiles!

Thank you all for your continued prayers! We are about to get into our busy season with multiple teams coming in for close to 10 straight weeks! I have also been given some of the administrative responsibilities here on the field and am trying to get organized to take care of all of those. We are all doing well and continuing to adjust to daily life here. We are going to our partner church here, which is a Spanish speaking church. Some Sundays there is a translator some Sundays there is not haha. But we love the people there and you can truly feel the spirit of God!

We miss all of you and are excited to return for a few months this fall to share, in person what God is doing in Guatemala!

Love,

JD, Bethany, and Karis

one week in

Wow! We have been here over a week! Time is already flying by! Thank you all for your wonderful notes and prayers, we can feel them! Things are going wonderfully here! We have spent the last week settling in and getting our house setup. Karis is doing great, starting to sleep a little more at night (praise the Lord!).

One of our fellow missionaries is letting us use his suburban until our Yukon arrives next week! So we have been out driving a bit this last week. Sunday we drove to church with the help of Katie Parker, then drove all the way to Antigua afterwards! Living in shreveport for the last two years has taught me to be a defensive/aggressive driver which comes in handy down here haha.

Church Sunday was incredible! We have teams in the week so there was a translater for part of the service but even when it was just Spanish it was wonderful! Their worship is so genuine and their love for God and for others shows through their worship! I found myself just in awe of the presence of God in the building!

Prayer requests:

• Language:
• It has been tough not being able to speak the language. We start language school here in a few weeks and we have a strong desire to learn. Pray that God gives us understanding and increases our learning capacity. 
• Our vehicle:
• Our vehicle shipped Friday! Pray that everything will go well at the port and customs. We are trying to find a lawyer that can handle all the paper work to get it titled and get Guatemalan tags. 
• Residency:
• We are going to start the very lengthy and frustrating journey of trying to get residency. Our current visas only allow us to be in the country for 180 days before we have to leave for 3 days. This can get rather expensive having to come and go once/twice a year. With residency we are able to dictate when we come and go.

Thank you all for your continued prayers!

JD, Bethany, and Karis

Happy Easter!

We made it!

After getting up at 2:30am, catching two flights, and standing in line at immigration and customs we finally made to Guatemala! 

Thank you all so very much for your prayers for our travels. They couldn't have gone any better! All of our luggage made our connecting flight and made it through customs. The one thing that did have us concerned was how Karis was going to do on the flights. She slept through almost the entirety of both flights and was perfect when she was awake. Everyone we came into contact with were very accommodating. God is so good!

We are currently unpacking and setting up our house. It is going to be an on going process for a while but we are incredibly thankful that the Lord blessed us with a house that we were able to move straight into. 

Our vehicle should be here in a couple of weeks and we are asking for prayer that it all goes smoothly! 

Thank you all so very much for your continued prayers. We will continue to update on the blog, email newsletter, and Facebook. 

JD, Bethany, and Karis