Jeremiah’s Blog

I came across this and it really spoke to me.

“Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything” (Acts 9:8-9). It’s hard to find anyone in Christian history who became a great leader without earning an advanced degree in adversity.

“Then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over  the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, over all the creatures that move along the ground. So he created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them male and female both in the image of God.” Genesis 1:26-27

In the heart of being real I have to tell you that the beginning of this week was pretty rough for me. I felt all the emotion of the valley; anger, sadness, depression, loneliness, failure, etc., and they were all intensified into two days. I had tremendous hopes for reaching the city through our current series, especially after all the publicity, and the fact that we had so few visitors drove me into despair. I felt I had failed God, I had failed the people of ECC, and I felt like there was no hope. It was a bad two days!

Maybe you have had a time like this, maybe you’re going through something like this right now.I want to encourage you as I have been encouraged. I was talking to my mentor and he said something I think I knew, but did not believe, and when he said it, it was with conviction and passion. He said “You can look at this and say it failed, but you are not a failure!” WOW! I needed that, I am not a failure, and maybe in some respects it did fail, but I am not a failure. I then had a choice; embrace that truth.or live in a lie. I went for the truth.

Right after I had this encouragement I went to work on this week’s teaching and God gave me Genesis 1:26-27. I bear the image of God! I am an image bearer of the creator of the universe. I am made with a purpose, I am uniquely and wonderfully made, a special creation of God. God did not create me and say, “Man I messed up with that one” Instead he cares about me so much that He says that he knows the number of hairs on my head, and that each one literally has a number. Today if you are feeling like you can’t go on, feeling like the world is pressing in, or maybe you just feel like a failure, remember that you are a image bearer of God, and He cares for you.

Maybe we did not reach the masses, but one women that was there this past week wants to sit down and talk about becoming a Christ-follower, and there is no failure in that! She is a unique creation of God that matters so much that he would have us do all this, just for her, and I believe that with all of my heart.

Well each year I usually write a blog on my birthday, well for the last few years anyway. I have been meaning to blog as of late, but have been much too busy. There is something that has been stirring in me since I went to the Grand Canyon with Ben and Drew, so here it goes.

As we descended in the canyon it was basically done with much ease, along the way there were rangers warning us to the fact that we would have to climb back out. Even with these warnings we decided to go. I decided to go even farther to the point. 6 miles down. It was awesome, breathe taking. It was as I neared the bottom of the valley that I really saw the awesomeness of God. Oh sure it was beautiful on the mountain, but from the valley it was different. There was a closeness to God, a new respect for his awesomeness. As I climbed out of the canyon at first it was not bad, and then it got harder, but then I came upon a cool steam, and trees, an oasis in the desert. It was a place where I could be refreshed, to regain my strength. The hike was far from over though. I was still deep in the canyon. As I hiked out and got to the three mile marker I was more than tired, the boiling hot water in the facet was of little refreshment, and as I sat there I dreaded the rest of the hike. Finally I got up for my last three miles. There were many breaks from that point on, many points where I wanted to quit and give up, but knew I could not. I had to get to the top; it was the only logical direction to go. When I finally reached the top it was amazing. I had made it. I had descended into the valley, and climbed back out! I had hiked 12 miles in one day.           

Ok I know what’s the point, where am I going with this, well here it is. Many of you know that the first two years here in Tucson were not easy for us. The Element has struggled to get off the ground, and we have struggled to keep the faith. It really all happened much like the descent in the canyon. We came here on top on the mountain, stepping out in faith. Then we began our journey towards the valley floor. There were warnings all along the way saying it would be hard to climb back out, God was calling out to us, but we kept going down. We then hit this point, this point where God had finally got our attention. Oh there were many points where we tried to think are way back to the top, live in denial, even quit for an hour so, but then finally God sent the storm that got our attention, and it was there in the depths that we saw God best, it was there we saw Him as Lord of All, as our Beautiful Savior. As we were climbing out we called on God again and again, because we once again had realized that we needed His strength to get us through. So here we are, a month removed from the valley, and the amazing thing is…nothing has changed, nothing except instead of looking at the circumstances around us we have begun to look at Jesus. Instead of walking by sight we are walking by faith. It is like what Habakkuk experienced when he called on God, His circumstances don’t change, but instead of putting all of his stock in what he could see, he began to follow God by faith.           

When I hiked the canyon I had to go down into the valley to really see the beauty of it to appreciate what it was, to see God. As we have planted this church we had to go into the valley so that we knew that we could do nothing without God. That nothing about the Element was going to be of our own doing but of God. To really see God in all His Majesty and splendor we had to come to place of complete surrender. So here we are walking in faith with God, and I can think of no better place to be. I don’t know what’s next, I don’t know what God has for us, but I am excited to be walking  by faith, and I hope and pray that you’ll join me.

I heard that in a movie and loved the line so I decided I would use it. So here I have begun blogging again. The interesting thing about the written word is it can be taken so out of context, kinda like the Bible, except my words are not so perfect, LOL! So let me make this clear, I am trying with everything in me to fix my eyes on Jesus, simple as that. I don’t know what that means because when you fix your eyes on Jesus you don’t get a road map, you get to walk by faith day by day! So I am walking by faith with Jesus, and it feels good. It feels good to walk with Jesus. As a pastor everyone assumes you are always walking with Jesus, but sorry to disappoint, that’s just not true. In fact every series we have done in the past few months God was screaming at me this is you, you, I am talking to you. Here I am preaching and the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me I am talking to you! Being transparent can be a little uncomfortable for everyone, but it is so healthy. In a time when we hear so much about church health, we have so many how to books, I think we could make it simple, be easy on ourselves and just be real with each other. If we would get real with our lives, our relationships, our love we would have healthy churches, with healthy leaders, with healthy followers of Jesus. So here I am blogging, not sure who is reading, and I don’t really care. I am blogging for me, a release of my thoughts, talking to God, and if it happens to help some people along the way that would be even better. Just a PS. If it is not already clear, I am not planning on leaving, God would have to move us, and He has said walk by faith day by day with me…Walking and talking with Jesus, I can handle that.

Today my world was rocked!!! I was sitting in a conference for church starters, and all of a sudden from the most unexpected place God SHOOK my world! Rick Warren author of Purpose Driven Church and pastor of Saddleback Church in CA was the speaker. In the heart of complete honesty I was playing on MySpace as Rick started to speak. I was a big fan of Rick’s, and over time I think I let all the negative blogs, etc… sway my opinion for no good reason. Today though God used Rick Warren, the guy I was kinda tuning out to impact me in a mighty way!!! It’s funny because isn’t that how God is, lifting you up and supporting you in the most unlikely of ways? After all He does say to us,” My ways are not your ways”! So there I am listening to Rick and the Holy Spirit reminded me of some things:

1. I am in Tucson because God has placed me there, 100% no DOUBT!

2. Am I doing this for me, or for the Kingdom of God? To be honest, I have been doing it for me for a little while.

3. I have not taken care of my spiritual needs, so my faith has been in the toilet!

4. I have to stop building a church, and start building people.

I know these things are not complex, but my world was rocked. Sitting there so unsuspecting…Rick Warren!!! I cried for the first time in while, broken before God. I stayed for the first time ever just to say Thank You to Rick. I went up to him shook his hand and said, “I just wanted to say thank you”. He said, thank you and then asked to hug me and as I hugged him he said, “Don’t give up”. I don’t know if they were prophetic words, but they were in my life! You see because my faith has wondered is God really going to do this thing. I have thought about giving up, but God has renewed my spirit, and he used Rick Warren!

I recently watched the movie “Bridge to Terabithia”. It was a magical movie, about two children, and their journey into inventing a magical world. There, are many directions I could go with this and rant for ever, but I am going to just choose one. I have been going through some “stuff” lately. This “stuff” has tried my faith, made me doubt my calling to Tucson, and overall really taken me for a loop. Bridge to Terabithia affected my “stuff”! As I watched these two young children on the journey of life, with their minds open wide, it reminded me of faith. As a child everything with faith seemed so much simpler, but as an adult the fears and doubts of life grab you. It seems we begin to lose our Terabithia. That magical world where absolutely anything is possible. As an adult how easily we forget the provision of yesterday, and look forward towards the needs of tomorrow. We become hard, and lose the childish behavior that made Terabithia possible in the first place. We turn towards fact and reason, and we forget faith, the faith of a child. We forget what it is like to have a mind wide open to what God can do. We forget that with faith “all things are possible”. We forget that Jesus said “it is with child like faith that you come unto me” (Paraphrase). I fear at times that I will lose my Terabithia, for it seems each time I lose sight of it, it is harder to get back to that place. That place where the world is wide open, and I have big God who has no limitations, and has no bounds. As I look at people of the ”faith” all around me, I see people who have lost so much of the faith part, and it has turned into practical reason, into religion. Many who started out with the child like faith have hardened over the years and all you here out of them is the facts. “America’s in the toilet”, “they are all crooked”, ”the doctor says they don’t have much time, so it’s pretty much over” it’s death. It is the slow dying of our Terabithia. We slowly over the years give way to the pressures of this world, we slowly allow the death talk to infect our minds, and then one day Terabithia is gone. We have fallen into a “death trap”. We have gone to a place where there is no hope, where cynicism reigns, where the “dark lord” death is king! In the movie, something happens to shake one of the young children’s world. He is tempted to lose hope, to lose faith, but an unexpected hero arises in the story, an even younger child. Who had a purer more innocent mind, a purer child like faith that had not been tainted with death, but was wide open to the world and it’s possibilities. I much the same way, as my faith in what I am doing here in Tucson was shaken, a child has reminded me that with a mind wide open, that “with faith like a child”, “as small as the smallest seed” that all thins are possible! I am seeing Terabithia more clearly now. I see a world of possiblities. May I never lose the child like faith, but always be reminded that by the children that Terabithia is right there, that with faith anything is possible.