last night we started a teaching series on the life of david. we will spend the entire school year entering in to david's story. (the image above can serve as our logo...and if you missed it...sorry...but let me just say a russian david is awesome!)
i am incredibly excited about this journey. i think it has so much to teach us...so much potential to mold and shape us.
last night was all about setting the stage for the journey. we spoke to three specific questions:
why one story for the entire year?
who is David?
why the story of David?
much of what was said came from and was inspired by Eugene Peterson's book on the life of david entitled...Leap Over A Wall. if you were at dig last night, you know that i read a number of quotes directly from the first chapter of his book. and as promised, below are those quotes:
"Story is the primary way in which the revelation of God is given to us. The Holy Spirit's literary genre of choice is story."
"The biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us, 'Live up to this', nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, 'Think like this and you will live well.' The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us, 'Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human; this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings."
"I see so many things in him I wish I had - and so many others I'm scared to death I do have. All you need to relate to David is a membership to the human race." -Beth Moore
"David's importance isn't in his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God."
"The David story is the most complete, detailed rendering of God-dimensioned humanity that we have, the common life that God uses to shape humanity to his glory. As the story develops, we see everything about us interpenetrated with God; our imaginations expand and we see what it means to live largely, aware of God's grace and beauty in every detail of which we're invited to participate."
"The David story serves to train us in the, normative, in seeing, accepting, participating in the miracle hidden in the ordinary, the supernatural suffusing the natural. Thoroughly trained by David, we're not apt to impulsively discard our lifejackets and abandon daily meal preparation - supposing that this is the way to 'deeper' and 'higher' spiritual life - when Jesus walks on the water and feeds the five thousand."
"David's is a most exuberant story. Earthy spirituality characterizes his life and accounts for the exuberance.
Earthy: down-to-earth, dealing with everydayness, praying while doing laundry, singing in the
snarl of traffic.
Spiritual: moved and animated by the Spirit of God and therefore alive to God."
i am excited for this journey because i know it will change me...i know i will not be the same on the other side.
why are you excited? what part of the david story do you latch on to? what intrigues you?
this Wednesday, we are entering into a teaching series, where we will hang out for the entirety of this school year, on the life of David.
i am incredibly excited about this journey! the potential i see for learning and growth is huge. so much of the potential lies in the fact that it is a massive story that we get to enter into...and that it is not just a far off story that happened, but that it is story that can and does become our story.
the book that has really inspired me to do this series is a book by Eugene Peterson (the author of the Message), called Leap Over A Wall. it is a great book. a fresh, refreshing and challenging look at the story of David.
here is a great quote about entering into the entirety of the story:
"The David story, like most other Bible stories, presents us not with a polished ideal to which we aspire but with a rough-edged actuality in which we see humanity being formed - the God presence in the earth/human conditions. The David story immerses us in a reality that embraces the entire range of humanness, stretching from the deep interior of our souls to the farthest reach of our imaginations."
he goes on to say at the end of this paragraph:
"But David's importance isn't in his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God."
i am excited...it is going to be a fun journey.
if you are interested in listening along to the teachings, you can find them on our website at www.digdeeper.org.
a new school year is under way, and we are back in the swing of things here at campus house.
with the new start i am excited to share that i will be taking a new, more intentional approach in blogging. here is what it will consist of...
on thursdays, i will write a follow-up to the teaching from the night before here at campus house. i hope for it to be a place to expound a bit and a place where conversations can take place in response to the teaching.
on mondays, i will write about a book i am currently reading or have recently read.
periodically, i will share other thoughts that pertain to this journey of finding our way back to God.
so...with that in mind...here is the first thursday post...
last night, part of what i talked about was expounding on our vision..."A Jesus community helping students find their way back to God"...specifically trying to grasp what we mean by "back to God".
we traced a path that moved from the first words of scripture..."In the beginning God created"...to John 16 and 17 where it talks about this God who created being relational and each member seeking to glorify and delight in the others...and that it is in this image that we are created...when God says "let us make man in our image...in our likeness"...and that after He creates, of all the possible details that could have been shared, the detail that was shared was that this creation (named Adam and Eve) were "naked and unashamed".
my proposal is that "finding our way back to God" is about journeying back to this place where we are naked before God...and yet are unashamed. honestly, i don't know exactly what that looks like, but i know i want it...whatever "it" is.
what do you think "it" is. what might it look like for us to begin to get a glimpse of being "naked and unashamed" before God?
it is all at once overwhelming and exciting to think that another school year is right around the corner.
i see so much potential in what this year will contain! the leadership is amazing...i am super excited about the teaching material God has led us to...and the community development opportunities are better than ever.
this coming week is packed with events, in hopes that students will find opportunities to connect and find belonging amongst our community. here is what the week will hold:
Sunday, March 14th :: Prayer and Worship at CCH @ 6pm
Monday, March 15th :: Burgers, Dogs and Ultimate Frisbee at CCH @ 5:30pm
Tuesday, March 16th :: Chocolate Fondue and Live Music at CCH @ 7pm
Wednesday, March 17th :: DIG Worship Gathering at CCH @ 7:30pm
Thursday, March 18th :: Mud Volleyball meet at CCH @ 5:30pm
Friday, March 19th :: Bonfire meet at CCH @ 7pm
If you are a student, come and hang out with us. And make sure you spread the word.
If you are not a student, would you consider praying alongside us in this journey. Pray that God would bring the right people at the right time to make the connections He desires!
This is not just another week...the possibilities and potential are truly sky high!!
last week, cailyn and i were on vacation with our families in the smoky mountains of tennessee. it was a great trip for many reasons. some of the things that stick out to me the most actually took place in the traveling to and returning from tennessee.
part of what traveling from warrensburg to tennessee meant, was that we would be crossing over our bike route from last summer (for those that don't know, cailyn and i rode bicycles from virginia to yellowstone national park last summer...if you are interested in reading about the trip, you can check out the blog posts in the archives of this blog from May, June and July of 2010).
we actually crossed the route in two different locations (we went home a different way than we traveled there). our return trip, took us over last summer's route at berea, kentucky. as we passed the exit, read the signs, and looked at the surroundings, it was amazing how quickly all of the memories came rushing back.
we stayed the night in berea, and within minutes, we were able to remember where we camped and ate dinner the night we were there. we reminisced about a college campus we rode past that day. we reflected on conversations with a kid at the campground who was from a suburb of my home town. we remembered phone calls we made that night and pictures taken there. the memories seemed to just flow and flow.
it was amazing to be literally flooded with memories! what a blessing to relive such a great time in our lives!
as i processed all of these memories, i began to think about just how amazing it is that God created us with the ability to remember and to think and to reminisce back to memories. it is amazing to me and is one of the things that makes me the most confident there is a God and He is the Creator of life! i can wrap my mind around the physical and scientific pieces of our bodies. and while they are incredible, they are still very logical. but our minds, memories and the ability to think are not logical...i can't begin to wrap my mind around it. and i love it. it causes me to stand in awe of God. it causes me to worship Him!
He is God and i am not, and therefore He understands the making and recalling of a memory...He knows how the mind works, and i do not...and for that i am grateful...and for that and so much more i choose to worship Him as the Creator God!
cailyn and i arrived yesterday in the smoky mountains for a week of vacation with both of our families...
traveling down here was a journey to say the least...
just a few miles outside of nashville, while cailyn was driving, we blew our back left tire. cailyn did an excellent job of keeping the car under control...and God seemed to provide us a break in the traffic to allow her to get to the side of the road from the middle lane. it was a very scary experience and we are thankful to be okay.
thankfully, we were only a few miles from a walmart and we were able get there on our spare and purchase a new tire in less than an hour.
it was the process of getting a new tire that reminded me of a great lesson learned. a few years ago, cailyn and i went through dave ramsey's financial peace class. among other things, we learned about the process of setting aside money for specific emergency expenses.
and so, we had significantly more money set aside for car repairs then what it cost us to purchase the new tire. and man was that a blessing. it was a stressful enough afternoon. and it was so nice to be able to stand at the counter, paying for a new tire, and not feeling worried in any way about the cost of the tire and about the financial burden that it might add to the rest of our trip.
in many senses it seems like a little thing, but in the end, it changes so much...
we currently have 4 campus house students on a short-term mission trip in the Philippines, with students from two other campus houses. missions is a huge part of our vision of helping students find their way back to God. we believe and invest much in missions for many different reasons. it makes a difference in the restoration of God's shalom in this world. but it also does beautiful things in shaping the hearts of students in seeing and loving the world the way God does.
this is certainly happening for these 4 students. here are some words that Meagan wrote on the teams blog about their past few days and about what God is doing in her.
"These past few days have been a blur, but a blast. This past weekend we did leadership training on the beach (how AMAZING!) with the small group leaders from Baguio, Dagupon and BSU. What a blessing it was to see the students from 3 different ministries blend together and just enjoy some fellowship time playing in the waves! This was the first time we met the Dagupon students and Stephanie, Allison and I roomed with 5 of their girls. It seems like connections to these students happen in a flash. They are so full of love, acceptance, curiosity and most of all, joy. They continue to be an example and encouragement of how I should be living my everyday life.
Yesterday, we traveled into Dagupon from the beach and got our first chance to check out the Encounter Christian Campus House connected with Luzon University. The students were eager to share with us their culture and many many giggles and fun stories. We pretty much crashed into our rooms at the YMCA hotel, where we are staying until Thursday this week, after that. This morning, we traveled to Luzon University and got to have a meeting with the Deans from all the colleges and some student and faculty representatives. Let me tell you this... I experienced an incredible amount of hospitality. We were welcomed in a huge way, and were given a tour of the University and took about a million pictures. Tomorrow, we will be teaching classes connected to our major to anywhere between 50 and 200+ students, and tomorrow evening we will join Encounter Dagupon in their mid week fellowship. Long story short...well, semi-short, God has shown up in a HUGE way in this country and He has and continues to do amazing things. The Filipino people have been such an example to me in how I was created to love...just as God does. I wish I could explain in words how this trip is changing and shaping my heart to love and want to be His servant even more. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts!
With love and joy and thankfulness,
Meagan"
God never seizes to amaze me in the ways he teaches us! and i love to see the teaching come from so many different angles. this morning i was reading in colossians 3 where it says:
"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."
what struck me was the fact that i grasp the idea of making the choice to love in a marriage sense. from the beginning Cailyn and i have had a solid understanding that the marriage love is one you chose, and it has made a huge difference in the quality of marriage we have.
but i fail often at transferring this idea to other people and situations. when love is easy and convenient and something i feel like doing, i share it with others with no problem. but when it is not easy and convenient, and when i don't feel like it, it is not something i do well. i want to actively be making the choice to love everyone...not just my wife. it is the way of Jesus.
and ironically (or not so ironically, because that is just how God works), Meagan is learning the exact same thing from Filipino college students halfway around the world.
