And who's that young lady there beside you?

In my last update, 4 months ago, I wrote about the way God surprises us once we give our lives over to Him. I am reminded of this as I prepare to start seminary in two weeks; but also as I prepare for a weekend trip to Kouts, Indiana to meet the parents of the greatest blessing the Lord has brought into my life yet. Joyce and Gary met her at the KC District Assembly last week, so I thought this was a good time to feature my girlfriend in my blog.

When I met Lisa Phipps in September of last year, many things about her stood out to me (besides the obvious). First, she spoke fluent Spanish, which she learned spending a year in Paraguay as a volunteer missionary for the Church of the Nazarene (this means that she paid for all of her expenses to serve in a third world country). Second, she had a desire to serve in the Hispanic Ministries of College Church. Third, she enjoyed talking and thinking about spiritual issues at a very deep level. We got to know each other and became friends as we both served in the worship team and through participating in church activities. In fact, she is one of the friends I wanted to spend time with at the February revival service that the Lord used to call me to ministry. As I got to know her better, many other things stood out about her that drew me to want to spend more time with her, especially her commitment to God and her call to ministry. A month or so after my last blog entry, we went out on our first date. The last three months have been the most wonderful, fulfilling, and blessed months of my life. Having the assurance that we are both in the center of God's will is the best part of it all.

It was wonderful to attend Jenna's wedding at St. Paul's, and I missed Christy's and will miss Amy's; however, my trip to Indiana this weekend is just to get to know her parents, nothing else yet. They think it is unfair that my parents have gotten to know Lisa so well while they've only seen pictures of me! I'm looking forward to meeting them. Lisa and I have started to pray for God's direction as to when we will take the next step. In the meantime, we will both be busy taking classes at seminary (she has already completed her first year), working, and continuing to serve in College Church with Hispanic Ministries Immanuel. God is awesome!

New directions

When God wants to tell us something, sometimes He chooses to hit us over the head with that new revelation. Burning bushes qualify, but so do timely sermons from our pastors. At other times He chooses to reveal His plans gradually, giving us hints here and there, then allowing us to piece them together at a later time. February 13th, a couple of weeks after I wrote my last blog post, I attended a revival service at College Church. To be honest, I went there in part just to spend time with friends from church. I enjoyed the message though. The evangelist preached about God's perspective, how much it differs from our own, and how we should strive to align our will to His.

That night, as I brushed my teeth and thought about the sermon, I started to see some hints that the Lord had been leaving for me. Some were not subtle at all, such as my PhD advisor at UMKC leaving for Yale, which made me apply to medical school earlier than I thought I would have to, and then not being admitted into medical school. Others were: realizing that I was spending 4 days out of the week at church; thinking about the joy I got from being involved in the music ministry at my church; finding that a passion was growing in me for teaching others about the transforming love of God. I ended up talking with my father about this that same night, and we figured out that the Lord had something other than medical school for my life.

Now, as I write this blog I am also thinking about the songs we're going to sing at the bible study tonight, about the lesson I will be giving to the teen group, and about the application for admission to the Nazarene Theological Seminary that is staring me in the face. When we give our lives to the Lord, our whole lives, He leads us in such wonderful and unexpected directions. I continue to pray for His direction because changing courses is always scary, but I know that His ways are perfect, that He will take care of me as I take this new direction in my life.

What fruit am I producing?

It's been a few months now since I've updated. Whatever free time I had before has gone away now, so I will have to work harder to make time for writting!

Today I read Matthew 21, which includes two accounts about producing fruit that touched me. In the first, Jesus finds a fig tree which has not produced fruit, only leaves, and curses it so that it withers and dies. In the second, Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who plants a vineyard and leases it to tenants. Repeated attempts to collect his produce from the tenants end in failure, so that the landowner will of course throw those tenants out and get new ones who will give him the produce he expects from his land.

Reading these passages challenged me greatly today. Although I have placed my plans for the future in the hands of the Lord, and although I believe that He will fulfill the desires of my heart, He has placed me where I am right now for a reason. If we are truly His disciples, there is no "down time", no time when we can "take it easy" from doing His will. He expects us to produce, to be fruitful wherever we are, whatever we are doing.

Now, for an update on the worship ministry at Ministerios Hispanos Emanuel. We have continued to grow and mature, both musically and spiritually. One of the wonderful things about the group that started was everyone's desire to worship, not just play music, and that has not changed. I've switched back to playing trumpet, but I get to sing once in a while when they let me. Having someone like Christian (our worship leader), who has the Lord's anointing for this kind of ministry, is a blessing. It actually won't be long until we start to sing new songs, original worship songs, which we are composing and writing thanks to him as well. Now that is being fruitful!