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We made it here - finally, late Thursday afternoon. Chad met us at the airport and got us on a bus that took us to a boat where we were met by Scott, one of Chad’s teammates. He drove us to our hotel where we met up with Dennis and Leslie who arrived the day before. After an excellent meal - ask Mark about the iskender! - we walked around for a little while and headed back to the hotel where we crashed for the night.

This morning we had breakfast and then walked around the city and met several other believers who live and work here. We met a young woman who works in a Christian bookstore who is a Muslim but hears the gospel from her fellow workers as well as Western believers who stop in. In addition, we visited an art studio run by an American believer and saw some of his work. He and a friend painted a large mural on a stone wall outside a church that received a lot of media attention in the area.

After going to Chad’s office we met Sumer, a young woman who served with us last year as we traveled through the central part of the country. She was excited - and surprised - to see us. She didn’t get my Facebook post telling her I was bringing another team.

Tonight we will have dinner with our friends from Albania who were in Wichita this past summer. They are preparing byrek - a traditional Albanian meal for us. They will help us next weekend with the retreat with Chad’s team.

Please continue to pray for us as we leave tomorrow for Eskisehir. We will be working with Salih and his fellowship. Pray that we will be a blessing and an encouragement to them as we invest four days there.

All of us are healthy and rested. Please pray that we continue this way.

Come back and see what God is doing as we invest here.

Our Central Asia team is completing all the final preparations for our trip. Two of our members leave tonight (Tuesday) and the other three leave Wednesday. It is amazing how many “little” things have to be done before we can get on the plane and head east on our journey. Let me give you a little peek into the final preparations.

1. Make copies of our passports in case of loss or theft of the original
2. Getting all the items friends in the Central Asia sent us to carry in for them - I have told our friends there that they should consider us “pack mules” for items they need. It is a small service to people who have left family and friends to serve God in distant places.
3. Complete all the laundry so clothes are clean and ready to pack.
4. Pick up prescriptions that will be taken with us.
5. Make sure all work related responsibilities are covered.
6. Pay bills for the coming two weeks.
7. Mow the lawn one more time.
8. Lay out all the clothes, pack them in the suitcase, determine what is really needed for the trip, remove all extraneous items, repack, start process all over again.
9. Remember where you put your passport after you make copies - I left mine on the copier in the church office and couldn’t remember where it was!
10. Make sure family has emergency contact information for you while you are gone - be certain to make a copy of emergency numbers to carry with you.
11. Run through the above list about ten more times to see if you have forgotten anything.

While we are gone you can pray for a few specific things:
1. That we - and our families at home - will remain healthy and safe.
2. That our friends overseas will be encouraged and comforted by our time together.
3. That the people we meet will be drawn to the One in Whose Name we go. Ask God to plant seeds of hope and salvation in those with whom we come in contact.
4. Pray for the “business” lunches that Dennis and Mark will attend. Ask the Father to begin to build relationships between Dennis, Mark and the men who will attend.
5. Pray for Pastor Salih and his fellowship. Pray that we will encourage and challenge them to greater obedience in making disciples.
6. That we will invest our lives for the sake of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and that men and women will be drawn to Him.

I will be posting updates throughout our trip. Please use them to remind you to pray. I told our granddaughter that every time she sees the moon out at night that she should pray for us - and that we will pray for her! I invite you to do the same. We worship the God Who created the moon as a reflection of His glory. Let it remind you to pray for our team and those we will be serving - because we will be praying for you!

Pastor Ron

Next week I am leading a team from Olivet that will be traveling to Central Asia to serve American workers and local believers. We will be working with a retreat for American friends, prayer walking a city along with local believers, doing ethnography work and connecting with local businessmen.

The country we will visit is 99% Muslim with only a handful of national believers. Our desire is to encourage the local national believers, help them get a larger vision for reaching their nation and make contacts with businessmen with whom we can share the hope we have - so that they, too, may know the peace that only Jesus can give.

Please pray for our team. Ask the Father to provide safe travel, good health and divine appointments with people who have no hope because they do not know Jesus. Pray that our time there will have eternal impact. Pray for our families while we are gone. Ask God to protect them and give them great confidence and joy that we are doing His work.

Here are the names of our team: Cindy and myself, Dennis and Leslie and Mark. Ask God to use us to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we come in contact. Ask Him to use us to make disciples among the people of this nation.

Throughout our trip, I will be sending updates through our website. Please check the website regularly so you can know specifically how to pray for us each day. Thank you for partnering with us through faithful prayer.

Pastor Ron

Today, August 4, Cindy and I celebrate our 37th wedding annversary! It does not seem possible that we have been married that long. It seems like just a short time ago I watched her walk down the aisle on her father’s arm as she came to join me at the front of the auditorium of the church. She was breathtakingly beautiful that night (I think she still is!) and I felt like the most fortunate man on the face of the earth.

We were married two months after she graduated with her Associates degree from Independence Community College and I was in my final year at Southwest Baptist College. I was twenty and she was nineteen (I turned twenty-one three weeks later and she turned twenty a month after that)! We were both full-time college students (me at SBU and Cindy at Southwest Missouri State - now Missouri State University) living in a new city and figuring out what marriage meant as we experienced it.

We lived in a basement apartment beneath our landlady. She suffered from insomnia and paced back and forth in her kitchen throughout the night. Her kitchen was directly above our small bedroom. There were a lot of sleepless nights as we laid in our bed listening to our ceiling creak above us - hoping nothing would fall through. I traveled from Springfield to Bolivar, Missouri three days a week to attend classes and then rushed back to Springfield to my part-time job selling shoes at Sears. I also worked part-time in a small church on the west side of Springfield.

We moved to Wichita in August of 1973 to take a “temporary” ministry position at Olivet Baptist Church as Interim Minister of Music while I finished my final ten hours of college. In December of that year we were headed to Ft. Worth, Texas to attend seminary. Little did we know that we would still be in Wichita and at Olivet thirty-six years later! That’s another story for another time.

We have shared the birth of three beautiful daughters over the years, the deaths of both of our fathers and my mother and the birth of a beautiful granddaughter. We have walked together in some incredibly good times and stood side by side in some extremely tough times. WE have nursed each other through difficult surgeries and illnesses. One of the commitments we made before we married was that divorce would never be a solution to our problems - murder, maybe. Not divorce! As I look back at some the really stupid things I have done over the years I am certain that there were times when God could have told Cindy, “Go ahead. He deserves it!” To her credit (and with my great gratitude) she has instead chosen to walk with me and stay beside me, regardless of what life brought us.

As I think about those thirty-seven years I am grateful for a lot of things. Here are but a few:
* I am grateful for a God Who loves me unconditionally and brought an incredible young woman into my life all those years ago.
* I am grateful for a long-suffering and loving wife who has never given up on me - even when many others thought she should have.
* I am grateful for three beautiful daughters (Rachel, Priscilla and Faith) who love their dad more than he deserves.
* I am grateful for the privilege of being “papa” to the most beautiful granddaughter (Lauren) ever born!
* I am grateful for a church family who allowed me to grow up with them - and forgave me when I made mistakes.
* I am grateful for that church family being a loving and forgiving body of Christ followers.
* I am grateful for whatever time God will give me in the days and years to come to serve Him and share Him with people who don’t yet know Him.

Today I say “thank you” to my lovely bride, Cindy - the one whom I call “Babe” because of the precious place she alone holds in my heart. Thank you for loving me, for believing in me and for standing beside me for the past thirty-seven years. I am who I am because of God and you! I love you!

Your husband - and the most grateful man on the planet!
Ron

I read ALOT.  I love to read.  I haven’t always been this way, in fact I used to hate to read.  But now, I read so much I don’t have time to write down thoughts.  So, today I am taking the time to share some awesome thoughts I from a book I have been reading called ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. (I recommend this book to anyone as a fresh, thoughtful, yet accessible work on the centrality of Jesus.)

…Anyway in the chapter entitled Three…Two…One…Engage! Frost and Hirsch lay out an beautiful and biblically sound picture of what faith is.  As the post title suggests, there are three elements which make up true biblical faith: head, hands, heart.  At different points along the way, Christians (myself included) have unfortunately lost the balance of each of these three as geniune elements of faith.

As they point out for far too long the church has focused on orthodoxy (right belief) as the litmus test for those who are in and out.  While this is an element–yes a critical element–it is not the only element of biblical faith. Justified critique has come along to demonstrate that the Word is about action too–I think the books of James and most of the minor prophets have much to say about this.

At other points in history groups within the church focused solely on action–what some have called the “social gospel”–to the exclusion of orthodoxy.  Their mantra was, “Doctrine divides while ethics unite.”  The liberal church has demonstrated to us that when you throw out the Word and Orthodoxy as unimportant you get an empty dead moralism–lots of action but hardly can be recongizable as salt and light.

Some have said that my generation in particular is “passionate about being passionate.”  I think this is also a justified critique.  Scripture also warns about zeal without knowledge (Rom 10:2).

Jesusof course had it all right when He was asked what is the greatest commandment.  To which He replied, “Love God with all that you are: all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  The second is love your neighbor–every human being–as yourself.”

The heart is the seat of the emotion–the passion which has a direct impact on our will.  Our mind is of course our head and thought processes.  Our soul is that which overlaps with our mind and heart.  This is what controls our actions.  Strength is another way of talking about our bodies.  (The word in Hebrew for strenght from Deut 6:5, which Jesus is quoting here, is literally “muchness” or “force.” So it turns this idea up quite a bit saying, that we are to love God in a way that we exhaust our bodies for Him.)

Love is the very important qualifier, which biblically speaking, touches on truth in each of these areas.  To love God with our mind is to think thoughts after God.  It is to see things as He sees them as He has shown us in the Word.  To love God with our heart is to be emotionally and passionately pursuing Him.  To love God with our soul means that we willfully act in ways that demonstrate our love for Him.  In a word this is obedience.  To love God with our strenght mean that we, in the words of Paul, offer our physical bodies as living sacrifices to God and avoid conformity to this world but seek to conform in totality to Christ (Rom 12:1-2).

Where is my head today?

Where are my hands today?

Where is my heart today?

I was reading on the Desiring God website this morning and was blessed to read this article by Pastor John Piper.  In it he writes,

“It makes a huge difference in how you think about reading and education if you are convinced that God thought it was good to communicate with the world through a book. There are dozens of foolish ideas about education that we will be protected from by simply thinking God was wise in using a book.”- Pastor John Piper, click here to read the whole thing.

When was the last time you thought about how God has talked to us through a book? What a great thought.

I was having breakfast with one of my accountability partners, Terry Williams, early this morning at Panera. Terry has just returned from five months in Iraq serving as an Air Force chaplain with a group out of McConnell Air Force Base. It was the first time we had seen each other before his deployment.

After catching up on what had been going on in our lives and our families over the past five months we began to wax philosophical. We talked about things that life has taught us through the years and how we have grown. As I left our meeting I was thinking as I drove to the office of some of the things I have learned over the past thirty-six years. Here are a few snippets of “wisdom” I have gleaned on the journey:
1. The more I have learned about God, the more I realize how little I really know about Him. He is always bigger than the “box” I sometimes try to fit Him into.
2. I have learned that there is no sin so big that it is beyond God’s ability to forgive (when there is true repentance)! That one is really profound!
3. I have learned that there is nothing anyone can do to offend me that comes anywhere close to how my sins have offended holy God.
4. I remember being Olivet’s resident “expert” on teenagers while I was doing student ministry here. When I finally became the father of a teenager I realized how little I really knew. I “apologized” to the church one Sunday morning years ago and that got a big laugh from the congregation.
5. I have learned that people are always more important than projects.
6. I have learned that sometimes good people will disagree with me - but it is not a test of fellowship when we don’t agree.
7. I have learned that there is no greater ministry in my life than my family. If I lose them I have nothing to give to the church.
8. I have learned that accountability is indispensable for spiritual growth and maturity. Without someone speaking the truth in love to our lives we will probably never mature in our faith.
9. I am learning that pleasing people is practically impossible and that I should focus on pleasing God. This is a tough one to remember!
10. I am remembering how much I love the people I pastor and how privileged I am to serve you!

Just a few thoughts that came to my mind after breakfast with a good friend.

The word “compelled” is an interesting one. It speaks of a command, an expectation, something that cannot be ignored. As children we were compelled to clean our rooms, brush our teeth and make our beds. Many of us were compelled to go to church, do our homework and be polite to our neighbors. Often our response to the command to do something was: “But I don’t want to!” We made this statement to our parents as if it carried any weight. Boy, were we misinformed.

When we think of being compelled we often think in terms of something that we have to do, but really don’t want to do. We have to pay our taxes, abide by the speed limits, mow our lawns so that small children and animals do not get lost in them.

But there is another sense of the word compelled. It is the deeper idea that we have to do something or we will explode inside. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and told them, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died.” (2 Corinthians 5.14). When the word compelled is used in this context is something more than a requirement, it is a passion that drives us, consumes us and won’t let go of us.

We are compelled by One Who gave His life so that we might be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God. This love compels us to tell others about the One Who paid a terrible price to provide forgiveness and mercy to us. It compels us to walk in obedience to the One Who became the payment for our sin - and then defeated death by rising from the dead! This love compels us to live differently.

Recently I have preached about the necessity for the church to make disciples. This is more than something we “have to do” because it’s a rule, an expectation. It is the result of our having experienced the incredible and amazing grace of God! We “have to” share the joy of knowing Jesus and walking with Him or we will explode! I “have to” because I can’t do anything else! Peter and James said the same thing when they announced to the Jewish religious leaders that the could not stop “speaking about what we have seen and heard!” (Acts 4.20)

What compels you? What is so consuming in your life that if you don’t “get it out” it will cause you to explode? Jesus told us to go and make disciples. This is something we “have to do” because His love compels us! The joy of knowing Him burns within our hearts and we can only obey. We “have to” because of the joy set before us. We are compeled to do nothing less!

So when you hear us talk about the importance of making disciples, we are talking about the supreme joy of helping others know the One Who set us free. We are talking about the love He has given us compelling, driving us to help others know Him and walk with Him.

A story is told about a young believer who desperately wanted to know God better and live for him. He heard about a man who lived up in the mountains and was known as a man who wholeheartedly walked and communed with God. He hiked up the mountain to the cabin where the man lived. He told him that he wanted to love Jesus with his whole heart and live his life absolutely for God’s glory. The man said nothing but indicated that the young man follow him. He took him to a mountain stream and stepped into the water. The young man thought that the wise mountain man was going to baptize him and that was the “secret” of living wholeheartedly for God. The mountain man did indeed place the young man under the water - and then held him there. For the first few seconds, the young man thought that he was supposed to pray and commit his life more fully to God, which he did. But as the seconds increased the young man began thrashing under the water. He became frightened and fought the mountain man in order to be released. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the man brought the young seeker up out of the water and said these words: “when you get to the place where you are as desperate for Jesus as you were for that next breath of air, you will know what it means to be His disciple.”

Are you desperate for Jesus? Are you desperate to be His disciple and help others become disciples as well? This is what we mean when we say we “have to” make disciples. This passion burns so hotly within us we will explode if we are not intentionally investing our lives in others so they might know Him more.

Riding in the Jeep this morning Nathan announces to me, “Dad. I just counted to 28!” And then he asked me the most confounding question of all time - “Is 28 a lot?” I thought about it for a second and then said, “Well…sort of.” And if you know my son (or any 4 year old for that matter) you know that this answer - “sort of” - is in no way satisfactory.

As I sat there, driving down the road in this contemplative trance, I began to wonder to myself, “Is 28 a lot?” And I began to realize that it’s all about perspective.

First of all, if we’re talking about money - dollars to you and me - we would say, “No way. 28 is chump change! 28 won’t fill up half my gas tank or even pay my cell phone bill.” But then you begin to realize - if you’re paying attention, that is - that 28 will pretty much feed and clothe a child from World Vision or Compassion International. 28 will buy a wool blanket for a person living in poverty. 28 can provide 2 families with bed nets to protect from Malaria - the nastiest child-killer in the world. Holy cow. 28 just got a lot bigger! And that’s not even the beginning.

What about 28 gallons of water? How does that measure up? Well, to put it into perspective, the average family home uses about 68-69 gallons of water a day. That’s from the shower, brushing teeth, running the dishwasher & washing machine, watering the yard, and of course, flushing the toilet. And this doesn’t sting as much until you realize that there are still people walking 4-5 miles a day just to get 1 bucket of water (about 4-5 gallons max) for their entire family to use. And that water is usually contaminated, viral, and slowly killing them. 28 keeps growing.

If this is making you want to curl up in a sad ball on your sofa and watch Feed the Children commercials, sorry. Not the point. The point is: DO SOMETHING!

“What, you might ask?” Great question.

Here’s a small list of places to start:

1. Take $30 a month and sponsor a child (www.worldvision.org)
2. Give to blood:water mission (www.bloodwatermission.com) and help a family or even an entire village build a well. In the last year, Olivet has paid for at least 5 wells to be built!

Three Reasons to Kill Lust
Jesus thinks of your heart like a garden.  In Mark 4, Christ gives a marvelous warning; there is a host of agents working against you: Satan, shallow-truth and desires for other things.

The Gospel says God accepts me because of sheer grace.  That means I am completely in God’s favor, because Jesus absorbed all of God’s anger against me.  God is now my Abba Father, rather than an estranged and absent god I can never please.  My Abba Father delights in me, because Christ first loved me.

If the gospel says something decisively true, why must we tend our hearts like a garden and fight lust?  If I’m already in God’s family, why should I fight lust?  That is like an orphan boy asking why he should love his new parents after adoption; once they’ve given him everything.  Parents adopt children to bring them into a family’s love, and likewise God rescues sinners to bring them to Himself (1Peter 3:18).

There may be a disconnect, between our heads and our hearts.  What we know to be true because of the gospel of God’s grace, and what our fallen hearts tend to cry out for.  That disconnect may be the result of losing the heart of the gospel, God died to restore us to Himself.  Here are three reasons to kill the root of lust.

Lust Keeps You From Seeing & Enjoying God
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

Lust is a weed that chokes out the vitality of the planted gospel in the heart.  Lust obscures God in the mind, and distorts everything true.

The human heart is an affection-making factory.  The human heart was created by God to love great things, majestic things, God himself.  The heart controlled by lust has a great need to see exactly what the sin obstructs.

We need to taste the heart-melting love of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.  Seeing and knowing God is so good, that it is the only gift that will keep you in the habit of pulling the weeds and thorns of lust from choking out what you treasure most, God.

Lust Slowly Kills You

John Owen said, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” Lust draws you into a world of one, you and you alone.  In a secluded me-world you detach yourself from the vine of life.  When we are detached from the vine eventually we die. Lust kills by
keeping you from God.

If you never-ever fight lust,
you will go to hell.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)

Ultimately, if you’ve never fought against the desire of lust, it may be because you need to be born again.  Salvation is not perfection, but it is new direction.  Tend the garden of your heart, and may God make it grow.