Who is Jesus?: Our Fishing Lure

Jesus called people to leave their lives and follow Him. He had something that when people met Him, they were in awe of what He said and of what He did. Bodies were healed of deabilitating and alienating disease. Outcasts were brought back in to community. The spiritually oppressed and tortured were set free from dark forces. Jesus' closest followers left everything because He was the one with the words of eternal life. Jesus even claimed the most amazing and radical claim ever made by a human and it is completely true. That claim is found in John 14:9a as Jesus said "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you such a long time? Any one who has seen me has seen the Father." It is in this simple, yet profound, statement that Jesus explicitly explains that He is God. In fact, He is claiming if you hear His words and you see what He is doing, you can see the way Father God is. Woah!!

With this deep and radically encouraging truth in mind, we are inviting people to explore what Jesus did when He was on earth, what He said, how He interacted with people, how He gave His life to the mission of His Father, and where He is this very day.

We have been inviting people to study this question with us and read the text. So far we have two people engaging this question with us as they themselves read the text. Both of them have very little to no experience reading the text and would identify themselves in the LGBTQ community. They are in fact, very open, to reading the text. One woman studying with us said after the first study of the opening line of the gospel of Mark, "I like that".

What would it be like for more Bridge Builders to do this study with people? I bet people would leave everything just like His first disciples.

The Bridge: Doing the Impossible Thing

A story of our calling to reach the LGBT in Hillcrest.....

Many of you have heard me say that I feel called to build a bridge to the lost in the LGBTQ community. You also probably know that Esther and I moved to Hillcrest to do this very thing. But you may not know why the bridge became a large symbol in my calling to reach the lost and how this relates to Hillcrest, so I thought I’d share the story.

It was in the beginning of 2011 where I came to the place of surrendering the final thing I was holding onto in my life, my career. I was working at Trader Joe’s and felt the Lord call me to quit because I wasn’t living my value system. I was working 3 jobs and highly focused on paying off my debts (not a bad thing in of itself, but I don’t believe neglecting community or calling is worth that). So, I was thinking about quitting, knowing I would be leaving my summer job and a measure of security. Basically, I was considering leaving to finally search out what God wanted me to do with my life. I remember thinking, here is my life God where do you want me to go? Do I start an LGBTQ group at my church, pursue a Master’s in Biology to teach, join Intervarsity staff, start a medical professional school, or go to seminary? I remember taking several months to pray about what I was going to do long term for Jesus. So, I took a jump. I quit my TJ s job and said I wouldn’t be coming back to UCSD for the following school year to TA. Instead, I started pressing in to IV staff applications and exploring how I was going to seek Jesus’ Kingdom as a first priority (Mathew 6:33). Through a kaleidoscope of different choices, I ended up being led to go back to the campus to see people reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That period of time trying to figure out how I would give my life to Jesus for the long term was a slow decision making process and in it is where God spoke to me through a dream. This dream has begun to resound even now in this next chapter after the campus.

One night, I dreamt I was standing on a bridge surrounded by people in trader Joe’s uniforms. I remember thinking how strange this was because I hadn’t worked at Trader Joe’s for several months at this point. I didn’t have any idea what this would mean later and how this bridge would tie in to reality so I just filed this away as a strange dream. Later that summer, as I was looking for work I would be reminded of this dream and see the Living God interacting with me again.

It was the end of summer in 2011 and I was accepted as a provisional employee with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, but I would need to fundraise around $18000 to even get my first pay check and be formally accepted as a staff worker. Even more, my bank account was nearing empty. I needed a job, and I needed a job fast. So, I thought maybe Trader Joe’s would take me back. I was turned down at my old store but I found another one in the area on University. I didn’t realize this one was in Hillcrest but the employee on the phone got me excited about the potential of a job at the store. I told him I was an employee in the past and although they weren’t hiring, he told me they are always look for quality applicants. I filled out an application and headed out to turn in my application there that same day. So, I am driving down into the area and I realize the store was actually in Hillcrest. As I pull into the parking lot and find the store, I see this bridge right behind the store and it looks exactly like the bridge in my dream. I was immediately ecstatic and thinking I have a job coming pretty quick (as a side note, this was a time in my life where the Lord was speaking to me through prophetic dreams and so I was extra enthusiastic and excited). Naturally, one of the first things I do is check out this bridge.

On the bridge I noticed many quirks about it including one quote that has especially inspired me. On the bridge are so many different quotes from eastern and western philosophers, from social justice heroes like Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt, and even definitions of the word, bridge. It has been Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote that has struck me and challenged me. It reads, “You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.” At that time, I thought there was a certain depth to that quote but I had no faculty to understand it, so I just left that bridge to go turn my application in. I was still full of excitement because I thought I was getting a job certain that God was in this and gonna make it happen. Furthermore, I believed and believe still it would be a great way to interact with people from Hillcrest and build relationships with them in hopes to share the gospel. Yet, God never gave me that job there. I turned in an application then and followed up every week for about 2 months and I even turned in an application 2 years later when my wife and I moved into the area for the first time. I just recently received a letter from them saying they are choosing to pursue other candidates. I believe God is telling me something more than the bridge is meant to mark a stream of financial provision at one of my favorite stores.

 

God has used this bridge as a point of encouragement for me. He has encouraged me both through providing an apartment right next to this bridge in Hillcrest and also through how I perceive He is speaking to Esther and I through the symbolism and Roosevelt quote on the Bridge.

When Esther and I were looking and praying for our first place we were still deciding if we were going to live and do ministry in Hillcrest in our first year of marriage. What we received back were confirmations from the Lord that He wanted us in Hillcrest. Although there are several I just want to share a couple here. First, we have seen financial provision in our new place. Our current landlord gave us 9 days in our new place for free and even brought our deposit down a couple hundred dollars. We really like our new place which also has several things we prayed for like storage, key appliances, and parking. Second, we see the Lord connecting us to neighbors who we believe He wants us to be in relationship with to share His love.

The Lord has also used the bridge to speak into this journey of building a bridge to the LGBTQ community. The Eleanor Roosevelt quote has been challenging and encouraging me to do the thing I think I cannot do. I think that “thing” is the impossible task of reaching LGBTQ identifying people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The task of inviting people into community with Jesus and His followers is no small thing (just ask the leaders of the once flourishing and now obsolete Exodus International. Once, the biggest ministry of the Body of Christ who were reaching out to those in the LGBTQ community and training the church). What I am coming to see is that the formidability of this task is multi-faceted. Here are some of the barriers and audacious goals of ours:

1. I see that we need a large amount of people to build this bridge to the LGBTQ people.
2. We need to not compromise the truth of homosexuality as sin.
3. We need to offer the LGBTQ community the same opportunity to follow Jesus imperfectly, just like every other believer or seeker.
4. People in the community are going to have to encounter Jesus in order to leave their community, which perhaps is the first place they ever have felt they belonged.
5. The church is dividing over the issue and fairly ineffective at this point at sharing the full gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom.

If ever there was an impossible task, it could be reaching out to the LGBTQ people and seeing them lay down their lives here for better lives with Jesus. If you don’t see how formidable and seemingly impossible this task is, then I would say, do your research. If you do see how formidable this task is, then take heart. Jesus said, “…with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mathew 19:26)   and he was challenging His disciples doubt about the inability to see the salvation of the rich.

God has called Esther and I to do the thing we think we cannot do. We actually could never do this without Jesus, Holy Spirit, Abba and also the Body. He has called us to fully yield and rely on Him and that is what we are seeking to continually do. With the help of God’s leadership, guidance, power, and His people we are going to do the impossible. God-willing, we are going to build this bridge.

 

A Transition I Hope You Don't Miss

So What is next for me?

You may not know this but this is my third year of asking and pursuing this question: Here is my life God, what do you want to do with it (Mathew 6:33)? With this question in mind, I have been trying to seek long term plans that would glorify Him. Though I strongly desire long term direction all I know are next steps. My next steps are taking a year to discern long term career, to work at UCSD, and to pursue an internship at my church, Coast Vineyard. The church internship is exciting to me because of its focus and getting to do ministry for work, which is basically my dream job. This internship is where you can continue with me in prayer and giving if you feel led as I will be building up a support team. So the good news is that we can continue doing bold things to see His name lifted high and His Kingdom to come! What is the focus of my internship?

Your Kingdom Come in the LGBT Community!

How about reaching arguably some of the most difficult people to reach, those that identify as people of the  Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community. There are at least 4 main positions basically at work within the church. The camps could be categorized as those who hate on these people and want none in the church or seemingly any where near God (you’ve seen the signs “God hates fags”), those who think a same sex monogamous relationship is a perfectly legit and biblically accepted life style, those who never want to talk about the issue/reality of the struggle, and a small minority looking to see the LGBT people loved and brought into the Kingdom while at the same time learning to walk out what it means for these people to follow Jesus along their unique path of sanctification. I belong to the latter. It is my opinion that reaching people that identify themselves to be members of the LGBT community with the message of grace will be a divisive issue in the church in these last days. I want to share the Gospel in its fullness with these people and walk along with them through what could be a long process of surrender (probably as long as any other lost sinner). With the support of Coast vineyard and its community of leaders, Esther and I plan to be on the front lines of God's Kingdom  recapturing more people who are ultimately God's most desired treasure (study Mark 3:20-27). We want to see Jesus get crowned in Hillcrest as the King of kings and one who desires relationship with the LGBT people.

Building bridges to the LGBT in Hillcrest

As I have mentioned to many of you in previous ministry related meetings, I feel I have been called by God to build bridges to the lost. I have also mentioned that I cannot build a bridge alone. Moreover, building functioning and long term and God-glorifying relationships with the LGBT is no small task as there isn’t much of a precedent for doing this. I desire to be on the front lines but I cannot be there without support and I cannot do the work God wants to do without a team. Esther and I are praying and pressing in to live in the Hillcrest area. This is an area in San Diego known for tolerance  (except maybe to evangelical Christians) and rainbows (the common symbol used to emphasize diversity and I would say mainly people of the LGBT). I want to reach out to you all to invite you to continue to support Esther and I. I hope you are  as excited as I am, but I imagine there will be more questions and many I can’t and may never be able to answer. But I welcome those questions on your minds and so please ask. At this point I hope you are starting to ask yourselves,  "how can we support this bridge-building project"?

Next Steps:

I am not formally an intern yet, but I believe God is opening doors and believe God is longing to move in the LGBT community and in Hillcrest. I have been meeting with my Pastor and we have been forming the nature of the internship so that we can bring the internship before the board of the church. If they approve it, then I will need your help. I need prayer. I say again, I need prayer. Would you pray during this transition as the likely start date is coming up quick? See the prayer requests. Moreover, I plan on contacting current financial support team members and see if you want to support still. I will be raising 1500/mth to be a part time intern. Would you pray and consider your level of commitment?

 

Mesa IVCF, A Reflection: The Journey of My Staff Experience

Mesa IV leaders 2012-2013 (from left to right: Flo, Sy, Evan, Myles, Logan, me John)

Mesa IVCF, a Reflection

Have you ever noticed that much of life is a mix of good and bad blended together? Everything has some good aspects and some bad aspects. Nothing is purely good or purely evil. Of course, God is completely good and Satan is completely evil. This up and down, good and bad, marked my journey through staff life as well. I wanted to share my journey on staff so that you get a closer viewpoint of some of the action and lessons I learned. In this entry you can expect to uncover some of the hard reality of sin, some of the ways trials and sufferings has brought growth in me, transformations of people from death to life, the stories of young people becoming leaders in the move to see Jesus’ Kingdom come, and some numerical highlights for the ministry this academic year (2012-2013).

The reality of the strongholds of sin

I always feel the need to define this term and so before I begin I will. Sin means to miss the mark and as a friend’s definition goes, it means also to fail to be human as we were created to be. Through the campus work, I saw the stronghold of Satan over people’s lives. At our spring retreat I heard one girl responded by learning about the Kingdom of God and the other Kingdom (Satan’s) that she was fine with being in Satan’s Kingdom. She was later healed of heart problems and hurt leg and a strange phobia of medical personnel (where I learned later was rooted in her previous physical abuse via some sort of medical person) and delivered from Satan by Jesus. She literally was delivered from a demonic possession, no joke. Remember Kendra (click “Kendra” to read her version of the story)?

Then there was Matt, he was another student who when I first had met him always had a strange demeanor of anger. When we finally had a deep conversation, I learned that he just found out he was a dad and this struck me (because of my son Nicholas). Over the course of knowing him, it seemed like he lied all the time and none of us knew if he was actually telling us the truth. On another note, there was a time he told me a story of his life and said that God was trying to kill him. When the reality of his statement finally caught up to me I immediately challenged this viewpoint of God (Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11). First of all, God doesn’t enjoy death but life (Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11, John 11: 33-35) and two, if God wanted to kill him, what would stop him? Even more happened with this guy. He made girls in our community feel unsafe because of sexual approaches he would make towards them. This guy stood up to receive Jesus, but struggled with lying and sexual addiction almost all year, which even led to his temporary banishment from the community to seek healing with a local ministry.

It’s crazy how junk has a grip on us and we hold on to it, Christian or not.

Trials and suffering

Much of my journey can be stated as learning to trust God through people. I have been stretched so much in this way. For a lone ranger, independent, and middle born child to rely on others was a huge change in lifestyle for me and I knew this was a huge personal growth edge. What happened through this journey exposed both the beauty of team work that the Body is meant for and also the hard ship of enduring broken promises. I experienced the great fruit of partnership with staff, student leaders, and donors and could never have reached places I have reached without you all. While at the same time I have felt the disappointment, pain, and uprising internal distrust as people have left their words unsupported through action. Have you ever had this happen? Have people let you down? While the pain is real and for me at least has the potential to drive me to self and God reliance only, God wanted me to rely on people. I believe He wants us to live in community and forgive sin as we have been forgiven. The broken vows can be mended through forgiveness and understanding and ultimately through the actions of Jesus. He is the ultimate community builder and has called all of us, even me, to rely on each other. Relying on community has brought up deep pain, but taught me to see the big beautiful picture of partnership in the Body of Christ.

                Have you ever loved through hurt, bitterness, resentment, and being misunderstood? God does; every day, every moment. Does this then surprise you that Jesus leads the way in forgiveness (Luke 23:34) and challenges us to (Mathew 6:14-15)? It shouldn’t. On the campus, between my relationships with donors, with my supervisors at Intervarsity, and surely other places God has taught me to see people as He sees them and speak forgiveness over them. They will indeed hopefully extend the same favor. Through these moments of loving through the residue of sin’s fruit (death), we learn about God’s heart. I've learned more about Him and His love as I've attempted to love through sin. Question for you: how bad do you want to know God?

Transformations through Encountering Jesus

Two of my favorite stories of transformation from the campus Kingdom work has been Logan and Sy’s stories. Logan’s is a story about God meeting him where his faith level was at (almost non-existent at times) through prayer. Sy’s story is a story of rapid growth and radical grace that spread into his family and is spreading into the world already through artistic means.

About a year ago, Logan came with his girlfriend to a retreat and he left with the same disposition towards Jesus, probably indifference. At our first large group in the fall, Logan stood up to receive the Love of God. He was pumped to take this risk, but nothing happened, at least in his mind. I challenged him that night to believe that though he didn’t feel anything, something substantial happened (Esther’s wisdom). He would take that as I think a second faith step. Throughout the year, he attended the prayer meeting that I led right in the middle of the day on campus. We would see God build our faith as He answered our prayer for a faculty advisor by the time we needed one and in a miraculous way I might add. Logan needed a job and prayed and had several interviews he had to turn down to get a job. His dad needed a job and we prayed for that. Guess what, his dad received a job offer. Finally, Logan’s faith in God’s ability to hear him and answer prayer turned in to him praying for people at this year’s spring retreat, seeing 4 people get physically healed. Want more?

About 2 years ago, a nominal catholic student stood up to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior. In 2 years a lot has happened. Sy was a leader in our community on campus and reached out to other students. But before the year even started God was at work in this guy’s family. He told us all later that his dad left his mom. As a Filipino family this was a huge offense (it is for any family but Filipino cultures are very family oriented. His mom was devastated. Sy and she started to study the bible together and she was inspired to stand in response to a message at a local church. Next, determined to get her husband back she went from San Diego to Victorville to stake her claim on their family. He received Jesus too. In more recent months, he invited his childhood dance friend to our retreat with SDSU where she gave her life to the Lord. Sy has been choreographing biblically based videos and sharing them at charity events and even online. Don't hesitate to get more of Sy's story and a video of his dance by clicking on the link above ("Sy").

Young people become Leaders in the Kingdom

If you were to look at Florence before, you would’ve thought of her as maybe a nuisance or really broken (and rightfully so based on her childhood). At a powerful moment in her faith journey, she came out of the water she had been immersed in yelling, “freedom” with her hands raised up in the air. She was so excited about the Kingdom of God and when she came to discuss becoming a leader with me I was interested in serving Jesus with her because of what she was saying. Her whole reason to become a leader was so that she can see people meet Jesus. Despite some uncertainty, I saw that God was bringing her in to our leadership team, the place where us staff have our most influence with students. These are the students who bring the kingdom to their campus. These are our partners in God's work, who happen to be current students attending the school. Florence loves Jesus and seeing His Kingdom come. She invited people to so many things and challenged many of our girls in the community to take risks for Jesus. At the end of our time together, I heard something from her that shifted a bit of my perspective about what we do on campus. When I asked her about her leadership experience she said, “You believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.” This was awesome to hear and I was reminded that when we partner with students we develop them in to leaders. In choosing leaders, I found it best to find those who God is raising up (another lesson learned).

Jesus chooses the seemingly unlikely in this world to do His will. Thank you God for that.

Some Numbers Measuring a bit of What God Did at Mesa College through our work (yours, the students and mine) for 2012-2013:

·         We reached out to over 180 students during our New Student Outreach event.

·         We had over 40 students in our community at least half of the time.

·         We had about 4 bible studies per semester, 1 prayer meeting, over 5 prayer outreaches, served a local homeless shelter, and shared the gospel through the four circle diagram.

·         We saw 8 people give their lives to Jesus in some capacity, either first time or a recommitment.

·         We mentored 10 student leaders in knowing more of who God is, who they are, and how to be missional.

This marks the end of our push to see His Kingdom come on Mesa..

Now to Him be the glory as He was at the forefront of all the good that came from our work on campus. I appreciate each of you and felt so many of your prayers. I realized more the reality of working as a team, as partners in the gospel because of you all. You have been my team, my partners for eternal things. Therefore, I would treasure your feedback. Namely, I would love to hear what you’ve learned through your giving to this ministry through all the means you have. I believe and hope our Mighty God will be blessed by the offering of our emotions, our prayers, our time, our finances, and our energy!

Discipleship: Good Soil

What can one life do? Jesus said that some soils (those hearts who receive the word) will produce 30, 60, or 100 fold (Mark 4:-20). What I’ve seen in Sy is the beginning of a life lived for others. Just the other day he was sharing why he has been a leader with Intervarsity and what has drawn him. He basically said that becoming a fisher of men has hooked his heart. Here are some of the lives who have been touched by this guy’s life.

Sy became a Christian upon attending an IV conference. After coming back home from the conference he started to read the Bible with his mom. She was in a tough place where her husband left her and the family for another woman and a different life. After being invited to church, she received Jesus in her life. She wanted her husband back and went to bring him home after that. She didn’t do it by force and couldn’t but rather she went several hours away to where he had been living and met with him and asked him to come home. He was moved by the love in her for him and he returned home. Later during the year, Sy led another student to faith and invited a friend from the dance community to a conference and she became a follower of Jesus. She had no Spiritual background. This guys doesn’t just stop there as he is using his passion for dance to spread deep truths to people and has been recording and performing biblically based and choreographed dances.

What I love most is not the numbers but his pure hunger to see people get touched by Jesus, just as he has. I see it in his eyes when he shares about inviting people to meet Jesus. There is a fire growing and blessed by the living God to reach the world.

Here is his video (Sy is the one who takes off the jacket):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7EOGpSAIoA&feature=player_detailpage

Discipleship: An Unknown Land

It’s always easier knowing where the next stop in one’ s life will take them. Isn’t it?

Evan attending our world mission conference last December and God seemed to be speaking to him in several ways regarding the nations. He had several moments with people there that we both recognized when he came home as divine appointments. He came back and mentioned to me that he made a commitment to pray over a nation who didn’t have the bible written in their own language (he has still been sowing into this nation through prayer to my knowledge). Through the course of his time at the conference and also interacting with Bible translaters there he started to look in to a Bible Translation Summer Program. It has streteched him to go to a different nation, to believe God for funding, and to press in to a sign that God is leading him there without really knowing why.

 

You might say, so what I know people who have taken risks for Jesus and I even have? I hope this is so because isn’t it like God to tell people to leave their “country, their father’s household and go to a land [He] will show you” (Genesis 12:1). God leads us on adventures and it is not easy to follow but this young man has said yes. I see God cultivating in this young man a heart for the nations. Is this the beginning of an onramp to the nations for this young man? It seems so to me. 

Discipleship: A Small Seed is Becoming a Great Tree

“I don’t feel anything.” Logan said at our first large group of the year. He had just accepted Jesus in to his heart. He seemed to be looking for some great sign from heaven or sensation. I didn’t know what was going on either and was hoping for a Baptism from the Holy Spirit. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit give him that radical sensation that I had once experienced? I thought maybe he didn’t quite understand the message of grace, and so I asked if he realized his need for a Savior. He didn’t say much except that he wanted to experience God’s love. All I could tell him was to walk by faith and believe that what he did that night mattered. That there was indeed a radical transaction and that God would meet him.

In the next months, God would continue to meet Logan and make him a pillar in our student population of believers. It’s been particularly great seeing God interact with Logan through prayer and how his faith has increased and is now encountering the Living God. In the past, I would imagine this guy would describe God as an unlikely possibility and not at all close if He existed at all. Now it is apparent, God has met him. Here is one brief testimony about where Logan is at today:

Every year we take students to Catalina to study the bible for their spring break. They actually spend around 7 hours a day studying the bible. Isn’t that crazy in of itself? Well, that is not the crazy part of this story. Logan told me that at the beginning of his trip, he was frustrated and had no faith. He admitted he was in a bad place at the beginning until some timely advice helped him to stay engaged and start to try and figure out what God wanted to do that week, in him and in his community. At some point he started to believe and said that his faith turned from that small mustard seed into the great tree discussed in Mark 4:30-32. He proceeded to say that during the week he prayed for people. I learned he didn’t just pray for people but he prayed for people to get healed from their injuries and illness. When he was telling me this story I was tripping out. He told me 4 people got healed!X#$#% when he prayed for them.

Who would’ve ever thought this guy would be praying for people to physically get healed. I sure didn’t.

All I can say is that God has met Logan. He has met him in spite of his doubts and through prayer. God has been meeting him and the once agnostic is believing. He is not just believing but he is living for Jesus and going more and more in with Him seeing His name lifted up and His Kingdom coming.