Entries Tagged 'Israel' ↓

I am sitting in a comfortable carpeted room with Christmas music playing and lights strung around the room. I thought it appropriate to update all of my readers on the status of my body and brain after a mentally straining last week in Israel and two days of traveling.

The last days of IBEX FAO5 We said our last good-bye’s on Saturday night and then drove to the airport. We had to go through some of the most careful security that I have ever seen. They scan your entire luggage and open it up and take everything out to search it. This meant that all the dirty laundry that we had accumulated over the last week was sprawled out in front of the Israeli security personnel. We all eventually got on the flight and fell asleep, cutting our flight from Tel Aviv to Newark to only a couple of hours. We landed in 30 degree weather in New Jersey, stayed a couple of hours and then boarded another plane to take us to Los Angeles. It was hard to say good-bye to all of the people that I had spent so much time with over the last 4 months. I am excited to see what God does with the 33 people who were at IBEX in the fall of 2005. I am praying that we all will be obedient to the word of God for the love of God.

Do I miss Israel? Yeah, I do. It is hard to be with the same people so long and to grow to love them so much and then suddenly drop the relationship all together. I also miss the land. There was something special about being in the land of our God and seeing where it is that His people have dwelt for thousands of years. I will miss learning so much about the Bible. I didn’t know that there was so much that I didn’t know about the Bible and I don’t think I will ever be so excited to learn so much. God displayed His love by allowing me to learn so much about Him and to grow in my love for Him. I can only give all honor glory and praise to Him for what I experienced and how my life was changed. I would be nice to go back some day.

Am I glad to be back? Well, the way I look at it is that God placed me in that season of life for a time and now that time is over. For a couple of months I was given the opportunity to dwell in the land of Israel and I don’t regret one minute of it, but it is nice to be back in familiar territory. I have enjoyed spending time with friends, especially Grant, who is so faithful to challenge me and encourage me from the word of God. It is nice to get some variety in the food too. I had Mexican food last night and American cereal and bagels this morning. There are so many things in the US that make things easy. We live in a society where things are so readily accessible that we rely on it in order to exist. I will be really happy when I see my family and friends in Washington finally after 4 months of separation.

What has changed? I see things totally different now; not everything, but many things. I was surprised at how much I notice American wealth and greed since being back. After seeing poverty in Egypt and the lack of American comfort in Israel, it is hard to come back and just live like everything used to be. My heart and life are changed forever and I will never see things differently, or so I hope. I read my Bible so differently now, with such a better understanding of the geography and the land in which it happened. God has also allowed me to worship Him in a deeper, more intimate way because of what showed me while in Israel. He is God of the nations, the One who orchestrates all of the actions of the nations desires that His gospel be spread abroad. Why is it that so many American Christians think that the US is the only place to go and they don’t even consider foreign missions? These are just few of my thoughts.

Anyways, I am caught up on my sleep and I am enjoying spending time with Charissa and Grant down here. It has been nice seeing some IBEXers as well.

Hey everyone back in America. I am flying back today. My heart is both sad for leaving this amazing place and yet I want to see everyone back home. We are going into church this morning and then we will be going into the Old City of Jerusalem for the last time. I know that it will be kind of hard to leave, but I know that it what God has planned.

Last night was our year-end show. We had skits, games, and slideshows. I edited video from all through out the semester and put it together into about an hour’s worth of footage. I stayed up all Thursday night and Friday, in order to complete it, but in the end everything turned out and God was shown good once again. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I was pleased with the response. May God be glorified through the memories that were made.

Well, I love you all and will, Lord-willing, see you all shortly. May your affections of Christ burn within today.

Just to give you all an update on how I am doing over here, I am in the middle of finals week. We are happy for the end of our hard class to finally be here, but it also sad to think that we are leaving Israel in 4 days. I am right now just coming up for a breath of air before I plunge down once again into my books for the long haul that will carry me through my last final tomorrow. If you guys think of it, I would appreciate any prayer on my behalf. The finals are the hardest that I have ever taken and I can do well on them, but it just takes a lot of time.

I have also voluntarily taken under my wing the task of editing over 30 hours of video from the semester before Friday morning at 8am. Although a lot is already put together and ready for showing, there is still much to be done. I am glad that I am able to use my video editing talents for other people, but I will strain myself to my physical limits to get it done.

God is so good and He once again is proving Himself to be faithful. He has pulled me through so much this semester and He will do it once again. I know that when I am weak, then He is strong and nothing is too difficult for Him. He has given amazing amounts of strength despite my low amounts of sleep. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Praise God for His goodness to me, a sinner.

See you all soon!

I have been deeply affect this semester by my Land & Bible professor. He is also the student life coordinator and thus I get lots of time with him. I also do work study for him. I have learned a lot through watching his life and hearing of how he works out his salvation in fear and trembling. I have been privileged to get to know Todd so well and I thank God for his impact on my life.

We have a semester scrapbook that we have compiled, with a page done by each student and staff. This picture is the page that I did for the book.

Todd, one of my professors over here at IBEX has a blog, which you can find here. Recently he post about an article written by Bob Kauflin, a worship leader on the east coast and a writer for many Sovereign Grace songs. I went Bob’s blog, entitled Worship Matters, and found some really insightful thoughts about worship and how it is supposed to look in the church today. Today’s post is about holding those who lead worship to higher standards because of the position that they are in.

Serving in the church of Jesus Christ is always a privilege. “The greatest among you shall be your servant.” (Mt. 23:11) While there are many ways to serve “behind the scenes” in the church, the music team isn’t one of them. For that reason, I think holding musicians to higher personal standards is wise for at least two reasons. First, the maturity of those on the team affects the church. Throughout Scripture, those who lead are held to a stricter standard for character (Titus 1:5-9, 1 Tim. 3:2-12, James 3:1). Whether someone is actually speaking or not, their presence in front of the congregation week after week implies that their life is worthy of emulation – not perfect, but showing evidences of the Gospel’s fruit in their lives. Our heart for God’s glory should be seen not only when we sing on Sundays, but in the way we relate to our spouse, children, friends, and others. Otherwise it’s easy for the church to think worship is more about singing than the way we live. If a leader learns that one of the musicians is living in unrepentant sin, they should either speak to them personally, or ask a pastor to get involved. If there’s no change, the member should be taken off the team, and helped in the process of Gospel-motivated sanctification. The goal is not simply keeping the team “pure,” but helping every member of the church grow into maturity in Christ. Second, members of the team affect other members. If one of your musicians is given making divisive comments, or often complains, or engages in self-promotion, it will weaken the unity of the group. I remember trying to keep a guitar player on the team who consistently struggled with receiving correction and wanting to be used more. Rehearsals were a challenge, and we had numerous painful conversations. In hindsight, it would have served him and the other musicians if I had taken him off the team until his heart was in a better place. It’s wise to make standards and expectations for heart and behavior clear before someone joins the team. When I first came to my current church eight years ago, I took time to set clear standards for participation. We revisit that every few years for the sake of new members who have been added. It’s always easier to remind someone of what you’ve already told them, than to think they’ll adhere to unspoken expectations.