Posts tagged Christian Challenge

One of the things that I have been introduced to recently is a Cajón. Cajón is spanish for box, and that is all that this is. Like I said on Saturday, I went down to visit my dad last Friday and he is helping me build one. I realized that I didn’t take any pictures of it, and that I should have, but I will soon. I had no idea these really awesome instruments existed until a friend of mine, Luis Morales played one with me at our worship nights at ASU Tempe last fall for Christian Challenge. Luis is probably one of the most talented latin percussionists I know, so it was a real treat watching him play this thing.

One of the other things he introduced me to was the band Worship Circle and other more mellow musical arrangements for worship. This is actually why I wanted to acquire a cajón for Challenge to use. Since our Thursday night group is fairly small right now, I really wanted to experiment with different acoustic setups, and was struggling to find a good (and cheap) way to do percussion. I started doing some research and realized it would be pretty simple to build one of these, and then I remembered my dad has all sorts of extra wood. Having the wood working tools and being in Tucson didn’t hurt either, so I decided to pay a visit to the family compound for a day to put this together. I had a great time working with my dad and I am excited to finish it up and see how it sounds. I will try to add pictures once I take some. 

Last Week’s Bible Study Thoughts

Last week at our Wednesday Bible study at Mesa Community College, we read Jeremiah 5 (biblia.com). Here are a few thoughts from our reading and some of the things we discussed about this passage:

First, I like to look at see what words or phrases or verses really jump off the page at me:

• Verse 3 The wording here makes me emotionally feel sorry for these people, and yet they clearly deserve what they are going to get. I want to implore them to turn and see their sin, and yet it would be hopeless, for if they wont listen to God, they wont listen to me either.
• Verse 4 Even Jeremiah feels sorry for these “Fools.” Note how he never questions God’s ultimate justice. 
• Verse 5 See how the powerful had broken the yoke, that is they had forsaken God. God’s yoke is His commands, His law. They are the things that God desires from us. People who have broken His yoke, disobey Him, and this displeases God.
• Verse 6 is clearly prophesying a siege. The animals are guarding the city represent an invading army that will come and prevent people from leaving for food, water, or refuge.
• Verse 7-8 Use more of the sexual language we are used to seeing which represents how vile and disgusting their idolatry is to God.
• Verse 12. See how it says they have insisted it won’t happen? This is referring to the siege which has been prophesied before. So, let’s follow this logically. God has already prophesied once about an upcoming siege through Jeremiah. The other prophets and the powerful people in the city openly deny that it is going to happen. God then instead of simply going forward with the siege, gives the people another chance and gives Jeremiah another prophesy this time including his displeasure at their denials. This reality here shows just how suffering and long-suffering God is. To allow people to rebel against Him and then ignore His warnings and pleas for repentance over and over again. Also, note how to God denial and refusal to repent is almost a worse sin then the just the original mistake. (This is what makes David’s sin so different from most people’s and why He was still able to be called a man after God’s own heart. Humans are incapable of not sinning, but those who seek God’s heart recognize their sin and repent promptly!) 
• Verse 13 The prophets stopped speaking the truth. This upsets God, and confuses the people. God’s power goes beyond what people say about Him. His will will come to pass irregardless of humanities agreement.
• Verse 14 Notice how powerful God is: all He has to do is use His words. It is His words which are going to destroy the people through Jeremiah’s mouth. God’s words are very powerful.
• Verse 18 shows how God is merciful again by promising not to completely finish off the people.
• Verse 19 God straight up tells the people what the sin is that they committed. This shows God’s justice. He is not just randomly choosing to destroy His people, but it is a direct result of their sin that He has to punish their disobedience.
• Verse 22 God’s power is directly displayed throughout all of creation. This one verse stands in for all of it. None of which we can truly describe or understand.
• Verses 28 and 29 offer a cause and effect. God is simply bringing about true justice, which clearly must be brought forth as a result of failing to show justice and mercy to those who need it the most.
• Verse 30 - 31 What a terrible thing for religious people to do what they do by their own authority. The only proper authority for any spiritual act is God alone. 

As a result of reading this passage, the question becomes what can we do to apply the universal truths found here. Some of the things that seem universal are:

• God’s power and justice are great and beyond understanding or even questioning
• God’s word is very powerful 
• Do we live for ourselves, or for God? What is the motive and authority for our actions?
• Loving God and Loving others is true religion
• Showing mercy to our enemies time and time again is God’s pattern. 

In order to be impacted by these truths, we should:

• Strive to share the love of God with others through sharing the gospel, and by showing love to them through generous acts 
• Constantly remind ourselves of God’s power
• Remind ourselves of God’s burning hot anger toward sin and continually repent/turn back toward God
• Recognize sin’s consequences can prevent us from truly experiencing all of God’s goodness and promises.

In an effort to really be transformed by this passage, let us take a minute and pray where we are that God would change us and allow us to apply these things into our lives. 

God, show us your will and grant us your vision. Let us be changed by the reality that our sin disgusts you and that we are incapable of redeeming ourselves. Apart from the blood of Jesus, we have no way to overcome our evil. Please transform us and allow us to do all things through your Holy Spirit. Let us overcome evil with good, let us show mercy to our enemies and let us show love to all. Give us boldness to share your truth with our friends and families. Lord, we love you and pray this in your Name,

Amen.

A few weeks ago at MCC, our table was one of only two tables on campus near the clock tower. The other table belonged to one of the most active groups on campus: the LGBTQ Alliance. The club represents the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer students and plans activities to promote awareness and advocates for these lifestyles. Having our little Christian Challenge table with our bright blue banner right across from this club’s table must have been very interesting to passers-by. I had several students stop by and ask me about homosexuality shortly before stopping by the other table.

All this to say that I had a few very interesting conversations with people who identified themselves as gay. And I wanted to share a conversation I had a student who told me that he was struggling with giving up on his faith because he was being socially and emotionally shunned by his family, his church and christian friends. Why he felt compelled to tell me this I have to assume is a God thing, but it made me feel very sad. I had no idea what to say, I am just one guy trying to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. So I said I was sorry, and that kind of thing shouldn’t happen. I tried to show compassion without judgement and it is my hope that I will have more opportunities to share the love of Jesus with him.

I ask you to please join me in praying for the lost students at MCC, and maybe this week pray especially for those who are struggling with gender-identity issues. Homosexuality is perhaps the greatest issue students are dealing with, and the only power strong enough to overcome Satan’s lies is the truth and power of the the gospel of Jesus Christ. So please join me in crying out to God for Him to show up in a powerful way on this campus and in this generation.

I am not sure if you have noticed or not, but recently I have made a sincere attempt to begin posting more stuff here at tumblr. I kinda dislike the idea of using a blog post to talk about posting to a blog, but I am pretty excited about this and want to share with you what I am calling my Social Media Campaign. Why am I campaigning? Well, actually that is what excites me.

God has been doing some really neat things through my work with Christian Challenge at Mesa Community College and through the worship activities I have been a part of. Some of these things are big and some of them not too big. I currently make an attempt to send out a monthly prayer letter to my supporters. This letter contains a summary of all the big things that I am doing throughout the month. While it offers a really good overview of what is going, I really want to give people an opportunity to join with me on a more regular basis. So, I have decided to use Social Media (specifically tumblr for now) as a way to share what is going on in the ministry every week. 

Essentially this boils down to a post a day on 7 different topics areas: 

1. Ecclesia Sundays: thoughts about church and it’s importance.
2. Big Dreams Monday: posts like this one which talk about dreams, goals and future plans
3. Evangelism Tuesdays: a recap of the previous week’s evangelism encounters and prayer requests for the following days EV efforts
4. Bible Study Wednesdays: a short thought from the passage for our weekly Wednesday bible study
5. Worship Thoughts Thursday: a video, song or idea as Thursday I lead worship at ASU Challenge
6. Personal Thoughts Fridays: just personal thoughts of a more spiritual nature
7. Odds ‘N Ends Saturdays: answering questions, responding, or other random posts.

I am not sure if I will continue posting everyday, but I do think the posts on these days will be in these general categories. My hope is that I will be able to engage people in the work that God is doing and that people will choose to join in the adventure with me. 

On Wednesdays I spend several hours hanging out at a table in the middle of Mesa Community College (MCC). I do this for several reasons:

1. I might just be a little bit crazy

2. Even though I live in Arizona, I don’t think I’ve spent enough time in the sun

3. I really enjoy having conversations with random students

4. I enjoy talking about spiritual things

5. I am trying to recruit new students for our campus ministry club

But, most importantly: I believe it is the most important thing I can be doing with my time! You see, students at MCC are surrounded by all sorts of influences and evil things which all vie for their time an affections. Most of them are unaware of the spiritual nature of their choices and I believe that is a travesty. If I do not go and sit there on that campus with my banner, and my picture cards, and my smile, and the Holy Spirit living inside me, no on else is. That is not to say that no one else is able, but simply there are no other people who are currently out there. And even if there were 10 full time ministers at MCC, it still wouldn’t be enough to reach the thousands of college students on the campus.

I firmly believe that God wants to impact this generation in a way that will radically impact the world. I also believe that God has called me to take part in this transformation by engaging in simple, but meaningful conversations with students on campus. I am really excited to be on this journey and looking forward to seeing what God is going to do.

I spent most of yesterday on campus at Mesa Community College. I tabled for about 3 and half hours, and then I led our Bible study. It was nice being back on campus after having a month or so off. I really enjoyed the conversations we had with the students, and it was great to hear their questions about scripture as we began our journey into Jeremiah.

I feel like sharing a little bit about what it is that I do with my life, as many of you may not know. I am a missionary. Everyone who answers the call to follow Jesus Christ is to be a missionary to the people who are around them. Well I am a missionary on the college campus. I get the opportunity to serve God by hanging out with college students and sharing Jesus Christ with them. I feel as though I am not very good at it yet, though I know it is what I am supposed to be doing because God called me to do it. I have a desire to help college students see the light of day.

As I chat with young people on the college campuses, I get a real sense of true lostness. In the Christian world, we speak of Lostness as a code-word for not-saved people, or sinners, but when you talk to students you actually can feel how truly lost they are. As I just posted, dictionary.com defines “lost” as:

having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.

I really can see this bewilderment in most of the young people that I talk to. They seem confused and simply have no idea how to find what they are looking for. This is what encourages me in my work. I am not lost. I have been found. I have direction, purpose and a location, and I get to share this with students. It is my hope that as I continue in my work, I will see some lost students be found. It is my hope that God will use me to help find some of these people. That is a little bit about what I do.

I would first of all like to say thank you to all of you who have been regularly supporting us these past few months. It has been a real blessing to see your faithfulness to God and God’s love for us through you. I also appreciate your prayers and I know that without them, the work I am doing would not be as successful as it has been. I just love being able to spend time on the campus with the students and I cannot wait until I have fully raised all my support so I may begin spending all my time there.  

      This picture is of the clock tower at MCC, under which we set up our table. It is so clear to me that God is working, because students will come right up to our table and engage us in spiritual conversations. This one student, named “Mark” has been coming by for several weeks now and is clearly being slowly changed by God’s power. It seems that he has yet to put his faith in Jesus alone as his Lord and Savior, but by talking to him, we can tell that he is moving in that direction. He has been on a long spiritual journey and it’s so awesome to see it happen!

       Another student came by and he shared with me his story of true demonic oppression. He shared how he had come to Christ, yet the attacks did not stop. It was not until God led him to get rid of a variety of occultic books that he finally experienced freedom. It is awesome to see God work, and I ask you to pray that we will continue to see God save these students from lives of sin and darkness!

Will You Pray with Us?

Requests:

• Please continue to pray that God will move in the lives of students, and that I may continue to have opportunities to share the gospel.
• For God to help me reach out to others to grow my support team.

Answers:

• God has shown me his increasing faithfulness as our support team keeps growing! We are so very thankful!
• I have had several opportunities to share my faith this month and I pray for many more.

Upcoming Events

Table Ministry @ MCC

• Every Wednesday from 10am until 2pm.
• Please pray for good conversations!

Worship @ ASU Tempe

• Every Thursday Night at 7:30pm. 

Click here for a pdf of this newsletter

    The Christian Challenge Phoenix Metro Winter Retreat 2011 was a huge hit! We had 80 people come hang out with us up in Pinetop, AZ for the last weekend in January and everyone had a really amazing time. God showed up and moved in the lives of students, and I got to be a part of leading students to worship. It was a really awesome experience and I know God used it to make a difference in student’s lives.

Will You Pray with Us?

Requests:

1. For God to open doors at Mesa Community College so that we can begin a ministry there this Spring.
2. For God to grow my faith and for me to have no fear as I go about raising my support and meeting with potential ministry partners.

Answers:

1. Everyone made it up and down the mountain safely for the winter retreat!
2. God has been continuing to bless us with support in spite of my inability to focus on raising up supporters

Upcoming Events:
All Area Spring Worship 

  February 24th 7:30pm

ASU Tempe Christian Challenge Building

Thank You!

Your prayers and support make a huge difference to me. I know that without you I would not be able to continue doing the ministry God has called me to, so thank you! 

Click Here for a pdf of this newsletter.

January 2011

Hello Dear Friends and Supporters! My prayer is that every one of you had a really special Holiday season and that this letter finds you well and safely home from any trips you may have taken! Sarah and I had a really relaxing winter vacation that involved some time alone together. It was pretty great to get a chance to reflect back on what the past year has brought us and all the blessings God bestowed. I wrote an article on jeffmashaw.com about the things I have been thankful for.

As we gear up for the spring semester I am preparing for another semester at Golden Gate Seminary. I will be taking only one class this semester and am looking forward to the things which God will teach me and ways to apply it to ministry. 

The Metro-Wide Winter Retreat is coming up here pretty quick, also. I am overseeing the music for worship for the weekend. I am pretty excited as I get to work with some really neat people from across the valley and it’s neat to put my musical abilities to good use. We are all very excited to see how God will use this time to impact the lives of students from across the valley.

As we kick off a new year, we believe that God is going to do great things in the lives of students and it’s all possible because people like you support us! Thanks for a great year!

Will You Pray with Us?

Requests:

1. For the Winter Retreat, that all would have safe travel and that every student would have a life-changing encounter with the living God.
2. For God to open doors at Mesa Community College so that we can begin a ministry there this Spring.
3.  For God to grow my faith and for me to have no fear as I go about raising my support and meeting with potential ministry partners.

Answers:

1. I had the opportunity to share Christ with a Muslim student at MCC near the end of the semester. It will be neat to see God continue to work on this campus.
2. My wife, Sarah, and I had the opportunity to enjoy some much needed relaxation time over New Year’s Weekend.

Upcoming Events

MCC Classes Begin: January 15th

ASU Classes Begin: January 18th

Seminary Classes Begin: January 24th

Winter Retreat: January 28th-30th (Facebook Event Page)