Shining in Splendor

Hey everyone!

Thanks again for everything you all do. Some support me financially, some pray for me more than I ever deserve, some are the most loyal friends I could ever ask or pray for, most of you are all of the above. Whatever that may be for you, I'm grateful and I wish I could express that in words.

The reason that I chose Shining in Splendor for the title of this is because the thing that has struck me the most about God this week is simply his glory. Or perhaps not so simply, because we throw the terms "glory of God" or "glory to God" or whatever around so loosely that it's almost lost it's meaning. Do we realize that when that word comes out of our mouths we are using a word that means the entire weight of all God's attributes combined into one word. This "glory" isn't just a trendy Christian word, it is indescribable, unfathomable, it's mind-blowing. We're going through a book with the students called Experiencing Christ Within by Dwight Edwards and this week is chapter 2 "First Things First: A Reputation at Stake" and it's talking at length about the glory of God. The main theme of the chapter is that the number one thing that God cares about the most is his own glory. This is summed up when Edwards says "The main point of our spirituality according to the Bible, is the furthering of God's glory, not the fixing of our lives. In other words, God does not exist for us; we exist for him." Before jumping into that he takes the time to go through "so what exactly is God's glory? How does the Bible portray it?" And he writes "For your meditation on those questions, choose some of the following passages and read them with an open mind and heart. Then record your thoughts in the space provided. (You may want to specifically look for how God's glory is manifested in each case.) Exodus 24:15-17; 33:18-23; 40:34-38; Numbers 14:20-24; Deuteronomy 4:34-38; 2 Chronicles 7:1-3; Psalm 29:1-9; Isaiah 40:5; Ezekiel 1:25-28; 39:21-24; 43:1-5; Habakkuk 3:3-6." Anyway, I would encourage you to do this on your own time but I did this yesterday while playing the song by Matt Papa that's below on repeat. It's a really well written and inspirational song about God's glory and includes a clip of a John Piper sermon on God's glory at the end of the song. The Holy Spirit used the combination of all of these things to just make the word of God come alive in my heart and I had the clearest picture of God's glory that I've ever had in my life. I want to share with you what I wrote down as I went through each of these passages one by one.

"The Lord appeared and His glory was consuming, devouring. His goodness, His graciousness, His mercy and compassion ARE His glory. The fullness of them can't be seen by men without killing them. The glory of the Lord is guiding and filling. Those who follow Him in a spirit of faith will be ushered into His glory. His glory is beyond compare. It is displayed with trials, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand and outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror. Seeing His glory is a privilege! It is characterized by a consuming fire. It invokes worship. He is worthy of glory. We have only seen a shadow, but His glory will be revealed and we will experience it's fullness together when we see him face to face. His glory has no beginning and no end, it is an endless expanse. Our response is to fall on our face."

Third Day describes well my experience yesterday in their song "Show Me Your Glory" as they write "I caught a glimpse of Your splendor, in the corner of my eye. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It was like a flash of lightning, reflected off the sky. And I know, I'll never be the same." I did indeed catch a glimpse. Anyway, I want to tell you a little bit of what happened this week in terms of the project now that you have an idea of what's been going on in my heart. The first thing worth noting is that we're finally on a normal, somewhat predictable schedule. I know when the students will be working, what project stuff they'll have when they are off of work, and I know what staff stuff I have going on while the students are working each day of the week. This is nice, because I can plan for times to talk with friends and family, and write blog posts, and just in general know when I'm going to have free time. Speaking of free time, a nice part of being here as staff is there's definitely a little bit more of it than when I was here as a student.

Anyway, we had our second outreach this past weekend on Saturday night and it was interesting to say the least. The Saturday night crowd downtown is definitely different than the Sunday afternoon crowd (when we did our first outreach). We went down there with these big boards that had questions on them such as "Who is God?" or "Who is Jesus?" or "What is sin?" and we had sharpies and just wanted the people of Santa Cruz to write down that they honestly thought than then dialogue with us about it if they felt comfortable doing so. It was really interesting to see the mix of answers we got, we're definitely not in the Bible belt anymore. My group had a pretty frustrating time, I can't remember being more discouraged after an outreach in a long time. We were harassed by drunk homeless people, one of whom we had to have arrested because he wouldn't leave us alone. These certainly distracted from our other conversations we were trying to have, and one girl believed in multiple truths "whatever your truth is is true for you." She asked what I believed and I told her I believed there was one absolute truth and it was found in the Bible and she went on a rant about how could we believe in a book that says to kill all homosexuals and that abusing your wife is okay (the Bible doesn't actually say either of these things). Some groups fared better than we did but as a general rule we all had a very clear picture by the end of the night just how lost and dark this place is. This isn't bad because it developed compassion in our hearts. Matthew 9:36 says that when Jesus saw the crowds "He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." This is pretty much what happened during our outreach. 

The other big thing that happened was our Men's night. This was probably my favorite night of the project so far. We had a volleyball tournament by our rooms, we learned about authentic manhood, and we had a feast. This was probably one of the best meals I've had in my life. As far as the content on manhood we used an acronym R.E.A.L. men Reject Passivity, Expect God's Reward, Accept Responsibility, and Lead Courageously. I remember this being very life changing material for me as a guy on project two summers ago and was definitely excited to share with the guys. I got to speak on rejecting passivity. This was one of three talks I got to give over the course of the past week, by far the most speaking in front of people that I've ever done. On Monday night I gave my testimony in front of the project, and any guests that they had brought from work. On Friday night I gave a 45 minute training on how to lead a small group Bible study, and on Sunday night I spoke on rejecting passivity. I actually really enjoyed those opportunities, especially the manhood talk. Anyway, this week has been a blast and man night was a huge success, we're looking forward to another great week that you'll get to hear about sometime next week. It's crazy how fast the project is blowing by as we're selecting leadership to take our place next week. Pray for those decisions as they are big ones. Thanks again for everything you do! Prayer requests below.

- Pray for me to continue to find rest in my Savior, to know him more and better each day and overflow the fruit of the Spirit.

- Pray for God to raise up leaders among the students to take our place when we're gone. This is an especially important one this week as we make those decisions this coming Monday. Each room will need an action group leader, each servant team will need two leaders, and there will be 4 directors and assistant directors who will lead the project as a whole.

- Pray specifically for Victor, Damon, Branson, Sam, and Greg as these will be the guys in my action group this summer that I'll be focused on pouring my life into. Pray that God rocks their world this summer like he rocked mine when I was a student on this project.

- Pray for those in Santa Cruz who don't know Christ, pray that God would go before us and prepare their hearts to hear the message of his unfailing love for them, what he did for them on the cross, and his desire to have a relationship with them.

- Pray for continued unity among the staff team, and for that to be contagious to the students that they would really work as one for the summer especially once the staff have left.

- Pray again for Nichole. I'm giving her a Bible today and I'm praying it helps her a lot. She's still pretty confused about a lot of things and is leaving for Germany in August to be a nanny for a year, which she's both excited and nervous about.

View out the window from where I ate lunch yesterday!