I have a friend that is in the process of adopting two very young boys (below) out of Haiti that needs our help. There are many children that are in the very long process of adoption through the system and we are trying to get these kids into the hands of their parents as quick as possible. Please read below and thank you for your help.
Please circulate this petition immediately for "US Should Issue Visas to Bring Already-Adopted Children out of Haiti Now!" to as many people as possible. We are approaching 1000 signatures - the more we gather, the stronger the statement. The signatures are for use with the State Department and US Congresspersons, as a tool to push for action. A pdf of the list of signatures will be made available to any credible organization who requests it for this purpose. Should you need a copy of this petition and signatures, please email me for the latest copy. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/visasforadoptedhaitianchildren/
About a month ago I was reading a book by a favorite author of mine called Under Cover. It was a Monday morning and I was thinking how my generation doesn't understand what it means to be under authority. Thoughts rolled through my mind as I drew closer to God asking for Him to give me a deeper revelation of what it means to be under authority.
As I read page after page, I recalled that John Bevere lived in Colorado Springs with his family. I looked at the back of the book describing who Mr. Bevere was and I asked God, can I play golf with him?
Three days later I was helping my wife get ready for work when I see that I had a missed call from a friend. It was 8:36 when I saw my phone so I returned his call immediately. When my friend picked up he said to me, "Do you want to play golf with me and John Bevere this morning at 8:53". My stomach dropped because this was the exact prayer that I prayed on Monday morning yet it was in 17 minutes and I was supposed to work at ten. I thought for a second, looked at my wife and just decided to take a leap of faith and commit.
I have no idea how I did it but somehow I got ready, covered my shift and got to the tee box at 8:56am after they had just hit. I ran up to the tee, grabbed a club, asked God to let me hit it down the middle and wham it went straight down the middle.
To make a long story short, God is amazing! The prayer that he answered was the start of a new season of my life. John said that I needed to get in touch with his son Addison who was the manager of his ministry called Messenger International (www.messengerinternational.org). Mr. Bevere said they were hiring someone in their church relations department; I immediately went after the opportunity.
Two interviews later, Erin and I decided to take another leap of faith and accept the position at Messenger International. I will be assigned to a couple thousand churches where I will have the privilege to speak with men of God all day long as well as occasionally travel with Mr. Bevere further down the road.
I am overwhelmed at the Lords blessings in this season of my life and I sit back and question, why do I every doubt? God always comes through, no matter if it is in the beginning or if it is in the 11th hour. God is amazing and never changing.
The tidal wave of relativism that has swept through our culture has created a lot of victims. It says, "Truth is relative, so don't cram your opinion down my throat."
The problem is, Jesus wasn't a relativist and it is impossible to be his follower and to have this easy-come, easy-go view of truth. When you're on an airplane, it has a flight plan that takes you a certain way into the airport. The pilot doesn't have the luxury of multiple options. And when Jesus said, "No man comes unto the Father but by me," he didn't leave the door open to other options.
Following Jesus isn't for everyone, but if it's a way that you have found hope (and if you haven't, that's fine, please just be honest about it), then passivity and relativism isn't an option for you. Jesus said: "Go into all the world and make disciples." We who follow him need to do what he said.
That's the missionary imperative. Past generations understood it, but it seems that few young Christians today do. They don't have a sense of urgency, they don't seem to grasp the world's pain or it's need for hope. The generational ethos is that everything is optional. And I'm not saying they have to change, I'm just saying, "Don't call yourself a Jesus-follower when you're not at least prepared to do what he asked his disciples to do."
Jesus said, "if you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth." I guess that means you're either in or you're out. I've devoted my life to finding and sending those who are all-in. If you're one, I'll gladly serve you in this way. People around the world are much needier than we here in this rich suburban bubble called America. It's not complicated, we need to go to where they are and speak the language of their heart.
Katie Rowland captured our team's experience in Mozambique living out this imperative in this excellent video.
I just got off the phone with my mother and my heart is grieved.
On Friday, Jennifer Stark was brutally murdered by her boyfriend of 3 years. Jennifer was a court reporter in the San Diego Court system with my mother and is survived by two children. I want to save you some of the horrific details but I would like anyone reading this to pray for Sam and Cassi Stark. Sam (15 years old) walked in to find his mother dead on the floor.
Please pray against the spirit of fear for my mother who remembers driving her home from lunch on friday and for these precious little children.
I am a man full of passion. It burns within me... to the very core of my being. Those who know me well, know that when I go after something- I go after it with all of my heart.
When I heard about this man trip, something sparked within me and I knew that I had to go. I approached my wife about it and she agreed. Immediately I was in.
There is something unexplainable about being in the wilderness and seeking God with other men. Questions streamed through our minds while we hiked the trails- huge boulders all around, valleys that ran for miles. For some, this trip meant clarity for the future; for some, physical healing; and for others it meant a recharge of the spirit. I have concluded that men of God cannot live without each other; we all go through similar things in life just at different times.
There is something in a man that can only be found with other men. God created men to be warriors, not passive or quiet men, but warriors. Now I know that looks different in the 21st century and in every man, but that is who we are at the very core. I believe that sometimes men just have to be with other men to recharge that warrior on the inside.
Some may think that it sounds very barbaric, I say look again. Christ called men to love their wives like Christ loved the church. That means I have to give everything to pursue my wife, to make her feel like the queen she is, to sweep her off her feet and to bring the smile to her face that was there when I said, 'I do'.
The answer is Jesus. We all have a common bond- we love Jesus with all of our hearts. We were all broken vessels who have screwed up and have forsaken our first love at times, yet we all want to come back to Him.
The trip began with an amazing miracle. One of our guys coming from Boston began to feel weak. Most of us went to bed around one am but Jason couldn't help but fear what he was feeling; altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is something that is very common but can be very dangerous for those that get it. The only cure is to seek lower elevation.
When I woke up, Jason was bundled on the chair and he said that he didn't sleep at all the night before. He had diarrhea and all that was in his mind was going down the mountain because he was sick.
We all new that we were on this trip for a reason so we wouldn't settle for man's cures for altitude sickness; we decided to consult our Heavenly Father who created the forest we were in. As we prayed over Jason with confidence and power, a different presence fell upon him. He shot up after the prayer and said that he was healed. We all agreed with him and our climb began from 8000 feet to 9500 feet.
In three days, I along with 6 other men will embark on a 26 mile journey seeking to find more of our hearts. We plan to be intentional, we plan to challenge and we plan to uncover dreams. The trail is called Lost Creek.
Lost Creek is a fitting name because I believe that the true role of a man has been lost in our society. We as men have been formed by a society that emasculates and doesn't allow men to be men. If boys are to rambunctious in class at a young age it couldn't be because they just want to run, play and be who God created them to be; they must be A.D.D. with something terribly wrong with them.
Does being a man mean that you are a caveman, a dominator, a prideful arrogant man; absolutely not. Do I know all the answers, absolutely not, that is why I am seeking answers.
I believe that every man has a warrior spirit within them. I believe that there is adventure deep in the heart of every man that wants to find the unknown.
I am a married man of over a year, a man expecting child in two months and I ponder in my heart; what does it mean to be a man? The pressures of life say that a man must provide for his family. The Word of God for that matter says that a man must provide for his family. How can you provide for your family and still live out the dreams that are within your heart?
This has been a huge thought on my heart. My heart for evangelism, my heart for lost souls, my heart for a generation? How can I possibly live out the desires of my heart and provide for my family? Am I supposed to just suck it up and go get a nine to five in something that I hate just to put food on the table. I would say that there are seasons of that and sometimes there are sacrifices in life that just have to happen. But how does the warrior spirit of a man not be put out? How does a man stay a man that will love his wife with everything he has, keep adventure on the horizon and life pouring into the family? How does a man stay a man in our society?
God says that the man is the head of the household. Are men in our society that right now? Are we leading our wives and our families in a way worthy of the Lord? So many questions to ponder but are we doing this? I know that I fail all the time. I know that I can feel the pull of society for comfort and security. I know that I can feel the fear that flows from our media and our government. Shouldn't we all just stay in a bubble, buy extra food from the store because the world is coming to an end. When does a man say enough is enough and become to true priest of his home?
In three days I plan to immerse myself in the Rocky Mountains. I plan to seek the Lord in ways that I haven't before. Now I have a wife and a child that are affected by my every action, I plan to seek His ways, not my ways.
The world says to fear, the news says be afraid, the economy is horrible. What does God say? Oswald Chambers hits the nail on the head with this devotional!
May 23, 2009
Our Careful Unbelief
. . . do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on -Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, "Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?" And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
". . . do not worry about your life . . . ." Don't take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No- "the cares of this world" (MatthewMatthew 13:22 ). It is always our little worries. We say, "I will not trust when I cannot see"- and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
What proceeded for the next three months after we found out we were pregnant was anything but predictable for me. I knew that the Lord was doing something but I didn't know that it was going to be this hard for Erin or me.
Erin through the next three months became very sick nearly every single day. She couldn't keep down any vitamins or food at some points. I then began to realize a taste of what it was going to mean to be a parent, dying to self.
Erin was in a struggle for support and it was now my time to serve her in ways that I have never done before. My spirit was willing but my flesh was weak and this was just the beginning of the rest of my life.
As we hit the three month mark something just seemed to switch in Erin's body, no more morning, noon or evening sickness. Praise the Lord! It was a time of rejoicing because Erin could finally enjoy her pregnancy.
Erin thought it was a girl, I was convince that it was a boy, but then I started doubting because of the name for a girl that we had picked. Elliana means God has answered prayer; Erin asked on New Years Eve for a baby. Wow, I really thought that it was going to be a boy, actually I thought we might be having twins even though it was not in the family line.
We went into the doctor for a check up and when he began to examine Erin's stomach he said, "You are larger than normal for this stage of the game, the last time that I said that a woman had twins." I began to rejoice and laugh all at the same time. He then proceeded to tell us that he wanted to take an ultra sound.
We went into the room and something began to alarm him. Erin and I didn't really know how to take the news because we had an extremely healthy baby and something that the doctor didn't quite like. He sent us to another room for a more in-depth ultra sound.
When we went in the room, the nurse began to perform the ultra sound and the pictures were amazing. They were so in depth and the baby was moving around like crazy. I began to cry because it was the first real moment that I knew that I was going to be a dad. The nurse scrolled over an area and I said, is that his winki, IT'S A BOY I yelled as I jumped around the room crying and laughing all at once. I was so pumped!
Erin lay on her back in amazement as the nurse began to show us why the doctor was concerned. Erin had a cyst the size of a softball right next to the uterus. It looked as though we had twins but one chamber twice the size of our child had only fluid.
The doctor gave us the amazing news of us having a boy but the shocking news that he needed to operate as soon as possible. We decided to operate three days from that point.
The morning of the operation Erin and I were covered with the peace of God. I walked her in the room trying to be as strong as possible but on the inside crying out to God to take care of my wife and baby. Erin was amazing. We were able to pray with the doctor and nurses before they took her in and the surgery went as good as it possibly could. The doctor made four small cuts into her stomach and no ovary or tube was touched. Erin and the baby recovered very well!
We have concluded on the name. Joshua was always going to be the first name of our boy but because I felt as though the cyst was Goliath and David conquered Goliath, our baby boy will be named Joshua David Mast.
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