Isaiah and Sara

Isaiah 20:1-6

1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it- 2 at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

3 Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, [a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ “

Do you love God enough to go stripped and barefoot for 3 years?

Do you want to do the will of God enough that you would go stripped and barefoot for 3 years?

Isaiah the prophet was hardcore in love with God…

May we be the same.

in Christ,

Isaiah

1 Thessalonians 5:17

pray without ceasing

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is one that convicts me, without ceasing….

This is one of those concepts that blows my mind.  Praying throughout the day, about every situation, about every problem.  My issue is not the praying, its not hard to pray… its the without ceasing.  I’m not one who has an issue praying when times are good.  For some reason it is easy for me to pray when times are good, but I have hard time remembering to pray when times are tough, or during a hard situation.  Maybe I’m the opposite of you, but its something that I struggle with… praying through the hard times, which is ironic, because I know that when I do stop and pray I feel better.

Do you struggle with praying without ceasing?

I pray, that I would pray without ceasing.

Will you do the same?

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 7:9b

If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.

I was reading along in Isaiah, and this verse hit me in the face like a spiritual wrecking ball.  God is speaking through Isaiah to Ahaz, saying that if you stand firm in faith, knowing that I am stronger than the Assyrians – stronger than any army, then you will be firm.  But… if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all… you will fall.

Something about this passage, the exchange between God and Ahaz struck a chord with me.  It is very easy to not be firm in the faith that God is in control.  The past couple weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as we closed on our house.  From being sure we were closing to finding out we needed more money to close, to finding that money, to be worried that we didn’t fix everything well enough for the appraisal to… the list goes on and on.

But God is faithful.  He is firm, He is the Rock.

If we do not stand firm in Him, we will not be firm at all…

Be firm in faith,

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:8

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Being as Isaiah is my namesake, I do like to read through Isaiah often.  I suppose that could be viewed as narcissistic, but since I hope to be half the man of God that Isaiah was, maybe not.  I pray that my life show the meaning of my name, “The Lord is Salvation!”

Here in the text above, Isaiah is standing before the Lord, having just heard the chorus of, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”  Where he was standing shook from the force and power of the voices… so we see an awesome display of the power of God.  But then something weird happens…

God says, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Almighty God is asking who will take his message to the people.

The Lord is asking who will speak words of life to those around us.

God, Creator, Father is asking you… “Whom shall I send?”

May we all like Isaiah say, “Here I am… Send ME!”

in Christ,

Isaiah

It appears to have been quite a while since I posted… I have been blogging, especially during Choir Tour, but not here.  Since Choir Tour finished, Sara and I have been working on closing on a house here in Scottsbluff.  People talk about stress during buying a house, but no description really tells all that you will feel in worry, doubt, joy, and frustration.

That all being said, we are now proud homeowners!  We will be painting this weekend, and then moving in as we have time through the next couple of weeks.  From previous moving experiences, I know that moving is a timely process, even if all the “big” stuff gets moved in one day.

I wanted to finally update and let you all know what’s been going on.  Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of things and updating soon.

Be in prayer for the moving/painting process, and praise Him for all that he’s done.

In Christ,

Isaiah

March 27th-29th – Grand Junction, CO / Parachute, CO

As we left Nebraska behind, we had no idea if we could even make it to Grand Junction.  I25 from Cheyenne, WY to Wellington, CO was still closed as we left, and several areas of I70 were “restricted” and requiring chains.  Despite this knowledge, we had to try, so we were off…

We arrived in Cheyenne, stopping at Burger King (of course), to find that I25 was now open.  So we headed off to Denver, wondering if we would be able to make it through I70.

It turned out, that the part of the road that was closed was actually the best… but Matt was more than up to the task.  He drove and before we knew it, we were into the Rocky Mountains and driving on clear roads.

As we arrived in Grand Junction, we stopped at Clifton to put up the display and change into more proper attire.  Then we were off to Northeast Christian Church for the banquet and first session.  Alex and Matt were part of a skit, and did rather well.  We ate mexican food, met many people and soon were of to housing.

We stayed with the Honnen’s, who have a beautiful 4 story stone house.  We stayed up in the attic, which was converted to accommodate two bedrooms and a bathroom.  Each room was the same, two beds and a reading nook area that was perfect for morning or afternoon reading.  Amazing.  I can’t say enough to thank them for their hospitality in sharing their beautiful house and feeding 4 hungry men.

After a restful night of sleep, we headed back to Clifton Christian Church to have breakfast.  We then taught two workshops, both the same, in which we shared about the college, along with Terry Stien, president of Boise Bible College, and Rocky from Intermountain Christian Scholarships.

We then had some free time, so we went to exploring Grand Junction.

Later that evening we had the second session of the World Mission Crusade, which was actually during the Clifton Christian Church’s Saturday evening service.  It was a great time of worship and David Butts had a good message.

In the morning we had a great breakfast and headed off to Parachute, Colorado where Merle was to preach and Matt was to do a special.  We met the congregation of the Grand Valley Christian Church and enjoyed a good time of fellowship and some great chili.

Full and ready to be home, we headed back to Nebraska.  The ride back was uneventful, but enjoyable, and we had many laughs.  That’s all I’m saying .

We had a wonderful time at the World Mission Crusade and with the church in Parachute, and thanks to everyone who made it possible.

in Christ,

Isaiah

March 20th-22nd

Dave Robinson, Kenny Pester and I drive down the interstate on our way to Lewistown Montana, telling stories, but mostly Kenny and I listen to Dave tell stories about his driving escapades.

We arrive in Lewistown to find out we’ll be doing a 15 minute talk on the college and Dave and I each are going to be doing a Workshop – sweet!

Sharla Steele met us at Lewistown and the 4 of us began the weekend, meeting many youth from all over Montana.

Arron Chambers was the main speaker.  He spoke on Remember Who You Are, which, incidentally, is also the title of his book “Remember Who You Are.”  Crazy, huh?  Arron’s messages were direct, targeted and powerful.

My workshop was on Evangelism and Youth.  Wooh.  I showed a video of Penn, from Penn and Teller, talking about a man who gave him a Bible.  If you haven’t seen the video, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM

Representatives from Boise Bible College and Ozark Christian College were also there for the rally.  All of the reps were nice and we got a long well.  There seemed to be an understanding that though we may appear to be “competing” schools, we aren’t really… each school has a different focus and each is expanding the Kingdom of God.

All in all the rally was a success (I think), and I enjoyed the trip.  I even learned about the intricacies of Walleyball…

in Christ,

Isaiah

On March 14th, Kyle, Kaylin, Julie, Val and I traveled to Norton Kansas to visit the Norton Christian Church and the youth minister, Mike Sander.

Sunday morning, I was able to teach a lesson titled, “Who is God?” that dealt with how we view God, and comparing Him to ourselves.  Each student wrote down aspects of themselves and then compared them to the description of God in Isaiah 40.

God won.

I then was able to share a bit about the college, then went straight to helping with the Children’s Church there.  After Church, we went to the “Rock” youth center in Norton for pizza and college discussion with high school students, which went well.

Then we were off to Concordia, Kansas…

Along the way we went through several towns with odd names… the oddest we found on the map was Men, Kansas.  Nice.

Upon arriving at Concordia, we went to the First Christian Church to help set up for the VBS we were to help with.

After a good night’s rest, we started VBS.  The program we went through was called Studio Go Game Show, which talked about how God called people to Go and do something, such as Go Lead, Go Tell, etc.

I was the “game show host” named Wade Winalot, and had a terribly ridiculous wig… the kids loved telling me how bad my hair was and that I should take off the wig.  That last sentence sounds like they were mean… but they weren’t… sniff.

Basically we would have an introduction time, with songs and a few game show games, then head off to 4 different stations to learn about the Bible story of the morning, then a closing show with Wade Winalot, Coach Armstrong (Kyle) and Professor Wordsmart (Julie).  Then we’d have lunch and start all over again in the afternoon.

It was a great program, and we had a lot of fun.

On Wednesday, we had the final session and then headed back to Scottsbluff.  We arrived Wednesday evening, and I began to prepare my next trip, which was to Lewistown, Montana… which will be the next post.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us along the way, with food, shelter and both of the Church’s – Norton Christian Church and First Christian Church in Concordia.  Special thanks to Mike Sander and Crystal Paredes for working with us to come down and for allowing us to serve beside them.

in Christ,

Isaiah

Psalm 113

1 Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD! 2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised! 4 The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.  Praise the LORD! - (ESV)

Throughout this day I’ve seen moments when I need to give God praise…

Take some time to stop and praise the one who set the sun in motion, who is high above the heavens and who is always in control…

Praise the Lord!

in Christ,

Isaiah

Last Wednesday I traveled to Bayard, Nebraska to visit the youth of the Bayard Christian Church.  I was there to teach a lesson, share about the college and hurt Chris, er… I mean to lead some games.

The best part about visiting Bayard was sharing stories from our time at SCC.  Chris, the Youth Minister, was my roommate in college.  I was able to share my story, of how Chris helped me get out of my shell, and some funny stories about waking up.  One involved a metal hanger, yelling Chris’ name and well… I think you can figure out what happened.

After the lesson and story, we played various games of tag.  I love tag – it requires no extra supplies… just youth and room to run.  We played varitions of Everyone’s IT, one of which was called Ninja Tag (my favorite).  In Ninja tag, you are allowed to be tagged three times, but each time you are tagged, you have to cover the wound with one of your hands.  Thus, after 2 times, you’re relegated to a purely defensive stance, but it is fun.

We also played a version called Rooster tag, in which you are allowed to only stand on one leg, and are only tagged out when the leg you are holding up touches the ground.  This version ended rather quickly, mostly because of a painful incident involving Garrett’s knee and Chris’ back.  I tried not to laugh.  Really!

Anyway, it was a fun trip to Bayard and I enjoyed visiting with the students.  So, now I pose a question:

What’s your funniest youth group story?

in Christ,

Isaiah