coincidental

I believe in the sovereignty of God. That makes the coincidental seem less of a coincidence! Last Tuesday Guillermo and I engaged in an evangelistic conversation with a freshman at Wash U. Turns out that her hometown is Chandler, AZ and that we graduated from the same high school.

Coincidence? I think not.

Last Wednesday I sent her a quick email to thank her for sharing her thoughts with us. She had mentioned that she'd be traveling to Uganda this summer to do economic development work with an NGOShe mentioned that she would be spending two months in Uganda this summer doing economic development work with an NGO. In my email I included a Bible verse about God's heart for justice and told her that I will continue to pray for her trip. I also offered to meet up with her if she wanted to look at Scripture that specifically outlines God's desire for us to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor.

She responded within five minutes and asked if we could meet for lunch. We're getting together tomorrow and I encouraged her to invite her friends. I haven't decided what passage we'll look at, but I'm leaning towards the story of Jesus healing the leper in Mark 1.

Yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God.

teaser

I just returned to St. Louis from sunny Santa Barbara where I was visiting Paul. We have some news to share, but you'll have to wait for the release of my April e-letter to get the details...

scattering seeds

I am learning to love our call to scatter seeds. We don't know which ones will take root and flourish. We don't know which ones will land on rocky soil. We don't get to micromanage the outcome. We do get to learn much along the way and discover the places where God has already been at work in peoples' lives. We get to communicate the Gospel story in ways that intersect with the stories of the people we are talking with.

I met a student two weeks ago at Wash U who was very open to sharing his thoughts on spirituality. He grew up Lutheran, but now hesitates to associate himself with any one faith tradition. "Organized religion just creates an 'us' and 'them' mentality that is destructive. Besides, as long as people are believing in something I think that all roads lead to the same God," he said to me. I gently challenged his assumption by suggesting that such a view takes as much faith as believing in the exclusivity of Jesus as the way to God. He paused for a moment and then agreed. "I never thought of that," he conceded. I asked if he would be interested in studying Scripture with a small group of curious thinkers and I told him that I thought his perspective would really add to our discussion. He said yes.

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let them hear.
Matthew 13:8-9

be faithful

This is the second year that I've attended an Ash Wednesday Mass at a local Catholic church. Just like last year I was struck by the words that the priest spoke as he marked my forehead with a smudge of ash: turn from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.

Being faithful to the Gospel is taking on new meaning for me as I devote more of my schedule to evangelism on campus. Today I had lunch with a non-Christian student and we talked about his spiritual background and some of the questions he has about the Bible. I asked if he would like to meet with me over lunch for four weeks after Spring Break to look at some passages in Mark and talk about what we see the text saying about Jesus. He agreed. Please pray that his eyes would be opened to the hope that we have through Jesus as we study small sections of Mark's Gospel together.

On Friday afternoon I will be striking up conversations with strangers on campus. Three of my student leaders will be joining me and we're excited about the chance to practice some of what we learned during an evangelism training last weekend. Please pray that Jesus would give us boldness as we share his story and that we would encounter people who are truly seeking.

the doctor will see you now

Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm hear inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually fit." Mark 2:17 from The Message

This is really good news and as a person willing to admit my sickness I qualify! No insurance needed.

Urbana is coming

Check it out.

light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5 TNIV

Urbana is still several months away, but in preparation for my role as part of the Scripture teaching team I am trying to spend as much time in the first four chapters of John's Gospel between now and December 27. I decided that I will meditate on the same 4-5 verses for a week and then move on to the next section. My roommate and I did that together this morning in an attempt to practice spiritual discipline in community. It was so encouraging and I am looking forward to more as we continue.

I was struck by the truth that the beginning of each of our stories is not the actual beginning. God is the beginning. That gives me a lot of hope!