Radical or Biblical?

I've been thinking a lot lately and I have come to the conclusion that many American Christians(including myself) misunderstand what a Biblical Christian really looks like. I feel as if certain acts of devotion such as stopping on the side of the road to give food to a homeless man, or sharing the gospel with a waiter or waitress, or giving away one's possessions, or blessing those who persecute you, or praising God in the midst of a severe trial, or suffering intense persecution because of one's faith, or giving one's life to overseas missions, or falling upon your knees at a church service while others are standing, or how about this one....martyrdom(this list could go on and on), are viewed as "radical Christianity". These acts of devotion and service are in essence extremely biblical, not necessarily radical. Now don't get me wrong, to the world, are lifestyle of sacrfice and surrender will appear "radical" or odd, this should be expected (1 Corinthians 2:14). However, as believers we must start viewing these type of actions as biblical.

In today's postmodern feel good culture that we live in, many so called followers of Christ exalt biblical acts of obedience to be "radical" or "out there" acts of devotion toward God. So many people(including myself) have succumbed to comfortable Christianity and are failing to be true zealots for Jesus Christ. I am ready to get back to biblical christian living. I think we need to call a spade a spade and start taking the Word of God at face value and obeying it, no matter who thinks it is "radical" or not. As a team, let's live biblical christian lifestyles through the power of the Holy Spirit to make God's name famous all across the world!

Update on our Family

Hi Team,

We wanted to give you a brief update on our family. Our precious little one, Abigail Grace, is growing rapidly and is approaching 20 pounds! Erica measured her a few days ago to be 27 inches long. Needless to say, we have been blessed with a healthy and extremely happy baby. Abigail Grace smiles so much and makes us laugh all the time. Please be praying for God to prepare Abigail Grace for His salvation.

On another note, we are trying to get things together in preparation for our move to the area some time this summer. Please keep praying that God will increase our faith and that He will provide for us. One of my mentor's, a local Pastor in Lynchburg, Pastor Mike Smith, recently said "Christians trust God with their eternal destiny but have a difficult time trusting him with their finances, relationships, etc.". This fact spoke directly to my heart and convicted me. I don't know about you, but I have a difficult time trusting God with the little things. After all, He is God and I am not. He is big and I am small. He is the creator and I am the created. He has proven Himself faithful throughout my entire life and He wont' stop now. Hallelujah!

We have a busy couple of weeks in front of us as a family. Erica and Abigail are traveling to Seattle to visit Erica's family. I will deeply miss them! I am starting a new semester of classes and am preaching next week and Easter Sunday at a Youth/College Service at a near by local church. Please be praying for safe travel for my two princess's and for time management on my behalf as I balance school work and sermon prep over the next two weeks. Rejoice this week in the sacred truth that "God made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that in Him we could become the righteousness of God."-2 Corinthians 5:21

To God be the glory great things he has done! Here are some recent pictures of our sweet baby and my beautiful wife!

The Prerequisite to Biblical Community

We have heard testimonies over the past few weeks of how God is working within the church planting team. These testimonies and praise reports bring joy to our hearts and encourage us deeply. During this preparation stage, God is equipping our team to be effective. Erica, Abigail, and I, are waiting in anticipation to be a part of what God has started.

On another note, I currently am working as an Academic Advisor for Liberty's University's Distance Learning Program. As an advisor, we are held responsible for placing student's in to the correct classes according to their specific program. For example, before Religion student's can take upper level Bible classes, they must take the lower level prerequisites in order to prepare for the upper level classes. Without the fundamental knowledge gleaned from lower level prerequisite classes, students are not able to successfully complete upper level courses. That just makes sense.

As a team, I long for us to live in biblical community. However, in order for us to experience the Biblical community that God desires for us to experience, we must individually meet the prerequisite. So you ask: What is the prerequisite? 1 John 1:7 says "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another." Before we can live in harmony with each other, love each other, spur one another on toward love and good deeds(Hebrews 10:24), consider each other better than ourself (Philippians 2:3), we must individually"walk in the light". In other words, we must be right vertically before we are right horizontally. If I am living in sin and not "walking in the light", it affects the entire team's unity. Our personal relationship with Jesus must be pure and growing in order for our team to experience the beauty of biblical community. Let us all make the choice to resist sin and live holy and pure lives before God through the power of the Holy Spirit, EVEN WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING. As a team, let's do this together for the honor of God and beautiful biblical community will be the overflow.