Missionaries on the CU campus Jeremiah 29

God speak this word that you gave Jeremiah to me and to CU IV!
Send us to be missionaries on the CU campus!

Jeremiah 29
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving (... people of Israel in exile):

⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

God what does it look like for me to enter back in as a part of CU in order to lead my students in their lives as college students in the culture of CU?

I think CU is an interesting place where students in IV somewhat feel like they are in exile in a strange culture but also they are chasing after dreams of success. 

God I pray that you would empower us to be missionaries on this CU campus. Give us eyes to see this place as our mission field. 
Give us hearts of love and compassion for those on campus. 
I pray that we would have hope that we might bless and renew the campus!

Boulder and CU are yours too God! And you love the people in this city and on this campus. Let us seek the welfare of this city! Let us pray for CU. God help us to leave a legacy here!
Amen

Paul's calling in God. What is mine?

With my friend Jonathan I have been studying 1 Timothy and letting God speak to us as Paul spoke to Timothy as a young man of God leading others. Now we are studying a few verses at a time in an intensive focused study. 

I am excited, because I know there is so much even in the first 2 verses. 

1 Timothy 1:1-2

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

² To Timothy, my true child in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul has such a clear understanding of who he is. His calling and identity are wrapped up in who God is and who God made him and called him to be. I believe he is apostle not as a title but as a calling. That is who God commanded him and enabled him to be from the inside out. Being an apostle is not a specific responsibility to a certain group of people, a certain church or a certain set of tasks. God gave and even commanded Paul with a mission an identity. 

God I want to meditate on who you are. 

Out of who you are I say I will go send me. 

Who are you calling me to be? 

What will define my life? 

Let it be all only for you!

Amen

God's promise: I will be with you.

I find this verse both scary and encouraging!

Isaiah 43:2 NIV

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Often as Christians and people we just want things to go well and be easy. We want to see quick results and we want to avoid pain. Sometimes we think God should or promised to give us this. But the reality is Jesus promises us that we would face hard times and suffering and persecution. 

The real promise God gives is that through the hard times: He will be with us. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you

In this life we will face rough waters and fires. We will be afraid, we will be challenged. But God promises to be with us and protect us. I believe this is a spiritual protection, because physically we do get harmed. But if our hope is in God and our home is eternity with God in heaven then we have nothing to lose. Nothing can harm us from our eternal destiny. Nobody can snatch us out of our place as sons and daughters of the living God. 

So my prayer is: God help me to remember and trust your promise to be with me in the calm and rough waters. Help me to believe you will keep me from getting burned though I walk through the flames. Set my eyes on Jesus and the life you give me in Him!

Amen

Even through the flood waters God has been with me.

Devotional: We are not home yet: Isaiah 25

Devotion for: Tuesday November 5

Devotion By: Daniel Harrison called by God to be an evangelist!

OPENING:  An appropriate beginning to each day is to remember your baptism and say the words “In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY: Isaiah 25:7,8: 7On this mountain he will destroy
 the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; 8  he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

A BRIEF THOUGHT ABOUT THE LESSON: For today we live in a land that is not our home, we live amongst a people who do not follow God and we are in disgrace. In the US we may forget this but daily those who follow Christ face persecution for the name of Christ. Perhaps that day is not as far away as we think. Even now we all face the pain and suffering of this world. Our hope is that the Lord’s day is coming the future and home we long for in God. In Isaiah here it talks about the mountain or the place where we will be with God and God will make all things right. God will take away the disgrace and persecution from his people who stood for Christ. God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes acknowledging the pain we have been through allowing us to enter our home with him where we will be without sorrow.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:  Do we think about the suffering and disgrace our brothers and sisters in Christ face everyday around the world? How can we be faithful with the freedom we have to worship God perhaps by encouraging and praying for our brothers and sisters around the world? Are we setting our hopes in this world or in our real home with God?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a hope and a future. May our whole lives bring praise to you. Amen. (Ephesians 1:11-12)

A BLESSING TO GIVE: May you be given the wisdom and understanding that come from the Holy Spirit, so that you grow to know God better. (Ephesians 1:17)

MEALTIME PRAYER: Lord, as we await our home in heaven, bless our home on earth. As you fill our stomachs with food, please fill our hearts with faith. Amen. 

The love of Christ is so immensely rich!

This is my prayer for myself as Paul prayed for the Saints in Ephesus for i too am discouraged:

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (Ephesians 3:16)

God I feel so weak and selfish on my own - so I ask for our help even to remember you even to want to seek you. I trust in your power to strengthen me!

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV)

Christ dwell in me on my heart and pour out from there to flood my life, my routines, my action as, my words, my thoughts and my desires would be life giving and satisfying in you Christ! But as this prayer says let me not focus on the outward too fast or depend on my own strength. It's amazing how I much I need you God even to have the beginning of roots and understanding to fathom the immeasurable riches and love of Christ. Let Christ and the knowledge of Christs abundance fill me that I need nothing else!

Amen

Our Calling: Make Disciples

Jesus last command:

Matthew 28

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

They worshiped him for the first time!

Yet some doubted. Did they continue to doubt. They doubted when they saw the risen Christ. How much more does it make sense that we doubt. Jesus helped some to be convinced, but here doesn’t seem worried that some doubt.

Instead Jesus focuses on the mission.

Out of the authority the Father has given Jesus over all the earth he sends us to invite. Instead of commanding all the earth to obey, he allows us to participate in his work and kingdom. Working through us comes at a cost.

I have come to believe this is the defining calling for us as followers of Jesus! We are called to make disciples of all nations. I think this means an increasing discipleship in our own lives and then an outward piece of evangelism: making other disciples.

This comes by preaching the Word of God and the good news of Jesus to ourselves and others everyday. For we each daily need a reminder. For others they may not have the chance to hear the gospel unless we preach it. Romans 10

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f]

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

These two verses sum up well my life and calling. This is why I do InterVarsity staff life.

This is my prayer that InterVarsity and our community would be defined by this purpose. Often Christian community is defined more by focusing inward rather than outward, but I think it is out of fear rather than health. God make us a people like Jesus who live out all of your commands. Let us be a people who make disciples of all nations. Guide and grow me to do this more and more out of love and your calling God.

Amen

Why is this what matters: faith working through love?

In my young adult and men's group our topic this week as a gospel centered community is found in Galatians 5

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. (Galatians 5:1-8 ESV)

Particularly 

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6 ESV)

What does that mean? 

How does that apply to the gospel and to us.

What does it look like for faith to be worked out through love?

Who is that love being worked out towards?

How is this different from works based salvation?