Where We Are

Friends,

Many of you know much of this, but I want to update you and invite your prayers for Nicole and myself. We are getting married on October 22, 2011. This is a very exciting time, and I am so incredibly blessed by God to even get to know this beautiful young woman!

Things you can pray for us about...

1. Jobs. Both Nicole and I want to be teachers. I want to teach high school math, and she wants to teach early childhood education. I have currently had two interviews, one at Coahulla Creek in Dalton and one at Trinity Christian School in Newnan. Both of these opportunities seem exciting, and I am waiting to hear back. I would like to get an offer from one of these, or get an interview with another school that would want me. Nicole is interviewing soon for a charter school in Newnan, and so we would be very appreciative of prayer for that... that she would not be nervous, that the interview would go well, and God-willing, that she would get a job offer.

God is teaching us both patience because we obviously would like to have things figured out. Through all this, God is sovereign. We must be diligent to do what we need to do, but in the end, our job situation is in God's powerful, wise, and good hands. Pray that we will live out Proverbs 3:5-6.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  May God be glorified even in the uncertainties of our job situation.

2.  Where to live.  This obviously is dependent on the job situation, but I still think that this is a big enough request to also be a separate one.  We both are close to our families and friends now, and whatever the new situation, there will be many adjustments, and I pray and invite you to pray that we would grow closer together as a new family through the process of finding a new place to live.  Pray that we would be able to, wherever we end up, build a new home in which Christ is exalted, love is shown, and the worn and weary are welcome. 

Just as with the previous request, I acknowledge that all is dependent on God and his provision.  We must not presume that we will have another day, unless God wills it.  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit" - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."  (James 4:13-15)

3.  Wedding stuff.  The wedding planning is coming together, and we really have figured out most of the major stuff.  We have recently done some good thinking on what we want the service to look like.  It is going to be awesome!!!  I am so pumped, and Nicole's ideas make me smile and realize how much we were meant for each other.  There are still a lot of things to do between now and October 22, so pray that we make it through in as stress-less a way as possible in such a way that Christ is exalted and magnified every step of the way.  My hope and intention is to, as far as I am able, simultaneously lift up Christ as supreme and make Nicole feel like the princess she is.  (In case you didn't realize this, we are heirs with Christ, children of the Father.  What does that even mean?!!!  For a jolt to your system, you should check out CS Lewis's sermon entitled "The Weight of Glory".)

4.  Growth.  We both need to continue growing in Christ-likeness.  I know that I am a sinner, and my battle with the indwelling sin in my own heart takes on a new gravity when I realize that my flesh is to be joined with another.  Nicole and I will become one.  There is nothing I can do to change Nicole, and there is nothing I can do about the sin in her heart.  My job is not to change her or cleanse her, though I do believe that through grace - especially grace grounded in Christ's love toward us in the cross - we will be given to each other to help each other grow.  No, my job is not to change her, but to do serious battle with the sin in my own heart.  Even the small sins that seem like such a small deal I must see as seeds of very ugly and destructive tendencies that want to take root and destroy me and our marriage.  All sin is serious because all sins are against Jesus.

I want to be cleansed and washed and sanctified because I do not want to bring more junk and sin into this union than I can help.  I want to be a better man for the sake of my future wife.  I think that even this tendency within my heart - to want to be better for Nicole - is a tiny practical micro-cosm of what should be happening already with the Church if we take the words of the Bible seriously.  In becoming a follower of Christ, I am united to Christ, I am in Christ.  I become a part of his Body, mysteriously united to other believers, and indwelt by his Holy Spirit.  For the sake of the holiness of Christ's Bride, of which I am a part, I want to fight my sin.  I invite you to do the same.  And please do pray this for the both of us. 

I want to be holy for my spouse.  Likewise, I also want to be holy for our Spouse.

5.  Our future.  Pray that our lives would be blessed by God so that we would be a blessing to others.  I want our lives to be beautifully intertwined with a love that increases for each other, for others, and for God.  I never want to grow stagnant in this.  I want to constantly pursue her.  I want our household to be one that serves the Lord, that cares for the poor, that takes seriously the Great Commision.  There are so many ways to pray for our future, and I am sure you can get creative. 

Most importantly, pray that we will always remember the purpose of marriage.  We are to, through our love and commitment to one another, paint a picture of Christ and his Church to the world.  I believe Christ is supreme in all things.  I believe things like this... God created us as creatures who would need to eat food (he didn't have to), so that he would have a good analogy to use to describe a greater spiritual reality - Jesus as the Bread of Life.  Likewise, I believe that God created us male and female and instituted marriage, not just for our fun, help, and enjoyment (though it is those things), but for the greater purpose of helping us to understand the worth and awesomeness of Jesus even a little bit better.  Our marriage is about us, but it is even more about Jesus.  I believe that if we keep this central and pursue the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all that we need will be added to us.

I close with this (slightly tangential but still important) point: I wasted a lot of my time in high school because I did not invest in real relationships.  I wasted my time because I built it around myself, and I loved poorly.  My challenge to you is to love others, not just in theory, but in practice.  Don't just theoretically love the lost people in faraway lands.  Love well those who are in close to you, those in your own household and the homeless and broken in your own town.  And pray that God would lead you into new relationships to bring love as well.  Everyone is your neighbor, even those who may feel like your enemies. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  ( part of 1 Cor 13)

Love well.  Pray that we will love each other well.  Soli Deo gloria!

Living the Surrendered Life

I think it is good to have heroes in the faith. Hebrews 11 is a list of heroes in the faith. Of course, we do not want to idolize anyone, but I very much want to be like those who really follow Christ and give themselves fully to him.

I have a handful of people who have been very influential in my life and spiritual development. Those most influential would be my father and mother, both who exemplify Christ-like love. I am so blessed! And in the last several years, my brother's walk has challenged me greatly. Others on this list would be David Blevins, Jonathan Baggett, Michael Gilbert, and my fiance, Nicole.

Thomas Queen and his wife and daughter are here on this podcast. I call him Coach Queen, and without going into much detail, I will say that my view of God is bigger because of Coach, and my decision to be a teacher is due in a non-trivial way to Coach's example of the type of difference a teacher can make in the lives of youth like me. Coach is one of my heroes. Coach and his family have been very blessed materially as measured by this world, and for the sake of the advancement of the Gospel, they are rejecting the American Dream in favor of eternal significance, giving up much of what they have amassed. This has included the sale of their awesome house to be able to really follow God wherever he calls them. Anyway, they can tell it better than me... This is their message to our church in which they invite accountability for themselves and also issue quite a challenge to our comfortable sensibilities.

Don't listen to this unless you really want God to mess you up for your good and his glory! (There is a bit of music and preamble to get to their message, but not too much.)