GAP and the Gospel

Recently the director of GAP Ministries was gracious enough to get together with me. It always helps me to meet with him because then I can get more of the bigger picture of what God is doing with the ministry than what it sometimes appears God is not doing with a child. The main thing I wanted to talk to him about was the ministry's view on the gospel. Our meeting was quite interesting with a lot of bible stories and interpretation thrown around. I think this comes from working for a ministry where multiple denominations are coming together to accomplish a common purpose. He was also trying to make a biblical case for relational evangelism over proclamation evangelism. I have no problem with this but I think it is a kind of tricky case to make because you are trying to biblically say, “There always needs to be or should be a relationship before the gospel is preached.”

This past year God has been beginning to put a desire on my heart for the gospel message. I remember being given the opportunity to be the “speaker” one weekend for a youth retreat. I got the opportunity to give two talks. The first talk I was able to do on faith and God. I was able to speak from the heart about what God was teaching me about faith. The second night I was appropriately supposed to talk about Christ, which I did, but this message was flat and foreign to me for some reason. I realized I was not living day by day with a very real understanding of what Christ accomplished on the cross. That has been changing for me recently.

Last year while ministering on a college campus a freshmen friend of mine pulled me aside one day and quoted the following scripture to me from 1 Corinthians 1.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.”

He went onto explain that we can talk to a pagan about the evidence of morality, God's action in history, and creationist science but the gospel will always be foolishness to those whose eyes God does not open. But for those whose eyes God does open the opposite happens – the foolish message becomes the power of God unto salvation. Since then I have become ever increasingly interested in telling people the things listed below. These are essentially the main points of the gospel. See Acts 2:22-38 to read about Peter presenting the gospel message or take a walk down the “Romans Road”.

• God is Holy and lives in unapproachable light. [1 Timothy 6:16]
• We all are sinners. [Romans 3:23]
• God cannot be with sin. [Adam and Eve]
• Jesus takes our penalty of sin [Cross] and then gives us His perfect righteousness. [Colossians 1:22]
• Once our sin is taken away he gives us the Holy Spirit to be our counselor and guide. [Acts 2:38]

Now my desire is to see God use the gospel to change lives-- not great moral teachings or good loving friends. The bible says the gospel is the power of God for salvation [Romans 1:16] and that the gospel grows and bears fruit [Colossians 1:6]. Not only that but it seems the proclamation and appropriation of the gospel is commanded [Mark 8:35, Mark 16:16, Matthew 28]. So I guess if you feel unable to preach the gospel to anyone else, preach it to yourself until it changes you. A good lead into a gospel discussion is the question, “Do you think you are good enough to get into heaven?”

So the result of my discussion with the founder of GAP was that he was very willing to let me preach and teach about the gospel but he doesn't want it to prevent me from doing my job for the state well. I should try to prevent having the gospel be a reason kids are blowing up in my house and case workers are calling me. I guess there are drawbacks from being state funded but I don't foresee this being a problem especially if I am simply trying to be faithful.

Prayers: Bethany and I are still in a tough place where part of us wants to leave our job and have more time for each other and friends. I also want to stay in a place where I am growing in “losing my life for the sake of the gospel” and make these sacrifices to see God change these kids lives. The only way Bethany and I can stay in this job is by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and the kids to make our desires more for God then for ourselves. So we ask you to pray towards that end. Pray that Bethany and I would be like Paul and really find contentment in all circumstances and joy in our trials. Pray that God would provide in every way to sustain us and praise Him. Otherwise it is only a matter of time until we move on. Pray also for us as we start at a new house this week with 11 kids! We are once again intimidated and will try to press into the Lord for strength.

Praises: Eric had a good meeting with the founder. We both had good times hanging out with friends from small group this break.

Snack Thieves and the Gospel

Bethany and I have not blogged in a while so here is an update on the various arenas of our lives from beautiful Tucson.

Recently at two houses we have found kids sneaking treats and have had the privilege of determining what other tasty treats they would miss out on as a consequence for their greed. One culprit stole two packages of Sponge Bob Square Pants fruit snacks and the other was more ambitious taking a box of fruit roll ups, several packs of gushers, pop tarts and multiple beverages. As you can imagine, we are saddened when kids eat poorly because they think that is the one area where they can have control in their lives.

I have continued to be able to use the technology skills I developed last year at Lamprey Networks to contribute to the efficiency and professional appearance of GAP Ministries. I have created an internal website and have continued to patch up computers. Every once in a while my computer work even results in some extra cash.

House parents have begun to be able to use our new expanded apartment to relax and it seems to be serving the tired parents well. For this month it looks like Bethany and I may recoup the cost of the extra room.

Bethany and I have discovered startling ignorance displayed on the official paperwork of the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Here in the desert of Tucson I wear two types of clothes everyday: t-shirts and shorts, neither of which you will see displayed on the paperwork below. I imagine this paperwork has been used to record the belongings of thousands and thousands of children. If I recorded the clothing I bring to each house on this sheet it would appear I only have underpants and shoes. And if the Department of Economic Security is recording that the children of Arizona are all running around in underwear, then I expect a larger clothing budget for them.

Praise Report: God has provided opportunities for Bethany and I to share the gospel with our kids this month and to see fruit! So thank you for all of you who are praying. The past respite Bethany and I explained the gospel to two children and on their own accord they wrote about Christ taking away their sin the next day. The white paper below says, “God's the one and only holy person. God is the one who has created us and sent himself … he died on the cross to take away all of our sins.” This was written the day after we shared the gospel with no prompting!
I also got to talk to a young girl who was willfully choosing to sin while calling herself a Christian. I talked to her about why a Christian would stop sinning. I informed her that there was one major difference between myself and her. I said, “I do not choose sin over and over because I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me which makes all those sins you are so interested in pale and meaningless compared to God's love for me and my desire to do what God wants. I want to not walk in sin because my love for God is greater than my love for myself.” It was neat to see this young lady who was so intent on doing what she wanted stop and ponder those words. I only pray God makes His word effective.

Prayers: We are about to embark on our largest respite yet with 11 kids awaiting our arrival this evening. We are tired from the past 3 respites and are struggling to find the energy for the kids and for each other. A lot of energy gets zapped because of the kids arguing and the level of drama that happens in the house with the pre-teen girls. If anyone has suggestions on how to deal with teen girl drama, please send us your ideas!