My Friend: J_____

I met J on a beach on Lopez Island north of Seattle, Wa. I will not give all the details that I learned about him, just the ones that hopefully will express and remind us of man's depravity.

This 20 something young man was a talented, young photographer and was one of the brightest kids I had ever met. Being a wanna be photographer who is one step above a point and shoot photographer, I had to ask him all kinds of questions regarding taking great photos. Soon the conversation came around to religion. As the evening wore on, it grew dark. Because he was so bright and was coming up with some great questions as well as objections to religion (Christianity more specifically), I offered to give him a ride to where he was staying that night because his friends had already come by and told him they were ready to leave about 30 minutes prior. On the way to where he was staying, the conversation continued to go deeper and deeper regarding Christianity... My friend soon admitted to sexual sins that most parents shudder at. As well, this same sin causes many parents to disown their children when they discover their involvement in it. However my friend did not stop with sharing this information.

He continued.

I soon found out that this young man's sexual sins were far worse than the previous admitted sin and as a result, he was suicidal. I will stop and just say that I am not able to write about it at this time. I only write this in order to help paint a picture of J's lostness and man's depravity.

Even after several hours of one on one Scripture study, counseling with, loving on and encouraging, this young man only wanted to reject the Truth that I had been sharing with him. Though he really and truly understood how wrong his life was, he did not want to give up the desire to be loved and cared for that he had. He thought that the only way he could be truly loved and cared for was through a human relationship. The reason I know that he truly understood why his life choices were wrong again is not able to be discussed any further in this venue other than that he had suicidal thoughts as a direct result of his newest step downward into his sexual sin. Like Judas, J was remorseful as a result of his sin. Remorseful to the point of wanting to kill himself. However J, like Judas, did not want to submit to the Lord and repent of his sins.

I left my friend that night as I watched him walk to the boat that he was staying on for the night, praying that God would reveal Himself to him; praying that He would give J a new heart that would understand the depth of his depravity, not just because his sexual sin was great, but because even his most mundane sin is great. I prayed that seeing his depravity, J would repent and turn to the Lord, trusting in the Sacrifice that was made 2000 years before.

Sadly that night my new friend had no desire to bow to his Maker. His number one desire was to be loved; just not by God.

Somedays later, after being haunted by the discussion of this night, I began to wonder if the reason for my friends sexual sins was a result of his tyrant mother who I found out during our discussion was a mother who was vile and evil. She would constantly belittle him, embarrass him and abuse him in every way other than sexually. Sometimes as a little boy, J told me that his mother would come to him out of the blue and ask him how many times she was going to hit him in the face. He said that he knew that he had to answer her because if he didnt it would get real bad. He said that he learned that if he didnt guess a high enough number, her response would be bad as well. So he said that if he guessed 7 or 8 times she would usually accept that and begin hitting him. I wondered if the reason he was so mixed up in his sexual identity was because he did not see women as people capable of not only being trusted, but loved. Maybe that is the catalyst that sent this young man down such a lonely, dark, horrendous nightmare of a life. Because I do not wish to share my friends information further, you will have to trust that his life was, and at this time, is a sad, lonely, living nightmare.

Read John Bell's article on "Gay Village" HERE

Read Bob Thune's article HERE

UPDATE

I must share the following. It has now been several months since I met J. We are now Facebook friends so I am able to shoot him encouraging notes, letting him know that I am praying for him. Just this past week I was reading "Total Church" where they were explaining Pascal's Wager. Because J and I had discussed Pascal's Wager that night I wanted to share with him what Pascal's point was so I basically plagiarized a page from the book and sent it to him.

Please do not think that I am pointing to myself at all when you read J's response.

J-"Wow that was very enlightening thanks. I'd like you to know that your prayer has brought about change and I really honestly believe it's your prayer that has allowed God to be like ready or not here I come. My relationship with God was not self initiated it was not me saying God take control of my life. It was God through the holy spirit and reinforced by your prayer being like whether you like it or not you are wrong you know it and I know you know it so hearer I come. Thank you and please continue to pray for me, being a Christian is not easy for me, it does not make life easier, it's not all flowers and sunshine. It's a constant struggle in which my will is put to the challenge on a daily basis by the will of God. He broke my hip.

Thank you, J

P.S.- Maybe sometime when I'm in Texas again we can go get coffee or something, this Christmas I will be in Washington if you are to and want to get some food or something It would be an honor."

Only our God can change hearts of stone to hearts of flesh! Our God is great! He is a merciful God, a God who gives grace to underserving sinners like ourselves. Praises to our Lord and Savior!

Know Your City-Remember the Poor

09/15/2010

Know Your City - Remember the Poor

When I moved to Woodstock I made an effort to get to know the city that I've come to love and serve. I still do. My basic approach is to keep up on local news through our papers and such, to spend time enjoying my city (eat the food, sit in the café, go to a concert or a high school football game), talk to businessmen and women, shop locally, read on city and county and region demographics, ask people questions about what good in the city and where the needs are, and so on.

I've come to see this isn't enough.

A couple of weeks ago...to finish click here -> Remember The Poor

My Friend: Kelly

M-
Sadly, since we have been here I have not had a lot of opportunities to talk with people. As well, since we have now lived in 6 different houses (one of the houses 2 different times) I have not had the opportunity to build any relationships. Of course this is somewhat discouraging for me since I really enjoy getting to know people. That is not to say that I have not met people here who have impacted me greatly. I want to share with you four different people who have crossed my path here in the Northwest over the next 4 blog posts. I will go in order of when I met them.

Today I will begin with Kelly. Kelly is a man of about 45 or so. I met him soon after arriving here in the Seattle area. One Sunday after church services I was leaving Soma Communities and I struck up a conversation with a young man who was holding the door open for me. In our conversation I discovered that he lived "on the hill". Because of the way that he said "on the hill" made me ask him why he said it like that. He told me that "the hill", 10 years before, was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in all of the U.S. However much change has taken place in that sector of the city and it is no longer one of the most dangerous in the U.S.
Being interested in where this neighborhood was I asked him how to get there. He said that I was on the edge of 'the hill' now and that all I needed to do was, as he pointed up a street, to go up that hill.
So I hopped in the truck and proceeded up the hill. As I got close to the top I turned down a main street. Not long after turning, I noticed a guy having a yard sale on the sidewalk so I looked to see what he was selling as I drove buy. Seeing some old toys that were from back in the day (yes Im still very much a kid) I turned around a couple of blocks up the street and headed back so that I could stop and peruse his goods.
This man introduced himself to me as Kelly. I quickly determined that he was a crack head from the burns on his lips and fingers and that he was homeless. He told me that he was selling items for some friends who lived in the house that we were standing in front of.
After much conversation I also found out that he was a regular kid at one time. In the early and mid 80's he told me that he was one of the best baseball players in all of the Northwest and that he had been drafted by a major league team. He said that he wasn't good enough to play in the big leagues at that time so he had to play minor league ball until he was able to move up.
I asked him what happened that prevented him from moving up.
He said that during his minor league days he discovered crack along with other drugs and from that point his new life style quickly led him to the streets. Kelly shared some stories with me that had occurred in the last 25+ years that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.
His stories were never prideful nor bragging, just very sad... even hopeless.
When a bridge to sharing Jesus opened up, I began to talk to him beginning in Genesis. As the story progressed he began to quietly cry. His started to slowly rock his head to the left and to the right. By the time I got to Abraham he was holding his head in his hands as he continued to rock his head.
-It was clear that the Spirit was moving-
When I got to Jesus' birth he was squatting, holding his head and rocking back and forth and crying. He continued doing this as I went through the New Testament. By the time I reached the crucifixion, he was still in the squatting position, holding his head, only now he would make sounds, sort of like short, brief moans.
Finally when I had finished, I asked him if he felt God calling him to Himself.
Kelly responded, "Feel Him? I am overwhelmed with Him!... I am consumed in Him... I feel Him everywhere."
I then asked Kelly if he was ready to ask for forgiveness and submit to the One who was overwhelming him.
Kelly's response was enough to make any Calvinist rethink his theology.
My friend said... "no".
After much more discussion regarding Kelly's condition and what needed to be done to alleviate it I discovered that just a few minutes before I pulled up, Kelly told me that he was in such a bad place, that he had just prayed asking God to save him (from his homelessness). He said that as he prayed, he was looking down the street (the direction that I had come) "knowing" that God's answer would come from that direction.

Here was God, desiring to restore Kelly not only from his homeless condition, but infinitely more, to restore his spiritual condition. And here was Kelly, unquestionably overwhelmed with God's presence knowing that God would save him, however rejecting Him, wanting to continue to submit to his god - crack cocaine.

Please pray for Kelly. Even after two months I am still deeply disturbed and burdened for him. Pray that God continues to pursue him and that Kelly responds in repentance.

Anyone For A Walk?

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:35-38

I keep bumping into people starting “missional communities” and doing “incarnational ministry”.

Let’s hope the intention is to return to the example that Jesus set in the Gospels and the disciples followed in Acts.

Let’s start with Jesus. What did missional community and incarnational ministry look like for him?

READ HERE

The Kids Downtown

Let’s go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand

-Arcade Fire, "Rococo"-

I had a meeting today with a nice young man who is doing youth work in my city. He filled me in on his work to train volunteer youth ministers and organize some youth outreach events through citywide effort.

One topic that came up, that always comes up when discussing Woodstock youth outreach, is the downtown Square (See my previous post, "The Public Square & Open-Air"). Every day of the week youth are hanging on the Square. They are with their friends, mostly just hanging out, passing time. On Friday and Saturday nights it grows as many youth hang on park benches, in the band gazebo, walking around, etc.

HERE