Perspective of a Prophet: John The Baptist

This is the first of a "Perspective of a Prophet" series in which I will be extensively studying and then speaking from, the perspective of various Prophets. These words are not necessarily what I would say nor how would say them but from the perspective of the prophet. This installment is John the Baptist.

Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490)

You wouldn't like me very much.

Jesus called me the greatest man ever that ever lived...

but you wouldn't like me very much.

I prepared the way for the Messiah, that He may reconcile all people to God...

but you wouldn't like me very much.

You wouldn't like me because I told the truth and didn't pull any punches. Because I called people to "REPENT!" and "BEAR FRUIT!" before I told them that God loves them.  I'm sure you would have reminded me to "speak the truth in love" and "not be so serious all the time."

You wouldn't have liked me because I look a lot more like this...

  

...than you're comfortable with.

And I'm not talking about those hypocrite, wolf in sheeps clothing, lying snakes in Kansas! Who make their living preying on the mourning and weakness of others, luring in the youth, twisting God's truth with their own hate!

I'm talking about having the courage to call people to repentance for their sins before they are cast into the fire of God's wrath.

But judgment, wrath, repentance... these make you uncomfortable?

Good.

Between the camel's hair and the Jordan River, I probably smelled pretty bad. Between the honey and raw crickets on my breath, that probably smelled pretty bad too.

For the location of my ministry I chose the desert; hot, dry, inconvenient, and outside of peoples way. Yet all Judea, Jerusalem, and Jordan came to see me. The first thing I said when people showed up was, "YOU BROOD OF VIPERS!! WHO WARNED YOU TO FLEE FROM THE COMING WRATH!?"  ...and everyone confessed their sins and was baptised.

What does that do for your outreach model?

I said the things that no one else would, the things others were scared to say.  I called people out for their sins, I fasted, I looked weird, I acted weird, I rebuked, I warned people about the consequences of their disobedience, and that hell awaited them if they did not change. And they had the gall to say I had a demon!

Salone with the head of John the Baptist by Andrea Solario (1520)   

I called out a politician for sleeping with His brother's wife and it got me put in jail. I stood by it and publicly proclaimed sexual sin in an age where it was accepted and everyone was too apathetic or scared to say anything.  This upset people in power and so I was beheaded.

I had my head cut off and you're afraid to like a status because of it how it may associate you with something controversial!

I lived in the desert, ate locusts, wore camel hair and you're afraid of how God is going to provide for you!

I was the crazy guy standing on the street corner screaming REPENT and you're afraid to talk about Jesus in class in case you come off of one of those Christians!
 WHAT!? A JESUS FREAK LIKE ME??

You coward! You care more about what man thinks than God! You care more about being relevant than being obedient!
You hypocrite! You twist God's word to justify your own apathy, fear, and sin!
You coward! You remain silent while innocent children are led away to slaughter in the womb!
You hypocrite! You do nothing while women and children are bought and sold for sex!
The poor, orphan, widow, and refugee are dying in the streets while you grow fat in luxury!!
Do you think you can avoid the coming wrath of God!? Are you so arrogant or naive to think it won't come!?

...

...Therefore, bear fruit in accordance with repentance. And don't presume to say to yourself: "I grew up a Christian, I go to church." For God raises up his church from prostitutes and beggars.  So who are you? Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire!

The one who has two shirts should share with the one who has none.  Deal fairly and honestly in your business.  Do not steal. Treat people justly.

St. John the Baptist by El Greco (1579)

You may not like me and you may think I am harsh. But judge me by my fruits.  Through my message came one greater than me, who baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  I heard a mighty voice from Heaven and the Spirit descend on Him like a dove. He brings the Kingdom of God with him and restores all things to himself. He is the Messiah and Lord to whom you should look and trust and follow.  I merely point toward Him, that He may become more and I may become less.

Jesus. Yeshua in my tongue.

He said I was the greatest man that ever lived.  But I never got to experience the Holy Spirit, nor the first inch of the growth of the Kingdom. For this reason I envy you, among whom the least will be greater than I.

He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
He is the one to whom you repent.
Turn away from your wickedness, your selfishness, and your sin.
Turn towards Jesus.
And follow.




Again, after study and reflection, this was written from the perspective of John the Baptist and not my my own, as much as possible.

Seth

Theology of Sex: Can We Use Adam & Eve as a Guiding Principle For Human Sexuality?

In order to fully understand sexuality today, in a culture drowning in lust and confusion, we have to go back to the very beginning, to Adam & Eve, and learn that human sexuality is not about fun, pleasure, love, or even procreation; it's about Jesus.  Can we really use Adam & Eve as that kind of universal principle?

Adam & Eve in Worthy Paradise by Peter Paul Rubens (1615). 

Genesis Principle
Genesis 2:24 reads:

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."

This brief verse following the creation of the first humans is more than just a description of the first act of sex between Adam & Eve, but a principle and standard by which all future human sexuality and marriages should be judged and based on. The future tense of "shall" and the reference to father and mother, of which Adam & Eve had none, shows this is, in fact, talking about future sexual relationships.  The previous verse, the reason the "for this reason" is there, adds even more depth. Genesis 2:23 reads, 

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."

This is Adam talking, referring to the process by which God actually removed a rib from Adam and fashioned Eve from the bone of the man. Adam was made from the dirt, Eve was made from man.  So since Woman is made from Man's flesh, Man ought to leave his parents and find his own Woman, and be reunited to her.  What was once one flesh in Adam was made into two fleshes in Adam & Eve. Sex and marriage is the process by which two fleshes are reunited into the one flesh.  So, once again, this is not something that only applied to these two individual humans, but is built into how we were intended to operate and interact as human beings of different genders. The two fleshes of the Man and Woman are only made complete by their reunion in sex and marriage.  As man and woman are both made in the image of God, but who reflect that image in different ways, that union is also the means by which we fully and completely reflect the image of God. This kind of intimacy would be impossible under any other sexual arrangement.

 Now Paul makes clear that our flesh may be incomplete (unmarried) while our soul is totally fulfilled and made whole in Christ.  Since the life of Spirit is superior to the life of the flesh, life long abstinence is also a perfectly acceptable use of sexuality as opposed to marriage.  But physically fulfillment is never technically possible outside of this design for sexuality laid out in Genesis 2.

Jesus Affirms
Did you know that Jesus actually uses this very verse in this very context? In Mark 10:2-12 and Matthew 19:3-12, when asked a question about divorce, Jesus quotes this verse and uses it as a principle by which to judge and base current marriage, regardless of what the current teaching or culture said about it.  It is true, there were rules in the Mosaic Law allowing for divorce, he explains, BUT Jesus replies:

 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

It's almost a shame this is used as a meme so frequently. This really is an amazing painting called Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch (1888)

Now there's a ton to say here too about gender or the idea of restoration theology or provisional ethical hierarchies, but the point is this: Jesus here shows that Genesis 2 can and should be used as a principle for the original design of human sexuality which we ought to adhere to.  For the very mistake that people were making was that they were making excuses and finding loopholes for their sin, instead of looking to the beginning and how God created sexuality and marriage to function. This is what people do when they look for misinterpretations of the Greek, call Genesis poetry that doesn't apply to them, or ignore the Bible altogether in order to justify their sin.  Jesus' use of Genesis 2 as a principle for human sexuality means that we can and must do the same in the modern context.  (Genesis 2 is further used in the context of 1 Corinthians 6 and 7, which uses it, once again, as a principle by which to understand the errors of sexuality they were committing.)


Paul Explains
In Ephesians 5:21-33, Paul gives this amazing practical instruction for husbands and wives as it relates to the theology of Christ, further expanding on Genesis 2 and explaining the cosmic purpose of sex and marriage in the plan of God. After calling everyone to mutually submit to each other out of reverence to Christ rather than selfishly claiming and grabbing hold of authority, it reads,

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—  for we are members of his body.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Now, once again, there's a lot here about husband and wives and gender roles. I know the word submit gives a lot of people head aches these days.  The one thing I will say is that, when it's talking to husbands about being leaders and loving, he's talking love and leadership so servant-like and so radical, that it is meant to resemble the love of Christ that went to the cross and bore the wrath of God for His bride. Isn't that what every woman wants in her husband?

Calvary by Andrea Mantegna (1459). Sex isn't about us at all, it's about this.  Jesus dying for us, His Bride, so we may be intimately united. 

Nevertheless, the point is this: marriage and human sexuality is here laid out by Paul as a cosmic, prophetic symbol of Christ and the Church.  Once again, he quotes Genesis 2 as a guiding principle for human sexuality.  But he takes it a step further. "This is profound mystery," he says, "but I am talking about Christ and the Church." What??? So Genesis 2:24 is talking about Christ and the Church?? A profound mystery indeed. You see, this idea of leaving what you are raised in and what is comfortable, to go lay down your life for a woman and be bound together with her in perfect physical and spiritual intimacy, is exactly what Jesus does for us! The Church! His Bride! Jesus left the comforts of heaven and laid down his life for us on the cross, so that one day we may be intimately reunited with Him in eternity.  Hear the words from Revelation 19:6-9 and Revelation 21:10-11 that proclaim:

"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” 

"Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"

"Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God" 

Revelation actually describes the end times like a wedding banquet between Jesus, the groom; and His Church, the Bride; with a wedding party in the millennial rule and finally the consummation and happily ever after in the creation of the new heavens and new earth in the eternal order.

So you see, marriage and human sexuality is so much bigger than just a social construct or means for procreation.  It is actually, from the very beginning, created as a witness to and prophecy of the eternal plan of God for the redemption of His people.  Even children, far from just the result of sex for propagating the species, are an organic result of that intimacy.  They are the glory of their parents and, per the fourth commandment, return honor to them.  What is the organic result of the unification of Christ and His Bride except Glory and Honor to God the Father!? Amazing. Song of Solomon is a beautifully poetic description of the intimate love of a man and woman, but by it's very nature is also an allegory for Christ and us, the Church.  It seems marriage and sex, all the way from Adam & Eve until eternity, is a prophetic allegory and reminder of the sacrificial and intimate love of God for us.  

So yes I think that we can use Genesis 2 as a standard and principle for human sexuality.  Regardless of what was allowed in the Mosaic Laws like divorce (or by logical extension, polygamy), it was done because people's hearts were hard and they lived in a sinful world in which divorce was better than abuse or murder (See Mark 10 again). But Jesus calls us back to that principle of the originally created design for sexuality which, as we see with Adam & Eve, was for one man and one woman to be unified in the physical and spiritual intimacy of marriage for life as a prophetic symbol of Christ and the Church.

Adam & Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1528). It is worth noting that Genesis 2:24 introduces and institutes sex before the Fall.  In it's original form it was good and God ordained. Oh how we have perverted that which was created to be so good.

Our Brokenness and God's Redemption 

Anything outside of this God-ordained original design for sexuality will hurt us and destroy us physically and spiritually.  This is ultimately what we call sin. Divorce is so painful because it tears apart what was once one flesh and meant not to separate.  Sleeping around before or even during marriage is so destructive because it makes light of a very serious spiritually intimate act and leaves people feeling broken and empty. Porn and masturbation cheapens and mimics it, taking the intended selfless end of sex by losing yourself in another partner, and selfishly turns in it toward yourself.  Abortion, rather than celebrating what ought to be the glory and honor of the parents, eliminates that life made in the image of God and unnaturally cuts off the organic end of sexuality out of fear, leaving participates regretful and hollow. Homosexual behavior, although perhaps based on real sexual attraction and genuine love for another person, nevertheless is a misplaced erotic love that is physically and fundamentally unable to fulfill the intimacy of one flesh between a man and woman that we were designed for. The list goes on.  As the saying goes, there are a million ways to fall down, but only one way to stand up straight.  

But as Paul points out, Jesus calls us back to this design not just because God said so or because it is how we were physically made to operate, which is true, but because it is a spiritual prophecy intended to point us to Christ.  The minute that sex become purely a physical act, even between a married, God fearing man and woman, it becomes an idol because it's not about Jesus. So I write this not as a reminder to not have sex before you're married, but to change your priorities, to go to Jesus and ask Him to change your heart about sex and marriage.  Your flesh is going to desire all sorts of things that are outside of God's intended design, especially as young adults.  Our job is yes, to resist, to stand firm, to find accountability, to flee from temptation, and to abstain. This is our daily and lifelong battle against our flesh. But on a deeper level we have to recognize the unconscious roots of our temptations, the lies that we believe or negative experiences in our past that effect our perception and approach to sex, and bring them to Jesus for healing.  If we don't do this, it will only ever be a list of don'ts; a battle that seems unfair and that we are likely to lose.

I have struggled with pornography for years, to varying degrees of success in resistance at different times.  But it wasn't until recently when deep in prayer that God brought me back to the time when I was 8 years old, stumbling onto scrambled porn for the first time, and my brain was instantly hooked on that mental heroin. It was there that I saw Jesus with me, weeping for the 8 year old little boy who didn't choose porn. He cried for the hurt that this would cause me later in life, and told me it was OK. He reached back into my life, into that profound moment of my past like Nathaniel or the woman at the well, and He saw me. It was then that I finally felt healed. I will never stop battling against my flesh and lust but it was only through that experience that my perception of sexuality, so perverted through my experience and culture, was finally restored to it's original intention, the intention right there in Genesis.  Much of what I have written here has come out of that restored perception.  Many of us have faced divorce, abuse, rape, or molestation in our younger years.  Many more have fallen victim to the lies that our popular culture and media are constantly feeding us from a young. We need that kind of inner healing.


Remember the promise of 1 Corinthians 6:

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God

A Depiction of Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultry (1888) by Vasily Polenev. Jesus is not about casting stones, but about showing mercy.  He does not want to condemn you, but to heal you. "Now go and sin no more."

So I hope that you that you will take all of this in, store it in your heart, and wrestle with it in your mind. What lies do you believe about sexuality? What hurts do you have in your past that affect your current perception of marriage or sex? Only Jesus offers supernatural emotional healing for our hurts. Only He offers a good brain scrubbing, to expose and remove those lies which so firmly plant themselves in our mind.  Only Jesus offers what he calls rebirth, a second chance, to start over with a new identity, a new heart, a new mind, with a perception of sexuality (and everything else!) in line with how He created us.  He wants to restore us to our original design as humans so we can live as that new creation. Forgiveness is instant and waiting for us no matter how deep or dark our sin ran.  Yet this kind of healing takes time; and all we have to do is come to Him with all our junk, give ourselves to Him fully, and trust in Jesus' and what he did for you. Your old self in its sin and brokenness dies with Him on the cross and you are resurrected with Him a new creation.  God is faithful to heal and mold you into who you were created to be.  It may even take so much time that you don't reach it on this side of eternity. Remember, the battle never goes away.  But sexuality was never really about this side of eternity anyway, was it?  It's all about Him and it always was.  So let us, like Jesus, go back to Genesis 2, and restore sexuality and marriage to what it was created to be.

God bless and contact me if you would like prayer or have questions about these issues or anything else. Feel free to comment below.

Seth

8 Ways That College Is A Time of Doing the Exact Opposite of What Our Parents Told Us

Our parents spent 18 years preparing us for the world. Now that we're on our own, we do what we want, often to our doom.

Our early years in our parent's house were spent learning a lot of do's and don't, a lot of life lessons, and a lot of cliches we rolled our eyes at.  Usually our teenage years we feel like we are under the heavy boot of Big Brother and can't wait to get out the house. College, for many, is the first time we are on our own away from home and our parent's edicts, so we respond by basically complete rebellion against everything they've ever taught us.  Here's compelling proof that during College we do the exact opposite of what our parents told us to.

1) "Don't make faces like that or it will get stuck"

In an effort to rebel against our parent's ban on making faces, these girls have resorted to looking like aquatic birds for aesthetic reasons. The plus side is they're really good at eating spaghetti. 

Miley Cyrus is seen here making faces as some sort of desperate yet brilliant marketing campaign to look really stupid in order to be famous. 

2) "Eat Your Vegetables"

Here we observe the college student eating the most well rounded of all it's meals.  Peppers and Onions are free? No thank you, I might as well be eating brussel sprouts. Oh Hubble sucks again today? Greasy Pizza it is.

Because nothing says "brain food" for studying late at night than the well rounded options from the vending machine. 4 hours for 10 pages? Get me a red bull and it's done.

3) "Don't Sit Too Close To The TV"

We all got yelled at for this as a kid. It's not gunna ruin my eyes I'm just blocking your view. 

So I'm gunna sit as close as I want because the closer I sit the easier it is to kill zombies.  If I sit far away then I startle the witch and now I'm dead, thanks mom. 

4) "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you?"

There is a lot of truth to this one.  It's a testament to the power of peer pressure.  But in college, Yes! We Would! Many times metaphorically, we are caught into the same game of fitting in and feeling cool that we should have grown out of in high school. So that's not good. But literally, I want to go bungee jumping, especially if all my friends are!

5) "Nothing good happens after midnight"

This one is also true, unless you're up killing zombies.  And despite what stupid movies like "National Lampoon's Van Wilder Goes to Nebraska" will tell you, staying out until 4AM, getting blackout drunk three times a weekend, throwing up and hooking up, is terrible. I did my share of partying and let me tell ya, nothing beats a night of Live Mafia. As a great college Dean once said, "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way go through life, son."  

6) "Go to church"

As a good friend of mine is prone to say, "Don't spend your Sundays listening to the Honorable Reverend Snooze."  Church seemed super boring growing up but college is a time to actually take ownership of your faith and think about what you believe, church (and your local InterVarsity) is a great place to start.

You'll discover that Church, for all it's eccentricities, is really your extended family and those aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents are there to love you.  You'll find yourself growing in faith on your own and get some free meals out of it as well. 

 7) "Read Your Bible" 

Studying is overwhelming at time and "reading your Bible" seems like another churchy thing our youth group pastor told us to do.

But actually a well read Bible is your greatest friend and ally in your relationship with God. 99% of the despair we face in life will come from a misconception, in some way, of God's good news. Study, absolutely, but there is no better investment in yourself than giving 10 minutes a day to read a chapter or two.

8) "Say Your Prayers"

Growing up we were always told to brush our teeth and say our prayers before bed.  So prayer became this routine thing you did before bed, meals, and church. In college, prayer becomes an afterthought. 

But in my experience, prayer is more like this. Pouring my heart out to Him, usually in my car alone, with all of the junk I am struggling through. Prayer can be a conversation or it can just be silently sitting in His presence. For more ideas about how to make prayer interesting click here for a previous blog entry.

So remember, next time you hear that internal voice of skepticism from your parents about what you're doing, your parents are wiser than you think now and *much* wiser than you thought as a teenager.  Sometimes they were dropping brilliant truth nuggets, other times they just wanted you to stop making that face because you were being annoying. College is a time, not to disregard everything they ever taught you, but to separate fact from fiction and learn and how to grow in your relationship with God not as a child dragged to VBS, but as an adult discerning God's will for your life. 

Seth

February Update: Interviews, Poetry, and Trust

Looking Back At An Amazing Month of God's Faithfulness

I started off the month of February, despite the cold  and snowy weather, burning with excitement. I had just graduated in December and I was beginning my first semester working with InterVarsity. I could not have been more thrilled to be giving my time to students, fundraising, and seeing God's kingdom come on Drake's campus.  And it's been an amazing month!  I finally had my official interview with intervarsity, gave an unexpected talk at our weekly large group, and have been taking big steps to becoming a fully fundraised, full time campus missionary! Going back into the last week of January, let's look at some of the highlights:

Student leader Cara Lutes setting vision at the Back To School Retreat

Interview and Placement
In the last week of January, I finally had my official interview with InterVarsity.  At a Panera out in West Des Moines, I sat with five (thats right, five!) interviewers from campuses in Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.  Although many might be intimidated is such a situation, I remembered my High School football Coach Dave Owens, who said something like, "If you're prepared, butterflies just mean that you care and you're about to do something great." I then also recalled that in the past few years, when I have had butterflies, it's because I was about to go smash heads with 300 pound heathen lineman.  So I can handle questions from a couple wimpy Christians, right!? Overall, I found the interview extremely enjoyable and pleasant.  It was nice that, although in some interviews you feel like you have to put on a airs, I could be authentic and do what I do best: talk about Jesus.  Three hours later, I was exhausted, but extremely happy about how it went. Within a week I received a call that confirmed their offer for a provisional staff appointment and within two weeks, I was informed where the regional directors felt I would fit best: Central College in Pella, IA! Although I would be working part time at William Penn in Oskaloosa as well and I would like to still visit Omaha in order to keep my options open, I am really excited about my possible fit in Pella and am actually visiting this Thursday! Everyone seems to think my gifts would really bring a lot to the table.  Considering my High School mascot was the Dutch, it would quite an uncanny fit!

An Unexpected Worship Sermon
In the meantime, for the next semester I am still acting as an active leader with the Drake InterVarsity chapter.  At the beginning of the semester, we began a new sermon series entitled "Follow Me" which was intended to be a practical look at spiritual disciplines and what it means to follow Jesus on a day to day basis.  This meant talking about basics like Prayer, Worship, Sabbath, The Bible, and Community. I was excited to open up the series by giving a talk about Worship. As a worship leader, this is something I've spent a lot of time thinking about and invested in. So I would have loved to get up there and give a 40 minute talk about Worship.  But as I prayed and fasted over the message, I felt God was calling me not just to "tell people about worship" but to "show them how to worship."  This began to take shape through getting people out of their comfort zones, because we too often go through the motions when we fall into monotony.  This began to mean breaking out of the modern evangelical "liturgy" of 1)worship 2)announcements 3) speaker 4)go home, and instead going back to a traditional liturgy from the Common Book of Prayer.  But God wasn't done there.  On the night of Super Bowl Sunday, three days before I was to give my talk, I got in the car and began to talk/pray through some of the things I might say.  And it was strangest thing.  As I began talking, things were coming out rhyming.  When I went home, I began writing.  Three hours later, my entire talk had come out in spoken word poetry form, of which I hadn't written any in several years!  It was unbelievable. I was in awe of the revelation that God had poured into my mind.  So finally, when it was all said and done, we followed the Rite of Eucharist (with communion), with modern worship songs, and a 12 minute spoken word sermon.  It was an unbelievable night and I was amazed at how doing things a little differently allowed people to really engage with God.  Click here if you would like to read my poem, entitled "The Throne Room."

First meet and greet of the new year.

A Part Time Job's Lesson in Trust
Around the middle of February, after fundraising was off to a slow start and my excitement was wearing off, I started to worry about money.  I am in a unique situation, renting a room from my pastors, where I don't have a lot of expenses and they understand I will be able to pay them rent when fundraising starts to roll in. Yet, fear started to set in, and I began to feel guilty, according to the standards of this world, that I was wrong by being "unproductive" and not working.  So I looked for a part time job to help with rent and food and I found one working as a server at a retirement community.  It was OK. But after several weeks, I began to feel uncomfortable and discontent about the whole thing.  On a monday off, I decided I would go on a "Pilgrimage" as a part of our week of Prayer and taken from the 19 different kinds of prayer I put together.  I walked to a park about 15 minutes from my house, bringing all my worries and fears with me, with the intention of meeting with God and leaving them there with Him. I did exactly that, even burned a post-it with my fears written on it, and I felt God's presence overwhelm me, pulling me to quit my job.  But that's crazy, right? Maybe according to the world.  But when Daniel chose vegetables and water over meat and wine, he did so trusting that God would supernaturally provide. When he asked to meet the King about his vision, he did so trusting that God would speak to him in the night.  Me getting that job was like Abraham and Hagar, getting impatient for the promise to come. So it was time for me to get out of the boat and trust that El Shaddai, that God will provide. Do you know what happened after that? Literally, when I got home, there was a $200 check waiting for me from a friend's parents.  That Wednesday, another friend pledged $100 a month and to set up a meeting with a friend of his to give me more.  How unbelievable is that!? The LORD PROVIDES! I am SO excited to keep going on this journey, to put all my trust in Him, to bring God's people into my mission, and see Him supernaturally provide.

An early draft of the poster I put together for our current series. 

Three Quick Praises
1) After several years of Drake IV being 70% girls, God has brought more than several awesome men of God into the group who really love Jesus and want more of Him. We've started a Men's Group on Fridays and the turnout has been awesome with a lot of authenticity.  It's amazing to see this answer to prayer happening, that men would rise up in IV, sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron, and be men of courage, righteousness, and influence in our group and on our campus.
2) As my schedule opens up after quitting my job, I will be spending more and more time at the International House of Prayer Iowa.  I have been going there for 2-4 hours every week, just getting alone with God and bringing prayer for my future, Drake IV, and the city before God, trying to reflect the persistent widow.  It is so refreshing and intimate to spend that time in His presence.  As I get involved more as musician on Monday and Friday nights, I'm looking forward to seeing God grow that ministry and hopefully build bridges between them and IV.
3) After submitting my transcript to InterVarsity USA, I am really close to being able to fully fundraise through IV! Once that happens, people will be able to send money directly to IV in my name, which will then go to pay my salary.  I am so looking forward to officially beginning that journey! Until then, I hope you will continue to pray for me, my impact on Drake's campus, the students there, my fundraising, and wisdom for my future location! If you would like to join my support team and receive monthly updates about pray and finances, please visit the "Support My Ministry" page.


Wow! It's fun looking back on the month like that! Praise God for all that He has done and will continue to do!  Bring it on March!!

Seth