Better Circumstances??

...For almost a month, I've been putting off writing on this blog. I knew what my topic would be and even how to write it, but just didn't feel like I could. I'll get back to the "why" I didn't write in a minute. First, let me tell you about last week...

Did you ever see those movies with the following plot?... a bunch of high school friends wind up getting back together in their hometown for the funeral of one of their classmates...

Last week, something terrible happened. An old high school friend died in a racing accident in Knoxville, Iowa. His name was Chad McDaniel. I hadn't really talked to Chado in a few years, but thought I should attend his funeral. We played sports together growing up. You know the usual stuff like football and baseball, things most kids growing up in Rural Kansas do! His dad was usually our bus driver to most of those games too! At least the school sponsored ones.


There were so many people who attended his funeral! It was more like the plot of that movie only it wasn't a movie. The funeral turned into more of a class reunion. I don't know how many times I heard someone else say, "It's so good to see you. Just wish the circumstances were better." I found myself saying it as well. Everyone sort of congregated at the American Legion after the funeral. I looked over and saw Eugene McDaniel (Chad's Dad) standing in the middle of the room. He was by himself for just a moment and we looked at each other. That's when it really hit me...


What I have been avoiding writing on this blog happened about a month ago. It was an awesome day! Our family was heading over to Anthony Ks. for the hot air balloon festival on May 9th to pass out water bottles for our church (Life 180). Michelle and Emme were in the truck and going to follow CT and I. We were on the motorcycle. CT is my 3 year old son who loves to do everything that I do and visa-versa! He is my best bud! We got all padded and helmeted up! We were biker dudes for sure and he rides cradled between me and the tank.


About ten minutes later driving down the highway, I noticed that his boot was about to slip off. I tried to put it back on but couldn't so I decided to pull over. I slowed down and glanced to see that the boot was gone. When I looked back up, I had crossed the white line and was a couple of feet in the grass of a sloping wet ditch. I knew right then that we were in trouble and knew that I couldn't get right back on the highway without hitting the lip of the pavement and loosing it for sure. So, I decided to gently slow down and stay where I was at the edge of the ditch. At about 45 MPH, I felt the back tire slip and we skidded through the ditch for about 35 yards on our left side.


My first thought was that I had killed my beautiful son! My leg was pinned under the cycle and somehow I managed to lift the bike off of me. CT's eyes were so huge and when he noticed me over him trying to see if he was OK, he began to cry. Somehow, we were both OK! God wasn't done with either of us yet. By some miracle, we only had some minor scrapes. We were both more scared than anything, and what could have happened scares me even more.


For the past four weeks I put off writing about that or anything else for that matter. Then, I locked eyes with Eugene McDaniel at his son's funeral! How could a father lose a son and continue to go on? What if there had been a fence post, road debris or trees? Anything could have been in our path as we skidded to a halt on that motorcycle.


I don't know why God chose that we should live that day or why Chado died in that crash. I don't know why my son lived while Eugene's son died. It sounds like such a cliche, but I know that I know God's plan is at work all the time...in everything... He uses all things for good, even when and especially when we don't understand or see it.



Rest High Chado.

~Fahring

The Web Cam Chronicles... Part 2: Is He or isn't He?

Was He human or divine?

The "Barry and the Boys" from H2oChurch.tv met this past week again on Tokbox.com for some training we are doing as campus pastors. This week on the Tuesday session were the guys from El Dorado, Barry, and myself. The topic of the theological part of session two was about who Jesus really was/is. The conversation quickly moved to whether or not Jesus was divine or human. I believe that He is/was both, and here are a few scriptures to back this up...

Going over our notes, here is what we studied...

Jesus was a Man! Philippians 2:6-8 & Hebrews 4:15

Philippians 2:6-8:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (English Standard Version)

Verses 7-8 in The Message reads... "When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion."

Since Jesus didn't claim any special privileges, He really did make himself a mere man!

Hebrews 4:15-16 says, "15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

Jesus knows my hang-ups because he also had those same hang-ups, only he didn't fail like I do. Knowing this, we all have to go to Him for the help we all need!

Jesus was also God! Here are some other scriptures that point to the fact that Jesus was also God! When he was taken into custody and questioned by the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus was bold.
Mark 14:60-62 says,"60 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” 61 But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

If Jesus were only a man, he would have denied what he was accused of. He, like the rest of us would have saved his own skin! If he were only man, he wouldn't have died on the cross for us, because if He were only man it wouldn't have mattered! But since He was also God, He could pull it off because only God could!

Another of many examples that shows Jesus to be God is in Matthew 26:34. In this verse, "Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” Again, if Jesus were not also God, how would he know what Peter would say in the future. I mean, he could have made a vague claim like Nostradomus or something, but He specifically said "three times before the morning!" Only God could do that!

Mark 4: 39 -41 gives us another example of how Jesus was proven to be God. "When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

... enough said.
... Jesus was both Man and God!

~Fahring

The Web Cam Chronicles... Part 1

You know, God really moves in ways that I could never even remotely imagine! With our new church plant in Anthony Ks, (Life 180 Church), I have come in contact with so many people that I never would have by staying complacent in our previous church. He also is so cool in how He uses technology to do these things!

Every week, there are at least two to three people that I begin talking to that God has specifically either sent to me as encouragement or sent me to encourage them! Just this past week, we (Jason B. and I) started some campus pastoral training with Barry Worcester from H20church.tv. We used a website called tokbox.com that is similar to Skype and allows us to do video conferencing. We met with another guy from Bartlesville Ok. from Ignite Church. The information we shared was great!

Here is the crux of this posting...So many Christians hide from the world when they (we) should be invading it. If we truly are in a war, then why don't we take the next hill on the battlefield and continue moving forward? We hide in our "Christian Bubbles" and continue on through life with our christian friends watching our christian movies, going to this that and the other bible study that can turn into more of a gossip session instead of a prayer meeting and all the while wonder ... why don't nonchristians come to these things? I think the answer is that we don't let them in our bubble!

In our training with Barry, we began talking about the passage from John Ch. 4 about the woman at the well and how H2oChurch builds it's mission on this chapter. Specifically, Jesus was just outside the village of Sychar at Jacob's well in the middle of the day... noon'ish, hot as hot.. You get the picture! It says in verses 6-7 that he (Jesus) was sitting there next to the well when this woman came to get water.

Here is what I found interesting... the woman only came in the middle of the day because in today's language, she would have been thought of as a "fast woman", "promiscuous", basically she didn't have a good reputation in the community. Anyway, she came to the well at noon because nobody would be there at that time. She wouldn't have to hear the other women's comments, and she wasn't welcomed at that place when people were there. She went to the well to do a chore that nobody wants to do at the worst time of the day to do it and she met God! The creator of our universe sat in the heat and dirt and met with her!

What I learned in our video conference and as I rehash this here is that God has his own bubble, and everything in existence is in it... including us! Why do we as Christians so often try to only go after the affluent or the people that can do things to help our church? How do we know that God won't do amazing things in amazing ways with and through people we find completely unamazing and oftentimes repulsive!

So many of the "Lost" people of this world see Christianity as a religion where rules have to be followed, budgets need to be met, and committees need to meet when in essence Christianity is none of those things. We need to show people that Christianity is a relationship and a series of intimate moments with the Creator of the universe just like the woman at the well had by breaking our "Christian Bubbles"! Barry summed it up when he said, "Remove the bariers that hinder non-Christians from seeing God".

~Fahring

Post Easter

Hope everyone had a great Easter! If you haven't found those eggs yet, KEEP LOOKING! They will probably start smelling pretty bad by tomorrow! A really good blog to check out about Easter Sunday at our church Life180 is ... http://www.stay-at-home-child.com/
Evie kind of hits the nail on the head with this one.
~Jason

Hearing God? Really?? Sure you got the right guy God?

Wow, I've got a blog? They will let anyone in here won't they!

...Isn't it amazing how God works! I mean, I wish I really understood even just a part of it, but I am continually blown away at how HE puts people together. How the God of the universe plans everything in His perfect timing! WOW!

... HERE IS MY STORY...

About six years ago, Michelle and were living in the Lawrence Ks. area and loving it. Our church was awesome (plug for Lawrence Wesleyan if you are in the area), but all of the sudden things began to change. We were young and only out of college for a couple of years. We made too much money for couples our age, and then Michelle decided she needed a career change.

That change led us out of civilization (defined as having at least one Walmart, Target, Brewery, and MLB team within 1.5 hours... you get the idea) to Attica Ks. Attica is a "poke and plum" town as my Dad says. If you poke your nose around the corner, you are plum out of town! We both took jobs with the school, and God took away my passion for coaching baseball.

What seemed to hurt the most was losing our church family in Lawrence. We struggled for a couple of years then about three years ago found a great church. We began to develop a new church family and some very close relationships. Then He did it again! I began to see some things that looked unhealthy in the church... my friends started leaving one by one... and what was worse was that it seemed that nobody in the church really cared! I was actually told that it was "cyclical", that these things happen, but the people tend to come back eventually.

What's wrong with this picture? Hurting people were and continue leaving churches all over the country and it seems like not too many people are upset about it, or they just assume that they left for petty reasons like the music or something lame like that. Come on ... really? Is the worship music really to meet the needs of the congregation or is it for Worshiping God? If Amazing Grace is done with a hand bell choir, as long as it is done with the right heart for God, then it is worshipful of Him! THAT DOESN'T MEAN I AM A FAN OF THE MUSIC OR STYLE THOUGH!

We prayed for God to close the door if it was His will for our place in that church and sure enough, it was overwhelmingly clear that he did! The next weekend, Michelle and I started the "Church Research Tour/08" as we call it. For the next three and a half months, we went to many churches within about a 100-150 mile radius. God had put the crazy idea of starting a church in our hearts and also in another couple who had done the same type of "tour" before we did.

Some of these churches were a little different, but they all had one common denominator... they had "It" as Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch.tv puts it. We could feel the presence of God the moment we walked into the buildings these churches meet in. In these places, we could feel that the people were actually doing life together and not just showing up to see and be seen on Sunday. A genuine sense of community by people who love God in everyplace we went. The thing that I think I learned most from this "tour" was that I had been so wrong about how I viewed church and how things in churches should be done.

Here are some of the awesome things we observed and learned:

1. A guy smoking on the front steps of the church only to find out that he was one of the worship

team members! Not only that, but previously, he was playing the bar scene (not as a

christian), but when the pastor asked/hired him to play in church, he saw the impact and was

changed!

2. At offering, people were told it was ok to make a withdrawl in the collection plate if they really

needed it! Afterall, it is God's money anyway!

3. Almost everywhere we went, it seemed like someone knew someone we knew. God created

a network system for us!

4. Many of the messages that we heard the pastors teach were all very similar in theme! God

wasn't wasting a thing!

5. God helped us realize that starting a church wasn't such a crazy thing afterall! I mean, think

about it... people started every church in your town at some point didn't they?

So here is where we are... God has assembled a team of people in Anthony Ks. who have gone nuts and started a church. We have officially been meeting for four weeks tomorrow and know that we are doing the right thing. Don't get me wrong, nothing about this is easy or comfortable, but we find strength in knowing that we are working on something with purpose and vision to meet the needs of people in Harper County and the surrounding area.

The only time another church is not needed is when all the people are saved!

~Jason