(So I don't get accused of recycling blog material, please let me explain: I received more RUF support information this weekend, so I've updated this older post instead of writing a whole new one.)

The LORD continues to humble me with His beyond-generous provision for me and the work I believe He's called me to. And again, He has seen fit to raise these funds in a manner that literally removes any chance at all for me to take even the smallest bit of credit or glory. As of today HE has raised up about 70% of my support (through pledges or donations) for the 2006-07 academic year. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement; would you please continue them? And would you please take time to lift up the other 30 or so RUF interns who are sharing in Christ's suffering as we/they labor to raise up the needed funds to get us to campus in the Fall. For some of us, the money is coming in quickly; for others it is coming in at a nerve-rackingly slow pace. Either way, though, as God works through us He is also working IN us. As He sovereignly moves people to support us through prayer and material support, He is simultaneously and lovingly testing, growing, and nurturing our incredibly meager faith. He is a gentle Master...and all that He asks, He provides (Derek Webb's words, not mine) tenfold through grace.

It warms my heart to see how God, with each one of these RUF interns, is literally gathering an entire community of people (donors, prayer supporters, interns, families, churches, campus ministers, etc.) to take His Gospel and proclamation of divine love to university campuses around this country. It makes you think...behind every minister, every missionary, and every Christian...is a whole community of believers praying, financing, encouraging, and laboring.


TOTALLY UNRELATED, BUT IMPORTANT OTHER NEWS, I'm now officially a "Local" here in Athens. When I walked into the barber shop this morning...the lady quisically mumbled, "Number 6 on the side, clipped on top, and off the ear?" She was just doing her job...but in my mind I knew something profound had just occured. I sat so proudly in that chair...knowing that after 7 years in this town, I have finally "made it".

"Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."
-- The 14th verse of the 90th Pslam


"When I was a child, I was sure of many things. But now after living many years, I am sure of only two things; I am a miserable sinner and Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour!"
-- John Newton (author of 'Amazing Grace')


"American Christianity sees Jesus Christ as a narcotic, not as a King. We demand that He submit to our desires."
--Dr. Larry Craib (author of 'Inside Out')

what you will do when you see His scars for the first time?


"...by His stripes you were healed." 1 Peter 2:14

Oh how I longed to love this movie...how I rooted for it and hoped it would be a blockbuster. But alas! My hopes are dashed after seeing it tonight. I'm underwhelmed...and broken-hearted. Even still, seeing Jack Black in a cape and granny panties is almost worth the $7.75. Almost.

Tomorrow...US v. Ghana @ 9:30am. Huge game. Be sure to tune in.

"Death has been called the 'new obscenity', the nasty thing which no polite person nowadays will talk about in public. But death, even when unmentionable, remains inescapable. The one sure fact of life is that one day, with or without warning, quietly or painfully, it is going to stop. How will I, then, cope with death when my turn comes? Christians hold that the Jesus of the Scriptures is alive, and that those who know him as Savior, Lord, and Friend find in this knowledge a way through all life's problems, dying included. For 'Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before.' Having tasted death himself, he can support us while we taste it, and carry us through the great change to share the life beyond death in to which he himself passed. Death without Christ is 'the king of terrors,' but death with Christ loses the 'sting,' the power to hurt, which it otherwise would have."

-J.I. Packer, "Growing in Christ" (page 55).

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

-Charles Wesley, "Christ the Lord Has Risen Today" (1739).


* My apologies to Mr. Al Gore for borrowing this title from his laughable excuse for a factual documentary on Global Warming ;-)

It really pains my heart that while the entire rest of the world is ecstatically reveling in World Cup 2006...America goes idly by settling for its boring cadre of bland sporting events...golf, basketball, baseball, etc. Why can't we get with the times and join the world's party. What a shame...

ALSO, be sure to catch these games: Australia vs. Brazil tomorrow and USA vs. Ghana (on Thursday).

  

I used to be one of those naive Christians who thought that the Gospel is easy to believe. After a few years now of struggling to believe even the most simple declarations of the Gospel (i.e., that God's love isn't dependent on my performance), I realize that I require God's grace even to believe His grace. Charles Hodge (some guy Jerry Bridges quotes in The Discipline of Grace) says this much better:

"The great difficulty with many Christians is that they cannot persuade themselves that Christ (or God) loves them; and the reason why they cannot feel confident of the love of God, is, that they know they do not deserve his love, on the contrary, that they are in the highest degree unlovely. How can the infinitely pure God love those who are defiled with sin, who are proud, selfish, discontented, ungrateful, disobedient? This, indeed, is hard to believe."

Bridges continues, "This is why it is so important that we keep the Gospel before us every day. Because we sin every day, and our consciences condemn us every day, we need the Gospel every day" (123).

What's the big point here? This is the big point: You cannot rely on your feelings alone to convince you of God's love and favor toward you. You MUST rely on something independent of your fickle emotions...something wholly outside of your deceitful heart. What is this something? It is the breathed out Word of God. Just as the Spirit brings salvation through the Word, He also brings assurance of salvation through the Word. The way we "keep the Gospel before us every day" as Bridges exhorts is to seek the very face of our Father in His Word and in prayer. And guess what...even when you fail to read your Bible or pray, His loving kindness toward you is just as certain as it is during those days when your heart is on fire for Christ and you are in the Word constantly.

For those of you who have been asking me, I received an update about my support raising yesterday. As of now, about 50% of my support has been raised! It is still less than three weeks since my first letters went out. Lesson to be learned here? NOT that Ben is a talented fund raiser. On the contrary! The LORD is an abundantly generous and merciful Father...even to the likes of a faithless and frightened support-raising-impaired child like me. I absolutely love how the LORD so often blesses in ways that remove any opportunity for us taking credit. It's better that way because only then will we sing with joy...

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to Your Name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness." Psalm 115:1