Sometimes I wonder if we really get it...

Acts 2:36-41:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him
both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

So the steps to get right with God:

1. Believe the gospel of Jesus.
2. Repent
3. Be Baptized (unless you die right after you repent (see: the thief on the cross)).

So step 1 is pretty easy. The Gospel of Jesus is this: God created man and established a way that he should live, man rebelled against that way. This rebellion broke man's relationship with God, the very thing man was created for. Since God is perfectly good and perfectly just he MUST punish man for this rebellion, but man cannot endure God's infinite punishment. Jesus is God's Son, perfect in every way, he was crucified. This was done as a punishment for your sin, in this way His righteousness became yours and allows you to now come into fellowship with God. On the 3rd day after his death on the cross Jesus rose from the grave, to show He in fact was who he said he was and to show that he has the power to conquer sin and death. When you come into fellowship with God you receive eternal life and his Holy Spirit, who is God, and a counselor, he guides you and helps you to live a righteous life, no priest necessary, you can now approach God as an individual. That's pretty much it, either you believe it or your don't. If you don't believe, you can stop reading now, however there is a cool video at the end.

Step 3 is really easy, it's just getting dunked under water. Getting dunked may seem kind of silly, but when you first believe and repent, you want to please God, and you have no idea how, so God made it easy...get dunked under water for Jesus...it makes Him happy, don't ask me why, it just does. Really it's an act of grace on God's part. He made this all so simple, we don't need to build any roadblocks, however we do need to follow through with it. If you're a Christian and you haven't been baptized then there's no way around the fact that your living in disobedience to God's word (which is sin by definition).

OK so what about step 2. What is repentance? Well it's identifying and turning away from sin. This video pretty much sums it all up:



Be sure to watch the whole video.

For my friends at Fresh Start: We're going to be baptizing more, so this Sunday (April 19, 2009), if you believe, if you've repented, show up in swim trunks...we might start keeping some handy for those who decide to repent on the spot.

For my friends NOT at Fresh Start: If you go to church, encourage people to believe, repent, and be baptized and then to love God, love others, and make disciples. If you don't go to church, well stop by sometime at Fresh Start, we preach the gospel and always have lunch.

and for everyone: Remember, Love God, Love Others, and Make Disciples.

In Christ,

Dax

Volunteers Needed

While doing some research today I came along a website that some of the women and children in our church might be interested in. It is a blanket ministry for the homeless. They are needing people to volunteer to crochet a blanket. I know that some people feel like there is nothing they can do for ministry, but I know a lot of women, men, and children who know how to crochet and could use this talent for good. The site is http://www.needlesfortheneedy.blogspot.com/

If you would rather keep ministry closer to home than maybe some could be made for the less fortunate in the area or even taken on the next Liberia trip. Ministry comes in all forms. Blessings!

How Big is YOUR God?

Most of us can state without hesitation or limitation that God is big, very big. We can describe God's attributes and character with many high sounding words. Infinite, creator, all powerful, all knowing, sovereign, all loving, pure, etc.

God is God. He said "I am". In other words, God is who God is simply because He is God. He is who He is, regardless of what we think He is.

The real question for us is "How big is your God?"

If we believe in the great I Am, then we must accept what He says about Himself. Sadly, the great I Am is not our God. Our actions show we really don't believe in that God. Our actions show we believe in a lesser God, a God who is not quite as big as the real one.

Our lives show that we really don't think God is all that big. We limit our God to what we can do. It is nonsense and deception to say on the one hand that God is big, then only do what we can do on the other. Our lives and actions really show how big we think God is.

So we go about our lives making no impact. How much impact have you had with those around you? Has that impact led people to Jesus or away? How much impact has your life made in the world? Or is your God limited to your community and your family and your church?

How big is your God?

He says that He can do more than we can ask or imagine. He can do more than we can think of or dream about. He can use you to make an eternal impact on this world. He can use you to do amazing things. Trouble is, we just don't think God is that big.

How big is God?

God is big enough to change nations. God is big enough to transform the lives of millions. Have you ever dreamed of being a part of changing a nation? Have your ever dreamed of seeing millions accept Jesus as savior? Have your ever dreamed of helping thousands overcome addiction? Have your ever dreamed of seeing your community turn to Christ?

Just how big is your God? Your life is the answer to that question.

Kris

God is moving in Liberia: from a pastor

I got this note from one of the pastors at Peace Island. I hope it brings joy to you this Easter.

dear Pst. Kris,

Thanks a million I received your mail. We are in prayer with you that God going to make your desire for the people of P Island to come to pass.

The Good Friday service was very great in the CAC, with lots of adults turning their lives to Jesus. As the seven powerful words lastly spoken by Jesus b/4 he gave out the ghost on the cross were been preached by kids under 12 years old ,many adults broke down in tears and many of them turned their lives to Christ. these people have almost make my home theirs because they want to keep hearing the message of the cross.

B/4 the kids started their preaching, one & a half huor of vedio show was displaced abuot all that Jesus went through b/4 his death on the cross.

We are so sorry that we do not have a camera to have taken some photos for your viewing.

Pst. Kris, I must be very frank with you that your encouragement abuot the message of the cross came at the best & most needed time in the hostory of Liberia, especially the P Island.Our people really need this message for transformation. Which is the only hope for their lives.

I know U are in prayer with us b/c God is doing wonders on the island.

Thank you
Pst. Othello

We hunt Easter eggs in America

We are nearing the end of a truly American seasonal phenomenon, Easter egg hunts. Every spring, we put baskets in our kids' hands, line them up, shout "go", and take great joy in the mad scramble for hidden Easter eggs. We do this as communities, as organizatons, and as families. Our kids quickly learn that it is every egg hunter for themselves. Gather those eggs up before the next kid get them.

Perhaps this is a metaphor of how American churches, American Christians, do things. Grab up all of the blessings from God you can before someone else gets them. Get a bigger basket so it can hold more eggs. Get that higher paying job so you can put that bigger house in your basket. Use your salary to put cars, big screen TV's, and iPods in your basket. Our baskets are full of fancy, colorful, expensive Easter eggs.

We even give tithes and offerings to God, then use them to fill our baskets at church. Coffee shops, waterfalls, beautiful fixtures, big staffs, banquets, all pretty Easter eggs to put in our basket. All just for us.

But worst of all, we gather up the gospel, put it in our basket, and believe just as that little kid, that it is just for us. So we will go to church on Easter celebrating Christ's death and resurrection, and take great joy that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We will look into our Easter basket, see what God gave us, and be as thankful as we can for the gift he gave just for us.

So we keep the greatest gift that was ever given in our basket, gathering it just for ourselves. Just like the millions of kids frantically grabbing all the Easter eggs they can at the thousands of Easter egg hunts across America.

God so love the world, He sent His own Son. Christ died for the sins of everyone. Yet most Amercian Christians live a life that really shows Christ just died for them. That is the gospel we have shown the rest of America and the world. We have shown them Christ just died for us.

Little wonder we are ignored and ridiculed. If Christ is such a treasure, if salvation is such a great thing, if Christ died for everyone, why don't American Christians act like it. Instead, we put Jesus in our basket and keep him for ourselves.

Kris

What shall we do?

What shall we do?

Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

God is commanding Liberians everywhere to repent. Sin has filled their land with poverty, disease, rape, sexual immorality, corruption, stealing, greed, and murder. Just a few years ago sin brought civil war to their nation. There is an uneasy peace in Liberia. Churches pray for peace because they fear war will once again come. And without changed hearts, repentance, it could.

Sin has robbed this people of their hope. It has destroyed the family structure. People are afraid to walk the streets at night because there is no light and thieves and rapists prey on victims. Government officials and Non Government Agencies (NGO’s) use the money intended to help the people to enrich themselves. Everyone wants a little bribe to do the job they were hired to do.

Some UN official or NGO group decided to do something about rape. Women in Liberia are mostly second class citizens and are used by the men for sex, willing or unwilling. So some organization got funding to stop rape. It would be unusual if this organization didn’t get lots of money to help stop rape. And after buying the fancy Jeeps and cars, after renting the best housing, after paying the servants and the bar tab, they used a few dollars to put up silly billboards.

After all the money, after all the thought, after all the meetings, they decided that some cartoon billboards that asked men not to rape women would be just the program to stop rape. Tell that to the poor young girls we visited in JFK hospital.

The UN and most NGO’s believe Jesus is in our imagination. They see us as foolish. Praying and preaching can do nothing they think. So they try to stop the brutality of rape with cartoon billboards. They seem to believe that these evil men who see women as animals to be used and abused, will look at these cartoons and be changed.

They think that a ban on guns will stop murder. In Liberia, almost no policemen have guns, but most criminals do. So the people huddle in their dark shacks at night, afraid to venture out. They think a law will make these evil men give up their weapons.

The UN and NGO’s have convinced Liberians that they are their hope and their future. Many Liberians see America as their deliverer. They danced in the streets on our election night, believing a black US president would mean more money from America, believing one of their own had made it to the top. They saw hope in his election.

As hopeless, deceitful, and damaging as looking to the UN and the NGO’s programs for hope, they do not have anywhere close to the negative impact on Liberia as the importation of the American Church.

The American Church is mostly dead and ineffective, yet we have held it up in Liberia as the model for the country. We have come and built buildings when the people need food. We have come and brought a dress code when people live in dirt-brick shacks. Liberians outdress Americans on Sunday. We have brought our praise songs and dancing, that make happy at church, but bring no hope at home.

We have brought our Sunday religion that is dead the rest of the week. Liberia is a slave to sin, but the Liberian Church mostly stays inside the church, just like the American Church.

And worst of all, we have brought the prosperity gospel. If you want to be healed, give the pastor money as a seed and you will be healed. If you want to be rich, give the pastor money and it will be returned one hundred fold. If you don’t get these things it is your fault because you simply don’t have enough faith. So give more money and have more faith. Liberia is full of prosperity preachers who offer to fix the consequences of sin for a little seed money.

But what was Jesus’ message? Repent. Seek ye first His Kingdom and his righteousness, then all these things will be added unto you. Turn from your wicked ways and live righteous lives. Jesus came to save, not condemn. He came to save us from sin. He came to save Liberians from their sin. They live daily with the consequences of their sin and Jesus wants to help them, change them.

The only hope that Liberia has is Jesus. The only way they can have Jesus is to repent, seek forgiveness through the blood of the cross, and become new creations, a changed people. Liberians must choose between sin and righteousness.

They must quit looking to cartoon billboards, American money, and prosperity preachers for their hope of change. Peter confronted the crowd with their sin. They cried out “what shall we do?” Peter replied “"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Liberia is crying out “what shall we do?” We must tell them to repent and be baptized.

Kris

He couldn't stop crying

He couldn’t stop crying

Saturday, during the crusade, Calvin Burgess spoke about what could be done in Liberia to use the land and called them to repentance and to Christ. Dax then followed up with a call to repentance and asked them to go back to being Christopolis, Monrovia’s former name. An invitation was given for people to repent of sin. Hundreds responded and came forward to pray and repent.

Afterward, during some praise music, I walked into the crowd to visit with people. A man immediately caught my eye. He had his head in his hands and he was weeping. Not really knowing what was the matter, I simply sat beside him and put my arm around him. He could not stop crying.

He was a little dirty, wearing some old jeans and a black T shirt. His shoes were worn tennis shoes. It was clear this man was just a common Liberian. No fancy clothes or gold colored jewelry as many Liberians wear to impress.

I finally asked him what was wrong. It took him several minutes more before he could talk. As tears were still trickling down his cheeks, eyes red, he pulled out a yellow notepad with two pages full of handwritten notes.

“God told me some things months ago. I told other people but they said I was crazy. They wouldn’t believe me. Some said I would be killed if I said these things. Nobody would believe me.” He handed me the notes he had written months earlier.

I couldn’t believe it. What was written was almost word for word of what Dax had said. He could not have had time to write this down while Dax was speaking. God had told this man the same things He had told Dax.

And this thought overwhelmed the emotions of this man. God had spoken to him. God did want Monrovia to once again be called the City of Christ. People did need to repent. Liberia did need to stop looking to the white man to help them and begin looking to God. What he had written was true. This man knew he had talked with God and now it was confirmed by a big white American he had never met.

This was why the man couldn’t stop crying. So often we hear God’s voice but have doubts whether it was really God or just our imagination. So often we hear God’s voice but others scoff and ridicule us when we share it. Thank God that He seems to send us just the right encouragement and confirmation at just the right time.

Christopolis, the City of Christ, a vision of the future.

Kris

Give them no rest

Give them no rest

Tuesday night we went to a displaced family area called Peace Island. It is a rock hill surrounded by swamp. It is worthless so families without anywhere else to go can build a house there. The homes have big holes next to the house where the family dug out dirt and made dirt bricks to build the house. Then they use old tin or tarps for a roof. Peace Island has thousands of people and many children. It also has many ex-soldiers who still have many psychological problems. There is no electricity or water. The schools are simply crude huts. The children must bring their own chairs if they want to sit. The schools have no books and old broken blackboards.

We rented a pickup with speakers and a sound system in the back. We made a circle through the area playing music. We set up in a dirt field they use to play soccer. We strung up lights and began to play music. Soon we had 300-400 people, maybe more, gathered six and seven deep in a big circle around us. We got the children togther to sing and play some games. Then we preached the gospel of repentance, forgiveness, new creations, and hope. Over 100 people responded to the gospel message and many more came to repent of their sin.

We then gathered the 10 pastors from Peace Island and presented them with NIV Study Bibles. You cannot imagine happier pastors. We were an answer to prayer. The gospel was preached in their community, God had let them know others cared about them, and now they had study Bibles to help them better teach their people.

Then “The Prophet” gave a prayer of commission to them. They call this man "The Prophet" because he speaks truth. I have never met anyone who had more of the Bible memorized. I, like many Bible belt Christians, get a little uneasy when I hear a man called a prophet. But at least in Liberia, this really just means that God speaks to this man and this man speaks the truth of what God says.

The Prophet gave one of the most moving and powerful prayers I have ever heard. He prayed that the Bibles would be coals of fire upon the pastor tongues and that they would teach their people everything in them. He prayed that God would bring the truth of His Word to life in the pastors. He prayed that the people would listen and obey what was taught.

Then The Prophet asked something of God that was so simple, but powerful. He asked God to do something I wish the American pastors and their congregations could hear. He asked God to do something that is overlooked and forgotten in the American Church.

He asked God to cause the people to trouble their pastors day and night to teach them the Word of God. He asked that the people give these pastors no rest.

Can you imagine such a thing? Can you imagine pastors getting calls day and night from their people, hungry to know more about God, eager to find out His commands? Can you imagine pastors having to give up watching television at night because their people wanted to find out how to live more righteous and holy lives? Can you imagine pastors giving up trying to have a quiet supper because their people keep knocking on their door wanting to know how to better explain the gospel to their lost friends?

Sadly, this would upset and irritate many American pastors. They feel they are entitled to their rest, they are entitled to their days off, and they are entitled personal time. God, I pray you would give them no rest.

God give those pastors at Peace Island no rest. May the people there hunger so much for Your Word that they seek it day and night. For I know God, that if God’s people seek first Your Kingdom, all these other things will be added unto them.

God give them no rest.

Kris

Worth more than a million dollars

Worth more than a million dollars

Merle Patzkowski and the people of Living Waters were led to give Bibles to Liberia. When I heard they were going to do this I was excited and pleased, but I must now admit I had no idea just what impact these Bibles would make, and the great need there is in Liberia for Bibles.

We agreed that the first Bibles purchased and sent would be NIV Study Bibles for the pastors. Many, probably most, pastors in Liberia have very small, poor churches. Purchasing a good study Bible, much less commentaries and books, is out of reach for many pastors. In fact, I met pastor after pastor that only had an old King James Bible. Some pastors just had the pocket New Testament with Psalms.

Keep in mind these pastors did not go to college or seminary. They are ordinary men who God called to lead a church. And they lead a congregation of poor, uneducated people that do not own a Bible. So the only source of Biblical teaching, the only source of God’s Word for these people is through their pastor.

There is no way better to describe the impact of the NIV Study Bibles than to quote a pastor of a small, rural church whose people live in absolute poverty. Tony and Mary Beth Outhier (they got married in Liberia) went to his church on Sunday and gave him a Bible. He hugged the Bible next to his heart and said "this is more valuable than a million dollars". He had been teaching his people from old Sunday School material, unable to afford a Bible.

Thank you Living Waters for listening to God speak and being obedient to his request. Your gift was worth more than a million dollars. I have no doubt your gift will bring eternal life to thousands and thousands of souls. Your gift will bring joy, peace, comfort, and hope to a people who are desperate for these things.

Living Waters, your gift is an answer to many cries to God from Liberian pastors that God would provide them with His Word so they can teach their people the way of righteousness and holiness.

May God bless you and may God pour out the power of His Word upon the people of Liberia.

Kris