"A Highway in the Desert"

I just got done reading the last post that I wrote, and that was back in April. A lot has happened since then, and I feel a little bad for not writing about any of them, but here we are anyway. I will actually go back and revisit some of those things which I have not talked about yet, so I shouldn't be able to go this long without a post again. All this to say that the online version of The Higher Plane is now up to date and back on track.

The topic of today's post is from Isaiah 40. This chapter is probably my favorite chapter in the Old Testament, and I won't really be able to go through all that challenges me here, I want to hit on a couple of points in the first eight verses and see what you think.

My first thought comes from verse three, which as you may have noticed is where the title of this post has come from. The verse reads as follows: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." This verse is striking to me in a couple of profound ways. One is that the highway for the Lord is being made in the desert. This is important because of the fact that the desert is generally a place that kind of implies a lack of God. Now, I don't mean that if you're in a physical desert that God is not there and is not helping you at all, that would be completely wrong and you could find a hundred different verses to prove it. But when I think of a desert, I am thinking of a dry land that is thirsty and desperate for the Living Water that is Christ. I really don't believe that Isaiah is referring to an actual desert when he says this, but that he is talking about that desolate land which so deprived from the Living Word that it has dried up into spiritual nothingness. And as I think about this verse I think about how this desert can be found all over, from the most remote villages which have never heard to Gospel to the local American church which has complete access to the fullness of His Word but has removed it's power in exchange for bigger buildings and a higher number of attendees. This desert is a lack and a desire, a place which is longing for the sweet refreshing rain of the presence of God but either cannot or will not access it.

This is the wilderness that the prophet is calling out to. And I fully believe this is an invitation for us to cry out in the desert as well. I feel that it is the job of every believer to cry out for God's presence and call the desert people to experience the raging river that our God promises to be (I'm thinking of Eze 47:1-12 for this, and that is a scripture to be tackled for another time). We have to cry out, and we have to create a highway for our God in the desert so that the people can find their way to Him. And I have a particular story that paints the image for me thinking about this highway.

This summer as our team was walking down a street in Central Asia, we came across a scene where men were laying bricks down to improve the tram that went through town. The bricks were basically replacing the sand/dirt that was there. We noticed an immediate improvement. The dirt was much harder to jump in and out of the tram from, while the brick provided a firm foundation for us to place our feet giving us stability as we got on and off the tram. While this wasn't as big of an improvement for us (being young and nimble) we could see a bigger difference for the old and the crippled as they were getting on. It made it so much better for them. It made the tram easier to use for all, and especially for those who were tired and weary and needing of the help. This is an important picture for the highway we are laying for Christ in the desert, because although He can be found without it, we are giving people a firm foundation for finding God in the midst of the overwhelming desert. We are advancing His kingdom by making it easier for those who truly seeking, but are having difficulty because of age, of crippled souls, or simply because the way is difficult.

Doing the task that God has given you

The other part of this story that is relevant to me is that these men were laying one brick at a time. This wasn't a machine driven process, there were men on the ground laying a brick and then another guy would lay the next brick, and so on and so on. This was the process they went through to improve the tram, and this is exactly the process we need to follow as well. God designed this highway to be built by His Church, by men and women getting on their hands and knees, flattening and leveling the ground, and by laying one brick at a time. And it is our job to lay that one brick down to the best of our capacities, because if that brick isn't level, then the next brick isn't going to be either. Or, if the next brick is level, then that leaves the previous brick in the position of a stumbling block. We lay our brick, and set the foundation for the next person to lay their brick. It isn't important to us who gets the last brick, or the brick that leads to the most people, or whatever our case may be, our concern needs to be laying the brick which God has given us as diligently and wisely as possible. If we are lucky, God may give us another brick to lay, but we are not to be concerned with that, we are simply given a brick and a place to lay it. And at the end, we get the satisfaction of knowing that our brick made the highway, our brick was important in leading many people to Christ, and although our individual brick may not seem important at the time we lay it, without it there would be a gap in the highway and a hole in which people will trip on their way to see our glorious Father.

I guess this is as far as I'm going to get in this chapter today, but that's alright. I want to simply encourage you to lay your brick and understand that it is important. We also need to cry out while we're laying that brick, whether it is a song of praise or it is an intercession for the lost, the cry needs to go out into the desert. How can they believe who have not heard? (Rom 10:14-15). So cry out in the wilderness, lay your brick on the highway in the desert, and do not cease to cry out for Rain in the desert places of this world!

Challenged and Confused

So I realize that it has been a while since my last post, and I apologize for that. I'll have you know that I haven't been slacking off, there are a lot of things going on here that require a lot of attention, and although that isn't a very good excuse, it is a reason. So anyway, on to the actual post.

As I sit here and I think about all that is happening with the ministry (we have a leadership team retreat starting tomorrow, I'm raising money to go to central Asia, one of my best friends is getting married in a little over a month, which is right before I actually leave the country, we have three weeks of school left including finals....) I am overwhelmed with something that God has been teaching me over the last week or so. In fact, it actually has consumed my thoughts much more than anything else has, which either means that I trust God to fulfill His promises (which I hope) or that I'm using this other thought as a distraction (which I actually doubt, I don't normally get distracted when I need to come up with $5k). The thought is about what Christianity actually is. You seen, the problem I'm having is that when I look at the way the Christian faith is described in the Bible and the way that I see it lived out in my life and the lives of many around me just don't seem to match up.

Really, this is just a thought. I read passages in the Gospels where Jesus tells people that they will not have a place to lay their head, that they cannot go back and bury their father, that they cannot not even say goodbye to their families, and I wonder how it is that any became Christians at all. I was reading the end of the book of Joshua (right around where the famous "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" verse is) and even there you get the feeling that people are trying to be talked out of following God. Not that they're actually being talked out of it, mind you, but I get that feeling because what Joshua and Jesus were doing was laying out what it means to be a follower of Christ. If we're going to be Christ followers, disciples of Jesus, then we have to follow under the same expectations that drove away so many throughout the gospels.

This is only my initial thought, which means that I don't even know what to do with this and I have no idea what it means. I just feel challenged to read the Gospels and the Bible to actually live out what it says. This was a very weak post, I know, but that's where I'm at: confused, unable to put together complete thoughts, and challenged to live out what the Bible says Christianity is.

 How about you?

Retreat

"So what did you do over Presidents' Day weekend?"
"Oh, I drove to Douglas, WY, played with puppets, sat underneath a giant jackalope, and grew more in what it means to be a part of God-honoring relationships."

UW students between sessions

This weekend we had our CV Spring Retreat in Douglas, WY. It was a weekend full of God and fellowship as we listened to our guest speaker Bobby Pruett (from Christian Challenge at the University of Colorado) give us input on the topic of God-honoring relationships. What I'm hoping to do here is give you a taste for what the retreat was like, a summery of what Bobby taught over, and how I would like to see God use this weekend for the betterment of UW and CV as a whole.

So I guess I might as well just take these in order. The feel of the retreat was that of a relaxing and challenging weekend to get teaching from God, have fellowship with other believers, and to just take time away from our busy lives and devote it to those two things in a fun and interesting way. And we went with a pretty interesting way. This year the emcees for the event were puppets, specifically George Washington and Abe Lincoln who acted as if they were surgeons in a medical drama. This allowed for some interesting interactions, with "surgeries" and "ailments" and also allowed us to put to practice some of the things Bobby was teaching throughout the weekend. Now, the idea for the puppets was the brainchild of Zack Eckerdt and I, and just so everyone knows, we weren't aware that it was presidents' day weekend until the Saturday of the retreat, so it just was a happy accident that we happened to have Presidents who were medical doctors. This added a fun feel to the retreat, giving people something to wake up with and get involved. We also had a pool party, board games, a skit competition where students and staff set bible stories to different TV genres, and lots of worship and fun. It's always fun to get together and meet people from the different campuses and to form bonds that can travel across Wyoming and South Dakota and that will continue to be connections throughout the rest of our lives.

A Group of students during the skit

Now, the bulk of the retreat was focused around Bobby's sessions, of which I will give the quick and dirty version (if you'd like more information about them, or just want to share thoughts, feel free to contact me). In the first session, Bobby set up what he was going to be talking about over the weekend: God-honoring relationships. He talked about how God, through the Trinity, has always been about relationships, and how that aspect transferred over when He created us. Bobby listed three reasons why people are important to God: 1)we are made in His image, 2)Christ gave His life for every person's redemption, and 3)the Holy Spirit can transform every person who commits themselves to Christ. He then ended the first session with the concept that "love" is an action word, not an emotion.

The second session was about God-honoring family relationships. He talked about how just about all families are screwed up in some fashion, including many of the biblical ones, but that families were meant to be the ultimate set up for discipleship. Throughout the talk he challenged us to clear up (as best we can) relationships within our families, and that we need to have our lives set on having Godly relationships with our family before we can really start to consider marriage and having children. He also gave us some things to chew over about the "one flesh" concept of marriage.

The third session was about having God honoring relationships with purpose, or within the context of the Great Commission. Basically I split this talks into two points. The first point is that our spiritual families are more important than our physical families. Many times they are the same, but he used the example of Jesus in Luke 2 where He stays behind in Jerusalem talking to the priests and scribes and causes His parents (Mary and Joseph) to worry. Jesus is about His Father's business first. The second point throughout this talk that I got was that there is a price to be paid for the advancement of the Gospel. Jesus had to sacrifice His divinity for our salvation, for the Good News, and we will have to give all of ourselves for this cause as well. We must devote ourselves fully to God's purposes and we must put nothing ahead of that devotion to Christ.

The last session was about how to have our relationship with God to be a God-honoring relationship. He asked a couple of questions to go off of. Do you know God? Do you love God/are you in love with God? Do you have God's heart for people? These were the questions that he really wanted us to ponder, to allow them to impact our lives and to allow them to shape us into who God wants us to be.

Now, the last part of this is about what I hope to see come from this retreat. I hope to see people emboldened to take the relationships that they have seriously and full of prayer. I pray that God will use this weekend to really get people thinking about the families that they want to have in the future, as well as the families that they have now. I also hope that people will take the idea of disciplemaking more seriously as an important aspect of developing relationships within their spiritual families.

This is just a quick rundown, there was a lot of video and stuff taken, so I will hopefully share those with you as they become available to me. Thanks for all of you who prayed over the event and have been praying for this ministry, God has truly been answering your prayers. I'll leave you with the promo video that Zack created. If it doesn't make sense to you now, know that none of the students knew that we were going to have Abe and George emceeing, so you've got one up on them. Thanks and God bless, Dustin.

Crazy "Coincidence"

So, I just want to share with you an experience I had of an awesome "coincidence" that occurred in my life, just to give you a testimony of how God is at work in my life and how He is providing for me.

So for the last couple of months I have felt a very strong conviction that I need to be giving some of my funds to missionaries that I know, to help support them financially. I have been pretty hesitant to do so because I have been pretty low on money myself since I moved here and I didn't want to put myself into further financial hardship. The conviction, however, has been growing and growing, and so I finally just gave into the prompting and contacted a couple I know who has just started doing campus ministry in Colorado and told them that I wanted to start giving them a monthly donation. They were kind of shocked, but after I explained that I was feeling this conviction and that if they would not accept my donation that I would be giving it to someone else, they gave me the information I needed and I told them that I would be sending them the money. When I went home that day, I had received in the mail an envelope that was sent but it didn't have a return address on it. Inside was $325 with a note that said "RENT $". That was all that was in the envelope, and I couldn't believe it. I have speculated who sent the money, but I know for a fact that it was from God because the fact that I received it the day that I committed to giving monthly was just to perfect. It was God reminding me that I am under His watch and His protection, and that when I follow after Him with everything I have, including the little money that He gives me, He will be faithful and will provide for my every need.

This was a very encouraging moment for me, but it would not have been had I not taken the initiative and done what God was asking. I believe that He is trying to bring me to a place where I will not wait months to start doing what He asks, but by having it be the same day He is bringing me to a place where I can fully trust Him the moment He asks of me. Lord, I pray that You would help me more and more to have the faith, the courage, and the trust to act on what You give me and to use the gifts You give me to bring You the glory and to make Your fame known throughout the earth. Lord, You are an amazing God, a wonderful Provider, and the only One that makes this life worth living. I love You, Father, and praise You for Your blessing and for Your name. And in that name I pray, amen.