Today is my last full day in Dunedin, New Zealand. I feel like there’s a Hobbit stepping on my sternum. Like, I feel a tiny weight in and on my chest right now. It’s pretty weird and all I can do is chalk it up to the love and burden I have for this place and these people. It’s been pretty life changing being here for 11 weeks.
As a ministry team, we’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we’re all completely at the mercy of God for everything. We are totally dependent on Him to move in men to meet with us. We’re totally dependent on Him to grow the seed that we’ve planted and watered. We’re totally dependent on God to save. We can’t “lead people in prayers.” We can’t convince them to “get saved.” We can’t articulate the Gospel so well that their eyes get opened. And on and on I could go.
All we can do is faithfully live out and share the gospel, and pray that God does something supernatural. All we can do is live faithfully and hope God does something incredible, because even if we live faithfully according to His word, He can still tarry and withhold His loving hand from those with whom we labor—He owes men nothing (Romans 9 and 11). But praise God that He takes great pleasure in the salvation of men. For His Glory, he calls men and women out of spiritual death and into life with Him.
I don’t know much, but if He chooses to save the guys I’ve labored with, I’m going to go be an absolute, over-joyed mess. I will probably cry in a way I’ve never cried before. I’ll dance in a way I’ve never danced before. I’ll laugh in a way I’ve never laughed before. My hope is in Christ alone, but a deep-heart felt prayer is for the salvation of these dudes here at this university.
I told Megan the other day that this place has cut me deep. I feel the weight of this country’s desperate need for Christ and this place has helped me sense my own continual need for Jesus as well. A question that haunts me (in a good way) is: “Why me? Why did He save me?” I mean, he could have left me alone in my sin and allowed it to destroy me. But, he didn’t. He saved me. I see this country’s apathy—most of them just don’t care about Christ at all. But, I care and I want them to know Jesus. God willing, I’m coming back here. I’m coming back to this place if He’ll let me.
Tomorrow, I am leaving New Zealand. Tomorrow, I will rejoice in who Christ is and what He is doing in New Zealand. Tomorrow, I will have clear eyes. Tomorrow, I will have a full heart. Tomorrow, I will say, “God willing, I shall return.”
-Nate Xanders
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
My Kind of Guys: Hugh Wilson, Pastor Matt Chandler, Lee Strobel, and Dr. Luke the Evangelist
I’m a guy with questions. Most of my questions begin like this: “Yeah, sure...but why...?” Like, you could tell me your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla and secretly in my brain I’m wondering, “Okay, I believe you, but why? Why is vanilla your favorite?” I don’t always ask “why” out loud on questions like that because it might seem a little intense, but I still wonder.
Someone once said to me, “I think you’re a guy that really wants to know the truth.” And that’s probably a good evaluation. I’ve always had a hunger for truth, but it wasn’t until my early college days that I learned that to really know truth—to really find it and work it out with your hands, you’ve got to ask good questions. Basically, my personal journalism and communications training in college were like handing silverware to a man that loved to eat a lot—feasting becomes more effective when one has a knife and spork at their disposal.
The more questions I asked, the more skeptical I became—not about God or faith but more so about the world and the goofy way that it operates. After becoming a Christian, Christ began to use my skepticism to re-shape my worldview into a Biblical one—He’s still working on that in me.
One of the things that I have come to appreciate is really good skepticism. Good skepticism is calm, rational, reasonable and seeks truth and understanding rather than winning or argumentative victory. I also enjoy people that are good skeptics and filled with questions.
That’s why the Gospel according to Luke is my favorite synoptic gospel. Luke was a thinker and a bit of a skeptic—and so was Theophilus, the man to whom Luke wrote Luke and Acts. Luke was a doctor but let me tell you, he was also a fantastic journalist and historian. The gospel of Luke could only be assembled by Luke, if he was asking great questions of eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus.
Enter Hugh Wilson. Hugh and I have been hanging a good bit since all the other guys left. I like Hugh a lot. He's my kind of guy. He’s the first guy I’ve ever met that definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt knows more about movies than me. It’s quite nice being on the other end of that conversation about film and it is fun to talk about how the Bible is an intense narrative that surpasses any movie we could ever see.
Hugh asks great questions, he’s intelligent, and he’s a good thinker—it would be great to see how those play out in Hugh if Jesus saves him. He formulates varsity level questions on his own and wants to know the truth. I gave him my copy of “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. Strobel had many of the same questions about faith and God before coming to Christ and writing this book.
Hugh said, “It [the book] is a really good read, aye? It’s enjoyable.”
He read Matthew while the other CCP guys were still here and now he’s blown through John’s gospel too. So what did I tell him to read next? Luke.
Hugh, like a good skeptic, asked me, “Why Luke?”
To which I replied, “Because you and Luke would get along really well.”
This is where Pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas comes in to the picture. Matt preaches the way I want to be preached to—he’s intense, he’s a rambler, he’s a guy that preaches hard and deep, he’ s funny, he’s angry, he’s over-joyed and he’s a skeptic. When I heard him preach for the first time I knew this was a guy that was extremely relevant to any dude age 16-60 and it just so happens that the first sermon I ever listened to by Chandler was as he was preaching through Luke. It took him two years to preach through Luke but it only took me two weeks to listen to all 45 sermons in that series. Because of how much Chandler has impacted me, I told Hugh I would give him an mp3 copy of all 45 Matt Chandler sermons from the Gospel of Luke (calm down, you can download all of Chandler’s sermons for free at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/) so Hugh could follow along with Matt as he read Luke. Because dumping 45 sermons on some guy is pretty intense, I listened to the first one with Hugh today. He liked.
Hugh said “This guy seems really relevant and he’s good—he’s not at all boring.”
I walked home with Hugh and he copied the free sermons to his MacBook. Tonight we’re going to see a movie and then chat some more about Christ.
And don’t worry about Hugh feeling over-loaded. A Lee Strobel book, 45 sermons on mp3, and The Gospel of Luke aren’t too much for this guy. He’s got a real hunger and thirst for information and truth. The hope we have, however, is not that all of his questions will answered. The hope that we have is Christ. We have to believe that it is Christ alone who can reveal Christ to Hugh. Hugh needs eyes to see and ears to hear and only by commanding and powerful word of Christ can he receive those things. We want for the gospel and Jesus to become extremely personal to Hugh.
It’s like Andy Stanley once said, “Well, what happened? Did I get all my questions answered? Well, no. But all of a sudden Christ and the Gospel were deeply personal to me and I didn’t need all my questions answered. You’ll never get rid of all your questions and all your obstacles. But when Christ becomes personal and real and you follow him, the questions and obstacles just feel like they’re not as big and not as important anymore. When it becomes personal to you, you’ll still have questions—you just won’t have to have them answered.”
That’s my prayer for Hugh. My prayer for him is that Jesus Christ would just invade his personal space. My prayer is that Hugh will see how big Christ is and those questions will just become so small. My hope is that God will, as Dr. Eric Mason once said, “flagarantly foul” Hugh with His love and that that love would change Hugh forever and redeem Hugh’s skepticism for Christ and His Glory.
-Nate
Someone once said to me, “I think you’re a guy that really wants to know the truth.” And that’s probably a good evaluation. I’ve always had a hunger for truth, but it wasn’t until my early college days that I learned that to really know truth—to really find it and work it out with your hands, you’ve got to ask good questions. Basically, my personal journalism and communications training in college were like handing silverware to a man that loved to eat a lot—feasting becomes more effective when one has a knife and spork at their disposal.
The more questions I asked, the more skeptical I became—not about God or faith but more so about the world and the goofy way that it operates. After becoming a Christian, Christ began to use my skepticism to re-shape my worldview into a Biblical one—He’s still working on that in me.
One of the things that I have come to appreciate is really good skepticism. Good skepticism is calm, rational, reasonable and seeks truth and understanding rather than winning or argumentative victory. I also enjoy people that are good skeptics and filled with questions.
That’s why the Gospel according to Luke is my favorite synoptic gospel. Luke was a thinker and a bit of a skeptic—and so was Theophilus, the man to whom Luke wrote Luke and Acts. Luke was a doctor but let me tell you, he was also a fantastic journalist and historian. The gospel of Luke could only be assembled by Luke, if he was asking great questions of eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus.
Enter Hugh Wilson. Hugh and I have been hanging a good bit since all the other guys left. I like Hugh a lot. He's my kind of guy. He’s the first guy I’ve ever met that definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt knows more about movies than me. It’s quite nice being on the other end of that conversation about film and it is fun to talk about how the Bible is an intense narrative that surpasses any movie we could ever see.
Hugh asks great questions, he’s intelligent, and he’s a good thinker—it would be great to see how those play out in Hugh if Jesus saves him. He formulates varsity level questions on his own and wants to know the truth. I gave him my copy of “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. Strobel had many of the same questions about faith and God before coming to Christ and writing this book.
Hugh said, “It [the book] is a really good read, aye? It’s enjoyable.”
He read Matthew while the other CCP guys were still here and now he’s blown through John’s gospel too. So what did I tell him to read next? Luke.
Hugh, like a good skeptic, asked me, “Why Luke?”
To which I replied, “Because you and Luke would get along really well.”
This is where Pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas comes in to the picture. Matt preaches the way I want to be preached to—he’s intense, he’s a rambler, he’s a guy that preaches hard and deep, he’ s funny, he’s angry, he’s over-joyed and he’s a skeptic. When I heard him preach for the first time I knew this was a guy that was extremely relevant to any dude age 16-60 and it just so happens that the first sermon I ever listened to by Chandler was as he was preaching through Luke. It took him two years to preach through Luke but it only took me two weeks to listen to all 45 sermons in that series. Because of how much Chandler has impacted me, I told Hugh I would give him an mp3 copy of all 45 Matt Chandler sermons from the Gospel of Luke (calm down, you can download all of Chandler’s sermons for free at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/) so Hugh could follow along with Matt as he read Luke. Because dumping 45 sermons on some guy is pretty intense, I listened to the first one with Hugh today. He liked.
Hugh said “This guy seems really relevant and he’s good—he’s not at all boring.”
I walked home with Hugh and he copied the free sermons to his MacBook. Tonight we’re going to see a movie and then chat some more about Christ.
And don’t worry about Hugh feeling over-loaded. A Lee Strobel book, 45 sermons on mp3, and The Gospel of Luke aren’t too much for this guy. He’s got a real hunger and thirst for information and truth. The hope we have, however, is not that all of his questions will answered. The hope that we have is Christ. We have to believe that it is Christ alone who can reveal Christ to Hugh. Hugh needs eyes to see and ears to hear and only by commanding and powerful word of Christ can he receive those things. We want for the gospel and Jesus to become extremely personal to Hugh.
It’s like Andy Stanley once said, “Well, what happened? Did I get all my questions answered? Well, no. But all of a sudden Christ and the Gospel were deeply personal to me and I didn’t need all my questions answered. You’ll never get rid of all your questions and all your obstacles. But when Christ becomes personal and real and you follow him, the questions and obstacles just feel like they’re not as big and not as important anymore. When it becomes personal to you, you’ll still have questions—you just won’t have to have them answered.”
That’s my prayer for Hugh. My prayer for him is that Jesus Christ would just invade his personal space. My prayer is that Hugh will see how big Christ is and those questions will just become so small. My hope is that God will, as Dr. Eric Mason once said, “flagarantly foul” Hugh with His love and that that love would change Hugh forever and redeem Hugh’s skepticism for Christ and His Glory.
-Nate
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Supremacy of Christ in Carpentry and Patience
When everyone abandoned me here—I mean, when everyone left for the States, I had to break down all of our bunk beds and stuff. Then Josh informed me that we would build a shelf in the shed/garage so we could store the mattresses and broken down bunk pieces. So we started doing this little project and about four hours later we (and when I say we, I mean Josh, because I knew from the start this would take forever) realized how deep we were into this thing. So we kept at it and with about an hour worth of work left, Josh looked down at his watch and said, “Well, time to go home.”
I’m still blown away by the fact that we were so close and he called it a night. So a week later, here I was by myself looking at this cluttered shed. And I finished the carpentry alone. As I was cutting the wood and nailing it into place, I thought about how amazing it is that Christ spent years and years as a carpenter and never sinned. It’s such a frustrating task. Cutting wood in that shed just warred against me—and that’s what Jesus did for a living. He was a carpenter. The tools he had to work with were archaic compared to my power saw and drill. Now, I would argue that He, as the God of the universe, had a “slight” carpentry advantage, since He did it professionally for over two decades and, oh I don’t know, made all the trees by speaking them into existence and then holding them in place by the power of His word. I’m just saying, I don’t think Jesus ever cut the wood incorrectly—but that’s complete conjecture, I know. None of that is really the point.
One thing is for sure, I don’t think I have the patience to do carpentry six days a week for over 20 years. But Jesus did. Carpentry takes unbelievable patience. And we know that Christ is perfectly patient. As I thought about Christ as a carpenter, I couldn’t help but think of His patience as Savior and Lord. I thought about His unreal patience with me and with us. My prayer is that His patience with these guys here in Dunedin would be displayed to them. Our prayer should be that they would come to Christ and taste His mercy, His grace, His love, and His patience—just as we have.
Please pray for Hugh, Team Duff and Team Studholme as I labor with them. They have all returned from their semester break and today I get to hangout with these guys. Hugh has been reading “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel and is really enjoying it. Team Duff is still reading John and still asking great questions—please pray that I would ask great questions as well. Join me in praying that God would reveal Himself to them and display His supremacy and His supreme patience to them.
-Nate X.
I’m still blown away by the fact that we were so close and he called it a night. So a week later, here I was by myself looking at this cluttered shed. And I finished the carpentry alone. As I was cutting the wood and nailing it into place, I thought about how amazing it is that Christ spent years and years as a carpenter and never sinned. It’s such a frustrating task. Cutting wood in that shed just warred against me—and that’s what Jesus did for a living. He was a carpenter. The tools he had to work with were archaic compared to my power saw and drill. Now, I would argue that He, as the God of the universe, had a “slight” carpentry advantage, since He did it professionally for over two decades and, oh I don’t know, made all the trees by speaking them into existence and then holding them in place by the power of His word. I’m just saying, I don’t think Jesus ever cut the wood incorrectly—but that’s complete conjecture, I know. None of that is really the point.
One thing is for sure, I don’t think I have the patience to do carpentry six days a week for over 20 years. But Jesus did. Carpentry takes unbelievable patience. And we know that Christ is perfectly patient. As I thought about Christ as a carpenter, I couldn’t help but think of His patience as Savior and Lord. I thought about His unreal patience with me and with us. My prayer is that His patience with these guys here in Dunedin would be displayed to them. Our prayer should be that they would come to Christ and taste His mercy, His grace, His love, and His patience—just as we have.
Please pray for Hugh, Team Duff and Team Studholme as I labor with them. They have all returned from their semester break and today I get to hangout with these guys. Hugh has been reading “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel and is really enjoying it. Team Duff is still reading John and still asking great questions—please pray that I would ask great questions as well. Join me in praying that God would reveal Himself to them and display His supremacy and His supreme patience to them.
-Nate X.
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