More Than Anything Else

What do you want more than anything else?

We all have things we want in life. For some it might be family, a relationship, an education, a career, a house, a car, etc.. The list could go on. None of these things are innately wrong to desire. We in fact need many of these to survive and live daily life.

The craziest thing is how much work we put into the things we pursue and desire.

Imagine how much time we put into pursuing a relationship with someone. We spend so much time trying to really know them; we text, call, skype, face time, write letters, creep on Facebook, email. Then we spend actual time with them watching movies, going out to eat, going on long walks on the beach, coffee dates, and awkward family meals.

Think about how much time we put into pursuing an education. Most spend at least 12 years in school. Many then go onto 4 years at a post secondary school, spending hours learning things we both need and don't need to know. Some then think about graduate programs and doctorate degrees where they continue to take years and thousands of dollars off your life.

You spend all that time pursuing an education so you can set yourself up for a good career. You spend nearly 22 years of your life prepping for the first day at a new job that you will invest 40 hours a week for the next 20 - 30 years. During that time you are building relationships, learning skills, building into a business or organization, and maybe even taking time away from family.

Then you maybe want a different car. So you save money from that awesome job you have. You set aside money that could maybe be used for other things, such as groceries, bills, or family. And then you tie yourself to that vehicle by trying to pay for it over the next 5 - 10 years and maintaining it.

Again, none of these things are bad things to pursue or desire. I just want to bring to light how much we pour our lives into these things.

This week we learned about the Kingdom, seeing God's rule and reign come. Jesus spoke about the Kingdom on over a 100 separate occasions. Why do you think that is? If the Kingdom was so important to Jesus, why don't we talk more about it? If it interests God, should it not fascinate us?

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven being like a treasure in a field. This man saw infinite value in this treasure and sold everything he had. Everything. Like everything. Imagine this man sitting in the field with his box full of treasure (or however you imagine treasure to be). He no longer has a roof over his head, a donkey for transportation, or food to eat. All he possesses is this treasure. He knew it was important and wanted it more than anything else.

Do you want to see God's Kingdom more than anything else? Do you want to see God's rule and reign come more than anything else?

This challenged me so much. I have spent much of my life in pursuit of so many other things. Things that are not necessarily bad, but I poured myself into them. I ran hard after them. Invested time, money, and resources to attain them.

How much more so should I desire to see God's Kingdom come?  How much more so should I pour myself into seeing God's Kingdom come? How much more so should I run hard after the things of the Kingdom? How much more should I invest time, money, and resources to see the Kingdom come?

Do I want to see God's Kingdom come more than anything else?

I don't want to condemn you for your pursuit of other things. We need many of these things to survive and get through daily life. I get that.

What I do want to do is challenge you. How much have you invested into the Kingdom? How important is it for you to see God's rule and reign come? And if you believe it to be of utmost importance, are you participating in the pursuit?

I believe it to be of utmost importance, and I pray that my life reflects that.

As you have lived, so have you believed.

Things are otherwise going well on the coast. Lectures have gone swimmingly and have been challenging. Unity amongst the group is continuing to grow. And fun is being had in between.

Outreach preparations for India/Nepal are speeding up. This week we continued building unity in the team and started working on one of the many dramas we will be doing.

We also established a contact for Nepal which is pretty exciting. Our contact is a leader at the YWAM Frontier Missions base in Nepal. They focus primarily on reaching unreached people groups. So we found out that we will be spending weeks (maybe even the entire month) at a time hiking the mountains to villages, spending time with them and sharing the gospel.

This is both very exciting and challenging. Exciting because God has chosen us to play a part in reaching these people. Challenging because it also means we will be encountering a lot of spiritual worship and spending lots of time hiking and living in the elements.

So I ask that you would pray into those challenges. I know that sounds kind of vague, but I will have more details for you soon.

Prayer Requests:

• Nepal - People we will meet in Nepal, spiritual warfare, hiking (health), unity for our team
• That I would live as I believe
• Boldness and strength
• Obedience and guidance for the next step after DTS

Cheers,

Zach

So I learned to do a backflip

Freak!!!!

This week has been amazing and confusing all in the same boat. I don't even know that I can properly convey how I feel or how God has truly changed my heart and invaded my Spirit.

But here is one thing....

We are called to be Human! Called to become a child of God. A child who lives and loves more and more like Jesus, the way God intended. To make visible the invisible mystery of a triune God.

But more often then not, there are things that are in the way. Things that get in the way of truly coming into an intimate relationship with Christ. These things could look like idols, pride, unforgiveness, fear of man, etc. They get in the way of truly recognizing Him as Lord over our lives.

If you don't recognize Jesus as Lord, you will never mature and grow as a Christian.

This hit my to the core and it brought up a lot of the mess in my life, mainly my unbelief and my fear of man.

I have always feared being the weak link in a given situation. I have often been shy in stepping out and learning things in front of people. I am all for people trying things, teaching them, or helping them try things; but I never do it myself. In my mind, having to learn something means you are either dumb, untalented, or incapable (There is always that possibility that you won't get it or won't learn it fast enough). And learning in front of people only adds to that fear of judgement. So it creates an inferiority complex and selfishness in not stepping out and taking risk. It creates reservations in me that doesn't allow me to truly express who I am.

And so we prayed, for me and many others. We prayed and sought God for a picture. For some this meant singing in front of people, raising hands in worship, screaming out "I love Jesus" in public, and running around the room screaming wildly. For me this meant learning to do a back flip...in front of people.

I thought this to be a completely absurd idea. Why would God ask me to do that? It was semi-dangerous. He wouldn't ask me to do something dangerous would He? But I didn't know, so I just threw it out there any way. As I was saying it, Dusty, a student and friend from Texas, said he felt he was supposed to teach someone to do a back flip. CRAP!!! Haha....God speaks in amazing ways.

So I learned to do a backflip, in front of 50 people, with the help of some spotters. Were they perfect...no. Was I scared (kept seeing Tom's face after he raked his face on the ground after attempting a backflip)....yes. But I did it. I overcame my thinking that I wasn't capable. That that wasn't me. That I am weak. That I can't do things. That I can't try semi-outlandish things and succeed. It was so freeing.

It freed me to express who I am. It freed me to step out of my little box. It freed me to become a child. It freed me to recklessly love and pursue Jesus. It freed me to recognize Him as Lord. It freed me to make visible the invisible mystery of a triune God.

It freed me to absolutely surrender.

So what is in the way of you truly recognizing God for who He is? What is holding you back from freedom?

Here is also another nugget from this week...."The human journey is largely shaped by our longings". God has really been speaking this to me as I think and ponder on what is next.

A lot of my feelings can be expressed from a section of "The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of" by John Eldredge, a book I have been reading on the side. It goes like this....

"Ann knows the right thing to do. But she was stumped. There was no 'right' course to take...."

"The problem was simply this: Ann had lived her entire life based on what was right and never once made a decision based on her desire. The oldest daughter in the family with some very high needs. Ann had been required to grow up much sooner than others. She was highly responsible, and found her security in meeting expectations and demands placed on her. When the moment came for her to live out her desire, she was out of practice. There was no one to tell her what to do."

"The hope is to stay in the background away from the fire, and wait for someone or something to come along and grant us immunity from these difficulties and sacrifices, someone to offer reassurance, saying perhaps, 'Take the safe way, not the way of passion and creativity, as the path to your destiny, the life you desire. Follow it and you will never be touched....[But] we cannot neglect our inner fire without damaging ourselves in the process." (The Heart Aroused by poet David Whyte)

"The damage, of course, is a life lost unto itself. Millions of souls drifting through life, without an inner compass to give them direction. They take their cues from others and live out scripts from someone else's life. It's a high price to pay. Too high."

That really spoke to me. I realized that I don't know my true desires because I don't know if I have actually walked in them. It's not as if I have been force fed everything I have done in my life. I have honestly chosen everything I have done. But I have put too much emphasis on someone else (the opinions of man) writing my script.

I need to allow myself the opportunity to hold the pen and turn the page. To walk in desire. To not fear being burned. To write my own story according to God's plan.

So, sorry for the long post. I wanted to help you step into my mind and heart as God is teaching and challenging me.

It has been a crazy good week and I know more is coming. We are only half way through lecture phase.

God is so good.

Prayer Requests:

• To know God as Lord
• Pray against my unbelief and fear of man
• That I'd walk in obedience and desire
• India/Nepal - ministry opportunities, people we will meet, travel plans, contacts in Nepal (don't have any quite yet)

Cheers,

Zach

Super blessed by my roommates

P.S.

1. I have the greatest mom in the world. She became another year older this week, so make sure you all bless her this week. I know that I am blessed by her generosity, loving heart, hospitality, and love of Jesus. Love you Mom. (I know she is already crying....goal achieved)
2. We started this day at 8 am and ended at 1 am. Long day but oh so good. Only felt like a couple hours.
3. Check out Luke Parker (Mark Parker's, our speaker, son). Particularly "Meet you in the Morning" on his Deeply, Human album and "Sweet Surrender" on his Home album

It's All About Jesus

This week we learned about the Living Word, the Bible, and how it all points directly to Jesus. So often, I know that I do, we forget that. We think they are just stories that are no longer relevant to our lives. But that is far from true.

The entire Bible can be summed up like this: Love God. Love People. That is God's command and what He is pointing us to. Everything He did, pointed us to that.

For example, the Law. To me the Law seemed like a bunch of randomly specific rules that God required of His people. I thought of it more as a way to govern than to love. The Law was actually meant to show the obedience of a nation to others. And the obedience was to reflect back to the greatness of God.

We were explained this using this story:
One of the base staff ladies in Montana had 11 kids (some of you maybe can relate). She would often have to go to the grocery store (understandably so). You would think corralling that many kids would be like herding cats, but she had a system. Every kid was to line up single file behind her from shortest to tallest. They were to hold onto the shirt in front of them and not say a single word. If they obeyed, they would be treated at home.

Can you imagine seeing that as you walked down the bread aisle?

The mother would often get praise and encouragement for the job she was doing (rightfully so). Sure the kids maybe got praise for their behavior. But even that was only because of the goodness of the mother.

That's what the Law was intended for. To display the obedience of a nation to the People. The obedience wasn't because the people were good but because God was good.

It all points to Jesus.

And you could use countless examples in the Old Testament that would follow that example, and the New Testament as well.

And that has been even more so on my mind this week as I have been thinking about the Kingdom a lot. More so in how it relates to me as I go back after DTS.

The Kingdom is everything. It isn't just specific churches or ministry, but everything. Its the mom at home with her 3 kids all day. Its the college student slogging away at his studies. Its the guy working 8-5. Its the teenager going to state basketball. All of these, and much more, fall under His Kingdom.

So how are we pointing people to Jesus in those moments? How are we pointing kids to Jesus when we discipline or love them? How are we pointing college students to Jesus by the way we study or live college life? How are we pointing people to Jesus in the mundane, stress, and challenges of the workplace? How are we pointing teammates and opponents to Jesus as we compete on the court?

Life becomes so much more exciting and important when you look at it that way. Everyday becomes a mission and adventure into His Kingdom.

The world truly comes alive.

I have continually been stretched and challenged by the lectures, community life, and life on the Coast. He has been so gracious to me by revealing more of Him and drawing me closer.

It all points to Jesus.

Other than that it has been a pretty average week.

We are in week two of outreach prep, so we are starting to see some of our roles defined and what ministry will look like. This week we are gathering funds for tickets and hoping to purchase them as well.

God showed up this week and revealed some of the disunity in the group. Awesome to see it revealed but pray that we can come together as a group and family.

Spent most of Saturday helping some of the staff move to a new house. Kept me busy but I was pretty wore out and exhausted. Hoping to be able to catch up on rest this weekend. (Also sorry because this is why the blog is a day late).

This week we are studying Lordship. Mark Parker is coming in to speak and I guess he is a 50-something year old spark plug. Really knows how to push buttons and get you asking questions. We will see what the week brings. Super stoked for it.

Prayer Requests:

• See more of Him in everything I do
• Growing desire for time with Him
• Unity among the 40 some students and staff
• India/Nepal Outreach preparations - currently gathering funds and searching for tickets
• Walk in obedience
• I would be able to love my housemates well

Cheers,

Zach

P.S. Found out that Aaron Rodgers's older brother Luke did his DTS here. He was here about the time Aaron was drafted and came into the league behind Favre.

So that's pretty neat.