Ok, so I normally would not immediately react from something that I read or heard when it comes to church, Jesus, or anything to do with religion.  However, over the past 3 or 4 weeks I have read and heard several different comments that got me really concerned or worried about what people really believe.  Today I want to point out a few of them and give some thoughts on each.

Let me preface this by saying that I am where I am because I believe that God has called me here for such a time as this. I am thankful for my pastor who has been not only a pastor, but a mentor and friend for many years.  I am grateful for his passion to preach the whole counsel of God and the way that he leads our church.  I am grateful for my church and I am excited as to where God is going to lead us in the future.

My burden is that people have a misunderstanding as to what church and a relationship with Jesus is all about.

1. _____________ church has changed so many lives.

While this sounds good to the ear it has me concerned.  It is not the church’s job to change the lives of people. No where in scripture do I read where a church had any power to change a life. It is Jesus who changes lives.  If the church is about Jesus then peoples lives will be changed.  The church was not created to promote itself, the church was created to promote Jesus.  Though I know what people mean when they make this statement, it still makes me shiver.  I believe there are lots of people in love with the church and not in love with Jesus.

When looking for a church you should investigate, pray, and ask God. Just because a church may be the “place to go” doesn’t mean that is the place for you. Just because a pastor may seem to preach the Gospel doesn’t mean that he preaches the whole counsel of God.  Just because people are getting saved every week by the dozens doesn’t mean they are solid in their doctrine and theology.  If you need examples just read Revelation.

Please don’t hear what I am not saying.  Church is important. However, you need to find a church that is solid when it comes to Doctrine, Theology, and the Gospel.  So this is what you need to do. Know what you believe. Believe it because it is God’s conviction on you (not because a person or pastor told you to believe that way). Know what your doctrine is.  Investigate, don’t judge books or church’s by there cover. You may be surprised what you find out.

2. __________ (insert favorite preachers namae here)  saved me.

WHAT kind of theology is that. I have heard this more than once when talking with people.  There is no priest, pope, or pastor on the face of this earth that has the power to save.  The Bible says that there is no name given under Heaven by which we may be saved, and that name is JESUS!!  If your trust is in a priest, pope, or pastor, you are in serious trouble. If your trust is in Jesus and him alone you are headed for Heaven.

3. I’m not going to that church b/c there is a bunch of hypocrites down there.

When I hear this the first thing that comes to my mind is that these people don’tneed church, they need Jesus.  This is really an excuse so that they can live however the heck they want to.  While going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, a child of God should have a desire to go there.  Again,  I remind us that churches are made up of saved people and lost people.  By the way, when we stand before God, we will not give an account for how other people lived their lives, we will be judged on how we lived our lives.  Going to church is not about us. Going to church is about our love for Jesus.  God calls me to love him with all my heart, soul, and strength.  It doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing. What am I doing?

I am concerned and worried that we have been blinded by the glitz and glamor of this world.  What we need is a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to blow on us.

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Well the time for us to say goodbye has come. Well let me rephrase that, the time for us to say see you later has come.  God willing we will return to this beautiful place with the message of our beautiful Savior.

Today was a great day as we went to Pastor Guzman’s church where we were blessed by some awesome worship and a great message about David and Goliath.  After church we went and ate at Mi Terra where we had a great meal.  Then the fun began.  We went into downtown San Jose where we were able to attend our first Tico concert.  Ok, so it was not actually a concert but it was a band playing all kind of things. From kitchen items to car to frying pans they were playing the music. 

I hope to wrap up the trip sometime next week.  God has placed a burden and a love in our hearts for the Ticos.  Please pray that God would open the doors that need to be opened and close the ones that need to be closed.  We are excited about what God is doing and how this process is going. We remember the great things God did on this trip and look forward with great anticipation as to what is to come.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. We return home tomorrow.

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and he shall direct your paths….

This is what we prayed for today. That we would trust in Him with everything that we had. 

We stared the day by playing soccer with about 12 or so children.  This was not done on a nice green soccer field like you may think.  It wa on the top of a hill and when the ball went over someone had to go down the hill and get it.  Oh yea, most of it was dirt and the goals were sticks that we sticking up out of the ground.  While we were playing Brain and Keith were able to share with a lady and her husband.  After soccer Jacob and Brad sat all the children down and shared with them from God’s word.

While they were sharing Brain, Keith, and I went to check out a local potato operation.  Talk about hard work.  These people harvest and process their own potatoes.  It was a very impressive process.  After all this was done we headed to a local restaurant where some of us had a brand new experience.  We had gone to a trout farm where you catch your lunch.  I must confess that I caught two fish but never pulled them in ( wow, that’s embarrassing to admit). However, it did work out because I don’t eat fish.  Keith and I had the chicken and the rest ate fish.  This was one of the best meals that we have had.

After lunch we headed to a brand new village Sana Rosa.  We had a very good response.  Brian and I were able to visit three homes that were very open to the gospel.  One older man accepted Christ and we were able to leave a Bible and tract at the other homes.  Jacob, Brad, and Keith also had a good response.  Another person accepted Christ and some where very open to starting a new Bible Study.  Brad was also able to lead another lady to Christ later on in the day as we went to another village.

We have had a great time and God has done some wonderful things.  Right now we have seen between 10-15 people accept Christ as their Savior (not sure the exact #). Please pray that God would continue to speak to them through His Word.

Today God directed our paths and gave us divine appointments. To him be all the glory.

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Wow what a fruitful day.  God showed out today in a great way.  This morning our devotion came out of Jude and we prayed that God would “snatch people from the fire” and he did.

Time will not allow me to get in all of the details but I can tell you that we had several people confess Jesus as their Savior.  Keith Shorter (pastor at Mt. Airy) and I along with Jacob (our missionary here on the ground) were able to talk to a 19 year old boy who had never been to church or read the Bible.  After going through scripture with him for a few minutes God had spoken to his heart and was saved.

At the same time Brian Hale (member of Rock Springs) and Brad Porter (member of Mt. Airy) were invited into a home where they were able to trade 2 Bibles for 1 jehoah witness bible.  After that they were able to take God’s Word and lead a family of four to Christ.  They now have a copy of the only Word of God and no longer have false teachings in their home.

After lunch we went into another village where we were able to share Chirst with two women.  One lady was a very eldery lady who was very stern that she was not going to change at all.  After Brian shared with her for several minutes she prayed to receive Christ with tears in her eyes.

We know that God is able to do exceedingly more then we could ask or think.  Tonight we want to give him all the glory for GREAT things he has done

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I saw God today….

in the playfulness of 3 Ticos as we played volleyball in the middle of the street with them

in the creation that is surrounded us (you would not believe the sites around here)

in the eyes of a 19 year old girl bound by religion but not a relationship with Jesus

in the lives of two missionaries from the USA who we just happened to meet going door to door

as he broke me early this morning that I need a Cray Love for him

in our morning devotion as Brad reminded us to rejoice, pray, and give thanks

as again God broke me over the people of Costa Rica

Thank all of you for all of your prayers.  Please continue to pray for us as again we go out tomorrow to share Jesus.  I also ask you to pray for a very special friend of mine who did not receive good news today.  God is in control.

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Both our flights went great today.  Flying is not my most favorite thing in the world to do but this time it was a whole lot better.  We landed and got through the air port rather quickly and after a quick stop at Burger King we headed to the hotel.

After getting settled in I was able to Skype with my girls and then we headed to the Hiper Mas (Wal-Mart).  My favorite thing about tonight though happened next.  We had a Bible Study at a road side restaurant.  It was amazing sitting around listening to Jacob lead this Bible Study with an open pit bbq going.  Jacob is in the process of disciplining a father and son who own the restaurant and tonight we talked about our identity in Christ. I am hoping to have some pictures up tomorrow on Facebook of our experience there. I was reminded how precious God’s word really is.  I was also reminded that discipleship can take place whenever and where ever.  We must get out there and do it.  Even if it means going to a road side grill.

Courtney (Jacob’s wife) fixed our team dinner tonight and it was great.  We had chicken, mixed vegetables, and cauliflower.  After discussing plans for tomorrow we headed back to the hotel where I am currently updating you and trying to stay awake.

Please pray for our team tomorrow as we go into several villages to share the good news that Jesus Saves. Pray that the people will be open to the gospel. Pray also for those believers that are already there.  We will be making a couple of visits there to encourage them.

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Is it really March?  I know it has been a while since the last time that I blogged.  I did not finish the Faith, Family, and Football series as I had hoped.  Hopefully I can resume that one day. Until then I wanted to ask your prayers for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica.  Please pray that God would begin to open the hearts of those we will be sharing with.  We will be ministering to the Ticos and are praying as to what village God would have us be apart of. 

Please pray for my girls as I am gone.  I am going to miss them terribly. 

I will be updating the blog each night.  Check back daily for updates.

Until then……..

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I hope that everyone is having a great New Year so far.  I know that we are.  Though I love the time off during the holidays it does feel good to be back in the grove of things.  I just wanted to take time to thank everyone for all the kind words that you have expressed to me about the blog.  I promise to start the Faith Family and Football series back next week.  We have been in staff planning the beginning of this week and I have been trying to catch up on some things.

My prayer for this new year is that God will do things in mine and Erin’s life that we never could have imagined.  I am very excited what God is doing in our ministry and what he is going to do in our life personally.

So here’s to a brand new year with brand new oppertunities…………

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I pray that each of you had a great Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior.  I will continue our series next week.  I just wanted to share this video of with you.  This year has been a year full of many ups and downs.  Time does not permit me to go into everything.  These three songs say everything that I want to say.

Enough For Me

Gods Been Good

Ive Been Blessed

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Carragin, Erin, and myself want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

I will resume our faith, family, and football series next week.

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