Just a few weeks ago we had our second mini-van stolen.  Look here to see the blog on this !  God has been gracious in providing us transportation and two vehicles.  The first vehicle was a mini-van and it’s a very very nice van but it didn’t last long and unfortunately the transmission went out on us at the end of the second week of us owning it.  Here it sits….

This was our gift, and behind this picture you can see our little home on Scarritt.  If you’ve been by our home you might notice something else missing behind the van.  In having two cars stolen within two weeks where were are in hopes that God will provide the funding to get a driveway poured so that our cars can sit up near our home.  To do this we’ll have to cut a little bit out of the side of the hill, make a retaining wall and then pour from bottom to top up by our home.  This will require a lot of cement of which we don’t have the $ for at the time, but perhaps God will see fit to find us a way.  Perhaps not, and we’ve purchased a club for when we get another functioning vehicle!

Here was the faithful day of cutting down the tree!  Thanks Kevin for the help!

Kevin is standing right about where the van would be in the first picture.  As you can see that tree is no longer standing!  We kept some of the wood Kevin took some to his home and we’ll be burning up the tree this fall and winter!

This is David H. and Richard, along with Bob and myself in the back ground.  We have still been meeting on Thursday evenings at Richard’s home, it’s been a little light lately however we were encouraged and getting excited about being intentional this summer in our focus to reach out specifically to our neighborhoods.  To see the gospel go out and to find those whom God is calling to himself!  We were rejuvinated this last Thursday when Paul W. came over and shared with us his endeavours with his church to go out door to door and to share the gospel with the lost!

On Tuesday nights Bobby and Clinton and I have been meeting praying about our practical holiness and sanctification, our walk with God, our relationship with God, and the neighborhood.   We have taken one Tuesday to do outreach, and Elliot H. joined us.   It’s been a time of authentic pouring our hearts out before God asking Him to change our hearts, our minds, our attitudes and conform them to the image of Jesus Christ.   I have enjoyed a great deal the authentic and sincere prayer time as well as the transparency and encouragement I have received from these guys!

Every morning we’ve been granted access to the Local Grace Nazarene church were we at one time several people were coming to pray and to study God’s word before work in the morning together, more for accountability than anything else.  We study and pray separately and then take off for work.  This has been a wonderful way to establish a discipline in our lives and to feed on God’s word in the morning before the day has begun.  This has helped our attitude, throughout the day, and our perspective in keeping our minds and hearts on Kingdom things, above adn not below.  It’s also been an opportunity for encouragement as we meet daily and stir one another up!

We have also been able to spend time in prayer for our elders, for one another and the neighborhood!  This summer I hope and pray that there is more out reach, more opportunities to grow and pray for one another, and to study God’s word.  If you live in the North East part of Kansas City, and you’d be interested in showing up to any of these meetings please click on contact and shoot us a note and will tell you where and when to come!!!

When was the last time we sought God to be granted repentance…..true repentance? The turning away from sin and the turning toward God “for good”.

And all of this said, the repentance of a nation must start with the repentance of “me.” The revival of a church must start with the revival of me? The prayer life of my family must start with the prayer life of me. And the “broken and contrite spirit” must start with mine. Oh that God would grant it, for me, for my family, for our church, and for His People……

Oswald Chambers’ classic daily devotional ‘My Utmost for His Highest’

December 7th.

REPENTANCE
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words -

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour, How sad on Thee they fall.”
Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God – “against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

Random large Church building vs. Small Church (This is the one I attended in Detroit)

This will be my third and final post about Detroit, at least for now. I spent just a small time on a business trip there back in December, I posted previously about meeting Scott and Jen Foster now from Dearborn, MI. I went to their church, Grace Evangelical Fellowship, on a Wed evening and found myself surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ whom I had never met before.

This has been something spoken of at our church FCC, that once you meet a believer in Christ there is an automatic bond in Christ, and when you are yoked together there is a much deeper bond than with someone that does not know Christ, even if they are outgoing and have a friendly demeanor, it can’t compare to a saving knowledge of Christ, of your own sinfulness, and of God’s Grace. This said, I do live in Kansas City and they in Michigan yet I felt completely at home as a result I believe of this common bond and intimate atmosphere where there was little pretense.

When I walked in I met most of the congregation that was there that evening, there was between 30 and 45 people there I’m guessing if you included all the children. The whole goal of this evening was to prepare for the following Wed evening when they were “all” going out to share the gospel with a nursing home. The entire evening was built around their preparation for this and then prayer time. I immediately felt welcomed, and humbled to be in the presence of such an evangelistic congregation who God is seemingly doing some amazing things in and through. What an amazing display of God’s grace that he uses this humble congregation to reach out, and I was there a spectator feeling apart of this place in such a short time.

I even secretly wished I could have gone with them the next week to see God’s handiwork as he would put his hand to the pen in the story of this congregation, hoping in Christ that they would be the means to save some in the nursing home. I believe this was upwards of 45-50% of their congregation, and as much as I loathe numbers this is a high % of people involved in their evangelism efforts if you compare this to larger congregations, generally this number is lower. So when I see high numbers of people involved in evangelism, a love for prayer, and sharing Christ, and an incredibly welcoming atmosphere it causes me to then to fall in love with the size of small churches like these.

The paradox is that we can have churches of upwards of 500 or even 5,000 and not have the % of people willing to share the gospel and share Christ with others. This to me begs the question, at what point in size have we decided that it’s “ok” to stop making disciples, and where do we fail along the way losing sight of the goal?

The end goal being to Glorify God and make His name known?

A larger church could argue they can make His name known by being large, because with size it carries in our society the weight of size. The small church could argue they individually morso make His name known.

I don’t have the answers to all of these questions, wanting to remain as far away from pragmatism as I possibly can, I know that all of these issues are things which need bathed in prayer, yet they are definitely worth considering.

I believe John Pipers church a few years back said that their “home group” participation was less than 23%, I hope I’m close here. If home group participation is this low I can not imagine evangelism efforts, but John Piper’s church for its size is “known” for being one of the most evangelistic Reformed churches out there. This said I have the utmost respect for John Piper, and all he does and is doing for the cause of Christ, but I sometimes wonder if there isn’t a happy medium between the small town church of 80 members and the churches of 6,000 plus.

I know the compromise is home groups but even these on a bi-weekly basis this seem to be little time to truly develop, discipleship relationships, trust relationships ( where we can bear one another’s burdens ) etc.

This paradox of feeling “alone” surrounded by so many people, or “institutionalized” in the larger a congregation vs. the intimacy and evangelistic fervor that can happen if God wills it, in a smaller congregation is a bit of a tight rope walk. ( Caveat to this is not all small churches are “evangelistic” and have any fervor, just as not all large churches are cold, I’m making broad generalizations because this is often the case, not always.) So the first question is how was it done in the bible?

Paul was sent out to other churches, could large churches “afford to send their pastors out to build other churches?” Could you imagine John Piper still affiliated with Bethlehem Baptist Church but leaving to go start a church plant?

And what is the right number to say this is “enough” people we need to start planting sending out? When do we start reproducing? Should this not be taking place amongst all believers if they’re believers in fulfilling the great commission? Are larger congregations laxed in realizing this and if so why?

Should part of the discipleship process be also to disciple people to preach and teach, and lead worship?

God seemed to design faith in Him to be carried out in “relationship” with “The Body”, and in reality not in doctrine alone, but doctrine in action. That action takes place in relationship fully and wholly dependent upon Christ Grace and finished work, yet flowing out of who Christ is to be salt and light to a dark and dying world?

So why are we so comfortable?

In this society we tend to have as few true “relationships” as possible, people might get to know me and then have a low opinion of me, i.e. (back to the Ice Berg).

So what is it about being in a small place where everyone knows everyone’s name, and being in a big place which has its obvious benefits, but where only the names of the leaders are known, yet in the larger places harboring great abilities to affect change for Christ because of size?

I seem to have lots of questions with few answers. Please feel free to register, login & comment.

C.J. points out first in many practical ways to, “daily, diligently, and deliberately weaken our greatest enemy (pride) and cultivate our greatest friend (humility).”

There are so many good points I will fail to bring them all up but one of them is to always be aware of God’s grace, striving to be as close to the cross as possible. He quoted one scholar, by asking, “how could anyone be arrogant standing next to the cross?” He goes on to suggest that we seek to constantly be aware of these good graces and not find fault in others but find God’s grace and mercy in others.

These, although are great points, are small highlights compared to the later chapters when I began getting into the chapter suggesting that we study the attributes of God. Those attributes that show God in someway to be absolutely unlike man. He gave the examples of infinite and finite, and Omnipresence(present all places), as opposed to man’s single ability to be present in only one place.

This lead me to put the book down for a moment, and for me to ponder these things where God is different than I am. One of the greatest areas where God demonstrates to me our absolute differences, those of God and myself, are demonstrated in His faithfulness. I know every bit of my faith comes from Him but there are so many times I am faithless before Him.

I haven’t yet read to see if this enters the book at any place, but God used this as a springboard for me to look at Psalms 89.

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the LORD A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

This awareness of His faithfulness and my faithlessness can do two things, it can throw me into a pit of despair and self condemnation or what I believe is a healthy response for God’s faithfulness is this, to love Him all the more, in gratitude and thankfulness for His faithfulness, and the faith he has granted me.

I had this amazingly demonstrated last evening, I received two phone calls from two different men, one’s name is John and the other Cecil. Both of these men I met while teaching down at H3 (InnerCity Men’s Recovery Home.) Both of these men I had prayed for, and hoped in Christ that they would find there way to our church affiliated Men’s home called The Anchor House.

I hadn’t heard from either of them in months and they both called me at unrelated times, not knowing about each other, one making his way back to Kansas City from Oklahoma, to get into the Anchor House. I don’t know where they are at spiritually, and I continue to hope for their salvation. But I was in utter amazement at the hand of my father in heaven, as He had two men I had once prayed for call me to get into The Anchor House. I had not prayed for them recently, because of my “faithlessness” but this demonstrated to me this complete differentness between myself and God. It was so amazing to me how God remained faithful even in my request, and when my hope and faith in this had weakened he remained faithful despite my lack of continuing to hold them up.

This demonstrates my frailty and weakness of my flesh, my lack of devotion, and was in a moment of time overwhelming to consider my father in heaven hearing my prayer, long ago and answering in His time, even to the point of bringing both telephone calls on the same day as to humiliate me before Him and demonstrate to me His faithfulness.

I thank my God in heaven for His faithfulness, for being faithful in sending His son Jesus, and for cloaking me in His righteousness that I could never obtain on my own. I thank Him for His example, and His mercy, and yes His answer to often seemingly faithless prayers.  I will pray with renewed motivation, for the salvation of these men.

Yesterday I attended the funeral of Luke Hausmann. This family from the outward fruit and countenance continue to demonstrate Christ, even in this incredibly difficult time in their lives. One person described the “accident” that took place as, “unbelievable, one moment there and the next moment something falling from the sky to take his life.” This is a bit of a paraphrase.What I saw in this young man’s life from his funeral is a young man who had an “Uncommon” obedience to his father. A passion and love for the Lord Jesus Christ and a personal genuine desire to see the gospel of Jesus Christ extended to the ends of the earth. It was noticeable, in the upwards of five to six hundred attendees at the funeral that Luke was well loved, and had impacted many lives in his short 23 years.

At 23, this young man had been used by God to completely help transform another young man who otherwise would be on a very different path. Luke also started his own painting business in town and in this endeavor he saved up his money not for the things of this world but to spend the money to build schools and bring the love of Christ into other countries, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Thailand.

So as I was wrapping my mind around a 23 year old entrepreneur/missionary’s life being taken and in my reading this morning my mind did a backdrop, and of the state of “The visible Church” in America, even in our own doctrinally oriented congregation, as compared to what this young man not only was doing, but was living before men.

We have much to be made aware of in our continual seeking and attempting to be satisfied in this life by the things of this world.

It makes Luke’s life and yes even his death in this life seem all the more inspiring to me. Either we will truly remember what God has done in our lives and what he’s doing, and we will fill ourselves with the living waters of Jesus Christ and be moved to action by Christ and who Christ is, or we will continue to hew out broken cisterns for ourselves which hold no water, and we will never be satisfied.

So I’m reading this morning in a lesson:

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

God was Israel’s fountain of living waters, where God delivered them from Egyptian bondage; He led them through the wilderness wanderings and also brought them into the land of milk and honey – Jeremiah 2:6-7

We have such short memories, and we forget what God has done, why is it we need reminded so often? From the beginning with their own priests and rulers they forgot, and as we can tell our leaders today have forgotten their God. Although they are still acknowledging God they aren’t acknowledging that you can know Him, or how to lead, by the true standard of the living God.

And from one generation to the next, each generation passes and we forget unlike other nations that were true to their gods – Jeremiah 2:8-11 I think how loyal so many of the others are to their God’s who are creations of man. The J.W.s in the city, the Mormons, the Buddhist, and last but not least the Muslims are plenty, and faithful to their congregations in the inner city, and I imagine the burbs as well. I mourn sometimes that we worship the one true living God the creator, and not the creation of man and yet we show ourselves not strong, and often not even weak (that the Lord may be shown strong), but we do not show ourselves at all.

We are careful to wrap our worldly idols, (overeating, covetousness, materialism etc) in sweet small Christian looking justifications as to ease our conscience but in doing so we are “commonly disobedient” to our Father in Heaven.

We forsake our God, the fountain of living waters hewing for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, cisterns were tanks for rain water, hewn (cut) out of stone, at best, they could only offer stagnant water.

Consider this Spurgeon quote:

“Men are in a restless pursuit after satisfaction in earthly things. They will exhaust themselves in the deceitful delights of sin, and, finding them all to be vanity and emptiness, they will become very perplexed and disappointed. But they will continue their fruitless search. Though wearied, they still stagger forward under the influence of spiritual madness, and though there is no result to be reached except that of everlasting disappointment, yet they press forward. They have no forethought for their eternal state; the present hour absorbs them. They turn to another and another of earth’s broken cisterns, hoping to find water where not a drop was ever discovered yet.” — C.H. Spurgeon

This to me as a backdrop to Luke Hauseman’s physical death unto “gain” (Phil. 1:21), shows the sinfulness of fallen man, and absolute beauty of the redeemer to use Luke’s life to touch hearts of men. Luke unlike so many of the youth and adults of this day who try to drink out of these broken cisterns, obeyed his father Dave Hausmann and His Father in Heaven, so much so that in his life, Dave was speaking to his pastor even before this tragedy had occurred, in admiration of his own son. This is a testimony, which is dear, that a Father would see the value of a son’s life and his love for Christ marvel the handy work of his Father in Heaven.

We as a nation and in the “said” community of Christendom in the U.S. continue to forget our God, and seek after that which does not satisfy, it makes Luke Hausemann’s obedience to his father and His heavenly father that much more brilliant like a diamond against a black velvet backdrop that sparkles for the whole world to see. May Christ be Glorified in Luke’s death and may we remember Luke’s example as he pointed others to Christ.

Please Continue to Pray for the Hausmann Family.

Luke, with three of his seven siblings, Anna (20), Ethan (19), and Julia (16), were traveling home from visiting family in Waco, TX.

A Waco news website had this to say:

http://www.kcentv.com/videolink

(January 11, 2008)—The accident happened just before 10:00pm Thursday, on Interstate 35 in Bellmead near Loop 340.Police say two tires from the wheels of a south-bound 18-wheeler trailer came off of the rig and crossed the median. One of the tires struck a north-bound Honda Accord. The impact apparently had enough force to cut the passenger compartment of the vehicle in half.The driver of the Honda, 23-year-old Luke Hausmann, of Atchison, Kansas, was pronounced dead at the scene.Three other passengers, ages 16, 19 and 20, were all taken to a local hospital. One of the passengers is still listed in critical condition.DPS closed the interstate, diverting all traffic to the access roads while emergency crews worked to clear the wreckage. Other details were not immediately available.

I read on another website that Luke was a kind, quiet young man, who was dedicated to serving the Lord overseas. He made many extended missions trips to Cambodia, Thailand, and other places. The Petsch family, who’s family bible quizzes with the Hausmann family, remembers Luke most when he was at Camp walking his sisters arm in arm up the hill at God’s Mountain, this was a picture of his gentle spirit.

I have known David Luke’s father for years, he substituted for me in high school years ago and I remember his witness before I was a believer in my classroom. Although I did not know Luke well he seem to have his father’s heart and spirit about him.

When I heard this news, I was shaken into consciousness of the brittleness of life.
We always seem to think we’ll have time for others, to forgive, or to tell about Christ, to Love God, to Love our neighbors, and in a moment it’s gone. There is so much time we waste on entertainment, and filling up our own emptiness with self idolatry or the idolatry of worldly pursuits. But this time will be taken away in a fixed moment at the hand of a sovereign God.

.::<{their car}<::.

Don’t wait.

God has granted you more time in this life to know Him, and to make Him Lord!

What are you waiting for?

Want to know more?

Also please continue to pray for the Hausmann Family.

Please send cards & notes:

David Hausmann
Riverbend Bible Church
1145 Commercial Street
Atchison, KS 66002
Phone Number: 913-367-1120
david.hausmann@sbcglobal.net

In this photo: Karen(Mom), Anna, Julia , Abbie, Luke, Ethan.