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I know some of you were worried about the recent demise of my Specialized Tarmac frame...trust me I have been too. More than one tear and anxious moment has been shed over the loss of my friend with whom I have ridden over 2,000 miles in the past 6 months. If you ride, you know what I mean. If you don't, well, you probably don't.
Suffice it to say, the good folks at Art's Cyclery and Specialized worked out a "crash replacement" frame deal for me (yes, it was a good deal, but still painful!). I've been out on it a couple of times now and am loving every minute of it. I even got to take the inaugural ride with one of our Grace missionaries, Mike Grainger and Scott Morton.
Anyway, I know there are some of you out there who were afraid I'd stop shaving my legs and that I'd lose that funny little tan spot on the backs of my hands--don't fear, all is well again!
As I counsel people it seems to me that I often find myself pointing once again to the power of the cross and our hope in the Gospel to transform us. I've been convicted for a long time now that the Gospel is not just for the unbeliever, but for the life of the believer as well. I'm continually looking for a good book to recommend that will get people started and take them further down the path of the Gospel in their lives. At this stage I'm surprised how often I find myself recommending a particular book by Jerry Bridges, The Gospel For Real Life. I've read it with some guys I've discipled and it seems to be relevant to so many situations I come across. Instead of limiting my recommendation of this book to those I meet with one on one, I thought it might be a helpful resource to recommend more broadly. The back cover summerizes the book well...
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the door to eternal life, but what difference does it make once we're inside God's kingdom? Jerry Bridges says the gospel is the very lifeblood of our walk with God. Without doubt it is the key to our salvation, but it is also the power for our daily progress in holiness. The Gospel for Real Life will help you. - Experience freedom from the grip of sin and know the joy of pursuing holiness
- Revel in God's acceptance of you and participate in His grace as a daily reality
- Expose the subtle acids of legalism in your life and enjoy the liberty of the cross
- Discover how to "preach the gospel to yourself daily" and so partake of its continuous transforming power
- Carry the true fullness of the gospel to a desperately needy world around you
With so many of our students away on missions trips and projects this summer, we thought it would be a great idea to provide a way for us to stay in touch and hear about the Lord is doing through our students all over the world. I just invited all our student missionaries to log in and begin posting about waht they're doing and what God is doing where they are. Check out Grace Beyond in the coming days to read what your friends are up to. Log in to interact and dialogue about what God is teaching you too! Ask questions! Share random thoughts! If you are a Grace college student who is serving somewhere this summer, you're invited to jump in and post too. If we missed you somehow (please please forgive!), email me (steve@graceslo.org) and we'll take care of you! The world is flat, so let's take advantage of it.
Let the debate begin! On Saturday, July 8 the college group is heading down to Dodger Stadium for a baseball game. Is it a Giants game, or a Dodgers game? Having spent 8 years in Southern California I wish it were an Angels game myself, but things being as they are, I'm calling it a Dodgers game! We have 30 tickets, so we should have a great time together. The cost is $20 (covers ticket, gas, parking, etc.) and you can sign up and even pay online to reserve your spot (click here). We'd love to see you out of towners join in, so we're trying to make it easy on you to sign up in absentia (that's Latin 'cause you're educated college folk! It means 'cause you're not around').You will need to have registered yourself in our online directory. If you haven't done so yet, take a minute and check it out by clicking here! 
We've had the priviledge oif sending out a number of our Grace College students (some now graduated!) out to a number of short term mission fields this summer. We're looking inot creating some kind of online community so they can log in and all of our group can log in from wherever everyone is this summer. This will help us stay conencted and enable us to pray for one another. More on that to come, but for now here's prayer requests from Brain Wong and Matt Esswein who's traveling in Africa right now with his family.
Brian Wong:
Hey Everyone,
This is probably going to be my only e-mail before I head out for training on Sunday (6/18) in San Diego. We'll be down there for a week until we head out of LAX on the 25th. Lord willing, we'll be back August 17th.
If I get the chance, I promise I'll send out an update e-mail, though I can't actually promise that I'll have the opportunity. Please bear in mind that I won't be able to be very explicit in the statements I e-mail so bear with me. But until I have the opportunity to actually send an update with more specific prayer requests, please pray for the following:
- The Team: Team unity and bonding. I'm praying for an awesome team, while keeping in mind that sometimes the best learning and growth occur in situations with teams that aren't so great.
- Boldness: God is faithful to provide ample opportunities to share. Often times my problem is a lack of boldness in taking those opportunities.
- Health: I'm praying that I'll serve God both in sickness and in health.
- Focus: I pray I'm not distracted by anything, whether it's my team members, my students, or anything else. I want to stay focused on the task at hand.
Also please feel free to forward this on to others who may be interested. Also feel free to ask me to add them to the list for future reference.
Yours truly,
Brian
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Matt Esswein:
Some of the specific ways you can be praying for me are;
- courage and assurance from Christ through tough emotions and seeing my family in a tough place
- quality communication and an overall FUN trip within my family
- the Holy Spirit to speak at the conference to encourage, inspire, and heal us and the people we are speaking to
- words to say, scriptures to share, and stories to tell
- quality rest and overall health amongst the busy schedule and questionable food
Grace and peace,
Matt
In walking by a copy of DaVinci's The Last Supper the other day I couldn't help but make an observation that has, up to this point, alluded me.
You see, with so much attention directed toward the female-looking Apostle John on the left side of the painting, most of us have missed a far more notable figure on the right. You'll note that most of the apostles in the painting have facial hair with the exception of John and this other apostle (someone who knows art help me out here--who is this one in the painting?). Then it hit me--is it possible that Dan Brown, in his DaVinci Code, is actually pulling a fast one on us? I mean, according to him, he has revealed the secret that will destroy Christianity as we know it. I submit to you that the DaVinci Code is really just a diversion tactic.
If you look carefully at the paitning and a picture of Drew Barrymore, you will find there is an undeniable similarity. We know from teh film Everafter that DaVinci and Barrymore met--even that he did a head study portrait of her.
I submit that the real DaVnci Deception is not about the identity of Mary Magdalene, but rather that Drew Barrymore is in fact somehow tied to a greater conspiracy than any of us has yet imagined. Was her great-great-great-great-great-great-et al. grandmother Mary Magdalene perhaps? Has DaVinci picture Barrymore's late ancestor Martha, a devoted though overworking, disciple of Jesus? I haven't had time to search the Gnostic Bible yet for textual support, so I can only speculate at this point. Nevertheless, I invite you ponder this, the Real DaVinci Deception with me...
Wow--too long since I blogged last! This has been a hectic, exhausting and strangely renewing quarter for me. Here's some thoughts running through my tired head...
- The 75th Anniversary has challenged me in teh areas of prayer, evangelism, life-purity, priorities, God-sized vision, the importance of relationships, how we aren't first ones to walk the earth and anticipation for the future chapters of God at work among other things...
- Summer: Dodger/Giants game, hikes, beach days, Spirit West Coast, New Orleans Relief Trip, Leadership Backpacking in the back country--totally excited about all this; overwhelmed in the details (see my use of a semi-colon? that's 'casue this is a college blog!)
- Lots to do, lots to do, lots to do (notice the unhelpful repetition of useless yet anxiety producing words here--real insight into my current metal state)
- I think my bike frame has bitten the dust--I think I'm going to cry over this one--seriously.
- I see God working in our Growth Groups, missions, community ministry, youth, children's ministry, college, among our staff--I want to grasp teh Lord's vision for the days ahead and lay myself at His feet for His purposes.
- Can't wait to get into a stack of books sitting on my shelf to my right.
Not profound, but it's where I am. It's been too long since I logged in, so here I am again!
