Blog

Within the last year I have walked through a path of change that has taken me out of the United States Army and into a season more focused on family and others. The indoctrination that you first receive when you join the military ensures that you always have a mindset that is preparing and gearing up for the next mission. That mission- a clear definition of success and the end-state you are working to achieve—provides focus and clarity as you choose what to invest your time and resources in. Leaving the military, I have had a huge and lingering question, what is my mission now?

Throughout this change, I have been especially thankful that God is a God of love and grace, but also order. In His word he has given us a clear framework to build our lives around. Before we can answer the question of what our individual mission is, we must understand the calling that has been given to us as followers of Christ. In Mathew 22:37-40, Jesus clearly answered the Pharisees when they came and asked him which is the greatest commandment, “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

I like to keep things simple, loving God and loving others as a framework for your entire life gives you clear, God-directed, and understandable criteria that can be applied to every moment. But it’s not just loving and following God as best as you can - God calls us to love with everything that He has equipped us with -heart, soul, mind, and strength. Until our last breath on planet earth, we are called by God to give Him our everything. I’ll be honest, walking out of a job where I was prepared to give my final breath in service to others, I have struggled to understand how I might find the same level of purpose.

Here is where I found an equally challenging response- giving up my priorities and desires each day in exchange for God’s, I am taking the risk that I will expend every part of myself without a clear, self-focused time to rejuvenate. In essence, every day we have the opportunity to lay down our lives and serve God to the point that only He can sustain us. That sounds risky and challenging, two things that activate deep and innate parts of every-man’s heart. Here is the reality, this only works if you are actively pursuing the heart of God through daily prayer, reading, and meditation which provides that opportunity for God to fill us back up. It’s almost as if God designed us to live like this…

The second part of the passage talks about others. Structuring our approach to others is critically important as there are numerous “others” in this lost and broken world. We are finite, we cannot give beyond the equipping that God has provided us. Going back to the garden of Eden, God provided Adam’s first “other,” his wife Eve. Our first “other” is our spouse. The person that we become one flesh with, establish a family with, and hopefully spend the majority of our lives with in service to God. The next step in God’s giving of “others” for Adam to serve were his kids. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127:3-5 ESV. I absolutely love the description that David gives to children, arrows that honed, sharpened, and launched out into the world to conduct the mission that God has given them. Between loving your wife and kids, there will be seasons where these are the only priorities that you will have time to steward.

Two other categories that God has given us are to care for our extended family (1 Timothy 5:8) and to go and make disciples of every nation. His heart extends to each and every person on earth, and so should ours. However, the expansive nature of this last group means that we could spend our entire lives serving these others and neglect the first two categories that God has established.

Back to the question that has been nagging at me ever since I started charting the course out of the military where the mission was clearly defined for me every day. The answer God has been reinforcing for me is that the mission to love God and love others always existed. Additionally, the reality that was slowly soaking in was that in one aspect of my life, I had let the world define my mission over what God had for me. How did this manifest daily? Staying at work beyond the end of the work day to try and get ahead on tomorrows tasks, choosing to take my time away from family to invest in things that helped me to be better at my job, and when I was off work my mind was consumed with the stress and challenges of the military mission. In essence, my world revolved around my job. Have you found yourself in this situation? Finding the mission that the world has offered more engaging than the mission that God has laid out for us to be faithful to our wives, father our children, and serve others with everything that we have?

There is one other person that I haven’t mentioned in the priorities above, and that’s me. There is inherent risk in orienting your life around the service of God and others that seems to put our sanity and mental well-being at risk. The question is this, do you trust God? Do you trust that if you give him your everything that He can and will maintain you?

Here are a couple verses that highlight exactly my experience in the last year as God has sustained me through this incredible and critically important change. Luke 6:38 – Give and it will be given to you, a good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Proverbs 11:25 – “A generous man will prosper, he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

Perhaps today is the day God has called you to re-order your life. Perhaps it is at this moment that He is calling you to take the risk to put Him first, God has been the same yesterday, today, and forever…something close to eternity, I think we can trust Him today!

* * *

Recent news headlines reveal the next generation is confused, lonely, anxious, and spiritually hungry. This is why Gideons and Auxiliary are committed to sharing the hope of the Gospel with young people.

A 2023 report by Barna Research titled The Open Generation revealed that 75% of USA teens feel motivated to learn more about Jesus. Among committed Christian teens, nominal Christian teens, and all other teens, the Bible was the top trusted resource for learning about Jesus (with only “the family” tying as a top trusted source among nominal Christian teens).

While there are challenges with the ever-changing landscape of today’s cultural issues, God is still opening doors for members of The Gideons to share the Gospel. Gideons and Auxiliary aim to make God's Word available to students in fifth grade and above. This past year, we were able to reach over 65 million people worldwide with the hope of Jesus Christ, and nearly 70% of them were students in middle school, high school, or college. Youth receiving Testaments in the USA has now surpassed pre-pandemic totals (4.8 million in 2019 versus 5 million in 2024).

We know from the testimonies received over the years that an encouraging word of witness or a single Testament placed in a student’s hand can make an eternal difference. Here are a couple of examples:

A Gideon handed Gary a brand-new Testament one day and said, “This is for you.” Gary felt so proud to have that Testament.

Instead of reading it right away, he tucked it away in the top drawer of his bedroom chest. As a teen, Gary began skipping school and getting into trouble. “I needed something to help me with all the guilt and shame that weighed so heavy on me,” he remembers.

“Because of that Gideon who gave me a copy of God’s Word, I ultimately had somewhere to turn during a very dark time in my teenage life,” says Gary. He ended up on his knees beside his bed asking Christ to be the Lord of his life. Today, Gary is a pastor in Florida.

During a Scripture distribution at a large Texas university, a group of Gideons had memorable conversations with several students. One student shared that he had started heavily drinking with his newfound freedom as a freshman. Before the end of the semester, he realized that he had become an alcoholic. He had attended church with his family growing up but had only head knowledge of God. After one drunken binge, he cried out to God to deliver him. God answered, and he was born again. A Gideon prayed with him and asked Jesus to give him boldness to share his powerful testimony with other students.

This student was one of 9,000 others who received a Testament from Gideons that day. “We planted seeds and pray that it will bear fruit,” said one of the Gideons.

Gideons and Auxiliary worldwide play a significant part in giving students the lasting hope of Jesus Christ. Join us in praying for the Lord to continue moving in the hearts and lives of the next generation. Pray also for today’s youth to openly receive the only remedy that can change their life—the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gideons. Reaching the Next Generation. September 20, 2024. David P. Kinkade and Kevin McIntosh. 

https://www.gideons.org/blog/reaching_next_generation

Both my husband and I grew up in Christian homes going to church every Sunday. Especially after COVID lockdowns, and then with the birth of our first and second kids, we struggled to get ourselves going to church. It was so easy to stay at home, but we didn't realize how much we missed and needed a church community. 

Then when our daughter was about three, we felt a strong calling to find her a bible class, like my husband and I grew up in.

Within a week, Mountain Christian Church advertised their Vacation Bible School program, and we couldn't ignore the obvious and literal sign. 

So that summer our daughter attended VBS at MCC, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience for our entire family. She came home each day filled with excitement, sharing the songs, Bible stories, and crafts she had learned. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and we were deeply moved by the joy and spiritual growth she experienced during that week.

Inspired by the positive impact VBS had on our daughter, we decided to attend a Sunday service. From the moment we walked through the doors, we were greeted with open arms and sincere hospitality. The sense of belonging and the strong emphasis on family values resonated with us deeply. As a result, we have become regular attendees and participants in the church community.

VBS not only provided our daughter with a memorable and enriching experience, but also led our family to discover a supportive and loving Christian community. 

* * * 

Lauren's story is a beautiful testimony of what the Lord does through VBS. Would you consider joining in His work for the Kingdom, right here in Cedar Crest? Talk to Cruz Talamantes today about how you can be involved. 

You will be blessed, and will also be a blessing. God may even use you to change a family's life forever. 

We are blessed to support four missionary church planters in different outlying regions of Ethiopia. Each of these is working among largely-unreached people groups, or among groups very hostile to the gospel.  The true gospel that we might take for granted is not readily-available in these places. And in some cases, it has little chance to gain a hearing.

In addition to these works, MCC also has a connection with a godly and seasoned church leader in Ethiopia. Pastor Dr. Tesfaye came to Christ as a child through Finnish missionaries. His father was a spiritist and medicine man, and his mother was just one of his father’s wives.

Today, Pastor Tesfaye trains and mentors many other younger leaders. He often travels to outlying regions, and is one of the mentors to our four church planters.

Last December, we were blessed to support a Training Conference led by Pastor Tesfaye in Hawassa. This area has evangelical churches, but the leaders are still in need of discipleship and teaching. ”Planting Effective Disciple-Making Churches That Are Sustainable, Resilient, Missional, and Multiplying” was the title of the event that brought together nearly 100 young pastors from diverse denominations for three days.

Its aim was to equip leaders with the knowledge, skills, and spiritual foundation needed to lead effective disciple-making churches. In Ethiopia, many who come to Christ find little Bible training. Their discipleship is rich in prayer and fellowship; but since the leaders lack training, they have few tools to deeply ground believers in the Word. These pastors were trained to navigate and counteract the pressing challenges of rising consumerism, the spread of prosperity gospel teachings, the constant threat of tribalism, and the unstable socio-political climate in the country.

Please pray for Pastor Tesfaye, our four missionary church-planters (Epheson, Alebachew, Tesfaye and Henoke) and the attendees at this training. May the Lord continue to grant them courage, hope and every kind of provision for His purposes.

For Christians to thrive in the modern era, there are two spiritual disciplines we must adopt: Digital Detox (fasting from screens) and Intentional Ignorance (fasting from information).

The rapid growth of digital technology has implications for our spiritual formation. The form of connectivity that comes with smartphones and watches is fundamentally new in human history; this isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it is certainly different. Thus, the countercultural spiritual disciplines that serve our growth ought to be different as well.

Spiritual formation and the purposeful means of formation (spiritual disciplines, habits, and practices) are always contextual; the dehumanizing forces of our idols express themselves differently in different cultures. Our culture is the first culture that is radically digital.

Deformative Power of Digitization

Being chronically connected to the internet tempts us to be “like God” in fresh and terrifying ways. We have never before been as tempted to pursue omnipresence and omniscience as we presently are.

When we have 5G internet in our pockets and on our wrists, we are networked into the entire developed world. We can instantaneously observe, communicate, and be interrupted by people on the other side of the planet who are on their phones more easily than our neighbors down the street who are grilling in their backyard or playing in their front yards.

We are more interrupted than ever; our interactions with our closest loved ones and neighbors are more vulnerable to being hijacked by the wants or needs of someone far away as our own attention spans have been truncated by our notification settings.

Information used to be a hot commodity; now it is ubiquitous. With “googling” as the new verb and “GPTing” something right around the corner, access to information is instant. Will we forget what not knowing something for more than 30 seconds feels like?

Omnipresence is one of the characteristics of God. When technology makes us hyper-present, not only can our nervous systems not handle it, but our close friends and loved ones go unloved because we are aloof, distracted, and preoccupied.

Omniscience is also one of the characteristics of God. God can handle knowing all things, we cannot. We are limited, bound, and local by virtue of being embodied. From simple trivia to current events, it is good for us to not know things.

Part of the reason we are so mentally unhealthy as a society is that we are flirting with omnipresence and omniscience. We know too much and know about it, so we are anxious and depressed.

The Power of the Proximity Principle

Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30ff) in response to the question, “who is my neighbor?” In the story, a man is harmed on a road and in need of help. Later, two people travel on the same road, see the man, and then pass by him. But a Good Samaritan travels by where he is lying harmed, sees him, has compassion, and then acts.

The first two stand condemned not simply because they didn’t help, but because they were right there, up-close-in-the-flesh, and able to help, but still didn’t help.

The basic ethical principle here: proximity and ability create responsibility.

Many are plagued by a low-grade sense of chronic guilt and anxiety because our nervous systems are not designed to handle all of the information we have access to in our digital age. Young people, in particular, are plagued with over-responsibility that leads to paralysis and depression.

We end up functioning like the Levite and the Priest in Luke 10:31-32 who are unable or unwilling to love the people right in front of them because we are preoccupied with all of the information, problems, and suffering far away from us.

If we look through the lenses of proximity and ability, some of our info-induced anxiety will dissipate and we’ll have a clearer conscience as we love those who are in the “place” God has placed us (like the Good Samaritan).

Only God can handle omniscience (knowing everything) and omnipresence (being everywhere), and we should repent of our desire to be like God in this way.

The Christian tradition has long practiced the discipline of fasting. Most basically, fasting is depriving oneself of a good thing for the purposes of prayer and growth. Our new context requires two new forms of fasting: fasting from digital devices and fasting from information.

How to Practice Digital Detox

A digital detox is a fast from digital devices, especially your smartphone, smartwatch, or tablet. The digital detox helps us repent of omnipresence. It is a break from being tethered to your electrical umbilical cord and your dopamine pacifier. Here is what I try to make this look like for me:

• Daily: When I walk in the door from work, I leave my phone on a shelf by the door for at least thirty minutes while I play with my kids and reconnect with my wife.
• Daily: I dock my phone at a table on the other side of my bedroom a minimum of 40 minutes before I go to bed and don’t look at it for 20 minutes after I wake up (except to stop my alarm)
• Weekly: A 12-hour Digital Detox that includes going to the park, going on a walk, or going to the gym without my phone.
• Monthly: A 48-hour social media, email, and texting Digital Detox.
• Twice Monthly: Leave my phone at home when I go on a date with my wife.
• Annually: Once per year, a 3-day personal Spiritual Retreat that includes a Digital Detox among other forms of traditional fasting and prayer while I focus on being present to the Lord.
• Annually: Once per year while on vacation, a 5-day total Digital Detox where my phone and computer are all the way off, and I focus on being present to my family.

How to Practice Intentional Ignorance

If it is true that ignorance is bliss, then that explains a lot of our current mental health crisis. The information we are asked to carry and steward is too much for our non-Divine minds.

Intentional Ignorance is the radically countercultural choice to embrace not knowing everything you could know. Here is what I try to make this look like for me:

• Less Updates: I don’t watch Instagram or Facebook stories. I don’t want to know what people are up to all the time.
• Less Breaking News: I unfollow almost all news accounts, especially those that do BREAKING NEWS.
• Less Answered Questions: At least once per day, I let a question go unanswered. What is the actual difference in diameter between the NBA ball and the WNBA ball? I’m going to choose just not to get my phone out and Google that. What happened with that rocket in North Korea yesterday? I choose not to find out the answer to that. In doing so, I pray, “Lord, you are the Omniscient One; because I trust you and your approval I don’t need to know that.” The feeling of enduring ignorance is foreign to us but serves our formation.

Many of these practices are aspirational for me; too often I’m embarrassed at the unhealthy patterns of my own device use. I recommend these habits as someone who knows his own.

Humans are called to have dominion over creation, but too often our own creations have dominion over us. The dual practices of Digital Detox and Intentional Ignorance will help us right the balance of power that our devices have over us as we seek congruence with and fidelity to the Spirit of Christ.

FortheChurch. Digital Detox, Intentional Ignorance and the Proximity Principle. January 18, 2024. Seth Troutt.

https://ftc.co/resource-library/articles/digital-detox-intentional-ignorance-and-the-proximity-principle/