Exiled Community

It has been really raining here in Delaware. Mom and Dad were down for the weekend. Dad helped me put in a sidewalk. It looks good. They will be back this weekend for the award banquet.

Yesterday was my birthday..27!! I had to get my driver’s liscense renewed on Monday. Wow! What a difference between the current and the one from 4 1/2 years ago when we moved to DE!! I look a lot older in the new one..and a little beefier (although I don’t know if that is a good thing!)

Character counts! I read that somewhere on a billboard or something. Today in my devotions, I read Psalms chapter one. It talked about how those who stay away from the unrighteous will be blessed. It made me think of a Will Smith (the great actor/prophet/teacher/rapper) quote that I recently read. He said, “Take a close look at your five closest friends and you’ll find out who you are.” When we surround ourselves with Godly people, or people earnestly seeking Him, then we are more likley to be encouraged and to seek Him. If we surround ourselves with the unrighteous, with no support elsewhere, then our character will suffer.

I have great friends here in DE, although not many…but I am still seeking that one who will challenge me to grow even more. A mentor that is close at hand. That would make a great prayer request.

Now…off to play with my new iPod.

Spent the last weekend in Pittsburgh at the National Youth Workers Convention. I had a great time other than being a part from Andrea. That stunk. But I got to do some pretty cool stuff. I went to the Steeler game (which the lost), got to see parts of old Forbes Field (I’m a Pirates Fan), and hear some great speakers.

Mark Yaconelli led of the conference by talking about Compassion. There are times in the gospels where Jesus looks over the crowd and has compassion on them. He feels deeply for them. Mark challenged us to see our students compassionatly.

I must admit that I sometimes don’t feel compassion for some students. I am guilty of writing a student off. God has really convicted me of this over the weekend. Just because someone shows not interested, or gives the cold shoulder doesn’t mean that I should stop caring or praying for that person.

Among many lessons, this is the one that sticks in my mind. God, give me compassion and love for those who are tough to love. Help me to reach out to those who don’t know they need reached. Help me to step outside of my comfort zone and touch those who need your touch. Let me be your hands and feet. Amen.

I just finished preaching a series entitled Untouchables: You’ve Thought About It, We’re Talking About It. The series went well overall. I preached on prejudice, sex, and homosexuality. The last, as you can expect, was a little flammable.

Some qualifiers here.

1. I believe that the Bible is the divine word of God.
2. I am not a fundamentalist. You won’t find me carrying signs about who should go to hell because of their sin…or you won’t find me (insert fundamentalist activity here.)
3. I believe that, as Christians, we need to be able to discuss topics that affect our lives and our world. Homosexuality is one of those topics.

Here is the sermon in a nutshell:
1. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:18-32, and others)
2. Homosexual Orientation is not a sin…homosexual lifestyle is (the same-sex physical relationship) Even a heterosexual is tempted to have inappropriate sexual relations.
Then I focused on God’s view of sin…and how the church should respond…
1. There is no heirarchy to sin…all sin leaves us short of God’s standard.
2. Our response as Christians is to:
a. Not to be judging (how can we point out a speck in someone else’s eye when there is a plank in our own?)
b. To Love…actions speak louder than words. We need to show love to homosexuals and all those different than us.
c. Create a Church that is a Sanctuary for Sinners. Jesus said that the it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. As a church, we need to create community where the sinner (all sinners) can come and be known, experience fellowship, and experience God’s grace and forgiveness through community.

Well, as one would imagine, people heard all sorts of stuff that wasn’t in my sermon. The most frustrating thing of all is those who say homosexuality is not a sin. I read, and read, and read, and can’t come up with any other conclusion. What is next? Saying the stealing isn’t a sin? Or cheating on your wife?

It will be interesting over the course of the next couple of weeks to see the ramifications of the sermon. There were several homosexuals in attendance, and they were a little upset. But I hope some good discusion can come from this. We need not shy away from it.

Until next time,

Steve

It’s been a long time since I’ve added to my running thoughts. Well over a month. Hopefully, I can get back in the habit.

This morning, I went to do my devotions before work. Honestly, I was conflicted because there was a movie I started to watch last night and didn’t get to see the ending to (although I’ve seen it before). The movie was on again this morning and it would end at just the right time for me to come into the office. Devotions vs. Movie…what did I do?

I watched the movie. It was Contact starring Jodie Foster. A movie, based on a Carl Sagon book, that probes the possibility of E.T. life in our universe. As I watched the movie, it became clear that this story was more than just aliens and space. It is about faith.

Jodie Foster’s character meets Matthew Maconnahey’s character and they have an instant connection (I can’t remember character names to save my life!) M.M.’s character used to study for the priesthood, but couldn’t handle celibacy…but he is still in touch with Faith, with God, and seeking the truth. J.F.’s character cannot believe how M.M. believes in God because, as she sees, there is no empiracal evidence.

The twist comes when J.F. enters the craft that the aliens have sent instructions to build. What happens is that she is transported through wormholes to a galaxy 26 light years away. She encounters an alien, who appears in the form of her father, who lets her know that this is just the first contact…and that this is how it has been done for billions of years.

When J.F. returns to earth, no one believes her b/c no one saw the craft leave. Her recording equipment malfunctioned so there is no evidence of what happened. Yet in irony, J.F. speaks of faith, speaks of being apart of something bigger, that we’re not alone, and that her experience without any evidence was enough to convince her.

What evidence do we have of God? Certainly, we can look at the sunsets, the ocean, even the galaxy and see God’s fingerprints everywhere. Even still, it is a matter of faith, faith in the unseen. Faith in a God who is here with us, moving in our lives.

While I didn’t read my Bible this morning, or pray, God really opened my eyes through the movie about faith.

Father God, give me faith to trust you when you are unseen, when things get tough and my heart is full of doubt. Help me to have faith that your love is the only cure for what ails our world. Amen.

“We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown…We have an unknown distance yet to run; and unknown-river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not…with some eagerness, and some anziety, and some misgiving, we enter the conyon below.”
-From the journal of John Wesley Powell, August 13 1869, written at the junction of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River, Arizona Territory.
Thanks to Duffy Robbins and his book,
This Way to Youth Ministry for this quote. Having just gone rafting a week ago, I can somewhat imagine the excitement and anxiety that John Wesley Powell and his men must have thought as they explored the Colorado River. How exciting it must be to go where no one has gone before…to see obstacles in front of your path and overcoming them.

The Quest of Life is much the same. We don’t know what falls there are ahead…or rocks blocking our path, or walls rising beyond the water. It can cause anxiety in our life. And yet, at the same time, can bring so much excitement. I asked the question of what attracts our college students to the message of Jesus…and the response was encouraging! Many were attracted to the full life that Jesus promises in John 10:10. There were also attracted that Jesus was there during the hard times. I think those two responses go hand in hand. God desires us to have a full, exciting, satisfying life…yet Satan, the destroyer, wants to do anything to steal our joy. He uses these falls, rocks, and walls to throw us from our raft and cause chaos.

Isn’t that where the adventure is? Not in the chaos, but when we trust God through the ‘rapids’ of life. The adventure is when God pulls us back in the raft, when His love for us is stronger than the currents of life, even sin! It’s exhilerating to come through the hard spots of life and see God’s hand guided us through! How great is our God! The adventure in the quest that is life is trusting God when we don’t know what lies ahead.

Lord, I praise you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your love that is stronger than the currents of the world that swirl around me. May your hand continually guide my path, making my paths straight. Amen.

Spent the weekend camping and whitewater rafting with some of our guys in the youth ministry. While we didn’t raft naked, it was one of the stickers/shirts there…pretty funny. But we had a great time. The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the fellowship with the guys was the best. Nothing better than staring at the stars at night, reliving the time on the river, talking about life and faith, and of course, enjoying that there are no girls around! LOL!

On our trip, we didn’t have a guide in our boat. They were spread throughout our group. The guide would pull us all over before a rapid and give us instructions on how to get through the rapid successfully. Then they went ahead and instructed us using hand signals. I remember that the first couple rapids, my raft was compimented as we went through for doing a good job…we hit the rapids hard and had a great ride. Other times, we did all we could to follow the instructions, but we’d lose control, get spun around, and hit a big rock!

That’s sometimes like life. We have people who guide us, mentor us, and invest in us, and sometimes it goes really well. Other times, we try as hard as we can…and we hit a big rock and are left swimming in the water, trying to find our way back to the raft.

God is good! I can’t say that lives were changed on the weekend…but we certainly know each other better…and we know each others hearts. As we ended the weekend, we prayed for one another. It was a moving moment for me to hear these young men of God praying for one another. It is my prayer that they continue doing so! Raft On!

It’s pretty hot in Delaware today. The heat index is around 107. As soon as I go outside, my clothes begin to stick to me and I start to sweat.

It makes me want a swimming pool. That would really make my wife happy although we both know we can’t afford it. But it would be so refreshing to jump in the pool this evening.

As stated in earlier post, I’ve had a ‘blah’ last few weeks. Especially spiritually. I really don’t know what it is. Probably apathy on my part. There is one place where I have felt refreshed though…that is worship. It energizes, envigorates, and brings life to my parched soul. In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman at the well encounters Jesus and he talks about living water that He can provide. Water that will quench our thirst…and bring us life. Why do I run from that sometimes? Why do I want to do things my way? What I really want is to jump in head first into this living water…but for some reason I forget how renewing it is and I go about the day doing things my way. Will I ever learn? We’ll just have to wait and see.

So this week has been Vacation Bible School and Youth Week at Avenue. This has been the consuming factor in the LaMotte life. I believe things have gone well. VBS has had around 130 kids, and we’ve had 35 kids each night for Youth Week. Not bad for what we’ve done in the past.

Avenue is a predominately affluent, white church. We have made some inroads towards more integration at our H20 worship gathering, but not alot. But Youth Week, praise God, is different. This year we have been 40% White, 35% black, and 30% latino. The reason I make mention of it is that this is how things should look! It has been awesome getting to know the other students who we don’t normally see…and hopefully that will change.

One of our students pulled me aside last night wanted prayer that God would come in their heart. Praise God! I have been feeling blase about ministry lately, this was really a boost…and not that I did anything…this was God.

So tonight we continue. May the God of all nations be at work in his people.

I am tired. I have a case of the summer blahs. Ever since the we returned from the Mission Trip, it has been difficult to be excited about things. Don’t get me wrong, the trip was great, but there is a let down when you get back. It has been a lot of work to feel up to ministry, and even spending time with God. Right now, it is more of a duty than a product of a passionate relationship between me and God.

I think it is during the summer blahs where we have to put feet on our faith. On the mission trip, God’s presence was palpable. You could feel it. Now that we are back, it is a different environment, and God’s presence doesn’t feel as near…BUT, I know that God is still right beside me, walking with me.

Growing up as a teenager, I had some really awesome Camp and Retreat experiences, and I struggled the years where God’s presence wasn’t like the year before, or I didn’t percieve it to be as strong. It took me awhile to learn that God is faithful and still working in my life.

I believe that is key when we follow God. There are going to be mountaintop experiences where God’s presence just knocks our socks off. There are going to be other times when we desire our socks to be knocked off, but God’s presence will be gentle, subtle, and quiet. But God is still there, working in the midst of our lives.

The moral for the day, God is near! In the midst of the blahs, tiredness, and glaze, God is present.

It’s already July, which means the mission team is back from their trip to Tennessee. Along with the fun, excitement, and work, I believe that God did some great work in our students and leaders lives. Each of the three worksites we were at were unique and offered many different lessons. One worksite lesson stands out.
At one of our sites, the homeowner was rarely, maybe never, at her house. As our students and adults worked to improve her living conditions, there was no one to interact with, no one to get to know. The crew at the site did an incredible amount of work at this site to help this woman out, yet there was no one share it with.
Which leads to a very important question in our faith: “Are we able to serve when no one is looking?” This is really a question of motivation. What motivates us to serve? To help out around the house? To reach out to the unloved? Is it an allowance? Is it the words of gratitude that the homeowner or parents might say? Do we serve hoping that someone will notice our good works?
We are called to serve. Period. We are called to be like Christ, who humbled himself to be a servant. Picture the Son of God on his knees washing our feet. Why? Not because of money, or attention, or status…but because of love.
Throughout July, are you willing to serve when no one is looking? Can you bless others without worrying whether you’ll receive a blessing? Let’s get our serve on!