Friday, April 24, 2009

The Grass Groweth!

So the grass is growing, but not as quickly as I would like, so I went to Home Depot yesterday. I bought a new hose (the old one had several holes and was left by the former resident of my apartment), a sprinkler, and some sort of fertilizer sprayer thing that adds nitrogen to the lawn.

To the right is the latest picture. The package said "seedlings will emerge in 7-21 days." We're at 14 days. I'm hoping that this new nitrogen infusion, along with better watering due to the sprinkler, will lead to more grass.

To the right is the latest picture of the lawn. Hopefully, there will be more in the next photo. When the lawn is "complete" there will be a celebration BBQ. (Do I need to explain what a BBQ is again?)

So I'm off to water the lawn!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Grass and the Sovereignty of God

We serve an amazing God.
Yesterday, I woke to a phone call at 5:45 a.m. from Ross King. Ross was scheduled to be our worship leader for DiscipleNow this weekend. Due to some crazy traffic and sitting on the freeway without moving for an hour, he had missed his first flight. There were, however, a few open seats on the next flight, which would still have him here in plenty of time.
Some of you might know that three years back we planned to have Ross as our worship leader and that time his plane turned around about five minutes after take off and landed back where he had taken off due to mechanical problems. After all of the "airport hassles" he ended up not making it out here at all. God definitely used that situation in many ways (but that's a blog for another time).
I just couldn't help but smile when it all started happening again. It was almost as if the tape from three years ago had been pulled off the shelf, put in, and hit play.

To make a long story short... Ross did not make it again this year. He commented to me: "I think I've spent more time waiting in airports trying to come see you than all my other airport adventures put together..." (he didn't make it this year for lack of trying though - he left his house at 4:45 a.m. and waited for 11 hours in the airport before we realized it just wasn't going to happen again.)

However: God is sovereign over all things. That's comforting to know when everything about the schedule seems to be falling apart. I made a couple of phone calls, juggled the schedule around (remember the key mission trip word? Well now it's the key word for DiscipleNow too), and found our "Plan B Band."

They're on this morning. I'm about to head over to start getting the stage ready for our new band. As much as I'm sad that Ross isn't with us, I'm also excited about our new band. Ironically, the drummer is the same one who I called at the last minute three years ago, but this time it's the band he regularly plays with. Three years ago, he was a student signed up for DNow who was suddenly playing. It's sort of a full-circle thing I guess.

And, to add another layer of "bonus" to all this, I actually have grass growing in my back yard. The seedlings take "7-21 days to emerge" and it's been nine days. I was a bit concerned when planting the new backyard lawn last week that it might not work. I'm not a gardener and I've never planted a lawn before. Whether or not it will become a lush lawn or not is yet to be seen, but there is grass growing!

God is sovereign over all things. From the big things like plane schedules and the weather and Plan B Bands being available for the whole weekend to the little things. The seedlings in my backyard are definitely little, but they are there. As soon as the yard grows into an actual backyard, I'll have to have a barbecue! For those that live here in California, a "barbecue" doesn't mean that I'm grilling hamburgers. It means we're having barbecue!

So on to our day of Worship at DiscipleNow 2009! We worship a mighty God. One who is sovereign and is not surprised in the slightest at all when the details change.

"For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations."
- Psalm 100:5

Thursday, April 16, 2009

There was once an evil man...

So last night one of our college students, Dominic Mendoza, shared his testimony at SIX33. He's got a great story of how, after a friend gave him a Bible, he began reading it and as a result, became aware of his depravity, his sinfulness, and his need of Jesus. Through reading through large portions of the New Testament, he came to believe in Jesus Christ as the only solution to his problem and was saved. He did an incredible job of sharing what has happened in his life and how Jesus has made all the difference. (his testimony will be available for download on the SIX33 website http://ibchighland.org/six33 in a few days) As part of his testimony, he showed us a video that has been impactful in his life. Until I watched this video, I had never given much thought to Barabbas. I grew up in church and I know who he was and how he fits into the story of the crucifixion. Until seeing this video, however, I had never made the connection of Barabbas and the idea of stubstitution. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is a great one. Watch this video and, hopefully, you'll see an amazing picture of what Jesus did for us. This video so clearly illustrates the Gospel. It shows what Jesus did for us. We are all Barabbas. Jesus died to take on the sins of all who would believe in Him. The question is: what will you do?



We were all "once an evil man..."

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Rob vs. the Rodent

So after several years of living in my current dwelling, I've finally planted a lawn. I have a 15'x15' backyard that, for the past few years, has gone back and forth between dirt and weeds and jungle many times.

Well on Thursday of this week I planted a lawn. I got some "fancy dirt" (to the tune of $5 a bag) and a couple bags of seed and followed the directions. It was easy to keep the lawn really wet yesterday with all the rain. So far, so good.

I awoke today to find a mound of dirt in my back yard. The evidence of a rodent popping up into my newly planted lawn. I was not pleased. So I've re-seeded the area and I'm going to keep a watchful eye on the back yard. And if it comes down to it, there might be an "incident" leading to the demise of said rodent.

I'll post pictures soon.

Rob
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Monday, April 6, 2009

Write my name on the board?

So my Dad, who is retired, has decided to do some substitute teacher gigs. I find this very interesting. It's hard to picture my Dad up at the front of a classroom full of 5th graders saying "Good morning class, my name is Mr. Signs."
The other day, after finishing the day at an elementary school, he discovered that it was considered to be the worst school in the district and he had one of the worst classes. I guess after that, he can handle just about anything.
He starts each class by writing his name on the board "Mr. Signs" and then drawing a Stop Sign next to it. I told him that he should draw several signs, since it's plural.

Ironically, I'm teaching a class today. My friend Mike Lovato, who is the High School Pastor at Magnolia Ave. BC right across the street from Cal Baptist, teaches "Introduction to Youth Ministry." He's on a mission trip this week, so I'm headed over there shortly to teach his class for him.

This has made me re-visit some of the foundations of my own ministry. It's good to re-visit foundations every now and then. I think that sometimes, in any career or venture, when we get into the flow of doing and being busy, we sometimes forget the foundations. I'm having to go through my whole Philosophy/Foundation for Youth Ministry and It's a good thing. Ironically, I'm pulling some stuff from yesterday's Sunday School lesson.

When it comes to foundational things, and I think about looking back at the basis for everything, I can't help but think about the Gospel. The Gospel is the foundation of everything for a Christian. As Easter approaches, I think it's even more appropriate to remember the foundation. The core of the Gospel is 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "...Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day..." and along with that, 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Put those two together and you have an amazing story. It's not my story, it's God's story. But where God's story intersects my life, I am reminded that when Jesus was on the cross, God punished Him for my sins. If there was a list of every sin I ever have or will commit then those sins were ones that Jesus atoned for on the cross. When I remember that, and meditate on it, it drives me to a deep sense of humility and thankfulness. When I remember (and I should be doing this daily) what Christ did for me on the cross, how can I not desire to be obedient to all that He commands? How can I not deeply desire to proclaim the Gospel whenever I get a chance?