Update from Lakeshore

Several weeks ago I posted about having the opportunity to help wire a house here. I am finally getting to posting some pictures from that adventure! It was so fun and I want you all to see some of the action!

Vic's house, the same house where a group
of us worked on the roof a few months ago

Rob, the actual electrician

Lisa, doing some good stapling!

Mike, unsheathing those wires

That's me on the ladder, and 2 people from
another team putting up the breaker box.

I like this picture because Bro. Don's face is so fun!
That's Doug working in the background.

We had a few slow weeks around here with hardly any volunteers, but we are starting to pick back up this week. We've had people in this week from Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. They have been working on several different houses. Two houses that I am excited about are Mr. Scarborough's and Ms. Gillum's. Mr. Scarborough's trailer is near completion and it is so exciting to get teams in there to finish up that last few things that need to be done before this elderly man can return to his home. Ms. Gillum, also, is elderly and a team this week began hanging the sheetrock in her house. This dear lady has had many tragedies in her life in the past few years, only one of which was Hurricane Katrina. The house that we are working on for her actually belonged to her daughter, and Ms. Gillum was going to live with her. Suddenly, only months after the storm, her daughter died, leaving Ms. Gillum with no family and no hope of having a house in which to live. The church decided to continue to work on the house and restore it for Ms. Gillum herself and she was speechless. It has been a long road, but we are finally moving forward on her house and it's encouraging to see. There are many other projects going on here currently, I have only highlighted a few. Pray that God continues to sustain those here to work for His glory in the rebuilding of this community, and to keep the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ the basis of our efforts here in Lakeshore!

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

There has been a lot going on in the life of my church body, Immanuel, and, as a result, a lot in my heart these past few weeks and I don't really know how to express where I'm at except through the words of these humbling hymns:

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all

2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content,
What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day

3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true,
Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart

4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all

©1998 David Braud Music.

How Firm a Foundation

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

1787, John Rippon

I pray for the dear members of Immanuel, who are going through such hard trials this day, that they might be sustained by God's grace and given the faith to trust Him as an all-wise, all-loving Father who is the author of their trials. And these trials, which indeed come to us all, are sent for the purpose of our sanctification and, ultimately, so that God might be glorified more through our lives. Oh that God would strengthen my feeble heart to believe!

2-year mark, Labor Day, and sweat!

While the school year has started and we've had a lull in the number of volunteer teams here, life here in Lakeshore has not been without excitement these past few weeks. Last Wednesday, August 29, marked two years since Hurricane Katrina destroyed this community and the larger Gulf Coast area. That night at church, Pastor Don spoke of how normally an anniversary is something celebrated and, while we do not really celebrate the storm itself, the work that God has done here in His people and through them (volunteers included, of course) in the community in the aftermath of the storm is truly something to be remembered so that God will be praised and glorified.

Over Labor Day two friends of mine from Louisville drove 11 long hours to visit me and see Lakeshore again. It was so good to see these friends, I am so thankful that they would spend the few days they had off for the holiday to come down here to visit and help. Also, Joel, who was here over the summer, came to visit, and we all had a great time. We worked, played Mexican Train Dominoes (very fun!), watched movies, went to New Orleans, and just spent good time together. It was sad to see them go, but made me thankful for God's sustaining grace in my life, this visit from friends being one of those graces!

Lastly, a funny, strangely ironic story. You see, there's this school gym that the county has let the church use for storage since the storm. There have been rumors for some time now that the gym would be torn down at any time in order to move forward with rebuilding the school. In the first few weeks I was here, I lead team after team in emptying the gym, no easy task with some of the items that were in there: industrial kitchen equipment, big sliding glass doors, steel pallets, and all manner of other things. Nevertheless, the teams were great and we got it emptied. It was such an accomplishment to me and I was sooooo happy! Then, the contractors who had begun working on clearing the land for the new school told us that they would not be tearing down the gym for about another 6 months. Great we said, we can put more stuff in it, and we did! Well, that didn't last for long because a few weeks ago we got a letter from the county saying that we needed to be out pronto. We called the contractors to try to get an extension or confirm when we did need to be out of the gym, and they said it was true, we have to be out by the 10th of September. So, for the past few days, since we don't have any volunteers here this week, Jamie and I have been sweating like crazy while working to clear out the gym! It's going pretty well and we will have some local people and maybe a few nearby churches help us finish up on Saturday. It would be easy to get frustrated about this back-and-forth game we've played concerning this gym, but it's all part of life here in Lakeshore: flexibility!! Instead, we laugh and get to work and I wanted to share this little laugh with you!!

J.C. Ryle's Holiness

In recent weeks I have become somewhat of an avid blog reader. I was given a list of good blogs by Jamie, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this new practice. One of the blogs I frequent most is by a man named Tim Challies. Soon after I started reading his blog regularly, Mr. Challies proposed to his readers that they endeavor to read a classical work together. After much positive response, it was decided that they would read through J.C. Ryle's classic book on personal holiness titled Holiness. I have committed to reading this book, along with many other of Challies' blog readers, and we have just finished the introduction. I am looking forward to reading this work, praying that it will be of much benefit to the church as a whole, bringing deeper personal holiness to those of us reading it. I think it will be a good endeavor and I pray God will be glorified. For more information on how you can get involved in reading this book along with us, go to Reading the Classics Together and follow the links within the article. There's still time to join in and I hope you will consider so doing and that it may be great benefit to our sanctification!

The Disgust of Sin

My mom's boss, whom I've known my whole life, died this morning after battling severe cancer for close to a year. I have so many thoughts concerning this man's life, most of them bring me sadness and a bit of righteous anger. He was not a follower of Christ, therefore I know where his soul resides this very hour, and this thought is, I think, the saddest of the lot. I know God's justice and I would not presume to feel in any way as if God is in the wrong in this matter, He is the Sovereign of the universe and does what He pleases and I accept His will for this man, though it breaks my heart. Second, the cancer that he battled was some of the worst of which I've personally heard. He didn't find out about the cancer until it had already spread to his bones, which bode fatal from the beginning. He went through all the routine cancer treatments, chemotherapy, radiation, etc. with no improvement, but an actual worsening as some of the treatments were too strong for him to take. The tumors did not enlarge, but he lost 50 lbs and was sick and in the hospital regularly. Finally the inevitable happened and he contracted pneumonia last week. At first, the doctors tried to treat it with antibiotics, but with no success. That's when the doctors told his family that he had, at most, a week to live. The cancer was now 'everywhere' and he was beginning to lapse in and out of consciousness. The family moved him to a hospice and he died today, 4 days later. Third and last, I think of the death he died. When mom called me today to tell me that he had died, we talked a bit about his last few days. They sounded so horrible: lungs slowly filling with fluid, him having a harder and harder time breathing, gasping for breath, longer periods of unconsciousness, him telling his family he was dying (what would it feel like to know this inherently), not being able to recognize people as much, etc. All of these things make me think that he truly did feel the sting of death. Sure we may all die a death such as this man and I do not presume to know what death will be like, but this man was still in his sins, he had no hope and was 'without God in the world.' There was no trust for Christ in his heart and I think there must be quite a sting in a death like that.

So why do I call this post 'the disgust of sin'? Well, all these thoughts, along with a host of personal sins that I have been dealing with as of late, make me hate sin all the more. Originally, it was, in God's providence, because of the fall of Adam that these things of death, sin, pain, and disease came into the world and still survive today. Knowing a life like the life of this man I've just told you about makes me grieve that he was not a believer when he died, but it also causes anger in me toward sin and death. I only pray that my hatred for sin in this situation would fuel more hatred for my own sin and cause me to treasure Christ more than my sin. O God, I pray you would be glorified through this man's death and many people would be brought to repentance and faith in Christ through it, for your glory. Amen.

long time no post...

Hey, avid blog readers (all 5 of you!), sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was coming into a bit of writer's block last week and then I got sick this week. But, I think I'm about to kick this virus so hopefully I will return to the blogging world soon. Hope all of you are well...

Matthew 25

In light of reading Stop Dating the Church I have resolved, by God's grace, to be much more attentive during the sermons and try to apply what I am learning throughout the week. Last night, Don preached from Matthew 25:31ff. Basically, Jesus is teaching here what the final judgment will be like with a separation of sheep (believers) from goats (unbelievers). Jesus explains that what the sheep and goats did in life were very different and serves to reveal to which group each belongs. Don explained several things last night that were very instructive to me, but a few of them stand out in particular as especially memorable. First, Don explained that the sheep are doing these 'works' because they are sheep, they are not sheep because they are doing the 'works'. This may sound a little confusing, but it's very true. God sheds his mercy on undeserving sinners, makes them believers, and they begin to do good works as a result of the mercy they've been shown by Christ in salvation. That statement leads me right into the other comment I want to make about the sermon. I was struck and convicted last night, hearing Don talk about this mercy-evoking grace, at how often I have heard Don and my pastor, Ryan Fullerton, talk of 'mercy ministry' flowing out of the abundant mercy we've been shown in salvation, but how little of the time I am able to focus on this truth when serving. I pray I will be able to remember and apply these truths to my life and so glorify God in my service to Him.