The musings of me

Hey everyone,

Updates are good and one's with substance are usually better, so this one will hopefully be in the "better" category, at least it was for me. :)

I'm reading through a book called Knowing God by J.I. Packer for my Theology Proper class in Seminary. (side-note here, I got accepted into City Seminary Sacramento something like a week after I got back from England and I am enrolled in two classes this semester; Theology Proper and Introduction to Homiletics) 

In this book, Knowing God, I came across something he said that struck me profoundly and then all at once enticed me to consider it's implications to our every day life and then share it with whomever would hear it.

He said "...the quality and extent of our knowledge of other people depends more on them than on us. Our knowing them is more directly the result of their allowing us to know them than of our attempting to get to know them. When we meet, our part is to give them our attention and interest, to show them good will and to open up in a friendly way from our side. From that point, however, it is they, not we, who decide whether we are going to know them or not."

Ponder that truth for awhile, consider the depths of it. Why are we so distant from people? How is it that we don't have many close friends if any true friends at all? You see we can read that at first and say, "well they didn't open up to me" But have you opened up to them?

It is very true that if someone does not want to be open, if they don't want to tell you about themselves, then there is little you can do to bridge that gap. What immediately challenged me is "am I that person?" Do I keep people at arms length? Are there portions of my life which I don't want to share even when directly asked about them? The overwhelming conclusion is, many times, yes. For fear of judgment or condemnation, being stabbed in the back or being written off, I keep people away from the parts of me I don't want them anywhere near. In fact, I could say that I've gotten very good at this. I'm a molder of conversations. This is a gift from God that has allowed me to bless many people, however, because of my wickedness, it also allows me to guide and direct people far away from the parts of me that I don't even deal with. And in so doing, no one ever gets close enough to really know me at all. 

I'm not advocating that we share every part of ourselves with every single person we meet, simply stating that the sparsity with which we open ourselves up to people will be equivocal to our friendships that are actually worthwhile. How close you want people to be has much to do with how open you are with each other.

It is my hope that through this God both challenged and encouraged you, it certainly had that effect on me.

Grace, Love, and Peace

-Andrew

To be expected?

ok, so a day in the life of a "normal" Christian. Well, a day in the life of a certain Mr. Andrew B. Myers, and by a day I mean the one I'm still having right now. :) Its been a fun one so I hope you enjoy the tale I'm about to share with you.

It all begins with a lie down at a bit past midnight, maybe 1am which turns into Spiritual warfare until 7:30am when my wonderful alarm goes off. Now I don't know about you guys but alarms for me mean snooze button in all instances, which then turns into sleeping HARD till 10:10am. 2hr40mins of sleep is the kinda sleep that I'm pretty sure you're better off not having, but God knows, and He's sovereign, back to the tale.

I roll outta bed, and you know how you feel like you're gonna kill someone but you gotta throw a pork shoulder in the slow cooker and get ready for church, yeah, well that's how I felt this morning. (you know you've been there, pork shoulder and all.)

I church it up for a few hours and then cook BBQ for the church Fam which very quickly turns into playing with kids and scarfing the random charred piece of meat in my face until 3:30pm.

STOP! Energy drink time :)

Now I'm off for a few mile walk to take care of food for the coming week, and then come back, work out, and prep dinner for 6 guys.

Eat and have a beer and think seriously about going comatose at 7-8pm.

Then we watch a guy try to beat-up/drag a young woman down a dark alley and while we are still in relative shock she gets free and runs across the street with him in pursuit. So myself and 3 guys rush to protect her and almost have to/(lets be honest) get to (remember the 2hr40min sleep/long day I've had so far) kick a guys face in. Alas/Glory to God (yeah, I'm that mixed in my emotions towards this situation) he calmed down and walked away for a bit. Then he came back and kept just enough distance to keep us from having to get involved physically. She hops on her bus and if this was a normal story it would have ended but Ohhhhhh, no.

we start to walk off and so does he and then we see him legging it HARD to the next stop chasing her bus to the station (2 miles away). CRAP!!!!!!

we're in pursuit and we have to run so flippin fast! All the while knowing that we're gonna have to be fit enough to protect this young lady. (imagine a sarcastic smiling Andrew face here) we get there moments after him and sure enough, he's harassing her. (my rage is nearing an 8/10 at this point)


Now he's getting bold and we're having to physically stand in the way and eventually he gets a bit shook and takes off. We then get to share the love and gospel of Jesus Christ with this girl and at various points her face is in utter disbelief that God would love her that much which then turns into tears of joy and the tears you get from being overwhelmed. We let her know that if she ever needs anything she can come by and we'll be there for her because she is created in the image of God and has value and worth and because of the great love of Jesus in our lives we have love for her. Now its tears and a smile so big and so permanent it almost looked like it hurt. (you know the smile)

Then comes back the guy. I don't know of another time I've gone from such extremes in emotions. Pure love and compassion to probably the most unrelenting rage I have ever felt in my life. My adrenaline was pumping so hard my vision became blurred around the edges, my fists clenched, profanity flew through my mind, and God Almighty held my tongue, guided my mind, and restrained what I was so eager to pour out all over this, and I have to remind myself, image bearer of God.

Finally he took off, she boarded her bus to a few towns over and this particular incident was done, minus a couple more miles of walking back to the church.

Then the day should be over, I wanted it to be over so badly, but its not, not yet. In comes the finishing of my now lukewarm beer, a few final bites of pulled pork sandwich, and then... several hours of being a brother in Christ to a brother who was struggling. It's now 1:30am-ish, this had to go down on record as one of the most insane days of my life thus far, and now we're on to the lesson learned like a good puritan has to put down. (fyi, theologically and practically I'm a puritan minus a few small things)

The trite Christian saying of "God never gives you more than you can handle", that's a lie. A better way of putting it is that "Without Christ, we can handle nothing. As He is willing, there is nothing we cannot handle."

God doesn't just want to save to rape victim but the rapist as well. The mugger and the mugged. The persecutor and the persecuted. When you understand that His rage toward the sinner is nearly unquenchable, His grace and mercy become completely unfathomable.

Ecclesiastes 5:12
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 

I'm holding onto this one tonight. I know its only an observation of a God inspired man. Wisdom not necessarily definitive fact, but I really hope its true tonight.

Anyways, blessing brothers and sisters.

May God shower you with His grace, love, and peace.
-Andrew

A quick update

Hey everyone, I'm headed back to the states in just over a month so i thought now would be a good time to throw out an update/prayer request blog to do a bit of a preemptive strike on a God glorifying time of being back in the States

I don't have a local church to become a part of back in the States as it stands right now, so i would really like to find a Missional church that's reformed theologically, that'd be awesome!

There still feels like there will be a fairly substantial gap left with my absence here. Not that I'm everything or even a hugely important part of this church, but i would really like to be completely replaced by the time i leave in every possible way, so please pray that God would replace me and then some for this church body's growth at my departure rather than it's harm.

I'm praying about "next steps" right now, again :) it seems like I do that all the time, but maybe that's the time of life God's got me in, never really knowing what He's got for me to do next. Anyways, Seminary, getting plugged into a church that would send me out in a few years (or even right away) fully supported, or something else entirely? God knows, and if it's cool with Him, I'd like to know as well. :)

Loads of people here God seems to be reaching out to, pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to wreck, change, draw out, and regenerate lost and dying people that by His Sovereign Grace they would come to know Jesus Christ and receive eternal life.

Finally, please pray that God would keep me separate from sin though still engaged with this lost and dying world. That I would have a desire to do His will far more than I would long for the temporary and fleeting pleasures of sin, Satan, and death. Specifically that i would have the heart to preach His gospel, learn more about Him every day, pray for Him to do what I cannot (i.e. most everything), and to know my place.

Grace, Love, and Peace

-Andrew

I'm not good at... well actually, im just not good

So, before you go on thinking that I'm depressed or whatever else, watch this video, hopefully the title will make sense after that :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-GxkAJ1OBU&NR=1

Ok, onto the blog :-D

Thanks to the Providence of God a Missional Bible study through the book of Galatians was started at The Cornerhouse Cafe. Myself and Dave Moore will be co-leading it by doing a short (if you know me well enough you know just how short this is for me) 20 minute teaching on the chapter we're going through that night and then we've got an hour and a half to 3 hours of discussion guided by questions Dave and I will be asking about what we learned through the teaching.

You may be asking yourself what is a "Missional Bible Study"?
Well, I'm so glad you asked :)
Basically its that we are purposefully doing this Bible study in a place that people who don't know Jesus will feel comfortable in, will see us and hopefully be interested in what we're doing even if they didn't come to the cafe for the Bible study, and where we can engage their questions and concerns about Jesus, God, life, death, etc. in a way that is culturally contextual. We want the gospel to be seen and heard while allowing the only offence to be Christ and Him crucified. We want to be "on mission" (see Matthew 28:19-20) in everything we do.

I started getting discipled by Tim Butt, one of the leaders here at Bridgeway and its been great. Basically he's working with me on the more practical aspects of church as well as working on building my character. It's, almost literally, exactly what I need.

The Junction (the church's coffee shop), though there have been several set backs, is now finally going to have its grand opening on the 20th of this month. Fliers are going out this week and prayers have been going up for months, so by the grace of God I hope that it will be an amazing blessing to the community and the church body as a whole.

Basically, this coffee shop is not a coffee shop for the church, but a coffee shop for the community. It's design is to serve and interact with the community of Stockport while being run by Christians so that people who would never go into a church building can begin to see that Christians aren't just some crazy people with a self righteous bent to them, but that we are a group of loving people who have been changed by the grace of God to bless the town we live in.

Designed my first flyer this week, check it out here

The Youth Club we run could use prayer, these kids don't know Jesus and really don't want to. Please pray that the sovereign grace of God will cause them to be born again.

Finally, if you know me at all, you know i have an unhealthy love of fire and explosions. This was the event Bridgeway Church put on before I came here.

 Coincidence? I think not!

Grace, Love, and Peace
-Andrew

An update and some things to pray for :)

Hey everyone! 


It's been quite some time since I've done an actual update on the things that are going on with what God has called me to here in England. In fact it was probably going to even be a longer amount of time before i wrote anything at all, but by God's providence, my cousin's wife sent me a message asking me about things here and it turned out to be everything i really should be typing in an update. So praise the Lord! :)


ON TO THE UPDATE!!!


In general, things here are going really well. I've been meeting loads of people. God has also been using me to reach loads of people with the gospel, and about a dozen people so far have started to regularly come to the church and get ministered to and start to become part of the church community, though only time will tell about the genuineness of their conversion. I would say though, that by regularly come to the church, i don't mean on Sunday morning, rather they come at various times of the week for prayer or to read the bible or just to talk and I'll write more specifically about that below.

I don't know how many of you know, but we're trying to open a coffee shop to be more involved in the community and to get people more comfortable with who we are and what we are all about here. Most people here think of church as either in a steeple or as a cult. They don't have anywhere near the concept of church as Americans do and so there is a huge cultural gap that we are trying to bridge to better reach more people. As for the practical set-up goes, it's a ton of work and we're really not even close to being done with it. we still need furniture, some equipment, more people to volunteer to help out with it, and to do a semi remodel with the front of the shop. please pray for us about this.

 I've been looking to get involved with the college in Stockport and reach out to those kids (college here is 16-18 sometimes to 20) but I'm still unsure exactly how to go about getting involved. It's not an easy process and email thus far hasn't worked. In the next week or so I'm gonna go down to meet with the chaplain Lord willing and set something up.

We do a youth club which is an outreach on Wednesday nights for the kids of the community, it's not a youth group for Christian kids, and about 3-5 of the kids are regularly going through the Bible with me once a week on Tuesday and claim to either be Christians or want to be Christians. These are kids who live in the projects, so temptation is high and hope is low for them. They could totally use prayer.

By God's grace i saved this guy from getting his head kicked in and let him into the church building once the guys that were robbing him ran off and he's been coming by the church 1-3 nights a week to hang out and talk. He doesn't believe in Jesus, but he says that he "desperately wants to believe in something" and that he "always comes to the church when he needs to get away from his problems" so, Lord willing he will get saved and become a part of the church community here.

And, finally, there are about 10ish other people that a few of the guys and I are reaching out to on the weekends. Getting food, playing pool, watching a movie, etc. and taking all the opportunities we can to share about Jesus with them. Please pray for us, and them, and our relationships that they would both grow and that they would be God honoring and glorifying.


That said, I'm coming back to the States at the end of August and I'm actually both terrified and excited about coming back. I'm learning so much here and I'm stoked about that, getting prepared to plant a church, going through the Porterbrook course work, and seeing what real Christian community should look like. It is definitely a life changing experience for me and something i desperately needed, but some stuff about coming home, or really the next steps of life are kinda gnarly. I have no home church, no sending church/s, no church or organization to guide and support me, no job, no place to stay, almost no money to tide me over till i get a job, etc. (i put etc. because there's more but it's not really beneficial to list out all my problems one by one, you know?)

So its kinda freaky to think about coming back, and the thereafter, but its good at the same time.


So, things to pray for:

• the people we've been ministering the gospel to
• the kids of the community
• the community itself
• the coffee shop
• the church
• that I would stay on mission no matter where I'm at or what I'm called to do.

Love you guys, hope this blessed you in some way, and i hope to hear from and see you all soon. :)


In His Grace Love and Peace
-Andrew


Sweet video to check out BTW
http://vimeo.com/20960385

something thats actually worth watching

Watch this first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUflpqIu4co&feature=player_embedded#at=345

then this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUpLVCj2bQI

Martin Luther, in the 95 theses, was led by God to begin with:

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.  2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.  3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh.

Working from there and with genuine desire to please God in all of this life that He has given me to steward, I write this note.

I was out street witnessing and saw a woman screaming, with more hate and anger than you could honestly believe, truth from Gods word and I was compelled to confront her in love about what she was doing. She wrote me off and then screamed louder this beautiful message in the absolutely worst way. So I turned to the crowd and shared the gospel with them (God be glorified that He uses all things for His glory and our good) afterward she was not really wiling to speak to me, but her husband with all the hate and spite he could muster screamed at me and spit on me and called me a watered down bringer of a false gospel. 

All that to say, what bothered me the most about them was not their message but that they gave it without any concern or love for the people who they spoke to. They spoke of judgment without displaying love.

It has come to my attention through various means that I have hurt some of you in a very similar way. I believe God speaks today through the scriptures to us, so for the truth I don't repent, but for my harsh tone, my laziness, my lack of love, and my hardness of heart I both repent(have the heart to never do it again) and ask for your forgiveness and future honesty to call me out when I am not acting in line with the Scriptures.

In His grace, love, and peace brothers and sisters
-Andrew