But in the sentence of God being able to handle our problems there is an inferred ability for us to be able to handle all the good in our lives. But here’s my question: If we are unable to handle the bad circumstances in our lives what makes us think we can handle the good ones? What about our lives shows us, humans, as being competent enough or reasonable enough to be able to deal properly with happiness?

The answer begged is that we are unable to handle the good in our lives. Because if we were able to properly handle the happiness of life than there would be no necessity for trials, for if the good things directed worship to God, as they ought, then the need to try those good things against hard things (creating pain). The reason being for my inquiry into this is I have never heard anyone say, “God is big enough and good enough to handle my happiness (whatever the joy may be); God is big enough and good enough to handle my engagement, new job, newborn, love, family, friends.”

If God can handle the bad things in life, the things that drive us to our knees, which cause blurred vision because the tears are so thick and forced breathing because weeping is difficult, if he can handle those times… He surely can handle joy and happiness.

A sovereign God demands that we see this, because he is not a cosmic gumball machine used only in pain.

This would be a similar analogy to hearing the call of Jesus’ voice, our Leader. Regina Spektor has a song called, “The Call,” (While you might not agree with her personally, this song begins with some fascinating truth):

“It started out as a feeling, which then grew into a hope, which then turned into a quiet thought, which then turned into a quiet word, then the word grew louder and louder until it was a battle cry.”

The call, the one of our shepherd, so subtle at first, yet growing with its crescendo being our hearing the voice of the King, our King, calling us to life, to live in the freedom afforded by both his resurrection and death.

So we look to Jesus, our shepherd, to call us and lead us as we ought to go. Away from sin, and toward his marvelous light.

“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art… Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.” ~ Be Thou My Vision

“Behold the Man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulder” ~ How Deep the Father’s Love for us

“And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul.” ~ It is Well

“While I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne.” ~ Rock of Ages

“Haste, then, on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close the earthly mission,
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope soon change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.” ~ Jesus I My Cross have Taken

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

All that I know is I was once blind, but now I see.

She recently returned to New Mexico to finish her Communication Studies degree. This is her story and her parting words to us as a body of believers:

1. What brought you to Wichita?

“I decided to do National Student Exchange, it’s like foreign exchange students but in the US. The Lord led me to apply and be away from my home school for a year. So I picked five schools and WSU was my 2^nd or 3^rd choice, but after being accepted I had to reconsider my options and had a strange peace about Wichita State.

The acception process was a huge deal. I’d applied after the deadline, but my admissions counselor at WSU said that it wouldn’t be a problem so that played a huge part in coming here, plus it just felt strangely right.”

2. What were your first thoughts of Wichita/WSU?

“It’s a lot greener than New Mexico (laughs) that was my initial thought.

Kellogg scared me to death.

Wichita State has a closer campus body than at my home school. All the buildings being in a circle made me think that first, but the people I met helped that thought.

But through all of those things I, in general, thought, ‘I’m not going to know how to get anywhere, this is the biggest city I’ve lived in, ever.’”

3. How did you find out about JtW? 

“I was familiar with Acts29 churches and when I first moved here I was already church hopping when I looked up churches on the A29 website and saw there was one here. But I didn’t know how to get there or where it was or who to even ask.

So I prayed and asked God to help me.

Literally the next day I overheard Sam [Morris] in a conversation after a class we were both in talking about Church stuff. So I asked where he went to church and he said he was a pastor at JtW. So he wrote down the directions of how to get there on the back of a card, and I stayed there for the whole year.”

4. What was your first Sunday like at JtW?

“I went by myself, so I didn’t know anybody; but I’m pretty outgoing anyway so I wasn’t too nervous.

But I immediately felt welcomed, not like a fake welcome but that people genuinely wanted to know who I was even though I had a bit of twang in my voice.

That’s what stood out the most was people’s genuineness.

I remember Dave’s worship set; I knew none of the songs. But they were so in line with Scripture and how they were set up in the worship playlist was so different than I’d ever experienced before, and I loved it.

The Sermon from that first visit I felt like Chad, form the first time I was there, (it was the beginning of the Philippians series) Chad was just raw in the way he went verse by verse and explained the Scripture. That’s been huge in my growth. I’d never heard preaching like that before.

When I left I was overtaken by the church in general — like every aspect of it. It was unlike any other church I’d been to or gospel presentation I’d heard. I guess the best way to put it is to say, ‘I’m addicted… I’m addicted to Journey the Way.’ (laughs)”

5. What was building a new community like?

“That was actually the biggest desire on my heart, leaving [New Mexico] and coming [to Wichita]. Because, yea, I had great Christian friends back home, but it wasn’t a big Christian community. So that was a desire, but I wasn’t sure what that was going to look like.

So I came to Wichita looking for community. Real community.

When I came to JtW I felt like I finally truly knew what it meant to be apart of a body. I started to build a relationship with JtW and Christian Challenge, It was like Christian Challenge was tons of friends and JtW was my home, the place where I’d always be safe.

I think it’s hard when you leave a place in general, because you’re leaving comfort and reliance in things and going somewhere new where none of those are. But I feel like God was preparing me for that. Because I’ve found myself more in Jesus here than I ever did before… at least, that’s how I feel.”

6. What would you say to the folks of JtW, as a goodbye?

“O my gosh — that so hard, there are so many things I want to say.

The biggest thing would be, ‘Thank you.’

Thank you for taking me in a loving me — loving me well — cause there’s a big difference between the two.

Every person I’ve met has left fingerprints on my heart in different ways. I wish I could go down the line and tell everyone specifically how he or she has helped me and how he or she blessed me personally.

But I think, if I had to just give a general statement, what I would want to communicate is the biggest amount thanks. Because God has worked in my life in an amazing way this year, more than any other period in my life and I know that each and every one of the people I’ve met at JtW has been apart of it.

There’s something contagious about JtW, I don’t know if I’ll every truly crack it, other than it’s just the Lord working in the church. It was like a train, first, Sam invited me, then, I invited others and now most of them are regular attendees.

I know this probably isn’t a good way to say this, but it’s what I’ve got, Journey is like a good cancer that’s spreading across Wichita. That’s not a good explanation, I know, but I just see trails of it. People have been affected by the gospel and some of them for the first time ever. People, all over Wichita are being changed. And God is sovereign over that, and those are the trails I’ve seen.

So, keep serving him and being broken for him.

Thank you and I love y’all.”

Most of us, physically speaking, have no concept or barring on what it’d be like to be blind. We open our eyes in the morning and go about our day, with no realization of what it could be like to not see the sun, the clouds, or the birds who chirp in the trees.

Spiritual, however, we all know what it’s like to not see.

We all once, there was a time, we can remember it now vivid for some, distant for others, but the memory is there and for some it is bitter; we all know what it’s like to not know Jesus as Savior.

To be blind to the beautifully impactful truth that Christ is King and the old us is not the current us or will it be the new us. That, my friends, is a heartbreak thing.

Yet, some of us now know what it is to see.

To wake up and see the vibrant reality of Jesus being, for now and always, the Lord of our lives, the Conqueror of our graves, and the Redeemer desperately needed.

To know there is a reigning victorious King, and to know him like a brother.

Both of these, though vastly different are stark realities.

There are the blind and there is the seeing in every day of life. We converse with them; we shake their hands.

Yet to both the Gospel, the necessary truth of Jesus being Lord, is the communiqué which is most beautiful.

And this, I believe, is the great dilemma of the Christian life: how do we talk about Jesus as what is most desperately needed by all people, to both the blind and the seeing?

It’s a question which every believer must wrestle with, “how do I do this, this thing called mission?”

Ponder it.

Do you remember the first time you thought about this as a child or a young teenager? Let that speechless wonder rise. God never had a beginning, but always was and is and will be, He defines all things.

Whether we want him to or not.

He is there.

We do not negotiate what we want for reality. God defines reality. When we come into existence we stand before God who made us, and owns us. We have absolutely no choice in this matter. We do not choose to be. And when we are, we do not choose that God be. No ranting, or raving, no sophisticated doubt, or skepticism, has any effect on the existence of God. He simply and absolutely is. ‘Tell them I AM has sent you.’
If we don’t like it, we can change, for our joy, or we can resist to our destruction. But only on thing remains absolutely unassailable.

God is.

He was here before we came. He will be there after we are gone. And therefore what matters in ministry above all things is this God. We cannot miss the simple and obvious truth that God must be the main thing in ministry.

Ministry has to do with God because life has to do with God, and life has to do with God because the universe has to do with God, and the universe has to do with God, because every atom and emotion and every soul of every Angelic, Demonic, and Human Being belongs to God.

Who absolutely is.

He created all that is, he sustains everything in being. He directs the course of all events, because, “From Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever. (Romans 11:36)” ~John Piper

Exodus 3:14 “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

~John Piper

Editied for the Journey the Way blog

“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)

Rather than being grammatically correct and say, “Before Abraham was, I was,” Jesus goes straight for making the point of dropping a name, his name.

“I AM.”

Jesus, in no uncertain terms, calls himself God. YEHAWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Creator and sustainer of the world. The God who spoke to Moses out of the fiery bush and said,

“’I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel. ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

The same voice that spoke to Moses from the fire spoke to the Pharisees.

The difference is the response.

One goes on to write the Law, lead a nation from captivity, and do miraculous works (all because of the working of God). The others died in their sin.

I hope you see the difference.

Before them stood the one who spoke from the bush now clothed in skin calling them to belief, yet they picked up stones to kill him.

And now the same call has been placed in our lives.

Is Jesus Lord, or will we aim at killing him for what he’s said by marginalizing his work, teachings, and life to simply another dude?

But understanding why we did this will do two things for you:

1. It’ll give you a deeper appreciation for Scripture as a whole.
2. It’ll further define what we mean when we say, we live under Scriptural authority.

John Piper helps give us a fundamental understanding of this interesting passage. You may watch/read/listen to this talk here.

Recently he and I sat down for a quick chat about his time here at JtW.

How did you hear about JtW?

“A good friend and I were looking for church. Somehow – either Sam messaged me or I messaged him – any way it was a semi-random chat on Facebook. JtW came up and that it was starting in the next month and I should check it out.

So, my friend and I went and I’ve been there ever since.

About a month prior I had started looking for a church, having been to four, my friend and I felt settled on one. Then we visited JtW and that was the one for us…

It was during the first visit I realized Sam was one of the pastors (chuckles).”

What about the first visit made JtW appealing ?