Sep. and Oct. Update

Wow! It’s been a long time since we provided an update. There’s been a lot going on, so we’ll try to catch everybody up on what’s been happening. Lots of stuff to cover, so I’ll try to be concise.

Carissa, Melanie Gann, and Rachel Berkheiser

Towards the end of August, we began our first Bible study with a family from Brighton named the Ganns. They are Paul and Melanie and their children Sarah, Jack, Ashley, John, Rebekah, and Abigail. We’re super thankful for them, and they’ve been very excited to be a part of this church plant. We began studying Titus, and a couple of weeks into our study, the Lord connected us with another family—Tom and Rachel Berkheiser and their two children Zane and Haukin (spelling again!). They’ve also been a great blessing to us, and we’re really grateful that God brought us together. We were meeting on Wednesday nights, but we had our first Sunday meeting today and did a review of Titus. So, we’ll be meeting on Sundays from here forward for services and still meeting on Wednesday nights for more of a small group kind of focus. Right now we’re just meeting in our houses, but we hope to secure a public place for our meetings very soon, so please pray with us that the Lord will make this possible and provide for us just the right place. This morning was a great blessing to all of us to be able to worship together and to hear God’s Word together on the Lord’s day. Unfortunately, the Berkheisers are on vacation, so we can’t wait until they’re back with us, and we are praying for the Lord to bring more people into our Sunday morning services as we take this next step forward in the church plant. To this end, we’re meeting people all the time and letting them know about what we’re doing, so please ask the Lord to give us more people to serve and serve with.

In addition to this group of people, Ryan and I have also been meeting with some other friends for a separate discipleship study. It is going very well too. We’re enjoying the opportunity to lead the study, and our friends tell us that they’re really benefiting from it as well. We’ll see in the next month or two if the Lord will lead them to join up with the rest of our group. We’re hoping so.

We’ve also gotten our website up! Credit and thanks to Ryan for all his work on this. You can check it out at RedeemerColorado.com. We know we have some things to iron out with the site, but Ryan did a great job on it, and we’re really pleased with the way it looks so far. In the next couple of weeks we’re also planning to go out into our neighborhoods and pass out some information about our church. Please pray that God will use these efforts along with our personal contacts to connect us with more people here in Brighton.

Also, since the last time we posted an update, the Fishers and we have both moved into our houses in the Brighton area. It’s so nice to be over here now, and it’s great to have the all-consuming moves behind us! Ryan and Danielle moved into their house toward the end of August, and we finally got moved into ours on Oct. 15. We’re all very thankful for the houses God has given to us. They’re great for having people over and for having out-of-town guests. We’ve both already been able to use our houses for church gatherings and for other guests. We’re trusting that God will continue to allow us to use our houses to serve people. We’re getting to know our neighbors and spending a lot more time in the Brighton community now, so please pray that God will establish good relationships with these people for the sake of his kingdom work.

We’ve had several visitors from our hometowns since the last update too. We’ve had a number of family members visit in the last couple of months, and we’re very grateful to God for allowing for this. I was able to go backpacking for a few days with my brother Steve in Rocky Mountain National Park, which was an extremely cold but great adventure. Another young couple also visited the Denver area recently, partly on vacation and partly on an initial “scouting” trip to consider the possibility of moving out here to help us. Please pray for them and for others we’ve mentioned before that God would continue to make their way plain and straight as they pursue his direction for their future and the possibility of moving out here.

Some final personal notes. Carissa is nearly 36 weeks now into her pregnancy, and she can’t wait for the end of it! This has been a very painful but otherwise good pregnancy, so we’re thankful for the Lord’s grace in it and are looking forward to the new baby. Ryan and Danielle got to experience their first Colorado snow last week (we had a few in March and April before they got out here), and it was a 14 inch or so dumping that’s pretty much all melted now. It was beautiful, but it also led to my first car wreck! I lost control on an overpass and we slid into a guardrail. The front of the car is pretty banged up, but the Lord was very gracious to keep our way clear of any other cars, and none of us was hurt. So, that’s some of the fun of living in Colorado. I guess I’ll have to learn to be a better snow-driver, and I’m buying some new tires!

We continue to love the life God has given to us here. He’s providing for all our needs, and he is beginning to build this church. We love the families with whom he’s connected us and we’re eager for more. We’re excited about the opportunity to teach God’s Word to his people and to spread the knowledge of the gospel of Christ to others. We’re grateful for all he’s done so far and prayerful and expectant about his continuing work for the sake of his name and the good of the people here in Brighton. Please keep on praying to the Lord for this work, and we’ll be sure to let you know how he’s using your prayers to build this church.

Aug. 18 Update

It’s great to know that God is in control of this church planting effort. It causes us to thank and praise him when things go as we hoped or better than we hoped, and it encourages us when things don’t go according to our plans. Whatever circumstances arise, it’s exciting to see God actively at work knowing that he cares more about the building of his Church than we do and that he also cares about building our lives in the process.

We are loving the opportunities for ministry to others that have arisen in the last several weeks. First, we have a family who lives in the Brighton area that is very excited about being a part of this church plant. The fact that God has connected us with them has been very encouraging to us. We are planning to start a Bible study and prayer time with them in the next couple of weeks, and it will be great to see how the Lord will use this in all of our lives and who else he will bring in to the Bible study. Ryan and I have also begun a study with some friends of ours who live in our apartment complex. The study is called Christianity Explained, and like its title suggests, it provides a good introduction to the basic message of Christianity—who Jesus Christ is, what he has done, and how we are to respond to it. The study is going well, and our friends have expressed that they are learning much from it and really beginning to understand the gospel. We’re eager to see how God will continue to work as we go through the rest of the study. We also have the opportunity right now to be an encouragement and help to another friend of ours in the apartment complex who is in the middle of a divorce. It looks like Carissa is going to be able to begin a study with this lady using the book Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. It’s a true joy to begin to have these opportunities to minister God’s Word and grace to others, and we are eager to see God bless these opportunities and give us more like them. Please pray with us along these lines.

We really enjoyed having seven people from Heritage Bible Church in SC—Matt and Kate LaCava, Paul and Tara Hurst, Neill Marks, and Randy and Rebecca Davis—come out here to check out the area and visit with us in late July. They were here for about five days which gave us plenty of time to show them around the area, to talk about our plans and what’s already going on, and to have some fun too. This was another step for them in looking to see if God would have them move out here to be a part of this church. Now that they’re back in South Carolina, they are continuing to pray about this opportunity, to pursue it, and to see how God continues to direct. In particular, they all need jobs if they’re going to make the move, so they’re seeing what job possibilities the Lord may open up for them. We’d love to have all or some of them to be part of this church plant, but we’re most interested in seeing God direct them to where he wants for them to serve him, worship him, and grow in Christ. We’re confident he will, so please join with us in asking him to do it.

Along with this group from Heritage, we have also enjoyed seeing some other friends and family members who have been out here for various reasons in the last month. We’ve been able to spend some time with a friend from Grace Bible Church in SC, one of Carissa’s uncles, one of my brothers and his family, and Ryan’s parents. In the next couple of months, we’ll also get to be with Carissa’s parents, her grandparents, my parents, another one of my brothers, and some more friends from South Carolina. God has been very gracious to do this for us as we miss our family and friends. It’s nice to be in a place that people like to visit too! More visitors and definitely welcome as are others who’d like to make a permanent move out here.

We had hoped to go out into some of the neighborhoods in Brighton when the group from Heritage was out here to do a community survey and pass out some information about the church. We were planning to use this effort as an opportunity to invite people to some other studies and meetings we had hoped to start as well. A problem arose though when we got our material back from the printer and saw that it had been messed up. Then the printer wasn’t able to get the material fixed and back to us before the group left. This was disappointing, but we’ve been able to see God’s providence in this delay as well. We were having trouble finding a place in Brighton to meet for these studies, but this won’t be a problem now because of another piece of good news—Ryan and Danielle have closed on a house in Brighton. They’ll be moving in the last week of August, so they’re very excited about this and we with them. It will be great to get moved in to the area, and we’ll have a place to do these studies. Also, Ryan came across some problems with getting our website published that he hadn’t foreseen. For those of you who are “techy,” you’ll know that different web browsers read the underlying code differently, which can cause some problems in the way that the website is displayed. Ryan found this out, and that has delayed us in getting our site out on the web as he tries to address the problem. So, we’re planning to take this material out into the neighborhoods in Brighton once the website is live. Hopefully this will be in the next few weeks, and then we will be able to begin the other meetings sometime in September. We plan to offer another Christianity Explained study and some other meetings to introduce people to our church. Please pray for God to work all of this out in his time and to use these efforts to build his Church.

As for us getting moved in to Brighton, our house is coming along well. They’re doing the drywall over the next couple of weeks, and then they’ll have about 30 days of doing the rest of the interior finishing. Hopefully, we’ll get to move in sometime at the beginning of October. Can’t wait. Also, for some of you who may be wondering, Carissa is doing very well with the pregnancy. She’s at 25 weeks now, so we’re getting there. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before or not, but the baby’s a boy. I’m sure life is easier right now with just one child, but we still can’t wait until the next one is here.

I think that’s about all the news for now. Please ask God to work powerfully to accomplish his purposes in building his Church out here. And please ask him to keep growing us, strengthening us, and using us. It’s thrilling to be part of his work. May the grace and peace of Jesus Christ be multiplied to you all!

Jul. 14 Update

It’s been over a month since our last update, but both of our families were in South Carolina for a little while during the last month. We (the Davises) were in South Carolina for the wedding of Carissa’s brother, Hunter Sipe to Nikki Gershman, and then for vacation with Carissa’s family on an island near Charleston (Seabrook). It is great to have Nikki as an official member of the family now. Brode got to be in his first wedding. He did better than we feared he might do, and the rest of the wedding was great. It was also good to be with Carissa’s family. Ryan and Danielle got to spend some time with family too. Ryan was back in Greenville, SC for a few days of work in his home office, and then they went with Ryan’s family to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for some vacation.

We’re all back out here now, and we had anticipated that once we got back, we would start moving forward at an even faster pace to get the church going. That indeed seems to be happening. Our incorporation is done now, we’ve opened up a checking account for the church, and we’re trying to get all the material together necessary for official 501(c)(3) approval. Apparently, this is assumed, but we hear that it is wise to get the official stamp of approval, so we’re putting everything together for that purpose, which is a pretty tedious process. We’re also moving towards getting the preliminary website finished and ready to put on the internet. Ryan is doing a great job with this, especially considering the fact that he knew nothing about website development before he moved out here. We’re looking forward to getting that out there. We’re working on some other printed material that we can pass or mail out to people in the area too. Another thing we’re doing is joining the Chamber of Commerce in Brighton. They offer some very helpful services to corporations. I met with the Executive Director of the Chamber, and she also connected me with a lady who works for the Economic Development Corporation. They’re helping us as we look for a place to meet for Bible studies in the short term and a place for regular Sunday services in the long term. At this point, we’re hoping to get some studies going sometime in August moving towards services in the beginning of 2010 as the Lord allows. So, there’s a lot of groundwork to take care of, and we’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s help and blessings in these efforts.

At the same time, the Lord is beginning to allow us to make some good relationships. We have some new friends with whom we may be able to begin a Bible study, so we’re excited about that and would appreciate your prayers to the Lord for fruitful studies. There are also some families and individuals who have expressed an interest in the church plant in Brighton, and we are meeting with them to talk further. We continue to hear from people who do not even live in Colorado who are considering coming out here to help us. Please pray that the Lord will keep on working to connect us with people whom we can serve and with whom we can minister, fellowship, grow, and worship the Lord. It’s very encouraging and exciting to see God working in these ways, and we trust he’ll continue to do so. So, we have reason to thank and praise the Lord, but we’re also aware of our need for continual dependence on him and his purposes because we realize that we will likely have personal disappointments in the days ahead as things don’t go as we’d expect or hope. It’s good to know that Jesus Christ has it all under control though and that he will build his Church as he promised many years ago to do. We’ve got nearly two millennia of church history to prove the truth of his promise, so it’s exciting just to be one local church that’s part of the global and eternal Church that Jesus is building. This is the framework for our prayers, and we’re grateful to have you praying with us in the same way.

Please also pray for 7 people who are coming out here the last week of July to check out the area as part of their consideration of whether or not God is leading them out here to help us with this work. They are Matt and Kate LaCava, Neill Marks, Paul and Tara Hurst, and Randy and Rebecca Davis. We’re looking forward to their visit, and please pray that God would use their visit to give them further clarity on what he wants for them to do. In addition to showing them around the area and talking with them about our work and plans, we’re going to go out once or twice into some of the neighborhoods in our target area to pass out information about our church, gather more information about our community, and invite any interested people to some Bible studies we hope to begin in the area. Please pray for the Lord’s direction in planning and carrying out this effort and for his blessing on it. We’re hoping for some more relationships that will arise from this work that will allow us to share the good news of Christ with people and to form a core group for the church plant. We need God’s grace and power, so it’s good to know that he’s gracious and powerful.

As for other personal news, we get to find out this Wednesday whether we’re having a boy or girl, so that’s exciting. Carissa is doing well with the pregnancy. She’s also working now in her permanent job as a hygienist two days a week–Tuesday from 7am-2pm and Wednesday from 7am-4pm. This is a really good schedule for us, and she really enjoys her office, so we’re very thankful for this. Danielle’s work is going well, and please continue to pray for her as she gets used to a new and different work environment. I guess I can say the same for Ryan as he continues to work from home. Please also pray that the Lord will direct Ryan and Danielle to the right house he wants them to have. They have made an offer on a traditional sale home, and they have offers on two short-sale homes that they’re still waiting to hear back on. Meanwhile, they continue to look at some other houses. I think I’ve already mentioned that we’re building a house in the Brighton area. It’s moving ahead well. The footers and walls have been poured and the dirt filled back in around the foundation. Next, they’re pouring the garage floor and beginning to frame. These steps are supposed to take place this week, so it’s exciting to see the house going up. We’re all really looking forward to getting moved in to our target area in Brighton.

We all continue to enjoy Colorado. The weather has been pretty nice so far this summer. It’s very greenbecause of all the rain, which we hear is unusual . We all got to see our first funnel cloud about a month ago, and there were a couple of weeks with lots of tornado warnings or watches, but they don’t tend to touch down or do too much damage before they get a little further to the east in the plains. It was certainly a new experience for us though, but by the end of the stretch, we were pretty used to it all. We’ve gotten to go hiking a couple of times which we really enjoy. Ryan and I did a very fun and hard hike through a bunch of snow to a nearly 13,000-foot summit, and we all went hiking this last weekend in an area full of wildflowers. God is a glorious creator and sustainer of his world, and we’re blessed to be able to enjoy this particularly beautiful part of it.

God has been good in all his work in our lives, and we continue to experience his glory and greatness. It’s a wonderful privilege to be part of his work, but even more just to be his children. We’re grateful for your prayers on our behalf, and we’re grateful to God for his continued work in our lives to make us more like his Son and to grow us in our knowledge of him and love for him. Please pray that God uses us to extend this work into the lives of more and more people out here in Colorado.

Month 2 Update

I’m (Todd) a little overdue on a 2nd month update. We (Davises) had the opportunity to take a few days before Memorial Day and go up to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with my parents (Lew & Sandy Davis) who are out here in Colorado to visit for several days. It’s been great to be with my parents and to have the opportunity to enjoy the wild world that God created and rules over out here. He’s an imaginative, wise, powerful, beautiful, caring Lord of creation. We (Davises & Fishers) have loved the opportunity during some free time to enjoy God’s world here around Denver as well. It’s easy to see why people want to live here, and it’s easy to see how people can be pulled away from God and church involvement by the countless recreational opportunities available to them on the weekends. We welcome the challenge to tell people how crucial it is to worship the Creator, not his creation, and we want to show them their need for the One who came to redeem this fallen creation and their own souls more specifically. There is far more joy and eternal value to be gained in truly fellowshipping with Jesus Christ together with his body the Church. The marvel of his redeeming work in the lives of his people far surpasses the real but lesser glory of a snow-covered mountain, challenging hike, flowing stream, or wild animal.

Since I’ve mentioned the Fishers, I should let you know that they safely arrived out here at the beginning of May. They had quite an adventure when their moving truck broke down in the middle of Kansas, but the Lord faithfully got them here, and they’ve recovered from the loss of sleep and even got some money back from the truck rental for their troubles. Danielle posted a note on Facebook that gives the story more fully, and Ryan may describe it in more detail at some point. We’re very grateful to have them out here with us as friends and co-workers. You can pray that God will continue to strengthen our friendship and partnership. Ryan & Danielle have an offer on a house (different than any I’ve mentioned before), and it looks likely that they’re going to get this one. It will be a great house for hospitality purposes, and it’s located in the southern part of our target area. So, you can pray that if the Lord would be willing, they would get this house soon and be able to use it for making and training disciples for Christ. Danielle is in the orientation process with her job as a labor and delivery nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, and Ryan is busy at work in his home office now. You can pray for Danielle’s work and ministry opportunities from her interaction with co-workers and patients. And pray for Ryan as he adjusts to working from home as well.

Speaking of “labor and delivery” and being “overdue,” we’re (Davises) hoping that Carissa isn’t going to be overdue come the early part of December when she’s supposed to give birth to our second child. We’re very excited and thankful to the Lord for this gift. Carissa was very tired and sick for a couple of weeks, but the Lord has brought her through most of that, and even during that time, God was gracious to give her energy on the days she worked. The Lord has also demonstrated his goodness to us in giving Carissa plenty of days of fill-in work while she is trying to nail down a permanent job. Hygienists regularly administer anesthesia out here, so Carissa has to get certified for that, and there aren’t any available courses right now for this purpose. This has delayed her in securing a job, but we’re hopeful that she’ll be able to get something permanent soon even before she’s able to complete the certification course. You can certainly continue to pray about all this still. Brode is doing well and is pretty much adjusted to life out here by now. He loves riding in his bike trailer and is happy to have Ryan and Danielle out here. We still haven’t heard a response on our offer on the short-sale house, amazingly, so we’ve decided to build a house. It’s going to be a really good house for having people over, and it’s cheaper than most of what we’ve looked at so far, so we’re thankful and excited. If all goes well, the house should be ready by early September. It’s going to be located in the northern part of our target area, so it looks like we and the Fishers are going to be able to meet people in different parts of our target area, which is good.

We’re making good progress in some of the initial things we have to do. We’re going through the governmental requirements right now regarding incorporation, 501(C)(3) status, etc., so please pray that all will go well with this process. Also, we’ve pretty much finalized our logo, so Ryan is working on building a website. Pray for him because he’s learning how to do it as he goes. This will also allow us to get some business cards printed and some other literature. We’re looking into places to meet and may have an opportunity in a school depending on whether or not a custodian is willing to do some work on a Sunday. There are some other places we’re looking at too, so please pray for the Lord’s guidance and provision in giving us a place to meet. We’d love to start having services in the Fall, but we want to make sure we’re ready to go and aren’t rushing ahead. In the meanwhile, we’d like to get a Bible study or two started. If Ryan and Danielle are able to get into the house soon, that will be a perfect place to hold a Bible study. If not, we’ll have to find somewhere else, so please pray about this too. Please pray that the Lord will develop a core group for the church plant from the people we’re meeting and will meet. Please pray that God will use us all to draw people to Christ in salvation and to disciple his people.

Lastly, I’d like to ask you to pray for some people that are considering moving out here to help us. I’m not sure whether or not some of the people in this group want me to publicize their names, but I can at least ask you to pray for Matt and Kate LaCava, Paul and Tara Hurst, and Neill Marks. We’re excited about the possibility of having them join us, but we mostly want for them to follow Christ where he is leading them. Also, when Carissa and I came out here in February, Tony and Diana Cromer came with us to see if God would have them to move here too. Please ask God to make it clear to them what he’d have them to do and to make it possible for them to make the move if that’s what he wants.

We’re enjoying this venture on which God has set us. Our faith is being strengthened as we see him work, often in different ways than what we expected, and as we wait to see him work. We’re being driven to prayer more than ever, asking him to build his church for the glory of his name and the joy of his people and committing ourselves to him for his use. We greatly appreciate your prayers because we know that God delights to use the prayers of his people in accomplishing his purposes of furthering the kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world. Please keep praying as we keep working and depending on God’s blessing on the work.

Praying for Christ’s grace and peace upon all of you,
Todd

1st Month Update

I’m writing this update at 2:30 MDT, so in about 20 hours, we (Todd, Carissa, & Brode) will have been in the Denver area for a month. That’s kind of hard to believe, and it marks a good time for an update.

First, for the “physical” stuff. I’ve already mentioned that Danielle Fisher accepted a position as a labor and delivery nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver. They deliver more babies there than anywhere else in Colorado, so she should be plenty busy. She begins orientation in mid-May, so she and Ryan are moving out here, Lord willing, in the first week of May. They will just have closed on the sale of their condo in Taylors, SC, and hopefully they’ll be closing on the purchase of a house in Brighton. They made an offer on a short-sale house about a month ago and have learned that the house is in the final stages of negotiation with the bank. So, that’s looking very promising, and they would appreciate your prayers on their behalf for the finalization of this process. We are still waiting on word from the bank regarding our own offer on a short sale house. It’s been two months for us since we made the offer, and the Lord has not provided another potential house for us as we’ve continued to look. So, we’re praying and waiting on the Lord to accomplish his purpose for a permanent place for us to live. Carissa has something of a working interview today and then another tomorrow with a different dentist. We’re grateful that it appears that God is providing a job for her, and we’re praying for guidance and wisdom for making a good decision if there is more than one opportunity.

Next, relationships. More than almost anything, we are praying for and hoping for relationships in which the Lord will use us to further his kingdom out here, and hopefully with some people who would want to be part of this new church plant. We’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with other pastors out here and with Christians in other churches, and that has been an encouragement and help to us. We’re hoping to be a blessing to them as well. We’ve also followed up with some contacts that we received from other people, but so far the Lord has not led any of those people to join up with us. Carissa has met a couple of people while doing fill-in dental hygiene work in some different dental offices, and it looks like we may have the opportunity to have some further contact and relationships with these people, so please pray for God’s blessing on these relationships. This first month has been challenging from the standpoint of wanting to get off and running while we’ve also had to spend time just getting settled in and waiting on the Lord. Please pray for diligence in the work we have to do for now, for diligence in seeking out relationships, and for God’s grace and blessing in both efforts. I guess I should also say regarding our own family that we are doing well. Carissa had her first birthday away from the rest of her family a few days ago, but we still had a good time as our own small family. Having left family, friends, and church family, we’re more thankful for each other than ever. And thank the Lord we haven’t gotten tired of each other after spending a lot of time together just as a family. We think we’ve gained some ground with Brode. He had a very hard transition for the first week or so, but he’s been doing much better the last couple of weeks. Now we’re trying to get him potty trained which is another “exciting” venture.

Lastly, spiritual matters, or what God is doing in our own hearts. As I’ve already alluded to, we’re continuing to learn the proper tension of patience and diligence, contentment with our present circumstances and pursuit of what we think God has set before us. We need God’s grace and personal growth for both. We can certainly say that God is continuing to instruct us and encourage us through his Word and by his providence in our lives. In particular, several passages from my personal Bible reading schedule have been a tremendous blessing from the voice of God to my heart. I recently have benefited greatly from reading Psalms 93-99, which speak of God’s kingship over all of creation. They present a powerful motivation for spreading the gospel of Christ to all people. In particular, Psalm 96 tells us, “Tell of [the LORD's] salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples” (2b-3) because “all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens” (4). This Psalm also commands us, “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’” (10a), and it gives us another reason–”[The LORD] will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.” This is good stuff. I’ve also started reading 2 Corinthians, and there couldn’t be a better portion of Scripture for exhortation and encouragement when it comes to serving the Lord. All this to say that God continues to minister to us through his Word, and as we also receive his provision and guidance, we know that he is continuing to grow us and prepare us for more effective ministry for his glory. He has strengthened our faith that he’ll always provide us with everything we need in Christ.

So, thanks to you who have been praying for us!!  Here’s a summary of some things that we are relying on the Lord for and for which we’d appreciate your joining in prayer with us. 1) Our housing situation (Davises and Fishers), 2) The Fishers’ move, 3) A permanent job for Carissa, 4) Diligence in “office work,” 5) Diligence in seeking out relationships, 6) People to share Christ with, and for them to receive him, 7) People to disciple, and for them to grow, People to serve with us, 9) People who are praying about moving out here to help, 10) Spiritual growth for us as individuals, families, and a team, 11) God’s continued guidance. We are experiencing God’s help and are more aware than ever before of our continual need for his grace and mercy. And this is good because we are not “sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2Co. 3:5), and “the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2Co. 4:7). Our prayer is that “as grace extends to more and more peope it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (2Co. 4:15).

We trust that all of you are experiencing the greatness and goodness of God in Christ on your behalf too.

An encouragement from God through his Word

Yesterday, the Lord greatly encouraged me through his Word in the passages that were part of my scheduled Bible reading for the day. It was so encouraging to me that I thought I needed to share it.

 First, I was reading in Psalm 86, and it was easy to identify with David’s heart in the Psalm. I’m not facing personal enemies like David was, but I do find my heart tending to be fearful of the challenges that lay before us in starting a church. David said, “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours” (vv. 8-9), and I believe that too. I also believe that because God is merciful and gracious and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness that he will turn to me, be gracious to me, and give me strength as his servant (vv. 15-16). Still, like David, I find myself asking God, “show me a sign of your favor” (v.17), even though he has done this in the past, time and time again. Whether it’s getting word on the house we made an offer on or finding some people that would want to be part of the church we’re working to start, I have to admit that I desire to see continuing evidences of God’s favor on us. 

Then I went to the other part of my reading, Exodus 30-34. Again, the challenges we face are minimal compared to the challenge Moses faced in leading the stubborn, unbelieving, and rebellious children of Israel to the Promised Land, but I can relate to Moses’ prayers to God in the face of these struggles. Moses reminded himself that God had told him that he had found favor in his sight (33:12), but he still asked God to continue to grant him favor (v. 13). He grounded this request in a desire to see God’s ways and to know God. That’s a good word for me. My conviction of God’s favor in my life doesn’t depend on circumstances but on my knowledge of God’s faithful and gracious character.

 In particular, it has been my prayer for a long time that God would not send us to any place where his presence would not go with us, just like Moses asked of the Lord (v. 15). I’m sure, like Moses, that the only way it can be known that we have God’s favor is by his obvious presence with us (v. 16). I truly believe that this is a prayer that God answers in the positive just as he answered Moses, assuring him of his presence, his favor, and his personal knowledge of Moses (v. 17). My response to this assurance echoes Moses’ response—a desire to see God’s glory.

 I don’t expect to receive the kind of vision of God’s glory that Moses experienced, but I’m blessed to be able to read what Moses saw and heard. Moses watched a magnificent display of God’s glory passing before him, but the heart of God’s display of his glory to Moses was in his declaration of his character (34:6-7). The Lord is the covenant-keeping God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (vv. 6-7). I can receive the truth of this declaration just as much as Moses did, and frankly I see its expression even more clearly than Moses as I read about Jesus Christ and his work in the New Testament.

 In my self-righteousness, I want to assure myself of God’s favor and presence by being perfect, and that will never be possible in this life. I can truly have confidence in God’s favor and presence, however, because I know he is gracious and merciful, and he is faithful to keep his word in the new covenant through Jesus Christ that assures me of his favor and presence (v. 10). What more do I need than this knowledge of God’s glorious and gracious character? Worship and expression of dependence on him is the appropriate response (vv. 8-9). I know God has set his grace and favor on me because I’m united to Jesus Christ, and I know his presence is with me because the Holy Spirit indwells me. I know God will continue to be gracious, merciful, and faithful because I know what he is like through what I read in his Word. I will rest in this and expect to see demonstrations of God’s glorious character and blessing in our lives and in this effort to start a church, not because of our own worthiness but because of the worth of Jesus our Redeemer. I am convinced through Jesus Christ that the Lord is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Psa. 86:15 & Exo. 33:6). He’s certainly with us, and his favor is certainly on us through Christ our Savior.

New Blog, First Update

 

 

First snow

 

We’re starting this blog to keep everybody updated on what God is doing here in Colorado as we seek to plant a church in the southeast part of Brighton.

We’re (Todd, Carissa, & Brode) living in an apartment in Thornton for a few months while we try to find a house in Brighton. We have an offer on a house that is a short sale, so we’re waiting to hear from the bank as to whether or not we’re going to get it. Ryan & Danielle Fisher are in the same position. In the meanwhile, we have to keep looking for other houses. We’re thanking the Lord that Danielle officially secured a job as a labor and delivery nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver. Carissa has a good lead on a dental hygiene position too, so God seems to be providing in these ways, and we’re very grateful. We’re trusting him to do the same with a house.

Today, we got our first snow, which is apparently the biggest snow of the season, potentially dumping a foot or more of snow, and it’s very windy. Don’t let the picture deceive you though. It has been sunny and in the 60s or 70s most of the time since we’ve been out here, and the snow is supposed to be gone by the weekend.

Brode

The adjustment seems to have been hardest on Brode and consequently on us as we have the privilege of dealing with him. We think he’s on the upswing though, but he fell on the corner of a table last night and gave himself a good cut right along his eyebrow. Thankfully, it’s closed up nicely, and he’s loving the snow today.

We’re praying for the Lord to connect us with people whom we can serve and who might be part of the new church plant. While we pray, we’re trying to meet people as much as we can. I’m (Todd) working on preliminary stuff for the church, like getting this blog up and running among other things, as we hope for actual people to occupy our time. So, if the Lord lays it on your heart, pray for diligence in the work right now and for people that we can help to know and follow Jesus Christ.

I think that’s all for now, and we’ll do our best to continue to post updates of what God is doing in our lives and in this work in Colorado.