I just had a very meaningful conversation with a young man who was in my youth group in Georgia. In fact, this young man was in the first Sunday School class I ever taught when I was fresh out of college. The first day I walked in dressed in all scuba gear (we were talking about Jonah that day … um, yea) … halfway through the class I was very warm and decided to go in the closet to change into my regular clothes; this young man wasted no time in leading a cohort of his buddies to blockade the closet door … leaving me locked in, and feeling ridiculous. Well, throughout high school this guy had pretty even split of shining moments and shameful moments. But all along I saw God working in his life, tugging on his heart to draw near to Him, to love Him, serve Him, and enjoy His goodness.

So, when we talked today and he shared what was on his heart I was thrilled, but not really surprised. He never liked school much, nor responsibility in general for that matter … but now he is excelling in school, will be a paramedic in May and is considering continuing in school to work on his bachelor’s and then go on to medical school. No shock here. This kid was born with a razor sharp mind.

But what was more exciting than that was what he shared about his walk with the Lord. Mark is going through a crisis of satisfaction. He is being challenged with this simple question: who or what will be the person or thing that provides satisfaction for your searching heart (any of us who are completely honest have wrestled with this same question at some point). Having recognized how his girlfriend was serving as that satisfaction piece, he has since broken things off with her, as he should. It’s not fair to her to ask her to provide something for him that she is not designed to be able to provide – ultimate satisfaction for the longings of the human soul. He also challenged himself to give up alcohol and tobacco … he realized that too often he turned to these for relief when things got stressful … instead of the one who says “come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” He has grown closer to his roommates as they have been keeping him accountable for his commitments, and he has grown immeasurably closer to God, having cleared out the junk that was getting in the way of finding satisfaction in Him alone.

“Whom have I in Heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25,26) Can we say with the Psalmist, “earth has nothing I desire besides you”?

Today, Mark Mellette can. Proud of you Mark. Keep crucifying the flesh; keep finding your joy in Christ. He alone satisfies. Love you.

I'm Really Intrigued

It was the kind of reaction I like to hear when people are first introduced to thoughts about Movement Church. This was a lady in the park with two kids. We had a lovely little talk about cute and sweet kids are, and then she asked me, "what brings you to Richmond?" So, I told her, and then explained what our Community Groups are all about. And she was intrigued. She said it sounded really neat, and unique ... which we both agreed was unfortunate, that it was unique. When she asked me what kind of denomination we are and I explained that we try to focus on the Bible and what Jesus said ... she said, but how do you know what Jesus said. A fair question. So I shared that there was pretty good evidence for the reliability of the Gospels, the accounts of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I told her about two different ways ancient texts are tested for reliability: # of years in between the date written and the date of the earliest copy we have (this time span represents the number of times it would have been recopied, more time, more margin for error); and the number of total copies (the more copies, the more texts you have to compare and validate one another). So, in light of that, I compared for her Plato and the New Testament ... consider the data below (it's a little jumbled but I can't fix it, so do your best):

Text Date Written First Copy Difference # of Copies
Aristotle 384-322 BC 1100 AD 1400 years 49
Ceasar 100-44 BC 900 AD 950 years 10
Plato 427-347 BC 900 AD 1200 years 7
NT 40-100 AD 125 AD 25 years over 24,000

It turned out to be a really great conversation, and I'm praying that God will use that seed to draw her to Him. I'm so grateful for these opportunities and for the confidence we can have in God's Word!

Mighty Mouse, Part III

I think we got him ... with poison. Not so mighty now are you? I win.