Summer Camp with the Youth

This past weekend our youth ministry, consisting of our incredible youth pastor JR Cuevas along with the equally incredible staff, joined Faith Bible Church of Murrietta for a 6 day, 5 night summer retreat at Lake San Antonio, just above San Luis Obisbo. Our family, including the little ones, took part in a very new experience for them - tent camping in 110 degree heat! It was dirty (literally) and with lots of bugs and oppressive heat but nonetheless it was a fun time as our youth were exposed to the "large youth group" dynamic, which was very similar to my Grace Church experience in junior high and high school. There were about 160 kids in addition to a whole lot of staff and parents from FBC who took care of all the cooking and prep to run the camp. It was quite an incredible scene to watch dads who took time off to cook on an outdoor grill in 110 degree heat with the grill topping off at around 600 degrees (some of them literally got burnt as they cooked!). The kids got to enjoy going to the lake several days to try wakeboarding and getting dragged around on an innertube by speedboats.

But the highlight for me was the opportunity to team up with Chris Mueller to preach to the youth. We taught through the book of Jonah and it was a surreal experience to sit in the audience with the youth as Chris spoke. It brought back memories of 30 years ago when I first sat under his teaching. But then to go up and have him in the audience was quite weird. But then I quickly remembered that I wasn't preaching for his approval but for God's approval. It was a memorable time for me and I was so encouraged by Chris as he shared with me his thoughts on my preaching. This was the first time he heard me preach in person.

I can't help but truly thank God that He has provided me with a pastoral mentor like Chris. His gentle yet firm admonishments as well as his constant encouragement have been so timely in the past year and a half as the past year and a half have been truly difficult in dealing with leadership issues, especially at a relational level. To be heartbroken and devastated by those that work with you is something that most people will never understand from a pastor's point of view, but Chris, having gone through it in a most devastating way by the person who had been closest to him for many years, has been able to provide the kind of perspective that only someone who actually went through these kinds of trials could understand. I can't help but think if God didn't send him to Temecula at the time that He did, the past year and a half could have turned out very different for me, and definitely not for the better. But God in His grace saw fit to meet my weakness and provide someone who has been truly like a Paul to me.

To have Chris and his wife Jean minister to our family, even to our kids, has been a special encouragement as well. Jean has ministered to Angela in ways that only a pastor's wife could and she has a special gift to touch little ones lives. Olivia just loved being with her and again I just couldn't help but thank God for His gracious gifts to our family through Chris and Jean.

This has been particularly a challenging time as the recent events have taken a pretty strong toll on my health, I would ask for your prayers as I have to get checked for some possible health issues. But regardless of the prognosis, I am thankful that God has been so gracious to me.

Please pray for our youth ministry as well, for JR and the staff as they invest in the lives of our youth. They have been doing a terrific job and their willingness to invest time in this retreat was just another example of their devotion to our youth.

God Is the Gospel, by John Piper

This is one of those books that is quickly becoming a "classic." As defined by Rick Holland, a classic is a book that everyone has on their shelf and no one has read! In my personal reading, I have been trying to pick up many of these classics and start reading through them. Fortunately for me, this wonderful book by John Piper is one of the first ones I picked up. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it.

God Is the Gospel provides a good and helpful walk through the gospel message in a way that many Christians might not understand. In a church that is saturated with man-centered theology and ministry, Piper redirects our thoughts to God and reminds us that the gospel is primarily about God and His glory. Drawing from truths read in John Owen and (of course!) Jonathan Edwards, Piper walks through all the blessings of the gospel, including justification, sanctification, and glorification, and shows how these gifts of the gospel were meant to ultimately provide us with the opportunity to see and savor God. The gospel is not as much about making much of us as it is about making much of Christ.

Thus, Piper asks a significant and poignant question: If you could go to heaven after you die and experience all its wonderful blessings -- the absence of pain, the perfect fellowship of the saints, streets of gold -- except that God was not there, would you be content to remain there? Sadly for most Christians, this would be acceptible because they do not treasure God in their lives as much as they treasure the blessings and gifts God provides. Salvation from sin is an amazing gift, but it was not given as an end to itself. It was given as a means to enjoy God forever. This is what the Apostle John meant when he wrote, "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20). Christ came and gave us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. The purpose was to know God, not just His salvation blessings.

I encourage all to pick up and read this book. Read it along with John Owen's amazing book The Glory of Christ and fill your minds with meditations of Christ. It is in the face of Christ that we are to see God's glory. This is why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." God Is the Gospel serves as a wonderful commentary of this foundational verse.