Tuesday, February 10, 2009

setting-up camp

I really enjoy it when people come in for resources at the coffee shop. The routine is that I sit down with them and ask them what they want and then ask what they need prayer for. Most of them don't know what they need prayer for and start praying with their eyes open before I can bow my head. It is like they remembered all of the sudden that there is a God who we can talk to and don't want to waste a second getting back in communication. I took a young man up for resources today that was my own age. He has been homeless before. He says it is always the same story: he gets a girlfriend and after a few months she kicks him out and leaves him with nothing. "It's the problem with adultery," he told me. I told him that I didn't know if it worked out tit-for-tat like that, and shared with him the story when Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman. Just the day before I had led a few of our interns through that same story as we study through the Bible and John Piper's "Bible-saturated" book Desiring God. Piper says that when Jesus asks the woman about her adultery He was opening a wound in her heart for the Gospel to enter through. Like a wounded stag she flees and He follows, but He doesn't seek to wound her again; instead He points her to heavenly pastures--a life of true worship. Please pray for this young man. I gave him a whole camping set-up (including a sweet coleman stove) and a promise to pray for him. He had a quiet and tender personality and I was a real joy to spend time with him.

Seminary started today!

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