Campbell/Knox Spring Conference 2013

Campbell/ Knox Spring Conference 2013 at White Mills Christian Camp

The Ft. Campbell Nav ministry met with the Ft. Knox Nav ministry just this past weekend for our Spring Conference.  It was a quick conference, with the bulk of the conference occurring this past Saturday.  Doug Cote was the key note speaker.  We had some great fellowship time, fun, and great discussion as we mulled over the things Doug shared with us from his testimony and the 2 messages he shared with us.  Here are few high points from the weekend talks....

• Doug had opportunity to get bitter with God- but he chose not to get bitter with God or with people 
• Doug made Lordship decisions to CHOOSE to spend time with the people who could effectively train him and develop him as a laborer and disciple-maker
• We use our logic to determine life decisions- but many times God has his OWN PLAN on what He wants to do and what He will do with us
• The POA ensures that God will always send men and women who are committed to Him 
• We need to pray for WORTHY men and women for God
• We need to BE... WORTHY men and women for God
• Our ministries are led by sinners- so we need to give each other some slack because we all need Jesus' help
• Job 2:10- Accept adversity from God 
• We need to realize we WILL go through adversity in our lifetime
• We need to quit talking about being 'broken' when we're really not

Hope a few of these points will re-energize the thoughts from the conference and that it will also challenge us to move forward and further in our personal walk with Christ and how we can build and invest in others as well.

God's Blueprint Diagram

God’s BluePrint Diagram

A diagram that I drew up to highlight some key points in how a young believer begins to move forward toward maturity.  Just to head off any confusion.....
THIS IS NOT A SALVATION DIAGRAM/ ILLUSTRATION-
Once we've shared the Gospel or hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we have taken the steps to now walk with Jesus Christ- this outlines some key points in how a believer can move toward maturity and Engage in the Mission of Christ.

First we have to accept and submit to the Lordship of Christ.  What hamstrings many believers from even moving forward toward maturity in Christ is that we talk about following God- but yet we keep the control of our lives and do not submit to God's authority to direct our lives.  Which means we continue living how we WANT to live rather than finding out about what God is after and submitting ourselves to Him so that we can begin moving toward accomplishing those things.

Next... a person must realize that we are sent by God to accomplish a Misison.  If we dodge this issue- there is NO reason to grow and invest in the Basics of the Christian life.  The Basics of the Christian life will simply be things that I check on the block on sundays and maybe every so often on wednesday evenings or when a friend drags me off to biblestudy during the week.    Just an aside.....  I met a Vietnam veteran in the mid 90s when I was on active duty and there were no current conflicts we were engaged in at the time.... One of the things he said to me was "It was pretty hard getting (GI) joes to clean their M-16s... but as soon as the war (Vietnam) hit- it wasn't a problem convincing guys to clean their weapons or go to the range to practice."
We are in similar situations spiritually- if the believer doesn't see a mission that they are called to be part of- they will not see the need to invest in biblestudy, prayer, fellowship, evangelism training or any of those things that will help us move toward maturity.

The Basics of the Christian life- Time in the Word, Prayer, Fellowship, Witnessing, Obeying Christ, M2M discipleship... these things are going to form the backbone of what helps us move forward toward maturing in our Walk with God.

Maturity- Becoming the Warrior Leader on the battlefield that God has called us to be...
I love the story of Gideon where the Angel comes to him and calls him a "Valiant Warrior"- but Gideon has NO IDEA of what that means... particularly as he is hiding out in a cave.  But God sees us that way and wants us all to ENGAGE IN REACHING OUT TO EVERYONE around us for His Name.

Reproduce...
The test of Discipleship
The Test of who we TRULY are as Believers
This is what Christ has called us to.... so....  are there disciples in our wake?
Matt 4:19  "Follow Me", Jesus said , "And I will make you Fishers of Men."  Can I truly call myself a follower of Christ if I'm not involved with Fishing for people the way Jesus did?

God's Desire- that all men come to Know Him....
Even in the OT we see that this was on God's heart.
His people knew that too.
1 Sam 17:45-47 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."    NIV
Young David knew this...
The story of David and Goliath was NOT a neat, little, fun story for us to talk about overcoming giants and bullies...  it is about God doing something BIG to bring glory to Himself- to create VISIBILITY to His name.
SO...
throughout the WHOLE world people would know and realize that there was A REAL GOD in Israel that moves and interacts and fights and is involved with people.

That is what God wants.
He wants to be involved with us and have us KNOW Him.

So....
Lets find someone who doesn't know Christ and bring the Message to them... Lets find a believer that needs direction and lets get them trained... Lets go hunting for some giants.....

Daniel- 1st STS study of 2013

Daniel- A Great Picture of God Orchestrating the Continued Visibility of His Name

          Working through the study of Daniel 1 with our STS team and I’m excited and encouraged to continue to see how God is bringing forward His own name to people everywhere- even though His own people have not stayed obedient and loyal to His name.

          Why would a conquering king bring nobility from a conquered nation into his own palace to become his own advisers??  Maybe a strategy to keep exiled Israelites from become restless?  Maybe the exiles would follow their own who were part of the Babylonian government?

          Nevertheless… the result of this decision by the king  brings Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the service of the king.  As a result, God is made visible not only to the King- but to everyone in the nation as well as the Babylonian kings order their people to recognize and follow the God of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

          There are so many things to take away from studying Daniel.... one of them: seeing how God orchestrates and works to the benefit of His people and His own Name at the Micro-level (with us and our own interpersonal interactions) but also at a Macro-level.  (creating visibility and recognition of His name through the city of Babylon, the Babylonian Empire, and the world)

          Daniel and his friends must have been through quite an ordeal to be conquered and taken away into exile and also to be 'educated' in the Chaldean culture and wisdom.  Yet throughout all this... we do NOT see Daniel or his friends wavering in the commitment and loyalty to God nor do we see them losing ground to bitterness.  If we are to continue forward with God and continue with boldness, conviction, while also managing to counter the effects that bitterness can have on our lives- it will be through the recognition and understanding that God is in control AND does have the best in mind for us.

Prov 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

  

Merry Christmas from the Ft. Campbell Navigators Ministry

Ft. Campbell Navigators Ministry

Christmas Party 2012

Merry Christmas from the Ft. Campbell Navigators Ministry!!!

We’ve had a tremendous year reaching soldiers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping many soldiers understand what it means to grow and mature in their walk with God.  We’re looking forward with anticipation to a great new year and another year of impacting soldiers for Christ.

We urge and pray that each of you will understand and know the joy and peace that Christ can bring even through the business of the season.

Merry Christmas!!

A Candid Interview with Matthew Clark on Life and Ministry

My friend and fellow Laborer, Matthew Clark, does a quick interview on life and ministry while also being involved in the Military.  Hope you all take the time to listen and grab a few points on what this might look like in your own life and you can engage in battle as well.

listen to ‘A perspective from a military’ on Audioboo

The VOICE..... Compels us

Just wanted to share a short email I got from a good friend of mine deployed overseas.
I'm encouraged by his heart to pursue Jesus and bring Him to others.
I hope you are as encouraged and challenged by him as I am.



Things my way have been cool. It's up tempo and long hours but I am continuing to stay in the word and in prayer. I had a neat nugget form my qt yesterday.

"One voice"

My new reading plan consists of reading the gospels for the next sixth months. Matthew 1, Mark 1, Luke 1, John 1. It has been really neat to take a closer look at who Jesus was and what he did to accomplish God's vision for mankind. I came across Matthew 3:3, This is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3, Concerning John the baptist.

" The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the dessert A highway for our GOD."

In each gospel I see that John was called to be a "voice" to people of Judea, mainly to bring them to Jesus. I just recently read the whole book of Acts to get  grasp a overall view of what Luke was trying to convey. It is really cool if you haven't, just to read a book of the bible in one setting.  And I came up with a thought. "Voice" The one voice that the original apostles, Paul and other missionaries obeyed and Listen to, was the Holy Spirit. This impacted the course of mankind.

The Voice is God wanting us to be his witnesses so the world may know him and guiding and directing us to be faithful to him . (John B prepared the way)

I was challenged in this area , The Holy spirit led me to make a vow that for the rest of this month I will not go to sleep unless I share the gospel with at least one person a day. Its funny because I was being hesitant but finally gave in. So, last night I was doing sts at the coffee shop and a couple of guys sat next to me. It led to small talk but no hope. So, I continued to sts. Then my new friend Colin Crow sat across from me to do his qt. (answer to prayer in regards to fellowship) He talked about our own personal testimonies and what we have been getting out of the word and prayer. We will be meeting everyday at the coffee shop. :)  Really cool and humble guy too! Looking forward to that!

But the night wasn't over yet. I thought this was the guy but I could not go to sleep because the Holy Spirit was too convicting. So, I got out of my bed and walked around the barracks to see who would I share Jesus with. I came across some guys who were smoking and shared Jesus with them. They really wasn't interested but we had a neat conversation about Jesus and religion. What a day it was!

I am praying that I will be voice for others so they would come to know and walk with Jesus. Ultimately the Holy Spirit doing the work in them.Thanks for lending a ear brother. Miss you! Pray for the guys my Battalion has been taking a beating. Also, my buddy Damian Ortiz. I have been helping him with reading the bible and him hearing from God himself.

Thanks for lending a ear.
In him,

Friends....

Reading the Word is not enough- it is a great start.  But allowing the Word to sink deeply into our minds and hearts in such a way as it compels us to respond and live with a mission minded focus- this is how we are marked as followers of Christ and where God begins to do a work to transform who we are.

I'm hoping and praying that each us us are giving God the opportunity to impact us and transform us through allowing ourselves to get fully exposed to the Word of God.  Unless we dive in with curiosity and a hunger to  know Him- these kinds of responses may not be possible.

But...

If we do...

If we put in the time to dig into God's Word...

If we invest in understanding what God was wanting- the possibility for God to transform us and use us becomes reality.

James and Monica’s PCS dinner

It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. - Norman Schwarzkopf

James and Monica moved to Ft. Campbell with the expressed interest in getting training and discipleship so that they might be able to engage in the mission of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations.  Some have arrived at Campbell- through nothing of their own choosing….  But the Carters arrived through a direct, intentional, and purposeful choice.  They recognized the command of Christ to make disciples- they were already doing as best they can to do it- they saw people at Ft. Campbell who can help them to do this effectively.  They made intentional decisions to be away from the comfort of their own homes, their own families, and their own friends- to get the training in how to lead others as they engage in Christ’s work to make disciples. 

            Over 500 miles to move away from the familiar, from the comfort, security, and safety of home- to allow others to invest into their lives so that they can meet the mission of Christ.  That’s what they did…. That’s what they are doing again…..

            The decision to move here, for training 7 years ago….. has culminated to what is going to happen in the next few days… and the next few months…. And the next few years.

            Not an issue of safety, comfort, security- but one of dedication, courage, and commitment to Christ.  I'm reminded of a great quote from John Shedd.

            "A ship in harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for.- John A. Shedd

            We’re not here for safety, or comfort, or our happiness…. We’ve been chosen by God to do a work, to execute his gameplan, to fulfill His desires to see the world come to know Jesus Christ.  That is going to take men and women who are not worried about playing it safe.  They've chosen to take on the great adventure as God matures them and uses their lives to send them out and make disciples of all nations.  

Matt 28:18-20  All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely, I will be with you till the end of the age.

Maybe there are some risks... maybe there isn't safety... maybe we have to take a step away from the familiar-  But Jesus promises He will be there for us.  That's enough for me.   That's enough for the Carters as well.  Godspeed to our fellow laborers, our team-mates, our friends.