What’s on my playlist?

Okay, so the title for this post is a little misleading.  I’m not actually going to tell you what’s on my playlist, other than saying I really can’t get enough of everything from Luciano Pavarotti‘s operatic awesomeness to Parov Stelar‘s crazy electroswing (samples), from Wavedude and Josiah Kramer‘s explorations into worship dubstep that I know are gonna blast church sanctuaries one day to the haunting and exotic sound of the Alash Ensemble, from The Tallest Man on Earth and Doug Burr‘s down-to-earth folk that speaks straight to my heart to the music of Tommy Emmanuel, who can somehow do on a guitar things no man with only ten fingers should be able to do.  (Hmmm… I feel kinda guilty that no Hillsong, Jesus Culture, or IHOP musicians appeared on that quick list… but… sucks to be them.)

But I’m not gonna talk about that.

I want to share some of the places I go to for great messages of biblical truth that will strengthen you, challenge you, and confront the laziness, timidity, faithlessness, and selfishness in you.  In no particular order, I offer you my top ten places for preaching that’ll strengthen your inner man (Ephesians 3:16), in both Romanian and English.

1) Cornerstone Church Milwaukee (English) – Michael Fisher, the leader of Cornerstone Churches International and a man who has imparted much into my own life, is currently pastoring our local congregation of young radicals at UW Milwaukee along with a team of Jesus-loving world-changers.  Anything from this group is sure to challenge you to live with boldness, walking in the power and freedom of the gospel.  Michael’s got an anointing to raise up and send forth leaders who will change the world for the glory of Jesus, so get ready for some Holy Spirit impartation.  You can check out the latest sermons at their podcast, or you can do what I do, and dig through all the old messages here.  Currently, I’m working through Michael Fisher’s “Our Genetic Code” series.  It’s awesome!

Evangelism: A Rescue Operation, Not a War

I think a lot of people get intimidated by doing evangelism because they view it as a war when in reality it’s a rescue operation.  (Okay, technically, it is a war as well, but it’s not a war against people but a war against heavenly forces.)

The other day, I was passing out tracts near the campus with a couple Romanian friends. I was having a good but mostly boring experience. One of my friends, meanwhile, was getting into argument after argument with people. But was he sharing the gospel or just spouting truth?

Prayer Letter – July 2013

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Prayer Letter – June 2013

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Prayer Letter – May 2013

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Thursday Nights in Our Living Room

I’d been thinking about giving an update on our Thursday night church meeting, but why write my own when I can “steal” my brother’s? Besides, he said it better than I would, anyhow.

It Doesn't Matter Where

Thursday nights, we invite English speakers to our home for worship, prayer, and Bible teaching.  It’s one of the meetings I’m most excited about, but it’s also been the slowest to get going.

Why am I most excited about this meeting?  Well, honestly, I’ve got a lot of selfish reasons – I get to speak in my native language, without a translator, and worship God in English, using songs that I like, with people who speak and understand the language really well.  Plus, I get really ministered to during the meetings, no matter how many other people show up.  The presence of God has been really strong at our little meetings, so I always leave encouraged and strengthened.

But beyond the selfish reasons, having a meeting in English should, by nature, draw young people who have a desire to change the world.  From what we’ve learned about Romania, if you…

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Prayer Letter – April 2013

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A Gypsy Funeral

We were invited back to Bărbuleşti yesterday to speak at the second church in the town.  When we arrived, our host informed us of an interesting turn of events since our last visit.

On Saturday, an older Christian man had passed away.  As he died, he looked towards his son and told him, “I see a fire covering the whole earth.  Repent before it’s too late.”  And then he died.

Naturally, that caused quite a stir.  Our host encouraged us, “Preach repentance.  Preach against sin.  God is touching many people now.  They are very open, but they have many sins.”  That was good news because that’s the message God had put on my heart anyhow.

Welcome to Barbuleşti

Barbuleşti is a strange town.  Twenty years ago, it was called the “Gypsy ghetto” of Romania and was home to all sorts of “unsavory” characters.  Over time and through a combination of revival, police action, and simple old age, the most notorious have since left the town.  Now, it’s an odd collection of extremely poor, unemployed people and the recently wealthy, who don’t seem afraid to let everyone know their new status.  We saw old, cement homes with dirt floors right across the street from mansions looking like Asian pagodas or castles.  During our one day in the city, it seemed just as common to see a horse-drawn cart as it was to see a BMW cruising along the dirt roads.

Reaching Drug Addicts

I mentioned here about meeting Alexandru through a couple “random” events including a chance encounter with an Armenian man who happened to be in Bucureşti.  Of everyone I’ve ever met, Alex is the most clearly gifted and called as an evangelist; he’s got a deep passion for the lost and especially for the drug addicts.

In recent weeks, we’ve been speaking with him about helping to reach some of the addicts with the love of Jesus.  The statistics are nowhere near clear, but from what we’ve been learning, Bucureşti has around 20-30,000 men and women addicted to heroin.  We were told that at one local clinic 3000 men come for help with addictions each day, and the best the doctors can do is prescribe other drugs.  What these men need is Jesus.

Pray for God to give us wisdom in this and that he would close every door he doesn’t want us to walk through.