Archives for June 2007

Here is our first entry from Pink Tanks and Velvet Hangovers: An American in Prague, by Douglas Lytle. It comes from page 7, in the chapter entitled, “A Train to Bohemia.”

These facts brought be closer to an understanding of just who the Czechs and Slovaks were. An extraordinarily old guidebook cheerfully told me, without much elaboration: “The Czechs, in fact, were long ago nicknamed ‘the Yankees of Europe.’ The sober, diligent rough-hewn Czech feels more at home in a mine, mill or factory. Like a New Englander or Scotsman, he loves to build machinery, and his homeland, Bohemia-Moravia, is one of the world’s most highly industrialized areas.” Judging by this screed, I would be meeting a lot of happy mechanics who would take me into the basement after dinner to show me their favorite tools and drills. I also wasn’t so sure how good I would be at discussing differing theories of irrigations.

I can’t say how accurate that guidebook was for Lytle, because I haven’t talked much about drills or irrigation with many Czechs, but I thought it was a good lead off entry! Stay tuned for more interesting insights from this book about the people and country I love!

What the heck, let’s talk some more about the Gospel. One of the cool things we are doing with XTRACK is studying the book of Galatians, to help/guide us through our study we are using Tim Keller’s Bible study on Galatians and it rocks! Here is a short segment from the introduction about the Gospel that floored me!

Belief in the gospel is not just the way to enter the Kingdom of God; it is the way to address every obstacle and grow in every aspect. The gospel is not just the “ABCs” but the “A-to-Z” of the Christian life. The gospel is the way that anything is renewed and transformed by Christ – whether a heart, a relationship, a church, or a community. All of our problems come from a lack of orientation to the gospel. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts, our thinking and our approach to absolutely everything.

It seems as if lately God is continuing to drill something into this thick skull of mine, and what at times can be a hard heart too! “What is that?” you ask. Well, the Gospel. Yes, the Gospel! It would seem that my understanding/believing/living of the Gospel has been incomplete or insufficient to the truth of Scripture! God has been hitting me with this over the last year and a half from a variety of angles! My director at the AIA Training Center, sermon after sermon I listen too, books I’m reading, blogs I stumble across, one of the first talks here at XTRACK (Crusade’s International training in Ft. Collins, CO), and many, many other angles! God, it would seem, is trying to get something across to me. So as I sit at a Panera Bread, in Ft. Collins, and get some time with God, surfing the net, doing a prayer letter and so fourth He HIT ME AGAIN! This time through a usual source – Mark Driscoll. This time it was on the Acts 29 Church Planting Network’s site.

Here is the link for the actual post, but you can read it below. I pray that God would use these words to shake you and me to the core! Because it would seem I’m chasing after religion far, far too much!

Religion says, if I obey, God will love me. Gospel says, because God loves me, I can obey.

Religion has good people & bad people. Gospel has only repentant and unrepentant people.

Religion values a birth family. Gospel values a new birth.

Religion depends on what I do. Gospel depends on what Jesus has done.

Religion claims that sanctification justifies me. Gospel claims that justification enables sanctification.

Religion has the goal to get from God. Gospel has the goal to get God.

Religion sees hardships as punishment for sin. Gospel sees hardship as sanctified affliction.

Religion is about me. Gospel is about Jesus.

Religion believes appearing as a good person is the key. Gospel believes that being honest is the key.
Religion has an uncertainty of standing before God. Gospel has certainty based upon Jesus’ work.

Religion sees Jesus as the means. Gospel sees Jesus as the end.

Religion ends in pride or despair. Gospel ends in humble joy.

Bad News – I received an email from my coach over in Prague with some bad news at the start of the week. I can’t believe after all the work and many ways many of you came through for this trip that I am saying this, but the Lions have canceled the trip. The email I received from my coach was simple and said they had canceled because of a lack of interest. I’m not sure what’s going on over there. I have yet to have any more contact with anyone. Needless to say I am a bit bummed and frustrated with this. Thank you for wanting to help out in anyway you could. It means a ton to me.

In hindsight I can see that tracks have been laid for the future. I will try to pitch this to the team in the near future as I move back to Prague to work with AIA long-term late this summer. So please keep this on your plate for the future and we will see what happens.

I do want to invite each of you to ask more questions about how you can still help me reach, arguably, the most atheistic country in the world through our work with AIA in Czech. One of the reasons, I was so excited about this trip was the opportunity to give people like you a scope of what God is doing in Czech and share our vision with you.

So once again, Thank You for all your help. If you could please pass this information on to anyone else that may have been involved in the process that would be greatly appreciated. Blessings to you… -zach

So I’m in Fort Collins for Crusade’s International Training, called XTRACK. We had a “social” of sorts tonight and I was reminded that I’m not a big schmoozer or a huge fan of mingling! Not at all! Oh well. Anyway, it was my intent to post a longer entry about my support/vacation trip to San Jose tonight but once I got the internet working I got distracted. So I promise to post an entry soon, hold me to this because some fun things went down out there! Here is one of my favorite pics of the time out there! Blessings!

And surprisingly this wave didn’t get me wet!