I meant to post this during the week, and this morning actually, but for some reason I forgot. I hope some of you faithful readers and prayer warriors get this before tomorrow afternoon (Czech time), because I need prayer! Here is the deal, my pastor is gone and I am filling in by sharing my story (i.e. testimony about how I came to faith) at my church here in Prague. With class, VISA papers, and etc. this week I didn’t have time to “prep” but I prayed often about it as I was sitting on public transportation. If you would pray for the words that God wants that would be cool, BUT the bigger prayer is this – LORD-WILLING, 5-6 of my guys (Lion’s players) will be coming to hear me speak. For most of them this is the first church experience they will have ever had. Yes you read that correctly, this will be their first church experience. Pray that God would SHOW up in some ridiculous ways BECAUSE He’s got to if anything will happen. Church starts at 4:30 here in Prague, so that is 10:30 Eastern time and 9:30 for you Central peeps, and well I think you get the point! Pray for some “Lydia experiences!”

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. Acts 16:14

Lord open hearts…

WOW! A cold snap has hit Prague. Which is funny, because I actually love cold weather. BUT this morning I don’t at all! There are two reasons for that, 1) We (my roommate and I) and can’t figure out how to turn the stinkn’ heat on. I don’t know what is wrong with us, but we NEED to get this figured out. 2) I don’t have my cold weather stuff because my shipment is still in the warehouse in Chicago!

So please pray we get our thermostat issue figured out so I don’t have to use the oven to hit our flat and so that I don’t wake up in the middle of that night in the fetal position. It was brutal last night! Please continue to pray that I get my stuff sooner rather than later. This has been a nightmare and right when we think it gets better this company drops the ball again! My dad and I actually talked about just eating the $1,000 deposit and going with another company, but that would have been long, so we sent a check in for the invoice they sent us. But that updated invoice (which was only $500 less than the $2000 they raised it to from my original quote) took them 2 weeks to get to us and now because of “paperwork” my stuff is still in Chicago.

So pray for my patience too, because I need it. The sad thing is I’m going to have to go spend some money to get some cold weather stuff (I’ve been holding of as long as I can, but I have to now) that I own and should be here, but because of bad business and shear arrogance it isn’t. Oh well, God is still on his thrown and that brings peace in the midst of the chill. Well, I’m going to get rolling, my friends Jason and Mark are shooting some pics and I’m going to tag along. Blessings to you this weekend!

For the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed and have been challenged by the Internet Monk’s (a.k.a. Michael Spencer) blog and this morning as I rolled out of bed I thought I would post his recent post here and give you a link to his site. I wanted to post his 13 Issues of Evangelicalism, because in a lot of ways he hit it right on the head. The scary thing is I see these issues in my own heart at times, but I also see them exported to the world. Much of the ugliness of the evangelicalism has been exported to other countries and the thing is, it feels like you, or at least me, can notice the ugliness so much more than the good things we, as American Evangelicals, have exported. Maybe, that is just the cynic in me (or has my father says, “I’m a realist.”). Either way, these are worth reading. May God stir something in His bride to bring deep change.

1. Vast evidence of a growing doctrinal deterioration on the essentials and implications of the Gospel.

2. The expansion and influence of the “Prosperity Gospel” throughout evangelicalism.

3. The loss of the concept of meaningful church membership and the rise of the “audience-only” model of church participation.

4. The loss of the theological “center” in mainline churches at the precise time many evangelicals are open to reconsidering the mainline vision of worship, especially in Anglicanism.

5. The triumph and glorification of unchecked pragmatic entrepreneurialism, especially in worship, but in all areas of evangelical life.

6. The corrosive and compromised influence of Christian publishing in shaping evangelicalism, as exemplified in the rise of Joel Osteen, The Prayer of Jabez and the Prosperity Gospel.

7. Growing chaos in the theological and practical preparation of pastors, especially in the “emerging” church.

8. The failure of the “Seeker” model to use its vast resources and influence to produce a Christian counter-culture or challenge the “program centered/facilities centered” model of evangelicalism.

9. The lack of rising “Billy Graham” quality new leaders for the larger evangelical movement.

10. The failure of most evangelical denominations to broadly embrace and effectively mentor the current church planting movement.

11. The demise of quality Biblical preaching at the hands of technology and entertainment.

12. The apparently fatal infection of much of the emerging church movement with the failed theology of 20th century liberalism.

13. The cannibalism of evangelicalism on issues related to theological, cultural, social and political diversity.

Yesterday began at 5:45. It was so early because I had to make it to the train station by 7 am; in order to do this I had to catch Tram 26 at 6:17. After shaking the cobwebs out on an early Saturday morning I made it to the tram station with time to spare, BUT as I stepped onto the tram it dawned on me that we were leaving the country and going to Bratislava, Slovakia for our 1st place show down with the Monarchs. The thought was. “Do I need my passport?”

So I wrestled within myself, “Am I really going to need it?” Ultimately, I think it was the Spirit prompting me, but I tried my hardest to convince myself that the paper copy I carry in my pseudo-man-purse was enough, because the last time we went through as a team in 2005 they didn’t check. Well, my rational didn’t make sense with my coach and after trying to figure out what I should do I decided to grab a taxi, get the passport and then catch the bus before it got out of Prague! Thus a little early morning adventure on the streets of Prague began.

Praise God there was a taxi right there, but it wasn’t the trusted AAA company and I didn’t have time to wait so I prayed and asked God that this guy wouldn’t rip me off! The next 20 minutes spent in his taxi were humoring considering he didn’t speak any English and my Czech is light years better than 6 weeks ago when I arrived, BUT this taxi ride began before 7 am on a Saturday morning after a long, full week of language class. So needless to say my “Czech mind” wasn’t firing on all cylinders, but we got the passport and caught the bus! Thus ending my little morning adventure. I then found $20 on the street as I got on the bus (not really, but that story seemed to die so I needed to say something to attempt to redeem it). Oh, and he didn’t rip me off! It was a fair fare.

Anyway, to the game. We lost. It was the junior team’s first lost of the season and it came after a HUGE win over our cross-town rivals, the Panthers, last week. So it was a bit tough for our guys to get up two weeks in a row and that equaled a 6-0 defeat. At half time it was 0-0 and we were winning most of the battles, but didn’t win the war of the whole game. Our defense was playing great and they (Bratislava) weren’t doing anything. Our offense would put together drives and move the ball, but wouldn’t be able to finish it with a score. Their only score came on a 4th and 1 70-yard quarterback sneak. Yeah. No fun.

Good comes from defeats like this. It’s a learning experience for down the road and it hopefully shows these guys that if they were to up their work ethic they would see more success. Another plus, is that losing produces a healthy brokenness. Jason (another American missionary involved with the Lions) and I saw this on the way home, as we both had significant conversations with guys. We are both excited to see what God will do with the junior team as we coach. Please pray that God would grab a hold of some of theses guys’ hearts!

Well, maybe not. It would be nice if they did. So in all my “Mac evangelism” I’ve seen the occasional friend do the big SWITCH (that is from pc to a Mac), the latest is my good friend from Ohio, Troy Havens. Last night was a huge blessing because Troy and I got to get on iChat and catch up with one another and pray for each other! Priceless indeed! Thanks for taking some time for me Troy! Check out some snapshots of us chatting, Troy even showed me his black eye. I don’t think you shared that story with me Troy! Well, I have to get some time with God before going to have my daily drilling in Czech class! Be a Revolution, even if you’re getting drilled by a ridiculously hard language!