Underground

It was thirteen years ago that a dear friend and mentor in my life, Lynn Loyd, came to me with an idea. He had noticed that a small church next to Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Ar. was sitting virtually empty during the week. His vision was one of filling the church with High School students for a Bible Study each week where the gospel might be presented and lives shaped for God's Kingdom.

A year later, God brought that dream to fruition and Underground was born. The Bible Study was student-led and over the coming months began to gain traction as news of Underground spread by word of mouth throughout Fayetteville High School. We called it Underground for two reasons. First, we were meeting in the basement of Immanuel Baptist Church, and, therefore, underground. Secondly, we adopted Hosea 10:12 (NIV) as our key verse. "Sow righteousness for yourselves,  reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you." The goal was for Christian students to continually put themselves in a position for God to "break up the unplowed ground" of their hearts and minds allowing Him to conform them more every week into the image of Jesus. 


After twelve years of impacting students for the gospel, Underground is ending. Fayetteville High School is closing its campus and Underground will be folded into a strong FCA program. Tomorrow I will leave for Fayetteville, Arkansas as I have been asked by the Youth Ministers of the area to speak at the final meeting of Underground. I cannot express the honor and privilege it is to participate in such an event. To know the lives that have been impacted by the ministry of student-to-student over a period of 12 years is just overwhelming. Many of those students have gone on to serve in ministry and as missionaries around the world. 


Please pray for me this Wednesday as I challenge the current students of Fayetteville High School toward continually "seeking the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on them". Pray also as I meet Wednesday morning with a gathering of Northwest Arkansas Youth Ministers and speak to several hundred students at the NWA Youth Evangelism Rally Wednesday evening. Pray that God would prepare and soften students' hearts to the gospel and that many will come to faith in Christ. 


Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Blessings. 

A Full Heart!

Welcome to the first post of my new blog. I hope that these entries will be of great encouragement and challenge to you as you seek to imitate Christ as His apprentice (disciple). To find out a little more about me or to subscribe to this blog, click on the buttons at the right of this page.

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to ATL with about 50 of our Senior Adults to the Passages exhibit. This amazing exhibit tells the story of the translation of the Bible into the English language. I was overwhelmed by the amount of artifacts collected documenting the incredible and harrowing story of how the Bible was brought to the hoi polloi (the common people). The sacrifice and passion displayed by many believers of old opened the door for us to attain, read, study, and apply God's Word today.

I wonder how much we take God's Word for granted... Looking at my office shelf right now I notice that I own 38 copies of the Bible in various translations and paraphrases. On my iPhone and iPad, I have apps that have as many translations of the Bible in multiple languages. How truly blessed we are to have access to the very words of God!

So, what are we to do with what has been so graciously given to us? Over 300 people at FFBC have made a commitment to read the Bible through this year. Let me encourage you to be steadfast in that commitment. As I read through God's Word with you, I am challenged daily as I allow the truth of Scripture to soak into my life. I am challenged to live life differently. I am challenged to think about God differently. I am challenged to pray differently. I am challenged not to take such a precious gift for granted, but be faithful with the truth that has been entrusted to me; a truth that men suffered and died for so that I might not have a full bookshelf, but a full heart.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."- 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (ESV)