My Stronghold

July 14th, 2005

Bobby and I have been enjoying a few days here in San Antonio, Texas. We’re getting ready to leave here in a few minutes for a very early Friday morning arrival back home. Though we haven’t really loved the weather it has been great to spend time with his family and that we were able to come to our friend’s memorial service Wednesday. It was overwhelming to see pictures of all four of the family members and hear friends and family get up and share memories and characteristics they cherished in all four of them. It was a sad time of loss and sorrow but there was a distinct focus on the reality of where our friends are now, worshipping in the presence of the Lord.

After the service about thirty students from the Master’s College students came back to the Blakey’s home for dinner and fellowship together. I was so encouraged when one of the guys picked up Ben’s guitar and led the group in worship. People prayed and cried as we sang the bridge of “Blessed Be Your Name” which says, “You give and take away, You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name.” These words have taken on a whole new meaning as we mourn the loss of our friends. Every song seemed to have taken on new relevance as we worshiped the God who is enthroned on high and ruling over all circumstances in the lives of men. The song that struck me the deepest says, “My stronghold, My Savior, I will not be afraid at all. My stronghold, My Savior, I will not be moved.” This song is adapted from Psalm 62:

“Truly my soul silently waits for the Lord
From Him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense,
I shall not be moved.”


We so easily place our confidence and hope in family and future. We wrongly think that we can be sure of these things, depend on them and find meaning and fulfillment in them. But the Psalmist’s exclusive perspective of God alone as His hope, salvation and rest is a high call that we all should be striving for. We may not all suffer the loss that our friend Matt has in losing his whole family. We may not have to know what it’s like to live without loved ones or broken dreams. However this should not shadow the urgent need for us to depend and exclusively rely on God for strength and grace each day.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to go on without my family in my life or the hopes of spending the future with them. At the memorial Matt said, “Now that my earthly father is gone, I can see now that I only really ever had one father…the Lord.” His whole focus was not on his loss, but on the one who gives and takes away. He seemed sad and weak, but not hopeless. I was amazed when he stated with confidence that God is carrying him through each day, and that it is only by God’s grace that he is sustained. I pray that God will give me this same heart of trust and confidence in Him. Only in Him will my soul be at rest rather than settling for the temporal trappings of this world.


Flying to a Funeral

July 11th, 2005

Bobby, I and all twenty-three other members of our VBS road show missions trip have returned home safely. We had a great week of ministry to the church and neighborhoods that we were in and learning alot about each other as we bunked down in a two room trailer that only had one shower. All in all we had a good time with encouragement and challenges throughout the week. On Sunday Bobby had the opportunity of speaking at the church we were helping. He gave a stirring message from Psalm 116. In this Psalm the writer addresses his communication with the Lord, an avenue that is constant and a practice that is life changing. It is easy for us to become distracted with our own perspective. We often come to God with our needs and wants. But the beautiful part is not that God grants anything that we want, but through our prayer we begin to see Him in more than our perspective. In this process He becomes what we desire and we are enveloped with His graciousness and goodness to us. The Psalmist comes to God in tears and agony and after pouring his heart before the Lord says, “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” (v.7)

In response to his message, Ty and I sang a song they wrote called “Call.” It is a soft thoughtful song about the beautiful connection we have with God through prayer. My favorite lines says, “You reach down from on high, You put joy in my life, So I praise you as faithful.” I think this shows the proper perspective of God being so far above us, a mass of tiny creatures in the globe that He holds in His hand. And yet He is so merciful to us and gives us hope and life in Him.

It was challenging to consider this fact when we heard from Bobby’s brother Billy that some good friends had died in a car crash one night while we were on the missions trip. We were shocked and saddened to hear the news, but encouraged when we found all the students gathered in the living room in prayer. I was encouraged when Bobby shared this in his message as he read verse 15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord, Is the death of His saints.” It is impossible for us to grasp death of loved ones as precious, but Bobby could see how God is being given such glory by the four that died because when they were with us, they were some of the best worshippers we knew.

Tomorrow we are flying to Texas to be at the funeral and spend some time with Bobby’s family, so once again I will be absent from the blogging world. But I hope that you will be encouraged to ponder life from God’s perspective and see the reality: that He is the good and merciful, dealing bountifully with us…

We call on Your name
For You are faithful
We call on Your name
For You are able



VBS Roadshow

July 1st, 2005
We will be out of town for the next ten days with our high school students on a trip to Southern California. We want to help them grasp a practical understanding of ministering to others by spending a week hosting a Vacation Bible School for a small church that does not have the resources, but does have this need in their community. We had a great time last year and I am looking forward to what the Lord will teach us through this opportunity this year. I’ve spent the latter half of this week helping the students gather supplies and answering many parents’ last minute questions. Keeping busy with all this, I have not yet had time to pack anything for Bobby and myself! I know I can get to that tonight and thanks to the advice of a friend I’ve been keeping a list as I think of things we’ll need to bring. We trust that God will work in our hearts and hands on this trip to proclaim His name wherever we might be.

The idea of missions is often a misrepresented concept in churches today. Most people seem to think missions means a short term or extended trip to Mexico, overseas or a third-world country. In their minds this usually involves being stretched far in terms of comfort, diet and physical strength, completing tasks that only select believers should set out to accomplish. But each believer is called to be on God’s mission, living the good news wherever we are. Some people hear that we are going to Southern California they scratch their heads, wondering why we aren’t taking our students on a “real” missions trip. We don’t have to go out of the country, state or even your neighborhood, there are lost people all around us and they are our mission. We must be faithful to proclaim Christ at all times in our day to day walk of life, right where God has put us. This is not to say that the above descriptions do not sometimes characterize many missions trips, and there is nothing wrong with missions trips to far away places. It is a great thing to spread God’s word all over the world. However, we should not keep the idea of being a missionary in this stereotypical box because every one who is born again is a missionary of the work that Christ has done in us.

“You are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
His own special people,
that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
1 Peter 2:9


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