Roundabouts

Do you remember the days of the roundabouts at the park.  People would pile on this crazy ride and someone who wanted to make others sick would quickly spend the “puke machine” until someone would either fall off or fulfill the name previously given to the roundabout.  Oh the fun we had…

As we reenter the states one of the questions we are asked most often is, “How does it feel to come back to the states for a time?”  Up until this morning it was difficult to relate the feeling we had until I saw a picture of a roundabout.

When our family steps back into America, we find ourselves on a roundabout.  A roundabout where friends, family, and newfound communities come and see us as we spin one hundred miles an hour.  As we spend we shout hellos, love yous, and share an updated journey on how God is moving at the House of Moses.  As the spin continues these friends, family and newfound communities leave and go back to their life here in America as a new set replaces them.  Again we spin and shout all the above over and over.

You would think that after a few years of doing this, we would be able to find a balance of the sharing, planning, spending time with family and friends, and etc.  but we have not.  For this, we thank you for your patience and love as we navigate this new curve in our life journey.

I do want to express our deep soul “thank you” for those that stand at the proverbial roundabout of our life here in America during the summer.  You will never know the great encouragement God brings to our lives through your smiles, prayers, hugs, and listening ears.  These moments with you, although brief, challenge us to continue the journey we are on in Haiti.

We praise God for each of you!

-jb

Learning from a 4 year old…

Each morning I get on the motorcycle, with a little girl that God has placed in our life temporarily, to take her to school. Although her English is not perfect she remembers almost every song we play before her.

One of her favorite songs is “Captured” by the Digital Age.  This morning our 4 year old blessing was singing the following lyrics as loud as she could over the rumble of the motorcycle:

Cause love has come to rescue me 
Your love has come to set me free 
Your love, love is all I need 
Your love

As she was sitting in front of me, I looked down at her little head moving back and forth as she shouted these lyrics. Almost instantly, the words of the Psalmist came to my mind:

“You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.”  Psalm 8:2

I love listening each morning on these 5 minute rides while our little blessing is declaring the power of God   Oh God may I become pure in my praise shutting the mouths of those who oppose you!

Loving to learn.

jb

A daddy and daughter talk…

Thursday night was Vanah’s last night at the House of Moses before leaving for PAP to fly back to America to start her second year of college.  She had her time with many in the house but we (dad and daughter) had not been able to have a one on one conversation until Thursday night.  We found a place under the stars and sat.  Here are some of the words/feelings that were shared:

“Vanah, mom and I love you very much and are so proud of you.”

 

“Dad, I do not care if I die tomorrow because I have truly lived the past two years.”

 

“Dad, in the past when I heard people talk about a family, I wanted to leave the conversation as quickly as I could because it hurt so bad not to have one.  But now, I am the first to talk about you and mom and I talk with a smile on my face and pride in my voice.”

 

“Vanah, when you are 40 and mom and I come to visit your family, we will still have these daddy-daugther talks.”  

“Really dad?”  “Yes, Vanah!  We are  a forever family.”  

“I love you dad!”

“Mom and I love you Vanah!”

Vanah will be missed and we are counting the days until we see her this Summer, but for now she is where God wants her and we are so proud of here.  

This is just one of the billion things we are seeing God do here at the House of Moses.  We are truly blessed beyond any words that could be said or written.  

For His glory alone!

jb

Loving to learn humility.

Humility 

A word in which we are taught to despise, I have come to love.  Why?  Because it is the best reality check for me, helping “john” remember and realize that I am not the KING of the Universe and there are so many things I do not know.  

And even more, when I taste the bittersweetness of humility I know that God is showing me something.  There is something in my life that is not representing Him in the beauty of who He is.  

Coming to Haiti and living in Haiti the last 2 years I have learned to love the humility in living in a NEW WORLD, and that I have so much to unlearn and relearn in my daily journey on this planet.  The way God is pruning me to produce more fruit for His Kingdom is something that I am loving to live in.  

 

Not always easy but always beautiful. 

-jb

“I know how you feel.”

Do you really?  

How often do we those words really match the reality of our lives we use them on.  

Living in Haiti I come face to face with the meaninglessness of these words far too often.  

Like tonight…

I get the opportunity to meet one of the guys at HoM in discipleship and oh how I walk away from the time filled in so many different ways.  But there are those times that I walk away and really are in a “deep soul stun.”  One of those moments, that what was shared stays deeply within you that slowly sinks in to a deeper understanding.

Tonight he shared  something was really bothering him.  I asked him, what that “something” was and he responded:

“Sometimes it is very hard for me because I am thinking about my family.  I mean they are fortunate to get one meal a day, but here  I have the three meals a day.  I remember what it was like to have only one meal and now I am receiving the blessing of getting three meals a day.  I just hurt for my family.”

 

In the past I would have inserted the common jargon while nodding my head, “I know how you feel.”  But in these days I do not say the  words.  Actually I say the exact opposite.  I told him that I do not know how he feels and that I have never felt hunger.  I go on to tell him that I do not understand how one country has excess while another starves to death.  Does it fix his problem or soothe his feelings?  I really do not know.  But what is spoken is a response to what was said.  

What if meeting people where they are is sharing truth and walking beside them in their pain and not trying to fix it.  Allowing them to lean on someone that just listens.

Just a thought…

jb

Leave me alone Jesus

This morning I was reading in Matthew 8: 28-34.  

It is the story of two demon possessed men that come in contact with Jesus.  To shorten the story he heals the two men but it comes at a cost to the villagers in which the story unfolds.  And what exactly was the villager’s reaction to this great work of Jesus;

“Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus.  And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.”  

Really after the great work he just did, they wanted him to leave?  

As I was reading this story in Matthew 8, God was writing a story upon my soul.  He was whispering these words, 

“John, you do the same thing!”  

What?  When have I asked you to leave?  

This happens so often today in my life and in the world of religion. In my life I want to speak of His greatness but then when He calls me to imitate this greatness of His love and mercy, I respond with fighting Him and internally pushing Him away…

…asking Him to leave my region.

The truth is He affects all areas of my life or none at all.  Your Holy Spirit does not  “partially dwell” inside us. Remember the temple of God that Solomon built?  Af the completion of the temple His presence filled the place so greatly that the priests were unable to enter the temple.

God may I stop this foolishness, asking you to dwell in my region without fully placing my everything in following you. God may I look more like you today even  when the cost is high!! God thank for this word and how and what You speak to me through Your word! What a gift to be able to have Your word and to be able to understand what You want us to see through You Holy Spirit!

Jesus, stay here! 

Jb 

Overflows from my heart

It has been a long time since anything has come out of my heart so strongly in “spoken” or at least “typed” word as this morning.  Within 30 seconds God revealed to me the following:

“There is a war inside that is being waged 
A powerless enemy hovers over my soul 
Knowing that he cannot win, 
he intimidates.
Tearing away at the blocks of religion 
that has been properly placed over the years 
through attending religious ceremonies. 
Constructed to bring me peace
yet only brought rules that discouraged.
Rules for me to stay away from 
the real Jesus,
the real relationship,
the real peace.
And you ask how he intimidates?
By handing me “good bricks” of “half truths”
about my Jesus.
For me to properly place within my soul 
to discourage and distract, and for me 
to display to others a pseudo religion 
that has only power to 
judge and 
destroy!
A religion that kills a Messiah and does not follow Him.

A religion that quickly throws stones.

A religion that…
well…

Intimidates.

Do not miss the FALLING Stars…

Each Monday night I lay under the open sky with someone dear to me. 

The only rule we have is there are no rules.  No topics too big or too small.  

Last night was a special night because in the silence, on the roof, we saw many falling stars.  

WHY?

We were still, both inside and outside.  With no agenda, we were  ONE  gazing into the beauty of the night sky.

The longer we lay, the more stars became visible to our eyes and the more stars falling we observed.  

I am learning so much in these nights as I walk along the journey of a follower. I am learning that a being a good listener is one of the best gifts we can give one another in this life.  

Allowing people to talk about themselves, their struggles, their ugliness and beauty, their victories, defeats, etc.  Allowing people to “emotionally and spiritually bleed” without responding quickly with a absurd word.  

Join me in learning to see  people in our lives as “night skies” and may we take the time to see, (through being still and quiet and listening), to observe the falling stars in these lives.  

 

LOVE…why has it taken me so long.

In my journey with the King it has taken me TOO long to live in the truth of HIS love.  There have been a few things happen in my life that once again revealed to me that I am not in control of my life.

Each time I go through these periods of surrender, there is always a type of fruit that comes along with it.  What exactly is the fruit that is bearing within my soul…LOVE!  Love is it!  Love is what needs to be expressed in my life.

One of the closest to Jesus writes a letter and throughout the letter he shouts without USING CAPS, over and over…

Our journey with Christ is expressed through our love and without love we are nothing because HE is love.

SO this morning I confess to you, the world, or at least those who are reading this, that I have done a very poor job in LOVING YOU.  

I ask 2 things of those who read this, okay maybe 3 things:

1.  Please forgive me for not loving as I am called to love.

2.  Hold me accountable to this love expressed.

3.  You love too!

The other night as I was sitting on the “front porch” of our flat, I was overwhelmed with a fullness of my day.  And guess what, the only thing that I had done was live in HIS LOVE toward others.  

I close with a strong verse from Paul’s letter to a church:

“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

 

I love you!

JB

Humility feels good.

I know the title “humility feels good” sounds a bit crazy, and maybe it is.  But to be completely honest, I am in the state of being humbled and it feels very good.

Even though it did not make Aristotle’s 12, we all know that HUMILITY is a virtue looked highly upon especially in the Kingdom of God.

Listen to these words of the wise man King Solomon:

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”

During this season of my life, I am once again learning that I am not in control and I depend completely upon the Creator of Universe for every moment of my day.  It is crazy to think or presume that I have all the answers and am able to “control” the ends and outs of the universe in the sense of my local “galaxy” of my own home.

So what am I to do?  In humility learn from others and humbly listen to the hearts of those around me in love.  

After all, I am not the one who “molds” the clay, but I am to submit myself to be “molded” by the great POTTER.  Why?  For his GLORY and for others to see HIM more clearly in my life.

JB