The Call to Obedience

I just recently finished reading through the book of Jeremiah in my devotions. Now before I share some thoughts with you about Jeremiah's life, I want to share with you something that I have done with the Lord throughout my walk with Him.
Many times when I am wanting to start the next book in my devotions, I simply ask the Lord, "What is it that YOU want me to read? You know what I am going through, You know what I will be going through, and You know what I need to hear from You. Please speak to me what book I need to read next." Without fail, the Lord has always directed me to the right book at that time in my life. Always.
Now I knew that I wanted to really start focusing in on the Old Testament books, specifically the major and minor prophets. So I kind of just put it before the Lord and waited for His leading. Well as I began to look through my commentaries, I found the one that I have had for many years on the book of Jeremiah. Now I have read this before, but I figured, "You know what, I am going to do this again, I am going to really read and study through Jeremiah." And so I began to read through it along with the commentary by Warren Wiersbe called Be Decisive.
I would encourage you to get any commentary by Warren Wiersbe. He is really good at giving some background to what is going on, to link the Old and New Testaments together, and is really easy to follow and understand. So there is my little plug for his commentaries. Now let's get back to Jeremiah...
Jeremiah was known to be around 20 years old when the Lord called him into the ministry of being a prophet. Well, as you start the book of Jeremiah, you see that his father (Hilkiah) was a priest in the land of Benjamin. Jeremiah had come from a long line of priests. But as we begin this book of Jeremiah, the Lord had a different calling on his life. He had called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:5). It didn't mean that being a prophet was better or holier than being a priest. In fact, to be called to the priesthood was an amazing calling of the Lord as you study it in the Old Testament. But that is not was the Lord had for Jeremiah's life. I want you to note in Jeremiah 1:4-5, what the Lord tells Jeremiah...

"Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Note that before the Lord reveals Jeremiah's calling to him, He (the LORD) first reveals some really important information to Jeremiah:

1. I Formed You in the Womb
2. I Knew You
3. I Sanctified You
4. I Ordained You

I encourage you to do a deeper study on these four points and see what the Lord shows you. But the major thing that I want you to note is that it was the LORD who had done these 4 things. HE formed Jeremiah. HE knew Jeremiah. HE sanctified Jeremiah. HE ordained Jeremiah. And then there He reveals His calling on Jeremiah's life. To be a prophet to the nations...

You see, to be a prophet in Jeremiah's day, meant that:

1. You never knew from one day to the next what the Lord would call you to say or do
2. A Prophet labored to “change the present” so the nation would have a future
3. A Prophet tried to reach and change hearts
4. Prophets addressed whole nations and usually the people they addressed didn’t want to hear the message.
5. A Prophet could come from any tribe and had to prove his divine call
6. A Prophet had no guarantee income

I believe that Jeremiah knew exactly what it meant to be a prophet and so that is why he gives his excuse in verse 6 "Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” Now I want you to think, being honest before the Lord, would this be your response, or better yet, is this your response today? You are giving the Lord every reason why you cannot do that thing that the Lord is calling you to do. Don't forget what the Lord told Jeremiah before He revealed His calling on Jeremiah's life. And if those 4 statements (above) were not enough, let us consider what the Lord tells Jeremiah next in verses 7-10 & 18-19...

1. You shall go to all to whom I send you
2. Whatever I command you, you shall speak
3. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you
4. I have put My words in your mouth
5. I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant
6. I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, against the people of the land
   
7. I am with you

Although I would love to comment on each of these points, I am just going to let the Lord speak to you on those points. But there we clearly see that the Lord reassured Jeremiah of his calling and how it would be the LORD who would do the work through him. The last thing that I want to show you is the command that the Lord tells Jeremiah in verse 17...

“Therefore prepare yourself and arise, And speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them.”

He basically tells Jeremiah to roll up your sleeves, tighten your belt, and get ready to GO! There would be no more time for excuses, it was time to respond, it was time to get busy for the Lord! Jeremiah was going to face many situations in his life that would be difficult. But in the end, the Lord was calling him to be Obedient to that which He (the LORD) had told him to say and to do. Jeremiah would have to be decisive. Who would he listen to? Would he be afraid of men and what they thought or would he be obedient to the Lord? We see in Jeremiah's life, that he sought to be obedient to the Lord know matter what the cost.

I want to end this blog with a quote from Warren Wiersbe...

“By today’s human standards of ministry, Jeremiah was a dismal failure. He preached to the same people for over forty years, and yet few of them believed him or obeyed his message. He had few friends who stood with him and encouraged him. The nation he tried to save from ruin abandoned their God and plunged headlong into disaster. His record wouldn’t have impressed the candidate committee of most missions or the pastoral search committee of the average church. Jeremiah may have thought he had failed, but God saw him as a faithful servant, and that’s all that really counts.”
Wiersbe, W. W – Be Decisive – Page 185

Our Drive Home from Austria

Church in München (Munich)

We had to take a picture of this pizza man!

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God!

These are just a few pics that we took on our long 15 1/2 hour drive home from Austria. No, it doesn't take that long to drive home, but we made a couple of stops along the way. We will never do that again. Lesson learned! The first stop that we made with another family was at the Eagles Nest. This is a place (house) that the Third Reich bought as a gift for Adolf Hitler. It is only a 15 minute drive off of the autobahn and so we were going to go check it out. Well, guess what? We drive up as far as we can and get to the location where we would buy our tour tickets and take the bus ride up and then we find out that it is closed, because it was snowing up at the Eagles Nest. BUMMER! We were right there and could not go up there! The other bummer was that there was a group that went the following day and were able to go up. Well, next time! So we got back on the road and decided to eat dinner in Munich. That was a big mistake. We have forgotten what it is like going into the big city! But oh well, we can say that we have been to Munich now. Well, the important thing is that we made it home safely! We don't want to take another long road trip like that for a while!

Allianz Gottesdienst

Back on July 5, 2009 we had an Allianz Gottesdienst. This is where all of the churches that are part of the Allianz in Seelbach come together for one church service. I don't know if you remember, but at the beginning of the year, we put up a blog about this. Usually at the beginning of each year we have an Allianzgebetswoche (Alliance Prayer Week), where on each night of the week we meet at a different church and spend an hour in prayer on a particular theme and then at the end of that week we come together for one church service and have a guest speaker teach on that theme. Well, this year was the first time that we did an Allianz Gottesdienst in the middle of the year together. Overall, I think that it is a pretty cool idea and I believe that the Lord is using us (Calvary Chapel Herborn) to challenge each of the other pastors. The service is not your typical Calvary Chapel Service, it is more of a German style service. This was now my second Allianz Gottesdienst. It is my prayer that the Lord does continue to do a work of His Spirit here in Seelbach (our little village) and that the Word of God would be proclaimed in a powerful way here within the churches! Just wanted to share with you these pics and this little story so that you can see a little more of what we are experiencing here in Germany.

Lobpreis (worship)

Matthias (from CC Herborn) leading in worshipGuest Speaker

Bratwurst - mmmmmmm!

Gemeindefreizeit - Spiritually Minded Life

What a blessed time we had at the Gemeindefreizeit (Church Retreat)! The theme of the retreat was "Spiritually Minded Life" taken from Romans 8:6, which says, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." We were completely blessed to have Pastor Craig Quam from CC Montebelluna, Italy do all of our evening teachings. Pastor Edmund Sr, Pastor Edmund Jr, and myself did all of the morning sessions. It was amazing to see the Lord unite all of the teachings and to see each of them really build on top of one another.
Not only did the Lord do a great work of his Spirit within the lives of the adults, but He also did a great work with all of the kids! We had a small team from Calvary Chapel Chino Hills that came and did a VBS for our kids. It was great!!! All of the kids loved it!
One of the other great blessings was the weather. The staff from the castle told us that we were the first group to get good weather all summer. Well, we did pray for it and the Lord blessed us with it!
We praise the Lord for the work that He did at this years retreat! To Him be all the glory!

Worship Time

Schloß Heroldeck - Prayer tower at the top!

Katie and Karis - the little princesses at the castle!

Pastor Craig Quam with Dominik translating

At the Italian Alps - we went there for Rebecca's Birthday

Kids doing some worship for the parents on the last day - can you spot Katie - the shy one

The view of the Millstätter See from the castle

Why God Allows Suffering

Hey everyone, I recently watched this little video from Pastor Greg Laurie and thought that I would share it with you.

Whatever Happened to Worship

Well, it has actually been a while now since I finished reading this book from A.W. Tozer. This is a powerful little book on the topic of worship. I would definitely encourage everyone to read this book! It will challenge you for sure. Here are a few quotes from the book just to give you a taste...

" I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven."

"True worship of God must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer."

BORN TO WORSHIP GOD
"One of the greatest tragedies that we find, even in this most enlightened of all ages, is the utter failure of millions of men and women ever to discover why they were born....'I don't even know why I was born!' ... they say. 'What is the chief end of man?' ... The chief end of man is to glory God and to enjoy Him forever. That needs no translation for a thinking person. To worship and glorify God - that is the chief end of any man or woman."

Visit from Bettina

A day before we left for the church retreat, we had a special visit from a dear friend of ours, Bettina Loughman. She is actually originally from Germany, but has now lived in California for many years. She and her family attend Calvary Chapel Chino Hills and they are great friends of ours. For about 5 months before we left California, she met with us once a month to teach us some basic German. We were so blessed to have her and her daughter drive all the way down from her relatives house to spend the afternoon with us. We love you Loughman family, thanks for coming for a visit Bettina, and once again, thanks for getting us going on the German language.

Arrival in Össterich (Austria)

Well, we left on Friday night at 6:15pm and arrive in Austria at my buddy Daniel's house at 2:30am. It was a long 8 hours and 15 minutes, but it was well worth it. We hit some traffic in Germany and had to make some stops along the way, but the Lord was faithful and got us there safely. Daniel and his family were such a blessing to host us at there house. They actually live at the church (CC Spittal, Austria), upstairs. So it was great this morning to be able to go to church and just have to walk downstairs. We were able to just rest on Saturday and go on a walk to downtown Spittal, where there was the Schloß (castle) and a huge park. Below are some of the pics from the day...
It was great to be able to get here a day and a half early to just relax, have some sweet fellowship with the Ornales family, and begin to prepare for this weeks church retreat here in Austria. We look forward to what the Lord is going to do in all of our lives!!!

Katie climbing up the wall!

Aliyah - she is so beautiful!

Joey & Daniel Ornales

Rebecca and Noah enjoying the day in Spittal, Austria

Katie & Aliyah running to the park!!!

Schloß (castle) in Spittal

Gemeindefreizeit

Today we will be leaving for our Church retreat in Austria! We are really excited to see what the Lord is going to due! I am currently studying for the teaching that I will be doing at the retreat. Although I would love to share with you all what I and the others are teaching on, I know that there are some of you who will read this and then will know what we are teaching on. I have to keep it a suspense for you! For us as a family, it will be our first time in Austria, our first time at the Schloss Herodeck, and our first family retreat that we have ever been to! We are excited as you can see for many reasons! We do ask all of you that are from California or those of you that are from Germany that are unable to go this year to be praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pray for each of the teachings, worship times, the children's ministry, the health of everyone, the traveling there and back for everyone. Thanks! PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!

Generations

Hello everyone, I just want to share with you some lyrics of a song that I am currently listening to. It is almost 23:00 (11pm) here in Deutschland and I am preparing studies for the Gemeindefreizeit (church retreat). I am listening to Sara Groves and she has a song called Generations. Every time I listen to this song, I am extremely blessed and challenged. If you have not heard of Sara Groves, I would definitely encourage you to look her up and buy all that she has. Trust me, you will be blessed! So I want to share with you the lyrics...

I can taste the fruit of Eve. I'm aware
of sickness death and disease. The results
of her choices were vast. Eve was the first
but she wasn't the last. If I were honest
with myself, had I been standing at that
tree, my mouth and my hands would be covered
with fruit. Things I shouldn't know
and things I shouldn't see

Remind me of this with every decision.
Generations will reap what I sow. I
can pass on a curse or a blessing
to those I will never know.

She taught us to fear the serpent. I'm
learning to fear myself and all of the
things I am capable of in my search for
acceptance, wisdom and wealth. To say
the devil made me do it is a cop-out
and a lie. The devil can't make me do
anything when I'm calling on Jesus Christ

To my great-great-great-granddaughter,
live in peace. To my great-great-great-grandson,
live in peace. To my great-great-great granddaughter,
live in peace. To my great-great-great-grandson,
live in peace, live in peace.

Eve was the first but she wasn't the last.

Gemeindetag (Church Day)

Well everyone we have been back in the church now for a couple of weeks. It was actually when we were on vacation that I received an SMS from Edmund and he let me know that they were going back in the church on a Wednesday evening. He told me afterwards that everyone was so in shock about the whole situation, it was kind of like they didn’t know what to do.
On our (the Roper family) first Sunday back, it was the annual Gemeindetag (church day). This is a day when the different ministries within the church get to share a little bit about their ministry in order to stir the hearts of the people to get involved. Below are just a few of the leaders of the ministries just to give you an idea.
Afterwards we had a church BBQ! And you know that the people loved that! I mean, who wouldn’t! It was a great time as a church just to celebrate the fact that we are back in the church and to have a great time of fellowship.
We are back in the church building! It is truly an exciting time! We praise the Lord for all of this! We look forward to what the Lord is going to continue to do within the hearts of the people here at CC Herborn and look forward to how He is going to expand His kingdom through us! Continue to keep us in your prayers!!!!

Lobpreis - Worship during service

Pastor Edmund Sr. bringing the Word!

Martha - Frauenarbeit (Women's Ministry)

Michael - Jugendarbeit "Regeneration" (Youth)

Christian and Marko - Teenkreis "Crossover" (Jr. High)

Wolfgang - Mediendienst (Media)

Dominik - Gebetstreffen (Prayer)

Hermann - Drama Ministry

Pastor Edmund introducing a new ministry to the church - "Parenting Class"

The youth just chillin'

Girls from "Crossover" - our Jr. High Ministry - advertising their shakes

Fellowship during the BBQ

Aliyah playing with some of the other boys

Pics from our Vacation in Switzerland - Part 1

Hello everyone! Sorry that it has taken a while to get some pics up on our blog from our vacation in Switzerland! It has been very busy ever since we got back. This is just going to be part 1 of our pics from our vacation. Obviously we have so many pics, but we just want to share with you a little bit of our time that we had. We want to thank the family who completely blessed us with letting us use their home! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We were completely refreshed, blessed, in awe of God's goodness and His creation, and had a great time together as a family. Definitely a time we will never forget! So there will be more to come... but enjoy!

Rebecca and Noah enjoying the boat ride

Chateau Grandson

The girls on our boat ride on Lac Neuchâtel

Noah sportin' his Switzerland hat

Rebecca enjoying her Starbucks - her first frappuccino in over 10 months!

Downtown Lausanne

Mein schatz und ich (my treasure and I)

Noah - chillin' in Schweiz

How cute

Aliyah enjoying her ice cream at a little restaurant called Carmen's

Aliyah & Katie with the Switzerland flag in the background

Rebecca and Noah at Lac Neuchâtel

A peaceful Lac Neuchâtel

Daddy and his boy!

Daddy and his girls about to go into the Lac (Lake)

This is the house that we were blessed to stay in