It’s happening right here @thecenterchurch Men’s Camp 2013 @PalomarChristianConfrenceCenter
Landfill Harmonic
The Cateura Dump, in the Bañado Sur area along the Paraguay River, is the final dumping site for more than 1,500 tons of solid waste each day.
Cateura is also a village of seven neighborhoods housing some 2,500 families essentially living on top of the dump. Most of these families earn a living by separating garbage for the recycling industry. Children are often the ones with the onerous and unsanitary chore of collecting and peddling the waste.
In 2006 a man named Favio Chavez, an environmental technologist, started working at the Cateura dump. Favio was also very musical. He learned to play the guitar at an early age, and was a choir director at his church. Observing the needs of the kids in that area, he decided to open a music school. That was the beginning of his Recycled Orchestra project.
In the last several years the Recycled Orchestra has received worldwide recognition and have performed throughout the world, from Argentina to Brazil to Germany. They have even donated some their instruments to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
Their story is so special that a U.S.-based filmmaker is currently making a documentary about them called, Landfill Harmonic. While being interviewed for this documentary, Favio replied,
“The world sends us garbage, we send back music”
The story of people who can make music in and from the most horrible situation is a powerful illustration of what God intended praise and worship to accomplish through His people. C.S. Lewis captures the importance of this,
“It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.” C.S. Lewis
When we lift our voices to God––thanking Him, blessing Him, declaring our love for Him––something happens! God makes His presence known! David wrote this,
“But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3)
It’s through our praise that we welcome the King of Kings Himself.
And where the King goes, His throne goes…
And where His throne goes, His kingdom goes…
No matter what we face, or what’s been handed us, or what’s being dumped on us, praising God offers the greatest hope because it establishes His kingdom, His authority, His rule, His power, anywhere! Even in a garbage dump, He’ll teach you how to make music
The Power of Water
The Grand Canyon, the Bonneville Dam, the Fukushima Power Plant, and a smooth river rock all have something in common: they’ve all experienced the power of water.
There’s a traditional Japanese belief that water is the most powerful material on earth. Given enough force, and/or enough time, nothing can stand up against it. But water is also powerful because it is one of the most essential materials on the earth.
Water sustains life. Water cleanses. Water heals. Water refreshes.
The Holy Spirit is likened unto different things. Wind. Fire. Oil. These all have significance, but the Holy Spirit being likened unto water is the most insightful description of His work.
It’s by the Holy Spirit being likened to water that illustrates how we are baptized into the Body of Christ,
“Jesus answered, ‘Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:5)
It’s by the water of the Holy Spirit that we are transformed,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)
It’s by the Holy Spirit being likened to water that we are given power,
“John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:5, 8)
And the Holy Spirit’s life-giving water not only flows to, and within us, it also flows from us,
“He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)
After Peter and John had been arrested, interrogated, and threatened by the Jewish rulers, they returned to their brothers and sisters in Christ. They cried out to God in prayer. Then we are told,
“When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)
These are the same people who were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and saw thousands of people come to Christ, and many miracles to follow. Now we are told that they were “all filled with the Holy Spirit” again. What happened? Did the Holy Spirit leave them?
The powerful water of the Holy Spirit is not a static body of water. It’s not like a lake or a pond, but like a river or an ocean. Flowing. Moving. Changing. We do not possess the Holy Spirit, He possesses us. The Holy Spirit immerses us in the love and life of God’s kingdom. Not just once, but ongoingly.
As we live, minister, serve, give, etc., the Holy Spirit’s strength and power within us dissipates. Like the people we read about earlier, we also need to press in again to God for a new filling of the Holy Spirit. We need to submerge ourselves again and again in the Holy Spirit’s deep oceans, and experience the refreshing power of His water.
Love Strong as Death
There are certain things all of us hate to even think about facing. Have you ever thought about losing someone who is close to you? A parent, a husband, a wife, a child. You say to yourself, “I’d lose my mind if they were to die.”
You might do better than you think.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.” (Psalm 46:1–3
Nothing is large enough or strong enough to outdo God’s ever-present help and strength in your life. No matter how bad things look, you don’t need to fear because God is with you!
While it’s incredible to be reminded that God is always there and that He’ll always help you, it’s even more incredible to know why it is that He wants to do this; to understand why He wants to help you and give you strength to make it through any kind of situation.
In the book, The Song of Solomon, there is a vivid depiction of the romance between a groom and his bride-to-be. Listen to how he refers to her,
“Most beautiful of women” (1:8)“Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves” (1:15)
“Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens” (2:2)
“All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you” (4:7)
“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride” (4:9)
These are not only insights to a man’s love for his fiancé; they are also descriptions of how God feels about you. You are dear to Him, beautiful to Him, cherished and loved by Him. This is why He is an ever-present help to you. He wants to be with you because He loves you immensely!
Now listen to how the bride-to-be responds to the One who loves her so much,
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death” (Song of Solomon 8:6)
Would you allow yourself to be sealed in God’s love today? This simple, but powerful act will bring a confidence and grace to your life enabling you to face anything, even death. His love for you is stronger than death, even the death of someone very near and dear to you. He will bring you through!
And remember, on that day and in that moment when you need His help, not only will help be there, but He’ll be there too.
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Many people, who drown, do so while within an eyeshot of someone else. And often those who could see the person in the water didn’t even know what to look for—because drowning doesn’t look like drowning.
A drowning person can’t call for help—they have to be able to breathe before they can speak. When a person is drowning, their mouth sinks below and reappears above the surface of the water. There isn’t time to exhale, inhale, and call out.
A drowning person can’t wave for help. They instinctively extend their arms to the side and press down to lift their mouth out of the water, unable to raise their arms.
There are people within eyeshot of you who are drowning. Not in water, but in life. They’re going down and they don’t know it. They aren’t going to ask for help. And if you did offer to help, they’d probably resist.
A person you know might be drowning in the waters of a family crisis. The family and the lives of the people closest to them are coming apart. And instead of reaching out to you or anyone else, their hurt, confusion, and bitterness causes them to withdraw and isolate themselves.
Maybe someone you know is self-confidant, thinking they have all the skills to make it in life. They work hard, and consider themselves good, law-abiding people. But they aren’t happy. Relationships are strained because no one measures up to their standards. It seems the harder they try, the worse things get. They’re drowning, but they’d be the last to admit it.
Or, you might know a person who would admit they are drowning in some insurmountable circumstance, but they doubt you or anyone could help them. Too many disappointments and shortfalls of others have left them skeptical.
Then there’s the person who has failed miserably. They’ve messed up their lives. They’ve broken promises. They destroyed trust. They’re barely treading on the water of life. They are about to give up entirely, and they are convinced they deserve to go under.
Crisis. Self-confidence. Skepticism. Failure. They’re like weights below they surface tied to the ankles of people. Unseen, unheard, and many times unknown. But God sees, hears, and knows; and is reaching out to save them.
“Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)
Right this moment, God is sensitizing you and making you aware of someone who is being overwhelmed. They’re going down and you may feel helpless, but there is no situation, person, mindset, or mistake that is beyond His life saving reach. God knows what a drowning person looks like and how to save them, and forever He lives to intercede on their behalf! Yours too!
When You’ve Almost Drowned
In deep waters, You carry me.
Out of land-locked lakes, You call me.
As storms rage, You protect me.
Again and again my life is sustained in the ocean of your love.
When land’s not seen, teach me to trust and even enjoy.
Take me deeper than I think I can go, and my faith will be enlarged.
Baptize me and overflow me with the water of your Spirit.
You’re the Commander of the sea, and Captain of my soul.” (JHP)
There are people so fearful of water that they never venture into the ocean, or any other body of water. They see the waves and hear the surf, and anxiety grips them. But they have a good reason.
When you’ve almost drowned, you fear being in water, especially water that’s over your head. You lack confidence. You panic easily. The moment your feet can’t touch the bottom and you feel the pull of currents, your mind tells you that you’re going to drown, again.
But this kind of fear will never go away, unless you surrender to it.
Master swim instructors teach people who are fearful of water how they must yield to the water and use their body’s natural buoyancy. Lifeguards tell people not to fight against riptides and currents but to swim at angles through them.
Fear and panic that stems from any prior bad experience can be crippling. There are situations so horrible that they almost suffocate the life out of you. You may still be alive, but you avoid anything and anyone that even comes close making you feel vulnerable again.
God has rescued you from the deep waters in your life. You felt as if you were going under, but God brought you out. Yet now you sense his gentle push back into the deep. You don’t want to go, but it’s actually in the deep places that God will strengthen your faith and teach you things about Him and yourself that you could never learned on the shore.
As tides, waves, currents, and storms come unseen but felt, you learn that God is sustaining you and keeping you. You discover in the deep oceans of life that you were actually meant to be there. And you find others in the deep water who are like you once were, struggling, filled with fear and panic. They’re drowning and time’s running out. But you now know who will help them, and He’s reaching through you to them.
Job Qualifications
Remember your first job? Mine was at a car dealership.
Before I was hired, I was interviewed by a manager by the name of Mr. Carlson. The interview was intimidating enough, but Mr. Carlson was even more intimidating. He was a tall, serious fellow who asked me what qualifications I had to work at their dealership, for which I had none. But after all that, I was finally hired, and given the highly esteemed title of “Lot Attendant.“ Don’t laugh, I got to drive Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs, and Volvos.
In the New Testament we’re told that Apostles looked to select some people to do work around the church. The qualifications for the position were simple:
”Seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.“ (Ac 6:3)
Being a person of good reputation is important, but that second qualification stands out the most to me, “full of the Holy Spirit.” One might even ask, “Aren’t all Christians ‘full of the Holy Spirit?’” Apparently not, or it would not have been mentioned as a specific qualification.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is resident in every person who has made Jesus Lord of their life, yet there is a filling with the Holy Spirit that can be described as “full,” or even, “overflowing.” This is what the Apostles were looking for. This is what God is still looking for.
The beautiful thing about being qualified for God’s work is that we need not feel intimidated by our lack of skills. In God’s kingdom, whatever we lack, He will freely give us as we are continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Someone once wisely said,
"God does not call the qualified, but he qualifies the called”
And with no apologies to Mr. Carlson, we’ll be given the a much better title: “Servant of God.”
Louisa’s Place
Whenever I find out that someone has been to San Luis Obispo, I’ll ask him or her, “Have you been to Louisa’s Place?” To which most people answer that they have, or they know about it. Those who have been there will often start talking about how much they love the restaurant. Just the other day a person told me, “I had the best omelet I’ve ever had in my life there.”
If you go to Louisa’s Place, be prepared to wait for a table because everyone who lives in San Luis Obispo knows that Louisa’s is the best place in town for breakfast and lunch. And don’t expect any fancy atmosphere, just good, really good food. That’s been the staple since the restaurant opened in 1972.
I love to tell people have who been to Louisa’s Place that Louise is my mother-in-law. I tell people about how hard Louise and her family worked to make the restaurant special. How she would get to the kitchen way before the sun was up to bake things fresh. How she survived the onslaught of high-end eateries all around her (most of which are gone now).
I also love to tell people that although good food was important to Louise, people were more important. Many of the items on the Louisa’s Place menu were named after her grandchildren, which they would, and still do, proudly tell you about. Many of her employees would not have been the first pick by other employers (especially one dishwasher in the early ‘80s), but she loved, respected, and believed in them in a way that they could feel, and as a result so did the customers.
Louise sold the restaurant many years ago, and it’s continued to be a popular spot. Good food is still served, and there’s a friendly atmosphere. The current owners are doing a great job, but they would be the first to tell you that the key to their success is doing what Louise did.
There are so many life lessons and applications that could be had from the Louisa’s Place story, but the one that stands out the most to me is the importance of understanding what makes something great, and continuing to do it. Albeit, little changes and enhancements may be useful, the essence of what is done cannot change.
This is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about in Romans. Paul wants his readers to know that the key to their spiritually success is understanding what makes their faith even possible.
“…and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” (Rom. 11:17)
We have been grafted into Israel’s tree and are now recipients of the blessings promised to them. Paul wants us to never forget the grace shown to us by God, and how nothing we’ve done could have accomplished this. It was God’s sovereign choice to include us.
The next time you’re in San Luis Obispo, you must visit Louisa’s Place! Have an Italiano omelet, some home fries, and a hot cup of coffee. Tell whoever’s working there that you know Louise (or at least her son-in-law). Savor the moment. You’re being included in something amazing that started way before you got there.
His Appearing
Several of years ago our church family lost a precious sister named Jesse Clark. Jesse and her husband Earl were pastors in the Foursquare Church for many years. Jesse shared with Kathie and me many stories from her and Earl’s early years in ministry. Once while telling us one of these stories, Jesse said something almost in passing that stood out in my mind and I shall never forget. As she was describing what it was like for her and Earl to be in Bible college during the 1930’s, she said:
“Earl and I, and the rest of the students, were sure we wouldn’t graduate from Bible College before the Rapture.”
Like many other Christians during that time, world events loomed, making them certain the Lord would return at any moment. A brief look at Church history will find this sense of the imminence of Christ’s return was in much of the Evangelical Church for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. The urgency they felt produced some of the most impactful efforts for the Gospel. After all, in their minds Jesus was coming any moment and many people had still not heard of His love for them.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that splinters within sectors of the Evangelical Church, which had historically believed in the soon coming of Jesus Christ and the Rapture, began questioning the idea and teaching, even making fun of the notion. One famous teacher who had a profound effect in this movement went on record saying:
“We’ll never impress people with the God of the ‘sweet by and by.’ We’re called to teach people about the God of the ‘here and now.’”
What distilled from that approach, in my humble opinion, has been tragic. Many Pastors have vowed to never teach on biblical prophecy. As a result, Christians have little or no understanding of end-time events, nor what the Bible has to say about them. Many are caught up with the good things of this life, neglecting genuine Christian fellowship, and not really longing for Christ’s return.
However, there are many Christians in the world who are experiencing suffering and persecutions, who’s walk with Jesus is vital and deep. They have a more intense longing for His return and they know this world is not their home. They are looking forward to His appearing. Me too! How about you?