Fight Camp; A Door or A Bridge?

Thanks Paramount - River Road Campus (Amarillo, TX) for leading an amazing week of Fight Camp 2016. Mentally, physically, and spiritually we all walked away exhausted. Your 14+ hour days; your love for kids and families; all enveloped in your love for Jesus. And Lion's Roar parents and volunteers who didn't have to give back to their school, but chose to and the difference you guys made. Friend's from a nearby church who gave of time and resources so each child could break a board to demonstrate their newly learned and honed skills. I could go on and on as it was an amazing week.

Fight Camp 2016 really did serve as a back door into people lives as campers not only learned some really cool martial arts moves, but more importantly, learned about Jesus who loves them. This is what back door ministry is all about in the urban context, or any other context probably. But the neat thing about Fight Camp 2016 is that God used a back door to become a bridge for one little girl and her dad.

You see, there was a cute little girl who attended each day of Fight Camp 2016, and gave it everything she had. Day after day parents were there watching their kids learn martial arts moves and have fun in classes ranging from; kickboxing to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, to wrestling to crafts and music, and of course, snack time. So this little girl took the initiative (we call it a God-thing) and called the dad she had never met (only talked to on the phone), nor knew what he looked like, and invited him to come watch her break a board on the final day. And guess what God arranged? Yep, on that final day when she was to break her board to demonstrate her skills there was a strange man that had not been there before. Taking a risk she asked, "are you my dad?" He replied, "yes." What an amazing moment in Kingdom life that may not have been possible outside of God's intervention at Fight Camp 2016. Healing, reconciliation, and restoration of a broken family began as a back door became a bridge.

Since that day I've been wondering how many other back doors God could turn into bridges? Is there a door you've been walking in and out of that God is trying to turn into a bridge? A bridge to Him or a bridge to others? I'll never look at a back door opportunity the same again as now I'm asking God to divinely turn all back door ministry opportunities into bridges of salvation, healing, restoration, and reconciliation.

Look for the back door this week,

Shawn

It Is Enough!

All four Gospels record this incredible story of Jesus feeding the five thousand (now by most accounts this was 5000 men, plus women and children, so the total number could have been much greater). Can you imagine the resources this would have taken to feed this many people, and on the spur of the moment? Does Little Caeser's even keep that many hot and ready pizza's on hand? Clearly for the disciples this is a question of money? But for Jesus it was an opportunity for faith driven compassion. Philip, Jesus said, "where shall we buy bread for these people?" Jesus already knew what He was going to do, but He asked Philip what he thought? "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!," Philip exclaimed. But notice the glimmer of faith in Andrews words, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Now it's really easy to pick on both Philip and Andrew, and the rest of the 12. But Andrew had enough faith to bring what he had to Jesus (actually what a little boy was willing to give up for the sake of Kingdom work. The little boy might truly be the one with the greatest faith in this story.) Was Andrew bemoaning to Jesus, "this is all we can scrap up, it'll never do," or, "this is what we have Jesus, what can you do with it?" I think Andrew was speaking the latter, "here is what we have Jesus, thanks to the generosity of this little boy, now You, Jesus, need to take it and make it work."

If this is the case then the moral is simple, how are you looking at the resources you already have? Jesus, this is all I have. Or, Here Jesus, I have this, now I need You to do something miraculous with it. I'm working on changing my perspective as I am realizing that no matter what I have in my hand it is enough for Jesus to meet every need.

I don't know what resources you have in your hand right now, or think you don't have, but this I do know, with Jesus it is enough.

I'm striving to be like the little boy, here Jesus, take what I have. But I'm also striving to be like Andrew, take what I have Jesus and do something miraculous with it.

Grace and Peace,
Shawn