Box boy Pastor

Today I found myself on the crest of a beautiful hillside clinic overlooking an upscale section of town waiting in the lobby to hear my name called. People came and went lots of grey haired individuals began emptying the waiting room while I waited, until my name was finally called. I followed the young nurse back to the bathroom… awkward.

Yup, today for the first time in nearly 10 years I had to take a drug test. It is almost surreal to think of myself back in the public work force, yet this is what God has led us into. In high school I worked at Roth’s grocery store stocking shelves, green bowtie and all. And now my life has come full circle today I completed my testing for a job as a shelf stocker at a local farm supply store in Corvallis. As strange and embarrassing as it is to be pursuing entry level work, I know that it is where we are and what is needed as we follow Christ to Corvallis, seeking to rebuild and re establish a beachhead for Gospel ministry in this beautiful yet progressively secular City.

If you have followed our story you will be aware of the statistics that make Corvallis one of the least reached areas in the nation making the very atmosphere of the area culturally rich, yet lacking in any eternal hope. There are over 30,000 OSU students who we want to see exposed to the Gospel and desire to see the City introduced to Christ.

We are encouraged to see the Lord moving and making a way for our family to move to Corvallis. We have stories of God’s provision that continue to urge us forward. Yet other challenges remain. One such challenge is finances. Both in preparing our house for our move to the city

and month-to-month expenses. More than anything I want to be able give myself fully to the work of leading this church and reaching this city.  I am praying boldly that the Lord will provide for our family to have our house move in ready and me on full time by July 1.

I believe that God is able, as the apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi to supply for all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:19

I believe it because He has already been doing this. He has answered our prayers by providing both a house and the funds for a downpayment! God is moving and we can't wait to see how else He will provide for our family and new Church.

Will you join me in Praying about our July 1st goal?

Doxology has organized a large ingathering of funds to get us to Corvallis and relaunch the Church for Sunday May 3 called the ‘joy offering’.

Will you join in supporting the work of introducing the City of Corvallis to Jesus?

You can take part in the mission financially by joining in with a one-time gift designated toward the ‘joy offering’ 

Or

 

You can be a long term (6 mo / 1 yr) partner with our family by designating your monthly gift to ‘the Libby family’

Give by Mail

Make checks out to 'Doxology' and mail to:

    Doxology

    PO Box 2605

    Corvallis, OR 97339-2605

Or give online:

doxcorvallis.org/#/give

We sincerely appreciate your interest and concern as we are following the movement of God into a challenging and rich season of ministry. Thank you for your prayers, they are most essential and thank you for your practical partnership as well.

Sincerely,

David and Rachel + 4

Written In

Recently I found myself walking the Stations of the Cross on the beautiful grounds of an Abbey just outside of Mt. Angel Oregon. The morning air was cool and crisp. The blue sky was bright, with silky fog filling the beams of sunlight that broke through the dense forest covering. I walked from station to station pausing to observe the beautiful statues, taking in the imagery which depicted different scenes of Christ's suffering. Many thoughts of thankfulness came to mind as I was reminded of His willing surrender and open hands, yet sorrow filled my heart as one of the images captured the hatred in the eyes of the Pharisees in the background.

It broke my heart to see the familiar pride and hatred so perfectly caught by the sculptor. I was gripped by the thought that the Pharisees were convinced they were doing the right thing. They had an air tight argument they repeated to themselves until they felt justified in their actions. They didn't just think it was ok, they believed it was the right thing to kill Christ. Scary!

Scary to think that we all, no make that I. I am just as prone to justifying evil action as good or right. By building religious framework around an action that will profit myself. God forgive me for my potential to call good evil and evil good.

My heart was low as I reflected on this sobering reality, when I came to an image that showed Christ stumbling under the weight of the Cross. He was so weak He was unable to carry His own Cross. The obvious reason Christ could not carry His cross was due to the often deadly scourging He had already endured. Therefore, He was unable.

Just think about that for a moment, Jesus, Lord of Glory, Maker and upholder of all things was unable to uphold His own Cross.

This is amazing humility. It blows my mind that Christ would lower Himself not only to step down from Heaven to walk our streets but lower Himself to take on our own frailty and weakness.

He was WEAK and couldn't do it Himself

I know is may sound sacrilegious to say that Christ was weak and couldn't do something Himself but look at the Gospel accounts, to me it is obvious, He was so broken and weak from the scourging that He needed help even to get to the place of His own execution.

So what do we see happen?

Luke 23:26 "As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him cary it behind Jesus."

He was weak and unable so they got a man to help Him.  A man.

I think it is amazing that the all powerful Son of God would humble himself to encounter the ugliness of human suffering at its darkest and so experience it that he was weakened by it.

Jesus on His grand mission of redemption, so humbled Himself that He invited a man into His heroic story as a partner. And Simon a man from northern Africa lifted part of Christ's weight.

Know this:
Simon felt the pain of the massive beam on His shoulders
Simon was not comfortable, he likely struggled and shed his own sweat as he followed the silent frail convict to His death.
Simon likely walked away from the Calvary's hilltop hot and messy with the very blood of Christ on him.

It blows my mind to think that by God's sovereign choice He wrote it into the story of redemption that Christ would use the assistance of humanity to accomplish His work. But this was the depth of His humanity, and is the essence of His redemptive plan. He secured our salvation at Calvary and He writes humanity into His mission of showing and proclaiming this love.

Christ the author of life writes us, broken and twisted humans into His mission as integral pieces to reach and rescue those who are in the world but are without hope. So many individuals are deeply loved by God, yet are at odds with Him. They don't even know where to start or how to reach out to God. The beauty is that God has reached out toward them when He came and laid down His life to restore right relationship with us. In fact, He is reaching out toward them through you and I today.

It may seam overwhelming to think that we are God's reach to those who desperately need God, we are after all are weak ourselves, still struggling and sinful. But let us look at Simon of Cyrene who simply took up the bloody Cross of Jesus and followed. He followed in discomfort, struggling under the weight of the Cross as he simply followed, one step after the other placing his feet in the footprints of Jesus.

All we can do is follow, carry the burden of loving others and proclaiming life in Jesus.

We will for sure spend our sweat, our energy, we are likely to struggle, stumble and even sin along the way but, all I want is to be a hot mess dripping in the blood of the Son.

God has written us into His plans.


How are you actively joining Christ's mission?

Who is within your reach the need to experience the love of Christ and the truth of the Gospel?