The Phil Files

The last several weeks have been extraordinarily emotional. I have missed my Thai brothers and sisters in Christ and my Chinese friends made while in Thailand. My heart aches to see them come to know Jesus in a real and enduring way. I’ve been blessed to see our two foster grandsons for a week at our house, but as we put them on the plane with our son and daughter-in-law, I am fully aware that l might never see them again — brought even more crashingly home to reality this very day. There are so many loose ends that I am struggling to let God bring together in His time and to His glory. But I confess, this is tough!

At the same time, God has been so gracious. He has reminded me of two precious young women I was privileged to baptize this Spring. Both of them are doing well and moving on to great things. Hearing their stories brings deep joy in my life and reminds me that God does work to bring loose ends together and makes something incredibly beautiful out of them.

In addition, our church is incredibly blessed to partner with a ministry that is all about being God’s knitting needles as he ties together loose ends and weaves together something beautiful. We will have a team leave to go work with this ministry on Sunday. Two of the key leaders grew up in our church. So it is with great joy that I share this video to you from the Dry Bones ministry to homeless kids in Denver. Jesus talked about the last, the least, and the left out and how they would find themselves first, valued, and included in His Kingdom. Thanks be to God for those who are part of the Dry Bones ministry and their work to help make this happen in the real world.

You can find this video on YouTube here for those who have mobile devices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzAfY6ePhQ

Other knitting needles in Jesus’ hands that are being used to knit God’s grace into people’s lives from our church are in, or have recently been in, Germany, Thailand, New Orleans, Haiti, Memphis, Peru, Nigeria, Mexico, Cuba, South Africa, Ghana, Ukraine, and other places in between in addition to being involved in International Rescue Committe work with Congolese and Butanese This has brought an incredible work of blessing that has also included people from Madagascar and Rwanda. So while waiting for God’s final work to be finished in the lives of those I deeply love and miss, I am thankful to be in the knitting basket of God’s grace, being used to knit as part of His plan.

Thought you would appreciate this YouTube video on Coach Wooden!

Well done! Thank you Coach, enjoy your homecoming and your greatest victory.

See also: “Happy Birthday, Coach!”

I’d like to invite you on a journey. It’s a one year journey, begun during the time of year that most of us go into vacation mode and get ready for our summertime trips. But the beauty of this journey is that it doesn’t cost anything and the results can be astounding.

I’d like to challenge you to go on a one year journey through the teaching of Jesus. In particular, I want to invite you to join me in reading through the teaching sections of Matthew (5:1-7:29; 10:5-11:1; 18:1-19:1; 23:1-26:1), doing two things, and documenting it through a downloadable spreadsheet I’ve prepared for us. So what are the two things?

1. Let’s read these teaching blocks. I’m not talking about reading them once, but reading them again and again. Over the next year, let’s read through them at least once per month in two different translations. Let’s commit portions of these blocks of Jesus’ teaching to memory — this was probably the reason Matthew concentrated them into the five blocks of teaching to begin with!
2. Let’s live what we’ve learned. Jesus’ emphasis is on putting into practice, obeying, and faithfully living God’s will (Matthew 7:21-27;Matthew 12:48-50;Matthew 28:20). So let’s remember life application must be the focus of our learning the words of Jesus.

For more on this idea, and the reason behind it, I invite you read my article in heartlight.org.

What you say let’s take a little trip together that can change everything?

We are home. The flights all ran on time. Our connections were solid. We got a little sleep — emphasis on little — but we are home with our families. Reunion was SWEET!

The dust of Thailand is out of my clothes, but the Thai and Chinese friends I’ve made will always be in my heart. What a sweet time of walking in the presence of the Lord’s will.

One final thing I must share. June 1, the day of our coming home, was also my sweet wife’s birthday. Happy Birthday darlin’ and I hope we get to share many more together! Several days before I returned, I received two messages from her. The first: I miss you so much and can’t wait for you to be home. The second: I miss you dearly, but if you need to stay longer, we will find the money and you can continue to do what Lord has called you to do. Now you know why reunion is SWEET! How can you not love someone that loves you and the Lord like that?