Welcome to the world

I’ve been distantly watching the news happening in the world, especially our nation, over these last few weeks and I must say that there have just been some interesting things going on. The economy is going crazy and investors are freaking out because of the credit market, people are really tired of the Iraq war, and no one really talks about Afghanistan anymore, gas continues to climb at a steady rate and soon it looks like our vaunted American car corporations might just have to put into production those designs they’ve been sitting on for years that get 80-100 mpg (personal conspiracy theory), Governors and even Lt. Governors are having all their sexual immorality secrets revealed, and even despite this Americans will continue to think that everything will in an overall sense be ok and good in the long run.  I don’t want to be a pessimist, but maybe it is time for Americans, especially the American Church, to get in touch with the rest of the world. America makes up a very small portion of the world’s population, but somehow seems to dictate and dominate a vast scale of the world scene and world’s attention. No one else in the world lives like we do here in America mostly because no one else in the world can afford it, more so very many of the things that we have access to product wise we have access to at the expense, in hard toil, blood, and life even, of many people who are not American. You might say I’ve gotten a bit liberal since I came to Minnesota, but really it isn’t that I have gotten more liberal or less conservative, but rather I’ve become more aware of the rest of the world, I care more, and more so than all the others God’s heart is growing within me and His heart is for all people. God doesn’t want anyone to be exploited, mistreated, or enslaved by anyone else. Much of America runs on the backs of slaves, and the blood of innocents. Much of the Western Church runs on the backs of slaves, and the blood of innocents, and so often tie in too closely hand in hand with the politics that run and direct a nation to wickedness and not righteousness. But I did not mean to write to be depressing or even deep and analytical of the things wrong with the world, but rather to write happy news. Maybe I already failed for that one, but I shall continue on anyway. Let me first say if you are still reading this blog despite my inconsistent updates then I thank you very much I just want this to be a place where people can keep up with me a bit as I go through life. If even more so you’re praying for me, and reading this then thank you even more life here at Bethany College of Missions is not easy, that is not to say that it is bad, but rather that when you commit to place yourself in the spotlight of heaven many things that are unseemly and out of line with God are revealed. Those things then go under the process of being worked on, taken out, or changed to glorify God and make you more like Himself. That is exactly what God is currently doing, has been doing, and I’m assuming and hoping will continue to do while I am here. As most of you know I have written about how the school curriculum is set up here for the three years that I am occupied with learning. I am currently five weeks out from the end of the second semester and will have one semester left in the summer before I depart for four months of fundraising. This will take place prior to my 16 month internship which will occur overseas in another country. It is about my internship that I am writing to inform all of you who still read this that I have gone through the interview process with the mission agency here on campus, and they have put me on the mission team I had hoped to be on. This team is the team that will be sent to…………..

Kenya Africa.

I’m really excited about this and pending raising the funds and God continuing to open doors throughout then this is where I will be headed for the 16 months of my internship. While there we will predominately be stationed in Garissa, Kenya which is actually a Somalian refugee town. We will be partnering with other ministries on the ground to jointly deliver the gospel amidst performing community development ventures among the people there. Once again I thank you for your continued prayers, and will continue to pray for you all as well.

Love,

Warren

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And Yet it’s Still Cold.

That’s right cold still. It is really quite interesting to experience and watch the effects of climatization. At one time in my life if anyone had told me that I would think that 20 degrees outside was a warm day I would have told them they were an idiot. Now though I do in fact find 20 degrees to be quite warm. Anyway yes it has been a bit since I last updated this and I only have myself to blame. It has been an interesting two months since I last updated this and the Lord has done a lot in my life. He’s continuing that work called sanctification, and you know it seems that I have a crisis of faith almost every other week. The Lord is good though and I really love Him, and I’m looking forward to it warming up up here as in sixties no snow etc warm up. Currently at school we are (my class) in the midst of waiting to see where we’re all going to go for our sixteen month internships and who is going to be joining us classmate-wise out on the field. I applied to go to Kenya so hopefully I’ll have more new by the end of this week to the beginning of next week. Currently we’re finishing up the last week of a three week Theology II class over the subject of Man, Sin, and Salvation. It is an interesting class and our teacher’s name is Mr. Dudek and he is definitely a theologian. I’m pretty stoked about the next class coming up though because it is over the Corinthian Epistles by the Apostle Paul and the teacher for it is named Tony Hedrick, he’s a pastor, artist, and evangelist, and he rocks. Check out his art at www.tonyhedrickart.com. Please continue to pray that I would have an open heart to what the Lord is doing and saying to me to make me more like Himself. Also I would ask that you pray that the Lord’s will would continue to be shown to me in relation to future decisions on going places etc. for ministry opportunities. Let me know how I can pray for all of you.

Warren

Welcome in the New Year.

I figured I had better update my blog for all of you ladies and gentlemen that breathlessly await the next chapters of my life. I had a great Christmas break I was able to go home which is now in San Angelo, TX because my parents have moved there. While I was home I got to help my parents move into their new home it’s a pretty cool house, and I think they’re gonna have an awesome chance to use it for the glory of God. I also was able to go down to Austin with some friends to visit some other friends, and though the trip was short it was a whole lot of fun. So now after my  two week whirlwind tour I’m back up at school here in Bloomington, MN looking forward to the semester and what God has for my life. We have just started class this week after welcoming the new freshmen onto campus last week and we’re currently in Old Testament II. This is the second half of our Old Testament class and we’re studying the prophets and kings. So far it has been really interesting as we are currently discussing the merits of the differing kings of both Israel and Judah. Also the Lord has been bringing a lot of growth into my life, when you pray that He would increase your faith and make you more like Him be ready for hard lessons because there are many hidden things inside of you which He will remove so that you can attain those requests and desires. Please continue to pray for strength for me as God puts me through various lessons, also patience, and a whole lot of trust, faith, and peace. Pray that Satan’s plans would be fruitless and that I would be able to just continue to press forward into Christ. Thank you all.

Warren

And the Winner is…

“I Am Legend” starring Will Smith. Go see it. It is now in theaters rated PG-13 for Intense Sci-Fi Action and Violence. There are two cuss words if I remember right they start with a D and rhyme with an alternative word for Jelly. Anyway if you go in watching it with a mindset of looking for a way to start conversations about Christ with this culture then this movie provides ample avenues. The message is great, even if a short distance away from Christianity. But I liked it. Beware though it is scary so parents keep that in mind for the kids. This is actually one of probably a few movies that I’ll see this holiday season (And I’m hoping the others are just as clean). But this actually leads into what this post is probably most about. Movies are distracting aren’t they? “Distracting from what” you may ask. Well from God and pursuing Jesus is what I would answer. Now before I get stoned by the masses, I’m NOT condemning movies or entertainment, BUT still I must contend that often we, myself verily included, bow our hearts to so many other things, entertainment included, other than Christ. For those of you who might not know, for those that do but have forgotten, and for those that would say we aren’t actually, I would emphatically say that we (disciples of Christ) are people who are, and are to be, engaged in warfare. This warfare takes the shape and form of movements in the spiritual realm. But very often, since the physical and spiritual are so closely connected, the actions in the spiritual are seen in the physical and vice-versa. Now if we are a people engaged in warfare then we cannot be a people who are distracted from fighting and pursuing Christ. I will place a disclaimer here, in life there are what I would term unavoidable distractions these would be things that MIGHT distract us from Christ, but must be done regardless. Then there are avoidable distractions these are things which are non-essential to our pursuit of Christ and as such slow us down in our seeking Him. So I would encourage you now, even before finishing this entry, to go before the Lord and ask Him to reveal to you by His Spirit, which dwells in you, to show you the avoidable distractions in your life that you can cast off to more effectively pursue Him. Don’t be introspective observing yourself, but let His Spirit lead you. Simply put Christ must be our passion. Passion comes from the Latin word meaning “to suffer”. If we say and want to be passionate about Christ we must be willing to suffer. Are you willing to give up, sacrifice, whatever it may be; however dear to your heart it might be; however entertaining it might be; however cool it might be; however whatever it might be to follow Christ? I know this has played out in my life and the Holy Spirit is continually convicting me of things that I could throw off that weigh me down in my race for the Kingdom. Have I gotten it down yet? Not even close. Is it really hard? Oh man, YES. Is it better to get the climbing vines off of the walls to keep them from making the wall crumble and leave you defenseless; even if it is really really hard work and the job is huge? Unequivocally yes. Do not hesitate any longer friends, and do not let the enemy any longer crane your neck and face away from the glorious face of Christ causing you to trip, stumble, and stagger on the traps and pits set for your feet by Satan. Satan seeks to either destroy you or make you ineffective I’ll encourage you to no longer allow him, by the Spirit and strength of God, to make you ineffective, but make his only option to destroy you. Some encouragement, but then again the Cross of Christ wasn’t that encouraging. I love you guys.

Post-Thanksgiving

Well I have spent the day recovering from Thanksgiving and the subsequent Black Friday. The last few weeks have been jammed full of classes and life, but overall I haven’t felt like I’ve had an incredible amount to write about. So hopefully I have a few readers left that check in occasionally.  Anyway I went over to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful meal with his family hanging out an such. Also TG happened to be my 21st Birthday, according to statistics nationally I’m a walking miracle to be a man in my early twenties who loves Jesus. That’s sad really. The lack of men in the Church of America is a very real and very depressing reality. Maybe we could chalk it up to culture or maybe to the breakdown of the family in our society or maybe ultimately it is a result of a great failing of the Church. Relatively speaking there are no MEN in the Church. I’m talking about a great crisis, because if men are supposed to lead, then when men, who are typically made to lead, are in short supply that means that other people, women, who can lead, but were ultimately not supposed to have to lead, must step up and lead. I think this problem stems from the greater problem that the Church has lost the knowledge of the fear of God. I postulate this reason because the Church often has a Jesus who is weak not meek. One should know that above all else Jesus wasn’t weak. But what man who wants to be a man would serve a God that he perceives as being weak. Someone that he could beat-up. We instead need to implore God to once again make real to us the knowledge of the fear of Him. The problem of the fear of the Lord is that it defines so much of what we really like to have in God. Like how can we ever begin to grasp the Grace of God if we forget the wrath of God against sin, which produces fear. How can we ever see God as all-powerful and worthy of worship if we forget to fear Him. Now the fear of God is not cowering, afraid, and fearful, but rather a reverence and respect for the Lord and His power. Maybe if we grasped the power and wrath of God against sin, like in Revelation when Christ comes back with a robe dripping with blood, and a sword coming out of His mouth to slay the transgressors, then more men would be willing to serve and give their all for God. Likewise if we had and have a healthy fear of God then maybe sin wouldn’t run rampant in the Church, we wouldn’t have these massive delineations from the word (Homosexual Churches?), and the world on the outside wouldn’t have such massive complaints against us like we don’t live what we preach. If we must pray anything, pray that God would once again instill in His people the fear of Himself.

Warren

And now introducing…

Ok, ok, I’m not introducing anyone. But I will apologize for not having the drive to post last week, and for not posting until today this week. It has been a crazy two weeks. We’ve been in New Testament I for the last two weeks, and man our teacher gives homework. Technically though this “New Testament” class is really over only the first three gospels, which are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Why isn’t John included you ask? Well the first three gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels. That’s really just a fancy term for they are really similar in their content. In fact there is a thing called the Synoptic Problem, which is over the fact that despite the first three gospels being dissimilar, they are remarkably similar. So because of this various theories have come up, and debates have arisen. I just ask, can anyone say God? It has been a really good time in class. Our teacher actually expects us to think and offer up opinions in class. He’s crazy especially at 8 in the morning to think that. We’ve learned a whole lot, and been challenged a whole lot with various questions and statements of his. Stuff like, I don’t believe God sees all sin as equal. Go kick that one around in the soccer fields of your mind for a bit, especially since he’s a Spirit filled man. He probably has a point with that statement. The weather is getting colder up here, and since I’m on lawn crew thankfully the leaves are most of the way off of the trees. Those blasted maples though hang on till the first snow. My roommate from Mexico City got healed Thursday night. He had been 95% deaf in his left ear for the last three years because of a speaker exploding next to him in a band practice. So he’s been praying for the last three years to be healed, and he was on Thursday night, and I was there when it happened. So for those of you praying for healing or anything for that fact, and you have been praying for a long time do not grow discouraged and give up. Keep pressing in. He hears you, and if it is in His will it’ll be answered. Peace.

Warren

How Great is Our God?

So as I was logging into my blog here I noticed the headline over on the sidebar under recently posted topics called “Playboy looking for coeds for its “Girls of the Big Ten” issue”. This reminds me of when Playboy came to Texas Tech when I was there and was shooting the Girls of the Big 12 issue. If I remember right hundreds of girls went out for it to show off their bodies to a bunch of “talent” seekers for Playboy. Then I’m further reminded that now in our generation that Playboy is considered introductory porn. Its soft. Its non-explicit. In short it has become demoted to the same rank as marijuana with the title of “Gateway Drug”. If you that are reading out there aren’t aware the Porn Industry brings in more money per year than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. For those of you who live in the U.S., which right now is all of you, we now live in a post-Christian society. A society that is much like the Corinthian society that Paul wrote 2 epistles to in the Bible. Our generation and society is a broken one sexually, alongside of spiritually. Many of you might say, “Yeah I’m aware of these things what is your point?”, my point is that despite the fact that we’re aware of it what is being done about it? So many Pastors, Deacons, and Christian Men in general fall into the trap and addiction of Pornography, and I’m not just speaking of pictures on the internet or movies in the hotel rooms. I’m talking about the sex scandals of the Roman Catholic Church, I’m talking about the downfalls of leading evangelical pastors, and Christian men who go to prison for being pedophiles etc. Most of this begins with Pornography. Here’s a good link don’t let the sketchy nature of the name run you off it is meant to catch your attention, and the work these guys are doing is excellent and Godly. XXXChurch The question is why isn’t this being talked about in churches, and among men? I think mostly because first Satan gets men to think that they’re alone in this fight, and that it’s too shameful to talk about because it makes them look weak. Know this though if you struggle with it, You aren’t alone, 90% of men struggle with this stuff. The atmosphere must be made open to talk about this. We talk about drunkenness, drugs, anger, obedience to authority, and many other sin issues but so often this stuff isn’t mentioned. There is no difference in sin in God’s eyes, there shouldn’t be any distinction among us either. If you want a starting point for talking to this generation make the atmosphere open to talk about sin without condemnation, especially sexual issues. Bring love, let God bring conviction, and support your brothers and sisters, cause they struggle sexually too, in the race that God has called us to run. As for myself, last week was a little rough for me spiritually, I’m doing a lot of counting the cost this week, and so I would ask for your prayers that I might arrive at a correct tally. I don’t want to be one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks backward, or one why must bury his father instead of following the Lord. Please pray that the Lord would lead me into correct thought, wisdom, sight, hearing, and knowledge of Him this week. My hand is doing well thank you for your prayers, please continue in those, as it will still take quite some time for it to completely heal. Be praying for Bethany that God’s presence would be here continually, and that we His people would desire Him more than any other stuff. For those of you who do not know God, know that above all else He loves you desperately, and desires to know you and make you His child. Peace.

Warren

Winter is Coming.

That’s right it is getting colder here, the leaves are falling, and soon very soon I expect snow. Now if this were per se Amarillo, TX I would be inclined to say that this is merely a tease from the great sky gods, and that either tomorrow or next week I would expect that it would be 80 degrees or so and looking like a wonderful summer day. Thank the Lord though that I am here where seasons actually exist and “Weather Forecasting” is not simply a fancy term for “Only God Knows”. Anyway for those of you out there wondering about my wrist I’m currently using it to type, but the other one is still wrapped up in bandages which I am hoping will be coming off on Friday. The surgery went very well, I fell asleep even though they didn’t put me under, and I only had to do hardcore painkillers for the day of my surgery. Since that day it hasn’t hurt and I think it’s coming along nicely. Please continue to pray for my wrist though that the healing would be complete and quick.  If you haven’t watched the videos on my site I would encourage you to do so just make sure that you have a good amount of time available to do so, two of them are almost an hour long. Thanks for all the prayers offered on my behalf. Please continue to chase after the Lord Jesus Christ.

Warren

The Wonderful World of God.

Well I’m sitting here listening to streaming jazz music off of iTunes. That’s right there’s some good stuff out there internet radio wise over iTunes if you go to the radio tab. Unless your connection is really slow don’t listen to anything less than 56 kbps because the quality is bad any lower than that. This week has been really crazy as is evidenced by the extremely late post I’m now putting up. We had a three day conference this last weekend, and have been plugging through Theology I class studying the person of the Father within the concept of the Trinity. If any of you out there liken the study of Theology to dry dusty religious head knowledge, and you are a Christian, then that is a misconception that is so detrimental to your pursuit of God. If you enter into Theology with the right perspective and openness and it is taught correctly it should make you want to dive even deeper into knowing this great God that we know and serve and love. For instance this week in the discussion of learning about the Father we covered a lot of incredibly practical aspects of fatherhood. Not how to be good fathers or anything like that, but more so how so often we have an off balance view of at least one of the persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and many times in this broken world and age it is the Father. So many of us understand and want the love of the Son, Jesus Christ, and sadly there’s a fewer number of believers that want anything significant to do with the Holy Spirit. But often the Father gets a really bad rap. We take our misconceptions about fathers, and often the wounds that we have received, or that we’ve perceived that we have received, and place that terrible template on God the Father. Sadly often we believe that He is a distant, angry, vindictive, hateful, and loving only cause He’s forced to be person. How wrong that idea is. How terrible and horrible to think that our Heavenly Perfect Father would be anywhere close to the human examples that are often seen here on earth. In that thought process we tread closely to the same logic used by the Greeks, Romans, and every other religion in the world that ascribes human attributes to a god or gods. That is weak and frightening, to believe in a ‘god’ infinitely more powerful yet exactly like us in temperament. I’ll stick with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because He’s the only God who has, instead of us giving Him His emotions, talked about His own emotions and they are all perfect and without sin or human weakness. So thankfully God in His exceeding mercy, power, and grace, came and gently shattered and lovingly burned my mighty misconception of Him. In this I have come to know, in as much fullness as I can in this still early point in my walk with Him, the completeness of the Trinity and the Father’s overwhelmingly abundant love for me. The often quoted and cliched verse from John 3:16 describes it perfectly, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. I know so often we hear this and let it go straight through our brains without a thought, but I’d ask that you really meditate on it break it down and make it personal. Find and believe the truth in it. For instance it can be written this way, “For God so loved His creation and this universe that He gave His only Son”, or “For God (The Father) so loved YOU, that He gave His only begotten Son”. That’s right. You. You know you, you know your imperfections, you know your weakness, you know your evilness (for believers) or you think you’re good (if you don’t believe in Jesus). And you have got to understand that God the Father loves you so very deeply, wants to know you intimately, He’s better than any earthly Father, He’s perfect, He won’t let you down, He won’t hurt you, oh, that the depth of belief would reside in you all that the Father’s love is so incredibly existent and extended fully to you. In the story of the prodigal son, the Father welcomes back the wayward son (us) with much joy and affection. The Father sees the son first and while the son takes one step towards the Father, the Father runs to the son. Know that our Heavenly Father runs to us to love us, but it isn’t just that. The son thought to himself that he could be just a slave in his father’s house, but the Father doesn’t think that. He orders the best robe, the ring, sandals, and the fattened calf be slaughtered all for the son. The Father doesn’t say, “Well welcome back, glad to see you, get out in the field and work.” and then kick the son. No, may it never be, the Father throws a celebration and welcomes His son as His son, who once was dead, but has now come back to life. Praise God. I challenge you all to enter into a dialogue with God, ask Him how your view of Him is skewed, and I would encourage this with all three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) for your view of the Father may be well and one of the others off, but know that the Lord will show you where you believe wrongly. Repent of it, and press into the Lord your God. If you do not know God as your Saviour from sin, I encourage you that the Biblical book of John is an excellent place to begin your searching of Him. If you want to know God, and don’t know how. Simply surrender your life to Him. Subject all that you are Body, Soul, and Spirit to His lordship and control, turn from your sins, and aske Jesus Christ to save you from sin and the effects thereof. He is so faithful and full of grace. Turn to Him and you’ll find a great overwhelming love. Peace all.

Warren Sterling

So Many Things to Learn

Wow. What a crazy week it was after I posted last Wednesday. Thank you all who have been praying for my wrist. I am going in to have surgery on it Oct. 5, which is a Friday, they’re going to put a screw and wire in my wrist to cause it to heal faster and stronger. I’m pretty stoked about that. More importantly though in the last week the Lord has really been teaching me about thankfulness. Prior to last week He had caused it to come to mind that though I often hold gratitude in my heart very often I do not express it verbally thus making it thanks. This covers all areas of my life from my physical relationships here on earth to the spiritual relationship I have with God. Last week though on of the staff members spoke and taught over the place and need for thankfulness in our relationship with God. I must say that God spoke through him to me very deeply, and since then I have begun the process of trying to constantly have a heart and attitude of thanks. It should also be said that in entering into communication and prayer with God, if you know Him, that thankfulness should almost always come first in our talking to Him. Thankfulness causes us to reflect on the mercies received from God in the form of blessings, answered prayer, and the myriad other things that He does for us. Within the Tabernacle of God which resided amongst the Israelites there existed the proper way of entrance into the courtyard. This gate was known as the Gate of Thanksgiving. What followed the entrance into that gate was the Altar of Remembrance. It is upon this altar that the animals were sacrificed, and for us as believers and followers of Christ brings us to the culmination of our thanks in remembering and meditating upon the sacrifice of Christ. After the altar stood the Laver. It was this vessel which held the water that the priests would wash themselves with. Its bottom was burnished so brightly it was like a mirror so that you could see the dirt upon your face and wash it off. This practically for us means that as we come to God in prayer, that after we have given thanks to Him, remembered the things He’s done for us and to us, and reflected upon His character and word that we confess our sins, repent of them, and receive forgiveness from God. Herein we can run into a problem, if we do not approach the subject of sin in our lives rightly then condemnation and despair can enter into our lives, thus discouraging from God. This is effectively seen when we as Christians take our climbing hook, run full bore at the walls of the tabernacle, throw our hook over the wall and climb over. Instead of entering through the easy gate we enter the wrong way by storming the walls! This lines us up immediately with the laver where if we remember not the goodness and faithfulness of God to us then we will walk into self pity and condemnation instead of conviction and Godly sorrow which brings us to repentance. This whole thing has played out in my life by me learning, pursuing, and desiring thankfulness before anything else I bring before God, and you know what I’ve found? It is so wonderful to be thankful before God, and reflect on everything He is and has done. It causes your faith and belief to grow because you see that if this God has been so faithful to you in the past and continues to be in the present then most likely He will continue to be in the future. So don’t forget the things that God has done for you, because I believe that almost every problem we have sin-wise and doubt-wise is because we are or have forgotten the things that God is and has done for us. If you have trouble thinking of things to thank God for ask Him to grow thankfulness in your heart, and then begin to reflect on the circumstances of and in your life. You’ll soon find much to be thankful for. Peace.

Warren S.