iGoGlobal Students

A couple of nights ago, I found myself sitting behind a group of college students. You see, these are not your typical college students. These are college students deeply in love with Christ. These are students that understand the bottom line: make Him famous.

As I am sitting in the back row, I look to my left and see three young women in college preparing to head to East Asia to share the gospel in one of the most dark places in the world. In front of them, is two teams of college students preparing to head to two parts of the Middle East. Yes, the Middle East. In front of them is a group of college students leaving their families behind for three months to go backpacking in Southeast Asia to spread to gospel among an unreached people group. That’s just the left side of the room. On the right side of the room, we have a team ready to head to Central Asia to proclaim His name in a country where proclaiming His name is condemned. Behind them is a team praying because they know within a couple of hours they will be on a plane heading to North Africa. Lastly, the group sitting directly in front of me is a group of college students humbled by the fact that they are about to spend three months in the Netherlands and France just to make His name famous.

Could you do me a favor? Do the same thing I am about to do for a couple minutes, let what I just told you soak in. A group of about 30 college students about to give their entire summer up, thousands of dollars, and risk their own safety...to make Jesus famous. They are not going just to get souvenirs,t-shirts, or even those cool bracelets people always get on mission trips (I have quite a few of them). They are not going for a vacation/site-seeing trip. They are not going just to get a stamp on their passport. They are not even going to hook up with a beautiful women/man of God. They are going for one simple reason that me, some friends, and the people at iGoGlobal have discovered to be the bottom line of our lives: make Him famous. After you can let that soak in for a little bit, pray for them.

I want to tell you a little bit about these college students. I am not going to use their names or the exact locations they are currently in for protection reasons. But, I want to tell you a little bit about these particular college students. As I am sitting there, looking around at these teams, I actually see a few tears in their eyes. Here is the amazing thing, they don’t have tears because they are afraid of what they are about to do. They have tears because they are ready. They have tears because God has prepared their hearts. They have tears because they are ready to go. Ready to go in some of the darkest places in the world and make His name famous in those places. I am sitting there, and I am just so humbled as I look at the group in front of me. I know it’s soaking in with them too. That in a couple of hours they are hopping on a plane to head to nations to make Jesus name famous (Acts 1:8). These college students...these young men and women, “get it”. They “get it”. They get the bottom line: make Jesus famous to all the ends of the earth. Whether it be in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia, South America, or right here in the United States at their university and home-community, they are living their lives to make Jesus famous. Wow. Dang. Do you know how these students got to the point where they decided to live like this? They started reading the gospel, and they started to understand what God calls all of us to do: living a life that gives God the glory, which makes Him famous. These students are begining to understand what the gospel instructs us. The gospel doesn’t instruct us to live a life about our self-improvement. The reality is the gospel calls us to live a life that is about dying daily so He will get the glory (2 Corinthians 4:8-18).

I am so honored to simply be “Timmy” (Base Camp Worker or “temporary Jimmy”) with iGoGlobal. iGoGlobal teaches students the bottom line. I look at some of the students that go through iGoGlobal, and it always amazes me how different their lives are after going through iGo. God is using iGoGlobal to make His name famous all over the world. Spend some time in prayer for the iGo students currently in the field. If more of us were like these students, we could truly make His name even more famous. It doesn’t have to be in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, or Asia. It can be at our own home, workplace, university, and city. We can make His name famous. It all starts with us reading, understanding, and living out the gospel.

Mother's Day Letter to My Mom

May 8th, 2011

Dear Mom,

Where to begin? Should I start out with thanking you for the many of hours of labor you went through to bring me into this world? Or what about all those diaper changes you did for me (Lord knows I had plenty). I guess I could go ahead and thank you for all those times you got me a mighty kids meal at McDonalds (it was a big deal back then...and still kind of is)! Above all, I want to thank you for being my mom.

I think you have done way more than you think. Yes, you have always taught me what’s wrong and what’s right. You have always helped me in school and motivated me to be whatever I wanted to be. You always chewed me out when I needed it, and you have always comforted me when I needed the most. You have always made sure that I could have the best future possible. I could go on and on of the list of things you have done for me. I truly think that there are a lot of moms who can accomplish just that. But, you’ve done something way more important than any of that. You’ve taught me to love. You’ve taught me to love Jesus.

Because of you, I now know what my future spouse is supposed to look like. And because of you, I now know how I should treat that woman. Words on paper cannot express how much I appreciate you. I used to always ask my self, “How will I know if she’s the right girl or not?” Well, I have finally discovered how I will know...she has to be like you. She has to be as beautiful as you; both inside and out. She has to be as kind as you. She has to be able to be as great of a mother to our future children as you have been to me. And lastly, but most importantly, she has to love like you and love Jesus like you.

I Love You Mom,
Josh

Living to Make Him Famous

James 1:2-6

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

The past few weeks have been some of the most humbling weeks of my entire life. I will openly admit that I have shed more tears in the past couple of weeks than possibly my entire life put together. Some tears were tears of sadness, happiness, and mostly...tears of being in awestruck wonder of my God. I'm restless because I don't know how to sit here on a computer and put it words for everyone. It's probably going to take no telling how many hours for me to write this blog, but I want to start explaining you what I have discovered to be the bottom line: living to make Jesus famous.

On Wednesday, I will be resigning as the Youth Minister of New Hope Baptist Church. A funny way to start living to make Him famous, right? I love New Hope Baptist Church, and I love my church family there. I will miss the kids so much, and it's going to be hard getting used to not seeing them at least twice a week. I am so proud of the students at New Hope. Some of them have begun to start trying to do the same crazy thing I am about to do, making my entire life about making Jesus famous.

The hardest thing about these past couple of weeks is that God has been placing it on my heart to leave New Hope for a different ministry field. A couple of weeks ago, I started meeting with some of my most close spiritual mentors and began praying about where God was leading me. After about 5 weeks of prayer, we came to the conclusion that God was indeed calling me away from New Hope into a different ministry field.

On May 21st, I will travel to a little place called "iGosia." iGosia is the training grounds for students preparing to to take the Gospel in all sorts of sports around the world. iGosia is ran by iGo Global, the people who started teaching me this "bottom line" idea. iGoGlobal is different from any other mission organization than I have ever seen. I have even tried to find one better! I can't. What iGo Global does better than any other organization is equip and teach students the Gospel. Yes, they do a great job of sending students, but the core of this ministry is teaching students to live lives that make Him famous.

In a few weeks, I will begin working with my two favorite pastors: Russ Tynan and Caleb Lantz. Both of these men mean the world to me and are helping me become the man of God I am called to be. These Godly men will mentor me throughout the summer (well...my entire life to be technical) as I grow.

Okay, now I will get down to the bottom line: living to make Him famous. What does this exactly mean? To live a life that is about making Jesus famous? It's radical, crazy, humbling, life-changing, and...the Gospel. God has been challenging me these past few months to evaluate what it truly means to live to make Him famous. Where do I start? What do I do? What do I say to people? Where do I go? After trying to ask God a million questions, God gave me that thumb on the head and reminded me that I just need to trust Him.

Just Trust. That's a common phrase to me. In fact, I have given an award winning speech on "Just Trust" God with the BGCT. But these next few months, I am going to be challenged to just trust God more than ever before. I am going to have to trust God with my finances. I am taking a huge pay cut, and I am going to have to just trust that God will provide. I am going to have to trust that God will take me from location to location as I scatter out onto this mission field. I am going to have to just trust God day by day as I attempt to discover what it means to live to make Him famous.

I've been able to somewhat discover what living to make Him famous is these past couple weeks. I just cannot contain it in me anymore. I am tired of living day by day, and my life centering around what I want, the plans I have, or what I want to do. Even as a minister, I struggle with this. I want to be the next David Platt, Francis Chan, Lou Giglio, or even my own mentors: Russ Tynan and Caleb Lantz. It's not that there is anything wrong with these men or even anything wrong with seeing them as mentors. But there is something wrong with me wanting to be the next big deal and me wanting to be the famous one, because then I strip the famous One from His glory. That's what living to make Him famous is about: living a life that constantly gives God the glory. That's the life I want to live, and that is the life I want to start committing to live over the next few months and for the rest of my life. I want to be living on mission to make Him famous.

The next few months are going to be exciting with the job opportunities I have. One week, I will be working with iGoGlobal in preparing students to head to all the ends of the earth to spread God's glory and the Gospel. Some days, I will be serving in the inner-Cleveland area to share the Gospel with some of the most broken families in our nation. CNN and the newspapers are right about one thing: Cleveland is a broken community with a lot of issues. But guess what? That's exactly what the Gospel tells us Jesus wants. Jesus wants the broken people. It breaks my heart hearing some of the terrible things going on in the Cleveland community, but it breaks my heart far more to I know that myself and others are not doing enough to spread the Gospel in this community. I want to travel around Cleveland and let people know, "Hey, I know you think your life is a mess, but let me tell you about a man named Jesus." One week, I will head to Arlington to serve to the homeless, because the Gospel reminds us that Jesus wants us to aid, love, and share the Gospel with the poor (see Mark 10). Multiple weeks will be spent with iGoGlobal, Super Summer, and other training camps for students decided to live a life that make Jesus famous. I am excited about this small journey I am taking this summer to make Jesus famous.

Here's the deal, as crazy as the living to make Jesus famous thing sounds, you can easily do the same. No matter where you are, you can find a way to serve. Maybe you can think of that guy that sits outside the donut shop who is homeless. Give the guy a donut and say, "Hey man, can I tell you a little bit of how much Jesus loves you." Maybe you don't have to start out just like that. You can ask the guy about how bad the Astros really are (Lord, help them). Then you bring up the Gospel. You meet with the guy once a week and just have donuts with the man. Learn his story. Teach him your story...and teach him the story of Jesus. Invite him to church, and as that man begins to understand a portion of just how much God loves him...then he can begin to fall in love with Christ.

I am tired of living a life that doesn't point to God. For almost 20 years, I have lived a life that pointed to...me. I've had an alright life. I have great parents, do well in school, and have great friends. Life is good. But that's settling. You see, I can't do that. I can’t just settle with the fact that people in my own life, community, and world are dying without Jesus. I mean isn't that something that we should lose sleep over! It should rip our hearts open! As I pray about making my life about making Him famous...God continually shows me the brokenness of the world. I don't want to be a Sunday ministry guy. I don't want to be a Wednesday night ministry guy. I want to live a life Sunday-Saturday and 365 days a year, that makes Him famous. Today, this life for me begins: living to make Him famous.

Matthew 28:19-20 (New Living Translation)

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”