Monthly Archives: April 2010

Are you a milk drinker or a meat eater?

I have one of each living at my house.  My daughter Emma is 1 year old.  She is new to walking and talking.  In fact, most of her words are two repeating syllables.  So when she says “Ba Ba,” I know she wants her bottle.   Tyler, on the other hand, is a four-year-old little dude.  He’ll run around the house like a cheetah and talk my ears off about animals.  He’s ready to go to In-N-Out and eat a cheeseburger.

Which one are you?

If you are a new Christian, within the last year or so, then you should be longing for the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word (

).  You are reading your Bible in a way you never have before!  And the truth is, when someone is a new Christian you can usually see them every day here at Scripture of the Day getting into the chapter and benefiting from other people’s comments!

But some of you have been Christians for much longer: 2, 3, 4 years or more!  Are you growing up in your salvation?  Are you as mature as your spiritual age? 

– For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.  You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

Unfortunately, I have seen many students get less interested in God’s Word the longer they are a Christian.  Instead of stepping up their Scripture intake and studying more deeply, they act like they are getting used to it.  Reading their Bible is no longer new and exciting so they settle for spiritual infancy rather than maturity.

Please, don’t let this be you.  Don’t stunt your spiritual growth by not eating your Bible every day!  Chew on the meat of God’s Word!

– But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

When it comes to God’s Word we need constant practice.  The more we meditate on this truth, the more we will know how to think through everything going on in our lives.  Let’s pray our hunger doesn’t decrease, but our spiritual appetite for Scripture is growing bigger with each day.

Recently, my family got to go on vacation to Hawaii.  What awesome memories I now have of my 1 and 4-year-old kids.  My favorite thing was when we went to the beach at Black Rock.

I held Emma up to the vast and beautiful ocean.  She looks at it and shouts, “Wa, Wa!”  She starts jumping up and down with excitement but she can only express it so much.

When Tyler looks at the ocean he wants to know it all.  He wants to figure out what is going on in that water so he races the waves.  He counts how many times the turtle swimming by sticks its head out of the water (9).  He even gets one of those charts that list all of the different types of tropical fish indigenous to the area.  As he is studying it with his little boy forehead furrowed into deep thought he asks my wife Christa:

“Mommy, what do you like about butterfly fish?”

I am sure Christa was thinking the same thing that I was: “There’s a butterfly fish?”  After a moment she said to Tyler:

“I like how it has the word butterfly in it.”

Tyler got a thoughtful look on his face.

“Yeah, I like how it has the word butt in it.”

It is amazing to me how much a four-year-old boy is trying to figure out the world around him.  Are those of you who are four-year-old Christians trying to think through God’s Word in the same way?

There is a vast and beautiful depth of Scripture right here for us to discover.  What are we waiting for?

What happens if you put 24 high schoolers into a beach house for one weekend?  Well, if it is the True North Senior Class of 2010 then it’s not what you might expect.  There was none of the typical teenage “partying.”  It wasn’t inappropriate.  It was a life-changing weekend of fun, fellowship and Bible study!

Actually there were 25 seniors there, because I consider myself one of them!  I am finishing my fourth year at True North and so this is the first graduating class I have taken all the way through.  And I love them!  I’ve invested the best years of my life into their souls and I am so excited to see what God is going to do with their futures!

Which is exactly what our Bible studies were about this weekend!  We talked about what God’s will is for their lives and it is not full of the unknown because God has made some things very specific in Scripture.  They even asked Christa and me questions about dating and marriage for two hours!  And Pastor Jon came by to welcome them into the Refuge.

We talked about so many things this weekend, but there is one thing that sticks out in my mind as most important.

– Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

My main prayer for these students is that they will make seeking God their number one priority in life.  May he be their delight, their passion, their most important relationship.  Because if God has their hearts then it doesn’t necessarily matter what happens next… surely his goodness and mercy will be with us!  (In fact, check out this remix of Surely Goodness & Mercy that Luke Melrose and some of the guys made while we were there!)

I’m excited to be their pastor for the next nine weeks at True North… may they be the best we have ever known!

Aloha!  I am on vacation in Hawaii and I’ve been thinking about rest.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re going to blog about rest on our first day back to school from Spring Break!  And you’re reclining on some sandy beach with clear water counting tropical fish!  Thanks a lot Pastor Bobby!

But that’s not the rest I’m thinking of.  It’s not rest for your body but rest for your soul.

– Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Has God been good to you?  Take a moment right now and think about it.  Do you remember when he saved you?  Has he blessed you with people that you love?  What about all of the physical things that he has given you like food and clothes and a phone that does so much more than make calls?  If you take a moment to remember how God has been good to you, then you won’t be worried.  You’ll know he is worthy of your trust.  And your soul will be at rest.

Yesterday I went snorkeling for the first time.  Before then, I would sit on the beach and wonder what all those people were doing with their masks and fins swimming around in circles.  Could they even see anything?  But then I went underwater.

It was like entering a different world.  Suddenly the noise of the waves crashing and all of the people on the beach talking was gone.  All I could hear was the sound of my breathing into the snorkel.  And there, right in front of me, so much closer than I ever expected, were beautiful, tropical fish.  And then a turtle bumped into me.  And I started thinking about things I take for granted every day like:

God is giving me breath.

God has created an awesome world.

And even though I don’t deserve it, God has let me live.

You see, these are the kinds of thoughts we can think whether we are underwater in Hawaii or in over our head in History class.  Our soul can be at rest wherever we are as long as our thoughts are on the goodness of God.

So, don’t be tempted to worry about the pile of homework awaiting you. Let’s spend today praising the Lord for the greatness of his goodness to us!  Now, I believe a glass bottom boat is calling my name!  Aloha!

– For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

If your soul is at rest today leave a comment and let us know so we can praise the Lord along with you!

Just last weekend, we celebrated the greatest demonstration of love the world has ever seen – the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.  The perfect Son of God willingly gave himself up to be crucified for the sins of others, and that is an absolutely mind-boggling display of love.  But why did he do it? Or, more precisely, who did he give himself up for?  Check out how the Apostle Paul explains it as he talks to husbands:

– Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Christ gave himself up for the church!  He bore the false accusations, the scourging, the nails, and the suffocating agony of God’s wrath on the cross because he loved the church.

Do you love the church like this?  How would you say that you are “giving yourself up” for the people of Christ?

As we look at the example of Christ, these are important questions.  That’s why we are starting a new preaching series this weekend at True North called “I ♥ Church” as we continue in

.  Do not miss out on these important sermons on what it really means to love the “called out” community of believers known as the church!  Leave a comment if you are as psyched as I am!

WARNING: Do not read this unless you want to get revived in your heart for Jesus Christ!

The following is a true story about what God is doing at True North, the high school ministry of Compass Bible Church.

At True North we have some high schoolers who are serious about living their life for Jesus.

One of them is Hunter.  Hunter works at a pizza place in Newport Beach.  He works hard and uses this job to represent Christ.  One day he talks to a high school girl about Jesus.

The girl’s name is Anita.  She starts attending True North down here in Aliso Viejo even though she lives in Irvine.  She likes it.  She believes it.  She becomes a Christian!  Now she has a new heart.  Now she wants to tell other people about Jesus.  So she starts a Bible Study at her house and invites her friends from school.  Some of them start coming with her to our church.

At this same time, our church is doing its biggest outreach event ever for Easter at the Bren Center in UC Irvine.  It turns out that this is right down the street from Anita’s house.  And it turns out that Anita lives right across the street from the University High School, the biggest campus in all of Irvine.

Coincidence.  We think not.  God is in control and he is directing us here at True North to go into Irvine and make disciples.  With one on fire for Christ girl, Anita, we are setting out with the goal of reviving Irvine high schoolers for Jesus!

Irvine Unified School District is made up primarily of four high schools: University, Woodbridge, Irvine and Northwood.  Altogether this is 8,500 students!  It may beg the question: How can God use one student from a small youth group down in south OC to reach so many?  But our confidence isn’t in ourselves or our numbers.  Our confidence is in the greatness of our God who is mighty to save!

– The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

So pray with us for God to bring revival to the high schools of Irvine!

And join us tonight for a kick-off party at Anita’s house as we praise the Lord for what he has done and ask him for more of his bountiful goodness to bring salvation to many!

True North In Irvine ~ Tuesdays 6:30 – 8:30 PM

At the Schmidt Home  14 Georgetown, Irvine, CA 92612

Twas the week before Easter

And all through the OC

Teens turned into preachers

And spread the gospel story

This has been one of the most exciting weeks of evangelism I have ever experienced.  As our church has been inviting everyone to Easter at the Bren, we wanted to spread the word on high school campuses.  Our students preached the gospel boldly on 11 different campuses. Here’s what I saw over the last four days:

Tuesday – Preaching at Orange County High School of the Arts

One year ago Hannah Schwartz boldly started a campus lunch at this school.  Through this lunch we have seen other students get saved and now we have a team leading with her.  Even though I don’t usually speak at the schools, on this occasion I made an exception and preached a message called Resurrection 3000!  The response was great as many had questions and some said they would come to our church!

Wednesday – Evangelizing those Diablos

Luke Melrose led our crew at Mission Viejo High School to their biggest lunch ever of 140 students. The night before our teams put up signs promoting the Christian club all over the campus.  And there was a great response at the lunch the next day!  Luke has had some great follow up conversations so pray for him and for our team who is getting ready to take over for him next year as he graduates.

Thursday – What is going on here?  Revival!!!

Mike Lasutschinkow preached passionately to 230 students in our largest campus lunch ever!  The last three lunches at Laguna Hills have been absolutely amazing.  Each one is growing and we are seeing more and more good follow up conversations.  Pray for conversions on that campus and that our team of students there can track down those who showed interest and bring them to church!

Friday – Open Worship at a Public High School

Thanks to the persistence and passion of Austin Jones at Trabuco Hills High School, our Revival Band was able to do a stripped down set during their snack time in front of the whole school.  I never imagined us being able to do this, nor did I know how positive the feedback would be from the students.  They were coming forward to pick up Easter at the Bren flyers!  Pray that we can do this again and use this open door to promote the gospel ministry at our church!

Every day as I walked onto these campuses, I was surprised by how the Lord exceeded my expectations!  I can’t wait to walk into the Bren Center tomorrow and see what God does there!

– Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.  At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…