Whew!

My summary of the last few days, beginning around 6:30 PM on Monday, would be one word: Whew!

We knew Micah was listed to receive a new liver, but we never knew when.

We knew having a transplant comes with many challenges, but we never can tell what they will be.

We knew that God has always shown Himself mighty, but we hoped it wouldn't have to occur as it did.

On Monday evening around 6:30 PM, I received a call from Sarah who was in Virginia visiting family with all our boys (minus me who was still in Raleigh). Her first words were: "So Dave just called from Duke." Dave is the transplant coordinator for pediatrics. There was no guesswork to figure out why Dave from Duke had called. But she continued, "They have a liver for Micah." 

Immediately Sarah began to journey back to North Carolina and to Duke Hospital. I began preparing to get everything together on my end to meet them at the hospital.

We all arrived at the hospital at around 10:00 PM Monday evening. Micah was admitted and work began to prepare him for the transplant that didn't begin until 6:00 AM on Tuesday morning. The surgery ended in the late afternoon.

An ultrasound would be done of the liver each day for at least the first few days. The Tuesday night ultrasound reading came back showing no flow in the portal vein. Micah's previous portal vein clotted off in the first year of his last transplant. This is really what started us down the road to where we are today with a second transplant. A CT Scan confirmed a clot had obstructed the portal vein.

I had traveled home to get some sleep when Sarah called at around 2:00 AM to tell me. One of the longest drives I've ever had back to Duke took place early Wednesday morning. Micah was heading into emergency surgery to hopefully remove the clot. Clotting was removed and flow restored. The bile duct was also repaired that showed some leakage. Steps were taken to try to fix what may have caused the clotting.

Two follow-up ultrasounds showed a small clot still in the portal vein though blood was flowing through it. A decision was made to go back to the operating room again to remove this clotting. This was done successfully and the vein has continued to remain open as of right now.

In the meantime, our oldest son Isaac celebrated the entrance into double digits on Wednesday. In the middle of having Micah operated on twice, our family gathered in the PICU waiting room for pizza and cake to celebrate his birthday.

Today Micah has rested most of the day, getting his breathing tube out this morning. We continue to pray for the portal vein to remain open and healing to occur timely and well. 

We cannot express enough our grateful we are for your encouraging words shared, prayers offered on our behalf, and visits with us and our family. Please also take time to give thanks on our behalf for God's favor that He has poured out in answering our prayers. May we be like the one beggar who returned to give thanks to Jesus for the healing Christ had given. My heart is overwhelmed by His goodness and grace. I give Him thanks.

Micah Update: We Wait

Three months ago Micah was listed on the liver transplant list to receive his second liver transplant of his short 7 year life. We continue to wait. There's no way to know when the surgery will take place. And certainly the events that precipitate the availability of a liver are difficult to think upon.

Micah continues to do well most days. He continues to face more regular fatigue. But he completed baseball season alongside of his brothers, Isaac and Ethan. They are all three great at helping care for and play with the two little brothers, Malachi and Titus.

He continues to have surgery on his mind everyday. There's rarely a day that goes by that something doesn't trigger a conversation or some statement related to the wait or the surgery to come. With visiting grandparents this week, it simply came up when he told me they would stay longer if he had his transplant.

Please continue to pray for patience in the waiting, strength and comfort for Micah's body and heart, and trust in the perfect will and timing of God.

I would additionally ask specific prayer for Isaac and Ethan. They have lived these circumstances related to Micah's health for the majority of their life. They don't really know a time when it wasn't part of our journey, our story, and God's work in and through us. However, this time they face the future and the events to come with greater understanding. They know the risk for Micah and the cost to another child and family. Isaac shed great tears the other night as he verbalized his fear, sadness, and struggle with both all of this.

We are grateful for your continued prayers for us, our family, Micah specifically, and for God to accomplish, as we have always hoped, what will ultimately bring him the greatest glory by displaying and declaring the good news through this.

My Confidence

Individuals take confidence in many different things including money, jobs, relationships, and more. All of these things can and often do change. The money we make is not the same. The job we have changes. Some relationship begin while others end, some grow while others go stagnant.

King Hezekiah who reigned in Judah rebelled against the Assyrians. As a result, the king of Assyria sent his commander and other officials to Jerusalem to intimidate or attack Hezekiah.

Encamped against Jerusalem, one official called out to Hezekiah asking, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have the counsel and the might for war--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?"

Hezekiah was a bright spot in the line of kings. He chose obedience to God rather than rebellion. He did what pleased God rather than what incited His wrath. Like David the revered king of Israel, Hezekiah sought to live righteously, removing all place of idolatrous worship. As a result, God was with him and he was successful in his leadership.

What the official of the Assyrian army didn't know was that Hezekiah's confidence was not in the power of his army, the force of his weapons, or the support of his allies but in the might of the great and mighty God. And rightly so!

After many taunts and endless threats of the Assyrians, including their declaration that the God of Israel had told them to attack, Hezekiah's confidence proved true. In one night, the angel of the Lord put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. The next morning when the people woke up they found all the dead bodies. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere.

The right place to put our confidence is never in the ability, logic, power, or devices of men. It is always to put our confidence in the might and power of God. Only He is able to what no man or army can do. What is impossible for us is completely possible for Him.

We could not rescue ourselves from our sin. But God was able. We could not make a sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. But God was able.

This week we celebrate Christ's final entry into Jerusalem to endure the cross that was set before Him by the will of God the Father. Through the cross, God would pay for every sin and punish every act of disobedience by putting His own Son to death. Three days later, that same Son came back to life by the same incredible power of God, giving life to all who believe and opening the door to heaven for all who follow Him.

Now we take confidence not in our flesh and blood but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Hezekiah, we face an enemy and hardship in this world that we should look past in order to see the God in whom our confidence has been placed.

Where does your confidence stand today?

Praise the Lord

Praise be to you, Lord,

the God of our father Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power

and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;

you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;

you are the ruler of all things.

In Your hands are strength and power

to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give thanks, and praise your glorious name.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God who is our Father from everlasting to everlasting.

2.  Praise God's power and greatness, glory and majesty and splendor.

3.  Declare and celebrate that everything in heaven and earth is His.

4.  Celebrate that His kingdom is above all others and of that kingdom He is head.

5.  Give thanks that all wealth and honor is from Him.

6.  Worship the name and power of our glorious God.

Re-Transplant

You read the title of this blog post right. Our son, Micah, is facing in the coming weeks (or months) a re-transplant.

The back story, in case you're not familiar, is that Micah was born with a rare liver disease that required him at 7 months of age to undergo a liver transplant. In the first two years that followed, Micah had several complications, not limited to, bile duct blockages, blood clots, and the cancer of transplant patients (PTLD).

At that time there were complications that occurred that we knew would one day have an impact that would have to be addressed. Over the last two years Micah has experienced further issues as a result. Primarily, the clotting of his portal vein years ago has now lead to issues with his lungs, spleen, and more.

In the words of the transplant surgeon, the only "medical option we have to address these issues is a re-transplant."

On Friday of last week we finished all our tests and labs. This week Micah is to be presented to the team at Duke for approval for a transplant at Duke. Insurance will then be contacted for approval. Then, probably after our fifth son arrives (any day now), Micah will be listed on the UNOS Donor Recipient list. From there, we will wait for what could be days, weeks, or months (but hopefully not years).

This blog actually began as a result of Micah's first transplant. Therefore, I am sure that I will be posting here along the way. You can sign up to follow by email, receiving notification when there is any new post, by using the Follow By Email function to the right.

We have been blessed from the very beginning of Micah's life with such love, support, encouragement, and assistance. Most of all, we have seen God's power displayed and largely a result of your prayers.

Again, we simply ask for you to pray for Micah, his brothers, his parents, and his family as we prepare for the days to come. Even in this, we know and we pray that God will be glorified.

Blow, Spirit, Blow

At the very least, I have been ignorant of the Holy Spirit. I dare say I have been fearful of the Holy Spirit. This may also describe you as well.

I grew up in churches, like perhaps you did, where the Holy Spirit was referred to as the Holy Ghost (thank you King Jimmy) and there was silence or a downplaying of His nature and work as God.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Jesus even said that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the trinity. He is God and One with the Father and the Son. And His work in this world is both needful and powerful.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come to comfort His followers, to dwell within them, to guide them into all truth, to convict the world of sin, and to empower them to be His faithful witnesses. The Spirit also, as Paul teaches, prays for us. He hears our prayers and intercedes to the Father on our behalf for at least two reasons. First, because He knows the language of the Father. Paul says the Spirit's utterances are speech we do not understand or know. Second, because we don't often know what to pray and the Spirit prays not just for what we ask but for what we truly need.

Tragically we have forgotten the Holy Spirit and His power and work in the mission of God. We have tried in our own power to advance the gospel. We have sought to muster the strength to accomplish His will. But in all of this our power cord was plugged into ourselves and not into God.

In Zechariah 4:6 we are told that the word of the Lord declares, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." Jesus likewise told His followers to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit to  be given into the world, to be placed within them, to empower them for the mission of displaying and declaring the gospel, and to send them into the world for God's glory. The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) came down and rested upon each one.

What I pray for Refuge Church, for the individuals in particular and for my own life as well, is for the Holy Spirit to blow. In the words of Jim Cymbala, I'm asking God to blow a Fresh Wind and a Fresh Fire across our hearts. For some this creates anxiety because this kind of talk seems like things will get out of control. I pray things get out of control--out of my control and into His.

Rest assured, though, that the Holy Spirit doesn't blow to create disorder and chaos. The Holy Spirit was hovering over the earth at creation and He was active in creation, which was a very orderly and perfect work.

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Give thanks for the Holy Spirit.
2.  Celebrate the Holy Spirit as God and His work in the world.
3.  Ask the Spirit to guide you into truth, convict you of sin, empower you to fulfill God's mission.
4.  Pray for the Spirit to blow fresh and new, giving you and Refuge a renewed fire and passion.
5.  Let go of the reins and let things get out of control--out of yours and into His.

Three Tents

Yesterday was a different day! Our worship time at Refuge Church looked very different. While that may not always be the case and may not be common, I pray what is not rare is the power of God's presence like we experienced yesterday.

In Matthew 17 Jesus took Peter, James and John upon the mountain where Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. His face was brilliant like the sun and His clothes glowed with the glory of God. Then, they saw Elijah and Moses appear and speak with Jesus. At this Peter offered to make three tents or dwelling places for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses to dwell. In short, what Peter saw was so powerful he just didn't want to ever leave. 

I felt some of that yesterday. I didn't want to leave. I want it to be common for God's presence to be almost tangible and uncommon when it is not. I want to expect when we gather to see Him at work in great ways and not expect He might show up on occasion. I don't want to live in yesterday, but I want the presence of God from yesterday to be here today…and tomorrow…and the day after that.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for what He did yesterday at Refuge and in our hearts.

2.  Ask God to make His presence known just as great if not greater in your life today.

3.  Pray for God to show you where He is at work around you.

4.  Confess your struggles, every one of them, to Him and ask for His strength and grace.

5.  Lift Refuge to Him and ask for Him to do even greater things.

6.  Surrender control. That was a common theme from a number of us yesterday. Let God work.

Big God

I have been humbled in my life to see God do great things. Not because of me, but in spite of me. Many, but not all, of those moments of witnessing and experiencing God's power came in the midst of dark and difficult times.

Shortly after Micah's liver transplant surgery the liver was not functioning as needed. Many friends and strangers called on the name of the Lord on behalf of Micah. Many carried him in prayer, ripping off the roof, and lowering him to the feet of Jesus. I remember praying, "Lord, reach down with Your mighty hand and massage his liver that it would work." In less than 12 hours the lab results showed a liver working as it should. And the doctor was unable to explain it.

I have also experienced the bigness of God in placing our fourth son, Malachi, into our family. We spent two years working on adoption paperwork. We finished it in May of 2013 and found out we were expecting again in June 2013. In August of 2013, we received a phone call about a mom who courageously wanted to place her baby in our family and on Friday he was born. Two days later we traveled home with him. The social worker actually said to us, "Every time I would go to meet with a potential birth mom who was seeking to make a placement plan for her child, I would take your profile book along. I would think to myself, 'Why do I keep taking their book? They already have three boys and a fourth on the way. No mom is going to choose their family.'"

God is bigger!

Reading today in the story of Israel taking the land of Canaan that God has promised, I see a big God. When Joshua and his army fought with the men five kings of the Amorites and their armies, the enemy armies began to flee. Was the enemy really going to get away? Not with a big God who always keeps His promises.

The Bible says that the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them. What was the result? God killed more with hailstones than Israel did with the sword. Surprised? We shouldn't be but we often are.

As if this wasn't enough, while Israel fought its enemies in the land that very day, God caused the sun to stand still in the sky. So the sun stopped int he middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. The Bible says that all of this reveals a powerful truth: Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

God has and does fight for us. At the cross, He fought out bitterest and worst enemy. Sin and death held humanity in fear and slavery. But God fought for us and won that battle that in Him we would have our sin forgiven and death wouldn't be the gate to destruction but the door to eternal life.

I've been privileged to see and experience God's power. But I'm just not content. While God's greatest act and mightiest battle in the cross cannot and never will or need to be repeated, He's still at work. The God who hurled hailstones, stopped the sun, and beat our enemy is still just as big and working in big ways.

I want to see God move and I want to witness His power.

I need God to move and I need to witness His power.

Where do you need God to aid you against your enemy, extend your time and work, or enable you to have victory one the desires of your flesh and the sin of your heart? Where do you need God to show up big today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He alone is God and there is none like Him.
2. Celebrate the great character and mighty deeds of God.
3. Ask God to be big in the places you are weak, uncertain, pain-filled, sinful, or needy.
4. Watch God be big and don't forget to give thanks for what He will do (before He does it) and for what He did (after He does it).

This Sounds Crazy

Have you ever believed God wanted you to do something that didn't make sense or seemed like an odd approach? It's as if He says, "This is God and I know this sounds crazy, but I want you to do ____________ or I want you to do ______________ this way."

I think these times are for two reasons: One is to lead us to exercise faith in God and the other to leave us with no room to take the credit.

The people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land. The first battle to be waged was against the mighty city and well-fortified city of Jericho. From the beginning, God promised He would give them the land by delivering enemy after enemy into the Israelites' hands. God tells Joshua that He had already delivered Jericho into his hands with the king and fighting men.

Do we trust what God has already promised? Do we ask for things believing and giving thanks that it is already done?

It was true that God had already given the city into the hands of Joshua and Israel. What came next was merely the proof and demonstration of this. But it would require complete trust and faith. God said, "March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days….On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in."

Would you do this? This was not and is not the way battles take place. This is not the way we plan to conquer cities and defeat our enemies.

Without faith in God, this seems absurd. Who would do this? How can this work? I've never done it like this before! 

With faith in God, there's no debate. God's wisdom exceeds my own by far. God's is greater than my plans and power. When He gives a direction, there's no other way to go. To go another way is disobedience and will not accomplish His will.

Would you do it? Would you tell a million people thirsting for water to gather around for the water that is going to come as you speak to the rock? Would you lead a whole nation to walk around a city promising them its walls would fall after the seventh time on the seventh day? Would you walk to the sea and catch a fish because you would find the coin to pay taxes in its mouth?

Obedience to Jesus may look crazy. But have the faith to obey places us in the position to see His work of power. What would you do? What will you do?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Give thanks that God doesn't work within the power and confines of humanity's limitations.
2. Ask God to enlarge your faith to do what He asks in the way He leads you.
3. Pray that God will allow you to see His mighty work of power and the beauty of His glory as you follow His leading (whenever, wherever, and however He leads).

Power and Offense

History is His story.

God's story is one of a tireless work and mission to rescue the deeply broken by the unimaginable love demonstrated through Jesus Christ who died in our place for our sin in order to eternally rescue and restore us.

This is the good news (gospel) of God who is the story's sole and supreme hero. God entrusted His story to Jesus' followers with the instruction to make it known to every nation. We are never to lose it in a cluttered culture, leave it in favor of something more favorable to us, or change it to make it fit our wisdom or fit more easily into our life and the lives of others.

This story is one of both great power and great offense.

The Gospel of Great Offense

The gospel is the good news of God's redeeming work but it is not received by all as good news. When speaking to a crowd, Jesus began teaching about eternal life. John records that Jesus said to the crowd that only those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life. Jesus didn't intend that the people literally begin taking out knives and sharp objects to remove His flesh to eat and cut Him so they could drink His blood.

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ suffered and died, allowing His body to be broken and His blood to be poured out for the forgiveness of our disobedience and rebellion. Only those who trust in His suffering, death, and resurrection have the promise of eternal life. Unless we consume His sacrifice as everything we need to have life we cannot live at all.

Jesus could have said what He did a different way, but He chose His words carefully because He wanted no half-hearted, thrill-seeking followers. He got the response He expected. Many were so offended by this message of the gospel that they walked away to never follow Jesus again (John 6).

The gospel is offensive. Followers of Jesus must never forget that our good news is perceived as offensive by the world apart from the work of the Spirit in the heart. We must also live to give no offense in anything except the gospel.

The Gospel of Great Power

The same gospel that offends so many possesses great power to rescue humanity from despair and destruction and give hope and restored life. The Scriptures declare that the gospel of Christ's kingdom is the only thing that has the power to rescue God's enemies and make them His sons and daughters.

When the Spirit of God descended in power upon the followers of Jesus in Acts 2, they immediately went into the streets and the marketplace to declare the gospel to those gathered in Jerusalem. Peter and the others began to tell of how Jesus suffered and died and then rose again. Not all who heard believed. But a great number of 3,000 believed and then took the next step of following Jesus in baptism.

The gospel is the power of God to bring us home and make us His forever. Followers of Jesus cannot find or invent a greater power or better message. We must live allowing the gospel to work powerfully in our sin-sick lives, as well as in the lives of others.

Reaching People

When it comes to the church--both new churches and churches of some years--our mission has always been and remains to display and declare God's story of how our deep brokenness was met with unimaginable love in Jesus in order to eternally rescue and restore us. This message will offend those who are repulsed by its message, while it will transform those who humbly surrender and believe.

Churches who are faithful to God's story will find not all will like their message, which makes reaching people a long and difficult mission at times. Yet those same churches who communicate well in both life and word this gospel will see God's power bring change lives beginning with our own.

The gospel is a message of both great power and great offense. And this message is the story the world needs.

Refuge Church | Our Message: Available Here

His Work, His Church

Jesus asked the all-important question, "Who do you say that I am?"  His disciples had many responses to the previous question, "Who do other people say I am?"  But when Jesus asked them personally, only one man gave an answer.

Peter said to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."  Understanding the Old Testament, Peter declared that Jesus was the promised redeemer and He was the Son of the Living God.

On this powerful truth, Jesus promised to build His Church.  The church are "the community of people called out of the kingdom of this world to take part in and advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ" (Darrin Patrick).

As one who is on the relative new journey of seeing a new church grow by displaying and declaring the good news so that others are called out of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God, the words of Jesus are both comfort and power.  

The work of building the church is His work because it is His Church.  He does not build the Church for a pastor or a people.  He builds the Church for Himself, for He has always been at work to gather a people for Himself from all the people and nations of the world.

Trust must not be misplaced for the work. I dare not trust the music or programs, the preaching or facility. I must only trust that this is His work to gather a people as His Church.  This He is doing through His followers to display His power and wisdom (Ephesians 3:10).