Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

life

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 1/4

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Baz Ratner—Reuters

Although leading, serving, and being with people is a central component to ministry, every leader will go through desert experiences, or isolation experiences, where one is forced out of one’s context, or where one will voluntarily leave one’s context.

If you haven’t yet gone through one, then expect to. If you have, then you probably know that these experiences are the most formative experiences in our lives: personally, spiritually, and ministerially.

This is part one of a four part series where I will explore these desert experiences in ministry. Today I will explain the rationale behind these isolation experiences.

God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences. In fact, some of our ultimate leadership insights and contributions may come from these desert experiences.

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Faith and Kids – the Parent’s role

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Deut. 6:1   These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,  2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

Deut. 6:4    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

We can’t pass something onto our kids that we don’t have ourselves. After all, the above passage says that we need to love the lord our God with all OUR heart, OUR soul, and with all OUR strength…this is before he even mentions impressing it on your child. So what’s first? What should our priority be?

If we want to be great parents and see our children grow up to know, love, and serve Jesus, then we need to be doing that first. 

Attending a weekend service, participating in a group, and meeting with others in your group on a casual basis are all designed to be reinforcements for the way we raise our children and draw closer to God…they aren’t intended to be replacements for us raising our kids up in the faith and us taking personal responsibility for our spiritual lives.

Grab a pencil.

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A Prayer for My Girls

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What a great music video by one of my favorite bands. It gives me the conviction to continue to pray for my daughters and direct them to the one that they truly need for their entire life. I am reminded by the fact that my role as a Father is going to show them most tangibly how much God loves them and cares for them. What a big role. What a big responsibility. I can only do this through God’s strength, his power, his grace, and the Spirit’s empowerment.

Victoria and Adelyn – I’ll always strive to be there for you and I’ll always point you to the One you truly need – Jesus Christ.

Here are the lyrics to the song:

Hey, hey, sweet daugther
I am so proud to be your father
Each day’s like a gift from God.

Hey hey sweet daughter
There’s no music like your laughter
And your smile is like a rising sun.

You know I love you from the start
So come in close take my hand
Daddy shares his heart.

I wish that I could be your everything
Be the one who give you all the things you need
Sometimes I am gonna let you down
But there is a way if you just believe
Be you here like was all you been for me
Daughter Jesus is the one you need.

No matter what you walk through
He will always love you
Just the way you are.

for there’s nothing in this world
There all for my baby girl
Until be happy ever after.

The history at your life still untold
I pray the King of all the universe, will make your heart His home.

(Chorus)

Who will never leave spending it all alone
All in your where you came fight to Lord.

Being Missionaries to Our Cities – Soma Communities

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I haven’t seen any other video that has moved me and reflected my heart’s calling more than this video.

I know that God has called me to be involved with church planting, and this is what it’s about. You have to see this.

These are my favorite quotes from the video:

  • “If you don’t have multiplication at the end of what you are supposed to do then you won’t actually do what you’re supposed to do”
  • “A lot of churches have become orphanages. They know how to have babies, and they have a couple of fathers and moms for all the babies, but not enough to care for them all. And not enough to send them off to have their own families.”
  • “My exhortation to church planters is, if they don’t have that kind of love for the people that God has put around them, then they gotta ask God to give them a bigger heart coz this isn’t about them. It’s not about their church or their successes, it’s about God’s glory and the lost people who don’t know the love of their Father.”

Enjoy:

Soma Communities – Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.