Interpreting Matthew

"Interpreting Matthew" was the title of the class I took at Regent College in Vancouver for two weeks after SICM.  I wish I could say it was a mini-sabbatical, but I actually spent a lot of time working remotely, especially on launching our new website! If you haven't been to anyfocus.org in the past couple days, you should take a look at the new layout (though we're still plugging in some remaining details and working out the kinks). That was a much bigger project than I anticipated, and I'm very thankful to Glenn Lanier for starting it while he was still on staff and to Laurence for taking over and finishing it. If you give by recurring credit card donation, someone will be in contact with you about setting up a new donation on the new site. It has some better features, and we'll be canceling all the transactions from the old site soon.

But back to Regent College--I had the opportunity to take a class from Rikk Watts. I've listened to a few of his classes over the past few years, so he kind of seems like a celebrity to me and my staff. He certainly doesn't think of himself that way though! I remember the weird look on his face when we asked if we could take a picture with him... But he did it anyway!

I can't begin to capture here all that I learned in 25 hours of lecture and at least that many hours of reading (so far). But a few main thoughts stick out:

1.  Jesus is Yahweh among us! I think I started out thinking that the gospel writers just told the story and the letters in the New Testament unpacked them and explained more fully who Jesus really is. (I'm not sure how that made sense to me considering that I knew the letters were probably written first!) The more I study the Gospels, the more I realize they have profound and purposeful agendas in what they want to teach about Jesus. Just as it took the disciples years with Jesus as the gospel story unfolds to figure out who Jesus is and what He came to do, it takes us paying careful attention and asking purposeful questions to figure out what men like Matthew and Mark were really saying.

I've seen and heard about Jesus being like a new Moses in the Gospels, but Rikk kept showing us how we only get that (as the primary message) when we start with that assumption. For example, many people have compared the Sermon on the Mount to Moses giving the Law to the people at Mount Sinai. But at Sinai, the people didn't go up on the mountain to hear Moses give the law. Moses and his close disciples went up the mountain to hear Yahweh, the Great I Am, give the law. And then Matthew says, "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them" (Mt 5:1-2). In Matthew's mind, Jesus isn't acting like Moses; Jesus is acting like God. And when I started looking for that, I found it on almost every page of Matthew's Gospel.

2. We need to know Israel's narrative a lot better than we do. Matthew is really concerned with the idea of "fulfillment." He loves the phrase "and thus was fulfilled" along with some Old Testament passage. And yet, so often when I go read those Old Testament passages in context, I'm puzzled. They don't seem to be prophecies about Israel's Messiah. Rikk took us through each of those references and my mind was blown by how sophisticated Matthew was in his thinking! Where did we get the idea that just because we live 2000 years later, we must be smarter and more sophisticated than them?! Matthew knows that God's character doesn't change, and thus He can be expected to act the same way again when similar things happen. So Matthew can look to a current event that echoes a historical one and see the current one fulfilling the old one. He knows not just the verses before and after the ones he quotes but the entire context. So when he quotes a verse, he expects it to call to mind for us a whole host of ideas and impressions. Just like if I said "Four score and seven years ago," you don't immediately subtract 87 from 2015--you think of the civil war, of the struggle to end slavery, of how the founding documents of our country couldn't stand if we didn't honor their conviction that all men are created equal. Because we know our story.

If we are Christians, then we need to know Israel's story because it has become our story too. Then when Matthew quotes, "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel," we will think of how in Isaiah 7, King Ahaz has just refused to ask God for a sign in the heavens because he doesn't want to obey God, and see, as Matthew did, that God gave a sign in the heavens about Jesus that the Jewish King refused to acknowledge. In fact, only pagan magi noticed it! We won't think the prophecy of calling him Immanuel makes no sense when they actually named him Jesus. Instead, we'll realize that in Isaiah, Immanuel wasn't good news--it was a warning that God is coming and you'd better be ready...or else. Matthew bringing that up gives a different tone to his "Christmas story." I could go on and on with details like this, but more than anything I was struck by my pride at thinking I could understand the New Testament while being lazy about understanding the Old Testament.

3. God wants mercy, not sacrifice. Rikk called it "living in the grammar of forgiveness." The fundamental concern of Israel's scriptures is the character of God. He reveals Himself as I Am Who I Am. The fundamental problem of the Israelites is idolatry--worshiping the wrong god. And Jesus reveals a God who is gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29). In Matthew 18, the disciples were very concerned over who would be "greatest" in the kingdom of heaven. And in response, Jesus talked about forgiveness (among other things). For Jesus, greatness and forgiveness are connected. If I think I'm a Great One, I'm going to be more offended when others wrong me and want to punish them more for hurting me. When I understand real greatness, I'll be full of mercy toward others. It's what makes Jesus, Yahweh among us, greater than all of us when He hangs on a tree to forgive the sins of the world. Do I look more like Him or more like the Pharisees and disciples who were so concerned with doing things right and being recognized for it? A challenging question. When I really understand mercy, I'll be willing to admit my faults and repent. When I really understand mercy, I'll realize I'm like a little child who brings nothing to the table--I didn't bring home the bacon; I just came home to eat, so I don't demand my own way or claim special privileges.

I could say a LOT more, but I wanted you to have a glimpse at what the Spirit is teaching me. I'm sure it will take years for me to really absorb all this and figure out what it means for my life and doctrine. I pray these things spur you on to further learning as well.

3 things for you to do

SICM was last week, and I think the experience was summed up in a question one of the UTD freshmen asked me the last evening of the trip: "Is SICM always this amazing?" My answer: "Yep. That's why we keep coming back every year." SICM isn't just a great experience--it produces great fruit. Consistently. Thank you for praying for these students and to so many of you for financial support that makes these experiences possible. I'd love to tell you more about the conference in person or on the phone. Just ask!

These are just the UTD people we took to SICM. I love training this many new leaders for our campus!

In addition, when we sent the students back home, some of the staff guys and I drove on up to Vancouver, BC, to take a summer course at Regent College. I'm halfway through a class called "Interpreting Matthew," and it has been a great experience so far. I'm not quite ready to condense down what I'm learning because I have so many things going on in my head. But I'm recognizing again how much our faith and our scriptures are ultimately about God's character--being a Christian is about getting to know God and becoming like Him. Intimacy with God is both the goal and the means to that goal, both the end and the means.

I have 3 quick things you can do to help our ministry:

1. Pray for some key job searches at UTD

Some key positions have opened up at UTD that have the potential to deeply affect the ability of Christian missionaries to work effectively on campus. Our president, Dr. Daniel, is taking a higher job at the UT System level (read about it here) and a committee will be formed soon to conduct a nationwide search for a new president. In addition, the Dean of Students position and Assistant Dean of Students position are both open right now as well. Please pray for the women and men involved in filling these three important positions. Those decisions have the potential to radically shape campus ministry at UTD in the decade to come.

2. Amazon Smiles

If you shop on Amazon, you can start your shopping at Amazon Smiles (each time) and a portion of every purchase will go to support FOCUS. You can click on the link below to connect your account and then change any bookmarks to Amazon Smiles instead of Amazon. Everything costs the same and works the same, with the exception that on your phone it doesn't work through the app, only through the browser. I've been using this for a few weeks now and it works exactly the same as before! You can also click here if the image above doesn't show up.

3. Change out your internship prayer sheet ... because we added Albert!

I have some great news--we have accepted one more intern for the 2015-2016 school year. We knew that Albert Rodriguez was interested, but a number of things had to fall in place with his education to make it work this year, so we waited until May to have him apply and interview. He's an amazing young man, and I've been praying for him to try out ministry for the last couple years. I know many of you have started praying regularly for our incoming interns and their support raising. If that is you, please switch out this new prayer sheet for your old one.

If you'd like a larger version of this image, I can share it with you.

Your prayers are important. I'm convinced God works powerfully when his image bearers ask Him to in Jesus' name. My prayer for you is that you would have a blessed summer, and that your intimacy with God would grow in this season.

New Interns!

Our 2015-2016 class of interns has been selected and it's an outstanding group of young people. Some are graduating and joining our staff immediately, while others are leaving the marketplace to return to campus and further their impact. All of them have at least an undergraduate degree. I hope that you will save the image below and use it to pray for them over the coming months as they prepare for their internship to start on August 1. Here they are!

More and more young people are being drawn to the FOCUS internship experience each year, helping us reach more and more students with the good news about Jesus. And the need is huge! I was reminded of that again today when a student coming by wrote this on one of our evangelistic discussion boards at Richland College:

The apostle Peter wrote, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The enemy is at work, but Jesus is at work too, and in Him students and staff and professors can find life to the full. Pray for this young man and others like him. It's probably only a matter of time before one of our campuses experiences a tragedy of some sort, but let's pray for God's deliverance and for hurting young people to have powerful encounters with Jesus' people both on and off campus. Thank you for sending missionaries to the campus through prayers, encouragement, and financial support. God is moving and you are a part of it!

My prayer for you is that you will find a tangible way to love a young person this week. Let the Spirit guide you in that--stretch yourself and take a risk. If there are things I can be praying for you specifically, please let me know.

The Tail End of 2014-2015

March was a busy month, but a better one. This time of year is always packed full of exciting stuff. Students are making commitments to the Lord and deciding to get serious about secret sins and issues. Student leaders are having meaningful conversations and preparing the final challenges and words of encouragement that they want to deliver as they disband their cores and send people off to summer or to graduation and beyond. Students see the end of the year approaching, and that sense of urgency creates all sorts of opportunities for meaningful ministry.

I've reflected over the years how these arbitrary finish lines can help people change and grow so much. Please take a moment to pray that every one of our students who is contemplating a change for the better this April wouldn't let the opportunity pass them by.

I had the opportunity to attend Alphonse's baptism a couple weeks back. He didn't grow up knowing about Jesus, and UTD was the perfect place to get to know him! Some of the guys were reaching out to him and inviting him to lots of stuff and trying to get him to study the Bible with them. At the same time, he noticed that one of the girls living in his hall, Tiffany, always wore a cross necklace. When he asked her about it one day, she didn't say "It's a Christian thing" or "My mom gave it to me." Instead, she took the opportunity to share with him the story of Jesus and His sacrifice and what it meant to her. Alphonse shared about how pivotal that moment was at his baptism, and I got to meet Tiffany because she came to celebrate with us! God is good, and he is working through His people all the time.

I thought you'd find this brief video of that baptism encouraging. The guy baptizing him, Grant, is one of the seniors I'm mentoring this year, and he will be a part of our team to pioneer FOCUS at UT Arlington this fall as he moves over there to work as an engineer for Bell Helicopter.

We also had an amazing Spring Showcase fundraiser for SICM this month. We raised nearly $9000 to train new leaders this summer, and had a great time with some incredible performances. One of the students who went to SICM last year took a couple minutes to explain the value of that trip. If you weren't at the Showcase, I encourage you to listen to him explain it and catch (or re-catch) the vision for the Student Institute of Campus Ministry.

Lastly, we are having our spring Pizza Theology for the students tomorrow. The title is "The End of the World as We Know It: Heaven, Hell, and Everything In Between." I have the task of teaching on the Biblical doctrine of hell, and preparing has been very challenging. But I'm excited to share what I've learned. I've been pondering the idea that in the scripture, doctrines are for something; they serve specific purposes. And just like using a tool for the wrong job risks damage to both the tool and whatever you are working on, I think using doctrines for different purposes than the scripture does risks both theological and pastoral damage.

In the scripture, the doctrine of eschatology (the study of last things) is used both to warn and to encourage. It is a warning to those who benefit from injustice. It is an encouragement to hold on for those who suffer because they follow God. And yet I wonder if this is what we always use this doctrine for. I think we are tempted to use it to figure out exactly when these things are going to happen and exactly what they will be like, perhaps to be ready but perhaps to simply satisfy our own curiosity. I think we are tempted to use the doctrine of hell to guilt people into mission work. Maybe we can safely extrapolate these ideas from what the scripture says, but I think we get into dangerous territory when we use these teachings and ideas in different ways than the biblical authors who originally penned them for us. I encourage you in your own study of scripture to reflect on the question of what teachings are for, and how we might best use them to God's glory.

I'm so thankful for each of you who pray for me, for students, and for all who live and work and learn on these campuses. I'm thankful for those of you who faithfully support this mission financially. Thank you for partnering with me!

Quick update

I asked for prayers concerning ticket prices to SICM the other day. The group rates we were getting were well over $500 per person, and I told the students to be ready to pay $500. But we were able to get them for an average of $355, less than last year. That means we saved each student $145 and around $13,000 for our entire group of 91! Thanks for your prayers.

I also wanted to include the official advertisement for the Spring Showcase:

Laying Groundwork for Next Year

I'm in the middle of some of the busiest months of my year. We're wrapping up annual reviews with my amazing staff, finishing up interviews for the 2015-16 internship, putting our group together for the annual SICM trip, and preparing to host 2 teams of students from Washington at the end of the month for outreach on our campuses--all on top of my regular schedule of appointments and teaching. I'm looking forward to the students leaving for Spring Break so I can catch my breath!

We have an outstanding group of potential interns this year, and I can't wait to share with you about them next month. As for SICM, we invited and are taking our biggest group ever! I think we'll take 77 students and 13 staff from our various campuses to be trained in campus ministry. Please pray for good airline prices as we will be buying lots of tickets in the next couple of days. (The group rates were ridiculous this year, so we are buying them piecemeal and averaging the cost for the students in hopes of saving money.)

And UTD has a bumper crop for SICM--55 of the 105 total students we invited are from UTD. So I'm really excited about our leader team for next year!

This was the first group that went to SICM back in 2002 (Leah Farmer Lorenz, me, Debra Boswell Bottoms, and Brad Davis), paid for in full by Glynn Lively. It's overwhelming to think how that investment has paid off, in so so many ways. I can't wait to share with you the picture of the 90ish people that will go this May to be equipped for ministry. God is good!

For those of you in the area, we have a special fundraiser coming up this month to help raise money for SICM, the Spring Showcase.  This will be a concert and art show held on March 28 at 8pm at Legacy Church in Plano. It will feature some great musical talent from students and also have student art available for purchase. We have some amazingly talented people across our community--I'm really looking forward to this event!

If you are interested in going, all of the students going to SICM this year are selling tickets or you can buy them at anyfocus.org/showcase.

Here's a taste of last year's concert--one of my favorite performances.  And Ana is singing again this year!

Post by Charles Guo.

February was a tough month in some ways--students struggling with oppressive thoughts, finding out about significant illnesses, and some tough staff transitions. As always, I covet your prayers for this community. Pray for us to put on the full armor of God and stand firm (Ephesians 6). Please pray for Jacob who will have surgery to remove a brain tumor in the next week or so. I'm praying God will move and the doctors will not find what they are expecting. Thank you for praying! And thank you to those of you who partner with us financially to make it possible for me to invest in the lives of young people.

Winter Camp 2015

I can't imagine how Winter Camp this year could have gone better. We had nearly 500 people gather to worship, learn, pray, and play together for three days. I'm still hearing great feedback from students who were impacted, energized, and equipped to return to their campuses as maturing Jesus people. We see from Jesus' ministry that growth in numbers doesn't mean much by itself, but I'm encouraged that of those hundreds of students, only a handful signed up separate from one of our core groups. That tells me that nearly every student started the weekend tied in to the community with leaders who know them and are investing in them personally. (And hopefully they ALL ended the weekend that way!)

This was the big group--well over 400 college students plus some siblings and friends in their last year or two of high school, FOCUS staff people, and some alumni and supporters who came to help minister and bless students.

And here's the UTD group whooshing! Note there are a couple of alums in the bottom right corner with a little future Comet. Leah and Jared, the parents, are past leaders who have had a huge formative impact on our ministry--Leah was even one of the first 5 students involved!

Our speaker was Dr. Iain Provan, an Old Testament scholar from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.  He spent the weekend unpacking for us the goodness of God and His plan as revealed in the Old Testament. In keeping with our "Words of Life" theme this year, he spoke on Words about Creation, Words about God, Words about Being Human, Words about Suffering and Evil, and Words about Hope. He also did a nearly two-hour open Q&A on the Old Testament. Even though it was billed as an optional event, well over 300 students were in attendance.

Iain Provan

I think these words from Nikki, one of the UTD students who became a Christian this past year, capture it well: "Iain Provan's lectures were by far the best I've had thus far (sorry Brandon!). As one of many who did the [FOCUS Summer School of Ministry class] for Genesis, I couldn't help but take pages and pages of notes while Iain was speaking. It blew my mind to get not only his perspectives on some of the things discussed in the class, but just to dig once again below the surface of such an important piece to gain insight on a different approach to Genesis was mind blowing!! I definitely will re-read the application commentary and do more research just to see what else is out there!"
Since our students are studying at public colleges and universities, they typically don't get to study the Scriptures at a college level. Two things Iain said stick out to me: "Every Christian needs to be educated to the level of their ability" and "It's kind of scandalous to have a higher degree in something else and still be at level one in our biblical understanding." It's our intention to continue to bring in scholars as well as pastors as speakers at our various events to better equip our students for a lifetime of Christian service.
(Regent, a graduate school of Theology, describes itself as transdenominational, evangelical, and orthodox, with its first priority being to remain true to the orthodox faith as recorded in the Scriptures. One of their main focuses is on equipping and training the whole people of God, not just professional pastors. I've probably recommended it before, but the bookstore has a website where you can purchase mp3 recordings or CDs of many of the classes. If you have a commute or take long walks/runs in your regular schedule, this might be a great way to use that time to develop your ability to "love God with all your mind." You might start by searching for Iain Provan on regentaudio.com.)

A couple quick updates:
FOCUS 140 funds - We're still looking at how to best use the money raised to keep FOCUS growing in 2015. We're planning to overhaul our website and create an app to get ready for more campuses and more students in the next 5-10 years. We've been gathering an amazing team of staff and students to move to Arlington and launch the ministry at UTA, and we plan to buy them supplies for outreach and also subsidize a team-building and planning retreat sometime this summer.

Rooms at UTD - We now have rooms for every Friday night this semester...except for next week! We have some great churches in the area who have offered to host us so we may move off campus for that one night. Please say a prayer that we don't have these problems again in the Fall!

Thank you for your gifts and prayers to make all these things possible. Together, we're blessing a lot of students. I hope it's a blessing and encouragement to you as well!