Pastor's Blog

On yesterday afternoon, me and a few men from our church went up to visit Joseph Hyde, youth pastor here at Hope Church. (Meet Joseph by watching this video). Joseph just got back home from several days of hospitalization because of a very serious staff infection in his left foot. In addition to the staff infection, he’s is also fighting his second battle with cancer. That fight coupled with his chemo treatments reduces his own body’s ability to fight of infection and sicknesses.

So around 2pm, shortly after Joseph made it back home from his first dr’s visit since his hospitalization, we sat down with Joseph in his living room and began to talk. Once the conversation ensued, we realized that although we went there to encourage Joseph – he was the one encouraging us.

Joseph never complained about how a simple splinter in his toe could lead to a staff infection so severe that the dr’s only gave him a 60% chance of recovery. He never complained about their initial mis-diagnosis which cost him valuable treatment time that could have reduced the severity of the infection and sped up recovery time. And he never complained about how or why God would allow this to happen to him while he’s already suffering from cancer.

Instead, he talked about how God is sovereign over all things, and he thanked God for the privilege of being trusted with such a test. He expressed his gratitude to God for the things he is learning through his trials. He praised God for His sovereignty over every aspect of his current trials, including God’s providence in not allowing him to have married prematurely or of having children too soon — which would have made this season even more difficult. He praised God for blessing him with parents who are loving, kind, generous and supportive. He thanked God for a loving, God-fearing girlfriend who loves Jesus more than she loves him and who covers him in prayer.

And then, it happened… Joseph reached over to his left and opened the little brown box on the coffee table.

He sat the lid down next to the box and said, “Every night I sit in this chair and I journal my prayers. I pray for friends and relatives to come to know Christ. I pray for mother who would be hurt the worst if something were to happen to me. I pray for God to continue blessing our church, and I pray God’s continued blessing over you, pastor.”

Then Joseph reached his hand inside the box and randomly plucked out a folded up piece of paper, and he said, “Each night as I pray, I write those prayer requests on a piece of paper, and I put ‘em in this box…” And as he unfolded one of those random prayer prayers journals and showed me the paper, I saw a place where it had my name on it.

While we were there to pray for Joseph in the midst of his sickness and trials ~ Joseph has been going before God, every single night, praying for us and for gospel transformation in the lives of others.

Joseph, if you’re reading this – I want you to know that you are a huge encouragement to me, to our community of faith here at Hope Church, and to the Kingdom of God at large. Your faith inspires me. Your fidelity to Jesus in the midst of tough trials is an example to us all. And I want you to know this — there’s now a new little box sitting beside the chair at my place of prayer.

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This past Thursday seemed no different than any other Thursday, until I got back home that evening. After dropping my wife off at the ministry center for worship team rehearsal, my 2yr old son & I headed home to eat our take-out and to get some late evening rough-housing in before it was bedtime. But as soon as I stepped in my front door I immediately noticed something was wrong. When I looked across the kitchen I saw that my back door was ajar… it had been kicked in and the door itself was busted. I can’t even begin to describe the sick feeling that hit my gut at that moment, as I thought to myself, “My home has been invaded — and the intruder could still be in my house.”

Immediately I grabbed my hand gun, took my 2yr old son to safety, and swept the house, garage & attic several times to make sure no intruders were still inside.

I called Damita and told her what happened, and needless to say, she was very shaken up by this. It was one year ago this month that we moved here to plant a new church, and in that time we’ve had a church trailer stolen from the parking lot of our church offices location, and now — our house broken into. Thankfully, not many things were taken. The stuff they took were things they could walk away with on foot without drawing too much attention to themselves. All in all, I’m most grateful that we weren’t home and that my family is safe and well.

We called 911 and the police came and made their report. Several families in our church offered to allow us to stay over at their homes until we got our back door replaced the next day. I left it up to my wife see how she felt about staying home that night or not. My wife is a strong, godly woman; but at the same time, I knew she felt very violated by this situation. Ultimately she said she was fine with staying home that night.

Let me tell you, sleeping in our house on Thursday night after the home invasion – with a partially secured, “busted” back door – was very awkward. When my wife walked to the bathroom, I was right there with her. When my children left the living room to go to their rooms, I went in before them and did another security sweep under their beds and in their closets (that was probably sweep 9 or 10). I assured my family that we were safe and that by God’s grace all was well, but quite honestly, it was still a night of sleeping with one eye open.

I went through a million scenarios in my head… What if I had been home? What if I had been playing on the floor with one of my children when the intruder kicked the back door in? How would my family respond if I had been killed? How quickly could I have gotten to my hand gun to protect my myself and my family? What if I had killed the intruder, how would I have slept that night? (that answer is easy ~ I would have slept REAL good!) What if my wife was there alone? How would she respond, find safety, or protect herself?

After a few hours of running scenario after scenario through my mind, I found myself boiling with anger. I thought to myself, “Next week I’m gonna take a few days off, park my vehicle in the garage and silently sit in my house — gun in hand — praying that they come back.” Thankfully, God’s prevailing grace overtook me and I banished that thought from my mind.

Ultimately, Damita and I knew this was an opportunity for us to practice the gospel. Our faith is rooted in Jesus Christ, not in the accumulation of possessions. Our joy is sustained through the love & faithfulness of our great God and King, not by the absence of adverse circumstances. And so with pure hearts we pray for those who broke into our home, and we continue to pray for gospel renewal of our city, not because our home was invaded, but because our great desire is to see God glorified throughout Clayton and Henry counties — and beyond.

Soli Deo Gloria.

On this past Sunday, 27 June 2010, it was my proud privilege to officiate the marriage ceremony of Jason & Lakaii Johnson. Conducting their ceremony on Sunday morning during our worship gathering was a beautiful demonstration of the gospel, and our entire community of faith was overjoyed to share that moment with them. Jason and Lakaii are both deeply in love with Jesus and I’m very confident that through God’s grace they will enjoy a strong, healthy marriage.

Congratulations Jason & Lakaii!