Why God Works Through His Children

I got to go on my yearly hunting trip last week. It is always one of the highlights of my year. The hunting trip always represents a time of refocusing and refreshing for me. Getting out in the woods before daylight, watching the sun come up and seeing and hearing the world come alive, smelling the sharpness of the pine trees and the earth and rotting leaves, seeing frost on the trees, watching squirrels and turkeys and deer, and getting to harvest a nice deer are important connection points with creation for me. I always come away from the hunting trip with new perspective.

The trip also is a good time of bonding for me with other men in my life. Each of them represent a different type of relationship. There is my father-in-law, the older, somewhat eccentric, sometimes frustrating, but very likeable old codger around camp.

Then, there's Robby, our worship pastor at The Crossroads, and one of my best friends. I've only known Robby for six months now, but he and I just really work well together. It was a joy to get to spend time with Robby in the relaxed atmosphere of a deer camp. Plus, he's great to bring along since he cooked New York Strip steaks for us one night (even if he did get himself the biggest one :-).

Landon is a teenager whom I have known for almost eight years now. I baptized Landon, have prayed for him, fought for him, cried for him, and loved him. I took Landon hunting for the first time last year and the rascal killed a nine-point. Landon is fun to have on a hunting trip. He brings a lot of energy and excitement.

But the greatest joy was taking my son, James. James has been going hunting with me since he was about five years old. He just started carrying a gun with him last year, though. Last year, he had the opportunity to kill a deer, but I wouldn't let him because I wasn't aware of a fine point of the law (oops). But this year, he had another opportunity. He killed his first deer on Monday, November 24, at 10:30 a.m. It was a spike buck (two points for those of you who don't know deer-hunting lingo), and he shot it from about 60 yards away. James saw the deer before I did, and got his gun up and got ready. The deer, however, was walking away from us. James was getting pretty frustrated, but I told him to calm down and that I would try to get the deer to turn around. I used my grunt call, and got the deer to come back toward us, giving James his opportunity.



James had gotten his rifle last Christmas. It was a .243 that belonged to my grandmother. She was no longer able to hunt, so she gave it to James. She passed away this summer, so it was a special gift for James.

It took us a couple of hours to find the deer because there wasn't really any kind of trail for us to track it, but I was determined that we were not going to leave the woods without that deer. Several of the other guys came to help us look for it, but James and I together were the ones who actually found the deer.

Two days later, I went out by myself (James decided it was too cold for him to get out on the stand) and got a ten-point, one of the nicest bucks I have ever killed. But, I have to tell you, I wasn't even half as excited about killing my buck as I was about James killing his.



So, here's the huge lesson that God spoke to me about through that experience. I killed a much bigger deer than my son. I am a more experienced, more skilled hunter than my son. I can make better shots that lead to a quicker, cleaner kill with a whole lot less nervousness. I can sit still quieter and longer than he can. At this point, deer hunting is tremendously easier for me than it is for him. And yet, I was infinitely more excited about him killing his deer than about me killing mine. I'm talking fist-pumping, high-fiving, shouting, can't wipe the smile off my face kind of excitement.

So why is that? Because I take so much delight in my son that I would rather see him do what he can (even if it's not as "good" or "easy" as I could have done it) than just doing it myself. And here's the huge spiritual lesson that God hit me over the head with. That's why God delights to use us fragile, messed-up, failure prone, nervous, doubting, humans to fulfill his plan. It's because he delights in seeing his work done through his children.

Yeah, sure, he could just do it himself, and he could do it better and quicker and easier. But, it's not just about getting the job done. It's about watching his children try, watching our attempts to please him and follow him, watching as we often mess up and make mistakes, but then screaming his head off cheering for us when we get it right and taking absolute delight in us when we fulfill his will for our lives and for eternity. He's a proud father who would rather see his children's attempts to please him and follow him, who would rather accomplish his work through us, than just to do it himself.

Man, thank you God for using us. Thank you for my amazing son who has been teaching me about you from the very first moment he came into this world. I am truly blessed.

Link to Family Stuff

I usually use this blog for the random stuff that runs through my head or to keep you up to date on stuff going on with the Kemp family, and I reserve trailblazer for church planting stuff. But the two have become so intertwined lately that I have posted some family stuff there. If you'd like to find out about church planting and what's going on with the fam, just click here.

Amazing Grace

Hot Blogger!

My smokin hot wife has officially started blogging and is doing way better at it than I do. Check her out at www.larissasrandomthoughts.blogspot.com.

Forever Yours

Wow, it's been a long time since I put anything up here. I've been really busy with the church plant, but am having the time of my life.

LaRissa and I went to a concert Sunday night with some really good friends. The concert, which was in the Superpages Center in Fair Park, was Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey. It was phenomenal, even if it was the hottest day so far in north Texas.

Cheap Trick is one of those bands that you forget about and you don't really remember any of their songs. They were a great opening act, though.

Heart, fronted by Ann Wilson, was incredible. Wilson has definitely still got it. Her vocal talent does not seem to have faded any whatsoever over the years.

But the highlight of the evening, by far, for me was Journey. Journey is my favorite band of all time. They have so many incredible songs and are just amazingly gifted musicians. Neal Schon, lead guitarist, was a child prodigy who played in Santana when he was 15. He has only grown better with the years.

Deen Castronovo on drums, Jonathan Cain on keys and guitar, these guys are the real deal. But the real jewel is the new front man for Journey. Arnel Pineda is a little Philipino with a huge voice. Schon found Pineda by searching for Journey cover bands on Youtube. Pineda's voice is almost a dead ringer for legendary Journey lead singer Steve Perry.

Perry left the band several years ago because of either a hip injury or because he lost his voice, depending on what story you believe. Pineda has more than filled Perry's shoes. He is energetic, exciting, and man has he got some pipes on him.

An interesting side note, the Philipino contingent at the concert was pretty strong.

Journey did some of their great old stuff. I got to hold my wife, sing to her, and kiss her to classics like "Open Arms" and "Faithfully." They are smart enough not to mess with a good thing. I also like that even their new stuff is very much in keeping with who they have always been as a band. Driving rock ballads and anthems with incredibly strong vocals and harmonization. The new song "After All These Years" is an immediate favorite for me and has become the new "our song" for LaRissa and me.

Great, great show. Be sure to catch it if it comes your way.

Momma, I'm Coming Home!

Yaaay! Exponential has been great, but I am so excited to be headed home to LaRissa and the kids. Daddy's coming home.

Link to Church Planting Blog

I have had a request (thank you Becky) that I place a link to my church planting blog in my links. So, let it be. It's called "Blazing the Trail." Check out the sidebar.

The Last Sermon

I'm working on my last sermon as pastor of Hagerman Baptist Church. I will be preaching it on Sunday. After that, I will be devoting myself full-time to the plant in Anna.

Wow! What do you say in your last sermon to a church you have been pastoring for the last seven years?

Thank You, God, and Thank You, Hagerman

Sunday night, Hagerman threw a launching party for my family and the families who are going with us to plant The Crossroads. We were truly blessed by them. I am so thankful for what God has done and is continuing to do at Hagerman. They are praying for us and want to be closely connected and involved with us in planting in Anna. Praise God!

Happy Birthday to Me

This weekend, LaRissa and the kids took me camping at Eisenhower State Park for my birthday. We had a really awesome time without any major disasters, which is usually what happens when we go camping.

We got to play games, lay around and be lazy, and do some hiking! We hiked a little over a mile on the Fossil Ridge section of the trail around the park. It was some of the best hiking I've been able to do in Texas. There is actually quite a bit of variation to the trail, and it goes along the shores of Lake Texoma on some really cool bluffs. The ground is literally littered with fossils from the ancient ocean floor, mostly smaller shells, but I found one that was this really big chambered nautilus fossil. Super cool.

The trail is well-marked and the hiking was perfect for taking kids along with you. Just some moderate stuff, which is a good thing since I wound up hiking the whole thing carrying Abby on my shoulders.

Monday Movie Review

Larissa and I watched The Sentinel last week. We have had the movie sitting on our chest of drawers for weeks and just haven't had a chance to watch it. I'll make this short: It was nothing memorable.

It had all the right elements: a great cast (Michael Douglass, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, and Kim Basinger), good points of intrigue (secret service agent having an affair with the president's wife, falling out with his best friend because friend suspected him of having an affair with his wife, assassination attempt against the president), and decent effects, but it just didn't all come together. The storyline got in its own way at times and character development was really weak.

Bottom line: Don't waste your time or your dime.

The Cake-Mix Doctor

We have been using Chocolate from the Cake-Mix Doctor for about a year now to make birthday cakes for our family. They are incredibly delicious cakes. We just make the "cookies and cream cake" for Katie's birthday this weekend. We also got The Cake-Mix Doctor for Katie for her birthday.

New Kemp Family Fave

If you haven't checked out Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network, you need to. It's a favorite at our house. Guy Fieri, the host, is just a really fun, likable "guy".

Katie's Birthday

I can't believe it. My Katie turned eight years old this weekend. She is such a sweet, loving, happy little girl who is a joy to her father. We celebrated by taking her, her brother and sisters, and a friend to Frisco to spend some time at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, pick up some new books at Barnes and Noble, and eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Happy Birthday, Tinkerbell!!

More Robert Frost

I guess Frost is my favorite poet. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was the first poem I ever memorized. Some think it was at a time when Frost was contemplating suicide. I prefer to simply think of it as contemplation of life as a journey, another good reference for "Walk the Trail."

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Monday Movie Review

A couple of reviews for you:

This weekend I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks together with the family. I had low expectations for the movie, but I can honestly say it was the funniest movie I have seen in quite some time. You don't have to think. Just sit back and enjoy. Plus, if you grew up in the '80s and were a fan of the animated Saturday morning series, it will take you back.

Horton Hears a Who: Probably one of the best adaptations of a Seuss book you'll see. Visually, it was really cool. Very reminiscent of the illustrations in the Seuss books. Plus, I love the basic theme of the story: a person's a person no matter how small. A good starter for talking with your kids about the value of every person, and particularly to talk about where that value comes from.

10,000 B.C.: I was trying to kill a couple of hours the other day while I was having the car serviced, so I went to see this. It did serve that purpose. The movie was decently entertaining with some cool visual effects. However, it was nothing memorable and had no real storyline connected to the redemptive story.

The real problem with the story was that the history and the geography were just all off. As a history major, this bothered me to the point that I had a really hard time paying attention to the plot. The story takes place in 10,000 B.C. (as the title may give away), but in the movie, Egyptians are building fully developed pyramids. All wrong. Additionally, the main character seems to begin his journey somewhere in Europe or northern Asia, but somehow winds up in central Africa, approaching Egypt from the south. Oh well, that may be confusing to you. I know it was to me. Suffice it to say, it killed a couple of hours for me, but I would not recommend this one as anything worth your time.

National Poetry Month

April is national poetry month. Now, the theme poem for Walk the Trail is the walking song from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." But, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" really is an incredible poem that comes in at a close second.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

Pray for the Peace of the City

Each year for the last four years, twice a year, mission teams from our church have traveled to Juarez, Mexico, to help with Vacation Bible Schools, to assist new church plants, to help with evangelistic worship services and to deliver blankets and toys to offer relief to impoverished families at Christmas time.

An advance team from our church was preparing to travel to Juarez this weekend to make preparations for our annual summer trip, but they received word yesterday that they should not come. Our summer trip has been cancelled due to violence that has broken out in Juarez.

Rival drug lords are engaged in warfare to gain control of the city's drug trafficking network. One hundred people were killed in the month of March alone. Police who have tried to gain control of the situation have been killed. Two thousand Mexican troops are currently on their way to Juarez to try to regain order in the city. More information is available here.

Please be in prayer for the peace of Juarez. Pray for the police and militia trying to regain order. Pray that the responsible parties would be brought to justice. Pray for the citizens of Juarez. And please, please, be in prayer for the churches and for our friends who are in Juarez.

Another Snow Photo

We actually had a white-out in north Texas. It snowed eight inches in about three hours time. You can see in the picture that the snowflakes were the size of silver dollars.

Spring Break

We had a great week with the kids last week. We just spent some time with my parents and LaRissa's dad. Here are some pictures of the kids fishing at LaRissa's dad's cabin in south Arkansas.

As White As Snow

As I sit in my warm kitchen tonight, outside the world is blanketed in eight inches of snow. Everything is a beautiful white.

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."

Another reason to love Texas

Weather in Texas is just awesome.

Last week, we had days with highs in the 80s and I rode around with the windows down on my car.

This week we woke up on Tuesday morning with seven inches of snow on the ground. The kids played in it for a little while before school. By the time they got out of school, the temperature had gotten to the upper 40s and most of the snow had melted. It's great to be able to enjoy snow for a little while and not freeze your tuckus off.

Here are some pictures and a video of Abby. See if you can hear what Abby thinks the snow is.






How great is it to wake up and find the whole world is covered in "ice cream"?

Pre-Discipleship

In their book Breaking the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer and David Putnam point out that emerging generations are taking longer to come to a point of making a commitment to being a follower of Jesus Christ. Many of these people are involved in the life of a church, attending bible study and small group, connecting with believers, and even actively involved in a ministry for six or seven years before they commit to following Christ.

They go on to point out that this extended time of examining the church and Christian faith is actually a good thing:

A number of years ago, we began to observe an interesting trend in many of our new churches that attracted a large number of unreached/unchurched people. It seemed that the longer individuals took to finally go public with their faith, the less likely they were to fall through the cracks or go out the back door. On the other hand, when someone came in and rather quickly expressed a commitment to Christ, they seemed to
disappear just as quickly.

The longer people explore the faith before making a commitment, the greater their commitment. The more they are involved in the life and activities of a Christian community, the greater the likelihood they will stay commited to that community.

For a long time, we have place the emphasis on becoming a Christian at the point of decision. You walk down an aisle, pray a prayer, fill out a card. We emphasize the need to close the deal and want to get people to pray the prayer. But how would it look different and how would it change our methods and our results if we saw evangelism and discipleship as intimately tied to each other, in fact as two sides to the same coin? We tend to think of evangelism as something you do before a person becomes a Christian and discipleship as something you do after a person becomes a Christian. But what if we saw evangelism as pre-discipleship? What if we began "discipling" people before they actually became disciples? Would we see greater commitment and more long term commitment?

After all, Jesus didn't tell us to go into all the world and "make decisions." He said go into all the world and "make disciples." For too long we have tried to get people to make a decision so they will "get saved." But maybe we need to get people to commit not to a one time decision, but to a lifetime of being a Christ-follower.

Arrrrrgh!

I am feeling a bit like Charlie Brown right now.

My wife informs me that someone has been sick at our house since September. There are six of us, and when one of us gets something, it just seems to make its rounds.

I can't remember all of the sickness, but I do know that I came down with some sort of respiratory infection the week before Christmas, and I am pretty sure it turned into pneumonia. I broke a rib from coughing so hard. Not fun.

My oldest daughter, Grace, had pneumonia, and it took about three weeks for her to recover from that. Now, my middle daughter, Katie, has had a cough for about three weeks. This weekend, my son, James, ran fever and complained of a sore throat; and yesterday, the baby, Abby, started running a fever.

On top of all that, we are trying to get our house ready to put on the market. So, we are pretty exhausted right now. Be in prayer for the Kemp family.

Here Am I, Send Me

The family and I have some big news about our future. About two years ago, LaRissa and I began praying about how God wanted to use us, seeking his direction for our future and our ministry. We first began to sense God telling us to get ready because he was going to call us to something different than anything we had been involved in to this point. So we continued praying, seeking to align our hearts with God's heart, and ready ourselves for whatever God was calling us to.

As we continued to pray, we began exploring some opportunities and looking at different possibilities for our ministry service, but none of the possibilities seemed to be quite right. Some doors closed and some opened that didn't seem to be the right decision. So, we just continued to seek God and allow ourselves to be molded and shaped into the people he wanted us to be.

In our prayers, we came to a point of complete surrender to God. We told God that we were available to be used by him whenever, wherever, however, and whatever, and that we would just wait for him to make known to us what he wanted us to do. We affirmed to God that the minute he did make that known to us that we would answer yes to him.

Well, about eight months ago, God began to clarify and confirm for us the direction that he was taking us in ministry. Finally, about six months ago, God clearly revealed to me exactly what he wanted us to do. I was in a meeting where the speaker was telling about the importance of church planting and various models for planting churches.

At that time, I felt God tap me on the shoulder and say, "That's what I want you to do." Now, God speaks to different people in different ways, and the way that God ordinarily speaks to me is through inward urgings and tugs at my heart. (I know that sounds very mystical and maybe a little vague, but that's the best way I can explain it.) But this day, God spoke to me with those specific words: "That's what I want you to do." So, I looked around to see if somebody had said something to me. Nope. So, I said, "Say what?" Really spiritual, huh? And God said again but more clearly, "I want you to go into church planting."

So, I went home that afternoon, walked through the door, and said to my awesome, beautiful, amazing wife, "I think God is calling me into church planting." Now, I've heard all the horror stories about wives' responses to a statement like that, but my wife says to me, "Yeah, I can see that." Over the next several months I began to seek wise counsel and continued to find confirmation of the call and affirmation of how God had worked in my life to prepare me for this.

To make a long story short, I am now connected with a church planting network, and will be planting a church in Anna, TX. Anna is currently the fasting growing city in north central Texas. It has experienced a 177% growth rate over the last six years. We will be planting with the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

The target kick-off Sunday for the new church is September 7, 2008. We will begin intensive work in the community in Anna in May.

We want and need you to be involved in this church planting process. First and foremost, we desperately need your prayers. This is a God-sized task, and it will not happen unless he works in amazing ways. Pray for our family. Pray for workers to help us. Pray for people in the Anna community that they would be receptive to the good news. Pray for our financial support. We also want your blessing. We also need people to actively be involved. We will be doing door-to-door surveying, block parties, community service projects, preview services, you name it. We need people to help us be the hands and feet of Jesus with us.

If you would like to learn more details about the church plant, I will be posting that information on a new blog: www.blazingthetrail.blogspot.com.

This Has Got to Be Effective!

I saw this truck in the Target parking lot this week. If you look closely, you will notice that one of the figurines glued to the top of the truck is the Grim Reaper holding a baby in his hands.


Also, take a look at the face of the guy walking by the truck in the background of the second picture. And, the red Target cart is reflected in the puddle under the truck, which makes it look like the truck is bleeding.

I affectionately refer to this as the Catholic Anti-abortionmobile.

I cannot recommend highly enough Mark Batterson's book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. The premise of the book is basically that some of the biggest obstacles in our lives, some of the most difficult situations, are opportunities for God to work in our lives in incredible ways. It's easy to read and incredibly inspiring.

M & M Shawn

My girls and I m&menized myself. Click here to check it out.