2013 May Newsletter

Experiencing the Unnatural
“Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.”-John 11:32-38

Have you ever wondered why we cry when someone dies? From the time we are in elementary school, we learn that death is a natural part of life; you are born, you live, and you die. It is the life cycle and it is natural. So if it is natural, why do we cry?

I believe that we cry at funerals because we realize that death is not natural. We realize that there was something that was originally created as good, and that it is good no longer. Consciously or subconsciously we realize that death was never part of the original creation, it was never part of God’s original plan, and that is why we feel so uncomfortable. No matter who you are, or what you believe (atheist, agnostics, Islam, or any other religion), you are grieved by death. Death is unnatural.

I believe that God realizes this as well, that death is not natural. Jesus, who we believe is God incarnate, that is, God in the form of man, experienced this in the above passage. If we take a look at the above passage in its original Greek, the meaning of the words “deeply moved” (found twice) literally means to snort with anger. The question herein lies: Who was Jesus angry at? Was it Mary? Was it the crowd? No, I believe that Jesus was angry at death.

Jesus understood that this was not what the world was supposed to be like and he, being God, realized to the fullest that death was unnatural. Shortly after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (found later in John 11), Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross to restore what was broken, and start to restore this world and our relationship with him back to its original state. He died to bridge the gap that was broken between God and man and three days later rose again showing that the unnatural death did not have power over a supernatural God. In other words, Jesus did the unnatural: he died. And by doing so we might live.

God is a restorer. It is in his very nature to do so. So if you are grieving, if you feel lost, just remember that Jesus will take what is unnatural and make it natural again.

Why We Do What We Do

I had the privilege to lead my fourth missions/service trip with nineteen students to the Dominican Republic. Honestly, it was my best trip thus far. If you have read any of my newsletters in the past four years, you would realize how impactful the trip has been to me. Usually, instead of me rambling on about how great the trip is, I find a student to give his or her testimony about the trip. This year, however, we are going to do something unique. One of my students, Nicole Arthur, (who has been on this trip as well the past four years) is a creative writing major and has written a fiction piece about her experience in the Dominican Republic with a boy she met named Santigo (pictured) called What You Taste in the Rain: Santigo’s Story. The following link is the first chapter of her book. Please Read it and enjoy!

http://thepittstop220.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-you-taste-in-rain-santigos-story.html

You may have seen from the chart that our monthly giving remained at $3200, 91% of where we need to be. We are very thankful for the support given to us. I have been raising this support so I can minister to students like Nicole, and see how God has worked in her life during her years at Pitt. Working with college students and seeing God transform them is a true blessing and I thank God every day for this opportunity. If you would like to help this ministry, we are always looking for new supporters. If God leads you to do so, we would love for you to be a part of this ministry through gift and/or prayer. We trust for you and for us that God will provide. He always has, and He always will. We thank you, and may God bless you richly because you have given to advance His kingdom! Please be in prayer that God will continue to build our support team and that we would be faithful in doing our part.

Moore News

Our family has been through quite a lot in the past few months. To sum up, I lost my grandmother, Betty Stephens, and Emily lost her mother, Kathryn Winter. Through tragedy, we have been surrounded by the love of friends and family and reminded that God is faithful, steadfast, and a restorer. We have grown closer as a family, though it has been a very difficult time. Please be in prayer for continued healing in our time of mourning.

Luckily summer is now here for me, and once again I get some much needed time off. Again, I will spend this summer focused on renewal: spiritually, emotionally, and physically. It will also be a great to spend more time with the family, teaching the boys the intricacies of baseball, teaching Benjamin to ride a bike, as well as many other recreational activities. And, hopefully, I can get a few more newsletters out.

As Paul says in Philippians, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace... And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” These verses are extremely appropriate with how I am feeling about each and everyone who has supported Emily and myself. Thanks and God Bless!

In Christ,
Andy Moore