Jeff Mashaw

Awesome blog. God Bless.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:28:40 -0700

Thanks for the encouragement!

The Cajón

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:00:06 -0700

One of the things that I have been introduced to recently is a Cajón. Cajón is spanish for box, and that is all that this is. Like I said on Saturday, I went down to visit my dad last Friday and he is helping me build one. I realized that I didn’t take any pictures of it, and that I should have, but I will soon. I had no idea these really awesome instruments existed until a friend of mine, Luis Morales played one with me at our worship nights at ASU Tempe last fall for Christian Challenge. Luis is probably one of the most talented latin percussionists I know, so it was a real treat watching him play this thing.

One of the other things he introduced me to was the band Worship Circle and other more mellow musical arrangements for worship. This is actually why I wanted to acquire a cajón for Challenge to use. Since our Thursday night group is fairly small right now, I really wanted to experiment with different acoustic setups, and was struggling to find a good (and cheap) way to do percussion. I started doing some research and realized it would be pretty simple to build one of these, and then I remembered my dad has all sorts of extra wood. Having the wood working tools and being in Tucson didn’t hurt either, so I decided to pay a visit to the family compound for a day to put this together. I had a great time working with my dad and I am excited to finish it up and see how it sounds. I will try to add pictures once I take some.

The ancient path to what is good

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

16 This is what the Lord says:

Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves.

But they protested, “We won’t!”

17 I appointed watchmen over you and said: Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.

But they protested, “We won’t listen!”

18 Therefore listen, you nations and you witnesses, learn what the charge is against them.

19 Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to My word. They have rejected My instruction.

- Jeremiah 6:16-19 HCSB

When studying for today’s Bible study, I came across this passage and had to read it several times. While this specific prophesy was written to a specific people at a specific time, I couldn’t help but wonder if it applied to me as well. I mean, not directly, that would violate proper hermeneutics, but perhaps the big idea that God has nothing but absolute contempt for the proud and willful who claim to know what is best for themselves, despite claiming allegiance to God.

Clearly this can only properly be applied to people who have been come into direct contact with God, that would be us believers. It should not be directly applied to the lost, those who have never encountered God, though it clearly has implications for those who have heard the gospel, yet refused to listen or respond. But, what really shakes me is that if I am not careful, I could be setting myself up in direct confrontation with God by simply choosing not to listen. This just seems like a really bad idea.

God, please help me to hear your truth and be obedient to you and your direction. Show me how to humbly obey you and follow the ancient path to what is good instead of the path that seems right to me. Allow me to show love to all, and be a right example of your grace and mercy thought the power of Jesus Christ. I pray this in your all-powerful name. Amen.

Jeremiah 5 (thoughts from 2/15)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:56:00 -0700

Last Week’s Bible Study Thoughts

Last week at our Wednesday Bible study at Mesa Community College, we read Jeremiah 5 (biblia.com). Here are a few thoughts from our reading and some of the things we discussed about this passage:

First, I like to look at see what words or phrases or verses really jump off the page at me:

Verse 3 The wording here makes me emotionally feel sorry for these people, and yet they clearly deserve what they are going to get. I want to implore them to turn and see their sin, and yet it would be hopeless, for if they wont listen to God, they wont listen to me either.
Verse 4 Even Jeremiah feels sorry for these “Fools.” Note how he never questions God’s ultimate justice.
Verse 5 See how the powerful had broken the yoke, that is they had forsaken God. God’s yoke is His commands, His law. They are the things that God desires from us. People who have broken His yoke, disobey Him, and this displeases God.
Verse 6 is clearly prophesying a siege. The animals are guarding the city represent an invading army that will come and prevent people from leaving for food, water, or refuge.
Verse 7-8 Use more of the sexual language we are used to seeing which represents how vile and disgusting their idolatry is to God.
Verse 12. See how it says they have insisted it won’t happen? This is referring to the siege which has been prophesied before. So, let’s follow this logically. God has already prophesied once about an upcoming siege through Jeremiah. The other prophets and the powerful people in the city openly deny that it is going to happen. God then instead of simply going forward with the siege, gives the people another chance and gives Jeremiah another prophesy this time including his displeasure at their denials. This reality here shows just how suffering and long-suffering God is. To allow people to rebel against Him and then ignore His warnings and pleas for repentance over and over again. Also, note how to God denial and refusal to repent is almost a worse sin then the just the original mistake. (This is what makes David’s sin so different from most people’s and why He was still able to be called a man after God’s own heart. Humans are incapable of not sinning, but those who seek God’s heart recognize their sin and repent promptly!)
Verse 13 The prophets stopped speaking the truth. This upsets God, and confuses the people. God’s power goes beyond what people say about Him. His will will come to pass irregardless of humanities agreement.
Verse 14 Notice how powerful God is: all He has to do is use His words. It is His words which are going to destroy the people through Jeremiah’s mouth. God’s words are very powerful.
Verse 18 shows how God is merciful again by promising not to completely finish off the people.
Verse 19 God straight up tells the people what the sin is that they committed. This shows God’s justice. He is not just randomly choosing to destroy His people, but it is a direct result of their sin that He has to punish their disobedience.
Verse 22 God’s power is directly displayed throughout all of creation. This one verse stands in for all of it. None of which we can truly describe or understand.
Verses 28 and 29 offer a cause and effect. God is simply bringing about true justice, which clearly must be brought forth as a result of failing to show justice and mercy to those who need it the most.
Verse 30 - 31 What a terrible thing for religious people to do what they do by their own authority. The only proper authority for any spiritual act is God alone.

As a result of reading this passage, the question becomes what can we do to apply the universal truths found here. Some of the things that seem universal are:

God’s power and justice are great and beyond understanding or even questioning
God’s word is very powerful
Do we live for ourselves, or for God? What is the motive and authority for our actions?
Loving God and Loving others is true religion
Showing mercy to our enemies time and time again is God’s pattern.

In order to be impacted by these truths, we should:

Strive to share the love of God with others through sharing the gospel, and by showing love to them through generous acts
Constantly remind ourselves of God’s power
Remind ourselves of God’s burning hot anger toward sin and continually repent/turn back toward God
Recognize sin’s consequences can prevent us from truly experiencing all of God’s goodness and promises.

In an effort to really be transformed by this passage, let us take a minute and pray where we are that God would change us and allow us to apply these things into our lives.

God, show us your will and grant us your vision. Let us be changed by the reality that our sin disgusts you and that we are incapable of redeeming ourselves. Apart from the blood of Jesus, we have no way to overcome our evil. Please transform us and allow us to do all things through your Holy Spirit. Let us overcome evil with good, let us show mercy to our enemies and let us show love to all. Give us boldness to share your truth with our friends and families. Lord, we love you and pray this in your Name,

Amen.

A Powerful Witness

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

A few weeks ago at MCC, our table was one of only two tables on campus near the clock tower. The other table belonged to one of the most active groups on campus: the LGBTQ Alliance. The club represents the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer students and plans activities to promote awareness and advocates for these lifestyles. Having our little Christian Challenge table with our bright blue banner right across from this club’s table must have been very interesting to passers-by. I had several students stop by and ask me about homosexuality shortly before stopping by the other table.

All this to say that I had a few very interesting conversations with people who identified themselves as gay. And I wanted to share a conversation I had a student who told me that he was struggling with giving up on his faith because he was being socially and emotionally shunned by his family, his church and christian friends. Why he felt compelled to tell me this I have to assume is a God thing, but it made me feel very sad. I had no idea what to say, I am just one guy trying to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. So I said I was sorry, and that kind of thing shouldn’t happen. I tried to show compassion without judgement and it is my hope that I will have more opportunities to share the love of Jesus with him.

I ask you to please join me in praying for the lost students at MCC, and maybe this week pray especially for those who are struggling with gender-identity issues. Homosexuality is perhaps the greatest issue students are dealing with, and the only power strong enough to overcome Satan’s lies is the truth and power of the the gospel of Jesus Christ. So please join me in crying out to God for Him to show up in a powerful way on this campus and in this generation.

A New Social Media Campaign

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

I am not sure if you have noticed or not, but recently I have made a sincere attempt to begin posting more stuff here at tumblr. I kinda dislike the idea of using a blog post to talk about posting to a blog, but I am pretty excited about this and want to share with you what I am calling my Social Media Campaign. Why am I campaigning? Well, actually that is what excites me.

God has been doing some really neat things through my work with Christian Challenge at Mesa Community College and through the worship activities I have been a part of. Some of these things are big and some of them not too big. I currently make an attempt to send out a monthly prayer letter to my supporters. This letter contains a summary of all the big things that I am doing throughout the month. While it offers a really good overview of what is going, I really want to give people an opportunity to join with me on a more regular basis. So, I have decided to use Social Media (specifically tumblr for now) as a way to share what is going on in the ministry every week.

Essentially this boils down to a post a day on 7 different topics areas:

Ecclesia Sundays: thoughts about church and it’s importance.
Big Dreams Monday: posts like this one which talk about dreams, goals and future plans
Evangelism Tuesdays: a recap of the previous week’s evangelism encounters and prayer requests for the following days EV efforts
Bible Study Wednesdays: a short thought from the passage for our weekly Wednesday bible study
Worship Thoughts Thursday: a video, song or idea as Thursday I lead worship at ASU Challenge
Personal Thoughts Fridays: just personal thoughts of a more spiritual nature
Odds ‘N Ends Saturdays: answering questions, responding, or other random posts.

I am not sure if I will continue posting everyday, but I do think the posts on these days will be in these general categories. My hope is that I will be able to engage people in the work that God is doing and that people will choose to join in the adventure with me.

Why don't you go to church?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

Seriously. I want to know why. What is it about church that makes you not go. For those of you who do go, maybe you can chime in?

It seems to me like there has been a lot of conversation lately about what is wrong with church and why we don’t go and how the system is broken, and people are Christian enough, etc., etc. However, I really am trying to get to the heart, the core of the issue. Is the Christian church as an institution really broken? Has it really made so many mistakes? Can we even answer that questions honestly and truthfully? I mean, how can we even evaluate the institution american Christianity? There is no 1 authority, or body that makes up. In fact even in my own Southern Baptist denomination there are no two churches perfectly alike. I know there are some that do things wrong and have made mistakes, and might be really toxic environments for people, but those are the outliers.

When I hear Millennials talk about church, either they love it or they hate it. But sometimes I wonder if their issue with church isn’t more a personal issue with God, or with expectations. I just don’t know. I do know that it is hard to be a part of a family, and that is what church is: a family. And it takes work to make it work, and it takes love to gloss over the bumps, but that in the end it must be worth it. Christ’s bride will be presented spotless and without blemish in God’s eyes, and that is a goal worth fighting for.

A little time in Tucson

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

If you were following me yesterday on twitter (@jeffmashaw) you might have seen these posts:

Tucson can make me feel very schizophrenic sometimes. ;)

Here are the linked photos:

This is just so pretty to me, and one of the things I miss the most about Tucson is Mt. Lemon covered in clouds and snow.

And then there’s this:

I hate Tucson traffic and its lack of a reasonable freeway system that connects the east side to I-10.

But then I look and see a sunset and fall in love all over again:

Argh, Tucson!!! Anyway, it was a really nice time in Tucson. My dad and I are building a cajon. I will be writing more about that later this week, but I had a really great time getting together with my parents. I feel like a little time going back where I was raised can really rejuvenate me. It is tiring, but especially after the 4 hours of driving round trip I feel closer to God. I am really thankful and blessed to have such an awesome family, and such a powerful God who displays his glory in the heavens for all to see.

Just like Romans 1:20 says:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Keeping the Faith

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

The end of 2 Chronicles makes me really, really sad. We have this wonderful story of King Josiah who began he reign at age 8. He essentially has a heart and desire to return to the ways of the Lord so he cleans up the temple. While cleaning, they discover the book of the law and read it out loud to all the people. Can you imagine that? Having the entire first 5 books of the bible read out loud to you in one sitting? Wow! And then instead of getting bored, the people are moved to tears. Josiah tears his robes and mourns for the people and the country. But God says it is way too late, there is far too much sin that must be punished, but because Josiah was humble, God will spare him of having to see it happen.

I desire to be moved to tears for the sins of the lost and to burn with a passion for God’s word that will keep me humble.

We did this worship song at our last winter retreat in January,...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

We did this worship song at our last winter retreat in January, 2012 for Christian Challenge and I fell in love with it. It absolutely rocks. Oh, and we have worship at Christian Challenge tonight at 7:30pm.

This is a verse from this weeks Bible Study passage at...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:00:06 -0700

This is a verse from this weeks Bible Study passage at MCC:

“Do you not fear Me? This is the Lord’s declaration. Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it.”

-Jeremiah 5:22 HCSB

To boldly Go...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:00:06 -0700

On Wednesdays I spend several hours hanging out at a table in the middle of Mesa Community College (MCC). I do this for several reasons:

1. I might just be a little bit crazy

2. Even though I live in Arizona, I don’t think I’ve spent enough time in the sun

3. I really enjoy having conversations with random students

4. I enjoy talking about spiritual things

5. I am trying to recruit new students for our campus ministry club

But, most importantly: I believe it is the most important thing I can be doing with my time! You see, students at MCC are surrounded by all sorts of influences and evil things which all vie for their time an affections. Most of them are unaware of the spiritual nature of their choices and I believe that is a travesty. If I do not go and sit there on that campus with my banner, and my picture cards, and my smile, and the Holy Spirit living inside me, no on else is. That is not to say that no one else is able, but simply there are no other people who are currently out there. And even if there were 10 full time ministers at MCC, it still wouldn’t be enough to reach the thousands of college students on the campus.

I firmly believe that God wants to impact this generation in a way that will radically impact the world. I also believe that God has called me to take part in this transformation by engaging in simple, but meaningful conversations with students on campus. I am really excited to be on this journey and looking forward to seeing what God is going to do.

Monday Morning

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:00:05 -0700

Monday morning is a really good time to sit back and think about what the rest of the week might hold. This week I am thinking about how awesome it is that I get the opportunity to do ministry on a college campus. I believe God wants to impact this generation of young people and I enjoy being a part of it. My only hope is that I am faithful to the call and I am obedient to the task at hand.

Engaging the Gathering

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:00:06 -0700

Today is Sunday. What are you doing today? If you are like most college students, then probably recovering from your hang-over, doing laundry and finally sitting down to homework. However, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus, I would strongly encourage you to consider going to church today. If you don’t have a church you go to, then I would strongly implore you to connect yourself to a local body.

Scripture tells us that the Church is the body of Jesus Christ, and that it’s members are the all the saints and believers through-out the world, through-out the generations. The Universal Church is one body spanning the centuries and the globe. However, this universal body is made up of local manifestations, or churches. It is in this local group of believers that we get to live out the commandments of Jesus. In fact, if you carefully read the New Testament, you will see that almost all of the letters and the directives in those letters were not to individuals, but to churches. So when Paul is writing that “your body is the temple of the living God,” that is directed to an entire church body. While there may be some truth in the personal application of that, it is the body as a whole which is the true temple of the living God. God’s present in each of us as individuals, but He truly manifests Himself in the corporate gathering of the saints.

So I tell you that if you are not connected to a local body of Christ, serving and growing together with other believers, you are not only missing out on the promises and joys of the gathering, your are stunting your own spiritual growth and connection to God.

What are your thoughts on homosexuality?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:38:00 -0700

It depends upon your definition of homosexuality. And if your definition includes the word love, then we’d have to define love. Love does not, nor ever has involved anything to do with a sexual attraction. Love is a commitment, it is a choice, not something you feel. Further, in the bible, God has defined that sex is only good, and it is only right when a man and his own wife engage in it. God has set many standards for righteousness and they are not up to humans to determine whether they are just, or right, God alone is righteous enough to judge us fairly. So, from my perspective, two people of the same gender engaging in a sexual relationship is un-biblical and sinful. However, every person is a person of value and worth who Jesus came to this earth and died to save. And every human being is incapable of doing anything biblical or un-sinful apart from Jesus (that includes above all me). Recognizing this, I have been tasked not with judging other’s sins, (far be it from me with the huge plank in my own eye to judge another person) but instead to be an emissary to the nations, an ambassador of the One-True Holy and Righteous God, who has loved us all so much He came and died to allow us the opportunity to experience grace, freedom and relationship with Him.

Our banner on our table at MCC. I think it looks kinda cool.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:58:55 -0700

Our banner on our table at MCC. I think it looks kinda cool.

Back to School

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:53:00 -0700

I spent most of yesterday on campus at Mesa Community College. I tabled for about 3 and half hours, and then I led our Bible study. It was nice being back on campus after having a month or so off. I really enjoyed the conversations we had with the students, and it was great to hear their questions about scripture as we began our journey into Jeremiah.

Almost nothing in this picture would be recognized by a first...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:48:40 -0700

Almost nothing in this picture would be recognized by a first century human. What are the implications for Biblical application in the 21st century?

What do I do?

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:46:58 -0700

I feel like sharing a little bit about what it is that I do with my life, as many of you may not know. I am a missionary. Everyone who answers the call to follow Jesus Christ is to be a missionary to the people who are around them. Well I am a missionary on the college campus. I get the opportunity to serve God by hanging out with college students and sharing Jesus Christ with them. I feel as though I am not very good at it yet, though I know it is what I am supposed to be doing because God called me to do it. I have a desire to help college students see the light of day.

As I chat with young people on the college campuses, I get a real sense of true lostness. In the Christian world, we speak of Lostness as a code-word for not-saved people, or sinners, but when you talk to students you actually can feel how truly lost they are. As I just posted, dictionary.com defines “lost” as:

having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.

I really can see this bewilderment in most of the young people that I talk to. They seem confused and simply have no idea how to find what they are looking for. This is what encourages me in my work. I am not lost. I have been found. I have direction, purpose and a location, and I get to share this with students. It is my hope that as I continue in my work, I will see some lost students be found. It is my hope that God will use me to help find some of these people. That is a little bit about what I do.

"LOST: having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc."

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:37:48 -0700

“LOST: having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.”

- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lost