The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

I’m in Malibu this week with our two amazing GCR Youth Ministers, Jadyn and J.E.,  for the annual Pepperdine Bible Lectures. Oh, and Shiloh. Jadyn’s precious daughter, Shiloh, has made the trip with us, too. Of course, as is my tradition, we flew into town a day early so we could take in a baseball game. Last night we watched Mike Trout strike out looking–twice!–as the White Sox crushed the Halos at the Big A in Anaheim. 6-0. Not much of a game. But we had awesome seats, sat by some really super nice Angels fans, and almost ate for the cycle.

We drove up to Hollywood Boulevard this morning to check out all the weird stuff there: the creepy Spiderman, the sad Mickey Mouse, all the people pushing their CDs while they bark for Hollywood bus tours, mixed in with the more historical sites like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and the Hollywood Bowl. We also ate a hearty lunch at the Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe, right there on the strip, and spent almost two hours on the windy and freezing beach in Malibu off the Pacific Coast Highway.

We took a little rest at our rooms on campus before eating our traditional opening night dinner at Malibu Seafood, again, right on the PCH, with a wonderful view of the ocean. And then we gathered with a couple of thousand Christians from all over the country to worship God with our great friends in United Voice Worship and to listen to God’s Word proclaimed by one of the best ever, my good friend Rick Atchley. It was as good–no, way better!–as what you would think.

The theme of this year’s lectures, “The Most Excellent Way,” comes from 1 Corinthians 13. The line of the night from Rick’s keynote sermon came while he was addressing the recent tendency in our churches to be seduced by worldly power and control, which distracts us and turns us away from our mandate to love. Rick told us the Church is pursuing a love of power instead of the power of love. But here’s the line:

“When the Church gets in bed with worldly power, the baby doesn’t look like Jesus.”

We hung around to talk with some of our favorite people and then shut down the Jack-in-the-Box up the road with some late night Oreo shakes. You can tell from this picture that I was still going strong at 10:00pm while J.E. was fading and Shiloh was already gone pecan. Lightweights.

This week at Pepperdine is one of my all-time favorite things every year. My soul needs this. My Lord always meets me here. He nourishes me and encourages me. I am being strengthened and refreshed. And I am not alone.

I cannot wait for tomorrow.

Peace,
Allan