Merry Christmas Albuquerque Youth Detention Center!

Tonight was totally awesome! Krystal and I had the opportunity to go down to Albuquerque and hang out at a Christmas party for about 20 girls who are incarcerated in Albuquerque's YDDC. I led us all in a time of worship and music, which was received by the girls as a blessing. Then a group of flamenco dancers entertained for a little while... then I was asked to share from the scriptures! This was an answer to a prayer I had prayed earlier, that the Lord would give me an opportunity to communicate the gospel! I taught them from Isaiah 53 of the fact that Jesus did not come only to be born, but to take upon Himself God's wrath toward our sins. God was so graceful in allowing me to be used to articulate His wonderful good news to these girls... my hope is that Jesus would be glorified through their salvation in light of hearing this good news. Then another divine appointment came when I met a brother named Joe and was able to encourage him in his ministry... God is awesome! All praise, honor, and glory, to Him alone!

The following is something that I wrote this Christmas Season that shares the connection between the birth of Jesus, His death upon the cross, and His Resurrection. To look at any of these things alone is to see a very incomplete story.



The Purpose of His Coming
The Christmas story is truly beautiful. However, when we
view the coming of Christ apart from His death on the
cross, the story doesn't really make much sense. To
be referred to as a "Savior" one must possess the ability
to "save", not just merely "be born".
Jesus not only claimed that He had the ability to save, He
said He was the only one who could save. "I am the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the
Father but through Me" (John 14:6)
Jesus' saving power was shown forth when He suffered
on the cross for the sins of all who would believe in Him
and find forgiveness. He then rose again the third day
after His death verifying that His claims were true. The
bible presents the troubling fact in the very words of
Christ that very few will actually trust in Him and be saved
from the coming judgement of God upon sin.
But that most, in seeking to avoid the difficulty of the
Christian life will travel the wide road which Jesus says,
will lead to destruction. Most people at this time of
year will take part in the celebration of the coming of
this wonderful Savior. Yet, the tragedy, is that so few are
truly affected by the purpose of His coming. May the
purpose of His coming be your reason for
rejoicing this season. Because just as the Christmas
story does not make much sense without the cross,
a person rejoicing in the coming of the Savior
without trusting in Him for their own salvation, doesn't
seem to make much sense either.

This last week

This last week has been really cool... the Lord has been growing me in some exciting areas. The thing that has resonated the most though is the encouragement of seeing God's word being worked out in my life and in the lives of others. I've had a few opportunities this week to counsel with people from the scriptures, and God's word never ceases to amaze me as He offers true hope to His children even in the midst of the most difficult times. Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose.
It's awesome that for those in Christ hope is NEVER lost, there is not anything that can overtake us, because God is for us. He will cause even the suffering that we go through to transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

Even the difficulty in our lives as Christians that we go through daily is actually something that we should be encouraged through...Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that narrow and difficult is the way which leads to life and few find it....So, when we experience increased difficulty in our lives as we seek to live for Christ, we can hear Jesus saying to us "Your on the right path...keep going, your one of the few." Knowing that we're on the right path, we are called to keep our eyes focused on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...as we do this we will be able to keep perspective no matter what the situation. Seeing all of this being fleshed out in peoples lives has been a great encouragement this week. To God be the Glory!

An inspirational visit...

Today Woody, Issac, and I went out to visit a sister in Christ named Barbara...she is on her death bed, and though we went to minister to her, things turned out to be quite the contrary. She ended up ministering to us, her faith in Christ was so strong... the faith God has wrought in her is nothing short of invincible, nothing could diminish it, she is truly living out in her last days the principle found in Philippians 1:21 that for the christian, "to live is Christ, and to die is GAIN."

As I played worship songs and we praised the Lord together, I thought of the fact that at the time when I first began playing music I was doing it solely for myself, for personal gain and glory...and amazingly the gift of music that God has given me got used today for something much much greater...it got used for God's glory in drawing his lovely saint Barbara up into worship of the one whom she will soon meet face to face, and remain with forever, Jesus Christ Himself. This was truly an inspirational visit...Praise be to God!

1 Peter 4:10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

- Ken

We're bloggers now!

Hey all,

Krystal and I are ridiculously bad at keeping in contact with people that we love, so I thought this would be a cool way for people to know what's going on with us. Hopefully, we can be faithful to update it often.

We're currently living in Santa Fe New Mexico, I am training to be a pastor and working as a Music leader at Calvary Santa Fe (http://www.calvarysantafe.org/) and Krystal is working for a place called "Film to Video"...Life has been mostly good and sometimes rough, but God is always good and He is doing some great things in and through our lives... May all praise, honor, and glory be to Christ!

God bless - Ken