Let this blog be a place where we can ask the hard questions and begin a journey to find the truth and model our lives after Jesus Christ, for He is truth.

Happy Blogging!

David

My testimony is about how God will provide for you once He is in your life. I do not have a “and then I gave up girls and alcohol” testimony but this does not mean that my testimony is inadequate; all of our testimonies are adequate.  What we can share about is what God has done for us in our lives, which brings down our story to a true personal level to the people we encounter in our lifetime. For me, both of my parents were saved and I grew up going to church. They set good examples for me growing up, with an alcohol and tobacco free household. I have never been molested as a child, and if you have please tell someone in order to release yourself from the bondage of your past and if you have already, use it in your testimony. I think to myself I was so fortunate, hearing my one pal’s testimony he told me of all the abuse he had with men and women during his childhood. Why didn’t I get abused as bad as he did? I am blessed and having Christ in my life does not protect me from that, it does help those who have been abused though. So I come from a “perfect” family or childhood. We never had to pray for food and my dad has always been employed. What it boils down to is none of the safety of my childhood would mean anything without Christ. Even if I would have died playing Nintendo on a full stomach with no knowledge of the evils outside my window, I would have been deserving of eternal punishment. I thank God for coming into my life at age 6. It was during Wednesday night or Sunday school that I remember praying to God to forgive me of my sins and to come into my life and take it over. From there I was always the Christian in school, but could have lived a more bold and extreme life. No real faith challenges came in elementary school but it was wretched middle school that put one to the test. I picked up swearing and did other dumb little coping mechanisms to survive the social hells of middle school. People knew I was a Christian amongst my inconsistencies like swearing. I remember in 7th grade having a conversation with a girl about abstinence and how I was going to do it and I remember her saying that she probably would slip eventually. 8th grade was probably when ole puberty starting kicking in and I started to check out girls, another inconsistency in my life. By 9th grade I was into getting girls numbers at the mall and chatting with as many as possible on AOL instant messenger. Here is where I reflect that if I got really sexually involved with girls, I would have been very corrupted and may not be where I am today. Fortunately I knew to stay away from some girls and other girls I should not have tried to pursue never pursued me! I think back to my 1st girlfriend’s house, we were alone (dumb idea) and I asked her what she wanted to do. We made out a lot but I think about what if she said ‘I’ll show you”! (9th grade Ben would have been helpless to resist such a coming on) What if I became a teenage father that night? It could have happened, we are all one decision away from a drastically changed life, one. Here is where I am fortunate for I had the approach I would not try anything on a girl (felt wrong) but if she tried something on me it was not my fault (man my theology was wrong!). As I started to attend 2 youth groups in my high school career, I grew stronger in my faith. I found more security in myself and eventually got an abstinence ring in 10th grade and by 11th knew I would not be accidently fooling around with girls. During the youth group I attended , it put on missions’ trips in the summer that were called summer ministry and retreat teams, SMART Trips. It was in these trips that exposed me to the world, I saw poverty in the USA like I had never seen and I was doing ministry, I felt like I could was able to do something for God, it took the spectator out of church. Each year after the trips I felt I could do more for God. 11th grade was Philly which rocked me, seeing Devil’s corner Philly and Greg Feldy’s ministry showed me what normal people were capable of for the kingdom of God. After this trip I helped start a bible study at McKeesport High School (I’m class of 2006). Then after the home SMART trip senior year, where could I go now? Leading up to all this was my career aspirations. My whole life I wanted to be in the military. From kindergarten, to 4th grade to senior year I wanted to join the military. Seeing the military around the corner I decided to do some sort of ministry before I entered in for Uncle Sam, I just didn’t know what.  Up to this point I was also an avid runner and one day in August, (I planned on signing up for the Army in September) I decided to pray and run. I was on Congress Street when I said to God “I give you the army”. I remember stutter stepping and a great weight being lifted from me. Up till this point I thought what I wanted to and didn’t ask God’s consent, now I allowed God to work in me to my full potential. Only a few days after this my life started to take a real turn. I ran into this guy I barely knew named Choby and he told me all about Youth with a Mission, YWAM, and it was something I wanted to do prior military. What really intrigued me about this YWAM was hearing God’s voice. Choby told me a story of feeling God lead him to this alley behind his house and then 20 minutes later these guys in our class came along. He shared the gospel with them. I was blown away that somebody my age would share the gospel with people our own age in an alley way at night that God led him in, I wanted that faith Choby had so I joined YWAM. I toured the base and was also blown away. I saw missionaries living together in community and something was different there. I met Lima who was my tour guide and he showed me the men’s dorm, his stuff was in the corner and he told me that everything he owned was there!  This man lived in the USA for 10 years and had so little! I was sold and joined YWAM for their September thru February Discipleship Training School, DTS. We immediately were taught how to seek and hear from God on day one. YWAM grounded me in fundamentals of the Christian walk, just spend time with God! A true challenge came to me when one day we were sent off to have out personal devotions and we were told to not take a Bible and be back at 9, but it was 8am that would be 1 hour of prayer, impossible… or was it? At 9am I realized something new, it could be done! What new spiritual levels of my life could be achieved! Each day I grew more and realized more about myself. I was spending extra time with God in my time in YWAM than I had in a lifetime; no wonder YWAM impacted me so much. During my prayer times I was convicted of many sins in my life, for part of prayer is a deep finding of one’s s sins and asking for forgiveness.  I had hate for my brother, was no acting appropriate with a former girlfriend and of other inconsistent Christian actions I had done in my earlier years, all things I needed to ask forgiveness for. We were trained for 3 months in the USA then had a 2 month outreach in South American cities: Buenas Aires, Santiago, and Lima. In South America we danced and performed drama on the street then shared our faith in small groups afterwards. I felt like a modern day Paul with all of our evangelism. Each country broke me more and by the time we hit Lima, Peru, I was really a different person. Life got very real, very quickly. People were going to hell and we as Christians can take our apart in plundering the gates of hell to populate heaven. Seeing all the poverty of Peru is what broke me, in addition to always being hungry with our meager meals. Materialism was being broken in me in addition to my love for food and a full stomach. I remember sitting on a bus on Peru driving to a city for outreach thinking I cannot do the military. After now seeking God for what he wanted me to do I realized the military was what Ben wanted to do, not God. My romanticized images of the military were gone, real people were going to die with my real bullets; I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. When I got back home I was in culture shock. I remember driving down the street seeing people going about their daily lives and I wondered “don’t you have any idea what is outside America”! We were at the YWAM base in the USA for one week to recover before I graduated my DTS. Being back home now for the first time in months, I remember having my prayer time, staring at the wall in total seriousness. I realized “okay big shot, YWAM is over, will you live the Christian faith with the utmost boldness, or will chicken out”? I decided to live more boldly than ever. A “welcome back the USA” party was held for me that evening and all my peers were there. I showed them a 6 minute video of our outreach and then did the boldest thing I had ever done in the United States. After the video, I said after each drama we shared this book, pointing to an evangelism wordless book (book with different colors to tell the Christian story). I shared it with my peers. If I did not, 5 months could have showed no impact on me. From here a new Ben Dunlop was around, one bold for Christ. I put to practice all I had learned. I got a job at an Italian restaurant and saw my employees as never before, whom can God use me to save? I prayed for employees and shared my faith boldly. Employees started coming up to me with prayer requests, this never happened at my pervious jobs, I was a Christian wimp previously! Another post YWAM story, my favorite, I was going to go into McKeesport to share the gospel on the streets, didn’t matter where. I felt I should turn around so I did; I eventually was led to this church. I knocked on the door and Dave Griffith came to the door. I told him I feel God had led me there (at noon on a Tuesday)! Dave ended up discipling me. We connected so well and he taught me many things, he also gave me numerous opportunities to teach or lead, I felt like an eager boxer who could never get a fight, and now Dave was letting me have shot! I realized we have to give inexperienced people in this world a shot, not to be head pastor but something, for these experience build upon one another. I have many, many stories like this of God providing in crazy ways, you will just have to ask me. From here I sought God about college and he put on my heart “seek to seek him” so I did so going to Lancaster Bible College, LBC. Here I grew in head knowledge and in YWAM I grew in experiential Christianity. To not drag on further, the bulk of my testimony was SMART Trips to YWAM for I see they were the building blocks to my foundation. I do not want to underestimate the faithful Sunday school teachers ,VBS and pioneer club volunteers for their teaching in addition to my parents for giving me so much encouragement and fundamentals as well. God had provided for me since I was young but it took my will to want to follow him that could allow me to be used. My final words are that you don’t waste your life, you only live once. God used YWAM as the volcano in my spiritual walk, what will be your YWAM equivalent? No age cards are allowed to be played, you could be 13 or 45 and living an inconsistent life for Christ or have never truly sought God on where you should be, if not do so now. I thought I was going to the army, look where I am now, the epitome of the military, a Bible College!

What is the Gospel?

1. God created mankind and loves man… (Gen. 1&2)
2. However, Because of mankind’s wickedness, hardening of hearts and all out denial of God as our source of provision a separation accrued (which is called sin)…. God cannot combine with sin (Gen. 3; Rom. 1; Is. 61-7; Is 59:2)
3. Because of this injustice (sin), there has to be justice served… This justice requires the payment of death. Not just a physical death but eternal separation from God himself in a literal place called Hell… (Gen. 3, Rom.. 3:23; Rev. 20:11-15)
4. But since man is sinful, man cannot save himself, he can not defeat death… We need a substitute (a savior)… ( Eph. 2, 2 Cor. 5:21)
5. God loves Man, therefore He has provided a way for man to be “saved” from this judgment… (Gen. 3:15; John 14:6)
6. God sent his only son, named Jesus Christ, of a virgin birth. He was completely man and completely God. He lived a completely sinless life… (Jn 1:14; 3:16; Is. 7:14)
7. He died an unjust death on a wooden cross for the penalty of mankind’s sin so some might be saved. He was blameless and he is our substitute… (Is. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21, Rom. 5:6-11)
8.  For anyone to receive this free gift of salvation it only requires man to be obedient to God through faith alone, not works… (Eph. 2, Jn 3:3, Rom. 10:9-10, 1 Cor. 15:3-4)
9. Through Christ all people can be reconciled back to God because God loves mankind his creation… (2 Cor. 5:20; Col. 1:19-20)
10. We can now experience a real relationship with God our original design… we are free from sin’s bondage, free from accusations… free from hopelessness and free from fear… (Rom. 6, Heb. 4, Rev. 3)
11. Now those who have received Jesus Christ into their lives have become a part of the Body of Christ (i.e. the church) (Eph. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12; 12:27)

I am completely and utterly amazed at how completely and utterly amazing God is. Many times before I have been in this spot and I know I will be here again. And it is always my stinking routine which becomes my enemy. But thanks be to God who breaks through any matter of fact attitude I may have, especially when it comes to the power of prayer.

My wife went on a missions trip last week to Cambodia to gain more information on what CHO(Cambodian Hope organization) are doing there and to see a well project she helped raise money for. She will write more about that experience later this week but I got permission from her to share this truly incredible story.

Here’s how the story goes:

Last Thursday she and the other two girls with her were traveling by taxi in Cambodia to the village of Poipet. This is normally a four hour trip, however there was something seriously wrong with her driver. Not having the ability to speak their language they could only guess what was happening to him. He was repeatedly grabbing his legs screaming in pain, rocking back and forth yelling something in Khmer. He was sweating profusely and pounding on the wheel. Once he stopped and got out and grabbed a bottle of pills and downed the whole bottle.  Keep in mind this entire time he never stopped driving even though he was traveling seventy-five miles an hour and weaving in and out of traffic. The girls riding with him were terrified he might pass out or even die as he was driving. The girl next to him was even ready to grab the wheel if something did happen. Halfway through this scary ordeal one of the girls looked back at the others and said “we need to start praying that God wakes up people and starts praying for us….”

This past Sunday I was at church, unaware of my wife’s story and four days after the event. I was talking to a very sweet dear lady in our church and she was telling me how one night this past week in the middle of the night she thought she heard her alarm clock. However when she woke up it wasn’t going off but she did hear God. She said at that moment God was laying Carrie on her heart to the point she could hear Carrie’s name. She began to pray for her and her trip.

As she was telling me this story, I reminded her that Carrie was twelve hours ahead of us and it would have been the middle of the day. Actually it would have been 3:00 in the afternoon because it was 3:00 in the night when she woke up. We both looked at each other and smiled, thinking what was going on at that time.

Prayer is the great connection we all have to God no matter where we are and what we are doing. Don’t ever just assume it was coincidence when God lays something on your heart. I don’t know who else God may have waked up that night to pray but I am thankful this dear lady knew it was God.

By the way if you did not guess it by now…it was 3:00 in the afternoon when my wife was on this taxi ride…

After spending some time last week studying Romans 12:1-2 (…you may discern what is the will of God…), I have been thinking a lot about knowing God’s will. First what is God’s will and secondly how do we know we are doing God’s will?

In search of the answer to the first question I came along an older sermon by pastor and author John Piper. In it he says the following:

For example, if you were badly abused as a child, and someone asks you, “Do you think that was the will of God?” you now have a way to make some biblical sense out of this, and give an answer that doesn’t contradict the Bible. You may say, “No it was not God’s will; because he commands that humans not be abusive, but love each other. The abuse broke his commandment and therefore moved his heart with anger and grief (Mark 3:5). But, in another sense, yes, it was God’s will (his sovereign will), because there are a hundred ways he could have stopped it. But for reasons I don’t yet fully understand, he didn’t.”

There is a difference between those obeying the commands of God (His will, or desire for humanity) and the sovereign will of God (his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure)

Many times we want to know the answers to the sovereign will of God, yet God chooses, for reasons unknown to us not to reveal those answers. Basically we are asking for a crystal ball into the future so we never have to make mistakes or poor choices.

And yet the key to discerning the will of God as in Romans 12:1-2 is the act of obedience to His commands. It’s the process of being transformed by the renewing of our minds which happens through His word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). May we always be more concerned with obeying His commands then having all the answers to our future. And may we always trust in His sovereign will for our lives.

One last note: if you are wondering what to do with yourself or your future, then take a look at 1 Cor. 15:58 “ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.  Anything you labor in for the Lord will not be wasted!

Too often as Christians we still separate our lives into the sacred (what we do for God) and the secular (things which do not directly involve God).

So therefore we can go out Saturday night and do what ever we please and then have no problem going to Church and worshipping Him on Sunday. Or we can treat our family like garbage all week yet never miss a chance to go deep in our Bible studies. The problem is seeing areas in our lives in which God is not directly involved. And believing I have to behave a certain way when I participate in the sacred things of my life (which is really just ritualism).

Too often we say to God, “here is my worship,” but I am in control of the rest of my life. Church becomes something we go and do but it does not cross over into my normal life. Nobody feels the need to be authentic and we painfully walk through another boring hour which has no connection to anything else we do. 

Let me encourage you to rethink what is sacred and what is secular. Jesus had many harsh words for people who just cared about the sacred things in life (Matthew 23:27). Our entire lifestyle is what is important to God not just the sacred acts we do. And may your spiritual worship be pleasing and acceptable to Him (Rom. 12:1-2)

I was recently reading the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 and was stuck by a comment Isaac made. As the two men where walking up the mountain to offer a sacrifice to God, he looked around and asked “Oh, dad where’s the lamb?”
It is the same type of question Mary asked Gabriel when he told her she was pregnant. “Hey angel, I think you might have forgotten something, how can I be with a child when I’m a virgin?”

In both these cases, Isaac and Mary, asked very simple and logical questions to what God was doing.  Have you ever questioned what God was doing? Or does it make your body cringe thinking it is a sin to question an authority.

Sometimes we get really nervous thinking we do not have all the answers. Sort of like we missed that day in class when God was going to make sense in everything He does. Questions are a beautiful thing and even more beautiful when we do not have all the answers. It is then we can simple say, “Lord, I do not know what you are doing but I will put my faith in you.” Sometimes God only gives us the next step and not the exact route on mapquest.

Never be afraid of questioning what God is doing. It is in these difficult times we must hold on to the truth we do know. Isaac and Mary knew this as both trusted God over what seemed like common sense at the time. Remember we always know the sun rises every morning. However some days it is cloudy out and we cannot make out the sun. But we always know the sun is still there. When you can put your faith in who God is, we can have hope when we do not have all the answers. God is not intimated by your questions, in fact He tells us to ask, to seek and to knock for when we do we will find what we are looking for.

One man, journeying across the country through the barren wasteland of a post-apocalyptic horror.  Life has been reduced to its most brutal base – survive, or die.  He carries with him tools to ensure his survival, but is powered by a bigger reason – in his backpack he carries a book, the last known copy on the planet.  He reads the words every day.  They become for him much more than letters on a page, but a force that guides his very existence.

That’s the plot in the new movie The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington.  It is not a movie for everyone – it is at times violent and graphic.  It is rated R for good reason.

The book Eli carries and protects so fiercely?  It’s a copy of the King James Bible.  In the movie, Eli does everything he can to protect its survival, to get it to a place he believes it should be.  Eli knows there is power in the Book.  His nemesis, the leader of a lawless town, also knows its power, and wants it more than anything in the world.  But his quest is to use that power in ways Eli would never condone.

For Eli, the Book he carries is more precious than anything else, even more than his own life. Eli believes the words of the Book, this Bible, should be available for people.  The bad guy wants to use the Book to control and manipulate. (spoiler warning: Eli does more than just read this copy of the Bible)

The Book of Eli raises some important questions for us.  What is the power of the Bible?  What should we do to protect it?  Is the Bible itself or the truth it conveys what is really valuable?  What ways should and should we not use the Bible?

As we think about those questions, there are some others we should ask of ourselves today, where we live right now. What is the place of the Bible in our lives?  Is it precious to us?  Do we take the time to read it every day?

For Eli, the Bible changes his life.  Has it changed ours?

May Christ dwell in our hearts is not a nice concept to think about but a reality we need to grasp each and every day. It was the prayer of Paul for the church in Ephesus and it drove him to his knees.  This is of course possible because of two entities, first we have God’s word written to us to reveal the very nature of who Christ is and second we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit. So to make this a true reality in our lives we have to dive deeply into God’s word to know the essence of who Christ is and we need to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. Without the Word everyone could come up with their own “Jesus” and without the power of the Holy Spirit we would only become “puffed up” with knowledge trying to better ourselves from our peers.

I want encourage you to join us and read through the book of Mark over the next forty days. Starting today with Mark 1:1-13. (This section is a quick summary of the beginning of Jesus’ earthy ministry. If you would like more information about these events read Matthew 3:13-4-12.) Do notice that Jesus is God’s son, and God is well pleased with Him. A truth which will be an amazing blessing to everyone who believes in name. We will find this out as we go on. If you have questions please feel free to leave a comment or if you want to share a “testimony” of God let us know.

Let Christ D.W.E.L.L. in your hearts.

Dive deeply into His Word
Wrestle with sin
Embrace who God is
Let God in
Listen to God

Have you ever told someone “God loves you!!!” It feels nice and easy for us to say God loves someone else. We have compassion on others and often feel sorry for strangers, people we do not even know. We know God loves humanity and we understand Jesus died for lost people but something changes when we apply those truths to our own lives.  Since we do not know everybody’s ugly spots and warts, the truth of “God loves you” does not stretch the concepts of unconditional love. It fits neatly on to a bumper sticker or a greeting card we hand to your next door neighbors. However we do not know what they are thinking or what they have done in the past. We don’t have access to their inner most secrets, the ghosts in the closet so we look at them and think God really must care deeply for them.  But since we know ourselves and we know what we have done there is no way God could love us. “God loves me,” doesn’t work. “I’ve done too many bad things.”  Unconditional love seems as believable as the tooth fairy. Or as someone said this past weekend; “If God knows me, I mean really knows me? Than how could He ever love me? 

At the risk of being “Hallmarkish” let me explain why God loves you and wants an intimate relationship with you.

First we have to let go of the myth “if God knows me”. Revelations 3:15 tells us “I know your works…” Hebrews 4:13 says “and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him whom must give account”. God knows what you’ve done, what you thought and what you would have done if you could. Everything is exposed before Him. The Bible is full of people who screwed up, missed the mark and “let God down”. You cannot hide from God and you cannot tide up your sins enough to fool Him. He knows the real you, it’s who He created.

Secondly God wants an intimate relationship with you. Even though He knows everything you have done or thought He still desires that relationship. It’s called Agape love, meaning unconditional love, no strings attached. God loves you for who you are not what you have done. It is unlike any relationship we have on earth and it is hard to grasp the reality of it. Revelations 3:20 tells us God is knocking on our door waiting to have a relationship with us. Romans 5:8 says God demonstrated His love to us by dying for us while we were still sinners. Basically when we were at war with God, He died for us. That’s unconditional love. You can safely say God loves me, now what you do with His love is a different story. As a quick side note, remember unconditional love doesn’t mean He is accepting of all behavior, just because He loves us doesn’t mean He tolerates sin. 

Finally we are all fighting against an enemy that hates God. Satan would want nothing more than to convince us this kind of love doesn’t exist. John 8:55 remains us that Satan is the father of lies. I know our lives are full of hurt and pain. We have been let down by people we love time and time again. We also have made poor choices and have searched for intimacy in all the wrong places. This has added to the belief that no one could love us like this, that God must be disappointed in us and could never love us any more. All of which are lies we must let go of and hold onto the truth of God’s word.

Remember God is for us not against us! He owned us first and wants an intimate relationship with us. If you don’t believe this unconditional love, then join us on our journey of understanding Jesus Christ. We will be walking through the gospel of Mark over the next 40 days. Come and see for yourself who this Jesus is and how He proves the Father’s love for us.

I’m praying for you this week. May God continue to reveal Himself to you and may you see Him as the one who loves you. We have a long journey together but let us begin each day DWELLing in His presence….