Will Davis Jr.'s Blog, page 15

The Ambush

I grew up rich; I just didn’t know it at the time.

My father grew up in a single-parent household. He and his mother were poor. For my father, provision was a great way to show love. He figured that if he could give his family what he never had, he’d be a pretty successful dad. So he worked long and hard to make sure we had every opportunity a family could have. For that I’m very grateful. I’ve never known what it is to want or lack for anything, not even close. In reality, I lived a very cushy life growing up: ski trips at Christmas and spring break, my own bedroom and bathroom in a nice house in an affluent part of town, long family trips in the summer, new clothes, new cars, a summer house on the lake, complete with ski boat, and world-class educational opportunities. I don’t think these things spoiled me, but I do believe they numbed me to the reality of how people live who aren’t so financially favored.

I graduated from college, went on to graduate school, and then became a pastor without ever really coming face-to-face with poverty or suffering. But God would soon change that.

In the summer of 2002, I took a much-needed sabbatical from my job as a pastor. My church was gracious enough to give me eight weeks off and my wife was gracious enough to allow me to spend much of that time hiking in the Rockies with our son. We spent several weeks climbing fourteen-thousand-foot mountains in Colorado. In the next-to-last week of my break, I agreed to accompany my daughter and several other kids in our student ministry to Reynosa, Mexico, with a ministry called Mission Discovery.

Mission Discovery is a Nashville-based ministry that builds homes for the impoverished and supports orphanages in Mexico, Africa, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the United States. Our job was to build a small one-room home (it’s about the size of a small storage shed that you might have in your backyard, without electricity or running water) for a family.

Reynosa is just south of the Texas/ Mexico border and is the final stop for thousands of families trying to work their way north into the United States. Because most of them are unable or unwilling to enter the United States illegally, and because most are desperately poor, they are forced to create makeshift shelters out of anything they can find. Some families or groups of families live in those pitiful dwellings for years. It’s hard to imagine, but the little cubicles we build for these people improve their living conditions exponentially.

The typical “house” we build for families in Reynosa.

 

This is embarrassing to admit, but that trip was my first real missions experience. I was a church leader and had been a Christian for over thirty years, but I had never personally been involved in any form of missions. As a result, I really didn’t know what to expect and I certainly wasn’t looking forward to the trip. I was going to support my daughter and our student ministry, not because I had any sense of responsibility to serve the people in Reynosa.

In short, I got ambushed. It was without question the best week of my sabbatical. Don’t get me wrong; this was no easy or restful week. The temperatures were well over a hundred degrees each day on the work site, and we had to drive over an hour each way, including crossing the United States/ Mexico border just to get there. But what I saw, heard, smelled, and felt changed me. It broke me and marked me for the rest of my life. I had never before looked directly into the face of poverty. I had never stared into the eyes of a widow who was uncertain if she could feed her kids the next day. I had never seen children running about and playing in the dirt roads of the colonia in their underwear, simply because they had no other clothing.

I had never seen a special needs child roaming the streets alone like an abandoned pet because her parents could no longer care for her. And I had never seen men, stripped of all sense of dignity and self-worth because of the generational ravages of poverty, use drinking and sex (actually rape would be a better word) as a means of passing the time. I had never seen any of that before. What I saw made me angry. That’s a common emotion for many people who experience poverty for the first time.

I got mad and was even a little ashamed of how I’d lived with such wealth and such waste. I probably throw away more food in a year than some of those people will consume in a lifetime. I was mad at the disparity that existed between them and me. Here they were, just a few hours’ drive from my back door, and yet our worlds couldn’t have been farther apart. What do we do with that? How do I justify the inequity? Should I feel guilty because I was blessed to be born in the United States where life and opportunities are so much different from theirs? And where was God in all this? How could he sit quietly by while so many people suffered just a few hours away from so many who had so much? I didn’t have the answers to these troubling questions, and I ended up just being angry and frustrated. But if I’m honest, my anger isn’t what marked me the most. It was the joy of the people whom we served. Rarely in my life had I seen such high levels of passion for Christ and sheer, unadulterated joy. Many of these people had deep, profound relationships with Jesus.

I met this lovely and joyful family in Nicaragua a few years after my first trip to Mexico.

They didn’t feel overlooked or abandoned by him. That’s what got me the most. In the face of such terrible living conditions and such chronic suffering, they had levels of faith that humbled me. There I was, the rich gringo who was there to help them, and yet I was the one who felt poor. I was the one who didn’t seem to get it. From an earthly, material standpoint, I had everything and they had nothing. But from the standpoint of God’s kingdom, they had something I envied and desperately needed. They were the ones who were rich. That’s when I began my journey toward enough.

––From Enough: Finding More by Living with Less

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One More Week…

Just one more week, friends!  I’m eager to see you all and get back to work. I’ve had a great summer and am really grateful for the time, but now it’s time for me to get back to what God has called me to do—lead ACF. I’ll see you next weekend, the 15th and 16th, where I’ll be sharing my own take on the series Can You See What God is Doing. Even as summer winds down, there’s lots of activity around ACF…here are a few of the highlights:

Don’t miss this weekend’s services! You’ll get the unique opportunity to hear from all 5 ACF Community Pastors, and it’s going to be interesting – and maybe a little bit rowdy. Even better, if you’re in the Four Points area, come to service Saturday at 5:30pm where the CPs will be “live” and the after-service Ice Cream Sundaes & Frozen Lemonade will be waiting for you on the patio!

Meet and greet at ACF | four points! Take advantage of this opportunity to meet your ACFfp Community Pastor, Darril Holden along with other ACF ministry leaders upstairs in the Starlight Room #201 after the 11:00AM service this Sunday, August 9th. Light lunch will be served…everyone is welcome!

ACFmissions – Sign up to serve! We want to be a church that invests in our communities by caring for those in need. Our prayer is that through Serve Our City weekends you will build lasting relationships with people and ministries that you can serve on an ongoing basis.  We serve because “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Online registration for Serve Our City is now open through Sunday, Aug 16. Sign up HERE.

ACFwomen – Looking for a mission trip? Well, here is a great one…ACF women head to Guatemala, September 30-October 7th. This is the perfect first time trip for mom’s and daughters, small groups, and women of all ages. We will be caring for orphans who live in Eagle’s Nest, teaching children attending Nueva Dia School, and much more! Pray, apply and learn more here!

ACFmen – Ready for a guys night out? Join us at Top Golf on August 17th from 6:30-8:30pm. This is an outreach event, so be sure to invite a neighbor, co-worker or friend! Register here by August 12th.

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Why 11 More Feet Matter

My hometown of Austin has been in a record-breaking drought for over five years. The symbol of our drought has been Lake Travis, a 65-mile-long lake with over 1 million acres of water volume. The lake’s full elevation is 681 feet above sea level. For three years Lake Travis hovered around 625, over fifty feet below full.

This “sometime island” on Lake Travis should be 50 feet under water.

Many of us in Austin have been praying for God to fill the lake. And in May, God sent recording breaking rains to our city. Lake Travis rose 40 feet in a matter of weeks.

Today, the lake sits at 670, just 11 feet below full. That’s a huge answer to prayer, but we’re not done praying. Not by a long shot.

This pic shows Sometime Island in March 2015, and in June after the rains.

Here are some of the reasons why we’re not letting God off the hook and “giving him no rest” until the lake is at 681:

We are praying specifically . I stood before our city council in May of 2014 and prayed for God to fill Lake Travis to 681. When I did, laugher broke out all around the packed council chamber. I think they were laughing because of the specificity of my prayer. But God tells us to pray specifically. We weren’t praying for God to make Lake Travis fuller, we’re praying for him to make it full. And full is 681, not an inch lower. God gives specific answers to specific prayers. 681 is coming, and we’d be remiss to stop praying and to settle for anything less than that.
People are watching . Our day of prayer and fasting for Lake Travis last year drew national media attention. Our prayers for rain were treated, for the most part, as sweet but kind of silly. It’s like God doesn’t really care about things like dry lakes. But he does, and he cares also about the prayers of his people. We’re going to have a major celebration when Lake Travis hits 681, and we’re going to make sure that all those watching know that God did it. It’ll be to his glory. I’m praying that God’s answer to this prayer will inspire others to pray for even bigger and greater things.
Lake Travis is a metaphor . I very much believe that Lake Travis is a picture of what God wants to do in our lives and in Austin. There are people who have lived in Austin nearly a decade who have never seen the lake full. They think a half-empty lake is normal. It’s not.The same is true for our lives as Christians. We think half-empty lives–half-empty marriages, half-empty homes, half-empty relationships, half-empty answers to prayer, half-empty joy, half-empty churches and half-empty offering plates–are normal. We’ve accepted mediocre as the norm from God and have come to believe that Christianity has very little to offer in this life that culture can’t come close to duplicating. There’s no power in our faith. Christianity has been reduced to a Hallmark card about Heaven. And that friends, is insulting to God and the Savior who died for us. Full is what God intends and what Jesus died to give. Full, and not an inch lower. That’s why a full lake matters. It’s a picture of what God wants to do in us and in our cities.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is the best biblical statement of what we’re asking God to do, and what God expects in return: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (NIV).

I’ve got 2 Chronicles 7:14 marked in my Bible with Austin written next to it. I’ve also got 714 written all over my Bible as a reminder to pray. And as God does his part, he’s going to expect us to do ours.

I wonder if you would be willing to pray with me for that last 11 feet. I return to preaching at my church, Austin Christian Fellowship, on Saturday, August 15th. I will be talking on the theme “Can You See What God is Doing?”. I, along with our church leaders, have been praying all summer that God would fill Lake Travis to 681 before I preach on the 15th. I can’t think of a better way to show what God is doing than to just point to the west and say “Look at that full lake. That’s what God is doing.”

Will you pray with me to that end? Who knows what we might see God do in the next week and a half.

By the way, Lake Travis’ full elevation is 681. Any guesses on what its flood stage level is? I mean the level where the lake is at full capacity and is dangerously close to flowing over the spillways on Mansfield Dam? The full-to-spilling over elevation of Lake Travis is 714 (as in 2 Chronicles 7:14). That’s what I’m praying for my city and our lives. I’m praying that God will fill us to the point of overflowing.

Yea God. Make it so.

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Are you ready for Unexpected Places?

This weekend, our ACF Missions Pastor, John Calaway, continues ACF’s Summer Series by sharing what he sees God doing through the story of Ezekiel and how God can show up in the most unexpected places. God is moving in these unexpected places in our city, across our nation, and around the world. God is inviting us into His story of serving in these places – places where we would not typically find ourselves and where other people would never expect to see us. When we linger in these places, we can find ourselves fully overcome by God with our own story of transformation. Don’t forget to invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers to hear this one…you won’t want to miss it!

I am sharing one of my Wake Up Calls with you below, as it contains some great reminders on stepping out in faith to those “unexpected places”…

But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!”                                                                                                                  Luke 9:13

These words have impacted me as much as any in the Bible over the last ten years. Here are a few lessons I have learned from them. (For the fuller context, read Luke 9:12-17.)

Sometimes God’s assignments will be counter to what we think wise and will trump want we want to do. The disciples wanted nothing to do with this crowd. They wanted to send them away. Jesus wouldn’t let them.
Jesus wants us to care for the immediate needs around us. There was no great ministry plan or strategy needed here. There were hungry people around Jesus’ disciples, and Jesus expected them to feed them.
Vision is not limited by our perceived provision. By the disciples’ count, they only had a few loaves and some fish. Their perceived provision was very small. But the vision Jesus gave them, and the assignment he set before them required far more resources than they had on hand. That didn’t stop Jesus and it shouldn’t stop us. In weighing obedience to God, we should never set limits on what we are willing to risk for God based on the resources we think we have. God’s assignment on your life will always require more than what you think you can do.
God assignments are God-sized, not man-sized. God will not call you to do something that you can just go and do. He will call you to do something that you cannot go and do. He will call you to something that only he can do. If you can accomplish what you perceive to be the will of God without the miraculous provision of God, then you have missed the will of God.

What crowd is God calling you to feed? What assignment are you dodging because you think you don’t have the resources?

Of course you don’t have the resources! That’s the point. Step out in obedience, embrace God’s God-sized call on your life, and then watch Him feed a crowd through you.

 

Attention ACFwomen – Have you been hoping to go on a mission trip this year? Well, here is a great one…ACF women head to Guatemala, September 30-October 7th. This is the perfect first time trip for mom’s and daughters, small groups, and women of all ages. We will be caring for orphans who live in Eagle’s Nest, teaching children attending Nueva Dia School, and much more! Pray, apply and learn more here!

 

Prayer for provision continues in all communities – please remember to join us in prayer, even if you can’t attend one of these gatherings – Each day special prayer will be held from 12:30 to 1pm at the following locations:

Monday: ACF | roundrock meets at the Texas Baptist Children’s Home Chapel, 1101 North Mays St., Round Rock.

Tuesday: ACF | laketravis meets at River in the Hills Church, 1310 RR 620, Lakeway.

Wednesday: ACF | northwest meets at Westover Hills Church of Christ, 8332 Mesa Dr, Austin.

Thursday: ACF | fourpoints meets at the ACF Event Center in the Main Auditorium, 6401 River Place Blvd, Austin.

Friday: ACF | brushycreek meets at Twin Lakes Fellowship, 1150 South Bell, Cedar Park.

 

Saturday Night Prayer with the Overseers is scheduled for August 1st after 5:30pm worship service at ACF | four points.

 

 

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Students and Prayer!

Greetings, friends! We seem to have hit a dry spell here in Austin…please continue to pray for the final 10’ to fill Lake Travis to 681’ and remember to join your local community in prayer…

Summer Prayer for Provision – Everyone is invited to join us on Thursdays, 12:30pm at ACF | four points, or check with your ACF community for the prayer gathering time and location in your area.

Saturday Night Prayer with the Overseers is scheduled for August 1st after 5:30pm worship service at ACF | four points.

This weekend, our ACF | fourpoints Students Pastor, Ian Rock, will continue our Summer Series and share what he has seen God doing in 2015. Join us as we celebrate an incredible year with Ian and get an update on what’s going on in the world of our students. Also, hear how he sees Jesus bringing light and life to our lives…even in those areas that we would prefer to keep in the darkness! Please don’t forget to invite others to hear these real-life accounts of what God can do and is doing in our world. And if you have missed any weekends this summer, you can catch them online at www.acfellowship.org (click on “Media”, then “Messages”) or view them on the ACF app!

And speaking of ACFstudents…do you know what happens when 100 of ACF’s middle school and high school students take over Fiesta Texas in San Antonio? Madness. Don’t miss this day of thrills, laughter and fun. Bring a swimsuit, because admission to the waterpark is included! $50 includes admission and travel via bus (food and games are not included). We’re leaving ACF at 7am on Thursday, July 30th, and returning at 10pm. Register Here!

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Summer, Austin and prayer!

Greetings, friends! It’s hard to believe that summer is at its halfway point! I pray that you have been able to spend time with family and friends…taking time out for rest and renewal, but also having a blast and making new memories together.

If you haven’t, you can start this weekend by bringing them all to ACF for one of our weekend services! Join us during our Saturday or Sunday services as Pete Inman, Executive Director of Christ Together Greater Austin, continues the summer series Can You See What God Is Doing? The Christ Together Greater Austin network consists of ten churches throughout the Greater Austin area that come together to inspire, connect, challenge and support each other as well as other churches in the Greater Austin area. The senior pastors in this inter-denominational network share a common passion, vision and purpose: communicating and demonstrating the good news of Jesus Christ with every man, woman and child. Pete will be sharing his message God is On The Move and This is Our Time: Unparalleled Favor and Unprecedented Collaboration in Greater Austin. In his position with CTGA, Pete has a ring-side seat to many of the exciting things that God is doing in our city…you won’t want to miss this one!

P.S.  If you have missed any of the great ACF messages this summer, catch them online at www.acfellowship.org (click on “Media”, then “Messages”) or view them on the ACF app!

And last…but certainly not least…please mark your calendars for these upcoming prayer events:

Summer Prayer for Provision – All are invited to join us on Thursdays, 12:30pm at ACF | four points, or check with your ACF community for the prayer gathering time and location in your area.

Saturday Night Prayer with the Overseers is scheduled for August 1st after 5:30pm worship service at ACF | four points.

Blessings,

Will

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Good stuff happens when we pray…

 

…like water in Lake Travis! As of this week, there is less that 10’ needed to bring the lake to 681…an answer to years of prayer! Please don’t forget to include prayer in your daily activities this summer. There is much to pray for. Below I share with you one of my Wake Up Calls as a reminder of what can happen when we pray!

And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” . . . And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” Luke 9:18-20

Peter’s confession marks a major highpoint in the Gospel records. For Peter to label Jesus “the Christ of God” meant that the disciples were slowly coming to the realization that Jesus was in fact the promised one they had been hearing about and hoping for all their lives. And while their understanding of “the Christ’s” mission was still very superficial, Peter’s confession shows that they were making progress.

Progress, I might add, that was birthed in prayer.

Did you notice that little introductory phrase—while he was praying? That is no minor detail. It was in those classrooms of prayer that disciples began to gain a sense of Jesus’ true identity. It was in those early mornings and late evenings, watching and listening to their Master’s intercessions, that the disciples began to gain a sense of both his mission and theirs.

The point? Stuff happens in prayer—good stuff, life-changing stuff, eternal stuff, Kingdom stuff.

There are many lessons Jesus wants to teach you–truths he wants to reveal, scriptures he wants to illuminate and secrets he wants to share—that He only delivers in prayer. Prayer is the classroom of the Spirit. It’s the lecture hall of God’s Word. And while there are many great lessons to be learned along the course of living out our lives, the best, most profound and most eternal lessons are learned in prayer.

There are answers you are seeking, guidance you need and refining that will make you more holy that Christ wants to give you today, right now. But those answers, guidance and refining can only happen in the place of prayer.

ACF | four points is hosting Sundae Saturday this weekend!  Attend the 5:30pm worship service, then stick around to visit with friends and enjoy an Ice Cream Sundae Bar!   Even if you don’t attend ACFfp, you are welcome to join in for ice cream and fellowship…and you can still attend your ACF community’s service on Sunday morning! Bring the kids and invite your friends and neighbors!

ACF MISSIONS is headed to Lakeside Apartments on July 15th.  You can help them to support this sweet community by serving at the Lakeside Apartments Garage Sale, July 15, 9:30am-noon, 85 Trinity, 78701, or by donating. Their current needs are: like-new adult clothes (no stains or rips), home goods (pots, pans, cleaning supplies, dishes, mops, sponges), toiletries (toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, soap), towels and wash cloths, pillows, sheets, pillowcases, blankets, socks, books, games, puzzles, small furniture. Contact Cindy for more info on how you can help.

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Happy 4th of July!

Greetings, friends!

As we move into this 4th of July weekend, I pray that you have an amazing time with family and friends enjoying fireworks, parades, cookouts, Lake Travis (WITH WATER!), or just relaxing and taking it easy. However you choose to celebrate Independence Day, please remember to take time out to give thanks for the God-given freedoms that we enjoy as a nation and to lift up our nation in prayer…

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” – Psalm 33:12

ACF | four points – NO SERVICE ON JULY 4TH!  We will not hold Saturday worship service on July 4th at ACFfp. We will worship on Sunday, July 5th, at 9 & 11am at Four Points.  All other communities will meet on Sunday at their regularly scheduled times.

ACF MISSIONS is headed to Lakeside Apartments on July 15th. You can help them to support this sweet community by serving at the Lakeside Apartments Garage Sale, July 15, 9:30am-noon, 85 Trinity, 78701, or by donating. Their current needs are: like-new adult clothes (no stains or rips), home goods (pots, pans, cleaning supplies, dishes, mops, sponges), toiletries (toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, soap), towels and wash cloths, pillows, sheets, pillowcases, blankets, socks, books, games, puzzles, small furniture. Contact Cindy for more info on how you can help.

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Can You See What God Is Doing?

Greetings, friends! This weekend, our ACF | fourpoints Community Pastor, Darril Holden, will continue our Summer Series and share what he sees God doing at ACF and in Austin.  He reminds us that we can keep walking this path, no matter what it looks like, because God will not let our feet slip. Each week this summer, you will hear a different ACF staff member, other Austin pastor or area ministry leader share what God is doing in ACF, in Austin and around the world. Please don’t forget to invite others to hear these real-life accounts of what God can do and is doing in our world.

Please note…there will not be a worship service at ACF | four points on Saturday, July 4th!

Camp Fun has been in overdrive lately! Julie Washington and her amazing staff and volunteers are in the process of wrapping up another week of Mega Camp Fun. ACF has hosted over 450 kids this week and had more than 200 volunteers working. It’s been a week full of fun, learning and worship…and our kids have raised over $1400 so far in an offering that will go to build 14 shelters for families in Nepal whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake…final total still to come!

Also, for Camp Fun kids who have completed 3rd-5th grades, there are still four spots left at Centri Kid Camp: July 6-10 at Trinity Pines near Houston, TX. Click to Register.

ACF Missions is hosting an Info Session for those interested in volunteering with Casa of Travis County. If you have a heart for abused, forgotten or neglected children and would like a chance to speak up for them as a CASA Volunteer, you won’t want to miss this event.  The session will be held at the ACF | fourpoints Event Center in the Starlight Drive-In (upstairs) on June 28 at 1:00 pm.  Please RSVP with Janet Sanders. To learn more about CASA, click here.

 

 

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Fathers Day Weekend at ACF

Greetings, friends!  This weekend across America, we celebrate and honor our fathers. God commands us in Exodus 20:12 to “Honor your father and your mother…” In May we celebrated our moms and this weekend we salute you, fathers! As you know, your job is not an easy task…there are many facets to what we would like to teach and model for our kids. As a reminder of one of those facets, I would like to share this message on inheritance and what we REALLY want to leave our children…  

A True Inheritance

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! Proverbs 20:7

I know many men and women who are working furiously–60 and 70 hours a week–to make sure their children have a good inheritance. They want their kids to have the best educational opportunities, the best vacations, the best sports training and basically guaranteed financial security even before they hit adulthood. And these men and women often make difficult choices, including sacrificing their physical and emotional health, and even sometimes their marriages, to make sure that their kids’ inheritance is secure. And while their intentions are noble, they are unfortunately misguided. For the kind of inheritance a kid needs has nothing to do with financial security or educational opportunities.

But, it has everything to do with spiritual blessing.

In this timely proverb, Solomon says it well: You want to leave your kids a great inheritance, leave them the blessing of being righteous. Did you know that righteousness and unrighteousness pass on from one generation to the next? Of course you do, because you can look back and know what kind of spiritual blessing (or lack thereof) you received from your parents and grandparents. And all the money in the world can’t undo the damage or reverse the power of a negative spiritual inheritance.

So how can you best set your kids up to win in their adulthood–be godly. Get off the treadmill of money-making and stuff-chasing and show them how to love God. Teach them to pray, to serve, to worship, to give and to pursue godliness. If you leave them that kind of spiritual blessing, everything else they need will take care of itself.

 

Don’t miss this weekend’s message!  Guest teacher Sherwyn Patton, Program Director of Life Anew, will continue our Summer Series and share some amazing stories of what God is doing in his world. Life Anew’s mission is to use restorative justice to build healthier communities, promote peace and create a space to heal from harms caused by broken relationships in our city.

Each week this summer, you will hear ACF staff, other Austin pastors and area ministry leaders share what God is doing in ACF, in Austin and around the world. Every week will bring a unique and amazing story of God’s incredible work that is sure to inspire and encourage. This is a great opportunity to invite others to hear real-life accounts of what God can do and is doing in our world.

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