Merry Christmas!
We hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a great day....we started with breakfast, read the Christmas story together, opened gifts and then went over to Memaw and Papaw's for lunch!

"Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited his people and redeemed them.
(Luke 1:68)

Happy 33rd Birthday Sarah!

SNOW DAY!!!

Today I got to stay home with the kids! I made a Wal-Mart run early this morning to get much needed groceries, got a sled at the local Ace, and stayed home the rest of the day having a great day with the kids. These pictures are of us playing outside and the kids decorated cookies we made today. (The second to last picture looks like the van just ran me over, but I was absolutely tired after pulling the kids around on the sled.)

Happy 83rd Birthday Jim!

This is Jim, Hannah and Grace making a funny face at Jim's birthday Party at Incredible Pizza! Jim and mom also just celebrated their 9th wedding anniversary!

National Youth Workers Convention in Austin

Sarah and I just returned tonight from the National Youth Workers Convention in Austin! It was absolutely incredible! This is by far the best training for youth workers even though it can be pricey...it is well worth the cost. Check out www.youthspecialties.com. I'm going to post something short for now, but will post more later, but here's the greatest things I got from it:
1. Spending time with my wonderful wife Sarah
It's not very often that we get to go somewhere by ourselves. For us to be able to spend Thursday through Monday together was wonderful for our marriage and our ministry! I am so blessed to have a partner in life and in ministry. Our last night in Austin we walked to the Texas State Capitol and had a relaxing walk!
2. Getting away from the hecticness of ministry.
Stepping back and getting training was so refreshing. So many times as youth workers we are in the trenches and it's hard to see the whole picture, but this weekend I had a chance to seriously evaluate our ministry, where we are heading, and some things that need to change.
3. Training
I've been in ministry for 13 years, but training is always key to keep up to date with what's happening in our society and with teens. I am so thankful for our church to let me go to this conference. I would love to see other youth workers from our church go next year.
This is just a little taste of what we experienced. As I sort through what God wants us to do, I will post more later!

My Soccer Chick
Here's my oldest, Hannah, before her first soccer game! She did great! She was a little nervous, but for her first ever game in any sport she did very well! It was a little nerve racking as a dad, but my desire is that she just has a great time playing.

Way to Go Hannah!

More Pictures of Our Father/Son Trip
Upper Left Picture: Riding the sheep at the rodeo
Upper Right Picture: Steve, Tammy, Brayden, and Kayden
Lower Left Picture: Noah freezing---it was 53 degrees--too cold!
Lower Right Picture: My dad's burial marker....my dad passed away in 1994...I sure miss him!

1st Annual Father/Son Road Trip
Noah and I ventured on our first ever Father/Son Road trip. Elijah will join us next year. We went to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch for the annual rodeo and reunion as well as to visit my brother in Guymon.
Upper Left Picture: My brother, Steve, and I in Guymon. Steve is an elementary music teacher in Guymon. It was great to see him, Tammy, Brayden, and Kayden.
Upper Right Picture: A picture with Noah and a statue of Cal Farley. We went to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, my alma mater, for the rodeo and reunion.
Bottom Left Picture: Noah at the Texas state line as we entered Texas from Oklahoma on the first day of our trip
Bottom Right Picture: Driving from Guymon to Tulsa, there is a stretch with wonderful scenery(if you can believe that), so here is Noah striking a pose.

My Broken Testimony

For much of the last three years, I have been in a fog—my heart, my mind and everything else. I continued to do life, but there seemed to be something not right. I felt as if there was something holding back my own walk with Christ and my ministry to our students, but I could not figure it out. I always tried to blame circumstances beyond my control on why things were going better and we weren’t seeing tons of students saved. I blamed the circumstances on everything from our church’s past to my pastor to our students. I kept trying to come up with new things within our youth ministry to try to get our ministry out of this rut.
Back in May, one of the teachers from our Christian school handed me a book by Nancy Leigh Demoss called Brokenness—The Heart God Revives. Up to this point I had also been praying for revival not so much for me but for our students and our church. When the teacher handed me the book, my initial thoughts were, “Oh, great..another book to read—I’ve got plenty to read.” I hesitantly took the book planning on it to just lay on my bookshelf.
The next week we went on a Pastor’s retreat and I decided to take the book, Brokenness. As I read it along with the Scripture, an overwhelming conviction consumed me. I realized that pride was my downfall. Pride took over my life, my ministry, and my whole being. I was so consumed with pride that I didn’t realized it was me that was causing the sin and all of the problems. I was a hypocrite much like the Pharisees:
“Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me.” (Matthew 15:7-9)
For the better part of three years, I was drawing near to God with my mouth, but my heart was as hard as a rock. For the better part of three years, I was trying to figure out the next best thing to get our student ministry moving and myself moving, but the whole time it wasn’t what we were doing, but it came down to who I had become—prideful and arrogant. I took pride in the fact that I had been doing youth ministry for 13 years and I knew all of the answers and there wasn’t anything “new under the sun”. I took pride in my own abilities and had an attitude as better than thou. This pride quickly spread bitterness in my heart and I found myself blaming others.
God finally crushed me on a Wednesday morning as I was doing my quiet time. As I was praying, God laid on my heart that there was a couple with whom I needed to seek reconciliation and forgiveness. I knew for the past year that this was what God wanted me to do, but I ignored God and disobeyed him because of the condition of my heart. God told me to do it that day, so I went by their house in the afternoon but no one was there. After our youth worship I took kids home and was driving by their house around 10 p.m. and noticed the headlights were on which was my opportunity to go by and talk to them. I kind of surprised the gentleman, but I told him, “God told me this morning to come by and talk to you!” So, for the next hour we talked and I asked them for forgiveness. They are truly an incredible couple whom I love and respect, but I hurt them because of the pride in my life. What a weight was lifted off of my shoulder!
I truly believe because of my pride I held back my own walk with Christ, our youth ministry, and church. I believe we did not see the hand of God move because of me. I was the Achan in the midst of the camp, but I tried to blame the condition of our youth ministry on other people and circumstances.
Because of what God did in my life, I felt impressed to pray incredibly hard for our student ministry-that God just has he did for me—that he would break our students and youth workers. A churchwide movement of prayer took place from June through July praying that God would bring brokenness. I had our youth workers read the brokenness book before we went to camp for a couple of reasons. The first reason was for them to get an idea of what brokenness is and for us to pray in that direction. The second reason was for our youth workers to become broken. I believe our students would have never experienced revival if we as adults wouldn’t have taken the first step. I applaud our youth workers for being open and willing for God to examine them.
All that I can say during the week of camp is—WOW! Sixteen students came to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! We challenged the kids on Monday night to examine their hearts by using an illustration. All of our hearts are in one of these conditions: hard clay, silly putty, or moldable clay. I took the hard clay and asked the students to try to shape it, but they couldn’t. Many of our students had hard, angry hearts. I then took the silly putty and described silly putty hearts as hearts who think this whole Christianity/church thing is just a big joke. There is no seriousness to a relationship with Christ and the tendency is to come not for Christ but for their own selfishness. The silly putty sure looked like moldable clay, but it was a cheap imitation and it wasn’t the real thing. I then took the moldable clay and had one of the students shape it. It was very easy to shape and I told them, “This is what our hearts should look like.” Throughout the week we brought that illustration up and the students evaluated their heart condition. Through the quiet times, the amphitheater experience, our in cabin Bible studies and devotions, and even the recreation, God moved in the hearts of our students. It seemed like every time I turned around, one of our adults was introducing a new brother or sister in Christ OR a student was returning to Christ. WOW!
I have never been as emotionally and spiritually stirred as that week. When I say emotionally, I do not mean it was all emotion based commitments. I’ve seen that almost every year at camp, but this year was different. I could really sense a Christ changed life! I saw Christ change angry students. I saw Christ change hard hearted students. I saw Christ change silly putty students. I saw God use moldable students to minister to other students!
Another God thing was that when we went to YEC, the theme was brokenness! As one of our student theologians, Jake, said, “There’s no such thing as a coincidence…God always has a purpose for everything.”
We continue to see God’s hand move by students being spiritually sensitive and praying for God to continue to do great things. They are more motivated than in years past to see their friends come to know Christ! What a blessing.
I do not say all of this to say that I am the one that caused the revival to happen. I am saying that it was because of me that revival did not happen. The sin of arrogance and pride grieved God so much that we didn’t see revival. I guess I say all of this to encourage you to look first at your own heart condition. I know we teach this all the time, but honestly as youth pastors, pastors, etc., it’s true. We may be the one’s causing the problems because of our heart condition.
With all of this, am I saying that I am out of the woods and everything is great? Yes and no. Yes, life is good as I try to yield my life to Christ on a daily basis, but pride is and had been my biggest downfall and I have to continually almost on a minute by minute basis guard my heart and mind from pride, envy, and jealousy. God presently is teaching me to surrender my all to him. That is so easy to sing, but it’s another thing to live and He is challenging me with this!
My desire through this testimony is that you would examine your own heart…that you would test yourself for any pride or arrogance. It’s easy to do especially in ministry. My utmost desire is that God gets all of the credit--that He be made famous through this!
I would be encouraged to hear your broken testimony.

The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: "I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts. (Isa 57:15)

You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. (Psa 51:16)The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psa 51:17)


Email: mike.lehew@ridgewaybaptist.com

Why Haven't I Updated???? LIFE

It's been crazily hectic. Three letters describe my summer....WOW! I am amazed at what God has done in my own life and in the lives of our students. After vacation, I hope to share with you specifically how He has restored my joy and my walk. Until then, have a great week!

BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED

Last night we watched the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. It doesn't matter how many times I watch it, I still get very emotional and sick to my stomach. The gut wrenching torture that Jesus went through for me is very humbling.
I would encourage you to watch it mainly as a reminder of what Christ has done for you. I'm sure the movie doesn't even come close to what Jesus went through, but it sure gives an idea.
Throughout the week, I heard from teen students (6th grade and up), "My parents won't let me watch it because of the blood and gore." My response is, "What?" May I get on my soapbox for just a little bit. What is portrayed in the movie is reality........Jesus dying for our sins! I guess I would ask for those whose parents won't let them see it, how many have cable in their homes where godless, perverted, and violent shows are shown 24 hours a day.......not just cable but even basic television. Parents, don't you want your teens to see what Christ did for them? Students, don't you want your friends to see what Christ did for them?
Now I do believe that not all should see it especially young children...for there will be a time and place. I would recommend some grade school children get a glimpse of the death, burial and resurrection through an Easter drama.
I guess I say all of this to say.......We are here because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ! We will live in eternity if we are believers because of Jesus!!! It's all because of Him! Parents, you have treasures, your children, so that you can show them Jesus and lead them to Christ----they aren't in your household to just hang out!
Okay, I'm done...I'm off of my soapbox.
My last thought and then I'm done............

BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED!!!!!

Belarus or Bust!

I will be heading to Belarus the last week of July for a mission trip! It is a country that is in great need of the Hope that we have in Christ.

Would you prayerfully consider supporting me in prayer or financially in this effort? If you would, please email me at mikelehew1@cox.net. The cost will be approximately $2000.

We will be teaching English and through this share the Gospel...there may be the chance where we travel around the area on bicycle sharing the Gospel.
Since Sarah and I went last year, my heart has been drawn to this country that needs Christ. Thank you for your prayers as we go!

In Christ,
Mike

Pauline-Bringing Glory to God through Cancer

Every Sunday night our students take part in one of our ministries called C.S.I. which stands for Christians Serving Individuals. It has turned into a great ministry where we go and visit students, people in our church, senior adults and the homebound. We pray over them, encourage them and try to do whatever they need us to do.
Tonight we had the incredible opportunity to go and minister to Pauline Rigdon. Pauline has cancer....along with cancer she has a broken knee. I was not quite prepared to see the condition of Pauline because the last time I saw her....she was in great condition considering the circumstances. Pauline was in quite a bit of pain, but throughout our conversation there was much humor.
One thing that stuck with me what she said was, "I have always wondered what my purpose on earth is and I now know what my purpose is....." Of course, Pauline is referring to bringing others to Christ and showing Christ through this terrible disease that she has.
The amazing thing about Pauline is she already has her funeral service all planned out. She has already talked to Pastor Scott about how she wants her funeral service to be in great detail.
Honestly, in a way, I envy her position....she is going to see Jesus face to face very soon! Can you imagine. She is going to see the HOPE that we have waited for so long! She even talked about that---she is ready to go Home! While we were singing "Blessed Be Your Name", she praised God like no other with her hands held high....what a sight to see---Pauline who was in such pain---able to raise her hands in praise....WOW!

Pauline is one of my heroes!!!! She is making Jesus famous!

I am reminded by these Scriptures of what is ahead of us:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you..." 1 Peter 1:3,4

Mission Trip to New Orleans

I just returned from a mission trip to New Orleans last night....exhausted yet refreshed. Fourteen from our church treked our way to Celebration Church in Metairie, Louisiana to help them with hurricane relief and to gut houses.
We arrived on Saturday, March 18 around 7 p.m. to find that there was nothing opened to eat because everything closes around 6 p.m. We ended up eating at the local Chevron station....yummy....but the cool thing was about 10 p.m. when someone came in with tons of Popeyes Chicken to eat.....what a God thing! Check out www.celebrationchurch.org for more info. on their relief efforts...they are doing a great thing.
Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and we went to the early church service at 8 a.m. We were out of church by 9:30 a.m.!!! That was way cool, so we went to Wal-Mart and then took a tour of New Orleans. That afternoon we went and gutted out a guys house...his name was Anthony. The floodwaters were about 7 feet high, so we took out sheetrock which was moldy.
We met so many people from so many states...Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, California, Washington, Arizona, Kansas. There were about 240 at the peak of the week helping out in the relief center and gutting houses.
The people of New Orleans were so appreciative of our efforts. People who didn't even know we were helping would come up to us and just thank us for helping their city....I guess we really stood out ! :)
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we went out and gutted houses. One house we went to still had all of the moldy furniture it and so we had to remove it. The food from September was still in the fridge and the fridge accidentally opened and it royally stunk....I've never smelled anything as horrible as what was in that fridge.
Wednesday afternoon we took the afternoon off to go down to Bourbon Street. There was an eerie feeling all through the afternoon....it is a wicked place...I'm sure it is even worse at night.
Thursday we were at the relief center and I believe for our students was the highlight of the week. We had some students in the clothing tent and some in the food tent. Some were friendly shoppers who helped people go through and pick out food. During this time, they had an opportunity to hear stories of the hurricane and how people have coped with them. As I walked a lady out to put her groceries in her car, she just started crying. She had been through a lot since the Hurricane and needed someone to talk to. Two of our students led someone to Christ.....that is what it is all about!
I'm hoping we can get a mens group to go down in the fall to help out. It will take years for New Orleans to be restored! Could you pray for the people of New Orleans?
It is amazing how God uses things like mission trips to put things in perspective. Honestly, I didn't want to go even though I was leading it. I didn't want to be gone from my family again, but God used this great opportunity to minister to me and he usually does. This mission trip reminded me of the hope that I have in Christ and regardless of the circumstances, He will always be my refuge........throughout this trip, I reflected on the Psalms and Davids trials and how he continually took refuge in God......isn't He amazing?

A Blog From Another Blog

This is an excerpt from my brother's pastors blog....thought it was interesting....

Worship and a Hairy Leg
I got a large postcard from a church with a picture of some guy's hairy leg sticking out of a blanket with the caption: "Sleepyheads, rejoice." The flipside has a bunch of information with the last paragraph saying:
"So if you're not a morning person, or if you simply need to spend Sunday mornings at work, resting, or traveling, come join us for worship on Saturdays. (But remember, we're still open on Sundays too.)"

Now, I'm not as strict on Sabbath-keeping as some of my friends, but this is ridiculous if you believe the church is anything more than a vendor of religious goods and services.
Speaking of which, another paragraph says:
"Come early, hang out and meet people before the service at the Hillside Cafe over Starbuck'sTM coffee and refreshments."

It's kind of tough when you're more thoughtful about your coffee choice than the Fourth Commandment.

But it's the largest paragraph that is the most revealing:
"Experience the same relaxed, casual atmosphere, dynamic worship, and relevant teaching that you'll find in our Sunday services, as well as the same small groups and other ministry offerings for all ages on Saturday night! Plus, you'll find the same secure children's facilities, comfortable seating, easy parking and speedy on-off access from I-35."

Let's review some of these adjectives: relaxed, casual, dynamic, relevant, secure, comfortable, easy, and speedy. Seems like "denying yourself and taking up your cross" just got a swift kick into the coffee lounge.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. -Hebrews 12:28-29

A Great Sermon by my Pastor

Check out www.ridgewaybaptist.com and go to the sermons link and listen to Scott's message from this past Sunday, February 26 on "Renewal and the Highest Cost of Leaving". It's talking about the Christian's judgement and whether it is Gold, Silver, Precious Jewels, or Wood, Stubble or Hay.

Swimming Against the World Culture and Church Culture

"Do not treat my holy name as common and ordinary. I must be treated as holy...." Leviticus 22:32

This Scripture sure combats the Jesus is My Homeboy cultural phenomenon that we have seen as of late. What would it mean for me(us) to treat God has holy? What would that look like? I would appreciate your thoughts.
Not only in our culture have we made Jesus our Homeboy, but to a degree we have made Jesus our Homeboy in the church in North America-we are more interested in fearing man than fearing God, more interested in bringing in people rather than bringing out God, more interested in food than fasting, more interested in reaching people rather than evangelizing, more interested in us becoming more famous rather than God.
Pardon my rant, but these are thoughts that I am trying to put action towards and I'm wrestling with this whole relevance issue....I guess the question I have is through trying to make everything relevant are we missing out on treating God as holy and fearing him? Sometimes as a pastor, as much as I don't want to be, I feel like I am in a box...one that I have made for myself and in my very own ranting, I feel as though I have at many times contributed to the above paragraph. I condemn myself.
More later..............

Protecting our Churches from Sexual Abuse

This is an excerpt from Sarah's site, but these are my sentiments exactly as well:

I praise God for the people in my church. How thankful I am for them. This weekend we had a conference at our church. The topic was a toughy--sexual abuse in the church. That's a topic that no one wants to hear about or deal with. Who would give up their Saturday for that? I'll tell you who! Well over 100 people went to it-- youth workers, children's workers, volunteers and paid workers alike. How thankful I am for that. I felt like these people have stood up and said to me," I care about your children and I want to protect them." I'm sure it just wasn't for my four children they all came, but I feel like it. Realizing that the church is the most unprotected institute for sexual predators, I'm so grateful my church took action. According to Church Mutual, there is at least one sexual misconduct complaints each day in religious institutions and at least ten a week in just the churches that Church Mutual does business with? I'm thankful for all the things my church is doing to fight it.

Noah: Boy Genius

Yesterday was Noah's Birthday. I can't believe he is getting so big. We celebrated on Sunday with some of his friends coming over--we had a Star Wars party!
Last night, Noah and I went to the mall so he could spend his birthday money as well as get him some clothes. After the mall we went to Mardel to look for a Bible man Video. Before we left, Noah had to go the restroom. Well, on our way out of the restroom, they had an incredible book sale....for me it was jackpot.....for Noah it was pure torture as I looked through the bargain books.
There were probably three or four other people around when Noah in a calm manner blurts out, "I've got snot and I just tooted!" I'm like...now that's the way to redirect Dad's attention....I wish I were that smart at six years old when I would have to wait around when my dad was looking at things in a store. Of course, immediately we went to the bathroom and gave him the talk about what to say in public and what not to say---anyway, it was quite hilarious.

The Fear of the LORD

I am currently listening to Passion Hymns...Charlie Hall has a great rendition of How Great Thou Art! "When Christ shall come...with shouts of acclamation...and take me home... what joy shall fill my heart..then I shall bow... in humble adoriation...and there proclaim...MY GOD HOW GREAT YOU ARE!" I can't wait for Christ's return!!!!
Today, I read Leviticus 10 and here's what it says:

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over it. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him a different kind of fire than he commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD meant what he said, 'I will show myself holy among those who are near me. I will be glorified before all people.'" And Aaron was silent.

For a while now I have been wrestling with this phrase...the fear of the Lord. At one time in my life, I would have taken this as a negative way of viewing God, but as I have read more and more, it is a phrase of reverence. Throughout this passage, I wondered if Nadab and Abihu thought that God was just joking when he was so specific when he told how to go about the sacrifices. They had a different kind of fire than he commanded it says. Honestly, I probably would have overlooked something like that and Nadab and Abihu probably thought--let's be creative and do something different--their "creativity" became disobedience.

What happened to Nadab and Abihu?...they were consumed with fire and they died before the LORD. This passage is a BIG reminder that God means what he says and even the smallest things in which we think we can get by with....matters to God.

What would have happened if God overlooked their disobedience? They would have taken more freedom in the way to do the sacrifice.

Oh, how I have erred in many and countless ways in the small things that I think God would overlook! This passage today gives me an incredible look at what it means to fear God. Obedience is key in the small things.....my delight should be in pleasing God, not in others.

Have we as a church overlooked this fear of the LORD? I like what Ray Comfort says in his book, Revival's Golden Key: "The happiness gospel has the laborers tied up in the function of being counselors and propping people up, when these problem people don't need counsel or prop up. They need repentance." I personally believe in churches we are missing this crucial aspect of fearing the Lord. We fear people more than God. We fear their response rather than God's judgement. We fear heaven more than we fear hell!

I say all of this to say that I am as guilty as anyone else....I wonder how many times, because I have been in the shoes of Nadab and Abihu, God would strike me down.

Can you imagine what was going through the mind of Aaron? It just says that he was silent. Through that word silent, I see the fear of the LORD in that word. Aaron finally knew what it meant that God is holy(unfortunately he had to learn it through this way).

If I(we) were to take this and run with it--this aspect of God being holy and fearing God, I believe I(we) would see incredible revival---I pray that for myself, family, and for you--that we would all fear God, revere Him, and be in AWE of Him. Father, forgive me for my lack of reverence! Show me your holiness!