He gave what was probably one of the top-five best sermons I’ve ever heard.

Carve out an hour and check this out:

Now that they’ve had a memorial for him in California, I figured I’d post it here for anyone interested.

We miss you uncle Jamie.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDzRa3uRfwA

Below is the text of the eulogy I gave during his funeral.

I would post the video, but I cried a lot trying to get these words out.

———————-

C.S. Lewis, somewhat famously once said,

“If in me I find a longing greater than this world can provide, then I know that I was made for more than this world can provide… more than this life.”

I am not a pastor or a preacher, but there is a reason that I’m standing here. For me, the man we mourn and celebrate today was never “Jamie St. George”. He was always “uncle Jamie”.  He was probably the second most influential man in my life, behind my father.

In fact, there probably isn’t anyone in this room whose life was more profoundly blessed by Jamie than mine.

For me, Jamie was a man who believed his Bible… and read it in front of me. He prayed with me. He prayed with strangers. He was there when I was baptised. He bought me my first bike, and taught me to ride it.

He took me to the mountains. He took me to the beach.

He took me to work with him, and paid me, and then took me shopping to spend my money!

I remember one particular occasion when he came to the house and we rode our bikes to a local park. The park had a strange architecture, such that the basketball hoops were all down in a huge concrete bowl. So people could play basketball in the middle, and skaters could skate around the edges.

Jamie helped me setup a ‘jump’ at one lip of this big bowl, and then he stood waiting to mark my distance as I flew down one side of this bowl and up the other, trying to jump as far as I could on my back. He marked my landing with a stick and then sent me back to try again.

I was 12, at best.

And there were 200 other days like that one.

He did his best to live his life in front of me, and utilize every teachable moment.

He was a giant… ten feet tall, at least.

And for a season of my life, he was probably my best friend.

If there were more ‘uncle Jamies’ in this world, it would probably be a much better place to live.

And yet, many people in this room never knew the ‘uncle Jamie’ who so profoundly influenced my life.

The man who moved to North Carolina five years ago was badly wounded, and much worse than I think any of us could have understood.

So my first goal today is to attempt to paint an honest picture my uncle Jamie.

Jamie was the 2nd-youngest of 12, and the youngest among five other brothers.

When he was about five years old, his dad packed up the family in a (slightly) modified school buss, and moved them all from Wisconsin to California. They lived in that bus for several weeks…

From conversations with Jamie and his siblings, it seems that, as the youngest brother, he was considered somewhat as the ‘runt’ of the family. And he didn’t like it.

Maybe that’s why he become very athletic.

And as he transitioned out of high school, he developed an interest in body building, and took it very seriously for several years, competing at state levels and beyond. Family legend has it that he could have gone ‘all the way’ if he had been more willing to use the steroids that all the champions used.

Even though he stepped back from competitively sculpting his body, he never put the weights down for very long. Even in his late forties, Jamie had a beach body that any 20-year-old would kill to see in the mirror.

It wasn’t long after he stepped back from body building that Jamie discovered the Gospel.

There are some people who ‘get saved’ or ‘find religion’, and it becomes an important footnote in the story of their life.

Not so with Jamie.

I honestly don’t know how he ended up in Harvest Christian Church that first time, but when he learned that God loved him, and had purchased his life through Christ’s death on the cross, he never looked back.

At age 25, the good news of Jesus seemed to redefine Jamie’s whole life.

It didn’t take him very long to scribble ‘Jesus’ over every aspect of his life.

Every-other word out of his mouth was ‘Jesus’. A skeptic would have called him a bonofide ‘Jesus Freak’, and Jamie would have been very, very grateful for the compliment.

He was even somewhat legalistic at first. My dad loves to tell the story of a road trip to San Francisco when Jamie refused to drive faster than the 55mph speed limit while everyone else was going 80.

Jamie was somewhat legendary for riding his bike everywhere. I can picture him on his mountain bike, wearing his headphones with some kind of 1980’s contemporary Christian music playing. And a fanny pack full of Gospel tracts that he would hand out to anyone who would pay attention.

I know because he usually took me with him, and taught me how important it is to make sure people know about Jesus.

But he didn’t just minister to strangers. He prayed for his extended family. Reached out to them.

Many of us here follow Jesus because of Jamie.

When our church would have an evangelistic function, Jamie would plaster posters and graphics all over his van and drive around town, looking for someone to invite.

He had that van because, for a season, he and his wife worked at a group home, pouring their lives into teenage boys who were close to ending up in prison.

He lived with them, at meals with them, cried with them, broke up fights, brought them to church.

Then there was the year when Jamie took so much time off work to help take care of his dad, who suffered from Parkinson’s. We can’t remember whether it was 9 months or a year. Jamie’s goal was to make sure his dad knew the good news about Jesus, and he patiently worked with him daily trying to communicate it. Feeding him. Walking with him. Being there when he woke up. Being there when he needed someone to love him.

Jamie seemed fearless to me.

I remember when he got to know a neighbor who was far from Christ. The guy coached a traveling basketball team. So what did Jamie do? That’s right: assistant coach.

Or the time he brought a homeless man in to live with him and his wife until he could get on his feet.

Whatever it took earn the right to make sure that people knew how much God loves them.

During all this time, Jamie was best with kids.
He seemed unusually aware of how significantly a person’s life is shaped during their childhood.

I think there’s a clue to his life there…

He took every chance to positively influence the children in his life…. his nieces and nephews, the kids in his neighborhood or apartment complex.

If Jamie was around, there were kids laughing and fighting for his attention.

There was one time when he had Katie and I at his appartment, and we were all swimming in the pool, and so many kids were fighting for his attention that Katie got to far from the edge and started flailing her arms.

But we don’t hold that against him because he dropped everything and swooped her out.

And after what must have been something like 8 or more years, he and Patti finally had kids of their own.

And just like we all expected, Jamie’s parenting was the stuff of legend. It’s hard to imagine that anyone ever loved their kids like Jamie loved his Austin and Jenna.

Many men sacrifice their families on the altar of professional success, but not Jamie. If anything, it was the other way around. He did everything he could to spend as much time with his kids as possible.

But when he had to work… you should have seen him. Maybe it was all the years fixing things at his dad’s rental equipment business, but you’ve never seen anybody who could fix or build something quite like Jamie.

He was a true artist.

The mcguiver of handymen.

Give him 2 ruberbands, a welding iron, and job to do, and get of the way.

Even as I walk around my own house, or my parents’ house, I can’t escape his fingerprints. They’re everywhere because he could fix anything… even if he didn’t know what it was.

Or go visit his home. The whole thing looks like an infomercial for a master craftsman.

Friends, this is who we honor today.

He was a faithful husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend.

And, my dad will want me to mention this: he could smell a good barbequeue from 20 miles away.

We don’t have to exaggerate or invent anything to fondly remember or celebrate this life.

His life ended under a dark shadow, and some day, in heaven, he will help us understand what these past couple of years were like.

Something broke…. in his soul or in his mind… but his faith never did.

And that’s what so poetic about today.

Jamie taught me about Jesus, and today, I want to remind all of us as we cope with the loss of this hero.

I know that many of us heard or believe a version of the Jesus story.

That version goes something like this: Jesus died so that if you pray a prayer of faith you won’t have to go to hell, and you can go to heaven instead.

And I suppose there’s truth in there…

But it’s painfully incomplete.

The Bible paints a much bigger picture.

The Bible tells us that God made us… He crafted us…. in His image. And for a purpose.

He made us so that we could be ultimately satisfied by Him. And that satisfaction leading to our joy, and our joy leading to His joy. And the reciprocation of that joy leading to more joy.

He made us so that He could be the ultimate father to us forever.

And being a tender Father, He gave us a choice about whether to take Him up on his offer.

And way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam, our father, turned his back on God.

He chose death.

And ever since then, the world has been falling apart.

We all know it.

Every person in this room is hurting.

There’s sickness, cancer, abuse, loss, bitterness, unforgiveness, broken marriages, war, greed, pride…

In a way, as Adam’s seed, we all get exactly what our hearts want: freedom from God.

Which is freedom from joy.

Which is death.

But…

From the very beginning… from the very moment we rejected God, He was already working a plan of redemption.

In Genesis 3 he told the serpent that Eve’s offspring would one day bruise his head.

We know that the climax of this story was when Jesus came to earth, God in flesh, and in the ultimate pursuit of his enemies, suffered the death we all deserve on the cross.

He was the perfect sacrifice to pay for our black hearts.

But he did so much more than save us from hell that day.

He restored us to God.
The Bible tells us that because Jesus suffered for our sins, it is now possible for the perfect, holy God to live IN US, through the person of the Holy Spirit.

Here’s how Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world… and you were by (very) nature children of wrath…
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Jesus came, not to save us from hell, but to restore us completely to the soul-satisfying relationship that God created us for.

And Jamie knew that. He believed it in his bones… in his soul.

He also understood that the Bible tells us that Jesus will come to this earth twice:

The first time was 2,000 years ago, when his death on the cross removed the curse of death for all those who would put their faith in his name.

When he comes for the second time, he will restore everything.

He will destroy everything that causes pain.

And he will recreate the earth as it was meant to be.

And we will once again be fully satisfied, in our souls by the pure presence of God.

This creates a tension.

The contrast of this broken world and that perfect paradise can be overwhelming.

Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8:
The whole creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

I believe that Jamie understood this better than anyone.

His heart ached for the day when Jesus would make all things new.

His favorite word was ‘maranatha’, which is an Aramaic word that means, “Lord, come!”

I believe that was his constant prayer.

I don’t think he wanted to escape from this world, so much as he wanted to finally be at home. With his heavenly father.

For Jamie, the promise of perfect fellowship with God was so precious. And his spirit became so tired of waiting.

In John 16, Jesus was nearing the end of his last day with his disciples before going to the cross. He told them, “A little while, and you will see me no longer. And again, a little while, and you will see me.”

In a gentle way, he was telling them that we would be going away, but coming again.

And many of the disciples became discouraged and confused, and Jesus said to them:

You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Jamie fought for joy with all his might for the last several years of his life. He fought until he couldn’t fight any more.

But today, he is with Jesus, and nothing will ever take his joy again.

Today, Jamie gets to experience the ultimate fulfillment of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died -- more than that, who was raised -- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jame fought the hardest battles I’ve ever seen. He battled depression and nightmares, and crushing grief.

But in the end, all those things are swallowed by the hope of the cross. Every foe was defeated once and for all at calvary.

And now he stands victorious, in the embrace of Christ, and proclaims:
Death is swallowed up in victory!
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?

No.

Let us not grieve for Jamie.

He is the happiest he has ever been today.

Instead, let’s grieve the loss of such a precious man.

Let’s join him as we groan inwardly for Jesus to come and make all things new.

Let’s join him in the mission of proclaiming this hope to everyone.

I offer Hebrews 6:19-20:
(the hope of the Gospel) is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf…

In the coming days, as we ride the wave of emotions that come with our loss, let us remain anchored to the hope of the Gospel.

Let us plant ourselves in the hope of a coming redeemer.

I would like to end with a poem, a prayer, and then a video to remember uncle Jamie.

This poem is very precious because it was written by a man named William Cowper.

Like Jamie, Cowper was a man of God who battled dark depression for most of his life, and yet, like Jamie, he left a huge footprint in our world. He wrote 66 hymns that are commonly found in modern hymnals. I believe he wrote from a place that Jamie could identify with:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

(Those reading from email or an rss feed will need to click through to see the 2-minute video above)

This is very personal to me.

There are somewhere around 30,000 believers in Uzbekistan, which is roughly 0.001% of the population.

I know a handful of them personally. They have been arrested, interrogated, spied on, sabotaged, and end up forced to live on the run, often to other countries.

This video is not an exaggeration or an isolated case.

Openly following Jesus in this context will cost you everything.

Please pray with me for our brothers and sisters in this part of the world.

The Summit Church has a vision to plant 1,000 churches in the next 40 years — most of them in un-reached countries around the world.

That’s right: one thousand churches

One vehicle for this effort is called SendRDU, which exists to help equip and connect people and families who are interested in investing their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

Last week, there was a SendRDU gathering where pastor JD attacked a great question: “What Does It Mean To Be Called?”

This is a rich question that I think all of us struggle with in different ways and at different seasons.

I think pastor J.D. did a fantastic job handling the question. Stephanie and I couldn’t make it to the event (no babysitter), but we downloaded the message and listened to it together this weekend. It was awesome to dream together and remember what God created us for.

I’m so excited to see what God is doing!

You can read his blog post on the topic here, and listen to the teaching here.

I’m curious: what does it mean, in your opinion, to be “called”?

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/22/what-does-it-mean-to-be-called/feed/ 3 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/03/tedashii-reach-records-make-war-with-john-piper/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/03/tedashii-reach-records-make-war-with-john-piper/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:51:24 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3896 You’ve seen a couple of posts here about Lecrae.

Today I want to let you know about another very talented rap artist associated with Lecrae and  the Reach Records label.

He calls himself ‘Tedashii’ (and he tweets!), and he just released a new album, called “Identity Crisis” (you can buy it here).

My favorite track from the album is called “Make War“.

How can you not love a hard-core rap track that starts out with a John Piper sermon snippet?

But the whole message of the song is awesome and, I think, very appropriate for the church in our age.

Check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVT5MDmZ3wM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_uwWPE6lQ

I heart Francis Chan.

Take 3 minutes and watch this.

(Courtesy of Mr. Vitamin Z)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBJzUnxiKwA

This is a short video from Sermon Jams featuring a sermon snippet from a modern-day hero of mine: John Piper (who is on twitter!).

Listen to him spell out Paul’s teachings about displaying Christ as your treasure!

I found it to be a good tool for exploring my thoughts and emotions, and also a good way to express them in a way that would make sense when looking back from the future.

I haven’t made time to sit down and try to think poetically in a while, but whenever I read John Piper’s poetry, it challenges me to make the time.

This poem, titled “Job, Part 4″, provides such amazing insight into the character of God, and stirs in me thoughts and emotions that this world keeps me so distracted from!

Have a look at this challenging turn of phrase, where Job is talking to his new daughter, Jemimah, at some point 7 years after the book of Job ends:

No, no, my child, to cleanse
An Upright heart of toxic stains
With searing irons is not like chains
Laid on the soul in penalty
For guile and crimes no one can see.
No, they were wrong. And kindly has
The Lord rebuked good Eliphaz,
And I have prayed for him, and all
is well. You see, their mind was small,
And they could not see painful times
Apart from dark and hidden crimes.
Beware, Jemimah, God is kind,
In ways that will not fit your mind.

His newest album, Rebel, has been in heavy rotation on my playlist for weeks.

One of my favorite tracks is called “Don’t Waste Your Life” (based on the Piper book).

You can view the full lyrics to that here.

Below is my favorite verse:

Suffer

Yeah do it for Christ if you trying to figure what to do with your life

if you making a lot money hope you doing it right because the money is Gods you better steward it right

stay focused if you ain’t got no ride

your life ain’t wrapped up in what you drive

the clothes you wear the job you work

the color your skin naw you Christian first

people living life for a job

make a lil money start living for a car

get em a house a wife kids and a dog

when they retire they living high on the hog

but guess what they didn’t ever really live at all

to live is Christ yeah that’s Paul I recall

to die is gain so for Christ we give it all

he’s the treasure you’ll never find in the mall

Your money your singleness marriage talent and time

they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine

What would my life be like if I believed that Christ is the only Treasure my heart is really after, and everything else in my life is a tool He’s given me to display His worth?

She bought it because she knows I seriously admire Andy Stanley, and I would love to learn anything I can from him.

But she also bought it because she knows that I have a borderline unhealthy awareness that our life is a vapor, and I desperately want to be faithful with all the opportunities that God has put in my life.  Everywhere I look, I see what is, and what could be should be, and the tension between the two keeps me awake at night. It keeps my mind racing.

Well, life happens and the book got hidden on a shelf and forgotten about until this weekend, and yesterday morning I excitedly dug into it.

So far, I’ve read two chapters, and I can’t begin to express how much I needed this right now. Andy uses the story of Nehemiah to pick apart the pieces of a vision.

He starts with this thesis:

Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.

That’s on the first page. And it seems like every other line so far is a clear articulation of a feeling that I have been wrestling with a lot lately.

So far, Visioneering is a God-send for putting this season of my life in perspective.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post some good quotes/nuggets later this week.

In the meantime, I’m curious: Do you have a vision? It could be short-term or long-term, big or small.

If so, what is it?

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/02/17/visioneering/feed/ 2 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/01/26/15-points-about-abortion/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/01/26/15-points-about-abortion/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:39:06 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=2943 From John Piper:

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother’s womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

There are about 29 million people in Uzbekistan, a country run by a KGB hitman thug. Karimov’s cruelty and lack of respect for his fellow man is mirrored down through the government at every level, and the most startling example is in Uzbek prisons.

I was very close to going to prison there and witnessing the conditions first-hand, and the prospect of that made our country director so nervous that at one point he was trying to get a US military helicopter to hover over our house and air lift us out of our situation.

It’s rumored among the people there that some people are even boiled alive in prison as a method to force prisoners to confess to whatever crime they are accused of.

I once had my passport stolen by a police officer, and he wouldn’t give it back until I wrote a confession stating that I had committed a crime. That was our deal on the surface. He was really trying to intimidate our team into giving him a large sum of money to leave us alone.

All that to say, here’s an article I came across that is worth the five minutes to read it.

Here’s how it starts:

The treatment of prisoners in Uzbek jails has never been good: it has always been bad, but it turns out that the situation is worsening further and there is no limit for this.

Almost legalised mistreatment, corruption and the embezzlement of funds allocated for prisons are complicated further by chaos, established in jails, and the grave general economic situation in the country.

As a result, the lives of about 60,000 inmates in Uzbekistan have changed from hard to unbearable. Inmates are beaten up, mistreated, underfed and forced to do hard jobs.

These kinds of things really get the wheels in my head turning (video embedded below):

The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Houston church’s connection to Hooters — a restaurant chain whose signature is waitresses in skimpy orange shorts and tight tank tops — goes back more than nine years to a time when Pastor Clint Reiff was serving the congregation as associate pastor.

“I met a waitress while we were both pumping gas at the Shell station. We started talking. She mentioned that she was exhausted after waiting tables, and it made it hard for her to come to church,”  Reiff recalled.

He gave her his business card and told her to call if she ever felt the need. Two days later, the restaurant’s manager called to invite the church staff and their spouses to dinner.

When Reiff said he’d check with the pastor and get back with him, the manager responded, “We’re just looking for answers like anyone else.”

“I didn’t know if he said it flippantly or not, but I said, ‘We’ll be there,’” Reiff said. “I’m not sure our pastor at the time really knew what he was saying ‘yes’ to, but he was supportive, and a few evenings later, we were there. As I recall, most of us sat with our heads down trying not to look up, but we survived that first meal,” he said.

What do you think?

This is the message I want to spend the rest of my life communicating in every way that I can.

I daily beg Jesus to pay off our debts and give me a job where I can spend all day, every day proclaiming this message:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=moW_x1M-VaU

(ht: Zack)