Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 11/3/2009
Shall we go for a walk? Come with me to a neighbourhood. Look at all the shapes and colours of these houses! Each one is so unique and each has it's own story to tell us. How exciting the way God, who spoke into the heavens and created the stars and planets and has numbered their days, orchestrates every tiny detail in our lives, who brings meaning to everything we do!
Today we will look at one man and his house. See the way he lives in there? His house is filled with selfishness, ignorance, impatience, rebellion, lack of self control and judgments of others. You can also see some virtues, that are true and pure, but they never seem to last very long in that house, and are usually consumed by his vices. They become lords and masters in the house, controlling him, despite what he desires. He is no satisfied man, there is no true contentment or peace residing there. It is always a struggle for him.
You and I though, as we walk outside, in God's Kingdom, in His qualities, in His neighbourhood see something different. A much less frustrating way to live. The way of peace, contentment, simplicity of Love. Outside dwells all the riches belonging to God! All of who he is dwells in this eternity. But do you see this man opening his door and reaching out to pull these qualities into his house? He is trying to grasp little peices of gentleness, kindness, self control, patience, peace, joy and Love. He spends so much time trying to invite God into his life that He forgets God has asked him to leave his life and be a part of something greater. Why does he not just walk outside, into infinite grace, into the goodness and beauty of God? Perhaps it's familiar territory. It's painful, but he understands it, on some level.
Friends, everybody wants this freedom but nobody wants to leave themselves. We've been told though that whoever loses his life will save it and whoever tries to hold onto it will lose it. We just don't understand it yet. It's about giving up. Not doing, but being done unto.
Why is he trying to satisfy himself with cupfulls of God when the ocean is outside? Asking God to come and dwell in his limited space instead of going out into where the abundance is. This is where you can walk and swim in faithfulness, purity, holiness and Love. He needs to walk through God's door instead of telling Him to come through his.
But some people get scared are run back into their houses to feel the familiarity of judgment and lying, stealing and slandering. They may even run into other's houses. Suppose he had an argument with one of his neighbours, why should he go into someone's house and feed an anger or an unkindness, a lying or condemning spirit? He would do well to invite the neighbour into the streets where humility of heart is, where kindness and gentleness of words live, where putting others above ourselves and where true, meek servanthood reside. And reside in their abundance! They aren't just fragments, but they are in their abundance!
So why not leave your house, your life, and go outside, into God's? Into His Kingdom. It's a much more vast and beautiful place, and a place where you can find true contentment and Love. James tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Get outside.
It was neat today to get out into the city and spend some time with the homeless people of Budapest, Hungary.
Love silence.
I think I've said all I need to say for now.
But tomorrow we head to Rome for around a week. Pray with us for the Catholic church. :)
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 10/29/2009
We go to so much trouble to feed this one small stomach of ours. Every day it's constant demand to be satisfied, filled and quenched cries out to us. So we run around, here and there, searching for ways to feed it, even if we have to lie, steal, and manipulate. For what? To satisfy this hunger that will return, sadly, in a couple hours.
But friends, see the hunger of our souls, a hunger placed in us from eternity, living now inside of us for the very thing it came from. A book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, tells that we have eternity set in our hearts. Something inside of us longs for wisdom, Love, compassion, respect, humility, praise to our Good Heavenly Father. It longs for the Kingdom of God!
Who of us has really recognized this, and not only recognized but worked to satisfy this as fervently as we work to satisfy the hunger of our stomachs? If you learn how to find and satisfy your hunger for eternal things, hungers of the world will flee.
Dear friends, it may take some chipping away, sure. Be patient with that. It does need to be uprooted but if you take time to cut off the branches first, it will at least give you some time to practice trust, Love, forgiveness, patience and being slow to speak about the faults of others. You will get stronger too, these qualities will give you more strength to cut down bigger branches, one day the trunk and to rip out the strong roots this tree was once tied to the ground with. Cut off the actions. Cut off the desire. Uproot the evil that was born into your heart. Allow God to plant in you His perfect qualities.
Don't be satisfied with pruned branches, the root must be taken out! It will always grow back, so take it apart every chance you get. It won't die. You have to kill it.
Quick update: Yes, we are in Budapest, Hungary, for a week. Next we will head to Rome, Italy for another week, and the Prague, Czech Republic for a few days before heading to final debrief in Vienna, Austria. I am still a little behind with support and I would appreciate any contributions, finances, prayers and encouragement.
Love others, pray for those who hurt you.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 10/29/2009
"We must guard our house! Let us go and get a dog for ourselves to protect what we store inside."
My dear friends, painfully soon, that barking will become all too
familiar. Those dirty, slobber-soaked bones and other filth become a much
too common scene, and maybe one day will be "just a part of the house". Now
besides the tiring noise or the inescapable rubbish, even if they are raised properly, they still may manage to bite strangers,
friends, even owners. Sure, dogs were created to make noise, we all
were. And knowing right from wrong? Sadly, that only belongs to humans. All in all, you can't blame them.
But for some reason we see it fitting to raise
these dogs within ourselves, as if the torment outside isn't enough. Man learns to lovingly raise these dogs
within, kissing them, giving them whatever they bark at just to keep
himself safe. But to feed them is to feed yourself
distractions and grief. No peace will you find. Do you not see owner after
owner walking down the street, nurturing these dogs that in fact
control them? These dogs, whose only
duty is to bark and growl at every desire aren't helping anything. They cannot even live in
unity, peace, or harmony with themselves, let alone another dog. It's completely controlled by its
selfishness, it will fight and bite, without caring whether its ears,
nose, or eyes get injured.
Please friends, you raise these dogs within yourself and you will never know unity, harmony, or peace. You will never know
love, compassion, tranquility. You will only know doubt, jealousy, envy, resentment, treachery, deceit,
and the egoism of the I.
Look. How can such a dog guard this house
filled with God's qualities? This house, meant to be filled with wisdom and love, of compassion,
and peace. This house does not need any guard but God.
Give Him the sole responsibility for guarding that secret place.
He is the One responsible for His kingdom, His house, His property, and the
wealth of the soul. If He is the guard, you will have peace.
You will come to understand yourself, your Father, and the freedom of your
soul.
So with your wisdom, catch that dog, control
it, and then chain it behind the kitchen.
Starve it.
Force it to feed on all the ugly qualities in your life.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 10/13/2009
I have been thinking a lot about myself and trying to search my heart more thoroughly, and painfully. It has proved to be rather disappointing as there is not much Holy Goodness in there. I am thankful for the things God has allowed me to learn, and learn well. Sincerity is coming, slowly, but it is coming. I find myself catching my thoughts or feelings when they start to swerve into evil, sometimes I direct them back but other times I, sadly, just let them wander. I do think it is important though that I have learned to catch them and become aware of them. Intentions and motives are what make the good things Good, the bad things Bad.
Having a humble and sincere knowledge of yourself won't come from the reading of many books but through devout prayer and honesty with yourself and God. I am trying to go further into this, finding God, thus finding myself. But there are still many things I do not believe or trust. How do you move from head knowledge to heart knowledge? Please pray that I can put in the time to meditate and go into deep prayer each day, forgiving myself, my parents, my friends and enemies. Pray that I can practice the things Christ taught about rather than concerning myself with the wonders of the heavens, which are only good for God to know.
I apologize for the scrambled nature of this letter but my mind is nothing less than scrambled these days.
Being in the Ukraine we have been teaching English and working in orphanages with team Luminous. The friendships we have made with each other and with the people around us are incredible and we are greatly enjoying our time. Please pray for the translators working with us, Helen and Eugene. Pray for the children in the orphanage and the students of our English classes that they can understand more of who God is through our example. There are many people who are desperately searching for Truth and the Almighty God.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 9/7/2009
Walking down the road I had a very friendly eight year old stranger run up to me. Her name is Patricia and for some reason or another my heart is strongly connecting to her and her family! I am so thankful for meeting her already. She has a neighbour friend, Akutza. I soon met Patricia's family, Pamela and Cristi, her mom and dad. I was eager to meet them and try to speak with them more. I find myself learning more and more Romanian phrases like "good morning", or "spin me, spin me!" Each day I am learning something new to help me in building this relationship, specifically with Patricia and her family. I feel like this is the one, at least, I am supposed to pour a lot of my effort into. They are beautiful people and while I cannot get pictures of them yet, due to foreigners exploiting the locals and gypsies, after I build a stronger relationship I hope that I can show her to you all!
Romania is a BEAUTIFUL country and amidst all of the chaos of 7 lost bags, the locals have been incredibly friendly and I am very quickly falling for them. Each day that passes I feel as if it has been a week! I am so excited for everything God has in store for us! All of the teams are together, well, Luminous, Kononia and Manna are just down the road. But the other 5 teams are all staying in the same house. Chaotic.
I had the chance to visit a house church here, it started at 9 p.m. and we left around 11:30 p.m. (at intermission). I think it was going to continue pretty late into the night. The church is slowly learning more about Christ and less about Christians and their human laws. I am very excited to go on this journey with them as they continue to seek God out. I sense a deep hunger in them for the real thing! Hopefully while we are here we can show them the true Love of God!
All praise be to God for everything and everyone!
Please pray for Patricia and her family and all of us in Viile Tecii, Romania.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 9/7/2009
Well, it feels like the right time to be leaving Africa. Personally I am ready. I know God has some big things in store for us in Romania. Not sure what ministry or anything looks like right now but we are eagerly awaiting! This new continent shift is probably the biggest change we are facing. Hard to believe this is our LAST continent! This year has absolutely flown by. Africa was an incredible experience where God taught me a lot about family and friendships and the effort, or lack thereof, I put into them. Going to Romania, my mind is set on these relationships and I am thankful for the convictions on my heart about them. After all this is why we came, to show His Love, to have patience with others, to forgive the people who wrong us.
Although some of us have been missing Africa very much, I feel that we are ready to face Europe and to take it over with the Love of Christ.
Quick Financial Update: I am about $2,000 short of the $13,800 to be raised and I am praying that God will put this need on someone's heart to help with with God is doing all over the world, specifically now, in Europe. I can feel that God is preparing my heart for an even deeper understanding of God's Love and I am patiently waiting for His guidance!
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 8/4/2009
[as oft as i have been among men, i returned home less a man than i was before]
i have grown weary of my trying to impress others. i just don't have it in me anymore.
what's worse is that to justify my unwillingness to be honest with God, where my true self lies, i have pretended to actually care about people, lied to many, many others, and manipulated conversation to get the responses i wanted. i have wandered a long way from home...
[who makes these changes?
i shoot an arrow right. it lands left.
i ride after a deer and find myself chased by a hog.
i plot to get what i want and end up in prison.
i dig pits to trap others and fall in.
i should be suspicious of what i want]
there are rare times when i can be selfless but then i ruin the good work, that God alone has done, by praising myself. even now, straining myself to remember any good i have done to perhaps trick myself into thinking i am better than... whoever.
[it does no hurt to you to set yourself lower than all men,
but it hurts you exceedingly to set yourself before even one man]
all the good you ever see in any one is Someone else.
[i know that nothing good dwells in me]
i need to relearn everything, lay the axe to the root, dig up my vices and plant His virtues.
i have not be nearly as honest as i should have been.
[though by this time you ought to be teachers,
you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God,
and you have come to need milk and not solid food]
i need to humbly accept where i am and allow God to help me rid myself of ignorance and fraud [you yourselves wrong and defraud. you do this even to your brethren] and to plant honesty and gentleness [take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls].
pray for this desire in me to remain and grow stronger each day.
[today you confessed your sins, and tomorrow you commit the very same sins you have confessed.
now you intend to take heed and after an hour you behave as if you had made no intentions at all.
good cause you have to humble yourself because you are so frail and so inconstant]
may we all learn to withdraw from the multitudes, escape the tumult of men, and meet with Jesus to pray. love to be unknown.
[through levity of heart, and small care for our failings,
we become insensible of the sorrows of our souls;
but oftentimes we vainly laugh when we justly ought to weep]
i sincerely apologize to anyone i have hurt for being such a poor example.
- exerpts from the bible, the seneca epistles, rumi, and thomas à kempis
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 6/28/2009
Well, here we are once again in South Africa. We came back from Mozambique today and arrived very tired with a couple sick people. God will keep doing amazing things though. Although it was a crazy month, God continued to reveal things to my heart about where my life is headed and I feel like I am being stripped and built up and prepared for something amazing. I took this month to really pour into some members of the other 3 teams we were staying with. There were a lot of opportunities to show God's Love through various ways and for some people to serve and encourage and help the way God intended them to do was incredible to see. I've been told we are moving quickly to another location for debrief so we are headed up to a place called prayer mountain to be with Mike and Patti. I will be able to share more stories about the month as internet comes and goes but I just wanted to let people know that we are safe here in Africa and seeing our beautiful God everywere we go!
His Love and peace.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 3/26/2009
Here it is.
Cambodia.
This experience has been nothing less than phenomenal.
Team Spectacle has been teaching English and computer classes like Word, Powerpoint, Photoshop, and the always fantastic Excel. I am teaching the Word class and it is pretty simple but we are also sharing Christian values with them and they are so eager to learn. That is what I love most about this country, their willingness to learn. It is so refreshing compared to the disinterest of the Caribbean. As I saw it anyway. This will be a random blog by the way. But the people are so eager to learn! They ask a lot of questions, oh and we ride bikes everyday to class and all that, which is fun. I feel like a kid again. Very refreshing to get out on the dirt/stone path. It's 8:30 in the morning. Forgive me. So yeah, Spectacle likes the bikes. This past week I have been going to the Monestary everyday, hanging out with some monks. I've grown close with a few of them and we have had some good conversations. The first conversation we had he said to me "Can you pray?" So, I said yes I can pray anytime, anywhere, and then he said to me "I can see?" So I clarified and asked "You want me to pray for you? That's ok?" "Yes, yes!" We prayed and I was just able to intercede for them, lift them up in prayer and allow them to see the relationship that one can have with God! It was great! God is really teaching me a lot and everyday I am learning new things. He continues to provide the words I need everyday and shows me the things I need to be praying for. Time with Him has been incredible though. Can't put into words all that He is doing. But God is good, His grace is perfect, His love never fails, and we can do nothing by our own strength.
I'm just thankful. Cambodia is amazing. God is... GOD! His humble servants could not be more content.
Teach us please, good God of love.
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Posted in General Posts by Zack Trute on 2/10/2009
Bon Soir
Alright, so we're in Haiti now. We have been doing some evangelism and bringing people to a certain location and singing songs and doing dramas to get people's attention and then talking about Christ. That was the first week and now we are in the midst of a vbs program for kids around the area. I believe next week is some revisiting people that we have met. We have made some good relationships that I wish we could continue but our ministry has been kind of sporadic and subject to change easily. We've been staying with a ywam team and it's been great to have a roof over our heads and a mat to sleep on. We have been very privileged here, surrounded by the glory of God and our daily needs being met. There is a big hold of legalism here in Haiti and a lack of depth in their faith. Please pray that God will give them desires to go deeper with Him. I have been seeing God's glory everywhere and it has been an incredible time of worship being on this world race. God is showing me what real Love means and I am just being taught a lot about patience and taking time to enjoy God. We pretty much won't have internet until we go back to Santo Domingo for 10 days. Oh, that's one thing I can talk about I guess. February 22-March 3 we will be in Dominican again for debrief and then flying to Miami and then L.A. on the 3rd. On the 4th we begin the wonderful 21 hour plane ride to Cambodia, with maybe a brief layover in Japan to refuel.
Ministry in Cambodia. Let me just share some of that wonderful information... our team will be staying in Angkor Wat with a family (Fun Ky and his wife Hiya). Amazing, I know. As I understand it, Dave and I will be traveling to a monastery each day and having philosophical discussions with the monks about life and God. Our girls will be teaching English and doing lots of prayer. But we will find out more as we approach it. I am thrilled about the opportunity though and I think I will be heavily in my element there. So excited. But let's take one day at a time folks. Spend it in the glory and presence of God.
Thank you again for everything, all the support, financially and through the kind words. It's very much appreciated. Just a few prayer requests for myself - vulnerability, openness and honesty and to take the time to stand in the presence of God all day. Also, to know (in my heart, not my head) what real Love is and how to move from that.
In peace.
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