Kanakuk Institute

An energetic & effective new way to share the gospel!!

Ever feel like your church or ministry is all about the numbers?

Thankfully, you’re not alone.

Francis Chan examines the label “good Christian” to determine if that’s a label we desire or deserve.

Click here for more…

Jon Acuff, author and blogger of Christian satire and humor, writes an encouraging post about the words we sometimes miss on the periphery of some of our most well-known stories.

Click here to read his post.

One of our recent graduates, Stef Taylor, wrote a poem about the year. Her talent to sum it all up in such a creative way will blow your mind!

Jesus loves me this I know
For the bible tells me so
We are broken; we are bruised, with our flesh we fight
And yes we remain precious in his sight.

For years we’ve sung along
And for years we’ve asked
Is there more to these verses
Is there anything we’ve masked?

This year could be marked as a search for the missing lyrics of that song
An entire eight months shoveling through his verses that have been breathed out all along.

As we stand before you today you’ll asked us what we learned
A theologian’s answer we will initially yearn
For.

However the simplicity of the song is what makes it so Graceful
So if you’ll allow us the blessing we would love to share how he is able:

God- we meet in the garden, And He chooses intimacy with man
Loving imperfect humans has always been a part of his sovereign plan.
With a beautiful meeting there comes a tragic fall
A bitter taste of sin will forever scar
Humanity.
We are and they were
Fallen.
But with every fall there is a rise
With every scar you can realize
Healing.
So God being so rich in his mercy
Chooses a nation
And calls them his own.
To a Hebrew people he makes himself known.
And just like us
Israel bows and then they boast
Worshipping idols and then making the most
Of themselves.
In their inconsistency He remained forever faithful.
Manna falling from heaven, with held together sandals they were able
To keep walking
And so they did.
Into a four hundred year inhale where only silence spoke of him
But with an exhale we hear a tangible amazing grace
Unto you a child is born, there is a savior in this place.
Jesus, Emmanuel, God himself has come
With a heartbeat like ours, His divinity not undone.
As a baby is born, silence is broken
Prophecy fulfilled, God has spoken.
He is here.
He walked.
He taught.
He loved.
And was mocked.
All the way to a cross on a hill
Carrying the weight of our sin forever he would seal
Shut death.
As sin is strangled and takes its last conquering breath
Dark stops breathing
And the grave loses its concealing power.
Jesus in his
Rises
And lives
And within his life he gives us
Life.

This I am convinced is the rhythm of that childhood song,
The lyrics that are etched throughout all eternity long.

We came this year not just to expand our minds but to engrave this on our hearts
Not to stop our lives for a year but to start
The rest of this story.

The backdrop is simply this within these perfect rhythms of grace
We have tasted heartache, pain, and have many times ached
Begged and pleaded for less
Asking Jesus if we could just finish this test.

We showed up with baggage that was far beyond visible
Attached to our hearts, our past trying to be divisible
Of our futures.

Leaders, yes, graduates, yes, anything on our own, no.
So we enter a wrestling match with society when they say so.

If we strive to please men we are no longer bondservants of him
The only one worthy of worship, the one leading us from within.

And within that is this:

Today is not a picture of our success
But redemption is the painting
God willing to mold us and continually shaping
Us,
An imperfect people,
To look more like His Son.
With that image
We will run and

We will go

Where we will spend this side of glory making his name known
Abiding in His Truth, in Himself, and resting in being his own.

Our prayer is that as he becomes greater we become less,
That we are never exalted but only his name is blessed.

We are not striving to be only career driven adults
But Scripture-seeking disciples that are fixed on the cross.

So as we sit before you today this is the song we sing
The anthem we pray throughout the nations will ring

Jesus loves us this we know
For the word he has breathed out
Has taught us so.

But it’s wonderful!

Click here for a little after Easter reflection…

Below is an excerpt from KeithChancey.com. Enjoy!

What was your favorite commercial in last night’s Super Bowl? Can you believe that advertisers spend over 3 million for 30 seconds of advertisement? I know you’re better at math that I am, but isn’t that $100,000 per second? It’s incredible to invest that much to try and capture the attention of the American public and persuade them to buy whatever you are selling. Doritos, Volkswage– it’s all part of the Super Bowl experience. My favorite part of last night’s Super Bowl was at the end of the game, when the Packers had won, and they asked one of the players, “How does it feel?” With a big smile, he said “To God be the glory.” I’m thankful that, on one of the most festive days of the year, when men and women gather with all their friends and a spread of chips and dips, that God still gets the glory.

This last weekend I had a Super Bowl moment, but it wasn’t on Sunday. It was actually Friday and Saturday at a “D-Now” in Dothan , AL. There I got to share the Word of God, talking to kids about prayer, overcoming temptation, and how they are salt and light as a result of knowing Christ their Savior. It was during this D-Now that we saw kids turn their hearts to Jesus, willing to break the ranks mediocrity, of sitting as a spectator, instead becoming a full participant for the calling of Jesus Christ. Several got up and said, “I want to live for Jesus.” To me, this is what I call a Super Bowl experience. It’s getting people involved and engaged in something greater than themselves.

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Here’s an excerpt from keithchancey.com. A follow-up to “A Mexican Feast”. Enjoy!

So, a couple days ago I gave you the rundown from our awesome vacation time in Cabo. Here’s the rest of the story. What happened next was, I guess you could say, still awesome, but in a totally different way. Here you go…

Upon returning home, I noticed that my foot was hurting a little bit. Remember that proverb, “all the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast”? Bad is a perception. It’s a matter of perspective. I had stepped on a sea urchin, was bitten and poisoned. This problem led to a trip to the doctor. As the pain spread from my ankle to my calf to my thigh to my hip and on to my sciatic nerve, it quickly became a trip to the ER. After several tests, the doctors informed me that the sea urchin’s poison had caused me to have shingles. I didn’t know what shingles was, but I knew it wasn’t good. I was infected and hurting. I couldn’t move around the house and I could hardly stomach my antibiotics.

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As you may know, our students are participating in a semester-long project to identify and defend with Scripture what they believe about ten different topics. Topics include: the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, Salvation, Angels & Demons, the Church, the Bible, the Christian Life, and one topic of student choice. From time to time we send our students a current, apologetic, thought-provoking video clip to help them apply the truths they are learning. We decided to share those videos with you as well. Enjoy!

Here’s a post from keithchancey.com. Enjoy the news of his Christmas travels!

Dear friends,

It is so exciting for me to be back with you and tell you of the adventures of the Chancey family during the holidays. May I just say that GOD IS GOOD!! And it truly is all good. I was reading this morning Proverbs 15:15, which says “all the days of the afflicted (me) are bad, but a cheerful heart (me) has a continual feast”. I love this verse. I know I’m afflicted, but God has blessed me with a cheerful heart. I feel beyond all comprehension that my glass, my pitcher, my whatever has been made full. I have had a feast of a vacation. I have celebrated the birth of our Savior with my family and it was awesome.

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