The Long Road

by Tyler Zach

This is a vision/daydream that I saw when I was singing with a group of college students at a recent worship event on campus.

I saw a long road with a carpet on it.

On each side of the road there were ropes guarding the people from coming onto the path. There were thousands and thousands of people on the outside of the ropes. Far off in the distance you could see that the road led to the Kingdom. The Kingdom had giant walls but looked very small because it was so far away. Out of the large gate opening of the Kingdom at the end of the road came a huge light. The glow of the light was blazing through it (coming from the inside out).

There were many people on the road too - but they were the followers of the King. Coming down the road was the King on a beautiful horse. He was dressed in white and his face was slightly visible. His face was like pure glass with light bulbs inside it. So His face radiated light brightly…but a constant smile could be still be seen. As His horse walked slowly down the path the crowd of followers moved out of the way. As the horse would approach two of the followers, they would each move to the left and to the right of the horse, bowing down in unison, shouting “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty…Who Was, Who Is, and Who Is to come.”

As the horse approached two more followers, they would do the same. This pattern continued - so the chant echoed over and over again as the King pressed on down the road. The large crowd of people on the outside of the ropes all fell down to their knees. They were all wearing brown garments. Together in unison they kept saying quietly, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” This chanting continued over and over again as the King pressed on down the road.

Just inside the containment ropes was a line of people with drums. This line extended all the way to the Kingdom. They drummed together as one, getting louder and louder as time went on. The chanting of the people was perfectly aligned to the sound of the drums.

The King made sure to look at each of the followers as they bowed down before Him chanting. He smiled at them for He was well pleased.

My Visit To New Orleans

by Tyler Zach



Walking around the streets of New Orleans was not something I expected to do a month ago. After a few college groups from Nebraska decided to go down there and serve, I was quickly inspired and persuaded to do the same.

As we walked through the street, we saw business buildings, churches, and homes all tattooed with a 10-foot waterline. All the water had been pumped out of the area, but the trash still remained. I would describe New Orleans as a “giant dumpster”.

We walked past the Superdome, which was completely deserted. A month ago, thousands of refugees were being fed and housed there. No one was in sight now – except for a local businessman who was wearing a tie and walking around with his personal video camera. A car drove past and a few guys inside shouted something at us, but we couldn’t make it out.

We walked up to businessman and asked where the worst part of the city was. He pointed to the northwest part of the city and we quickly jumped in our vans and headed in that direction. What we experienced was a ghost town. The only people we saw outside were a few EMTs leaning on a car having a smoke.

The local McDonald’s restaurant was totaled. The windows were blown out and the tables inside were overturned and layered with trash. Churches and schools remained empty and littered with trash. Large hotels stood windowless.

We still can’t conceive of what it will take to restore and rebuild the city. It is going to take years to gut out the rotting, moldy buildings. It is going to take even more time to build new churches, houses, and businesses.

After our brief tour, we drove 15 miles northeast to a city called Slidell, LA. Over 80% of this city was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In our minds, this town of 200,000 was hit harder than New Orleans. And this was the city that inspired me to bring 25 college students down to the Gulf coast and serve. This experience blew us away and changed our lives. More on that in the next blog. Stay tuned!

Only God Can Judge Me

by Tyler Zach



Back in high school there was a guy named Todd who was a year older than me. He was very sensitive to people judging him, because, well, he had been judged a lot by his peers and community. So he got a tattoo on his arm that proclaimed, “Only God Can Judge Me.”

Is this a reasonable proclamation or is it an excuse to do whatever you want – and tell everyone to back off?

The playground for talking about “being judgmental” is a rough one for people of all ages. The bible can be very confusing at first glance when you try to take a stance on judging others. Here are two scriptures that seem to say two different things:

1) Romans 14:10 – “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”

2) Luke 17:3 – “If your brother sins, rebuke him.”

Why does the first passage exhort you to not judge someone while the second passage seems to say that it is OK? Well, perhaps it is because we have a faulty view of what the two words – judgment and rebuke - mean. Perhaps when we “rebuke” someone we aren’t actually “judging” them after all.

Rebuke comes from the Greek word “Epitimao” which means to remind someone of a duty or obligation, express warning, and give advice and encouragement with gentleness.

Judge (the verb) comes from the Greek word “Krino” which means to bring under condemnation or simply “to condemn”.

When you condemn someone, you are basically communicating to them that they are out of God’s favor…and in extreme circumstances…that they are out of God’s family.

On the flip side, if you rebuke a fellow brother or sister in Christ, you are communicating to them that they are not under condemnation no matter what sin they commit. The key here is that they are still fully accepted by God and by you. But, by rebuking them, you are showing them love by reminding them of their duty as a son or daughter of God and by giving them encouragement to press on in obedience.

Do you see the difference?

Now we can start to understand what the passage “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” means. We can sharpen each other without judging each other.