The Meditations of A Normal Man

2011-11-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

REFLECTIONS IN THE POOL

There's an interesting story in the Gospel of John in which Jesus exemplifies the healing power of God as he heals a crippled man at the pools of Bethesda. In addition to showing Jesus' power and his grace, it also provides us with a mirror, that when looked upon, will reveal to us those things that we are leaning on to fill the place of Jesus in our lives. It's a subtle image, but once it's seen, it's clearly evident.

This story appears in chapter 5 of John's gospel account. John writes:

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” - John 5:2-9

The first thing that we're shown in this story is the pools of Bethesda. Now, if you look up the passage, you may see something odd. When you look at how the verses are marked, unless you have an older translation, you will notice that verse 4 is missing or bracketed. This is a critical piece to the mirror. Verse 4 talks about the significance of the pools. According to later manuscripts, an angel of the Lord would come and stir the waters of the pools from time to time, and the first to enter the water was healed of whatever infirmity he had. Around these pools is where the sick and crippled would congregate with the hope of getting healed. This is important, I'll come back to this in a bit.

The next piece of this narrative that we're given is a man sitting by the pool who had been crippled for a long. John tells us Jesus sees this man and knows that he has been in this place for a while. Having this insight into Jesus' knowledge of this man's situation, what Jesus does next should cause us to look a little closer at what's going on here, or at the least raise an eyebrow. Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be healed?”. Jesus knew the answer to this question before he asked it. We knew the answer to the question before Jesus asked it. So, why did he ask it?

Before we answer that question, let's look at what the man said in response to Jesus' question. If you notice, he doesn't actually answer Jesus' question. The question Jesus asked has a yes or no answer. The man says neither. What the man tells Jesus is why he hasn't been healed. He says “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Upon hearing the man's answer, Jesus simply says pick up your bed and go. And that's where the scene ends. The story continues, but let's chew on this for bit.

I said earlier that the significance of the pools, as highlighted in verse 4, is an important piece to this narrative. Why? These pools offer those looking for relief the promise of miraculous healing. Step first into the turbulent waters and you will be healed. And it delivered … sometimes. Not everyone who came to the pools was healed by them, because only one can be healed at a time – there can be only one “first”. If you weren't that one, you weren't healed. This source of miraculous healing, although it was from God, delivered by an angel, it wasn't God. It was a pool. Churned by an angel. The reason this is important comes to light when Jesus meets him.

God himself, having the power to heal whomever he wishes, comes and asks the crippled man sitting by the pools of healing, “do you want to be healed”. But instead of simply saying yes and letting Jesus heal him, the man explains to Jesus why he's not been healed by the pools. What would cause someone to make such a tragic oversight? Later in the story, John tells us that the man didn't know that it was Jesus who had healed him. He doesn't really say why this is so, but I would venture a guess that it may have been because the man was so focused on the pools, that he paid no attention to who was speaking to him. He was so focused on the tool that God used to heal, that when God himself came to him offering healing, he couldn't see it. Fortunately Jesus heals him anyway. But this interaction between the man and Jesus provides us, as I said earlier, with a mirror in which we can see ourselves.

How many times do we look for God's blessings in things that are not God? How many times do we seek to fill our needs by our own means, becoming so focused on how we think we can get what we need, that we miss God when he shows up and offers it to us freely without condition.

Here's an example from my own life. There was a time in my life when I was looking to fill an empty space that existed in my heart. I thought that I would find the fulfillment to this need in my relationship with my girlfriend at the time. Every moment I was with her I filled the space in my heart with the love that she gave me, but when we were apart, the emptiness came back. All the while, she and I were attending church on the weekends and listening to the preacher talk about God, the giver of all things, freely and bountifully offering all we needed. The message was crystal clear, right there in front of me, but I was so focused on getting my needs met by her how I thought they would be best met, that I completely missed it. Eventually, that relationship ended and I was left with a bigger hole than I had begun with. Upon offering me His love, I told him all about why this girl had not satisfied my longing for love. Fortunately, he filled me himself anyway, opened my eyes and began pouring himself into my heart.

What is it that your looking to to fill your needs. Is it a relationship with someone other than God? Is it a community? A video game? A hobby? … An addiction? Here's a tricky one. I've heard many stories of people looking for meaning, for spiritual sustenance, for fulfillment from a church. The popular thought process seems to be: My life isn't where it needs to be, therefore, I will go to church and the church will make it better. But the church is just like the pools of Bethesda. It may fill your need, but because the church isn't God, it will ultimately not deliver in the way that you need it to. Someone else might get in the way. Your need may not be filled completely, leaving you needing still more from a source that's given all it has to offer. Or it might simply not have what you need at all. But God is right there behind you, asking you if He Himself can fill your needs. Will you tell him why the things that you've replaced Him with aren't filling your needs, or will you turn to Him and accept his offer? It's a decision that all of us face at some time or another.

When we really look at this story of the pools of Bethesda, we see in the water our own reflection.

2011-08-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

IN DEFENSE OF DOCTRINE

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. - Jude 1:3

I'm writing this in response to something I heard come out the mouth of a brother in the faith as he was praying. While the passage above speaks to those who would deny the Lord Jesus completely and lead the saints with them away from from the Lord, I'm quoting this passage in response to those who still believe they are seeking the Lord, but are skirting on the very edge of the narrow way Jesus talks about in Matthew 7, ever so slightly out of alignment, that the deviation from the faith is subtle, but grows slowly.

Let me begin by defining some terms. In the above passage, Jude uses the term “the faith”. In his letter, he's addressing the saints: “those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for [or by] Jesus Christ”. He uses this term “the faith” in relation to salvation. This builds off of what James says in his letter, basically the thought that faith without works is not genuine faith, without which there is no salvation if in fact salvation stems from genuine faith as asserted by Paul in his letter to the Romans. Jude takes it a step further, past salvation and into guarding that salvation, making the statement that there is a faith – one – which we are to hold to.

What does that mean? What is meant by the term the faith. It would seem that it goes past the overarching term of faith, which Paul describes Abraham having, a trust in God, and steps into something more refined.

In 1 Corinthians 16:13, paul puts it like this: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” The Faith is something that we can stand firm in, hold fast to, adhere to. He goes on to say in 2 Corinthians “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” So The Faith is something in which we are either in or out of. And more than that, there is a measure by which to test whether we are in or we are out. There is an observable difference between those who are in the faith, and those who are not.

What is this quantifiable evidence of The Faith? The term implies that there is a specific set of beliefs to be adhered to. If these beliefs are held, we have The Faith, or are in The Faith. If these beliefs are not held, we are not. There's another word describing specific beliefs that are held. That word is Doctrine. When Jude and Paul use the term The Faith, they are referring to specific beliefs or the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 6:3-4a says “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” Doctrines are the test to which Paul refers in 2 Corinthians. If the Doctrines of Jesus Christ are held, we are in The Faith. If we hold doctrines contrary to those spoken by Jesus (or believe doctrines don't matter at all – which, by the way, is still a doctrine), we are not. Doctrines are important, and they are to be held, highly regarded, observed and protected.

In Paul's instruction to the leaders of the Church, he takes this a step further still. In Paul's letter to Titus, Paul tells him what kind of person should be appointed to a leadership position. Among the criteria is a firm grasp of sound doctrine: “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” He goes on to tell Titus how to instruct those not in leadership to live godly lives. Among this admonition is the instruction that they are to “[show] all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”

There's a popular belief right now that faith trumps doctrine. That a relationship with Jesus is more important than the doctrines of Jesus. Beloved, that is a lie straight from the pit of Hell. Without the doctrines of Jesus Christ, there is no knowledge of Jesus Christ. And without a knowledge of Jesus Christ, there is no relationship with Jesus Christ (you cannot relate to that which you do not know). To know Christ, to be in relationship with Jesus Christ is to hold fast the Doctrines of Jesus Christ as spoken by Christ himself, and by the apostles through the inspired written word of the Scriptures.

To reject the Doctrines of God is to reject God. Some might say that they have a relationship with Christ apart from the Doctrines of Christ (The Faith), apart from the teachings and beliefs of the Church (or with teachings and beliefs different from the Church). To those I would say, you have a relationship to someone, but it's not Jesus.

When the doctrines are left behind or altered, The Faith is left behind and all that is left is an unbridled or heretical spirituality masquerading as Christianity. Jesus comes with His doctrines. To embrace one is to embrace the other. Period.

2011-07-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

THE GOODNESS OF GOD

I've been meditating on the Goodness of God lately, and it's led me to many places, but specifically to two very important conclusions. These two destinations are, one, from the Goodness of God comes a delight in God that is beyond all comparison with anything else in all of creation and two, the Goodness of God leads naturally to the embracing of the lordship of Christ. I'd like to spend some time unpacking these two conclusions, both for my sake, and for the edification of you, whomever you might be.

First of all, what do I mean by the “Goodness of God”? When I say the Goodness of God, what I am referring to is the divine goodness that is found in the very character and nature of God. It is this Goodness that led Him to create a people with which to share Himself, to share his Love and the relationship that exists perfectly within himself. When I say His Goodness, I refer to that which causes His love and justice, His mercy and righteousness to coexist and intermingle perfectly, constantly, eternally. It's His goodness that led him to step down into time and space as a man and crawl up on that old rugged cross to execute his righteous judgement while lovingly sparing us the penalty of His wrath which we so faithfully store up for ourselves. When I say His Goodness, I refer to the fact that, even though we as humanity continually snub our noses at Him, He gives the right to enter into His everlasting family, putting in us His very spirit, joining Himself to us, His heart to ours, for all of eternity. There is so much more to be said about His goodness, but I believe I've made my point.

So how have I come to the conclusions I have stated above, simply by thinking on His goodness? I would hope that the first conclusion is fairly straight forward. There is a relationship to be had with God, that in His Goodness He has provided us access to even in our filthy and sinful state. Because it was out of the Goodness of God we were created, it naturally follows that to return to the Goodness of God is the best place for us. While we can see glimpses of God's Goodness in His creation and in relationships we might have with other people, there is an unmatched splendor and joy to be had in looking directly into the Source, with the eyes of our heart staring straight into the Goodness of God himself. The relationship of the created with the creator is unmatched by any other relationship we can have with any other created being. In His Goodness, He created us with deep longings, longings that stretch down to the very bedrock of our souls, and because He is the creator of these longings, He can fulfill them perfectly and completely. Thus it follows that from the Goodness of God comes a delight in God that is beyond all comparison with anything else in all of creation.

That one was pretty obvious. But what about the second conclusion, that the Goodness of God leads naturally to the embracing of the lordship of Christ? For this one I'm going to enlist the help of Apostle Paul. In his letter to the Romans he writes

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to image of his son in order that he might be first born among many brother. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword. As it is written 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered'. No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor depth nor height nor anything in all of creation will able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:28-39

What does this mean? This means that out of His Goodness, God has secured our place in His Goodness, in His family and His Kingdom. For those who love Him and are called by Him, there is nothing that can keep us from Him. Because of this assurance, I know that no matter what comes my way, no matter how bad things get, no matter how hopeless things look, I will always have a place in God. From this confidence, I can, without hesitation, say that I will follow Him anywhere!

In the reality of the first conclusion above, that His goodness is incomparable with anything else in all of creation, wherever He is, that's where I wanna be. Because of His Goodness, I know that wherever he tells me to go is the best place for me. Whatever he tells me to do is the best thing for me. Jesus said “If you love me, you will follow my commands.” I don't follow Jesus as my Lord because that's how I love him... I follow Jesus as my Lord because I love Him! It is my pure joy to follow Christ's commands, and it is a bitter pain that in my fallen state, the sin nature I find myself in, I tend toward resisting the very lordship of Christ I take so much joy in. O the day when I can follow him without stumbling and obey Him without blemish; when I can fall at his feet and worship Him, unhindered for all of eternity and be joined to Him in the perfect and holy union for which I was created! Lord hasten the day!

2011-06-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

THE GIFT OF GRACE pt2

In part 1, we looked at what Grace is and where it comes from. Now, in part 2, we'll take a deeper look into Grace and what our response to it should be. In his letter to the Romans, Paul talks about two different kinds, or works of Grace, both coming from the same source, but having two different functions. These two kinds of Grace are what I'll call Saving Grace and Enabling Grace. We've already seen the basis for Saving Grace in part 1. It's found in Romans 3:23-25. Paraphrased, is says no one is good enough to meet God's standard, and in that condition He has provided for us a way, through Him, to rise to the standard required by Him, that He would be glorified. This is Saving Grace, the Grace by which we obtain the righteousness of God and the right to be adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters.

To see the second work of Grace, Enabling Grace, two passages, one near the beginning of the letter and one near the end, need to be linked together. In Romans 12:3 & 12:6a Paul writes, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” and “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them...”. Paul's use of the word Grace here refers not to a Grace simply by which we are saved, but rather a Grace that enables us to act. In verse 3, he's referencing the Grace he has been given to act, and in verse 6 he's referencing the grace that we've been given to act.

So what does this mean? How does Grace allow us to act? To answer this, Romans 1:1-5, specifically verse 5, needs to be linked with with 12:3&6. Romans 1:1-5 says:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

In verse 5, Paul first talks about his own enabling Grace, and then speaks of our enabling Grace, in the phrase “obedience of faith”.

To unpack this, the reality that Grace has to be claimed must be understood. Grace is a free gift to us from God “to be received” (Romans 3:25). That means that it's ours only if we receive it. How do we receive it? Simple: Believe. “...God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Or, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). With both Saving Grace and Enabling Grace, in order to claim it, to walk in it, we simply must believe it's ours. In the case of Saving Grace, to believe means to trust in Christ's work on the cross. In the case of Enabling Grace, to believe is to trust that God has given us the ability, authority and power to do what he calls us to do. When God calls, he gives the Grace to follow the call. To believe in enabling Grace is to obey what God calls us to do. This is what paul is meaning in Romans 1:5 when he uses the term “obedience of faith”.

Finally, there is a peace to be found in the Grace of God. In both instances of Grace, when we receive it, there comes with it a confidence that God will accomplish what he sets out to do. When we trust in Christ's work on the cross, in his Saving Grace, we can have full confidence that all our sins are forgiven and that we have a place in God's family forever. When we respond to God's calling with the obedience of faith, in his Enabling Grace, we can have full confidence that God will bring about His desired outcome. In both instances, the confidence in God's grace should leave us with the peace that God is firmly in control. All we need to do is believe, show up, and do what he tells us. He'll take care of everything else. Grace. It's that simple.

2011-06-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

THE GIFT OF GRACE pt1

Grace is, by far, the simplest doctrinal truth in the life of a Christian. Grace rests at the core of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and the ability to live out of our inheritance as children of God rests squarely on the reality of Grace. Unfortunately, since it is so breathtakingly simple, Grace is also one of the most over-thought and over-complicated doctrines. In the 16 chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans, the word Grace appears 18 times. A good understanding of Grace can be gained by looking through the words of Paul in this magnum opus of doctrinal revelation centered around Grace

In Romans chapter 3, Paul gives us the essence of Grace, namely the free gift of God from God to us. He starts by making this statement in verse 23: “All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God,”. Look closely at this verse. Grace is beautifully evident here, but it's very easy to miss. Notice that this verse doesn't end with a period, but rather a comma. Paul says no one is good enough to meet the requirements put forward by God, but he doesn't stop there. What follows in verses 24 and 25 gives us the foundation on which our understanding of Grace is based. All together these three verses read.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

If read carefully, a theme emerges from this passage: Grace is from God. All of it. Here, read it again. See if you can pick it up.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Grace is not a result of anything that we did, or even can do. Grace has it's source 100% in God.

Because Grace is a gift, owing it's origins totally and completely to God, we have no claim on it other than it was given to us. This means Grace cannot be earned. Paul makes this point beautifully in Romans 11:6 which says, speaking of being chosen by Grace, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” Grace is a gift. A gift cannot be earned. Romans 4:4-5 says “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness”. There is a beautiful and breathtaking truth to be found here. Grace is a gift which was freely given, regardless of our worthiness or unworthiness to receive it. Here's the beauty of it. If there is nothing that qualifies us to receive grace, there is also nothing that disqualifies us from receiving grace. Grace is ours, whether we like it or not. What then becomes important is how we respond to it. We have a choice. We can either embrace what God has given to us, or we can leave it behind, choosing instead to rely on our own merit.

In part 2 I'll look at some finer distinctions made about grace, as well as a clearer understanding of what it looks like to receive the gift. Stay tuned.

2011-06-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

UNTITLED MEDITATION

I was meditating on an issue I'm currently facing, a dilemma if you will, in which I'm presented with several possible outcomes. Some very, very good, some rather bad, and some carrying more neutral consequence. As I was thinking on these different possibilities, in my mind I was bringing out the spiritual director that I often bring out with helping others with similar dilemmas. As I was guiding myself through the facts of my own situation, I became suddenly aware of startling state of mind. I was comfortable. Even though there's pain in this uncertainty, there's a heart ache that's sitting with me in this dilemma, I was content to sit in it. I knew it. I am acquainted with it. If I sit here in my pain and my heart ache, I know what to expect. I know what's coming, because I control it. Even though it hurts... It's safe. There is a reluctance to move out of it one way or another.

As I recognized this in myself, I immediately saw that there was a deeper condition beneath this one. This desire to stay put and hang out in my heart ache was coming from a place of fear.

There's a very real fear that we all carry. Some of us carry it out in front of us, allowing it to affect our life and faith in very detrimental ways. Others of us have faced it and beaten it with the grace and love of God, but it still follows us, like a lingering echo from the past occasionally making it's way into our ears, whispering the destructive “what if”. What if God doesn't come through? What if God doesn't have our best interest in mind? What if God doesn't want me to have what I so desperately want? What if God's mad at me for what I've done. What if...

This place of fear stems from a issue that's deeper still. These anxieties all come from a common root of mistrust of God or a lack of trust in God. In God's Love. In God's Grace. In God's Character. I discovered that in this particular situation, I am having a very hard time trusting God's words in Jeremiah 29:11. I know He's good. I know He's got my best interest in mind. I know that He loves me and wants to give me only the best. I know his desires for me and his will for my life are better than anything I could conjure up on my own. But yet experiences, wounds from my past are affecting my perception. The pain of my past is casting doubt on my future. It's at this point that I must simply let go of my control and let God do his thing. It's at this point that another set of “what ifs” come into play.

What if... What if God actually gives me what I desire? What if I actually get what I want? I'm used to operating from a place of pain. A place of disappointment. A place of damage control and recovery. What if God begins to give me the desires of my heart? This is uncharted territory. The prospect of facing the unknown is strangely uncomfortable. It's unfamiliar. It's not “safe”. I don't know what to expect, like I know what to expect in the pain. I have no idea what's coming. All that I have to stand on is God's declaration that He loves me and the reality that He died so that he could be with me.

As I see all this, it's on this final revelation that I stand. God loves me with such an intensity that he died the horrible death of the cross just to be with me. If at the end of all this I come away with nothing but Him, how can I possibly say that I got the short end of the deal. So I stare into the unknown, standing on the precipice of His love with this simple prayer: “Lord I love you! Help me to love you more!”

2011-04-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani

This evening I was tracking an idea (at least I thought I was) through the letter to the Hebrews. Now before I begin, let me tell you a little bit about how I read the bible when I'm after something. My translation of choice is the English Standard Version (ESV), for a couple reasons, but one of them is the simple fact that it's heavily footnoted. The translators were very careful to note where a translation might be in question or uncertain. They also were very good about citing passages throughout the new testament where the writer is referencing or alluding to an old testament writing. When I come across a foot note, I make sure to pay attention. In the instances where the footnote points to an old testament writing, I finish reading the thought the writer of the New Testament text is making, and then I go track down the passage they're referencing so I can get a proper perspective on what the writer might be saying. Many people in Israel at the time of Christ had memorized a substantial portion of the Scriptures, so when someone would drop a phrase or portion of Scripture, even if it was incomplete, the listener would be able to fill in the rest to understand the point the speaker was making. This is called an allusion. For instance, in Matthew's Gospel account, in chapter 3 when John the Baptist drops the passage from Isaiah “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight'”, the lister in that day, would have heard that, and filled in the rest of that passage in Isaiah. Take a look at Isaiah 40:1-5, and see if that sheds a new light on what John is saying here.

So back to my “pursuit” in Hebrews, I was tracking a thought that I had had a few days previous. So I began in chapter 2, and after a time of unfruitful searching and following foot notes, I came back to verse 12 which contains a passage from the Psalms that I had not followed because I didn't think it spoke to the idea that I was after. So, having exhausted all other avenues, I thought I would follow the note I'd skipped. The allusion the writer uses here is from Psalm 22, so I turned to Psalm 22 to read it in its entirety to gain perspective on what the writer was saying. Let me say here that I don't spend much time in the Psalms, so I was unaware of what Psalm 22 said, though after reading it, I'm sure it's one of the most widely known Psalms simply because of it's prophetic nature. So I begin reading Psalm 22, and the very first words of the Psalm say “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. At this moment, I stop dead in my tracks. I've heard this before. In Matthew 27:6, Jesus is on the cross, and it says “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a load voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If we can take one thing from all the accounts of Jesus speaking, its that he does not use words idly. When He speaks, he puts every word exactly where He wants it, exactly when he wants it. So what does this mean? Why does Jesus quote Psalm 22 here?

Psalm 22 is the prophetic Psalm that contains the prophesy that His hands and feet will be pierced, his bones will not be broken, he would be mocked, the soldiers would divide up his clothing. At this moment in time in the life of Jesus, this prophesy is being fulfilled. We can see that, the people around him can see that, and that's precisely why Jesus says this. If you're not familiar with Psalm 22, take some time right now and read through it once or twice. I'll wait.

Jesus quotes this Psalm, not to point people to what is going on. They can see with their own eyes that he's suffering, that he is being pierced and that his garments are being divided up. But what they don't see is the rest of Psalm 22.

For those witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus, and then hearing him quote Psalm 22 while it's being fulfilled, would have filled in all the rest of the Psalm. I'm looking specifically at verses 27-31. If one is witnessing the first half of a scripture being fulfilled, exactly, right in front of you, I would assume one would naturally assume that second half will come to pass as well. For the Jews at this point, this extraordinarily exciting! If they got it, “they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. GOD HAD DONE IT! The afflicted will now eat and be satisfied; their hearts will live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD. Kingship now belongs to the LORD and he rules over all nations. This is very, very good news.

So when Jesus utters these words on the Cross, it's not just a cry out to God, it's a call to all who have ears to hear. He's pointing people toward the reality of what's actually going on. Jesus is buying their freedom. With this simple phrase, he says “Listen up folks, look at what's happening. There's something here that you have to see.” And for those there in that moment who heard this and connected the dots, their world exploded and their paradigm was turned upside down. In just one instant, with only four words, for those people that got it, Jesus changed everything!

God I pray that as we search your Word, you will lead us to connect the dots. Give us eyes to see so that we can see what you're up to. God help us to see, so that with only a few words, spoken at the right time in the right place, you will change everything!

2011-04-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

GOOD FRIDAY

It's April 22^nd, 2011, Good Friday. Because Good Friday is a day in which Christians all around the world remember Christ's death, I would like to spend some time myself remembering and meditating on the crucifixion of our Lord, and I'd like to invite you to come along with me. I'm going to look at three different angles, or vantage points, of the crucifixion of Jesus and what we can take from each. Join me as I look at the crucifixion from the most common perspective, Christ's death in relation to us and what we gained as a result, a slightly less common vantage point of Jesus' followers, his disciples, and those closest to him the night this beautifully tragic event occurred and what they may have gone through, and then a vantage point that is rarely looked at, the Crucifixion from the perspective of God, what He did, why He did it, and what He got as a result. In doing this, I hope to paint a picture that has both vivid lights and deep darks which, when put together, create a rich image of what happened on that horrible magnificent day when Christ crawled up on that old rugged cross.

The first perspective, the view from our seats right here, is widely spoken of, so I won't spend a whole lot of time on it, just enough to get the point across. The plain and simple of it, as any street evangelist will tell you, is that Christ died to pay for our sins. It all started back in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve broke the first ever command of God – do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will surely die – and they were naked, scared and ashamed, God came to them and covered their nakedness and shame. It's easy to miss. It's a little verse revealing mercy amidst the chaos of God's judgment. Verse twenty-one of chapter 3 says “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Did you catch that? In their nakedness and shame, God, instead of taking their lives as he said he would, sacrificed other creatures to cover them. He created garments of skins. You can't make a garment out of the skin of something that's still alive. The creation story is, of course, a poem. This, I believe, is figurative language illustrating a truth about our relationship with God. This idea continues as God give the Israelites the sacrificial system by which their sins, the short comings, there nakedness and shame is atoned for. The Israelites were able to bring their sins, through a priest, to God and then kill other creatures to cover their sins. This was a life debt being paid. Our life is in our blood; without blood, we have no life. So we exchange our blood for the blood – the life – of another of God's creatures, as he did for us in the Garden. Because we are the pinnacle of God's creation, anything that is killed in our stead is an imperfect sacrifice, and thus is only a temporary solution. This is why every year the sacrifice would be made. Every year this would be repeated. God would allow us to cover our sins, our shame and nakedness, with the life of lesser creatures. But God, in His divine providence, in a small town outside of Jerusalem called Bethlehem, provided a sacrifice that would once and for all cover our sins. Forever. Since there's nothing in creation that can serve as our replacement in death, God became a man and did it himself. This brings us the Cross. To Good Friday. God, sacrificing Himself so that our sins, our shame, our nakedness, our broken and fallen state can be covered perfectly and permanently. Simply put, God, Jesus, died so that we might live. Jesus gets crucified, we get saved from death. God gets death, we get life. It's a propitiation. A replacement, a transaction in which one person's debt, namely me, you, the person you passed at the supermarket, the person who cut you off in traffic, is settled by another person's payment, namely God in Jesus Christ. But it's so much more than that. We'll look more deeply at the other side of this transaction in a moment. But first, let's look at what was going on down on the ground as this beautiful debacle was taking place.

Try for a moment to put yourself in the shoes of the disciples of Jesus as he was teaching, performing miracles, ticking off of the Pharisees and getting away with it, and loving folks like no one has ever loved them before. This man is amazing, astounding, and if you're following him, I mean really following him, taking his teachings to heart and applying them to your life, you're convinced that this man is who he says he is: the very Son of God, the long awaited and prophesied Messiah. Put yourself in Jerusalem at the time of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus (Matthew 21). He comes into town in a kind of royal procession, he cleanses God's temple, puts the corrupt religious elite in their place. You think to yourself “This is it! It's really happening! Jesus, the Messiah is going to reclaim our promised land and re-establish Israel as the great Kingdom it once was in all of the glory of King David and King Solomon. The time has come, finally!” Now take that expectation, that love that you feel for the Man that has healed so many, possibly even YOU, and befriended the un-friend-able, that excitement for God and His people and the rich history that is fueling it, pushing it forward like a freight train speeding full tilt down a hill – He's really going to do it! This is it – and bring that energy, that momentum, to the hill outside of Jerusalem where Jesus has just been crucified and killed. Stop reading for moment and just let that sink in.

Can you imagine the heart break? Can you imagine that shear indescribable, soul shattering pain that these people went through? This is a broken heart wrapped in a humiliating defeat covered in a fear of death and tied off with a broken faith. There's no sugar coating this. This is excruciating pain. This is the kind of pain that is purely emotional, but is so incredibly intense that it manifests itself in painful ways in the physical. The bitter weeping that had to have been going on. This is the kind of heart break where your heart feels like it's physically breaking open, ripping in two. This is misery. This is agony and anguish. This is Good Friday. But I can't stop on that note. Let's take a look at what God saw.

To view Good Friday, the cross, from this vantage point, we need to position ourselves in Genesis 1 and 2 to get the proper view. In Genesis 1, we find the beginning of the creation poem. This is a far-off view of what God did at the beginning of time. To sum it up, in an overflow of his own creativity, God created all that is. The universe. Light, dark, land, water, day, night, stars, trees, fish, bugs, heaven, earth, everything flowed out from his mouth as he uttered the words of creation. When everything was in place, all as he wanted it, he said to himself, “Let us create man”. And then, out of an overflow of his own love, he created humanity. We can take a couple things from this. First, God loves us. We are the only creature, the only single species (if you want to call us that) that he specifically called into existence by name. Everything else he called into existence with a general word of creation; the seas and everything living in them; the birds of the air; every living creature that walk on the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. These are all general categories. After everything else is created, God says, “let us create MAN.” Us. Specifically. God loves us. Specifically. Second, we are much more than the rest of God's creation. We are part of God's creation, but we are much more than mere creatures. God breathed his very spirit into us. His breathe, from his mouth, he blew into our nostrils. I don't know if you've ever tried blowing into someone's nostrils, but if you're not intimately familiar with that person, it is extremely awkward. God specifically breathed HIS breath into us, his very spirit. We were created in the image of God, his spirit is a part of who we are. We are set apart from all the rest of creation. Special. Loved. In the beginning we were joined together by our spirits, our spirit in His and His spirit in ours. The two were... one. Sound familiar. In the beginning, God and Man were married, joined together by God himself. It was wonderful, but before too long, something went horribly wrong and the focus of God's love and affection began to thumb their noses at Him. They turned their back on him, chose to live life without him. We walked away from God. Even so, God continued to provide for us. He covered us in all the ways we needed covered. Gave us everything we needed. From the moment we left the Garden, God began the task of trying to win back our affections. God spent the entirety of human history attempting to get us to fall back in love with him. The entire Old testament is the story of God wooing his people back into his arms. But we continually turned our back on God, continually offended God, and continually rejected God. But, like a resolute and lovesick husband, he never gave up on his wayward wife. Then, in an act of perfect and desperate love, God himself came to live among us and give up his very life to bring us back into the perfect union we had in the Garden. Jesus, God become man, lived among us, modeled to us what the perfect union that we walked away from and were continually rejecting looked like, felt like, smelled like, sounded like. Then he crawled up on that cross and died in order to give us a perfect way back into his presence. The writer of Hebrews says in chapter twelve, verse two, that “for the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross”. What was that joy? It was us! What a perfect love! As Christ was being nailed to that cross, he was looking at me, at you, thinking to himself 'hang on, don't give up. I'm coming.” It was YOU that kept him on that cross, not your sin. It wasn't you sin that held him there, as a popular worship song states, it is God's furious, passionate, fiery love that held him there. Is there nothing that God won't do to see us back in his arms? God, the immortal eternal great I AM died in order that he may have us again. What did God get out the deal? He got YOU! What a glorious picture! What a perfect love! THIS is Good Friday!

So it's my prayer that we would step into this reality that's been prepared for us. God, will you take us by the heart and bring us back to you. Show us who you are, what you've done, and how much you love us. Give us a full and proper perspective of the cross so that we can see with absolute clarity what happened on the third day through the resurrection. God it's clearly evident by what you've done that you love us. Help us to come to a place of reciprocity where we can meet you in that love.

2011-02-21T18:23:00.000-08:00

THE BEAUTY OF THE CROSS

In my short experience as a follower of Jesus Christ, I've come across a lot of stumbling blocks, and I've encountered many people whose faith has been challenged or even extinguished by the same issues. One such obstacle that I seem to come across often is the issue of the cross being overly horrific. The thought that God would ordain the death of his Son in such a manner (or even at all) is simply off-putting to many, and to still more it is simply offensive. More often than not, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is expressed as a transaction by which one Man's undeserved suffering is exchanged for a different, undeserving man's pardon. To be clear, this is what happened on the cross. But to be clearer still, the cross itself is only a small part of the story of Jesus Christ. Even the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is only a portion of the Grand Narrative of God's divine romance.

Just like anything else, when the story of the cross is taken out of context, or only in a partial context, it often is misunderstood or not understood at all. Jesus, his life and ministry, and his horrible death is much more than a transaction by which our sins are forgiven. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a manifestation of a furious love that burns with more passion than a thousand suns, and that has been brilliantly ablaze since the dawn of creation. Let me begin at the beginning...

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...” I feel it's important to note here that the creation story is not meant to be taken literally. It's meant to capture the essence of creation. It's a poem. That's what poems do, capture the essence of a truth.

This story begins in Genesis 1, when God, in an overflow of his own creativity, creates all that is. And then, out of an overflow of His love, He forms a creature out of the dirt and endows it with His very Spirit (Genesis 2). In the beginning, man was created in a perfect union, he with God and God with him. But after a time, something went horribly wrong and the objects of God's affection, the focus of His fiery passionate love, began to thumb their noses at Him, rejecting Him both as their God and as their lover (Genesis 3 and onward). Thus, God set in motion the most beautiful love story ever written.

For thousands of years, God patiently walked along side humanity as they ignored and offended Him. Like a husband bound by a sacred vow to his wife, He faithfully never left her side, keeping watch over her and meeting her every need, even in the face of continuous rejection. For thousands of years, he attempted to woo her back to Him, and for thousands of years, she rejected Him again and again and again (Exodus - Esther). Then, in an act of perfect and desperate love, God himself laid down his life in order to bring His beloved back into a perfect communion with Him (Matthew 1 – John 21).

While Jesus was crushed by the Father, the Father, being one with the Son in the trinity, did it with expectant joy, knowing that with His sacrifice, he would finally win back his bride that he had known at the beginning in the Garden, inseparably joining the two together as one, His Spirit in ours and our spirit in His. Perfect love reunited. ... The only catch is that the bride has to choose to take the gift that the Bridegroom joyfully purchased for her.

It is only the divine power of the burning passion of God's heart that can take history's most potent and brutal instrument of torture and death and transform it into the most astounding and breathtaking instrument of Love. God loves you with more passion and burning desire than you can even begin to imagine. God literally gave up His life to win your heart.

I said at the beginning that the cross, when viewed as a cold transaction is often offensive. likewise, when a proper perspective is gained on what the cross really is, the result is equally and beautifully disturbing. If you understand and comprehend the scope of what you've just read, you will likely find yourself standing face to face with Jesus Christ, Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, and as you meet his gaze, He will gently whisper into your heart “your move”.

2010-11-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Philippians 4:6-7

Many people have Bible verses that they've committed to memory, and that they allow to guide their life. Large decisions and life changing junctures are often marked by a reflection on these passages. These are most often referred to as life verses. I would venture to guess that everyone that reads Scripture with any kind of consistency has adopted a life verse, even if they are unaware of it. The mark of a life verse is that in every course-altering situation one finds themself in, before every significant choice one faces, the same verse or passage of scripture comes to mind. Sometimes we find a life verse. Sometimes we come across a verse or passage that we find great wisdom or comfort in, and we commit it to memory and adopt it as a guide for living. Other times, our life verses may find us. We might read a passage in passing and not think anything of it, but for whatever reason, the Holy Spirit brings it back to us again and again. In either case, when a life verse has been identified, it's important to spend some time meditating on it. If this verse or passage is to serve as a guide, than to understand what it says, and more than that, what it means is vitally important.

I fall into the latter camp, having had a life verse find me. There was a time in college when I was attempting to memorize large numbers of verses and passages from the Bible using a program developed by the Navigators called the Topical Memory System or TMS. What the TMS does is it pulls together scriptures from throughout the Bible about a given topic and lists them all together in order that one can easily lookup and memorize them. By the end, if the program is completed, thousands of verses or passages will be committed to memory. That's if the program is completed. I, on the other hand, was somewhat lacking in resolve and commitment, and only lasted to about 30 or 40, which, at this point, has dropped down to about 15 or so that I can pull up from memory alone. Included in those 30 some passages was a verse from the apostle Paul, as he writes to the church in Philippi. Philippians, chapter four verses six and seven reads

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:6-7

As I continued on, looking at and memorizing more passages of Scripture, I kept coming back to this one, not because I found some profound sense of solace or peace from it, but because it would just pop into my mind. Whenever I would feel stressed about anything, the Holy Spirit would bring Philippians 4:6-7 to my mind. Again and again this verse would pop into my head. This was the case all throughout college and into life post-college. It's been a year or so since I've recognized this verse as a life verse, and so now, I'm going to dive into it, meditate over it, and try and draw out both what it says, and what it means so that I and whoever else wants to come along can glean from this passage some of the wisdom it has to offer.

To begin with, I think it's important to highlight what this passage is not saying. It's easy to see a passage like this one with the words “...the peace of God … will guard your hearts and minds...” and think “Great! All I have to do is pray for the crap in my life and it all will go away!”. The reason this is easy, at least for us in the United States, is because we've built a society that is largely hedonistic. Comfort, ease, pleasure all equate to “good” and discomfort, difficulty, pain all equate to “bad”. When we hear the word “peace”, we associate it with “good”, which is a correct response. The problem comes when we think of all the things we've associated with “good” coupled with the compartmentalized separation between those things and the things we've associated with “bad”.

In the Kingdom of God, a God-centered paradigm, the things that fall under both good and bad in our worldly paradigm often migrate from one side to the other. For instance, pleasure can be good, but there are times when it may migrate over to bad. In the Kingdom paradigm, pain still sits on the side of bad, but there are times when it will migrate over to the side of good. So on and so forth (we'll explore this more fully in a moment). It is with this shifted paradigm that we can see what it is that this verse is telling us.

Read the verse quoted above (Philippians 4:6-7) again. This verse is telling us to take action in two specific ways. First, Paul tells us “Do not be anxious about anything...”. What does this mean? What does it mean to be anxious? There are two definition for this word that are consistent with the original greek, the first being a mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune, and the other being to seek to promote one's interests, whether to provide or care for others or for one's self. Whether it's worrying about circumstances or worrying about the things we or others need, Paul says don't do it. Don't worry about it.

Anyone who's ever been living and breathing knows that this is very easy to say, but very, very difficult to do. That's why Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on to give us a second action point. He says don't worry about it, “but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. Instead of being anxious about our life and the things we need to live it, Paul tells us to ask God for it. In Matthew 6:8, Jesus says “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” For our lives and the stuff we need to live it, we just need to come before God in prayer and supplication. Supplication is just a big word that means asking God for things. Don't worry about it, but rather, ask God for it.

The only way in which you and I can truly be free from worry about anything is if we have a calm or a peace about whatever it is that's causing the anxiety. That's what Paul tells us we will get when we do this, but there's something he says in between prayer and supplication and peace of God that's very important but easy to overlook. It's the small phrase “...with thanksgiving...”. Again we come to the issue of paradigms. This tiny phrase is easy to overlook because we think about anxiety and view it from our worldly paradigm, giving thanks for it is the last thing we think to do. Worry, difficulty, pain, these are all bad things from our point of view, why would we give thanks for them? But in the Kingdom paradigm they migrate to the other side, the good side. From this point of view, these things are a gift. To show that this is so, we'll need to look at a few other passages of Scripture. In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” -Romans 5:1-5

Later, Peter would speak to the Christians living under the rule of Emperor Nero, known for his hatred for and sadistic tendencies toward Christians, saying

“In this [your inheritance from God] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. … Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” -1 Peter 1:6-7, 1 Peter 4:12-13

Around the same time as Peter was writing, James wrote to the twelve tribes of Israel that were now scattered around the region, speaking to the same issue. He says

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” -James 1:2-4

All three of these apostolic writers share the same conviction that trials – pain, difficulty, suffering – are not things to curse God for, but rather to thank Him for. In all three passages, the word suffering has been equated with the words “rejoice” or “joy”. Why? Both Paul and James say that through suffering, our character is shaped into the likeness of Christ's. Peter tells us that perseverance in our times of trial and suffering will act as an indicator, letting us know that our faith is genuine and not just a construct of our own minds. Both of these are to be desired, both are good. When we look at our hardships, our pain, our difficulties through this lens, we begin to view these times of suffering as a gift.

Go back up and read the passage form Philippians again, then think about what we've just discovered about suffering. When we put this verse and the reality about suffering together, we can see that Philippians 4:6-7 is more than just a way of coping with our difficulties, more than just a shelter from the pain of life in a fallen world, but it's a call to radically transform our lives by aligning our paradigm with that of the Kingdom of God. Rather than viewing undesirable circumstances as something to wait out or get through, Paul is calling us to embrace our suffering, experience our pain, live in our difficulties, not simply weather them. When we do this, our character begins to resemble that of Christ's.

It then becomes clear that the peace of God that Paul speaks of in verse seven is not simply a dulling of our anxieties or a comfort to be had amidst our pain. The peace of God that Paul talks about comes from a supernatural conversion in which our pain is transformed into rejoicing, our suffering is turned to laughter, and our difficulties become our joy. Our anxiety is not just relieved, it's radically changed and flipped upside down by the love and redemptive power of Christ. When this happens, the peace and calm both of heart and mind that we find in Christ will characterize our life as anxiety ceases to be a part of it. When we live out of a Kingdom paradigm, when we put on the character of Christ, it becomes a defensive barrier that's set up all around us, and whenever difficulties, pain or suffering come into contact with it, they're immediately transformed into rejoicing, into a joy that surpasses all understanding.

This passage has shaped, and is continuing to shape my life. But this passage, by itself, can't give the peace of which it speaks. This passage simply points the way to a larger truth, that the peace of God is free for the taking in and through the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ. If you don't know Jesus, if right now you can't say that you have a relationship with Him, it is my prayer that He would break into your life, and that you would welcome him with open arms. May you experience the unshakable peace of God that is found in Christ Jesus, and may you experience what it means to truly be free, to live in the Kingdom of God right here, right now.

2010-01-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

Remember

Today, I recieved a letter in the mail with no return address. It was in a small envelope, like a thank you card sized little thing. The address was hand written, but I didn't recognize the handwriting... at least not at first. Being curious, I opened the letter and slid out a card with a yellow pink and green floral pattern on it. It looked like a thank you card, so I quick played back the past few weeks to try and recall what, if anything, I had done that warrented a thank you note. I came up blank. So I opened it and began reading. The salutation struck me as a bit odd, and then I immediately knew what this little note was. It read as follows:

God,
I love you. I love you bcause you loved me, and continue to love with all you are. God, I want with all that I am to love you with all that I have, with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I will do this, but this isn't something I can do alone. I am coming back, and together, our love for each other will make something beautiful.

This card was addressed to me, but it was a letter to God. The handwriting on the envelope was my own. I had written this in church one morning as an excercise the speaker that Sunday had us do. He told us to write a love letter to God (the message was about our love relationship with God); to write down what we were feeling for God right then, right there, and to address it to ourselves and seal the envelope. This was between us and God. No one else. So I did.

I had been living apart from God for a spell (at least it felt like I was apart from God, I know He was right here with me the whole time), and that morning's message had rekindled a deep desire to fall back in love (or maybe really fall in love for the first time) with the God that I used to lean on and listen to. The Spirit that morning awoke something in me that had been dormant for a while. It was like my heart began beating again, or I felt the sun on my skin after a long cold night. I left church that morning feeling great. I spent the rest of the day communing with friends that I love deeply, and I went to bed, praying to God for the first time in perhaps a year.

I woke up the next morning and went to work. I still felt the warmth that I'd felt the morning before, but it was slightly duller. Every subsiquent day it grew duller and duller, until life became "normal" again. I still felt the connection with God that was made (or re-made) that morning, but the warm fuzzies were all gone, only a memory. As time went on, the memory of the warm fuzzies faded and retreated to that place all lost memories live, and all I had was the connection with God (which is a good thing), and that eventually began to feel "normal".

Once something begins to feel normal, we begin to take it for granted. This is precisely why over and over and over and over in scripture God tells his children REMEMBER what I've done. Remember how I delivered you from Egypt. Remember how I delivered you out of slavery, misery, oppression, and brought you into the promised land. Remember.

But, as I had, the Israelites forgot. The warm fuzzies faded into a distant memory, and the memory faded into obscurity, and eventually disappeared, and their relationship with God became stale and forced. Nothing more than ceremony and ritual. Nothing but religion.

This note that I got in the mail was like a tap on the shoulder from God (from me... that's wierd), like he was gently telling me "Remember what I've done for you. Remember how it used to be and how my son gave His all (literally) to lift you up out of it. Remember how good it is when we're together. Remember." This brought tears to my eyes because I had forgotten something so incredibly precious to me. And I remembered what Christ had done for me, and how grateful I am for it. How much I love Him for it. It brought tears to my eyes because I know that I will forget again, and my God deserves so much more than that. So here's another letter to God, this one I'm not mailing, but praying:

God,
I am so thankful that you loved us enough to come among us, forsaking your divinity and becoming like us, so that you could pay our debt. Thank you for the amazing, outrageous, scandalous grace that you've given us in Jesus Christ. Thank you that you love me so much that there's nothing I can do that will change it. God, I love you, beyond what I can put into words. Help me to remember.

2009-11-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

Do This in Remembrance of Me

The drink offering was a companion offering to the Grain (and Burnt) offering. This was as if they were offering a meal to God. In a meal, the drink, the beverage that is served with the meal, is intended to aid in consumption and digestion. We drink while we eat to "grease the gears" so to speak, but it's the food that we're interested in because it's the food that gives us the most sustenance, the most nutrients.

Jesus talks about these offerings with his disciples in the upper room. He likens his body to the bread, or grain offering, and his blood to a drink offering. Now this is odd, considering that we think of His blood as the central piece of the Christian story, and He compares it to an adjunct offering.

What does this mean? Could it be that the Blood he shed isn't what he wants us to focus on? It's His body that he compares to the grain offering. What if that's what he wants us to see? What if it's not about the blood, not about the salvation (though our salvation is vital to what he calls us to do), but the breaking of his body that is the point?

What if the Blood of our Salvation is just meant to "grease the gears"? But grease the gears to do what? What does Jesus say in the upper room that night? He tells his disciples that the bread represents his body, broken for them, and the wine represents His blood, poured out for them (grain offering and its drink offering), and then he gives a command. "Do this in remembrance of me." What are we to do? He just dipped some bread into some wine... is that what he means? Perhaps... That's what he just did, but what was he just talking about? He was talking about pouring himself out, breaking himself open for others.

Jesus was notorious for talking about several things at once, surface level things and their deeper hidden-meaning kind of counterparts. Is there anything in this story that should make us think this moment in the upper room is any different? What is it that Jesus is saying? Of course, he's telling us to observe the ceremony that they shared in the upper room, but there's so much more just underneath the surface. As he's talking about breaking himself open and pouring himself out, he tells us to "Do this in remembrance of me". He's telling us that we are to be the bread and the wine, that we are the Eucharist. We are to be the grain offering and drink offering for others. We are to be Jesus to those around us.

To take a page from Rob Bell, "Over and over God speaks of the widow, the orphan, and the refugee. This is how you remember God: you bless those who need it the most in the same way that God blessed you when you needed it most."

Just like God came alongside you when you were at your worst and lifted you up, so to you are to come alongside others when they are at their worst. When you see others at the point of desperation and without hope, you are to go to them and stand beside them, letting them know that they are not alone, that they are loved, just like God came to you when you were in that exact same place.

We don't remember God with a piece of bread and a sip of wine. We remember God with our entire lives.

2009-10-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

No Big Deal(s)

Mother Teresa once said "We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it." As I read this, I understand it completely because this was one of the main themes of Jesus' ministry when He was in the world, but at the some time this concept seems to me completely foreign. The culture in which we live values production, it values efficiency, it values quantity. In a culture like that, love tends to take a back seat and numbers, how much we do, how much we make, how many we reach, become the driving force behind much of what we do. Especially, I would argue, in the one place in which we would do well not to hold this mentality, the Church.

Before I begin, I need to say that This is a difficult subject for me to write on, mainly because it is so foreign to me, and because of that, I'm not real sure what a wholly love-driven culture, or even a love-driven church would look like. Despite this shortfall, I'm going to do my best and posit what thoughts I do have on the subject (most of which come from the book The Irresistible Revolution written by Shane Claiborne).

Immediately as I read the above quote, the passage in the Gospel of John comes to mind where Jesus says "Truly, Truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do" (John 14:12). It seams as though Jesus is saying just the opposite of Mother Teresa. But because the Kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom (a nearly complete inverse of the kingdoms of the world), we must take a closer look at this statement of Jesus.

Let's begin by looking at a few of the things that Jesus did, things that could be viewed as great. In Mark 5:22-23,35-42, Jesus hears the plea of Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, to come and heal his daughter. By the time Jesus gets to his daughter, she has apparently died. But Jesus, being Jesus, goes to her anyway and raises her from the dead. Amazing! You might have noticed that in the scripture reference there is a significant gap (11 verses missing). That's because right in the middle of going to heal Jairus' daughter, he is interrupted by a woman who had been suffering for 12 years. She had a discharge of blood it says in Mark. According to Jewish law, that basically means she was isolated, cast out of the city, out of community with other Jews, and not allowed in any part of the temple, effectively separating her from God. With just a touch of Jesus' clothing, she was made well. Stopping, Jesus turns and affirms the woman's faith, all the while Jairus daughter is busy dying. Wow! Later, in Mark 8, Jesus is teaching and ministering to a great multitude of people and it's getting late. Jesus tells His disciples to feed them. Feeding 4,000 people itself is no simple task (a great feat in itself). But Jesus does it with only five loaves of bread and two fish. That's pretty great if you ask me. Then, in Mark 10, as Jesus is leaving Jericho, he stops and heals a blind man (that's no small feat either!). Then, to take the cake, in John 11, Jesus' good friend Lazarus dies, and after FOUR DAYS of being buried, he resurrects Lazarus, bringing him back from the dead! If that's not great, I don't know what is!

So these few things that Jesus does are pretty great, pretty spectacular things. And He says we will do even greater things than these!? What's up Momma T? What do you mean "We can do no great things"?

Mother Teresa understood something very important about the nature of the work Jesus called us to, and about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, as I said earlier, is an upside down kingdom. She understood this, but more importantly, Jesus LIVED this. So if we are to begin to understand what Jesus is saying, we need to begin looking at his life and teaching not with the understanding we have of this world or the eyes we've learned to look through from this life, but with the Kingdom eyes that Jesus had, and that we will have once we understand what Jesus is up to. This is the problem that the disciples ran into time and time again, and something that continually frustrated Jesus.

Let's take another look at those same miracles, but through the lens of the Kingdom of God (as best we can). In Mark 5, it says that Jesus was with a great crowd when Jairus came to him and begged him to come heal his daughter. Jesus left this great crowd of people that he was no doubt teaching and ministering to, to go help out one man. Jairus was at the point of desperation to come and beg Jesus, the man the priests and Pharisees eventually killed, to come help his sick daughter. Jesus didn't leave the many to help the one just to show off his God powers, to be a spectacle. No, Jesus did this because he felt Jairus' desperation and in helping him, Jesus loved him. No other reason was necessary. Out of love Jesus went to Jairus daughter. Then, on the way, His love quest was interrupted by another person who was at the point of desperation. In turning to affirm the bleeding woman's faith, instead of condemning her for fouling all the people around her, Jesus loved her. There's no greater reason for his display of power. Love. That's it. So much love, in fact, that he delayed his mission for another desperate soul, allowing Jairus' daughter to slip from life into death. It's love. All of it. Then Jesus feeds 4,000 people. This one is a bit easier to see with Kingdom eyes because Jesus states his reasoning plainly. he says "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat." Jesus doesn't multiply the loaves and fish for a show of magnificence, He does it because the people are hungry. He fed them. That's it. When he was leaving Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimeaus heard that it was Jesus that was passing by, which gave him a sliver of hope, so he began calling out "have mercy on me!" Jesus, hearing this, even among people rebuking Bartimeaus, called him over. Instead of immediately healing his eyes, he asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?". Jesus didn't just do what was sensational or spectacular, he was concerned about what this man wanted. And then, upon Bartimeaus expressing his desire to see again, Jesus restored his sight. Jesus wasn't interested in showing off. He was interested in loving Bartimeaus by doing what he asked. If he had wanted a pet duck, Jesus would have went and found a duck. His answer to Jesus' question didn't matter, Jesus would have done whatever he said because He loved him. Again, Love. That's it. And then there's Lazarus. Oh man! If this isn't love, I don't know what is! This whole story takes 44 verses to unfold. Basically, it begins with Jesus hearing that a close family friend (close enough to be a family member) is sick and at the point of death. He wraps up what he is doing and goes back to Lazarus' town, where the people there were trying to kill him, to help his friend. As he's leaving, he basically tells his disciples that Lazarus has died and he's going to raise him up again. When He gets there, He finds that Lazarus had been entombed for four days, and his family was grieving his death. He tells Lazarus' sister that he will live again, and asks to be taken to his tomb. Up to this point, Jesus has been able to hold his grief in, but when he sees the tomb, he breaks down. The shortest verse in the Bible: John 11:35 "Jesus Wept." he feels the grief of those around him piled on top of his own. He then proceeds to raise Lazarus and call him out of the tomb. This miracle undoubtedly showed many things about Jesus, such as demonstrate his authority over death and, as he says in 11:4, glorifies the son of God, but the main reason he did it I would argue is because he loved deeply both Lazarus and his family. Love. That's it.

Now that we've looked a bit closer at these miracles to discover a common underlying reason for them all, lets take a couple steps back and look at the bigger picture just to drive the point home. In all these miracles, Jesus does something to or with these people to help or improve their life right where they were, right when they were. But that's not the point. What he did is not as important as why he did it. Look at it in a long term perspective, an eternal perspective (the Kingdom perspective). He healed Jairus daughter and the woman's sickness. It's almost certain that in the course of their lives they got sick again. He fed the crowd that was with him; they got hungry again. He restored the sight of Bartimeaus. It's a sensible assumption that as he aged, his sight once again began to give out. He resurrected Lazarus from the dead (hardly an insignificant act); he died again. All the things He did were ultimately temporary and didn't last. Only one thing stayed with each of these people Jesus helped: the love of Christ. He loved them. Even when sickness and hunger return, when sight fails, when death once again approaches, the love that Jesus showed is still there, is still felt. THIS is what Mother Teresa understood.

So in a culture that worships at the alter of productivity and efficiency, what are we to do with this? How do we work to show the upside down kingdom of Love within a culture that only understands numbers? We ignore the numbers. For us, the numbers should mean very little. Whether we help one person or one thousand people, if we do not make the love of Christ manifest to them, it means nothing. Jesus understood this very well. There was a time when Jesus' disciples came to get him because all the people in the village had brought their sick out to be healed, and he told his disciples that that they were moving on to the next city. Even though there were still people there that hadn't been healed, his Love was already there. Healing the sick, as we discovered, is a temporary thing. There were cities where Jesus had not yet been that did not yet know the love of Christ.

Just like the mustard plant (which was considered a weed) just needs one tiny seed to spread throughout the entire garden, so too love just needs one small foothold to spread throughout a community... throughout the world.

So we indeed can do no great things. The things that appear great in this world, ultimately have little significance. What has very great significance is the small things that we do to convey and spread the love of Christ. To someone who needs a friend, stopping by to chat is far greater than a new car. To someone in desperate need of a car, helping them get a car will be far greater than stopping by to chat. Numbers don't matter. It's the love behind what we do that makes all the difference, in this world and the next.

"We can do no great thing, only small things with great love. It's not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it."

2009-08-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

A Sculpted Heart

After saying yet one more good-bye to a treasured friend moving into a new season of life and out of my own, I find myself thinking again on the significance of community and what it does for a person. I can't say that good-byes are fun, neither can I say they are easy, but one thing that I am certain of is that they leave a mark.

After this particular good-bye, I feel like I've been able to put a finger on something that I've felt in every good-bye but haven't been able to articulate. And it's this: No matter who the friend, how close I become to them, or how deep a love I have for them, I inevitably give them a piece of my heart and I get a piece of theirs. This is why a good-bye is such a hard thing. There is a piece of my heart in this person, and they are leaving with it; taking a piece of me that I'll not get back.

At first thought of this, I was startled to find that I am loosing bits of my heart here and there. I thought that I should be saving those pieces or something, saving them for God, or my future wife, or kids, or something big like that. But then I realized something important. With every piece that's taken from me, I become someone a bit different each time. With every chip, my heart takes on a new shape. This, in turn, slowly sculpts me into the person who I will be, and has thus far made me the person I am today.

Relationships, loves, friendships, crushes, all of these social connections are God's tools that He uses to sculpt us into the person whom we will become. Michelangelo's David wasn't poured into a mold, it was carved out of a solid piece of marble. If little pieces (and very big pieces) had not been chipped away, it would still remain just a rock. But because it lost bits of itself, bits of what it once was, it is now a timeless masterpiece.

My heart is much the same. If I refuse to let go of pieces to those who would take them, I will remain the same person who I am today, not changing, not growing, not being refined into something more, but just living, just being. By allowing myself to feel the pain and grief of every good-bye, the sorrow of watching a piece of myself leave with someone I love, I allow my heart to be sculpted into something that will be unique and all the more beautiful with every loss.

Good-byes are hard, and they are sad, and they are most definitely painful...

But they are good.

2009-08-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

Untitled Reflection #26

I find myself at the end of a calm summer in a college town, facing the imminent return of the students and the subsequent bustle that accompanies them. In my little corner of Manhattan, home to Kansas State University, I'm watching this transformation take place. As the coffee houses fill up again and the roads once more become a bit more dangerous, I feel my mind fill with anticipation. In my spirit I feel a reinvigoration, and in my heart an excitement grows. But why?

I suppose it could be the prospect of facing the unknown. The tension of not knowing who I will meet if I take a stroll across town, mingling with the possibility of getting to know new and interesting people. It could be... But I don't think that's it. I've been thinking about this, and I think I've discovered where this feeling welling up inside me is coming from. Simply put, it's life. It's the life that is beginning to happen around me.

As students come back into Manhattan and repopulate the houses and apartment complexes that have been sitting empty all summer in a calm silence, they bring with them an esprit air, an atmosphere of intelligence and independence, and occasionally one of hilarious and sometimes hazardous idiocy. There comes with returning students an excitement that seems to hang in the air.

The new freshmen coming to college for the first time leaving their parents behind and beginning a new chapter that will preface the story of their lives in the "real world". The returning student meeting friends after a summer apart. The fraternities and their inhabitants filling the air with the smell of burning charcoal, seared meat, beer, and the occasional obscenity, and their female counterparts preparing to judge and indoctrinate brand new sorority sisters into the culture of consumer fashion. And, of course, the lawn parties dotting the lawns of every street, letting loose the sounds of clanking washers and loud music while brandishing signs that say things like "You honk, We drink". All these things, these people just doing what they will, combines to form the strange and unique experience that is life in a college town. Life beginning to happen all around me creates a sort of energy that reaches into my being and plucks a string that resonates with the life that is simultaneously happening within me.

I'm part of this dance. I'm the non-student, watching all this happen from the outside with a smile, remembering that I was once on the inside of it all. I was once the new freshman, I was once the dorm-dweller rushing through the madness of move-in day, I was once a contributor to the chaotic ballet that is college life. I've put in my time and I've had my fun. I'm now content watching it from the outside while composing my own new and unique part of this never ending dance called life.

2009-04-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Moving forward, Loving Back

Fractured and broken souls
Finding comfort, finding reprieve
In the jagged cracks and holes
Of the broken souls of others.

Together we come, and together grow
We become one, as though we are now
Together, broken... but together whole.
Our broken pieces rest in the light.

We grow close, we become one.
And then, as it does, life moves on.
We now come to a fork in our road.
Your ways not mine, our way is gone.

Though time has come for our ways to part
souls once connected will always find love.
A distance between and a world away,
Our bond is solid, tethered heart to heart.

The time has come for each to ask
Our paths diverge... where to now?
We find comfort in the broken souls,
Of each, our broken past.

2009-02-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

TRUST

As I sit in the black cold that surrounds me,
I hear a voice calling, faint and dull out of the darkness.
"Do you trust me?"
I continue to sit, paying no mind to the call.
The black gets deeper and the cold is growing.
I hear again. "Do you trust me?"

"Who are you?" I ask, to which there is no reply
So I sit, nowhere to go, nothing to see, nothing to say
nothing to feel but the cold that's killing me.
"Do you trust me?" once again calls from the void.
"Who are you?" I ask again, to which there is no reply
"Get up and walk toward me" the voice calls.

It's dark and cold, I can't see anything.
I don't even know where I am.
Who knows what will happen should I move.
"I can't see what's in front of me." I say to the voice.
"Do you trust me?" the voice calls again.

My warmth is waning as the cold begins to seep into my being.
The darkness begins to suffocate me as I ponder the voice.
If I move, there's no telling what will happen to me.
But if I stay here, I will be consumed by the darkness.
I stand up.

My heart races as I struggle against the decision before me.
If I move, there's a chance I could perish.
If I stay here, I will live until the darkness consumes me.
In my mind I'm flying as I hold my breath.
I make the decision and take a step.

I'm still alive.
The frigid darkness is still engulfing me.
"Come toward me" the voice calls out.
"Who are you?" I ask again, this time finding a reply.
"I... am"

"You are what?" I ask.
"Do you trust me?" the voice asks again.
The darkness surrounding me is still growing colder and deeper.
"I don't know." I say, standing, shivering in the dark.
"Come toward me" the voice says again.

My heart begins to beat as I take another step.
I move forward as my foot finds more solid ground.
I take another step, and another, and another.
"Do you trust me?" the voice calls out again.
"I don't know" I say again.

One foot after another, I walk toward the voice.
The darkness is becoming unbearable.
The cold is sucking all the warmth out of me.
I can't breathe.
Out of desperation I begin to run.

"Do you trust me?" the voice is louder this time.
My heart is pounding as I struggle for breath.
I can feel my life beginning to drain.
I can't run fast enough to escape the darkness.
My body is beginning to go numb.

I'm running as fast and hard as I can.
I use the last of my strength as my legs buckle and I fall to the ground.
I'm gasping for air, but there is none.
"Do you trust me?" the voice calls again, louder than before.
With my last breath I scream, "Yes!"

My lungs are filled with air as I heave.
I can breathe!
"Who are you?" I shout, panting with deep heavy breaths.
"Look, and see" the voice says.
I lift my head and look toward the voice.

In the darkness I can scarcely make out a faint glow.
"Come toward me" the voice says again.
I rise to my feet, and with the hope of light I begin to run.
My breathing now comes easily as I run.
The cold still surrounds me, but light is ahead of me.

I run faster and faster.
I get closer to the light, the cold begins to subside.
I can feel a warmth emanating from the light.
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes! Yes!" I shout as I run

I am close, I can make out a figure.
As I come into the light, I see my God, whom I had forgotten long ago.
"Come to me" He says, this time unmuffled and clear.
I run into his arms, into his firm embrace
"I'm sorry" I cry, weeping into his shoulder.

2009-01-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

This is Beauty

A single note drifts through the cool night air

It resinates wih calm and soothing bravdado as it caresses my ear

As my mind swoons underneath it's touch, I embrace the sensation

I choose to loose myself in the air of the moment as my soul is liberated

This is beauty

2009-01-20T20:45:00.000-08:00

Governing Beauty

Today as I was listening to the 44th presidential inauguration, I was struck by the beauty of the democratic system that is the United States Government. The beauty that I speak of manifests itself in its ability to change hands in an eloquent and graceful dance that is the presidential inauguration. This was beautifully illustrated in today's events.

Before I unveil this illustration, let me first draw a backdrop to frame it, for just as a color by itself is just a color, however beautiful it may be, becomes a thing to be valued only when it is put into the context of a painting. All around the world there are as many different forms of government as there are countries for them to govern. A large majority of these governments do not handle transfer of power gracefully. There are precious few that have learned to make it work, but for the rest, a transfer of power is generally accompanied by a military or political coup, a civil war, or a conflict of some flavor or another, major or minor. That being said, let me present the beauty that is the United States Government.

At every presidential inauguration, the president takes the oath of office at exactly 12:00 noon because that is when the prior president's term ends and the president-elect's term begins; that's when the executive power is legally transferred. At the 2009 inauguration, in between the vice presidential oath of office (taken by former senator Joseph Biden) and the presidential oath of office (taken by the former senator and president-elect Barrack Obama), there was to be an arrangement played composed by John Williams especially for this occasion called "Air and Simple Gifts" . Playing this piece was cellist Yo Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriella Montero.

As it turns out, the ceremony was slightly behind schedule. Obama wouldn't be sworn in until after the transfer of power had already taken place. However, that slight lag in the schedule allowed for a most beautiful display of the grace and elegance of the United States democratic process.

The quartet began to play. The arrangement by John Williams was a beautiful piece. It began with a slow prolonged violin solo, somewhat somber in tone reflecting the troubled nature of the times. Then Ma came in with the cello and it lightened a bit but still very beautifully captured the air of the time as it was a mix of minor and major strains. Then McGill came in with a light and melodic allusion to "Simple Gifts". The musicians then began playing a variation of "Simple Gifts" as they continued in a cheery yet pensive tone. The piece ended with a confindent set of prolonged chords, capped by a single bassy note held by Ma. Because the ceremony was slightly behind schedule, the musicians were still playing when the clock clicked over to 12:00 noon. In fact they were still in the middle of the piece.

Think about that for moment. That is absolutely beautiful! If you saw the inauguration, you may have felt it yourself. In a world where transfer of power within governments is often accompanied with conflict and often violence, on January 20th, 2009 in the United States of America, the transfer of power occurred to a chorus of inspiring strains of music. While countries around the world war with themselves and plot and plan against their own in order to usher in a new government, we, the United States, do it with beautiful melodies. How absolutely breathtaking is that!

At the end of President Obama's inaugural address, he concluded with the words, "God bless the United States of America." God has blessed the United States of America. His hand has been on us for quite some time. Even though we take the blessings He gives and misuse them, squander them, and even sometimes ignore them completely, He continues to shine His divine light on us. We are a beacon of light in a world so full of darkness. Testimony to this is the fact that our own government can change hands to such a beautiful and eloquent display.

We asked God to bless America. He answered. Our move.

2008-12-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

Curious George

I've been listening to a song by Jack Johnson called "Upside Down". I really like it, partly because it's just a fun song, but also partly because it's from the soundtrack of Curious George the Movie. So, after listening to this for a week or so, it reminded me so much of the light heartedness that Curious George has, I decided I needed to watch the movie.

So, I went down to my local video rental establishment and rented Curious George the Movie... and I watched it. There's something about Curious George that, no matter what situation I'm in, no matter where I find myself, no matter how I feel, makes me smile. Is it his lightheartedness, or is it something more? It could be because he's a monkey, and monkeys are fun, but I don't think that's quite it.

When I think of Curious George, I think of a lot of things. I think of my childhood. I read Curious George books when I was a kid. Life was so simple back then. Sure, it had it's hardships and tough questions like, 'why can't I stay up and watch TV' or the difficult fact that we have to eat all our vegetables before we can have our dessert, but for the most part, life was easy; no responsibilities, no worries. I think also of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. The movie begins and ends with a feather and a Curious George book. And, of course, I think of children.

All these things have a common thread, a common intersection: Innocence. That's what draws me to Curious George, and that's what conjures up a smile no matter the circumstance. Innocence. It's something that every person on the planet possessed at the beginning of their life. Some keep it longer than others, but we all are born with it. That's what Curious George personifies. A blissful naiveté that is unaware of the pressures and stresses of life and consumed not by the monotonous rhythms of daily life, but rather by the mystery and splendor that is the world surrounding him. It's something that I long for. It's something that one can only truly appreciate once it's been lost.

I believe this is the state in which we were created, and from which we were meant to live. In the beginning, it was just us, God, and the garden. Our needs were met, we had no worries, no anxieties. We were just left to be filled with wonder at the world which we had been created a part of. We were completely innocent. It was, quite literally, heaven on earth. But then sin entered the picture, and here we are.

But there is a hope. We have hope that we can once again enter into that state of blissful naiveté and innocence that is untouched by the horrors and sorrows of this world. This hope exists in Christ. It was with God that we were first created pure, and it's in and through Christ that we can be remade into that spotless existence once again. Only this time, with a very deep appreciation of what it means to be innocent. If Christ's outstretched hands and gift of re-creation find our acceptance, than a transformation back to innocence can take place. There will come a time when our worries will be no more; our sorrows will be soothed and the horrors of the world will be snuffed. Our existence will be wrapped up with and sustained fully by God, and we'll have nothing to do but be consumed by the wonder of both God's redeemed creation and God himself. We will regain the purity that we see so evident in children, and we find in Curious George.

Why does Curious George make me smile? Curious George makes me smile because it's in him, in his simple curiosity, that I see a glimpse of where we came from, and a hope of where we're going.

2008-11-18T19:41:00.000-08:00

Tear

What is a tear that it carries such power?
Much more than a mere saline snivel,
a tear can sooth, and a tear can comfort.
A tear can destroy, and a tear can tear apart.
A tear can mark a beginning,
a tear can force an end.
A single tear can say more
than can a thousand pages.
Looking through a tear,
one can see into one's own soul.
Looking into a tear,
one can see through the defenses of the mind.
A tear can bare witness to the crushing depths of the heart.
A tear can uncover the soul.

What is a tear that it carries such power?
A single tear can force mighty men to the ground.
A single tear can bring forth emotion
from the most hardened heart.
With a single tear,
one can summon many in others.
One tear can render a myriad
of emotions and emancipate the heart
amidst a mire of intransigent indifference.
With one tear, the soul is liberated.
With one tear, an emotion is captured.

What is a tear that it carries such power?
A tear is an historian,
speaking of things past.
A tear is a prophet,
revealing that which is to come.
A tear is a traitor,
revealing secrets we would do well to keep.
A tear is small,
A tear is weak,
A tear is timid
But...

What is a tear that it carries such power?

2008-11-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful Sunrise

I was out at a rustic old cabin made out of a barn one weekend for a retreat and something beautiful was shown to me by God. To give a little foundation to this story, this barn is out in the middle of the Kansas country, so the surrounding land is fairly flat; there's a few hills here and there, but for the most part, the skyline is level all the way around the house. And in this house, at the top of the roof, there is a small coop that has windows on all sides of it so you can survey the surrounding country from an elevated position. So one morning, before anyone else was awake, I went up into this coop to look at the sunrise (which, if you're from Kansas, or somewhere where the horizon is unadulterated by a lot of man made clutter, you know that sunrises can be spectacular. So I went up to look at the sunrise this particular morning, but was disappointed when I looked out. The sun was indeed coming up, but there was nothing else in the sky. It was just the sun trying to peek over the horizon. There were no clouds, no birds, nothing.

Before you begin scratching your head and pondering what might possibly be wrong with me that I could be disappointed with a crystal clear, blue skyed sunrise, allow me to explain. I am an artist, so I appreciate and, in fact, love scenes that are full of color and shape and line and texture, so my favorite sunrises (and sunsets) are those with clouds sharing the sky with the sun. So it follows that when I saw the sun alone in the sky, I was somewhat disappointed, though it was still a majestic sight to behold.

This made me think, as I was talking with one of my fellow retreaters. The most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen have been in a sky populated with clouds, puffy, jagged, fluffy, wispy clouds with surfaces to catch the suns red and yellow light filtering through the atmosphere, peeking over the globe. This was a novel thought. The sunrises that are most beautiful are the ones that happen when the sky is not perfect. When the sky contains blemishes and imperfections, when it is not crystal clear and pure open blue, the most beautiful sunrises are produced because the sun, of course, is there, but the clouds, reflecting the suns glorious light create a beautiful and captivating tapestry of color and light. With oranges and blues and reds and pinks and yellows, the sky seems to explode into a panorama of expression. I don't know about you, but when I look at a sunrise such as what I describe here, I am filled with a wonder at how such a thing could be created.

And as I was talking with my fellow retreater, I made the connection that I'd like to share with you. A sunrise is very much like us, as children of God, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus is, no doubt, beautiful all by Himself. The Glory of God become man and perfected through trial and fire and pain, and shining from the inside out with the powerful and glorious light of God can be nothing other than beautiful. But much like a sunrise, as we enter the picture with Christ, we become part of his beautiful scene, as his light reflects off of us. But like the clouds in the sky, we are not perfect. We are not pure and spotless, free of blemish. We have jagged edges, fluffy parts, wispy parts, all parts that when Christ shines his light on us, catch and reflect it back to him and out into the world around us. It's our imperfections that make us beautiful. It's our failures and our weaknesses, and our shortcomings, and our blemishes that in the light of Christ become a tapestry of oranges and blues and reds and pinks and yellows that are capable of taking the breath away from those who see it. Jesus said it as he was talking to the apostle paul: In your weaknesses, my power is made perfect. You might say, in our weakness, in our imperfection, Christ's beauty is made perfect.

If we were all perfect, Christ work on the cross would not mean much, and our redemption would mean little if anything. To redeem a perfect creation, one not need do anything. But when a creature is utterly corrupted, when it has been soiled beyond repair and made vile in the site of its creator, when the created has been made unfit to even be in the presence of the creator and then it redeemed, restored to a right relationship and made to be one with the creator, that is beautiful beyond anything that we could ever see or experience in this world. It's our imperfections that make Christ beautiful in the eyes of unbelievers, of those who don't know Him. It's the fact that we have our faults, we have our downfalls and we have our shortcomings but still can claim and exhibit the life and beauty of Christ in us through His redemptive work on the cross that most beautifully and effectively exhibits his wondrous redemptive power, and the amazing and outrageous grace that flow from his wounded body.

So don't hide it, brothers. Don't cover it up Sisters. Don't sweep it under the rug and pretend like it isn't there. Bring it out into the Light and allow Christ's power to reflect off it and refract through it as He covers it with his blood. Bring your ugly bits out into the open, and watch in amazement as He transforms them into a beautiful Son rise amongst his creation. If you are a redeemed creature, you have nothing that is not covered. Come out into the Light, all of you, and be glorified by His wonderful light!

2008-08-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

Infinite Love

I just finished a wonderful book. It's called The Irresistible Revolution written by Shane Claiborne. It's primarily about the emerging underground Christian movement that's spreading and growing across North America, and throughout the world. The book has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I'd never thought about, but make a ridiculous amount of sense now that I see them in the light. One of the more potent things I've seen, and that I'd like to share, is a new angle, or a new paradigm through which I now see my identity in Christ and my relationship with God.

Growing up, and even after I committed my life to Christ, I had a very westernized, Americanized view of Christianity. Jesus died so that I could live. Let me unpack that. I was dead in my sin, condemned under God's wrath, and then Jesus arrived like a knight in brilliant white satin armor and stood in between me and God, absorbing the wrath that had been prepared for me. My debt being paid, my righteousness restored, I could now commune with God and enter into eternal life, having the life of Christ now inside me (Colossians 2:13-14). That is all true; beautifully and wonderfully true. But that's not all. There's more to this life we have in Christ than being joyful and freed from the burdens of sin and the worries of this world.

All that I've just described was purchased by Christ's blood on the Cross. God sent his passover lamb to atone for the sins of his children. The cross was only the atoning sacrifice. God could have done that in a few hours, a few days at the most. But God didn't do that. He spent 33 years in and among his creation. If the sacrifice could have been made, done and over with in a few days, why did he wait so long before he did it?

A year or two ago, the answer that I would have given to that question is "so that he could suffer through the ordeals and hardships, temptations and desires, fears and sorrows in this fallen world in order that he can help us overcome our own." And you know what, that's all true. Christ lived in this world and overcome it in order that we may be freed from it's power in Him. But that's not all. Christ overcame the world so that we can rise above it, but to what end? If all we needed was a ticket out of suffering, he could kill us dead the minute we except his saving grace; that would do the trick. But that's not what happens. There's something more here than just our being freed.

If you read through the gospels and look at how Jesus lived his life, you begin to see patterns. Most of Jesus' recorded interactions with people took place among those who needed healing, who needed love, who needed grace. There are interactions throughout the gospels between Jesus and the religious and social elite, but a majority of his time spent with people is among the oppressed and the poor (both physically and spiritually destitute). He even tells us what's going on. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17) He's not here to simply take away our condemnation, He's here to heal us.

Our ailment is not that of the physical world (though it may manifest itself that way at times), our sickness is a spiritual sickness. We live in a world that has fallen away from God and his life giving affections. We are born, and continue to be until the restoration of our relationship with God, spiritually anemic. We lack the life giving love that flows into us from God.

When you look at how Jesus lived, you can see Him again and again give the people around him life-giving, energizing love to counter their spiritual anemia. That's how he lived, and that's how we, as followers of Christ, are to live. We, possessing the well of living water that is the indwelling spirit of Christ in us, have what the people around us need.

I know a lot of people (I was once, and still may be from time to time, one of them) who hear this message and say, "I know! That's why I'm on the corner telling people about the life giving power of Jesus. That's why I hand out tracts, that's why I tell people that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that's why... etc." But that's not what people need. James says it best, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking daily food, and one of you says to him, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" (James 2:15-16) People don't need to know about Jesus, they need to see Jesus, they need to experience Jesus. They don't need to know about the energizing shot of love, they need the energizing shot of love. A lot of people know about Jesus. Some people even know enough about Him that they know that they need what He has, but tragically, no one has ever showed them His face, or His love, and they remain anemic, despising Him for not coming to help.

The reason (at least one of them) that Jesus lived in the world and overcame it in order that we can overcome it in Him is so that we can be Jesus to those around us. Having overcome the world, no longer being subject to its pressures and stresses, having found our worth in something not of this world, we are able to absorb the pains and sorrows of others who are not yet in Christ. Having Christ as our anchor, we are able to lift enormous burdens. We are able to give until it hurts because the love that we give out of doesn't run out. We are able to allow those we are trying to help to trample us as we hold out the Gift of love to those who need it. We are able to get punched in the face, kicked in the throat, kneed in the groin, socked in the stomach, and kicked in the shins, and get back up and say, "I love you and want to help" because the love that we have, the love that flows from God, has no limit. The love of an eternal God is eternal.

This gives us enormous strength. Strength to move mountains, strength to change the world. If you are in Christ, if you have a relationship with Christ and his love is flowing into you, you have this strength. Most of us don't realize that we have this strength because we never flex our Jesus muscles. We always try and do things out of our own strength, out of our own will, out of our own love, and whatever we can't do out of our own ability, we label as impossible (I know, because I'm one of those people). We rely on our own strength, never stepping out in faith that Jesus' love will carry us.

If you're a follower of Christ, if you have a living relationship with God, you are capable of infinite love. In this finite world, in your finite body, you have been given an infinite love. Use it. Trust it. Go to those who need it and give it to them. An infinite love cannot be for one person, nor can it be kept inside. The finite cannot contain the infinite. You can't experience the full love of Christ without an outlet (it won't fit). It has to flow through you. Use the love, let Christ's love keep you together while the world tears you apart. Loose your life for them and find it in Him. Jesus came into this world to show us how to do this. Jesus came to show us how to be Jesus to others. You can follow Him and experience an infinite love, allowing it to flow through you, or you can sit and do nothing and only experience what love you can fit inside your finite being. It's up to you. Don't settle for the finite when you can have the infinite.

2008-05-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

Letting Go of Egypt

In the desert, as the Israelites walked through the wilderness with nothing but the guiding presence of God to let them know when or where they were going, they cried out against Moses, saying "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Exodus 16:3) Focusing on what they were lacking, focusing on their current pain and discomfort, the people of God forgot the conditions they had come from. Though they did have food to eat, their days were filled with very hard labor and cruel treatment by their taskmasters. What they had forgotten, or lost sight of, is that they were no longer under the oppression of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but on their way to a land promised them through a covenant between God and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In their hunger, they remembered not where they were going, but where they had been. The purpose of their liberation from Egypt was to go out and "Serve the LORD". God wanted them to let go of Egypt and cling to and worship Him for what He did, but more for who He is: Almighty God, creator and father of all.

Recently several areas of my life have been thrown into a state of uncertainty, one right after another, and it's unnerving. Having just graduated from College 5 months ago, I'm finding myself in a similar situation as the Israelites in Exodus. From age 5 until age 24, school has been a constant. Up until now, school has been my Egypt. Now before you draw the wrong conclusion, I loved school. School is the reason for many, many very good and positive memories in my life. I wouldn't trade my experiences I've had during the last 19 years for anything in the world, but school has been my Egypt in the sense that it has consumed a very large part of my time, my attention, and my thoughts. School, while enjoyable, has been a very demanding taskmaster.

Now that I've come out of Egypt, I find myself now wandering in the wilderness. With the way seemingly open on all sides and with no path to follow, I'm dependent on God's guiding presence to lead me safely to the place that He has for me. As with Israel in the deserts of northern Africa, my situation at any given time is somewhat uncertain, and each new situation presents a new opportunity to put my trust in God (or to grumble and yearn for situations past).

I'm confident that everyone, no matter their social strata or economic status, has had, and will have times when their lives seem to be in a state of flux, a time when everything, or a lot of things seem to be changing in an uncertain manner, or with an uncertain outcome. It's at these times that God is wanting us to let go of Egypt, whatever Egypt might be, and trust and worship him for what He has done, what He will do, but most importantly, who He is: Almighty God, Creator, Sustainer, Liberator, Savior, Father, and Son.

2008-05-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

Arms High and
Heart Abandoned

This evening, I was singing along with the worship band at this week's Thursday night meeting of the KSU Navigators, and they began to sing a chorus that really made me think and challenged me. The chorus went like this, "I stand, with arms wide and heart abandoned, In awe of the one who gave it all. I stand with arms wide and heart surrendered, all I am is yours." This chorus was repeated over and over again, and this at the end of a rather energetic worship set. Singing this over and over again with my own arms in the air, I began to think about the message that was just delivered by Bob Walz, the speaker of the night. His message was about the thirsting of our hearts and the quenching water of Christ. But in the message, he talked about Jesus using metaphor to turn our minds to spiritual things, which are foreign to us, using physical images, which are very familiar to us. Thinking about this while singing this wonderful chorus led me to think, what kind of metaphor could this chorus hold about spiritual things? Of course, it was speaking of worshiping God with energy and vigor and with a recklessly open heart, but though connected to spiritual things, that is still mostly a physical act. Then this thought popped into my head: Standing with arms high is a way to worship in such a way that others can be encouraged and share in your joy. What other way can I worship in that manner? I can share my Lord with people, share what He's done for me, and share with them the promises that a relationship with Him can hold for them. That's worshiping God just as much, if not more, than singing with hands raised high. But, as the testimony of others and my own personal experience have shown, this may lead to some hardship in the sense that people may treat me differently because of what I've shared with them. People may be inclined to keep their distance for whatever reason. This can produce some heavy heart-ache, especially if my heart is invested in the people I share these things with. But that's the second part of the song's chorus: I stand with arms high and heart abandoned. An abandoned heart is a heart that's been left in the open to be broken; one that's no longer protected from being broken. Abandoning my own heart in order that others might come to know the redeeming grace and abundant joy of a relationship with Christ Jesus is, I believe, a high form of worship. That is a desire of mine, to stand with arms high and heart abandoned, but this is not something that one just does one Saturday afternoon. This is a lifestyle. And it's a hard one at that. To seriously live it out one needs to count the cost, and when I do that, I keep coming to the same point. I see what it will cost, and shrink back. I can't tell you why, because I don't quite know, but I do know that I want very much to have the fortitude to count the cost and say "count me in!" Perhaps what my problem is is that I'm only counting the cost. I'm looking at this lifestyle and thinking, "what will this cost me." I think, what will I need to give up, what will I need to deal with, where and how will this hurt? What I don't consider is, what will this give me. How will this benefit me. What will I gain from this lifestyle, and more than that, what will others gain from this lifestyle of mine. In that light, I can say that the decision gets easier. In living a lifestyle of arms high and heart abandoned, I may loose some friends, but I also may gain brothers and sisters. My heart may be broken when someone I've trusted in, loved on, and laid my heart out before rejects what I have to say and me along with it, but I may also get the chance to rejoice with someone who's just found the fulfilling love and all-sufficient grace of Jesus Christ in their lives. I may loose sleep thinking about the people who haven't responded to Christ's invitation, but I also may rejoice in the ones who have received life, and life eternal. When one counts the cost of this lifestyle, it looks hard and dim and painful. But when one weighs the cost of this lifestyle against the benefit, the scenario changes. We begin to see our life as Christ saw his: in other people. This chorus is my desire for my own life. I stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all. I stand with arms high and heart surrendered. All I am is Yours.

2008-03-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

Selfless Living

Jason and I have just finished Matthew, the first Gospel and first book of the New Testament. Jason is a young man I'm helping to find his way in his walk of faith; some might call this discipleship. Anyway, we are, through the course of the next three semesters, reading through the New Testament, excepting the Revelation of John, in search of what it means and what it looks like for us to die to ourselves and take up our cross. As I've read through the pages of Matthew's Gospel letter, I've found with the help of the Holy Spirit bits of wisdom and elements of truth here and there concerning the theme at hand. Overall, what I found throughout the entire book was something I had not anticipated but should have expected.

As I read through the chapters of Matthew as he's retelling Jesus' story, I found myself confronted with not a collection of clues or a list of principles by which to live a life of selfless surrender, but rather the life and character and very nature of God as it was demonstrated in and through Christ. As I was looking for a method or a philosophy to help me shape my life into the self-denying image of the Christians that inhabited the first century church, I found instead a reason to shape my life into such a pattern of living. Reading about Jesus and his life among his creation, I began to see that I was approaching this study with a slightly skewed focus. When I drew up this study, my goal was to comb the scriptures from Matthew to Jude for wisdom and principles to guide my pursuit of life dead to self, completely surrendered to Christ. The error of this approach is best captured by one of Jesus' parables in chapter twelve of Matthew.

"43When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."

Building up to this passage, Matthew records the Pharisees testing Jesus, calling him Satan or a demon, and then demanding a sign. Then it's with the story of the return of an unclean spirit that he tells the Pharisees why he doesn't give them a sign. If they had proof that Jesus was in fact the son of God, they would, in the habit of their ingrained cultural mindset, attempt to follow and be devout to Jesus on their own power, apart from the Holy Spirit, forsaking the old covenant by which the Jews at his point in God's story received their communion with and blessing from God. They would, in an attempt to serve God in the only way that they knew how, leave themselves wide open to the influences of the enemy, the evil and unclean spirits of the world. Without the indwelling power of Christ's Holy Spirit and the righteousness that only He can give, a life in pursuit of pleasing God would prove disastrous (the Pharisee's demonstrated this with their customs and religiosity). The only thing staying the fatal wrath of God for them was their connection to Abraham and their citizenship in God's nation). As they would stray form God's Law that came by Moses, trying to follow Christ's teachings, they would leave their lives open to all kinds of outside influences.

My point in all this is that as Jason and I are seeking to find the path of God-honoring selflessness, to die to self, we must not leave our hearts and souls vacant. As we learn how to kill ourselves in a manner of speaking, we also need to seek to replace the freshly vacant place in our lives with something that will firmly and permanently occupy it, or it will be filled with something that we won't like, or that is not good for us. As we die slowly to ourselves, we need to look to Christ to fill that empty space that's been created. This is exactly what was stated in the intent of this three semester study Jason and I are undertaking, but up front, I didn't see what it really meant. As we lay ourselves down, we need to pick up the cross of Christ. Part of that is knowing what the cross is all about. And knowing what the cross is all about, we must know what Christ is all about. In short, the gospel of Matthew and the others (Mark, Luke, & John) are not places to glean principles for living or clues on how to live a Godly, selfless life. The Gospels are a place to look for a reason for living a Godly, selfless life. It is only on this strong foundation that the teachings and wisdom recorded in the acts of the apostles and their epistles can be applied in a Christ centered and God honoring way. To die to self and take up our cross literally means to lay down ourselves and take up Christ. Do this, set yourself aside and make Christ your entire purpose for living, and you will see a new world unfold before you eyes and experience a joy that was previously unthinkable.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." --Matthew 16:24

2008-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

The Strength of the Ox

King David was a strong and very influential man in the life and times of the Biblical Kingdom of Israel. He was the 'great warrior king' and a 'man after God's own heart'. He conquered the enemies of Israel, and held his reign over God's nation with His anointing for the longest of all the kings of Israel. It is fitting a king of David's character and reputation would produce the wisest earthly king ever to hold the throne of Israel. King Solomon, David's son, found favor with God as he prayed for wisdom to lead God's people. Finding Solomon to be a righteous man with a heart to please Him, God gave solomon all wisdom and blessed his reign with riches beyond compare. Solomon eventually lost God's favor by turning away from His commands, turning instead to the pleasures of this world. He did, however, impart his wisdom to countless generations through his books preserved in the scriptures before he made his exit, most notably the book of Proverbs (coming right after the book of Psalms, a good portion of which was written by his father). In the verses of Proverbs, we find many profound truths and observations of reality. I'd like to focus on one of these verses in particular. This proverb is profoundly accurate in describing simultaneously the truth lying at the core of both a life lived to the full and a life squandered.

Proverbs chapter fourteen verse four reads, " Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." These words, up front may seem like meaningless ramblings, but within these two phrases are contained a truth that one would do well to pay attention to. To begin with, let's look at the two sides of this proverb and discuss and dissect it for its face value. The first part of the proverb states that "where there are no oxen, the manger is clean." Without overanalyzing it, this makes sense. If a manger is meant to house oxen, that will naturally mean that oxen would eat there. And where oxen eat they... well lets just say what goes up must come down if you catch my drift. Of course, if there are no oxen to... come down in the manger, the manger is clean. Easy stuff. What this also implies, as we can see, is that where there are oxen, the manger is messy. Anyone who has ever been around a feed yard where cattle are kept, or in a dairy barn, or in a stable knows that, when these are full of their respective tenants, they tend to have a very distinct oder. It's messy.

The second part of the proverb argues, "but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." In the time when this was written, oxen were used as beasts of burden. They were used to pull carts, thresh grain, and tow plows. Any farmer that was serious about growing any kind of crop had an ox or a team of oxen. Basically, the ox was the equivalent of a tractor. So, to have any kind of crop, oxen were necessary. Pretty straight forward right? By putting these two face-value observations together, we should get a clearer picture of what this proverb is meant to communicate. Oxen are messy to keep, and to be without them would result in a clean(er) environment, but if one is to expect to raise a crop, one must have them.

It seems that, like most of Solomon's proverbs, it presents us with two incompatible realities. Reality one: Life without oxen is a clean one. Reality two: Life with oxen produces abundant crops. In presenting us with two realities that are mutually exclusive, that is, two realities that cannot exist together, Solomon presents us with a choice: Reality one, or reality two. In short, we can choose to be clean and tidy, or to be productive. It is in this distilled simplification of the proverb that we find truth that we can apply to many areas of our life. For example, if you have a shiny new car, you can either put in a garage or under a cover and never drive it in order to preserve its clean and shiny appearance, or you can use it to get from point A to point B and get it dirty with grime and dust and bugs and bird poo. The first choice would keep the car looking pretty and shiny, but would not be very practical at all. You would have an eighteen thousand dollar center-peice. The other choice would foul the pretty and shiny appearance of the car, but would allow you to travel much more quickly and easily between places. Or, to use a slightly more abstract example, one could either stay at home all day and do only the things one wanted to do like watch TV and sleep and maybe spend some time outdoors at one's own leisure, or one could get a job and work during the weekdays and subject oneself to activities that maybe aren't at the top of the list of fun things, in order that one can earn some money to live with. While the first sounds like it would be a good life to live, it wouldn't be very productive, and the quality of life would be severely hindered by a lack of resources. But the other choice would limit some of the immediate gratification, but would yield more resources and thus more options when the time came to enjoy ones free time.

The context that this applies most directly to, and that I would like to highlight, is that of the spiritual life, specifically, that of a believer; a follower of Christ. Jesus, in his commands and parables, tells us to do some things that could get pretty messy, some things that could drastically alter the course of one's life. In hearing these commands and the promises of what obeying these commands will yield, we are faced with the decision of Proverbs 14:4. We can remain clean and tidy, or we can dive into life headfirst for Christ and get messy, dirtying up our shiny lives and producing a crop for harvest. Jesus says "Give to the one who begs form you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you" (Matthew 5:42). He also says that when we give aid to those in need, we give aid to Jesus himself, who will in turn give us the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 25:34,40). So when confronted with this command it's resulting effect, we can either, keep for ourselves our resources and our time, and let those in need find their own, maintaining a self-appeasing lifestyle, or we can give of our resources and our time, sacrificing what enjoyment we could have gained from those things for the enjoyment of others, and ultimately the eternal reward that is created in Heaven. The first is clean, and safe, and not very challenging, but it flies in the face of productivity for God's Kingdom. The second is messy; sometimes producing uncertain outcomes, and leaving us in situations that we might not be comfortable in, but will produce fruit in our lives and possibly the lives of others. The truth is, to follow Christ, to obey His commands and live the lifestyle that He calls all believers to live is messy and stinky and at times it can be very hard. But it's that lifestyle, the lifestyle that creates a messy and stinky and hard life, that will produce the most fruit for the Kingdom of God. Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

2008-03-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Wonderful Suffering of Christ
An Easter Letter

It's March fifteenth, a Saturday, and as I sit reading Matthew's Gospel letter, I arrive at Matthew 26:30, as Jesus tells his disciples they will all fall away. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, so I am especially tuned into the Passion of Christ. As I get to 26:36 where Jesus begins to pray at Gathsemane, I begin to pay close attention to how Jesus acts in addition to what he says. Before he begins to pray, after taking Peter, James, and John on further into the garden, Matthew says Jesus "began to be sorrowful and troubled". Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings, who in the face of demons and even death itself maintained a calm and composed demeanor, was sorrowful and troubled. Matthew goes on. After telling his disciples that he is "sorrowful, even to death," and telling his disciples to wait where they were, Jesus goes further and falls on his face and prays "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will." Ignoring the prayer for a moment, what do Jesus' actions say about what he will soon be facing?

First, he becomes uncharacteristically heavy-hearted, and then he goes to pray, falling on his face. That, coupled with the prayer that he prays, gives us the impression that Jesus knew what was coming, and he knew it was going to be very hard. Matthew goes on. After he finds his disciples asleep and rebukes them, he goes to pray again. This time he prays "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." While this is a slightly different prayer from the first, I think we can safely infer that the desire behind the prayer is the same. We can see that Jesus is very troubled by what lies ahead of him. Matthew goes on. Jesus gets up and goes back to his disciples, finds them asleep again, but instead of rebuking them again, he goes back and prays again, the same prayer. To get a deeper perspective on what Christ was feeling here, I'll take you to Chapter 22 of Luke's Gospel letter. In Luke 22:44, Luke says, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Here we see in Luke's writing that Jesus wasn't just sorrowful or troubled, he was in agony. Dictionary.com defines agony as "extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering." Here we see Jesus' state of "troubled-ness" goes a bit deeper than what Matthew describes. It is clear to see, that Jesus, at this moment, would rather not do what he came to do. This seems to contradict Hebrews 12:2, which says "...for the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross..." But when you take the time to think through this contradiction, these two passages fit together to give us a greater picture of Jesus suffering. The agony of the crucifixion didn't begin when Jesus was scourged and beaten, but rather as he prayed in Gathsemane. Jesus, the Son of God, was both fully God and fully man, subject to all the pains, anxieties, and gut-wrenching emotions that we are. I would argue that part of the agony of the cross was the anxiety and fear that Jesus felt as he prayed in Gathsemane; as the hour of his pain, his payment in exchange for billions and billions of eternities of Hell, was growing close. It is here where he first shed blood, and it is here that he begins to feel the foot of God start to weigh heavy on him as God prepares to crush his own Son.

This Easter, think on this. And as you think on this, celebrate and revel in the love that God has for you and lift up prayers of joyful thankfulness as you, with all this in mind, think on Romans 5:7-8, which says "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ [God] died for us." While Easter is a time to mourn that the broken world we live in and the broken and sinful bodies that we inhabit necessitated such a payment for sin, it is also a time to celebrate God's sovereignty, as no joy can be greater than the joy of a sinner saved, reconciled to the God and Creator for which he was made. This Easter, embrace the words of King David and join him in Psalm 71:23 - "My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed!"

2008-02-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

Death and Dying

Tonight, I heard some challenging words from a man named Darrel McCarthy, one of the speakers/teachers of the "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement" class (a class that would benefit ANY Christ seeking Christian). He was talking about Jesus' mandate for the nations (a.k.a. the Great Commission). He talked about reaching peoples and nations and focusing on what is at the core of all of missions: one person telling another person about Jesus. Though I could write on this for pages, somewhere in these words were the words of which I spoke before. In his exaltation and encouragement to not only go, but "tell people about Jesus as you go", he mentioned some words that I'd forgotten about. When Darrel uttered these words, I knew in my heart that I was not conforming to the Jesus of the Bible. He said (and this he quoted from someone else) "When Jesus calls a person, He bids him come and die."

I am doing a lot of "good things", a lot of Biblically sound things; I study the scriptures, I pray, I meet regularly with the Body of Christ, which is his church. But one thing I was not doing was dying. "When Jesus calls a person, He bids him come and die." This statement is profoundly powerful, not just because of what it's saying, but because of what it means; or to put it another way, because of what it implies. I can say to you, if you work your body by running and lifting waits, your body will hurt. What that statement says is because you are working your body, it will hurt. What it implies is, because you are working your body, it will hurt not only after the work is over, but all the time you are working. So the statement "When Jesus calls a person, He bids him come and die" says, because you are following Jesus, you will die. But what it implies is, because you are following Jesus, you will not only die at the end of your journey, but you will also die the entire time you are following Jesus. Now think about that and compare that to your daily walk with Jesus (if you have one). If you can't see the way in which you're dying daily in your walk with Jesus, welcome to the table. Pull up a chair and listen. I will admit freely that I don't have the answers. If I did, and still found myself in this predicament, there would something seriously wrong with my relationship to Jesus. The only thing I have to offer here is some thoughts and encouragements; not answers.

As I heard these words come out of Darrel's mouth, I thought to myself, "That is not what my faith walk looks like. How can I make it look like that?" As I said before, I don't have an answer, but a few things were planted in my mind shortly after that moment. First of all, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to have a relationship with Jesus that led me to die daily, but the reality was I didn't. I didn't because I'd never explored what it actually looked like to die daily in MY life. I'd studied Jesus life, and Paul's life, briefly Peter's life, I'd seen the conclusion of Stephen's life; I knew what it meant to die daily, I just didn't know how that dying daily would manifest itself in my life. Then, I thought, these men all were persecuted beaten and imprisoned for their faith. If I somehow managed to get myself imprisoned for my faith in a country that boasts in its citizens' freedom to religion, that would be impressive, but most likely, I would be doing something contrary to the love and teachings of Christ. I then realized that it's not death itself, whether that is a physical death, or another kind of death, but rather the act of dying that is important. All throughout Jesus' life, he was dying daily, but it was the decision to die that was so massively important. For Paul, it was not the imprisonment and beatings that gave the most strength to those around him; it was the decision to carry out the action that carried those repercussions that gave those around him the most encouragement.

So through this series of thoughts I stumbled on an important piece of my puzzle. Jesus even says it! How could I have missed it? "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matt. 16:25)." It's not the dying, but the decision to die. Now comes the big question, and the one I have no answer for at the moment. What does a decision to die look like in my life, or, in what capacity can I seek to lose my life for Christ's sake. It is something that I will have to think and pray about, to think and pray hard about because it's not a decision that will come easy. To choose to die, to will my life away, is something that is so absolutely contrary to our nature as humans that to those who don't know Christ, it's pure insanity, and to those who do know Christ, it seems impossible. "With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26)." Jesus said these words, and I believe him whole heartedly, but that doesn't make it any easier. I can truly say that, even righting this, seeing myself down the road standing at the fork in the road when the decision is to be made, to comfortably slide by, or to die to myself, to surrender my life wholly and unconditionally and lay it at the foot of the cross where my savior died for me, it makes me shiver. Will I have the faith? I want to say yes, but I truly can't answer that; I have absolutely no idea what that choice will look like, but I do know that it will come.

If this is a question that is weighing on your soul as well, you're not alone. I said at the beginning that I had no answers... I lied. I have but one. Pray. "Pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38)." Jesus said these words to his disciples as he was preparing to die on the cross. His disciples with him while he prayed to the Father, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Matt. 26:38b)." Even for Jesus it was hard. He was sweating drops of blood. I will never know how hard it was for Him. I can't expect the decision to be any less difficult for me. All I can do is pray and lean upon the power and sovereign love of Christ and God the Father.

Difficulty aside, I leave you with the eternal and sovereign words of Jesus: "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

2007-12-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Meditation

It is very nearly Christmas, and I have been meditating on a few passages lately relating to the Christmas story. These passages are John 1:19-23 and Isaiah 40:1-5. As I will show you, these passages are magnificently linked and carry a message that brings joy to billions of people around the world. In telling you this relationship, I will reveal to you (if you haven't already made this connection) a message that the scribes and priests of Israel (the social elite and the religious leaders of the time) missed when they heard it.

To start with, I want to give to you Isaiah 40:1-5, because one, it was written first, and two, with an understanding of this passage, the second will become all the more amazing.

Isaiah 40:1-5
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.

A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

These words were spoken by the old testament prophet Isaiah, who is responsible for a large portion of the messianic prophesy that is contained in the old testament. In fact, Isaiah is the most commonly referenced prophet in the new testament. Let's look at what Isaiah says in these five verses. The first part, or first stanza of this passage is the most emotionally charged, as it relates directly to the condition of God's people, Israel. He says, in essence, the hard times are over and you will be ushered into the good times. You shall war no more and all your misdeeds will be pardoned, and you will be forgiven double the amount of your transgression!

This is an awesome statement, especially to a people like the people of Israel, that have been beaten, lost, enslaved, nearly annihilated, taken captive, persecuted, and have been continually under the judgement of a righteous God. For a people like that to hear the message "your strife is ended, and your sins are forgiven" is almost beyond words. But it goes on. The second part of this passage gives cause for further celebration. It tells the people of Israel to "Prepare the way of the LORD. Make everything ready to receive the LORD. It goes on to say that when this happens, "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed". You must remember that, at this point, the Jews (Israel) have lived for centuries serving, worshiping and following after God and they have seen a glimpse of His glory, and a sampling of His power. They saw a glimpse of His glory as His holy fire guided Israel through the desert, and they experienced a sampling of his power when He delivered them from Egypt after the ten plagues through the parted Red Sea. For a people who have seen these tidbits of His glory to hear "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed" is an awesome statement. It says to them that what they've seen so far is a glory masked. His true glory has been hidden from them and it shall soon be made clear. So, before I go on, I would like you to think about this passage and what it meant for the people of Israel. "Your warring and hardships are over and if you thought God was glorious before, you haven't seen anything yet." Think on this. I'll wait.

Okay, now I'd like to jump forward in time and look at the other passage mentioned at the beginning, John 1:19-23. This passage comes at the beginning of the letter of John recounting the account of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, otherwise known as the Gospel.

John 1:19-23
And this is the testimony of John [the Baptist], when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."

This event takes place before Jesus started his ministry, when John the Baptist (not John the apostle) is still preparing the people of Israel for Jesus' message. He is baptizing people and preaching the forgiveness of Sins (which at this point in the history of Israel is very radical, almost heretical, because only the Sacrifices of Atonement can deal with sin). So, of course, the religious leaders of Israel send their people to find out who this guy is. They ask him just that, "Who are you?" It's odd, because if someone asked you or me "Who are you," the natural response would be to state our name; a positive answer-- I am Henry Bartel. But that's not what John says. In response to this question, he gives them a negative answer. He says "I am not the Christ", which means that he knew why they were there, which is to find out if this person preaching the forgiveness of sins was the prophesied Christ, or Elijah, who was to come before the Christ. So the Levites then ask him if he is Elijah, or the prophet, and he says no. After finding that John is not the Christ, or Elijah, or anyone they expected him to be, they ask him again, I'm sure in an exasperated tone, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us." Then John drops the bomb that should have tipped them off. He quotes the prophet Isaiah, and says "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." Now, you should recognize that statement from the first passage we looked at. Here John only uses one line from this passage, but the men he is addressing are the priests of the Jews, and they know the entirety of scripture by heart and should recognize this passage instantly. They should know what John is referencing, and more than that, they should know what John is telling them by referencing this particular passage. He is telling them that the time is here which the passage in Isaiah prophesied. That the time of the revelation of the Glory of the LORD is at hand. He's telling them, and Israel, that their time of warring and strife is over and that the forgiveness of sins is close at hand. At these words of John, the Levites and priests that were questioning John should have seen this. But they were too concerned about getting to the bottom of this, what appeared to be, crazy man preaching forgiveness of sins that they missed his message completely.

This message, the message of John the Baptist, is preached every year in December around the world. The times of warring with the worries of this world are over, and the Glory of the LORD has been revealed. Jesus, God become man, has paid our debt and offers forgiveness on top of forgiveness. Make straight the path of the LORD in your heart and offer Him free passage into your life, he will reveal the glory of the LORD in you. The religious leaders of Jesus' time missed this because they were too concerned with appearances. The same message is here in front of you, will you see it? Will you embrace it? Will you rejoice at the coming of the Glory of the LORD. If so, make straight the way of the LORD. Make your mountains low and your valleys high, let go of your pride and self-pity. Open your heart and life to Jesus and he will make your rocky ground even and your rough places a plain. The glory of the LORD has been revealed, can you see it?

2007-11-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Drunken Angel

This is an account of an extraordinary event that took place while I was going to college at Kansas State University in Manhattan Kansas. This event helped to shape my views about God the Father, about angels, and further demonstrated to me the sovereignty of God in everything. I can’t say for certain what really happened, I can only relate to you what I saw and experienced from my end, and from my mortal and finite perspective.

It all began in Aggieville at Radina’s Café, a local coffee shop here in Manhattan Kansas. It’s a place where people come to meat with friends, study, or just drink some coffee or espresso. I liked going there to have my “quite time”. Allow me explain. I have a circle of people that I like to hang out with; Christians that are sold out for Christ and using their lives to follow Him and make Him known, like me. We (this group of people and I) spend, or try to spend, a consistent time alone at times throughout the week, ideally every day, reading the Bible, studying it, meditating over it, reflecting on it and praying through it. This time is dedicated to spending time and communing with God one on one. During this time, we try and limit the distractions we encounter from the world around us, thus it is known as our “quiet time”. Anyway, I frequented Radina’s because I enjoyed having my quiet times there. One day, late morning, early afternoon, I came to Radina’s to spend some time alone, just me and God, and as I was reading, I noticed Allie, a friend of mine, outside sitting at one of the outdoor tables they have in front of the cafe. I continued to read and finished my quiet time, and then went out to sit and chat a bit with Allie. As I got outside, I saw that she was talking with a man that had just been walking by and had stopped to talk to her; he looked to be maybe in his thirties. So I asked if I could join their conversation and sat down beside her. I don’t remember what all we talked about, but through the course of the discussion, Allie and I learned that this man, Ken, was an alcoholic and a severe alcoholic at that. Ken shared with us that he couldn’t go for very long without alcohol in his system or else the delirium trimmers would render him all but incapacitated. He also shared with us that because of this, he had really lost his desire to live. His quality of life had been degraded so much by his addiction to alcohol that he really didn’t care anymore that his addiction would ultimately kill him. We also found out that Ken was on his way to Rusty’s Last Chance (a fitting name), a bar in the area, to basically drink himself to death. He had decided that he was going to go drink until he either passed out or died, or both. Clearly moved by this, Allie begged him not to go. Later, she said she couldn’t explain why she had done this except that the Holy Spirit had come upon her and told her not to let this man do this. She begged him not to go to the bar, and in the process persuaded him to let her help him. After asking him some questions and determining what would be of the most benefit, she offered to take him to the emergency room, and he accepted. She asked me to come along, because she didn’t think she could do this alone. Moved by pity, by compassion, and probably a lot by the Holy Spirit, I agreed, so we drove him to Mercy Medical here in Manhattan. When we got there, the staff of the emergency room were very helpful and gracious. From what I remember, the process of checking him in and getting him the care he needed went abnormally smooth, especially considering we knew nothing about Ken, we weren’t related to him, and from what I can remember, he wasn’t really in much of a shape to answer questions or fill out paperwork.

After he got checked in, the nurse put us in a room off to the side, hooked Ken up to an I.V. drip that would help tame his DT’s as his body started to react to the lack of alcohol in his system. She put us in a tiny room off to the side of the nurses’ station, Allie, me and Ken, and then left, probably to go do some paper work or something. So while we were in this room alone with Ken, we began to ask Ken some questions. We began to talk to Ken, and Ken began to open up to us. He began to tell us all about himself, how he used to have a family, how he used to have a wife and kids, and how his addiction to alcohol stripped him of all those things. He told us that he was disgusted with himself because of his addiction. He said that if he were in bed with a beautiful woman and a six pack of beer, he would choose the beer over the woman. He told us how his addiction pushed his family away, and forced his wife to leave him and take their kids with her. He told us that he had no idea where they were, or even how to find them. This addiction had Ken in a strangle hold, and it was obvious he wanted out. After hearing this, I felt certain that this man needed to hear about Christ, and that he needed to hear it now, from Allie and me. I began to explain to him what he already knew, that he was in a pit of remorse, of pain, and of perpetuating self destruction; a pit that was too deep for him to get out of by himself, and would continue to get deeper and deeper. As I said, this he already knew because he had basically told us this in not so many words. Then I told him about Jesus. I told him that while he cannot get out of that pit, there is someone that can get him out. I used the imagery of Christ standing outside that pit on solid ground, extending his hand to Ken. I told him how Christ had suffered and died as a substitute in our stead for our sins, and how he was raised up from the death that came from those sins to gain power over them; power that he freely offers us. I said, “Ken, you can’t get out of this pit. You can’t do this by yourself; it’s too deep. But Jesus can help you.” I explained to Ken how, in the power of Christ that he freely offers us, we can conquer sin (and addictions) and rise above it. I explained that all he had to do was reach out and take the hand of Jesus that He was offering him. With tears in my eyes I laid out before him the Gospel.

As he was looking at the both of us, with tears in his own eyes, partly from, I imagine, his acknowledgement that he wanted and desperately needed what Jesus had to offer, and partly from the fact, as he admitted, that we, Allie in particular, reminded him of his children. He began to ask her questions, and Allie began to open up to Ken. She started telling him things about herself, about school, about her own family, and then she came to the subject of her father. She explained to Ken that her father, when she was young, died of alcohol poisoning. Her father was an alcoholic. She told Ken that she would give anything to see her father again, and she wished that she could talk to him, get to know him and look into his eyes again. As she was telling him this, Ken began to visibly break down. I could see in his eyes and his body language that he was deeply moved by what Allie was telling him. Allie leaned forward and looked him square in the eyes; she got up on the edge of her seat and asked Ken to promise her that he would not do to his children what her father had done to her; that he would not leave them not knowing who their father was and not having a chance to find out. At this point, Allie had tears running down her cheeks, and Ken was all but weeping. Ken made that promise to her, and went on to tell her how much he still loved his wife, and especially his children. How he wanted so much to hold them in his arms again and tell them that he loved them. We talked for a little while more, about what, I can’t remember, and then the nurse came in and took Ken to one of the examining rooms where doctors could begin the initial de-tox treatments. We were not allowed with him beyond that point, since we weren’t family, so we said goodbye, Allie gave him her phone number and email and told him to get in contact with her when he was better, and we left. I can’t remember most of what happened the rest of that day, only that we both went our separate ways. She went to go talk over what had just happened with a friend and mentor of hers, and I went back to my dorm room to process what had just happened.

A week later, Allie and I met together again at Radina’s to talk about what had happened. Allie, through talking with her friend, had discovered what she believed (and I would agree, given the facts) to be the reason for this all having taken place. She told me that through helping Ken, and through Ken telling her about his children, she gained a perspective on her father that she had never seen before. Through Ken, she saw how her own father saw her, and loved her as his daughter. Through this incident, God had allowed her to see through her father’s eyes. As she was telling me this, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind an amazing, and simply breath-taking verse. Hebrews 13:2, which says “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” As I verbally processed this verse and what it meant, I stumbled across this truth: Angels, being citizens of heaven and empowered by God, do not need our help. Anything that they need they will get from God. So what is the purpose of “entertaining angels”? That’s when it hit me. God doesn’t send us to help his angels, he sends his angels to help us. Any time we “entertain angels unawares” we are helping in such a way that will benefit us, not the angel; the angel needs no help. We both came to the conclusion at that moment that Ken had been an angel from God. He had come from nowhere, had no past as far as we could tell (with the exception of what he had related to us), no real identity, other than “Ken” and played a very large role in what you might consider an act of God. He’d come to give Allie closure to her relationship, or lack thereof, with her father. God had reconciled that relationship in order that she could have a right view of what it means to be a father, and what a father’s love looks like so that she could come into a closer, more intimate relationship with God, her Heavenly Father. She told me later that she had no expectation of Ken ever contacting her. He had done what he was placed there to do, and gone on to whatever was next, whether that is back to heaven, or back to wherever he might be from.

On that day, I gained a whole new perspective on what God’s interaction with us, his children, looks like, and I know that Allie gained a new perspective on her relationship with God. That is the story of Ken, and how he, whoever he was, changed Allie’s life and helped me to gain a broader perspective on who God is in just one afternoon.

I count myself blessed to have been a part of this experience, and I hope that you too, through reading this, have been blessed, in whatever capacity God has chosen to do so. Thank you for taking the time to read what I’ve written, and God bless.

2007-11-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

Faith Without Love

Galatians 5:6

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcnision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

James 2:15-17

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

These two verses highlight the fact that true faith will always be accumpanied by good works. As James says, only faith producing works is true faith, and paul says in Galatians that this faith is the only thing that counts. This is an issue that has been addressed many times in many places, so instead simply talking about it and explaining it again, I'm going to take this idea, this truth and I'm going to run with it and draw it out in another area of life other than faith; expand the scope of this statement.

To start off with, lets establish that what James says is indeed correct. For starters I can tell you that it is correct because it is written in the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 says "All scripture is God-breathed", meaning that all scripture, though written by man, is the direct transcription of the Holy Spirit; the very words of God. Secondly, lets look at the logic of James' statement. He says, in essence, faith that does not produce fruit is not faith. Jesus himself says something along these lines. "Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. (Matt. 7:16-18)." The definition of faith, according to Dictionary.com is "confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability." So, to have faith in Jesus is to trust Jesus and his promises. It means to trust that he has our best interest in mind, and to trust that what he says is true. He (Jesus) says "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Do you trust him? If yes, than the natural product of this trust will be a willingness and even an eagerness to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." If that willingness and eagerness isn't there, than it should be apparent that neither is the trust. Just like if a tree claims to be a fig tree, but it produces thistles, it should be apparent that the tree is not a fig tree. So, the logic makes sense: faith that does not produce works is not faith.

At the start, I said I was going to take this idea and run with it; draw out some of the implications that this idea has in another area of life, particularly love. At the beginning, you can see written out Galatians 5:6, which says "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcnision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Paul here is basically saying the same thing as James. But he uses an important key word. "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through LOVE." If the only thing that counts is faith producing love, I would think it is of some importance to understand what love looks like. To start to explore this question, lets see what God has to say about it. In the Gospel of John, he says in chapter three, verse sixteen, ""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." What does this passage say about love? "For God so loved the world...", or God loved the world so much that... "he gave his only Son." God loved the world, so out of that love came a great and costly sacrifice. That points to a pretty extreme definition of love. Or here in John 15:12-13, we hear Jesus come out and say what John 3:16 is pointing to, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Here Jesus says very plainly, that love, pure love, is "that someone lay down his life for his friends." Now let's apply this new definition of love to our life. What implications does that have. What are you really saying when you say you love someone? Are you saying that you would be willing to lay your life down for that person? And if this is the case, if the opportunity comes or the need arises to lay down your life for this person and you don't, is it really love? Now, before we get too far into this, I need to clarify the term "lay down your life." When I say this, I don't mean give up my life (a.k.a. die), though that is in the scope of this phrase. What I'm talking about is setting your own life aside, or even re-organizing or redefining your own life for the betterment of the one you love. This doesn't always mean to die, but if a situation arose in which your death would be the most benificial to the one you love, it would fit into the phrase laying down your life. Keeping all this in mind, let's look at another one of Jesus' commandments. In Matthew 19:19, Jesus says "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." So, we are not to just love those we care about, but we are to love our neighbors (everyone around us). How are we supposed to love, really love everyone around us? How can we lay down our lives in a way that will be most beneficial to the people around us? What is the one thing that we could do that would be of ultimate benefit? the answer to this sounds like it comes from Sunday school, but it's true. We show them the way to Jesus. Not only that, but we show them the beauty of Jesus by doing just what Jesus commanded us: Loving them as Jesus loved us. Jesus loved us so much that he gave himself for our salvation, so we are to love others sacrificially, putting aside our personal agenda's and our own desires in order that we can show others the Wonderful Savior.

Getting back on track, we started by examining the statement "faith without works is not faith", so lets continue in that thought process by asking the question, is love without sacrifice still love? We've already defined love as sacrificially living in order to show others to Jesus. Going back again to the analogy of the tree and it's fruit, if we say we love, but we don't live in a way that reflects this, what does that say about our claim to be loving? We can say that we love people, we can even tell people about Jesus, but unless our life matches our claim, unless we live in such a way to display the sacrificial love of Jesus, our claim to love is a lie. So if the fruit of faith is love, and the fruit of love is a sacrificial life, if we are not living a sacrificial life, what does that say about our claim to have faith? If love means living sacrificially, and we do not live a sacrificial life, than that would seem to suggest that we do not have love. And if the fruit of faith is love, and we do not have love, that would seem to suggest that we don't have faith. I'll leave you with this challenge. Look closely at your life. Examine the way you live and how you treat the people around you. Take every opportunity to "be Jesus" to those around you; to live in a sacrificial way that exhibits the love of Christ and leads the ones around you to a faith in Christ that produces love. By all means, don't stop telling people about Christ, but as you talk the talk, walk the walk.

2007-06-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Believe

What Does It Mean to Believe in Jesus?

The Bible says in many places that all someone needs to do to be saved from eternal damnation and to be able to claim many promises made by God is simply “believe.” But believe what? Many Christians (if not all of them) will tell you that that means believe in Christ Jesus. But, what does that mean? What does it mean to “believe in Christ Jesus?”

To answer this question, I’m going to turn to a book that often sheds light on the meanings of various things in life: The Oxford Dictionary. The definition that the Oxford Dictionary gives for our particular usage of the word “believe” is as follows:

Believe- intr. (foll. by in) a have faith in the existence of (believes in God). b have confidence in (a remedy, a person, etc.)(believes in alternative medicine). c have trust in the advisability of (believes in telling the truth).

This definition presents us with three options: a, b, or c. Let’s take them one by one and try and decipher which one of these option is the one that we need for the phrase in question.

To start with, let’s look at option “c.” If we were to replace the word believe with this definition, would the phrase we are questioning convey the message that it was intended to? “One only needs to [trust in the advisability of] Christ Jesus.” Does this sound like the gospel message? If you said no, you are right; but why? The definition in option “c” simply recognizes the soundness of Christ Jesus, or the fact that the decision to accept Christ is a good one. Option “c”, in the context of our phrase says all anybody needs to be saved is to see the benefit, or the ‘goodness’ of choosing Christ. While that recognition might lead to an acceptance of Christ into one’s heart and life, it does not require it, so we can cross option “c” off the list of possible definition of “believe.”

What about option “a?” That one sounds like it might be close, doesn’t it? Let’s find out: “One only needs to [have faith in the existence of] Christ Jesus.” That sounds pretty close, but is that the gospel message? If you said yes, than I need to tell you that you are wrong, and I’ll tell you why straight from scripture. In James chapter 2, verse 19, James writes “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder!” In this verse, James is telling us that simply to believe God or Christ exists is no extraordinary feat; even the demons and the very Lord of Hell believe in His existence, and they are terrified. Because the demons of Hell believe with option “a”, we can confidently rule it out as the answer to our question since they (the demons) use option “a” and are still damned to Hell.

So that leaves us with the only remaining option, option “b”, which refers to confidence. Let’s see if this definition fits into our phrase. “One only needs to [have confidence in] Christ Jesus.” Is this the Gospel message? If you said yes, you are correct! Another way of phrasing option “b” is to simply say “trust;” one only needs to [trust] Christ Jesus in order that he might be saved. So all we need to do to be saved is to trust Christ. But what must we trust him for? The answer here is simple: Everything. We can see in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that Christ trusted God for everything, from the food he ate to the people he healed, to his very spirit as he hung upon the cross. Christ calls us to follow him; just as he put all of his trust in the Father, we must put all of our trust in him. What does that mean? That means that we trust Christ for our faith, for our salvation, for our spiritual health, for our physical health, and it goes on and on, even down to the minutest detail of our lives; the food we eat, the cloths we wear, the money we need to live, shelter, everything. Matthew 6:32-33 says “for the gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, trust Christ first, and he will take care of the rest. That is what it means to “believe in Christ.” But going back to our dictionary definitions, I think that it needs to be said that both options, “a” and “c,” must be present in order for option “b” to be possible, but only option “b” will result in the salvation of your soul that Jesus Christ offers.

Do you believe?

2007-05-07T21:27:00.001-07:00

This note was found on the desk of a young pastor from Africa as his desk was being cleared off after he’d been martyred for his faith.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His and I won’t look back, let up, slow down back away, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I’m done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on his presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by the Holy Spirit's power. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until he comes. And when he does come for his own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!

2007-02-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

Spiritual Excercise

It’s the middle of February and spring is beginning to peak its beautiful head around the corner. At the tail end of a frigid winter, a glimmer of sunshine carrying with it the warmth of a new spring creates all manor of different inspirations and thoughts. For some, the warmth means they can finally crawl out of the layers upon layers of clothing they don over the winter months; for others it means that they will enjoy the flowers and birds as they share their beauty. For me, one of the inspirations that I experiences was the motivation or the urge to become physically active again. With the spring weather comes memories of baseball games, outdoor escapades such as camping or catching a game of Ultimate Frisbee on the quad after class. The call to be active is strong, and I know that it will be fun and refreshing, but I also know with that fun and refreshment will come frustration; frustration at the limitations of my body which has been relatively inactive all winter. Almost instantly upon prolonged physical acitivity, I will feel the strain of physical activity on my cardio-vascular system as I hear my heart in my ears and begin to breathe hard and my sides begin to ache. My legs begin to turn into jelly and my muscles will be sore for days afterwards. Even though I love the activity outdoors, my body just can’t keep up with the demands that I put on it.

There is a way around this problem however. That solution involves being physically active all the time; some call it training, others ‘working out’. When spring comes and I have a desire to be more active, if I’ve been active throughout the winter, keeping my heart and lungs in shape, and maintaining the endurance of my muscles, I will have no problem (or at least less of a problem) when spring comes around and I want to participate in those things that give me great joy, such as baseball/softball and Ultimate Frisbee. If I’ve been consistently active; if I’ve made an intentional effort to exercise on a regular basis, when I do those things that tax my body, I will be able to enjoy those things longer, and I will be able to make a greater contribution to my team (if it’s a team sport), or otherwise be more able to ‘win’ what ever game it is that I’m playing.

In 1 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul is instructing Timothy to “Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness [because] while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Paul is telling Timothy here, that while physical exercise is a good thing (don’t stop); spiritual exercise is a better thing. In much the same way that you or I would exercise or train our bodies so that we can effectively and joyfully participate in activities that come in the spring, Paul instructs Timothy (and us) to exercise our spirits as well, so that when a season of spiritual activity comes around, we will be able to take full advantage of it. If we don’t exercise our spirit, when a spiritual “spring” comes about, we will long to participate in the activities that are able to be done in that season, but like my experience with physical activity after a season of inactivity, we will try to do the things needed to be done but will become frustrated by the lack of ability, the lack of stamina, the lack of training to really excel at what we are attempting. Our spirits will begin to give out. Impatience will begin to creep in; the taxing of our spirits will leave us sore and aching, unable to be effective in the spiritual arena.

The author of the book of Hebrews echoes this encouragement to spiritual fitness in chapter 12 when he says in verse 1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” If you are among those that make an effort to keep your body in shape, or to be fit, I say to you how more should you strive to exercise your spirit and maintain its ‘fitness’. The spiritual ‘spring’ is here. Jesus tells us the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We are among those few laborers, let’s make an intentional effort to maximize our effectiveness by maintaining our spiritual fitness so that we can “run and not grow weary”; so that our spirits can better keep up with the demands God puts on them. I encourage you (and myself), the next time you ‘workout’ or exercise, to think about how you are exercising your spirit. There are many different ways; no one right way, but many effective ways. Just as everybody has their preferred method of physical training, find your preferred method of spiritual training.

Make yourself uncomfortable, force your spirit to grow by stretching it, by breaking it, and by coming back to Jesus to let it rest and heal. Whatever you need to do to make that happen, get it done for the purpose of spiritual exercise, knowing that someday you will enter a time of spiritual activity and you will be able to endure and win the prize, whether that be your own faith, the faith of another, or even the salvation of others. Train yourselves during the seasons of spiritual winter so that you can run with endurance in the spiritual springs in your life.

2007-02-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

WITH

This weekend, I attended the Navigators Midwest Laborer’s Conference where I heard Jim Rinella, the Rocky Mountain regional director and campus director of the Navigator ministry at Colorado State University. During the Saturday morning ‘rally’, he delivered a message about discipling, specifically Jesus’ strategy for discipling. At the beginning, he illustrated the importance of discipling (which comes from the root word “disciple” which is a follower or believer who is learning through the instruction of the teacher (or rabbi) they are following) in when ministering to the lost (those who haven’t believed on Christ for their salvation and therefore are outside the redemption found therein).

Discipling is a process by which a follower and disciple of Christ (a.k.a. Christian) both learns from a person more mature in their Christian walk than themselves, while simultaneously teaches someone that is less mature the principles, tools, lessons, and passions needed to be a follower or disciple of Christ (a.k.a. Christian). His illustration came from a famous article written by Dawson Trotman (the founder of the Navigators) called “Born To Reproduce” which lays out the principles of spiritual multiplication. Spiritual multiplication uses the mathematical model of exponential growth to provide a way in which the followers or disciples of Christ (a.k.a. Christians) can evangelize (and bring into redemption) the entire population of the world in a relatively short period of time (around 30 years). What happens is one person (follower or disciple of Christ…) invests their life into another person for one year, teaching them, helping them to grow in their spiritual walk, equipping them to teach others, and instructing them so that they will grow into a mature disciple themselves. At the end of that year, the new disciple will go out and find his own protégé to mentor teach and equip, and the first discipler will find another person to disciple. So now, instead of one disciple making one disciple, there are now two disciples, each making one more disciple. These two disciples teach, equip, love, and instruct their new disciples, and at the end of the second year, each new disciple finds a new disciple of his own to teach. Now instead of four disciples, there are now eight. I’m confident you see a pattern here. Eight become sixteen, sixteen become thirty-two, thirty-two become sixty-four, sixty-four become one-hundred-twenty-eight, so on and so forth, until in about thirty years, the entire population of the world (a ridiculously huge number) will have been reached and given the redemption found in Jesus Christ.

The Navigators Midwest Laborer’s Conference is for students on the Leadership Teams of the Navigator ministries around the Midwest, so being very familiarized with the principles and the mission of the Navigators, we had all heard about and were familiar with the principle of spiritual multiplication. The message Jim delivered that morning was about how to best go about investing your life in the life of another. After he had given his short exposition on spiritual multiplication, he began to talk about the ministry of Jesus (who was the first to use spiritual multiplication). He (one man) started by teaching and training 12 disciples, entrusting and charging them with the task of teaching and training others. So if you have any doubt about if spiritual multiplication actually works, think about this, Jesus (one man) started with twelve men and now there are nearly one billion disciples of Christ around the world… It works. He summed up the ministry of Jesus in one word: With. Mark 3:14 says “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach.” Jim related the story of how he was discipled as a young man. A man took him under his wing and taught him, equipped him, and mentored him, spent time with him every week. Met with him every week, and encouraged him to start doing the same with a young man of his own at a very young spiritual age. If you’ve ever seen two people that spend a lot of time together, you know the power of “with”. Those two people sound alike, they think alike, they act alike in some cases, have the same idiosyncrasies, the same expressions, the same views on life, etc. Jesus did everything (when He wasn’t praying by Himself) with them; they were even with Him when He died on the cross. Jesus did teach them, and He did give them to tools they needed, but in order to truly shape their lives to be like Himself, He spent almost all of His time with them.

A lot of people, including me, put such a complicated framework and substructure in the principle of sharing our faith, of discipling (even if you don’t call it “discipling”, if you’re a follower or disciple of Christ –a.k.a. Christian–, you do this). We think that to properly confer the knowledge, faith, tools, wisdom, ability, and everything else it takes to be an effective disciple, we need this complex set of instruction or rules to make sure that everything gets transferred. That absolutely is not the case. Jim, in his story, said that after four days, four days, of being a Christian, Allen, his friend and discipler, took him to the shopping center to share Christ. Four days! It doesn’t take large amounts of time, or an extensive network of training principles and lessons and workshops to prepare someone to be a disciple (and a discipler), it just takes another person, another disciple to come alongside them, teach them the basics, and do it with them. As long as you know and are able to teach the basics of the Christian walk (which are things pretty much straight from the Bible), you can make disciples simply by walking with them; by sharing your faith to others with them; by making disciples with them. The entire life is based on imitating others. We learn to walk by watching others, we learn to talk by listening to others, we learn our values from those around us, we learn our behaviors from watching others. So why not learn to make disciples by simply doing it with others. You can teach all the knowledge and the wisdom in the world, and you can give somebody every resource there is on sharing their faith and making disciples, but the most effective and the surest and most lasting way to make a disciple is to do it with them. It’s so incredibly simple! When I heard this message and let it sink in, I was struck and overcome by the beautiful simplicity of it. I think this is something that every follower or disciple of Christ needs to hear, because we’ve made Christ’s mission so complicated, so difficult that we are paralyzed by the complexity of it. We don’t know where to start because we have put so many extra steps in it that don’t need to be there. All that needs to happen to make a disciple for Christ is to do it with someone else. To get into God’s Word (the Bible) with your disciple, to pray with your disciple, to witness (or evangelize) with your disciple, to walk with Jesus with your disciple. No “twelve easy steps”, no complicated theorems, not even a formula. All a person needs to become a effective disciple is for an established to disciple teach them all that they know, and do it with them.

I hope that what you’ve just read has inspired you or has rejuvenated your desire for Christ and your desire to reach the lost; it has mine (it’s so simple, how could it not!). My prayer for you, whoever you are, is that the words I have written above will change your life, just as the words that I heard on Saturday morning have changed mine. God bless, and may Christ be with you.

2007-02-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

Navigators Midwest Laborer’s Conference

This weekend (Friday and Saturday), I had the privilege of attending the Navigators Midwest Laborer’s Conference (held in Manhattan, Kansas), which is a time for students on the Leadership Teams of Navigator ministries around the Midwest to come together and learn about leading and laboring for Christ from a series of ‘rallies’ in which a speaker delivers a message (the same speaker all weekend for 3 rallies) and through various workshops and times of meditation and reflection. This year’s conference we had the privilege of hearing Jim Rinella, the Rocky Mountain regional director and campus director of the Colorado State University Navigator ministry.

For weeks before this conference I was looking forward with anticipation to this time of fellowship and growth, as well as the opportunity to serve for an entire weekend by helping set up when necessary, tear down when needed, and helping with anything else that needs to be done throughout the weekend. As the conference grew closer (like the Thursday before) I prayed that God would use this conference to show me ways in which I can better serve and honor Him, to open my eyes to more of what He wants from me, and for God to rejuvenate my soul and my spirit. The Laborers Conference has come and gone, and I can confidently say that that prayer has been answered.

The first rally of the conference (Friday night), Jim spoke about three fundamentals of living a life like and for Christ. These three fundamentals are “Prayer from the heart, Care from the heart, and Share from the heart.” You might think to yourself, “well, that makes sense,” and it does; but the cool thing was that how he spoke about those three things really lead me to think about how these three fundamentals are related, or how they come together to form a life that is one, honoring to God, and two the life Jesus called us to live. The way in which these three do this is as follows: When you lift up prayer for someone, I mean really pray for someone about anything (prayer from the heart), you will naturally want to check up on them to see one, how they are doing, and two, how God is working through your prayers. Through prayer from the heart, automatically created in you is care from the heart. You will always be asking them how they are, how whatever you are praying for them is going; you will always be interested in their life. As a result of your prayers, care will immerge, and more than likely, whoever is the beneficiary of your prayer and care, will be attracted to you because you have shown an interest in them. They will want to spend time with you because you make them feel loved (which they are), and you make them feel like you actually care (which you do). From this attraction will come, naturally, an opportunity for you to share your heart with them; to share Jesus. To put it into a simple and more portable phrase,

With prayer from the heart, comes care from the heart. With care from the heart comes an opportunity to share from the heart.

So that was just the Friday night rally, which is the main focus of this entry, but there is more. At the Saturday morning rally, Jim delivered another stellar message that again inspired me to praise and wonder. Simply put, he spoke about the ministry and strategy of Jesus, and summed it up with only one word: With. I won’t go into that right now, because I believe that that deserves its own entry, which you can get to by clicking the link above.

I’m always amazed by how much God speaks through these conferences. My last two conferences have been absolutely incredible, and this one most definitely has lived up to the standard. I have a lot to chew on and meditate over. God has challenged me through Jim and has used Jim and the men that he brought with him from Colorado to encourage me and refresh my spirit. The faithfulness of God never ceases to amaze me, that he would meet me in such a powerful and intimate way, even though I consistently fall short of even my own standards and sometimes even turn my back on Him completely. The grace of God through Christ is extremely evident to me when I experience the loving instruction of God in such a powerful way in events such as the Navigators Midwest Laborer’s Conference. As we say here at KSU Navs to close our weekly rallies on Thursday nights, “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.” I Praise the Lord my God, for He is good!

2007-02-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

A Sobering Reminder

February 20, 2007

This morning while reading in Romans, I came across an interesting passage that caught my attention. In chapter fifteen, verse three, Paul writes “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written ‘the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me’.” That to me was interesting because I read it to mean that those who reproached me, their reproaches fell on Christ, and that is a God honoring thought… I think; after all, God’s wrath for my sins (which I’m finding are more in number as I see more and more of myself) fall on Christ. So it made sense to me that the reproaches of those who would reproach me for my faith would fall on Christ. That being the case, I can, without shame, declare His message to everyone.

While that is a good thought, as I looked closer at the words on the page, I saw a tiny letter referencing a footnote where Paul quotes scripture (…as it is written…). That little quote comes from Psalm 69:9, which carries a different meaning than what I had originally interpreted. In Psalm 69, David says “I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood has come over me.” He goes on describing in various metaphors his situation (which is everyone wants to kill him), and then in verse 9 he says “for zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” So while I interpreted that passage quoted in Romans as a promise of deliverance from reproach, it turns out that it is almost the complete opposite. Romans 15:3 promises not deliverance from reproach, but rather the rise of reproach. Those who reproach God will, because of my affiliation with God, reproach me as well. This passage is located in a section of scripture that is sub-labeled “The example of Christ.” The word “example” implies that it is meant to be followed.

Christ was met with the ultimate reproach: The people’s hatred of Him and their desire to take his life. Their reproach for God (the real God that Jesus represented, not the god represented by the Pharisees and their legalistic rituals and traditions) fell on Christ because He was the son of God. In Christ, my sins have been forgiven and I am now a co-heir with Christ; a child of God. As those who hated God dumped their reproach on Christ, so too will those who hate God now dump their reproach on me and anyone who proclaims rebirth into the family of God in Jesus Christ.

This passage is a sobering reminder of the price that comes with the redeeming grace and forgiveness of sins that’s found in Christ. In being joined with Christ, having our hearts and minds transformed into the likeness of His, there also comes with that the reproach of everyone who hates God (those who hate God will hate anything that resembles or is like God).

2007-02-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful Harmony

The song by Michael W. Smith called “Prince of Peace” is an absolutely beautiful song. It not only is a wonderfully composed and beautifully harmonious composition, it also displays the beauty that is manifest in the relationship between men and women as they relate to God. The song begins with the men singing, and the women echoing the same things that the men are singing, and then the men and women separate into two very different choruses that, when put together, creates a gorgeous expression of worship through music that highlights how men and women were meant to relate as God’s sons and daughters; brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

In Genesis, God created woman because “It is not good for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).” He created Eve as a helper to Adam, but more than that, a companion that was to share both in his work, and in his admiration of God. Throughout the Bible, men have a distinct role as the head of the woman. However, just because man is placed as the head of the woman, that does not, by any means, diminish the role of women in God’s Kingdom and the body of Christ. Women have also ,throughout the Bible, often played a redeeming role in their relationship to men. Without Sarah, Isaac would not have been born to Abraham (Genesis 17), and the Messianic line would never have been. Without Ester, the entire Jewish nation would have been eradicated (Ester 1-10). Without Rahab, the spies sent by Joshua would have been found out and never been able to report back about Jericho (Joshua 2). Without Ruth, the Messianic line would have been cut off (Ruth 1-4, Matthew 1:5). Without Hannah, Samuel, who was responsible for putting David on the throne of Israel, would have never been born (1 Samuel 1). Without Abigail, David would have, in his anger, sinned and lost the Lord’s favor (1 Samuel 25). My point is, though men have an immensely important role in God’s plan and Kingdom, so do women.

As both men and women seek to follow and glorify Christ, it is also our respective responsibilities to help each other glorify the Lord even more than we could ever do on our own. For men, this means leading and serving those around us; honoring women as our sisters and letting them speak encouragements and exhortations into our lives. For women, this means encouraging, serving, and letting men do their part by letting yourselves be served. Of course, these aren’t the only roles that we have, and these distinctions are by no means black and white, but as a general picture, I believe that this is what it will look like for men and women to live together for the one purpose which we were meant for, which is to honor and glorify God in Jesus Christ.

When this happens, the result is a beautiful harmony created by each party doing what they were meant to do, and receiving what the other was meant to give. Both men and women, when living as they were meant, will naturally fit together like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. Each has a space that the other was meant to fill, and each has a role that the other was meant to compliment. Together, we get a fuller picture of both the love and character of God, and what it looks like to follow and glorify Christ.

Just like in Michael W. Smith’s song, both men and women, up front, have the same goal, to worship and follow Christ, but as the song goes on, they separate into their respective parts and create a beautiful tapestry of God-glorifying words and melodies that complement each other and fit together perfectly, each melody filling spaces in the other. Each chorus, by itself would be a wonderful song and a Christ-glorifying statement, but only when they are sung together do we see the beauty of how the song is supposed to sound. Sung separately, the melodies are nice; kind to the ear. But only when they are sung together, when the one fills the other’s empty places, and the other compliments the one, do we see just how beautiful the song really is.

2006-12-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

Fasting

What is the purpose of fasting? Most everyone knows what fasting is (purposefully depriving oneself of something, most commonly food), but what is its purpose? The principle of fasting comes from the Old Testament, when the Jews would fast to humble themselves before God in order that they might approach God in the case of the Levites (the tribe of the Jewish priests), or in order that God would hear their prayers. In both of these cases, the root reason for fasting is to clear the things away from one’s life that might distract one from God and possibly draw one’s praise away from God, in order that the relationship, the avenue of communication between that person and God will become clearer, and their focus can be wholly on God, instead of God and whatever else it is you might be distracted by.

If you’ve ever fasted, you know that it is not the easiest thing to do, and it probably isn’t the most pleasant thing to do either. I don’t think anybody ever said, “I can’t wait to fast again; that was fun!” The reason it’s not very easy or fun is that we are depriving ourselves of something that we are used to, something that makes us comfortable in this world. Being hungry is not a pleasant experience, in fact sometimes it hurts. But when we fast, we stick it out because we know in the end it will benefit us, it will hopefully result in a better relationship with God, or a better idea of what God wants us to do. We also stick it out because we can see the end. We go through our fast, not concentrating on the hunger pangs and the decrease of energy and the discomfort, we look to the end, when we will break the fast, and once again enjoy the comforts that we have temporarily forsaken. Whenever I fast, I think that’s the biggest thing that allows me to keep from giving in to temptation, from giving up and breaking the fast before I intended to. If there wasn’t an end in sight, I wouldn’t have the anchor I need to look to in order to maintain my self control and self discipline.

Bigger than just fasting, the Christian walk is much the same way. We are told to abstain from those things which God abhors and to steer clear from things that will hinder our walk with Christ. We are asked to deny ourselves those thing, often times things considered to be comforts, or ‘life enhancing’, such as drunkenness, or promiscuous sex, or pornography, or any number of things that lead to breaking God’s commands or going directly against the teachings of Jesus. We are told to abstain, but I think that many of us, including me, fail at this in some area fairly consistently. The temptation is always around us, and sometimes it even comes from within us. We are bombarded with temptation after temptation. Much like you notice the smells of food, and notice people eating when you are fasting, when you are abstaining from the other things in the world, you tend to notice the temptation all around you. Like I said earlier, in fasting we can look to the end of the fast to gather strength and maintain self control, but with the Christian walk, the end isn’t as visible to us. In fact, to many, the end is nowhere in sight. The Christian walk is unlike a fast in that it lasts an entire lifetime. In the life that Christ calls us to live on this world, we are required to give up things for our entire life. No end on this world. This is one reason that Jesus says in Matthew 8:20 “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” This means that we have no home on this earth since our home is in heaven, but it also means that foxes and birds, they have comforts in this world, but the Christian has nothing in this world to comfort him. That sounds depressing, but the better part of this little comparison is that when we reach the end of this great fast known as the Christian walk, we will have every comfort we need being in direct communion with Christ. That is the end of the fast that the Christian looks to for strength. Just like in a temporary fast here in this world where we look toward the end, the breaking of the fast for our resolve and self restraint, as Christians, we should look toward the end or our walk when we will have all we ever needed and wanted in God in Heaven for our resolve and self-restraint. When viewing this life as all there is, the Christian walk looks very impractical and extremely miserable because we abstain from things even to death, never experiencing some things. But when viewed as a fast with a great feast at the end, it is a wonderful thing because, though we might not experience some of the comforts in this world, we will have all that we need and want in the next for eternity. So next time you are wavering in the presence of temptation, think about the end, when you will break your fast and be given all that you’re heart and soul will ever need and want in Christ. Though you might deny yourself a comfort now, in the end, the reward will be that much sweeter, just like fasting in this world; when you deny yourself of some comfort, at the end when you break the fast, the comforts that you do experience are much sweeter than they would be if you had given in at the first sign of temptation.

2006-12-03T22:13:00.001-08:00

A Personal Note

December 3, 2006

Tonight, the Navigators Student Leadership Team had their last meeting for the semester, and I feel absolutely fantastic. It wasn’t the meeting itself that gave me this feeling of peace about…everything about where I am right, but it was a conversation I had with a good friend afterwards, coupled with the recent completion of a fast in which I learned a lot about self-control and dependence on God.

I’ll start with the time of fasting that I had a week ago. The week before Thanksgiving break a couple of friends and I decided that we would fast the week after the break. So, when I got back, I began, and it was hard. It was hard just to live with my roommate who wasn’t fasting. The temptation to give in was all around me, during meal times and anytime someone even cooked popcorn for a snack. But the biggest temptation came on the second day of the fast when I worked the dinner shift at the Derby Dining Center (the dorm cafeteria). As the week went on, I began to lean on God when temptation grew around me. Every morning I would pray to God for the energy to go through the day, and for the strength to maintain my self-control and not give in to temptation, and he answered everyday. Through the course of the week, I faced temptation so much that it became almost natural to deny my urge to give in. At the end, when it came time to break the fast, I wasn’t as eager as I thought I would be to taste food again. My self-control was immensely bolstered through that experience, and afterward I took that lesson of self denial and applied to an area that I had struggled with and it hasn’t been an issue since. Plus, I feel that God really has shown me what it is to truly walk and live in the Holy Spirit. I felt closer to God in the last week after the fast than I have all semester, possibly closer than I’ve ever felt.

Then, a week later, I had a talk with one of my close friends about a family issue that I was facing and she gave me some excellent council and insight into the situation and how I needed to approach it. Then after talking about some other things that I had on my mind, her answers to some of my questions allowed me to let go of some things that I think were holding me back from following God with all that I am. With those things now put to rest, I really feel that I am closer to God than I have ever been. I can’t explain how absolutely wonderful it feels to know that God is working in my life, that the creator of the Universe, the almighty God of everything is coming close to me and calling me even closer. It’s absolutely exhilarating. I’m now two weeks away from winter (Christmas) break, and I can’t wait to spend some time totally dedicated to thinking about Christ and what he did for me, about the miracle of his coming into the world and the cost of his call.

It is now my prayer that you, whoever you are, whoever is reading this right now, could feel what I feel right now. Whoever is reading this right now, I want you to know that no matter what you’ve done, no matter how good or bad your life is, no matter if you think you are worthy or not, God wants to know you, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus Christ, the son of God, came into this world and died for our sins, not because he had to, not because that was his purpose, but because He loves YOU and wants to bring YOU into a relationship with God. He did it because he loves you. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, what you’ve done, where you live, or how old you are; He wants to know YOU. He loves you more than anything you can imagine, and he wants to know you. Just stop reading for minute and think about this for a moment: Christ Jesus, God, the almighty creator and master of the entire universe wants to know YOU.

If you truly want this, all you need to do is pray (say out loud or in your head) “Jesus, God, I want to know you, show me who you are.” He wants to know you, and he wants you to come to him. The ball is in your court now…

2006-12-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

The Parable of the Talents Expanded

I came to Panera Bread here in Manhattan to sit and have a quiet time to read a little in the Word of God (Bible) and relax before my day begins. So I get my orange juice and asiago cheese bagel and go into the back room to get away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the place. When I sit down, I realize that in the opposite corner of this small back room is a mother nursing here infant while keeping an eye on her boy, I’m guessing the boy was about 5 or 6 years old. So I think to myself, great, I’ve come for some quiet time and I choose to sit in the same room as the obnoxious kid. But as I try to ignore the scene and fail, I hear the situation that is playing out across the room. The little boy is crawling all over the mother, the mother tells him repeatedly to stop, and after ignoring her instruction, she tells him, “You know what, I think we’re not going to go to Target.” You might think this is a rather random response, but something important just happened there. I’m going to infer from that comment and the boy’s response that she had told the little boy that they were going to go to Target where he was going to receive something that he wanted. Only first they were going to go to Panera for some breakfast. I don’t know if this is exactly what happened, I’m just guessing based on what I heard. Anyway, the point is he was given an opportunity to have something good, but because of his misbehavior, he lost that opportunity. I can relate to this situation because as a child, my mother doubtless went through many of these episodes.

What all this is reminding me of is a passage in Matthew that says “For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” This passage comes from Jesus’ parable of the talents which deals plainly with possessions, namely money. But we can apply the lesson learned to many areas of life. This little boy at Panera could have had a nice trip to Target for something desirable, but because he had no self-control (good behavior) his trip to Target was taken away. He was given an opportunity, but not respecting it or being mindful of it, his opportunity was taken away. I think this scenario exists between us as Christians and God as well. God, no doubt has all manner of good things prepared to throw our way, but because of our lack of self control to follow his instructions that he repeatedly gives us, we lose some of those things he has prepare for us, or at least postpones their coming. As children of God, Christians have the promise of every good thing, but because of our lack of self-control (good behavior) we are denied these things because we are not ready for the responsibility that these things carry.

2006-10-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

Pork Chops, Jolly Ranchers, & Slim Jims

Last night my bible study and I went out to the lake to hang out and chat about God and life, but mostly to play in the campfire. But while we were out there, we had an interesting discussion about following God. It started with a passage the book of John, John 10:3-5, which says,

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

This led to a discussion about whether a particular situation is truly the call of the Good Shepherd, or the voice of a stranger. The line between the two got pretty fuzzy at times, and from that discussion, I have derived a metaphor for such situations.

A pork chop is a very good thing. When cooked correctly, a sliver of pork loin is one of the most delicious meals one can find. It is wholesome (meaning it contains stuff your body needs), it’s natural and un-tampered-with (with the exception of seasoning and cooking), and it is satisfying. After you have eaten a pork chop, you can sit back and say to yourself, “self, I’m glad I ate that pork chop because now I am no longer hungry and my body can use most of what I just ate to grow and move and live. Eating that pork chop was a good decision.” Unless you’ve over-indulged, you can feel good about ingesting a cooked piece of pig.

On the other hand, a Jolly Rancher is not as good in the sense that the pork chop is good. It does taste good, but that’s about it. When you eat a Jolly Rancher, you taste the sugar and other various things that are contained within, but after you’ve finished it, that’s it, your experience with that little piece of candy is finished. It’s not wholesome, it doesn’t contain much if any nutrients or other resources that your body can use, it doesn’t satisfy, it’s most definitely not a naturally occurring object. You’ll never find a Jolly Rancher farm, or a Jolly Rancher orchard. The only thing that the Jolly Rancher has going for it is the fact that it is good while you’re eating it. But after that, it has nothing.

If you haven’t picked up on the analogy yet, I’ll lay it out. If you have, good deal, but I’m going to lay it out anyway. The call of God, or the Good Shepherd, is like the pork chop. It is good, it is good for you, it is what we were meant to follow, and it is satisfying. The call of the stranger is like the Jolly Rancher; it may be good while you’re experiencing it, but it’s not good for you, it’s not what we were made for, and it doesn’t satisfy.

This is all pretty straight forward. But if life were always this straight forward, no one would ever have any trouble at all deciphering what is and isn’t the call of the Good Shepherd, but the fact is, it’s not that simple. People have trouble in some areas determining if what they are ‘hearing’ is the Good Shepherd’s voice or the stranger’s voice because there are more things out there than just pork chops and Jolly Ranchers.

Take for instance Slim Jims. If you don’t know what a Slim Jim is, it’s a ‘stick’ of processed meat product (or byproduct, I'm not sure which), that is meant to taste like barbeque or some other kind of seasoned meat. A Slim Jim is derived from natural products (meat), and it has some nutritional value. But it also was made through artificial means; it has a cocktail of preservatives and other unnatural agents in it. It tastes good, and has the potential to fill a person up (if you ate a large plate full of Slim Jims, you would be filled by those), so it can be satisfying, although not the healthiest thing in the world. But that’s not what it’s meant for, it’s meant for short term pleasure, not lasting. We see here that it has characteristics of both the pork chop and the Jolly Rancher. This is where things get a little fuzzy.

Given these three options (pork chops, Jolly Ranchers, and Slim Jims), if you are hungry, the best choice is obviously the pork chop. But sometimes we don’t have a pork chop where we are at. But Slim Jims are pretty much available everywhere. At almost every store you go into, you would be able to find a Slim Jim. The same could be said about a Jolly Rancher (or some facsimile there of). But the Slim Jim is a better choice for nourishment than the Jolly Rancher. But just because the Slim Jim is better then the Jolly Rancher doesn’t mean that it’s what is best for us. It may be better (and is definately better for us) to wait to satisfy our hunger when we can gain access to a pork chop. Instead of searching out a short term fix to our need, a better solution would be to practice patience and wait until the opportunity to eat a pork chop arises.

If you haven’t followed me this far, I’ll lay it out again; if you have, good deal, but I’m still going to lay it out. We’ve already established that the pork chop is the Good Shepherd, and the Jolly Rancher is the stranger, but what about the Slim Jim? The Slim Jim has redeeming qualities, it is possibly derived from a pork chop, but is not a pork chop. We might taste some of the pork chop in the Slim Jim, but it doesn’t taste or satisfy like a pork chop. So, what is it? The Slim Jim is still the stranger. Shocked? Don’t be. Anything that isn’t the Good Shepherd is a stranger. Even if they have some aspects of the Good Shepherd, they are not the Good Shepherd. Only the pork chop is the Good Shepherd. Some good may come from the Slim Jim stranger, but not nearly as much as the pork chop Good Shepherd.

I think many people get led astray by the Slim Jim. They’ve never tasted the pork chop, just read or heard about it (if that), and when they taste the Slim Jim, they recognize a part of the pork chop in it and say to themselves, “I think I can taste pork chop in this, this is what I need.” But in reality, it’s only the Jolly Rancher masquerading as a pork chop to deceive those who don’t know what it is to truly be satisfied by the pork chop. And it leads many down the wrong path.

If you’ve never tasted the pork chop, or aren’t sure if you have or haven’t, ask God for a taste. Pray, “God, I need to taste the pork chop, I’m tired of Jolly Ranchers and Slim Jims. I need the real deal.” God wants nothing more than for you to be satisfied by the pork chop.

2006-10-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Paul Unpacked

Romans 6:20-23

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 6:20-23

So in Romans 6, Paul is talking about how we (Christians, believers) have died to sin in our baptism in Christ and have been raised again along with Christ, therefore sin will not be our master any longer. He goes on to explain that whatever or whoever we act in obedience to and obey has become our master and we its slaves. Paul continues by saying since we have been released from sin’s mastery over us, why would we continue to allow it to be our master. He drives this point home with verses 20-23.

Before 20-23, Paul mentions that we are now slaves to righteousness. This helps explain his first statement in verse 20 which says “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness,” or when you were under sin’s mastery, you were free from the mastery of righteousness. But he then adds to that, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?” or what did that get you? The fruit of those things, Paul says, is death.

I believe for many people this is a very abstract saying that is hard to grasp. How does sin result in death. Some might say “I’ve sinned before, but I’m not dead.” That’s not what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying that a life lived for sin and lived in sin naturally results in death. To understand this, we must contrast this statement with a later statement in verse 22 where he says “you have…become slaves to God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life”, or the fruits of obedience to God (not sin) is righteousness and eternal life.

Let’s take a more practical approach to this lesson. Where does a life of sin, chasing after money, women, things of this world, ultimately get you? Taking this life all the way to its conclusion, what will result? Well, when you die, what happens to the money that you’ve chased after? What happens to the women that you’ve pursued? What happens to the car, the house, the family, the things of this world you have lived for when you die? They leave you, right? When you leave this world (die), the things of this world are no longer yours, right? All the things that you’ve worked for are no longer in your possession. Only one thing remains when you die: death itself. Everything is gone, but you’re still dead. If you’ve lived life for things of this world, when you die, all of them are left behind and you are left with only death itself.

You might ask, “How is that any different from a life lived for God?” Christians still leave this world, they still die, this much is true. However, what is it that Christians spend their lives pursuing and trying to possess? Christians do have things of this world. They do have money, they do have a car (at least most American believers), they have a house or shelter of some kind, they might have a spouse and a family. Most of those things are necessary to live in this world, but that’s not what they pursue and strive for. What a Christian strives for and pursues is not of this world. They pursue Christ, a relationship with the living God in and through Christ Jesus. A Christian’s entire life should be spent pursuing Christ. So, when a Christian dies in this world, yes, the things of this world pass away, but those things are not what that person has been living for. He’s been living for Christ. Christ is outside this world, so when we die and leave this world behind, we still have Christ and from Christ comes righteousness and eternal life.

Therefore we see the logic behind Paul’s statement that the fruit of a life lived for sin (the world) is death, but a life lived for God (Christ) produces the fruits of sanctification and eternal life.

2006-07-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Faith

What is faith? Have you ever really thought about that question? I’ll ask it again; what is faith? It’s a very simple question, but one that has confounded people, both scholar and layman alike. Sure, we could go to a dictionary and look it up; the Oxford dictionary defines faith as a “complete trust or confidence”, or “firm belief, esp. without logical proof”, or “spiritual apprehension of divine truth apart from proof”, but these definitions are nothing but empty phrases. Sure, all of these definitions seem to fit the context of what we think faith to be, but they are still so lacking. All three definitions of faith seem to be rather lifeless. Throughout the entire Bible, God places an immense importance on “faith”. Why would God put such an emphasis on something that is so passive, unless faith, the kind of faith that God talks about, isn’t passive at all.

Of all the stories in the Gospel about Jesus and faith, the one that has most recently jumped out at me is the story of the woman that had bled for 12 years who touched Jesus’ robe and was healed. Let’s take a look at that passage. It starts in Mark, chapter 5, verse 24 and goes to verse 34.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” -ESV

In all the recorded accounts of Jesus healing people, this is the only one in which someone was healed by Jesus without Jesus knowledge until after the fact. What makes this woman so special? Does the secret lie in who she is, or is it something she does? Let’s take a closer look at the story. In the story she touches Jesus robe and is made well, so it must have been because she touched Jesus. But wait a minute, at the beginning it says that a great crowd “thronged about him,” and later the disciples were puzzled by his question of “who touched me” because the entire crowd was pressing against Him. So it couldn’t have been just the fact that she touched him, because there were many people touching him. So if it’s not that she touched Him, could it be because of who she was? The story never does give a description of the woman other than she is afflicted with a seemingly chronic illness, so it’s probably not because of who she is that she was healed. If it’s not because she touched him, and it’s not because of who she was, than what makes this woman so special? Let’s go back into the story. At the end of the story, Jesus says, “your faith has made you well”. So here is where the faith of the woman comes in. Could it have been because of her faith that she was healed? I think that it would be very foolish to assume that she was the only one there among all the people gathered around Jesus who had faith, otherwise they wouldn’t have come from their villages to see Him. I’m sure some just came to see the famous man of Jesus, but I’ll bet a majority of the people in the crowd were there because they thought (they had faith) that he could help them in some capacity or another. So the woman is not alone in having faith in Jesus. So what could it be? Let’s imagine for a moment that everyone around Jesus had faith that he could heal them, but they thought they first needed to gain his attention so he could do something to them, or simply tell them they were healed. After all, that’s how he does it in almost every other situation. In fact, this story happens right in the middle of Jesus going to heal a sick little girl in that manner. That’s a good reason for people to be gathering in a throng around Jesus, wouldn’t you say? So everyone around Jesus is competing for Jesus’ attention, except this woman. This woman believed in her heart, she had faith, that if she even touched the garments of Jesus, she would be healed. So at risk of angering the crowd by coming in among them (women with this condition were considered to be unclean), she timidly approached Jesus, from behind, and touched his robe. It’s nothing theatric, nothing amazing or astounding, she just touched his robe, and immediately she was healed. This all happened before Jesus know what was going on. He turned around to see who it was that had tapped into his healing power without his knowledge. And he said to the woman, after she told Him what had happened, “your faith has healed you.”

So we see from this that faith is much more than what the dictionary defines it as. Faith is a belief, coupled with an action. Look back in the Bible to any place where God asks his people to be faithful, or full of faith; he asks them to believe and obey. For more on this, let’s take a jog over to the book of James. In James chapter 2 verses 14-17, James says:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. –ESV

James says here that faith, the kind of faith the Oxford dictionary defines, is not the fullness of faith that we need, it’s only part. For faith to have life in it, it needs to be active. As James states, to believe something and not act on it is almost like not believing. The faith that God talks about and wants from us, the kind of faith that the woman in the story had, is a faith from which works, or action, come naturally out of. That’s what made the woman in the story so special; she had faith, real faith. She believed in something so much that for her, to do what she did and for what happened to happen just came naturally. An example of this in daily life would be something like this: Say you are thirsty. You have faith that if you drink some water, you will no longer be thirsty. Do you hesitate or remain content with just that belief? No, you act on it. You drink some water, and sure enough, having drank the water, you are no longer thirsty. This is what real faith is like. Just the belief that the water would satisfy your thirst is nothing, I could believe with all my heart and strength that the water would quench me, but unless I act on it, that belief is completely useless. In the words of James, “faith without works is dead,” or faith without works is not real faith.

I now take this discovery that we’ve made, and I turn it back at myself, and I hope that you can turn it back at yourself as well. Do I have real faith, or do I have dictionary faith? Does what I believe show up in my life, or is what I believe only that, what I believe and nothing more. I urge you to think about that. I’ll leave you with this question, if what you believe doesn’t change how you live, is that really what you believe?

2006-07-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:1-9

July 1, 2006

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."

Reading over this parable, and thinking about what it means, I’ve come up with some thoughts that I’d like to share. The first thing that needs to be understood is the interpretation of the parable. The second thing is some application of the interpretation. I will attempt to walk you through each of these as we go along through the parable.

In the story Jesus likens us to farmers scattering seed on his land. He explains that some of the seed falls on various types of bad soil, and some falls on good soil. The first point I’d like to make here is that the farmer in this story doesn’t seek out just the good soil; he scatters seed on ALL of the soil. It seems that sometimes Christians that are trying to spread the good news, seek out those people or those groups that they think would be most receptive to the Gospel, when in fact in spreading the word, we need to spread it everywhere we are, not just when and where think it will be well met. The simple fact is that however good we think we are at judging character, we can never know if someone is ready to receive the word or not, our job is just to put it out there. As Pastor Bob Flak of Grace Baptist Church in Manhattan, Kansas put it, we are called to be scatterers of seed, not judgers of soil.

Jesus goes on to say that some of the seed falls on the path where the birds immediately come and snatch it up. He later likens this to when the word falls upon someone, and Satan right away snatches it up from them, not letting it sit for a moment. Those of us who have been made new in Christ and are possibly established Christians can sit atop our pedestal and look at this part of the parable and say, “that doesn’t apply to me, I’ve accepted the word into my heart already.” While that might be true, not everything that God tells us is met with acceptance, or even understanding. As long as we remain in this fallen world, even an established and mature Christian will have patches of path where it is easy for Satan to snatch the word out from our hearts.

Jesus continues by saying that some of the seed falls on rocky ground, where the seed can sprout and grow up very fast, but once the sun comes out and gives its mid-day heat, the plant of the seed is scorched and withers away under the strain. He compares this to a person who is eager and very willing to accept the word and grows as much and as fast as he can, but doesn’t have the proper foundation so that when persecutions come, he is quick to give in and fall away. While an established and mature Christian will likely be fairly resistant to such a folly, we do need to be careful that we don’t let certain areas of our growth be on rocky ground, but cultivate every piece of ground with which we accept the word. We also need to be caution not to inspire or encourage such reckless and shortsighted growth in other, newer Christians who would be more susceptible to such an episode.

He continues the parable by talking about the seed that sprouts among thorns and grows, but is choked out and rendered useless by the surrounding foliage. He says that this is like the one who hears the word, but because of his environment or some other variable in his life, the word is not allowed to bear fruit because there is something hindering it or stealing what it needs to grow strong. Now while most Christians that take their call seriously will be careful to stay away from situations that obviously will hinder their growth in the word, there are some things that are not so obvious that can produce thorns in our life in small patches. I will be the first to admit that I most definitely have some thorns in my life that are restricting me from being what I am capable of being in Christ Jesus. I’m trying to rid myself of these thorns, but underneath each patch of thorns, is a finer, more deeply imbedded patch of thorn laying in wait. The simple fact is that as fallen creatures, the deeper we dig inside ourselves, the more thorns we will find. It doesn’t get better until we are made anew with Christ in our glorified bodies. My point throughout these three types of bad soil has been that no matter how “good” of a Christian you are or you think you are, each one of us has a little of this bad soil still left in us. Part of the Christian walk is the lifelong struggle against these soils, and only through the power and grace of Christ can we overcome in the end.

Lastly, Jesus talks about the forth type of soil, soil that is deep and rich, and accepts the seed and allows it to grow tall, put down deep roots, and produce lots of fruit. This soil is the soil that the word found in you if you are now fallowing Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But even though this soil is good, and the seed can take root and sprout and grow strong and healthy, there are several things that can hinder the growth of the word even when it finds good soil.

The Japanese art of bonsai is the art of training a tree to become a miniature of its full size relatives. To train a tree to grow normally but significantly smaller in size, one has to restrict its growth and prune it in the proper place at the proper time, it’s very tedious. This same thing can happen to the word. If Satan can get into your life and restrict the growth of the word inside you, he will take full advantage. Through things such as anxiety, fear, or failure, the enemy can cut off our branches that we try to put out. If we allow Satan to enter our lives and control us through these things, he will tediously prune us and train us to be only a fraction of the Christian that we are capable of being. Another thing that is needed for the making of a bonsai tree is a small pot in which to grow the tree. If the tree had a great deal of soil to spread its roots down into, it naturally grows big. But if the tree has a very limited amount of soil to sink its roots into, it will grow only as far as its root system will let it. If we are put into a situation in which we are given the freedom to grow however much and as big as we want, we will grow, and we will get stronger. But if we are put into a situation in which our resources for growth, or the space in which we are able to grow in is limited, than we will only grow as far as our pot will let us. This could be the case in a situation where the word finds good soil in a person, but that good soil is in the middle of rocky crags. The word will grow and sink it’s roots down into the good soil, but the rocky ground around it will prevent the word from spreading further into the person‘s life. The person needs to cultivate that rocky ground, and make it more accommodating to the word so that the word can take hold in that part of the person’s life. This process goes on in everyone that receives the word, and if it doesn’t, growth does not happen and the result is a bonsai Christian.

2006-06-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Call of the Wild
Written by Robert Service

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking thought it,
Searched the vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know that deserts little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o’er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild – it’s calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? Mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild – its wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
“Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You’ll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things –
Then listen to the Wild – its calling you.

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their teaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you’re a credit to their teaching –
But can’t you hear the Wild? – it’s calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling… let us go.

2006-05-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

Take the Gift

I heard an interesting, and oddly humorous story the other day. My cousin and his wife have a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old, somewhere around there, and she has taken a liking to toy wooden trains. My cousin and his wife took their little daughter to the store because they wanted to buy her a toy train that she could take home and play with when ever she wanted to. They wanted to give her this gift, so they went to the store so she could pick one out for them to buy for her. Like any good toy store, there was one of these wooden toy train sets set up in the middle of the store for the children to play with. Well, as a child naturally does, when she saw the train set all set up and ready to play with, she immediately went over to it and began playing with the train. This is a child being a child, naturally, but the story continues. The reason, of course, that they were at the store was so that she could pick out a train set for her parents to buy so that she could have a train set of her own that she could play with at home. Her parents told her that she needed to pick out the train set that she wanted. She continued to play with the train set that was in the store. They told her once again, “darling, come and pick out a toy train set so that we can go back home.” She continued to play with the set in the store. They told her several more times. They even told her that they were only going to stay for 5 more minutes and then they were going to leave. She continued to play in the middle of the store. When the time came for them to leave, they took her by the hand and said to her, we are going home now. And as expected, she answered with the complaint, “but I haven’t picked out a train yet!” They explained to her that she had ample time to pick out a train set, but she didn’t do so even after repeated instruction.

This story is a true story, it really did happen. This story is also a true story in the sense that it is happening to people all around me, and even inside me everyday. In this story can be found a chilling parallel to what we as children of God are doing with our lives that God has given us. We can draw a parallel between the toy train store and this life that we live. We can draw a parallel between the parents of the little girl and our real Father, God that is, the creator of the universe and everything in it. We can draw a parallel between the toy train in the store and the pleasures of this world and the toy train that the little girl was given a chance to pick out and the joy of knowing and following Jesus Christ. We can draw a parallel between the point at which the parents told the little girl it was time to go and the point at which our Father will tell us that our time in this world, in this life is up.

Let’s start with the parallel of the toy store and this life that you and I are living right now as well as the parallel of the parents of the little girl and God. The little girl was given a specific amount of time to choose one thing that would make her happy after her time at the store. Her parents graciously gave her an opportunity to possess something great (at least in her point of view). In a similar fashion, God, our Father, our real parent, has given us a finite amount of time to choose to possess something that will make us infinitely happy after our time here is over. He graciously (I say graciously because we are very undeserving of this gift) gave us an opportunity to choose Jesus Christ as our Lord, as our savior, and choose to follow Him.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the parallel between the toy train and Jesus Christ. First of all, let’s look at what the little girl did. Instead of picking out what her parents wanted to give her, she sat in the middle of the store and played with the train set that was already set up in the store, neglecting to pick one out to take with her. So, as we look at this as it relates to our situation, we so often concentrate on the pleasures of this world, food, entertainment, money (that’s a big one), sex, even religion, and we forget the gift that has been laid before us. We get so wrapped up in the enjoyment of the here and now that we loose perspective on what is to come. We focus on what can make us happy right now and we loose sight of the state that we will be in when our time is up. We sit and play in the middle of the store, when the perfect train set is all around us on the shelf, waiting for us to pick it up and make it our own. We live in what is set directly before us and ignore what is promised us. I have to say here, that I am guilty of this. I so often get wrapped up in the here and now that I sometimes loose sight of what I’m doing here. It’s very easy to do.

Let’s take a look now at the parallel of the point at which the little girl’s parents tell her it’s time to go and the point at which God tells us that it’s time to go. When the little girl learns that she now must leave without having picked out a toy train of her own, she protests, saying, “But you promised me a train!” The parents respond to this objection with the reply, “We gave you time, instruction, multiple warnings that we were going to leave, and even let you play with the store’s train for a while, but you didn’t pick out yours. You don’t have one now, not because we didn’t give it to you, but because you didn’t take it.” In much the same way, many, many people come to the end of their lives on earth and say, “But you promised me Jesus!” And God, Jesus, will reply with, “I gave you plenty of time, I told you where to find me, I told you that your time was limited, I put signs all around you and told you that you would have to leave this world soon, and I even let you enjoy the things of this world for a while. You now don’t have me, not because I have denied you of me, but because you did not take me. I presented myself to you, and you simply weren’t interested.” We protest, but when the end comes, when our time has run out, it is too late to go back and choose to accept and follow Christ. When our time has run out, we see how our choices during our time in this store we call life have effected our time away from the store. If we have chosen to accept the gift that we have been presented with, we will enjoy the fullness of that gift for eternity, but if we don’t take that gift, we will not only be without that gift for eternity, but what pleasures we did have when we were in this life, we will be without as well (Matthew 25:29, Luke 19:26).

So here is what we are left with: We are presented with a gift, a beautiful and gracious gift; we can either choose to ignore that gift and play with the things that are immediately before us, or we can deny ourselves some of the momentary pleasures that the store, our life in this world, has to offer in order to choose to possess this gift, which is God himself. God is offering us a relationship with himself. All we have to do is take it, to leave our short-sighted pleasure seeking and take the time to make this gift our own to enjoy forevermore. I ask you, I implore you, I beg you, take the gift. Take what has been promised you. Stop playing with the stuff in the store and let your Father give you something that will last beyond the store. Let God give you himself, the only thing that you can take with you when you leave.

2006-04-14T02:04:00.000-07:00

Easter

A Letter

Walking around campus this Thursday, the Thursday before Good Friday, I am noticing signs and reminders everywhere that Easter is coming. After a days worth of looking at all these signs and listening to what the radio people have to say, I notice something that I find dispiriting. In all the recognition and anticipation of Easter weekend, there is no mention of its religious significance or of any religious connection at all, other than the various complaints that the Easter church services start too early. “It’s Sunday for Christ’s sake” I even heard someone say (this was said as a curse, not a dedication). The significance and the true meaning of Easter, it seems, has been misplaced among society in general. Now I’m not saying that nobody knows what it’s about, I’m not saying that you don’t know what it’s about, I’m just reacting to the erroneous identity that Easter seems to have taken on. It’s almost as if society (not individuals) has forgotten what Easter even is. For example, at the dining center at KSU, they would not allow a Christmas tree because of its religious significance, but an Easter tree is permissible. That implies that Easter has no religious significance, which is about as far from the truth as one can get.

Friends, Easter is not a time for relaxing, or gathering with family, or seeing old friends, looking for colored eggs (I have no idea where that one came from), or a reason why you have to wake up on Sunday morning to go to church, or eat candy, or spoil grandchildren, or have barbeques. Easter is a time to think about what Jesus Christ, the Lord and savior to all, the son of God, did for us. It is a time to ponder the sacrifice that he made on our behalf. Yes, in doing this, you might gather together with family, you might see old friends, you might have a barbeque, but all these things, every one of them, should have one unifying focus behind them. All these things should be done in honor and in remembrance of the unimaginable sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, chose to die on a cross so that you and I could experience what it means to know the Almighty Creator of everything, the one true God as He did; as Father. Jesus submitted himself to beatings, severe beatings. His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness (Isaiah 52:14). He wore a crown of thorns on his head, he was nailed, nailed to a cross and left to die for the guilt that he did not earn, but that we did. He suffered and died to free us from the condemnation that we heap upon ourselves, so that we could be made pure through Him. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14). This is what Easter is: Christ’s death and resurrection. There is no other meaning of the holiday. Take this, think about it as you move through the festivities of the weekend. Think about why you are doing what you are doing. Think about Jesus and what He’s done. I wish you all the very best this Easter. May God bless you and all your loved ones.

In Christ I stand,

Henry

2006-04-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Sacrifice

A Journal Entry April 12, 2006

Sitting in Radina’s coffee house, I’m listening to David Crowder’s Illuminate album while looking through the gospels. I’m trying to find the part where Mary, the sister of Martha, wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair. The song “Only You” starts to play and I start to think about Jesus as a person and what he has done for me. Jesus was a man, a real living man. He built relationships, He offended people, He loved people, He was loved by many people. He slept, He ate, He drank, He laughed, He cried; He was a real man. He felt pain, He felt Happiness, joy, grief, sorrow, anger. This man that was born was a mother’s son, a father’s joy, and a brother to his siblings. He had a family that grew up with him. He had very, very deep ties with numerous people on earth. He drew people in to himself and they loved him like you or I love a close friend. All this, the joy that comes with all that I’ve described, he gave up so that I could come into the presence of God. He gave up his life, not only the biological functions of his body, but the social ties, the relationships that you and I would define our lives by, His LIFE. He gave up his LIFE for me; for you. He left all of it behind so that you and I could know what he knew: God as father. How do we honor such a sacrifice? Some of us go to church every Sunday. Some of us give a portion of our money to the work of God. Some of us even study the Bible. But I ask you, are all those things worthy of such a great sacrifice. Is Jesus’ sacrifice reflected in how we respond to it? I would argue no, it doesn’t. But in all fairness, His sacrifice is so great, so immeasurable that no one can reflect what it means properly. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try. He gave up His life for us, and what he asked in return is that we follow him and do the same. To honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we need to pick up our own cross and give our lives to God so that others might know the joy that we possess: God as father. Jesus gave his life, everything that he was so that we could know his joy. What will we do with it? Will we sit contently and inactive, or will we pass it on?

2006-03-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

Prayer

Coming up in a few days, I will have the opportunity to take the rains of the Bible study that I am a part of and teach about prayer. I’ve spent some time looking and digging in the Word of God for some material that I can draw from, and have asked God for wisdom. After a time of doing this, the following is what I am left with: Prayer is a vital part of a Christian’s life, or rather, a vital part of a Christian. It is our soul means by which we communicate with God, our life line in this fallen world we live in. Without prayer, we have no interaction with God, and with no interaction with God, we are left with only the power of our own body and our own will to accomplish that which we are called to: glorifying God. Simple Christian theology says that we (humans, mortals, fallen man) can do nothing apart from God, which includes glorifying Him. So, from that we can conclude that we need to pray, it is the soul means by which we will be able to fulfill the purpose which we were created for. Prayer; we need it, but what is it and how and when do we do it, that’s the question.

First of all, let’s establish what prayer is. The Oxford Dictionary defines prayer as “A solemn request or thanksgiving to God or an object of worship” or “An entreaty to a person.” Some other words for prayer are intercession, petition, supplication, request, plea, and appeal. This definition pretty accurately describes what prayer is. Prayer is a means by which we can ask God for what we need, thank God for what we’ve been given, or intercede with God on another’s behalf. Furthermore, prayer is a very powerful tool that God has given us. James states this in James 5:16, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. In Mark chapter 9 verses 14-29, Mark describes an incident of demon possession in which the disciples cannot drive out the demon, and Jesus comes and drive away the evil spirit and says in verse 29 And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer,” so we see here that prayer is sometimes the only thing we can do. Prayer is our line of communication with God, and more than that, it is a very powerful tool that God has given us to battle the forces of evil that are set against us. We know that we need prayer, we know what prayer is, but how do we go about praying?

To answer this question, we need to turn to one of God’s lines of communication with us, His Word. The Bible has a few things to say about how to pray. 1 Timothy Chapter 2:1 says First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, (all different kinds of prayer) be made for all people. From this we know that we should be praying for not just a select few people, or our favorite people, but all people. In Philippians 4:6 it says do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. From these verses we can extrapolate who we should pray for (ourselves and others), but we are still left with the question of how to pray. In Luke 11:2-4, Jesus tells his disciples how to pray: And he said to them, "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. This is expanded upon in Matthew 6:7-13, where He says, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Here, we see clearly that Jesus gave us a cut and dry form for praying. He even says in Mark When you pray, say…. So we now know how to pray. Now to add something on here that I think needs to be said; this form is just that a form. It is good recited by itself, but it can also be a template for more specific prayers. In using this form as a template, follow the form with your prayer about whatever it is that you are praying about. For example, if you have a relative that is sick and needs your prayers, using the form of the Lord’s Prayer, you might pray:

“Heavenly father, in all this may your name be exalted above all and your glory be shown through this trial. Accomplish your will in this situation and give so-and-so wisdom to discern your will in all of this. Please provide or continue to provide for so-and-so what he/she needs. Forgive so-and-so, for we all are sinners and give so-and-so the grace to forgive those that he/she may have grievances with. Keep so-and-so’s heart focused on you and give him/her reprieve from the evil that surrounds him/her. In all this may your name be made known.”

The above prayer uses the Lord’s Prayer for a guide. Using the Lord’s Prayer as a matrix to lay your own prayer into gives a template to form an effective prayer for any situation, even the ones in which we don’t know how to pray, or what to pray for. A prayer, as was mentioned earlier, can also be a plea or a cry, meaning that the form of the Lord’s Prayer is not requisite of a prayer. In Matthew 26, we see Jesus in Gethsemane praying to God: Matthew 26:39 and going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” This prayer does not follow the form of the Lord’s Prayer, but rather is a cry or a plea straight from the heart of Jesus. We can cry out from our heart, make a plea to God from the depths of our being and it too can be an effective prayer. But in all this, we also have a warning concerning prayer. Matthew 6:5-6 and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not, this passage says, pray in order to display your righteousness, but rather when you pray, make your prayers between you and God alone. When you stop to think about it, when you pray in order to display your righteousness you are not really asking for what you are praying about, you are asking for others to be impressed by your righteousness. But when you pray just between you and God, there can be only one thing your asking, and that is what you are praying for. Can you pray to God outside of solitude and really mean it? It’s possible, but if you are alone, it’s hard to question a pure motive. Jesus also tells us that to pray in pretence, or to pray in order that you yourself might be glorified by others, will heap upon yourself condemnation (Mark 12:38-40). With all of this, we’ve answer the question of how to pray, how NOT to pray, and even where to pray, but the question of when to pray is still left unanswered.

This question is a very simple question because it has a very simple answer. Let’s start by looking at the apostle Paul. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he begins with a reflection of how he himself prays when he says I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day in 2 Timothy 1:3. When does Paul pray? Both day and night. In Paul’s magnum-opus of theological revelation, his letter to the Romans, he talks about in chapter 12 verses 9-13, the marks of a true Christian. In verse 12 he lists Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. From this verse, we can conclude that a Christian is to pray when: Constantly. Paul brings this up in other letters as well. Ephesians 6:18: praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Colossians 4:2: Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. So, the answer to the question of when do we pray is constantly, continuously, without ceasing.

Prayer is the very life-force that should drive a Christian; therefore naturally, a Christian should have an insatiable hunger for prayer. Prayer should be to a Christian what water is to a fish. Prayer is very important, and if you find yourself at a point in which you do not desire prayer, I would urge you to step back and examine what you are trying to draw your life-force from if not from prayer. Prayer is what drives us, it’s what sustains us. It is prayer that lets us do Gods work, and it is prayer, that if left undone, will prevent us from living the life we were created to live.

2006-03-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Whole Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-18 – The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ¹⁸praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Let’s take a look at the whole armor of God, piece by piece, shall we. First of the pieces mentioned is the belt of truth. The belt of truth, I believe, refers to the truth that is God and Jesus Christ, apart from whom there is no truth. This might also be said as the belt of the knowledge of truth. It is this truth that gives birth to all the rest of the pieces, therefore is central to the whole armor of God. Next is the breast plate of righteousness. In a suit of armor, the breast plate is a large piece of metal or some other hard material that protects the torso, where most of the body’s vital organs are held. Just as a physical breastplate would protect the vitals of a person’s physique, a breastplate of righteousness protects one’s spirit from harm. For example, a physical breastplate would prevent such injuries as a sword penetrating a lung, because the sword wouldn’t be able even to penetrate the skin, much less get to the lung; similarly, a breastplate of righteousness will protect from such spiritual injuries as falling into a life of sin, for in a state of righteousness, sin is not only undesirable, but for the righteous, by definition, it is impossible. I would now like to note that up until now, all the armor has been passive armor, meaning that in order for it to do its job, one need only to wear it. The rest of the armor, with one exception, is active armor, meaning that simply wearing will do you almost no good. For active armor to work, one must use it. That being said, the next piece of armor is the shoes of readiness, or the “readiness given by the gospel of peace.” They, like any other shoe, will do nothing if by themselves. The person wearing them must put forth effort in order for them to do what they were designed to do. Like physical shoes were meant to protect and aid in propulsion (walking, running, jumping, etc.), the shoes of readiness, or the gospel, will aid in one’s spiritual movement. While we are moving spiritually this way or that, there will be some stumbling blocks in the way put there by the enemy, and in those situations, the gospel, the shoes of readiness, provide protection so that our spirit is not damaged and allows us to traverse over such obstacles. As was previously stated, the shoes of readiness are of no use unless use is made of them. Next in the list of armor is a vital piece of the suit, the shield of faith. The shield of faith is a very powerful piece of armor, for it is able to “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one”. If you’ve ever seen a shield that goes with a suit of armor, they’re usually not big enough to protect the whole person at once. There is a good reason for this. If the shield were big enough to protect the entire body at all times, one, it would eliminate the need for the suit of armor, but more importantly two, it would not be easily toted; the user would be relatively immobile, that’s a bad thing for a soldier. Because it is, relative to the user, small in size, it must be correctly used to be effective. For a physical shield to be effectively used, one must put it between themselves and the incoming threat. Similarly, for the shield of faith to be used effectively, one must focus their faith toward incoming threats, or flaming darts, so that in faith, one will be able to stand against whatever opposition he is facing. Like the shoes, for the shield to be effective, it must be used. The next element of the whole armor of God is the helmet of salvation. I mentioned an exception early to the last pieces being active armor, this is it. Like a physical helmet, one need only to sport it to be protected by it. The helmet of salvation protects that which matters most, the soul. A physical helmet protects the head, in which the brain, which controls everything that the body does, resides, likewise, the helmet of salvation protects the soul, which ultimately dictates what the spirit does, or at least is the essence of the spirit. This piece of armor is very important. The next and final piece is the only offensive piece of the entire suit: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” To take a closer look at this piece, we must go to a different passage. In Hebrews 4:12, the author states “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” So from this we can conclude that the sword of the spirit, or the word of God is a very powerful piece of the armor, and in fact, a weapon, but like the shoes and the shield, for any sword to be effective, it must be wielded, and wielded correctly. As a side note, I feel I need to mention that just like a physical sword, the sword of the spirit can be incorrectly wielded, at which point it has the potential to become very dangerous.

We have now detailed the whole armor of God, what do we do with it now? We can put in on, and we can even know how to use it, but, like a physical suit of armor, there is no need for it if one is not engaged in battle. Therefore, Paul goes on to say, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” This denotes that to pray is to engage in battle, which in turn gives way to the term ‘prayer warrior’. To be a prayer warrior is to pray constantly, or close to it. To pray is the way in which we engage the enemy, we petition God to act. In the face engagement, the enemy responds in kind, fighting back, hence the need for spiritual armor. Are you a warrior for God; are you part of God’s army?

Take a look for a moment the life of Christ Jesus. It is recorded that he prayed more than he did anything else, possibly even sleep. Jesus was most definitely a spiritual warrior. That being said, do you follow Christ? Do you follow the teachings and life of the one and only spiritual Rambo? Isn’t that what a Christian is, a follower of Christ and his teachings? Are you a Christian? Really think about that question. Are you trying to emulate the character that Jesus had? Are you trying to grow closer to God though the disciplines and avenues that Christ presented? Do you have aspirations to be a prayer warrior? When it comes down to it, you are either trying to follow Christ, or you are not, there is not middle ground. I’ll ask the question again: Are you a Christian?

2006-03-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

John 6:35-40

A Journal Entry 3/13/06

³⁵Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

------------------------------------------------------

Before this passage, Jesus is telling the people that are following Him that they need to seek bread that lasts for eternal life, not bread that spoils (this is after he has fed the 5,000). He takes them (through what He says to them) to a point of wanting, or feeling a need for this bread of eternal satisfaction, and then starts with John 6:35-40. Here He says He is this bread He speaks of (35), but they can’t have it because they have not believed in Him, even though he’s been there in front of them (36). He goes on to say that all that the Father gives to Him will come to Him (37), meaning He will not go and get people to follow him, but as the term follow implies, all who follow Him will do so on their own, having been called, or nudged by God (the Father). He goes further to say that He has not come to do His will but the Father’s will and the Father’s will is to “lose none of all the Father has given Him, but raise them up at the last day” and they shall have eternal life (38-40).

So, in short, Jesus tells the people they need this bread, which is Him, but they can’t have it, because they do not believe, and the only way they can believe is by the power of God’s calling. But to those who do believe, Jesus will receive them and will never let them go or turn them away, and even more than that, they will have eternal life!

2006-03-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

On A Leash

A Journal Entry – March 8, 2006

The other day I was sitting outside Willard Hall, taking a break from some homework, and there was, in the quad sitting by a tree, a young man, a student I’m assuming, with his little floppy-eared dog. It looked like a beagle. This little dog was walking and sniffing around and occasionally scampering about. He was on a leash, so he could only go so far before he was hindered, restricted, or otherwise prevented from going further. The other end of this leash was held by the young man. The dog looked like he wanted to play, but the young man was just sitting there, not interested in playing with his dog. Pretty soon, a family came by, a mother, a father, a small boy about 10 or 11, and a little girl maybe 4 or 5. The dog saw and heard them as they came by. They didn’t stop to pet the dog, or even pay attention to it really, but I could tell the dog was very happy to see little children. It ran toward them like it wanted to play with them, but before it could reach them, the leash ran out of slack, and the dog was prevented from going any further. After the children were out of sight, the little floppy-eared dog ran toward the young man he was attached to and tried to get him to play but to no avail. He settled down and went back to walking and sniffing around, and then some skater guys came by on roller skates and skateboards. They stopped and petted the little dog and gave him some of the attention that he was yearning for. But they were only there for less than a minute and then they went on their way. The little dog ran after them as if he wanted to go with them, but his leash once again thwarted his efforts. After he settled down again, he just sat there in the grass, near the end of his leash but no longer straining against it, seemingly content in where he was and what he was doing.

If we compare ourselves to the floppy-eared dog, the world to the young man the dog was attached to, and the passers by to God, or Jesus, we can draw some similarities to our lives. We are now in the world. We are born attached firmly to the world, it’s what we know, it’s what we see, it’s all we’ve experienced. As we get older, we see things from outside of the world pass by, specifically God. As we see, we yearn to be with Him and to know more about him, and we chase after Him, but inevitably our connection to the world prevents us from truly following Him. He might stop for a time and entertain our desires for a little while, but when He leaves, we again attempt to follow, but our tether to the world keeps us from Him. So we sit where we are with the knowledge that there are better things out there than what we have, pretending to be content. We desire God, but we don’t have a way to free ourselves from the world. Jesus provides a way to cut that leash and free us to pursue God fully and to enjoy the freedom of being un-tethered by the World. Do you have a leash? Jesus can set you free.

2006-02-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Fellow men of Christ

A journal entry by Henry Bartel

09/17/2005

After getting back from Burly Man and watching the movie “Gladiator”, I am convinced that God has bigger plans for us than what we are currently engaged in. We as men have so much potential to do great things, to overcome truly awesome obstacles, and most men of the world, let alone of the Christian faith, waste that potential sitting in an office, or pursuing after money or women or any number of other frivolous passions. A man has a much greater capacity for endurance, for pain, for commitment, for loyalty, for LIFE, than I think most of us, including me, realize. At Burly Man, we had two guys break their noses, and several other injuries, but none of which, by any means, incapacitated them. In the movie Gladiator, Maximus had such a drive for justice that he overcame injuries much worse than a broken nose. If we as men turn to God for our strength, for our drive, than we can overcome anything. We are throwing our potential to the wind, achieving much less than we are capable, and I think it stems not from a lack of ability, but from a lack of courage. And that lack of courage I believe comes from a lack of passion. Football players, wrestlers, soldiers, warriors, gladiators all have something in common; they reach their goals with passion. They are able to face up and conquer against ANY odds because they have a passion to achieve. If we as Christian men capture the passion that comes from knowing who we live for, how much we can achieve with Him at our side, and how great the loss if we fall to defeat, we will be an undeniable force, such that the world has never seen. David and his army in the Old Testament were a group by this description. Joshua and the Israelites were a group by this description. They conquered the world with a sword in their hand and the one true God at their side. As an army of Christians we can conquer the world with an open hand and the love and power of Christ in our hearts. In the same way David and Joshua captured their world by the power of the Almighty God, we can subdue ours with the sacrificial love of Christ. What David showed through Goliath and Christ showed at Calvary, we can show by picking up our cross and sacrificing all for the Spreading of God’s kingdom. Make no mistake, to take up your cross is not to endure the daily duties of Christian life with a smile and a glad heart. No, to take up the cross is to sacrifice everything, to put others before yourself, to literally consider yourself and your concerns second to the salvation of others. If you think you are following Christ, and you can’t put your finger on the way in which you sacrifice all, you give up everything, you put others before your own comfort and wellbeing, I would suggest you take another look at who it is you’re really living for. Fellow men of Christ, to be Christian, to live for the glory of God is not glorious or spectacular. To live for the glory of God, for Christ, is to be humble; it’s dirty, it’s painful, it’s HARD! If your Christian walk is easy, stop and take a look at the life of Christ and try again.

2006-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Glorious Reflectors

Journal Entry

Between Jacksonville and Chicago

June 16^th (STP/flight home)

As I am thousands of feet in the air, I am looking out my tiny window toward the ground at all of God’s creation below me. It’s about 6:20 in the evening and the sun is very bright. As I look down, I can see a hint of movement which is cars on the highway below me. I keep watching them as they move like tiny ants on the ground, and when the sun hits them just right it reflects back up to me in the plain and that tiny, almost unperceivable car becomes a point of light resembling a star in the sky. I see this and the theme verse from STP comes to mind (2 Chronicles 16:9a) which says “For the eyes of the Lord range [search] throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” There are billions of little tiny ants (people) moving around in His great creation, tiny ants that are almost unperceivable. That’s what God is moving his eyes over looking to and fro for someone to strengthen. BILLIONS! I’m not saying that’s too big for God; I’m just saying it sounds like a daunting task. So, if you were looking at billions of… anything, trying to find a few that you would like to help or do something with, you wouldn’t just pick at random would you? No, you would watch for something to catch your eye. If we get in God’s light and position our hearts to align with His, than we will reflect His glory right back to Him, catching his ever watchful eye. We will become a light in darkness like a star in the night sky. We will reflect God’s light back to God, showing Him that we are able to reflect His glory. So seeking to strengthen us, he gives us more facets with which to reflect His glory not only back to him but to the world around us as well. The more brightly we shine (reflect) the greater capacity God will give us to shine. But it all starts with a simple reflection, or recognition of God’s glory and grace, that’s it. It all starts with a simple glimmer in God’s eye. Where is your mirror pointed; will God find you?

2006-02-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

SHORT CHANGED

When I help a passer by

Through lending them a hand,

They go on, not looking back,

Leaving me to stand.

When I give to those in need

To ease their worldly plight,

They take my gift with no reply

As if it was their right.

When I do the Christian thing

And turn the other cheek,

My aggressors take it on

Themselves to make me weep.

When I try to follow Christ

By never telling lies,

The world decides to hit me hard

Right between the eyes.

Because these deeds I do for good

Result in dismal pains,

I should look at life and feel

As though I’ve been short changed.

Then I think of Christ my Lord

And look back on His life;

Because of all He suffered through

I cannot speak of strife.

He did just this much for me;

This much and so much more.

He cried for me, He died for me,

He wore my crown of thorns.

He bore my yoke to Calvary

Upon His fragile frame.

Then He hung upon my cross

Where He then took my blame.

Now I’m here in front of Him

Down upon my knees,

Saying, “Jesus, Lord, here I am,

Do with me what you please.”

2006-02-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Jesus and the Passover Lamb

Journal Entry

June 5^th, 2005 – Sunday

Jacksonville, FL (STP)

Scripture references:

Luke 24: 13-35

Exodus 12:1-6

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Luke 24:13-35

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven milesfrom Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Church this morning was a good experience I think. We (our team) are at Grace Community Church here in town. The pastor spoke today about the role of the lamb in the Bible (New Testament and Old Testament). The Passover lamb was to be kept in the house for 4 days before they slaughtered it so that it would become loved like a pet or a part of the family. This really struck me as I was meditating over this during communion. The disciples all lived and hung around with Jesus for 3 years. That’s enough time to feel like a very close family. He made some very cool promises and gave them all lots of assuring words. He told them that together with him they would inherit the kingdom of heaven and have eternal life. He told them all this, and then he died on the cross. The disciples had to have been destroyed by that. Here He had made all these promises and he had died, leaving them hanging with only some seemingly vague instructions. The disciples were bummed and surely felt an enormous amount of grief, hopelessness, and fear. But then, on the road to Emmaus when Jesus walked with them while they didn’t recognize him and had dinner with them, when they recognized who they were eating with, the joy and excitement and sheer exhilaration that they must have experienced! After that huge let down in there life, the hope had been restored in a brighter and clearer light than before, and they knew without a doubt that everything Jesus had said to them was absolutely true. What a glorious joy it is to know that He is risen, and risen for us, for you and me. All of our sin has been wiped away; we are squeaky clan, like just stepping out of the shower. All we have to do to walk with Jesus and all the other saints in heaven is simply accept this gift that has been given us! It’s as simple as that. Just accept the salvation and offer your life to him with joy in return. It’s GLORIOUS!

2006-02-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Simple Things

There are some things in this life that no one really pays much attention to, but nonetheless make life what we know it to be. Take, for instance, air (I know it’s an absurd example, but true even so). No one really pays much attention to air. The mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, and about… a lot of other gases that surrounds us every minute of every day, no one really gives a second thought to, but without it, life would definitely not be what it is today. There are many things like this in the world; I’ll bet if you think for even one minute, you could come up with a few yourself. My point in all this is that to truly take in all that life has to offer, one needs to sometimes sit back and look at what makes life life; think about the things that we encounter everyday that, without these things, life would change completely. One thing that I can think of right now is my physical ability. I can walk and talk. That is something that I totally take for granted on a very regular basis, but there are people who have gone through or are going through life without one or both of those abilities. To really sit down and think about how fortunate I am to be able to walk and talk lends a new perspective on the humdrum of everyday life. Instead of having a sour attitude because the elevator in your apartment building might be broken, rejoice that you can still get out because you are able to use the stairs. Instead of cursing your neighbor because the misunderstanding of a comment, take joy in the fact that you can communicate with your neighbor at all. It’s small things like this that I’m talking about.

There is one thing that I think everyone takes for granted on an almost constant basis that only a precious few people think about on any regular basis. The ‘thing’ that I’m referring to is God. God shows up in everything we do. He created us, He created the environment that we live in, and he created the people we interact with. He controls the winds and the rains and He dictates the actions of the birds of the air and the beasts of the ground. Without God, this life would most certainly be much, much, different. With out God even the most mundane actions would be impossible. Without God, there would be no you and there would be no me. So I encourage you, next time that you walk outside into a beautiful spring day and take a deep breath of fresh air or see a meadow in the middle of December covered in a pure white blanket of untouched snow, think about the things that make it possible for you to have that experience. Think about who is responsible for the beauty that you see. The next time you’re having a bad day, think about the simple often overlooked things. Think about what made your day ‘bad’ and give thanks to God that you’re even able to experience whatever that is. Phillipians 4:6-7 says Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpassas all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

2006-02-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Faith Without Works…

Journal Entry

August 9, 2005

Henry Bartel

Scripture references:

James 2:14-26

Matthew 8:5-13

Matthew 15:21-28

These passages all deal with faith, redeeming faith. James 2:14-26 says faith without works is dead. I’ve always taken this to mean that salvation was based on more than just faith, but I was wrong in that interpretation. Reading Matthew 8:5-13 and 15:21-28, I see Jesus help people because of the faith they have. This faith is good enough He says, but this faith is also acted upon when presented to Jesus. The centurion in chapter 8 of Matthew has faith that Jesus can heal his child, but that faith alone doesn’t save his child’s life. No, he asks, even begs Jesus to heal his child out of faith that he can do it. And in chapter 15 of Matthew, the Canaanite woman has faith that Jesus can heal her child but again that faith alone didn’t do it. She asked Jesus to heal her child out of faith and then it happened. Faith by itself is nothing if we don’t act on it. I can have all the faith in the world that I will win if I buy a lottery ticket, but if I never buy the lottery ticket, that faith is useless. So when James says faith without works is dead, he’s not talking about works of salvation, he’s talking merely about works by faith and from faith; the fruition of faith.