I'm not typically the overly emotional type and in fact as I write this I'm not really emotional at all but the decade draws to a close as this year does. This year has been pretty ok overall. I've had struggles and I've had victories. I learned a lot about myself and I made some new friends and walked away from some old ones. I had numerous friends get married and had a couple end their marriages. I learned much about God as I explored new territory with Him as my only aid and some old friends who made the cut to stick around helped me to grow at times and supported me in rough patches. God has grown me up into a bigger, better man. I told Amanda I like her and in just over an hour when it officially becomes 2011, and one day closer to seeing her I will be just one short day away from asking her out. I want to do it in person, face to face, and one on one. I could have done it in a text message or during a phone call but I want it to be something we remember so that should this relationship work and we end up married in the future we can think back to and recount how our relationship began. As kind of an end of the decade thing I'm gonna post a list of a few things that have happened in the last 10 years. Some of these were globally important and some of them are important to me and only me really. I thank you for reading my blog one more year and I pray that the new year will bring many great blog post!
In 2000 George Bush was elected president for the first of two terms. I consider this a terrible thing not because I'm some raging liberal or anything but because I do not believe he was a good leader.
In 2001 the World Trade Center was hit by a plane when terrorist attacked on American soil. The biggest hurt in all of that is how we as American's in our "Christian" nation responded to the attacks. We didn't turn the other cheek we started to kill people right back. This is also the year I began high school.
In 2002 I lost a good friend in a car wreck that could have been avoided had her boyfriend not been driving like a crazy man on a dangerous road.
In 2003 I started my first job. I hated that job and a year and some odd months later when I quit I was so happy I could have jumped for joy.
In 2004 George Bush was re-elected to office. I still think it was a bad thing and during this term I feel that most horrendous of his evils were committed and I began to care less and less about about politics.
In 2005 I turned 18 and graduated from high school. A short time after graduating I moved out of my parents house for a few months till just about Christmas. I came back and wish I had never moved out...
In 2006 I had several friends leave for the military. I hate this not because I don't like the military but because I love my friends they are all like family to me and I grieve them being away like that. I also began to work at the Fallout Shelter this year and I gave myself to a girl I didn't really love. I began my road to college. Two years following my high school graduation and I began looking towards college at Southwest Baptist University.
In 2007 I began my first semester of college in the fall. I lived in Maupin Hall (the greatest dorm on the freaking planet!) I met James Mohler, my best friend. We were roommates my first semester of college and it made a great lasting impression. I still don't terribly like SBU but I've made some of my best friends there and I will hopefully keep contact with those men for a long time!
In 2008 I lived off campus for a semester where I met Jeremiah (one of my off campus roommates) who is now one of my best friends. Jere, if you ever read this I love you man! He introduced me to White House and got me started serving the most amazing group of teens ever. When the semester drew to a close I moved home for my first summer as a college student.
In 2009 I started getting into my major a little at school and took several classes which ultimately shaped my path for the future at college. I took my first upper level philosophy class and I got hooked! During this time I started to fall more in love with God which drew me to start seeking His Kingdom.
In 2010 I did the most I've done the whole decade. I took over leading White House, I told this amazing, beautiful girl (Amanda) that I like her and we began developing our relationship! I met with Dr. Reeves on every other Tuesday for a semester and we spoke about the Kingdom of God and I found I can spend my life no better a way than doing the work of the Kingdom and making its impact on this world so much bigger than people think it is! I started to write a book (yes I hope to someday be a published author, no its not very far I've only barely worked on it) and I began the end of my college career. As of Friday, December 17, 2010 I had completed the first semester of my senior year of college. As of midnight I will be living in 2011
The decade is drawing to a close and so is this post. I want to thank you all once again for another year of readership. I hope to get more consistent with this blog in the coming year but I make no promises. I also want to thank everyone who in the last year has helped drag me (at times) kicking and screaming closer to God. Thank you for being a part of my walk. I thank God for each of you more than you know. I love you all and may God bless you and your families and our future relationships together. For one last time in 2010 grace and peace. One love.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Just a few jumbled thoughts
Well the school semester is over. The grades are in the books and I am pretty proud of how it ended. I didn't do the best I've ever done on final exams and in fact I'm a little disappointed with my performance in that area but alas they are dead and gone and so too shall school before long. Well overall I got four B's and one A. My A was a perfect score in the class which I am quite fond of. The other classes the ones with B's I wish I had done a little better in a couple of them and I feel as if I had just tried a little harder I could have had three A's and two B's but I put in the effort I did and so it comes to a close as it did. Well that is about all for the school stuff I guess. Just have 24 credits left until I graduate and I am looking to fulfill all of that by May with a lot of hard work and maybe a little time spent playing to keep me sane!
Lets see. There are only three more days until Christmas. I'm not so overly excited about this as I would have once been as a child. I think in my age, albeit I am only 23, I have learned that Christmas is not the holiday children love so much. Christmas is supposed to represent a time of giving to others and bringing joy. Christmas is after all that time of year where we celebrate Christ coming (I recently blogged about the Christmas story if you haven't yet check it out). That gift being the reason we celebrate Christmas, God gave Himself to us as a baby to overcome the dark powers of sin and death and the powers of this world which would punish people for love. Yet it is at Easter (I will blog about this when it is appropriate so check in again at least at Easter) that we celebrate the second gift the Christ gives us, His life. I don't have much more to say about Christmas my recent post about the Christmas story contains about all I would have to say about it with the exception of that I hate that as a country we living in the USA have forgotten that Christmas is about giving (sacrifice) and love which brings joy. Instead we now have a holiday for consumerism but perhaps I will blog about that another time...
Last of my thoughts, I think, White House has been planned for the January meetings prior to the return of our full leadership team. We will be talking about loving people the way Christ loves them. This talk will cover two bigger topics Forgiveness and Serving. These two will be tied into loving people the way Christ did and when it comes to a close I will introduce our group to another topic which brings the Jan Term talks together with the Spring Semester talks. I want to spend the semester talking to them about the kingdom of God and our participation in it. All will hopefully tie together by the end and I hope that when the semester comes to a close and things change that we will have made an impact on them that stays for the rest of their lives. Well I think I've rambled on enough. Grace and Peace. One love.
Lets see. There are only three more days until Christmas. I'm not so overly excited about this as I would have once been as a child. I think in my age, albeit I am only 23, I have learned that Christmas is not the holiday children love so much. Christmas is supposed to represent a time of giving to others and bringing joy. Christmas is after all that time of year where we celebrate Christ coming (I recently blogged about the Christmas story if you haven't yet check it out). That gift being the reason we celebrate Christmas, God gave Himself to us as a baby to overcome the dark powers of sin and death and the powers of this world which would punish people for love. Yet it is at Easter (I will blog about this when it is appropriate so check in again at least at Easter) that we celebrate the second gift the Christ gives us, His life. I don't have much more to say about Christmas my recent post about the Christmas story contains about all I would have to say about it with the exception of that I hate that as a country we living in the USA have forgotten that Christmas is about giving (sacrifice) and love which brings joy. Instead we now have a holiday for consumerism but perhaps I will blog about that another time...
Last of my thoughts, I think, White House has been planned for the January meetings prior to the return of our full leadership team. We will be talking about loving people the way Christ loves them. This talk will cover two bigger topics Forgiveness and Serving. These two will be tied into loving people the way Christ did and when it comes to a close I will introduce our group to another topic which brings the Jan Term talks together with the Spring Semester talks. I want to spend the semester talking to them about the kingdom of God and our participation in it. All will hopefully tie together by the end and I hope that when the semester comes to a close and things change that we will have made an impact on them that stays for the rest of their lives. Well I think I've rambled on enough. Grace and Peace. One love.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
A Christmas Story Worth Living For...
The Christmas story. Most anyone who would consider reading this blog knows it I'm fairly certain. Just in case I'm wrong I will give the brief run down of it which sums the story up in a very short version. A little over 2000 years ago about 6 B.C. a child was born into a poor family. His "father" a carpenter and his mother a young virgin betrothed to the carpenter. The ruler of the "world" I suppose is one way to put it decided that everyone needed to pay taxes and so this young couple begins a trip to the city of David a.k.a. Bethlehem. When they get there they look for a place to stay and the young man's family turns them away from the guest room so they sleep with the animals on the ground level of the house that night and in the presence of filthy animals the Savior of the world is born and brought into the world innocent and pure. His mother wraps him up in strips of cloth to keep him warm and lays him on a make shift bed. Three Shepherds, in that day similar to homeless men for us, are the first to know the Savior has come and they go to see him. These outcast of society welcome the Lord to the presence of mere people and show us who he came for. This story is so beautiful. Yet this doesn't sound much like the story you hear at church.
The story most of us hear at church is oh Mary and Joseph were going to get married. Mary finds out shes pregnant and Joseph wants to divorce her but an angel tells him no. They leave to pay taxes because the angel convinced him to keep her and on the way all the hotels are full and cannot take them in. They sleep in, what is logistically a barn, and baby Jesus is born. But that is NOT the Christmas story and even if it is some variety of it, it is NOT one worth living for. The Christmas story is about God acting. God steps into humanity and says, "I love you enough I'm going to give up my divine rights and suffer for you, but not only suffer I'm going to die and you are worth it." So the Christ suffers and dies on our behalf and all he ask us to do is live for Him. This is where the trouble comes though isn't it.
Its really easy to die for a cause you truly believe in but its a whole lot harder to live for it. Sometimes I think it would be easier to tell someone yes I believe in God if I was going to be killed for it than it is to live for Him in front of my friends who knew me before Christ saved me from myself. It frustrates me so much cause I don't have to die for Christ to matter and I would probably, most definitely make a greater impact if I lived for Him instead and that is where I run into the wall. So I have kind of put the story out there and hopefully raised a few questions without having to be obscene and off the wall about it. I do hope that you will remember me in your prayers as I fight the battle. I someday want to be able to at the end of my life stand before a group of believers in church, out of church, wherever I am.. And like Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:6-8:
6For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
8in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
I just hope that when my life draws to a close I can say this. I also hope that my life is the image of Christ. I want people to think about me someday, "We need more Christians like him. He is/was living the Kingdom of God come to earth." Grace and Peace.
The story most of us hear at church is oh Mary and Joseph were going to get married. Mary finds out shes pregnant and Joseph wants to divorce her but an angel tells him no. They leave to pay taxes because the angel convinced him to keep her and on the way all the hotels are full and cannot take them in. They sleep in, what is logistically a barn, and baby Jesus is born. But that is NOT the Christmas story and even if it is some variety of it, it is NOT one worth living for. The Christmas story is about God acting. God steps into humanity and says, "I love you enough I'm going to give up my divine rights and suffer for you, but not only suffer I'm going to die and you are worth it." So the Christ suffers and dies on our behalf and all he ask us to do is live for Him. This is where the trouble comes though isn't it.
Its really easy to die for a cause you truly believe in but its a whole lot harder to live for it. Sometimes I think it would be easier to tell someone yes I believe in God if I was going to be killed for it than it is to live for Him in front of my friends who knew me before Christ saved me from myself. It frustrates me so much cause I don't have to die for Christ to matter and I would probably, most definitely make a greater impact if I lived for Him instead and that is where I run into the wall. So I have kind of put the story out there and hopefully raised a few questions without having to be obscene and off the wall about it. I do hope that you will remember me in your prayers as I fight the battle. I someday want to be able to at the end of my life stand before a group of believers in church, out of church, wherever I am.. And like Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:6-8:
6For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
8in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
I just hope that when my life draws to a close I can say this. I also hope that my life is the image of Christ. I want people to think about me someday, "We need more Christians like him. He is/was living the Kingdom of God come to earth." Grace and Peace.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Trademark.........
I'm sitting in my room in the dorm. I have Relient K music playing in the background and I'm texting someone. This person I am texting is rather important to me, a close friend, and I mostly enjoy our conversation. Well that is just what is happening but there is more to this. I was listening to the song Trademark by Relient K and now Jefferson, Aero Plane. The point though is that I feel like Trademark is slapping me in the face kind of..: it's my, my trademark move
to turn my back on you
it's my, my trademark move
to realize i should improve
and sometime soon after that
you'll see me come crawling back
There is redemption, kind of, at the end of that and yet its so much who I am and I feel like that is such a waste of time. I also feel like when in that situation it means I don't really make a commitment to God of any kind. I'm just saying I don't want to be in Hell when I die so I'll get insurance but live like Hell. That is not ok for me anymore. More is expected of me and I should be doing more. A commitment to Christ is a commitment of love and I really think this is best summarized in a Thrice song where it contains a lyric that goes:
And come what may, I won’t abandon you or leave you behind,
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
Come what may, I will be standing right here by your side,
I won’t run away, though the storm’s getting worse and there’s no end in sight.
Love, and that is what I claim to do to Christ, is more than a moment of intense feeling and yet what do I do. I do like the first song and I turn my back and run like a moron to the old ways of my life. I dive back to the lust of the flesh. I go looking for porn, I get back to talking like a sailor, and I turn into that guy and annoy people. I feel like there is no joy in my life sometimes and then there comes that moment of intense reflection where I'm like "oh my gosh what the crap have I done.." and I go running back to God looking for forgiveness yet again for the same sin. Yet then I think of this amazing line in a song by The Almost that goes:
It’s true I failed
But your love covers me
This line is so beautiful, its also very true. Yet I feel like its a truth that I abuse... Its like the heart change doesn't happen. I tell God "I want to love you and follow you and be like your son." Yet where am I usually within days of that? I'm back in the same muck. I don't make a change. I hardly read my Bible or pray. There is the dirty rotten truth of the matter. It seems like I would be more likely to do so if I ever felt like doing those things mattered... I always have this lingering feeling that overcomes me when I get to the point that I am begging God for help that it isn't going to come because when I've begged in the past I either missed the help or it didn't come. So if anyone happens to read this post, I have my doubts because I'm not going to link to it and even if I did who would see it two or three people maybe? The problem is I've acquired a taste for salt water and the living, clean, fresh water Christ offer me seems to be missing something. Its a damnable situation to be in. I want to desire the clean, fresh, living water of Christ and not the nasty, detestable, killing me slowly salt water of porn and the many other things and yet those other things keep getting me back. Please just pray for me. I don't want to just lay there and take it anymore but sometimes I feel like Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump. I've lost my legs and now I just want to lay there and die... Please don't let me lay there and die.
to turn my back on you
it's my, my trademark move
to realize i should improve
and sometime soon after that
you'll see me come crawling back
There is redemption, kind of, at the end of that and yet its so much who I am and I feel like that is such a waste of time. I also feel like when in that situation it means I don't really make a commitment to God of any kind. I'm just saying I don't want to be in Hell when I die so I'll get insurance but live like Hell. That is not ok for me anymore. More is expected of me and I should be doing more. A commitment to Christ is a commitment of love and I really think this is best summarized in a Thrice song where it contains a lyric that goes:
And come what may, I won’t abandon you or leave you behind,
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
Come what may, I will be standing right here by your side,
I won’t run away, though the storm’s getting worse and there’s no end in sight.
Love, and that is what I claim to do to Christ, is more than a moment of intense feeling and yet what do I do. I do like the first song and I turn my back and run like a moron to the old ways of my life. I dive back to the lust of the flesh. I go looking for porn, I get back to talking like a sailor, and I turn into that guy and annoy people. I feel like there is no joy in my life sometimes and then there comes that moment of intense reflection where I'm like "oh my gosh what the crap have I done.." and I go running back to God looking for forgiveness yet again for the same sin. Yet then I think of this amazing line in a song by The Almost that goes:
It’s true I failed
But your love covers me
This line is so beautiful, its also very true. Yet I feel like its a truth that I abuse... Its like the heart change doesn't happen. I tell God "I want to love you and follow you and be like your son." Yet where am I usually within days of that? I'm back in the same muck. I don't make a change. I hardly read my Bible or pray. There is the dirty rotten truth of the matter. It seems like I would be more likely to do so if I ever felt like doing those things mattered... I always have this lingering feeling that overcomes me when I get to the point that I am begging God for help that it isn't going to come because when I've begged in the past I either missed the help or it didn't come. So if anyone happens to read this post, I have my doubts because I'm not going to link to it and even if I did who would see it two or three people maybe? The problem is I've acquired a taste for salt water and the living, clean, fresh water Christ offer me seems to be missing something. Its a damnable situation to be in. I want to desire the clean, fresh, living water of Christ and not the nasty, detestable, killing me slowly salt water of porn and the many other things and yet those other things keep getting me back. Please just pray for me. I don't want to just lay there and take it anymore but sometimes I feel like Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump. I've lost my legs and now I just want to lay there and die... Please don't let me lay there and die.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Church in the US needs a divorce...
WARNING THIS BLOG POST MAY BE EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE
Having given fair warning that you the reader may very well be offended by what you will read in this post I'm going to begin. The Church in the US needs a divorce and it needs this divorce now. I will probably get hate mail and if I were to say this in a "church" would probably be asked to never come back, but here it goes for better or worse this is going to be said.
The Church needs a divorce from Americanism and everything that comes with it. We do not need flashy new things, we do not need an United States flag in our buildings, and we certainly do not need patriotism. There it is people my dirty little secret it out. There is no place in the church for patriotism. To say otherwise is to subvert the gospel. Think about it. I mean really think about it and then tell me I'm wrong. Jesus said to respect authorities not to worship them and guess what that is what we are doing when we take a whole Sunday, or any day for that matter, and celebrate the country we live in. You turn that flag into an idol and worship it. The gospel as preached by Christ is counter-cultural and was subversive to Roman world. Early Christians would not call Ceaser their Lord and lost their lives for it. What makes us any better than them? Please tell me what I'm missing that makes it ok for us to worship America in church. Now at this point I have stepped on a lot of toes I'm sure. Heck I am perfectly ok with that because I will not worship this country.
Now, I could say a lot of things that would really get people fired up after reading this post. I would love to but I do not need to be stirring up trouble in the body. Now since I've done a great job at attacking the flag and patriotism so far let me move to the other thing in that list earlier. We do not need new flashy things. What do flashy things do? They make pretty light shows and allow us to be louder than we need to be during a "worship" service. News flash unless you have been reading some Bible that disagrees with the standard of what is considered the Bible we should know that what God wants is a contrite heart to worship him in truth and spirit. He doesn't ask us to have the newest, biggest, loudest, whatever you want to fill in the blank with. We again are making an idol of things and as such living in active rebellion to God.
So I've thrown a lot out in a short space. I know my readership is small. I know that I don't post very often but when I do its something important to me and it is important to me that we divorce the Church from stupid propagation of the "American Way". Jesus did not call you out of slavery to sin and death to live a comfortable life with 2.5 kids, a dog, a house, 2 cars, and a white picket fence. Jesus called you out of slavery to sin and death to live a life of sacrifice. When Jesus makes his call to follow he didn't say, "Go and have the most comfy life you can and put a little money in the offering plate on Sunday morning." Hell no. Jesus said "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." So I beg. Deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Divorce the Americanism which so rampantly rapes the Church and take a lesson from history. The Church does its best when it is marginalized and serving people. We cannot do that if we are sitting in our little pews singing songs to the greatness of the United States and worshiping its flag while we look on to the latest, greatest projector screen containing the lyrics to America the Beautiful.
Having given fair warning that you the reader may very well be offended by what you will read in this post I'm going to begin. The Church in the US needs a divorce and it needs this divorce now. I will probably get hate mail and if I were to say this in a "church" would probably be asked to never come back, but here it goes for better or worse this is going to be said.
The Church needs a divorce from Americanism and everything that comes with it. We do not need flashy new things, we do not need an United States flag in our buildings, and we certainly do not need patriotism. There it is people my dirty little secret it out. There is no place in the church for patriotism. To say otherwise is to subvert the gospel. Think about it. I mean really think about it and then tell me I'm wrong. Jesus said to respect authorities not to worship them and guess what that is what we are doing when we take a whole Sunday, or any day for that matter, and celebrate the country we live in. You turn that flag into an idol and worship it. The gospel as preached by Christ is counter-cultural and was subversive to Roman world. Early Christians would not call Ceaser their Lord and lost their lives for it. What makes us any better than them? Please tell me what I'm missing that makes it ok for us to worship America in church. Now at this point I have stepped on a lot of toes I'm sure. Heck I am perfectly ok with that because I will not worship this country.
Now, I could say a lot of things that would really get people fired up after reading this post. I would love to but I do not need to be stirring up trouble in the body. Now since I've done a great job at attacking the flag and patriotism so far let me move to the other thing in that list earlier. We do not need new flashy things. What do flashy things do? They make pretty light shows and allow us to be louder than we need to be during a "worship" service. News flash unless you have been reading some Bible that disagrees with the standard of what is considered the Bible we should know that what God wants is a contrite heart to worship him in truth and spirit. He doesn't ask us to have the newest, biggest, loudest, whatever you want to fill in the blank with. We again are making an idol of things and as such living in active rebellion to God.
So I've thrown a lot out in a short space. I know my readership is small. I know that I don't post very often but when I do its something important to me and it is important to me that we divorce the Church from stupid propagation of the "American Way". Jesus did not call you out of slavery to sin and death to live a comfortable life with 2.5 kids, a dog, a house, 2 cars, and a white picket fence. Jesus called you out of slavery to sin and death to live a life of sacrifice. When Jesus makes his call to follow he didn't say, "Go and have the most comfy life you can and put a little money in the offering plate on Sunday morning." Hell no. Jesus said "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." So I beg. Deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Divorce the Americanism which so rampantly rapes the Church and take a lesson from history. The Church does its best when it is marginalized and serving people. We cannot do that if we are sitting in our little pews singing songs to the greatness of the United States and worshiping its flag while we look on to the latest, greatest projector screen containing the lyrics to America the Beautiful.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
to the church in North America
Eric Fleming, a student of the living God:
To the church in North America. May righteousness flood your hearts while justice overflows from your lives into the streets.
For as the Christ surely came and lived a perfect, holy life so we have been called to imitate Him in our very existence. I tell you while sometimes it is hard to be holy in a land where it is much easier to grasp an idol be that sex, money, music, cars, television, or any of the numerous things this world has to offer you, that through Christ who gives us strength we can do all things (my translation Phil. 4:13). I thank the Lord that we are so blessed in a land where prosperity is so abundant, but I fear it is also a test of our faith presented to us by the Father. Where there is much wealth faith can become stunted and die, yet it does not have to be the case when we realize that we have much only because the Father has blessed us with much to serve more. It is because of your many blessings that I call you into action. There are many who are hurting and the hands and feet of the Christ are sitting comfortably in great halls doing nothing. Its time these hands and feet get dirty and go about healing the hurts we have allowed to happen.
I first want to call your attention to the persecution faced by our brothers and sisters who are being oppressed because they are "illegal aliens" in our midst. Are we not all aliens in this world or was Peter not clear enough when he wrote, "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you." (1 Peter 2:11, Holman Christian Standard). We are like them, we do not belong to these countries anymore our allegiance is to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have no nationality we are citizens of another place where there is no more pain or suffering. I pray that the Lord would show to you the need to stand together on behalf of these brothers and sisters who face persecutions because they 'don't belong in this country or that country'. You probably ask how can we change this we can change this by standing in solidarity against these forces, pray for your nations leaders that God might convict them of this atrocity. We can rally on the behalf of the illegal aliens who cannot stand for themselves and we can be for them what Christ was for the woman caught in adultery. Are we not all immigrants to our nations anyways? Forcefully removing those who were here first and placing ourselves where they lived and taking it for our own.
I second want to call your attention to our brothers and sisters who suffer in silence on the streets. Many of you have taken notice of these and have given them food, water, clothing, and sometimes shelter for the evening. For those who still ignore these needy people and pass by them on the other side may I remind you that we are called not to be like the priest or the Levite but rather the Samaritan. Do you not know that in the scriptures the Lord said, "I assure you: Whatever you did for one of least of these brothers of Mine, you did for me."(Matthew 25:40, Holman Christian Standard) and also saying "I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either." (Matthew 25:45, Holman Christian Standard). I call you to take action for these who are needy. Like Lot who entertained angels before being instructed to leave from Sodom and Gomorrah we never know when we could be doing for the Christ as He is found in the homeless man living under the overpass in a cardboard box, and can be found in the man who is sleeping next to your favorite Italian restaurant and ask only for a little food to sustain himself one more day.
Finally brothers and sisters I want to call you to a life set apart. The scriptures are littered with this but yet we seem to overlook it so easily. How often I myself have given in and taken the easy path when I am confronted with a choice which would set me apart but I urge you to consider our father Abraham. When the Lord called him from out of Ur Abraham dropped what he was doing and followed. Because of his obedience we are told in Hebrews that Abraham was deemed holy in the sight of the Lord. Further more consider Joseph who's faith made him holy in the eyes of the Lord when he was faithful to follow God even though he landed in slavery for a time after his family betrayed him. Brothers and sisters live life in love and learn from the life of the Christ. Be holy as the Lord is holy. God did not ask what is impossible He only asked what is impossible on our own and because of this He sent His Son to die, and then His Holy Spirit to be with us and make it possible for us to live that holy life He requires. If God in the person of Jesus could forgive the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery surely His grace will not fall short in forgiving His bride for being as a whore in response to His great love for her. May God our Father bless you as you walk with Him.
In closing I ask of you my brothers and sisters, let he who has ears hear, let the Spirit guide your lives into obedience to the Lord who has purchased you for a price of infinite value. Stay strong in the faith and when we eat with the Lord in paradise and partake of the fruit of the vine with Him I hope to see you sitting there so we can share stories of how God blessed us when we submitted to His will and followed Him even when the cross was far to heavy to bear alone and He took it on for us in place of His lighter yoke. Grace and peace in the Christ our Lord who died in our place.
To the church in North America. May righteousness flood your hearts while justice overflows from your lives into the streets.
For as the Christ surely came and lived a perfect, holy life so we have been called to imitate Him in our very existence. I tell you while sometimes it is hard to be holy in a land where it is much easier to grasp an idol be that sex, money, music, cars, television, or any of the numerous things this world has to offer you, that through Christ who gives us strength we can do all things (my translation Phil. 4:13). I thank the Lord that we are so blessed in a land where prosperity is so abundant, but I fear it is also a test of our faith presented to us by the Father. Where there is much wealth faith can become stunted and die, yet it does not have to be the case when we realize that we have much only because the Father has blessed us with much to serve more. It is because of your many blessings that I call you into action. There are many who are hurting and the hands and feet of the Christ are sitting comfortably in great halls doing nothing. Its time these hands and feet get dirty and go about healing the hurts we have allowed to happen.
I first want to call your attention to the persecution faced by our brothers and sisters who are being oppressed because they are "illegal aliens" in our midst. Are we not all aliens in this world or was Peter not clear enough when he wrote, "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you." (1 Peter 2:11, Holman Christian Standard). We are like them, we do not belong to these countries anymore our allegiance is to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have no nationality we are citizens of another place where there is no more pain or suffering. I pray that the Lord would show to you the need to stand together on behalf of these brothers and sisters who face persecutions because they 'don't belong in this country or that country'. You probably ask how can we change this we can change this by standing in solidarity against these forces, pray for your nations leaders that God might convict them of this atrocity. We can rally on the behalf of the illegal aliens who cannot stand for themselves and we can be for them what Christ was for the woman caught in adultery. Are we not all immigrants to our nations anyways? Forcefully removing those who were here first and placing ourselves where they lived and taking it for our own.
I second want to call your attention to our brothers and sisters who suffer in silence on the streets. Many of you have taken notice of these and have given them food, water, clothing, and sometimes shelter for the evening. For those who still ignore these needy people and pass by them on the other side may I remind you that we are called not to be like the priest or the Levite but rather the Samaritan. Do you not know that in the scriptures the Lord said, "I assure you: Whatever you did for one of least of these brothers of Mine, you did for me."(Matthew 25:40, Holman Christian Standard) and also saying "I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either." (Matthew 25:45, Holman Christian Standard). I call you to take action for these who are needy. Like Lot who entertained angels before being instructed to leave from Sodom and Gomorrah we never know when we could be doing for the Christ as He is found in the homeless man living under the overpass in a cardboard box, and can be found in the man who is sleeping next to your favorite Italian restaurant and ask only for a little food to sustain himself one more day.
Finally brothers and sisters I want to call you to a life set apart. The scriptures are littered with this but yet we seem to overlook it so easily. How often I myself have given in and taken the easy path when I am confronted with a choice which would set me apart but I urge you to consider our father Abraham. When the Lord called him from out of Ur Abraham dropped what he was doing and followed. Because of his obedience we are told in Hebrews that Abraham was deemed holy in the sight of the Lord. Further more consider Joseph who's faith made him holy in the eyes of the Lord when he was faithful to follow God even though he landed in slavery for a time after his family betrayed him. Brothers and sisters live life in love and learn from the life of the Christ. Be holy as the Lord is holy. God did not ask what is impossible He only asked what is impossible on our own and because of this He sent His Son to die, and then His Holy Spirit to be with us and make it possible for us to live that holy life He requires. If God in the person of Jesus could forgive the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery surely His grace will not fall short in forgiving His bride for being as a whore in response to His great love for her. May God our Father bless you as you walk with Him.
In closing I ask of you my brothers and sisters, let he who has ears hear, let the Spirit guide your lives into obedience to the Lord who has purchased you for a price of infinite value. Stay strong in the faith and when we eat with the Lord in paradise and partake of the fruit of the vine with Him I hope to see you sitting there so we can share stories of how God blessed us when we submitted to His will and followed Him even when the cross was far to heavy to bear alone and He took it on for us in place of His lighter yoke. Grace and peace in the Christ our Lord who died in our place.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Worldly Justice Is Funny
The following post is less normal bloggish and more a recap of a couple recent happenings that I was thinking about and wanted to share with you all. I ask you to look at this with an open mind and try to consider what has happened and how this should be handled rather than how it is being handled.
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Story one: This story is about a man named Jim, a lawyer here in Mexico, and a man named Richard, I don't know what he did but he lived down the street from me with his wife and children.
http://www.mexicoledger.com/topstories/x1143352666/Jim-Clampitt-admits-driving-in-Richard-Cobb-accident
Jim was out one night to dinner. This was about three weeks ago I believe. Well Jim had a few to drink, by his own words he had one full drink and a couple sips from half of one, well Jim then decided he was going to go drive himself home. On his way home Jim hit and killed Richard who was on his riding mower in the street. After Jim hit Richard he fled the scene and returned home for the evening leaving Richard dead on the scene. Now like I said before Richard has a family who have spent the last near month in mourning over the lose of their, son, husband, father, and sibling. Jim is walking around free as if nothing happened at all. He hasn't lost his license, been arrested, or even seen a hint of a court date.[That is as far as I have heard so far.] Maybe its just me but I feel there is a problem present here...
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Story two: This story is about a man named Charles who tried to pass a car, hit them, sent them into oncoming traffic, which resulted in several serious injuries and one death to someone named Lynn.
http://www.saintlouis-injury-lawyer.com/2010/07/charles-howdeshell-charged-aft.html
Charles was stuck behind a vehicle on highway 54 recently. Charles decided he wanted to pass this vehicle and so he pulled from the right lane into the left and began to pass. Apparently sometime while he was pulling back into the right lane, I assume, he hit the vehicle he was passing forcing it into oncoming traffic. The vehicle was hit head one causing several serious injuries and leaving Lynn dead on the scene. Charles was arrested and charged with several offenses including a DUI. Charles spent a time in jail before posting a $250,000 bail to get out for the time being.
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Now I ask that you ponder these two stories. Consider the similarities. Both men were under the influence one of alcohol and the other drugs. One of them got away with murder simply by denying things for a few weeks then admitting it. The other was arrested and taken to jail for murder and other things. One of these two men will pay a debt for what he did, and one of them might possibly lose the law suit but still not see prison time and only lose a little bit of money. I feel there is a flaw present here in the justice system.
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Story one: This story is about a man named Jim, a lawyer here in Mexico, and a man named Richard, I don't know what he did but he lived down the street from me with his wife and children.
http://www.mexicoledger.com/topstories/x1143352666/Jim-Clampitt-admits-driving-in-Richard-Cobb-accident
Jim was out one night to dinner. This was about three weeks ago I believe. Well Jim had a few to drink, by his own words he had one full drink and a couple sips from half of one, well Jim then decided he was going to go drive himself home. On his way home Jim hit and killed Richard who was on his riding mower in the street. After Jim hit Richard he fled the scene and returned home for the evening leaving Richard dead on the scene. Now like I said before Richard has a family who have spent the last near month in mourning over the lose of their, son, husband, father, and sibling. Jim is walking around free as if nothing happened at all. He hasn't lost his license, been arrested, or even seen a hint of a court date.[That is as far as I have heard so far.] Maybe its just me but I feel there is a problem present here...
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Story two: This story is about a man named Charles who tried to pass a car, hit them, sent them into oncoming traffic, which resulted in several serious injuries and one death to someone named Lynn.
http://www.saintlouis-injury-lawyer.com/2010/07/charles-howdeshell-charged-aft.html
Charles was stuck behind a vehicle on highway 54 recently. Charles decided he wanted to pass this vehicle and so he pulled from the right lane into the left and began to pass. Apparently sometime while he was pulling back into the right lane, I assume, he hit the vehicle he was passing forcing it into oncoming traffic. The vehicle was hit head one causing several serious injuries and leaving Lynn dead on the scene. Charles was arrested and charged with several offenses including a DUI. Charles spent a time in jail before posting a $250,000 bail to get out for the time being.
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Now I ask that you ponder these two stories. Consider the similarities. Both men were under the influence one of alcohol and the other drugs. One of them got away with murder simply by denying things for a few weeks then admitting it. The other was arrested and taken to jail for murder and other things. One of these two men will pay a debt for what he did, and one of them might possibly lose the law suit but still not see prison time and only lose a little bit of money. I feel there is a flaw present here in the justice system.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
So I at one time in the last couple months promised I was going to post more... Like five days of the week or better more.. It seems like usual I've not done such. No excuse but I was thinking about stuff tonight and figured I should post something this won't really be deep just something I was feeling a little convicted of tonight that I don't know how to go about.
Tonight I was reading some articles online which were vaguely theological and I felt slightly convicted that I might be working with the wrong kind of group. I work with a group of mostly(if not entirely) unchurched youths other than when they attend the youth group meetings on Wednesday nights. Well I was kind of considering what it is I am finding I am incredibly passionate about and I realized that with that group that passion is going to waste in a lot of ways. I cannot share it with them, or well I could but, keep in mind most of them lack a relationship with Christ, and because of the lack of relationship they cannot be a part of the thing I want to share so badly because they are NOT citizens of the kingdom and as such they cannot do works of the kingdom. This is a problem.. I'm not really comfortable with church people so much I don't really fit in.. I'm kind of a long haired hippie dude, I imagine that if Jesus was around now they would react to Him equally or more harshly than they do to me. What I mean is, based on my look, not anything I say or do, my look alone I get judged as being different many times and many more times I get judged as not belonging to their circle. Yet I feel like I should talk to those kids instead because they are the ones who can participate in the works I want to talk to them about and I don't know what to do. Well anyways that is really all I wanted to rant about for now I will try to post something tomorrow.. no promises. One love.
Tonight I was reading some articles online which were vaguely theological and I felt slightly convicted that I might be working with the wrong kind of group. I work with a group of mostly(if not entirely) unchurched youths other than when they attend the youth group meetings on Wednesday nights. Well I was kind of considering what it is I am finding I am incredibly passionate about and I realized that with that group that passion is going to waste in a lot of ways. I cannot share it with them, or well I could but, keep in mind most of them lack a relationship with Christ, and because of the lack of relationship they cannot be a part of the thing I want to share so badly because they are NOT citizens of the kingdom and as such they cannot do works of the kingdom. This is a problem.. I'm not really comfortable with church people so much I don't really fit in.. I'm kind of a long haired hippie dude, I imagine that if Jesus was around now they would react to Him equally or more harshly than they do to me. What I mean is, based on my look, not anything I say or do, my look alone I get judged as being different many times and many more times I get judged as not belonging to their circle. Yet I feel like I should talk to those kids instead because they are the ones who can participate in the works I want to talk to them about and I don't know what to do. Well anyways that is really all I wanted to rant about for now I will try to post something tomorrow.. no promises. One love.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Almost done...........
So the school year is rapidly coming to an end. Today is Tuesday, May 4, 2010 and in just another short two and a half weeks we will be done for the summer. I will be moving home on Friday, May 21 and that will mark the beginning of summer break for me. Well lets see.. I don't particularly have much to say this post but I wanted to put something up. Umm well my class schedule for next semester is changing a little. I will be taking Intermediate Greek next year which will mean if I go ahead and do go on to the graduate level I may not have to take Greek at all. Now for me to do this class successfully I will have to study a crap ton more but I think it will be worth it! Otherwise.. umm I am in the process of writing one of my final papers for the year. Once I finish this one up I will just have two more but I made some great progress tonight and managed to pump out just shy of half the paper. Once this one is done I will take a couple days off I think and then get to working on my philosophy papers so I can be done with the semester hopefully by the Monday of finals week and can relax a lot that week and prepare for the couple of finals I will actually have! Shoot I guess other than the little bit I had to put up there I am just excited to be done really. I look forward to being home again and having stuff to do, I hope... I want to try and work out some this summer which primarily means I want to get in a habit of doing some push ups and some crunches every morning and evening and trying to hit the track every day I hope.. I just want to slim up a bit more and heck it would be kinda nice to get back in better shape.. Well I am just rambling now so I'm gonna cut this one short and get back to preparing for bed.. One love.
Monday, April 26, 2010
untitled.
Ok so I am going to start something new with the blog...this summer. I will begin posting on Sunday's a weekly plan of action for blog topic as well as music [please note the music will not always be from a different artist I will sometimes use the same artist over and over again]. During the following week I will post on whatever I have set as the days topic. My goal is to get a larger reader base, shouldn't be hard as I believe it is currently zero. Other than that I hope to bring a lot of new content to the blog, I will post my thoughts on religion/doctrine, music, movies, and really whatever I feel like talking about. I will however stick to my topic list so what I might end up doing is setting up a general topic for every day and on the day dedicated to religion I will post about a religious topic and so on. There are just some beginning concepts and much of this may not happen but I want to post more often and hopefully build up a reader base so that conversations can happen. Well this is all I had to say I need to get off this and do some more reading for class... One love.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A Eulogy...
Now I didn't personally ever get to have Dr. Derryberry as a professor in my time here at SBU. I did however, have the chance to encounter him a few times and know several good friends who did have him as a teacher. Dr. Derryberry every time I encountered him was a smiling, happy man. The couple of times I did encounter him he also left an impression on me even though he said but few words any of those times but I will remember, particularly in this time, how his simple little action of telling me I was a gentleman and a scholar impressed on me. I cannot say for certain but I am very positive that he was the first person to ever say that to me and for sometime such a thing has struck me. I feel like neither of those things. I do not spend much of my time in study, I do not dedicate my life to the pursuit of knowledge how am I a scholar? I also do not find myself very often opening doors for ladies and elder men who are my senior, how then am I a gentleman? I cannot answer these questions and I don't know if it matters if I can or cannot what matters is that a man who is no longer with us impressed on me in a way that has made me look at my life. I say to you today the world lost a saint but his life has encouraged many young people to not give up on dreams or themselves. While SBU sits in mourning this morning our lives will continue on tomorrow and the day after that. Dr. Derryberry will live in the memory of many a student and colleague and someday we will have the chance to encounter him again but until then we bid him goodbye and wish that bright scholar the rest he so deserves. One love.
εἰμί ὀλιγόπιστος מרנא תא – Lord, come I am of little faith.
P.S. I wanted to add this in because I feel like it is appropriate.
εἰμί ὀλιγόπιστος מרנא תא – Lord, come I am of little faith.
P.S. I wanted to add this in because I feel like it is appropriate.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Jumbled thoughts
So this blog is inspired by the live webcast Don Miller did just a few hours ago. Well anyways I'm gonna post some stuff that caught my attention while he was talking. Everything comes from the notes I took during it when he talked about his thoughts on stuff and I will supplement my own thoughts in.
First thing is some talk about passivity, specifically in a man. At least anyone who has had spiritual formation with Kurt Caddy, if not everyone, have been introduced to the idea that the curse God gave to men is to be passive. Well passivity is a terrible thing, men should be decisive now that is not to say that a married man shouldn't consider what his wife thinks about something or seek council from other men on something but what I am saying is that we shouldn't go to our wife, girlfriend, or whoever and kind of beat around the bush to get them to tell us what they want to do so we can go and sound spiritual by coming back a little later and saying something like 'Oh I prayed about things and God is leading me to'. Now when a question dealing with passivity came up for Don to answer the thing that initially caught me with it was that Don said that "passivity in a man is destroying life". Now in keeping with his recent theme of writing a better life story Don followed this up by saying something close to "if you aren't active in your life someone else is writing your story" and well needless to say while someday when I am married I am gonna love my wife more than almost anything I do NOT want her to dictate my story for me. One last little thought on this and it leads into my next thought Don said one other thing at this point which stood out to me, "Men need to create and protect an environment where love is safe." I love that thought and cannot agree more with Don there.
Now for my next thought process for tonight! Don was talking about initializing change in the country and talk turned to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his nonviolent resistance. Now there wasn't quite as much here as I would have liked but the point was made nonetheless. Nonviolent resistance works. Period. Then there was something of a challenge I picked up and yet this is something I am ever trying to work on because it is the second most important commandment in the Bible only following "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." It is to love your neighbor as yourself. The challenge is to learn to genuinely love my enemies. This is difficult for me and really everyone I know. My roommate pisses me off so much so often and I just want to punch him in the face because he is my enemy a lot of the time... Well I guess long story short I need to learn to love him and not just kind of put up with him or love him like I love my dog.. I need to genuinely love him and care about what happens to him.. When my roommate pisses me off I should be praying for him not wishing bad things to happen. This lead me to consider something Don says he is doing to help with this... Don said he is using insulting people, those people who bash him on his blog which you can find at www.donmilleris.com , to learn to love his enemies. I think this is a good way to start. I know there are a lot of people who do not like me for some reason or another I can use that fact to learn to love my enemies by learning to love those people! Ok so this post is getting huge and I'm only like half done! I have two more thoughts from the webcast to share and then I will give a few closing questions I think and be finished.
Third thought from the webcast, Don mentioned at one point that while he does not believe that any church has it one hundred percent right by any means... He thinks the great diversity of churches that we have is necessary. Now what I got out of this is that this vast number of denominations and inner denominational differences found at different churches is necessary for the Church (note when I use Church big C I mean the body of believers church little c is for the building) to thrive. It was briefly noted during this portion of the webcast that several of these denominations and such came about as a result of people trying to live in a more Christ like way. That is the people who founded them saw something amiss in the current system, this doesn't mean it was all bad just part of it, and tried to fix it and make that thing more Christ like. I do however, feel that in fixing that one thing many of these new collections of believers messed up something the previous collection did get right and that is partially why there is no perfectly correct church, that and the fact that we as humans, post fall humans, are in some way flawed and indeed this is why we need Christ but that is a discussion for another time! Now for my last webcast thought!
At the very end there was a question about this so-called "Cool Christianity" Don defined this as "taking a false god to entice people to God." I think this is a pretty neat concept. I don't think it is necessarily the best way to do this but like Don kept saying at this point we live in a fallen world and therefore nothing will be perfect. The interesting thing to me is that this system works and people come to God through this all the time. So I kind of think the Church, particularly that part built up of elderly believers, should reconsider the judgment that gets passed off on younger believers, those believers like me who have piercings and tattoos (I do not have tattoos yet I do plan to get some though) us long haired "hippie" types. We are bringing people to Christ with this so-called "Cool Christianity" and it seems obvious that what worked thirty years ago with the now elderly believers isn't going to work in today's society. Well that about wraps up my thought process from the webcast I would like to pose a question or two of my own now for your consideration!
How can YOU help make a safe environment for love where YOU live?
Is there something YOU can do to make YOUR story better and to help those people involved in YOUR life also live better stories?
Is there a false god in YOUR life? If so what is it?
What does it look like for US to really, truly love OUR enemies? -- I know the Bible has stuff to say here but, lets face it I can look that up and see and ideal example of it but I want to know what it looks like in YOUR life and in MY life.
Well I hope this stimulates some thoughts for you as it did for me. One love.
First thing is some talk about passivity, specifically in a man. At least anyone who has had spiritual formation with Kurt Caddy, if not everyone, have been introduced to the idea that the curse God gave to men is to be passive. Well passivity is a terrible thing, men should be decisive now that is not to say that a married man shouldn't consider what his wife thinks about something or seek council from other men on something but what I am saying is that we shouldn't go to our wife, girlfriend, or whoever and kind of beat around the bush to get them to tell us what they want to do so we can go and sound spiritual by coming back a little later and saying something like 'Oh I prayed about things and God is leading me to
Now for my next thought process for tonight! Don was talking about initializing change in the country and talk turned to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his nonviolent resistance. Now there wasn't quite as much here as I would have liked but the point was made nonetheless. Nonviolent resistance works. Period. Then there was something of a challenge I picked up and yet this is something I am ever trying to work on because it is the second most important commandment in the Bible only following "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." It is to love your neighbor as yourself. The challenge is to learn to genuinely love my enemies. This is difficult for me and really everyone I know. My roommate pisses me off so much so often and I just want to punch him in the face because he is my enemy a lot of the time... Well I guess long story short I need to learn to love him and not just kind of put up with him or love him like I love my dog.. I need to genuinely love him and care about what happens to him.. When my roommate pisses me off I should be praying for him not wishing bad things to happen. This lead me to consider something Don says he is doing to help with this... Don said he is using insulting people, those people who bash him on his blog which you can find at www.donmilleris.com , to learn to love his enemies. I think this is a good way to start. I know there are a lot of people who do not like me for some reason or another I can use that fact to learn to love my enemies by learning to love those people! Ok so this post is getting huge and I'm only like half done! I have two more thoughts from the webcast to share and then I will give a few closing questions I think and be finished.
Third thought from the webcast, Don mentioned at one point that while he does not believe that any church has it one hundred percent right by any means... He thinks the great diversity of churches that we have is necessary. Now what I got out of this is that this vast number of denominations and inner denominational differences found at different churches is necessary for the Church (note when I use Church big C I mean the body of believers church little c is for the building) to thrive. It was briefly noted during this portion of the webcast that several of these denominations and such came about as a result of people trying to live in a more Christ like way. That is the people who founded them saw something amiss in the current system, this doesn't mean it was all bad just part of it, and tried to fix it and make that thing more Christ like. I do however, feel that in fixing that one thing many of these new collections of believers messed up something the previous collection did get right and that is partially why there is no perfectly correct church, that and the fact that we as humans, post fall humans, are in some way flawed and indeed this is why we need Christ but that is a discussion for another time! Now for my last webcast thought!
At the very end there was a question about this so-called "Cool Christianity" Don defined this as "taking a false god to entice people to God." I think this is a pretty neat concept. I don't think it is necessarily the best way to do this but like Don kept saying at this point we live in a fallen world and therefore nothing will be perfect. The interesting thing to me is that this system works and people come to God through this all the time. So I kind of think the Church, particularly that part built up of elderly believers, should reconsider the judgment that gets passed off on younger believers, those believers like me who have piercings and tattoos (I do not have tattoos yet I do plan to get some though) us long haired "hippie" types. We are bringing people to Christ with this so-called "Cool Christianity" and it seems obvious that what worked thirty years ago with the now elderly believers isn't going to work in today's society. Well that about wraps up my thought process from the webcast I would like to pose a question or two of my own now for your consideration!
How can YOU help make a safe environment for love where YOU live?
Is there something YOU can do to make YOUR story better and to help those people involved in YOUR life also live better stories?
Is there a false god in YOUR life? If so what is it?
What does it look like for US to really, truly love OUR enemies? -- I know the Bible has stuff to say here but, lets face it I can look that up and see and ideal example of it but I want to know what it looks like in YOUR life and in MY life.
Well I hope this stimulates some thoughts for you as it did for me. One love.
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Stories of Our Lives...
So lately, I guess really tonight mostly I've been thinking about the stories of our lives again. As you probably remember awhile back, at Christmas to be exact, I read the book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years and I was thoroughly impressed with it. Since I read the book I have been trying to write a better story with my life. One way I'm trying to do that is with a new program that I got from Jonny for my laptop which is like a useful version of parental controls. Well so far, and it has only been a day now, its working pretty good. Well to keep moving along I will cut that to all of the discussion there. Other examples include but are not limited too: Taking over as the primary leader at White House, started to exercise some so that I can do new cooler things in the future when I am in better shape to do them, talking to some older men who I respect about things to try and build my relationship with God by understanding things and to become a better leader, and the last example is I have been expanding in my conversations with friends, that is I am trying to talk about new things instead of the same old crap we always discuss. Now to be fair not all of that really seems like it is making for a whole lot more of an exciting story BUT I think that while it isn't directly effecting the story right now it is working towards a new more exciting end of the story in the long run. This is kind of like the better ending of two endings in a movie, the other one, which has been cut, is a crappy alternate ending in which the hero doesn't get the girl because he can't save her in time. Which brings me into my next thought, do I need a girlfriend/wife to make the story the best? Now I know in the Bible there is talk from Paul on both sides of this issue, at one point he says to get married and yet at another time he says it is best to stay single... This is kind of confusing.
I kind of wonder sometimes... I look around me while at campus and I see all these happy little couples and sometimes it really really makes me mad.. I can't stand it. I don't understand what is so repulsive about me to women, especially a group of women who time after time have said that they want a good guy not just some muscle bound clown. Yet when I look at the couples I see something missing, the nice guy. Also to drag this down the tube a little I feel like I'm losing all my friends to women. I mean I'm happy for them but for crying out loud when they all have girlfriends and I'm still the single guy I'm like an extra wheel and I feel like crap then and so I selfishly want them to remain single because it really bites to be alone. Anyways.. Enough griping about women... I guess I have one last thought and then I will be done! In writing these stories shouldn't we work into them a glimpse into what it is that drives us? I mean, when someone looks at my story should they just see me doing cool stuff like hiking the Grand Canyon or kayaking? or should my story reflect the drive Jesus has given me to live a life of excitement because it brings glory to Him when I live life to the fullest? I think the second is the option we should have. Yes having that exciting stuff is important to a good story but no good story is driven completely off of the struggles, NO there is other plot which drives the story along and that other plot is what motivates you and me, the heroes of the stories, to do what they do. In closing I challenge you the reader to consider what it is that you can do to change the story of your life a little this week, to make the story more exciting but without cutting out that necessary plot which drives you to do what you do. One love.
I kind of wonder sometimes... I look around me while at campus and I see all these happy little couples and sometimes it really really makes me mad.. I can't stand it. I don't understand what is so repulsive about me to women, especially a group of women who time after time have said that they want a good guy not just some muscle bound clown. Yet when I look at the couples I see something missing, the nice guy. Also to drag this down the tube a little I feel like I'm losing all my friends to women. I mean I'm happy for them but for crying out loud when they all have girlfriends and I'm still the single guy I'm like an extra wheel and I feel like crap then and so I selfishly want them to remain single because it really bites to be alone. Anyways.. Enough griping about women... I guess I have one last thought and then I will be done! In writing these stories shouldn't we work into them a glimpse into what it is that drives us? I mean, when someone looks at my story should they just see me doing cool stuff like hiking the Grand Canyon or kayaking? or should my story reflect the drive Jesus has given me to live a life of excitement because it brings glory to Him when I live life to the fullest? I think the second is the option we should have. Yes having that exciting stuff is important to a good story but no good story is driven completely off of the struggles, NO there is other plot which drives the story along and that other plot is what motivates you and me, the heroes of the stories, to do what they do. In closing I challenge you the reader to consider what it is that you can do to change the story of your life a little this week, to make the story more exciting but without cutting out that necessary plot which drives you to do what you do. One love.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
A Blog Borrowed...
Every Good Story Must Endure Conflict
by DON on MARCH 4, 2010
Recently I started reading the New Testament again. My friend Ron Frost recommends reading the Bible all the way through, then reading it again, and then again, until you die. So I am taking his advice. And I’m enjoying it. I didn’t start in Genesis this time, I started in Matthew, and so read the account of the Birth of Christ.
Each time I read the Bible I’m taken aback by how much we dilute the power of its stories with sentimentalism. The story of Noah and his Ark has been reduced to a Children’s story (a God-orchestrated massacre of all humanity) and the story of the Birth of Christ into a regal pageant complete with gifts and robed choirs of angels (A poor virgin and her new husband delivering a baby in a manger of a stable. Followed by an angry king slaughtering all children under two years old to try to kill off the Messiah.)
What I like about the Bible is it doesn’t clean up history. It isn’t a clean book, and God does not always look good (from our finite perspective) and yet it doesn’t hide or sell or bait and switch, it just tells the truth.
One of the problems with sentimentalizing the text is that we begin to sentimentalize our actual lives. We begin to think the Christian life should be free of hardship. We think God is going to navigate us around the hard things. But there is really nothing in scripture that should lead us to believe this. What God offers, instead, is to be with us, to not abandon us, even in the midst of our hardship.
Laying in bed this morning I was thinking about a difficult thing I have to do. It’s nothing compared to some of the stuff you might be dealing with, just a big job I have to complete. I remembered the scripture from Philippians 4: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I’ve said that verse to myself a thousand times, I am sure. But laying there, I realized something the verse didn’t say. It didn’t say “I can do all things through Christ who makes it easy.”
This paradigm shift is important because if we think God is going to take away our troubles, we assume there is something wrong with us if He doesn’t. We assume we did something bad, or that God doesn’t like us, or perhaps even God Himself isn’t good. To be sure, some of the hardships in our lives happen because we made bad decisions, but even in this we are given the grace of a God who is willing to discipline us in love and restore us. A careful understanding of Biblical stories reveals every hero goes through difficult trouble. Nobody is spared.
In an age where we are taught through commercialism there should be no struggles in life that the purchasing of a product won’t relieve, the Bible is incompatible. But the age of commercialism has let us down. Many have found their stuff has made life more meaningless. What we’ve forgotten is that every great story has to involve a difficult ambition, and must then travel through the land of conflict. The best stories have their protagonist wondering if they are going to make it. What scripture teaches us, then, is that God will be with us in that place, and will give us the strength to endure a hard thing.
Here’s to the courage to face conflict, the bonding benefit of hardships, and to living better stories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In case anyone who reads this didn't already figure out this is not my own work. I took this from Donald Miller's blog which can be found at: http://donmilleris.com/
The post just kind of stood out to me and I wanted to share it. One love.
ps. While I have not in any way added to Don's post; parts of this I realize I do myself. I feel as though like Don I have misused that passage from Philippians over and over and over again... Not to mention the numerous times I can be accused of treating biblical events like children's bed time stories.
by DON on MARCH 4, 2010
Recently I started reading the New Testament again. My friend Ron Frost recommends reading the Bible all the way through, then reading it again, and then again, until you die. So I am taking his advice. And I’m enjoying it. I didn’t start in Genesis this time, I started in Matthew, and so read the account of the Birth of Christ.
Each time I read the Bible I’m taken aback by how much we dilute the power of its stories with sentimentalism. The story of Noah and his Ark has been reduced to a Children’s story (a God-orchestrated massacre of all humanity) and the story of the Birth of Christ into a regal pageant complete with gifts and robed choirs of angels (A poor virgin and her new husband delivering a baby in a manger of a stable. Followed by an angry king slaughtering all children under two years old to try to kill off the Messiah.)
What I like about the Bible is it doesn’t clean up history. It isn’t a clean book, and God does not always look good (from our finite perspective) and yet it doesn’t hide or sell or bait and switch, it just tells the truth.
One of the problems with sentimentalizing the text is that we begin to sentimentalize our actual lives. We begin to think the Christian life should be free of hardship. We think God is going to navigate us around the hard things. But there is really nothing in scripture that should lead us to believe this. What God offers, instead, is to be with us, to not abandon us, even in the midst of our hardship.
Laying in bed this morning I was thinking about a difficult thing I have to do. It’s nothing compared to some of the stuff you might be dealing with, just a big job I have to complete. I remembered the scripture from Philippians 4: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I’ve said that verse to myself a thousand times, I am sure. But laying there, I realized something the verse didn’t say. It didn’t say “I can do all things through Christ who makes it easy.”
This paradigm shift is important because if we think God is going to take away our troubles, we assume there is something wrong with us if He doesn’t. We assume we did something bad, or that God doesn’t like us, or perhaps even God Himself isn’t good. To be sure, some of the hardships in our lives happen because we made bad decisions, but even in this we are given the grace of a God who is willing to discipline us in love and restore us. A careful understanding of Biblical stories reveals every hero goes through difficult trouble. Nobody is spared.
In an age where we are taught through commercialism there should be no struggles in life that the purchasing of a product won’t relieve, the Bible is incompatible. But the age of commercialism has let us down. Many have found their stuff has made life more meaningless. What we’ve forgotten is that every great story has to involve a difficult ambition, and must then travel through the land of conflict. The best stories have their protagonist wondering if they are going to make it. What scripture teaches us, then, is that God will be with us in that place, and will give us the strength to endure a hard thing.
Here’s to the courage to face conflict, the bonding benefit of hardships, and to living better stories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In case anyone who reads this didn't already figure out this is not my own work. I took this from Donald Miller's blog which can be found at: http://donmilleris.com/
The post just kind of stood out to me and I wanted to share it. One love.
ps. While I have not in any way added to Don's post; parts of this I realize I do myself. I feel as though like Don I have misused that passage from Philippians over and over and over again... Not to mention the numerous times I can be accused of treating biblical events like children's bed time stories.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Anti-Birthday
Well it has come to that less than special time of year again where people feel the need to tell me "Happy Birthday". This makes me freaking sick. There are few times in the year that I hate more than my birthday and since this is my blog I'm gonna gripe about it and you can just stop reading if you so feel like not reading me griping about it.
I do not believe there is any reason to celebrate a birthday. It is just another day of the year and I'm nothing special. The most special thing about me is I belong to a loving God who chose to make me an individual who happens to love growing a beard. There isn't really anything unique about me at all and I am more than willing to say that there is no reason for someone to praise me for being a year older and not even a day wiser. Well so now that I have put that out there here is the part that people just absolutely cannot oblige me, DO NOT FREAKING SPEND TIME OR MONEY ON MY BIRTHDAY. I do not want birthday wishes or gifts, I will truly appreciate you more if you just leave it be as just another day. If you absolutely cannot let the whole thing slip then find me and freaking tell me happy birthday, there is absolutely no reason for you to write it on my facebook wall especially not when you live in the same freaking dorm as me...
Ok well I am starting to get a little heated up here and need to cool my jets... I really primarily just wanted to take the chance to say this somewhere and just get it off my chest. One love.
I do not believe there is any reason to celebrate a birthday. It is just another day of the year and I'm nothing special. The most special thing about me is I belong to a loving God who chose to make me an individual who happens to love growing a beard. There isn't really anything unique about me at all and I am more than willing to say that there is no reason for someone to praise me for being a year older and not even a day wiser. Well so now that I have put that out there here is the part that people just absolutely cannot oblige me, DO NOT FREAKING SPEND TIME OR MONEY ON MY BIRTHDAY. I do not want birthday wishes or gifts, I will truly appreciate you more if you just leave it be as just another day. If you absolutely cannot let the whole thing slip then find me and freaking tell me happy birthday, there is absolutely no reason for you to write it on my facebook wall especially not when you live in the same freaking dorm as me...
Ok well I am starting to get a little heated up here and need to cool my jets... I really primarily just wanted to take the chance to say this somewhere and just get it off my chest. One love.
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