Double Shot of Grace Please...

I am trying to keep the majority of my griping down to Monday. I hope this post doesn't come off as a gripe fest but I have a feeling it could because of the nature of it. That said I will go ahead and start getting to the point.

 

Days like yesterday and today, where it is cold outside to quite an extreme when only days ago it was in the 70's, make me really depressed. I mean, I was wearing shorts and flip-flops on Saturday and now I'm back in jeans and a shoes. It was hard to believe last week was a week in February and now all of a sudden I cannot forget what month it is. One of the coolest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet is Bradley Hathaway, some of my readers will know who he is and some won't, a poet/singer who I think has written some of the most impressive things I have heard in recent years. I love his poetry from Manly Man to the Hug Poem. I equally love his songs which are more recent than the poems especially, right now that is, Well I Say What I Mean And I Mean What I Say, I Was In Love With a Girl Once, and Our Love Was Good And Our Love Was Right. Those three songs in particular right now somewhat reflect how I've been feeling in the last week or so since Amanda and I broke up. Now I do not really want to get into that on the blog, those of you who know me personally and want to know can ask and I will tell you what it is I am willing to tell anyone at all. I have a point for bringing that up. It has also been kind of a depressing thing lately so that, plus the weather, plus the stress of 18 hours of classes this semester so I can graduate, equals one very busy, very down me. Now I am certain by now you are wondering what is the point? How does this play into a post about grace? Well I will answer that right now. It plays into grace because it is when I am the most down and depressed that I most need grace. From God and from other people. Now some of you who know me, know very well that when  I am down nothing can possibly go right in my perspective and it is during this time that I am going to gripe the most about stuff even if there is nothing to gripe about... This is problematic and exactly why I need the extra grace. I know that when I get like that/this it kind of annoys people sometimes to say the least... Now since that is the case but because as Christians we are supposed to show grace to one another and to outsiders they get a bit of a kick in the pants here. It is the easy path to just get angry with me because I am venting my, many times irrational, frustrations with everything to them. Yet we aren't called to take the simple, easy path are we? It is when I am the most difficult that my friends need to give me grace and in an abundance. It is when they are most difficult that I am to give them grace and in an abundance. I am included in that both times. Once I am getting the grace and in the other I am giving it. I think this is the message we get in the Bible when it talks about grace. God gives it to us in such an amount that it spills over and we are NOT to try and collect that extra we are to let it spill out and go to others from God, to them, through us. Now that is kind of how all of this ties together. So lets get more to the rest of this post.

 

So I need a double shot of grace today and I'm sure there are several people who will see this who think to themselves "I need that too!" I'm glad to say I know I am not alone in this need. Just this morning sometime after I tweeted about doing this blog post today tweeted that he needs some extra grace. I don't know if that friend saw my tweet or not but I know he is in the same boat as me but for another reason, or maybe our reasons aren't so very different. When the weather turns from nice to frigid over night I need a double shot of grace from God because I  get more irritable and down because of it being so cold, when I get like that I find myself questioning God. I will ask stuff like, "God, if You are good. Then why is it that there is a man somewhere in the US freezing to death right now in the cold because he has no where to go?" or "God, why would you give us a week of nice weather like that just to take it away over night like that?" and then the worst of it comes when it moves from questioning about the weather to questioning about things that are also happening like, "God, why is it that when I was finally happy You ripped the thing making me happy away? Why would You do that to me? Why is it so wrong for me to be happy? Is it truly bad for me to enjoy just a little bit of happiness for a short time, is that really counter the message of Christ? Didn't He come to give us life and life more abundant?" This last type of questioning is especially dangerous for me to do because when I do that while I am so down I miss the obvious answer which is right infront of me. God let it happen so I would be dependent on Him and not on someone else for my happiness. Yes, I would say that happiness is indeed very circumstantial but at the same time I would not  want to say that God doesn't play a role in those circumstances being circumstances which are conducive to my happiness. As many of you will know already, and for those who don't here it comes, I am very, very freewill in my theology. I think that we are in control enough of our fate that we can nearly, if not, stump the will of God by choosing not to live out what He wants for us. Now in other places I do not think the freewill and "pre-destinarian" views really pull that far apart such as just like a pre-destinarian I would say that God must be the instigator of our salvation, that is, I think it requires a prompting from God for us to seek Him however, I think He prompts us to seek after Him but it is there that we must make a decision to do so and so even though God is the instigator it requires us making a choice to complete it thus, God does not elect anyone to be saved because He prompts all to come to Him but many, maybe most, reject this call. All of that said... Sorry if it was confusing by the way... I need a double shot of grace from God especially when those questions start because I will need that extra grace to feel like I can safely return to God after I question His goodness. Fortunately God gives me that grace when I need it the most and has never let me down or forsaken me when I turn back to Him in repentance for the wrongs I have done. What about my friends? Well I can also gladly report that they have also come through even if they don't know it when I needed that extra grace from them as well.

 

So what then are the implications of this? Well because God gives me the extra grace I need and my friends give me the extra grace I need. I need to give you, and the annoying guy that lives above me, and the loud mouth who lives a couple doors down from him an extra shot of grace too. This is really difficult to do sometimes and yet we aren't alone when these times happen because the Spirit is leading us along and refining us. Jesus talks an awful lot about having an even playing field. He even at one point tells us that we not only need to love our enemies but to pray for them. I think when He talks about praying for them He is telling us to pray for their well being. Don't pray disaster on the person you don't get along with pray that the best happens to them, pray that God helps them through their struggles, and especially pray that they would find peace. We cannot just give this extra grace to our friends but we must also give it to our enemies. Jesus also talks about what good is it to love those who love you back? Even the "pagans" do that. We are called to a different standard, in this different standard we sometimes have to do those things which make people outside of that standard stop and think, "What in the world? Why is he helping the guy who just yesterday was talking bad about him to his face?" Those are the hardest time to give grace but it is when we pull through there and give the grace needed and then some that we make an impact on the world. We live out the life of Christ there. Think about when Jesus did something like that. I think that is pretty simple and if you can't think of one heres an example how about when Jesus wrote in the sand and saved the woman caught in adultry? Jesus gave her grace and then some. That woman didn't deserve grace, she deserved to be stoned to death for commiting adultry but fortunately grace is not getting what we deserve. So I kinda think that if you want a double shot of grace today, tomorrow, whenever you may need one that we should start practicing giving it. In closing, practice what you preach. It will impact the world in a way that words cannot do. It is true after all, actions speak louder than words.

 

God, we ask that you would give us a double shot of grace today. We need it more than we know. Help us to not try and keep that extra, overflow of grace to ourselves but lead us to let it flood out of us to others. Give us the understanding needed to know when someone around us needs that grace. Let us not be hoarders of your love, grace, mercy, compassion, and anything else which someone might need from us but rather let us give it foolishly. Paul tells us that to the world the cross is foolishness, let not just the cross be the foolishness but also how we give. Not out of our abundance but out of what we have even when things are tight and we think we to hold on to a little something. Give us hearts for those around us that we do not think of them as lower than ourselves but help us see that the playing field is indeed even. May the grace and peace we have in and from you pour out of us as freely as blood poured out of Jesus for our salvation. In His name, amen.

Child's Faith

I want to share a story with you from earlier today. This story involves a little girl. I know nothing of this little girl outside of the fact that she exist and was at North Point today with her family. Yet this little girl demonstrated a lesson Christ taught his disciples. First I'm going to post the passage from the Bible that the basis of this comes from and then  I will share the story and discuss it a little.

 

Matthew 18:1-6:

 ¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

 ²And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,

 ³and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 ⁴"Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 ⁵"And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;

 ⁶but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

The story

Well the story moreless goes pretty simply. This morning during the 12:30 service at church we were winding things down and Tommy was asking people to make life change decisions and accept Jesus as their savior as he does at the end of every service. Well something kinda unique happened this morning and I had this revelation. To set the scene I was working on an island cam and everyone who wasn't working had their heads down and their eyes closed and Tommy was talking about the two groups of people he was going to pray for... Christians rededicating their lives and people coming to faith the first time. Well he had given everyone a chance and he always wants to give a second chance in case they didn't but wish they had and when he did that just infront of me I see this little hand pop up and so I glanced down and there is this little girl who couldn't have been older than maybe six. This was life changing for me. We are talking about money at church right now and something Tommy said the little girl heard. Now, I must admit I am a little iffy with young children making decisions like that because I am concerned with how legitimate it can be and yet I know people who did so at a young age and it was solid and life changing for them so I don't think it is impossible. But God spoke right then. It was like a light bulb clicked on in my head and suddenly coming to God like a little child was different. This little, innocent girl, who knows little of the workings of the adult world and money after hearing a sermon about money made a life choice that will change her whole life.

 

How this ties together

If we are to come to God like little children then there is a wonderful example to be found in what that little girl did. I think, what this spoke to me anyways, that we have to come to God in a manner where its not like "I know this and this and this about this and this and this" but rather in a manner of "I need YOU to take care of ME because I cannot do it myself." This, I believe, is a beautiful picture of the Kingdom of God. In God's Kingdom children, which are something we seem to take for granted, are important and Jesus wants his followers to follow him like children. I absolutely love this. It is so counter intuitive and so is the Kingdom. In God's Kingdom everything gets turned upside down on its head. In the society that Jesus lived in children were the very bottom of the totem pole and so to show how God's Kingdom flips everything on its head Jesus says that if you don't become like a little child, being the bottom of the totem pole and being last, you will not only miss the Kingdom of God but you will not enter it. I think this is an amazing portrait of what it means to follow God. Its to be like a little boy or girl following mommy or daddy around and relying on them to take care of their every need. Now if only I could get that through my thick skull and really learn to be like a little child.

What do you think of that? Do you have any thoughts? I am working through this so as to apply it to my own life. I want to be like a little child. So innocent and pure. Let us walk together through this journey to the truth. On our trip to find God where He is and to serve Him whole heartedly. Grace and Peace. One love.

Confessions PG-13

So I've been meaning to post something for awhile now but I haven't known what to put up. Well for the last month the church I go to down at school, @NorthPointMO <on twitter> has been talking about the "smelly truth" of the things we go through but don't like to admit and today we had the last three services of the series and I have thought a lot through this series and I would like to post some of what we have talked about and try to provoke your thoughts too! Keep in mind this has been a series rated PG-13 by the pastor so as a whole it has been addressing more adult themes and as such so will this post. Be forewarned I will go where the pastor, @tommysparger <on twitter>,  was willing to go and so please be advised that some of this may make you blush a little. The first week we spoke about a specific problem lust. So we will address this now.

The first question to be addressed is what is lust? The pastor used Matthew 22:36-40 to comment on this. Now this is an interesting passage to use to talk about what lust is because this is the passage where Jesus speaks about the most important commandment but I think the reason it applies is that lust, is breaking the first greatest commandment and making something else God. So then what is lust? Lust is using someone else or their image for my sexual pleasure. This is truly sick but very much the case for many people in the United States and in the wider context the world. Now someone might be thinking what is so bad about lust? Well simply put it is a destructive habit. What, wait, you mean lust is destructive? How? Why? Well again this fairly simple, lust is destructive because when you or I or anyone commits lust everybody involved suffers. You, I, whoever is commiting lust suffers because they pull away from others to keep this sin hidden, because of that you ruin relationships which cause you to suffer later when no one wants to be around you. The person you are lusting after suffers because in your head/my head/ whatever that person is being treated like they are nothing and because of that they suffer whether they know it or not. Now the next thing is that there are levels of lust, three in particular. The first level of lust is not engaged in a pattern or preoccupation of lust. The second is very much associated with guilt. Seasons of being very affected by lust and seasons of not being (this seems to be the common pattern). The third and final level is very consumed by lust. So then if this is the case for you, how do you stop might be the next question. For this we were given a three step process which may not quite work for all situations but is a good start and the steps are 1) admit you have a problem, 2) find out why you have the problem, and 3) reach out and trust someone. There is some beauty to be found in this very kind of a situation Hebrews 4:15-16 is a passage we got at this point and it is so very important for us to know this simple truth. This passage talks about how our "High Priest" is one who understands our issues and can relate to us because Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, was tempted in everyway that a man (in a general sense not genderly, can be tempted.

The second week of this series we spoke about secret sins and the first verse we looked at was Proverbs 28:13. From there Tommy moved to speaking about two principles of secret sin which were: 1) when you keep a sin a secret, it goes from bad to worse and 2) confession is the healthiest thing you can do. So confession is the healthiest thing we can do? That is amazing but Tommy went a little further and said that there are two types of confession: 1) confession to God and 2) confession to each other. The last major point for this week was a five step application for dealing with secret sin. The first step is to deal with it today. This is important without a doubt because if you put it off the problem isn't going to go away if you put it off. The second is refuse to blame other people. Take responsibility for what you are doing. Thats pretty straight forward isn't it? This is definitely going to be one of the tougher ones to do because its so much simpler to say well its not my fault its _______'s fault. The third principle is to surrender to Jesus. But what if you are a Christian and still struggling with this secret sin? Just keep surrendering to Jesus and lay this burden at his feet. The fourth principle is to keep away from temptation. This one is sometimes easier said than done. College students, most of them, need a computer in their room to do their school work. Perhaps an alternative to this is to place the computer in a central location or to get rid of it. Those are options. Other options could be to have someone else password protect your computer for you so you can't use it unless they do or only use your computer when someone else is around to make sure you don't do something you shouldn't. This however assumes the problem is a pornography addiction and leads into the fifth principle Tommy gave us. That principle is get accountability and support. In running with the previous example for principle four there are numerous options for accountability such as x3watch, this is a free "big brother" program which reports your illicit computer activity on the internet. Another option, one which cost, is Safe Eyes. This program is another "big brother" program which works similarly to x3watch but on an even more advanced level, one which reports immediately and doesn't allow internet surfing unless the program is active and logged in thus doing a better job per se at keeping someone honest and clean because they cannot access porn and other illicit materials. One last note before I move on. These principles will work with any secret sin not just an addiction to porn but also alcoholism, drug use, anger, and so on.

The third week we talked about overcoming religous judgmentalism. That is how do we overcome being a Pharisee. This problem is a unique one which plagues many a church and many a believer yet it is one which I do not struggle with but sharing the details of our talk could help someone and I want to share for that reason! The first major thing Tommy said that really stood out to me was that "We need to be a church which has the heartbeat of Jesus and is a place of grace." I think this is so very very true! So then the next thing I'm going to say should go without saying, "Religious superiority creates a roadblock to us being a church after God's heart." This again seems to be so very very true. Now you probably wonder if this is the case why do mean spirited Pharisees go unchecked? Well Tommy gave us three reasons: 1) they are always in charge, 2) they are always paying the bills, and 3) they are mean. This spells out some trouble for the church in the form of a MAJOR image problem. The last thing we talked about this week are lessons from the life of Jesus about having a judgmental heart. The first lesson is I am no better than the person out there that I think has problems. - Matthew 1-5. I have NO moral authority to judge anyone. I should simply be helping them. Ya know, Jesus didn't just die for church people but for EVERYBODY. So, sometimes and make sure to read this a couple times cause a misunderstanding here makes Tommy, and I because I agree with him, sound like heretics. "Being a Pharisee is more destructive to the Kingdom of God than being a prostitute." I love that. It speaks to the kind of people Jesus came for when he says that doctors are for the sick not for the healthy. Prostitutes know they are screwed up and need a savior but Pharisee's they miss that point. The last sub-lesson to be had here is that real people have real issues and they need God. God is NOT just for church people and we are to help them. The second lesson from the life of Jesus is that God has a different perspective than me. - Luke 18:9-14. In this passage we learn that Jesus wants people with issues to come to the community of grace, the church, and to receive help. Now maybe you are wondering why is it that Jesus is so hard on the religious? Well its not exactly like the sinners get away easy themselves infact, he is probably harder on sinners than we think BUT he always calls sinners to a life change. Because, as I mentioned before, sinners know they are sinners but the religious deny that they are sinners. As a result, a large part of the church resembles the Pharisees religion rather than the life and movement of Jesus. The third and final lesson is that Jesus doesn't condemn, but he does call us to change. - John 8:3-11. That passage is the one in which the Pharisee's try to trap Jesus with the woman who was caught in adultery. There was one major "sub-lesson" to be had from this story Jesus doesn't hit people in the face with rocks but with the frace of God and grace makes life changes.

Ok, so. We have covered a lot to get to this point. Take a deep breath and step into the final stretch with me. Ok..1.2.3. Exhale. Alright so this week we addressed the practical application of all of this using James 5:16. To do this there were four questions to be answered why? who? what? when? These questions will put you into the position to begin overcoming sin which is trying to ruin your life because of it being a secret. The first question the why question, is pretty straight forward to be answered. Why confess? Because it is the healthy thing to do. So then consider the second question the who question. Who should you confess to? A spiritually mature believer that you trust. If you don't know one then try a counselor. But why can't you just confess to Jesus? Well because you need accountability and so you have to tell someone else so they can keep you accountable. The third question is the what question. What do you confess to? Well the starting place is to confess to that sin which you most  want to conceal. This is because that is the one which is going to hurt you the most and so you need to bring it into the light so that it loses its power. The fourth and final question is the when. When should you confess? Immediately. Don't wait a month go and find someone you trust and do it ASAP. This can be tough but it will be worth it. So as you can see this series was full of discussion which if one applies it to their life can help you make a life change by working along side God and the Holy Spirit as they work inside of you to change your life.

So. In the spirit of what I have posted and because you are probably wondering why I titled this post "Confessions" I am going to bring to light my own personal flaws. I do not expect anyone else to do that here however, if you should so desire feel free to use this space as a place to confess your own sin where prayer can be given for you. My biggest struggle is that I repress emotions and I lack confidence across the board in my life. This isn't something I am particularly proud of in the least bit but they are my two major struggles. I have worked along side the Holy Spirit to overcome other things but these two plague me continually.  I have never really been one to express emotion especially after a long series of bad relationships which ended with a near five year hiatus from dating during which time I evaluated those relationships from time to time but not consistently. Those relationships made me associate some level of shame with being vulnerable and as such I am now more closed up and need to get that problem resolved so that I do not hurt my girlfriend. The second issue, the one of confidence, is another one that I don't feel like I have ever really been. I'm not exactly a public speaker and yet I do it numerous times a semester at White House. When I asked out Amanda I wasn't really confident, fortunately she said yes and I am glad she did so very much. Well, this has been quite a post and I am ready to move on and infact have to go do other things. So I bid you a goodnight. Peace out. One love.