message from 1-25-08

This message was one on our Reckless Series – Reckless is dear to my heart because it was the theme for my senior year (when I was on core leadership) at AACF at UCSD…

Start off: Korean BBQ

Reckless Surrender

When we hear the word surrender, its usually not a positive thing. We think of the losing. We think of giving up. We think of the French… Putting yourself at the mercy of your opponent. Usually one side surrenders if it took too many losses in battle. Or perhaps the surrendering side knows it can’t hope to defeat a greater power. For example, Japan surrendered to the United States after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Knowing that the US had the power to destroy entire cities, Japan ultimately decided that surrender was the best option. But surrender is never people’s favorite choice. It means admitting defeat. It means humiliation. Sometimes it won’t even guarantee the safety of one’s people. No one likes to lose and surrender is an automatic loss. In a way, choosing to lose.

World: Surrender

I think the world today would say that ultimately surrender is not the way to go. The world today? It says YOU’RE a Winner! All about “you”. Have it Your Way, What are Your desires, Be You, You are special, You can do anything. In fact, when I look at America, it blows my mind just how much we just think about ourselves. Advertisers, music, TV all use ourselves to get at ourselves.

So when Christians talk about surrendering to God… giving up yourself to God… that’s gotta strike people as crazy or, yes, I’m going to say it, reckless in the bad way

And to that I say, No, it’s the good way.

Surrender to God: Reckless

Let’s get into some scripture. I’m actually going to be cheap about it and start off with a verse that Brandon used last week. Phillippians 3.8: 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

PRAY

So Anyways, Paul says that he considers everything a loss compared to Christ. Now that doesn’t mean everying is terrible or that he doesn’t have some possessions. But what he’s saying is that comparatively, they’re losses. Knowing Christ is so much a gain, its infinitely worth more than the rest, that they seem like losses in comparison.

Its like Paul’s stuff, his past is here. And then knowing Christ is WAY over there, beyond the Target, beyond the city, beyond orange county, beyond…. Like everything. You can’t even see it. That’s how great it is. It makes everything else look like a loss. To Paul, everything he’s gained, compared to Christ, it’s a loss.

And to Paul, knowing Christ is worth his entire life. Paul surrenders His life to Jesus. Now you may be thinking, well of course his life before was pretty bad. Destructive really… going around killing the Christians or throwing em in jail. In Acts Chapter 7, we see Stephen become the first Christian martyr. Verse 60 – 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.” And then in the next Chapter verse one it says, And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. In the NRSV version, it says, And Saul approved of their killing him. Really kind of sinister. I can see Paul…

But actually, let’s take a look at his life before, Paul actually makes his own account. To do this we’ll go back to Phillipians 3. When reading the bible we often get a few random verses thrown out at us to memorize. It’s very important to understand the context of what the Bible is saying and not just stuff at face value all the time. But let’s take a look. Phillipians 3, start with verse 2.

Paul’s life was actually pretty good. He was a good Pharisee, he followed the law to the letter! He had it all going for him, but that’s not what God wanted for him. Paul makes a complete turnaround from where he was. I’m sure you remember his story. Jesus comes to Him near Damascus, showed him the error he was making, and gave Paul a mission, a mission Paul says that was prepared for him before his birth.

Paul surrenders his old life for one brand new. He sacrifices everything because of this new revelation. And because of Paul, we have a great portion of our New Testament. And because of Paul much Mediterreanean area was evangelized. If it weren’t for Paul, the world would look very different…

But none of that would have happened, had Paul not surrendered himself to his calling. Paul recognized the real importance of his life. After his conversion, he realized he had been chosen and commissioned by God to do this great task of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.

Now as most of you know, Paul has two names, the other being… Saul. Anyone know what is significance of two names or what these two mean? A lot of Jews in this time had two names, one that was a Jewish name and one that was a Greek name, to better fit in with their surroundings. When in the Old Testament the Jews were conquered by foreigners, they were swept into Greek culture. There’s a lot of history that the Bible doesn’t talk about, but part of it is that there was a struggle to either fight against Greek culture or to mix in with it. You can ask me later about it or go read wikipedia, the source of all knowledge… of wait, that doesn’t sound right.

But anyways Saul is his Jewish name and Paul is his Graeco-Roman name. Why would he go by Paul more often later?

I think a couple things play into this. First, I think by taking on Paul more than Saul, he is first distancing himself from his old life. When he was persecuting Christians, he was known certainly to his Jewish community as Saul. Second, because he was the apostle to the Gentiles, taking on a Graeco-Roman name rather than a Jewish name made him more relatable. But overall, I think Paul wanted to show his change in identity. No longer a persecutor, now a humble servant of Christ.

Paul took on a new identity that completely transformed his world. He surrendered his old life and let God make him new. Now to his community before, the Jews, the people in Jerusalem, the Greeks, this decision would be reckless in a bad way. Paul suffered a lot for his new life. Its like, let’s say Paul met an old friend and they sat down for coffee to catch up on their lives.

So Paul, how’s life?

Oh pretty good, Jesus has been doing some amazing things…

Wait, Jesus? That guy who was crucified and started up that weird cult? The same cult that you were pretty gung-ho about destroying?

Yeah, yeah, but Jesus appeared to me and showed me the truth (that’s way over simplified)

So, what do you do now?

Well, I travel about with a couple of friends spreading the word about Christ!

Yeah, how’s that going?

Pretty good. I’ve been thrown in prison, got whipped, flogged, shipwrecked, beaten, stoned (but I lived), mocked, persecuted, I sometimes get hungry and lonely…

Wait, and how is this life better then your old life?

Because I know Christ and I get to spread the good news about him!

Uh huh….

See the world would see Paul as crazy, he traded a good life for one full of suffering, hunger, pain, and persecution. That’s pretty reckless, in the bad way! I think that’s how much of the world views being a Christian. Give your life to an invisible God? Waste your Sunday? People call it foolish, a waste of time, a complete lie, and a dozen of other things that would need to bleeped out. And if you haven’t been called any of those things, believe me, you will, just warning you… high school and college can be crazy places… And Paul was called many of those things and he faced physical harm too. We’re lucky we don’t have to face that in America. But in the midst of all that, he still said Christ was worth it.

Do we view Christ that way? Do we consider knowing Him so much more valuable than anything else? Too often, I don’t think we do. Honestly look at your own life. And I fall into that as well, there are plenty of times where I put other things above Him. And we will make mistakes, we will put other things before Him, we will not listen to Him sometimes, but that’s what makes Jesus’ love for us all the greater. He loves us no matter how much we fall. His love is never failing and His love is unconditional. He doesn’t love us any less for the mistakes we make. Its perfect love.

And I think that’s what Paul realized, he saw how imperfect he was, that the law couldn’t save him, his good deeds, his good works, simply being a Jew, wasn’t going to save Him. No, it was God and the gift of Jesus that would save and that perfect love was calling him to surrender. What other response was there?! To fight it would be reckless! To deny it, would be reckless! Jesus was basically staring him down in the face and saying Paul, this is the truth, I am calling you with my love and grace. Paul knew the right choice, surrender to Christ. That’s reckless to the world, because it meant losing so much. But losing out on the greatest gift, God’s true love? That’s eternally reckless.

Paul realized that all that he was before had little to no bearing on what was ultimately important. What he found in Christ, he realized, was the greatest thing he’d found in life. It became his identity, it became him.

A lot of Paul’s letters are combating the false teaching that Brandon has talked about in our series on Colassians. One of Paul’s main arguments is his own testimony. Remember, the false teachers said he was a fraud with the wrong gospel. But Paul said “I’m no fraud! I got a revelation right from Christ!” His own story built up so much of who he was a new believer.

So what’s your story? Your testimony is your story of how you came to know Christ. It is your personal, intimate, and undisputable story of how Jesus changed your life. It may not be as flashy as Paul’s but it is nonetheless important and powerful. Now for me, I’ll give you a shortened version of my story as I think I’ll be sharing my complete testimony next week on first Friday… so if you want to hear it, come next week! I can relate in a way to Paul. He was one of the best Pharisees around. Now the Pharisees get a bum wrap, but if you actually study the history, Pharisees were actually well liked by the people, they were pretty popular. But Paul was a good Pharisee and basically had a lot going for him. But then he realized what he was living for meant nothing compared to knowing Christ.

The short version is that in high school, I thought my grades and standing in school were so important that I began to obsess over it. I compared my self to my friends whose parents pushed them very hard in school. When I got lower scores… which were like B’s… I thought I was a worse person… it got so bad it even reached the point of thinking about suicide. But that’s when God taught me that his love for me went far beyond what grades I got. In fact, his love didn’t depend on ME at all! God already loved me, simply because I was his creation. His love was perfect, unconditional, and fulfilling. And God asked me to surrender my life to him… to give up those feelings of being imperfect and less of a person and to find my identity in simply knowing that He loved me. God not only has saved me spiritually, but he saved me physically as well.

And now, my testimony is my story, my evidence, my proof of God working in my life. Its something I can share from my heart to my friends. And often, if I start to doubt God’s love, I pull this story out and God speaks to me, “Remember how I saved you. That is the proof.” My love. That’s who you are.

Where do you find your identity? What defines who you are? Is it God? Or is it something else? Maybe its your grades like it was for me? Maybe its finding a girlfriend or a boyfriend? Maybe its money? Maybe its how much stuff you have? Or maybe you think of yourself in poor light. Maybe you feel your parents don’t love you and that distorts your self-image. Or perhaps you’ve felt the sting of rejection from a friend.

You might define yourself with these or something else completely. But whatever it is, God wants you to find yourself in Him. He wants you to define who you are because of His love for you. You are His creation. You are His treasure. You are part of the church, not just CBC or Catalyst or wherever you might go, but part of the global church, the body of Christ. You’re a part of me, you’re a part of the person next to you, you’re a part of Pastor Gary or Barry. And as the body we’re all here to affirm your identity in Christ.

That’s part of the reason we stuck a few of those questions on blackout – We asked that you’d pray for someone who wants to improve something in their spiritual life. We want you talk about spiritual gifts. If you have questions, and I’m sure you all do, feel free to ask people. If you saw me at retreat Saturday night, I could go on all night talking about this stuff. The great thing about being a Christian is that you will always have the body of Christ to rely upon. And that’s something we can do constantly. Be open with one another, transparent. Pray for one another. Let people know about your questions, your doubts. And tell people when God is doing good things in your life as well. This is all part of who we are.

TIME: Discuss? <20 min

Jesus wants us to surrender ourselves to Him and when we do, the Bible says we become a new creation. We’re new people! But it doesn’t stop there, because we have Jesus and with Him the Holy Spirit, and if we surrender our whole selves, God can do amazing things through us! Do you want that? Paul did, let’s go one more time back to Phil 3 – Verse 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

Paul wants to surrender even more. He hungers for it. A life of a Christian isn’t easy. It isn’t “Oh God, yeah, he’s cool” or “Jesus is my homeboy” or even just coming to church and youth group. Oh no, it’s a lifestyle! It’s a life devoted to God. Its more than reading the Bible, more than good quiet times. More than singing songs More than church. I honestly believe that God wants us to have more exposure to Him than just church. Now you might be saying, that’s too much Brett! How can I do that?? Surrender. When you let go, God will bless your life in a way you didn’t think of before. It might hurt, but God might make your stronger or bless others because of you.

What are things we can surrender? Well, we can surrender our time. Let God give you things to do that could help others. It doesn’t have to be spiritual or deep. It might be as simple as buying someone lunch or helping with homework. You can surrender bad habits, lying, gossip, evil thoughts.

You can surrender your hobbies and personal likes. For example, I know some of the music you listen too. Not always the most wholesome lyrics and some that you may not even realize. Now I won’t say DON’T EVER LISTEN to that stuff or DON’T EVER Watch Rated PG-13 Movies. Nor am I saying you have to listen to all Christian music or watch all Disney movies or Barney… because He’s scary. (BARNEY) But let God make you aware of the stuff you’re putting into yourself. Examine your life. Is music with those types of lyrics changing the way you think or behave? It might be time to turn to a different radio station for awhile. Are violent movies or video games making you more aggressive? Probably time to cut back. Let God actively speak to you and take action on it. Just a little plug for music here, if you want some Christian lyrics in more “secular” genres, I highly recommend the Orange County Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy, Relient K, and Switchfoot. In fact some of your non-believer friends might know Relient K and Switchfoot and you make a spiritual connection that way…

You can surrender talents. My brother and I had a little filmmaking bug (and now its his job) so we made a silly movie 4 years ago that some of you saw. And now some people actually use it to spread the gospel. Or Kathy has amazing art skills and she makes really beautiful sketches and drawings. With them she sends encouragement notes and pictures to people. And she really is good, you should see the work she does. But she never says so. In fact when I told her I would talk about her art skills, she said “I have none”. She’s just being overly modest. But that’s another thing you can surrender. Surrender your relationships. God put us here in community for a reason. We’re relational people and like I was saying before, we need to be here for each other. Compliment and encourage each other, but also rebuke and correct one another when necessary.

Or we can surrender our finances. This is a touchy subject for a lot of people and maybe since you’re in Jr High you don’t have a lot of cash. But even so, you can start now. Pastor Gary preaches the 10-10-80 plan every year. Give God 10%, Save 10%, Pay everything else with the other 80%. But maybe God’s put something on your heart. For Kathy and me, we sponsor a child in Armenia. This provides him with extra clothes, education, and Bible lessons, as well as other needs. Its not a lot of extra money, just $30 a month but hopefully its making a difference. A lot of you might be thinking about going into jobs to make a lot of money. There’s nothing wrong with a lot of money, but God wants you to be responsible and generous with it.

And one more, you can surrender your future to Him. Let God guide you into a job and future that would honor and glorify Him. Don’t go into something if you’d hate it or just because someone else tells you too. Listen for God, he’s made you into a specific way to do something in His kingdom. Now that doesn’t mean you have to go into ministry like me or Brandon (but if you feel you might want to I highly encourage it), but it does mean that your future, even the next minute belongs to God. Not because He’s selfish and greedy or demanding, but because He is preparing you for good works. So listen for Him.

Story of surrender (Story of Charlie and Church Recycling -e-mail me if you want the story… I just told it from memory)

Surrender doesn’t have to be brutal. In fact, it’s the little things that God needs us to surrender. The world would say its reckless and it is, in the good way. The world says “look out for you” “don’t let anyone control you” “the only thing you can rely on is yourself”. But guess what, God is faithful, and He is good, and He loves you and you can rely on Him when you surrender. He has a better life than what the world can offer. Its worth so much more, not just because of eternal life, though that’s a big part, but your whole life, when lived for God, is fulfilling, satisfactory, and complete. Its way out there on the worth scale. You can’t even measure it. The world? Just right around here. How far are you willing to go?

message from 12-14-07

This message was my Christmas message – there’s a bit that I edited during the actual message including acting out the part about Old Ritual sacrifice…

God Inbreaking

 

Matthew 1:23

 

 

I really don’t like Christmas all that much.  I’m a fairly cynical guy and when it comes to the holidays, I’m pretty much a scrooge.  Not with giving or presents, but there’s something about this time of year that seems to get me in a bad mood.  It’s a lot of different things.   There’s the blatant commercialization and emphasis on presents.  Now honestly, that’s not so bad.  Generosity with kids and family and friends is fine, in fact its good.  But too often we focus on what we’re going to get, how many presents we got, and we forget about what Christmas is about.  Now I know you’ve heard this before, so I won’t go into any more detail for that.  Another thing that gets to me sometimes?  Christmas movies.  Ok, what are some Christmas movies that you guys watch?  Yeah… and how many times have you watched em?  Kathy said that she probably watched A Christmas Story like 15 times every year.  And Rudolph and those weird clay animated films that are really just kinda freaky?  I got so tired of em.  Its like there’s never been a new Christmas movie made!  And honestly, they’re all really homey and nice and warm and fuzzy.  Like a Disney show where everyone’s always smiling.  It just feels… fake to me…  cause I’m not sure if life is really like that.  And Christmas music too.  Now I know a lot of people like Christmas music, but all the old classics, I honestly got tired of em by like age 7.    Too happy…  The whole thing about Christmas is its just too happy for me. 

 

Christmas time honestly doesn’t seem like it should be a happy time.  There’s running around shopping, spending CRAZY amounts of money (probably money that you don’t actually have), preparing for Christmas dinner which can be a nightmare, making sure your house is clean so relatives don’t say it’s a mess, and then!  After 3 weeks of intense preparation and sweat and possibly even blood!  (Yeah, those parents fighting over tickle me elmos and Nintendo wiis)) And after trips to the mall, ToysRUs, Target, Starbucks for gift cards and a Doubleshot, and buying a Ham and potatoes and drinks and Cleaning up the House and all the while being coaxed around by Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, and Chestnuts Roasting on an open and watching Rudolph prove himself for the 13^th time, that miracle on 34^th street, and see Clarence help George Bailey realize that it is a wonderful life afterall, you finally get the one day you’ve been waiting for.  And then its done and you go back to your normal life..  It just seems like a roller coaster.  You wait in line for 2 hours for 1 minute of entertainment except this one you go on a roller coaster for 3 weeks and then rest for a day.

 

And that’s the way we like to think about Christmas… as this one day where we can celebrate and have fun and get away from school, work, and the drudgery of everyday life.  Its basically an escape.  We’ll put on a happy face for a day or two and forget about everything else.  So its basically like a façade sometimes.  The way we see it on TV?  there’s something about a family, all wearing nice warm holiday sweaters, sitting around the tree by the fire opening perfectly wrapped red and green presents with gold ribbon around it just always feels so fake to me…

 

Ok, so that’s my rant.  And maybe this isn’t how Christmas is to you, Or maybe I’ve just ruined it for all of you.  Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is a good thing and there is a lot to love and I don’t mean to bash how we celebrate Christmas if its something you really enjoy.  Good family traditions and holiday spirit are good so keep doing it.  and look forward to… like mistletoe… oh wait, I mean uhh… nevermind.  But I mean, we here all know that “the true meaning of Christmas” is a lot more than gifts, movies, music, and even family.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  I’ve heard that.  I know, the real reason for Christmas is the birth of Jesus.  But is that it? 

 

What?  Brett’s questioning the true meaning of Christmas?  Well, not exactly.  But honestly I think there’s even more to that.  Heh, that’s one other thing I don’t like about Christmas, even from a Christian point of view.   We’ve made it into something else and still haven’t quite gotten it right.  We’ve narrowed it to the story

 

Instead, Christmas is now Joseph and Mary go to the Inn and a big plump innkeeper says “There’s no room in the Inn”.  Awww… poor Joseph and Mary, and you darn inn keeper.  Take compassion on the pregnant lady!  Oh wait, there’s actually no innkeeper in the bible.  And how about the wise men?  How many were there?  (answer)  Actually we don’t know that.  We just assume there are three because of how many gifts there were, one for each of them.  The Bible actually isn’t specific about that.  And then sometimes we’ll even go and say that all the animals were happy and possibly even singing and it was a crazy serene scene and baby Jesus is smiling and the best behaved baby ever.  I’ve heard some say that when Jesus came out, he didn’t cry.  I kinda doubt that.  If he didn’t cry, they might have though he was dead.  I’ll bet he had a good healthy loud cry.  There are some other things that we’ve kinda just made up and thrown into the story.  And it makes a good story, but then we sometimes limit the story to that.  Yay!  Jesus is born!  Merry Christmas!  Now what?  Uhh… he’s our savior!  Our savior is born!  Merry Christmas! Ok, and???  What does that mean? 

 

The point I’m getting at is that if when we concentrate solely on these stories and even get away from the craziness of the actual holiday, we’re still missing practically everything!  Sure, miraculous birth, virgin Mary, that’s cool, but if it were just that… it really wouldn’t mean anything.  You’ve got to see the big picture. 

 

OK, so we celebrate the birth of Christ once a year around December (and we’re not even sure that’s the right date).  And then, we go for new year and the holiday season is over… so we stop celebrating.  We do have Easter, where we celebrate his death and resurrection.  These are the two key moments where we celebrate Jesus.  These are the two major Christian holidays.  And they’re good to celebrate.  I mean those are two really crazy miracles and form the whole basis of our faith!  But we celebrate in December and April or sometimes March, but the rest of the year… nothing…

 

And that’s no way to celebrate!  God told the Jews to have multiple festivals!   I think Jesus’ story gave us much more to work with than just Christmas and Easter.  There’s more than the beginning and the end.  If the Matrix trilogy lacked Reloaded, there’d be something missing.  Or Pirates?  Or Spider Man? Or UGH X-men?  Or if the Star Wars Trilolgy started with Phantom Menace and then proceeded straight to Return of the Jedi… I’d be so confused…  So it is the same with Jesus’ story, we need to celebrate more than the birth and more than the death and resurrection! 

 

So how do we do that? Well, we’ll finally get into some scripture.  Matthew 1.23.  Get where I’m goin’ with this? Pray

 

 

 

Alright, so Matthew 1.23 says that Jesus was called Emmanuel which means God with Us.  And that’s exactly what Jesus was.  As we know Jesus was not just the Son of God, but God Himself come here to Earth. 

And that’s crazy!  How crazy is that?  Let me illustrate it for you.  Christianity and Judaism before it were revolutionary religions.  They flipped the ideas of religion on their head.  Pastor Rob Bell of Mars Hill Church in Michigan puts it like this.  OK, pretty much all other religions, especially those around the time of the early Jewish history all worried about staying in favor with the Gods.  If your crop wasn’t good, the God’s must be displeased.  So what do you do?  Sacrifice some more.  If your crop was good, then what do you do?  Sacrifice some more to the gods out of thankfulness.  You just kept having to sacrifice more and more.  Eventually it would lead to mutilation and even human sacrifice.  You’d never know where you stood with the gods.  Were they happy, were they mad?  We don’t really know but just keep sacrificing to stay in their favor.  And what did they do?  They made idols.  Images of gods or they said that gods were tree stumps and rivers.

 

ACT IT OUT

But what does Judaism teach for the Jews.  The story begins with God’s covenant with Abraham.  God actually spoke to Abraham!  Wait Wait Wait!  God is actually talking to you?  And making an agreement so that you will know where you stand with God?  You mean that you don’t have to be in the dark anymore and sacrifice everything you have like your children so you can stay in good standing?  THAT’s CRAZY!  You mean that God, who is faithful and loving ALWAYS, because He’s God, lets you know that you are favored just because and He’s set it all out before you…  Yes, that’s nuts!  That’s revolutionary for that time!  Genesis 17 is where God sets out his covenant with Abraham:  Verse 1 God says to Abraham to walk before Him and be blameless.  What does blameless mean?  It doesn’t mean faultless, as we’ll see later in Genesis, Abraham still messes up a bit.  But it means that despite these things, they won’t be held against him.  So suddenly, as long as we fulfill this covenant, we know we’re good!  No more worrying about it!  And the same with the Law of Moses in Exodus:  We know what sin is now!  This was completely revolutionary!  A God who cared about you, would actually talk to you and give you the means and rules so you knew exactly where you were in standing.  No more crazy, desperate, and wasteful sacrifices, but confidence in knowing what you had to do.

 

So what happened here?  People on Earth were going nuts!  Going crazy with trying to please gods while not knowing at ALL how to please them!  But God, the one true God, broke into our reality and fixed it all up. WHAM!  God came to us and showed us the way to make it work so we didn’t have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off! 

 

But then jump ahead to Jesus.  What was the most prominent he did?  Died on the Cross and was resurrected to pay for our sins right?  So now where are we with God?  Take the most famous verse of all.  John 3.16.  “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  So now we are guaranteed salvation simply by Faith!  That’s even more revolutionary!  You’re telling me that now I am in good standing with God as long as I believe in Him and what he did through jesus?!  WHAH!!  We don’t have to worry about being perfect in God’s eyes.  We already are!  Simply by faith!  That’s it!  Now of course we need to still work on ourselves and spread the gospel because as it says in James 2:17-18, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” OK, so we can’t just be lazy with our faith, we’ve got to act on it too, but our salvation is essentially guaranteed by our Faith.  But salvation by Faith is off the charts crazy!  So what happened?  Well, just as before, God broke into our reality to be with us.  He made a way so that we could be with Him forever, both here on this Earth and after it too.  God broke in WHAM! Into our reality to save us!  And where did this begin?  The birth of Christ!  That’s what Christmas is.  God going: look out people.  WHAM!  God is here and He’s making it right.  That’s what the birth of Christ is.  God breaking in to be with us.  Emmanuel, God with us. 

 

And to top it off, He, even though he ascended to heaven afterwards, he still made a way for Him to be with us.  Acts 1:8 Jesus says to the disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”.  The Holy Spirit is now with us always.  When we become believers the Holy Spirit fills us and God is with us always. 

 

So let’s look at this in the big picture here… God in the old testament made it clear what we had to do to be in favor with Him.  God through Jesus made it so that we are always in favor with God regardless of our sins.  And then God gives us the Holy Spirit, HIS spirit to be with us always as a sign and guarantee of our salvation. God basically did everything!  If there’s something to celebrate this Christmas, its that!  I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty crazy!  That’s something to celebrate all year round.  Just as God is always with us, we can always celebrate.  More than December 25^th we have the privilege to celebrate a loving God day in and day out, 24/7, 365 and sometimes an extra, days a year! 

 

DISCUSS IF TIME

I.                     Implications of God being with us now

a.      Change is possible, salvation and freedom

 

So what does it mean, now that God is with us?  A lot of things!  It means we have the power to overcome sin!  It means that we can be comforted!  It means that we have a counselor wherever!  It means we have a guide for everything!  It means we can fight temptation! It means that we can pray and talk with him at all times!  It means that when you need to change, God will help you change.  It means He is here to carry you out of temptation.  It means that He is always available to those who call on His name.  It means we no longer live in a world that ultimately ends in death, but instead ends in life!  It means we are dead to the world, and alive in the Kingdom of God.  We get to live and be a part of God’s kingdom.  We are chosen by God to be His workers.  Because of Jesus’ birth, we can serve God in this lifetime and that is a blessing and a privilege. 

 

Inaugurated and asking the right question of the 2nd coming

Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God.  Matthew 4.17 shows Jesus as he started his ministry.  Like John the Baptist before Him, he preached that the kingdom of heaven was near.  In fact, Jesus’ life was the starting point for the kingdom.  Now I used the word inaugurated, what does that mean?  My Christian Ethics teacher Glen Stassen and co-author David Gushee put it this way.  Inaugurated is the idea that Jesus has begun it, but we’re still waiting for it all to happen.  The ultimate realization of the kingdom of God will come when Christ returns.  Now we don’t know when that will be but that will be the final occurrence of God breaking in to our reality, this time to put an end to evil, suffering, and death, once and for all.  But this means that the kingdom started in the past and will be fully realized in the future.  Therefore, it exists right now, in the present.  We are living in God’s kingdom.  People are always asking “When is He coming back!” or “Oh, look at this event!  Like Hurricane Katrina! Or 9/11!  It’s a sign that the Jesus is returning!”  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.  We don’t know. But Not even Jesus knew as it says in Matthew 24.36.  But these are the wrong questions.  Since the Kingdom is not just a future thing, but it is a present thing, we don’t need to know when its coming.  We just need to be ready for it.  So we need to understand what the kingdom of God means for us.  What does it mean to be Kingdom people?  What action does that require?  I’m pretty sure we could do an entire year or more’s worth of messages on the Kingdom of God and what that means.  But we’ve got to ask the right questions, even when we talk about celebrating Christmas. 

 

So what’s the most famous question of Christians.  Maybe you’re too young to remember this, maybe not, but back when I was in Jr High, there was an old slogan that you probably still know today, “What Would Jesus Do?”  Maybe this is it! No, and let me tell you why.  WWJD:everyone had these nifty little bracelets that had WWJD that basically shouted out “I’m a Christian” to all your classmates.  (Kat’s story) Now it was a good sentiment and I wore one myself.  But honestly it made Christianity a little cheesey mostly because I don’t think the people who wore it really took everything to heart…  and it just made Christianity into a simplified religion of slogans like bumper stickers and catchphrases without any real substance to them.  In fact, we eventually saw a bunch of nonsense imitators and non-believers make fun of it with… What would Jesus do… for a kondike bar?  What would Jesus Drink?  What would Brian Boitano Do a la South Park.  Now I make fun of and am critical of a lot of Christian culture, I have my reasons.  Like I said, I’m a cynical guy sometimes.  So if you know someone whose worn one or maybe you do wear one or you use this phrase, please don’t think I’m trying to insult you.  But I would want you to think about what deeper meaning does it have…  What does it really mean for your life.   I kinda imagine the bracelets were probably created for the purpose of keeping Christian kids out of trouble.  But watch as I kinda explore what the bracelet could have been.  You know those really bad educational videos they show especially in health classes?  Ok, so its like this.  CHRISTIAN TEEN VIDEO ACT

I think the question was limiting.  I would add on to the question.  What DID Jesus do? (STORY!!!) The WWJD question asks, how do I be a Christian right now in my current situation.  That’s good.  But if you ask the question What did he do? Then it spurs you to future action and initiative to imitate Christ.  It will cause you to be intentional with your life.  To make it a point to FIND ways to be like Christ.  It encourages a response from you that makes your whole LIFE more like Christ.  Its enacts and creates action, rather than just reaction from your situation. 

 

We could sit back and just go through our lives reacting to what the world throws at us.  But I think that’s too easy.  That’s like asking how much do I really have to do to still make Jesus happy.  But wait a minute!  Isn’t that exactly what they did in the past?  Remember what I talked about earlier with the human sacrifices and such?  That’s exactly the same question!  How much do I have to do to please God to be in his favor?  Well, Jesus has already started the kingdom and saved us so we know that we’re already in good standing.  The question instead should be, what more can I do to glorify God  To be in God’s favor asks a question about our standing.  The glory of God question asks about His standing.  What do I have to do to look good to God vs What do I need to do to make God look good to the world.  RELIENT K – we’re supposed to give our lives to God, not worry about how much is too much.

 

Let me illustrate it another way.  Christian couple example –

 

Asking, how far is too far is really asking, how much can I get away with?  How much is okay before its wrong.  The question should really be, is my relationship glorifying to Him.  Does our relationship, including our actions bring a good witness for God?  It is what more can I do to bring Glory to God?   USE THE DIVORCE QUESTION

 

So in the same way, We need to FIND ways to glorify God!  Don’t just see how little you can do! Take action!  Don’t just react to the world.  Don’t wait for God’s kingdom to come to you.  Find it!  God says SEEK and you will find.  God’s already with you!  Jesus made sure of that!  Now Take the initiative to do God’s work, don’t just wait for it to come to you because God has already come!  Don’t sit around and do nothing this Christmas, work for God’s kingdom, that’s what Christ’s birth started!

 

How Do we participate in the kingdom of God.  But where do we look?  How about the birthday boy himself – Jesus.  He started the kingdom and He is God, so its probably a good idea to look at His life.  And when you do look, you see he steps into people’s lives.  The woman at the well, the people of Jerusalem, all the healings.  He invests himself and steps into their lives.  He takes action.  And so can you!  How can you take action and participate in the kingdom of God?  Well, dozens of ways including Praying for someone, helping the poor, buying a friend a meal, sharing your testimony with someone, tutoring, there are lots!

 

Don’t just ask, is this God’s will…  you’re narrowing your focus.  Don’t just ask, oh, should I go here today?  Or go here?  Should I make my life into a means to help people less fortunate or not?  Hmmm… Does God want me to pray for my friend?  Does God want me to forgive my brother?   I think you already know the answer… we’re just trying to find an escape so we can do less.  I think honestly, you’re focusing on the wrong part of the question.  You probably already know the answer, so don’t give yourself a way out of it.

 

The question of how far is too far?  You probably already know how much is too far for you.  The Sadducees asking when is divorce permissible? I think They already knew the answer, they just wanted to get away with more.  And us?  Should we this Christmas forget about Jesus’ life?  Birth is the beginning of life!  And Jesus’ life was more than Christmas, so that’s what we should celebrate, by continuing His work!  A Disciple continues the work of the teacher!  And we are disciples of Christ!  We already have an answer… are we just trying to do less this Christmas?

 

Now, when it comes to doing things, breaks and rest are good and you never want to overburden yourself, but really ask yourself… Are you living a life that actively glorifies God.  So this Christmas, no, in fact throughout your whole life, are you asking questions to try to get away with more?  Are you trying to do less?  Or are you trying to bring glory to God’s name.  Don’t let this Christmas holiday season distract you with gifts and lights and music and movies.  Don’t let them let you do less.  Find God’s Kingdom this Christmas and participate!  It may be with your family, it may be with your friends, it may be with someone you hardly know, and it may be with an enemy.  The Kingdom has arrived!  Merry Christmas!  God is already with us and He’s here to stay.  Jesus’ birth made sure of that!  Merry Christmas!  The question now is, how can I bring glory to God?  How can I help the kingdom break into the world just as God broke into our lives that night in Bethlehem.

 

Post – My message on 10-19-07

I guess I’ll post the messages I give to the Jr Highers/Youth

this was during our spiritual pathways series – based on a book by that name

Before I begin, I want to say that at any time you are free to ask questions.  I’d love for this to be a discussion and not just me talking up here. 

 

Open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12: 14:  - would someone read until verse 22?

 

Let me open us in a word of prayer.

 

All through my school years, I’ve gone to schools with a lot a academic focus.  But I just didn’t quite get into all that.  To me there was more to life than Getting the best grades, getting into the top schools, making a lot of money, and being successful, whatever that mean, just didn’t seem like it should be the goal.  I wanted something more.  Studying things with the hope of graduating to get a good job and makin the big bucks just didn’t appeal to me, I didn’t connect with sort of life.  Now this doesn’t mean I was lazy and gave up either.

 

In my sophomore year in college, at UC San Diego I knew I needed to be spiritually fed so I joined Asian American Christian Fellowship, or AACF and in Senior year, I was on the leadership team, part of the worship and prayer ministry.  Now, anyone whose got parents that work in an office or a school know that working people have meetings.  And most people really hate meetings.  Every Tuesday night, the leadership team of AACF would meet together.  And for some of the team, it wasn’t their favorite thing in the world.  They had jobs and their studies, and stuff to do.  Not that they didn’t enjoy serving, just well, meetings can get tedious sometimes.  I, on the other hand, loved those meetings.  Something about discussing different ways and strategies about helping people connect with God just puts a fire in my heart.  God was growing a passion inside me for ministry.  I felt alive when designing events and seeing people fall in love with Jesus all over again.  My heart jumped for joy when we saw someone come to Christ.  And one day, at a prayer meeting, I watched the new Freshman pray and worship together.  I felt this smile creep across my face and then this overwhelming sense of joy and purpose washed over me and I heard God say, “This is you.  This is what I want you to do.”  And I realized that I wanted to do ministry for the rest of my life.  And I said, “Ok God, I’m in. I’m committed”.  It was that ahha moment.  I realized who I was in the kingdom of God.  I had found my connection with God, and it changed my life.  I connected to God by serving Him directly in His ministry.

 

But what does this story have to do with Spiritual pathways?  God made us all unique.  He made me to love serving in His ministry.   VeggieTales always ends with Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber saying, “Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much”.  Awww… and its warm and fuzzy and sometimes, it might become a little cliché.  But here’s the thing.  Its true, God did make you special.  He designed you to be who you are.  Psalm 139: 13-14 says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.  God knew us before we were born.  He has a great plan for each of us to participate in his creation and His kingdom here on Earth.  He created our “inmost being”.  Now according to what I’ve read, the Israelite’s actually thought their inmost being were their kidneys.  Now today we know that kidneys are organs that actually filter waste products from our bloodstream and then helps to excrete them with water.  We know this substance as urine, the scientific term for pee.  But the Israelites didn’t really know much everything about anatomy.  But they did feel that this inmost being  was the center of a person’s emotions and conscience.  In essence, it was who they were, they’re very essence of being.  God created and knew their soul.  Today we might say, God knows our hearts and minds.  And its true.  He knows our thoughts, he knows our doubts, he knows our passions, he knows the very fiber of who we are as his children.

 

God wants us to connect with Him through who we are  It is so vitally important for our lives as followers of Christ.  We grow closer to God, by connecting with and interacting with God.  Its like any friendship.  How do you grow a friendship?  You spend time and connect with that person.  If people don’t connect, it’s a lot harder to build a friendship.  Now, here’s some advice that you might listen to maybe more than what else I’ll be talking about.  Relationships.  When you’re in a dating relationship, what do need to do to start?  Find common interests and build the relationship with those common interest.  So if you both like bowling, then you should go bowling.  If you both like cooking, you should cook together.  If you both like gaming, and guys, if you find a girl that like video games, she’s a keeper, then play video games.  Now my girlfriend, Kathy, and I actually don’t have a lot in common.  For example, I am a huge Star Wars nerd…and she… kinda likes its, but I don’t think she’s crazy about it.  She tolerates it.  But we do both have a passion for serving God, prayer, and Bible study.  And wouldn’t you know it, when I do those things with her, I feel infinitely closer to her and it builds our relationship.  We feel closer to each other when we do things that we both like. 

 

The same with God.  Now God doesn’t go bowling. Probably.   As far as I know, he doesn’t play video games.  But God is everywhere and he’s in your life and He’s in mine.  If we assume that God made us who we’re supposed to be, our passions, interests, dreams, and hobbies come from Him.  And what better way to connect with Him then do the things that He designed us to do.  You can connect with God through, well, probably a lot of things.  Obviously, God doesn’t connect through stealing.  Hopefully none of us have a passion for stealing. 

 

The more you connect with God, the more He will speak to you and let you know who you are.  He will affirm you as His child, as a person, made in the Image of God as it says in Genesis. 

 

However, something that I’ve been learning about our Christian walks of faith and what we read in the Bible is… well… its God’s story, not our story.  The Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren starts off by saying, quite bluntly, “Its not about you.”  And its true, God’s story isn’t specifically about us. But then it does beg the question… then why bother connecting with God?  Isn’t that just my connection with God?  Well, yes, it is, but its also what God is doing in your life and how he can use you in this life as well.  I believe that God calls us to connect with Him in our own specific ways so that we can also take our gifts into the community of Christ and also participate in God’s kingdom here on Earth.  

 

Going back to the Scripture we first read, 1 Corinthians 12.   Each part of the body needs the other parts.  Paul says in 21, The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”  We as a member of God’s family need the other members.  We are called into community with our differences

 

But if we look further, Paul talks about the weaker members of the body.  If you read on, it says that the weaker are indispensable, and those that are less honorable are treated with special honor, those that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty.  Not only are we to have community, but we need to lift each other up, especially those who sometimes looked on by society as less or not as important.  Who might these be?  The poor, the outcasts, the oppressed.  Those that are lost, in desperate need for God.  So we are called as specific members of the body to use our gifts to reach out into God’s kingdom.  God asks us to participate in His plans to reach out to others.  And honestly, that’s awesome!  What a privilege and a gift to be able to take part with God.  God is asking you to be someone who can make a difference in the world for Him.

Ephesians 2:10 says  “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God’s given you a gift, the gift of life and the gift of passions, and he wants you to follow Him in some special but significant way.  We are God’s workmanship, we are His creation.  He designed us TO DO GOOD WORKS, to participate in His kingdom

 

BREAK INTO SMALL GROUPS

 

The Three pathways I’ll be talking about today are activist, contemplative, and intellectual.  Listen for similarities between you and these pathways.  You may find yourself finding one that’s just right.  You may connect with pieces of a few.  Or today you might not even hit one.  That’s okay, these aren’t the end all ones, there are 7 others described in the book and many others that I believe aren’t covered.  Also, when you find your pathway or pathways, keep in mind that you always need to balance out your life by exploring other ways to worship, being in prayer, and participating with others. But just listen and reflect upon your own life to see if these might fit you and also figure out how you can use these gifts, your God given individuality, to find your place in the Body of Christ, and how you can participate in God’s kingdom using them.

 

INTELLECTUAL

 

One of my main pathways is the Intellectual Pathway often translated as loving God with the mind.   When I was at UCSD, I kinda liked what I studied, it was interesting, but I wouldn’t say I had a passion for it.  In fact, I was kinda getting tired of being in school.  It was like what 15^th grade in my Junior year…  Yeah… that’s a long time.   When I felt a call to go into ministry, one part of me realized  that it meant another three -four years of school.  Hmmm… more studying, more reading, more books, more paying tuition.

 

 But there was something about going to school, but specifically to learn about God that interested me.  I find I think a lot about that kind of stuff.  While I walk, while I drive, in the shower, maybe on the toilet, I think about it.  get some good thinking there.  So when I went to Fuller, I discovered that the workload was well, quite intense.  I’ve got to read at least 80 pages of text per day… it takes up a lot of time.  But I love it.  Where did this come from?  What made Brett the guy who really didn’t want to study anymore into Brett the guy who’ll spend almost all day at the library reading books?  Well, it’s the subject matter. The Bible stimulates my mind and all the books that people write about Christianity, like this Sacred Pathways book, a history of the New Testament, or my current favorite, Kingdom Ethics, gets me on fire for learning about God.  I feel connected to him through these things. 

Did God give me this way to connect with Him? Yes.  Is it Dorky?  Maybe.  Nerdy? Yes.

 

Jesus had an intellectual pathway in Him.  After all, if He was going to be a teacher, He needed to know and understand the scriptures.  Luke Chapter 2 Verse 46 says that Jesus was “in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”  At age 12, about your guys age, Jesus was learning, thinking, and understanding. 

 

Proverbs teaches us to seek after wisdom and understanding and this knowledge about God can help one connect with God.  By understanding His attributes, we gain insight and reverence to His awesome power.  By learning about the nature and reasons for His sending Christ, we appreciate His great love for us and fall in love with Him more in turn.  Our own learning can grow a sense of thankfulness and love towards God, growing us closer to Him.

 

But how can an Intellectual Christian apply that to community?  Well, look at the role of a pastor.  People often have questions that need answers.  Intellectuals, with their study of ethics, church doctrine, church history, make excellent teachers.  These teachings guide, reinforce, and strengthen the church body as a whole. 

 

And how do intellectuals participate in the Kingdom of God.  First, by teaching, Intellectuals equip the rest of the body with knowledge to take with them back into the world.  Their conversations with non-believers with questions can bring them one step closer to faith, maybe alleviating some block that was keeping them from believing.  And intellectuals can do a lot of good elsewhere too.  Think about the different social problems going on in the world. Intellectuals could spend their lives devising new ways to tackle poverty.  Medical researchers are finding ways to try to cure cancer and AIDS.  Intellectuals are a vital part of God’s kingdom, they are important for teaching, forming, and affirming the body of Christ, and they connect with God through their minds all the while. 

 

And how can you explore the intellectual pathway?  Start with the Bible itself and really ask questions when you read it.  You could ask me or Brandon, or maybe pastor Gary about it.  Or you could start reading some Christian books.  A good easy one to start with is the Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.  Its down to earth and readable for everyday people, yet challenging and thought provoking as well.  Bottom line… God loves nerds like me. 

 

 

CONTEMPLATIVE

The second pathway I’ll talk about is the contemplative pathway.  The contemplative pathway is loving God with adoration.  Alright, now who here has had a crush on someone? 

 

 Now, I have a confession to make… all throughout my school years, I had a crush on a girl every year.  And every year, I think it was someone different.  One year it was this girl, and another year, it was this girl.  Some years it was two girls.  I was pretty girl crazy…  Anyways, when I got to 9^th grade I met a girl named Kathy.  We met in, of all classes, PE.  Now obviously, by looking at me, you can tell PE isn’t my strongest class.  Though I was the sittup king one year… 52 in a minute.  Yeah, it doesn’t show at all.  But I met Kathy in PE and we would talk during the break after the PE while waiting for the next class.  And, wouldn’t you know I developed a little crush on her.  But neither of us made any moves then I thought maybe she wasn’t interested so I moved on.  But in my senior year, I started hanging out with Kathy again And all those feelings, which were locked away and sitting in the back of my mind for 3 years came back.  There was just something about her that made me like her for so long.  She was smart, she was compassionate, sincere, friendly, fun to be around.  She made me smile.  She was shy and I liked that and laughed at my jokes and laughed at me, and I think I really have a thing for girls that laugh, even if its at me.   And, well, I gotta say, she’s really cute.  To make a long story short, and I know some of you may want to hear the long story, you can ask me about it later if you want, we went to prom together and started dating in the summer right before starting college.  And we just celebrated our four year anniversary.  September 18.  Of course, I’m not as far along as Brandon

 

 But what makes me want to continue to be with her?  Well, the fact is, I adore her.  I really do.  All those things I mentioned before about why I liked her?  Still true if not more.  And she’s even cuter now than she was before.  And also and probably most importantly, she has a huge heart for God.  A woman who fears and worships the Lord, that is attractive. 

 

But ya know who is even more, sorry Kat, deserving of adoration.  You guessed it, God is.  A contemplative Christian often shares intimate moments with God reflecting on why they love God.  You’ll often find them in prayer and meditation just remembering how good God really is.  They might be remembering Jesus’s death and resurrection and how God rescued them and brought them into His kingdom.  They feel a deep sense of humility, gratitude, reverence, and adoration for God.  A great number of the Psalms show David in his adoration of God.  Psalm 62 1 and 2:  My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.  You can look at a great number of the other ones too, and you’ll see that David adored God. 

 

Matthew 22,  Jesus explicitly states that the greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  Jesus is referencing the 1^st of the ten commandments.  First and foremost, we are to love God.  God takes care of us, he provides for us, and he loves us.  And he goes even farther, He sent His son to die for us.  He sacrificed His own son, for sinners and people who rebel against him constantly, because He loved us.  Contemplative people reflect on this, they think about it pray about it, and they worship God through it.  God is one we can and should love.  In Psalm 46, the writer talks about all the crazy wars and destruction happening.  He or she notes that the world is basically falling apart.  And yet God is faithful, and we should put our trust in God.  Verse 10 is pretty famous, “Be still and know that I am God”   I would say Contemplative people are really good at this.  Think about how that really affect your life.  What if we replace God with all the promises and things God does.  Be still, and know that I am holy.  Be still and know that you can trust me.  Be still and know that I love you.  Be still and know that I have a great plan for you.  Be still and know that I am working in the lives of your loved ones.  Be still and know that I am willing to sacrifice so much so that we can finally be together. 

 

Contemplative Christians’ hearts cry out in love and desire to grow closer to this wonderful savior.  In a community context, they are the ones who may encourage others to grow in their faith and to grow closer to God as well.  They may give a testimony and tell other people in the body just how wonderful God is to them, which will spur others to be thankful as well.  In the kingdom, their emotion and passion for the love of God can often times be infectious and cause other people to wonder what brings them such joy.  If they take their adoration with them, it may attract others to the love of Christ.

 

So how can you explore the contemplative pathway?  First, I’d suggest really taking some time to pray.  Really listen for God’s voice first.  Don’t just start talking.  But just sit and meditate of God’s voice.  Remember your own testimony and how you came to know Jesus.  Even if you’ve grown up in the church and don’t have some crazy tale, you can surely be thankful that God put you inside a loving Christian home. 

 

ACTIVIST

The final pathway I’ll talk about today is The Activist Christian pathway.  This is a Christian calling of action.  Activists, as you might have guessed from the name, are given different causes by God to tackle here on Earth.  Many of these causes have to do with certain morality issues in the Christian faith, bringing justice to an unjust society, or reaching out to the poor, the hungry, the forgotten and the desperate in what is called social justice.  You’ll find them working with certain causes such as cancer societies, homeless shelters, or missions agencies like World Vision or Asian Access.  One of my friends from San Diego worked with an agency called CAPS or College Area Pregnancy Services which supported pregnant women with counseling, financial, and spiritual support. 

 

One might consider the Activist Christian to really be the arms and hands of the body of Christ.  And really, Activist Christians are vitally important to kingdom of God and frankly, there will never be enough of them.  Casting Crowns has a song called “If We are the Body” and the chorus lyrics go “But if we are the body, why aren’t his arms reaching.  Why aren’t his hands healing. Why aren’t his words teaching.   And if we are the body, why aren’t his feet going, why is his love not showing them that there is a way”  We live in a fallen world, corrupted by sin, filled with suffering.  In Africa, everyday people die of AIDS and starvation and children are trained as soldiers to fight in rebel armies  In the United States, people who live in poverty can’t get adequate healthcare and food to take care of their families.  In Asia, thousands of women and children are still under the yoke of slavery.  Where we thought we had destroyed slavery in the Civil War, Satan continues to use his powers of lust and greed to exploit innocent people, God’s children, is sweat shops, slave fields, and the ever horrifying human and sex trafficking industry, where women and sometimes children are used for their bodies to line the pockets of the slavers. 

 

Activists understand that this world is filled with sin and suffering.  And their calling is to tackle those things that are causing people to suffer.  My girlfriend definitely has this pathway.  When she reads about the injustices of the human trafficking industry, or the dying in Africa, or the poor, her heart breaks for them.  I’ve found her crying in her room because of the intense emotion she felt for these people.  And God’s given her a passion for medicine and serving the needy.  She went on a 6 week mission to poor urban Los Angeles and she lived with and served those living in poverty, tutoring kids who couldn’t get a great education, hoping to bring a little joy, and little bit of hope into their lives, and hopefully start and contribute to a transformation.

 

God is working through his body, through those who have a passion for being his healing hands and loving arms to this world.  Those with activist interests can take comfort that God is giving them a passion and asking them on a personal journey to participate in His work.  And that’s a connection right there.  That’s the key to an activist pathway with God.  Caring about what God cares about.  Knowing that one gets to take part in the kingdom of God, that one can play an important role and really make a difference in the life of one, two, maybe an entire nation, drives the activist.  An activist is worshipping God by serving others.

 

Look at the life of Christ.  So much of God’s narrative about Jesus is about his works with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed.  Jesus, himself, was an activist!  Jesus healed the sick and people possessed by demons.  He raised people from the dead.  He even healed a man with leprosy, one of the foremost diseases that outcasted people from society.  When in Matthew 9:27, after raising a girl from the dead,  2 blind men call out to Jesus, “Have mercy on us!”  The word for mercy in the greek language which it was written also means compassion and compassion calls for action.  And what did Jesus do.  Verse 29:  Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you,” And their sight was restored.  He took compassion on them. He healed them.  Jesus spent so much of his time healing as a sign that God’s kingdom was coming and those in suffering were going to soon be delivered.  Jesus called himself a servant.

 

So maybe this is speaking to you.  Maybe somewhere inside you God has planted a seed of despair that breaks your heart for those that are oppressed or in trouble.  Maybe you want to see God bring justice to the poor and see a world that seeks after God’s righteousness.  If it is you may be thinking that you don’t have what it takes to be a worker for Christ.  Well, you are in Jr High, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help.  Its okay to start small.  CBC has trips to Baja where you can help build a home for a family.   You could serve at a soup kitchen.  You could give some of your allowance and with your family sponsor a child through World Vision.  And even if you are unable to do, you still have the most powerful tool available to you: Prayer.  Ask God to deliver someone or a group of people from their needs.  Maybe it’s a foreign country, or it could just be a homeless person you see off the freeway.  It could even be a friend.  But God listens and answers our prayers.  Also, ask for direction to different ways you can help.  Then when God calls you to do something, He will have formed in you a stronger desire and plan to go out and be His hands here on Earth. 

 

we are all given gifts by the same spirit as it says in 1 Corinthians.  We shouldn’t be jealous of other people’s gifts, but we should rejoice in our own and rejoice in theres.  We are all part of the body, but are all individuals in it.  God knows you, intimately, he made each of you a specific way, so we can all love Him in different ways.  The body of Christ is a rich tapestry of people who all have one thing in common:  a love for God.  Our differences can make the entire body stronger.  We can love and appreciate God’s creativity by understanding, encouraging, and admiring the different ways that God calls us to connection with him. 

Opening post on 1-22

Ok, so I’m not going to have any deep thoughts right about now, gotta work on a message for youth group and study, but I thought I’d have a post to boot

So today Fred Thompson drops out of the GOP race… does anyone care?  not really.  He didn’t really run hard or even intentionally…

But we see his dropping out in the news… but what takes more precedence?  The untimely death of Heath Ledger.  Kinda sad for Thompson, not even his exit will really go noticed.

My thoughts on Huckabee right now…  or maybe overall.  I like Mike, I do.  He has a lot of values I can agree with (not sure how he stacks up on execution of those values though).  But the problem I see is Christians are so unpopular right now (I wrote unpoopuluar before editing), that any sort of overt Christian candidate is going to face a mountain of discontent from liberal conservatives,general liberals, and a lot of independents. I honestly have to say to my friends really rooting for him:  good luck… because his electibility shrinks because of his faith.

Does the US need a Christian president with good values, yes.  Do other people think so?  I doubt it, because the Republican party and the church have so skewed our values into a judgmental onslaught of hate and intolerance, that any public official holding these values is going to be looked on with suspicion

We don’t live in a Christian nation people!  Not for a long time!  It’s time we realized that its not the power that we need… We already have our ruler!  If we want change to the values we hold to, we need to work at it from the bottom up.  The church needs to move.

Example Abortion:  More than a law, we need a church that takes care of Women.  If we’re pro-life, be COMPLETELY Pro-Life.  You can’t just throw a law out there and then leave all the women who don’t go underground to get an abortion to hang and dry!  They are in a scary place, probably one of economic troubles, rejection by family, confusion, and complete uncertainty to their future?  Are we just going to leave them to their own resources and let them suffer for their mistake?  Or can we show them Christ-like grace by opening up our communities to their needs?

If you want a law, fine, whatever, go for your law.  But I hope we’re willing to take the next step and not retreat into our beloved sanctuaries and potlucks

But back to Huckabee.  Can he get elected?  Well, I would say only with God’s help…  Is he the right candidate?  I don’t know honestly.  I’m slightly more democrat in terms of a lot of policy anyways.  He’s our Christian candidate and we’ll jump on board!  But that’s what we said when Bush ran too (he’s done some good, but I can’t say the church has been better for it).  “Yay, we have a true Christian in office!”  Well, his administration ain’t following the Christian practice of honesty… doctored tapes for Iran?  What the crap?!?!

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