There was a room and inside it was a painting. It was more beautiful than any other painting and had many things in it. Among them, there was a sandy beach, forrest, sky, and an ocean. Four people were brought into the room and were sat down in front of the painting. They were each given a pencil and a paper and were asked to write down the five most important words about the painting.
Person A wrote the words:
1. Sandy
2. Tan
3. Beach
4. Warm
5. Peaceful
Person B wrote the words:
1. Green
2. Lush
3. Tropical
4. Alive
5. Forest
Person C wrote the words:
1. Infinite
2. Clouds
3. Big
4. Blue
5. Sky
Person D wrote the words:
1. Vast
2. Deep
3. Sea
4. Wet
5. Salty
When they were done writing their words, they all shared with each other what they had written. As person A read her list, the others began to scoff at her because they felt she was wrong. The same thing happened as each read their own list to the group. None of the lists had the same words and so each of the people felt as if all the others were wrong. Angry, and stuffed with pride, they all left the room and the painting behind, and went to ineffectively tell people about the painting, using only the words they had written themselves.
Person A had five words.
Person B had five words.
Person C had five words.
Person D had five words.
Just think, together they'd have twenty words- and a room with a painting.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Salt Water.
I freaking hate salt water.
It tastes nasty, burns my eyes, burns in my cuts and makes my skin itchy. It is that bad kind of itchy that scratching doesn't help.
I love fresh water.
It tastes good, agrees with my eyes, leaves my cuts alone, and doesn't make my skin itchy.(Unless, of course, it is the water from my shower in Austin, which dries my skin out like jerky.)
I have two glasses of water, one salt, and the other fresh. If I lift the fresh water and pour a small amount of it into the salt water glass, the salt water is still salt water. But if I pour a small amount of the salt water into the fresh water, I now have two glasses of salt water. Concentration of salt is irrelevant, for there is salt in both and that is final.
James says that our mouths flow both blessing and cursing; fresh and salt water. I have always assumed that the curses were salt water because they burn and itch, and the blessings were fresh water because they are pure. I want to challenge this notion. If we read the bible through the lense of the sermon of the mount, salt will trigger a flag. We are the salt of the earth.
How can we be the salt of the earth and not produce water with salt in it?
Salt burns because it cleans. When it gets in a cut, it cleanses. When it gets in your eyes, it sucks. But I do know that my eyes are evil and disobedient, so I'd hope that they would react to cleansing. Everyone who has used Listerine knows that it only works if it hurts!
The words we speak are the overflow of our heart. So if we ever speak truth then there is salt water coming up, even if it is extremely diluted by the fresh water. The cool thing about the salt is that by its very nature, it is what defines the solution around it. If I have one tablespoon of salt in my friend's swimming pool, it is technically salt water.
Currently, my pool is mostly fresh water, with a small spoon of salt in it. While it is mostly curses, blessing is present and dominant. Imagine what life would be found if I was pumping water with a higher concentration of salt and a smaller concentration of suck. When the water in my heart is drank, the small amount of salt I gave is mixed with the water in the listener's heart.
This is where it gets serious. This means that speech is not the issue. This means that the heart is the issue. My friend, Wes, told me that there is no use in trying to tame the tongue. We should instead just pursue the purity of the heart so our tongue becomes a life bringing tool. In other words, don't arrest the drug dealers, burn the field of opium and plant a field of potatoes.(Everyone loves potatoes, except Travis Chapman... Sorry, man.)
Pray for the purity of your heart. Spend more time on this spiritual matter and less time on the social treadmill of taming the tongue. James and Wes agree on the fact that the tongue can't be tamed. Plus, why limit something that brings blessing?
It is my prayer that this water has enough salt to burn our wounds. Please excuse the weak, diluted, solution that it is. I assure you, any salt is from the Lord and is much more definite than the fresh water is has graciously mixed with. My goal is to be like the dead sea; so thick with salt that people can walk on it.
It tastes nasty, burns my eyes, burns in my cuts and makes my skin itchy. It is that bad kind of itchy that scratching doesn't help.
I love fresh water.
It tastes good, agrees with my eyes, leaves my cuts alone, and doesn't make my skin itchy.(Unless, of course, it is the water from my shower in Austin, which dries my skin out like jerky.)
I have two glasses of water, one salt, and the other fresh. If I lift the fresh water and pour a small amount of it into the salt water glass, the salt water is still salt water. But if I pour a small amount of the salt water into the fresh water, I now have two glasses of salt water. Concentration of salt is irrelevant, for there is salt in both and that is final.
James says that our mouths flow both blessing and cursing; fresh and salt water. I have always assumed that the curses were salt water because they burn and itch, and the blessings were fresh water because they are pure. I want to challenge this notion. If we read the bible through the lense of the sermon of the mount, salt will trigger a flag. We are the salt of the earth.
How can we be the salt of the earth and not produce water with salt in it?
Salt burns because it cleans. When it gets in a cut, it cleanses. When it gets in your eyes, it sucks. But I do know that my eyes are evil and disobedient, so I'd hope that they would react to cleansing. Everyone who has used Listerine knows that it only works if it hurts!
The words we speak are the overflow of our heart. So if we ever speak truth then there is salt water coming up, even if it is extremely diluted by the fresh water. The cool thing about the salt is that by its very nature, it is what defines the solution around it. If I have one tablespoon of salt in my friend's swimming pool, it is technically salt water.
Currently, my pool is mostly fresh water, with a small spoon of salt in it. While it is mostly curses, blessing is present and dominant. Imagine what life would be found if I was pumping water with a higher concentration of salt and a smaller concentration of suck. When the water in my heart is drank, the small amount of salt I gave is mixed with the water in the listener's heart.
This is where it gets serious. This means that speech is not the issue. This means that the heart is the issue. My friend, Wes, told me that there is no use in trying to tame the tongue. We should instead just pursue the purity of the heart so our tongue becomes a life bringing tool. In other words, don't arrest the drug dealers, burn the field of opium and plant a field of potatoes.(Everyone loves potatoes, except Travis Chapman... Sorry, man.)
Pray for the purity of your heart. Spend more time on this spiritual matter and less time on the social treadmill of taming the tongue. James and Wes agree on the fact that the tongue can't be tamed. Plus, why limit something that brings blessing?
It is my prayer that this water has enough salt to burn our wounds. Please excuse the weak, diluted, solution that it is. I assure you, any salt is from the Lord and is much more definite than the fresh water is has graciously mixed with. My goal is to be like the dead sea; so thick with salt that people can walk on it.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Feast
I just got back from taking lunch to my friend. He has been begging me to bring him whataburger for the last few weeks and today I finally did it. It was really strange, but fun, to step back into a middle school cafeteria. It was just the way I left it- Full of children. As I made my way in, I immediately noticed the divisions. There were perfectly organized long tables and people were only sitting with people that looked like themselves. I finally found my friend, spotting his teeth before anything else.(What a smile that kid's got!) As I walked to his table, every eyeball in the room moved with me. People whispered and some laughed. I had three kids ask me if I was Jesus because I have long hair, leather sandals, a smile, and compared to their clothes, was wearing rags. I sat down and my friend was so excited he couldn't breath right. He immediately introduced me to the guys around him, who apparently knew more about me than I do, and we began to eat. A few kids from the neighborhood, whom I know, but rarely see, came up to me and talked as if we were best friends. They reminisced on the christmas gifts I had given them and talked about how fun football was that one time. They were clearly just coming to make it clear to everyone in the room that we had met before. The secret handshakes I had to take part in made it clear that they just needed some sort of outward sign that we were friends or something.
It was weird.
They all seemed to know me so well that the rest of the cafeteria thought they were saints.
But I don't know them. They never hang out with me.
We had plenty of food and I was able to share it with the guys sitting around us. My table had a blast and they all want me to come back. I think I will. I will bring a burger to whoever asks me for one.
After eating, we had about fifteen minutes to sit around. Kids immediately started telling me about each kid at each other table. They gossiped about how the other kids did things or how bad they smelled, or about the fact that they tuck their shirt into their whitie tighties. The girls would make orgasm noises to make the guys giggle. That one kid mixed all his food together and ate it so I would look at him. They talked to me about how much of a freak the girl at the end of the table was. It was disgusting. What was bad wasn't the words or actions, but the lack of worth in them. It wasn't that these kids were braking moral rules, but that they had no respect for each other or for themselves. It was in this lack of respect that they resorted to abusive rule breaking. These kids were tearing each other down for things that clearly didn't matter to me at all! These kids were splitting themselves apart for things that don't matter at all!
There were tons of other things that went on, each holding rich metaphorical value, but I think this breif description should be sufficient.
Do you know Christ, or do you play football with him and give him credit for the gifts he gave you?
Do you split yourselves apart over things that don't even matter a little bit?
Do you have a secret handshake with Christ, or do you let him hold you close?
Are you asking him to show up with food?
It was weird.
They all seemed to know me so well that the rest of the cafeteria thought they were saints.
But I don't know them. They never hang out with me.
We had plenty of food and I was able to share it with the guys sitting around us. My table had a blast and they all want me to come back. I think I will. I will bring a burger to whoever asks me for one.
After eating, we had about fifteen minutes to sit around. Kids immediately started telling me about each kid at each other table. They gossiped about how the other kids did things or how bad they smelled, or about the fact that they tuck their shirt into their whitie tighties. The girls would make orgasm noises to make the guys giggle. That one kid mixed all his food together and ate it so I would look at him. They talked to me about how much of a freak the girl at the end of the table was. It was disgusting. What was bad wasn't the words or actions, but the lack of worth in them. It wasn't that these kids were braking moral rules, but that they had no respect for each other or for themselves. It was in this lack of respect that they resorted to abusive rule breaking. These kids were tearing each other down for things that clearly didn't matter to me at all! These kids were splitting themselves apart for things that don't matter at all!
There were tons of other things that went on, each holding rich metaphorical value, but I think this breif description should be sufficient.
Do you know Christ, or do you play football with him and give him credit for the gifts he gave you?
Do you split yourselves apart over things that don't even matter a little bit?
Do you have a secret handshake with Christ, or do you let him hold you close?
Are you asking him to show up with food?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Antsy, Antsy, Antsy.(Not to be confused with insects.)
If you read the last post, you will have read about a good friend of mine. A few weeks ago he lost his bus privileges, so now I drive him to school in the mornings and pick him up in the afternoons. Since we started this daily ritual, I have yet to fail him. I show up on time. Always. What's funny about the mornings is that he is more worried about me getting there on time than he is about me dropping him off on time. We spend the drive singing songs and talking about what he wants out of his day. It is a wonderful way for me to start my day and I imagine it is the same for him. I show up at his house at 7:18 to pick him up at 7:20. I usually wake up at 7:00 and head on over.
This morning, I woke to my phone ringing. It was 6:59. When I looked to see who the perpetrator was, I saw that it was my friend.(The one I ride with.) Annoyed, I crawled, prematurely, out of bed just in time to hear my alarm start. After turning it off, I looked to my phone to see that he was calling again. I knew it wasn't an emergency. He has this thing that he does where he worries about little things that he has no reason to worry about, so I naturally assumed that this was just one of those moments. Eighteen minutes, and seven calls later, I pulled into his driveway. After two minutes, he came trotting out to my car with a smile that would wake any sleeping college kid. Best drive yet.
What I found in this made me feel like a child.
God has never, ever, given me any reason to doubt his faithfulness. He has always showed up. Every time. But I still spend most of my prayer time worrying about his presence in my life.
It's those times that I am worried about something that my prayers increase in number. It is also, more often than not, in these times that I feel like he's ignoring me. I am beginning to see why.
"Do not worry about your life... Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
-Jesus(Matt Ch. 6)
This morning, I woke to my phone ringing. It was 6:59. When I looked to see who the perpetrator was, I saw that it was my friend.(The one I ride with.) Annoyed, I crawled, prematurely, out of bed just in time to hear my alarm start. After turning it off, I looked to my phone to see that he was calling again. I knew it wasn't an emergency. He has this thing that he does where he worries about little things that he has no reason to worry about, so I naturally assumed that this was just one of those moments. Eighteen minutes, and seven calls later, I pulled into his driveway. After two minutes, he came trotting out to my car with a smile that would wake any sleeping college kid. Best drive yet.
What I found in this made me feel like a child.
God has never, ever, given me any reason to doubt his faithfulness. He has always showed up. Every time. But I still spend most of my prayer time worrying about his presence in my life.
It's those times that I am worried about something that my prayers increase in number. It is also, more often than not, in these times that I feel like he's ignoring me. I am beginning to see why.
"Do not worry about your life... Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
-Jesus(Matt Ch. 6)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Will
Sometimes I act as if God's will is exclusively about action. (It is God's will for me to: go here, do this, be that, marry her, bomb them.) Lately I have been learning that sometimes it seems to be about inaction as much as it is about action. Kind of like how a song is as much about the spaces between the notes as the notes themselves.
I can think of many examples, but one stands with prominence in my mind. Yesterday I was driving to church with one of my best friends, and we drove past a nasty road kill. It was the nastiest one I have ever seen. There was a huge, mutilated deer in the road with a one hundred yard trail of blood and guts leading up to it. It was fresh. My friend, who is squeamish, nearly threw up. On the way home I had forgotten about the deer and happened to see it before my friend did. As we approached it, I pointed out his window, towards the sky, and in an excited voice told him to "Look at that!" We passed the deer, and he turned to me disappointed because his eyes were not able to locate the object of my excitement. He also didn't see the deer.
It only makes since to me that God the father would protect us. This must mean that sometimes he has to distract us from what is going to make us "sick." I am guilty of looking for meaning in everything I see, so this kind of sucks for me sometimes. I get sent somewhere and am constantly looking for my purpose there.
What if my purpose for being here is not being there?
I don't want to meet and fall in love with my wife yet. I'm not ready for that.
I won't ever understand God's will. I won't ever understand some of the things he leads me to do or to not do. But that's why it's God's will and not mine. I take comfort in the fact that his plan is bigger than my understanding. The best I can do is to trust that he has a pretty good reason for pointing out the window. I trust him enough to daily ask him to do the pointing.
I can think of many examples, but one stands with prominence in my mind. Yesterday I was driving to church with one of my best friends, and we drove past a nasty road kill. It was the nastiest one I have ever seen. There was a huge, mutilated deer in the road with a one hundred yard trail of blood and guts leading up to it. It was fresh. My friend, who is squeamish, nearly threw up. On the way home I had forgotten about the deer and happened to see it before my friend did. As we approached it, I pointed out his window, towards the sky, and in an excited voice told him to "Look at that!" We passed the deer, and he turned to me disappointed because his eyes were not able to locate the object of my excitement. He also didn't see the deer.
It only makes since to me that God the father would protect us. This must mean that sometimes he has to distract us from what is going to make us "sick." I am guilty of looking for meaning in everything I see, so this kind of sucks for me sometimes. I get sent somewhere and am constantly looking for my purpose there.
What if my purpose for being here is not being there?
I don't want to meet and fall in love with my wife yet. I'm not ready for that.
I won't ever understand God's will. I won't ever understand some of the things he leads me to do or to not do. But that's why it's God's will and not mine. I take comfort in the fact that his plan is bigger than my understanding. The best I can do is to trust that he has a pretty good reason for pointing out the window. I trust him enough to daily ask him to do the pointing.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Why do You do it?
Why do you do it? Why are you a Christian?
I don't mow the yard because my dad tells me to. Don't get me wrong, he does usually have to tell me, but it isn't because of this that I do it. I do it because he is pointing something out that needs to be done. In other words: I don't mow the lawn to mow the lawn. I mow the lawn because the grass needs to be cut!
I don't follow Jesus because the bible tells me so.
I don't preach to and love on people in poor areas because the bible tells me so.
For me to do things because the bible tells me so is for me to idolize it over the one who came up with it.
Please don't misunderstand me. People do on this topic, and the most recent case led the injury of a sweet girl's heart who didn't deserve it. I believe that the bible is a holy book. It has led me to the one who is the giver of life. I am simply pointing out that the bible is a tool that he loves to use. Not the other way around. The bible helps us find life. Life is in it, but life isn't it.
For us to just obey is so far from what I believe God really desires. He has rules and guidelines and things like this for a reason. They are very important in protecting us from things in the dark. As a child I was not aloud to watch certain shows that ALL of my friends were aloud to watch. I obeyed, but I hated it and often found myself pointing( an act my mom tried to break me of. It's rude to point- everyone knows that) at my mom when she was looking the other way. It wasn't until recently that I looked back and saw very clearly that my mother made these rules for good reason. Now, I do believe that I and you must obey the writings with an attitude like a child; that is trusting that the deity is doing more than excersizing power by protecting us from what we have not seen.
Jesus is light. Living in the dark is hard, for monsters lurk and we don't even know it. We hear them breathing and every now and then we see them eat our friends up, but then they quickly vanish back into the abyss. When Jesus showed up, this changed. He is the light and we are the lanterns. Light exposes what was once unseen.
It is through the exposure to people who are full grown and were aloud to watch certain programs as a kid that I saw why I was not aloud to. This has made my intimacy for my mother increase. Not that we have a conditional relationship, but that the conditions that I have built are slowly eroding as truth, light, and reason, manifesting themselves in love, pour down like water to melt away the hopeless stacks of clay.
It is through obedience that I have found love. It is through love that I will now obey.
What I am saying is this: Obedience for the sake of obedience is like dry humping. It kind of feels good, or something, but really it doesn't accomplish anything, and when it's over, both parties realize that they want more than they did in the first place.
God wants us to know him. Does your ministry lead you to him or does your relationship with him lead you into minisisty?! I used to hug people and smile at them because I knew that Christians should be happy or something. I do think that God used this, but it was so empty. Now I am much closer, but still far from, having a sexual ministry instead of all this foolish dry humping.
I used to preach the word because I was excited about it and because I liked to hear myself talk. I'm not going to act like these two things don't still play a part, but at least I'm working on it! Now I preach because I know this God who I don't deserve to know. When I spend time around him I can't help but want to die if it means that more people could meet him. I want to give up what ever it takes for you to get to know him.
The bible tells me to do this, but if I do this because the bible says so, where's the intimacy? The bible is a mere arrow, pointing at the God who we worship. For us to look at the arrow and study its features instead of the object it is pointing at is defeating the purpose of the arrow. I should obey and then be brought to light and in this look back on my obedience and see why it is I was obeying. The laws are written so we might know him. Jesus died with relationship in mind. He died that we may live with him. For us to mow the yard just to mow the yard is for us to obey the bible that we may be better than those who don't. There's so much more to it than that!
In the last year of living at home my dad never told me to mow the lawn.[Citation needed] I got it done every time. [Citation Needed] It wasn't because I realized that once a week the lawn should be mowed. This played a part in it, but the production that this truth was acting in was far greater than the minor role it played. I learned to clearly see what it was that needed to be done. It was through my father's love and teaching that I was able to see what it was he desired. It was when I could see what he desired that I was most effective in fulfilling his desires. It was because of my love for him that I tried to meet these desires. Jesus said that we are his friends and not his servants. The difference is that friends know of their master's affairs, servants blindly obey in ignorance.(I twisted it a bit, please go read the other interpretation that is different from the original.)
John 15:9-17
In the first year of being away from home I have gotten to hold the poor in these arms that are not my own. My tears have mixed with the tears of a woman who is in a darker place than I knew existed. I have watched as a boy destined for slavery grabbed onto life and freedom through the love of Jesus Christ. I have looked deeper into people's eyes than anyone should ever get to look. I haven't gotten to do these things because I felt like I should. I have gotten to do these things because the God that I am desperately trying to obey has revealed himself to me and through this made it very clear to me that these rules lead to relationships. He has made it very clear to me that loving people goes way deeper than the rules do. I am privileged and blessed by this God and I can't help but offer him all that I have, for all I have to offer is what he has given me.
Please try and know God. This is the purpose of life. The purpose of life isn't success and it isn't being the the best at following the rules. The pharisees did that and what Jesus thinks about it is pretty clear. Relationship with the father leads us into relationship with his people. Ministry should be an other word for relationship. But it has become something far from it.
I don't mow the yard because my dad tells me to. Don't get me wrong, he does usually have to tell me, but it isn't because of this that I do it. I do it because he is pointing something out that needs to be done. In other words: I don't mow the lawn to mow the lawn. I mow the lawn because the grass needs to be cut!
I don't follow Jesus because the bible tells me so.
I don't preach to and love on people in poor areas because the bible tells me so.
For me to do things because the bible tells me so is for me to idolize it over the one who came up with it.
Please don't misunderstand me. People do on this topic, and the most recent case led the injury of a sweet girl's heart who didn't deserve it. I believe that the bible is a holy book. It has led me to the one who is the giver of life. I am simply pointing out that the bible is a tool that he loves to use. Not the other way around. The bible helps us find life. Life is in it, but life isn't it.
For us to just obey is so far from what I believe God really desires. He has rules and guidelines and things like this for a reason. They are very important in protecting us from things in the dark. As a child I was not aloud to watch certain shows that ALL of my friends were aloud to watch. I obeyed, but I hated it and often found myself pointing( an act my mom tried to break me of. It's rude to point- everyone knows that) at my mom when she was looking the other way. It wasn't until recently that I looked back and saw very clearly that my mother made these rules for good reason. Now, I do believe that I and you must obey the writings with an attitude like a child; that is trusting that the deity is doing more than excersizing power by protecting us from what we have not seen.
Jesus is light. Living in the dark is hard, for monsters lurk and we don't even know it. We hear them breathing and every now and then we see them eat our friends up, but then they quickly vanish back into the abyss. When Jesus showed up, this changed. He is the light and we are the lanterns. Light exposes what was once unseen.
It is through the exposure to people who are full grown and were aloud to watch certain programs as a kid that I saw why I was not aloud to. This has made my intimacy for my mother increase. Not that we have a conditional relationship, but that the conditions that I have built are slowly eroding as truth, light, and reason, manifesting themselves in love, pour down like water to melt away the hopeless stacks of clay.
It is through obedience that I have found love. It is through love that I will now obey.
What I am saying is this: Obedience for the sake of obedience is like dry humping. It kind of feels good, or something, but really it doesn't accomplish anything, and when it's over, both parties realize that they want more than they did in the first place.
God wants us to know him. Does your ministry lead you to him or does your relationship with him lead you into minisisty?! I used to hug people and smile at them because I knew that Christians should be happy or something. I do think that God used this, but it was so empty. Now I am much closer, but still far from, having a sexual ministry instead of all this foolish dry humping.
I used to preach the word because I was excited about it and because I liked to hear myself talk. I'm not going to act like these two things don't still play a part, but at least I'm working on it! Now I preach because I know this God who I don't deserve to know. When I spend time around him I can't help but want to die if it means that more people could meet him. I want to give up what ever it takes for you to get to know him.
The bible tells me to do this, but if I do this because the bible says so, where's the intimacy? The bible is a mere arrow, pointing at the God who we worship. For us to look at the arrow and study its features instead of the object it is pointing at is defeating the purpose of the arrow. I should obey and then be brought to light and in this look back on my obedience and see why it is I was obeying. The laws are written so we might know him. Jesus died with relationship in mind. He died that we may live with him. For us to mow the yard just to mow the yard is for us to obey the bible that we may be better than those who don't. There's so much more to it than that!
In the last year of living at home my dad never told me to mow the lawn.[Citation needed] I got it done every time. [Citation Needed] It wasn't because I realized that once a week the lawn should be mowed. This played a part in it, but the production that this truth was acting in was far greater than the minor role it played. I learned to clearly see what it was that needed to be done. It was through my father's love and teaching that I was able to see what it was he desired. It was when I could see what he desired that I was most effective in fulfilling his desires. It was because of my love for him that I tried to meet these desires. Jesus said that we are his friends and not his servants. The difference is that friends know of their master's affairs, servants blindly obey in ignorance.(I twisted it a bit, please go read the other interpretation that is different from the original.)
John 15:9-17
In the first year of being away from home I have gotten to hold the poor in these arms that are not my own. My tears have mixed with the tears of a woman who is in a darker place than I knew existed. I have watched as a boy destined for slavery grabbed onto life and freedom through the love of Jesus Christ. I have looked deeper into people's eyes than anyone should ever get to look. I haven't gotten to do these things because I felt like I should. I have gotten to do these things because the God that I am desperately trying to obey has revealed himself to me and through this made it very clear to me that these rules lead to relationships. He has made it very clear to me that loving people goes way deeper than the rules do. I am privileged and blessed by this God and I can't help but offer him all that I have, for all I have to offer is what he has given me.
Please try and know God. This is the purpose of life. The purpose of life isn't success and it isn't being the the best at following the rules. The pharisees did that and what Jesus thinks about it is pretty clear. Relationship with the father leads us into relationship with his people. Ministry should be an other word for relationship. But it has become something far from it.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
We Are One.
As you read this, please remember that I don't think that I am right in everything. I believe that the true gospel of Jesus is all that I can be sure of. So please tell me if you disagree on anything else and I will do my best to humbly accept and consider your thoughts.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Guilty?
Me too.
I wonder what the church would be like if we changed. I wonder what the world would be like if we changed? If you read Paul's letters and read Acts you will quickly see that Paul would be furious with us. He spoke of unity and love and sacrifice. Paul didn't speak of division and arguments and persecution! He did not tell us to kill abortion doctors and build electric fences to keep the gays out!
In Acts we have multiple examples of Paul sacrificing his morality and doing something he knew wasn't the truth, all for the sake of preaching what is truth. He went through the Jewish procedures to enter the temple and paid for meat to be sacrificed, even though it was not his way of living. He did what ever he had to to preach the gospel to a group different from himself. I am not saying that we should all abandon morality and forget about our rituals. I am saying that we should be willing to let go of everything but the true gospel, for the sake of the true gospel. We should be able to become who we are here to love. We should be willing to drop all that we think we are that we may help someone see who He is.
Everything.
I believe that if we actually loved each other and we actually loved the people who haven't been saved, we would be doing everything in our power to live life with each other. Paul said constantly that the church was to house all peoples. Some would say, "Well, it does. We have all kinds of churches." Whoopty freakin do! Paul didn't want us to split up in order to make it work. That is divorce! He wanted us to let go of our differences and conform accordingly to each other's needs in order to live out what really matters.
If the only thing that matters is the only thing that we agree on, that is perfectly fine, because if nothing else matters, we should be able to let go off all the rest. If we can't, then we are making the truth equal with the rest. We are to grab hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ and let that be what bonds us. We are not to grab onto our idea of what is okay in a church and let go of those who disagree! What I find funny is that our decisions for who is aloud are so selfishly made. They are often rooted in what we struggle the least with. I mean, seriously, it's easy for a strait guy to condemn a gay guy. And it's easy for a sober man to condemn the drunkard. But what about the gossiping american suburban mothers?! What about the Lustful porn addicts?! What about the one who thinks he is worthy of something?! We are all guilty!!! Who are we to decide who is aloud in our church?! Last time I checked, sinners were aloud. If that has changed, we might as well make them into skateparks or something, because no one is going to be there. Well, maybe some pharisees being thankful that they don't ever mess up...
We must start loving each other. If we were all as wise as the tax collector, we would all know that whether we are right or wrong is irrelevant in this. We would see that we are arguing about the controversial call that the ref just made so much that we aren't able to play the game.
The only thing that I know is absolutely true is that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that he died that I may live! He came down to earth, a demotion from his original dwelling place. He left a perfect place and came to a place of filth and injustice, a place where he was mistreated and murdered, a place where he didn't agree with anything that was going on. He came here just to love us. He knew we were wrong, but he chose to love and serve instead of leave us to die. He came to invite us in instead of to tell us that we messed up so much that we're no longer welcome.
We must go to the place of conflict, the place of disagreement, not to make it right or to be dominate, but to love the people who are desperately needing it.(Everyone)
The American church, as a whole, is not acting like Jesus in this respect. We are spending way too much time "fixing" our kinks and not enough time loving each other. What if we dropped the kinks? What if we actually lived out the gospel?
The world would never be the same. We must join together for this. I have things you don't. You have things I don't. It is this way for a reason. It is this way so that we can't make it alone. It is this way because when we join as one with God, we will be complete. A body has many parts.
The body has one Spirit.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Guilty?
Me too.
I wonder what the church would be like if we changed. I wonder what the world would be like if we changed? If you read Paul's letters and read Acts you will quickly see that Paul would be furious with us. He spoke of unity and love and sacrifice. Paul didn't speak of division and arguments and persecution! He did not tell us to kill abortion doctors and build electric fences to keep the gays out!
In Acts we have multiple examples of Paul sacrificing his morality and doing something he knew wasn't the truth, all for the sake of preaching what is truth. He went through the Jewish procedures to enter the temple and paid for meat to be sacrificed, even though it was not his way of living. He did what ever he had to to preach the gospel to a group different from himself. I am not saying that we should all abandon morality and forget about our rituals. I am saying that we should be willing to let go of everything but the true gospel, for the sake of the true gospel. We should be able to become who we are here to love. We should be willing to drop all that we think we are that we may help someone see who He is.
Everything.
I believe that if we actually loved each other and we actually loved the people who haven't been saved, we would be doing everything in our power to live life with each other. Paul said constantly that the church was to house all peoples. Some would say, "Well, it does. We have all kinds of churches." Whoopty freakin do! Paul didn't want us to split up in order to make it work. That is divorce! He wanted us to let go of our differences and conform accordingly to each other's needs in order to live out what really matters.
If the only thing that matters is the only thing that we agree on, that is perfectly fine, because if nothing else matters, we should be able to let go off all the rest. If we can't, then we are making the truth equal with the rest. We are to grab hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ and let that be what bonds us. We are not to grab onto our idea of what is okay in a church and let go of those who disagree! What I find funny is that our decisions for who is aloud are so selfishly made. They are often rooted in what we struggle the least with. I mean, seriously, it's easy for a strait guy to condemn a gay guy. And it's easy for a sober man to condemn the drunkard. But what about the gossiping american suburban mothers?! What about the Lustful porn addicts?! What about the one who thinks he is worthy of something?! We are all guilty!!! Who are we to decide who is aloud in our church?! Last time I checked, sinners were aloud. If that has changed, we might as well make them into skateparks or something, because no one is going to be there. Well, maybe some pharisees being thankful that they don't ever mess up...
We must start loving each other. If we were all as wise as the tax collector, we would all know that whether we are right or wrong is irrelevant in this. We would see that we are arguing about the controversial call that the ref just made so much that we aren't able to play the game.
The only thing that I know is absolutely true is that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that he died that I may live! He came down to earth, a demotion from his original dwelling place. He left a perfect place and came to a place of filth and injustice, a place where he was mistreated and murdered, a place where he didn't agree with anything that was going on. He came here just to love us. He knew we were wrong, but he chose to love and serve instead of leave us to die. He came to invite us in instead of to tell us that we messed up so much that we're no longer welcome.
We must go to the place of conflict, the place of disagreement, not to make it right or to be dominate, but to love the people who are desperately needing it.(Everyone)
The American church, as a whole, is not acting like Jesus in this respect. We are spending way too much time "fixing" our kinks and not enough time loving each other. What if we dropped the kinks? What if we actually lived out the gospel?
The world would never be the same. We must join together for this. I have things you don't. You have things I don't. It is this way for a reason. It is this way so that we can't make it alone. It is this way because when we join as one with God, we will be complete. A body has many parts.
The body has one Spirit.
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