The Way of the Cross

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says that the core of what his way is about is carrying a cross. What does it mean to “carry your cross?”

The cross was a shameful way to die, it was designed by the Romans to be just that. They even reserved this way of execution for the lowest of the low-they didn’t crucify citizens (even Paul isn’t crucified)-and Jesus is telling his followers that this is what it means to follow him.

A cross meant that you no longer had rights. You did not have the right to live-they killed you. You didn’t have the right to dignity-they did it in public so everybody could witness you die. You didn’t have the right to privacy-they took off your clothing. You didn’t have the right to freedom from suffering-they purposefully let your death take days and maybe even weeks.

Carrying a cross is to totally give up your rights.

This is the way that Christians are supposed to be living their lives. But sadly this is not how most do. Sadly, many Christians hold on to their rights. They end up doing the exact opposite they fight for their rights; which is against what Jesus was about.

Christians even are known to fight and argue to promote Christianity. What’s up with that? Should we be sitting around fighting about what we believe? How far have we come from Jesus’ way of thinking if this is how we are acting? Are we spreading the message of giving up our rights by arguing for our beliefs? Something just doesn’t make sense to me.

If we believe that abortion is wrong do we really think we’re going to stop anybody from doing it by calling them baby-killers?? Do we honestly believe that fighting to prove that abortion is wrong in the public sphere is going to stop people from having abortions? Is this our best solution?

Is telling people their actions are wrong even our job as Christians? Is this giving up our right? Are we really the moral police? Is that the point? Or did Jesus have something bigger for us to be working towards? Instead of calling out people we believe are wrong, why not go to them and introduce them to Jesus. Introduce them to the man who wants to heal all the wrongs and abuses in their life.

I have often thought that far too often the Pharisees get a bad rap in the Bible; all they’re doing is getting people to try and live the right way. They’re trying to get people to follow the Torah. The problem is that this is not the point of the Law. The point of the Law is to show the world the way of God (in the Gospels: “Kingdom of Heaven”) by living it (Exodus 19:3-6).

Over and over in the Old Testament the prophets come down hard on the people because they forget that they are living examples of who God is and then end up Empire Building. They end up not being who they are called to be-God’s people.

We are called to live differently than those around us. We are called to live out our faith, not defend it. “Defending the faith” is not a Christian ethic, it’s Muslim. Muslims believe that the kingdom of Allah is spread by struggling (jihad); Christ said to lay down your life and pick up your cross.

How about you? Are you picking up a cross or are you struggling?

Thoughts on Truth

Ways people have historically understood truth:
1. Authority
This was the primary way that people understood Truth in the medieval period. In this period, the authorities were trusted to understand the Truth; the common man was not. Truth is linked closely with a power structure under an authority.

This was the primary understanding of the Catholic Church. The Catholics say that it is the Pope who had the right to say whether or not something is true. The problem here is when the Papal community was obviously corrupt. Once the popes authority becomes compromised, Truth can become very quickly distorted. Which is what happened toward the end of the medieval period.

The Reformers, particularly Hus and Luther stood up and said the pope is wrong, and that simple reason and logic partnered with study of the Bible could explain what was true.

2. Logic/Reason
Logic and reason are the staple of understanding how truth is talked about in the modern era; truth is logical and rational. Truth has a strong relationship with Math and Science in this way of thinking.

This way of understanding truth is in an abstract form of truth. It is based in logical and reason, and neither of those are tangible. Truth becomes in this way of thinking static, and unchanging. It also becomes disconnected.

Post-modern thinkers reject truth in this light. There is a grass roots movement of “po-mo’s” who disagree that there is an objective truth out there. Truth as an abstract immutable force in post-modern thinking just does not exist. Truth must be seen as something that is to be experienced.

3. Experience
The primary way of introducing ones self to truth in the post-modern mindset is through Experience. One does not know truth by being told what to believe about Truth, not by following a logical ascent to Truth, but by experiencing Truth. Truth cannot be separated from experiencing it.

This is the conversation that many Christians are having today. They are talking to Christians who are based in a logical and rational ways of understanding Christianity. The problem is that these Christians are looking for abstract conversations about the nature of truth, which the post-modern mindset does not want to have. To the post-modern thinking Truth, cannot exist unless there is a subject experience.

I do not believe that post-modern thinkers deny that there is Truth; I think that they do not understand Truth as an abstract reality. It has to be tied to flesh and blood.

The way that I think many people approach these three descriptions is to ask the question, “Is one way of understanding Truth more right than either of the other two?” To which I wonder is that the right question?

I believe that to understand truth all three ways methods must be applied. Each of the three methods is flawed and can lead to abuses. Each of the three methods checks and corrects the other two. When one becomes primary (i.e. logic and reason in the modern mindset) abuses become evident, and Truth itself becomes distorted.

What do you think?

Left and right and wrong

So recently Jerry Falwell died. Jerry was the founder of Liberty University, Thomas Road Baptist Church, and the Moral Majority. Right after he died, I went to the New York Times website and read comments people made about his life-people honestly did not like him. In more than one post, Falwell was compared to Hitler!

Now I understand that the Gospel is not supposed to be popular, and we’re not supposed to be trying to be liked; but the level of hate that people were attributing to Farwell was shocking to me. In no way should a follower of Jesus life a life that they could be compared to an evil dictator.

The reason that Falwell was attacked was because he stood up for what he believed. In fact, that was the purpose of the Moral Majority. He wanted to motivate those with moral opinions to stand up for what they believe and vote conscious, which actually what most people applaud.

I respect Falwell’s integrity. Al Sharpton, Falwell’s ‘political opposite’ in a public address even had the same remarks. I only will say this: I do not believe it is the way of Jesus.

Luke 10 is where Jesus sends out the disciples to spread his message concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. It is here He gives his followers the method by which they are to spread the message. He gives these commands:

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’

This is what I see Jesus telling His disciples: Go out, give evidence of the Kingdom of God, and then explain the sign by saying, ‘the kingdom of God is near.’ This is Jesus instruction on how to spread the kingdom.

Jesus does not tell his followers to debate moral issues with people they come in contact with. He simply tells them to give evidence that God’s kingdom is here. To Jesus truth of the kingdom is not in the weight of the argument for it, but in evidence of its presence. This is why I think that political coercion is not the way of Jesus.

Coercion is defined as ‘the use of force or threats to make people do things against their will and force used to make somebody do something against his or her will.’

Does this seem to be what Jesus is telling his followers to do?

Personal Manifesto

Here is my personal statement of belief that I have been working on:

I believe we live in a broken, fractured world. Death and destruction are all around us. It seems that living is a monumental task, as even nature itself is looking to kill us. Death has become the only thing in life that is guaranteed.

I believe this brokenness is the result of the sin that we all deal with. The root of sin is self. At the root of every sin is the placing of self and selfish wants over the laws of God, and the welfare and concern of others.

The first human beings sin, and by sinning have broke the relationship that they had with God. The result of the fracture is the basic peace that was between Man, God, and Creation. I believe that individual sins also lead to systematic evils that we see in the world. Humans have created systems that oppress other humans. Racism, sexism, ageism all factor into the systems that are used to oppress those around us.

This is the story of man. We see from creation one generation and humans are killing each other. We also see that that almost as soon as there is any type of organization in the world, it is used for evil (the Tower of Babel). Every organization that man has created ends up in some way oppressing others; even the organized church has participated in oppression.

God’s motion has always been towards humanity. Even as the first man and woman sinned, God was right there taking the first steps towards healing and restoration. While humanity is continually finding different ways to make the break larger, God has continually chasing after his beloved creation.

The ultimate sign of God’s pursuit of humanity is the person of Jesus. Christians believe that what God wanted for the world, we find this in Jesus. We believe that His life was lived perfectly, without sin. Thus empowering him to be able to stand against the brokenness and sin that is in the world. Jesus then told his followers to be like he was.

Jesus in his stand against the brokenness and oppression he saw, was betrayed, arrested, falsely charged, and crucified by those he was calling out. From heaven, God saw Jesus to vindicate him raised him from the dead. We believe that it is by the power of this resurrection the sin and brokenness of this world has been defeated. It is through the power of this resurrection that sin and brokenness in our individual lives can be healed.

This is the core of what it means to be a Christian. We follow Jesus’ lead in standing against the sin and brokenness in the world. We become the agents of restoration and life standing against the sin and brokenness in the world.

Christians need to stand up for healing and restoration, but this does not imply that we fight against the evils that are around us. What I mean is that we be agents of healing and restoration. Instead inciting conflict, we instead spread the love of God for the world. Our healing and restoration process should not result in conflict-this is only bringing more brokenness.

What do you think? Does this sum up what we're about as Christians?

Can Christians be pessimists?

I think that our church is full of people who are pessimists. They don’t think that there’s any hope for the world.

I lived my formative years growing up around people who feared the evil around them, and forgot that God is stronger. They lived their lives in fear that somehow if they came in contact with the “ways of the world” that somehow either they would become tainted or they would set themselves up for some sort of moral failure.

I guess my questions is “Can Christians be pessimists?” Can we not have hope in the work that God is doing in the world? I believe that the power of Jesus resurrection has empowered those sent out to spread his message. Isn’t that the story in the early church?

Christians in the Roman Empire were social outcasts. They couldn’t buy or sell. Large percentages were slaves and women (both who had few rights). They were heavily persecuted and killed. And yet somehow the Gospel of Jesus (the Good News of Jesus) continued to spread. It spread until it Rome became Christian.

They earliest Christians preached that Jesus had come to restore creation. That through His work death had been defeated and the restoration was possible. Not only was it possible but it was happening! It’s actually how they organized themselves. They were bring resurrection to their world through how they lived their lives. This is how they lived and look what happened.

We are living in an ever-increasing post-Christian society. Europe, Australia, and America can no longer be seen as Christian nations. The average Christian today is a woman from Africa or South America; nations with no wealth or social stature.

So can Christians be pessimistic? Can we believe that in all honesty that we’re in a big mess and the world is beyond saving? Should we just kiss the post-Christian community good bye and say there’s no hope in the Gospel (the good news) every changing our own culture?

Maybe, just maybe if you say there isn’t any hope for the post-Christian western community, if you believe that Jesus’ work didn’t do enough…maybe your view of what happened on Easter morning some 2000 years ago isn’t big enough.

New Beginnings

Easter happens on the 1st day of a New Week!

The symbolism of the resurrection being on that beginning of a new week should not be lost when you read and reflect on Easter.

Creation happened in a week. And on the final day of the week God rested. His work of creation started and ended in a week.

Jesus resurrection happened on the first day of the week. One way of understanding what is happening is to see a new week of creation happening. Jesus through his death and resurrection has started a new creation!

This new creation is based upon life. The New Testament authors keep coming back to the idea that death came through Adam, and life comes through Jesus. That the old creation is characterized by Adam's sin, but the new creation is characterized by Jesus resurrection!

Happy Easter! HE IS RISEN!!

Who's your Turtle?

So tonight, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes out in theaters.

Let’s be honest, it won’t win very many awards.

It might not make that much money.

There may not even be that much of a plot.

But it will still be significant for many people.

We were talking about the Turtles at dinner tonight and (I think I am on to something with this) every guy in their 20’s is a fan of the Turtles. If you are in this demographic you know what I mean. You love the Turtles!

Every guy that I know has a favorite Ninja Turtle. I took a very unscientific survey tonight as people were leaving dinner. Every guy had a favorite.

The guys who liked Leonardo liked him because he was the leader.

The guys who liked Rafael liked him because he was sarcastic and tough.

The guys who liked Michelangelo liked him because he was the party animal

The guys who like Donatello liked him because he was always making things.

These were the answers. It isn’t just that guys had a list of things that they said and I just grouped them together, these were pretty much the answers that everybody said.

Across the board.

We have four different personalities represented here: the tough guy, the good guy/leader, the party animal, and the thinker/philosopher/engineer. This is just an observation that I have made, but I think that the Turtle that you like is in some way the person that you see your self as or the person that you want to be.

Now I am probably thinking way to hard about the Turtles, but this is just something I have observed.

It’s uncanny! Wait, that’s not the Turtles.

What do you think? What Turtle is your favorite?

"our tomb is empty"

Sunday night, I was watching the "unveiling" of the Family Tomb of Jesus. In case you haven’t heard, there is a pseudo-archeologist who claims to have discovered the Tomb that Jesus was buried in with his family. Now I didn't realize a few things #1 Jesus had a family and #2 that he was still in the ground, but this is what the program said was the case.

26 years ago, a construction crew unearthed a family tomb. They called archeologists and when they arrived they found an ossuary (or a burial box, that holds the bones of a dead person) with the name “Jesus son of Joseph” written on the side. Also in the tomb were 9 other ossuaries, four (4) others with names.

Along with the name “Jesus son of Joseph,” archeologists found inscriptions that they claim to be that of Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Matthew (supposedly a relative of Mary), and Jude (here’s the kicker-Jesus son). Now these names are all from long chains of assumption and bad interpretations of both Biblical texts and extra-Biblical texts (specifically a 4th century Gnostic Gospel).

Needless to say, as I watched this program I was shocked by the claims that they made. They said that

1.) Jesus body in all probability was not resurrected.
2.) This find also gives strong evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.
3.) Jesus and Mary had a son – and that this son was the disciple that Jesus loved.
4.) That this find is where the James ossuary is from.

The theological reprocussions are limitless as everything that they claim is against the greater tradition of the church, and contests the Biblical account. You have to force your way into the text to find what they are trying to prove.

The show was about as unscientific as you can get, as everything was done halfway. One of the guys that I watched it with made the observation that he could have done more with the evidence than they did. Literally, it was almost comical to see how many errors and poor assumptions (which we all know what assuming does) that the team made during the course of their work.

The show was a 2-hour special and it could have been cut down to about 30 minutes, and we would have learned the same amount of information. The majority of the documentary (if you can call it that) was spent on tasks, conversations, and entire scenes that had almost no relevance to the findings. It was that poorly put together.

All of the actual archeologists that were interviewed during the show, and in the hour-long critical conversation afterwards were highly critical of the findings. Taking turns they all pointed out the flaws in the process, the statistics, and the assumptions that were so confidently made.

In one of the scenes, the crew was trying to look into an enclosed tomb by looking down an air pipe, (placed their by order of rabbis, so that the souls of the people in the tomb would not be trapped) when they discovered that it was in fact the wrong tomb. The tomb that they were looking had all the bone boxes removed, and this one was still full of the ossuaries.

When the crew learned that this tomb was still full, one of the crewmembers made the remark, "Our tomb is empty!" To which I replied, "So is ours."

Peace be with you

balla Jesus

So I was checking out facebook the other day when I found this picture (Actually it wasn't this picture, it was this picture with the text: "Jesus says: Get that (beep) outta here!"). Now come to find out this picture was not made by people trying to make fun of people, but it was made by Christians (here's the Jesus Statues)

I'm sure that this figurine was made by well intending people. I'm sure that they had good intentions for doing what they did, but come on...Jesus playing basketball? (and there are more figures of Jesus playing other sports) Yes Jesus loved kids, and I'm sure that he played with them, but this is not the image of Jesus in the Bible. Let's look at a few images that we see of Jesus in the Bible.

Jesus was a teacher.
When you look at the person of Jesus and what he did for most of the time in the Gospels, you see a teacher. There is some scholarly cantor back and forth, but it can be argued that Jesus was some form of rabbi. Rabbis or teachers were the teachers of the Torah, and they spent the majority of their time teaching and conversing about the text.

His 12 disciples were his primary students. They literally followed him around and he taught them how to teach his message.

Jesus definitely had a message and a new way of understanding the Scriptures. People followed him all over the countryside to hear his teachings. They couldn’t get enough of his teachings.

This is one of the images of Jesus.

Jesus was a revolutionary.

Jesus would have been considered a revolutionary. Just not in the way that we often think of revolutionaries. Jesus taught his disciples how to be a different type of revolutionary. What do I mean?

Now at the time of Jesus there was a group of people called zealots. These guys said that God would protect and provide for them if they rebelled against the Romans. So they constantly were waging war against the establishment. They committed violent acts against Roman guards and any person who collaborated with their rule.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Jewish aristocracy, an elite minority who were placed in power by the Romans, they tried to do everything in their power to keep the Romans happy. Now these people were very anti-Zealots and helped the Romans out in whatever way they could. This small group of people actually included the Jewish priests and their community-known as the Sadducees.

Now Jesus came to the forefront of the political debate. He called the Jewish leaders out and said that they were wrong for the way that they gave into the Romans. While he stood up against the Sadducees, he was not like the Zealots. He said that the establishment was corrupt and evil. Through subversive teachings he led his followers in ways that would undermine the way of life that was status quo in the first century.

So Jesus was a revolutionary.

Jesus was crucified because he stood up for the marginalized:

As Jesus stood to those in power and he angered them, so they killed him.. They hung him on a cross between two men who were political subversives. His execution replaced the execution of a Jewish insurgent who had actually lead a rebellion. Why?

He stood up for the people who were in bondage. He told the Sadducees and the Chief Priests that they were blind dogs and that he was proclaiming a new kingdom. When you are in power and hear somebody saying that they are coming with a new kingdom, you get a bit nervous. Now when that person begins to raise support, when people begin to follow him, you begin to think of ways to end this problem, which is what they did.

Jesus was preaching in the temple and he began to call the Temple authorities out for the way that they were running the temple. He condemned them and the people who were being oppressed must have heard the marvelous news anxiously. Somebody was standing up for them against the people that were oppressing them.

So they killed him, on a cross. Because he stood up for the marginalized, they killed him.

This is the image of Jesus in the Bible. He was a real person who stood up for real issues and dealt with the same stuff people we stand up for today. This is why Jesus playing basketball seems to fall short.

Get to know the Jesus in the Bible, not the Jesus playing basketball.

Core Values

These are the core values that I put into my teachings. In everything that I teach, preach, promote, believe, and push for in the church have these 7 core values behind them. So here they are.

Hope-I believe, as Christians we should be the most hopeful group of people in the world. We follow the Life and Teachings of the one who said that he was the hope of the world. How can we be anyway else?

Love-Love is the core of the Trinity. Jesus became man because of Love. He said the core of the Torah (the Way) is, loving God and loving your neighbor. Loving God and loving our neighbors is the way we should order our lives.

Peace-At the core of the Bible is the concept of peace. In Hebrew the word is Shalom. Shalom means more than just a lack of war, but it means wholeness and oneness (with God, neighbors, and the world around us)

Purity-We are called to be pure. Sanctified. Set Apart. Jesus says, “be holy as I am holy.” As Christians we have for thousands of years that we can pure lives, that the Spirit can work in our lives and we can be pure.

Freedom-Sin at its core leads to bondage. It binds a person in its webs, literally creating slaves. Christians believe that Jesus, through his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, is victorious over sin and death. By his stripes we are saved.

Unity-The church is one body. The Jesus says a body that is divided against itself cannot stand. We are one, instead of finding the endless ways we can divide ourselves; the church needs to be about finding the ways that we are one.

Mercy-Jesus talks endlessly in the Gospel accounts of being merciful and generous in the way that we live our lives. It is of the utmost importance that as Christians we live our lives with a sense of the mercy that God has shown to us, and how we have been blessed and in turn show the same mercy towards others.

These are my 7 core values. I understand that my brief definitions of each are but the tip of the iceberg and we could spend years talking, twisting, turning, and reflecting upon their full meanings.

May your lives be consumed with Hope, Love, Peace, Purity, Freedom, Unity, and Mercy.

A rant about the Lions...

The times are changing...I am engaged. I am moving to Kentucky. And I'm thinking about switching my loyalities from the Detroit Lions to the Chicago Bears. Now to me this is a serious thing. I have never done something like this. I have never rejected one of the teams that I have grown up with, so it's hard for me. I have many fond memories of watching the Lions (many of them involve Barry Sanders) so it's a struggle for me to break with my past.

My main problem comes with the owners the Ford family. I honestly think that they may be the worst owners in the NFL. Not only do they hire Matt Millin, but before good only Matt, they never allowed the team to make decisions. The problem with the Lions is not the fact that they are horrible, but because they have an owner that doesn't know how to own a team. At least good ole Jerry down in Dallas hires competent people.

I remember the Lions as far back as the 1991 season, that year the Lions defeated the Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. Then got smashed in the next round by the Washington Redskins. But still they were a playoff team. Had a Hall of Fame running back. They featured an All Pro return man in Mel Grey. So they were an exciting team to watch.

Since 1991, they have 0 playoff wins. They didn't provide for their Hall of Fame running back (who by the way carried the team for like 10 years with out a good q uarterback) and he just retired. Who could blame him, the best they could do was Scott Mitchel? They wasted a draft pick on Andre Ware?

OK let's get on the draft picks. Charles Rogers (bust), Mike Williams (bust)-there's still hope but I'm not holding my breath, Joey Harrington (not a bust, but they never had a good line and he became shell shocked from getting hit on 3-step drops), the above mentioned Andre Ware. I mean even I know that if you want to build a team, don't use three consecutive picks on guys with the same position. But then again it took them three times to get a guy who sometimes makes good plays. It's like they're not even coached when they get to the NFL.

Coaching! Need I say more. Wayne Founts? I mean what's he doing now? Bobby Ross? Now Bobby did a good job, just he didn't have the guts to open up the offense. Gary Mueller? He's an old Michigan boy, so I don't want to diss him, but come on he was Bo's assistant, that's about it. Now Mariucci, I thought he'd be a good coach, but I guess he was a small minded jerk. But maybe that's ok, but his teams always looked like they'd just woke up and had watched TV all week.

TV. This is something that drives me crazy, every year they are horrible, and I'm forced to watch these guys bumble around for like 2 1/2 hours a Sunday afternoon. My dad watches them and nobody else. It's not like they're not talented enough. Because one week they'll progress in one area, and the next week digress in two different areas. What's funny is that when the announcers and commentators talk about bad teams, they're talk about Arizona but they never talk about Detroit. It's like they know there is nothing outside of a work from God that will fix the problem and they jsut ignore it.

So it is for these reasons that I am considering dumping the Detroit Lions as my NFL team. If you have any comments or objections let me know.

seek forgiveness

Last week I watched from my living room the final moments of the vile dictator of Iraq. This man murdered many hundreds and thousands of people in his reign of terror. His deeds are nothing less than condemnable. It was a justice, when his evil reign was ended and it is justice that he be punished for what he has done wrong. But…will that ever heal the pain.

Last week I heard that Michael Jordan and his wife were getting a divorce, and she claimed that he had been unfaithful to her. Everybody would agree that justice for Mrs. Jordan would be millions of dollars. But…will that ever heal the pain.

We have all felt the pain when somebody has harmed us. And we wanted to get even. But…will that ever heal the pain?

Yes, justice is fair. Yes, we have the right to justice. But justice will never heal our pain. Seeing Sadaam executed will never heal the pain that evil has done to the people of Iraq. Justice will never make Mrs. Jordan feel better again. And getting even with a person who has wronged you will never heal your pain.

Justice never makes the world a better place. Only forgiveness does.

The message of the Bible is not “seek justice!” Instead it’s “seek forgiveness.” The Bible is the story of God forgiving man of their sin. God could have chosen to seek justice for our sins, but instead what did he do? He personally paid the penalty himself for the sins of humanity. Now He calls us to follow his lead. God puts the premium on forgiving your enemy and loving your neighbor, not pursuing justice.

How are you seeking justice instead of seeking forgiveness? Take sometime and ask yourself this question. Then if you really want to seek forgiveness, take the first step.

And may God bless you for following his lead.

Peace be with you.

What I Believe

Now if you’re reading this that means you probably know me, because not too many people actually read this. But do you really know what I believe? Now that’s the issue.

One of the more disappointing events of my college years was when I went before the DBMD. My classes had told me that the DBMD would grill me and I needed to be prepared to defend and explain my beliefs to “the Gatekeepers.” But my three meetings with the watchmen of my district left me wanting. I was expecting to have to at least flex and in fact I barely needed to stretch. It was like I've spent all this time preparing to come and see if I match up, and they sent the JV team.

Recently, what I have discovered about myself is that I can get pretty dogmatic about things. I have all these opinions about stuff that really doesn’t matter, but I would make them matter to me. Instead of worrying and focusing on what is important, I found myself concerned about debates that maybe I should have avoided.

So I have decided to keep my dogma to a minimum. I want to narrow down my wedge as skinny as possible. So I have come up with six (6) points of dogma. These six points I believe with all my heart and I will die for them. Everything else to me is debatable and everything else just helps explain my top five.

1. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, that mysteriously are one.

2. Jesus is the only way to God. There is no other way.

3. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan for creation.

4. Jesus’ movement is centered on reconciliation and living a better life.

5. The church, the global community of Jesus’ followers, is God’s plan for spreading this movement.

6. Our lives we live now determine our eternal destiny.

Now I plan on posting some of my lesser beliefs at a later date. What do you think about my top 5? Do you think I’m missing anything? Probably you do, let me know.

why forgetting everything may not be the best way to go about it...

Last weekend my grandpa forgot everything. Well not everything, just the stuff that was important. Lucky for him it was just a reaction between too much sinus medicine and his blood pressure meds. And he’s ok now.

Even though it was very serious, it was still really funny. He kept trying to say things to make people laugh, but he’d forget what he would say. So apparently he told my grandma that she was his third wife. That’s funny cause they’ve been married since he was 19. He doesn’t remember the fact that he said it, but who knows maybe he’ll use this memory loss thing as an excuse for the next couple of years.

Deuteronomy is a book that is based on remembering. The whole book is most likely Moses’ final address to the people before they go into the Promised Land and he went up the mountain for the final time. But what are they to remember?

You see Deuteronomy comes at the end of the people’s time in the desert. When they first left Egypt God leads the people to Mt Sinai. It is here that God will give them the Law. Before He begins God explains the purpose behind the Laws he is about to give. God says to Moses, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

God tells Moses that he has set the Hebrews free from bondage and has set them apart from the nations so that they can be His priests to the nations. He sets up Laws that the nation is to follow that promote freedom and hope. Thus their message is a message of freedom from bondage, a message of hope. This is what they are to remember.

His whole message was you have to remember who you are. If you forget who you are than what good will you be to the nations? How can you be a priest if you don’t remember the message?

People are suffocating around us. They are desperate for hope and they think that they get freedom by throwing away God. They think that God holds them back and what they’re really doing is putting on more chains of bondage. But what the world really needs is to see people living a life of freedom, a life of hope. The world needs the priests of God to stand up and show the God that wants to free them from their bondage.

Update for those who like to know.

I guess for those of you are interested might enjoy an update on my life every once and a while. So here's a quick look at what I have been going through.

Last April I graduated college. It was very weird experience. I still don't feel like anything happened. I know I have graduated but it still doesn't feel like it. I have my diploma but at the same time, I don't feel like the 4 four years of college actually took 4 years.

July 9th I started at a church as the youth pastor there. that only lasted 6 weeks and in the end of August I was fired, so I moved back home. It was kind of tough but I'm learning from the experience. Being at home is kinda humilating, and not having a job kind of puts me in limbo.

So that leaves me living at home. I have started subbing in the local Intermediate School District. It is a very humbling experience, some of the kids that I am working with have real issues, but when you hang out with them you can see that despite all the other stuff that they have going on in their lives, they are beautiful people. I worked with a girl in a wheelchair who really couldn't do much of anything, but she had maybe the most beautiful smile. I learned from working with her just what it meant to love and to see how blessed i really am.

I guess God is teaching me who He is. He is showing me that he is in control and that I need to get my act together. I have been listening to Erwin McManus. Mosaic Earlier this year he did a series called Chasing Daylight (titled after his book with the same name) and it really challenged me. It was based around this concept: "If our birth is like the sunrise and our death is like sunset, then all we are doing is chasing daylight." It was a very interesing concept to me I guess.

Since i was let go by that church, I have kind of been in a state of lets wait for God to move in my life. Maybe just maybe I have been thinking, I need to move and God will reward my boldness. What do I have to lose if I follow God and trust in his plan. I keep thinking things like "What good am I doing if i'm just sitting back?" "How can I be used?"

That's what i'm doing and where I am at. Thanks for looking into my life.

Blessings on your house! the Legend

the powerful king and a little baby...

(I'm trying a different style of writing, tell me if you like it, or if you think that it's too blunt or too choppy. Thanks! ~the Legend)

King Herod was a powerful King.

He was 100 times wealthier than all the people he ruled put together.

He built massive fortresses.

The temple he built for the people was an awesome feat of engineering and architecture.

His palace was on the top of a mountain. The only way up was through a tunnel in the middle.

Surely this man would be remembered as one of the most important men in the history of the country of Israel.

but…

In a humble little village in the shadow of Herod’s palace a baby was born.

This baby was born into poverty.

This baby was born into a somewhat questionable situation.

The baby was destined to change the world; he was to be named Jesus.

Herod heard that this baby born was destined to be a great and powerful king. In an attempt to defend his power, he killed all the babies in that village.

The baby Jesus escaped and grew up to be a rabbi.

As a rabbi he began to teach about a new type of kingdom.

Jesus said that foxes (a rabbinical term for the Herods) have holes…. but the ‘son of man’ (himself) had no place to lay his head.

Who would believe that this baby would one day become the most influential person in the history of the world?

And who would believe that this powerful king would become a pimple on the face of history? Remembered not for his riches, his power, or what he built, but that he massacred the children of that little village.

What circumstances are you dealing with today in your life that nobody would believe anything good would come out of it?

Who would believe that the impossible would happen?

When you come upon a circumstance like that in your life, remember the story of a powerful king and a little baby.

...I think football.

What do “boom!”, “there’s a guy!”, and “Brett Favre” have in common?

If you guessed John Madden, you’re right.

Now I know that many people out there don’t like John Madden, but I’m a fan. I have always been a fan of the big guy, for no reason than the fact that whenever I hear his voice I think football.

Now for you people out there who feel he is less than intelligent enough for you football viewing prowess-get over it. He has developed a style of describing the game that has simplified the game.

Ironically, he has become the family friendly guy in the booth.

That’s ironic because as a coach he got two personal fouls on the same play for cursing at an official.

Whoops!

Regardless of the fact that he does get annoying, he always finds a way to talk about Brett Favre, and you really don’t understand what he’s saying sometimes-he gives a guy like me hope!

His video game series has become the best football game ever.

Hands down.

Without a question.

My friend CJ can tell you every player in the NFL. How does he know so much trivial information? He played Madden’s video game.

His style of commentating and his video game have taught more people about football than any other person in the game. No matter what you think of him you cannot deny this fact.

Madden has become a cultural icon!

When I hear John Madden, I think football.

Covers our shame

One of my favorite books growing up was the book of Genesis. It is one of the more popular sections of the Bible for Sunday school classes to focus on, but sadly I think that so often we don’t come back to the stories as adults and miss the truth that is just sitting there before us.

I have been spending my devotional times for the past couple of months in the book of Genesis. I’ve come to love and appreciate the book and the narrative that you find in the beginnings of the book. Genesis in fact is the Greek word meaning just that "beginnings". I believe that this book is meant to be just that.

I would like to spend a couple of weeks breaking down the book and moving from beginning to end, talk about some things that I have noticed and gleaned.

I break the book down into six sections. First there is the Creation narrative, the Flood Narrative, the life of Abraham, the life of Isaac, the life of Jacob and his 12 sons, and then finally the Egypt narrative. Thus the book begins with creation, and ends with an explanation of how the Hebrew nation ends up in Egypt.

Genesis starts with the creation of the world. The first two chapters paint two very different pictures of the creation story, but Moses does not seem to be focusing on the world’s creation but the creation of man. Genesis 1 climaxes with the creation of man. While in Genesis 2 man is created first and everything else is created around him. These chapters side-by-side scream to us that God’s focus in this world is man.

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog titled Naked. This post was subtitled “why clothing isolates us.” I tried to discuss the point that so often because of our fallen nature, we try to find value in who we are because of what we can do and because of how we look. We fail at this because we forget that our value comes from how God views us, and he views each of us as valuable. This is a result of the fall, sin has entered how we think, and has turned us not just against God, but also against each other. Because of our sin, we are constantly trying to prove to each other and to God that we matter that we are valuable, even though this struggle seems to always be tearing us apart.

At the end of Genesis 3 there is an interesting end to the Garden Scene. God has found Man and Woman, he has passed judgment on their actions, and has banished them from the Garden, but he pauses and does one last thing. It says that he makes coverings for the couple out of animal skins.

This is the first recorded death in the Bible, and the one who killed is God. Earlier in chapter 2 Moses records nakedness with shame. This is totally unbelievable; God kills to cover their shame. God is the offended party here, yet he is the one who is repairing the damage. In the ultimate example of foreshadowing, death is the tool that will be used to cover the shame that results from sin.

God’s ultimate creation has been tainted with sin, but God is not content to let his masterpiece to be completely destroyed. The creation narrative shows to us that God will take the first step in restoring his rebellious creation. God immediately set the path to the cross. If you read Genesis 3:15, you see what many believe to be the first prophesy concerning Jesus. God tells the snake “he (referring to the son of woman) will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” You will sting him, but in the end he will have victory.

May you embrace the gift of Jesus - forgiveness that covers all our shame.

Great Quote

“Indeed, for women and other oppressed people, Jesus turned upside down the accepted wisdom of the day. Pharisees believed that touching an unclean person polluted the one who touched. But when Jesus touched a person with leprosy, Jesus did not become soiled-the leprous became clean. When an immoral woman washed Jesus’ feet, she went away forgiven and transformed. When he defied custom to enter a pagan’s house, the pagan’s servant was healed. In word and in deed Jesus was proclaiming a radically new gospel of grace: to get clean a person did not have to journey to Jerusalem, offer sacrifices, and undergo purification rituals. All a person had to do was follow Jesus. As Walter Wink puts it, “the contagion of holiness overcomes the contagion of uncleanness.”

-Phillip Yancey "The Jesus I Never Knew"

It's from a Cady....so you know it's good

S. Cady has come through with another great post! Check it out, marvel at the link that he put in.

Seriously, the link is pretty stupid! His title is right, crying is my response.

Cady's Magic

Peace through fighting....I think not!

I understand the Christian pro-Israel position. I understand the Israelis need to protect themselves from terrorism. I understand that there are Muslim terrorists out there who want nothing more than to destroy the Jews. I guess I just miss how fighting and killing people is going to solve the problem.

The problem in the Middle East is that for literally thousands of years the people of Israel and their Arab neighbors have been fighting. Both sides have been practicing hate towards each other. They have stood dogmatically on their positions and when those positions have been threatened they have responded with force.

As a result of this constant fighting and hatred they have continued to fued for the entire time. It’s just like the feuds up in the hill country of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee in the 19th century. The Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s kept fighting until just a few years ago. Why because there was always another axe to grind. There was always another revenge that had to be carried out.

This is the problem with fighting for peace. Look at World War II. One of the biggest causes was World War I. The German people were disgraced and humiliated after they lost, and it probably didn’t take a orator like Hitler (even though it was) much effort to rally the people behind getting revenge and avenging this disgrace. The hurt was already there.

Simple and plain, war does not lead to peace.

I am not saying we should not fight nor am I saying that a country does not have the right to defend itself. Israel as a sovereign nation has the right to stop another country from launching missiles into its cities. But just because it does have that right does not mean that they should expect force to stop another jihad movement from attacking her another day.

The only way for peace to happen is for one (or both) of the parties to agree to give up their right to justice, give up their pride, and move on. What would that mean? It would mean ideologies to change drastically. It would probably mean that Israel would lose it’s nationhood because the Arabs would take it by force. But then there would be no fighting.

If we look at the prescient that the early Christians set for peacefully giving up their rights we see how to gain peace. The Roman Emperors had it out for these people. They killed, tortured, divided them, enslaved them, and tried to do everything possible to destroy their movement. The Christians could have fought back, but they would have been destroyed. The Jews fought back, and in 70 AD everything they stood for was destroyed.

Jesus constantly talked about giving up your rights, about loving your neighbor, about not making it about you and what you wanted. He even set the example by dying on a cross. Culturally, turning the other cheek and walking another mile were references to the Roman soldiers. They would hit people. Jesus said to not fight back, but instead to allow them to hit you again-to give up your rights. Soldiers could make people carry their gear for a mile; Jesus said to offer to carry their equipment an extra mile. To again give up your rights.

Did Christians get hurt? Yes. Did Christians die? Yes. Were people’s lives totally changed as they watched Christians give up everything? Yes. Did Romans become followers of Christ? Yes. Was the Empire eventually won for Christ? Yes! Jesus’ message of a non-violent approach to peace does work. Who would have known God would have the answer?

It seems impossible. Is it possible for Israel and their Muslim neighbors to ever co-exist in peace? I think yes. But I do not think it will ever happen if they fight and if they continue to kill each other. Nope! You cannot win peace with war. It just doesn’t work.

I deserve....?

just a quick question...

I things like this all the time - "That's not fair!" "That guy deserves what he's getting." "Let's be fair." "Justice demands (this or that)"

I think we all hear this. Humans are all out there demanding that there be some level of fairness. I think CS Lewis spends and entire chapter in Mere Christianity talking about just this issue. And there is a level of fairness that I think as humans we all cling to hoping that we can have a level of fairness towards ourselves.

But is this fairness really that important?

What did Jesus say about seeking Justice? What did he say to do when somebody slaps? What about when somebody wants to borrow something of yours? He definitely seems to be saying not to worry about getting Justice. You are right, it’s not fair that you were slapped; it’s not fair that somebody doesn’t have what they need so they have to get from you – but justice shouldn’t be your concern.

This is something that has been bugging me for a little while now, because I feel that there are tons of Christians (myself included) who are so concerned about life being fair, when Jesus so clearly talks about living above receiving justice.

just a thought…

how could I?!?!?!

I am reading Brennan Manning's book Ragamuffin Gospel for the first time. Even though I am only half way through the second chapter, I am thinking it may be the book that will have the biggest impact on my life yet.

The Second Chapter is dealing with God's largeness. The power and the vastness of who he is can only be described as stunning. The one comment that really struck me last night was the fact that if you hold up a dime a arms length away from your self you are blocking something like 15 million stars from your view. 15 MILLION!!! That's just crazy.

I guess the whole point is that God is huge, large, vast, uncontrollable, AND he yet still loves sinners like us. How amazing is that? I'm typing this and I don't even know if I get how crazy that fact is.

In my devotions I am reading through Genesis. I am just amazed at the book, it is so deep and so rich and compelling. I am getting into the part about Joseph, and as I book marked my page for tomorrow, I noticed a note at the top and the bottom of the page. The note on the bottom said, "If we really understood God's immensity we wouldn't sin!" That hurts.

In my last post, I talked a bit about the Law. I was trying to paint the Law of God in a positive light, because so often we look at it in a negative light. I talked about how breaking the Law would be somewhat like committing adultry against God.

So as I am reading Ragamuffin Gospel, that note in my Bible, and I my post about the Law, I guess I am a bit humbled.

God has stooped down from heaven to show me love. He has shown me how to live. He has given me the example of his people Israel to show me His faithfullness. He came to earth and died for my sins. All this and I still seem to find ample ways to sin against Him.

What's more is I do this against Him and he forgives me and loves me still!

I guess the whole point of this post is to say that the grace of God is amazing. I do not think that I could ever ask for more. I don't think that I can ever get away from this grace nor would I ever want to. And if you havn't read Ragamuffin Gospel, put everything else down and go get it and read it.

Thoughts on the Law

Whoops it has been a month since I last posted…my bad. I’ll try and make up for it in the future by post much more often. In the mean time I hope that your break from reading my rants and raves has been enjoyable.

Since I last posted I have been dealing with a few questions. One big question is ‘how are we supposed to understand the Law of God?’ Is it a big weight that we are to carry around our necks? Is it the magical formula to please God? Are we blessed for following the Law?

There seems to be this very negative stereotype surrounding the whole conversation. It seems to be a burden that nobody can master. It is a duty to follow God’s law, an unpleasant duty that Christians seem to cringe at following. This seems way of thinking seems to arise out of Paul’s letters where he is talking about how we all mess up and break the law.

People say following the Law is boring, and in fact the first five books of the Bible are often those that are ignored and read the least. I guess even I have portrayed this concept when I am helping somebody read the Bible I suggest them to steer away from Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy.

I have begun to rethink my view on the Law recently. The more I come back to this issue, it seems that it is the Law that God gives Moses that describes how we should live. It is the proper way that we should live. We are designed to live by the Law. Therefore when we break the Law, not only are we sinning against God, but we are harming ourselves.

Think about it, when a husband cheats on his wife, he has broken a sacred trust with her-thus hurting their relationship. Studies have shown that the relationships that are the happiest and most fulfilling are those where both partners are faithful to each other. Everything works best when it operates like it was designed to.

I think that Paul’s point was that we all mess up; its part of the make up of being human. It doesn’t make sense to just bail on following the Law just because you mess up. It is like saying that when playing basketball you quit playing because you’re going to break the rules. It would be preposterous to do that.

This whole thought process started for me as I heard a pastor in Indy preaching that when we follow God’s law, he sees us and blesses us. I guess my reaction was that if we are designed to follow the Law it would make sense that everything would work better that way. In the same way that it makes sense to put gasoline in a car when you want to drive it somewhere, it is how it is designed to work. It is not God blessing you; it is living like you were meant to live.

Think about it…

The Great Divide: Who I was and Who I am...(pt. 1)

So as of April 29, I am no longer an undergraduate student at IWU, and contrary to the fact that I haven't posted in like a month, I am still alive and ticking. Part of the problem is that I have been adjusting to the whole 40 hours per week deal, and I have 3 jobs. Excuses aside, I have tried to sit down and type this post up multiple times and I just haven't been able to type. Call it writers block, call it tired of typing, call it laziness, whatever you want to I have missed my blogging time. So apology placed-lets move on.

I guess for the next couple of weeks I want to look back at the 4 or 5 biggest catalysts to my personal growth and change over my undergraduate time. Around the end of March or the beginning of April (If I remember right) I started to think about what I was like when I first came to college, and how I think completely different than I did way back in the summer of '02.

I would like to start be explaining who I was when I arrived on campus the summer after my senior year of High School. I was a country boy who thought that Marion was a decent town (I still kind of do) that had enough to keep me occupied-I mean what more could you want than fast food, two bowling alleys, and a movie theater. Lets get serious, Marion is like 30 times bigger than Carson City. I was a well meaning nice guy who thought he had a bunch of stuff figured out and that I understood the world and my faith on as deep a level as I ever would.

What scares me today is that 4 years later I have seen things that have completely reshaped my view on issues, totally changed my view of Christianity, and totally changed where my calling has lead me.

The initial impact on my life started the second that I moved on campus, it was the fact that I am no longer living in Michigan. My good friend Jason says that I am doomed to forever live in Indiana (who knows it could happen), because I hate it so much. First of all that is not true but coming here, it was obvious to me that Michigan and Indiana were not completely alike. It was a good first lesson to learn.

I noticed the difference when I went into JC Pennies for the first time. I forget who I was with, but I went into the men's clothing section, and instead of finding the usual Michigan, Lions, Pistons, and Tigers gear, I found Colts, I-U, Notre Dame, and Purdue merchandise instead. It was a HUGE culture shock to me. I had never thought that places outside of Michigan would not include the major Michigan sports apparel.

Next was the people deal with the weather, Michigan weather is colder and has much more snow, so we're used to getting dumped on, Indiana is not the same. My first year it snowed every weekend, it was heaven on earth, but everybody around here complained that it was the hardest winter ever. Getting around was almost impossible, people did not plow the road, they left snow and the snow turned to ice, it was NUTS!

I guess my first year I learned that places are different, and that Michigan is not as normal as I thought, normal becomes where you grow up in. Hoosiers are normal when they are in their beloved flat state, Wolverines are at home when they are in the mitten, and Buckeyes are happy when they realize that they can spell Ohio.

I guess I learned that each place is different and that people while somewhat different, are pretty much all the same. So instead of looking for differences, it was up to me to look at people and try and find a common denominator. How was this person the same as the other people that I know back home. Or maybe better yet how can I make where I am home instead of always clinging to where I used to be.

(I still consider myself a Michigander, so don't ever confuse me for a Hoosier, but I guess I am ok with spending the rest of my life in Indiana. Everybody has to count the costs and sacrifice on some level....)

Does God hate sinners? (A response To godhatesfags.com

Just in case you don’t know, there are people there who proclaim that God hates sinners. They make harsh, rude, offensive statements portraying God as if he were filled with rage and making judgment the primary concern in God’s repertoire. People like Pat Robertson and the people of Westboro Baptist Church are great examples of preachers of this “Gospel.”

Pat Robertson is a classic example of a man who says things that flat out turn people away from Christ. He speaks out against homosexuals and against people who promote lifestyles different than his by using judgment language. An example of this type of action is last fall he told a community in Pennsylvania to watch their backs because God’s judgment and wrath coming in response to them voting down the schools wanting to teach creative design creation theories. What?!?! (I would just like to make a point here, creative design is not a Christian theory, it’s closer than evolution, but still it’s not Christian so Pat just needs to get his facts straight.)

The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas has a very similar reputation. Their church homepage is Godhatesfags.com-need I say more? These people are vicious anti-homosexuals, using language like “God hates you!” Their web site has features like the listing of their 6 daily pickets of the courthouse in Topeka, and the other nationwide events that they picket at showing how God hates fags…AND anybody else who does not join the ferocity of their attacks.

In case you don’t know me and are reading this, I do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle, but I do not believe that you can do anything to make God hate you. I do not believe that what you do changes anything about how God feels about you as a person. John 3:16 one of the most quoted verses in the Bible says. “For God so LOVED the World, that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life.

The word for world there in the Greek is kosmos. It literally means the world-everything It does not just mean the people on the earth, nor does it mean just the people who follow God, but everything! I do not know how much more broad you can get! God Loves this world! Jesus came to repair the broken relationship that man had with God. There is nothing more central to the heart of Christianity.

The word that is used for Love is John 3:16 is the word Agape. It means intense passionate pure hearted love. It is not the I love you like a brother or the physical love, but LOVE. God is not saying I like you, he is saying you’re so important to me, I am coming to save the day! You sin and disconnect from me, so I am coming to save you! Not you sin I am coming to judge you.

If you go to the next verse of John 3, verse 17, you read, “for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” HOW CAN ANY PERSON SAY THAT GOD HATES ANYBODY!! Doesn’t the revelation of Jesus and the work of Jesus seem to shoot that thought do the ground Another way to read that verse is to say God didn’t send his Son to judge the world but to save it.

God loves you-he loves you enough to become a man and impose upon himself all the limitations that man has, and then die a death for you, that you might be free from the problems and the wounds and the hurts of this life-he did not come because he hates you. For God so loved the world….

This explains a ton!

One of my favorite sites is BBC.com. This is where I go look for the big world issues. Probably like 3-5 times a week I look to see what is going on in the world around me while I have my head buried in the sand.

I noticed an interesting interesting article today, it is talking about how men get more defensive around the time their women are fertile. Kind of an interesting research topic, how do you get this kind of information?!?!?! Anyways take a few minutes to check it out.


Does your guy ever act like this? Has a girl ever told you that you're too protective? or maybe have you ever noticed you want to rip some other guys head off? Maybe it's right....I don't know just wanted to see what you think.

Transformers

Today I went to Dave Smith's house for my final exam. The final consisted of "Chicken Surprise," a green bean casserole, and the works. It was great! Quite possibly the best final ever. After we ate we sat in his living room and Dave talked to my class about a sermon he had heard before.

The title of the sermon was there is a fly in my communion. The theme of the sermon was a question: "Does the fly pollute communion, or does communion sanctify the fly?"

I guess it made me think of what the implications are for my life. Do we live like we're being polluted by the things of the world, or are we purifying them by including them in our lives.

I guess it is nothing more than just a shift in thinking. I feel that so often as Christians we shy away from “the things of this world” because we are scared that sin is more powerful than the work of Christ in us. So we run and hide and we hide the transforming power of Christ that is in us, thus depriving the world of his work.

If we believe that the power of the work of Christ is more powerful than the powers of this world, why are we scared of coming in contact with the “flies” that hover around us? Do we miss the chance to do amazing things because we do not realize the power that is in us? Do we underestimate the power of Christ?

Just some thoughts, I have two days left of college life-and then I graduate! It’s exciting and scary. I do not know where I am going or what I am going to do in a few months. So the future is big and unknown for me now, but I have to trust that God is in control and I can believe in him.

Until next time-you stay classy…

He is the Living one-And he holds the keys of death in his hand

I recently had to do an exegesis paper on the Revelation Chapter 1. I learned a bunch and I really have fallen in love with the entire book of Revelation. So this is my paper. I had to ask a question as the basis for my research, so my question was what is the message to the churches and why do they need this message.

All the information that I found points to the fact that these churches were undergoing major persecution (if the book was written in the 90’s). Emperor worship and polytheism ruled the day, and Christians were at the least bad citizens and at the worst trying to tear about the moral fiber of their culture-thus it was ok to persecute these peoples.

The belief was that if the gods were appeased then the people would be blessed, and if the emperors were pleased they would look upon their region with favor, as he had in many occasions. By the end of the first century this was one of the most prosperous regions the empire, and they did not want to endanger that. For this reason the area was highly motivated to persecute the church.

We see that when Paul brought the message of the Gospel to Ephesus that because of the temples losing money, the people were stirred to rioting. These people were dedicated to their gods and did not appreciate one bit the Christian’s message. This is the atmosphere of the region.

The imagery of Revelation 1 is two folded. The first image is the image of Christ as a sufferer. He is described as having been pierced, and the firstborn of the dead. This image of Christ shows the example that the people should follow, as Christ is not only a sufferer but also he is the first born of all sufferers. To be persecuted for Christ is following his example.

The second image is the image of Christ as glorified. This is seen later in the Chapter as John is describing what Jesus looked like. Jesus is described in powerful ways-fire in his eyes, a sword coming from his mouth, feet like burnished bronze, the keys of death in his hands. This is not a Jesus who is powerful and glorious.

This Jesus is standing amongst the candlestands the represent the churches. This Jesus is not right in the middle of his people. They are suffering and Jesus is there, powerful and mighty. He is alive and the Living One, and he is standing in the middle of his people.

The message of this chapter is to be faithful. Follow Christ’s lead, as he is standing amongst your congregation. He is the Living One, he is the slain one, and he now holds the keys of death

and I'm spent

so today I finished my lat bit of homework for Dr Drury and i'm almost done with homeletics II. I have an exegesis paper and a couple of book reports left to do and i'll be done with my college career!! But as for tonight i am going to bed early! so in the mean time check out this link that is linked to my title...it's about Taco Bell!

that's all i have for now...'You stay classy San Diego'

"Behold I make all things new"...what does that mean?

In the Apocalyptic Literature class that I am taking, a quote from Revelation 21 has stuck out to me. In verse 5 'The One sitting on the throne' says, "Behold, I am making all things new." How does this apply to our everyday lives? Is this being said at the end or is this for us today? Can we say that God is making all things new through the death of Christ? how can we understand a passage that seems to be as broad as everything....

I guess this is my big struggle right now, because I definatley am not new. I struggle with the same sins I was dealing with 10 years ago. I am teaching students to do things that I myself am still not victorious over, and it sucks. But God is making all things new. So why am I not new yet?

I guess the part about Revelation that we miss so often in our understanding of the text is that it is not God makes all things new or God will make things new or even God has made all things new; but God is making all things new. That means that God is in the process of making me new. The end is not God's only goal, but getting there is what is important. It's about the persistence of doing what it takes that God is concerned with.

The root of the book of Revelation is faithfullness. I think taht Revelation deals more with the concept of being faithful than it does even with the idea of victory. From the first chapter to the last, the book is a call for God's people to be faithful to his commands and to his way. Then and only then when we are faithful will we find victory.

So I guess this is what I need to think about being made new, that I am going to stumble and regress at periods of time in my life, but I need to be faithful. God is in the process of making me (along with everything else) new. When I feel like I am getting no-where maybe I need to ask where I am going; or even better if I have stopped going where I need to be heading.

What about you? Do you find it tough to be in the middle of being made new. God is using situations in your life, maybe even leading you into situations that may be tough, but on the other side you will be closer to being new. I pray that you will follow on the path of being made new.

Good Night and Good Luck-Goodbye

I'm Back!!

So Lent is over and now life is back to normal. I am back to checking out blogs and I am back to eating at the fast food establishments that surround my life. I have dearly missed both-but it was good to give them up.

Over the past 40 some odd days I have had many thoughts running through my head, the biggest being of course graduation and finding a job. Because I participated in the Wesleyan Loan Grant program, I now much search for and settle with nothing less than a full time job in a Wesleyan church somewhere. My ideal job would be a student ministries position, so I have been hunting for job opportunities as they have come across my plate.

So what's next for me? Well I need to find a place to minister in, and I have to get all my coursework done. So in the next couple days and couple of weeks I have to find solutions for these situations.

That's what's up in my life, I'm glad to be back online! I'll cya around

What I am giving up for Lent

So last night in a question about Lent I asked what are you giving up? It has been weighing on my mind for a couple of days about what I should give up. I got up and went to an Ash Wednesday Service and had to get up bright and early at 6:35 to get over to the Chapel by 7:00, so I had like two and a half hours to before chapel afterward. After I did some homework, I realized it would be good for me to spend some reflective quiet time pondering what Lent was really about.

While I was pondering, I felt challenged about what I really would give up. We all say, I would give up everything for Jesus! The last couple of days while I was thinking about what to give up, and my mind kept coming back to posting and reading other people's thoughts, and I realized just how much time I spend doing just that. So I am going to give up my blog pages for the 40 days of Lent. My next post will be sometime in April (probably Easter afternoon), if you read this page often I apologize, maybe I will delegate Stephanie to helping fill in the dead time.

In the mean time-I will see you around and I always have a cell phone!

the Legend - out

A little Break-topic: Lent

So it's lent season! what are you giving up? i challenge you to give something up. It's not to be a better Christian, but it's to challenge your committment level. Also I believe that Christians should never be in a place where they are not willing to give something else up. So even if you read this and it's after Ash Wednesday I challenge you to consider removing something from your life until easter.

Why? because it really forces you to focus on what is important. You are forced to be out of your comfort zone. You who God that you will do anything to draw closer to him. These are just a few thoughts to consider!

If you feel that it is too Catholic for you to do--> then that's just silly. cause more than just Catholics will participate in this 40 period. I will be posting about Lent in the next couple weeks. so look foward to that!

in the mean time give something up! when you are the most frustrated remember Jesus dying on the cross for your sins! remember his victory over the grave! and give up something-->something like fast food!

in the mean time i'll talk to you later

dan

Lost the plot (The Church part 2)

The Church for years has been labeled irrelevant. Christians are seen as people who hold to an ancient and old-fashioned religion that really does nothing but hold people back from doing what they want to do. The culture around the church has in many places moved into a post-Christian era, a scary place for Christians to minister to people in.

How do you minister to a group of people who think that there are beyond you and what you believe? The problem is that the Church has not noticed this and in most situations is still trying to prove that it is right. So the culture around us sees us as even more irrelevant. It’s a huge downward spiraling cycle that continues to move the Church farther and farther away from being effective in the culture around it.

If the church wants to succeed it needs to get beyond the fact that Christianity is right. Being right and wrong is not something that matters as much in our world, and something that should not even be a concern in our lives. (Besides if we are always trying to prove we’re right, then the Church becomes a place of conflict instead of a place of healing and help.)

All the way back in the Old Testament, we see the Hebrew nation was commanded to look out for the poor, the fatherless and the widow.
• The Torah commands farmers to not harvest their fields completely so that those who do not have may gather for themselves.
• There are extensive areas in how to protect the rights of women.
• There are commands to make sure children have fatherly influences in their lives.

These commands are the primary moral obligations that the people of God were given. There is no doubt that there is an emphasis on righting the social injustices of the world. The problem with Israel is that they continued to forget this, and the prophets kept reminding them. Isaiah in the very first chapter of his book writes a very harsh condemnation to the people because they have neglected the poor, the fatherless, and the widow.

Jesus followed this line of thought with an emphasis on putting others first. He condemns the teachers in the temple (Mark 11) for just this. Jesus in verse 17 quotes two Old Testament passages, Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Many people think these comments were references to the entire passages, a sort of rabbinical style of conversation. These passages would then be comments about how the leaders of Israel have neglected the people that they were supposed to be taking care of and looking out for themselves.

Much of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke especially) have Jesus talking about what he calls the “Kingdom of God.” He describes this kingdom as a place where people focus on the needs of other first. A place where generosity is focused on and where coming in first is not the major concern, a place where our world is literally turned upside down.

Jesus as he ascended into heaven, gave the directive to his disciple to: “Go and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.” What has Jesus commanded us to do? He has commanded us to teach people about this upside down Kingdom!

The problem with the Church is that so often it has mixed up teaching about the Kingdom of God with teaching the correctness of the Kingdom. We’re not called to prove its existence but to live it out. This is how we lose our relevancy to culture. We get into groups and we write out statements of our beliefs and then never let it leave our Church doors. We build amazing buildings where we can worship, but never improve the condition of the people’s lives around us. And all this is done thinking that it is what Jesus would have wanted us to do.

The book of James sums this conversation up. James 1 ends with this comment-“Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep ones self from being polluted by the world.”

Our mission if we should decide to accept it is to be concerned with the well-being of others around us!

The Church (part 1)

I am going to do a series of writings on the church. I hope that over the next four or five weeks that I will begin to understand what I believe more clearly, and just what the church is and is going to be. So thanks for reading along with my thoughts.

First I think we need to explain just what the church is. If you went to Sunday school you know that the answer is “We are the church!” The Church is the people that make up its congregations and then the combination of all those congregations. So the Church is the total of all the different Christians around the world combined.

Today in the Student Center at IWU, I heard a conversation going on about the Catholic Church. Apparently one of the guys did not appreciate being lumped into the same category as the Catholics. I know he is not alone, because I grew up in a very Separatists community, and people who are Catholics were (and still are) looked down upon. But this is not the way that it should be. The Catholic Church is still part of the “Big C” church community.

Christ is the Greek word that means, “Anointed one”, it is the counterpart for the Hebrew word Messiah. So to be a Christian means to be a follower of the anointed one. Not a very complicated idea, and I’m sure that this makes sense. So if the Church is the collection of the followers of the Anointed one, we should be following His lead.

Second, the more that you study the New Testament, the more that you see the earliest disciples of Jesus were very subversive to the Romans. The Greek word for church “ecclesia” was actually the word used to describe the community of the Roman Empire. This must have been a totally revolutionary concept for those who heard the Gospel for the first time. Here is this religion that is proclaiming the new message, and comparing themselves to the Roman government.

This group of people who gathered together also used many of the terms used to describe Caesar. They used the names that described glory and honor to Caesar and gave them to Jesus. The book of Revelation is full of them. Even the concept that Jesus ascended to Heaven and is sitting at the right hand of the Father is imagery from the Romans. There was a story that said, Julius Caesar ascended to the right hand of the Gods after he died. So we see that even the early Christian imagery has a very Roman slant to it.

So the name and many of the images of the church have a 1st century understanding. We have adopted them in our 21st century understanding to think that they are entirely “Christian” ideas, but they are not. I have said all this to try and say we have to understand the culture of the first followers of Jesus, to understand where what we are today.

The early Christians were countercultural! They were different than the people around them, which is why they were persecuted. In Church History Class we talk about the misconceptions that people had of the Christians. They were called cannibals, immoral, godless, and anti-government. They were killed and they were maimed they were persecuted everywhere they went. This was not because they were any of these things, but because they were different.

What does the body do?

First the body meets together to hear the word explained. This is the part where the preaching and teaching happens. This is essential to teach people what they believe.

Second the Church administers the sacraments and orders itself in a proper manner. I would like to consider the sacraments larger than just communion and baptism, I believe we should include more of a Catholic understanding of the sacraments.

Thirdly keeping our community rightly ordered. This is where Christians understand of right and wrong, and how life should. This has become the primary way that we know we are Christians, and we need to be careful, but it is still an important part of Christianity.

This is a basic idea of what I believe the church to be. Everything that the church does must come through this understanding of the Church in my opinion.

The World Ripped Open (part 2)

The world has been ripped open and the walls and the barriers that were once established are now non-existent. This is the thought that I threw out in my previous post. I made the point that now the Heavens and the earth and whatever separates the two from each other has permanently damaged. But what does that mean? It means that heaven is now trying to pour out onto earth-it is seeping out and trying to fill the earth up!

This is kind of a different thought because most people think of heaven as a future reality. There is the here and now-and then there is the future physical universe and that’s heaven. Rob Bell, a pastor in Grand Rapids describes Heaven and Earth in a different way: Heaven is a place where things happen, as God would have them, Earth is a place where they don’t.

Jesus taught in stories, many times he told stories like this; “The Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is like...(enter Parable). The Kingdom in these parables was a Kingdom where things were done quite differently than in the world around Jesus’ listeners. In these stories it was like the Kingdom Jesus was talking about was almost completely backwards from what they knew.

The weird thing about Jesus’ teachings is that they were talking about being selfless. To be a religious person was to deny ones self and follow Christ. Jesus wanted people to give up a pursuit of being #1 and to make others a higher priority.

Jesus seemed to be talking about Earth (the place where things don’t always happen the way God wants) becoming more like Heaven (the place where things do happen as God wants). He was talking about the total change the world, not just a religion. He didn’t want his disciples to just change how Judaism impacted their lives, but he wanted to change how they lived.

What has happened in the last few decades is that people have started to treat Christianity as only about getting people saved. We have become Gnostic* to some level and have only concerned ourselves with the spiritual, and this is wrong! We have forgotten what Jesus taught us to do! We have neglected the message of the Bible!

James 1:26-27 seems to cap the conversation of Jesus’ ministry. James was addressing the community of believers and was discussing some abuses in the church. Apparently there were Believers who were trying to gain the attention of the rich and popular. James wants nothing to do with this type of action, and says in these verses, “real religion is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I guess this has been the point of these last two posts. I honestly believe that as Christians if we only focus on our Salvation, we are not being good Christians. We are being called to look after the orphans and the widows, the poor and sickly, those who cannot take care of themselves. God wants us to be not about ourselves and us getting to heaven, as much as he wants us to be helping other people and making sure that they are going to go to heaven. Or Better yet-help them see heaven here on earth.


*Gnostic belief is that the spirit is good and the physical is evil. So we only need to worry about dealing with the spirit. What is done by the physical is beside the point. Gnosticism has been condemned as a heresy and is not good at all.

Does God hate sinners?

Just in case you don’t know, there are people there who proclaim that God hates sinners. They make harsh, rude, offensive statements portraying God as if he were filled with rage and making judgment the primary concern in God’s repertoire. People like Pat Robertson and the people of Westboro Baptist Church are great examples of preachers of this “Gospel.”

Pat Robertson is a classic example of a man who says things that flat out turn people away from Christ. He speaks out against homosexuals and against people who promote lifestyles different than his by using judgment language. An example of this type of action is last fall he told a community in Pennsylvania to watch their backs because God’s judgment and wrath coming in response to them voting down the schools wanting to teach creative design creation theories. What?!?! (I would just like to make a point here, creative design is not a Christian theory, it’s closer than evolution, but still it’s not Christian so Pat just needs to get his facts straight.)

The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas has a very similar reputation. Their church homepage is Godhatesfags.com-need I say more? These people are vicious anti-homosexuals, using language like “God hates you!” Their web site has features like the listing of their 6 daily pickets of the courthouse in Topeka, and the other nationwide events that they picket at showing how God hates fags…AND anybody else who does not join the ferocity of their attacks.

In case you don’t know me and are reading this, I do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle, but I do not believe that you can do anything to make God hate you. I do not believe that what you do changes anything about how God feels about you as a person. John 3:16 one of the most quoted verses in the Bible says. “For God so LOVED the World, that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life.

The word for world there in the Greek is kosmos. It literally means the world-everything It does not just mean the people on the earth, nor does it mean just the people who follow God, but everything! I do not know how much more broad you can get! God Loves this world! Jesus came to repair the broken relationship that man had with God. There is nothing more central to the heart of Christianity.

The word that is used for Love is John 3:16 is the word Agape. It means intense passionate pure hearted love. It is not the I love you like a brother or the physical love, but LOVE. God is not saying I like you, he is saying you’re so important to me, I am coming to save the day! You sin and disconnect from me, so I am coming to save you! Not you sin I am coming to judge you.

If you go to the next verse of John 3, verse 17, you read, “for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” HOW CAN ANY PERSON SAY THAT GOD HATES ANYBODY!! Doesn’t the revelation of Jesus and the work of Jesus seem to shoot that thought do the ground Another way to read that verse is to say God didn’t send his Son to judge the world but to save it.

God loves you-he loves you enough to become a man and impose upon himself all the limitations that man has, and then die a death for you, that you might be free from the problems and the wounds and the hurts of this life-he did not come because he hates you. For God so loved the world….

The World Ripped Open (part 1)

Jesus was born into a Jewish world around two thousand years ago. The entire world of the Jew was wrapped around the Temple and the temple worship system. This temple was in the holy city of Jerusalem, and in the middle of the temple was the holy of holies. This holiest of sites is believed to be the spot where Abraham actually laid Isaac on an alter to sacrifice, and was separated from the rest of the temple by a huge curtain (some say 18 inches thick!).

In Solomon’s temple, the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the holy of holies. The top of the Ark was in such a way that it looked like a seat. Many described this as a place where the presence of God would come and sit. Thus the throne of God was in the holy of holies in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

The holy of holies was in located a part of the temple where only the priests could go. The Priest’s section of the temple was located in a place where only ‘clean’ Jewish men could go. That was located inside the walls of the temple, and that was inside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. All of these dividers were defended and protected by the Jewish people, to defile the temple was a bad thing, and the Jews were very protective.

I hope you can see the separation that there was between God and man. There was no walking into the presence of God, you had to be clean, a Jew, a Jewish man, a male Jewish priest, and you had to be the High Priest (who was male and Jewish) to enter into God’s presence. Even then you could only do so once a year, and only at the risk of your very life.

But it all changes, and this change starts in Rev 12. We see the image of a woman giving birth to a child, and a dragon trying to devour the child. Many scholars believe that this is the Christmas story and that the child is Jesus and the dragon is the Devil. Now the devil is given authority on the earth, and thus for God to enter earth, he must do so by defeating the Devil. Thus the life of Jesus should be seen as an invasion on the earth and the power of sin and the devil. We cannot shy away from this mentality, because it is through this understanding that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are seen in the Gospels.

This understanding is carried over into the first chapter of Mark. It is here that Jesus public ministry begins. Mark 1:9-13 talks about the baptism and the 40-day period of temptation that Jesus went through before he began teaching and mentoring his disciples. But it is in here that we see a very interesting event happen. When Jesus comes out of the water, Mark (in the NIV) says in verse 10, “…(Jesus) saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descended on (Jesus) like a dove.”

The word torn is the Greek word scitzo-and it’s where we get the word schism. It means to rip or tear in a violent way. A schism is seen as an irreparable tear. Thus when God “scitzos” the heavens, he is tearing it open and what he has done is seen as not being able to be fixed.

Next in Mark 15 we find Jesus on the cross dying. In verse 37 Jesus gives up his Spirit, and we see the effects in verse 38-the curtain of the temple (as in the NIV) was ripped open. Remember that curtain was the curtain that surrounded the holy of holies, the place where God’s presence was and where it was separated from the world. The Greek used here for torn is the word scitzo. Need I say more?

Jesus death has now ripped the world wide open. No longer are we separated from the presence of God. We can, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, have communion with our creator. Where there once was separation but now there is the possibility of union. This is the power of the death of Jesus.

Groans: when words are not enough

God, by definition, cannot be defined. When we try to spell out just what and who God is, we run out of definitions to explain what we are trying to say. By nature, if we can define and understand him, he ceases to be God. The creation shouldn’t be able to explain the creator; it doesn’t work that way.

Regardless of what we can and cannot do, we try and explain anyways. I think there are those who a very good job with what they have to do. While these men are usually older men who have spent most of their lives in study rooms of large universities-and have no idea of what worship is-some of the most popular theologians today are much different. These men are much younger, hipper, and are often college dropouts.

Today the most popular theologians are the worship musicians that are writing our worship music. While there are some who are kind of janky; there are some great worship leaders. This past December I helped work the Wesleyan Church’s Logos 5 Youth Convention. It was tons of fun the speakers were great, from what I heard the seminars were creative and challenging, and the bands were cool. But for me the best part was the worship band, Something Like Silas.

At the beginning of the week I wasn’t sure what to think about them. They seemed ok, but I wasn’t instantly sold on their music. But by the end of the week I was in love with them. My love was for a couple reasons, but there was one moment that completely changed my view of the band.

The lead singer was talking about how sometimes when you are writing songs, word cease to explain what you are thinking and feeling. He was talking about there are times when all you can do is groan sounds to communicate how you feel.

When he said this I had to stop. It was an amazing thought for me. I so often find myself in the role of the person stuck in a stuffy office knowing what it means to worship, but so often forgetting what it is to worship. Why is this so? What could stop be from being completely in awe of my Creator-God?

I think the biggest reason is arrogance. So often we study theology and God and we think we have it all under control. All we are doing is making our intellect our idol, cause like I said earlier, it is the nature of God that we cannot even begin to wrap our minds around who He is. So it’s nothing short of an arrogant idolatry.

I’m begging you! Don’t fall into that trap! Learn to sit back and fall in love with your creator. Get to the place where all you are able to do is groan-because words are not enough.