The Garden

One lovely spring day, an old man looked out his window. The butterflies flittered around, the birds tweeted, yet the old man remained disappointed. He could only focus on the giant, bare patch of dirt that consumed his backyard. Yes, nature was beautiful, the butterfiles graceful and the birds melodious, but the old man felt an emptiness, something indeed was missing.

“I shall plant a garden. I can no longer stand the look of patch of dirt. It overflows with potential, yet I do not use it. Tomorrow, I shall go to the market and buy some seeds.”

The next morning, the sun shone brightly through the window, the beams reflecting off of the face of the old man. He opened his eyes, but did not see the beauty of the world around him, but rather focused once again on the patch of dirt in his backyard. Disgusted, he rose from bed, put on his best clothes and ventured out of the house towards the market.

“Today is the day! Today begins a new era of transformation! That old patch of dirt will become beautiful.”

The old man wandered around the market, looking at the various goods for sale. Eventually, he happened upon a seed vendor. This vendor sold many many different types of seeds, from tulips, to pumpkins, from apples to violets he sold them all.

The man began to think about the many types of seeds. “There are so many seeds. What shall I buy? I think I shall buy some tomato seeds, tulip bulbs, some carrots, oh and yes, some sunflowers!”

After purchasing the seeds, the old man ventured home, excited to begin the transformation of that ugly, horrid patch of dirt. He went into his shed and grabbed his spade and some fertilzer and set out towards the dirt. Dropping to his knees he began to toil in the patch of dirt, pulling weeds, loosening hard spots of dirt, digging holes, planting seeds and spreading fertilizer. He toiled all day until the sun went down. Exhausted, he stood up and exhaled a sigh of satisfaction.

“Today is a great day, tomorrow will be even better!”

He poured a glass of ice tea and sat in the rocking chair on the back porch. The dirt patch didn’t seem so ugly anymore. Yes, it remained a patch of dirt, but the old man knew that life had been poured into, and soon enough, life would emerge.

Day after day the old man sat on his porch, reading a book and looking at the garden.The rain would fall here and there, providing water for the garden. Eventually the old man began to see plants emerge from the ground. After awhile, the plants were fully grown and the old man was pleased.

“It won’t be long before I can harvest the fruits of my labor.”

As summer came, the temperatures rose and the sun beat down on the garden. The old man didn’t water the garden, or weed it for that matter. He just continued to sit on his porch and watch it. Eventually, the plants shriveled up and died. The old man became very discouraged and disgusted.

“It must not be a good season for growing plants,” he reasoned, “I will attempt again next year.” year after year, the old man would plant the garden in the spring, and come summer, the garden would shrivel up and die.

One year the old man thought to himself, “Maybe if I put work into this garden every day, it will survive and flourish.” So, every day he began to water and pull weeds and fertilize. When summer came, the sun was no match for the garden. It grew bigger and bigger. The old man sat back and was amazed.

“All I had to do was invest a little time each day into the future of this garden, and now look at it grow!” The garden continued to grow and produce fruit, so much so the man could not eat it all. He began to take the fruit to the market and sell it. Soon enough, the man became known for having the best produce in the region.

So it is with your spiritual life. So it is with your relationship with God, or your “spiritual awareness” of God. So often, me included, put our faith in God, but stop there. We expect God to begin to do everything else. Granted, He will begin transformation in your life, but He won’t do everything while we passively watch. We have to invest, we have to cultivate our relationship with Christ, or else it will become stagnant and die out as the garden did. If we want to properly apprehend God and his attributes, we need to properly cultivate our receptitivy to Him. God wants to be close, we should want to be close to Him. We have to tend to the garden of our soul, pull out the weeds, feed the plants and let them grow, otherwise we will die and shrivel up.

“This will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.” – A.W. Tozer

 

The Acts Christian – Intro

As I was sitting in church this last Sunday, my pastor began to say something that shall resonate within me forever. He was discussing the first 8 verses of Acts. I can’t remember the context in which he said this, but I remember what he said “We see this as radical Christianity, but no it is normal Christianity.” He was speaking in reference to all of the events recorded in the book of Acts. I thought about his statement for some time after that, and realized how true it was.

As Christians we so often read the book of Acts and think, “Man, those guys were on fire for God. They did some awesome stuff. They were radical.” But really, isn’t that how God wants us all? Doesn’t he want each and every person to be totally committed to him and his mission here on earth, just as the apostles were? It isn’t radical, it is normal.

This statement prompted me to read the book of Acts. When I decided to read the book of Acts, I thought, why not do a blog series on what the Acts Christian looks like? So as I dig deep, I’m going to do my best to share my thoughts and studies with you.

The book of Acts…where to begin? Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote the book of Luke, surprisingly enough . A commentary I read said that without Acts, without this history, the entirety of the New Testament outside of the Gospels would be cloudy. Why? Acts is the bridge between the subject of the Gospels, the perfect God-Man Jesus and his mission to die for the sanctity of the world, and man. What do I mean by this? I am meaning that, from the Gospels, we glean who Jesus is and what he came to this earth to do. We also understand from Matthew 28:19, that Jesus had imparted a mission to his disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Then in Romans, and the rest of the Pauline epistles we see this mission in action. But this leaves a big question, a giant chasm if you will, in this mission. How did the Gospel go from Jews standing around in Jerusalem, watching Jesus ascend into Heaven, to Rome and beyond? Was it by the power of the men whom Jesus had discipled? Hardly so! Based on the character sketches given to us by the Gospels of some of the men, they would hardly be up for the task. Peter was infamously known for denying our Lord, hardly the type to carry out such a task. James and John, along with Peter, consistently fell asleep while Jesus prayed in the Garden, as if to say “Lord, your ideas, your plans, are not as important as our sleep.” These stories and several others clearly show that these men, imperfect and human, were not adequate in their own power to carry out this great task. How then did the Gospel go from Rome to Jerusalem, even grabbing the heart of a murderous, Christ hating man in Paul, along the way? It was done by the key player in the book of Acts, The Holy Spirit.

We see as we read the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit is the key character in the book. Some have said that a better name for the book would be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” I tend to agree. We see in verse one of Acts, something pivotal, something that gives us insight into the book and what it is all about. It is about the continuation of the work of Jesus through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and His empowerment in the lives of weak, half-hearted, feeble, imperfect believers. Verse one says “…of all the Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen…” (actually that includes some of verse 2 as well).

Acts is about the agenda of the Holy Spirit, about the Holy Spirit working through our lives, empowering us, to accomplish His task, that of saving a lost and desolate world for the Glory of Jesus Christ. So often, churches and Christians alike take the first part of the Great Commission, the “Go” and run with it. They try to plan and formulate and create human agendas and programs to aide in conquering this great task. They go full-bore ahead, then fail. Why? Why do they fail constantly, and eventually give up? It seems to be they forget the little word “Lo” at the end of the Great Commission. This little word is another word for “behold.” Here Christ is saying “Hey, guys I’m gonna be with you to accomplish this.” How is He going to do this? Through the Holy Spirit! We are only tools, we don’t need to create the agendas, plans or programs. Jesus has those figured out already, we just need to be willing to be a part of that plan, and be willing to be used. Thus, the book of Acts shows us countless illustrations of men and women that were willing to just be a part of that plan, not make the plan, and were willing to be used as instruments by the Holy Spirit. It is this reason that men like Peter and James and John were able to accomplish the great task set before them. It is this reason that the Gospel went from Jerusalem to Rome.

Are you willing to join me in this journey? I don’t know how it is going to shape up. I hope I can continue this on a regular basis. I hope my world gets rocked. Do you want to join?

Holy Holy Holy

“Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And I will adore You”

We sang this song today during worship. I absolutely love this song. As I have said before, I believe this song should be sung from our knees, bowed before our loving Father, but due to the space constraints during service today, that wasn’t entirely possible, but I digress. While singing this song, I just began to think of the wonder of the event.

I felt as though I were translocated to that wonderous day when we get to worship Jesus with these words, before His throne. Though in this instance, I was an observer. At first all I saw was a hazy smoke, but I heard this beautiful song. The lyrics above repeated over and over, each time, more beautiful than the last. I could not get enough, so I ventured forth into the haze, not knowing what to expect. As I approached the singing, it became more and more angelic and I began to see a light. The light became more and more intense and the music louder and louder until eventually the haze broke and I gazed upon the most spectacular sight. Before me was a vast, enormous space that stretched as far as the eye could see. I looked down into this space, this large room and saw person upon person, clothed in white, bowed face down towards something. The room was filled with line upon line upon line of people. I looked toward the direction they were bowing, and there, seated on the most glorious throne history has ever seen was Jesus. The music was beautiful. It was for our King, our ever deserving King.

Oh Church!! Rise up! Our home is not on this earth. We are merely sojourners here to the work of our glorious King. Our true home is in Heaven, bowing before our Savior!

Daily Prayer Points 4/30/2010

1. Pray for the Uyghur people of China . This unreached people group has a population of 10, 760, 000 and they practice Islam. Pray for God to reveal himself through supernatural ways. Pray that missionaries would respond to the call of Christ and go to these people and give them the love of Jesus.

2. Pray for the single mothers of this nation. I know this is random, but I just felt like this was one of the points. They have a tough job. Pray that the ones that don’t know Jesus would find their identity in him and peace in him. For those that love Jesus, pray that he would provide strength beyond measure to raise the children up in the ways of Christ.

3. Pray for the Christian men of this nation, that we would step up to our Biblical role as men. Pray that we wouldn’t let the ideologies of this world shape who we become or who we are. Pray that we would ground ourselves in the Bible.

Humility

“What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God” – Monica Baldwin

Humility, something so often desired, yet so rarely achieved. Humility, the act of being humble. I think Mr. Webster defined humility the best, “The quality or state of being humble.”

What is humility exactly? I know Mr. Webster has provided an apt definition for us, but yet, after reading that, I’m still at loss. What is being humble? How does one achieve this beautiful state? People so often say “I’m working on being humble.” But really, in a sense have they not failed at that if they feel the pressing need to tell people this? Is not humility, the quality of state of being humble, best expressed through actions unnoticed by others?

What brings me to this point of discussing humility is the fact that it is a life long quest. I think of people who are humble in my opinion. If I were to say to them “You are a very humble person,” they would most inevitably state that they still had room to grow. How could this be? As I think about it more, as I contemplate this ever continuing, most beautiful state, I realize that one can never be humble enough when faced with the vast greatness of God. These men and women in my life that I consider humble, consider themselves proud and arrogant before the Almighty God. I have to concede that this is true. God always has a way of bringing the humble in the sight of man, to a place of arrogance in the sight of God. When faced with the cross, we have no choice but to be humbled.

I have been thinking about this frequently. Mainly because God has been using my own self-inadequacies in the light of his glory to humble me. What do I mean by this? The past several months I have been straying from the promises of God. For those of you that don’t know, I plan on going to medical school. I am certain beyond a doubt that this is the path that God has called me to. Several years ago, I went on a missions trip to Mexico, and while there, we were asked to pray and seek God and what he would have us do with what we saw, what we learned while there. I really didn’t sense that God was saying anything to me except “Keep doing what you are doing. I want you to be a doctor for Me.” (note, that wasn’t verbatim, more of a general summary). So here it is, the promise of God to me. Now fast forward to this year. I am now in the most dreaded phase of applying to medical school and taking the MCAT. I have constantly been looking upon my own self, and seeing that I am inadequate for this adventure. Consequently, this thought process sends me into a spiral of despair. Then, one Sunday, Pastor Rob of Calvary Corvallis spoke on Romans 4. The passage that hit me so hard was thus :

(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”^[d]) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; ¹⁸ who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”^{[e] 19} And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹ and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. – Romans 4:17-21

I was so convicted so to speak, and humbled by this. I remembered that God is capable of doing things that do not yet exist, i.e. “Calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” I had been focusing on my own person so much, that I lost sight of the promise of God. Abraham did just the opposite as is seen in verse 19, and what happened?? He didn’t waver at the promise of God, and was strengthened in faith. I realized that I had begun to think that my abilities were better than God, and as I continued farther down the path, I realized that my abilities and accomplishments were not that great for medical school. Then I heard this. God was telling me, don’t focus on you, focus on me. So I shifted my focus, and WOW. The vastness and the greatness of God and his sovereign power just brought me to my knees so to speak. Nothing that I have done, or will do is anything compared to what God WILL do.

Then again, this week I was at Real Life (my college ministry I attend) and the discussion was about marriage. Now, at this point in my life, I’m getting to the point where I no longer want to be single. and Ian Nelson, the college pastor started teaching out Genesis 2 to begin the evening. Once, again, the first few minutes of the message, I just felt horribly stupid, cause I knew that those words were directed at me. Once again, I had discounted the timing, and the awesomeness of God, this time in my desire to meet that special someone. I was rushing God! How can I do that?? I can’t! God is not rushed. When we get ahead of his timing, we are hosed. Ian said something my parents had said to me a million times, but this time it sank in. He said “If you think you’ve found that special someone in your life, just sit back and relax and trust God. There is no hurry, right?” (Once again, not verbatim). Haha, that was somewhat directed at me. I was once again humbled. I find that this is happening over and over again.

So I look at these two examples, and then think about the quote I started this blog off with, and realize how true those words are!!! Through my lessons in humility with the Almighty God, I have grown so much closer to Him. Humility is an ever dynamic thing. It is different for each person, different for each situation, because obtaining humility requires the act of being humble. The act of being humbled requires us looking into the face of Christ and realizing that we are nothing.

Daily Prayer Points 4/29/2010

1. Pray for the Tamil Muslim people of India. This people group has a population of 2,964,000, o.oo% of which are Evangelicals. Pray for a supernatural revival to sweep across the hearts of this unreached people group.

2. Pray for leaders of our nation. Pray that first, God would grab their hearts and capture their thoughts. Then pray that God would use them, and they would heed his will for their lives and listen to His direction.

3. Pray for the youth leaders of churches across America. They have a big challenge, trying to guide and steer the youth towards Jesus. Pray that God would give the leaders wisdom and compassion for this sensitive generation.

Daily Prayer Points 4/28/2010

1. Pray for the Punjabi people of Canada. This people group has a population of 846,000. The main religions are Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. Pray that God would raise up prayer warriors for this people group. Pray that local churches would raise up among this people group. Pray that the few Punjabi Christians would be bold in the faith!

2. Pick a college campus of your choice and pray for revival to spread like wildfire amongst the generations there.

3. Pray for the pastors of the churches in America. Pray that God would grant them wisdom and grace as they lead His flock.

Daily Prayer Points 4/27/2010

1. Pray for the Hmong Bua people of China. This unreached people group has a population of  62,000, of which only 1.6 % are evangelical Christians. They practice ethnic religions.

2. Pray that the body of Christ would truly understand the role of worship in our relationship with Christ.

3. Pray for the missionaries spread across the globe. Pray that God would give them strength to persevere on the mission to which he has called them. Pray for people to step up and provide support for these laborers.

Daily Prayer Points 4/26/2010

1. Pray for the Bengali people of the United States. This unreached people group has a population of 159,000 and their main religion is Islam. Pray that God would use the few Bengali Christians to minister to their lost brothers. Pray that the Holy Spirit softens their hearts towards the Gospel. Pray for the Bible to be made available to them.

2. Pray for the church, that it will begin earnestly praying. That prayer meetings would be common place amongst the church, and that the members of the church would desire to attend these prayer meetings, waiting for the Holy Spirit to move.

3. Pray for the Christian College students in America. Pray that they would step up to the calling God has place on their lives, that they wouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel, and that they would desire to see God move in the campuses across the nation.

Book Review: Connected Christianity by Art Azurdia

So I just finished reading Connected Christianity by Dr. Art Azurdia. I must say I wish I had read this book in a day or two instead of the weeks I took to finish it, so I could do this review justice. That aside, this book is phenomenal! It was given to me by the youth pastor at Calvary Chapel Crook County . I don’t know why it was given to me (I do help out with the youth), maybe he was planning on going through it as leadership, I don’t know. Aside from that, this book struck a chord within my being that had never been struck. That chord harmonized being a Christian and being in the world, the very contents of this book.

Dr. Azurdia beautifully unpacks John 17:14-19, the central passage of scripture for this book (More of an emphasis on verses 17-19):

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” – John 17:14-19

In the first chapter, “A Worldly Christianity”, Art clearly shows that, as Christians we are to be in the world, not disengaged from it. His ideology is that far to often, Christians try to remove the influence of the world from them, thus living a sheltered life and not engaging the lost with the Gospel. He focuses on verse 18 of John 17 for this chapter. Essentially, we have been commissioned to be sent into the world by Jesus himself. A calling we cannot refuse.

Dr.Azurdia uses an amazing example from his own life. He talks about how he and his wife were convicted by the fact that many of the young believers in his congregation had no friends outside of their sphere of Christian influence. They pulled their children out of the private Christian school and enrolled them in a public school. Eventually they started having a Friday night dinner once a month that had three rules for their children 1) Invite as many friends as you like, 2) We will provide food and drink and 3) No Christians. You can read the book to hear the rest of the story. I think the tag-line for this chapter is “We cannot hope to be authentically Christian without being meaningfully worldly.” Read the book to see how he unpacks that sentence.

In the second chapter, “A Holy People,” he focuses on the importance of our sanctification in our mission to be worldly. Art uses vs 17 to build this chapter on, the idea that in order to be authentically Christian while being meaningfully worldly, we have to let the truth of Christ (his Word) sanctify our lives. God wants a holy people.

In the third chapter, “An Effective Redemption,” Art shows that this mission should not be founded on anything else but the work of the cross. He then ties this chapter to chapter 3, dealing with our sanctification. It truly is beautiful.

The last chapter, “Our Sympathetic Resonance,” Dr. Azurdia deviates from the passage in John and focuses on Hebrews 4:14-16. This chapter is my favorite as it beautifully illustrates the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ, and how these two entities, when combined make for a “great High Priest,” or the perfect mediator between humans and God. Chapter 4 illustrates how Jesus is uniquely qualified for this, as he was tempted in every way we were, yet remained sinless, thus he can sympathize in our weakness. The final call of this chapter is powerful. Art compares the old testament covenant with the new covenant we have as believers, and because of this we have constant access to the throne of grace, and how we need to be constantly coming before that throne on our knees, obtaining mercy for our failures, and grace to persevere.

I suggest you read this book. If you are in Corvallis, I can loan my copy to you, but be prepared to be rocked.