In Need

Hello everybody!! It has been a very long while since I have last updated anything on this blog. I apologize to those who actually read anything on here. I plan to try and update at least once a week. Before hand it was try everyday, but as usual, I didn’t succeed in that goal. I really would like it if you guys stopped in and commented and started encouraging discussion about the topics I post, Christians and non-Christians alike. I’m going to try and give a glimpse of what I’m being challenged with spiritually, or thoughts about topics of the world and Christianity in general. So let’s get this party started.

The other day I was standing at the bus stop. As a matter of fact, I stand there pretty much everyday. I usually arrive 15 minutes before the bus arrives, as I do not do well being late for anything. While standing at these bus stops, I usually think about the day ahead, or whatever else comes floating into my feeble mind. This particular day, I had one thought and one thought only. It was all I could think about the whole day.

“The deepest desire of the human race is to have a Saviour. Our deepest desire should be to show them that Saviour”

That was the singular thought that was running through my head. That was the thought that changed how that day would end. Instead of ending on a selfish note, me thinking how tired I was and how I should really go to bed, I ended up thinking about the disparity and depravity of this world we live in.

So many people are lost, and so many people have the wrong idea of Christianity, so much so, that being a Christian means absolutely nothing anymore. I thought, how best to reach these people? How best to make the revolutionary message of the gospel relevant to a culture in need? I had no clue. I had read, just before bed, a chapter in the book Blue Like Jazz about confession. This wasn’t a confession of the sin of others to you, but rather the confession of our failures as examples of Christ to those that don’t know Him. How powerful, how moving this would be if followers of Christ admitted our inadequacies, our failures to those in need. They would see the revolutionary love of Christ at work in our lives at that very moment of weakness. This thought troubled me. It disturbed me to a certain extent. Do I really want to be that open? Aren’t we as Christians supposed to be above reproach? Aren’t we supposed to attain to Holiness? Yes we are, but above reproach doesn’t mean we aren’t sinners. Above reproach doesn’t mean we are better than those in need. We are in just as much need as them, what separates us from them is, we have found the fulfillment of that need in Christ. That is what the world needs to see. They don’t need to see perfection. They don’t need to see that we have our act together. They don’t need any of those facades, they need reality. Reality hurts, but also touches lives. I don’t have the answer to making the gospel relevant, and I don’t know that I ever will have an answer to that. But do I really need to? I mean, is it my job to make the Gospel relevant? Or does Jesus make the Gospel relevant? Jesus crosses cultures today that humans can’t dream of crossing. That is the only relevancy we need. I think the better question to ask is not how do we make the Gospel relevant or attractive, Jesus already has that handled, but rather how evident is the Gospel in our own lives? If we live the Gospel, then Christ has made it relevant.

In closing, to illustrate the desire for a Saviour, I want to quote one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Surprisingly, this passages finds its home in the book of Job

“For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him. And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both. Let Him take His rod away from me, and do not let dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him, but it is not so with me” – Job 9:32-35

Grace and Peace

Mark Halvorson

Global Mission

Hey y’all, sorry I have been absent for a considerable amount of time. Sometimes I just can’t find stuff to write, or I forget about this blog. I hope you haven’t forgotten about me. So this morning I was reading in Luke chapter 2 and I noticed something that absolutely astonished me. It occurs in verses 29-32. First a little background, we have just witnessed the birth of Christ, one of the most miraculous and awe inspiring things to happen in history, secondary to the Resurrection. Then the shepherds come and visit the little child, at the calling of the angel of the Lord. When Jesus is 8 years old, his parents take him to the temple to be consecrated and circumcised, where they meet Simeon. Simeon was an old man, devoted to God. The bible says he was “eagerly waiting for the Messiah” and that “the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Obviously, this dude had things together, but one thing lacked in his life, and that was the promise made to him, by God, that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. Now we are at the part that astonished me, upon seeing Christ, Simeon says this

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
³⁰ I have seen your salvation,
³¹ which you have prepared for all people.
³² He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!” (NLT)

I like the way the Amplified Bible puts it as well:

9And now, Lord, You are releasing Your servant to depart (leave this world) in peace, according to Your word.

³⁰For with my [own] eyes I have seen Your Salvation,^(A)

³¹Which You have ordained and prepared before (in the presence of) all peoples,

³²A Light for ^[a]revelation to the Gentiles [to disclose what was before unknown] and [to bring] praise and honor and glory to Your people Israel.^(B)

There are two things that I want to mention, that caught me in this passage

1) Simeon recognized upon looking at the child the purpose of Jesus Christ. Somehow, what took the disciples three years or so to understand, took this man a few minutes to realize. As I look back at the passage, I look for things that separate Simeon from the disciples, and notice one defining thing, the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure of the functions of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost, but I’m venturing to say that one of them was revelation. I believe that Simeon was able to deduce the mission of Christ in such a manner because of the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Now why does this man, only mentioned this one time, have the Holy Spirit, while there is never mention of the disciples having the impact of the Spirit upon their lives. I think about this, and see that the world view of the disciples was tainted by the physical present, never the spiritual future. They were always worried about salvation from their present oppression under Roman rule. Constantly Jesus tries pointing them towards the spiritual side of things, trying to get them to be kingdom minded, but they never understand what he is talking about, they never have that spiritual connection. It isn’t until Jesus ascends to heaven, and during Pentecost, that they realize what He was teaching. On the flip side, we have Simeon who was in tune with God. He was led by the spirit, he was righteous and devout. It says in this chapter that the spirit led him to the temple. I think it was because of this “oneness” if I can call it that with God, that Simeon immediately realized the mission of Jesus. Another thing I find funny is, Jesus’ parents didn’t even understand His mission, and an angel even spoke to Mary. Verse 33 says “Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him” think about that.

2) From these four verses, we realize that God’s mission is not local, but Global. This mission is clearly stated in verses 30-32

³⁰ I have seen your salvation,
³¹ which you have prepared for all people.
³² He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!” (NLT)

We read that God prepared his salvation for ALL people, not just the Israelites. My favorite part of this passage is verse 32 “He is a light to reveal God to the nations” This verse speaks so much of my life. Now that Christ is no longer physically present with us, as he was with the disciples 2,000 years ago, we are supposed to be that light that reveals God to the nations now, through the power of Christ in us. We have a big task. It isn’t just about your neighbors or the people down the street, it is about revealing God to the nations. That is God’s heart. He wants all the nations to know Him. How is that going to happen, through us, the church. Am I being a light to reveal God to the nations?

Religion Class

So, as I stated, I’m taking a class called “The Quest for Meaning: World Religions”. It is an odd class to say the least. Today, we discussed religion and what it means. There were some odd ideas. Never-the-less, I want to see what you guys think religion is. What is religion defined as? I stated that it was a misused term, and that it is something that entirely transcends human understanding, but yet drives who we are.

The Poster Boy of Christianity

Have you ever wondered why the world hates Christians now days? Well, upon reading Oregon States newspaper, “The Daily Barometer”, I found out why. I picked up the paper, and on the front page was an article entitled “Preaching to a Campus Full of Questions” with the following picture:

The rest of the article can be read here http://media.barometer.orst.edu/media/storage/paper854/news/2008/12/02/News/Preaching.To.A.Campus.Full.Of.Questions-3565164.shtml

Upon seeing this artcle on the front page, I was filled with disgust. This is what the world sees Christianity as today. Crazy, off whack, preachers, condemning every person to Hell. That to me, isn’t a very good example of love. I look at his sign, Evolution is a Lie, and think “Does he have anything to back the up, or is he just making a statement?” This is what has given Christianity the lable of “intolerant”. Yes, while as Christians, let me use the words followers of Christ, for Christian has no meaning to me. As followers of Christ, we do believe the consequences of sin is eternal damnation, and apart from Christ, it is inevitable. But is this really an effective way of demonstrating this point? Standing up, making yourself appear better than others, telling them they are wrong in everything they do, condemning them to Hell unless they repent right now. This may have worked in Billy Sunday’s day, but in today’s society, it only degrades “Christianity”.

I decided to venture to his website, www.salvationjunction.com, and was horrified. It isn’t a spectacular website, no gospel message what-so-ever, only a little counter that shows how many people have died while you spend time on the website, serving as a guilt trip. I think 50 people died while I was wasting time on his website. Why even have a website? Also, there was the “good” test, with the primary purpose of determining whether you were a good person or not. I venture to guess at the end was something to the effect of “You may be good, but you are still going to Hell.” What a way to show the love of Christ, no?

So my point is this, we hear about these lunatics every so often, and we read about the aftermath of their antics. People are angry, hate Christians more, and harden their hearts towards the life changing love of Christ. What if this man, this Rev. Shawn David Holes, had instead decided to set up a few tables and serve the  students lunch, and talk with them, caring about them? What if he had decided to BE the love of Christ, instead of trying to DISTRIBUTE it forcefully? What Shawn Holes did to me, was not an example of the love of Christ, but rather of legalistic Christianity. Had he rethought his strategy a little bit, maybe, just maybe, some of the students would have reconciled their lives with Christ, having experienced His love in a real way, from a realy man, not some preacher, caught up in himself and “serving” the kingdom.

Love is…

Love is patient. These words come from the infamous chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13. I read this and think “What does it mean by patient? How was this patience exemplified in the life of Christ?”

Well, I’m going to try and answer those questions today. I looked up the word used for patience in this verse, and found that the Greek word used is Makrothumèo, which means “to suffer long, be longsuffering, as opposed to being given to hasty anger or punishment, to forbear, to endure patiently as opposed to despondency, involves exercising understanding and patience toward persons”

To me, this seems to be on of the most difficult concepts of love to grasp. So many times we lose patience with people, sometimes in the most ridiculous, worthless ways. A great illustration of this type of patience is found in 2 Peter 3:9. God demonstrates this aspect of love in a very, very real way.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering [patient] toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Here, Peter states that the Lord is patient with us, waiting for us, he forbears, waiting for us to come to Him in repentance. He is God after all, He could have destroyed us. He could have left us for something else, but He didn’t. Knowing that God chose to be patient with us, knowing our sins, knowing our desire to live for the flesh, yet He still loved us enough to wait…and wait some more…and continue to wait, so that all, undeserving as we are, can come to Him, with our arms outstretched, desiring Him.

Another instance we see this patience is in Hebrews 6:15. Here the author is discussing the promise made to Abraham via God. It says

“And so, after he patiently endured, he obtained the promise”

First we saw God’s patience, and here we see the reciprocate. Many times, I think we as Christians think that certain things are for God, and God only, i.e. patience. We think, how are we to be patient? We’ll leave that up to God. But as we see in Hebrews, we are to reciprocate that patience as well. God is patient with us, and we need to be patient with Him. In my personal opinion, our patience towards God is more important. So many times we get ahead of God and his plans. We want things to happen now, blessings to come now, healing to happen now, etc. and we forget that maybe God doesn’t want it to happen now. Maybe God has us in this position for a reason, for a time of learning, for a time of blessing others. So, as a consequence of moving ahead of God, things begin to hurt, things begin to get complicated, and things begin to fail. It is imperative that we wait on God, for He waits on us to run to Him.

How do we see this patience exhibited in the life of Christ? The most apparent example to me, is Jesus’ relationship with His disciples. Everytime Jesus taught something, it seemed as though the disciples never understood. Yet, despite this, Jesus still taught. loving them with His entire being. If they didn’t get a concept, Jesus was always sure to explain it.

How can we exhibit the patience in our lives? I think we all know of areas where patience would be a necessity. In practically every area of our lives, we could use an ounce more of patience. Personally, though, I think that if we start by being patient with our Heavenly Father, patience will flow into other areas of our life. Being patient with our Creator, gives us the peace to know that He has all things under control, that all things are planned for a purpose. With that in mind, it will really help us to be patient with others, to be patient in all circumstances.

“The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord.”

Joni Eareckson Tada

A Master’s Touch

The Touch of the Masters Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
but held it up with a smile; “What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?” “A dollar, a dollar”; then two!” “Only
two? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three? Three dollars, once; three
dollars twice; going for three..” But no, from the room, far back, a
gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust
from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody
pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
said; “What am I bid for the old violin?” And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two? Two thousand! And who’ll make
it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and
gone,” said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We do not
quite understand what changed its worth.” Swift came the reply: “The touch
of a master’s hand.”

And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A
“mess of pottage,” a glass of wine; a game – and he travels on. “He is
going” once, and “going twice, He’s going and almost gone.” But the Master
comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul
and the change that’s wrought by the touch of the Master’s hand.

Myra ‘Brooks’ Welch

All I can say is wow. I heard this poem this morning in church. It was soo beautiful, yet so real. I sit here, in the library, I should be studying, but can’t help but think about this. I look at my life and see how stained, how wretched it is, yet I also see something beautiful, something extravagant. I realize, it is only by His hand that I am this beautiful, this extravagant being. Without His hand, I would be nothing, I would be filth. It is at this realization that I must state, If you see your life blemished or broken, open up and let the touch of the Master’s hand make you beautiful again. it is at that point, that you too will see beauty in the broken.

Through His Power

I’m sorry for this large period of inactivity. School has been super stressful. I’m just so busy trying to be the President, trying to be a student, trying to organize activities, and trying to nurture my relationship with Christ. As I write, you probably wonder why I am using the word trying. Well, that is all I can do is try. I can’t do. Well, at least I can’t without Christ. All I can do is try and try and try, but with Christ I can accomplish.

I think so many times, we stress ourselves out trying so hard to accomplish things that in our human weakness, are impossible to achieve. I don’t know how I am staying afloat with everything on my plate, I don’t know how I’m going to continue to do so, but I sit here and think, with the love of Christ in my life I can do this. Your prayers would help alot. I know I said I was going to do a series on love, I still intend to do that, but man, I have to find the time. But I guess, in my headachy state, what I’m trying to say is, as humans, we need more to keep us afloat. We need more than our own power to help us accomplish the things we need to get done on a daily basis. We need Jesus, we need his power. I remember, I think it was Josiah (if I remember correctly) who was in a desperate situation, and he cried out to God, “I don’t know what I’m doing, LORD, I need your help” So many times, we are lost, trying to accomplish too much outside of God. We need to get inside of God so to speak and with Him, we can do all things. So yeah.

Love

Hello again. I am forgoing the hiatus I mentioned once again. Yesterday I was inspired to try something new, a series.

This was partially inspired by a blog a friend of mine wrote back in March. Whilst he really didn’t expound upon things, I thought it would be interesting to break love up into five categories, and look at the components of each category. If you haven’t already guessed, my base text will be 1 Corinthians 13. While many of us have read this many a time (if you haven’t you can go to www.biblegateway.comand check it out), I don’t think a lot of us have actually seriously considered the qualities of love described in this chapter. That is my aim, that is my goal, to attempt to reason through those qualities. I want to compare them to the life of Christ first and foremost (i.e. see how Christ exemplified these characteristics in his own life), see how other Biblical characters acted out these characteristics of love, and lastly an application for our lives.

I plan on starting this series in about a week or so, but just wanted to give everybody a heads up of what was coming. I plan on doing this over five weeks, with 2-5 installments coming each week. Now whether anybody actually reads these is a different story, but I was intrigued by the idea, and decided to proceed further. So here are the five categories in which I will place things:

• Love is…
• Love does not…
• Love is not…
• Love always…
• Love (in general)…

So there you have it. I hope you check in to read these. I don’t know how this will turn out, but I’m looking forward to it!!

The Beauty of it All

I know, I know, I was going to take a hiatus, but I couldn’t resist this one. This last weekend I was up in Hillsboro, Oregon. I went to a Poison concert amongst other things at the Oregon State Fair. Sunday came, and it was time for me to leave. It was around 6:30 PM. The day was dreary, wet, and soggy. As I was driving through Gresham, I noticed a rainbow, a double rainbow at that. Yes rainbows are beautiful, and very complex physically at that. A network of billions upon billions of raindrops together, each crafted so magnificently by our creator, to have a different critical angle, that upon total internal reflection, a different wavelength of light escapes the raindrop, creating what we see. That is it in a very very small nutshell. But as i was driving, and looking at the majesty of such a display of God’s handiwork, I began to think beyond the normal, into the supernatural almost.

As I write this I recall the story of King Belshazzar in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel to be exact. This story recounts the infamous writing on the wall. It is found in Daniel chapter 5, here is a brief excerpt:

“In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”

Now whilst the handwriting on the wall was of impending doom, I still relate it to what I saw with the rainbow that day. I think of this story, and the rainbow, and can’t help to think, that the rainbow is the writing of God on the sky, placed there for us to see. Unlike the story in Daniel, the rainbow is a writing of hope, of promise. As I started thinking about this in the car, my ears started tearing up, and I was just overwhelmed with the Spirit. To think that after thousands of years, the words of God are written on the sky for all to see! Yes, yes, I know we have the Bible, the Word of God, but so many times I think we box ourselves in, and limit the Bible to the only means of communication God has with his children. While that is one avenue, it isn’t the only. If we take the time to look around, I’m positive we will find the words of God written in many many more places. Take the rainbow for example, after thousands of years, it still says:

““And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants^[b] after you,  and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.  Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.  It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;  and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”  And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

There they are, the words of God, in visible form. God wants us to hear Him. Take the time to look, to listen, and learn.

The Man I Want to Be

Last night, and this morning I read Psalm 15. It is short, only five verses long, but it is impactful. Here it is, via biblegateway.com:

1 LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

2 He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
3 He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the LORD;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

I read this, and think are those qualities present in me? This psalm was written by a man I admire much, David. I wonder what he was thinking as he was writing this? I ask myself now, “Who am I, and is it what I want to be?” Inevitably, I am never who I want to be. Maybe I can start applying the qualities above, and I might just get somewhere.