You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Spiritual' category.
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
1. Pray for the Kheng people of Bhutan.
2. Pray for your enemies.
3. Pray for a national return to Christ and His teachings.
4. Pray for the persecuted Christians in other countries, that they may remain strong in Christ and His love.
1. Pray for the Northern Uzbek people of Uzbekistan. This unreached people group has a population of 21,846,000. Only 0.04% of the people are evangelicals. The main religion is Islam. Pray for God to raise up a willing heart to go spread the love of Christ to these people.
2. Pray for the glory of God to be revealed within our lives.
3. Pray for the leaders of the church as they continue to lead God’s people through these times.
4 .Pray for understanding of God’s word and a willingness to share with others.
1. Pray for President Obama as he undertakes the difficult task of leading our nation. Pray for wisdom in his decisions.
2. Pray for the Freedom of Choice Act.
3. Pray for a revival to take place WITHIN the church today. We need to not ask God to send revival to the nations, but rather that God would send revival to the church, so we, as a body, start doing the job we were called to.
4. Pray for the unreached people groups of the world.
1) Pray for the Berber, Warain people of Morocco . There are 281,000 people in this group of unreached peoples. The main religion is Islam, and 0% of the people are evangelicals.
2) Pray for the upcoming Presidential term, especially the Freedom of Choice Act. The FOCA is a devestating bill that will forever change the nation.
3) Pray for revival within the church. A revival that would encourage the church to do our jobs and evangelize the world. We don’t need revival outside of the church, when we can’t even get our own jobs straight.
4) Pray for Barack Obama, as we as Christians are called to pray for those in authority over us.
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.
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 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
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.
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.
Recent Comments