This past Tuesday, there was a youth ministry internship fair here at Lipscomb.  Basically a bunch of Youth Ministers from all over the country come and do 30 minute interviews with Lipscomb students for summer internships.  It really is a great thing, and if you are a Youth Minister reading this, I fully, 100% endorse you coming to the event next year.

I was one of those college students walking around “speed dating” with churches this year.  I really wasn’t too nervous or anything, but man did some of these churches put me at ease.  A few churches specifically really stuck out to me.  Just hearing them talk about their ministries, it was evident that God is at work in what they are doing.  I could see the passion for what they do in their eyes.  Passion for God and what He can do in the lives of their students was flowing straight from their hearts.  It was so refreshing to be around these people who have a vision for what God can do, not only in their own lives, but in the lives and hearts of the church.  Because of their great passion for God and where His Spirit leads, I want to work with these people in the kingdom, whether it be at their church or not.

But the interview wasn’t over.

Then they asked me about myself…

They asked me about different things that they saw on my résumé, if I had done an internship before, how old I was, if I grew up in church, where I went to church, and a bunch of other questions that were easy to answer, but some churches asked some other things.  One said, “I want to hear about your mission trip to Ukraine.”  More than anything, the way she said it caught me off guard.  She legitimately was interested in me, not just my ministry experience, not just whether or not I could lead a devotional for her youth group; she wanted to hear about something in my life.  So I told her and the rest of her ministry team.  I told them a lot.  I talked about how those thirteen days did a lot to me.  How my heart was captured, how I realized all that I take for granted on a daily basis, and how I learned that you can’t really care about someone or something until you have involved yourself with it.  And do you know the crazy thing about it? They cared.  Not only did they care, but they were genuinely interested in something that I was passionate about.

A member of a ministry team from a different church did something similar.  She (yes, another woman doing big things in ministry) said, “Tell us about this Sunday School class you have been teaching.”  I made a few jokes (sometimes I just can’t help it), then I told her and her two partners in ministry about how it was an honor to be asked to take it on, how I thought I would bless those guys’ lives, but how they and their families have ended up blessing my life instead, and about how my life has been changed because of the experience. And once again, They cared.  My passions were important to them.

I have been thinking a lot about my passions recently.  More and more I am realizing that I have a passion for writing.  Not writing 12-page exegetical papers on sexual immorality in Corinth, based on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (if you want to read it, I’ll send you a copy), but writing in my times of great feeling.  I do things like blog, journal, compose emails to authority figures that never get sent, leave long notes on my car begging Lipscomb Security not to tow my car, and writing things to make people laugh (whether they do or not is a different story).  I love to write.  But I don’t want to be a journalist (My grammar aint good enough to be no journalist).  I want to write about the incredible experiences that I am having while living in community with passionate people who are in all different walks of life.  I want to have something to write about.  So, yeah, that’s where I’m at.

“Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need” -Frederick Buechner

TAKE IT EASY!

-MC

Today one of my Facebook friends shared an article that was entitled “What Women Want in a Godly Man.”  Being the sucker that I am for stuff like that, I read it.  It had five things that women find attractive in a man outside of, you know, the muscles, nice facial hair, and, well, hair on the top of the head as well.  These things were honesty, purity, strength (not physical), compassion, and humility.  These were all great things, and it did help me examine myself a little, but it really has helped launch me into a thought.  How does a Godly man carry himself throughout the day around everyone, not just women?  

Throughout my life, I have been blessed to get to walk alongside and watch some incredible men of God.  By watching these men, I have learned so much, not only about how to behave, but how to serve God in a masculine, manly way.  I have heard a lot of great Christian men say things like “We have to protect these women and children,” and they say it like they want to go out and beat the crap out of the next guy that looks at anybody weird.  There really is something good about that, but doesn’t that miss the point a little bit?  One of the verses that sticks out to me from the whole Bible is James 1:27.  

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

This begs the question, “What does it mean to ‘look after orphans and widows in their distress?'”  Does that mean that we go around puffing our chests out in front of them and putting the beat down on anybody who poses a threat to them?  I don’t think so.  I really feel like James is saying something different here.  Looking after someone means taking the fall for them or with them, being with them in their times of trouble.  Meeting them in their mourning, and in their triumphs.  Doing everything to help them succeed, and being by their side even when they fail.  To me, being a man is a lot more than “speaking softly and carrying a big stick.”  True Christian manhood looks a lot different than the manhood presented in our culture.  Instead of manliness being decided by who can dish out the most punishment, manliness in Christ is determined by who is willing to take the biggest beating for someone else.  The words of Jesus from John 15:12-13 illustrate what it means to love someone, to look out for someone.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus was a man of God if there ever was one.  He could have looked out for the marginalized by destroying the people responsible for their situations, but he didn’t.  Jesus could have put these people in their rightful place, but he gave these people something better than money, health, and power.  He gave them life.  Jesus died so that we could live.  If we truly are followers of Christ, we are not like soldiers marching off to war, but we are people carrying our crosses to Calvary.  Over 2,000 years ago, a man took care of His people in a way that people did not understand.  Will we be man enough to follow?

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”             -1 Corinthians 1:18

Satan lies.

God doesn’t.

Why do we believe that the alleged pleasure of sin is greater than the incredible joy and freedom we have in Christ?

Exodus 14 has been on my heart a lot recently.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” ⁶ So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. ⁸ The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will seethe deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. ¹⁶ Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night theLord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! THE LORD IS FIGHTING FOR THEM against Egypt.”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and theLord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

²⁹ But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”

(Exodus 14, NIV, emphasis added)

These Israelites had just been brought out of Egypt by God’s mighty hand, and at the first sign of trouble, they doubt God and even say “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”  Isn’t that the lie that Satan tells us?  That we were better off enslaved to sin than we are experiencing the freedom that we have in Christ.  In Galatians 5, Paul talks about the freedom we have in Christ.  (To clarify: I believe there were Christians in Galatia who were telling people that they must be circumcised in order to be saved.  Obviously that is not an issue for us, but we can still get some applicable truth from Paul’s words.)

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised,Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

⁷ YOU WERE RUNNING A GOOD RACE. WHO CUT IN ON YOU AND KEPT YOU FROM OBEYING THE TRUTH?  8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshwith its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

 (Galatians 5, NIV, emphasis added)

We are doing so well, but then we start to listen to these other voices that are not from God.  We are free from sin, but we so often return to it and re-enslave ourselves in sin, only to realize why we needed to be free from sin in the first place.  We were not afforded this freedom to do whatever it is that we want, but we were given this freedom to love God and His creation in a way that we never could when we were slaves to sin.  It is impossible to walk with the Spirit and satisfy our sinful desires, so why do we try?  God has given us so much through Christ and yet we again and again choose our desires over His desires.  We must grow to be so in tune with the Spirit that God’s desires become our desires.  

Every time we do what Satan tells us, we are never satisfied.  

Every time we choose the way of Christ, we are blessed in more ways than we could ever imagine. 

Tonight at Ethos Church here in Nashville, Dave Clayton spoke from John chapter 3.  He said to enter the Kingdom we must come to the realization that we have nothing to offer God.  Dave said that nothing but a full surrender to God and the way of Christ will ever satisfy us.

From my own life experience, I can tell that he’s right.

This season of my life is proving to be incredibly busy.  There are some benefits to being busy.  I like being busy because that way I don’t get bored much.  Doing a lot of things means that I get to meet and interact with so many great, unique people.  God has continued to put people in my life who bless me regularly.  In all that has been going on, finding time to spend with God has become difficult.  Now more than ever, I find myself in need of times of prayer.  Just taking a step back and praying about the different aspects of my life has been more of a blessing than anything.  Whether it is walking back to my dorm late at night, or when I am in the car by myself, the time I spend with God has become incredibly restful.  The truth is, so often I just want to say, “I don’t have time for this,” mainly because I don’t, but I normally make time.  For me, it’s not necessarily going off by myself to some place of solitude, but it is more about inviting God into my life day in and day out.  I have spent more time in prayer this semester than I have at any other point in my life.  One of the main reasons I find myself praying so much is that I have no idea what I am doing.  I have felt overwhelmed and in-over-my-head recently more than ever.  This has helped me to understand what Dave spoke about tonight.  I have now realized that I am ill-prepared to handle anything of any magnitude whatsoever.  Turning to God has been a comfort, and He has shown me things that I would not have seen otherwise.  God has blessed this portion of my life very richly and continues to put people in my life who amaze me.   A focus on God and a focus on loving his people has blessed my life in more ways than I could ever imagine.  Picking up our cross and following the path Jesus has left for us is more rewarding than anything we could ever do for ourselves.  

Naturally, we want to take care of everything, but we can’t.  I learn that more and more everyday.  God cares, and He cares a lot.  Big or small, there’s nothing that we can do for ourselves that can’t do a better job of.  True satisfaction can only be found in Christ, and a maintaining a relationship with Him is first and foremost.

It is days like today when I have trouble running to the arms of Christ.  

Waking up this morning and reading of the sudden death of a friend of mine was not a great way to start my day.  I KNOW THAT GOD IS GOOD, but how can this happen?  I have come to believe that God does not make bad things happen, but that He works for our good in all things.  God is not responsible for the freak things of this world, but on days like today, I have trouble relentlessly running to God.  Satan uses times like this to his advantage.  I am having to run from the thought that, “Something bad happened today, so God owes me today.”  We cannot close ourselves off from God when life turns terrible.  If nothing else, we need God because He will sustain us.  The world has nothing to offer in trying times.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:19: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”  The world says, “Why follow a God who cannot protect you from the hardships of this world?”  God promises that He will not leave.  God promises comfort and relief in times of grief.   We are called to love God and His people through the good times and the bad times. People who keep their joy even in times of trouble amaze the people around them.

My experience with God is that what He says is true.  In good times, I see the work of God all around me.  In times like this, it can be so easy not to look.  When everything goes wrong, we want answers.  We tell ourselves that the more we know, the better off we will be.  God does not offer many answers, but He does offer refuge.  My life experience shows me that God is good.  In times of trouble, God does not change.  God is unchanging; God is faithful.  Though finding the courage to seek God’s presence during the middle of a storm can be tough, finding it takes a load off our shoulders.  God is there, and He will be there.  HE IS AT THE DOOR; WE MUST LET HIM IN.

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”         -Psalm 34:8, NIV

Well it has been a busy two weeks since my last post.  My classes are off and running, and I have just been trying to keep up.  There is just something about this campus that I have fallen in love with.  Choosing to come here to Lipscomb for school has been one of the best decisions that I have ever made.  The people that I have met here whether they be peers, professors, or just random people around campus have impacted my life in a huge way.  I don’t really have much time to myself, but I prefer it that way.  The sense of community that I have encountered on so many levels has encouraged me and also taught me how to be an encouragement to others.

Being here at Lipscomb, I have seen God move on this campus.  Not always in chapel that everyone is required to attend, not always in the Bible classes everyone is required to take, but in the general feel of the campus.  God is in the hearts of so many of my fellow students, and the love that they show rubs off on the people around them.  After living here on campus, I don’t think I will ever want to live by myself.  It is still very possible to not do anything and be by yourself, but there is always something to do, or someone to be with.  I am so glad to be back here where I feel right.  I had a great summer, but getting back in the swing of things here on campus is something that I truly do love.

It really has been a great summer.  Twenty-four hours from now, this summer will be officially over for me.  I have learned a lot this summer, both practical and impractical, both spiritual and unspiritual, but they all count for something, right?  Yeah, probably not, but regardless I feel much more knowledgeable in some areas.  So since summer is ending, I thought I would make a list of 10 things that I have learned this summer.  Here they are:

1. I can now get sunburned on the top of my head, so I should now wear a hat if I’m going to be out in the sun for a while.  I learned that the hard way. #thinningiswinning

2. LeBron IS the best basketball player of his generation.  This is not opinion, it’s straight fact.  I’m dropping knowledge right now, listen up.

3. Doing things costs $$$$$. 

4. It is possible to get payed below minimum wage if you are employed by the school that you are enrolled in.

5. I still cannot grow a sufficient amount of facial hair.

6. Everyone looks up to someone, and everyone is looked up to by someone.

7. God is faithful even when I am not.

8. God is always throwing us opportunities to serve Him and to serve others, and we need to be looking.

9. God is always working. ALWAYS!

10. “Christ is all, and is in all.” – Colossians 3:11

It’s been a really great summer, but I am ready to get back to school.  Cannot wait to see where God takes me in the next few months.

Till Next Time,

Michael Clinger