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Sermons

Advent – Joy – Luke 3:7-18

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7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Luke 3:7-18

This is the text for week 3 of Advent. And its another text that may not seem like Christmas. But let’s remember, during Advent, we wait expectantly for the advent – or arrival – of Jesus. And these people here that John is baptizing they are also waiting expectantly. Waiting expectantly for the Messiah to come and be revealed. In fact, they think it might be John.

John was Jesus’ cousin, and he was born about six months before Jesus. John was also born in a miraculous way because his mother Elizabeth was old and unable to bear children. An angel appeared to John’s father Zechariah who was a priest, so it wasn’t a totally dissimilar experience from Jesus’ birth story.

But John knew what he was supposed to do. He knew he wasn’t the Messiah, he was just the one announcing the Messiah would come soon. There’s a lesson in there I think. We’ve got to know our role. We’re nobody’s savior, we’re just pointing people to Jesus.

And so during this Advent season, we can interpret John’s message as how to wait expectantly for Jesus.

“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” 
“Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

I hear this message from John pretty clearly: don’t have more than you need, don’t take more than you need. There’s enough for everybody. Be content and generous.

On the one hand, we’ve got these instructions from John about how to behave, and on the other hand, we’ve got our Advent theme for this morning: Joy. We know that the news of Jesus’ birth was good news that it would bring great joy to the world, and this time of year is one that brings a lot of joy. Fond memories of Christmases past. Excitement to watch that person open the gift that we got them. A couple days off work for most of us. Time spent with family we don’t see that often.

And we know those joys that we get to experience around Christmas. And yet, for a lot of folks, this Christmas will be a difficult time. We notice who isn’t going to be there on Christmas morning this year. We realize that Christmas is going to feel different this year than some of those fond memories of Christmas past. 

So how do we experience joy this holiday season? Does someone in our life get us a new Lexus with the big bow on top? Do we finally get the Red Rider BB Gun? I think John the Baptist would say, “take care of others.” “You’ve got too much stuff, give it to somebody else.” “You don’t need extra.”

This idea of simplifying your life and getting rid of your stuff isn’t only a Christian idea. Shows like Love it or List it and influencers like Marie Kondo have grown to prominence over the idea that having more stuff won’t make you happy. And it’s true that it won’t. But the joy that we’re talking about today is deeper than that. The joy that we’re talking about is only possible through a relationship with Jesus. A joy that transcends circumstances.

The apostle Paul is an example of this joy. In Colossians 1, he writes “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you.” He’s writing letters to churches from prison and yet he still has joy because he is connected to something far bigger than a self-help, simplify your life fad. When he met Jesus, everything changed. As a religious leader in the wake of Jesus death and resurrection, he was looking to imprison and kill followers of Jesus. But when he met Jesus on the road, his life was changed. He took on a new name. He was given a greater purpose. This joy that Paul was referring to was a deep, abiding joy.

So how do we get from where we are now to where Paul is. Where he can be in prison and still rejoicing. If you’re like me then being a joyful person is easier said than done. I experience a lot of joy when I’m here with you at 10am on Sundays, but what about when I’m running late on Monday? When I’m sick on Wednesday? When my boss makes a comment I don’t like on Friday?

It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be quick. Think of it like training to be a joyful person. If you decided today that you were going to run a marathon, you wouldn’t sign up for one on Saturday. You’d pick a date way out in the future because you know that it takes months to train. For me, I’d probably pick a date a few years off in hopes that everyone would forget I ever said that I was going to do that. But the first time you go running, you’re not ready for a marathon. And after a month of training 5 or 6 days a week, odds are you still won’t be ready to run a marathon, but your endurance is going to be way better than it was a month prior. It takes time, months, probably more like years, but you can become a joyful person.

So how? How are we going to do that? I’ve got a few suggestions. And I by no means am a finished product on this, but looking back, I can see how these things are forming me.

Ask God for Joy
This may seem obvious, but I think it’s important to mention. Like I said earlier, there’s a lot of stuff you can find out there in pop culture about how to be joyful, but that messaging is devoid of the provider of joy. God created joy for us to experience, and the deepest, most all-encompassing joy is found in God alone. So ask for it. God wants to give you joy.

Express Gratitude
This has been really helpful for me. In a world that wants to constantly remind us of all the stuff we don’t have, remind yourself of the good things in your life. When I’m pulling out of our neighborhood most mornings, I offer a simple prayer: thank you God for the work I get to do. There’s something in your life to be thankful for, express gratitude for it! Doesn’t have to be only through spoken prayer, for the journalers out there.

Practice Contentment
This is what John was talking about in our Scripture this morning. What you have is enough. Look for ways to provide for other people from your excess.

Remember Jesus Wins
We talked about this a couple weeks ago when we talked about hope. We know how the story ends. Jesus wins. Whatever our current circumstances may be, we have hope for a better future. We should be hopeful for Jesus’ return. Remembering this over and over and letting it sink deep down into our bones is going to bring us joy. And each week, we go to the Table together to remember Jesus. This should be a joyful time. I didn’t grow up in a church where talking during communion was acceptable. You passed the trays in silence. You could hear a pin drop. And growing up, I didn’t get the message that this was a time for rejoicing. I’m still learning more about what this time together at the Table means and how it can transform our lives. Jesus wins, and we can rejoice in that together this morning.


December 15th, 2024

Watch here: https://youtu.be/3rT5eldDJiw?si=RE7qvh42QKfBdEsN&t=859

Sermons

Wait – Acts 1:1-8

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As we begin the year, we’re going to be walking through Acts 1-15 together. We’re going to see God take this group of folks that was cowering in a dark room after Jesus Crucifixion and grow them into this big, bold, multi-national, multi-cultural group of Jesus like people. I know that maybe the more official title of this book is the Acts of the Apostles, but I think a more descriptive title of the book would be the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

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In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:1-8

It’s the first week in January… This is the time of year where we all put our heads together to come up with a plan for how we’ll improve ourselves, how we’ll boost profits, how we’ll fix our businesses, our relationships, our churches. Because there’s a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of things to get done. There’s a lot of projects to get the ball rolling on, all that stuff when we said “we’ll circle back on this in the New Year” well now it’s time to start doing that thing we said we were going to do.

I personally have never been much for resolutions. I normally start well on January 2nd because I never know what I’m resolving to do until January 2nd, its not something I put thought to before then. And then I do really well for about 3 days. Then the 4th day I miss. Something comes up, and that thing that I was planning to do gets pushed aside for something more pressing or at least that’s what I tell myself. But I come back on day 5 ready to rock. Then two weeks later, that thing that I had resolved to do, I’ve totally moved on from.

And that frustrates me because every day all year long I see people sharing their wins. All this stuff that they’ve done and accomplished. Our culture values starting, going, trying, overcoming, succeeding, winning, to put it simply: doing. These values instilled in us from the time we are children: work hard, come up with solutions, if we’re not winning, we’re not trying hard enough.

And so, when something isn’t working. We try harder. We brainstorm. We spend more and more time trying to fix what it broken.

Our churches are not exempt from this. We’re not the only folks who come on Sundays and remember a time in our lives when there was more people in the room with us on Sundays. It’s happening all throughout our country. Each day we become a more secular society. And no political power grab is going to reverse that trend. And its not that our programs aren’t good enough. It’s not that churches aren’t doing enough things. Church growth strategies and church consultants are not the hope of the world. Even still in 2025 America, Jesus is the hope of the world.

We can’t try and do ourselves into going where God wants us to go. And this frustrates me and maybe you too.

In these first few verses of Acts, we see Jesus give a holy command to his disciples. And it’s not to scheme and plot how they’re going to grow church attendance. It’s not to go out and try really hard to win the approval of folks in town. Jesus tells them to wait. Wait expectantly for the Holy Spirit to move and when it comes, go where it’s taking you.

They’ve just been with Jesus for three years, walking with him, talking with him, seeing God work in mighty ways, and yet according to Jesus, they still need to wait. They need guidance from a source outside of themselves. Jesus knows that this new Kingdom He’s come to bring about is only possible with divine intervention and leadership. So he doesn’t take this time to give them a pep talk. He’s not saying you guys got this now that I’m leaving. He’s saying wait for more guidance. The Holy Spirit will lead you where you need to go.

There’s a book I got into last year titled, When Church Stops Working, it talks a lot about this problem that churches are facing as we move into a more secular time. Here’s a passage that connects with what we’re talking about today:

“In Acts 1:4 we read that the first command Jesus gives the disciples is “not to leave Jerusalem.” We might have expected that first command to be to go out, to witness, to start a program, to preach, to teach, to do something, anything, that would make the church bigger. But Jesus orders the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait. The real origin story of the church does not start in Acts 2 with progress and growth. The real origin story starts in Acts 1 with waiting for God to act. God is the hero, and the church waits.”

The problems we experience in our secular world do not require secular strategies, they need sacred solutions.

So I don’t think I’m really breaking any news here. Obviously, we need God to intervene in our world and the Holy Spirit to lead us. But how do we cultivate a culture where discernment alongside the Holy Spirit is our default mode? Now its common for us to have periods of discernment like when we are appointing new shepherds or something like that, but how do we become a group of people who naturally are attentive to and aware of the Holy Spirit’s direction in our midst? To borrow some language from Mark Love and his book It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us, how do we become a sailboat instead of a rowboat? How do we as individuals become sails instead of oars?

Just for fun a couple images from pop culture come to mind. Here’s an image from the 1959 movie Ben-Hur. He’s depicted here as a prisoner in the bottom of a Roman ship where they were forced to row to keep the ship heading where it needs to go. Unfortunately, I think this is a great illustration for how we often attack problems both as individuals and as groups. Sayings like “if it is to be, it is up to me” tell us that with grit and determination we can exact our will on the world around us and bend it to be what we want it to be. Just keep rowing. I think this mindset leads us to a lot of places we were never meant to go. It leads to power grabs, burnout, and a lot of frustration when we don’t get the outcome we want.

On the other hand, here’s an image from one of Wesley’s favorite movies, Moana. Which one of these pictures looks like they’re having more fun? When we accept our role as a group of people being led by the Holy Spirit, we can walk forward into community with empty hands, willing to accept the moment we’re in and be transformed by God no matter what comes our way.

So how do we as a church community get from being a rowboat to a sailboat? What sort of practices can we begin now so that when there are needed moments of discernment and direction from the Holy Spirit, it’s not such a foreign concept to us?

We’ll talk about this at the end of our series, but in Acts 15, the apostles had to discern what to do in a big way. There were some people that thought one way and some people that thought another, but because they had taken on a lifestyle that was so dependent on the guidance and discernment of the Holy Spirit, they were able to meet the moment, and be in tune with what God’s plan was for the Church.

In his teachings from Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer claims that if we want to become like Jesus, we’ll have more success if we train well than if we try hard. To explain that simply, the idea is that if you just wake up every day and try to be like Jesus, that’s great and good, but if you have not been committing yourself to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditating on Scripture, fasting, giving, and living in community with other believers, going out and being like Jesus will be frustrating to you because you will fail. On the other hand, when your heart has been transformed by the Holy Spirit through these spiritual disciplines, being like Jesus will be far easier for you, because you will already have been transformed into someone more like Jesus than you are right now.

So as we enter into a New Year here together today, my invitation to you is not to pick up a flyer on your way out that outlines our 2025 strategic plan for improvement and growth. Instead, I am inviting you to envision a church that walks in step with the Spirit, and help us take a step in that direction by engaging deeper in spiritual practice this year. That may be participating for the first time in a practice of Sabbath. Setting aside time in your week outside of Sunday morning removed from the workings and worries of your day-to-day life where you can spend time intentionally with God and your family or a close circle of friends. It may be praying each day for the first time in your life when you wake up, when you go to work, when you go to sleep. It may look like reading Scripture in community with other believers as part of a Bible Reading Group. It may be fasting from something in your life to make more room in your heart, your calendar, your wallet for the Kingdom of God.

And now we point ourselves towards the Table, the spiritual practice that we do together each week as we wait expectantly for the return of Jesus. All are welcome to come and share communion with us around one of our tables today.



January 5th, 2024

Watch Sermon: https://youtu.be/y8RdOEz9XPs?si=HeHO7gwHWWqYknZS&t=1632

Faith and Culture, Uncategorized

Kingdom Manhood – Believing Women

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But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

5 The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

8 Then they remembered that he had said this. 9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. 11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. 12 However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12

 

Strange how God used women to share the most significant news in the history of the world. You would think God would get a man to do that, maybe a well-educated and wealthy one at that. If God had gotten a high ranking Roman official or a Jewish religious leader, perhaps that would be a more credible witness. Because this is kind of a one-time thing, you’d think God would want to put this truth in the hands of someone believable, someone whose voice mattered.

Not only did God choose a group of women, God chose some really unreliable sources. One of the women, Mary Magdalene, is believed to have had 7 demons exorcized in her life. One would think that your credibility really takes a hit after the first demon, let alone the 7th. Then one of the other women mentioned is Mary, the mother of James. Many believe her to be related to Jesus, if not Jesus’ own mother, so she certainly wouldn’t be an unbiased, credible witness. My mom is definitely not an objective third party towards me. We don’t know much about Joanna, but she’s believed by many today to also have been cured of evil spirits. So to put it plainly, one could look at the witnesses to the empty tomb and find them to be completely unbelievable.

Based on our current cultural events, it should be a surprise to no one that the men didn’t believe her. Luke tells us that their story sounded like nonsense to the men. 10 out of the 11 men didn’t even think the women had enough credibility to investigate. 1 out of 11 was at least intrigued enough to go check out their claims.

All people who believe in a physical resurrection of the Christ, are staking their belief in the original testimony of a group of highly emotional, frantic women with some serious credibility issues. To claim to be a follower of the resurrected Jesus is to base your whole faith on a he-said-she-said from 2000 years ago. No evidence, just testimony.

 

OK, so by now you probably know where this is going. If any man could see the importance of believing a woman, how could a Christian man not?

To say that a woman’s voice is in any way less credible or significant than a that of a man is counter to the good news of Christ. I know a lot of people post things on social media (on my feeds at least) about how this or that is a threat to the gospel, and for that reason, I am hesitant to use that phrase, but the good news – gospel – of the Kingdom of God is that the old has gone and the new has come. Every voice that has been downgraded or marginalized is no longer to be cast aside in the new Kingdom brought on by Jesus’ defeat of sin and death.

In this new Kingdom that we are to be living out, people of every nation, gender, and socio-economic group have equal worth and value, not because of what they’ve accomplished, what family they were born into, or what school they attended, but because they are created in the Image of God. We all stand on equal footing as people who are 100% not worthy outside of Christ and 100% worthy because of Christ.

It’s utterly ridiculous that Believe Women has become a seemingly partisan rallying cry in our overly dichotomous world. Similar to Black Lives Matter, there are those who point to someone using this phrase as being divisive. There should be nothing less divisive in our churches than stating that a people group’s life or voice has worth. At some point, we have to ask ourselves where our loyalties lie. Do we want to be devoted followers of Jesus or do we want to be devoted members of a political party? In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches that a person cannot have two masters. Naturally, we will favor one over the other. Whether our master is money, a flag, the military, a political party, or a relationship, we have to choose between being beholden to that worldly thing or living into the Kingdom of God.

Men, we have to believe women. Not because they are somebody’s sister or mother or daughter, but because they are human beings. Women are not too emotional or the weaker partner designed for purely secondary roles, they are significant embodiments of the Image of God in our world and are telling the truth. To view women as more manipulative or less credible than men is to ascribe to the old way of thinking before Christ. We can choose to hold up the systems and powers of an unredeemed world, or we can be active workers in the new creation of God that has already begun.

Time and time again in the Bible, Jesus values the people with whom he interacts, not because of who they are or what they’ve accomplished; Jesus values people because they are simply that: people. 

How would our world look different if we woke up each day and chose to not write people off? If everyone had a chance to be heard by those in power, even when it slowed us down or forced us to change our agenda, our world would be better.

Christian men, brothers, we stake our faith in the resurrection of Jesus on a group of women’s unproven frantic testimony from 2000 years ago. To do anything less than believe the women in our lives and world today is beyond backwards, illogical, and misogynistic. Let’s always be the 1 out of the 11 who trusts the source and looks to find out more. We have the power to live into God’s Kingdom here and now, let’s do that.

 

 

Faith, Uncategorized

my.. I mean thy… will be done

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So I guess I would describe my current season of life as a season of waiting.

In my current situation, I have learned a lot about myself.  Waiting for things tends to do that.  See, when we wait for things, we often like to pass the time doing something to keep out minds busy about other things until the time comes to do whatever it is that we’re waiting to do.  Go ahead, next time you’re waiting on anything, see what you do.  I almost always pull out the phone.  That’s pretty much a go-to.  It’s safe, and strangely it has become completely socially acceptable to bury my head in my phone in the dentist’s waiting room, when I’m waiting on someone to meet me, or even at times when there is a lull in conversation.  I do not say this to condone my behavior, I am just making an observation as to something that I do that maybe you relate to.  ANYWAYS, the point is when we’re waiting, we like to keep our minds preoccupied with other things, as opposed to facing the strangeness and potentially awkward experience of waiting.  After all, what are we supposed to do?  Just sit and think?

Well by this point in what I would consider to be a prolonged period of waiting, I have pretty much exhausted all of my time-wasting options or gotten bored with them.  So now I sit here with questions.  Questions that I’m not sure I have a clear answer to.

For starters, when will this waiting end?

So you can better understand what I mean, let me explain.  I feel this calling to youth ministry, and I also feel a calling to do that as part of a church.  At this point, I want youth ministry to be my life’s work, and I need a church to support me in that; a church family to take me in and work with me to show the love of Jesus to teenagers both who are part of the church and those who are not yet part of the church.  I want to come alongside parents as they lead their children in faith.  So I’m waiting for a church to welcome this partnership.

So I am seeking these opportunities.  And I trust that God works in ways that I do not understand and cannot fathom, and I trust that it will work out for the best.  I’m also learning that the saying, “patience is a virtue” is true because virtues take practice, and patience certainly takes practice.  So I wait, and I have to believe that God’s time is better than mine.

Secondly, why has nothing already fallen into place?

The saying, “good things come to those who wait,” may be true, but it rarely appears to be truthful to those who are actually waiting.  To be comforted by this conventional wisdom, one must be hopeful about the result of their waiting.

I believe Abram was asking himself a similar question when God had proclaimed that he would be the father of a great nation, but all he had to show for it was an aging barren wife.  This question, if left unchecked, can cause us to do some rash things like how Abram slept with Hagar in order to conceive a son (Ishmael), perhaps to take his future and his family’s future into his own hands.  Maybe he thought this would in some way force God’s hand into sending his blessing through Ishmael’s line.  But God Almighty doesn’t always do what we think is best.  The Lord was planning something else, something that would go far beyond anything Abram could have imagined.  Through barren Sarai came a son, Isaac.  Through Isaac’s line, came Jesus of Nazareth, Savior of the World.

So maybe nothing’s fallen into place because though it was convenient, it wasn’t quite the plan.

And finally, when will thy will be my will?

For me, sometimes the hardest thing to pray is “thy will be done.”  Not because I don’t believe that God’s will is good and perfect, but because it’s not mine.  And I don’t feel like a necessarily terrible person for struggling with this because Jesus didn’t seem to have a particularly easy time praying this in the garden before his arrest.  Even Jesus, Son of God and member of the Holy Trinity had to surrender control to the will of the Father.  How much more so should I!?

To have God transform our will into His will, we must acknowledge that there is an Almighty God who created our world and that there is the Holy Spirit who is alive and active in our world.  We must also trust that God’s will is good for us.  And finally must pray that His will be done in our world and in our lives.  I think the latter of those is the more difficult for me most of the time.  I have to acknowledge that my life is not really “my” life, but rather that I am here on earth as an agent of the Kingdom of God.

We have to train every part of ourselves to surrender to God’s will.  We must pray that God will give us his eyes.  We must pray that God will indwell us with His Spirit.  And we must pray that God turn our thoughts towards him.

So yeah, strange times currently.  Life can get weird when you graduate from college.  I’ve learned that.  I want to leave you with a couple of prayers.  The first from Thomas Merton, and the second from Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.“

Uncategorized

Grace in the Gray

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Doesn’t growing up kinda stink sometimes?

Life used to be so easy.  There were no decisions to be made, or not many important ones anyways.  Questions of morality were so black and white.  Back when the words ethics, prejudice, and bias meant nothing to me.  That was a time in which following God was a decision, not a lifestyle.  There was an obviously correct answer to every question as well as an obviously incorrect answer.  Everything made sense.  The choices set before me were easy.  Eat healthily or unhealthily.  Do the homework or suffer the consequences.  Lie or tell the truth.  Every action had a pretty clear consequence.

But now I find myself swimming in a sea of gray.  Almost anything can be justified in my mind.  Any action can be supported by logic.  And the difference between obviously right and obviously wrong has become a lot of maybes.  All of a sudden, making decisions has become an intense debate inside my head.  Nothing is clear.

But as far as I can tell, this is just part of becoming who I am.

When I came to college to study the Bible vocationally, I thought a lot of things would get cleared up.  That more study of the Bible would lead to a more black and white view of the world and what happens in it.  It surely hasn’t.  The more I study, the more I realize how little that I know.  The more I study God’s word, the more I understand the vast spectrum that Christians fall onto.  Often I have heard people talk about the Bible as if it is something that anyone with a brain can agree as to what it says.  More often, I have seen people heatedly disagree about its truths. Truthfully, we cannot know for certain that our ways are correct.

So what can we do?

In the current age, we can live by faith.  We can live boldly in a way that glorifies our Lord.  We can lean on grace.

So often, we extend grace to others for moral stumbles, but do not extend any grace for genuine intellectual/interpretation differences. Is salvation dependent on perfect interpretation? On perfect understanding? On perfect obedience? If that were the case, we would all be lost.

So today, I challenge those reading this to live boldly by faith.

Hebrews 11 speaks directly to this topic covering many who, by faith, were used to accomplish the Lord’s perfect plan.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.“  Hebrews 11:1-2.

Boldly following Jesus is something that the Lord will prosper, not punish.

Run after Jesus through the gray. Faithfully trust Him. Count on grace for the missteps.

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in the midst of… domestic violence

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Over the past few weeks, domestic violence has been an issue that has come up over and over again in the media largely due to a few NFL athletes and the league’s widely-believed to be mishandling of the situations.  So I thought this would be a good time to write what follows.

Domestic violence is wrong. There is seriously no excuse for it, and honestly, there’s not a whole lot of things that we can do to stop other individuals outside of ourselves from taking part in the vicious cycle, but there is something that we can do to affect the culture.  So, here’s a few ways we can positively affect our culture to potentially prevent this abuse.

Stop blaming the victims. I am sick and tired of hearing people say (especially regarding the Ray Rice incident) that the victim (usually female) should not have been doing this or that, and that nothing would have happened if she had just controlled herself. I was listening to the radio a couple weeks ago when a female caller said that she (Janay Palmer) was asking for it because she pushed him (Ray Rice) first.  A couple things: 1.Rice spit on her at the beginning of the police video. 2.That does not give Rice a valid reason for the haymaker that he threw.  There is never a reason to throw a punch at your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, anything.  Seriously.

Set an example. Guys, we have been put on this earth to teach each other.  For twenty-one years I have watched my dad love my mom so much.  It’s not like my dad is a wuss or doesn’t “wear the pants” in the relationship, but my dad knows that God gifted him with something awesome, and he treats her like it.  Maybe I am spoiled (I probably am) in this way, but what if every kid growing up had at least 5 examples of a husband who treats his wife with respect?  What if people kept those vows they make when they get married?  You want to know why I feel like men should respect their partners? Because I have seen time and time again that success in relationships (marriage and other) starts with a mutual respect for the other person.  In the Author’s Note of one of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller writes:

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

How can anyone know how to love their spouse if they have never been around people who live that out?  Nobody learns how to play basketball by going into a gym and picking up a ball and trying over and over again till it works, at least, not anyone who is good at basketball has done that.  So, as men, we need to love our wives, mothers, and sisters, and bring those around who don’t have that example.

Take this issue seriously. For myself, this is the hardest section to write.  So often, I have taken lightly the need for female equality and the respect that they deserve.  Honestly, I think it is because it was never really an issue in my sight.  I knew that women were deserving of my respect, so these were obviously meaningless jokes, right?  Well, since then I have realized, both gracefully and ungracefully, that this is not really a laughing matter.  Not everyone is from the same sparkly background that I was blessed with.  To many in our culture, this is no joke.  *Writing to the world now as someone who needs much improvement in this way*: we need to better ourselves for the sake of the world.  Women have use to us other than sex, cooking, and cleaning.  You know that joke about how women should be in the kitchen, it’s not funny anymore.  Frankly, there are a lot of amazing, Christ-centered women out there who can kick my butt and probably yours too.  We should no longer write off the possibility that women can do things as well as we (men) can.  Who knows, maybe men will be better because of it.

Ok, rant over.  Now I’m going to bring a little scripture into play (after all, God’s word is infinitely more credible than I am on this matter). Ephesians 5:25-33:

…love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

A self-respecting man shows respect for his wife.  God has given us a gift.  We should love like Jesus loved us: giving up our lives for each other.

in the midst of the chaos… love like Jesus.

-MC

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in the midst of… brokenness

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I will be the very first to admit that I am way less than perfect, and anyone who knows me well is aware of that fact.  This is something that I often have struggled with inside of my calling to ministry, specifically youth ministry.  

How can I possibly show teens how to live a life fully devoted to Christ when I struggle to do so myself?

This is a question that has haunted me in the past. Well for a while, at least. Then I watched a little. Then I listened a little. I got to be around people in ministry.  I watched them deal with their imperfections. This was eye-opening for me. For the longest time, I struggled with telling people what field I was studying in, and what type of life I was preparing for. Was this because I was ashamed of my faith? Was I ashamed of Jesus? No. I was ashamed of myself. Being completely aware of my own brokenness and sin, I could not dare to let people know what I felt called to do or who I felt called to be.  Then I found a piece of Scripture from 2 Corinthians that comforted me.

To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  -II Corinthians 12:7-10

Even Paul, the great missionary of the Gospel, was in need of grace. God has used some really screwed up people to bring about his glory throughout history.  King David, “a man after God’s own heart,” was an adulterer who then covered up his adultery by conspiring to have a man killed.  Rahab was a prostitute, but God used her to help his people.  Paul himself was a killer of Christians, and his letters to churches are now known by many as the “inspired word of God.”

One thing that these people have in common (other than the fact that God used them for great things) was that they did not dwell on their own brokenness, but instead chose to live into a better story. We live in a world filled with stories. Some of these stories are of God, but many are not.  Whatever we do, whether good or bad, will be part of our story, but what do the bigger pictures of our lives look like? Overall, are we choosing to serve God with a few hiccups along the way? Or are we rolling around in the muck of our lives? These are the questions we have to answer for ourselves. Personally, every second of every day, I have a choice to make.  I can spend my time focusing on my brokenness, or I can choose to live unashamed.  Unashamed of myself and fully turning my brokenness over to God, only then is there full life.

While writing this, I thought of a song I grew up singing at Church Camp. Here are some of the lyrics:

I’m trading my sorrows,

I’m trading my shame,

I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.

Brokenness is something that exists in everyone’s life, but it is not something that we have to hold on to.

in the midst of brokenness, let us hand it over to Jesus. Again, and again, and again…

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COMMUNITY. WE NEED IT.

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So this summer, I’ve learned a lot. A lot about youth ministry, about life on the inside of a church, and a whole lot about myself. I’ve learned some of my strengths, that some things that I thought were strengths of mine are not quite to strength level, and I’ve discovered a lot about how I interact with people. I’ve also learned a lot about doing things on my own. Being away from home for a few months will do that. The more I have been on my own, the more I have realized that is not what God intended. God made us to be relational beings. From the beginning of time on this Earth, that has been evident.

 Genesis 2:18: “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

In Genesis 2, God was talking about a woman, but I think this rule applies in every case. Not just that every man needs a woman, or wife (in fact, I really feel like the church does a terrible job with singleness, but that sounds like a different thought for a different time), but that every person needs another person. AT LEAST ONE. Some people need more than that.

Luckily, I have found people here in the area with whom I have gotten to share in community with. Everyone, wherever they are, needs people who care about them, and people that they care about. I have been fortunate to find that here in California, and I am even more fortunate to have the awesome support system that I have back in Nashville. That is what I look forward to most about returning to my homeland in a week. If you ask, I would tell you that I’m excited for the fall semester to start. That doesn’t mean that I’m excited for the 8 am classes, the tests, the papers, and the absurd amount of books I’m supposed to read (which reminds me, I still need to purchase those). What I’m excited for is the opportunity to build on the relationships that have already begun and to form the relationships still to be created.

Acts chapter 4 lays the blueprint for the life of a church.

“32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.”

What we have is not our own. Living in community with others helps us realize that. It’s one thing to hold on to your possessions when you don’t have any friends who go without. We (speaking to myself here) need to be in conversation and in life with those who are in need. It’s easy to help our friends, not as easy to help those we don’t know.

Over the weekend, I got to hang out with an awesome group of guys. On Friday we hit up Santa Cruz and San Francisco on Saturday. These guys are like me – they’re not perfect. It was great being around 4 other guys for those two days. Yes, we were seeing awesome sights and experiencing amazing places, but I would’ve still had a great time if we had just sat in the living room and hung out for two days. The constant good-natured teasing and joking, the conversations only a group of college age guys have, and the comradery among us was just what I needed.

In conclusion, we need community. We need other people to care about. We need other people to care about us. But above all, we desperately need Jesus, or none of this matters.

ALSO.

I have a great friend, Drue, who authored a beautiful piece on his blog regarding this same topic. You should check it out if you’ve got the time. “I was created to… COMMUNE“

Also, I have grown quite fond of the band Rend Collective.  On their 2013 album, Campfire, they filmed a video on the making of their album and the community brought on by a campfire. It’s about six minutes long, so you should watch it if you haven’t. “The Campfire Story“