Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Cup of Tea
Whenever you have the opportunity to make a positive difference in someone's life seize it. They may not come very often, and they don't have to be big. It's amazing the power of simply going out of the way to talk to someone if they're lonely, buy a meal for someone if they're hungry, or to just exchange name to show that they are wanted to be be known. Simple acts of love opens the door for God to step in. Even if it's just buying a cup of tea for a man out by your dumpster.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Weight of the World On Our Shoulders
When Jesus was raised from the dead he showed himself to many people before he ascended into heaven, and these people, amazed, ran to the the corners of the world spreading the good news: Our Christ has died and has risen. This news, however, was rejected in disbelief by many people, including the Israelites. God's own, chosen people rejected their king, his son. They rejected their SAVIOR. Jesus saved us from a very much deserving death. He saved us from eternal suffering.
How can people not see this? How can people not look at what he did and just cry out of happiness and love that Jesus left his thrown to come and save us, die for us? The part that baffles my mind is that a lot of people know the gospel, know that Jesus exists, know that God exists, they know the word of God, and they either don't believe or don't care. How can someone believe Jesus exists and not care that he suffered for us, that he became sin to take ours away, and that he wanted to save us even when we wanted nothing to do with him? The sad part is, is that I take this for granted every day. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes it becomes completely bland to me that Christ died for me even when I didn't love him back.
Who am I? Who are we? I deserve to be thrown in the eternal fire, no questions asked. But Jesus wanted me to live with him instead. He wanted to guide me, and be my father. He wanted to be my comforter. And I forget this? Why? That's the most amazing news ever. News that I don't have to fear death, I don't ever have to worry or stress because God is there to guide me and lift me up through this world. All I have to do is say, "Here God, please take this because I can't do it without you." And He'll take it and turn your troubles and trials into something beautiful. Sometimes we feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Well God can take that off. All we have to is take that leap, and have faith that He'll catch us.
How can people not see this? How can people not look at what he did and just cry out of happiness and love that Jesus left his thrown to come and save us, die for us? The part that baffles my mind is that a lot of people know the gospel, know that Jesus exists, know that God exists, they know the word of God, and they either don't believe or don't care. How can someone believe Jesus exists and not care that he suffered for us, that he became sin to take ours away, and that he wanted to save us even when we wanted nothing to do with him? The sad part is, is that I take this for granted every day. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes it becomes completely bland to me that Christ died for me even when I didn't love him back.
Who am I? Who are we? I deserve to be thrown in the eternal fire, no questions asked. But Jesus wanted me to live with him instead. He wanted to guide me, and be my father. He wanted to be my comforter. And I forget this? Why? That's the most amazing news ever. News that I don't have to fear death, I don't ever have to worry or stress because God is there to guide me and lift me up through this world. All I have to do is say, "Here God, please take this because I can't do it without you." And He'll take it and turn your troubles and trials into something beautiful. Sometimes we feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Well God can take that off. All we have to is take that leap, and have faith that He'll catch us.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Slaves to The One Who Set Us Free
The word slave has a pretty negative connotation doesn't it? Being "owned" by someone, and them having complete control over everything you do. In Romans 6:18 it says, "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness." But why would a loving God make us his slaves? Well to begin with he's all powerful and can do whatever he wants. Have you ever heard the saying I put you into this world, and I can take you out? God kind of has the right to do that. You can also look at it from another perspective. Romans 6:11, "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Personally, I would rather be alive than dead. Now look at it from a follower of God. Man turns ideas and practices into things they shouldn't be, just because we are naturally sinners. God is love and loves, so when become slaves to righteousness we become slaves to love (which isn't really slavery at all).
God died for us so we could escape death to sin. And we die with him. We were baptized in Christ so we are also baptized in his death. With this death of our mortal bodies God breathes a new life into us in order that we may become dead to sin and alive in Christ. This is such an undeserved blessing and a sign of God's never-ending grace that Christ enters into us when we are baptized in his death and made slaves of righteousness. With this new life, we no longer have to fear death, sin no longer has control of us, and we are no longer instruments of wickedness.
Romans 6
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God's Calling
God is very interesting. You're taught all your life that you will eventually have to stop relying on your parents and take on the world alone. However, God asks you to do the opposite. He asks that you give everything in your life over to him. He asks that you not have an ounce of stress or worry in your life. It's a single step of faith, "do you trust God to work in and guide your life?"
On the surface it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. God will solve all my problems. But at the same time it's a deal breaker as well. Yes God will help you through your challenges, but giving you life to God doesn't mean he's going to lead it according to how you want it to go. God's going to guide your life in the direction he wants it to go. God's way isn't always the easy way. In fact it's almost never the easy way. God sent his son to die in order to save the pathetic beings we are, so he has all the more right to at least ask us for a little sacrifice in return.
God calls us to live differently than the rest of the world. Giving our life to him means we are called to show his love in everything we do, and doing whatever he calls us to do. For me, that's leading high school kids to Christ. It means leaving my college atmosphere to go hang out with high school kids who A) I don't know, and B) don't want to talk to me... and loving them anyway! It means going to sit with them at lunch, introducing myself, and trying to carry on a conversation with them... All so they can know God's love like I do.
On the surface it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. God will solve all my problems. But at the same time it's a deal breaker as well. Yes God will help you through your challenges, but giving you life to God doesn't mean he's going to lead it according to how you want it to go. God's going to guide your life in the direction he wants it to go. God's way isn't always the easy way. In fact it's almost never the easy way. God sent his son to die in order to save the pathetic beings we are, so he has all the more right to at least ask us for a little sacrifice in return.
God calls us to live differently than the rest of the world. Giving our life to him means we are called to show his love in everything we do, and doing whatever he calls us to do. For me, that's leading high school kids to Christ. It means leaving my college atmosphere to go hang out with high school kids who A) I don't know, and B) don't want to talk to me... and loving them anyway! It means going to sit with them at lunch, introducing myself, and trying to carry on a conversation with them... All so they can know God's love like I do.
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