Peace

So I wrote this for this peace fair on campus, and they wanted to know how all the different religions and thinkers, etc. spread peace. I thought this could be a fun blog to share and see if anyone had any opinions on it.

Here is the articel I wrote and we passed out:

::I have spent time in the inner-city, time in the Middle East, time in the former Soviet Union, time with many people, time with myself, and time with my Lord and there are some things that are shared everywhere and by everyone. There is a desire for peace by all people. The desire is often in themselves, or it may be a greater longing for peace to rule in whole communities, nations, or even the World. To find peace though, where do you go? What is at the root of war, pain, anxiety, hate, or any other thing that robs us and our World of peace? So often we try to change behaviors, systems, thoughts, and although these are all worthy endeavors the World and the people in it seem to be just as far from peace as ever. As I have looked around the World, and as I have learned from my Lord I have determined that the thing that needs to be transformed more than anything on the planet is the soul. It is the corruption and struggle within that leads to our lack of peace personally, and from there it spreads and corrupts relationships, communities and even nations. The solution to such a grand problem is a very personal one. It is the renewing and reconciliation of a single soul that begins to make a difference. To change people from the inside out is the way to ultimately bring peace.

My Lord, my teacher, the one who has brought me peace is Jesus of Nazareth. He has been called many things, but an appropriate title that has been given him is “Prince of Peace”, for listen to some of the things he said while he was here:

But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. "I wish that even today you would find the way of peace.” (Luke 19:41-42)

“But the time is coming--in fact, it is already here--when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (John 16:32-33)

To bring peace is to bring Jesus. Look at what the Scriptures say:

Whatever we do, it is because Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of this peace fair. We will continue to attempt to bring peace throughout the entire World by spreading the “wonderful message” about Jesus so that He may transform and renew us as people. This way we can have true inner peace, as well as build communities that bring ultimate and eternal peace to all who desire it!

Kingdom Men?

One of the things that burdens my heart is the men in the Kingdom. Where are the passionate ones who will change the World? Where are those that stay up at night wrestling with the realities of this lost World, and with their own sinfulness, and with the desire to be used by God in such great and amazing ways? So often I see young men grow up and become more tame, more docile, less passionate, less extreme, and I wonder why? But the tragedy that I see before me is even more desperate. For so often it has been the older men in the Kingdom that have been challenged by the young. The older bring the wisdom and maturity, but it is the young that bring the passion, the vigor, the danger. A true Kingdom community needs both, I as a man desire both, but there is no denying that it is the young man, the man in college that has done the most damage against the enemy throughout the ages. It is the young man that has brought about changes, has overturned rulers, has destroyed the status quo, has not been OK with settling. Yet before us today I ask, where are those young men? If in your college years is when you are to be most extreme, what will become of the Kingdom in our land when the most extreme, the most passionate, and the most dangerous, are really quite apathetic, quite safe, and quite tame?

I think about revolutionaries of the World, and the fact that we are part of the greatest, eternal revolution of all time and I see way to many nobles and not enough peasants. Yes, a revolt in history that we are all familiar with is the one portrayed in the movie Braveheart. There are really two types of men in the lands of Scotland, the peasants and the nobles. It was the nobles who didn’t want to fight, didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, wanted to play it safe. Their lands and comforts, their position and power, their safety and image were too important for them to engage in battle. They focused too much on what they could lose, and lost sight of what they could win. They resigned to be subject to another land and another King, because it was easier. Oh but then there was Wallace, and all those peasants, who did not miss the opportunity before them, who did not want to settle, and who were willing to give their very lives to fight a worthy cause, a compelling cause, a necessary cause.

What is more worthy of our lives than the freedom of the World? Yes there might be costs involved, but the costs are much greater by not being involved. There is a reason men followed Wallace, there is a reason we know him and are inspired, there is also a reason why we despise the nobles, and why they disgust us. My fellow men, are we the nobles in God’s Kingdom? Are we OK that another Kingdom has subjected this earth and the people in it? I ask you, will you decide today that safety, apathy, and tameness suck? Will you refuse to let the men around you continue on as we are? Let us today respond, and say it is time to fight, time to be extreme, time to leave our places and engage in the battle, and time to take others with us as we go.

I am heading to the Middle East this summer, and I am because I want to be the type of man of that goes, not the one who stays, I want to be the man who takes action, not the one who makes excuses, I want to be the man that refuses to let the battle pass when I can engage in it. Will you go this summer? Will you take other men with you? Will you help turn the tide and recover the passion that is missing amongst us? Let’s start now, and let’s make this summer be a marker, a time where we start showing the younger men around us that going is what men do. I am going, will you?

never useless!!!!!!!

1 Corinthians 15:58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

What great news that no matter what, if it is for the Lord it aint useless. You know, I am sure there are many times when we go out there and try something in ministry and it doesn't work or come through. Maybe a retreat that no one signs up for, or preparing a Bible Study and coming to find that only one person shows, so you just hang out, week after week. Or worse yet, no one shows and all the money and prep, and effort seems useless. But that just isn't the case.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, you do for the Lord (be it washing a roommates dishes, or making phone calls, sharing the Gospel, or gathering schedules to find a meeting time, be it big, small, long or short, nothing means nothing) is ever useless!!

That is such great news, and that is why it say in the Bible, always be enthusiastic about the Lord's work, because it always matters, and it is always noticed, and it always useful. There is no other work on earth that you can say with all certainty that no matter what it is it won't be useless. No wonder we are to be enthusiastic, not begrudging, or sad, or burnt out, or walking with heavy fit and a frown, no how could you be in such a state unless there was something you were missing, and perhaps it is the realization that you are doing the Lord's work, and it is never useless. Celebrate that reality today my friend, celebrate never having to be useless again!

The path of blessing!!

I love Jesus, He never says do this or do that without a reason! And His reasons are always so good.

John 13, a chapter well known for the fact that it is here where Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. Why does He do such a thing? Well, He tells us it is because He wants to show us what to do for one another. He is instructing and teaching us to be servants, to bless and serve others.

He ends this scene with this saying "You know these things-now do them!", but that is only the first part of verse 17, he finishes by saying right after this, "That is the path of blessing."

It is not do this because I said so, although that would be plenty a reason. If ever that were a reasonable situation for such a response it would not be from a parent to a child, but from the creator King, to the created servant, there is no need for explanation. But He doesn't say that, nor does He say that it is our duty, our requirement, it is the higher ground. Although all these may true as well, Jesus lets us in on a little secret.

You want blessing, then serve and bless others, that is the path of blessing. How wonderful. Who doesn't want to be blessed? Who doesn't want to know the secret to a path full of blessing, a road that takes us to a place that we are striving to find anyway. Ahh, Jesus says do these things, because they will bring you where you really want to go anyway.

Some speak of men like Buddha or other wise sages from the east as holding the keys to such thinking or sayings. It is the transcendental meditators that talk of paths and blessings, but let us not forget that the true master, the greatest rabbi, the one who knows soul and life most intimately, and who is above all others the most spiritual, says to his following, "Let me show you the path of blessing, go where I go, do what I do, there in lies the good path, the blessing!

being "saved"...do we get it?

"Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." (John 3:8 NLT)

Once again I read a few days ago something that stood out to me about the nature of our culture and our need to master everything. Here Jesus is teaching Nicodemus about salvation and about being born again. When Nicodemus gets confused about the idea of being born again, Jesus responds to him by saying, well, you need to be born by the Spirit and don't try and figure it out, because you can't.

Being born of the Spirit, being "saved" is a bit of a mystery, a total miracle and something that the Spirit causes. We can have a part in it, we can ourselves experience it, but to fully understand it, now that is not the point.

Oh to enjoy and embrace the mystery, the wonder of it all is what I challenge us all to do. To take a mystery, a miracle and pound it down into a formula, a measurable quantity is a bit silly (but I understand why we do it), if that be necessary, let it be so, but not at the expense of being in awe of the fact that we both are born of the Spirit and can somehow play a part in the salvation of others, a glorious and mysterious miracle that we should never get bored of or take for granted.

Familiarity Can be a Curse

Yeah, so reading through the gospels and looking at Jesus and His teaching, it is amazing to me how many (I am not talking like one or tow, or even a few, but possibly hundreds) times Jesus says something, or does something, or tells a story and it is not obvious.

What I mean is, I rarely come across something in the gospels that I have not read before. So when I read it, it is familiar, but is it clear? It is not new, but do I get it? I think there are so many things we gloss over, or read and don't really think about. We are so drawn to the obvious stuff, the stuff that fits easily with out theology or that is taught on much. But there is so much that when I talk to my friends or sit and think about myself, it is not obvious, it tends to lead to more questions than answers.

I think we need to come to gospels, and to Jesus and not gloss over stuff, not let the familiarity of what we read keep us from really wrestling with what the heck He is teaching. We need to be OK with not having it fit or having it all figured out, and replace that value with one of learning and following our Rabbi, Jesus.

So often the disciples were confused or misunderstood Jesus. What makes us think that we can nail him down and systematically categorize the greatest Rabbi who ever lived? It seems to me, part of Hebrew teaching was to set us on a path or to get us to wonder and wrestle and ask questions. But it seems to me also that we do far too little of such things.

I will leave you with just one thought, out of a chapter I read today, and out of a passage that seems quite clear really, but there was a question that arose for me, and this is simple and clear compared to so many stories and teachings of Jesus, but check this out.

Luke 21:1 As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

My question is this: Does Jesus think we should give unto poverty? Should we give not just before we take care of ourselves, but give so that we cannot take of ourselves at all? Doesn't it seem irresponsible to give our rent and food money and have to rely on someone or something else to survive? Is that really Godly living? If it isn't, why does Jesus point out this woman as doing something good?

Happy questioning, wondering and rediscovering the familiar my friends.

A woe for me?

Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."

I was reading this today and realized that maybe I was missing something or maybe I need to be careful as a minister myself and as a teacher and discipler of students. At first glance it seems that what Jesus is coming down on here is that the experts in the law were making loving God and following His ways a total burden. Jesus had yet to die and rise again, and so the context could not yet be the new covenant, but the principles probably apply. Since we are reading these words after Jesus provided a way to God through Him, totally based on grace and not works, we so often stress the relational grace elements, and downplay the religious works side.

Now I believe that if we make following Jesus a system, or something to do because you are supposed to or have to, then something is missing, and the passion and love and joy of following Christ gets replaced with duty, guilt, and work and eventually that leads to resentment, misery, and a frustrated life. But I think we need to find a way to not ignore the fact that Christ wants us to, in fact according to Ephesians 2:10 we are saved so that we can live out the good works we were created for! That is a glorious thought not a burdensome one. The King of the universe has laid aside things for us to do, and doesn't just forgive our sins, but invites us into bringing life and blessing and doing the work of the Kingdom. How cool would it be if the President of the United States called you and gave you a special mission, some extremely important task. That would actually be something to brag about to see as a highlight of your day, or year, or life. But when we take those good works and make them a boring, dead, burden they become something so different.

I think we don't know what to do with works as Christians now a days, and so we tend to avoid them altogether or just do them all wrong. I feel like there is great wealth and wisdom in spiritual disciplines for example, but in so many areas they are lost or looked down upon because they got misunderstood or misused or miscommunciated. But as a result there is something wonderful lacking.

I believe we are to teach people how to follow Christ and to obey all that he commands. The problem that Jesus had with the experts above though is not just that they put a religious burden on people, but more importantly that they themselves weren't willing to help. In other words, the greater sin was not that they were teaching laws, but that were doing so without love. To love people you teach is not just to tell them what to do, but help them carry there burdens, to help them accomplish good works, to help them live out there call to follow Jesus.

This is where I come in. I have to ask myself, as I call people and teach people to follow Christ, and do good works, am I also doing whatever I can to help them live that out? What exactly does that look like? Am I willing to just speak truth, or am I willing help someone live out truth even at a cost to me?

I hope so.