No Title.

Jesus died on the cross, this we know and believe and trust!! And upon that death lies my faith, but do I have to believe that to be saved?? Simplest situation, a tribal guy in the middle of nowhere, knows nothing of scripture… he wants to know God and God wants to know him… this I believe. So he cries out, and begins to find God in the wilderness… in the nothingness… Does he have to hear the “gospel” and believe that Jesus lived perfect, died on the cross, rose again… in order to pay for my sins… Does he need to know this to be saved??

I kinda think not. These things happened in order that I would be made right with God… that my sins would be paid for. Do I need to know about it or is it paid regardless?? The sinners sins are paid for despite him never claiming that prize. How about the tribal guy who doesn’t ‘know’ Jesus… and in not knowing Him, knows Him wonderfully.

If I go to the store and a rich man is at the front and he sees me walk in, recognizes that I’m poor, need money, and gives his credit card number to the girl at the front and says, Pay for whatever that man brings to the front, do I need to know he did that for my bill to be paid?? No clue if that’s a valid analogy or not..

But finally, I think God desires relationship more than anything else, not intellectual conformity!! Therefore, I should think whether or not we fully understand the story, to seek relationship with God would be enough!?? I'm sure my dad will comment this soon and correct something. :) And that's almost what I'm looking for.

Plan B

I heard a well-meaning preacher the other day who said: "there is no plan B!" talking about how God has put His church on earth and has not made any contingency plan!

I've heard this before--most of us have, if we attend church or youth camps. It's a ploy, meant to guilt-trip us into witnessing to our friends because God hasn't made a Plan B, and so if we want our friends to miss out on the eternal torture of hell, we need to be a perfect Christian cause there is NO PLAN B!! :)

I gotta disagree. Seriously. Jesus was plan B!! Adam and Eve and their progeny in paradise was plan A!! That went awry so the Law was put in place... that prepared God's people for the Messiah: plan B!!

So for us to put all this guilt on ourselves about there not being any other options, seriously!! Who do we think we are!!

I have a feeling God goes to plan B with regularity!! Cause we all mess up with regularity!! Stop beating yourself up over it!! Get back up and get moving!!

Stirring or Sifting

I got to thinking the other day: am I just stirring teens up or sifting them?? What's it matter?? Well if I'm merely stirring, then they settle back down to where they were before (or relatively close). But sifting sorts.

Of course neither is worth a plugged nickel if I try to do it on my own, and perhaps both (metaphorically speaking) have their own valuable place in God's schemes, but I just wonder sometimes... stirring or sifting?? I wonder how we might know?

Arriving.

Is it possible to have arrived and yet still be coming??

Physically, no, of course not, but intellectually, spiritually?? I say yes.

Scientists are brilliant and have a 'full' understanding of their field and yet they are still growing and learning more and more with regularity. If they don't, they stop being relevant and stop having the ability to fully understand their field. A full understanding of their field is based on the assumption that as new things are revealed within that field, they grasp and internalize that new concept.

As an Armenian, the idea that we never spiritually 'arrive' is frightening: smacks of Calvin, and yet it's not that we haven't arrived, so to speak, but that while I've 'arrived' God continues to open my eyes to new concepts. He's sanctified me, and yet, He continues to grow me. If I ever cease to strive toward understanding the thoughts of God in better and fuller methods, I slip backwards.

Righteousness IS being righteous and living right, but it's also continually striving towards increasing righteousness.

$3.48 in Missouri!!

So I got a tank of gas in Missouri today for $3.48!! Can you believe it!! And the next logical step in this conversation is to question why we are now celebrating the fact that gas is $3.48!! How many of us have heard/said/agreed with the phrase "Who imagined we'd ever be happy about paying $3.48 for a gallon of gas??" Right?? And really, most of us WANT gas to go lower, but as long as it doesn't go any higher, we'd be really happy if it just stayed here at $3.48!! Right again??

Spiritually, I wonder if the same isn't true here in our American churches?? I wonder if we are so used to pathetic Christian experiences... not really feeling God's presence... that when we feel this little tiny thing move within us, we're so stoked about it!! And as long as it doesn't go away, we're really OK with it being tiny.

Do you get me??

So many of us don't hear the voice of God.... and yet, I'm guaranteeing He's speaking!! But we're OK with not hearing His voice as long as that small movement we feel in our soul on Sunday morning doesn't go away. In youth groups, parents (and all too often, youth pastors... yours truly included) are often very happy with kids merely becoming better people according to a very suspect worldly standard. Instead of desiring that God truly move!!

Now gas might never go back down, but seriously, we really should never be satisfied with weak spirituality!! We should never accept and even CELEBRATE a spirituality that is small.

Freedom via Love

There's this kid in my youth group.. I won't say his name, but kids here will surely know who I'm talking about... we had a karaoke party last night at a friend's house... it was a small group thing, not a youth thing. His family was part of it, so he was there, and he was just a goofball.... He doesn't care. He can be goofy and it's OK. He's not concerned about what people think.

I got thinking about it. He's that way cause there's no question, anywhere in his mind, that his parents love him. It's really pretty spectacular!! It frees him up so fully!! He's able to just BE himself!!

What if we fully knew how much and in what ways God loves US!!?? Think about it... if parental love frees us in life, how could God's unconditional, full love free us!! What if you weren't concerned about proving anything to God?? See we talk about understanding God's unconditional love, but do we live that way?? Cause I bet, just like this kid in my youth group, that if we fully trust God's love of US, it'll show in how we live!! There'll be a freedom you've perhaps never experienced before.

Tornadoes

You know before I moved over here to Kansas, I knew they had tornadoes (I've seen Dorothy and the Wizard), but I always thought it was just every once in a while or something... Nope. They've had Hundreds of Tornadoes this year alone!!!

Isn't it funny how different we understand something once we've been there and fully experienced it?

I wonder how many of us base our understanding of God off the words we hear rather than the life we experience?? How many of us fully move into the life of a Christian??

Cause I remember hearing ABOUT hearing God's voice, but never fully understood it till I really heard it--because I submitted to some things. I remember hearing ABOUT peace within, but never fully knew it or understood it till I really got God in my life and He really brought peace. I remember seeing OTHERS worship in spirit and truth, but never felt much till I really bought in...

What are you missing?? Come to Kansas, experience the weather!! Come to God... experience His peace!!

Football

Perhaps I'm just over-anxious for football season to start up, but as I was reading Acts today, something occurred to me...

Somewhere in the middle of Acts, some guys were beaten by the Jews because of their Christianity... the guys left and counted it an honor to be mistreated because of the name of God.

Think of a half-back in football... the running back. The guy who gets the ball and the coach says go right through the middle and let them slam into you... go straight up to that linebacker who will cream you. The half-back runs the play, gets nailed, and heads to the sideline, and counts it an honor that he was chosen for the job.

Why?? Cause he got hit?? No, of course not... Cause he got yards... kinda. Cause he was Chosen!! He was considered right for that job. In our lives in Christianity, I think sometimes we focus on the pain that might come rather than the job at hand... rather than the fact that God still chooses us for jobs... God still asks us to live our lives and reach out and all that. I was also reading earlier about The Ethiopian... and God nudged a guy named Philip and knowing nothing more than the fact that God asked him to, Philip went and talked to that guy about faith. He was chosen... he had no clue how that play was going to turn out... much like a half-back. Sometimes he gets a touchdown... sometimes he gets tackled for a loss. Often times it isn't because of what he does but is the result of the actions of others... and he counts himself honored to be chosen to be the one to get punished like that.

Think of it... the biggest suffering you're likely to experience as a Christian in America is that occasionally someone might make fun of you. You aren't going to be beaten or arrested or lose your inheritance. And yet... we often count ourselves unfortunate because of the "suffering" we are forced to endure for our God.

The Office

Life is taking a nice positive turn. The Office is available online!! :) hulu.com!!

The Gospel

I’m watching this series called "Into the West." It’s about the settling of America and all that... about how we moved west and kicked Indians off their land. Just now, an Indian guy went back to his people and told them about God... he didn’t get all freaky about needing them to agree with certain points... he just told them about God and told them they needed to love and simple stuff like that.

Got me thinking you know--and none of this is new thought via myself or anyone else--but the truth is that our churches expect people to buy into our theology. People are almost required to agree with our doctrine in order to be "saved". Of course, I don’t think God’s into that, but lots of people seem to think that salvation is equivalent to agreeing with concepts. It’s not. Believe in God and you’ll be saved... that’s the promise scripture gives us.

Now, I think that figuring out concepts and theology is kinda fun, but we shouldn’t be forcing people to agree with concepts just so they can have an assurance of salvation!!

Normalcy

I got to speak the other night at our local community college. It was pretty cool... they brought in a band and asked me to speak at the end. At first they wanted an altar call... I was reasonably uncomfortable with that merely because I don't like the bait-and-switch deal, but when I got there they agreed that I just should close it out and pray and be simple and offer up a chance to talk and all that.. but the more I listened to the band and watched the kids, the more I knew I needed to talk... for some reason, I needed to talk.

Haha, I know.... I'm a preacher... and I blab whenever I can. :) but I got up there and talked. I'd been to a concert a few weeks previous, and as those guys talked, everyone was so impressed cause the guy'd been to prison and had gotten off meth and attributed it all to God. It's exciting--I'm not trying to take away from that--but the thing is... my non-Christian friends have tons of friends who've come out of prison never to commit another crime, and who've fought their way out of the trappings of drugs. This testimony really speaks to one crowd: the Christians who need something spectacular to believe that God still works wonders. I believe God still DOES work wonders, but I'm not convinced all the simple things we focus on are the wonders.

I've found that my friends who don't believe in Christianity are far more impressed when we simply live our lives without excuse in such a way that it's impossible to explain away. You see, being polite is easy... being successful happens across barriers. Getting off drugs and out of a harmful lifestyle happens all over. But everyone knows what jerks most people are... and when we simply LIVE our lives as God directs, we'll find people will be amazed.

I'm not talking about always referring to God did this for me or that for me... but the simple peace that God can bring: let it Shine!! Admit your wrongs and ask forgiveness freely!! Know your strengths and use them to benefit others often!! Pray. Read scripture. Attend church. Do so unapologetically. Invite your friends, but never let a "no thanks" response cause you to stop association. Even a "never in your lifetime" response shouldn't stop us from loving our friends in real, tangible ways that mean something not just to you, but to Them!!

This guy tonight said this: "I didn't say anything about church cause I figured if God's not working on him, nothing I do will make any difference." I thought that was so right... live with people and care for them and be with them without making them a PROJECT!! Too many of us view our friends merely as someone to "save" to put up another notch on our Christianity belt.

Whatever man... Be normal. Love. Live. Let Live. and let your LIFE be your light, your words, your witness... Let God be God and let Him use you as He will... of course, you gotta be ready when He sets it up... cause if you live this way... people start asking questions about why. And that's when, in the most loving and uncritical way you can, you get to tell them it's cause of God.

Speedlimits, Amended

So... I've been thinking about that last one. I think I need to slightly amend that idea.

I really think that while we need to not condemn ourselves for growing slowly, that idea--that we shouldn't judge ourselves or feel guilty for not being at the same place as another--needs to NEVER become a cop out. Unfortunately, that's what often happens... we begin to understand that there's a freedom, and that begins to be our constant excuse for why we aren't better.

For example, we fight legalism and works-based righteousness... and many of us extend that into an excuse for why we don't need to do anything... well, God loves me for me, and I'm saved because I believe... we talk about not wanting anything to get in the way of that, and we wouldn't want our salvation to be based on what we do... which is true, except that we still need to work!! We still need to reach out and serve and give and love.

I listened to Donald Miller preach a little while back... he talked about the excuse we have for why we don't do certain things: too many of us say, 'well we had this dream but God closed the door'. Now I believe God closes some doors, but what means a door is closed?? For many, a closed door is a plane ticket that is too expensive, or supplies that are hard to come by. For many, a closed door is working with people with whom we don't want to be forced to interact. Miller said, and I tend to agree, that these are just excuses!!

So while you ought never do something JUST because the guy down the road does, we should never let that become an excuse for being lazy.

Speedlimits

I drove up to Kansas City yesterday... had to get my car serviced. On the way home, going maybe 80, this lady starts creeping up on my bumper and passes me... no big deal, really, except that she got past me, and pulled in just in front of me, and slowed down!! Slowed down enough that I started creeping up on her!! Her stinking motivation had nothing to do with getting down the road faster, and everything to do with getting past me. Her speed was dictated by MY speed. Rather than pay attention to a standard and allow her speed to be set based on that standard, she changed her speed regularly based on what was happening around her.

You know, too many of us live our Christianity like this. We work hard at something not because we should or because God has pushed us in this area, but because we see someone else doing it better. Our churches work at improving media not because it helps ministry but because the church down the street is doing it better. We read the entire Bible not because we desire to know scripture, but because we don't want to seem like we're less devoted than our spiritual siblings.

Why?? Know what I mean?? Isn't that retarded?? I mean no offense, but perhaps God has a "speed limit" for all of us?? Perhaps He doesn't expect you to do exactly what Billy Graham does... perhaps he knows you personally and bases his expectations on knowing you.

I talked in youth the other night about walking on ice... I was getting in my car and my foot started slipping just from the pressure of "pushing" to get in the car. When you push too hard on ice, you slip. When you take too big a step, you'll slide. I think the same is true about spiritual growth... we have to take small steps, and not expect to move too fast... growth happens at a snail's pace sometimes. When we're born as babies, we don't realize how slowly we grow, but when we are born spiritually, we expect to grow fast!! But growth still has to come slowly. We truly are babies... it's not necessarily that we HAVE to move at a certain pace, but that we can't base our growth on other people, but on how God moves within us.

And sometimes that pace isn't as fast as the guy down the road.