The Forgotten God

Its been almost 3 months since i have posted anything on the blog... busy, busy, busy! But, recently i have been going through Francis Chan's book The Forgotten God... and its blowing me away! We as a ministry will end our trek through the book of Acts tonight, and as we have gone through the book it has been amazing to see the way that the Holy Spirit of God is entwined into the story of The Church.
I have felt for years that the Holy Spirit kind of gets the shaft in Christian Churches... we talk about The Father all the time... we talk about Jesus all the time... but the Spirit is largely ignored, and many times we fear talking about The Spirit because we don't want people to think that we're "too pentecostal" or maybe not enough.
Chan talks in this book about his feeling that if a person's only experience with Christianity at all came from reading the bible, then they stepped foot in the average American church, they would be shockingly surprised by the lack of The Spirit. We don't talk about the Holy Spirit much, We don't pray to the Holy Spirit much, We don't rely on the power of the Holy spirit in our lives much... and yet throughout scriptures we see that The Holy Spirit is critical to every facet of our walk with God! Jesus even tells his disciples that it is better for Him to not be there with them in the flesh so that another comforter might come. Jesus tells us that the power of the Spirit within us is better than His physical presence in our world... crazy! And i believe Him! The Spirit of God can indwell in all believers all over the world... the power of God is within all of us! Rather than trekking across the country trying to touch the garments of Jesus, we simply rely on His power within our own lives!
A couple years ago it suddenly struck me that the very same Spirit that descended down upon Jesus, resides in my own heart. Not a different part of the spirit, not my own little chunk of the spirit, but the exact same Spirit of God! How would what I do and how I live my life change if i truly grabbed a hold of the anointing of the Holy Spirit on my life???

The Hard Stuff...

I was incredibly stoked while sitting in our little bible study Friday night... As we jumped into Acts 19 a theme for the evening seemed to emerge. Questions without definitive answers. This chapter brings up all kinds questions that we hate to think about so often... "What about people who haven't heard about Jesus?", "Do we have free will?'', "What, exactly, is hell?", "How many licks does it really take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?"
My purpose in this blog is not to tackle these questions in any way. It is to say that I see glory in a room full of young people wrestling to work out there faith in a safe environment. I see beauty in God's children searching his words to try to gain a better understanding of Him. And, I see amazing beauty in the ability to, after all is said and done, admit that there are some questions that we will simply not find answers to until we ask Jesus face to face. I gain joy from watching and being apart of this dialogue. May God forgive us if we ever avoid the questions that scare us... to do so, would be admitting that we don't think God is big enough to handle it. As if one day someone will ask a question that will unravel the very fabric of our faith... is our God that small.
I am incredibly comforted by the fact that He is so much larger than anything my finite mind can process! That is not to say in any way that we should not strive to comprehend all that we can about God and His creation... but, we have to know that some of it is just simply beyond human understanding.
I felt an incredible freedom a few months ago when I had one of those "A-ha!" moments. I think that my whole life I have been sub-consciously thinking that I was working my towards a total understanding of who God is, how He works, and why He does things. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, i realized that this was never the task that God laid before us. My task is quite simple... never stop seeking. God's desire has always been relational, that I would spend my entire life longing to know Him more fully. I had my eyes set so shallow. I get the feeling now that when I am with Him in eternity I might chuckle at how low my standards once were... to understand all that my tiny brain could fathom will seem so minuscule in comparison to the glory of His company.

We should never stop seeking. learning. talking. desiring.

Tear apart the hard questions! Wrestle. Argue. Yell. Laugh. Cry. Nod your head. Shake your fist. Throw your bible at somebody while declaring that you're filled with the love of Christ!

Then remember we're all on this journey together. Repent. Apologize. Hug it out!

Never. Stop. Seeking.

Community

When I started Solid 7 months ago I desired to build the idea of community into the group from the start. I wanted it to be a place in which people felt cared for and loved and could get prayer for their lives. Little did i know at the time how much my wife and I would need this community in our own lives. Shortly after we started Solid we found out that Katie's mom had cancer and that the outlook was not good. Today we sit waiting for the inevitable fact that she will soon pass away. It has obviously been a rough time for my wife and her family... We only take joy in the knowledge that her Mom loves Jesus more than anything this world could offer her, and soon she will be with Him. And we are so thankful for the Solid community that cared for and prayed for us in this time... Thank you so much.

Faithfulness.

Friday night the Solid community will meet and fellowship and study together as we always do on Friday nights. This week we are going to be continuing through the book of Acts, we are in chapter 13. The first sermon that we have from Paul is recorded in Acts 13. It is a powerful message about church history and looking for the comming messiah... it is a message that Paul heard almost word for word from Stephan, the first man to die for his faith in Jesus. As Stephen preached this message, that Jesus was the very messiah that they had all been waiting for, that all of the prophesy had pointed to Jesus, that Jesus' death was sufficient for the forgivness of sins more so than the law could ever be... as he preached this message and was drug out and stoned to death for his faith... a young man watched all of it happen. A man named Saul, who would eventually become known as Paul.

I have no doubt that in the last minutes of Stephen's life he probably felt like he just wasnt getting though to these people. It probably pained him worse that the stones to believe that his message of hope and freedom was falling on deaf ears.

Stephen couldnt have known that in that crowd of people, holding coats, was a young man who would become the greatest missionary the world would ever see. And that more than a decade later he would be preaching an almost identical message to his own.

Almost 15 years ago there is no way that a jr. high school football coach could have known the way that simply taking time to invite a kid to be apart of his life, and pouring into him, and sharing a message of love and freedom, would drastically change my life forever!

Isaiah 55 tells us...

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

I wonder if Stephen thought of this scripture in those last moments of his life.

I wonder if God had Stephen in mind when He inspired those words to be written.

I wonder how we might change the world with our faithfulness...

"When you're ready, come before your King..."

Last Saturday night Pastor Tom spoke these words during his opening prayer... "When you're ready, come before your King." The context was that he was inviting the congregation to take part in communion... to take a moment and come before God in adoration.

The weight of his words floored me instantly...

What King, in any place, in any time, ever... would patiently wait for his people to come before his throne? In the eyes of humanity this would be ridiculous. That's the whole point of being a king, right? You speak, they act. You call, they come. You rule, they obey.

But once again, I sat in the presence of my God, astonished at His upside down Kingdom. One in which a Rabbi washes His disciples feet. One is which God becomes a baby. One in which the first shall be last, and the last shall be first...

A Kingdom in which THE King patiently waits for His people.

How crazy...
How upside down...
How just like Jesus...

THE WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM?

Unless you are a theology student or grew up a Presbyterian, you probably have no idea what the title of this post is all about. It's about the fact that i am so blessed to lead this ministry with a bunch of young adults who love Jesus, love each other, and love life. It is so awesome to spend time with you guys fellowshiping, studying, praying, and LAUGHING!!!

Over 360 years ago a bunch of people in Scotland that loved Jesus sought to understand a lot of important things about our faith... the first and foremost question they had was "What is the chief end of man?" or more simply "Whats the point of life?" They came up with an amazing answer that changed The Church forever...

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

This means a few things for us...
1. Our whole lives are about knowing and worshiping God!
2. We get to be with Him For-Ev-Er!!!
3. God, and the life that He created, is to be enjoyed!
We don't have to get entrapped into religion and legalism! Jesus is about redemption and freedom. I believe firmly that we can glorify God in our words and actions... and ENJOY the amazing blessing of life!

So what you think?

Soapbox?

Why do we as people so often jump on our soapbox hobby horse ideas? It seems that everyone has some issue, some sin, some annoyance… That they want to shove down peoples throats. So often, we as Christians, speak of loving people… But does the world know us by our love, I don’t think so. It’s a struggle to put our own ideas of how people should act aside and just love them… It’s not our default. Cause guess what… We’re the sinners.
If Jesus had a soapbox, it was telling the religious people that thought they had their stuff together that they were indeed lost and not even looking in the right direction. We have one major calling as The Church, to Love. To be Christ to the world. Everything else is minor, all the other issues are subplots. How funny that I continue trying to climb up onto a soapbox, while Jesus climbs down to the gutters. When all is said and done… Will I be known for my love?