World Peace and Sin

I had an interesting conversation about war and world peace with a friend of mine the other day that made me realize that how you view the human condition has a lot to do with what you think people are capable of both morally and socially.

My friend, who I’ll refer to as “Bob”, basically had two suggestions as to how war should be eradicated or at the very least, kept to a minimum. The first thing Bob brought up was that with so many countries possessing nuclear weapons that instead of fighting wars countries should go straight to the negotiating table since they know that there’s a possibility that their entire nation could be whipped out. His second idea was that if you made it so that war was no longer profitable it would be less likely to happen and if it did it would end quicker. To ensure that war isn’t profitable Bob suggested that everyone in the warring countries have their salaries reduced to the lowest pay grade in their countries military.

While I’m all for world peace I do have a theological problem with it, namely, sin. I know sin is not a popular idea in today’s culture but it is THE problem, it always has been and will continue to be until Jesus comes back. Pride and self-centeredness were the original sin (Gen. 3) and can still be found at the root of all other sin, in this case war. Because I believe in sin and the effect it has on the entire world I don’t believe you can ever find a formula that will usher in world peace no matter how badly I may want it. I’ll use Bob’s two suggestions to show how sin makes world peace unattainable.

The idea that you can somehow make war unprofitable is highly unlikely. War will always generate money, even if you do somehow manage to enforce a salary cap on an entire nation people will find a way around it. Because our own comfort and security is what we most value we will find ways to enhance it, in this case through some backwater way of gaining extra money. This is also the kind of environment that organized crime and the black market thrive in. Anytime you outlaw or limit the availability of an item, or in this case people’s ability to buy them, an illegal form of obtaining them will emerge it’s a simple matter of supply and demand. (Prohibition anyone?) This means that by implementing a law you thought would improve the human state you’ve actually made it worse and caused people to delve deeper into the baser desires of the human soul.

The reason people will never sit down at a table and negotiate is because both sides are only concerned about getting what they want, not about what the other side wants. Say, for example, one country wants to invade the other one so it can have access to the other countries natural resources free of charge. There is no way you can successfully negotiate that situation so that everyone comes away happy, one side thinks that they should be given something that isn’t theirs and the other side thinks they should keep what is rightfully theirs. This almost always leads to some form of armed conflict with one side trying to take what they want and the other side endeavoring to hold on to it.

More and more though wars are fought over ideology and less over physical territory, which leads to a real problem if you believe that people should believe whatever works for them because you can’t say that either side is wrong or right. Both sides are standing up for what they believe in, which is what their belief system teaches them to do which makes them both right if you believe you should do “whatever works for you”. Without an absolute right and wrong it becomes impossible to call war a bad thing, really the only people who have a right to call war evil are the ones with a moral code that has a clear standard of right and wrong.

As Christians we believe that the morale code laid out in the Bible is the only one capable of producing the right heart attitude to properly view our world. The world we live in is torn and shattered by the curse of sin (Rom. 8:20-24) and the only one who can restore it to sinless perfection is Jesus. For those of us who believe this we should be leading the way towards finding humane peaceful ways of resolving conflict, not because we think world peace is an achievable goal in this lifetime, but because we believe in the one who will one day come forever destroying sin and thus bring world peace.

The Idol of Love

“Cause maybe you’re gonna’ be the one that saves me.” – Oasis, Wonderwall


Love. We live in a culture that loves love, or at least its idea of it. We sing songs, read books, and watch movies that exult the idea that when you find that “special someone” the rest of your life will be perfect, that they’ll save you from everything about your life that you hate and the rest of your life will be some thrilling, romantic adventure filled with passion and excitement. The problem is that it’s not true. People of the opposite sex may make good friends and spouses, but they’re terrible saviors. No matter how much someone loves you, they will fail you; and you, in turn, will fail them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, a child, or a spouse they will be unable to fill the void in your soul that desires to be loved. They can’t, they weren’t created too. We were created to love, and be loved, by God Himself and anything short of that will never satisfy us.

That doesn’t mean that loving other people deeply is a bad thing. That feeling, that emotion, that desire was given to us by God. In one of the most astonishing passages in the Bible God actually says that Man being alone in his perfect, sinless form is a bad thing. (Gen. 2:18) So God created a helpmate, someone who could provide companionship, Woman. (Gen. 2:21-23)If that wasn’t mind boggling enough He says that when two people are joined together in marriage they become one entity in God’s eyes. (Gen. 2:24)

So if love, marriage, and romance are all good, enjoyable, life giving, God ordained things then why are they bad things to desire? They aren’t. There’s nothing wrong with desiring to “fall in love”, get married, and share your life with another person. The problem comes when you make the pursuit of love and romance the primary purpose of your life. Our relationships with others are intended to be the icing on the cake, not the cake its self. Anyone who’s ever eaten too much icing knows what happens. You get a stomach ache, your body doesn’t function properly, and you just feel lousy in general. Likewise, when we focus all our energy on finding happiness in relationships with others, instead of communing with God through the person and work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we will grow dissatisfied, angry, and frustrated.

In short, love is something to be enjoyed, not worshiped.

There is no delete button

“This is one doodle that can’t be undid home skillet.” – The Store Clerk, Juno

The delete key, one of the joys of living in the digital age. If you end up with something you don’t like you don’t have to watch it pile up in your garbage can, you can just delete it and suddenly it’s like it never existed. No wonder people can’t deal with reality, the mistakes you make out there last forever. There’s no erase, no backspace, or delete in real life; everything out here is permanent. It’s one thing to imagine what failure would feel like, it’s another thing to feel it, to live through it, to endure the sleepless nights, and the gut wrenching agony that you’re sure no one else has ever felt as deeply as you do. Which is stupid, everyone has failed one way or another usually multiple times per day. It just shows how self centered we are, that we think we’re the only ones to have ever felt like this. There are people all over the world who are far worse off than we are and yet we think we have the right to gripe about our car problems, while there are people walking several miles just to go to school. We complain about the price of food, while millions go hungry. The worst part is we feel justified while we do it, we claim it as our right to whine about whatever perceived wrong happens to own the soap box that particular day. Our hair, our clothes, having to wade our way through mountains of homework, the seeming injustice of a teacher that we swear is trying to kill us so they can devour our soul.

I have a feeling that if life did have a delete button that we’d all use it so much that we’d end up back in the Garden of Eden, because that’s what we all want, that’s what we’re wired for. The imprint of Eden is still on our souls and it haunts us all.

Every.

Single.

Day.

We desire perfection because man was created perfect, the image of God himself. (Gen. 1:26-27) But being like God wasn’t good enough for us, we wanted to BE God. We wanted to set ourselves up as the ultimate authority. To base holiness off of what pleased and brought glory to us, not what brought joy to the heart of The Creator. So we ate the fruit and crowned ourselves as the rulers of our lives, the spiritual coupe was completed and our lives are scared forever by that childish, reckless decision. Mankind, the being that didn’t even possess the power to create itself, let alone the world it lived in, decided it knew more than a being that has simply always been. (John 1:1-3, John 8:58)As soon as we overthrew what we thought was an abusive, unloving, dictatorship we regretted it. (Gen. 3:7) Ever since our desire has been to find the delete button for life so that we can go back to living in a world without sin. But no such button exists, there’s no going back and undoing that one terrible moment. That doesn’t mean there’s no hope though.

There may not be a delete button, but there is whiteout. (Isaiah 1:18)

In spite of our great rebellion God still loves us and pursues us with an unquenchable fervor. So much so that He designed the only plan that could rescue us from ourselves, despite the fact that it meant sending the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, to die in our place. (Matt. 16:21) So the deep, ugly stain of sin was washed out and made pure, and while it’s not as good as having never rebelled it’s better than never being rescued.

My sin

Trying to work through writers block. I hate that word, that state of being. I’m sitting here trying to get my thoughts out on a piece of paper and my brain decides to stop feeding me anything worth typing and all I’m left with is deep, unpenetratable darkness and fog rolling around my mind. Clogging all avenues of thought and forcing me to find my way through the side streets and back alleys of thought. As I try to find my way to a clear thought I pass places I haven’t ventured in years and never dared to stay and visit for fear of what I’d remember and the things they would cause me to feel. The sorrow of loss, the deep despair of depression and hopelessness, the stabbing pain of betrayal, the fear of living a lie. They all come rushing back to me as I stop and stare into the storefronts in my mind. The stores have names like, “My Family”, “High school”, “The Air Force”, “Girls”, and “People I thought were friends”. I want to turn and walk away, to never look at these things again but I can’t. I’m held there in a state of morbid curiosity praying, hoping, pleading, that somehow as I watch the past unfold in front of me that this time things will turn out different. That maybe this time my cousin won’t get addicted to drugs. That I’ll do more with my teenage years, instead of waiting until I’m 17 to pay attention to God’s voice. That I’ll be a better leader in basic training this time. That if I replay it over in my mind for the millionth time I won’t have to break up with my girlfriend. And maybe, just maybe, this time people will care enough about me to keep me from spending the better part of a night hunched over a toilet puking my guts out.

Instead I see the same things I always see. The heartbreak, the selfishness, the stupidity, the poor choices, and the nights of crying myself to sleep. I want to tear myself away from the horror show playing out before me, but I can’t, I won’t, because as painful as it is to watch I remember what comes next. The restoration, the redemption, the growth, and finding a spiritual depth I never dreamed of. Not because I deserve it, but because Jesus died for me. He died to cover my sin, my pain, my stupidity, and my invisible spine and redeem them. He reaches into the farthest, most dirty areas of my life and transforms them into something amazing; something new, clean, and pure. And all I can do in return is give Him all the glory for it, there’s nothing about the process I can take credit for. The images in the store’s windows are painful reminders that on my own I’m useless and constantly making a mess out of things.

Jesus is the only thing I have that’s worth anything, the only one who can put me back together, the only one who’s ever lived a perfect life so I wouldn’t have to, and that makes Him the only thing worth clinging to. Not my scars, my pride, or my pain. So I watch the movies play themselves out again and again to remind myself of a love greater and stronger than all my sin. I don’t enjoy the suffering, but I love being rescued.

Jesus in the everyday

(Note: This is a slightly updated version of a blog post from over a year ago, still working on it.) :)



Today was one of those days that you never think about as a kid. You know, the days when being a grown up is "boring." I went grocery shopping, cleaned the dishes, and took out the trash. (Yes, kids it's one big party. WOO-HOO!) :) The highlight of the day was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watching Chuck on Hulu. I enjoyed it though mostly 'cause it makes me laugh to think about how naive I was as a kid. Somehow I envisioned myself going to parties every night of the week and just hanging out being "cool", whatever that meant. Now my idea of cool is getting wheat bread buy one get one free. I almost did the happy dance right there in the bakery isle. Until I remembered that, a.) I'm white b.) it's just bread and c.) I'm in the middle of Mejier. Thinking about doing "boring" stuff reminds me of Acts 16:11-12. Luke gives what seems to be really pointless information about their traveling. "So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days." I'm always struck by how mundane this all sounds. There are no miracles, no angry mobs trying to kill someone, nothing earth shaking happens anywhere in these verses. And I wonder, “why is this even in the Bible? Are Paul's traveling habit's that important?” But I stop and think about what the Bible is all about, Jesus, and His Gospel. Then it takes on a slightly different appearance. Jesus was there with them in the middle of all that, the boring, everyday, unexciting routine of life. Just like He was there with me while I was shopping for bread, washing dishes, and eating PB&J. Also the fact that they were able to do all that uneventfully shows God's protection. They didn't get caught in any major storms, pirates didn't attack their ship, and nobody got sea sick. Similarly today I didn't get in a wreck, cut or poke myself doing the dishes, and I'm very thankful that I'm not allergic to peanuts. So really far from being boring this is actually a fairly comforting passage. It shows that God is always there with us not just when there's some big miracle, but when we're able to get out of bed in the morning and make it through a whole day without anything seriously awful happening to us, that's cause for praise too.

Who is Jesus? Take 2

(Authors note: This is the new and improved version of "Who is Jesus?" Still looking for feedback, especially as the first round of comments was so helpful. Thanks. )



“The Jesus of suburbia is a lie” - Green Day, Are we the waiting?


“Who do you say that I am?”

Jesus asked his disciples this question over two thousand years ago and it still holds true for us today. Who do we say Jesus is? A great moral teacher? A loony whack job with delusions of grandeur? Some mystical sky fairy that does whatever we ask Him to, like a supernatural PEZ dispenser? Or God’s own son sent to earth to pay the price for sin? These are just some of the possible reactions to Jesus, but which one is the right one? Is there a correct answer, or is it simply left up to the individual to decide which version they prefer to believe in?

In a culture where the customer is always right we want to believe we should get whatever version of Jesus we want. Today’s evangelical Christian culture has practically become a giant Baskin Robins, helping us find the flavor of Jesus that best suites us. You don’t like hippie Jesus? Try 80’s rock star Jesus, complete with feathered hair! Still not what you’re looking for? Try health and wealth Jesus, or holier-than-thou Jesus, now with three new pious sayings!

The problem is Jesus is not consumer friendly, he never intended to be. He was homeless (Matt. 8:20), His teachings were often hard to understand (Luke 8:9-10), and the ones that could be understood were incredibly challenging (Matt 19:25). Jesus never did a four week series on how to have a better marriage, there was no twelve steps to financial security (honestly, who’s going to take financial advice from a homeless guy?) He never taught people how to improve their self esteem, or how to achieve “your best life now.” Jesus’ teaching was actually shockingly simple. At the heart of all the parables, the miracles, and the healings, was His claim to be God (John 10:25-30). There are only two reactions to this teaching; you can receive His free gift of salvation and live your life centered on the reality of who He is and what He’s done, or reject Him and set yourself up as your own god.

The Lordship of Jesus is not a popular concept in our society because it means we have to shape our idea of Jesus to what the bible teaches about him, instead of shaping Jesus to our ideas of what He should look like. Suddenly Jesus goes from being our golfing buddy who knows all the good jokes, to the holy, all-encompassing God of the universe. This isn’t a Jesus who sits and drinks herbal tea with us while stroking our ego and giving us the warm fuzzies. Instead He’s the terrifying, just, God who punishes those in opposition to Him in a fury of Holy wrath (Gen 19:23-30). Has God allowed us to have a personal relationship with Him through the person and work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Does God love us more then we can fathom, desiring to bless us and give us joy? Yes. But I fear we’ve over emphasized His love and mercy and in doing so turned the awesome, powerful, fear-inducing Lion of Judah into a neutered house cat.

Of course there are people who go too far the other direction and turn God (Jesus) into some crotchety old man who does nothing but sit around all day taking joy in judging people on every last thing they do. Somehow they manage to forget that the act that our entire belief system is based on; the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf for the payment our sins, is the most loving, gracious, merciful, selfless act in all of human history. How could we forget that this is the same God that spared the entire human race through Noah and his sons (Gen. 6 and 7), that saved Lot from certain destruction in Sodom (Gen. 19). Most astonishing of all in Exodus 34:6 just two chapters after the Israelites had built the golden calf, essentially spitting in the eye of the God who had just rescued them from Egypt, God describes Himself to Moses and the entire nation this way:

"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

Which leads us back to the original question, who do we say Jesus is? The judgmental kill joy in the sky? Or the benevolent, passive, fairy from Heaven with Holy pixie dust that He sprinkles on everyone so that no one will go to Hell? Hopefully by now you can see that neither of these is a true depiction of the Jesus we see in the Bible, but it still doesn’t answer the question.

The best description came from Jesus Himself, a shepherd (John 10:7-18). A shepherd is violent when his flock is threatened. He takes whatever measures are necessary to defend his sheep, not allowing anything to get close to them that may harm or kill them. At the same time a shepherd is loving and gentle with his sheep, tending to their needs, not wanting any of them to suffer harm. In the same way Jesus defends His church with a mighty and terrible love. To those who would defile and corrupt His Holy bride, he is fierce and relentless. Habitual commandment breakers, false teachers, liars, and heretics are met with His demand for Holiness and sentenced to eternity in Hell. With those He’s called and redeemed He is merciful and long suffering, not willing to lose even one to Satan’s schemes. There are times when a believer needs to be reprimanded but it’s done out of Jesus’ love for them and His desire to draw them closer to Himself. Not out of some cruel, twisted joy in watching them suffer.

The Jesus of the Bible is not some junior high kid flying from one extreme to another on a whim, but rather a loving father taking whatever stance is necessary to protect and nurture His children.

Who is Jesus?

(Authors note: This is a rough draft of something I'm working on, feedback would be very helpful.)

“The Jesus of suburbia is a lie” - Green Day, Are we the waiting?


“Who do you say that I am?”

Jesus asked his disciples this question over two thousand years ago and it still holds true for us today. Who do we say Jesus is? A great moral teacher? A loony whack job with delusions of grandeur? Some mystical sky fairy that does whatever we ask Him to, like a supernatural PEZ dispenser? Or God’s own son sent to earth to pay the price for sin? These are just some of the possible reactions to Jesus, but which one is the right one? Is there a correct answer, or is it simply left up to the individual to decide which version they prefer to believe in?

In a culture where the customer is always right we want to believe we should get whatever version of Jesus we want. Today’s evangelical Christian culture has practically become a giant Baskin Robins, helping us find the flavor of Jesus that best suites us. You don’t like hippie Jesus? Try 80’s rock star Jesus, complete with feathered hair! Still not what you’re looking for? Try health and wealth Jesus, or holier-than-thou Jesus, now with three new pious sayings!

The problem is Jesus is not consumer friendly, he never intended to be. He was homeless (Matt. 8:20), His teachings were often hard to understand (Luke 8:9-10), and the ones that could be understood were incredibly challenging (Matt 19:25). Jesus never did a four week series on how to have a better marriage, there was no twelve steps to financial security (honestly, who’s going to take financial advice from a homeless guy?) He never taught people how to improve their self esteem, or how to achieve “your best life now.” Jesus’ teaching was actually shockingly simple. At the heart of all the parables, the miracles, and the healings, was His claim to be God (John 10:25-30). There are only two reactions to this teaching; you can receive His free gift of salvation and live your life centered on the reality of who He is and what He’s done, or reject Him and set yourself up as your own god.

The Lordship of Jesus is not a popular concept in our society because it means we have to shape our idea of Jesus to what the bible teaches about him, instead of shaping Jesus to our ideas of what He should look like. Suddenly Jesus goes from being our golfing buddy with the solid handicap, to the holy, all-encompassing God of the universe. This isn’t a Jesus who sits and drinks herbal tea with us while stroking our ego and giving us the warm fuzzys. Instead He’s the terrifying, just, God who punishes those in opposition to Him in a fury of Holy wrath (Gen 19:23-30). Has God allowed us to have a personal relationship with Him through the person and work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Does God love us more then we can fathom, desiring to bless us and give us joy? Yes. But I fear we’ve over emphasized His love and mercy and in doing so turned the awesome, powerful, fear-inducing Lion of Judah into a neutered house cat.

Gospel centered bus riding

Since I'm naturally interested in people and love to watch the way they interact with the world around them, riding the bus the last couple of days has been like Christmas on wheels. It's amazing what you can learn about people without them ever saying a word to you. Where they sit, how they sit, whether or not they strike up a conversation with the people around them, all these things can tell you a lot about someone. This morning for example you could tell that almost everyone on the bus was still trying to wake up. Almost all of them were wearing sunglasses so that it was easier to nap and several of them had mp3 players pumping background noise into their half awake brains. Shy people tend to sit as far from everyone else as possible, I actually saw one person sit on the edge of their seat just so they wouldn't have to sit to close to the person they were sharing the bench with.

Humans fascinate me. Since I'm a Christian and I filter all of life through The Gospel, I believe that all people reflect the glory of God and bare witness to some attribute of His nature, people watching isn't just socially informative it's also theologically informative. Obviously because we live in a fallen world these attributes and traits aren't seen in the same perfection and holiness as they exist in God but we can see a small glimpse of God in His creation. Joy, love, kindness, anger, community, compassion, and many other emotions and actions are all small flashes of His personality, like fireflies in a night sky. In the words of 1 Corinthians 13:12:

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."

For Christians simply seeing creation through the filter of The Gospel isn't enough though, we must act to bring that creation into a correct relationship with it's maker. This is hard, thankless, unglamorous, frustrating, time consuming work that in the end may not bare any kind of visible fruit. Thankfully our charge isn't to see who can harvest the most fruit, but to simply work faithfully for the advance of The Gospel.

If you don't have Jesus you don't have jack

I visited a local church today as part of my philosophy class requirement and came away incredibly upset by the experience. This a church I've been hearing about for some time and I was really looking forward to visiting it but by the end of the service it was all I could do not to stand up and start yelling at the pastor. I kept thinking that at some point he'd say what I expect to hear in any church that is truly a church, but he never did. Not once did he mention sin, repentance, and most importantly there was no mention of Jesus being the only way to heaven. In fact throughout the entire service of singing, praying, and the message, none of these things was touched on. In fact I don't think I heard the name of Jesus mentioned once.

This may seem incredibly obvious but I'll say it any anyway; if you don't have Christ at the center of what you're doing, you don't have Christianity. You have a group of nice, moral, caring people who are going to Hell. I'm glad they care about the city and in particular the downtrodden and mistreated but if the Gospel of Jesus' redemptive work through His life, death, and resurrection, isn't at the heart of what you're doing you're doing it in vain. What I attended this morning was a meeting for spiritual/religious people who want to have the trappings of a church (worship music, prayer, sermon) without the message of the church. The pastor kept making references to "speaking and living the truth" without ever saying what that truth was. You can't live and speak something you don't know, and these people don't truly know Jesus and His message therefore they don't know The Truth.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - Jesus, John 14:5-7

Also if there is no sin then why did Jesus have to come and pay for it with his life? If there's no sin then Christians have the most dumb, pointless, and useless belief system in the world. If there's no sin there is no reason for Jesus to come and die, which means we believe in a God who is either small minded and simple, or incredibly cruel, neither of which is worth following. So if Christianity is true then sin is real.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

If we really, truly love the world we will tell them the hard truth: No one is good enough to get into Heaven on their own and it's only by believing that Jesus is the only payment for our sins that we will be allowed into Heaven. And that is The Truth.

Of taxes and the Lord's Supper

You have to love our government; I got a letter today from the IRS saying that their records show that I served in a combat zone. I haven’t been in a combat zone (Korea) since 2003; I think they might be just a little bit late on this one. :)

We celebrated the Lord’s Supper yesterday at church and that got me thinking about the differences between the Old and New Testaments and what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished. In the Old Testament the blood of the sacrifices’ could only wash the outside, but during communion we symbolically drink Jesus blood showing that his sacrifice did something the Old Testament sacrifices could never do, He cleanses our inside. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allowed for our lives to be freed from the grip of Satan, Hell, and death; something no animal sacrifice could ever achieve. I know this isn’t a groundbreaking revelation but as I sat there with the grape juice in my hand yesterday it just hit me in a very strong way and made me appreciate my salvation and what an amazing, supernatural act Jesus’ sacrifice is.

Merry Christmas

I got home this morning while it was still dark out, there was a beautiful clear sky and as I looked up into it I couldn't help thinking of those shepherds thousands of years ago. Can you imagine what that must have been like? You're lying there watching your sheep graze in the same pastures your ancestors have been using for generations and then all of the sudden…….., BAM!!! An angel shows up out of nowhere. It doesn’t say how big the angel was so it could have been huge, imagine something the size of the Sears building popping up out of thin air. No wonder they were scared, who wouldn’t be? And then to be told the greatest message ever shared with mankind, you, a lowly shepherd the first to be told of the birth of your country’s long awaited Savior. Not only your nations Savior but the One who came to save the entire human race from sin, death, and eternal torment in Hell, there’s nothing in the world that could prepare you for that moment. Two thousand years later there’s still nothing that compares to the moment you come face to face with Jesus and His Gospel of grace. So as we celebrate the baby in the manger let’s not forget that it was the life, death, and resurrection that followed that makes it a moment worth making much of.

Keep Your Hands Open

The devotional below is the result of everything that's happened over that last six weeks combined with the fact that I ended up listening to Matt Chandler's sermon on Missional Living 4 times yesterday. (Go to The Village Churches website using the link in the sidebar and listen to it for yourself.) The story I open with happened about a year and a half ago but this is the first time I've said anything about it to anyone. I hope some of you find it as helpful as it was for me to write it.

~JR~


Keep your hands open. He had just got done giving me a simple but profound sermonette and this was his punch line, keep your hands open.

I had been trying to be more loving towards the homeless as I had opportunity and this guy had pulled up on his bike as I walked out of Dairy Queen and asked for some money to buy a burger. Normally I don’t give money to people like this because I know there’s a good chance they’ll use it to get stoned, or drunk, or both but there was something about this particular man that didn’t seem normal. I could have gone in and bought him the burger but I was tired and had to get up early the next morning so I didn't really want to put that much effort into the situation but I figured I could watch him go in the DQ in my review mirror and see if he actually bought food or not. So I opened my wallet, I was going to just give him a couple of bucks but right there on top was a 20 and I could see his eyes light up. “Crap” I thought to myself “there’s no good way to talk my way out of this, I’m going to have to give it to him. Oh well, he probably needs it more then I do anyway.” So I handed it to him and he launched into his sermon, to be honest I don’t remember much about it except at the very end he took my hand and made me open it, put the 20 in it and said “you have to keep your hands open for God to be able to put things in them.” Then he looked me dead in the eyes, smiled, and said “but you already know that, don’t you?” I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just smiled and nodded. He put the 20 back in his pocket and walked away. I got in the car, looked in the review mirror, and he was gone. I couldn’t find him anywhere, there was no way he could have taken off that fast, had he been an angel?

I don’t know, I probably never will know for sure but the principle of keeping my hands open has stuck with me and over time it’s developed into a way of life. The thing you have to remember about keeping your hands open though is that it’s not just about getting, it’s about receiving God’s decisions in all your life. Keeping my hands open means giving God full access to every part of my life, not just the ones where I want help. It’s easy to keep your hands open when God gives you something you like, but sometimes keeping your hands open means letting God take things out of them that you’d rather keep or receiving things you don‘t want. As Job 2:10 says “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" So keeping my hands open isn’t about getting what I want but rather acknowledging that every circumstance in my life comes from my heavenly Father which means it’s for my benefit.

Jesus pictured the hands open principle just prior to his crucifixion in Luke 22:42 when He prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus kept his hands open to the point of willingly accepting his death. What did He receive in return? Eternal glory and honor. We were also blessed by His living with his hands open. It’s only through Jesus life, death, and resurrection that are sins are paid for. That leads to another reason we should live with our hands open, the benefit of others. When we keep our hands open and let God give and take things as He sees fit we are less likely to become attached to the things of this world and more likely to share with others around us, allowing us to bless them and encouraging them in ways we may never realize.

So instead of arguing with God the next time He does something we don’t like we should thank Him for the good things He has given us and ask ourselves, “What is God trying to teach me with this? How is this making me more like Jesus? Who can I bless through this?” That’s what living open handed is all about.

What it's really like to be grown up

Today was one of those days that you never think about as a kid. You know, the days when being a grown up is "boring." I went grocery shopping, cleaned the dishes, took out the trash, and still have to go to work tonight. (Yes, kids it's one big party. WOO-HOO!) :) The highlight of the day was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watching Chuck on Hulu. I enjoyed it though mostly 'cause it makes me laugh to think about how naive I was as a kid. Somehow I envisioned myself going to parties every night of the week and just hanging out being "cool", whatever that meant. Now my idea of cool is getting wheat bread buy one get one free. I almost did the happy dance right there in the bakery isle. Until I remembered that a.) I'm white b.) it's just bread and c.) I'm in the middle of Mejier.



Thinking about doing "boring" stuff reminds me of Acts 16:11-12.(No, I'm not a freak of nature I just read it a day or two ago.) Luke gives what seems to be really pointless information about their traveling. "So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days" - ESV. I'm always struck by how mundane this all sounds. Why is this even in the Bible? Are Paul's traveling habit's that important? But I stop and think about what the Bible is all about, Jesus, and it takes a slightly different appearance. Jesus was there with them in the middle of all that. The boring, everyday, unexciting routine of life. Just like He was there with me while I was shopping for bread, washing dishes, and eating PB&J. Also the fact that they were able to do all that uneventfully shows God's protection. They didn't get caught in any major storms, pirates didn't attack their ship, and nobody got sea sick. Similarly today I didn't get in a wreck, cut or poke myself doing the dishes, and I'm very thankful that I'm not allergic to peanuts. So really far from being boring this is actually a fairly comforting passage. It shows that God is always there with us not just when there's some big miracle, but when we're able to get out of bed in the morning and make it through a whole day without anything seriously awful happening that's cause for praise too.