Wow. Three weeks? Really? That time has seriously flown by. This morning was the third Sunday service at Coram Deo that I have been able to attend since I have been here. Kendal was preaching on worship and what it should mean to us. His message was that we do not need to learn how to worship, but how to worship God. The biggest problem with our struggles in worshipping God is that we are placing something other than God as ultimate in our life. We all have a god. The problem is the object we worship. He said that for Christians, worship is the act of ascribing ultimate worth to God in such a way that engages our whole being. And we do this through a Gospel-centered life that comes through community and rhythmical living, intentionally pursuing and incorporating Truth in our lives. Worshipping God is the only thing that doesn't distort our lives because he reorients us and fulfills our joy to its most complete level. I really enjoyed his sermon.
There was a guest in the congregation this morning as well. JD Senkbile was one of the people who helped to start Coram Deo four years ago. Since then, he has gone on to move himself and his family to Capetown, South Africa where he now lives as a missionary for the Gospel. He updated us all on what has been happening over there since he arrived. It was really neat to hear his stories and learn about how God is moving over there right now. And it was nice to finally put a face to the name of the guy I've heard so much about. This next year, he and his wife will probably be embarking upon a journey of planting a new church there through the Acts 29 organization. So be in prayer for them in that.
I have been listening to a lot of sermons during my time here in Omaha, mostly from Matt Chandler and John Piper, and I have noticed that they love to underscore the fact that we are all completely hopeless and worthless sinners outside of a relationship with Jesus. Without Christ in our lives, we are all condemned to hell. But the beautiful avenue of hope that exists in our world is that we were created for a relationship with our Heavenly Father and to worship Christ for the sacrifice he made for us. What is interesting to me is how simple the Gospel really is in theory. We are to emulate the character of Jesus, worship the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves. However, these simple commands are so difficult in practice as we begin to stumble over the realization of our hopelessness in breaking the chains that have enslaved us to sin. The challenge is growing in our respect for the holiness of God while simultaneously deepening our understanding of the sins that plague our character. A healthy growth in Christ should not lead to us feeling better about ourselves. Rather, it should lead to a deepening sense of love and worship for God as he hollows out the rotten portions of our lives in order to fill them with his purpose. We should become less dependent on our own abilities in light of our sins and more dependent on God to cleanse us of them and use them for his glory. Paul understood this well and there is a verse in 1 Timothy in which he underscores this point plainly:
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."
1 Timothy 1:15-16
I find a lot of encouragement in these words. The fact that Christ Jesus has unlimited patience towards the sins of those who trust in him and receive a relationship with him gives me sincere hope. But what strikes me most about this passage is Paul's description of himself as "the worst of sinners." I mean, when it comes to the New Testament, this guy is THE man. In fact, when it comes to any influential ambassador of the Word of God, Paul has the gold medal. He was deeper in his faith, understanding, and love for the person of Jesus than most of us could ever hope to be. He could cast out demons with mere words and he had the power to heal those crippled by disease and physical ailments. And in response to all of this, he considers himself "the worst of sinners." This passage emulates a Gospel to me that is so often overlooked in our culture. People think that a relationship with Christ is supposed to make you feel better about yourself and that reading the Bible will be a self-esteem boost. But I would suggest that if you think the Bible is supposed to improve your perception of yourself, you have no idea what the Bible really says.
God's Word is Truth. And truth hurts. It serves to remind us that Christ came into this world to die on the cross for our sins so that we might enter into a relationship with him that would bring us into an eternal place of worship and glorifying him for loving us. We do not deserve it and we cannot earn it by any means of effort or perceived obedience because "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" before the feet of the Lord (Isaiah 64:6). It is not about religion. The Gospel is a relationship. And as we grow in that relationship, we realize more and more how wicked a people we are because we grow in our understanding of God's perfection and holiness. But I feel sorry for those who forget God's forgiveness for our sins. How easily we forget these Truths as believers. And I am saying this in light of a scripture I happened over in the last couple of days. I cannot tell you how many times I have read this without it sinking in to my heart. But it speaks directly to our relationship with our sins after we have begun our relationship with Christ. And that goes for any sin, cyclical or not.
"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sin against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
2 Corinthians 5:16-19
How do we miss this? How have I glanced over this Truth without it ever speaking to my heart? Or more specifically, how have I read this without understanding how it translates directly to my sins? When we enter into a relationship with Christ, we are a "new creation." Therefore, whatever sin has haunted your life, it is part of the past. Whatever pain has defined the person you are has since come to pass. You are not your sin. You are not your pain. You are a child of God. Moreover, God sent his Son to die for us so that we might be reconciled to him. His primary objective was not even to punish us for our sins! For a humanity drowning in evil, how loving a demonstration is this by the God who created us? How gracious is he that we would be permitted to live in this life even in our wicked state of continual disobedience? Life is a journey through which we are given opportunities to experience the Gospel with every breath in every day. When we enter into a relationship with Christ, we are incorporated into his story and are given opportunities through which we can allow others to see and experience the Gospel with our lives. It is so important that we spend our energy to learn these Truths and receive them in such a way so as to share them with others. By receiving Christ's forgiveness of our sins and allowing him to change our hearts in such a way that we become a new creation in him and rest in the grace that our sins are not counted against us, we become living vessels of God's word in order that the lost might experience the hope found in Jesus' sacrifice. Because the purpose of the Gospel is not to make us feel better about ourselves. In fact, the purpose of the Gospel is simply to emphasize the fact that it is not about us at all.
For me, that is a comforting feeling. Because I know from previous times in my life that when I try to make my life about me and do things on my own, I always disappoint myself. It is comforting to let go. There is peace in giving up. And there is so much life to be found in discarding our own ideas of what will give us joy and worth. Truth should be our ambition. Know it. Pray for it. Share it. Because this is who we are.
His Story.
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than evil."
1 Peter 3:15-17
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
You Like Reading Leviticus...?
I'm sorry to post a new entry so late, but this week has been very busy. Between landscaping, working at the office, going to World Series games, and trying to find time to sleep, I just have not had the opportunity to truly sit down and think through a new post. So I will do the best I can with my free moment.
Yesterday, I spent the day landscaping at Greenlife and I think it is safe to say that I sweat more during that time than any other day in my life. There was not a cloud in the sky and, if you ask me, the heat index was approaching somewhere near the 978 degree mark. Needless to say, it was a scorcher. And I am absolutely spent from the energy standpoint. On a lighter note, I had the exciting opportunity to attend two of the three finals games for the College Baseball World Series. Game 2 was fantastic because it was a Longhorn victory. But Wednesday was a dark, dark day for Longhorn baseball. So, in light of that, I have a great idea...we're not going to talk about the game and what happened. Okay? Good. But this video is for the Duhons if they are reading ;-)
This is a really bad transition, but I'm too tired to worry about it. So here we go. One of the lessons that have been impressed upon me lately is my realization of how careless I am in the way I approach God. In reading through the Old Testament, I see God's wrath consuming people after people for their carelessness with Him. I am reading Numbers right now and in chapter sixteen, God uses the earth to swallow up the lives of rebellious Israelites and He sets forth a plague that kills nearly 15,000 rebels before Aaron is able to make atonement for them. The underlying point? God is not to be followed/approached carelessly. But this is a perspective that causes reading the Old Testament to become difficult. As a society, we always focus on the negative. We cannot see past the blood, pain, and suffering. Skeptics love to take away the legitimacy behind the existence of a loving and caring God by pointing at tragedy and screaming, "Where is your God in that?" Because if God were loving, He would never let that happen.
The problem with this idea is that God is not simply loving. He is also just. The Bible makes it clear that we are naturally sinners (Ephesians 2). It is built into our DNA. And God, being just, created hell as a place of eternal separation and punishment for our sins. Because God is completely holy and sin does not belong with Him. But God, in his great and abounding love, has offered us forgiveness and death to our transgressions. Even though our sins are, in effect, murderous to His name, He offers us redemption from them. Moreover, He sent His only Son to die the most horrific and bloody death imaginable so that we might have life. And He did this "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8) - while we were His enemies. Now I am not downplaying the pain felt in loss. It is sincere. And if I felt death in a close manner, I too would be prone to questioning God's methods. But the fact that we focus on the negatives of this world to conclude that God, who can function outside of the limits of our world, has not acted lovingly is completely unreasonable. The loss of a pet, resource, relationship, or even the tragedy of the Holocaust does not outweigh or take away the legitimacy of the love God extends (present tense) to us in offering us a relationship with Him that saves us from ETERNAL DAMNATION. September 11th was a terrible tragedy that shook me to the core. We saw death through a raw and uncensored lens and we struggle to find God in that. But how about the thousands of flights God lovingly kept from being hijacked in the years prior to that day? How gracious is He in protecting us? How merciful is He in blessing us? He gets no credit and every single bit of the blame.
I think this is how many people read the Old Testament, myself included. God pours out His wrath and kills many people, yes. But to how many does He extend His grace so they might live? In comparison, death in the Old Testament is a fraction to the life that thrives. But we cannot get past the blood, pain, and suffering. We cannot get past the fact that God punishes. He rescues the Israelites from slavery, delivers them from the hands of death, sets forth a ritualistic method for atonement of sins, provides for every need, and promises them a home in "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Numbers 14:8), and we discount the presence of God's love because He disciplines them for complaining and rebelling in spite of it all? I do not see the logic behind that. For the first time now, I get the other side. I am reading the Old Testament and seeing God's grace even in His wrath.
And that is a beautiful thing.
Peace - C.H.
Yesterday, I spent the day landscaping at Greenlife and I think it is safe to say that I sweat more during that time than any other day in my life. There was not a cloud in the sky and, if you ask me, the heat index was approaching somewhere near the 978 degree mark. Needless to say, it was a scorcher. And I am absolutely spent from the energy standpoint. On a lighter note, I had the exciting opportunity to attend two of the three finals games for the College Baseball World Series. Game 2 was fantastic because it was a Longhorn victory. But Wednesday was a dark, dark day for Longhorn baseball. So, in light of that, I have a great idea...we're not going to talk about the game and what happened. Okay? Good. But this video is for the Duhons if they are reading ;-)
This is a really bad transition, but I'm too tired to worry about it. So here we go. One of the lessons that have been impressed upon me lately is my realization of how careless I am in the way I approach God. In reading through the Old Testament, I see God's wrath consuming people after people for their carelessness with Him. I am reading Numbers right now and in chapter sixteen, God uses the earth to swallow up the lives of rebellious Israelites and He sets forth a plague that kills nearly 15,000 rebels before Aaron is able to make atonement for them. The underlying point? God is not to be followed/approached carelessly. But this is a perspective that causes reading the Old Testament to become difficult. As a society, we always focus on the negative. We cannot see past the blood, pain, and suffering. Skeptics love to take away the legitimacy behind the existence of a loving and caring God by pointing at tragedy and screaming, "Where is your God in that?" Because if God were loving, He would never let that happen.
The problem with this idea is that God is not simply loving. He is also just. The Bible makes it clear that we are naturally sinners (Ephesians 2). It is built into our DNA. And God, being just, created hell as a place of eternal separation and punishment for our sins. Because God is completely holy and sin does not belong with Him. But God, in his great and abounding love, has offered us forgiveness and death to our transgressions. Even though our sins are, in effect, murderous to His name, He offers us redemption from them. Moreover, He sent His only Son to die the most horrific and bloody death imaginable so that we might have life. And He did this "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8) - while we were His enemies. Now I am not downplaying the pain felt in loss. It is sincere. And if I felt death in a close manner, I too would be prone to questioning God's methods. But the fact that we focus on the negatives of this world to conclude that God, who can function outside of the limits of our world, has not acted lovingly is completely unreasonable. The loss of a pet, resource, relationship, or even the tragedy of the Holocaust does not outweigh or take away the legitimacy of the love God extends (present tense) to us in offering us a relationship with Him that saves us from ETERNAL DAMNATION. September 11th was a terrible tragedy that shook me to the core. We saw death through a raw and uncensored lens and we struggle to find God in that. But how about the thousands of flights God lovingly kept from being hijacked in the years prior to that day? How gracious is He in protecting us? How merciful is He in blessing us? He gets no credit and every single bit of the blame.
I think this is how many people read the Old Testament, myself included. God pours out His wrath and kills many people, yes. But to how many does He extend His grace so they might live? In comparison, death in the Old Testament is a fraction to the life that thrives. But we cannot get past the blood, pain, and suffering. We cannot get past the fact that God punishes. He rescues the Israelites from slavery, delivers them from the hands of death, sets forth a ritualistic method for atonement of sins, provides for every need, and promises them a home in "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Numbers 14:8), and we discount the presence of God's love because He disciplines them for complaining and rebelling in spite of it all? I do not see the logic behind that. For the first time now, I get the other side. I am reading the Old Testament and seeing God's grace even in His wrath.
And that is a beautiful thing.
Peace - C.H.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Rewind: Week Two
As of today, I am two weeks into my time spent in Omaha. I have kept you all up to date pretty well this last week so I don't have too much additional information to write about. Although I am very excited that my Longhorns are playing for the national championship this coming week. I am doing my very best to get tickets. I don't see it as coincidence that they are set to win the world series the one summer I decide to come to Omaha. Rather, I see it as God revealing his glory to me by making it clear which team he favors ;-)
I am now writing this at the Bliss's home after a busy day with church and Harambe. My missional community here was responsible for providing the rides for the Burundians to and from the church and for providing the meal at the Mosaic. Instead of playing with the kids today, I stayed inside with the adults and participated in the English lessons. Today, we were practicing memorizing all the books of the Bible and reciting them to one another. It was a good exercise for the more advanced learners to pick up on some intricately constructed English from the Bible. During the church service this morning, I was given the responsibility of making the call to worship to begin the service. Basically, I was asked to introduce myself and explain why I am here followed by quickly explaining what covenant renewal worship is and then finishing by reading Jeremiah 31:31-34. I am not a huge fan of getting up and speaking in front of people, but I think it went pretty well. And I have video for all of you to critique my work.
The sermon was on hospitality and how the Biblical emphasis is placed on including those the world wants to exclude. Will used the story of Jesus calling Levi to follow him in Luke 5:27-32 in order to underscore this point. He also highlighted Ephesians 2 which explains how we were all "dead in" our "transgressions and sins" as well as "by nature objects of wrath." Will finished up the sermon by unpacking the story of the prostitute who wept at Jesus' feet in Luke 7. This story reveals the fact that Jesus does require repentance from us before we can be with him.The Biblical perspective is the opposite of our moralistic and self-righteous perspectives that convince us if someone is socially awkward or strange, we have the right to turn away from them. However, when Jesus met the prostitute, she knew she was broken, needed forgiveness, and experienced Jesus deeply. But the Pharisees did not.
On a theological note, I am still on my Matt Chandler binge. In many of his sermons, he finds a way to talk about how sin is something that is an intrinsic piece humanity and that it is not something that is learned. He often uses the example that when his son refuses to share something with him because "it's mine!" it is not something that his son has learned from him, but rather from his intrinsic selfish nature. He turns to Ephesians 2 in order to underscore this point as well, which is why I underlined the portion he uses above. But one of the big points that he always drills home is that no matter what you believe, you know something has gone terribly wrong with our world. Whether you are Billy Graham, Oprah, or Marilyn Manson, it is obvious that our world has been fractured. The difference is that their definitions for and solutions to the problem varies according to what they believe. But nonetheless, they know something is wrong. According to Scripture, and our Christian faith, we know that sin is the problem. We are born as slaves to sin. Psalm 51:5 says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." One thing that has always drawn me to Chandler though is how he explains the Gospel in light of the secular in order to shed light on the fallacies of our world. In a sermon that I was listening to recently, he built the foundation of sin on the Gospel and then proceeded into one of the most compelling arguments against the logic of evolution that I have ever heard. And it is so simple. Here is a quote from that sermon:
"If natural evolution is really what's going on here and that's the real story, why are we trying to cure anyone of anything? Because wouldn't it be that nature has decided "you gotta die so we can evolve"? So why are we spending trillions and trillions of dollars on trying to heal diseases when nature, for some reason, is trying to off some of us? I mean we're going, "we can't let this...we've gotta cure cancer. We've gotta cure AIDS. We've gotta cure..." Well how do you reconcile that if there is no God, there is no imago de? If something hasn't gone wrong, why are you trying to fix it? Why are we in Darfur? Why are we digging water wells? Why are we taking food over there? "Well, because there's oppression." Well, wait a minute...if it's just natural selection then that belief system says in order for us to be all that God would have us be the weak have to die! They have to be oppressed and killed by the strong. So you know it. I'm not talking "Christianly." Everybody knows something is wrong here. Every time a kid gets sick. Something is wrong. Every time we get something that should make us really happy and it runs out of steam very quick. Something is wrong."
Lastly, I know that sometimes it seems like I am out to prove everyone wrong about their judgments of rock music in the Christian genre, and I confess that I generally am, but I love to point out to people the hearts behind the music. There is depth, hope, and life behind the music that I listen to. But more importantly, it is our God around whom the music is constructed. And I just love to remind people of that because far too often they get caught up in the fact that this band screams or that band's guitar player has dreadlocks and tattoos. Who cares? So they look different from you and they don't sound like Celine Dion. That is not what music is about. When it comes to my favorite bands like RED, Skillet, Demon Hunter, and Project 86, it is about a relationship that they have been given the opportunity to share with others through the avenue of music. In one of my previous posts, I wrote about the Red Letter Rock Festival which I attended before driving to Omaha. And one of the most moving moments for me was when Skillet slowed down their set and played a rendition of "How Deep The Father's Love For Us." Yes, I defended the music. Yes, I defended the faith behind the music. And yes, I defended the fact that God uses this type of music in a profound way to speak to the hopeless, the angry, and the heartbroken. But if you have doubts, I would challenge you to watch this video that I found of Skillet playing this worship song. Watch it and then decide whether or not I am wrong. Also, I have now uploaded on Youtube all of the videos that I took at Red Letter. You can have a look if you are interested.
Love you all!
Disciple - Game On
Family Force 5 - Kountry Gentleman
Family Force 5 - Love Addict
RED - Shadows
RED - Overtake You
Skillet - Intro & Whispers In The Dark <---- This was the first time they had ever played this intro live anywhere...and it was AWESOME. If you watch any of these, make sure this is one of them!
I am now writing this at the Bliss's home after a busy day with church and Harambe. My missional community here was responsible for providing the rides for the Burundians to and from the church and for providing the meal at the Mosaic. Instead of playing with the kids today, I stayed inside with the adults and participated in the English lessons. Today, we were practicing memorizing all the books of the Bible and reciting them to one another. It was a good exercise for the more advanced learners to pick up on some intricately constructed English from the Bible. During the church service this morning, I was given the responsibility of making the call to worship to begin the service. Basically, I was asked to introduce myself and explain why I am here followed by quickly explaining what covenant renewal worship is and then finishing by reading Jeremiah 31:31-34. I am not a huge fan of getting up and speaking in front of people, but I think it went pretty well. And I have video for all of you to critique my work.
The sermon was on hospitality and how the Biblical emphasis is placed on including those the world wants to exclude. Will used the story of Jesus calling Levi to follow him in Luke 5:27-32 in order to underscore this point. He also highlighted Ephesians 2 which explains how we were all "dead in" our "transgressions and sins" as well as "by nature objects of wrath." Will finished up the sermon by unpacking the story of the prostitute who wept at Jesus' feet in Luke 7. This story reveals the fact that Jesus does require repentance from us before we can be with him.The Biblical perspective is the opposite of our moralistic and self-righteous perspectives that convince us if someone is socially awkward or strange, we have the right to turn away from them. However, when Jesus met the prostitute, she knew she was broken, needed forgiveness, and experienced Jesus deeply. But the Pharisees did not.
On a theological note, I am still on my Matt Chandler binge. In many of his sermons, he finds a way to talk about how sin is something that is an intrinsic piece humanity and that it is not something that is learned. He often uses the example that when his son refuses to share something with him because "it's mine!" it is not something that his son has learned from him, but rather from his intrinsic selfish nature. He turns to Ephesians 2 in order to underscore this point as well, which is why I underlined the portion he uses above. But one of the big points that he always drills home is that no matter what you believe, you know something has gone terribly wrong with our world. Whether you are Billy Graham, Oprah, or Marilyn Manson, it is obvious that our world has been fractured. The difference is that their definitions for and solutions to the problem varies according to what they believe. But nonetheless, they know something is wrong. According to Scripture, and our Christian faith, we know that sin is the problem. We are born as slaves to sin. Psalm 51:5 says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." One thing that has always drawn me to Chandler though is how he explains the Gospel in light of the secular in order to shed light on the fallacies of our world. In a sermon that I was listening to recently, he built the foundation of sin on the Gospel and then proceeded into one of the most compelling arguments against the logic of evolution that I have ever heard. And it is so simple. Here is a quote from that sermon:
"If natural evolution is really what's going on here and that's the real story, why are we trying to cure anyone of anything? Because wouldn't it be that nature has decided "you gotta die so we can evolve"? So why are we spending trillions and trillions of dollars on trying to heal diseases when nature, for some reason, is trying to off some of us? I mean we're going, "we can't let this...we've gotta cure cancer. We've gotta cure AIDS. We've gotta cure..." Well how do you reconcile that if there is no God, there is no imago de? If something hasn't gone wrong, why are you trying to fix it? Why are we in Darfur? Why are we digging water wells? Why are we taking food over there? "Well, because there's oppression." Well, wait a minute...if it's just natural selection then that belief system says in order for us to be all that God would have us be the weak have to die! They have to be oppressed and killed by the strong. So you know it. I'm not talking "Christianly." Everybody knows something is wrong here. Every time a kid gets sick. Something is wrong. Every time we get something that should make us really happy and it runs out of steam very quick. Something is wrong."
Lastly, I know that sometimes it seems like I am out to prove everyone wrong about their judgments of rock music in the Christian genre, and I confess that I generally am, but I love to point out to people the hearts behind the music. There is depth, hope, and life behind the music that I listen to. But more importantly, it is our God around whom the music is constructed. And I just love to remind people of that because far too often they get caught up in the fact that this band screams or that band's guitar player has dreadlocks and tattoos. Who cares? So they look different from you and they don't sound like Celine Dion. That is not what music is about. When it comes to my favorite bands like RED, Skillet, Demon Hunter, and Project 86, it is about a relationship that they have been given the opportunity to share with others through the avenue of music. In one of my previous posts, I wrote about the Red Letter Rock Festival which I attended before driving to Omaha. And one of the most moving moments for me was when Skillet slowed down their set and played a rendition of "How Deep The Father's Love For Us." Yes, I defended the music. Yes, I defended the faith behind the music. And yes, I defended the fact that God uses this type of music in a profound way to speak to the hopeless, the angry, and the heartbroken. But if you have doubts, I would challenge you to watch this video that I found of Skillet playing this worship song. Watch it and then decide whether or not I am wrong. Also, I have now uploaded on Youtube all of the videos that I took at Red Letter. You can have a look if you are interested.
Love you all!
Disciple - Game On
Family Force 5 - Kountry Gentleman
Family Force 5 - Love Addict
RED - Shadows
RED - Overtake You
Skillet - Intro & Whispers In The Dark <---- This was the first time they had ever played this intro live anywhere...and it was AWESOME. If you watch any of these, make sure this is one of them!
Monday, June 15, 2009
And How About a Side of Conviction??
I have a lot to talk about in this post. I've been slowly compiling my thoughts for the last couple of days. Bear with it. This might be a long one.
To begin, this week has been an exhausting one so far. I started my part-time job on Tuesday with a landscaping company in Omaha owned by a member of Coram Deo. I was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday from 7:30 AM until 5 PM and I spent that time on both days trimming grass with a weed eater. My feet have a few blisters from the walking and I am making serious headway on a fabulous farmer's tan. But don't take this as complaining. The owner has been very gracious in offering me a demanding job for only eight weeks and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to make a little money while I am here. However, I now have a pair of previously white shoes that are now green along with a healthy respect for the potential brutality of the Nebraskan sun.
Now on to the bulk of this post. Something really neat happened on Sunday that will set the tone for the rest of this entry and develop the context for what is rattling around inside of my head so loudly right now. This weekend, Coram Deo was preaching on blessings and generosity. The perspective was that we can bless those around us with our time, possessions, home, etc. But the focus of the sermon was placed on money because that is the thing in life which we all have trouble giving away to some extent. The purpose of the message was to point out that when we use what we have to joyously invest in the cause of Christ, we are blessed with more so that we might continue to do so. Basically, what I'm saying is that Joel Osteen has got it halfway right. There is something to be said about being generous. When we give away our possessions in response to a call from the Lord, he blesses us with more. But Osteen is wrong in saying that we have earned that surplus or that we deserve it. Because we don't. Instead, God gives us surplus in life so that we might give it back to him. You can enjoy what you have, but it will go away. If you delight in the Lord while giving it away, he will bless you with more to continue your generosity. After the sermon ended, a woman from the congregation approached Bob, the pastor, and handed him a check saying, "This is my application. Please give this to the intern." The intern being me. When I received the check, I found it to be a sizable sum of money that I was in no way expecting. And honestly, I felt uncomfortable in deciding what to do with it. My immediate motivation was to find a financial need somewhere and address it with my newly found financial abilities. But when I talked to the associate pastor, Will, about my thoughts he challenged me on them and revealed something to me about myself.
Every reason I have conjured up in defense of giving this money away has been built upon reasoning from my flesh. I don't deserve it. I haven't earned it. I can live without it. But part of living in the Gospel is learning to be not only a cheerful receiver of gifts, but also a willing one. And this revealed something to me about my character. I'm not good at receiving gifts. That may seem like a humble and selfless quality to have, and I think it is, but it also has skewed the way I live out the Gospel. I can see this translating into my relationship with Christ. There are motivations within me, lurking in the darker corners that convince me that I have to live up to a standard of works that will allow me to be deserving of God's love and Christ's sacrifice. That perspective is where my reservations are coming from. I have nothing with which I can barter with God. All that I have is his that he has given to me out of grace. The acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is not something that I deserve nor is a relationship with him something that I can earn because it was given to me, and everyone else, "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8). In other words, he died for me even though I did not deserve it and could not earn it in any way, but knowing all too well that I could not live without it. I have been praying about this situation for the past couple of days and as difficult as it has been for me to stumble over these character traits about myself, I am beginning to believe more and more that simply accepting this act of conviction in generosity by the woman on Sunday is a perfect opportunity for me to experience the Gospel in a way in which I struggle plainly. I consistently pray that the Lord would present me with opportunities to honor him, that he would open my eyes to see them, and that he would give me the courage to act upon them. The more I dwell upon this situation, the more I feel like God has given me that opportunity and opened my eyes to it and that now he is granting me the courage to accept it. I have to learn how to receive something before I can give it away.
This wasn't the beginning of this feeling though. It has slowly compounded since the beginning of the week and I am now getting clarity on the issue. It really began when I listened to the full-length version of the John Piper message in the sermon jam I wrote about in my last entry. The sermon was called, "Don't Waste Your Life" and he has written a book and started an entire organizational movement from this very message. The whole idea behind it is that the way we are supposed to walk in the Gospel is a thoroughgoing contrarian to the message of the world, or more specifically America. Our country says to work hard until old age and then retire into a life of leisure and comfort. In other words, the end goal is comfort. By the definition of the world, we shed blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of comfort. Here is an excerpt from Piper about this that has truly invaded my mind for the past few days:
"And I don't have any idea how long the Lord may give me. But my zeal not to waste my life is as alive today as it's ever been. Perhaps moreso because it feels so short before I stand before the Judge, King Jesus, and give an account of my life. What a tragedy in America. This is one of the biggest tragedies in our culture. That billions of dollars are invested every year to get people my age to waste the rest of our lives. Billions of dollars invested to persuade us and lure us at any cost, it seems, to waste the rest of our lives. It's called retirement. And in some, it goes like this: you've worked for it. Now enjoy it. Twenty years, perhaps, of play, leisure, ease, while the world, uncared for medically, uneducated, filthy water, poverty-stricken, unevangelized, sinks under the weight of healthy, sixty-five year old people playing bridge and shuffleboard and collecting shells and fishing and golfing their way into the presence of King Jesus. And you know what? You're gonna join them unless, at this stage in your life, you make some very radical decisions; very radical commitments; very radical choices about where your treasure is."
Tough stuff, isn't it? In concluding his sermon, Piper said there are three things that we have to realize in our pursuit of the Lord.
1) That Life and Death are gifts given in order to display the supreme worth of Jesus Christ.
2) You must cultivate a supreme treasuring of Christ above all things. If you're not there, labor and struggle with God to get there.
3) This treasuring of Him and displaying his worth is most clearly seen by what you are willing gladly to risk and sacrifice if he calls for the surpassing value of Christ.
It's not the American dream of escaping pain, hurt, and calamity. Instead, God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12). Paul is counter-intuitive by boasting "all the more gladly" in his weaknesses. We waste our lives when we invest in comfort because that is not how we glorify the Lord.
Alongside this, I have also been listening to Matt Chandler in abundance recently and I always draw something from his sermons. One that I listened to yesterday was about Luke 18:15-18 in which Jesus says that we are to approach and receive the kingdom of heaven like little children. When you think about how little children, or babies, go about receiving things, this really becomes a tough passage to read. Babies cannot do anything on their own. Therefore, when they need something they scream and cry for it until they get it. Why? Because they are hopeless in their own abilities. Chandler says that this is how our relationship should be with Christ. And that idea has really played into the Piper sermon as well as my dilemma with the money. When I pursue my relationship with Christ thinking I have to earn his sacrifice rather than receive his gift and praise him for it, I am placing my hope in myself and, in a sense, am treasuring something other than Christ. A real pursuit of the Lord is found in being completely hopeless with yourself and crying out to the Lord for his saving grace. When we learn how completely hopeless we are to escape our own sins, we come to understand and feel how completely capable God is to forgive them. This really confirms for me even more that by receiving this money, I will be experiencing the Gospel in a way that will help me redefine and reset my perspective on my relationship with Christ.
If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I know it was a lot, but some of the stuff I post on this blog is more for my sake in putting words to my thoughts than it is anything else. But if you are looking for something to be prayerful about with me, this is certainly an issue that will be on my mind in the future. That's all I've got for now. Here are pictures of the church office in which I spend most of my time and the recent "paint job" on my shoes..
Love you all!
"And I will walk on water. And you will catch me if I fall. And I will get lost into your waves. I know everything will be alright."
"Storm" by Lifehouse
To begin, this week has been an exhausting one so far. I started my part-time job on Tuesday with a landscaping company in Omaha owned by a member of Coram Deo. I was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday from 7:30 AM until 5 PM and I spent that time on both days trimming grass with a weed eater. My feet have a few blisters from the walking and I am making serious headway on a fabulous farmer's tan. But don't take this as complaining. The owner has been very gracious in offering me a demanding job for only eight weeks and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to make a little money while I am here. However, I now have a pair of previously white shoes that are now green along with a healthy respect for the potential brutality of the Nebraskan sun.
Now on to the bulk of this post. Something really neat happened on Sunday that will set the tone for the rest of this entry and develop the context for what is rattling around inside of my head so loudly right now. This weekend, Coram Deo was preaching on blessings and generosity. The perspective was that we can bless those around us with our time, possessions, home, etc. But the focus of the sermon was placed on money because that is the thing in life which we all have trouble giving away to some extent. The purpose of the message was to point out that when we use what we have to joyously invest in the cause of Christ, we are blessed with more so that we might continue to do so. Basically, what I'm saying is that Joel Osteen has got it halfway right. There is something to be said about being generous. When we give away our possessions in response to a call from the Lord, he blesses us with more. But Osteen is wrong in saying that we have earned that surplus or that we deserve it. Because we don't. Instead, God gives us surplus in life so that we might give it back to him. You can enjoy what you have, but it will go away. If you delight in the Lord while giving it away, he will bless you with more to continue your generosity. After the sermon ended, a woman from the congregation approached Bob, the pastor, and handed him a check saying, "This is my application. Please give this to the intern." The intern being me. When I received the check, I found it to be a sizable sum of money that I was in no way expecting. And honestly, I felt uncomfortable in deciding what to do with it. My immediate motivation was to find a financial need somewhere and address it with my newly found financial abilities. But when I talked to the associate pastor, Will, about my thoughts he challenged me on them and revealed something to me about myself.
Every reason I have conjured up in defense of giving this money away has been built upon reasoning from my flesh. I don't deserve it. I haven't earned it. I can live without it. But part of living in the Gospel is learning to be not only a cheerful receiver of gifts, but also a willing one. And this revealed something to me about my character. I'm not good at receiving gifts. That may seem like a humble and selfless quality to have, and I think it is, but it also has skewed the way I live out the Gospel. I can see this translating into my relationship with Christ. There are motivations within me, lurking in the darker corners that convince me that I have to live up to a standard of works that will allow me to be deserving of God's love and Christ's sacrifice. That perspective is where my reservations are coming from. I have nothing with which I can barter with God. All that I have is his that he has given to me out of grace. The acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is not something that I deserve nor is a relationship with him something that I can earn because it was given to me, and everyone else, "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8). In other words, he died for me even though I did not deserve it and could not earn it in any way, but knowing all too well that I could not live without it. I have been praying about this situation for the past couple of days and as difficult as it has been for me to stumble over these character traits about myself, I am beginning to believe more and more that simply accepting this act of conviction in generosity by the woman on Sunday is a perfect opportunity for me to experience the Gospel in a way in which I struggle plainly. I consistently pray that the Lord would present me with opportunities to honor him, that he would open my eyes to see them, and that he would give me the courage to act upon them. The more I dwell upon this situation, the more I feel like God has given me that opportunity and opened my eyes to it and that now he is granting me the courage to accept it. I have to learn how to receive something before I can give it away.
This wasn't the beginning of this feeling though. It has slowly compounded since the beginning of the week and I am now getting clarity on the issue. It really began when I listened to the full-length version of the John Piper message in the sermon jam I wrote about in my last entry. The sermon was called, "Don't Waste Your Life" and he has written a book and started an entire organizational movement from this very message. The whole idea behind it is that the way we are supposed to walk in the Gospel is a thoroughgoing contrarian to the message of the world, or more specifically America. Our country says to work hard until old age and then retire into a life of leisure and comfort. In other words, the end goal is comfort. By the definition of the world, we shed blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of comfort. Here is an excerpt from Piper about this that has truly invaded my mind for the past few days:
"And I don't have any idea how long the Lord may give me. But my zeal not to waste my life is as alive today as it's ever been. Perhaps moreso because it feels so short before I stand before the Judge, King Jesus, and give an account of my life. What a tragedy in America. This is one of the biggest tragedies in our culture. That billions of dollars are invested every year to get people my age to waste the rest of our lives. Billions of dollars invested to persuade us and lure us at any cost, it seems, to waste the rest of our lives. It's called retirement. And in some, it goes like this: you've worked for it. Now enjoy it. Twenty years, perhaps, of play, leisure, ease, while the world, uncared for medically, uneducated, filthy water, poverty-stricken, unevangelized, sinks under the weight of healthy, sixty-five year old people playing bridge and shuffleboard and collecting shells and fishing and golfing their way into the presence of King Jesus. And you know what? You're gonna join them unless, at this stage in your life, you make some very radical decisions; very radical commitments; very radical choices about where your treasure is."
Tough stuff, isn't it? In concluding his sermon, Piper said there are three things that we have to realize in our pursuit of the Lord.
1) That Life and Death are gifts given in order to display the supreme worth of Jesus Christ.
2) You must cultivate a supreme treasuring of Christ above all things. If you're not there, labor and struggle with God to get there.
3) This treasuring of Him and displaying his worth is most clearly seen by what you are willing gladly to risk and sacrifice if he calls for the surpassing value of Christ.
It's not the American dream of escaping pain, hurt, and calamity. Instead, God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12). Paul is counter-intuitive by boasting "all the more gladly" in his weaknesses. We waste our lives when we invest in comfort because that is not how we glorify the Lord.
Alongside this, I have also been listening to Matt Chandler in abundance recently and I always draw something from his sermons. One that I listened to yesterday was about Luke 18:15-18 in which Jesus says that we are to approach and receive the kingdom of heaven like little children. When you think about how little children, or babies, go about receiving things, this really becomes a tough passage to read. Babies cannot do anything on their own. Therefore, when they need something they scream and cry for it until they get it. Why? Because they are hopeless in their own abilities. Chandler says that this is how our relationship should be with Christ. And that idea has really played into the Piper sermon as well as my dilemma with the money. When I pursue my relationship with Christ thinking I have to earn his sacrifice rather than receive his gift and praise him for it, I am placing my hope in myself and, in a sense, am treasuring something other than Christ. A real pursuit of the Lord is found in being completely hopeless with yourself and crying out to the Lord for his saving grace. When we learn how completely hopeless we are to escape our own sins, we come to understand and feel how completely capable God is to forgive them. This really confirms for me even more that by receiving this money, I will be experiencing the Gospel in a way that will help me redefine and reset my perspective on my relationship with Christ.
If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I know it was a lot, but some of the stuff I post on this blog is more for my sake in putting words to my thoughts than it is anything else. But if you are looking for something to be prayerful about with me, this is certainly an issue that will be on my mind in the future. That's all I've got for now. Here are pictures of the church office in which I spend most of my time and the recent "paint job" on my shoes..
Love you all!
"And I will walk on water. And you will catch me if I fall. And I will get lost into your waves. I know everything will be alright."
"Storm" by Lifehouse
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Rewind: Week One
Yesterday marked one week since I arrived in Omaha. It has been busy and exhausting on many levels, but I feel like I have learned a lot and have had some great discussions with the church leaders and with my Omaha family. Speaking of, I haven't mentioned much of Nathan and Shelby Bliss yet. They graciously offered me a bedroom in their home for the summer. It has been a really easy transition for me as I already feel like they are my family away from home. Nathan works at Cox Communication here in Omaha and Shelby is a teacher and a full-time mom, which is very much a full-time job with their son, Zachary. He has quite a personality, albeit a hilarious one though. Needless to say, I always look forward to spending time with them at home because we have had some great conversations together. And watching Zach play around with his father is always a joy.
Saturday, Nathan invited me to attend his weekly men's Bible study and I decided to check it out. The topic was heart idolatry and we were studying the story of the rich man in Mark 10. Out of that, we discussed the different things in our lives which we have placed above our love for Jesus. Topics such as knowledge, approval, and respect came to the surface as we conversed with one another about we can learn to live outside of these things by worshiping Jesus for the fact that he set aside his right to all of these things and humbled himself to the point of death for us so that we might taste life. There was a line in our study material that I took to heart. It said "As one writer put it, 'You can't see your own face.' We need each other in order to see our sin clearly and deal with it honestly." This I believe to be absolutely true. However, people miss this often nowadays. And I would suggest that much of this is due to the fact that many modern churches abandon the importance of community in order to focus on increasing attendance, appealing worship music, or agreeable sermons. The fact is, when we grow in our relationship with the Lord, we also grow in the recognition of our sins. And when we have no foundation for honest and accountable community, it becomes easy for shame and guilt to overtake our boldness in confessing our pain and sharing the burden with others who can help us to learn strength during our time of repentance. When churches are not emphasizing the importance of growing in appreciation for the person of Jesus and his sacrifice for humanity, they are missing the point. After accepting Christ into our heart as our personal savior, we realize that there is a tremendous void between our recognition of God's perfect holiness and our bondage to sin. And the only thing that can fill that void is Jesus' sacrifice. As we grow in these two recognitions, our love for Christ must grow equally or else we can become lost in an extreme of God's holiness, which encourages license, or an extreme of our own sins, which encourages legalism. Our faith hinges on a relationship with Jesus and when that is not the point, there is no point.
Yesterday, I participated in my first Sunday service of Coram Deo so far this summer. Will, one of the pastors, preached on blessings and generosity and how God gives us surplus of everything so that we might use it in order to invest in his grace and glory instead of our own. He did a great job. Before both services, I was introduced to the whole congregation. It's not my favorite feeling to have everyone looking at me, but it was nice meeting everyone who came up and talked to me once the services were over. After the services, I headed over to the Mosaic, a non-profit Coram Deo partners with, in order to help out with Harambe. During this time, the church transports a group of Burundi refugees to the Mosaic for a community lunch and in order to help them to learn English. I went outside and played with the kids because they have a ton of energy (and sports were involved. Duh!).
After Harambe, I ran to get in line for the Texas baseball game at the College World Series. One of the leaders on staff here at Coram Deo had an extra ticket that he gave to me for general admission. I got in line two and a half hours early to make sure I would have a seat. And I would say my plan paid off pretty well. The Blisses and I found seats ten rows from the grass in left field. Perfect. The game was so much fun. We were actually surrounded by USM fans (who turned out extremely well. Props.), but we still got away with the win. Even though it was ugly at times. I have started an Omaha photo album that has pictures from everything I just wrote about. If you are interested, you can view it with this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88899&id=661918786&l=d18b2e95ac
A few days ago, Nathan showed me a video called a Sermon Jam. Basically, it is a music video that sets excerpts from a John Piper sermon to music. It is a pretty neat video, but more than anything Piper's message from that video has completely haunted me. And it broke onto the surface again in the Bible study Saturday and during the service on Sunday. He was preaching on Philippians 3 in which Paul speaks of counting all things loss aside from the knowledge of Christ. Piper said that God gives us money, food, clothing, friends, family, and everything else so that we might use and display them in such a way that it is PLAIN to the world they are not our treasure. Christ is. Piper followed up this point with a quote that has stabbed my mind in such a way that I cannot escape it. "The way we display the supreme worth of Jesus is by treasuring him above all things and then making choices which make the joy we have in his supreme worth manifest." I cannot help but think about the people who believe faith in Christ is a matter of reaching a certain level in achievement and that is enough. There should not be any conditions on our pursuit of Christ. He is our treasure and we should pursue him in such a way that it is PLAIN to the world that he is our hope. That is something I would certainly like to see in my life.
I will close with two videos that have been very sobering to me this past week. The first is a sermon clip from Matt Chandler, my favorite pastor. The second is the John Piper Sermon Jam that has been on my mind in this blog. And lastly, I put a video I took of Zachary Saturday. I taught him a trick that Brittany will undoubtedly appreciate ;-)
Saturday, Nathan invited me to attend his weekly men's Bible study and I decided to check it out. The topic was heart idolatry and we were studying the story of the rich man in Mark 10. Out of that, we discussed the different things in our lives which we have placed above our love for Jesus. Topics such as knowledge, approval, and respect came to the surface as we conversed with one another about we can learn to live outside of these things by worshiping Jesus for the fact that he set aside his right to all of these things and humbled himself to the point of death for us so that we might taste life. There was a line in our study material that I took to heart. It said "As one writer put it, 'You can't see your own face.' We need each other in order to see our sin clearly and deal with it honestly." This I believe to be absolutely true. However, people miss this often nowadays. And I would suggest that much of this is due to the fact that many modern churches abandon the importance of community in order to focus on increasing attendance, appealing worship music, or agreeable sermons. The fact is, when we grow in our relationship with the Lord, we also grow in the recognition of our sins. And when we have no foundation for honest and accountable community, it becomes easy for shame and guilt to overtake our boldness in confessing our pain and sharing the burden with others who can help us to learn strength during our time of repentance. When churches are not emphasizing the importance of growing in appreciation for the person of Jesus and his sacrifice for humanity, they are missing the point. After accepting Christ into our heart as our personal savior, we realize that there is a tremendous void between our recognition of God's perfect holiness and our bondage to sin. And the only thing that can fill that void is Jesus' sacrifice. As we grow in these two recognitions, our love for Christ must grow equally or else we can become lost in an extreme of God's holiness, which encourages license, or an extreme of our own sins, which encourages legalism. Our faith hinges on a relationship with Jesus and when that is not the point, there is no point.
Yesterday, I participated in my first Sunday service of Coram Deo so far this summer. Will, one of the pastors, preached on blessings and generosity and how God gives us surplus of everything so that we might use it in order to invest in his grace and glory instead of our own. He did a great job. Before both services, I was introduced to the whole congregation. It's not my favorite feeling to have everyone looking at me, but it was nice meeting everyone who came up and talked to me once the services were over. After the services, I headed over to the Mosaic, a non-profit Coram Deo partners with, in order to help out with Harambe. During this time, the church transports a group of Burundi refugees to the Mosaic for a community lunch and in order to help them to learn English. I went outside and played with the kids because they have a ton of energy (and sports were involved. Duh!).
After Harambe, I ran to get in line for the Texas baseball game at the College World Series. One of the leaders on staff here at Coram Deo had an extra ticket that he gave to me for general admission. I got in line two and a half hours early to make sure I would have a seat. And I would say my plan paid off pretty well. The Blisses and I found seats ten rows from the grass in left field. Perfect. The game was so much fun. We were actually surrounded by USM fans (who turned out extremely well. Props.), but we still got away with the win. Even though it was ugly at times. I have started an Omaha photo album that has pictures from everything I just wrote about. If you are interested, you can view it with this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88899&id=661918786&l=d18b2e95ac
A few days ago, Nathan showed me a video called a Sermon Jam. Basically, it is a music video that sets excerpts from a John Piper sermon to music. It is a pretty neat video, but more than anything Piper's message from that video has completely haunted me. And it broke onto the surface again in the Bible study Saturday and during the service on Sunday. He was preaching on Philippians 3 in which Paul speaks of counting all things loss aside from the knowledge of Christ. Piper said that God gives us money, food, clothing, friends, family, and everything else so that we might use and display them in such a way that it is PLAIN to the world they are not our treasure. Christ is. Piper followed up this point with a quote that has stabbed my mind in such a way that I cannot escape it. "The way we display the supreme worth of Jesus is by treasuring him above all things and then making choices which make the joy we have in his supreme worth manifest." I cannot help but think about the people who believe faith in Christ is a matter of reaching a certain level in achievement and that is enough. There should not be any conditions on our pursuit of Christ. He is our treasure and we should pursue him in such a way that it is PLAIN to the world that he is our hope. That is something I would certainly like to see in my life.
I will close with two videos that have been very sobering to me this past week. The first is a sermon clip from Matt Chandler, my favorite pastor. The second is the John Piper Sermon Jam that has been on my mind in this blog. And lastly, I put a video I took of Zachary Saturday. I taught him a trick that Brittany will undoubtedly appreciate ;-)
“Functional Atheists” – Matt Chandler - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Despite The Clouds
I have been in Omaha for three full days now. Honestly, it was a little strange at first. Over spring break, I was here in the city spending time with a bunch of fellow church regulars talking about the Gospel with Coram Deo and spending every waking minute together. Now, I am in the same city with the same church and the same leaders, but without everyone from Austin. That was a little strange getting used to that situation because I felt like I was walking into it all over again, but by myself. And in reality, that's what I am doing, but that feeling has long since vanished. So far it has been a neat experience and I can already tell that I am going to learn a lot and make many new friends along the way.
In talking with the leaders of Coram Deo, I am realizing that there will not be much schedule structure to my time here. Basically, their idea for getting me to grow as leader in living missionally is to simply immerse me in their lives and in the life of the church. I have been spending most of the days at the office doing sermon research and reading up on topics they have given me. And in the evenings I have joined a missional community on Tuesday nights and just returned from a weekly meeting for communal prayer on Wednesday evenings. The thing that I have come to appreciate most in the last few days is how deeply this church and its leaders strive for clarity and support for everything that they do in this church by the Gospel alone. They don't make a move without scriptural grounding. And I can really appreciate that because often doctrinal thought can become completely diverted and skewed because we choose to look for either what we want to feel and receive or we turn to someone else's opinion rather than the Gospel itself. They have asked me to read a book this week on covenant renewal worship, something that Coram Deo practices, and it has been interesting thus far.
In fact, I happened upon what I considered to be a neat insight on sin and humanity during my time reading today. The book is called The Lord's Service and it is written by Jeffrey Myers. In the Old Testament, people were cleansed of their sins through a ritual of animal sacrifice. Why? Because humanity is bound to sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5) and God, being just, requires that we repent and be cleansed of it. In actuality, the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and we deserve to pay that price. But God is also a loving God and in the Old Testament times allowed humanity to embody the death it deserved through the sacrifice of animals. Leviticus talks about the smell from the burning of the animals offered up as acts of confession and repentance being a pleasing aroma to the Lord (1:13). Through this ritual, the followers of God died to their sins and were cleansed in order to follow the Lord in purity. The insight I found interesting is this: Meyers believes this has not ceased in its necessity. It has simply changed in method and custom in light of the death of Christ for all of our sins. When Jesus was crucified, he took upon himself the death that we all deserve as punishment for our sins. He died a horrific and terrifyingly brutal death so that we would not have to. Therefore, the sacrifice of animals was no longer necessary. However, much of the language used in the Old Testament in regards to animal sacrifice is used in the New Testament in regards to humanity. Jesus called his followers to "deny" themselves in order to follow him (Mark 8:34). In Romans, Paul calls christians to offer themselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1). And in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes christians as being an "aroma of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). All of this imagery and terminology of death, sacrifice, and aroma point back to the Old Testament times in order to remind us that (using the words of Coram Deo's pastor), although the "cultural practice" of animal sacrifice is no longer necessary, the "timeless principle" of dying to your sins in order to live for the Lord still very much exists. Now we are the sacrifice. But rather than die a physical death, we are called to live a life of death to ourselves in order to glorify God.
I thought that was a cool thought. On another note, prayer tonight was awesome. It is an open invitation to anyone who attends the church to come together on Wednesday nights in order to pray together. Tonight, the focus was on listening to the prayers each of us have been lifting up individually and then praying for one another as a group. I remember experiencing this same prayer meeting over spring break and it left a big impression on me then. Setting aside at least an hour to simply sit and pray together is a really cool sacrifice in my mind.
All in all, these first few days have been challenging. I have a million thoughts running through my head and as they slowly surface I will be sure to post them. But for now, I think this is enough. I will say that the sun needs to freaking come out already during the days in Omaha. I had five and a half cups of coffee today and never felt like I woke up.
I will end on a lighter point. A lot of the people I am talking to up here are big fans of modern folk music. I have recently become a huge fan of two girls in Austin who play folk music together. They call themselves The Reliques and if you haven't heard of them yet, go here now. They have a ton of talent and deserve your time.
Thanks for the prayers. Please feel free to contact me anytime. You know where I'll be.
In His name alone,
- Collin
In talking with the leaders of Coram Deo, I am realizing that there will not be much schedule structure to my time here. Basically, their idea for getting me to grow as leader in living missionally is to simply immerse me in their lives and in the life of the church. I have been spending most of the days at the office doing sermon research and reading up on topics they have given me. And in the evenings I have joined a missional community on Tuesday nights and just returned from a weekly meeting for communal prayer on Wednesday evenings. The thing that I have come to appreciate most in the last few days is how deeply this church and its leaders strive for clarity and support for everything that they do in this church by the Gospel alone. They don't make a move without scriptural grounding. And I can really appreciate that because often doctrinal thought can become completely diverted and skewed because we choose to look for either what we want to feel and receive or we turn to someone else's opinion rather than the Gospel itself. They have asked me to read a book this week on covenant renewal worship, something that Coram Deo practices, and it has been interesting thus far.
In fact, I happened upon what I considered to be a neat insight on sin and humanity during my time reading today. The book is called The Lord's Service and it is written by Jeffrey Myers. In the Old Testament, people were cleansed of their sins through a ritual of animal sacrifice. Why? Because humanity is bound to sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5) and God, being just, requires that we repent and be cleansed of it. In actuality, the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and we deserve to pay that price. But God is also a loving God and in the Old Testament times allowed humanity to embody the death it deserved through the sacrifice of animals. Leviticus talks about the smell from the burning of the animals offered up as acts of confession and repentance being a pleasing aroma to the Lord (1:13). Through this ritual, the followers of God died to their sins and were cleansed in order to follow the Lord in purity. The insight I found interesting is this: Meyers believes this has not ceased in its necessity. It has simply changed in method and custom in light of the death of Christ for all of our sins. When Jesus was crucified, he took upon himself the death that we all deserve as punishment for our sins. He died a horrific and terrifyingly brutal death so that we would not have to. Therefore, the sacrifice of animals was no longer necessary. However, much of the language used in the Old Testament in regards to animal sacrifice is used in the New Testament in regards to humanity. Jesus called his followers to "deny" themselves in order to follow him (Mark 8:34). In Romans, Paul calls christians to offer themselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1). And in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes christians as being an "aroma of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). All of this imagery and terminology of death, sacrifice, and aroma point back to the Old Testament times in order to remind us that (using the words of Coram Deo's pastor), although the "cultural practice" of animal sacrifice is no longer necessary, the "timeless principle" of dying to your sins in order to live for the Lord still very much exists. Now we are the sacrifice. But rather than die a physical death, we are called to live a life of death to ourselves in order to glorify God.
I thought that was a cool thought. On another note, prayer tonight was awesome. It is an open invitation to anyone who attends the church to come together on Wednesday nights in order to pray together. Tonight, the focus was on listening to the prayers each of us have been lifting up individually and then praying for one another as a group. I remember experiencing this same prayer meeting over spring break and it left a big impression on me then. Setting aside at least an hour to simply sit and pray together is a really cool sacrifice in my mind.
All in all, these first few days have been challenging. I have a million thoughts running through my head and as they slowly surface I will be sure to post them. But for now, I think this is enough. I will say that the sun needs to freaking come out already during the days in Omaha. I had five and a half cups of coffee today and never felt like I woke up.
I will end on a lighter point. A lot of the people I am talking to up here are big fans of modern folk music. I have recently become a huge fan of two girls in Austin who play folk music together. They call themselves The Reliques and if you haven't heard of them yet, go here now. They have a ton of talent and deserve your time.
Thanks for the prayers. Please feel free to contact me anytime. You know where I'll be.
In His name alone,
- Collin
Monday, June 8, 2009
Jesus Loves Rock Too
Just to let you know, I am officially in Omaha now. But before I say anything about that, I need to make an update about this past weekend’s events. Luke, Landry, and I finished up two days at the Red Letter Rock Fest. We are full of great music and our ears are still ringing, reminders of the loud and drumming memories we now hold. I can say without a doubt that it was the most amazing concert I have ever attended. And if you know me at all, you know that I don’t say things like that about music unless I mean it. But it was not just the music that impacted me. Shows like the one I experienced continue to serve as reminders for why I listen to the music that I do. There was rap, punk, alternative rock, metal, and everything in between. But for all of their differences in musical pursuit, they each have one thing common in their motivations for what they do – glorifying our Heavenly Father. These are the shows that continue to negate any comment I have ever heard that people cannot hear about Christ through rock music. Each band wears their heart on their sleeve and they are unashamed to testify to what they believe. I’ll give you a quick rundown of the highlights from this weekend’s show. There were two big moments in my mind.
The first happened on Friday with the band Disciple. I have always been a fan of these guys. They started out playing music that sounded like old 80’s metal, but their lyrics were entirely Bible verses. They rocked, but no one really took them seriously. After a few years of mediocre success, they got haircuts and modernized their sound. Their set at Red Letter was amazing. Tons of energy. At one point, the guitarist jumped up on an amp and did a backflip onto the stage, guitar and all. But the coolest part was midway through the set. The vocalist, Kevin, pulled out his Bible and read a passage from John 10. He then began telling a story about returning home after finishing up a recent tour with Skillet. When he got back, his 8-month old daughter was a little unsure as to whom he was because he had not been around much due to the touring. So he decided that during his break from touring, he would spend every waking moment with her. Changing diapers, feeding her, but most importantly speaking to her and helping her become accustomed to his voice. By the time he had to leave on tour again, his daughter knew him as “Da Da” and clung to him as he told her goodbye. He went on to tell us that this is often how our relationship is with God. We want Him to speak to us so badly when often He is right in front of us screaming to get our attention. It’s not necessarily because we are looking in the wrong places, but we cannot hear Him because we have not spent time developing that relationship to the point of understanding who He is and recognizing His call. God is not a metaphor or an abstract idea. He is a living being and He wants each and every one of us to have a relationship with Him. And He sent his son to die for us so that we might be able to do so. By the time Kevin finished talking, he was on the verge of tears. I was very moved by his candor.
The other big moment came from Skillet. This band has absolutely blown up in popularity in the last few years. They sell out shows right and left and the pyrotechnics they had on stage Saturday had to have cost a small fortune. And just like many crossover bands, they have ample opportunities to leave behind faith and pursue musical careers for the sake of fame. But unlike many crossover bands, they are not doing that. John, the vocalist, spent a few moments between songs telling everyone that he loves playing music and performing in front of people, but at the end of the day it is not the reason he wakes up every morning because it never truly satisfies. It is his faith in Christ and living only to glorify the Lord that keeps him going every day. And immediately after, they played a worship song.
Skillet. A hard rock band. Playing a worship song. At a rock show.
Over 20 bands performed this weekend and each one of them made sure to point out that God was the center of their music. Skillet and Disciple took time out of their sets to both pray and share the Gospel. Family Force 5 ended their set by praying for the crowd and the rest of the festival. I do love rock, but I love it more when it is done to glorify God. Because that always reminds me that Jesus loves rock too. And the Lord can and does reveal His glory through it.
You can check out my photos from the festival at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87654&id=661918786&l=88f8580f82
On another note, I am in Omaha now and I am actually writing this blog in the church office. I reported for duty this morning and my first assignment was to go jogging two miles with two of the church leaders. Fun stuff. I will be moving in with my Omaha family this evening. I’m excited about that. I will update again as soon as possible.
Love you all.
- Collin
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
T Minus Three
Although I still have three days until I officially begin my time in Omaha, my summer travels begin today. Since I have only had about two and a half weeks of free time between finishing school and beginning my internship, I have been trying to squeeze in visiting time with as many friends as possible along with staying at home with my family. It has certainly been relaxing, but today I will be driving up to Fort Worth, Texas where I will meet up with one of my best friends, Luke, and his brother, Landry, and we will be traveling from there to Snyder, Texas in order to be a part of the Red Letter Rock Festival. A few of our favorite bands, most notably Skillet and RED, will be there rocking our faces off. And if my calf muscles are not sore beyond belief because of jumping and my voice completely spent due to the yelling, the weekend will be a failure.
My expectations are pretty high for this summer though. In previous years, my summers have not amounted to much other than a dead-end job and entertaining myself at home -which of course is not a bad thing. I must add though, I did spend my summer in Rome last year and gained a lot from that experience, including a beautiful and amazing girlfriend! But this time around, the stakes are very different. Before spring break this year, I was dead set on earning myself a federal internship in Washington DC for the summer. It fit my interests, would be a good addition to a future resume and I had a really good shot at most opportunities for which I might have applied. But God laid Omaha on my heart in a big way and I feel like this summer is going to sharpen me in areas that are much needed for me as an individual.
From all outside perspectives, I know that I have given up internship opportunities that could have had large implications for any career in government that I could have chosen to pursue. The most exciting thing for me though is that I am perfectly fine with that. I may not be pursuing an opportunity that has clear potential to lend me help in advancing a future career, but I am pursuing an opportunity that has eternal implications. And that far outweighs the former in my mind. As much as this summer will be an immersion in leadership training towards living missionally, it will also be life training as I truly believe that this is what we are all called to do - engage others with the Truth in terms of grace and not agenda. As much as the world may see my decision as being one that is in all respects a step backwards, I see it as being a leap forward. Granted, it may not be something with which I can pad my resume or add extra zeros to my future salary, but then when was that ever our purpose in living? It is never enough.
I have many questions to ask during my time with Coram Deo and I hope to have many conversations that challenge me in what I believe and cause me to dig deeper for the Truth. Because it does exist and it is available to those who seek it. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all who read along with me and consider my thoughts. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Please feel free to contact me at any time for anything. I have invited you along with me for a reason.
Let's do this. Today, my journey begins.
- Collin
But you chased me down and broke in just when I was done believing. Spun me around so close now I can feel you breathing. Sunlight burns inside and I feel so alive and help me now. Tell me how...how can this last forever?
RED - "Forever"
My expectations are pretty high for this summer though. In previous years, my summers have not amounted to much other than a dead-end job and entertaining myself at home -which of course is not a bad thing. I must add though, I did spend my summer in Rome last year and gained a lot from that experience, including a beautiful and amazing girlfriend! But this time around, the stakes are very different. Before spring break this year, I was dead set on earning myself a federal internship in Washington DC for the summer. It fit my interests, would be a good addition to a future resume and I had a really good shot at most opportunities for which I might have applied. But God laid Omaha on my heart in a big way and I feel like this summer is going to sharpen me in areas that are much needed for me as an individual.
From all outside perspectives, I know that I have given up internship opportunities that could have had large implications for any career in government that I could have chosen to pursue. The most exciting thing for me though is that I am perfectly fine with that. I may not be pursuing an opportunity that has clear potential to lend me help in advancing a future career, but I am pursuing an opportunity that has eternal implications. And that far outweighs the former in my mind. As much as this summer will be an immersion in leadership training towards living missionally, it will also be life training as I truly believe that this is what we are all called to do - engage others with the Truth in terms of grace and not agenda. As much as the world may see my decision as being one that is in all respects a step backwards, I see it as being a leap forward. Granted, it may not be something with which I can pad my resume or add extra zeros to my future salary, but then when was that ever our purpose in living? It is never enough.
I have many questions to ask during my time with Coram Deo and I hope to have many conversations that challenge me in what I believe and cause me to dig deeper for the Truth. Because it does exist and it is available to those who seek it. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all who read along with me and consider my thoughts. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Please feel free to contact me at any time for anything. I have invited you along with me for a reason.
Let's do this. Today, my journey begins.
- Collin
But you chased me down and broke in just when I was done believing. Spun me around so close now I can feel you breathing. Sunlight burns inside and I feel so alive and help me now. Tell me how...how can this last forever?
RED - "Forever"
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