In the Way

Then said he unto the disciples, "It is impossible but that offences will com; but woe unto him through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if her repent, forgive him. Luke 17:1-3

When I read this verse, I am reminded of the old cliche about the mafia sticking some offender's feet in a vat of cement and throwing them off of the dock at the edge of town. The weight and the lack of movement just hold the victim at the bottom of the river until he drowns, becoming fish food. The image is quite effective. That is the reason Jesus used it. For anyone standing around and listening, the image would have captured their attention, especially those exploiting, abusing, or otherwise mistreating the children in their lives.
The little ones, as Jesus called them, are just as spiritually needy as any adult. The difference is that they are unable to discern properly. Right and wrong become a matter of how they feel. They might resort to the old adage, "If it feels good, do it." Because of their lack of experience and low stage of development, they need leaders. They need people that they can look up to and who set a good example and who will teach them righteous discernment. if you apply this principle to children in our day and age, the issue becomes magnified. Children are pushed to "grow up" faster by the media and peer pressure, yet we systematically remove more and more of the tools to train them how to face being grown up. Fifty years ago, a couuple may get married at a young age, but they had already worked for some years and developed a sense of responsibility. They knew the value of delayed gratification and a strong work ethic. But as each generation has passed, the children are "given more" than their parents had. People want to save their children from the "pain" they endured, so they spoil them instead, shielding them from the truth in the process. As a result each generation grows weaker and weaker in terms of character. As these children grow up, they become and create weak leaders, weak economies, weak governments, and a weak church.
We have become offences to our children. Instead of fighting the world and its influences, we give in to the easy way out. The end result is true weakness. As adults, we need to realize what we are doing to our children. As we go about our lives pretending that everthing is okay, thinking, "We turned out okay," we ignore the problem and thus become stumbling blocks to our children. Remember that they look to us as examples for how to live. Add to that the disintegration of moral absolutes and the power that the world has in influencing them, and we take fewer measures in fighting a larger and growing enemy. Each generation repeats the mistakes of the prior generation only in an already weaker state. Look around at the way our world is headed. Wouldn't you just as soon have a millstone tied around your neck and be tossed in the sea than experience the effects of our becoming a series of stumbling blocks to our children?
My suggestion is that we become closer to one another. We have to get beyond the superficiality of knowing each other only on a three-time-a-week acquaintance. Each of us has hurts and joys that we can share with one another for encouragement and healing. The church is much more than a building or even a group of people meeting together. We are a family, and if we are going to cease drowning ourselves, we must reach to the next generation and lift them out of the dangerous waters they are in. Work with Christ in forging strong relationships and stronger individuals in order to work in building His kingdom.

Hunger

As I closed last night after our youth meeting at church, I prayed from a compulsion. The compulsion was to ask for God to develop and create a hunger and a desire that burned for Him and Him alone. Today I was confronted with many things that feel like a spiritual net dragging me to the ground. Negativity, faceless criticism, and voiceless supporters wrangle my spirit and my mind. I feel like giving up on some things and just moving forward in the simple easy things that I know. Like most people I just want to make everyone happy. That includes God. The problem is that what God wants is not always what man wants. In fact, it rarely is. Consider Job. Consider Paul. Consider Stephen. Do you think they actually sought what they received? Not likely. But I can name the one thing they each sought after that they did receive. God. So much did they hunger for their Lord that they suffered at the hands of men. They were spat upon, stoned, beaten, accused, laughed at, mocked, scorned, and killed. Their response was almost a, "So what." They weren't in it for the fame and fortune or the glory. They were in it for God. Both as a servant of Him and a recipient of Him. So I dwell on this. I think it over. I prayed for a hunger, and now I am dissatisfied with what comes my way. I wonder how many of the kids are feeling this now and don't know how to label or deal with it. If my prayer was answered in each case, then they are all here with me. We are hungering for something that no amount of anything on this earth will satiate. And I pray that each of us realizes what it is that we hunger for. Dissatisfaction with the world means that God is at work. Know it. Follow it. Reason with God about that hole in you. And let Him fill it. And in knowing, do not give the world back what it has given you, but return love for disappointment. Return love for betrayal. Give back love for suffering and pain and war and loss and lack of control. And in that act you will be revealing that you are a true disciple of Christ. Pray that I do this. Pray that you do this. Pray that every Christian would become so truly disillusioned with the world that God is their only solution.

Acts of God

Psalm 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act."

I risk taking this verse out of context. I'm not schooled in the background of each psalm that is in the Bible. This particular psalm compares evildoers with the righteous. Laid out in the verses are the consequences of doing evil and admonition against being jealous. We are told that the little in possession of the righteous is worth much more in the hands of evildoers. The writer is wanting to convince you to trust in God. He is pointing out the errors of the wrong path. An argument is developed in the form of a poem. And there in verse 5 is this mysterious group of words. The sentence begins with a simple enough command: Commit your way to God. We sort of already knew that, didn't we? But don't we often just expect that God will act on our behalf regardless of our frame of mind? Do we not pray half-heartedly, thinking that God is going to do what he wants anyway? But we are told here in plain letters to trust God and He will act. Don't just pay Him lip-service! Don't just pray to pray! Trust Him! Believe that He hears. Listen for His answer, though it is not always easy to hear. Trust that if He says know, He knows best. When we believe, He will act! He acts, regardless of whether we believe, but it is so important to trust the God you pray to. What is the point of being a part of a religion if you don't completely sell out to God? That is what He desires. He wants a heart solely given to Him, so that He can work with it and fashion it. If we do not believe that He is doing this, or that we are capable of a tremendous change, it will not happen. We are so busy with our lives, running here and there, that we have God in His allotted time of day and leave Him there. He has become something we can't trust, because we don't know Him. Are you looking for action? Are you wondering where God is? You say you believe, but you seem to live so unsure. So trust Him. Then, watch Him answer.

Oil

Reading in 2 Kings chapter 4 has revealed something to me. I knew it in my head already. You probably do, too. If you believe in Jesus as your savior, you have received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is represented many times in the scripture by oil. In this particular story, the prophet Elisha has recently received a double portion of his predecessor's spirit. A widow approaches him with a bit of a problem. Her husband, a son of the prophets, is dead. Because of his absence, debt has crept up on the family and the widow is in danger of losing her two children as slaves to the creditor. Elisha asks what she has in her home and she replies that she has but one vessel of oil. He instructs her to borrow many empty vessels from her neighbors and pour the oil she has into the empty vessels. Notice how she doesn't use her own empty vessels. She gets them from her neighbors. She is the one with the problem. One measly jar of oil. This is all she has and the prophet instructs her to pour it out. Yet she does it. This is the perfect image of how we are to live our lives. When we are at the end of our rope, our last jar of oil, we are to continue giving anyway. We are the vessel, pouring our portion of the Spirit into others' lives. They will then be filled, yet we still are full ourselves. We are full of blessings, full of the Spirit, full of life. Only as we continue to give in our own lacking can we truly understand the complete meaning of giving. Only in this way is Christ's potential in us even breached. Consider Christ in His last days. He was targeted for murder. He was insulted, whipped, and falsely accused. Even in the midst of this, Jesus continued to give. He didn't walk away or even defend himself. Jesus walked to the cross and with his last breaths forgave those who were killing him. Giving even with nothing left to offer. Or so it seemed. Those streams of living water were still flowing from within him in the end. They do not end. And so it is with us. When we give despite ourselves, we can continue to give of our Spiritual gift. The only time the vessel of the widow's stopped pouring was when there were no more vessels to fill. The job was finished.
In our lives, we are to pour out into empty vessels, giving using our gifts and talents. One's talent may be music and he may bless others even unknowingly. Another's gift may be in electrical work and he may bless others by helping them. Though in our worldly view of things we see different values on these gifts, they are of equal importance to the kingdom. We live off of each other so to speak, as the first church did. No one was lacking and they had every thing in common. Our job is not finished. We are to give and give and give. We give of our particular gifts and others are blessed just as we are when we let others use their gifts to bless us. So pass the oil on to others. Just give.

ID

I live in a part of the world that is inundated with a sort of cult. There is a certain university nearby whose alumni and student body are so attached to the school that their behavior is almost sickening. You can't go anywhere without seeing their colors. They assume that you know about every game and event that occurs, even if you're a graduate of their rival. I find this very disheartening, especially among the Christian believers who are a part of it. Jesus spoke to a group of followers in John chapter 8 beginning in verse 35, I believe. Here we find that oft repeated verse, "The truth will set you free." The hearers of this comforting word were not having any of it, though. Their claim was a strange one which mingled truth and lie. "We are descendants of Abraham! We've never been slaves to anyone. How can we be set free, then?"
These folks thought they had it figured out. They had their identity. Somehow, they knew who they were (but not really) and no one was going to change their mind about it.
Jesus replies by telling them that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. He challenges their foundation by saying in a nutshell, "If you're Abraham's children then act like it!" These folks were out to kill Jesus. He lets them know that he knows. Still they argue about who they really are and how they don't need a savior.
Back at the beginning of the conversation, before the whole "the truth will set you free" line, Jesus told his followers that if they continue in his word they would truly be his disciples. Jesus gave them a short description of what a Christian, though they weren't known by that name at the time, would look like. Elsewhere he gave this description: Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Sure, that's the greatest commandment, yet Jesus quoted this to a group who asked what the greatest commandment is. I think in saying that, that Jesus intended for us to see his will. This is what he wants from us. All the other laws and what the prophets said are wrapped up in this commandment. This is what we are to look like. In essence, with a few exceptions, our career choice, school choice, spousal choice, and many other things don't matter as long as we are putting God first. That is how we will be identified. Our love for God and for one another.
Let me bring this all together, now. Our identity is found in Christ. Others will see this identity because of our love for God and for each other. In reality, we seek our identification in things like alma maters, career choice, political parties, denominations, skin color, Coke or Pepsi, etc. The world sees this and wonders why we even believe in a God. If God is who we say He is, then why do we treat Him with such disdain? Why is the Creator of the universe not our central figure? We're human, but within those of us who believe there is the Holy Spirit. Therein lies the power to overcome and to be the Christians we are called to be. We must change our character and our affiliations or we will only look more and more like the world.

Rabbit Problems

I am convinced that we are afraid of ourselves. We get up every morning and look in the mirror and just think of ways to change so that who we really are can't catch up to us. That new car is nicer, faster, cooler, sleeker, and will completely fool the real me. If I dress like (insert role model here) then I won't look like myself; I'll totally blend in with the rest of the world. The one thing humans seem to hate more than anything, especially American humans, is down time. It means that we have pulled the old hare's trick and the tortoise will end up passing us while we're breathing. That just can't happen. After all, life is all about winning the race. First place is the only option. Second place is the first loser. Funny how we've never asked ourselves who defined the loser and the winner. I think it was Jesus, the Word, who said that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. So, if you're a loser in the eyes of the world, you're a winner in the eyes of the Word. To slow down and take a breath seems to us to be a sin. Filling every moment with activity, even if the activity is drinking beer and watching tv, is the key. That will keep us ahead of the dreaded tortoise. The tortoise is the one who is going slow enough to really truly see what the heck is going on around him. That's how he noticed that the rabbit was sitting off the road in the bushes napping. Mr. Tortoise actually took the time to look and see. If we really want to win the all important race, we've got to keep our eyes open and slow down. Check out what Paul wrote. Our eyes must stay on the prize. Also in the Bible we find David the Psalmist, Job, and others writing about looking inside and meditating on their sins and the Word. This isn't the meditation that empties the mind, but that is even more cleansing because there is no running and hiding. Everything gets brought out in the open and we get to say to ourselves, "I don't like that part of me. Let's do something about it." That is when Jesus empowers us through the Holy Spirit. That is where the rubber meets the road. We can do it, but first we have to get off the road. I think that both the tortoise and the hare had something right. The tortoise new he had to be paying attention and take it easy. The hare noticed that if he went as hard as he could all the time, he was bound to crash and miss something important eventually. So what is it that I'm trying to say? Slow down. Do some self-evaluation. Ask God to help and really listen to Him. Then act on it. Repent. Share your thoughts for this was a quick write.

People

I am learning a thing or two about the human race. Their self-absorption causes a complete lack of honest communication. That lack of communication leaves space for us to fill in the blank. For some reason, we always expect the worse. We absolutely refuse to talk to the source of what my be nothing! I have been observing this in the school setting. Is it our need to be right that causes us to not get to the bottom of a problem? Are we afraid of the truth? This is one of those things where the truth will set you free! We practically hand ourselves over to a spirit of division and negativity that cannot come from God. What do you think about this? Please respond. What can we do to get rid of this problem. Is it even possible? Post your ideas as responses.

Relevance

I write these questions well aware that I have a link on my page to a magazine called Relevant. That said: what exactly does it mean to be relevant? Derek Webb might be referring to this when he uses the term "dress me like the culture." It could be that Paul wrote about relevance when he said that he became all things to all people that he might win some. But what about us? Today, there seems to be little difference between the church and the world, yet still the church seems to be shrinking in numbers. If changing the sound of the music, the facade of the building, and other cosmetic trivialities are supposed to make us relevant and more acessible, then why is there no change? Why do we even need to be relevant? Do we not trust God enough to let him work through us despite the differences? Last time I checked, there is supposed to be a difference between the Christian and the non-believer. Galatians alys out for us the fruit of the Spirit and the deeds of the flesh. Though we remain sinners, we are to be progressing so that there is more fruit and fewer deeds; more of Christ and less of us. I've begun reading a book called In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen. The first chapter talks about going from relevance to prayer. I'm still chewing on what he says there, but so far what I understand is that we cannot offer anything to people or to God except what we are. We surrender ourselves to them because we may not always be talking to someone who we are easily relevant to. We may have nothing in common with them, but we are still called to love them. I'll add more later. give me your thoughts.

Long Time No Blog

Almost a year since the last entry. Very much has happened since then. In August, I finally graduated from college. Shortly afterward, I took a job in Brenham as an English/Reading/Journalism teacher. In addition to teaching those junior high classes, I also oversee the chapel services at the school. I hope to take up where I left off, entering my thoughts and rants and other useful and/or useless words. It's been too long.
God rules.