Take The Sun Glasses Off

One of my favorite miracles in the gospel is the one where Jesus walks on water. The most descriptive account is in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22-32. I used to read this story and say “Oh that was cool, imagine seeing that,” but I reflected on it very little, but now I look at it and see it in a different light. To understand where I am going with this you’ll need to imagine yourself in the disciple’s place. Imagine you are in a medium sized sail boat, at night, in a huge storm. You try to sail and row to shore, but the wind and the waves are slamming into the boat, you remember how Jesus calmed the storm and you wonder where He is. Suddenly you see a man walking on the water towards you, walking over the waves as if they were flat ground. The man yells out to you that He is Jesus, and one of the men in the boat steps out and walks towards Him, but once he sees the wind and waves he starts to sink! Jesus then grabs him out of the water and gets in the boat and immediately the storm stops. Well now that I got your attention (you can stop imagining now) I can go on. I sometimes think of the world as a pair of sunglasses to our “faith vision”. The troubles of the world, sin, suffering, money, war, the list goes on and on- they all cloud our view of Christ, they dim His light in our lives. The same thing happened to Peter- the man who got out of the boat. Peter had his eyes on Jesus, He was focused and ready, he wanted to live for his Master. Peter in an act of great faith got out of the boat (imagine getting out of a boat at night during a storm), and walked towards Jesus, but when Peter saw the wind and waves, the troubles of the world, the distractions that block our view of God, he fell through the water. Peter didn’t fall because he simply didn’t believe. He fell because he wasn’t focused on Jesus, he looked at the waves and realized what he was doing, he didn’t trust the love of God and the world dimmed his vision so much that doubt crept into his heart and he fell through the water. When we set our eyes on Jesus, when we wake up and live for Him, nothing can stop us; nothing can separate us from His love. But when we put our “sun glasses” on, we fail to see our savior in our world, we lose sight and begin to fall, and we doubt His love and protection. Though there is chaos and confusion in the world, though there is sin and suffering, we can’t let that dim our vision of the light of Jesus.

GO CELTICS

Ocean Views Aren't That Great

We are at a frightening time in our country, as we face severe economic troubles that are of great concern to everyone; but the greater concern comes from those who find security in their wallets, not their hearts. I was listening to a song “American Dream” by Casting Crowns (great band by the way), but any way it got me thinking. Has anyone built a sandcastle? (If you haven’t you’re missing out on some fun). Sand castles, although fun to build are also tedious to create; once you build the base and the towers and a wall, and a moat, it will often fall apart and crumble to the ground, or the next day you find your creation, your magnificent kingdom gone! Swept away by the sea and wind, all those hours wasted. When we find security in our wealth it can be like that. Life is all fine when you’re building your castle, and when you’re king, but when the storm comes, the wind knocks you down, and when the sea eats you up, you come back the next day devastated to see that your kingdom is gone, and that is when life turns around on us. That is when we see that the walls of a bank are not made of solid concrete but made of sand. Jesus dealt with this when He said “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy…” (Matthew 6: 19) and “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you” (Matthew 6: 33). If we put our security in something that will rust, something that can be lost or stolen we’re left with nothing when a storm comes by, but if we can put our security, our faith, store up our treasure in Heaven then we are truly secure. Money will be either spent or lost, stocks will go up and down, but God’s love and His gift to us will never change, and He will always be there for us.

You Can't Live In Church

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard the people tell me to stay “constantly in prayer” and “always worship God.”These concepts sounded foreign, like something only monks up on high mountains have time to do. I never knew how live my life solely for God, how to eat for Him, god to school for Him, study for Him, play baseball for Him, how? Well it goes back to the question “what is worship?” To anyone who thinks worship is getting up at 7:00 on a Sunday, driving to a church, singing some songs, and listening to a sermon for an hour I just have to say THAT’S BORING! And it’s not worship. Too often we see worship as watching the Red Sox game. We get in and are hyped up and we sit and watch and leave. NO! Worship should be like playing in the game, being involved, and to do that you can’t sit in a church all day. Church is the body of believers, the body of Christ and worship is what we do as the body of believers. I’ll encourage you to look into your church ministries, mission trips, youth ministries, Bible studies, small groups, praise bands, cooking, even something like handing out bulletins every Sunday. And why stop at Church? Look into your own community: soup kitchens, visiting shut-ins, and that’s not all (who feels this is sounding like one of those infomercials?) any small act, anything that you can do to shine the light of Christ in your community, any act that glorifies God is worship. So I encourage you to be active, to wake up and say “How can I represent Christ today?” to look at everyone as a creation of God and to share the good news with others, that is true worship, and that is how you can “always worship God”.

See Ya In April

Well the Rays finally did it. They finally won; I guess they deserved to win. The Red Sox have fought their way through this season, near half the team was out with injuries: Lugo, Papi, Lowell, Ellsbury, Beckett, Shilling, Wakefield, Drew, Colon, and Ardsma got hurt and were out for at least a part of the season. Maybe if the whole team was healthy (except Lugo) they would have been a first place team and the Rays may have lost to the Angels, I don’t know. All I know (and all Red Sox fans will agree) is that I am happy the Yankees got bumped down to third place in the AL East and out of the playoffs. And I’m also pretty happy that the Dodgers were bumped out because I didn’t want Manny to win anything. Oh well there’s always next year.

GO RED SOX!

I really don’t want to ruin everything for the Red Sox but I will say that that was probably the best rally I’ve ever seen. I mean Big Papi with that three run homer. I was starting to say he didn’t have it anymore, and was more like Big Papa. And then Drew coming through with a two run homer. That was an amazing game. I just hope they can win it on Saturday; Beckett really needs to work on location. He may not have speed but if he can use what he’s got he can hopefully get a win.

Never Alone

I wrote a post in August titled “why does it have to hurt?” and now I’d like to add to it. I came to the conclusion that I don’t know why suffering is in the world, I know as a result of sin and the devil entering the world suffering came a long too, but I didn’t have an answer to the “tough” questions and I still don’t. I will only add this, not as a way to make anyone feel better about themselves, but as a message of hope to those who don’t have any. God understands what we’re going through when we suffer because He too suffered. Jesus went through the agony of having one person literally sell him out and eleven others running away, one of them, the most faithful, denying Him. He then was put on a mock trial, beaten beyond understanding, had His beard plucked out, and was forced to carry His cross to be humiliated in front of the entire city of Jerusalem. He then was crucified on the cross and watched His clothes be gambled away, only to be mocked more by the roman guards. I do not mean to “gross you out” if I did I am sorry, what I am trying to do is show you that when we suffer God understands us because He went through it too. Jesus was killed and abandoned, God watched sitting on His hands as His son was crucified. He understands our pain. When we suffer we aren’t alone, we’re never alone. Through the light and darkness God is never too far away. I don’t know why we suffer, and if anyone who reads this is suffering I’m sorry but there is no “cure all” solution, only an answer, and that is Jesus. I can only say one thing, God loves you, and He knows what you’re going through. One more thing to remember, it is not always the fact that we may suffer, but how we react to it that matters.