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.

He Broke Our Chains

In my writing class we’ve been talking a lot about abstract subjects, one of my favorite topics was morality, and then what a good person is. I’m going to focus on the question of what a good person is. I wrote an essay on this, and because it was over two pages I won’t rewrite it here because you as a reader probably don’t really want to read my essay, and I wouldn’t either but that’s not the point, the point is what is a good person? In my essay I concluded that because morality is God’s law it is good, and if someone were to follow the law he must be good. From that we can conclude that we aren’t good from the beginning and become good (more on this later). But here’s the problem, honestly who has obeyed every aspect of the law? Who here is perfect? Simple answer, no one. That’s Jesus’ point when He talks to the rich man and points out he still lacks something- to think we can be perfect and follow the law at all times is legalism, and definitely not what God wants from us. But then an amazing thing happened, God sent His son down to earth for us. He was put on a fixed trial, and then beaten beyond belief and then died on the cross. We were dead by the law, and then had life through Christ. That is the beauty of what God did to us. Imagine that, if you had to be perfect to get into Heaven, and God graciously lent us a hand and picked us out of the pit. It’s not what a good person is, but what a redeemed person is.

Confused Fan

Some people might wonder why I am not writing a single thing about the ALCS. That is mainly because everything I’ve said that has to do with the playoffs was pretty much wrong. I will say that it doesn’t look to good for the Red Sox, but then again last year didn’t either and look where they ended up. So to prevent further error I won’t start writing until after the series ends. But I do know that the Sox need to win, and to do that they need to play small ball, and they can’t leave guys on base. The biggest problems the Red Sox had this year was leaving guys on base, the bullpen, and relying on the homeruns to score runs. They’ll just need to go out there like last year and play their best.

If You're First You're Last

I’ve been reading “The Weight of Glory” by C.S. Lewis, it’s a great book and if you haven’t read any Lewis books I think it’s worth looking in to, but anyway I was writing about glory. What is glory? Is it being in the paper, on the web? Having a title? Getting an award? What is glory and why is it so appealing to us. Well, to understand glory we must look at greatness. Greatness, at least in my opinion, is a desire in us to be famous or powerful, which is (sorry if I offend you) not necessarily of God but the devil. Why though? Simply because it comes from pride which was the devils sin, and which is why Jesus was so mad at the Pharisees, but that’s another story. Well then is glory bad? Well, we can see glory as Biblical glory, or greatness. Biblical glory is much different than greatness, or as it’s called worldly glory. Jesus has a lot to say about glory, in Matthew during the anointing Jesus replies to disciples saying “’I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’” In Mark 10:43 when James and John want the most important places in heaven he says “’Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.’” In Luke 9: 48 Jesus says “’For he who is least among you all- he is the greatest’” Later in Luke 18: 14 Jesus says “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” So is glory is not always bad. From the Bible we can see that rue glory, to be remembered or to get a “pat on the back” from God means we have to serve, and be the last. It means to put others first, to care about people before ourselves. Lewis does a great job summing this up saying “The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point” (pg. 1). True glory isn’t being famous or being a hero, or even a martyr, it’s living for a cause, living a life dedicated to the love and mercy of God, a dedication of service to His people, that’s glory. Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but of yourself less and God more.

Here are some cool pictures from the ALDS game on Sunday

FInish the Race

As Christians we talk a lot about sin, how to avoid sin, what sin is …. but what I haven’t heard much is what to do when we sin and after. Face it we all sin, we as people are sinners, ever since Adam and Eve we all sin. I have fallen into a great problem, it is the problem of the Pharisees, and is what we now call legalism. Legalism (at least in Christianity) is following the rules, but doing it in the mindset that you are making yourself righteous. I have fallen into this, which led me to detest myself when I sinned and saw myself as a failure before God. I read a passage in James that said we are to have “faith and deeds” and need both, and cannot survive without either, James 1:14-26. I was troubled by that, I as a human am fallen, but have faith, so where does that leave me? I began a legalistic lifestyle, judging myself and others believing that perfection is what we are to be aiming for, unfortunately I did not realize that it is not perfection, but salvation that is our goal. I did not understand the passage clearly, what James was trying to say is you have faith, good, but where are your deeds to back it up? Basically “put your money where your mouth is”, he’s pointing out to the people that if we truly believe in God we will make an effort that we will live out our faith. So I then came to realize that we all sin, and as faithful people we will ask for forgiveness and as faithful people we will work to improve our lives based on God’s law. Improvement is the big word here, the Christian who is satisfied with his lifestyle is far from God, the Christian who says I’m happy where I am at, I’m staying here, we are to keep moving forward in our walk with God, we are to run and finish this race. So when we sin we are not to “beat ourselves up” but pick ourselves up and continue with the walk. I am not saying sin is okay, it is a horrible thing, but we can’t let it get in between us and God any more than it already has.

DIY Surgery

I was reading Mark 9, and came across a strange verse. Mark 9 verse 45-47 says “And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life cripples than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.” I hope after reading this no one decides to cut their foot off, and blind themselves (unless for some weird reason they really want to). Jesus doesn’t mean that He wants us to cut ourselves up whenever we sin. He’s making a point of what God wants. He’s saying that God doesn’t want anything to come between us and Him. Jesus is saying that if anything in our lives causes us to sin then it really isn’t worth it. Whether it’s that new CD, or new cable channel, or a certain friend, if it comes in between you and God then I think you should take a moment and ask “is this really worth it?” I am not saying I want everyone to lock themselves inside for the rest of their life, God wants us out there, He wants us to live and experience life, but He doesn’t want us to forget what we’re living for, He doesn’t want us to make Him a lesser priority. 1John says it clearly in chapter 2 verse 15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” There is a difference between liking our life, friends, property, job, school, and loving the world. I love my family, I like my school, town, I like watching the Red Sox (especially when they win), I like playing baseball, but it’s when I say I love it, when I love it with the love that is to be solely devoted to God that I need to take my knife and cut it off. Jesus isn’t saying “I want you to be shut-ins with no friends”, He’s saying “If anything comes in between you and Me, then it’s not really worth it.” It’s hard to do this, to examine your life and have to take things out, it’s like losing a hand, but then you ask yourself is a hand worth a heart, I had to ask myself this, but I’ll let you answer that one.

GO SOX

Well the Red Sox are 2:0 now against the Angels, and are taking the series to Boston on Sunday. The Red Sox so far have proven they don’t need Ramirez to crank homers every game to win; they just need the new guys to come through. Jason Bay had a homerun in his first two postseason games ever, a first for Red Sox history, and J.D. Drew showed he didn’t slow down as he got a two run homer to win last night’s game 7:5. The Angels, who were a tough team this year with 100 wins, are continuing to struggle in the postseason, again. Hopefully the Red Sox will win the series and play the winner of the Rays: White Sox series. The White Sox are now 0:2 against the Rays, the Rays were a great team all year, and struggled towards the end of the season, but aren’t showing it now, as they plow through White Sox pitching to their goal, the AL Championship. Josh Beckett will take the mound (hopefully) at 7:17, and if all goes well that will be the last game of the series.