Here are some cool pictures from my mission trip

A Place Called Church

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the church. What it means to me, what it means to other people, and how it is defined in the Bible. I first really experienced the church about four years ago when I first went to a youth group at the church I now attend. God touched my heart that day, and I was exposed to His love and mercy. Some people (at least kids my age, or in my school) see church as boring and dull! Some people see the church as judgmental, a place where people will spit on you if you go there (sounds gross). Some people believe that they have to “clean house”, and put on a fake smile and pretend everything’s fine. Well here’s what the Bible says about church. In the book 1 Corinthians, Paul talks a lot about the church. In chapter three he tells us there are not to be divisions in the church (the Corinthians had a problem with following different people they were baptized by). In chapter 12 we “are the body of Christ) 1 Corinthians 12: 27. Now who is we? One church, group of churches, the world, one country? The “we” is the church as a whole. This may be surprising (I kind of like to surprise people), the church is not the building down the street, or even the people down the street, it is every believer in the world. We are the church. The building is not the church; it is the people, the body of believers. We are the body of Christ, His hands and feet on earth. It does not matter whether you are Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, or Baptist. All that matters is we all believe in God, and our savior Jesus. We are not to divide the church, but unify it. So taking that in, we can get a picture of what the church is, not a building, not guy that gives a sermon, but us as a body of believers. Isn’t it cool that we can say to ourselves that we are unified with people all the way across the world, that we know we are all one family of God’s children? That’s what church is.

GO SOX!

Well they did it, the Sox got into the post season as the Wild Card. Though it wasn’t the grand entrance they had last year, they still made it. The first game is tomorrow against the Angels in Anaheim stadium, with Jon Lester on the mound. I think as long as Lester can keep the Angel offense quiet, and if the Sox put some runs on the board they can win. The most important factor in the post season for the Sox will be the bullpen. Through the year the bullpen has been less than amazing, Delcarmen, Aardsma, Lopez, and Okajima have proven to be good, but have also blown it. Papelbon also hasn’t been the “lights out” pitcher he was last year. The Red sox have been a good team this year, and some offensive players have come through- Casey, Pedroia, Bay, Drew, and Ortiz to name a few. The biggest thing for the Sox this series is to keep the lead, whether it’s 10-1, or 2-1 they need to keep the other teams from scoring, and need to score runs early. One of the biggest problems this season for the Sox is they have been scoring a couple runs in the 1st and then being quiet through the rest of the game. Tonight the AL Central division is being decided as the White Sox play the Twins to see who can enter the post season.

Under Our Radar

I finally got around to writing this post. I’ve been putting off writing this post for a week now, and that is because I do not like the subject I am going to write about. I am going to write about pride, which took me a week to understand and now I think I understand it enough to write about it. To understand pride I had to understand what it exactly is, which in the easiest definition, pride is a sin. Pride I have found is the one sin that everyone commits, and everyone sees in other people but never in themselves. The proud man will say to his friend how proud someone else is, but never how proud they are. It is the humble man who admits his pride. That is one reason why pride is so dangerous; it has a way of going “under our radar”, and a way of finding its way into everyone’s lives. Even I have never taken a look at myself until I read “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, (it’s a very good book, I strongly recommend it). To explain what pride is it makes it easier to give a visual example, so the best possible example is the Pharisees. Jesus went on a rant against the Pharisees in His “7 woes” Matthew chapter 23. Verse 5 says “They do good things so that other people would see them”, the Pharisees didn’t live a righteous life to glorify God, they only wanted people to say respectable things about them. Verse 7 says “They love people to greet them with respect in the market places and love to have people call them ‘Teacher’” Jesus doesn’t like that, He says we have only one Teacher, and that is God and God alone. Verse 27 says “You are like tombs that are painted white. Outside they look fine, but inside they are full of bones of dead people and all kinds of unclean things.” The Pharisees were so consumed by their outward appearance that they neglected to take care of the inside. They were painted “white” with good deed, but their pride consumed them and they were rotten on the inside. The Pharisees thought they were good, they played by the rules, but they failed to understand what the rules were for, that they were guidelines for a relationship with God, and they enforced them on other people and were proud. But you know what Jesus has to say to pride people? Verse 33 “You are snakes! A family of poisonous snakes” Why does God hate pride so much? I mean what’s the deal here? It’s because pride is idol worship-it’s the worship of self. Pride takes God out of center stage and casts Him to the side, it’s a huge self promotion. When we are proud we worship ourselves, not God, in the proud man’s eyes he’s his own savior. Sadly we as a church do very little about it. There are no “proud men’s” or “proud women’s groups” sins of the spirit are just as real as the physical sins, and sometimes worse. What then is the cure? Humility, bowing down and submitting to God’s will, accepting the fact that we are not perfect, that we need God, and putting Him first is the cure. Pride was the devil’s sin, let’s not let it be ours.

100 pounds 100 miles

Have you ever had to carry something heavy for a long time? Something like a duffel bag, or back pack? Or ever worked for a long time? I remember once when I was in middle school and walked home I had to carry my backpack about three miles in the hot sun. It doesn’t sound that bad, but it was, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than sit down and take a rest, or get a cool glass of water. Our insecurity is like that. Insecurity, the “devils poison” as I call it, it sounds more like a plant name, but I think it is a good description. Insecurity comes from pride (I’ll try to write a post on pride later), and because of that connection it has the ability to cripple spirituality. It can get into your soul and spread like cancer until it changes you inside and out. Where does this heavy burden come from? Well many places, wrong treatment is the basic cause. Maybe you don’t have many friends and you feel bad. Or maybe someone was cruel to you and didn’t care. Or maybe everyone but you has that new thing, or went on that cool vacation. Well that gave you a burden, and insecurity comes into play when we leave that burden there, a “chip on the shoulder” as it is called. I’ve been there, and bless the person who hasn’t. It’s easy to feel bad for yourself, to say “poor me…..” but that is where we should never go. Forgiveness is the cure, to forgive. Forgiveness isn’t letting people walk on you, it’s acknowledging that they sinned, that you sinned, that God forgives all of us, and moving on. To say I forgive you, and months later getting mad over it is to live in the past. Jesus said to take His burden for it is light. Why is it light? Because His burden is one that forgives, one that loves. If we looked at every single person as a creation of God, and looked at them as God does we’d be way better off and a lot happier. This burden can’t be removed or changed by me, or any other person on the earth, it takes you, and God to take your burden off. Jesus died on that cross, and when He did He took your burden upon His shoulders, we aren’t meant to carry this heavy pack, so I say we take the backpack off our shoulders, sit down and take a cool drink of water.

The Hard Road

Living out our faith can be hard. I’ll admit it, the Christian life is not a walk in the park, it can be rough at times. I was reading John 12, and John 12:42 says “But many believed in Jesus, even many leaders. But because of the Pharisees, they did not say they believed in Him for fear they would be kept out of the synagogue.” Not much has changed in the modern times. The leaders wanted to be on the Pharisee’s good side, just like how we want to “fit in”. Whether it is with a certain group of friends, coworkers, or classmates, or just everyday situations we just keep quiet- I’m not passing any judgment, I have kept quiet when I should have spoken up before, it’s just why do we keep quiet? Verse 43 goes on to say “they loved praise from men more than praise from God.” That’s it; the leaders cared more about what the world thought of them, than what God did. They thought more about what people said more than what God said. And that’s tempting! We like to hear good things and think to ourselves, “Oh they might not be friends with me if I say something “religious”.” I’ve been thinking a lot about pride lately, and I believe it ties into this. The leaders were concerned for their reputation, what people thought, what people said- they were proud, which we have found out God doesn’t like. Paul deals with this sin when he says in Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”, Paul wasn’t proud, all he could think of was his savior and Lord Jesus. He had no reputation to show before men, but only a life to show God. It’s a tough issue, and once again I am not judging anyone. We all like to be liked, or thought of a good people, we like a positive image, but it’s where that fits into our life that matters. It’s when we value a “good job” from Joe over Jesus that it becomes a problem, it’s a tough issue, but it’s one of those issues that never gets solved unless faced head on, and that issue is pride.

Where am I going?

Well I know I’ve said this before, but I’m hung up on the thought of God doing impossible things that no one expects with His people. Mainly I’m hung up because it’s been happening to me for the past few months, and why shouldn’t I be hung up on it? It’s cool! Recently at a church lunch I spoke in front of a large group of people about the mission trip I went on. I did not see that coming. I also helped teach a small Sunday school class, and was asked to help again, I didn’t see that coming. Four years ago when I was so far from God, not even knowing if my life mattered, I did not see where God would take me, and how He would use me. I thought I was a screw up, a “sinner”, too far away, to “bad” for God to love and use, but I’m glad I was wrong. No one is too far from God; no one is a “screw up”. Yes we sin and are fallen, I would never deny the fact that I do sin, and that sin is wrong. But God still loves us and desires to use us. If we turn to God, if we stop going down the path of sin, and turn back to righteousness, God will use us, and use us to do really cool things for Him. Two months ago I thought I had life figured out, I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life, what to major in, in college, but now I don’t have a clue, and that is because God is going to take me there. Pride is what keeps us out of God’s hands. It’s kind of like in the previous post, pride kept the Pharisees from Jesus; they thought they were “good”, and therefore too good for God. Don’t think that. Humble yourselves before God, and hold on, because He’ll take you on a wild ride, but He’ll be there with you every step of the way. God can use us, but we’ve got to let Him to.