He is Risen!

On Holy Saturday, I like to imagine myself as one of the 12 disciples. I sit and I think about my fear… Will I be arrested? Will they come to kill me too? Will I be hiding out for the rest of my life? And especially, where do I go from here?

I imagine the disciples were scared out of their wits. The man they followed, lived with, and loved was brutally punished and sadistically crucified. He was killed and now he lay in a tomb rotting… corroding… decaying… lifeless… Their 3 year journey is over.

Is there any hope at all?

I believe that I would be stunned. We have it easy with hindsight… We know that Jesus resurrected… They even knew that Jesus promised that his resurrection would happen… but I doubt that was at the forefront of their mind. Peter didn’t listen to Jesus the entire time. Peter was a man of little faith… He was walking on water with Jesus, and then he doubted, even though he had already walked several feet! Jesus told him that he would be killed and rise again, but Peter doubted that too, causing Jesus to rebuke him… And finally, early in the morning, before Jesus was killed, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. If this was Peter’s state of mind, what were the other disciples thinking?

What would you do in this situation? Would you remember Jesus’ words, or would you be scared for yourself? Can you imagine how stressful it would be to lose the person you love the most… leaving you stranded, alone, fearful, and confused? I would certainly be scared… What a dark day that would be for me…

Observe this with me.

Almost 2,000 years ago, an innocent man who was well known for his good works and teachings was sentenced to be crucified for being a trouble maker… What good could possibly come out of that?
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be flogged? Skin ripping, stinging, sweat and blood running down your back and sides, bruised, and beaten to a bloody pulp… Your oppressors laughing at you, mocking you, spitting on you, pushing thorns into your head, parading you through the streets so others can do the same? What do you think it would be like to have 9″ nails driven through your hands and feet as you publicly hang naked on a cross for all to see? Your enemies watching with a victorious grin on their faces… your family crying… your friends hiding… your God leaving you stranded… As you are hanging, you struggle to catch your breath. Pushing up with your feet to fill your lungs with air leads to more pain, so you fall back down causing splinters to run through your back. You’re bleeding. You’re confused. You’re embarrassed. You’re suffocating… You’re scared…  The sky darkens, and with one loud shout, you crash. You die as a crowd gawks, some mourning, most scoffing.

The crucifixion hurts to even imagine. If this happened to an innocent man, what good could possibly come out of it?

Christians believe that it wasn’t just a man who died that day. We believe that it was God. We successfully killed God incarnate. Was it an easy feat?

Yes.

This very act shows us what we are capable of. We have the power to kill God. We are terrible enough to murder God’s innocent son. The good news is that Jesus’ works and teachings come around full circle. Though we punished Jesus, Jesus still loved us. Though we crucified him, Jesus forgave us. Though we were merciless to him, he showed us grace. When Jesus taught, when Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t doing it so that it could be written into a book and ignored. He didn’t do it so that we can say, “Oh, what a good guy Jesus was!” No. He did it to show us how to live life in a way that pleases God. He went to the death so we can see how far his teachings and good works stretch. It was out of the love of God and the sin of human hearts that Jesus was put to death. The very message of the cross is love. It is the love of God that covers our sin.

We have the potential to be so evil that we even crucified God… God chose to forgive us. God put his son through drastic measures to show us how much God values us. God’s love restores us. It brings us to God and causes all things to work together. This is the Gospel. Jesus Christ died so your sins could be forgiven. This is what Good Friday is all about.

As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If someone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’” Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.

As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

They replied, “Its master needs it.”They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it. As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road.

As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. They said, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord.Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”

Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop!”

He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.”

Luke 19:29-40 (CEB)

I’ve always enjoyed Palm Sunday, even before I knew it’s significance. This paints an odd picture of this penniless man from Nazareth that started a movement that completely changed the face of the planet. Jesus rode into the Holy City on the colt of a donkey and was greeted not as a pauper, not as a stranger, not as a trouble maker, but as a king. What is the significance? It’s hard for us to see today after the great successes of the Christian movement. With how ornate our churches have become, we have the tendency to forget the humble beginnings of our faith.

Jesus was no stranger to controversy. He was a trouble-maker that ended up getting himself killed. Now as harsh as that sounds, it’s the truth. Jesus is loved by billions today, but he used to be despised by those he crossed. He corrected many. He interpreted the scriptures in a new way causing some of the more traditionally-minded people to have a hard time accepting it. He lifted up the lowly and down-trodden and spoke against those with power. Yet at the same time, he loved. He taught. He healed. He put others before himself. As despised as he was, there were still many who recognized the man he was.

While entering the Holy City of Jerusalem, he was greeted by the people who’ve heard of his good works. They waived and laid down palm branches at the feet of the donkey he was riding and they shouted “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!” Their shouts were yelled out in reverence and in sincerity, but even they did not realize Jesus’ worth, for Jesus said, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.” All creation knew of the glory of Jesus, even while humanity was blind to it.

But Jesus was right. This trouble-making miracle worker from Nazareth was worth more than our limited minds could understand. The stones could cry out to Jesus because they recognize their creator. Yet even the creator of all that is known and unknown became limited so we could better understand God. It took Almighty God becoming human for us to understand the love of our creator… God became flesh and bone and was given the name ‘Jesus’. And Jesus lived a servants life, showing us that God is for us. We may worship God, but we have to remember that it is God that takes care of us. And as a servant, Jesus was praised as king on the road coming down from the Mount of Olives, though, these people praising him were unaware that in only a few days time, he would be dying the death of a criminal by their own hands.

What a humble life Jesus lived. He taught us what true power looked like. It looks like feeding the hungry at a soup kitchen. It looks like visiting the convicted felon in prison. It looks like giving your coat to the beggar on the sidewalk. It looks like visiting a stranger in the nursing home. It looks like taking care of the beaten man on the side of the road. It looks like loving your enemies. It looks like turning the other cheek when someone wrongs you. All in all, it looks like treating others as if they are better than yourself… because as Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you do it to me.” True power is seeing everyone as they were created to be- an image and likeness of God. If we can’t do this, then even the stones will become greater than us. After all, we are all nothing more than dirt anyway.

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Well, you won’t find that in the Bible. Not everyone is able to help his/herself. I prefer “God helps those who need help.”

Maybe that’s not quite accurate either.

One thing I know for sure is that God helps. Perhaps not in ways we would expect God to help, but God does help. It took me awhile to learn this, but God doesn’t always send manna and quail from Heaven. God doesn’t always lead as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. God won’t always have a fish swallow us whole to put us in the right direction… But God always does one thing.

God calls.

God calls us to work; God works through us. Why?

Because we are able and empowered.

It doesn’t take a miracle to feed the hungry. It doesn’t take some mysterious wonder to love the unlovable. We ask why God let’s all this happen, but the truth is, we let it happen. Why?

Because we ignore God’s call.

God calls us to reach out to the least and the lost, even in radical ways, if needed. The Holy Spirit leads us to be ministers. We are ministers to all the people… We are ministers to one another. We are ministers to those who don’t think like us. We are ministers to those out of our own country. We are ministers to our enemies. We give to the poor, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit those in prison, and tend to the sick. Why?

Three reasons.

1. It’s being a decent human being.
2. It’s what God calls us to do.
3. Whatever we do to the least of these, we do it to God.

This shows God’s nature. God suffers when people suffer… because we are perfectly able.

Click Here

The link above is to Compassion International’s website. If you are interested, sponsor a child. It’s $38.00 a month and that helps the child’s family and helps to put the child through school. It’s such a small sacrifice to help a person in need.

I’ve been sponsoring a child from Guatemala: Martin. Martin has been a blessing in my life. He writes to me every so often, letting me know what is going on in his life. It helps to make me realize that the small things really do matter.

For Christians, compassion is a necessity. If you haven’t yet, please consider this ministry.

God bless!

… I need a little prompting. Ask me anything!

Gosh this is so creepy!

On Ash Wednesday, my wife and I found out that a good friend of ours was arrested on charges of sexual battery. He allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a 15 year-old girl. To make matters worse, he was her youth pastor.

This happens far too often… a teenage girl approaches her youth director asking for advice in her current relationship, the youth leader doesn’t take precautions and delves into territory he shouldn’t be in to begin with, the girl confides in her youth pastor and becomes emotionally invested, and because the youth pastor let his guard down, bad things happen that could have been avoided.

This is a very heart-breaking scenario. This is exactly what happened in my friends case. This particular girl came to him seeking advice for her current relationship. He then began helping her with her homework, and that led to private dinners, and that led to gift giving and watching movies at his house. This inevitably (allegedly) ended in an inappropriate relationship. My wife and I are so sad right now, both for the girl and for our friend.

One thing we know is that our friend is not a monster. He is not a predator. What he did (allegedly) is not in his character. Sometimes, even the best of Christians make mistakes that affect the rest of our lives… and sometimes, we even drag others down with us. Tesia was reading many stories in the news regarding our friend. Many of the comments that were being made on these websites were being made in ignorance. It was very sad for her to see these comments, especially because these people do not know him at all. They don’t know his heart. They don’t realize that they are just as capable of sinning and falling a long distance as anyone else. I refuse to read these comments because I’m afraid of what I’ll find… and I pray to God that our friend will never see these comments being made about him.

We really hope he doesn’t lose his faith over this. He was in his last semester of seminary. He was a Conference Resident (which in the UMC, is kind of a big deal). He was very successful in helping to grow his church. He was energetic, passionate, and was very genuine in his faith. He had a very bright future ahead of himself and he let it all go. I don’t know what to expect with him now. Even worse, I’m sure he doesn’t know what to expect from himself now. His career is essentially over, and if found guilty, he would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life… all because of a brief moment of stupidity that could have been avoided.

It all hit me during our Ash Wednesday service… My wife and I were both pretty emotional over this. It’s really interesting though… When we become broken, we are humbled and we are able to come to God. Our professing, our singing, our prayers all became much more real to us in our moment of brokenness. We became aware of what it was that we were saying and singing, and we meant it with our entire being. We knew that God was with us in that time.

But this isn’t about us. This is about our friend. My prayer is that that he becomes broken from this experience, but I hope he seeks out God. God will mend him and make him strong again. He is way too gifted to throw his entire life and ministry away like this. Perhaps, when this is all said and done and he is ready, he could possibly make a good prison minister. We’ll see. Who knows what God holds for the future.

Please pray for our friend and his family. Also, pray for the girl and her family as well. Many are affected by this, and we need to see that God’s goodness and grace is still here for all to take part in.

For the past few years, I’ve been trying to be very intentional on giving something up for lent. When I was younger, I never gave anything up because I felt that the practice was somehow legalistic, and that God really doesn’t care whether or not we give something up. After thinking about it, year after year after year, it became clear to me why such a practice is important to our faith. I think the truth is, all those years that I was making excuses, I was actually just really lazy.

For 40 days, we are asked to give something up that we’ve placed as an idol in our lives. It isn’t supposed to be easy. I know many who’ve given up peas because they aren’t going to eat them anyway… Whether or not these people are serious is another story, but the point I’m making still stands- If you give up something that’s easy to give up, why bother? Like last year, I plan on giving up sweets. This is a big deal for me, especially because I can barley go a day without a giant bowl of ice cream. Last year, I lost six pounds by giving up sweets (along with semi-regular exercising), and I felt like a healthier, more physically and spiritually fit person because of it. Now, what constitutes as a sweet? Well, I’m not going to have any dessert. I won’t drink any pop. I won’t snack. I won’t eat candy. I won’t even grab a doughnut from the hospitality table in church. I just plan on abstaining from sweets for the entire 40 day period. However, I am allowing myself 1 grace day a week where I can have something sweet, within reason. This will keep me focused on my goal, while still feeling blessed with God’s goodness and grace.

There are many benefits to fasting. Giving up something for lent is like replacing one idol for a little more of God. Now, while that alone is worth the bore and the irritation of fasting, I also believe it helps to put me in tune with Christ’s suffering. Our idols become a part of us. We allow them to own us, and being ripped away from them causes us to suffer. We feel as if we can’t go on, as if we can’t make it another day without that part of us that we crave. For me, it’s as if I’m right there with Jesus as he’s hanging on the cross. I can easily see his suffering, his weakening, his breaking… because to a much lesser extent, I’m suffering too. And isn’t that the nature of creation? We suffer because things aren’t as they were intended. Our suffering is a cry out to God. Jesus is our answer, letting us know that God hears.

None of this is to downplay Jesus’ suffering. Not eating sweets is nothing like bleeding and suffocating while hanging on a cross. Though the symbolism behind it has a vast spiritual impact.

What are you giving up for lent?

Read this article today.

If you don’t want to read it, it’s about a pastor who came a restaurant with a large group so an 18% gratuity was tacked on to his bill. Upon receiving his bill, he scratched out the automatic gratuity and wrote “I give God 10%. Why do you get 18?”

It’s people like this that make people hate Christians.

Not only is this a misunderstanding of tithing, it’s a misunderstanding of how we relate to God and one another. God doesn’t demand we pay a certain amount to make God happy. God wants us to give out of the joy and generosity of our hearts. Not only that, but I recall Jesus saying, “For what you’ve done to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you’ve done unto me.” So, essentially, if we give a waiter a crappy tip, we are in fact giving God a crappy tip.

I’ve heard that many waiters and waitresses hate working on Sunday morning and afternoon because the Christians come in after church and they are rude, unkind, and leave poor tips. That’s not good. I really hope to see the Holy Spirit move in the Body once again. We shouldn’t be known for that, but instead be known for our kindness, generosity, good works, devotion to God, and our love. I really pray for that time to come, and I pray for that spirit in myself.

If you are a Christian, please tip well. It really is important.

“Being saved is trusting in what Christ did for us, but being Christians is dependent on the way we respond to what he did for us.” -Tony Campolo

… I want people to know Jesus. Am I splitting hairs? I don’t think so. Following Jesus has nothing to do with conversion. Jesus doesn’t want us to convert. Jesus wants us to be real.

This post is inspired by @flapper_femme_fatale

There are plenty of things a Christian ought to do. We have three primary focuses.

1. To worship
2. To help create Heaven on Earth
3. To make disiples

So what of Jesus’ command to go and make disciples?

You can’t make a disciple without a person first becoming a believer. It can’t happen. Discipleship is following Jesus. We can aid people in their discipleship, but we can’t make a person a believe. Christians were never commanded to make believers. Becoming a believer is a response to God’s call on our lives. God calls every single one of us; the Christian, the Jew, the Muslim, the Atheist, etc… No matter where you are in life, God calls you to respond. As a Christian, I believe that God calls everyone to know Jesus Christ. We simply respond. We can’t force God’s work.

That’s our only job as Christians; to respond to God’s calling.

So what does responding to God’s call look like?

Well, look at Jesus. Do your actions reflect Jesus’? If not, that’s a problem, because that’s what a Christian response would look like. This is where many who try to convert others get it terribly wrong. I see it all the time. I hear it all the time. Christians telling others they will go to hell… Christians talking behind a non-believer’s back… Christians trying to gain the upper hand while putting others down. Look at Jesus’ character. How would Jesus respond? Our actions should reflect that. All of this is counterintuitive to a “Converter-Christian’s” supposed goal.

Not what Jesus looks like

Jesus is the perfect example of the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. When engaged in inter-religious dialogue, if our words, thoughts, or actions are in direct dissension with any of these characteristics, we are acting in response to ourselves, not in response to God. And if we are not acting in response to God, there is no sense in inter-religious dialogue anyway because we will end up making more of a mess. And people wonder why so many people despise Christians! It’s because we’ve tried to do too much on our own accord, and it is done for all the wrong reasons!

See, trying to convert others is a lot like trying to balance on top of a ball that is on top of a balance beam. Perhaps really skilled people can master this technique, but for the other 99.99% of us, it is better to try another approach to get from point A to point B. There is an easier, less painful way, and all it takes is simply walking from one side to another sans the balance beam and ball.

Many Christians have trouble talking with those who don’t believe. The truth is, it’s actually very simple to get along with those who don’t think like you. Because of this, I complied a list of do’s and dont’s.

Do
Listen to God first
Tell others about Jesus
Treat others as if they are better than you
Act in humility
Embrace the fruit of the Spirit
Get to know others, bond with them
Admit when you aren’t acting as Christ would act
Try to live as a Christian should
Love

Don’t
Try to Convert
Have an agenda
Threaten others with hell
Talk behind others backs
Talk down to others
Drag on and on about the scripture that the others may not believe in
Enter a conversation simply for the sake of argument

There are others to add to both lists, but these are the lists that I try to remember.
It is God’s desire for everyone to know Jesus. Likewise, it is my desire for everyone to know Jesus. We just need to be sure that the ends justify the means. I don’t want to scare people into believing in Jesus. I don’t want to guilt them into it. I don’t want to rub my beliefs in their faces. I just want to live how Jesus lived, and that is how I plan on witnessing what I believe to those who don’t.