Good Quote

“To the gals in clear heels, to the guys in clear heels, to the drunks, the addicts, the perverts, the victims, the porn stars, the prostitutes, the adulterers, the thieves, the obese gluttons who think that a waist is a terrible thing to mind, the Twilight fans, the murderers, the mama’s boys, the losers, the freaks, the geeks, people who think wrestling is real, red necks, guys who own action figures, chain smokers, everyone who does not use a turn signal while texting and talking on the phone in their car, men who live with their mother, women who get paid in $1 bills, dudes in dresses—” seen it at Mars Hill, “Democrats, Republicans, the guys at the gym who walk around the locker room naked singing Bon Jovi’s 'Living on a Prayer', Mormons and anyone else who wears sacred underbritches, whoever is responsible for the creation and ongoing sale of men’s Lycra biking shorts, guild leaders, yoga instructors, witches, pot heads, meat heads, crack heads, deadheads and meth heads, Trekkies, people who don’t recycle, the rainbow-loving, tree-hugging, Prius-driving leftists, and religious people who do not know what I am talking about because these subjects were not on Little House on the Prairie or covered in their home school co-op, I have good news for you: You’re welcome at Mars Hill. Jesus loves you. You’ll fit right in and because he died for all your sins, you get to repent."

A closing remark from a sermon called "Jesus Loves Sinners" by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. Go here if you want to listen to the entire sermon.

God bless,

Steve

The "S" Word

SIN! We don't like to talk about it. We like talking about the love of Jesus more than the presence of sin in our own hearts and lives. We as people do not like looking at our own sin. We avoid it and it makes us feel awkward and exposed. We don't like being exposed. Christian Science, a religion I grew up in, actually believes that sin is an illusion. Isn't that crazy?

I think it is, because sin is most definitely NOT an illusion. If you put a child in a room alone with a freshly painted wall with a sign next to it saying, "DO NOT TOUCH! WET PAINT!" I guarantee you that child will touch that wall.

Sin is real. It's in you, and it's in me. It's been in us ever since Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God by eating fruit from a tree. Some people call that a fairy tale, and I'm not going to lie, in a way it sounds like it. However the more I look at myself and my sin, the more I see the reality of what Adam did on that tree.

What's crazy about sin and how it affects us is that we not only do terrible things, but we encourage other people to do terrible things too. It's in our nature to make other people stumble. In Isaiah 53:6 it says, "We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way." Also in Romans 1:32, Paul says about us, "They know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Remember though Paul says "they" in this verse, he is not discounting himself or looking at himself as being less sinful than them. The rest of his letter to the Romans makes that clear.

Now, you probably read in that Romans verse that "those who practice such things deserve to die." It sounds extreme, right? We deserve death? Why? What did we do?

It's funny because we say death is an extreme punishment for doing wrong against God, but have we ever wished death on someone who has done wrong to us? We love seeing justice and seeing people get what they deserve for the crimes they've committed. Someone does wrong against us and we demand that justice be served against them. We watch Law & Order, see the bad guy go down and we love it. However as soon as the justice card is flipped on us, we get defensive and say that it's too extreme. That is a flaw in our logic and it is a result of our sin.

So we're all sinners. It's in our nature and we're born right into it. God is perfect and despises sin, so by default God should despise us. Is there a solution? Are we just left to rot in the filth of our own immorality?

The second part of that verse in Isaiah 53:6 says this, "and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Who is this "Him"? It's Jesus Christ! God sent His only Son on a rescue mission to save our souls. So God should despise us, but in reality God loves us deeply and desires to restore us not only from our own sin, but also to Himself. The perfect God of the universe actually wants a relationship with us, the sinful people. So He sent Jesus to live a sinless life and then He died a brutal death on a cross, bearing not only the physical pain of His execution, but more importantly the spiritual pain of the wrath of God that we deserve.

So what should we do? I'll close with the chorus of a favorite hymn:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace."

God bless,

Steve

Happy Happy Joy Joy

So lately times have been tough for me. And when I say tough, I don't necessarily mean horrible, like stuff is falling apart at the seams. Things have just been a little on the inconvenient side. For one thing, money has been tight. I just barely pay the bills, and when I say barely I mean BARELY. I start fundraising for Edgecorps in the fall, but to tell you the truth, I'm broker than an Edgecorps intern right now. I know God will provide, but this tight financial situation gets annoying sometimes.

I also drive A LOT. I drive 35 minutes to work at a pharmacy, get there and then drive around again for 2-3 hours because I'm a delivery driver. Then after that I either drive back home or drive 20 minutes to Willimantic to see people at Eastern. Even on Sunday, my day off from work, I drive because my home church is in Willimantic. Driving gets old fast sometimes, especially because it's my job.

Like I said I'm starting ministry in the fall and starting training and fundraising in June, but until then I'm just sitting and waiting. I'm not going to lie, I get a little impatient sometimes.

However who is on the throne? God is. Who has the best intentions for me no matter what happens? God does. The thing I love about the Bible is that it's full of flawed, real individuals who all fall short of God's standards. There are people in there who have no problem asking God, "Why is this happening to me?" They aren't disrespecting Him, they just want to know. It also has people who even though they don't even hear a direct answer from God on why it's happening, they continue to rejoice in God's provision and grace. It's amazing!

Now I'm also a music guy. God speaks to me a lot through songs and one of them lately has been a song by a hip-hop artist named K-Drama. The song has a clip from the classic Nickelodeon Show Ren and Stimpy and it's called "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy." It's kind of a goofy song, but it's a good one to listen to for a good laugh if you're having a bad day. A good line from it that K-Drama drops goes like this:

"My car CD player broke, so did my portable.

My phone freezes up because of the car,

Guess it's no longer supportable.

Plus the screen on my TV cracked,

Call it a crack bail.

Rent's due next week, sometimes it's that scary!

Money's short, bills are high, dishes stackin' to the sky,

Toilet leakin' on the carpet, landlord leaves me and I want to cry.

But no matter the depth, and no matter the length,

The joy of the Lord is my strength!

HOLLA AT YA BOY!"

So sometimes things just get frustrating, things just get annoying, but in coming to God as we are, He gives us that joy and that strength to make it through. One of my favorite verses goes like this:

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments." -Habakkuk 3:17-19

So God's got my back and He's on the throne. I wouldn't want to have it any other way. HOLLA AT YA BOY!

God bless,

Steve

Easter Sunday Reflections....

This Easter Sunday morning I found myself with that same hardness of heart again.

It's funny how sometimes we can get so caught up in the tradition of Christianity sometimes that it really can harden our hearts. We find ourselves going through the motions. Even in service this morning I found myself struggling with that. You know, sometimes I really tend to focus too much on the blood, guts and gore of the crucifixion. The whole method of it is very intriguing, I'm not going to lie. And it was really an extremely brutal death that Christ faced for us, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what makes the Christian faith totally worth it.

What was even more amazing than the crucifixion was Jesus' resurrection because He didn't have to come back, but He did. It showed that God is a God who keeps His promises. Jesus said He would die a brutal death and then rise again and He did just that. It also was the exclamation point on Jesus' sacrifice. He didn't just die, but He beat death!

So what does that mean for us? In 1 Corinthians 15:16-19, Paul writes to these people on the value of the resurrection from the dead: "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

Whoa, did you read that? Maybe you should read it again. The resurrection of Christ brings faith in Him to a whole new level because according to that verse, it doesn't just give us hope for this life, but for the life to come. It shows that eventually we who are in Christ will also have brand new glorious bodies like Christ. That is amazing!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a reason to live. It gives us a reason to lay our lives down for Christ and live for something greater. We don't just "get by" by "pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps", but we abundantly live the life that God desires for us to live. This is, of course, when we decide to lay our lives down before Him saying, "I'm yours."

Will that be you? I hope so....

God bless and Happy Easter,

Steve

Good Friday Reflections....

I know it's been awhile.....

So today is Good Friday. This is the day where we remember Jesus' selfless sacrifice on the cross. As like what it says in 2 Corinthians, Jesus Christ "who knew no sin became sin for us".

Isn't it hard sometimes to truly reflect on this truth? I know that may sound crazy, but I really woke up this morning with a hardness in my heart toward the power of the cross, treating it like it was "old news". Of course it's not old news!

In hopes of getting out of this "funk" I was in, I sat down this morning and read through some of the popular passages of the Bible, starting with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament. Something that caused me to pause and reflect on was what Jesus' reactions must have been as He read from these passages during His time on earth. In the 30 years before His ministry, He spent a lot of time growing in wisdom and stature, and one of those ways was reading and analyzing scripture. We see this in Luke 4 as He stands and reads from Isaiah in a synagogue in His hometown. Jesus would not have been able to do something like this back in those days unless He was an avid scholar of the scriptures, so it shows that He did spend a lot of time analyzing them.

So anyways, as Jesus' eyes were edging toward these passages, I almost picture His heart racing. Maybe He was even sweating in anticipation. Since He was and still is God, I know that while reading those passages He knew that this would be Him. I can imagine that He was especially moved by the graphic language and depictions in Psalm 22 with phrases like "all my bones are out of joint" and "they have pierced my hands and my feet". He was not only moved because He knew it was about the upcoming Savior of the world, but because He WAS that Savior!

I'm sure that during His time reflecting and praying in the garden, sweating blood from extreme emotional distress, those passages were the ones He was reflecting on. This was because He was about to LIVE out those very passages. His hands and feet were going to be pierced. Or as it says in Isaiah 53, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities" (v. 5). Jesus was that man whose "appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness."

That was Jesus on the cross. He knew it the entire time going up to that hill to be nailed to that cross and He did it freely. He did it for us. He did it for Him.

It was a rescue mission for mankind, that many witnesses at the time thought had failed, but really it was at the pinnacle of its success. Jesus bore the wrath of God that all mankind deserved on that cross with those metal spikes in His wrists and feet. He was up there for six hours just barely trying to breathe as people there were mocking Him incessantly. The pain of that was nothing compared to the true pain that He experienced of the loving Father of His turning His face away. Jesus Christ actually experienced the true scorn of God that we deserve.

I encourage you today to really take a moment today and linger on the thoughts of the power of the cross. Don't just shrug them off. Reflect on what the Wondrous Cross means for you.

God bless,

Steve

What is Heaven without Jesus?

The Way of the Master ministry is very well-known for its evangelizing techniques. One of the main things they start off with is asking people whether or not they think they're a good person. Then they ask this: "Do you think you're good enough to go to Heaven?"

Now, I am not downplaying what The Way of the Master does. If it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't even know where to start with witnessing to others about Christ. However can it be possible to focus too much on Heaven and not on the God behind Heaven?

The Bible is totally all about being close and intimate with God. He is holy and sovereign and good. He is also relational, as it is even shown in the three separate persons whom He is composed of. They are all individuals, but all work and commune harmoniously together.

God desires a relationship with us. And it is not because God needs a relationship with us. He doesn't need us, especially after we have sinned and screwed up so many times against Him. However God wants to be with us. That is why He sent His Son to die for us. Nahum 1:2 says, "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God" This does not mean that God is an obsessive, abusive control freak. This is especially the case when you look at the context of this verse. What this verse is saying is that God is jealous for our affection and will do absolutely anything to obtain it. This is almost like a man seeking the affection for another woman as his bride. He will do absolutely anything he can to win her affection: buy her dinner, get her flowers, buy a $3,000 engagement ring, etc. The same goes with God. His jealousy also went as far as sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to provide that way to Him. He did so by His death. He died and bore the wrath of God. He took that vengaence that God should rightly have against us. He took it and through Him we are set free from our sins.

There is more to Christ's selfless sacrifice than just our sins being wiped away. We are now free to seek God no matter where we are. We could be in a church service lifting our hands, or we could be at home eating breakfast in a bathrobe with morning breath and a bedhead. God meets us where we are at. He hangs out with us, He encourages us, He just plain shows affection to us.

Have you ever felt the warm embrace of God? I have. There was one time a few weeks ago when I woke up in the middle of the night really distressed. I was worried about a lot of things concerning money and these next few months. I knew it was wrong and confessed it to God in tears. As I was weeping, I felt God's warm embrace and His peace all around me. I felt warmth like no blanket or heating system has ever given me before. All my muscles relaxed and I felt peace. This was God's peace. I believe He was holding me and hugging me.

So will Heaven be nice? Absolutely. But Heaven won't be nice because of tricked out streets of gold, seeing old friends long gone and not having to deal with the burdens of this sinful world. Heaven will be nice because of Jesus Christ! I'll be able to see Him face to face! I'll be able to walk with Him, talk with Him, ask Him questions, and did I mention WORSHIP HIM?! I'll be seeing that beautiful throne like what John describes in Revelation as Jesus sits upon it. Not only that but I can freely approach that throne without fear of rejection or anything like that because Jesus Christ has redeemed me.

So going to Heaven is not just about comfort. It is about Jesus Christ. If you think Jesus Christ is not in Heaven, then you are not thinking about Heaven.

"Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
-Psalm 73:25-26

Wise Quotes from a Wise Man

The other day I found my first journal I started writing in after becoming a Christian. For those of you who don't journal, you should. I'm not talking about blogging, but journaling. Buy a compositional notebook or something, study the Bible, and write out your thoughts about what you read on there. You can just write out your thoughts too during times when you're not reading the Bible and can even write prayers to God. Journals are a very simple and effective way to get your thoughts organized.

But anyway, while I was looking through my first journal, I stumbled across the sermon notes from my first Winter Navigators' Conference in 2006. The man who spoke there was a wise man by the name of Skip Gray. It is amazing because every time when I read these notes over, I can still hear his voice. He spoke in a very slow and methodical way, and did not go on many tangents like I do. My dream in life when I get old and gray is to not sit in a nursing home watching daytime TV all day, but to be a man like him. I encourage you to just stop and think over these quotes and see what they mean to you. I know things are busy, but just take a minute and reflect. Check out some of what he says:

"The opposite of love is not hate. It's indifference."

"Slow down and become involved in other people's heartaches and problems."

"Dead Sea Believer--a saved Christian not involved in the lives of other people." (this one is a paraphrase, not a direct quote)

"All of life is sacred."

"Everything in life is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master."

"You need the team more than the team needs you." (talking about fellowship and accountability)

"You cannot live right, but believe wrong."

"We're all amateurs. We're all a work in progress."

"Truth is not to be kept, it is to be shared."

"Unless you let people [come] close enough to handle you, you'll never bring them closer to Christ.''

"Your short term goals depend on your long term goals."

"Faith is only as valid as its object."

"Patience has to do with your view of God. Is God in control of your life?"

"People learn more about the grace of God by watching you and me handle heartache rather than watching us embark in success."

"Have you ever had an argument with someone who wasn't there? You always win, don't you?"

"Do your own thing."
"No, do His thing."

So there it is. I thank God for Skip Gray. I remember one time after the last session people were socializing in the lobby and Skip and one student were sitting and talking by the fireplace. I came back into that room an hour later after doing something and Skip and that student were still sitting there, but about 30 or so students had joined them and were sitting all around him listening to what he had to say. By God's grace and power, I hope I can be like that one day.

Here are some proverbs from the wisest man who ever lived, next to Jesus. I encourage you not to just glaze over them, but to take a minute and just think about each one as you read it.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." -Proverbs 9:10

"The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death." -Proverbs 12:14

"Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life." -Proverbs 16:31

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense." -Proverbs 19:11

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." -Proverbs 24:3-4

"Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off." -Proverbs 24:14

"Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear."
-Proverbs 25:12

"A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth." -Proverbs 29:3

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."
-Proverbs 31:30

I talk a lot on these blogs, but sometimes it's best to let God's Word speak for itself.

God bless,

Steve