Secure Identity

I've been working on our upcoming youth retreat weekend, covering the subject of identity - Who am I in Christ? As with many things that pastors talk about, it is as relevant (or more) to me right now than perhaps the people I'm teaching.

In the past week I had a great discussion with a friend at seminary who used to be a youth pastor and is now a teaching minister in Toledo. I shared with him how much rejection from the teens hurts me, how I struggle when some leaders are more popular or more accepted by the teens than I am, and how I'm always trying to make everyone happy all the time. Obviously, I wasn't blind to how off-base this is, but I'm not going to deny those feelings aren't present.

My friend did a great job reminding me that no matter who we are or what position we hold, when we're saved our identities are made secure in Christ. I guess I'm trying to teach something I haven't quite learned myself, but that's how it goes sometimes, eh?

Colossians 2:9-10 has a little something to say on the subject: "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority."

We are made "complete" when we team up with Christ. Not partial, not mostly, not fragmented - our identity comes to a complete head when we see ourselves the way Christ sees us. Yeah, I'm not going to be the most popular guy, even in my own youth group. It's not, and never should be, a cult of personality. If they're there to be with me instead of being with God, something's not quite right yet.

My prayer for today is that I will learn to realize and accept this fact in my life, for Christ to overcome my insecurities and establish his own supreme lock over my life.

He Is Risen!

From Matthew 28:5-7 - The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

Do Not Be Afraid.

As children of God, we have no cause for fear that Christ will return to exact vengeance for his death or upon our sins. Instead, we are to be filled with peace that all is right, that God has triumphed over the forces of sin and death, and nothing that happens from now until the end of time will change that fact.

He Has Risen, Just As He Said.


Jesus is given powerful credentials in this sentence: not only did he resurrect himself from the dead, but he predicted his own death and resurrection far in advance. If this is not God, then what more do you need?

Come And See...


The angel delivers the first proof of Jesus' resurrection -- in today's terms, we'd call that "full disclosure". God has nothing to hide behind lies and obfuscation. He is a God of truth.


Go Quickly And Tell


This is a precursor to the more famous Great Commission at the end of the chapter. The angel instructs the women not to stay and ponder and wonder at the events of Easter morning, but to GO. To TELL. To share this wonderful news with those who are open to hearing it.


Happy Easter, everyone. He is risen, He is risen indeed!

Ack... I Know It's Been A While

And I have every desire to get back into daily devotions and blogging (see how easy it is to get distracted by "life"?). But I wanted to share this experience I had on Sunday night with the senior high youth group.

It's easy to get discouraged some weeks that no spiritual growth is occurring, that the teenagers are apathetic to the Word, and that we're just banging ourselves against an immovable wall in trying to share and model our faith for them. But weeks like this are highly encouraging.

In discussing Easter, I wanted to do something a little different, so I set up a room in the church to be a small sanctuary for our event. There was a cross on the ground, with candles all over it, and I tried to darken the room as much as possible. As the teens came in, I asked them to quiet down and take a sheet of paper to journal thoughts on.

We listened to Luke 22-24 over the course of 25 minutes from my audio Experience Bible. I felt nervous that teens living in a generation that's consumed with multimedia wouldn't be able to sit down and just *listen* for a half hour in the dark. But they did -- they were quiet and respectful and some of them wrote quite a bit on their sheets. At the end I opened it up for discussion, and slowly at first, but then more rapidly, the teens spilled their thoughts on the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It was totally amazing to hear them get past their apprehensions about discussing faith in front of each other to say some truly deep and thoughtful comments.

God was in that room that night, and I just sat back a bit humbled in the thought that he's going to work in their lives no matter how successful or unsuccessful I might be. As always, it's not about me, it's about him, and it was good.

Holy House

(This is a narrative I wrote on Acts 3 for class.)

My name is the Holy House – some call me the footstool of God’s presence. I don’t say this to brag, but just as a matter of fact. Within my walls lies the heart of Jerusalem, the focal point of all Jewish life. For over 500 years I’ve stood as a pillar of faith and learning in the One True God in the midst of a world that’s turned their back on truth and chosen destruction. I’ll be destroyed in a few more years, but don’t cry for me – I’ve seen some truly awesome events in my lifetime, never more than what recently happened.

You see, the faithful Jews – what there are these days, I suppose -- visit my courts for teaching, discussion, the three daily prayer sessions to Jehovah, and the two offerings of sacrifice for the forgiveness of the people. All sorts of people come through: rabbis and scribes, Pharisees and common folk, and, of course, the sick and the poor. I’m not just the heart of Israel because of what I represent, but because the life of the people literally flow in and out of my gates every day.

I hear and see a lot more than you’d give me credit for. For instance, I bet you would have never noticed Jerrod over there before today – he was just another one of a crowd of beggers who had to be carried in by relatives to make what living they could by begging alms from temple-goers. Jerrod wasn’t as bad as some, say the lepers, but he was cursed with lame, twisted feet. He saw life from ground-level, every day, and I looked down on him. So did many others, some who might’ve plunked a coin or two in his cup to gain religious merit for themselves, but they never truly cared for him.

Today, Jerrod began with his well-worn litany of pleas: “Spare some money for a lame man? Mister, won’t you take pity on me and dig into your pockets for relief?” He could hear the clinking of coins as the crowd shuffled on by. When he asked a pair of men for what they could spare, Jarrod didn’t even look in their faces when he said it. To look meant he had hope.

However, the men stopped and demanded his attention. I saw Jerrod’s face grow sharply interested – not many people stopped these days. I witnessed his shoulders slumping when they admitted they had no money to spare. And then Peter invoked the name of someone I’ve seen from time to time – Jesus of Nazareth – and Jerrod’s eyes bulged as his ankles shifted and regained normal form, and he sprang to his feet in delighted surprise.

I have no doubt that the Jesus who I saw circumcised as a baby, who cleaned out my courts from men looking to make a quick and dishonest buck from travelers, the man who Peter went on to say was the Messiah, was the true power of what I represent. Today, my courts rang out as a man rightly praised God, jumping and running everywhere for the first time in as long as he could remember. What others took for granted, he received as a miracle.

You see, in my courts, people lift up their prayers and attention to God, but so often forget that we worship a God who answers back. That man became part of the new temple of God, the living temple in whom God placed his Holy Spirit. Some would say I should be sad to see the torch passed, but I gladly accept it as a promise fulfilled.

Think On These Things

Philippians 4

(Having the flu just knocks your everything out of whack. But I'm back!)

Philippians has just great verse after great verse. Has a lot of "t-shirt verses" too, if you know what I mean. Verses that are catchy enough to be kidnapped and slapped onto Christian t-shirts. Do we get the "dog returning to his vomit" verse t-shirt? No sir. No sirree Bob.

Verse 8 - "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

The buzz word here is "edifying", and I've heard it a lot. The goal of a Christian's attention should be focused on things that are ultimately edifying to both ourselves and to God. We're not supposed to crave the depraved, the lies, the corrupt, the sinful -- just the opposite. Yet in a sinful world, isn't everything corrupt save God and the Bible? Yes, but God also grants the Christian a holy filter to be able to sift through what is untrue and focus on what is "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy".

I've gotten some flak over the years with my movie viewing habits. I watch some pretty bizarre and sometimes fairly unwholesome movies -- sometimes to critique them for others' benefits, and sometimes because I'm searching for that pure diamond in the rough. I think there's a serious case to be made that many movies (I won't go so far to say "all") have qualities that are listed in verse 8. Whether Christian or not, movies are crafted by people who were made in God's image, with God's creativity. The most ungodly person still has the gifts God's given them and can produce things of beauty and skill. These products can be testimonies for God just as much as anything I might produce, although I would hope that my creative efforts would be clearer in purpose and purity.

Verse 8 reminds us that not everything is worth sifting through, however, and we are left to the conviction of the Spirit, our common sense and conscience, and biblical instruction as to which things are worth discerning our way through.

In verses 11-13, Paul offers up a powerful testimony to how a Christian life is lived without worry or concern, but rather to be fully content in all things. He doesn't say that the Christian life is always peachy (verse 12 makes that clear), but that God will always give us strength for any situation, and he never abandons us.

Citizenship

Philippians 3

I'd like to think that Paul is expounding here upon Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:18-20 about "storing treasures in heaven". Echoing Jesus, Paul states in Philippians 3:1-8 that the things of this world ("the flesh") are ultimately rubbish, and he goes on in 3:9-21 to detail what is the true treasure we should be keeping our eye upon.
It's amazing how many things that I surround myself with every day are really the "rubbish" that Paul talks about. Computers, movies, internet, TV, really anything physical in this world will ultimately see destruction and eradication. Nothing is forever, except that which God sustains.

I'm reading a really great book called The World Without Us, wherein the author outlines what would happen if today -- for some reason -- all of the humans in this world were taken away to leave the planet to fend for itself. It's shocking how quickly all of what we consider permanent fixtures in our lives -- our houses, the cities, marks of civilization -- would fall into dust and be reclaimed by nature without our constant upkeep. Paul is expressing the same foresight, that we spend so much of our lives pouring our efforts into things that have an expiration date on them.

Yet while our earthly efforts and frail flesh will ultimately decay, this passage encourages us to "press on toward the goal to win the prize" -- citizenship in God's heaven. Our lives don't begin, not really, until we've reached that goal and are able to start experiencing true life in a way that we can only imagine right now.

In other words, if my life was a book, I think what years I spend on this planet would be a one-page prologue in front of a multi-multi-volume set that comes after.

Just Wanted To Remember This...

"True worship of God, Christians would agree, must worship God as He is, not as we might wish him to be." - Dr. Jelinek

"We must repudiate the root of Arian heresy: rationalism, the notion that one should believe only that which one can comprehend entirely." - R.S. Clark

"You can call a stone a chicken all that you want, you can want to believe it's a chicken, but at the end of the day the stone IS what it IS. A stone. What you believe doesn't change what IS." - me