Friday, March 23, 2007

Grace:Peace/Gravity:Falling

If Paul could sum up the Gospel in two words I think they would be “Grace” and “Peace.” That is what we discovered in our Sr. High Bible Study over Galatians this past Monday night. In Paul’s salutation to the churches in Galatia, he starts off by saying, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is why I think Paul would sum the Gospel up in these two words. You might even call them the “cause and effect” of the Gospel. Grace is given to us by God (Romans 5:8) and the outcome of grace in our lives is peace…peace that allows us to rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:1-5). After recognizing this simple cause and effect of the Gospel I ran across this quote.

“What are we to make of Christ?” C.S. Lewis asked, and then answered, “There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story. What are we to make of Jesus Christ?” – Lewis, God in the Doc

What it comes down to is…when the fact of grace is staring you in the face, are you going to allow it to make a difference in your life or are you going to simply do it all on your own? I feel like I so often do it all on my own and once I’ve really just botched it all up I then try to let Jesus work on me. It is almost if I would just let Jesus do what He has always planned on doing with my life I would have a lot less headaches and a lot more peace.

We’re called to live out this grace for others to see in our lives. As we start looking at how we can reach the world for Christ we must first look at ourselves and see if anyone is going to be seeing the Gospel. I leave you with another quote I found in my morning Bible reading this week.

“What we are shapes what we do and what we do is so noisy people hardly hear what we say except from a distance.”

Ryan

Friday, March 09, 2007

I love...lamp

I love lamp! I love…lamp. Ryan, do you really love lamp or are you just adhering to today’s pop-culture? I’m really not sure what you are talking about. You’re just looking around the room and saying you love the first thing that you see. Maybe you should make a Napoleon Dynamite reference next. Your Mom makes Napoleon Dynamite references. Leave me alone, ahh!
Life has been interesting…I graduated from University, watched a number of friends get married, moved to the east coast, made a big backpacking trip before that, turned 23 a few weeks ago…I’ve got the rest of my life ahead of me. I realize that at some point during the last year I became a real boy. Pinocchio reference…good one. You’ll soon be running around with a high pitched voice proclaiming, “I’m a real boy,” and doing little jigs. Go away…I’m trying to tell a story.
Twelve years ago, this past Thursday, I was baptized into Christ and gave my life to Him. A good portion of that time I did what I could to be a “good Christian.” I spent a lot of my time doing religious things, wearing religious stuff, and talking religious talk, all the while I felt I was just looking around saying, “I love Jesus.” You mean you were just seeing Jesus and saying that you love Jesus. Yes…kinda…go away.
In my attempts at my Christian walk I have come to realize that I’ve spent a lot of my time merely saying, “I love Jesus,” in the same way that I love a good cup of coffee. The difference is…I talk about coffee a lot; I spend a good amount of time with coffee, I tell people about my coffee, and share my coffee with my friends. It seemed as though I was more obsessed with coffee then I was with Jesus. Think about some of the things you “love.” How does this compare with your love for Jesus?
My best friend was dating a girl that he thought he was in love with. I was pretty sure that he was because he talked about her all the time and spent all of his time with her. We took a road trip together to Colorado Springs and I’m pretty sure she was the topic of conversation for more than half of the trip. I could tell he kind of liked her.
They got married so I guess he liked her. Ok, ok, I know he liked her. He’s crazy about her! I can see how real their love is for each other in the way that they act, in how they talk, in the constant smile on their faces. God has given us an amazing institution in marriage. He even calls us the Bride of Christ.
I have played with this idea of being “Christ’s Bride” in my head a lot. I have always understood that I made the commitment with Christ when I got baptized but the relationship aspect of it wasn’t really explained to me very much. When I really started to see myself as the living Bride of the living Christ I began to realize the extent of how much it hurts Him when I continue to do the stupid things I do in my life.
If someone asked Kent, my friend from before, if he knew Leah, his wife, he wouldn’t beat around the bush with his answer or be quiet with it so that he wouldn’t draw attention to himself. He would openly express that not only does he know Leah but that he is crazy about her, that he loves her, that he’s committed to her for the rest of his life.
I often have to question my zeal for my engagement with Christ. We, as Brides, need to show off our rings so that others might share in such a great engagement.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Special K and Double R

I was looking through some old CDs where I had saved a lesson plan I wrote back in college and ran across this story I wrote that more or less happened. It is about my friend and I one Saturday mornin....enjoy

Ryan

This is a story about a little guy who was born yesterday morning (9/10/05) around 5am. With the struggles of new life in front of him, he was born into a large family. Over the next few ours all of his brothers, sisters, cousins, and a distant chocolate covered aunt were sold to the likings of the highest bidder. After only seven hours of life our little fighter was about to be cast aside with the rest of the trash of this world…

This is the point in every story where one might be looking for a hero to appear!

This is one of those stories…but let’s back it up a bit shall we…

Two guys, charming and good looking (no those are not their names), woke up on a certain Saturday morning, ignoring the temptations of the world through Saturday morning cartoons, and set out on a journey that would change their lives…forever. Who are these heroes you might ask. I shant reveal their true identities so I’ll just give their super names, Special K and Double R. Their journey had a direct purpose…it was the kind of journey that only two college students, or little old ladies, could set out on. This was a journey of garage sailing.

As our two heroes ventured onward, sailing every garage they came across, Special K’s Super Nerd Senses went crazy! Special K looked at Double R and said, “Somewhere out there is a lost generation who was born early this morning! We must find them!” “But K,” Double R said. “It is high noon and it might be too late for us…wait!! I see Daylight down the street! We can check there.” “Good thinking! You’re such an awesome super hero…I just wish I could be as cool as you,” Special K exclaimed to Double R.

As K&R barge through the doors of Daylight, our heroes were just in time to save the lives of not just one of two little donuts, but 450 enslaved and neglected Daylight Donuts. Special K and Double provided joy for many tummies, gave these neglected donuts a proper home, and saved the world yet again.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Love...what it is?

This last weekend was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I posed as an “unapproachable teenager” for the weekend at a retreat in Texas. We wanted to see how the teens of three youth groups would treat me. Overall…they treated me like we thought they would. They avoided me, talked bad about me, made up rumors about me, and for the most part kept their distance from me…all while talking about seeking and saving the lost.
What is it that makes us see the outside of the person before ever seeing the inside? Have we become so much like the world that we look at the quality of the person’s exterior before examining their heart? My first two years of college I grew my hair out for Locks of Love. Most people, after being told what I was doing, thought that donating my hair was a pretty cool thing. Before learning that…most people just cast me off as a bum or deadbeat. I got a lot of comments from people, after getting to know me, that they would have thought I was someone else. I learned a lot those 15 months about how we judge people by their exterior.
In Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus talks about how the Pharisees are more concerned about cleaning their outsides to put on a face so that others would think they were clean through and through. Often it seems as though we apply that to others when we see them. When we start seeing each person as a creation of our Creator we will look past what they show themselves as and start to look at their heart and accept them as God’s creation and even help them become the perfection which God intends for them to be.
Go back and read I John 4:7-20 carefully. God is love. God’s love is made perfect when we love others. The way I read it, God is made perfect in the eyes of this world when we show love to others no matter if we think they deserve it or not. God is perfect but the world does not see that unless we, His people, show it to them.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Jesus, Matthew 22:37-39

Ryan