undeserved.

So I started thinking about it, and in the process of being thankful, since that seems to be a popular topic this time of the year. But I was thinking about what we have to be thankful for, what we take for granted. The fact of it is the things that we're thankful for are also the things that we don't deserve. I think a lot of time we believe we deserve much more than we actually do.

For instance:

We don't deserve, yet are granted, as a free gift straight-up out of his grace.

Today: gift. When we woke up: gift. The air we breathe, right now: gift.

Yesterday was a gift. When you got up and put pressure on your legs and they held you up: gift.

When you walked to the bathroom this morning: gift.

When you used the bathroom successfully: gift.

If you think about it anything that others do or don't do and they by with:

(Mission trips do wonders for opening your eyes to this)

Having your food warm or hot: gift. Options with types of food: gift.

Groceries stores with 3 or more types of cereal: gift.

More to come later.

Reflections for faith.

I'm kinda having a rough time. I am a senior and am a little frustrated with the lack of progress I've made for the Kingdom while I was here. I know there's still time left, but I just keep seeing all the people who are hurting and all of my comfort I surround myself in. Too many people to reach, and not enough boldness or whatever it is that I'm lacking to reach them all.

I left a village in the desert, walking five miles to get reach the water reservoir. The village is thirsty, dry, barren, dying of thirst. I filled two gallon jugs with water and returned to the village.

What do I do?

I can give the whole village a drink of water, or I can hydrate two others enough that they can make the trek with me back to the reservoir and bring back six gallon jugs of water.

The sensible thing would be to hydrate the two others so that we can eventually hydrate the village again; in the process of this, I must say no to those dying of thirst. I must pass over those who need it just as bad. I must leave those looking for hope, portraying to them near hopelessness, but it is the best that I can do.

I feel like I've spent the last 3.5 years giving everyone a drink and not really hydrating anyone. It's kinda rough to think about the impact you could have had, had I been sold out. (I know that part of this is Satan trying to stop me or slow me down, but part of it I feel like God can use to inspire those around me.) I'm reading Hebrews 11 tonight. v13-16 is really good. It talks about how these great "heroes" of faith lived by that faith until they died. They never saw what they were promised. The vision they had never completed, but they weren't settlers, they were pursuers of a country of their own, a better country, a heavenly one. They kept on living in faith even though it never fully came through when they were there to see it, because they continued to live in faith, God was not ashamed to be called their God. That's what I want. I want to please God, with faith is the only possible thing, but I don't want to give up. I'm working on believing that he's still working and that it's still coming. Still discovering what's God's voice and what's not. What his plans are and how I can be a part of them. Amen. Nothing too great. Just honest. Double Amen.

Have you seen Jesus?

Taking him, [little child], in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." -Mark 9:36-37

As I'm trying to find Jesus, I'm searching for him. I asked how could I find him? How could I reconnect with him? How could I make this something really real and not just a thing I do in the morning?


Day before, God lead me to 1 John where he talked about how we know what God is that he lays down his life for his friends. How to Love God is to obey his commands, and his command is to "Love each other as I have loved you." Jn 15:14. So I was thinking about that, and then eventually forgot and just let it pass by, but God doesn't forget things very easily. He's more of the stick to it kinda guys. So he further developed this idea in my head so I wouldn't forget.


IF we want to see His heart on campus, we have to see Jesus on campus.
Yeah, so at first I went to ego-centric and thought, yeah, people should see us as Jesus on campus, then they could meet Jesus and we could be that light. I was sorta pumped, I mean I should be really pumped, but I had had that revelation before, but it wasn't really motivating and seemed like that's not what God was trying to emphasize. As I was reading in Mark 9 it came upon the verse we started with. "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
Then I began to think and realize, (God showed me), that to love others as he loved us is good in theory, but still we wouldn't treat them very well. We don't fully understand it. At least for me, I still would be "trying" but I would be burnt out easily, easily frustrated, lose patience, give up, and it wouldn't be very effective for very long. But what God was saying was, "How would you treat Jesus? If I walked into the room right now, how would you treat me? Would you keep on doing homework and just blow me off? Would you just keep watching TV? Would you go take a shower to try to avoid that awkward moment where you don't really have anything to say?. . . or would you stop and talk to me? would you ask me how my day was? and then listen because I really cared? . . . then why do you do it to your roommate?"
"If you saw me in the library, would you give me the quick heads up 'what's up?' then keep moving on? or would you stop and talk?"
"If I was walking behind you a ways, would you just walk through the door, or would you wait that extra few seconds to hold the door open for me?"
"If you were on the computer checking facebook or email, and I walked up and really needed a computer, would you think to yourself 'I waited my turn, what I'm doing is probably just as important as what You have to do' or would you say, 'here Jesus, you can have this one'?"
"Would you hand me a tray in the cafeteria if I walked up behind you?"
"If I passed you on your way to class, would you wave and say 'hi' and ask how my day was going? or would you just ignore me. Would you go the around about way so we didn't have to pass? Would you look off into the distance so we didn't have to make eye contact? Would you have your ipod turned up so loud that you didn't even notice me? Would you take your ipod out to acknowledge the fact that I'm there, or would you just keep 'rocking out' to music that talks about me instead? Do you even have your head up when we pass so that you could see me?"
"If I got on the elevator, would you break out your cell phone and start texting, read the time, just play around with it until we stopped so that we didn't have to talk?"
"Do you pay attention to me when I'm trying to teach in class? or are you doing your own thing?"


How many times in the day do I blow Jesus off. How many times a day do I pass Jesus and treat him like crap. If it was actually Jesus there is no way that I would do that, if I saw Jesus there, but yet, I do it to others. I do it to his creation. I do it to those made in his image, his likeness. I blow of Jesus all the time on campus, I ignore him most of the days.


"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me... I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the the least of these, you did not do for me." - Matt 25:42-45


How do we love others? We love God as he has loved us, and we love others as he has loved us. So in the same sense, it's proof that we are loving God by loving others. We are carrying out his heart. It helps me practically apply what it means to love others, if I could see or imagine them like Jesus then I think I know how I would treat the physical Jesus.


I saw this youtube video, not crazy about the song that goes with it, but look at these pictures. Look at their eyes. Look past their facial expressions and male or female. Look past their setting and surroundings. You can look past their features, look into their eyes and see Jesus looking back at you. You can read so many expressions by someone's eyes. You can see so many thoughts that Jesus portrays by his eyes, and it makes him a little more real.


Thats my prayer for today, well the rest of my life really. Is that I could see people, look them in the eyes and see Jesus looking back at me to remind me just how I should treat them, just how I should love them. Even when they're doing things extremely annoying or stupid, it's almost like Jesus is a character in the play and testing out roles, and when he is just really annoying you can meet him in his eyes and he looks at you saying "ok, now how do you respond? are you still willing to show the love I've given you?" It's looking past the person and their actions and behaviors to see the person inside. Like a play is how I think of it, it's just their character they're portraying, really they are a person inside, and that's who I am going to love.


But when I get to heaven, I'd like to hear:
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me....I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." -Matt 25:25-36&40


Today. I'm looking for Jesus on campus, I'm praying that I could see him and respond appropriately.

Love God.

This is a long complicated thought. But it ends in, Love God.

It started out with me realzing (God showing me), that i judge/measure other people by what they do. By their actions rather than who they are. Then I realized it was because I do the same thing with myself. I judge/measure myself by what I do rather than who I am. I find my worth in my ministry (what I do for God), rather than I'm his. It makes Him Loving me conditional, rather than unconditional. (I know that there's nothing I can do to be saved/earn salvation, but I still find myself trying to strive to be Loved.) So I try to find my worth and my accomplishments of what I do for Him, rather than who I am in Him.

(Bad Logic- I know, but this was my next thought process.) If you're a Christian who plays basketball and you define yourself and find your worth in being a basketball player, then God will probably remove basketball. Or basketball will be removed by Him or you. Then your forced to define yourself by something else, where God should and usually steps in. <- This works fine for basketball, not so good with "ministry." It more or less involved me saying, ok. So if I define myself by my ministry, by what I do. I won't do anything and then figure out what I am. . . . fail. - I tried to stop ministry to realign my focus but that didn't seem to work. I was just being disobedient. So I realized, I need to figure out how to find my worth outside of ministry without stopping ministry, by shifting mental gears.

I got to talk to J Hunt this morning, and talk some of this out. He is learning/dealing with the same thing. How do we give our all, without doing. Which if that doesn't make since, he put it another way which explains it a little better. "I try to love You with my efforts, rather than my heart." I should be loving you with my heart, and letting my efforts follow. Not that the efforts are bad, or are wrong, but that it's like putting the cart before the horse. God wants me not what I do. Jesus died for me not my ministry. So the question came up, "How do I love God?"

We hit the books, well just one book, but it's a good one.

How do I love God?

-"If you love me, feed my sheep." - John 21:17 (but that's still doing, and effort)

-"If you love me, you will obey what I command." - John 14:15

Obey what I command. Ok. Check the page over John 15:9-12.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will reman in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

Then in trying to figure that out. We were referenced/lead over to 1 John. Solid piece incase you were ever bored. 1 John 3:16-20

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

The thing that seemed to keep coming up over and over and over again was the fact of love each other. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." -1John4:7. It all comes down to loving people.

It's not doing ministry, it's just loving people.

When you hear serving God, what do you think of? I think of of church, of cru, of leading a bible study, of meeting with individuals, of being in the praise band, of leading cru, of hanging up signs. But did Jesus ever say to "do ministry"? or did he say Love people. So how do we love people? We love them by giving them what they need. What they need, not what they want. We seek and meet those needs. In the book "Starving Jesus," they specify that Christ-like love is giving someone what they need at great personal cost.

To Love:

the only love we express, is the love we've experienced.

Think about that, when our parents love us and hug us, so when we love someone we want to give them a hug. When, they give up work to come to our games, we love someone by putting off schoolwork and going to their game or their play or event. We just replicate the love that we've experienced. Most of it is, by doing stuff, by putting forth effort and showing our actions. But the only way we can love each other, the only way we can Love God is to understand and experience His Love.

So the question to figure out:

How do we experience and fully know God's love & how do we flect that back to Him and those around us?

What does it mean to Love?

Freedom is what we are given, but not what we should always use

Freedom:

1 Corinthians 8:1-12

Paul starts in by talking about food worshiped to idols. Ok so here's the scoop.

Back in the day there were actual idols, like a golden statue they thought could control stuff.

(Actually, kind of ridiculous to think about, like going to the mountain lion in front of the library and asking it to help your Mom with cancer. Yeah, I know right. Actually, we probably do that now, we just call it "luck," by smacking a sign that says "Play Hard" before taking the court, or rubbing the mountain lion by the field as you take it. I guess it's kind of the same thing.)

But they would sacrifice different types of meat to these statues/idols so that they would have a good harvest, good health, etc. After they symbolically sacrificed these animals to these statues and idols, they weren't just going to leave all these dead animals laying around, so they shipped them off to the marketplace. So many of the animals in the marketplace were symbolically "sacrificed." So some of these new believers, we'll call them "freshman Christians," were worried that by eating some of this meet that they were participating in some form of idolatry worship. I could see this as a valid point, if they had previously believed in these statues, and participated in this type of worship, then to have anything to do with it might seem like a "slip up" or that they still want to be part of it.

Paul understands that way of thinking and just brings a new perspective on it and says: "Ok, so, we know that there is one God. Only one. Others say there maybe some on earth or in heaven. But we know there is One God, and everything is from Him. right? (pauses for agreement) Then if God is the controller of the universe, than those "gods" have no power or control, and that they really are just a clump of scrap metal made into a statue. It doesn't really matter how the food was killed because killed to eat or killed for a pile of junk, the killing is not the point. Food doesn't bring us closer or further from God. It's not what he desires."

That's his first point that the rest is based off of. Jesus said the same thing in Matt 15:11 "What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean.' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean'." Kind of the whole "it's not the input, but the output that occurs that matters."

But now that we've got the initial background setting of how things worked and the issue that was being addressed, Paul talks to the upperclassmen about how we should deal with it. He says, "So you know that it doesn't matter, but be careful, because those who don't know that, may think your sinning and it cause them to sin. I know it's inadvertantly, but still we need to be aware. If someone, who Jesus died for, see's what you're doing, and they fall because of what you did or are doing, you just sinned against God."

Ben Parker says in Spiderman, "WIth great power comes great responsibility." Along those same lines, replace power with freedom. Paul says, "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Gal 5:1), so it's not that we're not suppose to be free, but that with Freedom comes great responsibility.

At first I thought, well this is bogus. Finally free, and now held down by responsibilities. Then God showed me it's the same thing in college. We're free from our homes and our parents restraints, free to do whatever we want, but we still have responsibilities. Actually now, we have more. Responsible to make sure we eat enough each day, get enough sleep, responsible to do our homework when we need to, responsible to make sure you plan classes so you graduate, responsible to check to make sure you have enough flex dollars, or enough money in the bank when you go to wal-mart. We're responsible for keeping our rooms clean, for doing our laundry, for changing the sheets, filling up the car with gas. Lots of responsibilities with all of this freedom.

So Paul notes this freedom and says. Don't be selfish, you have freedom, but if your freedom is going to cause someone else to fail, to fall, to sin, then your stupid and selfish to go ahead in that. Not only that, be you will be sinning against God. Jesus, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." (Luke 17:2)

It's not a self-defeating view, it's a others-centered view. We as upperclassmen, as more mature Christians need to live a life as an example, thats living with freedom and responsibility. Ft note in bible about 8:10-13 "Some actions may be perfectly alright for us to do, but may harm a Christian brother or sister who is still young in the faith and learning what the Christian life is all about. We must be careful not to offend a sensitive or younger Christian or, by our example, to cause him or her to sin." and here's the kicker of it all. "When we love others, our freedom should be less important to us than strengthening the faith of a brother or sister in Christ."

What are some of those things/sins that I do/could do that possibly young Christians could see as a stumbling block.

-having a drink

-missing church once or twice?

-skipping class

-freedom of speech

(with the freedom to say whatever you want to say, what are you saying? how are you using that freedom?)

-speaking in tongues (we have the freedom to, but sometimes it's beneficial for those around us to not)

-spending the night in a room of the member of the opposite sex over night (especially if you're dating), not having sex but how others will assume and then follow your example.

-"cussing" - certain words aren't in the Bible, but some people view as wrong when others don't.

What this does not include is: (the Bible is against for everyone)

-getting drunk

-sexual or perverted joking

-having sex with someone your not married with

-not going to church

-using God's name in vane

Look what I'm giving up...

You may think, well this is stupid. Why am I giving up everything I can do. Maybe I want to do it. I have the right to do it. True, Yes, yes you do. But this life isn't about you. Paul keeps on writing in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 about our freedoms and how we use them. He pretty much hits the essence of this here: "'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." (1cor10:23-24). Nailed it son. "For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." (v33b). How much of a humble servant is Paul. He lives not for his own good, but simply for the betterment of any of those around him.

We shouldn't come at this with super-sensitivity and paranoia, but with an awareness of others and a willingness to limit what we do when there is a real possibility of misunderstanding and offense. (It's like the first part he says don't cause someone to sin with your freedom, and here he's taking it a little further and saying only build each other up with your freedom.)

Well, I'm offended...

As Christians we should hate sin. But we need to be careful as upperclassmen (mature) Christians, we're not always being offended. "Christians should not make a career out of being the offended people with oversensitive consciences." Many Christians tend to throw their thoughts and standards on someone else rather than the Bible's. We need to be careful that in continually being offended we can quickly become just judgmental of others and then become the "pharisees."

Final point:

It comes down to Love. How you Love others and how they Love you. Sometimes the best way to Love others is by doing, not doing, calling them out on what they're doing, or loving them in-spite of their downfalls (as many people have for us.). It comes down to how do we love people best?