Tuesday, November 22, 2011
In God We Trust...
I have come to realize that my trust in technology or heavy reliance on "it" has as of recent, our computer crash and how much life and time has been invested into "it". The painful reminder is that I have lost many hours of sleep and patience with "it". This brings me to my last point of great importance: look to Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith for everything. In Him I/we have life, and infinite amounts of life at that to be in His presence forever. Without Jesus nothing really matters. There are people who do not have a roof over their heads, food on the table, families to love, and most importantly, a life in Jesus/salvation. May our trust be in Him and not in "it".
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Halloween or Not to Halloween...
So, I must begin this with saying that as a kid I loved going door to door to get candy and say the famous words, "trick-or-treat". It was not until recently that I thought it might be good to talk about what we will do as a family with our kids especially when looking at it all whether Easter, Christmas, Halloween etc.
There are basically three perspectives and I have to say that we have close friends who hold to all three currently and some have jumped through all three hoops through the years depending on how the wind might blow. So I state our stance not to get them all to freak out on each other and us, but to look critically at why we all do things not just because it seems right, but also because some things that appear to be right are actually fundamentalist sepratist from culture and not gospel driven even if they are done with good intentions.
The first one, is Halloween is from the devil and no one in their right mind especially in the Christian realm should celebrate Halloween. The second, is similar, but instead of staying home locking the doors, turning off the lights so that no kids come for candy to your house either, this group has harvest parties or church basement parties dressed up like your favorite Bible hero. Third, you go and get a good scary costume and get candy. Now to be fair, I somewhat understand where everyone comes from, but my wife and I chose option #4 which is taking our kid/kids out to get candy dressed up not as a demon or witch, but as something that could open a can of whoop-ass on the bad and creepy guys like a ninja? We also figure that it is a teaching time for us as parents who love Jesus and want to be in culture and on mission and demonstrate that value to our little ones. We began to ponder and study the last few years as to how redeem it for Jesus and so this was not just a quick knee jerk reaction or trying to prooftext waht we wanted to do. I will say that we had a great time as family this year, and spend time after and during with friends who love Jesus as well as got to see others other there who definitely don't know Jesus, but gives us opportunities to step into their world and hopefully be Gospel minded. My favorite part of the night was my Mary Grace and I sitting up in our bedroom talking and laughing about how fun it was and how silly and cute Shepard was at the end of the night when he said, "Heavy "(speaking of his pumpkin fully of candy) and then right after it, "Home, Shep tired." So good.
Let us redeem our culture and better understand how to bring light in the darkness.
Jared
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can not overcome it." (John 1:5)
There are basically three perspectives and I have to say that we have close friends who hold to all three currently and some have jumped through all three hoops through the years depending on how the wind might blow. So I state our stance not to get them all to freak out on each other and us, but to look critically at why we all do things not just because it seems right, but also because some things that appear to be right are actually fundamentalist sepratist from culture and not gospel driven even if they are done with good intentions.
The first one, is Halloween is from the devil and no one in their right mind especially in the Christian realm should celebrate Halloween. The second, is similar, but instead of staying home locking the doors, turning off the lights so that no kids come for candy to your house either, this group has harvest parties or church basement parties dressed up like your favorite Bible hero. Third, you go and get a good scary costume and get candy. Now to be fair, I somewhat understand where everyone comes from, but my wife and I chose option #4 which is taking our kid/kids out to get candy dressed up not as a demon or witch, but as something that could open a can of whoop-ass on the bad and creepy guys like a ninja? We also figure that it is a teaching time for us as parents who love Jesus and want to be in culture and on mission and demonstrate that value to our little ones. We began to ponder and study the last few years as to how redeem it for Jesus and so this was not just a quick knee jerk reaction or trying to prooftext waht we wanted to do. I will say that we had a great time as family this year, and spend time after and during with friends who love Jesus as well as got to see others other there who definitely don't know Jesus, but gives us opportunities to step into their world and hopefully be Gospel minded. My favorite part of the night was my Mary Grace and I sitting up in our bedroom talking and laughing about how fun it was and how silly and cute Shepard was at the end of the night when he said, "Heavy "(speaking of his pumpkin fully of candy) and then right after it, "Home, Shep tired." So good.
Let us redeem our culture and better understand how to bring light in the darkness.
Jared
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can not overcome it." (John 1:5)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Let us Redeem our Miserable Monday's for the Glory of God and for the Return of the King
As Shepard is eating his cereal and milk in a nearby room and Mary Grace is sound asleep after working all night at the hospital, I am studying the Word and gripped with the thought that many of us despise Mondays and perhaps even hate them.
Why is this I began to ask myself and what is the deeper issue to why Mondays can be so miserable?
Perhaps it is because although God created everything good and when he created humans (male and female) he created and said that we were "very good". We still somehow screwed it all up. Work was originally a blessing how it all shook out was not intended to be cursed. Bear with me a moment.
We were actually created for work (Genesis 2) and it was a good thing before the fall (Genesis 3). I would even go as far to say that we would have been able to work with a joyful heart forever before sin entered the equation. With the fall, sin happened. Now I want to make it clear that it was not something that our first parents Adam and Eve accidentally did (sinning against a holy God) making them not completely responsible for thier act of disobedience toward God, but completely and utterly responsible so much so that it has been passed down to us. This is why we have the disciplinary action of a loving God cursing the ground and making it tougher to bring forth food making work brutal most of the time. With physical and metaphorical thorns and thistles coming up all around us making work tough and terrible at times, this is why we are paid to go to work. That is why we read later in Genesis 3:19 that it is by the sweat of our brow we will work and eventually die ultimately never being completely free from this fact of Monday mornings.
Even the best of all jobs, dream jobs as well like getting paid to sleep, watching football, listening to bands, drinking and tasting beer, preaching the Word, etc, we still look for a paycheck once a week or twice a month. Our employers know that they still have to pay us for our dream job for they know that at the end of the day we will not do it for free and still have a case of the Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and even Sundays knowing that we wish we were somewhere else most of the time, like Eden.
Realizing this fact, the best thing God could have done was kick our arse out of the Garden preventing us from eating from the tree of life that would allow us to live forever in sin apart from His grace which ultimately would force us in having a case of the Mondays forever. Death then becomes loving and a gracious act to those who know and live in redeemed lives in Jesus with the fact that we will live again with Him forever with perfect Mondays or no Mondays at all. We know that the miserable Mondays are only temporary. Come Lord Jesus.
Why is this I began to ask myself and what is the deeper issue to why Mondays can be so miserable?
Perhaps it is because although God created everything good and when he created humans (male and female) he created and said that we were "very good". We still somehow screwed it all up. Work was originally a blessing how it all shook out was not intended to be cursed. Bear with me a moment.
We were actually created for work (Genesis 2) and it was a good thing before the fall (Genesis 3). I would even go as far to say that we would have been able to work with a joyful heart forever before sin entered the equation. With the fall, sin happened. Now I want to make it clear that it was not something that our first parents Adam and Eve accidentally did (sinning against a holy God) making them not completely responsible for thier act of disobedience toward God, but completely and utterly responsible so much so that it has been passed down to us. This is why we have the disciplinary action of a loving God cursing the ground and making it tougher to bring forth food making work brutal most of the time. With physical and metaphorical thorns and thistles coming up all around us making work tough and terrible at times, this is why we are paid to go to work. That is why we read later in Genesis 3:19 that it is by the sweat of our brow we will work and eventually die ultimately never being completely free from this fact of Monday mornings.
Even the best of all jobs, dream jobs as well like getting paid to sleep, watching football, listening to bands, drinking and tasting beer, preaching the Word, etc, we still look for a paycheck once a week or twice a month. Our employers know that they still have to pay us for our dream job for they know that at the end of the day we will not do it for free and still have a case of the Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and even Sundays knowing that we wish we were somewhere else most of the time, like Eden.
Realizing this fact, the best thing God could have done was kick our arse out of the Garden preventing us from eating from the tree of life that would allow us to live forever in sin apart from His grace which ultimately would force us in having a case of the Mondays forever. Death then becomes loving and a gracious act to those who know and live in redeemed lives in Jesus with the fact that we will live again with Him forever with perfect Mondays or no Mondays at all. We know that the miserable Mondays are only temporary. Come Lord Jesus.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Shepherds and sheep
Side Note: with my thoughts and insights from today on shepherds and sheep so it goes: know the sheep, feed the sheep, lead the sheep, and protect the sheep. Isn't is funny how we many times make it more complex than that in the the church when Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, shows us who to care for, how to do it, and where to get our strength? Lord may we be better shepherds to those with whom you have entrusted to our care. Here are a few passages that I went over today and started to ponder as I consider church planting again and what that really means...
English Standard Version (ESV)
28(A) Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all(B) the flock, in which(C) the Holy Spirit has made you(D) overseers,(E) to care for(F) the church of God,[a] which he(G) obtained(H) with his own blood.[b]
English Standard Version (ESV)
John 21:15-19
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus and Peter
15When they had(A) finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, (B) "Simon,(C) son of John,(D) do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed(E) my lambs." 16He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, (F) "Tend(G) my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him(H) the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord,(I) you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed(J) my sheep. 18(K) Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young,(L) you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." 19(This he said to show(M) by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, (N) "Follow me."
1 Thessalonians 2:4-8
English Standard Version (ESV)
4but just as we have been approved by God(A) to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not(B) to please man, but to please God(C) who tests our hearts. 5(D) For we never came with words of flattery,[a] as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—(E) God is witness. 6(F) Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others,(G) though we could have made(H) demands as(I) apostles of Christ. 7But we were(J) gentle[b] among you,(K) like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God(L) but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Beautiful and Glorious is this day...
I am going back and forth through a few passages in Scripture on Genesis 50:20 and Exodus 20 and meditating on what God's will and law were intended for, currently are, and how they all relate and point to Jesus who is the perfect fullfillment in and through the cross while listening in the background to Mumford and Sons "Awake My Soul" with my son, Shepard, who is drumming in the background. I stand in awe of how blessed I am to have the amazing wife, boy, and baby on the way, and family and friends that I do. I am truly floored at the hope we who know Jesus have beyond the grave. I also and broken in knowing that many who don't know Jesus will die apart from Him. Let us contend for the faith that has been entrusted once and for all for us to fight the good fight of the faith.
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