Have you ever thought about what tree you would want to be?
The bible uses many allusions to trees and being a tree in your faith and following of the Lord.
That being said i think it is a valid question to ask what tree do you see yourself relating to and why? I guess it is kinda silly but thinking about it made wonder just how much do i know about "trees" which i am supposedly representing.
so basically what tree are you?
All in all i think i represent best a yew tree because its wood although very rough and practically unwork able can be made into a very amazing tool. The Yew was the wood made to make the famous long bow of Great Britain in the 1300's. I find this signifigant to my life because i am much like the tree, i am a course and odd person and i am of a rare breed( not necessarily prideful but meaning more that i am just weird) but the funny thing is that even though i seem like a wood that is from a tree of death and unusefulness that really i am very useful in the right persons hands. So useful i can change a nationa and that rarity can make worth especially when someone highly desires you.
This is really cool to me because it embodies my faith so much. Aren't we all just peieces of rough useless wood from a tree of death? But then some great Craftsman gets ahold of us(God) and can make us a beautiful tool for his use. and that Craftsman pays such a high price just for that rare and seemingly bad wood and yet produces such a more prized and rare product.
How wonderful an illustration does the Lord give us in nature
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Choose Life
Have you ever found yourself in one of those slumps of life? just bogged down with everything or totally not apathetic with your faith?
The other day i sat down with a friend and had a really good honest conversation about this very topic. We dived right in to the feelings of "spiritual apatheticism" that we knew we frequently had and it seems to me that we aren't the only ones experiencing this. And even more today we aren't the only ones experiencing this.
the hardest thing, though, about our whole conversation is the solution. How do you make someone joyful who isn't, how do you make some one care who doean't, who do you make someone love who doesn't? Its so much easier to not care than to care, because it is so much easier to not do something than to do it.
But isn't that just our problem? we don't do something and thus we eventually just don't care anymore. Its true of alot of things examples are all around, in school why do more when you only will be rewarded the same and why work through a problem when putting it on someone else makes an easier solution.
In the end though this solution eludes me until i finally think on scripture- How does Jesus solve this, what is His solution because it obviously has to be better than what i have tried so far.
What i find when i look for this is that Jesus says to take the narrow road, the one less traveled and to go against your prenotions and dispostions of what feels good.
Thats interesting to me because it seems like the answer isn't some easy fix like pray and be healed or just say the magic words and you will care again. Infact it is quite the opposite, Jesus doesn't ask you to do anything different, do what you were but choose to go a different route.
Basically Jesus says to choose the short straw, to take the hard way out, to do what you normally wouldn't want to do. Thats an odd cure but thats not the oddest part because never does he say there is a way to fix that.
The best example i think of when i say that is in the garden right before Jesus is taken. HOw much more apathetic can one be to go to a garden with JESUS and be asked by JESUS to pray for him. That to me is powerful because this guy JESUS had some serious power and a definately serious message-one worth listening to. You would think that might have been the stance the disciples would take: "What JESUS says you do". And yet they still fall asleep.
funny how that works out too because they say the same defensive things we say when we are apathetic- "i was tired i couldn't help it" or my personal favorite "I am getting nothing out of this, it was hard to listen to"- Now that is apathy but did you notice what Jesus does? he just wakes them up and a little rebuke, He knows they are apathetic and all he does is continually and painfully encourages them to "stay awake" time after time.
So whats that mean to me?
thats your first problem "me".
You see we say it alot but truly Christianity has nothing to do with you and never will. You comming to the Lord didn't change God's view of it.
I think what is crucial to see is that Spiritual apathy is a huge problem and we can't use some small fix to solve it. The only way to deal with it is at the root. If we can truly start looking at Christianity and "our faith" as "His truth" then i think we might start renewing our hearts. Sometimes we have to get out of the way, choose the hard path that you know is right even though you don't want to. But don't do it for you remember who it is for and that you truly have no time to waste on yourself even with this. Choose to "wake up" its simple, nobody wants to but thats what you have been called to do. "wake up"
And as for those around us in Spiritual apathy, be Jesus to us. Encourage us to continually "get up". Keep being that thorn in our side to "wake up" or take the way we won't choose.
In closing: If we are supposed to make our body our slaves we can't do that unless we choose contrary to the body. Why would you want to be with the old self if you have become the new. Choose to wake up, Choose to be a thorn, Choose to know your faith is not your own but a manifestation of the new life you have. Choose life.
The other day i sat down with a friend and had a really good honest conversation about this very topic. We dived right in to the feelings of "spiritual apatheticism" that we knew we frequently had and it seems to me that we aren't the only ones experiencing this. And even more today we aren't the only ones experiencing this.
the hardest thing, though, about our whole conversation is the solution. How do you make someone joyful who isn't, how do you make some one care who doean't, who do you make someone love who doesn't? Its so much easier to not care than to care, because it is so much easier to not do something than to do it.
But isn't that just our problem? we don't do something and thus we eventually just don't care anymore. Its true of alot of things examples are all around, in school why do more when you only will be rewarded the same and why work through a problem when putting it on someone else makes an easier solution.
In the end though this solution eludes me until i finally think on scripture- How does Jesus solve this, what is His solution because it obviously has to be better than what i have tried so far.
What i find when i look for this is that Jesus says to take the narrow road, the one less traveled and to go against your prenotions and dispostions of what feels good.
Thats interesting to me because it seems like the answer isn't some easy fix like pray and be healed or just say the magic words and you will care again. Infact it is quite the opposite, Jesus doesn't ask you to do anything different, do what you were but choose to go a different route.
Basically Jesus says to choose the short straw, to take the hard way out, to do what you normally wouldn't want to do. Thats an odd cure but thats not the oddest part because never does he say there is a way to fix that.
The best example i think of when i say that is in the garden right before Jesus is taken. HOw much more apathetic can one be to go to a garden with JESUS and be asked by JESUS to pray for him. That to me is powerful because this guy JESUS had some serious power and a definately serious message-one worth listening to. You would think that might have been the stance the disciples would take: "What JESUS says you do". And yet they still fall asleep.
funny how that works out too because they say the same defensive things we say when we are apathetic- "i was tired i couldn't help it" or my personal favorite "I am getting nothing out of this, it was hard to listen to"- Now that is apathy but did you notice what Jesus does? he just wakes them up and a little rebuke, He knows they are apathetic and all he does is continually and painfully encourages them to "stay awake" time after time.
So whats that mean to me?
thats your first problem "me".
You see we say it alot but truly Christianity has nothing to do with you and never will. You comming to the Lord didn't change God's view of it.
I think what is crucial to see is that Spiritual apathy is a huge problem and we can't use some small fix to solve it. The only way to deal with it is at the root. If we can truly start looking at Christianity and "our faith" as "His truth" then i think we might start renewing our hearts. Sometimes we have to get out of the way, choose the hard path that you know is right even though you don't want to. But don't do it for you remember who it is for and that you truly have no time to waste on yourself even with this. Choose to "wake up" its simple, nobody wants to but thats what you have been called to do. "wake up"
And as for those around us in Spiritual apathy, be Jesus to us. Encourage us to continually "get up". Keep being that thorn in our side to "wake up" or take the way we won't choose.
In closing: If we are supposed to make our body our slaves we can't do that unless we choose contrary to the body. Why would you want to be with the old self if you have become the new. Choose to wake up, Choose to be a thorn, Choose to know your faith is not your own but a manifestation of the new life you have. Choose life.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Real discipline
Hebrews 5:11-14 and then 6
5:11 On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.
6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 6:3 And this is what we intend to do, if God permits. 6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt. 6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned. 6:9 But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation. 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. 6:11 But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, 6:12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
Shouldn't this be what we are all about?
Lately i have been thinking how much we tend to back slide and put on ignorance when we just don't want to change. The interesting thing about that is how unbiblical that is.
But even worst how unreal that is. To me its sick that i just act dumb even ignorant to God's will or to me duty and life.
Have you ever felt like you just don't want to do something? Like i don't want to go to church this morning? I know i have found myself there many times but the interesting thing is how unreal that is.-If i am a Christian shouldn't i want to be in fellowship all that i can be? Why do i allow my flesh to stop me?
I thought i would just pose this quick question as i go through finals week here at school: How real is your walk, because if its real what kind of teachings are you taking in, what kind of fruit are you producing, what kind of progression have you made?
5:11 On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.
6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 6:3 And this is what we intend to do, if God permits. 6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt. 6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned. 6:9 But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation. 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. 6:11 But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, 6:12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
Shouldn't this be what we are all about?
Lately i have been thinking how much we tend to back slide and put on ignorance when we just don't want to change. The interesting thing about that is how unbiblical that is.
But even worst how unreal that is. To me its sick that i just act dumb even ignorant to God's will or to me duty and life.
Have you ever felt like you just don't want to do something? Like i don't want to go to church this morning? I know i have found myself there many times but the interesting thing is how unreal that is.-If i am a Christian shouldn't i want to be in fellowship all that i can be? Why do i allow my flesh to stop me?
I thought i would just pose this quick question as i go through finals week here at school: How real is your walk, because if its real what kind of teachings are you taking in, what kind of fruit are you producing, what kind of progression have you made?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
20 questions....
Ok, first i just want to say, If any of you have comments i would totally love to here them and the best part is that you don't have to be a member to leave one- Anyone can so that being said I would love to see them! thanks!
So todays post is part one of 2, Normally i like to answer a question that i have been pondering lately but it seems like i just got a whole bunch yesterday and so i encourage you to comment back with some answers and then tomorrow i will answer the list myself.
Cool?
Cool.
1. Do we as Christians have to be distinct about our faith? If so how much would you say that is?
2. Would you rather be challenged in your walk in life or be a challenger?
3. If someone had a legit need to be fulfilled( say they needed something like a refrigerator), how would you go about getting that provided for someone.
4. Is your home church relevant enough to the community that the community would miss it if it was ever shut down or gone.
5. If you ever had a friend that was a non-believer and into partying and drinking and they woke up one morning with a hangover and decided to quit drinking and that they wanted to change their life where would they go?
6. What arena of life would you think that Christianity dominates in? (nowhere is an answer too)
7. What do you think of when you hear the word preach? What do you think it really means?
8.How many non-believers/or professing lost people do you know and converse with regularly?
9. What do you think is the problem the world has with Jesus?
10. What is the more biblical service? 10:30 or 8am?
So todays post is part one of 2, Normally i like to answer a question that i have been pondering lately but it seems like i just got a whole bunch yesterday and so i encourage you to comment back with some answers and then tomorrow i will answer the list myself.
Cool?
Cool.
1. Do we as Christians have to be distinct about our faith? If so how much would you say that is?
2. Would you rather be challenged in your walk in life or be a challenger?
3. If someone had a legit need to be fulfilled( say they needed something like a refrigerator), how would you go about getting that provided for someone.
4. Is your home church relevant enough to the community that the community would miss it if it was ever shut down or gone.
5. If you ever had a friend that was a non-believer and into partying and drinking and they woke up one morning with a hangover and decided to quit drinking and that they wanted to change their life where would they go?
6. What arena of life would you think that Christianity dominates in? (nowhere is an answer too)
7. What do you think of when you hear the word preach? What do you think it really means?
8.How many non-believers/or professing lost people do you know and converse with regularly?
9. What do you think is the problem the world has with Jesus?
10. What is the more biblical service? 10:30 or 8am?
Monday, December 1, 2008
Miraculous God
Today in sunday school we talked about 2 samuel 22
I think what stuck out to me in this verse is the wording David uses to describe God.
Its interesting because we in the USA don't really think about God that way. We don't think about His voice like an earthquake or we never picture him with smoke coming out of his nostrils or throwing lightning like an arrow.
I think we don't see this because we try to intellectualize everything and over think things so that they make sense or are safe.
That is weird to me though because no where does it state that God is safe or that everything will make sense.- Remember we do look through blurry sinful lenses at God's world
In the end I think something we might want to start realizing is that God is definately not so easily viewed with worldly eyes and that He works in the miraculous business.( and yes i did mean miraclous business not miracle business because although he does miracles He does miraculous things and is miraculous).
I think what stuck out to me in this verse is the wording David uses to describe God.
Its interesting because we in the USA don't really think about God that way. We don't think about His voice like an earthquake or we never picture him with smoke coming out of his nostrils or throwing lightning like an arrow.
I think we don't see this because we try to intellectualize everything and over think things so that they make sense or are safe.
That is weird to me though because no where does it state that God is safe or that everything will make sense.- Remember we do look through blurry sinful lenses at God's world
In the end I think something we might want to start realizing is that God is definately not so easily viewed with worldly eyes and that He works in the miraculous business.( and yes i did mean miraclous business not miracle business because although he does miracles He does miraculous things and is miraculous).
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