Wow! This weekend has been one thing after another! Once again I didn't get the work done that I needed to because crazy stuff came up! To make a long story short, we won one out of three against Faulkner this weekend. Right after the game on Saturday night, we had some serious internal team problems dealing with dishonesty and cheating. Having to sit by and watch some of my teammates suffer in their decisions was a scary thing, especially since a couple of these guys are brand new Christians and are just now realizing that their actions have consequences. It was NOT a good situation and it just reminded me about the consequences that accompany each and every one of our actions. My parents always told me it takes a lifetime to build up a reputation but one stupid decision to make it all come crashing down. AND THAT'S SO TRUE!
Tonight at Newspring, Perry talked about David and how severe his consequences were with his sins (You can check it out for yourself in 2 Samuel 11). Just think, David slept with his best friend's wife and then had his best friend killed when she got pregnant. He tried to cover one mistake up with another. Two wrongs DON'T make a right. Have you ever tried to lie your way out of a lie and it just keeps piling up until you are so far in you don't know how to move, let alone get out of it. That's what happened this weekend with the team. Emotions flared, tempers scourged, and some of the guys were forced to grow up and take responsibility for their actions.
I'm reminded of that Relient K song, "I So Hate Consequences":
"And I so hate consequences
And running from you is what my best defense is
Consequences
Oh God, don�t make me face up to this
And I so hate consequences
And running from you is what my best defense is
Cause I know that I let you down
And I don�t want to deal with that
It just now hit me this is more than just a set back
And when you spelled it out, well, I guess I didn�t get that
And every trace of momentum is gone
And this isn�t turning out the way I want "
I remember my Junior year of High School, I got caught in a serious lie that affected my reputation with my teachers, the faculty at my school, and my baseball coach. I had spent several years building up a reputation and in one fail swoop, everything I had worked for crumbled in my hands. I had never felt so alone and empty. Even my friends didn't look at me the same after that. They all knew the life that I professed, but all that mattered to them was that my actions had not lined up with my talk. It took me a long time to build my credibility back up with my teachers, friends, and my parents.
But, to be honest with you. I wouldn't change that situation if I could, because that situation taught me that I can't get away with lies, I can't get away with sin, and it has partially made me into who I am today. Here are three things the Bible points out that we have to do when confronted with sin in our life and the consequences of that sin.
1. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS:
It took David being confronted by someone else before he finally took responsibility for his actions. Nathan, a prophet, was sent by God to tell David that he screwed up. Now do you really think that David was clueless to the fact that he screw up? No! But David never would have owned up to his actions and taken responsibility for what he had done if Nathan had never confronted him. Nathan told David that the child that he and Bathsheba would bear would die. Unfortunately for David, it took God doing that to finally get David's attention. Now I know some of you are thinking, "How could a loving God kill an innocent baby because of David's actions." YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT! The point is that David would have never been in that situation if he had listened to God in the first place. When all Hell breaks loose because of the decisions YOU'VE made in your life, YOU CAN'T BLAME GOD! It's time we take responsibility for our actions. It's time we stop living in the "Baby-blamer" generation and the generation "Excusers" and start owning up to our sins.
2. HAVE A REPENTIVE HEART (LIVE A REPENTIVE LIFE):
This is the only way God can work in our lives to heal and fix what we have screwed up. David repented before God. Check out Psalms. A lot of this book is David's confessions to God about his sins. David not only admitted that he was wrong but he CHANGED his actions from that moment on. Repentance is a complete, 180 degree turn AWAY from what you want and TO what God wants. The Bible describes it as a TURN away from sin and a RETURN to God, and God DEMANDS IT!! It is amazing what God can do in our lives once we own up to our actions, REPENT of them, and let God begin the healing process in our lives.
3. LET GOD HAVE COMPLETE LEADERSHIP IN OUR LIVES:
It is only by God's grace that we don't fall again. We must turn our lives COMPLETELY over God's leadership. He only wants to make our lives fulfilling and abundant! Jesus didn't say He came so he could beat us over the head with a club every time we sinned, but He also didn't say that He came so that we could sin anytime we wanted. Jesus said that He came so that we could have life and have it more abundantly! And what does that life look like? Abundant life is LIFE WITHOUT SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES!! It's by God's grace that we can conquer temptation and live an abudant life.
We have to remember the role of God's grace. God's grace is NOT a lisence to sin; instead, it is a tool that He has graciously given us to defeat sin! James Bond may have had a lisence to kill, but our sin has consequences that are very REAL!
One good thing that came out of this weekend, though, is that I got the incredible opportunity to have a very heartfelt talk with Ben about Christianity and a REAL relationship with Jesus. The conversation spawned off of this situation with the team. He's beginning to understand what life's all about. Keep praying for him and for his salvation. I KNOW God will come through, and I TRUST that He's at work in Ben's heart!
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Are You Glad When You Suffer?
Hmmm . . . That's a pretty interesting question. Are we glad when we suffer? Am I happy to be going through rough times. The past few months have not been particularly easy for me. By no means am I suffering compared to the children dying everyday of AIDs in Africa, or the countless men losing their lives for our country in Iraq. But, so far in my life, I haven't had more frustrating times. I think it's just part of college and this transitional period between living under total dependence on our parents and gradually finding our way to total independence. But also think that most of it is a test of true character from God. I think a lot of it has to do with God seeing how willing I am to serve Him even when I don't have anything to offer.
My dad sent me this email a couple days ago and I kind of just put it my "To Read" folder for a later date. It caught my eye tonight so I read it. It really couldn't have been a more relevant email for the occasion because tonight feels like I've just reached my max in my frustration level. I wanted to share this email with you guys and I'm praying that God speaks to you as intimately as He did to me through this interview. (The email is a short interview with Rick Warren, the author of Purpose Driven Life. Enjoy!)
"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
"I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
"Life is a series of problems: you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
"This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
"Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
"No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
"You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
"We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
"You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.
"I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
"First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was
liberating to be able to serve God for free.
"We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
"When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, "God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better." God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
"Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD."
My dad sent me this email a couple days ago and I kind of just put it my "To Read" folder for a later date. It caught my eye tonight so I read it. It really couldn't have been a more relevant email for the occasion because tonight feels like I've just reached my max in my frustration level. I wanted to share this email with you guys and I'm praying that God speaks to you as intimately as He did to me through this interview. (The email is a short interview with Rick Warren, the author of Purpose Driven Life. Enjoy!)
"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
"I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
"Life is a series of problems: you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
"This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
"Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
"No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
"You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
"We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
"You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.
"I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
"First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was
liberating to be able to serve God for free.
"We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
"When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, "God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better." God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
"Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD."
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
"Go-Go Gadget . . . Human Being!"
I've discovered something awesome on my APPLE computer! I can activate a setting that will allow me to talk to my computer and it dialogues (to an extent) back to me. But . . . not only does it talk back to me, it will do as I command it to do. For example, I can say to itl, "Apple, open up iTunes," and it will open up my iTunes folder. HOW SWEET IS THAT!? It reminds me of one of those sci-fi movies like Star Wars where the androids dialogue with the humans, but this is cooler because it is REAL LIFE!
I was messing around with setting this cool thing up, and I started thinking. Why did God create Humans? Davey, how in the world did you think of that while setting up something on your computer? Try to follow me on this one. God could have created anything He wanted and He created human beings. But not only did He create human beings, He created us with a free will, knowing full well that we could (and would) be disobient to Him. So why did he create us in the first place if he knew we were going to suck at life?
God wanted companionship. He didn't NEED it, He's got community within himself (remember the whole trinity thing - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all in one?) But God WANTED companionship. He wanted to create something that He could call His own creation and love it unconditionally! But in order to have that love he had to give us the free choice to love Him back. He could have created us like this Apple computer, where everything I tell it to do it does. But then we would be a bunch of machines running around doing "God's will" without any consent. We would be FORCED to love God back.
If you force your girlfriend/boyfriend to love you back, what kind of love is that? NONE! (That's called rape, b.t.w., and it's against the law!) Love is an uncoerced, unforced commitment to someone! In order for us to fully carry out God's intention for us and give Him glory in life, we HAD to have the CHOICE to love Him back. Could God have created us without free will to accept or reject Him? HE'S GOD, HE CAN DO ANYTHING! (B.T.W. I hate those questions like "Can God create a rock so big that He can't lift it?" I just want to smack whoever said that and tell him to shut up! But then I remember that I'm a Christian . . . hehe.) But He didn't create us that way because He knew that the reward is far greater than the risk! Sure, God risks that some people are going to reject His free offer of Salvation (personally I wouldn't turn down a free offer at $100, let alone the free offer to ETERNAL LIFE!), but He is also going to find many people who accept His free gift and that is 1,000 times more rewarding to Him (even more that 1,000)!
As much as I love this new thing I figured out on my computer, it reminds me that I'm soooooo glad that I'm not a computer. I'm sooooo glad that I have the free will. You may take this the wrong way, but I couldn't serve a God that didn't give me the free will to love and serve Him (well I guess I would be b/c I wouldn't have a choice, but you get the picture).
I was messing around with setting this cool thing up, and I started thinking. Why did God create Humans? Davey, how in the world did you think of that while setting up something on your computer? Try to follow me on this one. God could have created anything He wanted and He created human beings. But not only did He create human beings, He created us with a free will, knowing full well that we could (and would) be disobient to Him. So why did he create us in the first place if he knew we were going to suck at life?
God wanted companionship. He didn't NEED it, He's got community within himself (remember the whole trinity thing - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all in one?) But God WANTED companionship. He wanted to create something that He could call His own creation and love it unconditionally! But in order to have that love he had to give us the free choice to love Him back. He could have created us like this Apple computer, where everything I tell it to do it does. But then we would be a bunch of machines running around doing "God's will" without any consent. We would be FORCED to love God back.
If you force your girlfriend/boyfriend to love you back, what kind of love is that? NONE! (That's called rape, b.t.w., and it's against the law!) Love is an uncoerced, unforced commitment to someone! In order for us to fully carry out God's intention for us and give Him glory in life, we HAD to have the CHOICE to love Him back. Could God have created us without free will to accept or reject Him? HE'S GOD, HE CAN DO ANYTHING! (B.T.W. I hate those questions like "Can God create a rock so big that He can't lift it?" I just want to smack whoever said that and tell him to shut up! But then I remember that I'm a Christian . . . hehe.) But He didn't create us that way because He knew that the reward is far greater than the risk! Sure, God risks that some people are going to reject His free offer of Salvation (personally I wouldn't turn down a free offer at $100, let alone the free offer to ETERNAL LIFE!), but He is also going to find many people who accept His free gift and that is 1,000 times more rewarding to Him (even more that 1,000)!
As much as I love this new thing I figured out on my computer, it reminds me that I'm soooooo glad that I'm not a computer. I'm sooooo glad that I have the free will. You may take this the wrong way, but I couldn't serve a God that didn't give me the free will to love and serve Him (well I guess I would be b/c I wouldn't have a choice, but you get the picture).
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Fat Tuesday
To be honest with you I have no idea why I entitled this post Fat Tuesday, other than the fact that this day was packed full. I barely felt like I've had a chance to breath. I spent the entire day doing work, going to lectures and class, doing more work, going to practice, doing more work, eating, doing more work, and then having discipleship with the guys. I'M WORN SLAP OUT! (Did you know there is a real place called Slapout, Alabama. I think it's because it's SLAP OUT in the middle of nowhere - just a random piece of info) As you can tell I can't even think straight to be able to write anything worth reading. Have you ever felt like your brain is so full that you if you stuffed one more piece of information into it you would wind up like a whitehead on a teenage girl's chin . . . POPPED!
But I will tell you guys that we had a great discipleship meeting with the guys. You wouldn't believe the wide range of topics that were discussed. I wrote several of them down, and I'm looking forward to blogging about them later this week. We practically had to kick everyone out of our apartment tonight, though, because it was getting too late and they were still wanting to talk about Jesus!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?! Praise God for what he continues to do on this team.
My parents came up tonight. They're staying until Friday morning. It's sooooo nice to see them. If I can't go home, I'll go for the next best thing - let home come to me! I'm out, though, guys. Look for more tomorrow. I won't let you down!
But I will tell you guys that we had a great discipleship meeting with the guys. You wouldn't believe the wide range of topics that were discussed. I wrote several of them down, and I'm looking forward to blogging about them later this week. We practically had to kick everyone out of our apartment tonight, though, because it was getting too late and they were still wanting to talk about Jesus!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?! Praise God for what he continues to do on this team.
My parents came up tonight. They're staying until Friday morning. It's sooooo nice to see them. If I can't go home, I'll go for the next best thing - let home come to me! I'm out, though, guys. Look for more tomorrow. I won't let you down!
Monday, March 20, 2006
Death . . . The Final Exam
I asked you guys to pray for Amanda yesterday. I wish I could tell you how she and her family are doing after their loss. To be honest with you guys, I have no idea how to handle this situation. I feel so hopeless! I want so badly to call her, comfort her, let her cry and scream to me on the phone. I want most of all to walk through her door, embrace her, let her cry on my shoulder, and then wipe away her tears. BUT I CAN'T!!
It was a new side of Amanda that I was exposed to last night, her grieving side. I'd never "seen" her cry before (I guess I still haven't since she was crying on the phone). Do you guys know how helpless of a feeling it is to hear the girl you care the world about hurting and not be able to do a thing about it? AAAAAHHHHHH! Even though it doesn't seem like enough, I will continue to lay my requests before God. I think God is teaching me that I can't humanly handle everything that I go through. I have to rely on His sovereignty and providence, especially when there is absolutely nothing I can do. So I know that somehow, through my prayers for her, God will comfort her heart and convey to her that I am carring for her and that I'm here for her.
My cousin died last semester and I began pondering some things about life and death. This incident with Amanda's cousin has re-awoken some of these thoughts and questions in my own mind. The biggest question that I've struggled with is how do we as Christians handle death? Death is such a final thing. That's the reason death is such a scary thing to think or talk about in our society - a taboo. There have only been a few cases of people crossing over into death and then coming back to this life; all of these had been brought back by the supernatural (Jesus). Check out the story of Lazarus in John 11. Even Jesus wept when he saw how Mary and Martha were pained over the death of their brother. Death is a scary and sad thing to think about, and Jesus is the only one who can conquer death.
I had a scary thought the other day. My dad was supposed to meet us over in Waleska, GA for the double-header on Sat. He called me well before the game while he was on his way, but by the end of the first game he still had not shown up. I was freaked out! A billion thoughts raced in my mind. Did he get in a wreck? Is he in the hospital? Is he dead? What do I do? Thankfully my dad showed up in time for the second game (he had just been caught in serious traffic in Atlanta), but for those few moments I was at a loss. I didn't know what to do. I just couldn't imagine my life without my dad! Even the thought of death is a scary thing!
As Christians we have the assurance that neither this life nor the grave is our final resting place (THANK GOD!). In fact Jesus is preparing a mansion for us in heaven and is looking forward to the day that we finally get to be with Him forever. My buddies and I often sit around and talk about what heaven is going to be like. Imagine the best house you have ever seen on MTV Cribs and it doesn't even compare to what Jesus has waiting for each of us! We have this one guy on our team that asked me if Jesus would make him a grill (mouth bling) when he gets to heaven. I thought that was hilarious, but it's awesome that he was looking forward to heaven! The point is that as Christians, we cannot even fathom how good heaven is going to be! No tears, no pain, no stress, no death, no fatigue - nothing but basking in God's perfect presence forever! How awesome!
However, the last thing somebody wants to hear when they've lost a loved one is the ill-coined cliché: "He's in a better place." "That's awesome, but how does that help this pain that I'm feeling? The point is that he's not here right now and I'll never see him in this lifetime again! I just miss him!" These are NATURAL reactions to the cliché funeral comment. So what can we do to console someone who is in pain over a death of a loved one? Be there for them. Love on them. Hold them if they want to be held, and back off if they don't feel like being around anyone. Be there to just listen to them. I'm glad that I was at a loss of words when Amanda was telling me about her cousin. She was extremely upset and she didn't NEED my words because frankly NOTHING I could say would help. After anything I could have said the pain would still be there. The only one who can heal that pain is Jesus, and all I can do is point her to Him! What did I do? I was a sound-board for her to bounce her pain and confusion off of and then I PRAYED WITH HER. That did more, I'm sure, than anything else I could have done! And I'm continuing to pray for her.
So what about death for non-Christians? Not a pretty sight! The Bible talks about a place of ETERNAL DAMNATION called Hell. We'll talk about Hell some more another time, but the point of it is ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM GOD! You think this world is bad. Imagine the world with all of God's grace, restraints, and presence taken from it; imagine a place where Satan has free reign to do whatever he wants. UTTER CHAOS! This is why it is so important for us as Christians to tell people about the hope offered in Jesus Christ. What if on judgment day the friends you hung out with on earth passed by you one-by-one on their way to Hell? What if they looked into your eyes and asked you why you never shared with them the secret to eternal life? The Bible says Ezekiel that we are the Watchmen for all mankind and if we don't tell other people about the forgiveness offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then their blood is on our hands; we are responsible for their eternal destination! That's heavy! That among other things is what has motivated me to tell all my friends about how much Jesus wants a relationship with all of us.
If you guys have any suggestions of what I should do in helping Amanda cope with this death, feel free to comment. I've sent her a couple cards and letters, letting her know how much I care and that I'm here for her. I guess nothing I do will feel like enough. Stay in prayer for the baseball team, too. Let's go to war on our knees together!
It was a new side of Amanda that I was exposed to last night, her grieving side. I'd never "seen" her cry before (I guess I still haven't since she was crying on the phone). Do you guys know how helpless of a feeling it is to hear the girl you care the world about hurting and not be able to do a thing about it? AAAAAHHHHHH! Even though it doesn't seem like enough, I will continue to lay my requests before God. I think God is teaching me that I can't humanly handle everything that I go through. I have to rely on His sovereignty and providence, especially when there is absolutely nothing I can do. So I know that somehow, through my prayers for her, God will comfort her heart and convey to her that I am carring for her and that I'm here for her.
My cousin died last semester and I began pondering some things about life and death. This incident with Amanda's cousin has re-awoken some of these thoughts and questions in my own mind. The biggest question that I've struggled with is how do we as Christians handle death? Death is such a final thing. That's the reason death is such a scary thing to think or talk about in our society - a taboo. There have only been a few cases of people crossing over into death and then coming back to this life; all of these had been brought back by the supernatural (Jesus). Check out the story of Lazarus in John 11. Even Jesus wept when he saw how Mary and Martha were pained over the death of their brother. Death is a scary and sad thing to think about, and Jesus is the only one who can conquer death.
I had a scary thought the other day. My dad was supposed to meet us over in Waleska, GA for the double-header on Sat. He called me well before the game while he was on his way, but by the end of the first game he still had not shown up. I was freaked out! A billion thoughts raced in my mind. Did he get in a wreck? Is he in the hospital? Is he dead? What do I do? Thankfully my dad showed up in time for the second game (he had just been caught in serious traffic in Atlanta), but for those few moments I was at a loss. I didn't know what to do. I just couldn't imagine my life without my dad! Even the thought of death is a scary thing!
As Christians we have the assurance that neither this life nor the grave is our final resting place (THANK GOD!). In fact Jesus is preparing a mansion for us in heaven and is looking forward to the day that we finally get to be with Him forever. My buddies and I often sit around and talk about what heaven is going to be like. Imagine the best house you have ever seen on MTV Cribs and it doesn't even compare to what Jesus has waiting for each of us! We have this one guy on our team that asked me if Jesus would make him a grill (mouth bling) when he gets to heaven. I thought that was hilarious, but it's awesome that he was looking forward to heaven! The point is that as Christians, we cannot even fathom how good heaven is going to be! No tears, no pain, no stress, no death, no fatigue - nothing but basking in God's perfect presence forever! How awesome!
However, the last thing somebody wants to hear when they've lost a loved one is the ill-coined cliché: "He's in a better place." "That's awesome, but how does that help this pain that I'm feeling? The point is that he's not here right now and I'll never see him in this lifetime again! I just miss him!" These are NATURAL reactions to the cliché funeral comment. So what can we do to console someone who is in pain over a death of a loved one? Be there for them. Love on them. Hold them if they want to be held, and back off if they don't feel like being around anyone. Be there to just listen to them. I'm glad that I was at a loss of words when Amanda was telling me about her cousin. She was extremely upset and she didn't NEED my words because frankly NOTHING I could say would help. After anything I could have said the pain would still be there. The only one who can heal that pain is Jesus, and all I can do is point her to Him! What did I do? I was a sound-board for her to bounce her pain and confusion off of and then I PRAYED WITH HER. That did more, I'm sure, than anything else I could have done! And I'm continuing to pray for her.
So what about death for non-Christians? Not a pretty sight! The Bible talks about a place of ETERNAL DAMNATION called Hell. We'll talk about Hell some more another time, but the point of it is ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM GOD! You think this world is bad. Imagine the world with all of God's grace, restraints, and presence taken from it; imagine a place where Satan has free reign to do whatever he wants. UTTER CHAOS! This is why it is so important for us as Christians to tell people about the hope offered in Jesus Christ. What if on judgment day the friends you hung out with on earth passed by you one-by-one on their way to Hell? What if they looked into your eyes and asked you why you never shared with them the secret to eternal life? The Bible says Ezekiel that we are the Watchmen for all mankind and if we don't tell other people about the forgiveness offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then their blood is on our hands; we are responsible for their eternal destination! That's heavy! That among other things is what has motivated me to tell all my friends about how much Jesus wants a relationship with all of us.
If you guys have any suggestions of what I should do in helping Amanda cope with this death, feel free to comment. I've sent her a couple cards and letters, letting her know how much I care and that I'm here for her. I guess nothing I do will feel like enough. Stay in prayer for the baseball team, too. Let's go to war on our knees together!
Sunday, March 19, 2006
A Little Preview . . .
Wow . . . It has been quite a weekend. We took two of three games from Reinhardt in good old Waleska, GA this weekend. It might have been the most fun I have ever had with these guys. We even had coach rolling in the dugout with laughter before the games on Saturday. It's so much fun to be able to share times with these guys, establish relationships, and show them Jesus on a daily basis.
I went to Newspring's early service this morning and still got back in time to hop over to the ALIVE service. I know, I was super-spiritual today. Not really, but it was revitalizing to worship God all morning and learn more truths about His word. I can't believe people think they can survive spiritually without going to church. Some say that church is boring or that they can worship God anywhere so they don't need church. (Umm . . . actually God COMMANDS us to worship publicly in Church. In fact the Church is referred to as the BRIDE of Christ. I don't know about you guys but if Jesus invited me to His wedding, I think I would go!) My suggestion is find a church that is alive and rockin' and where the Bible is held in absolute authority. Newspring's service ROCKED this morning. Ed Young (yeah the guy one TV who pastors that small church in Texas--about 20,000 attendees) was the guest speaker. I've always thought that Perry Noble was the best communicator I have heard, but I had to question who held the top seed in my rankings after hearing Ed Young. If you want to check out some more stuff about Ed Young just click HERE. Ed spoke on submission to authority. Great message! You can download it HERE.
On a more serious note. Keep my girlfriend, Amanda, and her family in your prayers. She just found out that her cousin (I think he was about 21) took his own life a couple days ago. She's been in Chicago the past few days on a class trip and she just received the news today when she got back. I feel so helpless because not only am I 12 hours away from her but this whole Lent thing is keeping me from being able to be there for her on the phone. But like I told her, this is not about me and how I feel, so if you could keep her and her family in her prayers I would appreciate that very much.
Switching gears a little bit, I'm super excited about blogging this week. Make sure you stay tuned every day because I have some great ideas and some awesome topics I want to address this week. God has hit me with some serious issues and questions that I have been reading up on and researching so I can relay them to you. I trust that God will meet you where you're at when we discuss these topics, and that you'll be able to gleen as much insight from Him on these issues as I have!
I'm out! It's bedtime. I spent almost the entire day writing a paper on Sanctification and my brain is fried. When it's totally finished I see about posting a PDF of it on the sidebar for you guys. It should be able to tie any loose ends that were left hanging during our discussion about our battles with SIN. Thanks for the comments you guys posted during the series I did on dealing with SIN and Sanctification. You guys are the best!
I went to Newspring's early service this morning and still got back in time to hop over to the ALIVE service. I know, I was super-spiritual today. Not really, but it was revitalizing to worship God all morning and learn more truths about His word. I can't believe people think they can survive spiritually without going to church. Some say that church is boring or that they can worship God anywhere so they don't need church. (Umm . . . actually God COMMANDS us to worship publicly in Church. In fact the Church is referred to as the BRIDE of Christ. I don't know about you guys but if Jesus invited me to His wedding, I think I would go!) My suggestion is find a church that is alive and rockin' and where the Bible is held in absolute authority. Newspring's service ROCKED this morning. Ed Young (yeah the guy one TV who pastors that small church in Texas--about 20,000 attendees) was the guest speaker. I've always thought that Perry Noble was the best communicator I have heard, but I had to question who held the top seed in my rankings after hearing Ed Young. If you want to check out some more stuff about Ed Young just click HERE. Ed spoke on submission to authority. Great message! You can download it HERE.
On a more serious note. Keep my girlfriend, Amanda, and her family in your prayers. She just found out that her cousin (I think he was about 21) took his own life a couple days ago. She's been in Chicago the past few days on a class trip and she just received the news today when she got back. I feel so helpless because not only am I 12 hours away from her but this whole Lent thing is keeping me from being able to be there for her on the phone. But like I told her, this is not about me and how I feel, so if you could keep her and her family in her prayers I would appreciate that very much.
Switching gears a little bit, I'm super excited about blogging this week. Make sure you stay tuned every day because I have some great ideas and some awesome topics I want to address this week. God has hit me with some serious issues and questions that I have been reading up on and researching so I can relay them to you. I trust that God will meet you where you're at when we discuss these topics, and that you'll be able to gleen as much insight from Him on these issues as I have!
I'm out! It's bedtime. I spent almost the entire day writing a paper on Sanctification and my brain is fried. When it's totally finished I see about posting a PDF of it on the sidebar for you guys. It should be able to tie any loose ends that were left hanging during our discussion about our battles with SIN. Thanks for the comments you guys posted during the series I did on dealing with SIN and Sanctification. You guys are the best!
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Off My Caffeine High
Here's a post that I wrote a while ago that I wanted to share with you guys. It's on my old blog. Just click HERE to view the blog post. I thought it was perfect today considering my being buzzed on Caffeine earlier today.
BASEBALL UPDATE: We have a weekend series away in Waleska, Ga (it's right next to Ten-Buck-Two) against Reinhardt. Be praying for us. We're going out to eat as a team tonight and I'm praying that some good conversation will come up. God is faithful and even though His work is not totally visible right now, I know He is still working on these guys' hearts. I'll let you know how things go when I get back on Saturday!
BASEBALL UPDATE: We have a weekend series away in Waleska, Ga (it's right next to Ten-Buck-Two) against Reinhardt. Be praying for us. We're going out to eat as a team tonight and I'm praying that some good conversation will come up. God is faithful and even though His work is not totally visible right now, I know He is still working on these guys' hearts. I'll let you know how things go when I get back on Saturday!
I'm buzzed right now!
Yesterday was awesome! I've had some much work that I've needed to get done the past couple days, so yesterday after practice I went to the library and pitched a tent; I camped out there for hours! I had a huge cup of coffee and I was in the zone! Don't you love it when you're actually motivated to do work (I know those times are few and far between for some of you). Yesterday was one of those one-in-a-million days for me, though!
I guess if you drink a huge cup of coffee around 7:00 pm and then at midnight you have a Full Throttle energy drink, you can get a ton of stuff done, because YOU WILL BE AWAKE FOR HOURS! After finally retiring for the night - er - uh - ok it was the morning - at 4:00 am, I woke up this morning, still buzzing on the residual affects of so much caffeine! It's going to be TERRIBLE around 4:00 pm today, though. I will definitely be hurting to keep my eyes open! Well, you live and you learn. Look for more posting tonight. I have class right now. Time for some of this work to pay off. Pray that I won't fall asleep. This professor has been known to chunk tennis balls at people who fall asleep (I believe it too - he's psycho!). Peace Out!
I guess if you drink a huge cup of coffee around 7:00 pm and then at midnight you have a Full Throttle energy drink, you can get a ton of stuff done, because YOU WILL BE AWAKE FOR HOURS! After finally retiring for the night - er - uh - ok it was the morning - at 4:00 am, I woke up this morning, still buzzing on the residual affects of so much caffeine! It's going to be TERRIBLE around 4:00 pm today, though. I will definitely be hurting to keep my eyes open! Well, you live and you learn. Look for more posting tonight. I have class right now. Time for some of this work to pay off. Pray that I won't fall asleep. This professor has been known to chunk tennis balls at people who fall asleep (I believe it too - he's psycho!). Peace Out!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
E-6
Sorry, once again, for not posting anything yesterday. I've been totally swamped with work. I know, I know . . . I should have done all this work last week when we were on Spring Break but what can I say, I'm a procrastinator. Oh, BTW, it was brought to my atttention a couple days ago that I misspelled disgusting (I spelled it "discusting") and I just want you to know that the problem has been remedied. I would also like you to know that I'm a TERRIBLE speller. I was disqualified from the 5th grade spelling bee for misspelling the word "extinct" (that is how you spell it right?). I know it makes me look less educated but try to bear with me and I apologize in advance if I misspell a word. I'M NOT PERFECT!
So, that being said, let's try to make some sense out of this whole SIN and "Sanctification" thing. Here's some verses I've run across lately that might help us clear some things up:
1 John 2:1-6
Romans 6:13-14
Colossians 3:10
1 John 4:7-8
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
I Corinthians 6:11
II Thessalonians 2:13-15
Romans 12:1-2
(Check these verses out for yourselves - they're awesome!)
In order to understand this "Sanctification" thing (being free from the guilt of sin) we must understand that it is not about what we can physically DO to attain salvation and eternal life. It is ALL about what Jesus has DONE for us on the Cross. By dying for us He offers us the FREE gift of forgiveness and grace (to see more about this click HERE). But as believers Jesus has expectations for us. It is spelled out clearly in the Bible that God cannot co-exist with SIN. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is negatively affected by our SIN. Why do you think we feel convicted when we SIN? Because it is a part of our lives that Jesus wants to get rid of so He can have full leadership in our lives.
"Sanctification" is a required thing! It is the growth as Christians that we experience in Christ. Jesus loves us too much to let us stay the same! So after we become a follower of Him, He begins immediately to work at getting rid of SIN in our lives because He knows that SIN leads to pain and suffering. So why do seasoned Christians still SIN? I'll answer that question with another question. Why do seasoned Major League Baseball veterans make errors? Because baseball CANNOT BE PERFECTED! (Believe me, I know. I've been playing baseball for 17 years and I still make errors all the time! "E-6" is scribbled ALL over our score cards!) Likewise, the Christian life here on earth CANNOT BE PERFECTED. We will never get to where we are perfect human beings (never sinning). That's the cool thing about Grace. Jesus offers us eternal life even though we don't deserve it and we will NEVER deserve it!
So why does the Bible say that we have to be "Sanctified" if Jesus knows we will never be perfect. BECAUSE SANCTIFICATION IS NOT A PERFECTION OF PERFORMANCE! IT IS A PERFECTION OF INTENTION!! It is a CONTINUALLY "perfect" relationship with Jesus! Let me give you an example. I would consider my parents to have a perfect relationship with each other because no matter what, they will never leave, abandon, deny, or betray each other. No matter how they may FEEL about each other on a given day, they have COMMITTED to sacrificing their own personal interests for the other's needs and interests. And while my dad may not DO everything right for my mom (and vice-versa) and while he makes mistakes every once in a while (after all he is human), his heart is in the right place and his intentions are PERFECT. That's what makes the relationship perfect; it is not anything he DOES or fails to DO but it is his commentment to love to my mom no matter what!
If Jesus has truly won our hearts, we are being Sanctified every day. Jesus will continue to work in our lives, pointing out things that He may want us to get rid of (SINs in particular but really anything that is taking priority over Him in our lives). I promise, the more you fall in love with Jesus, and the closer you come in your relationship with Him, the less you will WANT to SIN. Here are some practical ways we can avoid or flee from the SIN that keeps us frustrated:
LAY LOW- Stay away from situations that may lead you commit those SINS. If it's sexual SIN, stay away from those situations where you know you will be tempted. This principle applies to ALL SIN!
PRAY- Ask God to help you conquer that particular SIN. He doesn't want us to be defeated by SIN and He offers us power and strength to defeat SIN. Prayer is our battlefied against SIN. GO TO WAR ON YOUR KNEES!
"WORD" TO YOUR MIND- Stay in the Word (keep reading the Bible). I know that sounds very Sunday School-ish, but getting to know God more really makes us fall more in love with Him and be less inclined to SIN.
S.O.S.- Form a group of accountability partners (same-gender accountability partners please!). An accountability group is a close-knit group of Christians where everyone can feel safe sharing their struggles with sin and everyone can help each other out in their walks with Christ. Challenge each other; Pray with each other; Struggle with each other. Christianity was NOT meant to be done on alone. Keep each other accountable!
BASEBALL UPDATE: We had a great discipleship meeting tonight. Not as many numbers, but a great discussion! It's so much fun and so fulfilling to be ministering to these guys. I have the best job in the world. Too bad I have to waste time playing baseball and I can't just talk to these guys about Jesus 24/7 (HaHa, just a little joke. I love playing ball, and it has given me opportunities I wouldn't normally have).
So, that being said, let's try to make some sense out of this whole SIN and "Sanctification" thing. Here's some verses I've run across lately that might help us clear some things up:
1 John 2:1-6
Romans 6:13-14
Colossians 3:10
1 John 4:7-8
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
I Corinthians 6:11
II Thessalonians 2:13-15
Romans 12:1-2
(Check these verses out for yourselves - they're awesome!)
In order to understand this "Sanctification" thing (being free from the guilt of sin) we must understand that it is not about what we can physically DO to attain salvation and eternal life. It is ALL about what Jesus has DONE for us on the Cross. By dying for us He offers us the FREE gift of forgiveness and grace (to see more about this click HERE). But as believers Jesus has expectations for us. It is spelled out clearly in the Bible that God cannot co-exist with SIN. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is negatively affected by our SIN. Why do you think we feel convicted when we SIN? Because it is a part of our lives that Jesus wants to get rid of so He can have full leadership in our lives.
"Sanctification" is a required thing! It is the growth as Christians that we experience in Christ. Jesus loves us too much to let us stay the same! So after we become a follower of Him, He begins immediately to work at getting rid of SIN in our lives because He knows that SIN leads to pain and suffering. So why do seasoned Christians still SIN? I'll answer that question with another question. Why do seasoned Major League Baseball veterans make errors? Because baseball CANNOT BE PERFECTED! (Believe me, I know. I've been playing baseball for 17 years and I still make errors all the time! "E-6" is scribbled ALL over our score cards!) Likewise, the Christian life here on earth CANNOT BE PERFECTED. We will never get to where we are perfect human beings (never sinning). That's the cool thing about Grace. Jesus offers us eternal life even though we don't deserve it and we will NEVER deserve it!
So why does the Bible say that we have to be "Sanctified" if Jesus knows we will never be perfect. BECAUSE SANCTIFICATION IS NOT A PERFECTION OF PERFORMANCE! IT IS A PERFECTION OF INTENTION!! It is a CONTINUALLY "perfect" relationship with Jesus! Let me give you an example. I would consider my parents to have a perfect relationship with each other because no matter what, they will never leave, abandon, deny, or betray each other. No matter how they may FEEL about each other on a given day, they have COMMITTED to sacrificing their own personal interests for the other's needs and interests. And while my dad may not DO everything right for my mom (and vice-versa) and while he makes mistakes every once in a while (after all he is human), his heart is in the right place and his intentions are PERFECT. That's what makes the relationship perfect; it is not anything he DOES or fails to DO but it is his commentment to love to my mom no matter what!
If Jesus has truly won our hearts, we are being Sanctified every day. Jesus will continue to work in our lives, pointing out things that He may want us to get rid of (SINs in particular but really anything that is taking priority over Him in our lives). I promise, the more you fall in love with Jesus, and the closer you come in your relationship with Him, the less you will WANT to SIN. Here are some practical ways we can avoid or flee from the SIN that keeps us frustrated:
LAY LOW- Stay away from situations that may lead you commit those SINS. If it's sexual SIN, stay away from those situations where you know you will be tempted. This principle applies to ALL SIN!
PRAY- Ask God to help you conquer that particular SIN. He doesn't want us to be defeated by SIN and He offers us power and strength to defeat SIN. Prayer is our battlefied against SIN. GO TO WAR ON YOUR KNEES!
"WORD" TO YOUR MIND- Stay in the Word (keep reading the Bible). I know that sounds very Sunday School-ish, but getting to know God more really makes us fall more in love with Him and be less inclined to SIN.
S.O.S.- Form a group of accountability partners (same-gender accountability partners please!). An accountability group is a close-knit group of Christians where everyone can feel safe sharing their struggles with sin and everyone can help each other out in their walks with Christ. Challenge each other; Pray with each other; Struggle with each other. Christianity was NOT meant to be done on alone. Keep each other accountable!
BASEBALL UPDATE: We had a great discipleship meeting tonight. Not as many numbers, but a great discussion! It's so much fun and so fulfilling to be ministering to these guys. I have the best job in the world. Too bad I have to waste time playing baseball and I can't just talk to these guys about Jesus 24/7 (HaHa, just a little joke. I love playing ball, and it has given me opportunities I wouldn't normally have).
Sunday, March 12, 2006
"Stupid Thing Keeps Popping Up!"
Sorry I haven't posted anything in the past couple days. It's been a hectic weekend full of baseball and trying to get work done for Monday's return to the norm of classes. I'm still riddled with this question about SIN! Sometimes it seems like such a simple thing. Davey, just don't SIN anymore! Ha! I've figured it out! Not hardly . . .
A guy from the team confronted me about the topic of SIN today. (You may wonder why I'm capitalizing SIN everytime I write it. I don't know to be honest with you. It's a heavy word and a heavy topic, and while it certainly doesn't deserve capitalization on paper, it seems like I need to as a signpost, a warning. Kind of like a flashing light. Beware! Don't come any farther! SIN is beyond this line!) This guy is a brand new Christian of about two weeks, and he made a commitment to God when he got saved not to dabble in a particular SIN that he knew he had been having trouble with. He called me up telling me he had something to confess and he just needed to talk. He came over and told me about how he was confronted with the temptation and fell again! Right after he gave it away to God! I FEEL YA BRO!! Isn't that all our plights? The Bible talks about how we are like dogs returning to our vomit. Have you ever seen a dog eat its own vomit? Disgusting!!
We're no smarter than dogs when it comes to SIN, though. We dabble in it because it feels GOOD for the moment. But when it's all over, we're left feeling empty and then guilt-ridden. Satan lures us in, makes SIN appealing, ensnares us, and then beats us over the head about it afterwards. What a rotten guy!! When I return to the same SIN I feel like a dog that has just vomitted, gone back and eaten the vomit, vomitted again, and then repeated the process with no relief!
I remember when I was little, the cool thing to do was to have your birthday party at Chucky-Cheese! That was such a cool place. Blow all your money on pizza and coins, play games, and hope you win enough tickets to trade in for a worthless prize that would break within the next few days. That was the life! One game I HATED, I mean absolutely DESPISED with a passion, was that game where the alligators pop out and you beat them over the head with that padded mallet. I hated it!! I never felt like I was winning or accomplishing anything. Whenever I pounded an alligator, it would cower away for a little while and then poke its little annoying head out again! To make matters worse, three of four of those stupid things would pop up at the same time and I only had one mallet! Aaaah! I get frustrated just thinking about it. Most of the time I wanted to go unplug the machine and then jump up and down declaring that I had just won; I had killed all the alligators! But I never did unplug it, because if I had, the tickets would have stopped spitting out of the machine.
Isn't that how SIN is though? You beat it back and beat it back until you're blue in the face, but no matter how much you try to ward it off it still comes back, rearing its ugly head! The problem is, we're too scared to pull the plug, cause if we do that no more tickets will come out and then we wouldn't be able to get our cheap prize (keep in mind those prizes only last a little while and are worth next to nothing)! Man those Chucky-Cheese prizes are sooo fulfilling too. I know I still have all of them to this day and they are all sooo useful to me (sarcasm in case you didn't pick up on it). It's so true though. We're too wussey to go pull the plug on Satan, and so he keeps us in this bondage of SIN that God wants us to be free of!
Okay, Davey, we understand this SIN thing now. So how do we pull the plug? How do we get rid of the SIN that continues to plague us? How do we let Jesus be the LORD of our lives and find fulfillment in Him ONLY!? I'll write more about that tomorrow.
B.T.W. Jesus' GRACE is enough!
A guy from the team confronted me about the topic of SIN today. (You may wonder why I'm capitalizing SIN everytime I write it. I don't know to be honest with you. It's a heavy word and a heavy topic, and while it certainly doesn't deserve capitalization on paper, it seems like I need to as a signpost, a warning. Kind of like a flashing light. Beware! Don't come any farther! SIN is beyond this line!) This guy is a brand new Christian of about two weeks, and he made a commitment to God when he got saved not to dabble in a particular SIN that he knew he had been having trouble with. He called me up telling me he had something to confess and he just needed to talk. He came over and told me about how he was confronted with the temptation and fell again! Right after he gave it away to God! I FEEL YA BRO!! Isn't that all our plights? The Bible talks about how we are like dogs returning to our vomit. Have you ever seen a dog eat its own vomit? Disgusting!!
We're no smarter than dogs when it comes to SIN, though. We dabble in it because it feels GOOD for the moment. But when it's all over, we're left feeling empty and then guilt-ridden. Satan lures us in, makes SIN appealing, ensnares us, and then beats us over the head about it afterwards. What a rotten guy!! When I return to the same SIN I feel like a dog that has just vomitted, gone back and eaten the vomit, vomitted again, and then repeated the process with no relief!
I remember when I was little, the cool thing to do was to have your birthday party at Chucky-Cheese! That was such a cool place. Blow all your money on pizza and coins, play games, and hope you win enough tickets to trade in for a worthless prize that would break within the next few days. That was the life! One game I HATED, I mean absolutely DESPISED with a passion, was that game where the alligators pop out and you beat them over the head with that padded mallet. I hated it!! I never felt like I was winning or accomplishing anything. Whenever I pounded an alligator, it would cower away for a little while and then poke its little annoying head out again! To make matters worse, three of four of those stupid things would pop up at the same time and I only had one mallet! Aaaah! I get frustrated just thinking about it. Most of the time I wanted to go unplug the machine and then jump up and down declaring that I had just won; I had killed all the alligators! But I never did unplug it, because if I had, the tickets would have stopped spitting out of the machine.
Isn't that how SIN is though? You beat it back and beat it back until you're blue in the face, but no matter how much you try to ward it off it still comes back, rearing its ugly head! The problem is, we're too scared to pull the plug, cause if we do that no more tickets will come out and then we wouldn't be able to get our cheap prize (keep in mind those prizes only last a little while and are worth next to nothing)! Man those Chucky-Cheese prizes are sooo fulfilling too. I know I still have all of them to this day and they are all sooo useful to me (sarcasm in case you didn't pick up on it). It's so true though. We're too wussey to go pull the plug on Satan, and so he keeps us in this bondage of SIN that God wants us to be free of!
Okay, Davey, we understand this SIN thing now. So how do we pull the plug? How do we get rid of the SIN that continues to plague us? How do we let Jesus be the LORD of our lives and find fulfillment in Him ONLY!? I'll write more about that tomorrow.
B.T.W. Jesus' GRACE is enough!
Friday, March 10, 2006
SIN-Aaaahhh!!
I’m sorry I didn’t post anything last night. My usual routine is posting something right before I go to bed so that you guys can read it the next day. Last night I fell asleep on the couch . . . go figure, me falling asleep on the couch—I always do that. Anyways, I’ll try to make it up to you guys. I did put a list of books that I’ve recently read, am currently reading, and would like to read on my sidebar so if you guys want to check those out. They are ALL amazing reads!
So what’s with this topic of SIN! Such a loaded topic! Everytime I hear the word that's my reaction (Aaaaahhh!). It's such a scary word. So what is SIN in the Real World? Let’s start from the beginning. When we accept Jesus Christ in to our hearts and turn our lives over to His leadership (because we know we suck at life on our own), Jesus POWER-WASHES our souls (I love that image!). So any sin we have done, any sin that we are doing, and any sin we are going to do he has already died for once and for all! It says in Hebrews that our “sins and lawless acts [He] will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17).” In other words, God says “You are forgiven totally.” If you ask Him “Well, what about THAT sin, God,” He responds with “What sin?” He totally forgives and forgets. Isn’t that awesome to think about?! No matter what rotten things I’ve done in my life, if I make Jesus the Lord of my life, He forgets it all!
So if he forgets it all, what’s the big deal? Can’t we theoretically just keep on sinning and rely on God’s grace and forgiveness to get us through life? The big deal is that sin separates us from God. God is so holy, just, and perfect that he cannot co-exist with sin. Paul says in Romans, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? BY NO MEANS! We died to sin; how then can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2)” So if we continue to let sin rule our lives, Jesus’ reign on our lives takes backseat because He cannot sit on a “joint throne” with sin.
My girlfriend, Amanda, lives 12 hours away from me. So the only thing that we can do to keep our relationship up is talk on the phone. Well, not even that is possible now that she has given me up for Lent. (See Lent Hurts). So, what separates us now? Miles and miles of highway AND a lack of communication. Believe me, I would do ANYTHING to bridge that gap that separates us just so I could hang out with her and experience her company first-hand.
The same thing’s true with God. We have the opportunity to hang out with Him on a daily basis, first-hand, like a best friend, yet the sin in our lives separates us from really and truly being able to EXPERIENCE Him. That is why this “Sanctification” thing—being without sin—is so important. (Sanctification - the million dollar word. Don't you wish people would put simpler terms to this kind of stuff?)
Davey, c’mon now, I’m human, you’re human, we’re all human. There is no way we can live without sin in our lives. Let’s face it, we screw up all the time! We are far from perfect people. That is the human race. How can we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can actually live sin-free lives? I think the Bible points out awesome truth’s that will clue us in on a little of what God expects out of us and how we can actually meet up to God’s expectations! More about this tomorrow . . .
BASEBALL UPDATE: Keep praying that God’s hand will be at work. I’m getting kind of discouraged with some of these guys on the team. Sometimes I wish we could have a steady stream of people coming to know the Lord instead of spurts of a big harvest and then longer dry times (to put it into a baseball application: I would rather go 1-3 every game of the season then go 4-4 one game and 0-4 the next two). But God works in mysterious ways and it’s during these dry times that we realize how dependent we are on God and the work of the Holy Spirit in these guys’ lives. KEEP PRAYING!
So what’s with this topic of SIN! Such a loaded topic! Everytime I hear the word that's my reaction (Aaaaahhh!). It's such a scary word. So what is SIN in the Real World? Let’s start from the beginning. When we accept Jesus Christ in to our hearts and turn our lives over to His leadership (because we know we suck at life on our own), Jesus POWER-WASHES our souls (I love that image!). So any sin we have done, any sin that we are doing, and any sin we are going to do he has already died for once and for all! It says in Hebrews that our “sins and lawless acts [He] will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17).” In other words, God says “You are forgiven totally.” If you ask Him “Well, what about THAT sin, God,” He responds with “What sin?” He totally forgives and forgets. Isn’t that awesome to think about?! No matter what rotten things I’ve done in my life, if I make Jesus the Lord of my life, He forgets it all!
So if he forgets it all, what’s the big deal? Can’t we theoretically just keep on sinning and rely on God’s grace and forgiveness to get us through life? The big deal is that sin separates us from God. God is so holy, just, and perfect that he cannot co-exist with sin. Paul says in Romans, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? BY NO MEANS! We died to sin; how then can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2)” So if we continue to let sin rule our lives, Jesus’ reign on our lives takes backseat because He cannot sit on a “joint throne” with sin.
My girlfriend, Amanda, lives 12 hours away from me. So the only thing that we can do to keep our relationship up is talk on the phone. Well, not even that is possible now that she has given me up for Lent. (See Lent Hurts). So, what separates us now? Miles and miles of highway AND a lack of communication. Believe me, I would do ANYTHING to bridge that gap that separates us just so I could hang out with her and experience her company first-hand.
The same thing’s true with God. We have the opportunity to hang out with Him on a daily basis, first-hand, like a best friend, yet the sin in our lives separates us from really and truly being able to EXPERIENCE Him. That is why this “Sanctification” thing—being without sin—is so important. (Sanctification - the million dollar word. Don't you wish people would put simpler terms to this kind of stuff?)
Davey, c’mon now, I’m human, you’re human, we’re all human. There is no way we can live without sin in our lives. Let’s face it, we screw up all the time! We are far from perfect people. That is the human race. How can we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can actually live sin-free lives? I think the Bible points out awesome truth’s that will clue us in on a little of what God expects out of us and how we can actually meet up to God’s expectations! More about this tomorrow . . .
BASEBALL UPDATE: Keep praying that God’s hand will be at work. I’m getting kind of discouraged with some of these guys on the team. Sometimes I wish we could have a steady stream of people coming to know the Lord instead of spurts of a big harvest and then longer dry times (to put it into a baseball application: I would rather go 1-3 every game of the season then go 4-4 one game and 0-4 the next two). But God works in mysterious ways and it’s during these dry times that we realize how dependent we are on God and the work of the Holy Spirit in these guys’ lives. KEEP PRAYING!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Did William Wallace Have it Figured Out?
You know the scene at the very end of Braveheart where William Wallace is facing his public torture? He's up there in front of everyone, exposed, indecent, and naked in front of the very people that he has led in an insurrection against the tyranny of the English government. He's offered a chance to say his last words as they complete quite possibly the most gruesome and painful act of torture imaginable (if you don't know what was done to William Wallace ask your pastor, he'd love to talk about it with you . . . hehe). Right then, in his most vulnerable and dying state, Wallace lets out a battle cry that shakes the pillars of the British rule and gives the Scot's inspiration to forge on in their pursuit for liberation . . . FREEDOM!!!!
I will never forget the first time I saw that scene. I remember thinking to myself, what a noble way to die! Don't get me wrong, if I had my choice, I would die peacefully in my sleep, but you can't discredit William Wallace's fortitude and courage! We all long to have that FREEDOM that he so passionately fought and died for! I want it in my own life! Can you imagine nothing weighing you down, no burdens, no guilt, no shame, no pain, no sin! I would die for that kind of freedom.
If you're not a Christian I just want you to know, that kind of freedom is only found in Jesus Christ. He is the only liberator that can totally free you from the shackles that you carry, the burdens that you haul around, and the guilt that plagues your mind. I urge you to actively pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ; let Him forgive you of all your sins; and cast your burdens on Him. It's only in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that true peace and freedom is found.
If you are a Christian, you must share the same feelings as me, because we are human and we still struggle with sin on a daily basis. Why can't I shake this sin in my life? Why can't I experience that true freedom that the Bible talks about and that Jesus promises? Paul put it best in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Seems Paul struggled with same thing we do, SINNING! But why do we sin. Isn't it logical to think that now we are new creations in Christ we should be able to be "perfect just as [our] Father in Heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)?" Is this a reasonable request of us by Jesus? Can we really be perfect?
I've wrestled with this for a while. What is this "Sanctification" thing the Bible talks about and can it offer some relief from being plagued with sin in my life? Being sanctified literally means being "free from sin." If Jesus expects us to be perfect, are we not supposed to live up to His expectations? It says in Hebrews that no one will see the Lord if he is not pursuing this Sanctification through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:14). I will be researching and blogging about this topic for the next couple days in hopes of finding some practical answers to these questions that plague SO many Christians.
Let me first just point people to Jesus' grace. Jesus died on the cross so we could find forgiveness for our sins. He knows that we sin, that is why He died! So no act of "holiness" or "righteousness" is going to IMPRESS God or make us higher on his list of favorites. In fact the Bible says that anything that we DO that we consider good or righteous is like filthy rags (modern translation is "dirty tampons") to God (Isaiah 64:6). GROSS! By the way, girls, guys really get grossed out when you talk about that kind of stuff! Anyways, Jesus just wants us to accept his forgiveness for those sins and turn our lives over to His leadership. But what then? Why do I keep on sinning even though my life is turned over to Jesus? We'll discuss this a little further tomorrow!
BASEBALL UPDATE: We lost one to North Georgia tonight. It was a close one until the bottom of the 7th, then it got a little out of hand. Final score: 10-4. Brings our record to 15-16. Not TOO bad (especially compared to last year). Sure would be nice to be above .500 though. Keep praying for these guys. God is really working on their hearts. I will never lose hope for these guys. I really feel God's presence on this team, and I trust that His work is not over. Let's keep going to war on our knees for these guys. Pray for Kenneth and me, too, that we will have the words to say to them when the doors open and that our lives will be seasoned with salt so much that these guys desire our Savior in their lives!
I will never forget the first time I saw that scene. I remember thinking to myself, what a noble way to die! Don't get me wrong, if I had my choice, I would die peacefully in my sleep, but you can't discredit William Wallace's fortitude and courage! We all long to have that FREEDOM that he so passionately fought and died for! I want it in my own life! Can you imagine nothing weighing you down, no burdens, no guilt, no shame, no pain, no sin! I would die for that kind of freedom.
If you're not a Christian I just want you to know, that kind of freedom is only found in Jesus Christ. He is the only liberator that can totally free you from the shackles that you carry, the burdens that you haul around, and the guilt that plagues your mind. I urge you to actively pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ; let Him forgive you of all your sins; and cast your burdens on Him. It's only in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that true peace and freedom is found.
If you are a Christian, you must share the same feelings as me, because we are human and we still struggle with sin on a daily basis. Why can't I shake this sin in my life? Why can't I experience that true freedom that the Bible talks about and that Jesus promises? Paul put it best in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Seems Paul struggled with same thing we do, SINNING! But why do we sin. Isn't it logical to think that now we are new creations in Christ we should be able to be "perfect just as [our] Father in Heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)?" Is this a reasonable request of us by Jesus? Can we really be perfect?
I've wrestled with this for a while. What is this "Sanctification" thing the Bible talks about and can it offer some relief from being plagued with sin in my life? Being sanctified literally means being "free from sin." If Jesus expects us to be perfect, are we not supposed to live up to His expectations? It says in Hebrews that no one will see the Lord if he is not pursuing this Sanctification through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:14). I will be researching and blogging about this topic for the next couple days in hopes of finding some practical answers to these questions that plague SO many Christians.
Let me first just point people to Jesus' grace. Jesus died on the cross so we could find forgiveness for our sins. He knows that we sin, that is why He died! So no act of "holiness" or "righteousness" is going to IMPRESS God or make us higher on his list of favorites. In fact the Bible says that anything that we DO that we consider good or righteous is like filthy rags (modern translation is "dirty tampons") to God (Isaiah 64:6). GROSS! By the way, girls, guys really get grossed out when you talk about that kind of stuff! Anyways, Jesus just wants us to accept his forgiveness for those sins and turn our lives over to His leadership. But what then? Why do I keep on sinning even though my life is turned over to Jesus? We'll discuss this a little further tomorrow!
BASEBALL UPDATE: We lost one to North Georgia tonight. It was a close one until the bottom of the 7th, then it got a little out of hand. Final score: 10-4. Brings our record to 15-16. Not TOO bad (especially compared to last year). Sure would be nice to be above .500 though. Keep praying for these guys. God is really working on their hearts. I will never lose hope for these guys. I really feel God's presence on this team, and I trust that His work is not over. Let's keep going to war on our knees for these guys. Pray for Kenneth and me, too, that we will have the words to say to them when the doors open and that our lives will be seasoned with salt so much that these guys desire our Savior in their lives!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Life Comes At You Fast!
Some days are just terrible. You know those days where nothing seems to go right? Those days where you have to fight to find a reason not to just crawl back into bed and hope you wake up the next day and everything will be better. That was me today. We won our game in 12 innings despite it being the ugliest game I have ever witnessed. And nothing went right for me. Terrible day at the plate; the choke artist came right out! Nothing felt right about today. I didn't feel confident on the field; I didn't feel like being around people (Great testimony, Davey! :( ). It was just one of those days.
It's funny how God can use these kinds of days to teach us lessons, though. I sat over at Sciullo's tonight and I promise the teacher had become the student! I found myself sitting there listening to the same guy whom I had been discipling over the past few weeks tell me that we don't need any better reason to be out on the field than just the fact that Jesus died for us so that we could have life (and play this wonderful game of baseball). He told me how when David in the Bible had troubles he was confident that His God would pull him through. "David ran for his life everyday, for Gosh sakes," Sciullo told me, "You think WE have troubles in our lives? You've gotta place your entire trust in Jesus, Davey." (It's amazing to see how God has transformed his life already!)
I was amazed, stunned, dumbfounded! Sciullo, a brand new Christian, telling me, a Christian for over 12 years, that I need to place my entire trust in Jesus. It's so simple! But he is exactly right. I have two and a half seasons left of this sport that I've played my entire life, and I've been going out there everyday with the attitude of a Sanitation department worker--foul! And to think of all the things God has done on this team, yet I still act like I don't want to be out there everyday! UNBELIEVABLE!
Have you ever seen those Nationwide commercials? You know the one where the dad is swinging his son on that tire swing and he gives one giant shove on a swing occupied by a 4 year old only to find a 220 pound 16 year old come flying back in his face. WEAR IT! (check out the commercial here). Life comes at you fast, they claim. And it does. I only have a half a season with some of these guys and only 1-2 years with the rest of them. Why do I take this time I have for granted, and why do I not appreciate everyday that I'm given to play the greatest game in the world? Life's gonna come at you fast enough, Davey. Cherish the moments you have here.
It's funny how God can use these kinds of days to teach us lessons, though. I sat over at Sciullo's tonight and I promise the teacher had become the student! I found myself sitting there listening to the same guy whom I had been discipling over the past few weeks tell me that we don't need any better reason to be out on the field than just the fact that Jesus died for us so that we could have life (and play this wonderful game of baseball). He told me how when David in the Bible had troubles he was confident that His God would pull him through. "David ran for his life everyday, for Gosh sakes," Sciullo told me, "You think WE have troubles in our lives? You've gotta place your entire trust in Jesus, Davey." (It's amazing to see how God has transformed his life already!)
I was amazed, stunned, dumbfounded! Sciullo, a brand new Christian, telling me, a Christian for over 12 years, that I need to place my entire trust in Jesus. It's so simple! But he is exactly right. I have two and a half seasons left of this sport that I've played my entire life, and I've been going out there everyday with the attitude of a Sanitation department worker--foul! And to think of all the things God has done on this team, yet I still act like I don't want to be out there everyday! UNBELIEVABLE!
Have you ever seen those Nationwide commercials? You know the one where the dad is swinging his son on that tire swing and he gives one giant shove on a swing occupied by a 4 year old only to find a 220 pound 16 year old come flying back in his face. WEAR IT! (check out the commercial here). Life comes at you fast, they claim. And it does. I only have a half a season with some of these guys and only 1-2 years with the rest of them. Why do I take this time I have for granted, and why do I not appreciate everyday that I'm given to play the greatest game in the world? Life's gonna come at you fast enough, Davey. Cherish the moments you have here.
Monday, March 06, 2006
What, When, Where, Why, How?
Before I start this post I just want you guys to know that Kenneth and I DO NOT collaborated before writing these things. But it seems like everyday we're writing about the same thing. God works in mysterious ways. Kenneth says we're brother's from a different mother. I say we're bros from the same heavenly Father!
Questions! That seems to be the theme for the day. I recently finished The DaVinci Code. For any of you who haven't read it let me summarize it for you. It's a great suspense novel, a page-turner where every chapter leads to a new twist in the plot; but it is entirely FALSE! It's amazing how many people are accepting Dan Brown's fiction as, for lack of a better term, the Word of God! The whole claim of the book is that the infamous Holy Grail that has been the object of many quests throughout history is not what history claims it to be. Throughout history, it has been widely accepted that the Holy Grail was the cup that Jesus and His disciples drank from during the last supper and that Joseph of Arimathea used to collect some of Jesus' blood. The theory is that if one finds this Holy Grail they will become immortal. That itself is a pretty outrageous claim, but wait till you catch what Dan Brown asserts in his FICTIONAL novel.
Brown says the Holy Grail is not a chalice, or cup, at all, but it is in fact the dead bones of Mary Magdalene, representing the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. Davey, how can Jesus have a royal bloodline if he never had a child? Therein lies Brown's argument. According to him, Mary Magdalene was Jesus' "partner" and the two had a baby. He claims the church uses Mary's association with prostitution to cover up the fact that Mary was Jesus' sexual partner. He also claims that somewhere out in the world today are people who are DIRECT descendents of Jesus Christ. OUTRAGEOUS!
First of all we have to understand that this is not a new idea that has surfaced because of some new archeological evidence or documentation. This idea has been around for a while. In fact, Brown freely references some prominent historians in his novel, including Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry (Leigh Teabing, the novel's mastermind behind the uncovering of this conspiracy, is in fact an anagram for Baigent and Leigh—switch the letters around in Baigent and you have "Teabing"). Remember Martin Scorsese's 1988 "The Last Temptation of Christ?" Although insanely sacrilegious, it made similar claims about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. But even Scorses wasn’t among the first of these theorists. His movie was based on a Nikos Kazantzakis' 1955 novel which was based on historians’ claims from as far back as the Middle-ages.
The point is that these claims have been around since the message of Christ has been preached. The enemy (Satan) loves to use any avenue he can to try to discredit our Savior and make people doubt Him. Despite what you may believe, you have to admit that Dan Brown’s novel has raised serious questions in our society about the authenticity of the New Testament and the Christ it portrays.
I asked for your continuing prayers over the weekend that we would get into some awesome conversations about Jesus with the guys on the team, and God was once again faithful in answering those prayers. I got into a deep, DEEP discussion about Christianity and Jesus with this one guy on our team, Ben, who is a self-proclaimed agnostic. This guy had some SERIOUS questions—Questions that boggled my mind. I mean they were loaded, cocked and ready to explode! Our conversation was a couple tiers above my intellectual capabilities but amazingly I was able to give Him challenging and sufficient answers. PRAISE GOD! I could feel the Holy Spirit’s words flowing through me as I offered up answers to some of his questions. After Ben left my apartment (well after 1:00 in the morning) I remember saying out-loud, “Jesus, where did those answers come from!?” Jesus simply replied back, “You didn’t think I’d leave you alone with Him did you? You’re crazy if you think I’d trust you to answer those questions by yourself!” Haha!
I had ample time to sit and ponder this conversation and these questions (especially after I received an email from this guy with 4 more typed pages of questions that he wanted answers for). And as I was thinking I began to thank God for people like Ben, who are searching. I love it that he’s not taking this Christianity thing at face-value and mindlessly accepting Jesus as THE WAY. If he ever accepts Jesus as his Savior (which I believe whole-heartedly he will) he will know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus is REAL, ALIVE, and ABLE to transform his life and his traditional way of thought—he will experience Him unlike many people have been able to!
Look at guys like C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel who asked some of the toughest questions and essentially put Jesus under the spotlight for interrogation. Both of these guys were atheists to the core, went on quests to prove Christianity wrong, and ended up realizing that there was nothing more REAL than Jesus Christ. These guys didn’t leave their quest for Truth unchanged! And now their writings hold some of the most prominent influence among Christians and non-Christians alike!
The point is that God has been under the spotlight of interrogation since the beginning of time and he has NEVER been proven wrong. That’s quite a record! He is undefeated and undefeatable! Check out the Old Testament. It’s chalk full of stories about people and nations who questioned and defied God, and every time God showed up for the challenge and blew them away! Read about Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18!
Another cool story about God stepping up the challenge is when the Assyrians invaded Judah while Hezekiah was the king. Assyria was a nation that proved a nemesis to God’s chosen people, the Israelites. It seemed like they were always trying to get in the way of God’s plans. One occasion, in 2 Chronicles 32, Sennacherib (what’s the deal with the names in the Bible? We’ll call him S-Dawg for the sake for pronunciation), the king of Assyria at the time, had the entire nation of Judah surrounded and was laying siege to the city of Jerusalem (not letting anyone go in or out—essentially trying to starve them into submission). S-Dawg sent a very intimidating message into the city basically claiming that the God of Israelites is worthless, useless, and cannot save them from S-Dawg’s fierce warriors. “Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people form my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people form my hand,” S-Dawg says in verse 17.
But, check this out! Hezekiah cried out to God and pleaded with Him and in verse 21 it says that God sent an angel who “ANNIHILATED all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king.” That couldn’t have been pretty! Blood and guts flying everywhere, straight out of a scene from “Braveheart” or “Saving Private Ryan,” and the Israelites just sat and watched their God exterminate the entire Assyrian army! WOW! God always steps up to the challenge!
So here it is. Here’s my claim. Ben WILL come to know the Lord before this semester is over! That’s my cry out to God! And I believe whole-heartedly that God WILL step up to the challenge!
"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for him with all you heart and with all your soul." -Deuteronomy 4:29
Questions! That seems to be the theme for the day. I recently finished The DaVinci Code. For any of you who haven't read it let me summarize it for you. It's a great suspense novel, a page-turner where every chapter leads to a new twist in the plot; but it is entirely FALSE! It's amazing how many people are accepting Dan Brown's fiction as, for lack of a better term, the Word of God! The whole claim of the book is that the infamous Holy Grail that has been the object of many quests throughout history is not what history claims it to be. Throughout history, it has been widely accepted that the Holy Grail was the cup that Jesus and His disciples drank from during the last supper and that Joseph of Arimathea used to collect some of Jesus' blood. The theory is that if one finds this Holy Grail they will become immortal. That itself is a pretty outrageous claim, but wait till you catch what Dan Brown asserts in his FICTIONAL novel.
Brown says the Holy Grail is not a chalice, or cup, at all, but it is in fact the dead bones of Mary Magdalene, representing the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. Davey, how can Jesus have a royal bloodline if he never had a child? Therein lies Brown's argument. According to him, Mary Magdalene was Jesus' "partner" and the two had a baby. He claims the church uses Mary's association with prostitution to cover up the fact that Mary was Jesus' sexual partner. He also claims that somewhere out in the world today are people who are DIRECT descendents of Jesus Christ. OUTRAGEOUS!
First of all we have to understand that this is not a new idea that has surfaced because of some new archeological evidence or documentation. This idea has been around for a while. In fact, Brown freely references some prominent historians in his novel, including Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry (Leigh Teabing, the novel's mastermind behind the uncovering of this conspiracy, is in fact an anagram for Baigent and Leigh—switch the letters around in Baigent and you have "Teabing"). Remember Martin Scorsese's 1988 "The Last Temptation of Christ?" Although insanely sacrilegious, it made similar claims about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. But even Scorses wasn’t among the first of these theorists. His movie was based on a Nikos Kazantzakis' 1955 novel which was based on historians’ claims from as far back as the Middle-ages.
The point is that these claims have been around since the message of Christ has been preached. The enemy (Satan) loves to use any avenue he can to try to discredit our Savior and make people doubt Him. Despite what you may believe, you have to admit that Dan Brown’s novel has raised serious questions in our society about the authenticity of the New Testament and the Christ it portrays.
I asked for your continuing prayers over the weekend that we would get into some awesome conversations about Jesus with the guys on the team, and God was once again faithful in answering those prayers. I got into a deep, DEEP discussion about Christianity and Jesus with this one guy on our team, Ben, who is a self-proclaimed agnostic. This guy had some SERIOUS questions—Questions that boggled my mind. I mean they were loaded, cocked and ready to explode! Our conversation was a couple tiers above my intellectual capabilities but amazingly I was able to give Him challenging and sufficient answers. PRAISE GOD! I could feel the Holy Spirit’s words flowing through me as I offered up answers to some of his questions. After Ben left my apartment (well after 1:00 in the morning) I remember saying out-loud, “Jesus, where did those answers come from!?” Jesus simply replied back, “You didn’t think I’d leave you alone with Him did you? You’re crazy if you think I’d trust you to answer those questions by yourself!” Haha!
I had ample time to sit and ponder this conversation and these questions (especially after I received an email from this guy with 4 more typed pages of questions that he wanted answers for). And as I was thinking I began to thank God for people like Ben, who are searching. I love it that he’s not taking this Christianity thing at face-value and mindlessly accepting Jesus as THE WAY. If he ever accepts Jesus as his Savior (which I believe whole-heartedly he will) he will know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus is REAL, ALIVE, and ABLE to transform his life and his traditional way of thought—he will experience Him unlike many people have been able to!
Look at guys like C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel who asked some of the toughest questions and essentially put Jesus under the spotlight for interrogation. Both of these guys were atheists to the core, went on quests to prove Christianity wrong, and ended up realizing that there was nothing more REAL than Jesus Christ. These guys didn’t leave their quest for Truth unchanged! And now their writings hold some of the most prominent influence among Christians and non-Christians alike!
The point is that God has been under the spotlight of interrogation since the beginning of time and he has NEVER been proven wrong. That’s quite a record! He is undefeated and undefeatable! Check out the Old Testament. It’s chalk full of stories about people and nations who questioned and defied God, and every time God showed up for the challenge and blew them away! Read about Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18!
Another cool story about God stepping up the challenge is when the Assyrians invaded Judah while Hezekiah was the king. Assyria was a nation that proved a nemesis to God’s chosen people, the Israelites. It seemed like they were always trying to get in the way of God’s plans. One occasion, in 2 Chronicles 32, Sennacherib (what’s the deal with the names in the Bible? We’ll call him S-Dawg for the sake for pronunciation), the king of Assyria at the time, had the entire nation of Judah surrounded and was laying siege to the city of Jerusalem (not letting anyone go in or out—essentially trying to starve them into submission). S-Dawg sent a very intimidating message into the city basically claiming that the God of Israelites is worthless, useless, and cannot save them from S-Dawg’s fierce warriors. “Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people form my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people form my hand,” S-Dawg says in verse 17.
But, check this out! Hezekiah cried out to God and pleaded with Him and in verse 21 it says that God sent an angel who “ANNIHILATED all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king.” That couldn’t have been pretty! Blood and guts flying everywhere, straight out of a scene from “Braveheart” or “Saving Private Ryan,” and the Israelites just sat and watched their God exterminate the entire Assyrian army! WOW! God always steps up to the challenge!
So here it is. Here’s my claim. Ben WILL come to know the Lord before this semester is over! That’s my cry out to God! And I believe whole-heartedly that God WILL step up to the challenge!
"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for him with all you heart and with all your soul." -Deuteronomy 4:29
Sunday, March 05, 2006
zzzzzzz.......
I'm exhausted from the weekend right now. I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to post anything tonight, but make sure you check it out tomorrow because I have some cool stuff to share with you guys. Newspring was great tonight, by the way. Perry talked about doing hands-on ministry and taking the initiative in our own lives when it comes to serving other people. It really challenged me to continue to be an able body that God can use, a vessel that he can employ for His work.
Kenneth and I got into some great conversations with some of the guys this weekend, one of which carried on well into the early Sunday morning hours after we got back from Tennessee last night. I can't wait to share with you guys all about it. But right now, I'm going to try to recover from the weekend. I'm exhausted, out of gas, and running on empty, and my bed is sooooo warm!! Night everyone!
Kenneth and I got into some great conversations with some of the guys this weekend, one of which carried on well into the early Sunday morning hours after we got back from Tennessee last night. I can't wait to share with you guys all about it. But right now, I'm going to try to recover from the weekend. I'm exhausted, out of gas, and running on empty, and my bed is sooooo warm!! Night everyone!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Lent Hurts
I don’t have a whole lot to say tonight cuz, frankly, I’m pretty tired and I’m still trying to get over this flu that’s been going around. B.T.W. (By The Way) if you haven’t read Kenneth’s blog for yesterday, check it out. It’s awesome! There is a link on my sidebar that you can follow (There & Back).
My thoughts were pretty crummy today until God smacked me in the face. Normally I wouldn’t tell you guys about this but to be honest, I want my life to be transparent for everyone to see. I want you to see my weaknesses and how God uses those to strengthen me. Last night, my girlfriend told me that she was giving me up for Lent. My first reaction was something like, “What!? That’s crazy! Why would you give up something that’s going so well? Doesn’t God want us to be relationships that challenge us to seek Him, and are fruitful? Doesn’t He want us to be happy, especially if we are impacting each other so well spiritually. He doesn’t want us burying out talents, right?”
My girlfriend lives 12 hours away from me. WOW! Just thinking about that seems like forever away. Neither one of us are very good “phone” people but we’ve done so well, and the phone has really been the major vehicle for our relationship. Good, long, fruitful, fulfilling, and challenging conversations on the phone are all that we have had to grow on these past five months. So when she told me that she had to give up talking to me for Lent because that is what she felt God wanted her to do, my mind was racing with a ton of PRACTICAL objections. (b.t.w. God doesn’t work practically) I mean we were talking about the extent of our relationship—PHONE CONVERSATIONS. Take our phone conversations away and you have no relationship, right?
Again I tell you guys this because I want you to see how wrong I have been in approaching this scenario. If she knew I was posting this on my blog for everyone to see she would probably not be very happy. Good thing she is computer illiterate. HeHe. My initial response to her, though, was shock and dismay. Why would she want to give me up for Lent? She proceeded to inform me that I was the only thing in her life that she would really notice and suffer over if I was gone because she cares about me so much. “That’s flattering, so why are you giving me up?” And as flattering as that is, selfishly (my human nature kicked in) I didn’t want to give her up for forty days. That’s a long time! Initially, my thought was that she was just over-spiritualizing things and that she just wanted to find something that she could suffer for to show Jesus that she is willing to suffer for Him.
THAT’S WHEN GOD SMACKED ME IN THE FACE!! I could not have been more wrong. And I want to apologize to her before everyone. Because while inside I was accusing her of having wrong motives, I was having the worst motives of all! I’m so blessed to have a girlfriend that would follow God’s direction before her own agenda. I’m so blessed to say that my girlfriend loves Jesus with her whole heart and she’s not going to let anything stop her from being obedient to Him. I’m so blessed that she is only reliant on God and not our relationship!
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." -Proverbs 31:30
And while I’m affected by this decision, it shouldn’t matter! The Matt Redman song keeps popping in my head. “You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will CHOOSE to say. Lord, blessed be Your name!” God blessed me with this amazing girl in the first place. Who am I to say that He can’t have her back any time He wants her. Amanda, if you’re reading this, I commend you and fully support you in your decision. And while these next forty days are going to be difficult, I know that God is going to reveal Himself in extraordinary ways—ways that He would never have been able to had we been wrapped up in each other during this time. Thank you, Amanda, for being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and for being bold in approaching me about it. “Stay off the paved road!”
BASEBALL UPDATE: Be praying for us this weekend as we're going to Cleveland, TN for a conference series. We will be very purposeful in our conversations, and we will be praying that God will continue to reveal Himself to these guys, that they will recognize their need for a Savior. We have a handful who are teatering on the edge of accepting Christ and we don't have the words for them. But God meets us in our weaknesses. Keep us in your prayers and I'll let you guys know how things go when I get back on Sunday.
My thoughts were pretty crummy today until God smacked me in the face. Normally I wouldn’t tell you guys about this but to be honest, I want my life to be transparent for everyone to see. I want you to see my weaknesses and how God uses those to strengthen me. Last night, my girlfriend told me that she was giving me up for Lent. My first reaction was something like, “What!? That’s crazy! Why would you give up something that’s going so well? Doesn’t God want us to be relationships that challenge us to seek Him, and are fruitful? Doesn’t He want us to be happy, especially if we are impacting each other so well spiritually. He doesn’t want us burying out talents, right?”
My girlfriend lives 12 hours away from me. WOW! Just thinking about that seems like forever away. Neither one of us are very good “phone” people but we’ve done so well, and the phone has really been the major vehicle for our relationship. Good, long, fruitful, fulfilling, and challenging conversations on the phone are all that we have had to grow on these past five months. So when she told me that she had to give up talking to me for Lent because that is what she felt God wanted her to do, my mind was racing with a ton of PRACTICAL objections. (b.t.w. God doesn’t work practically) I mean we were talking about the extent of our relationship—PHONE CONVERSATIONS. Take our phone conversations away and you have no relationship, right?
Again I tell you guys this because I want you to see how wrong I have been in approaching this scenario. If she knew I was posting this on my blog for everyone to see she would probably not be very happy. Good thing she is computer illiterate. HeHe. My initial response to her, though, was shock and dismay. Why would she want to give me up for Lent? She proceeded to inform me that I was the only thing in her life that she would really notice and suffer over if I was gone because she cares about me so much. “That’s flattering, so why are you giving me up?” And as flattering as that is, selfishly (my human nature kicked in) I didn’t want to give her up for forty days. That’s a long time! Initially, my thought was that she was just over-spiritualizing things and that she just wanted to find something that she could suffer for to show Jesus that she is willing to suffer for Him.
THAT’S WHEN GOD SMACKED ME IN THE FACE!! I could not have been more wrong. And I want to apologize to her before everyone. Because while inside I was accusing her of having wrong motives, I was having the worst motives of all! I’m so blessed to have a girlfriend that would follow God’s direction before her own agenda. I’m so blessed to say that my girlfriend loves Jesus with her whole heart and she’s not going to let anything stop her from being obedient to Him. I’m so blessed that she is only reliant on God and not our relationship!
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." -Proverbs 31:30
And while I’m affected by this decision, it shouldn’t matter! The Matt Redman song keeps popping in my head. “You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will CHOOSE to say. Lord, blessed be Your name!” God blessed me with this amazing girl in the first place. Who am I to say that He can’t have her back any time He wants her. Amanda, if you’re reading this, I commend you and fully support you in your decision. And while these next forty days are going to be difficult, I know that God is going to reveal Himself in extraordinary ways—ways that He would never have been able to had we been wrapped up in each other during this time. Thank you, Amanda, for being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and for being bold in approaching me about it. “Stay off the paved road!”
BASEBALL UPDATE: Be praying for us this weekend as we're going to Cleveland, TN for a conference series. We will be very purposeful in our conversations, and we will be praying that God will continue to reveal Himself to these guys, that they will recognize their need for a Savior. We have a handful who are teatering on the edge of accepting Christ and we don't have the words for them. But God meets us in our weaknesses. Keep us in your prayers and I'll let you guys know how things go when I get back on Sunday.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Not-So-Random Thought of the Day
One thing that has really stuck out in my mind the past few days is Gamaliel’s quote in Acts 6. I know your probably like, “Davey who is Gamaliel? I thought this was supposed to be a practical and relevant blog.” Let me explain. In Act 5 some of the apostles were preaching the good news of Jesus Christ outside of the temple courts, to much of the disdain of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin.
So the Sanhedrin had them arrested and put in jail warning them against preaching about Jesus. When the teachers of the law went to the jail cells the next morning, however, the apostles were gone! But to make matters worse, the Sanhedrin found them again preaching outside the temple courts. At this point the Sanhedrin was TICKED! They were ready to take drastic measures to keep these apostles from preaching about Jesus even to the point of killing them.
But one of the teachers of the law stood up and offered up a suggestion and this suggestion has been sticking out in my mind all day. Gamaliel says, “Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
This passage has been an incredible encouragement to me over the past few days. There are unsaved guys on this team that have rejected Christianity so much that they even have made a mockery of the way Jesus is changing some of these new Christian’s lives.
It is amazing how everyday I will get into a conversation with one of the unsaved guys and they will tell me how they don’t think cussing or drinking is a sin because it doesn’t spell it out specifically in the Bible. And I don’t argue with them. Because if God’s work is being done on this team through and through like we’ve been praying for, then nothing can stop it—not even these guys’ present desire to find satisfaction in the world. One of these days God is going to rock their world to the core and they will realize their need for a savior. I believe that whole-heartedly. My mission is just to point them to a relationship with Jesus!
I’ve also learned that no matter what anyone says or does or does to me, it will not last if it is mere human effort. And if God is behind it, then there is no need to worry about it because there is nothing I can do about it. Even the Pharisees recognized that God’s plans cannot be thwarted. So who am I to get in the way of God’s work?
So the Sanhedrin had them arrested and put in jail warning them against preaching about Jesus. When the teachers of the law went to the jail cells the next morning, however, the apostles were gone! But to make matters worse, the Sanhedrin found them again preaching outside the temple courts. At this point the Sanhedrin was TICKED! They were ready to take drastic measures to keep these apostles from preaching about Jesus even to the point of killing them.
But one of the teachers of the law stood up and offered up a suggestion and this suggestion has been sticking out in my mind all day. Gamaliel says, “Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
This passage has been an incredible encouragement to me over the past few days. There are unsaved guys on this team that have rejected Christianity so much that they even have made a mockery of the way Jesus is changing some of these new Christian’s lives.
It is amazing how everyday I will get into a conversation with one of the unsaved guys and they will tell me how they don’t think cussing or drinking is a sin because it doesn’t spell it out specifically in the Bible. And I don’t argue with them. Because if God’s work is being done on this team through and through like we’ve been praying for, then nothing can stop it—not even these guys’ present desire to find satisfaction in the world. One of these days God is going to rock their world to the core and they will realize their need for a savior. I believe that whole-heartedly. My mission is just to point them to a relationship with Jesus!
I’ve also learned that no matter what anyone says or does or does to me, it will not last if it is mere human effort. And if God is behind it, then there is no need to worry about it because there is nothing I can do about it. Even the Pharisees recognized that God’s plans cannot be thwarted. So who am I to get in the way of God’s work?
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