The Cure

Since I got out of college, I've been paying very close attention to current events. I read and listen to the news everyday (usually when I’m procrastinating from doing something else). The more I read, the more opinions I hear, and the more I observe, one thing has become abundantly clear: America is going downhill.   After church I often go to a Sunday school full of, well… let’s just refer to them as really experienced (old) people (I hope some of them read this, just so that they can see that I just called them all old). We recently have been learning about the Constitution and how our forefathers based it all on Biblical principles. We've been talking about how our country was shaped by extremely godly men. We've also been discussion the decline of our schools and the decline of our society as a whole. Needless to say, IT’S A WHOLE LOT OF DOOM AND GLOOM!

Fortunately, recently we got to the point where we needed some answers. We needed to know what we can do about it, and after thinking about it for a while, it came to me. The answer to all of our problems in this country and in this world is very simple.

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

It’s that simple.

If we spread the gospel, then we change hearts. If we change hearts, then we change minds. If we change minds, then we change the country. We do live in a country that is run by “We the people” so instead of focusing on changing the policies of our nation, we need to change the people of our nation and the only one who can do that is Christ.

So, fellow Christians, don’t be discouraged. We have a big job to do, but our God is bigger. We need to simply start doing our part. We need to let the grace and love of our Savior to flow through us to the point that people will truly see that we are different, and want to be different too. We need to start stepping out of our comfort zone, sharing the gospel with anyone available.

Tell them the good news. Let them know that Jesus loves them and died on the cross so that they could be saved, if they just trust in him no matter who they are or what they've done.

We need to change the direction this country is going, and the only way to do that is through the people. The only way to truly change the people is through Christ.

 Fortunately for us, Christ promises, right there in the great commission, that he is with us always. So, as you step out of your comfort zone, you can take comfort in the fact that you have our Savior, who is far bigger than any problem you could ever face, with you always.

Priorities

I recently decided I wanted to purchase something that is rather expensive. It certainly isn’t something that I need, but all of my friends have one now, so of course I want one too. I, being the smart husband that I am, asked my wife if I could spend the money. She said no. I was shocked. All of my friend’s wives just let their husbands buy it, and I had to make a deal with my wife in order to get it. The deal we came up with was I had to work a second job on Saturdays until I raise enough money. When I agreed to this deal, I remember how shocked my wife was that it was such a priority to me that I was willing to work Saturdays for it. As I watched how shocked she was, I secretly hoped that she would sympathize with me, and just let me get it because she knew how bad I wanted it. It didn’t work that way.

Either way, this item was such a priority to me that I was willing to give up my only spare time to get it. That got me thinking about priorities. You see, it’s easy to see people’s priorities in life, because if it’s truly a priority that’s what a person will spend a majority of their time and energy on. It’s pretty obvious if you just take a second to look at their life.

What are your priorities? If you are not a Christian, your priorities are probably making money, having fun, family, friends, and all sorts of other things in this world, and these things make sense. I’m not putting them down by any means, because if you’re not a follower a Christ these things are all you have. If you are, however, claiming to be a follower of Christ, and these are your main priorities, then we have a problem.

I recently was going through Romans chapter 12 with my Indian Lake youth group and it starts out with a verse that is very clear about where your priories should be. The first verse is probably the hardest verse in the Bible to sell to your average Christian today, and yet it should be automatic… It should go without saying. Verse 1 is Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.

At first, when I felt God calling me to go through Romans 12 I was a little worried. How was I going to sell this verse? How was I going to convince a bunch of kids, who’s only priority, is getting a new cell phone, that they should offer themselves to God as living sacrifices? This was going to be no easy task, but then I looked at the beginning of the verse. In view of God’s mercy. I then realized, this is how I will sell it. I would go on to make them really take a good hard look at God’s mercy. We went through step by step the end of Jesus’ life. I talked about, and I attempted to really make it real to them that Jesus came to earth and didn’t have to. Lived a life full of love and grace, and didn’t have to, then was betrayed by one of his followers and was taken to be beaten, mocked, spit on, screamed at, had his friends deny they even know him, was crucified, and to top it all off, before he died, he asks God to forgive those CRUCIFYING HIM and HE DIDN’T HAVE TO! He could have gotten out of all of that at any point, but he didn’t. He died for us, and then he defeated death for us in the resurrection.

I don’t know about you, but when I take a look at what Jesus did for me it makes offering my body as a living sacrifice look like an opportunity. An opportunity, to live for a God that was willing to do all of that for me.

So, where are your priorities? Take a good honest look, and I’d be willing to bet that they are not where they should be.  If you’re starting to think to yourself, “but I don’t want to change,” then you simply need to take another look at God’s mercy. If it’s real to you, it will change your priorities.

Complacency

I recently hurt my back, and I would tell you exactly what is wrong with it accept I tend to zone out when the Doctor starts using big words to tell me what is wrong with me, because I generally just want to know what I can do about it. Basically, lots of stuff in my back are not the way they should be, and it hurts… A LOT! I was getting better and was nearly 100% when I re-hurt it grabbing a box of Doritos. Needless to say, I felt a little pathetic hurting my back that way… I kind of wish I had a cool story to go along with my hurt back. For example, I could have hurt it by diving and saving a small child who was falling from a 3 story building or something like that, but no, I hurt it carrying a 5 lb box of Doritos.

(Yes, I eat a lot of Doritos)

This got me thinking about complacency, because I noticed if I sit around too much my back just gets worse. I need to be constantly moving and icing my back or else my back will get worse and my Doctor said if I get complacent about making my back better it could cause permanent damage. I can’t just shrug this injury off and go play basketball like I normally would; I need to treat it right.

Our faith is the same as my back injury in that, the moment we begin being complacent about it we begin damaging it, and for some people that damage can last the rest of their lives.

 I’ve seen this play out in many people’s lives around me. For example, there are people I know who once were on fire for Christ, doing all sorts of ministries, reading their Bible, encouraging me, and holding me accountable until one day they became complacent. They began thinking they are good enough, giving the old excuse “I don’t need to go to church; I can worship God at home.” They might come to church every once in a while for a while, but eventually they find a girlfriend or boyfriend who’s not a Christian, or they begin going to bars and/or partying. They then begin sleeping with that boyfriend or girlfriend, and/or move farther and farther into the party scene. Complacency in your faith can lead to the death of your faith.

Maybe, these people who I am speaking of were never actually saved. Maybe they are the seeds Jesus speaks of in Mark 4:5 that fall in shallow soil and spring up quickly but then die off because they lack the roots they need to survive. Maybe they will come back some day… I pray they will. The fact of the matter is, sometimes they don’t and I never want to be one of them.

Fortunately, they always can turn around and come back to Christ and we know from Luke 15:11-24 that He will see them coming towards Him and He won’t just sit there and wait for them to get to Him, He will run to them and embrace them. He won’t care what they’ve done, He’ll just be happy to have them back home.

Complacency is a dangerous path that we all walk down now and again, but thankfully we have a Savior who is full of grace and compassion and is just happy to welcome us home.

Do Something About It

I was just thinking about growing up in Northville, and I realized that we were constantly getting in fights growing up. I can remember my first fight like it was yesterday. This kid in my first grade class would pick on me and beat me up on a daily basis, but I wouldn't fight back because my parents told me not to hit people. So, he would continually push me and hit me telling me to "do something about it." Finally, one day I came home crying and my parents gave me permission to hit him back.

I remember being excited for the next day, when I would finally get even with this bully! Sure enough the very next day on our way back from art class he shoved me into the wall as we were walking into the class room and the hit me in the stomach while the teacher wasn't paying attention. He then proceeded to say the words I was waiting for "Do something about it." I did, and I did it well. I only hit him once, but I put everything I had into that punch and he never bothered me again.

(for the record I don't recommend hitting people... It's not nice and there were definitely better ways of handling this situation.)

While I was reminiscing about this I started thinking about those words "Do something about it" and how many Christians, young and old, don't do much of anything to show that they are followers of Jesus. Maybe they'll throw up some scripture on their facebook or twitter, but how much of their free time are they giving up to serve Christ.

We just need to constantly be asking ourselves, in what way can I serve God in the situation I am in right now? I promise if you pay attention He will answer you.

But we tend to think about how we can serve ourselves first not God. Sometimes, I get jealous when I hear about other Christians going on cool vacations and living in cool places, but the truth is right now Jamie and I are right where God wants us to be and if he wants us to go to some cool place then great! But unfortunately when you ask God where he wants you to be it's not always where you want to be. If by chance God wants me to move next door to the Dallas Maverick's Stadium, then you better believe I will be packing our bags and we will be on the next flight! Unfortunately, I doubt that'll happen.

Anyways, I think it's time we take a good look at our lives and ask ourselves, "How can I serve God?" because I guarantee their is an answer out there, and you might not like it, it might take a lot of sacrifice, but a Savior like ours is worth dying for.

I don't know about you but I don't want to end up like the lukewarm Christians being spit out in Revelation 3:15-16. I want to hear those words "Well done good and faithful servant" and this life is my chance to do something about it.

Jesus Never Said It'd Be Easy

This blog is going to be a little different than the usual, because lots of things have been going on in my life recently and I just figured I’d share them with you real fast, with some Biblical application of course.

Recently Jamie and I took over as youth directors at Indian Lake First Baptist Church, and initially when we were asked to do it, I’m not gonna lie, it was a little overwhelming. We talked about it for a while and we both came to the same conclusion that there was a need, and we were meant to fulfill it. We were a bit concerned however because this is kind of a tough season in both of our lives, with wedding planning, Jamie working a new job, and me taking 19 credits of all upper division classes that I lack nearly all the prerequisites for, but as time went on we realized that we made the right decision and we knew we are following the path that God laid before us.

We then had our first youth group, in which I did a lesson on Luke 10:1-4 and a few other passages just stating that Jesus never said following Him would be easy, in fact He said the exact opposite. Then on Sunday morning we were asked to go in front of the Indian Lake church so that I could introduce Jamie to the church, but before Jamie and I got up to speak, Bill read a passage to the church and then introduced us. The passage he read really struck me and it’s what inspired me to write this post. He read Isaiah 6:8:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

This struck me because Jamie and I didn’t know we were going to be sent to Indian Lake, and we definitely didn’t expect it nor was it the ideal time in our lives to do it. But I highly doubt Isaiah expected to be sent like that directly from the Lord to the Lord’s people. I also highly doubt he wanted to, considering the thing God says to him is basically that they aren’t going to listen to him. Because no one enjoys constantly warning someone not to do something for their own benefit and then not to have the listen to you.. It’s kind of frustrating.. But Isaiah went anyways because God told him to.

I then realized that us going to be the Indian Lake youth directors was far from convenient and definitely was not going to be easy, which kind of goes along with my lesson on Jesus never saying that following him would be easy.

So, needless to say, since I came to this realization, I've been totally psyched for this season in Jamie and my lives, because I really feel that awesome things are going to go down in Indian Lake in the upcoming months and I know that this time will only strengthen Jamie and my relationship with God and each other.

I’m not telling you this to brag that Jamie and I are special in some way; I’m just telling you this to show you one instance where following God can seem overwhelming but at the same time be an enormous blessing to yourselves and to those around you. Trust me when I say we are far from special, we simply saw what God was calling us to and we jumped right in, but I assure you there have been at least a million instances when I regrettably didn’t just jump in to what God was telling me to do at the time, and I’d be willing to bet Jamie feels the same way. But we wish we had.

So basically I’d just like to encourage you. If following God is getting tough for you, then good! It’s supposed to be! And if God is calling you to do something big or small, do it, because I promise following God’s plan for our lives is worth the hardships. And if people try and bring you down for trying to live for Jesus then all I have to say to you is Matthew 5:11-12.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Love Is Not Self-Seeking

Given the fact I’m getting married in July, it’s needless to say that I’ve been thinking an awful lot about love lately. I’ve been working on being a more loving person in every aspect of my life so that I can grow closer to God and to benefit my future marriage to Jamie.

And despite all my efforts, day after day, I realize that I royally suck at loving. But it’s something I continue to research and practice.

So, of course, to get better at love, I turn to the Bible. More specifically I turn to 1 Corinthians, because not only does Paul talk specifically about marriage in the in chapter 7, but he also describes Love in chapter 13. I could write pages after pages on 1 Corinthians 13 but in this blog I want to focus on one specific part of the description of love and that’s verse 5:

“It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

More specifically I want to focus on the part that says that love is not self-seeking, because too often when we look at relationships we look at how they benefit us.

We tend to talk to someone wanting to push our little agendas or wanting to tell them something that makes us look better, and while the other person is talking we are simply waiting for our turn to speak. We rarely enter a conversation to fully benefit the other person.

We are selfish pieces of crap.

But as followers of Christ we are called to be different. We are called to be more like Christ, which is especially hard because Christ did nothing for his own gain, because he already had everything. He did everything out of love.

Even God’s law doesn’t benefit God at all. Every commandment and little rule that God tells us to do is for our sake, not His. Us not sinning doesn’t give him anything, but it prevents us from hurting ourselves because every sin has its consequences in our lives here on earth.

God tells what to do and what not to do to protect us from our own self-destructive behavior.

So, as we enter this Christmas season I just pray that we can keep things in perspective and try to better love our family members and friends. Especially considering this time of year can be a very stressful time of year. I would also like to encourage you to pay attention to your reasoning for entering a conversation with someone and don’t simply wait for your turn to speak. Try and make that conversation be a blessing on the other person and not just yourself.

As a fellow selfish piece of crap I know this will be difficult, but learning to love people better will be a far greater blessing on your life and the lives of everyone around you than you could ever imagine.

Plans

This whole summer I was making plans for Jamie’s birthday. I was worried I wouldn’t come up with any good ideas so I paid close attention whenever we went shopping at the mall to what she seemed to want. I don’t remember exactly when, but at some point I had a bunch of really great ideas. I was totally psyched to get her the things I came up with. I even told myself “no Isaiah, don’t get those things for her now, wait for later in the year so you can make sure she doesn’t buy any of them for herself and then you don’t have to return anything.”

So, later in the year rolls around and I mysteriously find myself completely broke, then I find out that my car needs to be fixed, and to top it all off I apparently forgot to pay someone money I owed them from mid-summer. I then realized I couldn’t afford even the smallest thing I had planned to get her. Needless to say I was/am really bummed about this. Fortunately I have some new ideas, but they aren’t nearly as epic.

This got me thinking about how nothing ever seems to go as planned, which then reminded me of Proverbs 16:9.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

When my plans fail and I get upset it’s simply because I fail to recognize the fact that our almighty God, who knows far more than I do, has better plans than me.

I know I’ve touched on this issue before, but at this time in my life, planning is a very relevant subject and it never hurts to be reminded that God has a better plan than we could ever imagine.