Stressed

Sorry guys, I actually have two blogs I am thinking through, but there is a lot going on this week so I am not sure when I will get to it.

-Classes and HW
- SGL 08-09 selection
- Men's Advance Planning
- SGL Meeting planning
- getting hair cut for an auction (to raise money for Rockbridge Scholarships)
- Ring Dance?

So expect to see:
- Our View of Life (through thoughts on an Anime episode)
- Humility lessons part 100000000000000000 (this week)

Prayer as always appreciated. Have a great week.

Orthodoxy? Theology? Life Style?

So this post is coming from a few recent events.

1. I was hanging out with a few friends. They were joking around and some joke about falling or dieing came up. The next comment was "well hopefully we will be in heaven if that happens." That bothered me. It was a few people I know to be Christians. People who I have observed growing drastically in their faith. The next thought I had is the one that bothered me. My thought was "Oh they are Catholic that's fine then." I mean this might seem small but a big part of my faith and my understanding of the Gospel is that we are given confidence in where we are going. I mean I don't know what is up with the time between death and resurrection, we are told God will hold us accountable for what we do, especially those of us who are leaders in the Church (no matter how high or low we are). But I don't think that the scripture leaves room to fear or not be confident where we are headed, that is part of where our confidence and freedom come from. We might not have huge rewards if we don't live well, but we are there none the less. Why is denomination an excuse for bad theology? Why do I feel compelled to correct or morn bad what I see as bad theology?

2. A friend and I discussed an instance of a man who was charged with heresy for saying Christ dying on the cross didn't change the world, rather that act was what God chose to accept as the atonement. And I don't know the story well enough, my explanation and understanding of it had some issues. But we were discussing what types of implications our understanding of what God does and why has on our view of him. Again the question here is what is the importance of orthodoxy. What is the reason why we value it (if you do)?

No matter your view it is important. I mean look around, my generation is largely disillusioned with the church because in the American Church largely Orthodoxy is valued so highly (and sometimes they still mess it up), but acting it out is not a big. I mean a lot of pastors try and many churches are not like this, but enough are that we have lost faith in organized church. Enter the emerging church. They generally push living your faith about as strongly as orthodoxy is valued in the mainstream church. But look at the books they write and sermons they teach. They are right on with how to apply, but so many times I hear misunderstandings of God and our position with him. Again, like before not everyone is like this, but enough to cause some who desire to follow Jesus and honor God to not trust either group.

So if one side is completely unable to do what Jesus commands us to do, and the other seems to not know why, what do we do?

One person suggested one was better than the other, living it out but not having a good foundation for why. But this is the same issue that happened back near the enlightenment, the resurgence against this mindset lead to fundamentalism. So I personally reject the idea that serving without a good foundation of orthodoxy is to be preferred over just the foundation. But we also clearly see from Jesus' teaching that knowing the truth is not the same as or a substitute for living it out.

It seems to me that to be effective we need both. We should be constantly growing in both our knowledge of scripture and God and how we live it out. Anything less is not the maximum of the type of life we can have.

Without good theology how can we answer our critics and our own thoughts when things go wrong?

Without living it out how can we call ourselves followers of Jesus when he says to love and care for the poor?

I have given my thoughts a little, but what do you think about the issue of Theology/Orthodoxy/ and Living out our faith?

New Orleans

I spent spring break in New Orleans doing relief work. I was not all that anxious going in. I mean I went to New Orleans for the 2005 Sugar Bowl. I didn't expect a whole lot. I mean we were working on houses, so I had a lot to learn there. But this would be the 3rd spring break trip to a city, the 9th week of my time I will have spent in cities for ministry. I got this down.

LOL.

So in many ways I was right, the talks were nothing too new, though many were good. I had a lot to learn about houses and construction. But there was so much more for me to learn. I worded the first paragraph to show that a little. I have become complacent. I know how to do things:

Discipleship... I got that down
Vision Team... I got that down too
Inner City... I know whats up
Caring for friends... That's what I do
Theology.... Child's play

The last few weeks I have founds a few incidents where I said or did something that I wasn't happy about. A comment that was not needed, a joke that did nothing (wasn't funny and didn't build up the body, though the later is more important), comments under my breath that let a little more out that I would like, mentioning a conversations with friends that caused issues between them, when the comment was unnecessary. Each time I walked away feeling I should not have done that, but not to worried, I mean I am covered by grace right?

Over the week similar instances observed or actions I took reminded me of this, and the earlier paragraph seems intense but that all happened over the last 2 months so it was easy to ignore. I found myself being far to open with other peoples lives in groups (still not too bad but far more than I am ok with, and one instance I was called out about) and I found that my stated objectives and values were not the ones my thoughts were valuing.

This was disconcerting. I rejoiced in grace, that I am still loved and accepted by my heavenly father. But repentance is part of that, I was asking for forgiveness but not changing much. Then I realized. I was complacent. I would tell people to give the glory to God if I gave good advice or there was a great conversation. But on some level I was starting to believe it was me that was good with people, me that could give good advice, me that could lead, me that had any idea what was going on in the city. I am not denying that I have those things, though my understanding of the city and caring for people are things that I am always learning more about and trying to do and understand better. But God has given me alot of gifts, and I do the work he has set before me fairly well.

But there is a bit of a twist.

I left off there, at least recently. All that is true, God has done all that in and through me. But the trick is, I have to be abiding in him and in a constant posture of worship and dependence on him. Saying my gifts are from God and then doing my own thing, using them (especially for His service) but not depending on him to continue to bring them out. And forgetting that my gifts only exist, and their full strength only comes when I have that posture and constant communication and trust in him. That sounds so crazy, I mean how can you take a gift from God and use it "for Him" but not be relying on him? Well you can't. But I had lost sight of that, and my effectiveness suffered.

I was not receiving the counsel of the Holy Spirit as well as I could.

It is encouraging that even though I am not happy with how some parts of the last few weeks have gone, they were not unforgivable, God is in control. And he is not afraid to remind us when we are not where he wants us.

Thank you Lord (Father, Son, Spirit) for all you do.

What's the Big Deal with Worrying?!?!?

If you have known me for a while, I am the king of over thinking and worrying. A good friend once told me that she felt that if there was something I wanted to do (either for myself or God) that I would think about the pros and cons of the thing for so long that I would lose my desire to do it or inhibit myself from being able to take any joy in it (I'm paraphrasing a bit). So I am well acquainted with worrying. This is something I have been working on. There is grace for a reason, not to be abused, but to free us from shame and worry so we can move beyond our mistakes and sins to the work God has set before us.

It is so easy when a big decision is upon us. We have this idea that one choice is right and will lead us to the work God has before us and the other will lead to discontentment and being separated from God. I am not saying there are not sinful choices that can lead to discontentment but so often we are choosing between two good options or trying to discern between good and better. Proverbs 20:24 says "A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?" (NIV) We are reminded (and I think promised, yes it's a good thing!) that our lives are not our own, we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). God has a plan for our lives and if we are abiding in him and seeking his purposes he will be using us and guiding us.

I am NOT saying choose things without prayer and careful consideration. We are told to live for God not ourselves, we are also told to keep the interests of others in mind. We have to discern between good and bad. What I am talking about is having the boldness to pray, think, then act. If we find ourselves in a good vs. good or good vs. better debate we need to pray, seek counsel of those God has put in our lives, then trust that God will use us where we are and move us if necessary. Then take the step of faith that our choice is his.

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV, emphasis mine)

God never intended us to think and worry ourselves to a place where we are paralyzed by fear of how best to serve him. How absurd is that?? We are so scared of how to best serve God we stop or don't start.

God wants our hearts; our works as will his leading will follow that. He is at work and we have the privilege of being part of that work.

Shouldn't get out there and live it?

I've Got Too Much Time on my Hands?

"...its ticking away with my sanity"

So as some of you know, I have an awesome schedule. My time in class is spread out well, and I have work (Senior Design, and some homework). And I have been excited. This frees me to spend time with some of the people on my hall, the Small Group Leaders, the guys I disciple, and other brothers and sisters. But as I have been hanging out with people, and some times doing nothing I have discovered something interesting. I have lost some boldness, and feel like a burden. It was small at first, trying to make sure people were comfortable and knew they could move meetings if needed, which is good in a way. Then one day it became painfully obvious. I was meeting with a guy who I have been trying to meet with for a while, we kept having something come up. And then at the end of having a good conversation we were getting ready to leave and I said "Hey hopefully we can hang out sometime when you are less stressed." He responded saying that yes he had a lot on his plate but he was fine. And a few others related similar feelings. So then I realized I felt like a burden on the people I was hanging out with. I had time, it was not a huge sacrifice to spend time with them. I am used to having to sacrifice (and joyfully sacrifice) time and other things to spend time with people. So I think that gave me some confidence that I was meeting my friends on an equal place. That we were both sacrificing to meet with each other. I lost confidence in being able to speak into peoples lives or challenge them.

I was kinda upset about that, I mean that is like the one thing I still am passionate about, and I couldn't do it.

I don't have a specific scripture that helped me through this. But I kinda wanted to share this because I think it is an easy trap to fall into. Thinking that because your sacrifice might seem inconsequential to you that it must not be important to them. The other error is assuming that the other person is making a huge sacrifice to their time and not happy to be with you. God blesses us with time and many other gifts. We need to be joyful in using them for him and the good of his people. God doesn't want us to take the gifts he gives us and let the enemy make us feel guilty for having them. There are times for a healthy dose of conviction, but there is a difference between wanting to give more of what God has given you and beating yourself up/ loosing your confidence because of those gifts.

God delights in us, he delights in the things we do for him and others with a joyful heart. That is where our confidence comes from not from a battle of the biggest sacrifice.

Prayer should be restful right????

So prayer is important. That is a pretty easy statement for any Christian to agree with. I have struggled with having times where I focus on one or two things and pray about them, my mind wonders. But I have enjoyed a pretty good conversational prayer life. What I mean by that is that I pray as I think of things while walking around or doing anything. So what I want to do here is talk a little about some of my thoughts on prayer, but also about something I have been learning recently...

Prayer is pointless if you do not trust God with what you are talking to Him about.

So to set up how I got to his point, my thoughts on prayer.

Prayer is communication with God. It is a conversation with our Father. Meaning I see 2 mistakes commonly made, myself included.

1. We do all the talking.

Many times when I pray I pray until I am out of things to talk about. Then I move on to whatever else is going on. We would never do that (or rarely, lol) to a friend. They would get tired of it.

"Hey, Dave, can you help me with this project for class. Ok cya later."

That isn't waiting for a response, or giving a change to start helping. But so many times we say

"Hey, God, can you help me with school/ a relationship/ other issue. Ok cya later."

I think we miss out on hearing his voice when we do this. I mean for Elijah in on instance God's voice was a whisper, check this out.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ~1 Kings 19:11-12

I think we get so caught up in life that we forget to listen for that soft voice. Don't get me wrong God wants to hear what is on our hearts and minds. He wants us to talk to him. We have this awesome and confusing relationship with him where he is our Lord and King, our Father, and our Friend at the same time, we should honor him, but we also get to approach him in a intimate manor. I can give a few verses for this, ask if you want them. We just need to balance talking and listening.

2. We forget to give thanks and remember who he is when we ask for things.

I do this all the time too. I start and go straight into my needs and wants and problems. Part of this is ok, in John is says:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ~John 15:16

He says he will give us whatever we ask. Granted for that to happen we have to remain in him, but the promise is here as in Luke, "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9) But I think the main part of prayer we miss in this aspect is not that we are to be abiding in him for our request to fall under this promise, and it is absolutely not the idea that we will be soooo holy by being in him that we will only ask for people to be saved or for his kingdom to come. I mean I pray those things, but I think this is also covering immediate personal needs and wants too, like food, rest, strength, and even relationships. But He won't grant us sinful or harmful requests, I think Romans 8:28 supersedes His promise to grant our requests. But anyway back to my point, how should we pray? I think the Lord's Prayer is more than just something to be recited.

This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
~Matthew 6:9-13

If you are like me you have seen this many a time, and recited it. But I wanna look at this a little. I see phases in this prayer that are to be emulated (my words but this idea was in a book I read a year or so ago, thanks author).

1. Naming and Glorifying God
2. Submitting to his will and plan
3. Asking for our needs
4. Confessing Sin and asking/ receiving forgiveness and doing the same for those who we have to forgive
5. Asking for protection and guidance

I really like this plan, thought I don't always do it. The biggest point here is we glorify and honor God before we ask for anything. This is HUGE. It helps us to trust him, and remind us to trust him. If you remember who God is and what he has done before you ask him for something prayer is a restful and enjoyable activity. If we forget to do this it is little more than worrying about our troubles.

There is a fundamental belief I have about God. He gave the law to point out our sin. That is straight out of Romans (chapter 7 if you are curious). But, especially the food laws, the law (and in the new testament Jesus' commands) are also created to care for us to help us live happy and God focused lives. The food laws for Israel kept them safe from foods that were not able to be properly cleaned until the last 100 years or so. And I think part of prayer, why it is important and why Jesus gives us a model is God who created us knows how to encourage us and how we work, and doing it that way is the best way for us to do things. Let me explain.

Not only is God worth glorifying because of who he is and what he has done, but it is good to glorify and worship him because it helps create and reinforce the trust we have in him. If we do that in the beginning of our prayers our mindset shifts from just another way to worry about our lives and problems to a place where we are taking these problems to a God who has shown that He is trustworthy and powerful enough to handle our problems. We can say them to him, and leave them at the cross, leave trusting him to take care of him and being able to do whatever is before us that day.

Our reason to pray is to communicate with God. But I believe he gave us guidelines for how because it is much "how is should be" and honoring him as it is a practical way for him to remind us who he is in our own words.

The last few weeks I have been actively letting God know what I want and what is bothering me. But I have forgotten to remember to tell him who he is and remember what he has done and can do. Prayer became a drain and not the restful and encouraging thing it had been for me in the past. I was just telling a God I had forgotten to trust what was up. I was just sitting there stewing in my fears and problems and concerns and not receiving the rest and comfort God wanted me to receive from him. Recently I started to remember who he is and what he has done first in my prayers, and I noticed a substantial change almost after the first prayer.

Prayer is meant to be a way for us to communicate with our loving heavenly Father and to be an encouragement. If it isn't something is wrong.

Thank God it has become both again for me.

Venn Diagram of Awesome

So I have designed the "Venn Diagram of Awesome" for your viewing pleasure.

So, the important part of this diagram is the fact that everyone I know who also blogs is awesome.

Just something to think about.

:)