Stolen

Ok last night, something happened while I was sleeping. I guess during the early morning some guys decided to break into my car and................. "borrow" a few things lol Bascially they took my cd player, and all the audio equipment that was in my trunk. In all they probablly took between 1500 and $2,000 worth of equipment, as well as leaving a destroyed lock mechanizm on the passenger side.

But here is the strange part......my reaction. I got up in the early a.m. to go for a morning run. I was all suited up in several layers of thermals, considering that it was 30 degrees out. And when I was stretching I looked over at my car and noticed that the trunk was open. I thought "hum thats strange". But as I walked closer to the car I felt a release. It was freeing experience. But wait thats not right.....

Those stupid punks, who do they think they are, breaking into my car and takeing my stuff, that I enjoy so much, that I had worked so many hours to purchase and put so much time into installing and maintaining. And most likely they are going to sell it and blow it on something stupid. This is so wrong. But it was just so strange that none of this was on my mind, none of this was in my heart.

Some how I didn't feel hatred, revenge, or even anger towards these guys. I actually feel compassion because of this experience with the brokeness of this world. These guys are absolutely broken and they dont even know it. I just wish that I could do something more for them............ I just dont now what.

And as I mentioned earlier, I felt in some way "freed". As Travis Keller mentioned in his recent blog, that we allow so many things to drive a wedge between us and others. I know that historically, this stuff has driven a wedge between me and others, it was been a crutch for me, a way to make friends, a way for me to build and establish my reputation, a way for me to define myself. But no more, its gone!! And with it goes one more distraction from the things in life that really matter. One more material thing that was distracting me from becoming. I can breathe a little deeper because this burden has been taken off my shoulders. I'm free. (I actually have a trunk now lol)

Right now I am just absolutey floored. Three years ago I would have flipped out! I would have called the police and would have plotted how I could catch these guys and give them what they deserve!!! Oh but to think of how far my savior has brought me. Its all him, there is nothing in me that would elicit such a Christ like response. Oh what joy... that the gospel is not just a free ticket to heaven, but it is alive today. Salvation is not just from hell, but salvation is alive in the here and now. We can be saved from sin, and transformed into something so much more, right here, right now. He came not just to get us to heaven, but to restore us to wholeness. How beautiful the gospel is! How beautiful our Savior is!

Cost of the Gospel - Forgiveness

As I have been meditating on this idea of the gospel, I continually come back to this theme of brokeness. As followers of Christ, or as His body, we enter in the lives of others, both followers and non-followers alike. But in doing so we are entering into filth, muck....brokeness. And when we are here it is only natural that we are going to be hurt or broken ourselves. But then again thats kindof the point, isnt it? We have been restored and made whole because Christ entered into our brokeness, took it on His shoulders, tramples it under foot, and offered wholeness and life. Therefore we can enter into the broken lives of others and take their brokeness on ourselves, while offereing the possiblity to be whole, clean, good. So I guess that in a sense we are like conduits that channel the brokeness of the world onto Christ who defeats it and offers wholeness, and life instead.

Now that sounds all nice and dandy, but the reality is we are allowing ourselves to be broken, hurt, defilied, even killed, while instead offering beauty, wholness, agape. This is the high cost of discipleship.

And we wonder why forgiveness or the lack there of is such a huge deal in scripture. "if you forgive the sins of others then your father will forgive yours, but if you do not forgive the sins of others, then He will not forgive yours." Forgiveness seems to be a defining characteristic in the life of and disciple. So this is my definition of Forgiveness: willingly absorbing the brokeness of another, and in return offering wholeness, life and agape.

In the very act of forgiveness I am offer salvation to another. Is this wrong, or going to far. Think about it. We are Christ's body, and those who are broken (aka everyone) cannot restore or heal themselves. Then the only way they can find restoration is for another who is not broken to enter their lives, take their brokeness on themselves and offering restoration instead. So when I forgive I am offering the very salvation of Christ. (believers and non-believers alike James 5, "confess your sins to each other to be healed" ) Thats the Gospel.

At this point my mind naturally goes to the movie "End of the Spear". The five missionaries in this movie we dedicated to reaching this remote tribe with the gospel. Now this tribe was absolutely broken, with the most noteable aspect of brokeness being that of violence, revenge, and death. So these missionaries Knowingly, Willingly, submit themselves to the brokeness of this tribe. I'll never forget the scene where the missionaries had just been speared and lay dieing on the ground. The indians hovered over the dieing bodies of the missionaries, and when they peered into their faces they saw someting different, they saw, peace, forgiveness, friendship. In that moment they where pierced to the core, because they had just encountered the kingdom of God, they had just experienced the gospel. Remember their faces and their composure. From this point on they are tortured, and eventually every one of them comes to Christ. What a beautiful picture of the gospel, forgivness, and the bearing of brokeness.
But what a high cost the missionaries paid! Are we willing to do the same?

BO

This past weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Mentor Ohio with a few of my closest friends to another friends house. There we ate some of most amazing food, and lots of it. Also we engaged in some mutually beneficial conversation with the father of the house, Mark. (a pastor)

On Saturday, we traveled to Mark's church to do some work (raking leaves, building things ect.) Anyways while I was there I came into contact with a very interesting man named BO. First of all I want to make it clear that BO has a big heart, and I believe that he loves Jesus very much. However during my conversation with him, I found that I had been sucked into a trap. Before I knew it I was being "evangelized too", by this middle aged man, wearing his Christian T-shirt, with his Christian music blaring from his car, preaching to me about the Holy Spirit and sanctification, saying praise God, hallelujah every other sentence as if it were some new cuss word. I found this very interesting so I decided that I would be a morally relativistic, agnostic atheist, or something like that, whenever he would tell me something, I would smile and say "wow, I'm really glad that works for you". You can imagine the frustration on BO's face. :) Later he told mark that because of his "gift of discernment from the holy spirit", he could tell that I was not a Christian and that I needed to repent. But I was getting close LOL :)

Looking back I very much enjoyed taking on this role and stepping into the shoes of a "non-Christian". All that I can say is wow. Never once was there any interest in me as a person, or was there any interest in my story, the whole incident involved a dizzying barrage of Christian lingo. I know that if I myself would not have been a follower, then I wouldn't have understood anything that was said to me. I felt more like an Object that had been thrown into some strange culture. It was all so fake......

All I can say is that, if that is Christianity, then I want nothing to do with it. No wonder Christianity is viewed as a joke. And the sad truth is that Bo represents many Christians in America today.
There is something very wrong here.
Today I did not receive the gospel!!!

Gospel and War?

I just got out of a very long yet, good conversation with my good friend Kris Browning. Basically our conversations centered around war, and the defense of others. Now I have been wrestling with this issue for years now, and have been back and forth. But during the journey that Christ has been taking me through about what the gospel is, I think that now I have a much different perspective. While I was challenged in some of my thinking(which I am very grateful for) and had to re think, I walked away with some resounded thoughts in my head. Is the gospel only relevant or needed in the majority of situations, implying that there are some situations that we must act differently?

See I believe that the gospel (the good news) is the restoration and reconciliation of all of creation back to wholeness. Its the good news that brokenness doesn't have to be perpetuated, and that wholeness in all of life is offered freely. Didn't Christ more than exemplify the gospel in His life and His words? And as followers or disciples of Christ our lives are on the journey towards becoming whole, in the image of Christ.

So then, How can I justify hurting or killing someone else to protect someone, or to defend something? How can the gospel and the giving of brokenness ever be reconciled??????

"But when you fail to protect the lives of others, you are letting any other chance of them coming to Christ be put to an end! And Christ would have stopped it at all cost" I'm told. But here I must ask - Are we assuming that the gospel is based on results? Has modernism tainted our understanding of the gospel? Where does God's sovereignty come in?

All that I know is that as a follower of Christ I am on a mission. lol My entire purpose is to pursue the reconciliation or wholeness of All of creation. And I can't believe that Christ would have me inflict more brokenness to accomplish this end. Brokenness + more brokenness does not = wholeness! Brokenness + Sacrifice = Wholeness. At least that's my limited understanding of the Gospel.

Gospel

Recently Christ has been taking me on a journey in my understanding of the gospel. You see its a strange thing because the gospel is something that is suppose to be so important and even central to our faith. But so many times when a message moves to talking about the gospel, I get bored and check out, or a book starts talking about Jesus dieing on the cross, I just skip ahead. The "gospel" is elementary, or something that new believers think about and deal wtih, but us mature Christians need only to pass it on to potential converts when the occasion arise but move on to more important or relevant Christian issues.

But wait something is wrong here! The gospel, the good news, how can it be boring? How can it be irrelevant? Shouldn't it excite my soul, shouldn't it make me come alive when I ponder it's mysteries? But wait what mystery is there really. Growing up in the church I can give you the romans road, or the 4 spiritual laws, or some other mechanical rendition of the "gospel". But how can we boil something like the gospel (the good news!) down in to a simple formula? How can you mechanize life? How can you systematize grace? What has the modern church done with the gospel? I've come to see that the gospel is rich and deep and profound, yet simple, its beautiful in a way that can't be describe, it's a mystery that we we will ponder for a life time, it is the greatest most aw inspireing thing that has or will ever enter into my existence. It is my life. It defines who I am. Imagine me, a student studying to go into full time Ministry, and I am just now beginning to understand the gospel. Something is wrong!

So are we missing something? What is the gospel?

Christian Wal-Mart

Recently I attended the "National Youth Worker Conference" in St. Louis. For the most part I had and enjoyable even beneficial experience on this trip. However there was an aspect of this trip that particularly broke my heart, the exhibit hall where all of the "Christian" business were on display trying to sell their products. It was a “Christian Wal-mart”. After walking around for a few minutes the realization of what was really going on finally hit me. It was consumerism and materialism at its finest, only with a Christian label on it. The advertisement was absolutely everywhere, even on our room cards to our hotel rooms (thanks to youth specialties)! As I walked, each of these companies were not trying to meet a need of mine or looking out for my best interest, but instead they were trying to get me to buy their product, and they appealed to the materialism that we all struggle with, to try to accomplish this goal. “Free ipod’s, free clothes, 400 Free cd's, free this, free that”, as if any of us really need any more stuff. If anything we all need to get ride of much of the “stuff” that is consuming our lives. But some how we think that we need so much more. Afterwards I walked away and thought “wow I guess that until I came here I didn’t realize that I had all these needs for all these products, but how lucky I am that the very companies that have informed me of my needs, just happen to have the answer to those needs for sale for me at a very special 20% off, because they are trying to look out for me!” I’m sorry but the church has adopted the materialistic consumerism from our culture and made it into an ok thing, or even a good thing. What a heart breaking realization. This is not the way of Jesus! But on the other hand it was a good thing because my eyes where really opened and I gained some new insight into this reality, so in the end I am thankful for this heart-breaking experience. But as the church what have we become, when we pay $650 to attend and event just to be persuaded into buying even more stuff? Am I being to harsh or overly critical? Does this fit with the way of Jesus?????