It's been three years?

My tears have all been shed, but I still miss her so much. Today marks the third anniversary of my dear friend Linda Russe going home to Heaven, and honestly I can't believe it's been that long.

I knew the date was coming up, but I didn't realize that today was it until I saw the date on my watch this afternoon. And as I sat and listened to the cd she had made and read through the program from her funeral memories stared to come back. I could talk forever about her, but honestly I don't want to fill today with words that bring up the past.

Remembering is important, there are so many good memories that bring joy to my life, little things she would do that I really miss, things she would say to me, inside jokes we had, things that are treasured in my heart for the rest of my life.

But today as I looked at the funeral program I saw something that I had forgotten about. In the program was a list of Linda's favorite verses, and the one that stood out to me is from 2 Timothy 4.7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;"

I have an entire sermon dedicated to Linda that celebrates her life, but all of it can be summed up in these sixteen words. She lived with faith, she battled cancer with faith, and she went home in faith. She showed me how to live a life of love, and how to die with confidence. She knew that when she closed her eyes for the last time on this earth and when she took her last breath she would open her eyes and see the face of Christ, she would breath in the sweet air of Heaven.

And today as I remember, I am able to celebrate and not cry, because I know where my friend is, and I know that I will see her again.

I love and miss you Linda, until we meet again in Glory, I will fight the good fight, I will finish my course, and I will keep the faith. You taught me so much in the four short years we knew each other, and I hope to leave a legacy like you did.

He alone is worthy

A few months ago I received an invitation on Facebook cause called, Allow God In Schools. Normally I just ignore the stuff, but I ended up joining the group because of a discussion that intrigued me. Over the course of several weeks the discussion gradually moved off topic but ended up with some really thought provoking statements. There was one in particular that stuck out to me that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. A professing atheist made the following statement.

"if there is a god and i meet him when i die, ill say the same thing to him as christopher hitchens would say... do you have some sort of self esteem issues that mean constant praise is what you strive for?..."

There was a little more to it, but this is the part I want to address. It took me a while to get my mind around the answer to this question, but during a recent prayer conversation with God He finally helped me understand it.

The God I love and serve is the creator of the universe, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. He is in His very nature, Holy, Righteous, and Perfect. God simply for who He is deserves praise, simply because of His status He deserves praise. But if we look at who He really is, what He really is, we see more than that. Because He is so Holy, so Righteous, and so Perfect, He HAS to be praised. It is not a preference that He simply asks to happen because He enjoys it, it isn't a privilege He has earned because of every blessing He has poured out on us. It is His right, something He is entitled to simply for who He is.

There is a verse in Luke that I love, and it is one that explains this so well.

"As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: 'BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.' But Jesus answered, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!" Luke 19.37-40

God is so deserving of praise that He HAS to be praised. If we as humans do not give it, something else will, even a rock, because it has to be done! God is so deserving of it, He is the only one worthy to receive any glory at all, and we as fallen humans are so unworthy to offer it. Think about that, a God who is so holy that He has to be praised because of how holy He is, and yet the one creature most able to give it is unworthy to. But here is the most incredible thing about it, God, even though He deserves more than we could ever offer to Him, even in eternity when all things are made new and perfect, still wants our praise, and He invites us to praise Him!

I think it's incredible, that a God who is so far above us and worthy of praise that we cannot give not only wants it from us, but invites us to give it to Him. I think the very fact that God allows us to praise Him shows His love for us, but I think an even greater demonstration of His love is that He invites us to give Him glory.

It just blows my mind to think about. God is not the one with a self-esteem issue, if anything we should be the ones with it, and the saddest part of it is that some of us are so arrogant that we miss out on the awesome opportunity to praise the creator of the universe because of it.

I still have trouble fully wrapping my mind around this, but at the same time I have so much peace about it, and it makes so much sense. I simply hope my inadequate explanation does it some justice.

Peace be with you

The Full Heart of God

Did you ever notice how your hands make a heart if you bring them together, by connecting the thumbs at the bottom and curving your fingers inward? But you only have the full heart when you bring them both together. I think humans are the same way, not with our own hearts, but with God's.

Genesis 1.26, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness..." The word "our" here supports the idea of the triune God. We are made in the image of a God who is constantly in community and in relationship since before time began, and therefore, if we are made in the image of a communal and relational God, we ourselves were created for relationships and community.

Genesis 1.27, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created him." So here we see something amazing. God makes us in His image but we only have part of his image. As a men we posses the strong, warrior masculine heart of God. The part of God that is dangerous. Women have the tender, loving feminine heart of God, the part of God that is gentle. So both genders are created in the image of God, but not fully in an individual do we contain the full heart of God. Only when a man and woman come together in a marriage covenant do they both bring their half of the heart of God and together show the complete image of God.

I think the most crucial part of this though, is that both individual members must be whole and complete in themselves first, whole and complete in who God created them to be. As a man, I must know who I am in the heart of God. I have to be complete in who God has created me to be before I can ever join my heart to the corresponding half. My future wife will not be able to complete me because she simply can't. She cannot complete my half of the heart of God because she is not created in the same part of the image of God that I am. She will compliment and correspond to my half, literally she will match it, but she cannot complete it. And in the same way my heart cannot complete hers because I don't posses that part of the image of God. Only when two people who are whole and complete in who God created them to be, enter into a marriage can they melt their hearts into the whole heart of God, only then is the image complete.

During the last few weeks there has been a question on my mind. "How can I be full and complete in God, but at the same time have such a longing and desire to be with someone else? If I am satisfied with God why do I have the need for more?" I think the answer is found in Genesis 2.18, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a suitable helper for him." As I said at the beginning, we were made in the image of a relational God, we were made to join our hearts together, we were made to compliment and correspond to one another. Only when we bring our whole and complete heart into a relationship, into a marriage covenant, do we have the full heart of God.

I didn't plan to go this direction at the beginning, but I believe that this is why marriage was designed to be between a man and woman. Only then do you have both halves of the image of God. Only then is the heart of God made complete in our human relationships. I believe that is is why God hates divorce, because it literally breaks his heart.

Only together do we have the full heart of God. But only when both members are full and complete in who God created them to be can the two halves contribute to the whole.

Religious or Relational?

As a Christian are you religious or are you relational? Do you walk through the practices of a religion, or do you grow deeper in a relationship? Is is something you do, or is it something you are part of? Can you do both?

Jesus never called us to be a part of a religion. I do not think that what Western Christianity has become is what he had in mind 2000 years ago. Jesus did not go around saying to people, "Hey, I'm going to start this thing called Christianity. In it we meet Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday evening. We get together for an hour at a time, talk about something I said, and then go home and chill until the next meeting. You should check it out." As he walked along the dusty roads of the Middle East his message was not one of mediocrity, but one of urgency, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near!" His message did not call us to simply walk along the shore of a shallow gently flowing creek, but to dive into the middle of a rapidly flowing river.

Christianity was not intended to be a religion. In a religion you can walk through the motions, unaware of what it going on. It is so easy to get caught in a routine and simply go with the flow. This is the ticket to heaven idea, you get saved to not go to hell, and that's all it is about. But this thing called Christianity is so much more than that. We are pardoned to participate as my theology teacher so frequently said. Salvation is not fire insurance, it is a passport, it calls us to go, it allows us to be involved, not in a religion, but in a relationship. If you are really in a relationship you can't just walk through it mindlessly. You cannot simply go through the motions, a relationship takes more than that, it requires more than that.

A relationship demands that we actively engage in it daily, that we don't settle with and grow complacent, but that we hunger and yearn to make it last, to grow closer to the one we are in a relationship with. You have to be starving for it. I have heard people quote verses from Jeremiah 29, "Seek me and you will find me" and James 4, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you," they sound so simple, but that is not the entirety of the verses. We leave off the parts that call us to action, that call us out of religion and into relationship.

Jeremiah 29.13, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

James 4.8, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

We are called to action, we are called to do something. God says, "I want you, I want you so badly. I sent my son to die on a cross for you. But because of that, you need to want me just as badly. You need to chase after me like I have chased after you. You need to pursue me like I have pursued you. Nothing less than all of you will work."

The steps of the Temple in Jerusalem were built in an awkward way. If you look at them you would think a drunk man built them. But they were built that way on purpose. The way the steps were built you could not run up and down them hurrying in and out of the Holy place of worship. You had to focus on each step, because if you didn't you could easily loose your balance and fall. You had to intentionally go up the steps, you had to focus on what you were doing. It took time to get to there, but that was the point. They had to to want it, they had to mean it.

Christianity was never intended to be something that was done half-hearted. The early followers lived knowing they could be put to death, they were serious about the relationship they were a part of, a relationship we are called to be part of.

Alvin Reid said, "Living the Christian life is not hard. It is impossible unless we do it with God's strength." The beauty of a relationship is that we are not in it alone. We are not walking into new territory that has never been explored. Jesus said that his yolk is light, a yolk is made for two, he is there to carry it with us. The journey we're are on, that journey that leads to the throne of God, is one that Christ walked first. The cross of Jesus paved the way back to the father.

Christianity was never intended to be something we could simply walk through and go through the motions. It was, and remains to be, something that requires all of us. Paul said in Philippians 3,

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

I think that is what Christianity is about. So are you practicing a religion or are you engaged in a relationship?

A Handshake like Jesus'

This past week I started to re-read Wild at Heart, and I shared part of it at a Men's prayer breakfast this past weekend. The main idea of the book, for those of you who have not read it, is that men were created to be wild and free. Men were created to be powerful and dangerous. The author John Eldredge talks about how in the very beginning when man was created he was made in the wilderness, only after his creation was he placed in the Garden of Eden.

God makes both man and woman, and both are in his image, both bearing different attributes. Women have the sensitive, caring side of God, while men have the powerful, fierce side of God. We as humans have been made in the image of God, and we have a human example in Jesus Christ. In him we see both sides of God, the gentle sensitive nurturing heart, as well as the powerful and dangerous side that is a force to be reckoned with.

At the church I am currently serving at there is a man named Steve, and Steve has a handshake that I feel is identical to the one Jesus would have had. Steve worked on the railroad until he retired, he did manual labor for most of his life, and it shows. When he shakes your hand, there is so much power. I have met a lot of people in my short 23 years, but I have never had a handshake like Steve's. I work out, and I know that I have strength that the average person doesn't have, but I don't have the power that Steve has. The only thing that I can think to compare it to is like trying to squeeze a stone as it squeezes you back. You realize that with very little effort it could crush your hand. Every week I shake his hand, and every time the power he has just amazes me, it's a power that has only come from a life of hard work.

If we look at Jesus we need to realize that he too had a life of hard work. The man was a carpenter, the Greek word is tekton, which means an artisan. An artisan is a skilled craftsman. In Israel, the one thing they have plenty of is rocks, they are everywhere. If you look at the remains of the buildings from the time of Jesus they are made from stone. Yes he would have worked with wood, but most likely also with stone. This man was no stranger to hard work, nor the raw physical power that came as a result of it. And I imagine that if you shook his hand, you would notice.

If we look at the church, so often it tries to portray only one side of Jesus, the meek, gentle one who welcomed children and touched lepers. That is a crucial part of who Jesus is, but it is not the only part. Honestly, how do we ignore such a huge part of who Jesus is? I do not serve a sissy Jesus.

My Jesus was a man's man. Think simply about his death. The man would have taught all day, then had the last supper with his disciples. After this he goes directly to the Garden of Gethsemane and prays most likely for 3 hours, as Matthew and Mark seem to indicate, then he is arrested, and marched all over Jerusalem from the High priest's home, to Pilot, to Herod, and then back to Pilot. Then he receives a brutal beating to within an inch of his life, and is then given a 300 pound cross to carry. He carries it for as long as he is able to by himself, and then receives help. After he makes it to Golgotha they nail him to the cross, and then stand it up, he hangs there for hours and the most amazing thing is that he can still put together coherent sentences!

The entire time he is on the cross the spectators tell him that if he simply comes down off of it they will believe he is the Messiah. One of my college professors said this, "It took a stronger man to hang there and die than it would have to come down off of the cross and beat everyone." This man was incredible. He possessed such a strength both physically and mentally, yet so often people don't mention this side of Jesus, we don't talk about it, we don't dwell on it. Why?

Love Songs

Did you ever sing a worship song to God and think, "If you just took out God's name and put in a guy or girls name it would be a great love song to that person"? I have found myself thinking this during church services, and for the past week or so this thought has been on my mind. Why is this the case, and is it disrespectful to God that this song could so easily be sung to someone else?

Over the past few months I've had some experiences that have opened my heart and mind to the heart of God in ways I never expected to see. And as he has showed me things about himself I have come to have such an incredible love and respect for him. But at the same time it has helped me understand so much more about the nature of human relationships and what they are supposed to look like.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body."

Ephesians 5.25-30

The relationship that Christ has with us is the model relationship that we are supposed to have with each other. As a guy I have, in the past, had difficulty in being excited about being the bride of Christ. But on Saturday night during a prayer meeting one of my teens made a statement in prayer, and when she did, I finally understood that. She simply said, "God you are our beloved husband." but it finally hit me.

The love God has for me, is like the love that I have for the wife that I desire to one day spend my life with. The love that I have for her, and the life I want to give her is one that shows her who she is to God and who she is to me. And as I take the feelings that I have for her, and then take them and give them to God for me, multiplied by an infinite amount, it blows my mind.

The love songs we sing to God, the relationship we have with God, is to be the model relationship we have with each other, it is to be the standard with which we love.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."

John 15.12

Every relationship we are in we are to love the way that God loved us. So if I sing a love song to God and think, I could easily sing this to my future wife, I think that's a good thing, because the love I have for God is supposed to be the foundation for the love I have for her. She does not take the place of God in my life, and I do not love her more or even as much as I love God, but the love I have for God is the basis for, and it gives me the ability to love.

Peace be with you

Greatest gift of all

The most incredible gift in the world, what is it? Life? Salvation? Scripture? Eternal life? All good, and incredible, but at the same time all pointless worthless, and meaningless without something else. I think the greatest gift of all is the ability to give and receive love.

Look at it, creation was an act of Love. God made us to be in a relationship with him, he made us in order that we could love him, and receive love from him. He created us to love each other, for us to be able to give love out and to receive it in return.

We look at the way God interacts with us, and it is all an act of love. The Bible, it isn't a book of rules for how we are to live life to appease an angry God of wrath so he doesn't smite us. Rather, it is a love letter written from the heart of a loving father to his precious and beloved children. It communicates to them his desires for the best life.

The cross, is the greatest act of love. We look at God himself coming to earth in the form of a man, in order to live a perfect life only to die on a cross, taking the full weight of sin upon himself, taking the punishment we deserved upon himself, in order that we can have eternal life. He did it so we don't have to.

God gave us life, he gave us scripture, he gave us salvation, and through salvation he offers us eternal life, but all of these are meaningless without the ability and capacity to love.

Life with out love amounts to nothing.

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing....But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. "

1 Corinthians 13.1-3, 13

Life with no love, is pointless. The bible with no love, is worthless. The Cross with no love, is meaningless. God with no love, is impossible.

Here is the most incredible part. The ability to love, to give it an receive it, is the ability to give and receive God himself.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us."

1 John 4.7-12

God IS love. In giving us the ability to love, God gives us the ability to comprehend part of who he is. Love is how we share him, love is how we show him. Love is who he is. I wish I had the words to fully explain this, but my feeble attempt will have to do.