Community

This time of the year here at school is possibly one of the most overwhelming times of the year. It is the time where everybody returns with excitement and enthusiasm back to the culture that is JMU. And the freshmen come and experience their fantastic orientation event called August 1787 Orientation. With this whole community coming together, it is an amazing picture. People's love for each other, pride for their school, and excitement for the year shines through their reunions and introductions. Last night, I went to an orientation event which was just a dance party in the middle of campus. As I shuffled till I got blisters on my feet, I stopped, and gazed over the sweaty haze of people gathered together on an overcrowded basketball court. While it is an exciting sight, I wanted to run the other direction. It was so overwhelming to be around so many people.
I have to admit, I fall victim to that in the Christian body too.
With events like on-campus ministries and Passion, I see the body gathered together in such a large mass and while I do revel in the glory of it, the other half of me wants to run and do this whole Christianity thing by myself.
Once I was sitting in the corner of my house doing my quiet time on a Sunday morning when my brother came home from church and decided to confront me on me not going. Now if this was just one time, it would've been fine. But I had gotten into this phase where I bought into the lie that I can do this Christianity thing by myself and the entire time I was home, I avoided church. My brother simply convicted me by saying, "Why would you want to miss out on the opportunity of blessing others?"
You know, thats what the body of Christ is suppose to do for each other! We are suppose to bless others rather than just sit in the corner and receive blessings. For Jesus said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35)." We are suppose to strengthen, encourage, and edify each other in love. 
Love is the common denominator in any sort of community.
But as I stand in the in between of divided communities for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I feel as if love is the variable we are all in search of.
Maybe this is the child in me speaking, but I don't understand why Christian communities seek to make their mission different than the mission of other Christian communities. I mean, aren't we all called to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Whatever twist we like to add to that initial mission, we are all still part of the body of Christ.
I always wonder what might happen in the body of Christ if the different Christian communities were willing to humble themselves and come together for the collective mission of spreading the Gospel. I mean, from my understanding, the only way we get things done is when we do it together. But there is too much pride behind ministries that tells them that it is much better when they do it on their own. But you know, I don't blame them, because I was victim to the same thing. I told myself the same lie that I could do this Christianity thing by myself.
I had the pleasure of working in a community called Walterboro, SC this summer. In this community, there was brokeness, crime, hatred, poverty, unemployment, and the pride of a people whose faith in God believed they could redeem this society for the glory of God. So after massive amounts of prayer, denominations coming together, and people just honoring and loving on each other, people outside the body were able to see how the body of Christ is love and people were saved. Things happened, hearts were changed, crime was decreased, and a society was redeemed. All because people decided to come together to bring about Heaven on earth. 
From my understanding, when ministers in New England distributed a letter calling Christians to pray somewhere in the 1730s to 1740s, all denominations supported it and it grew to become "The First Great Awakening."
Things get done when we are willing to die to ourselves for the glory of Jesus Christ to be spread.
Now I am not arguing that all the denominations should blend under one identity. What sort of community would that be? If that happened the body of Christ would be like one giant hand or leg or some body part like that. But what I am arguing is that we should make an effort to honor each other above ourselves as it says in Romans 12:10.
Another part coming soon!

Faithfulness

I had the pleasure of recently seeing a psychologist at work. There was a girl who was having a panic attack, and the psychologist just majestically entered into the room and was like, "Where is she?" We pointed him her way where she was just crouched down in the corner. The next action of his surprised me. Instead of him grabbing the readily accessible chair, he crawled down on the floor with her. And in his silence, he comforted her.
This is how I relate God's faithfulness to His people. 
It doesn't really make sense to me when people try to define God's faithfulness. If you ask someone what having the faithfulness of an all powerful being means to them, they are completely stumped. For the few who do give an answer, they give an answer to how God is faithful in His physical provision. For instance, they would say: I know God is faithful because He provided me with a job when I was in need. He gave me the money I need to do this event. He provided Noah with an ark. He led Moses and his people out of Egypt. He allowed David to capture Jerusalem. He provided. These are all physical testaments to God's faithfulness, but what if there wasn't anything physical to testify to God's faithfulness? Would you say that God is still faithful? Of course He is! 
One of the many beauties of an all powerful God is that His providence is a direct result of His faithfulness to us. To add to that, His providence knows no bounds. That means that even though we aren't given tangible evidence of His providence, He is still faithful.
It is just like the psychologist. He didn't provide anything to the girl. He didn't even say a word. But he was still there for her, even when she didn't ask him to be. 
Yet much of the world still operates in a manner which says if there is no physical evidence, how can I know you are faithful? 
For example, I told one of my friends that I would be at this reunion with a bunch of friends. Now my faithfulness to my friend is at stake here. Lo and behold, in the craziness and haste of reality, I simply forget about this event and I am not there for my friend. My faithfulness is shattered because I was not able to provide my presence at this event. My faithfulness to my friend is discredited because I was not able to physically provide my presence.
But this is not true of God.
Not only does He provide His presence at all times, but He is also faithful in Spirit.
One thing that doesn't make sense to me in how this world operates is that we judge too much by exterior. For instance, my faithfulness to my friend is completely gone in my friend's view because I couldn't physically provide my presence, but if my friend looked past that they would see that I would always affirm him in his spirit. I would always seek to build him up in love. I would always acknowledge him as a child of God and treat him fairly out of reverence and respect for my God.
You see, God doesn't have to provide something physical or tangible to prove that He's faithful. He is for us, not against us, meaning He always will affirm us in our spirit. And for the unbeliever who still needs to see physical evidence for God's faithful nature, check out Jesus Christ's death certificate. And once you snap out of ignorance and step into the Kingdom perspective, recognize that there is no death certificate because He is alive!
Rather we have the certificate of His death and resurrection engraved on the tablet of our hearts, and that is the greatest example we have to God's faithful nature. For it says in Ephesians 1:3, we have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ. 
What does this mean? It means that we have every tool possible to recognize God's faithfulness towards us!
The reason I am bringing up faithfulness now is because it troubles my heart how a lot of people aren't willing to return the favor to God. He is faithful to us, so why can't we even strive to be faithful to Him despite our flawed nature?
One of the many reasons I have come up with is because ignorance has blinded a desperate people to only seek the physical evidence of His faithfulness. In a world judged by sight and not by faith, its hard to trust to anything. Even an all-powerful God! But thank God that His faithfulness is not contingent on our faith as it says in Romans 3:3-4.
If anything, God's faithfulness pierces through our ignorance and keeps calling us back.
God has already fulfilled a promise to His people by giving His only Son to die for us on the cross so that by believing in Him we will receive the salvation of our souls. But in this promise is another promise. You see, we have received righteousness and have been deemed blameless before our Lord through our faith in Christ Jesus. And if we turn to Scripture we see that Paul writes in his letters that God will keep us blameless (1 Thess. 5:23, 1 Cor. 1:8). So not only does He promise us a way for salvation, but He also promises us that He will keep us in the faith. God's faithfulness testifies to the fact that He keeps us.
So what does this mean? A helpless people falling out of the faith or not reaping the fruit of the faith is our fault, not God's, because God promises to keep us, and He is faithful to His promise. It is out of our own ignorance, out of our own unfaithfulness, that we fail to see the fruit of God's faithfulness.
Much like the psychologist, God doesn't have to give us something to testify to His faithful nature. He has already given His Son and in that, He has allowed us to have access to Him, the best Psychologist in the universe! If you have trouble seeing God's faithful nature, go see the Psychologist cause He's definitely in business and always has been!
So this is a wake up call for the ignorant nature of needing to see something physical to prove God's faithfulness. The mere fact that you're still in the faith is testament enough that He is faithful. And if you're an unbeliever, its never too late to reap the fruit of a faithful God, someone who won't let you down like anyone here on earth. Let us open our eyes to how faithful our God is, and let us respond with faithfulness to His commands and His ways.

Redemption Pt. 4

Someone told me once that the more you fall in love with the Savior, the more the world doesn't make sense to you. I find myself victim to that idea. It doesn't make sense that we kill to get our way. It doesn't make sense to me that we can get so excited over a sports game but then we stand in church like we don't care. It doesn't make sense that we exploit women (and even men as a matter of fact!) in the media. It doesn't make sense that we could even endorse the exploitation of women through our choice of music we listen to. It doesn't make sense to me that we worship these big public figures who probably only care about themselves and their career. We all have our justifications around these things, but in the end, they're just lies blinding us from truth. Its a good thing there is grace or I myself would be screwed!

The world is such a fickle thing. Its not constant in the least bit, and that in it self doesn't make sense. I know this because at one moment I could be overjoyed at the beauty of the glory of God on this earth and then the next I could be deeply saddened by the ignorance of it. We weren't created to be so fragile, so fickle. We were born with an anchor, and that is God's love for us. So with that in mind, our ignorance, our humanity lacking the salvation of God, doesn't make sense.

And thats what I hope to be this semester and for the rest of my life. Someone who makes sense in the context of the solution to our broken soul. I want to make sense because I have the light of God shining within me. But I don't want to be the only thing that makes sense. I want the whole world to make sense. I want the world to be redeemed.

With this desire comes the greater responsibility and joy on my part. I seek to do so much for the redemption of this world. I want to find the church where there is no needy person amongst them, where they break bread together, where they truly and deeply love each other out of reverence for God. I want to live in another country with the least of these. I want to know how its like to live on 10 percent a day. I want to travel and do missions. I want to find God shine so bright amongst people like the stars shine in foreign country. I want to see Jesus through someone's eyes. And I want to mobilize a united effort for the redemption of our world in every region. I have big ambitions, but they mean nothing if I'm not even willing to do it to the person down the street from me.

So thats where I'm at this semester. Redeeming the world starting with James Madison University. So to whoever is reading this, I encourage you to do the same for wherever you're at now. Its time to close the gap between inactive believers and active unbelievers into the umbrella of God's love for us and the redemption that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

The beauty of Christ cannot be contained in tall, brick sanctuary or stain glass windows. So lets stop pretending like it can be! The beauty of Christ shines in our hearts and we carry the fragrance of the knowledge of Him to a depraved world (2 Cor. 2:14). Redemption is in our hands to carry out in this world, for we are His church.

I don't know about you, but thats the most logical thing that has crossed my mind since I've started writing this post. It just makes sense. Thank God for something making sense in this world.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood,

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the 

riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with

all wisdom and understanding . . ."

-Ephesians 1: 7-8

Redemption Pt. 3

Read Redemption Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 before you read this post


The comforting thing about the existence of evil in this world is that when it is the darkest, thats when you see the light shine the brightest. God works for our good and our good is for His glory. 
People can choose to bring about redemption in this world but totally leave God out of the picture. They would want to spread ideals such as peace, love, joy, but a peace, love, and joy outside of God. It is ultimately just a peace, joy, and love because . . . just because. And you know, thats fine! I applaud people like those because they are people who are so close to truth that they are able to really market that out to an unbelieving world. What I mean is, these people are just reaping the fruit of the victory of Christ without believing in Him. In an unbelieving world, the only thing that can appeal to a depraved humanity is reaping of this fruit without committing to a belief. These result is people keep doing good and ultimately that is what spreads until someone asks the question, what for? That is why I love these people. But sadly what I've come to find is, people who decide to spread these ideals and do good outside of God, don't reproduce anything. They just briefly cover up evil for a moment.
Its like the stars (and I don't mean to sound corny here). I was sitting on my roof the other night just wishing I could be living in a foreign country right now where the stars shine brighter. Well its not that the stars shine brighter in another country as much as it is our own artificial light blotting out the true light. Our man made light enshrouds the skies when deep down we long to see the real light. Thats what spreading these ideals outside of God does. They just cover up the truth with ephemeral man made ideals. While they are good to appeal to the masses, they are not truth. 
And the truth is God's redemption provides us with something eternal. God's redemption gives us the solution our soul longs for. God's redemption is the thing that lasts.
For example, Kurt Wyman's best friend, Bobby, could have decided to not respond at all to his friend's death. But instead, he decided that he was going to find the man who killed his best friend in jail and minister to him so that he might be a believer. You see, Bobby is giving that man something tangible! It would have been so hard and pointless for Bobby to go to the jail and talk to him about love because that discussion outside of God leads to a dead end. That fruit doesn't reproduce outside of God because it doesn't make sense why it should be reproduced. But a love that stems from God reproduces more love, joy reproduces joy, peace reproduces more peace, and thats how fruit should be!
I knew a person a while ago (whose name I will not mention) who was just burdened by the fact that he himself couldn't change anything in another person's life. Now I realize why. The victory we have in Christ is the line in which insufficiency meets grace. We were never meant to do this whole "change the world" on our own because us on our own is insufficient. But when we bring Christ into the picture our insufficient self meets the grace that tells us we are righteous and able.
So you see, plugging ourselves into God's redemptive work is the only logical solution for really changing this work.
Final post coming up next!

Redemption Pt. 2

Everybody keeps talking about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse in the future. They make jokes about who their zombie apocalypse team is gonna be, or where they would hide. People have gone so far enough as to even build zombie-proof shelters! Well guess what? People should open their eyes and see that the zombie apocalypse might have well already happened. Now before you ditch your computer and take shelter, let me explain.

You see, it is my idea that every single person knows that there is something wrong. There is something wrong deep inside of man. They can't watch a murder story on the 5 o' clock news and think that everything is just peachy. They know that there is something wrong and whether their too proud to admit it is a whole different story.

Here's whats wrong. We are a bloodthirsty people, much like zombies. We are a primitive, backwards, and bloodthirsty people feeding on the blood of others much like the truck driver and the car driver. Their desire was for blood to be shed and for them to drink from that. But fear not people! There is an antidote to this zombie apocalypse.

Here's the solution: Jesus Christ steps down from Heaven in His magnificence and gives His own blood so that a primitive people won't thirst anymore. His blood floods our inadequacy and exchanges it for righteousness. And there it is, our thirst is satisfied. But much like that scene from I Am Legend (A Will Smith movie about zombies. I highly suggest it!) where the zombies are scared of the light, we see the path of righteousness the Son has laid out for us, but its scary. So then, still stuck on our cancer of depravity, envelop the lie that our primitive ways of self-sufficiency are enough and turn the other way. We continue to shed the innocent blood of others seeking to be satisfied in our soul, but its never enough. 

And thats what ignorance and pride does to us. It makes us blind to the solution and therefore, keep buying into the problem.

But here is the big question of the day: how much blood should be shed for the ignorance of a primitive people?

I cry in my soul because I know that there was an obvious solution to the day that man decided to kill Kurt Wyman. And that was for that man to be shaken of his ignorance instead of seeking the blood of an innocent person. Though his ignorance shed the blood of another, there was a beautiful picture amongst that scene the day Kurt Wyman died. And that was this: Kurt was the solution. He was someone bearing the fragrance of Christ, or the knowledge of the glory of God. He was letting his light shine. But much like the zombie from I Am Legend, the man was scared. Through his fear of the light came his ignorance of Kurt trying to save his life, so he took Kurt's. 

Many people ask, why does God allow pain in this world? Well I feel like many Christian theologians, writers, preachers, etc. etc. have realized that God would reply with the right question, why do you allow pain in this world.

The beautiful thing about Kurt is that he was someone who plugged himself into the redemptive work of God on this earth. His life was not in vain.

In the next part I will talk about plugging into God's redemptive work as a church and discuss my plans to live that out this semester and for a lifetime.

Redemption Pt. 1

Here I am. Back at school, ready to begin another semester. You know, the cool thing about semesters at school is that every semester has a story of its own. For example, my fall semester was entirely different than my spring semester last year mainly because at the end of the year I wasn't the person who I was back in fall semester. I had changed mostly because I became heavily consumed and convicted by the Gospel of Christ and in turn, died to myself. So as I sit here pondering about what this semester's story might be, I am continually drawn back to the mission of Christ. 
Earlier today, I was taking the trash from the front of my house to the back of the house. As I was taking it out back I heard from a car passing by, "Get out of the (bad word) street you little (another bad word)!" The following thoughts whirling around my head after this man's daring statement was: was he referring to me (even though I wasn't on the street)? Another was this: Could something as little as a person on the street compel this man to act in a manner that would crush someone else's spirits?
Another road example: Me and my friend, Andrew, were driving down the highway when our annoying GPS tells us to take the next exit. I glance at him, he glances at me, and then like magic we somehow arrived at the conclusion: we needed to take the next exit. The only problem was there was this huge truck hogging up the right lane and when we turned on our blinker they decided to speed up. They were still a good distance behind us when we needed to switch over last moment. So we switched over to the right lane and the truck sped up more and then switch to the left lane. As we were taking the exit, the truck honked and the driver decided to give us a symbol of his admiration for us (and no, it was not a thumbs up but another finger). The following thoughts whirling around my head after this man's bold action was this: why did that man feel the need to express his anger with us? We didn't need to know that!
Now, it would not be right of me to assume that the truck driver and the person driving the car were not believers. They could have been believers and read every verse in the Bible, but skipped verses like Colossians 3:8 ("But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.") But despite them being believers or not, they are here to prove a point, and that is this: there is evil in the world. It is evil to not chose the action of building up one another in love in exchange for expressing anger. There is evil that exists out there.
To really drive the point home, I have one more story. I had the pleasure of working with a youth group from New York this summer who had suffered a tragic loss in their youth group. It was a youth worker and Deputy Sheriff by the name of Kurt Wyman. He was a man who was more concerned about the Gospel of Christ than his own life, and as a result his life was taken by a man with a gun in a domestic dispute. The worst part was, he was trying to save the man's life, in more ways than one.
There is evil in this world. There is a depreciation of life, ignorance of others, and hatred towards others that exists in this world. But then there is the evil that stares back at us when we look in the mirror. The evil of pride deprives us of the surpassing glory of being fully reliant on God. It deceives us to believe that we could do this whole "living" thing on our own.  Ha! That is the biggest lie since toe thumbs (toe thumbs: fact or fiction? Find it out for yourself)! 
I don't mean to be morbid through my acknowledgment of evil in this world. But I believe an acknowledgment of evil is necessary for the discernment of righteousness in this world. The acknowledgment of evil also makes our mission of Christ more clear in this world. In my next post I'll discuss the hope of redemption as well as how it ties into my hopes for this semester.