Religion the Verb

So I've been hired (I think, they can't pay me but I'm hired?) as campus minister at Altoona, PA. Woo! And I've been thinking about what I want to talk about during the year n'at. And I've decided to talk about Religion as a Verb.

Today many talk about how "I'm spiritual but not religious." Well religion really is no more than practicing your faith, or spirituality. And as James says, "Faith without works is dead" which I would translate in this case to "spirituality without works is dead" or even better put, "spirituality without religion is dead.

Many that hate religion will argue "Religion is the reason for the war in the Middle East, the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition," etc. etc. True. But all of those are not the religion that Christ has called us to.

During my time thinking about what to talk about and what to focus on for the year I've come to this conclusion.

We must understand GRACE in order to RELIGION properly.

What?

What I mean is this. James calls a religion that God views as pure and blameless as one that takes care of the widows and orphans. One that loves people and acts on that love. But we can't love people without God because God is love and anyone that loves has to know God. And if you know God, truly know God, you can't help but love him. (I don't mean fully know him, because your head will explode, but actually know him and have a relationship with him and grow in knowing him daily.) The greatest commandment is also to love people with all we have, but more importantly to love God with all we have. To live out our faith. To act like we're saved. To religion.

To believe in Christ, to die and come back to life with him, To trust in him is to have faith and by having faith we have salvation. To have salvation we need grace, because it is by grace we are saved. To receive grace we need faith. See Ephesians 2.8-9 and Romans 10. Those are the two off the top of my head I know there are more. By receiving grace we also receive Christ's righteousness as our own, giving us his perfection making us perfect in God's eyes. See Romans 8. Faith leads to grace, leads to salvation, leads to righteousness, leads to perfection, and we are to live as if we are saved, as if we have faith, as if we are righteous. Live the righteousness that Christ has given you. These are big truths, hard truths to understand, but they are true.

To live as if we are saved is to practice our faith. And we can only practice our faith perfectly if we understand grace. And understanding grace and living as if we have been given grace is to religion.

We must understand grace to religion properly.

I encourage you to live as if you are saved, to religion properly, to love those that God loves and act on it.

He doesn't go back on his promises, so praise him.

So the past two weeks I've been at camp, and this week I have my girlfriend visiting the 'Burgh so my schedule is a bit filled. But I'm going to be updating this definitely today (Wednesday) and probably Friday as well. One way or another.

Also, yes, the Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal in all states. If you want to see my thoughts on the idea of same sex marriage look here. If you want to know my thoughts on how we, as Christians should act, especially with other Christians that disagree with your OPINION look here.

Recently I've been reading through the Minor Prophets. For some reason I really enjoy them, short books that are messages from God to his people. One of the more recent one's that I read was Habakkuk. I can never say that one correctly, but whatever.

Here's the outline that I see in this book, or sermon, or even series of sermons.

Habakkuk: God! Bad stuff is happening!
God: I'll take care of it. I promise.
H: God! More bad stuff!
G: My promises will take place.
H: Alright, let me pray.
H: Now let me rejoice and praise you you.

The overarching theme that I see is this: Crap happens. God promises and will come through on them. So praise him always.

Monday on my other blog I talked about the two weeks at camp and how I was a bit irresponsible and destroyed my throat by yelling. But I also talked about how God provided me with volume when needed. Later that night I got a text from a cousin of mine telling me how she's going through a lot of stuff and how my blog helped her a bit. I didn't think that was going to happen, but God uses what he wants. And I go, "Okay!"

But the point of that is that sometimes, a lot of times, our lives get tough. Crap happens. We hate it. We think God has abandoned us. For the record I don't believe in Karma because if Karma was real I'd be dead by now. Also God gives us grace which is not what we deserve, but gave Jesus the cross which he didn't deserve, so God doesn't always give people what they deserve, which is the entire point of Karma.

But God does promises us, those that follow him, a few things. One big one is that suffering will come. And he doesn't go back on his promises. He also promises that suffering will be good for us, and without it we cannot inherit his glory. And he doesn't go back on his promises. Another promise is that we are his temple and that his Spirit lives in us. And he doesn't go back on his promises. He promises that he will be with us forever. And he doesn't go back on his promises. He promises eternal life with him for those that live and die with him. And he doesn't go back on his promises.

And because he doesn't go back on his promises we should praise him always and always rejoice in him.

Peace!

The concept of peace is a big one throughout scripture. I'm fairly certain I touched on it before in relation between us and Christ. But that's not the peaceful relationship I want to touch on today.

Ephesians 2.14-16: For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The entire point of this section of Ephesians is about the unity, or oneness, in Christ. It could be assumed that Paul is writing about the Jew/Gentile relations, but the main thing is that it expands to us today.

A while back I was interviewing with a church, and had a conversation with the minister. We disagreed on the finer points of baptism, and because of that I was not hired. Which was for the better because it brought me to where God needed me, despite what some people think. But while we disagreed, we still are able to have fellowship between us as brothers in Christ because we both have Jesus, our peace.

All throughout the world there are different groups of Christians, which we can call denominations, but some would go as far as to say that some are even other religions such as Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. I still call them denominations. Some would be willing to have fellowship and would call me a brother if we sat down and had a conversation. Why? Because Jesus is our peace. He's the central truth, the common bond, the one thing that we can both agree on. If there's hostility between us, then chances are we don't agree on who Jesus is. And that's a problem.

As Christians we are called to be united in Christ. Meaning that we identify as Christians, little Jesus' running around, doing Jesus like stuff like telling people about this God and his Son who is our king. And that's what we should focus on. Jesus as our King that was crucified and rose again. And because of that we can go to ex-Muslims that we may have been scared of in the past and welcome them as brothers and sisters. We can shake hands with once rapist that found Christ, repented, and begged our forgiveness from inside a jail cell. We can embrace the man that murdered a loved one of ours for drug money, or because they get behind the wheel of a car impaired. All because we recognize the transforming power of the cross, which kills the hostility between us and those that have hurt us, shamed us, or even disagree with us.

The power of the cross not only has the power to change our personal lives, but also the relationships that we find ourselves in, be them good or bad. I got bullied a lot in high school, and I just gritted my teeth and took it. I had a hatred for the people, and that's the proper use of the word. I hated them. But through the transforming power of the cross I have forgiven them, even if they don't think they've done anything wrong. But I know that if any one of them came to me and told me that they accepted Christ I wouldn't even mention the past because it's gone, I've forgiven them, and the only thing that matters to me is the peace that stands between us that is Christ.

So no matter who you disagree with, no matter what it's on, if you can agree on who Christ is, you can have peace.

Say what you mean, hear what they say

Few years back the Dark Knight came out and everyone was blown away at how great of a movie it was. In the following years that led up to the Dark Knight Rises a lot of speculation was going around as to who the new villains were going to be, especially since Heath Ledger's death. Two of the possibilities that everyone kept throwing about were Catwoman, with no one sure as to who was going to play her, and Johnny Depp as the Riddler. The later was stated as fact by just about anyone you talked to. Why? Because of an interview with Depp, in which he said, "It's not like I'm going to be playing the Riddler or anything." There are other reasons why this rumor was circulated, but I remember reading this interview in an article and after that was written the author stated, "That's right! You heard it here first! Johnny Depp is confirmed as the Riddler!"

That's not at all what he just said dude! He said the exact opposite of what you stated!

I know a lot of people, myself included, that tend to say things they don't mean. One big example is with the word "literally." "I literally rammed her off the road." Why aren't you in jail for attempted vehicular homicide? "Well I didn't really do it." Then why did you say "Literally?"

Or not answering the question that you're asked. Or not asking the question you meant. I had guy in class come up to me one time and asked how I liked the thermos I was using. "It ain't bad, really hate the lid though, doesn't flow well." He responded with, "That's not what I asked, I asked how you liked the fact that it'll keep your coffee hot for 4 hours?" No dude. That's not what you asked.

I ask someone when they're going to be here. "Well I gotta do this, and this, and this, and this." Alright, so what time are you going to be here?

I've seen people post things on facebook bashing others and encouraging others to do the same, then two days later turn right around and say that everyone needs to support the people they were just bashing. Dude, make up your freaking mind and quit contradicting yourself. You're making yourself look like an idiot.

This may just be a pet peeve of mine, and for some reason I feel like I've talked about this before, but skimming my previous posts I don't think I've written on this, but hey, If I did oh well.

There is a problem in today's society where we cannot say what we mean. Either we're incapable of it, we don't know how, or we don't want to offend anyone. One of the biggest issues I have with America at the moment is the idea of "tolerance." All religions must be tolerant of everyone else! Except Muslims because we have to be tolerant of them. And the non-religious because they don't do anything wrong or hate on anyone. That is except the religious because they are always hating on people so it's wrong therefore we can hate on them and tell them to be tolerant.

Really? Do you hear what you're saying?

Then we have Christians that complain constantly about the size of their church, or how other Christians live, and yet do nothing about it because, "well that's not my job to correct them." Or if you do go up against someone and try to tell them that they're messing up and need to get back on track, "Only God can judge me! Judge not lest you also be judged!" They throw scripture at you because they try to justify their sin.

How do we stop this?

Jesus made it pretty clear. "Let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no."

Say what you mean. And expect that from others. Whenever someone tells me something I take it at face value.

"I just gonna hit her in the face." Alright we need to find constructive ways to make sure you don't hit people in the face. "Well I don't mean I'm really going to." Then why did you say you were? If you want to, that's fine, I want to hit people all the time. but saying that you're going to? Well that's a different story and we need to talk about that. Say what you mean, let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no.

Now two more things in this more or less devotional rant.

"Well you can't tell anyone that they can't do something because Matthew 7 Jesus says not to judge or you'll likewise be judged!" Yes, properly translated it does say that. But judge has different meanings. In this sense it indeed means "Condemn not, or else you will be condemned." It's not just saying "Hey that's bad you shouldn't do that!" It's an admonishment against "You're going to go to hell for that!" Really? Are you God? Are you going to be the one that says who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? I don't think so. John 7.24 says the exact opposite of Matthew 7.1, "Judge with right judgement."

Is Jesus contradicting himself? Well if he is there 1) Christianity is worthless and Atheists are right and 2) we have every reason to say conflicting statements and look like idiots. But no, Jesus isn't contradicting himself. Instead he is saying don't condemn anyone, don't pass the judgement, the sentence on them. But instead judge righteously, informing a brother or sister, "Hey, that isn't good for your relationship with God." If is see a brother who's having sex outside of marriage, or cheating on his wife, or hitting on girls while married, I'm obligated to say something to them. I can't just let that get swept under the rug because I'm "not supposed to judge." I'm supposed to go to him and help him first see how Christ explicitly commands us to abstain from that kind of behavior, then help him to not be that kind of person. I can't say man because he'd be acting like a boy at that point.

The second thing is this. Before you shout "Hypocrite!" at me realize this. I know I am. I do most of these things too, I say what I don't mean and don't answer questions that I'm asked, and ask the wrong questions, and hear what's not being said. But I recognize that, and attempt to make myself more Christ like by letting my "yes" be yes and my "no" be no, by saying what I mean, answering what's asked, hearing what's being said. There's a big step in maturity where you admit that you are a sinner, that you are a hypocrite, but also that you're working with Christ to get out of that rut. I'm not trying to toot my own horn (haha I said toot) but I really do believe that this is a standard of what it means to be a mature Christian. Maybe next week I'll do a series on what it means to be a mature Christian. That'll be cool.

My challenge for you is this: Say what you mean. Let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no. Don't contradict yourself. Don't condemn, but judge rightly, and not by outside appearances.

"I got this"

One of my favorite shows of all time is Sons of Anarchy.

There's one episode in particular, that while I teared up watching it still is one of the best episodes in the show. The club got on the wrong side of a Oakland gangster who has the new president, his two closest friends, and another member all put in prison. The deal for them is this: Tig stays insides to rot, one has to die, and the other two can go. Jax can't decide who to give up, and it seems as if he's about to be the one to volunteer to go, but his best friend in the whole world steps up and takes it. Earlier in the episode before we see him, long hair, big beard, cutting wood to make something, giving off the image of a carpenter. Now he's volunteering to die so the rest of his friends can live. The last words spoken by him are him looking in the window at his brothers and saying three simple words, "I got this." He took the situation in his own hands, and went through it himself so that his brothers, the ones that he loved, could live.

Throughout my years I've come to known addicts. Some got clean, some didn't, some are on their way, some are in jail, some are probably dead. And it's sad. It breaks my heart wondering, "What if in some way I could have prevented this?" But that's not the question that needs to be asked. The question that needs to be asked is this, "How can I help them now?"

Those that I clean, I guarantee you that if we sat down with them and talked with them about how they got over their addiction they would all say the same thing. "With the love and support of those around me." It's not something they did on their own, they did it with the help of those surrounding them.

As a minister you would expect me to remember every sermon I've ever heard. Not true. I remember like 4, not including the one from this week. I'll forget that one by Sunday. But one of the few sermons I remember was an off the cuff sermon, where the dude crumbled up his notes and threw them away and talked about exactly what needed to be talked about. "You don't got this. You can't do it." It got depressing. Like that's not what people are supposed to say in sermons is it? You're supposed to fill us up, empower us, make us feel good about being in church and doing our Christian duty! Not tell us that we can't do it! And not do what by the way? Wait, we can't make it through life on our own? We can'ts survive on our own? What are you talking about man! Doesn't the Bible say that God helps those who helps themselves? Doesn't Jesus say that we gotta work for our own survival and salvation? Sure he made it a bit easier but it's us that have to live a certain way to maintain it right? God's not going to take care of us, we take care of ourselves, and maybe God will give us a little more if we go to church on a regular basis and give money right? You can't say that we can't do it! That's wrong!

And as this conversation is going through my head and I'm asking myself these questions and wondering what the hell this guy is saying I really start listening. All things have come from God, the very air that we breathe is a gift from God. He has given us enough grace that we can just live, and more than that he is offering us more grace so that we can be with him for eternity and not suffer the eternal consequences of our sin. I flip open my bible and run across Psalm 86.17 verses of David relying on God in all things.

Monday I wrote about how we need to depend on God. But why? Because we can't do it on our own. Our very life is a gift. We live in a broken world where things go wrong all the time because there is sin. Not just I suffer because of my sin. I suffer because of my parents sin, my siblings sin, my neighbors sin, my coworkers sin, my old bosses sin, Adam and Eve's sin. There's no way to escape it, or the consequences of it. Not on my own. I can't do it. But God can, and has, and will. Though I am a wretched man, God has still granted me grace, making me perfect in his eyes. And now I live as if I am in heaven now, worshiping God in all that I do for what HE did, not me. I can't save myself, only God can.

You don't got this. Only God does.

Back again! Depending on God

I realize it's been forever since I last posted. Yes, I've been busy, but that's no excuse.
If you don't follow my other blog, that's cool, but I outlined on there that I will be updating this blog three times a week from here on out. This will happen Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every week. Usually. I do have two weeks of camp that I'll be at and unable to post, plus a week of vacation in July. But overall, this will be running three days a week. Keep me accountable with it!

Now! On to the devo post!

The other day I was mowing, and I was thinking about how, without me, the grass would not get cut. I'm the one that fills the mower with gas. If it wasn't for that, it wouldn't run.
I'm the one that starts the mower. If it wasn't for that, it wouldn't be able to cut.
I'm the one that pushes it around the yard. If it wasn't for that, it wouldn't move and cut.
I'm the one that stops and empties the bag of grass clippings. Else it would get clogged up and leave extra grass every where.
I'm the one that cuts the grass. If it wasn't for me, it would be a jungle.

The grass and it's upkeep are dependent on me.

What I really was thinking about when I was cutting the grass through is how, without God, I would be unable to do anything. I am dependent on God.
Without him, nothing would have been created (John 1.3, Colossians 1.16, Romans 11.36).
So without him, I would not exist. But in order for me to get here, he had to create a place for me to be. And people to lead to my eventual existence. And food for me to eat and water to drink and a people to create a place for me to stay and air to breathe. Without God and everything he has put in my life, I would have a miserable, and short, existence.

The other day after I got done mowing I was reading Acts 17, Paul in Athens. One of my favorite chapters of all time, and I come across this: "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he serve by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and EVERYTHING."

Paul here states to the Greeks that God has given us EVERYTHING! From life, to breath, to food and water. All of it has come from God. Without God we would have nothing. Even those that don't believe in him are dependent on him, they just don't know it. When I'm having a bad day, when I'm just angry at everything, I don't run to other people to make me feel better. I'm already mad, anything you do or say is just going to make it worse. But if I run to God, I find a place of safe refuge, a soothing pool of tranquility and peace. And it is there in his arms, in his temple, up his holy hill that I find the calming tones from my heavenly father saying, "It's alright son. It's fine. I got you now. Relax, rest in my work."

My dependence on God goes from my very existence to everything I do. I need comfort, I depend on God. I need advice, I depend on God. I need support, I depend on God.

This week, as you come to your wits end I implore you to run to God, and depend on him. See how your week changes.

The Shawshank Redemption

So I was watching the Shawshank Redemption last night. If you've never seen it, go get it and watch it. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen, hands down.

But while I was watching it I noticed that there is a theme running it in that mirrors the Christian's life.

We have a man, who was charged with the murder of his wife and her lover and went to prison for it. While there he learns, "Everyone here is innocent." Everyone plays into this idea. We see different exchanges throughout the movie, "What're you in for?" "I'm innocent, lawyer screwed me over."

As the movie goes on, following the main character Andy we see him continually admit that he's innocent. And in actuality, he was, he never murdered his wife or the man she was having an affair with. This is proven by another inmate at a different prison admitting to killing them to a character that ends up at Shawshank.

Near the end of the movie Andy is sitting with his best friend Red, and he has come to the realization, he's not innocent. He's guilty of killing his wife. Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but his actions led her into her lovers arms, who was the target of a robbery, and they both were killed.

That night, Andy breaks out of prison, crawling through a sewer tunnel full of crap that leads to a river, in the pouring rain, and freedom.

The movie conclude with Andy going into different banks as another person, taking a fortune with him to escape to Mexico, his idea of a safe haven.

Here's how I see this connecting to the Christian life.

We all think we're innocent. I've never killed anyone, I've never robbed a bank. Maybe I stole that kids pencil in middle school, but that's not that bad.

And then bad things begin happening to us. Now I don't believe in karma, I believe that we're in a fallen world and that bad things happen as a result of sin in the world. So if I get in a fight with manbearpig and have my toe smashed, it's not because I did something wrong; it's because we're in a fallen world and bad things happen. Toes get smashed, car wrecks happen, people die, we lose things, we accidentally slice our arms open, bad things happen. All because of being in a fallen world. And we add to that. But we don't think we do because, "We're not that bad."

So we wonder, "Why are these bad things happening to me? I'm not a bad person. I'm innocent."

Eventually we come to realize, we're no innocent. Maybe we're not as bad as this other guy, but Romans 5 tells us one sin from one man was enough to condemn all of humanity, and we sin multiple times on a daily basis. We by no means are innocent.

From there we take our first step towards salvation. Andy had a rock hammer, an old crumbling wall, and a poster to cover the hole. These lead to his salvation. We have Jesus to lead us to ours. But it's not an easy step to be saved. It's not just getting baptized. It's giving up who you are, a prisoner, either to sin or the system as in Andy's case, and crawling through all of your mistakes, realizing what a wretched creature you are, how sinful you are, and coming out the other side into God's saving grace which he pours on you like rain. It washes you clean, and you are liberated and free, becoming a new person, taking on a new identity, and taking the riches, the treasure that is Jesus, the promise of eternal life, and we go on travelling to our safe haven, to be with Christ, but already living like we are.