Fill the world.

Creepy caterpillar, climbing up a tree, he wiggles long, he wiggles short, he wiggles back at me. I put him in a box, don't go away I said! but when I opened up that box, a butterfly instead. I could never make one, even if I tried, for only God in heaven, can make a butterfly!

That's a cute little song I learned during VBS at some point in my childhood, or maybe I just heard it from my mom in sunday school, but I've always loved it. Today I was thinking about faith and how it seems we do the same thing with our faith that we do with our caterpillars.

How often do we put God, and our faith in a box? You stay here with these nicely defined edges and straight black and white lines and I'll just come check on you when I want you or I need a friend. We like God to have limits and we want to know what those limits are and understand everything. We want to keep him in a box so we know where he is at all times and that he's not going to go anywhere.

I would love to see what would happen if we all opened our boxes and let God out. Can we uncage the lion? Let God roam free and do things that are beyond our understanding. Let God be bigger than your bedside box. Just because we can't understand it or don't know how it works, doesn't mean God couldn't or didn't do it. We don't have to always understand. We're not going to always understand. But we have to let the unknown be liberating and embrace it. We can't let it terrify us and run us into a corner.

Only God can turn our faith caterpillars into beautiful butterflies. Let him mold and shape you. Be courageous and let go of the caterpillar so that you can get something so much greater. Each of our butterflies are different. They have different colors and sizes and patterns. Embrace the differences. See the beauty. They're all different, but they're all butterflies. Butterflies made and grown and tested and loved by the same God. If we keep our faith in a box, we are not giving it room to continue to grow. Let it free. Let's fill the world with beautiful butterflies.

It's all in our heads.

It never ceases to amaze me how complex and powerful our minds are. I guess really it's not our minds that are powerful but rather, it's the spirit of Christ in us that gives us that power.

"For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us... The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ." -1 Corinthians 2:11-12, 15-16

And yet with all of this power we have, the power that rose Christ from the dead is living in us, we still manage to deem ourselves powerless against such things as sin. It's all in our heads. All of it.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind." -2 Timothy 1:7

We can't live our lives in fear of what may be but we need to live our lives in the power of what has already been done. Yes, there are grey areas, but it doesn't matter because grace covers it all. We are not supposed to live in fear of sin, but in the freedom of grace. That's what the new covenant is all about.

The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair...

And the thing I find most amazing in amazing grace is the chance to give it out. Maybe thats what love is all about...

A Window to the World

This past weekend I got to be a part of an amazing start of a new journey. My good friend Katey married her journey mate Ben and I have been blessed to be there from the start.

After the rehearsal dinner, Scott shared some thoughts with us about marriage and the ministry that it is. In a world where the covenant of marriage is seen as outdated and not part of our culture, it's just one more way for Christians to be the salt and light of the earth.

Something as simple as keeping a pure and unconditional promise with the love of your life, can make all the difference in the world. When everyone in this world is losing hope in love, Christians can hold onto hope and know that love can be so much more. You can wake up every morning and decide to continue loving your husband or wife instead of taking the easy way out.

Marriage is so often used to show the relationship between God and the church. Love your wife. Respect your husband. Give up your life for him. Die to her daily. These concepts are so loaded.

It breaks my heart that love is so misunderstood these days. Something so strong and so pure. Someone who gave his life for all of us. But at the same time, it makes sense.

To the world, love would be misunderstood.

It's something that sounds so simple, but it's so, so, so much more.

Don't fall victim to that misunderstanding. Be the window that let's light shine into this dark world. Let love shine.

I leave you with the lyrics of Warren Barfield's song, Love is not a fight.

Love is not a place
To come and go as we please
It's a house we enter in
Then commit to never leave

So lock the door behind you
Throw away the key
We'll work it out together
Let it bring us to our knees

...

To some, love is a word
That they can fall into
But when they're falling out
Keeping that word is hard to do

...

Love will come to save us
If we'll only call
He will ask nothing from us
But demand we give our all

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

I will fight for you
Would you fight for me?
It's worth fighting for

Four Pointing Back.

"What makes Jesus angry is religious people who are so worried about themselves, that they don't care about you."

Joe Spivy said that at church the other night. He talked about Jesus in the flesh and it was a lesson that I think everyone needs to hear, so I'm going to share his main points with you, as well as some of my own thoughts.

Thinking about Jesus in the flesh isn't something we do often. Jesus was a real baby who pooped, a teenage boy with acne, a young adult man who got angry. That's right. He got angry. Some people refuse to believe that he did because that would mean he sinned and Jesus didn't sin so there's no way he was ever angry. It couldn't be that we're the ones who are wrong and being angry just isn't a sin.

Jesus got angry and what made him angry was when people were so worried about religion and being right and all the other crap, that they didn't care about anyone else. Their minds are focused on the wrong things. They're completely missing the point.

Mark 3:1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

I was really glad that this was the lesson that night. At the same time, I thought how can this group of people be hearing this message but be the congregation that they are today? Writing that and then reading it makes me feel judgmental and I don't want to come off that way. I just don't understand how we can hear a message like that and then continue to miss the point and remain under our church building bushels.

Then it hit me. How often to we hear a lesson or a sermon and analyze how it applies to us? How often are we turning the message around and looking at ourselves through those glasses?

It seems to me like, if we do anything with the lessons we're hearing, we put the glasses on and look at everyone else instead. We see everyone else so much clearer once we understand Jesus better and we stick our fingers up to point and correct. Then I remembered that phrase that I was told a time or two when I was younger, that I thought was so stupid... When you point the finger at someone else, four fingers are pointing back at you.

We need to listen to a lesson, adjust our prescription, put the glasses on and look in the mirror to see ourselves clearer. A better understanding of Jesus, will help us better understand ourselves first. We need to work on ourselves and let God do the work in the lives of others. If we continue to let Jesus perfect us, then maybe our lives will better change the lives of those around us who we are pointing our finger at.

Out with the old. In with the new.

Light's been blinding me from what I thought I'd see
Is there clarity in this insanity?
What do you want from me?
Roads in front of me, taking me astray
Are you leaving me? or are you leading the way?
Can you hear what I'm saying?

I need to know. I need to know. I need to know. I need to know.

Feel like I'm trying to breath under water
Trying to climb but I keep falling farther
Will you take my hand?
Feel so far away
wanna see your face
are you even there?
Can you show me?
Can you make me believe?

I need to know. I need to know. I need to know. I need to know.

I need to know. I need to know.

-Kris Allen, I need to know

It's been a long year... a long three years actually. I've been through several different places, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and I guess even physically. I never would have thought that I could travel to and from such extremes to places that, one year ago, I told myself I would never be, or I guess more accurately, places I told myself I would never leave. I don't know what I what anymore.

It seems more often than not, I'm surrounded by unknowns. I've moved from this place where I've felt like I know everything; what the future holds, where I want to go with my life, how God is working, who matters most to me. Now it's just all up in the air. I guess that's what happens when you claim to have faith. Of course I had faith when everything was simple and everyone was where I needed them to be. So it only makes sense that God take some of that away... right?

Why is it that sometimes the thing that is farthest from what I want to do, is the thing I feel God calling me to?

As I get older and grow in all aspects of my life, while many things become more unknown, and the horizon just gets more and more open, there are those things that just begin to get crystal clear.

God is faithful.
Everything really works, upside down.
Love wins.

The only way to move forward and to grow is to get rid of the old, and bring in the new. For a child to get their adult teeth, the baby ones must come out. For a snake to get a newer, tougher skin, the old one has to shed. When a bird is getting in new feathers, they pluck the old ones out. Chew on that

God is the only one who can make me new, and He is doing just that.

My soul cries out. My soul cries out for you.
These bones cry out. These dry bones cry for you, to live and move
'Cause only You can raise the dead, can lift my head up.

Jesus, You're the one who saves us, constantly creates us into something new
Jesus, surely you will find us.
Surely our Messiah will make all things new.
Will make all things new.

Life is breaking out, it's breaking out
Life is breaking out, it's breaking out, it's breaking out
And life is breaking out, it's breaking out, it's breaking out

Jesus, You're the one who saves us
Constantly creates us into something new
Jesus, surely you will finds us
Surely our Messiah will make all things new
Will make all things new

-Gungor, Dry Bones