Love Wins. Pt. 1

We don't need fear, condemnation, or rules.


I know quite a few people who are stuck on this idea of balance. Let me tell you, I think balance is absolutely necessary. I think that everything is about balance. My problem is with pushing so hard for balance that you're completely negating the very thing you are stating. 


There have been several times that I have posted a facebook status about something to do with God's love, our faith, or more recently grace, and it has quickly been attacked with something like "there has to be balance. See scripture so and so." With love there must be a balance of discipline. Faith and works. With grace there must be a balance of obedience. While I agree with these things, when stating of the beauty of love, the importance of faith, or the power of grace, that does not mean that I find love, faith, or grace more important than discipline, works, or obedience. It does not throw off the balance and require someone to bring things back to the center. So when it is commented that with grace there must be a balance of obedience, you are just pushing the pendulum the other way. You take the focus off of grace, to bring it to obedience, which doesn't create balance but just moves the focus. Why can't a statement be made about grace without making comment to obedience? They don't always go hand in hand. We should know, learn, and understand each of these things individually. 


Really, I think that part of the problem is that we are born into a world and born into a predisposition. Whether it comes from the world or our families, our experiences or our lack there of. We are born into a family with parents who have their beliefs and those get pushed onto us. This situation looks different with every child, but seems to ultimately go one of two ways. Those beliefs are accepted and the disposition continues, or the boat gets rocked to the other side. Parents push their children so hard that they swing to the other side. Traditional parents raise children who become progressive. Free living parents raise children who seek structure and rules. Or in some cases people are born into situations without family or parents and those experiences shape them toward a direction. It all makes sense when you think about it. This isn't a new concept. The same thing happened with our parents and their parents. The generations are fighting each other but all seeking balance.


You see it's a matter of maturity. Fear, condemnation, and rules. 


There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4:18
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7


A growing, mature relationship, with our Father, would confide in that perfect love rather than fear. A child fears their parents, while an adult grows into a loving bond with their parents.


Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. Romans 5:18
If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! 2 Corinthians 3:9


We don't need condemnation because we are justified in Christ Jesus. We don't need a ministry of condemnation, correcting one another and pointing out flaws, because there is a new way, a new ministry, which is much, much greater. Besides, we've all got logs in our eyes.


For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. 1 John 5:4


Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1


It is in our faith that victory is found, and that victory has overcome the world.


Is not our faith in Christ Jesus and what he did for us? What he did for us by dying on the cross to take on and eliminate the sins of all people past, present, and future, and rising again three days later, to defeat the evil one. So our faith isn't only in Jesus, but in what he did. A faith in the elimination of our sins. A faith that believes there is no condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus. 




To be continued...

Crazy Busy Life

Well on a personal note, working a full-time job and commuting is much more exhausting then one would think. For this reason, I have barely enough time to breath let alone write. I need to better utilize my time. We'll see how that goes.

Several topics and ideas have gone through this brain of mine and are still marinating. I'm not going to go into detail about any of them because I don't have it all thought out enough but I'll give some teasers ;)

One thought that has been on my mind for a couple weeks now has to do with truth and how we tend to prove the truth. Something that bothers me more than anything else is when someone puts down another church from the pulpit... There's a lot of thoughts that spur from that thought. See where your mind takes you.

I also wonder sometimes what God thinks about us using the phrase "That's not biblical." Can something really be biblical or not biblical? That's a tough one to dive into. I guess I just wonder what God meant the bible to be for us. Something tells me it isn't a handbook, even though people tend to refer to it as so.

More recently I've been thinking about how when things or people are different from us, we automatically jump to saying they are wrong. If you love God differently then I do and I'm doing it the right way, the way I read and understood it in the bible, then you are wrong. It couldn't be that there is more than one way to love God or that there are different ways to show your love to God, different acts of service and worship.

What it all comes down to, is that God is turning my world upside down these days.
I'm seeking more. I'm questioning. I'm learning.

What remains?

God is love.
Love serves.
Love forgives.
God lives in us.


So what should we look like?

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

There's gotta be something more.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

God has called us to something more. For months now I've been talking and discussing with people the desire for something more; something more than Sunday morning worship. something more than serving and leaving; something more than scripture, some songs, and a prayer. something more than coldly and solemnly passing around a plate, taking your portion, and sitting alone in prayer. something greater. something bigger.

I think that we have put God in a box and I say we because I am guilty as well. I know that we have put God in a box, and that box is called the church building. Don't get me wrong. I understand the importance of the assembly, but we're completely missing the point.

Sometimes I sit in my bible classes and listen to the professor and I think to myself, I'm probably going to have to talk to God about this when I get to heaven. I fear that when God is questioning me about the chapstick I stole in the 6th grade or the boy I got a little to close to, he's also going to be questioning me about the hours I've wasted in classes or studies talking about the mistakes the scribes made when copying the bibles or which translations is the best translations. The time we waste talking about these petty things is time that was not spent providing for the least of these.

I want to worship the right way, not so that I can say that I'm right and place myself above others, or so that I can say that anyone else is wrong for that matter. I want to worship the right way, the way that God instructed us, and the way that Jesus has shown us, so that I can fully experience that which God has called us to.

When I think of the church, and I'm pretty sure if you asked anyone who was not a part of the church, the first commandment that comes to mind would not be Love God, Love others. We've been given a task and it's simple but we've found anything and everything in between to distract and divide us, and for that reason, I think Satan has us right where he wants us. We argue about things that really have nothing to do with loving God or loving others and are causing division which is very clearly something that's not supposed to happen. We should be coming together for a greater cause, but rather we are separating over causes that are quite a bit smaller.

I don't know how we got to where we are now; this corporate worship. I think we've made it more about ourselves than anyone else. We have established a time slot on Sunday morning, night, and Wednesday evening to "go to church" instead of living our lives every day showing that we are the church. We pass around some plates and take our portion and individually observe the sacrifice that was made for us rather than sharing in a meal with one another and breaking bread together. We pass around a basket and "pay our dues" rather than offer up our possessions for the work of the Lord, or claiming nothing as our own but having all things in common. We have perfected it to that which is easiest.

And the devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. - Acts 2

I want awe to come upon my soul. I want to have a group of people that I call family that I can go to as I have need. I want to have all things in common and have favor with all people. I want to talk about how the Holy Spirit is working in my life and not be labeled as radical or charismatic with a negative connotation attached to it.

I want to be a part of a movement that goes back to the basics, that takes worship literally, that puts God at the center, and serves others. I want better than corporate, routine, and insensitive. I want to let the lion out of the cage. I want to be the church, not go to church. I want to stop talking and start doing. I want to have vision not dreams.

I'm sure you read all of that and think "yeah. right. how are you going to do that?"

I don't know how it's going to happen but what I do know is that I can't do it alone. We have the mind of Christ. That's a powerful thing. Let me illustrate. The same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead, is flowing through and dwelling within us... yeah but we can't do big things.

Last time I checked, we can move mountains. So I think it's very possible that we can be the church that God called us to be from the beginning. I know that we can change the face of Christianity and be Jesus again. All we have to do is have a little faith and God will do all the work.

When all around my soul gives way

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”-Isaiah 55:8-9

Lately I've been feeling very uncomfortable. Not like an awkward uncomfortable or anything like that but just like I'm not where I belong, like some things just don't fit right. In these uncomfortable times, I feel very alone. There are people all around me most of the time, and yet I feel alone. I feel like no one understands or no one cares. I think I'm learning that God does this to force me to lean on Him and only Him.

Usually when something is wrong I run to another person to talk about it or to get my mind off of things. That or I just close myself off from the world. I need to run to God instead. Friends are good and they're here for me but God is my best friend and He will never leave my side. He's the one with the real answers and that's what I need to remember.

God knows better than I do. God knows better than anyone else does.

When I am yours alone

"Take my life. Take it all. I lay it at your throne. I am rich, satisfied, when I am yours alone. I have learned to live to lose. I have found my all in you. I count it all as loss, it's true, cause I have learned to live to lose.

Precious one, crucified, died to set me free. I hope nothing back from you, who gave it all for me. I have learned to live to lose. I have found my all in you. I count it all as loss, it's true, cause I have learned to live to lose.

Jesus you're the one, you're the only one for me. Jesus you're the one, you're the only one for me. Jesus you're the one, you're the only one for me. Jesus you're the one, you're the only one for me.

I have learned to live to lose. I have found my all in you. I count it all as loss, it's true. I have learned to live. Yes I have learned to live to lose. I have learned to live to lose."

In these past days I've felt the closest to God that I have ever been. Closer in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ than I have ever experienced in my life. Which is funny because in these past days I've never felt so far from this infinite being I call Father.

You see I'm finding that the more I learn about God, the less I already know, and the more there still is for me to learn. But you see that's what makes God, God. We will never know everything there is to know about Him. We will never be able to wrap our minds around everything that is God. We're supposed to believe in the power of the unknown. We're supposed to worship Him because of the very fact that we will never completely know him.

I can't do it. It drives me crazy. I thirst. I want more. I want it all and I want it now. I guess the problem is this: The less I know about God, the less I know about myself.

I want to find my all in Him. At the end of Proverbs 8, we're told that whoever finds God, finds life. I want to find life. It doesn't say that whoever knows everything about me, knows himself. It says whoever finds me, finds life. We're also told in Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek and find me, when you seek with all your heart."

When I get questions I need to find answers. I need to seek with all my heart because that is when I will find Him. That is when I will find myself in Him. That is when I will see the power of the unknown.