tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83836993168852422582024-02-20T10:03:12.724-08:00The JourneyThe Journey is an open and honest exploration of Christianity.
The posts presented here were designed as talks in a small group format. These are introductions to the basic Christian answers to the basic human questions. Readers will benefit most by discussing each topic with a small group, possibly over dinner.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-2343929433008609982009-05-07T20:03:00.001-07:002009-05-07T20:03:50.860-07:00IntroductionThe Journey is a free, no-obligation taste test of Christianity. <br />The Journey offers an introductory sample of Christian teaching. You don’t have to worry about getting lost in a description of Greek words or Christian history. This is down-to-earth teaching with personal examples and illustrations straight out of our culture. As you read, we hope that many of your doubts about Christianity will dissolve or at least become manageable. You will also begin to learn and to practice the basic skills of relating to God like communicating doubt, prayer, and reading the Bible. After experiencing The Journey, most participants are hungry to learn more. Mission accomplished.<br />The Journey was originally designed as a class hosted within a local church. The participants are in the same small groups for nine weeks. They eat together and laugh together. They discuss sports, kids, work, God, Church, doubts, questions, and fears. They learn from each other and learn together. They are accepted just as they are with no strings attached. For many, this is the first time in a long time that they have felt community like this, and they want more. That is exactly the point!<br /><br />If you are an individual reader, you may want to find some friends to read along with you. You can meet together for dinner or coffee once a week and discuss each topic. If you don't have a group, feel free to post a comment with your thoughts or questions.<br />If you are interested in hosting The Journey in your church or group, I have lots of other resources which would be helpful for you. Simply post a comment with your email address, and I will email you directly about how to share things like our leaders' guide, discussion guides, videos, and promotional materials.<br />Whoever you are and however you got here, I hope that you will truly enter the journey of engaging with God. It could change your life!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-5594611822126855242009-05-07T19:47:00.000-07:002009-05-07T20:05:05.011-07:001. Wrestling with God: Engaging in the Spiritual Journey<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P.sdfootnote { margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; font-size: 10pt } P { margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: bold } A.sdfootnoteanc { font-size: 57% } --> </style> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I heard a story about a rancher, who had a huge ranch with thousands of head of cattle and a mansion of a house. This guy liked to through parties … big, raucous parties. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> At some point during every party, he would gather everyone around his swimming pool and show them his shark. He had an 8-foot long shark that he kept in his pool as a pet. When he had the folks gathered around his huge pool, he would make a daring offer that if anyone would jump in the pool with the shark and swim from one side to the other, the rancher would give him his daughter’s hand in marriage or half his ranch. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> At one particular party, the rancher had made his usual dare, and, after the initial surprise, the party started to go back to normal. Then, all of the sudden, the crowd heard the sound of someone splashing into the water and kicking like crazy. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Instantly, everyone rushed to the side of the pool to watch one man swim for his life. He was a pretty good swimmer, but you could see the shark fin rise in the water behind him. You could almost hear the Jaws music. The shark was gaining on him, and just as the man reached the other side and jumped out, you could hear the shark’s head hit the side of the pool. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> The rancher came up to the man and said, “Well, I’ve got to hand it to you. I’ve made that offer for years, and no one has had the guts to do it. I’m a man of my word, though. What do you want my daughter or half my ranch?” </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Out of breath, the soaking wet swimmer replied, “Neither. I want the name of the guy who pushed me in!”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Some of you may be feeling like you got pushed into this. You may not be sure if you really want to be here. That’s OK. There aren’t any sharks in here. We aren’t going to eat you alive. As a matter of fact, we hope that this is a safe environment where you can discuss spiritual issues without fear of being criticized or condemned. </p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> The Journey is an open and honest exploration of Christianity, including its faults and hard spots. We aren’t going to hide behind the church or doctrines or anything else. We believe the Christian faith makes sense, but we understand that there are significant barriers to faith. We affirm the doubting and searching process. It is healthy to investigate and not to believe something just because you’re told to believe it is true. We also believe that, when we look at what the Bible really says, the Christian faith gels with our experience and our natural sense of logic. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Therefore, we invite you to investigate with us. Let’s look closely at the Bible and God and Christianity and see if there is any truth in this. I invite you to embark on a spiritual journey with us to see if there is any truth in Christianity and if there really is a way that we may know God.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">Play Clips from <u>Wide Awake</u>: (“Do you ever think about God?” – near the beginning, after running in the school, they stop to look up at a stain glassed window. “I’m going on a mission … to find God.” – they are sitting in the an unmoving car talking; the conversation starts out about girls; include that part. )
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> But, why? Why go on a mission to find God? Why should we engage in the spiritual Journey? Why should you give up two hours out of every Thursday for the next two months to talk about spiritual issues? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> First of all, I think we would all agree that there is more to life than the material world. Music is more than notes on a page or sound waves vibrating through the air. Art is more than paint on a canvas. Poetry is more than letters in neat columns. People are more than flesh and bones. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> There is a spiritual aspect to this world that is hard to deny. We live in environments that are not fully measurable by science or technology. We are spiritual beings in a spiritual world. It makes sense to get to know our world.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Second, we all have a deeper hunger. We all have a sense that there is something more. I love this part of <u>The Matrix</u> because it speaks to our deep curiosity.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
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<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> You may not be able to put your finger on it, but you know there’s something out there. You have a nagging suspicion that there is deep truth and that you can find it. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> A pastor from the Netherlands describes our situation well. “Humankind has been described by several scholars as ‘incurably religious.’ We are continually being drawn to something that is beyond ourselves, which is just another way of saying that God’s grace is at work in each of us and draws us ever closer to Him. It is only in God that we find our ultimate fulfillment.” He then quotes a prayer from Augustine, a Christian writer from the fourth century, “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in You.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup> We have a God-shaped hole in our heart that can only be filled by God himself.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Third, Jesus satisfies our deepest longings. “Freud said, ‘People are hungry for love.’ Jung said, ‘People are hungry for security.’ Adler said, ‘People are hungry for significance.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:35). In other words, ‘If you want your hunger satisfied, come to me.’”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup> <sup> </sup> </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> In an article in <u>In Touch</u> magazine about how Matthew Perry recovered from drug and alcohol addiction, Matthew Perry observes, “It all starts from a spiritual connection with something that’s bigger than you. … But if you don’t have happiness inside, and you don’t think of others first, you’ll be lonely and miserable in a big house.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></sup> </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> The truth that Matthew Perry discovered is that nice things can’t satisfy our deepest hungers. Jesus said that he came to this earth to give us “life in all its fullness,” (John 10:10), and only he can give us what we long for deep within our beings.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> There is one last reason to explore Christianity. God offers us a foundation that cannot be shaken by the struggles of this life. The foundation God offers is himself. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Nothing else in this world is certain. Boyfriends and girlfriends break up. Good workers get laid off. Spouses have affairs. Towers collapse. Stock markets crash. We are unwise to put our ultimate trust in anything or anyone in this world because if that thing or person goes, we are foundationless. It’s kind of like the Road Runner cartoons when somebody is running along and then realizes that there’s no ground underneath him anymore.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> But listen to what King David said about God thousands of years ago, “I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me” (Psalm 62:5-7).</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Being a Christian doesn’t make us immune to cancer or bullet proof, but entrusting our whole lives to God does something for us that no medicine or high tech vest can do. It gives us a foundation that is beyond material circumstances. It sets our roots in the Eternal. There is something very calming about knowing that whatever happens we are safe with God. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I had to loose the foundation I had built up for myself to learn this lesson. God taught me to put my trust in him alone. Since then, I have had a peace that whatever happens I will be OK because God is my foundation and refuge. If God is even half as good as the Bible says he is, this is something worth looking into.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Let’s stop for a minute and talk about doubts. We all have doubts, and doubts can be serious hurdles in our spiritual journey. They can even derail us at times. </p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> There is a story in the Bible about a man named Jacob that is pertinent to a discussion about doubts. God had called Jacob to return to his homeland, but Jacob’s homeland was not safe for him the last time he was there, and Jacob is full of doubts. In the middle of the night, God comes to Jacob in the form of a man, and Jacob wrestles with him until dawn. </p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I have always wondered how a person could wrestle with God, but Jacob does. It seems to have been a real back and forth struggle. One time, God even cries out, “Let me go!” God could have killed him in an instant. Instead, he wrestled with him all night.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I think Jacob got the idea that this was God. It may have even been a battle of the wills. If so, here was the issue: Would Jacob trust God and step out into the unknown? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Eventually, God pops Jacob on the hip and gives him a limp. It’s like he’s reminding Jacob who is really in control. But then God gives Jacob a new name. From that time on, Jacob would be known as Israel, which means “one who struggles with God.” Jacob was the father of the twelve men who became the twelve tribes, and the whole nation would bear his new name, Israel. The people of Israel lived up to their name. The Bible gives countless stories of how God’s people have wrestled with him through the night. </p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> We follow in Jacob’s footsteps too. We have doubts. We wrestle with God. I think it’s time for some audience participation. What are some of the doubts that you or people you know have? What stops people from being Christian? What makes people question their faith?</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">[<i>How can God let bad things happen to good people?</i></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>How do I know God is there if I can’t see him or touch him or hear him?</i></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>Why are there so many hypocritical Christians? </i>(By the way, this was the number one question asked our survey of people who don’t go to church.)</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>Do you really expect me to believe someone walked on water?</i></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>What will I have to give up to be a Christian?</i></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>If the Bible was written by men, how can it really teach me about God?</i></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"><i>Religion is a crutch, “the opiate of the masses.”</i>]</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I have had my fair share of doubts. I grew up going to church, but after a while I began to think that Christianity was not real at all. That probably had a lot to do with seeing some serious double lives in those around me. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I remember sitting in church and thinking this was all fake. I thought, “These people are just fooling themselves. They’re working themselves up into an emotional frenzy. There is nothing real here. God isn’t real, or, if he is, he doesn’t care about us.”</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Then, later, after I was a Christian, I found out that my friend’s parents, who had been upstanding members of their church, were getting a divorce because the man was beating his wife. I had such a hard time dealing with that. I had spent time in their home, eaten their food, shaken their hands. I cried and cried and asked how God could let this happen, how he could give a person that much freedom. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> You know I’m comforted because the Bible is full of doubting people. Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Gideon, Peter, John the Baptist, Paul – they all had their doubts.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> But the most famous of all is Doubting Thomas. Jesus was crucified, and the disciples were crushed. But then Jesus came back to life and appeared to a few different disciples on different occasions. Once he walked into a room where most of the apostles were meeting. Everyone was there except Thomas.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> When the others told Thomas about it, he didn’t believe them. He had gotten hopes up before, and the let down was too painful to go through that again. He didn’t know what those other guys saw, but he said, “Look I’m not going to believe he’s back until I see him with my own eyes and touch him with my own hands, and I’m not going to believe it is really Jesus until I put my fingers in the nail holes on his wrists and my hand on the spear wound on his side.”</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Not too long after that, the apostles were all together, including Thomas. They locked the door because things had been really bad lately. In walked Jesus right through the locked door, and said [deep gravely voice] “Wazzup?” (That’s a loose translation.) Then, he locks eyes with Thomas. People start to clear out of the way, kind of like a showdown in an Old West saloon.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></sup> You can almost hear somebody say, “Get him Jesus!”</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus doesn’t jump Thomas’s case or zap him with lightning. He does something even more shocking. Jesus walked over to Thomas and gently said, “Touch me. I know you need to. It’s really me. Now, have faith!” </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> God is the same with us. He says, “Touch me. Come get a closer look.” People have doubts. The amazing thing is that God seems to be OK with that. God isn’t afraid our doubts. He willingly wrestles back and forth with people over our doubts. I think he kind of likes it. In this course, you will have the chance to wrestle with God. This is your opportunity to take a closer look and see if God is for real.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Let’s go back and review the benefits for you. What do you get out of this? First of all, there are some pretty good guarantees. No matter what else happens, you’ll get more good food. You’ll get to meet some nice people, and you’ll get to have some stimulating discussions about important issues. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Beyond those guarantees, there are some amazing possibilities. Participating in this course could help you become a more spiritual person whether or not you buy into the Christian perspective. The Journey could help you find answers to some of the questions you’ve been asking for a long time. Discussing spiritual issues and wrestling with the meaning of life could help you learn how to have a more satisfying and joyful life.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Finally, if God really blesses this course, you will encounter the living God in a life changing way! In Jeremiah 29:13 God says, “If you look for me in earnest [if you search for me with all your heart], you will find me when you seek me.” That is a promise we hope will be fulfilled for you over the next two months. It may not happen for everyone, but if you stick with us and keep seeking God, you will surely make progress toward that goal.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> I think a quote from the <u>Alcoholics Anonymous</u> “Big Book” may be helpful here. The chapter is titled, “We Agnostics,” and it is written by people who were atheist or agnostic and definitely unreligious, who out of their desperation to escape alcoholism, decided to give spirituality a try. “We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions.” </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Then in reference to their former views the AA writers, have this to say, “Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote6anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote6sym"><sup>6</sup></a></sup> </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> That is all we are asking of you. We know there are some ugly trees in the Christian forest. All we ask is that you give Christianity and Jesus a fair hearing. That is what the Journey is all about. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Now I want to let you hear from someone who has really wrestled with God. Travis, come on up. Travis went on a two year journey of wrestling with God. I want you to hear what he has to say.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Interview with Travis Marlow. </span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">2.12.04</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">1. I know that you had a long process of thinking about spiritual issues. What was your life like when you started that process? </span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Frustrating. I was tired of thinking about money and how to make more, all the time. I was tired of not knowing how to act in my marriage. I was tired of being a jerk to everybody. I was tired of trying to change myself and it lasting two days because it was a surface change. That being my life, the thing that actually started my quest to understand more about different religions was the fact that I wanted to throw a monkey wrench in other people's faith. I didn't care what they believed, I just wanted to show them why it was flawed, so they could be as lost as me. An example would be my good friend Jason Zann who at the time was a Catholic, though not practicing. He had a lot of little bits of canned wisdom that he would throw at me, so I would read the Bible to disprove him.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">2. What were some of your biggest questions? </span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Why doesn't God just show himself/herself/itself so that we can all quit arguing about it(then I realized that he did). There can't be a God, because we came from monkeys and the Bible contradicts that. If there is a God, what religion best represents what that God is or does that religion exist yet? I also believed that people believed in God for a pyschological crutch, because they can't deal with the reality that they are nothing more than food for the critters when they're 6 feet under.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">3. How did you "wrestle with God?" What was the process like for you?</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">I don't completely understand Jesus and why he would sacrifice so much for me, when I've done nothing for it. I don't know how you create the world by speaking it into existence. I continue to wrestle with God, I continue to have doubts about things. I don't think that I'm not a Christian because I have doubts, in fact, I think the opposite is true. My faith becomes strengthened because of my doubts, you see, everytime that I overcome one of my doubts my faith is that much more battle-hardened. </span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">4. Where are you now?</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Sitting next to you, silly sally. I'm on a Journey. I've have decided to put my faith in and God and believe, even though I don't have all the questions answered and may never have them all answered, I believe that the evidence, currently available, points to Christianity as the only true way to have a relationship with God in the way that God intended. I've experienced that myself, though you could ask me a million questions that I couldn't answer, I would still believe that it's true, because I've experienced it to be true.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">5. What advice do you have for people about wrestling with God? </span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Do your best to maintain an open mind while going through this Journey, because we reason God out of our lives without checking all the facts. Ask questions that you have, because it's important for them to be answered if possible. I have discovered of myself and others that sometimes we hide behind intellectual objections to Christianity when the real problem is we don't want to give up our selfish desires. Just like I can technically describe how to ride a bicycle, you will never truly learn unless you just do it. That same logic applies to the teachings of Jesus, remember Christianity isn't true because it works, it works because it's true.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">
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<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> The Journey is not a dry course about lecture and ideas. It is an adventure in swimming in the reality of life, running it through our fingers. It is looking at the Christian perspective curiously as a child watches an ants move about on the sidewalk, mulling it over with our words, wrestling with its problems. This is your chance!</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;"> Some people think of Christianity as a cabin where we can huddle together to hide from wind and darkness and dangers. I am not one of those people. If we want to hide from life, we could all go home and watch sitcoms and dramas, about other people, people who don’t even exist. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Christianity and The Journey are about looking questions of life squarely in the face, feeling the wind, taking the risks of discussion, and trying to figure out how to live life like it is supposed to be lived.</span><sup><b><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote7anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote7sym"><sup>7</sup></a></b></sup><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This is not an invitation to huddle in the cabin. This is an invitation to explore the real world. This is your chance!</span></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%;">“<span style="font-weight: normal;">The average life span is 25,550 days. That’s how long you’ll live if you’re typical.” Doesn’t it make sense to take 9 or 10 of those days to explore the deep questions of life and to consider whether or not there is any truth in Christianity?</span><sup><b><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote8anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote8sym"><sup>8</sup></a></b></sup><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This is your chance!</span></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">Play “I Hope You Dance” by LeAnne Rymes.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">Journaling:</p> <ol><li><p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">When you think of engaging on a spiritual journey, what do you feel?</p> </li><li><p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">What are your core spiritual questions?</p></li></ol>
<br />
<br /><div id="sdfootnote1"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> I got this joke and the application from the pastor of Christ Episcopal Church in Overland Park, KS.</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> Edwin de Jong, (“Secularism: Is God Dead?” <u>Holiness Today</u>, October 2002), 27. Note: I edited the quote from Augustine to change the archaic English (from “Thee” to “You,” etc.).</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> Nicki Gumble, <u>Questions of Life</u>, (Colorado Springs: Cook, 1996), 28.</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> “What a Difference a Year Makes,” (<u>In Touch</u>, Jan. 13, 2003), 58. </span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> This retelling is adapted from Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg, <u>Becoming a Contagious Christian</u>, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 165-166.</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote6"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote6sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote6anc">6</a> <u>Alcoholics Anonymous</u>, (New York, 1992), 50.</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote7"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote7sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote7anc">7</a> Eugene Peterson, forward in <u>Church: Why Bother?</u> by Philip Yancy, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 7-8.</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote8"> <p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote8sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote8anc">8</a> Adapted from, Warren, Rick, <u>The Purpose Driven Life</u>, (Grand Rapids, MI: 2002), 9.</span></p> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-81228711493585665942009-05-07T19:44:00.000-07:002009-05-07T19:46:08.438-07:002. Talk with God? Are You Serious?An atheist was touring the Grand Canyon. As he looked out at the scene before him, he was so awed by the beauty of nature that he was not paying attention to where he walked. He lost his footing and tumbled over the edge of a cliff. On his way down, he managed to grab a branch sticking out from the side of the cliff. He screamed for help, but no one answered.<br />Out of desperation, he cried out to God, “God! Help me, please! What am I supposed to do now?!”<br />Knowing that the man was only a few feet above a nice sized ledge, God responded, “Let go of the branch.”<br />The atheist cried out, “Is there anybody else up there?”1<br />The concept of talking with God seems pretty far out. “I have conversations with the Almighty. He talks to me.” Can’t you end up in a straight jacket for saying things like that?<br />It is pretty far out to propose that finite human beings of flesh and blood can talk with the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe. You can’t see him. You can’t touch him. Most people can’t hear him with their ears. Sometimes people even pray with out talking out loud. It’s like there’s some kind of Star Trek thing going on between them and God. I know the idea that we – you and I – can talk with God sounds a little crazy, but that is exactly what Christians believe.<br />Our topic for today is talking with God or, in more traditional language, prayer. The benefits of prayer have been widely proven in the field of medicine. Many contemporary songs talk about praying for a friend or bringing some request to God. I guess before we go too far we should work out a basic definition of prayer from the Christian perspective.<br />Prayer is conversation with God. Most of the characteristics of communication between two humans are the same for communication between us and God. Prayer is our talking with or listening to God.<br />One component of this definition is essential from the Christian perspective. Prayer is our conversation with God. Prayer is not thinking about somebody or wishing somebody well. Prayer is not sending vibes out into the air that mysteriously transmit across the atmosphere and impact someone’s life. Prayer is talking with God. God hears us, and God responds.<br /><br />But there is one objection that we still need to answer. Do we even have a right to pray? Does God care? Why should someone that big give a rip about what people as small as us have to say?<br />When I first went to college, I was glad to be out on my own. I relished my freedom. I said goodbye to my Dad when he dropped me off at the beginning of the semester, and I didn’t even think about calling home. I was out until two or three or five in the morning, and I was having a great time.<br />A few weeks went by, and my mom called me. She left a message on my answering machine, and I ignored it. Who wants to talk to your mom when you’re in college?<br />She called again and left another message, “I’m just wondering if you’re still alive!” She sounded a little worried. I thought, “I should probably call her back, just to let her know I’m OK.” I didn’t.<br />A few more days went by. Then, my mom called at 5 a.m. We had one of those answering machines that will let you keep talking as long as you want. “Josh, I know you’re there. Pick up! JO-O-O-O-O-OSH. Pick up the phone. Josh, wake up and get the phone, sweetheart.” I thought that if I ignored her, she’d hang up.<br />Finally, my roommate said, “Josh, you’re mom’s calling for you. Get the phone!” That became the pattern until I learned to return her messages. She loved me so much that she was going to keep at it until she got to talk with me.<br />John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.” God is not the cosmic watchmaker that the Deists imagine. God did not set the world in motion and then leave us to ourselves. He loves us. He cares about us. He wants to talk with us, and he’s going to keep at it until we talk back.<br />In Jeremiah 29:12-3 God says, “In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.” Yes, we have the right to pray. Yes, God cares if we talk to him. In fact, he loves it.<br /><br />I said earlier that prayer is conversation, but what does that mean? We converse with other people every day, but transferring that concept to prayer may be a little difficult. Let’s take a minute and unpack the word “conversation.”<br />One mode of conversation is when one person talks for a long time. When I was in college, Darci Miller and I occasionally went for long walks together talking about our guy or girl problems. Usually one of us had a burning issue and talked most of the time. Mostly, we just needed to get it off our chests. This is the way most of us pray. God is our listening ear, and he almost never interrupts, and truth be known, we don’t really want him to interrupt anyway. But that’s OK. God is glad to let us vent to him. You can be sure he’s not going to tell anyone else.<br />The most common form of conversation is dialogue. People interact back and forth. Both people talk, and both people listen. This is an option for prayer that most people don’t consider. God can and does talk to us if we’re willing to listen. I most often pray like this when I’m reading the Bible. Sometimes, though, to hear God we have to just sit and listen for a while.<br />Another way dialogue happens is spattered in the midst of an activity. When two people are engaged in an activity together, they may not talk the whole time. Something comes to mind, and one person asks a question. When the activity gets more involved, their attention is focused on the activity, but when there is a low spot there is time to reflect or to dream. We are driving, and we talk with God at stoplights. We get a short break at work and throw up a prayer about a difficult coworker or assignment. “God help me with …” Things quiet down for a minute, and suddenly we hear God asking us a question or leading us to do something or to pray for a particular person.<br />Conversation happens through different means of communication. We have already been talking about verbal and oral communication. Communication can also be written. Just after we got engaged, Sarah went to Korea for a semester. We wrote each other almost every day. We have stacks of letters from that time. Prayer can be written, too. I find it hard to maintain my focus when I pray. I’ll start out praying about my aunt who is sick, and before I know it I’m thinking about the Chiefs’ game. So, often I write down my prayers in my journal. This way, if I get sidetracked, at least I know where I left off.<br />Occasionally, conversation happens without even saying words. My family likes to play a card game called Canasta. It’s always the women against the men. In this game if you knew what cards your partner has, you would have a distinct advantage, so table talk is strictly forbidden. Sometimes, though, when my Mom was trying to decide what card to play, she looked at April, my sister, and they would start making faces at each other, giving each other signals. I always said, “Hey, stop that! No table talk.” April would say, “I didn’t say a word.” Then, I would say something like, “You’re not using words, but you’re still talking.”<br />Sometimes, our communication with God is on a whole different plane. God may give us a gentle nudge to do something or to talk with someone. Sometimes, we may get he clear feeling that God is close or that God is protecting us. Every once in a while, my roommate in college, Jay, would give God one of those looks of frustration. I think God knew what he meant.<br />Finally, conversation covers wide ranges of content and emotions. We talk to people when we’re happy, sad, angry, confused, and bored. We talk about business, sports, love, clothes, money, family, and the news. In the same way, we can talk with God when we’re experiencing any of the variety of emotions of life about anything that life includes or even the afterlife.<br /><br />Now let’s look at some different types of prayer. Before we go any farther, I want to acknowledge that some of you may be having a difficult time with this talk so far. You may not believe in God, or you may not be sure he really listens. There is one type of prayer that is just right for you.<br />It is called the Doubter’s Prayer. It goes something like this, “God, I’m not sure you even exist or care about me, but if you do, I would like to get to know you. If you’re real, please show yourself to me.” This prayer is at the bottom of the handout with different kinds of prayer.<br />I read a story about a Japanese man named Tomo who prayed like this. One time he prayed, “If You are here, I’m looking for the way to truth.” Another time, in a Christian church, he prayed, “God, if you exist, please reveal the way I can know for sure who you are.” Tomo did eventually find God, and now he is a pastor. Tomo’s story will be in the Flashlight handouts tonight.<br />Look at the handout we gave you. (See next post.) It lists types of prayer from the Bible and famous prayers from the Bible. I’m not going to go over all of these, but I do want to highlight a few that may be particularly useful.<br />We are going to look at examples from the book of Psalms. The Psalms are like the journal of the people of God. Throughout history people made their prayers into songs or poems, and many of them have been collected for us in this one section of the Bible.<br />Let’s start off by looking at prayer for guidance. Many people say, “How can I know what God wants me to do?”<br />A great example of a prayer for guidance is Psalm 25. In verses 4 and 5, David prays, “Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my trust in you.”<br />In the spring of 2002, Sarah and I were having car trouble with both of our cars, and we could not afford to buy even one new car. We were afraid to buy a cheap used car because there were no guarantees it would be any better than the ones we already had, so we prayed that God would guide us, that he would show us the path where we should walk. I had to work at it, but I put my trust in God.<br />In fact, we started praying that God would work a miracle. Some of our friends had gotten free or almost free cars recently, so we started praying that God would do the same thing for us. In April we found out that the church was going to give us a car that someone had donated to the church. We named him “Levi.” This has been a real blessing. It gets better gas mileage than our old car. We’ve had it for a year now, and we haven’t had to do any repairs.<br />Next, let’s look at prayers of anger or lament. A prayer of lament is a prayer of sorrow expressing how bad one’s life or situation is and asking God for help. Often, these prayers have an attitude of anger, too.<br />A few movies have shown someone praying this kind of prayer. Let’s watch.<br />(Play clip from Forrest Gump with Lieutenant Dan shouting at God during the storm and clip from Patch Adams with Patch shouting at God at the cliff.)<br />Insert text here.<br />One Biblical example of this kind of prayer is Psalm 13.<br />“O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever?<br />How long will you look the other way?<br />How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,<br />with sorrow in my heart every day?<br />How long will my enemy have the upper hand?<br />Turn and answer me, O LORD my God!<br />Restore the light to my eyes, or I will die.<br />Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”<br />Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall” (vv 1-4).<br /><br />Have you ever felt like that? “Oh God, how long will you forget me? … How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul … every day?” It’s OK to feel like that. David, the author of this song, felt like that. Sometimes, life is really hard. The best thing to do is to take that pain to God and tell him about it.<br />Let’s look also at the last two verses of this Psalm.<br />“But I trust in your unfailing love.<br /> I will rejoice because you have rescued me.<br />I will sing to the LORD<br />because he has been good to me” (vv 5-6).<br />This is the way it often works. David doesn’t stay in his sorrow. When he presents his requests to God and talks about his pain, the pain is out of the way enough to see the light. He starts to remember who God is. He remembers that God has been good to him, and he realizes that he will make it through even this tough time.<br />That is the way prayer often goes. When we keep the pain to ourselves, it weighs us down. When we give it to God, we open the way for God to give us peace.<br />But it doesn’t always work that fast. Psalm 137 was written when the Israelites had been taken captive and shipped off to Babylon. The writer is a musician, and when one of his captors asks him to play a song it triggers the deep bitterness within him.<br />“Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept<br />as we thought of Jerusalem…<br />But how can we sing the songs of the LORD<br />while in a foreign land? …<br />O LORD, remember what the Edomites did<br />on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem.<br />‘Destroy it!’ they yelled.<br />‘Level it to the ground.’<br />O Babylon, you will be destroyed.<br />Happy is the one who pays you back<br />for what you have done to us.<br />Happy is the one who takes your babies<br />and smashes them against the rocks!”<br />Obviously, he has not quite dealt with his pain yet. You might say he is still in the grieving process. Many different writers wrote the Psalms over hundreds of years. The people of Israel collected the ones that they thought would be beneficial to people throughout all time. They chose this one to be included. Why?<br />I think they chose it because they wanted people to know it is OK to bring your pain to God. You don’t have to feel like everything has to be resolved. Sometimes, our prayers will have a happy ending like Psalm 13. Other times, we will still feel like bashing some heads after we pray. That is OK.<br />Just don’t stop talking. Take a break if you need to, but keep coming back to God. Keep telling him about your pain. Scream, shout, cry, be sarcastic. Say it however you need to say it. Just don’t give God the silent treatment. He is listening, and he cares. He can give you healing like no one else can.<br />Now some of you may be wondering, “What if God doesn’t answer my prayers?” or why God didn’t answer a particular prayer you prayed a while back. If you feel like your prayers aren’t being answered, there are a few things to thing about.<br />1.Is there anything standing between you and God? Do you have any unconfessed sin in your life? Are you actively doing something that you know is wrong?<br />2.What is your motivation? Are you asking with the right motives?<br />3.God’s answer might be “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait, not yet.” I think the Rolling Stones have a song that says, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you might just get what you need.” Like a good parent, God often gives us what we need instead of what we want. The good news is that the more we get to know God the more likely we are to want what he wants us to have.<br /><br />OK, we’ve talked about prayer for a long time now. The big question left is: “How can we learn to pray?” The real key to learning how to talk with God is: Start trying it! You can’t learn to ride a bicycle by listening to me talk about it. You have to get out there and push the pedals for yourself. You may feel awkward. You may not pray very long. You may even feel like your first few times didn’t go very well. That’s OK. I don’t know anyone who learned how to ride a bike on his first try.<br />I remember one of the first times I tried to pray by myself. I set what seemed like a small goal of praying for five minutes. Well, after I had prayed for my parents, my aunts and uncles, everyone else I could think of, the weather, and my day at school, I had prayed for about 30 seconds. I was pretty disappointed. It was kind of like talking to someone I don’t know very well, “It’s a nice day. … I’m glad it warmed up … Yeah, well nice talking with you.” That’s just part of the process. We just have to work through that stage.<br />You may be wondering why we’re talking about prayer this early in the Journey. We haven’t even talked about some of the more common objections to faith yet. Last week we talked about wrestling with God. You will get the most out of the next two months and your spiritual journey in general if you talk with God all along the way.<br />If you’re mad at him, tell him. If you have some serious doubts about the way he acts in the world, tell him. If you don’t believe in the Bible, tell him. If the church has treated you badly, tell him. Even if you don’t think he’s real, talk with him about that, too. He’ll get a kick out it. Seriously, bring your doubts and concerns to God. He can handle it. Just don’t give him the silent treatment. Keep talking.<br />Don’t stress over this whole prayer thing. We are just inviting you to try something that has been meaningful to millions of people for thousands of years. We hope it will be meaningful for you, too.<br /><br />Journaling: Try praying in one of the ways on the list.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-60495131206931176532009-05-07T19:29:00.000-07:002009-05-07T19:41:27.158-07:00Kinds of Prayer<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: bold } H2 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: underline } H2.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt } H2.cjk { font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode"; font-size: 12pt } H2.ctl { font-family: "Tahoma"; font-size: 12pt } H1 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in } H1.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt } H1.cjk { font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode"; font-size: 12pt } H1.ctl { font-family: "Tahoma"; font-size: 12pt } H3 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: underline } H3.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal } H3.cjk { font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal } H3.ctl { font-family: "Tahoma"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal } H4 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center } H4.western { font-family: "Comic Sans MS", cursive; font-size: 16pt } H4.cjk { font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode"; font-size: 16pt } H4.ctl { font-family: "Tahoma"; font-size: 12pt } --> </style> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:100%;" >Thanks …………………..…Psalm 9</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Praise ……………………... Psalm 92:4-5</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Trust ……………………..... Psalm 18:1-2, Psalm 23</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Confession ………………... Psalm 51 (especially vv. 1-2)</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Anger or Sadness …………. Psalm 13, Psalm 22</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Emergency ………………....Psalm 7:1-2</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Guidance ………………….. Psalm 25:4-5</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Prayer for others …………...Psalm 72</span></p> <h2 class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:100%;">Listening …………………...Psalm 62:1-2, Ecclesiastes 5:1</span></h2> <p style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"></p><p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Often when people pray, they spend almost all of their time asking God to meet their needs. Here is a pattern for a more balanced and healthy prayer life:</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>PTCMO </b></span><span style="font-size:130%;">(Please Take Care of My Otter)</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>P</b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">raise – </span><span style="font-size:100%;">telling God what you like about him</span></p> <h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:130%;">T</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hanks – thanking God for what he has done</span></span></h1><h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>C</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >onfession – </span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >apologizing for our wrongs and admitting</span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" > our dependence upon God</span></h1><h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>M</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >yself – </span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >requests for our own lives</span></h1><h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>O</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >thers – </span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" >requests for others</span></h1><h1 class="western">
<br /></h1><h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>DOUBTER’S PRAYER:</b></span></span></h1><h1 class="western"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >God, I’m not sure you even exist or care about me, but if you do, I would like to get to know you. If you’re real, please show yourself to me.</span>
<br /></span></h1> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<br /></p> <h3 style="font-weight: bold;" class="western"><span style="font-size:180%;">Famous Prayers in the Bible</span></h3> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">These are some prayers from the Bible that Christians down through the centuries have prayed anew for themselves or others. You also might benefit from praying them word for word or from rephrasing them into your own words.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Lord’s Prayer: Matthew 6:9-13</span> </p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">“Our Father who art in heaven,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> hallowed be your name.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Your kingdom come.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Your will be done,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> On earth as it is in heaven.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Give us today our daily bread,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Forgive us our trespasses,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> As we forgive those who trespass against us.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Lead us not into temptation,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> But deliver us from evil.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Amen.”<span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >
<br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >
<br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >Psalm 23</span></p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">“The LORD is my shepherd;</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> I have everything I need.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">He lets me rest in green meadows;</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> He leads me beside peaceful streams.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> He renews my strength.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">He guides me along right paths,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> bringing honor to his name.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Even when I walk </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal;">through the dark valley of death,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">I will not be afraid,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> for you are close beside me.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Your rod and your staff</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;"> protect and comfort me.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">You prepare a feast for me </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal;">in the presence of my enemies.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">You welcome me as a guest, </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal;">anointing my head with oil. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal;">My cup overflows with blessings.</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-weight: normal;">all the days of my life,</p> <p style="font-weight: normal;">And I will live in the house of the LORD forever.”</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-81161769987940033292009-05-07T19:18:00.000-07:002009-05-07T19:25:14.348-07:003. How Can a Loving God Allow So Much Suffering?When I was in Europe, I took a midnight train from Paris to Zurich. I was too cheap to pay for a sleeping car, so I ended up talking all night with a man named Yacov. Yacov described himself as a secular Jew. He is Israeli and grew up in Israel. He was educated in the Jewish faith. <br />However, when he saw a documentary on the Holocaust in school, he became an atheist. He said to himself, “There is no such thing as God or the chosen people, or else this would not have happened.”<br />Yacov is not alone. Many people have lost faith in God because of the suffering they see in the world. How can a loving God allow so much suffering? This is a huge question.<br /><br />Take a minute and write down on the card we gave you one instance of serious suffering. It can be something you went through, something that happened to someone you know, or something you just heard about. You can make it as personal or impersonal as you want. <br /><br />How can a loving God allow so much suffering? This is one of the hardest questions for both Christians and non-Christians. I want to give a few disclaimers before we set into our discussion tonight. <br />1. The Bible does not give a complete answer to this question. The Bible is more focused on how to overcome suffering rather than focusing on why there is suffering in the first place.<br />2. There is no way that I can give a complete answer today. You and I both will probably leave here feeling at least a little unsatisfied with the answers we talk about today. Even though I can’t answer the question completely, I hope that I can at least make this issue more manageable for us.<br /> When we face the problem of suffering in the world, it can be overwhelming. I get sick of hearing the news about all the bad stuff that is happening in our world. When I hear about all the starving people in Africa, I get frustrated because there doesn’t seem like much I can do. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, murders … they all pile up, causing us to wonder how a loving God could allow so much suffering. <br />Sometimes, the mountain of pain gets bigger and bigger, and we get smaller and smaller, until we can’t see anything else but the pain. One thing I hope to do today is to shrink that mountain. The problem is not as bad as it sometimes seems. <br /><br />For the next 15 minutes or so, I’m going to talk about different kinds of suffering and their sources. When I get to the kind of suffering represented on your card, try to listen closely to see if my explanation adequately explains how God can still be a loving God even though that bad thing happened. <br />O.K., lets break this down into bite size pieces and look at different kinds of suffering.1 [As I come to each category, I will write it on the whiteboard.]<br />First, let’s look at self-inflicted suffering. Some examples of this are liver failure due to alcoholism, STD’s (most of the time), and failing a test due to not studying. This category covers the bad things that come upon us because of our own bad choices. It is obviously not fair to blame God for stuff that we brought on ourselves.<br />Next is suffering caused by the bad choices of others. This would include a long list of personal crimes or wrongs committed by one person against another. It also includes large scale suffering caused by wars or societal crimes like racial discrimination.<br />The third category of suffering is poverty related suffering. Things like starvation, lack of medical care, and other ills that go along with chronic poverty fall into this category. Often the victims of this kind of suffering didn’t do anything at all to bring this upon themselves. They were just born in the wrong place at the wrong time. There also aren’t any obvious culprits like there are personal crimes.<br /> However, the hard truth is that almost all of the suffering in this category could be prevented if people would share. The United States alone has the capacity to feed the entire world. The resources are available to humankind to prevent almost all poverty, but we do not share with each other. The suffering in this category isn’t God’s fault; it’s ours.<br />The next category is seemingly random accidents. Some examples are no fault car wrecks, electrical shorts, and athletic accidents. The accidents are basically random, yet the accidents were a known risk. We know that electricity can cause fires, but we take that risk. We know that people can fall off horses, but we take that risk. This comes down to human choice in relation to human risk. <br /><br />In almost all of the types of suffering we’ve talked about so far, the root issue is the freedom of choice. C.S. Lewis, a famous Christian writer, estimated that 80% of all suffering is due to human choice. <br />Why did God give such free reign? Why did he give us free will? God could have made us all robots, so that everyone always did what is right and no one ever got hurt. <br />To understand why God didn’t make us like that, it may be helpful to project ourselves into the future. Imagine that the technology arose to create human robots. The technology has already been imagined in the Stephen King book and movie Artificial Intelligence. Imagine that someone began to market the perfect spouse that looked and felt like a real human being. He or she would be exactly what we like and would do everything exactly the way we like it. The house is always clean; omelets in the morning; always wants to cuddle however long or short we want to; always looks and acts like the day you were married; no chance of unfaithfulness.<br />It sounds kind of tempting; doesn’t it? But why wouldn’t we really do that? What would be the cost of marrying a robot? [Get responses from the audience.] <br />The companionship would be hollow and fake. The other partner in the relationship would have no mind of its own. Because the robot can’t actually choose not to be with us, it hasn’t actually chosen to be with us either. With the loss of the capacity to choose, comes the loss of the capacity to love. <br />Most of us in our heart of hearts would still choose a real live person, even with all the risks and the work that entails. We want real love and genuine companionship, not something that can be created in a factory.<br />We are like that because God created us like himself. The Bible says he made us “in his image.” God wants real love and genuine companionship, too. That’s why he made us. That’s why he gave us free will, the ability to choose between right and wrong, the ability to choose to be with him or not. <br />He knew that involved a lot of risks for us, but the value of relationship out weighs all the risks on God’s scales. He isn’t selfish in this either. The value of relationship is a two way street. Freedom of choice is worth the risks for us, too. We reap the benefits of relationship with God and our fellow humans. <br />This says a lot about relationship. Human suffering is vast and weighs heavily on the scales, yet the value of relationship outweighs all of that risk and pain. Relationship with God and relationship with each other must be immensely important!<br /> <br /> The last category is the hardest to explain. It is natural disasters and diseases, hurricanes, tornadoes, cancer, etc.<br />However, even some of this suffering is due to human choice. Some people choose to live in dangerous areas. Nobody has to live in Florida or California. We could make room for them. However, some people are forced to live in dangerous areas. Not many Haitians could afford to move to a safer place, yet they are in hurricanes’ paths almost every year.<br /> Another factor is that we could be unknowingly causing our own diseases. Who knows how many of our diseases are due to technology or lack of hygienic development?<br />We didn’t know about asbestos or Phen Phen. Cell phones and power lines could be major carcinogens. Not long ago, I saw a news report that there is a chemical in deep fried foods that causes cancer in lab rats. Not only do French fries clog our arteries, they may give us cancer, too.<br /> A more traditional theological answer to this kind of suffering is that sin disrupted the way the entire world functions. Not only did Adam and Eve’s sin have personal consequences, the entrance of sin into the world was so dramatic that it disrupted the atmosphere and the working of the earth itself. The idea is that there never would have been earthquakes and tornados if no one had ever sinned. I’m not sure I completely buy that, but it’s possible.<br />I am not completely satisfied. There are other questions and issues relating to this topic that we didn’t have time to get into, but hopefully we’ve made some progress in getting perspective on the size of the problem.<br />How big is the problem? If you feel that we haven’t dealt with the suffering on your card beyond a reasonable doubt, so that you can see how God can still be a loving God and allow that suffering, hold up your card. <br />Look around the room. How many of the cards are still in the air? There are fewer maybe even a lot fewer than there were at the beginning. The problem of suffering is real, but it is not as big as it sometimes seems.<br /><br />What is God’s response to human suffering? What does God do or what has God done about all of this?<br />First of all, he teaches us how to minimize suffering. Following the teachings of the Bible will not shield us from all suffering, but it will minimize the suffering that we bring on others and ourselves.<br /> He uses suffering. An honest look at the Bible reveals that God causes some suffering as a means of discipline. The Biblical authors use the analogy of a parent spanking a child to correct his behavior. <br />However, God can use all suffering. Joni Eareckson Tada, who became a quadriplegic after an accident had this to say about suffering. When we suffer, “we become like [Jesus] in that we die to the sins for which he died. Suffering provides a context in which to do that. In suffering we also die to worry. We die to fear. We die to grumbling about the inconvenience of the weight of our [burdens].”2 God can take whatever has happened to us and use that to make us stronger and/or more able to help others.<br /> Most importantly, God enters with us into suffering. We see this most clearly in the life and death of Jesus. Jesus lived on earth just like we do. He walked, talked, cried, and slept. The Bible specifically says that sometimes Jesus got hungry, thirsty, stressed out, and tired. Human suffering punched him in the face when his cousin John, the Baptist, was beheaded for speaking out for what is right.3 After three years of public ministry, Jesus was crucified. The Romans nailed Jesus to a wooden cross through his hands and feet and hung him there until he died. Jesus, who is both God and man, knows human suffering because he experienced it as a human.<br />Joni Eareckson Tada explains it like this, “When we suffer, when we go through hardships or affliction, we may have questions about the goodness of God. But the thing that is so wonderful to me about God is that He does not sidestep suffering. The God of life conquered death by embracing it. Jesus destroyed the power of sin by letting it take Him to the cross. He doesn’t explain away our suffering with a bunch of words. He is the Word made flesh – bruised, bloody, beaten, gouged, spat-upon, scorned. My heart is wounded by my suffering, but it comforts me to know that Jesus was terribly wounded on the cross. I’m in a wheelchair. It means so much that God was wounded on my behalf.”4<br />It is important to remember that God answers “Who?” not “Why?” Rusty Wright follows along that same line of thought, “When I see God, items on my long list of questions for Him will include a painful and unwanted divorce, betrayal by trusted coworkers, and all sorts of disappointing human behavior and natural disasters. Yet in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection I have seen enough to trust Him when He says He ‘causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God’ (Rom. 8:28).”5<br /><br />Well, we’ve looked at a lot today. But what is or ought to be our response to suffering? First of all, voice your complaints to God. We talked about this in our talk on prayer. God is not afraid of our anger. We need to let him have it. Things have gone wrong in this world, and it is good to talk to God about that. <br />Second, don’t turn away from God. When Billy Graham addressed grieving families after the Oklahoma bombing, he said some very profound words. “Times like this will do one of two things: they will either make us get hard and bitter and angry at God or they will make us tender and open and help us reach out in trust and faith. … I pray that you will not let bitterness and poison creep into your souls, but you will turn in faith and trust God even if we cannot understand. It is better to face something like this with God than without Him” (emphasis mine).6<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Interview with Stasi Dishman</span><br /> Next, I want to let you hear from someone who has gone through a lot of suffering yet has held on to her Christian faith. I met Stasi in college when a friend asked me to feed her. I started out as her helper and became her friend. She needs help with tasks that are routine to us, yet she graduated college and is pursuing a masters degree in psychology. <br />Stasi usually uses a word board to communicate. However, since that is pretty slow, I gave her the questions ahead of time, and she has asked Collin to read her typed answers.<br />Stasi, Tell us a little about the suffering you have experienced in life.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I was born with cerebral palsy which meant I had to have a lot of surgeries when I was a child. Plus having a disability comes with many social obstacles. I have had a struggle with clinical depression.</span><br />Have you ever blamed God or questioned him about the way your life has gone?<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, many times, and God can handle it.</span><br />How has God responded to your suffering?<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">He gave me what I needed when I needed it, not what I thought I needed but what I truly needed.</span><br />With everything that has happened to you, why do you still believe in God and follow Jesus Christ?<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Because God is the only one who knows what true suffering is</span>.<br />How do you answer the question, “How can a loving God allow so much suffering?”<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">To me it’s like the old saying of making lemonade out of lemons. God always makes lemonade out of suffering.</span><br /><br />It comes down to a trust issue. The basic issue is: Will we trust God in the midst of suffering even though we don’t fully understand?<br />There is a step of faith. However, the step of faith is not a leap of Evil Kaneval proportions over the canyon of human suffering. Rather, it is more like a jump across a three-foot wide gap that we have seen others jump before us. To top it off, we are not jumping into nothingness. We are jumping into the strong arms of a loving God who has passed through the chasm of suffering when he died on the cross.<br />Hebrews 6:19 “We have this hope,” that God is good and will ultimately take care of us, “as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” <br />In the final analysis we are in a similar predicament to the disciples in John chapter 6. Jesus had just given some of the most difficult teaching of his life, and many of his followers abandoned him. Then, Jesus turned to Twelve Apostles and asked, “Are you going to leave me, too?” Peter responded wisely, “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life” (John 6:66-8). <br /> When we are faced with the irresolvable difficulties of life, and it seems that life and God are both unfair, our best choice is to bring that pain to God if for no other reason, than that He is the best place to go. Life doesn’t always make sense, but when we look at the available options, Christianity makes the most sense. <br /> After telling about his latest trip to the American Holocaust Museum, one Jewish Christian explained that the Bible’s answer to the problem of suffering still feels incomplete, but that even in its incompleteness, it is still the best answer we’ve got.7<br /><br /><br />Journaling:<br /> What was the hardest time in your life?<br /> How has or is God responding to that suffering?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-21773013001785922742009-05-07T19:05:00.000-07:002009-05-07T19:15:59.508-07:004. How Can the Bible Be Reliable? How Can We Understand the Bible?<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P.sdfootnote { margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-size: 10pt } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A.sdfootnoteanc { font-size: 57% } --> </style> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Show some yearbook pictures of leaders of The Journey and or the church.</p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">It’s always fun to go back and look at old yearbooks. One of my favorite parts is seeing how the hairstyles have changed through the years, but really a yearbook is the preserving of significant events throughout the year. Yearbooks always show the homecoming king and queen. They talk about how the sports teams did. They describe the talent shows and other major campus events. If something really major happens, it usually makes the yearbook. By looking through a yearbook, a class can remember things about that year that they wouldn’t have otherwise remembered.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The Bible is kind of like that; it is the preservation of God’s significant acts throughout history.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup> God’s people decided that they were going to forget some really important things if they didn’t start writing them down. So throughout the generations, they collected the stories of their lives, the stories of their interactions with God. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">There is the story of creation, the story of the flood, the story about how God chose Abraham and his descendants to be his special people. There is the story of the Exodus and of how the people entered the Promised Land. There is the story of David, the greatest homecoming king of all time. There is the story of the bad times that come when Israel turns away from God. There are the hints that a new day is dawning and, then, the story of that new age with the coming of Jesus. Then, there are the stories of the life of Jesus and his followers and the stories of how Christianity broke out of Judaism to include all people, the stories of the first missionaries and the first churches, and a concluding story about the cosmic struggle between good and evil.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The Bible is kind of like a yearbook that spans thousands of years. We weren’t there when the events happened, but we can look back on the stories recorded for us and get an idea of what God is like because we see what he was like then.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Before we get to questions of whether the Bible is reliable, we need to ask, What’s in the Bible?<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup> First of all, the Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Testaments means covenant, which is kind of like a contract, except that a covenant is deeper and more meaningful. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus is the dividing line between the two testaments. The Old Testament is about God’s relations with his people before Jesus came to earth. When Jesus came, he opened the way for a whole new kind of relationship with God, thus the New Testament or new covenant or contract.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is almost all Greek. That means that nothing in the Bible was originally written in English. Therefore, the older English translations do not have special spiritual significance over the newer ones. Jesus did not speak in King James English. He spoke in Greek and Aramaic. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Since there is nothing theologically special about the King James Version or any other version, the most important thing is to find a translation of the Bible that makes sense to you. For me, the New Living Translation, which is what Christ Community Church uses, seems to put the Bible into understandable terms pretty well. There are a lot of Bibles in this version here today, and if you don’t have a Bible that is easy for you to read, feel free to take one of these with you. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The Bible has a variety of human contributors. It was written roughly between 1300 BC and 100 AD. It’s authors come from all walks of life. Moses grew up in a royal court. Amos was a farmer. Isaiah was an advisor to several kings. Matthew was an accountant. Peter was a fisherman. Luke was a doctor. No wonder everyone can relate to it. The Bible’s authors and the Bible’s main characters span the range of social classes and life situations. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The Bible is full of relevant topics. It is true that some parts of the Bible can be really boring, but the interesting parts far out weigh the boring parts. The Bible has lots of real life issues. There are stories about sibling rivalry, parenting disagreements, happy and unhappy marriages, unrequited love, business transactions, the impact of war on a nation, unexpected attacks, depression, courtship, financial planning. Do any of these sound familiar? The Bible has the amazing ability to span the centuries and speak to our present day situation. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The Bible also tells us the truth about ourselves. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” When I read the Bible, I understand more about me. Through divine inspiration, the writers of the Bible have keen insight into what it means to be a human being. Time and time again, when we read the Bible, we will find our more of what is really going on inside us.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The Bible also reveals God’s plan for us. We have been reading Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for your good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” When we read the Bible, we start to get an idea of what that plan is. Most of the time the Bible won’t tell you exactly where to live or work, but sometimes God can use the Bible to give some pretty strong hints. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">When I was a senior in college, I was looking for a job. One of my friends told me about Cedar House, a boys’ home for teenagers. Initially, I wasn’t very interested, but at that time I was reading a lot of passages in the Bible about God’s concern for the poor and the orphans. Everyday when I read, it was like God was saying to me, “Do the boys’ home. Do the boys’ home.” By the time I actually went on the interview, I felt like it was just a formality. God had sent me; they had to hire me. I worked at Cedar House for three years, and God has used that time there and my interaction with those guys in ways I couldn’t have dreamed when my friend first told me about the job.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The last thing I want to say about what’s in the Bible is that it has an essentially unified message. There are different voices and different methods of getting the point across, but there is one main message: God wants an intimate friendship with all people. That’s what the Bible is all about. God wants a close, loving friendship with every human being. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Remember that testament means covenant and that the Bible is made up of two testaments or covenants. Another context in which the word covenant is used is in marriage. The State of Louisiana even has a special kind of marriage called “Covenant Marriage” that carries with it special rules about what it takes to dissolve the marriage. The Bible, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, is essentially God’s marriage proposal to humanity. The Bible is God’s unconventional love letter saying to all the world: I want to be with you for the rest of my life, forever.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> O.K. I’ve talked for a while about what’s in the Bible, but I know that most people have some pretty serious questions about the Bible. Now I want to give you a chance to express some of those. Break up into groups of two right where you are sitting, and tell each other what your biggest questions are regarding the Bible.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">----- Wait about 2-3 minutes. --------</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> What were some of your questions? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">----- Get responses from the participants.--------</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The three biggest questions I came up with are: 1. Can we even believe in divine revelation, that the Bible is God’s Word? 2. How can the Bible be reliable if it has been copied so many times? 3. What about all of the supposed “errors” and “contradictions” in the Bible? I’m going to talk about these one by one. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Many people say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if God would talk to us? Wouldn’t it be nice if God would come down and give us a definitive statement?” Haven’t you felt like that at times? I know I have. Socrates, one of the wisest people who ever lived, said, “All the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this world. If only there was a firmer foundation on which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Let’s consider the possibility of Divine revelation.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></sup> Many people who believe in God struggle with the idea of divine revelation. What kind of God do they believe in? Is he mute? Is he not intelligent enough to employ basic communication skills?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The Bible demonstrates clearly that God is not mute. God has communicated with people through various means. God has spoken to people face to face, but he seems to prefer the indirect method. God has spoken to people through angels, dreams, prophets, a burning bush, and even a donkey. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The book of Hebrews begins like this, “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.” God finally came to us himself, in human skin, in Jesus. Perhaps the communication problem is not on God’s side.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Let me ask you. If God created this vast universe, why couldn’t he speak? If God crafted DNA, which is infinitely more efficient than our fastest computers, wouldn’t he be able to tell us what he wants us to know? Doesn’t it just make sense that the God of the entire universe could find a reliable way to talk with his people? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">We talked about the Bible’s human contributors earlier. We also believe that there is a Divine contribution all along the Bible’s path. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is inspired by God” or, more literally, “All scripture is God-breathed.” God breathed his Spirit into the various authors when they were writing their part of the Bible, guiding them and helping them. God breathed his Spirit into his people when they collected the various books and when they finalized the contents of the Bible. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">And God is still breathing his Holy Spirit into us and into the words of the Bible when we read it today. He makes the words come alive and applies them to us in new and fresh ways.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Next question: how can the Bible be reliable if it has been copied so many times? How do we know that what we have now is really what was written way back then? That is a really good question. It is kind of mind boggling to think of a document being preserved for thousands of years without computers or copy machines. I have a hard time taking down a phone number correctly. However, there are two main types of evidence that help me to have faith in the integrity of the Bible.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">First of all, there is the precision of Hebrew scribes. They were meticulous when it came to copying the scriptures. Have you heard the term “Anal-retentive”? It refers to someone who pays attention to every little, tiny detail. The Hebrew scribes were extremely anal. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">When they copied a page, they counted the words on the page. Then, they checked that with their original. Then, they counted the letters on the page and checked that. Then, they counted from the front and the back to find the middle word and the middle letter on the page, and checked that with their original. If any of those were wrong, they threw that page out and started over. When they were done with the whole book, they counted the letters and words in the whole book. Then, they started from the front and the back and counted to the middle word and the middle letter. If anything was wrong, they threw out the whole book and started over. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Why would they go to all of that work and all of that trouble? They weren’t just anal-retentive. They had a profound respect for the word of God. To change even one letter could not be tolerated.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Archeology has proven that their attention to detail paid off. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, we got a copy of the book of Isaiah that was 1,000 years older that the oldest copy we had before. The copies matched up almost word for word. That gives me great confidence in the Hebrew scripture.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The second type of evidence we have for the integrity of the Bible is the sheer volume of Greek copies. Here is a comparison between the New Testament and other ancient Greek literary works.</p><ul><li>HERODOTUS - written: 488-428BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 8.</li><li>THUCYDIDES - written: 460-400BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 8.</li><li>TACITUS - written: 100AD - earliest copy: 1100AD - # of ancient copies: 20.</li><li>CAESAR'S GALLIC WAR - written: 58-50BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 9-10.</li><li>LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY - written: 59BC-17AD - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 20.</li><li>NEW TESTAMENT - written: 40-100AD - earliest copies: 130-350AD - # of ancient copies: 5,000 Greek, 10,000 Latin, 9,000 other languages.</li></ul> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Scholars don’t question whether what Tacitus wrote is actually what we have now. Twenty copies and a thousand year gap are good enough for them in that category.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></sup> The people who copied the New Testament were not as meticulous as the people who copied the Old Testament, but we have thousands and thousands of copies of the texts to check their work, and except for some minor disagreements, they all match up. Furthermore, we have physical documents that date much closer to the actual time of writing than we do for any other literary work from that time period.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The precision of the Hebrew scribes and the sheer volume of Greek copies work together to give us a high degree of certainty that what we have in the Bible is what the original authors wrote. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">But, what about all of the “errors” and “contradictions” in the Bible? It would take too long for me to discuss every single claim of an error or contradiction in the Bible. Instead, let me state a basic principle that usually solves the problem. Context is critical. We must understand the passage in the context in which it is written. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Here is a funny example of a verse out of context. My grandfather, who is a retired minister, loves to quote 2 Kings 19:35 from the King James Version, “<span style="color:#000000;">and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses</span>.” When one reads the context around this little snippet, it is obvious the people who died are not the same people who woke up. The pronouns are just confusing. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">In a similar way, most of the supposed errors and contradictions in the Bible simply dissolve when we understand the context in which they were written.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">If you still have doubts about the integrity of the Bible, the best idea is to read it for yourself. See if it seems consistent to you. Don’t take someone else’s word for it. They might be biased. Check it out for yourself. Go straight to the source. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The final question we need to address is “How Can We Understand the Bible?” The first answer to this question is basic. Spend time reading the Bible. Read a little every day. Read one story or section, and take your time with it. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">This is not like cramming down a bologna sandwich and a bag of chips on a ten-minute lunch break. This is like enjoying a piece of turtle fudge cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, one bite at a time, slowly savoring every component. The thick creamy cheesecake. The rich, gooey, crunchy turtle topping. Collecting the graham cracker crust crumbs scattered around the plate. It’s not a race. It’s a sensory experience. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">If you’re reading a story about Jesus healing a woman, try to really get a feel for what was happening. You’ve got to ask questions of the text. How did she get his attention? What was going through her mind? How did her voice sound? What were the people around her thinking? What emotions did Jesus experience as he responded? What did his voice sound like? What expression was on his face? How did she feel when he healed her? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">For some passages, you may need a little extra help understanding the context. A simple commentary (which is kind of like Cliff Notes for the Bible) or a study Bible can unlock meaning that has been confused by the passing of 2000 years. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">We are giving everyone a copy of a simple book entitled, <u>How to Study the Bible</u> by Jack Kuhatschek. He explains a three-step process to understanding the Bible. First, we journey back in time to understand the setting of the passage we are reading. Second, we try to understand what the passage meant to its original audience. Third, we travel back to our time, recognizing the differences and similarities between the original setting and ours, and we try to understand what this passage means today in our context for us.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote6anc" href="#sdfootnote6sym"><sup>6</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Understanding the Bible is like reading a bike. You can’t learn how by watching someone else. You’ve got to do it for yourself. I recognize that working with a Bible may be new to some of us, so I’m going to take a few minutes to walk through how you can find a particular passage in the Bible.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">First, if you don’t know what you’re looking for exactly, don’t give up. Many Bibles have a few tools to help you. Mine has a topical index at the front. It lists different issues that we might want to look up. Under “F” are “faith, family, fear” etc. Under each of those headings are several verses that talk about those issues. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Some Bibles also have what’s called a “concordance.” A concordance is helpful if you can remember some of the words of a particular verse, but don’t know where it is located. You can just look up the word, and it will tell you some verses that have that word in it.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Verses are usually listed like this, “John 13:1.” [Write that on the board or display it on PowerPoint.] That is kind of like the address for the verse. It tells you the book, which is kind of like a “unit” in a textbook, the chapter, and the verse. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Open to the Table of Contents, in the front. I love the Table of Contents. Some of the books of the Bible are really small, and I have a hard time finding them. The Table of Contents lists the books in order and alphabetically. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">We’re going to look up John. John is probably the best place to start reading the Bible. It tells the story of Jesus life from the perspective of one of his closest friends. Find John in the Table of Contents and turn there now.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">You’ll notice that chapters are marked with big numbers and verses with smaller superscript numbers. We’re going to look at Chapter 13, verse 1. Has everyone found that verse? O.K. That’s your journaling exercise. Read verses 1-13. Then, go through the four steps we talked about. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Let me give you a little bit of help with the traveling back in time part. Jesus lived in the first century A.D. There were no cars. Everyone walked almost everywhere they went. The streets were dirty and dusty, and everyone wore sandals. To top it off, the donkeys, horses, and oxen shared the same streets and “left their marks” everywhere they went. By the end of the day, everyone’s feet were pretty dirty. By tradition, the lowest slave in the household got the unlucky job of washing everyone’s feet before dinnertime. That ought to get the ball rolling enough for you.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Journaling: Practice hearing from the Bible. Read John 13:1-13. Then answer these questions. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 1. <b>Journey back in time</b>. What is the cultural context of the passage?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 2. <b>What did it mean then? </b>What did it mean to the writer and first readers?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 3. <b>Return to the present.</b> What are the similarities and differences between </p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">that time and ours? How does it apply to me? What might God want to say to me through this?</p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> This entire yearbook metaphor comes from Jim Thomas, <i>Coffeehouse Theology</i>, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2000), 69-70.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> Most of this section is from Thomas, 71-74.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> Thomas, 79.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> This section is from Thomas, 70-71.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> Chart and information are from F.F. Bruce <u>Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?</u> quoted in Gumble, 25-26.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote6"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote6sym" href="#sdfootnote6anc">6</a> Kuhatschek, (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity, 1985), 6-30.</p> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-22355236993675806682009-05-07T18:52:00.000-07:002009-05-07T18:53:49.169-07:005. Sex Is Good (The Christian Perspective on Sex)Before we get started, I want everyone to take a few minutes and meet someone new. Greet each other and tell them you are glad that they are here tonight. Make sure to ask people their names.<br />[Allow a few minutes for this. ]<br /><br />Now, write down the name of everyone with whom you shook hands or patted on the shoulder. Just keep those lists. We’ll come back to them in a little while.<br /><br />The way some Christians talk about sex, one wonders how Christians ever have children. Ever since Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, the puritans of the New England colonies have been the public representatives of Christianity’s views on sex. <br />Let’s take a few minutes and write down some of the negative views on sex that Christians have held or taught. You guys holler them out, and I’ll write them down. [I’ll let them give as many as possible, and then I’ll add the rest from my list.]<br />Sex is a necessary evil.<br />Sex is dirty or bad.<br />Sex is only for procreation.<br />If a person gets pleasure out of sex, s/he is bad.<br />The “Virgin” Mary (supposedly never had sex even after Jesus was born because that would “defile” her).<br />Jesus was supposedly born by supernatural C-section, so that he would not have to pass through Mary’s sexual organs, and so that all the parts of virginity would still be in place for Mary.<br />God hates homosexuals.<br />We should be ashamed of our bodies and our sexuality.<br />The woman’s duty is to submit to her husband whenever he wants it.<br />No contraceptives; any “unnatural” birth control measures are wrong.<br /><br />[Put a big red “X” over the board.] I am delighted to tell you that this is not the Christian perspective on sex. To understand the Christian perspective on sex, we need to understand what the ideal picture looks like. <br /> First, we need to look at the very beginning when humans were first created. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells the story of creation. The passage I’m going to read is a collection of pieces of the Genesis 1 and 2 that are most relevant for our topic.<br />And the LORD God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person. … And the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” … So the LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took one of Adam’s ribs and closed up the place from which he had taken it. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam. “At last!” Adam exclaimed. “She is part of my own flesh and bone! She will be called ‘woman’ because she was taken out of a man.” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame (Gen. 2:7, 18, 21-25).<br />So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them. God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth…” Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way (Gen. 1:27-28a, 31).<br /><br /> We can gather several important conclusions from the story of our creation. First of all, God created us as sexual beings. (To which I say, “Thanks be to God.”) God created us as male and female, in his image. I guess there was just too much of God to represent his likeness in one homogeneous sex. <br />God made us. He shaped and designed our bodies. He designed our sexual organs to fit together perfectly. God was not surprised when the first humans had sex! He wasn’t like, “Oh my goodness, what will they think of next?” He intended it all along. They were both naked without shame. He told them to go forth and multiply, and he said that everything he had made was excellent in every way. <br /> Second, we are more than sexual beings. (To which I say, “Thanks be to God.”) God created Adam before Eve. Adam was still a human being before Eve was made. He needed a helper, but he was a complete person. The essence of who he was did not change when Eve came along. That means that our identity, our worth, and our sense of meaning as people is not limited to our sexuality. We can be whole people whether or not we have a satisfying sex life.<br /> Third, as Paula Reinhart put it, “God designed sex to be a powerful bonding force, one meant to help ‘glue’ a man and a woman together for a lifetime.”1 Through sex, two become one in a physical, emotional, and spiritual sense. “Casual sex can’t do that. … Imagine what it would be like to repeatedly tear off and reattach your arm. [Imagine the scarring.] … It is the same when you repeatedly tear off and reattach your various sexual partners.”2 God’s design is for us to be joined to one person for life.<br /> This next passage I want us to look at is from the Song of Songs. This book is a collection of erotic love poems that are traditionally attributed to King Solomon. We have worked up a little video to present this Scripture in a more contemporary way. All of the letters that he reads are paraphrases of Scripture. Let’s watch. [Play clip: “Solomon – The Ultimate Lady’s Man”]<br /><br /> One time when I was at a junior high camp, our counselor, a man in his sixties, asked if anyone wanted to read a passage of the Bible for our group devotions. I was as ornery then as I am now, and I started reading this passage. I don’t think a group of junior high boys have ever been more interested in the Scripture reading than they were that night. They were all on the edges of their beds, jabbing each other and giggling. <br />The old man made me stop when it got to the part about climbing the tree and taking hold of the fruit. I said, “What?! It’s in the Bible.” That was the end of devotions for that night. Afterward, several of the guys came to me and said, “Hey where was that passage again.”<br /> Perhaps those junior high boys had more theological wisdom than they realized. God and the Bible don’t shy away from sex or the beautiful pleasure that it involves. This passage of scripture was included in the Bible because it is important to affirm that sex within marriage is supposed to be beautiful, passionate, and deeply satisfying. Physical passion and eroticism are God given and approved by God, but they have an appropriate place for expression: marriage.<br /> <br />The next passage I want to look at is from Proverbs, which is a book about how to live a wise and satisfying life.<br />Drink water from your own well – share your love only with your wife. Why spill the water of your springs in public, having sex with just anyone? You should reserve it for yourselves. Don’t share it with strangers. Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving doe, a graceful deer. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love (Prov. 5:15-19). <br /><br /> Well, we get to read some of my favorite passages of Scripture tonight. Here again, we have the affirmation that sex is good and intended for pleasure. But the writer makes an additional point. The bond between a husband and wife is like a flowing fountain that refreshes deeply. It is their own private fountain for their own enjoyment. <br />Having sex with other people is like poking a hole in our well and letting its water flow out into the street. Having sex outside the bounds of marriage depletes the joy that is available through beautiful matrimonial sexuality, but protecting the marriage relationship and enjoying it fully makes the fountain flow even more. In modern terms, having sex outside of marriage is like cashing in a CD early; you loose the interest, and you have to pay a penalty.<br />I can give personal testimony to the deep joy that comes to a married couple that has saved themselves. Sarah and I both went farther than we should have before we started dating each other, but when we married, we were both virgins. Knowing that, when we make love, we are doing something neither of us has ever done with anyone else is intensely satisfying and uniting.<br />Christianity joyously affirms that sex is a beautifully sacred part of marriage and is intended for pleasure, procreation, and the deepening of the marital union. In his article, “What’s Good about Sex,” J. Budziszewski points out that “Christianity espouses a higher view of sex than any other religion. That’s why it also has the strictest rules about it. Anything so important has to be handled carefully.”3 <br /><br />OK, now that we understand what the Biblical perspective on sex is, let’s take an honest look at the current state of sex in America. I suppose you could call this next portion of the talk a “State of the Sexual Union Address.”<br />Frankly, America is obsessed with sex. Sex seems to be in every sitcom, every movie, every song. A case in point is a popular song by the Bloodhound Gang, “You and me, baby, ain’t nothin’ but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.”<br />Sex sells. “Americans spend more on pornography in one year than the annual sales of the Coca-Cola corporation.”4 Actually sex sells everything from cars to couches, toothpaste to tennis shoes. We are inundated with sexual images, sexual innuendoes, and sexual language at every turn. <br />One factor that keeps this fixation on sex going is our myopic focus on pleasure. We have already disconnected intimacy from commitment, and now we are disconnecting sex from intimacy. We tend to see sex solely as a means for pleasure.<br />To many people these changes seem like great progress. However, we are caught in what is called the “hedonistic paradox.”5 Hedonism is the philosophy that the meaning of life is the pursuit of pleasure. The problem is that some things in life can’t be captured by looking for them.<br />If you seek happiness, it will evade you. Happiness must come to you. Happiness is a byproduct of living life the right way. In a similar way, if a person devotes his life to pursuing pleasure, he eventually wears himself out on pleasure so that nothing is pleasurable anymore.<br />This focus on pleasure necessarily leads to selfishness and to people using and abusing one another. 1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 7 boys have been sexually abused by the age of 18.6 Beyond that, most of us have either used or been used in a sexual way. I regret to inform you that I have both used and been used. I wish neither were true, but they are.<br />On a more positive note, sociological studies have found that people who keep sex within marriage are happier and more satisfied sexually. The Social Organization of Sexuality, a book published by the University of Chicago, reports that “compared to all sexually active people, faithfully married couples experience the most physical pleasure and emotional satisfaction with their sex lives.”7 The Journal of Family Issues reports that people who lived together before they got married are likely to have greater marital instability and lower marital satisfaction.8 Another study reports that the earlier a young woman began having sex, the more likely she was to be dissatisfied with sex later in life.9 Living God’s way just works better.<br />OK, our last part of the State of the Sexual Union Address is a little game. I want you to number off from one to three. Everybody needs to have a number. [Give time for the audience to get a number.] According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, currently about 30% of Americans have an incurable sexually transmitted disease, and that percentage is on the rise.10 Everyone who is a 3, please stand up. Congratulations, you represent the 30% of the American population that has an STD. <br />Now, get out your lists of the people with whom you shook hands or greeted with your hands in some way. For the sake of an illustration, we are going to let greeting with hands represent sexual relations. If any of these people are on your list, please stand up. Congratulations, there is a high probability that you, too, have contracted an STD, but you probably won’t know it for a long time. You can sit back down.<br />“Safe sex” is a myth. Condoms are helpful against some STD’s like HIV but are woefully ineffective against the most highly contagious STD’s like Human Papillomavirus (which can involve genital warts and can cause cancer) and chancroid (which involves genital ulcers). The problem is that a condom simply doesn’t cover the infected and contagious body parts.11<br />This could be the single greatest argument for living by Christian standards for sexual behavior. The only sure way to avoid the trap of STD’s is to keep yourself only for your spouse and for your spouse to do the same. Otherwise, you are rolling dice stacked against you. Living God’s way just works better.<br />So here is the State of the Sexual Union in a nutshell. Our society’s obsession with sex pushes us to be selfish and to seek immediate gratification in an unhealthy way. The best and most satisfying sex is within marriage, and sex outside of marriage is becoming increasingly dangerous.<br /><br />Almost all of us have fallen short of God’s design for our sexuality. I know I have. However, God does not abandon us because we have sinned and especially not because someone has wronged us. He is with us, and he wants to draw us back to his heart and toward his original plan for us. Let’s look at some of the steps to recovering God’s design in our lives.<br />1.Acknowledge that we are designed for desire. We do not need to feel guilty for being sexual people. God made us this way. God ingrained sexual desire into our hearts. <br />2.Recognize that our greatest desire is for God. Our desire for sex is only a small part of our overall desire. By God’s design, our deepest desire is for a loving relationship with him. No amount or quality of sex can satisfy that desire. Only an intimate relationship with God can fill our hearts. The problem is not having strong desires. The problem is settling for the lesser satisfaction of those desires rather than doing the work that it sometimes takes to find deep satisfaction in God.12<br />3.Receive God’s grace and forgiveness. Sexual sin leaves scars that take time to heal. However, God’s grace can clean us spiritually in an instant. After King David slept with another man’s wife and then had that man killed, David prayed with faith, “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). God wipes our slate clean. He blots out our sin and gives us the chance to start again. We may still have scars and memories, but God is strong and his grace is robust. He is able to forgive completely and to bring us very nearly to his original purposes for us. <br />4.Passionately commit yourself to living by God’s design. Romans 12:1-2 says, “ I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” Commit yourself to God. You will need God’s help to follow through with your commitment. But stick with him and his plan for you, and you will be amazed how he blesses you.<br />5.Be part of an accountability group. This world is too full of sexual temptation for any of us to face this battle alone. Find another Christian whom you trust. Be completely honest with each other about your struggles, your temptations, your successes, and your failures. <br />I have been meeting with Joseph Willey in accountability groups of some form about five years now. We have shed the masks and have been honest to the core with each other. Time and time again, our accountability with each other rescues us from giving in to sexual temptation. For women accountability is important. For men accountability is almost a matter of spiritual life and death.<br /><br />By way of conclusion, I want you to imagine what the world would be like if every person on earth only had sex with his or her spouse. Don’t say, “Boring.”<br />Almost no children would be born out of wedlock.<br />Teen pregnancy would nearly disappear.<br />Much fewer broken marriages and divorces would occur.<br />STD’s would virtually disappear.<br />If the statistics are correct, sex and marriage would be more satisfying for everyone concerned.<br />Ultimately, we would have more mature and more satisfied adults, who led more stable families with healthier children.<br />On the issue of sex, God’s way is clearly the best way. God’s way is the best for us as individuals, for our families, and for society as a whole. God’s way just works better.<br /><br />John tells a story that we all need to hear today (John 8:1-11). One day Jesus was teaching, and a crowd of people was gathered around him. Suddenly, there was a disturbance at the back of the crowd. Some of the religious leaders shoved their way through the crowd dragging a half-naked women behind them. <br />They tossed her into a huddled heap the dirt in front of Jesus, and threw down the gauntlet. They demanded, “This woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to kill her by stoning. What do you say?”<br />Now this was a trap. They figured one of two things would happen. Either Jesus would say let her go and, thereby, say that the standards of the Bible don’t matter, or Jesus would let them stone her and prove that he is not really as merciful as he acted. <br />What did Jesus do? He bent down and scribbled in the dirt with his finger. Maybe he was thinking. Maybe he was making them sweat. <br />The religious leaders were not used to being ignored, and they didn’t take it well. They demanded an answer.<br />So Jesus stood up and said, “All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” Then, he went back to his etch-a-sketch in the dirt.<br />As the accusers thought about this, they quietly slipped out, one by one. Finally, only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Where did everybody go? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”<br />With tears in her eyes, and just a little bit of hope in her voice, she said, “No, Lord.”<br />Then, in one of the most beautiful blendings of grace and accountability, Jesus tenderly says, “I don’t condemn you either. Go on home, and don’t sin any more.”<br />There will be no stones thrown today, or any other time around here. None of us is in a position to condemn someone else. We have all been in the middle of that circle in one way or another. We all need Jesus to say, “I don’t condemn you.” But just as much, we all need to hear Jesus say, “Don’t sin any more. Go and live a healthy life.”<br /><br />Journaling:<br />1.Do you think God’s way really does work better?<br />2.Is the idea of making a new start and leaving behind whatever happened in the past appealing to you?<br />3.What do you think it would take for you to live like this?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-27858053338191566872009-05-07T18:47:00.000-07:002009-05-07T18:51:02.604-07:006. Don't We All Want to Be Served?<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P.sdfootnote { margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-size: 10pt } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A.sdfootnoteanc { font-size: 57% } --> </style> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Celebrity Cruise Line used to run a pretty cool commercial. It showed different people wearing a T-shirt that said in bold, black letters, “CELEBRITY.” As each person appeared, a British-butler voice relayed an order. “A strawberry daiquiri with a pink umbrella for Miss Anderson.” “Sunscreen SPF 25 to the sitting deck for Mrs. Franklin.” “Mr. Johnson requests a pepperoni pizza, with mushrooms.” Then, the narrator breaks in, “On our cruise line everyone is treated like a celebrity.”</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I’m a sucker for good TV ads, and I bought right into this. Wouldn’t it be nice to be treated like a celebrity? Wouldn’t it be great to have someone waiting on us hand and foot? How awesome would it be to ring a bell and get sunscreen or the beverage of our choice? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">We would all like to experience service like this. It feels good; it helps us feel important and valued. This is natural, and there may even be a place for it on occasion. However, Jesus gives us a different perspective in the gospels. I’ve asked a few people to help me to help me tell a story from Matthew chapter 20 that illustrates Jesus perspective.</p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">[This is a reader’s theater. The narrator should be the person who is giving the talk.]<b>
<br /></b></p><p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Narrator: The story begins with a request from a mom. She reminds me of my mom. She wants the best for her boys, and she’s not above embarrassing them to get it. She comes to Jesus with her two boys in tow. Now, remember, her “boys” are full grown adults, soon to be two of the Twelve Apostles. She respectfully kneels before Jesus and probably hands him a plate of brownies or baklava. Jesus can see that she is buttering him up. He’s not one to beat around the bush, so he takes a brownie and says, </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Reader 1: What is your request?</p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Narrator: The ever-vigilant mother appreciates his directness and comes right out with it. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Reader 2: In your Kingdom … </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Narrator: She recognizes that he is a King; that ought to help. </p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Reader 2: In your Kingdom, will you let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one at your right and one at your left. </p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Narrator: Then, the Bible says, “But Jesus told <i>them</i>.” It seems that Jesus knew that James and John weren’t victims of their mother’s pushiness. They wanted the seats of honor, too. Jesus answers the men, </p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Reader 1: As much as I like you, a plate of brownies can’t get you those seats. My Father arranges the seating around the throne, not me.</p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Narrator: When the ten other apostles caught wind of this conversation, they were hot! </p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Reader 3: What audacity! What makes you think you deserve the spots right next to Jesus? I suppose you think you’re better than all the rest of us!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Reader 2: Well, as a matter of fact, that’s a distinct possibility.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Reader 3: Well, I never … I’m every bit as good as you and then some!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Narrator: Right about then, Jesus steps in.</p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Reader 1: Gather ‘round boys. I’ve got something to say. You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials make a big show of it and make those beneath them feel “less-than.” <b>But among you it should be very different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the King of heaven and earth, came here not to be served, but to serve others and to give my life as a ransom for many</b>” (slightly paraphrased from Matt. 20:20-8). [Bold on power point slide.]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus’ life shows that he practiced what he preached. He is seen time and time again healing people, talking with people who have been rejected by the rest of society, and ultimately laying down his life for all humanity.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus also asks his followers to live this kind of life. That’s what it means to be a Christian. It is to be a Christ-follower, to model our lives after Jesus. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Not long before Jesus went to the cross, he said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> That’s the beautiful mystery of life. You’ve got to give your life away to really live. If we live only for ourselves, if we hoard and work harder and push others out of the way and bury ourselves in entertainment, we will actually miss the fullness and richness of life. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> There is nothing better than to know that we are actually making a difference in someone’s life. We give, but we receive just as much. Our giving changes us. We become less selfish. We become more aware of the world around us. We become more grateful for what we have. The world has more color. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Mike Warenky, a Christian comedian, explained this by saying we finally get our heads out of our belly buttons. Often we spend so much time turned inward and focused on ourselves that we miss out on so much beauty and wonder.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">To be a Christian is to have an outward focus, to be involved in service to others. It means to have a conscious awareness that we no longer live just to please ourselves. It doesn’t mean we become masochistic and start eating bowls of rice for the rest of our lives. It does mean that we live with different priorities. It means we ask God what role he wants us to play in serving others in our world.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Today we get to spend a little time giving our lives away in service. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">CHOOSE APPROPRIATE PIECE OR WRITE ONE APPROPRIATE TO YOUR SERVICE PROJECT.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><b>Crisis Care Kits</b></u></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We are going to assemble Crisis Care Kits. The Church of the Nazarene packs these kits into boxes and stores them until there is a crisis in the world. Then, the kits are shipped to that world area and distributed to people in need. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">Churches I’ve attended have been putting together these kits for years, and I used to think it was pretty trivial. I wondered how much difference a little soap and some toothpaste could do.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">A few years ago, I happened to be in Europe during the Kosovo crisis. Serbia was raging through Kosovo and kicking out and/or killing lots of people. Refugees flooded the neighboring countries. People left on foot, on tractors, in the backs of pickup trucks, carrying only what they could hold in their hands. The Church of the Nazarene in Albania started impromptu relief centers in their church buildings.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">A few friends and I had the opportunity to go to Albania to help with the relief process. Part of the relief effort was to distribute Crisis Care Kits. That may not seem like much to us, but to those people who had been sleeping along roadsides or hiding out in the woods for weeks, hygiene supplies were great treasures. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">I have a few pictures from one of the Churches. (Show pictures.) When the line was longest, I was too busy to take pictures, but the line that you see went for a long way down the street. The churches also distributed food, cooking utensils, baby formula, diapers, and clothes. A few days a week, doctors offered free medical care.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">Somewhere in the world, people who are in need and in a desperate situation will get these Crisis Care Kits. This half hour or hour that we spend making these kits will make a difference in their lives. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><b>Food Drive</b></u></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> We are going to collect and organize food for two local food pantries here in Olathe. Catholic Charities has told us that they can’t keep food on their shelves. As soon as it comes in, they give it out to families in need. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I called Catholic Charities on Wednesday to do little research for you, so that you will know what your efforts are going toward. I talked with Marcella Luetkemeyer, a case manager.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup> She told me that they offer food assistance to four categories of people.</p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Retired people. “Often seniors don’t have enough money to pay for both their medications and their food, so they come to us for help with their food.”</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Working poor. Many of these are just scraping by, and then they have an unexpected expense (like a car problem or a medical bill) that pushes them over the edge financially.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Single parents. “We have more and more single dads now. It is just so hard to make it as a single parent. A lot of people need a little help.”</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Injured or laid-off workers. Often the workman’s comp. isn’t enough to pay the bills, or the unemployment or workman’s comp. runs out. Then, they really need extra help.</p> </li></ol> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.25in; margin-bottom: 0in;">I asked Marcella to tell me about one individual who recently came in for assistance. Here is what she told me: </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">This week, a young woman came in. I started to ask if she just needed food today, but I sensed that she needed more than that, so I brought her back to my office. She had never had to ask for food before. They have an autistic child that requires one of the parents to be home all of the time. The husband had lost a job, and the income was just nonexistent. She was telling me some of the problems of raising an autistic child, and I asked how long they were planning to have him in their home. She said, “Oh, he’s always going to be with us. He’s such an important part of our family.” It was just such a touching moment. They just needed a little extra help to get them through this hard time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The other charity we’re supporting is Second Mile Friends a holistic ministry of College Church of the Nazarene to single parents. They do everything from financial planning to yard work to spiritual counseling. Some of the single mothers in the Second Mile Friends program have access to the food pantry each week as something like a stipend to relieve money for other bills. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">A few years ago, Sarah and I had the opportunity to baby-sit a few times through Second Mile Friends. One time we baby-sat for a single mother with three kids. I think she told us that, other than work, she hadn’t been anywhere without her kids for two years. She could never afford a babysitter. So we watched her kids while she went to a movie with a friend. I don’t know if she ever received food from the food bank, but I wouldn’t be surprised. She worked a low paying job in food service. Even if she didn’t need help every week, she probably would have needed help if she had some unexpected expenses.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">O.K. now we have a few pictures to think of as we’re working tonight.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Let’s address the embarrassment factor. Most of us have plenty to eat. Unfortunately, I usually have too much to eat. Many of us work at good jobs. Some of us work at pretty high paying, and high skilled jobs. It may feel a little awkward to knock on someone’s door to ask them for food. It might feel like begging. Most of us would probably rather give money than go ask others for food. Here are a few thoughts that might help with this discomfort.</p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You aren’t asking for yourself. We are asking for food for the poor. </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Remember the story we read two weeks ago. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. He took the job that nobody else wanted. Washing feet was a disgraceful task in that culture. Jesus rose above the cultural prejudices to serve others. Then, he said, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Often our service for others becomes a “means of grace” in our lives. God uses our service to change our hearts. As we confront our discomfort and give of our time for others, God changes us. We become more humble and more tender toward those in need.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The people in the neighborhoods we will be visiting need to give just as much as the poor need the food. Serving others is a basic need of all humanity. We are enabling others to touch the lives of someone else and to get their focus off themselves and their lives, even if only for a few minutes. You will find that some of the people you talk with tonight will genuinely thank you for giving them the opportunity to help someone else.</p> </li></ol> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">So tonight, we’re going to beat the streets for Jesus. We’re going to collect food to give to people who cannot buy it for themselves. We’re going to help people give who would not give by themselves. We are going to make a difference in people’s lives. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">This is part of what it means to be Christian. Being a Christ-follower means following Jesus’ example of humble service. We all want to be served. It’s nice to have an excellent server at a restaurant. It would be great to take a Celebrity Cruise. But tonight, it’s our turn to serve. Let’s have fun being <i>Christian</i>. </p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> <span style="font-size:85%;">Marcella Luetkemeyer, Case Manager, Catholic Social Services, Olathe Office. Interview by phone. March 17, 2004.</span></p> <p class="sdfootnote">
<br /> </p> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-69457410180140632962009-05-07T18:43:00.000-07:002009-05-07T18:46:54.323-07:007. What's So Special about Jesus?Psychologist Milton Rokeach wrote a book called The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. This story is relayed in a book by John Ortberg. He worked in a hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan with Leon, Joseph, and Clyde, who all suffered from a Messiah complex. “Each one maintained he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Each one believed he was the central figure around whom the world revolved: three little messiahs.” <br />Rokeach decided to try some group therapy. For two years the three self-proclaimed messiahs ate, slept, and worked side by side. “He wanted to see if rubbing up against other would-be messiahs might diminish their delusion – a kind of messianic twelve-step recovery group. <br />His experiment didn’t seem to help much, but it did lead to some interesting conversations. One of the men would claim, ‘I’m the messiah, the Son of God. I am on a mission. I was sent here to save the earth.’<br />“’How do you know?’ Rokeach would ask.<br />“’God told me.’<br />“And one of the other patients would counter, ‘I never told you any such thing.’”1<br /><br />Jesus is not the only person who has claimed to be the Messiah. Many people before him gave themselves that title, and many people have claimed it since. What makes Jesus different?<br />Nicki Gumble, an English pastor, reports that a communist Russian dictionary defined Jesus as “a mythical figure who never existed.” Nicki rightly points out that “no serious historian could maintain that position today. There is a great deal of evidence for Jesus’ existence.”2<br />A Jewish historian by the name of Josephus wrote about Jesus in A.D. 94. His account says that Jesus performed miracles, taught truth to many people, and was crucified. It also says that he was called the Messiah and that he came back to life on the third day after he was killed.3<br />Jesus is an unquestioned part of history. What he said and did is debated, but that he existed is an established fact. <br />Alright, given the fact that he existed, who is he? Many people say that he was just a human being. One frequently held view is that Jesus was a good moral teacher, who never claimed to be anything more than that. However, much evidence supports the claim that Jesus was and is the Son of God.<br />Let’s look first at what Jesus said about himself. A general observation about Jesus teaching is that all of his teachings center on himself.4 He says that he himself satisfies humanity’s deepest needs. <br />Listen to what he said about himself.<br />“I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst” (Jn. 6:35).<br />To a woman at a well, Jesus said, “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life” (Jn. 4:13-14).<br />“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (Jn. 8:12).<br />Jesus told anyone that would listen that if they wanted to satisfy their deepest hungers they should come to him. He said he could fill the aching longing inside that nothing else can fill.<br />Jesus said that anyone who wants to have a relationship with God has to go through him (John 14:6). “He said to receive Him was to receive God (Matthew 10:40), to welcome him was to welcome God (Mark 9:37), and to have seen him was to have seen God (14:9).”5 Basically, Jesus said, “If you want to get to God, if you want to know what God is like, I’m your man. Right here. It all goes through me.”<br />Jesus also made some indirect claims that show that he regarded himself as God. First, he forgave people’s sins. <br />One time, when Jesus was teaching, some people brought a paralyzed man to see him. Jesus said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” The religious teachers in the crowd went into a quiet uproar. They were whispering back and forth in shock, “Who does this guy think he is, God? You can’t just go around forgiving people’s sins. Only God can do that.” <br />Jesus was no dummy. He knew what was going on, so he said, “You think I have no right to forgive sins. Well, this ought to settle your doubts.” Then, he turned to the paralyzed man and healed him. The man took up his mat and walked home.<br /> Let’s look at one more indirect claim that indicates that Jesus believed he was God. He said that one day he would judge the world.6 He said that “he will sit upon his glorious throne” and pass judgment upon everyone on earth. He said that he would be the one who decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell (Matthew 25:31-46). Only God could rightly make that kind of claim. I think we would all agree that any ordinary human being who said things like this would earn a free ticket to Ypsilanti to join Leon, Joseph and Clyde, yet we respect and honor Jesus.<br /> If all of this weren’t enough to convince us that Jesus believed he is God, sometimes Jesus just came right out and said it. First of all, he claimed to be the long awaited Jewish Messiah. When Jesus was on trial the night before he was crucified, “the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the Son of the blessed God?’” Then, Jesus, knowing his life was on the line, answered, “I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God’s right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:61-62). That sealed it for his inquisitors. They promptly sentenced him to death for blasphemy.7 <br /> In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus’ critics restate Jesus’ claim even more directly. The Jewish leaders surrounded Jesus and demanded, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus responds by saying that he gives eternal life to those who follow him and that he and God the Father are one. At that point the Jewish leaders start grabbing rocks to stone him. Jesus asks them why they would want to kill him, and they reply “For blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:24-33).8<br /> O.K. Jesus clearly believed he was God, but who was he really? We are faced with a decision. We have three options, and “just a good moral teacher” isn’t one of them. <br />Option 1: Jesus belongs with our crew at the Ypsilanti Psychiatric Hospital. That would not be the kind of person I would want to use as my moral gage. <br />Option 2: Jesus is possibly crazy but definitely evil, in the same category as a David Koresh or Jim Jones. With this option, Jesus knew he was not divine, but he intentionally lead people astray just for the sake of the power trip. That is not quite up to the standards of a moral teacher. <br />Option 3: Jesus is right. He is a good moral teacher, but he is much more. He is God come to earth to open the way for everyone to have a lasting, fulfilling friendship with God.<br /><br />So what do you think? Where does Jesus belong? In a padded room in Ypsilanti, in Hell, or on his throne in heaven and in our hearts guiding our lives? To make an intelligent decision on this question, we ought to look at the evidence. What evidence is there that Jesus is who he said he is?<br /> First, Jesus’ teaching has never been surpassed in 2000 years.9 The Bible is still the best selling book world wide, four books of which center on Jesus life and teaching. We still rely on sayings like “Love your enemies,” “Turn the other cheek,” “Go the extra mile,” “Do for others what you would like them to do for you.” We still pray the Lord’s Prayer. We still tell the story of the Good Samaritan; we even have Good Samaritan laws. <br />Second, the things Jesus did were God-like. Jesus performed many miracles. He healed the blind, the deaf, the paralyzed. He fed thousands with one kid’s sack lunch. He calmed storms.10 At least three different times, he raised someone from the dead.<br /> But it was not just the miracles. Jesus lived out the compassion and mercy that we have always hoped to find in God. Jesus loved the outcasts of society, the prostitutes, people with leprosy, the traitors and cheaters, as well as ordinary folks. He had genuine compassion for those who were hurting and rejected. Even more, when he was hanging on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 24:34). Does this sound like a crooked conman to you?<br /> Third, Jesus’ character was supreme and unmatched, perfectly balanced and pure. His enemies couldn’t find any stains in his character. The only case they could bring against him was his own claim to be God. His friends who knew him best said he was without sin. He loved raucous parties, but he often woke up before dawn to pray. He was the most important person around, but he still took time to chat with children. Sounding evil or unbalanced to you?11 <br /> Fourth, Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament. The Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem from a virgin, that he would be known as one from Nazareth, that King David would be his ancestor, that he would heal the deaf, the blind, and the lame. The Old Testament predicted the exact manner of his death, even the tomb in which he would be buried. A conman might be able to arrange some of the events in his life to fit prophesy, but could anyone arrange the circumstances of his own birth? It’s a little late by then.12 <br /> For many people, though, the most compelling evidence that Jesus claims are true is Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried in a tomb. Three days later, God raised him back to life. The Bible says that Jesus appeared to some 500 people after that. That God raised Jesus from the dead is the surest proof that Jesus is who he says he is.<br />Some have argued that Jesus never died, that he was just faking it or was in a comma. Remember though, that for the Roman soldiers in charge of his execution, his certain death was necessary for their continued life. Letting a prisoner go free carried the death penalty.13<br /> Others argue that Jesus’ disciples stole the body and started the rumor that Jesus had come back to life. This just doesn’t make sense when we consider what the disciples went through because they preached that Jesus is risen.14 <br />John was whipped, imprisoned and exiled to a lonely island to die. Peter was whipped, beaten, imprisoned and crucified upside down. James was beheaded. Tradition tells us that all of the other original twelve apostles and many other disciples met similar violent deaths because they held fast to their belief that Jesus rose from the dead and is in fact God. <br />I hope that I would be as strong if my faith were ever tested like that, but I am certain that I would not go to my death for the sake something I knew was a lie. Josh Hatcher summarizes the point well, “Only God could claim to be God and live it in such a way that people believed it so devotedly.”15<br />One final piece of evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, is that he is still changing lives. When Pastor Dave Pendleton gave this talk, he shared his personal story. I’d like to share part of that with you now.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">I was a preacher’s kid. Sometimes affectionately, or unaffectionately known as a PK. And then, for some reason PK’s tend to have bad reputations, they tend to be bad kids. Well, that was true; I was just a bad kid. In my teen years, I really didn’t have any interest in the Christian faith. I had no use for God; I didn’t want to go to church. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with any of that stuff at all and I kind of let my dad know that and began to live that way, accordingly. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So since I couldn’t live in my home like that, I quit high school when I was a junior. And I went back to Boston and lived in these dive apartments and was evicted from three of them because of my lifestyle. By the time I was evicted from the third one, I really didn’t have anywhere else to go so I had to swallow my pride and call my dad. I asked him if I could come home, and he let me come home but he said, “You can stay here until you finish school, but when you finish school you need to get out again. Or if you go to the military, I’ll let you stay in the house until you go to service.”</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">There was a song in those days that was pretty popular that said, “Sex and drugs and rock and roll is all you needed to win your soul.” And that’s pretty much what I got involved in. That was my whole life; it was pretty centered in that. I really wanted to be about that, and I hung around guys who shared that, and that was my life. I was very wrapped up in me. I didn’t really care about anyone or anything, including how I treated my parents. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">My dad would be preaching the gospel like I do now, and I would fall under what we would call conviction. My heart would be really heavy, and I knew that God was speaking to my heart, if you can understand that. And anytime my father would give an invitation to people who would want to pray to receive Christ, I would run out of the church. I wanted nothing to do with any of that. And I would literally get up and run out of the church, and I wouldn’t go back for weeks. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So the day finally came that I had to go into the Air Force in active duty. I don’t know how many of you have had a military experience but for me this tough, cocky, Bostonian kid, it was pretty eye opening. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So about the fifth night into basic training, we were all in our bunks. All the lights were out, and all those years and all that running and all that teaching that my father would do to try to convince me, well, it kind of came to a head that night in my bunk. I didn’t get out of my bunk. I just kind of bowed my head and said something like, “Lord, I’m sorry. Would you forgive me?” And He did. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The thing I remember is, it felt like there was a pack on my back, I mean literally, physically. And I felt free, like someone had just come and lifted something off of me, and I never felt so free in all my life. And I knew that God in Jesus Christ came to this earth and He suffered death on a cross. And I couldn’t escape that kind of intense love for me. It really wasn’t about fearing hell. I’m not sure it was really about making sure I was going to get in heaven. It was really about Someone who loved me like that. That He would die for me. I just believed in my heart, and He confirmed it inside my soul. My life has never been the same since, ever. </span><br /><br /> The final evidence that Jesus is God is that he is still changing lives. He changed Pastor Dave’s life.<br />Jesus changed Bill Todd’s life. Bill Todd decided to follow Jesus after 50+ years apart from him, and since that time Bill has experienced peace and joy like never before. <br />Jesus changed Melanie Harbold’s life. She was caught in self-destructive cycles and felt out of place and unloved. Jesus lavished her with love and gave her a place to belong, and she has not stopped telling people about Jesus ever since.<br />Jesus changed my life. I was lonely, arrogant, and dishonest. I thought Christianity was a psychological trick that people played on themselves. But Jesus met me, confronted me and changed me. He has given me joy and peace, and he is in the ongoing process of humbling me.<br />We aren’t the only ones. Around the world, millions of people have met the risen Christ, have given their lives to him, and have been thoroughly changed.16 If Jesus was just an ordinary man who died 2000 years ago, how could he still be changing lives?<br />So who is Jesus? He claimed to be God. C. S. Lewis was famous for stating things bluntly. He said, “There is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him, ‘Are you the son of Bramah?’ he would have said, ‘My son, you are still in the veil of illusion.’ If you had gone to Socrates and asked, ‘Are you Zeus?’ he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, ‘Are you Allah?’ he would have [torn] his clothes and then cut off your head.”17<br />Thomas bowed before Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus didn’t say, “Get up, you fool! Don’t call me God!” He said, “Finally, you believe” (Jn. 20:28-29).<br />Matthew tells a story about a time when Jesus gathered his disciples together to talk with them. He said, “Who do people say I am?” <br />They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets who was come back to life.”<br />Then Jesus focused his question, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”<br />Peter answered, with a gust of inspiration, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:13-16).<br />People are going to say a lot of different things about Jesus. He was a good moral teacher. He was the greatest man who ever lived. He is a fable. He was a crazy person. <br />But it all comes down to this. Jesus is asking you, “Who do you say I am?”<br /> <br />Journaling:<br /> 1. Who do people today say Jesus is?<br /> 2. Who do you believe Jesus is?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-12263101192835398892009-05-07T01:41:00.000-07:002009-05-07T02:14:53.407-07:008. Why Did Jesus Die?<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P.sdfootnote { margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-size: 10pt } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A.sdfootnoteanc { font-size: 57% } --> </style> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Crosses are popular as jewelry. People wear crosses on necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. I have a cross necklace that Sarah gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I get a lot of compliments on it. Today I’d like to sport a different piece of jewelry. (Put on a miniature gallows as a necklace.)</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">What? What’s the big deal? People were killed on crosses. People were killed on gallows. It’s just another execution devise. I’m thinking of getting some electric chair earrings.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Seriously though, doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that crosses would be worn as jewelry? Crosses were the ancient equivalent of the gallows or the electric chair. Only the worst criminals were executed on crosses. It was a slow and painful way to die. Death by crucifixion was so gruesome that even the Romans outlawed crucifixion in the fourth century. Why would an execution device like this be worn as jewelry, something to beautify your body? What is beautiful or fashionable about execution?<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">This is a little shocking when we put it into our contemporary context, but this helps us to see what a dramatic change has happened regarding society’s attitude toward crosses. The cross is the central symbol of Christianity. Something that was horrible and ugly, the sign of utter defeat 2000 years ago, has become something beautiful and a sign of power and dignity. In fact, the cross has become the single most important image of Christianity. Why? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I like to explain this by drawing a picture. (I couldn't get the picture into this blog, so you'll just have to imagine it, or you can <a href="https://www.navigators.org/us/resources/illustrations/items/The%20Bridge%20to%20Life">click here</a>.) The picture isn’t perfect, but what I’m going to draw is a general description of why the cross is so important. It is a visual description of why Jesus died.</p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">First of all there are us and God. God created us, loves us, and wants a relationship with us. I love Ephesians 1:4. “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” Doesn’t that make you feel valued? Before God made anything in this world, he chose you. Before he made anything, he loved you and me and chose us to be with him forever.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> But there is a problem.</p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The problem is that we have sinned and rejected God. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.” We have all done this. I have, and so has everyone else in this room. That sin creates a barrier between us and God. It puts a block in our relationship. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">This is normal. That is the way it works in relationships. If I say something mean to my wife, you better believe there is going to be a block in our relationship until we get that wrong out of the way. If we do something that we know is wrong, there is a block in our relationship with God. We have to take care of that before things can be right between us again.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">To further complicate the matter, Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.” Not only are we separated from God, but we are also stuck in death because of sin. </p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Not only are the consequences of sin eternal death in hell, but sin costs us in this life, too. The more we sin, the more we give up of the life that God has for us. Sin has a way of getting its claws into us so that we do things that we wouldn’t even have considered before and reap all kinds of negative consequences.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">To make matters worse, we cannot make it over the gap by ourselves. Give me some feedback. What are some things that people try to do to make up for the wrong that they have done? [Answers may be: going to church, giving money, being good, helping others. Write the answers on the left side of the cliff. When everyone is done, draw a line going down into the ravine.] These are all good, but they aren’t enough. </p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Those are all good things to do, but they can’t bridge the gap between us and God. The truth is that we can never do enough. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Imagine that this wall here is a scale of righteousness. Mother Theresa is somewhere near the top. Hitler is down at the bottom. Imagine where you are. I guess that I am somewhere in the middle area or a little lower. The problem is that the standard isn’t the ceiling. The standard is a mile high. The bar by which we all are measured is Jesus, and he is perfect in every way. By our own efforts, we all far desperately short.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Max Lucado put it like this, “We have attempted to reach the moon, but scarcely made it off the ground. We tried to swim the Atlantic but couldn’t get beyond the reef. We have attempted to scale the Everest of salvation, but we have yet to leave the base camp, much less ascend the slope. The quest is simply too great; we don’t need more supplies or muscle or technique; we need a helicopter.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus is our helicopter. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Let’s look at a few verses from Romans chapter 3 that describe how this happens.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; widows: 2; orphans: 2;"> <i>For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands… But now God has shown us a different way of being right in God’s sight – not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we can all be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins… (3:20-25a).</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I have a confession to make. Two of the verses I quoted to you earlier are bad news / good news verses, but I only told you the bad news. Now it’s time to look at the whole verses.</p>BAD NEWS: For the wages of sin is death
<br />GOOD NEWS: But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23)
<br />BAD NEWS: All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. GOOD NEWS: Yet the Lord has laid on him [Jesus] the guilt and sins of us all (Isaiah 53:6). <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The good news is that there is a free gift of eternal life available to us through Jesus Christ. The good news is that God has laid on Jesus our guilt and sin. The good news is that Jesus has paid the price for our sin. He has done what we could never do. He lived a perfect life. Then, he died instead of us. Jesus died on the cross so that we can be close to God forever. Jesus is the bridge. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> We’re going to watch a video from the <u>Jesus Film</u> that depicts Jesus death on the cross. I think this will help us grasp what really happened a little better.
<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/n-q5DXeHmxw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/n-q5DXeHmxw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
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<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> He did this for us. Jesus is our bridge to God and real life.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang=""></p><p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"></p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Real Christianity is not about working harder or doing more. Real Christianity is about receiving the gift of what Jesus has already <i>done</i> for us.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Why did Jesus die? I think the answer has three parts. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> First, Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. The just cost of sin is death. Jesus took our punishment instead of us. Now, no matter who we are or what we have done, we can be free of our past sins. Our slates can be wiped clean.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Second, Jesus died to restore our relationship with God. One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.” God didn’t just bridge the gap to help us avoid death and hell. He saved us from death so that we can have life! He bridged the gap so that we can be with him! Our basic sin was focusing our lives on ourselves. Our basic salvation is God’s transforming us to focus our whole lives on God. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Third, Jesus died to form a holy community in love with him. One biblical author put it like this: “Jesus suffered and died … in order to make his people holy” (Heb. 13:12). In Ephesians 5 Paul said, Jesus “gave up his life for [the Church] to make her holy and clean.” When we cross this bridge, we aren’t the only ones there. We enter a whole horde of people who are also putting their faith in Jesus Christ and being transformed moment by moment. Why bother with Church? We’ll talk about that next week, but for now, the simple answer is: Jesus died so that we could be part of the Church and be made holy all together with everyone else.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Now these three parts - forgiveness, transforming relationship, and holy community – aren’t the three reasons why Jesus died. They are they three components of the reason why Jesus died. If we leave out any of the parts, we get a really skewed understanding of the cross and Christianity. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Accepting forgiveness and neglecting transformation just doesn’t cut it. It’s like receiving a pardon from death row and staying in the prison. We are free to leave that awful place, but we all we do is sit there and rejoice that we’re forgiven. Jesus died to set us free from the prison of sin. If we don’t follow him out the door of the jail cell and breathe the clean air of his Life, we missed the whole point. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Along the same lines, we can’t just cross the bridge and try to go it alone. God made us for each other. Jesus died for us to be a whole people full of his love. His grace flows best when we’re connected with others in holy community. Solo Christianity isn’t a live option. Jesus didn’t die to have little individual islands of people following him. He died to have one swarming mass of people with waves of his love circulating in and out among us and him and us and each other. That’s just part of the deal. In some ways, that’s the best part of the deal.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Going to church and trying to be a better person won’t do either. That puts us back on the other side of the gap trying to earn our way over. No matter how moral or good we become, we will always need the cross of Jesus Christ to reconcile us to God. We can’t make it on our own. We have to accept God’s forgiveness and put our trust in Jesus.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus died so that we could have forgiveness of our sins, transforming relationship with Him, and holy community. The way is open for us to enter this new life of transformation and love. Jesus has made a bridge for us to go across, but we have to cross over. How do we do that? How do we cross over the bridge? How does one go about putting her faith in Jesus?</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"></p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"></p><p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Crossing the bridge basically involves two things: believing and repenting. Both of these words are often misunderstood, so we’re going to spend a little time unpacking each of them.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">To believe is to put one’s faith in something or someone. Mentally acknowledging that something is true is only a fraction of what the Bible means when it talks about believing. Here is an example. I can look at this stool and speculate that it can hold my weight. I can touch it, examine its construction, and see that it looks structurally sound. I might even put my weight on it a little to test it. However, I haven’t really put my faith in it until I sit in it. [Sit on stool, and put legs up in the air.] Now, I’m really trusting in this chair. This is what the Bible means by “belief” or “faith.” </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">We can study the Bible, and read <u>The Case for Christ</u>. We can understand all of the theological terms surrounding the cross. But until we put the weight of our whole lives down on Jesus, we haven’t really trusted him; we haven’t really believed. Crossing the bridge is entrusting your whole life to God. It is trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross as the only way your sins can be forgiven. It’s getting in the car with Jesus and trusting him to chart your course.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Having faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have any doubt. You might have lots of doubts and questions that are still unanswered. It might even feel like you have more questions than answers. However, if you have enough faith to take the leap and to entrust your life to Jesus, that is believing.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The first part of crossing the bridge is believing. The second part, repenting, naturally flows out of believing. Jesus’ essential message was “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near” (Mark 4:7),<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></sup> but “repent” isn’t a word we use much any more. Let’s talk a little about what it means to repent. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">There are two aspects of repentance. The first aspect of repentance is reflective: recognizing we have done wrong and asking for forgiveness. Guilt can be good if it leads us to repentance. Prisoners who don’t show remorse don’t get parole. Before we can get on the right path, we have to understand that we’ve been on the wrong path. We ask God to forgive us for going our own way, and we ask God to help us to walk in his way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> That leads us directly to the second aspect of repentance, which is active. The second part is doing something about what we say we believe. It is not enough to acknowledge the bridge. We have to actually walk across it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> In biblical language, “to repent” actually means to turn, to do a 180. Repentance is turning away from all that we know is evil and turning to God with all we are. We leave our old way of life behind us and follow Jesus.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus told a story that helps illustrate this second part of repentance. It is in Matthew 7. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"><i>Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on a solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash</i>. (7:24-27)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> According to Jesus, it doesn’t do any good to confess our sins (the first half of repentance) unless we follow Jesus and his teaching (the second half of repentance). We have to put our faith in Jesus, and real faith brings a changed life along with it. We are saved by grace, and we live by grace.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Confessing with out turning and following is like going the wrong way down a one way street even after we realized what we’re doing. It’s like saying over and over again, “AH! I’m going the wrong way,” but never changing our direction. Repentance is recognition of wrong <i>and</i> change. We have to leave behind some of the old stuff and take up Jesus’ new way of life.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">But what’s it like to go across the bridge? What’s it like to experience God’s kind of life here on earth? Let me give you a few word pictures. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> First picture: one of my friends was a little girl when she first trusted in Jesus. Her grandma asked her to describe it, and she said, “It’s like taking a bath on the inside.” That is a pretty accurate picture. All debt and sin is forgiven. God washes us away our sin. He cleans us up like no bath of water could ever do. In Isaiah, God says, “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool” (1:18).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The second picture is the old Eagles song, “Desparado.” Let me read a few lines for you. </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">You been out riding fences for so long now</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Oh, you're a hard one, But I know that you got your reasons, </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">These things that are pleasing you, can hurt you somehow </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Desperado, oh you ain't getting no younger,</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Your pain and your hunger, they're driving you home</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">And freedom- freedom, well that's just some people talking</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Your prison is walking through this world all alone. </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Desperado, why don't you come to your senses</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">Come down from your fences, open the gate</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">It may be raining, but there's a rainbow above you</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">You better let somebody love you, let somebody love you</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.07in; margin-bottom: 0.07in;">You better let somebody love you before it's too late</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Putting our faith in Jesus is like coming home. We’ve been out doing life on our own for too long, but now we come home to God. Remember that in the very first week I quoted Augustine’s prayer, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” This is how we come home and find rest for our souls.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Think about where you are on this picture. Wherever you are is OK. We are not here to condemn you. We want you to know that God is calling you toward him. He is wooing you, beckoning you toward the Bridge, his Son Jesus Christ. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">In the last book of the Bible, Jesus makes this plea, “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends” (Rev. 3:20). Some people today might hear Jesus knocking and be ready to open the door of their heart to him for the first time. We want to give you space to do that. Some people here today might have started across the bridge at some point, but for one reason or another, you went back in the other direction. You might be hearing Jesus knocking and asking you to start the trip with him again. Some of you might not even be close to being ready to cross over, but you’re interested in thinking about it and learning more.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I’m going to pray two different prayers in a minute. One of these prayers is for people who are ready to cross over the bridge, for people who are ready to take the leap of faith and to repent and follow Jesus. The other prayer is for people who are still thinking about it. Please feel free to pray along with whichever prayer fits you or just to reflect quietly.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I’ll start with the prayer of repentance. You can just repeat these words after me quietly or silently. “God, I have gone my own way, and I’ve done some things that I’m sorry for. Please forgive me. I believe that Jesus died for me, and I want to live life your way. I want you to call the plays in my life. Help me to follow you. Amen.”</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Now, for the people that are still thinking, you can repeat these words quietly or silently. “God, I’ve got a lot to think about. I’m willing to investigate putting my life in your hands, but I still have some big questions. I might even be a little scared. Please help me to search for you with all my heart, and please show yourself to me. Amen.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"><b>Journaling</b>: Song - “There’s a Bridge to Cross the Great Divide” by Point of Grace</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 1. Where are you on this picture?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 2. In what direction are you moving?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> 3. Is there anything stopping you from crossing over today?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
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<br /></p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> This illustration is from Gumble, 43.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> Nicki Gumble uses this illustration in the Alpha talk “Why Did Jesus Die?” , but it is not in <u>Questions of Life</u>.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> <u>Experiencing the Heart of Jesus</u>, (Nashville: Nelson, 2003), 52.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> Adapted from <u>The Bridge</u>, (NavPress, 1981), as represented by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg, <u>Becoming a Contagious Christian</u>, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 156-159.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8383699316885242258#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> The thoughts on repentance in the next several paragraphs (except for the illustration about my friend) come from Thomas, <u>Coffehouse Theology</u>, 103-4.</p> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-72547901526795000002009-05-07T01:35:00.000-07:002009-05-07T01:40:18.276-07:009. Church - Why Bother?When we did a survey of people who don’t normally go to church, the number one religious question that they had was, “Why are there so many hypocrites in the church?” Why bother with church when the church is full of hypocrites?<br />People want to know why Christians don’t live up to what they preach, especially preachers. This issue has come into the forefront lately as sexual abuse scandals within the leadership of the church have dominated the media.<br /> Saying one thing and doing another has always been a problem for God’s people because it is easier to say something than to do it. The apostle James tried to deal with this problem in the early church. He wrote,<br />Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well” – but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all – it is dead and useless (Ja. 2:14-17).<br /><br /> Brennan Manning “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world is Christians who confess Him with their lips and go out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.”1 Unfortunately, hypocrisy is a real problem.<br />However, this is still not a reason to give up on church. Rather than giving up on church all together, we need to seek a church that is really trying to live what the Bible says and seems to be doing so with some consistency.<br />We also need to be realistic and gracious. I say I love my life, but sometimes I speak unlovingly to her. I get upset when people fly by me on the freeway, but when I am running late for an important meeting, I do the same thing. I get frustrated when others skip in line, but if I see a friend near the front of a long line, I might start a conversation with him and casually blend into the line.<br />None of us live up to all our expectations of others. We are all hypocrites to some extent. The church is made up of people like us. Why should we expect it to be any different?<br /> What is more, some doctors are quacks or pill pushers, but if we get sick, we’re going to try to find a good doctor. Some lawyers are frauds, but if we need legal counsel we’re going to try to find a good lawyer. Some Christians are phonies, and some churches are unloving and inconsistent. The solution isn’t to abandon Christianity or the church. The solution is to find a good church where people are really living Christianity.<br /><br />Pause for a minute, and get into groups of two or three. Talk with your groups about some activities that require a team effort. Come up with several different things that require joint collaboration.<br /><br /> In the face of growing commercial feel of some churches and ministries, some people feel that the church has sold out and is not worth being a part of. The organizational cover-ups inside and outside the Church tend to make people leery of any large institution. There is the sense that institutionalization leads to corruption. That begs the question: Why bother with church or any organized religion?<br />I guess I have to side with an area pastor and ask, “What do you prefer - disorganized religion?”2 <br />The benefits of organization outweigh the costs. First of all, organization provides doctrinal and ethical accountability. We have seen examples lately of the organized church failing blatantly to provide ethical accountability. However, when the organization is working correctly, the structure of the church promotes consistency in belief and action. The only alternative is lone ranger spirituality with no one to check our own potentially skewed perception.<br />The greatest benefit of organization, though, is that we can do more together than we can apart. There is a synergy when people get together. Through the International Church of the Nazarene, people who give money to Christ Community Church are supporting the Kansas City Rescue Mission for homeless men, an orphanage for former child prostitutes in Thailand, hospitals in India and Papua New Guinea, services to the elderly in Moscow, agricultural training in Mozambique, immediate disaster relief whenever it is needed around the world, and countless other services to humanity. Very little of that would be possible without intentional organization as an international church.<br /><br />Faced with the problems of the Church, and tired of fighting the battle, many people just give up on church all together. They say, “Why bother with church when I can be a Christian all by myself?” You might call this the “Jesus and Me” philosophy. It says that all that really matters is your own personal relationship with God. <br />It seems that some people in the early church may have felt the same way. The author of Hebrews wrote, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near” (10:25).<br />In his article “Don’t Give Up on Church, Richard Kauffman had this insight, “To become a Christian disciple means not just deciding to follow Jesus, but also joining with a community of disciples bound together by their common commitment to their Lord.”3<br />My parents and grandparents are infamous for telling the same stories over and over and over again. One of the stories my dad has told me over and over again has actually made an impact on me. <br />Every time we went camping, I hung out around the fire poking and prodding it, burning anything that wasn’t nailed down. My dad would always squat down beside me and say that the fire is kind of like the church. The coals are the people, and the Holy Spirit is the fire. Then, he would ask me what would happen if he pulled one of the coals out of the fire and set it by itself. I said it would get dark and cold. Then he poked around with a stick and pulled one of the coals to the side. Sure enough it got dark and cold. <br />Then he said, “With out the other coals it can’t stay hot. It needs the other coals to keep burning. It’s the same thing with Christians. Sometimes, we decide that we don’t need the church and that we can make with just God and us. The problem is that when we pull away from the church we loose their heat and eventually we just die out.”<br />The good news is that Dad’s object lesson never ended there. We always pushed the coal back into the fire and watched it get hot again. Soon, it was glowing and burning just like all the rest. We are made to live in close relationship with each other. We experience the presence of God and live the Christian life best when we do it together. Without each other, our tendency is to fade away spiritually.<br /><br />This leads us directly to the “One Body” philosophy in 1 Corinthians 12.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown language, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some of us are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not a part of the body because I am only an ear and not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? Suppose the whole body were an eye – the how would you hear? Or if your whole body were just one big ear, how could you smell anything?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it. What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part! Yes there are many parts but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">In fact some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary. … This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other equally. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored all the parts are glad. Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a separate and necessary part of it.</span> (1 Cor. 12:7-22, 25-27)<br /><br />When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit unites us into one body. This is the body of Christ, the physical representation of God in the world. The Holy Spirit gives each person different gifts. <br />These gifts are “for the common good.” In Ephesians 4:12, after listing the different spiritual gifts, Paul says, that these are all “so that the body of Christ may be built up.” A few verses later Paul says, “Under [Christ’s] direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps other parts to grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (4:16).<br />Each part is necessary for a healthy body. A missing body part is a hindrance and a danger.<br />The “one body” philosophy is one of the biggest reasons to be part of a local church. God is working in the church through the members of the church to strengthen the church, to serve the poor and hurting, and to bring more people into his family. You cannot be the Christian God wants you to be without the Church. The Church cannot be the Church God wants it to be without you.<br />At this point I want to let you hear from someone who has returned to the church after a long time of thinking church is irrelevant.<br /><br />Testimony: Bill Todd<br />Insert Text (Summary: He became a Christian at the age of 56, but even then, he thought the church was full of hypocrites. Eventually, he saw the authenticity of his Christian friends and decided to become involved in a church. He now serves on the board at Olathe Christ Community Church of the Nazarene.)<br /><br /> Walter Brueggemann understands where over-independence leads, “We had come to believe in self-fulfillment and have discovered that even a ‘filled’ life, if alone, results in an empty self.”4 We need community. We need close, loving, relationships with other people. We are designed for deep and spiritual friendships. The Church can be the place for those friendships to happen. <br />I especially advocate small groups. Participating in a small group has been the most meaningful part of my church experience. A small group is a group of 4-12 people who commit to meeting together on a regular basis to study the Bible, support each other, pray for each other, listen to each other, and maybe even to hold each other accountable to living according to our faith. Basically, a small group is a group of people who are intentional about being good friends.<br />In a small group, we receive support and encouragement. A small group provides a forum for voicing frustration and celebrating successes. A small group provides the opportunity to love and to be loved. Kent, a member of our small group, said our love for him helps him know God’s love and grace more. Debbie, a participant in the Journey, said that our acceptance of her is helping her to believe that maybe God can accept her, too.<br />Another great benefit of close community in the church is that it helps us to avoid hypocrisy. For five years Joseph Willey and I have participated in the discipline of accountability. We meet together on a regular basis to make sure we are living like we say we want to live. We get honest with each other on a gut level. We talk about our temptations, sins, and successes. Accountability has been the single most helpful activity I have participated in.<br />The answer to the Church’s problem with hypocrisy is not withdrawal from the church. The answer is close community within the church so that we can help each other to live like we really want to live. <br />Consider these ancient words of wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes:<br />Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; the get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. (4:9-12)<br />Here is the whole talk in three sentences. 1. Even with its stains and wounds, Church is still beautiful and valuable. 2. The Church cannot be what God wants it to be with out you. 3. You cannot be what God wants you to be without the Church.<br /><br /><br /><br />Journaling: Play: Cheers theme song<br /> 1. The biggest problem I have with church is …<br /> 2. The thing that excites me most about church is …Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-48804672080416004062009-05-07T01:24:00.000-07:002009-05-07T01:29:05.969-07:0010. How Can I Make the Most of the Rest of My Life?We Americans get caught up in a flurry of activity. We are always going somewhere or doing something. A few years ago, I saw a large fold out ad in a newspaper. It was two full, glossy pages. The ad had pictures of the new Dodge Durango packed with the accessories for various activities: soccer games, camping, canoeing, gardening, home repair. Underneath each picture was either the word “Go” or “Do,” so in succession the add read: “Go. Go. Go. Do. Do. Do.”<br />I don’t think the Dodge add team was trying to be philosophical, but they succeeded. This motto illustrates America’s two philosophies of meaning or significance. The first of these is that meaning comes from productive work. This philosophy holds that the only thing that counts is what we do, what we accomplish. The second American philosophy is that meaning comes from pleasure. Adherents here say the essence of live is enjoying all you can every moment. Yet America is finding out that these two philosophies fall short of providing lasting significance to life.<br />In the movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson retires from a successful career in the insurance business. Let’s watch what one of his best friends has to say about how he has lived. [Show speech from the retirement party.] Include text of speech here.<br />However, as the story unfolds, Schmidt reflects on his life, and he falls into despair because he sees that, although he worked hard and played by all the rules, his life has had no lasting significance. He has not really made a difference in the world. Many people are equally disillusioned and find that the baskets into which they have put all their eggs are empty and filled with wasted years.<br />Some people choose a different path, and instead hope to find meaning in pleasure. However, they too are disillusioned when they discover that meaninglessness emerges from being weary of pleasure. Ravi Zacharias argues that “we have exhausted ourselves in this indulgent culture.”1 When we seek pleasure for pleasure’s sake, we are propelled into deeper, wilder, more extreme activities in pursuit of pleasure until finally, nothing is gives us pleasure anymore.<br />I have never seen this truth more dramatically lived out than in Marilyn Manson. When I read his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, I was struck by this truth. His pursuit of pleasure led him deeper and deeper into drug use, into increasingly perverse sexual experiences, and into abusing others for the sheer entertainment value. Eventually he became so numb to pleasure that he turned to self-mutilation under the philosophy that feeling pain is better than feeling nothing. He eventually bottomed out in nothingness, and apparently proceeded with nihilism as his philosophy for life.2<br />Nitzche, an atheistic philosopher, developed the philosophy called nihilism, or “the philosophy of nothingness.” His unsuccessful search for meaning lead him to believe that there is no final meaning in life. He understood that without anything eternal, human life is finally meaningless, just a peak and a valley on the endless ocean of time.<br /><br />Throughout history the search for meaning has been part of human thought, but it is especially part of being a 21st century American. We are slowly finding out that comfort, luxury, and activity do not ultimately satisfy. We realize that there must be some way to find enduring significance and meaning. But how? Everything on this earth is temporary. Everything here will die or breakdown.<br />We have some hope if we are not atheists. We believe in something eternal: God. If we can connect with the Eternal God and his purposes in the world, then our lives can have meaning for eternity. I want us to look at two passages of Scripture that shed light on our quest for meaning. These will lay the foundation for the rest of our discussion today.<br />First, Ephesians 5:15-20:<br />So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts. And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.<br /> Next is Romans 12:1-2:<br />And so, dear Christian friends, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice – the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.<br /><br />So, how can we make the most of the rest our lives? The first step to making the most of the rest of our lives is giving all to God. We give all that we have, all that we are, all that we ever hope to be or have to God.<br />The passage from Romans 12 says that we should give our bodies to God as living sacrifices. In the Old Testament system, the people of God sacrificed an animal as their offering to God. They killed it and gave it to God. Here the image is of a living sacrifice. It is somewhat different.<br />Has everyone been in church when they pass the offering plates or baskets? Prophets in the Bible did some strange things to illustrate their points, and I have often thought that a good visual image of what it means to be a living sacrifice would be to put oneself in the offering plate. “Right here, God. You can have all of me.” I have never had the guts to actually do this in church, but I think it makes the point. Being a living sacrifice is giving God everything that we are, our whole lives, our dreams, our possessions, our time, what we say, what we do, our sexuality, everything.<br />Here is another image. Giving all to God is also like signing a contract that only says, “Whatever God wants. Whatever God wants, I’ll do it, I’ll give it, I’ll go there. Signed Josh, or Bill or Melinde.”<br />This kind of commitment, this kind of trust only makes sense if God is trustworthy. The good news is that He is bigger, smarter, more loving, and more faithful than we are. The truth is that he is in better shape to manage our lives than we are. It just makes sense to trust him to take care of us.<br />The Psalms repeatedly affirm that God is a strong foundation for our lives. One of my favorite verses is Psalm 18:2 “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold.” No matter what happens he will take care of us if we trust in him.<br /><br />OK, here’s the second step to getting the most out of the rest of your life: let God fill you and transform you. Let God change you from the inside out. Real change has to start on the inside. If we let God fill and transform our hearts, our lives will naturally show the results.<br />The good life is not a building that we can manufacture but a fruit. You can build a building, but no one can build fruit. To produce fruit we can only try to create the right conditions for nature to work, fertile soil, plenty of water and sun.<br />The good life is a fruit that we can’t work up ourselves; only God can produce in us. Galatians 5:22-23 says “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”<br />Isn’t this what we all want? Isn’t this what we would consider a good and successful life? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and even self-control. I know there have been many times when I have longed for more self-control.<br />Consider the options from Ephesians 5 again, “So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. … Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk on wine [or video games or work or the pursuit of pleasure], because that will ruin your life. Instead let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.”<br />The thoughtless foolish choice is to get drunk on pleasure or work and, thereby, to ruin our lives. The wise choice is to be filled with and guided by the Holy Spirit, and God will produce in us the life we’ve always wanted but could never construct ourselves, the life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.<br />The real trick here is staying filled with the Spirit. When people first started talking to me about being filled with the Holy Spirit, I thought I could come down to the altar, say a prayer, and be set for life. I quickly figured out that it doesn’t work that way. Often, the Biblical writers talk of God’s on going action in our lives. Go on being filled with the Spirit. Keep being reconciled to God. Always be in the process of being perfected. Life in the Spirit is a day by day, minute by minute journey. We have to give all to God and let him fill us everyday.<br /><br />The third step to getting the most out of life is to join God in what he is doing in the world. This step is illustrated beautifully in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”<br />You are God’s masterpiece, but he doesn’t transform people just to sit on the shelf. He has a plan for you. When he was thinking long ago of how he was going to make you, even then, he was figuring out what good things he wants you to do. That is the beauty of being a Christian. God is establishing his Kingdom in the world, and we can be a part of it. Long after this world is gone, what we do with God will still be important. What we do with God makes an eternal difference.<br />Here is a passage may give some clues as to how to start joining in God’s work. In 1 Cor. 12:27-8, Paul is speaking to the church in the city of Corinth:<br />Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. Here is a list of some of the members that God has placed in the body of Christ: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who can get others to work together, those who speak in unknown languages.<br /><br /> In the human body, if we lose a kidney, we can’t keep our blood pure. If we loose a leg, our mobility is limited. If we loose our eyes, we will miss out on part of life.<br /> Every person in this room who is a follower of Christ is a part of the body of Christ, the church. We are the physical expression of what God is doing in the world. We each have different roles to play, and we are each necessary to what God is doing. Something will be missing if we do not plug in and play our part.<br /><br /> You may be thinking, “I’m too far along to make a new start. It’s too late now. Maybe some of the other people here can start over, but not me. I’ve gone too far. I’ve messed up too bad.”<br />My Mom is the leftovers queen. She can take a couple of pieces of crusty old fried chicken, some left over vegetables, some rice that has been in the fridge for who knows how long, add some spices and a little cheese, give it a French name and voila! We have a dish fit for a king.<br />God can do the same thing with your leftovers. Your marriage may be struggling. Your career may be on the rocks. It may be months since you’ve had a loving conversation with your children. Wherever you are, give what you’ve got to God. Give him all of the broken pieces, and see what he does.3 He is a miracle worker.<br />One song that has become a favorite in the church goes like this, “All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful out of my life.”4 That song has become so popular because it rings true with our experience as Christians. We give God a mess, and he gives us something beautiful. The only prerequisite is giving it all to God.<br /><br /> Let’s address one final question: Why should you give God everything and be filled with the Holy Spirit? We’ve hinted at this, but we haven’t come right out and said it. The answers are in Romans 12:1-2.<br /> The last part of verse two says, “Then you will know what God wants you to know, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” When we are filled with the Holy Spirit and he transforms the way we think and act, we find out that God’s plan really is good and pleasing and the best thing for us. This is the path to true satisfaction.<br />Verse one challenges us to live our lives as an ongoing gift to God and then asks “When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?” Jesus died for us. The least we can do is live for him.<br /><br />Braveheart is one of my favorite movies of all time. The English reigned the Scottish with an iron fist and tyranny, and the Scotts have finally banded together to fight for their freedom. The Scottish are a ragtag bunch of farmers who seem outnumbered and outmatched, and some of the Scotts are thinking about going home. Let’s watch and see what their visionary leader says to them. (Play clip.)<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/882018/braveheart_freedom_speech.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/882018/braveheart_freedom_speech/">Braveheart Freedom Speech</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">Awesome video clips here</a></font><br /><br />Sometimes, when we think about living the Christian life, we feel a bit like the Scotts, outnumbered and ill equipped. Run from this challenge, and you can go on living life like you always have. It is true that if you accept this challenge, you may have to give up some things that you have enjoyed.<br />But when you are old and gray, and you are sitting on your deathbed looking back on your life, would you trade all of the days between this day and that for just one chance to live in freedom? Would you give up all of that time for one chance to live the God-filled life, for one chance to live life like it’s supposed to be lived? This is your chance.<br />John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and a true Christian said, “Only the life lived in total surrender is the life of no regrets.” I can testify to you that this is the most satisfying way to live. My life hasn’t been all roses and oatmeal raisin cookies, but through it all God has been my faithful companion, and he has given me a sure peace and a steady hope that he will provide.<br />Won’t you join me and countless others? Live with us lives of total surrender to God!<br /><br />We are going to do an exercise called directed prayer. We will all pray together, quietly or silently, and I will give you directions on how to pray. If you do not feel comfortable praying according to the directions, I invite you to just reflect silently.<br />First, hold your hands out face down. You can rest them on your knees or hold them in the air, whatever is most comfortable for you. Give God your whole life, the bad and the good. You may need to confess some wrongs. You may need to turn over to God some talents or achievements you are especially proud of. Give God your dreams and hopes for the future. Trust him to work out the future.<br />Next, hold your hands face up, in a posture of receiving. Receive God’s forgiveness. “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong” (1 John 1:9). Receive God’s love. “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners,” and “God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:8, 5b). Receive the Holy Spirit. Let him wash over you. Receive him into your heart and life. Receive his transforming power to make you what he wants you to be. Receive his promise for your life: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).<br /><br /><br />Journaling: (Song: “Beautiful” by Plaid Understanding God)<br />1.How have you met God or seen him working during the Journey?<br />2.Paint a word picture of the life you want to live as you leave the Journey.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383699316885242258.post-34382152084203683452009-05-07T01:14:00.000-07:002009-05-07T01:16:07.280-07:0011. Is There Hope In the Jungle?<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P.sdfootnote { margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-size: 10pt } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { color: #0000ff } A.sdfootnoteanc { font-size: 57% } --> </style> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Imagine yourself in the Amazon Jungle.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup> Deep in the jungle. Your friends convinced you to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip. You withdrew all your savings, called a travel agent, hooked up with an outfitter and a guide, and took off, seeking adventure. Two planes, an old pick up, a sputtering boat, and more mosquitoes that you can count, and you’re in the heart of the Amazon Jungle.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Your guide leads your group of six or seven thrill seekers into the thick vegetation. For the first two days, you walk along in awe as your guide points out the various kinds of plant and animal life. On the third day, you happen to be taking up the rear of the group. You stop to lace up your boots. As you bend over, your backpack tips over and spills its contents. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">When you’re done gathering and repacking your gear, you look up and your group is nowhere in sight. You jog ahead a little to try to catch up, but then the trail just disappears right before your eyes. There is a hint of a trail to your right, so you try that, but no luck. Before you know it, you’re standing in the middle of the jungle with no trail and no people in sight, and you’re not even sure which way you came from. By this time you’ve resorted to screaming, but your group is long gone.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The foliage is so thick that you can’t even see the sky. The ground is slippery in the humid air, so you’ve been slipping and falling a lot. Thorny vines have been cutting itchy lines in your shins. You run desperately in a hundred different directions, but eventually you must face the bitter truth. You are lost. Hopelessly lost. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Drop you in a downtown and tell you to find a Starbucks – no problem. But here, it’s just too much. You just can’t handle the jungle. You sit down on a log, tired and depressed, burry your face in your hands and think, “It’s hopeless; I’ll never get out of here.”</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“Can you freeze frame that emotion for a moment? Can you sense for just a second how it feels to be out of your element? Out of solutions? Out of ideas and energy? Can you imagine, for just a moment, how it feels to be out of hope?”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“What would it take to restore your hope? What would you need to reenergize your journey?”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup> Give me some audience participation. What would you need if you were lost in the jungle?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">[Wait for replies.]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> Often, life is a jungle. “Not a jungle of trees and beasts. … Our jungles are comprised of … failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts. We don’t hear the screeching of birds or the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors and the demands of bosses.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></sup> And tromping through the brush is exhausting.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> “For some, even for many, hope is in short supply.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></sup> There seems to be no way out, no real answers, not when you’re stuck in the jungle.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> I remember an old TV commercial. There are a couple of middle-aged guys sitting at the counter in a diner, and they’ve just finished big bowls of chili. Their stomachs kind of bulge, and you can’t really tell if their stomachs always stick out or if it’s just the gas. They rub their bellies and moan. Then, an off screen voice says, “How do you spell RELIEF?” A Rolaids package rolls into view, “R-O-L-A-I-D-S.” They were saying the essence of relief is Rolaids.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I’d like to play off that for a few minutes. How do you spell HOPE? What is the essence of your hope in the face of life’s problems? </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Give me some audience feedback again. What are some ways that people in America, people around you, or people in pop culture spell HOPE? In what do they put their trust for the future? How do they propose to get out of their jungles?</p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">POWER, CONTROL, MILITARY, HARD WORK, MONEY, EDUCATION, RECOGNITION</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">EXCITEMENT, SEX, ENTERTAINMENT</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">FAMILY, CHILDREN</p> </li></ul> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">SELF</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“-----“ [] (null set; there is no hope)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I have seen some car ads that encourage us to put our hope in a car. I think one was a Volvo add. This sleek, silver car turns a corner in a plush, woodsy environment with a gently rolling stream in the background. Then a smooth baritone voice says, “Finally, a car that can save your soul.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t think any car, no matter how nice, can save my soul.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The problem is that none of the things we’ve talked about are trustworthy enough to be the locus of our hope. We cannot ultimately control our futures no matter how hard we try. Yet living for the present only satisfies for a little while, and then we feel empty again. Even our families and children can let us down, move away, or die. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">As far as putting my hope in me or something within me, I don’t know about you, but I know that I’ve made enough goofball mistakes to know that I can’t put my hope in me. I know that sometime, when I least expect it, I’m going to blow it again.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Where does that leave us? Are we without final hope? Is it illogical to have any confidence that our deepest desires will be fulfilled? Are we stuck in the jungle of life, stuck to struggle our best against adverse elements?</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">What do we need in the jungle? What one thing could give us hope? A guide. Not just any guide. A guide who knows the jungle. A guide who knows the way out. A guide with the supplies to last us until we get out. A guide who will never leave us.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">The Bible spells hope: JESUS. Jesus is the perfect guide for the jungles of life.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">First of all, Jesus understands the jungle. One paraphrase of John 1:14 is that Jesus “became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (Message). The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was like us in every way (Heb. 2:17). The very next verse says, “Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted.” A little later, the same author says that Jesus “understands our weakness, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin” (Heb. 4:15). </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus is no stranger to the problems of life. He went through the same kind of stuff we go through. I like the way a guy by the name of Josh Hatcher bluntly describes Jesus’ humanity:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“He pooped. He peed. He slept. He ate. He cried. He got angry. His actions pointed to the fact that he had spiritual and emotional needs. He needed friends, and was disappointed when they didn’t measure up … He needed food and rest. He wept when Lazarus died. He even <i>questioned</i> God. … Amazingly, He left perfection in heaven to be stinky and hungry and achy and lonely and even rejected…”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote6anc" href="#sdfootnote6sym"><sup>6</sup></a></sup></p> <p style="margin-left: 1in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus is the perfect guide because he knows the jungle. He has walked this life. He knows the lay of the land. Whatever jungle you’re in or might ever be in, he’s been there.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The second reason Jesus is the perfect guide is that he knows how to get out of the jungle. The night before he died, Jesus said to his disciples, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). At some point in our life, we’re going to end up in the jungle. There’s no way around that. The good news is that Jesus faced the jungle and defeated it. He is the King of the Jungle, the Master of Life. He knows how life is supposed to be lived.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“The story is told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide before him had a machete and was whacking away at the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, ‘Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path?!’ The seasoned guide stopped and looked back and the man and replied, ‘I am the path.’</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). Jesus knows the way because he is the way. He lived in our jungle and survived. He has led countless people through the jungle of life, and he can lead us, too. Our job is to follow him.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Third, Jesus has the provisions we need for the Journey. Sometimes it takes a while to get out of the jungle. I remember a TV show about these soldiers who got lost in the jungle in Vietnam. They were drinking out of a river, and they hadn’t eaten in days. One of them saw a large bug float by, and he picked it up and ate it. It was crunchy. People do crazy things to survive in the jungle.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">“Freud said people are hungry for love. Jung said people are hungry for security. Adler said people are hungry for significance.”<sup> <a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote7anc" href="#sdfootnote7sym"><sup>7</sup></a></sup> When people are lost in the jungle, they will go to extremes to fulfill these hungers. The gutters of life offer all sorts of things that purportedly satisfy, but in reality those things only leave us feeling empty. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again” (Jn. 6:35). Jesus satisfies our deepest needs like nothing else can.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Finally, Jesus is the perfect guide because he will never leave us. Throughout the Old Testament, when one of God’s people doesn’t feel like he is up to the challenge of life, God’s reply is almost always, “I will be with you. You can make it because I will be with you wherever you go.” In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, the last thing Jesus said to his disciples was, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">One of the surprising and frustrating things about the way God deals with us is that he doesn’t make the jungles go away. He says, “I will be with you wherever you are,” and that is enough. The jungle is still there. We still have some steep climbing and hard work to do, but we can make it if Jesus is our guide. We may turn our backs on him, but he is always right there to help us as soon as we turn back to him.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I want to take a few minutes to tell you part of my story and why I put my hope in Jesus. Not many people here know this, but I had a drug problem when I was growing up. It was pretty serious. My parents <i>drug</i> me to church on Sunday morning, <i>drug</i> me to church on Sunday night, <i>drug</i> me to church on Wednesday night. Church was not an option for us. We went every time the doors were open. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">That wasn’t a problem for me at first, but as I grew up, I started to question things. I saw major inconsistencies in the Christians around me. I came to the conclusion that church was fake and that Christianity was just a psychological trick that people played on themselves. I rebelled. I went my own way and got into some things I shouldn’t have.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Then one day I was attending a series of church services, and everything came to a head. On the first night, I was not convinced. On the second night, the doubts disappeared. I knew deep within me that God was right and that I should follow Jesus, but I said to myself that I would put the decision off until the last night. Just as I thought that, the preacher said, “Some of you might be thinking, ‘I’ll just wait until the last night.’ Don’t do that.” With some encouragement from my friends, I decided that night to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">My life has never been the same. That started a joy-filled adventure of getting to know God and experiencing life his way. The doubts weren’t gone for good, but I have experienced enough of God along the way to know that he is the best and safest place for my hope.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Jesus has been a faithful guide in all my life. I’ve been through some jungles: broken hearts, lost jobs, my parents’ near divorce, my own personal failures. But through it all God has been with me. I haven’t always been faithful to him, but he has always been faithful to me. He’s always been there to pick me up and set me back on the right track. Life has been a confusing adventure, and I am eternally grateful to have a guide like Jesus.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">I don’t know where you are in life right now. You might be in the deepest jungle you’ve ever been in, or your life might be all green meadows and pretty flowers right now. Either way, we’re all going to face the jungle sometime, and we need to know where to turn. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Hope is spelled J-E-S-U-S. When we’re in a jungle what we need most is a guide, and Jesus is the perfect guide. He understands what we’re going through. He knows the way out. He has the resources to support and to sustain us, and, most important of all, he will never leave us.</p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">One time the Apostle Paul was asked to explain Christianity to the council of philosophers in Athens, the ancient Harvard. When he was done, the Scripture tells us that the listeners had three different responses. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Some of them laughed and thought Paul was full of hot air. If that’s where you are, that’s OK. I was in the same place for a long time. </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">Some of them said, “We want to hear more about this later.” If that is where you are, we invite you to join us in May when we start the next Journey. Maybe you just have hope that there might be hope. We aren’t asking you to sign on any dotted lines. All we’re asking you to do is to investigate. You can ask questions. You can disagree. The Journey is about giving you a chance to explore, intelligently and without pressure, whether or not you believe this hope is true. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"> The last group of people who heard Paul that day believed right then. What Paul said connected with something deep within them, and they decided right then and there to become a follower of Jesus. I want to make room for anyone here to make that decision.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote8anc" href="#sdfootnote8sym"><sup>8</sup></a></sup> If that’s where you are, you can say a simple prayer with me. You can just say it silently to yourself. “God, I accept this message of hope. I put my trust and hope in Jesus. I’m sorry for the wrong that I’ve done. Jesus, I invite you to be my guide from now on. Amen.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;">
<br /></p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> The references to and images of the jungle throughout this talk are heavily dependant upon: Max Lucado, <u>Experiencing the Heart of Jesus</u>, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 82-6.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> Ibid, 83.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> Ibid, 84.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> Ibid, 83.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> Ibid.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote6"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote6sym" href="#sdfootnote6anc">6</a> “What We Forget about Jesus,” <span style="color:#0000ff;"><u><a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com/print.php?sid=137">http://www.relevantmagazine.com/print.php?sid=137</a></u></span>, July 19, 2003.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote7"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote7sym" href="#sdfootnote7anc">7</a> Nicki Gumble, <u>Questions of Life</u>, (Colorado Springs: Cook, 1996), 28.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote8"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote8sym" href="#sdfootnote8anc">8</a> This whole illustration about Paul talking in Athens is from Gumble, <u>Questions of Life</u>.</p> <p class="sdfootnote">
<br /> </p> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0