If the Son sets you free you are free indeed.
I was reading an article today about how the new tower that is to take the place of where the world trade center used to stand is going to have its name changed. The name originally was Freedom tower. Now they want to change it. And it has people in an uproar. It made me think… why? I don’t believe we really have freedom in this country. Well I guess we do have freedom but I am thinking about freedom. Go with me for a minute.
Freedom-“liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another”.
When I think of freedom I tend to go to idea that we some how have a God given right to do what ever we want when we want without consequences. But that is not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we are bought with a price. We are slaves to sin, and Jesus bought our freedom with his own blood. WE ARE FREE. Then why do we return to our old slave master. He treated us like crap, he hated us and had no desire to see us live to our fullest and yet Jesus came to give us life and to give it to us abundantly. Jesus gives us a life that it is far better then anything our old sinful master can give us. Yet why do we run back to our old master?
I believe it is because people (and I totally include myself in this) really do not believe we are free. What a devastating lie that Satan tells us. He tells us that we are not free. If we take the idea of slave and master and put ourselves there it would look like this. We are post 13th amendment, we know we are free, we know that we can go live on our own land, we can have a better life and yet we stay at our old masters house being beat half to death, and living in squalor. The only problem with this analogy is this. The 13th amendment doesn’t come close to describing what kind of freedom we have. We were not just given freedom, we were bought with Christ’s blood, the freedom we have is the freedom of a son of the master. We are adopted into the family of God. That’s Lord God almighty, creator of everything, master of all. We are his son. And yet we, for lack of a better word, whore ourselves back to sin.
Lord help me to stay faithful to the truth that I am your son, bought with the blood of Christ, help me to keep in the forefront of my mind the weight of what that means, help me to fight the desire to run back to my vomit.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Render to Caesar what is Caesars
Mark 12:17- And Jesus answering said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's…
As I sit at my computer this fine Saturday afternoon I pour over the stack of papers sitting in front of me, hoping to some how see a miracle jump out of my Taxes. For the first time in my life I owe Taxes, not a problem if I was still making the same amount of money I was at the end of 2008. The problem… I am not. My income was cut by half since December and the costs of life have gone up. Not only do I owe Taxes. I owe a lot of taxes, close to a month’s paycheck.
The first thought after I saw that infamous RED word around a massive 4 digit monetary value saying OWE not REFUND, was what gives. Why me? Why now? Why not last year? Why not a 2 or 3 digit amount owed? And then I started to get pissed. Real pissed, I swore at my computer, I swore at my stupidity, I swore at our government and I swore at the situation.
So I went to the Lord, and I went to the Word. And the verse that came to mind was of course Mark 12:17. It says we are to give to our leaders the money owed to our leaders. I know at this point some people would start going into a rant over why should we give our taxes to a government that is using our money on things we don’t agree with, stem cell research, gay marriage rights, abortion, evolution classes in school etc. But that is not the fight that Jesus calls us to in this verse. This verse I believe isn’t even about paying taxes. This verse is about giving to God the things that are Gods. This verse is not an economical verse; this verse is a kick in the spiritual pants to give to God what is His, namely. PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY.
How many people this time of year think about this verse and say “I guess I will give the government what they deserve” without even thinking about the meat of this verse. So you owe $2,300, praise the Lord. So the government is using your money to fund abortions, cry for those unborn children, weep for the sin of man, and praise the Lord. So the economy is in the pits and you lost your job, praise Lord. Praise the Lord oh my soul praise the Lord.
Prayer- May the words of mouth and meditations of my heart be pleasing to you Oh Lord. May I not boast in the ability of man to fix numbers. God grant me the eyes to see through the trials, the pits, the fog, the hardship, the momentary evil that will so easily strangle my faith. Lord help me. Help me to follow your precepts, to, yes, pay my taxes but pay knowing I am obeying. Help me to give cheerfully to my Church, help me to give you what is yours, cheerfully not out of duty but because I desire to praise you, I desire to see you lifted high, I desire to bring you glory.
As I sit at my computer this fine Saturday afternoon I pour over the stack of papers sitting in front of me, hoping to some how see a miracle jump out of my Taxes. For the first time in my life I owe Taxes, not a problem if I was still making the same amount of money I was at the end of 2008. The problem… I am not. My income was cut by half since December and the costs of life have gone up. Not only do I owe Taxes. I owe a lot of taxes, close to a month’s paycheck.
The first thought after I saw that infamous RED word around a massive 4 digit monetary value saying OWE not REFUND, was what gives. Why me? Why now? Why not last year? Why not a 2 or 3 digit amount owed? And then I started to get pissed. Real pissed, I swore at my computer, I swore at my stupidity, I swore at our government and I swore at the situation.
So I went to the Lord, and I went to the Word. And the verse that came to mind was of course Mark 12:17. It says we are to give to our leaders the money owed to our leaders. I know at this point some people would start going into a rant over why should we give our taxes to a government that is using our money on things we don’t agree with, stem cell research, gay marriage rights, abortion, evolution classes in school etc. But that is not the fight that Jesus calls us to in this verse. This verse I believe isn’t even about paying taxes. This verse is about giving to God the things that are Gods. This verse is not an economical verse; this verse is a kick in the spiritual pants to give to God what is His, namely. PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY.
How many people this time of year think about this verse and say “I guess I will give the government what they deserve” without even thinking about the meat of this verse. So you owe $2,300, praise the Lord. So the government is using your money to fund abortions, cry for those unborn children, weep for the sin of man, and praise the Lord. So the economy is in the pits and you lost your job, praise Lord. Praise the Lord oh my soul praise the Lord.
Prayer- May the words of mouth and meditations of my heart be pleasing to you Oh Lord. May I not boast in the ability of man to fix numbers. God grant me the eyes to see through the trials, the pits, the fog, the hardship, the momentary evil that will so easily strangle my faith. Lord help me. Help me to follow your precepts, to, yes, pay my taxes but pay knowing I am obeying. Help me to give cheerfully to my Church, help me to give you what is yours, cheerfully not out of duty but because I desire to praise you, I desire to see you lifted high, I desire to bring you glory.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Why do we call it Ministry
It has been about 8 years since I started ministry on an official level, but I was thinking the other day. Why do I define it by years, why do I define it by months, why do I define it at all? Shouldn’t my every day life be a ministry, shouldn’t I be ministry in steed of weighing out the success and or failure of ministry by tangible measurements of time? But first I must define ministry. Webster says- “the office, duties, or functions of a minister”. Ok great, well what is a minister? Once again the glorious ever quoted; under appreciated, allusive Webster says that you can use the word agent to describe a minister I really like this because an agent is. – “one that acts or exerts power”.
For those who are in relationship with Jesus; and I’m not talking simple “smiles and giggles I love Jesus and wear a bracelet that says so kind of relationship”. I am talking about a relationship with Jesus where you fully trust him, but more importantly you offer your service to him. These people are the ones I am talk to. You have power,
2 Timothy 1:7- For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
So all of this to say that as an “agent” (minister) of Jesus I need to stop measuring success of ministry, success of being an agent to mere time. If I am to live for Christ in such a way that I can count my self as a true follower of Christ, I will be a minister, I will be an agent, because I have been given the spirit of power and I must exert that power to go boldly forward. (I could write for ever about what forward means, but for the sake of time I will merely say use your brain, you know what I mean by forward; up, greater, larger, more… anything that represents doing more.)
So to myself and others who count themselves as followers of Christ. STOP. Stop measuring success in ministry by time, numbers, followers, etc. and start measuring success by how you are acting or exerting power, and how you are doing it in such away that others want to join in on that wonderful gift of being a minister or agent of power, namely the power of God. (don’t worry I will go further with this one later)
For those who are in relationship with Jesus; and I’m not talking simple “smiles and giggles I love Jesus and wear a bracelet that says so kind of relationship”. I am talking about a relationship with Jesus where you fully trust him, but more importantly you offer your service to him. These people are the ones I am talk to. You have power,
2 Timothy 1:7- For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
So all of this to say that as an “agent” (minister) of Jesus I need to stop measuring success of ministry, success of being an agent to mere time. If I am to live for Christ in such a way that I can count my self as a true follower of Christ, I will be a minister, I will be an agent, because I have been given the spirit of power and I must exert that power to go boldly forward. (I could write for ever about what forward means, but for the sake of time I will merely say use your brain, you know what I mean by forward; up, greater, larger, more… anything that represents doing more.)
So to myself and others who count themselves as followers of Christ. STOP. Stop measuring success in ministry by time, numbers, followers, etc. and start measuring success by how you are acting or exerting power, and how you are doing it in such away that others want to join in on that wonderful gift of being a minister or agent of power, namely the power of God. (don’t worry I will go further with this one later)
Hitler changed Europe i don't think he fixed anything
this was a blog i wrote a while ago but thought i would share it anyways.
Since when has the word “change” been equal or greater to the definition of “fixing” something? And right now you may be thinking that I am going to talk about politics and as much as I would love to I will refrain, as much as I feel what I am saying can apply to the political bull crap that is going on I will not go there. What I want to know is why we use this idea of “changing”, as our approach to ministry as a fix? No doubt in my mind that the American Church has been failing regularly. What I have seen is a desire by many different groups to fix the problem of the Church; whatever that might be, each group picks something else that needs to change. But instead of fixing anything they just change things. They make church services more fun, less offensive, add a coffee shop, and remove the pews, thinking that changing these things is fixing the problems. Change has never unequivocally equaled fix. To fix something you must declare the wrong first and foremost, then stop the wrong, then start adding more of the good (you may ask what is good, and once again I will say use your brain, the antitheses of the wrong, the things that glorify God, the things of the Spirit not of the world Etc.). In this case READ THE BIBLE YOU DUMMIES. Where do the answers to life’s questions lie? The Holy God breathed Scripture that is without fault. You want to see lives changed and people devote their lives to God? “Psalm 119:9- How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, and do so soaking up his teachings through reading his Holy powerful word.
Since when has the word “change” been equal or greater to the definition of “fixing” something? And right now you may be thinking that I am going to talk about politics and as much as I would love to I will refrain, as much as I feel what I am saying can apply to the political bull crap that is going on I will not go there. What I want to know is why we use this idea of “changing”, as our approach to ministry as a fix? No doubt in my mind that the American Church has been failing regularly. What I have seen is a desire by many different groups to fix the problem of the Church; whatever that might be, each group picks something else that needs to change. But instead of fixing anything they just change things. They make church services more fun, less offensive, add a coffee shop, and remove the pews, thinking that changing these things is fixing the problems. Change has never unequivocally equaled fix. To fix something you must declare the wrong first and foremost, then stop the wrong, then start adding more of the good (you may ask what is good, and once again I will say use your brain, the antitheses of the wrong, the things that glorify God, the things of the Spirit not of the world Etc.). In this case READ THE BIBLE YOU DUMMIES. Where do the answers to life’s questions lie? The Holy God breathed Scripture that is without fault. You want to see lives changed and people devote their lives to God? “Psalm 119:9- How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, and do so soaking up his teachings through reading his Holy powerful word.
Blinders or Just blind
I was struck by the overwhelming desire to smack myself and about 300 million Americans upside the head this morning. As I sat at a coffee reading my bible and taking time to write in my journal, I started to people watch. What I noticed is, even in Minnesota (the supposed nicest, kindest, state in the country) people are rude, not just others but myself included. We walk around with these blinders on to anyone else. We open doors and walk through not even taking the time to look and see if there is even anyone else behind them that they might want to hold the door for. I saw three people walk in at the same time, none of them even thinking of holding the door for fear that they will have to wait a whopping 30 more seconds for there coffee. Then to see thing 1, thing 2 and thing 3 bolt in the door just to see thing 2 cut off thing 1, assumedly because he wasn’t walking fast enough. All of this to bring up a question. Are we walking around with blinders on or are we just blind?
Have we gotten to a point in our society that we no longer put blinders on because we have been doing it for so long that we are now actually blind to the others around us, blind to anyone else, and blind to any body else’s needs. I ask are we deliberately blocking others out of our lives, or have we done it for so long that it now comes so natural to us that we don’t even realize we are doing it?
Have we gotten to a point in our society that we no longer put blinders on because we have been doing it for so long that we are now actually blind to the others around us, blind to anyone else, and blind to any body else’s needs. I ask are we deliberately blocking others out of our lives, or have we done it for so long that it now comes so natural to us that we don’t even realize we are doing it?
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