See Through

I'm Against That!

2012-01-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

I know this comes as little surprise to many but it's been bothering me lately, so I'm going to share.

The vast majority of Christians today are known more for what they are against than what they are for. This to me, is in congruent with the Gospel of Jesus.

Most airwaves with Christians on them are talking about what they are against. They spout how this is wrong and that is wrong but give little to NO direction as to why they believe that. What message does it spread to the world if all we talk about is how we are against all the bad stuff they do? Does this message offer hope, or despair? Does this message draw people into a relationship with Jesus or push them further away?

I'm not saying it's bad to be against stuff, we have to make stands in our culture that will be frowned upon...however, what is the main drum we beat? What dominates our books, radio stations and magazines? Is it the Gospel of Jesus, or is it our hatred for certain things (and certain people)?

What does it tell the world when they see Christians angry and picketing things they are against? What message does the contorted angry face give to a hurting world?

When Jesus saw a whore being stoned, did he join in?

When Jesus saw a conniving, self-centered, "legal thief" looking for him, did Jesus say to him: "You dirty man! I am against you and your kind!"?

Why do we continue to neglect the example of Jesus in these matters? Why do we vehemently oppose things publicly while forgetting to even mention the name of Jesus at work? How do we justify contorted angry faces for things we see opposed to God, yet can't allow ourselves to feel broken over the lost, hurting and hungry?

What does it say about our connection to a loving God when we ourselves have little real love to go around...except for those like us?

Again, we do need to make stands against culture, I agree with that. BUT, why can't we make stands the way Jesus did...by bringing peace, healing, wholeness and redemption?

*As a side note, I've noticed this with Blogs as well...usually Christians only comment on a blog when they disagree...just pointing that out*

Redeem Your Time!

2012-01-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

In talking with people about prayer time, reading time and time for their devotions (whether student or adult) the response is always the same: I just don't have the time.

Time is money. Time is important. Time is something I think we wish we all had more of. More time to sleep. More time to read. More time to eat. More time to be with the family. More time with God. More time, simply just more time.

I find myself making the time excuse about exercise...because deep down I really don't want to exercise. Do we sometimes make the "time" excuse because what we say we want to do but can't because there is no time is actually something we deep down don't want to do? Just ponder that for a second and ask yourself the hard question of "Is that true for me?"

I know sometimes for me it is true...I don't do my devotions because I didn't have time. I don't do them because quite frankly I didn't feel like it.

Sometimes however, we do find ourselves in busy times of life where we really can't break away. Times where the demands of family start as soon as you walk in the door from work and don't end until you hit the pillow. I fear that as a Daddy to a toddler and a newborn I'm in one of those stages. Yet, God has been gracious to me and I have still been able to read, write and continue my master's course...but without ignoring my family (OK, maybe sometimes).

I preface all of this not to say "I'm the man" or "I have this time thing figured out" because I am not the man, nor do I even think I have it all figured out. However, God has shown me a simply task of redeeming my time. We all have moments in our day where our time can be redeemed where we can read, write and pray. Let me show you a few of the ways I've discovered (and there are many more, believe me).

#1 The Car- Here is a golden opportunity that I began to take advantage of about 4 years ago. I drive very little compared to most people, but I used to drive more. What I discovered was that I was wasting my time just driving. I may have had the music going, or an occasional phone call but everything else was silence. I started listening to sermons that I could download to my iTunes. I realized that I could either rip them onto CD's or put them on my iPod and connect it to my stereo in my car and listen to sermons while I drive. In the last 4 years truly this has been my biggest advantage to having a better understanding of God's Word. I can truly say that I have been discipled through this process by several pastors and they don't even know me. After 4 years I have listened to well over 40 hours of sermons. This I found has redeemed my time tremendously! You can also listen to books on CD or your iPod, you can do this easily now with the availability of iTunes and audio books. I challenge you to take advantage of your drive time...no matter how little.

#2 The Toilet- Here some may feel I am being crass, I am simply being honest. The stats show that the average person spends anywhere from 6 months to 3 years of their life on the toilet! Here is another golden opportunity to redeem your time. Most people just sit there doing their business. Some people read stupid magazines that actually depreciate their brain. Others spend time on their phone catching up on facebook...this time can be redeemed!! Here's how I read 80 books a year...and I'm not joking. Every time I head to the bathroom for what I know will be a long time, I bring the book I am currently reading. This has expedited my reading by a very large margin. People ask me how I have time to read so much. This is about 1/3 of my answer. No one bothers you while you're in the toilet. No one will bug you too much for "taking a little longer". Again, I'm sure some of you think this is inappropriate...I'm just being honest. A year ago I almost started a campaign which I was going to title: "Redeem Your Poops" to challenge people to do this very thing...that would've been inappropriate.

I have several other thoughts on certain ways we can all redeem our time spending time with the Lord, or reading. I won't belabor these ones, but here they are.

#3 On a Plane- you're just sitting there after all. Skip the in flight movie and read, write or spend time with Jesus.

#4 Down time- Don't spend so much time playing video games, browsing the internet aimlessly or watching tv when you find you have some down time. Redeem that time!

#5 Right Before Bed- Everyone is sleeping, you are not yet tired. Read, write or spend sometime with Jesus.

Please feel free to add some other ideas that can help redeem our time, because I still need more! I think it's important that we keep trying to learn, and grow in our faith. There is always some space of time we can utilize for these things...we just have to want to, see those moments and take them! Hope this list helps. We are all on the journey of growth together, let's enjoy the ride!

Real Marriage- Book Review

2012-01-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the internet is abuzz with talk about this book and not all of it is good, in fact many are super critical of this book and it's content.

Let's get into what the book is about: #1 It's about marriage. This should be a no brainer since this is the title. However, it's not just about the good stuff in marriage, there are some real-life stories of pain in this book. Mark and Grace expose their marriage to the world and open up the harsh realities they've faced within their marriage. When it comes to talking about REAL marriage, this book is one of the best (Love and War being number 2)!

Mark and Grace share with supreme transparency the shame, mistakes and horrendous attitudes they held towards one another during their marriage. Grace goes on to discuss how her shame shut her down from Mark and how her shutting down Mark confesses he desired to shut her out.

Never in a book have I seen such openness with the pain and shame. Marriage is tough and requires work. Secondly, this book is about Friendship.

Mark and Grace contend that marriage, in order to be lively, effective and lasting needs to have friendship, a deep loving friendship. Mark and Grace explain how they failed and found success int the realm of friendship and they lament the fact that no marriage books they read (over 180 by the way) had a lengthy explanation or admonition of friendship in marriage. That point scared me too, so I am excited that Mark and Grace wrote this book, highlighting friendship within marriage.

Thirdly, the book is about sex. Real Marriage has the most frank sex talk I have read in a "marriage book". Mark and Grace tackle issues that many others gloss over and go into specific, biblical detail about what types of sex is OK and not OK. They answer tough questions, many Christian couples ask about oral sex, anal sex and on for married couples. They are true to the Word and make sure one knows they are rooting what they say about sex and marriage in the Bible.

My favorite quote from this book is "Your spouse should be your standard of beauty" which they quote throughout the book several times. It means that your wife or your husband is what is beautiful to you, do not measure them against others but make them to be the most beautiful person you know.

Many of you who read my blog know I like Mark Driscoll and admire much of what he says (although not agreeing with all of it, nor in the tone he presents it). This book is no exception. Although I don't always agree with everything he says I admire his courage and agree with most of what he discusses both in ministry and in this book.

Much of the negative controversy surrounding this book is unfounded, stated by people who read a chapter or maybe two but read it with their own filter. I give it a 4/5 and would recommend it to most married couples I know.

I think the only thing that really bothered me in the book was nearing the end where Grace and Mark are sharing their differences that have caused contention in their marriage. One of them is about time. Grace is perpetually late and Mark is the 15 minutes early is on time kind of guy. Grace states that she now sees her perpetually late attitude as sin, but Mark simply says he has to be more patient with his wife and mentor her better in time management...yet does not confess his frustration and downright mean anger with his wife as being a sin.

To some, this may seem a moot point, and I think Mark would say: "I think it's a sin" (at least I hope so). This only elevates his critics rebuke of him being the great husband who is patient with messed up wife (which was a criticism of this book).

All in all it's a good book and worthy of the read. If you want to get a copy, here is the best place: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Marriage-Truth-Friendship-Together/dp/140020383X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326398926&sr=1-1

Raising a Super Hero

2012-01-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

I simply love being a Daddy, I can't get enough of it sometimes...other times, it can be tough...but on the whole, I love it!

Raising a boy especially can be challenging and super fun all at the same time, especially a boy who thinks he's a super hero! That is my son. He IS a super-hero. He is also a complete hoot who continuously says things like:

MJ: daddy are you sick?
Me: no MJ are you sick?
MJ: no, I'm just Spiderman

When playing with Amelia's (his little sister) cheerleader rubber ducky MJ : "I like cheerleaders! They're hot and they burn my mouth!"

MJ: mommy I want your coffee
Me: no MJ you can't have it
MJ: I can!
Me: no you can't buddy its for adults
MJ: Daddy, I'm a poop fake...so I can!

My son is (in his mind) a super hero that speaks his mind. Each day he wears a different super-hero shirt and he claims he is that particular hero for that day. For me, I love this! Not only am I a huge super-hero fan myself but my son sees himself in a way I as an adult no longer can...he sees that he can be anything he sets his mind to. He sees a world of possibilities without the limitations I as an adult have.

I think this is something to be cultivated, not stifled. I think too often, we are quick to stifle our children's creativity and imagination and self-image. We give our cynicism, we give our fears and we give our doubts to our children. We say: "no, you can't be that" or "that's dangerous". In this and our sometimes "overprotective" parenting I think we fail to cultivate our children's hearts. When we fail to cultivate their hearts we can hinder them for the long run.

As a Daddy, I wrestle with my son, I chase him while I pretend to be "The silly Joker" and he is Batman. I read stories to my son, I teach him how to be a hero and how we are to save the Princesses in our lives (Mommy and Amelia). I cultivate his warrior spirit and challenge him to act like Jesus. I teach my son that the dinner table is the only place he can't say "poopy" because it messes with people's eating, but I then say: "saying poopy anywhere else is OK". I show my son how to love Mommy and love Amelia by giving tender kisses and hugs. I teach my son the importance of cleaning the house and helping Mommy feel special by doing the dishes. I do this all in his super-hero language, cultivating the good stuff inside his little 2 year old mind.

Many may disagree with these things and my approach to them but this is how I Daddy my Super-Hero.

I also Daddy by letting MJ try "risky" (to him) things. For example one time he wanted to jump from a foot stool to the ground. Hilary had a really tough time with this because he could get hurt. I told her: "We have got to let him make this jump because if he makes it, imagine how powerful he will feel and how excited he will be at his success. If he falls, we are right here to comfort him and challenge him to try again". She eventually relented and we allowed MJ to jump.

He landed it perfect and the look of sheer excitement went on his face, because he conquered what seemed like a huge challenge!

As parents, it's not easy to watch our kids do these things, but when they do and they accomplish them without us they grow.

I think this is particularly important for young men these days. So many young men have been raised by overprotective parents and these men aren't acting as men. I do not mean to knock moms, its simply a fact that moms are more protective of their kids than a father is, so things like risk taking and adventures and "being a super-hero" are things that mothers frown upon more often.

If a boy doesn't know how to take risks, go on adventures and be a super-hero, he will seek these things as a "man" in unhealthy ways...or, he will become a lump who does all his adventuring, "hero-ing" and risk taking on a video game or vicariously through movies. Which leaves the woman he is supposed to love and rescue forgotten and alone. More and more men are walking away from wives and families...I do not want my son to be among that number. I desire to teach him how to be a good man, husband and daddy.

I love being a Daddy and I love teaching my son about being a hero, going on adventures and taking risks. I'm not saying I got it perfect, but this a little window in how I am raising my little Super-Hero!

Book List 2011

2012-01-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

I not only enjoy good strong Christian books, but I also deeply enjoy fiction, fantasy and Sci-Fi as well...so there is a good mix here.

Below are the 23 books that hit me this past year. Some are Super amazing, others are just fantastic for the genre they represent. Enjoy!

P.S. These are in order as I read them during the year, not of how much I like them...

1. Luke 9:51-24:53- Darrel Bock

Even though this is a commentary, I felt compelled to share it because of it’s readability and narrative type flow. It is book two in a series on Luke and I have read both commentaries and find myself very grateful for having read them!

2. Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code- Chand

This book unveils the truth about how every church has a certain type of culture. How do you figure the culture out and either replicate it or change it? Great book for church leaders.

3. Reclaiming Christianity- A.W. Tozer

This is Tozer at his best, where in short essays he compels the reader to rethink how they live out their Christian life and to come closer to the power of the Spirit.

4. King’s Cross- Tim Keller

This is a narrative commentary on the book of Mark. It is a great book full of rich story and compelling interaction with the Scriptures. It reads like a book but contains content like a commentary, great book to read as a companion to your study of the book of Mark.

5. The Next Christians- Gabe Lyon

This book challenged me greatly on how I am ministering to young adults. I wrote a full write up on it here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2011/04/next-christians.html

6. Man, the Dwelling Place of God- AW Tozer

Just love anything Tozer. This was a good, essay type book on God’s indwelling us and yielding ourselves to His direction.

7. The Christian Atheist- Craig Groeschel

Craig has gotten better and better each book I read of his. This one hits some hard points on how many of us Christians are living our lives saying we are Christ followers, but in reality we are living as if he doesn’t exist.

8. Unleashed- Erwin McManus

POWERFUL book on allowing God to lead us back to our Warrior/Barbarian roots of fighting for the faith and being unafraid of going out into the battle field the way God leads us. I got this e-book for free, but would have paid full price for it! Great stuff.

9. Generous Justice- Timothy Keller

Timothy Keller is another author I just love to read. This book was deep and very practical for any Christian seeking to reach out with Justice. I was challenged in this book and hope to put some of the challenges into practice.

10. On the Verge Church- Hirsch and Ferguson

I read this long book in two plane rides. It is a great book on church planting and changing church to be what God desires it to be and what the world needs it to be in order for more people to come to faith. I think these guys got it right on and I will definitely be using a ton of their ideas in the future.

11. Born After Midnight- A.W. Tozer

I love Tozer…I just do. This book was another great, challenging Tozer book that I recommend to anyone.

12. For The City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel- Patrick and Carter

This was an incredible book about being a light and church for the city rather than an intrinsically focused country club. These guys attack many self-serving Christians (and pastors) and challenge the reader to go out and be a light rather than stay in and keep the light hidden.

13. Church Planter- Darrin Patrick

This book goes through the things a Church Planter (and any pastor in my mind) needs in order to be successful. It really is also a book on Biblical Manhood and how we need to be led by God in all we do as men. I was deeply challenged by this book and hope to read it again in 2012 to refresh myself on the lessons God taught me.

14. Love is an Orientation- Andrew Marin

BEST BOOK for anyone who is looking to reach out to the gay community. I was shocked at how practical and informational this book was. I also realized how I had been approaching the subject pretty wrong and for a long time. I know for a fact I will be re-reading this book over and over again. Plus, the DVD and participants guide came out recently and I WILL be buying that too!

15. Fatherless Generation- John Sowers

Many young men and women that I work with and have worked with struggle with Fatherlessness, this short but powerful book is a great tool to help you the teacher and them the student to walk through the pain this brings.

16. You Lost Me- Kinnaman

Fantastic, statistical analysis about the “being lost” epidemic that seems to be happening with this current gen of young adults. I read this one slow to soak it not just the numbers, but the repercussions of such stats. This book will help those of us working with young adults understand the situation and adapt the way we do ministry. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

17. The Kane Chronicles (Two Books)- Rick Riordan

This is the same author of the Percy Jackson Series and Heroes of Olympus series, both of which I have read. This series is good, fun reading similar to the other series Rick has done. If you like fantasy, chances are you will like this series!

18. Worlds Apart- Chuck Bomar

Desire to understand the 18-25 year old mind a little better? Then read this book. It’s helpful, and very informative as to what is going on in the minds of today’s young generation. It is a good start for anyone who is looking to work with Young Adults

19. Dangers Lines in the Deeper Life- A.B. Simpson

Excellent book on things to watch for in the Deeper Life. A.B. Simpson was a deeply Spirit led man who writes with a passion rarely seen today.

20. The Skin Map- Stephen R. Lawhead

21. The Bone House- Stephen R. Lawhead

Skin Map and Bone House are two books in the same series, but both are individual, so I listed them separately. I have read and own every Stephen Lawhead book published (except his kids books) and he is an excellent fantasy/sci-fi author. This series is a new series on a form of time travel that is chock full of time study, romance, intrigue, mystery and action. I couldn’t put these books down and am eagerly awaiting the conclusion of this series! Like sci-fi and fantasy? Read Lawhead.

22. Jesus in the Book of Joshua- A.B. Simpson

A GREAT commentary on Joshua, filled with explanations of Jesus throughout showing that Jesus was being shown all through this book and the life of Joshua. I got this on Kindle for $.99 and am blown away at how amazing it is for such a low price.

23. The Hunger Games Series (Three Books)- Suzanne Collins

This series is how I ended my Christmas break. Everyone has been talking about it and the movie coming in March pushed me to read them now. I must say, I didn’t know what to expect but really liked this story. It was rich character development (which in todays books isn’t as highly prized as it was before), it was deeply layered with meanings for today’s system of government and felt like a modern day Brave New World or 1984…both books of which I love. I recommend reading this series because it’s pretty good stuff.

Well, that’s it. I read tons of books this year, but these are the shining stars of 2011 for me. I have a huge stack ready to go for 2012, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know, because I am a GEEK and I love to read! Let me know also, if you’ve read some of these and agree/disagree with me, because I love to talk about the books and stories I read as well as read them!

A Memoir Moment

2011-12-30T19:03:00.000-08:00

The Tale of a Youth Master

It was a chilly December afternoon full of amazing potential. My wife (then Fiancé), Hilary had a roommate who was performing in New York City, so we put together a band of misfits and decided to drive into the city of New York for the very first time. None of our band of friends had ever ventured into the deep heart of Manhattan before, so eager anticipation filled the car ride. As we drove, many of us were thinking of the sights we’d see, the sounds we’d hear and the food we would taste; as well as thinking about our friend and how she would do.

We drove in my green, tiny little 98’ Honda Civic from Nyack to Manhattan on the Palisades Parkway. We were all packed in there like sardines: I was driving, Hilary was in the passenger seat and in the back we had our friends AJ, Chantelle and Debbie. Hilary was (and still is) a brown haired, brown eyed knock-out (who strikingly looks like Anne Hathaway). AJ was a jacked muscular Italian guy with long blonde hair and a smile that could melt most women’s hearts. Chantelle was a petite little white girl who lived in Africa most of her life; and Debbie was your typical blonde haired, blue eyed suburban girl from Jersey. Together we were an interesting crew to venture into the city of New York, some would even say we were (in city lingo) “suspect”, which means such an odd paring that something had to be off. Nonetheless we all together headed into Manhattan for our friend: Maimee.

Once we arrived in Manhattan, we had to make our way to the place where Maimee was to perform. Let me begin by saying: all of us in the group are coming from a Christian college and all have pretty conservative backgrounds; with that said, you can enter into the world of our uncomfortable feelings. Maimee was to perform in a club for the evening along with other acts for the night. We honestly had no idea what to expect (in fact neither did Maimee). After some trekking through the city, we finally came to the place where Maimee was to perform. We saw the sign and walked up to the building only to find that we needed to head down a staircase to the lower level where the bar/club was to be found. Immediately I felt weird. Never before had I ventured into Manhattan on my own (or with friends) and now we are being asked to go down to a basement bar? I was beyond freaked out, I was downright scared; but I had to be brave for my fiancé because AJ, big AJ was being tough and brave and I didn’t want to look weak in the shadow of his strength. We ventured onward and came to the bar in the basement.

Once we got there, I could tell right away it was shady. My lungs were rudely invaded by the strong smell of: cigarettes, alcohol and urine; it was a putrid smelling mix to say the least. The lights were dimmed to near darkness and the walls were light up; highlighting the interesting paintings on the walls. When I looked at the walls (which as I said were featured), I noticed right away that my eyes were not expecting what they saw. What I saw painted on the walls were graphic nude scenes that would make your Grandma blush. They were apparently labeled as “artistic” but I thought the word “pornographic” would be more suitable.

Shortly after our entire sensory system was offended, we were greeted by a waitress with a too-low top which left her a little exposed and she offered us all something to drink (which yes, meant alcohol). We all declined and asked for sodas instead, which brought a rolling of the eyes and a sigh from our waitress. First off, we were too young to drink and secondly, we were, as I mentioned earlier, pretty conservative folks.

By the time we received our sodas, we were more than ready to leave but we decided stick it out; so tried to find Maimee to see what the plan was on her performance (seeking really to see how fast we could exit). She was yacking it up with some slick, young looking guy with a Gucci watch and some overly large sunglasses on his face; which didn’t make sense considering we were in a dark, dingy basement. She caught sight of us and invited us over. She shared that the young man she was talking to was some guy from Sony (I will name him Mr. Sony) who was here tonight to hear the performances. We were all duly impressed and asked when she expected to be on stage. She shared with us that she would be on in roughly 15 minutes. I think all of us inwardly let out a huge sigh of relief at the news, but we all smiled outwardly to allow Maimee to sense our excitement for her and her chance to show her skills to some big people (like the creepy, slick-haired Mr. Sony).

After sitting around and talking amongst ourselves about the weird Mr. Sony and the choice of décor the bar/club owner chose, we were ready to listen to Maimee sing her song for all to hear. She sang beautifully and had the crowd hushed, eagerly listening to her wonderful voice. The song was remarkable and all of us who drove from Nyack together kept looking at each other in awestruck wonder. We had heard Maimee sing before, but never like this! It was amazing and the Mr. Sony seemed to be into it as well. He continued to nod his head and do something with his phone (which we all assumed was a good sign).

After her performance, she came over to us and was instantly followed by Mr. Sony. We all had conversations with her and him. What struck me was that even though he couldn’t offer Maimee anything and she probably wasn’t going to get picked up by a label such as Sony, the guy was genuinely nice. We all discussed later how we had mis-judged him. We took what we saw at face value and made an instantaneous judgment of the guy. We found out that he too was a Christian and felt just as awkward in the club as we did. He was a stand up guy and we were wrong to judge him the way we did.

Soon after talking with Mr. Sony, we headed out on the town. We hit up some American Restaurant for dinner where we laughed and had great conversations about the seedy bar, Mr. Sony and how great Maimee did in front of a weird (most likely drunk) crowd. Maimee was grateful for us being there (especially, she said because of the place) and shared with us how she felt the whole time before and during her stage debut at the shady club. She also apologized to AJ and me for the graphic “artistic” nudes throughout the bar. Both of us chuckled and said we just kept our heads down and eyes focused on the floor.

When dinner was over, it was time for us to head on out, we had a curfew to meet at our Christian college after all and with what we’d already been through we didn’t want to risk getting into any more trouble. We ventured back into the crazy jungle of Manhattan driving, we cleared the city and drove over the George Washington Bridge (fondly known as the G-Dub). Once we crossed into NJ, I felt a little more comfortable so I stepped on the gas a bit, met with immediate rejection. My now wife, Hilary looked at me and said: “Slow down Marvin, we don’t need a ticket to go with our night”. I was in no way going to slow down, so I said: “Honey, there are no cops and there is no need for me to slow down”.

No sooner were the words out of my mouth when a siren went off behind me. My mind froze and I instantly began to regret my words. My heart was racing and breath was withheld by all in the car. I pulled over to the right on the Palisades Parkway, 800 feet from Exit 1. We all, with bated breath awaited the arrival of the cop. Shortly after being pulled over, I noticed the car was un-marked and two, not one cop was coming out of the car, without the normal uniform. I started to panic and think to myself “How fast was I going? What on earth is going on”?

The answer came quickly when a young, strapping dark-haired Italian looking cop came to my window and asked me to get out of the car right away. Next to him was a fat, wanna be Hitler looking guy with a large face and a tiny mustache that seemed to match the angry look on his face. He too yelled for me to get out of the car.

Everyone in the car freaked and said: “That’s not standard procedure, if you go out, be careful”. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the cops asked me to go to the back of the vehicle, so I complied. As the nicer looking cop interrogated me, the Nazi cop began flashing his flashlight in my car and in the faces of my friends. The nicer cop asked me where we were and so I described going to see our friend sing at a club, to which the Nazi cop screamed: “Told YOU!” This completely confused me until the nicer cop asked: “Young man, we know you and your friends have drugs, where are they?” To say I was stunned would be an understatement, I was completely at a loss for words (which doesn’t happen to me). I stepped back and said: “sir, we do not have any drugs, I promise you”. Then, the Nazi cop came over and got in my face: “We know you have drugs! We can tell, you college kids always have drugs! We have dogs at exit one waiting to sniff out your car!” I spoke nervously, but confidently “Sir, we truly do not have drugs. We can go to exit one, where the dogs are and you will see.” The Nazi cop got all in my face and said: “Can you vouch for your friends? That blonde Italian guy, he looks like he’s hiding something, something like drugs!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I said: “Sir, I know we do not have drugs. Everyone in that car is studying ministry at Nyack College and I am studying to be a Youth Pastor, we do not have drugs”.

With one final desperate act, the Nazi cop looked me in the face and said:
“What the heck is a YOUTH MASTER?” I realized he had no idea what I said and a name like “youth master” could insinuate that I am in charge of some underground youth drug cartel. I stood there in shock when the nice cop said: “Idiot! He said Youth Pastor! I believe them, let’s let them go, I don’t think they have any drugs”. The Nazi cop glared at me and said: “Very well, you may go”.

I got back in my car a bit shook up and began to drive back to Nyack. I stayed quiet for awhile, but then relayed the entire story to my eager audience of passengers.

As I reflect on that crazy, wild night in Manhattan, I see some weird things that connect that never seemed to connect before. The first connection is that my group of friends and I were both judgers of appearance and judged by our appearance. The second is that knowing someone is the key to true understanding of that person. Mr. Sony looked like a slick, slimy recruiter but he wasn’t anything of the sort, it wasn’t until we got to know him that we realized the truth. Apparently, my misfit band of friends looked like a drug infested party waiting to crash, yet we too were no such thing. It wasn’t until the cops actually took time to hear me out and find out a little about me that they could determine I was in no way a drug dealer or user. This event has since made me consider to not react strictly by the appearance of those I meet, but to truly get to know them before I allow any thoughts on their person to creep into my mind.

The Blind Beggar

2011-12-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been walking through and reading the book of Mark and have been continuously smacked with how much of Jesus story I either forgot about or didn't catch everything going on in the scene. This story is no exception. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and ultimately his death. He is walking from Jericho and a huge crowd surrounds him when this scene takes place:

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:46-52 ESV)

   The first thing I notice is the beggar in this story. He is blind, but once he hears that Jesus is on the road, he shouts out to him. The second thing I notice is the name in which he calls Jesus: "...Son of David". Here, the blind beggar declares a Messianic title of Jesus, showing the audience (both then and now) that he believes Jesus to be the King Israel has been waiting for. This man can not see, yet he sees Jesus better than most do. This man doesn't know Jesus personally, yet he knows Jesus better than most.

   The next thing to notice is the crowd. Their response to Bartimaeus always shocks me, why would they shut him down? It was as if they were saying: "Jesus is a busy guy and doesn't need to be distracted by some blind guy". Which, if they knew Jesus, they would know that's foolish. Here they clearly show their lack of knowledge (sight?) about Jesus (despite their proximity).

Next, we see that the shutting down from the people in the crowd doesn't deter the beggar...in fact he shouts all the more! He (from a cultural perspective), a lowly beggar should be subject to those above him. Not only this, but if someone who knows someone tells you (someone who doesn't know the someone) that he is too busy, the general rule is you believe them and stop persisting. Yet, this beggar had better sight of Jesus, despite his "not knowing him".

I think we as Christians need to pause here. I fear that we have become arrogant in our "knowledge" of Jesus and think we know Jesus better than non-Christians due to our proximity.

I think we have been the crowd that shuts those screaming for Jesus out.

I fear we feel Jesus is too busy loving us, that we can't possibly let the beggar have some of Jesus time.

Or, our arrogance has led us to believe...truly believe that Jesus loves us more because we go to church and say we "know him".

This blind beggar saw a Jesus that the seeing crowds surrounding him did not. The beggar called to Jesus with a knowable name "Son of David" and knew Jesus could heal him, if Jesus so desired.

Then, Jesus, hearing the mans shouts calls him to come.

This is where it gets funny to me, because the way the people respond to this. They say to the man "take heart! He's calling you!" It almost sounds like they are trying to say to the guy: "be encouraged because he will hear you out" all the while they were the ones trying to shut him up! I sense an arrogance about this response. Almost like a "You made the cut kid! Good job!" As if they were already on the team...it just feels weird to me and I sense the Spirit saying to me: "You act like this to those who don't yet know me. Marvin, you've acted arrogantly to true seekers after me. Your reaction has harmed some".

This is me. I forget how far Christ has brought me. I forget where I could/should be without Him. I forget that the blind beggars who do not know Christ could be myself (and in fact was me at one point in time).

Then, Jesus asks the man what he desires. I always chuckle when Jesus does this...I mean seriously, a blind guy is asking you for a miracle and you ask him what miracle he desires? Jesus is God, so I know he has motives in it, I know there is a deeper probing within in it...but it's still ironic.

The man responds that he desires to see and Jesus obliges stating the mans faith has made him well. However, in the dialogue about the faith healing, Jesus says to the man: "Go your own way". Jesus has said this to other people he's healed and they walk away. John 5 shows a guy who was healed, then tattles on Jesus for healing him on the sabbath...so from seeing all these ungrateful guys, it shocked me to see this at the end: "And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way".

Not only did the man see the real, true Jesus while blind, this beggar made his way, Jesus' way. He aligned himself to Jesus then and there. He didn't walk away and dance and skip and shout in the town...he followed Jesus, right away. No excuses, no lame conversations, he simply followed Jesus.

People need Jesus. People are shouting for Jesus. We sometimes shut them out and anticipate them getting what they want from God and as soon as they do, they will leave. Not all of them will. Let's ask the Spirit to lead us towards these types of beggars. Let's ask the Spirit to teach us how to lift them closer to the Lord rather than shutting them out from Him.

Dealing With Santa

2011-12-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

THIS IS A RE-POST FROM LAST YEAR:

This may offend some people, and I am willing to take that risk for speaking out about what I think to be "The Santa Dilemma".

In our American culture, the true meaning of Christmas over that last 150 years has been all but covered up. Christmas produces some of the most unhappy times of year and makes a liar out of the song writer who wrote: "It's the most wonderful time of the year". This saddens me, because I truly do try to make it a happy time of year, but when I go driving to the mall, and get flicked off, yelled at and hum bugged at because I parked somewhere that someone else desired to, it drags ya down a bit.

   I could go on about how Christmas spirit is slipping away, but we're here to talk about Santa. Santa has been a hallmark for Christmas for some time now and I think that we have 3 choices when it comes to Santa: reject him, receive him or redeem him.

   I think our culture has grown to love Santa to the deep level of not fully being able to reject Santa. Santa does have Christian roots. His is the story of a man who loved Jesus and loved the poor and because of his love for both he took some of his earthly wealth and during the year St. Nick gave presents to children who otherwise would have nothing. St. Nick didn't spoil the kids with junk and expensive toys, nor did he know with magical powers who was naughty or nice. Neither could he fly or appear to the whole world in one night...those were the add-ons that should be rejected, but St. Nick himself shouldn't be rejected.

   I also think that we can’t fully receive him either. I've wrestled with this hard and long because I now have a child (and one on the way) who will soon start believing in such things. Do I want to lie to my children about an omnipotent, omniscient being who is fat, jolly and gives out tons and tons of toys, only to have them one day find out the truth and be crushed? I had to answer no. I don't mind having my son sitting on Santa's lap, or talking to him about the legend of Santa, or explaining how some of what Santa "does" is myth, I just can't pass those things off as truth. I just can't. If I am going to tell my son about Santa Claus and explain how he has similar powers to God and then later my son finds out that Santa is a fake, why would he then believe me when I talk about God? I actually had an atheist teen in my Youth Group ask me: "God sounds like Santa. Santa we say isn't real, why should I believe God is real?" That got me to think about this Santa Dilemma pretty deeply.

    A side from the lying...I don't want to set my son up for getting crushed emotionally. One day he will find out there is no Santa and it will crush him when he does, I just don't desire to be the one responsible for that kind of pain. Knowing that I for 4 or 5 years had lied to my son to only wait for the inevitable blow, and have the lights click on that Daddy had lied to him is too much for me to deal with. This sets up all kinds of loss trust and I am not willing to sacrifice my sons trust over a myth.

   Santa can be redeemed! He, like I said believed in Jesus, lived a life of charity for those in need and those are Christian attributes to be encouraged in our children. Christmas is about Jesus and St. Nick would be appalled at what we have done to take the focus off of Jesus in his name. I am not talking about "taking away Christmas Spirit"; I'm talking about infusing the True Christmas spirit into the Season that is the Spirit of God.

   Lastly, I desire to teach my children proper gratitude. If I get a gift for my child, I want them to know it was me who got it for them. I desire to be a good gift-giver to my kids so that I can the reflect how good our Father in Heaven is at giving gifts. If I say that Santa was the one who made and got these things for them, I have stripped them of proper gratitude because they will be thanking the air instead of their Father and Mother.

   It pains me that many Christians put more emphasis on Santa than Jesus and many may think my view to be a “Scrooge's Stance” but   Christmas is about the Advent of Christ, realizing His gift to me was His life and resurrection and at his birth that chain of events started. Christmas isn’t about what I get, it’s about what I already HAVE…Jesus.

   In conclusion, I want it to be known that I am in no way judging you for not holding my viewpoint on Santa Claus. I’m sure many of you will disagree and that’s OK. For me and my wife, we just can’t adhere to the Santa lie for our kids.

For more in depth conversation about this, check these two sites out:

Pastor Mark Driscoll on Santa-- Pastor of a large church in Seattle, WA

Real Parents discuss Santa-- Parents who struggle with this idea and voice their opinions

The Spirit in Ministry

2011-11-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

Recently, I went to a conference for Youth Workers with my co-workers: Reed and Sherese. There we had a great time together and learned much about ministry that we can attach to our lives and ministries! The content of the conference was chock full of take aways as well as thought provoking questions that need to be wrestled with.

I won't share the name of the conference however because I feel there was a major item missing from the conversations, workshops and main sessions. I don't desire to bash the conference in any way but simply desire to bring up a broader conversation piece I picked up on.

The thing I noticed about the conference was the lack of emphasis (or even mentioning) on the Person and Work of the Spirit.

Over and over again we heard about methods for ministry (youth and college age). We were opened to a world of new tech gadgets, new thoughts and even discussion on thinking theologically about Youth Ministry. These are all great and amazing things to learn about, yet real ministry happens by the work of the Spirit using us as His tools to do the work of the ministry.

One particular discussion panel was on where the human meets the divine. Here for sure, I thought the panel would strike up the conversation of the Spirit interacting with humanity and this is where the connection between the divine and human meet. Sadly, this was no where on the radar and when I stood to ask about this seemingly obvious tie in, there was no real response, simply a gentle glossing over.

I see this disparity in books about ministry as well. There is no real working ministerial theology of the Person and Work of the Spirit. It is only by walking in the Spirit that we can be effective ministers, but the conversation of the Spirit isn't even brought up. To me, this is why youth workers, and pastors are hitting the wall in ministry....they simply are taught over and over again that it is up to them and how they preach Jesus and how they understand methods and how they study culture and how they lead this and how they lead that! Sure some of the modes and methods are great and even helpful but without the Work of the Spirit within us we could try all the new stuff and end up producing a great ministry...without God in the midst.

Or, worse yet we try to do it all on our own as we are convinced it should be done and we burn out and walk away from Jesus ourselves, thinking it was a sick joke for Him to appoint us as ministers if it was all going to ruin everything.

Literally, in 5 days of being there I heard the words Holy Spirit once. I know there was a main speaker (which I missed) that discussed the Spirit a bit more, but that's all...everything else was directed at us "getting it done".

I love the people that put this conference on and I enjoyed every minute of my time there, I am simply trying to elevate a topic I noticed missing and I notice missing in most every ministry book I've read.

Here's my question pastors, lay leaders and whoever else cares: why do we neglect the conversation about the Spirit? Why do we not teach and preach on where the power for ministry comes from?

A.W. Tozer said: "If the Holy Spirit left today, only about 10% of the people would notice, the other 90% would continue ministry as if nothing happened". I think this true today as well, this is why I feel it is so important to elevate this conversation.

Community Among Young Adults

2011-11-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

It can’t be hidden: many American young adults are leaving—sprinting is more like it—away from the church. Over the years, my generation (Generation X as we are known) has been examined, tested, prodded, and poked all under the same umbrella of researching why we are leaving the church at such a rapid pace. It has also been a part of finding why those behind us in age are leaving even faster. As a member of this generation, I see many of the conclusions as far-gone and misguided. Much of the research done in the past dealt with modality, rather than deeper issues; deeper issues like the need for authentic community. Because community is so important among young adults, we as the church need to learn how to build true, authentic community in our churches.

Due to the modality type research, many churches adjusted their worship styles, others tried to have videos before their sermons while others tried to wear rocker clothes and say a couple swear words from the pulpit to have clout with this emerging generation. All of these attempts did little to nothing to address the real issues going on with the dissatisfaction with church from my generation and the generations after me. In fact, from my experience, if prodded, these young people would call such attempts a nice try at best and a disingenuous attempt at worst.

The beginning research was obviously not cutting it and fell far short of truly discovering what this generation was truly seeking in a religious body of believers. The authors in the book UnChristian did truly enter ground-breaking research that helped to pull back the curtain of the Wizard Oz (of the Gen X) Here, the authors Kinnaman and Lyons didn’t ask questions of “what do you want from church” as others had. They asked questions they knew would spark passionate (which translated into honest) answers such as: what ticks you off about “church”? What comes to mind with you think of “church or Christian”? Here they discovered that many people walking around in this generation believed that Christians were: anti-homosexuals, hypocritical, too political, only interested in converts and many other accusations (Kinnaman and Lyons, 2007). Much was learned from this research, including the desire for authentic community among young adults. Much of the findings found that many Christian and non-Christian young adults took umbrage with not only the lack of community among the church but also how fake the community that was formed seemed to be. Many young adults claimed they felt unwelcome among Christians, felt they needed to be “fixed” before they could join, and that there was no true acceptance of who someone wasn’t “fixed”. This then either meant one had to fake who they were to join the community or reject the community altogether; which proves the point that this was not a true community.

This research led the way for others to probe similar places in the Young Adult world and one the nuggets of discovery—of which there are many—is the concept of community being highly important to this generation. Community takes on different forms within this generation (and those following it); deeper forms of community than those in most churches. This idea of community so drives my generation that we seek it out; if it’s not where we are looking, we either create community or go somewhere else to find some. Others were coming up with similar answers about community and we soon found out that community was a central need for this generation.

Ed Stetzer in his book Lost and Found (which researches Gen X) says some pretty powerful stuff regarding community:

“The church has, for generations, spoken of community. However, most of us would agree that community has been more of an aspiration than a reality. We have “aspired” to build community, but it has scarcely been realized. And that has not gone unnoticed by young adults, both inside and outside the church” (Stetzer, 2009, p. 69).

Stetzer makes an astoundingly powerful point, of which I agree fully; my generation is seeking deeply real and honest community and when they look at the church they see back-biters, liars, and hypocrites. The kind of community they are looking to engage in allows for failures, isn’t power-hungry and in many ways is more Biblical than the current “pew community” tends to be. Generation X is looking for a community that shares together, lives life together, eats together, prays together, laughs together, confesses sins together, and yes even worships together. So far, as Stetzer brings to light, the current church culture in America hasn’t gotten it; in fact they miss it! Most church members in your typical church worship together by going to the building of the church, singing a few songs, and listening to a sermon they soon forget.

Gabe Lyons, a fellow Gen X member has done some great work after his co-writing UnChristian. His newest work: The Next Christians goes even deeper into the world of Gen X. He states, in that book:

“Communities are built on trust and intimacy born out of deep connections. But relational intimacy often comes only after people show willingness to be vulnerable about who they really are: their mistakes, bad habits, grandest dreams, and worst fears. I’ve found that intimacy flourishes when people are willing to “go there”: when they are willing to share their wildest dreams and greatest hopes in the context of a group that genuinely listens and cares about what they have to say” (Lyons, 2010, p. 153).

Lyons claims that this generation, desires community, but not just any community—one that is intrinsically involved—not simply a community that shows up and says “hi” once a week. This reminds me of Acts 2:42-47 where it talks of them meeting “day after day” and “having everything in common”; such a beautiful picture of community! At this point, one might be asking why do the Young Adults feel this way about church lacking community? Obviously, we’ve seen the lack of candid conversations, people not owning up to their issues, and an overall sense that most church people feel they need to pretend to be a “Christian”. These are true, but other things are at work. Take the idea of third space as an example; this is a big deal to young adults. Third space can be defined as the third place a person would choose to hang out or spend most of their time. People generally have three main places: home, work and their third space. This phenomenon didn’t really gain traction until a small company took heed to new research and decided to play on this idea of third space. This small company began to create places where live music, coffee, comfortable tables, and chairs were everywhere. This company also provided a good many people desired: coffee! The company which heeded the research of my Generation and won out: Starbucks. Their placement of comfortable chairs and tables was strategic more then nice. They desired to create a place where folks would congregate and have conversation.

Look at our local churches and ask this question: “Is it a third space?”; I bet you said no. Churches today seem stuffy and uncomfortable; so many young people stay away. This third space idea has more play than people may realize. However, I still agree with Lyons and Stetzer that the main issue is the lack of honesty and transparency among most Christians today.

Stetzer in his book shows similar ideas about being real and transparent through his research. He says these things in particular stand out:

“A belief that quality is greatly contingent upon transparency; honesty and vulnerability may help in both reaching and keeping young adults; an interest in seeing a relationship with Jesus lived out in everyday life; a desire to address and be open about struggles of life” (Stetzer, 2009, p. 73).

Stetzer’s research backs the belief if Lyons in that Gen. X is seeking a community of people who are honest about their life and struggles. I truly hold to this premise and firmly agree with both authors. They say young adults need community and a true, raw, honest type of community and I say yes, this is what we need. Lyons defines such a community as: “…a group of friends united around a common goal” (Lyons, 2010, p. 152).

We as believers have a common goal: glorifying Jesus and loving one another; we shouldn’t lack for any type of community, yet we do. I say without holding back, I truly believe the previous generations feared this type of community and so caused a programmatic form of church to be developed; rather than embrace a raw and real community they hid behind their programs. Programs trumped people; and I believe this is another reason why young adults stay away from church. When someone cares less about you and more about a church program it screams at them that they are just a number. Young adults desire a community that means something both to them and those around them. Program driven church doesn’t say this to the heart of a young adult.

However, the idea that many Christians are fake and hypocritical (Kinnaman and Lyons, 2007, p. 28) can’t be such a strong belief across the board of young adults without merit; it has to have stemmed from real interactions with current Church-going Christians. I have seen such a Christian; one who goes to church, “plays nice” with the other Christians at the weekly meeting and continues to live his life as a secular person; thinking nothing of his “Christian community” or Christ until the following week. Seeing this time and time again in my own life (and then hearing others have seen it too) makes me understand why many in my generation have stayed away from church.

The current form of church community is not working any longer and must be transformed into something new if we are to attract—or even keep—the current young adult generation in our churches. God can and will build his church; the question comes in as this: are we willing to change the way he asks us to? It won’t be easy for us to change the way we have always done things (program over people, lack of comfortable space), nor will it be easy to submit to such an intense change: where people are actually in our lives asking personal questions—of which we need to answer honestly—so we can maintain community. This new type of community—the community of depth and honesty—(according to Lyons) can touch the world (Lyons, 2010, p. 156). Young adults desire to be a part of a bigger picture that actually means something—for them and the world—so this drives them to be a part of a community that actually has deep, real meaning. The current generation knows that this type of community can not only effect positive change through us personally but can cause us to inspire one another to live out their Christian walk daily--which impacts the world!

Many churches seem to desire to reach out to this current generation (as was said earlier) yet many are hard pressed to change themselves in order to do so. I say this must happen; change must occur because we can’t maintain the course and expect better results. In order to attract and keep my generation in the church, we must offer viable, and authentic community. Without this vibrant culture of folks genuinely caring for one another, we will continue to see my generation leave the church. The church in America will cease to be the open door it desires to be and will become a closed off, un-likely seeker destination.

These studies shouldn’t shock many people; in fact we should have caught onto this community thing quicker, if we were really looking. For example, why did Starbucks take off the way it did? Was it the coffee? No, it was the “Third space” that it created. A space where people felt comfortable to be with one another, in community; people were congregating at the church of Starbucks, talking and getting into each other’s lives. Church was not a third space, not a place to cultivate community, so it missed out on something for a time. Let me probe you, the reader: are you living in community? Do you even see the need for such a deep community? Finally: how can you help to form a true community?

Let me paint a picture of what this community would look like: people having freedom to come to church without hiding their baggage, pain and sin. People walking into a people centered congregation where the Pastor cares more about individuals than programs and the “number of people in his/her church”. People being able to comfortably hang around church (not just on Sundays) and have deep, meaningful conversations; people not just asking “how are you doing” expecting a quick “I’m fine” but expecting a true (long if necessary) response of what’s really going on.

Community is a large and important piece to the young adult puzzle; one that must be put into place in order to more efficiently minister to this group of people. We need to get back to Acts type community if we desire to reach this generation where they are.

Works Cited

Stetzer, Ed. (2009). Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them. Nashville, TN. B&H Group and LifeWay Research.

Lyons, Gabe. (2010). The Next Christians: How a New Generation Is Restoring the Faith. New York, NY. Double Day.

Kinnaman and Lyons (2007). UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity and Why it Matters. Gran Rapids, MI. Baker Books

Pittsburgh Outreach!

2011-10-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Coming October 26 (Middle School) and October 28 (High School) My church (Allegheny Center Alliance Church) will be hosting a HUGE Outreach event and we want YOU to bring your youth group and their friends! Here is the description:

We have invited Nationally recognized Illusionist Danny Ray to entertain Pittsburgh Area Middle School students for night of deception and truth. Check out his website at www.DannyRay.tv His illusions along with his message place him in the upper echelon of Illusionists in the world and Christian speakers. Outreach Magazine said "It's probably safe to say that of the top sleight-of-hand illusionists in the world, Danny Ray is the only one with a Master's degree and 10 years of full time church ministry under his belt." We hope you will join us at Allegheny Center Alliance Church for this amazing event. Entertainment and light refreshments are all free and guests are highly encouraged to come, so please invite all your friends.

Questions? Contact the Student Ministries Pastors and Staff at 412-321-4333
Promotional materials can be downloaded @ www.acac.net/index.cfm/PageID/1038/index.html
High School Event can be found @ www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=224373124289909

Middle School Event can be found @ www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183396105068781

Don't miss out on this opportunity! The cost is FREE for all who come. There will be food, a kick-off show and a Nationally renowned Illusionist...think David Blaine or Chris Angel!!!

Call to sign up today!!

The Faith of Friends

2011-10-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was reading the story in Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus heals a paralytic.

Many of you reading this I am sure are familiar with this story.

"And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them" (Mark 2:1-2 ESV).

Jesus was preaching to a packed house (literally). No one could get in it was so jammed. Yet there was a crew of men who had a friend who was paralyzed. They desperately sought out Jesus because they truly believed he was the answer to the healing of this man. They sought to have their friend walk. The couldn't get in the door. The windows were probably too small are packed with people. They had to think quick and act fast. In those days, many of the houses had stairs to the roof, so they decided to go up to the roof, cut a hole and lower their friend right in front of Jesus, hoping against hope that Jesus would take pity on the man and heal him.

First, let's note the dedication of the friends in this story. These men were determined, nothing was going to get in their way of going hard after Jesus. Nothing, not even a crowd was going to slow them down from getting to Jesus.

Who knows how long their friend was paralyzed. Who knows if they were there when it happened to him. My guess is they were best friends before the accident that caused the paralysis. They knew this man from his former life and loved him.

No matter the story, these men were determined to bring him to Jesus and they did just that. Now, here is the part that blows my mind:

"And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."'(Mark 2:5 ESV)

That little sentenced caused me much time to pause. Jesus seeing their faith forgave the man's sins. Normally it comes down to the faith of the person forgiven in the other stories of this nature, yet the faith of the friends was what Jesus saw and their faith in Him caused Him to forgive the paralytic!

Think of the implications! The faith of the friends moved Jesus to action! They knew Jesus could heal his infirmity, but this, this is so much more! Does this mean that our faith on the behalf of others can move Jesus to action on their behalf? I think so!

This Sunday in the Chapel service at ACAC (my church) I was leading. During this service, we allow for a testimony time and one older lady raised her hand to share. She said that for 27 years she prayed for her husband to receive Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and after 27 years he accepted Christ and shortly after he passed away.

I believe her faith moved Jesus to action. She was willing to lose sleep over it. She was willing to pray until her heart ached. She prayed through year after year of no answer. Yet Jesus said to her husband after 27 years: "your sins are forgiven". He in that story had to choose that forgiveness, he had to ask for it for himself, but Jesus was working on him for 27 years.

As friends of non-believers, our faith can move God. Our prayers can help people come to know Him. Most of the time, I pray for myself, I think of myself and I try to get healing for myself. What if I was like the friends in this true life story? What if I fought through crowds and was creative enough to lower them before Jesus in any way possible?

The faith of friends is powerful. Jesus honored their faith. He not only forgave sins (BIG Miracle) he healed the paralysis (small miracle)!

Let us not lose heart for eternal or temporal healing for those we love!

Love, Sex, and Happily Aver After

2011-09-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

When I first signed up to read this book, I was unaware that it was: A.) a reprint and B.) a book for newly-weds or almost-marrieds. Needless to say, I was sad at finding these two things, yet I am glad to have read this book.

I am a huge fan of Craig Groeschell and lifechurch.tv, I think God is using him and the church to do great things in this country for the Name and Glory of Jesus.

This book follows along those same lines. Craig's style is very upfront, authentic and in your face. He doesn't peter around hot topics, nor does he give room for the reader to interpret his main intent...he just spits it out there and asks the reader to chew on it for awhile.

This book is written in that mode of thinking. Craig goes through many of the myths newly-weds or almost marrieds go through, such as sexual myths and the idea of "playing house before married". He attacks culturally upheld views of cohabitation before marriage as "OK" and breaks down how it can be dangerous for not only the marriage relationship as a whole but for the sexuality of the couple as well.

Craig then, after dismantling widely held, non-Biblical views about love, sex and marriage goes to reassemble the marriage story using the Bible as his main driving text. He asks the reader to rethink terms like "husband" and "wife" and to place a Biblical view over their eyes to see how God views those things and how we as the American culture have distorted a beautiful thing.

Lastly, he reminds the reader that this marriage thing is much more than saying the words "I do" but actually living out a covenant for life. Marriage is not a "legal contract" that a couple can someday (if they choose) get out of. It is a life covenant where you are physically, spiritually and emotionally lining your life with another.

This is a great book to hand engaged couples. I believe it will cause some people to rethink if they are fit for marriage and will also cause most to strengthen their marriage either before it begins or in the midst of it. It is a challenging read and much encouraged to any married person. It will remind us married folks what the covenant is all about and will help the engaged or single folks to see what marriage should be, not what is has been defined as by our culture.

Take time to read this one..it's worth it!

Has God Spoken?- Book Review

2011-09-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Many books have sought to disprove the Bible; others have been written to prove the Bible is the Word of God. This book is written with such an intent and it does a great job!

This is my second Hank Hanegraaff book and I was just as happy with the second book of his as I was with the first. Hank expertly takes on most of the criticism against the Bible and shows how the arguments against the Bible have little to no merit.

We find ourselves in a precarious place in history where the world would like to discredit the Scriptures and even factions within the church challenge it's validity, so a book like this is most very welcome into the fold of Christian literature.

I have heard, read or studied most of the points Hank brings in this book, but never have I seen such a compelling and comprehensive defense for Scripture.

This book will help anyone grasp how in fact the Bible is the Word of God. They will also see how history, astrology, archeology and many other scientific branches help prove the truths of Scripture. Hank takes you into each argument; shares what many in opposition to the Bible think and using the same modes the opposition used to disprove certain aspects of the Bible, he uses to prove those same aspects of the Bible.

I am sure I will use many of the facts found in this book to show those who ask how true the Bible is. The mere fact that is has been around for thousands of years without distortion is in and of itself a miracle, much less the prophetic words coming true.

I think this book is particularly compelling for people under the age of 30, where much of the recent debate has waged war on this age group and challenged them to see for themselves if the Bible really is true and useful for using as a guide for life. Many, if not all of the normal questions about the Bible's truth and validity are posed and answered in this book. Don't miss out!

In conclusion to my review here, I would like to say it is important to not only believe in the Holy Scriptures but to have an educated defense as to why the Bible is truly inspired and not just a fictional tale of feel good, moral lesson stories. This book truly gives the education needed in order to give an answer to those who ask about the Bible!

Spearfishing is Over!

2011-09-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

This morning as I was praying I saw a picture. The picture was of a massive sea with many fishing boats with men in the boats. Each man had a fishing spear in his hand and was attempting to fish in the sea with the spear.

I noted that this method of fishing wasn't working and I heard Jesus tell the men that they are not pulling in the amount of fish he set out for them to.

He asked them to change the way the in which they were fishing, yet the men ignored Jesus. They began to fiercely throw the spears so they could show Jesus that the method they chose would work and they could bring in a huge catch of fish if they just tried harder.

They continued in this manner until Jesus voice grew louder. He said that he would take them out of the water unless they made the appointed catch. He demanded they change the way in which they were fishing yet as the picture faded I saw no one change the way in which they were fishing.

This picture bugged me. I asked God what it meant and I remembered a verse: "I will make you fishers of men". Jesus in this verse was talking to his fishing disciples. He challenged them to leave their nets for fishing and pick up new nets for bringing people into the Kingdom of God.

Taking these two pictures together, I understood the Lord was trying to tell me that we, Bible Believing Christians around the world have been using fishing spears to catch the harvest of lost souls, rather than the more updated method of fishing: nets.

We've been neglecting the world of those lost because we thought we knew how to fish. We ignored the master fisherman and continued down the path with outdated and ineffective methods when we could be grabbing people by the net-full.

What does this all mean for the future way in which we minister? I have no idea, but in my heart and mind it clearly means some things need to be overhauled. Some things need to be different. I know of many people coming to the Lord recently...does this mean their are even more if we simply change the method in which we bring God's truth?

What are your thoughts? I share this because I feel it was powerful. What are some "Spearfishing" methods we need to change? What are some ideas that could be "Net fishing"?

PLEASE SHARE!!

I Need a Larger Bottle!

2011-09-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been a bit more as some writers call it "inside my own head" rather than writing my thoughts out. That coupled with some pretty busy days and weeks, I have neglected my writings as of late...I am sad it has been so long but so is life.

With that said, I believe I am back in the saddle and ready to get back to the constant writing I have become accustomed to. Yesterday, I was struck by something I considered to be pretty profound. It may just be me, but for me it has made a world of difference in the way in which I view myself in light of my need for the Holy Spirit.

I was reading in a book titled The Counselor: Straight Talk About the Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer, when I came across this awesome bit of writing.

"Dr. AB Simpson used an illustration which was about as good as any I ever heard. He said, 'Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with a Christian'. We are filled unto the fullness of God, but, of course, we cannot contain all of God because God contains us; but we can have all of God that we can contain. If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we go on with God" (Page 65).

This struck me so hard yesterday because I always pictured it kind of like a glass under the faucet, where the overflow of God could happen when the faucet was turned on. Yet, with this idea, we can spill out some of our Jesus and some of our Spirit power...not so with the ocean! When seen through our being contained an surrounded by the ocean of the Spirit it changes things! The overflow is then not limited to God but our ability to receive!

I realized that all along, I had been praying the wrong thing...rather than praying for His Spirit to overflow in me, I should have been praying for Him to enlarge my bottle, so as I can be able to receive more of Himself. I don't want to settle for the overflow of a small glass, I desire to be a HUGE basin drowned in the ocean of God!

It's such a soothing thought that there is so much more to God than we sometimes think. Our minds try to rationalize God, minimize God but He is a vast ocean containing several millions of Christians and His desire is that we would enlarge our bottles so we can receive even more of Himself!

WOW! I hope this hits some of you the way it hit me, because it is a sweet, sweet revelation!

Worship in the Church

2011-08-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

I am a preacher, a pastor and a teacher. I am not a worship leader, or am I?

I think in many ways, we have relegated the topic of "Worship" to simply being expressed in music, whether its in church on Sunday or singing along with your radio. Worship has become a formulaic definition, simplified by our meager attempts to explain it.

Worship is much more than we have allowed it to be defined as. I truly believe worship is not something that is done, but something that simply is. Worship is a part of who we are. We all worship, we all give praise, not just in snippets, but with our very lives.

Romans 12:1-2 says: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Our spiritual act of worship is one of complete surrender. A life given over as a sacrifice to the Lord. Every moment of my life should be an act of worship. My life should be surrounded in worship. My public life. My alone life. My sex life. My Father life. All should be set up as worship venues in which I give forth praise to God. When I preach, I am leading in worship. When I write I am leading in worship. When I have conversation with anyone, I am leading in worship.

When we relegate the term "Worship" to one aspect of life, to one style, one form, or one segment of a service we are in the wrong. Worship is deeper, richer and more fulfilling than that. It's not an easy formula, it's not a quick answer.

Some people when asked: "How's your worship?" People go immediately to how their church's worship service is on Sunday and they will say: "The music is too slow, too loud, too soft, too upbeat, too happy, too sad..." Or "I really like our new worship leader, I engage with God really well when he leads". This hints towards a simple expression of "My worship is dependant on Sunday morning and the people on the stage".

If you are only "really engaging in worship when a certain leader leads" you've missed the point of worship.

Worship is a life expression of surrender to God. Have you surrendered your life fully over to God? Every moment? I know I haven't. I know I have a ton of work to do in order to be living out my "spiritual act of worship". It's not easy to be a worshipper because it is a demanding business, it's hard to sacrifice my life to God. It's hard to live every moment given over to him...in fact its down right impossible.

I am sure many people have said what I just said, one of them is my good friend Ricky Ortiz who is on staff at my church as the "Worship Chief Musician". Why do we continue to limit worship? I am a worship leader, you are a worship leader so let's live out our calling as worshippers. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to give us the deep desire to lay it all out on the table.

Radical Together- Book Review

2011-08-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

After reading Radical by David Platt, I was excited for the chance to review Radical Together as well.

   This book is a good book. It has great content and a great heart behind it, but I feel it was severely rushed. I wanted more meat, not a rehashing of things said in Radical, which I think happened a lot in this book. Granted it is a companion to the first book and so overlap is clearly expected, but something struck me as disingenuous. Look, I am a writer, so I am getting to know how the publishing world works. David's first book was a skyrocket success, unexpectedly so.

I fear that he was pushed to write a companion soon so the sales could ride on the coat tails of the previous work. Because, let's face it publishing is a business and in business you ride on the coat tails of your successes and leave the newbies (who may have a great thing or two to say) by the wayside. It becomes more about the bottom line than not.

With all of that said, I did enjoy this book. David speaks with a raw authenticity rarely seen in Pastors of his status. He is honest, forthright and very open about who he sees himself as, as well as how he sees the church he leads. In this book, he takes the main thrust of Radical and puts it into a format the whole church can grasp and follow. In Radical it was more of an individual call, here it is more of a corporate call.

In my mind, if you have read Radical you don't really need this book, but if you haven't read Radical this book has great insights in it that will challenge and call you to a deeper community like way of living within your church body. However, after you read it and you have not read Radical I strongly recommend reading Radical because it is even more profound and even more in depth on how to break the American Mold and be the Christian God has called you to be.

In the front of the book Radical Together is a quick overview of the whole book, which I feel captures the ethos of the entire book. Here it is.

1. Tyranny of the Good
      One of the worst enemies of Christians can be the good

2. The Gospel Misunderstood
      The gospel that saves us from work saves us to work

3. God is Saying Something
      The Word does the work

4. The Genius of Wrong
      Building the right church depends on using all the wrong people

5. Our Unmistakable Task
      We are living and longing for the end of the world

6. The God Who Exalts God
      We are selfless followers of a self-centered God

That is the whole book summed up. Good stuff, but there could have been more. I hope the publisher didn't push for this before David was done gestating over it because if they did, we missed out on more. If not, it is a good little book to spend a couple hours reading and wrestling with.

Children of the Wind

2011-07-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

In Scripture, the Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as "Wind" or "like the wind". I love this picture because the wind is a mysterious force. We can feel it, we can see it's effects, but it is invisible.

The Spirit is much like the wind. He is powerful, mighty and we can see his works and might. We see the effects of the Spirit, yet he is invisible.

In the book of John, we see an exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus on the issue of being born again. Nicodemus is perplexed by the idea of a new birth or being born again and so Jesus is explaining it in a simpler way. He says:

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8 ESV)

Wind is powerful. Wind is strong. The wind changes things, yet people have no idea where it came from or how it came about...it just happens. For us who have witnessed a storm, or any wind moving, bending or changing things, this is easy to accept.

The same is true for everyone who is born of the Spirit.

The Spirit is powerful. The Spirit is strong. The Spirit changes things, yet people have no idea where it came from or how it came about...it just happens.

The world sees a drug addict turn to Jesus and lives the rest of their life free from addiction. The man addicted to porn encounters Jesus and never looks at porn again. The angry woman, rejected by her earthly father despises marriage, meets Jesus and her heart is changed. The sinner meets Jesus, is changed and releases the burden of their sin.

Born again. Change. New Birth. New creation. All made possible by the death of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The word for spirit in this passage is also the word for wind. When you see the word wind in the beginning of the passage, it is the same word used for Spirit...the exact same one. So, when we are children of the Heavenly wind, that is the Spirit we change. We don't go back in our mother's womb. We don't get a new physical birth. We are born of the Spirit of God. When this happens, we change. Our nature has shifted from sinner to saved. Our chains have been released from Sin and now we can take up Jesus burden, which is lighter.

The wind is mysterious, so is the Spirit. The wind can be dangerous, so can the Spirit. The wind is unexpected, so is the Spirit. The wind doesn't warn you when it will make a change, the Spirit doesn't always. The Spirit in the believer is one of the most amazing things about God, that he would choose to dwell in us. That he would choose to give us the power to live the Christian life. That He would teach us by His Spirit. It's amazing. I am a child of the wind, the Spirit of the living God.

BEWARE: sometimes the wind makes changes we don't like. Breaks things we have become accustomed to in life. The Spirit does the same. He may move us to change. He will give us new desires, desires to read His Word, desires to serve Him only. Will you yield to His promptings? Will I yield to His promptings? The wind doesn't hold back, neither does the Spirit. Are we willing to ride the winds of change that the Spirit will bring to our hearts? Will we release our burdens and take His upon us?

Being a child of the wind means we too are dangerous, we too have power...not of our own but from Him. We are not weak robots who are on this earth to simply go to church once a week and call that our "religious requirement". We are to be Warriors, listening for where the wind (The Spirit) would have us go. Speak to those who need his touch. Pray for those who need his healing.

Being a child of the Wind is an adventure, an exciting ride. Am I ready? Are you ready?

Louisville DAY 5

2011-07-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wow! Did it really go this fast? Day 5 is done, over, finished and tomorrow we will head home to your loving arms. The great thing is that you are armed with so much information as to what we've been up to you will have a great starting point for conversation when they get back!

I wish I could give my best effort explaining the day we had but I will simply talk about the evening because it was amazing and I need to get to bed!

Tonight we engaged in a tremendous time of worship. We sang some powerful songs and the mood in the room over all was pretty worshipful. Then we heard a talk about loving differently and how Jesus was God but still loved others with a servant's attitude, so much so that he washed his disciples feet!

Then, the speaker announced that the Youth Works staff were going to wash the leaders feet, then we the leaders would wash your teens feet. When the staff washed our feet, they also prayed over us and so we leaders did the same, we prayed over your students.

God's presence was thick and very real to your teens this evening. Many of the leaders spoke truth over your teens and shared God's truth about them. These truths so impacted your teens that many of them cried from how overwhlemed they were by the love of God and the meaning of God's truth to their hearts. It truly was a touching time.

We leaders are lucky to have your teens this week. I am proud of each one of them, so thank you for allowing them to come, serve like Jesus and hear God's voice. Many of your students mentioned they changed this week. A good deeper discussion question would be "How do you think you changed this week?" So don't be afraid to ask deep, probing questions...because you might just have your socks blessed off, I know we leaders sure did!

Well, its a bit shorter than usual but I know you prefer I get a good amount of sleep before we hit the road. As always, the facebook page is full of new photos, so check them out and enjoy here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814&type=1

Please pray for safe travels for us tomorrow and SEE YOU SOON!!!

Louisville DAY 4

2011-07-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Day 4 is in the books and it was the best day yet! We did our normal schedule as the morning goes. We woke up at 6:45, had breakfast, did devotions and headed to our sites.

My group got to go to a different site this morning where we got to hang out with the Elderly at a site called Kling Retirement Center. There my group engaged on many levels with the older folks but their favorite interaction was with an older guy named Marvin (not me). He kicked their tales at Wii bowling for about an hour, then eventually Josh Grant took Marvin's pro status and then our kids started to beat him at bowling. They loved it!

The group for highlight today is not my group however, but my hero of a wife's group. Many of you may not know, but Hilary is 4.5 months pregnant and she and Craig are heading up a great group of students and leading them well! Hilary and Craig's group: Nate Zeigler, Analese Erickson, Abby Furman, Gabriella Owens-DeMarco, Sage Wilson, Hannah Thompson, Josh Dever, Elena Matos, Joshua Thomas and Elisha Barlett were asked to be the team that stays all day with a Salvation Army Day Camp.

They spend each day going around with these 25 students, helping to teach, lead games and hang out with them. They've engaged with these students every work day so far and have developed great relationships with the kids. One kid, which I continue to hear about is Sammy. Gabriella always shares stories about Sammy and how much he loves them and church.

I asked Hilary today who she would nominate for "student of the day" and she said two names: Josh Dever and Nate Zeigler. She asks them everyday to develop and lead the gym time and she said they've been doing great at it! They make up the games the kids are to play, then lead an entire hour of game time! They are helping Hilary lead gym time because she just can't do it and says they do a great job! I would love to show you pictures of this great work, but due to issues with the campers families, photography is strictly prohibited.

After our work day, we headed back for free time and dinner. We had Taco Wednesday! After tacos, we headed to our evening event, which was a Black Baptist Church down the road. Our kids joined right in because the service felt very close to home! The worship time was great and the message was spot on for many of our kids: "God can't catch what you don't throw" was the title and could be boiled down to this: We are called to cast our worries, burdens and cares upon God, but if we aint throwing it, he can't catch it...so throw you burdens to Jesus!

Many of our teens were touched by this as well as the evening lesson titled: "Reacting Differently" Where we were challenged to react different than we normally do to life situations. We read about the wicked servant who was freed a large debt, yet held a person to a much lesser debt. We discussed the idea of reacting with the same grace we've been given.

Last came my favorite part of the day/night...we broke into our church group! Here we talked further about the lessons we learned and how we could apply them. I was about to break into our normal small groups, but felt the Holy Spirit ask me to keep them in a big group and share what God has been doing in and through them. I was blown away at how impacted these students have been! God has really been growing them. Several students stated that this week has changed their lives. I challenged them to not let slip away the lessons they've learned here and called them out to allow God to help them live this way more than just this week. We went late so I didn't have any interviews, but man was it worth it!!

God is doing a deep work in your teens. Keep praying. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day physically, emotionally and spiritually. Please pray for the teens to have good attitudes, and open hearts to hear and feel the love of the Father!

There is so much more to tell, but not nearly enough space! Don't forget the pics at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814
and the videos at www.youtube.com/picako7

LOUISVILLE Day 3

2011-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Day 3 is almost in the books. God has done several things already today. All of our teens have smiles on their faces and are still buzzing with energy.

We woke up at 6:45 again this morning, and headed to breakfast. This morning was a treat because we had biscuits and gravy as well as cereal and fruit! Many of the students were excited for the new cuisine. We ate, cleaned up then headed down to devotion time where we learned about acting differently because believing differently (as we learned about yesterday) should then translate into acting differently. God spoke to our teens about this idea of acting differently and I think many did act differently!

Today, the group for highlight is Gary Gazica and BJ Miller's group which includes: Brian Foster, Natasha Yeso, Umoja Shaw, Vivian Jones, Alisa Quemado, Michaela Sibbet, Katie Trimble, Josh Kovaly, Mikey Bliss, Will Moman, Nick Vignone and Jared Zeigler. These folks were troopers today! They worked with the elderly in the morning, playing checkers, pool, wii bowling and scrabble. They hung out, chatted and enjoyed the company of those they served. After that they moved into the 95 degree heat to mulch trees.

This is why I called them troopers because none of them complained and all worked hard, despite the uncomfortable conditions. Gary highlighted Alisa Quemado especially stating "She worked harder than anyone else!" I am so proud of this group because of their servants hearts and their amazing hard work!

Many of the other groups have been doing amazing things as well. My group scraped up paint, repainted some walls then hung out with some hyper kids! Others spent all day with kids, teaching them and loving on them.

Again, I am amazed at the hearts of our teens. They serve with joy and even when the weather is hot and they are obviously tired, they continue to push through. After our sites, we visited the historic Church Hill Downs Museum and learned many things about the historic site and the many races they host throughout the year.

Later, we headed back for pizza dinner and some free time. Tonight, we are going to continue our talk about Acting differently where we will see in the book of Luke where some of Jesus followers acted differently and how it effected their lives for the good.

Continue to pray for safety and for the students hearts to be ready to receive what the Lord desires to share with them!

Below are some videos from yesterday where Mike and Gabriella share their experiences from their work sites. Enjoy! Don't forget to check in at www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin for more pics and www.youtube.com/picako7 for more movies (which I will put interviews on from today's activities)! For pics from today go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814

Thanks for the blessing of your teens this week!

LOUISVILLE Day 2

2011-07-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, today was packed but it was still AWESOME!

We woke up at 6:45 and got ready for the day. Many people were a bit groggy but in pretty good spirits. We ate a delicious breakfast meal at 7:15, cleaned up breakfast and the facility then headed to our morning devotion time.

Once we got to the devo time, you could feel the excitement of the day welling up in the kids. They were all anticipating what was coming and were seemingly ready for it too. We spent 20 minutes in our devotions, then headed out to our sites.

We all pretty much arrived at our sites around 9:30am and hit the ground running. In my group (Nate Davis, Josh Grant, Zach Hanson, Austin Reed, Shelly Kovaly, Trey Bailey, Calema Graham, Rebecca Rodney, Allison Turnbull, Morgan Moman and Caylyn Smiley Jones) we headed to a Baptist church. This church had a flood 2.5 years ago that wiped out their whole basement. Our task was to clean and prime the space and tomorrow we paint it. The students did an amazing job! There hearts were full and their hands were busy. God truly used them to bless this church. After we were done there, we ate lunch and then headed out to our 2nd site, which was a Boys and Girls club. There we played sports, watched movies, played games and helped keep the kids in line. Again, the teens jumped right in and engaged with the kids. Many I saw really getting to know some of the little kids and starting a good relational foundation we will keep throughout the week.

I will try to highlight a different groups day in the coming days, so don't worry, more news of different children is forth coming. Some groups helped refugees learn English, helped refugees move into their apartments, worked alongside the elderly, and helped run a day camp. Glory to God all the leaders reported a great, safe first day. All of our teens had great attitudes and servants hearts as they did these adventures today. Craig Lawhead specifically named Josh Dever and Abby Furman as servants serving like Jesus!

After we had out projects, we headed home for free time and dinner. We hung out, showered and ate spaghetti!

Later we headed to a park to enjoy some sports and water spickets! We had a blast playing football, Frisbee and running through the water park.

Next we headed back to our site and had our club time where we learned about "Believing Differently". The speaker shared about the Centurion and his faith. He touched on the fact that the Centurion had more faith then others because he believed differently. We were asked to rethink some things we take for granted in the Christian faith such as: Jesus Loves Me. We know it, but do we believe differently than just knowing it?

We broke up into small groups and discussed what we learned and many students were catching the fact that they didn't believe it as deeply or as intimately as they should have. It was a great and powerful evening!

I can't tell you enough how much God is doing in your students here in Louisville. He is stretching them for sure but they are starting to see that there is so much more to this Christian life than they originally thought. Please keep praying for there attitudes and their openness to hear and see God this week!

Below is an interview with Nate Davis. I will be posting these on my youtube account : www.youtube.com/picako7 as well as the ACAC Student Min Facebook: www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin check all the videos and photos out! Great shots of all the students!!

LOUISVILLE, Day 1

2011-07-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

We did it! We’re safe and all are getting ready for bed. The ride up was wonderful, scenic and fun. We sang songs, played games, and had an all around great trip to Louisville, KY.

On the road, we only stopped 3 times. The first stop was a 12 minute…YES only 12 minutes (your kids rock) rest room break. The second was a lunch at Wendy’s, which when put all on one bill equaled a long receipt!! The third stop was one more rest stop and we were in Louisville by 5pm! We stayed the speed limit, saw no accidents and hit mild traffic near Cincinnati, OH.

God has been so good so far! Getting here safely, having good fellowship in the car and eating a wonderful meal of Pulled Pork and Mac & Cheese…I told the kids MJ would be so upset knowing I ate “Maceeroni”!

After dinner, we headed into our club time where we learned the theme of this week, which is “Be Different”. We read from Luke 6:27-31 where Jesus challenged his disciples to be different in the way they treat each other and their enemies. After our club time of great worship and good intro message, we headed into our church group time where we challenged your teens to step up to the plate and be mature and to hear and see God this week. I specifically called out the new 8th graders to be leaders and to show the younger group what being on a missions trip is all about. We then broke into smaller groups where we talked about how we try to fit in and how we can try to be different. We then prayed as small groups and headed to bed.

Pray for tomorrow as we embark on our first service projects. Some of us will be building and working with the elderly. Others of us will be working with the inner-city kids at a summer day camp and still others of us will be working with refugee kids teaching them English. Pray for strength and a strong desire to see God in their life as well as the lives they are working with.

To see up to date photos and videos make sure you visit www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin

LOUISVILLE, Here we Come!

2011-07-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Myself and 47 other people will soon be leaving on our missions trip to Louisville, KY!!

I am taking a group of wonderful Middle Schoolers and this is the blog to check in on! Everyday I will post pictures, videos and the like in order to show how God is moving in the lives of the kids at ACAC as well as in the people we serve.

I am excited and pumped for this trip and know that God will do great things! Many of the students going this year will be experiencing short terms missions for the first time, which means some parents are first time "senders" if you will. If that's you, don't worry, your kids are safe and will be serving the King this week. Pray that God will grow them, stretch them and show them more of Himself as they serve like Jesus serves.

This years Youth Works theme is "Be Different" and that's what this trip is all about. Many teens sit at home, eat junk food, watch TV all day and do nothing with their summer. These teens will be different and experience missions, serving Jesus! We will be working with the inner-city summer day camps, the homeless, city planting and the elderly.

Please pray for safe travels, expectant and servant hearts and for God to show up in a big way in the lives of the teens and those we serve!

Keep your eyes peeled as we daily unwrap the news for you right here!

On the Verge- A Book Review

2011-07-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

I recently found out about the opportunity to blog on this book and I took it. The funny thing is, I already bought the book on NOOK and had read it because the title intrigued me as well as the fact that I enjoy and respect the authors very much.

If I am honest, one simple review of this book will not be enough. There is so much meat in this book that there isn't enough time and space to discuss the implications of it all here in this blog. Yet, I will do my best to do so.

The authors: Hirsch and Ferguson are men that not only teach what the next wave of church ministry should look like, they are actually out there creating it and doing it. This book is a compilation of what these men have seen now and are seeing into the future as it pertains to the church, her future and the shifting that needs to take place within her paradigm.

The reality these men quickly come to is that the current strong wave of "church" isn't working and something has got to change. In fact everything must change and go back all the way to the Apostles.

In the introduction they say: "So we have a vexing situation where probably 90% or more of evangelical churches in America (and other Western contexts) are aiming at becoming a model that not only is improbable for the vast majority but also (even if they could crack the codes) effectively would still just be competing with other churches for the same 40%" (On the Verge, p. 28).

Things are broken, where churches are fighting for the same people, not reaching out to new, non-Christians, but are simply content with old Christians seeking a church "for them". Hirsch and Ferguson are burdened for the lost, so they propose a new shift: an Apostolic shift.

They break this shift up into 4 categories: Imagine, Shift, Innovate and Move.

Imagine- Here the reader is challenged to imagine new ways of doing church, that are outside of the current paradigm. Move beyond what is known in your mind and imagine something new. "If You Can't Imagine It, You Can't Do It" (p. 39 in NOOK). We need to begin new movements of church that are new while still holding to the truth of the Gospel, otherwise the church is in serious trouble.

Shift- Here we see the need to make the shift in our thinking from just imagining it to making it start to form. My favorite part of this section was there mDNA which is the DNA that needs to be attached to all the new shifts of paradigms. It includes six things: Jesus is Lord, Disciple-making, Missional-incarnational impulse, Apostolic environment, Organic Systems, and Communitas. Again, I don't have time to get into what all this means (so you'll have to read it) but it is incredible the way these men flesh out this new reality.

Innovate- In order for these new things to happen, we have to innovate ways of implementing them. Designing the new church will need to be innovative and will take a ton of innovation. Ferguson says int the book: "Innovate or Die". We need to find out how to make this new imagined church come to life, or we will die. Here, the spark of creativity is fanned into flames and you will find your heart dreaming and making new innovations as you read because these men just simply draw out the desire and the ideas with which I feel they honor God with. A great equation that sums up this section is: Imagination x Implementation = Innovation.

Move- Now that we have the vision, the focus, the ways to get it done, we have to move. We actually need to put up or shut up. This chapter encourages the movementum of the church to take over and move into the future these new ideas of church.

Again, as I said before, there is so much meat here that I am not even scratching the surface with what I brought here. This is a quick, brief summary which doesn't do this book justice but I hope it inspired you to read this book because I think this book needs to be read and implemented. This book encourages the freedom we need to rethink church and ministry, the modes and the methods, but certainly NOT the message.

My imagination was sparked. My heart burned to create, and so will yours.

Erasing Hell- A Critical Review

2011-07-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hell. It's been a hot topic since Rob Bell wrote his book Love Wins. Which caused many outcries, name callings and blog-o-fights.

I joined my voice into the fray after I read Love Wins and jotted down some of my thoughts: Love Wins- A Critical Review . In that post, I stated that Rob brought great questions to the table...questions that, if we Christian leaders are honest have been asked but largely under-commented upon in the way in which Rob did. Questions and questioning are in fact good, and desperately needed but as I stated in my post on the book, Rob strayed from what the Bible states about Hell.

Francis Chan I think was ignited by this discussion on Hell, so much so he decided to join the conversation with his newest book Erasing Hell.

Francis is the person I feel should have done this. After reading his book, I realized that too many of us (myself included) have been too cavalier with the idea of Hell, treating it simply as a doctrine rather than a true destiny. Francis came at the subject with Holy Spirit led humility, refusing to bash Bell, or others who hold his view yet systematically dismantling the wrong theology Bell placed in his book.

Francis reminds us in this book that Hell is a serious deal and if we are "excited" to read a book about Hell, something is seriously wrong with us.

Francis does a remarkable job of bringing the severity and seriousness of Hell, but he also explains the Jewish view on Hell, Jesus view on Hell and the Christians view (who wrote about Hell in the New Testament). He takes us on the journey to see that if Jesus strayed from the view of Hell that his Jewish peers held, he would have had to seriously oppose it. Yet we see Jesus using similar language as those who held that Hell is a real, literal place of torment which will either be for eternity or annihilation, and doesn't leave room for one to leave once there.

Francis, I believe had the right attitude writing this book, an attitude that had I been writing wouldn't have been displayed. He says in the book that we become haughty and arrogant about our Biblical knowledge that we forget that real people, real souls are at stake. We must care for the lost and Francis shares openly in the book that he ignored talking about Hell because it embarrassed him. Yet after writing this book, he has a new passion and burden for the lost, because their lives on earth really do have sway in their eternal destiny.

I must say I was humbled by this book and taught much about Hell and why we Christians believe the way we do about it. Jesus desires all to know Him. We are the vessels to bring the Good News. Humbling, sobering thoughts indeed.

I encourage any one to read this book. It does go deeply into the doctrine of Hell and gets intense and very humbling. I am grateful to Francis for not only undertaking this effort, but humbly admitting that it is more serious than just fighting over doctrines...we're talking about live people's destinies...we can't afford to get this wrong.

What Do You Want?

2011-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Think of the first thing you would expect Jesus to say to his first disciples.

What did you come up with?

Me, I would expect a profound statement of his purpose, or a simple, easy to understand illustration portraying who he is and why they should follow him.

Was your thought similar?

Actually, Jesus didn't pronounce himself as anything to his first disciples, John the Baptizer did. Nor did Jesus make bold claims or share any super astonishing truth.

Jesus first words to his first disciples were: What do you want?

"The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), 'where are you staying?'" (John 1:35-38 ESV, emphasis mine)

Jesus sees them following him after John's pronouncement and asks them what they want from him.

This may not strike you the same way it struck me and in fact you may think it's pointless to point out, but to me, Jesus is asking a deep question.

These men were just following John, a crazy, sugar and bug eating woodsmen who was demanding repentance before the Messiah came. John declares to them that the one they have been waiting for is here, and "Behold" it's Jesus. They then proceed to follow him, without asking. He walks by, they without hesitation run after him once they hear John's proclamation.

They have made finding the Messiah and then following him their life's goal. They don't appear to have families yet, both are assumed to be young and they follow Jesus.

Jesus doesn't mince words, he goes deep and asks a simple question: what do you want?

You've been waiting for the Messiah, have you? Why? What is it you expect or want from the Messiah? What would the purpose of you following the Messiah be? Do you want fame? Do you want glory?

It's a profound moment for these guys. What do they answer?

They simply want to hang and be with Him. That's how they answer. They say: "Where are you staying?" In essence, where are we going? Can we stay with you? Can we eat meals together? They want community with Jesus. They want to know Him. They want to ask questions. They simply just want to be with Jesus.

Reading this story yesterday made me wonder: what do I want?

If Jesus were to turn back and ask me what I wanted out of following him...what would I say?

Well, now, following him is kind of my profession...but that's a cruddy answer and not what I want from following him.

I would hope my answer would be the same as the first two disciples (who were Andrew and the other was suspected to be John himself), which was: to know you, to be with you. Is that my answer? Not every day, no. However, I desire it to be.

So I leave it to you: What do you want?

Enemies of the Heart

2011-07-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

I've heard a lot about Andy Stanley and the tremendous ministry he has but have never read a book of his until now. Andy writes in an incredibly easy to read manner and tends to be a good mix of conversational and instructional in his approach.

Enemies of the Heart was a good read, where Andy highlighted 4 major enemies to the heart of the believer: Guilt, Anger, Greed and Jealousy. At first glance, these don't look as ruthless to the believer as they truly are. Andy highlights the dangers each one of these enemies plays to the life and heart of the believer as well as how to battle through these.

Andy breaks these enemies down like this:

Guilt: I Owe You
Anger: You Owe Me
Greed: I Owe Me
Jealousy: God Owes Me

I had never previously seen these four enemies so easily explained, but he hits the nail on the head with each one.

Andy discusses how each one of these are enemies of the heart because they start and end in the heart. Guilt robs the heart of confession. Anger robs the heart of forgiveness. Greed robs the heart from generosity and jealousy robs the heart of celebration.

Andy states that in order to counteract guilt, one needs to confess; for anger one needs to forgive; for greed one must become generous and for jealousy one must celebrate when others succeed.

Sounds simple, but as you will find out in the book, it's not as easy as it sounds. This book will cause you to reflect deeply on your heart. It will expose sins and issues you never expected to actually be there and will draw you closer to the Holy Spirit as you learn to yield to Him more than you have been.

I really enjoyed this book and was able to read it fairly quickly. I suggest if you are experiencing a heavy heart to read this book. If you are struggling with generosity, celebrating others, confession or forgiveness...read this book; it will challenge you as well as help you through.

Missing Jesus

2011-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". (John 1:9-13 ESV)

I've been re-reading through the book of John and I continue to get hit with some great things in this book. John is, I think my favorite author of the Bible. He wrote John, 1-3 John and Revelation, all of which are books I deeply enjoy and grow much from reading.

Here, in the opening pages of John's Gospel, we see something very interesting happen. God Himself comes to earth and many miss it.

John shares this beautiful story of God coming into human history, dwelling among the people (John 1:14 ESV) and he shares that we was not received by His own people. In essence, they missed Jesus, God come from Heaven, putting on flesh to live among them and they miss him.

What a thing to miss. What a sad testament to the greatest teachers of the Bible history has known.

I think the question needs to be answered: who missed Jesus?

Here, one must look at the totality of Jesus' life in order to find the answer. Some people did receive and find Jesus, others did not. The group that seemingly missed Jesus the most however were the religious Bible Teachers of the day. The guys who knew the Bible inside out, anticipate the Messiah the most and preached sermons on Saturdays for years on end...those were the guys that missed God.

When I see this played out in the story of Jesus, I automatically start calling those guys bone heads and ask: "How could you miss Him?" Yet, I have their same title today: Religious Leader. I am a leader in Christianity. I am a Pastor, I am a Bible teacher.

Once this reality sinks in, a get a bit humbled. I now start to think: would I have missed Jesus? Maybe I would have. Maybe I struggle with the same things the Pharisees did.

Maybe I need to ask now: Why did they miss Jesus?

Here again, we need to look at all 4 Gospels, the total picture of Jesus life. What did Jesus call them out on the most? What did he suggest through his rebukes was the reason they missed it?

Self-righteous Pride

These men were very worried about their appearance. These men wanted the respect and love of the people. These men desired to control the mass populace with their rules. They earned it, they assumed because of their amazing life. The deserved God's love and the unwavering loyalty from the people because they served God and they lived their lives for Him.

Yet, whose applause did they live for? Who did they seek to give the honor, praise and glory to? Why in fact did they dedicate their lives to service to God?

I think deep down they desired to serve God, but their pride and the motive of self won each time. They loved the honor they received. They loved how the masses followed their new regulations, which were added onto the Law from God.

Jesus shook this group up. His coming was not as they expected. These men were so blinded by what they "predicted the Messiah would look like" that they missed Him. They had wrongfully assumed that the box they build for the Messiah would fit and anyone who didn't fit the box was obviously (to them) not the Messiah and no one (not even God Himself) could deter them from this.

Now, with that in mind, I can look into myself and ask: would I miss Jesus?

Have I added to the Bible for control of others? Have I desired the applause of men over God? Do I try to fix and clean my appearance, while ignoring my heart? Have I boxed God in so much that I couldn't let God himself bust my box?

The answer is sadly yes. I do care too much what others think. I do try to make myself look nice and neat on the outside while my heart is a mess. I have boxed God in and I like the way my boxed God functions.

God desires to break my box. He desires to call me out and make me different than I ever thought possible. He is expanding my box. He is calling out my heart and demanding that I think less of other people's opinions and think more of His opinion. I do NOT want to miss God. No matter how busy I may get, no matter how hard things get, may I not Miss God!

Do you struggle like the Pharisees? Have you boxed God in?

May You also come to see Jesus and walk in the promise that seeing Him brings: being called a Child of God!

Politics in Church

2011-06-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

As a young Pastor, I can confidently say that one of the most divisive things within the church in America are Politics.

No matter what, this topic ignites fight after fight within the church and causes people to choose sides, all the while wounding their brothers and sisters in the process.

It, to me is sad that so often in the church we choose our Political Party over our brother and sister in Christ. The reality is one day political parties will be destroyed and there will only be God and our brothers and sisters. Why would we choose anything that has a time limit on it over eternal things?

I know I have had my own political blogs, one not so well received discussion about Osama Bin Laden and others about Obama. On neither of those topics though did I claim sides, nor political parties I simply expressed what I felt and asked for dialogue, as I am attempting here.

My opinion on politics in church is that it is a destroyer of community and unity within the body. If we are believers in Christ, and are made new by the Spirit, it doesn't matter what your political background or party is. I find it a sad testament to the church itself when people will judge your salvation based on which candidate you vote for or which political party you belong to. I know this happens, because my salvation was judged by someone I deemed a friend when I told them I voted for Obama in the Presidential election. Some of you may not like that even today.

Here again, it may seem I am taking a "political side" but I am not, because all of my other votes in that certain election were for all Republicans so as the power wouldn't fully rest with one party. Let's not rest here, because it could deter from my point.

My point is that politics in the church are dangerous. Dangerous because we simply can't contain our zealot hearts from backing up our beliefs with arguments. If we were a place where understanding and love flowed, people could open up about who they voted for or what their political bent is. As the American church is today however, one wouldn't dare for fear of being "labeled" and out casted.

Some of you may wonder why I am bringing this up during a "political lull" where little political things are being done and spouted and my answer is because it's low tension season which will SOON swing into high tension season...

In my heart, I truly believe we as the Body of Christ need to remain united more than ever in this tumultuous time. I fear our political party has become more god to us than God himself, partiotism has covered over our vigor for the church and our campaigns for certain candidates have over shadowed our evangelism for Christ.

Sure we have a duty to lead this country for Jesus and we desire the most "Christ-like" candidate to take the Presidency but we must stop fooling ourselves: we no longer live in a Christian nation. Christ does not reign in the hearts of many in office. The nation we desire to have we will never have until Christ returns. God will bless this nation through us, his church as we serve this world through our love of one another and the lost and we've been lacking hoping out candidate and the country will do what we are supposed to do.

The world around us has changed and we've been stuck thinking its the same. If we truly believe the Scriptures, everything will get worse before it gets better as it pertains to world leaders. This doesn't mean we stop praying for our leaders, it doesn't mean we stop voting and trying to get the best person in there it simply means we need to change our hope from the leaders of this world onto Christ. It also means we need to be more active in the healing of this world rather than hoping our vote is enough.

Let's stop the fighting over which party we belong to and start fighting for the Lord to reign in our hearts and live his love out through us.

I may be off on this subject, so I desire some feedback. What do you think about Politics and church? Is it safe? Why do we attack one another? I will be doing a radio show on this topic in a couple of weeks and would love some feedback and maybe some callers on the subject! Thanks friends!

Marv Nelson
ACAC Student Ministries Pastor

iLife-It's All About Me!

2011-06-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today, I am doing a talk on iLife- Who are you living for? I fear that all too often, even though we may not notice it, we tend to live for ourselves, so our lives become literal "iLife's" because it's all about what "I can get" or "what I can do" and we miss the real focal point of true living.

As I survey the teen culture, this iLife is pervasive in the lives of our teens and sadly we have created it for them. We adults are responsible for a legacy of greed and selfish living. We desire what we want and we don't stop until we get it...so it's no wonder this trait has been passed onto our adolescent offspring.

I am guilty of being selfish just as anyone else is, but I live as if I am not selfish...weird little pickle I find myself in. I thought I was living life for Jesus...then I got married and had to realize that I was all too comfortable with living how I pleased. Now I had to share time, share space, share money and *gasp* actually "get permission" if you will on whether I could buy a new expensive toy or not.

That in and of itself I thought was a tough adjustment, so by the time I found out Hilary was pregnant with MJ I thought I was now a selfless human being...finally on track with living for Jesus.

Then MJ actually was born. I lost (and still do) countless hours of my precious sleep. I had to be interrupted by cries when I tried to study for my ordination. "My" money was being spent on things I never heard of before: bottles, special soap, diapers, wipes, butt cream, clothes (even though they are MUCH smaller, the price tag doesn't reflect that), baby food, car seats and much much more.

This is where it hit me: I've been living for myself, even though I thought I was living for Jesus.

I'm finally ready to admit it: I am selfish and need God to strip me of myself daily. Even some of the stuff I've "done for God" I am slowly being able to see are tinted (OK, sometimes downright plastered) with selfish motives.

Tonight, with the Middle Schoolers, I won't bore them with things they don't understand (like getting married and wiping their baby's butt), however I will share with them the story of the Rich Young Ruler from Mark 10.

Here, we see a guy that thought he was all good. He was a good man (he followed the law), a rich man (wealth equals God's favor in the Jewish mind) and a powerful man (power also translated into God's favor for many). He possessed the "trifecta" for what many Jews thought was a clear ticket into heaven. He followed the law and had the perceived favor of the Lord.

YET, Jesus says he's missing something.

His good living was not for the Lord, but himself. He loved the wealth and power he had more than following God. He was a man who lived a great life for one purpose: selfishness.

Our world is full of good people, but who are they living for?

Who are we living for?

Taking an honest look at myself, I have to be honest when I say a huge portion of what I do that needs to be given up to the Lord so it can be HIS and not MINE. I need to surrender those things to His will and say: "Lord, I want to live a life that is all about bringing Glory to Your Name and has no selfish motive behind it". This is something I have begun to pray for. I do not want to ever hold something so tight that if and when God asks for me to hand it over I refuse.

I desire favor from the Lord and blessing, but I am beginning to desire those things not for myself, but so I can return them to the Lord and see him pouring out his favor on those around me. This is new, I must admit and something I am still wrestling with.

Let's give up the iLife we're been living and begin to live lives for God and His Name!

Marv Nelson
ACAC Student Ministries Pastor

Things You Can't Say in Church

2011-06-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

We live in an interesting time within church culture where for many, masks are what we wear in order to get acceptance into the fold of the Christian Church sub-culture.

I hate when people speak in generalizations, so I am trying not to say all here, but there is a majority that lives this way. Sometimes we are afraid to reveal the truth of who we are and sometimes we are afraid of the backlash of self-righteous people who will judge us for our sins while conveniently forgetting about their own.

Jesus spoke to this in the Matthew when he said: "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:5 ESV)

Some things we deal with are hard to reveal anywhere in life, not just the church however there are taboo topics that we are just too afraid to bring up. For example if someone was struggling as to why gay marriage was wrong, they may share their feelings like this: "I don't see why gay marriage is wrong, what's all the fuss?"

The response in the majority of strong, conservative churches would be: "How could you question that? I can't believe you would have an issue with this! God says so in the Bible it's wrong!"

The problem with such a response is that it shuts down dialogue and it shuts down the person asking the question. That person may never ask another question in church because of this response and they may struggle with things totally in secret from then on.

A better response to this question on gay marriage would be something like this: "It is a tough issue to deal with, especially with the whirl-wind surrounding this issue. What do you think the fuss is about?"

This then lends itself for the person to more fully explore what they're feeling and allows for discussion. Sure sometimes we may need to rebuke people for their false ideas, but we first need to love them enough to hear them out, not shut them down.

There are several issues like this that I will be discussing alongside my former student Tyler Walker. Tyler has been out of High School for two years now and has lived in a "Church Culture" all his life because his dad is a Pastor. He like me has seen within the Western church culture, issues and topics that have been shushed that never needed to be.

This is about no particular church, but rather the Western Church Culture as a whole. At ACAC where I am, we have been moving to authenticity in many ways and have been un-earthing several struggles many people felt they needed to hide for years and even decades. It is a glorious time to be a part of ACAC and I am proud of our church.

Ty and I will chat back and forth tomorrow about this issue of "Things You Can't Say in Church" at 4-5pm here: ACACThreads Blog Talk Radio. Some of the issues may be a bit intense and very deep rooted but I encourage you to tune in and call in if you desire to share your thoughts!

Marv Nelson
ACAC Student Ministries Pastor

The Art of Redemption #2

2011-05-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

We all need it. We all desperately desire it. Redemption is it's name.

Redemption is defined as the following: deliverance; rescue. (Theology) deliverance from sin; salvation. atonement for guilt. repurchase, as of something sold. paying off, as of a mortgage, bond, or note. recovery by payment, as of something pledged. (Dictionary.com "Redemption").

This is not simply something that is undertaken or accepted easily. There is an art to this redemption, a stroke of artistic genius that goes a long with redemption, something planned well before redemption was fully possible.

When you look at the Bible, you can see the recurring themes of fall, redemption, fellowship back to fall. We, sadly are much like the characters in the Bible in that we do similar wonderings as they did. We fall prey to the easy street of compromise. Yet, God still desires us to be redeemed and in fellowship with him.

Think of Hosea's prostitute wife. She had children by other men, yet Hosea remained loyal, loving and redemptive. He could have thrown her out on the curb, left her pennieless, childless and homeless...yet he never does. By the rights of the law, he had full legal rights to publically kill her by throwing stones at her...yet he never does.

In fact, one amazing story of redemption is when Gomer (Hosea's wife) is in bed with another man who bought her for the night. Hosea seeks her out, catches them in bed, pays the man and takes his wife home.

Here's the account:
"And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley" (Hosea 3:1-2 ESV).

Some may call Hosea dumb for his gracious act. Some may burn with anger at Gomer. My hope is that we can see ourselves in the story. The way this is artistically drawn out is incredible. God used Hosea's life as kind of a "reality show" to wake up the Israelites to the fact that they were/are Gomer. This is the lesson for us.

We are/were Gomer

We see God's grace in this way and some secretly get made. How could God redeem such a whore we say inwardly. She was prostituting herself to other men, yet God chose to use her husband to redeem her? We may also see the gross sin of the Israelites and wonder why God would continue to redeem such a crowd of ungrateful, naughty, idol worshipping dorks.

We forget that inwardly, many of us have committed heinous sins...just no one knows about them. We can get ourselves off the hook because we haven't "done" those things...but God knows our hearts.

Here's the art of redemption: Even though God knows our hearts, he still sent his son to die for us. Even though we were lying in bed with Satan, Christ still came, paid the price, yanked us out of that bed and brought us home.

Why do we desire to lay with Satan time and time again? Why do we choose to leave our marriage bed with the Lord to cheat on him with the sins that ensnare us?

I think it's due to a forgetting of the Art of Redemption;

The beauty of it

The joy of it

The deep, true meaning of it

And the cost of it.

To buy us back, God died. To pay the cost, Blood was spilled out. May we cling to Christ as we remember the Art of Redemption. May we remind ourselves of this redemption story when we are tempted to cheat on God with the sins Satan dangles in front of us. May sin lose it's attraction as we see God and the beauty of the art of His redeeming Love!

The Art of Redemption

2011-05-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and the idea of redemption came into my mind because of our conversation.

My friend has a good friend who fell away from God. This man was drinking, partying and accused of rape. He, because of his drinking and partying wasn't sure really what happened. This man, we'll call him Andy, knew God before these horrific events, yet he still fell.

Andy's reputation was tarnished as a result of the accusations and now he struggles to find his place back in the Kingdom of God, even though he is truly seeking healing.

Andy needs redemption.

I am a perpetual people pleaser. I hate this about myself and I continue to ask God for healing from it, yet it seems to continue to pop up in my life and it hinders my ability to be all that He desires me to be. I care too much about people's opinions of me and too little about His opinion of me.

I need redemption.

If I were to dig around in your life, your issues and your junk I think you would agree that we all need redemption, so why do we fight our redemption? Why do we fight against others being redeemed?

You see, if I were to tell you Andy was a rich and famous person you may be tempted to not desire him to receive redemption (maybe you never wanted an alleged, or real rapist to ever have a chance at redemption anyways). Why are we this way? Maybe you thought of my struggle to be less than Andy's, but I will tell you it is a struggle to be a people pleaser, especially when you notice it in your people pleasing actions...it's a constant reminder of your humanity, and your utter inability. What is it about Christians (famous or not) falling that gets us so angry and anti-redemption? What is it about celebrities who struggle and publicly fall that makes us defame them...as if they were unworthy or redemption?

I think we wrestle with our redemption because we have bought into the Enemy's lie of unworthiness. He goes after our hearts with this one. We feel utterly helpless and not worthy of God's lavish love, so when we sense the redemption coming, we may resist because we feel unworthy. The other issue maybe we enjoy our sin too much to hand it over when the Spirit prompts us. God knows the muck and mire we choose to swim in is not the best or safest waters, so he shows us the way, lets us know we will drown if we don't accept his help then waits for us to reach out.

We get to loving the muck and mire and think Jesus is silly, or worse: stupid for saying we need to get out of the muck. We may splash around in the mud and make mud pies and eat it because we are so excited to be in the mud.

We need redemption.

On the other hand, when it comes to seeing people be redeemed, we labeled "Un-Redeemable" we get upset. We begin to throw a Jonah-sized temper tantrum at God's gracious redemption. Why?

This question I think is much harder to answer because sometimes it is just plain on the individual to find out from God why their heart isn't right.

However, I think there are some plain answers we can come to. Maybe we don't like God redeeming people because we feel they "got away with something" then. We may grumble at God for not judging that person harder because "they deserved more". We may feel because of our "righteousness" we are now in a place to judge others. We think our "goodness" secures us better than theirs because we are "better".

Isaiah 64:6 says: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (ESV).

None of our good deeds mean much compared to Christ. We all need redemption. We all need the power of the cross to take away our sinful shame and restore us to the righteousness that is Christ's, given to us at conversion. None of us deserves it, yet it is freely given. Christ desires to redeem us. Even when we fail and trip up as Christ-followers, his heart is to redeem us. Buy us back from the sin and purchase us to a life of Righteous living.

We could all be like Andy.

We all need his lavish grace. When I fail to be the Pastor, writer I am called to be, I need redemption. When I fail at being the Husband and Father I am asked by God to be, I need redemption. The truth still remains that I, without Christ could be Andy, or Charlie Sheen, or Osama Bin Laden. Pick your poison, but we could all be as bad as them and maybe inwardly we really are murderous, addicted and constantly cranky.

Christ by the Cross has bought us back from unrighteousness and has eternally Redeemed us (1 Peter 2:24), let us yield to the power of the Spirit and live redeemed lives. May we live in the Redemption we have received, may we love those who need redemption and may we encourage those who are being redeemed to yield to Him.

In another blog post, I will share a bit more about the "Art" of Redemption, so stay tuned...

Mourning Osama

2011-05-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today, the world has found out that Osama Bin Laden is dead.

America is taking credit for his death.

Americans, Christian and non are rejoicing in his death and glad that this man has passed away.

I am not so quick to rejoice. #1, I am skeptical that it was actually him that died and #2 if it was him that died, what is there to be happy about? A man who did not know Christ died. In my worldview, this means that Osama Bin Laden is now in Hell. This does not bring me happiness, nor does it bring me comfort.

Some would question my patriotism. Some would say I am weak. Others would wonder why I am being so "religious" about a "political" issue. I don't care what you think.

I am sad that a man who had extreme potential to be fervent for the right thing, had become so painfully blinded by the wrong thing and gave his life for a lie. As followers of Jesus, who claim to love Jesus should this not burden our hearts? As people, even Christians are dancing on the grave of an eternally condemned man, does that not bring pain to your heart? Does the word "lost" mean nothing any more? Or are we happy and rejoicing that we have found "vengeance"?

I am not for what Osama did in life. I knew people who had family members die on 9-11, so I am not even numb to the realities of the devastation this man caused in life. On that day, many died who did not know Christ and they too suffer the same fate as Osama.

We can get into a Rob Bell-esque discussion of why would God allow Hell, but this is not the time or place. I believe the Bible and I trust what Jesus says about Hell and it is that trust that makes me sad for Osama.

Have we been praying for his conversion or his death? Have we stopped to think of the implications of a man such as that sold out to the cause of Christ? A man who inherits millions and his sole desire is to serve his god in the way he knows how...could you imagine if he were sold out to Christ? The implications are far reaching. Yet most of us slip into what we "deserve" and we rejoice at the death of a fellow man.

I am wrestling with this. We fight for this type of justice and we rejoice when we receive the justice we've been begging for. The odd thing is, we are all just as bad as Osama Bin Laden. Left to ourselves we could all be radical murderers, couldn't we? We say in church we all deserve death for our sins, but we wouldn't want that justice, would we? God has extended great mercy and grace to us, shouldn't we do the same?

Just think with me for one second. What if, instead of cheering at the death of Osama, we held a National vigil of mourning for him.

Crazy, I know. However, what would that say to the world about Jesus? I think it would shock many and cause them to see Jesus as he is, merciful and loving. Do you think it would help change the way in which people see American Christians? I think for sure it would.

Sadly, this won't happen. Too many of us are selfish and want to rejoice in his death, without feeling guilty. We want to relish the victory we as Americans have so long strived for: Osama dead. If we think this death is going to stem the rising tide of terror, we are foolish. Osama's story will only spur on more zealots like him and his death will drive them to the top to get known as Osama was.

I know I am going to get blasted for this post, but like I said before, I don't care. I care about the lost. I care about people coming to know Jesus and no death, no matter who it is, is worth rejoicing over unless they knew Jesus and Jesus knew them.

Let us change the way we in the Western world see the world and ask Christ for his eyes, so we can see as he does. Today, I believe he mourns yet another death of an eternally condemned man.

Christ on the Cross Pt. 3

2011-04-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

This Friday (tomorrow) is Good Friday, a day that is set aside to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. It is called "good" because of His death.
A lot of people ask why is a dude's death something to celebrate and the answer is quite simple.
Christ died so we could live!
We looked at the Atonement and at Justification. Christ, by His death atoned for our sins, Justified us before the Father and sanctifies us continually through the cross!

As in atonement, to understand what it is we must ask certain questions and seek the answers.
The First question was: "What does Justification mean?"

The second and final question we will look at concerning the cross of Jesus is: "What does Sanctification mean?"

Again, to get to the heart of what all this is, we must answer questions in order to find the true treasure of what these things are!

Define sanctification

Sanctification is the continuing work of God in the life of the believer making the believer actually holy. Which is both experiential and positional.

How are Justification and Sanctification related?

Justification is the act of being made right before the Lord. This is imputing Christ’s righteousness into the new believer making him/her holy and righteous before God. (Galatians 2:16, Romans 10:9-10). Justification must happen in order for Sanctification to be able to occur. Before we can live by the Spirit (Romans 8 and Galatians 5) we need to receive the Spirit and this receiving the Spirit comes at Justification where we are declared righteous before a Holy God. Sanctification is the continuous act of being made Holy (Hebrews 10:14). Where we the believer allow the Spirit to work in our lives, being more and more filled with the Holy Spirit. That sis not to say we did not receive the full Holy Spirit at justification, being more filled means we give over more of our lives to the Holy Spirit. Sanctification will only finish it’s work when we die and are glorified. Justification and Sanctification go hand in hand. While Justification is the beginning of Sanctification.

What significance does sanctification have to your lifestyle?

Giving the Spirit more control over your life and allowing Him full access to you life allows you to do as Christ said we must do if we are to follow Him and that is to take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23). Being sanctified means also that we are becoming more like Christ. This means, we will care for that which Christ cares for, love those whom Christ loves and seek justice the way he does. We will become more and more like the House of the Lord that he has designed, as well as we will seek to live Holy lives has He is holy (1 Peter 1-2). The significance is that we will be strangers and aliens in this world and they will want to know why. This then will lead us into glorifying Christ alone and allowing us access to the people of this world to share the hope we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). It means I will not seek out the desires of this World as Paul and Peter urge us, but will rather be seeking the things of God!

Why must holiness be a characteristic of God’s people?

1 Peter 2:11-12 says: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Holiness must be a characteristic of our lives so that we can bring glory to God. When we allow the Holy Spirit to make us Holy (1 Thessalonians 5:23), we will become closer to heaven, and the world will see this in us and want to know why. They will ask questions about this hope we have and we can be prepared to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15). This news is news for the whole world (1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:2). Also in 1 Peter 1, we are reminded of a call to holiness from Leviticus, where God says: “Be Holy as I am Holy”. It is God’s desire that we become more like him. This then would truly separate us from this world where we can be strangers and aliens.

What is positional sanctification?

Positional Sanctification is the imputed holiness of God that we receive at Salvation. It is where we are no longer bound to sin (Romans 6; 1 Peter 2:24) and are free in Christ (Galatians 5:1). It means that before God, we are declared righteous, saved and justified. We are renewed and a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Hebrews 10:10 says: “… we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

What is experiential sanctification?

This is the continuing work of sanctification. 1 Thes. 5:23 says: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God is sanctifying us through and through. Also, Hebrews 10 (10:10) talks of positional sanctification, but also of experiential sanctification Hebrews 10:14 says: “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” We are “being made holy”. Holiness on earth is not a one-stop shop, we have to as Jesus Himself said: “deny ourselves and daily pick up our cross and follow Him.”(Luke 9:23) We also must daily put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6). These are all pieces of the experiential sanctification. Also, we are called to work out our faith with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12) if it weren’t continual, why would we need to work it out? Also, in Romans 6:22, we see that this life we received from Christ leads to holiness…it is not a one-stop reception of all holiness.

In what way is progression connected with experiential sanctification?

This is the continuing work of sanctification. 1 Thes. 5:23 says: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God is sanctifying us through and through. Also, Hebrews 10 (10:10) talks of positional sanctification, but also of experiential sanctification Hebrews 10:14 says: “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” We are “being made holy”. Holiness on earth is not a one-stop shop, we have to as Jesus Himself said: “deny ourselves and daily pick up our cross and follow Him.”(Luke 9:23) We also must daily put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6). These are all pieces of the experiential sanctification. Also, we are called to work out our faith with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12) if it weren’t continual, why would we need to work it out? Also, in Romans 6:22, we see that this life we received from Christ leads to holiness…it is not a one-stop reception of all holiness. Meaning that the very nature of experiential sanctification is indeed progressive, so that progression is connected to it thoroughly and completely in it’s very nature.

In what way is the believer “dead to sin and alive In God”?

Romans 6, is entirely about this question. Through the power of the cross, the Holy Spirit can now take charge of our lives if we believe and confess it (Romans 10:9-10) and become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). When Chris died on the cross, he nailed there with him our sins and he himself took our death on that tree. 1 Peter 2:24 is my favorite verse when it comes to the way in which we can be dead to sin, but alive in God. It says: “He Himself bore our sins on the tree, that we may die to sin and live to righteousness”. It is only through His death and resurrection that we can achieve this successfully!

What is meant by the phrase “the indwelling Christ?”

This comes from Romans 8:9-11 where the Spirit of Christ dwells within us and changes our very lives. We no longer live by the sinful nature, but we live by the Spirit of Christ and it is by this indwelling that “our body is dead because of sin, but our spirits are alive because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10), in this indwelling, we received a spirit of sonship (Romans 8:15). Christ moves into our hearts and lives and sin moves out. God is light and where the light is darkness cannot be. This indwelling exposes those things hidden in the dark and causes us to confess that which light shines upon, so that we can continually live in the light and the indwelling Christ can remain Lord of our lives.

What are scriptural evidences of a sanctified life?

Romans 6,8 Galatians 5, Hebrews 10, James

How does sanctification relate to the Lordship of Christ?

1 Corinthians 3 asks a HUGE question as to who is your Lord. Essentially what are you building your life around? (Hebrews 10, 1 John)

Unleashed- A Book Review

2011-04-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

This book by Erwin is a re-release of his older book titled: The Barbarian Way. Usually, I despise re-releases because it is a poor attempt at getting people to buy a book that has a big named author on it that they already bought or they hadn't yet bought. Basically, it usually boils down to money.

Not so with this book. Erwin shares in the very beginning that he felt the message was constrained because of it's title and that it was seen as a book written to just men. This was not Erwin's heart for the book, so it has been re-released with a new title and a new cover to show it is for all believers, not just male believers.

Let me first start by saying I really enjoyed this book. Erwin writes in a winsome, story-telling manner that sucks the reader in and makes them desire more. I found myself reading this book in two days time, while having full, busy work days! Erwin's ability to capture a God-centered truth and expound upon it is pretty incredible and this book is a testament to his giftedness.

The book is broken up in 4 chapters: The Barbarian Invasion; The Barbarian Call; The Barbarian Tribe and The Barbarian Revolt. Each packs its own powerful punch and calls all Christians to stop being pew sitting, sideline hugging players in the war for this world and to be Barbarian crazed men and women fighting with a holy frenzy for the Lord!

1. The Barbarian Invasion- One of my favorite quotes from this chapter is this: "If we have responded to the call of Jesus to leave everything and follow Him, then there is a voice within crying out, "Fight for the heart of your King!" Yet Christianity over the past two thousand years has moved from a tribe of renegades to a religion of conformists" (McManus 2011, location 171). That is his main premise to the book, we need to be a group of renegades who storm this world for Jesus and not conformists. We need to be Wild, not tame.

2. The Barbarian Call- My favorite quote from this chapter is: "The barbarian way is about love expressed through sacrifice and servant hood" (McManus 2011, location 458). This is counter cultural even to most church cultures: serving rather than being served. We need to be rebels against this mindset and we need to be a radical, crazy people of servant hood.

3. The Barbarian Tribe- My favorite quote of the whole book is this: "I think there's a problem when people talk about meeting God or knowing God and yet remain unchanged by God" (McManus 2011, location759). We are to be a tribe marked by our king. A tribe set a part and recognized as not civilized, but barbaric. We need to be a radical people who are so moved and changed from the inside that we express this through our untamed love for the world. We are a tribe marked by the one who loves us and who loves the world. Are our marks displaying our allegiance to our king, or to something or someone else?

4. The Barbarian Revolt- "Domesticated Christians are far too willing to abdicate the battle for the soul of the world" (McManus 2011, location 1167). We as a Christian whole care very little for the world and are far to willing to leave the battle at the expense of many souls. The battle is tough and we need to be protected but leaving the battle is not barbaric, it's childish and selfish. We are to revolt against the enemy and wage war against him and his minions. The more civilized we become, stepping away from our barbaric roots, the more we step away from battle we should be fighting.

This book challenged me and caused me to step back and ask if I am Unleashed and living in the Barbarian Way. One of Erwin's other striking quotes was this: "Barbarians live as if they are naked before God and naked before men...The barbarian hides nothing before God, and his tribe battles naked and unashamed" (McManus 2011, location 1407). This I believe is one of the key points to fighting this battle as on cohesive Barbaric unit: nakedness. We must be real and raw in this Battle!

I strongly recommend you pick this book up. I rarely give such high praise to books, but this one is well worth it. It will challenge all believers to look at their lives and ask if they've been a Barbarian lately!

*Thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. *

Christ on the Cross Pt. 2

2011-04-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Good Friday is just 2 days away, again, it's a day that is set aside to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. It is called "good" because of His death.

A lot of people ask why is a dude's death something to celebrate and the answer is quite simple.

Christ died so we could live! His death was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. By his death He has also brought about our Justification and Sanctification!

We looked at the Atonement yesterday and today we will look at Justification and Regeneration. Christ, by His death atoned for our sins but he also Justified us before the Father!and regenerated our hearts!

As in atonement, to understand what it is we must ask certain questions and seek the answers.

The First question is: "What does Justification mean?"

Justification is simply being made into right standing with God, being made righteous and law-abiding. Some would say another simple definition is: “just as if I never sinned”. 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”. The law showed us just how sinful we are and how we could never meet a standard of being justified on our own the law was placed into motion to point us to Christ (Galatians 3:21-25), because we are all sinners and have fallen short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). Thus, God sent Christ into the world to die, so that we may be justified by Faith in him, his death and resurrection! (Galatians 3:1-14)

What is the basis on which God justifies the sinner?

John 3:16 tells us that because of God’s love, he sent his son. It is upon us to accept that He died and rose for us, in order for us to be justified (Romans 10:9-10) and then it is by that faith (Galatians 3:22-25) that we receive the once, for all death of Christ which imputes His righteousness into us and makes us Justified before the sight of God.

Again in Galatians 2:16, we see the clear-cut basis in which God justifies the sinner: “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

Where in Scripture is Justification talked about?

Galatians 2:16 “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

Romans 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

Galatians 3:23-25 “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ[a] that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”

Romans 4:5 “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

These passages are some of the primary passages dealing with justification. Christ’s death was a once for all event, in which if a person puts their faith in his death and resurrection, they will receive justification and new life (regeneration). God’s wrath demands blood for sins, Christ offered his own and was our sacrifice so that we could be justified and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). He will justify wicked people (as we all are before coming to Christ—Romans 3) and bring them into right relationship with Himself through the blood of Christ, for this atones for our sin and imputes the righteousness of Christ into us. (Romans 3:21-24) . This imputation is an imputation of Christ’s Spirit, which when we believe through faith that He is Lord and He raised from the dead, we will receive. Romans 8:8-11 says: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”

What is the nature of the change brought about by justification?

When a person is justified, they become a new person. The old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is also known as regeneration. The person who is now justified will be now living in and by the Spirit (Romans 8, Galatians 2&3). The Spirit will guide and direct them. The faith they have will bring them justification and this justified person will begin to do works of faith through the power of the Spirit. James says: “…Faith without works is dead”. This doesn’t mean that we receive justification through works, so we can boast about our greatness (Ephesians 2:8-9), but it means that we will be so transformed we won’t be able to help ourselves from lovingly following Christ’s commands. They now stand righteous before Christ, they now can die to sin and live for righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).

Justification will then lead to a discussion about Regeneration...

When a person is justified, they become a new person. The old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is also known as regeneration. Both of these events: justification and regeneration happen instantly and simultaneously. They are not separate, but part of the same event of salvation. 1 Peter 3:18 says that Christ died for sin, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. Regeneration happens, when we believe by faith that Christ died and rose again, because it is at this time the Spirit indwells us (Romans 8, Galatians 2&3). We know that this is the moment of regeneration as well as justification, for Jesus Himself says in John 3:3-6 that to be Born of the Spirit is to be born again.

Regeneration Defined

Regeneration is best defined by Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The old us, the sinful us was crucified with Christ, and we have been re-born! 1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Where does Scripture talk about Regeneration?

John 1:12-13 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

1 John 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.”

Who performs the work of regeneration?

The Spirit performs regeneration. John 3 is very specific on this point, Spirit gives birth to Spirit. We can only be Born or God through the Spirit of Christ (John 1:12-13).
What attitudes must be present in the individual before regeneration can take place?

There must be an attitude of remorse for your sins, a realization that you are sinful and that you deserve death. The your attitude should shift to realizing that only through Christ can one be saved. It is the gift of God, you must realize that you yourself can not achieve it, or attain it outside of Christ.

What is the nature of the change brought about by regeneration?
Romans 8:5-10 says: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man[e] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind[f] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” So, we are now controlled by the Spirit of God, rather than our sinfulness. 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Meaning that this change purifies us from all unrighteousness. 1 Peter 2:24 says: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Meaning that we no longer have to live for our sinful nature but can now live for righteousness! Being made new allows us to live new lives, empowered by the Spirit of God, our Helper (John 12).

Tomorrow, we will unpack the idea of Sanctification!

Christ on the Cross Pt. 1

2011-04-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

This Friday is Good Friday, a day that is set aside to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. It is called "good" because of His death.

Some ask: "Why would you celebrate a day whe someone dies? Isn't that mean? Why does that make you want to celebrate?"

The answer is simple: Christ died so we could live! His death was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. By his death He has also brought about our Justification and Sanctification!

Well, that answer is simple, but let's unpack atonement. (In the following two posts in the coming days of this series we will unpack Justification and Sanctification as well)

To unpack Atonement (as well as Justification and Sanctification) you have to start by asking questions and seeking the answers to those questions.

First is: "What's atonement mean?"

Atonement is the act of forgiving a deserved punishment. Because we all have sinned, we deserve death (Romans 3:23; 6:23), However, our sins were atoned for, not by human effort, but by the wounds of Christ (1 Peter 2:24). The requirement for said atonement was blood of a pure sacrificial lamb or bull (Lev. 2) Which Christ became for us and he spilt his blood on our behalf. His righteousness, covered our unrighteousness, so we may be brought before God blameless and pure. (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

Where did the plan of atonement originate?

The plan of atonement originated directly after the fall. In Genesis 3:15, God says to Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is known as the first mention of the Gospel. God is talking about how Christ will come and be bruised, but will do far more damage to Satan than Satan will do to Him. God already had this sacrifice in mind in order to reduce Satan to nothing.

Why would God want to provide atonement for us?

We see the main attribute of God that pushed Him to provide the atonement in John 3:16 being Love. It says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son…” His reason for giving his son was His love. 1 John 4:8-10 also says this very thing: that is was God’s love that motivated him to sacrifice Christ on our behalf. In Leviticus 2, we see that because of God’s wrath and hatred towards sin, the sin must receive atonement. He gave the people of Israel a means of this atonement through the sacrifice of animals and using their blood to atone their sins. God’s wrath demanded payment for the sins committed, this then was the second impetus, which moved God to provide atonement. His wrath towards sin could be propitiated; this is why Christ is also called our propitiation. (1 John 2:2 ESV)

Why do we even need atonement?

Man is all together sinful. When Adam ate of the tree, he signed the death warrant of all humanity, damning us to a sinful nature from birth. (Gen. 3). Romans 3:23 states: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Psalm 14 and 53 also show the utter depravity of man, as cited from Romans 3. This sinful nature cuts us off from a perfect God, who is light and in him is no darkness, which is sin. (1 John 1:5-10). This cutting off created a void between us and God that needed to be filled, or bridged so we could again meet with our Lord. In all reality, in His perfection he could’ve walked away without caring, but in Lev. 2, he sets up a sacrificial system and a law system in which an can learn deeper how depraved they are, yet still have the atonement to bring them back to the Lord. To make an eternal atonement, Christ had to die. The perfect lamb, without blemish or spot had to suffer in order for us to live (Isaiah 53).

How could God justly put man’s sins upon an innocent victim?

This question almost assumes that Christ was forced into being the ultimate sacrifice, while in fact he was a willing vessel. Justly, for the sins to be forgiven through Christ death he had to have volunteered for this position. Had he not been willing, the atonement would never have happened. In Philippians 2:5-10, we see Christ’s humility in stepping down to this task and role. We also see in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Matthew 23, Christ wrestles with His calling, but undoubtedly bends to the will of the Father. Christ was willing to be the suffering servant that Isaiah 53 talked about. He was led before the shears and was silent, he did not speak out about them being wrong. The innocence of Christ was also key. Had he been blemished by sin, the atonement would have been meaningless, for a tainted sacrifice will not appease the wrath of God.

What qualified Christ for being such an offering?

Christ being both God and man as well as sinless qualified him as this offering. He is eternal, so His death would ring throughout eternity and his resurrected hands would be a constant reminder to God the Father of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. He was also Human, so he dealt with each and every temptation that we did, yet did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). He overcame by living life through the power of the Spirit (Matthew 3-4), which is also our example as how we should now live. He humbled Himself and was willing to be the offering which would appease the wrath of God as well as atone for our sins. (1 John 1:5-10; John 3:16, 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 2:24)

Could anyone other than Christ have made an acceptable offering?
No

How do we know that Jesus was an offering that was acceptable to God?
Scripture is full of assurance that this offering was acceptable. First is the very fact that God in Matthew 27:46-47 turned his back on Christ, symbolizing Christ’s receiving of the sins of the entire world. It was such a wretched sight that God the Father had to separate Himself from seeing it! Also, after the death of Christ, in Matthew 27, we see the curtain which blocked the view of the Holy of Holies from view torn in two. This represented now that all men due to the atoning sacrifice of Christ have full access to God. Christ during his life in John 14:6 also said: “I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father accept through me”. This would give the reader the idea that Christ was and is enough. Also, we see throughout the epistles constant reassurance that Christ’s atoning death was sufficient to cover over all the sins of the world. 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,” His righteous sacrifice was sufficient! 1 John 2:2 says: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Is there any limitation concerning who may benefit from the atonement of Christ?

The answer to that truly lies in a persons view of Calvinism. The Scriptures say that it was for all the world 1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 3:18. However, there is a view that God chooses only certain people to receive this said blessing of atonement. I believe that it is for all the world as the Scriptures clearly state, yet people still choose wickedness over righteousness. We can see this perfectly within the picture of the two thieves crucified with Christ. The atonement as attainable for both, but only one chose to accept it. The other chose to spit on it. Christ’s atonement was once for all.

Can the atonement in any way be effective in human lives where the gospel is unknown?

Romans 1:18-20 says: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” The atonement can and is effective throughout the world, whether or not they’ve heard the message. However, to make things more clear to the world we live in, we as the followers of Christ are called to go and make disciples.

Christ is our atoning sacrifice...that is some encouraging stuff! No wonder we celebrate his Death! Tomorrow, we will unpack Justification and on Sunday we will unpack Sanctification...as well as the Ressurection!

The Next Christians

2011-04-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

I recently read a new book titled "The Next Christians- How a New Generation Is Restoring the Faith" by Gabe Lyons. In this book, Gabe shares about how he has seen a new group of Christians rising up to take the place of their ancestors and setting a new goal for the Church as a whole. Gabe contends that the current flow of Christendom is over and this new generation is changing the tide for the future of the Church. He likens this shift to the Protestant Reformation and is adamant that this new wave of "the next Christians" will restore the Church to what God intended it to be in America.
Gabe talks about the need for the church to change and he discusses how these next Christians are labeled "Restorers". After he gives the title and theme of Restoration, he talks about what attributes these "restorers" take on. Below are those attributes

1. They are Provoked, not offended- He says that the "Next Christians" shouldn't be offended by the world, rather provoked to engage it and change it back to God's original design. I think this is right on. We as Christians should be people who are compassionately provoked to take the world back from Satan by the Power of Jesus

2. Creators, not Critics- He says that the "Next Christians" have stopped criticizing the bad that’s going on in Church and the world and begin to create new functional realities to work within. We can't sit back and say: "that's bad, that's bad" and offer no creative alternatives....this makes the world look at us as jokes who condemn but don't move to change.

3. Called, Not Employed- Here Gabe talks how the "Next Christians" see whatever job they find themselves in as a calling rather than a job. He says these next Christians see every act as something unto the Lord. I think this is where we need to be, but here I think he gives the "Next Christians" too much credit.

4. Grounded, Not Distracted- Here Gabe states that the "Next Christians" are more aware of the distractions of the world and are more aware of how to avoid being trapped by them.

5. In Community, Not Alone- Gabe describes the "Next Christians" as a people of community and I have seen this over and over again with people my age and younger. We are a people that desire to go to the store together, eat together and talk together. Being alone and doing work alone is tiresome and hard.

6. Countercultural, Not "relevant"- Gabe's sixth attribute is an interesting ending to the list. He claims that church after church has been seeking to be relevant to the World around us and has in fact simply become a mirror to the culture, rather than a countercultural movement. Out of all the attributes he lists, this one I disagree with most. I think this is what the "Next Christians" need to become, but I think they have a long way to actually getting there. My generation has a lot of growing up to do in the area of counterculturalism, so I will wait and see if we do!

All in all, this book is helpful to see some new trends in the younger Christians. I think the Next Generation of Christians has a lot to say about the church and in the next 15-20 years will be in positions to change some things they feel needs changed. I think God is going to use us younger folks in mighty ways to reach the world for Jesus. I encourage you to read it and engage with the conversations!

Pinnochio Vs. The Real Boy

2011-04-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

This has been a long time coming, but as of March 20th my book has been out for sale! I can't tell you how grateful I am to those who helped me get this off the ground and the willingness of my family to share our story with the world is an extreme blessing to me!

I started this journey about 3 years ago when God sparked my heart to do a sermon series on 1 John 1:5-2:2 with my then High School Students in Nyack, NY. Once that series ignited the hearts and lives of those teens, I knew God had a message to share and he wanted me to write this book.

After writing a couple of chapters, I hit a wall when no publisher desired to print the book, plus I had taken a drop in hours and pay from the church due to the economy and I had to get a second job.

During this time on hiatus from writing I was working 2 jobs, having a baby (well, my wife was) and working towards my Ordination in the C&MA. I felt that if the book wasn't going to be published, I wouldn't keep writing but something in me woke up after I got a new Pastoral position at ACAC in Pittsburgh, so I finished the entire book (6 more chapters) within 3 months time!

I looked at the evidence of this and realized God wasn't done yet, nor was my dream of getting this book published. I went back to the ground, re-writing the same publishers who refused my book before and then some. All of them, except one denied me again. The one that excepted me caused me HUGE excitement, so I shared this with the Associate Pastor at my church (John Stanko) who is also an author. He saw the dumpy publishers website and said we could do better if we self-published.

I had a decision to make...to go with the publisher who accepted my work or self-publish which would cost about $4,000. I prayed and thought about it and decided to raise the money to get published. If God desired the book to be out, the money would come and the book would be printed.

That is exactly what happened! God proved Himself faithful and the money was raised in 3 months time! Now, after the long journey the book is published!

John Stanko always said the hardest part was yet to come, meaning once the book is out, marketing and selling the book begin. He couldn't have spoken truer words. This IS the hardest part of book writing...getting your book sold and in the hands of people. You want to share how amazing the book is, without sounding like a self-promoting, arrogant jerk. You desire to see people transformed by the book, the way you were and others who experienced the book were without being pushy and showy.

This is the tension I now live in. I know God desires to use this book for Youth Workers, Parents and Pastors around the world but I am not enough to make it happen. For people to hear about it, others need to share it. It's now in His hands and the hands of those who read it.

I am praying for the book to go viral, where people share it, live it and give it. If you have a copy and read it, would you blog about it? Would you review it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble? That would go a long way. If it positively or negatively impacted you, write about it. Write me. I am available to chat about this project, so please email me (marvin.nelson@acac.net), comment on the blog here about it...whatever you feel you need to do. Thanks!

If you haven't read the book and desire to, Amazon just put it at a 15% discount here: http://www.amazon.com/Pinocchio-Youth-Workers-Guide-Authenticity/dp/1581693745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300887514&sr=1-1

So, check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Biblical Manhood pt. 3

2011-04-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

This week, I come back to the series of Biblical Manhood. As I have been talking about this whole series, I truly believe that we men in the church need to come back to our Biblical definition of true manhood opposed to the culture's definition.

In culture, we see a definition of manhood that makes a man into an idiotic goober of sorts.

We go to work, earn our money and give our family second fiddle to everything else that could advance us. We watch commercials that make us look like drunken goof balls who do nothing but golf and drink Budweiser. We see other commercials that make us as men look incompetent, heartless and dumb.

Perfect example of this is a commercial I saw about a phone company. The woman is on the phone calling the company sharing how her husband messed up the phone set up. In the background, her husband is wrestling with a phone wire yelling to his wife to stop calling because he's got it. Eventually, the person on the phone shares with the wife what to do and she flips a switch and everything is OK.

Now, it's OK to have a funny commercial, but most commercials make men look stupid and make a definition that shows us men that this is what is expected of us and so, sadly many men grow into that definition.

Men, we are more than Bafoons! We are called by God to be more. It's awesome to be goofy and funny, but when all we are is a joke, the Devil has won and we are not living in our calling as men.

We are the covering over our families. We are the ones who are to protect those we lead. We have a high calling. We are to be godly husbands, godly sons, godly fathers, godly leaders of our households, yet I fear we have given up some of these rights.

As the covering of our families, we are the preachers and teachers in our household. This means, we need to be in the Word with our family and if we're single, we need to be in the Word ourselves, so when we have a family, we can be prepared for the teaching we will bring to our families. As men, we must step up to the plate and accept our role as story tellers to our friends and families.

Here is a heavy thought: as men, we are responsible for our families. We are responsible to tell the stories of God rescuing us. We are responsible to share the Biblical stories of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. We are to share the Biblical narrative with those around us.
Psalm 44:1 says: "...O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us,what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old..." (Psalm 44:1)

I want MJ to say that to God one day. I want my son to stand before the throne of God, when he begins to own his own faith and claim Jesus as his Lord, I want him to say: "I have heard with my ears from my Daddy what deeds you performed in his life and in the days of old".

I need to tell the stories of my families fall, redemption and restoration because they are there. I can't hide my families past junk in hopes of "protecting my child" because God has done GREAT things. His deeds have been mighty. His deeds have bee powerful. His deeds have been redemptive and restorative.

We can be goofy with our kids, we can be goofy with our lives, but lets not goof up our responsibility to teach our children. We have the honor of sharing God's stories with our families. Pray for the family, pray with your family.

My favorite time of the day is Bible time with Hilary and MJ. Each night, we sit in the rocking chair and read the Bible together. MJ knows it's coming because he asks for his "special water" and then "Bible!" When he opens up the pages to Adam and Eve, he shouts: "No Apple!". When he opens up the pictures of Jesus, he exclaims: "Jesus! Kiss Jesus!". These moments make me want to cry because he sees the importance of the Bible and of Jesus.

We close our family devotions with a prayer and he squeezes his little eyes shut to pray. After about 7 seconds, he starts rubbing my hair or talking over the prayer but he's getting it!

We as men need to leave the world's definition of Manhood behind and embrace our God given definition, which includes being God's story tellers to our families!

Marv Nelson
Student Ministries Pastor
ACAC

Love Wins- a Critical Review

2011-03-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

It's done, I have read Rob Bell's new book. I continued to see things pop up that troubled me about this book, so I put some school work off in order to read and now review the book that got tongues wagging every where.

I've read every one of Bell's books and every time there was some controversy surrounding either the book or some small phrase or question he posed within those books. The fanfare about this book however seemed different and much more volatile, and now that I have read the book, I think a lot of the discussion is warranted.

I agree with Rob that questions need to be asked, he asserts (rightly) that the church as a whole has ignored or neglected asking questions and in so doing has failed to wrestle with their faith in real, tangible ways. Thisbelieve is true, because too often we see nominal Christians walking around holding to things dogmatically that they themselves have neither studied or asked questions about. People like this do need to be pushed out of the nest and challenged to question why they believe what they believe...a sort of testing of your faith if you will.

I think in this book, the questions that are asked are good questions, thought provoking in nature and helpful in finding out why we believe what we believe.

That said, I think a ton of the conclusions that Rob comes to are false and even dangerous. He shouldn't be touted as some great Bible teacher who has come up with some "new insights into the Christian faith" because a ton of what he says in this book was said by Origen and others a long time ago. I might point out that Origen was accused of being a heretic after he went public with his beliefs on Hell and the afterlife.

The first chapter on Heaven I will admit is very good and the thinking that Heaven can be on earth now is a thought we Christians too often ignore, to the detriment of our environment and sults in a huge lack of helping the least of these as Rob very strongly points out. Rob basically took NT Wright's book Surprised by Hope and repackaged it to fit into this short chapter. Rob however, ignores the "then" discussion on Heaven. He does a great job of arguing a Heaven "now" but ignores the Heaven in the future for the most part. This ends up making Heaven seem deep for now, but almost makes it seem small for the "then".

The next chapter is where Rob starts coming up with stuff...I mean literally coming up with stuff. He begins a discussion about Hell in this chapter and goes after all the Scriptures that mention Hell. He goes first to The uses of the word Hell in the Hebrew Old Testament and basically through exegetical gymnastics debunks a real, literal and eternal hell. What drives me insane about what Rob does is that he uses his credit as a pastor to make these assumptions. He uses no scholarly proof to help make his points, he simply says " this is the way it was in that day" and " this is what they believed about this and that" without giving any kind of proof text to help him make the case...we' re left to simply take his word on it.

He then takes the same approach to the times in which Jesus speaks of Hell and he refutes the idea that aion means eternal in the Greek language. He says that the real definition for every instance of the Greek word aion is in fact " age or period of time" not eternity. This helps him debunk the idea of an eternal torment as the Scriptures do talk about eternal Hell. Here again, he takes on thousands of years of scholars saying that the word aion is defined as meaning "eternity"...yet we are to take him at his word again that he is right and the many scholars before him are all wrong.

I must say the thing that ticked me off the most was his literal translation of "Gehenna" which is the word Jesus used the most for "Hell". It's true that this was the dump outside the walls of Jerusalem and that Jesus was using this as a word picture to describe Hell because it was constantly on fire and the animals would gnash their teeth, fighting for the scraps of trash that were there. Rob asserts however that Jesus was not describing Hell as anything but the literal trash heap...giving Hell a "now" sense rather than a "then" sense. This ticks me off so much because in all his other books, he says NOT to do this with the teachings of Jesus. He is constantly in his other literature forcing us to see the deeper meaning of Jesus' stories and to not take them at face value but rather to dig into them. He seems here to retract that thought for a moment so it can conveniently fit his frame of Hell.

Rob continues to talk about God and how he is too loving to have a judgement in an eternal hell the way most Christians believe (and have believed for thousands of years). He says that type of Gospel is destructive and demeaning to God. Yet, in my mind it speaks to a loving and Just God.

Rob believes that there is an eternity available for forgiveness, which then means that some time, through eternity all will come to Christ and receive the forgiveness of all their sins. This Rob asserts is how love ultimately wins. He says that due to God's desire for the whole world to be saved, God will make it happen, despite people's choice to ignore God in their lifetime. Rob thinks that God would be a mean and ungracious God if he were to send people to an eternal hell for the sins of their short mortal lives.

Rob readjusts the exclusive claims of Christ in ways that fit the purposes of his premise, yet again fails to offer any research evidence or quotes from other Biblical Scholars.

I could continue on this conversation about Rob's book but I will continue to come to the conclusion that he asks good, hard questions that are worth wrestling with but his conclusions are wrong and dangerous. With Rob's form of the Gospel, there is little to no motivation for missions, since in the end all will eventually turn to God. There is also no real sense of being saved from anything because even if we are in a literal torment for "awhile" eventually, my eternal experience will end with bliss in Heaven. There is also a neglect of realizing Satan and his power to manipulate our lives, althought Rob would say he makes "hell on earth" which is true, but why would he bother just to make our short mortal lives hell if he could do it for eternity? Rob's form of the Gospel robs the cross of its power and in so doing basically negates the need for Jesus to have even been here.

Rob states that Jesus is central to what he is speaking about but I have to disagree. I sadly hang my hat here. I like Rob Bell and enjoy his challenging questions from all of his literature, so to hear him speak of heaven and hell in these ways saddens me. I will not say as John Piper has said: "Farewell Rob Bell" because I think there is hope he may see his errors but this book did make me sad because of the theories and conclusions Rob has come to.

Lastly, if you decide to read this book, read it alongside of someone else who can help you when you find yourself struggling with what Rob discusses. Seek out s friend to walk and talk with about it. Do not walk the streets of questions alone because it can be dangerous. Ask, Seek and Knock for these are good things, but do them with a friend to make the experience better!

Biblical Manhood pt. 2

2011-03-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

I think men in our culture have forgotten the ancient idea of legacy.

I think this is particularly true with younger men. So many of us think that the stuff we do either only effects us or doesn't effect anyone. Young men find themselves in deep traps of lust, pornography, pride, covetousness and many other things that they think only has bearing on them and their lives. Yet they don't realize that their sins and their poor decisions do in fact effect their children and their children's children.

The idea of legacy when one thinks about it, does in fact add a ton of pressure to a person but it also makes us take a sober look and see that what we do in life really does echo through eternity.

When you look at the Old Testament, you see over and over again God talking about people being blessed or cursed based off of what their fathers did. We see phrases like: He followed the Lord just like his father or He follows the Lord because his father did. We also see phrases like: may the sins of this generation follow your line to the fifth generation after you!

The reality is, that we men need to think in terms of legacy, because we are either laying down a destructive path for our children and grandchildren or a healthy one. Isn't it odd that most dads who are alcoholics have alcoholic sons? Don't you find it terrible that an abusive husband ends up procreating abusive husbands?

The reality is there and we must watch our lives; first so we can be right with God and second so our kids can be.

I do not mean to diminish the role of a mother, for mothers are great and loving and kind, but we men seem to have the task of taking the responsibility for our legacy, unlike women do. If you go to http://www.biblegateway.com/ and type in the phrase: "because his father" you'll get 32 results, and you type in "because of his mother" you only get one viable result.

We men are held accountable for our legacy, so we must begin a legacy that is on track with the Lord, we are to create a legacy that is given over to the Lord an we must own up to our junk and seek for God to cut it out of our lives.

To make it more plain. If we are struggling with sexual sin, we can bet our kids will. If we are struggling with perpetual lying, we can bet our kids will. If we are struggling with worshipping money, or anything besides God, you can bet our kids will. It's time to confess our junk men! It's time for us to come clean and redirect the path of our legacy.

That's the God-given gift---we can redirect the legacy our fathers have left for us! We don't have to live in the shadows of a bad legacy. If you come from a broken home, you can redirect your legacy to a healthy marriage. If you come from an abusive home you can redirect your legacy to love and comfort. If you come from a home of alcoholism, you can redirect your legacy.

How can we direct our legacies? By giving over to the Spirit of God, admitting that you can't change on your own. Owning the sins in your life, seeking help, accountability and manly friendship, that's how!

Our young men are walking around, feeling hopeless...we can change their legacy by the power of God! If we yeild to God and his desires for our lives, rather than our own desires, our legacy will turn upside down. For too long, we men have tried to change on our own, without the Power of the Spirit to guide us. It's time for us to man up and hand our lives back over to God and ask him to make a God-Driven legacy that will last to the fifth generation!

Soul Print--A Book Review

2011-03-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

As part of the Blogging for Books from Waterbrook/Multnomah I was lucky enough to receive Mark Batterson's new book Soul Print for review.

I have read all of Mark's other works and have never walked away upset that I spent time reading his stuff. This book is no different. Mark writes the way he preaches and teaches which is a very matter-of-fact type of communication. I enjoy this type of writing because it is more raw, real and untamed.

In this book Soul Print Mark tackles the idea of Identity and Purpose from the storyline of David. Mark opens with the Goliath scene and takes the reader on a personal journey through David's life, which also exposes their own life along the way. Mark takes David's lie frame by frame and shares where God is printing your (my) unique soul print within David's narrative.

Mark is real and honest as he authentically shares his heart and the junk he himself has dealt with in order for him to fully see the Soul Print in which God has placed on his life. I love his authentic approach to this topic and felt very relieved to read such honest discussion from his own life experience.

This book is very well written, very well thought out and impactful. I recommend this book to anyone because no matter where you are at in your Spiritual walk, I think there are some good nuggets you can grab out of this book.

One of the funny things about this book is that I was reading echoes of what I wrote about in my own book. This was not to say anything except that God ministered to me about how my writing is on track with what his Spirit is saying. We need to know our True Identity (or our Soul Print) and we need to be real with God, others and ourselves in order for us to come to the place of deep inner-healing that we desperately need. This book brings those issues to the table and I was pleased to see and hear someone else saying what I've been saying for years!

Biblical Manhood

2011-03-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

  The other night, I was in my men's bible study and I was struck by some things in the book of Colossians that I hadn't really connect deeply with until then.

Here's what Paul says in Colossians 3:12-14

"Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col. 3:12-14 ESV).

   The qualities above Paul is discussing as if they are clothing, something we are to put on. When I looked at this list of "Clothing" we are to consciously put on, I realized that as men, these are hard things to clothe ourselves with. We men love strength, force, mighty works and not that these qualities aren't strong, forceful or mighty, it's just that as men we don't normally think of the above qualities as "manly".

  I am a selfish being, compassion, kindness, meekness, patience and love are sometimes rare in my male heart. I don't want to speak for all men, but it seems as I survey manhood, for many men, it seems that it is hard for us to be compassionate, kind, patient and loving and in many ways we look at these qualities as feminine.

This is not the case! Paul was a Dude's dude, he had the snot beat out of him, he had been beaten by stones, shipwrecks and many other horrendous happenings. He had all these qualities and he was a Dude. The problem I think is our idea of these qualities. We look at them in ways that are feminine so we reject them.

I must say that the Western church has done much damage in feminising these qualities and has not properly taught masculine faith. Compassion is a deep move of one's spirit that should cause one to rise up and desire to fight for justice. Compassion is not always the sad feeling one feels for poor people, it is deeper. It moves a person into action.

The same for kindness, it is a deep movement in one's spirit that drives one to action. It comes off with nice actions but it is a deep movement of one's being.

Patience and meekness as well, they are not these mushy gushy things we can sometimes portray them as. It takes a ton of guts to be patient and meek.

Humility for me is one that hurts to put on because I am naturally prideful.  God has been challenging me deeply on my pride and really pointing out my nakedness where humility is concerned. One of the guys in the Bible Study the other night said: "Putting on humility is really a question of where is your confidence." He went on to say that "Humility is confidence in God and Pride is confidence in yourself". I fully agree and from a cultural standpoint, we men struggle with this because we're taught that in order to be good men, we must put our confidence in ourselves and show people how confident we are in ourselves.

As men who desire to follow Jesus, we must become humble. We desperately need a generation of men putting their confidence in Christ rather than themselves. For too long we men have done our families and our church a disservice because we've been putting our confidence in ourselves and not God.

The clothes we've been putting on are not the clothes of the new self as laid down by Paul in Colossians 3. Rather, we've been living in the old self, relying on ourselves, caring only for ourselves and not the world outside of us and our families.

God is moving. His Spirit is calling men out. Will we be there to answer the call as Warriors for the Lord? Or will we sit back and think "someone else will take care of it"?

We can't continue to abdicate our calling onto other people. We men must stand up and stand in the gap. We can be the changers, the movers and the makers of this great city by the Power of the Holy Spirit. We can be a part of the solution to the absentee Fathers in our city. We can stand in the gap and show these younger, fatherless young men what a man is really like. We can be men who deny the weak man on the corner and step up to model real Fatherhood, real Manhood!

I'm going to be doing a Biblical Manhood series for awhile starting this week. Please keep checking back and add your thoughts to the mix!

Who is My Shelter--Book Review

2011-02-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

Neta Jackson has written the fourth installment to her Yada Yada House of Hope novel, "Who is my Shelter?" Readers will continue on life's journey with Gabby, the main character of the series.

The first installment of the series jumped off with connecting the reader to Gabby and ended on a shocking note, which caused readers to delve deeper into Gabby's story. This book is gripping, redeeming and exhilerating, as all of Neta Jackson's books are.

Here, we see Gabby's wayward husband coming back to Gabby desiring reconciliation and the awefully hard choices that Gabby faces as a result of this new desire from the husband who kicked her out.

Gabby seeks solice from God and finds his blessing her in the House of Hope in ways she didn't expect. The series really captures the life of Gabby and brings the reader along desiring God's best for her and her children.

This was a good read and if you are a Neta Jackson fan, I reccomend you get this book because it is well worth the read. It is a much better ending than first book and wraps the story up very well.

What will happen? Will she reconcile with her husband? Will she find that her true shelter is in God and no one or nothing else? Get the book and find out!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.*

Love and War (Devotional)--A Book Review

2011-02-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Early last year, I received the opportunity from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing group to blog for books and I chose John and Stasi Eldredge's new book Love and War. So, when I heard there was a devotional companion to the book, I had to sign up and get it for my wife and I.

This book does the same thing the original book does: Hits you in the gut when it comes to marriage. John and Stasi have been married a long time and they are not shy to open this devotional with the concept that marriage is hard...because it can be.

John and Stasi have put together a great 8-week devotional for couples in this book integrating Scripture and real-life marital issues, this devotional is helpful, insightful and deeply impacting. As in the original book, John and Stasi highlight the importance of inviting God into your marriage and expelling Satan and his lies from your marriage as well.

John and Stasi delve into the deep rooted lies we believe about our spouses, those things they do that grate us, those things we end up mumbling: "There they go again, he/she is ALWAYS doing that". We let these lies go deep into our hearts, we become bitter and our marriage has been compromised.

Lastly, John and Stasi go deep into the importance of God as the center of your marriage. How often do you pray together? How often do you pray for each other? How often do you encourage one another in the name of Jesus? How often do you ask Jesus for your next steps together? These issues get addressed and worked on in this devotional.

I am so excited to promote this Devotional because I think it will be a great start for hurting marriages to get healthy, a good place to continue a deepening marriage and an amazing eye-opener to those who are recently married. Basically, no matter where you are in the spectrum of marriage, God can and will use this devotional in your life.

I not only recommend this devotional, but the original book as well. You can read my thoughts on that book here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-and-war-book-review.html

Lastly, let me give you a glimpse of the 8-week Devotional by sharing with you the titles of the weeks:

Week One: Remembering What We Wanted

Week Two: The Two Shall Become One

Week Three: The Journey

Week Four: Companionship

Week Five: Your Spouse Is Not Your Enemy

Week Six: The Little Foxes

Week Seven: Increasing Intimacy

Week Eight: The Most Excellent Way

Each week is full of challenges, prayers and great insight. Allow God to draw you closer to Himself and your Spouse. Take the plunge and enjoy a good devotional...your Marriage needs it, your marriage deserves it!

My Book Recommendations from 2010

2011-02-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

If you've known me for any length of time, you know me to be a reader. I love to read, I love getting inspired by others, learning from others and seeking to better myself and my walk with Christ by reading what other Christians have written. I'm a bit slow on the list this year and have been slow on writing so far in January because I've been working on my manuscript and copy edits from the publisher for my coming book: Pinocchio Vs. The Real Boy. However, that is all past so I will be actively blogging once again "YAY!"

Below are the 25 books that hit me this past year. Some are Super amazing, others are just fantastic for the genre they represent. Enjoy!

P.S. These are in order as I read them during the year, not of how much I like them...

1. Deep Church- Jim Belcher
This book asks if there is a 3rd way to look at church. Not Emerging/Emergent or Traditional views of the church, but a new, fresh, 3rd way. It's a great read and I wrote up a blog about it last year here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/01/deep-church.html

2. Total Church- Chester and Timmis
This was just a great book on how we do Church. What is a church that looks at the Totality of church really look like?

3. Middle School Ministry- Oestreicher and Rubin
By far my FAVORITE book written to Middle School Youth Pastors about Middle School Ministry! I've given away 10 copies of this book because it's just that freakin good! I have read this now 2 years in a row and will probably read it again this coming year: 2011 because it is so full of great, usable content. It's practical, yet informative at the same time. Thanks Marko!

4. Love & War- John and Stasi Eldridge
This is hands down the BEST book on Marriage I have ever read. I've read several books and this one just spoke to me. I love John Eldridge and the way he writes about manhood, so he and his wife writing on marriage was GOLDEN. I highly recommend this book to couples. I wrote a blog on it earlier last year here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-and-war-book-review.html

5. Confessions- St. Augustine
Just a good classic read by and old Saint. I had never read anything from Augustine and I heard this was a great place to start. His authentic transparency was convicting because of how deeply honest he was. It's a book that is somewhat heady but also very narrative in nature.

6. A Multi-Site Road Trip- Bird, Ligon and Surratt
One of the journey's that ACAC feels like God is calling them to as a church is the journey of Multi-Site. This book is an incredible resource for any church/pastor/congregant who finds themselves in a community asking the multi-site questions. It helps frame the why's and how's and I couldn't put it down. I also blogged on this book here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/03/multi-site-road-trip.html

7. Patrick- Stephen R. Lawhead
The Best Fantasy novel of the year for me. I've owned this book for about 3 years and finally picked it up in the middle of last year. It was a refreshing read full of interesting stories and amazing events. Some of the story is quite true to what actually happened to Saint Patrick, so that in depth information also helped me understand Patrick better.

8. Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe- Mark Driscoll
This was a great book outlining Christian Doctrine. I enjoyed getting into the Christian Doctrine again and hearing it from a Pastor I respect.

9. The Early Tozer: A Word in Season- A.W. Tozer
This Year was the year of Tozer for me. I resonate so much with his works and ejoyed reading some of his great highlights, so much so that it ignited me on a path to read more of his books this past year!

10. Get Outta My Face!- Rick Horne
My boss, Scott asked me to read this book and review it and I did. I was surprised to enjoy the book thoroughly and did a 10 page review to hand out to parents and leaders alike so they can glean the great things from this book that I did. The review can be found here: http://www.archive.org/details/GetOuttaMyFaceSummaryreview

11. A Passion for God (Bio. Of A.W. Tozer)- Lyle Dorsett
This has got to be my favorite book of the year! I was challenged by Tozer's life in so many ways. His heart for God, His passion for Ministry and his emphasis on the Holy Spirit resonated deep within me and birthed an even deeper desire to follow Christ full-heartedly. I've never been a reader of Biography's but there was just something about this book. I couldn't put it down and I bet you won't be able to either. If there is a book I would say is a 2011 MUST read, it's this one! Here's the blog I wrote up about this book: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/04/passion-for-god.html

12. The Knowledge of the Holy- A.W. Tozer
Again, like I said, 2010 was the year of Tozer for me. His passion for God is contagious and he dumped that passion into every page of his writing. This book is a short, but deep book on the Holiness of God and the Character of God. I strongly recommend this book. I wrote some thoughts up on some things Tozer said in this book here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/06/fearing-god.html and here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/12/omniscience-of-god.html

13. Exponential- Jon and Dave Ferguson
Another book about Church. There is much to say about this book but much of it I already said here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/05/exponential-starting-reproducing.html If you're a pastor, I will say this though: You should read this book!

14. Ethnic Blends- Deymaz & Li
It seems when I like a book, I write all about it, because I blogged on this one too! This book is all about how to and why we should set up a multi-ethnic group of people (mainly within the church). It was an impactful and insightful book that I even used to help develop a series for my Middle School students called: Ethnic Mosaic. To read what I blogged on it, go here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/06/etnic-blends-multi-ethnic-coffee.html

15. Power in the Blood- Charles Spurgeon
Loved the depth and ease of this book. Spurgeon was known as the "Prince of Preachers" and I can see, from this book why he was dubbed with that title. He is a fantastic communicator and this book has given me the itch for more, so I went out and bought The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, which I am eagerly awaiting the time to read (since it is well over 1,000 pages long).

16. Gems From Tozer- A.W. Tozer
Yet another Tozer book. Like I said, I just kept getting so much stuff from him, that it was hard to not read every book of his in 2010. This was another compilation of several of his good works. I found a couple of the same quotes and what-not from the other books I read of his, but it was a good refresher none-the-less.

17. How to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit- A.W. Tozer
Great, short book on the Holy Spirit. It is a must read for every believer and is very easy to read. So...go get a copy already!

18. Trouble in Paris- Mark Sayers
Great book on culture and how it effects us. Spurred me on to use some of what it talked about in one of my talks this year with the Middle Schoolers!

19. Evil and the Justice of God- N.T. Wright
I was blessed to get this book for free, but I would've paid what is cost to read it. This book is a great resource for any believer to look at Evil and God's Justice. N.T. has a deep way about him but is still easily understood with what he talks about. This book caused me to step back and think even more about these two subjects than I had previously. Again, I blogged on this book earlier in the year here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/07/evil-and-justice-of-god.html

20. Wired for Intimacy- Struthers
This was one of the BEST books I have ever read on Porn and it's effect on the male brain. I was dumbfounded by the power it has to take over the male brain and also weirded out by it. This book, if used properly could be a great asset to parents, youth pastors, wives and men (OK, well...anyone!) in the battle against Porn and Porn addiction! I blogged on this book as well here: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/08/wired-for-intimacy.html
21. Jonathan Edwards- Douglas Sweeney
Inspired by my Tozer biography, I ventured out to read my second biography for the year and was not disappointed! This was another excellent read. I feel like a broken record saying this, but I blogged on this book. Here is the blog address: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/07/jonathan-edwards-book-review.html

22. Tozer: The Mystery of the Holy Spirit
The year of Tozer continues! This was a more in depth book on the Holy Spirit and was very challenging to me and my faith. I love the way Tozer writes, so this was an amazingly refreshing read for me.

23. The Skin Map- Stephen R. Lawhead
I have read almost every Lawhead book written and have found myself enjoying all of them. This was a Sci-Fi Thriller type and was very enjoyable. Here is the blog on this one: http://youthmaster.blogspot.com/2010/08/skin-map-book-review.html
24. God’s Pursuit of Man- A.W. Tozer
Another book by Tozer and yet another great one. Deeply profound topic on how God deeply desires intimate relationship with His children.

25. The Radical Cross- A.W. Tozer
Last, but not least...another Tozer book! This one was more of an essayesque book which was quite interesting because it flowed, but didn't flow which made it tougher to read but it was an amazingly deep and rich book about the Cross of Christ!

Hope to have given you some great resources to read. I enjoyed these books very much and love to share what God is using to grow me! So, read some, read all or read none of the above but know they are good if you want something good to read!

Slave- A Book Review

2011-01-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've slowed in my book reviewing, but when I was browsing the Thomas Nelson Books for Bloggers site (www.booksneeze.com) I had to read this book.

The title alone caught me off guard and once I read the description of the book, I was hooked and set out to read it.

John MacArthur is a fantastic Bible Scholar and here he does an exegesis on the word "Slave" found in the Bible. He explains through his to the point way of teaching how this idea of Slave has not only been lost in our Bible translations today but also the important role being a Slave plays in our Christian lives!

The first three chapters of the book take a look at how the Greek word doulos and the Hebrew word 'ebed, which are both words for "SLAVE" have been softened into "servant" most of the time and he explains how this has caused us to have a missing piece of understanding in our identity as Christians. He then goes on to take what both Greek and Hebrew writers had in mind when they wrote out doulos and 'ebed by taking the reader on a journey to Greco-Roman slavery.

This was an eye-opening 3 chapters, all basically new content to myself because the American view of slavery is scued by the recent history of American slavery. He exposes the similarities and differences of Greco-Roman slavery, which helps the reader understand why our identity is a "Slave to Christ".

After MacArthur delves into the role of "Slave" and the Greco-Roman meaning of slavery he then takes a 4 Chapter chunk of the book to talk about Masters in the Bible. Slave and Master go hand in hand and to understand the totality of one, the other must be explained and understood.

This deep discussion of God as our Master was also very eye-opening and humbling. It helped me to refocus what my relationship with Christ truly is and helped me to better identify with myself being a Slave.

Lastly, MacArthur then describes Sin and Son ship and how we are slaves chosen to be sons as well to our Lord. We let go of our first Master: Sin and embrace our new Master: Christ and he, in his love and Grace also makes us sons!

The truth and beauty behind such a simple word in the Bible is incredible. I really enjoyed the depth that MacArthur took to describe out the meaning of the word and to explain how we have lost it a bit in translation. I love reading books that give me new ideas and explain new (to me anyways) Biblical concepts in an easy, simple to understand way. MacArthur does that here.

I highly recommend this book to any and all Christians because it is well written and the concept of us being Slaves to Christ is an important concept for us to grab a hold of.

Go here if you'd like to order this book: http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1400316774&title=Slave&author=John_MacArthur

The Sign of Jonah

2011-01-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

I've been reading through the book of Luke again recently and have again been shocked at the amazing content within this book. I can't seem to put the book down, I keep coming back to it and back to it.

While I was reading recently, I was struck by something Jesus said in Luke 11:29-32. Here's the full account:

"When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, forthey repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here".(Luke 11:29-32 ESV)

Take into account the story of Jonah for a moment. The Ninevites were despised by the Jews for their violent ways and human eating habits. They were in the Jewish mind: the scum of the earth. Jonah, a Jew hated these people so much that he fled from sharing the Good News of God with them because Jonah knew they would turn to God and repent once they heard the message.

Jonah thought they were undeserving of Salvation, that's how jacked up the people of Nineveh were.

Here, Jesus makes a GIANT statement to the people listening: something greater than Jonah is here and you are missing it! Jonah was a mere SHADOW compared to me and the people of Nineveh got it. I am here in the flesh, dwelling amongst you and you have your religious blinders on! You are missing what is in front of you!

Jesus goes a bit deeper and stabs a knife in by saying that the people of Nineveh will condemn those who fail to respond to Jesus because Nineveh was better than those who fail to repent at the words of Jesus because they repented with much a lesser prophet than Jesus: Jonah.

Jesus is constantly attacking the sin in the lives of all people, but in particular the religious "elite". They assume they have it all together. They feel that their seat in heaven is pretty much a guarantee because of their "righteous living" but here God says that even the "foulest of human" by the standard of the Jew will stand in judgment against them!

This, like many more statements to come in Luke from Jesus; is a personal assault against the religious leaders who reject Christ and ignore his call to repentance. They feel so secure in their salvation through their works that they ignore God Himself when he shows up.

These religious leaders failed to see the sin in their own lives and in doing so arrogantly rejected God in the flesh.

Sometimes, we reject the Holy Spirit's whispering of our own sins in the same way. We all have stuff rooted deep within us that the Holy Spirit desires to bring to the surface, expose and destroy.

We, like the religious leaders of Jesus' day can tend to reject the need for our own repentance or we simply don't hear nor feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit revealing the truth about our sins.

What makes this story a bit odd is that this speech from Jesus was all sparked by the crowds desire for a sign. They wanted to see Jesus prove himself and desired God to use Jesus to show them a sign. Have they not been paying attention at ALL up to this point? Jesus has done miracles, exorcism and many more "signs" yet these people MISSED IT ALL. They were still demanding a sign from Him so He could prove himself.

Jesus then says: "You want a sign? I'll give you a sign! How about the sign of Jonah!" I can see Jesus wanting to relate to Jonah at this point, just so sick of these people, not really wanting to be among them any more because of their foolish hearts...yet Jesus stayed and remained with a good attitude (unlike Jonah). Even so, the people largely still missed God in the flesh.

They were out-classed by violent, man-eating sinners. Heaven it seems is for the messed up, broken, defeated person and not the put together, "sinless" saint. This fact encourages me because I know I am a messed up broken person and I need Jesus.

I know I need to repent, I know I have messed up thoughts, attitudes and motives but the Holy Spirit within me can change that...nothing else can but Him.

Let us confess our sins, listen to the words of Jesus and not be out-classed by the People of Nineveh!

Who's Laughing Now?

2011-01-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

On Monday nights, I lead a Men's Bible Study with a great group of awesome guys. We've been running through the book of Colossians together and we all have learned alot so far.

This past week, I was inspired by several things that popped in the Scripture but one stuck out more than the rest.

"by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:14-15 ESV).

These passages are packed with several implications for the believer, all of which we desperately need to sink deep into our lives. The first implication is that when we come to Christ, receive Him as our Lord and Saviour, he takes the record of our sins, that long, miles long list of all the junk we either committed or omitted and he cancels the WHOLE thing. It's done, completely erased and our record of sin is thrown as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12)!

Satan is a good accuser and he loves to remind us of our haunted past. He keeps a record of our sins so that when we receive the grace of God in the forgiveness of sins, he can remind us of the junk and try to keep us down and hating ourselves by this. Satan jeers at us, laughs at us and points his finger at our sins. He speaks lies over us that we sadly succumb to and believe. He says things like:

"God could never forgive that sin, might as well pack it in now"
"You are so disgusting"
"No one will love you once they find out about this past junk"
"Your life is a heap of failures, bad decisions and mess ups, you will never be different"

Those statements however believable are lies. God is more powerful than our past and more powerful than the lies that keep us down. The next part of these verses is just as powerful.

Paul, knowing this to be a tactic of Satan, doesn't then just mention the forgiveness of sins, he goes deeper and shows that God exposes Satan's lies and puts him to open shame through the nailing of our sins to the cross.

When Christ went to the cross and died for our sins, several things happened all at once and one of those things is that God stripped Satan down naked and exposed him to the world! When God died, he set in motion the ability to see the lies of Satan and laugh at how ridiculous they are.

Christ death on the cross gives us the power to laugh in Satan's face for the lies he spins, because we can now see them as they are: comical jokes that have no power. This is why the cross ticked Satan off so much, not only did he lose his grip on humanity, he was no the laughing stock of heaven. He was fully exposed and now we can jeer at his lies!

Christ, when he rose from the dead looked Satan in the eye and said: "Look Who's Laughing Now!"

Now we come to the point of what implications this has for us as believers.

First, it's a great passage to remind us that our sins are forgiven, they are cancelled. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, he takes our rap sheet and BURNS it in the middle of the courtroom.

Second, this passage reminds us that our sins are nailed to the cross. We see again, the power of Christ's death on our behalf. The only reason our rap sheet can be burned is by the sacrificial death of the pure lamb: being Christ. So much was done in that act that the full implications of it won't be seen until heaven, but this we know: by the power of the cross we now can have life.

Third, we no longer have to allow the past to determine our future not matter how volatile the past may be. Our past no longer holds us down the way it once did. We will still possibly deal with the consequences of those sins and actions, but they can no longer put us to shame. With those records being cancelled, we no longer need to fear their power.

Fourth and last, Satan is exposed. We now can turn and laugh at his silly jokes. We don't need to listen nor believe his lies upon our lives. We can now stand by the Power of Christ through the Holy Spirit within us and jeer at Satan when he accuses us and jeers us. We can now, like Jesus say: "Look Who's Laughing Now!"

The Santa Dilemma

2010-12-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

This may offend some people, and I am willing to take that risk for speaking out about what I think to be "The Santa Dilemma".

In our American culture, the true meaning of Christmas over that last 150 years has been all but covered up. Christmas produces some of the most unhappy times of year and makes a liar out of the song writer who wrote: "It's the most wonderful time of the year". This saddens me, because I truly do try to make it a happy time of year, but when I go driving to the mall, and get flicked off, yelled at and hum bugged at because I parked somewhere that someone else desired to, it drags ya down a bit.

   I could go on about how Christmas spirit is slipping away, but we're here to talk about Santa. Santa has been a hallmark for Christmas for some time now and I think (as does Mark Driscoll) that we have 3 choices when it comes to Santa: reject him, receive him or redeem him.

   I think our culture has grown to love Santa to the deep level of not fully being able to reject Santa. Santa does have Christian roots. His is the story of a man who loved Jesus and loved the poor and because of his love for both he took some of his earthly wealth and during the year St. Nick gave presents to children who otherwise would have nothing. St. Nick didn't spoil the kids with junk and expensive toys, nor did he know with magical powers who was naughty or nice. Neither could he fly or appear to the whole world in one night...those were the add-ons that should be rejected, but St. Nick himself shouldn't be rejected.

   I also think that we can’t fully receive him either. I've wrestled with this hard and long because I now have a child who will soon start believing in such things. Do I want to lie to my child about an omnipotent, omniscient being who is fat, jolly and gives out tons and tons of toys, only to have them one day find out the truth and be crushed? I had to answer no. I don't mind having my son sitting on Santa's lap, or talking to him about the legend of Santa, or explaining how some of what Santa "does" is myth, I just can't pass those things off as truth. I just can't. If I am going to tell my son about Santa Claus and explain how he has similar powers to God and then later my son finds out that Santa is a fake, why would he then believe me when I talk about God?

    A side from the lying...I don't want to set my son up for getting crushed emotionally. One day he will find out there is no Santa and it will crush him when he does, I just don't desire to be the one responsible for that pain. Knowing that I for 4 or 5 years had lied to my son to only wait for the inevitable blow, and have the lights click on that Daddy had lied to him is too much for me to deal with.

   Santa can be redeemed! He, like I said believed in Jesus, lived a life of charity for those in need and those are Christian attributes to be encouraged in our children. Christmas is about Jesus and St. Nick would be appalled at what we have done to take the focus off of Jesus in his name. I am not talking about "taking away Christmas Spirit"; I'm talking about infusing the True Christmas spirit into the Season that is the Spirit of God.

   Lastly, I desire to teach my children proper gratitude. If I get a gift for my child, I want them to know it was me who got it for them. I desire to be a good gift-giver to my kids so that I can the reflect how good our Father in Heaven is at giving gifts. If I say that Santa was the one who made and got these things for them, I have stripped them of proper gratitude because they will be thanking the air instead of their Father and Mother.

   It pains me that many Christians do not see things this way and many think it to be a “Scrooges Stance” but   Christmas is about the Advent of Christ, realizing his gift to me was His life and resurrection and at his birth that chain of events started. Christmas isn’t about what I get, it’s about what I already got…Jesus.

   In conclusion, I want it to be known that I am in no way judging you don’t hold my viewpoint on Santa Claus. I’m sure many of you will disagree and that’s OK. For me and my wife, we just can’t adhere to the Santa lie for our kids.

For more in depth conversation about this, check these two sites out:

Pastor Mark Driscoll on Santa-- Pastor of a large church in Seattle, WA

Real Parents discuss Santa-- Parents who struggle with this idea and voice their opinions

Walk By The Spirit- By Marv Nelson

2010-12-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

One of the things I desire to do as a follower of Christ is to "Walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16 ESV; Romans 8:4ESV) and not walk according to my sinful, fleshly desires. This hit me awhile back as I was writing my first book and I took an entire chapter to discuss the importance of walking in the Spirit. Here is a snippet:

"I fear that we [most Christians] have lost touch with the reality of the Holy Spirit and His power in our lives. It’s like we have this huge power source that we don’t tap into. We allow ourselves to run on candle light when we could turn on our lights with electricity instead.

That scenario sounds ludicrous, because it is. However, when we don’t open our lives for God the Holy Spirit to enter and change us, we are simply people trying to “do” this Christian life with no power. Brennan Manning is coined for saying: “If all we do is do, all we do is dodo”. Meaning if all we do in our lives is try to do, it will all end up being junk in the end. This goes for the lives of teens as well.

If we teach them to keep on keeping on by themselves sans the Holy Spirit, they will strive and strive and go nowhere in their relationships with God and others. This then will create disillusionment, discontentment and a bitter taste of God in their mouths. When we teach our teens to “do” the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, we are teaching religion. Young men and women are tired of religion because it creates so much havoc. They need a relationship." (Pinocchio Vs. The Real Boy- Chapter 6)

I believe this lack of teaching on the Holy Spirit and our yielding over to him has turned many a Christian into one of these two things: A.) Prideful- because by their good doing, they think they've "arrived" or

B.) Saddened by their inability to measure up, so they leave the church.

The teaching on and the living by the Holy Spirit is crucial to the life of a believer. We do not have a religion that forces us to do good things. Rather, we have a good Father who has provided us with the Holy Spirit, who when yielded to will create within us the desire to do what is right because He is daily Sanctifying us, and He is daily transforming us.

The questions we must ask of ourselves then is this: "Am I living a life yielded to the Holy Spirit?" and "Am I teaching by word and action to my children (or my community) what it means to be yielded over to the Holy Spirit?"

Part of our sin nature wants us to remain as we are, our flesh wages constant war upon us to reject our yielding to the Holy Spirit. Christ has died for our sins folks! It's done, His Blood has given us the power to conquer Satan, sin and death. Must we repent and turn from our sins? YES! We also must then yield our lives to the Spirit and allow Him to guide our lives through the Word and through Prayer!

Some of you reading this may ask: how do I know if I'm living a yielded life? What does it look like essentially? A couple things happen: The Holy Spirit reveals our sin, especially the buried-covered-up-even- to-our-eyes sins. Next, we feel a deep desire to change, then third, we give up control of our desires, future, pains and dreams over to the Spirit and lastly we listen to His Voice through the Word and in Prayer.

Here's another excerpt from Pinocchio Vs. The Real Boy- Chapter 6

"How do we even realize we have junk and sin and pain and emotional trash in our lives? The Holy Spirit reveals it to us. Think also of Pinocchio, he was unaware of his wooden living, he was woefully unaware of his shortcomings and wrongdoings. He needed a revealer to show him his mess-ups and junk in his life. That task fell to Jiminy Cricket who found himself badgering Pinocchio about his wrongdoings. Jiminy was there to keep Pinocchio on the journey of becoming a real boy but found himself being ignored. This is a similar role of the Holy Spirit to us, he reveals the stuff laid deep in our hearts and calls us to repentance. The Holy Spirit is the one who lives in us to cause us to become real".

Are you hearing what the Lord is revealing to you? How can you yield more of yourself to the Spirit of God?

Marv Nelson

ACAC Middle School Pastor

Small Faith, Great God

2010-12-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

I know there is a lot of debate that has gone on in the Evangelical world about NT Wright and his theology, especially when it comes to Justification, but I must say, this man's brain is amazing. His thoughts on God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are deep and profound and I enjoy reading his writing, even if I don't agree with all of his thougths on Justification.

This book, which is a second edition from his work done in the 70's is just as impactful as his other works. Small Faith, Great God is a collection of sermons based on faith and the great God who inspires our faith. It may be a short book, but that in no way negates its powerful message.

Section one of the book is called: "Faith in a Great God", where NT expounds on God's greatness from both the Old and New Testaments, reminding the reader that we can have faith in God, because He alone is Great, Wonderful and trustworthy. NT does a great job of making this huge concept of God and His Greatness smaller and more understandable.

Section two of the book is called "Faith to Live and Love" which is a discussion on how our faith should change the way we live and how we love others. Our faith shouldn't be something we simply talk about, but something we fully live out. One of the best ways to see the fruit of our faith is in how we love others and love the lost. NT has great illustrious stories that hit this point well, both from his life and from the Scripture, making the reader step back and ask if the faith they claim to have is really changing the way they live and love.

Section three is called "Faith to Walk in the Dark" which is a dialogue about how even when things seem out of wack, we can rely on God in the dark times as well as the good times. God is a promise keeper, not a promise breaker so if he vows to guard and prtect us, he will do just that and we can lay back fully secure in his arms, even when life seems to be telling a different story than that of security.

As I said before and have said several times even before that: I enjoy reading NT Wright's works. God has gifted him with a great ability to preach, teach and tell stories and his ability to see Scripture and translate it to everyday understanding is incredible. I think this is a great book to read and encourage any believer about their faith, because even if our faith is small, our God is Great. God fills all our lackings with himself and is our All in All.

Being reminded how Big our God is was very encouraging to me. It was an excellent reminder that my God can and will handle everything. I get so stuck on what can I do, or how can I help myself get out of this or that mess and I neglect to rest in the arms of my God who so desperately desires me to trust him. I find myself relying on my own fallibility and forgetting how Big and infallible my God is.

Our God is BIG and GREAT! Let us rejoice in his Goodness!

Eat Pray Love- A Conversation

2010-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

Last night, I watched Eat Pray Love. I am aware that there is tons of controversy brewing around with Christians adamantly opposing people from watching the movie because of the non-Christ (and therefore pro-Satan) spirituality within the film, which there is admitably a lot of. This controversy made me all the more excited to see the film. I don't know what it is but when a large group of Christians like myself oppose a movie (unless it has to do with sexual reasons) I generally am interested in watching the movie to find out why it is so debated.

I usually find something within those movies that most Christians either ignore, or pass over because they are deeply offended by something else in the movie. This movie was no different for me.

The main character (played by Julia Roberts) is disillusioned with life and finds herself in a place where she wants to get out and get away. Near the beginning of the movie, we see a late night scene where Julia begs God to reveal himself and to show her what to do. She then goes back to bed, tells her husband she wants a divorce and begins a journey of discovery to find God and find herself.

She dates a young man in the city, ends up living with him for a time but quickly becomes disenchanted with him as well. She always wanted to travel, so she decides to go away for a year to 3 different places: Italy to enjoy life and food again; India to find a Hindu Guru who can teach her about God and Bali where she met a medicine man earlier in the movie who told her to come back so he can teach her his tricks.

Obviously, there are no Christian themes laced in the movie and there are tons of Eastern Spiritual themes, which sadly do put Hinduism and witch doctoring in a good, almost alluring light. With that said however, there is something deeper to uncover: the search.

I'm afraid that too many Christians write people off like the character played by Julia Roberts as demonic, ungodly and pagan yet forget that that person is searching for God Himself. We walk down the street and stick up our "godly" noses to the detriment of those seeking God. What if a Christian would have crossed her path during this search? How would they have reacted?

This woman was DESPERATE for God as many people like her are, yet we neglect to share the truth of Christ because we write these seekers off, or worse don't even care about their journey. It's a sad reality that we Christians have a bad name and over the years, we've earned it. We have the true message and people desperately need to hear it, but we reject and neglect those who need Him.

I was amazed at the main characters desperation and sad at the conclusions she ended coming up with...because they didn't have Jesus in the equation at all. She ended up with the idea that God resides in her as her and missed that God resides in her to transform her and that He desires that indwelling!

One thing I also noticed was that there was no mention of church or Jesus at all as a viable search for her to find God. How is it that we in a self-described "Christian Nation" produce a movie about an American Woman seeking God and not even thinking of the church or worse yet not even thinking of Jesus?

I'm afraid we as the church in America have lost our Missional focus and we have forgotten our mission to the world. So many churches in America are content to sit around, go to church one day a week and live the rest of their lives for themselves the rest of the week, all the while feeling satisfied with their eternal future and giving no thought to anyone else's fate. The people we walk around are spiritually dead and we are spiritually numb to this reality.

I mean, it is a sad testament to Christianity when we refuse to watch a movie and tell our Christian friends to refuse to watch it too because there is a woman searching for God in the wrong places. If anything, we should watch this movie and allow it to break our hearts at how lost the people in our world are.

Everyone is on a journey of discovery. Everyone around us is searching for God and worshipping something, are we living our lives in such a way as to direct them towards Christ, or are we simply ignoring them?

All of this hit me like a flood while watching the movie. I was convicted by it for sure and realized how much I truly owe Christ.

The movie wasn't amazing by any means. There were some risque moments, a little foul language and some huge lags where one can easily get bored within the film. So I am not saying to anyone: "You need to go see this movie!" I am simply saying there was a woman in search of God and it broke my heart to see her not find Christ and it would do well for us to expose ourselves to films that break us in such ways.

I am encouraged by the Holy Spirit to live my life in such a way that others ask questions about my faith (1 Peter 3:15) and to live in such away that they feel comfortable sharing their desire for God with me. Please feel the same encouragement. There is a whole world of people in need of God and God desires us to be the messengers of that Good News!

-Marv Nelson
Middle School Pastor

The Omniscience of God

2010-12-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it. (Psalm 139:1-6 ESV

God cannot learn. This is an idea of God's omniscience I had never pondered before today. There is no new knowledge to God; nothing can be added to his knowledge, for He is aware of all knowledge.

A.W. Tozer in his book The Knowledge of the Holy puts it this way: "To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn." (Tozer, 1961, p. 55)

We as humans have a tough time grasping this truth. We can state it as "God knows all" but when we say it in a negative form like: "God cannot learn," something in us tweaks and has trouble now grasping something we thought easily grasped. We as finite human beings always learn and are always learning. Our brains take in and give off so much information that to say someone can't learn is so foreign we balk at the very thought of it.

Yet God is so knowledgeable that learning is impossible, for God to learn would be for God to admit he didn't know something and that some other being had information He Himself did not possess. It would be to admit flaw and the Bible says that God is perfect and without flaw. (Matthew 5:48)

Tozer, in The Knowledge of the Holy also says: "We have seen that God had no origin, that He had no beginning that He requires no helpers that He suffers no change, and that in His essential being there are no limitations." (Tozer, 1961, p. 56)

Tozer here is going through the list of attributes of God in which he already discussed in the book, but when you look at this list, God is so other than us! He is so close, yet so foreign, so attainable yet so unattainable. He is Holy, set a apart and so hard to conceptualize. These attributes especially that of Omniscience is what I believe causes hang ups for those who don't believe.

How can we be made in God's image, yet Him be so foreign some may ask. My answer may not be the best, but it's simple: we have to have faith that it is true, we all believe in something and having a being who created everything in this world not be unattainable seems awkward at best. I mean think about it: this world has been here for at least 10,000 years and we still have no clue as to how all things work. Why would we expect to know the maker?

God's omniscience freaks me out a bit, but it is also very amazing to think that He knows so much that He can never learn anything!

I love that God is a mystery. I love that I can't box him up and put a bow on Him. I love that He is so very "other" (or Holy) that I can't even scratch the surface of who He is. He graciously gives us glimpses as to His true nature...but even those revelations stump us and make us dig deeper! Oh how I love that about God! Plunging the depths of His ways, plunging headlong into the bosom of who He is, drowning in the wealth of it! It's unparalleled in its amazing-ness!

A.W. Tozer was a man of a great wealth of knowledge and he has even today, some great insights on who God is, was and will forever be. Tozer discusses how easy, yet hard it is to understand the omniscience of God and says it is easier for us to understand these deep truths by thinking in what God is "not" rather than what "God is." To illustrate this, he says in The Knowledge of the Holy " And that abrupt statement by God Himself, "I am the Lord, I change not,"[Malachi 3:6] tells us more about the divine omniscience than could be told in a ten-thousand word treatise, were all negatives arbitrarily ruled out." (Tozer, 1961, p. 56)

I agree, Tozers negative statement: God cannot learn caught my attention and made me better understand God's omniscience! God is deep, vast and Holy! We serve a Mighty God!

Knowing God- A Review

2010-11-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

I recently read the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer and I must say, I am blown away. It's pretty sad for me to say this, but I never heard of Knowing God until I recently looked in the IVP (InterVarsity Press) catalog. I actually thought it was a newer book when I asked to read it for a review...but it's not.

The original was written by Packer back in the 70's and was re-done in 1993 but even though there is a gap of 17 years to now and more so for the original, the content was powerful! J.I. makes great efforts into making God personal and known. He teaches theology as well as application to said theology int he pages of this book. His writing style is easy to read and he is gifted at penetrating the issue he desires to bring to the reader.

His basis for writing thie book was clear on page 23 when he said: "Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquintance, not simply with doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are".

J.I. reminds us that we can easily succomb to knowledge about God and lose sight of Knowing God for himself. This book goes to not only the doctrinal level of understanding but shows the personal nature of God throughout this learning. He breaks the book into 3 parts; 1. Know the Lord; 2. Behold Your God; 3. If God Be For Us. Each one has a distict feel to it and makes sense into the whole idea of Knowing God. The first is the encouragment of getting away from the sunple knowing about and actually getting to know God himself. The second portion displays who God is in thought as well as in personally to our lives. The third part of the book shares how deeply our sin has effected our relationship to God and how painstakingly God has set out to make this right byt sending Jesus.

I greatly appreciate J.I. for this work and believe that this will be one of the books I hand out to teens who are hungry for knowledge of God, not just about God. It is a deeply personal book and I highly reccomend reading it for any believer!