Jesus Loves Me This I Know

The video I linked to today is Jeremy Camp's This Man. It is very moving every time I see it. It really confirms for me Romans 5:6-8; that I blogged about in the Weird Jesus Story first post. From The Message translation:
6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

Watch the video and ask yourself 'would I do that for anyone? And why would Jesus have done that for me?' The first part only you can answer for sure, but Romans makes it pretty clear - no. We just don't have that depth of love in us. The second part is easy to say, but sometimes hard to grasp: He did it because He loves you. Just as you were, are and will be. Unconditionally. Let that sink down inside and roll around today: Jesus loves me. Watch the video again, and as you watch it, repeat to yourself again and again: Jesus loves me.
Understanding those three words will change your life.

Jesus Loves Me This I Know

Freaky Friday & Baptism

So last night the NHL playoff game was over, I had seen the episodes of Gangland, What Not To Wear, and Spongebob Square Pants that were on (variety is the spice of life) so I just kept flipping around. Found Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeah, movie snobs think the original was better, but I get a kick out of this one. There is one scene that I wanted to mention; where Jamie's character (after the flip) is on a TV show to promote her book, and the teenage daughter inhabiting her starts going off 'on the problem with everyone is that they don't let loose'. So she starts asking the "elderly" audience if they saw a really hot guy what would they do? And she starts waving her hands and yelling "woo hoo", over and over. Funny stuff.

So how does that tie to Baptism? If you have been to a Wednesday night youth spontaneous baptism experience you know. I directed IMAG for Wednesday night a couple of weeks ago, baptism night. What a party it was! Watching not only the kids getting baptized, but seeing and HEARING the reaction of their friends and fellow youth. Cheers, screams, lots of clapping and shouting praises, and lots of 'woo hoo's'. These kids, and the adults there too, were genuinely excited to see this step of obedience and faith and simply could not hold it in. Kids not prepared to be baptized were moved to be, street clothes and all. As Pastor Randy (PR) said "imagine if this is happening here, what the party in Heaven is like tonight". It was not a night that the Church Lady would be comfortable with....

This weekend at ALC is baptism weekend. PR is speaking, and the baptism is open. We have seen tremendous response to the Holy Spirit this year with 120 people having been baptized so far. I am sure each and every one of those responses prompted a giant 'woo hoo' in Heaven.

So how will you react this weekend? Are you with the Church Lady or are you feeling a bit Freaky Friday? Are you going to quietly whisper "isn't that special", or are you willing to wave your hands around and give a shout?

Epilogue: Finished blogging but had not reread it, so I just saved this as a draft. I like to think about what I wrote, to see if God changes my mind! So I'm telling the family about this weekend and that PR is preaching and its baptism weekend. What does my daughter do? Simply raises her hands and says "woo hoo". I had not mentioned this blog at all. That is what I call "weird"!

My Weird God Story: The Sequel

So back to point #2, which if you missed it is on last Friday's blog. The question was: Why are our weird God stories considered weird?

I have been a Christian for just about 28 years, and I'm sliding into 50 years old very soon. Prior to accepting Christ, I had never read a single bible verse, and can recall going to church exactly once as a kid, of course on Easter. I was clueless to what I like to call "Christian protocol". Everything was brand new. I soon found out that there were "rules" to Christianity. No, not the Beatitudes, not the 10 Commandments, none of those things. But I did not know the "rules", so I just thought I was to trust Jesus for everything. Silly me...

I can remember praying for things and they happened. I thought that was what you did. I had been saved about three weeks when I had to go to work, taking the bus and it was pouring rain. No umbrella (duh, guys don't have umbrellas when their 20-30 years old!). I prayed "Lord, I know this sounds vain, but I don't want to get soaked. Can you please stop the rain." Yep, I prayed that. Dumb I know. Must have been a coincidence that it stopped raining as I stepped out my apartment door and started a down pour the second I stepped under the eve of the garage at the bus stop. I mean a deluge. I told some people at the church I was going to about it, because Ithought it was cool. Uhh, that 'coolness' was not shared. That is when I learned the "don't put God to a foolish test rule". And here I thought it was just this Jesus I was learning about teaching me to cast ALL my cares upon him. Won't make that mistake again.....

I could name countless other instances like that. Weird stuff. Really weird stuff. But you know who I gave the praise to for those answers to prayer? No one, because I had learned that you don't share that weird stuff. Sure, pray over your food (that's another post later!), pray for people to 'get better' (as opposed to outright cured), and for lots of safe things. That became my God Box; I could believe on God for safe and sure things, but for the weird: no.

And yet I read scripture and see Jesus and His disciples performing signs and wonders (Rom 15:19, 2Cor 12:12, Acts 14:3 and I could list tons more). In John 14:12, Jesus himself promises that His believers will do "greater works than these". Were these words and wonders just meant for the early church? I don't see that in scripture at all.

So why is that we don't share our 'weird' God stories with others; believers and non-believers alike? Is it related back to the first point of the 'weird God story' blog; that we want to make Jesus as palatable as possible for our society? I mean if you won't go preaching about a God who dies and lives again, you sure are not going to share about a God who heals the sick, raised the dead, made the blind to see. No, that would be too weird to believe in....at least till you get someone "saved"; and then you can share those stories. I would choose the opposite, and recently had that chance at work.

See, my car blew a head gasket, after 162,000 miles. Big smoke from the hood of the car. Raised the 'bonnet' and saw the bad news. Had a friend come by (thanks KG!) and sure enough, the dip stick pulled out had a nice light chocolate brown foam all the way up the stick. Great color if your painting your living room, but not good if your an engine. Radiator drained as well. So I pulled the car into the church parking lot at ALC (yes, by shear coincidence, it let go right in FRONT of the church). Eventually KG and I went to tow the car home. KG has a truck and tow rope, so we were good to go, except I had pulled in front end first. So to hook the rope up, needed to back the car up. Started it up and backed up. At this point, being a guy took over, which is generally not a good thing. I looked at KG and asked how far he thought it would go till it blew up? Kind of like that Seinfeld episode where Kramer drives the car past empty. So being guys we said 'let's find out, and when it stops we will tow from there'. Off I went in a cloud of smoke. I mean a huge giant cloud of smoke. So much smoke coming out the back that I thought KG was not behind me. Embarrassing amounts of smoke. I thought: give it a block or two. Did I mention yet that the engine rattled like an empty spray can of paint? Many empty cans of spray paint? So off I go down the road and I get to Foster. I'm praying it does not stop on Foster. Pulled out, went about 25 yards, and you guessed it.....the smoke stopped. The rattle stopped. Yeah, I bet you didn't guess that either? I thought "Hmmm that's weird". And kept driving. Came to Cheldrain (or whatever its called) and turned right. Alright, made it off Foster, now it can die and it will be okay. A nice side street. But the car kept going, not loosing power. "Hmmm, that's weird" I thought. Then came to 190th, to turn left. Another busy street. Got to go for it now, half way home! Two stop signs ahead of me. Suddenly, the temperature gauge started to go up, pretty darn quickly. 'That's it. No water in the radiator, better find a place to pull over." And there it was, just ahead, a very nice big turn lane. But for some unexplained reason, the temperature gauge went from its just over half-way position back down to cold. "Hmmm that's weird" I thought. No smoke, no rattle, no over-heating, no loss of power. Suddenly I was one street from home, one last left to make. Still going. Pull in front of the house. KG is behind me, gets out with this grin on his face. He said he was sure I was going to blow up when I pulled out of the church. We opened the bonnet, expecting to see oil sprayed on the engine, just like those NASCAR guys have. Nothing...."Hmmm that's weird" I thought.

So two days later at work, a lady I work next to ask how the tow went. Right there I was faced with my God Box. Did I share what really happened, or did I say "got it home". So I told her the whole story. And there she stood, staring at me. I know she could have thought I was nuts. She could have blown the whole thing off as a coincidence. Instead she paused and said "boy someone was watching over you". And it gave me the chance to say: "I didn't know Jesus was a mechanic too". There I did it, took God right out of the box I keep Him in, and surely out of the box she has God in. HE was set out big as could be for her to evaluate.

So I will choose to believe bigger things from God. Men's Frat says a Man of God expects Gods Great Rewards. If only I will keep Him out of my God Box.

Maybe that is weird, or maybe I'm just nuts to you!

Too Close To Home

My Weird God Story.

Let's call this Sermon Sez: The Prequel. This goes back to Walk Across The Room: the Power of the Story. This was a tremendous series of messages about sharing your faith and loving others enough to share Christ. Pastor George (PG) and Pastor Greg (PG2) talked about investing in others lives and being open to the Holy Spirits leading. Great stuff. But one comment has caused me to ponder: 'leave out your weird God story' when talking to people about Jesus. Now I am pretty sure I understand why PG said what he said (and I should add, when he did his 'Christianize' language it was snot roll out your nose funny, and I heard it five times!) And I am a firm believer in loving people where they are, garbage and all, just like Christ loved (and still does) me. I believe in being down to earth and meeting people where they are. But here are my quandaries:

1. How can you truly introduce someone to Jesus without THE weird God story?
2. Why are our weird God stories considered weird?

The first one bothers me a lot. I sometimes feel that we (Christians in America in general) water down the Gospel to make it more 'palatable', to be more socially acceptable, almost as if we are trying to make Jesus easier to accept. We share sort of a psychologist Jesus, a Jesus who loves you and wants you to feel good about yourself. A Jesus who is there to help you through your problems. A Jesus who is motivational speaker #1 and has blessings for you. And while all those have truth to them, the only way to truly have relationship with Jesus is based in THE weird God story. Don't believe me? How about this for weird:

• Jesus died for me. That's weird. Don't take my word for it, read Romans 5:6-8. Paul says that someone might, just maybe, kinda sorta could, die for someone who was really, really, really good. But probably not. Yet Christ did exactly that for me, a sinner. Not a really, really, really good person. Not even a really really, heck, not even really good. But full of junk and sin, Jesus took my place on the cross. It was as if He looked my straight in the eye and said "relax, I've got this one for you" as He walked to Calvary.
• Christ rose from the dead. Not right away. Not after 24 hours. Not after 48 hours. But after 72 hours. 3 freaking days! That's weird. Don't believe me? Then name five people that you know who have died and rose after three days? Not five? How about three? What about naming two? Still to many? Other than Jesus, name one. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

See, that's some weird stuff. And without accepting those two weird truths and responding to Jesus and His forgiveness, there is no salvation, no true relationship with Christ, no becoming a child of God. It is not enough to show people the Jesus who will make you feel better, for 'feeling better' is temporary. It is not enough to show people the 'Jesus loves you and can help you through your tough time,' for more tough and even tougher times lie ahead. No, you must show people the Weird Jesus; the life changing Jesus, the saving Jesus. Weird? You bet.

The second part, the thing about why are our God stories considered weird? Well that will be for tomorrow.

Does any of this make sense, or am I just nuts to you?

Pop Culture Jesus

Last night on American Idol, Carly Smithson sang Jesus Christ Superstar, and sang it well. That fanned into flame a question that has been slowly burning in me for some time; what Jesus do I show to the culture around me? What Jesus do I reflect at work, at home, even at church?

I'll blog about that in detail tonight, but here is an appetizer for you till then.
http://newyork.metromix.com/events/article/jesus-rocks/379068/content

It is a great article written by a "secular Jew" (his term) about Christians and entertainment. An easy, quick read, but thought provoking.

That's it. Short and sweet. But I sense the next blog to be longer...so rest up!

Bathroom Humor

I admit it: I love Craigslist. I love the total randomness of it. I don't like garage sales because everyone stares at you as you pull up. You feel obligated to buy. But not on Craigslist. Total anonymity. Everything you want and must have. Where else can you get a homemade scratchy video tape of the 1985 TV show Double Trouble? Or the highly collectible Far West Federal Savings and Loan key faub?

Today's find (you can't make this stuff up if you tried):
NEW - Toilet - Model Gerber Works perfect. (Longview WA)
Reply to: sale-652031746@craigslist.orgDate: 2008-04-22, 11:09AM PDTI have a next to new Toilet, it's been installed into a new remodel but has been replaced by the owner of a different type. No toilet seat. WORKS PERFECT. Just call and haul it away. Call George 360-270-XXXX

There are a number of things that are just wrong about this:

1. Title claims it is a NEW toilet, but the post says 'next to new'. I don't know about you, but the moment a toilet is used ONCE, it is no longer new. But it doesn't say used once, it just says 'next to new' (NTN). If it was ten times, is it still NTN? How about twenty times? What if it is five sittings, fourteen standings, and one hurling? There must be a government ruling somewhere.
2. 'Replaced by the owner of a different type'. Huh? What 'type' was the previous owner? Are we talking race, sex, maybe some weird belief system? Seems odd that different 'types' of owners need different toilets.
3. 'No toilet seat. WORKS PERFECT'. For who? If your a guy and you always forget to put the seat down, yeah, it's perfect. But for the other half of the population, or for those non-standing times, it ain't so perfect. I believe they make toilets without the seat; they are called urinals!

I might be nuts, but I think it might be George that needs to be hauled away!

Where do I start?

Wow...where do I begin to blog and what do I blog about? When I decided to start a blog, I came up with a ton of topics and questions. Now which to go blog first?

I decided to start with what I hope will be a weekly post: 'Sermon Says'. Sort of like Simon Says, a game we all played as kids. You know, the leader shouts instructions and when he/she says "Simon Says" do this, you do it. No questioning why, you just do it. Sermon Says takes a different tact, instead of just doing what I hear during a weekend service, I'll take time to think about it and maybe throw out a question or two? Your free to answer the question, add a question of your own, or just silently contemplate what Jesus is speaking to you. So here goes, Sermon Says #1

This weekends message can be heard here: http://coolchurch.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107 . It is from the series Absolutely! from Abundant Life Church in Happy Valley, OR. Pastor George spoke on "Is Jesus Coming Back". Check out the very cool video intro to the message that was done in Pioneer Square. Random people giving some very interesting points of view on the question.

Pastor George (PG) talked about going out to TeamQuest in Gresham, an MMA training school run by Matt Lindland. I love me's some fighting, MMA, wrestling, boxing, any of it. You can catch Sportfight on Comcastsportsnet (channel 37), a show with great potential, but lacking a bit in production values (oops, off topic, focus, focus). PG talked about getting the chance to wrestle a few rounds and being absolutely exhausted after two or three bouts. In fact, he said he just wanted to quit; "just pin me" he said to his opponent. PG's point was this: you have to fight on, you can't quit.

This really spoke to me. In the last six months I have been through a ton of personal battles, all stemming from my own sinful desires and actions that took place over several years. It has been tough going, looking inside yourself, deep inside yourself, to let God get to every nook and cranny of your being to do the deep cleaning He desires. Some days have been great, I feel God not only cleansing, but restoring. I sense His delight, His love, His grace. Other days, not so good. I feel exhausted from the pummeling the enemy lets loose with. It is like an MMA fighter that is on his back, being riden by his opponent, who is throwing punches, reigning down elbows and letting loose a torent of knees to your ribs. Rest for just a moment and you will feel his arms slip around your neck for a choke hold. In the blink of an eye you will tap out. It's over. Done. You have lost. But you were just too worn to go on.

But I am finding that at that exact moment, when all my strength is gone, when my hand is about to hit the mat to tap, then true victory and healing takes place. For I can defend no more. I can fend off not another body blow. The very air I need to survive is being cut off. My whole being: exposed. And HE is all I can rely on. HIS strength, HIS power, HIS victory. It is then that I remember: the war was already won, and Christ stands victorious over all.

Now I know PG meant what he said: don't give up. Honest, I get personal involvement in walking with Christ. I know relationship with Jesus is interactive and true community. But for me personally, I have to change what PG said, just a bit. For me, it is Give Up...To Him. Stop fighting my own battles and let Him. Stop trying to change others, let Him change me. Stop struggling for a victory that is already there; freedom in Christ. Stop, stop, just stop. I find myself at times fighting battles He does not want me to fight; trying for victories that He does not find important in the scheme of being made whole in Him; and trying to change people, because looking deep inside myself for change can be painful and ugly. And He quietly says to me: "Stop. Rest in me".

Two things I hold onto:

1. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13)
2. My God is a God of Hope (Rom 15:13)

What more do I need? I have hopes and God given dreams. I am not alone in these dreams. How others respond is up to them...and Him. For me, I'll simply try to keep my back off the mat.

Wow...that took time. First blog down. Thought it went well. But then again, like the title of the blog page, maybe I'm just 'Nuts to you'

Your thoughts?