Messengers of your love...

What an honor it is, O God, to be your vessels of peace,
that you have granted us wisdom to overcome conflict.

What privileged do we have, to be your hands and feet of compassion,
that you have created us in your image that we may be sensitive to
the needs of those around us.

Lord I stand humbled, that you have created us for good works,
that we have been granted your courage to be a voice of justice to
the oppressed and the needy.

Your grace and your love are for all ages and have been extended to all people.
What an honor it is to be messengers of this great and amazing truth. 

Everlasting Love

What love is this, that in my imperfections I am not only desired, but pursued in order that I may be restored and made perfect?  What charge does this leave me?  What more could I want than to share what God has made known to me? 

It is funny how perspective may change daily, or ten times in a minute.  But my God has always been, and will forever remain constant... forever building me up, with his faithful and everlasting love for me.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; 

therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built."

Jeremiah 31:3b-4a

Wholly Jesus

Recently the book, Wholly Jesus, by Mark Foreman has found its way into my possession here in South America.  I'm amazed at the books that have been given me in the last two months.  Before, finding a book written in English that offered encouraging insight to my faith seemed like it would take a miracle.  Good thing my God is big, and I believe in miracles.  

I always wonder about how well Christian culture is presenting Jesus to those outside the church, and all to often I feel like they represent the story you will find below of Christy, which Mark shared in his book. 

The underlying argument is that the church was not intended to be separate from culture, and if we continue to pursue church in this manner "we risk losing an entire generation", using Mark's own words.  

Christy grew up in a global, pluralistic, holistic, ecological society for which she was told, “Jesus didn’t care.”  Her youth pastor told her that Jesus didn’t care about world peace, only the apocalypse.  He didn’t care about the wellness of the body, only the soul.  He didn’t care about the people of other faiths, only Christians.  He didn’t care about art and culture.  He didn’t care about ecology; the planet was going to burn anyway.  And he didn’t care about the integration of science and her faith.  And the reason she could be sure Jesus didn’t care about these things is because none of these things were mentioned in the Bible.  Jesus just wanted her to pray, read her Bible and tell others about him.  But eventually the tension between the real world and this fabricated you-pastor’s world snapped.  In order to be true to herself and her passion about these issues, she had to abandon the other-worldly Jesus she’d known.  Christy is an example of tens of thousands of Christians who have learned to disassociate a thin Jesus from their own wellbeing, along with the wellbeing of society and the planet.

I share this because I feel it is relevant.  I don't believe it to represent all churches, maybe there is only one or two things from this story that you recognize in your own life.  Still, these issues are everywhere in the global Christian community and I beg that all in Christian culture to revisit that which we believe to be the love of Christ.  More and more I learn that people respond to love, many people want to believe in the love that Jesus preached about and demonstrated, but the fact is they fail to find it in human relationship.  It is the purpose of the Church to present nothing other than Jesus.  If we wish to glorify God, with one voice, as is the purpose of the church we must be consistent with what Jesus said and did.  Unfortunately, I feel there are far to many people out there who share Christy's story...

Dear friends...  may we let God's love transform us so that we might see where we are lacking in our representation of God in culture, in church, and in the world.  

I hope Paul's words to the Romans challenge you just as much as they have challenged me:

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus the one who died--more than that, who was raise--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."
Romans 8:33-34

Wellspring of Life

My mind tells me I am finite,
Though physically I am, my heart longs for that which is Infinite.

Life has broken my understanding of Love,
Though broken, my heart desires to be loved.

I desperately long to be accepted,
But money, success, and material nothings still leave me rejected by many.

Why do purpose and significance feel so far from me,
Is it because I pursue the dreams of others, and if I continue will I ever find them?

False pleasures and instant gratifications have a hold on me,
Superficial relationships and artificial highs have broken me in every way.

Why do I refuse to learn from life’s lessons,
Must I break myself one more time?

Can love, acceptance, and purpose be found,
Or does my finite humanity refuse to let me truly live?

If physically I remain finite, and the heart full of infinite potential and desire,
Might I let it lead me towards abundant life.

For this I believe,
From the heart springs wells of Life.
If one fails to lead with their heart,
One will fail to live.

Pursue Life then,
Search deep within the wellspring of your heart.
For that which is Living,
Will not be found among the dead.

Proverbs 4:23
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

That He may put sin to death...

It only seems right to journal about the season of thanks…  I love the sentiment, and the opportunities to tell others just how grateful you are for them, but I feel the most thankful when I see others using this season to slow down enough to remember that which they are thankful for.  This “slowing down” from the busyness of our day-to-day lives has to be the greatest thing about Thanksgiving.  Let us not forget how important it is to slow down, reflect, and give thanks.

I finally found my time to do a bit of reflecting after a very busy few weeks, and it would take much more than one blog post to write all that I am thankful for in this moment.  The lengths that my friends have gone to encourage me in this last week have been humbling: letters, “goodbye” gifts, hugs, prayers, emails, beard jokes, and free coffee and food.  While I will miss my home in Nashville, I was encouraged to see God at work when I left and am excited to see how much more at work He will be when I return.  Words truly cannot express how encouraged I have been by you all.

After all of the craziness of moving away from Nashville for a while, I spent about 24 hours, over the course of three days, in a car driving across the country with my new friend from Columbia.  It offered the perfect opportunity to think about all which God has done in my life in the last year, and what exactly I am grateful for this holiday season.

Here it is:

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. –I Peter 2:24

This verse has absolutely wrecked me.  While I am thankful for many other things… the joy that comes from a life in Christ, and the protection and provision that God has promised me, I cannot find anything more worthy of my thanks that Jesus bore my sins, so that sin may be put to death in my life!  Maybe this finds a few of your heart strings the way it has found mine, maybe not.  But as those created in God’s image who are in constant struggle with selfish desires, pride, hatred, and all other forms of immorality, Christ promises us freedom from this so we may live as true image bearers of God. 

I am not saying that from now on I will remain without sin, even though that is the goal.  It is my hope that in revisiting this promise we are reminded that with Christ, we can put sin to death; and when people see us they see a glimpse of who God really is and just how much He loves his image bearers.  Maybe, just maybe, if we focused a little more on this promise, and actively desiring to put sin to death and live for righteousness, people will understand that what they desire is not to be around us, but to be closer to the love that comes only from God.

Friends, in this holiday season may we remember this…

We no longer have to live in sin.

We are the image bearers of true, unfailing love; and God has given us His son, Jesus, not only to bear our sins, but also to show us how to live in righteousness.

We have been healed of our sin, by His wounds.

We have been given the honor and responsibility of sharing this love with everyone.

Grace, Love, and Thanks.

I Peter 2:24-25

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.  For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.