Jesus my Savior

I was reading My Utmost for His Highest this morning (side note: I always want to say “upmost.” Doesn’t that make more sense? Who uses the word utmost anyways.) Well, Oswald said that one problem we have today is celebrating the person of Jesus and trying to imitate him as a kind and worthy person to imitate, but removing the focus away from his saving grace and how we desperately need his salvation. He is first our Saviour and second our Pattern for who we should be in the world.

This was particularly striking to me because my deepest prayer for the past six years has been “Lord, please make me more into the image of Christ.” I realized as I was reading MUfHH this morning that I have been very focused on becoming more Christ-like, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But I am no longer focusing on the fact that I have a deep need for a savior. We all do. This also ties in with Brian’s story and his message he gave last week at HC. It’s hard to need Christ when we don’t really need him. We think we’re fine on our own. However we all know that we cannot earn our own salvation. I know that Christ has paid the way for me. But sometimes I forget about that. I stop being thankful for that. And instead I focus on how I can get on with my spiritual maturation. This year, during Advent and Christmas, I hope I am able to grasp and remember deep down how truly blessed I am to have not only a Pattern, but also a Savior. Maybe this will become my new prayer.

"Setting your mind on the things of God"

I was reading in Mark where Jesus famously rebukes Peter with the famous "Get behind me Satan!" line. However, it's the second part of this sentence that hit me: For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.

Why have I never noticed this before? I think there's a tendency to equate Satan only to the really, really capital-e Evil things of the world. Fact of the matter is, whenever we're setting our mind on the things of men, we're listening to Satan.

(Sidenote: does anyone else feel weird capitalizing the S in Satan?)

Every day I pray to be a better man. What that probably means is setting my eyes on the things of God. One of the best things I've done this year was to fast on Good Friday this year. It was the first time I ever fasted and helped my faith tremendously. Whenever I felt hungry, there was a simple solution: think of the Lord. Every single time, the hunger went away.

Set your mind on the things of God...let Him put your hunger (or whatever) away

Redoing it

Sometimes on Facebook, people will write things on my wall, or comment elsewhere after me, and then delete the post. It disappears, but the funny thing is that I still get an email telling me what they wrote.

I empathize with those people. I've long wished for the ability to take mulligans in life--I did as a two-year-old when I dropped my water pistol off the front deck just to watch it fall, then later when my brother and I were kings of the Tandy Color Computer, and getting it right in a game often entailed multiple restarts, and later again in college as I tried to figure out how to run a good cross-country race. And yes, most of the time in between, I had the same wish. But the problem with reality is, even if you ignore it, it doesn't go away; and the reality is, whatever happens can't be taken back. It's just history. Granted, I like history, but this principle of irrevocable linear reality still frustrates me.

The crazy thing is that God forgets my sins, thanks to Jesus' death and resurrection. God forgetting sins hardly seems possible, much less probable, in the context of our lives and given that He's omniscient and holy and all that good stuff. But it's true. "'This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.' Then he adds: 'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.'"

There, mind-blowingly, is my mulligan. I aim to make the best of it.

p.s. No, I will not reveal the contents of deleted Facebook posts.

I love being a Christian

I don't know how people get through life without Jesus. When you're stretched too thin, when you don't no where your strength is going to come from, you can rely on Him.

(not to mention the whole afterlife thing)

Love the Lord with all your heart

I’ve been haunted by Deuteronomy 6:5 recently, both in its original place and when quoted the New Testament –

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

What haunts me? The fact that I don’t do that. Sure, I have my quiet time with God, I read a Bible chapter or two and sometimes meditate on the Word. But there’s no way I can say I love God with all my heart when I spend so much time in thoughts not about Him. Somehow it’s easier to love a girl, friends and even animals than it is to love my God. I wish this were not the case.

I was thinking about this as I read the tale of Zacchaeus the tax collector today. Zacchaus, a wealthy tax collector who (at least by today’s standards) might not need to meet Jesus was absolutely desperate to do so. Luke 19:4 says Zacchaus “ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”

Zacchaeus was desperate to see the Lord, so desperate he climbed a tree to do so. He wasn’t climbing the tree out of obligation, habit or because he was monetarily bankrupt. He was desperate for Jesus.

Can I say that about myself? Am I desperate for Jesus? Would I climb a tree (metaphorically) to see Him? If asked, my answer would probably be “sometimes.”

So do I always love the Lord my God with all my heart? Absolutely not…but I’m trying. It's easy to fall into the trap of self-pity based on that answer. I'm not going to do that. Personal transformation -- from loving the world/yourself to loving God -- does not happen overnight. I mean, it's taken me seven years to get to this point. Here’s hoping tomorrow brings me one step closer to loving the Lord with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength.

The gospel is everywhere, part 1000

One of my all-time favorite books is Michael Lewis' Moneyball (pictured above). While nominally about baseball, in reading the book you'll realize it's actually about being efficient in life.

One of the themes that stuck with me is that of a decision being evaluated not on the result, but on the process involved in making the decision. So, if you trade for a bad player who coincidentally sets the world on fire upon his acquisition, that does not mean the trade decision was a good one. To use a real world example: my friend Wesley once survived a car accident only because she wasn't wearing a seat belt. Just because she survived, however, does not validate the decision to drive without wearing the seat belt*.

I always thought this "the value of the decision is not in its result" philosophy extended to the gospel as well. Like, if I talk about the Lord with a stranger but it does not result in the stranger coming to the Lord, I shouldn't feel like I made a bad decision**.

Reading Luke 4, I found my scriptural reference. Here, Jesus is tempted by Satan, who offers Jesus authority and splendor over all the kingdoms in the world. One problem: while the result would make a certain amount of sense, the process by which He got there would be, well, a bit troubling.

I think Christians can be similarly tempted by the allure of a seemingly positive result. What I think we need to remember, though, is that the result we ought to always be seeking is not one of worldly pleasure, or even one which looks good to other Christians. The result we should simply, unequivocally be seeking is the approval of the Lord. After all, it is He, not men, who ultimately judges us.

* = I know this sentence is a double negative. If you have a better idea of how to phrase it, please do let me know

** = same thing

Bring Jesus to work day

One of the things I sometimes have trouble with when "spending time with the Lord" is that I can't actually see him. Even though I conceptually know He's there at every second of every day, if I'm not actively feeling His presence I easily forget about Him.

My friend Kevin suggested picturing Him on my shoulder, or picturing Him walking next to me. Would that affect how I proceed through my day? Would I stop putzing around, stop procrastinating, stop finding ways to shirk responsibility?

What if I took Him to work with me? Would that affect my effort? Something tells me I wouldn't be spending time on so many websites, sending so many emails to friends and doing anything besides what I'm being paid off to do.

So I'm thinking that should be my attitude throughout life -- not so much "what would Jesus do?" but more like "what would you do if Jesus were right next to you?"

(which, of course, he kinda is)

Scriptural reference:
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

On fear (again)

I was talking about this with my men's group the other night:

A conclusion we reached is that much of fear is generated by free will. As an example: when you were a kid you didn’t have the option of not playing prison dodge ball. It was prison dodge ball week in P.E., so you had to play. Now that we’re older, we can hand-select which activities in which to participate and suddenly we’re terrified of failure.

(insert any of a million different variables for prison dodge ball, i.e. other sports, foods your parents made you eat, etc)

Obviously I’m simplifying it a little; probably you did have some fear of prison dodge ball, but you got over it because you had to. Later in life, you don’t have to. You can choose to stay scared forever.

Makes sense, right? Free will is what brought us original sin, fear is maybe Satan’s greatest weapon…and this is why I think Jesus is always saying “do not be afraid.”

What people really want

I once heard where the perfect government would be an omnipotent dictator. That thought has stuck in my head as I've watched these debates, which have essentially boiled down to:

Candidate A: You were wrong about this
Candidate B: You were wrong about this other thing

OR

Candidate A: You flip flopped your views on this
Candidate B: You flip flopped your views on that

That's fine. That's politics. Maybe we can argue about it sometime.

Here's something else I've noticed about politics: People do want an omnipotent dictator. Why else would they expect someone to be right about everything?

Or, let's look at the flip-flopping bit:
Sometimes it's a result of being easily swayed. Other times it's because a new situation has presented itself and now the person has to react to it. Situations change and sometimes the strongest thing to do is change your opinion, policy or whatever.

Try as they may, politicians are not omnipresent or omnipotent, much as people want them to be. There's only one person I know who fits that description...whether people realize that's who they're longing for is another matter altogether.

Beware the friend collectors

So it may seem like I’m just universally unaccepting of anything mainstream. I won’t deny having that as a portion of my personality (though I promise I’m not always countercultural). With that said, my hesitance towards Facebook (and before that, My Space) had legit foundation:

1. I never wanted my students to be able to see too much into my personal life; and
2. I was always a little worried about friend collecting.

Here’s what I mean about that last part:

One of the most important sermons I ever heard was one wherein the pastor talked about how “every human you pass on the street is someone for whom your savior died.” I loved that not just because of its impressive grammar (notice for whom) but also because it put into words what appealed to me about Jesus. To Him, every person on this earth – friend or foe – was someone who could be saved. Everyone was someone of value.

Meanwhile, my whole thought about Facebook is that it causes us to devalue other people. One of my favorite series at Imago was about the core idols. Specifically, I remember how someone with the power idol was described: someone who uses other people as commodities. That, in my opinion, is exactly what Facebook promotes. Accept friends just to bolster your friend count. Invite others for the same reason. Post a note on someone’s page so that someone else sees it. And so on. This is not how we’re meant to live. Jesus had twelve people he directly influenced (and from what I understand, you can argue that number is more like three). Now it’s two thousand years later and we’re meant to believe that we – mere humans, mind you – are intended to have 367 friends?

(Note: Don't get me wrong, there are benefits to the site as well. I'd hate to sound like one of those Christians who decried the advent of TV as the devil's work. I'm just saying is all. I'm just saying)

A little preposition goes a long way

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Notice it's not just believing Him -- it's believing IN Him? Demons, satan...they believe He's the son of God as well. It's the fact that we believe IN Him that matters.

On Heaven

Was talking to my friend Sarah about this recently --

You know how the classic argument for going to Heaven says you'll make it there if you're a "good person"? And it has nothing to do with serving the Lord, believing in Christ as the savior, etc? Let's just say for a minute that such a view is accurate...what would those "good people" do in Heaven? Like, literally, what would their activities be? Continue with self-motivated activities? What would they do?

Less people, more Bible

In a bizarre sequence of events, I wound up on the phone last night with this guy Eric. I didn’t – and still don’t – know the man but he got my number from the Imago website and suddenly we were chatting for 42 minutes at 10:30 at night.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll tell you that Eric is pretty freaking bitter towards Christianity. He’s obviously been burned by Christians before – I believe his quote was “I don’t know how you can associate yourself with other Christians” – and isn’t too fond of preachers either (“All preachers are crooks”). It stinks to hear someone say these things.

This was hardly the first time I’d heard complaints like these. Notice anything about Eric’s complaints? They were about people. They were not about Jesus. That’s quite a difference. People will disappoint you. Jesus will not.

Even once we become Christians, we need to remember this. Instead of continually being tied down in what my Christian friend thinks or what s/he advises me to do, we need to consult God. As my friend Josh says, we need to focus more on the Bible and less on people.

Life simplification, gas price style

My guess is that the escalating cost of gas won't actually change lifestyles to any great extent. I'd love to think it will persuade more people to take public transportation, bike from place to place, etc. but those who do so will likely be in the minority.

My mind likes to play all the possibilities, though, and today I was thinking about what might happen if gas prices actually caused people to stay in more, avoid driving from Beaverton all the way in to Portland just to have a drink, stopped going out of their way to do things that are costing $8 in gas mileage.

What if the cost of gas caused people to slow down? Sit at home reading a book instead of running about at breakneck speed? Walk around your community noticing things rather than treating it only as an area in which to live? Focus on a few close friends rather than trying to catch up with 32 different ones at the Lucky Lab?

I know I'm romanticizing the whole simplified lifestyle, but I can't help wondering if the gas prices could actually pull us closer to the Lord. We're in this Facebook world replete with faux relationships. Were we designed to be that way? As my friend January pointed out months ago, Jesus only had 12 disciples. Realistically, the core group of those disciples was only three deep. Sure, he talked to others, but he focused on a very small number of people rather than trying to gather a huge social network. He always kept his closest people with him. Might we be better off doing the same?

Holding on to it

Lying prone by the curb outside my neighbor's house today is a brown, tinder-dry, five-foot-long fir: a Christmas tree. It looks kind of sad, and I wonder how often we, as Christians, leave the weight of Christ's incarnation by the curb when it's not the "the holiday season."

Jesus, Light of the world

The sun was out yesterday; it was warm, enjoyable, and intoxicating (without the fizzy bite or bitter taste!). It also got me thinking about light, which I'm going to chalk up as yet another obvious thing I probably would have taken for granted, or otherwise overlooked, had God contracted me to build the universe (breathing; fingernails; sex;... yeah, it's a long list). I know I take it for granted now. With its abundance and convenience (and yes, the sun), light simply happens, and often I only need to respond to its consequences. Sure, I'll switch or clap on a lamp, and I'll notice when the bulb in the fridge goes out. But that's to avoid tripping and breaking my hand in the dark, and to find my cold one. Light is a mundane tool.

So? Does this matter? Maybe not... Although, the concept of light seeps into scripture frequently. Jesus claims to be the Light of the world; Christians are admonished to be light to the world ourselves, and to live "in the light." I wonder how often we take this spiritual light for granted too, using it to deflect hurt and find our cold ones without embracing its true significance. As a sermon reminded me this morning, the gospel isn't essentially about us fixing what we perceive to be wrong around us; Jesus is an end unto Himself. His "I Am" statement is especially important, no doubt, and we ought to inspect it if we are to take Christ seriously (and I don't mean that we should hyper-interpret His metaphors, but that we should explore who Jesus really is).