"For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that with out ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you."- Romans 1:9-10
Though I have not faced the trials and persecution that Paul faced which prevented him from visiting Rome, I have had a longing to return to South Africa ever since I left. Now, it appears that my longing will be satisfied as the opportunity has arisen for me to go back. This coming December will be very eventful. I will walk across the stage and receive my diploma from Appalachian State University and then in a matter of a couple of days I will be flying to Cape Town. I am extremely excited about this opportunity to go back and minister to and be ministered to by the people of Cape Town.
It will be bittersweet though. It will be my first Christmas away from my family which will be tough on me and my family. But Christmas is about Jesus and what better way to celebrate than to be serving Him on the mission field. So please be in prayer for this trip. Right now the door is open but I am aware that God in His sovereign plan could have something else in store. But if it is His will, I will be back in South Africa.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
wow has it been that long?
So yeah most of you have probably stopped reading this. I understand. It has been an extremely busy stretch for me but I plan on getting back to writing as soon as school is out. Another reason for the lack of blogging has been my increasing use of twitter. Many people use blogs to write about their everyday lives but I mainly use my blog to write about things regarding my faith. My last couple of entries, especially the Running from Blessing ones took almost an hour to write. I haven't had that kind of time but hopefully this summer I'll get back to it. See you in a little under a month.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Why should I stay?
Taking a quick break from the current series. It takes a while to write each one of those and school has been really busy so I haven't had adequate time. But I wanted to just share something that I have been thinking about a lot recently.
Missions.
I used to think it wasn't for me. Then I thought that maybe short term missions was good and I could do that. Now that I've done that, I can see God working in me. Three weeks in South Africa was honestly easy. I wasn't homesick. Sure I missed family and friends but I didn't really miss the States. I loved learning about a new culture. Being in a new place. I saw the need firsthand. The harvest is plenty. The workers are few.
I've been reading Crazy Love and studying with my college group at home. Jesus showed us crazy love. It doesn't make sense. That he would do what he did. It was crazy. Why shouldn't I do something crazy? Why should I just live the normal life? A mediocre life? Missions is crazy. Especially if you are an American. We have EVERYTHING here. We are so freakin BLESSED. It is easy to live here. Why not leave and do something crazy?
Why should I stay here if I believe Jesus is who he said he was? Why should I stay here if I say I follow Christ? He went places that didn't make sense for him to go. He went places where harm was almost certain. Persecution a guarantee. If he did it, why shouldn't I?
If I believe that every word he spoke was true, why should I stay? He said that he offers eternal life. He said that he offers abundant life. He offers satisfaction that nothing on the earth can provide. He says that hell is real and that those who do not trust in Him will be there for eternity. If I believe these things, why should I stay when there are so many people who have NO IDEA about this Man and what he did for them?
How can I be so selfish? How can I be such a pansy and exchange the glory of Christ for a nice 9 to 5 and a two story house? Why should my comfort be more important than the needs of the world?
Why not do something crazy? He did. See I don't think it would make much sense for me to do something like that. I mean in the next year I'll have a college degree. I have pretty good grades so grad school is a reality. Down the road I'm sure I could find a nice job that pays well. Raise a nice family, in a nice neighborhood. But why not take a risk? My accomplishments and and future success does not compare to Christ. As Paul said, its trash.
If I believe God is my shield and my comfort. That he is ALWAYS with me, why should I be scared to do something like that. Why not take a risk that's not really a risk if the One I'm following has never let me or anyone else down?
I'm not saying that I will definitely be spending the rest of my time in a foreign country but unless I hear other wise I believe I will be spending some time overseas. Don't know the details but God is showing me how great the need is how much he cares about the nations.
So I could really use some prayers for guidance and courage. It's easy to say all this stuff. It's a lot harder to go out and do it.
Missions.
I used to think it wasn't for me. Then I thought that maybe short term missions was good and I could do that. Now that I've done that, I can see God working in me. Three weeks in South Africa was honestly easy. I wasn't homesick. Sure I missed family and friends but I didn't really miss the States. I loved learning about a new culture. Being in a new place. I saw the need firsthand. The harvest is plenty. The workers are few.
I've been reading Crazy Love and studying with my college group at home. Jesus showed us crazy love. It doesn't make sense. That he would do what he did. It was crazy. Why shouldn't I do something crazy? Why should I just live the normal life? A mediocre life? Missions is crazy. Especially if you are an American. We have EVERYTHING here. We are so freakin BLESSED. It is easy to live here. Why not leave and do something crazy?
Why should I stay here if I believe Jesus is who he said he was? Why should I stay here if I say I follow Christ? He went places that didn't make sense for him to go. He went places where harm was almost certain. Persecution a guarantee. If he did it, why shouldn't I?
If I believe that every word he spoke was true, why should I stay? He said that he offers eternal life. He said that he offers abundant life. He offers satisfaction that nothing on the earth can provide. He says that hell is real and that those who do not trust in Him will be there for eternity. If I believe these things, why should I stay when there are so many people who have NO IDEA about this Man and what he did for them?
How can I be so selfish? How can I be such a pansy and exchange the glory of Christ for a nice 9 to 5 and a two story house? Why should my comfort be more important than the needs of the world?
Why not do something crazy? He did. See I don't think it would make much sense for me to do something like that. I mean in the next year I'll have a college degree. I have pretty good grades so grad school is a reality. Down the road I'm sure I could find a nice job that pays well. Raise a nice family, in a nice neighborhood. But why not take a risk? My accomplishments and and future success does not compare to Christ. As Paul said, its trash.
If I believe God is my shield and my comfort. That he is ALWAYS with me, why should I be scared to do something like that. Why not take a risk that's not really a risk if the One I'm following has never let me or anyone else down?
I'm not saying that I will definitely be spending the rest of my time in a foreign country but unless I hear other wise I believe I will be spending some time overseas. Don't know the details but God is showing me how great the need is how much he cares about the nations.
So I could really use some prayers for guidance and courage. It's easy to say all this stuff. It's a lot harder to go out and do it.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Running from Blessings: Poor in Spirit
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."- Matthew 5:3
Last year I took a class about social problems. One of the many things we discussed was poverty. I learned about a term called absolute poverty. This term references the poorest of the poor. People who are living in absolute poverty live on less than a dollar a day. They are incapable of providing for themselves. In other words they lack self sufficiency. They can not afford food, housing, education, etc. They cannot afford their basic needs.
When I went to South Africa this summer I witnessed this kind of poverty. I don't know if it was officially "absolute poverty" but many of the people in Klipheuwel cannot help themselves, especially on the informal side. They can't afford food. They can't afford adequate housing. They can't afford their medicine for AIDS or TB. They can't afford to take the taxi to town to go see the doctor. That's why what Helen and Estelle do in Klipheuwel is so needed. Many of these people are so poor they cannot help themselves.
Many people have read this verse, including me, and said Jesus has a heart for the poor and we should take care of the poor. I believe this is bad interpretation. Jesus does care about the poor and we should take care of the poor. I am not denying that. But two mistakes are made when reading this verse that way. First, we don't look at ourselves but rather look at other people. Secondly, we misunderstand who the poor in spirit really are.
Notice that Jesus says poor in spirit not poor in possessions. Jesus is not just talking about the people who don't have enough money to live or all the people who are struggling to make ends meet. He is talking about a completely different type of poverty, spiritual poverty. People who cannot help themselves in a spiritual sense. People who are are over their heads in debt because of sin. People who cannot do anything to help the situation.
The hard to swallow truth about this verse is that Jesus isn't talking about a certain part of the population. He is talking about everyone. You and me. The truth is, while you are probably reading this while sitting in a nicely heated or air conditioned room and using a computer that cost hundreds of dollars and the same can be said for me as I write this, we are born into absolute spiritual poverty. We are all in this predicament. We are helpless. All of a sudden Jesus' words aren't so warm and fuzzy.
This concept was extremely hard for me to grasp. I used to think that I was a pretty good guy. I thought I could work my way to heaven. I used to tell myself that because I go to church, don't cuss that much, don't have sex, make good grades, and so on that I was worthy of heaven. I remember sitting in church one night and while we were praying I was looking around comparing myself to everyone. I completely rejected this idea that I was spiritually poor and that my good deeds could not pay my way in to God's Kingdom. I think a lot of people struggle with this. We don't want to look at ourselves and realize that we are helpless. That our sin has completely destroyed our spirit. We are by nature self righteous. I don't know of anyone who claims to be perfect but we deny that we are really that bad. We like to think that we are good. But throughout Scripture we see that this isn't the case. We see that all have sinned. (Romans 3:23) That no one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18)
But after studying the Sermon on the Mount, I have to ask: why do we run from embracing our depravity, our spiritual poorness? Why do we think so highly of ourselves? The people that embrace and acknowledge this fact about themselves are labeled as blessed by Jesus. By embracing our spiritual poverty, I don't mean celebrate the fact that we are sinners. We shouldn't delight in the fact that we offend a holy God. But we should understand this truth about ourselves rather than deny it and lie to ourselves about how good we think we are. Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven belong to the poor in spirit. No we will not earn the Kingdom of Heaven but God gives it to us. Its a gift not a wage.
Ephesians talks several times about the riches of God's grace. Revelation is full of imagery of golden items in heaven, even golden streets. People who acknowledge their spiritual poverty are blessed with the riches of God. No I am not adopting Joel Osteen's theology and saying that if you acknowledge your brokenness that you will magically become rich. However, having a relationship with Christ is the most valuable and precious treasure anyone can have. With that relationship comes so many blessings, including eternal life spent in heaven, where we will see the Throne of God. The life of a follower of Jesus is truly a rags to riches story.
Acknowledging that we are poor in spirit is the first step to entering into the Kingdom of God. Seeing and accepting our brokenness shows us our need for a Savior and there is no amount of money, no house big enough, no car nice enough to surpass the riches and blessing of knowing Jesus.
So why run from the label of poor in spirit? Accept it and allow Christ to change you and give you His righteousness because we certainly can't create our own. Only He has the power to lift us out of the absolute spiritual poverty that we are born into and push ourselves further into.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Lets stop running from God's blessing and put aside our false sense of righteousness and embrace the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.
Last year I took a class about social problems. One of the many things we discussed was poverty. I learned about a term called absolute poverty. This term references the poorest of the poor. People who are living in absolute poverty live on less than a dollar a day. They are incapable of providing for themselves. In other words they lack self sufficiency. They can not afford food, housing, education, etc. They cannot afford their basic needs.
When I went to South Africa this summer I witnessed this kind of poverty. I don't know if it was officially "absolute poverty" but many of the people in Klipheuwel cannot help themselves, especially on the informal side. They can't afford food. They can't afford adequate housing. They can't afford their medicine for AIDS or TB. They can't afford to take the taxi to town to go see the doctor. That's why what Helen and Estelle do in Klipheuwel is so needed. Many of these people are so poor they cannot help themselves.
Many people have read this verse, including me, and said Jesus has a heart for the poor and we should take care of the poor. I believe this is bad interpretation. Jesus does care about the poor and we should take care of the poor. I am not denying that. But two mistakes are made when reading this verse that way. First, we don't look at ourselves but rather look at other people. Secondly, we misunderstand who the poor in spirit really are.
Notice that Jesus says poor in spirit not poor in possessions. Jesus is not just talking about the people who don't have enough money to live or all the people who are struggling to make ends meet. He is talking about a completely different type of poverty, spiritual poverty. People who cannot help themselves in a spiritual sense. People who are are over their heads in debt because of sin. People who cannot do anything to help the situation.
The hard to swallow truth about this verse is that Jesus isn't talking about a certain part of the population. He is talking about everyone. You and me. The truth is, while you are probably reading this while sitting in a nicely heated or air conditioned room and using a computer that cost hundreds of dollars and the same can be said for me as I write this, we are born into absolute spiritual poverty. We are all in this predicament. We are helpless. All of a sudden Jesus' words aren't so warm and fuzzy.
This concept was extremely hard for me to grasp. I used to think that I was a pretty good guy. I thought I could work my way to heaven. I used to tell myself that because I go to church, don't cuss that much, don't have sex, make good grades, and so on that I was worthy of heaven. I remember sitting in church one night and while we were praying I was looking around comparing myself to everyone. I completely rejected this idea that I was spiritually poor and that my good deeds could not pay my way in to God's Kingdom. I think a lot of people struggle with this. We don't want to look at ourselves and realize that we are helpless. That our sin has completely destroyed our spirit. We are by nature self righteous. I don't know of anyone who claims to be perfect but we deny that we are really that bad. We like to think that we are good. But throughout Scripture we see that this isn't the case. We see that all have sinned. (Romans 3:23) That no one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18)
But after studying the Sermon on the Mount, I have to ask: why do we run from embracing our depravity, our spiritual poorness? Why do we think so highly of ourselves? The people that embrace and acknowledge this fact about themselves are labeled as blessed by Jesus. By embracing our spiritual poverty, I don't mean celebrate the fact that we are sinners. We shouldn't delight in the fact that we offend a holy God. But we should understand this truth about ourselves rather than deny it and lie to ourselves about how good we think we are. Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven belong to the poor in spirit. No we will not earn the Kingdom of Heaven but God gives it to us. Its a gift not a wage.
Ephesians talks several times about the riches of God's grace. Revelation is full of imagery of golden items in heaven, even golden streets. People who acknowledge their spiritual poverty are blessed with the riches of God. No I am not adopting Joel Osteen's theology and saying that if you acknowledge your brokenness that you will magically become rich. However, having a relationship with Christ is the most valuable and precious treasure anyone can have. With that relationship comes so many blessings, including eternal life spent in heaven, where we will see the Throne of God. The life of a follower of Jesus is truly a rags to riches story.
Acknowledging that we are poor in spirit is the first step to entering into the Kingdom of God. Seeing and accepting our brokenness shows us our need for a Savior and there is no amount of money, no house big enough, no car nice enough to surpass the riches and blessing of knowing Jesus.
So why run from the label of poor in spirit? Accept it and allow Christ to change you and give you His righteousness because we certainly can't create our own. Only He has the power to lift us out of the absolute spiritual poverty that we are born into and push ourselves further into.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Lets stop running from God's blessing and put aside our false sense of righteousness and embrace the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Running from Blessings: Introduction
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:1-12 (ESV)
Over the last few weeks, I have become pretty familiar with this passage. We have been looking over it in the Bible study I am involved in and the church I have been attending has been going through this same scripture.
I have read and heard this scripture a lot. I have always just taken it at surface level and thought that it was pretty straight forward. Some of it is straight forward but some of it is so much deeper than surface level and God has been teaching me the deeper levels of His words.
This summer I went to Student Life Camp with the youth and the theme for the week was "Flip." We talked about how following Jesus goes against everything the world teaches us. The Sermon on the Mount is no different. Every characteristic that Jesus labels as "blessed" is a characteristic that goes against our very nature. We want to be blessed but it is so hard for us to put aside our natural tendencies so that we can actually be blessed. To be honest, I think we “panzify” Jesus’ sermon. This is one of those passages that make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside but I believe if we look deeper, this is a very convicting and challenging sermon. I believe that it is hard to be “blessed” and more often than not, we run from these blessings.
The next several blog posts will break down each point of the Sermon on the Mount so that we can be challenged to deny ourselves and become the blessed ones that Christ wants us to become.
Friday, October 2, 2009
"Preacher tellin the truth and it hurts"
Shocking, embarrassing, and heartbreaking statistics about The Church.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Three Pictures for Three Years
Happy Three Years Erin. Just in case you need a reminder about why I think you are so awesome click here. I love you.
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