Best Seat in the House

My good friend Jeremy taught a great lesson tonight at church. It was about the Pharisees and how even today there are Pharisees among us. The sad reality that came to me while I listend to the message was that it is so easy to get trapped in the "woes" that Jesus called the Pharisees out on. Jeremy preached from Luke 11:37-54. There was a whole lot that he covered, but the thing that stuck out to me the most was verse 43. "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces." I am sure I am guilty of all of the woes that Jesus pointed out, but I think this is my biggest struggle. As much as I like to pretend that I don't care about my reputation or what others see and think of me, I know that I struggle deeply with this. What others see, think, and say about me matters a great deal to me. I don't know if I necessarily aim for the best seat at church, but I certainly want to be seen there. I want to be seen in whatever the equivalent of the "marketplace" is for my life and lifestyle. I enjoy attention. The problem is that I get more wrapped up in getting attention instead of just focusing on doing what I need to do for Christ. Suppose God took me aside and offered me a chance to make a HUGE difference in the world but I would receive no credit or no attention. Or I could make a little difference in the world but get loads of credit and attention. Which would I take? I desperately want to say the former, but too often my life reflects the latter. In the end the biggest problem with it all is that instead of focusing on how I can help people in their lives, I get derailed by worrying about my own life, reputation, and appearance. As much as I want to look down at the Pharisees, when I read about their lives and choices I see a reflection of myself more often than I want to admit. My only hope is instead of getting angry with Christ and the conviction that comes from His Word; I choose to humble myself, admit I am wrong and seek to choose a better path. Thanks Jeremy for a great message. I loved hearing your heart tonight.

Stress

Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human body to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism, whether actual or imagined.

I hate stress. I hate that it happens. I hate that I cannot handle it well. I hate that it causes me to act like a complete idiot. I hate that I go all Bruce Banner when things get chaotic around me (well minus the green skin and massive muscles - though I wish that would happen sometimes). How did Jesus go through life without flippin' his lid? Even the incident in the temple can be explained away with the "righteous anger" argument. He just always was in full control of himself. I don't get it. How is that possible? What do I need to do to get better control of my stress? I heard that learning to meditate (prayer) and relax were two keys to bringing down stress levels. Interesting that I feel convicted on my lack of consistent prayer while noticing a problem with my stress levels. Maybe that's how Jesus did it. He just kept connecting to God the Father. At the very least it had to keep him cool in a lot of situations. Anyway, I recognize this is an issue and I also recognize that a lack in ability in controlling it will kill me eventually. So here's to figuring it out...

Prayer

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

-Martin Luther King Jr.-

I have to admit that one of the things I understand the least in my quest to discover God and His will, is the concept/act of prayer. I do not doubt whether or not I should pray, I guess I just don't know "how" to pray, what to pray for, where to pray, when to pray, and just how effective my prayers are. I want to believe that God listens to everyone's prayers...but do they change anything? If I fail to pray, will things not work out because I never asked? I am reading through the book of Acts right now, and I am amazed at just how much they prayed. No decision, no action, nothing was done without prayer. I feel like an idiot, because I feel like I don't pray enough or necessarily for the right things. Paul says that the Holy Spirit prays for us, and I wonder if the Holy Spirit has to step it up a notch with me because of my lacking in this category. Later on, Paul writes that we are to pray continually or pray unceasingly. What does this mean? How much did Paul pray? Is that the standard?

I look at the quote from Martin Luther King Jr, and wonder how I am making it. It is easy for me to go long stretches without prayer or at least serious time devoted to prayer. What aspects of my relationship with God are suffering because of my lack of effort in this area? What am I missing out on, failing to "tap-in" on because of this weakness?

Anyone else struggle in this regard??

Fork 'em Devils.

Always knew the President was a Sun Devil @ heart. This makes me proud. GO DEVILS!

Christmas Characters

Okay so of all the Christmas stories and movies, my favorite character has to be Yukon Cornelius. A few years back my wife picked up the old tv classic on dvd so now I get to watch it with the boys. Not sure they appreciate it as much as I do.

Evil

So in my religious studies capstone class we are discussing Manichaeism. One of the more interesting aspects is the concept of dualism in the religion. In essence, the Manichaeism faith believed that good and evil (light & dark) have always existed. They are in co-equals in eternity. Good is made up of light particles, and bad is made up of darkness. So all of the bad in this world comes from the darkness. As humans we are a made up of a "mixture" between the light and dark. The goal is to get all of the light back to a heaven like state (though some light has to be sacrificed to keep the darkness in check basically). The interesting part of a dualistic system is that it is able to explain why there is evil in this world without blaming God by attributing evil or the allowance of evil to God. It is the darkness. The light is good, but the darkness has existed forever too.

Now I am not a proponent in beliving in Manichaeism but the class has challenged me in my notion of where does evil come from and why is it allowed to exist. At one point (in my understanding) all there was, was God. God then proceeded to create everything, including the dark angel satan. Evil then came into existence. But how? Why did God allow it to happen? I have heard people say that He allowed it because it then allowed for free will choice of God over forced choosing. That makes sense, but it leaves the idea of evil still existing. Did God create satan knowing that satan was deliberately going to rebel? When did satan first have an evil thought? Was satan created perfectly but then fell? The serpent helped adam & eve fall, who helped satan? All of the issues and philosophy of evil are swirling in my thoughts right now, especially because my good friend Jason is reading a book by Greg Boyd on the subject.

All this to say I know that God is good. God is love. God is grace. Without an understanding of the origins and complexity of evil, I still know that I need God. But I still wonder all the same.

Tolerance?

I recently read an article by Tim Keller in which he stated that, “Finally, Christians will have to use the gospel to demonstrate true, Biblical love and tolerance in the public square toward those with whom we deeply differ. This tolerance should equal or exceed that which opposing views show toward Christians. The charge of intolerance is perhaps the main defeater of the gospel in the non-Christian west.” My three questions that popped into my head were:

1. Are Christians fair, objective, and undogmatic in our viewpoints?
2. Do Christians show an interest and concern for opinions and viewpoints that differ from their own?
3. Should Christians be known for their tolerance?

I would love your insight and opinion on this, so please let me know. It is my opinion that the church (as a whole not specifically speaking about one particular church) is become more and more irrelevant and less tolerant towards people. We are becoming more known for our doctrine of right and wrong and less known for our love and community. I am not saying we don’t stand on truth, just saying that in many cases what the world really does need is love and not to be treated like they are some evil person. Our human traditions and viewpoints in the church must never supercede the love and grace that Christ has called us to stand strong on.