Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining brightly outside and there isn't a cloud in the sky. It's a crisp 21 degrees outside, relatively warm for us over here, as of late. This morning I woke up, prayed, made tea, and then put on Hillsong and prayed some more looking out my window.
I always forget how powerful music is. It's not often that I hear music all about Jesus unless I turn on my iPod or go to church. Here, there really aren't many ways to access worship music.
But looking out the window, seeing the people walking on the streets like busy ants, hustling to work and to class, and to their homes--it just reminds me of that grace that God has given to all mankind. He wants all people everywhere to repent and to know him. He has offered his salvation to all people, if they would just come to him and agree with him that they are depraved and He alone is good.
I have a philosophical theology class here on Spiritual Formation and every day in that class is like pure bliss to me because we talk about abstract things that, ultimately, are absolutely practical. Yesterday we talked about the essence of being. It is our being and our essence that quantifies exactly who God is. We cannot say "I" without presupposing our own existing. But the relationship must be presupposed by something else, or else saying "I" would be redundant because there would only be one essence, which would be ourselves.
It goes back to the point of this: we are not the most important thing in the universe. Our relationship with the world quantifies that there, in fact, other entities, in this case, God, which give our existence meaning. God is I AM because he is the existence that we are all pining for. Yet, we sit here comfortably in our pews and churches, chapels and prayertimes, and we refuse to go out and make our essence worthy of existence. We aren't working for our own being, but for Someone who pre-exists and pre-supposes us. He is God's image: Jesus Christ. God has given us an existence in his own image, and that image of God is Jesus Christ. We are to be like Jesus, that is how we fulfill our humanity. We cannot be fully human without Jesus.
We have the obligation to reflect Jesus and be like Him because it is the very thing that makes us like God. And yet I am appalled at how lazy I can be and expect everything to float and revolve around me. I sit on my hands hoping to find some meaning in my life, when in fact, Jesus is the meaning of my life. And it doesn't stop there, Jesus is the meaning of all people's lives, and it is selfish and hypocritical of me to say that I want to live a missional life and yet to not go about with Jesus teeming as a part of my identity.
February 5, 2010
February 3, 2010
Orchards
I eat bread with jam nearly every day. The strawberry jam is the best, and although you can buy it here in the supermarket, it tastes as if it came from an orchard. I've never been to a strawberry orchard, but I imagine they would be a lot of fun. They would probably have big slides shaped like berries and a greenhouse where they could grow berries all year long. In the Lodge at this orchard would probably be all kinds of homemade pies and jams. Each tasting as if your grandmother herself had labored intensively on it. Sweet Berries. Sour Berries. Tangy. Thick enough to taste but smooth enough enjoy. They would sell spices and crafts--you know, the kind of stuff that mothers put around their houses once they turn 38. I think once mothers turn 38 or something they feel like they should pretend that they are rearing children on a ranch and that they should decorate the house accordingly. I've never felt that way before. I just like strawberry jam.
In a lot of ways, people are kind of like jam. You know what's the problem with good jam? You never just go and find it in the fridge. Either you buy it from a nice orchard with strawberry slides or you make it yourself out of things that you have bought or grown yourself. It would just incredibly nice to have an endless amount of perfectly good jam in my fridge, especially because the only thing I can afford to buy is bread. That would make things so simply and easy.
But it never works that way. People never work that way. You never just go and make a meaningful relationship happen. Either you do something personally intensive, like taking a proverbial trip to the orchard, or you simply go to work and labor tirelessly to make a relationship happen. It's usually harder when you have to go to work and just do relationships. No one really enjoys getting their hands all fruitified with little pieces of strawberries. And the sugar gets everywhere. In fact, usually, by the time you're done, it's a huge mess that takes a lot of time to clean up. And then you have to wait for it to settle and begin to hold its preservation. Am I still talking about making jam?
The point isn't the jam. It's the people. Meaningful and good relationships never just appear out of nowhere, they are made. They take intentional time and energy. And usually they involve a mess or two, and often you have to give them extra time in order for them to re-solidify. But in the end, you're left with this glorious thing; it's something fulfilling and enjoyable, but you know what, I think relationships are most meaningful and fulfilling when you are able to look back and remember exactly how much they cost you. Exactly how much it cost them to put up with you.
I write all this because, within the last 12 hours, I've had three meaningful exchanges with three meaningful people, on three different continents. This stuff doesn't just happen. This stuff just is. I didn't wake up and hope that I would have a good relationship with someone, I put my consciousness behind it. At times, these relationships have been painful, for them and for me. But at this point, all the valleys that I've been through with these people remain to be the exact reason why they are my friends.
Meaningful relationships are going to hurt. If they don't, then I question how real they are.
In a lot of ways, people are kind of like jam. You know what's the problem with good jam? You never just go and find it in the fridge. Either you buy it from a nice orchard with strawberry slides or you make it yourself out of things that you have bought or grown yourself. It would just incredibly nice to have an endless amount of perfectly good jam in my fridge, especially because the only thing I can afford to buy is bread. That would make things so simply and easy.
But it never works that way. People never work that way. You never just go and make a meaningful relationship happen. Either you do something personally intensive, like taking a proverbial trip to the orchard, or you simply go to work and labor tirelessly to make a relationship happen. It's usually harder when you have to go to work and just do relationships. No one really enjoys getting their hands all fruitified with little pieces of strawberries. And the sugar gets everywhere. In fact, usually, by the time you're done, it's a huge mess that takes a lot of time to clean up. And then you have to wait for it to settle and begin to hold its preservation. Am I still talking about making jam?
The point isn't the jam. It's the people. Meaningful and good relationships never just appear out of nowhere, they are made. They take intentional time and energy. And usually they involve a mess or two, and often you have to give them extra time in order for them to re-solidify. But in the end, you're left with this glorious thing; it's something fulfilling and enjoyable, but you know what, I think relationships are most meaningful and fulfilling when you are able to look back and remember exactly how much they cost you. Exactly how much it cost them to put up with you.
I write all this because, within the last 12 hours, I've had three meaningful exchanges with three meaningful people, on three different continents. This stuff doesn't just happen. This stuff just is. I didn't wake up and hope that I would have a good relationship with someone, I put my consciousness behind it. At times, these relationships have been painful, for them and for me. But at this point, all the valleys that I've been through with these people remain to be the exact reason why they are my friends.
Meaningful relationships are going to hurt. If they don't, then I question how real they are.
January 31, 2010
Cooking Freshman
Today is the last day of January. This is my 28th day here and my fourth week. That's a long time, kind of. Semesterly speaking, of course. Well, I have great news: I'm going to Luxembourg! In March I'll be flying out to Belgium to meet up with the McMinimy's and to head to their home for the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see them again and to visit with them in their home. What's crazy is that the time I am there will mark exactly five years from my first trip to Europe, which was also a visit to their home.
Please remember to pray for their family and to pray for All Nations Church. God is doing a lot of great things in Luxembourg, but we still need to be praying.
Otherwise, this has been a very low-key weekend. We made Russian crepes today. Well, more like Natalya and Lena made Russian crepes and the rest of us helped to fry them. We had an assortment of Nutella, Peanut Butter, Jam, cheese curds, and cinnamon apples to go inside of them. In other words: They were incredible delicious.
This week will be a busy week of bus ticket buying, grocery shopping, and perhaps pants shopping. I found out that we're going to a Russian Ballet when we're in Moscow and we will be needing some nice(er) slacks. Well, all I have are jeans, so I think I need to find something not as casual. Oh well. Tomorrow I will be buying more potatoes. By May, my goal is to be able to cook anything you can think of with potatoes. Right now, I have friend potatoes down. This week: mashed potatoes. Maybe. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.
A friend of mine here told me, "Don't think of yourself as bad at cooking, just think of it as being a 'Cooking Freshman.'" Nice.
Please remember to pray for their family and to pray for All Nations Church. God is doing a lot of great things in Luxembourg, but we still need to be praying.
Otherwise, this has been a very low-key weekend. We made Russian crepes today. Well, more like Natalya and Lena made Russian crepes and the rest of us helped to fry them. We had an assortment of Nutella, Peanut Butter, Jam, cheese curds, and cinnamon apples to go inside of them. In other words: They were incredible delicious.
This week will be a busy week of bus ticket buying, grocery shopping, and perhaps pants shopping. I found out that we're going to a Russian Ballet when we're in Moscow and we will be needing some nice(er) slacks. Well, all I have are jeans, so I think I need to find something not as casual. Oh well. Tomorrow I will be buying more potatoes. By May, my goal is to be able to cook anything you can think of with potatoes. Right now, I have friend potatoes down. This week: mashed potatoes. Maybe. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.
A friend of mine here told me, "Don't think of yourself as bad at cooking, just think of it as being a 'Cooking Freshman.'" Nice.
Why I'm a Pacifist
Recently I changed some opinions of mine that had for a long time been embedded into me. I became a pacifist. The idea of pacifism comes mostly out of the left side of Christianity, as people are calling for peace and non-violence, but in the past few weeks and months, I have become increasingly more accepting, and even now, supporting, of this argument.
I'm not really a liberal by any means. I'm actually kind of a fundamentalist. But I'm kind of in between, so I think people on both sides get annoyed with what I think or believe. Doesn't matter, I just call it like I see it.
For the past semester I've really been thinking a lot about the idea of just war and capital punishment, as well as our responsibility as Christians to be a unique people--called out and separated by God. Here's what I am saying: just war and capital punishment aren't inherently bad things. They are just. God participated in these things in the Old Testament, so I think one would be hard pressed to call them always evil, especially if God commissioned them. Now, with that said, I see the Old Testament as being a system of establishment with Israel being a Theocratic nation. This means simply: God is President of Israel in the OT. He is also the House, Senate, and Supreme Court.
However, in the New Testament, Jesus commissions a New Covenant. This is not as if everything that happened before gets nullified, but Jesus is laying down a framework of the church. The church is God's people; symbolically, we are the Israel of the New Testament. But there is something new going on here.
Jesus says in Luke 17:20 that the kingdom of God is inside of us. We as Christians are part of a Christian culture and nation. We are not occupants of political kingdoms, rather, we are part of a different kingdom. Our kingdom is spiritual, not physical. At least not yet. So in that, our battle is not physical, but spiritual. Paul says in Ephesians 6 that "out struggle is not against flesh and blood…but against the spiritual forces…"
With this in mind, as Christians, we are not to look to political or social systems for redemption. I am not apolitical, but I do not put my hope in my government. I may work to do good for our the nation I live in, but I will not try to forcefully Christianize my nation. My job isn't to make God's kingdom into a political force, rather, my job is to be a good disciple and to love others to Jesus.
While here on the earth, I have no right to fight and express violence to others. To do so would violate the "laws" of the kingdom in which I reside. It is illegal to be violent in God's kingdom, so to speak. I do not wage war physically, but spiritually. We prepare ourselves spiritually to fight and work. We fight with prayer and obedience.
I am a pacifist because it best represents the kingdom of God. We are separated from this world. We are non-violent and we are apolitical in the sense that we must abstain from making any kind of political power our savior. We cannot freak out if abortion is legal, we cannot be angry at the government for legalizing gay marriage. Rather, we need to weep and repent for the spiritual state of our culture that would allow people to reach that point and we need to combat that by praying for them, meeting with them, preaching the Word, and being faithful to God.
This is written very much in brief, so I look forward to discussing this in full with others in the future.
I'm not really a liberal by any means. I'm actually kind of a fundamentalist. But I'm kind of in between, so I think people on both sides get annoyed with what I think or believe. Doesn't matter, I just call it like I see it.
For the past semester I've really been thinking a lot about the idea of just war and capital punishment, as well as our responsibility as Christians to be a unique people--called out and separated by God. Here's what I am saying: just war and capital punishment aren't inherently bad things. They are just. God participated in these things in the Old Testament, so I think one would be hard pressed to call them always evil, especially if God commissioned them. Now, with that said, I see the Old Testament as being a system of establishment with Israel being a Theocratic nation. This means simply: God is President of Israel in the OT. He is also the House, Senate, and Supreme Court.
However, in the New Testament, Jesus commissions a New Covenant. This is not as if everything that happened before gets nullified, but Jesus is laying down a framework of the church. The church is God's people; symbolically, we are the Israel of the New Testament. But there is something new going on here.
Jesus says in Luke 17:20 that the kingdom of God is inside of us. We as Christians are part of a Christian culture and nation. We are not occupants of political kingdoms, rather, we are part of a different kingdom. Our kingdom is spiritual, not physical. At least not yet. So in that, our battle is not physical, but spiritual. Paul says in Ephesians 6 that "out struggle is not against flesh and blood…but against the spiritual forces…"
With this in mind, as Christians, we are not to look to political or social systems for redemption. I am not apolitical, but I do not put my hope in my government. I may work to do good for our the nation I live in, but I will not try to forcefully Christianize my nation. My job isn't to make God's kingdom into a political force, rather, my job is to be a good disciple and to love others to Jesus.
While here on the earth, I have no right to fight and express violence to others. To do so would violate the "laws" of the kingdom in which I reside. It is illegal to be violent in God's kingdom, so to speak. I do not wage war physically, but spiritually. We prepare ourselves spiritually to fight and work. We fight with prayer and obedience.
I am a pacifist because it best represents the kingdom of God. We are separated from this world. We are non-violent and we are apolitical in the sense that we must abstain from making any kind of political power our savior. We cannot freak out if abortion is legal, we cannot be angry at the government for legalizing gay marriage. Rather, we need to weep and repent for the spiritual state of our culture that would allow people to reach that point and we need to combat that by praying for them, meeting with them, preaching the Word, and being faithful to God.
This is written very much in brief, so I look forward to discussing this in full with others in the future.
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