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Living the words of Jesus

Jesus had a lot to say about helping the poor and doing things for the least of these. He even said that when you do things or don’t do things for the least of these it’s like doing or not doing things for Him. Do we really live like we believe that? I know I usually don’t. Lately God has really been working in my heart about how I spend my time and money. After watching a World Vision video recently I sponsored a child. His name is Elian Elias. It felt good to be doing something like that but I still didn’t feel like I was doing enough. Time went on.
I was happy a couple of months ago to discover that a man I love to hear preach was coming out with a book. His sermons are always challenging so I knew his book would be a good read. And it was. I have been challenged by Francis Chan (book mentioned in post below) to live as someone who is passionately in love with Jesus. This often means living very differently that what we would consider normal. Now I’m sponsoring a kid and have hard ideas for living life a new way running through my head and chiseling away at my heart.
God works in mysterious ways and often not all at once. This change in my life is still just in my head and I have yet to start fully living it out, though I would like to think I have changed a lot because of it already. Yesterday, though, I was minding my own business in the Christian book section at Barnes & Noble when a young woman asked me if I had heard of a certain book and knew where it was. I told her I hadn’t heard of it, but I eventually helped her find it. I expected her to go on her merry way. This didn’t happen, however, as we ended up talking for over an hour. Turns out I had seen her before, though never met her, at WBC when she was there to take pictures of a lady that had spoke in a chapel this past year. It wasn’t long before I realized this girl was different that what I was used to. She lives off of a minimal amount of money doing freelance writing and picture-taking. She gives a lot of her money away and doesn’t even have a home of her own. She’s not what you would call a homeless person, though. She does always have a place to stay and she does have an income. She gives a lot of it away though. Recently she traveled around the world in 80 days with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). She was able to experience what this world is really like. With a passion for a hurting world, she talked to me about several injustices that are happening around the globe that she is trying to help stop. I truly feel that this was a meeting planned out by God and I am excited to now call this girl a friend. I feel I can learn a lot from her. She recommended a book to me and I have already read four chapters in one day. It’s a challenging read. It makes me want to get out of this country and do something (I know, though, that God’s plan for me is to be here for now and continue my education). The name of the book is The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Read it!
While I can’t get out and be where the hurting and needy are right now there is still a lot I can do to help. There’s a lot you can do too! Today I bought two pairs of shoes. I bought each pair from a different website. One of them gives a pair of shoes to someone who needs them for every pair you buy and the other gives the proceeds to help Iraqi children get the surgery they need done. Here are the websites:
http://tomsshoes.com
http://buyshoessavelives.com

Watch this:

There are a lot of other organizations that you can help. In fact, there are too many to name. There are also lots of ways to raise money to help. We’ll be talking about this on Wednesday nights soon.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and live out what Jesus meant for us to do. Be his hand and feet.

-AAA

Crap Rap

I love music. I usually always have a song in my head. There are over 3,000 songs in my iTunes music library. I also love God. I don’t feel, though, that because of my love for God that I can only listen to Christian music. I love secular music. I often go back and forth between listening to Christian and secular music and if I was going to be honest I would say I listen to secular music slightly more often than Christian.

Now let me be clear. There is some awful secular music out there that I refuse to listen to. It comes in all types of genres (rock, pop, rap, etc.). That doesn’t make any of the genres bad. It’s the lyrics of the songs that give them their worth.

Probably the most popular of the genres today is rap. To be honest this genre was my favorite for the longest time. I love the beat. It’s fun. It makes me want to move, and who doesn’t like to move? In it’s beginnings it was poetic, but it has lost much of this quality today. When it started in the 80’s rap was mostly a clean genre. There were a few songs that sang about perverted things, but most of it was just telling a story in a fun way.

Now I can’t hardly listen to radio stations like 101.9 KISS FM because every other song is about “making love.” What’s the problem with that you ask? Well first of all me and the rest of you in the youth group are not married and should not have our minds on “making love”. Secondly many of these songs are a lot more perverse than many are willing to admit. Today we have artists like fergie, T-Pain, and many more singing songs about things that would even make married people blush.

We should be very careful what we listen to. It has a large effect on our hearts, and honestly can cause a rift in our relationship with God.

Two book recommendations…

I thought I’d take a little bit of time to make a couple of book recommendations since summer is upon us. The first is one I’m currently reading myself and the second is one I read a month or so ago.

The first book is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book is straight from Francis’ heart. Lately Francis has been questioning the way we do things in the American Church. Many of us do things because we feel obligated. We feel like we will disappoint God if we don’t and we end up doing what we feel is just enough to please him. Francis reminds us again of what God’s love is like for us and how we should respond to it. As he says, “When you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes evertything.” So pick up this book at amazon.com or head on over to one of the bookstores in Jonesboro and pick it up. If you do let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

The Shack is by William Young. I’ve never been into fiction, but I loved this book! In it you will find the story of a man who lost his daughter in an awful tragedy. His relationship with God suffers and when he goes back to the place where he lost his daughter he meets God (the whole trinity) in a strange form. This book gives an awesome image of the relationship with the trinity, our relationship with God and on how forgiveness should work. Read it!

Church Picnic

Who else is excited about this? I know I am!

We will definitely be playing kickball! You can count on that.

The Pugnacious Ninjas use Facebook to take over the world

Mark Zuckerberg has an evil plan to take over the world and I know it. He has cleverly created a social networking site that has quickly taken over mySpace as the number one site on the internet. It has over 70 million users worldwide! They have now added a chat feature that will no doubt make facebook more addicting that it already is. This will result in several students dropping out of school due to failing all of their classes because they were up all night and day on facebook. This will leave Mark Zucerberg and his team at Facebook as the only educated young people left in the world. Soon all of the users of facebook will become blind and develop Carpal Tunnel because of all the time they spend on facebook. Soon the Facebook team will take over the world!

But not so fast… the pugnacious ninjas have caught on to this scheme. While Zuckerberg and company take care of everyone else this ninja duo limit their time on the internet and practice their nunchuck and sword fighting skills (pugnacious does mean combatant in nature after all). Just when Facebook thinks it has taken over the world they will rush into their headquarters and do some serious karate chops.

And this my friends, is how the Pugnacious Ninjas will someday take over the world.

Sovereign God?

One of the first new praise songs I learned when I first became a college students at WBC (I would soon come to learn many newer praise songs) is a song called “Sovereign Lord.” I quickly learned to love this song as I began to learn the lyrics. Here they are:

Sovereign Lord by Vineyard

Oh Lord I lift Your name up
I worship You my King
For You are the Sovereign I Am
Deserving of all glory
All honor and all praise
For You are the Sovereign I Am

Sovereign Lord
Your ways are not my own
Your wisdom never ends
Sovereign Lord
You’ve created the heavens
Yet You call me Your friend

Your love reaches the heavens
Still You hold me when I’m weak
Your faithfulness is unending
For You reach the depths of me

This song has a lot more meaning in depth once you learn what “sovereign” means. Webster defines sovereign as “one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere.” When it comes to God, though, there is no limited sphere. God is sovereign of all. The sovereign of sovereigns if you will. He rules even over Earth’s ruler.

It’s sometimes hard to grasp this, though. Especially when so many bad things happen. It’s important to remember that God likes to take messes and turn them into something beautiful. Remember the story of Ashley we talked about tonight in class? Here is the email she sent to Louie Giglio:

Hi, I feel kinda weird writing this email. And i doubt if it ever gets to Mr Louie Giglio. I am a Senior at University of Florida. I got a new roommate this semester and she is a Christian and I have never really been into the whole Christian thing because every pastor or speaker that I have ever listened to didn’t speak in a language I could understand. I have believed in God and Jesus, but never really understood it because the preachers at the church that I have always been forced to go to every Sunday of my life. They speak all high and mighty and I never really felt connected, and I felt like God was only for the perfect people. Well my roommate went to this Passion Conference over winter break. And she came back and moved into my apt and she was real and genuine about all her Christian stuff, like I have never seen before in a person. She said that God changed her at this conference, so i was like what are you talking about. And she told me. She told me about how God was cool, and how God really wanted a deeper relationship with her, and she wanted to really love God the way he loved her, so of course I was like well huh? She then said you need to listen to Louie talk about God, so I asked who Louie was, and she put on the Indescribable talk, and then we watched tha Passport talk. And in the Passport talk you said that christians do not have to hope for the best at the end, that they do not have to do enough good stuff. You explained how to get to heaven in a simple way, in a way that I have never heard before. I actually got it, I got it that it is not about being so good, cause I am not a good person. I have screwed up a lot. But then you said grace, and talked about how is was different than other religions. Because God is a loving and a kind God who wants to forgive me. My roommate then explained that he wants to forgive me.
Now for one of the reasons I am thanking you. One, I am now a Christian. And two, my roommate said that she had never really cared about telling others about how much God loved her before she went to this conference. So though I am not sure who will ever read this. Please tell Louie thanks from me, for talking about Christ in a way that a college kid can understand. I know that Jesus has changed my life and as I get ready to graduate college in May, I am gonna be a different person. I am sorry this is kinda rambling but I just had to tell you that I now know about the Grace of God, and I have life for the first time in my 22 years

Ashley

As I mentioned in class Ashley lived for 4 more months. She lived those months though serving God. This is from Louie’s Blog in May:

Dear Mr. Giglio,

It is with a heavy heart that I send you this email. My daughter is Ashley, she wrote you an email that went on your blog and podcast Well, today May 3rd at 4pm we buried Ashley. She was killed in a car accident late on Sunday night. She lost control of her car and hit a light pole. She was the only car involved and had serious internal bleeding. She died in the arms of my husband at the hospital from unstoppable internal bleeding. But I have hope of seeing my daughter again. I have this hope because after years of praying for her, and watching her live a lifestyle in college that is known as the typical college experience. The last semester of her college career I saw a woman, not a college girl that I have never been more proud to call my daughter. I can point the thanks to you and Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, and everyone else involved in your Passion Conferences. Ashley fell in love with our Savior over the last 5 months of her life. She was so excited about graduation this week and moving to California to work her first real job. She had a life ahead of her. I miss my beautiful princess more than anything in this world.

But I just felt like you should know that she listened to as many of your talks as she could get her hands on and read your book I am not but I know I am and she was so excited about God and her new found faith. Words alone can not thank you enough. I may never meet you here on earth, but I know that someday I will be able to meet you and give you a hug in heaven, but only after Ash does. Thank you so much for praying for my girl, and your support of her as she was starting her new life. Also thanks for being a man of God who has a passion, and love for college students.

Your vision to share the gospel and getting college students to do the same made all the difference at a funeral today. Instead of being sad and scared for her. We were able to sing praise and worship songs today. Though there will be tears and I am so very heartbroken and crying as I type this, it is only because I will not hold her for so many years. And I will miss her for the rest of my life. I know I have said thank you a lot in this email, but because of you and Christa (Ashley’s roommate) and people at the Bible Study that she was going to she was happier than I have seen her in a very long time. In the email she originally sent you, it said she had life for the first time in her 22 years, and please know she meant every word of that. She lived the last few months serving and loving and learning more about Christ. She will now spend eternity in heaven with Him so one more time thanks. I know this was long and I debated for the last 4 days as to whether or not to write you. I know you are a very busy man, but I also figured you would want to know.

Ashley’s Mom

Anna

By the third line tears were streaming down my face, blurring the words, but not the sudden reality of it all. I had just received an e-mail from Ashley a few days before saying how excited she was to finally be through with college and headed to a “real job” in the Bay Area of California. And now she was gone.

I was crushed, but I found myself pumping my fist in the air, confident that Jesus Christ overwhelmed death and the grave. And just in the nick of time, He reached through the confusion and hopelessness and brought Ashley back to life again. Her mom was kind enough to allow me to share her e-mail and sent a photo of Ashley so we could all put a face with the name that has brought much rejoicing throughout the Passion world in recent months. Anna, please know that you and your family will be in our hearts and prayers as you begin the process of living without the daughter you so deeply love. You will see her again. And with our prayers we are praising God for matchless mercy…mercy that saved the day and carried Ashley safely home.

PS- You can leave a message at the Facebook group Ashley’s mom has created here.

I know this was long, but thanks for reading it. Always remember… God is in control and it’s for the best.

Imperfection is no excuse…

I have often found myself frustrated with decisions made by those close to me. I admit that I make bad decisions and get frustrated at myself as well. What makes my so frustrated with some of the decisions some of my friends make, though, is instead of taking responsibility for their actions they make excuses. This is something I guess that I must also admit to doing from time to time. It’s one particular excuse that makes me cringe.

I can remember the first time I heard it: “I’m not perfect.”

Typing it made me shiver. It’s so true, but still so wrong. Admittedly no living person will or ever has lived a life of perfection, aside from Jesus. We are fallen people living in a fallen world. If we were perfect we wouldn’t need a Savior… a way to get to God. That’s why Jesus lived a perfect life. Because we can’t. Even the whole Bible is filled with imperfect people (still aside from Jesus). So why does this excuse not work? Simple. Because it’s not an excuse. Let me explain…

The life of a Christian is a journey. In it’s beginnings it was referred to as “The Way.” Paul called is a race, or a marathon, at times. Is is a process. This is called sanctification. The word sanctification literally refers to the act or process of making holy or setting apart. As Christians we are to constantly be heading toward a state of holiness. A state of perfection.

Using “I’m not perfect” or any other excuse similar to it is basically saying you’ve given up on trying to be perfect. We are not just called to be followers of Christ who will stay in our sins having to constantly look back and say, “Opps. It looks like I did it again. Oh well, I’m not perfect and besides, God forgives.” This is not the life we’re called to. In his first letter to his “dear Children”, or his church, John wrote about walking in darkness and said that those who do it are not in the Truth. James tells his readers to not only be hearers of the Word, but doers also. How we live DOES matter. We will mess up, but that is not the end

As Christians we are to strive for perfection. Let us never use imperfection as an excuse.

“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy…’” -Lev. 19:2

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:13-16

Welcome!

My hope is that this blog will be helpful to our youth as well as their parents.