Coool

I had a chance to talk to Dannye Welch today, one of the elders at the Northeast Church. Dannye is a guy I really respect and whose life I admire. He just does God. Serving God isn't some big struggle between himself and God. It seems to come naturally to him. He is super approachable, thinks everything is "coool," and leads the "redneck bible study" group full of bikers and truck drivers and all the people you wouldn't expect to be at a bible study. He does Christianity the way it was meant to be done, simple and real. Obviously I think Dannye is awesome and was really excited to get to talk to him and hear his ideas.

We talked about a lot of stuff but the main thing I want to share here is about our role as Christians (mainly in one-on-one studying) in connection with God and other people. I've learned -- especially through studying with people -- that I don't know much, don't have many of the answers, can't impart incredible wisdom, and can't do much of anything useful. Am I even necessary in this trinity between God, myself, and the other person?

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him...
John 6:44a

Ok so I can't bring anyone to Jesus, only God can do that. (So what good am I? Why am I here again?)

Paul wrote this:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

1 Corinthians 3:6-9

Ok so God does the work of making it grow. But the one who plants and the one who waters still have a role to play. (Maybe(?) there's still hope for met yet!)

This was quite puzzling.

I know that somehow I have a key role in this three way relationship between God, myself, and the person I'm studying with, the question I've been pondering this whole semester is what exactly that role is... Apparently I can be a gardener for God, planting and watering, but what does that mean? God made the earth and the plants by Himself, He certainly doesn't need me to help Him make things grow, He can call them into existence. Back to being useless :(. There's something more though, it doesn't make sense but God chooses to use me (Christians) to reach out and touch other people. He used the apostles to spread the news about Jesus. He uses relationships to lead people to Him, somehow. People, for some unknown reason, are included in the equation.

Back to Dannye - I asked him about this. He said that God is always training us to be servants, from now until the day we die. The "coool" thing about it is that we just need to do what God tells us to and He takes care of the rest. If God wanted things to get done smoothly He could build robots which would be much more reliable than we humans. Luckily, God likes us for some reason and doesn't hold our flaws against us. That got me thinking, maybe God just wants us there for our warm-blooded, fleshy bodies (told ya I didn't have much wisdom to impart ;) ). Maybe He chooses to work through us because He wants to work through a PERSON. It's hard for people to relate to something they can't sense, even more so when they are being told that thing is a all-powerful deity that created everything. People can relate to people though. (Perhaps one of the reasons Jesus came...?) God Himself may not be visible to my friend but God can be seen in His servants (that's us). My sister can't touch God when she's crying but she can feel God's love in a hug from me.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
2 Corinthians 5:20a

So we get to play God! Not that we get to create stuff or punish/forgive sin, but we get to be His hands and feet! His tools to reach people! To my friend that doesn't know God, I am the closest they've come to God. That's a pretty big deal... *If people based their whole idea of God on me, what would their God be like? ...scary thought...* God doesn't send robots to do His work because He's a personal God so He uses people (now that's good news! I don't wanna be replaced by a robot). ...And I've lost my train of thought... Oh well, at least that's a good start to answering my questions and it means I'm not completely useless to God. :D

This is where my question first came from and how God's been teaching me about the answer:

I made a new friend this semester named Mahesh. He's the most encouraging, positive, energetic person I know; I love hanging out with him. He wanted to read the Bible together so I told him that would be great. He's from India and since I don't know much about Indian culture, I didn't know how I would go about explaining about God. We'd talked about it before and he had questions about the Holy Spirit and the trinity which I tried to answer but quickly noticed my explanations left something to be desired. If I can't explain these two things, how the heck am I going to explain Jesus? I decided (and felt God telling me) that since I didn't know what to say or do, I would leave that part up to God, I would let God do the talking Himself. With that plan we flipped over to the Gospel of John (I picked it because John's Gospel is quite useful for learning about Jesus) and just started reading. We read, he asked questions, I answered them as best I could, but I knew it wasn't my eloquent (not) answers that were going to show him God, it was God's Word that was doing the real work. God's Word was growing the fruit, which is fine by me, He can say it a lot better than I can. It's been great so far, we've both been learning a lot of "coool" things about God and life. Turns out "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," pretty sweet huh?

The "coool" thing is that even though I don't have much to offer, God doesn't need a whole lot. He did feed a few thousand people with a couple pieces of bread and fish (TWICE!). I don't have much to offer but like the little kid with the bread, when I do offer the little that I have, God can multiply it to as much as He needs it to be. Now that's freakin' awesome!

God's Promises

Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
Joshua 21:45

Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

That's just awesome. And here I am worrying about whether what God said He would do is actually going to happen. I recently read Joshua and Judges. It's incredible how God watches over His people and goes out before them when they are following Him. (I guess that's one neat thing about following, it means God is always in front, going before us). Everything God does for Israel is meant to strengthen them and their relationship with God.

When they serve other gods, the Lord hands them over to their enemies to live in oppression until Israel turns back to God. Then He lifts up one man (or woman) to deliver Israel from their oppressors and peace is restored. God doesn't do that stuff to make the people happy (obviously being ruled by another nation wouldn't be described as a happy thing), but instead He does it to bring Israel to what is best, worshiping the One True God, their God, and living under His love and protection.

That gets me to thinking - God isn't so much concerned about my happiness. Not at all to say He doesn't want me to be happy, just that my happiness isn't on the top of His priority list. My relationship with Him IS at the top and consequently my relationships with others as well since He takes personally the way we treat others. Like with Israel, God is always at work deepening the intimacy between Him and I, whether that means covering me with blessings, sending me out as His ambassador, or even disciplining me, He is always at work for the best in my life.

Doing God's will and living under His lordship IS what is best for me. It is what will yield the greatest fruit in my life and give me the greatest joy. So maybe God is concerned about my happiness. Not in the sense that getting a new car will make me happy or having more stuff, this is just surface happiness. God is concerned about the long term, He's concerned about a much deeper happiness, contentment if you will. My heart can only be at peace when it is surrounded by the heart of God who is Peace and Love and Joy. By binding my heart to God, I rest it on someone who is unchanging, steadfast and constant. If my heart is rooted in God, nothing in this life, no force Satan can muster, can displace me from God because God is greater than the devil. Only in God can I find contentment, indeed that is what Paul says in

Philippians 4:11 - I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

So I will rest my heart on God's and set my life according to His will for I know that not one of all His good promises will fail, every one will be fulfilled.

Joys of YouTube

So I recently discovered how to upload videos to youtube (in case you couldn't already tell). I like this one:

I got one of those big styrofoam airplanes in as a white elephant gift. The Chris's and I decided to go out and play with it. These clips are of it's last flights (obviously) and extensive repairs, in the form of packing tape, had already been made. Before we started filming the nose came off (I had it in my hoodie and put it back on before the final "flight"). The last throw wasn't meant to destroy the plane, I just wanted to see what would happen when I threw it upside down. Turns out planes explode when you throw them upside down... who knew???

Snow!

So Texas has the strangest weather... We had a mild winter, I don't know that it even got below freezing but somehow it snowed in March. Not only that but the snow stuck!
Some of us went around Waterview attacking people's windows with snowballs and recruiting people to help attack other windows. We ended up in Phase 2 with about 15 people all chucking snow at each other. Another group of about 10 people showed up and started throwing snow at us so we warred with them for awhile too. It was pretty much awesome. And it's supposed to snow again tomorrow (the high today is 70...). WOOHOO!

As a bonus, here's a video of Chris and I tackling each other (with Corey filming) in the snow. It's taken with my phone so the quality isn't that hot but that's okay.

Agape Love

When we talk about love, romantic love is the first thing that comes to mind. We think about feelings and emotions. Those are certainly good things to have but they also pose some issues. Feelings and emotions waver, they fluctuate like waves in the sea. When God talks about love he talks about something different.

The Greek language has 4 forms of love and the one God chooses to make the greatest is Agape. Agape love is a love of the will, it doesn't rely on feeling. It means I chose to do what's best for others no matter how I feel about them. It was traditionally the lowest form of love, that of a servant for the master, yet God calls it the greatest. Why?

I struggle with this concept. So my love for God is supposed to be this agape love, this love of the will. I get the advantages of a love of the will: it's consistent, manageable, means I can do what's right even when I feel crummy. I am certainly glad shows this love to me. My life would be a disaster if God withheld his love for me every time I screwed up. I have to wonder though, is that it? Isn't something missing?

I want to more than choose to love God; I want Him to dazzle me, to blow me away with His majesty and power. I want to be _in love_ with God. I want to want to be around Him, to talk to Him, to listen to Him, to just sit and gaze upon His beauty. I want to be drawn to Him in the same way I'm drawn to earthly beauty.

This concept _is_ supported in the scripture. Moses asks to see God and is given just a passing glance because God's majesty is too great. Scripture speaks of the beauty of God. A quick look at Song of Songs will reveal God loves us in more than a decisional way. Jesus and John shared a love unlike that of the other disciples.

So often Agape love seems so bland, what joy is there in it? I think I would have agreed with the Greeks in making it the lowest form of love. Is not the emotional high that eros, romantic, love gives a good thing?

Yes, of course it is and like all things it has its place. It's at this point that I'm supposed to divulge some great wisdom, some magical saying that neatly answers my struggle. Unfortunately I don't have any such wisdom to offer. I can't ignore God's claim of agape love being the highest yet I am perplexed by the lack of other examples of love to God (or at least I'm not aware of any). I think many forms of love can be expressed to God. I can't imagine wanting to be captivated by God to be a sin. Still, I am struck by how often we ignore the other forms of love for God to focus on agape. Perhaps it's because the other forms come to mind first and are natural while I would imagine most people have not contemplated a love of the will. Have we fallen out of balance in our love to God? Are we missing out on other forms of love for God? Or am I just not seeing something here?

The Wisdom of a 22 yr. old

So today is my birthday and we have a tradition in FOCUS to share birthday wisdom -- something we've learned in the last year. Ryan had the brilliant idea to put my wisdom on here so I am.

I've been learning that God's way is the right way, not _just_ best but right too. So often I have an idea of the best way something could go or the perfect plan for how to do something but it doesn't always go that way and I tend to realize that my plan wasn't God's plan. There have been a couple things in the last year that haven't turned out how I would like. When that happens I figure there are two options, get depressed about it (which is commonly my reaction) or I can trust God to be in control and know that He will make the most of the situation. Obviously the second response is better but it isn't usually my first thought. I have however been learning to make it my first thought.

I know God is big and is in control, looking back on the Old Testament history I can clearly see God in control of what's going on and working things to bless those that love and serve him. The difficult part is learning to trust in Him and that His way IS the right way. I've slowly been learning to stop asking "God, why did you let this happen to me?" and instead ask "God, what are you going to do through this situation?" It's a lot more bearable to look for the good that can come out of a situation instead of focusing on the negatives.

I'm not saying I'm excited that things have gone contrary to what I would have liked but instead that I know I can trust God to do the right and best thing and that I have seen some blessings come out of the situations.

God is big, God is good, God knows what is best, God's ways are right, God loves me, God does what is right and best for me (even if I don't know/think it's right and best). What could possibly happen to get me down if I know that?

For Freedom's Sake

I wrote this after reading the chapter about Jesus temptation in the desert in Phillip Yancey’s book The Jesus I Never Knew and was inspired to post it by Christa’s post. The situation is hypothetical but not unlike some I’ve been in before.

To the Atheist saying God doesn't exist: That's the beauty of it; you can say that! You can believe God doesn't exist, He chose to make it that way. God is determined to offer us complete freedom because that is the only way we can choose to love Him and He wants us to love Him most of all. You cannot force love; you can force obedience but not love. Here in the USA we believe in freedom above all else. Americans are free to express love for their country as many do by flying flags and serving in the armed forces. Americans are also free to express dislike for their country as well by burning flags or mocking politics through writing or on TV. The funny thing is, even the Americans that dislike the way things are still enjoy the benefits of their freedom. They like what their freedom allows them to do (mock the system that offers it to them). We see a stark contrast in communist countries where freedom is denied for the greater good. People in these countries are forced to obey the law of the land. What love can come out of this? Does the child with controlling parents seek his freedom from them or run to their arms? Surely we can see from college kids' response that they seek freedom. It is easiest to control, to apply a heavy hand because that way we can predict the outcome. The danger is in giving others a choice because they can choose to reject what is best, can chose to reject us. Our freedom invites love, it does not demand it.

It is with this insight that God chooses, even demands, to give us complete freedom. God seeks our love, not just our acknowledgement, not just our obedience. He could remove our freedom, set up His ultimate power on earth, demand our obedience; all of this is completely within His power. He made the universe, what isn't in His power to do? Surely it is even His right, as the creator of it all and only one worthy of any of it, to set up His commanding presence over it all, but He doesn't. He would rather give us the chance to love Him, to seek Him out and choose to follow Him than to force our hand. He even defends our freedom to deny Him. Satan offered Jesus the world, to be instant King of everything here, to be able to control everything and make everything right, but Jesus turned it down. Jesus chose our freedom over His control. It reminds me of Voltaire's conviction about freedom of speech - "I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." Interestingly enough Jesus did defend our freedom to his death. He chose the cross rather than deny our freedom. He had the ability to come down from the cross. Even the people watching Him die acknowledge that with their jeers to save himself.

So Jesus defended our freedom to choose; we can acknowledge God and love Him or deny His existence and live our lives accordingly. That's the beauty of it isn't it? Our God isn't a ruthless and controlling God; He doesn't send lightning bolts to strike down the wicked; He doesn't treat humanity as his plaything. Our God is a god of love, compassion, and self sacrifice, one of self-restraint.

That's the funny thing though isn't it? It's God's self-restraint, His very character that non-christians enjoy when they claim God to be a lie. Seems like a crappy bargain for God, His greatest gesture of love for us gets interpreted as His absence but I guess God is no stranger to getting the bad end of the deal.

Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.