Thursday, December 9, 2010
South Africa Baby!
Well, after a couple of weeks of "being in the works", it has now become official. Grace and I will be taking the college small group from our church to South Africa at the end of June. We will be meeting up with our good friend Isaiah Porter, who is currently volunteering for one year at the Indawo Yethemba Children’s Village in Durban, South Africa. There we will be putting on a camp for local kids, teaching them about Jesus and learning a lot in the process. It is really amazing and a blessing that we go to Avalon Church, which has such strong convictions about sending people out in the world so Jesus' name can be known. We have a lot of money to raise. $1,600.00 per person to be exact. If you would like to donate, click here. I am sure I will have a lot more to say on the subject, but I am just so excited I had to get this initial feeling down. Thank you Jesus for even giving this opportunity!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Sacrificing, Suffering, and Rejoicing
I am currently reading through Philippians 3:1-11. This is the topic I am speaking on this Sunday to middle school students. This blog is attempting to answer the question: What is God saying through this Scripture?
First, we must rejoice. Paul has told us before and will tell us again. He has no problem telling us this. In the Psalms repeatedly we are told "Bless the Lord, oh my soul!" But why? We have Jesus! We are God's children! Why oh why must we constantly be reminded of the rejoicing and praising that should mark a Christian's life?...Because being a Christian is difficult. Just because I am a Christian does not mean that everything will be "ok" and that I get everything I feel like I deserve and other people get what I feel like they deserve and that I will never have to sacrifice or suffer! It actually means the opposite. And it is Biblical both that we sacrifice and we suffer and we praise God the entire time.
Verse two warns us against those who try to make it really, really hard to be a Christian. "Dogs" was usually a mocking term that the Jews used to describe Gentiles because they were ritually unclean. The "look out for those who mutilate the flesh" refers to the fact than many Jewish people try to tell the Gentiles that they must follow all the Old Testament rituals in order to obtain salvation. This is in contrast to Jesus' teaching of salvation through grace alone, and it has Paul livid. He goes on to say that we are the true people of God, for we worship through the power of the Holy Spirit, glorify only Christ, and put no glory in anything we do.
Verses 4-6 really create a great counter argument to those who think they are going to Heaven because they were brought up in church or because they know the Bible and what is says. Paul was that guy! He was a flippin' Pharisee! He memorized at least the first five books of the Old Testament, probably more. He most likely spoke Aramaic, the national language of Israel, even though he was raised in a Greek-speaking town. Dude was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, given the best education possible, believed he was serving God in the manner of Elijah, yet he wants none of it! Paul said that whatever gain he had, he would count it as loss for Christ. But not just what he mentions, everything is garbage and not even worth knowing about compared to the value of know Christ as Lord and Savior. Paul even says he has lost everything, with suffering, just so he can gain Christ and be found in Him.
This is a kind of paradoxical thought isn't it? Lose to gain? I don't believe it is so hard for us to relate to the Jews of Paul's time. Think about it. They are God's chosen people. They have studied the Old Testament, they know that God has picked them and put them in place to be elders and leaders within themselves. They hear about Jesus and say "Give up all this? For that nutter? I have everything I could possibly want. You want me to give up my reputation, my power, my money, my camels with spinners and boots with the furs? For a man from Nazareth? I would be shunned. People would mock me. I would be an outcast. They would laugh at me at the lunch tent when I invited them to church or told them about Jesus. NO THANK YOU! I am happy, I know God choose me, I don't think God would ask that of me, and that is all the reason I need". Give up your house. Give up your car. Give up your friends. Give up iPod, iTouch, iPhone, iAnything and everything with an apple on it. Give up Facebook, Xbox, and the computer. Give up television. All just to have the value of knowing Christ a little bit more. Oh, and be joyful about it. Rejoice in Him. How many of us say.."NO THANK YOU! I or my parents worked hard. God would want me to be happy. I don't want to give up anything. I will just go on lying to myself, saying that I love God, but not really ever sacrifice anything for Him". Some of you don't even believe in God, and you are still saying "No, I don't want to give up anything, not for your God or your Jesus".
So here is the question: Is it necessary? Paul answers that later on in verse 10. He says we share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means we may join Him in Heaven and resurrect from the dead, just like He did. So now you must be asking yourself, "I have to give up everything AND suffer. Yes. Yes you do, but you get to know Jesus and be resurrected from the dead and glorify Him and celebrate with Him for all eternity! Let's look at another proof for this. Jump over to Romans 8. In verse 18, Paul says he considers the sufferings going on in our lives to pale in comparison to the glory that is to come in Christ Jesus. Right before that, in verse 17, we are told that we are children of God PROVIDED we suffer with Him to be glorified with him.
Let's recap. First, be willing to give up everything just to know Christ a little bit more. Second, be prepared to suffer, because suffering will come. But don't forget to rejoice in Jesus and praise God! Why? How? Because we will be glorified in Him and get to spend eternity praising our Creator, our Savior, and our Lord.
It can be very difficult to remember the rejoicing part when things are not going well for us now. But through prayer, Bible reading, biblical friends, and time being reflective on Scripture, I know that we can.
First, we must rejoice. Paul has told us before and will tell us again. He has no problem telling us this. In the Psalms repeatedly we are told "Bless the Lord, oh my soul!" But why? We have Jesus! We are God's children! Why oh why must we constantly be reminded of the rejoicing and praising that should mark a Christian's life?...Because being a Christian is difficult. Just because I am a Christian does not mean that everything will be "ok" and that I get everything I feel like I deserve and other people get what I feel like they deserve and that I will never have to sacrifice or suffer! It actually means the opposite. And it is Biblical both that we sacrifice and we suffer and we praise God the entire time.
Verse two warns us against those who try to make it really, really hard to be a Christian. "Dogs" was usually a mocking term that the Jews used to describe Gentiles because they were ritually unclean. The "look out for those who mutilate the flesh" refers to the fact than many Jewish people try to tell the Gentiles that they must follow all the Old Testament rituals in order to obtain salvation. This is in contrast to Jesus' teaching of salvation through grace alone, and it has Paul livid. He goes on to say that we are the true people of God, for we worship through the power of the Holy Spirit, glorify only Christ, and put no glory in anything we do.
Verses 4-6 really create a great counter argument to those who think they are going to Heaven because they were brought up in church or because they know the Bible and what is says. Paul was that guy! He was a flippin' Pharisee! He memorized at least the first five books of the Old Testament, probably more. He most likely spoke Aramaic, the national language of Israel, even though he was raised in a Greek-speaking town. Dude was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, given the best education possible, believed he was serving God in the manner of Elijah, yet he wants none of it! Paul said that whatever gain he had, he would count it as loss for Christ. But not just what he mentions, everything is garbage and not even worth knowing about compared to the value of know Christ as Lord and Savior. Paul even says he has lost everything, with suffering, just so he can gain Christ and be found in Him.
This is a kind of paradoxical thought isn't it? Lose to gain? I don't believe it is so hard for us to relate to the Jews of Paul's time. Think about it. They are God's chosen people. They have studied the Old Testament, they know that God has picked them and put them in place to be elders and leaders within themselves. They hear about Jesus and say "Give up all this? For that nutter? I have everything I could possibly want. You want me to give up my reputation, my power, my money, my camels with spinners and boots with the furs? For a man from Nazareth? I would be shunned. People would mock me. I would be an outcast. They would laugh at me at the lunch tent when I invited them to church or told them about Jesus. NO THANK YOU! I am happy, I know God choose me, I don't think God would ask that of me, and that is all the reason I need". Give up your house. Give up your car. Give up your friends. Give up iPod, iTouch, iPhone, iAnything and everything with an apple on it. Give up Facebook, Xbox, and the computer. Give up television. All just to have the value of knowing Christ a little bit more. Oh, and be joyful about it. Rejoice in Him. How many of us say.."NO THANK YOU! I or my parents worked hard. God would want me to be happy. I don't want to give up anything. I will just go on lying to myself, saying that I love God, but not really ever sacrifice anything for Him". Some of you don't even believe in God, and you are still saying "No, I don't want to give up anything, not for your God or your Jesus".
So here is the question: Is it necessary? Paul answers that later on in verse 10. He says we share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means we may join Him in Heaven and resurrect from the dead, just like He did. So now you must be asking yourself, "I have to give up everything AND suffer. Yes. Yes you do, but you get to know Jesus and be resurrected from the dead and glorify Him and celebrate with Him for all eternity! Let's look at another proof for this. Jump over to Romans 8. In verse 18, Paul says he considers the sufferings going on in our lives to pale in comparison to the glory that is to come in Christ Jesus. Right before that, in verse 17, we are told that we are children of God PROVIDED we suffer with Him to be glorified with him.
Let's recap. First, be willing to give up everything just to know Christ a little bit more. Second, be prepared to suffer, because suffering will come. But don't forget to rejoice in Jesus and praise God! Why? How? Because we will be glorified in Him and get to spend eternity praising our Creator, our Savior, and our Lord.
It can be very difficult to remember the rejoicing part when things are not going well for us now. But through prayer, Bible reading, biblical friends, and time being reflective on Scripture, I know that we can.
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