Give Up

This week were going to talk about giving up, or rather choosing NOT to give up. This is a tough one for a lot of people, because at some point, we are all going to be faced with immense hardship. If you don’t come into this, count your blessings everyday because I know I have seen my fair share. This week’s scripture is, of course, from our favorite Rabbi from Tarsis, in Phillipians 3:12 through 4:9, and in it he speaks about “pressing on”. So lets head into the scripture…
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!
2I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow,a help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
So let’s start to put these pieces into perspective. In verse 18 Paul tells us that there are “many enemies of the cross of Christ”. If you haven't lived under a rock for the past few years, you’ve no doubt heard of everything that has transpired around removing the Ten Commandments from schools, removing the phrase “One Nation under God” from the pledge of allegiance, or eliminating the word “Christmas” from the name of our December time break in public schools. These are just a few examples of what we are talking about here. On top of all that you will have peers around you that will mock you or your faith as a whole because you are Christian, and even further, you will see people that acknowledge Christ by their lips, and then go out and deny him by their lifestyle. It is very much a troubled world out there these days, but, here is where the comfort kicks in.

In the scripture Paul states that our citizenship is in Heaven (verse 20), and that is the truth. Our “home” is not here on Earth. We are here for a VERY temporary basis, and only the Lord himself can decide just how temporary that will be. I went to see Building 429 last night and they have a song called “Always” that I posted the video for on my main page of Facebook, give it a listen after you read this – it’s a VERY powerful song, when the lead singer was introducing the song he spoke about the situation that inspired him to write it. He was at an autograph signing and a woman walked up to him and handed him a picture of a little boy. She then began to tell him that the picture was her son and that one night she sent him to stay with her Ex-Husband, his father, for the night just like she had done many times before, but in the middle of the night, her ex-husband woke in a fit of rage and murdered her son.

This is just one example of the level of hurt we experience here on this earth. The song tells of this and a couple other stories around this pain, however it goes on to the chorus , “I believe always, always, our Savior never fails. Even when all hope is gone, God knows our pain, and His promise remains. He will be with you…Always”

We all get to the point where we feel like we need to ask “God, where are you?” Getting to that point, we aren’t any lesser Christians than we were or will be, unless we stay there. Isaiah 59:1 states “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.” He hears us, and He will deliver us from this pain if you listen to Him. That is the point to where we have to hold on to our faith and move forward. I’ve always said that God speaks softly, until you hear him. When you do hear him, you’ll know where to go and what to do, but finding that voice is key.

Finally to all of this point I want to talk about the temporary vs. eternity. We are on this earth on a temporary basis and a lot of people talk about waiting for their eternity. The good news for everyone that we all need to know is that eternity doesn’t start when you pass from this world to your Heavenly home, it starts when you accept Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers. You step into your eternity at that exact moment.

Eat A Frog

Lets go for a short, non-lesson trip. This will be, what I now anticipate to be the 2nd of many "Christian Leadership" pieces.

There is an old saying that if the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a frog, nothing worse can happen to you the rest of the day. In leadership this relates to a great book called "Eat that frog!" by Brian Tracy that speaks to procrastination and how to beat it. Here, I am going to take these concepts and apply them to evangelism. One part of Christianity that we at The Church Of The Brethren are admittedly not as fervant about as we'd like to be or nealry as much as a lot of other denominations.

First up, my scripture piece:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -- Matthew 28:18-20

So, what are we saying here? GET OUT THERE AND SPREAD THE WORD! Now In the last few pieces Ive given Ive taught you how to walk the walk, now its time to start talking the talk. This is a really hard thing to do in a lot of cases, you may feel uneducated, or perhaps afraid of the response you would receive. I know Ive been there, but the thing is that Jesus expects us to get out there and talk about him. He knows we are going to get rejected or opposed from time to time, but thats OK, matter of fact, thats AWESOME! Ok, so I know you're saying to yourslef right now, why is failing awesome? Sounds crazy right? Well the thing about failing in front of people, you share that moment and you will all grow, they will see you're genuine, adn you will learn how to possibly better approach the situation next time. On top of that, its not really a failure because they heard you, they just might not agree. Being heard is the first step there. Plus, one of my favorite quotes of all time is from Thomas Edison "I have not failed! I've simply found 10,000 ways that do not work." In other words, after you get that rejection, regroup, rethink, and try again later.

Here is why Im telling you to go out and eat that frog. If youve watched the video I posted on profile, you know that its all about finding the frogs on your list, and eating them first, and IMHO, this is one of the biggest/baddest frogs in the world of the Christian faith. So if you go ahead and go for it, the rest is all easy sailing, and those successes will fuel you to go further everyday, all day. It's that simple really, get up, go out, and Eat aThat Frog! It will make your LEAP that much more exhillirating and powerful!

Thats it for that one - Talk to ya soon on next weeks lesson!
Wanna read the book Eat That Frog? Shoot me a message and I will get you a copy, its a VERY short read in relation to most leadership books.

Creating a bridge

So lets see if we cant connect this past sundays lesson to this coming sundays lesson. To do this Im going to focus on verses 12,13, and 16 from the past lesson. Really simply called "the body verses".

12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
...
16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

In reading this it shows that we were all given different gifts for a reason. To put it simply, we're all supposed to be different, because, lets face it, if everyone were an athlete, there would really be no competition, nor any reason to strive to be better, and it would be SUPER boring. So, we all have the abilities to do different thigns so we can "build" upon these different traits to better serve the community of faith.

There are a lot of different people in the community we live in just like there are different people in our community of faith. My thought is that we dont have our gifts to help the people within our community of faith perse, we have these abilities to help the people in our living communitites that are NOT a part of our community of faith. We have to be the ones to show them why it would be advantageous to become a part of our community of faith. We do that by using those gifts we were given in combination with living that "Christian lifestyle" to show them how much the Christian part helps the other parts. When they see those benefits, they will be intrigued, and thats our chance to bring them into our community of faith by sharing the word of God with them.

One thing you will notice throughout all of my pieces here, or anywhere for that matter, is I avoid the word "religion". The simple reason is because I feel like that word has a very negative connotation. You hear words like "religious nuts" or "pushing religion". I think that religion is man made and very fragile and lives under hugely false pretenses. Religion is the reason we have so many battles to fight in order to win over those that are not a part of our community of faith. There were a LOT of bad things done in the past and through today in the name of "religion", that is why we have to do these things. Faith, is about trust in God, and the Word of God, and the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. So you will hear about faith from me a lot.

You will hear people say that their lives are dark or full of despair, but they sit there in apathy doing little to nothing about it. To quote a song on rock radio "The darkest hour never comes in the night. You can sleep with a gun, but when ya gonna wake up and fight?" This displays to me the exact sentiment a lot of people live with these days when they have thigs wrong with their life, and it speaks a lot to the world of "religion". Leaders of "religion" will stand in front of crowds of fellow "religion followers" and talk about the things wrong in the world today because of people who dont follow their "religion", they always get a lot of Amen, woo-calp, pomp & circumstance, but then they go home & sit down in front of their TV to complain about it some more. The way were going to build up our community is to wake up and fight. This doesnt mean physical fights or violence against those not a part of our faith, it means getting out there in the trenches and helping the people that need help and showing them what you can gain from having faith, and use the gifts you were given by God in that process. Use those gifts to fight that fight.

To close this I will hit back to the text from this past sunday:
21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Very simply - youve been told of what Jesus expects from you in how to live your life. We all have John 3:16 memorized, and we show up at church on sunday, but its up to you to take the words you were told thorugh the Bible and through Church and go out and live them from monday to saturday each week too. So let's "wake up and fight", get out there and use your gifts, show what love is, make that LEAP, or to put it simply, Have & show Faith

Let's Build

This weeks scripture for lesson is Ephesians 4 1-24, so lets read the scripture, then we'll talk.

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why ita says:

“When he ascended on high,

he led captives in his train

and gave gifts to men.”b

9(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Living as Children of Light

17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So weve talked about love in two different ways, weve LEAPed into all of this, and now it's time to start building from the foundation of love. We start by using the spiritual gifts that weve all received. I mentioned this in the LEAP piece but let take it slightly further here.

YOU are good at SOMETHING - period. What that is, the world may or may not know. I will talk from a little experience that I have so it is slightly more relatable. I found myself, early on in life, doubting why I was here or what my place was in this world. I also found myself doubting my faith and whether God even existed. As i tumbled through this period, I knew that I enjoyed making music. I grew up around it in my family, and sang in choir through middle school. I started my first band when I was 14. As time went on I went to form a metal band, but that comes later in this story.

Through my journey to that point I also identified my educational goals and began going to Arnold R Burton Tech Center for electronics and Computers, because I enjoyed that and had a fairly decent grasp on the roots of them, again through family.In my time @ Burton i became involved in a student organization called SkillsUSA - VICA. Through that organization, I received a lot of experience and training in speaking, and business. This is also the period of time I really started re-finding my faith. This is when I realized that my abilities in music and leadership, were God-given gifts.

I used my experience in SkillsUSA to really build a lot of relationships and learn a lot about how to run business. That business experience brings me back to the band. I started a metal band and was searching for a name, when I ran across a poem I had wrote through finding my faith. The name of the poem was Blood Fed, and it was about how the blood of Christ had been the one true nourishment I had ever needed to move forward in my life, and through that, everything was given to me, and all was possible. To make it look cooler we changed the spelling to BluDFeD, but the foundation was still the same. As I began writing the songs for BluDFeD I found myself writing a LOT about my journey to faith, and the feelings I had in that journey. These were words that were absolutely given to me by God. As I sat and thought about that, I realized EXACTLY why I was here.

This was a very heavy thing to come to realization, but it was also very awesome to know. I was here to bring the word of God to the world through music and through my connections with people. That's why I am still a huge fan of music, even though my life right now has brought me away from being in a band for now, and that is why I work with the youth and post these blogs for you all to read each week. These are MY gifts that were given to ME.

What is your gift? Are you good at Art? Maybe sports? Maybe your good with your hands or even a musician such as myself. Either way, this is a GIFT that was given to you by God! Heres where the building comes in. Your gift may just be small in your eyes, but, if you use it in the right way, it can be a HUGE thing in someone else's life and can build not only your personal faith journey, it can help build the church you go to or Christianity as a whole.

You hear a lot about the "Christians" that do things to land them in the news in a negative light, but you dont hear about the good things quite as much. There out there, but its our job to get them out there some more. Headlines these days are about the economy, and job loss, and politics, but if were doing what we are supposed to be doing we can change those headlines. We can show anyone and everyone that our gifts were given to us by God through Christ, and as the first verse of this states, we are prisoners to God, bound to get out there and show the world so we can further the cause of Christ. I also previously stated that Church Of The Brethren believes in the ministry of all. That means, that you ARE called to do something, and that thing is probably something to do with one of your gifts. So think about those gifts and what you can do to apply them in the world in a positive Christian manner...THEN DO IT. Its that simple, no catch, no fine print, no if-then. Just get out there and do what your good at and know that you can do it because God gave you that gift just like he gave you the gift of salvation through Christ.

Random Thoughts Round 2

This week we are in the book of Galatians, Chapter 5 Verse 1-6 and 13-26.

“1It 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.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful naturea; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

My concentration in this is verse 6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” So here we go.

Our favorite rabbi from Tarsis is once again the author of the text we are studying. As you can see, he talks a lot about love. This time, however, were talking about what tat love will do for you through the “fruit of the spirit”. As always we hear a LOT about what is wrong with humanity today, people who are “lawless” or lack proper morals, and Paul talks about what some of those things people do are in verses 19 through 21, he even warns that if that’s the path you choose, then there wont be a light at the end of that tunnel, but if you partake of the “fruit of the spirit” then we are destroying the sinful nature of humanity, all be it bit by bit.

He makes it a point to say that there is no law saying that you have to do these things that are positive, but there are laws against most of the negative. While we are “free” and live in a “free-society” there are bounds to our freedoms by man-made laws. We can walk into a store and walk out with a new TV without paying for it, or decide we just want to walk out with all of the money in the cash register. These laws hold up basic principles that are good for sure, but they really dont speak anything to the one law that Jesus Christ himself laid down as the supreme commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The thing is, if youre following that one rule, as it should be, you have nothing else to worry about, because then you're not doing any of the other things that would fall under "The law". To the same point, you can follow the law, or be circumsised, or whatever to prove your point, but it all falls on deaf ears without love.

So love, in short here, does a lot for you. It can change you, it can make you LEAP, it can show who you are, and it can be the one thing you'll ever need to ensure you're doing what you need to be doing. To quote a song by a rock band (and a great rock band at that) "All you need is love"

Dive Deeper

OK, so lets talk about the last lesson - 1 Corinthians 13, the context of the chapter states that you can put on whatever kind of show you want, but without Love, it all means nothing in the long run. Here is where I begin what may be considered a tangent, but IMHO, very much related. Here we go -

Leadership & Faith, to me, go hand in hand. I’ve have been involved with both for a very long time and have always noticed very large trends in both to be almost identical. Re-reading what is probably my favorite leadership book especially sparks this in me. The book is called the Radical LEAP, by Steve Farber, and if you hate leadership books, this one if a must read, because it totally draws you in to a real story that you begin to care about. In a long story short LEAP is an acronym that stands for LOVE, ENERGY, AUDACITY, PROOF. These things, are all central to the Christian experience, and especially based on how the aforementioned book presents them.

First, LOVE, we got into that last week, but here's how it goes down in the book to make you move a little further on the subject. The thought is to Cultivate Love. Now to break that down into little words – sew the seeds that will allow Love to grow all around you. Those seeds are your personal love, whether it be for your job, your family, your friends, or Christ, if you “sew” those seeds by showing real love, then others around you will see that and begin to grow their own plant and sew their own seeds.

Now lets talk about energy, and don’t think I'm contradicting my previous lesson when I say that the Energy attached to the love is just as important as love itself. This is because, similar to putting on that show without the love behind it, having that love without doing something about it is almost as wrong. For a quick example, the last time you fell in love with something, be it a hobby or a person, it was pretty obvious that you spent a lot of energy on that thing. You practiced, you listened, you read about it, you even strategized your future with it and dreamed about the possibilities. Energy like that is contagious. If you apply that energy to your faith, people will see that, and they will latch on. So, in context of the book, you have to Generate energy. Once that energy is generated, it has to go somewhere, and hopefully, it’ll drift into those you come in contact with.

The third piece of this is my favorite, but it’s also the hardest. You have to Inspire Audacity. To jump right to the book, the definition of audacity is “a bold and blatant disregard for normal constraints” but when looking in a thesaurus you will see a couple of different connotations, and depending on which connotation you take as your audacity mantra, you either going to be doing it totally right, or completely wrong. The first one relates to courage, the second to impudence. The first one is about love, the second is about ego. Guess which one I'm leaning on here? Now, audacity in our context means that you aren’t afraid to show that love and that energy, regardless of your current scenario. You can’t shy away from proclaiming your Love and showing your Energy behind your faith. Again, these things are contagious and when others see that you’re not afraid, they're a lot less likely to hold back as well. The guy that wrote the words of the lesson from last week, a little known (insert sarcasm here) rabbi from Tarsis named Paul, also wrote in the book of Romans in Chapter 1 verses 16 & 17 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.” Now, this also means that you are going to have morals or beliefs that don’t agree with everyone, brace yourself its going to happen, because lets face it, morals are VERY subjective and there are a LOT of people out there in that world to process their own personal take on faith and morals. Here’s where being audacious comes into play with that, DON’T APOLOGIZE! Yes, you don’t agree with them or vice-versa but as long as you love them for who they are, just as Christ has asked of you, then you’re on the right track. You should never be sorry for your beliefs. So, in short, just DO IT!

Finally, we come to Proof. You have to Provide proof. That doesn’t mean you have to show someone proof that God, or Jesus ever existed. You have to show them proof that they exist through you. Have you connected the dots yet? You and only you, can show that you believe. The ONLY way you can really show you believe is to do, all the time. Now I know that it comes down to the fact that we are human and make mistakes, but that is the beauty of it all. When you make the mistake, don’t hide it. Get out in front of everyone and let them know what you did, why it was wrong, and the fact that all of that is OK, because forgiveness is the built in save-all catch-all clause of our salvation. Yeah, putting yourself out in front of everyone is tough, but the more you do it, the more you grow, and growing is the name of the game, whether its in your faith, or career, or just as an individual in learning.

All of these things start with Love. Love that is defined for those of faith very well in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. Love, that is personal, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Love that will cause you to LEAP into being a leader and showing your faith in Christ. With Church of the Brethren we believe in the call to ministry for everyone. How you accept that call is up to you, because its personal, but accepting that call is a part of this LEAP, and a part of your journey in faith.

Random Thoughts On Faith

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
This is the first verse in our lesson for tomorrow. I think this is an extremely powerful and telling chapter in the many books of the Bible, and to me really speaks to how we should display that we are truly Christians.
A lot of people these days get caught up in the show, whether it be on TV, talking to friends personally, or even at Church. In this verse and moving forward in the chapter, Paul really tells us that no matter what you say or how you act when the spotlight is on, it doesnt matter to God. What really matters to God is what you do, what you say, how you live, and how you LOVE that truly shows whether or not you've truly heard the teachings of Jesus.
What can all of this mean to you? What can it do to affect your everyday? Personally - I can talk about the Bible, or my faith to any and everybody, but the second they see that I dont take these words to heart, then I havent done anything to help Christianity, Ive hurt it. This is because in todays world, there are a lot of people that have a hard time latching on to any faith, especially Christianity, because of the shortfalls and hypocrissy that those that have come before us have put forth in this world. The only way to repair these wounds and show people that Christianity is not about being a "holy roller" or the concept of "give me money, give me green, Heaven you will meet - Make a contribution and youll get the better seat" that everyone sees on TV or when they are lambasted for making a choice that a "Christian" disagrees with, is to LOVE and show people that the true mark of a "Christian" is to speak the word of God and then take that word and live it, for all to see, especially yourself.