It's Not About Me.

     Being saved isn't easy, and having not been saved even a full two years has proved to have its' struggles as well. Lately I have been realizing that there is one very specific lesson that I must learn before I can move on: humility. Now, so I do not sound like a sob story, this is not a lesson that is specific to myself, it is one everyone struggles with, I just need to learn.
     Being a music student in college, I am eager to try my hand at a number a facits within my field, my most resent endeavor being song writing. I've written songs before, but when I realized that I was trying to write Christians songs for self-glorification...well, passing over the total conundrum of that, it was a block. Recently I have sat down and tried to write music and haven't been able to, everything escapes me.
     I think the thing I and so many other struggle with is the idea that nothing we do is for ourselves. It's a hard idea to swallow that no matter how hard believers work, we don't do it for ourselves. We are in service to Gods' glory. Our sweat, blood, and tears are for Him. It's hard, it really is. How do you get over the fact that when you work you should take no props from it? We did it, why don't we get anything from it? Well, we do get something from it. Jesus' sermon on the mount tells us not to store up our Earthly treasures but to store up our Heavenly treasures in our one true God. No, we don't get immediate satisfaction, but we are rewarded through His mercy and love for us. We are rewarded by the thought that no matter our follies and failures, GOD, the savior of all humanity, is up there smiling down upon us waiting for the day that we stand HUMBLED before Him in His infinite glory. Guys, it's not about what we do for Him, it's about what He did for us. Guys! It's not about what we do. PERIOD. No matter what we do, it should be only to glorify HIM. If you fail, do you expect praise? We all fail, He is the forgiving teacher. When we fall, He is the father who scoops us from the ground. When we break and lay motionless on the ground weeping, He sits on the ground next to us, looks deep into our eyes with a gaze that penetrates the deepest parts of our being and whispers, "I love you, I will NEVER leave your side."
     Guys! It's not about us, it's about Him!

Through Christ "we are free to struggle, we are not struggling to be free."

The Struggle - Tenth Avenue North

Beloved: The Last Supper (Finale part of "The Marriage")

 Song to be played in worship...

Beloved- Tenth Avenue North

     In scripture there are MANY, MANY times where God calls us His bride. One unordinary time is during the last supper. At the time they were celebrating the passover when Jesus, going about His duties as Rabbi, picks up the third cup, the Cup of Salvation. Now, traditionally you're supposed to set this cup aside, but Jesus instead says, "This is my covenant, take and drink it." Under ordinary circumstances this would be an action of no consequence, but to this group of tax collectors and fisherman Jesus was basically asking them to marry him.
     Back in this time when a man saw a women he was interested in he would go to his father and be like, "hey, dad, I really like this chick." So they would go to her dad and strike a deal with him for her. Before you overreact though, this wasn't for her hand, this was a bargain to simply ask if she would; she had the choice. At this point they'd throw a large banquet during which the man would pick up the third cup, offer it to the women and say, "this is my covenant, take and drink it." Now, the women could either go, "ew...no, you're a creeper and I want nothing to do with you," OR say yes.
     If she said yes, the man would leave and they wouldn't see one another for a time. She, from this point on, would no longer be known by her name, but rather as "one who is bought with a price." The man would go home and begin building her a mansion. However, before you get excited, the word mansion in Hebrew translates to "apartment." Oh, and to top it off, it was simply and extension of his parents house; it was called an Insula, or family dwelling. So, ladies, if you don't want this I wouldn't recommend marrying a Jewish boy...only kidding. The guy didn't get to choose when he was finished though, her father had to check off that it was good enough.
     If the "mansion" was good enough the man was permitted to receive his bride. At this point the man would gather his his posy with their Rams horns (Shofars) and run to collect his beloved. Upon seeing him she would walk down to him, essentially down the isle.
     Do you see the metaphor yet?
     After Jesus offered the cup the disciples looked at one another and realized that they'd been with Him that long, they might as well keep going. Jesus then looked at them and told them He'd be leaving for awhile, but while He was gone He'd be building them each a mansion of their own. He did not know when He would return, but when His father gave His blessing Jesus would return for His bride with His holy posy, the 4 angels, and bring us home. We are all disciples of Jesus though, He calls us all His bride. We aren't even a great bride that will give Him stuff and wait on Him, the Bible calls us an adulterous, unfaithful bride. But to foreshadow last weeks message, He knows our sins but He loves us the same.
     So, go now knowing that we are Jesus' bride. We are His lovers. We are His everything.

"This is my covenant, take and drink it." 

-

Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God. 

You Are More (Part 1 of "The Marriage")

Play video after worship, before message...     

You Are More-Tenth Avenue North

Who are you? 

     There's this saying these days, and I'm sure you've heard it, that goes "we are simply the product of our experiences." But is this true?
     I worked at Miracle Ranch for the first time last summer, as you all know. When working at camp you meet kids from all different walks of life; some have had rather trying lives, but others may have gotten everything they've every dreamt of. It's crazy. You begin to wonder how they can possibly connect with one another and worship together. We begin to think that our job is to get the campers' riled up and driven to celebrate and live for God. But what we sometimes forget is that, how can you live for God if you don't know how to live because of God.
   As Christians we walk through life trying to make the best choices in the name of God, but what we often forget is that the gospel tells us that the choices we make don't make us who we are, what Jesus did makes us who we are. Now, here I should probably specify that I'm not trying to undermine the consequences of our actions because the choices we make do determine where we end up, but it is very important to remember that where we end up does NOT determine who you are. And that connects us all, doesn't it? Campers, people who work 9-5 jobs, prisoners, it doesn't matter who you think you are because who you are isn't determined by your life, who you are is determined by the life that Jesus led, the life that Jesus gave up to give you yours back. Isn't that freeing? If you're good, there's more to you than your success, if you're bad, you're more than your failures. You are more than the choices that you make, you are more than the mistakes you've made, you're even more than the rights you have accomplished; you are the sum of our heavenly Fathers love for us.
     This is a short coming of almost everyone I know, Christians and non-believers alike, we all believe that who we are is equivalent to the sum of our successes and failures. We are deluded. Honestly, who are we to think that we have any sort of control over who we are if we have someone as great as God watching over us. We aren't who we are because of our choices because our falls and mistakes pale in comparison to the sacrifice Jesus made upon that cross.
     Have you heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son? Well, the Parable of the Prodigal son is about a father and his two children and their relationship when one leaves for a life of debauchery. Let me read it to you...

The Parable of the Prodigal (Lost) Son

^"11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

     No matter how much the son disrespected the father and no matter how much he sinned while using the money given to him by the father, the fathers love for his son could not be dampened. Do you see the moral here? Gods' love for us is just as the fathers love for his son. Every day we go into the world with what God has given us and we sin against Him, but He loves us the same. God knows that we aren't the measure of our sins, we are who He made us to be in His infinite wisdom. When you come back to Him with an apology in your heart He runs to you and embraces you in an embrace that washes us clean of every sin. And it's all because He knows that YOU ARE MORE. 

     

Read letter aloud...

Fathers Love Letter

     Our Father loves us more than we can possibly understand because He knows that deep down, despite how we sin against Him with the tools that He Himself sculpted from nothing, we are more than that. We are more, you are more than the weight of your sin. You are the measure of Gods love, of Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross. 

     Tonight if you want to accept your Fathers undying love for you and return His warm embrace, you need only pray. I want to spread out for about 5 minutes and give you time to think. You can either sit and pray to yourself or just sit quietly and think. There are prayer partners around the room that would be more than willing to sit and pray with/for you if you so choose, including myself. Please try your best to sit away from someone and resist the urge to talk, just dwell on what God is saying to you in His letter. Go.* 

Optional ending song: 

Strong Enough to Save-Tenth Avenue North

*Last paragraph is the conclusion to the Lakebay Community Church Youth Group delivery of this message. 

**To alleviate any confusion, speaker directions are included. 

Future Sermons!

     I just found out that I am speaking for my youth group not only twice in the coming months, but the LAST two meetings of this year for us. I knew I'd most likely be speaking at least once before the end because it was mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that there was a day open for me to speak, so naturally I began thinking and praying on what to speak on. Then just a few days ago I found out that there were two days and they were the last, and without even having to sit down and pray, God put two songs in my head, both of which by one of my favorite christian groups, Tenth Avenue North. The first song was You Are More from their second album, The Light Meets the Dark. This song describes the person who doesn't think they can believe because they aren't good enough, but God tells us that we are MORE than the products of our experiences, we are what HE created us to be, not what we've made ourselves. The second song was Beloved from their first album, Over and Underneath. The song Beloved quotes scripture in many places where God and Jesus call us His bride. There is a remarkable history behind it but it all boils down to the fact that Jesus bought us with the blood He shed upon that cross. He proposed to us during that scripture when He offered us His cup. We are His unholy bride.
     Needless to say these weeks are gonna be great. These will be my last weeks with the Lakebay Community Church Youth Group and I cannot wait to deliver these final messages as my farewell before I head off to Multnomah and the rest of Gods' plans for me. So stay tuned! In the coming weeks I shall be posting first You Are More and then Beloved, saying that God loves you for who He made you to be, not who you think you are and that's why we accept His blood because His love is undying.
     This year has been great and I can't wait for what's next!

You Are More- Tenth Avenue North

AND 

Beloved- Tenth Avenue North

My Best Friend Jesus.

     While on the bus thinking about how I could incorporate a friend of mine humorously into a presentation on Creationism vs. Evolution, I began putting things together. I had the idea to dress her up as Jesus and have her walk into the classroom halfway through the presentation to start speaking. Then randomly spurred on by talking with her about stress I reflected upon my interview for Miracle Ranch the previous year and how I told them I thought of Jesus as my best friend. I thought I would elaborate on this a little today.
     Jesus is my best friend now more than ever. Whenever I'm in a stressful situation or at a loss for what to do in certain scenario, I pray. I ask not for Him to make it better, but I ask for Him to make me stronger so that I may get through it myself. I talk to Jesus and ask for advice, I ask Him to show me something I couldn't see with my clouded Earthly perspective. I rely on Him like I would rely on my best friend. I just talk to Him. I talk about pretty much everything; love interests, jobs, weakness, other friends (though I wouldn't consider it gossip...), as well as other things.
     When I told my future/present boss in my interview that I thought about Jesus as my best friend I had very little experience. I wasn't as...deep in my faith as I am now. It was more than likely then that I would forget about Gods grace and just tell myself that I need to work through it myself to make myself stronger. This is a natural reaction for everyone. We believe in God, we love God, but when it comes to real problems we think "how could someone so far away possibly help us?" Unfortunately it's a double edged sword because He is only as far away as we push Him by thinking these things. Next time you pray I want you to try something. Next time you pray, pray aloud. When we pray to ourselves it kind of spins God into this...ghost-like entity that we worship and adore, but we don't really think is there (I'm not saying you don't think God really exists, this is just a really poorly formed metaphor), we don't really think He can help us. But when we pray aloud it's like we're actually talking to someone. I know it may seem a daunting task to some because maybe you're afraid that someone might see you talking to yourself and think you're clinically insane or something, but when God's listening, you won't feel that way.
     Now, this isn't a challenge from someone who thinks their faith is greater, this is a challenge from someone who struggles with the same problems. For the longest time I have been terrified of praying aloud or in front of people. I have had this notion that mine and Jesus' relationship is a personal one that must be kept so. But this is not true. Jesus was and is a living person, we together must learn this. No one will think you're insane if they too believe God to be living. I challenge myself as much as I challenge anyone reading this to begin praying aloud to show that you don't just pray so that you may go to heaven, but that you pray because you KNOW Jesus is right next to you, possibly with His arm around your shoulders, sporting a Tenth Avenue North t-shirt and torn jeans, as a friend nodding along and talking back with you as you share your life with Him.

"Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you."

- 

God, 

Hebrews 13:5

I'm No Superman

     I would like to start off this post quoting Lazlo Banes' famous song "Superman;" you've probably heard it if you've seen the hit TV show Scrubs, and if you haven't it doesn't matter. Anyway, there are two specific lines in the chorus I would like you to hear, they go:

"Cause I know I can't do this on my own; no, I know...

I'm No Superman" 

     While in the song Bane is talking about himself needing the object of the song, some random girl, I take it as something else. To me in everyday life it's a plea to God that we can't go on alone, that yes we can take care of ourselves from the outside looking in, but inside we are a stormy ocean. There are those people out there that seem content with worldly possessions, they seem happy, but the happiness doesn't last because while the world may die around us (figuratively), God will never leave our side. There will come a time in your life where you'll get stuck in a rut and need His help. We were made to love Him and He loves us because He created us. We are Gods children, and as a parent wants to help their child, God wants to help us.
     Today in church our pastor actually decided to change it up a bit and invited our oldest church members up to share their stories. I've always been really interested in hearing the stories of my elders and this was no different. There was one piece of advice they told the entire church that will live with me forever:

"In the end, only the things we do for Christ matter."

Lakebay Community Church Member. 

     Just remember, when you're feeling low, God is there because guys...

you're no superman either. 

My First Semi-Sermon!

SIN = DEATH

     Sin tears me from God. I am now DEAD. I can't do anything if I'm dead! I'M DEAD! But God, in his infinite wisdom saw to sacrifice his only son to die on that cross so He could resurrect man from their SIN! To resurrect them from their DEATH! When God brought Jesus back from the dead, when He resurrected His son from the dead He brought you back with Him because when Jesus died He freed us all from the chains sin binds you with. He freed us all from our spiritual death. With Him we shall live forever. The guy in the video, Jefferson Bethke, says, "If grace is water, then the Church should be an ocean; it's not a MUSEUM for GOOD PEOPLE, it's a HOSPITAL for the BROKEN." A hospital for the broken, let's think about that for a second. What is a hospital? It's a place of healing. A place where doctors help people; where doctors save people from worldly death. Doesn't DEATH hurt people? The Church is a HOSPITAL for sinners, for us, because we're all sinners. It's a place where God and Jesus, our Holy doctors, can heal us from our death. 

     Sin is DEATH, the two are hand-in-hand, and death hurts people, and our doctors, God and Jesus, want to help you. But you have to know Jesus, don't you? You don't want some stranger healing you, do you? You have to know Jesus to be saved, don't you? Isn't the first thing a doc does when he or she enters the room is introduce themselves? Well, when you walk through the doors of this church, this holy body, Jesus' holy body, that is Jesus and God saying, "welcome, I'll be your savior today, and everyday." Jesus wants to save you from death just as a doctor does, except Jesus can offer one more: an undying, unquenchable love for you, whoever you are. Jesus died for you, He died to save you from an undeniable, impending death. It would be the equivalent of a surgeon seeing that flat line and plunging his hand into his chest to offer you his own heart telling you "I love you." Except, not quite cause your doctor doesn't know you, so how can he love you? But Jesus, He knows you like no other. He knows every sin, every blemish, every unrighteous though but He loves you the same. Just think about that. You may sin, and we all do, you may wonder "why me?", you may fall from His light, but He loves YOU for YOU. Not for what you want to be or what other people want you to be, but for who you are, who he, in his Love, Grace, and Wisdom made you to be. He loves YOU, and wants you to love him too.

Video to be shown before hand: 

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word