White Christmas?

It looks like Portland, OR is going to have a white Christmas for the first time in years.

I'm personally very excited about this.  It may delay or cancel some of my plans, but this happens so rarely I think I can enjoy it. 

Here are some of the pictures I have taken of this exciting "snow event"

All of my snow pictures can be found here

4th Sunday of Advent - Peace

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 or Luke 1:47-55
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

We live in a world where the idea of peace seems to be a fantasy. Just turn on the news and the events and situations that present themselves are at times unbelievable. Someone has done something despicable to someone else. A husband is accused of killing his wife. A car bomb has killed innocent people in someone’s attempt to make a statement.

And even closer to home in our own lives peace is something that always seems to be out of our grasp. Things are bad at work, which for some reason we cannot leave at work. The test last week did not go well and next week’s test does not look any better. We feel sick and know something is wrong, but the doctors keep telling us that we are fine.

Yet Jesus speaks to us of peace in the midst of everything going on around us. This is one of those things that make us wonder (but would never admit to) if He remembers what life here on earth is like, because maybe He has been in heaven long enough that He sees everything through “rose colored glasses”.

But we must not forget that Jesus spoke these words while He was on earth. Before He was crucified, knowing what was coming. Jesus knew the pain, agony and death that was coming and He still spoke of peace. He spoke of a heavenly peace. A peace that we cannot understand. A peace that we would have in the midst of all the painful and frustrating experiences of this life. A peace that would make life not just bearable, but something we can enjoy.

The scriptures above are from the Revised Common Lectionary copyright ©1992 Consultation on Common Texts for Year B, the Fourth Sunday in Advent.

3rd Sunday of Advent - Joy

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Psalm 126  or  Luke 1:47-55

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Many people try to put joy and happiness in the same camp.  They think that they are just different ways to say the same thing or convey an idea.  However, that is not the case.  Unlike happiness, joy has nothing to do with circumstances, joy comes from hope.

It is hard to talk about joy without talking about hope.  As Christians our joy flows out of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  Many who have no hope live lives of utter desperation without happiness, joy or satisfaction.

We we have hope because Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins.  But, that hope only comes when we know what we are saved from.  We are saved from the eternal consequences of our sins:  separation from God.  This hope brings us joy.

We have a hope that we will spend eternity with God, in a place where, as Isaiah tells us,  ‘sorrow and sighing will flee away’ where ‘the lame will leap like a dear and the mute tongue shout for joy.’  The hope that this brings gives this life meaning and purpose.  It makes this life bearable and it brings to our hearts joy.

The scriptures above are from the Revised Common Lectionary copyright ©1992 Consultation on Common Texts for Year B, the Third Sunday in Advent.

2nd Sunday of Advent - Love

Isaiah 40:1-11

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

In one of the most familiar passages of scripture we are told why God sent Jesus to this earth.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

It was because of love.  The word “love” in our society today does not have the same power or meaning it used to.  We love our car, we love TV show, we love the new video game, and we love our family.  If one was not paying careful attention we may see our family put on the same level as the car, TV, video game or something else.

However, this does not seem like the kind of love that would cause God to send His Son to die on a cross for the salvation of humanity.    Even Jesus commanded us to “love one another”.  But what does this really mean?

Jesus tells us that “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  This is what love is.  This is what we should mean when we use the word love.

The scriptures above are from the Revised Common Lectionary copyright ©1992 Consultation on Common Texts for Year B, the Second Sunday in Advent.

1st Sunday of Advent - Hope

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Sunday Nov. 30, 2008 marks the beginning of Advent, which also marks the beginning of a new cycle of the Christian year. The Christian year focuses the church on the major events in the life of Jesus.

Advent: The anticipation of His coming
Christmas: The celebration of his coming
Ephipany: Celebrating the visit of the Magi and later the baptism of Jesus
Lent: A 40 day fast, in honor of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, to prepare us for Easter.
Holy Week: A remembrance of the last week of his earthly ministry
Easter: The celebration of his resurrection from the dead.
Pentecost: The birthday of the Church

The overarching theme of Advent is anticipation. We remember the anticipation of the Old Testament saints who looked for the first coming of Messiah. We who are believers experience once again the anticipation we have looking for the second coming of Messiah.

This is why we focus on the theme of “Hope” for the first Sunday of Advent. Anticipation breeds hope. We see the fulfilled hope of the Old Testament saints who were waiting for the coming of Messiah. This should inspire us as we remember the hope we have that Messiah will one day return again and take us to live with Him forever in paradise.

The scriptures above are from the Revised Common Lectionary copyright ©1992 Consultation on Common Texts for Year B, the First Sunday in Advent.

Rest

In a previous blog post I gave several tips on how to "Live a Balanced Life."

As I have pondered this, I think the hardest for me is number 7 - giving myself permission to relax. I have a very hard time with this. Like most of society I am programmed that if I am not doing 'something' I am wasting time. Take now for instance, I have nothing that I have to do tonight. Yet here I am posting in my blog...I have an incessant need to feel productive.

Even if I am doing something that I am not sure many people will find useful. Something that is only useful to myself, I have to do it. I can only sit and do nothing for so long without feeling like I am being lazy. Which is something I need to work on.

I know the pitfalls of always being active and never having any down time. I understand why rest is important. But it is a hard to do.

The Jewish people have a concept of a Sabbath rest. This is basically taking one day in seven away from work, away from the chores of life and just resting. This is based upon the fact that God created all of creation in six days and on the seventh He "rested" from His labor (See Genesis 2:1-3).

I am beginning to believe that there is something in this. For the Jewish people there are many spiritual and physical benefits related to the Sabbath, but I am seriously beginning to see a benefit to this. Taking one day of the week, to basically hit the 'reset' button on life.

Farmers will even let their fields "rest" by not planting them for a season and letting them return to seed. This, depending on the crop, greatly improves the quality of the future crops.

So I will encourage you as I encourage myself. To find time to rest and relax. To allow yourself time to be unproductive. To not feel the need to fill every moment of everyday with a project, goal or work.

Community

As most of you know I sing in a semi-professional choir. I have been singing in choirs since I was in high school. One of the most interesting things about a choir, is that it is one of the only groups I am a part of where every member has to give 100%.

If just one person is slacking it can (and most often does) affect the whole choir. If one person if off by a quarter of a beat, they will come in early or hold the note too long and dramatically alter the performance. Every member has to be giving their best and not holding back.

Contrary to popular opinion it takes hard work, skill, dedication and a lot of time to produce a good choral performance.

I wonder what life would be like if in every situation I found myself I applied the same dedication and commitment I do in choir. How would that affect my relationships, my job, my church, my life? How would it affect those around me?

Just think if everyone everywhere gave 100% no matter what situation they were in. Even if it was a situation they did not particularly like or want to have to deal with...say a meeting at work or a struggling relationship.

What if I took the attitude I have in choir (if I'm not giving 100% it dramatically affects the whole) to the rest of my life? I would like to think that it would produce as positive results in life as it does in choir. But, I think that for it to work like that everyone everywhere would have to have a common goal and take the same approach.

Practically I'm not sure it could work in society as a whole because of so many diverse opinions about what a common goal should be. But the church is another story.

The church is a place where Christians come to proclaim the greatness of God, fellowship with other believers and reach out into their communities with the good news of the Gospel. The church has a common goal and a common purpose. What if everyone in the church gave 100% to the common goal instead of (as is often times the case) treating church as if were something that can be done half-heartedly.

I think if everyone in the church took the attitude I have in choir (if I'm not giving 100% it dramatically affects the whole) then we would see a dramatically different church. We would not see a fractured church filled with problems. We would see a church that, even when it had problems, would have people coming together in love to solve it, instead of pointing fingers.

We would see a church that positively affectes its communities for good and fulfills its God given purpose.

Down is Up

One of my favorite sci-fi books of all time is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's about children at a military academy on a space station training to be the next great military geniuses that defeat the attacking alien race. As part of their training they play a game in the battle room that can best be described as a game of laser tag in a zero gravity environment.

The object of the game is to get from your territory through the other team's territory and through their entrance to the battle room. One of the most important things that new recruits are taught is that once they enter the battle room "down is up". When looking into the room it appears that the enemy's gate is below you. But once you step into the zero gravity environment of the battle room what direction you are going becomes relative. You are no longer going 'down' to get to the enemy's entrance you are going 'up'.

I've had some changes in my life the past few weeks that have made me think of this whole idea of "down is up" again. My life took a couple of turns that I didn't expect and actually thought that they might be a negative. But the more I look at it and pray about it, the more I see these changes as a good thing.

So I started thinking about how God works in all the great men and women of the Bible.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely put into prison and then made second in command of all Egypt reporting only to Pharaoh.

Moses went from living in Pharaoh's court to herding sheep in the desert. Eventually becoming the leader that lead the Jewish people out of Egypt's slavery.

Ruth's husband died, she was living in a land stricken with famine. She returned to Israel with her mother-in-law and eventually found favor in Boaz's eyes. He married her, provided for her and her mother-in-law and because of this, Ruth, the Moabite woman, is in the lineage of Jesus.

Paul, who was once Saul, one of the greatest persecutor's of the church, became Paul the Apostle. As Paul he was beaten, shipped wrecked, thrown in prison and eventually killed for his faith. Yet this was the man who lead the evangelism of the Gentiles and wrote most of the New Testament.

These examples reminded me that God is not about doing things the way we expect Him to. Many times God does things completely opposite to what our plans would be. God does things to prepare us for the plan that He has for our lives. It may not always be easy, but the rewards are always worth it. And it helps to remember that with God sometimes "down is up".

The Balancing Act

I was asked to give a speech last night to the Washington County Rotaract club on "How to Balance Life, Work and Community Service." Interesting topic for me, I know, but I used myself as an example of what not to do. I came up with 7 tips to help live a balanced life and thought I would share them...feel free to feed back, I would find a discussion on my points interesting.

7 Tips for a Balanced Life

1. You are in charge of your own time

Many people try to pull you in different directions, but realize that it is up to you to go.

2. Learn to say “No”

It’s okay to say “no”

3. Set your priorities, there are 5 main focus areas in your life

Work/Career
Family/Social
Renewal (Physical, spiritual, emotional, leisure)
Community
Intellectual

4. Know your limits

Get to know yourself and what your capabilities are. Knowing your limits reinforces your ability to say no.

5. Know you cannot “do it all”

When you try to do it all, you generally fail at everything.

6. Health, Exercise and Sleep

Seems like a “no brainer” but often times when we lead an unbalanced life these three things take a back seat first and are generally in this order 1) Health - not eating properly; 2) Exercise - I can skip the gym “just this once”; 3) Sleep - I can stay up late and get this project done, the boss won’t mind if I’m a little groggy

7. Give yourself permission to relax

It is perfectly acceptable to have times in your life when you are not productive.

Growing Up

We all have moments in our lives when we realize we have grown up. But as I’m beginning to realize, we are never totally grown up. Even though I’m only 27 I have had several experiences in the past year that have reminded me I’m not a teenager (or a college goof-off) anymore.

I recently had one of those experiences. While the experience itself was important, for me the most important part was realizing that it was a moment in which I grew as an individual. A defining moment in my life that I will look back upon forever with joy and sorrow. Two very different emotions.

Joy because I’ve grown and maybe helped a couple people around me in the process grow. Joy because something I had been wondering for over 10 years if it would actually happen finally did.

Sorrow because things have changed; relationships that have been one way for a very long time will now be different. Sorrow because I liked the way things were and maybe did not want them to change.

Another emotion felt in the aftermath of the event is inquietude. Inquietude is a fancy word for an uneasiness of either of body or mind. I do not know how everything is going to play out. I may not know for years. I may never know the full extent of how it effects the other people involved.

I think I will be processing this event for the weeks and months to come. Anxiously looking forward to the ways it will change me. The thing that will keep me from ignoring it will be to remember that any opportunity for growth is a good one.

Through a Mirror Darkly

I have been wondering lately if we laugh enough.

A few weeks ago I was at a friend's house playing games and I had a lot of fun. I think we all did, because we laughed a lot. In fact I "laughed until I cried" several times. I left that night feeling refreshed in a way that I had not felt in a long time.

The next day I still felt refreshed. That feeling has since faded and I have once again been worn down by life. The experience prompted me to go back and re-read a section of Telling The Truth: The Gospel as Comedy, Tragedy and Fairy Tale. I have read this book at least 8 - 10 times over the last four years.

In it the author tells us that it is the truth of life that preachers must preach. He says that preachers must "address themselves to the fullness of who we are and the emptiness too, the emptiness where grace and peace belong but mostly are not, because terrible as well as wonderful things have happened to us all."

What brought me back to the book this time was his discussion on laughter. He says that laughter and tears both come from the same place. That "emptiness where grace and peace belong but mostly are not." Tears are the response to that emptiness and laughter is the antidote to it.

I think that both laughter and tears have the same effect: leaving us feeling drained and refreshed at the same time. They provide a release to the stress, the pain and hardship of life. Both are necessary and important.

Tears, in a way, allow us to admit that life is tragic. Laughter, in a way, allows us to escape from the tragic - if only for a moment.

Laughter gives us hope, in those moments when God seems the most absent, that God can at any moment break through and do the miraculous that only God can do. Just as He did with Abraham and Sarah when he told them that they would have a child in their old age. Just as He did with the disciples when they thought all was lost, Jesus rose from the dead.

Happy Fourth of July

I pray that as we pause to celebrate the birth of America you will find time to thank God for all the blessing in your life.

Be Still

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. Pondering what direction I want my future ministry to take, what direction I want my life to take...what direction God wants to take my life.

I actually sat down to write about my thoughts on ministry. But as I thought about what I wanted to say, my mind took me in a completely different direction. The direction it took me was "stillness"

Being still, as anyone who knows me will attest, is not something I do well. I've always got this thing to do, or that place to go, or this person to meet, or a million other things that keep me running. And when I do get a "free evening" to myself, what do I do? I read a book on music history, I tinker on my computer - there is always something to be done.

And I wonder if that's really healthy (my friends tell me it's not). In seminary, one of my professors spent almost 4 weeks on the subject of a Sabbath rest. There was a lot involved in it, but the main focus was: resting in God. Taking a day, an evening, an hour to do nothing but rest in God.

I can honestly say that is something I do not do enough of. I rush through my devotions at times. I pray while driving - which makes it very difficult to focus on God. I'm now asking myself why. Is it because I have over committed myself, because of my inability to say 'no' or is it because I am scared of what God may have to show me.

In the stillness of resting in God am I afraid of hearing what God might actually want to say to me? How would it change me? How would it affect my plans for life, the ministry and everything?

I honestly do not know. I just know that I do not spend enough time resting in God. That I do not take time to put life on pause and just listen for God to speak to me.

Seeing God

Lately I have been asking myself a question as I am going to bed. That question is: Have I seen God today?

It was inspired oddly enough by the George Straight song “I Saw God Today.” The chorus, which is what really made me think goes:

I’ve been to church, I’ve read the book
I know he’s here but I don’t look
Near as often as I should .. yeah I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I just slowed down to stop and stare
Opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today.

I have been asking myself this question because I think it fits well with what I believe. I believe that God is omnipresent, that He is present everywhere at the same time. I also believe that God takes an active role in the history of the universe.

So believing as I do, I think I should be able to everyday ask the question of myself and the answer be ‘yes.’ And if the answer is ‘no’ then I need to ask myself why. Ask myself did God not show Himself to me today or did I not see God in my life today.
Most of the time I can honestly say that it has been because I have not seen God, that I did not look for Him throughout my day.

I got up, grumpy because my alarm went off before I really wanted to get up. I went to work, a job I do not really enjoy, and spent my day counting the hours until I could go home. Finally I go home and I am home just long enough to eat before I have to go somewhere else to do something else. And when I do get home, I read for a few minutes and then go to bed.

Not much time in there for God or rather I did not take the time for God.

So my conclusion, which I think is becoming a theme here, is that I need to make sure that I am taking time for God. That I do not allow my everyday life to weigh me down so much that it distracts me from seeing God.

So I ask you: Have you seen God today?

Come What May - Take 2

I’ve been thinking about my Come What May entry for a while after a comment an agnostic friend gave me about that entry. I completely paraphrase and butcher the actual quote, but the essence of the comment was “the reason Christian’s dont turn to God is not that they don’t believe, it’s that God isn’t real to them in their everyday lives.”

Strangely enough I think he is right. We go to church on Sundays, mid-week if we have time. We might pick up and read our Bible’s during the week if we have time. In truth how many of us take time everyday, without exception, to spend time with God.

To “Practice the Presence of God” as Brother Lawrence would put it.

I began pondering how we as Christians can go about that. The most common is to set time aside everyday to read the Bible and pray. While it is a good and worthy exercise that I truly believe every Christian must be doing, in truth I have to admit, in my life that at times that becomes just another routine activity I do.

And with that thought in mind I picked up a book I purchased a while back and began thumbing through it. The book is Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. It’s not a book that one sits down and reads cover to cover. It truly is a handbook that takes 3-5 pages per discipline and describes the discipline, gives scripture and advice on how to practice it. There are almost 70 disciples that it discusses.

While I may not try all of them, there are some that I have tried in the past and am looking at incorporating in to my spiritual life again. Some new ones I have found that seem to me that they would be beneficial.

The amazing thing is, every human is different. Not every discipline will work for every person. But God in His creativity has led men and women throughout the ages to create different ways of practicing His presence so that everyone would have the opportunity to experience the fullness of God in their lives.

So my encouragement to you would be to take time to learn God’s ‘unforced rhythms of grace.’ Take the time everyday to make God real to your everyday life. So that when the time comes you turn to Him first (and not last).

Unknown Destinations

Mark 11:1-11 

Take a moment and imagine the irony imbedded in Holy Week.  Nothing seems to happen as it should. First, on Palm Sunday Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph.  The people are praising Jesus and waving palms, greeting Jesus as a victorious king.  But less than a week later those same people condemn Jesus and by Good Friday he is dying on a cross.

Then on Holy Saturday, as Jesus is lying in the tomb, it appears that evil has won.  Satan has succeeded in killing God.  Imagine the fear and disillusionment the disciples must have felt.  But then on Sunday morning it is all reversed as Jesus rises from the dead, the victorious king he was praised to be only a week earlier. 

The same is true of our lives.  We may never understand where God is leading, or what is happening.  We may feel like God has failed at being God.  However, as Holy Week proves, God is a God of unpredictability.  God will always surprise with the best possible outcome from any situation, good or bad.

Wake Up

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:  “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  Ephesians 5:8-14

It is very easy as we go about our daily lives to fall asleep.  We get run down by the monotony of life.  Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed...and tomorrow do it all again.  Occasionally we will do something special, go on vacation, go to a concert have a special evening with friends and family.  However, for the most part, life is just a continuing succession of repetition.

One of the things about the Lenten season we are in right now, is that it is a call to wake up.  It is a reminder that this life has a purpose.  We are not just supposed to go through the motions of life.  We are to live life to its fullest potential.

Yet, because of sin we often do not live life to its fullest potential.  We get distracted by it.  It wears us down.  And in many cases causes the continuing succession of repetition that life can so easily become, to be the thing that most separates us from God.  Not because we want to separate ourselves from God, but because we loose focus and put life on ‘auto-pilot.’

Take the opportunity this Lenten season provides to examine your life.  See those areas you need to work on.  See the sin that separates you from God.  Remember that life has a purpose.

Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23

Sin is a subject that is not popular in today’s world.  The concept of sin brings along with it a lot of ideas that do not fit into the modern idea of life.  It declares that there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong.  It tells us that we are responsible for our actions.

But the idea of sin does not stop here.  As Christians we have a hope.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  Romans 3:23-24

The hope we have as Christians and that we profess in the Creed every week is that there is forgiveness of sins.  That God has provided a way, through the sacrifice of Jesus, that even though we have fallen short of God, we can still approach God.

As we continue our Lenten journey, take time to ask God where sin still exists in your life.  Listen to Him, and ask Him for forgiveness and help to move away from sin.

Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, for me one of the most meaningful services of the year that I attend. I generally attend another church's service than the church where I minister as we are a small church and do not currently have a mid-week service.

I would like to share my favorite liturgical prayer with you: the opening prayer of the liturgical Ash Wednesday service:

“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledge our wretchedness may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer

For more information on Ash Wednesday and Lent please click here.

He Can't Be Serious

Earlier this week I was driving to work. I was driving the speed limit, minding my own business when I heard a very large engine rev up behind me. I looked in my review mirror only to see a large truck whip out, pass me on a double yellow, and continue to speed up the hill.

I will have to admit that when I reached the light at the top of the hill and found him stuck at a red light right in front of me I chuckled. Then I was even more amazed that when he got the chance he ran the red light and tore off down the road. I waited for my red light to turn green and continued on my way to work.

I laughed out loud when I got to work and realized that this guy in the truck was going to the lot right next to where I work and had beaten me by less than a minute.

He had blatantly broken quite a few traffic laws and put other people in danger only to get to his destination a few seconds sooner then he would have if he had obeyed the traffic laws.

I do not use this to show off how good of a driver I am and how reckless this other driver was. I have broken my fair share of traffic laws. But the way this guy was driving it was as if he did not take the traffic laws seriously. That he thought he could just do as he wanted to.

This thought, logically (probably only in my mind), led me to remember a sermon I heard a few weeks ago in which the preacher asked if we truly take the words of Christ serious.

Since then I have been pondering that thought. Do I take the words of Christ serious? Believing as I do, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, do I take everything in there serious?

When I speed, when I do not fully stop at a stop sign am I doing as Romans 13:1 says and submitting my self to the governing authorities? That answer would be “no” because if I were truly submitting to the governing authorities I would be obeying the laws they have put in place.

You may say, you are a good person, you do not steal, do not murder, not out sleeping around. There again, we are not taking the words of Christ seriously enough.

Have we forgotten the words of Christ in Matthew 7:21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

I am fairly certain that I called someone a fool this week, I know for a fact that I have been mad at someone. According to Jesus this is no different than if I had murdered.

And moving right along let us not forget about Matthew 7:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

I do not think I really need to elaborate on this one, suffice to say: I am guilty.

Honestly, this is the easy stuff about what Jesus taught. It gets even harder. Matthew 25:31-46...let us read together, shall we?

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

That is very sobering. Let me think here: I have never visited anyone in prison, because they are hardened criminals and I am just a kid from the suburbs. What kind of impact can I have?

Homeless people on the street ask me for money and I ignore them, because I have been taught by society that if I give them money they will just use it for drugs. But, I do not offer to take them somewhere and buy them food.

Yes, I give my old clothes to ‘Goodwill’ but is that because I truly care and want to help the less fortunate or is it because I want rid of the junk. It is better than just throwing it away and...well...I get a tax write off.

And guess what? Because I did not do any of the above for my fellow humanity, I did not do it for Christ - which is the greater sin?

These are just a few samples of the teachings of Christ. What do we do with the really hard stuff like “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but through me” or “deny me before men and I will deny you before my Father”

And as I posted last week do we take the teachings of the power of Christ to care for us and protect and guide us seriously?

I am not writing all this to make everyone who reads it depressed. I am writing it in the hope that we will re-evaluate how we view the words and teachings of Christ. We claim to be Christians, we claim to believe the Bible. But, when it comes down to it, we really only do the easy stuff.

We really need to start taking the words and teachings of Christ as serious as He did, He suffered, died, went to hell and rose again...that is how serious He was. He was not alone either. The early followers of Christ took his teaching so seriously they were willing to die for them. Do I take them that serious? Do you?

Come What May

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.

Those who know Your name will trust in You,
for You, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek You.

- Psalm 9:9-10

Sometimes I wonder if Christians actually believe these words (and the many other words of comfort in scripture). Stop and think about your life for a moment. Something bad happens, something way out of your control happens and what is the first thing you do? Do you run to God and cry out for help or do you look for human comfort, human wisdom for help and direction?

I know in my life God is not always the first place I turn. I comfort myself when I realize that I have not taken my situation to God with the excuses that God has given me wisdom to solve problems. God has placed people in my life that love and care about me and provide me comfort. But those are just excuses.

I say I believe the words of scripture. I tell people that God is a refuge in times of trouble, but do my actions bear witness to what I believe.

I think my actions may speak louder than my words when it comes to my faith. Because I can say I believe anything I want. But until I act out that belief in practical experience I wonder if I really believe.

So if my actions speak louder than my words then my actions say that I believe in my strength and my family and friend’s strength more than I do God’s. Because generally God is where I turn last. I turn to myself or family and friends first.

But I think I am in good company. Abraham, the father of faith, lied not once but twice to two different kings and said his wife was really his sister, instead of trusting in God’s protection. If the father of faith struggled with turning to God why should it be any different for me.

Maybe I really do believe what I say and it is just human nature to struggle in this manner. Maybe the struggle is what it is all about. Or just maybe the point is that no matter what life brings we learn to turn to God. Not because it is what we say we believe, not because it is what scripture tells us. But because through our own life experiences we learn that the wisdom and comfort God brings is far superior to anything a human can provide.

And like most people I have to learn things the hard way.

So I Finally Did It

So after all these years of being online, I finally decided to create my own blog.

No, I'm not going to post random tidbits about my life so people can keep up with my life. But I often feel the desire to write thoughts down about life and faith and how faith expresses itself in various aspects of life. I may even post a devotion or two that I write primarily for use at the church I am blessed to minister at.

The title might come across as a bit odd at first. 'Complicated' is a bit ominous and may scare some people away. But, when we stop to think about it life is complicated and the sooner we admit that the sooner we can move past the complication and start enjoying.

So for better or worse, here we go.