The Weirdest Birthday Ever (a.k.a. Back to the Manger)

Hey guys!  :)  So, Christmas is almost upon us.  Everybody’s thinking about it: snow, Santa, presents, spending the day with family.  It gets crazier every year.  Christmas decorations are going up in October now.  Shopping is insane beyond belief.  There are a hundred Christmas parties to go to, a thousand gifts to buy, and a million people to make sure and send a Christmas card to.  That is, if you can even get everyone together and still long enough for a semi-decent Christmas picture.  So much for “peace on earth.”  Amy Grant’s song “I Need a Silent Night” captures that frazzled feeling, and I fell in love with it last year because it was just so accurate. 

But on to the point of this Americanized-Christmas bashing monologue.  (Like my use of adjectives, Beth?)  I’m pretty sure everybody reading this knows the Christmas story.  In fact, we know it so well that we’ve become desensitized to its magic.  Hopefully this will help to get rid of some of that and bring back some of the magic of Christmas into your lives.  One of my favorite Christmas songs is Third Day’s “Christmas Like a Child.”  Check it out, when you have time. 

The following conversation is a little creative writing project that popped into my head.  I’m betting you’ve never heard anything quite like it.  Hopefully this new spin will bring some of that magic back into Christmas.

“Hello, Jesus.  I’m Angel Michael.  I’m in charge of planning your ‘Grand Entrance’, as we’re calling it.” 

“Hello, Michael.  Nice to meet you.” 

“Likewise.  Now then, let’s get down to business, shall we?  I see that you’ve already selected a date.  So the next question would be, what kind of a feel are we going for here?  Majestic ruler of the world, and all that?” 

“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of arriving as a baby.” 

“Ah, the ‘appeal of innocence’ approach.  A good choice.  Which brings us to location.  This approach is much easier to fit in, so that opens up a lot more venues.  One option would be going into the high priest’s family.  Or, if you’d prefer a more secular approach, we could also arrange for Herod to have another son.  Good publicity there.  The best choice, of course, would be to go in as a close relative of Caesar, but I’m assuming you’d rather stick with someone with more Jewish roots?” 

“Correct.  But I was actually thinking about something simpler.  Say...  Maybe the son of a carpenter?” 

“Hm.  Less publicity that way, but the appeal to the common man increases and that might balance it out.  I assume you’re still thinking Jerusalem?” 

“What about somewhere simpler?  How about Bethlehem, for example?” 

“King David was from there, so it would be a fairly symbolic choice.  Maybe we could even arrange for his house?” 

“I was thinking maybe somewhere simpler, like a stable.” 

“Definitely not my first choice.  But...  The story would definitely draw attention.  Speaking of attention.  If you’re really sold on Bethlehem, I suggest we compensate with extra advertising.  We could, for example, rearrange the stars so they say ‘The Messiah has been born.’  Bright lights would also be a nice touch.  And I think I can arrange for a decent angel chorus.” 

“The angels are a good idea.  But I’m not so sure about the star banner...” 

“I suppose it might be a bit much...  What would you suggest?” 

“We could just put a new star in the sky.” 

“Not bad, but it is a bit subtle.  Only certain astronomers would notice.  How about a compromise?  We get one star, but make it really big and bright.  And position it directly above the stable.” 

“I like that idea.” 

“Alright.  That brings us to the guest list.  I’m looking at my calendar, and it looks like both Herod and the high priest are free that weekend.  There are also several noted scholars, Pharisees, and officials who could probably make it.  I might also be able to arrange for a few Eastern kings, although they would be a bit late.  Who else did you have in mind?” 

“Well, I wasn’t really planning on it being that big of a celebration...” 

“Not exactly the party type, eh?  Well, I suppose we can forgo the officials.  Although Herod and the high priest should probably both come.” 

“The Eastern kings are alright.  I don’t mind if they’re late.  But I’m not too sure about Herod and the high priest...” 

“It would be extremely good advertising.” 

“Yeah...  But I was thinking more along the lines of common people.  They are who I’m going for, after all.” 

“Alright.  I suppose we can downsize a little.  There are some notable persons in the Bethlehem area.  I can probably arrange for them to be there.  Unless you had something else in mind?” 

“Actually, there are a lot of shepherds around there, and they tend to get left out.  We could invite them.” 

“No offense, Jesus, but there’s a reason they don’t get invited to parties.” 

“Well invite them anyway.  And send the angel chorus to tell them.” 

“It seems a bit of a waste of talent to send the angels to shepherds...” 

“I know they’ll appreciate it.” 

“Okay.  I guess if that’s what you want...  I’ll send a cleaning crew down to the stable tomorrow to fix it up.  And I’ll make sure the shepherds have enough notice to make themselves presentable.” 

”Don’t worry about it.  The stable will be fine.  And so are the shepherds.  They can come however they want.” 

“Jesus, I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in a stable.  Or around shepherds.  But they stink.  Seriously.  I highly suggest cleaning up a bit.” 

“It’ll be fine just as it is.  Really.  I insist.” 

“Okay, Jesus.  It’s your party.  And if you don’t mind my saying so, this is definitely the weirdest birthday party I have ever planned.” 

Okay, okay, so it was pretty cheesy.  But I think you get the point.  The Christmas story was not the big, explosive event we all seem to envision it as.  There were no resounding trumpets signaling his arrival.  The world did not stop spinning, and the night sky did not become ablaze with light.  The shepherds got a chorus of angels, and the kings in the east got a new star.  The rest of the world just kept going, business as usual, completely unaware of what had just happened.  The Casting Crowns song “While You Were Sleeping” puts it this way:

"Oh little town of Bethlehem, looks like another silent night.  Above your deep and dreamless sleep, a giant star lights up the sky.  And while you're lying in the dark, there shines an everlasting light.  For the King has left his throne and is sleeping in a manger tonight.  Oh, Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping..."

That image completely blows my mind.  The son of God was born into the world, and no one knew!  They had no idea that somewhere in a filthy stable in a backwards town in tiny Israel the wife of a nameless carpenter was giving birth to a child with the power to save them all.  No one knew. 

But it goes beyond that.  The Christmas story is not the magical fairy tale we have painted it to be.  To begin with, Mary, a young girl in Nazareth, is suddenly pregnant with a child even though she swears she has never been with a man.  Because she is engaged, she could easily be charged with adultery, the punishment for which was stoning.  Joseph, the carpenter to whom she is engaged, nearly divorces her because he does not want her to be killed.  Just imagine how hurt and betrayed he must have felt.  Imagine how terrified Mary must have been.  But an angel comes to Joseph in his sleep and explains it all, and Joseph decides to marry her anyway.  My guess would be that they quickly became the town outcasts, the ones who were whispered about as they passed by.  Life would have been hard, to say the least.  But then some bright guy decides he wants to have a census, and Mary and Joseph are forced to make the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The two cities are about 80 miles apart, and a man in good condition could have walked about 20 miles a day, making it a four-day journey.  But Mary was heavily pregnant, and there could have been a wide variety of other obstacles, so many people assume the journey would have actually taken around a week. 

It only gets worse from there.  They reach Bethlehem only to find that no one has any room, and their only option is in a filthy, smelly stable with all the animals.  Definitely the last place in the world you would want to give birth.  Not to mention that there were no drugs back then to ease the birth.  It was all natural.  Using the word “painful” would be the understatement of the year.  (It typically is when describing childbirth.)  I imagine Mary just about squeezed Joseph’s hand off, and the poor carpenter probably just about had a heart attack hoping nothing went wrong.  And when the beautiful baby boy was finally born, his parents had to place him in a feed trough because there was nowhere else.  I don’t know about you, but I find that image pretty humbling.  The Son of God was placed in a feed trough in a stable because no one else had room for him.  The Savior of the world was born into one of the lowest, filthiest, stinkiest places on earth so He could grow up and die on a cross to save the sins of people, many of whom would completely reject that gift.  Talk about love. 

From there the story just gets crazier.  There was no huge party celebrating Jesus’ birth, no fireworks or television announcement.  The only people who did know were the shepherds.  This is another part of the story that really gets me.  You have a whole town crammed full of people, and you send the angels to the shepherds?  Seriously?  Why not Jerusalem?  Here’s the thing about shepherds.  They hung out with sheep, which meant they stank.  I mean really stank.  And that’s saying a lot, considering that people in Bible times weren’t very good at hygiene anyway.  Shepherds didn’t even make the totem pole of society.  Pretty much the only people lower than them were prostitutes, tax collectors, and “sinners.”  So why send the angels to them?  I think there are two reasons.  Firstly, because these were exactly the people Jesus had come to save.  He didn’t come for the Pharisees and teachers of the law because they believed they could save themselves.  Jesus came to save the weak and the low, the outcasts and the unimportant.  Which brings us to the second reason.  The shepherds knew they had very little social standing, and therefore the importance of the event would not be lost on them.  They would understand how incredibly privileged they were to meet the Savior, and they would be overjoyed that they were given the chance to be there first.  They were at a place in life where they would appreciate God’s gift for what it was. 

The other set of visitors mentioned in the Bible are Magi from the east.  These guys were no even Jews.  They were Gentiles, probably from somewhere near Babylon (that would have given them access to the writings of Daniel, which would have helped them discover the star’s purpose).  And yet it was they who noticed the star and sought out what it meant.  They dug through scrolls and prophecies until they thought they understood the star’s meaning, and then they set out on a journey that finally led them to Bethlehem as much as two years after Jesus’ birth.  It was they, not the Jews, who understood who this little child was.  They brought him gifts befitting a king.  They understood what the Jews had missed.  Personally, I think it was because they were really truly looking.  There was something in their hearts that wanted to find a savior.  Why else would they have set out on such a journey following a star, of all things, to where such a person might have been born?  Not to say that the Jews were not looking.  They were.  But they were looking for someone quite different.  They wanted a mighty king who would free them from the Romans, not a man who would die to save their souls.  And so what I see as the greatest irony of the Christmas story came about: it was shepherds, not priests, who were present the night Jesus was born, and it was Gentiles, not Jews, who acknowledged him as king.  The Jews, the people Jesus had originally come for, completely and totally missed it from the very beginning.  Sometimes I think Americans have the same problem.  We are looking in all the wrong places for all the wrong things.  We are so caught up in our busy lives that we completely miss the tiny baby waiting in the manger. 

Recently I’ve found myself drifting away from “traditional” Christmas music and more towards songs that talk about what Christmas is really about.  Not that I don’t still love “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, or Stellar Kart’s “Punk the Halls”.  But as I’m growing older and getting a better grasp on the real majesty of the Christmas story, I find that I’m beginning to prefer songs that tell that story.  Some of my favorites include “The Night Before Christmas” by Brandon Heath and “How Many Kings” by Downhere.  Todd Agnew’s “Do You See What I See” album covers the Christmas story from several different viewpoints, and I absolutely love how real and powerful it is.  Definitely check it out.  You won’t regret it.  You should also see the movie The Nativity Story if you haven’t already.  Once again, a very real and very powerful depiction of the Christmas story. 

Anyways.  Hope some of that gives you guys something to think about.  My hope is that this Christmas you will be able to pull back from all of the craziness that is Christmas and find some time to focus on what it’s really all about.  Make time for the baby in the manger.  Don’t spend the whole holiday looking in all the wrong places. 

Love you guys a ton.  Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! 

If You Say "Step Out on the Water..."

First of all, no, I did not forget about this for two months.  School started back and there was lots of homework and a lack of sleep and two very rough good-byes, and basically my life was insane.  But now it’s settling down a little, and here I am.  I was originally going to do this about prayer, but for some reason Peter walking on water kept popping up.  Thinking maybe God's trying to tell me something...  So without further ado, here we go.   

Matthew 14:22-33 is a fairly well-know story.  The disciples are in a boat, Jesus appears walking on the water, Peter steps out of the boat and walks on the water before beginning to sink, at which point Jesus reaches out and pulls him up out of the water.  Most of us know that story.  In fact, we know it so well that the magic of the story is lost on us.  Peter walked on water!  But somehow that doesn’t impress us anymore.  In fact, we’ve been desensitized to most of Christ’s miracles.  He fed five thousand men (the actually crowd was probably around twenty thousand people) with five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6:1-15).  He calmed a storm (Matthew 8:23-27).  He raised a man from the dead (John 11:38-44).  In fact, he raised himself from the dead (Matthew 28:1-10)!  But, just like the story of Jesus’ birth, we’ve heard these stories so many times that they no longer amaze us.  It’s pretty sad. 

But anyways.  Back to Peter and the boat.  In verse 22, Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of Him in a boat.  I’m just guessing, but that probably didn’t make a lot of sense to them.  Why would Jesus send them ahead with the boat?  How was He going to get across?  By walking around?  But Jesus had a plan.  In order for Him to walk on water, He needed them to have a head start.  Similarly, God sometimes asks us to do things that don’t necessarily make a lot of sense.  But He always has a reason.  Sometimes He needs us to do something that may seem strange so that He has the opportunity to do something incredible.  If the disciples hadn’t gone on ahead, there would have been no story about Jesus walking on water.  They had to trust that He had a plan and comply with His seemingly odd request.  And in exchange they got to witness one of the most famous miracles in Jesus’ career. 

Eventually Jesus starts walking across the lake and catches up with His disciples, who, being human, sort of freak out.  There’s a dude walking on the freakin’ lake!  I must be losing my mind!  Jesus calls to them not to be afraid.  And then Peter opens his mouth.  Somewhere along the line, Peter became the unofficial spokesperson for the twelve disciples.  When Jesus asked a question, they usually closed their mouths and looked at Peter.  And when Peter opened his mouth, what came out was usually either very insightful (Matthew 16:15-16), or very stupid (Matthew 16:22-23).  In this case it was more or less the former.  In verse 28, Peter calls out to Jesus and says, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  Most people tend to skip over this part, but I think there’s something here worth noticing.  First of all, Peter gives Jesus a test, much like Gideon in Judges 6 (verse 17-22 and 36-40).  Before he acts, he wants to be absolutely certain that the voice he hears is really coming from the Son of God.  This is a good example for us to follow.  Before you act, get in the Bible and spend some time with God making sure it’s really Him speaking to you. 

The second thing Peter is doing here is asking Jesus to let him join in.  Once he’s established that it really is Jesus talking, he’s eager to get involved in whatever his teacher is doing.  This shows Jesus that Peter’s heart is in the right place.  He has absolutely no idea what Jesus is up to, but he knows that he wants in.  And when he asks, what does Jesus say?  He says, “Come.”  If we want in, Jesus is more than happy to let us be a part.  Sometimes He will call us, but sometimes He’s waiting for us first to ask Him to let us be involved.  Sometimes He wants to know that we really want to be involved. 

As soon as Jesus speaks, Peter is out of the boat (verse 29).  He knows he can’t walk on water (any fisherman would know that much), but he trusts that if Jesus has called him, then something will work out.  And sure enough, the water holds him up.  This is where one of the three biggest misconceptions of the story comes in.  Most people read that verse and say, “Wow!  Peter’s faith was so strong that he could walk on water!”  But that’s not what is happening here.  Peter does not have so much faith that he can will the water to hold him up.  Peter is completely human.  Yes, getting out of the boat and stepping onto the water does show a great deal of faith in Jesus, but his faith is not what holds him up.  What holds him up is Jesus.  Peter doesn’t walk on water because he just has so much faith.  He can walk on water because Jesus first called him out of the boat and then gave him the ability to fulfill that calling.  I once heard someone say that “Where God guides, He provides.”  That’s exactly what is happening here.  Peter couldn’t walk on water until Jesus told him to.  But once He called, Jesus was faithful to provide Peter with a way to fulfill that calling.  The same is true of us.  If God calls us to do something, He will also give us the tools and abilities we need to fulfill that calling.  All we have to do is believe Him enough to get out of the boat.  Sometimes that’s the hardest part.  There were twelve guys in that boat, twelve guys who had walked and talked and lived with Jesus for at least a year now, maybe even two.  And how many of them actually got out of the boat?  One.  The other eleven were too scared.  Where Peter saw Jesus, they saw the crashing waves.  They simply didn’t trust Jesus enough to step out of the boat.  Maybe that was why He called to Peter, because He knew Peter was the one who would come.  The other eleven preferred the safety of the boat, and because of that they missed out on the chance to experience Jesus’ power.  God promises to give us what we need to accomplish His plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but the choice to get out of the boat is ours and ours alone.  It doesn’t matter how many people are in the boat or how many of them are staying put.  What matters is you can God.  Do you trust Him enough to get out of the boat, even if no one else does? 

In verse 30, Peter’s moment of glory begins to go downhill.  Suddenly he realizes what he’s doing.  Dude!  I’m walking on water!  On a stormy sea.  With a crazy strong wind.  And really big crashing waves.  And…  And then he freaks out.  And what happens?  He starts to sink.  This is the part where people tend to make their second misconception.  Many people read this and say that Peter sank because he lost faith.  But if losing faith caused him to sink, then his faith would have had to have been the thing holding him up.  And we already stated that wasn’t the case.  So what caused him to sink?  The verse says it pretty clearly.  Peter began to sink “…when he saw the wind…”  He lost his focus.  The minute his eyes left his target, Jesus Christ, he began to realize just how impossible what he was doing really was.  The minute he lost track of what was really holding him up, Jesus Christ, he got scared and began to sink.  He second-guessed himself.  He began to worry that maybe Jesus would let him slip.  When we stop focusing on Jesus Christ, we begin to sink.  We can’t afford to forget where our strength comes from (Psalm 28:7). 

The minute Peter begins to sink, however, he immediately cried out to Jesus.  He realigned his focus, and asked for help.  And he got it.  Verse 31 says that Jesus reached out immediately and caught his hand.  When Peter called, Jesus answered.  He had him covered.  And then He looks at Peter and he says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  This is where misconception number three comes in.  Most people read this verse and assume that Jesus is telling Peter that he should have had move faith.  “Well if you’d just had some more faith, Peter, everything would’ve been fine.  But nooo.  You had to doubt.  And look what happened, you moron.”  That’s not at all what Jesus is saying here.  In fact, I can almost hear the kind smile in His voice as He looks down at Peter and says, “Did you honestly think I was going to let you drown?”  I’ve got your back, He’s saying.  I’ve got you covered.  Trust me.  The faith thing was good, Peter.  You trusted that I had you covered.  Where did that trust go, buddy?  When we begin to sink, Jesus catches our hand and tells us the same thing.  “I’ve got you covered.  I won’t let you drown.  I promise.  Trust me.”  It’s like a father teaching his son to ride a bike.  The dad runs alongside the bike, helping to keep it up.  The minute the child forgets his father is there, he begins to wobble and fall.  And then his father catches the bike, and says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”  When we step out, God promises to keep us from sinking.  As long as we keep our focus on Him, we can do anything.  And when we begin to sink, He reaches down and grabs our hand and says, “Did you really think I would let you drown?” 

One thing I’ve noticed recently about life, is that there are two ways of getting out of the boat.  One is step out onto the waves of your own free will.  The other is to have the boat forcibly removed from under you.  This is more of the trial by fire, when it comes down to sink or swim.  Or, I guess I should say, sink or walk on water.  (Sorry, lame joke.  Couldn’t resist.)  My life at this point has become more or less the latter.  Life is pretty interesting right now, and some days are pretty rough.  I have a really good friend who is more or less my lifeline.  She was the one who I told pretty much everything, the only person I would really let myself break down around.  Oh, and she gives really good hugs.  :)  And three weeks ago she moved back to the States.  Which means no more random hugs, no more “good morning” texts, no more leaning on somebody’s shoulder when my day sucks.  Skype works wonder, but we have to work around time change, which can make it hard.  It’s been a rough couple weeks.  And then I was talking with God the other night, and He basically said, “I’m here, and I always will be.  People will come and go, but I’ll always be here.  You have to learn how to lean on me, because sometimes I’ll be all you have.”  So basically right now I’m at the point where I either learn to hold to God and really truly make HimHimHim my everything, or I sink.  Pretty much a trial by fire. 

And yes, I found songs to go with this.  :)  One of my favorite worship songs is called “If You Say Go” by the Jeff Berry Band.  “If You say go, we will go.  If You say wait, we will wait.  If You say step out on the water and they say it can’t be done, we’ll fix our eyes on You and we will come.”  Another favorite song of mine is “Walk on the Water” by Britt Nicole.  Pretty cool stuff.  Check ‘em out. 

I hope some of that was helpful to some of you, or at least gave you something to think about.  If I said something wrong, or that you just don’t agree with, please let me know.  I would also love to know if any of you have any prayer requests so I can be praying for you.  Feedback is also much appreciated.  I love you guys, and so does God.  Catch you later! 

This War We Fight

A lot of Christians today like to talk about “spiritual warfare.” Up until fairly recently I always thought spiritual warfare was this demons versus angels thing that happened on some plane of existence that I couldn’t see, and therefore didn’t really need to worry about that much. But spiritual warfare is real, and it does affect us.


After sorting through several very wordy definitions on the internet, I decided that spiritual warfare is most easily defined as the constant battle raging between the forces of good (God, His angels, and His human followers) and evil (Satan and his minions). In a way, it’s like a giant game of chess played across the vast board of time. God makes a move, and Satan makes a quick countermove. Back and forth, back and forth. Personally, I like to think of human beings as the pawns on that giant chess board. When you begin a game of chess, pawns really aren’t good for much. They can only move one direction, forward, and only one space at a time. Occasionally you can use them to take out an opponent’s piece, but it doesn’t happen very often. But, as every good chess player knows, it is possible to transform a pawn into something extremely useful. If you can somehow manage to sneak a pawn behind enemy lines to the very back of the board, then you can “promote” that pawn to any piece you choose. That seemingly-useless pawn suddenly becomes a rook, a knight, a bishop, or a queen. Not only that, but the new piece is behind enemy lines. Suddenly the pawn has transformed into a vital asset. In my opinion, this is a bit like what happens when we become Christians. Suddenly we have a place in this battle, and God is able to use us to do great things. Not to say that He couldn’t use us before, because He can do anything. But any chess player knows it’s far easier to play with a board full of rooks, knights, and bishops than with a row of pawns. (I am a huge fan of chess, and could probably write an entire book on chess analogies. But for the sake of your sanities, I’ll spare you. :)

So when we get saved, we become soldiers for Christ. The difference between this and a regular war, however, is that we fight a war that we can’t always see. At least, not with our physical eyes. In 2 Kings 6:14-17, Elisha’s servant is actually allowed to see the angels protecting him and his master with his own eyes. It’s a pretty cool scene. Sometimes we, like Elisha’s servant, are allowed to actually see these battles going on. Sometimes we can sense it in a way that is almost like seeing it with our spiritual eyes. These encounters are often on one hand terrifying, but on the other hand they often leave us in awe of our God and His power. I’ve had a few of these experiences myself and would love to share them, but I won’t go in to them now for the sake of time. But if you’re curious, or want to share a story of your own, let me know.

So how exactly do we fight this war? In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Paul says this: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” During a church camp I was at a few years ago, the speaker said a stronghold is any place in our life that the Devil has a hold on. But Paul says our weapons are strong enough to demolish (not just put an end to, but actually demolish) the Devil’s hold on those places. Pretty cool. But first we have to understand our weapons and how to use them. Check out Ephesians 6:10-17 and then I’ll see if I can break this down for you guys.

Okay. So. The first thing you have to do when you fight a war is you have to know your enemy. In verse 12 Paul tells us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood”. In other words, we aren’t fighting against an opponent that is always visible. We aren’t really fighting people that we can go after with guns. Instead, we are fighting against something much higher: “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Wow. That’s a pretty tough order. If we’re going to fight against authorities and against spiritual forces, we’re going to need something a little stronger than a machine gun. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we have. (Something stronger, I mean. Not the machine gun. Sorry guys.) Paul tells us in verse 13 to “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” He then spends verses 14-17 describing this “spiritual armor” that God has given us. Paul takes each piece of armor and attaches it to a particular noun, such as peace or truth. Why does he choose this particular examples and these particular nouns? I’m going to try and break this list down into something that we can: 1) understand and 2) use.

First up on Paul’s list is the “belt of truth.” Now, at first glance, a belt doesn’t exactly sound like something you would take to war. But let me remind you that Paul was writing this in Bible times. There were no jeans in T-shirts. Most people wore robes and togas. (“This is not a dress. This is a tunic. It was the height of fashion 3,000 years ago, I assure you.” -Kah Mun Rah, Night at the Museum 2) That’s all fine and good, except it’s kind of hard to do pretty much anything when you’re wearing a long piece of cloth that looks like a dress. (“Were you not listening? I just told Mr. Capone here that this is not a dress. It is, in fact, a tunic. Very big difference.” -Kah Mun Rah) So people wore belts to keep all of that loose material together and out of the way, enabling them to go about their daily lives. But what’s the significance of a belt of truth? Check out John 8:31-32. Interesting connection, huh? As Christians, we have the truth. So instead of always searching for it like the rest of the world, we’re free to do the things we need to do. For a soldier in Paul’s day, a belt was central to his armor for another reason: it kept his sword close by. This way, whenever he needed it, he could simply reach down and draw it out. Just like how the belt held the soldier’s armor together, truth does the same for our faith. If the crucifixion or the resurrection or the Bible were not true, then Christianity falls apart. Truth is what holds it all together.

Next Paul talks about a “breastplate of righteousness.” Anyone who has seen a movie like Gladiator or Spartacus knows what a breastplate is: a piece of tough, shaped metal designed to protect a soldier’s vital organs. As Christians, we are covered by Christ’s righteousness, and this protects us from the fires of Hell. Psalm 89:14 says “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Imagine a Roman soldier going into battle without his breastplate. No matter how good he is with his sword, and no matter how big his shield is, his chances of being hit in a vital organ (and therefore his chances of dying) have just gone up considerably. Not to mention he would look like an idiot. The breastplate is more or less the “foundation” of the soldier’s armor, just as a Psalmist says righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne. And like a soldier without his breastplate, if we are without the righteousness of Christ, no amount of good deeds are going to save us.

Verse 15 of Ephesians 6 talks about having our feet “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” What’s the big deal of having our feet ready? In the time of the Romans, not everyone had shoes. In fact, most of the so-called “Barbarians” that the Romans often fought probably wouldn’t have worn shoes in battle. The Romans, on the other hand, always wore sandals. Why? Battlegrounds often tended to be dangerous places covered in sharp rocks, arrowheads, broken pottery, fallen spears, and other dangerous things that could shred the feet of anyone who was not properly prepared. With their sandals on, the Romans didn’t have to worry about that. Their feet were well protected. They could therefore move much faster on the battlefield than their bare-footed opponents who had to be careful where they stepped. But why did Paul choose to associate shoes with the gospel of peace? I believe the answer to that question lies in Romans 1:16. The Romans were not ashamed of their sandals. On the contrary, they used it to their advantage! We should do the same.

Up next is the “shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” At first glance, that statement doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. What does a shield have to do with extinguishing flaming arrows? When I was at a church camp a few years ago I heard a speaker give an explanation that just might have been what Paul had in mind. He said that back in the days when soldiers had wooden shields, they would drench their shields in water before going into battle. Then, when the battle began, both sides would shoot a volley of flaming arrows at each other. Once that was done they would move forward for hand-to-hand combat. The objective of firing all those flaming arrows was this. If your arrow managed to hit an enemy soldier, that was fine. But your real goal was to hit his shield and burn it up. It was much easier to kill a man who no longer had a shield. But if he had gotten his shield wet enough, the fire would have no effect. Our life is like that. Satan is continually throwing things at us in the hopes of “burning up our faith,” so to speak. It’s our job to “soak our shields,” or in other words, to be sure that our faith is strong enough to withstand attack. Faith is a pretty incredible thing. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells us that even faith as small as a mustard seed can to incredible things. Have you ever actually seen a mustard seed? They’re typically only about 3mm in diameter. That’s TINY! And yet Jesus says that a faith that small can move entire mountains. And if a faith that small can do such crazy things, think about what an entire shield of faith could do. It would be able to withstand anything.

The next item on Paul’s list is the “helmet of salvation.” Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle knows what the purpose of a helmet is: to protect our heads. More specifically, it protects our brain. Likewise, the knowledge of our salvation should protect our minds from Satan’s lies, such as loss of salvation, not being good enough, etc. Psalm 62:2 says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” It seems to me that is the Psalmist puts salvation in the same list as rocks and fortresses, then this salvation should be a pretty strong thing. So a helmet made of it would be practically impossible to get through. Unless, of course, we let something through. Just something to think about.

Lastly Paul mentions “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The author of Hebrews uses a similar illustration in Hebrews 4:12. To really understand this verse, we have to first understand the significance of a double-edged sword. Look at a kitchen knife. There’s only one sharp edge. That means you can only cut one way. Now, in the kitchen this makes perfect sense. You wouldn’t want to cut through both the carrot and your finger. (Reminds me of high school cafeteria horror stories about finding a finger inside of a burger.) But if a soldier is in battle and his sword only has one sharp edge, then he can only cut in one direction. This makes it incredibly easy to attack him from the other side, because he will have a hard time striking back. So instead soldiers used double-edged swords which allowed them to cut in both directions. If the sword we have is sharper than any double-edged sword, then it must be a pretty incredible weapon. And if it can do all the things that Hebrews 4:12 says it can, then it sounds to me like we have a pretty incredible weapon.

Throughout the years, people looking at Paul’s list have noticed two important things. First, the sword is the only offensive weapon in the entire list. Everything else is defensive. This means that the Word of God is not just a weapon, it’s the weapon. And that means we have to learn how to use it. A soldier going into battle isn’t just going to pick up a sword and go. He’s going to spend months and even years beforehand learning how to use the weapon. We should do the same. We need to be constantly in the Word. We need to study it, learn it, know it inside out. Only then can we use it effectively. When the Devil came and tempted Jesus in Luke 4, Jesus quoted scripture to defend himself. Obviously it works.

But people have also noticed another important thing about this passage. In the whole list, there is nothing protecting the back of the soldier. I think this tells us two things. First, there is no provision for retreat. When we become Christians and join the fight, we’re in it to the end. There is no backing down. At the same time, I think it also means that God is looking out for us. He has our backs. And that’s a pretty cool thought.

In Ephesians 6:18 Paul goes on to talk about prayer, but there’s just so much that can be said there that I figured it should get a study all its own. But in the meantime keep praying. Pray for each other, and for me, that we’ll all stay strong in the midst of this warfare. And if anyone has any prayer requests, please let me know so that I can be praying for you.

Being a person who likes music, I found a few songs about spiritual warfare. One of my favorite bands is Pillar. Their song “Frontline” talks about the concept of being in a war. “Echelon”, another of their songs, also uses lots of imagery dealing with battles.

Okay, so now that we understand our armor and our weapon, it’s time to get to work learning how to use them. Stay in the Word. Be in constant communication with God. Spend time with other Christians, getting to know them and building strong relationships. These will be your strongest assets in our battle. It’s not going to be an easy fight. You will be knocked down more times that you can count, and be hurt beyond imagining. There will be days you won’t even see the point in fighting anymore. But I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret here. See, this is the only battle in history where the outcome is 100% certain. God will win, and there is absolutely nothing Satan can do to stop Him. Nothing. Because in reality, God has already won. He’s the one holding all the cards here. And there is nothing Satan can do to stop Him. One of Michael’s W. Smith’s early songs, “End of the Book” talks about being in a war and knowing we will win. Remember that on the hard days. We’re fighting on the winning side. And as bad as things may look now, we’ll come out on top in the end. And that’s a pretty cool thought. :)

Roadblocks (a.k.a. When Life Gets Rough)

(This was written in July.)

A lot of people in America like to think that getting saved is sort of like fire insurance or your get-out-of-jail-free card. That once you become a Christian everything is happy and easy and God takes perfect care of you and that’s it. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, we know that becoming a Christian doesn’t solve all our problems. We still have to struggle with things, and there are still days with life just completely sucks. Christianity doesn’t take away all the hard stuff. It just changes how we deal with it.


I really don’t like being vulnerable. I don’t like people to know what’s really going on in my life. It’s just easier to toughen up and deal with it on my own. But quite honestly that gets old. And I think in order for you guys to understand where this post is coming from, I’m going to have to get really uncomfortable and be at least partially honest with you people. Which basically means being honest about how my life is going right now. But I’ll try and be brief. The short version is that my relationship with certain people in my life has suddenly gotten very rocky, and there has been a lot of anger and hurt. And then it’s felt the past few months like God has more or less checked out of my life. I know He hasn’t, but I haven’t been able to find Him anymore and it’s made things really hard. It’s almost like there’s a glass wall between me and Him: I know He’s there, but I can’t quite get to Him. The song “Storm” by Lifehouse talks a little bit about that, about being surrounded by the storms of life and knowing that if you could just see God everything would be okay. I’ve spent a lot of the last several months pretty much just surviving, trying to wait things out and hope they get better. And in a way they have, little by little. But over the past few months I’ve done a lot of thinking about things, so this post is really just me processing through things and hoping I’ll come across something that will help some of you somehow.

When something bad happens, the first thing people ask is: “Why would God let this happen?” I think He lets bad things happen for two reasons. The first is to further His glory. Our God is all-powerful, and can use even bad things for His glory. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, seemingly to his death, but when he was found alive the next morning, King Darius believed in God’s power and sent out a decree that his people should fear this God (Daniel 6). Joseph was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery by his brothers, accused of adultery, and thrown in jail. But in the end he came out as Pharaoh’s right-hand man and was able to save God’s chosen people from starvation (Genesis 37, 39-46). God is powerful enough to turn bad things into good, to use them to bring glory to His name. At the time, though, that’s usually pretty hard to remember. But that’s the thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions. When things get rough, we have someone to cling to, to trust in. When things get hard, we can turn to God. Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together “for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Most people just take the first part of that verse and say that God works all things together for the good of everybody. That’s not what this verse is saying. But it IS saying that God will work all things together for the good of those “who love Him” and “have been called according to His purpose.” That means us. Christians. God promises that in our lives, He WILL work all things together for good. While that can often be hard to remember and it can be pretty hard to see how God could ever make anything good out of some situations, He promises that He will, and that promise gives us something to cling to when times get rough.

Sometimes I think God allows bad things to happen for another reason: to get our attention. Sometimes it’s so easy for us to get caught up in our easy, comfortable lives that we forget to listen for God’s voice. Sometimes our lives get so noisy that the still small voice gets drowned out (1 Kings 19:11-13). Sometimes when things are going good we start to think that maybe we don’t need God anymore. I was thinking about that concept during AGM and starting scribbling down my thoughts. This is what I wrote:

“We are so stupid, and so selfish, and so stubborn, and so short-sighted that God usually has to put a wall in front of us just to get our attention. And it’s only after we’ve tried to climb over the wall, dig under the wall, walk around the wall, and even push through the wall and we finally realize that it isn’t going to move that we finally look at God and say, “Oh, did you want something?” That’s why He compares us to sheep. Because despite being the smartest things on this planet, if we’re really honest with ourselves we realize that, compared to God, we’re really not that bright.”

Sometimes the only way for God to get our attention is for Him to put a roadblock in our path that we simply can’t move by ourselves. For the Israelites in the Old Testament that meant going back into slavery again and again and again. Sometimes for us that roadblock is something visible, such as a tragedy or illness or death. Sometimes it’s just the feeling of being separated from God. Sometimes God is just trying to help us get our eyes back on Him. Sometimes He’s actually trying to teach us something or get us to notice something that we keep missing. Sometimes He just wants us to run back to Him and cling to Him like He really is our everything. I’ve been thinking a lot about roadblocks lately, so these are just kind of some of my thoughts. I hope some of it is helpful.

When you (I say “you” because it’s easier to write to “you” than to “we”, but I’m still talking to myself as well as you guys) run into roadblocks, one of the first things you should probably do is ask yourself what the roadblock is about. Is there something you can do to fix it? If God is feeling distant, is it maybe because you haven’t been in the Word and haven’t been talking to Him lately? Something like that is fairly easy to remedy. Did you do something that you’re pretty sure wasn’t in accordance with His will or not do something that you know He wanted you to do, and now everything is falling apart? Maybe you did something wrong and haven’t asked Him for forgiveness. Now, I’m not saying that doing something wrong will result in God completely shutting you out and letting your life fall apart and refusing to have anything to do with you. Just because everything is going wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that you did something wrong. Most roadblocks result from something much bigger than this. But it is worth at least thinking about, because if the root of the problem is your heart or your actions, then that’s the place to start.

Most times, however, you can’t think of any reason for there to be a roadblock. Those are the times when you need to take a step back and look at the situation. Could God be trying to teach you something through the situation? If so, what do you think it might be? Talk to God about it. Dig into His word. Ask Him to show you what it is He’s trying to teach you. Two or three years ago I spent several months feeling completely isolated from God, and it was horrible. Looking back now, I can understand the reason. God was asking me to surrender some things to Him that I wasn’t ready to let go of, to trust Him to do what was best with my life. And, to be honest, I just wasn’t ready to go there. So God waited. And when I finally came before Him in tears and told Him that I was ready to give Him control, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. The roadblock lifted, and suddenly I was closer to God than I had ever been. Now I can see that God never really left me. He just wasn’t able to use me until I surrendered to Him. So He waited until I was ready to do that. When you hit a roadblock, see if there might be something God is trying to teach you. Is He trying to strengthen your faith? Is He waiting for you to surrender something to Him that you aren’t ready to give up? Or maybe He’s just waiting for you to trust Him.

I’ve discovered that most roadblocks in my life deal with two things: faith/trust and praise. When things get rough, God is usually waiting for me to just trust in Him. He’s trying to make my faith grow stronger, trying to teach me to trust in Him completely, no matter. Can I still trust Him when my life is crumbling around me and I can’t see anything through the smoke? God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. But do we really believe that? Do we really trust that God knows what’s best for us? Are we still willing to serve Him when everything is going wrong? That tends to be the biggest test of faith. Serving God when things are easy is one thing. But serving Him when I don’t understand what He’s doing takes some serious faith. Britt Nichole’s song “Have Your Way” is one of my favorites, and it is basically a cry to God telling Him that you’re willing to trust Him even when things don’t make sense. For me, this is one of the hardest things to do, and God has had to put several roadblocks in front of me to get me to come to the place of accepting that I can’t make it on my own and that I have to trust Him. The song “Let the Waters Rise” by Mikeschair talks about being willing to trust God and follow Him even when “the waters rise.”

Another song I like is “Here With Me” (also by Mikeschair), and it talks about trusting that God is always with us even when we can’t see Him. The song’s first lines are “God I’m desperate for a sign / that I’m not praying to the night sky.” BarlowGirl’s song “Never Alone”, although exhibiting a very different sound, talks about the same idea. I’ve spent a lot of time lately in that place of being on my knees just begging for God to show up, to come in and heal the hurts and let me know that I’m not alone. I know from experience that one of the most painful places to be in life is one where you can’t feel God. It feels horrible beyond description, one of the worst roadblocks I have ever experienced. And really the only way around it that I know of is to just seek God like crazy. Talk to Him, read His word, spend time with His people. At one point I made the mistake of more or less giving up, thinking that it was pointless and I would just have to wait it out. Let me tell you, it doesn’t work. When you can’t find God, seek hard after Him, no matter how hopeless it seems. Jesus promises us that if we seek Him, really truly seek Him, we will find Him (Luke 11:9, Matthew 7:7). Eventually you will find Him again. And when you do, it’ll be kind of like in the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” You’ll realize that He never actually left you. You just thought He did. But in reality, He’s always with you, no matter how it seems (Matthew 28:20, Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 41:10).

But I digress. I said earlier that a lot of roadblocks in my life deal with faith/trust in God. A lot of them also deal with, as strange as it may initially sound, praise. God wants to see if I can continue to praise Him when things get rough. Can I praise Him when everything is falling apart? Can I praise Him when I don’t understand? And arguably the hardest of all: can I still praise Him even if He chooses not to fix this situation? The greatest example of this is probably Job. Job was a very blessed man. He has several children, TONS of livestock (which in those days was equivalent to being rich), and many servants. (See Job 1:1-3 for exact numbers.) Then one day four of his servants come to him and tell him that all of his livestock is either dead or stolen, the rest of his servants have been slaughtered, and that his children have all been killed (Job 1:13-19). Job tears his robe and shaves his head as was customary for mourners, and then he falls to the ground in worship, saying: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20-21) Wow. (I can say it backwards too: wow. Sorry, bad joke.) Let me say that again. Wow. That scene just completely blows my mind. To be able to praise God after having lost everything (and this man had a LOT to lose) is just incredible. Actually it’s beyond incredible. Those words are now the bridge of the popular worship song “Blessed Be Your Name”, which is one my favorites. Two more of my favorite songs are Nichole Nordeman’s “Gratitude” and Casting Crown’s “Praise You In This Storm”, which also talk about this concept of praising God when it’s hard.

My all-time favorite song right now, which I highly encourage all of you to listen to, is “Broken” by Lifehouse. It talks about being completely broken inside, but also about holding on to God through all of that. While the verses deal a lot in symbolism, the chorus is brutally honest about how it feels to be falling apart inside. But there’s also a sense of hope that if we hold on to God we can make it through and find the healing we’re looking for. That thought has helped keep me going on some of my worst days, and more or less sums up how I’ve felt a lot over the past few months. But I have found a bit of hope, and things are beginning to get just a bit better. Not they’re fixed, not by a long shot. But I am beginning to catch small glimpses of God from the corner of my eye, starting to feel a whisper of something touching my heart. I’m still way messed up inside, and it’s going to take a long time to fix and heal. But with God’s help, I know it will continue to get better. So for now I’m doing what the song says: “I’m hanging on another day just to see what you threw my way. And I’m hanging on to the words you say. You say that I will, will be okay.”

So those are just some of my thoughts. I’d like to end this with a bit of encouragement. If you will, take a look at the first two chapters of the book of Job. In the first chapter, Satan asks God’s permission to hurt Job. God gives him permission to hurt whatever Job has, but forbids Satan from touching Job himself. Later in the chapter all of Job’s possessions and children are taken from him, but he himself remains unhurt. In the second chapter Satan comes back and asks permission to strike Job himself. God gives him permission to hurt Job so long as he does not kill him. Job comes down with a horrible sickness and painful boils on his skin, but he does not die. Most of us know that story. But I think often times we overlook the incredible truth of those two chapters. First of all, before Satan could do anything to Job, he had to ask God’s permission. He had to ask! How incredible is that? He couldn’t lay so much as a finger on Job unless God gave him permission! And even then he had to obey the boundaries God placed upon him. That’s pretty cool. In fact, it’s beyond cool. It’s pretty awesome! Think about it. Nothing in this universe can touch us unless God allows it. And God never does anything without a reason. Now, while that thought doesn’t always help during the hard times, it’s still nice to know. God has a plan, and apart from it nothing at all can touch us.

A while back I was having a particularly rough day and one of my closest friends texted me and told me to never forget that God loves me and that He’s crafting me, “warrior-training” me to be who He wants me to be. You guys are all incredible people, and God has incredible things planned for your lives. But, like clay (Isaiah 64:8), sometimes we requires a little shaping first. Once He’s done shaping, however, we’ll be incredible tools that he can use to do great things. But in order to see those incredible things, we first have to survive boot camp. But in the end that just makes it all the more beautiful. Nichole Nordeman’s song “Sunrise”, another beautiful song that you should all hear, talks about experiencing all of the hard times in life and then looking back and deciding that you wouldn’t trade any of it in for the world, not even the hard and broken parts, because, as Nichole so profoundly puts it, “how would I know the morning if I knew not midnight? You’re my horizon. You’re the light of a new dawn. So thank-you, thank-you that after the long night, you are sunrise.”

Whatever’s going on in your life, remember to stick with God. He really does know what He’s doing, even when we can’t always see it.

Radical Jesus

(This was written back in January.)

Right after Christmas our family was having a devotion and my dad said something that made me think. He said that we as Christians spend a lot of time focusing on the manger and a lot of time focusing on the cross, but that we tend to overlook a lot of what went on in the middle. Yes the Christmas story is miraculous, and yes the cross is central to everything we believe, but in between those two things was a man who lived and breathed and taught things. And when we do remember to talk about this man, we often have the wrong idea. We tend to think of Jesus as something I like to call Hippy Jesus. Everything is all about peace, love, and happiness. We talk about Jesus as this kind, loving man who spent His life walking around talking about loving everybody and how nice it would be if we all got along and how wonderful heaven will be. But it wasn't like that. Yes Jesus loved people and cared for them, and yes he taught that we need to forgive. But that wasn't all. Jesus was not some Jewish hippy. In fact, quite the opposite. As teenagers we like to throw around words like "radical" and "intense". You want to see something really radical? Look at Jesus. Seriously. This guy was so radical that the people of His day didn't even know what to do with Him! But before we start talking about the radical side of Jesus, we need to get some things straight. Picture Jesus in your mind. What do you see Him looking like? I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most of you have an image of a white man in a spotless white robe with brown hair. I can pretty much guarantee you that Jesus didn't look like that. So let's fix that image. First look at His sandaled feet. After walking around on the dirty, dusty streets all day everyday those feet are going to be caked with dirt. And while the robe may have been white, it was probably pretty dusty too. Now look at His hands. They aren't spotless either. And they're hard, covered in callouses from years as a carpenter. Next take His brown hair and make it darker until it's black, or something close. The same with His white skin. It would have been more brown. And there was probably a lingering smell of fish, thanks to His disciples. Look at the man in front of you now. He looks like a typical Middle Eastern carpenter. And yet He's so much more. He did and said things that made Him impossible to forget. Things that were radical.

The Jews of Jesus' day were waiting for a messiah, someone they expected to rise up and lead them, someone who would help them push the Romans out of Israel and set himself up as their king. Jesus was the total opposite of what they expected. They wanted to fight the Romans. Jesus taught to forgive. They hated. He taught that they should love their enemies as themselves. Have you ever tried to forgive someone who has hurt you terribly? It's not easy. In fact, it's incredibly hard. A lot of times we get angry over things that are small. The Jews actually had a reason to be angry. The Romans made their lives miserable. When Jesus told them to forgive their enemies, He wasn't just talking about forgiving friends who had said the wrong thing. He was telling them to forgive the men who slaughtered their animals and stole their crops, the men who burned their homes and taxed them within an inch of their lives, the men who raped their daughters and killed their sons. The Jews were not only supposed to forgive the Romans, they were supposed to LOVE them! When Jesus taught love and forgiveness, it was not easy hippy stuff. It was hard work. And it didn't end there. Jesus also taught to be kind to others even when you don't feel like it, and to serve them to the point of becoming like a lowly servant. This part in particular did not sit well with the religious leaders of the day. Not only that, but Jesus refused to back down before them. He told them to their faces what they were, and they couldn't stand it. He devotes the entire 23rd chapter of Matthew to telling the people just what the Pharisees are. This was no hippy "peace, love, and happiness" Jesus. This was a radical teacher with a power unlike any the Jews had ever seen. This was the man who went into the temple, made a whip, and drove out all of the people who were making money there (John 2:13-16). This was the man who told a giant storm to "Be quiet!", and immediately the wind died down (Mark 4:35-41). This was the man went into the desert for 40 days without food, and at the end of those forty days was able to battle Satan and win (Matthew 4:1-11)! This was the man who could heal the sick (Luke 17:11-19) and the crippled (Luke 5:17-26), give sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26), hearing to the deaf, a voice to the mute (Mark 7:31-37). This was the man who could leave the Pharisees speechless every time he spoke. This was the man who drove out demons (Mark 9:14-27) and turned five loaves of bread into five thousand (Mark 6:35-44). This was the man who went His entire life without sinning once. This was the man who always had enough time to serve others, and was even willing to wash His disciples' filthy feet (John 13:1-17). This was the man who suffered death on a cross, the most painful death of the day, with the weight of the sin of all of humanity weighing on His shoulder. And this was the man who rose again three days later, having conquered death for all of eternity!! If that isn't radical and intense, I don't know what is. Check out Michael W. Smith's song "Secret Ambition" for a really good look at this radical Jesus. This man was INCREDIBLE. And He left behind an incredible example for us to follow. There is so much we can learn from His life, and His Word. Lessons of love and forgiveness, of grace and service. Things that, despite their hippy appearance, are in fact incredibly tough. And radical. I’m going to challenge you guys to get into the Word and re-discover Jesus for yourselves. Really get to know this Middle Eastern carpenter, this radical leader. Study his life, turn His teachings inside-out, learn what He stands for. Because when you really get to know this Jesus and really start to understand what he taught, your life will begin to change. So let's dig in and get to know this AWESOME Savior together.

The Reason

For several months now I have been trying to do a sort of mini-Bible study with some friends of mine once a month or so.  I pick a subject, study it, write a sort of devotional on it, and then send it out via e-mail.  Then somene suggested I turn it into a blog so that it could reach more people.  So here I am.  The main purpose of this blog will be to share with others what I am learning on my walk with my King, Jesus Christ.  Hopefully some of this will be helpful or encouraging to the people who read it.  If you want to contact me at any point, feel free to e-mail me at jesusfreak.Lk923@gmail.com.  I welcome any and all comments, particularly constructive criticism, and would also love to know how I can pray for the people who read this blog.  Thanks for reading!