Christmas Giveaway

Trevin Wax has a great Christmas giveaway going on over at his blog Kingdom People. In this giveway he is giving away his Top 10 books of the year and an ESV study Bible. Although I haven't heard of a lot of these books the first book on the list Tim Keller's Reason for God is on my to read list and is worth the entry into the contest itself, and if that is not then the ESV Study Bible Definitley is.

My next step...

I have wondered for a while what my next step after college was going to be. Was it going to be something like grad school, seminary, or the like; or was it going to be staying in Rome like so many of my friends from Shorter have done, or was it going to be moving back home like many other friends have also done. While I have thought about this and have wrestled with what was going to be the next step it was always a ways off and therefore while I am still wrestling with it there is no immanence concerning the need to make a decision. Of course, this was until the beginning of this semester.
The beginning of this semester I began to truly see the light at the end of this five and a half year tunnel that I have called college. Of course, tunnels are usually dark and something that you are simply focused on getting through without any fun along the way; this is by far not what my college life was like, but tunnel none the less. Anyway, at the beginning of this semester I was truly able to say these four classes pending I was going to graduate in December. Knowing that graduation was coming I began to seriously look at my plans for what I was going to do after college. Knowing that God has called me to ministry, and since my degree was in religion, I decided that seminary seemed to be the most logical step. So I began looking at seminaries and decided that while I did like New Orleans seminary, I was(am) still a little bit uneasy about moving to Louisiana to live, so I decided that I was going to apply to the seminary for the Extension Center in Atlanta and still live in Rome and work and go to school down there.
Well, as things seemed to progress closer and closer to today, while I was looking for jobs and would put in applications nothing ever came of my search and I was never able to find a roommate to live with after I graduated, so this put a huge damper on what my plans were post graduation.
This dampening of my plans left me with only one other option, moving home after graduation. Ironically, it seems like to my mom this was what was going to happen all along. However, as much as I love home, I feel like this is taking a giant step backwards on the independence scale and as far as seminary is concerned because while commuting is still an option 2 hours twice a week to school, not to mention home is really not an option at all. Unfortunately, there is not a seminary anywhere around home either.
So, I sit here at school just waiting for graduation to occur a week from today, and then I am moving home. I don't really think that this would be a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that Rome had become a second home for me,even more so than Thomson in some cases. For the last several years, I have only gone home on holidays so I basically lived in Rome. This is where all of my really close friends are with the exception of a few. My friends here in Rome, have become like my family over the past five and a half years. I feel like I am moving on and leaving family behind.
A big part of the family I am leaving behind is my family at Three Rivers Community Church, this church has had such an impact in my life and has definitely helped to shape my thoughts on what the church is and what my calling as a minister can look like. There are several men in this church who have helped shape my thoughts on what it means to be a man, and what it will someday mean to be a father and a husband.
Youth for Christ is something else that I am really going to miss. While I really started getting involved again this past summer I have truly enjoyed working with the staff and really getting to see God change the life of the kids and the families that we have a chance to minster to. The staff has really taught me a lot and my internship has reminded me of the joys of ministry are a lot of times in the small things.
So, right now I am taking the next step that seems to be there, no matter how much it doesn't feel like the right one. I am fully aware that God's plans are not our plans and neither is his timing our timing. In fact, this may be one of the most clear examples of both I have ever had. Until God shoots me in another direction which could definitely happen I am now planning on going home and working somewhere to save up enough money to move back up to Rome so I can start seminary. How long will that be, more, 6 months, a year,I don't know. If it is God's will it will happen, and evidently it is his will for me to move home now. Hopefully, he will give me a peace about it in the coming days.

Piper on the Supremacy of Christ

THAT'S MY KING!!

Why are we not dancing?

A lot of my posts on here are going to be about interesting thoughts that were brought up because of Shane Claiborne's book that I just finished reading. At the end of one of the last chapters Shane writes:

"Joy and celebration don't usually mark progressive social justice circles, or conservative Christian circles, for that matter. But the Jesus movement is a revolution that dances. Celebration is at the very core of our kingdom, and hopefully that celebration will make its way into the darkest corners of our world--the ghettos and refugee camps, and the palaces and prisons. May the whispers of hope reach the ears of hope-hungry people in the shadows of our world."

So my question is: "Why are we not dancing?

Why are we remembering the suffering of the cross, but not the victory of the resurrection?

This passage that Shane writes in his book, is very true about Christianity. This truth should be evident to us all year long, but especially during this time of year, this Holy week. However, I am reminded more and more as I walk around my campus and run into Christians, including myself, that we don't seem to take to heart the truth that Jesus is Alive and that he has won the battle against sin. This is evidenced in Matthew 28 where it says:

12And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you." 8So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. (ESV)

When we don't take to heart the fact that Jesus is Alive, then we forget the celebration and joy that comes with Easter. We tend to focus on the cross and not on the empty tomb. We tend to remember Friday, but we don't remember Sunday. When we focus on the cross, and understand that it was our sin that put Him there then we start to feel depressed and guilty because we did that to Him. When we focus on Sunday we realize that no matter how bad we are or could ever be Jesus still covered our sins when he died and rose again; and we realize that even the most horrible form of torture we could think up couldn't hold Him.

When we look at it from the perspective of Sunday. Easter is a time of celebration, not a time for mourning. Christ has defeated death, and believe it or not HE IS ALIVE!! Not only is He alive, but he is at work in our lives everyday. So lets live like we are focused on Sunday. Live like we are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ.

Christianity, The War on Terror, and Redemptive Justice

Lately, in the little free time that I have from reading for class I have been reading this book:



This is a book by a guy that I heard speak at Berry College late last semester. Up until that point i had no idea who he was or what he was about. There have been a lot of things in this book that have made me think. I am sure that I will write a lot more about things that I have read in this book because it truly is revolutionary.

The most recent thing that caught my attention is where Shane is talking about redemptive justice, also know as the "eye for and eye" mentality. In the book he talks about how some people feel like the world kills the good in them, one of them being a solider in the Gulf War who later cam home horrified, crazy and dehumanized. He would go on to do the worst domestic terrorist attack we have ever seen. Shane says, " He (did what he did) in hopes that complacent Americans could see what "collateral damage" looks like and cry out against bloodshed everywhere, even in Iraq."

"Instead of America seeing this, the government that had trained him to kill, killed him, to teach the rest of us that it is wrong to kill."

.

Is it just me or does that sound a little backwards. Shane goes on to talk about one of the fathers of the Oklahoma City Bombing who even though he lost his daughter in the bombing who although he first wanted the bomber to die remembered his daughter telling him "Execution teaches hatred."

Shane then goes on to say that,"God's love (and grace) extends to all losers whether:


Osama bin Laden
or


Saddam Hussein
or



Saul of Tarsus
or

Timothy McVeigh

or



Me


This is interesting because it is not very often that I put myself in the same group as these other four guys. Even Saul who eventually becomes the Apostle Paul, I would like to say I am like him and group myself with him but truth be told I can't even compare. However, I don't put myself in the group with the other three because I tend to think that I am not as bad as they are, I have not done things nearly as bad as them, but the truth of the matter is to God a sin is a sin no matter if it is lying or murder. So if this is the case then I am no better than anyone else even these guys.
In case you haven't figured out who Shane was talking about, he was talking about Timothy McVeigh. It is hard for me to think of doing anything other than retaliating at someone who does wrong to me. Yet I know that this is not what Jesus teaches in the Gospel. In Matthew 5 Jesus says:

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

It seems to me that we have listened and read Jesus' words but we have not heard what He is actually saying. If we were actually hearing we would be doing as well. Instead we are still living by the eye for and eye mentality. Now I think mainly because it is such a foreign concept I can't even imagine not retaliating for September 11th or not using the death penalty for murderers such as McVeigh. However the only reason it seems foreign to us is because we forget what Jesus says about anger, and lust, and addictions, and so on. As Shane says in his book:

"When we look through the eyes of Jesus, we see new things in people. In the murderers, we see our own hatred. In the addicts, we see our own addictions. In the saints, we catch a glimpse of our own holiness. We can see our own brokenness, our own violence, our own ability to destroy, and we can see our own sacredness, our own capacity to love and forgive. When we realize that we are both retched and beautiful we are freed up to see others the same way."

If we apply this radical thought of following what Jesus commands and try to see others as Jesus sees them then we would:

1. not only have not retaliated for the attacks on September 11, 2001 but we would also be doing something that says we love and more importantly Jesus loves the Taliban.
2. Have not gone to Iraq to start with, or if we did then we go not because we want to take out Saddam, but to show Saddam the love of Christ
3. Forgiven Paul for what he did when he was Saul (ok so most did, but it was a stretch considering he is not in our lifetime)
4. Not sought the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh and instead gotten him some sort of counseling and also shared the love of Jesus with him over time.

When you start seeing things as Jesus sees them then this whole notion of redemptive justice flies right out the window. I still have a hard time with this simply because it has become human nature to follow the lie of redemptive justice. However, Jesus calls us to live radically different than the world and this is a perfect example of how to do just that.

Nick Nolte and Jesus

Well, Hollywood and Religion is a pretty vague topic that I could write for days on so I decided that I would just write about the most recent instance. So the most recent thing I have heard was just a short quote that got me thinking, but it came from a surprising source: Nick Nolte

Nolte was on some news show for an interview, for what I am not exactly sure, but he said something that caught my attention. He said,

"you know what ego stands for, easing God out, and you don't want to do that."

I had never really thought about that, and I don't know if that is really what the person who first used the word ego meant when they originally used it, but it makes sense.
If you think about what happens to someone when they get a big ego they do exactly that. They make it all about themselves and ease God and everyone else out. I think too many times, even in our Christian walk we get a big ego. We may have good intentions but we fall back to our human nature which is sin. This is the reason that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and the reason Sodom and Gomorrah occurred.

When we take God out of the picture and make ourselves the most important thing then we are taking the place of God. This may not be our intent and many time this happens without us even realizing it until we have already done it, but we have done it none the less. Jesus knew some people like this in the New Testament, they were called Pharisees and His harshest words were reserved just for them. These people were the ones who were self righteous, meaning that they did everything for their own glory and not God's glory.

I know for a fact that I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I have done this. I say so much and give so much lip service to the fact that I want to live for God, but it sometimes seems like lip service is all I am doing. I don't know what exactly I need to be doing to do a better job at living for Him.Well, actually I do, I need to get in the word more and it will probably become a lot clearer. That right there is one example of how self righteous I am, I have all this time in my days and don't take any of it to get into the word. I, nor anyone else can expect to love God any more than the extent that we are in His word. This truth was taught to me several years ago, but as you can tell I tend to do exactly what Satan wants me to do and put it to the back of my mind and forget it until later. I don't know about anyone else but I am tired of Jesus, or at least His word's being on the back burner of my life. I am more apt to pick up a good Christian non fiction book than my Bible. As good as those books may be they really don't even compare to the Word of God, or they shouldn't. However, so many times I find whatever some human author has to say so much more that what God has to say. That is not to say that God can't use those books to speak because He does but ultimately He has given us sixty six books that tell us exactly what He wants us to know and so many times we don't even bother to pick up our Bible's much less open them up.
What a shame!