Dreamer

I have a lot of dreams. For some reason lately I have really been searching my heart for these things that I hope to accomplish in my lifetime. There are some things that I've been discovering about myself that I really had no clue I had such a passion for. I've decided to list them out so that I can always look back to them as a reminder. And so that you, as my readers and friends, can hold me accountable for accomplishing these things that really make my heart beat faster.

1) Someday I hope to run a 5k. And then keep running them, like it is a hobby. Well, I'd love to turn running into a hobby.

2) I want to learn how to ride a horse. I mean, really ride a horse. Bring the horse to a gallop and everything. I've always thought they were beautiful creatures but it's time to make that a hobby too.

3) I'd also like to join an adult swim league sometime soon. I miss swimming- I really enjoy doing it, and especially enjoy training for competitions.

4) Sooner even, I hope to enroll in guitar lessons. I keep realizing how much I really need to learn about the instrument and playing it. I love to sing, and think I'm pretty darn good at it, but I'd love to have the resource of playing the guitar to better my musicianship skills and be able to lead worship more efficiently.

I'll add more as they come to me. But right now it seems as if I need to commit to working out more routinely. All the goals I seem to be listing involve being physically fit in some sense at least. You'll have to hold me to it!

Parables from Ephesians 1 ~ Part One

Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. This book gives me such a passion for life. Especially for living for God. His character and love is shown so many times throughout this book, that it is important to focus on. I'm going to share with you a few insights that I have gathered from Ephesians 1 alone.

Upon reading the beginning of Ephesians 1 for the first time, depending on what version of the Bible you read, it can be pretty confusing. Since Paul writes in run-on sentences a lot of the time, it can be hard to follow him at times. I spent a lot of time in the first paragraph and managed to sum it all up in a few complete sentences:

Ephesians 1:3-10 ~ Blessed be the God that blessed us[v3]. This God chose us before he even created the world. He chose us for the job of being holy and blameless before Him [v4]. He purposed for Christ to shed His blood for us [v5], and through the death of Christ, blessed us with His grace [v6]. Because of this grace, He forgives us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ [v7]. This grace has also been lavished upon us even while He had all the wisdom about us and knew the decisions we'd ever make [v8]. He lets us know about His will for us [v9], which is to eventually unite everyone and everything according to His Name [v10].

I think it's important to see the nature of God in this passage of Scripture. I've listed a few:

1) God BLESSED us. [He obviously cares about us]

2) He wants us to represent Him as HOLY and BLAMELESS. [He is Holy]

3) He sent His Son to die to BENEFIT us. [He is giving]

4) God gives us GRACE. [He is merciful]

5) He FORGIVES us of all our wrongdoing. [He is forgiving]

6) He knew EVERYTHING we would ever do to wrong Him. [He is all-knowing]

7) He COMMUNICATES with us. [He knows us]

8) He is POWERFUL. [He can do anything]

All of these statements really describe God's love for us. He really loves us. He loves us enough to care about us, give us a holy example to follow, give us grace and mercy that we don't deserve, forgive us when we hurt Him, communicate with us, AND to top it all off, He can do anything else we ask if He wants to! Do you know anyone else that can offer this abounding heap of love for you? I'm pretty sure God is the only one around that fits these characteristics. And look, all this encouraging stuff just in the first paragraph of Ephesians 1!

Something to think about.

Today I was finishing up Galatians and I came across this passage in chapter 6 verse 10:

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

I don't think I've ever paid that much attention to this verse before. It really took me by surprise.

Don't we [Christians] often do the opposite? We focus so much on helping the needy and doing good to those who aren't believes in Christ because we know it is a good witness and a way for them to see Christ in us. But man, God says to do good especially to those who are within the family of God. Hmmm.. that's something to think about! We need to be helping each other out first and foremost, but also doing good to those who really need to know Him.

I get it.. but I think as Christians, we really miss out on this a lot.

Shadowfeet

This song by Brooke Fraser was on repeat on my iPod all day today. These are the lyrics my heart is singing right now:

Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Toward home, a land that I've never seen
I am changing
Less and less asleep
Made of different stuff than when I began
And I have sensed it all along
Fast approaching is the day

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

There's distraction buzzing in my head
Saying in the shadows it's easier to stay
But I've heard rumours of true reality
Whispers of a well-lit way

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

You make all things new

You make all things new

You make all things new

You make all things..

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

Waiting, following, trusting

So I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were in the spiritual wilderness? The wilderness is often depicted of a place where we experience stress, doubt, or even a time when we feel distant from God. I praise God that I haven't felt this way for a while, but I know I found myself in this place last year. It was as if no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I felt like I wasn't hearing from God and that He wasn't speaking to me. I was stuck, I was surrounded by darkness, and I was stressed out all the time! Luckily this past summer I was able to pull through all of this, primarily because of my trip to India, as well as the encouragement that surrounded me during my internship. I am reminded of this experience today because I think it is a place that we all find ourselves in at some point throughout our life. The key to pulling out of it is to have patience and to trust in the Lord and never give up trying. It is a process that can sometimes be very slow. When you give up on yourself and on the Lord, that is when you end up getting stuck there for who knows how long.

I am reminded of this time because of what I read through in Numbers 9 the other day. I was reading about when Moses and the people of Israel had been in the wilderness for a year, and the Lord still spoke to them. Often we think of the wilderness as a place where God is stagnant, He just isn't there. I believe that He is there, we are just not often looking for Him or even focusing on Him. When God spoke to Moses and he spread the word to them, they absolutely did not question Him. They listened to God despite their unpredictable, impatient, tired state of being in this dry, dark, and lonely place. During this time they even had the Passover meal like they had been instructed, and honored God even though it was by His leading that they were there in the first place. They didn't know why God had them there or how long they would be stuck there, but they still glorified Him in their Passover meal.

I am just in awe of the patience and trust that the Israelites showed during this time. God's presence was with them in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night. This is how they knew when to move and when to stay. They followed God's physical presence in the cloud and the fire even though it was unpredictable when the Lord would allow for them to go. Sometimes the cloud and the fire would stay over the camp for days at a time, signaling for them to stay, not knowing when they'd be able to go or why the Lord was keeping them where they were. But through all of this, they never questioned God. They simply waited, followed, and trusted God's leading even through blindness and anticipation.

I feel like most times that I am struggling and when I am crying out to the Lord, that it is so easy to just give up and to do the opposite of what the Israelites did. I always second guess what I'm thinking and feeling and what I know the Lord is calling me to do when I am in situations like these. It is the hardest thing in the world for me to trust Him in the waiting, to follow Him in the blindness, and to trust Him when I am impatient and just downright stuck! It kind of reminds me of the Galatians. Paul writes to the Galatians because they were giving up on God and turning to other religions. It was as if they were ignoring the very God that had called them! How often do we ignore Him when we're doubting Him? How often do we turn to others when we are tired of waiting?

This past month I have just been feeling extremely blessed by God. Since He has led me to Reston, He has been so faithful to make everything fall into place and provide for me daily. I never could have imagined any of this if I hadn't have trusted Him through my doubt last semester. Just a few months ago I was crying out to Him, wondering if Lynchburg was where I was supposed to be. I was trying so hard to be content and to love it there, but I only loved parts of it. It was just a waiting period, a miniature wilderness in my life. But my friends and my faith in God were what pulled me through, and I'm so glad I didn't give up, because I ended up here. Now I see the blessings that the Lord has put in my life, and I pray every day for the Lord to help me see them and not take them for granted. He is SO good to us if we simply strive to persevere and never take our eyes off of Him. The Galatians should have learned from the Israelites experiences in the wilderness.

I don't want to ignore the calling God has on my life. I want to always go after it.

Counterfeit Christianity - THE CONCLUSION

In order to understand how to NOT be a counterfeit Christian, we have to look at what it means to be a Christian. The definition of "Christian" is a follower of Christ, or someone who believes in Christ's teachings. Okay so how do we actually follow Christ? Is it by acknowledging his existence and living our lives the same as we would if we didn't know Him? Is it by simply striving to be the best we can be because we know that we are supposed to? Neither of those are the correct answer. What do you think it means? To really know, we first need to look back at the culture during the time of Christ. At this point in time, Rabbis were the most respected members of the community. Boys would begin schooling to become a rabbi (which means "teacher"), and by age ten, if they weren't able to memorize the Torah, then they were out. They went on to the next level of education of the Torah and the Jewish traditions while the rest of the students who couldn't keep up simply began to learn the trade of their family.

Rob Bell explains it best in his book Velvet Elvis. "Those remaining would now apply to a well known rabbi to become one of that rabbi's talmidim (disciples). We often think of a disciple as a student, but being a disciple was far more than just being a student. The goal of a disciple wasn't just to know what the rabbi knew, but to be just like the rabbi.. When a student applied to a rabbi to be one of his talmidim, he was desiring to take that rabbi's yoke upon him. He wanted to learn to do with the rabbi did. So when this student came to the rabbi and said, "I want to follow you," the rabbi wanted to know a few things: Can this student do what I do? Can this kid spread my yoke? Can this kid be like me? Does this kid have what it takes?" The rabbi would grill the student with question upon question about what he has been taught, simply because he wanted to know if the student could handle the training, and knew his stuff. If the rabbi believes that the student has what it takes, then he would say to him "Come, follow me."

The reason why they would say "Come, follow me," is because the student would actually follow the rabbi everywhere. He would leave his home and everything he has ever known in order to learn everything the rabbi knows and do everything the rabbi does. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. He is our teacher; we are his talmidim.

I think a lot of people would be disqualified by the rabbi's standards. In order to truly follow Christ in this day and age, we have to constantly search for ways to do so by reading the Word and studying it daily. We need to pull our advice from the Bible and discuss every decision with Him before we make it. We have to really pay attention to what we learn about Him in the Bible, and when we are in difficult situations, we must seek Him to show us a way out.

So back to counterfeit Christianity. We know what it means to be a Christian, so how do we do that without making it counterfeit? Well, first we must start at the antonym of counterfeit: GENUINE. The word genuine means: truly what something is said to be. If we say we are a Christian, which now we know what that truly means, then we should act honestly in the way that a follower of Christ would. We must follow Christ with all that we are and seek to imitate Him in every way. But is that really possible? Can we actually be who we say we are 100% all the time?

In one sense, we are always going to be covering up something. It is practically impossible to be completely transparent with people all the time. But as far as the authenticity goes-- we don't need to act like the most knowledgeable Theologian or the best Greek scholar. We don't need to act is if we are equipped for the most hard-core debate of all time or even that we are invincible and don't have struggles. It matters that Christians do still struggle spiritually and that we sometimes doubt God. It matters that Christians still make mistakes and that we don't have the answer to every Theological question that comes our way. It matters that we aren't perfect--because only Jesus was.

The world needs to see that we have struggles but that we are forgiven. Others need to see that we don't know it all, but that we are willing to find out. Some need to see that we are accepting and loving even when someone doesn't know as much as we do or struggles with something more than us. The fact of the matter is that the key to being genuine is to understand Christ and to understand ourselves. We beat being counterfeit by realizing who we are, where we came from, and finally, acknowledging God's hand in our life every single day. He called us to be who we are for a reason, so why would we choose to be something else?

Counterfeit Christianity - PART TWO

Judas joined in with the disciples at the table when they were wondering which one of them would be the betrayer. Judas had clearly thought the plan through, talked money with the chief priests, and then tried to cover it up by chiming in among the disciples. I feel like they all must have forgotten that Jesus already knew who it was. He could have told them right at that instant if he wanted to. I just wonder what expression Judas was wearing on his face during this conversation. He must have really been acting if he fooled them all.

Well this performance that Judas was putting on continues not only in his life, but also in the lives of many Christians today. Probably a majority of people that call themselves "Christians" don't know what it truly means to follow Christ. Some know what it means but have a hard time living it out, which is unfortunately what has helped to nail down the negative reputation of Christians. Judas definitely had this problem, and we can see more of it in verses 43-46 of Mark 14.

Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane with Peter and John, after he asked the rest of the disciples to sit and wait. "And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.' And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, 'Rabbi!' And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him."

This verse definitely implies some prior planning. Judas had to have snuck off and told the chief priests to meet him at Gethsemane, as well as given them the sign at that point. No matter how Judas managed to sneak around and get them there, up until that point he knew they were coming, and he still went to the garden with Jesus and the rest of the disciples without saying a word about his plan. But what Judas does after that is the real clincher. He went up to him at once and said, "Rabbi!" And he kissed him. Judas didn't just go up to Jesus with the chief priests behind him and kiss him, revealing Jesus to them as the one they were looking for. It seems like Judas jogs up to Jesus quickly, crying out with affection for him and calling him "Rabbi" which means "teacher." He runs with a false admiration towards Jesus, trying to make the act look authentic. He chose to use his affection for Jesus as the sign for the chief priests so that the disciples wouldn't know it was him who betrayed Jesus. He had to make it believable so that they would simply think it was all a coincidence.

He was clever, that Judas Iscariot.

So how do we relate to this story? What do we do that we try to cover up to our Christian friends? I've seen Christians try to talk like they know everything about the Bible and even about Theology. They do this because they think thats what is important and that is what their Christian friends respect. I've seen others cover up the fact that their family has problems because they are afraid that their friends will discredit them if they don't have it all together. I've even struggled myself with covering up my personal sins and struggles because sometimes I try to be super human and act as if I have everything figured out.

It's one thing to do these things because we want to please God with our lives, but it's another story if we do them because we crave for others to respect us and to think highly of us. There is a constant struggle between pleasing God and pleasing man and this is the hardest struggle to deal with sometimes. But don't worry, there is no way that I would write a series on a subject like this and not offer a means of escape from it. There are numerous steps that a Christian can take to find their way out of the "counterfeit" world. I hope that my next post will accurately address this and give readers a positive outlook on seeking this authenticity in their Christian life.