Students are starting to arrive on campus for the start of the new school year. It is nice to see some familiar faces and old friends, refreshes the mind and attitude for the new semester. I really wish that I could have gotten off campus for a week or so, or something. To be honest I am tired of being here, but that is only relative to where I would rather be. If I didn't want to be somewhere else, that I would be completely okay with being here. Since I want to be somewhere else (anywhere else in my case), being here is not as much fun as it is for other people.
In particular I want to be with certain people, more than certain places. Family. I want to see my family. I want to see my little sisters and make sure that they are okay and that they are still holding the faith. I want to talk with my brother and make sure he is still as crazy as ever. All these students are great, but nothing beats family. Even when they aren't perfect, I still love my family.
The truth is that we are broken. My family is broken, we don't work any more - at least not the way we should. All the pieces are there and most of the pieces function well enough, but as a whole we are broken. We are all broken if we truly consider it, every part or whole. Hopeless if you truly think about the situation and the possible solutions. Since it would be more reasonable to completely scrap the whole thing are start new again, the situation is more than just hopeless, it is also helpless. Since there is no hope, there is no desire for help. If there is no hope or desire for help from the dying whole then all things considered the whole is dead. Like a man with a bullet wound just waiting to bleed out, the whole (my family) is dead. On top of this, we are the ones that have caused our own death. Each part as well as the whole, we are killing our own and our self as the whole. This truth only adding to the helplessness of the whole thing.
Standing back I, as a part of the whole, and see that my family is helpless and hopeless - dead. I look, and I rejoice. Not that I take joy in my dying family, but because I know that we are only looking at the situation with human eyes with human solutions. Everyone who is thus far seeing this as a hopeless mess has yet to consider God. I look at hopeless I not only have hope, but also rejoice and have the greatest desire to help the helpless, because God has revealed in His Word this truth:
1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2)
Even though we are dead by all means, I believe that God through His power can make us alive with Christ and rise us from the dead. I have hope for my family because He raised me from the dead and in the same way can. I believe, rise my family from this dead situation that they are in.
If my parents would accept Christ and be born again, starting anew, I believer that God can work in their hard hearts and save the family, the whole. If my parents were saved, who are very much dead, then how great a testimony to the rest of my siblings of the power of Christ and the reality of His existence.
Apart from the details of conversations and such, this is what I have concluded over the last week. It has been heart breaking and filling me with hope at the same time. I am restless for my family, but at peace that God has a plan. My job is simple - Pray. I need to pray that my family will see there own situation - dead - and go running to Christ for their salvation. Hope and Pray, that is what we have to do, and then wait for God's timing and plan.
Later
Simply a pilgrim, looking for that city whose builder and maker is God, who enjoys bringing others along on the journey.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
July 31 2010
Something that always ends up crossing my mind when I go for bike rides is "why?" Why do I wreck my body and tire myself out only to come in fifth or sixth place. Given that I even finish. Then I remember that as a Christian following Christ I don't ride for a perishable prize or reward. I don't ride to get in first, I ride for a higher calling, a nonperishable crown of glory. Because of that truth I must ride differently. Today I realized how it is that I need to be riding, not in the front fighting for first, but in the midst of the people fighting for their souls! I need to be building relationships that God can be working through so that they might come to know Him.
Today we were riding and a guy wondered why I was all the way out here. I said that I was attending the bible college and then broke into other conversation about other things. During that conversation I had a chance to mention that we are all messed up people and that Christian aren't absent of sins more than any other. They probably didn't hear that, they probably heard they we are hypocrites and it is all a joke, but it was worth a shot. I need to work on how I present my statements, but I am trying to stop wasting my chances when I am out with the lost.
I thank God for the work that He did in my sister's life to encourage and challenge me to start witnessing at any and all opportunities. With those that we love, but even those we just met in passing. We have to live in a reality of Hell, that by not telling them about their lost condition would experience. We need to communicate Christ to them, I need to communicate that to them.
As much as I would like to say witnessing is all we need to do, that is not even where we start. Words are easy to say in comparison to what we communicate with our attitudes and actions and other nonverbal communications. A have heard this said, "speak the gospel everywhere and if necessary use words" and that is very true. What we communicate with who we are is far more powerful, I think, than what we say. Example, I could say that I care for someone a lot, but if I don't actually act like it, do my words count for anything - no. They do not count because our actions don't match. Another more personal example: I love my mom and want to see her come to Christ, but if I have a bad attitude toward her and my actions don't say that I love her, do my words count for anything. Maybe, but doubtful.
I need to figure out how I can bike in such a way as to communicate my love toward the lost, my desire to see them saved, the gospel. I need to figure out a way to live in such a way as to communicate the gospel wherever I go, and when necessary speak words. The good news for me is that I don't have much figuring out to do, I already know what it is that I must do. The answer is written down for me in John 15. Abide in the true Vine, Christ. Although the practical steps aren't that simple, the principle is the same across the board. And for that I am thankful.
Later
Today we were riding and a guy wondered why I was all the way out here. I said that I was attending the bible college and then broke into other conversation about other things. During that conversation I had a chance to mention that we are all messed up people and that Christian aren't absent of sins more than any other. They probably didn't hear that, they probably heard they we are hypocrites and it is all a joke, but it was worth a shot. I need to work on how I present my statements, but I am trying to stop wasting my chances when I am out with the lost.
I thank God for the work that He did in my sister's life to encourage and challenge me to start witnessing at any and all opportunities. With those that we love, but even those we just met in passing. We have to live in a reality of Hell, that by not telling them about their lost condition would experience. We need to communicate Christ to them, I need to communicate that to them.
As much as I would like to say witnessing is all we need to do, that is not even where we start. Words are easy to say in comparison to what we communicate with our attitudes and actions and other nonverbal communications. A have heard this said, "speak the gospel everywhere and if necessary use words" and that is very true. What we communicate with who we are is far more powerful, I think, than what we say. Example, I could say that I care for someone a lot, but if I don't actually act like it, do my words count for anything - no. They do not count because our actions don't match. Another more personal example: I love my mom and want to see her come to Christ, but if I have a bad attitude toward her and my actions don't say that I love her, do my words count for anything. Maybe, but doubtful.
I need to figure out how I can bike in such a way as to communicate my love toward the lost, my desire to see them saved, the gospel. I need to figure out a way to live in such a way as to communicate the gospel wherever I go, and when necessary speak words. The good news for me is that I don't have much figuring out to do, I already know what it is that I must do. The answer is written down for me in John 15. Abide in the true Vine, Christ. Although the practical steps aren't that simple, the principle is the same across the board. And for that I am thankful.
Later
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Freedom in forgiveness
I am working through the 60-60 experiment, where a person connects to God every 60 minutes for 60 days, and this week is about reconciling relationships. The book reads that we need to go to people that we have offended and reconcile that relationship and bring it back into unity as Jesus has said. Though not close to perfect, I didn't think that I had a long list of people that I have offended. I know that I have in the past, but this week I could not think of anyone to practice reconciling relationships with - then it hit me. I offended someone at the start of the week because I was rude and impatient. I spoke too soon. Now I had to reconcile a relationship with someone that I didn't even know.
I began to think that I didn't need to because she would be gone within the week or because I was just doing my job. I came up with lots of excuses that justified that I didn't need to ask for forgiveness, but the truth was that I did need to do something. I prayed.
"God, I need to say sorry to that lady, please give me an opportunity to do that" I prayed to God. Then I walked out the door to meet her and before I could even think I was talking to her and saying sorry. Then the amazing thing happened, I was forgiven. I said sorry and was forgiven. Forgiven and free from gilt! Remarkable. I worshiped because of what happened right there, it was great.
How much more amazing is it to be truly forgiven. Forgiven from the God of all creation for everything that we ever done! That is what is truly remarkable. But the process is the same. I felt that something must be done, I knew that I had done something wrong and needed to ask forgiveness from the one that I had wronged. God. Yet, unlike the lady at work, God will always forgive me regardless of what I had done if I simply ask for it. Forgiveness. That is truly amazing! Whoa. Praise God for forgiveness of my sins and the redemption through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ!
I began to think that I didn't need to because she would be gone within the week or because I was just doing my job. I came up with lots of excuses that justified that I didn't need to ask for forgiveness, but the truth was that I did need to do something. I prayed.
"God, I need to say sorry to that lady, please give me an opportunity to do that" I prayed to God. Then I walked out the door to meet her and before I could even think I was talking to her and saying sorry. Then the amazing thing happened, I was forgiven. I said sorry and was forgiven. Forgiven and free from gilt! Remarkable. I worshiped because of what happened right there, it was great.
How much more amazing is it to be truly forgiven. Forgiven from the God of all creation for everything that we ever done! That is what is truly remarkable. But the process is the same. I felt that something must be done, I knew that I had done something wrong and needed to ask forgiveness from the one that I had wronged. God. Yet, unlike the lady at work, God will always forgive me regardless of what I had done if I simply ask for it. Forgiveness. That is truly amazing! Whoa. Praise God for forgiveness of my sins and the redemption through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ!
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