Thursday, January 17, 2008
bono speaks to congress
it's amazing to me that bono has to be a voice about the world when most of the church is quiet...thank God he is using his celebrity to do something and make a change...it made me think "how come this doesn't burn in our hearts"...we're ok to casually go to our sunday morning services and just work our jobs, never giving a thought to the hurting...this video really challenged me to keep pushing my heart to help people...where do i need to expand me, and my heart?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Office
sorry, been almost 2 weeks since i last posted...you all need to calm down about it and get off my back for not posting sooner :).
so uh i recently jumped on board, i’m completely on the band wagon now...yes the band wagon is this tremendous phenomenon called "the office". michael scott is probably the greatest most hated boss of our time and i absolutely am hooked on this show. it took all my nights up this last week as i am trying to catch up to season 4…just finishing season 2 right now...
there is a character on the show who plays her part so well, named angela martin. she consequently is the "christian" character. i have to laugh because she is typed cast as most movies and shows portray christians, the very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality christian. although i find myself laughing out loud at some of her antics, well mostly michael scotts , i can't help but feel a little bummed about her characters portrayal of christians. remember, hollywood is portraying what most people feel that christianity is...a very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality religion, but it isn’t that at all. well meaning judgmental christians for decades have made it hard for those of us who love jesus to be an effective witness. they themselves are like angela martin. preachers get up on national tv and say hurricane katrina was God judging new orleans because of its horrible sin…and that's just one of 100's of examples of well known preachers saying stupid stuff like that. by the way, last time i checked God flooded the earth way back when noah was still alive...God said he would NEVER flood the earth again back then, so either God is a liar or he is not. and well uh yeah God wasn’t lying FYI. GOD DIDN'T JUDGE NEW ORLEANS. he judged new orleans when he judged Jesus on the cross, when he judged everybody. Jesus took our judgment, Jesus saved us from judgment. he took it for us. on and on and on my soap box i go!!!
in my office at work if i say i am a christian or "worship leader" at my church i immediately get typed cast like angela martin on the office. because of this i have to show people that i am normal almost always before i just completely open up about what i do and who i am and my love for God. am i ashamed or scared to talk about jesus? absolutely not, but it seems that when i say i am a christian or open up about my church i am all of a sudden a mean judgmental person or weird. this is why i choose, at work, to let people see me as i am, not as they think i would be in there mind. now everyone around me certainly knows i am a christian but they also know me as the crazy guy or goof ball who likes to have a good time too. they have seen me pray with fellow coworkers out loud but because they know i am real i now get a chance to be a light to them. they aren't closed off by me saying jesus and the biggest reason is because they have seen me be me. ironically i have allot of christians on my team, and thankfully they aren't weird, actually they are the most popular people on my team and the best in sales (for the most part)...pretty cool.
luke 19:10 says "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". jesus came and was the light and then passed it on to us when he left planet earth. yeap, continue that light. this light is a light of love and acceptance and that God has reconciled man "the Gospel"...it's awesome, the more i get closer to God the more tolerating and accepting of people i am. NO i didn't say i overlook the wrong someone might do but i am allot more forgiving when i am close to jesus...truth be told jesus is allot more accepting than we are. the more i dig into His word i can see a recurring theme in the new testament...and that is God paid a price through his son so that man could be accepted by God. this is the Gospel.
one of my favorite scriptures ever is john 3:17 and it says "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved".
in closing...that scripture frees me from having to be the type cast christian hollywood makes me out to be. if jesus didn't come to condemn anybody then that frees me up from having to condemn anybody and who am i to judge anybody anyway...like i don't have things i could be judged for too. what it does do is it frees me to be a light and to seek and save (jesus is the savior, i can’t save anybody) that which was lost. i guess my ending thought is jesus had sinners all around him that loved and accepted him as there friend, do you? or are you another angela martin proving Hollywood writers and most people’s point of view of a christian right?
peace
so uh i recently jumped on board, i’m completely on the band wagon now...yes the band wagon is this tremendous phenomenon called "the office". michael scott is probably the greatest most hated boss of our time and i absolutely am hooked on this show. it took all my nights up this last week as i am trying to catch up to season 4…just finishing season 2 right now...
there is a character on the show who plays her part so well, named angela martin. she consequently is the "christian" character. i have to laugh because she is typed cast as most movies and shows portray christians, the very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality christian. although i find myself laughing out loud at some of her antics, well mostly michael scotts , i can't help but feel a little bummed about her characters portrayal of christians. remember, hollywood is portraying what most people feel that christianity is...a very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality religion, but it isn’t that at all. well meaning judgmental christians for decades have made it hard for those of us who love jesus to be an effective witness. they themselves are like angela martin. preachers get up on national tv and say hurricane katrina was God judging new orleans because of its horrible sin…and that's just one of 100's of examples of well known preachers saying stupid stuff like that. by the way, last time i checked God flooded the earth way back when noah was still alive...God said he would NEVER flood the earth again back then, so either God is a liar or he is not. and well uh yeah God wasn’t lying FYI. GOD DIDN'T JUDGE NEW ORLEANS. he judged new orleans when he judged Jesus on the cross, when he judged everybody. Jesus took our judgment, Jesus saved us from judgment. he took it for us. on and on and on my soap box i go!!!
in my office at work if i say i am a christian or "worship leader" at my church i immediately get typed cast like angela martin on the office. because of this i have to show people that i am normal almost always before i just completely open up about what i do and who i am and my love for God. am i ashamed or scared to talk about jesus? absolutely not, but it seems that when i say i am a christian or open up about my church i am all of a sudden a mean judgmental person or weird. this is why i choose, at work, to let people see me as i am, not as they think i would be in there mind. now everyone around me certainly knows i am a christian but they also know me as the crazy guy or goof ball who likes to have a good time too. they have seen me pray with fellow coworkers out loud but because they know i am real i now get a chance to be a light to them. they aren't closed off by me saying jesus and the biggest reason is because they have seen me be me. ironically i have allot of christians on my team, and thankfully they aren't weird, actually they are the most popular people on my team and the best in sales (for the most part)...pretty cool.
luke 19:10 says "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". jesus came and was the light and then passed it on to us when he left planet earth. yeap, continue that light. this light is a light of love and acceptance and that God has reconciled man "the Gospel"...it's awesome, the more i get closer to God the more tolerating and accepting of people i am. NO i didn't say i overlook the wrong someone might do but i am allot more forgiving when i am close to jesus...truth be told jesus is allot more accepting than we are. the more i dig into His word i can see a recurring theme in the new testament...and that is God paid a price through his son so that man could be accepted by God. this is the Gospel.
one of my favorite scriptures ever is john 3:17 and it says "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved".
in closing...that scripture frees me from having to be the type cast christian hollywood makes me out to be. if jesus didn't come to condemn anybody then that frees me up from having to condemn anybody and who am i to judge anybody anyway...like i don't have things i could be judged for too. what it does do is it frees me to be a light and to seek and save (jesus is the savior, i can’t save anybody) that which was lost. i guess my ending thought is jesus had sinners all around him that loved and accepted him as there friend, do you? or are you another angela martin proving Hollywood writers and most people’s point of view of a christian right?
peace
Thursday, January 3, 2008
my surrendered feet
this past weekend i went to vegas with a couple of friends to watch the greatest sport ever, that sweet mma promotion "the ultimate fighting championship". if you've never watched please get a couple of friends to fork over 40 bucks and watch a pay per view, you want be sorry...this trip was great trip for me because its been awhile since i have gotten to simply hang out with my closest friends and not have any responsibility, plus it was vegas...and yes you can go to vegas if you are a christian and actually have a good time without going crazy!
one night sitting in a bar outside of the 2nd city comedy club my buddy brad brought up a challenge for all of us sitting there...up to that point we had talked about reaching people with God's love and giving the gospel to those around us. we had talked about experience after experience of what we had been through and or done regarding reaching people with God's love...the challenge was this "let's take 1 year and be relentless with our faith, step out and do what we think and or what we feel when see someone in need. be bold and share with those around us the gospel...taking the time to be bold and walk over and talk if you will"...in the process we would blog about and keep each other accountable to what the scripture say in mark 16:15 and what jesus said about giving Him to the world...reach the lost and hurting...this was a good challenge and we were all up for it!!!
i think the reason this trip was good was really not because of the fights (silva vs liddell, simply amazing) rather it was 4 guys (5 guys but martin had to leave early) talking constantly about being responsible for people, loving them...matter of fact the first night, well morning, because we didn't get there until 2am, we were sitting in the excalibur casino sitting by the 25 cent slot machines talking about helping people...martin started talking about a person he prayed for in india last year that literally had a day to live...he talked about going into a hopeless situation not really knowing what to do and or how to pray...as he was talking the tears came...marc talked about praying for a baby in haiti with hydrocefalie (swollen brain) and how you almost feel helpless even when you may have some sort of truth regarding what God can do...and again tears came. i sat there soaking in the conversation and really feeling what they were feeling, i've been there too...and maybe you don't have the answer but does that mean you stop trying to help people, or stop praying for God to change things, NO it doesn't...i guess my point is i was surrounded by guys who actually care, who actually want to do something for this world, who actually want to bring a person in contact with jesus...and who want to see the injustice of humanity stopped!!!
with all that said, for the next year i am blogging about my experiences i have regarding evangelism, reaching people with God's love, and stepping out... romans 10:15 is one of my favorite scriptures and i am surrendering my heart to the cause of christ...and will be writing down thoughts, failures, wins, and experiences of what God is going to do this year...seeya
peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
