Hey everyone,
So I realize that it has been a very long time since my last post (which seems) to be a common occurance with my blog posts) but I am hoping to get a little better very soon.
Originally I created this blog to share some of the spiritual insights that I had on life and faith, but as it turned out I hit a spiritual valley and have been lacking in the insight, as well as motivation for seeking insight, lately. It is funny to think about that in the sense that as I was coming back from a run this past weekend it hit me that what I have been going through is exactly what faith and life is like. We aren't always going to be on a spiritual high and ofeten times it is what we learn (when we make ourselves receptive to the lesson) through our time in the valleys that draw us closer to God and strengthen our faith.
Although my motivation for spending the kind of time in the Word that I used to has been off, I have been catching snipets here and there as I run this race of life. Through them I have been getting some great encouragement from God, usually coming in the moments when I am the quietest and most content. I look forward to sharing some of the encouragement that I have been getting with you later today (I know, two posts in one day? Believe it when you see it) but for now it is off to work. But before I go I will leave you with a verse that has been sitting on my mind for the past few days.
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2
God Bless
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Stories
Recently I picked up the latest book by one of my favorite authors entitled "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" by Rob Bell. I am currently only through the first chapter but have already been challenged with some tough questions that have caused me to reevaluate whether or not the way I live my life is truly reflective of the character of God.
The scene in which chapter one takes place is during the exodus of the Israelites from their bondage and slavery in Egypt. The Israelites found themselves in a desperate situation and cried out to God for help. God hearing their cry went in and rescued them from the inhumanity of their situation. But more than rescuing them, he gives them a land of their own and establishes a nation for them. The problem comes when the Israelites forget the story of their rescue from slavery and begin to focus on the preservation of their own kingdom instead of God's kingdom. "Their humanity is directly connected to their ability to remember their liberation, which was a gift from God. If they forget God - the one, true God who freed them - they are at the very same moment forgetting their story. If they forget their story, they might forget what it was like to be slaves, and they might find themselves back in a new slavery."
The Israelites had begun doing the same gathering of weapons, wealth, and land as Egypt, to the point of taking slaves of their own to build their own fortresses and temples. Now, "God doesn't have a problem with eating & drinking & owning things. It's when these things come at the expense of others having their basic needs met," that God has a problem with. So what did God do? He eiled them.
The thing is, as Christians it is our responsibility to reflect the character of God to the rest of the world. God's reputation depends on us and how we "carry" His name. Because "exile isn't just about location; exile is about the state of your soul." "Exile is when you forget your story,...when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others,...[it's] when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God."
I have a story, and I've been blessed, but I'm also currently in exile. I lost sight of my story because I was caught up in the wealth of joy and attention that my story brought, and I horded it and relished in it until all the joy had been rung out of my story. It was then that I realized that joy, no matter how large or how small, is fleeting if it isn't shared with others, and I was left unsatisfied. But now that I recognize that I am finding my way out of exile and home to God.
So what's your story? Do you remember it or have you forgotten? Do you even have one or are you still in slavery? Maybe you do have a story; are you in exile, having used the blessings of your story for the self-preservation of your own "kingdom," or are you using your story and its blessings to bless others?
I dare you.
If you have a story, I dare you to remember it, remember what it was like before you knew God and what it was like after. I dare you to take a long hard look at how you have "carried" Christ's name lately and whether you have truly and accurately reflected the character of God.
If you don't have a story, if you're not yet a follower of Christ, I dare you to take a long hard look at your life and ask yourself if you have found true joy and happiness, or are you a slave to a fleeting joy on the monkey bars of life, trying to reach out and grab on to that next rung of momentary security before your fingers let go and you fall to the ground.
Finally, I dare you to tell your story. Write it down, tell a friend, tell a family member, or even tell it here, but tell it. Christian or not, tell your story. What is your life about? What does you life reflect? What purpose does you life serve? And what are you doing about it?
God Bless
Friday, December 5, 2008
In The Beginning...
Although I am not yet a parent, several couples I know have recently become first-time parents, and I have come to know that the time spent preparing for a new baby can be one of great joy. Often the preparation process involves getting the baby's room ready, buying plenty of food and diapers, getting baby toys and clothes, and other miscellaneous needs for the safety and well-being of the expected arrival. This process also reveals a lot about the parents especially in regards to their character.
In the first book of Genesis, our first glimpse of God is that of an expectant father. In fact, when we first see Him He is in the process of getting the baby's room ready, making sure that their is plenty of food, and even making sure that their is a safe place for the baby to play and grow. First he installs the light bulb and flips the switch in the empty room that will become the babies (gn 1.1-5) and then installs the door in the empty doorway (gn 1.6-8). Next He installs the crib (gn 1.9-10), brings home some food (gn 1.11-13), paints the room and hangs the wind up mobile over the crib (gn 1.14-19). He even gets a fish tank to stimulate the baby’s mind (gn 1.20-23) and makes a play area in the fenced-in back yard where the baby can grow and play in safety (gn 1.24-25).
The interesting thing about this is every time I have read or heard this passage read, it is always either in an emotionless tone, or that booming voice from the burning bush scene of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 version of “The Ten Commandments.” But reading this again, I realized that this isn’t some booming intrusive presence staring down, pointing, and commanding “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” No, this is an excited father hooking up a light switch, screwing in the bulb, flipping on the switch and saying “SWEET! This room is gonna rock! I can’t wait!” It like that awesome moment for you men when your wife surprisingly agrees to let you build something, and when you get out those power tools and think, “rock on.” That’s what God was like when he was preparing the world for us. This was some out of touch entity dispassionately painting a picture to hang on his wall where no one could touch it. This was an excited expectant father who was eager to pull out those power tools and build something for His son.
If we are created “in His own image,” which would include our blueprint for emotions, then our reactions to things like an expected baby are what they are because that is how God would react to it. Therefore, since preparing for the arrival of a new baby, especially the first child, can tell a lot about a person’s character, the character of God can be seen all around us. The attention to detail that He put into His crafting of everything speaks for itself every time you see a breathtaking sunset, look closely at the intricacy of the veins of a small leaf, or think about how amazing and wondrous all of things that are required for the human body to function in all of it abilities. That is the character of God; not a “AND THUS IT WAS GOOD…” but an “awwwee-some! This is sooo sweet!”
In the first book of Genesis, our first glimpse of God is that of an expectant father. In fact, when we first see Him He is in the process of getting the baby's room ready, making sure that their is plenty of food, and even making sure that their is a safe place for the baby to play and grow. First he installs the light bulb and flips the switch in the empty room that will become the babies (gn 1.1-5) and then installs the door in the empty doorway (gn 1.6-8). Next He installs the crib (gn 1.9-10), brings home some food (gn 1.11-13), paints the room and hangs the wind up mobile over the crib (gn 1.14-19). He even gets a fish tank to stimulate the baby’s mind (gn 1.20-23) and makes a play area in the fenced-in back yard where the baby can grow and play in safety (gn 1.24-25).
The interesting thing about this is every time I have read or heard this passage read, it is always either in an emotionless tone, or that booming voice from the burning bush scene of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 version of “The Ten Commandments.” But reading this again, I realized that this isn’t some booming intrusive presence staring down, pointing, and commanding “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” No, this is an excited father hooking up a light switch, screwing in the bulb, flipping on the switch and saying “SWEET! This room is gonna rock! I can’t wait!” It like that awesome moment for you men when your wife surprisingly agrees to let you build something, and when you get out those power tools and think, “rock on.” That’s what God was like when he was preparing the world for us. This was some out of touch entity dispassionately painting a picture to hang on his wall where no one could touch it. This was an excited expectant father who was eager to pull out those power tools and build something for His son.
If we are created “in His own image,” which would include our blueprint for emotions, then our reactions to things like an expected baby are what they are because that is how God would react to it. Therefore, since preparing for the arrival of a new baby, especially the first child, can tell a lot about a person’s character, the character of God can be seen all around us. The attention to detail that He put into His crafting of everything speaks for itself every time you see a breathtaking sunset, look closely at the intricacy of the veins of a small leaf, or think about how amazing and wondrous all of things that are required for the human body to function in all of it abilities. That is the character of God; not a “AND THUS IT WAS GOOD…” but an “awwwee-some! This is sooo sweet!”
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Faith and Life
“And.” How many times a day do you say the word “and;” how about thinking it, writing it, or even acting it out? Does it matter? Maybe, that depends on what it means; do you know, or has our fervent use of this simple little word diluted our awareness of its presence in our everyday lives to the point where we no longer take the time to understand this word or the implication of its use, but instead insert it where we think that it sounds the most appropriate? Perhaps. As a conjunction it is used to connect words, phrases, or clauses that have the same grammatical function, to imply different qualities in things having the same name, to introduce a sentence implying continuation, to connect two finite verbs, to introduce a consequence or conditional result, to connect alternatives, and to introduce a comment on the preceding clause. As a noun it means an added condition, stipulation, detail, or particular; it also means a logical operator that returns a true value only if both operands are true1. Now knowing exactly what the word “and” means, can it possibly be used correctly in the above title “Faith and Life?” Does the word “Faith” have the same grammatical function as the word “Life?” Do they imply different qualities in two things having the same name? Are they connected, a continuation of one another, an alternative to each other, or each a comment of the other? Are they a condition, stipulation, detail, or particular, or possibly, even the logical outcomes of one positive returning to the other an equally positive result? A renowned teacher once wrote, “…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not see2.”
No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you believe, you have hope for your life and things that you are passionate about / have conviction for and therefore have at least a semblance of faith. The question you then have to ask yourself is “where did that faith come from and how do I live it more readily?”
The word “Interlinear,” which comes from the Medieval Latin “interlīneāre,” means “to mark or inscribe between the lines1.” What does faith, real faith, look like when it is inscribed in between the lines of the story of our life? And is that faith relative to our own individuality or is a part of a greater absolute truth?
That is what we’re going to find out. Next time.
God Bless,
Ross
1Definitions taken from Dictionary.com
2Hebrews 11:1
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