Monday, June 27, 2016

Jesus Will Offend You

I saw a video recently from a man I greatly admire.



Here's the reason I love this video, it's spot on. For some reason we have started to believe that we deserve not to be offended or have our feelings hurt. The problem is, if someone then offends us we want them to change or we ignore/get rid of the part of them that we deem offensive.

And you can't do that to Jesus.

Jesus was offensive. Jesus is offensive. He had no problem pointing out a sinful condition in a person, going so far as to call His closest follower and future leader of His church "satan". He asked questions that were uncomfortable and hurt going as far as referring to an entire group of people as dogs. He asked people and still asks us to do things that are not easy and may actually make us seem offensive.

And He's still 100% God and 100% love.

If you really want to know Jesus you will be offended. It's impossible not to be. You will have to struggle with Him and who He is and who you are. The only alternative is a safe Jesus kept at a safe distance.

Have you ever kept someone who made you uncomfortable at a safe distance away? How strong was that relationship...?

T

Monday, June 20, 2016

God Makes Things Fit

In my reading lately I've been thinking about how God likes to make things fit. In Joshua when the tribes of Israel were to make an altar they were not to use cut stones, they had to fit all the stones together. Later when God instructs Israel to build the Temple they were not to use any nails, all the wooden beams had to fit together perfectly.

It has gotten me thinking if God still works this way. Does God still like to take things that are not necessarily perfect and have them fit together for His will? Does He do this with people, not waiting for us to be perfect but instead allowing us to fit together in our imperfections to do amazing things for Him?

Maybe we should spend less time trying to make ourselves perfect and more time trying to fit into God's plan with the other rocks...

T

Monday, June 13, 2016

"Wow"

This is our daughter's word of choice right now. A few weeks ago we went to Disney World and it made sense and was fun to watch.

"Look at the castle." "Wow!"
"Hold on, it's a fun ride." "Wow!"
"It's Mickey Mouse!" "Wow!"

What's interesting is we've been home a few weeks now and it hasn't subsided. Everything is still a wow.

I took her to the pet store. "Wow!"
Playing with water in the backyard last night. "Wow!"
Seeing a mosquito this morning. "Wow!"

Somehow we managed to open her sense of wonder. Everything, and I mean everything right now is a wow. It's all amazing and new and exciting. She managed to be excited by the amazing at Disney but that has allowed her to see that same amazing in our everyday world at home.

It got me thinking, do we still do the same thing? I should be wowed by what she is looking at, but I'm not. I've been losing my sense of wonder. Do I need to reevaluate and look at what she's looking at through a toddler's eyes again? Do I need to see the "wow"?

Do I do the same thing in my faith? Do I need to read the stories, say the prayers, serve people with a new sense of "wow"?

T

Monday, June 06, 2016

Coming Home

So apparently my blogs that were supposed to be posted every week all came out in one day. Sorry about that.

But it's hard coming home to that. It's nice to go away and have everything taken care of for you, someone else cooks the meals, cleans your room, maybe even drives you around. And then you come back to reality and you have to do everything yourself again. It's hard, but it needs to be done.

Here's my request, do the same thing with your faith. It's nice to go to church or a retreat or a mission trip and have someone else schedule your time with God, tell you what to pray, lead you in song, read the Bible to you and explain it. But at some point you have to come home. You have to do these things for yourself.

If I only ate meals when they were prepared by someone else on vacation I wouldn't eat very much. Don't let your spiritual meals be the same way.

T