An Answer

I find this really interesting. That a non-christian, worldly famous person can get something so spot on and yet miss something so large.

His thoughts I believe are completely true, love is the answer to all those things, and more. But then we get an interesting little passage in 1 John 4:7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love."

God is love. The Trinity in fact is the only being that can be love because it has other entities to love on- love requires an otherness and an ability to pour out of yourself. So the father, son and Spirit and son existing in this dance of humility and servanthood are the perfect example of love to us.

So, what is sacred? A God of love who in his holiness still chose to come for us.
What is the Spirit made? We are made in God's image and have an innate desire for love and acceptance. That is why romantic movies and love is an eternal concept- because it literally is an eternal concept.
What is worth living for? A God who loved me first and has a purpose and plan.
What is worth dying for? As John says later on in 1 John 4 "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."
God showed us what love worth dying for looked like.

Thanks Johnny Depp, you're alright for a scissor handed butcher-pirate, lolly shop owner.

WHO

Why do I follow Jesus?

Jesus is a God to follow because he illustrated, not just told. He painted a picture, sung a song, danced a dance.

He came to be and live with us. The same hands that created forests sculpted wood. The same breath that spoke man into existence was shortened as he ran from persecution. The same being that breathed the stars into existence sat one night and prayed underneath them.

He not only came to us, He came for us. He came to be a way. Not just to tell us some laws, but demonstrate how to fulfill them. He showed us the Life to live. He was the Life to live.

Dirtied and messed up and in pain He thought of love. With a crown of thorns and nail pierced hands He thought of love. With no friends at his side and God forsaking Him He thought of love. And the dirt and the blood and the pain all flees in the face of the hope. That mighty hope that we are able to sit with Him. That his bride the church can become spotless and mighty simultaneously and dance with Him like He once did on earth. That we can partake in fierce love. That we can endlessly dance with a being who loved absolutely unto death.

I will follow this Jesus. This torn man. This present Creator. This broken body. This sacrificed Power. This Life. This Love.

This is Jesus to me.

Compared to some...

I'm going to make a possible bold statement....

Comparison and judgement are the root of all sin.

They are what entered into the world in the garden. The "knowledge" of good and evil became a feeling of righteousness and superiority at the fact we know. Adam and Eve felt ashamed because they now compared each other, and knew there was a possibility of someone being "worse" looking or "better" at this or that.
It is where Pride comes from, with us claiming to know better. Insecurity is the opposite, telling us we are worse than others. This all comes from the fact we were meant to have someone else give us identity. God walked with Adam and Eve and they found who they were in Him, but we got a knowledge that said our identity comes from ourselves and others, not God.

So if this is sin, and the root of sin, it seems strange that we as Christians have this horrible mindset of "I am saved and know jesus and you don't so therefore I am better than you" Its not said but so often its implied. Even interdenominationally, we say we have more of the Holy Spirit, or have been around for longer or have a better revelation. We classify our sins and put homosexuality and abortion at the top but judgement and pride are common accepted residents in a church.
Paul speaks in all his epistles of unity. The Jew and gentile divide was exactly this, they each thought they were better, had some new revelation or such. But Paul beats them down. There is no Jew or Greek in the Kingdom, we have all died with Christ.

We need more unity.
We need more humility.

Yes, you may be able to eat pig, or hear the Holy spirit, or move in the gifts, but is it causing a brother to stumble?? Have we taken on Jesus' role as judge? We say, oh they are not saved or do not have the right theology. Maybe so, but who are you to say so?? And is the way you're saying so actually helping their faith?
I feel like the verse "And they shall know us by our love for one another" is not being lived out. Us as christians have become so quick to judge ourselves. We fight interdenominationally, so that those on the outside say, "if they cant get along? why would i want to join?" Its true. How can we love those who are hard to love when we can't love our own brothers?
I just feel like our judgement of being holier than others promotes disunity. And that is of the enemy. God desires unity because he is Unity. He wants our identity and security to be found in HIM. He wants us united in a common goal of seeking Him and showing others Him. And when it comes to this, are we really all that different? Our methods or theologies behind it may differ, but Jesus is Lord. And that's enough???

Can we as modern christians possibly write a new Nicene Creed?

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

THE Way, without lies and death.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" John 14:6

Such a good verse. But I feel like so much of it has been lost. We treat Jesus as merely a way, a means to truth, a portion of the best life. Jesus becomes an option, a means to an end an avenue for us to get what we want or need.

It has never been, nor ever supposed to have been that way!

Jesus is our all!!

Our christian walk is to discover Jesus, to follow Him and to be like Him. Not to go through Him to find other things, but to know Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.


He is the Way. Sometimes we think of Jesus as our means of salvation, how we get to know God, how we are able to access grace. But no, he IS the Way. In Jesus IS the Way. Knowing Him is all we need.

He is the Truth. We can tend to think Jesus is a wise man and his advice can help us to know more about the world and God. But no, in the man Jesus is all the truth in the universe. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God" Thats truth.

He is Life. He is not an addition, an option, an alternative, an add-on, a bonus, a part, am auxillary, an augmentation, an increase.

In Jesus is our entirety. Our life, hopes and faith are in Him.

This has challenged me to read the bible in a new way. I want to know Jesus because He is Jesus. I want to follow Him and obey Him and be like Him because that's what I was created to do and that's the only thing I can do.

Which makes some of the harder, crazier things Jesus says even harder and crazier. Because they're real and truth. But easier because they're real and truth???

What about Jesus do you need to know more of?

Two things.

So, for some personal news, I am leaving YWAM staff and going home for a season. It's been tough for me for a few reasons, but basically, it's been testing me a lot of trusting God and his faithfulness and knowing He knows best. Because going back to old things is scary. You have to trust God and what He's done and what He's spoken.

So with that, two things have been on my heart to remember and grow in. And i feel like these are specific for my circumstance, but also just huge principles for the christian walk.

Humility and Grace.

Being for others and getting from God. Being focused on relationship and believing God.

Being humble means admitting mistakes, or even sometimes not saying something when you're right. I want to be so focused on others and their well-being that I am humble enough to pull myself down for them. And admitting that I may actually NOT know best and still need to learn things. Especially in terms of community and church, I want to put Jesus and his bride above my own desires. Because his bride is amazing and I want to build it!!

And grace. What craziness. I still don't understand it fully. But I want to. I want to accept this grace. When God speaks and gives, I want to walk in that instantly. I don't want to doubt that I AM or I CAN or that God is bIGGER. So when God pours out his undeserved things onto me, I desire to be able to take it with both hands and run with it, for the sake of others!!!

That's basically it. I feel like this grace thing could go on forever. Gods grace is one of the most mind blowing, incomprehensible things. Its so much, and so good. It's all good in fact.

How can I get more of these things? How can you?

Implicit communication.

So I just came across this article on the website www.outofur.com, a christian leadership website.

http://www.outofur.com/archives/2011/07/worship_through.html#more

I dont know why but it struck me. especially when the author writes "What values are we implicitly communicating by our spaces, music, and liturgy? What do we hope people leave with?"

I have had on my heart lately two major things, community, aka the church, and getting back to a first love for Jesus. And they go so strongly hand in hand.

My heart for a church of community has grown out of experiencing a whole range of different attempts and differing measures of success. I have seen good and bad, but also never perfect. So these questions from this author raised yet more thoughts in me.

What ARE we communicating through our services and our actions? Is it love and acceptance and inclusivity? Or is it ritual and uncomfortability and obedience?
What do we WANT to be portraying? What kind of environment would benefit people to find Jesus the most? How can we set that up?

I am not qualified to be a Judge.

I'm going to try and do this more regularly. Even if no one reads it. My thoughts will be immortalised on the internet for all to see and none to care. Kinda like twitter.

How easy is it for us to judge? Judge ourselves, judge others, judge individuals, corporations, ideas, thoughts and even dreams.

Why are we like that? Especially as christians, we are called to love, others are supposed to know us by our love. Instead, christians are seen as condemning and judgemental. You want proof? read UNchristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. Research has been done on how others see us, and its not good.

Not only can we tend to judge those outside the church, the "gays", "whores" and "heathens" but we have this bad habit of judging ourselves. And that's where I'm going right here.

Ignore the church organisations that condemn those outside its walls, that's perhaps a different topic. What about how we see and treat our brothers and friends in christ? How do we treat those we live our lives with? Or even, how do you feel about what I'm writing, or what you see other churches do?

When you see a fellow christian acting out, or a church organisation condemning or some such, are our thoughts first turned to judgement (they did wrong) or love (how can they do better)

What does Jesus think?

I had this really cool revelation the other day on this topic. Whenever you're struggling with insecurity or pride or especially when you feel you're comparing yourself to others and judging them, think
"what does Jesus actually think of that person?"

"What does the King of Love want to do about it?"

Maybe they have made a mistake, or maybe they haven't and you're being a typical petty, arrogant human. But I can guarantee Jesus would love on them, go out of his way to serve and help and fix rather than talk about problems.

And aren't we called to be like Jesus?

I for one don't want to feel jealous, insecure, prideful or any of the inbetweens. So I'm going to ask, "what does Jesus think of you right now about those actions?"

He wants to love the heck out of them.
I'm pretty grateful for that.