Whose Image Are You Created In?

  I was carrying on a conversation with a few guys I work with and somehow we got on the subject of human trafficking.  I was surprised that they didn't know that human trafficking was a multi million dollar business and it does not only happen in third world countries.  It happens in North America, and we window dress it as prostitution and pornography.  There are several reasons why people are sold or forced into trafficking.  It could be any number of reasons why people are sold into trafficking.  It could be for money, criminal, prostitution, and it is done through coercion, the abuse of power, abduction or any other reason.  There are several very stagering facts about trafficking that grabbed my attention.
 
      27 million yes million men, woman and children are sold into domestic servanthood, hard labor    
        and prostitution
      Trafficking is a 32 billion dollar a year business.
      Up to 80% of people trafficked are woman and up to 50% of that number are children

    There are many organizations that are out to combat human trafficking.  Two of those groups are World Hope International (worldhope.org) and The Orange Movement.  The Orange Movement is a campus movement on Oklahoma Wesleyan University (okwu.edu).  As much of a problem as human trafficking is and it does deserve our attention to stop, prevent and help people recover from the horrors they have experienced through human trafficking, I think there is something else that also deserves our attention.  It is how we treat other people and often how we degrade people with our words, thoughts, actions and attitudes.
   
  How often do we bring people down with a joke or sarcastic comment and these are the people that we like.  At my church we have a group of men that meet on Saturday mornings for breakfast and encouragement.  As we are making breakfast, we are often busting each others chops over different things.  Its all harmless and it is done in good fun.  I have often come away with the saying that why do I need enemies when I have friends like you all.  I think that when we are dealing with human trafficking, both with the victims and the perpetrators, and our daily relationships is that we are all created in the image of God and we our God's children no matter how dumb we may act sometimes.  Here are some ideas that could be applied to how we treat others

   The first idea of how we can uphold the image of God is through our speech.  The big idea with this is that we should labeling gossip as prayer request.  I know there can be a fine line between gossip and sharing useful information that needs to be shared.  Gossip tends to bring one person down and build someone else up.  It often makes us look better when we are praying for that person and it is letting the whole world know that we are praying for them.  Here are two basic ideas to help combat gossip.  The first one is, does everyone need to know.  The second idea is that do I have permission to share this information with the world.  Not everything needs to be a status update on Facebook.  If we filter information through these two basic principles, gossip should dwindle fast.  We should think of everything that pure, holy, and uplifting and share those things.  If we were more concerned with building each other up instead of bring down, our attitude might change

  The second idea of how we can uphold the image of God is our attitude/actions towards others.  I know my attitude towards people that rub me the wrong way tends to go south when I am around them and I tend to get snarky.  Our attitudes often comes out in our body language and how we communicate with them.  Instead of making the rude comments that we think they deserve, try seeing things from their perspective.  Its also a chance for us to check our attitudes and assumptions.  Ask and allow God to change those attitudes in us that need to be changed.  Often when we encounter people who rub us the wrong way is a signal that we have uncheck attitudes and assumptions that need to be changed.

  The third idea of how we can uphold the image of God in us and others is through loving and praying for them.  Its not the prayer for God to smite them where they stand, but it is a prayer for God to be present in their lives in a big and powerful way.  Even if this means blessing their socks off.  It is easy to pray for friends and family, but when we talk about enemies, it is much easier to bring them down than to build them up through prayer and loving them with Gods love.  God calls us to not only pray for the people we like but for the ones we don't like also.  Maybe when we show God's grace to others, we are being responsible with the gifts and grace we have been given.  We have been given so much by God's grace we are called to share it with everyone we come in contact with because they are our neighbor. 

  The fourth idea of how we can uphold the image of God is realize that we were created in the image of God.  We often are our harshest critic and we know where we fail and fail hard.  It is inviting God to come into our lives and change us from the inside out.  The only way this happens is if we give Him the keys to the whole house and not just certain rooms.  The more that God puts back together His image in us, the easier it will be for us to see others in His image. When we see ourselves and others in our image, we tend to either be condescending bringing each other and ourselves down, or we tend to put ourselves and others on pedestals that we don't belong on.  When we or others fall from grace it isn't nice.  To quote an old hymn of the church, "my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness."  When we start building our hope on this, how we see ourselves and others will radically change for the better

Holy Waiting

  With working at Wal Mart, one of the most common responses that I get from older customers is that they are waiting for their significant others to finish up their shopping.  The last gentleman who told me this, it reminded me of the country song "Waiting on a Woman" by Brad Paisly.  It also got me thinking, and here is my profound thought for though for the day and that is waiting can and should be a spiritual practice, especially for us Americans.  Living in a culture that demands results yesterday along with fast answers, we have lost all meaning to the words of hope, endurance, and faith.  These things are a critical pieces to any faith, but especially the Christian faith.  Here are some practical ideas about Holy Waiting

   1. We are not called to be lazy.  The misconception is that holy waiting is another term for laziness and it is not.  Holy waiting is willing to do the work and results will come.  People who holy wait often have a depth and maturity about them that can only be a result of waiting on God.  There are plenty of warnings and condemnation through out Scripture for those who are lazy or take the easy way out.  Laziness really implies that we are waiting for God and or others to show up and do all the heavy lifting and we can somehow get our name on the credits.  Or that just by showing up we can somehow get credit with the good deeds just by showing up or doing the flashy stuff  Laziness often breads a lack of depth, commitment, and even discontent. 

 2. It builds anticipation.  When we are in the process of holy waiting, we are waiting for God and living our lives according to what has been promised.  Just as Simeon was not only anticipating the coming Messiah, he was anticipating the Messiah in his lifetime.  He lived his life in accordance to what has been revealed to him.  When we are holy waiting, often it is putting one foot in front of the other and doing what we know that God has revealed and called us to do

  3. It is becoming prepared.  During this season of life, God calls us to be more mature and just as gold or silver goes through a refinement process, so shall we.  God may call us to something or to leave something behind for something better.  God is always calling us to a deeper relationship, but there are seasons where it is more prevelant than others.  This is a season that is marked by the use of the Christian disciplines.  Whether it is fasting, Scripture reading, prayer, writing in a journal, or any other spiritual practice, it is a time for reflection, listening and growth.  This is where the rubber starts to meet the road, because it starts to get real when we are encountering the Holy and asking the Trinitarian God to change us.

4. It builds endurance.  The Christian life is not so much a sprint to see who can get there the fastest.  I know different people mature at a variety of paces for different reasons.  Endurance and faith go hand in hand.  It is trusting God to come through in the presence, just as He has came through in the past.  It a results based culture this is the hardest one to swallow, because we all want to be sucessful and not to put in that much time or effort.  I have heard that if someone wants to be sucessful at a job, its roughly ten thousand hours of doing the hard work and working from the bottom up.  Now I don't want to say that if someone works at it, they can be a mature Christian in so many years.  If we trust God and follow His leading, it will happen.  Also, if being mature was easy, everyone would do it.

5. Its all about timing.  Throughout Scripture there are two concepts of time.  The first concept is day, month and year.  I can say that I will go to the doctor tomorrow and it is in stone.  The other concept of time is more of a fulfillment of time.  It is the idea of perfect timing of when everything comes together and is right.  This sort of timing is tough for us because we don't have as much control over it as we would like to.  There are more factors that need to happen that we are not in control of.  When all those things are not forced, it is a fastball down the middle of the plate and Babe Ruth is up to bat. 

6.  It leads to action.  Holy waiting leads to "well what are we waiting for?"  Everything has come together and it is God calling us to get off of our hands and do what He has called us to do.  It can be anything from entering the full time ministry to ones calling to seminary, marriage, to even sharing the Gospel with a friend or coworker.  The Trinitarian God invites us to participate with Him in what they are doing in our world  It is faith and maturity living out in our world on a daily basis.  It is being the hands and feed of the God.  It is remembering that God the Father came up with the plan, God the Son, made a way for that plan to be carried out through His death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit convicts and applies that work in our lives

Murphy Law

  The last month I have been challenged to put on the big boy pants and to start taking care of myself physically.  This includes going to the dentist and getting cavities filled and getting a physical done.  After all it has been three years since my last one.  I thought I I was done for the year until I woke up Tuesday morning.  I woke up one morning this week and when I looked in the mirror after getting up my face looked a little droopy.  Then I notice breakfast was kind of hard to it and when I couldn't smile fully and after realizing I have had a headache for the last two days, things were starting to get real.  It also got my mom really concerned and she brought me into the hospital to get checked out because she thought I was having a stroke.  After the CT Scan, blood work and EKG, it turns out I developed Bells Palsy, which has a lot of the same characteristic as a stroke.  Bells Palsy is an infection of the facial nerve and I have lost some of my function in the right side of my face which makes some of the most simple things a little bit of work like eating and brushing my teeth.  To top it off, it is hard for me to talk and it feels like I just got some dental work done

  Here is the kicker in all this, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a person I work with within the last week.  I often call her Part Time Paula because she is never at work during the summer.  She likes to use here three plus weeks of vacation between May and the end of August.  I told her I like to keep one or two days of my vacation in my back pocket just in case Murphy Law stops by.  Her response was that she has seen enough of Murphy in the last ten years that it is someone else turn to visit Murphy.  It got me thinking about Murphy's Law (which is if anything could go wrong, it will go wrong) and none of these things are earth shattering but here they are.

  We got to stop blaming our mistakes, bad decisions, and the failure to plan on Murphys Law.  One might say that the failure to plan is not planning at all.  People in general have a hard time owing up to stuff when it goes wrong, and it is always someone elses fault.  If we can not blame it on an orginization or a person, we blame it on Murphy.  Murphy will show up less when we not only start owning up to are end of the deal, and making sure that we take strives into working on making it better and reconciling with the people involved, Murphy will show up a lot  less.  It is a little thing called maturing and it takes work, time and tenacity.

  Murphy Law may also come in to play because of someone else failure to plan or stupid decisions.  We need to learn how to forgive and if these things keep happening, putting in some very healthy boundaries so that their decisions may be less destructive. 

  The third idea of Murphy law is that bad things happen because we live in a broken world that is desperate need of Christ redemptive work.  There are two things that we can do here.  The first one is become cold, hard and bitter at the world.  We become cynical to anything and everything along with being distrusting of every motive.  Or we could draw closer to God and get on bored with what He has planned and use those things that were meant for harm and use them to display God glory.  God's presence and glory are already being displayed, God could even have  greater reach if we joined in what God is doing.  It is allowing God to work in us and through us to display His glory.  When this happens, Murphy's law will loosen its grip on this world

Leaving a Legacy

       There is recent study that states that the average American has six thousand dollars of credit card debt.  Now this does not include, house or car payments or student loan debts.  If all of these numbers were combined, it would be a very scary number.  Through out the Bible it shares that we can not serve two masters, because we will end up loving one and despising the other.  Money can become a master of our lives very easily and how we deal with our money is a window of how our relationship with God is going.  For those of you who know who Dave Ramsey is, he is an in your face Christian financial planner who strongly believes in living debt free without credit cards.  One of his other big things is changing your family tree and leaving a legacy being debt free.  His logic is that we are not strapped by debt and we are able to give of our time, talents and money more freely because we do not have to worry about making sure are debts are covered.

          Leaving a legacy means more than having a good name and living a good life.  Leaving a legacy means that we can not just live in the moment, but we also have to have to have the future in mind.  When we invest money, not only do we expect some sort of return on our money, but it takes time.  Different investments have different returns with different time lengths of time that the money needs to stay in there and the amount of risk that is involved.  This is the same with our relationships as well, because every time we time we properly invest in a relationship, it takes time and there is risk involved.  If we want to change our family tree and leave a lasting legacy, we have to make an investment that it not only takes time, but we might not see the results this side of heaven.  So how does mean to invest in other people. 

            Leaving a legacy means that we live life with intention.  As much fun as it is to walk through life living on a whim, at the end of the day, we don’t get much done.  I know if I don’t plan out my day, it usually becomes a waste and not much gets done in the form of progress.  If we don’t plan, we are a rudderless ship.  There are times where we need to rest and to take breaks, but taking breaks from breaks is not that healthy.  Are we seeking God to see what He has planned for our day and then doing it.  I know I feel really good when I have had a constructive day, even though I may be dog tired, it still feels good.   We have to live with intentional relationships too. 

            Another important thing that we need to do is to invest in other people.  God brings people into our lives that he wants us to invest into and to have them invest their lives into us.  The popular term for this is “doing life together”.  It is being involved in each others lives, in the highs, lows and everything else.  When we invest in others, we can not have the catch and release mentality that some people have when they are fishing.  The catch and release syndrome means that after a certain time, or certain goals are met, the relationship gets terminated.  The other person is not seen as a person, but as a project, or a vehicle to get to something bigger and better.  It means that most if not all of our relationships have purpose and a plan.  Its more than using people for what they have or what they can do, but seeing them for who they are and that is a Child of God created in His image. If we do not take time to foster our relationships in a healthy way, they will either end up going no where or drifting apart.

The third thing with leaving a legacy is that are we willing to be changed by God.  This may sound cheesy, but are we willing let God to leave a legacy in us.  If we want to see change in other people and lead help people in that change, we need to be changed ourselves.  Leaving a legacy means that we have to change ourselves.  We have to be willing to make that proper investment in God, in which it is for the long haul before we can stat properly investing in others.  When we are letting God fully invest in us and we reciprocate that, this is truly when we can start leaving a legacy with our friends, family, places of employment and our community.  I encourage all of us to live with that intention and leaving God’s legacy behind us, because our legacy will be nothing but tears, pain and self destruction. 

 

What are good friends for

  In life we friends that will be just be friends for a season.  No amount of Facebook can keep us conected after so long.  Whether its just life circumstances, or moving on in life or any other reason, we walk with each other trough a particular season in life.  Then there are the friends that we interact with because of life circumstances.  Whether it is because of work, or the our kids are on the same team or class.  There is that interaction between each other, and we know stuff about them, but it stays really superficial.  Then there are the friends that you are willing to give your right arm for.  If they needed a kidney and you had a match, you would give it to them no questions asked.  For most, those friends are few and far between.  We cherish those relationships and we work hard at keeping them.  The length of time does not necessarily mean that it is a deep relationship.  I have been in relationship for years and it has stayed and on the superficial level. Then there are the relationships that have only been for a short time and it has felt like you known each other for years.  I have a friend like that and every year I make it a point to make it to Kansas to see him and his family.  I have not only gotten to know his wife and kids, but his parents and brothers too.  Here is a picture of his two of his kids

   I have been thinking what a true friend looks like Biblical.  In Proverbs it tells us that a good friend sticks closer to us than a brother.  That is a good verse to look at, but I got thinking of the story of Jonathan and King David.  Jonathan had every right to be mad at David, because David was taking what was rightfully his.  You see, Jonathan was the son of King Saul, and this means that he was net in line to be king when Saul died.  This would be true but with Saul falling out of favor with God, God elected David to be the net king.  Instead of being mean and hateful about it, Jonathan chose to protect David even putting his own life at risk.  There were a number of occasions where Saul wanted to kill David, but Jonathan stuck his neck out to warn David.  I think there are several ways that we can look at our friendships and how we interact with them.  Especially those relationships we hold near and dear to our hearts. Because there are friends that are like family and for all intents and purposes they are family 

  Is our relationships an inward focused or an outward focused relationship.  In all honesty we have friends and are those friends that show up when we only need something.  Were only friends with them because of either what one side of the relationship can provide and the other can give.  In every relationship there is a give and take, but when that becomes the sole focus of the relationship, it will lead down a path of abuse and only seeing people for what they can do for us instead of who they are.  The flip side of that coin is that we are only friends with them because we are the only ones that can help them, or even save them.  This will often give us a savior complex and it turns people into projects.

  Another relationship status is what I would call your beer drinking buddies.  There isn't wrong with having friends to go out and have fun with.  We all need to go out and have fun and enjoy life.  Life with these friends is all about going out and having a good time.  These are nice friends to have, but they end up being shallow relationships looking for the net thrill and waiting for things to go legendary.  Living this life leads to stunted maturity because no one is there to push us to grow and to be better. 

   I could go on, but there are the fiends that we should have and need to have that push us to grow and get better.  Are we willing to live out our lives and do we encourage each other to grow.  Are we willing to walk not ahead or behind people but along side of them.  One of the cool catch phrases of our time is "doing life together"  It is more than doing life in the peaks and valley of life and just getting through them.  In our relationships, if we are not pointing each other to the cross, there is something that is drastically wrong.  The cross is what makes things equal and it also provides the agent for change.  When we push each other and ourselves to the cross, it means that we use such things as forgiveness, understanding, communication, empathy, and even confrontation when needed.  These things are not done out of personal glory or for condemnation, but to see the other person grow in Christ.  God's grace and love needs to be at the center of all we do.  To wrap things up, are we using our relationships for fun and games, self interest, or to be with each other to grow and to support each other through all of life seasons

Summer Fun

  I have been told the more you do something, the better you will get at it. So this summer, I hope to do some writing on my different adventures that I have, and I will try to include pictures. 

  Today's summer adventure comes courtesy of the Minnesota State Zoo.  It was a warm day and yet there was enough shade and breeze to make it bearable.  I went down with friends and family it was fun.  The fun part of the day was seeing the three kids run around with excitement and with awe at the different animals.  They played hard and it was fun to watch them with their childhood eyes learn, look, and see the different things at the zoo.  It will be fun to get the pictures back to see everything. 
   
  My neighbor and her grandson came along with us today and her grandson has been diagnosed with Autism (his name is Will).  From what I know of Autism is that people with that diagnosis have a hard time with quick change and new people.  Since I don't see Will that often, I would consider myself a new person in Will's world and this is a neat picture taken by his Grandma. This is probably the highlight of my day along with walking with Will and holding his hand.  It was a good reminder of knowing when to be open and trusting.  Also, life is not so much of walking ahead or behind others, but it is walking with them and sometimes even giving someone a ride when needed.

Whats in a Gift?

For those of you who are fans of the television show The Big Theory, you know that the character Sheldon Cooper is a genius with zero social skills.  The show plays up this fact in the interactions with his friends and coworkers on the show.  One episode he was blackmailed into throwing giving his roommate Leonard a surprise birthday party.  As he was contemplating what to get Leonard, he was perplexed, because the nicer the gift he would give, it would be expected that Lenard would give the equivalent price gift on a later date.  So this got me thinking, what’s a gift?  I have a gut feeling that most of us give gifts with strings attached, whether we realize it or not.  We give a gift in hoping to get something done for us in return on a later date.  Or, we use it to repay someone who has done something nice for us. 

            One of the books I have been reading by Miroslav Volf in his book Free of Charge.  Through out the book, Volf makes the argument that when we give gifts with strings attached; at best we are coming across as self absorbent people who only give gifts to get something.  These type of people tend to run people over to get what they want.  The only way they do something, is if it benefits them.  If we go to the other extreme, we are thieves, stealing what does not truly belong to us.   Our motives in giving our time, money, giftings isn’t to benefit the other person, but it is for self gain.  The only reason we give these gifts is to make ourselves look better and because we are greedy.  The other persons benefit becomes secondary to what we want or what our perceived needs are, or how it can benefit us in some way.  The benefits could be money, promotions, to cast shame on a not so delightful coworker or family member. 

            So the final question is, what is a gift and how is one suppose to give and receive one.  I know this is easier said than done, but I think the first item we need to consider is what is our motivation for giving the gift?  Is our motivation for self promotion, or scratching their back, so our back can get scratched at a later time.  Gift giving with strings attached will always s eventually lead to bad consequences. It is buying the spouse flowers so we can get out of a predicament later.  The second idea, does this gift build the other person up, or bring them down.  Does the gift help them with their relationship with God or does it take it away from God.  The third thing, is that giving good gifts and grace is the same thing.  Both gifts and grace is something that is given that the receiver does not achieve through works, but is based on the character of the one who gives those things.  God is the giver of all good and perfect gifts, and its not what we have done to earn those things, but it is who He is.  We can never earn God’s love, but He gives it because He wants to be in right relationship with us.  Now this love has boundaries for our own protection and even boundaries are a gift.  The net time you give a give a gift, is it with strings attached, or is it for the betterment of the other person and to see them grow and mature..  The gifts with no stings attached are the best gifts to give and to receive, but also the hardest to give and to receive.  Because we get nothing in return and we did nothing to earn that gift. 

Being Reconciled

            I am a fan of the television show, How I Met Your Mother, and the whole premise of the show is the story of how one of the main characters (Ted Mosbey) tells the story to his future children of how he met their mom.  One of the running themes that runs through out the show is his on again off again relationship with Robin Scherbatsky.  We know from the intro of the show that Scherbatsky is not Ted’s wife, and in the current season, Scherbatsky is engaged to Barney.  The last episode, I was it with the reality that this show has eschalogical tendencies to it.  There is the whole idea of being in the present here and now, and still having future hope.  It is something that we are waiting for, but it is not here yet. 

            As a Christian we have this future hope of God coming in and not only making all things right, but making all things new.  It could be a process of waiting for God to come set up His Kingdom whether here on earth or to take us away to paradise.  This is a cool idea, but there are two things that are troubling if we are waiting for this to happen.  The first one is that we just sit on our hands and pray that God comes quickly to kick out all the bad guys.  Secondly, we develop an escapist theology, and we hope and pray for God to come and take us out of this mess.  It is a feeling that the world isn’t anything more than a hell hole and isn’t worth saving.  But, there is good news, there is another option, and it is not the easiest option, but in the end, it is the best option and something we are commanded to do.  We are called to be priest to a broken and dark world. 

Author and theologian NT Wright gives us a third option in His book Evil and the Justice of God. 

The Church is not to be so focused on being the community of the saved, but the church is a community of those who being redeemed through the cross, are now to be a kingdom and priest to serve God and to reign on the earth

            What NT Wright is not only calling Christians on an individual basis, but the church as a whole is to stop using Christianity as fire insurance.  Our faith is more than just accepting Jesus as our Savior and trolling along in life until we die or He comes back.  What NT Wright is saying is that our salvation is a work in progress.  Before I go on, I am not saying that our salvation and God’s love is based on our works, but our works should be based on what Christ redemptive work on the cross.  The cross takes care of our past and provides hope for a future.  The cross is the power of God in not only providing salvation, but hope to a broken world. 

            Just as Christ is our intercessor before God, Christ has given us that challenge to be that to a broken world.  The Lords prayer tells us Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  God’s kingdom is providing redemption and reconciliation by and through the cross to His creation.  Not only does the power of the cross provide reconciliation with God and us, in which we are to work out in fear and trembling, but it also provides reconciliation with us and others.  As Christians, we are not to sit on the sidelines watching the world go somewhere in a hand basket waiting for God to show up.  Not only is God already in the world, but He is working in us and through us.    We have the power of the resurrected Savior, so why not use it and share it with everyone. 

            To finish up with the How I Met Your Mother theme, God gives us a future hope that He will come again and we are the Bridegroom.  All will be complete and right in the world, when Christ returns.  In the meantime, we are called to live our lives in the here and now.  In essence because we have a future hope, it should change how we live our lives today.

Whose image are we created in?

    I have come to realize something over the last few months, and as easy for me to proclaim it, it also is a hard pill to swallow.  I have realized that the various social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging) has added fuel to the fire of people attacking others.  As easy as it is to go to social media and "connect" with people from various points in school, co workers and neighbors. It is even easier to take a hot button topic such as gun control or the definition of marriage and call the opposing side a bunch of bumbling idiots, while hiding behind an avatar.  There is a part of me that wonders if we have turned into a bunch of cowards, because we are willing to post information to these sites that we would dare not to say in public or to another persons face.  Then I realized that people have been cowards for centuries and the social media sites is just another way we allow ourselves to hide behind an avatar allowing ourselves to be cowards and  bumbling idiots. 

  This has gotten me thinking over ideas and here is some food for thought.  The first one is that we lack any real desire for community and connecting with others.  We all claim that we want to live in community, but when we are hiding behind avatars and not willing to go face to face with an issue, it cheapens the community.  We are more concerned with about putting out an image of how we want people to perceive us and more importantly, I think its how we want to perceive ourselves. We do not want to let the not so nice stuff of ourselves come out.  One of the things that I have realized, those things do come out and its usually not at a good time.  We want to think ourselves and the human race as good people with flaws that we have to work through.  If we just put our nose to the grindstone, and educate ourselves a little better, we can work on our own and the ills of the world and make them better.  But as we have seen thins week, with bombings in Boston and Baghdad, I am not sure self motivation will get the job done. 

  Within the Christian community, we claim that we are all created in the image of God, but we don't act like it.  We often take more enjoyment of bringing people down than bringing them back up because that takes work and in all reality, its not much different from the world.  Sarcasm tends to make us feel better by putting others down and it tends to make us feel better when we are busting chops.   Sarcasm tends to cover up where we are vulnerable by pointing out other peoples weakness.  I know there have been countless books and blogs dedicated to what it means to be created in the Image of God, and I have a gut feeling that it has a hard time sinking in.  I could go on and on about the Image of God and how we are created, but here is the shortest way I can put it right now.  It means that we love God with everything we got and Love others as ourselves.  This means seeking forgiveness from God and others who we have wronged, along with reconciliation and restitution when applicable.  It is also forgiving others for wrongs they have committed and helping to create safe boundaries for our relationships that encourage growth in relationships with God and others. Its moving from viewing ourselves fro ether second class citizens, or God's gift to humanity and making us Children of the most high God and He is the center of our lives. If God is not at the center of it. 

   My last rant is that I think we can spend more time in community and less time being bumbling idiots if we stepped away from the computer.  If we really value relationships, both with people we agree with and those we don't, we have a better chance of seeing them for who they are and who we are and that is a people in desperate need of Gods grace and mercy on a daily basis.  Its been said by Sam Hannah (a character on NCIS:LA) that Facebook is for cowards and people who don't want to put the work in for real social interaction.  So lets do the hard work and stop placing land mines on Facebook and start interacting with each other face to face. It takes viewing each other and ourselves with God's grace and how He views us, because this is the only time where we do not think to highly or lowly of ourselves or others, but as who we are.  We maybe dirty and marred by bast choices and life events, but we are still created in Gods image with His characteristics, we just need to allow God bring them back to order

Malice in the Palice Part II

Here is a response to violence in sports and in life.  Now it doesn't provide all the answers to the tough questions, but I hope it is a start on the right path.  Forgiveness is a tough road to hoe, but it is so worth it

Most if not all world religions have some concept of forgiveness and ideas of restitution.  In Christianity, it is the central theme of our relationship with God and others.  We are called to seek forgiveness and to be forgiven and to seek restitution when possible.  Forgiveness isn’t an option, because God calls His followers to forgive others just as they were forgiven.  Forgiveness is a one way street, we are called to forgive and to seek forgiveness even if the other party isn’t willing.  In essence, forgiveness is a one way street.  When we do this, we do not earn a merit badge, but we do it because of our relationship with God and we are His children.  Reconciliation is a two way street where it takes both parties to work on issues that are present.  Now, reconciliation may not be possible on this side of heaven, because there needs to be a place for proper and healthy boundaries.  Reconciliation in a broken world is hard work, but it is worth it.  In a healthy and growing relationship, there needs to be forgiveness and reconciliation at work. 

             

So what makes forgiveness possible?  It has to be more than just saying I am sorry and trying to change.  If we can just get away with saying I’m sorry and saying a little prayer, we are not only cheapening the process, but Christ work on the cross is totally pointless.  The book of Hebrews is littered throughout of illustrations that Christ death and resurrection not only covered our sins, but it provides access to God.  One of the main illustrations is that the curtain has been torn and that we can enter into the holy of holies because of Christ work. The only thing we need to do is to accept the free gift that is given to us.  The Oval Office in the White House is one of the most protected rooms in the United States.  The only way the average citizen can gain access is if we receive an invitation from the President.  This is the same with God, they only way we can have access to God is through Christ invitation and sacrifice on the cross.  The only way we can experience true forgiveness and reconciliation with others, is if we accept and receive the pardon of God through Christ.

 Because of Christ sacrifice and that He is a member of the Trinity, God is the ultimate judge.  One of the reasons He is the ultimate judge is because He is the Creator of the universe.  All things begin and end with Him and He is the only one that is righteousness enough to set the standards to live by.  The only way we can keep up and live in those standards is through Christ living in and through us.    

  Getting back to the Minnesota/Ohio State brawl, one of the people involved by the name of Luke Witte (who happened to be suckered punched in the brawl and he ended up with a scratched eye and spent some time in the hospital.) wrote about his experience and how he was not only a changed basketball player after, but a changed person.  That incident changed his outlook on life, and it filled him with hatred to those who were involved and he never viewed the game of basketball same again.  He eventually became a minister and around the year 2000 he was contacted by some of the Minnesota players to seek some sort of relationship and to talk about what happened.  The relationship started with olive branch in the form of an email.  Those feelings of hatred came back to Luke, but through time, Gods grace and mercy, there was not only forgiveness with Luke and the people that were involved, but there was also reconciliation.  They have gotten together over the years and became friends.  They can talk about that night on the basketball court and as horrible event as it was, has brought them together and developed good friendships.  God is a God of reconciliation, He is calling us to be reconciled with Him first and foremost, but a response of that reconciliation, who is he calling us to forgive and even, just maybe be reconciled to here on earth.

Malice at the Palace

I am doing a two part blog on forgiveness, and the reason its two parts is really because its a long and it might be more tolerable to read in two sections. 

For those of you who are basketball fans, November 19, 2004 should ring a bell.  That was the night that the game known as Malice at the Palace took place.  A brawl took place between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, which lead to suspensions, fines, and people acquiring criminal records.  This event has scared basketball along with the teams and players that were involved for years to come.  One interesting fact is that one of the instigators of the brawl, years later changed his name to Meta World Peace.  There happened to be another basketball brawl that took place in 1972 between The Ohio State University and the Golden Gophers of Minnesota at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.  As I read about this incident from one of the players involved, there are several issues and ideas that came to mind. 

             

The first issue is violence in sports and how it is either celebrated or demonized.  This debate is more applicable to more than just hockey.   How far does one take fighting, and whose job is in to enforce the rules, especially the unwritten ones.  Other sports are also have violence issues.  Football is based on running people over and making tackles.  Some would argue that the violence of the sport is leading to serious health issues later in life. We can proclaim that we do not condone it but showing highlight after highlight of the latest fight or hard hit may say otherwise.  After the Malice at the Palace, ESPN and every other sports outlet showed highlights and discuss ramifications of the event.  So where is the line in the sand of supporting and condoning violence?

           

 Another issue that comes up with such brawls is the issue of punishment.  Where do we draw the line and how does one go about giving out punishment.  I think that punishment is a wrong way to go about things because its aim is often is to make an example of someone or a group of people.  I think that we can learn from other peoples wrongs, but making an example out of them is not the best way to go about things.  I do think that people should face some sort of “punishment,” but it’s the end goal that’s should be kept in mind.  Does punishment just lead to condemnation and shame, or does it allow for growth maturity and reconciliation.  If punishment does not lead and allow for reconciliation, its not worth doing, because when we often shame people and make examples out of them, it often leads down a dark road where healing and forgiveness can not be fully given or received.  It is more because I have to and not because I want to.  

 Now that we set up some of the problems, whats the solution and how to live it out.  That is the net blog post

Spring time

As I am writing this, today is the first day of spring and I am willing to say that I am tired of snow and I am ready for warmer weather.  I like snow as much as the net person, but after awhile, I get tired of the cold, shoveling and the hauling of wood to heat the house.  Snow does have a spiritual connection.  Just as snow covers the brown grass and makes everything white and new, so does the blood of Christ and His work on the cross.  The blood of Christ not only takes away our sins, but through Christ blood, it makes everything new and spotless.  The Christian life is not just about getting saved, which is important, but it is also growing in grace and becoming mature in Christ.  Just as we want our children to become mature adults, we should work on being mature Christians

             Springtime means green grass, warmer weather and longer days.  We also need a spring time in our spiritual lives as well.  The season of lent can be represent the winter time of putting old habits or bad habits to death.  I hope all of us took time during the Lenten season to draw closer to God and to put the things away that is hindering our relationship with Him.  But here is the brutal truth, if we don’t replace the old habits, with new growth that is holy, we will find something just as destructive to replace the things that we dealt with during lent.  We should take time to celebrate the work that has gone on in our lives over the last forty days, but how we need to continue to grow and mature.  

            So what are the areas that are the spring time in your life?  In springtime, there are green buds on the trees, and in order for those green buds to turn into leaves, they need to grow and to mature.  In essence, it takes work, and even some trial and error.  It is willing to trust God and work on the things that He is calling us to.  The Christian life is more than just not doing certain things, but it is also doing things.  Whether it is prayer, fasting, working on relationships, or just serving others, God’s grace in our lives demands a response.  Our salvation is not dependant on what we can to, but we should do things out of love and adoration for the Creator and what He has done for us.  I hope we can live out Micah 6:8, which is that we love justice, do mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Can anything good come from...

    I filled in for a pastor friend of mine awhile ago and here is the sermon in its essence.  I am going to take each of the points and epand them out here in the near future, but I wanted to give people a taste of what is to come.

One of my favorite statements to come from the Bible comes from the John 1.  In this verse, Nathaniel makes the sarcastic statement of “can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Phillips response is “lets go find out.”  In the following verses, Nathaniel has an encounters Jesus and becomes one of the twelve disciples.  How we respond to Jesus and who He says He is should impact our lives greatly.  It can be everything from Jesus is nothing more than a lying lunatic, to He is the Lord of my life and everything in between.  If we make Jesus the Lord of our life, which I hope we are on a path too, here are three ideas on how this Lordship affects our lives. 

            The first one is the idea of maturity.  Maturity is more than just knowing more facts about Jesus and knowing the books of the Bible forward and backward.  How does knowing that Jesus died for us make us change how we live our lives?  It is more than just doing things and not doing things.  Rules are important, but what are our intentions for doing or not doing something.  It has to be more than fire insurance, because this is really self centered Christianity and it makes my relationship with Jesus all about me.  It is moving from being self centered to fulfilling the great commandment, which is loving God with everything we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  When we put our relationship with God first, things tend to fall into place.  I can rattle off facts about the athletes in this years Super Bowl, but it doesn’t mean I know them.  It is shifting from knowing facts to knowing the person. 

           

The second idea is that the Lordship of Christ should change is the idea of community.  This idea of community doesn’t necessarily mean that we all get along all the time.  I would argue that if a church or any other organization is always arguing or always getting along, there is something wrong.  I think that the beginning of this idea of community is are we willing enough to share.  I see this a lot when people give prayer request, we can share just about anything as along as it is some one else.  For some reason, people don’t want to share their deep soul, and probably because we want to keep feeling the warm fuzzes.  Community is not only care to share, but are we sharing to do something about it.  Are we willing to come along side people no matter how dirty and messy it gets or how much they get on our nerves.  There are healthy boundaries that we need to follow, but are we willing to put them into place and use them. 

           

The third idea is evangelism.  Are we willing to break out of our country club mentality and share the gospel.  I will keep this short, but are we willing to let our friends and family not spend eternity in heaven.  There is this idea of personal evangelism and corporate evangelism. The former is what are you doing on a personal basis to reach others for God, and the latter is what is our churching doing to reach our community.  A person I know favorite statement about my home church is that if it were to fall of the end of the earth, would the community miss us?  This is true on a cooperate level, but also on a personal level.  If you personally ceased to exist would your circle of influence miss God’s presence that you provided?  If you received good news about being cancer free, wouldn’t you want to share it with the whole world?  The news we have on eternal life is much greater than becoming cancer free (becoming cancer free is a great thing).  So If we make Jesus the Lord of our Life, it means that we mature, live in healthy community, and tell others what Jesus has done for us

Hope and Faith

Recently I started reading the children’s book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  The book is about a family who is missing their father and know one knows exactly where is or what he is doing, but they have hope that he is coming home soon.  The family encounters three mythical creatures and they take the two oldest siblings along with a friend to go save their father.  The mythical creatures are often quoting different proverbs in the original language.  One of the proverbs is about hope and how we all need it and have it get through life.  In essence, we all need something to believe in. 

            Not only does Hebrews 11 talk about hope, but it talks about faith, and in all reality faith is the mature aspect of hope.  Let me break it down, in my book there are two kinds of hope, the first kind of hope where we believe in something, but it doesn’t lead to action.  To put it in simple terms, this form of hope is thinking that your team is going to go out and win it all.  There are plenty of people who think that the Vikings are going to win the Super Bowl every year, but how many of them go out and buy the Super Bowl tickets or make plans to attend the victory parade at the beginning of the year.  My guess is that there are more people who don’t do that than who do.  Or to put it in more practical terms.  How many of us went out and bought supplies before our last major snow this month.  I would venture to guess most of us went out and got the milk, bread and snow melt before the snow got here.  With working at Wal Mart, we were busy they two days before we got hit with the snow, and our shelves were bare.  Now I am sure some of it was the chicken little the sky is falling, but people wanted to make sure they had food and other things before the snow got here.  If we do this, why don’t we do it with the Creator of the Universe who sits on the throne eternally.   

            As Hebrews 11:1 puts it, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  The author of Hebrews goes on and shares Bible hall of fame, or the hall of faith, of how different people through out the Bible had the faith and they put into practice what they knew.  Mature faith is knowing that we are not saved by our works, but we live out our lives as a response to what God has done for us and what He has promised us.  Through out the Bible there are references to God being there for us and guiding us through life.  To sum it up, God is reaching down willing and wanting to interact with us and through us, are we willing to reach out and do those things out of not only obedience, but having faith and hope that God will be there for us and will work through us. 

Stayin Connected

I am preaching this Sunday at a local church and the pastor asked me to preach on the churches vision statement and how it would look like to that specific congregation.  So some of the applications are very specific to that congregation, but I think that there is still plenty to chew on. I even included the churches vision statement on the top of the first page. 

SonLife connects with God and the world around us through the Good News of Jesus,
growing a church family to impact others with the grace and truth of Jesus.

43. The net day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.  Finding Phillip, He said to him, “Follow Me.”  44. Phillip, like Andrew and Peter was from the town of Bethsaida.  45. Phillip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and about whom the prophets also wrote---- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  46. Nazareth! Can anything good come there? Nathanial asked.  “Come and see” Phillip said.     John 1:43-46

  

       As I read this passage one of the thoughts that came to mind is that how we connect with other people, is often a sign how we are connecting with Jesus and who He is in our lives.  Even though Nathanial’s comment may be taken as a tongue in cheek, there is still validity in the comment of “can anything good come from Nazareth?”  How often do we make those comments about such places like West Virginia or Arkansas.  We often make comments that people from there are backwoodish, their family tree is a straight stick and that they are uneducated.  Ma and Pa Kettle would be the ideal picture of our sterotypes.  As much fun as we have with these type of jokes and often are made in good fun, but there are other stereotypes that are more serious and are more dangerous.  Whether it is a stereotype of unfriendly family members/friends to nationalities/religious beliefs like Iraq or Afghanistan, we put ourselves on alert, whether justifiable or not.  We tend to make them lesser than what they are or we elevate ourselves superior then what we really are.  Let’s explore the three different ways we connect or disconnect with God and who Jesus is in our lives and how these affect how we connect with other people

            The first way is more of a disconnection with Jesus, because we view Him as a liar or a lunatic.  Jesus is must be some guy from a far off time where He was delusional and He drank His own kool-aide.  He was some random guy wondering around Israel claiming to be the Messiah and in all reality He had a mental illness and should be committed to a mental institution.  He really believed that He was the Messiah and was willing to die for His delusions. 

Another idea to go along with this is the idea that Jesus was nothing more than a liar.  Jesus knew that He wasn’t the Messiah, but He didn’t care and it was all about deceiving people into following Him.  It was all about the deception and He had such an ego and Savior complex that He made up that He was the actually Messiah.  He played into the idea that the nation of Israel was looking for the coming Messiah to set up the kingdom.  He was willing to live this life so He could gain the status and the stardom from the people.  Both theories lead to the idea that this guy named Jesus died a pointless and meaningless death and He never came back from the dead.  To wrap this idea up is that since Jesus is not alive, His followers were delusional enough to create stories that Jesus did come back from the dead and they continued the lies that Jesus started.  So why believe in or put your trust in someone who is dead and had followers who kept the lies going.  Jesus at best is some historical figure who lived in first century Israel and now is dead.  With this idea, someone would discount Jesus and Christianity along with viewing them as either liars, naive, or even delusional.  So why would we even connect with someone who believes this and they connect to some other faith.

Another way we connect with Jesus is that our relationship with Him ranges from either a good teacher to He is my homeboy.  This view is that Jesus was a good teacher and that He was sent from God.  More or less that Jesus is a prophet sent from God to reveal something to us about God and how we should live.  But being God’s Son and the whole death and resurrection thing is out of the question.  Jesus was just a prophet and a good moral teacher, nothing more, and nothing less.  This idea puts him on the same level as Buddha, or Gandhi.  They are all equally human and they are someone that we can learn from and aspire to be.  In essence they are just good teachers.  The other end of this spectrum is that Jesus is our homeboy.  We believe that Jesus is God and that He did die for our sins and came back from the dead.  Jesus is more of a person to meet our needs and be our best friend.  This form of Christianity is really a self centered Christianity where I will follow Jesus and His rules as long as my needs are being met and that He gets me into heaven.  To put it in monopoly terms, Jesus is my get out of hell card or fire insurance.  If you are a movie/comic book fan, this form of Jesus is Tony Stark.  For those of you who don’t know, Tony Stark is Iron Man, and even though he has his enemies, most people want to be his friend because of his confidence, money and he can save the day.  This view of Jesus is that all Jesus needs to do is to be my friend, with all the warm and fuzzies and His sole purpose is to keep me safe and comfortable, I will follow Him.  How we relate to people through this idea is that as long as we follow the Golden Rule and to treat people the way you want to be treated.  The downfall of this is that without pushing them to have a deeper relationship each other and with God, our relationships with each other and God will never grow and we will become stagnant.

The third way is that we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.  Not only do we believe who He is, but He calls us to a deeper walk with Him and each other.  God’s will for our lives is the center of our being and who we are.  It is loving Him with everything we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  It is not sitting in some room locked away hoping to grow and staying away from the world, but it is letting God change us so that we can change the world.  Its not about what God can do for me, or even what I can do for God, but it is partnering with God and what He is doing.  It is allowing His Lordship to permeate everything we do and change who we are.  I think that when we take this Lordship of Christ for real in our personal lives and the life of this church, it will radically change everything.  How can Son Life be like Phillip and say, come with me because I have found the Messiah. 

The first one is that as a church, there needs to be intentional discipleship, no matter if you one or one hundred, it is learning how to be God’s vessel in a broken world.  Discipleship is more than just attending church, reading my Bible, or reading the latest Joyce Myers book.  Discipleship is more than learning facts about Jesus, or Bible characters, or how long it should of taken the Israelites to get from Egypt to the Promise Land.  A lot of these facts can be very informative and help with conversations, but here is the thing, if it doesn’t lead to maturity that results in action, what’s the point of knowing it.  True discipleship is not so much knowing facts, but doing what we know to be true and continuing to learn more and put that into practice.  In essence, it is growing up or maturing.  This can be done through prayer, our devotions, coming to church and putting it into practice.  It is also putting away things that are a hindrance to our relationship with God and others.  Just as a three piece suit would hinder a marathon runner, there are things in our personal lives that also hinder us.  It is dealing with them and putting them in their proper place. 

Just as we want to grow in our important earthly relationships, we should have the same desire for our relationship with God. Rules are not in relationships so we can check things off, but it is so we can set parameters in the relationships and have healthy boundaries. Our relationship with God and others isn’t so much about rules, but growing in our love for them and living in those boundaries.  Just as we don’t want to make our spouse mad because we love them so much, shouldn’t this be the same with God.  It is growing up and giving God our everything.  When God says love our enemies, He really means it, and its not a suggestion.  It is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not putting off what God is calling us to.  True discipleship always leads to maturity, and maturity leads to action.  Our works can not save us, but they are a response to what God has given us.  When we think about discipleship we often think of not doing things, whether it is drinking beer, gambling, gossip, pornography, but here’s the thing, if we don’t replace it with something Godly, something else will creep in and take its place that can be just as destructive.  I can not stress enough that true discipleship is Christian maturity.  It is putting into practice what we know about God and what He is calling us to do.  Christian maturity means we do things differently, whether its dating, raising our kids, interacting with coworkers, or dealing with people that you just don’t like.  It is loving God with everything we have and loving others as ourselves and through these two commandments, we do life.  It is a daily process of growing into who God has made us to be, which is not only holy, blameless and mature, but we are sons and daughters of the most High God, and if that doesn’t get you excited, you need your pulse checked

With discipleship also comes community.  As much as we try sometimes, we can not do this Christian life by ourselves, not matter how hard we try.  The Apostle Paul shares with us in I Corinthians that we are the body and the body has many parts.  If a part of the body isn’t doing its job, but body gets sick and becomes inefective.  Community is more than just coming to church on Sunday mornings and going to small groups on Sunday nights.  It is interacting with each other and pushing each other to grow.  It’s not asking how someone is doing and giving a response of everything is great.  So often we do this in our culture and not even think about it.  If I were to venture a guess why we do this, is because we do not want to do the hard work that requires us to be in community. Do we really want to tell other people that our marriage is on the rocks, or that I might be struggling with an addiction issue?  Not only do we not want to share these types of things, but we often think that I can make it better all by myself, I just have to pray harder.  Or when the church is taking prayer request, it is easy to give a praise or pray for someone else and their sickness, but it is never easy to ask for payer with our struggles.  It’s probably because we feel like we will be judged and that people will look less at us and maybe even gossip about us.  Its more than do we care enough to share, but do we care enough to do something about it.  Community requires trust and honesty, no matter how brutal it is sometimes.  It also requires forgiveness, understanding, communication, and listening.  Community does not mean we all agree the same thing on the same issues.  It is ok that someone likes the Packers or Cowboys, or dislikes the music of Prince.  We have to be willing to listen to, disagree, console, pray with and pray for people without calling them poopy heads.  It is also challenging each other to grow and calling each other out with God’s grace and love on certain issues.  If you know someone has an addiction, it is coming around them to not only to confront them out of love, but being there through the recovery process, know matter how messy it gets.  If a church always gets along and never gets into fights, or is always fighting there is something wrong.  Christian community starts with the Apostles Creed uniting in what we essentially believe and with the non essentials, we give grace and latitude.  

The third thing that I think SonLIfe is called to is outreach or evangelism.  There is the idea of personal evangelism in the areas of friends, family and work, but there is also this idea of how can the church reach out to the Wrenshall community.  So here is my question for you all.  If for some reason SonLife would drop off the face of the earth and no longer be around, would the Wrenshall community know the church is gone?  In essence, what kind of impact is SonLife having on this community?  Are the actions of SonLife more inward or outward focused?  In order for the church to survive there needs to be a healthy balance of both.  How do you all see yourself engaging the community around you?  There can not be true discipleship or community without outreach into the community that we live.  Knowing Wrenshall and graduating from this very school, there is a great impact that this church can have on this school and community. 

One way this church can get involved in this school is volunteering for different activities and building those relationships.  One easy way is maybe contacting the school principle and seeing if there are opportunities to volunteer.  One way is to offer tutoring to students who are struggling in school.  Through tutoring, it’s providing way in for a relationship with that student and that has endless possibilities.  Or maybe helping chaperone a school event, to helping a new teacher with classroom decoration or making copies.  Or how about the church adopting a class, preferably an elementary class and following them through their education.  Whether its tutoring, providing things for the classroom, chaperoning events, and willing to help pay for background checks are all great ideas to get plugged in.  While I was in college, I had a husband and wife “adopt” me and a few of my friends.  We would go over to their house a couple times a semester for a meal a great home cooked meal (because college students are always looking for those) and even better conversations.  There are many great memories there and I am still in contact with my adoptive parents. 

There is also providing needs to the members of not only this church community, but the Wrenshall community.  Most guys I know like to do projects, whether it is building something or taking something apart, it feels good to work with our hands.  Not only is it a great way to do something for someone else and connect them with SonLife, but also take time during these projects to connect with the people of the church.  A lot of formative memories and bonding experiences are formed , especially with guys.  It can be a chance to invite people who are loosely connected with the church to this project, and it allows the building of relationships in a non threatening way.  It could lead to the opening of doors for a deeper and more meaningful conversation.  Another way to connect with people is knowing families that have had a major life event and either providing child care, meals, or even mowing lawns to help ease some of the stress.  One of my favorite things to do, is sharing a meal with someone, especially if it’s a home cooked meal.  The kitchen table is one of the most intimate places in the house in my book.  It shows community, solidarity, and openness when a meal is shared around the kitchen table.  One of my favorite memories is one day I stopped over at the Johnson’s to see Chad and Sarah.  It got to be dinner time and I was invited to eat with them and that meal was a lot of fun of the sharing back of forth. 

So in closing, here is my question to you SonLife, how do you see yourselves connecting with God grace and the world around us with the good news of Jesus?  How and who we see Jesus as, is how we are going to connect with our world and here is a reminder, He is Lord of All irregardless of what we think.  So when we make Him the Lord of our Life, not only can we change the world, but even maybe even light it on fire with the grace of God