Who loved first, us or God?

One of the things that has really excited me about the ministry and movement of nine70 young adult ministry is the dialogue we have been having about God’s truths recently. One question that came up in one of our Area Bible Studies on Thursday nights had to do with evangelism and the role that prayer has in evangelism. It is a great question. Someone texted in a question (We do text Messaging during our weekly gatherings) and asked if we had a role in someone coming to know God or if our prayers were arbitrary in that process. I love this question because it is filled with so much truth and curiosity.

Scripture tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12). What this verse shows us is that no body in their own strength will or even can pursue God without some sort of spiritual intervention. This is where God comes in. As you peruse the pages of the scriptures you see God intervening in the lives of people and initiating the relationship with them. God came to Abram and initiated Abram’s (eventually Abraham)ministry. God initiated with Moses, the disciples, and eventually Saul (who became the Apostle Paul). God is a God of initiation and His love for His creation and people is so strong that He will initiate relationship and do whatever it takes to start this process (Meet someone in a burning bush, make someone blind, etc…)

How does this impact us? If there is no one that is holy or righteous, then what hope is there for us? Once again, God initiated and this time Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. John 6:44-46 says, “No one can come to me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent me draws him. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” It is the Father that draws people to Himself through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the means in which the Father draws people to himself. This is where we come in when it comes to evangelism. In obedience we are to pray that the Father draws the hearts of our friends and family towards Himself and that He would use the Holy Spirit in amazing ways to accomplish this task. We also are called to pray for our friend’s hearts to be open to this draw of the Holy Spirit and to respond to it in love.

Can God do all of this without our “help”. YES, God does not need our help, however He INVITES us to be involved in this process and I don’t know about you but I love partnering with God in this way.

May we be a people that ask the Spirit to work and move in the lives of many others. May we pray that their hearts will be open and that they would respond in obedience in Love (The way God wants). But above all else, may we be a people that love and are open to living a life that brings glory and honor to our God.

Lessons from my daughter – I LOVE HER!!

Being a father has been a great experience for me. Next to coming to know the Lord and marrying my wife I can say that fatherhood is the best thing that has happened to me. Everyday I am challenged to pray for my daughter, pray for her future (including her husband, YIKES) and to sit and watch in awe at how she is growing and exploring. As Allyson and I have watched this little angel grow we have marveled at how much we are learning about how God feels about us as His children. I have been keeping a journal of thoughts as I watch her grow and how it reminds me so much of our growth as we learn to see God as our Father. I remember when she first was able to really focus her eyes and fix her eyes on objects, it was beautiful to watch her eyes light up as she recognized something that was red (She loves the color red so she has a lot of Minnie Mouse dolls). Then she started moving her arms and checking things out but nothing has been as fun as her exploring the carpet of our family room on her hands and knees. She is a daredevil, hurrying from one corner to another and grabbing anything her little hands can grasp and put it in her mouth.

99.9% of the time we see so much of the beauty of what it means to explore the world as a young child, but there is that 0.1% that we shake our head at in amazement. It is amazing to me how she can have the whole floor to crawl around on, a plethora of toys laid out on the carpet designed for her enjoyment and she gravitates towards one thing that she is not supposed to touch. This week the chilly temperatures have caused us to turn off our AC and actually light our fireplace (Which is unheard of for June). On Monday morning I spent the morning at home studying for an exam I have coming up this week and I was sitting by the fire as Olivia was playing on the carpet. Her Aunt Laela just bought her the coolesttoy that Olivia seems to love yet it wasn’t this toy that caught her attention, it was the flickering fire that she wanted to play with. She proceeded to crawl over to the fireplace where I sternly said ”No” to and picked her up and directed her in the opposite direction.

She made a frustrated sound (which is usually a growl) and turned back around to head towards the fire. It reminded me so much of us a humans. We think we know what we want and we will actually go as far as to say, “God, I dont care what you think. I know how to take care of myself and I will “touch” what I want to touch.” I cant tell you how many times I knew I shouldnt do a certain thing yet find myself licking my wounds after I get ‘burned’. I wonder what would happen if we would view God’s standards a little differently. A lot of Christ Followers seem to throw the Commandments the Lord set out for His people in the Old Testament out because of the Grace given through the sacrifice of Jesus. We are not to ignore the standards of God, they were set for us as God’s people as instances of worship and honor to our Heavenly Father.

The old story goes; If you want to get a kid to touch a hot stove, tell him not to touch it. Have you ever wondered about yourself? Do you find yourself doing those things that you know you shouldn’t do? The apostle Paul found himself in this position when he wrote:

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; butI am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

 ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Scriptures tell us that we are marked with sin because of the sin of the first Adam. Yet, it is the second Adam (Jesus) that cleanses us from our sins and because of this we can come to God in perfect relationship.

I love my daughter dearly and delight in her no matter what, even when she does things that I dont want her to do, my motivation isn’t to take fun away from her, it is simply to protect her from the imminent harm that will come when she dabbles with “fire”. We as followers of Christ are New Creations on the inside, yet we are wrapped in flesh and it is our flesh that desires the things of this world and not things from above.

May we learn to honor God with our actions as well as our hearts.

The Principles of a successful burger stand (and how it relates to ministry)

Growing up in Southern California I made a certain burger joint a regular part of my diet. In-N-Out burger has been feeding the appetites of Californians for over half a century. Drive to any local In-N-Out in California (and now in Nevada and Arizona) and you will probably be there with others who have flocked to the burger joint because of their reputation for fresh food, great burgers as well as prompt and courteous service. I now live in Northern Colorado  and whenever I head to the West Coast to visit my parents I make it a point to try and have a couple of Burgers made “Animal Style”. IN n Out’s popularity has spread all over the country with their famous bent palm tree stickers on the windshields and bumpers of thousands of vehicles on the road. How does a burger stand turned multi-million dollar corporation get to this point? How does a burger place that is only located in 3 out of 50 states get to the point where they have almost 200,000 followers on Facebook? There is only one word to describe how this happened, quality. In-N-Out Burgers are know for their quality. I have never had a burger that I didn’t like and every burger tastes the exact same.

Now what does a burger restaurant review have to do with being a Youth Pastor? Well if you look at the formula that makes In-N-Out a success in the business world you may see that there is a major principle that we can all learn from. In-N-Out has made a living on a fairly sparse menu. Their menu is simple and hasn’t changed in years: hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double (Double Stacked burger), fries, coke, shake (See above). That’s it. We can all name fast food places that offer many types of food but we don’t go there unless we absolutely have to. With this type of steamed down menu In-N-Out is able to provide excellent quality because they are focused on perfecting a few items.

JACK OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE

Ever heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Unfortunately for many of us this phrase rings true within the context of ministry.

If you take a look at most churches and ministries there are lots of events going on and ministries offered but how successful can they be? Everyone has 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, yet some people seem to accomplish more than others and some ministries seem to be making more of an impact than others. Why is that? What are they doing? Chances are they are doing less.

If you take a poll of Youth Pastors nation-wide you will probably hear that the majority of them don’t have enough time to accomplish all they want. I heard someone recently say that if you don’t have time to accomplish all that you want in ministry then you are probably doing some things that God doesn’t want you doing. The problem isn’t that Youth Pastors are lazy or don’t know what they are doing, the problem is that most Youth Pastors are simply doing too much. If you want to accomplish more within ministry then you will have to learn how to do less.

This principle of stewardship was communicated by our Lord in the 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2). Here Jesus shows us that each of our lives is represented by a branch that bears fruit. Look at verse 2, the skilled gardener cuts off fruit from branches that are fruitful so that the branch will be even more fruitful.

How does this effect you? A lot of us have a plethora of ministries offered and tons of great events for those within our ministry influence. But if you are anything like me you find yourself doing a whole lot of “stuff”, but not really doing what you set out to do in the first place. Impact lives for Christ. Those Pastors that learn that they cant do everything and focus their attention on what’s important are able to make a huge difference in the lives of people. I know Pastors that will spend hours on Facebook and their blog-site yet spend little time building face to face relationships with those within their ministry and even less time preparing for the spiritual direction of their flock. A couple of years ago our leaders saw that our ministry was great at putting on outreach events but we were falling way short in the area of discipling our students. We vowed to put into place the principle of John 15:1-2 and stopped doing outreach events for one year so that we could focus our attention on doing a few things (Discipleship) and doing it well. The crazy thing with cutting off fruit is that fruit is good. The reason a branch exists is to produce fruit, but that’s where a skilled gardener comes in. A skilled gardener can identify which fruit has more potential to grow and cuts off the fruit that isn’t likely to produce as much fruit. In ministry everything you are doing is probably good, but as Jim Collins says, “Good is the enemy of great”.

I challenge you to take a look at all that you are doing and all that your ministry is doing. What in your ministry can be “cut off” so that other areas of your life / ministry can become even more fruitful. I used to wonder why I couldn’t get a taco or a salad at In-N-Out, but  after understating this principle I am glad and will have another Animal Style Burger while I visit the West Coast.

Motivation for obedience

Yesterday we had one of our grow@nine70 discipleship classes. The grow@nine70environment has turned out to be a great environment where people can come together, learn, talk and grow in their spiritual walks.

Yesterday we talked about obedience and the motivation for our obedience towards God. One thing that many people struggle with is the idea of being obedient towards God. We struggle with being obedient towards anyone let alone a God that we don’t fully understand. However our view of obedience is skewed because of the influence of our parents. No matter how great of parents we had (or bad) it is difficult to compare our experience of authority figures on earth with our heavenly father. The problem with obedience is that obedience always comes with a cost. Unfortunately for us we look at this cost as way too much, because more often then not that cost is an inconvenience to us. When we act in obedience towards God we know that there are somethings that we will probably have to give up and if we don’t love this God or feel that this God does not love us then it gets harder and harder to act in obedience towards Him.

In the Bible there are numerous people that had to act in obedience towards God and it cost them dearly but they saw their obedience was greater than the ways in which they would be inconvenienced. Abraham had to leave everything familiar to him to go to a new land, Noah was to give up everything that he was doing to build a big boat, the disciples had to give up their lively hood to follow the Messiah, Jesus. Each of these Biblical characters CHOSE obedience rather than their own comforts. They saw their love for God more important than meeting their own needs.

The correct motivation for obedience is love yet for a lot of us we look at God as someone who desires our obedience yet does not love us. We feel that because of certain situations that happened to us and the way we blame God for those situations, there is no way that He could love us and why would we respond to Him with an attitude of love. For many within the church environment obedience is not observed out of a heart of love. When obedience is observed apart from love then we see our obedience as duty, expectations and something that we must do to please this God who doesn’t want us to have fun.

The truth is that we have a God who loves us dearly. 1 John 3:16 says,”“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”God has already displayed love to us. No matter what happens in your lifetime, God has already expressed the ultimate act of love towards you. He believes in you so much and wants so badly to be in relationship with you and He knew that the only way to be in relationship with you is for His son to die so that you can live.

I wonder how we would react to God’s promptings and calling in our life if we knew in every situation that God does love us and has already expressed that love for us in the sacrificing of His son Jesus. Remember, God does love you, He wants the best for you. He is not out to be a kill-joy, actually He wants nothing more than the best for his children, the problem is that we think we know whats best for us.

May we walk in obedience and may we continue to learn how to LET LOVE LIVE in our lives.

God in a box or God of freedom

As I  continue to reflect on the message that was shared at Timberline this past weekend I am continually reminded with the idea that we continue to put God in our own boxes. Each one of us (Me included) for some reason create God in our image because of things that have happened in the past or experiences that we have had. I am often reminded of an analogy I once heard that compared God to a butterfly.

A butterfly is beautiful when it is free and flying through the air. There is a lot of mystery and beauty wrapped between those two wings and it is hard to believe that those beautiful wings once were crawling along the ground. In science class as a kid we would see butterflies pinned down on Styrofoam inside glass boxes so that we could study them. They almost seemed fake, they just lay there lifeless and on display for us to examine them. The beauty, freedom, wonder and amazement were taken away from us so that we could study them and “fully understand” them. I think that all of us (guys included) would agree that buterflies are more majestic and beautiful when they are free to fly and do what they were supposed to do. It is their cunning ability to avoid captivity that causes little kids to chase after them. God is the same way.

For some reason we take a God who is a God that is free, majestic and beautiful and want to pin this God on styraphoam in a box so that we can examine Him. What kind of God would we have if we were able to capture every essence of His being and were able to examine everything about Him? That God would be full of as much life and fill us with as much wonder as that butterfly that was pinned down in a box. Putting God in a box robs our God from the majesty and beauty that defines His essence. Our God is a God of freedom who refuses to be caputred in the image that we create for him in our minds and is a God who wants desperately to shape you back into His image.

For many who try to “examine God” or try to “figure Him out” before they come to him God is viewed as a self-help / self improvement product. “Let me examine God and see if He is what I need and if He can help me then I will be interested in getting to know Him.” This is a suttle yet profound statement of our hearts. However, God is not interested in making our lives better or improving our situations. He is most interested in wiping away who we were and starting over brand new. Kind of like the winter coming and freezing life out of the ground so that when spring time comes around the ground is ready for new life.

I again want to share the words that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come”. Will you allow God to be a God of freedom and not only free you up from things that trap us in this world, but will you let Him free you up to do the extraordinary in life?

LET LOVE LIVE

What you believe defines you

Have you ever been challenged with who you really are? How you are perceived? I know for many years (especially in college) I struggled with knowing my “identity”. I played football in high school, Jr. College and at Colorado State Univeristy  and for most of my life I was known as a football player. I was that stereotypical meathead football player who always spent time on the couch watching football, talking football and talking about football. Then my senior year came at CSU and I suffered my 8th concussion durring Fall Camp. My football career was over and in my opinion the one thing that defined me was now taken away from me. I remember being so frustrated at life and especailly at God. How could this happen?

Looking back, this situation was the best thing that ever happened to me and I know it is weird to say, but I am so glad that God took football away from me when He did. You see, I became a “Christian” while in college but never really understood what it meant. It wasnt until after my injury did I see my life and my faith differently. I was confronted by a verse in a Bible Study with a good friend, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I was challenged by this because I never really knew what it meant to be “in Christ”. A couple of years after my injury I finally moved from labeling myself a Christian and became a devoted follower of Jesus. This new relationship has now defined me in many ways. I am defined not by what I do but by what Jesus has already done. The challenge is that we allow so many other things to define us but the one thing that can bring true definition to who we are sometimes get overlooked. You are defined by what you believe to be true. Not only about yourself but what you believe about life and faith.

The definition of my life is about what I know to be true about life and faith. There is an old Rich Mullins song that I absolutely love, it is called “I believe”. I want you to take a look at the lyrics and allow the lyrics to speak to your heart.

“I Believe”

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ
His only begotten Son, our Lord
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
He was crucified and dead and buried

CHORUS:
And I believe what I believe
Is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not
The invention of any man

I believe that He who suffered
Was crucified, buried, and dead
He descended into hell and
On the third day, rose again
He ascended into Heaven where
He sits at God’s mighty right hand
I believe that He’s returning to
Judge the quick and the dead
Of the sons of men

CHORUS

I believe it, I believe it
I believe it
I believe it, I believe it

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,
Our Lord
I believe in the Holy Spirit
One Holy Church, the communion of Saints
The forgiveness of sin
I believe in the resurrection
I believe in a life that never ends

LET LOVE LIVE!!!

Where do I Fit?

Serving people is something that most people would agree on. Whether you are a person of faith or someone who does not believe in a God, I would bet that reaching out to your fellow man is something that we would all agree is a good thing to do. Well I am a person of Faith and I do believe that God not only exists but desperately wants to be in relationship with His people. Jesus’ teachings discussed this principle over and over and from many different angles. About 40 years after Jesus left this earth, the Apostle Peter spoke about this principle as well. In his parting remarks in 1 Peter 4:10-11 he says,

“Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” (The Message Paraphrase)

Love is a central theme in scripture. One of the most controversial topics in Christian Theology is the doctrine of Spiritual Gifts. Paul wrote a lot about different gifts that were given to different people and he saw how these gifts that were meant to unify belivers were actually dividing people. So in 1 Corinthians Paul addresses spiritual gifts and specifically the gift of Speaking in Tounges. Well right between the two most famous chapters addressing Spiritual Gifts (Chapter 12 and 14) Paul talks about Love. Love is patient, love is kind…..

Why did Paul do this? What do you think? I belive Paul knew that differnt people getting different gifts could divide people so he tried to hammer down the thought that Gifts given by God are to be receieved and utilized with a heart of Love. If you know that God has gifted you a certain way, the go ahead and utilize that gift and do it in the spirit of Love that Jesus displayed. If you dont know what Gift God gave you, then I encourage you to seek out what gifts you have been given, Scriputre is pretty clear that we have ALL been given gifts to encourage each other.

May we serve one another and those we dont know while we honor our God with the things we have been given. You are an integral part of God’s plan in this world.

God is love and the mission of Jesus was to display God’s love on this earth, now it is our command to love God and love others.