Thursday's Thought--Sneak Preview of this Sunday's Sermon

I have been asked to preach at IBC this Sunday because last week and this week we have been/will be honoring our graduating seniors during the Sunday morning service. Every time I preach at IBC (this will be the second time), I feel a great weight because of the importance of the fact that I am delivering the Word of God to the entire church and because of the rarity of this opportunity arising. I feel a need to pick not just something important to say to the church, but to actually say the most important thing to the church that I can.

This time, I have decided to preach on 1 Cor. 2:1-5, specifically focusing on the part where Paul says it was his goal during his time among them to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. During my study this week, it has truly amazed me that with all of the issues facing that church--including, but not limited to: intense sexual immorality, divisions, selfishness in approaching the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts, and denial of the resurrection of the dead--Paul continually points them back to Christ as the ultimate solution to every problem the church is facing. He truly understands that, as Timothy Keller so wisely says, "Idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong." Every problem the church was facing was due to the fact that they were taking worship of the true God and replacing it with worship of other things. The only way to fix this problem was to point them back to the true God and replace their idolatry with worship. The gospel was, in Paul's eyes, the most important thing for the Corinthian church to know. If Paul thought it was so important, I guess it should be a safe pick for my time preaching at IBC.

That's the teaser. Check back in next week for the link so you can listen to the podcast.

Thursday's Thought

Last Friday morning, I woke up very early to go to breakfast and hear a man speak who biked over 30,000 miles from Siberia to London via Australia. When I got on the bus to go to this breakfast, I wanted to read a passage from the Bible, since I knew I had a busy day ahead and it would be a while before I would have more time to do it. Wanting to keep my reading (and the process of getting stuff out of my bag) more simple, I simply grabbed my Kindle, turned it on, opened the Bible on it, and read the first thing that was on the page.

When I turned on the Kindle, it took me to 2 Kings 15. It was a random chapter. As I started to read it, I thought maybe I should have been more intentional about the passage I picked. I read about king after king who ruled Israel and Judah—good ones, bad ones, ones who inherited the throne when their fathers died, others who took the throne by force, and lots of other details about each king—and I was confused. What did this have to do with my life, with my understanding of who God is, or with my understanding of how to live a life that is defined by the gospel?

I finished reading the chapter, and I was still totally confused. I spent the rest of the bus ride thinking about what I had read. It’s in the Bible, so it had to be significant, but why? And then it hit me. Everybody in this long list of kings, whether they were good, bad, traitors, idolaters, worshipers of the true God, warriors, or wimps, died. They got a few verses in a random chapter in the middle of 2 Kings to tell about their life and the way they led their nation, and then the story moved on from them to the next guy. This is because the story in 2 Kings 15 is not about Azariah, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, or Jotham. Each of them is a small player in the story of God calling a people to Himself, purifying that people for Himself, and—ultimately—making all things new. The main character in this chapter is God. He is the One ho raised these men to power for a time to fulfill His purposes. He is the One who allows bad kings to reign (for a time) and strikes one of the good ones with leprosy. He is the One who still lives after kings and kingdoms rise and fall. His story is the one that will endure.

And then I got it. I am like one of these kings. My life, in the grand scheme of history, is no more than a few verses in the middle of some random chapter in the middle of some random book. But that’s ok. Because it’s not my story that needs to last. It’s His story that needs to be told and that will endure. And to play the most minor role in His story is much more significant than being famous, powerful, or rich.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!” Romans 11:33

From the Head to the Heart

I’m pretty sure that ever since my second Friday of Pathfinders in first grade I could have recited Proverbs 3:5-6 to anyone at any time. The thing I have been learning this week is that there is a big difference between knowing a truth in my head and knowing that truth in such a way that it sinks into the core of your being and impacts the very way you live your life. Obviously, this is not a new lesson for me, but it is one that God has been pounding me with this week.

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about what I’m doing next year. Crunch time is fast approaching, and my decision is (hopefully) imminent. I have a couple of options that I am considering, and I am confident that at any of them I will enjoy my job, have great opportunities to serve, and will learn a lot. The issue is that (obviously) I want to make the best decision, not just a good decision. And I have been stressed out lately about which one I’ll choose. Which is odd, considering I just finished memorizing Philippians, which includes the verse, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I can recite that verse all day long. The disconnect comes when I try to take the verses I know in my head, such as Philippians 3:6-7 and Proverbs 3:5-6 and actually live them. It’s taking a while for me to learn this one, and I don’t know when it will sink in for good, but I’m now aware of the problem, and I think that’s an important first step to finding the solution (which will involve a lot of prayer and time in the Bible.)

A Video

Yesterday, I made a video to promote our upcoming camp. This week's thought is the content of the video. (I tried to load the video itself to the blog, but it wouldn't work, so I guess I just ahve to give you the youtube link.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLRpd5AMy4

Thursday's Thought-Remembering

We live in a very fast-paced society. We are always moving forward. We can’t afford to slow down, stop, or—God forbid—take a look backwards. We value progress and change above all else and see the past as a necessary step to getting where we are today and nothing more.

If we are Christians, though, should this be our attitude about the past? In the Bible, God was very intentional about making sure His people remembered the past. Starting with creation, God made a weekly celebration—Sabbath—to commemorate His work. He was so passionate about His people remembering His work of creation that in Numbers 15, a man is stoned for gathering sticks to build a fire.

God also gave His people numerous other reminders throughout the Bible of His previous work. The rainbow is a gift to help us remember God’s faithfulness to keeping His promises. The Passover was given to the Israelites to remind them how great a salvation God had given them from the land of Egypt (and that one was such a big deal to God that if someone failed to keep it properly, they were excommunicated from the nation of Israel). When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they built a pillar of rocks next to the place where they crossed the Jordan River on dry ground so when future generations asked about the stones, they could tell the new generation about God’s faithfulness to them in the past. Throughout the Old Testament, God is wildly passionate about His people remembering in an intentional way what He has done for them. This theme even carries over into the New Testament, where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper as a reminder to His followers of His death. Each time we celebrate this, it should be an intentional act of remembering what God has done for us in the past.

But what difference should this make in our lives (besides inspiring us to take communion the next time they have it in church)? One thing that I have found in my life is that reflecting on God’s past faithfulness is one of the best tools available to give me hope of His future faithfulness. Reflecting on times in the past when I was in a situation where I had no idea how anything could ever work out for good but I can now see how God used it to shape me and mold me into who I am today, I am encouraged to persevere (with faith) through today’s trials because I know the same God who got me through yesterday will get me through today.

P.S. As far as last week's post goes, I didn't totally skip it, but it is in the form of an inspirational video, and I wanted to wait until my new computer got here to load it, since my old one would take forever to load it. The new computer is here now, so it should be up soon.

Thursday's Thought-A Thousand Words

Sorry I missed last week’s post. I spent Thursday night and most of Friday at a camp with a group from a local high school, and once I got back I had a very busy weekend.

A couple weeks ago, someone who reads my blog (and will remain anonymous throughout this post unless he or she decides to reveal him- or herself in the comments) sent me a message saying the blog was good, but it needs more pictures. While I am not opposed to putting more pictures on my blog, I am also stuck with a computer that will celebrate its fourth birthday next month, and which takes ages to load anything more than a Word document onto the internet. But the comment got me thinking.

What impact has the camera had on our society? On our understanding of beauty?

How much has having cameras easily accessible caused us to miss out on amazing moments in life because we were too focused on trying to get the best picture of the event rather than enjoying the event itself?

How much less creative does our language have to be now that we have the easy ability to “show, not tell” about everything in life?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why did God not include any pictures in the Bible? And if words are important enough that God decided to use thousands of them rather than pictures, what impact should that have on the importance of words in our lives?

Would pictures more easily allow me to communicate to the world what is happening in my life?

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I think more pictures on here would certainly be beneficial, especially since I’m guessing most of the people reading this have never been to Asia. However, I also think that in our everyday life, our reliance on cameras and the instant and easy ability to capture a moment so we can relive it forever often costs us the chance of enjoying the original moment itself. I think words have a power to express the emotion and feeling behind an event that a picture in and of itself cannot do (have you ever seen a picture that adequately captured the beauty of the setting sun?)

I think it would be a fun (although time-consuming) exercise someday to watch something that would be a photographer's dream, but rather than bringing a camera, I want to bring a pen and paper to see if I truly have the creativity to come up with a thousand words to describe that picture. I haven’t done it yet. The idea still intimidates me. But I wonder what I’d see in that moment if I approached it with my mind, rather than my camera.

Thursday's Thought

This is one of those weeks where I sat down to write and felt like I simply had no great revelations to share with the world, nothing new, original, and exciting to bring to you from my own mind. So, I am reaching back into the vault and pulling up an old C.S. Lewis quote I was reminded of this week as I prepared for my youth group lesson. I hope it encourages you and challenges you in the way you approach your everyday life:

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”—C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”