Quest

Digi Quest 5/26/09

2009-05-26T18:28:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 5-19-09

2009-05-19T20:04:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 5-12-09

2009-05-12T16:35:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Ephesians, Part IV

2009-05-07T23:01:00.001-05:00

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been using the book of Ephesians as a way to look at the question. Here is some of what we talked about along those lines in our discussion of Ephesians 4:

Unity is a major topic in this chapter. Paul stresses how the followers of Jesus all believe the same thing and we are all part of the same body. In fact, in verses 4-6 Paul uses the word “one” 7 times. We are all bound together by the things we have in common in Jesus Christ. Everyone who says that they follow Jesus should have these things in common. We are all on the same team.

In the middle of this unity, there is a great deal of diversity. In Ephesians 4:11, Paul mentions 5 different types of people with different jobs within the Church – and these are just types of jobs that are designed to help equip followers of Jesus for the work of ministry. In other places in his letters, Paul lists still other jobs and gifts that God has given different people for their work in the Church and in the world. Different people have different interests, skills and abilities, so God gives them different jobs and gifts so that together the body of Christ can be as effective as possible at affecting the world for Jesus.

Maintaining unity in the midst of diversity can be a difficult thing. It can be very easy to think “that person isn’t as good as me because they don’t have the same gifts and the same job as I do.” Or sometimes it can go the other way – “I’m not as good as that person because they have more gifts and a better job in the church than I do.” Either attitude can lead to rivalry, hurt feelings, and disunity. These kinds of feelings can make it difficult to remember that all followers of Jesus are on the same team and that we should always be working together.

Paul addresses this potential problem in two ways. First, he urges us to walk “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love” (4:1). Paul knows that if we are humble, gentle and patient, and if we always have love as the primary way that we deal with others, disunity won’t be a problem. If we can do those things, we won’t be jealous of what we feel like other people have that we don’t, and we won’t be proud or arrogant about what we feel like we have that other people don’t. I really think that these four traits – humility, gentleness, patience, and love – go a long way to maintaining unity. The second thing that Paul does is that he compares the church to a physical body. Our bodies have lots of different parts, and each one has its own function. If any part doesn’t work well, the entire body suffers. And no part can go it alone without the other parts. Paul is saying that the church, which is the body of Christ, works the same way. There are lots of different parts, but they are all necessary. If we don’t all work together, then the entire body suffers. Paul knows that unity is crucial for the church to be as effective as possible in the world.

If we are going to live like a follower or Jesus, we are going to need to live our lives differently than we did before we decided to follow Jesus. In the second half of this chapter, Paul talks again to the gentiles. In the first half of the book, Paul repeatedly talked about how the gentiles were on equal footing with God as the Jews. God doesn’t see the gentiles as being any different than the Jews. Both have the same access to God. But now, Paul tells the gentiles that, as followers of Jesus, they should no longer live as the gentiles do. Paul says that we need to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:22-24). Paul recognizes that in our lives without Jesus, we conform to the actions and ideas of our culture, but these things don’t line up with the desires of God. Paul lists some of the elements of everyday life, such as sensuality, greed, impurity and falsehood. These are things that we still see in the culture around us today. Paul reminds us that these things don’t match up with who Jesus is or what God wants. Therefore, we need to put these things aside. These are part of the “old self” that we should be putting away. Instead, we should be putting on the “new self,” which includes things like righteousness, holiness, truth, building each other up, giving grace to others, kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiving others. Paul makes it clear that following Jesus should have an impact how we live our lives. The things we do and the way we interact with others should be different because of our relationship with Jesus.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 4. Look for a discussion of Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 in the next few days.

Ephesians, Part III

2009-05-06T15:19:00.000-05:00

As you know, at Quest we have been discussing what our lives will look like if we are truly following Jesus. We’ve started looking at the book of Ephesians with that idea in mind. Last week, we discussed Ephesians chapter 3. Here is some of what we talked about:

Paul continues his thoughts on the unity between the Gentiles and the Jews. In fact, this idea is so important to him and such a new concept that he refers to it as “the mystery of the Gospel” (Eph 3:6) It can not be stressed enough that under the rules and regulations of the Old Testament that God was for the Jews alone. He had a covenant relationship with them and with no one else. This affected the culture of the Jews, the way they treated and interacted (or didn’t interact) with the Gentiles, the way that they worshiped, and even the structure of the Temple. Paul tells us that with Jesus, this division no longer exists. All people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are joint heirs and we all have the same access to God.

We see Paul’s humility in this chapter. He refers to himself as “the least of all saints” (Eph 3:8). I think lots of times that people say humble things because they think it’s expected. Even if we know that we are kind of a big deal, we also know that nobody likes a braggart. But there is more than just that going on here. We can see throughout Paul’s writings that he never forgot that he spent his early life trying to kill Christians. He hunted down people who followed Jesus so that they could be put to death. Because of this, he knew that he didn’t deserve God’s grace. He felt that God would have been justified in condemning him. However, not only did God not condemn Paul, he called Paul to take the message of Jesus around the known world. Because he knew how far God had brought him, he remained humble.

Paul is writing this letter from prison, and he recognizes that this fact has the potential to affect his readers. When this letter was written, the Christians lived under at least the threat of persecution. Following Jesus created at least the possibility of problems with the rest of society. Paul was living proof of this, as he under house arrest. It would be easy for people to think “if even someone important like Paul can be imprisoned, think what can happen to me.” Fearing the consequences could lead to people being quieter and more passive about their faith in Jesus. In fact, this kind of persecution could create the situation of the shallow soil from Jesus’ parable of the sower. (Luke 8:4-15). In the parable, some of the sower’s seed falls on the rock grew up quickly, but when the sun came out it withered because it had no moisture. Jesus says that this represents people who receives the gospel message with joy but who fall away when the time of testing comes. Paul, on the other hand, knows that the message of Jesus runs against the rest of culture and wants to remind people not to be discouraged. In fact, Paul says that our reaction should be the opposite. Because of what Jesus has done for us, and because of our relationship with him, we should have boldness and confidence.

Paul prays that God will give his readers strength and understanding. He knows that if his readers have these things, they will not become discouraged. With strength and a fuller understanding of God, people will become bold and confident, and they will no longer be concerned about the consequences from the world around them. Paul seems to indicate that the key to this is coming to understand the love of God. The love of Jesus is so wide and so long and so high and so deep that it surpasses knowledge. It is impossible to figure out where the “end” of Jesus’ love is. If we come to understand that, the love of Jesus will overcome all of the problems we may have in the world.

God is able to do more than we can possibly ask or imagine. Paul wants to remind us that we can sometimes put God into a box because we think he can only act in the ways we can think of. Paul reminds us that God can do things beyond our imagination. He can also do these things while working through us. Because of God working through us, we are able to do things for Christ that are beyond what we would imagine with God.

The end of this chapter sounds like an end. It sounds like a conclusion, and it ends with an “Amen.” Paul is clearly wrapping up one section of his letter and is getting ready to move on to his next topic. He has given us a three chapter description of who we are in Jesus. In the next three chapters he will begin to discuss some of the ways that we should live because of who we are in Jesus.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 3. Next week, we will continue our discussions on the book of Ephesians and look at chapter 4.

Digi Quest 5-5-09

2009-05-05T20:03:00.000-05:00

Digi Quest

Ephesians, Part II

2009-05-02T21:52:00.001-05:00

In verses 8-9, Paul tells us that we have been saved by grace through faith, and that this is the gift of God so that no one can boast. There are a number of important ideas here. The first is that we are saved, and we have the ability to have a relationship with God, because of grace. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. In fact, we shouldn’t be able to have it because we proven ourselves unworthy. But in spite of that, God shows us grace and enters into a relationship with that. We are able to receive that grace when we have faith in God. When we act in faith, God gives us his grace.

It’s important that God’s grace is a gift rather than something that we can earn. If we could earn God’s grace by doing good things or by checking off everything on some religious list, then it would be about us and what we did. We would essentially be able to say “God wants to have a relationship with me because I’m awesome. I deserve it.” This is what Paul means when he says “so that no one may boast.” Because God’s grace is a gift, and is something that we don’t deserve and haven’t earned, it’s not about us or what we have done. It is about God and what he has done. We can’t say “I have a relationship with God because I’m awesome.” Instead, we have to say “I have a relationship with God because he is awesome.”

Everyone who follows Jesus Christ is one. God doesn’t divide people based on class or anything else. This is not how it has always been. Before Jesus came, God essentially belonged to the Jews. If a non-Jew wanted to become a believer in God, they essentially had to become culturally Jewish. Even then, they could enter the Temple, but they could only enter the Gentile court. There was a wall that divided the court the Gentiles could use and the one that the Jews could use. There was a reminder written on the wall telling the Gentiles that if they tried to get closer to the center (and therefore symbolically closer to God) they would be killed. To the Jews, Gentiles were second class citizens. But because Jesus came, the division between the Jews and the Gentiles has been removed.

Because of what Jesus did, people who were once separated from God are now able to come close. This has special meaning for the Gentiles, because they weren’t permitted to come close under any circumstances before. However, this is true and important for all of us. As Paul says, we were dead in our transgressions. Because of our sins, we are separated from God. However, because Jesus died and rose again we are now able to draw near to God. We are no longer strangers or aliens as far as God is concerned. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we are citizens of his kingdom and members of his family

At the end of the chapter, Paul tells us that we have “been joined together” and we are being “built together.” If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we are part of a single group. Unfortunately, as people we tend to divide ourselves back up. We divide on denominational lines. We divide on racial or ethnic or cultural lines. We divide on class lines. Often, even if we want to be inclusive an welcoming, a person who doesn’t share the dominant background of the people in our church can feel like they don’t really fit in. This is sad. In the eyes of God, the followers of Jesus make up a single group – a single Church. He doesn’t see the divisions that we make among ourselves. Unfortunately, these divisions often make it more difficult for us to work together for the benefit of the kingdom of God. In fact, they can even make us spend so much time fighting among ourselves that we waste time that could be spend on advancing Jesus’ kingdom. Paul reminds us that we need to see all followers of Jesus as one. We are all part of the same community, and we need to be able to work together.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 2. Next week, we will continue our discussions on the book of Ephesians and look at chapter 3.

Ephesians, Part I

2009-05-01T09:44:00.001-05:00

Over the last several weeks at Quest, we have been discussing what our lives will look like if we are truly following Jesus. We recognize that as we follow Jesus our lives and our character will begin to change. That change should affect us both internally and in how we interact with the world around us. We started looking at these ideas in the book of James. Last week, we moved out of the book of James and began discussing the book of Ephesians. Here is some of what we talked about concerning Ephesians 1.

Paul wrote this letter to the people of the church of Ephesus, although it was likely intended to also circulate among the other churches in the region. The letter was for everyone in the church, so some of its readers would have been well established in their faith, while others would have been new to the church and just checking out this whole “Jesus thing.” It is important to remember that Paul is writing to people who are already part of the church. That means that he is assuming that they already understand who Jesus is and what the message of the Gospel says. You can see this assumption in how he quickly summarizes the story and importance of Jesus in about 3 verses (Eph. 1:19-21). He assumes that his readers already understand the stuff in the first couple hundred pages of the New Testament. He is trying to build on what they already know and believe. He is adding explanation and details to what they know, and he is trying to help them figure out how to put it into practice in their lives. When reading the epistles in the New Testament, we need to read them through the lens of the Gospels, because Paul is assuming that his readers already understand that part of the story.

We’ve been adopted by God as sons. This is a big deal, for a couple of reasons. First, Paul is making it clear that God has accepted Gentiles on the same basis as the Jews. In the Old Testament, God belonged almost exclusively to the Jews. If someone from the outside wanted to worship God, they essentially needed to become culturally Jewish. If they didn’t become Jewish in every way, then they weren’t permitted to worship God. After Jesus, this is no longer the case. Everyone who is willing to follow Jesus has been adopted into the spiritual family of Abraham. Gentile believers in Jesus have the same inheritance as the Jewish believers in Jesus.

The even more significant message here is something that is easy to miss for those of us with a 21^st century, Western view on adoption. In our society, we generally adopt children as an alternative way of having a family. We adopt children, and then raise them into the family. This is not typically what adoption mean in the 1^st Century Roman world. In that time, many women died in childbirth, and many people died early in life. Also, it was only the sons who inherited from the parents. (Women would be married, and so they would benefit from their husband’s inheritance.) It was not uncommon for an influential or wealthy man to have no son to inherit his property. Rather than having the property go to some other, more distant part of the family, these men would adopt someone, who would then become their heir. However, they did not adopt children. Instead, they would find someone who was already an adult, and whose character they admired. In adopting this person, they would essentially be saying “you are worthy enough to be my son.” That is what God does for us. In spite of the fact that we are sinful, in spite of the fact that we have damaged our relationship with God, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God looks at the followers of Jesus and says “you are worthy to be my child.” What an amazing, powerful, humbling thing.

In verse 18, Paul says that he prays that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened so that we know the hope to which he has called us and that we will know how rich and glorious his blessings are. Right before Quest, I had been reading some of the stories about Elisha in 2 Kings. In one of the stories, the enemies of Israel sent an army to capture Elisha. As the enemy surrounded the city, Elisha’s servant became afraid. When he asked Elisha what they should do, Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes. When God did, the servant saw and army of chariots of fire surrounding the invaders. One of the lessons of this story is that God is always at work, and there is always more going on than we see or understand. Like Elisha prayed for his servant, Paul is praying for his readers that our eyes will truly be opened to the things that God is doing and that we will truly be able to see those things that God is doing around us.

Paul also prays that God will give us a spirit of wisdom and understanding so that we will know him better. One of the things that this tells us is that we will never completely and fully know and understand God. In one sense, some people may find this discouraging because it tells us that we will never fully “arrive.” We will never get to the point that we completely know and understand everything about God. On the other hand, this can also be very refreshing. It tells us that our relationship with God should never get stale. There is always something more to learn about God. There are always going to be ways that we can get to know him better. In fact, we can spend all of eternity with God and still be learning more about him. That’s a very cool, very amazing thing.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 1. We also recognized that chapter 1 is really a kind of preview and introduction to the rest of the book. Paul covers a number of topics quickly before diving into the meat of what he wants to say in his letter. Next week, we will begin to get into the meat of the letter in chapter 2.

Digi Quest 4-28-09

2009-04-28T18:47:00.000-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 4/21/09

2009-04-21T09:08:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 4/14/09

2009-04-14T19:01:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 4/7/09

2009-04-07T20:16:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 3/31/09

2009-03-31T20:14:00.001-05:00

Digi Quest

Americans spend more than 1/3 of their day with screens

2009-03-31T13:33:00.004-05:00

Thanks to churchrelevance.com, I came across this article from the New York Times. A recent study has found that the average American adult spends 8.5 hours each day exposed to screens. This includes televisions, computers, cell phones, and even GPS units. Put another way, we spend more than a third of each day looking at screens.

One of the remarkable features of this study is that this average time holds steady for nearly every age group of adults. Television remains the most common form of media consumption, but this study proves that computer usage has replaced the radio as the second most common form. However, while the time spent looking at screens is roughly the same, the screens that they look at are a little different. For example, 18- to 24-year olds watch the least amount of television, at just 3.5 hours each day. This means that people in this age range are spending a full 5 hours each day of "screen time" doing things other than watching TV.

I think that there are real implications for the church here. People are using screen-based media for 1/3 of their day. We need to find tools and methods to use screens for minisitry. Too often, churches and ministries use technology for information delivery only. In other words, they have websites or Twitter or other things that serve the purpose of providing information. They are using these tools only to let people know when and where they can show up if they want to participate in ministry.

I think that we need to move beyond this. I think that we need to actually find ways to actually conduct ministry on-screen. We have to figure out how we can use the technological tools available to us so that we can use them to actually touch their lives for Jesus, not just provide information about who we are and where they can find us. When we rely on getting people to come to the church, we 0nly have a few hours each week to reach them. On the other hand, if we can effectively use on-screen culture to our benefit, we have the ability to connect with people during 1/3 of their lives, and nearly 1/2 of the time they are awake. If we don't figure out how to do this effectively, we're missing out on a real opportunity to affect the world for Jesus.

I'm not sure that I have answers to how to do this, but I know I'm actively asking the question.

Picture in need of a caption

2009-03-30T19:32:00.002-05:00

This picture is in desperate need of a caption. Any suggestions?

Thanks to the St. John Tradewinds News for the picture.

What should we do? Part V

2009-03-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Last week at Quest we concluded our look at the book of James. We have been using James to help us answer the question of what we should be doing if we are truly following Jesus. Throughout this study, we have noticed that there is both an internal and an external part of the answer to this question. The interal aspect is a spiritual response that impacts our relationship with God and our affects our character. The external aspect is the response in how we live our lives that affects our relationships with others and the way that we live our lives in the world around us. Here is some of what we talked about in our discussion of James 5:

• One of the major focuses in this chapter is prayer. It reminds us that prayer is effective. It reminds the reader of the story of Elijah. Elijah prayed that it would stop raining in Israel. Once he prayed, it stoped raining, and it didn't rain for another three and a half years. After three years, he prayed that it would rain, and it rained again. Elijah was a man just like us, but God listened to him.

• The key to having that kind of effective prayer, we need to be righteous. One of the keys to being righteous is confession. We need to confess our sins. Confessing our sins and the things we do wrong will make us righteous before God. What is interesting here is that it doesn't talk about confessing our sins to God. Scripture tells us that this is an important part of confession, but it is not the only aspect of confession. James tells us that we also need to confess our sins to our fellow followers of Jesus.

• This idea of confessing sins to each other is a foreign concept to many of us, especially those of us who come from evangelical or pentecostal background. In fact, we often feel the pressure to do the exact opposite. We are taught that we should confess our sins to God, but that there are significant consequences to letting other people know about our sins. This is particularly true for people in leadership positions. If a leader sins and that sin becomes public knowledge, they could lose their position of leadership. Even if we don't lose some kind of position, we still know that people will judge us for what we have done. The result is that we confess to God, but we keep our sins secret from each other. James says that this is wrong. We should confess to each other as well.

• James knows that if we are to live in community with each other, then we need to not have secrets. When we hide things from people, we keep that part of us from them, and as a result they can't know us completely. The more we hide, the more difficult it becomes for us to truly build relationships with people. Confessing our sins lets people know who we are and what kind of things that we struggle with. Confession can help us create stronger relationships, and it can help our friends to help us in the areas where we struggle.

• There is one major element of James' discussion of prayer that can be difficult. James 5:15 says "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." This seems like a definite, black-and-white promise. However, most of us who have been followers of Christ have known people who were sick and had people pray from them in faith, but they didn't get well. This is no easy answer. We can come up with all kinds of reasons, based in scriputre, for why bad things continue to happen. However, that doesn't make it any easier for us.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning James chapter 5. Next week we will turn to the book of Ephesians as we continue our discussions of what it will look like if we truly are following Jesus.

What should we do? Part V

2009-03-25T22:32:00.002-05:00

Last week at Quest, we continued our walk through the book of James while looking at the question of what we should be doing if we are really going to be followers of Jesus. As we have discussed in the past, we have noticed that there are two different aspects to the answer. There is an internal response that affects our relationship with God and the building of our character, and there is an external response that will affect our relationship with others and the actions we take in our life. This week, within that context, we looked at James chapter 4. Here is some of what we talked about:

• James addresses the idea of friendship with the world, and tells us that being a friend with the world is being an enemy with God. We talked about how we, as followers of Jesus, tend the use the word “world” in two different contexts. Sometimes we use it to mean the environment and culture that we live in. Other times we mean the people who live in the world who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. James seems to be using the first meaning of “world.” If you are friends with someone (or something) it means that you have things in common and are supportive of each other. The environment and culture of the world around us emphasizes ideas like selfishness and pride and tells us that sinful or unethical behavior is okay. These ideas are opposed to the ideas of God. If we are becoming friends with ideas and values that the world emphasizes, then we are going to be moving farther away from God. This is why being a friend of the world is being an enemy to God.

• This idea that being friends with the world means being an enemy to God doesn’t seem to fit when we talk about being friends with people in the world who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. We need to be able to build relationships with people who aren’t Christians. It is when we become friends with someone that we have the best chance to demonstrate the love of Jesus and to talk to them about Christ. The adage “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care” is true. A friend is much more likely to listen to what I have to say about Jesus than someone that I don’t have a relationship. Building friendships with people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus is critical to spreading Jesus’ message.

• At the same time, when followers of Christ are friends with non-believers, there still needs to be a level of separateness. We need to build relationships with people who don’t know Jesus, but when we do so, we need to let them see that we are different. We can be friends and develop relationships without participating in things that are wrong, or that show that we are friends with the world. When our non-believing friends get to know us, they should also realize that there is something different about it. If they don’t recognize that there is something different, then we should ask ourselves whether we are really being true to our relationship with God.

• There is a lot in James 4 dealing with pride. In the first part of the chapter, James talks about how God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. In the middle of the chapter he tells us that we should not judge others. When we do that, we are raising ourselves to the position of judge, which is a position that really belongs to God. So when we judge others, we are elevating our own status, which is a form of pride. At the end of the chapter, James talks about how we should not make plans to go someplace and prosper (v. 13). Again, this focuses attention on our own plans and our own abilities to accomplish things. This is another form of pride. Instead of being proud, we should be humble. Remember, being humble is not about saying that we don’t have talents or abilities. It really is about putting the interests of others, and especially the interests of God, before our own interests. When we put the interests of God first, we can receive his grace. When we put the interests of God and others first, we won’t judge others because we will understand that it isn’t our job to do that. When we put God and others first, we won’t be trying to do things for our own benefit, but will be concerned about doing the will of God.

• When we think about sin, we often think about some kind of list of things that we shouldn’t do. Sins are typically defined bad things, and we sin if we do them. This seems particularly true for those of us who come from evangelical or Pentecostal backgrounds. James tells us that this isn’t the only definition of sin. He reminds us that if we know the good that we should do, and don’t do it, it is sin. When we know that there is something good that we should do, we need to do it. If we don’t, it is sin, just the same as if we did something bad. There is no difference to God between sins of omission and sins of commission.

That should give you a feel for what we talked about in our discussion of James chapter 4. Next week we will conclude our look at this short book by focusing on James chapter 5.

Digi Quest 3/24/09

2009-03-24T20:07:00.003-05:00

Digi Quest

Digi Quest 3/24/09

2009-03-24T20:07:00.001-05:00

What should we do? Part III

2009-03-24T09:44:00.002-05:00

At Quest, we have been continuing to discuss the question of what we should be doing if we are really going to be followers of Jesus. We've been using the book of James to help us explore the answer to that question. As we have looked at this question, we have noticed that there really is both an internal and and external response to this question. The internal response to following Jesus is a spiritual response that affects the development of our character and our relationship with God. The external response relates to the world around us and affects our relationship with others and the actions we take in our life. In Part III of our discussion, we looked at James chapter 3. Here is some of what we discussed:

The first part of the chapter talks a lot about the tongue and what we say. It compares the tongue to the rudder of a ship or the bit in the mouth of a horse. A rudder is small compared to the size of the ship. The bit is small compared to the size of the horse. However, both are used for control and steering. It is rudder that guides the ship to where the captain wants it to go. If you can control the rudder, you can control the ship. However, if the rudder is broken, it becomes impossible to make the ship go where you want it to. Similarly, our tongues can help us get to where we want to go in life.

We could all think of times when we said things that caused damage to ourselves or our relationships with others. Sometimes, it's because we intentionally decide to say hurtful things. Other times it's because we were just talking, and something came out. In those cases, there was no hurt intended, but hurt certainly happened. Unfortunately, once you say something, you can't un-say it. It's out there. No matter how hard you reach or grab, you can't get it back. When we don't watch what we say, we can hurt people, and when followers of Jesus hurt people, it can drive them away from Jesus.

So part of our response to following Jesus is going to be controlling what we say externally. This fits in with James' instruction in 1:10 that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. If we can consistently do those things, we should be able to watch what we say. However, this is more difficult than you might think. In fact, James tells us that "If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." (James 3:2). This is because, as Jesus said, it is "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34). As we come closer to Jesus, we should see a change in our character. As our heart changes, what comes out of our mouth should change as well.

In the second half of the chapter, James talks about wisdom. He reminds us that the wisdom from heaven is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. (James 3:17). When we are truly following Jesus, we should see these characteristics showing up in our lives. These should be replacing the wisdom of the world, which is based in bitter envy and selfish ambition. (v. 13-16) This envy and selfish ambition lead to disorder and every evil practice.

As we truly follow after Jesus, we should see our character change. As our character changes, we should see the things that we say and the things that we do start to change, because those things spring from our character.

That should give you a good feel for our conversation about James 3. Next time, we'll take a look at James chapter 4.

Interfering with the mission

2009-03-23T10:51:00.003-05:00

I came across an interesting article by pastor and author Dan Kimball. His church is currently in a sermon series about what a disciple of Jesus should look like. This week, they focused on describing the mission and what a missional disciple should look like. He made this interesting observation:

The more I am studying and being aware of the "church" at large I realize how easy it is to put tradition, personal preferences, style, and denominations over mission. I am not talking about historic, orthodox theology or doctrines over mission as they actually determine the need for mission. I am talking about the passion to do whatever it takes provided it does not compromise Scripture for the sake of the gospel of Jesus impacting people's lives. Personal preference or tradition, or denominations are not bad in themselves at all and have richness and beauty to them. But if they get in the way of mission, they then no longer are beautiful or rich, they can even be death.

I think that it is worth remembering that just because we always do things the same way at our churches, or our personal preferences about how to do things, are not necessarily the only way to do things. In fact, it's even possible that they are not the right way. If our preferences, or if the way our churches always do things get in the way of the mission -- which is to reach the world for Jesus -- then they stop being a beautiful or helpful thing. Instead, they become part of the problem.

There is way too much truth here...

2009-03-22T21:46:00.006-05:00

Thanks to ASBO Jesus.

What should we do? Part II

2009-03-21T23:54:00.002-05:00

At Quest, we have been looking at the question of "what should we do?" If we are really going to be followers of Jesus, what should we be doing? As we have looked at this question, we have noticed that there are two different aspects to the answer. There is a spiritual response to following Jesus that is largely internal and that affects the development of our character and our relationship with God. There is also an aspect of the answer that relates to the world around us. This is largely an external response that will affect our relationship with others and the actions we take in our life. We've started looking at these answers to the question "what should we do?" by looking at the book of James. Recently at Quest, we looked at James chapter 2. Here is some of what we talked about:

In some ways, James 2 is a very easy chapter. It is very straightforward, which means that it doesn't really invite much discussion. What James is saying is very clear. The hard part about James 2 (and much of the book of James, really) is the challenge of putting into practice. It is easy to internally respond with "yeah, but..." The key is to actually put it into practice.

One of the two major topics of the chapter is sin. Sin comes down to one of two things: either doing things that we shouldn't or not doing things that we should. A message that comes through loud and clear is that God doesn't rank sins. People have the tendency to say that some things are worse than others. Murder is considered a "worse" sin than lying. Some sins seem to even become acceptable in churches. Gossip is a good example of this. While most Christians would tell you that gossip is wrong, it is still prevalent in the church because "it's not that bad." But while sins like these are tolerated, other sins are not. Some sins are considered to be so bad that someone who committed that sin would not be welcome in the church. James tells us that this type of thinking is flawed. James 2:10 makes it clear that a sin is a sin. Whoever breaks only one part of God's law is guilty of breaking every part of God's law. God sees every sin is the same. To him gossip is the same as lying, and they are both the same as murder.

James also address the sin of partiality. In the first part of the chapter, James addresses an issue that had become a problem for his readers. They were treating some people who came to their gatherings as better than others. They were showing special favoritism to the rich and important people who came, and they were treating newcomers who were poor badly. While the specific issue was one of treating the rich better than the poor, the general rule James lays down applies in any situation where there are different types of people. James tells us that when we show partiality towards people, we are violating the command to "love our neighbor as our self," and when we do that, we sin. (James 2:8-9). If we treat one group of people better than another group, we are not demonstrating to the group we are treating poorly. We are not loving them as we love ourselves.

What we see is that one of our responses to having a relationship with Jesus is that we will love our neighbors as ourselves. When you think about it, most of the things that the Bible talks about as sins are violations of love toward God or people. In other words, the things that are sinful are the things where we demonstrate that we love ourselves more than God or more than others. If I am showing love toward someone, I won't kill them or steal their things. If I am demonstrating love toward Cheryl, I won't commit adultery. If we can get to the point where we are consistently showing love to everyone, the problem with sin should take care of itself. We won't be committing sin because we won't be violating the love we have toward people and God.

The second major topic in this chapter is the balance between faith and works. James addresses the question of whether or not it is possible to have faith without works. This can be a tricky subject. Too much emphasis on works, or the things we do, leads to the place where we start thinking that we earn our relationship with God. This doesn't match what we see in the Bible about our relationship coming through grace, which is a gift that can't be earned. So the extreme response against the idea of a works-based relationship with God is to rely solely on faith, with no works at all. But James tells us that this kind of faith without works is dead. He says that the way show that we have faith is by the works that we do, or the actions we take.

Faith and belief in God should result in action. We should live out the principles that we learn from Jesus. If we live them out, it should have an effect on the actions we take as we go around in the world we live in. We should be working to make the principles that Jesus taught come to life in the people and the situations around us. If we do that, we will demonstrate to others that our faith is alive, and that should help them to see Jesus.

That sould give you a feel for what we talked about in our discussion of James 2. In the next part of "What should we do?" we will take a look at James 3.

I'm not sure how this happens...

2009-03-20T14:17:00.003-05:00

I came across this article about a woman who gave birth on an international flight from Samoa and New Zealand. Apparently, the woman initially abandoned the baby and then tried to come back for the baby. Both mom and baby are now together and are both doing well in the hospital.

The article states that the "New Zealand Press Association quoted an unnamed Auckland Airport staffer saying it was not known if other passengers and crew on the Pacific Blue flight from Samoa noticed the woman was in labor."

Now, just a few weeks ago, I witnessed the labor and delivery process. It's kind of loud and kind of messy. It's something that you would notice if it were going on around you. How could the other passengers and crew not know that this lady was having a baby? One would think that somebody would have seen or heard something.

I'm also not sure how you can leave a baby behind on the plane. It's not quite like forgetting your book in the seat pocket. Again, one would think that somebody would have said to the much-less-pregnant looking woman, "hey, ma'am, I think you're forgetting something."

What should we do? Part I

2009-03-19T14:39:00.002-05:00

At Quest, we recently started a series on the book of James. As we began the series, we started with the question of what we should be doing if we are really going to be followers of Jesus. There really are two aspects to this the answer to this question. There is an internal spiritual respons to following Jesus that will affect our character and our relationship with God. There is also an external response that will affect our relationships with others and actions we take in our lives.

In James chapter 1, we can begin to see both types of responses that should take place when we have a relationship with Jesus. James address both the internal spiritual response and the actions we should begin to take among others in the world around us. Here are some of the things that we discussed:

• We see the spiritual actions we should be taking when James says things like in verse 21, when he tells us that we should but away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. In verse 27 he tells us to remain unstained by the world. These are internal changes. Before we come to know Jesus, filthiness and wickedness are often parts of our lives. This is because the culture of the world teaches us to put ourselves first, and if doing things that make ourselves happy bothers or causes problems for other people, well that’s just too bad for them. These attitudes of the world have the tendency to stain us and to affect us, even if we are trying to be a good person. Once we decide to follow Jesus, we should have a change of character and attitude. We should put aside this selfishness and the filthy and wicked attitudes that culture teaches us are normal.

• We see the external actions we should be taking when James says things like in verse 27 when he says that “Religion that is undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the widows and the orphans in their affliction. . .” Doing things for others, even when it is not in our best interests, is part of what it means to follow Jesus. In the society of the 1st Century, the man of the house was the principle (and usually the only) bread winner. If something happened to him, the family was left without a way to support itself until a son was able to provide for the rest of the family. This means that the “widow and the orphans” where people who were essentially helpless. James is telling us that, as followers of Jesus, we should be taking care of the people who are helpless. It is when we do this that we have a “religion that is undefiled before God.”

• This leads to some tension, however. In our culture there are widows and orphans and others who are helpless. At the same time, there are also people who aren’t helpless, but are lazy and are looking for others to take care of themselves. While James clearly says that we have the responsibility to take care of others, it is also clear from the New Testament that people do have a personal responsibility to try to avoid being a burden on others. This causes some tension because it leads to the question of how we help without enabling the lazy or the people who just want to take advantage of others. This is a particularly difficult line to draw in our culture where we don’t have the same time of easily identifiable classes that are literally helpless. This is a difficult area with no easy answers.

• James reminds us that we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Far too often followers of Jesus have the reputation for doing this exactly backwards. We have the reputation of being slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger, especially when it comes to people who don’t know Jesus. A week ago we talked about how the earliest followers of Jesus had the favor of all of the people. When you do these things, it is easy to see how this is the case. When you are quick to listen and slow to speak, you are going to develop relationships with people. Once those relationships develop, people will be willing to listen to what you have to say, even if they initially disagree. Far too often, followers of Jesus simply tell people what they should do or think, rather than building the kind of relationships that will make people truly listen to and care about what we have to say.

• James also tells us that we need to be doers of the word, not just hearers. In fact, he compares people who only hear the message of Jesus but don’t put it into action to a person who looks in the mirror then immediately forgets what they looked like. The words and actions of Jesus and the contents of the Bible should be a mirror. They show us what we look like (or at least what we should look like) when we choose to follow Jesus. They give the picture of how we should live and what our relationships with God and others should look like. However, if we only listen, even if we say we believe it, but don’t actually put it into action, then it is as if we forgot who we are. We have forgotten what a follower of Jesus should look like and what they should do. The fact that we have heard the message of Jesus, and even the fact that we have believed it, become meaningless if we don’t put it into action.

Digi Quest 3/17/09

2009-03-17T20:16:00.000-05:00

Digi Quest

2009-03-10T20:06:00.001-05:00

Quest Live Blog

DigiQuest - March 3, 2009

2009-03-03T17:11:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog

Quest Live Blog 2/24/09

2009-02-24T19:45:00.000-06:00

Quest Cover It Live

Quest Live Blog 2/17/09

2009-02-17T20:04:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog

Feb - 10 - 09 Quest Live Blog

2009-02-10T20:44:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog

Quest Live Blog 2/3/09

2009-01-27T20:54:00.001-06:00

Quest Live Blog

Quest Live Blog 1/27/09

2009-01-27T20:10:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog

Quest Live Blog 1/20/09

2009-01-20T20:09:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog 1/13/09

2009-01-13T16:32:00.001-06:00

Quest Live Blog 1/6/09

2009-01-06T20:17:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog 12/30/08

2008-12-30T20:03:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog Dec. 9th

2008-12-09T20:23:00.001-06:00

Quest Live Blog Dec. 2

2008-12-02T19:19:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog Nov. 25th

2008-11-25T18:34:00.001-06:00

Quest Live Blog Nov. 18th

2008-11-18T20:20:00.000-06:00

Quest Live Blog Nov. 11th

2008-11-11T19:25:00.000-06:00

Quest Meeting Nov. 4th

2008-11-04T19:03:00.000-06:00

Youth Specialties Pittsburgh - Saturday

2008-11-01T22:47:00.004-05:00

Today was a good day. I spent most of it in and around the various prayer spaces provided by YS. Andy and I are working as volunteers in the Labyrinth this weekend. I had two shifts today, and it was an amazing experience. My first shift was during the morning's general session. Yesterday was not very busy. There was never any kind of a backlog. Since it was a general session, I figured most people would be in listening to Francis Chan speak, so I guess that it would be more of the same. Acutally, it was busier than either of the sessions I worked on Friday.

But that was nothing compared to my afternoon shift, which was during the time between the afternoon seminars and the evening general session. When I walked in, the labyrinth was full. There were two people at most of the stations and three at at least one or two. There were 6 people waiting to start, and there were 4 people on the sign up sheet to start in the next 15 minutes. It was crazy.

What I learned pretty quickly is that busy is better. And not just because it makes time go by faster. It is incredible to watch the people who go through the labyrinth. I don't think that I have ever been a part of something where people have so consistently had incredible experiences with God. I get to watch people from the time they walk into the door, through the time they are at the prayer stations, up to the time that they leave. I get to see countenances lifted. I get to see people lift their hands in worship. I get to see them shed tears as they work with God. I get to watch as burdens are lifted. I literally get to watch as people are changed because of their experience with God. It's just incredible. Thanks YS for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Between the my two shifts in the labyrinth, I spent some time on my own in the Prayer Chapel. One of the things I spent a lot of time praying about before coming to Pittsburgh is that God would provide some guidance for Quest for the coming year. I certainly don't know everything yet, after after my time in prayer today, I feel like I have a lot more clarity. Keep watching here for details.

Phyllis Tickle was the general session speaker today. I was fortunate enough to see her in Atlanta last year and was blown away. I blogged about that session here, and I was part of a discussion of her talk here. I also read her book The Great Emergence. I think she's fantastic, but I wasn't quite as blown away this time around. However, let's be honest, a big part of that is because it wasn't a new idea to me this time. While there was a bunch that was new (or at least different) from her talk in Atlanta last year, it is very similar to her book. Still, it was good stuff to think about.

Tomorrow I don't have any shifts in the labyrinth. I get to be a participant all day. I'm not sure I'm excited about that...

Youth Specialties Pittsburgh - Friday

2008-10-31T23:49:00.003-05:00

I spent most of today in and around the Labyrinth. Those of us who are volunteering to work there got to be the first participants to go through it this morning before it officially opened. As always, it was great. I think it's really cool how each time I pray the labyrinth something different sticks out to me. Today it was the station called "Outward Journey." "Outward Journey" comes right after time that is dedicated to just spending time with God and taking communion. It discusses the importance of taking that experience with us as we go out into the world and using it to affect the world for God. It sort of matched up with things I've been thinking and questions I've been pondering about the direction for Quest in the next year. The actual convention hadn't started yet, and God was already beginning to speak to me. That's awesome.

After finishing the labyrinth myself, I started working. As a volunteer, my job is to make sure that everything in the labyrinth is running smoothly and to give participants some instructions and answer their questions. Because most people weren't here yet, the morning session was very quiet. It is really cool to be involved in the "Soul Care" department of the convention. Youth Specialties puts an emphasis on giving people the time, space and opportunity to strengthen themselves spiritually.It's awesome to be even a small part of that. The most fun is talking to participants after they are leaving. Many are completely blown away by the experience that they have just had with God. It's great to see God at work in the lives of others. I am so thankful for the opportunity to volunteer and be a part of it.

I worked two shifts in the labyrinth. Between them was the first General Session. It was fantastic. Joe Castillo did some more of his sand art. This time, he used it to tell the story of the Prodigal Son. It was awesome. Check out the link. It'll be 9:20 well spent. Then Starfield lead worship. I love Starfield. I'm glad there here for the first couple of days of the convention. The speaker for the session was Mike Pilavachi. He was great. To me at least, he is a very entertaining speaker. He's British, and since I generally love the British sense of humor, I found him hilarious. He touched on a variety of topics, but the big one was about helping people to grow the way Jesus did. Jesus sent out the disciples and allowed them to make mistakes. Then he made sure they learned the lessons from the mistakes. The lesson for us is that we have to release people before they are ready. People learn to be good by being given the freedom to be bad. To often, we want people to be perfect before we give them the opportunity to try. Of course, then how can they ever be perfect, since they don't have the opporunity to practice and try things out...

Youth Specialties Pittsburgh - Thursday & Friday Pictures

2008-10-31T23:31:00.008-05:00

Youth Specialties Pittsburgh - Thursday

2008-10-31T23:19:00.002-05:00

This is the first time that I've ever been at the National Youth Workers Convention on a Thursday. The main convention always starts on Friday afternoon, but there are early bird events on Thursday. I have to say, it's a different place. Much quieter and more sedate.

Andy and I got here at about 9:00 a.m. this morning after driving through the night. We weren't able to leave the Chicago area until 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. We had to be here by 10:00 a.m. Thursday to work on the set up of the Prayer Chapel and Labyrinth. We were a little tired on the drive, but there were no problems or safety hazards. When we got to Pittsburgh, we parked the car across the street from our hotel. Then we walked into the lobby to ask when we would be able to check in. They told us that we could have our room right away, which was very cool. It was even cooler when we opened the door. The room is HUGE. It's bigger than most studio apartments that I've ever been in.

After checking in, we walked the 3 or so blocks to the convention center and met the team that we are going to be working with. It's a great group of people. We worked hard at the set up. Everything went up quickly, and it looks really good. There are a lot of cool areas and stations in the Prayer Chapel. I'll post some pictures in my next entry. I think my favorite area is the one with the paralytic's mat. We created a "hole" in the ceiling, and there is a mat on the floor with ropes running up to the "hole." It's a place that can encourage prayers for healing or faith, and contemplation about who you would go through the trouble of lowering through a roof or who would be willing to lower you through a roof. Very cool. I can't wait to see everything tomorrow when everything is lit for ambiance and it is all in use.

Youth Specialties, Day -1

2008-10-29T20:52:00.001-05:00

It’s been a busy day today, and it will be a long night. Andy and I are volunteering to help in the Soul Care department, which includes the Prayer Labyrinth and the Prayer Chapel. We’re really excited about it. However, we need to be there at 10:00 a.m. Pittsburgh time on Thursday morning. That’s a little bit of a problem, because the earliest flight we could take would get to the Pittsburgh airport, which is a long way from down town, a little after 9:00. We aren’t sure that we would be there in time, especially if there were any kind of weather delay. But Andy can’t leave until after Frontline tonight, which means we won’t be on our way until 9:30 or 10:00 tonight, at the earliest. And that means lots of late night driving.

This is going to be a great weekend. We’re really excited. We’re excited to help out. We’re excited to be going to the convention. We’re excited to spend time with God and each other as we plan for the next year. Keep us in prayer this weekend. Pray for safety while travelling. Pray for our wives and babies (newborn or unborn). And pray that God will meet with us and help us plan for next year.

You can follow what’s going on all weekend. I’ll be blogging about it here. Andy will be blogging about it here. You can read the Frontline or Quest twitters, and you can follow the live blogs from the General Sessions at www.nywc.com/live.

Have a great weekend.

2008-10-28T19:59:00.001-05:00

It starts small

2008-10-26T09:35:00.004-05:00

Last week at Quest, we continued our discussion of the Kingdom of God, especially the parables from Matthew 13 that Jesus begins with the phrase "the Kingdom of Heaven is like..." This time we looked at two similar parables that Jesus told together. He compares the Kingdom of Heave to a mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32) and to yeast (Matt. 13:33). These are similar parables, but the differences between the two help us to see some slightly different aspects of the Kingdom. Here is some of what we discussed about these parables:

Both a mustard seed and yeast are very small. Mustard seeds were the smallest plant seeds known to First Century farmers. Similarly, you only need a few grains of yeast in order to make a large loaf of bread rise. So both of these start small but create something or have an impact this is much, much larger.

The impact of the Kingdom of Heaven should be visible to others. While a mustard seed is the smallest garden seed, it creates a plant that can grow to be 10 feet tall. If you think of a garden being planted behind a house, you would be able to see the tops of the mustard plant from in front of the house. There would be no hiding that it was being grown. The Kingdom of Heaven should have that kind of impact in our lives. If we have a relationship with Jesus, the effects of the Kingdom should be apparent in our lives. Even if we wanted to try to hide it in the "back yard" of our lives, it should be visible to everyone.

The Kingdom of Heaven should be useful and beneficial to others. Jesus tells us that once the mustard plant has grown, the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. (Matt. 13:32). Outsiders, who have no direct connection with the Kingdom of Heaven, can receive a benefit from it. And this impact should extend beyond simply other people who are themselves connected to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is interesting to note that Ezekiel uses the phrase "birds of the air" to refer to Gentiles, who would be people who did not know God. Therefore, when the Kingdom of Heaven is working is us, and when we are operating within it, it should have a positive impact on people who do not yet know God.

Once the Kingdom of Heaven starts its work, you can't stop it. Once you plant the seed, it is going to grow. Short of cutting the plant down, there is nothing that the gardener can do to keep the plant from growing, or to make sure that it only grows 3 feet high. This idea is even more evident in the Parable of the Yeast. Once a person starts mixing yeast into dough, the process can't be stopped. That person can't remove the yeast. They can't contain it to only one part of the bread. The yeast works its way into the entire loaf. Similarly, the Kingdom of Heaven should work its way into all parts of our lives.

That should give you a feel for our discussion of the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast. next week, we will continue to move through Matthew 13 by looking at the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl.

Parable of the Sower

2008-10-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

Recently at Quest, we started looking at the idea of the kingdom of God and discussing what that encompasses and what it means for the way we live our lives. Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at Matthew 13, because in that chapter Jesus tells six different stories that begin with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like.” Before we turned to those stories, however, we took at look at the Parable of the Sower that begins the chapter. Since Jesus uses this story to introduce his parables about the kingdom of heaven, we felt like this was a good place to start. Here is some of what we discussed:

· This is one of the few parables where Jesus gives an explanation. After telling the story to the crowd, Jesus turns to his disciples and provides an explanation. He compares the four types of soils to the different ways that people respond when they encounter the message about the kingdom of God. Some people don’t get it. Some people initially like it, but when things get tough, or people give them a hard time, they give it up. Some people initially receive it, but then the distractions of the world choke it out and take its place. Others receive it and create a harvest that is greater than the seed they received. Part of the reason why Jesus puts this parable here, before his stories about the kingdom of heaven, is because these are the four ways in which people are going to respond to parables he is about to tell.

· There is one major element in this story that Jesus does not explain – the farmer. Clearly Jesus is the farmer in that chapter. He is going to be telling people about the kingdom of heaven, so he is the one who is about to be scattering the seed. However, Jesus is not the only person who is the farmer. Any time that we are spreading the kingdom of heaven, whether by words or by actions, we become the farmer. When we live out the kingdom, or when we tell people about the difference that Jesus has made in our lives, we start spreading seeds. In that case, we are the farmer and the people who hear us or see us are the different kinds of soils.

· One thing that is not directly discussed in the story, but is probably assumed by Jesus’ audience, is that the farmer would have done some work to prepare the field. A farmer doesn’t just scatter seed in random places. Instead, there is a lot of work that is done before the planting begins. Similarly, there is likely work for us to do to prepare the fields where we scatter seeds.

· The farmer’s job is to scatter the seed, not to make the seeds grow. The farmer doesn’t know exactly where each seed is going to land or exactly what kind of ground it is going to find. Once the farmer releases the seed, it becomes God’s job to make the seed grow. When we are the farmer, it is important that we don’t prejudge what kind of soil a person is. It is our job to scatter the seed by living out what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, both in words and in actions. Once we do that, it is God who makes that seed grow in someone else’s life.

· When Jesus tells the parable of the farmer, he is speaking to a large crowd of people. The image is that they are sitting on a hill side (1st Century stadium seating!) while Jesus is sitting on a boat with his disciples. He tells the parable to the crowd, using his public speaking voice. However, the explanation is given only to the disciples, who were probably in the boat with him, or else would have been right on shore. So this explanation was given in his conversation voice. I think one of the reasons why Jesus speaks in parables is to encourage people to get closer to him. The closer someone is to the boat, the more likely they will hear the explanation. When we don’t fully understand something, like many people must have felt listening to Jesus’ parables, we can have one of two reactions. Either we can walk away, or else we can go talk to the person and ask questions so we understand better. Jesus doesn’t just want to give people information. If that’s what he wanted to do, he wouldn’t speak in parables. Instead, he wants them to initiate a relationship with him. By speaking in parables, he encourages people to come to him and ask questions and find out more about him.

Those are the highlights of our discussion of the Parable of the Sower. Next week we will turn to the parables describing the kingdom of heaven that Jesus begins to tell later in Matthew 11. I hope everyone is well. As always, if there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to let me know.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Near

2008-10-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

Recently at Quest, we started to explore a new topic. We had been looking at the idea of forgiveness and discussing the importance of forgiveness between ourselves and God and between ourselves and others. The last aspect of that topic we discussed was the idea of repentance. Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached the message “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 3:2 and 4:17) Over the next several weeks, we are going to be discussing what all this idea of the “kingdom of heaven” or the “kingdom of God” encompasses. Here is some of what we talked about as we introduced this idea:

· The word “near” is interesting because it has a couple of different meanings. It can refer to either location or time. Both of those are relevant when thinking about the “kingdom of God.” We can really think in terms of there being two aspects to the “kingdom.” There is the part that is coming in the future when the followers of Jesus will be together with him for eternity. There also is the aspect of living out the message of Jesus in the world around us. The future that we will spend with Jesus is heaven is “near” in the sense of time. It is coming, and (at least in comparison to eternity) it is coming soon. And the way we represent Jesus and live out his message here on earth is “near” in terms of location because it is all around us.

· It is important to remember and to balance these two different meanings of “near.” We need to both be prepared for the future kingdom and to live out the message of Jesus here on earth. Focusing primarily (or exclusively) on one or the other can lead to real problems. If our primary emphasis is on the future kingdom, we run the risk of not really living out the message of Jesus here on earth. It can become easy to ignore issues of injustice that were obviously important to Jesus when he was alive. At the same time, if we put too much emphasis on the kingdom in this world, we run the risk of creating a very legalistic form of Christianity that looks only at whether or not a person is doing the right things, and checking the right boxes, and doesn’t look at the heart. We need a balanced view of the kingdom of God that recognizes the kingdom both in this world and in the next.

· When going back to the Greek expressions that are translated as “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of Heaven” imply that there are a couple of different aspects to the definition. In one sense, the kingdom of God is made up of everywhere that God is sovereign, which means that it is everywhere. At the same time, there are people who are in rebellion against God. So the “kingdom of God” can also be used to refer to those places where the sovereignty of God is recognized; that is, in the lives of those who follow God. To illustrate this distinction, I used the example of the Civil War. According to the Union, it was not possible for a state to leave the U.S.A., so the Confederacy was still part of the United States. However, because of the rebellion, the authority of the United States was only recognized in the North. Similarly, while God is sovereign everywhere, we will really only see his kingdom operating among the people who want to follow him.

· The ideas of repentance and the kingdom of God go together. In fact, both Jesus and John give the nearness of the kingdom of God as the reason to repent. As we talked about last week, repenting involves turning away from the old life and going in a new direction. This goes hand in hand with the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God operates on different principles and has different priorities than the rest of the world. When we choose to become a part of the kingdom of God, we need to realign our principles and priorities with those of the kingdom. In order to do this, we need to turn away from, or repent from, our old way of looking at the world. It is only when we do this that we can become an effective part of the kingdom of God.
Over the next several weeks, we will begin to explore these principles and priorities of the kingdom of God, and we will see how Jesus intends for this kingdom to operate.

Forgiveness and Repentance

2008-10-21T07:43:00.000-05:00

Recently at Quest, we continued our discussion about forgiveness. This time we look at the story of John the Baptist from Matthew 3:1-12 and Luke 3:1-18. This is the story where John is baptizing people before Jesus begins his ministry. He is telling people to repent and be baptized. While this is going on, many of the Pharisees come out to see him from Jerusalem, and John doesn’t have very kind words to say to them. In this story, we see the idea of repentance added to the forgiveness picture. Here is some of what we talked about along those lines:

· We started with a discussion about what repentance means. Repent and repentance are words that used to be commonly used, but now basically only are used within the context of church. The words mean to turn away from. They have a meaning similar to retreat, but where retreat implies (particularly in a military sense) that someone had to or was forced to go back, repenting is voluntary. The idea is one of intentionally turning your back on something and going the other way.

· If we repent from a sin or something we do wrong, the idea is that we realize that it is wrong and we don’t want to do it again. We turn the other way. This idea goes hand in hand with forgiveness, particularly when we are asking for forgiveness. If we ask for forgiveness, we should be wanting to turn away from what we did wrong and not do it again. If we can’t do that, we have to ask whether or not we are really sorry for what we have done.

· When we come to God, repentance is more than just turning away from our specific sins. It involves changing our very way of living life. We can see this in the Luke version of the story, where the tax collectors and soldiers (among other) ask John how they should live now that they have changed their lives. John gives them ideas on how to change things. For example, he tells tax collectors to not collect any money they don’t have to, and he tells soldiers to not extort money or give false testimony. So developing a relationship with God, and the repentance that comes with that, leads us to live our lives differently than we did before.

· The Pharisees who came out from Jerusalem appear to have no interest in repentance or changing their lives. They don’t come across as being willing to do anything different, and John calls them out on it. This is important because the Pharisees would have been seen in society as the people who had their act together spiritually. However, what John is saying that that, no matter what their background and no matter how much they appear to be religious, everyone should respond to God and his message by displaying repentance in their lives.

We also used this story to wrap up our discussions about forgiveness and to bridge to the next topic. John tells his listeners to repent because the kingdom of God is near. Over the next several weeks we are going to take a look at what the kingdom of God is and what that idea means for our lives.

Forgiving like God

2008-09-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

At Quest recently, we’ve been discussing forgiveness. One of the stories that we’ve looked it is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35). In this story, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother who sins against him. Up to seven times? Jesus responds by saying “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22). Jesus then tells the story of a servant who has his own huge debt cancelled, but won’t cancel the smaller debt a fellow servant owed him. In this story, we can see forgiveness working in several different directions. Here is some of what we talked about:

· Peter thinks he is being generous when he offers to forgive someone 7 times. If you think about it, from a human perspective this does seem generous. If the same person does the same thing to you 7 times, and you forgive them each time, then most people are going to think that you have gone far beyond the call of duty. Jesus responds by say that when you reach that point, you’ve only begun. We need to continue to forgive. This is hard to do. But this can also be encouraging because it also means that no matter how many times we sin against God, if we repent he is willing to continue to forgive us.

· We can see two sets of relationships in this story. First, there is the relationship between the servant and his king. This is similar to the relationship between us and God. There is also the relationship between the servant and his fellow servant. That is similar to the relationship between us and other people. So in this story, we can see how forgiveness works both vertically (between us and God) and horizontally (between us and other people).

· The debt we owe God is far beyond our ability to every repay. The servant owed the king millions of dollars. Yet the average worker only made a few dollars per day. There is no possible way that the servant could have made enough money to repay the king. Similarly, the damage caused in the relationship between us and God that is caused by our sin is beyond our ability to repair. We can’t possibly repay that debt.

· The servant asked for a payment plan. He went to the king and asked for time to pay the debt back. The king responded by erasing the debt altogether. Often, what we are looking for with God is to develop a way to repay the debt we owe him. But God doesn’t work that we. He doesn’t need us to repay the debt or to earn forgiveness. He gives it to us for free. Sometimes this can cause us problems because we don’t feel like we deserve forgiveness. It is human nature to want to do something to “earn” God’s forgiveness. But the truth is, we can’t. The debt is so big, there is nothing we can do to earn it. The only way for it to happen is for it to be something God just does.

· The servant was owed 100 denarii by a fellow servant. At that time, a denarii was a day’s wages. Compared to what the servant owed the king, this was a very small amount of money. On the other hand, it would be between 3 and 4 month’s salary. This is still a significant amount of money, although it is an amount that a person could conceivably pay back. It is clearly something that a person would miss, and not being paid back would hurt. The lesson here is that we need to forgive others when they hurt us, even when there is real hurt. Even if, from a human standpoint, the person doesn’t deserve our forgiveness, we should respond by being forgiving because God has forgiven us so much.

· God’s forgiveness of us is conditional. What is interesting is that it isn’t conditional on us not doing things in the future that need forgiveness. It isn’t conditional on us being good. It isn’t conditional on anything involved in our relationship with God. It is conditional on us forgiving others. Because we have received forgiveness, our natural response should be to offer forgiveness to others.

This story is both encouraging and challenging. The story is encouraging because it shows us how forgiving God is toward us. He is willing to forgive our debts that are far beyond our ability to ever repay, and he offers this forgiveness without requiring us to do anything to earn it. And it is encouraging because he is willing to forgive us repeatedly. However, it is challenging because he asks us to live up to the same standards. It is challenging because it sets a very high standard for us when it comes to forgiving others. It can be hard to continue to forgive people who sin against us. It can be hard to forgive people who hurt us badly. But we have the responsibility to forgive in those circumstances.

The mindset of new college freshmen

2008-08-19T08:43:00.001-05:00

It’s that time of year again. Every August, Beloit College publishes the Mindset List. The list provides set of things that are, and often have always been, true for people who are entering college that year. The goal of the Mindset list is to provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of students who are beginning college. To the rest of us, it also serves as a reminder of the changing frame of reference of the younger generation. Here are some highlights from this year’s list:

· The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

· It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

· Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

· Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.

· Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.

· GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.

· Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

· Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.

· Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.

· WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.

· Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.

· Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.

· Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.

· IBM has never made typewriters.

· Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.

· There has always been Pearl Jam.

· The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

· They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.

· Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.

· Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.

· Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.

· Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.

· Caller ID has always been available on phones.

· Soft drink refills have always been free.

· Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.

· Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.

· The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.

· Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.

· Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.

You can read the whole list here.

The full extent of humility

2008-08-10T19:35:00.002-05:00

Last week at Quest we continued our discussion about humility. This time, we looked at a couple of well known stories. First we talked about Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and then we discussed Jesus feeding of the 5,000. While these stories are talked about often, we don't always look at them from the perspective of humility. However, once you start thinking about how you can see humility in action in these stories, you can see it at work on several levels.

Here is some of what we talked about:

Jesus is humble in the way that he responds to his mother's request. When Mary learns that the wedding feast is out of wine, she knows that Jesus can take care of the problem. Jesus responds by asking why she has come to him because his time had not yet come. (John 2:4). While he seems to be indicating that it isn't time for him to start his public ministry yet, he honors his mothers request. This demonstrates humility because he is willing to do what Mary asks, even though it might not match his timing for doing things publicly.

This is a big miracle. Jesus isn't just turning a pitcher of water into wine. He has the servants fill 6 jars, each holding between 20 and 30 gallons. In other words, he is creating somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. Yet he does it very quietly. The only people who knew what had happened were Jesus, Mary, the servants who filled the water jars, and Jesus' disciples. Almost no one even knew that there was a problem with the wine running out, let alone that the problem had been fixed. Even if he didn't want to actually broadcast the miracle, Jesus could easily have said something like "I've got this taken care of, you don't need to worry about it any more." That is what a lot of people would have done. It is easy to want people to know what we have done, even if we don't want them to make a big deal about it. But that isn't being humble. Jesus shows true humility. He doesn't even create a miracle that everyone will know about, even if they don't know who did it. Instead, he takes care of the problem in a way that no one will recognize what actually happened.

In the feeding of the 5,000, we see a similar thing. Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fish, and very quietly turns them into enough food to feed everyone. He doesn't announce what he is doing. He doesn't tell the people who are eating where the food came from. It is only the disciples (and possibly only Philip and Andrew) and the boy who donated the lunch that knew what was going on. We again see Jesus not trying to take any kind of credit for the miracle. Instead, he performs the miracle in a way that people won't know what he had done.

Jesus even goes one step further. Once the people figured out what Jesus had done, they recognized that he must be "the Prophet who is to come into the world," and they wanted to make him a king by force. (John 6:14-15). Jesus responds to this by running away from the crowd and withdrawing to a mountain by himself. Here we see humility taken to the extreme. Jesus isn't just trying to avoid public attention for his miracle. When the people respond by trying to force honor on him, he doesn't let them. Often, even when we try to be humble, when people try to make a big deal out of what we have done, we eventually respond by saying "yeah, you're right. It is kind of a big deal." We allow people to give us honor, even though we weren't actually looking for it. Jesus demonstrates the ultimate in humility by refusing even that honor.

Jesus doesn't just act humbly. He is humble. When he does big, impressive miracles, he isn't looking for credit or honor from people. Even when people try to give him that honor anyway, he still refuses it.

Often, even when we are acting humbly, we are still hoping that someone will notice what we have done and to give us some credit for it. The truth is, as long as we are hoping that we will receive credit, even if we aren't actively trying to get it, we are not truly being humble. Yet if we are trying to be like Jesus, we should try to be humble like he was humble. And that means not caring about whether or not we receive credit for the things we have done.

Being saved from our sins

2008-08-07T07:41:00.003-05:00

I've started reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book, and I really like it. I'll blog more completely about it once I'm done, but there was something I read just as my train was pulling into the station this morning that really struck me.

He said, "Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin." (Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: David C. Cook), p. 68.)

This got me thinking about the difference between being saved from our sins and being saved from the penalty of our sins. The American Evangelical church often puts the emphasis on Jesus' work in taking on himself the penalty for the sins of everyone. It is clear from the Bible that Jesus did this, and that if we have faith in Jesus we no longer have to pay the penalty for our sins.

I think that the problem comes when we begin to think that the penalty is the only thing the Bible means when it says that Jesus will "save his people from their sins." There is so much more to it than that. Being saved from the penalty of sin is certainly a part, but only a part. It also implies that we will be saved from committing the sins in the first place. It means that we will be saved from the consequences in the next world, but it also means that we will be saved from the consequences of our sins in this world.

Too often, followers of Christ focus almost exclusively on getting to heaven and how wonderful it will be once we get there. When we do that, it becomes easy to forget that we should be having an impact on the world we are living in, here and now. If we are truly following Jesus, we should try to do everything we can to erase the affects of sin in the world we are currently living in, not just in the next one.

Ice cream flavor or band?

2008-08-06T05:48:00.005-05:00

Here's a little fun for your morning. I came across this quick little 10-question quiz. It will provide you with a name, and all you have to do is guess whether it is the name of a discontinued flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream or the name of a band that can be found on Myspace. I got 50% right. You can take the quiz here.

Enjoy.

It's a crime I tell you

2008-08-05T10:27:00.002-05:00

According to this article, Reginald Peterson recently walked in to a Jacksonville, Florida, Subway restaurant and ordered a spicy Italian sandwich. The worker preparing his sandwich aparently forgot to include the sauce. Peterson must have thought that this was a crucial part of his sandwich. So he did what anyone in his position would do.

He called 911.

He demanded that officers come to the restaurant and force the workers to make his sandwich correctly. Amazingly, the police did not hurry to Subway to address the situation. So Peterson did what anyone else would do.

He called 911. Again.

This time police did show up. They tried to calm Peterson down and explain the proper use of 911. When that effort failed, Peterson was arrested for making false 911 calls.

I'm not sure which is more incredible to me, the fact that somebody actually thought "I can't believe they messed up my order; I'm going to call the police," or the fact that the police actually showed up.

Not a means to an end

2008-08-04T10:18:00.003-05:00

At Quest recently, we have been talking about humility. It is kind of a difficult topic. We all recognize humility when we see it in others. But putting humility into practice in our own life is more difficult. Sure, we can take actions displaying humility, but acting humbly and being humble aren’t quite the same.

One of the reasons, and perhaps even THE reason, why God values humility is because God himself is humble. God, the creator of the universe, could certain demand that people follow his will. In fact, he could force us to if he wanted. But he is humble enough to allow us to choose whether or not we want to follow him. I can think of no greater display of humility.

Similarly, Jesus displays humility throughout his life. At the very beginning of his ministry, when he was at the wedding in Cana, his mother knows that he has the power from God to solve the problem with the lack of wine. Yet Jesus is reluctant to display that power. When he does become involved, he does it in the way that will result in the least uproar and attention to himself.

Just a few chapters later, after the feeding of the 5,000, the people want to make Jesus into a king. Not only is this not what Jesus wants, John 6:15 tells us that he went to a mount all by himself so that the people wouldn’t be able to do it.

We can also see this humility in the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. This point is particularly driven home when John tells us that Jesus took this action at the moment when he know that God had put all things under his power(John 13:3). Jesus is aware of his power, and it is at that moment that he acts humbly.

When we discuss humility, we often focus on the rewards of humility. For example, there are several places where Jesus tells us that those who humble themselves will be exalted, and both James and Peter tell us that if we humble ourselves, then God will lift us up. However, as soon as we start focusing on the rewards, humility simply becomes a means to an end. People want to be exalted, and they see acting humbly as the way to get to that end within the kingdom of God.

I am convinced that this kind of thinking misses the point. Humility isn’t a means to an end. It is the end itself. A truly humble person doesn’t care about being exalted. That kind of attention and recognition is something that others do. The humble person isn’t looking for it, and is probably embarrassed when it happens. Someone who is trying to be exalted by being humble isn’t really being humble. We shouldn’t be trying to be humble so that we can be exalted. Instead, we should be trying to be humble because Jesus is humble, and our goal should be to try to be as much like Jesus as possible. If we are successful, we will be exalted because we have become more Christ-like. However, at that point we won’t care about it because humble people aren’t interested in personal honor or glory.

Not just a problem somewhere else

2008-07-29T12:38:00.002-05:00

I came across this article from CNN today that paints a pretty bleak picture about AIDS in the African American community here in the United States.

Because of the availability of drugs to fight the disease and the understanding of how the disease is spread, it is easy to think of AIDS as a disease that really is only a problem someplace else. And it is the crisis in Africa that grabs most of the media attention. While the Church was later than it should have been when it comes to helping to ease the suffering of the victims of AIDS and those left behind when a victim dies, now that the Church has become involved, it is doing some significant things. Groups like Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and World Vision are doing some very good work trying to help deal with the effects of AIDS.

But all of the attention and the ministry effort seems to be targeted at Africa. Because of this, it is easy to underestimate the problems that still exist here at home. The reality is that AIDS is just as serious a problem among African Americans as it is in places in Africa. According to 2006 figures from the Centers for Disease Control, 50% of all people in the United States with AIDS are black, even though African Americans make up only 1/8th of the population. AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women age 25-34 and the second leading cause of death for African American men age 35-44.

In Washington, D.C., 80% of all HIV cases are among African Americans. All told, 5% of the population of Washington, D.C., is HIV positive. Put another way, if you take 20 random people from Washington, 1 of them will be HIV positive. That infection rate is comparable to the rates in Uganda or South Africa. Let those figures sink in for a second. They are astounding.

It is a good thing that the followers of Christ are trying to make an impact on the crisis caused by AIDS in Africa. Some people will argue that Christians were late in stepping up to the plate. While that may be true, to me that is all water under the bridge at this point. We can’t change the past, but Christians are involved now and are trying to make a difference both today and in the future. That’s great. However, followers of Christ can’t simply focus our efforts on AIDS issues in Africa. While AIDS may be problem in Africa, it isn’t an African problem. It is a problem that touches, in a very similar way, at least some groups of people much closer to home. It is time for us to get more involved in helping address the problems and ease the suffering here at home, and not just half a world away.

What I've been reading: They Like Jesus But Not The Church

2008-07-08T10:03:00.001-05:00

I just finished Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church. As the title indicates, the book primarily discusses people who have a positive opinion of Jesus, but who have a negative opinion of Christians and the church.

Kimball is the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Calif., a church made up predominantly of twenty-somethings. In an effort to avoid becoming trapped in the bubble of Christian subculture, Kimball spends a significant portion of his time outside of his office meeting and building relationships with people who aren’t part of a church.

What he found, in the course of building those relationships, was that many people, particularly in the college and post-college age group, have very positive impressions of Jesus. They are often very open to discussing Jesus and what he taught and thought. However, they don’t share the same opinions about Christians or the church. When conversations turned to these topics, it became clear that, while they liked what Jesus stood for, they don’t think very highly of the church and don’t really want to be associated with it. Kimball backs up these thoughts using the words of the people he knows and has talked to about these topics.

Kimball spends a significant part of his book discussing a number of recurring complaints or criticisms about the church that he has heard. He recognizes that not all of these perceptions are accurate, and even if they are accurate to some extent, they certainly don’t apply to all followers of Jesus. At the same time, he recognizes that the perceptions are real. If we are going to successfully reach and minister to people who have that mindset, we need to be able to overcome these perceptions.

I particularly like the way that Kimball handles these criticisms. He gives some practical ideas for how we, as Christ followers, can talk to people who raise these issues and address their concerns. Kimball doesn’t level wholesale criticisms at the church, but rather suggests that we ask ourselves questions about how we are perceived and how we go about having an impact on people who have this mindset, particularly those who are in their twenties. If you are of this mindset, or know anyone who is, this book can be a huge asset to you.

I thought that They Like Jesus But Not The Church was excellent. I highly recommend it.

Trust, but verify

2008-05-21T06:23:00.000-05:00

According to this article, the choir from a school from Millbury, Ohio, which is located about 15 miles southeast of Toledo, took a trip to perform in Chicago. The chaparones of the trip were a little concerned with the teenagers leaving their hotel rooms after curfew. Teenagers have certainly been known to do things like that on these kinds of trips. It's natural for schools to want to enforce the curfew to keep the students from getting into mischief. And in a city like Chicago, particularly for students who aren't from big cities, there are safety concerns as well.

The chaperones on this trip decided to take measure to make sure that students wouldn't break curfew and that those who did could be identified. So they sealed the doors to the hotel rooms with duct tape. While this would certainly allow them to identify which rooms had people who violated curfew, they apparently did it in a way that caused students to fear that they wouldn't be able to get out of the room in case of fire.

While school officials claim that students would have been able to break the duct tape and exit the room in case of emergency, at least one set of parents is considering suing over the incident because their son felt like he was trapped in the room.

I have to say, while I applaud the school's efforts to keep its students safe and out of mischief, I'm not sure that this was the best way to go about it.

Loving God and Loving Others

2008-05-18T20:41:00.000-05:00

At Quest, we have spent the first part of this year looking at what God intends for the relationship between God and man to look like. To do that, we’ve looked at a bunch of stories from the Genesis and Exodus. We started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and discussed what God’s Plan A was before sin entered the picture. Then, once sin did enter the picture, we looked at what we can learn from the relationships between God and people like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.

Now we’re turning to the New Testament and changing our focus a little bit. In Mark 12:28, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and, impressed by an answer to a previous question, asked Jesus which commandment was the most important. Jesus responded by saying “‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). The teacher of the law agreed, then added that these two commandments are “more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33). Jesus then responds by noticing that the man answered wisely and by saying “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34).

This last exchange is very interesting. Jesus is saying that these two commandments – loving God and loving others – are more important than anything else. They are more important than all of the rituals that are part of our worship, and they are more important than all of the rules and structures that we set up. Not that those things are unimportant, but they are less important than the commands to love God and love others.

Over the next couple of months, we are going to focus on these two commandments and see what we can learn from them. In one sense, they are very simple. We are instructed to love God and love others. In spite of the fact that they appear simple, they are very important. In fact, in another place where Jesus answered this question, he added that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40). In other words, everything that God commands relates to one of these two items. They are all designed to get us to display love to God and to others.

At the same time, these can be very difficult. What exactly do these commands mean? In English, the word “love” can have a lot of different meanings. So what exactly does “love” mean in this context? How do I show love to God? How do I show love to my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? These are some of the issues we’re going to look at over the coming weeks.

While this has a different focus than our discussions about the relationship between God and people, the topics are clearly related. If we have a relationship with God, then these are the two primary commandments that we should be following. If we are following God, people should see us loving God and loving others. So these topics are going to help us see how we should live out the relationship with God that we have been talking about for the last several months.

Relationships with a big, awe-inspiring God

2008-05-04T20:20:00.001-05:00

At Quest last week, we continued looking at Moses. We skipped ahead to after he had gone Egypt and asked for Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. After God brought the 10 Plagues on Egypt. After Moses let the people out of Egypt. After God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross on dry ground. After all of these things happened, God and Moses led the people of Israel to Mt. Sinai, where God provided the Ten Commandments and the other laws for Israel to follow. We looked at two related stories from Mt. Sinai.

The first one came after God provided the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:18-21 tells us that the people saw the lightning and thunder and smoke when God was talking to Moses and they were afraid. They told Moses “Speak to us yourself. Then we’ll listen. But don’t let God speak to us. If he does, we’ll die.” Moses responded by saying “Don’t be afraid. God has come to put you to the test. He wants you to have respect for him. That will keep you from sinning.” In spite of this, while Moses approached where God was, the people remained a long ways off.

The second story comes after Moses receives all of the laws from God. Exodus 34:29-35 tells us that when Moses would talk with God, his face would shine so that people would be afraid to come near him. Because of that, he would put a veil over his face, and he would keep the veil on until he went to talk to God again.

Here is some of what we talked about concerning these stories:

God can be kind of scary. He is big. He’s hard to understand at times. He’s powerful. He asks people to do things that seem impossible. Because of the, it is easy to understand where the Israelites were coming from and why they were afraid.

Having some level of fear of God is a good thing. As Moses points out, God wants us to respect him. Having some fear of and respect for him will help keep us from sinning. If we truly respect God, we won’t want to do things that hurt him or damage our relationship with him. Think about it this way. Typically, we try to avoid doing things that will hurt our friends or family members. This isn’t because there are rules that we need to follow. We do it because we don’t want to make the people we care about upset or do anything that would damage our relationship with them. Ideally, we shouldn’t avoid sin because sins are a violation of God’s rulebook. We should avoid sin because it damages our relationship with God. The more respect we have for God, the easier that is.

In spite of God’s awesome power and the fear it can create, God wants to have a one-on-one relationship with us. It is us, not God, who uses that to create separation between us. It is the people, not God, who say they can’t come close to God. Moses encourages them to come to God, but the people choose to stay away. Often, we do the same thing. We say “God is too big,” or “God is too powerful,” or “God is too scary,” and so we choose to stay away from him. In those times, we need to remember that we are the ones putting distance between us and God. He is still telling us to come close.

When we spend time with God, it makes a change in us that others can see. For Moses, spending time with God made his face glow. While we might not have exactly that result, there will still be things about us that others notice. When someone has good things going on in their life, particularly things involving God, they do have the ability to metaphorically light up a room when they walk into it. Everything seems brighter and happier when the walk in. Others might not understand exactly what the difference is or exactly what is causing it, but they will notice something about us if we are spending time with God.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about Moses. Next week, we are leaving the Old Testament. We are going to start a series of discussions about what Jesus says are the two greatest commandments.

What a great example

2008-04-30T22:00:00.002-05:00

I came across this story today. It's a fantastic display of good sportsmanship, and could serve as an answer to the man who asked Jesus, "who is my neighbor?"

The women's softball team from Western Oregon was playing conference rival Central Washington. The teams are battling for first place in the conference. The conference champion gets a bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. Neither team has ever been to the tournament before, so it was a huge game.

5' 2" Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky, who entered the game with only 3 hits in 34 at bats this year came up in the second inning with two runners on. She launched the second pitch over the fence for the first home run of her career.

She was so excited about the home run and giving her team the lead that she didn't touch first base. When she stopped to go back to touch it, her knee gave way. The suspect she tore her ACL. She was left laying in a heap by the first base bag.

According to the umpire's interpretation of the rules, if any of her teammates or coaches helped her, she would be out. About the only option would be for her to crawl back to first base, where she could be replaced by a pinch runner. But then her 3-run home run would be turned into a 2-run single.

That's when Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman said, "excuse me." She asked if it would be okay for her to carry her injured opponent. Since it wasn't assistance from a teammate, it was within the rules. So Holtman and another Central Washington player carried Tucholsky around the bases, and let her gingerly touch each base. When they got her to home plate, they handed her off to her waiting teammates and coaches.

In a crucial game against a rival, it would have been easy to stand by and do nothing but think how unlucky Tucholsky was. Doing nothing would have been better for Central Washington. But ding nothing wasn't the right thing to do.

Sometimes doing the right thing, and doing the thing that demonstrates love for our "neighbor" means doing things that aren't in our own best interests. I hop that when I am faced with these kinds of situations I'll react like Mallory Holtman did.

Lessons from a burning bush

2008-04-27T15:44:00.000-05:00

At Quest, we are continuing our series about the relationship between God and people, and what God intends for that relationship to look like. Last week we talked about Moses and the story of the Burning Bush.

In order to really understand what is going on with the Burning Bush, you have to go back to the beginning of Moses’s story, which is told in Exodus 2. Moses was born during a time that Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile to be killed, but the girl babies were allowed to live. When Moses was born, his mother hid him for three moths. When he got too big for that, she made a basket for him, and placed him in the Nile. His sister watched him to see what would happen. What happened was that Pharaoh’s daughter came down, saw the basket, and decided to keep him. Moses’s sister then came up and offered to find a woman to nurse him. So it was Moses’s mother who nursed him and cared for him, but he was raised as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. When Moses was grown, he went to his own people and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. So he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting, and he tried to get them to stop. The Hebrew asked “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:14). Pharaoh heard about it and tried to kill Moses, so Moses fled to Midian. There he found a wife and became the shepherd taking care of his father-in-law’s flocks. He did that for a long time before. One day, he was with the flock “on the far side of the desert” when he saw a bush that was on fire but didn’t burn up. (Exodus 3). He walked over to check it out, and talked with God there. The meeting at the burning bush set in motion the chain of events that would lead to the Ten Plagues on Egypt, the Israelites leaving Egypt and going into the wilderness, and finally the Israelites entering the land that God had promised Abraham. Here is some of what we talked about in our discussion of Moses and the Burning Bush.

God can handle our questions and doubts. God tells Moses that he wants Moses to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. When God does this, Moses has lots of questions and concerns. God patiently addresses each of these. Moses asks “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:12). He asks, when he tells them that God has sent him “and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”(Exodus 3:13). He asks “”What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” (Exodus 4:1). He then points out that he is has never been eloquent and that he is slow of speech and tongue. (Exodus 4:10). God has an answer to each of these, and the answers are designed to be reassuring to Moses. He answers the first question by telling Moses that he will be with him. He answers the second question by giving Moses his name “I Am Who I Am” and telling him what to say to the elders of Israel. He answers the third question by giving him some miraculous sings that he can show to the people and to Pharaoh. And he answers the fourth question by sending Moses’s brother Aaron, who is eloquent and a good speaker, to him to be his voice. Moses’s questions and concerns are legitimate. God responds to these issues by giving Moses answers to the questions and concerns so that Moses can be reassured and know that God is really with him in this.
While God will answer our legitimate concerns, there does come a point when he does get angry. After God has answered each of Moses’s questions, Moses still says “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” (Exodus 4:13). It is then, and only then, that God becomes angry. But even when he gets angry, he shows what righteous anger without sin looks like. He doesn’t lash out. He doesn’t say “Fine then. If you’re going to be that way I will send someone else.” He is angry with Moses, but still sends Moses to accomplish the mission and still gives Moses the tools he needs to accomplish it. This is encouraging, because it is easy to think that if God is mad at us that he doesn’t care about us anymore, or that he can’t use us to do anything. This story tells us that nothing is farther from the truth.
God wants a relationship with and uses flawed people. This is one of the most encouraging things about this story. It is easy to get into the mindset that in order for God to want a relationship, I need to be perfect. And as soon as I’m not perfect, then he’s going to stop coming around. Again, we see that this isn’t true. Moses was clearly a flawed person. He was a murderer. He tried to convince God to use someone else to save the Israelites from Egypt. Later in the story, he will continue to do some things that are not God’s plan. Yet God continues to have a face-to-face relationship with Moses and continues to use him to lead Israel. If God can do that with Moses, he can do it with me. Now, this doesn’t mean that we have a license to do wrong things. God wants and expects us to do the right thing, and doing the wrong thing has consequences. However, doing the wrong thing doesn’t disqualify us from a relationship with God.
God’s timing is perfect. God sent Pharaoh’s daughter at just the right time to find the baby Moses. He met Moses at the burning bush at just the right time to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. He sent Aaron to meet Moses at just right time so that Moses would have someone who was more eloquent to act as his spokesman. There are times that we want things done right away. But God is able to see more than we can. And his timing for things is always perfect.
We see Moses learn the lesson of humility. Before Moses goes to Midian, he was raised in Pharaoh’s house. He was used to power, and probably thought that he could save the Israelites on his own. In fact, the word “judge” used the by the Hebrew in Exodus 2:14 could also mean deliverer or ruler, and is the same word used to refer to the leaders of Israel in the book of Judges. This implies that Moses is setting himself up to lead the Hebrews. When he runs away, he learns humility. In fact, he reaches the point that he is referred to as the most humble man on earth. (Numbers 12:3). In fact, he learns this lesson so well that he doesn’t even want God to make him the leader. Once again, as in the story of Joseph, we see the importance of humility. It is when we are humble that God can most effectively use us, because we no longer are acting for our glory, and we can put the interests of God and others above our own.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about Joseph Next week we will continue with the life of Moses.

Forgiveness and Reconciliation

2008-04-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

At Quest, we are continuing our series about the relationship between God and people, and what God intends for that relationship to look like. Last week we began the story of Joseph, starting with his being sold into slavery and going as far as his interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh and becoming the second most powerful person in Egypt. This week we looked at the second half of story of Joseph, especially at his interactions with his brothers in Egypt.

This is another extended story. It is told in Genesis chapters 42-47. To summarize the story, Jacob’s family is living in Palestine and is running out of food. Jacob had heard that there was food in Egypt, so he sent all of his sons except Benjamin down to Egypt to buy food. They went to see Joseph to buy the food. Joseph recognized them, but they didn’t know who he was. He questioned them about their family then accused them of being spies. He told them that he wouldn’t believe they were telling the truth unless they brought their remaining brother back to Egypt with them. He had Simeon put into prison to guaranty that they would come back with Benjamin, then he sent them on their way. He also had their gold put back in their sacks. The brothers told Jacob what happened, but he wouldn’t let Benjamin go to Egypt, because he was Jacob’s only other son by Rachel. Finally, when the family was out of grain again, the brothers convinced Jacob to let them take Benjamin back to Egypt so that they could buy more food. Jacob holds a dinner for them, and returns Simeon to them. He gives Benjamin special treatment at the dinner. Again he sells them grain and sends them on their way. Again, he secretly returns their money to them. He also puts his silver chalice in Benjamin’s back. After the brothers are on their way back to Jacob, Joseph sends his servants after them, accusing them of stealing from him. The brothers deny it and say that he kill anyone found to have taken anything and take the rest of them as slaves. The open up the bags and find the chalice in Benjamin’s bag. The rest of the brothers then beg for Benjamin’s life. Finally, Joseph can take it no longer, and he reveals himself to them. He explains everything that has happened, and tells them how God used the circumstances for good. Joseph then has Jacob’s entire family move to Egypt and he settles them in the region of Goshen. There is a lot going on in this story. Here is some of what we talked about:

· Like we talked about last week, Jesus says that the two most important commands are loving God and loving others. We clearly see the love of others in this story. While it is true that Joseph gives his brothers a hard time and makes some things difficult on them, it is also clear that he loves them. Joseph has every reason in the world to be angry with his brothers and to hold a grudge. He could have sent them away without food. He could have charged them whatever he wanted, and essentially impoverished the family. He could just have killed them. But he didn’t. He took care of them while they were in Egypt. He returned their money to them, essentially giving them the grain for free. Once he told them who he was, he moved the entire family to some of the best land in Egypt. He could have taken advantage of them, but he didn’t. He could have gotten even with them, but he didn’t.

· We see God working to protect the people who follow him. Many of Jacob’s descendants are imperfect followers of God. We see them make many mistakes. That said, there is at least some attempt by this family to follow God. God knows that the famine is coming, and he begins to work through circumstances long before that famine starts to make sure that the people he has a relationship with will be protected during the famine. In fact, they are not just protected during the famine, they thrive during it.

· We see true forgiveness in this story. Joseph’s brothers are afraid that once Jacob dies, Joseph will really get even with them. In fact, once Jacob dies, they go so far as to throw themselves before Joseph and say “we are your slaves.” (Genesis 50:15-21) Joseph again reassures them that what they intended to harm him, God intended for good. He tells them that it is God’s job to judge them, not his. And Joseph promises to continue to take care of them and their families. Joseph had every right to be angry, yet what we see here is true forgiveness.

· One of the lessons that Joseph had to learn in life was humility. When he was sold into slavery, the story seems to indicate that he was at least a little arrogant and full of himself. He was the favorite son and let everyone know it. But by the time he becomes the second most important person in Egypt he is very humble. He clearly recognizes that God put him in the position and that it is God who is at work. He doesn’t think that he is something special. Everything is attributed to God. We can see the same thing in the life of Moses. Moses starts out as an arrogant person. He thinks that he can solve the situation of the Israelites by himself, but he ends up having to flee. By the time he has his experience with the Burning Bush, God is able to call him the most humble man in the world. Both Joseph and Moses start off arrogant, but their experiences teach them humility. Once they learn the lesson of humility, God is able to use them to accomplish great things.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about Joseph Next week we will turn to the live of Moses.

Faithfulness in circumstances we don't understand

2008-04-13T09:02:00.001-05:00

At Quest, we are continuing our series about the relationship between God and people, and what God intends for that relationship to look like. This week we explored the story of Joseph. It’s a long story, and to really get a feel for what we can learn from it, we looked at 4 chapters – Genesis 37 and 39-41.

This is a story that covers at least years and probably decades. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. He works his way to being in charge of Potiphar’s household. But then Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses him of trying to rape her, and he is thrown into prison. Joseph then works his way to being made responsible for everything in the prison. While he is there, Pharaoh throws his cupbearer and baker into prison. They have dreams that Joseph, by the power of God, is able to interpret. These interpretations come true, but cupbearer doesn’t remember Joseph, so he remains in jail. After two more years, Pharaoh has dreams, and the cupbearer finally remembers Joseph. Joseph, again through the power of God, is able to interpret Pharoah’s dreams as a warning that there are going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of extreme famine. Because God made the meanings of the dreams known through Joseph, Pharoah puts Joseph in charge of the land of Egypt, making Joseph the second most powerful person in the country. There is a lot going on in this story. Here is some of what we talked about:

· Joseph’s faithfulness is incredible. His brothers throw him in a cistern and talk about killing him before deciding to only sell him into slavery. He responds by working so hard for his new master that the man puts him in charge of the entire household. His master’s wife falsely accuses him of rape and has him thrown into jail. Joseph responds by working so hard with the prison warden that he was made responsible over everything that happened in the jail. He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, only to be forgotten for two years. Yet after all of this, he still has enough of a relationship with God to seek and receive God’s interpretations of Pharaoh’s dreams. It would have been very easy for Joseph to give up on God and even give up on life. Joseph spent his life doing the right things, only to be punished for them. Many people would ask what kind of God would let him continue to suffer that way. In spite of all of that, Joseph continued to do what was right and continued to have a relationship with God.

· In Mark 12:28, Jesus is asked what the most important commandment is. Jesus answers by saying to love God with all heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. We see Joseph live out these commands, particularly in his interactions with Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:8-20). When Joseph is approached by Potiphar’s wife, he turns her down by saying that Potiphar has withheld nothing from him except her. He asks how he could do such a wicked thing and sin against God. This response demonstrates both of Jesus’ most important commandments. Clearly Joseph recognizes that it would be a sin to sleep with Potiphar’s wife. He refuses to commit the sin, showing his love for God. But the fact that it would be a sin against God isn’t the only reason he doesn’t do it. His explanation also shows that Joseph cares about Potiphar. To take advantage of Potiphar in that way would be wicked and would permanently damage his relationship with Potiphar. Joseph isn’t going to do that. He puts his concern for Potiphar ahead of his concern for his own wellbeing. This is a great demonstration of loving your neighbor as yourself.

· Sometimes it takes a very long time to understand why God allows things to happen the way that they do. Romans 8:28 tells us that “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes.” There are lots of times in life that we face circumstances that are not good, and that we can’t see how they could possibly work for good. Joseph was sold into slavery, then falsely accused and thrown into prison. He faced years of trials and troubles when he didn’t really do anything wrong. God clearly had a plan, and needed Joseph to be in that position so that he could be used to help Pharaoh and be in a position to provide for Jacob’s family. By the end of the story we can see how God was working through the whole thing. But I bet it didn’t feel that way to Joseph while he was living it. He must have spent years wondering why these things were happening to him. We can see the same thing operating in our lives. Sometimes it takes a very long time to see how God is going to use struggles and troubles in our lives to “work for the good of those who love him.” Like Joseph, it is important for us to remember to continue to be faithful, because God will be faithful. We may not see how, but God will work. Just like Joseph never guessed that God would his situation to make him the second most powerful person in Egypt, we have no idea how God is going to use the situations that we live through.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about Joseph from the time he was sold into slavery until he became the second most important person in Egypt. Next week we will talk about his encounters with his brothers and the rest of his family.

Lessons from Abraham's servant

2008-04-06T08:20:00.002-05:00

At Quest, we have spent the last couple of weeks using the stories of Abraham to get a picture of what God wants the relationship between God and people to look like. This time, we moved on to the story in Genesis 24 about Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac. To summarize the story, Abraham’s servant goes back to land Abraham originally came. When he gets there, he prays that God will bring the person God intends him to choose to the well and that the young woman will offer to give him and his camels water. The first young woman he talks is Rachel, and she does exactly what he prayed for, and she “just happens” to be from the family of Abraham’s uncle. Rachel’s family acknowledges that this is something from God, and they send her with the servant to be Isaac’s wife. Again, there are a number of lessons that we can learn here:

· God listens to us when we talk to him, even if we aren’t anyone who is “important.” One of the things that we see here is that God doesn’t only listen to Abraham. It isn’t Abraham who prays that God will work in finding the right woman. It is the servant. And God hears and answers this prayer, even though he is only a servant. You don’t have to be important for God to be interested in you or to listen to you. He will respond to anyone who wants a relationship with him.

· At least sometimes, God begins to work to answer our prayers even before we ask. In this case, Rachel was there even before the servant finished praying. (Genesis 24:15) This means that God had set events in motion to answer that prayer well before the servant actually started praying it.

· The servant recognized the work of God. Once he knew that his prayer had been answered, the first thing he did, even before he explained who he was to Rachel, was to bow down and worship God and to thank God for answering his prayer. I think this gives us a good model for how we should respond when God answers our prayers.

· We also see the importance of relationships with God in our interactions with others. While it is unstated, it seems fairly certain that at least one of Abraham’s motivations for looking for a wife for Isaac among his family is that he didn’t want Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman, who would follow the Canaanite gods and who would teach her children to do the same. Abraham’s family seems to have at least some understanding of who God is, and they recognize that the hand of God is at work in the situation. Because of this, they do not hesitate to send Rachel to be Isaac’s wife. It is much easier for people who have at least some relationship with God to recognize and understand when God is working in situations.

Those are the highlights of our discussions over the last couple of weeks. In both of these stories we see that God cares about people and will provide for the people who follow him. Next week we will continued looking at stories from Genesis and what they can teach us about the relationship between God and people.

Weekly Bible Readings - April 1-7

2008-04-02T07:05:00.002-05:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible along with Quest, here are this week's readings.

Tuesday, April 1 – Numbers 31:25-32:42, Luke 8:40-9:9, Psalm 40:1-8

Wednesday, April 2 – Numbers 33 & 34, Luke 9:10-27, Proverbs 8:22-31

Thursday, April 3 – Numbers 35 & 36, Luke 9:28-56, Psalm 40:9-17

Friday, April 4 – Deuteronomy 1:1-2:23, Luke 9:57-10:24, Psalm 41:1-6

Saturday, April 5 – Deuteronomy 2:24-4:14, Luke 10:25-11:4, Psalm 41:7-13

Sunday, April 6 – Deuteronomy 4:15-5:33, Luke 11:5-32, Proverbs 8:32-36

Monday, April 7 – Deuteronomy 6, 7 & 8, Luke 11:33-54, Psalm 42:1-6

Lessons from Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac

2008-03-30T09:47:00.002-05:00

At Quest the recently, we continued looking the pictures we can get of what God intends for the relationship between God and people to look like. This time, we looked at Genesis 22, where Abraham is asked to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Here is some of what we talked about learning from that story:

· God wants to be the top priority in our lives. There are times that he will test us to determine if other things are more important to us than God is. Isaac was the son that God had promised Abraham, and it is obvious that Isaac was the most important thing on earth in Abraham’s life. God put Abraham in a position to have to choose between God and Isaac. We can see the same thing in the story of the Rich Young Ruler from Matthew 19:16-30. In that case, Jesus asked the man to choose between God and money, but in this case he couldn’t leave behind his money. I think that God will continue to test his followers to see if God is more important to us than anything else, including things like family, relationships and money.

· We God tells us to do something, we should go. Abraham didn’t wait around, or try to convince God to change his mind. God told him to go, so Abraham packed up that night and left in the morning.

· God wants us to have faith in him. Abraham knew that God had promised that Isaac was going to be his heir and that it would be Isaac’s line would be the one that God would bless. Yet here is God telling Abraham to go kill his son. Even though Abraham didn’t understand why God was telling him to do this, he still had faith and trust in God. In fact, Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.

· If we have faith, God will provide for us. When Abraham raised the knife to sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him and provided a ram for the sacrifice instead. Abraham knew that Isaac was the child promised by God, and he had faith that God would find a way for that to still happen, even though he didn’t see it. God responded by providing a way.

· We can also see a parallel between this story about Abraham and Isaac and with what God will do with Jesus. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for the sake of God. Similarly, in the New Testament, we see that God is willing to sacrifice his son Jesus for the sake of people. In both cases, the willingness to sacrifice demonstrates the depth of the love that is intended to exist between God and people.

Weekly Bible Readings - March 25-31

2008-03-25T22:34:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible along with Quest, here are this week's readings.

Tuesday, March 25 – Numbers 19:1-21:3, Luke 5:33-6:11, Proverbs 8:1-11

Wednesday, March 26 – Numbers 21:4-22:20, Luke 6:12-36, Psalm 37:21-31

Thursday, March 27 – Numbers 22:21-23:26, Luke 6:37-7:10, Psalm 37:32-40

Friday, March 28 – Numbers 23:27-25:18, Luke 7:11-35, Psalm 38:1-11

Saturday, March 29 – Numbers 26:1-27:11, Luke 7:36-50, Proverbs 8:12-21

Sunday, March 30 – Numbers 27:12-29:11, Luke 8:1-18, Psalm 38:12-22

Monday, March 31 – Numbers 29:12-31:24, Luke 8:19-39, Psalm 39:1-13

An apology

2008-03-25T22:30:00.002-05:00

Sorry that I haven't updated the site much this last week. It was a crazy week at work. I promise that I'll do better this next week.

Weekly Bible Readings - March 18-24

2008-03-18T06:14:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible through with Quest, here are the readings for the next week:

Tuesday, Mar.18 Numbers 7:1-65, Luke 2:21-40, Psalm 35:1-10

Wednesday, Mar. 19 Numbers 7:66-9:14, Luke 2:41-52, Psalm 35:11-18

Thursday, Mar. 20 Numbers 9:15-11:3, Luke 3:1-22, Psalm 35:19-28

Friday, Mar. 21 Numbers 11:4-13:25, Luke 3:23-4:13, Proverbs 7:21-27

Saturday, Mar. 22 Numbers 13:26-14-45, Luke 4:14-37, Psalm 36

Sunday, Mar. 23 Numbers 15:1-16:35, Luke 4:38-5:16, Psalm 37:1-9

Monday, Mar. 24 Numbers 16:36-18:32, Luke 5:17-32, Psalm 37:10-20

Talk about a mess...

2008-03-17T20:47:00.002-05:00

According to this article from CNN.com, a truck flipped over on the highway during this morning's commute in Sacramento, California. What made this particular accident unusual was what the truck was carrying.

When the truck flipped over, it spilled it's load of 400 colonies of honeybees. According to an officer from the California Highway Patrol, somewhere between 6 million and 16 million bees were left flying around the accident site. Officials warned motorists to roll up their windows and turn off their air conditioning to avoid having bees find their way into cars.

It took over 7 hours for authorities to calm the bees down and coax them back into their hives.

In my favorite part of the article, authorities said that, while they had the mess cleaned up, they "didn't know how many bees remained unaccounted for."

Lessons from God's visit to Abraham

2008-03-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

At Quest, we continued looking at the life of Abraham. Abraham, and his interactions with God, can tell us a lot about what God wanted the relationship between God and people to look like in the aftermath of sin entering the picture. This time we looked at the long story in Genesis 18 and 19 where God comes and visits Abraham, then Abraham pleads for Sodom (where his nephew Lot lived), and finally God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah but saves Lot. In this one story, we see a number of different aspects in the relationship between God and people.

Once again, we see that God is interested in an actual, personal relationship with people. In this case, God actually shows up at Abraham’s house. God has dinner with Abraham and has conversations with him. It is also worth noting that, in this case, it isn’t Abraham going to and pursing God. God is coming to where Abraham is to interact with him. So we see God pursuing the relationship with Abraham. So God isn’t just some aloof presence waiting for us to come to him. He wants to actually pursue a relationship with us.

As a side note, in Abraham’s treatment of the visitors, we see a perfect example of someone loving their neighbor in the sense that Jesus talked about in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37). Three people show up unannounced at Abraham’s house, and before he knows who they are, he essentially demands that they let him make them dinner. He brings them bread and steak. However, when they show up, the bread is still flour – 5 gallons of flour, actually. And the steaks are still walking around in the pasture. He doesn’t just share his dinner with them. He fixes an extravagant meal from scratch. Then when they are eating, Abraham doesn’t join them. Instead, he stands under a tree, waiting. In other words, in spite of his wealth and power, Abraham acts as the servant of these men who he has never seen before while they eat a banquet of the finest food he can serve them. That is about the best possible example of loving your neighbor.

God doesn’t just want interaction with Abraham. He actually wants to include Abraham in his planning session. God is essentially having a war counsel. He decides to have it on Abraham’s front lawn and invites Abraham to be a part of it. He actually begins that part of the discussion by saying that he can’t keep Abraham in the dark about what he is about to do. (Genesis 18:17-19). Because of his relationship with Abraham, he feels like he needs to let Abraham know what is going on. Think about that. God is interested enough in the people who follow him to want them to be in on what he plans on doing.

God cares about Abraham’s opinion. When God tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham realizes that Lot’s life is on the line. So Abraham asks God if he would spare Sodom if he could find 50 righteous people living there. (Genesis 18:23-26). He then continues to negotiate with God until they get down to 10 people. (Genesis 18:27-33). If God can find even 10 righteous people in Sodom, he will save the city. God cares about what Abraham wants, and he is even willing to change his plans because his friend Abraham asks him to. God really cares about the opinions and desires of the people who have a relationship with him.

When the angels show up in Sodom, Lot treats them much the same way as Abraham did. It is in a city context, rather than a country one, but Lot offers them a meal, a place to stay, and all the protection that he can offer. (Genesis 19:1-9). He is even willing to risk the well-being, and potentially the lives, of his children to protect these men who he has never met before. Like Abraham, Lot is demonstrating love for his neighbors in the sense that Jesus talked about. Compare this to the way that the rest of the people of Sodom wanted to treat the visitors. (Genesis 19:5). Their desire to rape the visitors is about as far from demonstrating love as possible.

God cares enough about Abraham to give him what he wanted, even though it wasn’t really what he asked for. When Abraham was bargaining for Sodom, what he was really trying to do was to rescue his nephew Lot. When God couldn’t find 10 righteous people, he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. But he rescued Lot, which is what Abraham really wanted. God really does care about what the people who have a relationship with him want. And when the things we want are right, he is willing to provide those wants, although it might not happen quite the way we thought it would.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about God’s visit to Abraham and Sodom and about what this story tells us concerning God’s desire for his relationship with people. Next week we will continue looking at some of the events in the life of Abraham to see what they can teach us.

Sometimes one vote does matter

2008-03-14T16:57:00.002-05:00

What would happen if they held an election and nobody showed up to vote? According to this article, they had that very situation in Tamarac, Florida.

The city of Tamarac, which is located in Broward County in South Florida, is considering annexing the currently unincorporated neighborhood of Prospect Bend. The neighborhood, with its 200 residents and 68 registered voters, had a special election to vote on the annexation.

Although the Tamarac officials mailed details to the each of the residents, not one single voter actually showed up to cast a ballot on the issue.

If just one voter would have showed up to vote, he or she would have determined the election. According to this article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, it appears that one reason for the lack of turn-out is the fact that most or all of the neighborhood residents rent apartments and aren't property owners. One registered voter, Juan Vidal, demonstrated this lack of interest when he said, "It doesn't make a difference to me either way."

Although no one actually came to vote, the city was forced to keep a polling place open for 12 hours, with a cost of $2,500 to the taxpayers.

Since no one voted, Tamarac is now going to have to try to find another way to annex the neighborhood.

Book Review - The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

2008-03-13T16:29:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I had the opportunity to hear Shane speak at last November's National Youth Workers' Convention. It was very, very interesting. You can read my thoughts it in the second half of this blog entry.

It's hard to sum up Shane Claiborne in just a sentence or two. He spent the several years of his college career at Eastern University, where his mentor was Tony Campolo. After his junior year in college, he spend the summer working with Mother Teresa in India. After returning from India, he interned for a year at Willow Creek Community Church, while he finished up school at Wheaton College. After graduation, he started an intentional community in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Philadelphia, where he and a number of others try to live out what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The book has some elements of autobiography, some elements discussion about how people who claim to follow Christ should live out that claim, and some elements of a call to action to followers of Christ to take up the cause of the poor and disenfranchised around the world.

Shane talks about how Jesus was a radical. Jesus preached a message that was at odds with what both society and the religious leaders of the day said was important. Jesus called people to live a kind of life that was radically different than what everyone else was trying to live. It was a call to live a life of radical grace and radical love -- a life where you loved your enemies, you turned the other cheek when you were struck, you forgave people who did nothing to seek forgiveness, and you sacrificially helped those in need. It was a message and a way of living that was opposed to the powers that existed, and led to persecution of Jesus and those who followed him.

Shane also speaks against the merger of God, Country and Capitalism that he believes has occurred in American Christianity. He points out how the actions of a Superpower are often inconsistent with the values that Jesus taught. Similarly, global capitalism (as it is operated) can exploit the poor and disenfranchised, and it doesn't match up with the economic system that can be seen in the early church. Shane uses this discussion to ask us to take a look at how we live our day-to-day lives and to see if it matches up with the way that Jesus lived his life.

The Irresistible Revolution raises some very good issues. It asks us to look at whether or not we are really living as a follower of Jesus and are doing the things that Jesus did. It is appropriate to point out that the church hasn't always done a very good job of taking care of the poor and disenfranchised, whether they were already a part of the church or not.

While I believe that Shane raises a number of good issues, I don't agree with everything that he has to say. My biggest disagreement with him is probably this: I think he overemphasizes serving with and among the poor. There were times when reading the book that I felt like he was arguing that the focus of Christ followers should be entirely on the poor and the disenfranchised. I can't agree with him to that extent. When Jesus commanded me to love my neighbor as myself, he didn't put any socio-economic qualifier on that. Certainly the person living in poverty in the inner city of Chicago qualifies as my neighbor under Jesus' definition. But so does the professional making several hundred thousand dollars a year who lives in my neighborhood. I need to demonstrate the love of Jesus to both of them.

While I don't agree with everything that Shane Claiborne has to say, The Irresistible Revolution is worth reading. It certainly make you think about what it means to really live out a faith in Jesus Christ.

Friendly dolphin saves two whales

2008-03-12T09:27:00.004-05:00

Here's a really cool story from New Zealand. According to this article from CNN.com, two whales became disoriented and stranded along a beach. Apparently, they became stuck between a sand bar and the beach. Rescuers worked for more than an hour to help the whales, a mother and her calf, get back out to sea, only to see the whales beach themselves 4 times on the sand bar. It is the type of situation that generally doesn't end well for whales.

Then, out of nowhere, comes Moko the bottlenosed dolphin. Moko is regular visitor to the beach who often plays with the humans swimming there. Moko pushed between the human rescuers and the whales, got the whales headed in the right direction, then led the whales to the break in the sand bar so that they could reach the sea.

After the rescue, Moko went back to playing with swimmers from the beach.

The best guess of the rescuers is that Moko responded to the whales' distress calls. Dolphins have been known to protect people who have been lost at sea and to play with other animals, especially whales, but this is apparently the first known example of a dolphin rescuing a beached whale.

I'm sure that there is a lesson for us all here about helping others in their time of need, no matter how different from us they are...

Weekly Bible Readings - March 11-17

2008-03-11T09:51:00.002-05:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible through with Quest this year, here are your Bible readings for the week:

Tuesday, March 11: Leviticus 23 & 24, Mark 15:33-47, Psalm 32
Wednesday, March 12: Leviticus 25:1-26:13, Mark 16, Psalm 33:1-11
Thursday, March 13: Leviticus 26:14-27:34, Luke 1:1-25, Proverbs 7:1-5
Friday, March 14: Numbers 1:1-2:9, Luke 1:26-38, Psalm 33:12-22
Saturday, March 15: Numbers 2:10-3:52, Luke 1:39-56, Psalm 34:1-10
Sunday, March 16: Numbers 4:1-5:10, Luke 1:57-80, Psalm 34:11-22
Monday, March 17: Numbers 5:11-6:27, Luke 2:1-20, Proverbs 7:6-20

Homeschooling ruled illegal in California

2008-03-10T17:57:00.003-05:00

I came across this article from the San Francisco Chronicle (the major newspaper from San Francisco). A California Court of Appeal ruled that under the state's education law, children were required to either be enrolled in full-time public or private schools or taught by credentialed tutors at home.

As a result of the ruling, an estimated 166,000 children could be considered truants and their parents could be subject to prosecution. If convicted, parents could face community service, hefty fines, or even the removal of their children from the home under the basis of educational neglect.

The decision in the case states that "parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."

While the articles I have seen don't really define the terms, the court did apparently leave open the option of students participating in an independent study program of an accredited school. So homeschool programs affiliated with a brick-and-mortar school are still at least potentially legal in California.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about this. Let me start by saying that when I was growing up, I spent time in all three options -- public schools, private schools and homeschool. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of home schooling. I felt like the program I used was not as strong academically as the public schools in Northwest Suburbs of Chicago where we lived. I understand why my parents chose that option, but it wasn't really the right thing for me.

I have known people over the years who were homeschooled and who received an excellent education that prepared them for college or whatever they wanted to do in life. On the other hand, I have known people who were home taught and received a very poor education. Rulings like the one in California would have the benefit of making sure that these kids don't fall through the cracks and that they really are receiving an education.

At the same time, there would take away a major choice for parents. Parents should be able to have a say in how their children are educated. There are places where the public schools are not very attractive options, either because they are of poor quality or because they teach topics or values that the parents are opposed to. In those cases, private schools are not always an option because of cost or transportation issues. Removing the homeschool option may essentially force these parents to send their children to public schools. In addition, for at least some students, the ability of homeschools to tailor their programs to the interests and aptitudes of their students allows these children to excel in a way that might not happen in a traditional school. So removing homeschools will hurt at least some students academically.

Like I said, I don't know exactly where I stand on this issue. But I do know that we haven't heard the last of it.

You can do state capitals, too.

2008-03-06T14:39:00.003-06:00

In 5m 23s

Click here to Play

This time I got stuck on a couple of spellings and it took me a little bit to remember some of the state capitals in New England.

Can you name the 50 states faster than me?

2008-03-06T14:25:00.003-06:00

In 1m 50s

Click here to Play

Can you beat that time? Be fair and only report your first time, because you could probably do it faster on a repeat attempt. One thing to be careful about -- you don't have to hit enter or anything once you finish typing a name, so if you type an extra letter, it will become the first letter for the next state, which may cause you problems. Let me know how you did.

Thanks to YSMarko for the link.

Following God like Abraham

2008-03-05T14:28:00.002-06:00

At Quest, we've been talking about what God intended for the relationship between God and people to look like in the aftermath of sin entering the picture. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, they broke the relationship between themselves and God. But God was not content to leave the relationship broken. So we’ve started looking at some of the interactions between God and people in Genesis.

Recently, we started looking at Abraham. The life of Abraham, and his interactions with God can tell us a lot about what God wanted the relationship with people to look like. A full quarter of the book of Genesis is about Abraham, which tells us how significant he really is. This week, we started by looking at our very first introduction to Abraham, when he is still called Abram. In Genesis 11:27-12:9 we see the story of God calling Abraham to leave his country and go to a place God would show him. Here are some of the things we discussed when talking about the story.

· As has been the case throughout Genesis, we see a God who is interested in personally interacting with people. God comes and actually talks with Abram. Additionally, this interaction is much more like the interaction between friends rather than someone commanding another person to do something. You can see it in Genesis 12:2-3, where God lets Abram in on his plan. God gives Abram a glimpse of what the future will look like if he makes the trip. This kind of sharing of future plans is the kind of things that happens among friends.

· We also still see that God wants to be our first priority. God asks Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household. (Genesis 12:1). Essentially, he is asking Abram, which is more important, your family and friends and comfort, or me? When God asks us that question, he wants us to answer that God is the most important thing.

· Following God requires faith. Abram had to demonstrate faith in God to do what God was asking. We also talked about how in modern Christianity, faith has been equated with belief. We often think that a person has faith in God if they believe in him. But that’s not the picture we see here, or in other places in the Bible. What we see here is that faith requires action, not just belief. We also see it in the “faith chapter” of Hebrews 11, where it discusses the faith of many people from the Old Testament. In almost every case in Hebrews 11, the people who had faith did something. The lesson is that we don’t really need faith in something if we aren’t going to take any action.

· God loves us and wants us to love him. If you look at 1 Corinthians 13:13, it tells us that “now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” That seems to be telling us that faith and love are really the same kind of thing. So, like faith, love really requires action. It’s not just an emotion. We can say that we love some one, but if it is really true, there will always be action to demonstrate that love. In the case of this story, the action demonstrating love that God is looking for is for Abram to go like God asked. God then demonstrates his love for Abram by blessing him, making him a great nation, and giving him the land he went to.

· Often, God gives us freedom to how we act out his wishes. I’ve always found it interesting that God didn’t tell Abram where to go. He just said “go,” and that he would let Abram know when Abram got to the right place. Where exactly Abram went, and how he got there were up to Abram.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about God’s call of Abram and about what this tells us concerning God’s desire for his relationship with people. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to continue looking at Abraham and seeing what God’s relationship with Abraham can tell us.

Weekly Bible Readings - March 4-10

2008-03-04T08:58:00.002-06:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible through with Quest, here are this week's readings.

Tuesday, March 4 - Leviticus 11 & 12, Mark 12:13-27, Psalm 30:1-7
Wednesday, March 5 - Leviticus 13, Mark 12:28-44, Proverbs 6:20-29

Thursday, March 6 - Leviticus 14, Mark 13:1-31, Psalm 30:8-12

Friday, March 7 - Leviticus 15 & 16, Mark 13:32-14:16, Psalm 31:1-8
Saturday, March 8 - Leviticus 17 & 18, Mark 14:17-42, Psalm 31:9-18
Sunday, March 9 - Leviticus 19 & 20, Mark 14:43-72, Proverbs 6:30-35
Monday, March 10 - Leviticus 21 & 22, Mark 15:1-32, Psalm 31:19-24

The changing faiths of Americans

2008-02-29T10:12:00.002-06:00

A major study on the religious landscape of the United States was released earlier this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The study creates possibly the most detailed picture ever of which Americans belong to which religious groups.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the survey is how it demonstrates that rate at which people change faiths. The study points out the one of the most significant features of religious life in American is this "churn."

Luis Lugo, the director of the Pew Forum, said that Americans "not only change jobs, change where they live, and change spouses, but they change religions too. We totally knew it was happening, but this survey enabled us to document it clearly."

According to the study, 28% of American adults currently affiliate themselves with a different religious faith than they had as a child. And this number does not include people who have changed from one Protestant denomination to another. If you include that figure, then the number jumps to 44%. Let that sink in for a minute. Almost half of all Americans have a different religious affiliation than the one they were raised with.

For some groups, this churn is hidden by the raw numbers. For example, since 1972 the number of Catholics in the United States has remained pretty stable, moving from 25% of the population to 23.9%. However, nearly 1/3 of those who were raised Catholic have left the Catholic church. Put another way, nearly 10% of the U.S. population is ex-Catholic.

The Jehovah's Witnesses give an even more extreme example of this turnover. Although the number of Jehovah's Witnesses has stayed roughly the same, nearly 2/3 of those who said they were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses have left that faith.

The group that has seen the biggest "gains" in terms of people coming in versus people leaving is the group of "unaffiliated." This includes atheists, agnostics, and people whose affiliations are "nothing in particular." This group now makes up 16.1% of the U.S. population. But still, 50% of adults who were raised "unaffiliated" now, as adults, have made a religious affiliation.

The study doesn't speculate into the reasons for these changes, but there are a couple of things that stand out to me. The first is that traditional, family, and historical ties are loosening. People no longer continue to attend a church, or even a type of church, simply because they is what their parents did. I don't think that's an entirely bad thing. I think that if these factors alone determines a person's faith, I think that it is more likely that the faith never really becomes theirs. Instead, religion or church becomes nothing more than something they do every Sunday (or Saturday or Friday or whenever). As a follower of Christ, I know that I need my own faith in Jesus, not just a tradition to follow.

The second thing I see is that people are searching. They are looking for spiritual fulfillment. And if they aren't finding it where they are, they are willing to go somewhere else to look for it. That fact should be an encouragement to those of use who are trying to provide a place where spiritual fulfillment and spiritual growth can happen.

If you are looking for more information about the survey, you can find articles about it here and here.

I also recommend looking at the survey results themselves. They are fascinating. You can find an entry page to the survey here. You can find all kinds of statistical breakdowns and maps and all sorts of things. I recommend taking some time to explore it.

Life after Plan A

2008-02-27T06:25:00.001-06:00

In the latest part of our ongoing series, we discussed what God had intended the plan to be when he created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, when you involve people plans tend to get messed up. God created a great plan, but people chose to mess it up.

Fortunately, God didn’t choose to stop there. He didn’t just say “oh well” and write off humanity. “Plan A” was broken because of what Adam and Eve had done, but almost immediately God begins putting together a new plan. This last week we looked at the next few interactions after the Garden of Eden between God and man. We wanted to think specifically about what these stories tell us about what God wanted the relationship to look like now that “Plan A” was gone. Here are some of the things we came up with:

We started by looking at the story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both bring gifts to God. God accepts Abel’s but not Cain’s. The key difference between the two seems to be that while Cain “brought some of the fruits of the soil,” Able “brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” (Genesis 4:3-5). The implication is that Abel brought the best part of the first stuff he had, while Cain brought some of what was left over. God loves us and wants us to love him back. In life, we can tell how much we mean to someone based on where we fall in their priority list. No matter how much I may say that I like Bryndon, if I don’t ever talk to him or spend time with him, he is going to get the message that he isn’t very important to me. That is what seems to be going on here. Abel says that God is important, and he brings best part of the firstborn of his flock to prove it. He gives to God before he takes things for himself. Cain, on the other than, gives God what is left over. As a result, God can tell that he is important to Abel, but not really to Cain.

Even after sin has entered the picture, God is still personally interacting with people. He comes and has an actual conversation with Cain. (Genesis 4:9-16) Cain doesn’t see this as odd. One of the lessons we can take out of this is that, even though Adam and Eve sinned and broke the relationship with God, God still wants to have a relationship with people. He still wants to personally interact with them. So while the way that the relationship works has changed, God’s goal has not.

The next interaction between God and man comes in the micro-story of Enoch. (Gen. 5:21-24). Enoch walked so closely with God that God took him, hundreds of years sooner than other people were dying. We discussed that the implication here is that Enoch’s relationship with God was so strong that God wanted to have a physical, face-to-face relationship. It is as though God was ready to see his friend. He didn’t want to wait until Enoch died, so God just took him.

That brought us to the story of Noah. By that time, the only people who were interested in a relationship with God were Noah and his family. Everyone else on earth had “corrupted their ways.” (Genesis 6:12). God was so fed up with everything that he was ready to destroy his entire creation. But he looked and saw Noah, who “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9). God was ready to destroy everyone, but he rescued the one family that followed him. This is very similar to the rescue of Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:6-19:29). In the story of the flood, we see God involved in the lives of his followers. We see God taking care of the people who seek a relationship with him.

In all of these early stories, we see a God who continues to care about people, and a God who wants to have a relationship with people. In spite of the fact that sin has entered the world, God still loves people and wants people to return that love. God truly stands by those who return his love.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about what God wanted the relationship with people to look like after sin entered the picture. From here we are going to continue by looking at Abraham and what God’s relationship with Abraham can tell us.

Weekly Bible Readings - February 26-March 3

2008-02-26T06:24:00.002-06:00

If you are reading your Bible through with Quest, here are your readings for the week. Enjoy.

Tuesday, Feb. 26 Exodus 39 & 40, Mark 9:2-32, Psalm 26

Wednesday, Feb. 27 Leviticus 1-3, Mark 9:33-10:12, Psalm 27:1-6

Thursday, Feb. 28 Leviticus 4, Mark 10:13-31, Psalm 27:7-14

Friday, Feb. 29 Leviticus 5:1-6:7, Mark 10:32-45

Saturday, Mar. 1 Leviticus 6:8-7:10, Mark 10:46-52, Proverbs 6:12-19

Sunday, Mar. 2 Leviticus 7:11-8:36, Mark 11:1-25, Psalm 28

Monday, Mar. 3 Leviticus 9 & 10, Mark 11:27:12-12, Psalm 29

At some point, you just have to take their word for it.

2008-02-22T22:26:00.002-06:00

According to this article, Benjamin Lovell from New York City was given access to a $5.8 million bank account that wasn't his. The bank confused Lovell with another man also named Benjamin Lovell. He apparently tried to tell officials at the bank that he didn't have an account with nearly $6 million, but the officials insisted that it was his and that he had the right to withdraw the money.

The investment banker, and real account holder, Benjamin Lovell wasn't so convinced that the other Benjamin Lovell had the right to withdraw the money. The "lesser-funded" Lovell now faces grand larceny charges for the $2 million he took from the account. And he doesn't even have much to show for it. While he spent some of the money on jewelry and cash gifts to friends, much of the money went into bad investments and has been lost, according to prosecutors.

So much for the "bank error in your favor" card from Monopoly. It might end getting you sent to jail.

God's "Plan A"

2008-02-21T06:35:00.001-06:00

At Quest, after looking at who God is and who people are, we looked at what God initially planed for the relationship between God and people to be like. In other words, what was “Plan A” before people came along and screwed it up?

We started off simply by reading the story of the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 2:4-3:13. Then we looked at some of the things we can learn from that story. Here are some of the things we came up with:

From the beginning, God intended to have a personal relationship with people. We see interaction between God and Adam in Genesis 2:15-21, before the creation of Eve. We also see in Genesis 3:8-9 that God made a habit of coming and walking in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God’s plan was for there to be a close relationship between him and people.
God intended for people to be involved with caring for the garden. God intended for people to be an active part in managing God’s creation. Genesis 2:15 tells us that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and care for it.” Genesis 2:19-20 tells us that although God had created all of the animals, he gave Adam the job of naming them. This shows us that God wanted people to be an active part of running creation.
Creation is an evolving thing. One of the very interesting things that we can see in the creation story is the words that God used to describe it. Consistently, when God looked at the things he created, he “saw that it was good.” It says this in Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21 and 25. God didn’t say that it was “perfect.” He said that it was “good.” God intended for there to be change and progress. We can see this by flipping to the end of the story. Revelation 21 describes what heaven is going to be like, and it describes a city. If the Garden of Eden was “perfect,” that is what heaven would look like. But instead we see things advancing from a garden to a city. Genesis 1:28 shows us that people are going to be part of that process of change.
We also looked at the fact that God made Adam first, and then some time later made Eve. Before Eve was created, God had Adam name all of the animals. In that process, Adam didn’t find a “suitable helper.” That’s when God made Eve. (Genesis 2:19-22). This led to the question of whether God alone is enough for us in our lives. Adam had a personal, physical access to God. They physically spent time together. They worked together. They took walks together. They had a friendship that looks very similar to the types of friendships we have today. And yet God saw that “it is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18). This suggests that God didn’t intend for us to only have a relationship with him. There is something more that we need, beyond just a relationship with God. We also need to have relationships with other people. In fact, “it is not good” for us to be without those relationships. So God intended for us to develop relationships, both with him and with other people.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about what God intended for things to be like before sin entered the picture. From there, we will move on to talk about some of the ways that God has tried to rebuild the bridges that were burned when people chose to sin and damage the relationship with God.

Weekly Bible Readings - February 19-25

2008-02-20T18:32:00.001-06:00

Sorry this is a day late. If you are reading the Bible through with us this year, here are this week's readings:

Tuesday, Feb. 19 Exodus 25 & 26, Mark 4:30-5:20, Psalm 23

Wednesday, Feb. 20 Exodus 27 & 28, Mark 5:21-6:6, Psalm 24

Thursday, Feb. 21 Exodus 29 & 30, Mark 6:7-29, Proverbs 5:15-23

Friday, Feb. 22 Exodus 31:1-33:6, Mark 6:30-56, Psalm 25:1-7

Saturday, Feb. 23 Exodus 33:7-34:31, Mark 7:1-30, Psalm 25:9-15

Sunday, Feb. 24 Exodus 35 & 36, Mark 7:31-8:13, Psalm 25:16-22

Monday, Feb. 25 Exodus 37 & 38, Mark 8:14-9:1, Proverbs 6:1-11

In some places, the Patriots were the winners

2008-02-18T17:16:00.003-06:00

The Super Bowl ends. The winning team starts celebrating and the players and coaching staffs all get a shirt and hat celebrating their team's achievement. If you stop and think about it, you realize that there has to be another set of gear commemorating the "victory" of the team that just lost. Do you ever wonder what happens to those shirts?

They end up being donated to impoverished communities where people need clothes. For example, according to this article, the NFL had 290 shirts and hats they were ready to be given out to New England Patriot players, coaches, etc. When the Giant's won, and the "Patriots 19-0" gear became unnecessary, the league donated these unused clothes to the impoverished communities of San Gregorio and Buena Vista, Nicaragua.

The NFL used World Vision to arrange the donation, which primarily benefited children. According to a representative of World Vision, the Patriots may have lost, "but the children won."

In a nation where so many usable things simply get thrown away, I think it's pretty cool that the NFL would donate unnecessary clothing to people who really need it.

So close, yet so far...

2008-02-17T11:42:00.002-06:00

Hmm...I just don't think that this is what they meant. On the other hand, the warning might even be more effective if it were...

Thanks to YSMarko for the picture.

Flawed People

2008-02-16T17:33:00.003-06:00

Recently, I've been reading my way through Genesis and then Job. One of the things that really struck me this time was how God uses flawed people. Time and time again, we see people who make mistakes and who struggle with sin, and yet we see God having a relationship with them and using them to affect the lives of others.

One of the first things that Noah does after getting off the ark is to get drunk. There are a couple of occasions where Abraham passes his wife off as his sister, and he uses this lie to help make himself get rich. Isaac does the same thing. Jacob lives the first half of his life as a selfish manipulator. Joseph was pretty much the definition of arrogance up until the time he was sold into slavery. Yet these people are heroes of the book of Genesis.

Job and his friends spend almost 40 chapters arguing about God. Both sets of people have incorrect views of who God is and how he works. Then God shows up and explains how Job misunderstood him. Yet after three chapters of taking Job to task, God still calls Job his friend.

Too often, people think that they have to be perfect for God to use them, or that we need to clean ourselves up before God will want to have a relationship with us. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don't have to be perfect in order to have a relationship with God. If that were true, the Bible would have no heroes, other than God and Jesus. Because everyone else in the Bible is a human being who struggles with the same kinds of things that all human beings struggle with.

Certainly sin is wrong. And as we have a relationship with God, we should see changes in our lives. We should start to become more like him. Typically, that change is a result of a relationship with God, it isn't a prerequisite for it.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Northern Illinois University

2008-02-14T21:34:00.003-06:00

This is another tragic day. Yet another school shooting on a college campus. This time it is close to home, at Northern Illinois University. You can find a more detailed story and video here, if you are looking for more information.

According to reports, a former NIU graduate student in sociology walked onto the stage in a lecture hall during a geology class and started shooting. As of the latest report, 5 students and the gunman were dead, and other 16 people were wounded.

Any time there is a school shooting, it is a terrible tragedy. However, it seems a little different when you have an actual attachment to the school. In this case, Cheryl's brother and his girlfriend both go to Northern. Additionally, three students from Living Hope Church, including one who occasionally pokes her head into Quest also go to school there. Fortunately, they are all safe and sound.

My reaction tonight is one of sadness and a desire to help. As I was driving home tonight, all I could think of was that if I thought it would do any good, I would drive out to DeKalb to help. But I just didn't know that it would accomplish anything.

To everyone attending or related to Northern: We are praying for you. If there is any way that I personally, or Quest as a group, can be of any assistance, let me know. You can post a comment here, or you can email me at questcollegeministry@yahoo.com.

Greatest. Name. Ever.

2008-02-13T19:56:00.002-06:00

How can you not love a place named
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg?

You can check out a larger view here.

Weekly Bible Readings - February 12-18

2008-02-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

For those of you who are reading the Bible through with Quest, here are this week's readings.

Tuesday, Feb. 12 - Exodus 11 & 12, Matthew 27:11-44, Psalm 21:1-7
Wednesday, Feb. 13 - Exodus 13 & 14, Matthew 27:45-66, Proverbs 4:20-27
Thursday, Feb. 14 - Exodus 15 & 16, Matthew 28, Psalm 21:8-13
Friday, Feb. 15 - Exodus 17 & 18, Mark 1:1-28, Psalm 22:1-11
Saturday, Feb. 16 - Exodus 19 & 20, Mark 1:29-2:17, Psalm 22:12-21
Sunday, Feb. 17 - Exodus 21 & 22, Mark 2:18-3:30, Proverbs 5:1-14
Monday, Feb. 18 - Exodus 23 & 24, Mark 3:31-4:29, Psalm 22:22-31

Back from Ski Trip

2008-02-12T09:59:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody. Sorry for the few days off here on the blog. We spent last weekend on our annual Frontline Ski Trip. This is really the first year that we have made a real effort to take people from Quest along with the high school and junior high groups. There were about 50 people on the trip, including 7 or 8 from Quest. For the most part, it was a good trip. We had a lot of fun, in spite of some weather challenges. Brad Spaulding, who we used to see regularly at camp, came in to be our speaker. It was great to see him and his family, and his messages were excellent. I have to say, though, Sunday was some of the coldest weather I've ever experienced. The air temperature was in the -15 range, and the wind chills were around -55. It was incredible.

On a more serious note, we had our first serious injury in 15 years of ski trips. We had a teenager who took a fall and broke her leg badly enough to need surgery. Please keep her in your prayers.

Now that we're home, I should be back to having something for you here just about every day.

How many Bibles do you have?

2008-02-07T08:36:00.000-06:00

According to this article, the average American Christian has 9 Bibles and many are actively looking for more. At the same time their are Christians and even entire churches in other countries that don't even have one. As Chris Salzman of thinkchristian.net says, it's like we that "Oh, that? That's my Tuesday Bible."

I know that I probably am at or near the average. I have 4 Bibles that I use at least every once in awhile. I have the Archeological Study Bible as my "primary" Bible. I've only had that one for about a year. Before that I used a Thompson Chain Reference Bible. It still sits by my bed and I pull it out from time to time to use the chain references to help prepare for Quest. I also have a Message//Remix. Cheryl and I are using that one for our read through the Bible this year because it puts things in a different light. It is letting us see some things that we haven't seen before. And I also have an NIV/NASB/KJV/NLT Parallel Bible. Again, I pull that one out from time to time when I'm preparing for Quest to see how each of those 4 translations handle a particular passage.

The very fact that I use four different Bibles while people in other parts of the world don't even have access to a single copy is probably a little troubling. But then on top of that, we have a bunch of Bibles on our bookshelf. They are in different sizes and different translations. They are rarely, if ever, used. Some were presents, others were giveaways at various events, and some are old, "retired" Bibles. Now part of the reason I have them is so that I have Bibles to give away. Just recently I had the opportunity to give one of those Bibles to someone who was interested in reading the Bible but didn't have one. That's always a really cool opportunity. But that kind of opportunity doesn't happen every day.

Christian Resources International has come up with a way for people to put those extra Bibles to good use. Their Operation Bare Your Bookshelf will send you all of the materials you need to send a Bible to someone overseas. The Postal Service has an envelope that will let you send up to 4 pounds of books to anywhere in the world for $11. All you have to do is to put a new or gently used Bible in the envelop, pay the postage, and stick it in the mail. This is a really simple way help a fellow follower of Christ. You can find more information about Operation Bare Your Bookshelf here.