Love is accepting

I've thought a lot about what makes a person quiet, outgoing, shy, rambunctious especially in my own life.  I am beginning to notice a trend.  Lately, on tv, there has been a few shows on regarding bullying in schools.  Kids would shut down, even to the point of no hope, because they were teased, abused, and generally unaccepted.  That is a terrible realization because there is so much hope and love in just the simple act of acceptance, and yet these kids didn't have it.  

Middle school is an interesting time in life.  From personal experience and from counseling kids at camp, or now at church, it is all about acceptance and popularity.  I used to, and still want to go back and counsel kids down in Oregon at one of the coolest camps I have ever seen.  The camps are 4th-6th, middle school, and high school, and each one is completely different.  4th-6th is by far the easiest.  They are at that stage in life where when you become friends with someone, its not overly based on first conversations or popularity, its based on playing out on the playground together and just bonding.  They don't feel too pressured, they just love fun.   In high school, generally everyone is more chill and just wants to hang out.  They already know where they belong and just love to hang out with their friends.  But middle school, oh deary.  For probably the first time, they are at a new school, in a new situation, having to prove themselves in a desperate attempt to fit in and be accepted.  Their energy levels are still off the chart but instead of using them all for fun, they are using them to play an intricate social game where not everyone wins. 

When I was in middle school, or specifically 6th grade I was generally not accepted.  I mean, the reasons were obvious.  Instead of playing foursquare, which i dibble-dabbled in occasionally, I would sit outside the library and read the Bible.  Strange kid.  Of course, I was still 5'2" and wearing glasses.  It wasn't until about 8th grade, by now 6'0", contacts, school record hurdling, etc. that I was beginning to be accepted (hate to say how superficial it all is).  It wasn't until sophomore year that I had found where I belonged with my group of friends who enjoyed the activities I did.  All that to say, looking back on my life, there are times when I am quiet, where I feel unaccepted, and there are times where I am incredibly energetic and outgoing because I am accepted.  And I wonder how many people are that same way, if not all of us.  We are looking to be accepted and until we are, we have no confidence in who we are, or how to act.

It makes me wonder how many times, I myself could have accepted someone else to ease them out of their quietness.  Everyone wants to be accepted.  It's why we all do what we do, sports, acting, writing, etc.  We want to express ourselves in hopes that others will accept us.  Love is all about acceptance and belonging.  Story after story in the Bible, Jesus would walk up to an unaccepted person, and invite them to find their belonging in Him.  The blind, the lepers, the crippled, the uncouth, the tax collectors, the "sinners".   He would accept the opposite of what is generally accepted today.  Can you imagine a school with Jesus as a student?  Going around from lunch table to lunch table talking to the incredibly smart, the socially unaccepted, the kids who can't afford nice clothes, etc.  That would be a completely different school then what I experienced.  It would probably flip the social "caste" on it's head. 

We are told to love in the Bible; to love God, and to love our neighbors.  And yet where is the love?  I want to encourage everyone reading this, including me (because I am reading this too) to take an extra effort to love today, tomorrow, the rest of the week, FOREVER.  To really just take the time and accept someone you haven't accepted yet.  Invite them to something, hang out with them, accept them.  You never know if that's a person's first time being accepted or not. 

Badger Mountain Sunset

Love is a puzzle

Pardon the picture, but it's college football Saturday so I have to root for my Ducks and Wildcats. 

Do you ever have those times where it seems you take a side step out of life? As if God is giving you an insight into various other places in the world? Call me weird, but sometimes I take a step out of what I see with my own eyes and began to wonder what other peoples eyes are seeing. There is probably some guy sipping rich authentic Swiss hot cocoa on the slopes of Monaco overlooking the thousands of yachts down in the Mediterranean on a beautiful Sunday morning. Or some little child, standing next to his parents, looking out at the sun set across the Grand Canyon, for the first time seeing the vast magnificence and power of creation. Or a couple of friends dining out at lunch at a hectic Hong Kong restaurant, looking out the window at the thousands of people walking, biking, mo-peding, driving. And then you began to think of places that aren't so elegant. A child, waking up at sunrise, sitting in a mud puddled street, no parents to run back to, playing with a flat soccer ball someone had delivered months ago from the other side of the world, yet still with more joy and hope than most. A group of Christians in Nepal, sitting in the shadow of Mt. Everest, excommunicated from taking part in their local village, constantly living in a land of beauty but with death and persecution breathing down their neck. A college student, nestled among 30,000 thousand other students on a beautiful palm lined campus, yet still feeling alone, contemplating suicide, as they all just walk by, wondering where God is and why this supposed God of love doesn't show His love to him/her. 

Life can sometimes seem like a 10 billion piece jigsaw puzzle. You search and search for where your particular piece fits in, trying to match up colors with other pieces. When I do puzzles I always try and place matching pieces near each other, and then look for similar shaped locking components. It's easy with a 10 piece puzzle, still easy with a 100 piece, way harder with 1000, incredibly difficult with my biggest puzzle of 5000. Can you imagine trying a 10 billion piece puzzle? That would be my 5000 piece puzzle and multiplying it by 2 million! I look out at my city of 240,000 and begin to get overwhelmed sometimes when I think about what everyone is doing at every single instant. Some are at the river, some are at all different sorts of work, some hiking up the hills and around the parks, and even others sitting in class at school. And then expanding that to the entire state of 7 million, the country of 310 million, and to the world at 7 billion. And yet God looks at this daunting puzzle and one at a time places puzzles right where they belong, not messing up once. Its a quite amazing realization and puts me at awe of God. He has us all working together for His plan, as well as the trillions of plants and animals, the molecules in the air and water, etc. He holds it all together. Can you imagine that? As I sat on my bed last night pondering that, I'll be honest, I was quite fearful of the implications of that realization. That is HUGE! 

Sometimes, if you concentrate on the entire puzzle, you can become depressed and overwhelmed. You see all the pain and suffering, false hope and false security, and you wonder how you are going to help fix it. Take it easy, God has it all in His hands! He will use you wherever He puts you to match up with the puzzle pieces next to you. You don't have to solve the puzzle on your own, just ask the Lord what pieces next to you He wants you to love, talk to, battle the enemy with. 

Take this simple truth and let it awe you and comfort you.

Love is Jesus

 There seems to be a mentality creeping through the hinges of modern-day Christianity that places the impossibility of man's actions into an impossibility of God's actions.  This can be seen through miracles: because I haven't seen them, they must not exist; through prophecy and tongues or other gifts: because I may or may not have that certain gift, its a little sketchy that you do/don't; and through, what I want to talk most about, love: because I have certain things going on in my life limiting my perception of love, God must also have those limitations.  Now it doesn't quite come out that plainly (most of the time).  We went through 1 Corinthians 13 the other day at church, which btw's, is awesome.  That whole verse 4-8 section always gets me thinking and rethinking and re-rethinking life and how much we can't comprehend about God's love. 

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek it's own; is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; love never fails." NKJV 

Jesus is Agape, or ἀγάπη, or a love that seeks nothing in return, a love described in every usage of that verse.  He suffers long with us and is kind, despite everything we have done.  He does not envy for what's not His (mainly cause it is all His), instead, He is jealous for us (completely different usage and definition, and quite a great song, feel free to sing the rest). He does not parade Himself, puff Himself up.  He does not behave rudely or seek His own, as He died there on the cross for all of us to do His Fathers will instead of His own.  He took it all so that you and I might be considered totally righteous in Him.  He is not provoked, or literally, made sharp toward us and thinks no evil, keeping no list or record of our wrongs as they were completely paid for on that cross.  He doesn't rejoice when we do wrong, but He rejoices when we glory Him, the author of truth.   He bears all things with me, He believes in me, He hopes in me, He endures all things with me.  He has the entire picture of history laid before Him so when we are without hope, when we doubt, He is there seeing all eternity believing in us and hoping, or confidently expecting, us.  His love never fails. 

Sometimes that mentality of man I was talking about earlier creeps in and says, since man gets angry with me, since man is not patient with me, since man makes a list of wrongs toward me, rejoicing when I screw up and not rejoicing in the truth, we seem to think God somehow does the same thing.  I have seen many instances where God has been blamed for being angry at someone, or that He can't forgive you because of the list He has against you.  Let me tell you right now, the Lord loves you in every sense of this verse.  His view of us is entirely different than the world's view of us.  Do not make that dangerous connection that doubts God's love for us because man has not loved us. 

If you currently think God is angry at you, rejoicing in when you do wrong, writing a list of errors you make, go to this verse over and over.  Go to John 3, and Romans, and 1 John 4, etc.  Take that lie and pray it to God and pray for His truth to restore you.  That lie is not of God for God is love.  Never forget that!  "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us", that famous quote by Tozer, is so true.  Do we think of God as some angry tyrannical king who beats us when we do wrong, or do we view Him for as He truly is (which would take a lot more topics to discuss) written in the word and evidenced in creation.  I love to think about that verse sometimes and make sure my view of God is not off base, constantly getting into the word.  It's one of the only ways to contest lies and misconceptions.  Take a moment and really think about how you view God. . . make sure you know He is not angry at you.  Plaster truths like 2 Corinthians 5 which state that Jesus' death for us not only forgave us of our sins but reconciled us to him in His righteousness.  Read and re-read the gospels, constantly going back to His sacrifice for you. 

Jesus is the key.  Jesus died for you and for me so that we might have victory.  He overcame the world so that we might overcome the world and all of its lies and temptations.  Focus on Jesus, focus on His love, not on your boyfriends/girlfriends love, not on a bosses love, not on an enemies love, not even on a friends love.  Focus on Jesus' love only, for on it is the encapsulation of Agape.

God is love - 1 John 4:16

Love is a Jump

I remember standing there at Smith River in Northern California, perched high above the water, trying to will myself to jump. It was the highest I had ever jumped before. I mean I had jumped from a puny, wimp rock at Applegate Lake in Southern Oregon, but this was the big time. My brother, the crazy, fear suppressing, thrill-seeking, man that he is, was urging me to jump, as he continually walked by me, jumped, walked back up, jumped, etc. It's a difficult task to stand there, 50ft, 70ft, 100ft off the water, looking down, unable to see through the water below, and urge yourself to jump. Even after watching someone else jump and knowing the water is safe, even after talking yourself into doing it, there is still a point where your leg muscles just won't cross over that threshold. Your mind relentlessly evaluates it more and more as time goes on. Sometimes you think you can will yourself over, other times you sit on the rock hoping time will pass faster and no one will notice you until you leave.

I heard this analogy at a conference I was at in Colorado Springs called Desperation Conference. It was by a speaker who belonged to the Bethel church in Redding, CA. Maybe you've never been rock jumping before and don't relate to the experience; maybe that doesn't even scare you. Maybe it's jumping out of an airplane, maybe it's boarding an airplane. Think of something where you get there, trying to will yourself to do it, but can't seem to cross that line of no return. Using the rock jumping, the speaker was saying there is a line right in front of your toes, that once you jump over, you can't return. He called that line Holiness, but I think you could put a number of words there, passion for God, desire to follow God, trust in God. Yes, holiness is the outcome of all of those, so really it can all go hand in hand.

You can stand on that rock and say that you love God. You can just stand there, acting like a Christian, working like a Christian, talking like a Christian. But there is a difference in standing on the rock and saying you love God, and jumping off the rock for Him. On the rock, you are safe, comfortable, where as the leap, it takes faith, trust, obedience. God is leading all of us to leap off that rock, to leave everything behind in obedience to follow Him. And when you jump, there isn't any going back. You can't love God and be unholy. jumping off that rock means giving everything to God, and that in essence is holiness. There is no midway point. You either jump and end up in the water, joyous, ready to do anything, or you are still on the rock wondering why life doesn't feel quite to it's potential.

Love is a jump. It's a hard jump. One that requires your whole life! It can be scary giving up control of your life. After you jump, (in the words of Hitch) "you just drop like a rock. . . wondering the whole way down . . . why the hell did I jump". But then you hit the water and you realize God's love for you, His path for you, are far better than anything you could have ever imagined. You realized He is working a far more intricate path than anything you could have experienced sitting on the rock, acting like you were in the water. Go all in, cross that line of no return

JUMP!

Love is Getting Lost

What do we have to lose? There is a story in the Bible about a prominent man named Naaman who had leprosy during the times of Elisha. In order to be healed, he went to Elisha to ask for him to heal his leprosy. But Elisha sent his servant to the door to meet Naaman and told him to dip seven times in the Jordan River and then he would be healed of his leprosy. Naaman wasn’t a big fan of this because a) Elisha hadn’t even come to meet him and b) because, being from Syria, he thought the rivers were cleaner in his country than in Israel. He was adamantly opposed to the menial task of dipping in the muddy river because it went against how he thought it could have happened. But his servants in one of the simplest acts of wisdom I’ve heard lately, says in so many words, “What do you have to lose?” Upon hearing that, Naaman dipped seven times in the Jordan River and was healed.

What do you have to lose? I have been thinking about that rigorously lately. We are full of sin. We constantly fall short of the Glory of God. We are lepers. And yet when God tells us what we simply have to do, most of us turn away in rage. What do you have to lose? This can apply to the concept of salvation and believing on God but it can also be applied to, how I feel more convicted, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has got to be one of the most forgotten, most misunderstood, most judged, debated, avoided, or abused topics in the entire Bible. You look everywhere on the media and you see people on TV charismatically calling on the spirit for personal gain, for personal fame. Then you go to most churches and you find no sense of the Holy Spirit anywhere, and you might even find some that oppose it all together because things will get to complicated when you mix in the Holy Spirit. It creates a sense of fear around the topic and around the usages of the gifts of the Spirit because of uncertainty on what they are and how they work.


On this biking adventure trip that I am on, I have spent a large amount of time thinking about what I have to lose. What fears are holding me back from really grasping on to the Holy Spirit in my life? What barricades are keeping me from breaking through a room of complacency and safety into a vast arena where the only way to be victorious is to depend on the Holy Spirit? How would people view me, even on this trip, if I began to talk more about the Spirit, about Jesus? And I narrowed the answer down to one simple word: loneliness. If I start to change, maybe no one will want to talk to me and I will have to spend my time alone. If I become to weird, maybe I’ll never find a belonging with a group of people. And then what? . . . . What do you have to lose?

Love should not be hindered by legalism, by fear, by confusion, by avoidance of certain issues, by tradition, by pride, by anything. I’m learning that more and more as I visit various different churches and hear various life stories of people biking with me. It seems a lot of them love to “do”. And that’s awesome! But sometimes we can get lost in that. And as loving as it is to give someone a house, how much more to give someone an eternal house? How much more to grasp on to the Holy Spirit’s directions no matter what, trusting that He will always be there with you? What is holding me back, you back, us back from letting the Holy Spirit work through us? It’s time to stop getting lost in the doctrines and in the traditions and in the fear and just let the Holy Spirit do what it does best,
LOVE.

Let love be found!

Love is Urgent!

"What we do in life echoes in eternity" - Maximus

What if we really believed that? What if that really changed what you were doing right now? How would your life look? So often, myself included, I think we get in grooves, in habits and tracks of life that are hard to step out of. Complacency and Apathy take over as we surround less and less of our time with wheat that can burn rather than precious stones. Every Christian I know has a pretty good head knowledge that what they do in this life will echo in eternity, but it stops there. Our tendency all too often is to stop at forgiveness and not move on to be a victorious soldier through the Holy Spirit beating back the enemy and rescuing the captives. And the reason is our contentment with where our lives are. We are content with our daily job, we are content with doing monotonous school work all day, we are content with spending more time on facebook and twitter and other forms of technology, than out with people, we are more content with passing by strangers in timidity, than to engage them about the things that really matter. This movie quote needs to be taken from our mind to our heart (and then to our arms and legs). What we are doing in this life, echoes in eternity! The precious stones that make it through the fire determine the crowns we lay at Jesus' feet in Heaven, and ultimately affect the extent we experience eternity.

You've probably all seen it or heard about it by now, the trucks and rv's that explain the end of the world is coming. Now, as fun as it is to try and prove them wrong and make fun of them when May 22nd rolls around, it does get me thinking. What if God did return on May 21st? Are you living how you would want to live for Him right now? Even better, what if He returned in 5 hours? 5 minutes? Would you be doing something differently today? We can't know for sure when the day is He comes back but we are supposed to anticipate and live our lives as if it could happen at any instant. We so often find ourselves saying, "Oh it won't happen for a while, I can life in contentment for now. I'm sure after I get my life all planned, then He will come. It probably won't happen today so today I am just going to take a break from Jesus." We don't actually say that but we unconsciously think it as it lives it's way out in our daily lives.

We need to desperately think this over. The more we think about this, I'm convinced the more fulfilled our lives will be on earth and in heaven. God is looking to use people that are desperate and passionate about His causes. He's looking for people that will give up themselves to follow Him.

Going to a public graduation commencement the other day reminded me how much different the two views are. They were rewarding people who had huge 5 year plans. They were going to go work for major finance, law, and retail businesses. They were saying the goal of this life is to find love, to be happy, to dream to be at the top with your career. Those are terrible 5 year plans if you do them on your own! But that is what so many people aim to do with their lives. If God is leading you that way, then awesome you get to reach CEO's and White House attendants for His name, you get to have a an awesome wife, you get to be joyful! It's not something you attain on your own, but a gift given in life by the one who is wanting God to direct the strings of His life. It's best to plan for the future while living like this is the end of the world. Suddenly the urgency returns and we realize our self made 5 year plans don't mean anything and that the only 5 year plan is to lovingly serve our Savior and His children. It's a tremendous calling.

So as May 21st rolls around be thinking about the end of the world. What if it did happen that day, or today, or any day? Live your life as if it will. Listen to where, who, what, the Holy Spirit is calling you to. Just go out and love on people, go out and serve God's children. This isn't a time to argue pointless Biblical theologies, to judge others and place a facade on your own life that you have it all together, to live in complacency, wasting time. We don't have very much time to waste, God is calling us!

Love is urgently calling us!

Love is Evident

 ITS EASTER WEEKEND. . . .surprise.

This is the most powerful holiday of remembrance in the history of holidays of remembrance, for on this weekend we see the greatest showing of love, and the greatest showing of power this world has ever seen. We see a dramatic death that brings life to all that choose, and we see a resurrected life that puts to death all the powers of evil. In a matter of three days, all of humanity was forever changed.

Leading up to the death of Jesus, we see a few powerful examples of God's love and forgiveness, we see some selfish and sinful acts from those around him, friends and strangers, and we see areas in our own lives that we might be living like one of the disciples, or maybe on the flip side, an area where we might be in a place where we can take comfort in knowing that God went through what we did, to an even greater degree. Jesus was completely rejected! He was separated from His Father, He was beaten and tortured, spat upon, mocked, taken advantage of, attacked. But this was only from strangers, from soldiers, from those He didn't spend countless days with. AND YET, He was also betrayed, denied, and ignored by His CLOSEST friends and disciples. Maybe you have felt rejected, ignored, attacked, mocked, or any of the other traits. Don't feel alone, but know that God was there with you to even greater degree. Take it from Him when He spoke the most powerful words as he hung upon that cross, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do". Remember that the greatest commandment is to love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. TO LOVE. It's not right to be in those places, it most definitely isn't fair, but sometimes we are there nonetheless, and we must remember to love, to love as He did!

And maybe you have been on the other side, as I all too often find myself, ignoring God, fighting God, fighting those He loves, hurting others, letting fear of man control of me as it did to Peter, letting fear of comfort control you as it did to Judas, and every time turning your back on God, turning aside the want of others in replace of only what you want. Know this, as I so often remind myself, God died for you. He forgave you on the cross. He took your faults, your screw-ups, your pride, your failures, and He took them upon Himself and in exchange, gave you His righteousness. It is the most powerful expression of love EVER. and all I have to do is see what He did, accept it, repent, and follow after Him. He bridged the canyon for me and for you.

But it doesn't end there! Jesus rose again. Tomorrow we celebrate Resurrection day, more popularly known as Easter. The day that life conquered death, that sin lost it's power, and that God became victorious since forever and until forever. We now not only have an unconditional love, but a hope of one day returning to heaven to glorify the Savior and perfecter of our faith. Man, if that doesn't get you going, I don't know what will!

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Philippians 3:10-12

This is a holiday weekend of an evident love! A love that unconditionally was poured out for everyone. A love that forgives despite the circumstances. A love that reconciles and brings together those that were once separated. 

If you have 10 minutes, check out this sweet video! THE GOSPEL