Finding Jesus When Life Hurts

There are very few sure things in life, but there are a few. One of them is that life will end. Sooner or later. When it is sooner things hurt!! When it is later and expected it still hurts.

Recently the family at The Rock of Southwest lost one of there best, Ryan Roberts. I did not know him well though I have spoken with him a couple times. By all accounts he was a man of God. He was young and his future was bright. He has gone to be with Jesus, for that I envy him.

His family and friends are still here and are hurting. I have not lost a brother, son, or fiance before and I can not imagine the difficulty those who have are facing. Still there is some solace when times are hard and life is hard, it is found in Jesus who is our refuge, our strength, our deliverer, our friend, and our savior. The old hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" was written by a man who experienced great sorrow in his life. For all of those who are experiencing loss or difficulty in life I encourage you to read the story behind that hymn here.

The Power of a Simple Message

Tonight I finished a week of speaking to Senior High students at Big Sandy Camp. I had an amazing time speaking to these students, hanging out with them, and getting to know a few of them. I have spoken at camps, retreats, and conferences all over the place, but this week I learned something new. Actually it isn't entirely new.

My ego is fragile. I don't mean I am offended easily or that I have a tendency towards low self esteem. Actually I mean exactly the opposite. My ego tends to be too big and I have to work at keeping it in check (please don't help me). After I spoke the first couple of times I started to think pretty highly of myself. It was before I spoke for the third time that I realized what was happening. I had gotten the kids to laugh by telling some crazy stories. Some of them had even began to tell me how funny I was or how I have a way with words. Usually I don't hear that until the end of the week. It started to go to my head.

I realized what was happening and I realized that I needed humility. Before I spoke for the third time I began to pray that God would help me to be humble. All of the messages went pretty well this week, but after that third message I didn't seem to struggle with things going to my head as much. I realized something really important. I could make the students laugh the entire time, but if I didn't give them the word of God it wouldn't matter. The message wasn't laughter, it was the Gospel.

Over and over again I worked to help students see and understand the significance of the Gospel. In the end it wasn't the laughter that saved the students, it was the Gospel. It was deep but simple theological truths like, imputation, propitiation, hypo-static union, incarnation, atonement, redemption, and resurrection. The message these big words carry with them boiled down to simply truths is what saved some of these students and challenged others to further their faith or rededicate there lives to Christ.

God may have used the talent He gave me to be funny for His glory and to accomplish His purpose, but even the talent was given to me from Him anyway. We saw several students accept Christ for the first time tonight, and we saw even more make significant decisions regarding their already existing relationship with Christ. Praise God!!!

Dark Knight

The Dark Knight was an interesting movie. I definitely do not recommend taking young students to see this movie. Even some 13 and 14 year olds may not be ready for the kind of violence that is at times simply alluded to. I had to turn my head a couple times because of where I thought they were going to go. They didn't go to those places, but the illusion was almost too much. There are some lessons to learn in this movie:

• First, there are difficult moral decisions to make in life. Especially in leadership. Like it or not those decisions have consequences both good and bad.
  
• Second, anyone who wants to do something good especially if it is significant will be attacked for doing so.
• To quote another movie, "no sacrifice, no victory" (Great gpa Witwiki) Leaders will have to sacrifice for the greater good! The greater good is always to someone else's benefit and not to ours.
• Money is most often not the answer to the problems people face (Bruce Wayne often suffered because of his fortunes).
• In the end the good guy might win, but it is not without paying a price.
  
• There is no rest for those who chose to fight evil because evil never rests.

Perhaps the most intense point that can be taken from this film is that man is much more capable of evil than of good. The Joker is not about money or power, instead he just wants to "see the world burn" as Alfred puts it. This is so true of man in his sinful state. The part that is missing is the story of redemption. This is a story of evil fighting good and good fighting evil. The story of Jesus is about evil fighting good while good seeks to redeem evil. Jesus came to turn those who are evil towards a good God, not to simply destroy evil. Gotham needs more than a symbol, it needs a savior. Man doesn't need a good example, man needs a savior who can redeem, reconcile, and atone for man's evil.

The Dark Knight is Dark, but it is worth seeing.

I Believe in Free Will

My theology should be described as reformed or Calvinistic. I and others who believe in the five points of Calvinism:

• Total Depravity
• Unconditional Election
• Limited Atonement
• Irresistible Grace
• Perseverance of the Saints

are often accused of belittling free will. Or sometimes those who appose Calvinism set up free will as if it is apposed to the five points previously listed. It dawned on me today that one of the reasons I believe these five things to be true is because I also believe in free will. Free will is not apposed to these five points in any way. I don't believe it is, and I don't think Calvin did either (read Freedom and Bondage of the Will by Calvin).

In reality it is the very fact that people have a free will tainted by sin that requires God to chose in His wisdom, according to His will and according to His pleasure to extend an irresistible grace. If He did not every person would chose (according to their own will) to resist God. No one would be saved and everyone would go to Hell. It seems much more loving, merciful, and kind for God to save at least some.

Independance Day and Taxes

I want to warn you, this will get a little political.

On this fourth of July we went out to breakfast with my dad (John Sr.) our kids and my niece. I took this opportunity to talk to my daughter about Independence Day. She did really well. She remembered that this day celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html). This declaration identifies many truths including the proper role of government (found also in Romans 13). Let us remember the signers of the Declaration as heroes who have protected us from tyranny.

Let us also remember that this tyranny was primarily exercised through taxes without representation. Today we have representation in the form of senators and state representatives. This great country is ours, not theirs. These senators are in Washington on our behalf. When they take our money it is because we let them, when they use that money for fund abortion it is because we let them, when they use that money in irresponsible ways it is because we let them. It is irresponsible for the citizens of the united states to ignore government. There are many issues that require our attention in November, but there is none more important than taxes. I say this because it is money that gives power, it is money that supports programs, and it is money that motivates. There is a reason that Jesus spent as much time talking about money as he did.

Every time the people give up more of their money to government they give up more of their freedom and more of their power. God forbid that we should give up our money and our power because we are too lazy to take care of ourselves.

However you decide to vote this fall make sure it is an educated vote. Don't skip voting and then complain that the government is not doing well. Pay attention, read the declaration of independence, the constitution, and maybe even a little history so that you understand where we have come from.

Finally Settling Down

For the past 6 months or so my family has been in transition. It finally looks like things are going to settle down for us. We have gone from closing the church plant to doing construction for my in-laws to doing decks to doing siding to finally now finding a good student ministries position. We also spent significant time living with my in-laws and my parents in Florida. We rented out our house and became technically homeless.

Well it looks like we are headed to Littleton, CO. I will be the student ministries pastor for a church called "The Rock of Southwest." While I am excited about the opportunity and the future, I will also miss my friends in MN. Just a little longer until we have a home again and just a little longer until income is regular and predictable.

Who fills the supporting role?

I love to watch movies, I love to see the stories that are told. What is funny is I can usually remember who the main star is of the movie I have seen, but I can rarely remember even one of the supporting actors. I certainly can't remember the characters with smaller parts.

If you see a Tom Cruz, Jackie Chan, Chris Rock, or (God Forbid) something with Hannah Montana in it you remember the stars. You don't remember the actors who died quickly, didn't have speaking parts, or walked by in the background. If this was not the case stars wouldn't get $20,000,000 for a movie.

In Redemptive history there have been many supporting actors. Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul, etc... There have also been those who have been mentioned in Scripture in those passages we all skip over when we read through the Bible. There are those who have been mentioned only by number like those who were praying in Acts 1 (120). Then there is us...

What is funny is we get this idea that we are the center of the story Jesus died FOR US, God created US, Jesus will come back FOR US... When in reality the center of the story is God. We exist for HIS pleasure and HIS will. Our faith story isn't really about us at all, it is about God. It would be good of us to remember that Jesus didn't come so that we could live an easy life, be rich, famous, and successful. Jesus came because we couldn't do anything to save ourselves from our self indulgent sin nature. Jesus died and rose from the dead for us, but the story isn't us, it is the death and resurrection. Next time we share our testimony or faith story it would be good of us to spend less time talking about how wonderful we are now that we know Jesus and instead talk about the lead person, Jesus and what He did.