JESUS Film Series, Part Two: Jesus Ain't Yo Principal

A few months back, I started my JESUS Film series by looking at Vintage 21 Church's first video about Jesus. We discussed how Jesus is not too busy or uninterested in us, and that instead He is our friend. Now, let's look at the second video and then we'll look into another false view of Jesus.



This video highlights a view of Jesus that is overwhelmingly popular, and has run rampant in our churches and culture. It's this idea that, in order to be a Christian or come to Jesus, one must follow a bunch of rules and look like part of Jesus's clone army of brainwashed, law-abiding monkeys. You must be at church every time the door opens and listen only to Christian music. If you even think about watching a movie with Santa in it, well, just go ahead and consider yourself a pagan. If you're still a sinner, just go ahead and give up being a Christian.

We all think Jesus is our principal, following us around like children and making sure we don't break any rules. I mean, it's only natural that we would assume this mindset. Every other religion in the world runs on a system of rules that one must follow to get to their god or whatever. Even the Judaic system of the Old Testament followed the Law, which is the set of rules that God put forth in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Jewish individual had all kinds of sacrifices and practices and such that were required to make themselves right with God.

You see, we have a holy God, and man is sinful. So, for a long time, had to do different things, holy, God-given things, to be right with God. But then the New Testament happens.

Jesus Christ, God Himself, comes to earth and pays the penalty for our sin. He was and is the ultimate sacrifice. With His death and resurrection, the Law of the Old Testament was ruled unnecessary. No longer must we sacrifice animals for our salvation; Jesus has already been our sacrifice!

So, it is not longer "what must I do for salvation?". No, now it is "look at what Christ has done for our salvation!"

Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states "8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast."

Your works can't do a THING to save you! So stop living in an Old Testament world, living as if the Law keeps you in a world of condemnation, guilt and shame for "crossing the line." Instead, gladly receive the grace of God and have faith in Jesus Christ! He has set us free! Yes, you'll still sin and screw up. But instead of focusing on the rules, just love your Savior. The more we push towards following and knowing Him, the less we will have time to focus on ourselves and the more we will focus on the One worthy of all of our praise and all of our worship.

God Doesn't Want Your Cow

"9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” " -Matthew 9:9-13, NIV

Ever sit and wonder "God, what makes you happy? What are you looking for?" My guess is that most of us have, at least a time or two. Most of us want to please God, and to do that:

-We go to church
-We read our Bibles a few minutes every other day
-We try not to cuss or get too drunk
-We try to put limits on how much physical contact we have with a significant other (don't wanna cross the line!)

God wants us to be morally good, right? Yes, and no. Absolutely yes, in the sense that doing the opposite of good is bad, and bad is called sin, and that is rebellion to God. So, yes, God wants us to be morally upright. However, the issue lies in what your focus for being upright is.

The Pharisees were some high-up religious pros in the Jewish system back in Jesus's Earth-walking days. They were some of the most religious and moral people that have ever walked the earth. Yet, Jesus instead chose to hang out and party it up (yes, Jesus was known to have some rowdy parties! He was not a boring house guest!) with traitors, hookers and lawbreakers, homeless and dirty. These people were not your moral folks! So, what was Jesus looking for?

He tells the Pharisees in v.13, and again in Matthew 12:7, to go learn what "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" meant. In this, He was quoting Hosea 6:6, and alluding to Micah 6:6-8, which says:

"6 With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God." -Micah 6:6-8, NIV

God is not looking for your sacrifices and religious practices! Sure, they are good and necessary, but what does this say is REQUIRED by God? To be just, love mercy, and walk humbly. Treat people right, love on them and give forgiveness easily, and be humble. That, my friends, is what God wants most from you. It all comes back to Matthew 22:29, which says to love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus came to love on the world, especially the broken, beaten and unloved. Will you do the same, or keep trying to burn your sacrifices, by trying to earn God's happiness with your religious practices?

Snakes and Stones

Starting on January 10, 2012, this blog will become increasingly more active. With an easier schedule, I will be much more able to post this semester. I haven't posted in almost two months, and it's been killing me that I've abandoned the posts. I will be doing a minimum of two posts each week, coming out on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tuesday posts will look much like the Bug's posts have always looked: basically a mini-message, in written form. Friday posts, of which this is the first, will be based off the lessons I teach in my Bible study. Currently, we are reading through Matthew, and this week's lesson is from Matthew 7:9-11.

9 What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! -Matthew 7:7-11, HCSB

Imagine that someone is drowning in a river, screaming out for help. A sense of desperation is in their voice. They cannot swim, and they need help to survive. They look to you, and call out your name. You have a lifejacket, which they can attach to themselves and survive, or a rock, with which you can toss in their direction and hope for the best. Which one would you give them?

Of course, you'd give them the lifejacket. Why would you give someone that is so desperately in trouble something that is only going to make them sink faster? Yet, if you'd be willing to do save them, how much more capable and willing is God to help us?

You see, often times it's us that is drowning. We're stuck in the rivers of life, drowning in our troubles. We can't get out of our sucky situations, and so we cry out to God for help. We have a God who is all-powerful and all-loving. Will He not help us out?

God always works for the good of His people (Romans 8:28). We may not understand when we are drowning, and God doesn't just come over in His boat and get us. Sometimes, He tosses a lifejacket nearby, and we have to stretch a bit to grab it, and then dog paddle to safety. We want everything to come easy to us, and usually it doesn't. God lets us go through hard stuff for a reason, and we just have to put our faith in Him to get us out of the river. He is a refuge for those in trouble (Nahum 1:7); He's working for our good!

We have an amazing God. I urge you to watch the video below, and spend a few minutes gazing upon how beautiful and breathtaking His Creation is. Then, remember that the God that made all of that is looking out for you, and will save you from the river. Worship Him now. Praise Him.

If You Can?!

OK, so I know that I said that I was starting a series. I said that I'd post every week. And Tuesdays are supposed to be the days that I post. However, I'm feeling a bit like James Dean this week, and I have put off the JESUS Film series for a week. Maybe I'll write Part Two on Tuesday. MAYBE.

This week, however, we will look at a verse that seems to define our lives, either in one extreme or the other. The section we will be looking at Mark 9:22-27, which reads:

"22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." 23 And Jesus said to him, "'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes." 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,"I believe; help my unbelief!" 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose." -Mark 9:22-27, ESV

How many of us are like the father in this episode? We have a desire to see God work in our lives, but we are not willing to put the faith in Him to do His work. This is a massive problem in churches. We have processed and processed and processed the modern church and worship service like the insides of a chicken nugget (that is a lot of processing). We have timed everything out and put Jesus in a box. And why is that, one may ask? We keep saying what the dad here said: "But if you can do anything, have compassion and help us." IF?! What do you mean IF?!

It's really easy for us to look at the father here and say, "he clearly doesn't believe in an all-powerful God that can do whatever the crap He wants." Yet, think about it: do you REALLY live like God can help you in anything? Do you think that Jesus Christ is right beside you, watching over you, or do you tend to be a bit headstrong? Do you tend to want to take control of the situation, and pull God out of the equation?

If you answered no, you probably are lying or you fit into extreme number two: you expect God to do everything. This involves a refusal to take control of anything, and you just sit idly by, waiting for God to bring His work to you AND do it for you. Too bad Scripture says; "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23). Working heartily for the Lord doesn't seem to allow room for letting the Lord work for you.

We must find the balance between these two in our lives. It is a struggle, but well worth it. We are made to depend on God's strength and leadership, but we also are expected to carry our portion. Let's try to find a happy medium, and rely on God do His part while we gladly do our part. And how do we do this?

"This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." -Mark 9:29, HCSB

I challenge you: pray and fast before God, asking Him to reveal the areas in your life that you need to let Him work, and also to reveal where you need to step up and do it yourself.

JESUS Film Series, Part One: Jesus Is Your Friend

It has been a while since I last did a series, as I usually just write free-standing blog posts. Starting today, and going for the next four weeks, though, I'll be doing a four-part series on Jesus and what He is really like. I'll be basing this series off of four videos made by Vintage21 Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. Each post will feature one of these videos, and then we will look at what the video is displaying about Jesus, and how it isn't a Biblical version of Him.

DISCLAIMER: This video is not meant to be offensive. It is a satirical look at how Jesus is usually portrayed. No disrespect is intended by this video.



Ok, so, let's look into this. Peter is a bit bummed out because Jesus is apparently too busy for him. Jesus doesn't have time for Peter's silly games, and is indifferent to Peter's problems. Another guy is bugging Jesus with what he wants for Christmas. He claims to be Peter's friend, He just doesn't have time for him.

According to this view of Jesus, He is an incredibly important and busy heavenly Being that is far too concerned with running the world and "heavenly things" to worry about being Peter's friend. Let's look at this.

Yes, Jesus is an incredibly important heavenly Being. In fact, He is the most important Being in the universe. He is the Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8, 2213), Head over everything (Eph. 1:22), and the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Those are some pretty important titles, and it only scrapes the surface. Jesus is the Son of God (Mt. 4:3), the Savior of the world (John 4:42). He is holy, God of the universe (2 Peter 1:1). It doesn't get more important than Jesus.

Yet, there is another title that is found in the Bible, and it seems to stick out. Look with me at this curious verse.

"19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" -Matthew 11:19, HCSB

The Son of Man, another title of Jesus (Mt. 8:20), is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus is a friend of people who sin. Guess what? That's everyone. You, me, your neighbor, Uncle Timmy: all sinners. Yet Jesus says that He is your friend. But does He have time for you?

The overwhelming answer is: yes. Proof that God (who Jesus is) has time for us is all over the Bible.

-He listens to us (Jer. 29:12)

-He watches over us (Ps. 33:18)

-He protects us (Ps. 23)

-He loves us (Ps. 36:7)

-He wants to hear your problems (1 Pt. 5:7)

No, He is not the cosmic vending machine that you pray for your Christmas list to. But Jesus cares deeply about you, and has more than enough time for you. After all, He's God. There are no limits on Him. He can love you and be the best friend that you can have because He alone is capable of unfailing love.

Will you remember that you have a friend in Jesus, or will you continue to think that you are a bother? Approach Him today as the friend that He wants to be for you.

How Do You Pray?

FINALLY a day has come that I'm not too busy to write a blog post. Today's post is all about prayer. This a topic that is very dear to my heart, and one that I continue to pursue knowledge in.

Prayer can be tricky. In theory, it's a brilliant thought. Who doesn't want to talk to God? The problem arises for many, myself included, arises when God doesn't talk back. We pray and pray and pray and we receive a dial tone on the other end. This can be frustrating, and lead people to have difficulty in finding a purpose for prayer.

I personally found prayer particularly difficult and troublesome for many years, and still struggle to pray as I should. If everyone as an Achilles heel on the Christian journey, prayer may likely be one of mine. And that is a problem, because prayer is vitally important, and truthfully, indispensable.

I was recently asked by someone "how do you pray?" This question seems simple enough, but it really is a legitimately difficult question. How does one pray? Does it need to be aloud, or internally? Big words or not? Long or short? Must you gather together with others and hold hands, or do you have to kneel beside your bed? The four-letter question I was asked is really a massive, loaded question!

To start, let's look at what Christ says about prayer when He says "you should pray like this."

"9 "Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.]"

-Matthew 6:9-13

OK, that's loaded. There's a lot of information in that prayer. Let's break it down a bit, because really this prayer can be cut into a few sections that are easily applicable to our lives.

V. 9: This prayer starts out by honoring God, coming humbly before Him. We are to acknowledge that God is holy, and because of His holiness, we should worship Him.

V. 10: Now we see Christ praying that God's kingdom would come and that His will would be done. God's kingdom has already come; He runs the universe. Everything from galaxies to atoms are in His kingdom. Instead, we are to pray that His kingdom to come more and more complete as we near the end times, when everything in His kingdom will be made perfect and untarnished again. Praying that His will would be done shows that we are following into His plan for His kingdom, and causes us to humbly follow Him.

V. 11: By asking for our daily bread, Christ means that we ask God for our needs. God will provide for us. Every day we should feel comfortable asking Him to sustain us and provide our needs for us.

V. 12: We ask for forgiveness. We sin constantly, like we are producing sin on an assembly line. We need to confess that sin to God and ask for Him to forgive us. The verse goes on to say that we ask for forgiveness, just like we forgive others. If we expect God to forgive us, it is only logical that we forgive others in the same way.

V. 13: We pray for God to keep us safe from temptation. We sin constantly, like I said above. We need to lean heavily on God to avoid falling deeper and deeper into sin and sinning more and more. Only God can help us overcome Satan and his temptations; we must rely on God to protect us from him.

Tell God He is awesome. Be excited about His plan for the world. Ask for what we need. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for protection. Those are some pretty straight-forward prayers to go after. But is that all?

-Matthew 6:5-7 says not to pray like a show-off. Long, lengthy, "babbling" prayers are not biblical and not what God wants. He wants gut-level honest prayers. Keep that long-winded, hypocritical, show-offy stuff outta here. God isn't impressed when you use big words (unless you naturally talk with big words. Then use them all over your prayers). Instead, we should just pray with whatever is on our hearts, alone if possible.

-The books of Job and Habakkuk have some prayers that are borderline crazy. These two guys got upset with God, and went off on Him. Guess what: you can too. If you feel like God has abandoned you, left you, and forgotten about you, tell Him that. Tell Him you're mad. He can handle it.

-1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 says to pray constantly. Pray all the time. In the bed, in the shower, in the bathroom, in the car, and in your football game. Pray at work, school, and home. Think of it as texting God. You don't usually send long texts, do you? Just quick little prayers like "thank you God," "help me God," or "you're awesome God" are fair game. Short and sweet works.

These are all things that have helped me in my prayer life, and I hope they help you, as well. Let's all try to follow these tips from God on how to talk to God. He wants to hear from us; don't leave Him waiting by the phone.

When God Looks Like Cousin Itt

Recently, I listened to a message by Won Kwak, lead pastor at Maranatha Grace Fort Lee in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In the message, he was talking about the part of the Trinity that we often forget: the Holy Spirit. As he was discussing the Spirit, he said that we often look at the Spirit as an "it" instead of what the Spirit of God is. Specifically, he said we think of the Spirit as Cousin Itt, and I love this analogy. So, let's watch Cousin Itt real quick, and then look into how we wrongfully view the Spirit as such (This is a 10-minute video, so feel free to watch from 2:26-4:52 just to get an idea of Itt).



Ok, so let's look at how Cousin Itt is like the Holy Spirit. First, we look at the Holy Spirit as an "it." We tend to think of the Spirit as a mystical wind that blows around and messes up our hair. Much like Cousin Itt, we don't know exactly what the Spirit is, really. We just look and stare, afraid to go near and discover the truth.

"19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" -Matthew 28:19, HCSB

Here in Matthew, we see Jesus, the Son of God and part of the Trinity of God, referring to the Spirit as equal with the Father and Son. If the Father and Son are both God, and the Spirit is equal to them, then the logical conclusion is that they are all three God. The Spirit is not an it, but a He. He is as much God as the Father and Son. That makes a huge difference. No longer is the Spirit a tool of God, but He is God. That gives Him ultimate power and makes Him deserving of ultimate respect.

Second, the Spirit is heard as gibberish to the outsider, much like we can't understand Cousin Itt. Until you learn to speak the language of the Spirit, you cannot understand it. How do you learn the language of the Spirit? Just like Cousin Itt: you're part of His family.

The Sciptures are inspired by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), so therefore they are the Spirit's words, written by man. The only way that the Scriptures can be seen as the living, applicable life-changing Word of God is through the Spirit revealing the Truth to us (2 Corinthians 2:10-13). And who does the Spirit work through?

"14 All those who are led by God's Spirit are God's sons." -Romans 8:14, HCSB

Those who have the Spirit leading them are the family of God. Just like Cousin Itt, the family of God understands the Spirit through the Spirit helping us understand.

Finally, we view the Spirit as a moody visitor like Cousin Itt: sometimes helpful, sometimes complaining; sometimes here, sometimes gone. This couldn't be any different.

"19 God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?" -Numbers 23:19, HCSB

God is never changing, and the same applies to the Spirit. Once the Spirit is guiding you, you have a permanent guide. He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), and the Spirit will even live IN you (1 Corinthians 3:16). He won't change His mind about you. He won't just come for a visit. Once you have the Spirit of God, you always have Him.

Will you remember that, or just think of the Spirit as a foreign gust that doesn't consistently blow the same way?

For more on the Spirit and His awesomeness, check out Forgotten God by Francis Chan.