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.