Faith

Are you making the easy or right choice?

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In Harry Potter 5, “The Order of the Phoenix” Albus Dumbledore has a great line that goes like this:  “Soon, we must all make the choice between what is right and what is easy.” I have said something like this for a long time. Often I think in our lives of faith we forget the importance of the tough choices we have to make everyday of our lives.  It is a lesson I have had to learn over and over again. When you live in a fallen world you have to deal with tough choices all the time.

I have made choices in life that seemed so easy. Once in ministry I tried to let students pick an event for the summer.  I tried to have them take the heat for the decision instead of me. It back fired.  I had a true mess on my hands.  I let the students down. I had parents, students and even the Church mad at me. Instead of just standing up and making the decision, God had called me to that place to make, I tried to take the easy way out and avoid the conflict.  Of course the conflict still came.  The conflict never goes away. You can either deal with it head on quickly and take the heat, or you can let it fester and then you have a mess. I have made some good choices in ministry.  I think I am probably still in the ministry because I am willing to make those hard choices, but I fail far to often.  You would think after 11 years I would stand up for what is right, knowing in the long run it is so much easier. Making that choice helps God’s will to be done. Alas I still fall short in this department. I still take the easy way and then pay for it later.

Acts 26 tells an interesting story about Paul before King Agrippa. He makes a bold proclamation.  They even call him crazy. Paul confronts his accusers.  Now some might say after reading the chapter that Paul shouldn’t have been so bold to request Caesar because he could have been let go and enjoyed the easy life.  Paul and for that matter Jesus had a different, and more important plan.  He wanted Paul to reach Rome.  He wanted him to go and share the Gospel there to change and empire and the world.  I am no Paul, and neither are most of us ever going to be put in this type of situation, but I would hope Jesus would give me the strength to make the right and difficult decision so that his will would be done with me involved.

So what in your life of faith are you thinking about standing up for?  What decision do you know you need to make? What person or situation is God calling you to confront so that his will and grace abound in your life and world?

Sharing faith one person at a time…Dont play the numbers game.

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The numbers can be a the hardest part of serving in ministry.  We all want more people at Church. We all want more people to be involved in ministry. We all want more people to know Jesus. The problem is numbers can be a big reason people leave serving in ministry.  Numbers can be a chock hold on how you serve in ministry because it becomes too much of the focus in ministry and life.

As I have been looking around at those I have seen in ministry the numbers game has been a big reason people leave. They get sick of it.  They really miss just being with people. I am someone who looks at numbers in ministry.  I track attendance and do look at how many people show up as a measure of successful ministry or events. It can tell you if you have done something with worth. The problem with numbers in ministry is, you can have big numbers and it mean nothing in peoples lives, you can get very little done for events or very few people show up, but you have been a part of changing people’s lives.  You see numbers can be important, but people are actually the more important part.  In fact they are the most important part.  It is hard to quantify.  It is hard to make a report that counts all the conversations, all the little comments that really helped someone through their day.  A word of grace that you shared in their life that helped them see Jesus.

In ministry I spend time planning all sorts of events.  I plan VBS, Sr. High youth group, chili cook-offs, mission trips, a multitude of bible studies, but those are all designed to do something.  They are designed to help parents, adult and students have opportunities to share Jesus with each other.  They are all designed to help them see Jesus.

So one of my problems with the numbers games is that I can spend 1000s of hours on things, and say we have 10,000 students at Youth events.  The problem is that isn’t the right number.  The right thing to look at isn’t numbers.  The thing I try to ask myself is did I help the student, family, or friend through the parent’s divorce.  Did I help the family deal with a student struggling with death of a friend, or parent.  Did I sit with a parent as they struggle with their relationship with their child.  You see those things aren’t easily quantified.  Sometimes I will spend 12 hours over two days helping one person.  You might say that wasn’t the best use of my time.  I only worked with one person.  Sometimes I don’t have the best planned youth event because I ran out of time.  The reality is I spent time with a person who needed my time. I got to be a part of Jesus’s ministry in their life.

I am reminded of a great story in the Bible about the feeding of the 5000 (John 6:1-14). When the boy’s fish and bread are used by Jesus.  I like to think of myself as the boy who gets to be involved in Jesus’ ministry.  I get to have an impact on peoples lives.

The same applies for your life.  It isn’t about numbers in my relationships. It is about the individuals I am ministering with.  My goal isn’t how many people can I walk around and share Jesus with, but what few people am I going to invest in so that they know Jesus better. So they experience God’s grace.

The numbers are important, but individual people are more important.

Putting Jesus first in my life??? No I want more.

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Lately I have been thinking about something my pastor said when we were talking about the first commandment (Exodus 20:3).  He said something I have been wrestling with for a while. He said Jesus shouldn’t be #1 he should be everything.  It is a profound statement. It really made me rethink my whole life. You see I always thought about Jesus asking me to take up my cross and follow him meant I should make him first. I thought that it meant I was supposed to go to church on Sunday, lead bible studies, do daily devotions, pray before meals and all those good Jesus things. I thought if I could do all those things then I could be a man who put God first.

As we all know, we can’t even meet this simple requirement.  I failed in praying everyday. I failed in reading my bible everyday. (I didn’t fail the “go to Church thing,” but its probably because I work for one.) As I have studied the scripture more and more I have seen Jesus not just call me to think about him first but to think about him in every situation. My life is different when I think of my spouse and think about how Jesus should be the center of that relationship. It is different to think about when I talk with my family it should have Jesus as the center. When I drive my car down the road and some crazy nut cuts me off and drives me off the road Jesus should be at the center of that situation.  If you don’t believe me look at Luke 15:25-27.

I suppose you could be reading this right now and think WWJD.  You know that catch phrase from the 1990’s. (What would Jesus do) If you are hearing that please listen again.  WWJD isn’t a terrible thing, I should try to follow his example. However when I talk about Jesus being the center of it all that isn’t what I am getting at. It also doesn’t make it any easier to remember what Jesus would do because well… I am not Jesus. I fail.  It doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try but that also shouldn’t be my focus.  The thing about this Jesus being the center of it all is Jesus is in those relationships, those situations in our life when we fail to put him at the center. When we fail Jesus is there to pick us up. When you think about those relationships we know Christ is in the middle of those relationships helping us through. Jesus is the one who gives us hope.

So I guess what I am saying is I don’t want Jesus to be number one. I want Jesus to be in all of it at the center. He is the one who changes me and those relationships so that He can be the center of it all.

So lets try this prayer.

Jesus be the center of my life.  I want to be your disciple, I will fail, but Lord help me to follow you and keep you as the center of it all.

We love the new, and hate the broken.

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I love new things. I love to new toys, games, tablets, computers, music and everything else in between. I also love new friendships, new people, new ideas, new everything. We all love new things.

The problem we have is, we all love new things so much, after a few months those new things get old. We love the new TV until 3 months later the new TV looks old, we love our new cell phone up until 3 months later when we drop our phone and notice the new ding on the side or crack the screen. We love our new friends and new people in our lives up until they give us a few dings, or really we start to notice the dings they have on them. They don’t look new after a short time.

Today I am thinking about relationships in my life that have been dinged. Those relationships that have seen the screen cracked or marked. Those relationships with my fellow believers in Christ that are broken and bruised. I want them to be new. I want them to go back to the way they were when I got them all new and shiny. The trouble is I am looking at it from the wrong place. You see I am trying, like many of us, to make something new myself. I a broken human being am trying to make this thing this relationship new when the only way it is new is through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says something amazing about our newness.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (ESV)

Titus 3:5 also says:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

These verses talk about how our relationship with God is made new. My relationships can be made new each and every day because I have been made new each and every day, when I remember my old self being drowned in that water of baptism every day. This week I got to see a young person in 3rd grade baptized because he heard in his Lutheran day school about what that water does. How it makes him new in Christ. How in brings to us the forgiveness of sins. He wanted to be made new.

So how about us. I am reminded each and every day of my broken, not so new self and not so new relationships. I also know that each and everyday through Christ’s continually working in me I am made new. Those relationships that are also broken because of all our sin can be made new as well. Christ’s work in me and my fellow believer gives me the greatest hope as I continue to try mend those broken relationship with those around me. May it give you that hope as well.

Do you feel God?

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Do you feel God is a question many students have asked this question in their lives. Students, adults, and everyone in between struggle with this issue of feeling God. It is a tough question because often is reveals how people are doing in their faith life. When we forget about who works faith in us we start to ask the question do we feel God.

Your emotions are what make us human. We cannot follow Jesus without at least thinking about our emotions. I get very frustraited with Lutherans who say emotion has no part in the life of a Christian. Chrsitians will always have emotional responses to the world around us. We will respond in worship with some emotion. Think about the last service you went to and tell me you didn’t have some response to the music, liturgy, readings or sermon. You can’t avoid emotion but you can put it in the proper context. Emotion is a gift of God but it isn’t what saves us.

So how do I feel God. I think it is the wrong question. What people are really saying is I don’t feel God do I have faith? So here is my answer. Remember your baptism. Remember in your baptism God declared you his child. In my life I have had moments of ups and downs. I have had moments of time when I struggled in my faith and wondered if it is really there. I remember a professor I had in college who reminded us all one day that when we have those moments we should remember our baptism because it is the one thing we couldn’t mess up, it was done to us. You see in baptism we don’t have to trust in our works or how much we feel Gods presence. We receive the gifts of forgiveness of sins purely by the Grace of God connected to the word. We are saved not because we feel God’s presence but because of what Christ has done for us in that moment. Remember your baptism it will help when you are going through those moments of doubt.