Are we pointing them to Jesus?

March 17, 2014April 7, 2015 / youthguysteve / Leave a comment

This weekend I got to spend time doing something I really enjoy. I spent time at Concordia University Ann Arbor at an event I spent four years serving and investing in to help students grow in faith. It was a joy to take students to this event this year, but it was probably more special to me because my daughter was able to attend the event as well. This weekend was definitely the high of the week.

The problem with ministry much like life is that it is filled with far too many lows and not nearly enough highs. You see the whole week leading up to the event is spent in the mundane of meetings, meetings, reading, meetings…did I mention meetings. It was a long week. Thankfully, it was a fulfilling time in life and ministry.

I think I discovered why it was so fulfilling based on the Gospel lesson for last Sunday. John 3:16 is one of those texts that is very powerful and although it gives me great hope I think the important part of the verse is the story leading up to it, John 3:1-15. The story brings images of the symbol of us living in darkness and Jesus being our light. I love how Jesus reminds us of the point of this season in the Church year, His cross.

We, as the Church and disciples of God are called to point His people to the cross. At Tool Time, I got to experience a group of students leading an event dedicated to leading students to that cross (this is not an altar call moment). What I mean is these students were constantly showing the students I serve, Jesus. Whether it was small groups, general session speakers, or time in the chapel for offerings, the goal of the weekend was to show them Jesus’ love. It wasn’t about awesome bands, or great sets, servant events, or funny skits. All those things were about pointing kids to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

This week reminded me of something so important in my ministry and my life. It is how I should judge everything I do with students, with my family, and with those I meet. I should say to myself did I show them Jesus? Did I point them to the cross? No matter how you do this, no matter what vocation God has called you to serve in, remember our call as the people of Christ is to point them to Jesus. I want to point them to His life, death, and resurrection so that we might have that eternal life hear on earth and in the life to come.

Have you compelled them to come to the banquet yet?

March 4, 2014April 7, 2015 / youthguysteve / Leave a comment

Recently I spent some time with some new and old friends talking about ministry. We were eating together, as is the case with many church workers. I enjoy food, but the guys I was eating with seemed to enjoy it just a little bit more… well actually a lot more. They love to share food with each other and enjoy the experience together. It was a great time. I love food and I love how good food can bring about such good conversation. It is a way for many of us to break down walls and really listen. (Mostly the listening comes from stuffing our faces with food.) Good food really does bring about great joy and conversation.

This eating together reminded my of a text of scripture I recently read while preparing some of my students for 30 hour famine. Luke 14:12-24, is one of my favorite texts in scripture. I love how Jesus invited the the lowly. He calls the crippled and the lame. The crippled, who in Jesus’ day were the outcasts. The people who wouldn’t have been allowed in the temple or anywhere God was present, because they were unclean, unworthy to be in God’s presence and grace. They were unworthy to join in the fellowship because they weren’t good enough. Jesus in this parable reminds us that we who sit at the table are the lowly beggars the sick and lame. We are not worthy to be in His presence but we are anyway, because of his graciousness. We give thanks to God for this.

More importantly I was struck by Luke 14:23 after the crippled and lame are invited he was to go out and compel them to come. I have always been fascinated by this part of the story. You see as a disciple of Jesus I am asked to be like him. He compels them to come in. How am I compelling my neighbor to come and be at the banquet. I think many of us just drop the invite and throw up are hands when they don’t come. Here Jesus seems to tell us to go and compel them to come. Be more forceful. Sometimes I wonder if when we got the invite and went to His banquet, why don’t I go to my friends, family, even enemies and share with them this awesome place of nourishment we have in Jesus. This place where we eat and are satisfied. Where we have true fellowship in God. I pray for myself to have heart of invitation and a want to compel my neighbor, not just selfishness for myself.

So the question remains for all of us. Have you compelled them to come to the banquet yet?

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

February 20, 2014April 7, 2015 / youthguysteve / Leave a comment

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.

February 12, 2014April 7, 2015 / youthguysteve / 1 Comment

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.