Filter Through Life

Jacob is officially my hero.  He wrestled with God and lived to face another day.  He walked with a limp the rest of his days, but he did it.  I feel like I wrestled with God last night for 3 ½ hours.  Only I don’t think God looks like a bunch of heavy-duty chairs, a stove/oven, boxes and/or a refrigerator.  My pancreas has a limp right now.  I need a vacation.

Sorry, you can find the kickball picture here.  It’s not mine by the way.  I have to give credit to someone else on the net.  I am just not sure who.

After seeing that almost all of the referrals to my blog from search engines were coming from people seeking “kickball” or “kickball logo” I decided to investigate.  I Googled “kickball” and checked out the images.  The fifth image is a direct link to my blog.  Funny.

I was reading last night in Plastic Jesus by Eric Sandras (I am getting really close to the end finally), and what I read was quite profound to me.  It was something that I have known in my head, but I haven’t really known it with my heart.  That caused my heart to break, and Jesus loves that.  He loves when we are broken and in desperate need of Him. 

Being broken was just what Eric was writing about in this chapter.  A broken object looses value.  A Ming Vase is a priceless artifact, but a broken Ming Vase is mosaic fodder.  However, when we are broken we are taken by our God, cradled in His arms and given a peace we could never have otherwise. 

This is illustrated well in Mark 14: 3-6 when a woman breaks a bottle of expensive perfume over Jesus to bless Him.  The people observing thought only of the lost value of the bottle of perfume.  Jesus saw the value of that bottle being broken and the woman giving her all to Him.  When we are broken and we surrender to Him we become more valuable than we ever where with our own strength and togetherness.   

So, those cold, dark, secret places in our hearts and minds that are hidden from the world are not hidden from Jesus.  The shameful things that we never tell anyone about, even Jesus, Jesus knows about them.  He can help us with every one of them.  He is just waiting for us to break so He can pick of the pieces of our lives.

I need to read.  I need to read my Bible and find out what God wants to say to me.  I need to finish Plastic Jesus which I have been working on for five or six months.  But I really need to read Humility by Andrew Murray again.  It is a really good, quick-reading book about…drum roll…humility.  I bet you’d never have guessed it.   

You see, I am having a hard time with humility but as a pastor you have to be humble.  I have to take a lot of junk at work that I don’t want to take.  I have to take a lot of junk on my commutes that I don’t want to take.  I would love to give someone my two cents or flat out run them off the road.  I can’t do that.  I have to be humble.   

Why do I have to be humble?  Because God wants me to be humble.  Paul writes in Colossians 3:12-13:

12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

It’s not always fun being humble, sometimes it flat out sucks (sorry Tony) but we have to do it.  So go read your Bible. Then go read Humility.  It should be required reading for the church.  You can read it online here or buy it (cheaply) here. 

I was checking out how people find my blog.  I have had people looking for a “kickball logo.”  I have had people looking for “one finger.”  But today someone found my blog by searching for “‘Legacy Fellowship’ Leander.”  I thought that was kind of cool since that is the church in which I try to be a youth pastor.  It was probably Tony or Chad. 

So, if you come across my page via a search engine leave me a note.  Thanks. 

Oh yeah, in case you check this post out Legacy is in Cedar Park.

I don’t normally do this but I felt compelled this morning to share the thoughts of someone else, Billy Graham.  He is a pretty good person.  That’s what I hear at least.  Anyway, he writes of the importance of going to church.  Some folks think it isn’t important.  I am not the authority on this but I sure think you need to be in church.  I mean, you separate a cool from the fire and the cool with cool off rather quickly.  Anyway, with no further ado, Mr. Billy Graham. 

“Can I be a Christian without going to church?” Read Billy Graham’s response: 

It’s possible to be a Christian without going to church — but you will be missing out on an important part of what God wants to do in your life. Just as we need a balanced diet to be strong physically, so we need a balanced “diet” to be strong spiritually — and part of that “diet” is the Church. 

Let me explain. What you have done by accepting Christ into your life is very important — in fact, it’s the most important decision you will ever make. But becoming a Christian is only the beginning — the beginning of a whole new life with Christ. Now God wants you to grow and become strong in your faith, so you can resist temptation and become more like Jesus. 

One of the ways we grow spiritually is through our fellowship and worship with other believers — in other words, through a church where Christ is honored. Not only do we learn from the Bible as it is taught, but we also learn from other believers who can help and encourage us. The Bible says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:25). 

Don’t be embarrassed or feel awkward because you haven’t been in church much; you’ll soon become familiar with its ways. And remember: You are now part of the family of God, and no one is going to look down on you if you make an occasional mistake.

I watched an extended trailer for the movie Sunshine yesterday at apple.com.  I was on the edge of my seat just watching the trailer.  I can’t wait to see the flick.  It is the same director as one of my favorite flicks, Millions, which is very family friendly.  Anyhow, Sunshine is about a group of scientists that travel to the sun in an attempt to reignite it.  The sun is dying and seeing as it is a pretty big source of life for our planet they deem it fairly important.  They are willing to sacrifice their selves to save Earth. 

I was thinking what it would be like if the sun did in fact start dying out.  The first two things that came to mind were; plants would die and all the water would freeze.  So basically, we would suffocate or die of dehydration.  I am sure we could survive for a while but not for too long. 

I started thinking about the rain.  It’s hard not to with the weather we’ve been having lately.  I thought about cracks in the driveway.  What happens when water freezes?  That’s right, it expands.  I am smarter than a 5^th grader, see.  If we don’t take care of our driveways and there are cracks in them the water in the cracks is going to freeze.  That will in turn cause the cracks to grow bigger and more costly to repair.  The one thing that can fix all this, other than filling the cracks with something else that is surely to be temporary fix is the sun.  If the sun comes out and we allow it to do its job all the ice will melt and water won’t freeze, expand and destroy our driveways. 

As I said in another post, Jesus still teaches us and He still uses parables to do so.  You see, our lives are the driveways.  The cracks represent our sin and the rain and water represents our enemy, Satan.  And most importantly, the sun represents The Son, Jesus Christ.  The further we get from our source, Jesus, the more Satan can get into our “cracks in the driveway”.  We need to stay close to The Son.  We can’t afford the repair bill to our driveway. 

I love that Jesus used parables to teach.  I love His reason for using parables.  As The Message translation of the Bible says, we are truly “blockheads.”  If it weren’t for His usage of parable, many of us would let His teachings go in one ear and out the other.  However, when you hear a parable you are apt to think about the story.  You think about the events that unfolded.  It marinates in your mind and in your heart.  Eventually the Holy Spirit gets a hold of you and reveals exactly what Jesus was trying to tell you. 

Jesus still teaches us and He still uses parables.  I still like the parables.  Often times they are much easier on us than the life lessons we frequently find ourselves learning.  Those are tough ones. 

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago and today I read on Chad’s blog that he saw a parable in, of all things, Call of Duty 2, a video game.  At first I thought, “that chump is just trying to justify his time on the XBOX 360.”  Then I was convicted about calling him a chump and realized that he is in fact right, Call of Duty 2 is just like our Christian lives.  Okay, maybe not just like, but you can see the parable. 

I believe we can find parables in our everyday lives.  Jesus wants to speak to us.  He speaks to us through The Word.  He speaks to us when we pray.  And yes, He still speaks to us in parables.  Keep your eyes and hearts open to what He has to say and you will begin to understand them.