Relying...

First of all, I want to apologize to any of you reading for taking so long to get a new post out… The past few days haven’t been the best for me… lots of stress, lots of confusion, and lots of anger… A series of events starting a few weeks ago has continued and increased throughout the past weeks and finally climaxed over this past weekend… These events have been very stressful and frustrating for me as they are very close to my heart. Sunday night I attended the Pulse (a gathering of seniors and college age students that meets once a month at our church.) Pastor Andre preached on the sovereignty and sufficiency of Christ. This was an extremely well needed reminder that came at the perfect time. God knows what’s going on… how its going to end… and He’s all I really need anyway… I love God’s timing! (I don’t believe in coincidence…) While this message spoke to me in many ways regarding this situation, the stress, anger, and frustration remains. These aren’t easy truths to grasp and accept in our finite minds. All this to say please pray that these situations would be resolved and also that I would hold fast to the promises of God and not sin in my anger… Thanks for your prayers… love ya all…
joseph

The Real Church...

Just a couple quick thoughts on Acts 2:42-47. This passage comes just after Peter's sermon at Pentecost and describes the way the church was at the beginning, just after the coming of the Holy Spirit. This passage describes a different church than what most Christians are used to today. It describes a church focused on community and relationship. Most of us today only see our local body two to three times a week in our "church building." I put this in quotes because the word church refers not to a building, but to just that, a group of people! The greek word for church, "ekklesia" literally means "called out ones"... "ek" meaning "out of" and "klesia" (from "kalew") meaning "to call." So, when one joins a church the literally join a group of people. The passage uses the words "they, every, all, their, and together" 11 times in these 6 verses. It focuses on relationship! It says that they met together every day! They literally acted like a family! Another aspect of the church that this passage emphasizes is how these believers were devoted to the apostles' teachings. In today's church most people yawn there way through church and, if they have quite time at all, they hurry their way through that to check it off some kind of personal to do list. The people of the early church were "devoted" to the teaching of the apostles. They were all about learning more and growing in their relationship to Christ! They didn't trudge through it, they loved it! They desired to learn about their Savior! The pasage also emphasizes that the early church was selling what they had in order to give to the poor. We never see someone these days selling what they have just so that they can give to the poor. Sure people make donations and tithe, but this passage says that these early church members were selling their possessions specifically for the purpose of giving to those in need! One more thing that this passage talks about is found in the first part of verse 43. It's big! It's huge! It says, "Everyone was filled with awe..." This word "awe" can also be translated "fear." Reading the Bible literally I read that EVERYONE (refering to Christians) was filled with awe and fear of God. This is crucial! They realized how BIG God is! They saw how glorious He is! As Christians we MUST fear the Lord! We must see Him for who He really is! He is God! He is Savior! And as Christians He is ours! That's one thing that is truly awesome! This huge God, the creator, is ours! He knows our names!
I guess this is just challenge to the body of Christ, the church, the people to change... I don't know how this looks and I don't know how this change begins. Prayer is crucial! Knowing God is key! Also, please reallize that some of the things I said in this entry were generalizations. I realize that not all Christians or local church bodies are like I described, however, this is an obvious problem in the church today and change is needed!

Faith... in all times.

Everyone knows the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego... but in case not... a quick recap. In the book of Daniel three men are commanded to bow down to a statue made by King Nebuchadnezzar. If they refuse, they are to be thrown into a furnace to be killed. Being that they are men of faith, they refuse to bow down and are thus brought before the king to receive their punishment. Nebuchadnezzar decideds to extend some grace to the men and says that if they will bow down he will forget about their refusal and allow them to return to normal life. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answer the king saying, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." (Daniel 3:16b-18)
There are two things that amaze me about these few verses. First of all through all of this the three men remain extremely respectful to their authority. It didn't matter that the authority was living in sin and commanding them to sin. They simply refused the sin but remained respectful through it all. The main thing that jumps out at me from this passage, though, is their undying faith in their God. It would've been easy for them to have said that they would've kept their faith if they new for sure they would've survived. They didn't know the outcome for sure though. They had the amazing faith to say, "But even if He does not..." They didn't care what God chose to do with them. They would not fall from their faith. This just goes to show how little faith we have today. Even when things are going great for us we sometimes don't want to trust God with our situations... not to mention when things are bad. Church... Let us strengthen our faith and truly be able to say that we can "sing in the troubled times."

The Stars and gazing...

People always like to see amazing wonders, whether it be the Grand Canyon, Mt. Everest, and eclipse... or as it was tonight... a meteor shower. As I was laying on a deck chair on my deck at 12:30am gazing at the stars on this pleasently clear night in Northern Kentucky waiting for the meteor shower that was supposed to occor (which I ended up missing due to the sad fact of gazing in the wrong direction) I began to think...
Why is it that we forget about the beauty of our Lord's creation until he gives us an "amazing show." Every night we walk under the vast expanse of the beautiful amazing universe that He created (See Louie Giglio's messages Indescribable and How Great is Our God) and think nothing more about it, yet when these instenses of irregulartiy come along we are suddenly stunned and in awe of the beauty. It's as if tonight God was snapping His fingers to say, "Hey! Look what's up here! Did you forget? It's amazing! And I made it with you in mind!"
This thought shook my reality of how amazing the univerese truly is. Let us not forget the beauty that is around us and constantly worship God in the splendor of His holiness...

Welcome

Well, I've been contemplating this creation of a personal blog for a while and I've finally decided that blog creation was the way to go. These entries could go in so many different directions but the general point of this blog is to share "epiphanies" about life, God, worship etc. However, it could also branch out to things such as a daily journal or even advertisement for things such as... the jsquared podcast (http://jsquaredpodcast.blogspot.com) *wink wink. Anyway, this first entry really has no point except to welcome and explain this blog. So I hope what y'all find here is enjoyable and profitable!

Joseph