Thursday, May 31, 2012

If God is faithful, all of his promises must be true. If all of his promises are true, then everything that happens to those that love Him and have been called according to His purpose are for their good. If this is true, then there is absolutely zero reason to worry. But the problem is we don't believe this.

Romans 8:28 is quoted so much that it has almost turned into a cliche. But God did not put the verse into the Bible so it could be turned into just another cliche. He put it in the Bible because it is true and because He is going to hold to it. The more we come to realize that this verse is true 100% of the time, the more we will be able to see the goodness of God, even in the the seemingly bad things. 

I write this because I worry a lot, not because I have this figured out at all. Join me in trying to deepen our understanding of God's goodness and his bigger character.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Why I'm Getting Baptized

I'm getting baptized on May 27, this coming Sunday. If you're reading this, I would love for you to be there. Feel free to ask me for more information. But I know there are definitely some people out there wondering why I am doing this. There are some people wondering why I am getting baptized at all, and there are some people wondering why I am getting baptized again, as I was baptized as an infant. I will try to address both of those things in this post.

Why am I getting baptized at all?

I want to start with what I believe about Baptism, and what I believe the Bible says about Baptism. Well, I believe that Baptism is what the Bible says it is. That was easy. Now, for what I believe the Bible says about Baptism.

First, a preface to what I believe about baptism:
I believe that God created us to be in a perfect relationship with Him because of His deep love for us. That is why when He created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin. Everything was as God intended and they walked with God. They literally walked with God. Wow. But we are humans, and humans are not perfect. Beginning with the first sin in the Garden, humans have continually broken the perfect relationship we had with God. We are sinful people. A good majority of the time, we do what we want, and not what God wants. We choose our selfish desires over the desires of  a Holy God that knows everything. Due to this sin that is evident in our lives, we can't have this relationship with God; we are separated from Him. However, I also believe that God loved us so much that He decided to make a way for the relationship to be redeemed, to be made new. God sent Jesus Christ to the earth as a way to pay for our sins. Jesus was fully human and fully man, and He lived a perfect life on earth while facing all of the same temptations and trials that we experience. Jesus was killed on the cross because of our sins, suffering a horrible death and taking on the wrath of God. He died to take on the penalty for all of the times that we disobey a perfectly Holy God. But not only did He die for our sins, but on the third day, He rose again! Jesus literally rose from the dead, which not only proved His deity, but also that He had victory over sin and death. In this act (which I believe is a historic fact, not some fable), a way was created for man to have a relationship with God again. By placing our faith, and faith alone (Ephesians 2:8), in Jesus, and Jesus alone, and by turning from our old ways, we can have the incredible promises of forgiveness and an eternity in Heaven worshipping God.

That is what I believe the Bible is all about. Because I believe this and have this relationship with God, I want nothing more than to honor Him, glorify Him, and enjoy Him. I am still sinful, and I do not do this perfectly by any means. Let me repeat that: I am still sinful. I still mess up a lot and need forgiveness. But because I believe this, I believe more than anything, I need to obey God and obey what the Bible says.

With that being said, I believe that Baptism is an act of obedience that I want to follow because of my reverence of God. In Matthew 28:19, when Jesus is commissioning His disciples, He commands them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey the commands of God. Jesus tells them to be baptizing people and teaching them to obey, as the people they talk to believe. So since I believe, I have been commanded to be baptized by Jesus. In Acts 2:38, Peter and some other apostles are preaching to a group of people, who then believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They then ask what they should do, and Peter replies with the command that they repent and be baptized. After these people made the choice to believe, they are commanded to get baptized.  So, first off, I believe the Bible commands believers in Jesus to get baptized as an act of obedience.

I also believe that baptism is a way to publicly declare that I believe Jesus is my Savior, and to confirm that I not only believe that with every ounce of my being (despite my failures), but also that the desire of my heart is to live to glorify Him for the rest of my life. In the words of the church that I am doing the baptism with (Evanston Bible Fellowship), baptism is "an outward confession of an inward salvation that has occurred through belief in the Lord Jesus." Since I believe I have salvation through my belief in Jesus, I want to obey God through this act of outward confession.

Now, to address the second question:

Why am I getting baptized again?


I was baptized as an infant, but I believe that it is more Biblical to get baptized as an adult, after it is clear that the person is truly a believer in Jesus Christ. I ask that you keep in mind why I'm getting baptized at all as you are reading this, as there may by a little bit of overlap.

In every baptism in the Bible, it occurs when the person is at an age where they can make the decision on their own. Since I think that the Bible is the best model to use when determining how to go about these things, I want to obey this command now that I've reached that age as well. I think that Jesus' baptism is very insightful into the process of getting baptized. It can be found in Matthew 3:13-17, where Jesus gets baptized as an adult.

In relation to baptisms happening when people reach an age of accountability, I also want to do it again out of my own choosing. As a child, I had no say in being baptized. Then again in 8th grade, I went through confirmation of my baptism. However, there was a lot of pressure to do it and it still wasn't necessarily out of my own choice. I am extremely grateful for my parents and I love them a lot, and I think they did a great job raising me, but ultimately I don't feel like these things were my choices.

Even looking back at those times in my life, there were not really signs that I was truly a Christian. My faith was not in Christ. My faith was in myself. I put my worth in my grades, my academic achievements, and how many friends I had. I tried to do this all in my own power and strength. There was no reliance on Christ. However, midway through high school, as I learned about what the Bible said, I began to live for the glory of Christ as I experienced His grace, love, and mercy. I began to really think about what I believe, and I made the choice to follow Christ with my life. It was not because of pressure, but because I came to the conclusion on my own that it was true. Since I have really taken ownership of my faith, I want to follow the Biblical model and get baptized now that I have chosen to repent and believe that Jesus is God.

What I am not doing.


I am not getting baptized into a denomination of Christianity.

I am not doing this to earn salvation. I believe that I already have it through my faith in Jesus, not because I earned it or deserve it.

I am not trying to get gifts or money. I know that for infant baptisms there are sometimes gifts given, but that is not at all what I'm doing. I don't want that at all. I won't accept any.

Conclusion.


I love Jesus with all my heart (or at least this is my life's desire). He has overcome the grave and gives me hope, strength, and peace. All I can do is attempt to glorify Him through all I do and obey Him. Not  out of obligation or guilt, but out of an overflowing from my heart of the joy that I have experienced knowing God in my relationship with Him. I would love to have you come celebrate this step in my life! Please let me know if you have any questions about this. I want to be as open and honest about this as possible, so comment, e-mail, call, or message me on Facebook if you are still confused or are not pleased or are happy! Thanks so much for reading this, I know it was long :)

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

More Than Mediocrity

Growing up, I feel like my attitude towards life was something along the lines of, "If you don't get caught, you won't get in trouble." Now, most people would jump to the conclusion that I was a troublemaker in school or that my group of friends was shady. It makes sense, a lot of people with that mentality choose to be stealthy in their rebellion against authorities and do everything in their control to not get caught. For me, though, the reaction was the complete opposite. In my mind, the best way to not get caught, and thus not get in trouble, was to not do said misbehavior at all. I guess it was a mentality more along the lines of "If you don't do it, you won't get in trouble."

This is a mentality that, unfortunately, has stuck with me to this day. And in many ways, it impacts my view of God. Because God is an authority figure, I jump to the conclusion that if I avoid doing bad things, I won't be punished. If I don't sin, or conquer some of the big sins in my life, God will be pleased with me. This can become the focus of what I am living for: avoiding doing bad things. And in doing so, I overlook good fruits that I can bear through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sin is horrible, and it is essential to flee from it, but this attitude leads to a horrible view of God.

When God renews our soul and makes us into a new creation, He calls us to a life where we are to glorify Him with all that we are. He doesn't call us to a life where we simply avoid sin. That is not enough. That is a mediocre way to live life. And it is something that I find myself doing far too often. My focus is so much on avoiding sin that I ignore opportunities to do good. This does not please God. My attempts to please God by avoiding bad actually have the opposite affect.

James writes that "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (James 4:17) It does not please God because that kind of attitude is sin. I have had a glimpse of God's grace and have been forgiven by his mercy. I know the gospel and understand it. I know many of the things that God calls me to do. I know how he hates injustice and evil, and how we wants His Name to be spread to every corner of the Earth. And I still get caught up in thinking that God only cares about the sin in my life.

It's so hard to just change your view of God. I wish there was a switch in my head where I could just switch my attitude toward pleasing Him and be done with it. But there isn't. Dang.

So I must continue to remind myself of the life that God calls me to live. This life is not about me. It is not about how good I look in front of God. It is not about how good I look in front of others. It is about surrendering it all to the Lord of the universe. Surrendering the entirety of my life to the one who created it all. When I live apprehensively, hoping to skate by with simply avoiding sin, I am picking and choosing parts of my life to surrender. That is not surrendering; that is not submission. Jesus calls for his followers to adopt the most radical abandonment of their selves: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23-24) This task sure seems overbearing, but that is why we have been given the Holy Spirit. It is through Him that we can be producing good fruit for God and living the lives we are called to. He will make straight our paths if we trust the Lord with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5-6). He will continue to sanctify us.

We were not created to wallow in the mediocrity of half-hearted surrender. Can surrender even be half-hearted? The word alone implies giving up everything. We are called to so much more than mediocrity. But this is something I am horrible at remembering. I want control. I was successful at staying out of trouble growing up, and I want to continue being successful. It's easy for me to focus only on myself and think that I am accomplishing a lot. It is a lot harder to take the words of Jesus seriously and live my life like that. But it is possible, because our God is able. And He is so worth it.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Pondering

A question that I was thinking about today, to which I don't really have an answer: What is the point where our emotions go from just being humans that have feelings to being sin? I'm thinking specifically of sorrow and anger, but I think the question applies for other emotions too.

Sorrow: Sorrow is obviously a natural reaction to many things. I don't think that it is wrong at all to feel sorrow, in fact I think it is very healthy at times. But is there a point when sorrow becomes sin because it is being caused by worry and we are no longer trusting in God?

Anger: Anger seems a little trickier to me. I think that there is righteous anger clearly in the Bible. But is it even possible for humans to have righteous anger? Is is ok then to feel anger? Or is anger always a sin to feel?

Just some thoughts and questions. If you have insights, feel free to comment.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

What a Warrior



Start the video at 4:21. Watch until 6:49. Josh Hamilton is a baseball player on the Texas Rangers. He has gone through so many battles with alcohol and drugs in his life, yet his desire to pursue the Lord is so admirable. I was so saddened hearing about his relapse during the winter, but this is a man that understands what God's grace looks like, as can be seen by his treatment of the fans. It would be so easy for him to run away from everything he has been given, but he keeps fighting. And because of that, he gets a platform on ESPN to show people how radical Jesus' love was. Wow. What a warrior.

God, You are faithful



Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful
God, You are faithful

Friday, May 11, 2012

Blind Spots

"We all have blind spots - areas of our lives that need to be uncovered so we can see correctly and adjust our lives accordingly. But they are hard to identify. Others can often see them in us, and we rely on friends to point them out. But the reality is, even then we have a hard time recognizing them. We don't want to admit they exist...often until it's too late. We discover them in hindsight, but we struggle to see them in the present."
-David Platt, Radical

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Then The Change Occurs

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:3-7


The thing that came up the most frequently for me during the I Agree With Markwell outreach was that people were creating a good/bad divide between Christians and non-Christians. People would say that we are accusing them of being bad, while somehow being a Christian made us good, and thus better than them and going to heaven. It was frustrating for me because so many of the things that we put out there for people to see had to do with how being good isn't good enough. Christianity is not about being bad or good at all. You can be a non-Christian who is moral and be seen by most as "good." 


In this passage, I think it becomes crystal clear that it is not about being good. There was a time when believers were certainly choosing to rebel from God and living in our sin; we were "foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved." But then the change occurs. And the change isn't that we become good. And the change doesn't happen because we are good: "not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." The change that occurs is one from condemned to forgiven. We are still in a state where we sin and are broken, but we have experienced the salvation offered through Jesus and now we are forgiven! This salvation is not about anything we have done. This salvation is not about the the things that we do now that we are saved. This salvation is about a perfect God offering us grace that is deeper than the depths of the ocean.


This really is a beautiful thing. That we have been renewed by the Holy Spirit without any reason to deserve it.


But this isn't about us. God loves us and created us to spend eternity with Him. But ultimately, He saved us because it brings Him glory. But this is awesome! Because if God saved us to bring us glory, yet claimed to be deserving of all praise, I would be worried. I don't think I would want to serve that God. I'll close with a quote from David Platt in his book, Radical:


"The message of biblical Christianity is 'God loves me so that I might make him - his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness - known among all nations.' Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is.


"God centers on himself, even in our salvation. Remember his words in Ezekiel: he saves us, not for our sake, but for the sake of his holy name. We have received salvation so that his name will be proclaimed in all nations. God loves us for his sake in the world."

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I keep part of myself closed in. I think we all do to some extent. Sometimes it may not even be intentional. Does anyone on this earth really know all of me? Will anyone on this earth ever know all of me? Like, really know me. I don't think so, but I think that building towards authentic fellowship means revealing who we really are. The ugliness of our innermost being. Because it is not from others that we are affirmed. We are not competent because of the few good things we do. Those don't make us competent because we all have an ugliness to our innermost being. Most of the good things, if not all, are probably done with selfish motivations anyway. That's why we are broken. We are literally sinful to the core. Yet as we grow with each other and reveal to each other our sinfulness, it feels more free to fight it back. I no longer feel entrenched in a battle of one-on-many, but I feel like I am fighting off sin with an army.

We all have an ugliness to our innermost being. We all want to keep it hidden. What would it look like if we stopped being ashamed and started being authentic?