In the beginning, God created....
God had no need to create the universe, instead he chose to. God is love...love is best expressed toward something or someone.
God so loved...that he created...
God so loved...that he gave...
As an expression of the love manifested in God he created, and thus we are created in the image of God, the image of love.
It seems as if creation and love are inseparable.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The following is a speech that my 14 year old friend Bob wrote after watching the film Invisible Children again. He watched it alone on his couch and planned an event to raise money to help the cause. His school shot it down. I thought I would still share his speech with you...
"IT is not anyone else's choice...just yours. If you don't FEEL like it. Go ahead, don't
'It's not your problem, it's not my problem' If we don't want it to be, it won't be our problem.
But, see that is the mane reason every single person doesn't stand up and fight for what's right. Just those few, those blessed few, that say, 'LOOK AROUND! I've got everything I could ask for without working on second of my life for it. God gave me this, so why don't I give back all that I can. '
Not for pride
Not for fun.
But for love.
Love for others and love for God. Your creator. Your maker.
You can say, 'hey, I can't make a difference, look at me, stupid old me, I couldn't make a difference if I tried so what's the point?'
The point is..TRY. You might save a life. You might put a smile on a frowning face. You might feed someone a lifesaving cracker, or a sip of water.
NOW-I ask you today, right now, to think about someone other than yourself for once in your life. Smile at a frowning face. Give a hug to someone who needs it. Feed a hungry person and you have already made a difference, a HUGE difference, in your life and the other person's. Simply because you showed them goodness. You showed them love. And most of all, you showed them the smiling face of God. You showed them that there are people out there that CARE.
Now these children, these people that you see in Africa, are not less than one person in this room. ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. So why aren't they treated that way?
There are people in this very city right now that are starving, cold, friendless, sad. But some people don't really FEEL like trying. They would rather cry over a cell phone they wanted but couldn't get.
ANYONE can make a difference. The only thing that is required is trying, not even trying hard, but trying. Try to help another person in need. DO IT.
and I promise you, you will know happiness that is unimaginable in the human eye."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob called me last night to hear all about my trip to Uganda, so I summed up as much as I could. Then he asked me how old I was. I'm 23. And then he began to tell me how distraught he was because he was only 14 (soon to be 15 though) and he felt as if there was really nothing "big" he could do because he was so young.
wrong.
Yeah, so I bought a plane ticket, signed up with a program and went to Uganda. Bob very well can't do that right now. But my actual trip to Uganda doesn't matter. It's the stories of love surrounding it that do. It's the reason I was compelled to go there in the first place. It's because I fell in love with Jesus...and fell hard.
Everyday when people hear about my trip they tell me that they want to go back to Uganda with me. Maybe some of them do, but I think it's more likely that they are thirsty to learn about love and think that going to Uganda will show them how...because that's where I went, right?
Uganda only stretched my capacity to love and opened my eyes to a world that determines whether you live or die by where you are born. Not that I hadn't known any of this before...but when you see something for yourself, you really GET it.
However, Uganda is not where I learned about love.
I learned about love in a classroom the first week of 4th grade. Somehow over the summer, all of us had changed from 3rd graders who didn't care what anyone looked like to elitists who had to wear the right sneakers, shorts, ahem and stirrup pants to be part of the popular crowd...those who were loved by all. The girls that I had been friends with forever were the popular clique. I had it in easy with them. But I couldn't stand how they treated the girls who were not so lucky to be blessed with the right clothing labels and perfect hair.
It came down to two empty seats at two separate tables in an art classroom. One with my popular friends and one with my outcast friends. I headed towards the outcasts and the popular table asked me why I would want to sit with them. I turned around and said because they're my friends and they are good.
So ended my popularity career. It lasted a whole of maybe one week. That's when I started loving the blessed and the misfits alike, but I learned much more from the misfits.
Little Bob, you can make a big difference at 14. How? Simply by being like Jesus instead of just believing in him. God is love. Jesus is love. Created in that image we are...love. Love is the road less traveled by, but it's what makes all the difference.
p.s. your faith, Bob, has already taught me more than most preachers ever have attempted to. and those preachers were pretty old.=) Keep loving, my friend.
"IT is not anyone else's choice...just yours. If you don't FEEL like it. Go ahead, don't
'It's not your problem, it's not my problem' If we don't want it to be, it won't be our problem.
But, see that is the mane reason every single person doesn't stand up and fight for what's right. Just those few, those blessed few, that say, 'LOOK AROUND! I've got everything I could ask for without working on second of my life for it. God gave me this, so why don't I give back all that I can. '
Not for pride
Not for fun.
But for love.
Love for others and love for God. Your creator. Your maker.
You can say, 'hey, I can't make a difference, look at me, stupid old me, I couldn't make a difference if I tried so what's the point?'
The point is..TRY. You might save a life. You might put a smile on a frowning face. You might feed someone a lifesaving cracker, or a sip of water.
NOW-I ask you today, right now, to think about someone other than yourself for once in your life. Smile at a frowning face. Give a hug to someone who needs it. Feed a hungry person and you have already made a difference, a HUGE difference, in your life and the other person's. Simply because you showed them goodness. You showed them love. And most of all, you showed them the smiling face of God. You showed them that there are people out there that CARE.
Now these children, these people that you see in Africa, are not less than one person in this room. ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. So why aren't they treated that way?
There are people in this very city right now that are starving, cold, friendless, sad. But some people don't really FEEL like trying. They would rather cry over a cell phone they wanted but couldn't get.
ANYONE can make a difference. The only thing that is required is trying, not even trying hard, but trying. Try to help another person in need. DO IT.
and I promise you, you will know happiness that is unimaginable in the human eye."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob called me last night to hear all about my trip to Uganda, so I summed up as much as I could. Then he asked me how old I was. I'm 23. And then he began to tell me how distraught he was because he was only 14 (soon to be 15 though) and he felt as if there was really nothing "big" he could do because he was so young.
wrong.
Yeah, so I bought a plane ticket, signed up with a program and went to Uganda. Bob very well can't do that right now. But my actual trip to Uganda doesn't matter. It's the stories of love surrounding it that do. It's the reason I was compelled to go there in the first place. It's because I fell in love with Jesus...and fell hard.
Everyday when people hear about my trip they tell me that they want to go back to Uganda with me. Maybe some of them do, but I think it's more likely that they are thirsty to learn about love and think that going to Uganda will show them how...because that's where I went, right?
Uganda only stretched my capacity to love and opened my eyes to a world that determines whether you live or die by where you are born. Not that I hadn't known any of this before...but when you see something for yourself, you really GET it.
However, Uganda is not where I learned about love.
I learned about love in a classroom the first week of 4th grade. Somehow over the summer, all of us had changed from 3rd graders who didn't care what anyone looked like to elitists who had to wear the right sneakers, shorts, ahem and stirrup pants to be part of the popular crowd...those who were loved by all. The girls that I had been friends with forever were the popular clique. I had it in easy with them. But I couldn't stand how they treated the girls who were not so lucky to be blessed with the right clothing labels and perfect hair.
It came down to two empty seats at two separate tables in an art classroom. One with my popular friends and one with my outcast friends. I headed towards the outcasts and the popular table asked me why I would want to sit with them. I turned around and said because they're my friends and they are good.
So ended my popularity career. It lasted a whole of maybe one week. That's when I started loving the blessed and the misfits alike, but I learned much more from the misfits.
Little Bob, you can make a big difference at 14. How? Simply by being like Jesus instead of just believing in him. God is love. Jesus is love. Created in that image we are...love. Love is the road less traveled by, but it's what makes all the difference.
p.s. your faith, Bob, has already taught me more than most preachers ever have attempted to. and those preachers were pretty old.=) Keep loving, my friend.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Dear American Christianity...
Dear American Christianity,
I regret to inform you that I can no longer be part of your fold.
I will not be subject to a nation that looks to its President as a symbol of how faith should be reflected instead of the God who created the faith.
I cannot contain my worship to the hours of 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night or 10 a.m. Sunday morning.
I do not see the necessity in taking part in “contemporary worship” to make one feel more in tune with the “contemporary Jesus,” nor can I understand being limited to worshipping the “traditional Jesus” in a traditional service. I worship a Jesus who was the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and is not altered by the flowery words of a sacred creed of the rhythm section of a praise band.
I refuse to view Jesus as an excuse to feel comfortable in the prosperity of the “American Dream” because he will provide for me if I follow him. There’s much more to following Jesus than financial security. In fact, the Jesus that I follow has asked me to become poor so that I may gain wealth. I am content with being provided what I need and not what I want.
America, why is it that you’re too afraid to speak of God to your spouse, your neighbor, your children, or your co-worker, but when “those atheists” threaten to remove the 10 commandments from the City Courthouse you are frenzied into outrage? Honestly, did you even notice that they were displayed there before? And when did we restrict God so much in our minds that we come to believe his only edification in our man-made buildings is a stone statue or etching? Is it not true that God dwells all throughout the earth, even if there is not a monument erected in his honor? You should be more upset that you do not represent a moving, breathing testimonial to the works of God and therefore have to depend on the engravings of a stone or two words in a pledge of allegiance to show your faith.
America, when did you turn from the land of freedom of religion, to the enslaver of Jesus Christ? You have bound and gagged Word of God made flesh by hardening your own hearts to his calling, thus muting his voice through you. It used to be said that even the mountains and rocks call out to his glory, but it seems that they’re now the only voices left to be heard, for the words that you speak or even yell on late-night TV or early Sunday morning radio sound to me as a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. More importantly, you have attempted to tame the Lion of Judah by boxing him up in a 15 minute devotional book or a 7 step program to higher living. What happened to the God that was in every second of every day, much less 15 minutes. Have we forgotten who created the time we have to budget for our “quiet moments” with God? Why is not every moment, quiet or loud, lived in communion with the God who created them? There is a church that I pass on my route between Texas and Mississippi that advertises a 30 minute worship service. When did we create this fast-food Jesus? At one point did it become acceptable and even preferable that we limit God’s time to a half hour? That’s less time that most of the dramas shown on primetime television.
There are all these books that teach us how to be “Just like Jesus” on our bookstore shelves. If you’re going to market Jesus, then at least market the real Jesus, not the politically correct image. Where have you hidden the reckless Christ who loved the unlovables and touched the untouchables to grant them healing? Where is the Christ who called the prostitutes, the misfits, and the poor his friends over the righteous? When did that Jesus become too scandalous to talk about in our churches? Maybe the reason we can no longer talk about the woman at the well, the adoring prostitute turned follower of God, or the lusty betrayals of King David is because that might force us to face our own growing culture of adultery. Maybe we can’t talk much about how that crazy Jesus because we know he told several rich men that they must give up their worldly treasures to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. It seems that those words come in direct opposition to the “Prosperity Gospel” preached by the class favorites of our American Christianity school of theology.
The once challenging, moving, and zealous Lion has been groomed and caged to make way for a more pleasing and comfortable Jesus. America is too scared of the dangers that involve following Christ because it might mean giving up everything our magazine, television, and culture tell us we need. Or heaven forbid, we might be called to visit those “dark places” like Africa where we can’t even drink the water. I can assure you that there is more darkness in suburbia and more spiritual poison in America than what you ever physically befall you in Africa. If you want to see God, watch a child who has nothing sing Amazing Grace and mean it. Or watch when a community fasts together because there is not enough food for the whole group. America, you cannot see God because not only have you watered him down, but you have filled your lives with so much “stuff” that it’s crowding your vision.
I can’t be a part of you anymore. I never was a part of you, but now our divide has become too apparent to ignore any longer. Please do not label me as “religious” anymore because it’s become too negative a word for me to bear. I am not comfortable even being called a “Christian” because I do not want to be grouped together with the same people who bomb abortion shelters for the sake of life, or who damn their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of salvation. Instead, just call me friend of Jesus, a follower of Christ, a lover of God and the people created in his image.
My dear American church, please don’t continue to sell your soul at the cost of living comfortably. You used to be the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Now you enslave yourselves and each other and live in cowardice. I pray that soon you choose to leave your safety behind and live dangerously for the God you used to champion. Even though I’ve left you, I will still fight to save you…one person at a time.
Love,
me
I regret to inform you that I can no longer be part of your fold.
I will not be subject to a nation that looks to its President as a symbol of how faith should be reflected instead of the God who created the faith.
I cannot contain my worship to the hours of 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night or 10 a.m. Sunday morning.
I do not see the necessity in taking part in “contemporary worship” to make one feel more in tune with the “contemporary Jesus,” nor can I understand being limited to worshipping the “traditional Jesus” in a traditional service. I worship a Jesus who was the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and is not altered by the flowery words of a sacred creed of the rhythm section of a praise band.
I refuse to view Jesus as an excuse to feel comfortable in the prosperity of the “American Dream” because he will provide for me if I follow him. There’s much more to following Jesus than financial security. In fact, the Jesus that I follow has asked me to become poor so that I may gain wealth. I am content with being provided what I need and not what I want.
America, why is it that you’re too afraid to speak of God to your spouse, your neighbor, your children, or your co-worker, but when “those atheists” threaten to remove the 10 commandments from the City Courthouse you are frenzied into outrage? Honestly, did you even notice that they were displayed there before? And when did we restrict God so much in our minds that we come to believe his only edification in our man-made buildings is a stone statue or etching? Is it not true that God dwells all throughout the earth, even if there is not a monument erected in his honor? You should be more upset that you do not represent a moving, breathing testimonial to the works of God and therefore have to depend on the engravings of a stone or two words in a pledge of allegiance to show your faith.
America, when did you turn from the land of freedom of religion, to the enslaver of Jesus Christ? You have bound and gagged Word of God made flesh by hardening your own hearts to his calling, thus muting his voice through you. It used to be said that even the mountains and rocks call out to his glory, but it seems that they’re now the only voices left to be heard, for the words that you speak or even yell on late-night TV or early Sunday morning radio sound to me as a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. More importantly, you have attempted to tame the Lion of Judah by boxing him up in a 15 minute devotional book or a 7 step program to higher living. What happened to the God that was in every second of every day, much less 15 minutes. Have we forgotten who created the time we have to budget for our “quiet moments” with God? Why is not every moment, quiet or loud, lived in communion with the God who created them? There is a church that I pass on my route between Texas and Mississippi that advertises a 30 minute worship service. When did we create this fast-food Jesus? At one point did it become acceptable and even preferable that we limit God’s time to a half hour? That’s less time that most of the dramas shown on primetime television.
There are all these books that teach us how to be “Just like Jesus” on our bookstore shelves. If you’re going to market Jesus, then at least market the real Jesus, not the politically correct image. Where have you hidden the reckless Christ who loved the unlovables and touched the untouchables to grant them healing? Where is the Christ who called the prostitutes, the misfits, and the poor his friends over the righteous? When did that Jesus become too scandalous to talk about in our churches? Maybe the reason we can no longer talk about the woman at the well, the adoring prostitute turned follower of God, or the lusty betrayals of King David is because that might force us to face our own growing culture of adultery. Maybe we can’t talk much about how that crazy Jesus because we know he told several rich men that they must give up their worldly treasures to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. It seems that those words come in direct opposition to the “Prosperity Gospel” preached by the class favorites of our American Christianity school of theology.
The once challenging, moving, and zealous Lion has been groomed and caged to make way for a more pleasing and comfortable Jesus. America is too scared of the dangers that involve following Christ because it might mean giving up everything our magazine, television, and culture tell us we need. Or heaven forbid, we might be called to visit those “dark places” like Africa where we can’t even drink the water. I can assure you that there is more darkness in suburbia and more spiritual poison in America than what you ever physically befall you in Africa. If you want to see God, watch a child who has nothing sing Amazing Grace and mean it. Or watch when a community fasts together because there is not enough food for the whole group. America, you cannot see God because not only have you watered him down, but you have filled your lives with so much “stuff” that it’s crowding your vision.
I can’t be a part of you anymore. I never was a part of you, but now our divide has become too apparent to ignore any longer. Please do not label me as “religious” anymore because it’s become too negative a word for me to bear. I am not comfortable even being called a “Christian” because I do not want to be grouped together with the same people who bomb abortion shelters for the sake of life, or who damn their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of salvation. Instead, just call me friend of Jesus, a follower of Christ, a lover of God and the people created in his image.
My dear American church, please don’t continue to sell your soul at the cost of living comfortably. You used to be the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Now you enslave yourselves and each other and live in cowardice. I pray that soon you choose to leave your safety behind and live dangerously for the God you used to champion. Even though I’ve left you, I will still fight to save you…one person at a time.
Love,
me
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