CSM Class of 2011

Can I just say how proud I am of the CSM class of 2011. It is my sincere desire that all of our graduating seniors never forget that the power to change our current world rests in their hands, and I truly believe they can do that if they choose to partner with God in what God wants to do in our world today. Congratulations, class of 2011!

Thoughts on Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season

For those of use who come under the umbrella of the Church of the Nazarene within Christendom the doctrine of holiness or sanctification is essential to who we are as a community of believers. This being said, and while holiness is a core value in the Church of the Nazarene, I nor anyone else in the Nazarene church is not naïve enough to believe that we are the only church that calls its community to a life of holiness. Holiness is essentially a call to “Christlikenss” and I would imagine and hope that all who call themselves Christians are committed to living a life that reflects Christ.

Ever since the Christmas season ended my mind began to look towards the Lenten season and I began to think about this ancient Christian tradition and think about the reason that it should have a place within our church; A church, who for the large majority of its existence did not fully embrace this Christian practice. It was when I stopped and examined this Christian tradition with the core values of our church that it was made clear to me that the discipline of the Lenten season is a faith journey that calls us into the very likeness of Christ himself. This journey of faith, which begins with Ash Wednesday, is a call for all believers to not just walk with Jesus, but to walk LIKE Jesus. It’s easy to walk with someone, but still do our own thing. To walk like someone with an attitude of total surrender is a call to abandon one’s self and commit our will to the one we are trying to imitate. I hope we are imitating Christ.

Ash Wednesday is a sobering reminder that outside the grace of God we are nothing but mere dust. Furthermore, we must allow the grace of God to take control of our lives so that God can do a new work in us. If we allow him, the grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit has the power to make us a new creation; a new creation which has been redeemed from chains of sin and is free to live a life that honors God. Being made a new creation doesn’t mean we must stop confessing, in fact, I would argue that confession is a part of being a new creation. When we allow the Holy Spirit to rule our lives we are giving him our will (or should), which then allows the Holy Spirit to examine our lives and point out anything that may be out of line with the character of God. It is Ash Wednesday which presents us with a great opportunity to be reminded that outside of the grace of God we are sinners and that there are times in our Christian walk that we’ll have to join together and embrace prayer of a more famous sinner: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

It is my prayer that beginning tomorrow and throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons (really, for the rest of our days on this earth) that we will not just walk with our Lord, but that we will walk just like him. Christ’s 40 day journey in the desert is a reminder that to walk like Him is not an easy road, but it can be traveled through God’s grace. God wants to make you a new creation, are you willing and ready for this life changing transformation?

Our Inheritance

Ephesians 1:18 (New Living Translation)
18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

Last night we explored what it meant to be "God's Inheritance" and how this amazing distinction can change our lives. As God's children he has called us all to receive the great inheritance of his mercy, grace and love. We recieve this because God treasures us, not because God has to love us or needs to love us. He treasures us because he longs to have a relationship with his creation and desires that we accept his grace so we can live a life that rises above sin.

Are there areas in your life in which you need the grace of God? Receive your rich and glorious inheritance today.

Crazy Love:Overhelmed By A Renlentless God. Session 1

On Sunday evenings we meet for what is called The Foundation, and it is during this time that myself and students are able dialouge about God and the Christian journey. For the next 10 weeks we are allowing Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love: Overhelmed By A Relentless God, to guide our conversation.

Also, I am going to lean some on Chan to help guide my messages for our Wednesday night Xperience worship gathering.

Each week I will be writing to recap each chapter and also the reaction of our students.

Chapter 1: Stop Praying.

Wow. You would think that a book that is trying to move students into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ would have a little better advice than, "stop praying." On the surface it seems odd, but the point Chan is trying make is that for most of us our prayer life has become some what redundant or just an "act" that we feel like we have to fullfill in order to keep our "God card" activated. Chan spent the first part of chapter 1 trying to create an image of God as creator in our minds because when we really stop and think about the greatness of God it may cause us to stop and reflect on who we are about to approach when we go to God in prayer.

Think about this:
- A caterpillar has 228 seperate and distinct musles in its head.
- The average elm tree has approximately 6 million leaves on it.
- There are approximately 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle.
- Think about the different sounds of your friends' laughs - wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.
- A spider creates 60 feet of silk in one hour when building webs, while simultanously producing special oil on their feet that prevents them from sticking to their own web.

These are all examples of the mighty and creative God that we serve. Want another example? Check this out... http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=91EM9CNU

I believe when we really stop and think about God who put our planet, our galaxy and all the other galaxies together, I would hope that this would cause us to pause and re-examine our prayer life. If understanding creation does not help you take a step back and re-examine your prayer life then perhaps understanding who we are actually praying to will help.

In Revelation 4:1-8, John is given the opportunity to see into heaven and to get an image of the very throne room of God.

1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[a] of God. 6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’[b]
who was, and is, and is to come.”

The prophet Isaiah also got a glimpse of the throne room of God.

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Wow. Since I have been reminded of these descriptions given to use by Isaiah and John my prayer life will never be the same. Now when I pray, I get this mental image of coming into a great throne room and coming before God who is holy and good; and I come before God not in haste and insincerity, but with a genuine heart that is open and willing to conform to the very character of God. But like I told our students last night, please don't get this image of God being this unaproachable being. While God is magnificant, holy and good; remember it is through Jesus Christ that we are instructed to come boldly before the throne of God. (Hebrews 4:16 and Ephesians 3:12)

We serve a great God who desires to have a relationship with his creation and a part of having a relationship with God is an authentic prayer life. I hope that we all pause and think about what we are about to do the next time when come before God in prayer. Don't stop out of fear or intimidation, but out of sheere awe and amazement of a holy God who loves us on a very personal level.

It's NOT what do I need to DO, but where do I need to BE?

I am really excited about where we can go with this Refuel series, so for the next 2 weeks I am going to try to recap what we talked about during xperience and shoot it out through Facebook and our Blogspot.

Focus verse:

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God (Ephesians 3:19 NLT).

- we may never fully understand the ways of God but that won't keep us from fully receiving his grace and mercy.

- don't view the Christian journey like a cafeteria line where you feel like you need to pick out certain things or do certain things to draw you closer to God. Our God is a relational God and desires to be in relationship with us...kind of like a friend. “I no longer call you slaves… Now you are my friends” (John 15:15 NLT).

- It’s not about ritual, it’s about a relationship.It’s not about performance, it’s about presence.It’s not about a “show,” it’s about “show up.”It’s not “have to,” it’s about “want to.”It’s not about guilt, it’s about grace.It’s not about form, it’s about friendship.

- lets look for ways to connect with God instead of making sure our "church checklist" is complete.

Next week we'll look at some practical ways to connect with God.

You guys are loved...have a good week.

God is moving...and we're beginning to listen.

Growing up in the church, I've heard many expressions to describe a great worship service. Descriptions like; "Whoa, the glory came down today," or "God truly moved among His people today." Hearing descriptions like these as a small child prompted my mind to think about the nature of God. I would think to myself, "Do we serve a God who only moves among his people every now and then or only when a certain song is played with just the right key change?" As a child I thought the answers to questions like these must be "yes" since it is only once or twice a month that I would hear people make comments like, "God moved among us today." I found myself profoundly confused because in the sciptures I read about a faithful and consistant God is unwavering in His love and devotion to His creation, but yet, I still heard remarks from others like, "God really spoke to me today," that were sometimes few and far between.

I finally came to the conclusion that it was not God who was sporadic and inconsistant. In fact, it was us, the people of God, who were sporadic and inconsistant in our listening. We fill our lives with so much noise that it is hard for us to listen out for the voice of God. God is always speaking and moving, but are we always listening and moving? John 10:26-27 says, "but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." I want to be one of his sheep.

All that to say this. The last few weeks I've witnessed students really begin to listen out for the voice of God. I am currently witnessing students who are eagerly moving towards God to seek and do His will. These students are not perfect by no means, they are still american teenagers, but something has clicked inside and is prompting them towards this move towards the voice of God. Last night during The Foundation, conversation and discussion was alive as we continued our study entitled, "Why Jesus?" Last night we were exploring, "Is Jesus the only way to heaven?" Together, we talked about the passion of our Christ and just why he had to die. We realized that it was because Jesus died and was raised again 3 days later that we have salvation, and in fact, he truly is the only way to heaven.

Tomorrow night at Xperience we'll be looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as I believe the Apostle Paul paints a clear picture to the Thessalonians on what Christian maturity and holiness is. I believe if we can place ourselves within this Biblical narrative and allow God to speak to us we'll understand Christian holiness and its relevance to our world today.

A few of the keyword we'll be looking at tomorrow night are; Set Apart, Genuine, Guarantee and Earned.

I look forward to seeing everyone there tomorrow night...it's going to be a great night of community and worship.