Jesus Pictures, #2

So here are my thoughts...

Picture 1

I wonder if we choose industry over what Jesus stood for? Do we choose progress over depth? Wealth over authenticity? Proficiency over love?

I wonder how the story of Jesus would play out if he were born into the western world today, not 2,000 years ago.

Picture 2

Does this picture go to far? Does it make Jesus too friendly? Or maybe, is it something this world is desperately looking for? A Jesus they can relate too... A non-judgmental Jesus?

I have to say I prefer to spell Jesus, G-sus.

Picture 3

When I see this picture I remember Jesus' words to Peter, "those who live by the sword, will die by the sword." I wonder, do we in the western world make Jesus out to be about war? Does he figuratively has his hands on a gun, trying to straighten out Christianity or the world? Ready to fire at any time?

Is he a Jesus cowboy (sorry Texas), someone who ain't gonna let himself be a pushover?

Or is this Jesus holding the gun that he took from his disciples. Urging them to give up violence. To be peacemakers.

Or maybe he removed the bullets...

Jesus Pictures, #1

What do you think about these pictures?

I'll share my thoughts tomorrow...

A Humble Christian, #2

In my last post I said there were two things that changed my life that day. I left the second out purposefully. It is too close to my heart to not give it its own posting. This was the hardest lesson I learned on the trip.

After finishing our feast (and it was) of beef and posho, we went back outside to the children. What happened next shook my world (and still shakes it).

There we were 3 white American boys standing in (or should I say standing out) front of at least 100 African children. And the children began to reach their hands out to us. They were not like the children in the towns. They did not want money. They did not want food.

They wanted to touch us. To touch us.

Words cannot describe what I felt. Why should they want to touch me? Who am I? What special thing did I do? I felt like a kid who just met her favorite celebrity. She shakes his hand and afterward tells her mom she will never wash her hand again. I never want to wash my hands again.

Humility. This is humility.

Not the type where people don’t take credit for something they did, though secretly they desire the attention. This is real humility. What more words can I say?

When I hear the words humble and Christian, one image comes to my mind:

A humble child invisible to the world.

A Humble Christian, #1

On Wednesday night I was speaking at a church in Truby, TX about my mission internship to Uganda this summer. Since I arrived home on July 9th, I have been asked I don’t know how many times, “What did you learn from the trip?” How do you answer a question like that!

I just spent 7 weeks in a place where the people give you an abundance of food you could never eat. (Which also happens to be a Ugandan family’s rations for the week.) I saw starving, dying children. I encountered evil face to face. I saw evil at its highest.

I felt the sting of real humility.

I almost cried while I was speaking. If you know me, I am not much of an openly emotional guy. I like to pretend I’m a thug. I grew up in the hood and sometimes get full of that “Bring it, you don’t scare me” attitude. I get full of myself and think I can take on the world, much less a few punks. (Funny since I have never been close to getting in a fight.) I get proud, pretending I am bigger and tougher than I really am.

Not this time. Not when I talk about what happened 2 months ago in a small village in Uganda.

We arrived in an IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp early Saturday morning. I will never forget the children there. Some call them the Invisible Children. Invisible to the world, these children endure hideous injustices. Their parents are stripped from them in death, while the children are forced to face the cruelty of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

You see the scars of evil on these innocent, beautiful children. You see it physically. Some bear the scars of burns and cuttings on their faces. Most of them bear the stomach of hunger as a result of the selfish actions of others. Shaped by the actions of selfish humans, you would think these children could not help being selfish. Nothing is farther from the truth.

As we got out of the truck, the children slowly gathered around us in a circle. They wanted us to take their picture. Everywhere we went, they followed us. Everything we did, they mimicked.

Here are some pictures of the children:

There are two things that day which changed my life forever. First, we were invited inside the church to eat food. I remember thinking, “The food I am about to eat is more food than these children will eat in a week.” But to not eat would be to offend my African brothers and sisters.

As you can imagine, the children watched us more closely. Even though they were starving, they were not interested in food. They were interested in us. (Something I still cannot comprehend.)

So I wonder, “What’s so special about me?”

A Forgiving Christian, #7

Today is the last day on forgiveness. So yes I will be moving on to a different part of being a Jesus Christian. On Thursday I posed an interesting viewpoint. What if Jesus did not fight back because he did not have any rights on this earth? Did he have them in the first place, since he claimed to be from a different world? Or what if he had those rights, but gave them up?

What if he is asking us to give up our rights too or maybe to realize that we have none on this earth? And what would that look like?

Just remember, if you want to be a Christian like Jesus then it is going to hurt.

Prayer Request

I have two friends who have relatives, friends, and other loved ones in Lebanon. Please pray for God's protection and blessing on them.

Please also pray for those in Lebanon and Israel who are suffering because of these battles. No matter your opinion on the war or the middle east, please pray that God will bring peace and comfort to them, and innocent lives will be spared.

A Forgiving Christian, #6

Amazing! I was just talking with a very close friend about forgiveness and God’s grace. It is truly amazing! Here we are enemies of God sinning and rejecting God’s love for us, yet he continues to give grace and forgiveness. No matter what we do. He is our father and we are his children.

Jesus was the same way. Even as he was dying on the cross, he forgave those who were crucifying him. He was asking for God’s mercy to be on them. Christ gave up his rights to be angry or to demand justice. Now why did he do that? Was it because he was perfect? Or maybe because he was the son of God?

I wonder if he might have done it, because he gave up his “rights” on this earth as if he never had them. He gave up his right to be treated like the son of God. He gave up his right to be “innocent until proven guilty” (as we would say in the States). But maybe he didn’t claim those rights, because they weren’t his while he was on this earth.

Think about it. Take a look at some of the things Jesus said,

“You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world” (John 8:23, ESV).

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:16, ESV).

Maybe Jesus gave up his rights, because he wasn’t of this world and they weren’t his rights to claim. Maybe his rights were in a different world.

So what about my rights? What about when someone offends me? Will I give up my rights in order to follow Christ? Will I give up those rights because I am no longer a resident of Earth, but of Heaven?

A Forgiving Christian, #5

Ok, so I am running a bit late and need to get a quick post out so that I can keep my record (yes 6 days in a row is a record). So here goes my brief question for the day.

What do you think about this statement?

If grace was shrewd, it wouldn’t be grace. And if mercy was painless, it wouldn’t be mercy.

A Forgiving Christian, #4

Today, just a few quick questions for you to think about.

Do you think it is easier to forgive an offense committed against you, rather than a loved one?

Is it easier to forgive a stranger who commits a crime against you or a close friend who hurts you?

Maybe you are thinking by now, “He has been on this forgiveness thing for several days now. When will he move on to something else?” Give me a few more days, and it should wear out of my system.

A Forgiving Christian, #3

I just finished watching The Passion of the Christ for about the seventh time. I know, you probably think I am some kind of sadistic Christian who enjoys violence and blood. In spite of numerous complaints from critics, I find the movie—well—moving. I do not watch it to torture myself over Jesus’ cruel and painful death, knowing I was responsible for it. No, I watch the film because it teaches me something fresh about Jesus every time.

This time around I took notice of Jesus’ actions and words influencing all those around him. No one could seem to just ignore the Galilean carpenter. Take Jesus’ final day of life as an example. He is kidnapped, while praying in a garden, by the religious leaders of his day. He is taken before a council and condemned to die. During the course of the night he is beaten, completely humiliated, and lied about. Not allowed time for a short rest or break, the soldiers take him before Pilate in the early morning. His own people demand his death sentence and receive it. Betrayed, beaten, humiliated, and thoroughly exhausted, Jesus is forced to carry his instrument of death. Finally he is nailed to the cross, giving his last breath to his Father and to his cause.

In spite of all the injustices committed against him, Jesus manages to influence those around him. Take a look at his final accomplishments. By his silence, he convinces a government official (who has all but given up on God and truth) to ponder the meaning of life. While he is being nailed to the cross, he asks his father to forgive those who are crucifying him. Then as he is being mocked and dying on the cross he does not bother to defend himself. Seeing these things, a lifelong criminal admits his guilt and a heart full of sin is made whole again.

And moments after Jesus takes his last breath, a soldier is convinced he is not from this world. What could possibly possess a Roman solider, someone who would typically hate all Jews, to admire this dead king? Could it have been the forgiveness Jesus requested for his crucifiers?

Now when Jesus asked his Father to forgive them, he was not asking God to pretend the crucifixion did not happen. Neither was he trying to be a last minute example to his disciples. He was releasing his offenders from their offense. He was saying, “Father I know what they are doing to me is wrong, but I want you to forgive them. I want you to look on them as if they had never killed me, refusing to punish them for this crime.”

Notice Jesus did not wait for apologies. If he refused to forgive until he received a heartfelt apology, there would be a lot of unforgiven people walking around. If Jesus forgave without an apology from his offenders, then shouldn’t we do the same?

I know what you are thinking, “That isn’t fair!” Now you are starting to understand forgiveness. “But then he will get away with what he did to me!” That is not your concern. “But she has to be punished!” So says justice, but not grace. Grace means the offender goes unpunished, and the offended suffers.

The question I want to ask today is a difficult one; one I am searching to answer in my heart. If today was your final day, how would you live it? Holding onto what others have unjustly done to you, would you cling to bitterness and refuse to release them from God’s wrath (and maybe your own)? Or would you choose to live as a vessel of forgiveness, freeing all those who have wounded you, betrayed you? Murdered you?

A Forgiving Christian, #2

“If I wanted to be a Christian like Jesus, I would have to forgive like Jesus.” An unsettling recognition to say the least. So what exactly does that imply? Does it mean I must forgive all who do evil to me? Yes. Even if they hurt me repeatedly? Definitely. What if they do it maliciously? Even more so. So you mean I am to allow myself to be trampled on and to be taken advantage of? Now you are getting it.

What??!!!

Before you think I have last all sense, ask the same questions about Jesus:

Did he forgive all who did evil to him? Well he did die for the world.

Did they hurt him repeatedly? Even his closest friends hurt him more than once.

Did they hurt him maliciously? Think back to the angry mobs and the Pharisees.

Was he trampled on and taken advantage of? He was not only literally trampled on, but also taken advantage of by his supposed followers. Do you remember the followers who asked for food because they thought he was a cheap dinner date?

When I first started to think about forgiveness (and by that I mean genuine forgiveness), I was confused. But that is just the thing. Forgiveness does not click with the human mind. “Why,” you ask. Because it is not a remote control. (No pun intended, well maybe a little.) You cannot turn it off and on whenever you please, it is a lifetime commitment. It is not conveniently misplaced, it is always there. Forgiveness is more like solar energy and God the sun. As long as God lives, there is power to forgive. As long as God shines, there is hope for reconciliation.

A forgiving Christian. Its not easy, but its necessary. At least if you want to be a Christian like Jesus.

A Forgiving Christian, #1

This summer has been a summer of change. Not only did I experience a new culture and way of life in Africa, but I also came face to face with some frightening truths about myself. I think the most alarming truth was learning I have been running my whole life. Running from my past, my friends, my family, and my God. I was like the drug dealer who ran from a whole squad of cops, knowing he had no chance of escape. So I now I have two choices. I can keep on running and, as a consequence, prolong my stay in a spiritual prison. Or I can give up, turn myself in, and allow God to post bail. It may sound easy, but it is a challenging decision. Both options have consequences, good and bad. Keep trusting in myself and allow no one to hurt me, or give God the chance to hurt me. If I stop running and turned myself in, I will allow my fate to be in the hands of the judge.

Yesterday I opened a can of worms and posed the question, “If Jesus were a Christian, what type of Christian would he be?” I just finished the book Total Forgiveness by R. T. Kendall, former pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, England. The book has been one of the most challenging reads of my life. Not only did it show me I have to stop running, but also I have to forgive whatever or whoever I am running from. No questions allowed, no apologies demanded.

“Impossible,” I thought. “Why would I forgive someone who has not apologized? Shouldn’t they be punished or at least feel guilty for what they did?” It was then I found one answer to my original question. If any Christian could forgive without seeking restitution, it would have to be Jesus. The realization was uncomfortable. If I wanted to be a Christian like Jesus, I would have to forgive like Jesus.

Now just in case you were curious about the drug dealer at the beginning of this post. He stopped running, turned himself in, and faced the judge. He expected to be criticized for running, but it was never brought up. In fact, the judge acted as if he never ran in the first place. Instead, the judge acquitted him of all charges and he walked out of that courtroom a free man.

An unrealistic story, you bet. A true story, absolutely. The lesson: You cannot run forever, eventually you will have to face whatever or whoever you are running from. But if you will cease from running, you may find freedom and forgiveness closer than you ever imagined. And who knows you might also find Jesus nearby.

Uncomfortable

You are standing in the office talking with a friend as another coworker approaches. Your friend introduces the both of you, sharing with him that you are a Christian. You begin to get a little nervous. But it isn't because you are ashamed of Christ. No, you love Christ and live your life for his name. So what’s the problem? It’s the word Christian. So your mind recalls the times when you have seen someone abuse the name. Maybe it was someone distant like a televangelist, preaching a message of materialism. Or maybe a close friend or someone you trusted, perhaps a church leader or a pastor who didn't do the best service to the church or to you. Whoever that person may be, they didn't quite portray Christ the way you know him. So thinking about the name, you get a little worried. You wonder, “What experiences has this person had with Christians? And what does he assume when someone uses the word ‘Christian?’” Now that you think about it, you might have already offended him by wearing the name.

I remember the time something similar happened to me. It was my first job in the real world, working morning shifts at a warehouse. Not only was I the newest guy, I was also the youngest. In fact, I had just turned 18. As if that didn’t put me on the outside enough, I was soon known as the Christian. So was I afraid of being the object of laughter and criticism? Not exactly. I was more concerned with the stereotypes that come with the name Christian. Staunch. Judgmental. Self-righteous. Just to name a few. Uncomfortable for them, but not for you.

And guess what? That is exactly what I got from my coworkers, at least at first. I spent my one year at the warehouse dismantling the stereotypes and trying not to stand out too much. But I still stood out. I was invited to strip clubs and bars every weekend, and sometimes the occasional road trip to Vegas or Frisco. Each time I turned the offers down, each time I stood out. My newfound friends recalled countless stories of Christians who showed up in a suit and tie at church every Sunday morning, yet were in the strip clubs by Sunday night. They didn’t understand why I was different.

All I wanted them to know was I wasn’t there to judge or condemn them, but neither was I there to cop a change on my savior. I was uncomfortable for a while, because I spent the majority of my time breaking the stereotypes and showing them a new type of Christianity. Once that began to happen (and it took some time), I started to go to barbeques, parties, and befriended several coworkers. Don’t get me wrong everything wasn’t all rosy. There were still times I was dogged, because I had been invited to things I wouldn’t attend on account of my beliefs.

Though I would be lying if I said some of the offers weren’t tempting. One of my coworkers even offered to have one of his female friends give me a private strip show for my 19th birthday. The reason? He couldn’t understand how someone my age would want to be a virgin, when the Christians he had known didn’t seem to care much. I still remember him stopping me on my forklift and asking, “I don’t understand. Do you want to be a virgin forever? Don’t you want to have sex?”

Uncomfortable. We all feel it at different points in our lives, though some more than others. Me, I’m a naturally uncomfortable Christian. It’s not Christ I’m uncomfortable with or ashamed of, nothing could be farther from the truth. I am uncomfortable with the name Christian and what comes with it. I am uncomfortable with all the stereotypes and misuses; all the misconceptions and abuses. In one word, all the baggage.

And now I am writing in this blog, because no matter the baggage that comes with the name, I can’t seem to leave it behind. For me it is a name that has enormous potential. It could mean a person who follows Jesus and tries to imitate his life. Or a believer who announces the coming of a new kingdom and a new reality, where hate and war are destroyed and love and peace reign. So for now, I’ll risk uncomfortable. Though I still wonder, “If Jesus were a Christian, what type of Christian would he be?”

So to start off this blog, I want to ask you a question. What thoughts come to mind when you hear the words religion, obedience, Christianity, or church? Or better yet, what religious words make you uncomfortable?