A tree firmly planted

Psalms 1:3

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.....

A tree something that is beautiful something that comforts us with the shade in the heat of the day. Trees that last must see some amazing things. Trees often have the marks of the things around them like nature, the environment in which they live, the people that they meet, a tree must have an amazing story to tell.

Sometimes in our lives I agree with the Psalmist and I really believe we are like trees, because we too our on a journey. We bare the marks of the environment that we live in, the people that we meet. Just like a tree we bear the marks of the things that hurt us, but over time we also heal those wounds. We all have marks of our journey.

I think the spiritual journey is a lot like a trees. We see so much of Gods beauty when its sunny and when its stormy, but as long as we are rooted we will stay standing. God makes us into what we are, he shapes us through the seasons of our lives. Sometimes we are in a cold winter and we loose all our leaves, sometimes we are in summer and we are in full bloom either way we are still there.Sometimes your just get chopped down. You let other things run you and life itself bogs you down. The good news is that you have the chance to start over. When a tree gets chopped down it starts to grow back and the journey begins all over again. We have all had times when we were just cut down and we thought that there is no way we would survive it but we did and we are stronger for it. As long as we are rooted in the water there is always life for the tree. When it is all said and done and the journey is over we maybe missing some bark, we may have a twisted trunk, and we may just be a stump, but as long as our life source is feeding our roots we are still a live.

For me that life source is Jesus...what is it for you?

We all have a story to tell. We all have adventures to share, what is one of your favorite stories with God?

It's a Life or Death sitiuation

I was once asked the question "What would you die for?" The little church boy inside me lept out and I exclaimed, "The Gospel!" There is nothing more romantic or glamorous than dying for the faith. That is just the problem we will die for a cause, faith, or movement, but how man of us will live for the cause?

Donald Miller says we believe in the things we live for. Which is kind of a eyeopening statement, because more often than not we tend to live for ourselves. Often we think about what we need to do, like get to a meeting, get to the kids soccer game on time, get to the gym, get coffee or do anything and we often miss the opportunity to do something that will bring someone a little piece of heaven on a planet that more times than not tends to be hell for a lot of people.

In the book of Acts Jesus says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Notice here that Jesus says,"you will be my witnesses", he didn't say you will do witnessing, but we will be his witnesses. Here Jesus says that what we live for will testify to him. We will show what it means to be a Christian to both believers and nonbelievers. That is not an easy task for a lot people, to bear witness for Jesus's actions, words, and teachings, to show the world what he is like. To do the things that Jesus said and do things Jesus did.

Jesus also said in another verse "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

I once heard a Jewish Rabbi explain that verse like this.
When Jesus says "I am the way" the Jewish mind says that Jesus's way
of living was the way to God by obeying God's commandments in the Torah.
The way we live is the way to God.

The truth- truth is not an object, truth is a person and that person is Jesus.
When I live my life like Jesus I walk in Gods truth.

To be a witness is to struggle in the ways of Jesus.
When my life is flowing out with the truth of Jesus his life will be witnessed through me.

To live a life where Jesus's truths flow out of us causes us to die to ourselves and to remember to lonely, distraught, and lost in the world. To live a life like this is to shine light into a world of darkness and despair.

Mahatma Gandhi said this quote" Be the change you want to see in the World."
My challenge to all of us is to live a life where the truth of Jesus flows out of us. To make our beliefs and our faith one. To be Jesus to the world.

Jesus For President?

What if Jesus was President?

What if Jesus was the Head of State?

What would this world be like if Jesus was the leader of our country? This question intrigues me, not because I think the country would freak out to have a Palestinian stone mason as it's Head of State, but because I would love to see Jesus's campaign. How would he market himself? What would he do to win over the world? Who would vote for him, the right wings, the socialist, the liberals, the communist, it is just an interesting thing to think about.

Something that interest me more is the question, what if Jesus was the president of the Church. How much better would the world be if that was the case. What would be his stance on all the things that matter most to us, that when it all just boils down to it are simply trivial.

What denomination would he belong to?

The Baptist?
The Church of Christ?
The Assemblies of God?
The Methodist?
The Episcopalians?

Who knows? Would Jesus run as an independent? Its funny to think about, because it seems absurd but we all have our own party affiliations when it comes to church. We have all put things in the head seat of our churches, so that if Jesus ran for the Head of the Church position he would have a lot of things running against him. Really petty and trivial things, that we all seem to let have some kind of office in our lives. We all support the campaign of something that would run against Jesus in the race for our Churches.

Interpretations
Traditions
Theologies
Doctrines
Denominations
Greed

All these things sit in the seat that is for the Head of the Church. I have been to several churches and I realized that we all struggle with something. There are some in every church that put something before the message of God. We all fund the campaign for something different and when we do that it divides us.

We all have our church political parties.

Jesus came to preach a message of Love, Peace, Compassion, Understanding, Community, but the church of today preaches a message diluted by man made traditions and creeds.

Before our world will accept Jesus for President his constituents (the Church) needs to come together and campaign for him, instead of the things of man.

People have said that Christianity is a dying religion and I can see why. The world only see Christians fighting each other over little differences in the book that they all hold as Holy.
Instead of the Church coming together with Love and Community we separate ourselves with trivial differences. Mark 3 talks about this when he says "A house divided against itself will not stand". The Church of today has divided itself, brothers against brothers, fathers against their sons, and friends against friends. We have a common goal but for some reason we fight each other, as if to say we have it the right way.

My plea to you as Christians is to embrace the campaign for Jesus. Pick up the signs for Love, Compassion, Peace, Understanding, Community, and put away the prejudices we have built up over the years. They are only hurting the cause.

Let us make Jesus President of our lives, Church and Country.
Jesus for President!

Am I a fig tree showing leaves?

In a world wear your image is king, where you have a better chance of getting away with murder by the types of suits you wear, we have to be careful as Christians to what kinda image we portray to they world. In the gospel account of Mark, Jesus gives us a visual lesson on how a false advertisement of spirituality can really mess up your world.

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

On first glance this seems like a seemingly strange story where Jesus was just a little grumpy due to hunger and this seems like an over reaction, but when you dig deeper in the passage you find it a little bit more insightful than just an over reaction of hunger. A fig tree in the ancient text is a representation of the Jewish people and here Jesus condemns the Jews for their appearance of love for God but not having any kind of fruits to back them up .

This story I believe like most parables Jesus spoke has implications for the Church of today. Now more than ever you hear stories of people hating the Church for various reasons.

The Church is homophobic.
The Church is full of greedy people.
The Church is full of hypocrites.
The Church is full of judgment.
The Church is full of lies.

These are thing that we as the Body of Believers portray. When you read that small list I know that you are saying to your self " No way! That's not my church!" but really we all get painted with that same paint brush.

We as a Body need to examine ourselves and really begin to think of what kind of image we are portraying.

Is our Church and church a refuge for the needy, for the physically and spiritually sick or is it a place where they find condemnation and repulsion?

Are we a community where everyone loves everyone or are we a community where everyone gossips about everyone?

So many stories I hear now a days are about how people have been hurt by the church and that turns them to bitter souls.

Are were putting out that we are a tree full of fruit for you to come and eat of and when you get their we will just leave you disappointed. Or are we a tree that when we catch peoples eyes our fruits are really as satisfying as we put out.

Before we are able to answer the questions for the whole Body we need to look at ourselves.

What kind of tree are you?

What kind of tree do the non-believers see you as?

Are you in full bloom from a far but when it comes down to it you are just as bare as the tree from the passage?

Do you put out that you are in full bloom but really have no fruit to show for it?

Matthew 7v16-20 states

16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

So I urge you to think of what kind of tree you are portraying to be.

Do not be caught only bearing leaves but instead enrich the Kingdom with the fruits that you bear.

I desire you more than Oxygen

I once heard this story about Socrates and young man.

Socrates was laying on the beach wandering through the mysteries of the universe in an almost meditative daze when he is interrupted by a young man who has sought him out to teach him logic, philosophy, and knowledge of the universe (and rightful so as Socrates is still considered to be one of the greatest human minds today) Socrates doesn't say a word he just simply gets up and walks in to the water.
As he walks deeper the young man thinks to him self that Socrates must be trying to teach him something so he sprints to the water and catches up to his new teacher. When the young pupil catches up his teacher Socrates jumps on him and starts to submerge him in the water holding him under and the pupil starts to flail about and keeps struggling until his teacher lets him up and the teacher walks back to the shore. When the young man regains his breath he walks to the beach quite angry and quite confused.

He approaches Socrates and before the man can speak Socrates says " What is the one thing you wanted while I held you under the water?"

The young man replied " Well sir, to breathe like anyone else would."

Socrates looked at him and said ,"When you desire knowledge like you desired that breath of air then you will receive it." saying this he got up and walked away.

This story reminds me of stories I have heard from several Christians through out my life.
I have heard so many people say, "I just desire to feel God's presents, but I just don't feel like God is around. " or "I wonder where God went in my life?"

The question isn't where did God go but where did your desire for him go.

I spend a lot of time thinking about God, talking about God, sitting in on meetings about God, debating with other people about God, but you know what?

Sometimes even when I immerse myself with all things God I still feel like he is no where to be found, i also find that I've been so busy talking about, reading about, debating about, just the trivial things about Him that I loose the desire to seek his face.

There is something that breaks my heart, I'm too busy with God to desire God. It is a weird concept I know, but I find it happening all the time. I have spent so much time trying to fight out every detail that I forgot to do one thing enjoy Him.

The first commandment is do not have any gods before me, you want to know what my gods were?
1.Theologies
2. Dogmas
3.Doctrines

In all the time I took learning about all these things I missed out on key parts of God like prayer, fellowship, community, and just flat out enjoying God.

I wanted knowledge of God more than I wanted relationship with God, and it slowly made me a believer in God more than a lover of God which scares me because like it says,"..[even the daemons believe and tremble]."

We all have times that our heads are submersed and we flail around to try to catch our breath. Why is that when those times happen we don't run to our churches doctrine or a systematic theology? Because when our heads submerged and we have no one to turn to those things are meaningless, those things won't be the ones to save us.

My question for you is that when you are held under the waters of this life and you struggle to get topside again what is the one thing you want?

To get up and out of the water? Or is it the one thing that can help you get through that time, a relationship with God?