A Story I Love.

Some years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley told “something of a parable” about “a one room school house in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no teacher had been able to handle them.

“Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, ‘What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

“ ‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response.

“A day or so later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. ‘The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’

“As Little Jim came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. ‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“The boy took off the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the boy’s licking.

“ ‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked.

“After five strokes across Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!” ’ ” (The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope by President James E. Faust)

I love this story! It never ceases to touch my heart. The parallel between the boy in need is so compelling and real. We NEED our savior! We need someone to help us and when we allow him to take the "licking" for us, we are forever indebted to him. Just thought you'd like to hear a wonderful parable!

a letter...

dear God::

i know that you can see all that i have done, all that i have thought and all that i have spoken. but somehow, i think that i can hide things from you. Lord, i'm a fool to think that there is some deep, dark spot in me that i can keep hidden from you; but i still think that.

knowin gall of that, i still need to tell you that i have sinned. i have turned against you; i have kept quiet when your name should have been spoken. i have been given opportunities to do Your work Lord, and yet i felt that it was not my time to carry out Your will. who am i, Lord to determine when the time is right to do your will?! how naive must i be to think that i have control over this life. who am i, God!?

Lord, why do you take me back despite all of this? why do you keep finding people who will pour their lives into mine to ensure that i remember that you are right there with me? i'm a two-faced, blasphemous, no-good sinner. and yet, You still love me. You still draw me near to You...You still pick me up, dust off my clothes, pat me on the back and encourage me to move forward in You.

Lord, i am nothing without You. i hope that You can forgive me for all that i have done. for cussing you out. for desecrating your name. Lord, please have mercy on this sinner. please change my heart so that when i get to the gates of heaven, You can say "well done, good and faithful servant."

with love,
me

it's about the life, not the lifestyle!

so today i rambled to a friend of mine about christians and the "mold" we fit into from the world. it started with a comment from a 3rd party about being christian and liking things of this world...not like cars, money or houses, but an object; a symbol. so that got me thinking...

...i've said it again and again that we are in the world, not of the world. but that doesn't mean that we have to change who we are. just what we value. the instances i gave are these. i have a tattoo that has a tiki god on it. now to very devout christians, i could be considered a fake christian or that i idolize something other than God. similarly, i love cars and motorcycles. how does this tie together you might ask?

it goes a little something like this, yes i have a tiki god permenantly inked onto my arm. but that doesn't mean that i worship it, that i pray to it or that i even boast about it. it means that the tiki is part of a whole scene that takes up half of my arm. it means nothing to me; it has no significance other than the fact that it reminds me of my surfing days and love of the tropics. it does not take away from my love of our Savior.

likewise, with motorcycles and cars. i have always loved them. they are a passion; an interest. but i don't spend my weekends invensting into car culture at hot import nights looking at eye-candy and listening to inappropriate music. same with motorcycles...i'm not going to become a member of the hell's angels 6 days a week and go to church on the 7th.

it's all about what we value. john piper said that all of this life is given to us to show the world that it is not our treasure; rather, we are given this life to show that God is our treasure. so does it really matter if we look rockabilly, look hip hop, or have interests that could be considered non-christian? no. i see them as worldly interests that can be used to preach God and what Christ has done for us. afterall, if we surrounded ourselves with believers and everything that we "should" surround ourselves with (according to old traditions), how would we ever reach souls that need to be saved?

set an example...

lately, as i've been reading the Bible, i keep coming across God's desires for us. and what i've found is that God intends His children to be examples for the rest of the world. He tells us that we should do good deeds, conduct ourselves in a Godly way, to seek His wisdom and to not do wrong against others. these seem like such basic tenets for life. but yet, we struggle with these directives at various points in our lives.

this morning i was reading the book of titus. and paul explains to titus how he should choose elders to promote God's teachings. but then i came across this, titus 3:14 and it states:

"Our people must learn to use their lives for doing good deeds to provide what is necessary so that their lives will not be useless."

i've also been listening to a john piper sermon where he states that the greatest tragedy and fear is that he doesn't live his life to the fullest...that he does not want to live a wasted life (actually, the sermon is title 'don't waste your life')

in reading God's Word, i can see that this is so true. God blessed us with gifts; not necessarily monetary gifts, but gifts of grace, mercy, love, etc. so that we may go out into this world and be examples of God's love. i keep coming back to the thought that when i get to the gates of Heaven and i am asked "did you do the most with the gifts I gave you?" i can't help but think that is my motivation...i want to carry out God's plan with the gifts He gave me. we all have different gifts and i encourage all of us to use them for Him.

in this world, but not of this world...

lately, i feel like i need to be rejecting the ways of this world. the feeling is so strong, that i was discussing this with my wife last night. i'll paraphrase it for you; i told her that, i could care less about the house we live in, the cars we drive, the furniture we sit on. i believe these are things that are getting in the way of our relationship with God. and it's not just random thoughts, i seem to hear this in the music i listen to and the pastors i talk with. there seems to be a very overt movement toward the rejection of the society that surrounds us...so as i flipped through the Bible this morning, i came across 1 peter 2:11-12.

it states:
"Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul. People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again."

God makes no bones about His children and their role in this world. we are "foreigners and strangers"...what does this mean? by definition, a foreigner is a "person from outside one's community" and a stranger is "a person who is not a member of the family, group, community, or the like, as a visitor or guest"...

...i particularly like that God is telling us that we are merely a "visitor or guest" of this world. He knows that our time here on earth is short and that we will not be a part of it forever. we are here for only a short time. we are his children and we will return to our Father, after this life is over!

i find it so interesting to be a believer of Christ in this world; because we are not of this world. we have to face so many temptations, sins, and evil; yet we must rise up against it and be models of Christ. i think that God knows this isn't an easy task, but as i heard some where at some time, "it won't be easy, but it will be worth it."

but that's not what i want God...

so this weekend, i had an awesome time with my family in a small town of about 3000 people. the pace of life was slow and the everybody knew everybody in this town. it was awesome, it was everything that my wife and would want to experience for ourselves and for our children.

at one point, i asked God, "why did you call me to urban ministry? this is the life i want to live; slow, modest, friendly, safe." but God quickly answered, "no, I don't want you to live a life of obscurity. I am calling you to a life to be bold and spread my Word. I am calling you to reach a group of people and have given you the desire, the talents and the faith to reach those who are lost in the city." He also told me that no matter what, if i follow the life He wants me to lead, i will be happier than the life i want to lead. God and i had some "intense fellowship" this weekend, but i knew that He has called me to minister to those in urban areas; despite my own desires. and as we all know, God will win 100% of the arguments we take up with Him.

so i ask you, are you avoiding God's plan for you because it's not what you think you want?

blessed sinner...

i've been thinking a lot about my own life lately. particularly, since i've become a bit more diligent about reading the Bible, following pastors, indulging in prayer and writing this blog. i've become critical of myself because i'm spreading His Word, yet struggling with sin in my own life. i feel like an uneducated pharisee. a hypocrite. how can i share His unending love, His unconditional grace and mercy; and still sin so much!

but i have hope. see, as much as i sin, the more i read and pray and spread His Word, the more i'm being pulled away from my sin. and this is true for everybody! the more God becomes a part of who we are and we let Him into our hearts, the devil's grip on our lives is loosened and broken. i sort of see it like a movie, where the devil is hanging onto a building edge and i am standing over him, stepping on one finger at a time, forcing him to lose grip of the building he is hanging onto. but this is a very slow process and the hope is that the last finger i step on will come at the end of this life, as i enter into the kingdom of God. and the devil will fall, never to be near me again.

as believers in Christ, we are called to be in the world, but not of the world (a very good friend of mine told me this over some awesome carne asada tacos recently). it is a struggle for us (believers), because the devil's temptation is constantly around us. we see it on the tv, in music, in our friends, in advertisements, in strangers, everywhere! but i urge you, all of us, to continue to dive more and more into His Word, so that we may shove the devil out of this world and our lives bit by bit by bit. and as we do this, more and more people will see how awesome our lives can be with God in it...think of it like a pyramid scheme. it started with one man (Jesus), spread to thousands, who taught thousands, who taught thousands, and in 2000 years Christ has reached nearly every corner of this globe because people spread His Word.