illustration: the parable of today

i really enjoy a good illustration. both preaching them and hearing them. the illustration helps me to be able to connect the message and the application. sometimes people have a hard time understanding exactly how to connect the two. but with the story comes the understanding of how, what and why it has to do with their life.

Jesus was one of the best story tellers, then and now. he had a way to be able to connect to the people in ways people were able to comprehend and apply it to their lives. the last couple days i have been looking at the parable of the sower. this is about a farmer who spreads his seed on 4 different surfaces.

1. pathway- hard place, where birds were able to eat the seed while others trampled on them.
2. rock- while a good place to use as a foundation. not a good place to place upon. there is no place to be able to collect moisture and not soil for nutrients the plant needs to grow.
3. thorns-while able to grow a certain amount. it has limitations and will eventually harm the plant.
4. good soil- this is obviously the choice of where he should have planted all his seed. it would have paid off in the long run.

obviously one of these were able to produce a great crop. while the other three were not. while Jesus loves to tell these stories he also shares with us how the story can be interpreted. if he did not then we might have been left with more confusion and misunderstanding of what could be a great story.

Jesus explains that the seed is the Word of God. The Farmer and The Word is of utmost importance in this story. The Farmer is the providor of the Word. If it were not for him than the crops would never had a chance to grow. The Word is the provider of growth. Without growth there would never be a crop to be harvested. The different types of surfaces and soil show the difference in human.

the path shows one who is willing to hear but is also a bit hard to penetrate through the surface. because of this birds are able to eat the seed and is trampled on by other people and animals. this surface does not bring growth because the hardness of the surface. this makes the seed able to be destroyed. application is this: do not let yourself or your heart to be hardened. be open to the things of God and what he has for you. let the Word penetrate the surface of your heart to not only the knowledge of what God's word says but also letting it effect your life and your relationship with God.

the rock shows one who does not have much depth. with this lack of depth it is also hard to grow a crop. the rock is not able to collect moisture so even if something does grow then is hard because of the lack of nutrients. this allows one to grow for a short time but does not allow maturity. it has no place to keep its roots and to become big and strong. application is this: when once a little bit of something would be enough to help you grow as a christian their is not enough rooting you to continue a relationship with Christ. this might be because of a lack of discipleship. it shows a lak of commitment and desire to grow.

the thorns display that there are many obstacles that could be a distraction or hindrance to growing a plant. the application is this. when one focuses on an obstacle in front of them they are more concerned with the object than getting rid of the object. this can be worries, blessings, money, lack of money. something that will distract your mind from where it needs to be. when taking care of a garden it is important to take out the weeds and thorns in order to help the plants to be healthy.

when one takes care of the soil, you not only get a good soil. you get a good crop. the good soil is important so the farmer can grow food to provide for his family. this can be applied to living a healthy christian life with healthy beliefs. if we take care of our spiritual lives then we will yield a harvest bigger than what the seed could have ever done on its on.

healhy soil is important. if you are the soil then how do you get to be healthy. work and effort are a must. if not then any field can be grown over in a short amount of time. starting with the weeds and then eventually bigger hindrances like bushes and thorns. the interesting thing is it is your choice to take care of the ground.

spirituality in america

this is the new title on the cover of newsweek in stores all across america today. and also a piece covered by matt lauer on the today show this morning. i am somewhat distraught but not suprised at what this report showed. in the interview on the today show 85% of those surveyed said they were Christian yet only 75% believed that their religion was the only pathway to God. And 95% of catholics believed they were not the only way to God. even matt and the guy from newsweek were bashing on us saying that we need to figure out what we believe because the two contradict each other. also on top of that they were somewhat relieved because it showed more of a view of tolerance for other religions.

no offense to other religions. you are people whom God loves but i cannot come out and say that you are another pathway to God. it contradicts everything i believe. i love you and pray that you will realize Jesus Christ is "the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me." what is wrong with todays christians? can it be pointed to the leadership? are we as leaders in the church failing our calling? or or some taking their calling to an extreme and preaching what people want to hear?

another thing mentioned in the interview is that people are looking to what best fits them. they are looking at what is best in their own situations.

"The bliss Cox felt was mingled with awe—the Holy Spirit was inside his very own body. That helps explain Pentecostalism's historical appeal to the poor and marginalized: rural Southerners, African-Americans and, more recently, Hispanics and other immigrants. It is burgeoning in the developing world. "For people who feel overlooked, it provides a sense that you're a very important person,"

earlier in the article it alks about cox bouncing around from one religion to another. is this what it has come to? where one wants to feel like an important person. where some of the leading books sold are "your best life now." and soon to be "you've got potential, how God maximizes your life."

i however this article is not all bad. there were some very good things to be said overall. one it is a wakeup call for us and ho we need to focus more on the idea of absolutes. it shows us our faults but through knowing our faults it helps us now how we can change. the article closes out with this statement. and this is one all christians need to hear.

Religious revivals are always exuberant and filled with spirit, he says, but the true measure of faith is in adversity and despair, when God doesn't show up in every blade of grass or storefront church. "That's when the true nature of belief comes out," he says. "Joy is appropriate to the beginnings of your faith. But sooner or later somebody will get cancer, or your best friends will betray you. That's when you will be tested."

to read more from this magazine on this topic go to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/

something my teens did

1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.

through the night

saturday night i left michigan at about 8:30pm, destination- pulaski, ny. knowing that i would be on the road until at least 4:00am. i was not really looking forward to the drive at all. for one it meant me leaving a wedding reception full of friends and two i had just driven it the same route the day before. we had left 7:00am friday morning for justin and lindsays wedding. the trip ended up being a total of 47 hrs. 20 of them being in the car.

it was a great 27 hrs in michigan. catching up with friends, meeting new friends (fiances met since graduation), talking about memories and making some new new memories. ( i am rubber man, i am on a mission)

throughout this trip (the driving part) i had a lot of time to think. i ended up thinking about the people i was passing or the ones passing me. i wondered where they were headed physically but also spiritually. do they have a relationship with Christ. i also thought about what they were driving, how much did they pay for that vehicle. and i wondered if it were worth that amount. did they enjoy the vehicle or could they not wait for the chance to trade it in on a nicer model.

just thinking about how important peoples cars are to them made me wonder how much one would pay for salvation. how important is there soul? is it worth as much as they paid for the humvee or bmw. i like cars, looking at them, driving them, just not the idea of purchasing them. but what we drive can sometimes tell a lot about. if one drives a nice car you can assume they have a good job. if a teen drives a nice car one can assume that his parents have a really good job.

salvation is obviously not purchased but is a gift. however Jesus did ask the rich ruler to sell all he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. however the ruler walked away sad. the ruler had put a price on salvation. a cost that he was not willing to give up. why is it that the most important things in life can be turned down because of the cost.

i wonder if the ruler ever reconsidered and later sold all he had and given it to the poor and then went to follow Jesus. i wonder where that ruler is today and if he can say that he eventually made the right decision. i hope so.

it gets me thinking about people i have met in the past. the friends from high school who were in different religions, or did not have time for Christ and spent it worshipping other things. i wonder if it is possiple that they turned there lives around and have a relationship with Christ now. i wonder about others i looked up to and think to myself if they have slipped away and arent following Christ anymore. i wonder why they have chosen this path and if there is something to help them to bring back there faith.

understanding people is hard. knowing that they have been through some things and have put a cost to salvation is sad. to think they had it and let it slip away somehow is dissapointing. i pray for friends of mine like this. i pray someone in their life will help them out with this. unfortunately something made them turn away their faith. what was it? was it another person? was it the idea that God seemed distant? i pray for them and i pray for the same thing to not happen to me.

i guess that is the whole idea of trust.

friends

friends are an interesting thing. there will always be new friends, old friends, friends that you havent seen in a while, life long friends, friends for a season. i have recently just moved to a new place so i am adjusting to new people, hanging out in new homes and different restaurants. this weekend i am taking off for a wedding and will be able to catch up and/or see friends from college. so with all this going on i have started to think about friends of past, present and future. the different levels of friendships and how they have affected me thus far. in elementary you would play games, do the birthday party thing, have sleepovers. everything revolved around fun in high school you might start to have different groups of friends. church friends, sports friends, school friends. this would revolve sometimes to what season of the year it was. it would involve fun, discipline, commitment, studying and for the most part surface level friendships. it might be that you had a lot of friends therefore you didnt go deep with most. in college though things change, you are in the same community everyday therefore being with some of the same people a lot. so you really get to know more than just what they like but who they really are as a person. you do everything together and get to a level of friendship where there is not just a bond of friendship but also a bond that involves emotion where you feel comfortable to tell them anything and everything. this is a place of accountability, authenticity and community that you never thought were possible in high school. and then even though you move away from college you keep these friends. you keep in touch with them by email, verizon (the in network) and by scheduling vacation to see them. (unlike the high school friends where you would talk by email sporadically until it happened less and less, you would see them during college breaks and then maybe have less and less contact with until you eventually cut ties with. not purposely but you have less in common and you are headed in different directions.)

after college you have a sense that real friends are who you share life with. you have become so close to what will be friends for ever and then you are thrown into a world where there is less community then what you knew for the last 4 years at college. instead of being with someone everyday you now see them once or twice a week. they can still be good friends but what took the first semester (4 months)or less during your freshman year now takes about a year to achieve. not that this is a bad thing it is just... different, something that one will take a while to get used to. but in a way you are still longing for the community that you had in college. it will take a while to connect with someone on that deep level maybe ever.

all this to say that community is important. community changes over time where once in elementary we were okay with games, it just doesnt cut it anymore. we have been changed where the importance is the emotional tie of living life together, helping people get through the tough times, challenging them, encouraging them and pouring a friendship into a life dedicated to each other.

perception

the idea of everyone viewing something the same way is rare. sure i can look at a pencil and know that it is a pencil, and chances are everyone will agree with me. yesterday i was moving some staging and a couple of the guys mentioned hot it was, but i guess it really didnt bother me because i was used to sc weather. other people think that to live 2 hrs away from family is a long way but the past 6 years of my life i have lived about 21 hrs away. one persons taste buds might enjoy a pepperoni pizza but another might detest pepperoni. our senses, attitudes and ideas might be different than another. that doesnt mean that one person is right and the other is wrong. it just means there is a difference in opinion. now lets change direction a little with where this article is going. maybe i am a non christian looking at a church and all i can see is hypocrisy and how things need to be changed. i might believe in God but i want no part of the church because i have been hurt in the past. while someone else in that same church is growing under a discipleship class. loves everything about following Christ. it of course is the same church but yet the church is viewed differently because it is viewed by two different people. one perception of the same thing is slightly skewed from the other. but is one of them right and the other wrong? how can we as christian's help change the perception of those viewing the church as wrong or do we need to change the church from within. just a thought to get your juices flowing. i could of taken this idea and run with it a lot further but i want to hear from you the reader on your opinions.

new york, new york

when one moves, takes a different path obviously there will be changes. the changes will not only affect ourselves but the ones that we have moved away from. they will change the lives of those they come into contact in there new surroundings. families will be transformed, churches will be impacted and things will happen differently then one was used. change will always continue to happen. change makes us who we are and who we will become. change can be seen as a hindrance or we can accept it as a blessing. change can affect us for the better or we can become bitter. your life and mine will always continue to change. i hope and pray that we accept change with love and compassion. i pray that the people we can come into contact with will accept the change with love and desire. i pray that this change will not destroy our focus on who it is about. i pray that we will accept changes not as an inconvenience but as something that will challenge us and continue to mold us into who we should become. life is a blessing that we need to grab hold of and not let the small things that could distract us into being unacception, uncaring and undesiring to show love and acceptance of what is to come. we have just made the move from sc to ny. from the inner city to the farm land. from a smaller church to a medium sized church. from a place of security to a place of hope and desire. i am excited for the change. today is my first office day and it is combined with a funeral service. welcome to new york. jenny is putting stuff away at our apartment today and will eventually start the process looking for a job and get the process rolling of starting grad school next fall. my first service is on thursday (tomorrow). i have never had midweek services on thursday. i need to get used to that but it seems that everything here in pulaski, new york will be welcomed change. i have always been one who loves change, hopefully i can stay that way. hopefully when i start to feel comfortable here in my ministry with the youth then something will poke me in order to move. i dont want to feel comfortable so i invite the change. it is when one becomes comfortable that a stagnant behavior can begin. so i invite those who are comfortable to do something different. i challenge you to begin something new. hopefully we can stay committed with being open top the things of new.