i have never been great at being transparent. i do wear my emotions at all times so people know how i am feeling but for me it is hard to admit to others that i sin. sure i am open that i do sin and will even be open about some of those sins. sure i sin but it is the small sins of coveting my neigbors mustang, anger while driving. nothing that actually affects someone else. so it is ok.
i guess you could call it pride. i have been in the ministry now for 7+ years and because of this i am supposed to be good or at least better then those that i minister too. it is a hard standard to meet when you hold yourself to this kind of pressure. yesterday jenny and i visited a church where our friend is the pastor. it was a great time of worship but there were a couple things that stood out to me during the service that i would like to see more often at churches.
the first was right before we took communion. the pastor asked each one to look into his own life and confess the sin in their lives. this is something we have to do more often as christians. the second was two girls came forward probably both in the young twenties and you could see that both of them were pregnant. however there was no ring on either of their finger. they both came in front of the church to apologize for their sin. not only that they admitted that they did not feel comfortable in the church, that they felt judged.
so often when there is a single parent pregnancy it is looked down upon to the point where it is not talked about. this only causes more controversy in the end in what could have been settled easily. the transparency between these two girls should be commended. and how the church received tem is even better. they showed them nothing but love.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
acts 1
our sunday school class started to study acts a couple weeks ago so i wanted to discuss a few of the things from acts that stood out to me or some others during that class.
acts is a great book. it starts out with Christ promising the disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit. it is hard to understand for the disciples because what could possibly replace Christ? he tells them that this is not the time to free israel. i think if i were one of the disciples i would start to question if Jesus was ever going to restore or if it were just talk, however Jesus did just rise from the dead so he atleast does have that on his resume. Christ tells them to spread the word about him which is really one of the few times he asks the dishowciple to tell people about him. up until now he didnt want to draw attention on himself.
Jesus does go to heaven and then the disciples walked back home to what is considered the upper room. there are 120 present and in verse 14 said they were in this for the good or until the end. they were completely together or united in which is a miracle because having 120 people united on something can be a hard task. specifically at this time unity is very important as it is up to them to carry on the gospel as Jesus had commanded to the very ends of the earth. what is also nice about verse 14 is that it says women were included.
what took place next was deciding whom would replace Judas as a disciple. we were kind of wondering what the purpose of this might be. suggestions included Jesus had chosen 12 so they wanted to keep it at 12. another was said Judas was the treasure which is a position that should be filled. yet another was that the disciples traveled by 2.
how they chose the next disciple to replace Judas is interesting. they concluded through prayer that the person must be someone who had been there since the baptism up until the ascension including witnessing the resurrection. so obviously there was some criteria that this person had to meet. they decided on two candidates and after prayer cast lots. we all kind of chuckled because we knew this would never happen today. lets draw straws to see who our pastor might be. but then this lady at our table rose her hand and said she had been a part of a church growing up that deciding things buy placing the names in a hat and drawing them out, after much prayer of course.
i am defianely looking forward to the rest of this book. i understand that i didnt touch on all aspects of acts 1 but that should give you enough to chew on for now.
acts is a great book. it starts out with Christ promising the disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit. it is hard to understand for the disciples because what could possibly replace Christ? he tells them that this is not the time to free israel. i think if i were one of the disciples i would start to question if Jesus was ever going to restore or if it were just talk, however Jesus did just rise from the dead so he atleast does have that on his resume. Christ tells them to spread the word about him which is really one of the few times he asks the dishowciple to tell people about him. up until now he didnt want to draw attention on himself.
Jesus does go to heaven and then the disciples walked back home to what is considered the upper room. there are 120 present and in verse 14 said they were in this for the good or until the end. they were completely together or united in which is a miracle because having 120 people united on something can be a hard task. specifically at this time unity is very important as it is up to them to carry on the gospel as Jesus had commanded to the very ends of the earth. what is also nice about verse 14 is that it says women were included.
what took place next was deciding whom would replace Judas as a disciple. we were kind of wondering what the purpose of this might be. suggestions included Jesus had chosen 12 so they wanted to keep it at 12. another was said Judas was the treasure which is a position that should be filled. yet another was that the disciples traveled by 2.
how they chose the next disciple to replace Judas is interesting. they concluded through prayer that the person must be someone who had been there since the baptism up until the ascension including witnessing the resurrection. so obviously there was some criteria that this person had to meet. they decided on two candidates and after prayer cast lots. we all kind of chuckled because we knew this would never happen today. lets draw straws to see who our pastor might be. but then this lady at our table rose her hand and said she had been a part of a church growing up that deciding things buy placing the names in a hat and drawing them out, after much prayer of course.
i am defianely looking forward to the rest of this book. i understand that i didnt touch on all aspects of acts 1 but that should give you enough to chew on for now.
Friday, November 09, 2007
lost in suburbia
the other day i left work to go to church. there was a heavy amount of traffic so i took an alternative route. i eventually came to a T in the road and decided to turn left to get back on the original road thinking that traffic might not be near as bad this far west. i passed house aftter house, subdivision after another subdivision. and then i hit a dead end. i was lost in suburbia. i eventually got out and found the road i needed.
as you might know we recently moved to north indianapolis, just a stones throw away from the very nice suburb of fishers. fishers is laden with 300-500,000 dollar homes that are no older then ten years old. without saying more it is a very nice community. i work in fishers so i come into contact with a lot of the children growing up with their parents driving land rovers, mercedes and bmws. the kids are dressed in tommy and abercrombie and are always styled very nicely.
we attend church in fishers and have enjoyed getting to meet and know several people within the church. we have been to a few of the homes which are on the higher end of the scale.
this is something i am not very used to. i grew up in a town where the average household income was 18,000. went to college in marion, indiana and also for a short while i lived on the other side of the tracks in greenville, sc. so upon moving to fishers i am a little overwhelmed to the lifestyle. the other day i drove by what i later found out was reggie millers house, probably the nicest house i have ever seen.
i am wondering though how this lifestyle effects those in it. some i have met seem very well grounded and use this position for good, helping out others. i have also signed up for the newsletter which is sent out every week and how we are consistently under budget. something tells me that we are somehow off in our stewardship. it is not like we have an exhorbiant budget but somehow we are not reaching our goals.
are we spending to much so we do not have any left over to tithe to God's kingdom or do we just not care about the work of the kingdom. are we too complacent in our nice homes and beautiful care to realize and understand what is going on in the world around us? are we just trapped or lost in suburbia? used to the designer clothing and somethat apathetic in our existence? how will we get out? how will we not allow this to become part of our lifestyle. how do we not become trapped by what seems so inviting?
as you might know we recently moved to north indianapolis, just a stones throw away from the very nice suburb of fishers. fishers is laden with 300-500,000 dollar homes that are no older then ten years old. without saying more it is a very nice community. i work in fishers so i come into contact with a lot of the children growing up with their parents driving land rovers, mercedes and bmws. the kids are dressed in tommy and abercrombie and are always styled very nicely.
we attend church in fishers and have enjoyed getting to meet and know several people within the church. we have been to a few of the homes which are on the higher end of the scale.
this is something i am not very used to. i grew up in a town where the average household income was 18,000. went to college in marion, indiana and also for a short while i lived on the other side of the tracks in greenville, sc. so upon moving to fishers i am a little overwhelmed to the lifestyle. the other day i drove by what i later found out was reggie millers house, probably the nicest house i have ever seen.
i am wondering though how this lifestyle effects those in it. some i have met seem very well grounded and use this position for good, helping out others. i have also signed up for the newsletter which is sent out every week and how we are consistently under budget. something tells me that we are somehow off in our stewardship. it is not like we have an exhorbiant budget but somehow we are not reaching our goals.
are we spending to much so we do not have any left over to tithe to God's kingdom or do we just not care about the work of the kingdom. are we too complacent in our nice homes and beautiful care to realize and understand what is going on in the world around us? are we just trapped or lost in suburbia? used to the designer clothing and somethat apathetic in our existence? how will we get out? how will we not allow this to become part of our lifestyle. how do we not become trapped by what seems so inviting?
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