The Great Oxymoron

2 Timothy 1:8 NLT "So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, either even though I am in prison for Him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News."

You've all heard of an Oxymoron, right? You know...jumbo shrimp, sharply dull, found missing, honest lawyer, good grief, alone together and soft rock. Well those are some more of the popular one's, but how about this one? Ashamed Christian! This is a sad commentary of the Christian Church today. Many Christians are ashamed of their faith or should I say their God.

This strikes me as so upside down (did you like the valley girl imitation?). We as Christians are ashamed of God...let me put that in different words for you. We, as created beings, walking around on this planet, which we feel is massive, making a mess of our lives, say that we are ashamed of God, the Creator of all things who loves us passionately! That's not only a little odd, but that is incredibly prideful. Think about it! God created this universe with billions and billions of galaxies, and we live in one of those billions and billions of galaxies and it is called the Milky Way (those of you who just got distracted because they are thinking of candy bars, start this paragraph over). In this massive Milky way, there is our solar system, in that solar system is our earth (which is 50 times smaller than Jupiter, which is 50 times smaller than our sun). Then on our earth, there is the United States and then there is the state you live in and then your city and then your neighborhood and then your house and then you and your saying "I'm ashamed of God." Wow! God not only made the universe (which He holds in the span of His hand), not only made us and passionately loves us, but He gave us His word and the PRIVILEGE to share His word with the world! How dare we be ashamed!

If anything God should be ashamed of us, because we make a mess of our lives and blatantly sin against Him, but He is always there for us. American Church, let's try something new, instead of being ashamed of our Almighty and All loving God, let's do what He says...let's make disciples of all nations! So that one day we can say what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:12 (just a couple verses down of today's theme verse) "That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know in whom I trust, and I am sure He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return."

God bless, love you guys!

Just add a little salt

Matthew 5:13 NKJV "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt looses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and to be trampled underfoot by men."

Salt is interesting, it can ruin a good meal or save a bad meal. How can something so small makes such a large difference? Have you ever heard "just add a little salt to the soup and it will be perfect?" You see, salt, although it is small makes a big difference because it's taste is so strong! What would happen to salt if it lost it's flavor? It would be pointless.
The same goes for us as Christians as soon as we start to loose our flavor (ex. become lazy in our Christian faith, like not reading the Bible or going to Church or making sure we have Christian friends etc...), we become pointless! If our whole point is to live in the world but not of the world, then what happens if we start living of the world? We have completely lost our meaning!!!

I hear Ravi Zacharias (he's amazing) tell a story that went something like this...

Imagine there were a bunch of salt in a salt shaker and one of the salt was excited just to be around other salt. This salt would be an optimist. Then there was another salt, the pessimist, who was upset with the optimistic salt and pointed out to him or her (don't want to be sexist you know) that all the salt was going into the soup on the stove top. He didn't want him to be happy, because they were all going to be poured out at some point. Then another salt came up to them (he's the realist) and he says,
"Guys listen, I can resolve your dispute. Yes, it is awesome that we all get to hang out here in the shaker, but it is also true that we will be gone some day because we will be placed in the soup, but one thing I know is that when I leave the shaker and get placed into the soup, that soup will never taste the same again."

May we have this same attitude, as opposed to try to blend in, let's make a difference in the soup that God has placed you in.

Are we missing the point?

1 Timothy 1:5-7 NLT
“The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience and genuine faith. But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.”

One of the largest put off’s many people have with Christianity is… well, Christians! Many Christians love, it’s just a little different then what Paul meant, they LOVE to argue! There is almost nothing more frustrating than talking with and even encouraging a fellow believer and constantly having to defend everything you say. Let me give you a great example: Someone is going through a hard time and so one encourages them with scripture, by quoting Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Immediately after quoting this passage the person who is going through the hard time, looks at the encourager and says “Was that New King James?! I hate NKJV! How could you quote that translation?!”
The question I have to ask in this situation is “Are we missing the point?!”
Please, Christians, let’s stop loving to argue, and start loving! Ha, what a concept! We are put here on this earth to be ambassador’s for Christ, but we end up fighting a civil war. Let’s all start point our weapons at the enemy and not at each other. Remember, even when you get upset with that other believer, Christ has more reason to be upset with you, but He chose to forgive! (Colossians 3:12-13 “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." Yeah that was NKJV, booyah!).
Hey Christians, I have a challenge for you: let’s redeem the name of Christ and not have the Church be synonymous hypocrisy! Don’t miss the whole point, let’s be one’s who are known by the love we have for one another.
Thanks for reading and please give feedback anytime. Thanks love you guys!

Burying our Fears not our talents

Jesus tells us a story in Matthew 25 of a man giving his servants a certain amount of talents. To one he gave five talents, to another he gave 2 talents and to the last he gave 1 talent. The first two servants went out and doubled their money so that when their master returned and they were rewarded, but the last servant buried his talent and made nothing. He was strongly rebuked for his laziness.

In the American church, especially in the youth, there is an overwhelming sense of laziness! Why is this? Well I believe it is rooted in fear! God has given us a task and has given us the ability to do that task effectively, but instead we sit at home listening to our ipod's, watching tv, texting friends, playing xbox and heating up dinner in the microwave all at the same time! We say "well, I go to church on Sunday, so I'm doing what God wants." Why do we limit ourselves to this? I believe it is because we are comfortable doing this and scared to step out and do what God is calling us to do. Let's be a generation that rebels against this slothfulness and this fear and instead turn the world upside down, by burying our fear, not our talents!

Paul hit on this same thing when he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7-8 when he said "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord..." So may I strongly encourage you who are reading this to not bury your talents and gifts God has given you, but instead take a step of faith and see how God does amazing things through the little you may have to offer him (5 loaves and 2 fish right?). Let's collectively come together and bury that fear that tells us to bury the gifts God has given us and see what God will do!

Thanks for reading and my hope and prayer is that you are encouraged by this, not condemned.