Chase the Setting Sun...

I was reading Romans 3 this morning and came across this line in verse 4, "Let God be true, and every man a liar."


As I was thinking about that verse it made me think of the argument so many non-Christians have against Christians. We always here them say, "Well I've seen all of these 'Christians' doing this, that, or the other. Doesn't that contradict what your 'God' would say/do?"


What I want to say is, "What does that have to do with God?" We can't put mans' sins on God. We have nothing to do with God, God has everything to do with us. What we do, does not affect who God is in ANY way. We cannot change or manipulate God by our actions or words. I think a lot of non-Christians believe that God is just the sum of those who follow him. Sometimes maybe even Christians think the same thing.


On the contrary, God has everything to do with us. Who God is affects us on a daily basis. Now, that does not mean that we somehow become perfect. We are human beings, we are going to mess up. The fact that God doesn't change based on our actions or words means that we always have that rock solid example to come back to.


A lot of times our response to these questions is to defend Christians. In all honesty, it might work better to show that no matter how dumb, stupid or ridiculous Christians may act on this earth, God never changes. He remains the same God he was yesterday, last week, and a million years ago. Maybe we should start throwing ourselves "under the bus" for the sake of Christ. When someone asks us these questions maybe we should just say, "You know what, you are right, I/we do a lot of dumb stuff, but who I am doesn't change who God is and will be."


Let God be true and EVERY man a liar.

I have been thinking about this since our meeting on Tuesday. We discussed what Christian community looks like and refferred to Acts 2:42-47. Verse 44 says, "All believers were together and had everything in common."


If you look at this with a quick glance it kind of sounds like a clique you would experience in high school. Just a bunch of people exactly alike huddling around each other talking about how cool their "sameness" is.


So is it ok for Christians to have "cliques," or groups of people gathered with "everything in common"? I think it is unavoidable and designed that way by God. God designed each of us with different interests, passions, talents and abilities. He did this so we would each be able to accomplish something different for his kingdom. We, as humans, naturally gravitate towards those people that are similar to ourselves.


Here is the difference...


In high school we gravitated to those that were similar to ourselves, but we purposely excluded those that were different and chose not to accept them. As Christians this should look different. While we naturally gravitate to those people with similar interests and passions as us, we have learned to LOVE and accept those that are different than us. We do not turn away "outsiders" and we learn to accept each person for who they are in Christ.


We will always naturally gravitate to people like us, that isn't going to change. I'm not sure we are made to be "best friends" with every single person on earth. Where we become the Body of Christ is when my community unites with your different community and becomes one big community. It is ok to have a smaller group of friends that are like you. Where being a Christian come in is when we take our little community and engage with someone elses little community to form the Body of Christ.


Think about the United States of America for example. As Indiana we do our thing, Florida does theirs, Nebraska theirs and California theres. We are all cool and unique in our own state communities. However, we are stronger and become a "super power" when we combine ourselves to be the UNITED States of America. Christianity is no different.


What we have to remember is; even though we may have nothing of this world in common with that other person's community, we all have Christ in common. As strong as we may feel in our tight knit small communities, we have the strength of the Body of Christ when we unite all of our communities together and nothing can beat that.

Tonight we had our young adult discussion group at George's Neighborhood Grille off of 71st and Binford Boulevard. We were discussing Acts 2:42-47. While we were discussing that passage, I looked over to Acts 4:13 and saw an underlined passage in my Bible. Acts 4:13 is the passage where Luke describes how Peter and John were preaching the Word and performing miracles, and jailed because of it. When asked who's authority they do these things by Peter says,

"...It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom YOU crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is 'the stone YOU builders rejected which has become the capstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

Peter completely and directly calls out the Sanhedrin for crucifying and rejecting Christ. They were, of course, incredibly astonished by Peter's directness, boldness and courage. They couldn't believe an uneducated ORDINARY man could have the courage to say this to such high standing, educated members of society like themselves.

This has always been an empowering verse for me. I am someone that never did all that well in school, I was never the smartest or brightest in my class. This shows me that Jesus does not require book smarts or legal smarts to use someone. All Jesus requires is a heart and passion for Him and His people. If you honestly love Christ and love others, he will empower you, and use you, in ways you could never be used if you were just a 'smart' guy/girl.

I don't know who all is reading my blog these days but I would be interested in hearing about times when God used you in ways that you didn't expect him to, because maybe you didn't live up to the world's standards for "smart" or "successful."

As I pray over the opportunity to go into youth ministry this verse comes to mind as what it means to be a youth pastor.

By the GRACE God has given me, I laid the foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. 1 Corinthians 3:10

In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is calling out the Corinthians for being prideful about who they are following, who they are a disciples of. Paul condemns this thought noting that no one, not himself nor Apollo are anything apart from Christ. They each have different jobs to do in building the kingdom and ministering to God's people. One may lay the foundation, but the other will build on it.

Paul makes it a point to say that there is no foundation other than Christ. He can only lay the foundation that Christ already laid in Himself. It is by God's grace that He allows Paul to lay the foundation of Christ in the lives of the people he encounters in his ministry.

This is what I see myself doing in ministry, especially in regard to youth ministry. Many of these kids will not have a solid foundational faith built when they enter into a youth group setting. It is my job and privilege, by the grace of God, to lay the foundation of Christ in their lives. They will only be with me for a short period of time. Once they leave the youth program and head to college they will have to rely on someone else to build on their foundation. By Christ working in me, and through me, I can have the chance to lay that solid foundation in them that they will always have the rest of their lives. I can help them come to Christ and show them what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of their lives. Only through Christ can I be used as an "expert builder." Apart from Him I have no expertise.

I pray that I always acknowledge that it is Christ building the foundation, and Christ that is the foundation. It is nothing that I can do apart from Christ. I pray that I am always able to be an example of what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of life.

A lot has happened recently that has caused me to question where I am in my life and my relationship with Christ. Here's a little background

Most things in life follow the path of least resistance. We all prefer to do the easiest thing in most situations. We would like to think that the path the Holy Spirit is leading us on is the path of least resistance. Chances are....its not.

This is a blog post I wrote for Ramblings of a Rebellion about a year ago. I thought it still would apply to most that might read this blog.

What is leading worship about? What makes a good worship leader? As our church begins to search for a worship leader/vocalist I have been thinking about what it takes to be a good worship leader.

- First off, a worship leader needs to be a talented vocalist. Singing should come naturally to this person. If a worship leader has to spend too much energy and thought thinking about how they are singing, they are not focusing on worshiping.

- A worship leader should have an overwhelming passion for worshiping God. Worship should overflow out of a worship leader's heart. When a congregation sees the leader actively and passionately worshiping Christ they can't help but worship God themselves.

- A Worship leader should be able to connect and lead musicians and vocalists of all ages and levels of talent. You wont always have the best musicians in your group. The job of the worship leader is to be able to work with the lesser musicians and help them raise their game. A musician doesn't have to be the most technically talented player in the world to be solid and sound good. The worship leader needs to be able to take what skills the musician possesses and make the most of them to help that person blend with the rest of the band.

- A worship leader is NOT an entertainer. He/She is not there to entertain the congregation and keep them happy. It is not always about playing the catchiest songs, or getting the congregation to sway and clap. It is about inviting the congregation into authentic worship. It is about rising above ourselves and connecting with God and each other through the act of worship.

A lot of times we see worship leaders that are crowd pleasers. They are there only to entertain and please those listening to them. A true worship leader is there with an audience of one. He/She can forget about themselves and the desire to be noticed and focus on Christ and connecting with Him. If the connection between worship leader and Christ is made and is real, the congregation will feel more comfortable about making that authentic connection with the One they are worshiping and come out of their shell and worship as well.

This is an ongoing thought process. These are just some thoughts I have had lately on what I expect from whomever we hire down the road.

Well, here I go again. About a year or more ago I got into blogging with a friend of mine. We started a blog called "Ramblings of a Rebellion." It was based around the fact that sin has become so mainstream that it is no longer rebellious to sin, but instead the true rebellion lies in following Christ. That lasted a few months. We had some good discussions on there and had quite a few followers check out our site daily. Like most of these things though, life got busy and we gave up.

So this will be my shot at trying a blog again. In this I will try to talk about my life and different things I'm going through. A lot of it will likely revolve around Christ, Music and Relationships. I am a Christian who was a musician before I came to Christ and now is a musician trying to use his talents for Christ. So that takes up most of my thoughts. Hopefully someone might find something useful in this, or at least interesting. Either way, I'm just going to have some fun with this.