Simply-Not

Psalm 27: 13-14
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.

so simple, yet so difficult

!Pon tu esperanza en el Senor!

Greater things than Jesus?

So, if that title doesn't get you interested, i really don't know what else i have to put on here to get you to read it!
haha
So, i was reading in John 14 tonight (i've been in john for months--wonderful book!) and Jesus is talking about leaving and going to prepare a place....yada yada yada...
Now, just about when my brain started up the auto-read-pilot, i read where Jesus replies, "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing"--wow, if we simply have faith in Jesus, we are called to be like him, to minister to everyone we come in contact with, love everyone and meet their needs where they are at during that moment in time--eat with prostitutes and sinners, feed a lot of people, be merciful, the list could go on for quite a few gospels....
THEN--right after that, he says something my mind can't even comprehend--"He (who has faith in me) will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father"--
quickly in the next series of verses he explains the sending of the Holy Spirit to us to counsel us and provide us with a direct connecto to understand God--but did he really mean we would do greater things than that? I mean, obviously sin is going to get in the way of the perfect life goal--but as far as actions: dailing compassion, abounding mercy, random acts of kindness--can we actually do better than Jesus did? are we trying to?

ponder, and please post your thoughts!

What's the Word?

So, it's been a while since the last post, and i've been thinking....
As general as humans, specifically as Americans, and even more specifically as Christians, we get caught up in fads-trends-movements-momentary labels that aid us in this identity crisis we call life. For example, i've been a 'jock', a 'music kid', 'coffee shop regular', a 'highschooler', a teenager, and yes, i've even been a 'pokemon master'

now all of those are well and good, and having a sense of identity and direction in your life is very important--but i'm struggling to wrap my mind around the 'christian movements'
Emerging? Charismatic?
Community? Nazarene?
Evangelistic? Non-denominational?
Reforming? Sanctified/fying/fication?
I have nothing against any of these words, any of these books, any of these authors, or anyone who likes to use these adjectives to describe the kind of walk they emmulate.
BUT
I wonder if by labeling ourselves we miss the point? does the focus become the actions that the word represent-maybe worse does the focus become the word itself? Shouldn't the focus be the God who made the word?
Okayy, well here ya go--God is Love--therefore the right word and movement definer and bandwagon is the 'love' movement-right?
I'm not even convinced of that yet...because God is love--but God is also peace, HOLY, patiences, kindness, goodness, gentleness, selfcontrolled, jealous, angry, passionate--
So what if the new word we used to describe our movement, to define our walks and lives is the one word that represented and lived all these things: Jesus
Sure, its broad, it covers a large area...an area so large that i don't think it leaves anything out--
Emerging, Holy, sanctified, non-denominational, communistic, evangelistic, charismatic, reforming, nazarene
JESUS

****By the way--this is not me trying to rag on or criticize anybody/anything/anyother indefinite pronoun--it's just a bur thats been up my saddle for the last 6 months and i've just now taken time to dig it out****

word to your mother
paz

Puzzle Pieces

When i was born, a 1 million piece puzzle was dumped on a table--all the pieces were fixed upside down, but can be slid around to fit together--as my life has been unfolding, i've been trying to put the pieces together--some have come together easy--others have been shifted and reaaranged so many times it's hard to remember where they came from or where they're supposed to go--sometimes--a few pieces that have come together are flipped over and i'm truly able to see what they really look like and where it needs to fit into the larger scale puzzle that is my life--usually after moments like this, i find someother pieces (still upsidedown) that i think belong with other pieces--in effor tot make them fit--i'll slam it, jam it, twist it, and even cut the pieces to make them fit where i think they ought to go--

But--i think this puzzle is too complex for my feeble mentality--it's one that requires the help of a parent--and the cool thing is that my parent knows what the whole puzzle should look like--and he will tell me where to put the various pieces--whether it makes sense--whether it looks like it fits--whether that's where i want to put it or not--all i must do is listen to him--put the pieces where they go--and at the end--when it is all turned over--maybe it'll all make sense--and i am confident in that hope

a wedding dress & a whore.

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
Should that be all I’d ever need
or is there more I’m looking for
and should I read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
To make me handsome, rich, and wise
Is that really what you want

I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle
and I run down the aisle
I’m a prodigal with no way home
but I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle to you

So could you love this bastard child
Though I don’t trust you to provide
With one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side
I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers so less wild
That I would take a little cash
Over your very flesh and blood

Because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
When you have knowingly deceived his wife

Okay, so I’m going to break the pattern here and move away from a Scripture based entry. I apologize.

Last semester this song really spoke to me...

The part that stood out to me most was the part that says, “I am so easily satisfied by the call of lovers so less wild.” First of all, to me, it’s incredible to be able to view God as a “lover.” I still don’t fully grasp that, and I honestly don’t think I ever will be able to wrap my mind around the concept of God as a lover. He is love. But, can we ever fully grasp what God’s love truly is? I feel like I could spend my life seeking to fully understand what Christ like love looks like, and I still wouldn’t even begin to understand a fraction of it.
God as a lover. Unfathomable.
Second, the line itself. It’s true, I am so easily satisfied by the call of lovers so less wild. It could be anything. I am so easily distracted by things so unworthy. Nothing in this world compares to a God who created it. Nothing is as “wild” as our lover. What else in this world could be omnipresent? Nothing. What else in this world could heal the blind, feed five thousand people, heal the leper, and never sin? Nothing. What else in this world could die for everyone? Nothing.

What else in this world could conquer death?
Nothing.
No one.

Nothing could be more wild a lover than God. Yet, how easily we are pulled away from Him.
Derek Webb had it so right. I am a whore.
But. (Oh how I love the But conjunction in His Word.) He has redeemed me. He has set me free. He has died for me. He has redeemed you. He has set you free. He has died for you. He is a jealous God, too. The bridge of the song says, “Because money cannot buy a husband’s jealous eye when you have knowingly deceived his wife.” Think about that in relation to God’s relationship with the Church, His bride. We are the church. I am the church. I am a whore. The church is a whore. We are so easily satisfied by things which knowingly deceive us. This blows my mind sometimes. He is jealous of those things in our lives that we allow to deceive us, those things that pull us away from Him and toward things of this world.

I am a whore I do confess. But I put you on just like a wedding dress and I run down the aisle, and I run down the aisle. I’m a prodigal with no way home, but I put you on just like a ring of gold and I run down the aisle to you.

Crippled Obedience

So, been thinking alot about "The Future" haha, and realizing that life would be soo much easier if we just had someone who told us what to do. But, then again, people typically hate having others tell them what to do--unless you the individual are at a completely out of ideas, solutions, and options of your own to work from---which is sadly where i think i am...haha...but then, i was reading the other day, and i think that that place of utter hopelessness is the best place to be:

John 5:1-14
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

So, the first thing i noticed is that all of the 'disabled' people gather together? how often do we do that? i mean honestly, things are going well, so instead of going to find people who can help make our situations better, we go to the nearest pity party where we can all talk about how much we hate life and just feed on each other's crummy attitudes and bitterness

THEN--Jesus comes in, and notices how long that man had been like that...a LONG time--then asks the best question ever "DO YOU WANT TO GET BETTER?"
I don't know if they say, "duh" in the bible, or what the hebrew equivalent is...but i bet the word crossed the crippled man's mind. And i love how he immediately answers Jesus' question with the answer to why all of his (the man's) solutions wouldn't work--the man has run out of options, he's so close to what he thinks is the answer to all of his problems, but he's not strong enough to do it on his own--i think he said what did hoping that Jesus would help HIS (the man's) reality and solution come true--instead, Jesus goes a totally different way.

He tells the man to get up and walk--

WHAT?!?!?

"hey man who hasn't walked in THIRTY EIGHT YEARS--get up and walk"

'that will never work'
'I can't do that'
'DO YOU SEE THE SITUATION I'M IN'

and the simple answer to all of those statements is-"Yes"

Yea, Jesus knows what we are going through, he "realizes how long we've been like that" and he has the answers and the solutions...but I'm almost positive, like the man, we don't realize all we have to do is obey...to pick up our mats (or baggage, decision, or whatever the issue is) and walk.

ANd i love the simple response the man gives when is questioned about his healing and resolved problem: "the man who made me well, told me to pick up my mat and walk"

"hey man, how'd you get out of that situation...how'd yo uknow what to do? why are you going about it in that way??!?"

'the guy/the man/ the savior, who made me well/saved me/has all the answers, told me to do ______, and now i'm better--i simply did what he told me to do'

just really thought that was interesting stuff, and the timing at which i read this passage was absolutely amazing--and following conversations with some near and dear friends brought the passage into a further new light for me.

SO-conclusion time: if you are at that point in life where everything you thought you knew or would work just isn't cutting it--you're at the best place to try something new, that might seem crazy/rediculous/scary/challenging--and odds are, Jesus is trying to tell you what that is, all you have to do is listen, then obey--and you just might find yourself walking again!

paz y amor!