Not Of This World

Have you ever just felt compelled to lie on your back at night and gaze at the starry spectacle above us? For me, it's one of my favorite things to do. I could spend hours upon hours just admiring the wonder of God's creation and the universe He spoke into motion. As it so happens, I felt a deep longing in my heart to go to one of my favorite places tonight and to just look up. To watch. To worship. Without fail, God revealed a tiny bit more of the glory of His work to me...

Looking into the stars, it is obvious that each is placed intentionally and delicately by Him. However, we can only see the far off balls of light when we shut out all other illumination and focus directly on them. When we let our own man-made light sources pollute our gaze, we lose focus of the beauty and glory of our Creator in His work. He wants us to experience Him through what He has made for us, but it seems that so often we let our own worldly "lights" get in the way. We don't see the beauty of His plan because we are so caught up in our own. Even more so, it's impossible to see the wondrous refinement and elegance of far off galaxies when we have our very own LED Maglite shining directly in our pupils. The same can be said for God's wants and desires for our lives becoming eclipsed by our own selfishness, iniquity, and pride.

I think what compels me so much to place myself prostrate upon the ground in admiration of what the Lord has made is the fact that I know that's what I have a stake in: the eternal glory of God that He makes manifest in His creation. As much as I enjoy the earthly things that I get to do and the fun I get to have, there's still a longing in my heart for something more, something better. I was not made simply for this world. No, I was made for something far beyond the toils, trials, and tribulations I find myself in. When I look into the sky, I see a glimpse of the glory of God that is to come, the future hope that I have in Christ as His co-heir. He has not only made us His children, but kings! "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father…" (Rev. 1:5-6). "Thou…hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:9-10). Just as the stars don't even give us the tiniest peek into the beauty of God, we cannot even begin to understand or fathom the depth of what God has done for us through His Son. We can only fall down in amazement and praise His mighty craftsmenship as we watch His plan come together. So it is that our sonship relies very little on our own understanding, but infinitely on our faith in Him and His plan.

It is a mighty thing to watch! When I look into the star-filled night, it's almost like I'm looking at the front-side of God's tapestry. For us, a tapestry is simply a piece of designed fabric that is embroidered onto a canvas. The textiles are woven together to make a beautiful, nonreversible image. One side has immense beauty, while the other side is frayed and is seemingly without form. Much is the same with our current condition. We view our lives and see frayed edges, misplaced threads, and uncareful stitching. But, friend, we are only looking at the back of His tapestry. What He sees is a universe that He takes great joy in, something upon which He called "good", His ultimate word of approval. God has the perfect perspective of His perfectly woven creation, where ours is distorted by our sins. It just seems that every now and then, when I set my eyes on the stars above, I see the other side of His tapestry and the world I am truly meant for.

With love.

Alright Men, Let's Talk Relationships

Before we get started: I'm 21 years old. There's still a lifetime left for me to learn about relationships and love, to say the least. But hey, I feel like God is leading me to talk about this subject, so let's see what we can uncover. Sound fun?! I thought so!

Oftentimes, the closer we try and get to love, the farther away we end up sliding. It's a slippery slope when your only basis is what the world teaches. The world gives us this confound image of what relationships and love should look like, whether romanticized or downright dramatic. It advertises parties, orgies, and everything in between and we get sucked into its short-term promises of fulfillment, when all we're left with the next morning is an even stronger sense of longing and need for something better. The sad thing is that we keep on settling, night after night. We put on the blinders and begin to believe that this is the best we can do in the category of love. More specifically, we confuse "love" with "lust". I did and it was alarmingly easy to do at the time.

Really, love has nothing to do with lust. Lust treats women as objects. Love treats women as Christ treated the Church: with compassion, sacrifice, and grace. To be honest, we've perverted and beaten the idea of love beyond recognition. It's so mutilated that the only forensics we have left to identify it are its dental records. That's how badly we've misconstrued what we call love. But God demonstrates what real love is. He holds the dental records that we so desperately need.

Check it: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." (Ephesians 5:25-30).

Beautiful. Christ saw the world, afflicted and stained by sin, but His love for it wasn't diminished. His passionate pursuit to love the world (that used the very breath He gave them to curse Him) led Him to the cross. His heart bled with glorious, forgiving, sacrificial love. Make no mistake, there has never been any greater love than this. What we call love in our relationships, even in the most spiritual sense, cannot compare to the love that was displayed by the holes in His hands. It's indescribably perfect. Christ's one flesh relationship to the Church perfectly depicts the blueprint for our marriages as humans. It is to be an exclusive, special, covenanted relationship.

Men, here's my message to you. Don't go out and try to "fall in love" with the girl you think you're perfect for. Believe me, no matter what grandiose plan you have for your life, God has a better one. Instead of trying to play God in your relationships, let God be God. He loves you so much that He gave His blameless, perfect Son to die for you, so I'm sure that He will take care of your dating scene as well. In all actuality, our duty is nothing less than to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, the ultimate husband (as shown by His love for the Church, His bride). In doing so, we are becoming the godly husbands that He has called us to be. He's equipping us for marriage as we transform our hearts and lives to mirror that of Christ's. Whoever God ultimately leads you to, "...sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word." Shower her with the encouragement of Scripture, the perfect Word of God. Grow together as one flesh in your relationship with Him. Read the Song of Solomon in the Bible. You'll thank me later. Nourish and cherish her as you do yourself. Lose the lust.

With love.

Shouting Ceramics

Have you ever been to one of those neat little pottery places where they have the live artisans? If you have, I'm sure you've left with the undeniable want to either A) join a pottery class or B) buy a pottery wheel. It's just so stinkin' cool! My favorite part was always watching the artisan spin some glob of clay, something almost negligible in value, into a vase or finely fashioned pot, something that ultimately brings the maker glory. Although it was a time-consuming process, the final product was always worth the effort. With this being said, God is very much the potter in our lives: "But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

First and foremost, any good potter knows that they need one major thing before ever beginning to craft any pottery: water. Without water, the clay in question would be much too hard to mold, let alone form into an artistic masterpiece. The water seaps into the pore's of the clay making it soft and pliable to the potter's hand, allowing his touch to create into life whatever vision he has in his head as the final product. As the clay, we are oftentimes hardened by our own sins, not willing to change our course no matter the circumstances. We're a lump and by-golly we're gonna stay a lump! seems to be the mindset of most people, even when we're in so desperate of a need for water. Our water, the softener of our hearts and minds, is Scripture, as seen in Ephesians 5:26, "...that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word..." The Word of God allows the reader to possess knowledge of our Redeemer, which in turn gives the Holy Spirit something to work with in our sanctification process. By the way, "sanctification" is just a big, churchy word for becoming more like Jesus, who was the perfect representative of mankind (i.e. the perfect person). We must allow the Word into our pores, just as the clay would to the water.

Once a sufficient amount of water has initially been added, the potter is sure to position the clay directly in the middle of the wheel. If this was not done, the clay would be sure to splatter across every conceivable area of the room at an incredibly fast rate once the wheel began to turn. I'm pretty sure some of those pottery wheels are run by at least a V6 engine, maybe even a V8... They go so fast! Anyway, the clay will be unworkable and will soon find itself on the floor if it is not centered on the wheel. This is to say, without a person's heart being fully "centered" or focused on Christ, the Maker's hand effectively won't guide their life. A person who holds any part of themselves back from God has not fully surrendered themselves to Christ and will soon find themselves on the floor as the clay that was off-center. God wants ALL of us, not just the parts that we're willing to give up. The clay is infinitely hopeless if it is not perfectly centered, and its short life will have been completely in vain. So it is with those who trust in themselves.

If the clay finds itself with both enough water and proper placement, then the process of making a beautiful vessel can begin. However, the process is destined to be slow. Never once have I seen an artisan create a majestic piece of ceramic craftsmenship in the blink of an eye. It always, always, always takes time. The pace of the wheel must stay slow and steady or else the clay might tear before the artist is finished. This can be likened to our own modern-day lifestyle, which is full of instantaneousness (yes, that is a word). We always want instant gratification or immediate updates. God isn't very big on that. Instead, He likes it when we wait on Him. Waiting on Him tests our faith, forcing us to rely upon His timing rather than ours. We can see the effects of relying on our own want of immediacy in things like relationships. If we give our girlfriend/boyfriend everything in physical intimacy that we have, then what is left that is special for our wife/husband? Nothing. We've tasted of the fruits that were meant for marriage because we let our appetite get the best of us, and now those fruits will have an essence of rotteness for the one we really love, much like an apple that is bit and left sitting on a counter for hours on end. Yeah, it's still an apple and it still tastes like an apple after being left there, but it's just not the same as that fresh apple from the tree. God wants us to wait on Him because He knows better.

Now that the clay has begun spinning, the potter begins to form what he has envisioned. First, the potter digs deeply at the very middle of the lump of clay, forcing the outer edges to build up around it. His hands begin to grasp both the inside and outside of the newly-forming wall, shaping and molding it with each turn of the wheel. His fingers apply pressure to the parts needing it so that it might be transformed to what he wishes. In all actuality, the lump, without any notion of what the artist has envisioned, probably would much rather stay a lump because that's easiest for it. However, the artist's plans are much more extravagant than the clay's plans. All of this can be said of our growing relationship with God. He begins by nudging at the deepest part of us: our heart. He indwells us with the Holy Spirit, allowing our sanctification to start from the inside out. As our heart changes to His desire, the transformations become noticeable on the outside. With each passing turn, His fingers mold our very character to that fitting of Christ, applying pressure when needed. Sometimes the pressure is quite severe, but it is absolutely necessary. Because we are so used to our sinful ways, we oftentimes find ourselves pressing back against His fingers that are molding us or even questioning His plan altogether. We want so badly to stay a lump. We shout at Him, questioning His every movement or motive. Surely You're not going to do that! That's proposterous! Why don't You do it another way? When we try and remain the lump that we're so accustomed to being, we are just inviting Him to press against us that much harder so that His plan and vision will be reached. My advice: don't press back and don't question.

Another thing to notice: the potter never ceases to have all of his concentration on his piece. If he were to take his eyes off of it for even a split-second, the clay would likely lose its shape. The artist cares way too much about his creation to let this happen, so his attention is never lost. God, with His infinite love for us, definitely does not want us to lose our shape. What this means is that we can fully trust in God to complete the work He has started. There will be no blemish or untended moment. We can be sure that His love, grace, and mercy will continually wash down upon us, changing us into who He wants us to become. The same can be said for the pressure of His touch when needed.

As the final touches are added and the pottery wheel begins to come to a stop, it is important to realize that the potter's vision has been met. What he first saw is what he now sees. When God places the finishing touches on your life, understand that you are what He made you to be. Others might question why you were not this or that, but the answer is clear: God, through your willingness to accept the water that is the Word, your Christ-centered approach to life, and your receptance to His guiding hand, made you into who you are. Nothing more, nothing less. Afterall, it is the potter who molds, not the clay. For some, He calls them to be vases, others pots, and some ash trays. You will be exactly what He wants you to be as long as you stay the clay and He stays the potter. Don't get caught up in what you are. Rather, accept what you are as having been guided delicately and intimately by His hand and do your absolute best to glorify the Maker in whatever He has desired you to be.

With love.

Die Religion

Our modern-day Christianity has a problem, a devastating disease that is overwhelming churches across America (and the world) today: religion. More specifically, it's become a legalistic religion. This is to say that the prevailing perception of what Christianity is has become completely marred and misconstrued to a point beyond recognition. Its outward appearance to the future-believing public is that of moral codes that emphasizes the importance of "just being a good person" and "doing more good things than bad things". I have seen firsthand, and lived for that matter, this cruddy, judgemental, work-based religion; it's neither fun nor fulfilling.

Here's the issue: in some ways the church has become just as worldly as the world itself, in some ways even more so. The mindset for this generation is one of timeframes, goals, deadlines, outward perceptions, inward discensions, and looking out for one's self. Why is it that so much of this is evident within the church's walls? We have let the prevailing political propaganda seep through the cracks in the walls and put us to sleep in the midst of impending danger, like carbon monoxide to an unsuspecting family. Sadly, some churches are suffocating quickly and are close to death.

Let me make myself clear before continuing; the problem is not Christ, the problem is man's effort to be in control. We as people want to take life by the horns, to make the best of what we have, to take all the credit for our successes, and to be admired because we're obviously so insanely awesome. The church is not immune.  Pastors have become idols and figureheads, up-to-date salvation headcounts are being tallied competetively, weekly fashion contests are unofficially held each Sunday, the music has become just words to a melody, and going to church has become a political statement of outward righteousness. It is all just a show. We emphasize ourselves, when in truth we are nothing. Still, we trudge forward in working for our own righteousness and our own salvation, failing in every attempt.

This is so far from what God has called us to be. Firstly, as Christians we are the body of Christ. "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." (1 Corinthians 12:12). Jesus was legit, so why are we (as His present earthly body) so fake and shallow? I believe it all comes down to something that we fail to realize in our success-oriented, appearance-minded society: Jesus didn't conquer death on His own, and He certainly didn't place Himself on any pedastals on the way there. In fact, He humbled Himself to the lowliest of servants throughout His life and death because He understood His relationship with His Father, the source of all His power in overcoming the grave. He was humble and obedient to His Father even unto death, just as we are called to be as His present body. He didn't live by any religion, instead He relied on His relationship with God. That certainly puts a whole new perspective on things.

Secondly, just living the so-called "Christian lifestyle" won't save you, no matter what your religion tells you. It's all about grace because, frankly, we suck even on our best days. Ephesians 2:4-10 says it best, "But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." This can be summed up to say that our actions, even our super sweet personalities, will never save us. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ, which will bear the fruits you're trying to vainly produce on your own.

In short, lose your legalism and especially your religion. We are no longer bound by the law; we live under grace. Grace provides so much more than our selfishly motivated actions ever could. It provides salvation from sins, forgiveness from trespasses, and relief from ourselves. Your religion needs to die so that you might fully live in Christ through a relationship with Him.

With love.