Seeing God in a Snowstorm

This winter has been nuts. We had a 14 inch snowfall in December and another 12 inch snowfall last weekend. It's funny. Each time one of these storms is mentioned on the news, there is an onrush to the local grocery store to stock up on milk and bread....I don't understand this at all. What can you make with milk and bread? soggy bread? anyways.....

Saturday afternoon while snow was still falling I got geared up and went outside to shovel my driveway. I can't decide why I went to shovel my driveway but I did. I hate shoveling. It's terrible. Something about repetitive motions that cause pain and soreness that just annoy me I guess. But for whatever reason, I went outside and shoveled away.

I shoveled a good part of the driveway and realizing that I was exhausted, I sat down on my front porch. And that's when it hit me.

Silence. 

More Silence.

A LONG SILENCE.

There was no noise. Just falling snow. I live in the suburbs. There are over 150,000 people who live within 8 miles of my house...but there was only silence. It was as if I was the only one in the world.

For about 10 minutes I felt as if it were just God and me. And so I started talking to Him. I don't remember what God and I talked about for those 10 minutes. I just know that I could have a conversation with him. for once my life wasn't too busy.  For once, I didn't have my tv, ipod, computer, work to distract me. I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't do anything. the only thing I could do was sit in silence with God....it was beautiful.

My question for you is this... Why is it that we are so busy that it takes an act of God just to cause us to slow down enough to spend time with God? Why did it take a foot of snow to slow things down enough for me to truly sit in silence with God? Why are we so busy that a state of emergency in our state is the thing that allows us to profess the state of emergency in our hearts to God?

what do you think?

Jon

Running in the Rain

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I am starting to run. It's proven to be quite the challenge. My shins burn nearly constantly now. And every morning that I'm supposed to run, my bed is that much more comfortable. This morning was that morning. I slept an hour later than I was supposed to and therefore ran an hour later than I should have. It seems innocent enough, but today it was absolutely crucial...let me explain.

I run with my training team on Saturdays. This is where I push for distance and time. This past Saturday I ran 2 miles. I've never run two miles in my life. It was ridiculously hard for me, but there were at least 75 people with me so I made it in decent time.

Mondays are my re-coup run day. I run the same distance that I did on Saturday but I take an easier pace and walk if I need to. So today I was running another 2 miles. 2 Miles for the second time in my life. And it kicked my tail. I ran, then walked, then ran, then walked, then walked, then staggered, then ran....you get the picture. I was on my way back to my house after having been roughly 1.6 miles. I had walked for about 2 minutes and worked up some energy to run for a bit.

I told myself. "You have to make it to this street. You have to run until you get to this street." So I started to run. Every part of my body hurt. I was having a hard time catching my breath. I was sweating and hot and sweaty. Every piece of me wanted to quit. And then something interesting happened....

It started to rain. A sprinkle at first. Then some bigger drops. And then an all out rain. A heavy cooling and refreshing rain. It was exactly what I needed. I cooled me off and gave me an extra bit of energy to run. At the same time the song "We Win" by David Crowder Band came on my ipod. The music built up, the rain fell down. And I ran. I ran past my goal and kept going. I ran past the next street and ran all the way back to my street. It was amazing....

Sometimes I feel like my life is that way. I feel like every part of me wants to quit. Whether it's tough times with work or maybe I feel far away from God. Maybe I just can't figure out what God wants me to do next. These are the times that we face and we just want to give up on following God. These are the times where we just crave for God to rain down on us....

The amazing thing about God is that He always will rain down on us. It might not be on our time table. We might even have to run on despite everything in us telling us to quite. But God is faithful. God will rain His comfort, peace, wisdom, .etc down on you when you need it most. You just have to keep running.

Until Next Time,
Jon

Dying to Self only to Live

When I was a kid, I was what you would call, political. Perhaps that is the wrong word for it. But pretty much I would use my blue eyes, chubby cheeks, and shy charm in an attempt to get what I wanted. I remember a woman looking at me one time and saying, "You're going to be president someday."  I always took it as a compliment and continued on in life.

But the weird thing is that I've always felt like I was meant for something bigger than myself. I always thought that I was going to be big one day. I have that feeling right now actually. It's weird. Perhaps you have felt the feeling as well. Maybe you have felt the feeling that you were meant for more than whatever it is that you are doing. Maybe you feel it right now.

 Last spring I picked up a devotional book that was about "dying to self".  That phrase is used regularly in Christian circles. When I first learned it, it was about being disciplined and not indulging in things that weren't Godly. It was like a chore.When I thought of "dying to self" I felt it was like keeping my room clean or washing the dishes. It was a task I had to do in order to be holy.

Fast forward to last year. I attended a conference called DC/LA with a number of students. There they taught that God created for a specific purpose. In their words, "The way God created me, is the greatest way to live". In other words, God created me to do something. Maybe it's something big. Maybe it's not. But when I live my life doing what God created me to do, I will live life to it's fullest.

If God created me to impact the life of 1000 kids and I do that, I will have lived life to it's fullest. On the other end, if God created me to impact just 1 life and I do that, I will have lived life to it's fullest.

There is a line in a song by John Reuben. It says: "It's just not that simple, I'm not trying to save it all,  I just want to create a ripple. And even if one individual is affected, it's monumental with an unusual perspective that is beautiful in essence. Traditional thinking won't suggest this. Is life that precious? Well Yes it is."

I guess the point of this post is this: When we are "dying to self", we are putting away our desires and dreams and looking to God for what He created us for. When we do that, then we truly can start to live.

Jon

A Little Exercise

In December I joined a weight loss challenge with about 100 other youth pastors from around the country. It seemed like a pretty dumb idea to start weight loss right before Christmas. And it was, I gained everything back that I had lost before Christmas! Right now I've lost about 5 pounds and I'm hovering there. (I blame Chick Fil A). But that's not what I'm here to talk about exactly.

You see a couple weeks ago my wife who is encouraging me in my weight loss made a challenge to me. She said it like this: "I have a crazy idea. I think that you should train for the 10k" Yup, she was crazy. The 10k trainers were the people who ran through our neighborhood at 8 am in Saturdays. I would try not to hit them while on my way to Chick Fil A. Yet, she was insisting that I could do it. So I signed up.

I was excited but there were obstacles. When I started telling people that I was training for the 10k, most people laughed at me and included a "yeah right" to top it all off. My wife still encouraged me at home. She encouraged me to go get some running clothes and shoes. Before my first training day, I did some self training so that I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of others. It was tough. I had to stop frequently to walk and catch my breath. I thought that I would never make it a full mile running (how sad is that?)

This past Saturday was my first training day. I reported to where we were running from at 8 am. After some rules and what not we started running. By some weird luck I was at the front of the pack....I knew embarrassment was coming because I would have to stop and everyone would pass me. Then a funny thing happened. It took longer for muscle fatigue to set in. I didn't have as hard of a time catching my breath. I kept running. When muscle fatigue started to set in, I noticed that everyone around me was experiencing the same thing. It was encouraging to have someone next to me experiencing the same thing. We didn't stop. We kept running. The pain in my legs kept coming but after a while I could see the finish line. I kept running in order to cross the finish line. FINALLY we made it to the finish. We were all tired but proud of ourselves. We had made it through the first step of our new journey. Next week we're going for 2. We're going to keep running.

I think that we experience this in our lives when it comes to our relationship with God. We sit around and don't spend anytime with Him. We grow fat and lazy in our spiritual lives. One day we look at our lives and think...."wow, I feel really far from God" So we make a challenge to ourselves, we are going to spend time with God. But it usually falters after that.

I want to encourage you to take the steps to seek after God. Buy some new shoes (get a new Bible or a devotional book), mark a time to run (Set a time to spend time talking to God), ignore the laughter and start to train (ignore those who say you can't do it and start off slowly in the Bible and praying), run (read, think, pray), realize you aren't alone (do a study with someone else to help motivate you), when the pain sets in, aim for the finish line (when it's hard to pray or read, press on knowing that the finish line is a closer relationship with your God), cross the finish line and look forward to the next milestone (finish a study, series, specific prayer time and set your sights for the next level)

If we do these things, we will exercise our relationship with God and we will see the fruit in no time!

Until Next Time,

Jon

The Return of the Middle Ground

So there's a war going on inside my head and inside the church. I don't know if the church even knows it. It's about how the people of God should evangelize. This applies especially when it comes down to how a church should evangelize. Let me explain by taking at the three general forms of evangelizing that I've been taught growing up.


1. If-You-Died-Tonight- Method. I've seen this approach taken far too much in the world. The premise is that you bring up death as a way to tell about God. You stress the person's sinful nature and their complete dependence on God to save them from the fiery pits of hell. That's all true. Because of our sinful nature we are separated from God and the only way that we can escape an eternity in Hell is through the loving sacrifice of God through Jesus. The problem is that why are we using the fear of death to talk about the Love of God?? Every time that I've used this approach the person that I've been talking to has given me this look like, "You are the strangest person I know. Please stop talking to me..." The truth is that this either scares people or turns them off to God altogether...If there was only a way where we can turn people on to God without scaring them....

2. Don't-worry-God-Loves-You-So-Much Method. I think that this method came about when people got tired of the other method. It consist of telling anyone and everyone that God loves them. Hey you, captain sinner, God loves you. Hey kids, God loves you! Hey creepy Co-worker, God loves you. Hey, Mr.Christian who keeps intentionally sinning, God loves you. These are all true. God is Love and loves each of us. The problem is that there is no mention of our sinful nature taking us away from God. There's also no mention of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. It's like taking the first part of John 3:16. "For God so loved the world," Well isn't that nice. God loves the world. Well how? Why? This method falls short also. But it still has God in it. God offends people, what if there was a way to tell people about God, without actually mentioning God.

3. Let's-All-Be-Nice-and-Maybe-work-at-A-Soup-Kitchen Method. This is the last method that I've seen taught in church. There's a verse in the Bible that talks about how people will no who we are by our actions. I've even taught that. I've told teenagers, other teenagers will look at them and see that they are different and therefore then wonder about God. For the record, this does happen. I've seen it happen. But it seems that there is a trend growing in the church that says that this is ALL that we should do. Just be nice to people, maybe they will see God. Just feed a homeless guy, maybe he'll see God. Just DO all these nice things and the world will be saved. That way we can evangelize to people without offending them by saying the words Jesus or God. This is one of the most dangerous methods because you are almost removing God from the entire equation. (and He created the equation!)

The middle ground falls at the heart of all three methods. The middle ground says that we are sinful. Our sin keeps us from an eternity with God. Because God loves us, He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Because God has saved us, we can be filled with His joy and love. This love then can pour out and be shared with others through our actions.

There you have all three combined together. I think that this middle ground is the most authentic way to tell others of how God has saved us. What do you think?

Why the church should cheer like Duke. (unc fans can read this too)

Tonight is the first Duke/Carolina game. In fact it's already started and Duke isn't doing that hot. This is an annual event that gives me automatic heartburn. In fact, for this game I've never even really thought that Duke ever had a chance. I guess I'm not a true Duke fan.

I did have a chance to attend the Duke-Miami game this past weekend. It was a dream come true for me and my wife as Duke tickets are hard to come by. We drove 2.5 hours each way to get there. We took out a whole Saturday to go to a basketball game. We got there, got in, and Duke went down by 16 points. It seemed like a wasted trip....

But as we were down by 16 points, I noticed something. The Duke students never stopped chanting. When going to someone elses court the first thing you want to do is take the crowd out of it. You do that by building a seemingly insurmountable lead. When that happens, the crowd usually dies out taking the team with it.

At Duke the cheering not only kept going, but as the deficit went up, the cheering got LOUDER. You never see that. Each time Miami would score, the students would yell louder to encourage their team to keep working. The crazy thing is that it worked. Duke slowly but surely went on a run. The gap started to close. As we got closer, the cheers got LOUDER. As Jon Scheyer took a shot that tied the game, the crowd went ballistic. It was so loud that my ears were ringing 15 minutes later....The game went to overtime and Duke eventually won it. They were carried by the crowd.

This doesn't happen in the church. When one of our own falls behind, we stop cheering them on. They don't even have to fall behind by much and we completely abandon them. Why is that? Why is it that if one of our own sins, we don't cheer for them to return to a righteous God loving life. This is the most critical time in our relationships with our fellow Christians and we fail.

I want to challenge you if you are reading this. The next time you see a Christian stumble start encouraging and start praying. The more they fall the more you encourage and pray. If we can do this imagine how much we can grow closer to God.

Take care until next time.

Jon

The Middle Ground

My wife was bragging last week that she was a better blogger that I was. That thought sent chills down my spine. Nevertheless, as of lately, it's true. So hopefully I'll get to blog more...

As for today's post, I've been having an internal battle. Let me give you some background.

I grew up in a church with a lot of screaming. The pastor was a very....how should I say....passionate person. It seemed that every week there was something new that would send me to Hell. It's funny to me now. The music I listened to. The shows that I watched. If I ever danced. (it's lucky I have no rhythm) Even back then, it struck me as a horrible method of telling people about God. In fact it made more people afraid of Hell than excited about God. Where was God's love? Where was God's grace? I sat and thought. This can't be right. Those things should be instrumental in telling other about God.

Fast forward to today. For the most part the Hellfire and Brimstone approach to preaching has been left to the past. In the things I read and in the sermons that I hear (God bless Itunes!) a new approach is being taken to tell people about God. It's full of God's love for us. That's great news! We don't have to worry about having the Hell scared out of us anymore. No more screaming that everything we do is wrong. As this trend has continued, I've begun to notice something. All I hear is about how much God loves me. Not only is there no hellfire or brimstone, There isn't a lot of mention of our sinful nature either. It's just simply God loves us.


There has to be a middle ground. If dwelling only on our sin is wrong, isn't completely ignoring it wrong as well? God loving us is true indeed. However, if we don't talk about our sinful nature, God's grace becomes irrelevant. There has to be a middle ground. A place where we can address our sinful nature and God's loving response and sacrifice.

This is what I struggle with. In a culture that usually tunes you out when you start talking about mankind's sin, how much should I confront it? As a speaker it kills me to know that someone is going to tune me out. It's a horrible feeling. But there is an even worse feeling. That is short changing the true and complete love of God. Here it is:

We are sinful. We have screwed up and turned away from God. Because of that we deserve death. We deserve to be separated from God for eternity. God loves us in this: that when we screwed up, he sent Jesus to die for us. We're completely sinful, but God completely loves us, and through Christ, He has completely saved us....

That is the middle ground of evangelism.