if you could change anything in the world

Two Jehovah’s witnesses stopped by my house this morning.  They posed this question to me to start the conversation, which I’m going to horribly mess up quoting since I have a terrible memory.  It went something like this, “If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change?”  I thought about the question for a moment, realizing I am so self-centered that I haven’t really thought about the world much.  There are plenty of problems in the world – war, poverty, abortion, civil rights, imposing governments, lack of government.  This is the world we live in.  We take our freedoms for granted all the time – to the point that we aren’t even thankful for them anymore.  We simply expect it.

Perhaps, the answer to my question is to change our apathy.  Or at least mine to start.  I find myself more interested in my agenda, my work, my stuff, my etc.  And – I have trouble following through on my own projects.  Like this blog for instance.  I have a handful of ideas backlogged, sitting on the back burner waiting to come to fruition.  My project car needs work.  My house needs to be unpacked and organized.

So what does it take to get passionate about a cause and go all out for it – to live full on for Jesus if you will?  To be concerned about the things He is concerned about.  To set aside my agenda and take on His agenda.  Our church is doing the 60/60 experiment right now, taking a page from Gateway church whose pastor John Burke started this whole idea of “Soul Revolution”. <- btw, I think this should be the standard for punctuation, but unfortunately, it is not correct.  So the idea of the 60/60 experiment is every 60 minutes, for 60 days, we are to try to connect with God in a personal way.  At first, I found myself mindful of God all the time – perhaps due to the novelty of the whole idea and not wanting to forget.  And also for selfish reasons – since we all wear timers that beep at us every 60 minutes to remind us to connect with God, I wanted to make sure that I reset my timer before the beep went off while I was at work and annoy all my co-workers.  It turns out, the greatest concerns I had were actually the least of my worries.  The beep, it turns out, is not even that loud.  It is far less interrupting than a cell phone going off.  The hardest part really is realizing how selfish your prayers to God are, and then praying for God to change your heart and to take action to start life change.  Lately, I find myself not wanting to talk to God because I feel like I’ve talked with him enough already, and I want to go back to my agenda, whether that be work, hanging out with friends, or playing Halo online.  And my agenda isn’t even that fulfilling.  I want all the benefits with none of the work.  At least that’s my approach to working out at the gym.

So I commend my fellow Jehovah’s witnesses for stepping out of their comfort zones, and following God’s call for their life – changing their world one neighborhood at a time, house by house, person by person.  I do believe that they are acoomplishing part of the Great Commission – to make disciples of all nations.  At least they’re doing something other than blogging on a Saturday morning while watching saturday morning kids shows and cartoons.

invalid presumptions about non-believers

Do you remember the big deal when the Da Vinci Code movie came out?  Well, I remember – the church went crazy thinking that people would have a false sense of Christianity after watching the movie.  So the church came up with all these ways to reach out to unbelievers in order to try to make the Christian message correct.  We had a special series devoted to it, someone wrote a book about it, and ultimately I think it did get the church moving and dialoguing with unbelievers.

The fact of the matter is, many of these movies exist but the church doesn’t make such a big deal about them.  One of these movies is Traitor – unfortunately, it was not as huge of a success amongst the general population, and of course, the religion portrayed was not Christianity, but Islam.

So I have experienced first hand what it feels like to watch a movie in the eyes of a non-believer.  As a person that knows very little about Muslim traditions, beliefs and practices, all I could do was sit there and wonder if the movie was accurately portraying the religion.  Not only did I not develop an opinion one way or another, but I also knew it was a movie and might not be completely factual.  I imagine this is how many non Christians would have viewed the Da Vinci Code.  It was quite an experience pondering the meaning of faith as I watched the movie.  I remember wanting to watch Traitor a second time after knowing what to expect just to see how the character’s faith is portrayed.  So much time has passed I could barely remember the name of the movie much less the plot.  I had to actually go back to my old receipts pile and look for movie stubs to even find out what it was.

So, I believe the church makes a big deal about Christianity being misportrayed for no good reason.  I think people are going to think what they think, and believe what they believe.  People are going to misrepresent truths.  We need to all go back to the basics – the Bible – and get away from all the books and movies and whatever else comes along that detract from real Christianity, discipleship, and spreading the gospel the way it was intended to be spread and heard.  It is only for us to tell our story, and it is the job of the Holy Spirit to lead someone to faith.  Until then, the presumptions we make about how a movie could impression someone’s belief system is false.  I watched Traitor, and I don’t claim to know anything more about Islam even though the movie had a strong theme of faith.

being an A+ Christian

My whole life, I have always tried to meet other peoples’ expectations, to impress them, to astound them, to wow them. I have problems living for myself. Unfortunately, I don’t think God is impressed with anything I do. In fact, everything I do is only through His grace, mercy, and power. My abilities, my gifts, even my ability to worship Him. So I’m at a loss for how to live by faith.

I have this notion of being an A+ Christian, whatever that is supposed to mean. As if God is someone to be impressed. I suppose I have some sort of system in my mind on how to grade myself and my faith. Am I doing quiet times? How many people have I discipled? How many verses of the bible have I memorized?

So my question is – does God grade us? Or do we simply put ourselves on a scale because that is the system we were raised under? Is there a “good enough” according to God – a passing grade, if you will?

I believe that God loves us unconditionally whether we screw up or not. And we will fail. That is our sin nature. That is why God sent His son Jesus to die for us. So does believing automatically give us an A for the course, or do we need to work at it? Is this what sanctification is? We get a passing grade no matter what happens once we believe, but we must go through the life-long process of being sanctified in order to get the A+, and we work on it our whole lives? And we might not ever reach it – the goal, of course, living as Jesus did.

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1st generation Christian

I confess – I am a first generation Christian.  It is hard.  My parents are not believers.  I wonder if this is how the converts from Judaism felt in the early church.  Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like if I were 2nd or 3rd generation.  I am always jealous of my friends that have Christian parents who were brought up around church.  Then again, I think I would hate it if I had kids, and they were not strong believers.  I think that’s even worse.

Being a first generation Christian means I have to balance time with my family and time with church and friends.  I feel like I live a double life sometimes.  I have found that open religious talks are not really welcome at home.  Sometimes I feel inadequate when they ask me hard questions.  The conversations used to be about whether or not you can do certain things as a Christian.  I think that’s level 1 conversation, when they try to refute the beliefs or try to justify their own actions in light of what you believe.  I think when it comes down to it – everyone has a million questions.  I think Bill Wright had it best – he didn’t really understand – he just believed.  That belief like a child is what we all need.  It is so hard to get.  My parents have so many misconceptions about church, from giving/tithing and where the money goes and how it is used to who Jesus is to what church itself is.  And they are very cynical – especially my dad.  That is where I get all my cynicism from.  I think the first time I understood what cynicism was was during college.  I remember people using that word in high school, and I didn’t understand.  So even if I try to explain church to my parents, I don’t think they get it.  They are too caught up with their preconceived notions.  That must have been what it was like to convert Jews in the early days.  I mean – you have tons of culture and stuff that you don’t just throw away.  My parents come from a very rich culture full of history.  So you can’t just forget about all that stuff and follow a new way of life.  In the end – I think it boils down to sharing your testimony and sharing the gospel.  That’s all we can do, and I think that’s all God asks of us – He does the rest.

the wrong prayer attitude?

this happened to me awhile ago, and apparently repeatedly happens in my prayer life. i tell my accountability partner that i will have a quiet time in the morning. so i try. it is hard. it is hard to motivate myself to get up. hard to focus. hard to stay awake. i keep falling asleep, waking up, praying some more – in a seemingly never ending cycle. and what do i pray about? all kinds of crazy wack stuff. the idea of the seven minute prayer is simply out of reach in my life. my prayers seem more like the pagan prayer where i keep babbling as if God hears me better, even though He already knows what I need. and what do i pray for? i think all the wrong things. you pray for God to be with you during the day. you pray for God to give you a good day at work. the way i understand it – prayer brings joy to God when you ask for things that He already knows you need. the act of saying it pleases God somehow. i pray for God to show me understanding when i read bible passages. i pray for God to help me in my walk. but then – i’m not sure i really believe that God is going to help me. i do know one thing – when i have prayed with conviction for something, God has never failed me. God always answers those prayers. sometimes I wonder if it simply coincidence. like if the cowboys or longhorns are favorites against another football team by a landslide – and i pray for God to give them a win – is it just gonna happen anyway? whether i pray or not? or like when we justify doing something. “God – give me a sign if I am “not” supposed to do this.” Perhaps that should be the sign in and of itself – that we are even thinking that prayer to begin with. Perhaps the opposite is true as well. “God – give me a sign if I am supposed to do this.” I think we should be much more thankful in our prayers. I think prayer is a way for us to reflect on different things in our lives that we should be thankful for, and when we pray we are reminded of what God is doing in our lives. Prayer also helps us to be mindful of God during the day, and mindful of what we do each minute of our lives. maybe i should simply pray for God to help me with praying. it is after all, the one thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them (Luke 11:1).

all blessings are not equal

So if you think about it, God has given all of us the ultimate gift – his son, Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t that be enough? Shouldn’t this one blessing supersede all other blessings?

But we don’t think this way. We thank God for things all the time. I have no idea how God goes about blessing one person with one thing and another person with something else. We are supposed to use our gifts to help the body of Christ grow. No one body part is more important than another (I Cor 12:21). But I can’t imagine how people who have hard a really hard time in life perceive the suffering as blessing – as Paul did when he counts all things as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.

The most recent incarnation of a blessing for me was playing a simple game of dominoes. I ended up winning, but I was amongst family and friends who were all believers. How is it that I win? Do I thank God for blessing me with the win? Am I idolizing the win? Is my competitive nature a blessing or a curse? Can I use it for God’s glory? Why did God choose to let me win versus anyone else at the table? Should I even be praying for a win? Is it that God wanted me to use whatever gift He has given me with my mind to be able to strategize and win, and thus bring glory to Him with the ability He has given me? Does the win have nothing to do with God at all? Was it luck? Am I just lucky? These questions boggle my mind. When I think about all the times I have gotten lucky, what I call the serendipity factor in my life, are they all a manifestation of God’s grace in my life? And then I ask myself, why me? I want to think that I have a heart of giving, but lately I have not been so disciplined in this area. I want to be able to empathize with others in their situations, but many times I have not gone through what they’ve gone through. How do you relate to someone if you haven’t gone through it? How do you not trivialize their situation? How do you honestly say that it is God’s plan, that they are exactly where God wants them to be, and that we can’t see what God sees? I think we try to create a positive spin on things – that things could always be worse – that it’s all in the perspective. Is this the way God wants us to think, or are we really in the wrong mindset? That as long as we focus on ourselves, and not on God, we already have the wrong attitude. We take away focus from God. Thus – I think all blessings are not equal, and we must realize God has blessed us with the ultimate blessing. Every other blessing should pale in comparison, but we should still be mindful of the blessings and where they come from. And even when we don’t think a situation is a blessing, it is. But not all blessings are created equal, and I don’t think we’ll ever figure out how God works in this sense. Mt 19:30 – many who are first will be last.

salvation, times three

i couldn’t think of a great title for this post. i was thinking, salvation – past, present, and future. or three kinds of salvation. or something like that. anyway, the gist of the matter is that i had never heard of salvation talked about in this way before, and i wanted to share with all of you. it deals with these three words – justification, sanctification, and glorification.

when Jesus died for our sins, we were justified – meaning the punishment for our sins was paid for in full. by believing that Jesus died for our sins, we receive this free gift from God. we are still sinners though. even though our past, present, and future sins have all been paid for, we will still sin in this lifetime.

once we have been justified, we receive the Holy Spirit and begin the process of sanctification. this is what Paul talks about in Romans (or is it somewhere else) where we must work out our salvation. this act of working out our salvation is sanctification. we try not to sin for a number of reasons, but the less and less we sin, the more and more holy we become (not that we will ever become perfect as long as we are here on earth).

the final step of salvation is glorification, when we receive new bodies which are sinless and enter the full presence of God in heaven. we finally become the creation God intended us to be.

when Paul talks about salvation, he talks about it in all three of these ways. thus, we are saved from our past (justification), we are being saved (sanctification), and we will be saved (glorification).

i found this to be quite enlightening – i hope you did too. now if i can only understand the being saved part and the purpose of it. i don’t know if i will ever fully grasp sanctification. Paul even talks about whether we should continue in sin so that grace may abound. the answer is a heck no. we shouldn’t, because that would undermine the great gift that God has given us. it is the principle of the whole thing. it’s similar to a kid who asks her parents if they will stop loving them or kick them out of the house if they continue down a bad path, and their parents answer that they won’t stop loving them or kick them out of the house no matter what. they can’t keep doing bad things just because they know their parents won’t stop loving them or kick them out. it undermines the authority their parents have over them. we should know better than to continue in sin even though we know God will never stop loving us or forsake us.

on testimonies and gospels

interestingly enough, i had never really thought about the difference between my personal testimony and a gospel presentation. i would think that God wants us to share both.

the way i understand a personal testimony is that it is your story – your life before Christ, how you came to know Christ, and your life after Christ. i’ve never thought that my personal testimony was especially significant, but i’ve come to realize that God uses all kinds of testimonies to bring people to Christ. your story is unique to your life, and God can use it in a way only you can share.

i didn’t grow up in a Christian or religious home. there were bibles in the house – either from hotels or from my dad’s studies in college? i’m not sure where they came from, i just knew i was always drawn to them but didn’t understand what they meant. one summer, my mom decides to send my brother and i to an awana program at our local chinese church. it was here that i prayed to receive Christ, not really knowing exactly what i was getting into, and full of doubt as to whether it was real or not – mostly stemming from my dad’s unbelief. afterwards, i did not grow at all during junior high and high school, as my family did not go to church. it wasn’t until college where i really started to seek again. i got involved with a bible study after college, and after finding a church home i got baptized. life has been hard since my baptism, especially with my relationship with my dad. my spiritual growth has been pretty slow, mainly from doubt in God. i keep wanting to own my faith and live my life the way God wants me to. i want to embrace my identity in Christ and turn into a man of God after His own heart.

so a gospel presentation is simply the story of salvation. it is the recognition that we are all sinners, and that sin (which is anything that you say, think, or do that displeases God) results in death (eternal separation from God). God loves us so much that He still wants to have a relationship with us, but He is perfect and can have no sin near him. in order to reconcile this dilemma, He sent His son to be the ultimate sacrifice and pay for our sin so that we do not bear that burden. it is a free gift for us to receive. by believing that Christ died for us and was raised to life, we receive eternal salvation.

there are many ways to share the gospel. ABC’s (acknowledge that you are a sinner, believe that Christ died for you and was raised from the dead, and choose to accept Christ in your life). the romans road (rom 3:23 – all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, rom 6:23 – wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, rom 5:8 – God demonstrates His love by sending Jesus, rom 10:9 – if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved). the bridge illustration. the hand illustration. a gospel track. they all say the same biblically based concepts.

i hope in your spiritual quest that you will be bold in sharing your faith through both your testimony and presenting the gospel. please pray for me to have that same boldness to share my faith as well. if you are reading this and are not a believer, i hope that you will come to know Christ and experience all the blessings He has for your life.

are singles spiritually homeless?

i had the opportunity to visit church under the bridge (a unique ministry for the homeless in Austin) on easter sunday. interestingly enough, i noticed many similarities between homeless people and singles as i kept asking myself the question, “how can we effectively reach the homeless?” the way i saw it, by giving handouts to them, we were helping perpetuate their lifestyle – well, perpetuating the ones that have chosen to be homeless for life. i mean, it seems like they have so many resources that they were picky when getting free food. i don’t know if they were even thankful. for the ones that were really in dire straits, we were probably helping them get their feet back on the ground. which brings me to my first similarity between homeless and singles. well, before we get to that, let’s get some background.

first off, culture views homelessness as a disease or some bad thing in society. naturally, a homeless person should find a job and start working. the church views singles as a disease (ok, i may have just gotten myself into trouble, but let me explain). the natural progression for a single is to find a mate and get married. so like a homeless person getting a job, a single person is supposed to get married.

so, back to my first similarity. just like there are all kinds of homeless situations you can find yourself in, there are all kinds of singles out there. the single that was married but is now divorced is like the homeless guy that just lost his job. the 40 and 50 something singles that have chosen not to get married are like the homeless guys that have been homeless for 15 years and homelessness is just their way of life. either they don’t want to be tied down to anything or they can’t find anything to be tied down to. the homeless person that just can’t find or keep a job is like the single that keeps dating but just can’t get married. then, there are the homeless who run away from home. they are like the singles that just graduated college and are looking for work, or just started working, but not married yet. then there are homeless people that move from town to town, maybe staying a month or longer, and then move on to the next town. they are like singles that change jobs frequently and move cities, not being tied down by any long-term relationships or commitments. how is the church supposed to reach out to all these different homeless people? how is the church supposed to reach out to all these different single people?

given all these different kinds of homeless and single people, what happens to them? do they find jobs and “graduate” from homelessness as a single would get married and “graduate” from singledom? what happens to the homeless believers that do find jobs? they definitely don’t stick around the homeless scene, if there is such a thing. the same thing happens in church with young marrieds. most young couples no longer stick around their single friends. instead, they join other couples in young married groups, or marrieds with kids. fortunately, the church knows how to minister to couples. there are tons of resources available for the young marrieds. however – if the couple decides not to have children or can’t have children, all of a sudden, they don’t fit in the “get married, have kids” crowd, and the church doesn’t know what to do again. they did not “graduate” from married to married with children. luckily, for the church, eventually the kids grow up, leave to go to college, and then they are once again just married. and these older married folks don’t seem to have a problem ministering to the young marrieds that don’t have kids yet, so they have a built-in community. lucky them. well, divorced couples end up back in the single pool, but for the young singles that are there, they don’t necessarily look up to divorced people for spiritual guidance or advice. thus, you now end up with a mix of young singles that need to be discipled and ministered to (basically, led like lost sheep to become shepherds), and you have older singles that have either decided to be single for life or were divorced and need counseling and mentoring themselves. so just like how working folk don’t go out and mix with the homeless, you have marrieds that don’t mix with the singles.

a person in the grace covenant career group made an interesting observation – people in today’s culture are working harder and longer, and are getting married later and later in life. so the number of young working adults is growing significantly. in fact, this group is a target group that churches today just don’t know how to deal. churches acknowledge that they need to do something about this growing population, but no one seems to have a good answer. the last effort in Austin – Metro – ended up being canceled because people were coming for the wrong reasons. instead of coming to grow in Christ, they were coming to meet with friends in cliques. so Todd Phillips, the guy who started it, disbanded the whole thing.

back to singles and the homeless. i started examining the spiritual health of all the homeless people out there. there were a couple kinds of believers that i saw. there were ones that came to truly worship, but not necessarily were reaching out to fellow homeless. there were ones whose faith may have been slightly skewed. there were ones that had working believer friends that they wanted to talk to or had built friendships with somehow. but here was the problem – all the volunteer people, the believers, were serving behind the tables, and all the unreached homeless were on the outside. at one point, they had all the volunteers get together to pray and receive directions. that drew all the people that had been mingling back into the volunteer crowd, causing more segregation. i dunno what the best way to operate would be, but i think having that meeting on site looks really bad. especially watching from the homeless perspective. they should perhaps meet off site, get directions, and pray off site, so that by the time the volunteers get there, everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and have prayed already. then there would be no interruption for volunteers trying to build relationships with the homeless or just talking to them.

going beyond the problem of building relationships was the problem where it is really hard for homeless to disciple other homeless. do they really have the resources to disciple someone else, or are they too busy being concerned for themselves and just making it in life. or do they not even care? i don’t know for sure. but i think that the relationship building is the ultimate goal. i like one idea i saw for mission possible – they were going to do a cars ministry, where they help people learn a vocational skill, but base the whole thing on establishing a relationship with God first. i like that. i think it addresses a huge need that people just don’t see because we’re too busy being concerned with immediate needs, but continue that without ever addressing enough of the spiritual needs.

so where are we going wrong with singles in the church? i think it’s the factor of having a community. we need to build a community where there are marrieds mixed with singles, where singles can have a family. i propose an adopt a single program, where an older couple adopts a younger single and disciples them, gives them a second home, helps them out when they need help, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. they can provide a place to foster a single’s spiritual growth. it looks like this is what singles are ultimately looking for. and when they can’t find that family to belong to, they make their own family with other singles in similar life situations. the problem with this approach is that there is not as much potential for spiritual growth in these groups of singles. singles leading other singles might work, but ultimately i think we need stronger spiritual leaders. i mean, married people don’t have it all together either. they need just as much help as the singles, but for some reason the church finds it easier to minister to the marrieds. i don’t know why.

i view singles as sheep that are lost. we have the potential to become shepherds that herd sheep, but we don’t know how to become shepherds amongst our sheep friends. we need a shepherd to come along and show us all how to become shepherds. unfortunately, i think the church views singles as lost shepherds that just need to find their place in the church. we are essentially high schoolers or college students spiritually, but we make money and are independent. unfortunately, you can’t just throw a sunday school program at us and have us be satisfied. just like you can’t feed the homeless and expect them to grow spiritually. the free food might bring a homeless person, but it needs to be combined with strong relationships that really build into the homeless person’s life. the singles community might attract non-believers at first, but they need relationships in order to really stick around and grow and help someone else grow in the future.