Abba, Father

John 14:3-5: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

These questions Thomas verbalizes to Jesus are not unique to him.

How do we get to Heaven? What is the real answer?

Oh the beauty in Jesus’ response:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus came and claimed deity that was connected to the one who sent him. In love for him he went willingly to the cross to pay sin’s debt. And here lies the key, the solution to the dilemma of man listed above..

Jesus.

The way. The truth. The life. Belief in him and what he did provides access, and relationship with the Father. If we know him, we know his father, we have connection to truth, to salvation..

I came across a passage in Mark that impresses further upon me these simple truths..

When Jesus speaks to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before his death, he uses the word “Abba”. “Abba, Father” he says. An expression of such intimacy, such depth in relationship. John’s account of Jesus’ words reveal not only that he is the way unto salvation, but also that through him direct, intimate, meaningful relationship with the Father is possible..it’s all a part of the deal, it was part of the reason Jesus laid his life down and died a death full of more suffering and supernatural shame than man will ever know.

Oh the implications that this has for those who claim to know Christ. God doesn’t want our charity, our 5 minutes with him here and there. Jesus died, that we might live in communion, constant communion with a God we can now refer to as Father.

May we have zeal concerning our hatred for sin that so separates us from this blessed fellowship.

Jesus wants you,

All of you,

All of you.

All of me. Which provides a key to understanding why the “violent” inherit the kingdom..stay tuned.

Lord, remove from the temple of my heart all that competes with my affections, that you might reign unchallenged there.

Blessings.

Good News

“We think that our intellect is offended by the Gospel, when really, it is our pride. We believe that we’re self-made. The poor know that it’s grace.”- Timothy Keller

These words come from a sermon of Keller’s called “Meeting the Real Jesus”. Think about them for a moment, if you will..

It’s a pretty bold statement for Keller to make no? To say that we Christians (generally speaking) live like we are too good for the Gospel. Ouch huh? But I don’t think any of us can deny..he couldn’t be more right.

 In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent a messenger to ask Jesus if he really was the one, the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus’ response is this : “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” We don’t want to be insulted. We don’t want to be seen as fools. We don’t want to be kept waiting. We want answers, we want relief, we want judgment to the unrighteous..now. How American of you, John the Baptist.

This chapter calls the poor blessed, and it makes so much more sense to me now why this is the case. The dignified, the cultured, and the financially blessed tend to want religion. We like our Sunday morning routines, our coffee and doughnuts to go, our 30 minute (and not a second longer!!) sermons, 4 worship songs (40% hymns, 60% praise songs), a bit of fellowship after church, and a small group here or there. Doing too many service projects, having to give to missions, and sharing our faith in everyday circumstances..now that is asking too much (generalization I know). Here’s the problem. If we live this way, our lives become about a religion. But Jesus says no, it’s all about the Gospel.

In an illustration in Keller’s sermon he says this..allow me to rephrase.

You, take your Christianity, your pretend to do good while staying comfortable faith and go back in time, to the days that Jesus lived. Gather all the poor and needy (most of the population back then) and stand up among them and say “Listen! I have a message for you, the message of Christianity. We should love our neighbors as ourselves. We should accept each other’s differences. We should strive towards world peace!” Watch and see how many people fall to their knees and say “Finally!! I hated myself before, but now I have purpose and meaning! What good news!!” That would NEVER happen. This “religious” message would never have this kind of effect. It could never do what the Gospel did..it could never do what the Gospel does.

Doesn’t it make sense then why Jesus would say “blessed are the poor”? He’s not saying that all poor people are saved and that all religious people aren’t. Rather, he is saying that the rich tend to rely on their own efforts because of all that they have acquired, and the poor tend to understand that they are in need of a Savior. And that is the true message of Christianity. It’s one that emphasizes the forgiveness of sins through the grace of God.

Jesus did not come to earth and learn the ways of Salvation like other prophets of world religions claimed to do. Rather, Jesus IS salvation, he is the answer. Genuine Christianity is not a bunch of rules to follow, it’s a message of good news..a Gospel. It’s a story that focuses not on what man can do to get to Heaven, rather it tells what God did to intervene...and to save us all. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”( John 1)..how beautiful.

Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who know they’re no different than the poor, blessed are those who have compassion for the poor. Blessed are those not offended by Jesus and his Gospel.

“Run John, run, the law commands

But gives us neither feet nor hands.

Much better news the Gospel brings

It bids us fly and gives us wings.”

-          John Bunyan

People don’t need our religion. They need the Gospel. May we take it with us wherever we go.

Jesus Who?

I have grown up in a church my entire life..or should I say the Church. To a kid like me, church meant a big stone building, being on my best behavior, and having to exercise self-control concerning playing in the dirt and sliding down the slide for the sake of my Sunday’s best. My tomboy self didn’t give a rip about my pantyhose..

 I had my perceptions about Jesus too. To me, he was a nice guy who I could read about in the Bible, particularly in the Gospels. He had long hair, a beard, and liked to heal people, while driving others out of temples at the same time. Sometimes he was angry, sometimes he was nice, sometimes he did some pretty cool stuff. He was a human with supernatural powers. And he had the ability to save me from my sins. I suppose this was what you would call a child-like faith. Here’s the problem: He didn’t seem real. He was a character, a cut-out figure that I could help the Sunday school teacher place in the grass on a felt board. I knew I was supposed to have a relationship with him, and that he would hear me if I prayed to him. But this Jesus I could talk to and the one I learned and read about didn’t seem to connect. They weren’t one in my mind, and my heart couldn’t meld the two either.

In reading through the Gospels a prayer of mine has remained: Jesus, may I perceive who you were..who you are.

This prayer has not gone unanswered.

Jesus came and claimed “I AM”. I’m beginning to see, more than ever before, that he is exactly who he claimed to be.

Stay tuned.

Jesus Your Love Has No Bounds..but Ours Does

Spring break. What wonderful words. This year’s destination? Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. I’d say it’s much different than last year’s trip to the middle of nowhere, Montana. Less hiking, less groundhogs, but way, way more chain smokers.

The time on the beach has been awesome, although I’m a little bitter that a week back in Philly will put a reverse on this new tan..

As already mentioned, I have made it a goal to read through the Gospels at least once during this Lent season. I’m hoping and praying that through it I will gain a more accurate picture of who Jesus was while on earth. We can’t be like him unless we understand more about him right? What has stuck out to me the most so far (I’m through Matthew and Mark) is the compassion and the love that Jesus had (has) for people.

To name a few..

Matthew 14:14 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Matthew 20:34 “And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they received their sight and followed him.”

Mark 6:34 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Mark 3:5 “ And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

This last one has struck me the most. Gary Chapman, the author of The Five Love Languages came to speak at Moody during Founder’s Week. The message he gave sheds a lot of light on a verse like this. In his words, “anger is a gift from God.” It is an emotion that we have that expresses our great zeal for something. Of course, sometimes this anger is expressed towards others in sin, which is not “biblical”. Yet at other times, it can be used to express an urgency and passion concerning righteousness and a hatred for sin. In Mark 3:5, Jesus was angry that the Pharisees were hardening their heart toward the truth. Yet, he still had compassion on them. He still had their best interests in mind.

One of my beach reads has been Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. I put it down several years ago because I didn’t completely agree with Miller’s perspective. I picked it up again because I don’t completely agree with Miller’s perspective. I decided not to be so close-minded, and I’m so glad I did. He has some really great things to say.

He sat through a class once where the professor tried to convey the impact and importance of metaphors. He threw out the word “relationships”, and asked the class to give him metaphors that came to mind. They came up with things like “investing” in people, “valuing” people, and the fact that relationships are “priceless”. All economic metaphor. After hearing the discussion concerning these things, Miller had an epiphany: “The problem with Christian culture is that we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money..If somebody is doing something for us, offering us something, be it gifts, time, popularity, or what have you, we feel they have value, we feel they are worth something to us, and perhaps, we feel they are priceless..love doesn’t work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose.”

If anybody had reason to say that there were people who were not worth his time, it would be Jesus. Yet, Jesus never withheld love from anyone. He had compassion on the poorest of the poor, the lowest of the low. His anger never substituted his love. His love is constant.

It’s so convicting to think about all the times that I withhold love from people, as if I have a bunch of money that is mine to keep or give away. Yet, it’s so comforting to think that even in times of discipline,  Jesus does not withhold even the smallest amount of love from me. He gives it freely. And whatever love we give is only ever because he gave it first.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the knowledge of God.”

Friends, may this be your prayer as well.

As Ethan Pierce says,

Spread the love.

Liann.

Think About It

Back when I attended PBU, some friends and I started a Bible study on 1 Peter. It turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of the semester. During my first floor meeting at Moody, my RA told us she was going to start a Bible study on..you guessed it, 1 Peter. I literally laughed out loud during her explanation, and realized later that no one else thought it was funny, nor realized why I thought it was funny.  I think I gave off a wacky first impression…

Needless to say, this Bible study has been just as much of a blessing as the first. It has allowed me to get to know the girls on my floor in a deeper way..they’re wonderful.

During both studies, 1 Peter 1:13 has stuck out to me like a sore thumb..in a good way. It says “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Do you think we understand the depth with which these words were penned? I mean, it’s easy to let our thoughts wander and be centered around our current circumstances, successes, and failures, only to be re-focused on Christ during a later time of worship. But here, Peter is asking his audience to be intentional about placing their thoughts on more eternal matters, and to actively set their hope on the coming grace of the Lord. It’s an action. Our minds need to be conditioned accordingly.

I was reading in Matthew 16 this morning, and in verses 21-23, Jesus foretold his death to his disciples for the first time. Peter couldn’t believe his ears. He rebuked the Lord and told him that those things he predicted would never happen to him. Check out Jesus’ response: “Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Put yourself in Peter’s shoes for a moment…Don’t you think that this response from Jesus would rattle you? Perhaps it would even scare you. Here Peter thought he was defending the Lord, and looking out for his well-being, when he was rebuked for not thinking about the things of God. Peter had not yet grasped the big picture. He has not yet understood the warfare that Jesus was calling him to participate in.

I cannot say that Peter had this incident in mind when he wrote his later letter urging his audience to set their minds and their hope on eternal things, but I do believe that Jesus’ words caused him to consider what a heavenward mind really looked like. Peter began to consider the paradox.

I don’t know about you, but I know that I certainly do not spend enough time thinking about Heaven and about the coming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that’s why I am often consumed by my troubles and circumstances. Maybe that’s why I am so selfish…

It is so freeing to be able to think about more than self, about things much more important and meaningful than self. Followers of Christ have been granted this privilege. May we, by the Spirit’s strength, choose to capitalize on this freedom.  An active choice to think about certain things probably does not come naturally to you, (I know it doesn’t for me!) but that’s probably why it took Peter a good rebuking to even begin to consider to change the way he thought.

“May I run the race before me,

Strong and brave to face the foe

Looking only unto Jesus

As I onward go.”

Lent

I already posted today, (don't get used to such consistency!) but I just wanted to put up a little note about Lent...

Lent is a time for reflection, fasting, and prayer that lasts for 40 days and leads up to the Easter season in which we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. I never used to obsesrve this time much, but at Moody it is encouraged that students embrace a rich time of devotion to the Lord in order to look forward to the coming celebration of Easter.

How I'm celebrating..

- More intentionality concerning prayer ( In the mornings before classes I will go up to the roof of my dorm building to pray for the city of Chicago and others in my life.)

- Fasting- ( On Fridays and Saturdays I will practice somewhat of a fast for a portion of that day..I havn't thought this all the way through yet..tomorrow is Friday though, so I better get on that..)

- Reading- (By Easter, I would like to have read through the gospels at least once...Spring break should help my ability to do this with all my other work!)

Participating in these things by no means makes me more spiritual..They are simply observances which allow me to more intentionally identify myself with the devotions and sufferings of Christ before he went to his death. I encourage you to choose something to give up or to do in addition to your original schedule..it has already been such a rewarding and precious time for me!

Happy Lent!

Paradoxical me

My wonderful mother sent me a package not too long ago containing a few things every college student needs..Thank goodness this one arrived to me on time, intact, and without dog food (don't ask). Unlike a package I received last year which caused my friends to think my mom was psycho, this one earned her some brownie points from the enclosed loose tea and dried mangos. Also included was a book by John Piper called Don't Waste Your Life. Since I have so much time on my hands (ahem..) I have been working through it at a slower-than-snail-like pace, but I have been gaining a lot from it nonetheless.

One of my favorite verses is in Philippians 1:21 where Paul says "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Especially after looking at the context, it is so meaningful to me that even given his circumstances, Paul admits that his life is and must be all about Christ. He saw living as an opportunity to boast in Christ only, and he saw death as gain because then he could depart and be with him.This fits nicely with Piper's famous quote "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." It is so cool how these affections fit together if the focus is all on Christ. When this is the case, he is glorified, and we are so satisfied even just within the pleasure that it is to witness and grasp a little bit of God's character.

In chapter 4 of his book, Piper connects 1:21 "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" to the verse that preceeds it: "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death (1:20).The following is taken straight from his book and focuses primarily on the word "ashamed" in verse 20.

Stop here just a moment. Shame is that horrible feeling of guilt or failure when you don't measure up before people whose approval you want very much. It's what the little child feels in the Christmas program when he forgets his lines, and the tears well up, and the silence seems eternal, and the other kids snicker brutally. I remember these horrible times. Or shame is what a president feels when the secret tapes are finally played, and the foul language and all the deceit emerges, and he stands disgraced and guilty before the people..What then is the opposite of shame? It's when the child remembers the lines and hears the applause.. It's when the president governs well and is re-elected. The opposite of being shamed is being honored. Yes, usually. But Paul was a very unusual person. And Christians ought to be very unusual people. For Paul, the opposite of being shamed was not his being honored, but Christ's being honored through him." ("It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that..Christ will be honored in my body.")

It is points like these that Piper uses to teach what it means to waste life or to live it out as a good steward.  It has got to be all about Christ. Life? Death? Christ. It may seem so upside-down to this world..but even the world knows that it’s going to end someday..watch out, 2012 is coming!!..ha.

Just a few pages back, Piper concludes:

“If we do not learn with Paul the Christ-exalting paradoxes of life, we will squander our lives chasing pursuing bubbles that burst.”

And so friends, down is up, poor is rich, to be humbled is to be exalted, to lose all is to acquire much, to be last is to be first, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If in your life these things are proclaimed, and in your death you see meeting your Savior as more valuable than holding onto your time on earth, your life will inevitably have more value than you could ever assign to it yourself.

Live by the paradox,

Surely a life-long pursuit.

Flash Mob!

 

You may have seen those Flash Mobs on t.v. or the internet where huge crowds got together to do a choreographed dance..Instead of dancing, there was a flash mob FREEZE at the bean back in February. The participants gathered around Millenium Park and the Bean with their cell phones set to vibrate to signal when to start freezing. Once 1:00 hit, about 1,500 people froze, in whatever position they were in. It was obvious that some people planned out what poisiton they wanted to be in (there was a guy down on one knee with his girlfriend..) Regardless, it was a really neat thing to experience..my first Flash Mob!

I was looking on YouTube at some of the videos from the event, and this one really caught my attention. If you wanna take a look, near the beginning you will notice some Moody students holding up what look to be giant Scrabble letters that they held during the freeze..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQC0hVsOPcE&feature=related

I didn't even know that these students were going to be there, and I didn't see them until after the freeze. The guy who froze as the photographer is a youth pastor who heard that the freeze was going to happen and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to share God's truth. He used wooden blocks to carve out "JESUS IS LORD" and had students hold it as he froze, looking like he was taking their picture. At 1:05 the crowds un-froze, and I went up to him to introduce myself/ to talk to the students I knew. When I asked him to tell me about how he came up with the idea, he responded like this: "In ALL things! Jesus wants us to proclaim His name no matter what we are doing, no matter where we are. There are so may people here! What a cool thing that we got to share this with so many!!"

This guy began to tear up. He was so excited at the opportunity that was presented to him to boast in the name of Jesus...To him there is no name more precious and worth sharing.

May you find reason to boast in Christ's name today while the world around us takes it in vain..

DOP

What a blessing and gift prayer is to the believer. To be able to present our deepest affections and worries to the living God in confidence that he hears us and actually cares... Moody held a day of prayer last week for all students and falculty. The student body was given multiple opportunities to be intentional about prayer with different small groups, and it was such a healthy dose of Christ-centered perspective. To quiet your heart before the Lord in humility, to praise his character and existence, to repent of what separates you from him, to intercede on behalf of others and to make requests and petitions before him...these are the blessings of prayer. Together they allow us to take a step back and to say "wow! It's not about me."

There are so many other things going on in this world, so many people suffering, so many people growing, so many being won over for the Lord..daily. To remember these things and the bigger picture that they fit into defines just a small portion of the grace of God. It's so freeing isn't it? The ability to take your focus off of self? My self is sinful to the core, and it's imprisoning. Yet, in prayer I see these things let go, expressed, communicated to a Father who remembers them not. Surely the command "Pray without ceasing" is a blessing in itself! What is more, we should see it less as an order and more as a key to live in peace and joy, regardless of the circumstance.

"In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts
at what thou art doing for thy church,
and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great name
from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I can place  all my concerns in thy hands,
to be entirely at thy disposal,
having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying."

These beautiful words come from The Valley of Vision's "In Prayer"

Colossians 3:17

Culture. Last semester that meant blue collar workers and Pennsylvania’s suburbia. The semester before that it meant flannel, hardwoods, and snowmobiling. Right now it’s high rise buildings, taxis, and constant motion. It’s funny what a range I have been able to experience…and I’m only a Sophomore.

I often think about the question “how does culture fit in with the Gospel?” I heard a sermon by Timothy Keller where he made this point: The whole idea of this thing we Christians call salvation is not just for eternal security. Rather, it is part of God’s plan to redeem creation. We should not condemn culture as it appears in occupation and hobby. Instead, we must embrace these God-given gifts with the motivation to exalt Him with them.

Isaiah 60:19 says :“The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

Sounds pretty similar to a passage in Revelation..21:23 “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

Isn’t it interesting that the Lord himself will be the light in these 2 passages that describe the future redemption of culture? In heaven we will see Jesus for who he really is. What was once in a realm of only spiritual understanding will become tangible, visible, and actual in our finite minds. Therefore we will be perfect, with all desires fixated on our King.

Although we still dwell here, in a land of sin and division and cultural separation, the Lord desires that we be a part of His plan to bring it all back to himself. We can be a part of redeeming culture. As Keller notes, the best way to do that is to show others the light that has always existed, that still exists today, and that will one day be the very sustaining reality and glory of God himself.

In Genesis God put his hands in the dirt and put gardeners in the garden. He created man to draw out of their surroundings what he left for them to use. This is culture. So whether by work, art, music, food, dancing, or any other kind of culture, the Lord and his light can through them shine. These are our God-given outlets for this light. How does culture fit in with the Gospel? It is the very mode though which it is communicated. With his Gospel message, God redeems culture…through culture.

I heard a pastor this summer speak from Matthew 5. He made a very interesting observation about the mentioned “salt” and “light”. When it comes to these things, the question is not “are we being salt and light?”, but rather “What kind of salt and light are we being?” This passage makes it clear that salt and light are part of the identity of those who follow Christ. We are already shining..Applied to the concept of culture, all participate in culture, because culture is a part of what makes us human. So it’s not whether or not we participate in culture that we should be focusing on, but rather whether or not we are using culture to magnify the Father…whether or not we are a part of redeeming it.  

Off the Blue Line

Every Tuesday afternoon I have the opportunity to take the train into an area of the city known as Irving Park. It is a very diverse and cultured section of town. There I tutor the young girls, (ages 8-15) and assist them with any homework that they may have. If I had to choose a few words to describe my experiences there, humbling and reqarding would definitely make the top of the list. These girls live at the home where I tutor them, along with 42+ other children. They reside there due to past abuse or neglect from their parents. They know that they are different, they know that their family life is not quite ideal, and they would do anything to be in a "normal" family with a mother and father who actually told them they are loved. Since this isn't the case, many of these children struggle with anxiety and bitterness. They have been told lies their whole lives that some of them have begun to believe. But now in this home, they have the chance to "start new" in a sense. The home is a Christian organization that cares for the children 24/7 and provides activities and various services for them.

On one occasion I was working with a girl who has only been living there for about 5 months. She is 13 years old, and has been placed in more homes than she even wishes to recount. Little does she know, she taught me much more that day than I could have taught her about Algebra in 100 sessions. A quote on her wall read:

I can
I will
I have a plan
to grow
for the better me.

She has these little inspirational sayings in her room as somewhat of a reminder and comfort during the times that she begins to believe the lies that have been told to her. She is loved, her life does matter, and she can take steps to succeed. As I saw these words on her wall, I teared up a bit. Oh how blessed I am given my family circumstances! Not only that, but the Lord has given me a taste of consistency within community that I cherish even more so now. Being a transfer student in back to back semesters doesn't even compare..

I have two main hopes as I move forward with this ministry. The first is that the Lord will enable me to share his love with the girls there, even if it is only through my actions. It is sometimes difficult due to time contraints to speak about Jesus instead of Algebra, but I know that my presence in itself can be a testimony to them.  May the Lord instruct my heart concerning this! Secondly, I hope to visit the girls more often..so as to interact with them in more casual settings. They have ambitions, dreams, and a lot of potential to do some big things. Partnered with the knowledge of the Lord and his Gospel, their attitudes could produce passionate followers and disciples of Jesus Christ! Through him they can accomplish more than that little girl even had in mind when she wrote those words on her wall.
 They have been told lies that they can learn to forget. They have been wronged in ways that they can learn to forgive.

There is a Redeemer.