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What’s Love Got To Do With It?

August 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments

The life of the person who claims to follow Jesus should be encompassed by love. Instead we make it about rules, attendance, offerings, and so many other secondary items that are important but not the main thing. Throughout the Bible, we’re told to love. We’re called to love God and love neighbor. So if we’re called to love so often, why do we instead focus so heavily on rules and even in some cases uniformity?

To put it short, it’s way easier. It’s far less messy to just attend, give offerings, and make everyone follow a set pattern for worship than it is to actually practice love for one another. Loving someone isn’t something that’s emotion charged rather it’s relationally bound. We have weakened love to something we can fall into and out of like it’s a boat on the water. We throw love away when it’s challenging and walk away when we just don’t want to put in the hard effort. But love is relationally bound. That means if we’re going to love someone, we’re not there just for the feels. We’re in it because of a bond we have with the other person.

This love is so much more broad than a marriage relationship, but most certainly applies there. The love talked about in the Bible is about all relationships for those who claim to be in Christ. It’s about the marriages, friendship, brotherhoods, coworkers, neighbors, workout partners, colleagues…all of them!

Throughout the book of Hebrews we’re brought face to face with men and women who lived their lives by faith in God. They believed that God was there for them and that he had their best interests at heart. They also lived knowing that the struggles and pains we face in life were there to help us grow in the discipline of following in faith. The men and women of God in Hebrews 11 remind us that even though life was hard and often nearly impossible, they relied on the work that God said he would do for, in and through them.

As the book of Hebrews closes, we see one more phase of the faith life of God’s followers. It’s what faith does to us as we live it out. We’ll call this one through faith. As we navigated through faith, we see that being in Christ means we love those around us. We’re kind to those not like us. We go out of our way to make sure people are connected not just to one another but also to the wonders of the love of God.

What’s love got to do with the life of the Christian? Well for many, unfortunately not all that much. But according to the teaching of the Bible it should be everything! Everything we do should be done out of love for God and love for our neighbor. We don’t love those around us because they’re worthy of our love but because Jesus is worthy of our loving them. It’s a really cool cycle if you think about it. God loves us when we’re unlovable, so that we can love those around us who are essentially unlovable as well.

If you’re into listen to people talk about things like this or watch a message on this very idea, check out the video below. If not, then go love someone because God is worth the love you share with them.

Where do you find your rhythm?

January 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Great Skills You Can Learn from Drumming - Jessica Peresta- The Domestic Musician

We all have rhythm. No, not the ability to play drums or keep a beat even, but we all have a rhythm. Rhythm is all around us and it’s part of our day to day lives in so many places that we often overlook it. I mean right now, you’re probably reading this with some form of rhythm to your pace. Your heart is even beating to a rhythm (I hope it is!).

Rhythm is all around us as well. There’s rhythm in the sunrise and sunset. There is rhythm in the way the feet hit the treadmill in the gym. There’s rhythm to your breathing. Seasons follow a rhythmic pattern. Everything about life is based off of a healthy rhythm.

As we kick off a new year together here on the blog, I wanted to spend a few minutes discussing healthy rhythms. I really think rhythms are the biggest struggle many of us have in life. Whether you’re struggling with weight or finance management, relationships or body image, productivity or worship attendance they all revolve around rhythm. And there’s one rhythm that sets them all up properly.

If you look at the world around you and especially at the way the world was formed. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that God formed all of this in the way it describes in Genesis 1. That part of the Bible lays out what we call the 7 days of creation. In those days of creation, God sets a whole series of rhythms or patterns for the world. From tides to sunrise/sunset to seasons to even the way he speaks and things happen, it all follows a rhythm. Nothing was made in creation that didn’t involve God speaking. Even before he created man, God said let us make man in our image. There was a rhythm to how it all happened.

But the problem is, we live in a world of solo drummers. We don’t like to march to someone else’s drumbeat. We like to be creative and come up with our own rhythms. I’m a huge advocate for consistency and patterns.

Heck look around the world right now as people are crying for a return to normal. They’re not looking for normal! They’re looking for rhythm. Our rhythm of life was disrupted nearly 2 years ago and we haven’t found a sustainable rhythm yet. What we call normal is really a comfortable and sustainable pace with which we can walk, talk and live our lives. We haven’t had that for a while now and we long to have it back again.

But it goes a little deeper than just waking and sleeping at the same time everyday, which is of tremendous benefit in and of itself! There is a deeper rhythm that must be established to really have things moving in the right direction and to establish a sustainable pace for productivity, health, wellness, relationships and all aspects of life to truly flourish.

Below is a message I gave to kick off the New Year at Living Word Galena. In this message I’ll dig a little into the idea of the rhythms around us and how they can help us stay in rhythm. I’ll also give a couple of tools we have here to help keep us in rhythm.

What’s love got to do with it?

May 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I’ve said numerous times that the word love is one of my least favorite words. It’s so challenging because in our culture we love everything and yet love nothing at the same time. We can love our spouse and pizza and cars and workouts and all the things but do we really love those things? Which of those are real love and which are some glorified version of like a whole lot?

As we journey through some of these challenging questions we have to pause and think about the reality of our words. The biggest problem with our idea of love is that so often we think love has to do with us but really love has to do with the recipient not the giver.

Our world is simply full of selfish lovers. What’s in it for me seems to be the question asked before what can I do for you. Real love is focused on the neds of the other person not on our own needs. Now that doesn’t mean we let people walk all over us but we also don’t push our agenda on other people in the name of love. Because that just isn’t love.

This past week we focused on this very idea in a message at church. If you’re interested in how this plays out, check it out.

Sorry That Relationship Is Here To Stay

April 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Whether you like it or not you can’t undo a relationship. I mean seriously, your parents will always be your parents. Your children will always be your children. You don’t generally get to choose your family members and those strong relationships while sometimes strained, don’t break.

That’s the same with our relationship with God. Whether you believe it or not, God is the source of your life. Believing it won’t make it true. Not believing it won’t make it untrue. Relationships don’t rely on proximity or belief. They are about position. Your relationship is an outcome of your position to someone else.

The bible talks about two things with great depth. One is relationships and we pretty much get how that works. But the other we get a little confused about. It’s called fellowship. The long and short of fellowship is about our proximity to someone not our position before them.

Fellowship is what happens when we share life with someone else. The bible uses the idea of fellowship to refer to a shared life in Christ. The proximity we share with one another isn’t based on agreeing on everything. Rather it’s based on the closeness we experience when we each draw near to Christ.

You see I am my parents’ son. And nothing including distance can change that fact at all. But what can change is how I share life with them. If I live close, I can be there on weekends and we can enjoy time together in a variety of ways. But if I were to move farther away and live hours away or across the country, I would still be their son without question. What does change though is how we communicate and how we share life. We can’t share life face to face but we do through phone and email and text and FaceTime and all those cool technological marvels.

The same is true with one another and with Christ. We are to draw near to Christ and inso doing we will draw near to one another. The focal point of our relationship isn’t our wants or theirs it’s who is Christ and who am I in light of his grace. When we see ourselves and one another through the focal point of the cross, then we can draw near to those and fellowship with those far away from us regardless of space and time.

Check out the talk I gave on the difference between relationship and fellowship below.

Why was Palm Sunday so important?

March 30, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Ok so some of you won’t really care about this nearly as much as I do but I’ve been a pastor for 19 years and have read, preached on or at least heard the Palm Sunday story every year that I’ve been alive. But this year the whole thing took on new meaning. It’s like 19 years of ministry finally paid off with a little knowledge.

The Palm Sunday account, known as the triumphal entry has tons of meaning packed into it. I’ve included the video of the message at the bottom but here’s a list of the things Jesus really did when he came riding into Jerusalem on that day we call Palm Sunday.

Mount of Olives

Did you know that over 600 years earlier, recorded in Ezekiel 10 and again in 43, the prophet is given a vision of God’s glory leaving and then returning to the temple? In 586 BC the glory of God filled the temple then exited through the east gate. It proceeded up the Mount of Olives and rested there until…

Yep that’s right, until Palm Sunday when Jesus came back down the Mount of Olives as the Son of God bringing the Glory of God with him.

Colt the foal of a donkey

So Jesus asks his followers to go, get him a donkey so he could ride into town. Now before we get all freaked out that he stole a donkey, that’s just not true. You see they had a practice in this time that a king could claim eminent domain on a beast of burden if needed. Well, Jesus is king, granted a totally different kind of king but king nonetheless, so the donkey was rightfully his to use for this moment.

And it had to be a donkey and not a full grown horse because tradition also demonstrated (and is echoed in Genesis 49 and the accounts of David and Solomon in 1 Kings 1) that a king would come into town on a donkey if he came bringing peace. Jesus then is the Prince of Peace according to Isaiah 9, so rightfully he brings that peace into Jerusalem once again. This riding in on a donkey was also prophesied in Zechariah 9, so Jesus doing it this way was fulfilling what was promised about him.

Additionally the donkey is said to be an unridden donkey. This too was significant because a king to be considered the greatest would ride a donkey that was unridden. The king was the only one who was to ride his animal. It generally was unbroken by someone else showing that no one could be as great or powerful as this king.

Hosanna!

The people lined the streets, threw their coats on the ground, waved palm branches and shouted hosanna! This may seem to be nothing major but even the words of the people fulfilled some of the Old Testament. The words that the people spoke were and echo of Psalm 118 in a psalm of praise.

Triumphal Entry

A triumphal entry was a Roman tradition actually. One would get a triumphal entry parade if you were a king or mighty warrior who was headed into battle against a worthy adversary or had conquered a group of 5000 or more. Oddly enough Jesus would actually do both of these!

A few days after he was welcomed into town in this triumphal entry, he would go to a cross where he would die on the cross. Now for most people dying was a sign of weakness or being beaten, but not for Jesus. To fulfill the Old Testament rules, someone had to die to pay for sin. Since Jesus didn’t have sin, his death would be a perfect death. That meant that in his death he was victorious. Therefore he deserved a triumphal entry!

But if you go ahead in the story to Acts 3-4, you see the disciples healing a man. Then everyone wanted to know how they did it and who they were. They taught about Jesus and this very week in history. People were so overcome by the event that they surrendered their previous way of life and gave themselves to Jesus. And there were 5000 of them total!

The temple

Jesus lets the fanfare run its course then ends up in the temple. But in a very anticlimactic way looks around and leaves. This is a sign to show that while the glory of God has returned it’s not going to be staying in the temple. Now the glory of God is on the loose. This would be made even more evident in the events of Good Friday when the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom symbolizing God tearing.

The temple curtain was said to be the divider between God and man. But when Jesus died the glory of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God was released for all to see. Now instead of standing in judgment afraid of eternal punishment, we stand before God made holy and righteous because Jesus is our righteousness and God’s glory at the same time.

These are just a handful of the Old Testament passages that are fulfilled in the event we call Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry.

Welcome to the Kingdom

March 25, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It can be seen all around us. The little everyday moments of kindness and love. Going out of our way to show care for someone in hurting. Being generous with our time or our possessions toward someone in need. Being an ear to listen or hands to help. It’s all around us but rarely do we see it.

The bible is full of references to the Kingdom of God but what does it even mean? It’s kind of an abstract idea. Is it a building? Is it a person? Is it a place? Is it just sometime in the future?

All of these can be where the Kingdom of God is found but they don’t fully represent the kingdom. All of these ideas are great but the kingdom is found in all of them. At the same time.

The kingdom of God is found wherever God is found. It’s found when two people sit down to read the Bible. It’s found in the waters of baptism. It can be found in a church gathering for communion or leaving on a mission trip. It can be found on Easter Sunday or the second Sunday in July. The kingdom of God is present in the phone call to a hurting friend or the prayer offered for a hurting loved one.

The kingdom may seem abstract but when we realize that we carry the kingdom in our thoughts, words and actions it becomes much more visible. Much more concrete.

The video below will explain what the kingdom of God is and where it can be found. It’s intended to help you see the kingdom all around you and even inside you.

Selfishness Is NOT Cool

March 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I have to tell you when I hear people that they’re in this whole living life thing to make themselves happy something inside me goes a little crazy. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. There are some people that want life their way. They want things handed to them on a silver platter. It just has to be about them.

Have you ever had that person who just likes to find problems in life? I mean you give them a compliment and they somehow turn it to a knock on you? You thank them and they tell you that you’re not doing enough? Or they just want everything to be done their way and if not they’ll let you know all about it?

Well selfishness and self aggrandizement is called out by Jesus in Mark 10. There were a couple of his close followers that wanted to get something from him. They asked Jesus to give them whatever they wanted. Pretty bold I know!

Hearing that passage it’s pretty easy to think well how dare they! I’d never do anything like that… But is that really true? Can you honestly say that personal happiness and having things done your way isn’t driving your decisions from time to time?

I think in the world today, we’re seeing a lot more prominently displayed a self-centered approach to life. We see people who want to be the center of attention and for life to revolve around them. We are seeing people take disagreements as personal attacks. There has to be a better way.

Yes there is. Jesus takes the whole selfish pride outlook on life and flips it on its head. He says that for you to be great you have to be willing to be least. To be first you should be last. To be best you need to be ok with serving other people instead of asking why you didn’t get picked first.

Jesus tells his followers that we need to look different than the world looks. Check out this message on struggling with pride and selfishness.

Black and White

March 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Not sure if you noticed or not but black is not white and white is not black. I know that sounds a bit simplistic but I’m not sure our culture gets that. The world today doesn’t want to do the hard things in life by living with difference. Instead we try our hardest to lose distinctions and blend everything into some form of mush. We love the gray area because it seems to offend the fewest people.

I don’t agree. As a matter of fact, when we draw a clear line of distinction and properly delineate between two sides of an issue or two ideologies, we are less likely to divide than if we try to appease everyone.

There is a push in our society to gray the lines of right and wrong, male and female, racial distinctions and even life and death. The only thing this is doing is creating a greater divide. One would think that an attempt to make everyone equal would make things better, but that’s not how this works.

The problem is when we force someone to lose what makes them unique in life, we devalue everyone. Now I do believe we need to do better at valuing our brothers and sisters despite our differences. You see there are so many things that make you who you are that are valuable and special. Trying to make you into someone else just isn’t right.

In our time together this past Sunday we focused on leaning into our distinct sides. We focused on not blending things together and creating a mess in the mushy middle. There is no gray area. There is a clear right and clear wrong. The more clear the distinctions in life, the easier it is to live with and value those distinctions.

Here’s this week’s message. Jesus didn’t dumb things down, so we probably shouldn’t either.

What A Foolish Bunch

March 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret what I do for a living. I’m a pastor. That means that everyone thinks I work only on Sundays and I just basically get paid to talk a lot. Well truth be told, I do work on Sundays and Saturdays and just about every other day throughout the week in some capacity or another. And I do tend to talk…a lot…even when no one cares to listen! But there’s more than just that. It’s more than work and talking. It’s about a calling and a way of life for me.

The interesting thing however is that what I do for a living, God has called all of us to do in some form or fashion. We’re all called to be available to help those in times of need. We’re all supposed to be encouraging and uplifting, to challenge and strengthen. But there’s more to it. The heart of what we’re about as followers of Jesus is the message. We call it the gospel.

But the message of the gospel is not all that easy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s simple but not easy. It’s simple because the message is really all about what Jesus did for us. He did the work, we get the benefit. But that’s exactly what makes it hard! We like to do things ourselves. We like to know we’ve done enough or completed a task. We need to check the box when a to-do list item is finalized.

To say that the message of the gospel to some in our world is foolish is an understatement. The message of the gospel put as plainly and completely as possible is that Jesus is the Son of God who became a man at the time of his birth, what we call Christmas. Then he lived a pretty normal life for the first 30 years or so. The only thing was he didn’t sin. He did no wrong. He wasn’t some goody goody kind of character but he just legitimately did the right thing, like all the time! Then when he was about 30 years old he really came into his own. He gathered crowds. Taught messages. Did some pretty cool signs and miracle things. Then one day was accused of having the wrong intentions, which he didn’t. He ended up being tried, beaten adn killed for his way of life. Then after he was buried, he was raised up. Yep came to life again.

The message of the gospel is built on the belief that Jesus did all of this to show God’s love for you and me. He didn’t do it to get anything from us or make us go through some weird ritual of some sort. He did it so that one day you and I could see him for who he is and live with him forever in heaven. That may sound absurd to you. And if so, that’s ok. You’re not alone. The bible even warns about that one. But what might sound foolish to some is actually the source of all that we are as followers of Christ. Our identity is wrapped up in this very reality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

So there you have it. Foolish? Maybe but not for believing in Jesus. That’s the only wise thing about many of us, ok well about me anyway. Check out the full message on this topic in the video below.

I Can’t Take It Anymore

February 25, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just wanted to throw in the towel? The moments when it felt like the weight of the world was on your shoulders? A moment when even the people closest to you, the ones supposedly in your corner, seemed to be against you? Those moments quite frankly suck.

But how do you react when the weight of the world is on your shoulders? What do you do when you have a burden to carry that is just simply too much for you?

I recently talked about something I call heart-felt prayer. Now if you’re not a Jesus person and don’t really get into the whole prayer thing I get it but there are some principles in here that are transferrable to a non prayer setting.

Many hands make light work

First we need to surround ourselves with people who can help us carry our burdens. These are our people of peace (more on that another time). The people that are willing to listen to us and carry those burdens with us are people that we need to lean into when times get tough. Jsut because they might say something that isn’t exactly what we want to hear doesn’t make them any less a person of peace. So don’t go it alone. Surround yourself with people who can carry you when you can’t do it anymore.

Jesus knew his friends couldn’t make his problem go away. He knew they wouldn’t be of any help whatsoever really. But he still chose to bring them along. They were there for comfort and peace in a pretty challenging time. Who are your people that you can bring along who will bring peace to you while you struggle? They may not help, but they will always be there.

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal

The second thing we need to do is be honest about our struggle. We tend to be a world of wannabe heroes. We think that sadness and struggle is a sign of weakness, but that’s just not true. Think of working out when you think of struggles. If you don’t push the muscle beyond what it’s capable of doing you won’t see any growth. The same is true for you and me in our struggles. If we don’t allow ourselves to be pushed beyond what we’re capable of handling alone, we’ll never see growth in our abilities.

Jesus did something similar when he was honest with his Father about not wanting to go through the events of holy week. He was sorrowful. Sad. Broken. Burdened. He collapsed on the ground and just prayed. Perhaps there are struggles in your life you’ve been hiding or burying. What do you need to be honest about and get a weight off your shoulders so you can be free for a new day?

Ask for help, not because you’re weak but because you want to remain strong.

The third part of this heartfelt prayer is simply but boldly asking for what we want. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t dance around the issue. Don’t get all shy. Just ask for help. Say what you need or want in a given situation. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness by any means. Asking for help is a way to stay strong.

Jesus did just this. He told his Father that he didn’t want to go through the events of the next 24 hours. He told him to let this cup pass. He wasn’t looking forward to being left alone by his Father. What do you need to ask God? What do you need to just get off your chest and have help with?

Submission is yielding my desires to his plan.

The final part of going through an honest assessment of struggles and pain is to be submissive. This doesn’t mean to let people walk all over you. It means that you’re ok with things not being ok for a time.

Jesus did this when after telling his Father he didn’t want to go through with the next 24 hours but ended with not my will but yours. That means I don’t want this but if it’s the best way then I’ll do it. What stands in front of you that you’re not all that excited about or that might make you uncomfortable that you might end up needing to do because it’s the best thing?

There you have it. Fall down with friends, admit problems, ask for help, then be ok with doing things in a way you’re not expecting.

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