PneuProject Blogerrific
  • Blogerrific!
  • Survey About YOU?
  • Pneu You
  • Go to big life cc .org
  • Go to PneuProject.org

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Him

9/4/2013

0 Comments

 
What does it mean to "take up our cross?"

When he described this choice, Jesus had a decision that only he recognized.  On one hand was a path that other people wanted for him, to make him king of the Israelites.  They could have deposed Herod, put Jesus in the place David once held, therein fulfilling their limited, social understanding of who their Messiah would be.

Or as Jesus knew, he could give himself over to the people in a different way, to torture and death, sacrificed because humanity is too broken and sinful to honor goodness and truth when it stands in our midst.

Only Jesus knew that through death on the cross, he would become the ultimate King of all nations, the Savior and the mighty Lamb.  Only Jesus valued that path more than becoming the king of a small, impoverished nation, fully under Roman occupation.   See almost ever time, we humans will choose a lesser victory rather than the challenge and pain of acquiring God's purpose for our lives.  Let me reiterate that - EVERYONE else wanted Jesus to aspire to being king of the Jewish nation at that time... not King of kings for all time.

Only Jesus pursued his calling, his purpose from God.  No one else understood. 

And only Jesus had to literally carry the cross to become Savior of the universe.  For the rest of us our cross is not literal, but a description of our burden, our pain, that stands between us now, and the life God calls us towards.  

The choice is always ours.  We can live a lesser path.  We can become kings of our own broken country.  Or we can pursue God's will alone, and live the triumph only He knows is ours to claim.  

It won't be easy.  
We will have to let go of our false hopes.  
We will have to deal in truth.  
It will likely hurt sometimes.  
It will take great courage.  
It will require trust in God - the One who sees what we cannot yet see.

Yet it will be greater than any other possibility for our lives.

"Take up your cross, and follow Him."

In Christ!
 
-M4
0 Comments

Words Matter in Times of Tragedy

6/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Monday in Oswego three teenagers were killed in a fatal car crash on 126.  In a moment, everything changed for them, everything changed for their families, and everything changed for the man driving the truck who survives.  I have spent my life as a minister trying to muster up words of comfort in situations where there are no good words.  I officiated my first funeral back when 21 years old; the service was for a 34 year old mother of four who died of cancer one year after I met her.  I have spent my life trying to reconcile Who I know to be a God of Love with the pain and grief of a motherless 5 year old and her sisters and brothers.  Anything I have ever said that was helpful in accomplishing this is only a gift from God.  Me?  I never know what to say.

But let me be clear, I do know what not to say.

Do not say, “this was God’s will.”  For all the traffic this phrase generates you would think it would have a central place in scripture.  This phrase is often referenced as though random tragedy is divinely ordained, but no such example of God’s will exists in the life and teaching of Jesus...or in the entire New Testament for that matter.  So I can say with no reservation, it is never the will of God to kill three teenagers in car wreck.  I do not assume my readers are Christians, but for those who are, please remember ours is a faith of resurrection.  God has destroyed death as the final answer and is forever on the side of life and love - in fact, God IS life and love.  And that love is stronger than anything else in this world.       

Do not say, “this could have been avoided if...”  Humans like me and like you make mistakes all the time.  I admit, I have texted while I 

Read More
0 Comments

Ah hell.

3/12/2012

1 Comment

 
I decided to dig into hell today.  Not literally - in the form of study of its origins and Biblical usage. 


In the Old Testament, "hell" is translated from one word, Sheol. In the New Testament, "hell" is translated from three words Hades, Gehenna, and  tartar. 


In the Old Testament, 'hell' is always translated from the Hebrew word Sheol.  Sheol is used 65 times in the Old Testament and means "the world of the dead," grave, or pit in Hebrew.  However, in the Bible, it is translated as "grave" 31 times, "pit" 3 times, and "hell" the remaining 31 times.  It is the place where both the wicked and the good went at death and is a place of stillness and darkness.  It does imply a separation from God.  However, notably absent is any concept of a lake of fire and eternal judgement/ damnation.  


Hades is used 11 times in the New Testament as a direct translation to Greek from Hebrew Sheol and therefor takes in all the meaning of Sheol.  Hades is considered the place of the dead.  It has no relation to an afterlife reward or punishment in any instance except in the story in Luke (who was not one who heard Jesus teach directly) of the rich man 'in anguish in flame'.  Interestingly, 

Read More
1 Comment

Death/ Exiting the Tent

2/20/2012

0 Comments

 
As I have mourned my grandfather this week, I have been reflecting a little more than normal on death.  The Bible repeatedly describes the body as a tent.  I remember camping as a kid and imagining all the ghouls and goblins on the dark outside of my tent.  One night my parent came up to the tent from the outside, and I could not really perceive that they were there until they unzipped the door.  I wonder how analogous this is to the human experience of death?  Certainly we cannot see much of the other side.  Yet it is also an undeniable aspect of humanity that we occasionally glimpse something that alludes to more that lies beyond.  We have devoted much literature to fantasy and speculation on this 'beyond.'  Even Biblical accounts are difficult to envision.  But if we stick to the tent metaphor, the 'beyond' is more vast and spectacular than the mortal.  

Recently I was talking with a lady that suffered a major aneurism and encountered death.  She had a supernatural experience during her event, possibly glimpsing something of the beyond.  What she experienced she described as overwhelming, saturating love.  And she saw Jesus.  It was a tremendously cool story.

Reminded me of this:


0 Comments

What is Hell?

1/12/2012

0 Comments

 
Since a snowstorm is raging, I thought it would be a nice time to reflect on a hotter target, say...hell.

Hell is a polarizing and often overly simplified aspect of Biblical Christianity.  

First it is referred to in sketchy contexts Biblically.  Certainly it has been fictionalized and expounded upon much more drammatically than its Biblical existence & description supports.  Second, it feeds into the unfortunate reality that we Christians do like tidy and devastating judgement to fall on others, don't we?  And how better to make our enemies pay than to imagine them floundering in constant fire?  (We'll get into the Bible of hell another time.  It will suprise some of you.)

The reality of hell is, like most eternal matters, uncertain and unknowable...until we are dead and it is too late to be pursuaded.  But it can be better understood by reflecting on God, Who God is, and therefor what God is not.

God is love, life, light, resurrection (fresh starts/ forgiveness) and truth...an ever-present counselor.  In all areas of living (and post-living) that we pursue those attributes of God, we are living in God's goodness and are likely experiencing characteristics similar to that of heaven. 

Conversely, despair, lonliness, the absence of relationship, darkness, absolute shame, death, and lies are not God and are therefor hellish whether it happens before or after death.  As I type that list I wonder if the much-touted fire was ever even a useful exaggeration as that all sounds completely miserable. 

0 Comments

AND here we go...

1/2/2012

0 Comments

 
2012.  I remember reading about THIS year in middle school a LONG time ago.  I was in middle school in the 80's.  Hearing the prediction that the world would end in 2012 sounded so distant, ominous, yes, and impossibly distant.

And yet, here it is. 

But the rub is this; we are all in the process of ending..."sentanced to death".  That was a line in a Dave Matthews Band song a decade or so ago.  For whatever reason, it takes me by surprise every time I consider it.  My world is going to end.  And soon.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe this year, maybe in 50 years.  Nonetheless, it is coming. Relentlessly pounding towards the end of my world.  I want to shake it off, and pretend like it won't happen to me...

The Bible describes shedding this body like a tent, like stepping out of the tent into what really exists beyond.  I like that.  I have always been a nervous camper, certain a bear lurked beyond my opaque tent windows waiting to eat me.  Or maybe instead a wonderland...a heaven with more love than I can even envision.

So if the Mayans or whoever it was got it right, against all odds, ridiculous as it may be...
then 2012 will be the year we exit the tent.  And if they are wrong, misled ancient prophets, then 2012 may still be the year we exit the tent.

Guess I better stop feeding the bears. 
0 Comments
    Picture

    Blogerrific!

    Devotionals
    & Thoughts on
    Faith in Jesus

    Featured:

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Go To:

    Picture
    Click to go to www.pneuproject.org

    Categories:

    All
    Atheism
    Bible
    Books
    Church
    Communion
    Death
    Evangelism
    Failure
    Faith
    Football
    Freedom
    Fun
    Grace
    Heaven
    Hell
    Hypocrisy
    Jesus
    Leadership
    Love
    Marriage
    Men
    Mission
    Money
    Music
    Prayer
    Sex
    Sin
    Traditional Church
    Women


    Get Involved:

    Follow Pneuproject on Twitter
    Tweet


    RSS Feed