1 Corinthians 5

I was listening to 1 Corinthians the other night while walking home from the church and some things stuck out to me and got me to thinking.  Thinking for me usually requires an outlet for me and to spare my wife of more of my ramblings and thoughts than need be necessary, I bring them here.  (By the way, I was listening to Jason Nightingale recite the book from memory.  If you haven't heard him speak, check out http://www.wordsower.org/store to download his stuff.  It's really good.)

So anyways, I was thinking about 1 Corinthians 5 and pondering verses 9-13.  In it, Paul is writing to the Corinthians telling them to not associate with those guilty of "sexual immorality, greed, idolaters, drunkards, or swindlers."  He is not telling the readers to avoid people who are not believers who fit those categories, but rather those in the church (professing Christians).  He even says that to avoid those who fit that bill outside the church would require leaving this world!  While it isn't the primary emphasis of what Paul is saying, we can realize and apply the concept of being around those who are not believers who fit those descriptions.

How many times in the last year have you intentionally gone to a place that you don't feel comfortable with the intention of reaching people with the Gospel?  Have you gone to a marketplace or restaurant to share Jesus with someone?  Have you gone to a bar or a pub to try to meet people to share Christ?  Have you gone to the gay/lesbian community and tried to involve yourself with the intention of lovingly sharing the eternally transforming Gospel?  Why not?

One of the areas that I really believe the church (worldwide, not just locally, although locally as well) has failed is to enter the world to not be of the world, but to engage the world with the intention of sharing Christ.  Jesus never commanded his disciples to leave culture and hide away from all things evil so that they wouldn't risk being influenced or 'led astray'.  Rather he went to the outcasts, the drunks, the prostitutes, and those in greatest need of a complete transformation of their lives.  Paul further writes how he 'became all things to all people so as to win as many as possible with the love of Christ.'  Are you doing this?

If you want to really start living the Gospel then get out in the world.  Engage culture with a mission-minded intention to show Jesus.  Use a guerrilla warfare mindset.  Slip into culture, engage culture, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and start showing the transformational aspects of Jesus.

Additionally, are there those in your life who fit that bill listed above who are professing believers?  If so, lovingly restore them.  Talk to them.  Encourage them.  Show them that they need to give that over to Jesus.  It is your job as a believer to show them what restoration looks like.

The Will of God

I read a good book the other day.  It's called "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung.  It's a really easy read regarding how to make decisions and live within the will of God.  I recommend it.

The main premise that DeYoung is arguing is that God isn't too worried about where you live, what you do, who you marry (so long as they love the Lord), or what hobbies you do.  God is much more concerned in how you do those things.  How do you do your job?  Is it to His glory, or yours?  Does your job contradict the Gospel?  If not, then keep at it, unless you want to change.  In order to live the will of God in your life, you simply have to "be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."  (Colossians 1:9-10).  If you live those verses out, you will be within God's will.

Do you like where you live?  If not, then move and glorify God elsewhere.  It will be within his will.  Do you like your job?  If not, then find a new one and glorify God at your new job and honor him with your work ethic.  Living within the will of God is an incredibly simple thing.  My friend's grandfather used to tell him regarding decision making to "draw as close to the Lord as you can, and then do whatever you want."  So long as you're staying close to the Lord, whatever decisions you make will be within his will.

Now there may be times that God has something certain in mind for you and he will cause events and roadblocks to occur in order to get you where he wants you, but those are rare I believe.

Also, if you're still struggling on understanding and hearing the voice of God, here is how to do it.  This is the number one way God speaks to us and reveals his will to us....you ready?  Here it is...read, study, and understand the Bible.  God has chosen the written word to reveal himself to us and to guide us.  Will we know which job to take from studying the Bible?  No, but you can understand wisdom comes from God (Proverbs, James) and that we need to worry most about pleasing the Lord.  After that, so long as your job doesn't contradict the Gospel, choose whatever job you want.

So, study your Bible.  Obey what it says.  And continue to share the Gospel with those in your life.

Thanks to Kevin DeYoung for writing a book that I summarized above.  I highly recommend reading it.

Relationally Thinking

The other day I was pondering what it means to "have a relationship with Jesus". I was watching this video a church made about their history and growth and someone in it was talking about how they never had "a relationship with Jesus" before, but rather church was just religion. Now before I get ahead of myself I agree that we are created to be relational creatures modeled after God (the Triune God). I agree that it is imperative that we have a relationship with Jesus. But since Jesus is in heaven with God the Father, how do we have that relationship? The easy answer is through the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God (the Bible), and through prayer/meditation. This doesn't quite satisfy me though. So I started to ponder it and think through some of the practical issues with that. Here are my results:

1. We are relational creatures made in God's image and therefore must have relationships in order to operate as we are designed.

2. The church is the literal physical body of Christ. Jesus is the head, we are the body. We must operate as a body and be unified in our local churches.

3. In order to have that relationship with Jesus, we must work it out through the body of Christ. It is through living in the church community that we have the opportunity to flush out the intricacies of being a Christian.

This is not to say that it is only through community that we can have a relationship with Jesus, but rather to say that through community we are able to have a complete relationship with Jesus. We must still be spending time in the Word on our own, in prayer on our own, and relying on the Holy Spirit daily. So the bottom line is that you better be involved in a community of believers where you can serve, love, rejoice, mourn, celebrate, pray, meditate, worship, and live relational lives which will reflect who our Creator is.

Observations on Observing

This post is going to be one on observation. Since attending Multnomah Bible College years ago (man time goes quickly), I have really begun to learn to observe things. It began in my Bible Study Methods class but then began to encroach upon many other parts of my life. As a guy, I tend to think in boxes, each individualized and separate, so this observing thing is getting out of hand. I notice things about the world around me, about systems, about glaring problems at my place of work and elsewhere, and all sorts of other things. One of the problems I'm running into regarding the problems, is that once I notice them, I have to think about them and try to figure out how to fix them. And then usually I will figure out how to fix them, get 70-80% of the problem fixed, but then see another problem and fail to finish the first problem. So then I am surrounded by various problems which are only 3/4 fixed, but the last quarter is the main problem. Perhaps I need to stop observing things and then I won't have to worry as much. It would be an easier option, however I don't know that I can at this point. So I suppose I should figure out how to finish the problems I address, thereby making less problems in the long run, therefore causing me to need to observe less.

The Countdown is Close

After months of waiting and staring out the window, baseball is about to start again. A fresh start for every major league club. Every team starts on the same footing. Every team is an equal number of games away from the pennant. After Monday, that all goes out the window. Teams will win and lose, some closer to the pennant, other closer to the cellar. Buy everyone gets that fresh start. Much like the Grace of God through Christ, we are all equal again. This weekend also marks the most important Christian holiday (sorry Reformation Day). The day that Jesus rose again. The day he beat back death and opened the door for all to be restored to the Father. So come Easter, come. Celebrate the resurrection as we celebrate the new baseball season, only this celebration is eternal.

Nostalgia

I have expanded my photography interests as of late. I recently got a Holga 120N for Christmas from my wife. The Holga is essentially a toy camera. It was designed as a cheap camera for anyone to be able to purchase and use. Then film changed and everyone switched to 35mm instead of 120mm. The Holga has only a few basic settings: Aperture (which doesn't actually work), Focus (four basic settings), and Bulb (quick shutter speed or long shutter). There is a hotshoe for a flash, but I don't have one so I don't use that. The back sometimes falls off so I hear so I've put a rubberband around it so it will stay on. There's also a lot of customizations you can do for it which are referred to as hacks. I'll let you know if I try any of them. So the Holga is basic and I am pretty excited about this. It's sort of like going back to my high school days of shooting photos. Back when you were on a leash in regards to how many shots you could take in a day. Back before digital took over. Not that I'm against digital. I have a Nikon D40 and I love it. But there's something about using film, especially 120 film and only having 12 shots per roll. I'm planning on getting some developing equipment and really take it back to high school photo days. The photo included here is literally the first picture I took with the Holga. Overall I feel it turned out ok. I like the results you get with film. I scanned this on my home printer/copier/scanner, so quality is less than ideal. Hopefully I can continue to afford the film and developing and get some more prints on here.

A Passing

I got the news the other night that my grandfather, Stanley Hudson Westlund had passed away. While most people would see this as horrible news, I am quite happy about it. Before you break out the mat and "jump to conclusions" (see it's a mat and you can 'jump' to conclusions-sorry, Office Space reference) know that I had a wonderful relationship with my grandfather. He was pretty much the awesomest guy ever. On a scale of 1 to godly, I think that only Jesus beat him. When it came to loving someone regardless of who they were or what they had done he was also awesome at it. So now he gets to go home. He gets to meet his Savior face to face. In fact, a few times this last year he had to be revived and was quite upset about it. He was ready to head home. So now we'll head down to California and celebrate with hundreds of other people. We'll celebrate that Grandpa Stan is home. We'll celebrate the countless lives he affected. We'll celebrate the life he lived and think about how we all want to be as awesome as he was.