Sunday, September 27, 2015

Counter the Culture

I saved this picture to my phone the other night and every time I look at it, it reminds me of the old Lecrae song, Rebel.


There's a line in the song that talks about Jesus being counter cultural.  It also speaks to Jesus being a renegade outlaw.  These lines are all true.  We wouldn't think of it that way, because I don't think we were ever taught to see what society and the Hebrew religion were like in the time of Jesus.

Under the old covenant, Jewish people were under a system of laws.  It was a list of do's and don'ts, not unlike the ones we, from time to time place on ourselves.  The Pharisees were folks that had all that down to a "T".  They were comfortable with the path they were headed down, and weren't looking for a detour.  Their's was also a religion of privilege and exclusivity.  They made it that way, God did not intend for this to be the way, but He knew the need for Christ to come and introduce something all new.  

So enter Jesus Christ.  He was a young man, "causing trouble" for the religious leaders in Israel.  He was not only healing people, but healing them on the Sabbath.  He was driving out demons.  He was changing their system of works, to a relationship of love.  He definitely redefines the society of that time.  

Why did he do this?

Because God told him to, and because the legalistic nature of the Jews at the time was out of hand.  However, God laid out a new covenant, this time with the entire world, much to the dismay of the temple leaders.  They knew Jesus was trouble, He was reaching people like they'd never been able to do, not that it seems like they were trying.

The ironic things is, Jesus was what they'd been waiting for.  For many years, they looked for a Messiah.  This Messiah had long been prophesied about, and it was the national consensus that he's come as a warrior and free the Israeites from Roman rule.

However...

Here's this Jesus dude and He's fulfilling prophecy after prophecy, yet He's telling them to love their enemies.  He taught that you didn't need a priest to go through God, that normal, everyday people had 24/7access to Him!  He said He was the Son of God!  

Jesus did everything He could to convince the word of who He was, aside from take away their free will.  I'd venture to say, many of this guys would donanything for a chance to believe in God.  

Jesus went against the grain, therefore, that is what we are called to do.  

Jesus loved everybody, but he encouraged them to change their lifestyles.  He didn't stone the woman caught in adultery, he commanded her to "go now and leave your life of sin..." When he healed the man at the pool he told him to "stop sinning..." So we are called to love everyone, yet not indulge their sins.  That is a point that eats at a lot of people, including myself.  Jesus called people on the carpet, and that's what we are called to do.  He spoke the Truth in love, so we should do the same.

So that means everybody, we've got to love each other enough to be accountable! 

Surround yourself with people you can do that for and people who will be that for you! 

I've tried to pattern myself after Jesus.  I try to be different.  In His power, I want to shirk the stereotype of football coaches.  I fail from time to time, but I lean on Jesus to give me the power to be His mirror image! 

"I'm not perfect, but I'm workin'!"

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Bless Me

Have you ever asked God to bless you like He's done others? 

Last night after the football game I listened to a TD Jakes podcast where he briefly mentioned the expectations we have for God to bless us like he has done others.  

When we read stories from the Bible or hear about the way God has blessed others, we tend to expect God to do the same thing with us.  

So, let's look at a Biblical example.

Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and God did a lot of, as Jakes says, "showing out."  God parted the Red Sea for the entire nation to pass through safely, produced water from a rock, before they even left Egypt God brought plagues on all of Egypt, and many other amazing miracles. 

Then Moses dies and Joshua is now the leader of the nation.  So God tells Joshua that the nation is about to cross the Jordan River and he's going to allow them to walk across on dry land.  The most interesting thing about the story is that God tells Joshua that they'll have to step out in to the water.  All Moses had to do was stretch out his staff over the water.  However, Joshua had to get out into the water before it pulled up on itself.  Also, the big thing here is that God used this miracle to show the nation of Israel that He was with Joshua just as he was with Moses.  This is just an illustration that God is with us as He was with those who've gone before us, but we can't always expect it to be the same circumstances.

So real life application time...

Unless it is your first time reading, you know that Jenn and I have been attempting to get pregnant and/or adopt for some time now, with no results.  As I listened to TD Jakes the other night, it kind of punched me in the gut.  I think that I've been sitting here looking at my friends and other people who are being blessed with beautiful children and pregnancies all the time.  Then I wonder what God thinks he's doing, and I get so upset about it.  Here's the deal, God is doing something! He has shown Jenn and I His power and His love through ALL of the things we are going through.  He may not necessarily being doing it in the way we think He should or the way He has done for others.

But here's what I know!

God is still with us just like he is with others.  He's going to show and has shown His power in awesome ways! We just seem to be having to step out in the water to see it.