Support Letter for Zambia :)

STUDENT MISSION TRIP 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings! I want to share with you a tremendous opportunity that God has opened up to me to serve Him this summer. I have been accepted as part of a student team that will be going to Zambia, Africa for several weeks in May/June. Partnering with the mission SIM (www.sim.ca) and Scripture Union, we will be working alongside the Zambian volunteers for the APPLE (AIDS Prevention Plus Life Education) project, helping to organize and run their National Youth Camp. We will also go into the schools to teach Bible and Christian sexual values. On the weekends we will serve the local churches and their youth groups in ministry. There may also be opportunities for outreach in a community school for orphans, VBS programs, and ministry through sports.

I am excited about the experience that lies ahead, both for ministry to others and for personal growth as I seek to communicate Christ cross-culturally. We recognize that our service needs to be supported in prayer and so would first ask you to consider joining our team in this regard. I will supply you with a schedule and prayer needs before I leave, and will share with you the blessings of what God accomplishes through us on our return. It would be great to have you minister with us through your prayers for the people of Zambia.

We also have financial needs to cover the airfare, inoculations, room and board, health insurance and ministry costs of this trip. Each team member needs to raise approximately $4000, with half of it in place by the end of February to buy the air tickets. Please consider being a part of this mission team in this regard. If God leads you to participate with financial support, make your cheques payable to “Tyndale Foundation” and note ‘Zambia Trip’ on the memo line. Include a separate note with my name on it for allocation to my account. All donations for the student mission team are tax deductible and will be receipted accordingly.

Thanks in advance for your prayers and financial support. May God richly bless you as you partner with us in this ministry.

In Christ,

 Jeremy Giesbrecht

Mail to: Student Life Dept.

Tyndale University College and Seminary, 25 Ballyconnor Crt., Toronto, ON, M2M 4B3

Not Ready...

So, I was out on a run today, when suddenly it really hit me. I am going to be in Zambia (provided everything works out) in 6 months. That's crazy. Am I ready for this? No. A firm and resounding no. I have a good friend, Courtney Joy, who went to Zambia last summer and if it is a tenth of the craziness (in a good, God way) that she has briefly told me about...then I don't know if I can be ready. However, do I believe God has called me to serve in Zambia for May? Yes. A firm and resounding yes. I have to believe that God will prepare me for what He has called me to do. With this, I need you, the reader, to pray for me. Pray that God would prepare me, break me, restore me, empower me, embolden me, use me. I know He will - I have faith He will! Please pray for me, as God prepares me for a life changing summer. Thanks.

Pride

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. Here's my thoughts from tonight.

Pride - probably one of the greatest struggles in my life. It can be positive. I mean how can you not be proud of something great you do, and take pride in it? But then there is also the negative, the attitude of pride, or of being prideful. Pride puffs us up, and makes us think we are more than we really are. Pride keeps us from obeying God fully. Pride keeps us from doing our devotions, because we think we will do it later. Pride keeps us from coming to God, because we think we can do it on our own. I am so sick of pride.

This is stupid, but I am going to share it, even though i will look like an idiot. So, we were having a dorm event and just playing some video games tonight. I wanted to play Super Smash Bros. for N64 for the first time in years. You need to understand, back when that game first came out, nobody in my circle of friends could beat me. EVER. But tonight was a different story. For one thing, I had not played in years, so I was out of practice; but I will not make excuses - my opponent was good. Needless to say, I lost. And I was genuinely upset. And I should not be. It is a game. A children's game. This is not the only competitive thing I get upset at thought. Sports, board games, card games...you name it. If I can compete and possibly have a sense of pride, I do. This is not good!!!!

So what does it take to combat this? Humility - straight up. God says that He opposes the proud (James 4:6). That means that when I am proud, I am opposed by the one I am supposed to be glorifying because I am opposing Him instead. Not acceptable. However, God also gives us instruction as to how to be humble. Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. You must look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." This does not mean we become door mats and just do whatever someone needs done. It means that we are humble and consider others' needs more important. Obviously, if you are dying and someone asks you to help move a bed or something, your need is more pressing. But for everyday stuff, like buying a meal if you have funds, or considering someone else's emotions before your own, or carrying stuff from someone's car, or holding that door open for just a few seconds more - you can love people, put away your own pride, and consider others more significant.

There are so many reasons, if you live a Christian life, to be humble, but I am just going to touch on one, namely that you have no power, and God is working through you. Ok so the fact is, that you have no power. If you are a Christian, you believe that God created and sustains you. This means these finger muscles I am using to type this, is God given. The eye muscles and brain function you are using to read this, yup, God given. Paul says in Colossians 1:29, "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he so powerfully works within me." Paul was a humble guy - he had to be! He knew that Christ was working within him and that he had absolutely no power. I mean sure, he did incredible things for God, but he knew that it was Christ, and not him. This means we have NOTHING to boast in. Not one thing. We have no power, nothing to boast in! So why is it so hard not to be proud if I can see that it all belongs to God????

I was reading Galatians today, and just one verse hit me hard. Galatians 6:3 says, "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." This means everybody, because it has already been proven that we all think we are something when really we are nothing. This should be so easy. But it's not, at all. It is honestly the hardest thing in my life to deal with. All I can really do is ask God to humble me, and plead with whoever it is that reads this to pray for me. Honestly, I have no answers to anything, I am just trying to glorify God.

Happy Father's Day

Confusing title? Yep. Mostly cuz it's nowhere near Father's Day. But let me explain. This is just my feelings for the day, because I feel I need to write them down. Enjoy :)

So I was doing my devos today, when all of a sudden I just had this great urge to talk to my dad. This is not really me. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad. He showed me what it means to be a man, how to work hard, how to save money, along with so many other things. I am far from perfect on all of these things, but I would like to think that my dad is one of the biggest influences on my life. Anyways, I don't usually get the urge to talk to my dad. I have lived on my own since I was 17, so I am a very independent person. My dad and I talk, but I don't usually miss him or have urges to talk to him. I don't know why today was different.

It may help to know that my dad is not a Christian. He was raised in a Christian home, but I suppose he just fell away from it, like so many people do as they grow older.

So, as my heart was heavy for him today, I got the very strong urge to just call and talk to him. So I did. He was so excited to hear from me. When I say so excited, I mean like ecstatic. My dad, like most men in their 40's and 50's, is not really that emotional, because that generation grew up where it was not really that acceptable for men to show emotions like pain or fear or sadness. They are men, and they don't show these emotions, because that is feminine (realize that I don't believe that, I just say it because it is true. A lot of older men just don't show these emotions, at least in my life). Anyways, he was, to use a modern term, stoked to hear from me. It made me feel great joy to know that my dad missed me too.

There are two things I want to pull from this. First, if you feel you need to call, text, email, FB message or any other form of communication someone, tell them you miss them or love them, DO IT! Seriously, it could make their day or week or month. I know this is a bit sappy, but I have no doubt that whoever it is on your heart would love to hear from you.

Second, since this is a blog about how to glorify God, I want to add that God is our eternal Father. Glorify Him for and in everything. Whether that means you praise Him that you have an amazing earthly dad or that you glorify Him even in times of death and suffering, DO IT! He is the only one you can go to with everything, and He will understand you. He will comfort you. He will break you. He will heal you. He will, in both short and long, love you.

What this means for me today: To glorify God with my life today, I praise God that I have an amazing earthly dad. He is an example, a mentor, a hero in my life. I glorify Him by loving my dad on earth, by honouring my dad on earth, by praying for my dad on earth, by interceding for my dad on earth. I glorify Him with my life so that by my love, my dad might know what true love is, and that he might be saved.

To glorify God...

Wiseman say, "Forgiveness is divine..."

Forgiveness. Three syllables that take us a lifetime to master. One word that is so easy to say with our lips and tongue, but sometimes so hard to mean with our hearts. Take a moment and reflect - has anyone ever done anything to you or someone you love that you have not truly forgiven? Maybe you have said it with your mouth, but do you mean it in your heart? This entry is about just that - how to glorify God with forgiveness not only as an action, but as an ongoing attitude.

Let's face it, if you are a human (and if you are reading this, I assume you are), you will have somebody let you down. Someone will betray you, lie to you, treat you badly, or hurt you in any way possible. And chances are, you will be hurt multiple times by the same person. We are all sinners, and we will be the ones to let others down from time to time, as hard as we try not to, and we will need the forgiveness. But the point is not that we are all sinners. The point is that we are all forgiven, if we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

So how exactly are we to forgive the people who harm us, the people who do us wrong? Well, as the purpose of this entire blog is to figure out what it means to glorify God, so we will turn to the Word of the Living God for direction. We will turn to Ephesians 4:32 for just one piece of Scripture. It says, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."Let's just make this verse clear, so there is no two ways about it. The verse says, forgive one another, in the same way God has forgiven you, in Jesus Christ. How did Christ forgive us? Completely! He did not look down on us and say, "Well, Jeremy, I can forgive you if you lie 500 times, but if you lie 501 times, consider it unforgivable." No! He asked God the Father to forgive the sinners (completely) for they did not know what they were doing. I am pretty sure that more wrong was done to Jesus than will ever be done to any of us, no matter what happens to us. Beaten, betrayed, insulted, spit on, wrongly accused, and ultimately nailed to a cross, have you ever been there? Most likely not, and even if you had, you are a sinner, and Jesus was sinless, so Jesus still took more, and for no reason, other than to save us.

So, back to how to glorify God with this. Here is what I think. I think that some of us are stuck on the idea that forgiveness as just the word. Like saying the words, "I forgive you," will not make you actually forgive that person in your heart. Sure, the other person might feel a bit better once you have said it, but the heart of the matter is still the same. The heart of the matter is, do you really forgive that person?

In my opinion, and I think some people would disagree with this, but I think that forgiving is forgetting. Now, before you get all, "You can't forget when someone hurt you," on me, let me explain what I mean.  I don't mean that when you forgive someone, you become a naive person and just let that person hurt you again. I mean that when you forgive someone, yes you remember what they did, but it no longer matters because you have forgiven that act. So really, you are better off to just forget it all together. I know for a fact that when Jesus forgave all of our sins, He did not say, "I forgive you, but it doesn't change what you did." The fact is, in the sight of God, it does change what we did. We were (and still are) sinful creatures. However, when God views us through the lens of Jesus, we become white as snow. Jesus absorbed all of God's wrath, all of our sin, when He was nailed to the cross. He has forgiven us completely, removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.

So again, what does this mean? It means we forgive others as Jesus forgave us! That means always, in all things, for as many times as it happens to us. It is quite simple. Forgive. Forgive for the glory of God! How amazing does it feel when someone forgives us? It feels awesome, because we have been absolved of that crime in their lives. This is also a great witness. If we can forgive those who constantly hurt us, and the reason is Jesus, they will see that, and they might just respond. If even one were to respond, it would be worth it. So please, forgive to the glory of God. If you need forgiveness, ask, and it shall be given to you. If you need to be the forgiver, remember that Jesus forgave you, even in your worst moment.

Forgive...To glorify God...

Love One Another

Lately, I have been reading through the book of Ephesians. The message is clear - put off your old self (which is evil) and put on the new self (which is Christ). For the sake of this blog, and indeed it is the truth, Christ is love. So really, put on love as your new self.

This is something that I have been struggling with lately. Loving everybody, just as Christ has loved me. That is to say, I need to love everybody unconditionally, just as he loved me, even while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8). What does it mean to love everybody as Christ loves us? Well, if that isn't a huge question, I don't know what is.

The fact is, every single person you will come into contact with today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life, has a soul. Those people you run into are a creation by the Creator. The person who cut you off, the person who said hurtful things behind your back, the person who just cheated on you, the person who just made you angry for the thousandth time this week and you just want to punch that person in the face - these people all have souls. These are God's children - even if they are still sinners who have not yet been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

So, why do I find it so hard to love these people, even if I know that God still loves them, even if they have just committed a huge sin against a Holy God? Let's be honest here, some of you are thinking, as I once did, "How can God still love those people who just murdered a family, or is a child molester, or who keeps getting on my nerves so much that I have thought of murdering someone myself?"

That's the beauty of it. God loved us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. He is not a God that takes a look at my past, present, or future and says, "Well, this guy does some really bad stuff, so I guess I won't love him."He loved me before I was saved, and He loves me still.

Anyways, I digress. Back to the question of "Why do I find it so hard to love the unlovable?" As humans, we can't even love the people who deserve to be loved (Jesus), let alone love those who are against us. Jesus came to save us, and we spat in His face, whipped him till He was a bloody mess, nailed Him to a cross, and let Him die with sinners. We couldn't even love the one that loves us the most. How can we expect that we will love those who hate us?

This is why we look to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith. I, as a filthy sinner, cannot ever hope to love the unlovable. Not by my own power. However, when we look to Jesus as more than the one who saved us, but rather as the one who is still saving us (oh yes, He is still saving us), we will see that we must strive to attain that level of perfection, rather than just our lowly level of sinfulness. I have said before that we will never be perfect, and we will always fall short of Christ. That remains true. However, if we never reach for that level, we will never even become more like Jesus.

To love the unlovable is to forsake the old self, the way of the world. This world wants us to serve ourselves. This world wants me to look out for me, and let others worry about themselves. Jesus says the opposite. Ephesians 5:1-2 says "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

So, as we strive ever forward to become imitators of Christ, let us love as Christ loved us - while we were still sinners.

Love one another, to glorify God...

Generosity

So, the other day, I was at my Grandma and Grandpa's house for supper. They were celebrating my birthday, which was almost 3 weeks ago, but we are both very busy. Needless to say, it was a great meal, with great fellowship, topped off with a great banana split (sorry diet - you took one for the team). But this blog is not about what I eat or don't eat. It's about how to glorify our Creator God, and what that looks like to me.

So before the meal, my grandparents and I were talking, and they were telling me (I don't know why or how this came up) how they were short on money this month because they had dated a check wrong and now they had to pay double for it. Being a good grandson, and humble too, I felt bad for them, and I started thinking about ways to help them out.

DISCLAIMER! Nothing in this post is meant to be prideful. It is simply me telling a story about how my grandparents embarrassed me with their love for Christ, and therefore for me. But this is a good thing. Through gathering those who embarrass you in your faith in God, you strive to become better, not that you can become more like them, but instead more like Christ. More on this later.

So anyways, we continued talking, and then after being acquainted with the Walton family (you should watch it sometime), we sat down for a nice home cooked Mennonite meal. Mennonite sausage from Manitoba, cukes, spaghetti, buns, and fresh picked that day corn on the cob. Delicious to say the least.

When the meal was finished, the burps were through, the toothpicks disposed of, and the stomachs full to bursting, Grandma busts out the banana splits. Oh, the joys of my youth. With this comes a birthday card, which by the way I had seen Grandpa writing when I came in the door. You know when you get a birthday card, and you open it and money falls out, it is awesome right? A hidden blessing for sure. However, this time, I was hoping there was nothing in it, because they had just gotten through telling me how little they had and how they had to scrape by this month. For the first time in my life, I was disappointed to see money fall out of my birthday card as I opened it to read the inside.

Now, this is not to say that I didn't appreciate the gift that they had given me. In fact, at that moment that I opened the card, I was, like I said, embarrassed. I was embarrassed because even they had so little (from what they told me), they still gave me money to celebrate my birthday. I honestly had to fight back the tears just as the realization hit me about the beautiful truth of the Gospel. Jesus had the universe (and still does) when He was in Heaven. Yet He gave it all up to come down to us. He gave it all up to gain me.

Let me say this again. Jesus had it ALL. He gave it ALL up. And then, He died a sinner's death for ME. And He rose again for ME. He also did all of this for YOU. If you are reading this, and you don't know Christ, I just want to say, He loves you. He loves you more than any fallible and sinful human ever will.

Anyways, as I choked back the tears (because I am somewhat prideful and don't like to let people see me cry), I said probably one of the most grateful "Thank You's" I have ever uttered. They didn't know it, and might never, but the thank you was not only to them, but also to my Saviour. You see, in that moment, the reason I was embarrassed was not because of the money. I was embarrassed because of my lack of faith in comparison to theirs. Not that I compare myself to them, but even Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I was reminded of the widow in Luke 20-21, when the widow puts in 2 copper coins to the offering, and that is likely all she has. Yet Jesus says she put in more than anyone there. Isn't that astounding? That we have a God who is so merciful that He treats us not by the amount we give or serve, but rather by the heart behind it. This is our God, and He IS love.

I know that I fall so incredibly short of the Holiness of God. However, I am and will continue to work on it. I will work through my faith. To glorify God, is to be a person of faith - in all things, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Out of the dust

When we think about dust, what do we think? What is it compared to? It is nothing. Dust is nothing when compared to anything else. Compared to even a grain of sand, sand is so much larger in comparison to most dust particles. Dust is nothing.

Recently I was on a boat, riding at the bow of the boat as it splashed through the waves. And when I say the bow, I mean the tip of the boat, my legs hanging off of the edge of the boat. It was amazing. The wind was rushing through my hair like something from some movie. I think if I could make a movie about a boat, I would put someone on the tip of a boat, have him throw his hands to the wind and shout, "I'm the king of the world!" Sounds like a blockbuster to me. Anyways, as I sat there with nature all around me, with so many things that are so much bigger than me, I just marvelled at the greatness of our God.

I mean, in comparison to the lake that I was hovering over, with just a fiberglass shell between me and the vast expanse under me, what was I? It seems that in comparison to God's creation, I am much like the dust. I am nothing. God created every water molecule, every sea creature, every plant, every everything. Yet still God loves me. Yet still God loves you. Take the time and just think of the enormity of the universe. So many planets, stars, moons, even asteroids and space debris that are bigger than the earth. it follows then, that the earth can be compared to dust in comparison to the rest of the universe. If earth is then dust compared to the rest of the universe, that kind of makes us less than dust. Yet still, God loves us.

Recently, I was listening to one of my new favourite bands, Gungor (shout out to Lena Rigby for acquainting me with this band). Seriously, do yourself a favour and listen to these guys if you never have. I was listening to the song "Beautiful Things" and the lyrics of the song are "You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust, You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us."

This is a process of God refining us through trials. That is what this life is. If you have lived any time at all, and I am guessing you are living, since you are reading this post, you know that this life is full of pain, trial, tribulation, and just overall evil. God uses these times of trial to refine us into the people He wants us to be. You see, just as He makes beautiful things out of the dust, He makes beautiful things out of us. No matter what you are going through, God is using it to His glory. If it is sickness, you might be healed for His glory. You also might not, so that you learn to depend on Him more, for His glory. Whatever it is, it is always for God's glory. Even the evil plans that Satan had in the Fall, when he made sin enter into the world, God used for His glory, to send His Son.

 In Romans 5, it says that even while we were weak, even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You have to understand this. he died while we were still imperfect. He did not wait until we cleaned our lives up, till we cleaned up our language or habits or minds. He died for us while we were still sinners, imperfect children of God. If you remember nothing else today, remember that Jesus died for you at the cross, while you were still a sinner. And He died for you today, and even if you are saved, you are still a sinner. However, God is refining us, even through our imperfections. He is making a beautiful things out of us, things that can be compared to dust in comparison to the entirety of His creation.

Let us be refined, to Glorify God...

Epic Winning

So, this blog post is brought to you by Matt Chandler, who put these questions into my mind during a Bible study that we do here every Sunday night at Meadowbrook Fellowship, Leamington, Ontario. The passage is Philippians 3:11-16.

Let me explain this a bit, so you can be up to speed on my thought process through this. Paul is speaking to the churches in Philippi, which he had planted a number of years before. He is saying here, in this passage, that even though we have obtained justification, we have not fully obtained sanctification. Paul is trying to instill in us a sense of longing and yearning for God, a striving to know Him more. Verse 11 says, "That by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

So, what are the means necessary? And am I taking them? Crazy questions, and not easily answered. If I want to pray more, am i surrounding myself with things that make me want to pray more? Or with people who are strong in that area and can help me pray more? What steps am I taking to strive, to toil, to yearn for Christ? And if I am not, should that not be a warning to me? I dare say it should! If we are not toiling to know Christ more on a day to day basis, we've lost. If we do everything else in this world, from digging a ditch to skydiving to being a professional athlete, but we don't know Him more at the end of the day, we have gained nothing. Bill Hybels, in his book "Holy Discontent", describes this as a moment where you just can't stand it anymore (for all you older folks, your Popeye moment). You need to do something about it. You NEED to know God more.

What is it that needs to be done in order that you know God on a more personal level each day? When you know what it is, dive headlong into it. Yeah, it might feel awkward at some points, but God will get you through it. For me, it is prayer. I want to be stronger in this area. But really, if I am honest with myself, I have said this for years. The question is, what am I going to do about it, and when. To know God more through prayer, I need to be around people who are the prayers. I need to ask God to instill this in me, a deep desire to communicate with Him through prayer. You, the reader, can also pray for that for me. I have a friend (you know who you are) who is an amazing prayer. This person is so personal with God, they always refer to God as their Father. They know how to talk to God and be His child. I am not saying that perfect language or anything is ever necessary, but I would love to have a prayer life where I hear from God all the time when I pray. I would like to have a prayer life where I can't wait to pray. Now, I know God is the Father. But do I ever really think of Him as MY Father? Am I really that personal with God that I feel like I could crawl into His lap like I used to with my earthly father when I was a baby? I wish. But that is what I need to do, is get close to those people.

Skipping ahead a bit to verse 13 and 14, Paul says, "But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ." Now what Paul is not saying is that we forget the past. We do not forget the past. However, we do forget and leave behind anything and everything that can rob us of our affections for Christ. This could be good or bad things. There can be an area in your life where you were struggling, and finally you (really, Christ in you), overcame this struggle. And in this, you still find pride, though it might have been ages ago. Forget whatever it is that robs your affections for Christ.

I love Paul because he knows what being an athlete really is. I mean, I have done P90X and am currently doing Insanity, but Paul was a Roman citizen. These guys, back in the day, wrestled each other, ran huge races, and were athletes to the core. If you have read any of Paul's letters, you would quickly figure this out because he talks a lot about running a race and training the body. This is where it ties together.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul explains that all of the runners in the race are in it to win it. Nobody runs in a race and thinks, "Man, I hope I come in last place." If people thought like that, they wouldn't be in a race. It is hard work being in a race. What does running the race in a way to win it look like? Well, like I said, it looks like you leave behind all of the things that rob you of your affections for Christ, and you press on to know Christ more. This is how the race is won. However, like Paul says in the passage, we don't race for something silly like a wreath. We race for eternal life.

We can't just sit back and watch the race happen. We need to be runners in it, always striving, toiling, running towards God. I believe this is where, a lot of times we, as Christians fail. We hear a great message and say, "That was an amazing message." But we never do anything about it! I think it's past time that instead of being spectators in the race of faith, we step up, train hard, and win this race. And this won't come easy. Intimacy with Christ will not fall into your lap. You need to work for it, to want it, to strive for it.

So - let's run this race and win it, to glorify God.

Sorry!

Post coming soon, I promise!

Your worth in salt...

So, it has been almost a month since I have posted. So busy, but youth ministry always is. It has been a fairly productive month, planning for soccer camp, planning talks, prepping for Bible studies, creating prayer cards for the youth summer missions team, the list goes on.

On to the post!

So, to glorify God, what exactly is worth anything? I have, in the past, struggled with weight issues, image issues, people issues, basically any issues you can think of. Always, with these issues comes a sense of "Who am I?" or "How does this define me?". If we think fo these things from a human perspective, we will find that we are let down so often it's ridiculous. However, what does the Bible say about what we are worth?

Recently, I was preparing a talk on Galatians 1:1-10. From verse 1-9, it is basically Paul outlining what the gospel is and how there are false teachers going around and perverting the true gospel, which is that Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died a sinner's death, and rose again from the grave. This is the gospel. Jesus. That's it. Nothing else. That is all we have and really all we should want. (God gives us stuff in our lives because He loves us, but that is another post for another day.) Paul also says that anybody who preaches a false gospel is condemned, that is, he is going to hell.

So what exactly is a false gospel? Simply put, it is anything that adds anything to Jesus. It could be works, or capitalism, or feminism, or circumcision, or giving - once again, the list could go on forever. I have to put a disclaimer here. These are not necessarily inherently bad things. They become bad when we use them as ways to get salvation from God. Here is a simple statement that I have overlooked for so long, and it is so easy to understand. When Jesus was nailed to that cross, he paid it all. ALL. Not most and we do some works and we are saved. All of it. This means your worth needs to come from Him, not from the people you meet or your job or your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend - nobody but Jesus.

So what is with the title of the post? I heard someone say a very cliché phrase today - "If that person was worth their weight in salt..." I know that gets thrown around, but I really thought about that today. Here is the thing, if your worth is not in Jesus, if you don't find your identity in Him, you have no real worth. For all of those who are now offended, here is what I mean.  Do you have worth as a person? Yes. Every person has worth. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about finding your OWN worth. If your OWN worth is not found in God, it is meaningless. In the Bible, King Saul tells of parties where he had to kill a thousand cows just to feed everybody, and bring thousands of barrels of wine for the guests. That's a party! And you know what he says? It's all vanity. It means NOTHING! It has no worth.

Back to the Bible. In verse 10, Paul say this - "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Here is what Paul just said. Am I seeking my worth in man? Or is it in God? If' my worth is in man, it is meaningless. However, because my worth is in Christ, there is huge meaning to it. What Paul does for us here is that he basically both tells us where our worth should be, and also asks if it is there. 


Glorifying God with our worth - what does that mean? It means that no longer are we slaves to silly things like supermodel images, what people say about us, our cars, houses, laptops, cell phones, jobs, none of that garbage. It means we find our worth in Him - and only Him. When we find our worth in Him, I believe we have no worth in salt, but rather our worth in Him is like pure gold.


To glorify God...

Oh, The Humanity!

It's been a few days since i have posted and a few things have happened in the lives of people around me. There have been numerous stories of loved ones battling cancer, loved ones dying, people breaking up, people getting sick. A question that is usually asked when things like this happen is "why?" Why did this person have to go through this at such a young age? Why did this happen to me? Why do I have to go through this and the person who seems to be doing all the wrong things is sitting on his pedestal, seemingly loving life? Why do bad things happen to good people? For that matter, why do bad things happen to anybody? Why? Why? WHY????

Why is a tough question to answer, no matter who you are. However, we are just finite pieces of dust. We don't know all of the big picture. There is no way to possibly know why certain things happen. I mean, sure, science can try to explain why things like cancer and death and sickness and any kind of hurt happens, bu they are missing the point. There is something bigger going on, something that none of us can possibly understand. Here is some good news. The God of the universe knows why. The God that I serve knows why these things happen. He is not surprised by any of them. God knows what is going on everywhere. He does not just wake up one day and say, "Oh look, Jeremy just died. I wonder how that happened..." If He did that, He wouldn't really be God, would He?

Check this out - Jesus, the only begotten Son of God came to earth and lived among us. Jesus was fully God and fully man, a phenomenon known as the hypostatic union. This means that while He was one, He was also the other. It's like being in two places at once, but better. So Jesus, who is and was fully God, came to earth and lived as one of us, setting aside His status as God so that He could be with us. So he could feel like us, taste like us, laugh with us, cry with us, die FOR us. You might be asking yourself where I am going with this. Hang on, I am getting there - I do remember that the aim of this blog is to figure out how to glorify God in all things.

In the book of Colossians, the first chapter talks about the preeminence of Christ (1:15-20) and what this means. Without going into a TON of detail, let me just explain what this means. I am just going to paste the Scripture here so that you can follow along with my train of thought.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1&version=ESV

First of all, it begins by saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. This means that if we want to know who God is, we look to Jesus. Like I explained before, Jesus was fully God and fully man. Next is the important part. Not that it isn't all important, but this is important to fully get what is being said here. Verses 16 &17 say that in Him all things are and were and always will be. All things are held together by Him. This means that all things, good and bad, whether we see them or not, are made for His glory. This means that nothing happens that He does not know about and that it is all for His glory. Sickness, death, cancer, heartache, He knows it all. He experienced it all when He was on earth. Finally, it says that He is the head of the church and that all of God was pleased to dwell within Him, and that Jesus sacrificed himself to make peace between God and those who believe, by the cross.

Let me tie this all together. The purpose of this blog is to figure out how to glorify God in everything. I am not going to sugar coat this. This includes all of these bad things that I have mentioned. This means we glorify Him in the good an the bad. So how do we glorify God through all the bad things? How do we glorify God through all of the "why's" in our lives? Well, and this is easier said than done, we lay it before God. We lay it at the feet of King Jesus. Jesus knows what is going on. Once again, Jesus lived through this stuff. If it is all for His glory, then we should be able to glorify God through everything. This does not mean that we should never be sad or angry or upset. Jesus cried, got angry, and was upset with His disciples more than once. This means that through these emotions, we glorify God. A friend and I were talking about this the other day, which is what sparked this blog entry. She said, "Instead of why, we should ask "how"." How can God be glorified in this situation? How can I glorify God with how I am feeling? How can God be attempting to show me his glory through this?

You see, it's not about why bad things happen. It's about how, even through these trials, we can glorify God. There will always be another trial to get through, to the day that eventually we die, and then that gives a trial to our loved ones. If we go through life asking God why, we will miss His greater picture of the glory that He is trying to show us. So, if you are going through a trial today, tomorrow or next year, remember that it is ultimately for God's glory. Remember that all things are held together by Him and that He has you in His very capable hands. To glorify God...

Sacrifice

This past week has been a very interesting week for me to say the least. I had to give up something that was great in my life. But the reason I had to give it up was so that somebody else could further glorify God. Now, if you have ever been in this predicament, you know that it is a bittersweet feeling. You know you want to glorify God in all that you do, but you know that you don't want to let go of something that you thought was in God's will and also something that makes you happy. Recently I was leading a Jr. High small group and we were talking about Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make, even though it was his only son. Think about giving up something so important to you that you know you could not stand to let it go. You would hate it wouldn't you? Now think about giving it up to glorify God. Does it make it any more appealing? If your answer was no, then in my opinion, you are not of the right mindset to even be sacrificing. However, if your answer was yes, then it is truly in your heart that you want to please God in everything you do. Making sacrifices to God will not always be easy, and I am not saying that you will always enjoy it. However, the pleasure that your true sacrifices bring to God should make you want to do it all the more. It is not about the sacrifice. If it were, it would be about you. It is about the heart behind the sacrifice. This makes it about God and about an act of worship rather than an act of religion and legalism. It is so easy to say the words to God..."I surrender." However, the action that follows is not easy. The action is what makes it count. The action is what gives it meaning. The action shows whether it has truly been laid at His feet or whether it was laid there for a moment but then picked back up again the moment we feel it is out of our hands and out of our control. Jesus does not want our words (our burnt offerings) He wants our hearts, because out of the heart flows what is really meaningful to the person. We also need to think of the ultimate sacrifice that both Jesus the Son, and God the Father made when Jesus came to earth and laid down his life as a living sacrifice for our iniquities. Can any earthly sacrifice we make even begin to compare to this? NO! Then why do we find it so hard to sacrifice things that will eventually fade? Why is it that we can't just glorify God in everything we do? Why is it that we keep on doing the wrong we know we should not be doing, when the good that God wants us to do is so much more important? This is part of this struggle. Why can't I just glorify God and lay it all at his feet? The lyrics of Carl Cartee in his song "Honestly" best describes how I feel. "Could I let go of all that you've given, if it meant that it all would be yours? Could I sit at your feet and forget about me, and remember what I'm here for?" It is all His! None of it is ours. Not our hard earned money. Not our time. Not our lives. So why, if God sacrificed His only son, can we not sacrifice stuff that doesn't even belong to us? I think to glorify God in everything, we need to realize that nothing we have is ours. Nothing we do is by our strength. Only when we come to this very humbling realization can we truly lay it all at His feet. Only then can we glorify Him in true sacrifice. This is not to say we need to be perfect or anywhere close to it to make true sacrifice. Far from it! This is saying that when we realize that it is by Him that we do all things will we be able to have the strength through Him to lay it down. Permanently.

What does it mean?

What does it mean to glorify God in everything we do? Honestly, I have no idea. But through blogging throughout the summer and growing at the same time, hopefully I can shed some light on this. There will be sometimes where there is just a poem. There will be some weeks that go by and there is nothing posted. However, I hope to post as often as I can, so that I can keep up with this crazy summer and so can you. Now, if you are reading this, you might be thinking, what do I care about how his summer goes? Well, in all reality, you just might not. But this is my blog, so I will post whatever I want :P. Anyways, if you do find yourself reading this, I would appreciate your input as well. A lot of the hard stuff in life is learned through debating and learning from each others' mistakes. By all means, comment - though please try to avoid bashing other people. The whole idea of this blog is to try to figure out what glorifying God in everything can look like. Whether it is going on a missions trip, or just flying a kite, or talking to friends over coffee or going to a baseball game, it is important that we glorify God through everything. Recently I heard a sermon that said something like "just to enjoy the gifts that God gave us is an act of worship in itself. We don't always need to say God or Jesus or Holy Spirit or bring them into conversations to glorify them." This was so interesting to me because it really changed the meaning of the question "What does it mean to glorify God with everything I have?" So, that was the basis of me wanting to start this blog. Hopefully, though I am going to say I doubt it because God is so infinite we can't even fathom it, by the end of this summer I can have some sort of grasp of what it means to glorify God in everything. It is also my prayer that through this you would all be blessed and understand more in your own life what it means to glorify God. Everyone WILL be different, so if I say something that doesn't fit your life exactly, try something else. Or if someone else says something to the same effect, these posts are NOT direct attacks on anybody ever. Hence being able to glorify God in all things :P Anyways, that's it for this post. If you have any ideas of what I could write on or a question, just email me. May the blessings of God be upon you wherever this finds you.