Failed First Dates and Jesus

“I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about, but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it.” – Bob Goff (Love Does)

 
When I first met Morgan she really didn’t want much to do with me. I didn’t know who she was prior to us meeting, but she knew about me from years earlier when I had been less than mature to say the least. When I first asked her out she let me know that her opinion of me was (on a scale from her head to her toes) somewhere below her feet. Talk about an uphill battle.

 
When she eventually agreed to go out with me I figured this was my chance. I thought about taking the safe road and taking her out to coffee. Or maybe I could go even safer with a movie and hope that the not talking or looking at each other could pass for chemistry. Neither of those ideas sat well with me.
At the encouragement of a friend I had just finished reading Love Does by Bob Goff. It’s really a simple book. It doesn’t pretend to be scholarly or a theological masterpiece. Essentially, it’s a collection of stories from Bob’s life that taught him about who Jesus is and who He wants us to be as His people. You could probably read it cover to cover in a couple days without much trouble if you wanted to, but the simplicity that makes it easy to read is also what makes you want to take your time.
The book’s title sums up its contents very simply: “Love Does.” Every time I would mention the title my friend Emaurie would jokingly reply with “Love does what?” And as funny (or lame) as that joke is, I think that’s the point of the book. We spend much of our lives trying to figure out how to love God or people and often times we fail to do anything.

Love takes action.
It’s not worried about being embarrassed.
Love leaves it all on the playing field.

When I started reading it I was just getting over the most serious relationship I had been in yet. One of those relationships that feel like you put everything into and then not only does the rug get pulled out from under you, but there’s actually a trap door underneath the rug that you somehow fall into as well. At the same time, I was also (unknowingly) only a few weeks away from meeting the most amazing woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. I love when God prepares us for things before we ever suspect they’re about to happen.

Fast forward to my dilemma about where to take Morgan (previously referred to as “the most amazing woman I’ve ever laid eyes on) on our first date. I remembered that she liked to ride bikes but didn’t have one of her own around here. I didn’t have any bikes either so I borrowed a couple from a friend and hid them down by a bike trail to surprise her with what I was sure would be the best first date ever.
When I picked Morgan up she told me that she was so tired from work that she almost just canceled the date.

Perfect, off to a great start already.

I think I thought that seeing bikes might get her excited and give her some energy so I stuck with the plan. We got down to the trail and I showed her the bikes and told her what the plan was: bike for an hour or so and then ride over to a pizza place down the street for dinner. She gave me a look that I’ve come to know and love:

Yea that’s not happening…

We ended up walking for 5 minutes before finding a bench and sitting down to talk for 20 minutes. After an awkward lull in the conversation I suggested we go get pizza hoping that would help.

It didn’t.

All in all “best date ever” lasted a little over an hour and ended with “I think I just want to go home and go to sleep (at 7:30 PM).”
I was surprised she agreed to a second date the next day… only to find out she just wanted to let me know she wasn’t interested in dating me. I had read Bob’s book though, so I wasn’t about to give up quite that easily. Something in her voice told me I still had a chance and I wasn’t about to miss it.
Over the next 5 months she told me no way three different times, and for some reason every time I knew it was only temporary and I got more and more bold in expressing how I felt about her. We started dating in October and this past Friday I asked Morgan to marry me, a little less than a year after the biggest fail of a first date.

You can ask Morgan and she’ll be sure to tell you that us being together has nothing to do with me being smooth. If it depended on that I would’ve been doomed. I said and did more awkward things than I care to mention. I made a fool of myself on more than one occasion. I didn’t do a lot of things right. But I showed her the real me, flaws and all, and I showed her that I loved her enough to do something about it regardless of how I looked.

This in no way makes me an expert on dating or relationships. Our relationship and the way I pursued Morgan was not and is not perfect. But this is what I’ve learned from reading Bob’s book and through this process:

I haven’t posted anything on this blog since September not so much because I didn’t have time but because I couldn’t get the perfect post put together. I’ve actually written several different posts through the fall, winter, and now into spring but never pulled the trigger on any of them. Some of them I never quite finished. Some of them I finished but just wasn’t in love with them so they’ve just sat on my desktop. Honestly, that can be incredibly frustrating. Writing is something I love to do but when I don’t do it well or don’t feel confident in what I’ve written, sometimes I just scrap it and start over.
I think we do this so often as Christians in our worship to the Lord. We are afraid to step out in faith because we’re waiting for things to be perfect before we do anything. We plan and plan and plan to reach into our communities as the Body of Christ and then muster only one or two events a year. Jesus didn’t wait for the perfect opportunity, He created opportunities. That is what walking in faith is all about. That is what love does.

Loving your wife (or anybody for that matter) is not about being perfect from the start but about doing things for her and in the process perfecting that love.

Loving God is the same way.

He doesn’t need your perfection. Jesus already covered that for us. He wants hearts that trust Him completely and lives that demonstrate that trust.

How are you loving God?

Does your love for Him motivate you to do something about it?

If not it might just be empty religion.

India 2013 Overview

 As-salam alaykum (Peace be upon you)!

I hope you are all doing well!  I made it back to the States from India a little over 4 weeks ago and seem to now be fully adjusted back to my everyday life here once again.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout this trip and process of making it all happen!  It truly could not have happened without you.

The two weeks that our team was able to spend in India were awesome, exciting, long, hard, fun, inspiring, informative, revealing… and just about every other adjective you can think of.  I’ll do my best to explain in the next few paragraphs what I mean by that but I would love to talk with any of you individually if you want to hear more or ask questions!

The majority of our time was spent in and around Delhi, the capital city of India.  Delhi is an interesting place, one minute you can think you never left the U.S. except for all of the Indians walking around, and the next you find yourself in the most crowded, dirty, and foreign feeling streets you’ve ever been in.  Our first few days we stayed in Old Delhi, which proved to be the latter of those two extremes.  Old Delhi felt like someone just stacked three cities on top of each other.  Apartment buildings are often built no more than a foot or two a part, the power lines look like a ball of yarn that’s been tormented for hours by more than a couple cats, and the smell of garbage and other unmentionable smells permeates the air.  And on top of that the streets seemed like an endless sea of humanity.  It’s so crowded there that the streets don’t quiet down until around 2am and even then they start up again 4 hours later.  The sights, the sounds, even the smells got me excited as we stepped out onto the street the first morning we were there.

While in Old Delhi we were blessed to visit Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India.  We spent much of out time in and around it talking with people, praying over them, prayer walking through the courtyard and in the streets around it.  It was an amazing introduction to India and what God had for us over the next two weeks.

A couple days into our time there we made a day trip to Ghaziabad, a suburb/city located just outside Delhi.  This city of about 1 million people, 50% of which are Muslims, is one of the more unreached areas around Delhi as there are no known believers or workers there.  No one on our team had ever been to Ghaziabad before so we didn’t really have any idea of where we should go or what we should do there.  Our heart for this trip was make a concerted effort to talk with Muslims (although in the end we would talk to anybody who wanted to talk) so we asked our auto driver to drop us off in a Muslim neighborhood.  A little confused, he agreed and soon we found ourselves in the heart of the city in a small neighborhood that seemed more like village than anything else.  Everything was a little slower this far away from the highway.  There were more livestock and wooden carts and less rickshaws and cars.  Everyone wanted to talk to us as we walked through the streets but nobody was trying to sell us anything like the other places we had been.  In fact, they were just giving us things, mostly chai and food.  We made slow progress down the first street as every 10 yards or so we would be pulled into another family’s house to sit and drink chai with them.  Because this area was fairly poor almost no spoke English well enough to carry on a decent conversation with them, but that didn’t seem bother them.  They were just excited to have us there.  I’m convinced that some of the kids there had never seen a white guy before except for maybe on TV.  What was even more surprising was that many of the people we were able to communicate with there had never even heard of Jesus.  They had no idea who He was!  We had figured that in this city of a million, people would have at least heard it mentioned once or twice, especially because He is a major prophet in Islam.

But my favorite moment in Ghaziabad came when a guy with a shotgun told us to follow him into a building.  We nervously agreed and found ourselves a few minutes later sitting with the neighborhood religious leaders, including the local Imam.  We ended up sitting with them for about 40 minutes as they served us chai and homemade ice cream.  None of them spoke much of any English and our Urdu ran out after about 10 minutes so we spent most of remaining time praying over them while we sat with them.  In the end I asked the Imam if we could all pray together and he excitedly agreed and immediately closed his eyes and lifted his hands upwards in typical Islamic fashion.  The rest of the men with him followed suit and our team had the privilege in leading them in prayer to Jesus!  They obviously didn’t understand most of what we prayed but we weren’t really bothered by that.  We knew that our words were seeds that God was using to plant His kingdom in that neighborhood, regardless of what language they were spoken in or who understood what.

This was what we came to realize was the heart of our trip: planting seeds of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God in places where none had previously been planted.  Over and over during our time India God reminded us that we are carriers of His presence.  Where ever we go the presence of the one true God goes with us.  When we understand that we begin to recognize the authority we have in the spiritual realms even when we don’t speak much of the language.  Isaiah 55 says that God’s Word is like rain that comes down and waters the other and never returns to where it came from but always accomplishes what its supposed to (watering the earth).  In The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson writes that prayers are seeds that are planted and that they always bear fruit in the end.  As we prayed over these streets and people we know that we were planting seeds of the Gospel and that one-day those seeds will grow and produce fruit and establish the Kingdom of God.  Jesus was very clear in John 14:13-14 that whatever ask under His will and authority He would do.  It’s such an amazing feeling to walk through spiritually dark places like Hindu temples and Sufi shrines knowing that you bring the presence of the one true God and every demon and evil spirit there trembles when we pray because we’re praying and speaking under the authority of Jesus.

In India there are so many people that don’t even have a mental grid for who Jesus is because they’ve never even heard His name.  As a result there is a lot of seed planting and foundation work that has to be done as the Kingdom of God is established there.  Here in the States so much of that has already been done by others who have gone before us.  Sure there are obstacles unique to our Western culture, but what would it look like if we finally realized just how saturated our culture has been with truth and began walking in the authority of Jesus to reap His harvest?

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers for this trip!  You have each been more of a blessing than you will probably ever know.  I hope you realize that because of your efforts on my behalf, the Gospel was explained to people that had never heard of it before.  You have helped in building the Kingdom of God in India!  If you would like to hear more details about what we did please don’t hesitate to email me, text me, or call me.  If you’re in the Lynchburg area I would love to get coffee with anyone of you to talk more about it.  Just let me know! Below are a couple pictures from our trip for you to take a look at! For more pictures you can go to www.jeremystone.org/indiapictures!

The Team: (L to R) Jamie, Joe, Jordan, me, Lydia
Photo by Joe Murray http://www.thevisualadvocate.com

I Used To Wish I Was A Junkie

I sat on the edge of my seat, my arms resting on the pew in front of me.  In my mind, every inch that I stretched my ear closer to the guy with the microphone meant that I could hear him better.

And I definitely wanted to hear him.

He was a part of a Christian rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge and was talking about how he had been addicted to cocaine.  His addiction had gotten so bad that his girlfriend kicked him out of the house and he began living on the street stealing food and money to buy more crack with.  Eventually, he was arrested for possession and as a part of his punishment he was sent to Teen Challenge.  He continued on about how he had been so against Christianity and Jesus but the love of the counselors and other guys around him eventually broke down his walls and he was finally able to accept the love God had for him.  To date he was 10 months clean.

Now that’s a testimony, I thought.

At the time I don’t think I even knew what cocaine was or did, except that it was bad for you.  I secretly hoped that one day I’d be able to have a testimony like that.  In fact, even when I got older, I would think of ways that I could emphasize parts of my life that would make me seem “more hardcore” so that my testimony would be more powerful.

Two weeks ago, I called a friend to ask if they would share their testimony at our churches Easter sunrise service.  They somewhat sheepishly responded that their testimony wasn’t really exciting but they’d share if I really wanted them to.  I’ve heard this qualification over and over again in the years that I’ve been following Jesus.  We try to warn to people to set their expectations low when we’re sharing our testimony because our salvation wasn’t really epic.  We foolishly think that in order to have a good testimony it has to include one or more of the following:

1. Drugs or Alcohol
2. Lots of sex (outside of marriage of course)
3. Near death experiences
4. More tattoos than you can count
5. Jail time

The fact is it’s not true.

We sensationalize other people’s testimonies of how they encountered God so much that we begin to take our own for granted.  We find ourselves wishing we had cooler and edgier stories to tell and we essentially turn our backs on what Jesus has done for us.

Paul does a great job of reminding us of the truth in Ephesians 2.

“Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).”

Every testimony is a story of someone being dead and then being brought to life, and these stories have only been made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  I was struck, recently, with the realization that each of the four Gospels in the Bible are personal testimonies from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about who Jesus is and what he did.  Of the three of them, Matthew was probably the only one with an “edgy” testimony from his days as a tax collector, but their testimonies are a part of the most read book in the history of the world and God has used them to change millions upon millions of lives.

Do you want to know why it doesn’t matter how cool your testimony is?

(Yes, Jeremy, please tell me!)

Because it was never about you.

We’ve made sharing testimonies a point of pride and status.  This is not to take anything away from those that have radical testimonies such as the man at the beginning of this post.  But testimonies have become more about us than about pointing to God.

There is no degree of sin.  Being a drug addict is no more sinful than lying when your mom asked you if you took a cookie from the cookie jar is.  Before God all sin is the same, and sin deserves death.

You deserved death.

But Christ took your punishment and made you alive for eternity.

I hope that I never get over the power of my salvation.  It should be so important to me that I have to share it all the time.  In reality, I can’t remember the last time I’ve shared it with anybody.  So here goes…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

My name is Jeremy.  I’ve been selfish and proud.  I’ve done my best to convince people I don’t care what they think about me, but the truth is my identity has been far too wrapped up in other’s opinions of me.  Like most guys I’ve objectified women over and over again.  I’ve used relationships of all kinds to get what I want or think I need, be it physical or emotional affection and attention.  Like many others, I used to struggle with pornography.  I’ve cursed like a sailor when nobody’s looking and even sometimes when they were.  I’ve been rude and self-absorbed and used being tired as an excuse.  I’ve been a hypocrite a lot.  I could go on and on.

I deserved death.

“But God, being rich in mercy… even when I was dead in my sin, made me alive in Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Jesus took the punishment for my lust, my pride, my insecurities, and my failures when He died on the cross, and gave me new and eternal life when he rose back to life three days later.  The impossible is now possible and for me that means a new start.

It’s not cool for me to admit my sin.  It doesn’t make me feel good about myself.  What it does do is speak of the incredible love and mercy of God and that’s purpose behind it all anyways (Ephesians 2:7).

What’s your story?

Light and Darkness: God Made What?

Waking up at 2 in the morning, I felt like I had just spent a week in the desert without a drop of water.  I rolled (fell) out of bed and clumsily felt my way to the bathroom to get a drink.  Instinctively, I turned on the light, and almost fell over at the brightness.  I sat there for a good couple of minutes crouched down with my face in my hands until my eyes slowly adjusted and the spots I was seeing dissolved into nothing.

My friends and I used to do something we called “star tipping” when were in college.  We would go out into a dark field at night and would take turns looking up at the stars and spinning around as fast as we could.  After about 10 seconds somebody would jump in front and shine a flashlight at them.  In most cases they would get instantly disoriented and fall over.  It was always a good laugh to take our minds off our classes.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about light and darkness and where they intersect.  For the most part I’ve always viewed light and darkness as opposites.  One denotes the presence of something, while the other denotes the absence of that same thing.  John uses light and darkness has a metaphor heavily throughout the gospel he wrote.  John 1:5 famously explains that the light shines in the darkness but the darkness couldn’t overcome it.  The Amplified Bible adds that darkness has not put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it.  This verse (and chapter) has shaped the way we view light and darkness.  There is no middle ground, only shock and awe when the light gets turned on.

I recently read a verse that has begun to change my perception of the subject.  It’s not that I’ve taken back what I professed to believe before, but I think my understanding of light and darkness has begun to be filled out, like a balloon being filled with air so that it takes on its intended form.

In Isaiah 45:3 God tells Cyrus, His anointed one, that he is giving him hidden treasures (literally treasures in darkness).  Not only that, but a few verses later God says that He created both light and darkness (verse 7).

Wait, God created darkness?  I thought darkness was the absence of God’s light/presence?

But God says very plainly and clearly that He is the one that created the darkness, and on top of that, that He hid treasures in the darkness.  Let that sink in.  God has hidden treasures in the darkest places of the world, the places we would be least likely to look for them.

Proverbs 25:2 – “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”

Could it be that God has hidden things in darkness so that we could find them?  As followers of Jesus we consider everything outside of Christianity as darkness and for a long time I thought it was our duty to overcome that darkness, to conquer it and replace it with the Kingdom of God.  I’m slowly learning that this is only true in part.

John didn’t say that God sent Jesus into the world to conquer it or to assert his dominance over it.  He said that Jesus came “to save the world” (John 3:17).  He came to redeem the world.  Despite all of our sins and failures we have still been made in God’s image, and Jesus came to redeem His image within us.

Over the last year I’ve become more and more interested in reaching Muslims with the Good News of Jesus.  This interest has led me to read book after book on Islamic traditions and culture, and to talk to whoever will listen about it.  I’ve found that Islam contains a lot more of Christianity than I ever imagined possible.  The first of half of the Quran reads like Genesis and parts of the Old Testament.  Muslims are actually commanded to read the Gospels of the Christian Bible and to follow the teachings of Jesus.  I could go on and on about the similarities found between Christianity and Islam; and while I believe that Islam is incomplete and that following Islamic traditions will not get you to Heaven, it is also not the “anti-Christianity” that I once thought it was.  A year ago I was under the impression that a Muslim would have to reject almost everything they believed in order to be saved.  If I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a Muslim I probably would have gone in with a spiritual wrecking ball and tried to disprove everything that he thought was true, and I probably would’ve done more harm than good.

Islam is incomplete as it stands now, without the knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God and the world’s Savior.  That does not mean that it does not contain truth.  What if God has hidden His truth, His light, His treasure in the darkness of Islam?  What if God has not called us to defeat other systems of belief, such as Islam, but to redeem the truth He has hidden in them?

Think about the way that Jesus came into the world to redeem it; how He has called us to follow in His footsteps.  Let this truth propel you into the darkness, not to destroy it, but to redeem it for the glory and honor of Jesus.

Please let me know your thoughts, if you have any constructive criticism or anything to add.  I would love to hear from you and learn from what God is teaching you!

Love Does: Starbucks, a Homeless Man, and Spare Change

I pulled into a spot in front of Starbucks, wondering how crowded it would be just after lunchtime.  I had arrived early so I could be sure to snag a table for the meeting I had in a few minutes.  The store was surprisingly empty with only a handful of students quietly studying in opposite corners.  I spied out a table against the far wall and sat down, keeping an eye on the door for the new friend I was meeting.  A few more students wandered in and sat down, followed by an elderly couple out on an early afternoon date.

Checking the time on my phone, I instinctively started checking my Facebook when somebody walking in caught my eye.  He was an older man with a long, white beard.  The hair sticking out from underneath his hat was unkempt and his clothes were noticeably dirty and worn.  As he walked in, he began handing out small pieces of paper, not much larger than business cards, to everyone in the store.  Printed on one side was the alphabet for sign language and on the other it simply said “I am deaf and out of work and am selling these cards for 50 cents to support my family.”

I immediately checked my wallet to see if I had any cash.  When I came up empty I looked and him and apologized, gesturing that I had no money on me.  He took the card back out of my hand and made his way through the rest of the customers collecting at most a couple of dollars.  I felt guilty for not being able to help him. He didn’t seem upset at me, but the look on his face told me that he was all too familiar with this kind of rejection.  When I was younger I would’ve hesitated to give money to somebody else.  After all, it was mine and how did I know that they were going to spend wisely?  Thankfully I’ve grown out of that immaturity, and this time I really had no money on me to give him, but I still felt like an opportunity was slipping through my hands.  Just then my friend walked in and rescued me momentarily from my thoughts.

The day before, I had interviewed for a new job within my department.  The job description was simply to make sure that all student athletes at Liberty University were eligible to compete according to the NCAA’s academic standards.  During the interview, my interviewers said that the job wasn’t simply to tell students yes or no but to help them become eligible if they weren’t already.  I was told that the moment it is discovered that a student is ineligible is not the end of that case but rather the beginning.

On my way back to the office from Starbucks God brought these two experiences together for me.  I realized that as Christians, our inability to meet another person’s need should not be the end of the conversation, but the beginning.  Often I’m so quick to look for a good excuse out of helping people that I stop at the first potential road block.  Romans 12:9-11 comes to mind, where Paul says “Let love be genuine.  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  Love one another with brotherly affection.  Outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”  Jesus said that whatever we do to the lowest people in our social structures it is as if we are doing it for and to Him (Matthew 25:40).  If Jesus was asking for a mere 50 cents what would we do to get it for Him?

While I was processing through this, I glanced down at my console and remembered that I had a whole ashtray full of loose change, easily worth $10.  Bob Goff wrote a book titled Love Does.  I have actually not gotten the chance to read it yet, but the title has already spoken volumes to me.

Love does.

Simple.  Succint.  And loaded with meaning.

Let our inability to meet the needs of those around us propel us into finding someone or something that can.

Nothing is impossible with God, and no need is too small for Him.

To Worship Leaders and Worshippers Alike

A little while ago a friend of mine (and fellow worship leader) wrote an article about what it was like to have gotten his Bachelors in Worship Studies at Liberty U.  It was a really passionate piece complete with dramatic pauses and emphatic whispers.  He talked about how everybody told them a worship degree was useless and it would never do him any good, but that he and his co-worship leaders-to-be just kept their heads down and kept working at and honing their craft.  Finally his crescendo  driven storytelling ended with a declaration that boiled down to “Look at me now!  I’m a worship leader and I’m using my degree.  How do you like them apples?”

Ok he didn’t quite say that, but in all honesty that was the tone that came across.  Oddly, it sounded fairly similar to Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech.  A speech that left everybody in the room a little uncomfortable because it was obvious that even after proving all of his doubters wrong from middle school on, Jordan still had a chip on his shoulder.  When I finished reading my friend’s article I didn’t laugh at how overly dramatic it was.  I knew that he meant it with all of his heart, and that’s what saddened me.  I think, at least in writing that blog, he had missed the point of being a worship leader entirely.

In the first draft of this blog I went on to share about my experiences as a worship leader for almost 4 years at Lynchburg Church of God, but I found myself getting caught up in explaining how much work and effort go into being a worship leader, missing the very point that I am trying convey in writing this.  In the future, I may write more about the process that I go through every week as a worship leader, and some tips that I’ve learned over the last few years; but today all I will say is that being a worship leader takes work, more work than most people realize, and it should.  The Bible is very clear about reaping what you sow, both for good and for bad.  It is not my hard work as a worship leader that earns any kind of favor or grace from God, but he definitely honors our hearts when we determine to pursue him with all that we are.  And pursuing God takes effort and work.  Don’t get me wrong, it is some of the most enjoyable work that I have ever found myself doing, but that doesn’t mean it is easy.

I’m sure there are some that think that I, much like my friend, have exaggerated what I do as a worship pastor, and I’m ok with that.  My worth and my security aren’t found in whether people approve or disapprove of what I do and say.  Of anybody, those involved in Christian ministry should know this to be true.

This past week I have been reading through the book of John and I was convicted once again as I read about John the Baptist, specifically his response to Jesus’ coming.  John dedicated his life to telling people about their Messiah, who was coming soon.  He developed a following of disciples that he essentially mentored and poured into as much as he could.  John was constantly talking about how he wasn’t the Messiah but that the Messiah was coming soon and that he wasn’t even worthy to untie this man’s shoes (John 1:26).  When Jesus finally does show up John puts his money where his mouth is and defers entirely to Him, saying “I need to be baptized by you” not the other way around.  Later on, Jesus walks by John and his disciples, and John points to Him and just says “Look!  The Lamb of God” and his disciples leave him and follow Jesus immediately.

As I read this I was reminded that just like John, my goal/job/responsibility is to point others to Jesus.  I’m quick to quote John and say “He must increase and I must decrease” but when it means that I get lost in the midst of it all, it’s a tough pill to swallow.  John understood what his role was.  He wasn’t offended that his disciples left.  He recognized that his job had been done as far as they were concerned.  John wasn’t preaching about the Messiah so that people would complement him on his passion or on how he wore his camel skin.  He was preaching about the Messiah to prepare the hearts and minds of the people for Him.

Being a worship leader has never been about people appreciating what you do.

It’s never been about anybody affirming our choice of career or educational specialization.

It’s always been about people experiencing God as we fade into the background.

It’s always been about pointing people past us and to the God who is greater than anything or anyone else.

One last note…

We speak a lot about how worship is not confined to being expressed through music and lyrics.  Our lives should be lived as worship to our God.  In this way, we are all worship leaders, using our lives and our love to point this world it’s Savior.  How we worship Monday through Saturday is of far more importance than the songs we sing on Sunday morning.  In fact, the extent of our worship on Sunday is determined by the extent of our worship throughout the week.

Post-Christmas Thoughts

The cold December air poured into the car, giving me a much needed slap in the face to keep me awake as I drove north on I-95. The glow from the New York City lights could still be seen in the rearview mirror. I stepped on the gas and plunged deeper into the dark road ahead. My friend, Paul, was out cold in the seat next to me, snoring like nobody’s business.

I turned up the music to drown him out and started drumming along with the song on my steering wheel. I really needed some coffee or caffeine but I was determined not to stop again until we got to Paul’s house in Rhode Island. If I could just stay awake until it began to get light, I’d be fine. I kept telling myself that over and over again.

“Just a little bit longer and it will be light out.”

“Pretty soon I won’t need my headlights.”

“Come on, Jeremy. You can do this!”

(Sidenote: I talk to myself to stay awake when I’m driving, saving lives one awkward conversation at a time.)

All of the sudden I realized that it was light out.

It kind of snuck up on me. It didn’t get light all at once with a big flash, but before I knew what was happening, I no longer needed my headlights. With renewed energy I stepped on the gas (never exceeding the speed limit of course…), knowing that it was downhill from here. I finally got home to Sagamore Beach around 7am, just in time to see the sun rise over the ocean. It was honestly one of the prettiest sunrises I’ve ever seen. You might look at the picture (below) and think that you’ve seen prettier, but you didn’t drive in the dark for 10 hours waiting with desperate anticipation for the sun to come up. That perspective changes things.

I think we are often guilty of viewing the birth of Christ with a similarly incomplete perspective.  We forget the desperate longing for their Savior that Israel lived with for hundreds of years.  We take the prophecies about Jesus from Isaiah and neglect to put them in the context of the day they were written.

Israel was a captive nation, longing for the freedom they once knew.  When Isaiah 9 was written it offered a very real hope to them.  They began to look for the coming of their Messiah.  Put yourself in their shoes.  Every time a baby boy was born his parents would wonder if maybe he would be the one to set them free.  There was an expectation of freedom and deliverance that kept the nation of Israel going throughout their captivity.

“Just a little while longer and it will be light out.”

Then in an average looking barn, to average looking parents, with average looking shepherds nearby, a baby was born.

Light began to break through the darkness.

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world… but the world did not recognize him.” (John 1:9-10)

The people that had prayed for, sung about, pleaded with God to send their Messiah didn’t know what was happening, even as the light grew stronger.  Just like the morning light where there is no dividing line to say it’s completely dark one minute and light the next, the Light of the World slipped in largely unnoticed.

Now take the story of Simeon, who spent his life waiting for the Messiah.  The Holy Spirit had told him that he would not die until he saw the Savior of his people, but there was no further time table given.  Simeon was just waiting indefinitely, holding on to the promise of God.  He was in the temple when Mary and Joseph came to dedicate Jesus and when Simeon laid eyes on him, he knew exactly who he was.

“Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.’” (Luke2:28-32)

My drive through the night is a great metaphor for what Simeon went through.  He was holding on to the promise of light and life even though he wasn’t sure when exactly it would come.  He just knew that it would come.  The birth of Christ has so much more meaning in the context of Simeon’s life.  The sunrise is best understood and appreciated after a long, dark night.  Experiencing darkness gives us a new and profound understanding of light.

I know that Christmas has already come and gone.  Most have already taken down their decorations and life has gone back to normal.  I wanted to write this earlier but I couldn’t ever seem to put it into words.  But the birth of Christ and story of Christmas is not just for the month of December.  It’s story that should be read and re-read all year long.

The story of Christmas, the story of Simeon reminds of us God’s faithfulness and hope. Whatever journey you’re in the midst of, whatever story is being written in your life right now, keep your eyes firmly fixed on the promises of God for your life.  He will always come through and do what He has said He will do.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2)

“No Story Is Worth Dying For”

I generally keep a close on eye on CNN’s website throughout the day. During my undergrad years I was in a pretty sheltered bubble of zero national and international news except what I saw on ESPN or when I walked by I newspaper stand. Since that time I’ve bookmarked a couple of news websites on both my work and personal computers in an effort to always be in the loop. Generally I focus my attention on the world news sections, as I’m more interested in 3rd problems than 1st world ones (#firstworldproblems).

Today I stumbled upon a video of CNN’s Senior International Correspondent, Nic Robertson, talking about the danger he encountered reporting on the current war in Syria. It was a compelling piece that showed dramatic footage of the front lines as the convoy he was in was caught in the middle of a gunfight. As he described the chaos and their desperate, and eventually successful, attempts to get out of harm’s way, Robertson commented that “no story is worth dying for. That quote was, in fact, the title of the video clip and the reason it caught my eye in the first place.

“No story is worth dying for.”

I certainly can appreciate where he is coming from and am in no way questioning the man’s bravery, but I have to disagree with his assessment. Jim Eliot, Nate Saint, and 3 other men gave their lives trying to share a story to a group of people they had never met and had no ties with. Adoniram Judson poured out his life to share a story with the people of Burma. The list goes on and on. Every day more men and women give their lives in an effort to share a story.

What story could be so important, so crucial, and worth dying for?

It’s a story of one man’s sacrifice on behalf of the rest of the world. It’s a story where God gives up his rights as the Creator and makes Himself human so that he could live with us and experience the same pain and hurt that we experience. It’s a story of the ultimate act of love. It’s a story that is so important that the author gave His life just to write it.

What is this story?

Simply this…

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”
(Ephesians 4:3-7)

If a story is not worth dying for then it cannot be worth living for.  Spend your life in search of the story that is worth dying for, because only then will you truly be able to live.

Some things are more important than voting…

So Election Day is finally over.  Somebody won and somebody lost.  Half of the country is happy with the results (I guess technically a little more than half…) and the other half just started taking anti-depressants.  I’ll be honest, I was going to be happy no matter who won, because today is November 7^th and that means no more ridiculous political ads.  Finally, I can watch football in peace.

I think what amazed me the most wasn’t the name calling, the fact-twisting, and the passing of the blame on both sides; that’s just human nature.  What amazed me was the general perception that one candidate would save our nation and the other would doom it.  Whether or not you supported one candidate 100% or not, chances are you held a similar opinion about either Romney, Obama, or both.

The truth of the matter is that while electing strong leaders that support our worldview is important, it’s not the ultimate answer to the problems facing our country.  Please don’t get me wrong, voting is incredibly important, but since when does forcing a Biblical worldview on somebody save them from sin and death?  Isaiah 29:13 was written about a country where the people followed the laws and commandments of God but their hearts were “far from me (God).”  In the following verses God says that because of this He would turn things upside down for them and confound their logic because it’s never been about following a set of laws and rules, He’s always been after our hearts.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, not our mind or intellect.  Elections are incredibly important and should not be overlooked or ignored.  We have a responsibility to elect leaders who will protect things such as the lives of the unborn; but a change in laws will almost never result in a change of heart.

You voted yesterday.

Good job.  High five.

Now start praying for your country.  Far more crucial to the future of our country than Election Day is our devotion to prayer.  I wonder what our nation would look like if every Christian spent as much time praying our country as they did campaigning for or complaining about the presidential candidates.  As Christians, praying for our nation should be just as much a part of our civic duty as voting is, if not more.  2 Corinthians 10:3-4 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”  This is the power we have access to through prayer.  Our nation will not be turned towards Christ from the top down but from the bottom up.

Pray for our country.

Pray for our leaders.

Pray for your neighbors and friends.

Let’s not forget that our nation is made of people who desperately need Jesus.

The Choice Is Yours

Having made my way through airport security, I made my way to my gate and sat down in the terminal.  I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as a smile crept up on my face.  I shook my head and rubbed my eyes as if to wake me up a little further.  I needed a second to process what had just happened on the way to the airport.

Let me rewind for a minute.  A couple days before I had landed in Kansas City fairly unsure of what to expect for my weekend visit here.  I was coming out here for a couple of different reasons, the most important of which were to spending the weekend more intentionally focusing on listening to God, and to spend some time with my girlfriend.  While I wasn’t sure what I would hear from God, I was still expecting to hear from Him on specific things in my life that had been really pressing on my heart recently.  Over the course of the weekend I spent easily over 15 hours in the International House Prayer 24/7 Prayer Room and in IHOP’s weekend services seeking the voice of God.  I had heard so many different stories from friends about how the times that they had spent here had been filled with so much clarity from the Lord, through any number of different ways that God speaks to us.  In my mind I was expecting that clarity to come at any time and from around any corner.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it so I asked God to make it incredibly clear.  Honestly, I was really just hoping that a perfect stranger would walk up to me and tell me my life’s story and then tell me exactly what to do in every area I was praying about.  That would’ve been convenient.

Now, I believe that the Holy Spirit speaks to us that way sometimes.  But God is after our heart, not our convenience, so a lot of the time He chooses other ways to speak to us.  I spent the whole weekend seeking the voice of God on these specific areas and not really hearing anything back.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t hearing God, just that He was speaking to me on everything that I wasn’t focused on going into the weekend.  In fact during the Saturday night service I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me that I wasn’t just there for myself this weekend but that I was also there for someone else.  Immediately I started looking around the auditorium we were in to see if I was supposed to talk to somebody.  Almost every person that I saw, I asked God if I was supposed to talk to them.  The service drew to a close and I thought maybe I was supposed to run into somebody in the parking lot.

Still no dice.

I went through the day Sunday wondering if I was missing something or somebody.  By Monday morning I was frustrated.  I hadn’t heard from God about what I wanted to know and I was confused and worried that I was missing somebody I was supposed to share something with.  On top of that, I didn’t even know what I was supposed to share with anybody.  I went to the prayer room at 6 in the morning and just sat there a little annoyed and a little nervous, racking my brain to see if I had missed something God had said to me over the previous 60 hours.  Every interaction I had, every song I had heard, every word I had read I tried to go back over and re-analyze.  Finally, I just told God that my weekend wasn’t over yet and I was still expecting to hear from Him, even if it was on the way to the airport.

I left the prayer room and sat down in the coffee shop next door to wait for the airport shuttle that was coming to pick me up because my ride had fallen through.  I pulled out my prayer journal and just started writing out my frustrations.  A few minutes later the shuttle showed up and packed up my stuff and headed outside.  I’ve never ridden in a shuttle or taxi like this before so I wasn’t sure how it would work and whether or not we were picking anybody else up.  I jumped into the backseat and we drove off.  As I settled in for the hour long ride to the airport, the driver (I later found out his name was Mohammed) told me I was the only one he was picking up and I secretly wondered if this was going to be an awkward trip with a perfect stranger.  Almost immediately after we got on the road Mohammed asked me what IHOP was and whether it was a church or not.  I explained the best way I could what IHOP was and we started talking about religion.  Mohammed told me that he was a Muslim but he was tired of religion because all religions have been corrupted by greed and power.  One thing led to another and he started asking me about Jesus and what my opinions as a Christian were about him.  My answer led to another question and another question, ranging from the purpose of the Old Testament to what I believed about the second coming of Jesus.  I didn’t know this at the time, but this is actually very common for Muslims to be interested in.  In fact, the Quran actually says that true Muslims have to read the Bible (specifically the Old Testament and the Gospels) and that the followers of Jesus will be made the greatest.  While I was surprised to be talking about Jesus with a Muslim, I was even more blown away by the fact that every question Mohammed asked me was directly related to the “random” things I had been learning about over the previous 2 days.  As we pulled up to the airport terminal I asked him if he would read the Gospels if I gave him my Bible.  He answered that he definitely would, and before I left he let me pray with him.

Now we’re back to where we started.  I’m sitting in the airport, waiting for my plane to come, and shaking my head at what God had just allowed me to be a part of.  I felt the Holy Spirit just began to remind me that He is always working and moving, and He is always inviting us to be a part of what He’s doing.  Our job is simply to be aware and respond when He gives us the opportunity to participate.  I began to ask God to make me more aware of what He is doing around me.  Over the last 10 days, I have had 4 specific opportunities to share the love of Jesus with perfect strangers.  Every time I was in the middle of something I had planned on doing and I had to make a choice.  I could continue on with what I was doing, that wasn’t bad and was actually important, or I could put my agenda on pause and step into what the Holy Spirit was doing.  Every time I’ve been thankful that I did.  Every time I’ve seen a change begin to take place even just in the faces and demeanors of the people I met, because of the love of God working in their lives.  What amazes me is that we’re allowed to be a part of this!

I’ll leave you with this challenge:

You have a choice to make every day.  You can live your life the way you always have, focusing on the tasks of the day and leaving sharing the love of Jesus either for the “professionals” or for short term missions trips and outreach opportunities.  Or you can view every minute of every day as an outreach opportunity and take time throughout your day to ask God what He’s doing in that moment and how you can be a part of it.

When that becomes a normal part of our life it will change everything about your faith.  You will go from simply adhering to Christian beliefs to actually being a follower of Jesus!

It’s your choice.