Gotta Face Reality

 I don't know why exactly, but I guess I've had games on my mind recently. As a kid I absolutely LOVED fighting games. I'd be playing "House" with my little sister and then 5 minutes in BOOM, a burglar breaks in and kidnaps her, and I have to go fight through hordes of minions to rescue her. I'd make up all kinds of stories where I was the hero, fighting against the forces of evil with my trusty sword. There was just one problem... I didn't have a sword. You want to know what I did have? A STICK! Booyah! I'd go out and find a decently-sized, straight-ish stick and that would become my sword, gun, axe, spear, staff - you name a weapon, that stick could be it - and I would use to to vanquish my enemies!

But what would happen if a real bad guy showed up? That stick wouldn't do me too much good - maybe I'd get a good whack in, if I was lucky, but then the bad guy would beat me to a pulp. As cool as it was to pretend that stick was a powerful sword, when faced with real danger I would have to face the reality that it was just a stick.

I think a lot of times we like to pretend that things are not what they are because it makes them cooler, or easier to deal with. We pretend sticks are swords because that is way cooler, or that a toothache will just go away on its own because that costs a LOT less money than getting it fixed by a dentist. We pretend that speed limits are more like guidelines than actual rules because it lets us get places faster. We pretend cheating on a test isn't really that bad because it saves us time on studying (or if we let someone cheat off of us, it makes us look better in their eyes). We even pretend that not reading the Bible regularly won't affect our faith.

Whatever the case may be, eventually we have to face reality. The stick breaks, the tooth decays, the cops pull us over for going 65 in a 25, we get caught cheating and get suspended from school, and we end up pulling away from God because we aren't paying attention to His Word. Two weeks ago we started answering the question "How do we live the Christian life in a non-Christian world?" Steps one and two were pretty straightforward: 1) be sure you are of the faith (otherwise why even try to live the Christian life?) and 2) acknowledge the authority of God's Word in your life. Last night we looked at step three, which is facing the reality of human nature.

There are a lot of ideas gaining traction in the world today: the idea of relative truth (that what is true for you may not be true for me, but they're both equally true), that the gender you're born with may not be your real gender (or that you get to choose your gender), the idea that who you are is tied to who you are attracted to, and possibly the most problematic idea, that mankind is basically good. The problem with this last one is that it takes away the idea that we are in trouble and in need of a savior. If mankind is basically good, then we don't really need God, or faith, or anything. We're good to go on our own. Unfortunately, this is not reality. Let's look back at the very beginning, when God first made mankind:

Genesis 1:26 - "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."

This was at the very beginning, before sin or death had entered the world. Everything was perfect and good, which means at our very beginning, we were perfect and good, made in God's image. This image, which meant that we were created with reflections of God's nature and character in us, set us apart from the rest of creation. God even said that as mankind is made in His image, it would allow them to rule over the rest of the creation. He gave us some of His authority and a responsibility over the earth. In making us in His image, God gave us the ability to make our own decisions (we call this free will) and He gave us souls - a spiritual aspect to our being that lives on after physical death. After finishing His work in creation, God looked at everything He had made and decided that it was all very good. So, at the beginning, the idea that mankind was basically good was correct. We were. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story.

Romans 5:14, 17-21 - "Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. … For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Human nature started out good, but when Adam and Eve sinned against God human nature became corrupted. That act of rebellion (which you can read about in Genesis 3) brought sin and death and decay into God's good creation, and it brought corruption into all of it. Every person is now born with a corrupted nature, so that we are not basically good anymore. At our core, apart from God, we are sinful and hopeless beings. We still have the image of God implanted in us, but it has become corrupted and twisted, so while we can still sometimes do some good in the world, sin is the prevailing part of our nature. This is why we see so much evil and suffering in the world today, because people give in to their sinful natures and choose to do what is wrong. The ultimate consequence for sin, the consequence that we each deserve and are destined for, is separation from God and death. That is the nature and the fate of humanity.

BUT, you may have noticed in the Romans passage, God did not see fit to leave us like this. Just as through that first sin Adam doomed us to death, so through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross we have access to God and to eternal life! When Jesus died, He took the penalty of death that we deserve, so that we wouldn't have to. He took our punishment so that we could be forgiven and have a restored relationship with God. Without faith in Jesus, we have no hope of redemption. We would be stuck in our sin nature and doomed to eternal death and separation from God. Through Jesus, we can have life, and have it abundantly.

Our society is pushing a lot of new ideas right now, most (all) of which go against what the Bible tells us about human nature. If we take steps one and two, believing in Jesus and accepting the authority of God's Word in our lives, then we should be prepared to take step three, which is to face the reality of human nature which is described in the Bible. This is a hard step to take in our culture right now, because doing so pits us against the ideas that the world is pushing. The world will yell at us, scream at us, maybe even attack us to get us to accept their ideas. But we must stand up and stand strong for what the Bible says to be true, no matter what kind of push back we get for it.

The world wants to pretend that mankind is not doomed to death. The world wants to pretend that people can be whatever they want to be, and do whatever they want to do. The world pretends all this because it is easier than facing the reality that there is judgment coming for those who rebel against God. Whether you believe and trust in God's Word or not, eventually you gotta face reality.

Do You Know God?

 HEYO! Last night was a good night. We had a good crew and shared a few laughs together. I learned that some of yall are VERY EASILY distracted, which I suppose wasn't really "new" information. Sister Spatz brought out her favorite game, Dutch Blitz, which is apparently a fast-paced and fun game (I just don't get it). We attempted to play "keep up" with a volleyball, but this was the part where I learned about yalls distractedness.

We played some Nuke 'Em as our main game and not to boast or anything but I did this amazing diving catch which turned into a roll upon landing. Obviously, I didn't get to see it happen (as I was the one doing it), but in my mind's eye it was EPIC. Definitely one of the coolest things I have done in a while.

Our message last night was a continuation of our study of the devotions of the early church. This is all based out of Acts 2:42-47 - "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved."

So far, we have talked about being devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, and true community, and last night we talked about the second-to-last thing, praising God.

When I was a kid, I did a LOT of reading on my own time. I had this awesome series of books called "Dinotopia" which was about a secret utopian society on an island where intelligent dinosaurs and humans lived together in peace. I highly recommend these books. Anyway, I used to hate the beginning of a book. It was so boring as they introduced characters and setting and plot. I wanted to get to the action. So, I got in the habit of skipping the first 3 chapters of a book, reading it to the end, and then after finishing I would go back and read the beginning. What would happen is I would start reading in chapter 4 and have to ask "Who is that? What is he doing? Who's that guy? Where are they going? Why are they doing that?" Since I had skipped the intro, I had no clue what was happening in the story or how the characters related to each other. And then, when I would go back and read the beginning, suddenly all the pieces would fit together and those questions I asked in chapter 4 were answered.

Many Christians today (and perhaps you, too) prefer to read the New Testament over the Old Testament of the Bible. Sometimes this is because the OT is hard to read or understand, while the NT is pretty straightforward. Other times this is just because that's all the church covers on Sunday morning. The problem is, only reading the NT is like skipping the first 3 chapters of a book, you miss a lot of the setup and background information. You have no idea who anybody is or why they are doing what they are doing. The early church described in Acts 2 didn't have the NT to read and study like we do. They had the apostles' teaching (which would have covered a lot of what is in the NT) and the OT Scriptures. Their knowledge of God, who He is, what He has done, and how He relates to us came directly from the OT Scriptures. And their praises were based on what they knew of God through those Scriptures.

So as we talk about what it means to be devoted to praising God, we're taking a trip back to the beginning - the very beginning. Click here to open up Genesis 1 on Biblegateway.com. Or, if you would prefer, pull out your Bible and open to page 1. Let's see what we can learn about God from the first 3 chapters of the Bible. (For the sake of space in this post, I will not be including most of the verses so you will need to follow along using your Bible or Biblegateway.com)

Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is the first sentence in the entire Bible, and it sets the stage for everything else that follows. "In the beginning God..." This verse tells us that God exists already at the beginning of everything, which tells us that He is eternal (has no beginning).

This verse (and the rest of the chapter) also tells us that God is both powerful and creative. We also learn from this first chapter that God's Words are powerful (He creates by speaking things into existence) and that He is orderly - He creates in a specific order, with complexity and purpose.

Genesis 1:27-29 - "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.'" We learn here that God delegates authority and provides generously for His creation. He put mankind in charge of the earth and made sure they had an abundance of food to eat. Here and also in chapters 2 and 3 we see that God is personal - He interacts with His creation on a personal level. He walks and talks with Adam in the Garden of Eden. He is not some distant god with little or no concern for us - He knows us and is concerned about us.

In Genesis 2 God establishes one rule for Adam and Eve in the Garden - they must not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They have free reign over everything else, just not that tree. This tells us that God is moral - He knows the difference between right and wrong and establishes rules for living rightly.

In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve are persuaded by the serpent (imagery for Satan) to break God's rule and rebel against Him. It is in this chapter that we learn that God is just - when rules are broken there must be consequences, or justice. He sets consequences on all the involved parties: the serpent, the woman, and the man (and through this consequence the earth also becomes cursed).

But we also see at the end of chapter 3 that God is loving and merciful, because even though Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, He still provides clothing for them.

And finally, we learn that part of the consequences of rebellion is separation from God. He banishes mankind from His presence (and the Garden). This is because He is holy and mankind's sin was unholy - those two things cannot go together.

So just in the first 3 chapters we have the establishment that God is eternal, powerful, creative, orderly, generous, personal, moral, just, loving, merciful, and holy. We learned how the world was created, how mankind was made special (in God's image), how mankind rebelled against God and received the due consequences, and how God worked through it all. All of these things we learned about God remain consistent throughout the entire Bible and these chapters set the stage for all of history.

Go back and read Genesis 3:14-15 - "So the LORD God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'" This is God's judgment on the serpent for deceiving Adam and Eve into rebellion. And that last part, "he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel", is an important foreshadowing of something we just celebrated a few days ago at Easter - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Devil's plan was to kill Jesus (the offspring of Eve) and he succeeded. Unfortunately for him, though, Jesus didn't stay dead. He arose from death, which was the point at which the Devil's demise (his defeat) was realized. Jesus' resurrection was a deathblow to Satan's plans. So, even in the first 3 chapters of the Bible we already have a foreshadowing of God's plan of redemption for mankind in Jesus Christ on the cross. Although we are the ones who broke God's rules and deserve our punishment (death), God entered our world as Jesus and paid the price for us - because He is just (someone needed to be punished), AND because He is loving. John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Getting back to the point for today, being devoted to praising God, in order to praise God we have to know God. We have to relate to Him somehow. And how can we come to know Him unless we read His Word? How can we praise Him if we don't even know Him?

The early church's praise was born from their knowledge and experience of God. Our praise must be driven by the same thing. We must know and experience God personally before we can be devoted to praising Him.

Remember how God banished mankind from His presence? That was a consequence of their sin. Because of our sin, we also are separated from God and cannot know Him personally. But, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can now have our sin removed from us and be reunited with God! We CAN have a relationship with Him and know Him. To try and know God without believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior is like trying to look up facts about someone on the internet. You may learn something about them, but you won't know them, not really. To get to know them, you have to be in a relationship with them. It is the same with God. We can know about God by reading the Bible. We get to know God when we believe in Jesus, enter that relationship, read His Word, pray, and experience His love and mercy and forgiveness for ourselves. Then, it is out of this knowledge and experience that we sing praises to Him.

So, ultimately, it is as we are devoted to these other things (teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, and true community) that we then can be devoted to praising God like the early church was. Praise and worship come out of knowledge and experience.  The question for you is:

Do you know God?

Check Yo'Self B4 You Wreck Yo'Self

 We decided to go virtual for this Summit because the Winter Retreat is this weekend, and I for one did not want to take any chances of a Covid exposure and ruin the retreat. We tried out something I saw another youth group do, which is having one student "dance" "interpretively" through a song while everyone else does their best to mimic them. We opted for "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys with The Whiz Kid as the lead. It was... interesting. Can't wait to see how it goes in person!

Well, as some of you know, I am currently taking a class on the practice and theology of worship – basically, what does it mean to truly worship God and what does that look like. Right now, the class is going through the Old Testament worship of the Israelites, back before Jesus came to the earth and died on the cross, and the author is comparing those rituals (and the sacrifices) with what Jesus did for us on the cross. The imagery alone is really cool.

I would like to share a quote with you from one of the books, and while I know it is hard to follow along, please try to listen to what is being said about sin, confession, and forgiveness.

 

“In the Old Testament forgiveness of sin was granted whenever confession was made… the sacrifice symbolically completed the process, showing that forgiveness was based on the shedding of blood. The confession without the ritual was incomplete, but the ritual without the confession was worthless. In this way the Israelite experience is not unlike the Christian’s. We also need to confess sins and acknowledge defilements in order to participate fully in the worship and service of the Lord. God forgives people when they confess to Him. The ritual is the public expression of faith in the provision of forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb.”

 

You all know that mankind suffers from separation from God because of sin, and that it is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, that we can get to God and have a relationship with Him. On a grand scale, we admit to our sins and believe in Jesus, and we are saved. Romans 10:9 says “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Our salvation comes through confession of sin and belief in Jesus as our ritual sacrifice. His death in place of ours. And this bridges the gap.

 

But this is also true on a smaller scale. Jesus’ blood covers over our sins so that when we confess them before God we are forgiven. And I know from my own experience that when I have unconfessed sin in my life – where I have chosen to sin and then try to come before God – it is like that gap is back, like there is something separating me from God again. I haven’t lost my salvation or anything, but I have wandered away from God. How many of you have experienced this? Where you feel like you have somehow become far away from God again?

 

This is the result of unconfessed sin. When we are holding on to something, or doing something, that we know doesn’t please God. And when this is going on, it can be very hard to engage in worship, prayer, Scripture reading, and sharing our faith with others. And if we let it go on unchecked, it will lead us further and further from God. Sin, especially when we consciously choose it, drives a wedge into our relationship with God – it doesn’t separate us completely, but it certainly gets in the way.

 

This weekend some of us are going to Rock Mountain for the Winter Retreat (woot woot), and there we will be spending time in prayer, reading, and worship. But first, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to look inside and see what sin has taken hold in our lives. What are we doing (or not doing) that is driving us away from God? We need to identify those things and confess them to God, looking for forgiveness. Then, when we are at the retreat, we will be able to engage in full and genuine worship.

 

And this is not just for those going on the retreat. This is something we all need to do regularly – daily, weekly, monthly. I think the phrase is “check yourself before you wreck yourself”. Reflect on who you are and what you have been doing, identify any sin that exists in your life, and confess it to God. He will forgive you, but you must confess and believe in Jesus for forgiveness.

 

God is looking for worshippers who worship both in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). We must have a spirit which is willing to submit to God and be humble before Him, as well as be honest about who we are, who God is, and who deserves all the honor and glory. So tonight, tomorrow, and pretty much every day for the rest of your lives, “check yourselves before you wreck yourselves”.

Love > Fear

 Hey gang, so last night we were able to meet in person again and it was nice to see everyone's faces! Even saw a few of you connect through Zoom, which was awesome! For those of you who missed it, we got a special treat for the message time - we went to the Sanctuary. I think the last time we had our message in there was March of 2020.

Before you go any further into this post, I'd like you to check out this 3 minute video clip on YouTube. It is a short clip from the animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender" - if you've never seen it, sorry, but spoiler alert. For the record, this is my all-time favorite animated show so you should definitely check it out in its entirety the next time you get the chance! Click here to view the clip.

There is one line in there I particularly hope you paid attention to: "You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you." You see, there are two motivational forces at work in this clip - fear and love. Azula (the angry girl) strictly uses fear when trying to motivate others to do what she wants. She uses fear to control people - including her "friends" Mai and Ty Lee. However, as we saw in the clip, fear wasn't strong enough to stop them from protecting the people they loved (Mai protecting Zuko and Ty Lee protecting Mai). This demonstrates a really important fact for us, that love is more powerful than fear.

Last week I focused on Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." This verse was written in the Old Testament, before Jesus came to the earth and died on the cross. So at this point in history, the only way to get close to God and find atonement (forgiveness) for sin was through regular animal sacrifices. The people lived in fear of judgment from God whenever they strayed from His Law (which, if you read through Israel's history in the OT, they did quite often).

When we look forward to the New Testament, after Jesus came and died and rose again, Paul reminds us in Romans that literally everyone strays from God's Law. Everybody sins, which means everybody is in danger of judgment, and the judgment for sin is death (not just dying here on earth, but being forever separated from God and Heaven).

Now, while Jesus was around, He had a bunch of disciples - a group of guys who followed Him and learned from Him. These guys grew up the same way the Old Testament people did, in a deep fear of the Lord. To find atonement they had to make animal sacrifices, too. However, when Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty for sin, these disciples also got to experience the love and grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus. Their fear of the Lord led them to Jesus, and so their fear led them to the love of the Lord. You may recall, I ended last week's message with a quote, which concluded: "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but love from the Lord is its completion." Fear of God leads us to the love of God.

This week's verse is 1 John 4:18-19 - "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us." God's love, demonstrated through Jesus coming to the earth and dying on the cross for our sins, means that we do not have to live in fear of judgment. Jesus paid it all, and took our judgment on Himself. So, in Jesus, we become children of God and no longer need to be afraid of God and His power. But just as a child should respect and obey their father, so Christians should respect and obey God.

Fear compels us to do a lot - follow speed limits on the road (lest we get pulled over and ticketed), do our homework, obey our parents, etc. Fear is what Azula used to compel people to do what she wanted. God, however, chooses to use love as His motivational force. He first showed His love to us through Creation and later through Jesus Christ, setting an example of the kind of love He wants us to have - sacrificial love. This kind of love is what John was talking about in the verse above, because sacrificial love drives out fear. Mai's love for Zuko drove out her fear of Azula, and so she acted to save him even though she knew she could die for it (Azula is kind of mean like that). Ty Lee's love and care for her friend Mai drove out her fear of Azula, so that she acted to protect Mai, also knowing that there would be a cost. They sacrificed their own well-being for the sake of someone else - out of love. Sacrificial love means putting our needs and wants aside for the sake of others and for God.

The truth is, most of us come to faith in Jesus because we are afraid of judgment. We recognize that we have sinned before God and that the consequence for our sin is death, and we are afraid of that death. Our faith starts with a recognition of who God is, thus it is the beginning of knowledge - of knowing God. So, we come to Jesus. Fear of God's judgment brings us to the one person who can offer us salvation, Jesus Christ. And the reason Jesus can offer us salvation is because He chose to demonstrate His love for us by taking our place and paying the penalty for us. He put aside His life for the sake of our lives. So while fear is often where we start, we end up with love.

What is our response to this? Our proper response should be to praise God and love Him in return! Jesus told His disciples "If you love me, obey my commands". If we love God, and I mean truly love God, then that love should motivate us to do what He says is right. Jesus also said that all of God's commands can be summed up in two: Love God and love others. If we love God, then we will love what He loves, and He loves all of us. Every. Single. Person. Which means that we should love every single person. Summed up, this means being kind to others, forgiving others (even if they're not sorry), providing for the needy, standing up for the oppressed or bullied, and ultimately sharing God's love with everyone around us. I know sharing God's love (the message about Jesus) can be scary, and we often fear what people will say or how they will react. But remember, the love of God drives out fear. When we fully embrace the love He has for us, we will not be able to stop ourselves from sharing it with others.

So, if you have embraced the love of God, how are you loving others right now?

If you haven't yet embraced God's love and come to Jesus but are living in fear, you don't need to live that way anymore. You can look to Jesus for forgiveness and be free from fear.

Wherever you are at, find the next step in getting closer to God and take it.

Peace.

Need a Leash?

Last night was our first Summit of 2021 and we had a great crew of people come out to join us. We tried to set up a Zoom call for those who couldn't join us in-person, but lets just say technical difficulties were had. We played some old youth group classics as far as games go: 4 Square and Kickball. Both were pretty fun, though I was reminded yet again that I am SO out of shape. Seriously, I need to start jogging daily or doing something involving moving around. Tbh, I've been sitting in my office staring at a computer screen for the past 3 hours straight... that CAN'T be good.

Anyway, it has been almost a whole year since our last visit to Rock Mountain Bible Camp, and my, what a year it has been. It took me until now to realize just how timely our theme was for that retreat - Call of Duty: Spirit Ops. DW came as out speaker and shared about the reality of spiritual warfare and our need for protection, unpacking some of the pieces of spiritual armor mentioned in Ephesians 6. Seriously though, this entire year has been one long spiritual battle, and we really needed that armor. Between Covid-19, quarantine, and civil unrest, there has been so much anger, hate, fear and panic saturating our country and filling our lives. These were the reasons why God gave us His armor in Ephesians 6, because He knew we would be fighting for our lives this year.

After meeting with many of you over the past several months, I have learned that we have all had some struggles in our relationship with God in 2020. Many have strayed pretty far from God, others have panicked and given in to fear, and still others are even a little apathetic towards God right now. Last night I shared something that my cousin had posted to Facebook regarding spiritual warfare. Here is that post:

“New year... same me coming at you with long posts. I just want to come on here and say that this post is more for me to come back and look at later.

Let me be honest. My brain is literally broken. While I was in the shower today I got more excited about something than I have gotten in a while. 

Today, I was able to make a dog training analogy that reminded me of Jesus, and God, and it made my heart happy. Mainly because it combined two of my favorite things in the whole wide world. 

Years back, I was in a dog training program, and for the last few weeks I was to bring in my dog for group training sessions. During this time, I witnessed my dog Scruffy panic a lot. We would do well with the start of training sessions. When it was just me and Scruffy in a quiet area he did so well. He was settled, and he was calm. As soon as I would bring Scruffy out and interact with other dogs, he would panic. I tried every training trick in the book to settle him. I tried redirecting his focus back to me through shuffling my feet, making funny noises, whispering his name, and treats. Nothing worked. He would still panic until everyone else backed away, or until we went back to our own separate spot. 

Finally, after try and try again, I was taught a new technique. When Scruffy panicked, I was taught to let the leash go as far as it could go. Still keeping my hand on it, but letting the leash go as far as it could go. Then, I was told to just stand there. Let Scruffy go nuts and panic. Let him bark it out, and let him, basically go crazy on the other side of the leash. The second... literally second, that Scruffy even glances in my direction, praise that. Throw a treat to him if I can. Basically, this cycle, letting him go nuts, and praising him when he looks at me, would continue for maybe 5 minutes. If I felt I had his attention long enough, then I could ask him to do simple commands for me. Sit, down, or, if he was capable, even a sit stay. It is a long process, but eventually, I knew he would look back at me and listen. 

Maybe I am wrong, but I feel the same thing can be said for Christians. Maybe I am wrong, but is it possible that Jesus is the one holding our proverbial leashes? There are times when we go astray from Jesus. There are times when we panic and so desperately want to run away. But is it possible, that Jesus is just waiting for us to calm down on the other side of the leash? Is it possible that He is just waiting for us to even just glance at Him? Is it possible that He just wants to praise us for just looking at Him? Oy. Is it possible, that the leash He holds will never break? Never?

Something else I want to say, is if you are struggling spiritually, with your relationship with Jesus... you are NOT too far gone. You really aren't. If you are struggling, speak out. Please do not be afraid. The worst thing you can do is keep your mouth shut. If you are noticing something is off in your journey with Jesus, SPEAK. It might sound like you are crazy, people might be annoyed with you, people might turn you away, but for real... speak up. Do not stay silent. Ask others to pray for you, and with you. Ask your pastors if you can talk with them. Ask your family for help, extra prayer, and to read Scripture with you. Please. Don't fight things on your own. It doesn't work well anyway. I can speak from experience. If you fight spiritual battles with Christian music, use Christian music. If you fight spiritual battles by talking to people, talk to people. However you fight, use it. Fight for the truth. 

Lean into Jesus, and don't fight it alone. To use an analogy that I love, when you are struggling with evil, ask your Husband, Jesus, to help you. Or, ask your Father, Jesus, to protect your Holy Spirit. Ask Him not to let you keep going astray. Be like a child, and ask the Father to protect you from the evil coming at you. Hide behind Him. The Holy Spirit is the most important, precious gift the Father and Jesus ever gave you. Protect it. The judgement of the world, is NOTHING compared to the judgement of the Lord. If you feel crazy while defending your faith, just know, you're in good company. Just read the Scriptures, and you'll find a whole bunch of "crazy people" who also defended their faith, and came out on top. 

All I can say, is I'm pretty sure, Jesus doesn't let go of the leash, but make sure you stop panicking enough to look at Jesus, or even glance at Him. And celebrate when you do. 

If you read all this... thank you for coming to my first TED talk of the year. Pretty sure there is more to come. Just saying.”

As Christians, there are going to be times when we have doubts, or when we wander away from God, or when we give in to fear and panic. God knows this. He knows that at times we are going to be like Scruffy, screaming and trying our best to run away. And just like my cousin said, He is always there, waiting for us to turn back to Him, to just look at Him for a moment, so He can affirm us and draw us back to His loving arms.

I firmly believe in the "once saved, always saved" idea, meaning that when you give your life to Jesus Christ, you are sealed in Him. You are tethered to Jesus, similar to a leash, and that tether is unbreakable. We don't have to worry that one day we will wander too far, or that He will let go of the leash. We can take comfort in knowing that He is and always will be there for us.

So, if you are struggling in your faith, remember that it is a spiritual battle. You are in a fight against the dark forces of this world which are trying to pull you away from God. As my cousin shared, "Lean into Jesus, and don't fight it alone". Speak up and ask for help, that's what spiritual community is all about - helping each other in our walk with God.

And if you see someone else struggling with their faith, speak up. Do what you can to help them. Talk to them, encourage them, share a Bible verse with them, and pray with them. That is what Jesus has called us to do as Christians. To walk with each other on this journey we call life.

Our Enemy will use whatever he can to distract us from God and pull us away. He will use friends, hobbies, school, teachers, family, work, and yes, global pandemics. Even situations like what is happening in the Capitol right now are efforts by our Enemy to distract us from God. Don't let him win. Don't let him pull you away. Instead, turn to God in times like this and pray, read the Bible, serve others. Only then will you find comfort, joy, and hope in an ever darkening world.

Why is Jesus such a Big Deal?

 We usually don't have to look very far to find an act of evil in this world. Check the news, scroll through FB or Instagram, or just listen to what the people around you are talking about and you'll eventually find something about murder, sex trafficking, racism, discrimination, war, abuse, scandal, brutality, and many other injustices. Evil is very real, and each of us encounters it to some degree in our lives.

At Summit, I asked everyone to get into groups and discuss three things involving evil: the most evil thing you've ever heard of, the most evil thing you've ever witnessed, and the most evil thing you've ever done. We got answers ranging from the Holocaust to calling names. It can be easy to play the comparison game and say that compared to the Holocaust (when the Nazis murdered millions of Jews during WWII) me calling my little sister a bad name isn't all that evil. When we make these kinds of comparisons, we can start to feel pretty good about ourselves, thinking "I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not as bad as them." The problem is, even if it is only on a small scale, evil is still evil. Bad is still bad. And as we will get into in just a little bit, the Bible tells us that even a small amount of badness is enough to keep us out of Heaven and away from God.

A common question people have when they look at Christianity's teachings about God and His goodness is this: "If God is so good, then how come there is so much evil and suffering in the world?" We call this the "problem of evil". Many people absolutely refuse to believe in God because they just can't understand how a good God could allow so much evil and suffering in the world. Maybe that's one of your friends, or maybe that's you. How could allow cancer to take a loved one? Or war to ravage countries? Or mass genocide like what we saw with Hitler, the Nazis, and the Jews during WWII? They figure that God must not be real or He would have stopped all that. They figure that if God were real then our world would look MUCH different.

The thing is, the Bible answers this very question. The Bible explains the goodness of God, the problem of evil, and why Jesus Christ is so important to solving the problem forever.

You see, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". This is Genesis 1:1, the very first sentence in the Bible. As you read through the very beginning of the Bible, you get a picture of a perfect world which God creates, and at the end of creating it all, God looks at the world and declares that it is "very good". At this point, there is no evil, no sin, no imperfection, just God and His creation. He has created human beings (Adam and Eve) and made a special garden just for them and gave them free reign to do whatever they wanted, with one exception. There was only one rule, and that was that they were not allowed to eat fruit from one particular tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now some people have been like "Why did God do this? Why not just NOT MAKE THAT TREE and remove the rule altogether?"

Here's why: without the option to disobey God, human beings would just be a bunch of robots with no choice but to love God. But love that doesn't have a choice isn't love at all, it is just obligation. In order for humans to experience real love, there had to be the option to not love, to hate (which means to turn away from). God gave them a choice in the garden so that they could choose to love Him.

And here's where we get our introduction to the problem of evil. The humans, Adam and Eve, decide to disobey God and they eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good evil (what a mouthful). God had given them a choice to make (to obey or rebel against Him, to do good or to do evil), and they chose to rebel against Him. They chose to do evil, and that choice brought all of the bad, evil, and suffering into God's good world. It created a rift, a chasm, a massive gap between God and people. Originally, we could walk and talk with God, but our choice to turn against Him caused us to be separated - now He is there, and we are here, and there is this huge, impassable gap between us. Since then, people have strayed further and further from God, to do worse and worse things. And even people who want to get close to God can't, because they can't bridge the gap to get across to Him.

The book of Romans in the Bible (New Testament) highlights all of this:

Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Sin is a simple word which describes anything we do that goes against what God says is right and good. Everyone has sinned, which means all of us are stuck on this side of the gap, with no way to get across to God on our own. It doesn't even matter how bad you've been, whether you are as "bad" as Hitler or as "good" as Mother Theresa - all sin is equal in God's eyes, and just one bad thing is enough to completely separate you from God.

Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." When Adam and Eve first sinned, it brought death and suffering into the world - that's where it all comes from, all the evil, the suffering, the death and sickness started when Adam and Eve turned against God. It is the consequence, the result, the "wage" of being against God. But this verse also starts to get us to the answer of "Why Jesus?" - the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nothing any of us could do could possibly get us across the gap - nothing short of being perfectly good all the time, from before you were even born. On our own, we are stuck on this side of the gap. And that is why Jesus came. He came, lived a perfect life, and took on all the sins of the world when He died on the cross. He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us on the cross and paid the debt that we owed. The cross of Jesus has made a bridge across the gap, so that through Jesus people can have access to God again!

Romans 10:9, 13 - "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved... for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." It is through belief in Jesus, and ONLY in Jesus, that anyone can be saved and have forgiveness for their sins. Jesus said of Himself in John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 3:16 also explains who all has access to this - "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."

Jesus came because God loves us, because He is a good God, and what Jesus did on the cross is for everyone. Literally everyone can believe in Jesus and be reunited with God.

Too often people look at all the evil and suffering in the world and ask how there could possibly be a good God. The reality is that the evil and suffering in the world is the result of people turning against God to go their own way. God is the one who has made a way out. He reached out to us and made it possible for us to get to Him - through faith in Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus is such a big deal, because without Him we would be stuck in sin, suffering, and death.

The Bible also tells us that there will come a day when God will destroy all evil and suffering - He will make it go away forever. But, He is not going to do that until everyone has had a chance to find forgiveness, to come to Jesus. That's why we still see so much of it.

For some application, to those of us who believe in Jesus, we are now on God's side. Which means our job is to do good and bring peace to this world as much as we can. We do this by living the way God has told us to live, and by showing kindness and compassion to others, and most importantly by sharing the message about Jesus.

We should not be contributing to the suffering by gossiping about others, excluding people, calling names, ignoring, lying, cursing, showing hate or anger - these are the actions of those who are against God. So, whose side are you on?