The 4 Loves

 SO, our last post covered a discussion on what it means to truly love God, but based on the feedback I got from each of the Family Groups it seems like a lot of yall got hung up on the idea of love. What even is love? And when we talk about love in the Bible, what do we mean? This can be really hard to understand sometimes because in English, we use love in a variety of ways. For example, the following statements are all 100% true:

I love coffee.

I love my mom.

I love my wife.

I love God.

Those are all true statements, but when you think about it, I don't love coffee the same way I love my mom, and I don't love my mom the same way I love my wife, and I don't love any of them the same way I love God. So, even though I am using the same word in all of those statements (love), I mean different things each time. This is why it can be so confusing for us when we are talking about "love" in the Bible. With that in mind, let's look at the four primary words for love in Greek (Greek is the language that the New Testament was originally written in, and these four words all get translated into English as "love").

1. Storge.

Storge is best described as a "fondness of familiarity". It is a bond that comes from shared experiences and circumstances, like being in the same family. You don't get to choose your biological family, but they are still your family. Even if you don't always like them, if they come under threat most of the time you will come to their defense. So, you might call this family devotion. A common trope in media is how siblings will hate each other and get on each others nerves, but when someone else shows up and starts messing around, the siblings immediately defend each other. You might hear the phrase, "Nobody gets to mess with my little brother but me." That's the idea of storge love.

2. Eros.

This is probably the most familiar kind of love for you, because it is what we might think of as "romantic" love. This is a physical, intimate love between a husband and wife, and it is also the idea of "being in love". Eros love is the most prevalent kind of love portrayed in media, although they usually reduce it to more of a lust/passion than actual love. Regardless, most of the time when we use the word "love" in English, this is the kind of love we think about. This is also the closest we get to love being a feeling, since there is an element of feeling involved with this.

Here is the interesting part, just like we use this version of love all the time in our culture today, so too did the culture in Jesus' day when the New Testament was written. Eros love was used and talked about all the time. HOWEVER, this word doesn't get used once in the whole New Testament. Whenever the New Testament authors talk about love, they are never referring to eros love. They DO address the idea of sexuality and passion, but almost always in a context of setting proper boundaries.

3. Philos.

Philos love is the warm affection found between good friends and family members. This is an essential love for the human experience, as we are created as social beings. We need friends and positive relationships in our lives, and philos love is the expression of those relationships. Philos love goes a lot deeper than what we might call friendship, because when we think of our friendships a lot of times they are built around common interests or settings but don't go very deep. Philos-level friendships are very deep and strong bonds that hold people together. Jesus had a philos love friendship with Lazarus and His disciples. David (from the Old Testament) and Jonathan also had this kind of friendship.

Romans 12:10 - "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."

The underlined part there, "brotherly affection" is actually a combination of storge and philos. Paul took these two forms of love and mashed them together to describe the kind of bonds we should have with fellow believers. This is because we are not only bonded together through the shared circumstance of being part of the family of God, but we are also bonded through our shared faith in Christ and call to obedience. Its a powerful family-friendship love that we are called to have for each other as Christians. Do you love your fellow believers like this?

4. Agape.

The pinnacle of biblical love, agape love is an unconditional love. No matter the circumstances, experiences, values, behaviors, actions, words, or anything else, agape love perseveres. In the Bible, this stands out as the highest form of love. Agape love is the kind of love that God has for us. When Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sins of the world, He demonstrated agape love. No matter what we do, God still loves us (and good thing, too). We sin? God loves us. We fight against God? He still loves us. We decide to start hating God? God still loves us. No matter what the conditions are, God continues and will always love us.

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."

Guess which Greek word is used in John 3:16? That's right, agape. It doesn't say "For God was so devoted to His family..." or "For God was so in love with the world..." or "For God was such good friends with the world..." No. It says "For God so unconditionally loved the world..." He put us first, even though we didn't deserve it.

Matthew 22:37 - "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'"

Once again, Jesus uses "agape" for the kind of love we are to have for God. We should unconditionally love God with all of our being (heart, soul, and mind). In the Mark version of this statement, Jesus includes our strength, and if you recall our discussion from last week, He set up a totem pole of priorities for us: God > everyone else > me. We are to unconditionally love God with everything we have, and then love others as well.

When we read through 1 Corinthians 13 (the famous love chapter), Paul uses agape for love throughout that passage. He isn't talking about romantic love, or friendship love, but unconditional love, and the kind of love that we are to have for others because that is the kind of love God has for us.

Now, I want to make sure we are all clear on this: when we talk about loving God, loving fellow believers, and loving those out in the world, we are not talking about eros love - the idea of being in love with someone. Biblical love has nothing to do with romance. Instead, when we talk about biblical love, we are talking about the choice we make to put others first unconditionally.

I can love others (and you) unconditionally because that is the kind of love God has for me. With my sin I have hated God, spat at Him, made fun of Him, and my sin was part of what put Him on the cross. And yet, He still loves me. Jesus still died for me. He gave me the example of what true agape love looks like, and He has called each of us to have that same kind of love for Him and for each other.

What would it look like for you to love God the way He has loved you?

What would it look like for you to love other believers unconditionally?

What would it look like for you to truly put the needs of others before your own and live like Jesus lived?

Do You Love God?

 Before you read any further into this post, answer this question with a simple "yes" or "no": Do you love God?

Okay, now that you've answered the question, let's talk about what it means to love someone.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describes some of the primary characteristics of love. And before we go into the verses, I need to make sure we are all on the same page here. We are NOT talking about romantic love, dating relationships, or marriage (although this passage is often read at weddings). We are talking about the attitude and behaviors that God calls us to have for others, whether we are particularly fond of them or not. Okay, so here are the verses:

        “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not                 dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6                 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always          hopes, always perseveres.”

Patient, kind, protecting, trusting, persevering. None of these describe a gushy feeling toward someone. Instead, they are all practical and, dare I say, quantifiable. Someone can look at how you are treating someone else and determine if these things are present in that relationship. People can tell when you are patient or kind. They can also usually tell when you are envious, boastful, prideful, dishonoring, self-seeking, easily angered, etc. Do you see where I am going with this? When Paul (the author of 1 Corinthians) describes love, he describes in a very practical way. In one of his other letters, Paul gives us some more direct insight into what it means to love someone else:

        Philippians 2:3-4 - “3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility                 value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests          of the others.”

Selfish ambition is when we are willing to hurt others and throw them to the side in order to get ahead. The business world is full of selfish ambition - some describe it as cutthroat. It happens when you decide to put yourself first and everyone else last. Only you matter, and you will do whatever it takes to get ahead - that's selfish ambition. Vain conceit is similar, because it also elevates you above others. It is this idea that you are more important than anyone else and you deserve more than anyone else. Love cannot co-exist with these two mentalities. A selfishly ambitious person cannot truly love others, and here is why: to love someone, based on Paul's letters here, means that you put others first. It's not emotional, but rather a choice that you make to humble yourself and value others above yourself. They come first, not you. That is what it means to love someone.

This is how love works in friendships, with brothers/sisters/parents/children, in dating relationships and marriages, and in general in our interactions with people on the street. When we choose to put the needs or desires of someone else ahead of our own, we are demonstrating love for that person. On the flipside, if we claim to love someone, but only ever put ourselves first, then our "love" for them is just empty words. If I say "I love you" but then spread rumors about you around the church, I don't really love you, do I? Paul says that love is demonstrated by action.

Okay, so that's an overview of what it means to love others, but what about God? What does it mean to love God?

In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus shares the first and greatest commandment:

        “29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.             30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all             your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as                 yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

There is so much to unpack from these verses and we do not have the space to do it in this post. Basically, Jesus has taken all of the laws of the Old Testament and boiled them down to two main points: Love God above literally everything else, and love others. I mean, think about it, if you are loving God (putting Him first) with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, what's left? Nothing. That's everything that you have and covers every aspect of your life. So, in everything, God comes first. These commandments create a bit of an awkward hierarchy of priorities for us, because according to this, our priorities should be structured as: God, literally everyone else, and then us at the bottom. God is first, then everyone else, then me. I'm last. It doesn't sound right, but this what the Bible tells us. In fact, this is the exact set of priorities Jesus demonstrated in His life here on Earth. Paul shares about it in Philippians 2:5-8:

        “5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in         very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7         rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human                likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to         death—even death on a cross!”

God came to the Earth in the form of a man (Jesus) out of love for us, so in coming, Jesus put God first (it was the will of God that He come). Then, in becoming obedient to death (and paying for our sins), Jesus put literally everyone else above Himself. He gave His life for ours. His example for us was: God, everyone else, Him. This is the mentality that we, as Christians, need to have. God, everyone else, me.

So, how do we love God?

Jesus tells us exactly how to love God in John 14:23-24 and John himself elaborates in 1 John 5:3:

        23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we         will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey         my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

        “3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not            burdensome.”

Anyone who truly loves God will obey Him. That's it. That's how we do it. We obey Him. We already talked about the fact that love is an action, and really, it is a choice that we make to put others first. When it comes to loving God, we have to choose to obey what He has told us to do. Love for God is characterized by obedience. So then, if we say that we love God then there ought to be evidence in our lives. People ought to be able to look at the things I do and say, "Yeah, Mike definitely loves God." After all, how do we know that God loves us? Because He put it into action. He sent Jesus and died to save us from our sins. We can look at what God has done and say with confidence, "Yeah, God definitely loves us."

What does that look like?

What does God want us to do? What has He commanded? Well, we have Jesus' summary of the OT Law: Love God and love others. But what else? For the Christian, Jesus has given some very specific commands which can be found in Matthew 28. Right before He ascends into Heaven Jesus commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptize those disciples, and to teach them everything Jesus had taught. This means that every Christian is commanded to be baptized, to make disciples, to baptize those disciples, and to help them learn God's Word (the Bible). If you are reading this and you claim to be a Christian (or you answered "yes" at the beginning of this post), have you been baptized? Have you shared the Gospel with anyone? Have you participated in someone else's baptism? Have you helped someone study the Bible?

These are just some of the things God has commanded us to do, and as Jesus said, those who love Him will obey His commands. These are the things which demonstrate our love for God. If we are not doing these things, not obeying God's commands, then how can we honestly claim to love Him?

If you read those things and you felt unqualified to do them, what can you do to prepare?

 - Read and study the Bible (by yourself and with other believers)

 - Spend time in prayer talking to God and asking Him to equip you

 - Find ways to serve others, both in the church and outside it

When we serve, especially alongside other Christians, we learn how to do it better and we learn from their example. Reading the Bible and praying puts God first and choosing to serve puts others above ourselves. These choices put us in line with God's totem pole of priorities: God, others, me.

Now, let's go back to the original question. With all of this in mind, as you examine your day-to-day to life (not just your feelings, what the things you choose to do): Do you love God?

If your answer changed to a "no" (or remained as a "no"), that's okay. I'm not here to judge or condemn you. BUT, don't stay there. Remember that love is a choice that we make, not a feeling that comes and goes. We have to choose to read the Bible, choose to pray, choose to share the Gospel, and choose to serve others. Every time we choose these things we are demonstrating our love for God. My prayer for you is that you will take these things to heart and change the way you live so that your life demonstrates a love for God. Amen.

The Road So Far

 Last night we took some much needed time to stop and reflect on what we have learned so far this year. Volleyball was the name of the game for the evening and I don't know about everyone else, but I had a really good time.

As we moved into the "message" time, I opened with a brief overview of everything we had covered up to this point. Below you will see a simple illustration (drawn by yours truly) of the foundation for all of our messages this year.

You would not believe how long it took me to produce that simple image... Anyway, the heart above represents your life. It represents you. Everything we are talking about this year centers around how to live the Christian life in a non-Christian world. The cross represents Jesus Christ being at the center of your life and the book represents the Word of God (the Bible) as your basis for truth. You see, if we want to live the Christian life, we first must be sure that we are of the faith and that we are in submission to the Bible as our authority in life. If you don't believe in Jesus, or you don't trust the Bible as a reliable source of truth, then you will fail to live out the Christian life in this world. Everything else that we have talked about or will talk about this year is founded on the understanding that Jesus is Lord and the Bible is our authority. That means we look to Jesus and we trust His Word to teach us what is right and good.

The Bible tells us about the nature of mankind - that we are created in the image of God but are separated from Him because of our sin, which condemns us to death. Every person is born with a sin nature and is destined for death. On our own, there is nothing we can do bridge the gap and get to God. When we understand this about mankind, it helps us to see that apart from God we are all doomed. We are not basically good, we are not evolving into better or more perfect beings, and we are not all going to Heaven (apart from God, none of us are). This has HUGE implications for living the Christian life, because it means that if we are not going into the world and telling people about Jesus (as we are supposed to do) then they won't ever have access to God.

The Bible also tells us about our role in the world, and specifically how we are to relate to non-believers. In His famous "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 5-7, Jesus tells His disciples that they are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We broke that down to mean that we are to be blessings toward others (salt), doing good whenever and wherever we can. We are also to speak the truth whenever and wherever we can (light), shedding truth and light in an otherwise very dark world. Even if someone is in direct opposition to God and persecutes us as Christians, we are to speak the truth and demonstrate toward them the same kind of live and mercy that God showed us through Jesus Christ.

The Bible gives us a direct command when it comes to our relationship with our parents: "Honor your father and mother". We talked about the fact that "to honor" means "to obey". We are to obey our parents. And this is a serious command, as it sits right in the middle of the 10 Commandments. Its right up there alongside "Do not murder". And there is no caveat to this one either. There is no stated exception, like "obey them unless they are being quite unreasonable". We are to obey our parents, unless (yes, there is actually an exception) they tell us to do something that goes against the Bible. We obey God first, then parents. And if we do this, it will go a LONG way in helping us to have a good, healthy relationship with our parents.

The Bible completely obliterates any foundation for racism. In the beginning when God created Adam and Eve, He was starting the entirety of the human race from one set of parents. That means that all of us, no matter our skin tone, are able to trace our lineage back to the same common ancestors. We are ALL descendants of Adam and Eve, which means we are ALL one race - the human race. Therefore, skin tone should have absolutely no bearing on how we treat each other. No one is superior or better than anyone else, this is what the Bible teaches. We are equals in sin and separation from God, and those of us who have been saved are equals in the forgiveness and grace we have received in Jesus Christ.

The last two weeks we watched a YT video by Dr. Jason Lisle, in which he shared evidence from astronomy that supports the truth of the Bible. One of the benefits of seeing this evidence is that it encourages us in our faith, to know that what we believe to be true is supported by the world that God created. Knowing these evidences also helps us to have an answer for the hope that we have in Christ. When the people of the world come against us and accuse us of being crazy or stupid, we can show the rationality of our faith and stand our ground.

Most of our time last night was spent in a discussion, as I gave students the opportunity to voice any questions that had been raised but not answered in any of the previous messages. It started slow but it turned into a good discussion, and I am planning on having another one sometime in February of 2022. I hope you're able to be there and participate.

As we move forward this year, we will continue to tackle some of those big topics that the church is facing right now. We will discuss a biblical perspective on abortion, sexuality, social justice, and even politics. It is important for us, as Christians, to discuss these topics and come to a common understanding of how we should handle each of them from a biblical perspective. I fully expect there will be some hard conversations to come, but they will be necessary.

May the God of all peace be with you.

The Bible and "Race"

 Heyo! This is the second week of our look into a biblical perspective on some of the more pressing issues of our current culture. Last week we talked about our relationship with our parents (specifically focusing on what the Bible has to say about honoring and obeying our parents and how that plays into the relationship). This week we are looking at the topic of what our culture calls "race". We went through 11 different passages from the Bible, so bear with me as we read and unpack them together. This was a particularly interactive message time, and unfortunately I was not able to record all of the questions (or the corresponding answers) from the discussion last night.

Genesis 1:26-27 - “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 in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

When God created all things, and in this case, mankind, He made them all "according to their own kind". Mankind is particularly unique as we see here, in that God decided to make mankind in His image. Mankind was given special authority and dominion over God's creation, which springs from this image of God we bear. This is where we come from as a people; this is our beginning.

Romans 5:12 - “¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…”

This is part of a larger argument Paul (the author of Romans) is making to the church that is in Rome. The point he is making in this passage is that sin and death entered the world through one man (Adam) and thus affected all people. This point alludes to the fact that we are all (yes, all) descended from that one man. If we could somehow trace our lineages back to the very beginning, we would all reach the same common ancestors: Adam and Eve. If this were not so, then how could Adam's sin be passed down to us?

Acts 17:26-27 - “²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”

This supports Paul's statement in Romans, that we are all descended from common ancestors. From Adam and Eve came all the nations that exist today. God established each nation throughout history, including the United States of America, and He spread them out throughout the world, as we will see in the next passage.

Genesis 11:1-9 - “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. ³ They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ ⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ ⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

This is where the major divisions of language and ethnicity started. Up until this point in the history of the world, people spoke the same common language (not English) and probably all shared a close skin tone. When God confused the languages (by the way, "Babel" means confusion) and scattered people "over the face of the whole earth", that is when ethnic diversity would have begun to develop - based on diet and climate.

Romans 2:9-11 - “⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; ¹⁰ but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.”

This is an important point to make note of, because some people want to claim that God favored the Israelites over other people. It is true that God chose the Israelites as His people, and He did that because He was going to use them to bring about His plan of redemption for mankind (His plan to save them from that sin and death Paul was talking about). When it comes to God's judgment, or His mercy, there is no partiality given. It doesn't matter where you were born, those who do good will reap the benefits of doing good and those who do evil will reap the consequences of doing evil.

The issue in the Roman church was that the Gentile (this just means those that weren't Jewish) Christians were arguing with the Jewish Christians, and Paul was trying to help them settle their differences by focusing them on Christ. It didn't matter if they were Jewish or not, they were all "in Christ" and that is what was supposed to bring them together.

Matthew 28:18-20 - “¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

The fact that Jesus commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations tells us that His death paid the penalty for the sins of everyone, not just the Jews or any other particular ethnic group. People of every nation could find salvation through Him, which puts all people on an equal playing field.

John 13:34-35 - “³⁴ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Within the body of Christ, within the church, we are called to love one another. It doesn't matter what differences there are between us, we must love one another just as Christ loved us.

Leviticus 19:34 - “³⁴ The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Even though the Israelites (the Jews) were called to be holy nation (this means they were to be set apart from other nations, distinguished from them), they were still commanded by God to treat foreigners (non-Jews) with love. If it makes the point clearer, let me use the word "immigrant" instead of "foreigner". Though there may have been ethnic differences, that did not justify treating someone with anything less than love.

Romans 3:21-24 - “²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

When it comes to sin, there truly is no difference between anyone. As human beings, we are all equally lost in sin, and equally incapable of earning salvation or attaining the glory of God on our own. We all fall short. In the same way, we are all equally (and freely) justified by God's grace through Jesus Christ. Not one of us is more deserving than another.

Colossians 3:5-11 - “⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

This is Paul again, in a letter written to the church in Colossae. Here he is commanding them to put to death (to remove) anything in their lives that belongs to their earthly nature. If it was connected to the sin nature they had before coming to Christ, it needed to go. It is quite a list, right? I remember last night we talked a little bit about the filthy language part. I wonder what that means for you? At the the end of the quoted passage, Paul lists some of the things that would have, before Christ, separated or divided the people from each other. Jews would not have associated with Gentiles (Jews were circumcised, Gentiles were generally not). Barbarians were those people from what we now call Europe, and they were seriously looked down upon. Scythians were from the slavic areas, and also considered to be outsiders. Slaves were not usually permitted to associate with free peoples. So then, these are the dividing lines, and likely major ones in Colossae. In this passage, Paul is saying that in Christ, these dividing lines are no more. They are gone. They are removed. Rather than division, the church is to be completely unified in Christ.

Revelation 7:9-10 - “⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

And this is a look at where we are going. Revelation is a glimpse at what the end times will hold. In the vision, John (the author) sees this great multitude "from every nation, tribe, people and language" worshipping God together. The church of God has spanned over two millennia now, and has covered pretty much every corner of the world at one point or another. There have been Christians from countless nations, tribes, peoples and languages already, and there will be more Christians yet.

God created mankind as one race - the human race - and we are all made in His image. What our culture defines as "race" - the different ethnic groups and nationalities - were originally created by God to divide us. And in Christ He has removed those dividing lines so that we can once again be unified. This means that in a Christian, biblical worldview, the color of our skin has no bearing on how we should treat each other. Jesus commanded that those who love Him must love one another, no matter how our culture might try to identify and divide us.

The racial discrimination that we see today can, unfortunately, be justified from an evolutionary perspective. If we really evolved from a single cell organism and are continuing to evolve, then its possible that the different "races" of humanity are at different stages of the evolutionary process, which would mean that some races really are better than others. HOWEVER, from a biblical perspective, the racial discrimination that we see today CANNOT be justified. According to the Bible we are all human beings, made in the image of God, equally lost in sin and equally in need of a Savior.

So, for those who are in Christ, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, what language you speak, or what country you're from - we are all one in Christ. We are unified by our faith in Jesus. So stop focusing on the things that make use different and start focusing on the One who brings us together in unity. Let us love one another as Jesus has loved us. And as we look out into the world, let us demonstrate God's love to others, regardless of how they might look or act different from us.

If you have questions or comments, I would be happy to discuss them with you in the comment section below. God bless you all.

Salty Flashlights

Salt is so incredibly useful. Most of us use it on our food, either to enhance the flavor or to curb some of the bitterness (a pinch of salt in coffee works wonders). Mankind has also used it for ages as a preservative. Long before refrigerators there was salt, keeping our food from going bad. And of course, we're gearing up to throw it all over the roads (and our front porch) as winter approaches, as something about salt melts ice and prevents it from building up.

Similarly, light is essential. Not only so that we can see, but the light from the sun gives plants energy and allows them to grow. Could you imagine a world devoid of light? Life would be so different. I used to go camping a lot more than I do now, and at night I would often use a flashlight to get around in the dark without bumping into or tripping over things. The light would show me what was around me so I could navigate through it safely. The Bible often talks about itself in this way, that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It shows the way. It shows the truth.

In the main passage for today, Jesus actually calls His people the light of the world. This is the final entry in our series on How to Live the Christian Life in a Non-Christian world. We've already discussed that first you have to be sure that you are of the faith. I mean, what's the point of trying to live the Christian life if you're not even a Christian? Second, as a part of being a Christian, you have acknowledge the Bible as an authority in your life. You have to believe what it says to be true and live by it. And third, you need to understand the nature of mankind as revealed in the Bible - we were created good, but messed up and became separated from God, fallen in our sinfulness with no way to fix it by ourselves.

Today I want to talk about our role as Christians in relation to non-Christians. How do we, or should we, interact with nonbelievers? Let's look at Matthew 5:13-16:

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

Jesus says we are to be the salt of the earth. I said earlier that salt is something extremely useful and helpful in our daily lives. It enhances flavor, preserves food from spoiling, and protects us from slipping on ice. If we are to be "salt" to others, then that means we should be useful - a blessing - in the lives of the people around us. We should be looking for ways to enhance other people's lives, make them better, or help in some way. This goes beyond offering to pray from someone, on to doing something practical for them. For example, if I see someone struggling to change a tire on the side of the road, I can pull over and help them (if you don't know how to change a tire, maybe don't do this). If I see that a friend is really struggling in math, I can offer to study with them. If I see that a coworker is just having a rough day, I can talk to and encourage them, or even offer to help them with their duties for that day - to make their load a little easier and their day a little better. That is what it means to be salt.

A word of warning here: salt, when used in the wrong way, can be bad. Just imagine putting salt in your hot chocolate instead of sugar - not good. We need to make sure that what we are doing is actually helping the other person, not just creating more problems. Good intentions isn't enough, we need to do good. Why? Jesus gives us the reason in the second part: "that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

We are to be salt, and we are to be light. What does light do? It illuminates, it shows the way. It helps us to see in dark places and avoid obstacles. Mot importantly, light helps us to see where we are going. If we, then, are supposed to be a light to the world, then that means we need to be showing people where they are going. Our good deeds - being salt - should point people to Jesus, not to us. Being light involves speaking the truth (which we find in the Word of God) AND living by it. When we live the way God has called us to live, and we do good for others, it will point them to God. In that sense, then, we are pointing people to God - we are light.

There is one more important thing to understand about how we are to relate to nonbelievers, and that is found in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13:

"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. 'Expel the wicked person from among you.'"

It is not our job to judge those outside the church. I'll say it again. It is NOT our job to judge people outside of the church. "But Mike," you might say, "you just said we have to speak the truth! Doesn't that mean we have to call people out on their sin?" Yes, we need to speak the truth, and that means showing people that they are sinners (just like us). But there is a huge difference between showing someone that they are a sinner and judging them for their sin. The first is meant to lead them to the understanding that they need Jesus to save them from their sin, while the second is meant to make them feel bad. Should we feel bad about our sin? Yes, absolutely. Should we go out of our way to make other people feel bad about their sins? No. The Holy Spirit, God, convicts people of sin, and God is the one who will ultimately judge them. That's His job, not ours. Our job is to speak the truth - to let people know they are sinners and in need of a Savior, Jesus. And we do that in love, as we do good in their lives and point them to Jesus.

So to put this all together (and I know that last part might have gotten a little confusing):

1. Be salt - demonstrate God's love in practical ways - help and serve others.

2. Be light - be the person God has called you to be and speak the truth of His Word.

3. Share the Gospel, not judgment. Judgment IS coming, and that is a part of the Gospel, but it is not WE who are going to be doing the judging - that's God's job.

If we do these things, we will be living the Christian life, and these are all things we can be doing in a non-Christian world. People may not like us (a lot of people hated Jesus), but it is what God has called us to do. God bless.

Do Not Worry About Tomorrow

 So last week (yeah, I know, this was supposed to come out on Thursday) we met outside and had ourselves a little campfire in the parking lot. It was a super relaxed evening as we tossed the ol' pigskin around and sat around the fire chatting.

I wanted to take advantage of the fire we had, so we did a little activity as a part of the message time. If you are reading this during a season where its comfortable to build a campfire (aka, Fall or Spring), I would encourage you to do so. If you happen to have an in-home fireplace, even better.

The first passage we read is where the title of this post came from, Matthew 6:25-34. This is a part of Jesus' longest recorded sermon, the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. As He is teaching, Jesus shares this with His audience: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

What is it that you worry about? Some of you have college applications due, and I know all of you have tests, exams and papers coming up. Maybe you are worried about Covid-19, or some drama going on with your friends or family. Perhaps there is a habitual sin in your life that you've struggled and struggled with, but can't seem to shake. The truth is, we all have something that we tend to worry about. Sometimes it is focused on ourselves, sometimes it is other people we worry about. Whatever the case may be, Jesus is telling us to let them go. The things of this life that we worry about, the things we get anxious over - let them go.

He makes a promise here. He says that if we seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, then all the things we truly need (food and clothing, etc.) will be given to us as well. Seek God, and He will make sure you have what you need. That promise gives us a lot of hope, and it is that promise which allows us to "not worry", so long as we believe that God will fulfill His promise. So, here's where we get to the activity. Take a piece of paper and write down the thing(s) that you worry about the most. The thing(s) pressing down on your heart day after day. Maybe you have one big thing, or a lot of little things - write them all down. Once you have done that, keep reading. I'm sure you've got some idea of what comes next.

In Philippians 4:6-8, Paul says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

He says that rather than sitting in our worry and anxiety, we should cast all our worries on God. Present them to God. Turn them over to God. He wants us to give up our anxieties and fears to God. So, take that piece paper upon which you wrote down your biggest sources of worry/anxiety/fear, and pray to God. Lift them up to God. Entrust them to God. Trust that He will take care of your needs and that He has your future in His all-powerful hands. Once you have done this, cast your paper into the fire and watch it burn away. Let your worry/anxiety/fear burn away with it as you trust in God to provide for you.

Now, there is one other important aspect which both of the passages share: we are called to turn our focus away from our anxiety and toward God. "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness..." and "Whatever is true...noble...right...pure...lovely...admirable...excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Jesus wants us to focus on Him, because when we do, we get an eternal perspective about the things around us. He helps us to see the big picture of His plan for us, and to know that in the end, we will get to spend eternity with Him. That is where our peace comes from, a peace which doesn't always make sense, but that will most definitely guard our hearts and our minds from anxiety, worry, and fear.

So, anytime you find yourself struggling with anxiety, look back to these verses and look to God. He is there for you, He will provide for you, and He alone will give you peace.

God bless yall!

Foreigners in a Hostile World

 Heyo! For anyone who doesn't know already, I have played a LOT of games in my lifetime - from board games, to videogames, to sports games, all the way to mind games (messing with my siblings). You and I may not like the same kinds of games, but I think we can all agree that games are fun. I think part of what makes games fun is that they each have their own set of rules that the players have to abide by - these make the game the way that it is. For example, imagine trying to play dodgeball but no matter what happens no one can get out. It might be fun at first, until you realize that you're just throwing dodgeballs at each other until someone gets bored or whatever. That's not... a game. You know? A game needs to have certain rules so that it is fair, works properly, and allows everyone to have some fun and competition. The world we live in today is a lot like a game in that respect. There need to be rules to live by so that the world runs properly, people can live at peace with each other, and everyone can have opportunity to "pursue happiness", as the American dream would put it. However, when I look around, even at just this country, it seems like everyone is living by different rules. Either they mix and match rules from others or they make up new rules as they go along. No one truly agrees on any rules, so there is no peace, the world definitely doesn't run properly, and most people are too busy struggling to get by to even think about pursuing happiness. The "American Dream" doesn't work.

As Christians, we believe that God created the world (as outlined in the beginning of the book of Genesis) and He established the world order, set it in motion, and provided the rules for the "game" of life. He revealed all of this in the Bible so that we would know how we are supposed to live in this world He created. Unfortunately, if you read through the book of Genesis in the Bible, you'll quickly find out that it didn't take very long for mankind to break the rules and do their own thing. Ever since then, humanity has struggled with the consequences of rebelling against God's way of doing things, and that's what we see in our world today. Our society doesn't want to do things God's way, and they become very hostile toward those who do. So, the question is, how do we live the Christian life in a non-Christian world? How do we survive as foreigners in a hostile world?

In total, there are four parts to the answer to that question, and today we are going to look at the first two.

Step 1, the very first thing you need to do to even attempt to live the Christian life in a non-Christian world, is to be sure you are of the faith. Romans 10:9-10 says this: "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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." There is NO POINT in trying to live the Christian life if you're not even a Christian. It won't do you any good and you'll fail over and over and over again. The good news is, becoming a Christian is not as complicated as some of you might believe. Just like Paul said in Romans 10, out your faith in Jesus and what He did for you on the cross. Let me give you a quick overview of what we're talking about here - according to the Bible, Jesus is the Son of God who came to the earth as a man about 2,000 years ago, lived a sinless, perfect life and then died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, taking all the punishment that we deserve so that we don't have to, and then was raised from the dead 3 days later. If you believe that and trust that your sins are forgiven through Jesus, you are a Christian.

Here's the thing though, according to Paul we must declare with our mouths "Jesus is Lord". A "lord" is someone with authority, a master or ruler. So when we declare "Jesus is Lord," we are declaring that Jesus is our master, our ruler, the main authority figure in our lives. If Jesus is our Lord, that means we submit to His authority, we follow and obey Him.

Step 2 naturally follows from this. Step 2 to living the Christian life in a non-Christian world is to acknowledge the authority of God's Word (the Bible) in your life. When you think of the Bible as God's letter to us, which comes with instructions for living and information about who He is and what He is doing, then it would make total sense for us to acknowledge the Bible as an authority in our lives. It would be just like receiving a letter from our lord. Where we get tripped up, however, is that a lot of the time we treat the Bible like the instructions for a game. Take UNO as an example. UNO has specific rules for each card and how to play the game. But depending on where you go, different people play the game differently. There are variations of the rules (stacking versus no stacking, drawing one card when you can't play anything or drawing until you can play, etc.). I think we tend to treat the Bible like the rules in UNO - the Bible gives us a baseline, but we can pick and choose which rules we actually want to follow. And this is why step 2 is so important to living the Christian life in a non-Christian world. The world tells us its okay to pick and choose, but the Bible is clear - its all or nothing. We either submit completely to God's way, or we are in rebellion against God. There is no in-between.

So then, to really acknowledge the Word of God as an authority in our lives, we have to surrender our authority of self. What do I mean by that? Well, before becoming a Christian, we all have different authorities over us - our parents, teachers, the government, etc. But over all of those we have the authority of self. This is our ability to choose who we are going to listen, if we listen to anyone at all. Like, yeah, I might get in trouble if I don't listen to my parents, but ultimately it is my decision whether to obey them or not. The authority of self boils down to this: "I do what I want." As a Christian, we surrender this authority of self over to God. In making Jesus our Lord, we say, "God, I am no longer in charge of my own life, You are. You make the decisions, You say what is right, and I will follow Your lead." It boils down to: "I do what God wants." If we try to live the Christian life, but don't surrender the authority of self, we are in for a lifetime of trouble.

Isaiah 45:9 says this: "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'?" If the Bible is true, that means God made the world. He is the Maker, He is the "potter", and we are what He has created. If He is the Maker, what right do we have to challenge His design? What right do we have to disagree with He has said? When we acknowledge the authority of the Bible in our lives, we are saying that we trust that God knows what He is talking about. That means we don't get to decide what is right or wrong, we go by what He says is right or wrong.

If you are sitting there and you want to live the way God says is right and good, then the first things you need to do is ask yourself these two questions: Have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you surrendered yourself to the authority of God's Word? These two things set the foundation for everything else we believe in, and they give us solid ground upon which to stand for our faith. The world we live in despises God's way, and they will try to push down and destroy anyone who tries to live His way. Don't let them push you down.

Suicide: Warning Signs and How to Help

So, we met on the 3rd floor last night for the first time since Covid-19 swept across the globe. It was a bittersweet experience since we didn't have PI making amazing FroZones for everyone. Maybe we will get up there one more time before he leaves and convince him to make us all drinks. We'll see.

We saw some old faces, we saw some new faces, we saw some young faces, and we saw some masked faces. With the Governor's decision to lift the mask mandate starting tomorrow, we won't see as many masked faces moving forward. My hope, however, is that even after social distancing restrictions are removed, people continue to respect the personal space of others. Who's with me on this?

Last night we tackled a topic most serious: suicide. Most of what we talked about can be found in this article on Life Church's website, but I would like to quickly summarize some of the key points that were made (especially since I think you need an account to view the article).

Firstly, let's talk about how prevalent (important) this issue is in our society today. In the late 1990's suicide rates among young people were actually declining (less people were taking their own lives). However, in the last two decades this has reversed and suicide rates among young people have been on the rise. Right now, suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people, the #1 cause being accidents. Back in 2016, more people in the U.S. died by suicide than by homicide - that means more people were taking their own life than were having it taken by someone else. That's disheartening, to say the least. In the next 24 hours, approximately 1,439 teenagers will attempt suicide, and about 80% of students who die by suicide never contact mental health services (they don't reach out for help).

This is a real problem in our society. Our young people are so disillusioned about life here on this earth, and so disheartened by the state of the world that they would rather take themselves out of it than remain. They see no bright future, no hope or reason to continue, so they opt out. Something needs to be done. Someone needs to do something. WE need to do something!

**I don't necessarily recommend watching the show "One Tree Hill" as there are a lot of twisted themes and perspectives throughout it, but if you want to see a powerful depiction of the kind of hopelessness that leads a young person to end their life, watch Season 3, Episode 16 - "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept". I don't want anyone to go through the kind of hopelessness, depression, and despair that the student in this episode experienced.**

Signs to Watch Out For:

- Changes in eating habits

- Sad or depressed mood

- Loss of energy, motivation, or interest (especially in things they are usually passionate about)

- Withdrawal and increased isolation

- Statements about hopelessness, worthlessness, or self-harm

When you begin to see these signs in someone (or in yourself) then it is time to ask for help.

I'd like to note that it is okay to be sad. Sadness is a feeling we have in response to things we face in everyday life like loss of a loved one, frustrations, or even just a sad movie (or episode, as mentioned above). Depression, on the other hand, goes way beyond a feeling. It is debilitating (it controls your mood and mindset very negatively) and it is seemingly impossible to get out of. When you are looking for the signs mentioned above, depression is when sadness doesn't seem to go away. It is when sadness lasts for weeks, into months, possibly into years when left unchecked.

We noted last night that the church is a safe place to open up. People get this idea that church is where perfect people go, but actually, the opposite is true. When people come to believe in Jesus Christ, they admit that they are not perfect and that they need saving. Church is for imperfect, hurting people to come and experience God's love and mercy. And it is a safe place to open up about what is really going on under the surface. When someone is depressed, they usually feel alone, detached, and disconnected from others. The problem is, our go-to response to this is further isolate ourselves - which of course makes it even worse. When we or someone we know is depressed, it is vitally important to find a way to connect with someone else. Reach out to a leader, a trusted friend, or a family member. Don't stay isolated.

Some things you can do to help when you start to see the signs listed above in someone:

1. Ask questions. Open up a conversation, and don't be afraid to mention that you are concerned about them. Let them know you care and are available to talk if they are willing.

2. Listen. Don't just ask, listen to their answers.

3. Be there. Sit with them and let your presence be a reminder that they are not alone. Sometimes we don't know what to say, and that's okay because sometimes we don't need to say anything - we just need to be there.

4. Help them connect. You cannot do it alone. Don't try to help them by yourself, instead, try to get them connected with a larger support system: friends, family, medical professionals (if necessary), pastors, and/or counselors.

5. Pray. This is the single most important thing you can do. Pray with them, pray for them, pray over them. Just pray. Believe in the power of prayer and know that God hears us.

The last things we talked about was hope. One of the leading causes of depression (when not a medical issue) is a sense of hopelessness. People look out at the world around them and decide it is not worth living in - that somehow, it is better to die. As Christians, we know the one Person who can offer hope in this dark, broken world: Jesus Christ. He offers to give us salvation from our sins, purpose for our lives here on earth, and the hope of everlasting life with God when this life is over. We talked about 3 points from the Bible that give us hope:

1. God loves and values us. Check out Psalm 139:13-16, Romans 5:8, and John 3:16 to see what the Bible has to say about this.

2. God has an amazing plan for our lives. Check out Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28.

3. God can give us the strength to overcome any struggle. Check out Psalm 46:1-2, Psalm 9:9-10, and Isaiah 40:29-31.

There is nothing we can do earn God's love, He just loves us. And there is nothing we can do to lose God's love, either. We always have hope and we can always rely on Him.

When we come alongside someone who is struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide, it is important for us to share this hope. If the person is a Christian, remind them of these things. If they are not a Christian, share the message about Jesus - it is the most hope you can offer them in this world. Then, remind them that they are not alone.

If you have questions about what to do, resources, or next steps in regard to helping someone struggling with these kinds of thoughts, please ask those questions in the comments below. If you need advice, prayer, or support, please reach out to me, to a friend, to someone.

God bless yall.

The Sharpest Tools in the Shed

 For some of you, reading that title immediately got you singing Smashmouth's "All Star" (just writing it got the song stuck in my head). I tip my hat to you. Well, last night I had a blast bringing back 4-Square in the gym. Turns out I'm not as rusty as I thought! We also brought back the insanely dangerous awesome game of Hungry Hungry Humans. If you don't know what that it is, just go look it up quickly on YouTube and you'll be sorry you missed out. ;)

Have you ever had to mow the lawn? When I was a teenager that was one of my responsibilities at home. I hated it. I always ended up sweaty and gross, covered in bits of grass and dirt and almost always with at least one new bug bite. The job itself seems pretty simple - turn on your mower and walk over the grass. On paper its a very simple job. But add in the heat, bumps in the ground, sticks in the way, and elevation changes and that simple task just became a lot harder.

Now imagine that I go out to mow my lawn and I think to myself "Hey Mike, you don't need a lawnmower to do this, you can handle it yourself!" And then I proceed to bend down and start ripping the grass up with my hands. With this method, how long do you think it is going to take me to finish "mowing" the lawn? The whole day? Maybe several days? With the size of my current lawn, I think the grass where I started will have regrown by the time I finish, meaning I'd have to start all over again! My hands would definitely be hurting something bad by the end of it (assuming I managed to finish at all).

The obvious question in this scenario is "Why didn't I use the tools at my disposal to handle the work more wisely and efficiently?" I had the tools, but I was choosing not to use them. And that's what we talked about last night: God has given us specific (and powerful) tools to handle the problems of life. So let's look at those together. Check out what James says in chapter one of his book:

James 1:2-5 - "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (Emphasis mine)

The first tool God has given us is prayer. DO NOT underestimate the power of prayer. Prayers aren't just empty words spoken in a conversation, they are words filled with hope and expectation spoken to the God who can actually answer them. It is one thing to say "I wish I was wiser." It is something else entirely to pray and ask God for wisdom. When I wish for something, I'm just expressing a desire. "I wish I had some pizza right now." "I wish I wasn't lactose intolerant." "I wish I was as buff as Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson." But when I pray for something, I am asking God to give me what I desire. The difference? God can actually give it to me.

In fact, according to those verses above, God gives out wisdom freely. You want the wisdom to handle the problems of life? Pray and ask God, and He will give it to you.

I would also like to note that these verses assume that we will face trials of many kinds. James is like "Hey guys, you're going to run into problems, you just are." And he says we should "consider it pure joy" when we do. Why? Because facing problems is what causes us to grow and mature - both in life and in faith.

When I started to rock climb at the Gravity Vault, I got very comfortable climbing 5.9s (just one grade more difficult than beginner). That's all I wanted to do because I was good at it. Finally, my friends challenged to try something harder. When I did, I failed. I couldn't do it. I wasn't strong enough and didn't have the skill or technique to do it. But they encouraged me to keep trying, to keep facing the problem. And as I did, I slowly became a stronger climber and was able to work my way up the grading scale all the way to 5.12s (one step below expert). If was never challenged to do something harder, I never would have grown stronger. So James is right to tell us to take joy in facing our problems, because through them we grow stronger, more mature and complete in our faith. And prayer is one of the tools God has given us to overcome those problems.

Now let's look to tool #2, and for that we'll take a look at Proverbs 3:1-6 - "My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Well, the joke is on you. We've actually been using tool #2 this whole time! The second tool God has given us is His Word - the Bible. Proverbs, in particular, is packed with wise sayings about how to handle (or avoid) the problems of this life. The Bible, the Word of God, is not just a bunch of stories about the history of Israel or even all about the life of Jesus. It is full of the knowledge of God, and guidelines for living wisely and confidently in this broken world.

I'm not much of a "car guy", to the point that I can never even remember what size windshield wipers I need for my car. It seems like a small problem, but the wrong size can make it so they don't work properly on the car. There are a couple of ways I can go about trying to figure it out: 1) I can buy a bunch of different sizes until I get the right size, 2) I can go ask a mechanic or someone who would know (although they can get it wrong), or 3) I can look it up in the vehicle's manual - which will tell me exactly what size wiper I need.

I think too often we try to face our problems with option 1 - we keep trying different things until something works. Sometimes we'll opt for option 2, and ask someone for advice (but they could be wrong or give bad advice). Really, our first thought should be option 3, to go to God and His Word for the right answer of how to handle whatever situation we've come across.

As these verses advise, we should keep the Word of God close to our hearts, reading portions of it every day and continuing to think about them throughout the day. We should definitely be living by the teaching of the Bible, loving others and being faithful to our word every day. And in verses 5-6, it says we should trust God fully and not rely on our own understanding of things. We need to recognize when we don't know what to do and then go to God for guidance. What will happen when we do this? He will show us the right way to go.

There is a 3rd tool hidden in there, too. The book of Proverbs was written by a man to his son (using God's wisdom as his primary source of knowledge). God hasn't sent us out into the world alone. No, He has given us a global community of fellow believers to support us (and whom we should support). When we're not sure what to do, we can go to other Christians and ask for advice and guidance (this is literally what Pastors are there for).

So, God has given us several tools to work with in facing the problems of this life. He has given us the power of prayer so we can ask for His help directly, His written Word so we can use it as a reference and guide, and other Christians who can encourage and support us in times of need.

If you are reading this, here is what I want you to do. Think of a problem you are facing right now (it can be anything, big or small). It shouldn't be too hard to think of one - we all face problems on a daily basis. Once you have a specific problem in mind, I want you to pray and ask God to give you the wisdom to handle that situation. Do it. Right now. Pray something like this: "God, give me the wisdom to handle this situation the way You would want me to."

Once you have prayed, look to the Bible. In order to be reading this you must be in some kind of web browser, so open up a new tab and look up what the Bible has to say about what you're dealing with. Maybe you are struggling with a particular sin, or drama in your friend group. If its the drama, you can look up what the Bible has to say about our relationships with others and how to maintain peace and harmony.

Once you have done this, follow the advice. If you're not sure what to look for, or you're not sure what to do in response, use tool #3. Ask your fellow Christians. Shoot me a message or ask another one of the leaders from youth group. Don't just sit there in confusion, seek out an answer.

God has given us these tools so that no matter what problem we face, we are equipped with the tools we need to face it. He doesn't send us to mow the lawn without a mower. He doesn't leave us to pull up the grass by hand. He equips us to face life, and He stands with us and faces it with us. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

God bless yall.

Come to Me, You Who Are Weary, and I Will Give You Rest

 Last night looked a little different as far as the message goes. Instead of a typical "Leader gets up and talks about something for half an hour", we looked at a couple of different scenarios and then worked in small groups to unpack what the Bible had to say about how to handle those scenarios. Before the message time, however, we took turns whacking each other with foam swords in a series of duels.

Let me ask you a question. When you have a problem, where do you go for advice? Do you have a particular friend who is your "go to" for problem-solving? Does it depend on what kind of problem it is? Maybe you have a good relationship with your parents and you often go to them for advice. Every now and then someone will come to me, but I'm not usually their "Option A" (maybe more like "Option Z"). So, where do you go? Take a second and really lock in an answer before reading further. Got it? Good.

Was your answer "I go to God and His Word"? My guess is, probably not. One of the main problems I see in our group is that we (yes, I am including myself in this) will go just about anywhere else first for advice before going to God and the Bible. For some reason, our gut instinct is to ask a friend, or a parent, or even Google before opening up the Bible for answers. The crazy thing about this is that we would rather trust other created beings than trust the Almighty Creator. I mean, seriously, if we really believe that God created everything (which according to our beliefs, He did) then wouldn't He be the first person we go to for advice on how to live in His Creation?

Logically, it makes sense for us to go to God. But the sad truth is that often, we don't. This needs to change. Our gut instinct should be to go to God first. To read the Bible first, before going to other people (who can then help us understand what God says to do in the Bible). Last night, in an effort to get this point across, I had everybody split into groups and work through case studies. Each group was given a short scenario and some Bible verses to look through. Their goal was to figure out what the person in the scenario should do according to what the Bible said about that scenario. I won't share the scenarios here, but the point of the message was to show that the Bible has the answer. God knows how to handle any and every situation we come across, and He has given us access to that knowledge through His written Word. All we have to do is read it.

Matthew 11:28-30 says this: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

When we have problems in this life, and stress is weighing us down, Jesus invites us to come alongside Him. He invites us to go to Him with our problems so He can share the load. The imagery in this passage ties back to an old farming technique, where two oxen would be connected together through a wooden device called a "yoke". The yoke kept the oxen side-by-side as they dragged a large plow through the dirt to loosen it and make it ready for planting. When training new oxen for this, what the farmer would do is take an older, seasoned ox and pair him with a young, inexperienced ox. The older ox, who knew what to do, would lead the way (taking most of the weight and doing most of the work) as the young ox had no choice but to follow. Over time, the young ox learned what to do and would be able to work with the old ox so that they were working together. That is what Jesus invites us to. He is the old ox - full of experience and knowledge of what to do - and we are the young ox - inexperienced and untrained. He offers to guide us through life and teach us the way we should go, all we have to do is go to Him.

So, if you're frustrated by the problems of this life, and you don't know what to do - look to Jesus. Go to Him, read His Word and learn from Him, and He will give you rest for your soul. He will show you the way. My hope is that moving forward, your first instinct when facing a new problem would be to go to the Bible. And if you don't know where to look, or you don't understand what it says, go to a leader, come talk to me. We are literally here to help you grow and mature in your walk with God, so we would love to hear from you and help you find answers.

If you have a situation and you need advice, or would like to know what the Bible has to say about handling that situation, you can post it anonymously in the comments below or share it in the box at the church (oh yeah, we have a box for questions now). My plan is to take one every week and share about it during the message. That's all for now, God bless you and your family.

Anxious Much?

 What is anxiety? This past Wednesday we took a closer look at what anxiety is, what it does to us, and what causes it. Then we dove into the Word of God to find out how we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should handle anxiety. Spiritual leaders often tell us to look at the Bible for answers to life's questions, and yet usually that's not our gut reaction. Why look to some old book when my friends are right here? But, when it comes to the difficulties of life, who should we trust more - the God who created this world or our friends who have about as much life experience as we do? The obvious answer to that question is that we should trust God more. But do we? Do we trust that God knows our problems and how to deal with them the right way?

Hopefully, if you are reading this, you are at least curious to know what the Bible has to say about handling anxiety in life. So, let's take a look at what we discussed at the Summit last Wednesday.

Anxiety defined: "Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness." Notice that it doesn't say "or" there. Anxiety is all of these things mixed together.

What does it do?

Some of the effects of anxiety: sweating, feeling restless and tense, rapid heartbeat, trembling, breathing rapidly (hyperventilation), weakness or feeling tired, difficulty concentrating, trouble sleeping, a tendency to avoid the triggers (avoiding thinking about what you're anxious about), etc. Feel free to add in some of your own experiences of when you get anxious. Usually, anxiety causes different effects for different people. When I get anxious, for example, I get sweaty, tense, I feel weak and I have trouble sleeping. In an attempt to "avoid the triggers" I will try to distract myself by watching a show or playing an immersive game. What does anxiety do to you?

Now, sometimes anxiety can be a good thing - it can force us to prepare for things to come (like when we are anxious about a big test so we go overboard on the studying) or it can light a fire under our butts to start working on a paper before the deadline. Unfortunately, anxiety is usually a bad thing. It paralyzes us from doing anything other than worrying. We call this crippling anxiety. The feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness are so strong that we get physically sick or just feel trapped and unable to do anything.

Does anxiety ever solve our problems, though? No. Worrying, by itself, doesn't solve anything. Like, I can worry about my test all I want, but unless I actually study for it, that worrying isn't going to help me get a better grade. Or, I can worry all I want about the church van breaking down on its way to HCBC, but worrying isn't going to stop it from happening. <= I proved this on our second attempt last year as I worried about the van breaking down, and it still broke down...

What causes anxiety?

The short answer: stress. Anxiety (and worry) is a natural response to stressful situations like a problem at work, a test at school, relationship drama in your friend group, or an upcoming important decision. Sometimes anxiety can be caused by a medical issue (although this is rare). As I said earlier, anxiety is a form of fear. It shows up when we are worried about something, something that we feel like we can't control. Its that feeling we get when we don't know what's going to happen.

How do we deal with it?

Here is where we start looking to God's Word. Before we do, though, I want you to do something. I want you to think about a situation that gives you anxiety. What are you dealing with right now that is making you anxious? Is your friend group going through a fight? Are you having trust issues with a boyfriend/girlfriend? Is it something at home, either with your parents or siblings? Maybe you're just worried about what your future is going to look like. Whatever it is, I want you to have a specific situation in mind as we look at what God has to say about dealing with our anxiety. Do you have it? Good.

The passage we are about to read together is a familiar one to many Christians, and honestly, I think it gets taken out of context too much in the church. The book of Philippians is a letter written by the apostle Paul to a church in the city of Philippi. He talks about a lot of good stuff like the mindset of a Christian, how Christians should interact with each other and with the world, and what our priorities should be. And here, as he is getting to the conclusion of his letter, he gives this advice to Christians as they experience trouble in this world.

Philippians 4:4-7 - "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Let's walk through this advice together, step by step. First, he says to rejoice. This is so important that he feels the needs to repeat himself! REJOICE! What do we have to rejoice about? Well, think about your life right now: what are some good things you have to be thankful for? Some things that bring you joy? We have life, that is cause for celebration in and of itself (why else do we celebrate birthdays, after all?). We continue to have breath in our lungs. Through Jesus Christ we have a restored relationship with God, life everlasting, and the promise of an unending future with God. We have a family (who may be troubling at times, but they are usually there for us in one way or another). We have friends (some better than others). We have access to education, food, clean water, a roof over our heads. As we get more specific, we find many more things to rejoice over than we probably thought at first. Paul says that the first step to dealing with anxiety is to rejoice - to think about the joy in our lives.

We can also rejoice because of what Paul says next: "the Lord is near". We can rejoice because God is near us. And we can choose not to be anxious about anything because the Lord is near. Even as you are reading this, God is there with you. He is on your side. And if God is for us, then who can be against us?

This next part is the "famous" part, and gets quoted a lot: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation..." pray. Paul's advice here is not to just "stop worrying". That's not exactly what he means when he says "do not be anxious about anything". Instead, its more of a "rather than be anxious about this or that situation, pray about it". Remember, anxiety is a form of fear. Being anxious about something means that we are afraid of what is going to happen. So, instead of being afraid, pray about it, ask God to step in, and trust that God is in control.

Then what happens? "And the peace of God...will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." When we follow this process, we will find peace. The situation may or may not be resolved, yet we can have peace of mind because we know and trust that God is in control, so we don't need to be afraid anymore. We don't need to worry anymore (especially since worrying won't actually change anything).

So, in dealing with anxiety, we need to move along this path:

1. Rejoice - find what's good in your life and rejoice in it.

2. Remember (remind yourself) that the Lord is near. God has not abandoned you. He is right there with you, even now. He is there even when you can't feel Him there. Let that comfort you.

3. Identify what you are anxious about and pray to God that He would handle the situation. Entrust it to Him. Stop worrying about the situation and trust that it is in God's hands.

4. Embrace God's peace. Peace is like the opposite of worry. I often picture it as the calmness of the sea after Jesus calmed the storm in Matthew 8:23-27 (go read it if you want).

Now, let's read the next few verses in Philippians 4: "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

You ever notice how when someone tells you not to think about something, it becomes the only thing you can think about? Anxiety is just like that. If I said, "Just don't worry about it", or as the New Yorkers say "Forget about it", would you just stop worrying about it? Would you forget about it? NO! Of course not! Paul doesn't just say, "Hey, forget about it." He says to stop thinking about this, and start thinking about that, instead! He says to stop thinking about the situation you're anxious about, and instead start thinking about the things of God. Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy - think about those things.

All of this comes down to a mentality shift. When we are suffering from anxiety, it means we are solely focused on what could happen - usually what we are afraid is going to happen. Then, we become paralyzed because we feel like we can't do anything about it! The Bible tells us to stop. Stop focusing on what might happen, and what you cannot control, and start thinking about what God promises will happen, and what He can control. As Christians, we have already trusted God with our souls and our eternal future. We know that God wins in the end, and we are on the winning side. So, why can't we trust Him with everything else?

Do you still have that specific situation in mind? You know, the one I asked you to think about before we looked at Philippians? Okay, what I want you to do is to walk through these steps with that situation.

1. Rejoice - make a list of things in your life that you are thankful for (and don't settle for just what I listed above, try to be more specific to what you have).

2. Remind yourself that God is near. We are forgetful, and often forget that God is always with us. As anxiety creeps in, remember that God is next to you and you can talk to Him about it.

3. Identify what you are anxious about (name it and be specific about the situation). What are you worried is going to happen? Once you have named it (this works best by either writing it out, or speaking it out loud), talk to God about your fears. Talk to Him about the situation, what you fear might happen, and your feeling powerless to do anything. Turn it over to Him as you talk, saying something like "God, I can't do anything about this, but I know You can. I know You know what is going to happen. I trust that You are in control and that no matter what happens, You have my back."

4. Embrace the peace of God. As you are talking to God about your situation, you are allowed to ask for peace. But, even if you don't specifically ask for it, when you entrust your situation to God, His peace will come to you. For me, it usually feels like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders. What's weird is that most of the time, nothing about the situation has actually changed. The situation is still the same, its my mindset that is different. I am no longer looking at it from a "what if" perspective, but rather from a "God's got this" perspective. 

5. "Think about such things" and "put it into practice". Move on. Don't linger in the worry and anxiety. Look to what God is doing in the world, or perhaps even in the situation you were anxious about, and go join Him.

I hope this has been helpful to you. I hope that you are able to let go of your anxiety and turn it over to God. And I hope you are able to move on with your life, to move forward. In the comment below I have shared some additional verses from the Bible that touch on this topic of anxiety. I hope they are helpful to you as well. I have found that talking about our anxieties with other believers can also help, so if you need to talk, just reach out.