Blinding Snow

"Look how gorgeous that is!"
"Yeah."
"It makes me fall more in love with God."

Josh & I spoke as we began our snow jog.

After a full day of driving we arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado. The mountains were dark as we pulled into the cabin. We found our beds and fell fast asleep. When morning came we decided to go for a run up the mountain. I had asked Josh if he wanted to run uphill, to which he replied, "It's more like running up MOUNTAIN." Touche.

We ran on the roads & the packed snow crunched under our feet. It was a funny sensation. The sun shone brightly & the snow blinded our eyes. I squinted my eyes & looked off to the distance. It was actually painful to look at the snow! I had never experienced anything like this before. Beautiful snowbanks turned into piercing needles. In a puzzled wince I began to think... is this what it means to be white as snow?

Some of the snowbanks along the side of the road were whiter than I had ever seen white before. Couple that with the blazing morning sun reflecting off of this pure white canvas. It was brilliant, yet I could not gaze at it directly.

In what sense are a sinner's sins made white as snow? The fact is, sin is ugly. In and of themselves, they would certainly not be considered "white as snow." How can this term apply to sin?

I looked for an answer as I stared at the snow. It wasn't the snow so much that hurt my eyes... it was the reflection of the sun's light. That's when my mind switched. The focus was the sun & the impact the sun had when reflecting off of the snow.

In the same way, a sinner's sins are made white as snow in light of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In fact, the term "white as snow" is applied to Jesus Christ in several places (Daniel 7:9; Matthew 28:3; Revelation 1:14). This term underlies Jesus' glory, absolute purity, and perfection.

"White as snow" is applied to our sins as they are seen through the glory of Christ and his work on the cross. We are seen as perfectly blameless when the perfection & glory of Christ reflects and burns brilliant on us. We are white as snow in light of the Son of God.

In this way, God reconciles a rebellious child unto himself.

For further study, read:
Isaiah 1; 1 Peter 2; and, Romans 5

Groomsman Accountability

I have never owned a sword before. There are not many occasions I can think of that call for a sword. Even still, deep inside I think every man wants a sword- and now I have one! In fact, it was given to me this weekend as a groomsman gift.

Billy walked down the church aisle with a large, black duffle bag over his shoulder. He layed the bag down and unzipped it. Where I thought a skateboard would be lay 14 unique swords resting side by side. Instead of taking off doing a nose wheelie by the bride's grandmother, Billy distributed the swords one-by-one to his groomsmen. When he got to me, he looked me in the eyes and said, "If ever the countenance of my wife should fall- you come talk to me."

Now that's accountability!

Billy giving me a sword as his wedding gift was symbolic of the type of access that he has granted me in his life and the type of relationship we have.

Billy has intentionally allowed certain men into his life to call him and hold him to a standard. If ever he was to mess up, he's got these guys coming to him in love & looking to call him back to his senses. Whenever a guy gets on his own and out of accountability is when he's looking to sin & allows himself to slip from that standard (Proverbs 18:1).

My relationship with Billy is reciprocal. In the same way Billy expects me to call and hold him to a standard, he does the same for me. Most of the time in our relationship Billy gets to tell me what an idiot I'm being. Through rooming with Billy and brushing shoulders with him over the years, God has used him to shape me and grow me (often painfully so!) into the man he wants me to be (Proverbs 27:17).

Whether groomsman or not, the type of men a guy has in his life is a good measure of that man...
What kind of people do you have in your life?
Do they call you to a standard?

Tapping into the CHEROKEE in Me

I'm only part Cherokee indian (about 1.75lbs worth)- but I tap into every bit I can.
Here's an old Cherokee story my father passed along to me...

"One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed.""

A Second Chance

It wasn't until 3 days after my TBN sighting of Michael W. Smith that the tunes from my formative Christian years finally stopped playing in my head. It was a blessing and a curse all at the same time.

For those of you that aren't clued in, Michael W. Smith recently made his lead role debut in a movie that wasn't half bad.

I was recently visiting one of my best friends in Vegas when he said to me one, "Have you seen Michael W. Smith's movie?"
I laughed with an "Are you serious?!" type look on my face.
"You've got to watch it."
I looked in disbelief as Jeremy actually thumbed through his DVD collection & pulled a copy of a movie I had never heard of- "The Second Chance."

Was he serious? Did Michael W. Smith really star in a movie? Did Jeremy really have this movie? And were we seriously going to watch this movie right now?
The answer was: Yes; yes; yes; and, yes.

Over the next 2 hours I was once again sucked in to another Michael W. Smith project in which I couldn't avert my attention. I was impressed. The Second Chance is an honest and real story of American Christianity & some of her struggles.

If you get an opportunity, definitely give Smitty a second chance & see his movie. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Check out information on The Second Chance movie.

oh & fyi- Smitty turns 51 on October 7th... that's staying power

Smitty on TBN

Last night was a pivotal night for me.
I was crashing on my parents couch and I decided to see what was on the Television at nearly 1AM. My goal was to scan the major networks up to about channel 20 (the Korean network) in one swift move to see what sort of programs play on a Sunday night and get an idea at what sort of audience Television is marketing to at that hour (that's actually how my brain works & I realize I am a nerd for it).

At about channel 18 I heard very familiar music from an 80's genre- though the images were unfamiliar. Clearly the song was in an instrumental power ballad segment- I immediately thought of Def Leppard and the like.. but no, this was more familiar than those sorts of songs and felt closer to my heart.
The images flashed between the Christ being beaten and a man wearing distinct 80's clothing. The man wore tight blue jeans, a white T-Shirt, and a vest over the shirt. He had a mullet and his face looked like it had a few days without a razor. When the chorus kicked in- it hit me... Smitty.
That's right, Michael W. Smith.

My first instinct was to laugh.
My second instinct was to turn the channel.
Instead, my thumb froze and I won the staring contest between me and the Television set.

The station was TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) and the song was "Secret Ambition."
In all, I watched four Michael W. Smith videos back-to-back. I would have watched more too- only the program took a turn and showed Michael Sweet (of Stryper) and Sinbad (of terrible comedy) sharing their favorite verses from Scripture (Isaiah 53:5 and Romans 8:33, respectively).

Smitty was in fine form. He flailed his arms, eyed the camara, and shook his fist. Such passion. I was able to look past the gestures and clothing which seem so funny today (so much so that I wonder why they weren't funny 20 years ago?!) and listen to the lyrics. What a good message.
"Secret Ambition" was followed by "Place in this World" and I remembered how me & every other kid in America was sure he was looking for his "face" in this world. Still, I was able to look past the mishap and was sobered by the message.

The MWS montage ended with "Give It Away"- which was not a musical video as much as live footage from an indoor concert in the early 90's. I looked at the awkward looking youth in the crowd starring at a slightly more mature Michael Smith who had lost his mullet. There's a very good chance that I was one of those awkward kids in that audience. You see, the first concert I ever went to was Michael W. Smith/DC Talk in 1993.
Having older siblings, I was already dialed into Michael's music. I endured DC Talk as the opener... but I was there to see Smitty. As I grew older and my musical taste progressed, I quickly grew ashamed of my 1st concert experience- so much so that I often negate this information when others speak of the subject. If I do mention that I willingly and eagerly went to a Michael W. Smith concert, most people laugh.

I don't know what happened to me last night... but I am Once Again a True Believer in Michael W. Smith. I'm out of the closet and I am not ashamed to say that I really like Michael W. Smith. For what was happening at the time, the music that was available, and the things he did- Michael W. Smith really impresses me and I am proud to say that his was the first concert I ever went to (thank you Nathan Gapper).

As I sat on my parents couch I was sad to see his last video play. Sinbad stopped speaking, the picture moved to a Station ID, I powered down the remote and went to bed with a smile.
I love Smitty.

a Christian education=Automatic Debt

I just dropped off my youngest cousin at Westmont last week. It is her freshman year. My aunt & uncle were strong as they said goodbye to their youngest. Hayley is for sure to have a great time and a great experience at Westmont. I pray for her and that God would grow her into the young lady that he wants her to be. Tim and Debbie (my aunt and uncle) are scheduled to pay $38,000 a year for the next 4-5 years. This amazes me.

I can't quite understand how Christian schools can ethically charge this much for tuition. It simply amazes me. It doesn't matter what Christian school you choose to go to. Invariably, you are looking at plus or minus $120,000 in school loans by the end of your time there. I really don't know when this became okay.
It's as if all of the sudden if you are a young person who wants to get a Christian education and get trained for the ministry you are looking at immediate debt. The trade off doesn't seem fair.

Little selfless plug time- Eternity Bible College (where I teach Theology and Hermeneutics) is a smaller/newer Christian institution that is looking at the current trend of cost in Christian education and coming up with creative and healthy ways to train young persons for the ministry and graduate them without debt and ready to do God's work in the Church and the world... because of their funding and faculty choices, classes run around $50 per unit (you can check out the link to their site). How about that for selfless plug time?

But seriously, something needs to be done about Christian education. Since when did a Christian education mean automatic debt? This brings up other questions to my mind.. but I will ask these in my next blog. I've got to go for now. just wanted to toss that out on the table for you to chew on. If you've got any thoughts in this area of where we are in Christian education, how we got here, and how we can think this is okay- let me know.

God's Aseity

God's aseity (pronounced "uh-say-ity") is one of the most foundational aspects of a Theistic worldview. Derived from the Latin "a se," meaning "of or from himself," aseity underlines God's eternal self-existence. The Greeks called it "Autotheos-" the idea that God is God of or by himself. In other words, God is the primary force and is not a derivative of any other force, action or happenstance (John 5:26; Romans 11:36).

God's independence is also found in the self-declaration of his name. In Exodus 3:14 Moses asks for God's name and the Lord replies, "YHWH-" which is rendered "I AM WHO I AM," or, "I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE." In either case, it is sure that God's personhood and existence is determined by him & him alone.

The Aseity of God elicits a response of worship from created to Creator:
1- that God is not like a man that he was created
2- that God is the beginning and sustainer of life
3- that God is a personal & unique God to be worshiped by his creation

"...From everlasting to everlasting, You are God." -Psalm 90:2

dinner prayer follow up

Michael, the young boy who prayed before Tuesdays dinner, gave his life to the Lord tonight.
He heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ- it pricked his heart unlike it ever had before & he responded in faith.

Just 2 days ago he was tugging on the camp director's shirt asking to pray before every meal. Tonight he was broken before the Lord and praised God for a salvation that was previously unrecognized.

On Tuesday I asked Michael what he meant by his prayer when he said, God "...Thank you for us. & thank you for them." He said "us" were Christians and "them" signified unbelievers. I guess that in a weird sort of way- Michael was really praying for himself in the "them" category. But tonight he transferred teams from "them" to "us."

Does anybody else find it weird that we raise our kids, teach them to pray, & most likely we have little unregenerate souls praying to a God they don't know/have offended/and are at odds with?

I don't know how God works, but I praise him for this boy's profession of faith in Christ. Michael was among 13 or so junior high students this evening who confessed Jesus Christ as their King & Savior for the first time.

DINNER PRAYER

We sat at round tables under a blue tarp- 120 bodies smelling of sweat and dirt. Junior High is such an awkward age.
Fruit punch and water were spilled on nearly all of the twenty tables.
The man in front tried desperately to hush the crowd. They were hungry, ready to eat, and realized they needed to quiet down before they would get food.
Teens shooshed one another as Michael, an 8th grader, began to pray,
"Dear Lord, Thank you for the food. Thank you for the camp. Thank you for You. Thank you for us. And thank you for them."

Big Bear Youth Camp

this week i'm speaking at the Anaheim District Nazarene youth camp in Big Bear, CA.
if & when you think about it, pray for me, the campers, leaders, etc. there are about 300 of us up here. i am specifically speaking to the jr. highers on mon, tues, thurs, & fri evenings and i give a small morning devotion for the whole camp on tues, wed, thurs, & fri mornings. thank you so much.

the CPK Gospel

I was recently reminded of God's Love at a California Pizza Kitchen.

It was 9:15 in the evening, the dinner crowd was gone, and I received the WORST service in the history of human dining.
I sat for 15 minutes before a server approached me. My order was mixed up. I was promised parmesan and never received it (this is huge- I am a parmesan freak)! My strawberry lemonade ran out mid-meal and wasn't ever refilled (this made conversation and mastication difficult).

NB: I realize these are all selfish things I'm talking about here.. so in addition to the reminder of God's Love, I was also reminded of my selfishness!

Halfway through the meal I started to think to myself, "What am I going to tip my server?" I was bouncing back and forth between giving her no tip or giving her a penny for a tip. Because a penny would tell her it's intentional, while no tip might lead her to believe I inadvertently forgot to leave a tip & I wouldn't want to make her think it was a mistake that she didn't get a tip (how terrible I am!).
When it came time to pay the bill, the phraseology passed through my head, "If I tipped her according to what she deserved, she would get nothing."

That's when it hit me.

The same is true of God's Love for me. If He loved me according to what I deserved, I would not be a candidate for His Love. Yet God loves me anyhow. I am unconditionally, undeservingly, and overwhelmingly loved. This is the case for every believer in Christ (Romans 5:8; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:3-14).

In the end I decided I needed to love this girl as God loves me... and show it through my tip.