Preparing for Easter, part 4 of 4: Avengers for Christ!

 

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The Avengers is an amazing movie. One of my favorite scenes in the entire movie is the final battle moments towards the end of the movie as the six heroes finally start working together after facing lots of troubles and hostility amongst themselves. It's a spectacular, cinematic moment when they actually start working together, using each of their powers to defeat the enemy. They all have such unique powers and abilities too. Captain America has endurance and loyalty. Ironman has brains, charm, and that awesome metal suit. Thor has fervor and power. Hawkeye is an expert shot with his bow and arrow. Black Widow is swift and accurate. And of course, Hulk can... smash.
Each team member uses their strengths to stand up for what is right. Together, they defend the most important thing in their world- the freedom and protection of the citizens.


Today, we as Christians are celebrating the most important thing in our world, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Think about it, the event that occurred on this day is the entire foundation of our faith. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, our faith is absolutely nothing. So, as disciples of Christ, we are called to defend the basis of this holiday, the basis of our faith. And, just like the Avengers, each of us has been given a UNIQUE gift/power to contribute to its defense.
1 Corinthians 12:29-30 says,
"Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!"

See, in the Avengers, there weren't six Ironmen (man, they'd all strangle each other if there were) or six Hulks. Each person was given a unique part in defending their cause. 
It's the same for us! We've each been given a role in this battle. And there's something cool about this role; we aren't just given the ability to fulfill it, but when we're using our abilities for good, we will ENJOY doing it.
Just take today to renew your mind of the importance of Jesus' death and resurrection. Then, you'll be able to ask yourself what you will do to support the One who loves you enough to sacrifice His son for you. 
What will you do with your talents to worship God and follow His plan for you?
See, every time you make a decision that supports God's will, you are thwarting the devil's power. I'll prove my point:
 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 
Romans 8:1

 So, by  doing what we're MEANT to do in life, we are defeating the evil. Being in God's will and using your gifts for Him is the best thing you could ever do.
It's a form of worship, a method of defense, a way of avenging Satan.
We're avengers for Christ!
That's pretty awesome.
How will you celebrate Easter today with your God-given talents and gifts?
How will you praise your Savior and Lord who died for YOU and rose again?
I know how I'm celebrating; I am using my writing abilities to blog about Him today :)


"All you sleepers awake from the grave again
All you dreamers be brave, come and dream again
All you poets arise, let your stories be told.
All you singers sing out, let your anthem roll, your anthem roll
For we know the curse is broken
Hope is rising up.
Oh, the streets are singing
Hosanna, the King has come!"
-Hosanna by Eddie Kirkland


 




   

Preparing for Easter, part 3 out of 4: the "In-Between" Times

Easter is a funny holiday; the Friday before Easter entails lots of celebration and traditions. The Sunday of Easter does as well.

But then, there's this odd Saturday in the middle of everything...

This is a situation parallel to our own lives. In the same way that this odd Saturday seems to be nothing to really celebrate, we all have odd periods of time in our lives that seem to be spiritually insignificant and bland.  See, every few months, we come across a holiday or retreat or particular church service that bring us to our knees. In the Christian community, this phenomena is known as a "spiritual high". But once the spiritual high passes, what do you do; what do you do with the "in-between" time?
This brings me to a question about THIS Easter; what are you going to do in a few weeks after the celebrations of our Savior's resurrections have come and gone?
A few verses in the Bible have given us a wonderful example of what to do about this issue.

"He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God."
Daniel 6:10

"One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night."
Luke 6:12

 "Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere."
Ephesians 6:18

"Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, 
 so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives."
Psalm 90:14 

"Never stop praying."
 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Prayer. Spending time with God. That's the way one is to defeat the folly of the spiritual high. As followers of Christ, building a relationship with our Lord is absolutely essential. So often, we make monumental decisions on holidays like Easter after feeling God's presence so intensely. But we lose our fire so quickly; it's rather sad. 
This is why we need to start seeking God every day. Make it a habit. I still have issues with this because it is so tough to wake up at the crack of dawn on some days, especially after staying up working on homework the night before. 
But yet, my faith will go absolutely nowhere if I'm not maintaining my commitment to Christ; the prayers I pray during spiritual highs and the tugging I feel on my heart during those times mean absolutely nothing if I don't follow up after the spiritual high is gone.

Plus, who said that Christianity is completely based on "feelings"? If we based our faith in any area of our lives on our feelings, things would not end well.

So this Easter, I want to give you another challenge in your walk with Christ; don't just go off on some spiritual high and crash next week. Use the revelations you receive this weekend to strengthen your commitment with God and then FOLLOW through on this commitment. 
Even when it seems so bland and pointless to spend time with God day after day, it truly makes a difference. Daniel was thrown in a lion's den for continuing to do it, Jesus did it several times throughout the gospel. 
Because of their examples (plus several references to the importance of prayer in Paul's letters and David's Psalms), we KNOW how important it is. 

" Everyday, Lord, I'll
Learn to stand upon Your word
And I pray that I
I might come to know You more
That You would guide me in every single step I take, that
Everyday I can
Be Your light unto the world

Everyday, it's You I live for
Everyday, I'll follow after You
Everyday, I'll walk with You, my Lord"
- Everyday by Hillsong United





 

Preparing for Easter, part 2 out of 4: Beyond our Box

Today is Good Friday.
We've all heard the story about the crown of thorns, the nails, the cross. But yet, have you ever thought about the immense disappointment that came along with this event? The people in the crowd that morning didn't know the end of the story; as they watched their Messiah slowly die to one of the most excruciating deaths possible, they probably thought that he would save himself, didn't they?
See, all of the followers of Jesus that were in the crowd that day had been raised on stories of a victorious Messiah who would crush all of the Romans. So as they saw their savior helplessly nailed to a cross, gasping for breath, I'm sure that they were just waiting for it. I'll bet that they were whispering to each other, "Wait for it, wait for it... he's going to crush them. Just watch. Any second now, he's going to do something miraculous and the Romans will be gone, forever."
Can you imagine their dismay in the moment when he died? It was all over now. All of their hopes and their dreams of being saved from their oppressors was gone. One of the soldiers even pieced Jesus's side with a spear to show that He had certainly died. The end.

But yet, when I look back on that story, I can't help but think how dumb the disciples were to just go on like that and lose all hope after Jesus died. I mean, seriously, didn't some prophets in the Old Testemant OBVIOUSLY say that all of this was going to happen?

Like this verse in Isaiah:

 "He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth."

 Isaiah 53:7

Or this one in Psalms:

"Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet. 

 All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me. 

 They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment. "

Psalms 22: 16-18

Or this verse in Zechariah:

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

Zechariah 12:10

And when did the OT ever say that Jesus would "crush the Romans"? Ummm... never...
So, why did all of Jesus's followers somehow overlook the obvious truths about the Messiah and make up their own ideas about what he would be?
It's because they were trying to fit him into their box of understanding. Think about it this way; if all you knew for your entire life was harsh rule and oppression from a foreign government that had conquered your country centuries ago, wouldn't you believe that the only purpose for a Messiah was to save you from their rule?
The Jewish people back in those days had such small understanding of Jesus's true purpose for saving them. Even though the truth was right there for them to see in the prophets' words all throughout the Old Testament, it was so outside of their box, that they couldn't even begin to understand.

I think we need to realize we still do this same thing today. We, as humans, are so miniscule. And we still try to fit God into our box of understanding.
The crucifixion story is a good example of this; we try to wrap our minds around it and understand the whole salvation story.
 I know I've done this A LOT. When I was younger, I used to think through the story over and over again, trying and trying to understand how in the world Jesus could be born to a virgin, or how my sins are erased because He was killed by a bunch of Roman soldiers.
If you really try to analyze it like this, the salvation story does sound like a lot of bogusness. But, it should, because God's plan is so much bigger than us.

My mom found an excellent quote that summarizes this from a book called Blue like Jazz by Donald Miller. He says,
“It comforts me to think that if we are created beings the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts of our reality and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality or it would not be reasonable.”

 So, we need to stop using reason to understand God. If we try to fit Him into our box, then we'll never truly understand.

I hope and pray that this provides a new perspective on the whole Easter story for you. Everything related to this holiday can seem so... far-fetched... for some of us.
But here's the lesson that I got after thinking through this: even when I am unable to wrap my mind around Jesus's death and His gift of salvation to me, I can still feel His power in my life and see evidence all around me of His grace.
That's when we need to remember, we follow by faith, not by sight.
 Jesus is beyond our box.
And that's okay.

"Savior I come
Quiet my soul remember
Redemptions hill
Where Your blood was spilled
For my ransom
Everything I once held dear
I count it all as lost

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me, lead me to the cross"

- Lead Me to the Cross by Hillsong United

Preparing for Easter, part 1 out of 4: Katniss Everdeen

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The Hunger Games is a very interesting book on several levels because of the huge amounts of social and culture concepts it addresses. When I first read through it, I was captivated by the author's ingenious first person, present tense writing; the story just flowed out and caught the reader's attention. For those of you who have never read these books, the storyline is basically about this girl who is forced to be part of a nationwide, publicized battle between teenager kids in a rural area. The last kid standing is the winner. Throughout the story, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, must appear charming and likable when she is broadcasted on television. The more people she can get that support her, the more likely it is that someone will pay to send her supplies to aide her while in the battle. So, just before the games, she goes through a bunch of treatments. An entire "prep" team is hired to beautify her and she is set up with a touching backstory to make her nationwide audience fall in love with her. The entire book seems to partly be about Katniss's struggle to gain followers and the different faces she must put on to keep her followers.

So, why am I bringing up this popular book in conjunction with Easter? Well, as usual, while I was thinking through the story for The Hunger Games, I actually found an interesting application in it. We can sometimes be like the tributes in the Hunger Games when we try to approach God. See, the tributes took a TON of trouble to prep themselves to look and act the right way in front of their live, televised audience. In the same way, we often feel like we need to be "good enough" before we try and go to God for help. We tell ourselves, "once I get rid of this one, sinful thing in my life, I'll be able to go to God as much as I want. But, until then, I'll just keep trying to demolish it."

It's funny, we can think we know the whole salvation story and the whole concept about not needing to earn our way into God's favor, yet we feel such guilt and obligation if there's something in our lives that needs to be fixed. Basically, we feel a pressure to fix it ourselves before we can present ourselves to God.

If you really think about this, it's actually very ridiculous. Let me tell you why.

Imagine that you have a terrible case of bronchitis ("ain't nobody got time for 'dat"... just kidding... I need to continue with my story now...).

You really can't stop coughing and you feel sick and awful all the time. This sickness has lasted for a few months now, and you still can't get rid of it. Some of the people around you are noticing that you're not feeling well too, and they tell you that you should see a doctor. BUT, you don't do it because you don't want to be sick when you go to the doctor; you want to impress the doctor by showing him that you are well, so whenever he sees you, he'll think that you are a good patient. So, because you don't want to see the doctor, you stay home and continue to fight the sickness by yourself. 

It's like that with God. We assume that we need to prove ourselves to Him so He will support us. But, we need to realize that HE is the one who can make us well; we just need to stop trying so hard to do it by ourselves. And, I even found a verse that goes with my story about this idea...

"When Jesus heard this, he told them, 'Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.'" Mark 2:17 (NLT)  So really, Jesus is saying that to follow him, we must have the constant knowledge that we are sinners that need help. If we ever begin to think that we can defeat our sin problems on our own without His help, guess what we're doing; we're essentially saying that Jesus didn't even have to die for our sins, because we can deal with them on our own. Ouch.  Come as you are to God to ask for His help, or as Paul put it,  "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." Hebrews 4:16 This Easter season, I want to challenge you to think about your own spiritual walk (I'm doing this too... just saying). Are you attempting to "prep yourself" before you approach the throne of God, or are you going as you are and asking God to transform you instead? Jesus sacrificed his life just so you can come to the throne as you are, so why would you try to do otherwise?

You do you

One of my family's good friends just graduated last year after studying to be a teacher. This year, she got a job teaching at a school with some underprivileged kids. Although she landed in a challenging place to start her career, she has told us about some of the techniques that she has used to teach these children and they are extremely profound and effective.
One of them is a simple, but powerful statement, "you do you."
Whenever one of her students complains about something being unfair or unequal since another kid is being treated differently, this statement is her response to the kid's complaints.
To bring across the point even further, she did an activity with her students. First, she told each of them to pretend that they were sick or injured in some way and she pretended to be the doctor that was supposed to cure them. One by one, each student came up to her to get "treated" for their "illness". But, instead of treating them correctly, she gave every single kid a band-aid on their arm. It didn't matter if they had a headache or a broken leg, she still put a band-aid on each kid. This showed the students how important it was to realize that each person needs something DIFFERENT. A one-size-fits-all system never works.
As I heard about this idea, I figured out that some adults (including myself, if I can be called an adult yet) need to learn this as well. We fall into this awful habit of comparing ourselves to others. It may not be in same way as children compare themselves to other kids ("he got more candy than I did!" "Why does he get to do that when I can't?"), but yet it's from the same root cause: selfishness. Our complaints may sound different, but they are essentially the same.
"He keeps getting promotions at work; why don't I move up?"
"She is so good at math; why can't I make good grades like that?"
"I wish I were as talented as he is."
"She always has a flock of boys following her. I wish I were half as pretty, then maybe someone would like me."
We just can't keep our noses out of other peoples' business, can we?
The Bible has some very clear things to say about this too.
"We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise."
2 Corinthians 10:12
Seriously, just take yourself for who you are! You are FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY made, and every strength and weakness is there for a reason.

Each of us is given a unique mission in life to fulfill for Christ. So if we're buried in trying to compare our own, one-of-a-kind journey to someone else's, we'll miss out on what we could be doing in our own lives!

So, are you going to insist that you get a band-aid for your broken leg since everyone around you is getting a band-aid, or are you going to start looking for a cast?
It's up to you to choose whether you will worry about what everyone else is doing or just do you.

Why ask...Why?

Proverbs 16:9,
"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps."

Jeremiah 29:11,
"For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you- plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Yes, God has plans for us. We know that so well.
But yet at the same time, do we really know this?

As Christians, we often accept that God has plans for us when things are going well, but the moment things turn sour in our lives, we ask that common, one-worded question, "WHY?"

We somehow equate trusting in God to understanding why He is doing what He is doing, but yet, where in the Bible does God assure us that we will ever get to know why?
At first, when I thought about this, it was rather unsettling.
See, I think that the common desire in our human minds is resolution; we sit in a movie theater for the sole purpose of watching a conflict stir up then see it completely resolved about two hours later. So, with this mentality, we expect to instantly see some type of resolution from what God if doing in our lives.
Sometimes, we even assure ourselves that it's worth it to do something hard for Him simply because we'll understand why someday.

But, this isn't the way it works.

Recently, I went to a retreat for a Christian program that my family participates in. One of the program's leaders was there and although I had met her before, I had never really gotten to talk to her until that weekend. She was an amazing, Godly woman with lots of experience and insight, but there was one thing that was very different about her; she was in a wheelchair.
See, about eight years ago, this lady and her husband were in a car accident and she was hospitalized for months from injuries. She lived for two months without her memory or the ability to perform menial tasks. The doctors had very low hopes for her because the injuries were so severe, but after those two months, she suddenly started getting progressively better.
Now, she is able to walk for short distances and her memory has returned completely. Her refusal to give up during her physical therapy and steadfast faith in Christ throughout her recovery have brought her to the place where she is today. But yet, at the same time, her life has been drastically changed in ways that I can't even comprehend since she is still physically handicapped from the accident.
And interestingly enough, while I was at the retreat, she and her husband told us that they still, honestly, didn't understand why the accident had happened. But yet, they were still trusting in God and knowing that He had a greater plan for them.


That's when I realized that we need to stop asking why. 
We don't know why the things in our lives happen. Maybe, we never will. But yet, God does.
Just seeing these two leaders continuing to trust Him and know that He allowed such difficult circumstances in their lives for a reason has impacted me. 

Trust is scary because in some ways, it leaves you very blind to what is going on in your own life.
But if you think about what you have to face up against in this world (if you don't know, be sure to read my previous blog post), do you really think you will ever understand everything, even if you don't trust in God?
I don't think so.
So what will it be, trusting in a Savior who has a perfect plan for you and loves you and protects you from anything you can't handle, or trying to do it on your own, but still getting tangled up in confusion, still with no answers?

Plus, if you're still bothered by not knowing why, just remember that you'll probably be able to ask God when you reach heaven someday, and I'll bet that He'll be willing to tell you all about your life, from a VERY different perspective :)

"Love just isn't everything you want, but it's everything you need
its not always happy endings but its happy in between
it's taken so long, so long to finally see
that your love is worth the risk."

-Safe by Britt Nicole

The Phantom of the Opera is there...inside my mind

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The DEVIL.
That word isn't that scary, is it?
We hear about him so frequently in the Christian community and see the little red man with the pitchfork in all sorts of pop culture. Pretty soon the true potency of Satan's strength dumbs down.

Recently, I was searching for a movie to watch on Netflix (the lovely movie database that has the magical ability to eat away hours of one's time) when I stumbled across a live recording of one of my favorite musicals, The Phantom of the Opera and decided to watch it. As I was watching this movie, I suddenly realized that the relationship between the Phantom and Christine is very similar to the relationship between the devil and us. Although the songs may seem very obscure and pointless on the surface, the profound pictures of darkness and light within Andrew Lloyd Webber's work are stunning.
As I watched the movie, I was reminded that Satan is definitely not a tiny red guy who tempts us with drastically lame ideas that we will obviously be able to say no to.
He knows how to entice us in the most frightening, tiny ways.
He is dark and terrifying, yet he knows how to sing softly in our minds, take over our thoughts, until we are under his control.
Does this sound similar to the premise of The Phantom of the Opera? It did to me, and as I heard the lyrics to many of the musical's songs, chills ran down my spine as I remembered times that I myself had heard a voice of darkness in my mind similar to that of the Phantom, whispering to me and tempting me to follow him.
Evil exists. And in our nature, we are fascinated and enthralled by it, just like Christine. 
One song, The Music of the Night, seemed to especially parallel to Satan's techniques of reaching our minds.

Read the lyrics to this song, thinking about it from this point of view. 

A picture of the Phantom and Christine from the 2004 film
http://img.webme.com/pic/j/jellicles-musicalworld/die%20liebe%20christine.jpg

"Softly, deftly, music shall caress you
Hear it, feel it, secretly posess you
Open up your mind,
Let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness that you know you cannot fight
The darkness of the music of the night
Let your mind start a journey through a strange, new world
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be!
Only then can you belong to me
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me, savour each sensation
Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night."

Do you realize how dangerous and powerful he is?
If you think about it, this idea is absolutely frightening. Satan knows your every weakness and can blur the lines between right and wrong in the most subtle ways until you find yourself somewhere that you never believed you could possible go. 
That's the interesting thing about sin; it ALL stems from the mind, it all starts when you begin to fight the devil in your mind. From the moment an idea pops into your brain to the moment you finally take action, there is a battle.
Ephesians 6:12 says this clearly: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

We need to realize what we're up against so we can begin to trust the only One who can protect us. Isn't it pretty obvious that we will just be PULVERIZED if we try to stand strong on our own? So now that we know this fact, guess what we need to do? According to Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still." 
Basically, we just need to stop trying. Stop trying to fight the devil on our own and stop trying to DO the hard thing by ourselves. We need to surrender to God, get to know Him through His word, and start letting Him work through us. 
If we're in sync with God, then we don't ever have to worry about the devil because he can't get us. Here's another song from The Phantom of the Opera that seems to parallel these concepts perfectly. 

"No more talk of darkness
Forget these wide-eyed fears
I'm here, nothing can harm you
My words will warm and calm you
Let me be your freedom
Let daylight dry your tears
I'm here, with you, beside you
To guard you and to guide you."
 - "All I Ask of You"

Wouldn't it be incredible to have someone who loves and protects you THAT much? How much more incredible would it be to have an omnipotent, everlasting GOD who loves and protects you THAT much? He's here for you, RIGHT NOW. All you have to do is trust Him.

"He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide and trembles at His voice." 
~ How Great is our God by Chris Tomlin