Sacrifice

We have been going through the book Radical at church, and we are now in the last chapter, which is a challenge. The challenge is a one year challenge and includes:

1. Pray specifically for the entire world. There is a great website: http://www.operationworld.org/, where you can get daily prayer guides for specific countries around the world. It includes specific information and prayer needs for that country, and is a great way to pray for the entire world.
• Today's country is Poland http://www.operationworld.org/pola
2. Read through the entire Bible, cover to cover, every verse. http://www.youversion.com/ has a lot of great reading plans to help with this. You can choose to read straight through, Genesis to Revelation, a historical reading, topical, Chronological, or any of several other plans.
3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose. The whole idea here is to SACRIFICE, not just give the leftovers, but make a real sacrifice to help others. Figure out what you need to live on and donate the rest to a very specific purpose.
4. Spend your time in another context. In other words, the challenge is to spend at least 2% of your time serving, going somewhere you are not used to or comfortable in to serve others. This may mean volunteering at the local homeless shelter or it may mean traveling across the globe, or both.
5. Be invloved with an active church, with people dedicated to living life as Christ has told us to live it.

This is the challenge that Manda and I are committing to for the next year, and I must say that my initial reaction to it is that it will be fairly easy. Praying, reading the Bible, being involved with a church, those won't be that hard, and it won't be that bad to donate time and money, right?

Well, turns out it's gonna be harder than I thought because, as I was thinking about what I could sacrifice to donate money to a specific purpose I realized that what I would need to sacrifice is not something I want to get rid of. My phone.

I spend money every month for a data plan on my phone that I use constantly, but in no way, shape, or form need to have. I also realized that I have wanted to sponsor a child through World Vision for quite some time now, but have always said we don't have enough money. The money I spend every month on my data plan will cover most of the cost to sponsor a child every month. So, even though I absolutely do not want to get rid of my smartphone, when I compare having the luxury of immediate internet, social media, and app access to helping provide a child, their family, and their community with basic needs, food, shelter, health, etc... I cannot say that I would rather spend my money on my phone than another human being. So I am giving up my smartphone for a simple, basic phone and will be sponsoring a child.

We have also talked about other ways to sacrifice, including cutting back our Netflix service, cutting back our cable/DVR service, cutting back our eating out, among other things, and we have other things that we would like to do with that money, but we haven't really decided on anything else.

It's pretty crazy though how difficult it is to cut back my service. I went in to T-Mobile yesterday to change out my phone, but I was met with very odd looks when I said I wanted to downgrade my phone, and then I was told I couldn't get a simple basic phone without using my upgrade and paying $50 at the cheapest. It seems strange that I would need to spend almost 3 months of my data plan just to get a simple phone, but I am looking into other options to get a phone right now. I'm pretty sure we are going to sponsor a child soon even if I don't get my phone figured out.

Anyways, this is really long so I'm gonna wrap things up. I'm nervous and excited for how these changes will affect our lives over the next year, but primarily just excited to see how God will work in our lives and the lives of those around us when we choose to live as He has instructed us to live!

8 Mile

Yesterday I ran 8.03 miles with M&M. It's the farthest I've ever run by about 1.5 miles. We went up to Tramway and ran from Candelaria to Paseo del Norte and back again. By the end of the run it was very dark, we didn't leave early enough, but the dark, and the cloud cover, and the little bit of rain that we encountered during the run were much more welcome than the blaring sun that has been around during most of the day the last couple weeks.

Anyways, I learned a couple of things while (well actually after) doing that run.

1. I always swore that I hated and would always hate running, but I'm actually starting to enjoy it, thanks to Manda getting me to go run with her.
2. I have huge respect for Manda, who has run a Half Marathon. I cannot imagine running another 5 miles on top of what we did last night.
3. I did not eat anywhere near enough food yesterday.

When we got home from that run I was tired, but I was feeling ok. However, soon after getting home I started feeling nauseous and dizzy. I put the run into my phone and realized that I had burned about 200 more calories during that run than I had consumed all day. That's not a good thing. I proceeded to drink a glass of milk, accompanied by 2 Papa Murphy's chocolate chip cookies, 1 whole peach, and a slice of toast. I think this did the trick because I remember waking up with a bite of toast in my mouth, still holding the rest of the toast near my lips. It was an awkward thing to wake up to.

Anyways, I am quite happy that I completed that run yesterday, but next time I will make sure to eat a whole lot more (have more energy) in preparation for it, and I am not planning on doing anything crazy (like a Half Marathon) until January in DisneyWorld.

*On a side note, Manda is running a Half Marathon this weekend, and she's gonna rock it!  

Discipline, Comfort & Love

Last night was not a good night as far as sleep and Mallory go. She decided that she didn't want to sleep, and Manda and I decided that we were not going to give in to her screaming. It was not fun. We first tried to gently rock/sing her to sleep in her crib, but she would have none of that. She did not want to sleep in her room and let us know with loud banshee shrieks, so we told her she needed to be quite and go to sleep. When she refused, we asked if she wanted us to just leave her in her crib and us go back into our room. She said, "Yes," so we did. I don't think she really knew what she was asking because she continued screaming for about 1.5 hours after that, but eventually, finally, she laid down and went to sleep. It was not fun at all, and I am quite tired today, but it got me thinking about something.

Mallory was, obviously upset, and she was upset at us. However, the initial source of her frustration and anger last night was her failure to obey us. We had every intention and desire to have a pleasant bedtime, putting her to sleep while lovingly rocking her and singing to her. However, she chose, instead to fight and claw and scream, in order to get her way. Ironically, she got what she said she wanted, for us to leave her room. The entire time we were seconds away, watching her in the monitor, making sure she didn't hurt herself, but we allowed her to cry. Even though every fiber of us wanted to just go in, pick her up, love her, comfort her ... we let her cry. We let her cry because we love her, and in the long run it is going to be better for her. When she comes into our room she doesn't sleep well, we don't sleep well, and the next day everyone is a bit crankier, and she tends to get in more trouble. She needs to sleep in her room, and so, even though it was hard. We let her cry.

How often do we do this with God? God has a specific plan for us, and it's great. If we were to follow it and allow Him to do what He has planned we would be blown away by how great it is, but instead of peacefully drifting off to sleep in His arms, to the sound of His voice, we kick and scream and claw and demand our way. We fight tooth and nail to disobey and do what we "know" will be better. Then, when God says, "I want to rock you to sleep peacefully in my arms. Do you want this, or do you want to deny this?" we deny it. We ask/tell Him to leave, and then we are furious that we don't feel Him there. It makes no sense.

However, just like Manda and I never truly left and abandoned Mallory, God never leaves us. He will allow us to go our own way sometime and do what we want, but He is always there, watching us, and His heart is breaking to see the pain we are going through. He is standing there, knowing that if we would just allow Him to take over everything would be so much better, and yet, because He loves us, He is witholding, allowing us to make our own choices, and suffer the consequences, in order that we may learn.

So often we feel like God abandons us and leaves us alone when we are the most upset, but we do not see the big picture, and we forget that we asked Him to leave in the first place. However, even in the midst of our screaming, flailing of legs, and attempts to climb out of our crib, He is always there, loving us, caring about us, and waiting for us to choose to surrender and let Him take over so He can hold us in His arms.

"...I will never leave you nor forsake you." -- Joshua 1:5b

"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." -- Jeremiah 29:11

In the morning I'm making ... Waffles?

So this morning Manda and I decided to make some waffles. The only problem was that neither of us really know how to make waffles. So, what was supposed to be 6 waffles turned into this pile of stuff. :)

Big Kid

This evening I had an incredibly fun time, and it was completely unplanned. We planned to go see Mr. Popper's Penguins at 6:50 with Manda and my families at the Dollar Theater where my sister works. Well, as is normal for us, we showed up at about 6:52, only to discover that the movie was sold out. Who knew the Dollar Theater was so busy? Problem was, Manda and my parents had already bought their tickets, popcorn, and drinks. Meanwhile, M&M, Manda's sister and brother-in-law, our nieces, and I were all out of luck. Anyways, there was another showing at 9:30, so what do we do? We buy/exchange tickets for that one and sit down on the grass to eat popcorn and pass 2.5 hours...

That got boring after about 30 minutes so...we got Starbucks and went to the park. This particular park had a brand new playground. When was the last time you played on a playground? It had been quite a while for me, and I suddenly turned into a little kid, in a big body, which was a problem. There were these rope ladder/web things (picture below), and I thought it would be fun to try and crawl through one of the holes. Well, I got my head through easily, and then my arms and shoulders, with a bit of difficulty, and then I encountered a problem. Evidently, my butt and hips are larger than my shoulders, cause I was firmly stuck, and every attempt to get out only succeeded in almost pulling my pants off.

So there I am, stuck in the playground equipment, when some little girl decides she wants to climb on that rope grid... She lets me know I am in the way, which I assure her that I know. She then tells me to move, and I point out the fact that I am stuck and cannot move. She then scolds me, asks me why I got in there if I couldn't get out, and proceeds to become incredibly annoyed and yell at Manda, TJ, and I as we try, to no avail, to free me.

Finally, I am able to backtrack and corkscrew my self back out, up and over my shoulders again. I was, needless to say, a bit embarrassed, and yet it was so much fun!

The moral of the story...if you ever find yourself needing to waste a couple hours cause your movie was sold out, go play on a playground, get stuck cause you are larger than the average kid, and get scolded by kid who is much younger and smaller than you.

Go be a kid! It's fun!

M&M, Moss and Memorial Day

This past Monday M&M, my parents, and I all went up to Santa Fe for Memorial Day. This has been a tradition in my family since my dad was a little kid, and while none of my siblings came this year, I really enjoy this annual trip to our state's capital. We always go and visit my grandparent's grave, which is where the tradition started. My dad and his family would go up to when he was a kid, to visit my grandpa's grave, and now that my grandma is buried there as well, we still go to visit her grave and put some over-the-top patriotic bouquet on it, cause that is what she would love.

It's always an interesting experience for me, remembering my grandma, marveling at my family, and examining all the graves of strangers, some of whom lived full lives and fought in many wars for our countries, and others, like the ones I saw this week, lived only a day or less, and died within 24 hours of being born, along with their twin sister.

However, that is not really what I started this blog intending to write about. The other part of our annual Memorial Day trip is that we head up into the mountains, go hiking for a bit, and dam the stream. Now I don't know about all of you, but I get an incredible amount of joy out of damming a stream, river, any sort of moving water! I remember, as a teenager, on several youth camping trips, my friends and I would spend hours moving large rocks and trees across the Pecos river, effectively raising the water level on the top side of the dam.

The stream is a bit smaller up in the Santa Fe mountains, and the team was a bit smaller, just me, while M&M and my parents watched and took pictures, but I had to get Mallory in on the dam building legacy early. :) So I moved rocks, sticks, bark, and yes, trees, and built a dam across that stream, and I probably raised it at least 3 or 4 inches.

All the while Mallory was watching. She was pretty interested at first, venturing to touch the water and throw a few rocks, but then, as I started throwing larger rocks into place, and thereby splashing her, she became less enthusiastic about her strange father out in the middle of the stream.

At one point I grabbed a larger rock, which I was going to set gently into place, but Manda said I should throw it. I warned that there would be a big splash, but she said to go for it, so I did, and what resulted is outlined in the pictures below. A wall of water came splashing over all four of them and left moss covering Manda.

All in all it was a really fun trip, and I was able to carry Mallory over the freshly built dam to the other side of the stream. I can't wait to go back next year. Maybe by that time she will be old enough to help me.

 

Rejoicing for Death?

So, Osama Bin Laden was killed yesterday. After almost 10 years, the man behind the worst terrorist attack on US soil has not only been captured, but killed. Shot in the head. Dead. He will no longer be masterminding any terrorist plots against anyone, ever again...and America has erupted in joy. If you look at virtually any news source, and especially if you look at Facebook/Twitter, everyone seems to be absolutely elated over this killing. Status messages are filled with exclamation marks, smiley face, and other terms of happiness and joy, and why shouldn't they, right? Justice has been served. A huge enemy of our country is dead. The man responsible for thousands of innocent deaths has finally gone...

However, as I told Manda last night, I cannot find joy in this event. In fact, I find it a bit upsetting that so many people are so happy over this man's death. Now don't get me wrong, I think that he was evil, did evil things, and needed to be stopped. Did he get what he deserved? Probably, yes, but I cannot be happy over the fact that we killed him.

What I cannot stop thinking about is this: Was his life worth less than yours or mine? Was his life less sacred than yours or mine? Did God love him any less than you or I? The answer, I am convinced, is a resounding no. He performed atrocities during his life that set him apart in the views of many, but how many of us have not performed atrocities?

I wonder, how many Christians felt any sorrow over this man's death vs. happiness and joy? Easter was just over a week ago, the day we celebrate the sacrifice that Christ made for us to bring us salvation and free us from our sin and an eternity in Hell. We rejoice over that and talk about how amazing it is that Christ would have come and died if only to save YOU. How often do we really put that statement into practice and belief though? It is great to think that God loves YOU or those YOU love enough to die to save only them, but what about Osama bin Laden? Did God love him enough to suffer and die to save only him? Did God love him enough to suffer and die for him, knowing everything that he would do? Would Christ have taken that bullet to the head to save bin Laden?

It is so easy for us to talk about how much Christ loves and dies for us, knowing everything that we would do, all of the terrible things that we would do in and with our lives.It is easy to think about love and forgiveness and no one being too bad when we are talking about ourselves, our group of friends and family, but it seems that we do not carry this out to those who we do not love or forgive.

That's the beauty of God's love! We cannot possibly understand it! He loves when we hate. He forgives when we hold grudges. His love is absolutely perfect and covers EVERYONE, no matter what they have done or who they are.

So, am I happy that Osama bin Laden is no longer free to move about the world, to plan terrorist attacks, to hurt countless thousands of people? Am I happy that the man responsible for so many innocent deaths has been "brought to justice?" Do I think that he deserved to die? Absolutely. However, I am not happy, and I certainly find no joy in the fact, that a human being who God loves and died for is now, for all we know, sentenced to an eternity in Hell. I simply cannot find joy in that, and the mass jubilation over the killing of a person, regardless of who it is, is upsetting to me.

So chime in. What do you think? Do you agree or do you think I'm crazy? Be honest.

Easter & Good Friday: Death & Resurrection

Today is Good Friday, and while the traditional events of this day probably took place on Wednesday, not Friday, it does not at all diminish the importance of what this day represents. This is, traditionally, the day that Christ was crucified, taking all of the sins of the world upon Himself and becoming the perfect, spotless sacrifice to pay for the mistakes that each and every one of us has made. I believe that this is why this day is called GOOD Friday, because I can't imagine why else it would be considered good. It represents the day that Christ was tortured and brutally executed, forsaken by God, and became sin. So this gets me thinking...

During this Easter season, our celebration is on Easter, and what it represents. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ, His return to physical life, His defeat of death. This is what the rejoicing is over. So as I think about it, was it His sacrifice that brought us salvation, or His resurrection that brought us salvation?

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states, " ¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹ If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."

So this makes a pretty compelling case that our hope and salvation are rooted in Christ's resurrection, without which we would still be in our sins with a futile faith, and this makes sense. This is the argument that I have heard countless times: "Many religious leaders are "good" and many have or would die for their cause, but at the end of the day, they are all still dead and Christ is alive, which is why He is so great and why we can have a confident hope in our salvation."

We celebrate Easter, the resurrection, as the culmination of Christ's gift to us, and believe that it is because He is alive that we have any faith or hope at all. It is all about the resurrection, but...

In Hebrews 9, it states, "14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!


15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  ...

"26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

So wait a minute. This makes a pretty compelling case that our salvation is a direct result of Christ's sacrifice, His shed blood, His death. This is what brings salvation, and without Christ's death we would have no hope of salvation. This also makes sense. The Bible is full of references to Christ being the sacrificial lamb, to forgiveness requiring a perfect sacrifice, to Christ's blood being our means of salvation. Christ even says, in Matthew 26 "²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." We even have plenty of hymns, such as "Nothing but the Blood," which imply that nothing, but the blood of Jesus can wash away sin.

So then, which is it? Why does there seem to be such a strong emphasis on both, separately, and, would Christ's perfect sacrifice have been enough to bring us salvation, had He never risen? Could we still celebrate our salvation even if we never celebrated Easter? Would we have a Good Friday holiday alone? Or is the shedding of blood essentially worthless without the resurrection?

Here are my thoughts: Christ's sacrifice, His death on the cross, His shedding of His blood bought us salvation. He paid the ultimate price for the ultimate prize, and through this, you and I now have the opportunity to accept that freedom. Jesus paid the price, with His blood, to buy our freedom, and all we have to do is accept it. It was His death, the death of a spotless lamb, and the shedding of the pure crimson blood that brought us salvation.

Now, what about the resurrection? It is no less important, and here is why. Christ's death brought salvation, but only because He is perfect, spotless, the prophecied Messiah, God. Had He been ANYTHING less than this, His death would have been futile and useless. When Christ rose from the dead, He proved that He was God. Only God has power over death, and Christ's resurrection verified, undeniably, that He was who He said He was. His resurrection gave power to His shed blood. Additionally, it was procephied that the Messiah would rise from the dead. Had Jesus been perfect, and shed His blood, but not risen, it would make God a liar, and leave us hopeless as our hope and faith would be based in a lie.

The way that I see it, Christ's blood, His death, is what made salvation possible for us. However, had Christ not risen from the dead, He would not have been the Messiah, and therefore His death would have been meaningless and completely unable to provide salvation. So the two are joined. Obviously, He had to die for there to be a resurrection, and there had to be a resurrection to give power to His death.

So those are my thoughts, and they are just that, thoughts. If you agree, disagree, have a completely different view, or can more clearly explain my view, please leave a comment. Have a great Easter everyone!

God bless!