Honest To God

I can remember peeking over the counter with my imagination running wild.  The bubbling and popping convinced my creative childish mind that my Grandma had built a rocket right in the kitchen. Much to my dismay, it ended up to be nothing more than a simple evening cup of coffee percolating to perfection. As each second passed, the percolator would bubble faster and faster.  I would watch the coffee through the glass top and just hope for it to blow off. Though I never understood the percolating coffee maker, but I do remember understanding just enough to know that if I took that lid off, the coffee would shoot forcefully to the ceiling.

Many times I have felt just like that steamy coffee pot – as if I was going to explode with passion and that I couldn’t wait to be poured out for the Gospel.

I see the great need of those around me.  I can’t  stop dreaming of all of the great things that I hope to do yet in this life, if I am given the chance. All that I needed was a chance. Beneath the shiny chrome of my Christian faith, I am percolating with passion. I am filled with great dreams and passions that I can’t wait to show the world.  I am well aware that I am not alone in having great aspirations for God’s glorious work; there are hundreds and even thousands of the people in my generation – the millennials – who are ready to die to make a difference. I pray often that God will release the lid and let our passion shoot strait to the sky.

This passion for the gospel and God’s greater work started when I was young. I have grown up in Littleton Colorado almost all my life. I went to school here for all of my elementary and high school years. I was in class just five miles from Columbine High School on April 20^th, 1999.  After the shooting at columbine I saw teens is such anguish.  I also saw many of those same teens realize that they can make a difference if they are given a chance, and take it.
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Life.

Life is a gift given to us by God (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 8:4-5). It is not an option, opportunity, or a choice to accept or reject. Life is a precious thing each of us has been given – both by being allowed to live, and to be a part of the creation process. Sadly, for decades now, life has become a “Choice” in our nation. We no longer value it as a gift from God, but see it nothing more than a choice of humankind.

I am well aware the there are very unfortunate situations where pregnancy occurs. I have had someone of the closest people in my life find themselves in the midst of an unintended pregnancy – and culture told them that they have a choice. Some have chosen to choose to keep the life God granted them, while others have chosen to discard of it. Even when a person makes a poor choice of aborting a child, God has grace. However, I am a firm believer that those of us that claim Christ must do all that we can to uphold and preserve the precious life that God grants us.

Since the fall of 2011 I have been volunteering for Alternatives Pregnancy Center. Even though my time as a pastor is under high demands, I’ve made this volunteering opportunity a priority. By serving with this ministry I am able to:

1. Live out my biblical conviction for preserving the life of the unborn child by helping mother’s choose life. 
2. I am able to be see lives transformed as they hear the truth about how precious life is to God as apposed to the disposable connotations culture has put on American fetuses today.
3. I am able to live out the Gospel of Christ by helping others in Crisis and not just preach to them. 
4. I am able to see God work on my life and give me great compassion for people in all situations facing the unexpected hardships of life.

My role with Alternatives Pregnancy Center has to been to train drivers for a mobile testing clinic. While there are not many places a man can service in a pro-life pregnancy center, there are enough opportunities to go around! Here is a video I shot explaining my role and how serving with APC has impacted me. I encourage you to get involved with APC or your local pregnancy center.

The command for us to share our faith literally in black and white in the Bible. But I gotta tell you, just getting a conversation started with someone about Christ gives me Godzilla-sized butterflies in my stomach. I get so nervous (and I’m a pastor).

I have come to realize something – one of the greatest things that we can do to start a conversation about Christ is to simply shut up. I know, it seems like an oxymoron, but if we would just start by listening, we would be miles ahead.

(Picture from jansmith2911.wordpress.com)

For example, I was in New York one summer walking in central park. I saw a guy sitting all alone on a park bench, so I walked up to him and asked to sit down. He didn’t smell real pleasant, and was missing most of his teeth, but as we sat there, I simply asked, “So what’s your story?” This guy had so much to tell. He went on about how long he had lived in NYC and how he couldn’t wait to leave the big apple and get on with life. I listened, asked question, and really tried to pay attention to his every word. After he went on for about twenty minutes, he turned and asked, “What is your story?”

Ding… I was in. now it was time to tell him my past, and the unavoidable part that Christ has in my story.

Speaking of New York, I saw this article in the Chicago paper about two post-college grads for Manhattan who rode their bikes all around the US with a sign that simply read, “Talk to me.” They had no agenda, weren’t selling anything… just here to listen to what ever someone wanted to say. One of the guys that ended up talking to them shared his corroded past of crack addiction, but after 15 minutes he said, “I’ll stop talking now, and give someone else a chance.”

You see, people want to talk, but after they do, they then naturally want to listen. Their listener has now earned the right to be heard. People listen to people who listen.

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From www.creationswap.com, file #: 7521

This weekend I started the new sermon series called “Abide”. For two weeks we will be studying what God says through His Word in Chapter 15 of John. Perhaps there is no more important sermon Christ gave while on earth than the simple instruction to abide in Him.

But what does that really mean? What does it look like for us to abide in God?
Even if we have grown up in the church and heard hundreds of sermons, the chances are that none of us can really put words to what it means to “abide in Christ”. In fact, I must admit, I too had a warped view of what it meant to abide in Christ. It is not to simply stay close to Him for the sake of greater reward or more steady obedience. Rather, to abide in Christ is to have our entire lives affected by His Lordship over us.

This means that I trust Him even when it hurts. In the passages of John 15 we see things that talk about the pruning God does in our lives so that we can have maximum fruit-bearing abilities. We say we want to be close to God and bear fruit for Him, but we forget how much it hurts when He prunes us.

Perhaps you’ve thought or said things like these people before:

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Anger is the aircraft carrier in the fleet of our emotions. Not only because of its massive size, but also its ability to do harm because from it proceeds a multitude of other feelings—grief, sadness, hatred, loss, horror, and doubt. Anger in itself is not necessarily wrong. It is an emotion God has given us, but as with anything He has given us, we must not elevate it higher than Christ. If we allow our lives and hearts to be defined by our anger, we are worshipping at the altar of our emotions, not at the throne of God.

Mary and Martha were faced with the choice of harboring their deep-seated frustration with Christ or clinging to Him for hope. Their brother, Lazarus, was deathly ill, so they sent for Jesus, who they believed cared about Lazarus too. Yet to their surprise and dismay, He made no effort to get to them quickly. In fact, He stayed away another four days and moved on to a different city rather than running home to be with, and possibly help, Lazarus (see John 11). Imagine how frustrating this must have been for the Mary and Martha. They wanted Jesus to respond according to their terms. They were faced with the choice to hold a grudge against Jesus, or to trust Him.

Upon His arrival—finally—to Bethany, Martha ran to Him and started playing the “If only…” game. Later on, Mary joined in as well. You know the game I’m talking about. It’s the game we play when we don’t get our way in life, especially from God. We run down a list of “if-only’s” with God, telling Him all the ways things would be different if only He would have done what we expected. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus was dead and buried, and Mary and Martha were sure things would have been different if only Jesus had come sooner. You have to admire the honesty of these ladies; in the face of loss they had the guts to cry out before Jesus and share their deep frustration with Him about how they wished He would have acted.

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