What's in a Grin?

In case you don't know me, let me tell you, I'm a fairly happy person. Now, I get upset and have bad days, and I've never been accused of anything near "bubbly". In fact, I'm a pretty mellow person. Regardless, I'm good at being generally cool with life. I try to keep that up by looking to the little things, little messages from God. A sunset. Or a kind gesture between two strangers. Or a smile.

I got the privilege of being a part of a worship night for the second time the other night. We were supposed to practice on Monday, but then Granger decided it needed a blanket, so it put on a foot of snow. So our practice was pushed back to Wednesday, which was also the night of the actual worship night. People were late to rehearsal, (including myself), and we had some technical difficulties, so we didn't start for probably another hour. Off to a great start, huh? Referring to all of the snow and problems that night I remarked, "You know, it's almost like someone out there doesn't want this thing to happen..." (That's right satan, I called you on it.) What I didn't know yet was why he wanted that.

A shot of the mood, pre-students.
Credit goes to @tsutch on Instagram.

Then we started singing. Practice went pretty good. I love playing with those artists, the songs were terrific, and I generally knew what was going on, which is helpful. After breaking for dinner, Tyler took some time to talk to us and read some verses, to get us centered on why we were there: to praise God. After that, practice was just better somehow. When we finished, and people came in, the crowd was a bit smaller than I had hoped, so I was just praying that God knew what He was doing.

The music started with a relatively upbeat song, then slowly descended into the songs that people tend to really respond to. After a couple of songs the band got to take a seat to watch a video with the rest of the crowd, an acoustic rendition of the song Oceans, which is one of my favorite worship songs out there. That's when it got real for me. I really met with God in that song, and He held me for the rest of the night. The climax of the night was the song Set a Fire. The lyrics are very simple and repetitive, and we in the middle we just hung out on the chords while clips of one of Mark Beeson's sermons played. but in the down time, when nothing was happening, us in the band just kept playing those four chords, B...E...G#...E...B...E...G#...E... I couldn't tell you what happened in the crowd then. They all just faded into the background. All I know is that the musicians had our moment. Tyler wasn't singing into the microphone, but we were on stage living in those lyrics.

               There's no place I'd rather be...
               There's no place I'd rather be...
               There's no place I'd rather be...
               Then here in Your love, here in Your love LORD...

And I don't know when, but at some point I looked out into the room, and saw two lights on the ceiling. To me, almost anything can make a face. Cars have faces on the front and back, the two headlights and the bumper, that's all I need. I'll often draw a curved line beneath double O's, and make that into a face. But I saw those two lights, and there was no mouth to that face. No lines, no frown, no smile. A few choruses later, I looked back out, and that's when it hit me. The two lights were the eyes. They were God's eyes. And beneath them, were all of those bright faces, reflecting His glory. Because God wasn't smiling.

He was grinning.

What's in the grin of God? You are. I am. Anytime we praise Him, serve Him, love Him, we are the embodiment of the Joy of our Father.

Love Wins

OK, so here's the deal. I've had Rob Bell's, Love Wins sitting on my bedroom floor for about six months now. Yes, I know I need no clean more.
Anyway, I thought, since its been even longer than that since I've blogged, and it's a bit controversial, (or so I've heard...), I should write my thoughts!
And so it begins...


Chapter 1: Intro
Wow. That was...something. He basically used Jesus' own stories to show that, according to the Bible, you can be saved because of everything from whether you give birth to children, to what you do, to who you forgive.
I don't really know what to think about all that, so until he gives some explanation, I'm gonna stick with what I already thought:
You're saved by giving God the reins of your life putting your hope and trust in Him. This will change you, and will be made apparent in your life and actions.
This is fun already, and it's only chapter one!


Chapter 2: Heaven
"There's heaven now, somewhere else, there's heaven here, sometime else."
Well, it hasn't gotten real interesting yet. (But the next chapter is titled "Hell," so I have a feeling that may be it.)
This was a long chapter though, so I'll just summarize his points, and give a short response to each.
•When talking to the "rich man" Jesus doesn't tell him to "believe and confess" to be saved, but to sell his stuff.
-I stick by what I said last time.
•There is a coming "age" of heaven that will be on Earth.
-I'd never thought about this. I guess it makes sense, but will it be on this earth or the new one*?
•Life in the new age will be a) diverse (racially, etc.), and b) "earthy" (farming, etc.)
-Diverse I definitely agree with, ("all nations"), and earthy makes sense, because even Eden had Adam taking care of it.
•There will be much taking care of earth.
-Like I said, it's a return to Eden, work/farming/etc. isn't bad, God made us for it.
•People who say they can't believe in a "God of judgement/anger" are wrong, because any good God will have to eradicate evil.
-Yup. (But I'm not sure how this fits with the idea that people might not go to hell.)
•How we live on earth/our flaws now affect our eternal lives.
-Yes.
•"Heaven" was Jesus' way of not using God's name.
-I think in some cases this was probably true, but that's a big generalization.
•The whole bible points to a day when heaven and earth are 'the same place.'
-"A new heaven 'and' a new earth." Can they be the same if they're both there? (See *)
•If heaven will someday be the same as earth, we had better have a good, clean earth for it!
-Definitely..."IF".
•Things that you love to do now will still be so in heaven.
-Yes. That's why we love it now!
•Prejudices, etc wont disappear immediately, they'll have to be burnt out gradually through heavenly flames.
-I don't know. I'd never thought of prejudice in heaven.
•"It's about experiencing now the kind of life that can endure and survive even death."
-I think I agree with this, but it's worded strangely.
Fin. (Until next chapter, where it should get real good.)


Chapter 3: Hell
Whoa. I actually agree with him. (He has this way of not making you do a 180 degree turn, but moves you in 18 10* turns instead.)
But this chapter wasn't a 180* turn. I'd say about 45*. ([SPOILER] Nowhere does he say he doesn't believe in hell.) He says that the hell Jesus spoke of, (a total of 11 times in His whole life, actually), isn't a place of eternal torture after death, but the gap that comes from turning against God.
I've thought similarly for a little while now. In my mind, that's how hell-after-death works, no red devil, fire, and brimstone, but eternal darkness. Just you, alone with your regret, subjected to the fire of His Holiness, but with none of His Love.

He also brings up that God is really big on redemption, (even to Sodom and Gomorrah), so how could he damn people forever?
Hmmmmmm...


Chapter 4: Does God Get What God Wants?
                 I don't think I agree with him there.
                 Wait. I might actually agree with him...
                 Yeah, I definitely agree!
That's the track my thoughts followed this chapter.
         Don't Agree:
At first he basically uses a bunch of verses such as Philippians 2:10 (That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father) to say that if a punishment-forever hell exists, God doesn't get what He wants, so he must not be all powerful. Rob also uses the "Lost" Parables, (coin, son, sheep, etc.) to point out that if God lets these people go to hell, He's essentially giving up on the search.

         Might Agree:

He then moves on to a new idea: "What if people have one (or many) chance after death to choose God? Even after Revelation, the gates of New Jerusalem are always open. And, he points out, no matter how much disbelief you have in it, the idea of everyone going to heaven is the best possible future imaginable. As I wrote this, I realized that if heaven is perfection, what could it be then just that?

      Food for thought.

         Definitely Agree:
At this point, he changes the question. It's not really "Does God get what He wants," but "Do WE get what we want?"
If we want to be with God forever, and to experience and share His love forever, do we get to?
Or if we really want to live without Him, try to be our own gods, and live in a reality completely devoid of love, will God allow it?
And the answer is Yes, because the essence of God is Love, and in the end...Love Wins.


Chapter 5/6: Dying to Live/Jesus is Everywhere
I had plenty of time, and these two were short and relatively empty, so I decided to just do them together. So here goes.
      Dying to Live
This chapter could by no means be considered controversial. Meaning it doesn't go against any of the "popular" Christian beliefs. It just goes deeper."The early members of the Church couldn't just say what Christ had done, because there aren't words. Instead, they used analogies. One of the most common today is that Christ was the "Final Sacrifice," or the "Blood that was Spilled." But while these are true, they've lost much of their power, because we don't really get sacrificing." (Paraphrased) He then goes on to say that in spite of this, the cross has endured, because we are familiar with the idea of death bringing life. From what we eat to how heroes inspire us, we are surrounded by this idea. And we long to be part of the new creation that will come as a result of the death of Christ. "You die, and you're reborn. It's like that."
     Jesus is Everywhere
This did get a bit more controversial, but only if you ignore certain bible verses completely.
His basic point was that everyone has to go through Jesus to get to God, but Jesus can show up in many different ways.
So if you're a person who believes that the only way into heaven is to pray a certain prayer, get baptized, stop sinning, and give 10% of everything you earn, you'd probably hate this chapter.
However, even if you disagree, you are wrong. By the logic shown in the previous paragraph, everyone who dies without ever hearing of Jesus is damned. The Bible says that is not true.
According to Paul, (1 Corinthians 10), the Israelites encountered Jesus as a rock while travelling from Egypt. And as Rob Bell so eloquently put it, "There are Rocks Everywhere." So can we really say that a Buddhist, or Muslim, or Atheist can't go to heaven?
After all, Jesus didn't die for the life of the Jews, or even Christians, but for
         "the life of the WORLD."


Chapter 7: The Good News is Better than That
This chapter was longer than either of the last two, but it was pretty focused, so there isn't much more here.

It's mainly about Jesus' overused, cliche, and yet still new parable of the lost son. He starts how most do, talking about the son that left. He says that this son gets a chance to choose between his own story, "I'm not worthy," or his dad's: "Who cares? I love you!"
But then he moves on to the other son. The good, obedient, "righteous" son.The son that comes in during Son 1's party and sets up his own personal hell. That's what Rob is trying to get at: hell is a separation from God, and both sons went there. But what makes hell really hellish is that is that you aren't "out in the field," separate from the party, but right in the middle of it, unable to enjoy it.
The Love of God wants to bring everyone to the party, not keep everyone out. But you can be there, and still be in hell. Because it's not just about getting into the party. It's about accepting God's version of the story.
It doesn't matter how bad you are, God's forgiveness is powerful enough.
It doesn't matter how good you are. 
          God's forgiveness is powerful enough.


Chapter 8: The End is Here
"The indestructible love of God is an unfolding, dynamic reality, and single one of us is endlessly being invited to trust, accept, believe, embrace, and experience it."
"Trust is difficult," but "Jesus invites us to trust that the love we fear is too good to be true is actually good enough to be true."
"This invitation is infinitely urgent," and must be accepted, or face the "judgement and separation in which people miss out on rewards and celebrations and opportunities."
"Whatever you've been told about the end," "Jesus passionately urges us to live like the end is here. Now. Today."
"Love is what God is."
"Love is why Jesus came."
and

Love Wins.

Nicaragua2012 (Part 3)

*Post three of my Nicaragua2012 Posts.*
*This is partially for you, and partially so I have a place to write it all so I remember it. So pardon all the horrific details.*

At this point, you may be thinking, "Wait. He's already at the end! How can he have a third post??"
Well, this post is just for a few stories that I've thought of. So let the stories begin!


1. Imma start out with a good one.You may know Nathan Arndt. You probably don't. Regardless, this story is amazing. Picture this:
It's day four. It's 6:30 in the morning. I'm still in bed, half asleep and honestly I'm amazed I have any recollection of this. Riley Robbins is walking around. He cringes, and says something about the painful blister on his foot. Nathan, out of the blue, says "Hey, you want me to pray for it?" Riley says sure, so right then and there, at 6:30 in the morning, Nathan kneels down, and says a prayer of healing on Riley's foot.
Moment of honesty, I doubted. I thought, why would God spend His time, just so Riley could get out of a little pain? But later, Riley's is asked about it, and he says "I haven't felt it all day......but in a good way!"


2. This is gonna seem really shallow after that one, but whatever.
Thing is, down there, they don't get the luxury of lawnmowers, weed whackers, or anything of the sort. But they still need to keep a little bit of landscaping! So how do they do it??
Machetes.
They sent four of us guys out, to see what we could do. We couldn't. I actually thought we were doing decent! It only took like 15 swipes to get a tiny patch of weeds down! Then a Nicaraguan lady comes out to show us how it's done. With a piece of bread and a cup full of juice in one hand, she takes a Machete, and in THREE SWIPES gets what it took us twenty to get. Talk about an ego buster!

We were even less adept when they started throwing them. Yes, you read that right. They grabbed a few machetes, and started throwing them and getting them to stick into trees. I actually got the most out of any of us Americans! Which was two. But neither of them was as impressive as theirs! And they did it over...and over...and over again!



3. Obviously, there are people who live at the place we stayed. They prepared food, and cleaned our rooms while we were gone. Similar to a hotel. Except the food was FLIPPING INCREDIBLE! I would live there just for the food!!!
Anyway, one day we get back, and there are two piles of clothes in the middle of the rooms. I realize after look for a few seconds, that it is a bunch of our clothes! A few seconds later, I realize that its the stuff I already wore, and got all dirty! That's right. Those ladies, out of their own free will, hand washed all of our dirty clothes. Shirts, socks, and even underwear! I wouldn't even do that for myself!


Once again, I just wanna thank anyone who supported me, through either money or prayer! You don't know what a blessing you were!

So there you have it. That's the end. Until next year that is!

Nicaragua2012 (Part 2)

*Post two of my Nicaragua2012 Posts.*
*This is partially for you, and partially so I have a place to write it all so I remember it. So pardon all the horrific details.*


OK. So you may remember, when we left off, I had come back from the beach. The next four days were our designated "work days". I'll begin there...

If you want the most basic overview, "We built two houses."

They started lifting before I could get to the side...

For a more detailed description, I'll just write what I wrote in my journal after day 3:
"It's been a ton of fun. You never get overworked, because there's not enough work for everyone, so you can easily take breaks. But don't think it's easy! I wake up every day more tired, and super sore!
People are so helpful! Sammy spends the entire time giving herself to all the little Nicaraguan children, and also is constantly offering to bring people their waters bottles! Everyday, Tara goes out of her way to cover all of the backpacks, so the when it rains, (which it does everyday here) none of our stuff will be ruined! No other specifics, but everyone gets whatever you need, and if you need a break, they jump at the chance to get back to work!

Putting in the floor boards

At some points throughout the day, I just spend some time with the little boys. We just run, fight, growl, and tickle (Yes. I did say tickle.) Even though we aren't doing anything, they still have so much fun, and the glee on their faces is amazing to watch!
I also love watching the teenage Nicaraguans. I can't understand much of what they say, but i feel a connection. We're just a few teenage guys, out here building to help some people out!"

So there you have it. That was my play-by-play, in the midst of the action.

On Thursday night, we went to Church. The preacher was another visitor, and he had a ton of great stuff to say about worship.
Here's some of my notes:
Ephesians 2:10
       God designed us to worship Him through good works.EVERYONE WORSHIPS SOMETHING
       What do you worship?
What is worship?
       Singing?
       Praying?
       Praising?
             All three of these, but more! Worship is doing what the the Holy Spirit leads us to do, and its from
             your heart!
Whatever you do, do it for God!
Romans 3:23
Worshiping is reflecting the glory of the Master.
Love like He loved, Grace like He graced, and Forgive like He forgave.
God is most Glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him!
You have to KEEP your heart close to God.
You don't plan to fall out of love. It comes from not continually coming to Him.
Worship: an outward expression of your inner love.
Do you know Him? If not, you can't truly worship Him.
Psalm 139:14
       You will never be able to worship God if you think He made a mistake in you.


And that's the conclusion! Now on to post numero tres!

Nicaragua2012 (Part 1)

*Post one of my Nicaragua2012 Posts. For the rest of the story read the next few posts!*
*This is partially for you, and partially so I have a place to write it all so I remember it. So pardon all the horrific details.*

If you didn't know, I went to Nicaragua (in Central America) a few weeks ago!
It was an incredible experience, I learned a lot, and I will for sure be going next year!
We first got started back in January/February, when we got to know who all was going, and then we had 3 other meetings between that and the trip. I had so much help from people paying for the trip. I had to raise $2100 dollars (if you include my Chicago trip), and I got it completely paid for by peoples fabulous donations!

So the day of the trip arrives. We have our packing party, go over final details, and head home for a few hours before we leave. Some people slept, I on the other hand watch The Batman movies, and an episode of The Walking Dead. :D
Then we head back, take the 2 hour drive to Chicago, and fly from there to Miami, and then to Managua, Nicaragua. (That's fun to say!) We spend the night in a hotel there. It consists of tons of pizza, even more pool-dunking, an hour long talk with Riley and Jeffrey about awesome movies, and my headphones disappearing overnight. Then we take a smaller propeller plane (a 46-seater) to Puerta (Port) Cabezas. Surprisingly that was my favorite flight! I sat next to Austin, and played solitaire, war, and chess. And then we were there.

The night we got there, all we did was play with the kids. Me and Brennan were chasing around a little boy and girl, letting them go chasing them some more...and so on. We also sat around for a bit, and learned this weird hand pounding rhythm thingy. (I forgot that one, but I learned another one later which I remember!)

Day 2:
We went to Church this day! It was a flipping awesome experience! There were three different languages being sung, but even if they were singing in one of the other languages, I could still understand, and connect in my own. It just really showed how Jesus isn't American. He is universal. We so often think of Him as our own, and this was just awesome to see how much He did in the lives of people who wouldn't understand a word of our English bible, but have there own way of sharing the Good News. And then we got to hear a great message from our very own John Keim, in English, and translated to Spanish. Their services are long! Johny even had a short message, and the service was still two hours long! But I wouldn't have missed any of it for the world!
After church, we took all of the kids to the beach. It's Nicaragua, so of course it started raining as soon as we got there. But after the initial ten seconds of disappointment, (and after I covered Katie and I's bags with my poncho) everyone started having even more fun! Some people were playing beach-rain-soccer, others were building sand castles, and others (me) were having an all out war, dunking, throwing sand, etc. No casualties though! One little girl kept throwing sand at me, so i would scare her, or throw sand at her or something. At the end we shook hands, which I thought meant we were cool. But then she threw sand at me again!! What a jerk...haha
Gotta love those children...(but boy are they tiring!)


Well, I'd say thats a good place to end this one. You can find the next one here:

Relapse

Here's some background: for a while now, I've been dealing with stuff in my personal walk with Christ.
I touched on this in my post about Romans 7. Struggling for months, and then I go on a mission trip in Chicago. I'm positive that if I could've dealt with it before Chicago12, god could've done a lot more with me, but I was unable. Or maybe I didn't really want to. Regardless, I got back on Monday. I was sitting on the couch, on my iPod. I saw a link that piqued my interest, so I click on it. As it's loading, I feel a tug on my heart, and suddenly realize, "This is exactly what I was promising, no, vowing, to put behind me this very morning!"
I just spent a wee serving others, and I almost went back to my selfish ways less than an hour after I got back. I believe that if not for Him holding me back, I would've fallen...hard.
And so I truly owe it All to Him.

The Bible is Wrong

Okay, so the title might be a bit misleading. I still believe the bible. But I'm beginning to believe it differently. You may know I am in a biology class at school, which means we learn about evolution, and a bit of the big bang theory. Now, a  year ago I would've said that both were wrong without a second thought. However, I've also been talking, no, debating Christianity in things called "communities" on an app I got. (Shout out to all mis amigos out there!) Both of these combined got me thinking.
There is a lot of evidence out there for both Evolution and the Big Bang theory. Obviously, without a time machine, we can't say for sure. It would be like trying to prove that there isn't any God. You can't ever say for sure. But anyway, My point is, these theories are looking less and less like theories, and more like fact.
So here is my theory. God created nature right? So he created the laws of nature. So it's only logical that he would follow His own laws, right? The Hebrew word for day, "yom", can also mean an age, not just a twenty four hour day. Therefore the six "days" of creation could be...oh I don't know....4.5 billion years? So picture this:
God makes an atom. Then He explodes it. BOOM. Big Bang. He then causes a chain reaction that starts creating stars, and galaxies. He keeps it going, and eventually brings into being one specific planet. (Which He's been planning to use all along.) Then He mixes all the right molecules together to make DNA and RNA and all that fun stuff, which, long story short, creates life. After that, over billions of years he (with His own hand) uses evolution to form what he had in mind all along. And when humanity is ready, He gives us the final part of "His image". A soul. I believe the rest of the story is written down somewhere....


Keep in mind this is just a theory. It has it's flaws. But it currently makes sense to me, so say something about it to rip it into shreds.
Thanks!
 Adios.