Did anyone have a chance to watch any of the storms that came through last week?

 

I love thunderstorms. I love the feeling of power that they carry with them.

 

More than the storm itself, though, I love the morning after a big storm has raged and unleashed its’ fury. The earths’ sigh is almost audible in the still silence, yet is felt more than it is heard. It’s as though the earth takes a moment to breathe before it begins to assess the damage done; determine where the wounds are. Then, the healing process begins. The clouds move a little more gracefully, the sun peeks out a little more slowly and the earth sits back in wonder at the glory displayed the night before.

 

I wonder why we don’t respond the same way after a big storm of life blows through.

 

More often than not we lash out in anger and confusion and hurt, rather than marveling in wonder at the glory that God revealed through the storm. We ask the question “Why?” because our limited vision doesn’t give us a picture of the ultimate purpose for the storm. We assess the damages and wonder how long it will take for the wounds to heal. Then, we want to know how we’re supposed to cover the scars that each wound will leave behind. We glance at the mess the storm has left and look for places to hide the garbage, rather than waiting for God to show us where to throw it away. We focus more on making it appear as though the storm never happened, in stead of allowing others to see it so that God can use us to help others navigate their way through a similar storm.

 

After thinking about it for a bit, this thought occurred to me: The storm isn’t a measure of how strong our faith is, as so many believe, the storm is a measure of how deep our trust is.

 

And that’s when I remembered hearing a speaker make the following statement. Think about this with me for a second…

 

“God needs a people that will trust Him to wound them.”

 

When I heard this statement it stirred up something deep inside of me: Something that, at the time, I wasn’t able to define or identify. Then the thunderstorms came a few days later. Now, I think I understand why my heart latched onto this statement and couldn’t let go…

 

You see, thunderstorms are nature’s way of trying to restore balance and encourage growth. The earth doesn’t get to choose when the storm will come, where it will hit or how severe it will be. The earth simply surrenders to the storm when it does come, trusting that once it’s over, the glory of the storm will be revealed through the healing and growth that occurs.

 

So, my question is this: How do you respond when the storm comes?

 

Do you surrender to the storm, trusting in the plan and the promises of God? Or do you choose to lash out in anger, confusion and hurt that God allowed the storm to come? I would argue that, most of the time, we gear up for battle and choose to fight out of the anger and confusion and hurt that we allow to consume our hearts; rather than remembering and trusting in the promises that God has given His children.

 

Promises like:

He will never leave or forsake us (Deut. 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5 & Hebrews 13:5)

He has a plan to prosper us and give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11)

He is our help and rescue to give us victory and sustain us (Psalm 18:35, 54:4, 55:22 and 89:21 & Isaiah 46:4)

He works all things for our good (Romans 8:28)

Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:37-39)

He makes everything beautiful in its’ time (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

…and that’s only a few…

 

We know the many promises of God! Why do we not trust them? I would beg to argue that it’s because, at the core of who and where we are in our relationship with Christ, we don’t really believe them to be true. We’ve stored these promises in our head, but we’ve never truly allowed them to resonate in our hearts. Why else would we choose to fight the storm?! It doesn’t make any sense! Unless, we don’t believe that God’s promises are really true.

 

Now, hear me…There are plenty of days that I wake up in the midst of a storm and choose to fight rather than trust in the promises of my Savior. I’m not saying that it’s easy to surrender to a raging storm and trust that God’s promises to love, protect, be present, bring victory and hope, sustain us and make us beautiful in the aftermath will hold true. But isn’t it about time we listen to Paul and shift our focus to those things that are true, noble, right, pure, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8) in an effort to transform our hearts by renewing our minds so that, when the storms come, we will be able to discover what God’s will is (Romans 12:2)?

 

It’s the only way that we will be able to discover and share the glory that God wants to reveal through our storms.

 

How are you going to respond to your storm? Are you going to lash out and fight in anger, confusion and hurt? Or are you going to surrender, trusting in the promises of God? Are you going to trust God to wound you in order to protect you and grow you into the man or woman that He created you to be?

 

Always in Him,

 

Badger

Hello! and Happy Spring! I think it’s finally deciding to settle in now that summer’s almost here. But it’s been worth the wait in a lot of ways!

I’d like to start by apologizing for the longgg delay in posting. I must admit that I asked you all a question that I really wasn’t prepared to answer at the time that I asked it! Yet, I can’t say that I’m too sorry, because the search for an honest and truthful answer has caused me to wrestle with God a good bit over the past month. Romans is not an easy book to get through without the Holy Spirit doing some major convicting! But I think I’ve at least come across some challenging thoughts that can also answer the questions from the last post:

What does it really mean to be a Christian? And who gets to decide that we are one?

Now, for the second question, I think I’m going to stick with my original answer: God decides. It is not my place or your place or the pastors place to judge who is or is not a ‘Christian’. We can judge fruits in an individuals life the way scripture commands us to, BUT we cannot, nor should we, make the judgement and believe it to be final. A persons relationship with Christ is between them and God alone! Therefore, God alone will be the judge as to whether or not someone is truly a child of His. And I’m looking forward to that day! I can’t wait for the day that God looks at me and calls me His, escorting me into His kingdom to the place that He has been preparing for me. How exciting!!

As for the first question, I’m sticking with my original answer, but I’m going to elaborate a bit

Being a good person, graduating from CCD, praying a prayer when you’re 5, going to church every Sunday…those are all great and commendable things! HOWEVER, not a single one of them means that you are a Christian. How do I know? Well, as I previously mentioned, John 14:6 makes it clear that it is through Christ and Christ alone that we have access to God. So, while the prayer to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life is a very necessary step, it doesn’t end there! And this is where Romans 6 comes in…

^“5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. ⁶ We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. ¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. ¹² Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. ¹³ Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” (New Living Translation)

Now, I understand that there is quite a lot being said in this short passage, but I want to focus on a few points that I feel are important for answering the question. When we truly give our lives over to Christ and surrender to His authority and Lordship, we take a step that the Bible repeatedly calls “Repentance”. I believe that is what Paul is talking about in these few verses. “Repentance” means “to turn away from; to move in the opposite direction of“: It is a literal and physical action. Many people read passages of scripture like this and choose to interpret it as being symbolic and metaphorical, and to an extent it is; however, there is also a very literal side to it. Dying to sin and coming alive in Christ is the conscious decision to physically turn away from the sin in our lives and not continue to do the things we’ve always done. That is what it means to be “crucified with Christ”. Jesus took on the sin debt of the entire world and that debt disappeared when He chose to turn away from and forgive the sin of the world through His death on the cross. In the same way, when we choose to accept and believe that God sent His son Jesus to pay our sin debt, we are making the decision to die to our sin and be made new in Christ; which becomes evident when we continue to turn away from the sin that held us captive and chase after the holy and righteous things of God, using our whole body as an instrument for doing what is right for the glory of God (v.13).

Being a Christian is SO much more than simply saying a prayer because you don’t want to go to Hell. Being a Christian is making a life-long committment to making continual change through the repentance of sin. If you prayed a prayer after an emotional and energetic time with God and have not changed anything else in your life, I would make the argument that you have not truly surrendered your life to Christ; because Romans 6 clearly talks about dying to sin and sin death does not occur without change! And in that circumstance, I would sincerely urge you to take a look at whether or not you truly have made Christ the Lord of your life.

There’s a great quote that a friend of mine uses to encourage people that are recovering from addictions and it goes like this: “Nothing changes, if nothing changes.” The saying rings true in the discussion of what it really means to be a Christian! If you haven’t changed what you’re saying, watching and listening to, then there has been no real change. If you prayed a prayer and went right back to living the same world-driven, materialistic, sexual, “all about me”, selfish life-style- then I would argue that there has been no real change and, therefore, no true repentance of sin. Romans 6:16 says, “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” You cannot have it both ways and confidently call yourself a Christian. You either choose to obey God and strive to live righteously OR you choose to remain a slave to sin and indulge in the things that society is telling you are “cool” and neccessary.

SO…What does it really mean to be a Christian? It means that you are continually going against the ever strengthening flow of a sinful world in order to turn away from the sin that everyone else in this generation is running toward. It means being willing to give up status in order to reach eternal satisfaction rather than instant gratification. It is making the choice to die to youself and come alive again as a new creature through Jesus Christ.

Is it easy? NO!! But is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

I know this is a little long and confrontational, but I am becoming more and more passionate every day about helping young people understand and become confident in the decisions they claim to be making for Christ. It is wayyy past time for true Christians to stand up and be heard! Even if we end up standing alone talking to a wall, it’s time we stand up for truth and confront those ‘Christians’ who aren’t.

Hopefully this stirs up some debate! Feel free to comment..

Faithfully His,

Badger

What does it really mean to be a ‘Christian’? And who gets to decide whether or not we are one?

Now, I grew up in a family that attended church every weekend, went to Awana’s on Wednesdays as a kid and then youth group on Sunday nights as a teenager. I served on my youth group’s ‘youth council’ and worship team. I lead Bible studies in jr. high, high school and college. I’ve served my church and my dad’s ministry as a youth leader. I currently serve on the worship team at the church I attend and just recently concluded my service as a Bible study co-guide for a young adult ministry. I can find any book and verse in the Bible in under 10 seconds and I can give you the ‘Sunday school’ answer to almost any ‘church question’ you could ask me. Therefore, by all appearances and by the definitions of a ‘christian’ found in the church and on dictionary.com, I am a great example of what a Christian is and what it means to be one.

If only that were true!

You see, I’ve been a part of some conversations recently that have really burdened my heart and made me think of how many people in the church (as in the institution of the church), or those that have had any experience with the church, are completely missing the boat. Why? Because the church has allowed the definition of a Christian to be determined by a society that has no idea what it truly means. The older generations of the church got so caught up in the appearance of what it was to be a Christian that the generations growing up in the church now have a skewed and incorrect understanding of what a Christian really is. How do i know this? Because I posed the question “How do you know you’re a Christian?” to people of varying ages and denominations. These are the responses I got:

1. “Oh, well I’ve gone to church my whole life, so I guess I’ve just always been.” (You’ve just always been?)

2. “Because I graduated from CCD and got my Catholic name and stuff.” (Oh. Really?)

3. “Well, I try to go to church when I can and I think I’m a good person. I guess that’s how I know.” (You think?)

4. “I prayed a prayer when I was like, 5 or something so I wouldn’t go to hell.” (You prayed a prayer? That’s it?)

I was so discouraged at the passion with which each individual believed their answer to be truth that I began looking for a reason behind such an incorrect understanding of a Christian. That’s when I decided to search dictionary.com, just out of curiousity, for how the world is defining a “Christian”. This is what I found:

1. Christian- (adj.)- decent, respectable; manifesting (or demonstrating) the qualities of Jesus

                      (n.)- person who exemplifies (illustrates or serves as an example of) Christ

2. Christian- one who believes or professes or is assumed to believe, in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by him…

Is anyone seeing the problem here? Let me help you out….NOT BIBLICAL TRUTH! If we were to agree that the first definition is correct, then I know several self-proclaimed Athiests, Buddhists and Muslims that are making great Christians! And if we were to agree that the second is correct, then we are giving ourselves the power to judge who it is we assume might believe in Jesus, as well as agreeing that there may be another truth out there somewhere.

Young person, please hear me: The TRUTH is that, apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, anything we would do, even if it does demonstrate or exemplify the qualities of Jesus, will be viewed as nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). The TRUTH is that, simply believing in God is not enough, because even the demons believe in Jesus and tremble (James 2:19). No where in the Bible will you ever find that saying a prayer, graduating CCD, being a good person or going to church your entire life makes you a Christian. The TRUTH is found in Jesus saying, “I am the way the truth and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

So, again I ask, what does it really mean to be a Christian? And who gets to decide whether or not we are one?

I’ll answer those questions briefly and then I’ll come back to them in the next post. This one is getting a little long! Being a Christian means, or rather requires, that we are crucified with Christ; dying to sin and coming alive in Christ. As for who gets to decide…well, I believe that the only one that can make that judgement is Christ and I will know I am His because He will be the one to tell me.

I’ll start in Romans 6 next time. I encourage you to read through it!

In Christ,

Badger

Finally!

I have been talking to TONS of young people over the past several months and I am SO excited to finally be getting things to the point where I can get this Blog and the Bible studies rolling. It’s been a long time coming! I know. Some of you are probably thinking,  “It’s about time!” So, to those of you that have been patiently waiting; I apologize! And thank you!

I do not have anything insightful or challenging to write in this particular entry. This entry is simply to say, “WELCOME!” and “GET READY!” because, if you choose to read this blog on a daily or weekly or any type of consistent basis, you will be embarking on a journey that will challenge you to dive head first into the best relationship out there: Your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The purpose and goal of this blog is to present you with ideas and questions and statements that will challenge you to go deeper in order to discover the answers based on the absolute truths of scripture. I (and my awesome counter-part Holly!) believe that scripture is God-breathed and that it alone holds all absolute truth. More than that, I believe that the truth of scripture is the only truth that has the ability to set you and I and the rest of the world FREE (John 8:32).

Diving deep into the truths of God is not a journey for the weak of heart, nor is it for the insincere. It’s a journey that requires consistency and humility and earnestness. It takes the guts to stand up and the courage to stand alone. It takes the confidence to stand out, knowing that you’re identity is in Christ and Christ alone. And it requires a genuine, life-changing belief that you are indeed saved and have a personal relationship with THE God of the universe.

So, BUCKLE UP! Because God’s in the driver’s seat and He’s searching for loyal passengers who are ready to dive deep and begin becoming the change that the world around us so desperately needs. He’s waiting for willing passengers that are earnestly seeking to become His UNLIMITED sources of TRUTHFUL INFORMATION (411). Are you ready?

Always in HIM,

Badger