I’m forgiven and …

I’m sorry if you don’t forgive me or you remember who I was back then or you can’t get over what I did,

But I’m forgiven by my Father who sent his Son to come to this earth,

and to do some miracles, and feed the hungry, and give mercy to the merciless,

Then they killed him.  Or he gave his life.

Either way, it was through that killing, that sacrifice, that blood, that I was forgiven.

But it gets better.

Because sacrifice is important, but it’s not unheard of.  Many have died, many have sacrificed,

but the next step made all the difference.

Then He rose from the dead by way of the Father.

That meant my forgiveness wasn’t just from a man, it was from a God, the same God who loves the world.

So you may or may not forgive the person I used to be,

or you may not like me now and decide to talk about that amongst your friends.

But it’s ok, because I’m forgiven.

permanently.

And my God is alive to prove it.

So because of all that, and because I’m still not perfect, but I’m working on it,

I would just like to say, here on this “good day”

I love you.  With all God’s heart.

How many places can you see Jesus?

I’m wondering what I would look like if I were to become the ultimate Christian.  Better yet, what do you think I look like when I become the ultimate Christian?

Do I pray all the time?
Do I immerse myself in the Bible and study, study, study?
Do I serve and love and give like Mother Theresa?
Does fasting become a part of my routine schedule?
Is my attendance at every church service, Bible study, and prayer meeting required?

I’ve just been thinking about this lately and wanted to know what you thought.  Is there an end goal?  Is Jesus that end goal?  Is it possible to translate all of the things He did into our culture today?  For years we’ve split into denominations and factions because we can’t agree on this answer, while Jesus prayed that we may be brought to unity for the worlds sake. So please share…

What does your Christian utopia look like?

You should know this.  The reason you should know this is because I may come across as someone who has never had beer before.  If I’m being very honest with myself, I hate beer.  It may be because of my taste for the sweet, and that beer comes across to me as so bitter – like nasty bread or something.  Today I praise God that He has delivered me though from believing in some way that beer in itself is evil.

I love my parents, but they were fed a line of crap all their lives from a group of overly pious religious leaders who, in the early part of the 20th century, teamed up with an overly pious group of feminists, to launch an incredible attack on anything “pub” driven.  This of course trickled down to me as a child.

Enter yesterday.  I attended a party of a group of people who love Jesus and who drink beer.  I didn’t drink the beer.  Remember, I think it tastes like nasty bread most of the time.  But I did appreciate the relational nature the beer brought to the party.  I know there’s a lot of whatifs involved in the subject conversation of beer – “What if”someone’s an alcoholic?  “What if” we cause someone to stumble?  These are important questions that should not be ignored, but by-in-large the same people who highlight this piousness choose to ignore  the waste that goes on in America or never see the problem with attending the  buffet and stuffing themselves silly on a regular basis.

The way I see it, if Jesus were at the party I attended yesterday, his interest would have nothing to do with what the people were drinking or eating, but he would have looked at their hearts, and started from that point.

Oh yeah, and he probably would have thought beer tastes like nasty bread.

On this page, I share a layout on what my regular blog writings will be about.  They focus on relationships, something I have a passion to build in myself and others.  Unfortunately, today’s topic was one of which I was not quite ready.  You see, I’m still learning how to build influence.  I think and pray about it all the time:  “How can I begin to influence new people, new friends, in my life?”  Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” but I don’t feel like it a lot of the time.  I feel like there’s a lot more to be done, and I want to be a part of that.  I hope you’ll be a part of that with me as I write and study and learn how to influence people to love God and love people more.  So let’s get to it.  I hope next week I’ll have a great story of how I’m learning the topic of influence in a big way.

Oh boy, I have a lot of work to do.

Thinking of Jesus can be so irritating sometimes. Like in the midst of my heart turning hateful toward my enemies, and His words about loving them, even if they have persecuted me, come rushing into my mind.  For real, that is really irritating.  I was thinking about this a few days ago after I viewed an altercation that came to blows on the basketball court a few days back.  It started normally enough.  Two guys begin mouthing off to one another about a foul or a travel or whether or not Charles Barkley is fat or big-boned, and then it progresses into this full out altercation, complete with balls flying across the room (basket, that is) and fists following shortly after that.  Several guys were more than enough to put a stop to the pugilist fair, but I stayed away as my mind raced to the time I had a brief arguing session with the guy who threw the first punch.

It hadn’t been that long ago, maybe 3 months.  He had just started playing with our group, and apparently he wanted to make a name for himself or something, because it seemed like his mouth aimed at every person he played against.  So I finally decided to stick my words back in his mouth.  Thankfully (as I found out a few days ago) I eventually walked away, and then, as if to pour salt on the wound, I thought of Jesus and those irritating words again:  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” This is what happened next:

Marty:  Ummm, Jesus, would you mind taking those words out of my mind please?
Jesus:  You should go to Him and apologize.
Marty:  Oh sure, apologize because he has a big mouth, I’ll do that (with a snort).
Jesus:  Have you ever had a big mouth?
Marty:  Every Sunday morning actually, and possibly a few other times, ya know, with my sisters, and maybe a few others times on the basketball court.
Jesus:  So go to him, apologize and Marty, it won’t just help him, it will help you, and the hate you have in your heart right now.
Marty:  But wait, there are people in the world who are just big jerks…
Jesus:  And it’s your personal job to teach them a lesson?
Marty: (walks immediately over to the future Muhammad Ali and apologizes)

Watching the argument take place yesterday, and realizing that after I apologized to said quarreler, we became good acquaintances on our way to friends, I begin to understand that Jesus words are not posted on paper for some uber spiritual, hard to understand reason.  They are there for you and me, so that our hearts stay whole and not ripped to shreds (think Tom Riddle), making future relationships impossible to grow.  They are there because He knows the way the world works, and we don’t.  But still…

It’s irritating sometimes.

Seeing the good in everyone is something I’m trying to improve in my life.  I think I was raised this way, but as time went on, and I saw and experienced the realism, politics, and harshness of the church and life, “seeing the good” in people became something of a dream rather than a reality.

But the last few weeks have gone a long way to improving my state of being in this area.  First, I started to really believe and live out the idea that “love spreads”, then this weekend I drove to Northway Church in Albany, while spending time with some really great friends that attend Terra Nova in Troy, NY.  Talking about the diversity of these two church really made me see the value in their differences.

Today is sermon creativity day for muah.  On Mondays I try to create sermons for the next several months – beginning some and adding to some I’ve already begun.  I also listen for a few hours to Pastors I enjoy.  But today I decided to listen to a pastor I enjoy, and also to a pastor with a different style than I normally “dig”.

Wow!  I feel so juiced by what God is showing me.   Though I don’t always agree with what everyone that I listen to says or writes, I can appreciate the spirit that they write in, and follow the truth God has for me as I read and listen.  And just to let you know, when I say I listened to pastors of differing viewpoints, I don’t mean that those differences have to do with Jesus.  They both proclaim Him and the His beautiful gospel!

But I’m still not telling you the names of the pastors.

I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but there’s only one time of year in which I am distracted from what I’ve done for the last 10 years.  That time of year?

Christmas.

Tradition – a state of being which I am not really a big fan – creeps in, and walaa, I am immersed in the sights and sounds and food and viewing pleasures of the season, many of which slam right in the face of the vision God has given to me to lead a church.

Santa inadvertanly takes the place of Jesus.

All of the trips to the store take the place of reading my Bible.

Parties take the place of visioncasting.

Meaningless gifts take the place of sacrifice.

Thinking about what I have to do takes the place of what I should be doing.

So I need some mind re-evaluation.  Maybe you do to?  There’s certainly nothing wrong with Christmas, but is it overkill?  Do I end up spending way too much time thinking about the good times of the past and not enough time thinking about where I am and where God wants me to go?

So this week, I want to…

Fix my eyes on Jesus.

Stop.  And spend time with Him.

Be intentional about encouraging and leading the people I’m with toward the One we worship during this time.

Look to sacrifice rather than shop.

Do what I should be doing.

What should you be doing?

2,000 years ago, a young carpenter from a po-dunk town of Israel rose to the ranks of the known and stirred up the established religions of the day by claiming to be God and throwing out ideals like many of the ancient prophets did – Justice, hope, and peace (amongst other universal ideas).  Jesus is risen!

700 years ago, A guy by the name of William Wallace (if you believe the movie) cried out for the ideals of freedom for every individual against an established feudalistic order of the day that was hell bent on keeping the land owners, land owners, and the peasants, peasants.

100 years ago, two men were born, one in the north and one in the south, who believed that things were not right, but they could be.  So these men fought for equality, hope, and the American dream, both rising to national prominence, and both were shot for these ideals they were propogating.  Martin Luther King, Jr. died at a hotel on March 29, 1968 and Ronald Reagan survived an assasination attempt on March 30, 1981 (coincidentally hours before my sister, Brooke, was born).  Reagan went on to finish out 8 more years as the president of the United States.

I use these examples, not to call our new president (as of this January) any type of savior or freedom fighter or even a uniter – He’s not a savior and hasn’t been around long enough to fight for freedom or unite anyone.  But I want to continue to propagate a different message that I believe every politician, pastor, and leader should hold on to beyond this election week.

When given the choice between cynicism and hope – we will ultimately choose hope.

When given the choice between hate and love – we will ultimately choose love.

When given the choice between injustice and justice – we will ultimately choose justice.

When things aren’t going well, the temptation is to start playing the cynic and attack the opposition, but the irony is that time and after time after time the person or people who accentuate their ideals ultimately win, over those who attack the opposition.  Could it be that God created the world this way?

I know there are a lot of arguments (even good ones) against this thought process.  But the examples for ideals far outweigh the examples of playing the cynic.  Just look at the opposites of the aforementioned examples.  They are famous too:  The Pharisees, King “Longshanks”, George Wallace, and Walter Mondale.

My case is now rested.

Last week at Fellowship Church, we finished a series called “The Worst Story ever told” from Judges 19-21.   Last Sunday, we focused on standards and how we need self imposed boundaries of people, ideas, or organizations that restrict us with the purpose of personal growth or protection.

I thought I’d leave a thought from Scripture on martyholman.com as an addendum to the message on Sunday.

I said that we not only need boundaries in our lives for the aforementioned reasons, but we are the ones who decide either to impose boundaries on ourselves or to ignore the boundaries around us.  Ultimately we need boundaries and disciplines to be successful in this life (understanding that the word ‘successful’ is open for definition).

And the truth is, the higher our standaries or boundaries, the better we can become.  For instance, if I have standards in my eating habits, I have a better chance of staying healthy and feeling better than if I eat whatever I feel like eating, whether that is greasy fries (which I love) from McDonalds or a huge Homewrecker from Moes.

So what’s the top standard or measure I could subscribe to?  Perfection, I would guess.

I believe that the only perfect person that has ever walked the earth is Jesus.  So would we be successful if we followed Him and made Him our standard in deed and in motivation?  In deed, doing the things He asked us to do and did Himself, and in motivation, doing those things for the reasons He did them.

The author of the Biblical book of Hebrews seems to think so.  In chapter 11 they write about many of the great God followers in Old Testament times, a chapter which has been dubbed “the Hall of Faith.”  then in chapter 12, it’s followed up this way:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The writer uses an athletic analogy to call for raising the standard in our lives.  There are going to be so much stuff that comes in and out of our lives, but anything that hinders our calling, sin or otherwise, shed it!  Then keep going!  And my favorite part is this- all the while, keep your eyes on Jesus.

There are a lot of boundaries you could have, whether its food, material possessions, relationship boundaries or financial, but the one that is the highest standard is that of perfection-

Jesus Christ.