Life As An Intern

The Desert

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:13:30 -0800

For a little while I have felt like I have been being led by God to experience some temptations. It has been very difficult to deal with. At times I have felt like I am being drug through the gutter. I know God will sustain me but that doesn’t make it less difficult. Today I opened an email from my mother that was from “Prime Time with God”. I’ve never heard of that before but it caught my attention when it had the verse that I have been reading and reflecting a lot on lately. Below is what it had to say. When I read it I have to admit it brought a few tears to my eyes because it confirmed a little of what I have been going through.

Being Led into the Desert
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
11-14-2009

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” (Matt 4:1-2).

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be temped by the devil. Jesus was being tempted as a man, not as God. Jesus came to earth as a man to live His life with the same limitations as you and I. Satan wanted him to come out of His human condition into His God nature to deal with His hunger. It was Jesus’ first real test to be a human being.

Some people think God would never lead His people into the desert to be tested. Some would even say this is the devil’s doing. The fact is, both statements are true. God actually uses Satan to test His servants to help develop obedience in their lives.

Jesus had to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit in His life just like you must in order to have victory over temptation. God was testing His obedience. He was not allowed to be God in this situation. This would be true for the rest of His life. The miracles He would perform were the result of seeing what the Father was doing and obeying His commands. Jesus said we would do even greater works than He did because we have the same access to the Father as He did.

God led the people of Israel into the desert to learn something about themselves. They learned about their level of obedience when life became difficult. “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands” (Deut 8:2).

When God leads you into the desert, He is allowing you to learn something about yourself. We all need to learn how we will respond to temptations in our lives. As we press into God during these times the roots of our faith are forced deeper and deeper into the soil of His grace.

Do not fear being led into the desert. This too is the way of God.

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The Sunglasses of Discipline

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:12:21 -0800

The Sunglasses of Discipline:

I recently went on a road trip to see U2 with some friends. On our way home I took my place in the back seat, because someone else with us got car sick. Frankly I hate sitting in the back seat…

The Sunglasses of Discipline

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:08:09 -0800

I recently went on a road trip to see U2 with some friends. On our way home I took my place in the back seat, because someone else with us got car sick. Frankly I hate sitting in the back seat because you will generally be left out of the conversation and the music will be too loud to hear anything that is being said. So I had a lot of time to sit and think.

As I was sitting in the back seat I began to think about sunglasses and world views. They say world views are like glasses we put on that affect how we see the world, while I don’t agree with that concept wholeheartedly I think it can be appropriate at times. As I this thought snowballed in my head I started thinking about spiritual disciplines as sunglass changers. How we can use different disciplines to change our perspectives. While this isn’t the only goal of a spiritual discipline I think it is a facet of them.

This is something I am going to continue to think through. As I think about it more I will share.

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The Holy Spirit

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:29:24 -0700

The Holy Spirit:

Life Church.tv is starting a new series on the Holy Spirit. The video is great. Check it out.

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The Holy Spirit

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:15:04 -0700

Life Church.tv is starting a new series on the Holy Spirit. The video is great. Check it out.

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Check out this link (Shared via http://ow.ly):

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:11:27 -0700

Check out this website I found at ow.ly

A friend shared this on twitter. I really enjoyed his perspective. We cannot spend to much time on any one specific task. If we do we will become unbalanced and not very useful.

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Service Without Requirements

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:50:24 -0700

A few weeks ago I watched this video. And I have to admit that was slightly concerned over the video. Why would these people willingly help people who would continue in their sin? It seemed like they were enabling the girls who lived there, and as a Christian shouldn’t I be against enabling people to sin? In the midst of thinking this thought a story from the Bible came to mind. The story is found in Luke chapter 17 verses 11 to 19. In this story Jesus heals 10 lepers but only one turns back to praise Jesus because he was actually healed. Now this passage would have little impact on our understanding if Jesus just healed everyone he came in contact with, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. In addition we see in John 5:19 that Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. So it leaves us to reckon that God, the Father, knew what would happen as well as Jesus, the Son of God. If one or both knew what would happen and still healed these men than they would have healed them knowing they wouldn’t respond correctly. What strikes me is that Jesus healed them anyways, regardless of their response to him. His healing was given without requirements, and so should our service. We should serve those around us without any requirements placed on our service. Now I am not one of those who is in favor of never telling someone why we serve them. I think we should be open about our service for Christ. We should share that we are doing it because we are called to love like Christ but then leave it at that. We share that we are serving because of Christ and leave it to them when they are ready to hear more. Although we should always allow the Spirit to move and if the Spirit tells us to speak we should speak. We certainly should never serve someone with a requirement that they follow Christ, for this would be contrary to the Gospel, the Gospel is not forceful upon others. The Gospel respects the freewill of the person, although there are consequences for rejection.

What do you think about service to others without requirements? What do you think about these people helping out a brothel? Any other thoughts?

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Video Test

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:22:56 -0700

Video Test:

Testing to see how this works with a video.

Third Culture Video - Short from Newsong Church on Vimeo.

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Video Test

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:48:03 -0700

Testing to see how this works with a video.

Third Culture Video - Short from Newsong Church on Vimeo.

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Creativity?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:20:15 -0700

Creativity?:

Creativity?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:15:38 -0700

I find that I’m not a very creative person, but I wish I was. I wish I had creativity sparked within me every once and a while. Occasionally it comes out but I’m not sure where it comes from and I’m unsure how to hold on to it for any significant amount of time. Creativity within humanity is often spoken of as one of the distinguishers of the Image of God. Of all of creation only humans are creative. A given bird species will not depart from its standard song, it does not create but reproduces. So creativity is down there deep inside of us all. But some have the ability to hold onto it for significant periods of time. How do they do it? What do you do to spark creativity inside you? Do you consider yourself creative? Any thoughts on how to form this inside yourself or others, primarily me?

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Recent Reflections

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:08:36 -0700

Recent Reflections:

Recent Reflections

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:05:08 -0700

So I haven’t posted much in a while and I blame it all on the fact that I haven’t been doing much thinking lately. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games and doing the opposite of thinking. I used most of my summer to shut off my brain instead of thinking. I am by no means advocating this, simply stating the truth. Truth be told I would advocate the opposite of what I did this summer; if that was a little to twisty for you that means I advocate thinking. It is something I think we should all value. We should desire to understand more and be able to think things through. Well school has started up again so that requires my brain be turned on. This past week in Old Testament class I came to a conclusion. I don’t delight in God’s law all that often and that concerns me. Psalm 1:2 stats “but he delights himself in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.” This man is called “Blessed” in the previous verse and that is a good thing to be called if you ask me. So I have been reflecting on this the past few days. When we delight in something we devote time to it and we think about it a lot, hence why he meditates on it day and night. Frankly I don’t take much delight in God’s law right now, at least my actions say otherwise. I genuinely enjoy reading the Bible but I have “lost that loving feeling” towards it so to speak. I have had that delight for it before and it disappeared at some point, and I’m not sure where it went. But I am going to find it. This is something I am dedicated to. I am all in on God and his word, the Bible. Don’t know how but I am going to do it. I certainly know where to start. And that is by reading it and putting it first before TV, video games, and other things.

As I have thought about this for myself I wondered where my friends and others are at with this. If you are a Christian do you find yourself delighting in God’s word? If you are not a Christian have you ever read the Bible? If so what did you think of it? If you haven’t would you consider it? That is all for now.

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Simplifying

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:59:00 -0700

Simplifying

5 Things Only God Can Do...

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:37:25 -0700

FIVE THINGS ONLY GOD CAN DO!

Is someone interested in spiritual things?
Only God draws people to Himself. (John 6:44)
Is someone understanding biblical truth?
Only God reveals spiritual truth. (Matt. 16:17; John 14:26; 16:13)
Is someone under conviction of sin?
Only God convicts about sin. (John 16:8-9)
Is someone under conviction of righteousness?
Only God convicts about righteousness. (John 16:8,10)
Is someone under conviction of judgment?
Only God convicts about judgment. (John 16:8,11)

I found this at http://www.sbcimpact.net/2008/02/29/five-things-only-god-can-do/

A great blog post.

Epiphany Time

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:06:00 -0700

Since the end of my high school days I can remember think about and dwelling on some form of love or another. In that time I grew fond of movies that would deal with love, you know cheesy romantic comedies and the like. I also grew fond of love songs and books that dealt with love, well only a few and I’m not going to admit which ones. There were times when I would “fall” in love with a girl but that would quickly fade. I would begin to care for a girl so much that she would be all I would think about. My mind would be drawn to her at all moments. But this would not last, it would ebb and flow as a result of her action or mine.

Along the way I encountered Jesus Christ and he changed my life. I knew he loved me but it was entirely mental. I knew in my mind that he loved me but rarely did it touch my heart. Like my “love” for these girls my understanding of this would ebb and flow. And this is how I have continued for the past 8 years, wow that is weird to write. 8 years is a long time, sorry for the side note.

As I have progressed in my journey I have read, discussed, heard, and learned about God’s love but it never really sank in. I guess in my heart I thought his love was like ours. I thought it ebbed and flowed like every humans love. You see we say things like “I’ll always love you” but we don’t really mean that. What I mean by that is the degree to which we love the person will change. We may always love that person but that amount we love that person will change from time to time. And this is where my epiphany came yesterday, July 30, 2009.

Yesterday in my heart I realized that God loves me continually with the same amount always. His love does not ebb and flow like human love. You see he loved me the same when I “knew” he didn’t exist, he loved me the same when I was making the stupidest decision of my adult life, he loved me the same when I decided to follow him, he loved me the same when I read my bible every day, he loved me the same when I was on a mission trip, he loved me the same yesterday when I realized this, and he loves me the same as I write this. For you see “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8 NLT) and “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20 NLT)

His love for each and every one of us is the same. He loves all of us yesterday, today and tomorrow…forever. This was my epiphany. But I have a question for you. How will you respond to the love of The Father?

Life Change Preaching

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:31:00 -0700

Life Change Preaching:

Our intern director forwarded this on to me. I thought it was some great advice so I decided to pass it on to you all. Even if you are not in ministry you can apply it. People always prefer positive out look as opposed to a negative one.

"The nearest anyone can come to finding himself at any given age is to find a story that somehow..."

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:18:59 -0700

“The nearest anyone can come to finding himself at any given age is to find a story that somehow tells him about himself.”

- Norman Maclean as quoted by John Eldredge in Fathered By God. This is a great book I picked up the other day. I’m just starting it but I really enjoyed the quote and thought I would share it with you.

I Am Second

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:48:01 -0700

I Am Second:

Go check it out. This site has some amazing stories.

The Prodigal God Series

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:20:27 -0700

The Prodigal God Series:

This is from Timothy Keller who wrote a book of the same name. His sermons have helped me to process the parable of the Prodigal Sons. You should check it out and they are free. Who doesn’t want free stuff.