"Tell me something you don't want me to know"

I went to a large church of over 1200 when I was in high school. I went to church just about every Sunday and I had some "good" friends that were my age. But I was allowed to live a little bit of a double life because of the size of the church and youth group. I was a good Christian on Sunday and around my "church" friends, but when I was with people I knew I could get away with things, I would allow sin to enter in.

I venture to say that I am not much different than most Christians. In fact as an adult I have to constantly check myself and see if I am wearing a mask. What helped me change you ask. It was deep relationships. Three relationships stick out to me as I write this. The first is a pastor by the name of Brian Neely. He was the college pastor at my church. I would spend a lot of time kicking a soccer ball in his office with him, while talking about life. We also went out to lunch and talked life. It is not that we had a bible study, but in a sense, every meeting was a bible study, because it was always about how God was involved with every part of our lives.

The other relationships that helped me were with Matt and Jon. Matt and Jon were a year older than me. We went to the same college group. While in the college group, we went to Mexico and on other activities. We became close and started talking deep and about the inner struggles of having a heart that is wicked and in need of transformation. I remember one day in particular where we all confessed sin to each other and it was one of the most freeing acts in my life. I remember feeling relieved that I was not alone in my struggles with sin. Now I was on a team, and we were battling sin and Satan together.

I fear that these relationships are far and few between for some of us. I fear that we wear a mask because if people knew who we really were they would not associate with us. Therefore, there are a lot of lonely Christians that attend church, but they are not "The Church." What is "The Church?" Acts 2 introduces "The Church." (Acts 2:37-47 Peter's words convicted them deeply, and they said to him and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins… 40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, "Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!"41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church – about three thousand in all. 42 They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord's Supper and in prayer… 46They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity –47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.) "The Church" is the gathering together of believers having fellowship with each other. This has a very significant meaning. In the Greek the word fellowship means (fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse). Fellowship is not a potluck with some strangers sharing pleasantries. It is the inviting of one's life into another’s. They would talk about life and struggles. The image I get is of three neighbors daily sitting on the front porch together talking about the day.

I recently went to a leadership summit in Minneapolis Minnesota with the Evangelical Fee Church. They had a gentleman from Kenya Africa share about worldviews. This gentleman talked about how a secular humanistic worldview leads to loneliness and materialism. The only relationships they have are with people they can get something from. There is no community. The biblical worldview is all about community. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the perfect example of this community. Paul even writes in Philippians 2 to have the same servant attitude as Christ Jesus.

I was recently on the phone with my mentor Jim. We were catching up because we had not talked in months. When Jim felt we had caught up enough he asked me a very difficult question. He asked "tell me something you don't want me to know?" It took me a second to answer but I answered honestly.

The question I have is do you have someone in your life that asks you the tough questions? Are you in true biblical fellowship with someone? This is something that will take time and effort but it is something we all need.

Love Affair

Today I read John 15. When I opened my bible I chuckled because John 15:1-10 was one of my memory verses from camp as a kid. This camp I went to gave us points for our team when we memorized scripture. I guess it was not a bad thing because I still remember that passage fairly well. I thought I would breeze through this chapter, but at the end of the chapter Jesus is warning the disciples that the world will hate you like it hated Jesus and his message. I thought to myself, does the world hate me because of my message. Then I thought can the world hate you when you are having a love affair with her? I look at myself and my students and I wonder if we are to in love with this work to be effectively sharing and living for Jesus. I guess just something to ponder while I play facebook games while watching a movie in my comfy bed in my nice dry house enjoying my electric fan blowing on me.

Frustration

I just read the about the death of Lazarus in NLT. I was intrigued because it said that Jesus was angry. As I read it I wondered why Jesus was angry. He knew Lazarus was going to die. In fact I believe he waited so long because he wanted to make sure that Lazarus was good and dead. He waited till everyone knew he was dead. The bible said that Jesus did this so that the power of God would be shown. So why was Jesus angry? I think it was because everyone thought that Jesus could keep Lazarus alive, but no one thought he had the power to raise the dead. I would think it would be frustrating doing miracle after miracle with the people who follow you and call you LORD forgetting how powerful you really are. He was mad and moved with compassion for his love for Lazarus. He raised him from the dead. This miracle pushed the religious leaders over the edge. They wanted him dead and fast. The religious leaders recognized Jesus power and were afraid of losing political control. Do we care more about power or control then we do about what Jesus is doing? I think sometimes in my life I forget how powerful God is and that he can do all that he said he can do. I live for control instead of giving Jesus all control.
The other thing that stuck out to me is that Jesus was not in a hurry to reach his friend. Everyone was mourning the fact that Jesus was late. But Jesus knew he was on time. I think sometimes we forget who the author of time is. We also forget who the keeper of time is. Jesus knows the end from the beginning. He knows the time. He is never late. Do we trust his timing? I have so much to learn.