"The real job of every moral teacher is to keep bringing us back to simple principles which we're so anxious not to see" -C.S. Lewis

"God doesn't want something from us. He simply wants us"-CSLewis

I think we all sin needlessly by disobeying the apostolic injunction to "Rejoice"- CSLewis

"The most dangerous thing is to take any one impulse of our nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs"- C.S. Lewis.

"Idols always break the hearts of their worshipers"-CSLewis

One Day Without Shoes

Toms One Day Without Shoes is a little over 5 days away! Check out the link for more info! :)

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

"As long as he doesn't convert it into action, it does not matter how much a man thinks about his repentance"- C.S. Lewis

"Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror"-CSLewis

"Tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless"-CSLewis

The Rich Young Ruler.

Breakaway Ministries Video Podcast. 

The Rich Young Ruler

Mark 10:13-34

Come empty and humble, with a need for God, a dependency. Jesus is better than our stuff, and he needs us to figure that out for ourselves.

"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him."- CS Lewis

Mid-Lent slump.

I've been in a bit of a funk this week, it's probably due to the fact that I haven't listened to a podcast since Sunday. Yell at me if you want but I've been yelling at myself enough for all of us. I wish had an excuse but I don't other than pure laziness and lack of discipline. I have started rereading Radical by David Platt though, and if you've read it before you know that 1 chapter of Radical = 10+ slaps in the face. It doesn't justify my laziness, but I'm glad I'm rereading it. (Quick Tip: I wouldn't advise reading Radical before bed, because you will lay awake for at least an hour mad at the world and disappointed in yourself for not being a better Christ follower, just FYI)
But anyways, after work tomorrow morning, my #1 priority is watching this weeks Breakaway podcast. We're a little over halfway through Lent so keeping my focus strong is going to be key, therefore prayers will be appreciated, and of course i'll return the favor. :)

I want to add a short excerpt from Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by: C.S. Lewis. It's something I've been meaning to share with you guys for awhile but I keep forgetting. This book is taking the back burner for awhile until I get through Radical, but If your at all interested in C.S. Lewis and the steps he took from being an atheist to one of the most knowledgeable Christ followers to date, I would totally recommend this book to you. The only thing though, Lewis loved big, rarely used words, so its not an easy read.

"The reader who finds these three episodes of no interest need read this book no further, for in a sense the central story of my life is about nothing else. For those who are still disposed to proceed I will only underline the quality common to the three experiences; it is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with then; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that, and considered only in its quality, it might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness of grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is. "  (pg. 15,16)
 

"No good work is done anywhere without aid from the Father of Lights"-CSLewis

"Joy is the serious business of heaven. Our merriment must be between people who take each other seriously"- CS Lewis

Receive the Word.

Not many notes again, but i gave you the info for the podcast before my notes so go listen to it, my notes always suck anyways.


Receive the Word
James 1:18-27
Breakaway Ministries Video Podcast


- Before you go out and do work that is in this book (bible) you need to let it  work on you.
- You need to grab a new identity by the Word, understand a new relationship to the Word, then pursue an activity with the Word.
- When you decide to follow Christ, opening up and reading the bible shouldn’t be interesting, it should be like food and water for you, something that feeds and nourishes, something that keeps you alive. Let it affect you.
- When a believer is not near the Word of God they cry out like a baby cries for milk. Put it in you, its your food and drink.
- Don’t be someone who read the Word and walks away from it. In the scripture it says don’t be like a man who looks at himself in the mirror then walks away and forgets what he looks like. Come to the bible like a woman comes to the mirror. When a woman comes to the mirror she expects to change something. Let the bible change something.
-James gives you no technique.
- James says that for those of you who read the Bible and get nothing out of it, you have an angry and proud spirit.  Receive the word with meekness. Be slow to anger, be slow to speak, but be quick to hear.
- Anger can be a good thing. Anger is an energy that is release when you need to defend or preserve something. But there is a bad anger. You know you have a cancerous anger when your quick to get angry and when your anger leads to evil. This anger comes out when you are defending your own pride.
-At the end of the day, our opinions don’t matter and mean nothing, the Bible holds all the answers. Our opinions trumping the Word is pure arrogance.

C.S. Lewis Daily

"I don't doubt the Spirit guides you from within, but he also speaks through Scripture, Church, Friends, etc."- C.S. Lewis

"It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one"-CSLewis

Daily stuff.

Tempted and Tried
Breakaway Ministries Video Podcast
James 1:12-18.


Didn't feel like typing out a thousand notes because i'm still not really sure if many people care to read them or not, if you do take the time, it would just be smarter and better if you go to iTunes and download them. All of the podcasts I listen to are free and range between 30-50 minutes depending on the speaker. I'll put a title list at the end. 


Heres the gist: God will never tempt you, because he cannot be tempted, and you better not blame him when your tempted. He will test your faith. Temptation comes from you, it is your response to your own desire. Temptations will always be tailor made for you. Temptation itself is not a sin, but when you enact the will you've made a decision to go someplace you shouldn't. Desire leads to sin and sin leads to death. It all starts with you thinking God isn't being a good dad, then you go out and get it yourself. Anything that promises to fill the vacancies in your life that is ungodly will lead to death. When death looks like life, have the discipline to see it for what it is. God saves and brings forth life and will do glorious things with your pain if you let him. 


"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date."- C.S. Lewis


Breakaway Ministries Video Podcast: main speaker- Ben Stuart (too big to download on iPhone's, there is just an audio version if you dont want to use a computer)  
Passion City Church Podcast: main speaker- Louie Giglio
Cornerstone Simi Video Podcast: main speaker: Francis Chan (there is also a simi audio, but if i'm not watching the speaker its hard for me to stay focused.)  

Christians do not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us-CSLewis

Recognizing the Word of God

I didn't listen to a podcast yesterday and its effected me today, so i spent a lot of time with this one today. This is a really great message to listen to if you are struggling with believing that the bible really is the true words of God. This message is based on Paul preaching to the Thessalonian's and modelling after him about how to approach people so they buy it. 

Recognizing the Word of God
1 Thessalonians 2:13
Breakaway Ministries Video podcast

1 Thessalonians 2:13
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.


-We need the words of God.
-Are we just random molecules bouncing around that at any moment can be tyrannized by the whims of unstable men? Or is there meaning and purpose to all this?
-We need a God to give us subjective answers to why bad things happen.
-We long for truth because there is such a thing as truth. We long for answers because there is such a thing as answers and we were meant to know them.
-We long for the transcendent because He exists, and we are made to know him.
-Pain serves to jostle us out of the mundane and remind us that these big questions are stirring in us and we need answers.
-The good news is that the God who is communicates with us.
-We are obviously communicative  creatures, we like to talk to each other. That’s not random, we look like our Dad in this. We were made in the image of God and we long to communicate because we have a God and he communicates.
-What we have in our bible is not theology. Theology are mans thoughts about what God might be like. What we have in the bible is revelation that God has come to tell us what he is like.
-Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and he’s thanking God again, he says I thank God constantly for this, that when you heard the words of God from us you received them as not the words of men but as what they really are, that is the word of God.
-How did they know that? What about that presentation made them think that’s not the words of some philosopher, those are the very words of the God who created all things.
-How did they know that? And how can we know that?
-Some people say they were just so primitive back then and that when someone said these were the words of God that they just believed it. That’s not actually true.
-When Paul preached to the Greeks it challenged there world view, and it took them awhile to buy it.
-When the Thessalonians heard it and sat and struggled with it they see that what we have here really are the words of God.
-How do we know that we have the words of God?
-another view: we know these are the words of God, but why do we believe that they are?

1. There’s a spiritual component.
-You see it here when we Paul thanks God. When Paul thanks God, he thanks God that the Thessalonians believe that the word of God is the word of God. Why does he do that? Because our belief that we have here is that the word of God is at one level is a spiritual issue that God has to show us that these are his words. He enables us to hear. We find out in scripture that the Holy Spirit of God superintends this process.
-2 Timothy says that all scripture is ‘God breathed.’ That he breathes through human agents to give us his very thoughts.
-What we find out in this text is that God didn’t just inspire the very writings of the old and new testament, that the Holy Spirit inspired the delivery of this writing to people.
-It says in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 “Our Gospel came to you not only in words but in power in the Holy Spirit.”
-God not only inspired the words, he inspired the presentation so that when the words were spoke to you it landed deeper then just hearing some guy talk.
-He was empowering the understanding.
-When someone says that they just understand these are the words of God because they just do, because God helps them understand, the people who don’t understand yet don’t like that, it sounds circular, that makes you feel very uncomfortable.
-Spiritual moments can sound séance-y and weird, its sort of emotional and vibe-y and you don’t like that.
-Though Paul will thank God for revealing to them that these are the words of God, Paul won’t argue that way.

2. Intellectual component.
-You received what you heard.
-The bible never presents spirituality and rationality at odds. The bible isn’t afraid of rationality, that’s one of the ways you discover the words of God, you use your mind engage it.
-Paul presents to them that the life of Christ is in accordance with the scriptures. And by that he meant the old testament. He gave them documentation of prophecies in the old testament talking about the life of Jesus. Like Micah 5:2, or Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, they give you details about Jesus’ life long before it happened.
-Thessalonians was written somewhere are 50 A.D. 20 years after the death of Christ.
-Paul says there are people still alive that traveled with Jesus, go ask them. This story is too early to be a legend.
-If you were writing a story about your god hero you wouldn’t put into it the things we have in the gospel.
-Women were the first witnesses at the crucifixion, and then, women’s testimonies were dismissible in court. If this were a made up story, that would have been counterproductive in that day.
-The gospel presentation that we give is too human to be legend.
-Its also too detailed in form. Modern fiction is an 18th century phenomenon. Ancient epics aren’t written with this amount of detail. Beowulf isn’t written like the gospels.
-C.S. Lewis says this, “I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends and myths all my life, I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this. There are only 2 possible views, either this is reportage of what really happened, or else some unknown ancient writer without known predecessors or successors suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modernistic realistic narrative. The reader who does not see this has simply not learned how to read.”
-they are historical accounts of a guy who really lived, who really died, and who really rose.
3. There is a social component.
-The Thessalonians got to see the messenger. They watched Paul get beat and not stop presenting it. They watched him not take money and keep presenting it.
-People have died for bad causes all throughout human history. But someone willing to take a beating and die for something does make you take that message seriously.
-The social component alone isn’t enough to believe this, but when you hear that Paul was rational, that there’s a spiritual power to what he was doing, and that you watched his life and you saw that there is a sincerity to this man.
-Some of you resist this because the guy who presented the gospels to you in the first place doesn’t live it out. They might actually like Jesus if they got to know him, they just hate the guy who talked about him because of his hypocrisy.
-They see your life.
-People will buy what your saying by how you approach them with it, come soft.
4. There is an affective component
-This book is alive and it is at work in you.
-It knows you. The words of God cut through to you. It resounds with the human heart.
-That’s how you believe it.
-It fits with what I know of how the world works. Its so beautifully designed that someone had to design it.
-It fits with how people work. There is something so beautiful and glorious about us.
-It fits with our humanity, that there is something deeply broken in us. It tells us that you cant fix this deep brokenness yourself.
-In our hearts there is longing for a hero. In every movie there is a rescuer. That’s because God sent one.
-He presented to the world the perfections that we long for a human being to have. They are filled in Jesus.
-His penalty paid for what we know we are guilty of.
-C.S. Lewis said it this way. “If you walked up to a piano and saw sheet music then saw a little sheet of music on the ground, how would you know that that sheet on the ground fits into the sheets in front of you? You would pick that sheet up off the ground and place it among the others and you would just play. And if those notes sync up with the other notes and they all play together you know its part of that song.”
-How did God let me believe these words? He let me, it’s a spiritual miracle. This music plays.
-How could Shakespeare meet Hamlet? If he wrote himself into the play. God wrote himself in so we could meet him, and he inspired men to faithfully record the story.

"If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will, then it is worth paying" -CSLewis

"What we want is not more books about Christianity, but more books by Christians on other subjects" -CSLewis

Joy In Pain.

This podcast is about seeing the joy in our trials, how God uses trials to provide us with wisdom and teach us to cling to Him in hard times, not worldly things. We all know all about trials. Pain is the only common denominator we all have in this world. Not all of us experience joy, but we all experience pain. We rage against pain because we know that they're is a place where pain doesn't exist, and that's one of the joys of it.


The dude who posts the C.S. Lewis quotes on twitter is having issues today or something because it hasn't been posted yet, so i'll put it up later when he gets around to it.

Joy In Pain, Breakaway Ministries Video Podcast ( this one is from 2009 so its pretty far down the list if you decide to go listen to this...which you should, cause its good for you. )


Breakaway Ministries.
Joy In Pain
James 1:1-12


I'm going to post the scripture used before my notes, just because its short, and so you have it.


[1:1] James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
[2] Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, [3] for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. [4] And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
[5] If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. [6] But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; [8] he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[9] Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, [10] and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. [11] For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
[12] Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
(James 1:1-12 ESV)



-Trials are inevitable, and Christians aren’t exempt from them.  When trials come we shouldn’t only expect them, we should rejoice in them.
-Who would think trials should be rejoiced?
1. Crazy people…like the ones who have lost touch with reality…the really out there ones who think pain is fun.
2. People who know something. People who know that locked into that trial is something good. They rejoice not just in the future but even in the trial.
Example: Obi Wan Kenobi. “Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possible imagine.”  Getting hit by a light saber probably wasn’t fun, but when its happenings he’s just really chill. Why? Because he knows it will produce something beautiful in the future. He’s gonna get to be blue and be anywhere he wants to at any time.
A little more down to earth example: lifting weights. You put your muscles in pain, but you know it will produce the result you want. Even in the midst of the pain you are rejoice because you know it will produce something great.
-So which is he calling us to be? The crazies, Or the people who rejoice in their trials?
-James 1:3  “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
-Every trial has the potential to teach us steadfastness (perseverance, endurance)
-Perseverance: the ability to not only handle stress, but to thrive under it.
-James 1:4  “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. “
-Locked within every trial is potential. Potential not only for endurance, but for maturity, completion, not lacking in anything. To fill you up when your empty and make you whole.
-We idolize people who go through trials and because of them they are better. People with tough skin and soft hearts. They’ve been made mature through pain. And that’s what he says will happen. Pain produces maturity.
-How does some pain make you mature?
- “I got my heart broken and im not better, im bitter. I’m hurting.” How do you get out of that darkness?
- Family troubles that wont seem to go away, and they make you doubt God.
-Verse 5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
-If you lack wisdom, ask God and he’ll give it to you.
-Pain will give you perseverance which will make you mature, i.e., wise.
-Wisdom: an understanding of how reality works and the ability to navigate it well.
-Its very different than knowledge. Knowledge lacks the ability to navigate.
-Wisdom isn’t something we’re born with. Wisdom is something we have to learn and be given.  God gives it to us through pain.
-All children are born with one of three specific temperaments. Anxious, Aggressive, or Philosophical.
Anxious: will thrive in dangerous situations because they naturally will flee, but in calm or social situations they will usually fail.
Aggressive: will thrive in moderately dangerous situation, because they “take the bull by the horns” so to speak. But put them in a highly dangerous situation? They’ll have more fun, but probably wont live long.
Philosophical: flourishes most in very safe situations. They don’t think anything is a threat. Put them in any danger and they’re out of luck.
-No temperament is wise, because wisdom is finding the right response, the appropriate response, to a given situation.
-No one is born wise because we have a natural default, run or attack. We are born habitually doing one thing.
-Natural question for a parent: How do I balance my kid out? Put your child in a situation where they’re natural response is the wrong one, then teach them the right one, there they will learn wisdom.
-God is a good dad. He puts you in overwhelming situations and makes you learn how do handle it.
-Pain forces us to seek wisdom.
-Wisdom gives us 3 things:
1. In the face of pain, wisdom will keep you from putting your hope in the things that fade. (Verses 10-11)
-the reality is when nothing is going wrong, you will start chasing after and reveling in things that will fade. You will get a skewed view of reality.
2.Wisdom teaches us that pain is real, but its temporary. We can rejoice in it because we know its not going to last. (Verse 9) There is life beyond pain. (Verse 12)
-Normally when people go through a large amount of pain, they lose they’re faith in God. How can you tell me that suffering now teaches me that there is a world beyond where there is no suffering?
-Pascal said it this way: “You never see anyone complaining that they lack a second mouth.” Why not? Because its not even an option.  Its not reality. Well why do we rage against suffering? Why do we rage against pain when that’s all this world knows? Not everyone gets joy, everyone gets pain. So how can we look at pain and say its wrong? That it shouldn’t be this way? Why do people hate death when its inevitable for everyone? The death rate is still one death per person right??
-We rage against pain because every time we experience it there is a small voice inside us that says it shouldn’t be this way. Because we can conceive of a place where its not this way. It wasn’t always like this and it wont always be like this.
-Its funny when atheists rage against pain, because the very fact that you are raging against pain proves there is a God. You are proving that this pain is an anomaly and that there is a world without it.
-Pain purifies the mind.
3. Wisdom turns your head upward. You put your hope in God. (Verse 12)

-You don’t understand your pain, but God does. God took pain and suffering and made life out of it through Jesus. He will take your pain and make it into life if you let him. That’s the joy that pain will give you.

CS Lewis Daily

It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men-CSLewis

Speak Up. Part 1

Passion City Church podcast
Speak Up: Part 1
Louie Giglio

So i didnt get to type notes today because i have terrible tendinitis in my left hand. I've kind of overused my hand today working and washing my car so its all swollen and stuff. Every time I would start typing my mom would yell at me to rest my hand...so i copied and pasted the scripture passages from the online version of my study bible. Its saturday so you might have time to listen to the podcast, i would encourage it because the last few things i added on here arent going to make much sense to you if you dont.

First things first, the CS Lewis daily.
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."-CS Lewis.


James 3
[Taming the Tongue]
[3:1] Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. [2] For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. [3] If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. [4] Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. [5] So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! [6] And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. [7] For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, [8] but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. [9] With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. [10] From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. [11] Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? [12] Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
[Wisdom from Above]
[13] Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. [14] But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. [15] This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. [16] For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. [17] But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. [18] And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.


2 Corinthians 4

[The Light of the Gospel]
[4:1] Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. [2] But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. [3] And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. [4] In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [5] For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. [6] For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[Treasure in Jars of Clay]
[7] But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. [8] We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; [10] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. [11] For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. [12] So death is at work in us, but life in you.
[13] Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, [14] knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. [15] For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
[16] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. [17] For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [18] as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
(2 Corinthians 4 ESV)

Psalm 50:10
[10] For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.


James 1:19-20
[19] Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; [20] for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.


We are motivated by what we're most afraid of. What are you afraid of? Dig into this scripture and find your 1000 hills. Start speaking to that fear, Speak up, above, and over it. Speak up in faith. Run the risk of saying that God has a plan for me this year.

He is Better

This was the perfect podcast for me to listen to as I start diving into the Word very deeply over these 40 days. It answered a lot of questions I've had and it calmed a lot of fears I've had as well. If you arent sure about Jesus, go find answers, because a maybe always defaults to a no, and I don't want that for you.

He is Better. Breakaway Ministries video podcast.


He Is Better
Mark 8:27-9:1

-We’ve come to the “defining the relationship” moment with Jesus.
-In this section were going to get his Identity and his Activity (who he is and what he came to do) and what that means for our destiny.
-Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, the furthest place away from Jerusalem while still being in Jewish territory. He separates them from everyone and this is where he has a conversation with them about himself.
-He asks them, “Who do the people here think I am?”  They told them some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say one of the prophets. They’re saying that he’s the ‘highest prophet’.
-And that’s still the predominant answer we get today. People say he was just a very powerful teacher, a very powerful man. Jesus is a really neat guy. Go check out the bestsellers in the Christian section at Barnes and Noble, all those authors say the same thing.
-In verse 29, Jesus asks them, “who do you say that I am?” Peter speaks up, “You are the Christ”
-Jesus strictly charges them to tell no one about him. He does this because at this moment, his disciples have the right word (Christ), but the wrong content.  The wrong definition of what the Messiah is about.

-His activity (What the Christ is here to do.) verse 31
-It says Jesus began to teach them…
-Meaning he has never talked to them about this before. This is the first they are hearing about what he’s here to do. Why now? Because greater commitment becomes greater intimacy.
-He says to them, “the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, and be killed…”
-Peter violently rejects this and he basically starts giving Jesus and pep talk. ‘Now you need to stop talking like that, its not going to happen….’
-Jesus uses the term ‘Son of Man’ which confuses a lot of people because that was the term used for prophets because they literally were a son of a man, but when Jesus uses it here, he is referring back to Daniel 7: far off in the future I see God raising up a man who steps before him and gives him everything to rule over for all time. The Messiah.
-’The Son of Man must suffer’ was not something they were prepared to hear. ‘Son of Man’ and ‘suffer’ aren’t supposed to go together.
-God has ordained that his Messiah MUST die.
-Why? Naturally as humans, when someone wrongs us or takes something from us, the first thought is either they pay or I do. The other option is to forgive them. Forgiveness is so difficult because when we forgive we absorb the payment.  God looks at all the horrible things we have done. The hurtful things we have said to other people with the mouth he gave us, the way we use the hands he gave us to pursue selfishness instead of helping those in pain, and he looks at how much we have hurt each other as an incurring of debt. You look at the dignity of a Holy God that we have dismissed and you see all this debt in the universe and a Holy God has to say ‘someone will pay’. Justice demands it. Someone has to pay, God says you don’t have to, my son will. It is necessary that he die for you. Jesus says I’m going to be killed in the most horrendous way because in the shedding of my blood is the forgiveness of sins. And God’s solution of our sins is a suffering Savior.
-All this is new to the disciples. He’s never been this plain with them before. He’s told this them in analogies like ’the bridegroom will be cut off’ or ’the bread must be broken’.  Now he looks at them and tells them he’s going to be killed and be buried and not stay dead.
-When Peter starts to freak out and rebuke Jesus, Jesus says to him “ Get behind me, Satan!” Any conception of the plan of God without suffering is satanic.
-Jesus then calls the crowds to come. (Verse 34) “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…”
-Denying yourself means denying that part of you that pursues whatever you want whenever you want it and whatever makes you happy. That part of you that makes decisions about what would be good for you. Kill it. Taking up your cross isn’t a metaphor for difficulty, a cross was a place where you die! It wasn’t just a place of murder it was a place of shame. The Romans would make you carry the cross beam through the busiest streets in town where people will mock you and shame you. He says if you wanna go with me then you can’t do whatever you wanna do anymore. You will you lose friends and influence and it will be hard.
-Not the greatest evangelism is it? Walk with Christ and lose everything and suffer? Why do that for him?
-The benefits outweigh the cost.
-Worldly things won’t fill your soul.
-Turn your back on the world you will lose everything, but you will gain.
-The Gospel will give you the peace you can’t find anywhere else. It will satisfy your soul.
-There are no victims in the Kingdom.
- “Truly I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and the Gospels sake but that he will not receive a hundred times a much now in the present age houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.”
-When you choose to follow Christ your social circle wont come with you, but there are brothers and sisters waiting for you. He’s better.
-Verse 38. “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” People don’t like that verse. But guys, that verse isn’t unfair. When you get married and your at the alter and the “for better or for worse” part come up do you say, whoa, hold on, im not into you that much?
-If you choose this path you will find yourself alone, but in the end, God is worth it.

There are 3 responses to a message like this.
1. I think Jesus is just a man, just a spiritual guy. If you think that you need to know your wrong, and he doesn’t want to be thought of that way. He says im the Son of Man coming of the clouds with the angels. That’s how he presented himself. Good teachers don’t talk like that. He’s not like Muhammad or Gandhi. People who talk like that are either crazy, or they mean it. So you need to go on a journey to figure out who this guy is.
2. I believe he’s the Christ, I believe he’s the Son of God. If that’s you, there will be a path of suffering for you and you need to know that and don’t feel like a victim when it comes. You will lose friends. You may have to say no to a job because if will compromise your morals. You may have to leverage your finances for the Kingdom. You may have this picture of success, God says that picture is not on my road. You need to be willing to let it go. Walk with him. When it hurts you trust him, and whatever you give up for him you will get back a hundred fold. He promises you that. Cling to him.
3. I don’t know. I really don’t know. This conversation he has with the disciples isn’t date one. He’s not asking them to marry him on date one. Jesus isn’t asking you to sell everything and suffer with him on date one. But if your sitting here saying I don’t know, he wants you to go on a journey with him. He took the disciples on a journey with him so they could see and know him. Don’t say you have questions then not seek answers. Go find someone to answer your questions, find a church, or someone who knows what they’re talking about. Go on a journey because this guy is important. Heaven and hell are in the balance. \

There are 3 responses but only 2 camps.
-Yes, No, and maybe. But a maybe almost always defaults to a no. If you say maybe, go on a journey and get your answers. If you don’t, when its all over a maybe is a no. And I don’t want that for you.

The Son of Man came to take your debt for you, and when you walk with him you don’t lose your life, you find him.



“I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun: not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else”-CS Lewis.

There will still be CS Lewis quotes. :)

First blog after giving up facebook for Lent! Not having facebook isnt that bad...just a little boring. I feel very disconnected though. But dont worry folks, im having the CS Lewis quotes sent to my phone, so im technically not checking twitter, but im still getting the CSLewisDailys.
Picked up my computer today, so now i can get back on track with my podcasts. Im hoping to find time to listen to one a day.

So thats my plan. Ill post podcast notes as usual, and i'll add the CS Lewis daily too. :)
I also ask that you keep me in your prayers. These 40 days are are going to be tough trying to stay focused on keeping my eyes on God, but i have faith that I can do it. He's answered a lot of my prayers over the past couple of weeks, I've never been more sure of His love for me than i am now.

"Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it." -CS Lewis.

Coming Clean

Another great message from Ben Stuart. Just subscribe to them. It takes me like 2 hours to get through them because i take very meticulous, word for word notes, as you know, but they are only 30 minutes long, just do yourself a favor.
This weeks message was about the Jewish tradition of washing before you eat, and how Jesus puts the Pharisees in there place about it. Its also about how filthy and full of sin we are, something everyone needs to hear, and hear in a way that offends us, because we need to be offended about this and we need to realize that everything we do to justify our guilty conscience offends God. You can study theology till the cows come home, but God knows your heart. Also, at the end of the day, we don't have to be covered in shame anymore, because Jesus fulfilled the law for us, and became our sin.
So if you get something out of my horrible summary, awesome, but this is something that everyone needs to hear. So i ask you, that if you only take time to listen to one of these, make it this one. Im so tempted not to post my notes, but im not so naive to think that will make you go listen to this. So they'll follow, because if your not going to seriously listen to me and go subscribe to these, i have to try and get you to at least hear this. 

before you read my notes, it'd probably be idea to read the verses first, just for the back story. Its pretty short.


Coming Clean
Mark 7:1-23

-The Pharisees come to pick a fight with Jesus. They are looking for confrontation.
-They notice that some of the disciples are eating with defiled hands (unwashed hands).
-The Jews don’t eat unless they wash their hands, holding true to the traditions of the elders. The disciples aren’t following any of the traditional rituals.
-Mark is explaining what Jews do, so that tells us that the audience he’s speaking to aren’t Jewish, they’re gentiles.
-2 things you need to catch:
1. The washing of the hands thing before you eat isn’t about germs. Its about defilement. Defilement in this case means “common.” To be put out for common use.  The opposite of being holy. This was merely a ceremonial ritual to show you were pure before God.
2. This ritual is not a mandate from scripture. They are getting this from the traditions of man. There were cleanliness laws in the old testament, but what they’re talking about here isn’t from the old testament. The only group of guys who had to wash their hands in the presence of God were priests. The Pharisees wanted to surpass the priests in terms of zeal for holiness for God. So therefore everything that is mandated for a priest is mandated for us and everyone else. Everyone not only has to wash their hands when they go to the temple, but every time they eat anything. By 3rd century A.D., Israel had made this a law.
-Back to the point, Jesus’ disciples weren’t doing it.
-The Pharisees ask “Why aren’t they following the traditions of the elders?” they make it sound so important. The way tradition worked back then was that the bible had mandates, but where the bible didn’t speak, the elders would.
-The way they asked Jesus why was more of a “We see your disciples are defiled, and we were wondering why your cool with that?” No dialogue here, only an accusation.
-In Jesus’ response in verses 6-13, he never talks about washing hands. He’s going to cut to the heart of the issue.
-Verse 6. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites…” Jesus is calling them hypocrites. Have you ever called anyone a hypocrite? That’s usually the bombshell moment of a conversation. But when Jesus opens his argument with it, this is just his warm up. Then he quotes Isaiah 29. “This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
-Jesus isn’t denigrating the bible. He’s saying you guys arent taking the words of God seriously enough. You are putting the commandments of men before the commandments of God. You are putting the words of God and the religious ideas of some guy next to each other, and where they don’t agree, you go with this guy. God is not impressed by your religious game.
-Next, he quotes Moses. “Honor your father and mother”, and, “He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.”
-Response: Verses 11-13.
-”Corban”- given to God.
-We were meant to honor our parents. You get into this situation where some guy looks at his parents and says whatever I was going to use for your benefit, your aging, you need me to take care of you, but whatever I was going to give to you, I declare ‘Corban’ (or given to God) . When you declare something corban, that doesn’t mean you give it away, that means that no one else can use it. So this guy is saying to his parents, “I was going to take care you when you get older, but I gave everything to God.” Then the elders come to him and say they when you vow things corban, you are no longer allowed to take care of your parents when they’re older.”
-Jesus says the heartbeat of God is to care for people. A clear law of God, and you guys are finding ways to bend scripture to fit your selfishness. And next he says, ‘you guys do this stuff all the times, you make void the word of God by your tradition.’
-Jesus’ assessment of these people: You guys are playing a religion game. But you know what your religion is? You found a way to bend scripture to justify your own selfishness, that’s your religion.
-God’s assessment: That’s worthless. Not just worthless, offensive, hypocritical.
-The tough thing about this text? The Pharisees aren’t the only ones who do this. We do this. All the time. We come up with a way of framing religion in a way that justifies whatever we want to do.
-we get busy, and we quit every avenue in which we had a way to take care of people.
-Examples: quitting a youth group for homework or sports.  Quitting a bible study because that’s your only “free day”. Quitting a volunteer organization because you think it takes up to much of your time.
-you took a position somewhere to help people and you blow them off so you can study more?
-are you cutting out T.V. video games too?  Call it ‘stewardship’ but all your doing is punting obligations to do whatever you want. Its just selfishness.
-take sex before marriage. You love your significant other, what really is marriage anyway but a ring and a bunch of people watching? All that matters is love.
-Ok sure, but did you forget about the honoring your parents thing? Like her parents, and yours? Forget about the institution that God ordained of marriage to be a picture of his church before the world, your blowing all that off, but your doing this because God says its ok? Lets just be honest about it. You just want to get layed. Just say that, don’t make it sound spiritual.
-We’ve created a religious game to play, and we do it to suit what we’re good at.
-Studying theology might be your thing, but it doesn’t do anything if you don’t care and love for people.
-We carve out a ‘Christianity’ that makes us look good.
-JESUS DOES NOT LIKE THIS! And that should be a devastating critique for us.

-Next Jesus looks to the people, he’s done with the Pharisees. (Verses 14-23)
-He says ‘hear me and understand me, it’s not what goes in, it what comes out.’  and then he leaves. That’s the sermon.  So the disciples go with him, and they ask what he meant by that.
-Whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t defile them, but the things that come out do. What you eat doesn’t matter, because it doesn't touch your heart. The external things arent the problem, its what’s going on in your heart.
-the problem is that you have something wrong with your heart.
-Jesus and the Pharisees do agree about one thing. That we are all defiled.
-The Pharisees just thought that we could manage it with some external activities. Jesus says no, you have no idea how deep the stain goes.
-Verses 21-23. ‘From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…’
-Every evil thing we do starts with an evil thought. And out of that comes sexual immorality, you take from people, you covet, your not honest with people, you gloss things over to make them sound good.
-you are foolish, meaning morally or spiritually insensitive. It means you arent even seeking to know the heart of God.
-you have got to be honest with yourself. You are defiled. Not because of what you’ve done, but because of what rises up in your heart. And we don’t like hearing that, so we do what the Pharisees did, we find a way to try to cover it over.
-some people dive into theology to cover it up. THEOLOGY WILL NOT MAKE YOU CLEAN.
-some people work so hard in Christian organizations solely because they are trying to make themselves look ok.
-you can be as passionate about evangelism as you want, but most people do it to justify themselves.
-we push so hard into ‘busyness’ because we are trying to block out the voices that are telling us we’re guilty.
-some of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, all these things we do, we do them because we are trying to outrun the condemnation that is on our heels, telling us that we are not ok, and most of us, if we’re honest, we feel it. We feel dirty.
-Jesus tells us we are defiled, and the external things didn’t do it, nor can they fix it. And Mark ends this text there. That’s a pretty devastating place to leave people.
-The interesting thing about Mark though, is that he does this all the time. He ends these stories with total cliffhangers. He does it to bother you, to make you think ‘what am I supposed to do to fix it!’ the reality is there is a little sentence in there that tells us how to fix it. You probably didn’t think much about it. Verse 19: because it does not enter his heart, but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods
-Jesus is changing the law there. He took the dietary codes, not just in tradition, but in the actually law and he said 'these things about what your supposed to do and not, they aren’t true anymore. I declare all foods clean.'
-whats interesting about that is later, Jesus says that he didn’t come to abolish law. He came to fulfill it.
-you and I aren’t ok before God, we are defiled. And we can’t fix us, and the law condemns us. Jesus comes to fulfill it on our behalf.
-In Zechariah chapter 3, the prophet Zechariah paints a beautiful picture. He gets a vision, he sees the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord. (the high priest represents the jewish people in seeking for atonement). To be a high priest, to go into that one big day of atonement was a pretty big deal. You’d be sequestered for a week, they would ritually bathe you, they’d put you in clean, fine, white linens. You would sacrifice on your behalf, then you wash again, then sacrifice for the people…you went through all these stages to try to show God that you were clean, so that you could walk before God and that you wouldn’t die, so that you could atone for the peoples sin. In Zechariah’s vision, he sees Joshua standing before the Lord, then he sees Satan accusing him. (Zechariah 3:3) Now we see Joshua clothed in filthy garments standing before the angel. ESV says filthy garments, the actual translation is ’garments covered in excrement’s’
-If you’re a Jew, your asking how did he even get there!? How did that even happen? He isn’t clean.
-the idea your getting here is that this is a vision of how God sees his people. The most clean we can get ourselves when we wash is filthy. If we’re honest, we feel this.
-then something shocking happens, it says the Angel said to those who were standing before him “remove the filthy garments from him.” and to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments.
-God says I’m going to come and clean you, you don’t clean you.
-Zechariah 3:8-10 “… For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH…
-the branch is referring to the Messiah
-He says the Messiah will atone for you in a day. (that was shocking because the Jews would come year after year sacrificing animals, and this is saying the Messiah will atone everyone’s sins in one day.) And Joshua is a picture of it.
-How did Jesus do it? He put our defilement on himself. He became sin. He who was totally pure became filthy for  us, that we might be robed in fine linen, white and clean.
-So what do you do? You don’t try to come up with a plan to impress God. You come honest and open. You come empty and trust that he has a solution. So we come with hope, because we are no longer covered in shame, because someone else has fulfilled the law for us, and his name is Jesus.

Nashville

Today was one of the better days I've had in a long time! I didn't even mind the whole 4 hours one way travel thing. Me and dad went over to Nashville today to visit Sae Institute.

1. Nashville: Love it. I love that its a big city but its really not that big. I love the energy there. I totally see myself living there for at least while I'm at school. Maybe longer. Me and dad drove around downtown after the open house at Sae and they were filming a music video right outside of Margaritaville and Legends, i wish i new who's video, but just the production crew was there. Ive just always wanted to be somewhere where i could turn a corner and run into an amazing street performer. My family never traveled much so this was my first time in Nashville if you haven't figured that out by now. :)

2.Sae: I can't even tell you how amazing this place was. When we found it we kept driving past it and if you guys don't know where it is, its on Music Circle North, so when you turn the corner there's Sony Productions. On the other side of the street there's GAC. A little further down I about had a major freak out when we passed Curb Records. But anyways, about the school in general. Its just one building, small classes, only about 100 students are enrolled at a time. One big lab for learning Pro Tools/Logic and stations for learning how to use EQ's and stuff, plus that's where we would work on ear training, and if i remember correctly...5 or 6 sound studio labs. and 2 big classrooms. (by the way, speaking of the sound studios, I'm going to have a bunch of mixing projects that I'll need musicians for. FREE STUDIO TIME, it can be solo stuff, bands, whatever, the only thing though is that the further i get in with my knowledge, the more I'll need in the studio at one time, you just have to come to Nashville and hang out in one of the studios with me. I get all rights to finished products, so you'd get your professionally recorded song at the end of the day. Just keep that in mind :) )
One of the boards they just bought they were telling us about was shipped in from Oxford. It was used to mix for Elton John. Another board they have, their most advanced board, which is literally bigger than my living room couch, they bought from Whitney Houston. They also have an old analog board that records on the old 2 inch tape that they used before computers were used.
The coolest thing about the school though. The senior lecturer is from somewhere just outside Oxford. This dude worked in Abbey Road Studios when the Beatles recorded there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's also mixed for Queen, Meatloaf, The Who, STYX, tons of other huge names that I can't remember now, he's also done movie tracks for 40 Year Old Virgin and a couple others. He's also a trained classical guitarist, so he has these nasty, long, thick nails on his left hand. Ive seen people with a couple long nails for guitar, but it was every finger on his left hand. Dude's legit. Blew my mind!
So yeah, as you can tell, I'm beyond excited about my future right now.:)

"If only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed."

Bart Millard from MercyMe tweeted this link a couple hours ago. Its an excerpt from an interview with Bono about Jesus. His insight is interesting and pretty wise at that, so I thought I'd share. Its not long, so you have no excuse not to read it, unless you have an issue with Bono or U2 or something?

http://www.thepoachedegg.net/the-poached-egg/2010/09/bono-interview-grace-over-karma.html

Feeding The Masses.

Got more podcast notes for you. Much like last time, this message is something I've been needing to hear and to be reminded of regularly. Stop trying to fix things myself and let God handle it. Especially the "God-sized" problems, they are completely out of my control. This is one of the most important things God wants us to know, but i think its the one we forget about the most because we are taught nowadays that being dependent is a bad thing. We are all dependent on God, and he's not going to let you forget it.


Feeding The Masses
Mark 6:7-52

This story is about a revolution. Much like the one happening in the middle east right now.

-the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle performed in the gospels.

His Revolution
-the apostles (only time term “apostle” is used in the bible) return from being sent out by Jesus to go teach and heal. The crowds followed them back.  Jesus took the disciples out to the wilderness to rest, but they didn’t have time to because the crowds saw their boat and followed them to the banks of the lake. So they get there and there is this massive crowd waiting for them. Jesus felt compassion for them. Text says he saw them as “sheep without a shepherd.”
-Revolutionary statement. A shepherd as been a metaphor all throughout the Jewish culture for the leaders of the people. He looks at this crowd and said they have no leadership. That’s why this part of Mark is laid out so weird with that story about Herod thrown in there.
-Herod used to like John the Baptist, but when Herod married his brothers wife John says to him, “It is not lawful for you to have your brothers wife.” So his wife, Herodias, has had a grudge against him and wanted him put to death, but she couldn’t because Herod feared John. But on his birthday, he hold this banquet for all his rich friends. Herodias’s step daughter in law comes in and she‘s dancing for him, and Herod asked her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” So she asked her mother what she should ask for. She told her, “The head of John the Baptist.” So she went to him and asked, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist in a platter.” At first the Herod told her no, but he didn’t want to break his promise to her so he immediately sent the executioner for his head. (John had been in Jail for the duration to keep him safe from Herodias)
-It seems like one of those “meanwhile” moments in a story. A “this is what happened while they were gone” thing. But its not, it’s a flashback. It was stuck here in the middle of this story because Mark wants to show you the shepherd.
-Herod doesn’t care about his peoples sensibilities. He rules over Galilee, a very religious place. He told his brother divorce your wife, I’m marrying her, and John steps up to try and preach the truth to him. Herod’s confused by him, he fears John, but he also wants to do what he wants to do. So he’s stuck in the middle of his wife wanting him dead and the fact that he kind of likes listening to him.  So when Herod gets caught up in the moment with Herodias’s daughter dancing in front of him, he tell her he’ll give her whatever she wants. The irony of this is that he’s not even a king, his dad was king. In his will he specified that none of his kids would rule and he split the kingdom into fourths, and this is just Herod Antipas, the seventh son of Herod the Great. Mark calls him “king” through all of this because Herod wanted to be king, he petitions Rome later to be king, and that’s what gets him deposed. He wants to be important. So his dilemma: Do I obey the truth that I fear? Or do I pursue being liked by my rich friends? And it says the he IMMEDIATELY sends for the executioner.
-Meanwhile it jumps to a King out in a field where people haven’t even had a chance to eat.
-Ezekiel 34
-The son of David was someone they were looking for. Ezekiel says: He’s going to come and be the shepherd for these people that you haven’t been.
-Herod’s banquet ends in death, Jesus hands out the bread of life.
-You read in John, it says that when Jesus is feeding them, the people understand what is going on and they try to make him King by force. It says Jesus escapes them, he’s not like the kings of this world. He’s also not there to overthrow the government. He’s in a whole other kind of revolution: I’m going to take people who are starving, and I’m going to feed them. He’s giving power, not taking it.
-He comes to give bread, not death. That’s the king coming to the field.
-He’s creating a new system where you give instead of take.
-He doesn’t want to do it alone. You see them when he’s breaking the bread. Its not like Harry Potter where food suddenly appears on the tables. He does it through the people. His revolutionaries.

 His Revolutionaries
-Mark calls them the “apostles“. As you look through Mark, Jesus has been building to this, with the “fishers of men.” Then they just sit with him and watch what he does and learn from him. Then Jesus tells them to go out and fish. Go preach what I preach. Go do what I do. And they go do it. And it works, a crowd follows.
-The rap community is awesome at discipleship. Think Dr. Dre and Eminem. Dre bring him in and doesn’t give him a record deal right away, he just gives him a verse in one of his songs and then eventually sends him on his way to do his thing. Same with DOC and Dre. Technically, his is exactly what we should be doing, but in the religious sense, of course.
-I do and you watch, I do and you help, you do and I help. You do and I watch. He’s not doing this alone. He brings people up and sets them free.
-you can tell the disciples are feeling this moment, because they come to Jesus and say, “Hey, its getting late, we should probably wrap this up and send everyone to on there way to get food, you know?” Jesus loves that because they’re starting to think like ministers, they’re concerned. So reasonable plan right, turn them loose to get lunch on there own? And Jesus gives this logistical nightmare: “You give them something.” Emphasis on YOU. Then they give him the most sarcastic and disrespectful answer throughout the gospels. “Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?  (denarii is a days wage, so 200 days wages). There like oh, ok, so I’ll just take that $35,00 and go buy them all bread, right? Remember earlier how you said don’t carry any money with you? Seriously? We’ll do ministry, but what your calling for is unrealistic. So Jesus asks them to go and see how much break they have. He lets them feel there inadequacy. They come back with 5. Jesus puts them in this situation where they learn that they have to come to him. No, I’ll just get a job and let missionaries do that. I’m want to help, but I’m digging in my pockets and all I have is 5 pieces of bread, sorry. I’m insufficient, I cant do that. Jesus puts them in a place where they feel helpless. He wants them there. If they feel inadequate, then they see what he can do.
-He sits them down by the hundreds and fifties and divides the bread and fish. They eat till they’re satisfied, and afterward they collect 12 baskets full of leftover pieces.

The reason he’s doing it.
-That’s a miracle, folks. No one from the crowd decided to pull out extra loaves that they had, that’s not how you get 12 leftover baskets. If you don’t think he does miracles, he’s walking on water a couple verses later, so get over it.
-He puts them in this moment where he wants them to be a part of changing everything.
-You think you can’t make a difference, that’s fine, you come to him broken and empty, you give him what you have, and you let him work.
-Its like that show Captain America. The kids with the rings cant do it, just call the captain already!
-Your job isn’t to solve things, its to seek him.
-He knows your small, he just wants you to admit that.
-Whats interesting about this miracle is that really, its unnecessary. They weren’t dying. No ones daughter was dying this time, these people were just a little hungry. Letting them go to the nearby towns the get bread would have been fine. Jesus creates a crisis because he wants to show you your small, and then he wants to show you him.
-That’s what happens in the next moment, he puts them in the boat out in the water. They get out there and the disciples are rowing and they cant row in. So Jesus just walks out to them on the water. They think it’s a ghost. He’s like, umm no, its me, don’t be afraid. And he gets in the boat. That story end with them being astounded because they didn’t understand the loaves. That means these miracles are unnecessary for our immediate physical need. But they were deeply necessary for your soul. He’s not trying to show you the solutions to your little problems, hes trying to show you the big solution.
-Im the guy who runs nature, and im going to create a crisis to make you feel hopeless so you can look at me and say that im the guy who runs the world.
-He’s doing this so you fix your eyes on him.
-He’s going to come and not just heal our hunger, not just calm the rage of nature, hes gonna fix the souls of every human being. And he does that by taking the brokenness and not just overpowering it in this moment, he’s gonna take it and put it on himself.
-”I’m like this bread, one day im going to break in two, and im going to feed you and make you whole."

Storms, Satan, and Sickness.

Man, God sure is funny sometimes. The amazing kind of funny.

I guess this is where I go back to the main reason I started these blogs. To tell people things about me that i wouldn't normally, no matter how close we are. I regularly go through stages of sadness and i guess depression? I've never been diagnosed, and i never will be, but I'm sure thats what it is. Really it just goes back to my loneliness. I'm one of those people who strives for close relationships, constant communication, things like that, and i'm sure it really bugs some people, especially the people i'm closest with right now, and i do apologize for my constant text messages. :)
But the point i'm trying to get to. I call these moments of loneliness "bad days" so if i ever say something like yesterday was a bad day, thats usually what I mean. And usually not long after i have a "bad day" something happens and I instantly feel better. I'll get a random text from a friend, or I hear a song that makes me feel better, or something. And i'm just like, ok, stop being stupid, you have God running through your veins!! Why the heck are your sad? And then of course i'm not sad anymore, usually the complete opposite. That feeling will last for a couple days, then we'll repeat the cycle. And that's my life right now in a nutshell. Welcome.
So last night and into this morning was a bad day. And it doesnt help that i have a super over active imagination, so i tend to really make things worse for myself. I've been feeling pretty down all day, I spent the majority of the day doing my laundry and catching up on stuff I've DVR'd. But all through out the day, i had this nagging thought that wouldnt go away. "You havnt listened to a podcast in two days, theres a new breakaway podcast out from tuesday, you really need to go listen to it." Then I'd open my computer, and the charger is messed up so i'd start trying to fix that because if I want to watch it my computer needs to be plugged in cause my batteries kinda crappy. So I couldnt fix it so i'd get mad and walk away from it.That happened like 3 times. So the fourth time i just decided to wedge my phone between the table and the chord from the charger, keeping it still, and that worked, so i watched it.
Towards the middle of the podcast, Ben brings up the subject of how people pray to God about they're problems, the ones that they are really struggling with, and they dont get an answer. And this is something I've always struggled with, and I know basic answer, but like every other time Ben speaks, he puts it in a way where its like a lightbulb comes on and it finally makes since. And this is exactly how he puts it. "Jesus isn’t just looking for you to have faith, he’s looking to grow your faith. So he will put you in situations that you don’t want, he’ll make you wait until you move towards him. And when you do that, you get to be a part of something bigger than you can imagine. "

So I wait.

Like always, even though i don't want to, I posted my notes from this podcast. But if you just feel so inclined, this is the podcast titled Storms, Satan, and Sickness from Breakaway Ministries podcasts.

P.S. It might be in your best interest to read the text for this message before you listen to it or read my notes. It will be hard to follow if you dont have knowledge of the story.


Mark 4:35-5:43
2/11/2011

The morning after he finished teaching from the boat, he and the disciples took off.

1. The Power of Jesus.
-You see it at that moment where they first get out on the sea. They run into a great wind storm. Water is beginning to fill the boat. Jesus is sleeping while this is going on. The sailors run to him and ask, “Teacher, do you care that we’re perishing?” It says Jesus stood up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea “peace, be still.” In the Greek translation, those two commands are just two words. So basically Jesus is saying to the wind, be quiet, and stay quiet.
-Weird moment one is that he would say that to nature. Weird moment two is that it obeys. Some people would say that that was a coincidence, but if you read on it says that the wind ceased, and that there was great calm. What that means is that not only did the wind stopped suddenly, but so did the waves, which is impossible, and the sailors were calm. Then Jesus goes back to sleep.
-Mark closes the story with a question. They said to each other. “Who is this that the wind and seas obey him?
-There was this out of control moment, and the sailors doubted Jesus’ love and power. But suddenly this out of control place obeys. Only God can rule the seas. There’s no conjuring, incantations, or wands, he just goes “quiet” and it does it, cause he told it to. That kind of power eliminates the possibility of you listening to his sermons and then trying to decide if they work for you or not.
-They were scared of the ocean, then when he’s done, it says they were greatly afraid. There’s only one thing scarier than they ocean. That guy. That level of control scares us more than an uncontrollable situation. He’s Lord whether you like it or not.
-Naturally, that disturbs us, because we want options. We don’t want people telling us what to do.
-Maybe for some people, there was a person in your life with authority over you, and abused it, didn’t combine it with love. So for you to hear that Jesus is your authority makes you greatly afraid because he has power over you and he could hurt you. But he has that power, whether you like it or not.
2. The Purpose of Jesus.
-They land on shore in the country Gerasenes. Gentile territory. As soon as they get there, a man with an unclean spirit comes running at Jesus. It just kind of sets up and show down, because Jesus has the Holy Spirit, and this guy has an unholy spirit. Dudes been breaking shackles, but it says that once he gets to Jesus, he falls on his knees and starts begging earnestly for God not to torment him. There’s no battle or anything. Jesus says “Sit, Get out.” and he does.
-Jesus rules the seen world, and the unseen.
-When Mark describes this guy, he uses the word unclean. Technically that means, defiled, violated. He lives among the tombs, dead things, and he’s isolated from society. It says that no one could bind him ANYMORE. So that means at one time they could. So he got into something that had a certain amount of power, but as he waded in deeper, it got more powerful. He had no control over his life anymore. He’s sad, tormented, and lonely, and he’s cutting himself.
-He’s the picture of all of us. The bible says that without Christ, we are the children of the devil, captive to do his will.
-He sits this guy down, and casts the demon into the pigs, and the pigs take off for the sea and drown themselves. Those tending the pigs run into town and tell everyone what happened. The towns people come to the sea side and see the once demon possessed man seated, clothed, and in his right mind.
-Jesus comes to the hurting and brings peace.
-In the story it says then the townspeople see the once demon possessed man seated, clothed, and in his right mind they are scared out of there minds.
-They come up to Jesus, and they weren’t expecting to see him chilling with this guy that used to run around naked breaking chains and things and cutting himself with rocks. They weren’t ready for that yet. He loves to take the people who are crying out in the night and bring there dignity back. He’ll sit with you.
-His purpose is to set people free.
-So your asking if he’s here to set me free and bring me peace, then what about my problems? I’ve been praying and he hasn’t done anything. You see the answer to that in the priority of Jesus.
3. The Priorities of Jesus.
-Jesus leaves one side of the sea and comes to the next., and another man comes running up to him, Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, and he also falls on his knees in front of Jesus. He’s begging him to come heal his dying daughter. Jesus says “Yeah, I’ll do it.”
-Text says that there was a crowd of people that thronged him. A whole bunch of people want to see a miracle, and they’re packing around him. So you feel the tension here, Jesus is in a hurry and these people are surrounding him, pushing him and slowing him down. Then Mark brings up this girl who’s in the crowd, and she’s had this illness for most of her life. (Aside: if you haven’t heard this story, the text says she suffers from bleeding, and we’re talking about the female kind of bleeding here, so like the demon possessed guy, she’s considered unclean as well.)  She thinks that if she can just touch his clothes she’ll be healed. She’s not trying to get in the way, just a quick touch to see if it will work, and that’s all. Once she goes up and touches his garment, she’s healed, but then it says that Jesus stopped. The disciples don’t have any background info on this girl, so there like “Um your surrounded by a ton of people, and your wondering who touched your clothes?” The text says he began looking for who it was, he isn’t going to let it go.  If your Jairus, how do you feel right now?
-Finally it says that she came up and confessed that it was her, and she told Jesus her story. After he hears it, Jesus says because of your faith, you are healed.
-The thing is though, that the illness this girl had was chronic, it had been going on for 12 years, she would have been OK for another 2 hours or so, and if you remember, Jesus is in a hurry because Jairus’ daughter is dying at that moment, like, right now. And Jesus puts his daughter aside for this girl. He’s doing this because there’s something important about this woman that he wants to make clear. No one wanted this moment, Jairus didn’t want it, and neither did she, she just wanted to touch him and run. Jesus wants it. Because she just wanted this superstitious moment of let me get healing from the healing guy, and leave. And Jesus stops and says no. He wants to teach her and she had faith and that she trusted him, and that faith in him is what he’s looking for. Its your faith in me that gives you life.
-Jairus’ friends come up and tell him his daughter is gone. How do you think Jairus feels at that moment. Your standing here watching Jesus put on this show, and your friends come up and say you can stop bugging the teacher, because shes dead.
-Jesus turns to him and says “Don’t be afraid, believe.” I want you to wait. I want you to wait until all trust is gone, and I want you to keep trusting me.
-Jesus isn’t just looking for you to have faith, he’s looking to grow your faith. So he will put you in situations that you don’t want, he’ll make you wait until you move towards him. And when you do that, you get to be a part of something bigger than you can imagine.
-Jesus goes into the room and takes the people that trust him with him and kicks everyone else out. He looks down at that little girl and says “Talitha koum!” (means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”)
-You trust him, and he lets you see the miraculous.

So the question is this. You think he’s strong enough, whatever storm your facing, whatever demon is raging against you, whatever sickness or if your staring in the face of death. You think he’s strong enough to handle it? Is your Jesus big enough? Do you think he’s loving enough? Do you think he cares about you? Some of you don’t think he does and your wrong. Do you think he loves you? Or some of you, if you think he’s all powerful and all loving, do you think he’s also all wise? And maybe in his wisdom he wants you to wait? And if you do you’ll see the glory of God, do you see that? Because that’s the kind of faith he’s calling you to. That’s the kind of people he’s creating, and that’s where we’ll see his glory in our days on earth.

Make sense of your life.

This one is a bit different tonight guys. I can sit here and honestly tell you that this podcast changed my life 100%. I almost don't want to post my notes just so I can make you guys go watch his podcast just because I can't say things like Francis Chan. But, I also can't keep from you what I've just learned. So if you will finally listen to me and go listen to this podcast, its free, ok, all you need is iTunes and 55 minutes to spare, or even if you don't have it to spare, make 55 minutes to spare, because it will literally change your entire view of what it means to be a Christian. In the iTunes store, search Cornerstone Simi Video Podcast. The one I'm referring to is called Making Sense of your life, so atleast get that one. Make sure you have no distractions, which I understand can be hard if your a parent, but you will really not want to miss anything. And just watch it, do yourself a favor and watch it. I will literally be OK dying tomorrow if I know at least one person watches this.
But if you don't i'm going to post my notes below. Some of you might not be getting my urgency with this, so I'm going to. But I will warn you, my notes start going almost word for word with what Francis says, so if you read it all then decide to watch it, it wont have the same effect, because you've heard it all before. So you really need to pick one, and if your at that point, seriously, ignore my notes and watch it, its Francis Chan. Seriously.
I pray that you guys react like I did. Because finally hearing this literally changes everything. I'm going to stop going on now and put  my notes on because they're 3 pages long in Word, so I can only imagine how long it will be on here. But i just pray that you take me seriously here.


Making Sense of Your Life
Francis Chan
2/7/2011

Philippians 1:27-28

-He wants our lives to be worthy of the Gospel.
-He’s the only being with any true power. And he just wants you to be his child. He sacrifices for you!
-If you really believe that, what should your life look like? Live your life in a way that makes sense.
-If I believe this, then why am I doing “this.”
-The idea of “worthy” is equal weight. If you put the bible on one side of a scale, and your life on the other. Do they equal out? Are you living a life worthy of the Word? Or is it out of balance? You say that any moment your going to stand with God and all of this won’t even matter except for him. Well, then look at your life. Does what you say show in your life? Do people see that on your face? The joy that you get when you communicate with the God Almighty! Do people see that?
-Your telling people that you aren’t like them, because God’s spirit is inside of you! He used to not be, but his spirit wells inside of you!
-If you believe that truth, that you’re a truly transformed being, does your life match up to what you say you believe?
-Does my life look like I really believe there’s a place like hell? Do people see there’s an urgency to the way you do things, because you know that God could come back anytime?

He tells these stories of his travels in Asia over these past couple of months.  There was one in particular that stuck out to me. He was in India, just talking to a group of believers about there lives. He starts to talking to this woman feeding her baby. She tells him about when she first became a Christian and some of her Hindu friends found out about it. A group of them came over to her house not long after with this lizard with its head cut off and they were telling her that she had to drink the blood from this lizard because that’s how your convert back to Hinduism. She said that she told them no, grabbed her bible, and ran. Her husband followed her, and they left everything. They ran for the jungle. She eventually had her baby there in the jungle, they didn’t even have food for themselves, much less a newborn baby. They eventually wander into this village where they meet fellow believers and they receive help from them.
After he tells this story, Francis says “And that makes sense! That is a life worthy of the Gospel!” And he’s so right! We have to be in the mindset where if we have to, we can leave everything, literally everything, and run for God, and never look back.
Also, something we have to realize is that these believers have only been believers for maybe, 6 months? I’ve technically been a believer for about 8 years, and I still don’t know if I’m there yet. The Christian like me doesn’t make sense in India, one that was baptized years ago and just calls themselves a Christian but doesn’t usually act like it most of the time. It doesn’t make sense there, Francis says they asked him why we would do that? Why would you just call yourself a Christian? Over there, you lose everything when you get baptized. It is literally all or nothing. And you know what? That totally makes since.
He talks about when he was in Thailand, and he experienced some of the most amazing worship times in his life. He says there was this one night where he was in a little hut with his family and 36 kids and a couple leaders, and they’re just sitting around worshipping. He said they guy playing the guitar and singing was just sad, just horrible. No one cared. You see this room full of these little kids that have been physically and spiritually rescued, and they have there eyes closed just screaming out to God. He said that there was no way anyone could sit in that room and not cry, that this has to be the most beautiful thing to God. These kids literally owe everything to him, and they sing and pray like it. They live like it. He says that’s how it should be when we sing to God, that makes sense.
Next, he talks about going to China and having the opportunity to teach at one of the underground missionary training places. These are the believers that the church looked at and said they were the most hard core ones who will be sent to the middle east, and places that will be even more dangerous. They were all around ages 18-25. He say’s he and his daughter Rachel walked into the room and they were all praying, and they way they did it was just different, more intense,  they just shouted to God. Then Francis starts getting them to share about they’re lives and they persecution they have faced. And I don’t know if you read one of my earlier blogs about Francis speaking at Passion this year, this is the same story he told there so you might have heard me talk about this already. But he say’s that when he asks about their persecution, they don’t really understand what he wants them to tell him. Eventually they say things like, well I’m sure you know what were talking about, these types of things are normal. They didn’t understand that not everyone faces persecution and hostility like they do. They ask why he even wants to hear about their persecution because Jesus said it was supposed to happen, so it’s not a big deal, they expected it. He eventually gets them to tell him some stories. He says a girl starts telling him a story where they were having a meeting, and someone came into warn them that a government official was coming. She said in her broken English that for the first time in her life she thanked God that she was so skinny, because she fit in between these two boards and how she’s trying not to breathe. He says, by the way, everyone else in the room is just laughing, remembering back and laughing about it. She started praying because her backpack was downstairs and because some of her friends got taken away. There was 3 officials that come and there was 13 of them, so she says that everyone just runs in a different direction. Then the officials start firing their guns. But they girls says we were taught to never stop running. So they just kept running, hoping they were bluffing, just shooting in the air. And they eventually hear them say that they are just shooting in the air, but if they don’t stop they’ll start aiming. While shes finishing the story, everyone’s still laughing and cheering.
This is life to them.  He tells them that where he comes from its not like that. Where he comes from we have these buildings called churches and we attend them, and we have so many that if you find one where you like the music better you just switch. And they just laughed and laughed like “shut up, whatever” (and you know what, I kind of find myself sitting here thinking how bizarre that sounds too!) They say “That doesn’t make sense! How do you read the bible and come up with that!?” Francis says that if was just one of those moments where you walk away thinking, “Wow, this really is ridiculous.”
If you put India and China together, that’s 40% of the worlds population. This isn’t just a little country we’re talking about here. The U.S. is about 4% to put it in perspective. We are the weird ones guys! We are the ones that are laughed at!

1 Timothy 16: 15-16- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
If we really believe that, that God has all the power, Satan has no power over this world. God determines whether Satan breathes. In light of that truth, shouldn’t we be excited to talk to this being, and excited to sing about him?
One of these days. God’s going to come down in all of this glory, with all of his angels. And he’s going to gather us all in one place everyone on the earth, and start dividing us, the sheep from the goats. He says you guys, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, you cared for me. So come on. I’m going to bless you some much. Whatever you did for the least of these, you did it for me. And the ones who did do that, away into this eternal punishment!
If we really believe that, that us caring for our brothers and sisters, and how important that is, wouldn’t our lives be just about how much we can give?
We aren’t just people guys! God himself lives inside you! Read that again, and believe it. GOD HIMSELF LIVES INSIDE OF YOU!! THE GOD WHO CREATED THE WORLD!
And if out lives don’t look different then someone who doesn’t have God in them? That doesn’t make sense!