Epic Rantings

Americans Well-Being Continues to Edge Upward

Americans Well-Being Continues to Edge Upward Shared via AddThis

Re: "The Shack"

Lessons from the Lake

I spent the last week at Lake McClure with a bunch of crazy high schoolers, whom I love to death. Each time I am with them, they open my eyes to new things and allow me to view life from a completely different angle. This week they were challenged by the speaker to change their schools. They were challenged to stand up for Jesus and watch the change that Jesus could cause. There was one overwhelming response for why they did not do this: fear.

We are so afraid. We are afraid that people will laugh at us for believing in God. We are afraid they will think we need a “crutch.” We are afraid of change, because change is hard. We are afraid if we really live for God, we will lose friends. And the scariest part is: most of these are probably true.

Jesus never promised that our lives as Christians would be easy. He told us that in order to live for Him, we have to die to ourselves. He says “whoever wants to save his life will lose it.” We have to give up our own desires for the sake of His desires. Maybe it is just me, but that promise does not really make me feel less afraid; it makes me feel even more uncomfortable.

However, then there is this other part of the promise. There is the promise that, “whoever loses his life for me will find it.” He says that he has come that we could live life to the fullest. It is just not the life that we always imagine. I can dream up the perfect life for myself with the nice husband and the 2.5 kids running in the backyard of a huge house in some small town where we spend the rest of our lives. But that life is probably not the life God has dreamed for me.

He has a life planned for me that revolves around making Him known. It revolves around loving Him and loving people. Somehow, that life seems more exciting. Yes, that life seems scary. I told my sister the other day that most of what I have done recently scares me to death. However, I know that when I follow God’s plan, my life is going to work. Maybe not the way that I think my life should work, or the way that anyone else thinks it should work, but it will work the way He thinks it should. Yes, it is a scary thing, but I want the life that he has planned.

And so I am searching for confidence in God. I cannot place my confidence in people or in things, because they will all fail me. I think that was the hardest thing for us to grasp last week. We should be so confident in God’s plan, and so in love with Him, that we naturally are sharing Jesus with whomever we meet. It is not easy. It is scary. But it is what we are called to do.

-Becky

Mosaic Church and Clermont, FL - 2 years come & gone.

Father's Day weekend commemorates 2 years that we began our journey away from Florida.  It will forever be one of the hardest weekends of my life. We said goodbye to a community and church we loved.   

The old testament story of Joseph tells of a detested brother, sold into slavery and ultimately imprisoned.  Any time I teach this story, I try and focus in on how alone Joseph must have been through his ordeal.  

He was tempted by his masters' wife, did the right thing...accused of rape and forgotten about by those he helped in captivity. But at various points, the scriptures remind us that the "Lord was with Joseph". 

In our hardest moments, it is often hard to see that He IS WITH YOU.  In large part, our circumstance is all that is observable.  I know this is often true for me.  I can't possibly fathom that my circumstances can be used as a means towards an end.  But it's true no matter how dire they are.  

Since leaving Mosaic Church, I have led an amazing ministry of amazing students in Santa Cruz, CA.  I was able to play a part in God's story that saw many lives transformed.  Even more incredibly, God led me out of youth ministry to shape the local church as a Lead Pastor.  Absolutely incredible.  Who would have thought that God would have used those means...to this end...when it all was happening.  

In that time, I had to learn a lot about myself, as well.  My weaknesses in particularly.  Had I not done so, God could not have used the means.  Circumstance does that often, does it not?  It brings us face-to-face with our humanity, our sin and our rebellion. And in those moments we can bring glory to our creator, or continue in our rebellion, robbing Him of it.

When things get hard or you don't understand the tangible.  I ask that you consider the intangible.  That God is with you.  Stewarding all difficult things as a means to an end for His glory.  And He does so under the pretense of "immeasurably more than you can hope for or imagine."

Two years come and gone.  Imagine at 20....

Introducing: Becky the Intern

For the next two months our church will be home to Becky Gudnason of Santa Cruz, CA.  Becky was a former student of mine while I pastored at Santa Cruz Bible Church. Her father was the Jr. High Pastor and her mom works for Mt. Hermon Christian Camps and Conference Center.   

The thing about Becky is that she is quite possible the most mature student that I've ever pastored.  She is incredibly well balanced, makes great decisions for her life and loves Jesus with an unconditional passion.  I've watched her regularly go out of her way to find what it is He is calling her to.  And as if that wasn't all enough...she hopes to give her life in a full-time capacity to ministry one day.  

Becky will be doing a little bit of everything and anything.  As we re-vision and re-plant our church, Becky will learn first hand the workings and trappings of the local church.  

In the end, it's just good to have a piece of history as a part of my future. Welcome, kiddo. 

Epic Kaleo: some thoughts from Becky

Kaleo: the greek word meaning “to be called”

Epic: noting or pertaining to a long composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style

These two words have been rolling around in my head for the last week or so. They’ve come up in conversation and my thoughts times. Two very random words and yet they both carry so much meaning.

As I watched some of my best friends walk onto the podium and receive their high school diplomas today, I realized this is another chapter in the epic of their lives. We’ve been called to greatness. We’ve been called to live epic lives. We were made for a specific purpose. So many people just wander through life moving from one day to the next, never looking for their calling. To live that way is to waste a life, to waste a calling. We can be used by the Creator of the Universe for his Glory, and yet we settle to float through life without meaning or purpose. Why is that? Are we afraid to fail? Are we ignorant that there is more to life? Or are we simply too lazy to discover our calling? What is it about us that causes us to forget our calling, our kaleo?

I think the majority of the time, it comes down to our laziness and ignorance. We forget that we are called to live epic lives, centered around The Hero. We forget that our lives are not our own to live. We try to place “calling” into a little box. We may be called to a weeklong missions trip, but not to a life of missions. That would be too difficult. We may be called to volunteer once a week, but never to a life of ministry. It is easier to just allow life to happen instead of searching for our calling. It is easier to sit back and take the easy way out every time. But is that ease worth missing out on a life centered around heroism and greatness? I think not.

Calling is so much more than just the small things. Kaleo is about each and every day. It is about making each decision in order to live an epic lives.

We are called to live epic lives. We have purpose and calling. What would the world look like if we all strived to find our calling and to live epic lives? I’d like to live in that world.

-Becky

Telling The Truth

Just before he was beaten, tortured and crucified, Jesus said that 

"Everyone who is of truth, listens to my voice." [John 18:37]. 

Pilate's response: "What is truth?" 

William James once wrote "The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths."

So it got me thinking. What does it mean for something to be true?  In the arena of post-modernity, this has been argued like crazy.  That the "modern" view of truth, as being "knowable" is archaic and passe.  Truth has become subjective even in the Christian church whose responsibility is to carry the "absolute truth" into the world.

Let's start with a basic exercise in logic:

If I say there is a "silver laptop in my backpack", this is either true or false.  This statement can only be true, if indeed, there IS a silver laptop in my backpack.  It cannot be true, if there is NOT a silver laptop in my backpack.  This is basic logic. Furthermore, it doesn't matter how I say this.  I can shout it, say it nicely or frame it around any other context.  Exclamations, commands or questions do not determine truth.  

Are we tracking?  This is basic logic, is it not?  I don't think I'm going to get much argument about the premise of my logic from which we are going to work from.

Ok...so let's dive into my point:

If I say "Jesus is Lord" and you say "Allah is Lord" both statements cannot be objectively true because they violate the principles of logic.  God made flesh (John 1:14), while Muslims deny that Allah incarnates. If "Lord" means a position of unrivaled metaphysical and spiritual supremacy, then Jesus and Allah cannot be both Lord because "Jesus" and "Allah" are not two words that mean the same thing. If we mean to say that I believe in Jesus and you believe in Allah, there is no logical contradiction, since subjective states of mind cannot contradict each other; that is, it may be true that I subjectively believe X and you subjectively believe non-X. But X and non-X themselves cannot both be objectively true.

Capish?

When truth is deemed dependent upon the person or culture holding the belief, anything can become "true," which is absurd. 

Human subjectivity untethered from objective constraints is a shallow and shabby thing. When it reaches a certain stage we call it stupidity or even insanity. 

Remember Heaven's Gate?

When Pilate asked "What is truth", it was indeed ironic.  Why?  Because he was staring at Truth (John 14:6).  

To the illogical, subjective and, yes, heretical pastors who claim the scriptures must reinterpreted in regards to their truth today:  Woe to you. To those within the church who concede that light and life are found in multitude of saviors and Gods: Woe to you.  To those that seek to use the scriptures as a basis for condemnation and anger:  Woe to you.

Jesus is Lord, whether you choose to look in the backpack or not.

"And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips."

Jeremiah 7:28

(Sources: Douglas Groothuis, Webster, ThinkExist)

Attention 2009 High School Seniors:

In about a week, I will be addressing the seniors of Santa Cruz Bible Church. However, I need a little help from some of you. 

If you are a senior this year, I want you to think about the last few weeks, particularly.  How have you felt?  What are you worried about?  Are worried about failing?  Worried about the pressure?  Are you scared to go off on your own?  Do you feel overwhelmed by what you're supposed to do with your life?  Maybe you thought you should know the answer to that by now.  And you don't. I want to know the about the things that are stressing you out or are of concern to you to any degree.  No matter how small or large.

Please leave some comments below so that I can use them to help shape my upcoming teaching.  This is open to all seniors, everywhere.  Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.  

(For more private comments, please send me a message through Facebook.)

-Allen

Stop #8: Ridiculous foam finger

Stop #7: Zach's first major league baseball game.