It's my Lord in a box!

My small group has been reading through Matthew this summer and we got to chapter 23 this week. Chapter 23 is the chapter where Jesus is really laying into the religious leaders for not living up to their calling. They're all very surface level and religious. Sometimes I forget about context when I read the Bible. It's easy to read a chapter like this and imagine Jesus sitting with his apostles telling them these things about the religious leaders, but the religious people were right there in the crowd that Jesus was talking to. He wasn't afraid of a little confrontation. But apparently the religious leaders were, since they killed Jesus because He challenged them to live up to what God called them to be.

But that's not the point of this post. In verse 5 it says, "They made their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long." After I read that I went into uber study mode to find out what phylacteries are. Essentially, the Pharisees took Exodus 13:9 literally and decided to make leather boxes containing scripture and wear them around their foreheads or arms. They wore these things at prayer times originally as a reminder of what God had done for them, but it eventually became social statements about how "holy" they were. They were pretty much the WWJD bracelets of their day. They started out for honest enough purposes but eventually they became a social statement.

The verse in Exodus could easily be interpreted that God wants us to have His Word in all of our thoughts and actions, but I think I know why they were more willing to have elaborate head decorations. It's easy to put a box on your head or to wear a bracelet or t-shirt telling people about Jesus. In the same way, it's easy to go downtown and to wear a sandwich board sign and yell at people that they're going to hell. What's challenging is having a real change in your heart. It's hard to reach out to people that you're uncomfortable around and have an actual relationship with them to show them Christ's love. I know that deep down, if there were just a t-shirt I could wear to fulfill the Great Commission, I'd jump at that. I'd rather take the easy way out, but thankfully, I have the Holy Spirit to convict me and to challenge me to not just put on my Christian clothes and live like Hell.

God has been impressing upon me lately the difference that He can make through the life of one person. This is why I feel that this is so important, because if God can do so much with one person, He can do even more through multiple people. The church is growing so much recently, and it's progressing with a minority of people who claim to know Christ. There are so few people who are taking ownership of their faith, and regardless of this, God is doing great things. If people would just take off their Christian t-shirts and start to have a Christ-like heart, the church could be doing exactly what God has called for it to do.

Sacrifice

A few weeks ago I did a post called, Apathy. I talked about how lately I feel numb to all of the amazing things God is doing around me and in my own life. While I'm still dealing with this, I think that I've started to understand why. I've heard about the sacrifice that Christ made me all of my life and have depended on it for my salvation for nearly 10 years now, but I don't think that I've truly begun to understand what Christ really did.

I've always heard that Christ paid my debt for me, but I don't really have a grasp on the size of that debt. If someone is house sitting for you and when you get back they tell you, "A bill came in the mail and I covered it for you," then you will be thankful that they did that. But your thankfulness will be different depending on what bill was covered. If they paid your cable bill for $60 then you'll say thanks and be happy that they did that, but, in reality, you could have afforded it, and even if you couldn't, you really don't need cable anyway. However, if that same person paid your mortgage bill that you weren't sure you'd be able to make and keeps you from losing your house and not having a place for your children to sleep safely, you'd probably fall on your face in front of the person in humility and thankfulness.

Christ made a very real sacrifice that there's no way that I could have paid and it was 100% necessary. It wasn't a convenient debt for Him to pay but He paid it anyway. I pray that Christ will make the size and necessity of the debt He paid real to me. I don't think that I comprehend what He's done yet, but I think I might be on the verge of getting a glimpse into it.

It would be funnier if it weren't so sad...

I feel like churches just don't get it sometimes. I had to share a few of these signs that I found. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I did and that you cry about them a little less than I did.










I got these at http://crummychurchsigns.blogspot.com. Be sure to check it out.

The inner workings of a burrito...

Recently some very important information has fallen into my services and I wish to share it with those who choose to read and take advantage of it. Apparently there are incorrect ways to eat a burrito which could lead to disaster regarding one's masculinity. So, in order to save my readership from a world of grief, I feel it is my obligation to enlighten.

First of all, regardless of it's size, the burrito is to be held with both hands at all times.

Secondly, one is never to bite from the top down. The correct biting prioties are as follows:
-Right corner.
-Left corner.
-Center.
-Repeat.

And finally, it is common knowledge that sour cream is an important ingredient in a burrito. There is nothing wrong with this sour cream and it can, in fact, prove quite delicious. However, It is of the utmost importance that when (not if) said sour cream emmerges from the top of one's burrito to simply continue to eat in ignorace of it, never bringing it to light in the conversation one is having over the aforementioned burrito.

I hope that my past folly will in some way impact others in a way that could save from quite a bit of misunderstanding.

The Future

I have a lot of stuff going through my head lately. I feel like I'm coming out of this pit I've been in recently. Not a whole lot has changed in most of the areas of my life, but I just feel better about the issues I've been worried about.

I'm still living a home, and I have no full time job but I'm feeling more at peace with those things. I have a prospect for an apartment and by the time it's available I'll hopefully be more financially secure and better able to afford my own place. And, yeah, I'm not exactly at the world's most challenging job right now, but I have no doubt that it's just temporary and God has a reason for me to be there. I don't have any regrets about leaving my old job. That's not where God wanted me, so I'm comfortable saying that leaving was a good move, spiritually speaking (though the money was nice). I agree with my pastor's view on careers. I want my job to be my passion, not just my paycheck.

I have some good stuff coming up. There's a career fair next week at Clemson and I'm going to meet with one of my old professors who wants to help me figure out a path for my life before I go to that. So, all in all, there's some exciting stuff coming up.

Though the light hasn't turned green yet, I feel like God is giving me a small peak at what the road ahead is going to look like. So I'm pretty excited. And I'd much rather be excited than worried.