Yesterday, Monday night, I went to the Living Room, which for those who don’t know, is a college Bible study. The author from the book unChristian came and spoke about his book and about some of the issues his book talks about. His book, from the way he described it, is a lot of stats on the way Christians are perceived. But he also said it sort of gave people an idea maybe of how the gospel was supposed to be preached. 

When he was speaking last night, I was just blown away by what the author had to say. He had so many great things to say about the perceptions of Christianity. He talked about how the gospel, over the past 500 years or so had been severely abridged. He said, the original gospel that was preached from the time Jesus left until about 1500 or so, was the full story. It was creation-fall-redemption-restoration. However, over the past 500 or so years, the gospel has been shortened for convenience purposes, and has gone from the full story to the half story: fall-redemption. Basically, as we have moved into an age where its all about how fast we can do something, we have unfortunately applied the same thinking when talking about the gospel. We have severely cheapened the gospel message to merely half of what it was intended to be. 

The inherent point here is that if we are only concerned with “getting people saved” and “getting them into heaven” then we are missing the boat. There is a whole other part of the story which talks about the way we were created, and about how after we accept Christ, we are to be motivated not just to save someone, but to attempt to restore God’s creation. I mean, isn’t that what Jesus did? He didn’t just go up to every person and save them…. He healed their physical needs. He made and cultivated relationships. Then, and only then did He have the opportunity and the proper influence to speak to them about the gospel. 

If I tried to write everything that stuck out to me, it would take me all week. But this was just one thing from the talk this guy gave that stuck out to me. But hopefully, this stuck out to you a little bit. I would definitely encourage you to go out and get the book. I believe it contains vital information that every person who calls themselves a Christian and who wants to have influence should read. Because the problem we have found ourselves in is that we have messed up big time, and now people are much less willing to listen. The perceptions people have of Christian are staggeringly bad. I didn’t realize that people thought that badly of Christians. So, our job is a tough one (to change our perception), but it can be done if more people become informed and attempt to live out the full gospel story. 

Recently, God has been directing my attention back to love. Not just the command that we are to love Him first and in turn, love others, but actually what love means, and what it’s very definition requires of us as Christians. It is a huge concept which is nearly unfathomable in my opinion. In 1 Corinthians 13, love is explained in detail; and if taken seriously, it is a huge task to take on.

It says love is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easliy angered, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, rejoices in truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and never fails.

I was thinking about this a little today. As I was thinking about it, I thought to myself that there is no way on my own that I could possibly display all of these traits daily. It would be impossible probably for me to even display all of these traits to one person for even one day. So, I guess God has just been showing me that I need to stay humble. Without His presence and Spirit overflowing out of my life, none of this will be possible… Loving Him and loving others requires that I acknowledge this perfect love that He has shown me and then respond to Him by allowing Him to have all of me. He has to be my focus and I have to be open and vulnerable to Him and to His voice. I know it is easy for me to get sidetracked and loose focus… It’s something everyone hears talked about, and if honest, probably experiences. A lot of times I can get complacent about my life and even compare my spiritual journey to others, and think to myself, “I’m not doing as bad as they are” or something of that nature. However, that’s not the point at all. God hasn’t called you or I to be judges of others or to compare ourselves, but to go directly to Him and feed directly off Him. The severity of this issue is just undeniable to me. I can’t just go through the motions of my spiritual journey and expect to fulfill the mission God has for me… And if I’m not fulfilling God’s mission for me, then what in the world AM I doing? Probably nothing significant. I must be completely engulfed and overthrown by Him. It’s such a simple concept, but yet the most crucial to being an effective follower of Jesus.

It’s overwhelming to me to think about all of these attributes existing in my life when I’m communing with others, but that’s point… For me to get overwhemed and to give up and let God be the instigator.

It was 2 years ago, and the day had started out pretty normal.. I was walking along the edge of an African bank in Ethiopia, just after devouring a half-dead zebra inhabiting the area around our camp, but what would happen next would perplex me even to this day. As I was walking down the sidewalk, heading toward the inner city and thinking “could the smog here get any worse?”, I saw a squirrel hiding a hard-earned acorn deep in the African clay. However, as he was near done with his project, he looked up at me and then proceeded to dig his acron back up and walked over to me and handed it to me. He then went back to his house and got me a tall glass of water to wash the acorn down with. I later learned, from the locals this was not unusual for the Ethiopian squirrels to show hospitality to their human guests. So then, the question that haunts me to this day… “Why aren’t squrrels here as hospitable as they are in Africa?” Is it something, we as humans, could have changed? I then went to the local library to find out. It was there I found Osama Bin-Laden and he told me the Ethiopian people feed their squirrels goldfish, which calms them, making them more hospitable. So, after hearing this, I finally figured out why he gave me his acorn.. He had retreived his acorn, just in case someone like me came along, so he could show me how good-natured his kind are in Africa. So, why tell this story you ask? We must band together and rule out acorns for squirrels. It is a problem that needs to be corrected. We can do it!

There are some crazy drivers out on the road these days. For instance, today I was on my way to Caribou Coffee to meet some friends and I was pulling out onto the road right in front of the coffee shop and apparently I pulled out in front of a dude. Now, I didn’t see him coming, though I saw the other cars on the road, so that was a good indication to me he was haulin it, and my friends said he changed lanes on me. Nevertheless, he felt the need to ride my bumper til I pulled in and then proceeded to follow me into the parking lot.  He then pulls beside me and starts yelling at me, while I was in my car. So, I just kind of give him a “shutup and move on” look and then get out of the car to go get some coffee. But, this guy was lookin for a fight. As I got out he kept yelling, but it was a little more mild and calm yell. Haha if that even makes sense. He never got out of his car though, but thought he would be big and tough and holler at me from inside his cool BMW. I think he realized that I was twice as big as he was and could take him down without too much effort. However, despite my towering physique over the dude, he still kept on. So, I tried to think of the the coolest thing I could say, and all I came up with was, “Hey man, nothing happened, so you need to quit crying about it.” In hindsight, there are a million different things I would like to have been able to think of on the spot, that were much more witty and I guess degrading. But I think it was a good thing I wasnt able to think of anything b/c it really wasnt that big of a deal at all. So, anyways, he rolls up his window in defeat after my heart piercing line, and proceeds to start backing up over me. He didnt go very far though, and decided to let me pass behind him (lucky for him). haha. Anyways, moral is, there are crazy ppl out there so always bring a really big person wth you everywhere.

How Many Stars Are There?