Jesus Stuff

A Portrait of Christ from Jeremy Cowart on Vimeo.

For anybody that reads this (if in fact anybody at all does), you may know that I am a bit of a night owl. I enjoy staying up late, usually for no particular reason, but staying up. However, like when I'm in the shower, I think I get an opportunity to clear my mind a bit when I'm up late. Sure, Leno, or Fallon or SportsCenter are playing in the background, but a lot of times, it's just a filler for noise and not what's really going on in my head at the time.

As we draw closer and closer to Easter this week, my mind has wondered a bit. I have been thinking of things that may make absolutely no sense at all, but nonetheless it's things that I ponder for myself as well (in some instances) for others.

The video that is at the top of this post is kinda crazy, but it goes along with one such thing I've been thinking about. We often have an idea of what Jesus looked like. We put a well-kept beard on him, with beautiful flowing locks of hair and a face that would contest with many of today's top models.

I think to myself, is this really what Jesus looked like? I mean, did Jesus look 'perfect', just because he was perfect? Maybe that sounds very edgy or radical viewing God's son as not well kept, but what I'm trying to say is, what if this image of Jesus that we always use actually looked nothing like what we imagine he did. Will that change our worship of him any less or any more, probably not, but it's just a thought I had in my head. As long as it doesn't become this:



I also was thinking tonight about our calling to our eternal home. As we prepare for Sunday, let us not forget that Jesus came to earth, knowing that he would die. He had a calling, he knew that this was a temporary thing here on earth and he took that seriously. He was prepared for eternal home are we?
What if God we're to call you home right now? What if you died or maybe you are just taken, like Enoch was in Genesis 5:24. Would you be ready? Are you prepared? Is that calling serious enough for you and for me that we would be okay with it, or would we come up with excuses of why we couldn't go. (Matt. 24:15-20)


As the boyscout motto goes: "Be Prepared"

Note: I think the reason that this second one has been going through my head is because Susan warned me that tonight could be the night she goes into labor (yes it is a bit early), and I realized we have nothing ready for this new child...time to start preparing.

Filth

Filth in the dictionary is simply defined as "disgusting dirt."

Colossians 3:5-10 says, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."

I worked on a farm in Middleville throughout high school and one of the jobs I was assigned to do was haul manure...filth. We got rid of the old bedding for the cows that was full of waste and urine. We then replaced it with new straw that the cows could bed in.
Had we not removed that stuff, not only would the cows be uncomfortable but the filth would continue to build up.

In our spiritual lives we have filth as well (as the above verse indicates). Everyone of us has some kind of filth in our lives. Whether that's of the sexual nature, the jealous nature, maybe your angry or like to swear, whatever it is, Paul says, put it off. Get rid of it.
Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

Jesus speaks of money here, but it can be applied to any of the above that Paul is talking about as well. The Israelites in the Old Testament were told over and over again, get rid of your idols, tear down your Asherah poles. This seems to be something that has been a problem since the fall.

So what is your filth? What are the things that you put in place of God?
God wants our full attention our entire hearts and until we are willing to give it all to him, we will continue to be a manure spreader of filth.

As we approach this weekend and focus on Jesus' death and resurrection, may we remember that Jesus didn't die on that cross for nothing. God sent Him to die for our filth because He loves us! (Look at 1 John 3) Jesus living without filth was the substitution to take care of our filth.
Praise God We Serve A Risen Savior!

We've Got To Pray Just To Make It Today

Prayer is one of those things as Christians that we like to talk about, but how much do we actually do it? I mean sure we talk a good game. We say things like "I'll pray for you." or we tell others to pray for us, but do we really expect that to happen or do we actually pray for that person or people. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray continually". Am I doing that? Are you doing that? Why not instead of telling someone we will pray for them, we actually take a couple of minutes and lift them up before the Lord? It's really not that hard of a thing to do once you get over (what might be) the uneasiness of asking someone if you can pray for them.
Jesus prays for us in John 17. He prays for protection for the believers, that we may stay away from the evil one. He prays that we might be sanctified through the reading of God's word.
He also prays for our non-believing neighbors that through the message we give them of Him. He prays for unity and "that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:22b-23)
Have you prayed for someone today? Have you seen a need in someone and offered to lift them up before the Lord and then forgotten to pray? It is my prayer that my eyes will be more open to the needs of others and to talk to my Father regularly on behalf of others. Will you do the same?

We're so 2000 & Late

Well friends, Susan and I have entered the 21st century and now are connected (at home) to the worldwide web. That's right from my very own kitchen table right now, I send you these words. I can now check my Facebook even more ridiculoulsy more times than I already do. I can know more about your lives than you want me to know about and most importantly I can keep my Fantasy teams in check. I don't know if anyone will ever read this stuff, but I think I'll start trying to figure out how this blogspot thing works. Thanks for reading!