Representin'

Have you ever seen things like these on the back of a vehicle? Do you own a vehicle that looks like this one?

When I was in college I made the back of my 1992 Chevy Lumina a walking advertisement (mainly for Christian bands such as Five Iron Frenzy and The Supertones)

Many people have at least one or two bumper stickers in their back window. After buying our [new to us] 2006 Chrysler Town and Country I jokingly told Susan that we definetly have to buy some kind of bumper sticker for our van just so that we can identify it in the plethora of vans that look just like it in places like the Meijer parking lot, church and anywhere else where kid toting parents and old people (that have a van for no particular reason) park.

I've been noticing these bumper stickers lately on vehicles quite a bit. Bumper stickers are a great way to tell who a person is and what they represent. Whether that's a picture of thong sandals for each family member, an explanation of what will happen if the rapture were to occur or Calvin peeing on....well anything, these stickers tell us a story.

In 2 Corinthians 5:11-15, Paul talks about what he wants to represent. He starts the section by saying that the gospel is not about him. Everything points to God and his son Jesus Christ. Paul says, "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you."

Paul goes on to tell us the thing that he wants to represent. "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
Paul is saying, all that other stuff: the college you want to make sure everybody knows you root for, which candidate is best, the fact that you love your pug or even what state/trail you have visited, all means absolutely nothing compared to Christ.

Jesus is not making sure we make the right decisions on such trivial things as these. He's not concerned with things that won't make an eternal difference. He's not concerned about our good judgement in the temporal things. Paul's concern and God's instruction is that you love God more than any of these things.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a bumper sticker. I don't think it's a big deal to associate ourselves with different persons, places things or animals (nouns :-)) but as I survey my heart and I encourage you to do the same, let's ask ourselves: Are these the things that are MOST important to us? Are the things we have on the rear of our cars, trucks, vans, buggies controlling us or do we (as Paul says) "no longer live for (our)selves but for him who for (our) sake died and was raised."

We are NOT good. We continually put ourselves before God and before others. There is only one who is good...Jesus and by God's grace He has given us the opportunity to worship him and share his mercy with others. Let's represent Christ to the best of our ability each day!

Note: I'm not saying, put a Jesus fish or cross on your car...let's face it, sometimes doing that hurts our witness more than helps it...at least for me that's the case...thank God we are sinners saved by grace!

What's In A Name?

Many people have asked about Silas' name. Why did you choose it? Does it have some kind of family significance? Did you draw it out of a hat?
To be honest we just liked the name, but I like what the Bible has to say about him:

After the Jerusalem Council the church sends out Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas (Acts 15:22). They are sent out to correct a problem that is going on concerning the church. Some people are told that they must be circumcised to be saved (Acts 15:1). Peter corrects the Pharisees in saying, "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus..." (Acts 15:11)

Along with Judas, Silas is sent out with Paul and Barnabus to tell the people to "abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality." (Acts 15:29)

It says that Judas and Silas were "men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 15:26) and also that they "encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words." (Acts 15:32)

In Acts 16 as they are on their way to Lydia's house, Paul casts out a spirit of divination from Lydia and both Paul and Silas are beaten in thrown in jail because of their beliefs. In jail a great earthquake erupts and the prison doors are open, instead of thinking of themselves, Paul and Silas look to the needs of the jailer and show him the grace that was talked about at the Jerusalem council. As examples of Christ they tell the jailer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31)

Silas continued with Paul preaching the good news of God's amazing grace.

Silas is an interesting character to me, because he's mentioned in these chapters, but you don't hear a word from his mouth. However, as I mentioned above, he was an encourager and was totally focused on getting the word of Jesus out to as many people as possible, whether that meant getting beat, or ridiculed or even going to prison.

Many of us don't think of Silas when we think of hero's of the New Testament. We think of our Paul's and we think of how amazing Peter was, but I think (for me at least) sometimes we miss the small stories throughout scripture (both OT and NT) of people that were just as faithful and just as interesting as the top men (and women).

My prayer is that my son, Silas along with myself are like the Silas of the Bible. I hope that's your prayer as well. May we be strong in our faith as these men were and in our "hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil." (1 Peter 3:15-17)

The Business of People

Being involved in some kind of youth ministry my entire adult life, I have had my fair share of interactions with people. These interactions might be in a conversation in which there is a dialog between me and one or more persons. It may be a time of lecture in which I'm speaking and others are listening. Interaction has always been one of two things positive or negative.

In ministry I deal with touchy parts of peoples lives. Where a dietician interacts on the physical or a counselor interacts on the mental, I as a youth pastor deal with the spiritual.

Interacting with people about beliefs and proper living is a touchy subject. However, our culture has strayed away from agreeing to speak Biblical truths. We don't want to hurt peoples feelings. We don't want offend anybody. We don't want to lose people in our churches and our ministries. We have chosen our cultures decision against absolute truth over the truth that will (ironically enough) set us free.

Ephesians 5:1,2 says:
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Paul is not saying love people and don't call them out on their faults. That seems to be a definition that has been given "love" these days. It seems to me we have decided instead to say something like, "Tell people about Jesus and love them." That's very well and good but where does discipleship come into play? Where does accountability and action happen?

As a youth pastor (director, minister, guy, etc.) and more importantly as a follower of Christ I have a responsibility to not only proclaim the gospel of Jesus to people, but to not sugar-coat it and explain it for what it really is.

Being a Christian isn't easy, it takes dieing to self every day. It takes discipline in growing in my relationship with my Lord and Savior and it requires me to be honest about the gospel.

People don't like this and they don't want this. They don't want to hear a gospel that says how horrible of sinner they are or that they need a Savior. They want something that tells them how wonderful they are and the "twelve essentials to having a better life."

I write all of this to say a simple thing that I have begun to realize in my life in ministry:
Not everyone's going to accept the gospel that needs to be taught. Don't give up on those people, BUT invest in those people that truly want to hear the gospel that takes the focus off of us and puts the focus completely on Jesus and what he did for us.

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!