What Dreams May Come

This is another post that I wrote a few months ago. I liked it, so here it is.

I just got done watching the above movie with Robin Williams for like the 5th time. It is probably in my top ten list of favorite movies. It is not exactly biblical all the time, in fact most of the time, but it still has some good truths. One of my favorites is a one-liner that Williams says while quoting his wife, "Sometimes when you lose, you win." In the movie, well I wont give it away for those who want to see it ( which i suggest), but he is talking about something far different than I am. When I started thinking about that line, I thought about how that's what we have to do in this life. We have to lose ourselves; lose our ambitions, our dreams, our desires, our self determination, our self-will. Jesus taught that we must hate our father and mothers in order to follow Him. That we must let the dead bury their own dead. That we must abandon our professions, our future. We must give up our wisdom, our strength. He said we must take up our crosses and follow. That we must sell all of our possessions, we must leave our homes. We must give up our preconceived notions. These are the things we must do. But yet he claims that His burden is light, that His yoke is easy. Seems like a contradiction. Maybe we are just out of tune, maybe we are still clinging on to our preconceived notions. Maybe we have missed the point. When we die to ourselves, those former things mean nothing, they become a distant memory. Jesus says we must die to ourselves. But by doing so, we gain all things. That's the beauty of Christ, that's the paradox of Christ. When we are weak, we are strong, when we are foolish, we are wise, when we are poor, we are rich. When we die, we live. And when we lose; when we lose ourselves to all these things, when we surrender and give in to an overwhelmingly passionate loving God, then... we... Win. We win freedom, we win love, we win richness, we win wisdom, we win a future, a passion, a family. We win a friend, a father, and a Savior. Nothing can compare with that. "Sometimes, when we lose, we Win."

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I might gain Christ." - Philippians 3:8

"So then no more boasting about men. All things are yours...all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God." - 1 Corinthians 3:21-23

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" - Romans 8:32

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28, 30

"for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

Coffee with Love

The following is an old post I did on an old blog. I needed some stuff to add to this one, and I thought this one was good, so I added it.

Early this morning, I along with the rest of the core group, handed out cups of free coffee to people going into stores to shop. There were lots of people (as can be imagined on 'Black Thursday') and most where I was stationed wanted the hot cups of coffee. We had a table set up at the front of the store draped by paper with our Journey logo on it. We were serving Starbucks' Christmas Blend. Many thanks to all the people who made this happen, it truly would not have been possible without them. A funny thing happened the entire time as I was there was people would ask if we were opening a new store (thinking we were with Starbucks.) We would then point to our logo and explain that we were a new church starting up in the area, and for them to check us out when we open. There was no verbal explaining of the gospel, there were no tracts of pamphlets given out. Just the name of our church and the fact that we were Christians. Many said thank you, occasionally a few commented on the fact that this was a nice thing to do, and several church-goers gave words of encouragement to us as they sipped on their coffee. We helped several people to their cars with their merchandise, which was a welcomed act of kindness as opposed to someone snatching them and running off with them. But this is what my mind was consumed with, that most of these people would have done just fine without our free coffee. Granted they would have had to dealt with the cold without the comfort of their cups. They would have had to put of their cravings of caffeine for a few hours until they could spair a second from their busy schedule of shopping to swing by Starbucks of Dunkin' Doughnuts. They could have possibly gone on with the day without ever thinking about how nice it would be to have a cup of Starbucks coffee to sip on as they shopped. But they didnt have to. They could enjoy their caffeine high and their shopping high together, at the same time. They could sip on something warm for their insides while the outside of their bodies stood shivering in the cold chill of the early, predawn morning. As I stood there at our table, I thought about what was going through these peoples minds. Some might have thought "What did these so-called 'Christians' do to that coffee, they must have put some hypnotic drug in it." Still others surely thought "Well thats nice of Sears to offer free coffee to us this year, thats an improvement from last year." Perhaps some said "Thats so nice and thoughtful of these people to come out and offer us free coffee while we shop, good for them" While others thought "Yea, a cup of coffee would be nice while I shop, that is so nice of these nice people." But my thoughts were'nt so much stuck on them. My mind was captive to those others who thought other ideas like "What compels these people to serve us free coffee?" Or "Why would anyone wake up at three in the morning to come and serve US coffee while we stand in lines for ourselves?" Or those who question "What would drive these people to serve us in such a normal everyday activity as shopping?" Those were the people I was thinking about. Those were the ones who I wondered what was going on in their heads. Jesus taught that when we serve even the weakest or smallest person, we are actully serving Him. We as Christians are called to share the Gospel. We are called to bring Heaven to Earth today. We are called to show the love of Christ. We are called to show life to its fullest. Did you catch the word in those last two sentences, show. We must show the Gospel with the everyday activities of our lives. One of my favorite quotes of all time (one which I rarely live up to) is from St. Francis of Assisi. He is quoted as saying "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." We must live out the Gospel at all times, we must show it with our actions. We must live out the love of Christ. Christ wants to shine His love through us. And so as the night is winding down, I ask myself the question, "Did those people today see the love of Christ, did they see Christ in us?" So as I am getting ready for bed, I have now come to the answer of my question. Yes, yes they saw Christ.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, what ever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Jesus in Matt. 25:40

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Jesus in John 13:35.

"just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus in Matt. 20:28

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" Jesus in John 10:10

"Thank you guys so much, this is a really nice thing to do. Thanks." woman shopper who saw Christ' love.

Our Journey

Good quote from a book I'm reading which goes along with the idea of our church Journey.

"I know now not to think of my faith in Jesus as a destination. The magic I experience in Jesus doesn't happen when I'm living a destination faith. Whenever I feel like I have arrived in my faith, Jesus quickly pushes me back onto the journey. He continues to push me. And he pushes hard."

I feel alot like that right now. I'm not going to lie, I am tired of the "journey" right now. But Jesus is pushing me back into the fray. I'm ok with that though.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God." Jesus in Matthew 5:6 (The Message)