You are the Messiah (Part 1)

      Today I gave a message at my church's early morning prayer meeting. I was very encouraged by everyone who came, because I know it is hard to wake up early. I know some people could not attend, so I thought I would post my message (unedited) on my blog. It's fairly long, so I'll break it up into parts. Hope you are encouraged.
      When I was in high school, I remember sitting at this lunch table with some of my friends. Most of them weren’t Christians, but atheist. This was not surprising, because many people these days don’t believe in God, especially in my generation. Although I knew they were not Christians, I sat with them for lunch every day, because I was their friend. During lunch, we often would talk about “not church appropriate” things, like girls, drugs, alcohol, etc. I often told them that I did not believe that talking about these things in the way we were was right. At some point during the school year, I remember we started talking about religion. I then told them that I was a Christian, and they in turn told me that they were atheist. I asked them this question “what is the point of life if there’s nothing after death? Can you really believe that there’s nothing after we die?” To this question my friend responded, “Yeah, one day I realized that I am going to die, and when I die, that’s it. There’s nothing after I die. When I realized this, it was really sad”. It really surprised me to hear my friend say this. He was telling the absolute truth- if there is nothing after life, that is very sad indeed. Also, if there is no judgment after death, if there is no God, they had no reason to not pursue their own pleasures and lusts. When I walk around campus today, sometimes I wonder how many people live without knowing Jesus. It is a very sad thing to think that many people today don’t believe in God.    
Mark 8:29 - “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
This passage describes an interesting dialogue between Jesus and His disciples. The disciples had been with Jesus for some time now, so they had witnessed His teachings and miracles. We’ve learned about some of those miracles in our previous early morning meetings; the healing of the bleeding woman, the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter and the feeding of the five thousand. Just previous to the passage today, Jesus feeds a multitude of four thousand people and restores the sight of the blind man.
At this point of the disciples’ lives they have been with Jesus and have probably come up with some idea of who He is. They have heard what others say about Jesus, and they themselves have traveled with Jesus wherever He went. As Jesus and His disciples are walking around Caesarea Philippi, He asks the disciples this seemingly simple but random question- “who do people say that I am?” in verse 27. The disciples tell Jesus that “some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets (v.28)”. If we look back a couple of chapters to Mark 6, we see that King Herod hears that Jesus and His disciples are performing miracles. The people around him say almost exactly what they say in the passage today- “John the Baptist has risen from the dead (Mark 6:14)”, “He is Elijah… He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old (Mark 6:15)”. Even King Herod believes that Jesus is “John, whom I beheaded (Mark 6:16)”. The disciples had no problem answering Jesus question, “who do people say I am?”, because they had heard what others had been saying about Him.
      Let’s read verse 27 again together- “Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ (Verse 27)”. Why did Jesus ask them this question? Did Jesus care what the people thought of Him? To answer the two questions at the same time, Jesus asked them this question because yes, He did care about what others thought of Him. I believe Jesus is still concerned about what others think of Him. The nature of this type of question reveals the answerer’s relationship to the asker. When Jesus asks them “who do people say I am”, He is asking how others’ view of Him is shaped by their relationship to Him. So how do the people view Jesus? Let’s read verse 28- “They replied, ‘some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ (Verse 28)”. Most of us know who these people are. John the Baptist, Elijah and the prophets were all respected and powerful people. The people in this time knew about all of these characters, and they believed that Jesus was one of them raised from the dead. Where did they get this idea of Jesus? As we talked about earlier, Jesus had been teaching many things and performing miracles amongst the people. Since the people had no real relationship with Jesus, they had to base their view of Him based on the works that He had performed. They saw that the works Jesus was doing were from God, so they assumed He was some sort of prophet. Were they right? Jesus was indeed sent from God, but Jesus was not John the Baptist, Elijah or a prophet.
-Smart
(To be continued)

Covenant

"And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me'".
-Luke 22:19
      I've been listening to a podcast series by Matt Chandler about the church. Throughout the series he talked about the fact the church is based on a covenant and not a contract. One of the messages he gave was titled "What is Covenant?", where he talks about the church being established by a covenant. I really enjoyed listening to the series on church, especially the idea of a covenant relationship between the church and God. Today I just want to share some thoughts I had on covenants.
      The Bible is full of covenants between God and His people. He gave a covenant to Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and others in the Bible. Many of these covenants are found in the Old Testament, before Jesus walked on the earth. When Jesus came, He established a new covenant between Himself and His people. He died on the cross, rose again, and as a result we are free from the consequence of our sins. This is great news for us, but how is this a covenant? What is a covenant?
      Both the words contract and covenant refer to an agreement between two people or two parties. Most of us know what a contract is, but we are not too familiar with the word covenant. Contracts bind two people (or parties) to services that they agree to provide each other. Matt Chandler gave the example of a cell phone contract. If you own a phone, you have to have some sort of contract in order to activate the phone and use it. In the contract with your provider, you agree to pay a certain amount in exchange for some amount of data (call minutes, texts, internet) for your phone. To summarize, a contract is an exchange of services, where both parties have to hold up their end of the agreement, or the contract is voided.
      Although I have been going to church for a long time, I confess that I still don't fully understand what a covenant is. However, in Matt Chandler's sermon he gave a pretty good definition of what a covenant is. A covenant is an agreement between two people where one person gives himself to the other. Chandler gives yet another great example- marriage. Marriage is a covenant relationship, not a contractual one. The relationship in a marriage is not dependent on whether or not the husband provides the wife with some service, or vice versa. Rather, the husband and wife give themselves to each other. The marriage vows are not contractual, they are covenantal. The husband and wife promise to maintain the marriage "for better or for worse", "for richer, for poorer", and "in sickness and in health". Covenants are not based on reciprocity, they are based on one giving himself for another.
      God established a covenant between Himself and the church through Jesus Christ. As we learned earlier, this means that God has given Himself to the church. This is clearly seen in the life and death of Jesus. Jesus died for us, regardless of the fact that we did nothing in return. When I think of this, I am reminded of the Lord's Supper, where Jesus says "this is My body which is given for you". Jesus did not say "if you are righteous and obey Me, I will die for you"; He gave Himself to us. This is the nature of God's relationship to the church. It is not based on what the church can offer God, it is based on Him giving Himself to the church.
      This is how we also should approach the church. We cannot expect to go to church and treat it contractually. We shouldn't come to church expecting people to love us, serve us, or to be perfect people. If we go to church in this way, I guarantee that we will be very disappointed. The reality is that the church is not a perfect place, because it is a place where sinners are. Knowing this, we should come to church and treat it as a covenant between us and the church. We don't expect the church to provide us with any service, we give ourselves to the church. This means that we love others, serve others, and forgive others regardless of what they do. How can we do this? By extending the grace that God has already given to us. God freely gave us His grace, so we should freely give grace to others as well.
-Smart
(Again, let me know if you have any suggestions as to what I should write about.)    

Values (Part Five): Integrity

"but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ."
-Ephesians 4:15
      The next and final value I chose for this activity was integrity. Integrity is a very difficult value to practice, because it goes against our nature. As a matter of fact, all of the values I chose are difficult to practice. As difficult as these values are to uphold, I believe that they are crucial for us to practice to grow as disciples of Christ. So what is integrity? By strict definition, integrity means "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles". This is a very good definition, but it doesn't cover the entirety of what integrity is. What's interesting is the secondary definition of integrity, "the state of being whole and undivided". I'll talk about both of these definitions today.
      When integrity is mentioned, many times it is associated with honesty and truth. Integrity certainly has a lot to do with both of these things. A person with integrity is an honest one who speaks the truth. Not everyone who is honest is described as having integrity though. If a person constantly tells others what he/she thinks is true, that person is often described as blunt, candid, or even naive. That person is not necessarily a person of integrity. What distinguishes a person of integrity is their knowledge of the truth. Not only do they speak honestly, they speak what is true.
      Another special characteristic of people with integrity is their consistency. Remember, the second definition of integrity is "the state of being whole and undivided". I found this fascinating because it perfectly describes one who has integrity. Consistency and integrity are very closely related, as one who has integrity must also have consistency. There is a subtle difference however; a person with consistency doesn't necessarily have integrity. How so? A person can either be consistently good, or consistently evil. Either way, they still portray consistency in their life. A person with integrity cannot be evil, because by definition integrity describes one who has moral principles.
      Integrity is not an easy thing to have. It requires not only that we speak the truth, but that we also know the truth. There are so many different ideas about what truth is in the world today, and it is difficult to uphold the truth of God. People constantly attack Christians because they think Christians believe in a lie. The sad thing is that this is their natural response to Christians today. It is not sad that people oppose Christianity; it is sad that we give them a good reason to. Integrity is more than knowing the truth, it is speaking the truth and also living the truth. How can we expect others to believe in God if our lives don't reflect that we believe in Him?
      I hope you learned something from reading about these different values I wrote about. All these values are not easy to practice, and I certainly do not uphold them as I should. I also realize that I did not do the best job writing about these values, but I just tried to write my view on these things. May God help us to live for Him.
-Smart
(P.S. If you ever have anything you would like me to write about, just ask in the comments. I am always open to suggestions and quite frankly I could really use some. Thank you.)    

Values (Part Four): Joy

"Rejoice always;"
-1 Thessalonians 5:16
      The fourth value that I chose in this activity was joy. As soon as I saw that joy was an option, I knew I had to choose it. What is joy? Often times we think of joy as a kind of happiness, which it certainly is, but it is so much more. Happiness is an emotion, which we feel when something makes us feel good. Joy is feeling pleasure despite our circumstances. I believe it is the character of a person rather than an emotion. It is similar to patience and thankfulness; you can have it, but you can lose it.
      Paul commands the Thessalonians to "rejoice always" and to "give thanks in all circumstances". These two are very closely related. Both rejoicing and giving thanks is a choice that we have to make. These are also very difficult things to do, especially if we are not going through good times. This is the difference between happiness and joy; happiness depends on the circumstance. Joy should not depend on the circumstance. Joy means being fulfilled and delighted despite the circumstance.
      How can we be joyful even in bad times? The answer is to not find joy in the circumstance. If we are looking for joy in our circumstances, we will never be able to be continually joyful. As a matter of fact, this is true for anything in this world. If we look for joy in our friends, family, job, or money, we will be disappointed. The only way be can be joyful always is by rejoicing in God. God never changes, and He is always good. He is the source of true joy, and He is where our joy can be made complete.
      Why is important to be joyful? I think the answer to this is very simple; everyone desires it. Everyone seeks out pleasure and happiness in this world. The proof I have of this statement is the fact that so many people have a need to constantly be connected. People find a certain happiness in being able to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or other social media. Will these things really bring you joy however? The answer is no. These things have the capacity to make us happy, but they also can make us upset, angry, or frustrated. They are not a constant source of joy; they are a constant source of distraction.
      God created us to desire Him and have fellowship with Him. However, we have sinned and we fall short of Him everyday. I talk about this all the time, but it so true and so important for us to understand. We try to find our joy in earthly things, but they can never satisfy our desire. Why? Our desire is not for the things of this world, but for God. Only in Him can our joy be made complete.
-Smart

Values (Part Three): Goodness

"How great is Your goodness..."
Psalm 31:19
      The third value that I chose out of the provided list was goodness. I don't believe I've ever really talked about goodness in my blog before, which is good. I find that it's hard to write about new things these days, because I've written about so many different topics at this point of my blogging life. Anyways, goodness is a bit hard to define. At it's most basic definition, it means being good. What does being good entail? The word "good" can mean desirable, advantageous, or morally right. I think that when we talk about goodness in the sense of it being a value, it refers to being morally right.
      Goodness is different from kindness or niceness. The terms "kindness" and "niceness" generally mean someone is pleasing to be around. Nice people make you feel better about yourselves, and they never try to stir up trouble. I believe goodness has an element of kindness in it, but not always so. Someone who displays goodness does good to others, but this does not mean they will be liked for it. As mentioned earlier, goodness refers to moral correctness. One who is good is one who does what is right. They do things for the good of others, even if it means that they won't be appreciated or liked because of it.
      I often talk about how people inherently are not good, and are all sinful. This makes it all the more important for us to display goodness in our lives. The obvious question is- how can we have goodness if we by nature are not good? We have to be changed. I wrote about this in my last post which solidifies my reasoning for choosing change as one of my key values. We have to allow God to change us before we display goodness in our lives.
      You may be wondering, "wait a minute, does this mean we cannot have goodness without being changed? Aren't there non-believers who display goodness? Yes, there are many people who display elements of goodness in their lives. What is important to realize is why they do good things. Most of the time, people will do good to others to be liked by them. Their main goal is to be liked, and because of this they often do not correct others. Many people believe that goodness is an important quality, but they don't realize the full extent of what that means.
      So what is the full extent of goodness? How can we learn it? The answer is to look at Jesus. Jesus was our Good Teacher and Good Shepard. On His life on earth, He gave us the greatest examples of goodness. He healed the sick, drove out demons, and taught the crowds. All these things the people liked; but He also rebuked the Pharisees and ate with sinners. When Jesus did those things, many people did not accept Him, and they ultimately nailed Him to a cross. Even when the people hated Jesus, He still did what was good for them. This kind of lifestyle is not easy, but it is what Jesus calls us to do. Let's pray that we can have true goodness in our lives.
-Smart