Today I tried to preach a sermon....

Well today I got up in front of my church and tried to teach about my thoughts on the genius of Jesus, I was half nervous and half exited to share some of my thoughts and feelings about Jesus, I defiantly have a heart for teaching, I think that as soon as I get my auto-cad degree that I will probably start perusing some kind of theological degree. I have a certain view point on Christianity, and have a passion for history, which has to lead me somewhere, right? Well here is some of my thoughts about the genius of Jesus;

Prayer:

Jesus if you would show yourself to us in this community today,

For I know that you are already here with us,

Help us feel your presence,

Help us feel your genius today,

Help us be a true community all in relation to you,

Open our minds to your will,

And open our hearts to the love that you have for us,

And in this New Year lead us to be a community of disciples fulfilling your mission.

In my journey I have been around the block, so to say, in the spiritual realm.

I have been involved in many different paths trying to find my way to God;

Ever since I was very young I had a strong yearning to seek God.

And I'm not going to deny some of the awesome moments that I went through and the fact that I truly believe God was there with me, in fact I know that he was.

Another thing that I know is that it was all to lead me here,

To be in communion with you all,

and to be in communion with my King, or if I may say, my president Jesus.

No other spiritual practice or path speaks so eloquently to all aspects of our lives,

teaching us how not only to get our selves right with God but almost more importantly giving ourselves to our neighbors and focusing all of our intentions on LOVE.

So speaking to the genius of Jesus I want us to look at 3 verses today if you have a bible with you today please open them to Mark 2:15,

For me this is a great example of the way that Jesus thinks,

To help us understand this let us look at the context of this passage,

As I understand it in Jesus’ time most of the Pharisees blamed the occupation and fall of Israel to Rome on the sinners and nonreligious Jews,

They felt like if only the people of Israel could be more religious and clean like them they could rise again,

And more over the idea of communing and eating with them was blasphemous,

They could not be brought down to the level of sinners that would corrupt them and ruin them in God’s eyes,

So Jesus’ thinking is that we not only need to stoop to the level of sinners we need to eat with them and show them the love of God,

He is not thinking about his reputation,

He is not thinking about bringing Israel back to its once held glory,

He is thinking about Gods healing love right then and right there.

On to our second passage Mark 4:21-25 please follow along,

For this passage I would like to read out of the Message Bible,

It really helped me understand what Jesus is trying to say,

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To bring it into context Jesus is talking to a large crowd,

so large that he decided to get out on to a boat to speak while the crowd listened from the edge of the Sea of Galilee

he is talking about how to live life to this group first using a farmer as a metaphor,

something that they are all very familiar with,

with most everyone in those times having to grow most of their food,

and then the metaphor of a lamp which was a staple for all households,

but it is that last point that he makes is what gets me,

Generosity that is Jesus’ way,

That is Gods way.

Lets move on, Mark 10:17 once again from the Message

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The context here is that someone is trying to understand how to gain eternal life,

To understand how to get into Gods Kingdom,

And Jesus turns right around and tell the rich man that he needs to give it all away,

I would argue that this is the last thing that he was expecting to hear,

I think that Jesus saw right thru the man and saw that he wasn’t ready to let God take control,

Genius,

Which leads me to my next point,

The Great Reversal, what a great thought, what a genius way of putting it,

The ones with the most , last

The ones with the least, first

This is the way it is in Jesus’ upside down Kingdom,

I mean in our culture we see things and have been taught things in a certain way,

That we want to be on top with the few, the rich, that’s success, right?

We don’t want to mingle with those who have the least,

The riff-raff, the unclean, the non religious, right?

We see hundreds of adds a day that tell us we need more,

Which means we need more money, right?

Jesus says no,

We don’t, we need to be with the least, Eat with them,

Mingle with them, Love them, count our selves among them,

and with our generosity show them Gods healing love.

Father God

For me, my relationship with God has been an interesting journey, we have ebbed back and forth through times of real closeness and times of doubt and distance. But lately through some revelations, and tears my closeness with God seems to be back, bringing me out of the darkness of doubt into the light of love. Realizing that God has the same love for us and me that I have for my own children, I just think of when each of my kids were born, they came out, still covered in that new born film all slippery and slimy, I held them in my arms and I felt this love come over me just totally pure not because of something they did but just because they were there. This love is almost unexplainable, but it is real, really real. Placing that knowledge of God as our father at the center of my life, really brings me peace about my own father and the fact of who my true father is, the one is with me all of the time, the one who when I listen will guide me.

A song of Peace

an amazing song of Peace by Esther Sparks......

The reason for the season...

LOVE

Love, what a wonderful, hard, blessed, difficult, gratifying thing. It is so hard to live in and fulfill with in our lives, its that one thing that keeps us from being the people that we truly are, its the one law that Jesus said would set us free. Its the one thing that I believe is going to save the world but still it is the one thing that I can't seem to keep in focus all of the time. LOVE. It seems so easy to say but how many of us truly live it out within all of our relationships, LOVE, the Beatles say its easy, and its all you need, I agree on the latter but the former has me thinking. I feel that when I focus on my self (which seems to come real easy, maybe because of how I was raised, I don't know) the LOVING part becomes something that I really have to struggle to choose, but as soon as I do, I'll have to say the Beatles have it right, its easy. Its natural, and that's why I know its how we are made to be. Another one of my favorite music groups "Noah and the Whale", has a line in one of their songs "Peaceful" it goes like this;" if you don't believe in God, then how can you believe in LOVE, because if we are all just matter, that will one day scatter, when the world lays us down". I think that what they are trying to say is that LOVE is real, and if LOVE is real, than God has to be real as well. Well I would like to end on the immortal words of Lennon/McCartney, "LOVE, LOVE, LOVE; LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, its easy, all you need is LOVE, LOVE is all you need, LOVE is all you need."

Winter Time

The winter is here and I am loving it the feeling of the woodstove and cozying up together as a family, it just warms my heart. Sometimes I just feel like that is enough, that I am complete, I don't know it just feels right, it feels good. There is something about the cold, when you go outside and can only stand it for a short while, and you come in amazed at how warm the house is. I know that everyone doesn't agree with me but I love it. And not to mention Christmas. Enjoy my favorite musician and his wonderful song. He just makes me happy. I hope he does the same for you.

To own a dragon..

I just recently bought the book "To Own a Dragon" by Don Miller, this book is about growing up with out a father. Which is one of the greatest struggles of my whole life, I did have a father up until I was 14, but I have to say that he was not much of one when he was around. He was an alcoholic, and very depressed and mostly absent as a father. So in my life learning how to be a father and a husband, which I decided to become early on (to my great joy), has been a tremendous uphill climb for me, I have hurt people along the way, and for that I am truly sorry, my short comings have put my family in a place where we struggle with the simple things that for most people come natural and easy. This book has opened things in my own heart that I thought that I was over but realize that I have just pushed down. It is so hard to face and accept what God has given, the good and the bad, which I think that enter mingle with each other like a spiders web, the spider web of our life. I think that even people with the best upbringings have interspersed within them difficult times. I think that all of these things have to do with our disconnection from God, i e the fall of humanity. Not having a in touch father to me has such a bearing on being able to be in touch with the true father, relying on God is so hard when you aren't sure that he is able to be in touch with you, or in the back of your mind even wants to. I so hope that I can give my children the father that I did not have, so hopefully they won't have to struggle with these same things that I have such a hard time with. And I also so hope that I can overcome this so that I can give my wife the husband that she has always wished for. Is this a struggle for anyone out there, I wonder am I alone? If anyone who reads this has any words of fatherly wisdom to impart please leave a comment, I would love to read them.