What do I Know of Holy

Before you get any further in this blog, I ask that you follow the below link and listen to this song. The remainder of this blog will hinge around the lyrics to this song. Also, keep the song open because we will be going back and forth to it.

WATCH THIS SONG FIRST!

I won't take up a ton of space by posting the lyrics to this song, but I do want to delve into some of lyrics and back them up with verses from the bible. I heard this song for the first time last fall and I instantly loved it. However, I have going through a big worship music kick for the past few weeks, and this song keeps sticking out to me. So I figured I would write about it. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to share and breakdown the song by Addison Road, "What Do I Know of Holy."

I want to start the deep dive with the second line "I tried to hear from heaven, but I talked the whole time." Right away, I am drawn in because this is such a neat image. Obviously, not being able to hear from Heaven because we are "talking" the whole time is not a good image, but it's a perfect way to describe our actions. We are quick to pin our lack of hearing on God, claiming that He isn't answering our prayers, or even going as far as saying that He isn't listening. But how often do we take a step back and realize that the problem is with us. That we are talking so much that we block out what God is trying to say to us. Let's see what the Bible has to say about this.

A few blogs ago, I talked about James 1:21, and I think it's interesting because the first verse that I want to turn to is James 1:19. It reads:

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry."

God calls us to listen first and then speak. Yet we so often do it the other way around. I also wanted to cite 1st Kings 19:11-13 which reads:

"The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave."

As we see here, so many times we expect God to meet us or speak to us in the same level of sound that we are making as we seek him. Yet as Elijah found out, God does not choose to speak in the power of a storm, but in the quiet of a whisper. Let's make sure that we are not talking the whole time as we try to hear from Heaven.

The second part of this song that really gets me are the next two lines: "I think I made you too small. I never feared you at all." How often do we confine God to our circumstances? When are we going to realize that our God is not a God of our circumstances. He is the maker of the galaxies, the Alpha and the Omega, the great I AM. Yet we can only see Him as this small God, trapped within the boundaries of what is going on in our lives. When we do this, we are showing that we really don't fear God at all. This is kind of a silly analogy, but how many of us would put a wild tiger in our cars? I'd like to think probably nobody. The reason we won't is because we know how dangerous tigers can be, especially in a small trapped place like your car. And obviously, our fear for tigers should not be the same as our fear of God, but do we realize that the phrase "Fear God" is used 10 times throughout scripture. The phrase "fear the Lord," is used 30 separate times. Obviously, God was trying to get something across here. Deuteronomy 6:24 shows a perfect example of what it means to fear the Lord, and why we should.

"The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today"

So one way that we can fear the Lord is to give Him our obedience in everything that we do. Why must we fear the Lord? So that we might always prosper and be kept alive. Think about that! A fear of the Lord is what keeps us alive. Have we ever even considered that or are we so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to fear the Lord?

The next part of the song that I want to talk about are the lines, "I knew all the stories, and I learned to talk about how you were mighty to save, but those were only empty words on a page." This hits right at home for me and I am interested to see how you all react to it. There are some of us who spend time in the word, know all the right things to say, but we don't really mean it. We don't live our lives in a manner that reflects our dedication to Jesus Christ. We read and we know that God is Mighty to Save, but we don't apply that to our lives. It's like the comforts of this world entice us and blind us from the need for a Savior in our lives. Take these verses into consideration:

"The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

"I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you."

Psalm 119:11

The first verse again emphasizes God's power and His might, but the second verse is where we tend to stray. We read verse after verse about God's grace, love, and power, but we so easily forget to hide His word in our hearts. That is the key. We must not only read, but read and do. Read and live our lives bases on God's commands.

The final part of the song that I want to talk about are the lines: "Then I caught a glimpse of who you might be. The slightest hint of you, brought me down to my knees." I think that this is such an amazing image. It is soooo powerful and soo true. God is magnificent. He is all knowing, perfect, just, loving, glorious, and worthy of all of our praise. He is. He is so holy. So holy that only the slightest hint of Him is enough to drive us to our knees. How do we at times go day after day without even considering the Holiness of God? This lyric brings images into my head of the second coming of Christ and of the verse Romans 14:11

It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

That is all that I have for today! I hope that you guys listened to the song before you read this blog or else most of it probably didn't make any sense. But, I pray that everyone can get something out of these words and that God will use this blog to His awe-inspiring glory. Have a great saturday!

Buried and Risen with Christ,

Signing off,

JD

The Mask

So often the people who try to give advice
are standing on the outside looking in
with their fairytale solutions that are obviously pretend.

Why do we listen to these scoffers and hecklers
when they decide to assume the character
of the wise advised oracle, dying to be the narrator?
See it’s an eye for an eye or so people say,
but the citizens of this time want a voice
yet they are too afraid to stand up next their choices.
You can’t steal a voice, and you can’t trade it either.
So many of us have tried but it’s never been done
because the search for an alternate you isn’t fun.
Well it can be for a spell, but we all know that’s magic.
When you stand at the edge of the cliff looking down,
there’s no tricks or allusions when its swim or be drown.
It’s a fight for the very essence of life.
We are so willing to hide behind a mask of a lie,
even though we can’t see we would rather be blind.
I can’t boast and say that I’m better than ‘us,’
on my wall there is mask after mask,
and I’ve stood at the edge of the cliff in the past.
I know what it’s like to believe in that flight;
to trod with my feet bound in chains up that mountain,
so desperate for the world to call me a ‘count in.’

Nobody likes to be counted out or cast away,
it’s a comedy how our differences make us unique,
but the joke’s on the audience as they laugh at the ‘geeks.’
A simple stutter can make you relish your speech,
as a gait in your trot makes every step an adventure,
this is just my thesis now I’ll get to the clincher.
So listen up while you can and look across the water,
there’s other mountains, with people atop seemingly just like you,
and they never even realize they’re within a telescopic view.
So take your mask and ablaze it like a beacon of hope,
even in the dark of the life we call ours,
a strand of light can ignite the remainder of stars.
It’s time we stood up and claimed our own shadow.
When we remove our masks and finally glance around,
we see we’re not the only ones throwing our blindness to the ground.
There’s now a turn in the tide, known as a driving aspiration.
No longer does the whisper of society take hold,
we’ve addressed our inner mess, and we’ve broke the potter’s mold.
Our conversations are now not dominated by a fake smile,
and authenticity exudes from every once muffled word
without the mask to block the passage we can finally be heard.
So let us loose a roar that will break through the sky.
Yet so often we allow our dreams to fade away too soon;
let’s ride this rocket of redemption all the way to the moon.
In a society that idolizes the concept of perfection,
we’re armed with our differences to fight against the scrutiny;
we’ve come together in our oddities to raise a misfit mutiny.
To dispel a misconception: freedom isn’t free,
if we pursue a mask-less life, then we better be prepared,
for harshness of their judgments is best exampled in their stares.
The world wields the weapons of temptation and a shield of gossip
and you best be on you guard at every passing hour,
your heartbeat drums to the chimes of the unwinding clock tower.
When the night is darkest, and you seem to be surrounded,
take up the flag of individuality and plant it in the soil,
you are a beautiful creation, to yourself be ever loyal.
We are hand drawn by The Architect who sketched the galaxies,
yet we believe our imperfections are His erasure shavings;
but the truth is, He drew in pen; our ink is never-fading.
See we are designed in the only image worthy of perfection,
so as we shuffle through our masks, wishing to better our physique
do we realize that we’re concealing the very thing that we seek.
It’s safe to say that sincerity has become a lost art these days.
Can we transform our outward expression to reflect what’s deep within?
We’re so ready to make a change, yet so hesitant to begin.
The road up the mountain is deceivingly wide,
but as we perch at the top looking over the way we came,
a return trip’s too dangerous through the rugged terrain.
And the worst thing about our masks is we pretend we don’t care
because if we cared we would have to acknowledge our need
for a radical change in the cores of our beliefs.
In most of our realities, our cares are dominated by other’s thoughts.
We care so much about what others say and think
that we allow the world to puppeteer us right up to the brink.
As we dance to our desires we realize happiness is fleeting.
Who we are now doesn’t match who we thought we’d be.
It’s a scary thought, but in a mask, you’re no longer me.
and you’re no longer you; instead you’re just a painted face.
What’s even scarier is we think every change was sacrifice,
like we were laying ourselves down to absorb some better life.
We error in our constant self-centered approach.
But don’t we get it: we don’t have to lay ourselves down
to the world, because there was a man who laid down His crown.
He laid down more that we can ever imagine,
including death in it’s grave; He took on all our worry
so that one day we could stand before the Father in His glory.
It’s not the mask who will be judged, but the person underneath;
in that moment every mask we had will not be able to hide
the thoughts conceived and the actions we’ve exemplified.
So let us rid ourselves of our masks and re-adjust our eyes;
for that one-day when the skies erupt in a flood of golden light,
we want to bend our knees, confess, and SEE that we’re riding home with Christ.

Signing Off,

JD

The Big 40! "Salvation-Garden"

This is my fortieth blog post and I just wanted to thank all of the people that read and make this blog what it is! When I started writing at the beginning of my freshman year, I never envisioned that I would still be scribbling down my thoughts today. From the beginning, my blogs started out a bit sporadic, and now more recently, they have found a center around the scripture and message of Jesus Christ. I love being able to share the thoughts and input that God puts on my heart, and my prayer is that anyone who reads this would be able to see the light of God shining through these words.

So, I just returned from my family excursion to Europe, and wow was that challenging. It was simply amazing, but having to navigate and 'live' in a country where you don't speak any of the language can cause some serious problems. When I returned home, I had a letter waiting for me from one of my best friends and future roommate Shane McGraw. It was great to hear from him, but what was really neat was the verse that he closed the letter with. It was James 1:21. I have studied James numerous times, each with a varying level of depth, but for some reason, that verse had never stuck out to me. This simple fact cracked a huge smile across my face because I love the depth of the bible. You can read a certain book over and over and still not get everything from it. At any moment, a verse can reveal a new meaning that you had never seen or understood before. And that is what happened with James 1:21. I was so inspired by this verse that I decided I should blog about it. So today, on my fortieth blog post, we will be delving into the book of James, chapter one, verse twenty-one.

Of course, I will begin by posting the verse:

²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

(NIV)

As indicated below the verse, this is the NIV version. When doing some research on a particular verse, one of the things I commonly like to do is look at the verse in different translations, just to see if anything new jumps out at me. On this particular verse, I was caught by The Message translation, so I will post that version also. I will be conducting the rest of this blog based mainly on The Message version, with a few tie backs to the NIV.

^19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

I know that this is James 1:19-21, but I wanted to get the full effect of James 1:21, so I included the two prior verses. Let's begin the breakdown.

In The Message version, the phrase "all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil," immediately jumps out at me. This is an interesting translation of the "moral filth" that James talks about in the NIV version. The first of these two filths is all of our "spoiled virtue" which is an awesome way to describe some of the garbage that is so prevalent in our lives. So many of us know the right way to act, and the right choices to make. In other words, we are virtuous people by nature. We have a desire to act in accordance with God's word, and we yearn to bring glory to Him by our actions. However, because we are human, some of that virtue that we possess becomes "spoiled" by our sin. We fade away, drifting from the Hand of Him who provides for our every need. So, one of the areas that we need to be looking out for in our individual lives is all of our spoiled virtue. Make sure to ask God for forgiveness in the areas that you are seeking him, but fall short (Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.") This was an interesting reminder of what exactly we need forgiveness for.

The next phrase that really stood out to me in The Message translation was "In simple humility." Since when has humility ever been simple? So many of us including myself struggle with the act of being humble, especially before God. Yet here, James calls us to act in "simple humility." So what does that look like? I think that it looks like two things. I have been doing a study through the book of Isaiah, and I love the way that he puts it in Isaiah 55:8-9. He says:

"8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord.

9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

I thought that this was an incredible call for our humility. Do we stop and think about what God is saying in these verses? Everything about God is so much higher and holier than we could ever wrap our minds around. So in reality, being humble should be something that is simple. "In simple humility" starts with a realization of how much more God is, and from that realization you move onto the second step, and that is the intentional laying down of ones self, not for personal gain, but because you are filled with the knowledge of the what life could be in Christ. When we do these two things, being humble in the presence of Christ is the easiest thing to do in the world.

Finally, this verse ends in fantastic fashion. "let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life." I don't know about you, but the picture of God as a gardener landscaping us with the Word makes me smile and want to dance in praise. It is so encouraging! The fact that God cares enough about us to make a "SALVATION-GARDEN" of our lives is like mind-blowing to me. This feeling is so overwhelming that I really can't even begin to put it into words. So I am just going to let you sit here and let it sink in a bit. If you can, spend a few minutes dwelling in those words. Simply amazing.

That's all I have for this blog. Thanks for tuning in, and for breaking down James 1:21 with me. Remember to rely on God with all of your cares and worries today. "If you knock, the door will be opened." Have a terrrrific Thursday and a great start to your weekend tomorrow!

Buried and Risen in Christ,

Signing Off,

JD

The Sea Of Compassion

The Sea

You made the light that burns at the skies collide

with the waves that are crashing in my life.

And as I walk on the water of your grace,

my sea of sin swirls and rises in my disgrace.

But the depth of your ocean is the depth of your love

no matter the storm, you are always enough.

So as the rain drives around, I will stretch my arms wide

I'm in your Sea of compassion; you're the God who provides.

Hey all! I am currently sitting on a hotel bed in Barcelona, Spain and it is past 1 a.m. in the morning. Since it is only 7 back home, I want to say have a wonderful rest of your Fourth of July night! The picture above was taken from the beach in Barcelona, and while the picture gives everyone an update as to what I am up to, it also ties nicely into my blog topic for today, and that is the Sea of Compassion! I have been thinking a lot about this concept, and last night I wrote out some lyrics to a song that I am going to finish sometime in the near future, but I posted the lyrics that I do have underneath the picture!

SO everyday, I try to read a quick devotional by Oswald Chambers in his book "My Utmost for His Highest." The material in these devotionals is really great stuff, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to check it out. You can even read the devotional online for the technologically advanced. Anyways, the devotional for July 4th was really good and I wanted to take the chance to post some of what it said on here. If you want to read the whole thing, once again, you can find it online.

"My Utmost for His Highest" - Oswald Chambers

July 4th, 2011

'One of God's Great "Don'ts"'

"Do not fret - it only causes harm" (Psalm 37:8)

It is easy to say, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7) until our own little world is turned upside down and we are forced to live in confusion and agony like so many other people.

Resting in the Lord is not dependent on your external conditions at all, but on your relationship with God Himself.

Worrying always results in sin. We tend to think that a little anxiety and worry are simply an indication of how wise we really are, yet it is actually a much better indication of just how wicked we are. Fretting rises from our determination to have our own way.

Set all of your opinions and speculations aside and "abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1). Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about whatever concerns you. All of our fretting and worrying is caused by planning without God.

I think that these concepts that Ozzie (Oswald Chambers) discusses are right on. When I think of this, my mind constantly returns to three main points: obedience, trust, and compassion.

The first thing that we must realize is the absolute necessity of being obedient to God. If we are obedient to God's will in our lives, we should not have to worry. Which leads to the second point and that is trust. We can be as obedient as we want, but unless we trust in our hearts with everything that we are that our obedience will result in plans that prosper and do not harm us, then we are missing the whole picture. And finally, I think of compassion, or for the sake of this blog, "the sea of compassion." We realize that even though we crave to be obedient to God, and even though we trust and know that His plan is the right one, we are unable to manage to follow through with our obedience and our trust. That is where God's compassion comes into the picture. There are so many times where we simply fall short of God's glory. In those times, it is his compassion that brings us back.

Those are just some quick thoughts for you on this wonderful Fourth of July. Take the chance today to praise God for the countless blessings that He has put into your life. If you actually stop and think about it, I guarantee you will realize more and more how He has provided and shown up, even in the smallest of matters. Thanks for reading and if you need me, I'll be relaxing on the beach, with my arms open wide, ready to set sail on God's Sea of Compassion!

Hasta Luego Amigos,

Singing off,

JD

Community

So.. the audio and the video didn't really turn out the best, and in the video, my mouth doesn't keep up with what I'm saying. So, if you would, don't focus on the actual video but on what I am saying! Thanks.

Dream big. Pray big. Believe Big.

If you have any prayer requests or just requests for future topics, please let me know in the comments below!

Signing off,

JD

One Sacrifice

Hello and good day to anyone and everyone who may stumble across this blog. Today, I am going to be talking about a neat topic, and it's a thinker, so just warning you ahead of time. Before I begin, I would like to give a quick shout out to my friend Blair Wong who is now blogging again! She writes some really good stuff, so if you want to check that out just go to blairrhymeswithflair.blogspot.com. You won't regret it!

Initiation sequence in 5...4...3...2...1...

How is everyone doing? Enjoying summer break? I hope so and I am excited to hear the stories from everyone when we see each other next. This summer I have been experiencing a pretty strange feeling, and I am not sure what to make of it. Part of me actually wants school to start back up again. Not the classes and everything, but just being on campus and being with the friends and family that all of us college students have made. I mean summer break is awesome and I am totally not wishing that it would end; however, I do have that desire to go back up to school. It's strange.

With introductionary (I made up this word) things aside, I want to get into the real core of this blog which is outlined by the title "One Sacrifice." Today, I am going to write some of the things that God has put on my heart about the verse Hebrews 10:14, and for those of you who aren't familiar with this verse (don't worry I had to look it up too), here it is, NIV 1984 version:

"For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."

Hebrews 10:14

I don't know about you but this verse gives me goosebumps. It is such a powerful message crammed into this tiny sentence of just fifteen words. I am going to go through and break down some of the things that stand out to me in this verse, and then because I can't leave you without trying to make you really think, I am going to write about how this verse challenged me and how I think it should challenge you. Alrighty, call in the wrecking ball, it's time for a breakdown.

The first thing that instantly jumps out at me is the third word and that is "one." This word kind of has a double meaning in this context, and what I mean by that is the fact that it is seemingly so simple, but at the same time it is monumental. If you were to read only the first four words, "For by one sacrifice," you may think why is there only one sacrifice? That seems a bit lackluster. The bible calls us to be cheerful givers, but here Christ is only giving one sacrifice. But as you and I continue to read, we realize the importance and incredible weight of this one sacrifice. For it was by this one sacrifice that Christ made us perfect FOREVER. This verse is not something that is claiming that Christ only had to make one sacrifice throughout his life; but on the contrary, Christ's entire life was his sacrifice. I believe that too many people think that the only sacrifice Christ made was on the cross at Golgotha. This is the most prominent image of Christ's sacrifice, but when we think about it, Christ laid down his Glory, laid down his power, and laid down His seat at the right hand of God the very moment that He was formed in Mary's womb. When Christ became like man, He began the process of the ultimate sacrifice, which was completed as He hung on the cross and yelled, "It is finished." What a powerful image that is. That's the first thing that I wanted to bring up.

Coming around the turn in second place are the words, "he has made perfect forever." We have such a misconception of time, that it is scary. Our world functions on efficiency, rapidity, and speed. Have we ever even attempted to stop and think about what forever is. Through our everyday language and vernacular, we have desensitized specific words, and one of those words is forever. We so commonly throw around the phrase, "I'll love you forever," but in reality, the only person that we can truly love forever is Jesus Christ, because He is the only one who can sustain a relationship that lasts forever. One of the coolest things about this verse is that it defines the condition of how that forever relationship will be. In our lives, we all have our good times and our bad times. We know how awesome we feel in those good times, and we also know how miserable we feel in the bad times. But can you even begin to imagine what it will be like when there are no bad times. When by Christ's sacrifice, He has made us perfect. And He hasn't made us perfect for a day or a week, but forever. Because God loves us so much, He provides us a way to overcome our sin and share in a perfect relationship with Him for the rest of time. How amazing is that? I mean that gets me fired up.

The third and final thing that I want to pull out of this verse is the phrase, "those who are being made holy." So here we are and we are feeling pretty good because we just found out that through Christ's sacrifice we are going to be perfect forever. Forever. And then these words close off the verse, and it is almost like a reality check. We still have all the right in the world to be as excited about the fact that we get to be apart of perfection for eternity; however, as these last words mention, we also need to realize that we are still "being made holy." Not one of us is Holy enough to be able to stand before God by ourselves. We are constantly undergoing this process of sanctification, and we are constantly being made more and more holy through God's grace. Yes we have that perfect forever, but not now. We are all still mired in sin, mired in temptation. But what we do have right now is hope and knowledge. We are daily encouraged by the fact that when we stand before God, we will not need a list of our deeds, because when we as believers of Christ, stand before the Father, we get a perfect list, paid in full by the blood of His son. We witnessed perfection two thousand and some odd years ago, and we will witness it again on that Judgement day.

Now I want to touch really quickly on the challenging part (not to say that any of the above wasn't informational or challenging, but this is the direct challenge!) After reading and re-reading this verse, a question continued to form in my mind, and that was : "what is my one sacrifice?" Obviously, our sacrifices are not the same as Jesus, and they are not even necessarily the same as the people around us. However, we the ability to make a sacrifice for God. The only question is what is that going to be? For some of, we need to focus on strengthening our relationships with our enemies, which is a sacrifice. Some of us need to know the feeling of sacrificing personal finance on a paycheck to paycheck basis. Others may need to know or learn what it means to sacrifice for a friend. Whatever your sacrifice is, I encourage you to seek it out and pursue it. Romans 12:1 says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." Offering up our "one sacrifice" to God is our true and proper worship. So my challenge is that you would pray about what your "one sacrifice" would be, and then ask God how He wants you to better His kingdom through your sacrifice.

What a powerful verse. Thanks for tuning in to my thoughts this week. Remember to pray continuously and without stopping. If you knock, the door will be opened. Have a great rest of your week!

Signing off,

JD

Turning it All Around

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last blogpost, but I have been spending a lot of time with friends and a lot of time outside so I am not really on the computer much. I hope all of your summers are going simply splendid, and I can't wait to hear some of the awesome stories that will result from summer 2011. As some may know, I had the privilege of going on the Chicago Vision Trip with Purdue Christian Campus House at the beginning of this summer. We went and stayed for a week, and some of the things we did and the memories we made are going to be with me forever. More recently, I was asked if I would give a short speech at Purdue Christian Campus House about the trip and some of the things that I learned. As I was thinking back over some of the things that I learned and some of the ways that God showed himself to me, my first realization was that I had a lot more to say than I thought. My second realization was that other people need to a deserve to hear what God had showed me during that week. So that's how we get here. This blogpost may be a bit long, but stay with it. Because in the end, it's definitely worth it.

God can do nothing for me until I realize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing him to do the impossible.

Oswald Chambers

So in breaking down my trip, I want to touch on three main things that God really moved on in my heart. They are testimony, evangelism, and comparison. We'll start with testimony.

On the second day that we were in Chicago, we were given the opportunity to drive downtown and go to Pacific Garden Mission, which is a homeless shelter centered around the gospel. We were fortunate enough to have a tour guide come and show us around the entire mission, and man was there a lot to see. The way that Christ was working in that building was phenomenal and it was so neat to see others obeying the call of the Lord in actively running this mission. About halfway through the tour, our tour guide, who had been a delight up until then, stops us in an upstairs room and begins to tell us his testimony. He talked about growing up, going to college, and then finding himself getting into some pretty bad stuff. He went on to describe his lifestyle and some of the poor choices that he had made. And then talks about how Jesus pulled him out of all of his sin and all of his despair. You could feel our group's excitement as we stood and took in the story of the true power of Jesus. Then, he said that the Lord rescued him last August. That's really when our jaws started to hit the floor. I don't know if you have ever experienced this before, but you could spiritually feel the power of his testimony as he spoke it. We were all stirred by the man's story, but it wasn't until later that night that I realized that something about it was bothering me, and that God was using this man's story to point out something in my own life. I brought it up to the group at discussion time, and I was to bring it up again now. I speak for myself and for the group when I say that for most of us, our opinion or our view of the tour guide changed or was affected by his testimony. The thing that was bothering me was this nagging question: would my viewpoint have changed the same way if his testimony wouldn't have been so dramatic?

I realized that for me, the answer was no. This was something that I had never even really considered, but in that moment, God used this man's testimony to teach me in an area that I needed to improve. He reached out and He showed me that there is a power in a testimony, no matter what it is, and that power is the redeeming love of Christ. We are all sinners, and we all need God's grace. There is no sin that is worse than the other, so when we compare testimonies, the only thing we should see is the fact that God's grace was enough to overcome the sin that was in each person's life.

This is a good transition into my next point which is comparison. During the week, we had the amazing opportunity to listen to Joel Hammernick (the leader of Sunshine Gospel Ministries) speak on topics like poverty, racism, and peace. One of the things that Joel also talked about that I couldn't shake was the topic of comparison. I don't have the direct quotes from Joel, but I can paraphrase a lot of what he said. I still don't have the answers about how we deal this situation, but I know that it is something that we can only hope to accomplish with God's wisdom and guidance. So here is what Joel had to say about comparison. This shook me, and I hope it does the same to you.

The first fact that we have to realize is that we live in a comparative world. We grow up and become adults under constant comparison. Do you play sports; which college do you go to; how much money do you make; do you drive a nice car? All these questions are comparisons to other people or things. It has become the way of life, the reason for things that we do in life, and the motivation behind our aspirations. The second fact that we have to realize is that there was no place in the creation story for comparison. God intended for us to live in perfect harmony with Him, with ourselves, with others, and with nature. Instead, that plan became altered when sin entered the picture. Soon after, we began comparing with the story of Cain and Able, and we haven't stopped since. But do we ever stop to think about the consequences of comparing. When we compare ourselves or any of our possessions to that of anyone else, we are more than likely to get one of two responses. Either we realize that in what we are comparing, we are "better," and that easily leads to a sense of pride or egotism. Or the other option is that we realize that in what we are comparing, we are "worse," and that can lead to a sense of depression or insatisfaction. God made us IN HIS IMAGE. He made us perfect, what more do we need to compare to? When we stand before God on judgement day, we don't need a list of how we were better or worse than someone else. We don't need a list of our good works either. Philippians three talks about being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So let us be clothed. Let us bask in this righteousness and let our hearts move away from a lifestyle of constant comparison.

Imagine the world that God envisioned for us: a world where instead of instantly jumping to compare, we jumped to praise of the gifts that God has given each of us. Instead of complaining about how "Tom" is so much better of a guitar player than we will ever be, why don't praise God for blessing "Tom" with a musical gift? Instead of feeling prideful, do we ever turn to God and thank him for the gifts that he has given each and every one of us? I struggle with this daily, and like I said earlier, there is no easy fix or answer to this. It is a day-by-day battle, and our only hope is to put on the armor of God.

To wrap up, I want to talk a little bit about what God taught me about evangelism while I was in Chicago. On multiple days, our group was able to go into the city and simply talk with people about life. One night, during one of Joel's messages, I remember him saying something very clearly that I rocked me, but it makes perfect sense. He said:

"You will never minister effectively to someone that you think less of."

Being a freshman at Purdue, I was blessed with an amazing group of friends and a fantastic community rooted in Christ. However, one of the things that we constantly struggled with was this idea of what does evangelism look like on a college campus? God calls us to live our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel, but how do we go beyond that? This quote from Joel is a good place to start.

In fact, it's the only place to start. Too often we go into evangelism with this mindset that we the envangelis-er have some wisdom or knowledge to impart on the evangel-ee. Like we are above the person and we having to help or save somebody. Rather, we should realize that every time we evangelize, we are doing so out of Christ's Love. Do we ever stop to think about how much the person we are evangelizing to can teach us? In fact, there are countless stories of people who go to evangelize and come out of the experience being the one who just got "taught a lesson."

If you made it this far, I thank you for your patience. I hope that you can get something out of these things that God put on my heart. Have a great rest of the week.

Buried and Risen in Christ,

Signing off,

JD