A Realization

I suppose this post is not so much something to teach, but share. Like anyone, I become easily dismayed, with this blog included. I suppose I know nothing I can say is new or revolutionary, so I wonder why bother.
But I am not called to wonder whether or not my posts are wonderful or new, but if it's truthful and possibly helpful. I may not be the first to say what I say, but I may be the first to say it that you know of. So in that way I have said something that you may have never heard before, despite others saying it, because you have not heard of them.
It may seem like a small consolation  but it is enough. To know one person could be affected by something I write is enough to do so. Besides, like I alluded to, I have an obligation to write of such things.

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

(1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV)

Personal Story: God Holding Me Secure

I've struggled for a long time with fairly crippling sadness and self-loathing. I can't say this is "depression" as I have never gone to get it checked out, but it is something I have experienced for a long time, fading in and out as it sees fit. Saturday night I had one of these experiences that flowed into Sunday. I was supposed to hang out with my fiance, but she was working on a project the whole time. I blamed it on that. But as it progressed I realized more and more this was simply a trigger. I started to feel worthless, unnecessary, and desired nothing more than to sleep and wallow. Even the next morning, I found it hard to get out of bed and at church couldn't help: I still longed for my bed or couch to simply lie there with no real purpose.

My loving fiance, being the great encouragement she is, reminded me I should read my Bible and spend time with God. This was obviously not what I wanted to do so I resisted, but it did remind me of something I tweeted just the day before.

This was meant as simply a general reminder, but oh how it spoke to me then! The link points to these verses: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6-7 ESV) Well you can imagine I felt incredibly silly knowing I had just attempted to encourage my few Twitter followers to find their comfort and foundation in Christ and here I was wallowing and letting myself feel worthless for no reason. But here in Colossians, I was reminded to keep Christ as my root and base so I could be secure in the sturdiest of foundations, not wavering with slight upsets but overflowing with praise for him.

The rest of the night God used to plant my feet firmly back in his grace and love. The youth group I am blessed to help at had a big event. I got to see a number of students who are serious about Christ worship and serve him to create this opportunity for our pastor Bill to rightly share the Gospel with many new faces. The Father put me right in the middle of a dire situation for a student, not to prove myself or make me look good, but to remind me and those involved that he is deserving of glory and he has not left us on Earth by accident. I was reminded of one of my favorite verses, which God has used countless times to pull me out of this sense of worthlessness and purposelessness to a right knowledge of his calling and decision to use me specifically. It reads "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10 ESV) Paul, in his letter to Ephesus, just finishes famously explaining that we are saved by God's grace through our faith, which itself is a gift from him. Immediately after, here in verse 10, he explains that God saved and made us new creations to do good things for God and his Kingdom. However, these are not a general calling, but specific things that he prepared already. I was not saved from my sinful nature to simply die and go to be with God one day. I was not saved to, in general, work for God wherever I happen to find the opportunity. I was saved for specific, planned events that God designed for me, Garrett DeMeyer, to do for his glory. Helping that student through a rough patch Sunday night was not something that was an accident or an after thought: Before time began, God planned for me to be there, help him, and to bring God glory in it all.

If you are a Christian, this is true of you too. Or if you ever realize you are a slave to sin (like the rest of us) and can only reach God and true joy through Christ Jesus, knowing he loved you enough to die and to three days later rise again, paying for your sins so you could have a relationship with the Father, this will be true of you as well. Everyone who puts this trust in Jesus' sacrifice has good works planned out for them by God. Do not dare to say you don't have a purpose, do not dare to let the stones cry out in praise instead, when this is true of you, Christian.

What's With All These Rules?

It's a question we all have had and heard some variation of: "What is with all the rules of Christianity?" The situation is fueled by the 613 commands that make up the Law found in the Old Testament, not to mention any other reiterations, warnings, charges, and challenges issued throughout the Bible. "But," you may say, "I heard that Christianity is a relationship with God. What do rules have to do with relationship?" This is a legitimate question and one someone should ask if they find themselves questioning the reason for such rules or the importance of a Law in a relationship. One response a person may offer is that these rules don't matter since Jesus came. In short, this is a flat out ignoring of what Jesus himself said (I recently wrote about this, so I'll brush over it for now). There is a more correct response, and it follows from the basic idea of opposites.

Let's picture our spiritual world as one of polar opposites, which I think is a legitimate way to think of it. Hot is in an exact opposite place as cold, beautiful far from ugly, and good is set obviously apart from evil. If I am cold, I have two options: I can run away from the coldness, or run toward the warmth. In a similar way, if I'm caught in evil I have the same options, run from it or run toward the opposite, good. However, one is easier than the other.

To add to this picture, we can think of a race. While running, do you think an athlete runs from last place or runs toward first? How effective is it to flee the starting line versus running toward the finish line? If you have seen me, you know I am no athlete, but even I know a better result comes from seeking first than simply wishing not to be left at start.

We see the same themes sewn beautifully throughout the Bible. In Paul's letters to Timothy, a young leader he was training up, he is careful to charge him with the idea of flee/pursue. In his first letter, Paul explains to his student the dangers of false teachers and their desire to earn wealth by godliness. He continues:

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
(1 Timothy 6:11-12 ESV)

He does not simply say "do not sin," but rather "run toward the things of God." In fact, he emphasizes the eternal life Timothy has as a motivation, not one of simply following commands but one of seeking the prize, seeking God.

In his second letter, Paul tells Timothy to be worthy of the work God has called him to. "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2:22 ESV) Here we again see flee/pursue: Do not just run from sin, but it is more effective to run toward God and his purpose.

Lately, I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) with a couple students from our youth group. Constantly, I read Jesus' words, not simply correcting our views of commands, pointing us to their original intentions, but stressing the motivation. One of my favorite places he illustrates this is near the end of chapter 6. Wrapping up his instructions on worrying, Jesus tells the reader to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 ESV) Notice, the first thing we seek is not to avoid worrying. How could we seek that first? Our human nature gives us no basis to abstain from anxiousness and we need Christ to accomplish this for us. Therefore, we must seek him and his kingdom before we can cease unhealthy amounts of worry. Like illustrated earlier, it is more effective to pursue the goal than to flee the starting point. By seeking the end, we are simultaneously running from the start more excellently.

I hope it is clear I do not mean to say that it excuses us to sin by saying we should seek God and his kingdom first. One cannot rightly say "I am pursuing righteousness, and so I do not need to consciously flee from sin. These sins do not matter because of my focus on God." The contradictory, idiotic nature of this statement should be obvious. Furthermore, did the one thinking this erase the first half of 1 Timothy 6:11 and 2 Timothy 2:22 from their Bible? The Bible still clearly teaches us to flee sin. However, we must not forget its emphasis on pursuing God first in a more effective and complete way to live a righteous life worthy of our calling.

Think on this: In what ways are you neglecting to pursue God? Where could you learn to live more effectively for and by Christ by shifting your focus from simply running from a sin to running toward God first?

The Great Commandment

I had the distinct pleasure of speaking at my church's youth group again a few weeks ago. The direction given to me was "living by faith" with a picture of a heart, one arrow pointed up and another out, symbolizing how the Christian should love God and others as a result of their faith. Immediately I was drawn to the Great Commandment and its implications for the saved and even those who do not understand the Gospel. The Bible teaches us we are not deserving of God, or even trying to deserve him, but that he decided to set his love upon us. So he sent his son, Jesus, who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose three days later, to pay for our sins. Now those who are able to trust in him and want to live for him will spend eternity in life with God, not the Hell we deserve.

There lies a truth many do not understand or they outright reject: we must want to live for Christ Jesus. Someone who professes faith and claims salvation should question their claims (with a mentor, a pastor, prayerfully) if they say "I am saved, so I can live for myself/however I want/for the pleasures of the world." Maybe this is you, but you've been told it is alright by a pastor or leader of some sort. Why should you believe me over them? What do I have that they don't? There is no reason and I have nothing. However, what you should believe, if you are a Christian, is the Bible. Never take anyone at their word, but check their truthfulness against the error-less Word of God.

Here is a passage from Matthew 22 for us to consider:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:34-40 ESV)

There are different accounts of similar teachings in other books of the Bible, but I noticed something about this instance in Matthew. The first couple verses are a counter-example of what Christ is about to teach us. For those unaware, the Pharisees and Sadducees were two competing teachers of Jewish law. You may think of them as denominations of the Church today: They are both Jewish, but think differently about the Law and our world, always trying to show each other up, always trying to be seen as the authority of teaching. Here, we see that plainly. The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus to say something incorrect or blasphemous, right after the Sadducees tried and failed. In fact, we see one man, a lawyer (i.e. studier of the Law), looking to be seen as a great Pharisee among Pharisees. It is clear in verses 34-35 that the Pharisees, and specifically this man, are looking to glorify themselves, and oppose the teaching Jesus is about to explain.

 Despite their unrighteous and selfish motives, Christ answers their question. He says the great commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (v 37) It is very important to note that this idea is not added by Christ, but was at first a summary of the law by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5. You have heard that when Jesus came, everything changed. And this is true in a sense. But he is clear that the law has not and will not change (Matthew 5:18). So never stand for the teaching that Christ came so we could ignore the law and commandments, for that is not what he is teaching here. In fact, God requires love before the commandments because worship or even obedience are meaningless without love for him. Imagine I send my fiance flowers. If I do so out of duty, because I'm supposed to, or in any other motive than love for her, they will simply be plants cut and put in a vase. They may be pretty, but their value is lost. In the same way, if we are singing songs of praise, serving our community, or obeying our Father but do not love him, then it is useless and meaningless to him. More so, we will not truly obey God without love for him. Those who do not love God are incapable and unwilling to follow his commands but are still slaves to their selfish nature. This is the first and great commandment.

"And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The starting phrase holds so much truth about this command. By saying that this is a second command, Jesus correctly declares that loving others is important, but not as important as loving our God. However, by saying it is like it he specifies that loving others is dependent on the first command. Here Christ teaches something controversial. Naturally man is devoted to himself, so there is an absence of true charity without the love of God. I have wrote about this before to the same effect, but we must look at what the Bible calls love in a Biblical way. If God is the best and knows the best for anyone, then the true form of love would be to help him draw the loved closer to himself. But, man naturally does not seek God and only can when he loves them first and gives them a new heart. Therefore, the natural man does not desire God for himself or others, and will not help draw others closer to the Father. So Jesus is telling us that we must love God, then and only then we will also love others as ourselves. That is, along with ourselves. We do not take care of our needs, then another's, but we take care of the needs of all as one.

Jesus closes these commands with the declaration that all the Law and prophets hang on these commands. Again, these are in no way a replacement of either, and it is foolishness to think so. Many will teach that Christ said all we must do is love God and others and we can do that with no regard to the rest of the word. These commands are not meant to replace anything but act as a foundation for the Law and the prophets; First, a love for God, then a love for others. For all commandments are useless without these two. If you are to give soup to a homeless man with no love for God and no love for the man, what have you done? You have successfully filled his belly, but left his soul empty. You have made yourself look like a hero and brought all the attention to yourself. But I tell you this man has not received what he truly needs. It does not matter if you give him a house or teach him to fish, if you do not give him the Gospel in love, he has gained nothing.

Here is what we should know as Christians: we were made to live out our faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 explains that we are saved by grace through faith, which is a gift from God, and not of anything we do. Verse 10 explains our faith will be seen. Explicitly, it says "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (ESV) We have not been created anew in Christ to live for ourselves but to live by faith through good works. Additionally, these are not random acts we must find, but works God has prepared for us before everything. We have specific purposes on this Earth, and they are to work for our Father in bringing him glory. What joy it is to know God has hand-picked actions for each of us to walk in, that we are not blind in our service of his will, but given the opportunities directly!

So, the Bible clearly teaches us that we are not saved to live for ourselves or the pleasure of the world with disregard for the commandments and Law. Christ died so we are free to love the Lord our God and our neighbors through specific acts and opportunities laid out for us by our sovereign Creator. If you are a Christian, you will live to love God and others, for this is our purpose and our calling.

MOVE 2012 - Day 5 and Wrap-Up

Man, oh man, oh man. This week was awesome. Let's start with the last day though.
If I had to sum up the day in one sentence, it would be "what are you doing when you leave?" Let me tell you, it was a motivating and challenging question. So often when we leave a conference or "emotional high," we fall fast the next day, or even hour, after getting home. We were fortunate enough to be a part of God saving one of the students, her and another already-saved student being baptized in Western Illinois University's pool, and countless, immeasurable life-change at the hands of our Father. We had a lot to forget about in the next hour and I know from experience the enemy and his demons attack hard even as we sit down in the van homeward.
Our speaker that night challenged us hard, as to help kick us into high gear and awareness. The message he spoke was on Matthew 5:13-16, that we are the salt and light to the world. We are supposed to make the world thirst for water (Jesus) and light their way to him. But, as he was sure to point out, if we lose our saltiness, we are worthless. This bold truth was met by shock from the audience. However, he continued saying that we are all looking for worth in life, and we're only going to find it in Christ and working for his glory. It was a great message.
The session ended with acknowledging those who made commitments to follow Christ for the first time and accept the mercy and grace he offers through his sacrifice, repenting of sin and returning to him, and a desire to pursue vocational ministry. We then cleared out the floor to worship our God together, complete with a little fun of the worship leader getting into a giant hamster ball for the last song. Not necessary, but enjoyable to watch.

At MOVE, I saw a fire ignite, and reignite, in the hearts of our high school students. It is times like these I know that the students of my church can do more for the Kingdom than I ever will, if they let God use them. I look up to a couple of them and cannot wait to see them spread God's word and gospel through the world.

MOVE 2012 - Day 4

If God forgave you, why wouldn't you forgive others? Today at MOVE, we reflected and worked towards this, in the power of the Spirit. It's late and I'm tired, so I'll sum up the idea and a highlight or two.
When we are saved by God's grace, he erases a debt that we have no way of paying. No one will ever be perfect but him and good works only work to separate us more. So he spares us through the death of Jesus, if we accept the gift. But our brothers and sisters or even the lost owe us a small fraction of the debt we owed God. How can we demand that of them when he has erased our debts from the record? We can't and should not if we are saved.
Tonight we all wore white shirts with pieces of red paper taped to them. On the back of the paper was a situation or two we needed forgiveness in or to forgive. We were to seek out the person, or spend time in prayer and work to forgive or be forgiven. When we had, we took off the papers to be clean again.
I got to see so many great situations in our group get worked out by God's overflowing grace. I even saw friends and siblings holding hands on the way to the nearest trash bin to toss out these debts.

So much happened today and I regret I don't have the energy to share it all. Hopefully I get a chance to tell all you readers in person.

MOVE 2012 - Day 3

Today was filled with learning. Our morning speaker even piqued my interest by starting off his message with zombies. He brought up the "you've heard... but I say..." phrases in the sermon on the mount. These are phrases Jesus used to start subjects that contradicted their traditions. Jesus spoke less to these misconceptions and said they weren't going far enough. These ideas of blindly following rules are zombies. They resemble real godliness, but aren't. They infect our lives and ruin a chance we have at really being close to God by making us feel like we could get there because they aren't committed enough. We need to shoot them in the head.
Next we had group time in a local coffee shop and talked about dealing with temptation, etc.
After lunch, we split up for electives and each learned about something different. PB and I went to a video message by Jeff Walling. He talked about how crazy it is to love our enemies like Jesus commands. He made the claim Jesus didn't tell us to love our enemies as enemies, but to love them and not regard them as enemies at all!
Later, I got the chance to rematch Love Costs Every Thing (last year's documentary about the persecution of the church) and others saw it for the first time. I cried, like I do every time.
The evening speaker challenged us with Jesus' words about not judging. We are so ready to throw stones of judgement, but none of us have that right. Rather, we should hold that stone like an oyster would. When oysters hold stones, they turn into pearls. When we deny ourselves of judging others, we can find more value in loving them.
We took in a lot today and relaxed over the talent show, The Alternative. Good times, good times, good times.