I've been doing most of my Bible reading in The Message lately, and recently i ran across this passage from Romans 9: It's the Israelites...If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I'd do it in a minute. I'd call that a strong desire to see some people turn to Christ. in fact, that's reflective of the same love Christ has for all of us. through his crucifixion, he became "a curse" for us so that we could be rid of our sin and connected to God. the Bible tells us in Philippians 2 that we should have the same self-sacrificing attitude that Christ had.

while that's a heavy thing to take in all at once, it's really just about being obedient to God. enter prayer. over the past year, i've been learning more about what prayer really is. it is about getting God's will done on this earth. that's something we all say we want, but whether we really want it or not is evidenced in the way we live day to day. i think it has been almost two years since pastor raymond did a sunday morning series on finding God's will for your life. i don't remember his exact words (which i probably wouldn't have space for here anyway), but his point was this: why should God show us the big stuff he wants for us if we're not obedient in what we already know he wants. i heard another preacher say it this way: "brush your teeth." we need to make sure we are doing what we know to do, and in that submission, through prayer, God will continue to give us the direction we need.

the common misconception of prayer, though, is that it is just the way we tell God what we want from Him. we never verbalize this as our definition of prayer, but is it the way we pray? prayer is meant to be intimacy with God. it's us having conversation with Him - He talks, we respond, we talk He responds - and then shaping our lives by His direction, instead of handing Him a wish list and trying to do good hoping He'll be happy enough to give us what we want.

anyway, i dont' know how i ended up on prayer... i was really impressed by seeing paul's attitude toward the israelites. i hope that i am able to live with attitudes so similar to the the attitude of Chrsit.

as a youth pastor, who should not be surprised by anything a person under the age of twenty would say or do, i don't want to admit my shock at a conversation i had yesterday - but i was just a little. i was also saddened.

i pulled into the tire shop to have some work done on my truck, some work i've been putting off for way too long (no surprise there). pulling in, i noticed a guy and two girls who looked to be high school students sitting outside the shop. i knew i was going to be there a while, and i was immediately compelled to talk with them. i went inside to let the people know what i needed done, and had a seat with my book, while i tried to think of how to approach those teenagers. before i had sat there for two minutes, they all came in and sat right next to me. (God was making it a little easier on me). i got into their conversation, found out they had just graduated last year, why they were there, and we joked and laughed some. i turned the conversation "religious" as soon as i could, mainly directing my questions to the guy who was sitting right beside me. to get to the point of what happened, it turns out he goes to church with his mom occassionally (a baptist church in gastonia, i think). he believes in God, heaven, hell, the eternal soul, and everything that goes along with it. but he keeps it out of his mind so it doesn't concern him.

i did a little asking just to keep the conversation going, but without my help, he told me plainly that he knows he's not right with God. he told me that he could very well get hit by a truck (his illustration) and die today. and God would turn him away. he would spend eternity in hell. when i asked him if this bothered him, he said not really because he keeps it out of his mind. he said that right then it was bothering him some because he was thinking about it, and that's why he doesn't think about it. and he said he didn't care. he said that if he lived to be older and have his own family, he would probably change, but if he didn't live to be older and died before he changed, he would just deal with it.

of course, the conversation had much more to it than just that little bit. the girls he was with said some things as well, some of which i could agree with. one of the girls said that no one could judge the guy as being bad; no one knew his walk with God but him. i told her that was true, then turned back to him and asked, "do you have a walk with God?" that drew some nervous laughter, but i hope it made the point.

we didn't get to talk too long before they left, and we never even got into names. i don't know too much about them, and they don't know much of anything about me. but before they left, i turned to him and, in other words, told him that God had brought us into the same place at the same time because He wants him to think about it. he acknowledged the thought, and the conversation continued to come and go for a couple more minutes.

when they left, i was saddened. i was saddened and speachless that someone could accept the knowledge of God and eternity, and work so hard to keep it out of their minds. and i was saddened by the fact that, even if we keep eternity out of our minds, it doesn't chnange it's reality. i pray that he'll think about it. i hope he'll find himself in other encounters and situation where he is forced to think about it. i hope and pray that when the final decision time comes, he'll make the choice to change his mind and trust in Christ.

i'm back! i didn't really go anywhere, but it's been too long since my last post. feels like forever! i even got a comment while i was gone. hate i missed it.

so what's been going on? plenty. but i'll try to put it all in seperate posts so i don't run out of stuff to blog about. (haha). last night we finished our second week of "facing the giant topics" by doing a discussion on God's identity and love. of course, there is absolutely no way possible to learn all that's included in this in a lifetime, much less an hour on a sunday night. we had fun trying, though. the way we've approached the giant topic thing is basically, we've taken a bunch of Scriptures that deal with the topic of the night, put them on paper for the students to read, and listed questions under each Scripture. then we go through the verses one at a time and discuss the questions listed under each. it's amazing the direction some of the discussion goes in. we don't really end up reading the questions and answering them in a clean, orderly fashion. the questions usually lead to other questions, which then lead to even more questions as the students try to wrap there minds around the meaning and application of each. and as they talk their way through the topics in light of the Bible, the expressions of "aha!" are, to borrow a worn out description, priceless. i love it!

the relationship topic we went at last week was a lot of fun, especially as the students analyzed their own relationships by thinking about what the Bible says about them. we had the verses seperated into sub-points of the topic. in other words, the first several passages dealt with the importance of relationships, the next group was under "think about your relationships," followed by "who should your relationships include?" to finish things off, we looked at Psalm 41:9 Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me. It took some coaching, but with this verse we helped them understand that every human relationship has the capacity to fail, which means we should be extra careful to put our most energy into our relationship with Christ - the only One who cannot fail.

last night was about who God is and His love. I hope we didn't keep any parents waiting too long, but even after 7:00 we had three big questions that spun off of the original topic and could have gone on for hours. everyone seemed to be easy going when talking about the ever existence of God, but the pre-existence of Christ and the Trinity made things interesting. we got through it though, and i believe and pray that the students gained a deeper knowledge of who God is, and a strong assurance of His perfect, unchanging love that will help them get through the challenges they face.

while it's all about helping our students understand God in deeper, more relevant ways, i get a little out of it too. these last two sunday nights have been some of the most fun for me. and it's going to get better with small groups starting at the end of the month. before then, though, we have one more giant topic - school and grades. i'd better start doing some studying!

on sunday we took the students to see the movie Facing the Giants, and let me say the church who put the film together deserves much applause for all the hard work they put in to making the movie a quality movie with such a biblical message of commitment. the truths conveyed in that movie are often put into other movies as well, but usually from a distorted point of view. it is very common to see a movie or tv show that talks about giving your best on a football field, and it's common to hear messages of unity and self confidence as well. however, those messages usually teach unity for the sake of a small goal, like a simple football trophy; and confidence is all about each individual trying to get his own respect, regardless of what it cost anyone else.

in Facing the Giants, though, the message is clear. In fact, i would say that, even though i grew up hearing about honoring God in everything you do, including sports, that principal never made as much sense to me as it did in the movie. The story does an excellent job of demonstrating that faith in God is meant to saturate every part of our lives, not just one or two. the setting is a Christian high school, which indicates that the students and coaches and parents would know what "living for God" means, and even practice that life every day - at least in their own minds. as days go on, however, it becomes very evident that everyone is settling for the motions of the daily Christian checklist rather than obeying God by giving Him the honor in everything.

i don't want to give the movie away for those of you who haven't seen it yet, so i won't go any further. just make sure you have some tissues ready if you're even moderately prone to get emotional during movies. i'll admit the actors won't be mistaken for professionals, but they are Christians in real life who have a message to get out. and that's what makes the movie worth seeing. well, that and the football action. they held nothing back in making some of those hits look very real and very painful. thanks to the church who took on this project; thanks to God for providing them with the resources and abilities; and a special thanks to all of you who voiced your opinions to our local theater, urging them to show the movie.