I am always on the hunt for good food places. Whenever I find something that has extremely high-quality food for the right price, I cannot get enough. I want to take everyone I know and have them share in my joy. I joke about how I would pay a king’s ransom to the chef just to have them cook one meal a day for me. That is, if I had any money. Perhaps you can relate.

There are only several that I can chalk up as a “no-brainer” option when figuring out where to eat. These are places that I am willing to tip over 20% to no matter what. If I sculpted a Mount Rushmore of food establishments, you would see the logos of El Charro Negro, Uncle B’s BBQ Shack, Pastificio, and most recently, Collegeville Italian Bakery etched into the smooth granite of the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota. Each has my business the rest of my existence.

I am not the one who has discovered these jewels. I found out about them from family or friends who speak highly of their merit and had my mouth watering from their endorsement. If you follow my advice and try them for yourself, I have no doubt that whether you’re tasting a chimichanga from El Charro, a rack of ribs from Uncle B’s or a hoagie from Pastificio, you’ll also become an ambassador like me and my informants.

Yelp is founded off this principle. We can’t tell the future, but we can learn from those who have gone before us (that we trust) and anticipate similar results. So, when my brother comes home raving about Collegeville Italian Bakery and how they have a 32-ounce milkshake called the “Embiid Shake,” I don’t really think twice about going. I know I’ll love the place before I even step in the door.

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord Almighty.” It’s essentially making the same point but the context here is much greater than finding the next best food joint. The writer is referring to how previous generations have raved about the faithfulness of God to the nation of Israel. Fathers and mothers gathered their families and told their children about the amazing things they have seen God do. Be it the parting of the Red Sea, conquest of Canaan, restoration of the temple, relocation of the Ark to the tabernacle, and so on. Eventually, when the kids got old enough and had experienced God’s faithfulness and intervention in their own lives, they confidently uttered “as we have heard, so have we seen.” Then the cycle repeats.

Although I am young, I can say without hesitation that as I heard, I have also seen, or experienced. A huge struggle of mine while I was younger and one that still lingers is the fact that I can’t physically see God. None of us can, and for that reason many doubt His existence. We can read the historical accounts of what He has done, like the Israelites, or even encounter archaeological evidence supporting those accounts. Yet we remain highly skeptical.

There were, however, a group of people who did in fact see God. These were regular people like you and me who lived thousands of years ago in the Middle East. They encountered the living God in a way that only their generation ever has. He taught, healed, worked, and lived amongst them and spent His shortened life proving repeatedly that He was who He said He was. His works backed up not only His words, but the words of prophets who spoke of Him hundreds of years before with flawless accuracy.

Some of these people believed Him, but many others still didn’t get it. Even though they saw Him do miracles with their own eyes, things never seen before, it still wasn’t enough. In one encounter, after seeing Jesus walk on water and feed 5,000 men with two fish and five loaves of bread, some had the nerve to ask Him “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert…” Yet He remained patient and continued to faithfully reveal Himself to the people, despite rampant unbelief and ungratefulness. In the end, He laid down His life for the whole world and allowed Himself to be unjustifiably murdered for countless crimes against Himself that He never committed. He resurrected after three days to once and for all prove that He was indeed God and show the sins of the world were paid for with His own blood. You need only to believe He did so for you.

Many did and what they saw, they shared. For God had commanded them to and gave them supernatural power to be His witnesses. This is where the New Testament of the Bible comes from. Interestingly, many who saw this and did not believe also shared what they had seen. Men like Tacitus, Josephus, and Lucian published works that corroborate the testimony of God’s handpicked eyewitnesses and disciples, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

So, although I personally have never seen God, I certainly heard His message through these men. And I believe it. That Jesus, who is widely accepted as a prophet, teacher and all around “great human,” is all those things but much more. He is God himself in human flesh, the only one able to save us from our sins. The only one able to meet the full measure of our needs. The only one able to give us what we were meant for.

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” John 1:18

My life has purpose because of Him. I have a living hope because He laid down His life for me. As I further meditate upon what these men saw, and God chose to reveal, I realize how close He really is to me, although I don’t see Him. He lives in me. Every aspect of my life is cared for by my Father in Heaven.

So now, as one who by God’s grace, has heard, believed, and now seen His faithfulness, I’m more than an ambassador for a couple of restaurants around Philly. I am an ambassador for Christ, imploring you to be reconciled to God in the same way. For this is my life’s purpose! He’s done all the work and paid a price for you. One simply needs to believe that He did so and give their life over to Him.

As sure as I am that you’ll love my favorite food spots, I’m more certain that if you taste the Lord’s forgiveness and grace found only in Jesus, you too will see as you have heard. You will taste and see that the Lord is good and be blessed when you take refuge in him. That is better than a chimichanga, any day.

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout the blog. Check out these wonderful truths for yourself!

Psalm 48:8 – As we have heard, so have we seen.

John 6:30 – Even miracles weren’t enough.

Acts 1:8 – God calls His witnesses to tell the world.

1 Peter 1:3 – The believer’s living hope.

John 10:30 – Jesus is God.

Romans 8:11 – Jesus lives in you, if you’ve received Him.

Philippians 1:21 – Christ gives life.

As brittle pine needles begin to fall to the ground below the Christmas tree and 2017 nears its expiration date, there is a pressure to seek out newness and embrace personal change. The new calendar entices us much like a blank canvas stirs the mind of an artist. We see it as a chance to create and live differently.

Of course, the tweaks to our lifestyle that we were so gung-ho about in the latter stages of December seem to quickly fizzle out around the time Martin Luther King Jr. Day rolls around in late January. While this isn’t always the case, it is well documented that your local gym will probably be teeming with novice attendees this week, only to be back to normal in mere days.

Exercise certainly isn’t the only thing that people choose to renew a commitment towards in a new year. Budgeting, eating/sleeping habits, and time on social media are just a couple of things that are contemplated prior to the ball dropping in Times Square. While these goals and many others are great to strive for, there seems to be something missing.

Let’s say you’ve been making resolutions each year and are actually sticking to them. If you resolved like the rest of the U.S. population, you have become a chiseled, debt-free, non-smoker who frequently does “exciting things” and generally kicks butt at life. So, what now?

It seems to me that our deepest desires are expressed through these aspirations disguised as simple “resolutions.” They are much more. While our souls cry out for something new and something better, all we can come up with is a sit-up routine and a plan to not eat as many donuts next year.

It’s not that we shouldn’t make resolutions, but we should see them for what they really are. Let’s stop kidding ourselves and see that no matter the new experience, activity, or responsibility, those resolutions can’t give us what we really need. A good thing is still a good thing, but we must realize that it isn’t everything.

The frailty of our resolutions and the constant need for something new we sense in our lives point to a deeper reality. We’ve been created with specific needs in mind. When those needs aren’t met, we begin a series of trials seeking answers about where those needs might be found.

As we consume a wide gamut of things attempting to quench that thirst, all we end up with are more questions and a throbbing heart. The things on the horizon we once looked to with great anticipation come and go with a bigger letdown each time. We need more.

When those needs are met, we become free. We no longer must set resolutions to satisfy ourselves, for we’ve already been satisfied. We’re free to strive to do our best, knowing we already have all we need.

The Bible talks great lengths about the need we have as God’s creation. Things were originally perfect, as an intimate union between God and his creation was instantly established with the inception of mankind. Shortly after, that creation, Adam and Eve, broke their relationship with God by disobeying his only command. That’s when the heartache for more that each human experiences in some fashion originated. This is our biggest need, to be reunited with our creator and our sins forgiven.

The only way for that to happen was for God to act. That’s just what he did. He sent Jesus, who being God and man, came down from his perfect dwelling in Heaven to our broken, miserable world. A world that has been on a steady decline since that fateful day in the Garden of Eden. Jesus, who was without sin, was crucified for the sins of everyone to ever walk this earth. It was the most unjust death to ever occur, yet it pleased God to crush his Son, that we might be forgiven and reunited with Him. He chose to give us our greatest need, when he didn’t have to. He chose to deal with the sin that separates us from him, through Jesus Christ.

While trimming some extra fat and paying off your student loans are good goals to have, the end goal must be examined. With thoughtful consideration, I’m sure you’ll see that a bunch of good things don’t amount to the cravings of the deepest stretches of your soul.

Just like you don’t need to wait for a change of date to alter your life, you don’t need to wait for different circumstances or a fresh start to receive Jesus. You can come as you are and ask that He might enter your heart and forgive you of your sins. He will give you the ultimate fresh start, a real relationship with him. That is something no resolution can deliver.

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout the blog. Check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

Genesis 1:26-31 – Perfection and relationship with God from the start.

Genesis 2:17 – Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3: 14-19 – The cost of our broken relationship with God.

Philippians 2:6-11 – Jesus’ journey to earth and his work here.

Isaiah 35:4 – God will send a messiah, or savior, to “come and save you.”

John 1:29 – Jesus is the lamb of God, the messiah.

John 8:36 – Freed by Jesus.

In the coming weeks before winter officially arrives, I find myself captivated by the rolling farmlands around where I live. Whether it’s soy or cattle-corn fields, each patch of farmland has the same mangled, dehydrated disposition. Long rows of dismembered plants are evidence of what was only a few months back. By these, I’m reminded of my trip to Swaziland this summer. Sugar cane is their largest export, so if you see any green on their cracked and arid land, that’s probably what it is. Interestingly, once the farmers are ready to harvest the sugar cane they worked so hard to grow, they do like any reasonable Swazi farmer would do and set the fields ablaze.

No joke. Since deadly Black Mamba snakes navigate these fields day and night hunting for mice, the farmers set the sugar cane fields on fire to make sure all the snakes are killed. It also enriches the soil and somehow makes the sugar cane harvest more plentiful. I don’t really get how it all works but who am I to question their methods? The only thing I’ve ever grown is a “money tree” (they do exist!) that my dad’s green thumb resurrected this summer after I showered the thing with neglect.

I can’t imagine the amount of work it takes to prepare a crop each year and how gratifying it is to literally harvest the fruits of your labor in the fall. With that realization, though, comes the sobering reality that you may work your butt off day in and day out, and your harvest may still yield very little.

Today, we are more “self-sufficient” when it comes to agriculture. Irrigation systems are well-established and utilized. Manure provides plants with nutrients they may not otherwise have received from regular soil. We can even spray our plants with electrons that kill harmful organisms. That’s crazy stuff right there.

Back in Bible times, specifically in the Old Testament (Genesis-Malachi) the people lived in what is called an “agrarian society” or a society that has an economy based on crops and farming. If you had a lot of cows, you were rich. This still holds true in many parts of the world that don’t possess the same resources and technology we now have in the West. Did they rely on special electron shooting sprayers to help grow a crop? No. They had the rain, the sun and some primitive farming techniques.

Some had a real relationship with the God who not only made them, but also crafted the water, the sun and the plants that bore the seeds they needed to germinate for survival. These people hoped in their Lord for what they needed. Even throughout times of drought and famine, their God came through for them when they sought Him.

Here’s a question that might stir up a few people. Can you make it rain? I’m talking literally make H²O come out of the sky, not count that big stack of cash you got in front of me. God asked a guy named Job this very question.

“Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?” Job 38:34

I’ve been struck by scripture after scripture recently that communicates the same thing. Writer after writer realizing their insignificance before the one who “sends the lightning bolts on their way” even without an audible encounter like Job. This simplicity of provision by God eludes us as individuals and a culture.

We don’t ask these questions anymore. We think we know it all. We think we can provide for ourselves and we don’t need God. We either don’t believe that this God of the Bible really exists, or we simply aren’t amazed with Him and don’t believe He is who He says He is. We miss God’s glory and fail to see our greatest need which goes beyond putting food on the table.

Think past just what you see. When I think about those barren fields, I realize something. I was that wasteland. The only thing that can give eternal life is the living water found in Jesus Christ, God’s own son. Similarly, the only thing to make a plant grow is the physical water that again, only God provides. After receiving Jesus and what he did to save me from this nothingness, he gave me life. He is the only one who continues to give me life, as he keeps me by his grace. Without Him, we may be breathing, but our souls look exactly like those fields; brown, lifeless and scorched by the elements of sin in ourselves and the fallen world around us.

Many think the Bible is a bunch of nonsense, but they’ve never actually taken the time to read it. Their hearts are closed, and eyes shut for no other reason than some hypocrites have hijacked the name “Christian” and condemned themselves by quoting the very Word of God they don’t live out or believe. Please, if you feel that way towards the Bible because of the failures of man, don’t be fooled so easily by fakeness. It’s not about us. It’s about Him.

God knows our condition. He knows our brokenness. He certainly didn’t cause it, but he won’t force anyone to chose him. He wants us to come to Him of our own free will to get the water we so desperately need and only he provides, in Jesus. You can have life if you’d simply ask Him for the rain. He supplies it in abundance.

“He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth.” Psalm 72: 6

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout the blog. Check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

Job 36: 27-31 – People knew the science behind rain thousands of years ago because God revealed it.

Job 37: 13 – Why does He bring the rain?

Job 38: 25-28 – Who makes it rain?

Psalm 65:12 – He even brings growth in dry places.

Job 38:37,41 – God’s wisdom.

John 4:1-26 – Jesus, the living water.

When I was younger, I enjoyed throwing rocks into streams or small ponds watching the perfectly incremented ripples chase one another through the glassy water. Mesmerized by the steady production of tiny waves, I started hunting again as the ripples smoothed out. The bigger the rock, the better of course, even if it meant nearly developing a hernia.

As I began to play golf at a young age, I honestly wouldn’t hate it that much when I splashed a tee shot into the drink. I specifically remember a time at a par 3 course when I intentionally chipped approach shot after approach shot into the water hazard because I thought it was “cool.” I laughed and laughed enjoying the “kerplunk” noise the ball made as it buried itself into the depths of the murky water. I sat and watched with intense focus as the ripples extended into the outermost parts of the pond and then launched another. Only when my brother and dad told me that there was a penalty in golf for hitting balls in the water did I begin to aim for the greens instead of streams.

Looking back on this, I found it ironic. There are many things in life that are like these ripples. They seem fun and all until you realize that there is a cost for those things, a penalty. As I innocently enjoyed plunging golf balls into water at a young age, I would later learn that I also had a not-so-innocent affinity for sex, crude humor, self-serving actions, making fun of people and the easy way out of situations, just to mention a few things. The ripple effect of those things however, was and is painful to watch.

Those ripples don’t smooth out after a few seconds. They grow. They grow into waves that capsize lives and ruin relationships, culminating into an eternal storm surge that never recedes.

What exactly is it that causes those ripples? What is the metaphorical rock thrown into the waters of the soul? A little three letter word which has been misunderstood through the centuries. Sin.

“Sin” or Hamartia when used in the original Greek means literally to miss the mark, to fail or an aberration from the truth. It isn’t simply doing “bad stuff” or “being a bad person.” It is deep rooted rebellion to the truth that is passed down just as any hereditary illness is passed. You and I were born sinners because our first ancestors welcomed it into the family line when they rebelled against the one true God who created them in his image.

Clearly, we don’t want to think of ourselves this way. It’s not exactly encouraging to walk around thinking about how badly we’re missing the mark or deviating from truth. So, to solve that problem, we question sin.

“I’m not really a sinner…I mean, I’ve never killed or raped anyone.”

Or

“Who says that God is the truth? Maybe I’m not deviating from anything.”

Or

“I’m a good person, so my sins are outweighed by the good stuff.”

These three responses to the notion of sin in our lives are efforts to smooth out those ripples, but actually result in strengthening them. We simply don’t get the depth of sin, so we dive in even further. We don’t care that we are offending the Most Holy God. We don’t see it as black and white. We don’t get the rebellion in our own hearts that is leading us down a path of destruction.

If anyone reading saw a replay of what goes through my mind in a given day, they’d be thinking “this guy is telling me about sin??” Man, I’m weak in my own strength. I see a pretty girl and lust her body. I see someone else get celebrated for an accomplishment and envy their glory. I see someone struggling and in my pride, think of myself above them. Then I try and play it all off like I’m just a nice humble guy, hoping people will think favorably of me. It’s bad; I’m just trying to be real with you.

I’ve learned that just as Paul, who wrote most of the Bible’s New Testament, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim. 1:15). I’m at the bottom with Paul.

The ripple effects of sin are eternal. What we call “small sins” and large sins” are both equal in the eyes of God. The wages, or earned result, of sin is death as scripture tells us. Whether it’s a little white lie or murder. There is no distinction.

That death is eternal separation from the God who created us for himself, in hell. It’s a real place. Yet the ripples don’t just begin at the end of your life, they’re already rolling through right now.

We see it every day. Broken marriages/families, child development issues, STDs and depression from sex outside of marriage. Murder, overdose and bodily destruction from drugs and alcohol. Suicide, racism, loneliness and deep emotional pain from pride and selfishness. All these things are the ripples of sin!

I’ve seen it in my personal life. At a time, I was addicted to porn and sex chat rooms. Thanks be to God, he has brought me out of that and forgiven me for that sin. I still suffer the consequences of it though as I struggle to think purely when it comes to what sex and marriage were really designed for.

Our sins are run deep. They are often against others, but are always against God Almighty who created us. After all, he is the one we are aberrant from when we sin. I’m hoping you see the desperation that faces us. I hope you see our need.

This refers me back to what Paul said above. If we miss what he said before the emphatic announcement of his own sin, we are missing the point altogether. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! Our response should be repentance, or simply letting our sins be known to God and asking his forgiveness and restoration. This, paired with worship, will make our hearts strong in God’s grace.

If you’ve received Jesus and what he did for you on the cross, the eternal ripple effect of your sin has been flattened. I urge you to accept this gift. As Paul also writes:

“Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20)

I now sit and watch the water with a new perspective. As the ripples level out and the water returns to its natural shimmer, I think about what Christ has done for me and millions of brothers and sisters around the world, through the ages. How indebted are we to him? Our minds won’t ever comprehend it. There is nothing more beautiful in us than a repentant heart. There is nothing more beautiful in this world than Christ dying on the cross and rising again declaring our victory over sin.

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout the blog. Check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

John 1:29 – John the Baptist’s analysis of who Jesus is.

Romans 3:10 – There is no one without sin.

Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death.

Romans 5:12 – Sin entered the world through one man, so did redemption.

Romans 5:20 – Where sin increases, grace increases more.

1 John 1:18 – If we say we’re without sin, we are liars.

1 Tim 1:15 – Why did Christ come into the world?

Nobody wants to lose.

Across almost every culture, losing brings infamy. In our sports dominated American culture, the teams and players who lose frequently are embarrassingly mocked and quickly become the butt of jokes to the fans of opposing teams delight. Think the Cleveland Browns.

We see losing as a result of weakness, lack of preparation and poor execution. Losing has become so unpopular in our culture that we are trying to eliminate it all together. It has become easier to hand everyone a trophy just for showing up instead of identifying one team as a winner and by default, the defeat of their opponents, no matter how close or lopsided the defeat.

A loss means forfeiting what was or could have been. If you have a share in a company that goes bankrupt, the value of that share has dried up. The original investment is gone. A share in a company that no longer exists isn’t worth anything.

We are taught by society to minimize our losses at all costs. Losing is the worst-case scenario.

This isn’t what the Bible teaches us about reality. Losing is demanded by those who call themselves Christ-followers. The loss of anything that leads us away from source of life, Jesus Christ, is not considered a loss but great gain.

As the Apostle Paul so enthusiastically says in his letter to the Philippians:

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (3:8-9)

If we’re talking wins and losses here, clearly Paul sees only one path to victory. That is knowing Jesus. All else, including his impressive list of accomplishments as a Jew which he states in verses 4-6, amounts to nothing. He goes as far to compare them to skubalon in the Greek or literally, animal dung.

As we traverse the earth looking for where to place our trust, we naturally accumulate more options. Money, relationships, or even our own “goodness” act as our measuring stick of winning or losing. Nobody wants to lose at life, so of course we buy in and sign on for whatever might improve our chances of “winning.”

During Jesus’ time on earth, he frequently challenges his followers. One particular challenge he gave them was to lose.

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their soul?” (Luke 9:24-25)

Jesus cuts straight through to the root of the issue by asking his disciples and ultimately all of us this question. Is there any point in gaining a bunch of things that will prove meaningless and while doing so forfeiting your own soul? Surely, the logical answer is no. The troubling truth is that many of us live believing the answer is yes, placing our confidence in for lack of a better word, crap.

Then, there is the belief that just like a bad investment, believing in Jesus and surrendering one’s life to him doesn’t amount to anything but comes with many costs. So, it’s a loss.

Humbly, I couldn’t disagree anymore. I don’t think anyone who believes this has considered the whole picture.

There is a loss when you follow Jesus. Your lifestyle must change. Sin must be confessed and turned from, not embraced and celebrated. He instructs those who want to be saved to lose their life. A life not lost, or yielded, to the God who created it may gain many great things in the eyes of the world, but God has a different perspective. If Jesus is nowhere to be found, the life is lost, no matter the other details.  In this sense, the loss actually leads to great gain. If your losing what will amount to nothing, but gaining everything in Christ, are you really losing at all?

With Jesus, is eternal life and freedom from the sin that enslaves us. He paid for it on the cross and we can receive this gift by believing in Him with our hearts. The life that has been dropped into the hands of the God who created this world and loves all he has made perfectly is no loss at all. It’s indescribable gain.

I’ve been noticing more and more recently just how glorious life is with Jesus. The struggles and trials that do come only result in a deeper intimacy with Him, generating a humble joy that doesn’t dip or rise with the peaks and valleys of emotion. Feelings of loneliness quickly are put back in their place when I consider the words of my God, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 3:15). As I read the proof of this statement that’s taken place throughout the history of this world in His word, I sink back into my chair and consider the one who always does what He says he will do. What is not worth losing to know Him even more?

He tells me he loves me. He showed me on the cross. I believe it.

There are no losses with Jesus.

“Double the ‘C’, double the ‘S’ and you will always have success”.

Whenever I hear the word success, I can’t help but think about this helpful little saying I learned from an episode of Full House. My spelling woes of the word success ended that day as the clever saying became etched into my brain. All I had to do to spell it correctly was follow the process laid out for me in the saying; double the c and double the s. It made complete sense.

As I have gotten older, I’ve realized that achieving what the word actually means is not as simple a process. Along those lines, the process to achieve success really depends upon how each individual defines the term. Those definitions seem to come from a mixture of cultural and personal life experience.

For instance, someone who grew up in a wealthy suburb may view a successful life as one with financial freedom, occasional charitable giving and a beautiful home. What was modeled for them in childhood is repeated and confirmed by the American culture which encourages this “dream”.

On the other side, one who grew up in a broken home within a broken community may see a successful life as “getting out”. That may look exactly like the above scenario, or it could simply be building a life in a healthier environment than the one that individual was raised in. “Rags to riches” tales are a staple of American culture.

Sadly though, the outcome of a seemingly successful life routinely fails those who have gone all-in to capture what their culture and personal experiences have defined for them. While others may call them successful, these victims may secretly try and find a way out of the trap they have fallen into.

We infrequently question what success really is. Thus, we are lead astray by broken methods of measuring a successful life like dollar signs and Twitter followers. If we begin to deeply analyze how we define success, most of us would be led to the same exact place no matter the culture, or personal experience. A place in which we see success not as a way to prove individual worth, but rather as something in which we were reborn into through Jesus Christ.

God’s standard of success is untouchable for every human. Nobody is “good” enough. The very best of what we can do alone is like “filthy rags” to Him. It is beyond our ability to be successful enough to earn God’s love or acceptance. In the ways of our world, this is how things often work. If we are successful at something, we are accepted by others. Luckily, God is not like this with us.

Knowing we’re incapable of the success he’s looking for, which is a sinless life, he decided to send Jesus, his only son to live that successful and perfect life for us only to be brutally crucified for sins that he did not commit. Who committed them? We did.

This suffering he endured was needed so that God could still maintain his justice while granting grace to sinners. Through this, the gift of life through Jesus’s life, death and resurrection was offered to all.

As our culture continues to measure success solely in quantifiable terms, I pray you’ll see through it. Success isn’t about what we can do. It’s about what’s been done for us. It’s about how we can live now that we’ve been reborn and empowered by someone outside ourselves. True success isn’t ours, it’s the Heavenly Father’s.

Therefore, we can live free of trying to measure up to cultural standards of success. We are free to work hard and invest in others along the way thanking our Father in Heaven whether he brings plenty or need. Either way our success is locked up and secure. It’s in Jesus.

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout this blog. Please check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

Romans 3:23 – All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory

2 Corinthians 5:21 – Suffering for the sinless

Romans 3:26 – Justice and grace meet

1 John 2:2 – Jesus sacrifice for ALL

If you told me this time last year that in a year I’d be getting home from a missions trip to Africa, I would have turned my head and looked at you with eyebrows furrowed. Nevertheless, I returned from southeast Africa last week with a revised knowledge of life, my God and the world as a whole.

Swaziland is a nation slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey yet it possesses the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the world. The landscape is breathtaking, but so are the droves of vulnerable youth growing up without parents or role models. The majority of Swaziland’s population are between 0-14 years old.

I was part of a team sent by Calvary Chapel Chester Springs (my home church) through Adventures in Missions to travel to Nsoko, Swaziland to serve a small portion of these kids at the Ngunya Carepoint along with the grandmothers (or Gogo’s in Siswati) who feed them their only meal of beans and protein fortified rice each day.

As we drove up to the Carepoint, I saw true poverty for the first time. Drought-stricken land scorched by the powerful African sun coughed up clouds of dust as our van slowly crept along the dirt road. Small cinderblock homes with rusty tin roofs surrounded by thin wire fences were scattered across the landscape. Goats, chickens, pigs and cows wandered throughout homesteads looking for a drop of water. Young children spotted the van and rushed out of their homes with excitement, smiling and waving to us.

The Carepoint overlooked the barren land in the valley below. The only green you could see were a couple of sugarcane plantations at the foot of the large mountain in the distance (see picture above). As I turned my attention from the landscape that first day, I saw a handful of young kids staring at us through the bus window. Some were on the swing set gliding through the air as they watched and others dropped what they were playing with and looked on at us with imagination. I started to wonder what was running through their heads and what they had experienced.

Comparatively, I’ve had a cake walk life. Never have I gone a full day without eating something, nor have I ever gone down to the local river to retrieve my family’s water supply for the day. The closest relatives I’ve lost are my grandparents who both died of natural causes after long lives, not a parent or sibling dying of AIDS. My childhood was spent in large part playing video games, a concept as foreign as Mars to children who don’t have electricity. I asked my parents for new shoes when they became slightly worn down, not when my toes stuck through the toe cap.

This was why I had come, though. The kids. I wanted to be with these kids, no matter the differences. I wanted them to hear God’s word through our Vacation Bible School program that emphasized Godly relationships and know that they were loved, pursued and cared for even if it didn’t feel like it.

As soon as they sensed that we were there for them and wanted to play with them, they quickly obliged. Some ran up stretching their arms out for you to lift them up and hold them. Others waited back wanting attention but unsure how to go about getting it. One little girl in particular, Ama, couldn’t have been more than 1 or 2 years old. She was wearing a little brown hoodie over a frilly pink dress and sat motion-less on a “swing” that was essentially a rope tied to the top of a slide platform forming a u-shaped swing. A grin grew across her face as I asked for her name and she looked at me not understanding a single word. I started to push her on the swing and the grin opened up into a tiny giggle as she moved through the air.

I looked around at all the little faces each day and they each seemed so joyful. None cared that they were covered in dust or that their clothes were rags. A large portion of the kids didn’t even have any shoes. I had known that this kind of life existed some places in the world. I’d heard about the plight of Africans due to HIV/AIDS, drought and starvation among many other things. But as I spent time with the kids that week, those things were far from my mind. To me, they all were kids just like me who craved the same love, affection and attention I did.

I met a little boy named Phiwe (pronounced Pee-Wah) who quickly became my little buddy. After just a single high-five, Phiwe would run up to me and stand magnetized to my legs. At first, I didn’t understand that when he did this, he wanted to be picked up and held. I did catch on eventually, though. He didn’t say much other than a quiet “I am fine” when I asked him how he was doing, but I learned just how much Phiwe loved to play. From morning to sunset, he buzzed around the Carepoint playing with a soccer ball, a frisbee, blocks, or a wire car. When we arrived each morning, Phiwe ran up to me with some kind of toy to play with him.

The younger kids like Ama and Phiwe spent each day, sunrise to sunset, at the Carepoint. In Swaziland, many children don’t go to school because their families don’t have enough money to send them. Often times, one sibling attends school for a year while a different sibling attends school the next year. Young children usually start school much later for this reason. So, if we got there early enough in the morning, we saw tiny children walking to the Carepoint with their little plastic food bowls in hand.

Every afternoon however, the older kids started to arrive at the Carepoint after they got out of school. They quickly ate and began playing with each other and the younger ones before our VBS lesson started for the day.

Each day, we taught about a different Godly action that is found in healthy relationships (kindness, gentleness, humility, patience and forgiveness), ultimately demonstrated to us by Jesus Christ. The message was that since he showed us these things, we can accept what he did for us and then do so to others.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, I met a boy named Seluleko. It didn’t take me long to realize that Seluleko was probably one of the smartest 13-year-olds I had ever met. He came up and started quizzing me on the book of Genesis in the Bible.

“What was the penalty for Adam and Eve’s sin?”

“What was the penalty for the serpent?”

“What is sin?”

It really caught me off guard. At that point, I didn’t think I was going to have any deep conversations with the kids because of the language barrier. I don’t know why he quizzed me like this but it led into a great conversation about the fall of mankind and every human’s need for a savior. We got to talk about that savior, Jesus, and how his blood was the payment for our sins. I pointed out to him that since we both received Jesus into our hearts by faith, we were considered brothers even though we grew up on different continents in vastly different cultures. This all happened the very first time we met! It blew me away.

Seluleko really enjoyed teaching me Siswati. One day he taught me the words for different body parts and then quizzed me the next day. He pointed to the body part and loved hearing me butcher the names. Seluleko wasn’t the only one, though. Once I expressed I wanted to learn a little Siswati, the kids surrounded and taught me. We roared in laughter together as I attempted to repeat what they said and did so horribly. Seluleko’s English was so good that he often translated what I was saying to the other kids. Whenever he saw me from afar, he gave me a little wink and went on with whatever he was doing. Seluleko was one of the best personalities I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around.

On Friday, we went to a “sports day” where kids from local primary schools faced off in soccer (boys only) and net ball (girls only). Net ball is essentially basketball with no backboard and no dribbling; only passing and shooting. Seluleko and I watched on as his primary school, along with most of the other kids attending the Carepoint, scored a goal in the last minutes to tie the other team. Jubilation ensued as classmates ran to cheer their team chanting in Siswati. As soon as the goal was scored Seluleko was off, running to congratulate his team.

As a sports fan, I stood and watched with a big smile across my face as the sound of vuvuzelas (large plastic horns) filled my ears. I thought about how these kids experience competition and love to support their teams just like kids in America. It was a really cool moment to see the children who I had been getting to know at the Carepoint in such a relatable setting.

Sports day was the day I got to know Nseefway, the soccer team’s goalie. After the big game, Nseefway came over to watch the girl’s net ball games with Seluleko and I. We talked sports for a while and I got to know him a little more. He explained to me the rules of net ball and told me about some other Swazi sports as I told him about some American ones.

Nseefway and I bonded over sports in a way that I do with my best friends here in the States. I only wish we had gotten to talk more early on in the week because it was already Friday and the trip was almost over.

Saturday was our last day of ministry at the Carepoint. We hosted a big community party called “fun day” where chicken and beef sausage were grilled and the Ngunya community feasted. This is one of the few days out of the year that the kids and their families get to eat meat. We had game stations for the kids to go through including a bouncy castle which easily proved to be the most popular.

As we said our goodbyes to the kids on Saturday and Sunday, I thought about the fact that I might never see some of them again. I thought about what they would experience in this upcoming year and I thought about just how quickly the time with them went. I thought about all I learned from them. The respect for others they show by greeting each individual with a right-handed handshake held up by the left hand to show they have so much respect for you they need to support their right hand just to shake yours. I thought about how they seemingly had a perfect understanding of Philippians 4:11-13 when Paul discusses contentment independent of whether he has plenty or is in need. I thought about all the kid’s joy and how beautifully they praise God……

…… and I’m still thinking about it. I probably will be for some time. After seeing lives that look so different, you start to think about the why behind it. I’ve got a good deal more reflection to do when it comes to this trip but I can say that the Swazi’s have taught me a ton about contentment, respect, community, selflessness and hope in Jesus.

Thank you for praying for me or simply thinking of me while I was away. I felt God’s peace and saw him answer prayer in a big way. I got to see God’s faithfulness again, a movie I’ve seen many times but often forget. Till next year, LORD willing!

 

 

I look around and ask

“Where do I put my trust?”

Since nothing seems to last

It all becomes like dust

 

The wealthy man felt secure

In the funds his life had earned

But his worst fear of becoming poor

Occurred as he watched his house burn

 

I observed the romantic

Infatuated with his dream girl

His obsession made her panic

And her departure crushed his world

 

The hedonist watched in scorn

Personal pleasure was king!

But all the sex, drugs and porn

Destroyed his everything

 

The professor didn’t worry

For she had lots of knowledge

Still she grew surly

Somethings couldn’t be learned in college

 

The religious lady felt light

Anticipating a great reward

But the good works didn’t suffice

They were still wicked at the core

 

The ruler let his servants waste away

Without realizing his own lot

The power that he craved

Ended with one loud shot

 

Many others remained

Placing hope in people, places or things

But this always left them in pain

To temporary gods did they cling

 

As I watched these things crash and burn

My heart sank into despair

For all in me that I did yearn

Could not be found anywhere

 

As I sat and pondered

And scanned the barren land once more,

I saw a man who wandered

Saying he’d come to settle the score

 

“Sir, where can I put my trust?

All these things have failed”

“Son there is something for me to do, a must

I’ve come to set you free from this jail”

 

“Trust in me and what I’ve done

For I will never change

Come to me, God’s only Son

I will bear all your sin and shame.”

 

My soul’s condition was without hope

But this man afforded me trust

Once living yet without a pulse,

Now I’ve been saved by this man named Jesus

Springtime in Pennsylvania has a way of sneaking up on you. At first, the restoration process begins with only a few small buds. Soon, the fresh growth spreads like a virus all throughout the vast rolling woodlands as the hills become like a chameleon turning a lively green. In only a few weeks, what once looked completely dead and barren transforms into a rich ecosystem buzzing with life.

The annual revolution of new life during the spring has always amazed and comforted me. With great anticipation of summer, I spent my last days of every school year gazing outside daydreaming about the last day of school as the smell of fresh cut grass drifted up my nostrils. As I’ve grown up and begun to play golf, spring means being able to hit the course again after each year’s winter hiatus. Accompanying that first round are always cordial temperatures and flowering trees hugging the glistening fairways. These are just a few things that I love about the spring.

In these moments, we very seldom think of how temporary the lives of these new plants really are. All of us know the impending decay awaiting this new growth once fall comes, but momentarily forget as spring fever courses through us. Even the beautiful flowers on most trees only last a few weeks until they fall to the ground and are abruptly replaced by plain, boring green leaves.

The season to enjoy the fruitfulness brought on by warmer weather is a gift from God, but it does show us more than just God’s creative hand. Just as these blossoms last only for a season, a man’s days are numbered and “like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (Psalms 103:15-16). Our lives don’t last forever.

Daily, through experience, we learn about the temporal nature of our world. If you’re like me, this doesn’t sit well with you. I want things to last and I don’t like change. I’m undergoing the life-long learning process to appreciate and embrace change rather than dread it. To learn that a change in the metaphorical seasons of life can also be a gift is to gain wisdom.

But I won’t give up that desire for something that isn’t here today and gone tomorrow because I wasn’t built for that. Nobody was. We were made to desire something that lasts.

This desire shows us that this isn’t all there is. Temporary pleasures, like spring, are great but are not the end all be all. We settle for less when we are consumed with the here and now rather than pursuing this inner yearning for more. The cost of gaining this world by falling in love with things and feelings is our very own soul.

Just as the coming of spring made my young body squirm to get out and play in the summer heat, the hard lessons reality brings make me that much more excited for eternity with my immutable Father. So, as we enjoy the works of his hand this spring season, we would do well to think about the long-term and consider our own insufficiencies that point to our need for someone to be our guide and healer. The one and only Jesus Christ.

 

The following scripture was referenced throughout this blog. Please check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

James 4:14 – How quickly things change

Mark 8:36 – Gain the world and lose your soul.

Philippians 4:19 – Jesus meeting all our needs.

What do you make of God?

We tend to resort to depending on other people to tell us about something we don’t know rather than investigating for ourselves. We take someone else’s word for it. I’ve seen and heard God characterized as a big booming voice in the sky ordering people around. He’s a big tyrant, sitting up on the clouds calling the shots as we toil and suffer down on the earth below. Others say God isn’t an actual being at all, but rather a metaphor. With over 4,000 different religions around the world, it’s safe to say there are a lot of thoughts and mental constructs about who or what an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God really is like. For the most part, none of them are consistent or flattering.

The Bible teaches many things about God that vibrantly contrast with what the human mind has concocted. One of the foundational aspects of God is his role as a Father. God’s paternal characteristics are traced throughout each page of His book, the Holy Bible. He’s a father to Jesus and to those who believe in Jesus, the gift he sent to the world to save sinners of which each person qualifies.

One day during Jesus’ ministry, he tells a parable, or a simple story used to illustrate a moral lesson. In the parable, a father has two sons and gives them both a share of his estate, as prompted by the younger son.

The younger son then takes all he has and squanders his wealth on a reckless lifestyle. Soon, a famine comes and the younger son is forced to hire himself out to another just so he can barely survive. Finally he “comes to his senses” and realizes if this continues, he’ll starve to death. He thinks of his father’s hired men who had food to spare and decides to go back home planning to say “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.”

His father sees him coming from a distance and runs out to his son.  Embracing and kissing him, he calls to his servants to start preparing for a feast to celebrate. The father’s finest robes are placed on the boy, while his fattened calf is prepared for the feast.

However, the older brother is furious. He blasts his father saying “I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who squandered your money on prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

The father graciously replies “My son. You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now is found.”

Before Jesus told this parable, some hypocritical Pharisees and teachers of the law were mumbling on about how Jesus was welcoming sinners, eating with them and talking to them. But through the parable, these men were shown Jesus’ heart towards the people they considered lower than themselves. They were shown the heart of a father.

Just like the younger son in the parable, the sinners surrounding Jesus recognized they were in need. They also realized Jesus was the very one they needed, so they came to him. They talked with him, ate with him and listened to his teaching. After believing in Him, they began to realize that God was their father.

This knowledge expands in the human heart that has received the message of Jesus, much like an ice crystal slowly grows on a frigid winter day. To know God as your heavenly Father is all the acceptance a human heart could ever desire. There is no identifier of the love of God more compelling than the fact that he paid the debt incurred by our sins so that we could become his sons and daughters and skip the judgement we earned. When you see how the tendencies we attribute to “good fathers” here on earth are perfectly found in the God of the Bible, you begin to understand what you were made for.

All throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to have multiple father figures present in addition to my actual dad, all who teach me a little something about life. There has always been a desire in my heart to be loved, taught, and disciplined from my dad. This is a need that all young boys and girls share as they experience the turbulence of childhood in a fallen world.

Sadly though, fatherhood is vanishing in our world today. Many young children are left to search for these things in obscure places. They begin to travel down dark and scary roads they didn’t know existed. Left to fend for themselves, a hole in their heart widens as they cry out “why?” Some wonder what their father was like, having never met him. Others wish they’d never met their father. Yet the desire for the things only a father provides persist.

No matter your previous experience with your earthly father, a relationship that supersedes all is available to you today. This father-child relationship was paid for with the greatest price in Jesus’s blood, yet only becomes true for an individual when they receive that payment for their sin. If we all face the music, we see that we are that younger son Jesus talked about that day. The question then becomes, will we see our need and receive the grace given by the father as that son did? Or will we choose to remain fatherless? He’s standing at the door waiting for you to come home. He loves you.

Is God your Father? 

The following scripture was referenced throughout this blog. Please check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

Luke 15: 11-32 – The parable of the prodigal son

1 John 3:1 – God’s love and our sonship/daughtership explained

John 1:12 – How to be saved and be united with your Heavenly Father