Salty Manure...

Did the title get your attention?  Victory.  Okay, now that you're here, I've been reading the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan, and it's been ruining me......in a good way.  Just finished chapter 4, titled 'Profile of the Lukewarm'.  I have to say, this chapter calls for a serious amount of introspection, so introspect I did!  Here's my conclusion:

It's difficult to think about this fervently loving God being so ready to accept me where I am, for who I am, only having the intention of making me.....well, a better me.  Despite the fact that I come nowhere close to the mustard seed with my faith, He has all the faith in me.  Despite the fact that the time I spend thinking about Him is very meager in comparison, He is always thinking of me.  Despite the fact that I can find my commitment to Him lacking, He is always committed to me.  Are you catching my drift here?  HE IS ALWAYS DOING HIS PART!!!  Yet at times, I find myself falling short.  Unfortunately, this happens all too often, sinking into the "lukewarm".  I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here (my apologies if there really is someone named Debbie Downer out there), but I think there is a time for introspection, on His terms.  Time to look into ourselves and try our best to see what God sees in us.  Yes, there will be shortcomings.  Yes, there will be faults.  Even more than that, I can recognize that it is because those very shortcomings and faults that Christ's strength is made that much more perfect.  What I once thought was an incredible strength is now that much stronger, and stronger, and stronger.  He will never stop.  He will never give up.  He will never surrender.  He loves me too much.

The more I recognize His ever-increasing strength in my life, the more effective I want to be as the salt of the earth.  The more I see His hand holding my life, the more I want to bring out the taste of everything He is to this world.  The more I want to do my part in building His Kingdom.  "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out" -Luke 14:34-35        If I am to be the salt of the earth, than I want to be the best I can, because He is worth it.  Whether that means bringing out the flavor in a fine food, or helping to make manure be an effective fertilizer, I'm all in.  Because He is worth it.

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Accept or Follow?

So I was scanning through some of my favorite websites tonight while I was lying in bed.  In case you're wondering, my top 3 most visited sites (outside social networking) are mcphersonguitars.com, churchmarketingsucks.com, and right now, yahoo.com (specifically for fantasy football).  I was reading a post from Brian Gaffney on churchmarketingsucks.com and got to thinking.  What's the big difference between ACCEPTING Christ, and FOLLOWING Him?  I know, I know, there's a huge difference, right? Then why do we become okay with just accepting Him, rather than truly following?  This is a question I feel I'm going to ask myself everyday for the rest of my life.  Wake up in the morning, hit the snooze button. Wake up again in ten minutes, then think, "Am I going to be okay having accepted Christ in my life, or will I follow Him today?"  As much as I want to follow Him, I can recognize plenty of areas in my life in which I tend to just be accepting.  I wholeheartedly believe that me spending time NOT following means I'm wasting hours, days even, with mundane activities and religion, yet not doing much to further the Kingdom.  I don't know about you, but I want that Kingdom to be rocking with people when I get there, and I'm pretty positive He'd like that too.

It's interesting.  Back in the day, you would have this wonderful scenario with a rabbi and his disciple.  Yeah, they had their own disciples.  Remember, a disciple is defined as "follower, adherent, student, devotee, learner".  So these disciples wanted to learn everything they could from the rabbi.  It wasn't that they chose to accept the rabbi's authority and then hoped to hear them say some cool stuff along the way.    These disciples spent their whole day, whole life, devoting themselves to following every step the rabbi took,  literally.  They would stay so close, in fact, that the dust from the sandals of the rabbi would be caked on the cloak of the disciple by the end of the day.  Ever thought of Jesus as our Rabbi?  Or about being a real disciple?  Can you see the dust from His sandals on your legs? Accept Him, or Follow Him.  As for me, I choose to follow.

With His Love
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Yep. I have a blog now.

Well, in an effort to join the modern world of communication and social networking, I've decided to create a blog.  It is my INTENTION to keep this thing update quite frequently, but no promises just yet.  Maybe the more people actually read it, the more I'll write.

As a first blog post, I'm gonna share a little about what's on my mind as of recent.  The word "community".  It's officially the buzz word in my life right now, and it's been plaguing my thoughts and dreams.  Everything I try to plan, create, structure, schedule, all seems to have something to do with "community".  Even the name of our Student Ministry recently got an overhaul from "FUEL", to "the FUEL Community".  I don't know exactly the length of time this term will be taking over my life, but I'm really excited to see all the good that will come from it.  There's just so much that is in the word "community" that describes how we (the church) should act, react, and respond to the people around us every day.  Anyway, get excited, because more on community will come.  Also, if you read this, let me know......follow me, tell me on Facebook, something.

Love God.  Love People.

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