While thinking about writing this, I thought of this passage in the Gospel according to Mark.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” … Mark 10:23-31

I know that this passage is somewhat confusing, and part of this is because I chose to use the English Standard Version, but I do think that this version of the Bible places this verse very clearly once you get what Jesus is saying here. In the entirety of this passage Jesus is talking to a young rich man. I am guessing that this young man has it all, and in fact the Bible makes it very clear that he does have it all. This young man has an orderly and acceptable spiritual life. He knows the scriptures, he is orderly and precise in all that he does, and he is even willing to make the above average sacrifices. But as Jesus knows, he is unwilling to place himself at the forefront of the grace of God.

We can clearly see this young man’s insecurity in God by the way that he chooses not to give away his wealth and depend upon God for all that he needs. This is based in a sort of worldly wisdom, and a form of pride which all too many of us suffer from. If this young man would have simply realized that Jesus is telling him that the best way to really know who God is, is to drop your own worldly securities and place your trust in him. In this story we come to hear the famous words, “many who are first will be last, and the last first.” These words are so intensely real.

All we have to do is realize that it isn’t about our worldly stature or standing. We shouldn’t care about how much money we have, and we should have a super strong dependence upon God. God has created us, given us a second chance, and we still choose to think that he doesn’t care about us. We actually chose to chase the desires that originally pulled us away from Him.

I know, this is a lot and you are probably thinking that I shouldn’t be telling you this, and I would agree. I don’t think I am worthy of telling you these things. I don’t think that you are either. So that means, that I am simply trying to repeat the words of the God who I know cares enough about you to allow me to write something which could hopefully deepen your trust upon the reality and true existence of a God who is so much different than we would ever expect. So if you take anything from this, I hope it is this. God doesn’t want us to try to be the best, but he wants us to not get caught up with the things of this world by not saving up treasures for this earth so that instead of being consumed with this world, our reliance upon God would place our minds consumption around the reality of what God has created us to be and who God is.

I say this all for a couple of reasons, but mostly because of the burden which I have felt lately to truly live a life which is glorifying to the God which I claim to serve. I see way too many people who have a head knowledge of who Jesus is, yet they don’t have any knowledge of what it is like to actually live for Him. As I have began to notice this, I have taken the initiative to not be like these people.

When I see the people which I have described above, I can’t help but relate them to the pharisees which are spoken of in the Bible. They know a lot, in fact, they know so much that they can teach, preach, and take up many different roles of leadership. But they have never taken the time to apply the knowledge which they have learned to their own lives, instead they debate over different doctrines, different looks, they way they speak, and the way they pray. They completely surpass the issue of their own hearts.

Although, our faith is truly based on our destination, not our journey, it is important to make sure that the time that we are given before eternity is spent carefully inspecting our hearts and praying to God that we would have a soft and repented heart which is far from being prideful.

I am not a Bible scholar, theologian, or pastor. I am just a blogger, but I do know this. The Bible teaches that pride is what caused Satan’s fall, and pride is the same thing which keeps us more concerned with other things rather than the condition of our own heart. We really don’t want to admit and live as if we are full of sin, in fact, we would like to hope that we are pretty good compared to most other people, but when we do this, we remain on our path of pridefulness which is ultimately what seperated us from our God, in the very beginning of our sinful lives.

I feel as if I have several different things I am trying to confont through this post, so let me just close it by breaking down what I really want to say…

I am really worried that many people, myself not excluded, don’t really apply the Bible to our lives. I am afraid that we are trying to keep too many things of this world at arms reach instead of really trusting Jesus and allowing Him to guide and direct us as He pleases. We need to all investigate our hearts and be bluntly honest. Are we serving God so that we can satisfy ourselves, save ourselves from Hell, speak a message of righteousness to the world, or show people that we do have what it takes? If so then we need to repent, and turn towards the cross. We need to remember that our utmost desires are most likely the things that are seperating us furthest from our Creator, and being far away from Him is not where any of us should want to be.

Sushi from about a week ago.

With the weather changing I haven’t been riding my bicycle as much lately, so I have had to start working out in the gym a bit to keep off the extra pounds. That has definitely consumed a large amount of my time, but I hope to be able to figure out how to get in a couple good bike rides a week so I can avoid spending so much time pumping the iron, haha. Sorry, I got carried away.

I am still planning on moving to Portland come January tenth. This is becoming somewhat stressful. I don’t have the finances, and I am trying to figure out a way to ask for money without coming off as a mooch. I have sent out an e-mail to the majority of people on my e-mail list asking for assistance, so I will see where that gets me. I hope that there may be someway to get a flier or something out to our entire churches congregation. If I do that, then people wouldn’t need to give much, just a little from everyone would do me great good. So, I am praying hard and asking God to just give me patience and to be satisfied in his will. It might not be his timing for me to go, but I am not going to assume that to early.

I am still super eager to move though. I just want to be consumed with studying God’s word, and the Church. I think it will be a great opportunity for me to really have some time with God. Not that he’s not here, but I am so distracted at times, I feel like I need some time where my ultimate focus can be him with limited distractions. But who knows. If it is right, it will work out. All I can do is pray, and take the little action I know how to.

I figure since I am not too sure when the next time will be that I post, I might as well mash this all into one. This thought has been spurred from recent thoughts and observations. I am sure the people who I am thinking of won’t be reading this so don’t worry, it’s not you! Some of you may know who I’m talking about, and I just want to say a couple things. Not about but about what it seems like they are doing, and what the dangers and reality is of the situation.

Many of us who would gladly label ourselves as Christians are constantly struggling with worldiness. It is something that we just can’t avoid. We are in the world, so we are literally surrounded by it. But we should all be striving to be seperate from this world, not physically, but spiritually. We shouldn’t find our worth or our value within in, and it seems to me that some people may be losing their perspective of this. I found this great scripture while I was reading a few days ago, 1 John 2:15-17.

I know most of you have read this before, and it is one of those sciptures which you must disect very carefully. It is easy to become to extreme on it, but it is also possible to completely ignore it. When you are a Christian, and you choose to do things and act ways which you know are against the will of God, and are obviously of this world, and only for our temporary and fleshly satisfactions, you are compromising. When you choose to compromise you go against something you know is right. This is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do, especially if the person decides to continue in their compromise. What I have seen happen, not only within the church, but outside of it as well, is people get all excited about something so they compromise. Then they get to a point where they are forced to compromise again, but this time they are not compromising their original level of integrity, but a level which is even lower than that. The process continues, and eventually you end up in a situation where you have no where to go except back to God.

I hope and pray that the people I am thinking of don’t allow themselves to wander that far, but if they do, I also hope and pray that they will choose to turn back to God after things have gotten a little bit more nuts then they had originally anticipate.

Well, there is my spritual rant. I hope that you enjoyed it. But really. Take it to heart. Don’t compromise, it will come back and bite you where you don’t want it to. Keep your eyes upon God, and learn to live a life that is ultimately only filled with joy by the love and grace of our Heavenly Father…

Bible Tech

As people, we identify ourselves many different ways. We can find our identities in the music we listen to, the way we dress, the way we do our hair, the size and shape of our bodies, the way we talk, what we talk about, what we want, what we want to be, how we spend our free time, the way we smell, and many… many… other ways. Throughout my life I have identified myself with rock music, then with hip-hop, then with skateboarding, then with drugs, then with alcohol, and now with Jesus.

My identity in Jesus is more sure than anything I have ever known… EVER! No matter my state of mind, I identify myself through Jesus.

This identity in Christ is something that I never want to lose. The funny thing is… I never really thought about this until I brought myself back to the roots of why I’m where I’m at. I got some advice from someone recently and they told me to go back to just Jesus, get rid of all the crap in my life, so that I can just go back to Jesus, because he will be there. And everything else just gets in the way.

Through this I have learned that being a “simple man” is way better than being super complex, and not really knowing who I am. I am tired of trying to please other people with the way I am. I just want to be real and true to Jesus Christ. I want to identify myself completely through him, and through nothing else. Life can get so confusing at times, and regardless the outcome, Jesus will always be there, and he’ll be exactly the same.

What reason is there for me to go about chasing everything I can to impress people? None of that really matters. Obviously, I want to have friends, I want to get married, and I want to have a good job. But all of these things shouldn’t decide the way that I act or am. These things should be a direct result of what I identify myself with, which is Jesus Christ.

On a side note, I want you to consider what you are reading. But analyze what it is that you are finding your identity in. Maybe it is with the way you look, the way you smell, the things you say, or the vibe you put out. Whatever it is, if it is not Jesus, and you are a Christian, you are on a track that will lead you to a place where you would rather not be. I am lucky enough to have been given people in my life who will tell me when I need to refocus, and I hope that you will read this and take hold of it. Trust me, you don’t want to end up in a position where you realize that everything you have worked for is far from what you truly love… And I hope that love is, well… Jesus!

Bicycle Heaven

What do you think of when you hear of heaven? Do you think of the smell of sweet, sweet flours? Or maybe you think of being able to run around with no clothes on!? Whatever it is that you think of, it is probably something that you long for right now and do not have. I am guilty of what I am about to talk about, so please don’t think I’m speaking down to anybody. I just find this very interesting.

I was listening to Mark Driscoll’s latest sermon from his Pray Like Jesus series, and he said something that got me thinking… a lot! He said that we all want to go to heaven because of what we will get. We relate it totally and completely to a place… You may be thinking, “yes, you are right. I do believe that heaven is a place.” So do I! But I don’t think that the best part about heaven is going to be what we are doing or where we are; I think it is going to be who is there.

Driscoll used a really cool example. He said that when he is flying, he hates it. He knows he’s gonna get sick, he can hardly sleep, and it is just an overall horrible experience. He then went on to say that it is totally different when his wife is with him though. He said that he loves his wife so much that when he flies with her, it seems as if it is perfect. In fact he probably would say he even enjoys it!

Heaven can be thought of the same way, although I am guessing it will be much nicer and enjoyable than a crowded 747. Jesus will be there. He is the longing and the desire of my heart, and I can only imagine what it will be like to be with him. To just be in his presence is enough for me to happy…

Ice Breaker from Last Night

This last Sunday, September 14, 2008, I got the opportunity to speak to my churches youth and young adults about God’s grace. I wanted to speak about Grace, because I have learned of how great it is, and I wanted to share that with anyone who wanted to further their walk with Christ.

Through Grace I have gotten a much more complete understanding of who God really is. Romans 6:23 tells us that, “the wages of sin is death…” and even though Romans 3:23 says that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” God still lets us live. He continues to poor out blessings on us every day, and he even, as Jesus Christ, died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.

I have attached the audio from last night. I hope that through it you can come to a greater and more realistic understanding of your salvation and who God is. I also have included a video I used from Mars Hill Church’s media library on John Newton.

Through studying this I obviously needed to use some books to help me out. So my first book I used as a reference was Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. Grudem has several chapters that really help you undersand God’s grace. As a second point of reference I used a book which I haven’t even finished. It is a biography on John Newton, and it is called John Newton: From Grace to Disgrace written by Jonathan Aitken. And lastly, I used a quote from the great book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller.

Enjoy!

To download or listen to the audio from my sermon on God’s Grace click the following link: God’s Grace presented by Joey Francis

These old buddies are being real and true to who they are. I do not appreciate all the talk that they have, but I do appreciate the way that they are honest about themselves. They know they like to drink, so they talk about it. They know they like to snowboard, so they talk about it. You get my point? So this brings me to what I want to say, that some of you may be slightly bugged by.

I don’t understand why I want to talk about Jesus and other Christians do not. Or let me rephrase what I am saying. I don’t want to accept the reason that I do understand. I know a lot of young and even older Christians who do not talk about Jesus freely. They chooose to talk about many other things, some of which are also controversial, but they will not just openly speak about Jesus. This bugs me. My old buddies live in the world; they are part of the world. As a result they talk about the world. Christians are born again and bought by the blood of Jesus, therefore, they should talk about their great redeemer. The one who changed their life, and made them who they are today.

Before I was a Christian I was alot like my old buddies, but after I was born again, I was transformed. I let my mind be renewed, and I recognized that I have a new nature. I don’t want to lie to people by talking about and avoiding who I really am, and that is a person who loves God for everything that he has done in me and for everything that he is and represents.

So I want to leave you with this. Are you one of those people who are afraid to speak of the reason they are who they are? If so why is that? Are you really the person that you choose to avoid while you are in conversation? Think about it…