trust & obey part 2

Marion and I have now completed the 5th week of our Perspectives course, and it has been definitely overwhelming the amount of information that they have thrown at us. While overwhelming, it has been excellent. It has definitely been changing my view of "Christians" and "Christianity" and challenging me to get out of my comfort zone.  If there is anything in the last 5 weeks that I have learned, its that God isn't comfortable.

If you talk to a Christian, especially if you aren't one, I think people tend to paint a very pretty picture of being a Christian, that everything is going to be pretty and perfect if you come to Christ, when in reality I think if you are truly trying to follow God, that you will encounter trials and suffering. That isn't to say that you also won't be blessed, but God calls us, rather commands us to go out into uncomfortable situations and spread His glory. I'm not sure about all of you, but going out and talking to people who have other beliefs and ideas about religion doesn't sound like a good time to me, but here we go anyway...

I put the word Christian in quotes earlier for a reason, as the word has come to mean many things, and depending on what you have seen on TV, or where you live in the world, your thoughts on the word Christian can mean many things from crazy people who hate other people and call themselves christians, to ethnic christians that live in a certain area but are not believers. In this respect I'd rather be seen as a follower of Christ. He was a real man, who walked the earth, getting dirty, to spread the news that anyone can come to know the one true God, Gentiles and Jews alike, that all peoples can know him.

HOW then can I be a follower of Christ? It's a big deal! It's scary in fact! I want others to see me as an authentic lover of Jesus, and I have a long way to go. But how can I not be on fire for this? He has an exciting message that He has asked us to share. How is this not exciting to others? There is so much love coming to us, and there are people that don't have the slightest idea of what is available! This isn't about heaven and hell, this is about a relationship with the King, the Creator of All, and He LOVES us, and there isn't a catch! He just asks us to trust and obey. In that trust and obey though comes the uncomfortable, where He asks us to walk towards our fear, and thankfully we have Him to help us out. Jesus wasn't sitting in church, within safe walls. He wasn't even that well liked, to the point where he was eventually crucified. But what he did do was go out and get dirty, he went to the places where the message needed to be heard, where the weak needed help, where the sick needed healing. So in that same respect, I want to take the message to where it needs to be. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to force being a Christian on people, I just want to make sure the message gets to them and that they have a choice. It may not even be that I am the one delivering the message, but I know that I am supposed to help either through my skills with the web or whatever means God asks.

I could get into all the classroom stuff, but I think instead I'll just talk about the call. As with all things religion, its personal. If you haven't had that tug, you probably won't know how it feels. My tug has been a pretty strong pull, and the more we go through this class and talk about God's command for us to go out and spread His glory, the more I know I am supposed to do this. Matthew 28:18-20 - At least I know I have Him backing me up.

This is God's proclamation, and I'm not going to apologize for telling people about Jesus, about God, you may not like what I have to say, and you don't have to listen to me either! I know that I am not going to change the world, However the only way I can carry out God's mandate of proclaiming His name is to just start talking. Through all of this, the one thing I know is that if you are sitting and waiting for God to show you where and when to start talking, you might be waiting for a LONG time. So get going.

I am sure that if you have read this far, you might be thinking, ok, you keep going blah blah blah, but what about you B? What are you doing other than taking this class and say you want to be a follower of Jesus? That's a good question, cause right now, I'm just obeying the call that I have a desire to be part of spreading the message and I'm not sure where that will end up, but I am learning as much as I can to prepare.

I also know that God has been asking me to do some things that in my opinion are pretty uncomfortable, including just recently heading down to chat with some of the local homeless people here in Oregon City. Talk about being outside of my comfort zone. Quite honestly, I was expecting the worst, I was expecting crazy people, and all kinds of odd situations. What happened was just God asking me to go and see what's going on, just to see if I would go and do what He asked. What I ended up seeing was just 2 guys, who weren't bad people, if not a little odd, that just need a little help. I know that there are going to be more calls from Him, and they will get more difficult, its just preparation...

God gives us the grace to go stand in a place that He calls us to, then He gives us the love, to love the unlovable. Only then can you become like the people who you are called to, because that's when people start hearing your message, His message...

I'm going to end here tonight, cause I feel like I've pounded my drum enough.  I'll leave a little teaser for the next smattering of words however... "Community Tank" I have no idea what this is going to be, all I know is that I have had 3 dreams about it, all very different, but all very vivid, so I'm going to pay attention... Hopefully I'll have more about Community Tank soon!

God With Us

~b