October 22, 2009

my rant on crazy christians

Okay this is a rant. I don't rant much, so consider it a rare moment on my blog.

When I was in college about once a semester some crackpot would invade our "free-speech" area and yell at all the students with some twisted form of what they believed was the message of Christ. I remember this one guy with his wife and 8 kids who traveled in a VW bus from California all over college campuses to tell people they were "going to hell". He ranted on and on about how everyone on the campus was a sinner and was going to hell. Everyone...

Not just the frat boys, not just the vegans, not just the liberals... Everyone was going to hell, except for him and his family.

By the fourth day scores of people were standing around waiting to see what this crazy bird would do next. They all thought he was an idiot. He was doing lots of damage to the credibility of ministries on campus as well because many people thought this was what a typical "Christian" was like. Some of my friends tried to reason with him between his rants but he would yell at them and say they were going to hell too.

Finally on the last day he was there I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Okay we all get that we are going to HELL, WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED!?!"

He looked at me and paused.... He had a captive audience... He didnt say a thing for what seemed like 15 seconds... Then he took a deep breath and continued to tell everyone they were "GOING TO HELL!" just like before. I gave this joker the benefit of the doubt to give him the chance to give at least a few words of truth and this guy just kept on.

He didn't want to tell anyone about Jesus. He just wanted to tell everyone they were going to hell. He had no story of Grace. He had a story of self-righteousness that no-one could live up to.

So the reason for this rare rant is I have seen these weirdos start popping up in cyberspace. I feel like now that we have the interweb that they seem to be popping up more and they are even more incessant than the guy that invaded our school. They spit their venom at people, on their blogs, on their you tube videos, on their websites. They comment with such unwarranted suspicion and hate.

The latest attack I saw was about a student pastor I have met and respect greatly. In meeting with him, I was able to see first hand his passion for the Gospel and how the staff serve Christ with every ounce of their beings. In their ministry they are trying to win as many people before their time on earth is done. They are doing so with integrity and honor to God's word.

So...

To the haters, LEAVE THEM ALONE! GO DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIFE besides tear everyone else down. I have already spent way too much time on this post and giving you the time of day, but please STOP IT! If you are one of those closet bloggers dogging other ministries or churches CUT IT OUT! You aren't getting mad props from God for "outing" their ministries, or "exposing" their false teaching.

Please quit hating. Spend that time and energy serving others, give time to help the orphan and the widow. Use that time you would have wasted recording a hateful video to encourage others in your community. Quit this nonsensical and self-righteous crusade of blasting people you dont even know... God doesnt need you to be the "holier-than-thou watchdog". I think He's got it under control.

Okay Im done....

October 20, 2009

Pillar Three: Influence your world

3. Influence your world.

How do we influence such a large world? One person at a time. One moment at a time. God has given us the privilege to carry His message to the people around us. We all have spheres of influence that we come in contact every with day. (School, work, family, friends, etc.) And this is where we can have the greatest influence.

Influence can happen quickly or may take years of relationship to happen. I heard a story about a man named Andrew Murray, who prayed for a close friend for 20+ years before he came to know Christ. We don't know God's time table, we just need to be faithful with the spheres He has put us in.

Also, let's not sell ourselves short to the amount of influence we have. Believe it or not you have the Creator of the universe who's got your back. He's the one who works through you anyway. Is it possible your idea of influence is too small? I can't answer that for you. But remember to be faithful with the small things in life. That's how you get to the big things.

October 12, 2009

Texas

been out of town in Texas... report back next week!!!

October 7, 2009

Pillar Two: Build Relationships

This is a second blog post in a series. These talk about our core values as GraceSTUDENTS, but can be applied to any Christ-follower, at any age.

2. Build Relationships

God designed us with a need for intimate relationship. In fact God in His very nature is in relationship. (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) As Christ followers, we are brought into a relationships with God the father through his Son.

If we are in Christ then we are designed to build relationships with those around us to continue the process that God designed. And let's face it. Life is easier when we have people that are willing to walk along side of us and help us through the hard times.

We offer small groups in GraceSTUDENTS to help teens get connected with other students. But the truth is you can build relationships just about anywhere. The main thing we want is for students to build deep, meaningful and intentional relationships with other students. (and by "intentional" I just mean that we take care in how we handle friendships and know that what we do really can effect others).

An important thing to remember is to build relationships with those in the faith. We need people that have our back and understand what it means to be a student of the cross (a daily Christ-follower). We need people that can be praying for us and that are willing to hold us accountable. These relationships will be like water to us in dry times.

So if you don't have a group of friends like this, check out our small groups at Grace Fellowship. You will be glad you did!

October 1, 2009

Pillar One: Worship GOD

I really love what I do. I love the place I work and the people I work with. (that's YOU!) But many times it is easy for the purpose of our ministry and the vision to leak. So that's why I wanted to write a few blogs about who we are and our purpose as GraceSTUDENS. You can find a short synopsis of our tenants on www.gogracestudents.com as well.

1. Worship God.

Two words with monumental meaning. We all worship something regardless of faith. We all have something that we put front and center in our life. As a ministry we choose to put God front and center. We want God to be the object of our attention and our affection each and every day. This is only possible through Christ.

This pillar of our student ministry is numero uno because without worshipping the one true God, you cannot do anything else. You can pretend by acting religious and doing "so called" good deeds, but it really means nothing if you do not know who God is.

I find that most external struggles/sin we deal with really begin as internal struggles. Even more so our struggles begin with the heart. If our heart is not rightly related to God through Christ, then of course our outside world will be wack (even wiggida wack)!

In college we had this worship service called "Power Source". Yeah, I know. Cheeseball. But as kinda lame as it sounds, there is truth in those words. We cannot do anything aside from being plugged into God. Only God alone can birth in us the ability to love people and change our world. SO my question to the students is, What are you worshipping? Because only someone who worships God day in and day out can live out the life God has called us to.