Deep-End Discipleship

“ Jesus came down from the mountain with them and stood on a large area of level ground. A great company of his disciples and a huge crowd of people from all around Judea and Jerusalem and the area around Tyre and Sidon joined him there. They came to hear him and to be healed from their diseases, and those bothered by unclean spirits were healed. The whole crowd wanted to touch him, because power was going out from him and he was healing everyone. Jesus raised his eyes to his disciples and said: “Happy are you who are poor,   because God’s kingdom is yours. Happy are you who hunger now,   because you will be satisfied. Happy are you who weep now,   because you will laugh.” Luke 6: 17-21 CEB There is a lot of pressure in life to be perfect. This pressure can often add up to a very heavy weight to carry. Somehow we are taught to measure our life by the length of our resume, AP classes, or our GPA. This high level of success can motivate us to reach ...

Look, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. This is so. Amen.   “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:7-8 –                Time. We keep track of it in gears on a watch or more likely by turning on our phone screen. When we have fun it seems to go faster and when we’re stuck in that class we dislike it seems to crawl to a slower pace. Sometimes we want to add more time to the day to get more done, have more time with a friend, or to take a longer nap! Whether we wish time was faster or slower, we’re all living within the constraint of time. Since we live within time, it’s hard to imagine anything outside of it. It’s hard to imagine a Being that existed before time or outside of time. Since God created everything that ...

" The earth is the  Lord ’s and everything in it,      the world and its inhabitants too. 2  Because God is the one who established it on the seas;      God set it firmly on the waters. " Psalm 24: 1-2  I've always loved those camp songs about God that I learned when I was a kid. Songs like "This Little Light of Mine" or "Father Abraham" still get stuck in my head to this day. The catchy lyrics, and fun melody make it so when you learn those songs, you will never forget them! When I read this scripture passage from Psalms, the first thing I thought of was "he's got the whole world in his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands". I started thinking about how something as simple as a children's song actually hold so much truth and knowledge about God.  It is important to spend time in our faith recognizing the power and strength of God. I think it is amazing that we worship a God that wants to be so ...

   “ Why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about? Pull yourself together, Job! Up on your feet! Stand tall! I have some questions for you, and I want some straight answers.” - Job 38:2-3 The Message - It doesn’t take much to imagine God pointing an angry finger at us. We know we are imperfect. We know we mess up. We know we miss the mark to God’s standards so much of the time. Sometimes it is so easy to imagine that we cannot do anything to make God happy. Perhaps much like our experience of angry parents, God just seems to be making our life as hard and inconvenient as possible. Maybe this is why I love the book of Job. Job is a person who has a whole book of the Bible written about his life. He literally loses everything – including his wealth, his health & even his family! Then his friends come and try to cheer him up but just end up getting into an argument with Job about what Job might have done wrong to tick ...

"Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' And they answered him, 'John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.' He asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered him, 'You are the Messiah.' And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.' He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any want to become my followers, let th...

"Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all." - James 1:17 CEB - We're a few weeks into the school year. We're getting into our classes, working hard in sports, practicing for performing arts, and adjusting to the crazy normal that is the school year. It feels like life is constantly changing sometimes. Some people love the excitement of an ever-changing life while others dread the inevitable changes and wish for something constant. In this passage of the letter of James, James reminds his readers that God does not change. God gives good gifts and gives them perfectly. Based on the verses before verse 17, it appears the audience of James was tempted to sin. We all still sin even 2000 years after Christ walked the earth! James reminds them that the temptation to sin does not come from God. God does not give us bad things su...

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” - John 6:35 NIV -  Have you ever forgotten your lunch at school, or not packed snacks to get through the day? I often make the mistake of not packing snacks or lunch with me when I go to class, and I always end up being that person in the back of the class that sounds like I have a small monster growling from my stomach. I also notice that when I get hungry, I cannot focus as well. I don't know if it's because I'm day dreaming about the pizza I want to eat later, or just because my brain is running on empty and is giving up but I can never focus when I am hungry. There is something about feeling like there is nothing in your stomach that offsets your entire day. In this verse from John, Jesus is telling everyone around him that whoever believes in Him will never go hungry, or be thirsty. Can you imagine never being hungry...

“Little children, I’m writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus’ name. Parents, I’m writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you because you have conquered the evil one. Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I write to you because you are strong, the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.” 1 John 2: 12-14 Sometimes we can feel limited because of our age. Maybe people tell us “you’re too young to do that, or think that.” Maybe we assume that people think less of us because of our age. This is something that I have thought about a lot in my life and especially when I started working in youth ministry. I kept thinking, how am I supposed to teach people about God when I am still young and learning so much myself? I would get caught...