It's All About Me...Right?

I was riding on the train today, just chillen going to get some bread from honamossa (thats the food place near school). So I was riding along, and idk exactly what got my mind going in this way, but it just started going. I looked around at all the people that were on the train. Mostly business men in suites, a couple of woman. Some were older, others were on the younger end. But, what hit me was... wow... statistically speaking the vast majority of these people aren't Christians. Most of these people on this train are going to spending the rest of eternity seperated from Christ in Hell, and here I am, with the knowledge to help these people... and I do nothing. Oh, because I am much too busy with my going to get bread, playing playstation, and surfing the internet to put forth effort to try and share the gospel with these people. It stung, it really did.

I go day to day, and I very rarely get into spiritual conversations with people. It happens, but not all the time. I have, even more rarely, shared the gospel with people. Now, I tell myself that I am looking for an opprotunity... but what am I waiting for exactly? For them to ask me, "hey Micah... ummm i was wondering if you knew how to get to heaven?" Well, I mean that sounds rediculous, but in some cases... yeah that is kinda what I am waiting for. But, I shouldn't be waiting for them to ask me, I should be the one being practive. I am the one that God has been gracious enough for me to recieve his gift. I need to be the one to initiate... but I am just too busy with my own life, and I care too much that they might be offended or something.

Our attitude should be much different then this. We are God's hands and feat. God chose to use us to reach the nations and to share his word. Through us the holy spirit is able to do mighty things. I know that it isn't us really that saves people, that it is the holy spirit working in them. But, God needs willing vessels to spread his word.

I remember hereing this story from JD Greer I think it was. It is VERY heavy. Just read it and think, what have I done... and what have I not done. Then, what will I allow God to do.

Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him, and he was condemned to death. On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk. Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses. The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading. "The Consolations of Religion," was the replay. Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell. Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase with a tremor? Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, "You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings"? All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached. Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon:

"Sir," addressing the preacher, "if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!

This is what we believe. Yet, we aren't even willing to inconvience ourselves to and awkward conversation in the name of the gospel. It's not God's fault that there are millions that don't know and will never know, it is our fault. We have no one to blame but ourselves as Christians. Let's allow God to truely work through us. Let's allow him to inconvenience us. Let's live for Christ, and be willing to walk on that broken glass for our neighbor, and for our friends' sake.

All We Are

I apologize for me taking so long to post again. I am not terribly consistent. Did good for a while there, but I have a good excuse in that exams are coming up. But, I will try to post as much as possible in the weeks ahead considering it is my last bit of time here.Today I read Mark 12, and again I am just blown away by Jesus' teachings. Funny I would even say that but its true. I know he was the Christ, and he was God in the flesh but... WOW you can just see how brilliant He is! How brilliant God is! So, needless to say that Mark is quickly rising on my favorite books of the Bible chart.The part that really stuck out at me is a verse that, again I have heard over and over again. But, just think about the implications of what Jesus is saying and what this calls from us. Verses 28-30 say,

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

The most important thing is in our lives is loving the Lord. But, not just with all our hearts, we are called to love God with all our minds, all our souls, and all our strength. We are to completely and utterly love God with all we are, and not hold anything back or allow anything to hinder our love for the Lord. Let's break down the 4 loves that are described above.

Love the Lord with all your Heart:
This is a cliche term we here at church all the time. Refering to accepting God into our "hearts" and such. It is well known that the seat of emotion within modern times is the heart, and that romantic love is often times associated with the heart. Pastor David Akin of Southeastern seminary said that it has been heard over the years that people refer to Christ as their "lover", in almost a romantic sense. But, I believe what is going on here is that God and Jesus should be able to provoke the same sort of reaction from us in the sense of passion and persuit that a human lover would provoke. In the sense of longing and persuing. We should persue the Lord with all we are, we should long for His presence, to hear His voice, and to feel His touch. I know that I am lacking HIGHLY in this area. Often times I have to make myself have quiet times, and I do it because I know that I should. But, I almost always afterwards ask myself, "why in the world did I want to put that off?"

Love the Lord with all our Soul:
This is the place of reverence. This is the seat of who we are, the soul. This is the part of us that sets us apart from animals and from other creatures, the fact that we have a soul. I believe this means that God should be the center of our daily lives. That everyday we should be seeking out ways to love God and to share that love for others. What is in the seat of worship in our lives? This verse basically says that only God should be there, and that nothing else can be there. We are to love the Lord with all our soul, and give him that place within us.

Love the Lord with all you Mind:
Bruce Ashford said that Christians should be the tops in all their fields. That they should aspire to be the greatest and work hard to do that. Why? Because we are called to love the Lord with all our minds. If God has given you an ability to do something particularly well, isn't the act of honing that ability an act of worship (if the ultimate goal is to give God the glory of course). Christians really should be the tops of their fields, and others should be asking themselves... wow, what drives this guy? Personally... I am a slacker WAY more often then not, so believe me this hit me hard. We also should be filling our mind with things of Him, and not a bunch of worthless knowledge. We should be using our minds for scripture memorization and reading the word and books. Gosh I feel like a hypocrite writing this becasue I know how often I put off reading biblical books and learning about God. I fill my mind so much with things like video games, or news or random facts. But our minds should be on things of God... this is commanded.

Love the Lord with all our Strength:
Is loving the Lord easy? NO!!! Let NOBODY tell you otherwise. It goes against our very sinful nature so of course it can be difficult. It often time can drain us to do the right thing and it can require a good bit of our resources to do. But, we are called to love our Lord with all our strength. To use every drop of ourselves to love Him and aspire to do His work. It may be draining but God promises to fill us up. Maybe not immediatly, but he promises. In Isiah 40:31 it says,

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Give Him it all, cause he will fill you back up, and will allow you to truely soar.

We are called to LOVE the Lord with all of us. It's is the only thing that He truely deserves, and also Jesus says that this is the cheif commandment. A hard command? Yes. But, what better place is there then within the will of the Lord? No matter how hard that may be.


Sorry that was a bit long winded. To be honest I probably could have written a good bit more about this part of Mark but then nobody would actually read it, and also I need sleep.

would you give your right arm?

So, this is my last full week of school here in Tokyo. I gotta say that I am so ready to get back to the states its not even funny. To be honest I find myself just kinda spacing out in class thinking about that good long plane ride. Well... for the time being I just have to be patient, or find a worm hole or something.

But, enough about my day. Today I was reading in Mark today and came across some really thick stuff. It's funny, all these people like to say, "well, Jesus was a good teacher, a good moral leader, or a prophet." They just think of God as this big happy motivational speaker, that was giving everybody high fives and free buffets of bread and fish. But... MAN if they read his teachings I think they would have to change their minds. Jesus is INTENSE! The specific passage I am talking about in Mark is one that you probably have heard of, but just let the weight of this passage hit you. It's Mark 9: 43-48

43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.44 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where " 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' 49Everyone will be salted with fire. 50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

I mean, this is how bad sin is. THIS is how bad sin really is. That it would be better for us to go through life blinded, and maimed then to have sin in our lives. Sin is a deadly poison, and the scary thing is, that sometimes we don't even know its there. Other times we may even like the taste of that poison, and desire it. All the while the poison is seeping into our souls and sapping us dry. Atrophying our souls and making us spiritually anemic. That is how bad sin is. Better to have one eye, better to have one hand then to have sin.

On top of that imagine what it does to God when we drink of this poison. Think of all the people in this world right now that drink deep of the poison and aren't even aware of what they are doing to themselves. I know that this just nailed me right between the eyes. I know that sin is bad, and that I am taught in church that its not a good thing... but when you sit and think about it, that's the stuff that pinned Christ to the cross. Christ came and DIED so that we we could be pure before God. So that we could experience the Lord. That's how bad sin is.

Now, I don't want to sound legalistic, and I know that we are human, and that we make mistakes and that it is in our nature to seek out this poison. What I am saying is don't allow yourself to become complacent and calloused to sin. I am hard at work to do this in my own life so I am right there with ya. Just know how bad sin is, and its this sin that is responsible for sending our friends, neighbors, and family to hell. Remember that, and us the redeeming power of Christ's death on the cross to purify yourself and share that power!

I know I am NO WHERE NEAR!!! where I need to be, but Lord willing I want to try and get there.

Are You Kidding Me?

This is a reaction I say a lot when something just completely ridiculous happens. Now it has some alterations such as, "You have got to be kidding me." things like that, but you get the general idea. A good time I use this is when somebody does something utterly ignorant/dangerous and I am just left dumb founded at the stupidity being displayed.

After reading Mark 8:17-21, I feel like this is how Jesus feels with me often times. Early in the chapter Jesus had just gotten done feeding 4,000 people with 7 loaves of bread. After doing this Him and his disciples go and do some more stuff. On their way back from their activities, the disciples realize that they didn't pack any food, and only have 1 loaf of bread between the 13 of them. Well, Jesus begins teaching them, and midway through his talk he addresses their concerns. Verses 17-21 are his reaction:

17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?18" HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,19when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."20"When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to Him, "Seven."21 And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?

This sounds to me like Jesus is looking at his disciples, and basically saying... are you kidding me? After all that I did... You are worried about eating? I know, personally I am like..."geeze those disciples are dense", but how much are we like them?

I Know personally God has worked wonders in my own life, and then I turn around shortly afterwords and worry and not trust in Him. He has shown me comfort, and shown me that he has a plan for my life, yet I still question constantly. I feel like that God just has to look down at me sometimes and say, "Micah... are you kidding me?" God has everything under control. Lets not have a short term memory. Let's remember all the things he has done for us. But, more importantly than that, we need to remember His promises and know that He will never forsake us.

The Heart of Man

First, I apologize that I have been beyond inconsistent here at my blog. This will improve I promise. I am the king of excuses and often times I do my quiet time at night so I am pretty tired and I find reason not to post. Well, I feel convicted and I want to start having my quiet times first thing in the morning! (woopie...) So, I hope that will help me learn some discipline and I will be able to post more...that's the hope at least.

Ok, well today I went back to Mark after a long time not going there, and I read chapter 7. The part that really jumped out at me was Jesus little saying about the heart of man. It is in verse 15 and it says, "there is nothing outside the man which can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man."

Now I read this and was at first kind of like... well what about Drugs? Sex? Liking the Redskins?... all sorts of other bad stuff. those are outside the man. But, continue reading and God explains what it is that He meant by all of this. Basically, Jesus is saying that yes there are all of these things outside the body, but partaking in these acts ultimately is a reflection of something within the man: his heart. If your heart is right with Christ, you aren't going to desire these things and will flee from sin. But, if you heart is looking on yourself, that is when these evil things outside will affect you.

I heard this very thing (I don't believe it was the same verse) by pastor Mark Driscoll. He said that when we sin, the problem isn't the act itself, in that we must stop the act (which we do but this isn't the root). The problem is a worship problem. That we are worshiping ourselves and not God. Obeying our human heart, and not the heart of Christ.

I know that I often times fall into this same trap. I become legalistic and don't attack the root of my problem which is my heart isn't centered on God, but centered on me! Placing God in his rightful place and having your heart right will begin to allign your and God's desires together. Not to say that the temptations will just utterly disappear, but God promises strength in those times, but we have ot make sure that our hearts are right. It is not the things outside that corrupt us, so much as it is the stuff inside of us that does. It is our own heart that seeks after sin, and only God can fix that.