My Vision

  March 24th, 2012. I was at a student conference with my church. God was doing a lot of great things in students that weekend, including me. The lessons and worship were both great.
  I remember one particular service; I was on my knees praying. All of a sudden, a vision entered my mind. I hesitate to call it a vision; it was more of a “video” that popped in my head. I was in a little shed made out of tin in a field. I was leaning against a piece of metal. I was surrounded by rubble and debris in the shed. I don’t remember if there were any windows or doors, but there was a large hole in the wall I was facing, a little smaller than the size of double doors. Someone reached in a grabbed my hand. He pulled me out of the shed and into the sunny field. We were both dressed in military camo. I got the sense that he was my captain or general. He then turned and started walking away, leaving me at the entrance of the shed watching. Then the vision ended.
    I think this is a great picture. It took me a while to interpret it fully. The way I see it, I was surrounded by the rubble of life and sin. The man, Jesus, reached in and saved me from the things of the world, so I could be with Him. Then, He started walking away. It was an unspoken invitation to follow Him and take up my cross. I feel that this is His calling for all Christians. He will help us out of the rubble, but we have a choice to follow Him into the battle (see my article on Spiritual Warfare for help on the actual fight), or stay at the shed.
    Will you follow?

Disciple

Disciple (d -s p l) n.


One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another.


    This is one of the definitions of the word disciple. We’ve all heard this word before, and it usually refers to one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, or other followers of Jesus. To disciple someone is to make them a disciple of Jesus. What exactly is that?

        In most places today, to become a disciple is to pray this prayer, and then you will be saved. Perhaps there is much more to be done (See “There Must Be More to Life than This” and the book “Radical” by David Platt). To disciple someone isn’t to get them to pray a prayer. It is to help them grow in their spiritual walk as well. As Americans today, we believe in mass-production, trying to save as many as we can as fast as we can do it, which is not a bad thing.

       Our greatest example for how we should model our lives stands in one man: Jesus Christ. Notice that Jesus turned away the crowds, instead investing himself into 12 men, who 11 of which would become some of the greatest speakers of all time. Jesus turned away many, and accepted few. As David Platt put it, Jesus’ mega strategy was just to disciple, not mass produce. It’s not about getting someone to pray a prayer. While that should be done, it shouldn’t be the end. You need to invest yourselves in others, and try to teach them what you can. Let the Spirit guide you, and instead of mass-producing, invest yourself in a few. Do not do assembly-line production and then leave them on their own, invest in them. Imagine the differences between an assembly line and a hand-crafter. Sure, the assembly line gets more, but the hand-crafter gets better.

     Instead of just praying with someone and leave them on their own, invest into them, teach and guide them. When a gardener plants a seed, does he leave the seed to fend for itself, or does he constantly water it and take care of it? If you have a pet, do you let it fend for itself or take care of its basic needs?

    You take care of them. It’s the same in discipling. Help them grow in Christ and on their Spiritual walk. This doesn’t mean you are “better” than them in any way. As much as they learn from you, you can learn from them. This is the essence of community, helping each other in the Faith and to grow together in Christ Jesus.

Josh's Legacy

A Video In Remembrance of Joshua Hernandez

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RIP Joshua Hernandez

One of my good friends, Joshua Hernandez, passed away yesterday in a car accident. He was 18, incredibly athletic, and was one of those people that you can't help but like. He was a faithful, awesome man of God, and was such a light in our youth group, church, and city. He was incredibly inspiring, and a wonderful young man. We love you Josh, and will always remember you.

The Old Testament and the Cross

    One thing I have always wondered about in the Old Testament is the violence. Why do so many people die and so many harsh punishments be dealt to people when God is supposed to love us? This is a very difficult question many people struggle with. I am struggling with it myself. I have a book that I am going to read on the subject, but until then, I don’t know what to think.

     I overheard a couple of students the other day talking about this very subject. They said that there are a lot of people killed in the Old Testament, and why did that happen? I thought about it a bit, and I believe that it is because Jesus had not come yet. Remember, the reason that we as Christians go to heaven is not because of our own righteousness, but in Jesus’ sacrifice so that we may live forever with Him. However, the sacrifice wasn’t made until the New Testament, after the Old Testament. The Bible says in Exodus 20:5

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to [idols], nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God.”

   God says that He is a jealous God, he can share His glory with no other (Do not confuse this with Jesus, who is God). If He did, God would cease to be God (this is pretty confusing, don’t feel bad if you don’t understand it, I don’t understand it). God is also a pure God and a holy God; he cannot stand in the presence of sin. This is why we cannot go the Heaven, because every human on the planet (except for Jesus) has sinned. Even in your entire lifetime if you have sinned only once, then you cannot be with God.

   This is a fundamental truth in the Old Testament. We, as fallible humans, sin. God cannot be with sin. Therefore, we cannot be with God. This paints a pretty bleak picture for us, and humanity as a whole.

   This is where Jesus enters the picture. When Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, He didn’t only bear the pain of the cross, He also bore the sins of all humanity. Before Jesus was taken by Judas and the Roman soldiers, He wept in the garden, so stressed that He was sweating blood. This can be a bit confusing to some believers, since many Christians have died seemingly worse death and went out singing. Does this mean that Jesus is weaker than His followers?

   We must understand here that Jesus wasn’t stressing about the pain that the people would bring on Him, He was stressed about the pain that God would put on Him. Sins must have consequences, and Jesus took the fall instead of us. The wrath of God at all past sins and all future sins descended on Jesus. They say that God turned away from Jesus on the cross because He couldn’t bear to see His son in pain, but God turned away because He cannot look upon the sin.

     Before Jesus came however, sin must be paid for, for as I said earlier sin must have consequences. This is why, I believe, that there was such a harsh punishment system in the Old Testament, because Jesus had not come and accounted for our sins yet, so people had to face the consequences.

   I do not understand how it all works, and why God chose this system, but this is what I believe to be true.

   “What can wash away our sins/nothing but the blood of Jesus”