CHUPPAH!!

Alright, so I just got back from Florida for a friends wedding. It was a lot of fun, and I realized how much I miss Florida, but that's a whole other post all together. Anyway, it blows me away how awesome God is and how faithful He is ALL the time. Here's what happened:

If you don't know what a chuppah (or huppa) is, it looks like this:

They're seen mostly in Jewish wedding ceremonies. They're just a canopy the couple is married under.

But there was a problem with the church scheduling where they got married two days before the wedding. Someone scheduled a funeral at 10:30 and Josh's (my friend) wedding was planned for 2:00 the same day. There has been a lot of history with two of the deacons at that church and with Josh's dad. So it was thought that the scheduling mishap was done intentionally. So, with that thought, and the combination of several other surprise problems 2 days before the wedding, I can understand why there was a little extra tension. But to be honest we were thinking the worst of everything. Saying things like, "they're going to have to have the funeral with wedding decorations."

So when we were setting up everything on Friday, (wedding was the following Sat.) the people who were setting up for the funeral came in towards the end of the night. Josh spent a lot of time working on building a chuppah for their wedding, and it was quite fragile. But unfortunately, the funeral had a slide show that the chuppah was blocking. Josh had already decided that it wasn't going to be moved just because of how fragile it was and well....he spent a lot of time on it. But the guy who passed away told Josh that if he allowed him to move it, he would make it worth his while. So he's thinking a couple hundred dollars max. But get this..When Josh went to talk with him, the son said this, "I have a construction company and if you let me move that, I'll move it tonight, and have it back before you get here tomorrow. I'll also have my guys secure it for you so there's no way it will come apart. AND, I'll write you a check for.....5......thousand dollars." Yup that's right...5,000 dollars for about 15 min. worth of work. This guy offered to write him a check that was more that what his entire wedding cost. You can tell this guys wasn't just throwing money around, but that's how much it meant to him for his father had a nice funeral.

Ya know, I believe with all my heart that this was all Gods doing. And I can't say for certain that it was mainly to give Josh and Andrea a check for 5 grand, but you wanna talk about a huge lesson here. A lesson that says:

1. God's got everything under control
2. Don't sweat the small stuff
3. Love your neighbor
4. God's faithful even when we're not

Seriously, how easy is it to lose focus when things don't go our way? Or when things aren't perfect, how easy it is to dwell on that rather than focus on God. How quickly we worry about what's going on rather than how we can represent Christ? Wanna talk about a great father, He takes our moments of disobedience, or unfaithfulness to show us a lesson in love. In Josh's case, he got a lesson and a bonus $5,000.00 on top of it. It takes me back to a part of my testimony when God made it clear to me that no matter what the situation, no matter what the problem, regardless of what's going on...I'll make it. I'll make it through. You'll make it through.

Everything

This is great. I wish I knew who the original creator was...or even who did this version, but I couldn't find it. But it is really well done.

Modern Church

I was recently asked a question about some of the biggest social issues facing the church today, and there are many many issues facing the church, but the first thing that came to my mind saddened me a bit. Immediately I thought that the church is at a point now when it is going to have to take a stand and say, "Yes, we are different from the rest of the world." Yes, it says it throughout the Bible repeatedly, but now, with the goal of being "relevant" to the unbeliever there are many cases where the church is becoming so "relevant" that you can't really tell a difference anymore. Yes, I do believe the message of Christ if very relevant to todays society, and I do think that the love of Christ can be spread through modern and creative ways, but I don't think that the church needs to start leaving out pieces of the Bible because it may be offensive or because they believe that it may be flawed because of interpretations. I was talking with one of my friends in Florida about this, click here for his blog, and two peices of scripture came up.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (The Message)

^19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

This means contexualize the Gospel. It is key in reaching the lost. But often this next verse seems like it is often overlooked.

Jude 1:3-4 (New International Version)

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

I love the word "contend". We can't sway from the truth that we know in order to connect with those who are lost. The truth will make people uncomforable. We have to face it. It's going to happen. For us to say that we need to change the message in order for people to recieve it, is saying that we are able to communicate who God is and what He wants better than He can. Now we're creating our own truth, and changing the grace of God into a license for immorality. That doesn't mean have a fire and brimstone message every Sunday, but it means do not alter the truth to create comfort.

This is where the power of prayer comes into play. Anyone who has talked with me for more than 5 minutes about my philosophy of ministry has heard me say this: It is critcal for me to prepare as though the end result is up to me, but pray like the end result is up to God. I realize that the end result has nothing to do with me and my abilities, but is completely reliant on the power of God. I'm simply saying that we should prepare to the best of our abilities, but pray that God uses our ministry, and that God honors our obedience and diligence to reach the lost by breaking through and speaking to the core of their heart. Pray humbly that God takes our words and our actions, that are otherwise useless without Him, and speaks to their heart in ways that only He can.

We simply need to remember this:

As cliche as this is, it's true. We need to accept and love the sinner, but not the sin. Introduce them to a God who chose to carry the weight of their sins so they no longer have to live in it. Introduce people to a love that wants to make them perfect before the throne. Contend for our faith.

I finally get to join the crowd in saying, "I saw it!"

Fireproof. Yes, my wife and I are no longer having to confess of not seeing this movie. We were a little leery to be to be honest. Nothing against Kirk Cameron, but normally movies like this come off as cheesy, low budget, and have horribly cliche dialogue. So bad in fact that the message that the director was trying to convey is completely missed. BUT! I liked it. I must admit, I shed a tear or two. It really did hit on a relevant topic of today. The amount of marriages ending in divorce today are mind blowing.

Anyway, I liked it.