Jesus Crash

In the World - But Not of the World

Josh — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:28:49 +0000

Many believers understand being ‘not of this world’. Yet perhaps we’ve forgotten that while we are not of this world, we are to be in this world. Too many live as if they are outside of this world. Perhaps more people would be reached, and more love would be spread if we stopped trying to live outside of this world. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone who did not look like you, did not think like you, did not hold the same convictions as you? If you have, did you judge them? Did you assault them with “truth”? Or did you seek to understand them? Did you seek to love them? Church is meant to be a lighthouse to the lost, a hospital for the sick, not a social club for a specific class of elite. So how do you portray God’s love to this world?

Trust - Key to the Heart

Josh — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:33:03 +0000

Trust is the key to a person’s heart. We live in such an unsafe world of hurt. Negative messages attack us from every side. If you want to touch someone’s heart you must earn their trust. Before they will let down the walls they have built up, they must feel safe. You cannot make another person do anything, but you can help to create a relationship of safety, of trust. Love is about serving others. Love is others-focused. Love is about meeting the needs of others. Love someone, serve them, meet their needs, and you will create that trust. You will earn the key to their heart.

Balancing Community and Isolation

Josh — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:49:59 +0000

Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray”Today we often call attention to Jesus’ habit of slipping away into the wilderness to pray alone. (Luke 5:16) This seems to have great appeal to our modern culture of individualism and isolation. Everything we do is about the individual. Marketing targets the individual consumer promising individual pleasures and fulfillment. The individual seeks to find meaning in his life, to find what he can gain, and to probe the depths of his soul. In faith we seek longer quiet times, reading the bible by our selves, and praying in solitude. Yet perhaps comparing this individualist culture to the culture represented in this passage is like comparing apples to oranges. The culture of Jesus’ day was about community. Prayer, reading, study, was done in community. For Jesus to seek alone time with God was a rare and special thing. Today Individualism and isolation is the norm of our society as we grow ever distant from community in our extreme individualism. I believe it is good to seek alone time with God to pray, study and talk to God, yet I believe we are perhaps missing something in our application of this scripture. I believe this passage shows us a balance between communal faith experience and the individual faith experience. We need both and in a faith built around communal experience Jesus sought to spend individual time with God. Yet with so much emphasis on the individual in our culture today, especially when the standard prescription for spiritual growth seems to be to dive deeper into isolation through closet prayer and study, that perhaps this scripture should inspire us to seek to balance our communal and individual experience of faith, rather than using it as a reason to dive deeper into self-focus, isolation and individualism.

What kind of person are you?

Josh — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:59:40 +0000

Are you a person who gives or takes? Do you give to those around you? Does your character overflow from your soul to touch others? What kind of person are you?

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” (Gal 5:13 NLT)

Uncontainable

Josh — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:00:17 +0000

May “Your roots … grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Ephesians 3:17-18

God is truly uncontainable. He cannot be contained by the boxes we try to set around Him. We try to limit God according to rules and systems by which we think He should work. However God is beyond our ability to limit him, nor can anyone constrain His love or presence from us. If we truly knew how deep His love is for us, would we really try to contain Him, and would we really regulate who we think is deserving of His love? If we were to truly see how much we are all in need of His love, and that His uncontainable love is more than sufficient to touch each and every soul in this world, how would this impact how we love? Shouldn’t our love for others be a reflection of his uncontainable love?

Take up Your Cross

Josh — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:40:15 +0000

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34

Take a look at your life. How much of your life is an excess? How much of what we do or have is a choice of indulgence and preference? Are you truly denying yourself and taking up the cross? Or are you selectively choosing inconveniences that you can endure for brief moments for the sake of ministry? What does it truly mean to take up the cross and follow Jesus? Perhaps our culture has confused sacrifice for discomfort.

From Out of the Heart

Josh — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:12:15 +0000

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:20-23

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart” Matthew 15:18

What springs from your heart?

Break Through

Josh — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:58:45 +0000

We live in an unsafe world. As a result we set up walls to protect our hearts. However, real connection occurs at the heart level. Unless we break down those walls, we will only continue to survive when we were truly meant to thrive. A Heart that is surviving, fights against the world, protecting itself from getting hurt again. A heart that thrives is one that joins with others, and through such connection is built up, grows, helps others to grow, and experiences life that can only occur in true heart-level community. Break through the walls to your heart and truly live.

Mending a Broken Heart

Josh — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:22:40 +0000

Mending a broken heart takes two. Its is not something that can be done in solitude. When a heart attempts to mend itself without the love of another it merely attempts to cover over and hide the scars, or to replace hurt with bitterness, anger, pride, or any other self-deception. A heart cannot mend itself without the love of another because where a heart has been hurt only love can heal. Whether it is by the love of another person, the love of God, or both, a heart can only be mended within the context of another because love is about the giving of oneself to another person. God offers himself to each of us, and when we love others we give of ourselves to them. Godly love occurs when we take the love God has poured into our hearts and we pour the overflow of that love into others. This is when true community, healing in community and service occur, and it is through the hearts of people that God desires his love to manifest. Mending a broken heart takes two.

Breaking Out of the Bubble

Josh — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:29:33 +0000

As Christians do we really love the people who go about their daily lives around us? We’ve dichotomized the world into the Christian Church and the World. But are we not all in the same world? We might have a calling to follow Christ, but that does not call us to withdraw from the world into little church bubbles of Christian sub-culture that exist as alien worlds within the greater world. The Church exists to be a dangerous force of love, ready to impact the world through service and caring, and yet perhaps we have turned it into a sanctuary for ourselves where we feel comfortable and safe. Within this bubble we lose touch with those around us, and we become strangers to them. We speak with our own language (Christianese), we have our own customs, and we have very little in common with those we seek to love. What we offer seems very foreign indeed because we have come to show God’s love in the context of our own cultural bubble, rather than a deeply powerful love that impacts the cultures of the world around us.

Climbing Life with God

Josh — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:56:56 +0000

In July I climbed to the summit of Mount Shasta at 14,179 feet. I came down with altitude sickness that made the climb grueling. Fighting nausea and fatigue, and on the verge of passing out on many occasions, the climb was made so much harder by the lack of snow which made bare the volcanic skree on which we slid and slipped our way to the summit. I must admit that I was very close to quitting, as nothing I could do from recalling scripture to determined brute anger could carry me past the physical limitations of altitude sickness.

Yet as hard as the climb was, it was an amazing experience that reflects life. The higher I got, the more I found that I could not rely on my own self or my own strength. The further I climbed, I realized I had to rely less on myself, and more on God. I also saw that while my body ached and life seemed unbearable that God was always around me. His beauty, His glory, His presence was around me in the sheer awesomeness and beauty of the mountain. I also saw that God’s love for me was present through the encouragement and support of the friends he had placed in my life on that climb. Sometimes when you want or hope for a great miracle, all you really need to do is open your eyes to see God’s glory and majesty that is already around you in love and support of friends that he has placed in your life to take the climb with you.

Sacred-Heart Cross

Josh — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:35:40 +0000

Not much to say about this piece. It was inspired from a bit of South-American art. I love to see religious art of other cultures and it reminds me of the incredible diversity of cultures and peoples that God touches. Some people get on my case for having a crucifix, or a latin sacred-heart, but I wonder why we come to see the elements of our own culture as the only correct way to worship. There is something unique about viewing the cross from the perspective of other cultures. We see things we often forget in our own cultural bubbles. We might enjoy the victory of Christ’s resurrection, but we should also remember His suffering on our behalf in the crucifix or in the crown of thorns that wreaths the sacred-heart. Maybe it is just this one artist’s perspective, but shouldn’t the Art of Worship be as diverse and wonderful as the cultures and peoples God has created?