I don't have much time to write now, but I wanted to share with you all how God has been working in my life over the past few days. I spent this past weekend traveling to West Virginia with my family to visit my grandfather. There, I was blessed with the chance to reminisce "the good old days" of my childhood and share fond memories with familiar old friends. I was also fortunate to hear an excellent message about how Christ calls us not only to lift up our prayers to Him in times of worry, but also to abandon those worries and fears. It appears that it is necessary to perform both acts in order to be fully blessed by the peace of Christ. If we are still clinging to the worrisome things of this earth, then there will always be a wall built up between ourselves and Christ. It follows then that, if we are separated from Christ, we are choosing not to accept that which he freely gave to us when he conquered evil and the grave. However, if we truly believe in the sacrifice Christ made and allow Him to lead us in both the good and bad times, we shouldn't be able to help not worrying! "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe." So when we put our trust in Christ, we abandon everything else that can keep us from him.
Today I returned from West Virginia with this message fresh in my mind and met a stack of mail addressed from the Wake Forest Office of Financial Aid. To my surprise, I opened the letter and found that there had been an error in the last offer that had been sent to my home. If you keep up with my blog, you will have read in the past that I asked for prayers regarding financial aid. MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!!! I received a considerable increase in aid and a decrease in loans which will save me from being horribly in debt later. I count this as proof that when we turn our worries over to God, as I did after writing my last post, that He will supply! Thanks to everyone for your prayers and words of support. They are greatly appreciated. And also please continue to offer up prayers for my grandfather. If anyone else needs any prayers, never hesitate to ask, for the power of God is tremendous when His people trust in Him.
Agape,
Joe
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Sin or Synergy
A funny thing happened today. My preacher gave a really good sermon. This is a rare occurrence since, being a Methodist pastor, he tends to tone things down in order to keep people happy and safe inside their comfort zones. But today, however, he decided otherwise and, in doing so, provided me with some very stimulating thoughts. Before I go further, I'll share the scripture upon which his sermon was based...
"At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except by the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, fr I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:25-30
Needless to say, I've read this scripture many times and heard a great number of well-educated servants of God preach on these words, but today they took on a very real and refreshingly new meaning.
The point he made that I wish to convey to you can best be summed up in the following metaphor (keep in mind, I'm not sure about the accuracy of my numbers, but these are the ones he gave me):
Alone, one strong horse can pull roughly 2 tons. Another horse pulling along with the second horse can add an additional two tons. However, if the two horses doing the pulling are harnessed together, combining the forces of their pulling, the team is able to manage somewhere around 18 tons. This is a classic example of synergy, the idea that two or more entities can accomplish a greater task when working in cooperation than when functioning separately to achieve the same goal.
I am a horse. I can pull a fair amount of weight in the form of stress, fears, struggles, guilt and, of course, sin. While I can handle this burden up to a point, there comes a time when I realize that the weight I'm pulling around behind me is too heavy. It's at that point that I realize I need somebody else to help me pull, so I turn to Christ. Things get easier, yes, but it seems like even with Christ pulling along with me that the weight of my sin remains too strong.
Why is this? I've been asking myself that question during hard times all my life (or at least for that part which I was able to comprehend God's existence and my own salvation). Today, I think I caught a glimpse of the answer! Salvation isn't just about admitting our weakness and our need for Christ's help in pulling the weight. The acceptance of grace is also the acceptance of total submission to Christ's yoke.
So frequently, Christians take on Christ's yoke thinking that things are going to get easier -- that problems are going to disappear and the burden will shrink down. That's not necessarily true. In fact, often the opposite happens, because Satan likes to turn up the heat when we take steps in the right direction. Since accepting Christ and making an effort to turn from sinful habits, it's been that much more difficult because of an overwhelming increase in temptation. What has to happen is for us to realize that taking on the yoke of Christ doesn't imply that we will be able to leave behind our struggles, but rather that we will be harnessed to a much stronger, more capable horse. Thinking back to our metaphor, if two equally powerful horses can go from 4 tons to 18 simply by being harnessed together, then how much greater of a burden will we be able to handle when we team up with a horse that has pulled the weight of the world?
Perhaps what Christ was really trying to say was not "Take up my yoke and your burdens will grow lighter." If I had to guess, I'd say it's really more like "Take up my yoke and I will join you to become infinitely stronger than your burdens." Looking at things from this perspective, it's a lot easier for me to understand how life can seem so overwhelming when I'm separated from Christ. Living in sin, the state in which our human nature (not only our actions) make us unworthy of God's presence in our lives, is the equivalent to taking the yoke that binds us to Christ and casting it off. In doing so, we are left to pull a tremendous burden alone. The superior alternative, living in synergy, enables us to truly "do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Agape,
Joe
P.S. -- I would really appreciate your thoughts and prayers for myself and for my family. In the past few weeks my grandfather has had a bout of sickness that put him in the hospital. He's home now and doing much better, thank God. However, his moods continue to change due to his dementia and his physical abilities have been sporadic due to his Parkinson's. This is taxing on my whole family, especially my parents. Additionally, I continue to receive less than hopeful updates from the financial aid office at Wake Forest, and it appears that I will be carrying a considerably larger amount of debt for the coming year. I hate to complain about such trivial things as money in times like my college years when I feel so blessed, but I know that prayer is powerful and that God moves in amazing ways when His believers join together in faith. I look forward to seeing you all again in August. You guys mean the world to me and I lift up each and every one of you as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Agape again!
"At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except by the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, fr I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:25-30
Needless to say, I've read this scripture many times and heard a great number of well-educated servants of God preach on these words, but today they took on a very real and refreshingly new meaning.
The point he made that I wish to convey to you can best be summed up in the following metaphor (keep in mind, I'm not sure about the accuracy of my numbers, but these are the ones he gave me):
Alone, one strong horse can pull roughly 2 tons. Another horse pulling along with the second horse can add an additional two tons. However, if the two horses doing the pulling are harnessed together, combining the forces of their pulling, the team is able to manage somewhere around 18 tons. This is a classic example of synergy, the idea that two or more entities can accomplish a greater task when working in cooperation than when functioning separately to achieve the same goal.
I am a horse. I can pull a fair amount of weight in the form of stress, fears, struggles, guilt and, of course, sin. While I can handle this burden up to a point, there comes a time when I realize that the weight I'm pulling around behind me is too heavy. It's at that point that I realize I need somebody else to help me pull, so I turn to Christ. Things get easier, yes, but it seems like even with Christ pulling along with me that the weight of my sin remains too strong.
Why is this? I've been asking myself that question during hard times all my life (or at least for that part which I was able to comprehend God's existence and my own salvation). Today, I think I caught a glimpse of the answer! Salvation isn't just about admitting our weakness and our need for Christ's help in pulling the weight. The acceptance of grace is also the acceptance of total submission to Christ's yoke.
So frequently, Christians take on Christ's yoke thinking that things are going to get easier -- that problems are going to disappear and the burden will shrink down. That's not necessarily true. In fact, often the opposite happens, because Satan likes to turn up the heat when we take steps in the right direction. Since accepting Christ and making an effort to turn from sinful habits, it's been that much more difficult because of an overwhelming increase in temptation. What has to happen is for us to realize that taking on the yoke of Christ doesn't imply that we will be able to leave behind our struggles, but rather that we will be harnessed to a much stronger, more capable horse. Thinking back to our metaphor, if two equally powerful horses can go from 4 tons to 18 simply by being harnessed together, then how much greater of a burden will we be able to handle when we team up with a horse that has pulled the weight of the world?
Perhaps what Christ was really trying to say was not "Take up my yoke and your burdens will grow lighter." If I had to guess, I'd say it's really more like "Take up my yoke and I will join you to become infinitely stronger than your burdens." Looking at things from this perspective, it's a lot easier for me to understand how life can seem so overwhelming when I'm separated from Christ. Living in sin, the state in which our human nature (not only our actions) make us unworthy of God's presence in our lives, is the equivalent to taking the yoke that binds us to Christ and casting it off. In doing so, we are left to pull a tremendous burden alone. The superior alternative, living in synergy, enables us to truly "do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Agape,
Joe
P.S. -- I would really appreciate your thoughts and prayers for myself and for my family. In the past few weeks my grandfather has had a bout of sickness that put him in the hospital. He's home now and doing much better, thank God. However, his moods continue to change due to his dementia and his physical abilities have been sporadic due to his Parkinson's. This is taxing on my whole family, especially my parents. Additionally, I continue to receive less than hopeful updates from the financial aid office at Wake Forest, and it appears that I will be carrying a considerably larger amount of debt for the coming year. I hate to complain about such trivial things as money in times like my college years when I feel so blessed, but I know that prayer is powerful and that God moves in amazing ways when His believers join together in faith. I look forward to seeing you all again in August. You guys mean the world to me and I lift up each and every one of you as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Agape again!
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