I just finished a book by Rob Bell, and some other guy I don't know the name off hand, that I think was really great. It is called Jesus wants to save Christians, go get it and read it, really now. I will sum up in my own words and then you should go and read it. The idea of Exodus is the theme of the book, the idea of coming out of one way of life into a better one. Well I have thought about these ideas (not is so many eloquent words mind you) of moving to a better way for a long time. In the boook The authors point out that the ancient Israelites were rescued from slavery in an "anti-kingdom" and called to be the body of God here on earth. Well to be brief, we here in america are seeming to be living dangerously close to an "anti-kingdom". Don't get me wrong I am a proud american, but when it becomes about us more than them we are treading a dangerous path. King Solomon went downthat path, the book argues, and it led to exile in Babylon. I can't tell you haow many times I have heard or thought this line "We're Americans Dammit!" and thus justifing what ever action that may or may not be good for us. Like I have said before, we need to get out of the country more. We have this massive wealth here and we spend it on destruction and harm, not only to people but the earth as well, and we think that because we are the last superpower we can do whatever we please. In my opinion, and I think it comes out in the book I started with, we should be doing good things with our money and not just for ourselves. I get so tired of hearing that we need to bomb more or invade more for our security, well God is my security and I don't need to kill anybody to keep Him around. If we are going t call ourselves a Christian Nation (another debate entirely) we need to be acting like Christ to other nations, the humble wounded servant Jesus that I know. This is not just some bleeding heart love fest either, but all Jesus called us to do is love God and our neighbors, not be a political action committe for a particular party, and tell other people about how God loves them. It isn't hard folks, it is not about me. It is about something much higher than me, I am just along for the ride.

Here are my notes from a sermon I gave on Feb. 8. Remember these are my notes the full sermon had serval ideas frm memory. So if it sounds incoherant, it wasn't as bad live.


Since it is coming up on valentines day I thought I would talk about Love. Now don't worry I am not going to talk about the gushy romantic love. Honestly if you don't have a spouse or are dating you probably hate to hear about love and valentines anyway. But I am not going to talk about it. One I am not the best at it, and two, the world does not revolve around it. I am not going to talk about the unconditional love either. You are probably saying to yourself “That pretty much covers it so what is he going to say?” Well I am going to talk about something that I used to struggle with, and I think that someone here probably struggles with it too. But first I want to read from Matthew chapter 22:35. Keep that in mind as we go on. Blue Like Jazz is a really good book. If you get an opportunity to read it it will open your eyes to some different perspectives on our faith. But as I was reading this book years ago, there was a chapter about love that really struck me and reminded me of some things I had gone through.
In the book the author Donald Miller tells of how he was dating this girl for a while. But no matter how hard she tried, he just couldn't believe she loved him. She told him and told him, but nothing worked. He would beat himself over it too. Kicking himself around and comparing himself to other people and things like that. Well I don;t want to tell the whole story, but I see it all the time, people just look around and start saying “what if?” about so many things. And comparing and hating themselves for nothing. But back to Don Miller, he just couldn't accept her love. One day he was cleaning his bathroom and the words “Love your neighbor as yourself.” came into his head. Here is the rub, we don't willingly treat others badly, so why do we do it to ourselves. That leads to the other part of that verse from Leviticus 19:18. We have to love ourselves, but in order to do that we must accept love from others. Accepting love from others is like accepting a gift. People can bring us gifts all they want, but if we never open them we don't ever get the great stuff that is wrapped up. Once we are willing to accept the love of others things work out better. There is no more tension between us and those that love us. This is not just for romantic type loves either.
Have you ever had a friend that just listen to you. “I can't do this” or I stink at that” it is hard to deal with right? Well those people are getting their worth from something other than God. They are letting “stuff” name them. And when our value does not come from God we will always seem inferior. As odd as that sounds, only the creator of the universe, a being so great He can do whatever he wants to, makes us feel the way we are supposed to. Our value only comes from God. (read Blue page 86)
Love our neighbors as ourselves. So if we can't love ourselves how can we fulfill that command? Eric talked about love being a verb a couple of weeks ago, which it is. Tossing a Frisbee is a verb too. Relationships are just like that. You have to have reciprocal action. When I started college I was at a stage where I had just ended, rather badly, a relationship with a girl who was great and ended up getting engaged to my best friend. But I was basically afraid to do that again, I didn't want to injure somebody else like I had her. She was a good friend too, and she was friends with all of my other friends, both guys and girls. I believed that I wasn't a good guy so I didn't deserve friendship. But I wanted it, badly. But I also didn't want to torch these bridges like I had others. So I kept myself kind of away, but not too far. It happened one day when I transferred to PCC and began making friends there, that I realized that if these new friends could accept me for me, and I knew that God loved me just as I was, then I was okay. (talk about Nouwen.) I learned the true value of me, and how to accept that value. (Psalm 139 and Matt 10.) God made me, so I must be good. Thats what he said when he created Adam, and I am in His image. So if I am good, then I can love that.
And speaking of value, here is one way that you can put a value on your life. You are worth dieing for. Think about that. God was willing to die for you. You were worth it. So all of you single people out there if so-and-so isn't willing to die for you, are they right for you? Husbands are you willing to die for your wife? Your kids? Wives, would you give your last drop of blood for your husbands? Those are hard questions, but remember, you are worth dieing for. Jesus did it for you. Don't ever feel that you are inferior, God loves you and wants you to accept that love. Once we can accept that then, it is so much easier to accept it from others. And when we all go around loving each other as we love ourselves, the world is coming into alignment with Gods original plan.