25 October 2009

Jesus' Superpower

Ever had someone ask, "if you could have any superpower what would it be?" Well, as much as I want to fly or be able to go invisible go back in time, I think the ultimate superpower would be that of Jesus.

No, I'm not talking about "being God," as cool as that would be. I'm talking about his ability to be fully human and yet completely sinless - and completely able to follow the will of the Father. Seriously, who does that? Our sermon this morning (thank you Isaac!) was about humility, looking at Philippians 2: 1-11 about Jesus humbling himself to death on a cross and how we should humble ourselves and put others first because we have shared in the joy and love of God. Yep. Heard it. Read it. But then he goes on to talk about how Jesus left all the prestige and power he had in Heaven - by choice - to come save our sorry selves from eternity in Hell.

Jesus didn't have to leave Heaven. He could have rebelled against the Father and said, "Nope, they don't deserve it. I'm going to stay on my comfy throne and let 'em suffer." But instead, he came here and suffered the excrutiating* pain of death on the cross, for us. Again, who does that? Seriously. And once he got here and was surrounded by prideful, terrible sinners who were all out for their own good (as we all are), he still didn't sin.

(*sidenote: apparently "excrutiating" is actually "of the cross" - as in - the word came to describe the worst pain ever suffered! )

So here's my theory: Jesus came here from Heaven, which means he was with God (being God of course), in God's presence, which means he got to fully experience how incredible God must truly be and therefore want to do nothing more than live in complete obedience to God's will - even if that meant death on a cross. In other words, God is way bigger, way cooler, and way more worthy of glory, honor and praise than any of us could ever fathom - because that's the only way Jesus could have lived so perfectly in His Father's will.

Which begs the question... how would we live if we had truly experienced God's awesome wonder and been with Him face-to face? Jesus didn't have a superpower (except the whole "being God" thing, but here on Earth, he was just a human like the rest of us) - he just knew God's amazingness. We can only begin to grasp that amazingness... and I don't know about you, but knowing how Jesus experienced God and thus had the will to obey Him, it makes me want to experience and know God more through His Word... and dream of truly being in His presence in His kingdom.

18 October 2009

The Fox and the White House

I apologize beforehand for this political nature of this post... it is not typical of what I write here, but I was really disturbed by what I was reading online.

I was about to turn off my computer when I looked at my Yahoo! headlines and was struck by one in particular.  Apparently White House officials - indeed, the whole Obama administration - seem to be rather upset with Fox News.

Actually, "upset" is an understatement.  According to the White House, Fox News shouldn't even be considered a news station at all.  The reason?  It seems that Fox News is the only station that is consistently critical of this administration, questioning many of its policies and attempts at change.  And the President and his people don't like that.  So what do they do?  They go on the other networks that bow to their every whim and blast Fox News for not being unbiased (i.e., for not also bowing before them).

So what does this mean?  I guess it means that those who question the President and this administration should be censored.  After all, that's what freedom of speech and freedom of the press is really all about, isn't it?  Being under the control of those in power?  I guess questioning the President is equivalent to blasphemy...

Granted, children in New Jersey were recently seen singing praises to Obama to the tune of "Jesus Loves the Little Children" (you can find the video if you look for it... I decided against posting it here), but does this make him divine?  I say no.  And I hope you do, too.  I reserve divinity for the One Who made Obama, and all of us for that matter.  Only He deserves our praise.

And I think now I'm going to go pray for our country...

11 October 2009

October Prayer Letter

Methinks we need to update more, since our August prayer letter was the last post on the front page of our blog, and here I am posting our October prayer letter.  Sorry for the lack of updates.

Anyway, here is our latest prayer letter.  Enjoy.  And if you did not receive it either in the mail or in your email, please let us know and we will add your information to our list to make sure you receive our future letters.