Sinners & Saints

Here is a personal reflection I wrote for a retreat I planned this past weekend.

Open your journal and write down your response to these questions. Spend as much or little time as you need to answer these questions. When you are done please sit quietly until your small group leader tells you it is time to come back.

When you think about the word sinner, what comes to mind?

What does the word saint make you think about? Would you ever call yourself a saint?

Martin Luther said that we are all both sinners and saints. Open your Bible and read Ephesians 2:8-9. This passage talks about how we are saved by God’s doing – not because of anything we do for ourselves. Even though we sin, God continues to forgive us and offers us his free gift of grace.

What do you think about being both a sinner and a saint? Do you think this means it’s ok to sin, or does it mean something else?

What does this information mean to you when looking at other people?

Does it make it easier to forgive them?

How does this affect your relationships with friends, family and others around you?

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Youth

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12 (NIV)

I've been reading a lot on youth ministry lately: books, emails, and papers written by friends in seminary. One of the themes that keeps coming up is relationships, and how relationships with youth are an important part of youth ministry. This is youth ministry 101, so it's not surprising it comes up. One of the things I've been thinking about though, is that it's not just about adults having relationships with youth, or even youth having relationships with each other.

Youth ministry's ultimate goal is to make new Christians. Therefore successful ministry must not only model healthy relationships, but teach its participants to create new relationships and sustain them. Most of my closest and longest-lasting relationships are with people I grew up with in the church. These are the relationships I come back to - the people I fall upon in times of need. They are also the people with which I share my joys.

1 Timothy is called one of the pastoral letters. It is written to leaders. It is famous for the above verse. This verse is calling youth to mentor others. You do not have to be an adult to work with youth. Ministry of any kind is about relationships and you are never too young to minister.

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Delightful Service

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

So today's verse comes from Princess Belle. Chelsea LeValley who I watched play Belle this past weekend, had the above verse in her cast Bio. It struck me as very appropriate for a Princess, someone who is a role model to little girls and young women alike. :)

Recently I've been talking a lot with people about the purpose of their lives. "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" "What is God's plan for me?" "How can I feel fulfilled?" The answer is simple, and yet it is a lifelong journey.

What is God's plan for you? He wants you to share the good news. He wants you to tell everyone about Jesus. That is God's plan for you. "But how?" you ask. Well that's where it gets a bit tricky. That's also where today's verse comes in handy.

What does it mean to delight in the Lord? God gives us all gifts. When I am asked, "What does God want me to do Doug?" My reply is, "What do you like to do?" God gives us gifts. The things that we really like to do are the things we're good at, and those are related to the gifts God gives us. So the question, "What should I do?" can be answered, "Whatever God made you to do!"

Of course, it's not always as easy as that. When I asked someone the other day what they liked to do, the answer was soccer. How do you turn that into a lifelong way to serve? I don't know. I'm still working on that one. However how you act on and off the field is a chance for you to witness. You never know who you might inspire and not even know it.

The other thing you can do is listen to the people around you. Part of the process for becoming a pastor is to have the internal call that God gives you be affirmed by an external call. That means people have to think you'd make a good pastor. When someone tells you you're good at something, even if you have trouble accepting the compliment, file it away. External call is God's way of helping to affirm that we're on the right path.

So take a look at what God is calling you to do, and if it doesn't make sense you know where to find me. :)

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It's All in the Timing

For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

2 Corinthians 6:2

I was in the Ash Wednesday service at Peace Lutheran in Charlottesville this week. The past week had been pretty stressful because I had some pretty major things hanging over my head. I had gotten them done earlier in the day and I felt tons better. As I listened to these words in the service, they spoke to me. I remembered someone saying that sometimes God's time is waiting for us to be ready. I felt like that was what happened to me. I had to be ready to take a step on my own, and that was what made the time right for things to work out. In the same way we are not meant to be a passive people, but to act out our faith on a daily basis.

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How do I share my faith?

After Jesus died and was resurrected, His last words recorded in the book of Matthew are called the Great Commission.

Read Matthew 28:16-20 in your Bible.

Talking about our faith is a scary thing. Are there certain people it is easier to share our faith with?

If someone asked you what you believed, what would you tell them?

What if you came across someone who didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God who died for our sins. What could you say or do to share your faith with them?

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Who is my strength when I am weak?

What do we do when our faith is weak?

Read Ecclesiastes 4:10 in your Bible.

What does this passage say about friends?

How do you rely on your friends?

Read Romans 15:30 in your Bible.
Paul asks the Roman church to pray for him when he is weak. Did you know that people in our church pray for you? What do you think about that?

Who could you pray for right now? Write a short prayer for them.

Have you ever had your friends let you down? What do you do when that happens? Read Proverbs 3:5-6 in your bible.

How easy is it to put your trust in God?

How do you go about putting your trust in God?

Previous Reflection: http://kairosverse.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-do-i-live-my-faith.html

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How do I live my faith?

Living our faith in a sinful world can be a difficult thing to do. Read Mark 12:29-31 in your Bible.

Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments. The second is often called the golden rule. How is following the golden rule living out your faith?

Can you think of other ways to live out your faith?

Read Ephesians 5:1-2.
How can you be an imitator of God?

Previous Reflection: http://kairosverse.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-faith.html

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Who am I?

Last September I promised a series that I used for my youth group overnight. I never followed through, and so I decided to start the new year by completing that series. I have left the wording the same in case anyone else wants to use them for a retreat. The one I posted in September is actually the second reflection. This is the first. I will post links to all of them bel

These are interactive. Take the time to pull out a journal, a notebook, a scrap of paper, or pull up your blog, or a Facebook note and spend 20 minutes writing your own thoughts down. You can share them if you want, but this reflection time is for you. If you find you have things you want to discuss, you know where to find me. :)

Throughout this weekend we will be taking time in the Word of God. You will have four opportunities to do so. Find a quiet, comfortable place – outside or inside. Take your journal, a pen and your Bible. Do not come back early. Spend the entire 20 minutes reading and reflecting quietly. We will come get you when the time is up. Please be respectful of others and do not talk during this time. What you write in your journal is personal. We will not read it and will not ask you to share it unless you want to. When the weekend is over, you get to take your journal home with you.

Open your Bible and read Genesis 1:26-27.

The Bible tells that God created us in His image. What does that mean to you?

How do you see God reflected in you?

How do you wish you could be more like God?

Are there ways you wish you could be less like God?

Open your Bible and read John 3:1-21.

Jesus tells us that we must be born again. You’ve probably heard that saying before. What does it mean to you?

Reflect on your baptism and your confirmation process (whether you are finished or working towards confirmation). How has being a baptized child of God affected your life?

Next Reflection: http://kairosverse.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-faith.html

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Peer-Pleaser or God-Pleaser?

19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Galatians 2:19-21 (The Message)

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Galatians 2:19-21 (NIV)

I was talking to Lisa Myers the other day and she told me that this Bible verse from "The Message" translation "blew her mind". So I checked it out. I've also put the NIV translation up, because I found that it was a verse I've read and heard quoted before. The Message translation made me look at it in a new light, and I thought that was awesome.

I found this part especially pointed: "Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God?" How easy is it to try to adopt what we believe to please our peers. It is so "in" these days to accommodate everyone else's point of view on religion and try not to offend them. It seems like the right thing to do. If we are accepting of their beliefs, then we're loving them, right? Well maybe.

Then again, maybe not.

This verse talks about us having a relationship with God, and living out our lives through that relationship. If we are instead trying to live our lives to please our peers and trying to build a relationship with God based on that, we are not on a firm foundation. I think it's important to note though, that Paul never promises this is an easy task. It takes work to have a relationship with God - just like any other relationship. It's a much more rewarding one to have however because God never bails on you and He's always ready to take you back no matter how many times you bail on Him.

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God is in my iPod

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68 (NIV)

It's been a bad day for me today. I turned my iPod on shuffle and just the right songs came up to speak to me. It's nice to know God is in my iPod.

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Psalm 139

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

It's been a while since I've posted, and even longer since I have posted with reliability. Over the past few months I have been thinking and praying about my call. I have been asking, "What does God want me to do?" It has been a time of confusion and darkness. I have felt as if I can't see where I'm supposed to go, and so I've stopped moving forwards - mainly because I've lost my bearings and I'm not sure where to go.

However what I've found is I haven't lost my way in my day to day life. I still know where I'm going and what I'm doing on the small scale, and I enjoy it. Today's passage was recommended to me by my friend Meggie. She suggested that I read it, pray about it and reflect upon it as I work on figuring out my call. I printed the passage out and carry it around in the back of my planner. It reminds me that God is here, He knows and He is patiently waiting for me to get where I need to be. But I don't have to lose hope in the meantime, because no matter where I am in my life, He will use me while I'm there.

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My Refuge

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8 (NIV)

I got this one from a daily verse site. I thought it was interesting. It evoked the idea of God being an experience of all the senses. It is also a simple verse of assurance - blessed is the man who takes comfort in Him.

Give God thanks.

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Ministering to Our Brothers and Sisters

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart

1 Peter 1:22 (NIV)

When looking for today's verse I was inspired by the people God has sent to me over the past few days, and who God has sent me to. I have had many conversations over the past few days. In many I was ministering. In some I was ministered to. In one more than the others, I felt that I was both being ministered to and ministering at the same time. In all these conversations, I heard God.

I realized today that I hear God speaking to me differently than some people. For some people, they hear God in their hearts, or in the words in the Bible. I hear God in those places as well, but it is my relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ that helps me put everything together. Do not overlook the power and value of a conversation with a fellow Christian. You never know when God wants you to be ministering to each other.

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What is Faith?

Today's post is a bit different. Today and for the next several days I'm going to be posting the personal reflection exercises I am writing for an overnight our church youth will be doing in a couple weeks. There are still verses to read, but if you like this may be a chance to get a little more involved. Take the time to pull out a journal, a notebook, a scrap of paper, or pull up your blog, or a facebook note and spend 20 minutes writing your own thoughts down. You can share them if you want, but this reflection time is for you. If you find you have things you want to discuss, you know where to find me. :)

What is Faith?

The dictionary has many definitions of the word, "faith".

Faith
–noun

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

The root of the word "faith" is the latin fidere, which means "to trust". What does the word "faith" mean to you? What is your faith? What do you believe in?

Read the following verse from Hebrews 1:11 and then take 20 minutes to reflect upon your own faith. Write your thoughts in your journal.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Previous Reflection: http://kairosverse.blogspot.com/2010/01/who-am-i.html
Next Reflection: http://kairosverse.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-do-i-live-my-faith.html

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Love Eternal

15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah 49:15-16 (New International Version)

There's more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gently than a mother's
When her baby's at her side
- Rich Mullins, If I Stand

These verses are God responding to His people's cry that He has forsaken them. He says that he will love us more than a mother loves her child - never forgetting us no matter what. It is a love eternal. This passage is one of comfort and hope.

This is the last set of verses and lyrics for Rich Mullins' song, If I Stand. The song has always been one of comfort to me, even though it's a somewhat sad and slow tune. The verses he ascribes to his lyrics speak of God's greatness, the eternal reward of heaven, his love for us. They speak of hope, comfort and love.

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Weeping for Our Home

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

Psalm 137:1-6 (New International Version)

But if I weep let be as a man that is longing for his home.
- Rich Mullins, If I Stand

This passage makes me think of how we often forget how awesome heaven is in comparison to where we are now. When we enjoy where we are - and what we're doing - we lose sight of our ultimate goal. At the same time, this verse says to me - anything you weep for, it is less than the grief of not being in heaven. It is both a comfort and a warning.

It is very easy to say, "Try your best and you will go to Heaven." It's a comforting thing to think. However that is a simplification of the concept of grace. This verse speaks poetically of the woe of those far from their homes. God's grace gives us a place in heaven and the Bible tells us what our response should be.

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A song of ascents.

© Alyssa Grabinski

A song of ascents.

¹ When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.
² Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
³ The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
⁴ Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like streams in the Negev.
⁵ Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.
Psalm 126 (New International Version)

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to you
If I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs

- Rich Mullins, If I Stand

Today's verse is about how God turns our sorrow to joy. Even in the midst of our sadness, he can turn things around. Those are words of comfort when we are sad or depressed. Rich Mullins' lyrics say, "Even if I can't sing about joy in my life now Lord, I can still rejoice in the joy that brought me to you." His grace is abundant, and it is always there to catch us when we fall.

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Every Good Thing

¹⁴but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. ¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:14-17 (New International Version)

The stuff of Earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the giver of all good things
- Rich Mullins, If I Stand

This verse goes back to the question of "Why does God let bad things happen?" Bad things come from sin. Good things come from God. That is a simplification, but that doesn't make it untrue. Bad things happen because we live in a broken world - a world broken by sin. Rich Mullins' lyrics tell us that we don't owe any allegiance to that sin. We owe it to the Almighty. Our verse tells us that he is constant and good, and that is why he deserves our devotion and allegiance.


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Law and Gospel

¹⁷ The arrogance of man will be brought low
and the pride of men humbled;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

¹⁸ and the idols will totally disappear.

¹⁹ Men will flee to caves in the rocks
and to holes in the ground
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

²⁰ In that day men will throw away
to the rodents and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.

²¹ They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and to the overhanging crags
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

²² Stop trusting in man,
who has but a breath in his nostrils.
Of what account is he?

Isaiah 2:17-22 (New International Version)

There's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment
A music higher than the songs that I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes for the allegiance

-Rich Mullins, If I Stand

I've been learning about how we as Lutherans interpret the Bible so that I can teach a class in Sunday school. On of the things Dr. Mark Allen Powell talks about is how pastors are taught to look for both Law and Gospel in every verse they preach upon. I look at this verse and I see law. People will run in fear and cast aside their idols when the Lord comes. Rich Mullins' lyrics talk about the promise of gospel however. Loyalty that is more than just words - it is a truth so true and pure that it cannot be expressed in its fullness. Law and gospel.

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A Hug In Words

2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 125:2 (New International Version)

More that shines in the night
Than just the moon
There's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room

- Rich Mullins, If I Stand

This verse is a verse of comfort. I have never read it before and I love how it's like a giant hug in words. God is always there, surrounding us, protecting us. It's not the oppressive weight of Big Brother, but the majestic sweeping of beauty of solid bulwarks that last for eons. God was here before us and will be there long after we are gone from the earth. What images does this verse evoke in your mind?

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