CROSSTALK

Throughout the Word walls are talked about. Their uses, their gates, and their builders. In Joshua, we see the Israelites marching around Jericho seven times and the walls come crumbling down. But in Nehemiah, they dilligently worked until the Walls of Jerusalem were totally rebuilt. So why the differences, one city to be destroyed by the walls coming down, and anothere restored by the walls going back up? I think it all had to do with Gods purpose for the walls in the beginning. They ultimately are to protect. God has boundaries for us as His children, just as we do for our children, and this is what determines whether the walls stay up or go down. We are not to cross the boundaries of humanity and love.

  The church today has broken into many different denominations, much like cities. We fight and compete for the right to say we hold the truth, but none of us adhere to truth or we would not be divided. We see hate, condemnation for one another, slander among the body and other forms of division constantly. Either one is to carasmatic adn over the edge, or the other is to legalistic and critical. Either way, we will never see God and His outpouring of power and blessing until we love one another. Hmmm, that seems like something Jesus said! Nevertheless, we need to take truth as truth and opinion as opinion. The only stable truth able to stand alone without defeat or failure in the Word of God and it alone, opinion always falls. Proverbs says pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall, doesn’t it? And opinion that is held as truth outside of biblical exposition is nothing more than pride!

When you read the Word do you sometimes just get so excited you feel as if you could fly off a mountain? I do! I get amazed when I read about all of the people who God chose to use in the on going work of His hand. Seriously, He chose everyone from just about every walk of life to get His message across. From Kings to slaves, everyone got a chance not only to be blessed with a world changing mission from the Lord, but to meet Him in some way that is unique and special to their relationship with the Father. Look at David, many times though his journey from shepherd boy to king it was like God pulled up a chair and sat in vision establishing conversation. And Moses went from royalty to shepherd, how amazing, but still got to sit in a tent on a daily basis with God almighty. John the baptist literally got to baptize God in the flesh, AKA Jesus, and was honored with the job of paving the way for the messiah, the journey to establishing eternal redemption!!!

  I was reading earlier in John and was totally taken by the fact that John was the cousin of Jesus and never physically laid eyes on him until the day of Jesus baptism, refer to John 1:29-30, I have read over this chater time and time again but it just now hit me. Granted they lived a ways from each other or Mary probably would not have stayed so long during her visit when Elizabeth and she were pregnant. But still how awesome to not know someone, even family, and to be able upon seeing Jesus for the first time to recognize the glory of God in Him and know He is messiah. John was sent to make straight the way of the Lord, John 1:23,he was the one Isaiah spoke of as being “The one calling in the desert”. He had a specific calling and he passionatly pursued it and poured out his entire life just to accomplish being the opening act in the first coming of Jesus. Now since the Word is to be read literally, even in parables we should seek the literal application meant by Jesus, applied in context, and held holy I think we should follow the path laid before us by John and ther others who committed themselves to following Christ and His purpose. Yes just like John, in times of hardship and trial we question Jesus and why we are in that at that moment, but he said it would be hard and we would be hated. Or are we accepted in the world because we play the super hero game and hide our true identity behind a corporate costume?

  We have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of nor to hide. we stink in the nostrils of the world and that is awesome, what matters is that we send a good fragrance to the nostrils of God. Remeber we are here for a short time in comparison to eternity, and ultimately anything outside of the perameters that God has chosen for us to dwell in ultimately will make no difference or matter at all. The act of going to church changes nothing and accomplishes nothing if we go out of obligation to tradition, habit, or selfish gain. Our walk is not dependant on the size church we attend, the denomination we chose, or the clothes we wear, it all balances on whether we wear a Jesus button, or sit in a tent of meeting and get to know our God so when he shows up we can and will recognize Him. Not only does He show up during worship services, He is there intimes of hurt, trial, and consequence. Just look at Adam and Eve in the garden, when they messed up, He still showed up. Passionately pursue the God of all, and focus on what He has for you, it may be different than what you thought.¼/p>

As many of you who serve in the ministry, I sit and think on a regular basis about what is it that teens need today, and what are we trying to accomplish? I mean, are we wanting to create groups of super christian teens that will be willing to take on hell with squirt guns, or are we wanting to take advantage of teachable moments, where we can disciple and mold leaders .  All to often we expect teens to be adults in the faith and follow strict and almost unatainable rules, without taking into consideration that they are still kids. Granted, some have had more experience in life than you or I, but they are still kids. They are going to make unwise decisions, fall on their face, and repeat the process all over again. Honestly we are not much different from them except we are older. Our job is not to hammer them into shape, but to season everything we say and do in grace, and teach them the Word of God as unopinionated as possible and in complete context. If we live radically, love unconditionally, and walk faithfully the sheep God has entrusted to us will follow.