Picking Up Garbage

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingom of heaven" - Matthew 18:3

Toward the end of my stay in Guatemala last summer, I found one of the simplest and most beautiful lessons displayed in one of the most unusual places. We had been working on a house during the week, and by about thurdsay, most of the construction was done. Because of this, a few us found ourselves at a loose end, at which point, our youth leader asked us if we wouldmind pick up the garbage that lay scattered on the ground behind and around the local village houses. While I wasn't exactly overjoyed to be chosen for the job, I picked up a plastic bag and wandered over to the back of one of the houses and started picking up the rubbish. My first thought...was that it smelled. My second... that I could get sick and my third... That I'd much rather be putting the finishing touches on the house. But as I knew that it wasn't about me, I put up with it and kept on going.

That was until a few of the village kids ran over with huge smiles on their faces. Not only were they intrigued in what my friends and I were doing, but they soon showed that theywanted to help. Soon enough I found myself smiling as they would climb over fences, and through weeds just to pick up one can that lay about 10 feet away. Their love and their kindness was contagious.

It was then that I realized that their actions were exactly like those to which God calls us. He tells us to become like Children before Him. He wants us come running with smiling faces to do his will - no matter how worthless or dirty it may appear. God doesn't want us to run away from His will because we're afraid that we may get sick, or because we think theres something better we could be doing. No, he wants us to come joyfully before him. And when we do that, people see our joy in what appears to be trouble, and hardship. They see our smiling faces, and wonder what is different. And this is what's different: We are children of God, joyfully picking up garbage.

An Unread Love Letter

This morning while I was sitting in the back of the church service with the rest of the youth group I was listening to our Pastor talk. It was then he made a comment about the idea of a 'spiritual bucket list' - the things we want to do in terms of our walk with Christ before we go to heaven. He mentioned one idea that really struck me: Reading the entire Bible. While I'm sure many of us hold the Bible as very important, there are a vast many of us who have never come close to reading all of it. 'One day' we find ourselves saying, (myself included).
But something our Pastor went on to say, really spoke to me. He said "How would you like to be face to face with God after you've died and him say 'I wrote you an entire love letter - why didn't you read it?'
And that's so incredibly right. God loves us so much that He gave us His word. He didn't just give it to us so it could collect dust. It is for us to read. And even more to the point, He didn't just give us one verse. He didn't even highlight ones saying 'These are the important ones - only read these'. No, He gave us the entire word. Front to back. Genesis to Revelation.
It's a gift. A gift of love. And in many cases, it remains an unread love letter. Shouldn't we at least read it?

And I'm back...

It's certainly been a while! But God has been showing me some pretty amazing things in my life over this summer and fall, and Has been teaching me to really trust Him.

Anyway, thought I'd share this verse with you today:

"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." - Psalm 37:5-6

Isn't it great that we serve a God we can trust?

Pure Joy

I was sitting in a classroom of people today during the Sunday meeting, as we often do during the first service, when I suddenly heard something that, I must admit, caught me slightly off guard. The Pastor had been speaking about prayer, and posed the question to the class, "If you could pray for one thing right now, what would it be?" A few replied that they would pray for their unsaved friends. Others, for help with stress, and others for Spritual health and growth. But here is the part that caught my attention: one of the men responded, that he would ask the Lord that he may "go to heaven." Now, please don't take me the wrong way, I am not by anyway judging this man. But, I looked at him, and I knew: He was unsure of his destination.

The reason I bring this up is not only to bring to the attention of Churches that the truth needs to be taught, but, perhaps, rather to point out to you, that it is only through God and the gift of His Son that we can have certainty of our destination.

Let me explain this further...

Sadly, it is a common misconception in 2009, (and has been for many years) that good deeds will get you to heaven. That if your 'good' outweighs your 'bad' surely you will not be denied entry into heaven, right? Actually, wrong. Am I saying you're a bad person - absolutely not! What I am saying, however, is at the end of the day, you could have done hours of community service, helped out at the soup kitchen every week, and gone to church every Sunday, but still not know the Lord. It is important to understand that no where in the Bible does it say that this is the way to attain Salvation. I once read a quote, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car." This is so true. The Bible says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." - Isaiah 64:6 None of us are deserving of heaven, none of us live blameless lives.

How is salvation attained then? Must we be perfect? No. But how, then- as the young boy had questioned - does one have a certainty of knowing where they're going to go after they die?

The answer is in the Bible. Almost certainly one of the most read verses in the Bible explains it quite simply:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" - John 3:16

God sent His son to die on the cross so that your sins can be forgiven - but you need to accept it. God loves you. You've heard it a thousand times, I know, but I think (and perhaps I'm wrong), but I believe, that it is one of the most forgotten, yet most important ideas to understand. God loves you so much that He wants a relationship with you. Christianity, you see, is much more than going to church. Much more than never swearing, or helping that little old lady across the street. To be a Christian is to come to the Lord God, and accept Christ as your savior. God sent Christ - His own son - to die on the cross, because He loves you - He wants a relationship with you. When Christ died on the cross, the Bible says that the curtain in the temple that had seperated the people from the Lord, split in two. Matthew 27:50-51 reads, "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" If you ask for forgiveness of your sins, and ask Christ to come into your life - He will.

Does this mean you can just quickly pray and go on living a sinful life? (But you've got heaven secured, right?) Absolutely not. But if you truly pray with all your heart, and truly acknowledge Christ as your Lord and Savior He will come to live in you. You will come to know him in ways you never knew before, and He will change you inside - He will change you to become like Him. In that way, it is through Christ that we have certainty of a life with Him in Heaven. We have something to look forward to after this life - this life is nothing compared to what we will experience in Heaven. The Bible tells us, "Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere" - Psalms 84:10

It is through the gift of His son, and only through Him that we have certainy of Heaven. That we can have a relationship with the living God. That we can have, Pure Joy.