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Why are we scared of learning? I mean really learning something outside your own sphere of thought. If we claim to seek truth, why do we shelter our children and ourslelves from anything that is radical or different? American education is a one-sided story. What about the other side, is there truth in it? Why do we only read books that are part of “mainstream” christian thought? Why not read and learn anything and everything? If we are seeking truth what is there to fear? Fear not, for you have the living spirit of God in you. He is truth and will give you discernment of all truth. Learn about another culture, another religion, read a book completely contrary to your own views. What have you to fear other than finding truth that makes you re-think your beliefs.
I’m leaving in the morning for Mozambique so I will be posting as internet access is accessible. Please pray! I’ll be there for three weeks.
Here is an article I wrote for the Bel Air Pres Student magazine running in June:
I have gone from knowing exactly what to expect for my future to not having any idea where my life was headed and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m resolved to the fact that God knows better than me, and I trust Him.
Heading into my senior year at UCLA, I had it all figured out. I would have a great senior football season, work my way onto an NFL team, work my way up the ladder, and give all the glory to God. Sounds great, but our God had other plans for my life. During my junior season I tore my distal bicep tendon in my right arm and opted out of surgery. I continued to play through my junior and senior year. However, the pain worsened and by the end of my senior year I was unable to work out with my arm due to pain. I made it through my career at UCLA effectively but realized a career in the NFL would not last long with a bum arm. On January 11, 2008 I had my bicep reconstructed.
The next three months were filled with rest, which is exactly what I needed. God knew that I needed time to get away from football and just be with Him. Due to my limited activity, I took the time to seek Him with all that I am and He has responded. My two constant prayers have been 1) Make my desires Yours & 2) Fill me with more of You and less of me. And He has delivered!
I am convinced that God is much more interested in the internal of our beings than the external. It does not matter what I end up doing for a career as long as I am doing it completely surrendered to the Lord. I don’t know if I’ll ever play football again, and honestly I’m at peace with either future. Right after my surgery, a friend of mine named Adam Narciso said, “God is more concerned about the journey than the outcome.” That resounded as truth then and has become ingrained truth since. It is the journey that Jesus uses to transform us.
During this time God has opened doors to pursue one of my other passions, missions. After graduating from UCLA in the winter I have had the opportunity to go to Mexicali with my high school church FPC, Mexico City with members of Quest college group at BAPC, and by the time this article runs Mozambique, Africa with Iris Ministries to minister to and serve orphans.
I have no concrete idea where my life is going and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Our God is good and as we seek Him, He is there to love, lead, and teach us.
“Blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Mathew 5:3
It does not matter if you have great wealth or great poverty when it comes to the kingdom of heaven. But rather, are you poor in spirit? So what does it mean to be poor in spirit?
It means to be needy and desperate for Jesus. It means to get on your knees and beg for some of Him. Being poor in spirit is the same as being poor monetarily, except you need Jesus instead of money. Jesus said blessed are those that yearn for me, that need me, and depend on me for life. We are all broken people but the poor in spirit are the ones who admit their brokeness and are shameless to bow all that they are before Lord.
The more I study world history, the more I see that I was taught a biased one-sided story in school. I get so angry when all that is taught about communist, socialist, revolutionaries is how bad they are and that the United States is always the “good guys” here to save the day and rid the world of “bad” governments. When I read about historical characters, and read beyond what they did to who they are and why they did it, I see a whole other side of the story I was not told. Che Guevera is regarded in western capitalist circles as a brutal communist revolutionary. Well, this is true. It is exactly true! He was a brutal guerilla fighter who went around the world leading communist and socialist revolutions. He killed many and executed more but why did he do it? At the age of 23 (also my age – happy birthday me!) during his years at medical school he took some time with a friend to travel South America via motorcycle. Out of this trip came his famous book, The Motorcycle Diaries. It was on this trip that he saw the poverty and oppression consistently throughout Latin America. In his mind he saw the problem as capitalism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism. He thought the only way to right the state of Latin America was to expell these types of government by force, thus his commitment to revolution around the world. I do not agree with his conclusion of the need of revolution but I do agree that something is wrong and needs to be changed. I agree that the Northern Hemisphere exploits the Southern Hemisphere. I do not know how to right this but I see the same fundamental problem that good ol’ Che saw.
After a short blog break I wanted to get back to Liberation Theology, and specifically Christology. The cornerstone of Sergio’s lecture was based on Christology. The traditional Christology of the mainstream church is Jesus coming to earth as our savior/liberator of sin, out of love for us or to quench the wrath of God depending on your view. This is the Christology I grew up learning and before this lecture I knew of no other. Liberation Theology points to Jesus coming to earth to allign Himself with the poor. That He came to share in the suffering, oppression, and injustice of the poor in order to liberate them. And that now as Christians we are called to liberate the poor as Jesus began. He taught that Jesus did not come as a sacrifice for our sins because God did not need a sacrifice to forgive us.
I am all for liberating the poor, the oppressed, and fighting injustice! But my problem with this Christology lies in the basic gospel of Jesus. Jesus taught that we are sinners and that the punishment of sin is death. And so even if we completelty rid the world of poverty, oppression, and injustice, we are all still sinners and we still deserve death without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Poverty is a sin, but it is not the only sin. Prophecies throughout the bible point to a final sacrifice of the perfect lamb of God for all our sins once and for all. How can you read the bible and miss this? Yes, Jesus came for the poor, He spent His time with the poor and the oppressed, and the outcasts, but He came for the foremost purpose of dying so that we might live! I cannot, because of the urgings of the Spirit of God, ever get away from the gospel of grace which is death, forgiveness, and life.
One of the days in Mexico City we received a lecture on liberation theology from a proffesor at the Lutheran Seminary on the outskirts of Mexico City. Sergio, the professor, was an excellent orator with a passionate, soothing tone. He spoke of the origins of Liberation Theology which made the ideas a lot easier to understand. The theology was born out of poverty. It was born in response to the conditions most of the world lives in. Some that he taught I agreed with, like his explanation of Hermeneutics. This is the discipline of interpreting scripture. The four steps described were: 1) see 2) judge 3) act 4) celebrate. This makes so much more sense than what many of us do which is see, judge, and celebrate. We so often forget about the acting. We see what is true in scripture, we judge that areas in our inner/outer lives need to change, we don’t act, and then we celebrate Jesus on Sunday. Where is our action to alleviate the suffering of the world. How can we see poverty, judge that it is sin, do nothing about it, then celebrate Jesus. Jesus is the one who called us to go to the suffering and give them a drink, food, and clothing. Now I know there are some reading this saying I do go and alleviate the suffering of the poor and oppressed, and don’t get me wrong, I think that is great. But join me in prayer to Jesus asking how much Lord? How much do you want of my life? And when we ask that of the Lord His response will always be, all of you. I don’t know what that looks like for each of us, and for everyone the Lord has a different plan and purpose. But the important part is that we be completely open to whatever the Lord has for us individually. As long as our hearts are completely surrendered to Him, that is exactly where He wants us to be. I know I don’t want to be like the rich young man who came to Jesus and had followed all of the commandments and asked Jesus what should I do Lord to obtain eternal life? Jesus knew this man’s motive, to give and do the least amount possible and still be saved. But this is not what God is after. He is after all of you. And as Jesus replied give all your money away and follow me, the rich young man went away sad for that was the one thing he was unwilling to part with. I am not telling you to go and give all your money away, but if Jesus told you to, would you do it joyfully or would you be sad for deep down you cherish your material security more than Jesus’ security?
One of my goals recently has been to memorize scripture, but I don’t just want to know what scripture says so I decided to have a scripture for every week. A couple weeks ago my verses of the week were 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. The verses many of us know come right after these known as the “love verses”. ie: love is patient, love is kind, etc. But most of us don’t know what precedes the “love verses”. Verses 1-3 say: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all the mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but dot have love, it profits me nothing.” Prior to my time with this scripture I was holding the idea that the advanced Christian life was Great Spiritual Works. I thought that miracles of healing, prophecy, visions, dreams, and revival were the output of a deeper relationship with Jesus. Two things have changed in my mind. One, that this previous list of Great Spiritual Works can and will be poured out on anyone who is willing, open and desperate for Jesus. And two, that the deeper life in Jesus = love. God can grant us spiritual gifts of all kinds, but without His love pouring through us it is empty. Without His love in our hearts it is merely an act, an act of God for sure, but what He desires is for our heart to be changed. He want us to be transformed as He pours out through us to transform our world.
I wrote this as a gift for our Mexico City mission team on the last day of the trip. I wrote it in response to the many different ideas we heard throughout our stay in Mexico City. Here it is:
We disagree. The body of Christ disagrees. Jesus told us we were a body. He told us this to explain that we all have different parts. The feet are used for walking, the hands are used for making things, the mind is made for thinking. The arm does not say that because the leg is different to get rid of it. The body would not fully work if it did. Instead it understands that every part has its use and is needed. We as a body of Christ need to do the same. We are all different, with many different ways of viewing theology and ministry, but despite our differences we are called to work together as one. Even if I differ in many ways from a brother or sister we can find our similarity in our Lord Jesus Christ and serve and worship together. Like a body needs all the different parts to function, so too does the church. We need our differences to be complete. Jesus Christ chose His church, so let us trust that He chose for a purpose. A body has enough challenges from outside itself, let us stop the internal was and unite for what our ultimate purpose is: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
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