Sancta-wha?

Sanctification

Growing up in a Holiness denomination one might think that I grew up hearing the term sanctification, and that I could define and explain it by the age of ten. However, this was not the case for me. I had not, knowingly, heard the term until I was a senior in high school and I did not have a grasp on what the word truly meant until I was a senior in college.

The top two definitions of sanctification are “to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate.” And “to purify, or free from sin” (dictionary.com). There are some who have come to believe that sanctification is a onetime event and once one has been entirely sanctified they have then “made it” this is false. In Doctor Diane Leclerc’s book Discovering Christian Holiness: the heart of Wesleyan-Holiness theology she states: “Holiness should never be limited to one instantaneous event. Also holiness is a way of being” (178). This is to say that holiness is a life style. To constantly choose God.

In our Christian termology we often throw the words “reborn” and “sanctification” around and do not always explain them in a way that some who have not grown up in the church, and for some who have, understand.

The “first step” in becoming a Christian is often called being “reborn” or initial sanctification. This is a point in ones life where we believe that there is a God, and that Jesus is God. We accept Christ into our life and begin to learn more about God and grow in our faith. Walking in relationship with God is a journey. As we grow there will be a time where we find ourselves making an even deeper commitment to God. We not only acknowledge Christ as Lord, but we go all in. There is no turning back, where God calls us we choose to go.  The moment we make this deeper commitment is called entire sanctification. We still have the ability to sin, God will never take away our freewill; therefore, the ability to sin will always be there. This is why it is just as important to emphasize grace after entire sanctification as it is before (Leclerc 179). God’s grace is still sufficient. One does not go back to square one if they sin after they are entirely sanctified. We continue to journey with Christ and grow in our relationship and as we develop a deeper relationship it does become possible to sin less often. What once seemed like an impossible temptation may not seem so impossible to say no to because you have experienced how it hinders your relationship with God and choose that closeness to whatever that temptation may have been, at the same time there may be something new that seems just as impossible to say no to.

After entire sanctification the term progressive sanctification is used to describe the journey from entire sanctification to final sanctification, or glorification, which happens only when we die. Progressive sanctification is simply the process in being made more holy. We ourselves cannot do this, but only God can. As we walk with Christ, live into our covenant with God, say no to sin and live into the life God has created us to live we are made holy. As stated before, God does not take away our ability to choose, we constantly have the choice to live holy lives and to submit to God, or to not.

Through Christ it is possible to live a holy life. It is not difficult to be entirely sanctified, all one has to do is pray. My own prayer was not eloquent, but was simply “God, you’re it. I am all in where you want me to go I will go, where you want me to stay I will stay. There is no going back. I simply ask that you continue to fill me with your Spirit so that I will have the strength and wisdom to continue to choose you.” It is that simple, then live into the prayer you just prayed. I encourage you to continue to choose Christ, to live into the holiness that is offered to us. God has given us life, Christ has provided a way for us to not only survive but to thrive and to live an amazing epic life that can only come when we choose to live a life of holiness that is only possible with God.

Sick and Tired

I am sick and tired.
I am tired of all these lazy Christians.
I am tired of all the pretendin'.
I am tired of all them asking how I am and expecting a simple "fine."
But when I say how I really am
they stand and stare like they don't care.
I am tired of lazy Christians.
I am tired of Christians being more worried about getting "their pew"
and what someone is wearing or is not.
I am tired of Christians just sittin'
thinkin' like "I'm saved"
then go on their way.
Thinkin' that they are a good Christian because they punch in their Sunday time clock.
They pray some days and read the Bible every other day.
I'm tired of Christians thinkin' it's more about the Check list
than it is about the relationship.
Livin' like "Go make disciples" aint about them.
I'm tired of Christians thinkin' that Jesus commands make for a nice facebook status,
but don't let them transform their lives.
They don't take them to the streets and tell others of the hope, life, and freedom in Christ.
I am tired of lazy Christians
I am tired of Christians talkin' a big game and not showin' up
I am tired of Christians complaining, but not steppin' up.
I am tired of lazy Christians.
Christ didn't die so that we could sit.
Christ didn't rise so that we could live a hypocritical life.
Jesus didn't say "sit and have a pot luck and complain a bit."
He said "GO"
So go make disciples share the Hope of Christ
Stop being lazy.
Cause I am sick and tired of the lazy Christian life.

Hope Lives

Hope Lives pt. 1

I can't imagine my life without you
how do others do it?
They do not know what they are missing,
but that is why you send us
to tell others about you
about this Love that is unexplainable
this Love that has no bounds
this Grace and Mercy that is for all.
I am sorry that I have been so selfish with it.
I have kept you to my self and others are living with out with you,
the one I cannot live without.
But that changes now.
It changes today.
Give me the strength to not only speak of you
but of what you have done.
May you change lives through me.
Because you live Hope Lives.

Hope Lives pt. 2

You have Hope
Because Christ died for you!
Not only did the God of the universe die for you,
but the God of the universe conquered death, Christ rose
so that you may rise.
Hope Lives because Christ Lives.

I can't wait

I can’t wait for the day when I will see my savior face to face

No more pain, no more sorrow

Just love and grace

I cannot wait to see my savior face to face

While Christ brought hope to our world for here and now

There will come a time where this hope abounds in an undeniable way

The whole earth will tremble as they say the name.

I cannot wait to see my savior face to face

I cannot wait to be with all my family praising the one who gives us life together,

No miles, seas, or oceans between us.

I cannot wait to worship my savior face to face

I cannot wait to laugh in the presence of his undeniable grace

I cannot wait to ask my savior the questions I have been longing to know the answer to

Like did they have animal races in the garden, and did Jesus ever pull pranks

Oh the joy that fills my heart to think of the day I get to see my saviors face!

While now I cannot see my saviors face

I see the grace

I live into this hope that lives because Christ died and defeated death being raised from the grave on that third day.

I see my savior, my creator in the creation around me

I see my savior in the trees, the strong winds, and the light breeze

I see my savior in the people I meet

I see my savior every Sunday as we gather to worship as one body

This is just a glimpse of what is to come.

Oh man I cannot wait to see my saviors face!

My King

Let me tell you about my King
The King of Kings
See my King reigns supreme
I love my King with every fiber of my being,
and I am telling you because my King loves you too.
My King lowered himself to our level
my King died for us out of love
Unfortunately you have been to blind to see
what my King has done for you and me.
See my King conquered death
because of my King I have no fear in life or in death.
 I grin ear to ear
when my King draws near
There is still pain and sorrow
but my King is never too far off.
See my King travels with me in my pain and my sorrow
My King is my today and tomorrow.
My King is the King of Kings.
And my King means everything.
My King created everything
every living being
my King created you and me
and out of everything
my King has chosen us.
See my King is our King.
Our King loves
Our King pursues
Our King wants you.
Yes our King is the King of Kings.

Never Give Up

I am usually not one to think about my accomplishments, especially when it comes to anything physical.

Today on my drive home from the gym I began to think about how far I have actually come. I started going to the gym to work out constantly, having a life style change about two years ago. When I started I could only do half an hour, and at the end of this time I would be so tired and just plain dead. My work outs then were (maybe) 10 min on a bike and the rest being resistant training with weights. Today I warm up by biking an hour, half an hour of resistant training of which I can lift and do twice as much as I use to, then finish by running/jogging a mile, and have the energy to run around and not feel like death after. It is crazy to me how far I have come, granted it has been 2 years. But then I thought about my progress since starting at my current gym, which I started in February. I could only plank for maybe 5 seconds, I worked my way up to 30 seconds, today I am able to plank for 1min do 10 crunches on a ball plank for another minute then do 10 more crunches.

I say all this to give courage, don't give up! It may take 2 years to get where you want to be, and when it has been that long and you think you are getting no where look back at where you were and where you are today. You may not be the weight you want to be (i'm not) but look at how much healthier you are! Look at what you can do now! And in another 2 years I am sure you will be twice as far if you keep going! 

The Cross, it's not what I use to think it was

For the past couple of years I have been asking the question "Why the cross?" I have been told my whole life that Jesus had to die so that God could forgive me (us) for my (our) sins. This was good enough for me up until I started to really think about that. Jesus had to die, I was being told that God needed Jesus to die in order to save us. This coupled with the whole sacrificial system in the Old Testament makes it look like God needed to pay Godself off in order to forgive us. I began to ask then, well if God is God and could chose to forgive and redeem us however God wanted, then why would God choose the death of an innocent animal, and ultimately the death of Jesus.

I have been blessed and lucky enough to have been surrounded by some of the most intelligent professors and theologians for the past five years and have been able to ask this question and have received guidance, but ultimately support in discovering who God is in the cross, and why the cross.

In my senior theology class we read Jurgen Moltmann's The Crucified God, and this lent season I began to re-read through it trying to get a better grasp on the text itself. It is a heavy book that will punch you in the face every time you pick it up, and it has taken me all of lent just to get halfway through chapter 2.

But here is where I think I land thus far.

I do not believe these atonement theories:
1. Jesus was a ransom to pay off the devil
2. Recapulation
3. Mystical
4. Moral influence
5. Governmental
6. either substitution theory

I think that most, if not all of these theories pain God (the father) in an evil light and that Jesus (the son) is simply a pawn. Rather I believe that the Cross was the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate sign of love. John 15:13 states "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friend." (NIV) It was in the cross that Jesus was/felt godless, godforsaken and abandoned, just like many people who live today. God knows how they feel because God went through it. God the father also endured a type of suffering, the Father was abandoning the Son, the Father was allowing the Son to suffer and die. God knows what it is lie to lose a child.

So what about the whole redemption, and "the only way to the Father is through me" part that we have all been taught. While I believe God could have chosen to forgive and bring redemption in any form, this, the cross was the best and most complete way of doing so. Imagine if God said "the only way to heaven is to plant a tree." that is nothing, sin is much bigger than that. In some ways yes, it is a cost thing, but ultimately it is a Love thing.

God loves you, me, everyone so much that he died for us. the ultimate sign of love. The cross is not pretty, the cross is heavy, and we are invited to take ours up and follow Christ. To die to ourselves and to live for Christ, to be the ultimate sign of Love to all those we encounter so that they can encounter the ultimate Love that is God.

Love

I thought I would post a little excerpt of a theology paper I wrote on Love for y'all. If you would like to read the whole paper I would be willing to send it to you.

Love is such a simple word, and seems as though it should have a simple definition; however, this one word carries a lot of weight with it, and is expressed in different ways. The English language, in many ways, is inadequate when it comes to the word love. In this essay love will be defined according to Van Harvey’s book A Handbook of Theological Terms which states: “[agape] signifies God’s love for man and the love which should bind men to one another, especially Christians in the Church…the selfless commitment of the love to the one loved, to the enrichment and enhancement of the beloved’s being. The Christian believes such an agape is made manifest in Jesus Christ, in whom God gives himself to man.” 
Over the years I have come to discover what love means to me through personal experience, scriptures, reason, and my theology. There have been countless times I have questioned my faith, and my theology, God’s love is what has kept me from walking away. It has prevailed through the lack of love I have received from some Christians, and personal demons that have tried to knock me down. Love has shaped my theology for the better, and should be a lens for every Christian’s theology.
Within Christianity we speak of love constantly and rightly so. 1 Corinthians is known as the “love chapter” because of its claims with love and how it is greater than faith and hope, Paul states that without love we are nothing. We constantly sing songs proclaiming God’s love for us, and ours for Him; yet, our theology and lives are not always cohesive with the words we sing and read in the Bible. In Dr. Tom Oord’s book The Nature of Love: A Theology he states: “if love is the center of the biblical witness and the core of Christian experience, it should be the primary criterion for theology. Love should be the orienting concern and continual focus for speaking systematically about theology. We should discard ideas or theories that undermine love.” In order to have a theology of love one must know what love is. This is difficult because while the Bible tells us to love it does not give us an actual definition of love. Jesus is our most clear revelation of God and what love is, and he does not give a clear or sufficient definition. Jesus lived a life of love through his words, and actions, he spoke of love, and told parables about love, but there is still no place in scripture where there is a simple definition of what love is. If the bible itself does not give a clear definition then should we give love a definition? Yes, because if we were to not seek and find a sufficient definition the word gets lost in a list of what love might be and what is might not be, theologically we could get stuck going in a circle or limit love to just actions we read of in the scriptures. Dr. Oord offers a definition to help Christians grasp what love is without limiting the word. His definition is “to love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic/empathetic responses to God and others, to promote overall well-being.”
While I agree with Dr. Oord’s definition, but I believe that it needs to be read and looked at on a deeper level, and one cannot simply go off of the words used but must also look into what the definition is truly stating.
  

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[1] Thomas Jay Oord, The Nature of Love: A Theology (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2010) 1.

[2] Oord, Nature of Love, 2.

[3] Oord, Nature of Love, 15.

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[1] Van A. Harvey, A Handbook of Theological Terms (New York: Touchstone, 1964) 13.

You Are

Inspiration can hit you in the strangest of places. Tonight while at work I was reflecting on what I have been reading by Moltmann and the sermon my pastor gave about pain, and this came about.

In my times of joy
you are there.
In my times of deepest depression
you are there.
In my good times
you are there.
In my most painful moments
you are there.
You rejoice with me.
You join me in my suffering.
When I lost my identity
I found it in you.
In the cross.
The place of rejection
the place of pain
the place of abandonment
the place of forgiveness
the place of new life
the place of True Identity.
You are not a passive God.
You are a God who participates in our journey and relationship with you.
You are not a God who sits in judgment.
You are a God of grace and mercy.
You are a God of love.
You are Love.
You are I AM.

Prince Charming Vs. Superheros

I often see girls post on their facebooks about waiting for "Mr. Right" or their "Prince". I have always hated those words and labels, and here is why.

When I hear someone say one of these two things I think of two things. 1. They have unrealistic ideas about the man they may marry, thinking that he has some faults maybe, but generally all together is perfect (like all the prince's in the Disney movies) and 2. That they think they need someone to come and save them, whether that is from singleness or themselves.

first, the unrealistic idea that there is some man out there who will sweep you off your feet, and everything will be live in the movies. Just go talk to a couple who has been married for 20+ years and you will see why you are being illogical.

The part I really want to address is that of waiting for a "prince" in general I have never been into the whole princess prince thing and found it rather lame when I was little, and even now. I don't think I am a raging feminist, but with this I might be. I don't want a prince, I don't need a prince, I am not a damsel in distress that can only be saved by a man. The only saving I need Jesus already did. I am strong and I find my freedom and identity in Christ.

So girls, women you do not need a guy to save you, you can go on living a life changing lives and being complete and  whole without being in a relationship. I truly believe that it is knowing this, and living into this that makes a good relationship. When you find your identity in Christ and not in a guy (or girl), when you realize that you are complete just as you are and that being in a romantic relationship is a blessing and not something that completes you or makes you whole, then you will have a healthier better relationship.

So what do I (and what I think more women do/should) want? A Superhero. This may seem more unrealistic
 than a prince, but it isn't and here is why. When I hear the word superhero I think of Superman, Batman, Iron man, Thor, Spider man etc. and if you have read the comic books or even seen some of the movies you will realize quickly that all of these men are messed up in some way or another. Iron man is one of my favorites and I think Tony Stark is a good example of what I mean. He has a lot of flaws, but he is also willing to fight for what is right. He can be a complete jerk, but he is a good guy. I think all superheros (that are male) realize that they do not need to rescue or save their female counter parts, because (for the most part) these women can kick butt, protect themselves, and fight back. Granted there are times where he does save her, but there are times where she saves him. I want a man who is willing to fight along side me and kick butt, not see me as someone who needs to be saved and protected. I want a man who knows he doesn't complete me, but rather that he is a blessing to me and visa versa.

I don't want a pretty prince charming, I want a beat up superhero.

Another Untitled

You’re a mystery to me.

I know you, but at the same time I don’t

I have met many guys in the past like you, but yet you are different

Your trouble

You seem like the kind of guy a girl would rebel with, but not the kind she would take home to mom and pop.

But yet, you do have some of those other qualities,

You seem to hid them

As though you do not want others to know what you long for

You will say some words

And then act or say others that make you look and sound like a player.

I sit and wonder if it is simply a front because you feel alone

You pretend to be happy and enjoy “playing the field”

But you don’t.

I don’t think you do.

You put up this front for your buddies, and maybe even yourself

But at the end of the day, when the night comes you’re alone and you long for that one woman,

The kind that you would give everything for

The kind that you would leave your playboy attitude for.

Let me tell you this,

That kind of a woman, she won’t fall for a “ladies man”

She sees that guy and walks the other way.

She doesn’t play games.

She knows what she wants and deserves.

If you want a woman like her, then you need to be the man she deserves.

Both in word, and action

She won’t lower her standards

You’re not ready for a woman like her,

Go on and play with your girls

But when you realize how tired you are

And become the man that deserves a woman like her

She will be there

Because women like that,

They are not afraid to wait.