Pretend...Pretend Hard

Eph. 5:1-2
¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

i was leading my high school life group last night and we read this verse above. i don't know why i cant get it out of my head. "Be imitators of God". what does that truly mean? when i think of this, i just get discouraged, in all honestly. be imitators of Christ? how can i, sinful me, be a true imitator of the Christ? do i think its possible for us to be imitators? yes. is it easy? heck no.

i love how C.S. Lewis describes this. if we were to be imitators of Christ, we are to basically be pretending to be like Him. i know what you are thinking, "Justin...really? Pretend? like we are pretending to play house or cops and robbers?" well yes actually. Lewis explains that there are two types of pretending. there is the pretending in a bad way, as in a man pretends that he is going to help but but then really doesn't. and there is a good pretending like how children pretend to play house because it is pretending that is leading up to the real thing.

i know this about me, when i am not in a good mood and i am in a public setting where i don't really want to talk to anyone but i know I'm going to have to, i put on a smile and pretend like I'm in a great mood. eventually, i will then be in a genuinely good mode because i first pretended to be. it rubbed off. this is the same with Christ and how we imitate Him.

when we are praying like how Christ prayed, we are "pretending" (in a way) to be like Him. when we treat others like how Christ treated others and we "pretend" to be like Him, we eventually become like Him. Lewis describes it as a "good infection", where if we are infected with Christ, and we are out being imitators of who Christ is and represents, then the infection WILL spread.

so my question is...am i doing this? i know i have this "good infection" but am i spreading it? am i honestly trying to be an imitator of who Jesus is? or am i just living my life and maybe Jesus will come in and out with my doings.

1 John 2:7-8
⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. ⁸ Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

Jesus lived the truth of this commandment and we are supposed to be imitators of Him. it says that if we do live like this, pretend in a way to be like Christ, we will end up acting like Him more naturally without even thinking about it, and the darkness will be disappearing and the true light of the "good infection" of Christ will shine. once that light shines, people will be attracted to it like moths on a dark night on a porch light. it will be something irresistible for being not wanting to have this "good infection".

i want to "pretend" to act like Jesus so i can end up acting like Him more genuinely.

Random Fact: A group of jellyfish is called a smack.

Focus on the Blank Not the Blot

prayer has been something that i have been thinking and studying a lot lately. you would think cause i have been thinking about it and studying it that i would be getting better at it. i am not. and its frustrating. but i am getting a little better. you have to have discipline in order to have a spiritual life, and I'm working on being discipline.

sometimes when it comes to prayer, we can think that is boring. i think we get in this mind set when prayer becomes a routine. when it becomes too formal. when it becomes the same prayer for the same thing every time. ill agree with you then, when prayer becomes routine and mundane, yes it is boring. but prayer cannot be so formless either. it needs to have some structure, because no structure will let to no prayer at all. i think i have fallen into this "formless" prayer, where there is no real thought in what i am praying. i feel sometimes that i pray because that is what Christians are "supposed to do". and this bothers me that i do that.

when you look at the ink blot above, what do you see? what do you focus on? the blot? the space around it? what?

in prayer i think we sometimes focus on all of our problems and not the widespread mercy of God. for example, if there was a blank white page and there was an ink blot right in the middle of it, because the page was blank, the ink blot will stand out to us and that will be the thing that we focus on. but the ink blot doesn't take over the whole page, its just a small section compared to the rest of the page. there is still a lot of white on the page. the ink blot is our sin, and the rest of the page is God's mercy. in prayer we only focus on the ink blot, our sin, and that's the one thing we focus on. the rest of paper, which is far bigger than the ink blot, is God's mercy, and that is what we should be focusing on. we always pray for and focus on our sins, which is only tiny compared to the rest of the page of God's mercy. THAT'S WHAT OUR PRAYER SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON, THE VAST MERCY THAT SURROUNDS OUR SIN.

Also, praying for your enemies...holy crap. its so hard.

Luke 6:27-36

27"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

this is so so hard. when i read this, i just laugh because i think of all the times that i failed to do this. its not a laugh of because its funny, its more of an embarrassing, ashamed, laugh. the kind of laugh where you don't look the person in the eyes laugh because you were called out and don't want to make eye contact laugh. i feel that all of my prayers are selfish, i focus on the ink blot. i barely think of others when i pray, let alone my enemies and those i have a hard time dealing with. i am praying that i start to genuinely start to pray for these people. because that's what Jesus told me to do.

then i started to think about who was praying for me as an enemy. that scares me, concerns me. i need to try to live my life to where no one is praying for me as an enemy. this is my goal.

Random Fact: In order to make a billion dollars in one year, you would have to make an average of $31.69 every second.

It Wont Cost?...Awesome

today we had a staff meeting. Jeff Vines shared with us 2 Samuel 24:24.

2 Samuel 24:24
²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels ^a]">[a] of silver for them.

We talked about how David did not want to give up an offering to God if he did not have to pay for it, if he didn't not have to sacrifice something to give it to God. As of most of us, we would get something great for free and we would think that giving that to God would be ideal because 1) it is a great thing and God would love it, it is worthy of God and 2) we didn't have to pay anything for it. FREAKIN' BOMB right? that's not the case for David.

the reason we do not do this is because the things that we do have distract us from fully worshipping God for who He really is. we might do a great job in many things for the Lord, but there always is something that is distracting us from wanting to truly give God our full attention that He deserves. We were asked to write down what we think our own big distraction is and i wanted to share what i wrote down.

God
what is my distraction? what is the biggest thing in my life that is holding me back from doing all the things in life for You? what is holding me back? there are so many things that one doesn't even stand out to me. is it watching too much TV? is it money? is it my job? do i think that because my job is ministry and because hundreds of students come on Wednesday nights that those who do not attend, out in the city, don't matter? is it my attitude or motivation? does my personality and comfort zone need to be stretched more so that I actually go out and talk to people i don't know who i feel You have prompted me to talk to?
God, make me this way.

i think we don't ask these questions all the time because we are afraid God is going to answer them and then tell us we need to actually do these things and then we have to change things that bring us comfort in the life we know now. but i think questions like these will help mold us into the man or woman of Christ God wants us to be.

Random Fact: Farmville is a real place.

Farmville, Virginia had a population of 6,845 as of the 2000 Census and is located between Richmond and Lynchburg. It has no known relation to the popular Facebook application, however!

Mind is Blown...God is Love

i am in a small group with a bunch of amazing dudes. we meet every Monday night. its always a great time. we hang out, eat some food, lately have been watching Monday night football. after the game we will get to talking. we are going through C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity. its truly amazing and as a group we have grown a lot from reading it.

something we read last night stuck out to me. everyone uses the term "God is love." all Christians seem to know this term and it has become pretty clique within the Christian community. which is fine. it works. but something that we started to talk about, which we got from our reading, was that people don't really understand the FULL CONTEXT of this saying "God is Love."

it has to do with the Trinity. people say they don't get the idea that God can be 3 different beings but they are all in the same. we try to use the "egg example" and the idea of water, ice, and steam to explain it. but the mere saying of "God is Love" explains this idea that God is 3 in 1. that He has to be.

think about this.

Love. it is an emotion. in order for someone to love something, truly love someone, there is an exchange of feelings. we love someone and they love us back. an irrational love is when you love something and it can love back. this is not the case with God. "God is Love" means that there is more than 1 there. love requires 2 or more beings (beings because we are the only ones capable of such complex emotions) there. meaning God is more than 1 being. God is love because love requires at least two.

a better explanation of this term would be "Love is God" for our culture today. Love is God is something that we are obsessed with today. it sounds similar, but its not at all. today, the act of getting love is turning into a god, an idol. where we are not pursing the love of God, but love in general, from anyone or anything. there is a big difference. its funny how our culture takes something that is amazing like "God is Love" and changes it something like "Love is god" which is something far from what is true, but it sounds so similar.

also, think about this. the fact that God is Love shows that he is living and active. showing love is an action. you give love and you receive love. God is Love then basically means that he is actively giving and receiving love. always. the saying "God is Love" proves that our God is always active and living. this is reassuring.

i hope that makes sense. i was just thinking about this whole idea. it blew our minds last night.

Random Fact: A head of human hair is strong enough to support the weight of two elephants.

Man Oh Man I'm Blessed

so this last Friday was my birthday. i turned the big 2-4. man i am old. holy crap. i woke up and the whole was planned for me. Kristin picked me up and we went down to Balboa Island. she knows that i have this fetish for little hole-in-the-wall diners and she took me there for lunch. it was amazing. mushroom and onion burger with a dosxx amber.....hmmmmmmmmmm. that was great. we walked around downtown a bit, a beautiful day, and then we went walking around the board walk looking at all the multi-million dollar houses. i thought it was funny that this ridiculously nice house had a huge raptor in front. kinda scary.



but, the day went on and we went back home. Kristin was getting ready for the night, which i thought we were going back to my friend Eric Ortega's house. Kristin was getting ready and i am not going to lie, she was taking for ever. i was sort of getting annoyed.

little did i know....she had a surprise for me and was buying time.

so we go back to my house, which i thought we were just stopping by to say hi, and i walk into my house like i usually do...like i own the place. and come around the corner into the kitchen and there are 25 of my closest friends and family standing there screaming, "SURPRISE!!!!!". i didn't know what to do. i just stood there in shock. my first surprise party. it was a success. apparently, this whole thing whole thing had been planned for weeks and i literally had no idea. ZERO. i was impressed.

throughout the night, people came and went. we had food. drinks. horse shoe tournaments. it was great. i had my family there, my friends, co-workers. over all, it was a amazing night.

i feel blessed to have such an amazing girlfriend. thank you Kristin. and i feel so loved by all my friends who came to celebrate. cant even tell you how lucky i am to know all of you.