Boston

A marathon effects more than the city it’s in. My friend Kohon mentioned this marathon effected more people and countries then anyone can imagine. Boston has a strict time guideline in order to qualify for the race, some marathoners spend their whole lives trying to qualify for one of the races on their Bucket List. People from all over the United States and the world come to Boston.

Before two reconstructive knee surgeries, I had the goal of running the Boston (Boston is the one of the only marathons that require a qualifying time, I could not make the time cut yet). My time for the marathon was about the time the explosion went off. Long past my marathons days as I look at this tragedy as a minister of Jesus and see the hurt that people post from this. It’s a sad state and often people ask why would a loving God allow this to happen?

Throughout my time as a minister you see a lot of bad things happen to people. Sometimes it’s when people are already down and something worse happens. Haven’t they been punished enough? Then a tragedy like the Marathon happens and people without understanding call out to God, why God why? To answer this I am going to spend the rest of the time talking about suffering and choice.

We all have a choice. There is something called the free will defense that people a lot smarter then I came up with to explain when bad things happen. The free will defense is this…

1.      God is absolutely perfect.

2.      God created only perfect creatures.

3.      One of the perfections God gave some of his creatures was the power of free choice.

4.      Some of these creatures freely choose to do evil.

5.      Therefore, a perfect creature caused evil.

Every day we have the choice to do good or bad. Which do you choose? Today do you choose to go to work/school or the bar/or skip? It’s a choice an individual makes that can affect other people. We make thousands of choices every day that directly affect us and the people around us some directly and some indirectly. The people that chose to do this in Boston, chose to do evil. Their choice affected people all over the world for this international event.

Even with free will, why do people have to suffer? This is a tough question that you can look at with other questions. If God stopped all evil right now what would that look like? If God destroyed everything that caused unjust suffering and evil – what would survive? We can all do evil and that is where we struggle with sin. Suffering might cause us to be protected from an even deeper evil.

Not all suffering can be bad or evil, it can be pain. Sometimes in life we have to suffer to experience something great. I haven’t met a women who has cherished child birth but you love the result when you get that awesome gift of God in your hands. You sometimes have to suffer and endure hardships to get where you want to go in life (School, strict training, unpaid internship etc).

This doesn’t explain the event in Boston but hopefully you would understand a loving God does not want tragedies like this to happen in the world he created. While things like this do happen, sadly. God gave us Jesus to comfort us during these tough times. God is a loving and just God who cares about the people and I am sure is sad over this tragic event.

Through our lives we have a loving God who sacrificed his only son Jesus for us. Jesus took all of our sins and died for us. Through the bad things in life Jesus loves you cares for you and is sad when you are down. Through the suffering Jesus is always there with you. You can always go to him with your problems.

Faith is not Burger King

You can’t pick and choose who gets Jesus.  In elementary and middle school, everyone would line up and you would pick the best players.  Then there were leftovers you barely accept and throw in a corner on the field.  Not exactly the best feeling, to be picked over.  When teams get more competitive, they just cut people.

 

I have been on both sides of this. I have been the one to pick over people and I have been the one picked over.  There was a time in high school I was trying to get a spot on the worst hockey team (They once lost a game 30-1). I dislocated my knee cap about two weeks before tryouts (No really a great excuse) and decided to tryout for defense instead of goalie.  I thought I played ok, but I got cut. I was crushed.  It sucks to get picked over, but you can either be depressed about it or get better and move on. Faith does not pick and choose.

 

Paul was opening up his letter to Romans explaining who he was and what his general message was.  This was part of that letter in Romans 1:5-6…

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”

 

Faith is not Burger King, it does not pick and choose who it’s for. The word gentile is meant for those who were not raised up believing in God. A lot of people fell into this in the area.  They were outcast by those with faith at the time.  It’s not how it works today.  Faith is for everyone.

 

You can’t get cut from faith. No matter if you like someone or not faith in Jesus is for you and them.  God is for everyone and as Christians we are called to share this whether we like people or not. 

If you feel like God isn’t for you or can’t use you, you’re wrong.  God loves you, gave his only son Jesus for you and wants you to share this love with others.  You can’t pick or you chose who gets faith like you pick and choose what you want at Burger King.  Jesus loves you and is for you.  No matter what you have done, Jesus loves you and cares for you.  Paul was a murderer of Christians and this is the same guy who wrote this letter for Romans. God can use you.  What can you do today to feel accepted or help someone feel accepted by Jesus?

 

Have a great day.

You think you’re right but you have been wrong plenty of times

Politics and I do not go in the same sentence.

It gives me a migraine looking at Facebook and everyone throwing your two cents into the political conversation.  Neither candidate is a saint nor are they the devil in human skin.  Yet I have seen everything in-between on Facebook and Twitter from both sides of the situation. When we think we have all the answers we can have none of the answers.

I pray Christians care more about keeping people from hell then this election.  We as humans do not have all the answers, nor will we ever.  Sometimes we can get stuck in-between a rock and a hard place.  Yet it’s still not as bad as Paul had it.

He was standing up for what he believed in and that was Jesus.  He believed in a resurrected Christ and lived his life for him.  You don’t read in the Bible about Christians voting in an election but you hear how they are put on trial for that faith.  Paul was on trial for a great chunk of time.

He was sent to Festus with his accusers.  His accusers were lying about him and saying he did stuff that wasn’t true.  Yet he faced politics.  Festus felt he owed the Jews a favor and tried to move the trial to Jerusalem. This could have been a death sentence to Paul.

Paul answered with this in Acts 25:10-11…

“I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried.  I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die.  But if the Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

As a Roman citizen he had the right to appeal to Caesar with his case.  He knew the bad things that could happen in Jerusalem and went the other way.  Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in.  Paul believed in Jesus and was willing to stand trial for him.

Would you be willing to do the same for your faith?  Faith goes beyond who you vote for, it’s so much more.  If you are a Christian please think about someone who might be going to hell and try to show them the eternal life that Jesus offers. 

Have a great day.

It’s funny how the people who know me the least have the most to say

People talk.

Some good, some bad.

Human nature leads us to talk bad about other people.

I rarely listen to the radio, but over the past 9 months I have started listening to ESPN radio.

I used to absolutely hate listening to people that talk about sports.

I love watching the game and finding insight, but radio talk takes it to the next level.

Everything can get blown out of proportion.

Sometimes we are a society that likes to talk about the problem rather than trying to fix it.

We talk about losing weight, but we don’t eat healthy.

We talk about moving towards our career we want, but do nothing to get there.

We talk about saving money but spend it as soon as we get it.

We like to talk.

We talk about other people, how we would do things different if we were them and how life would improve if they did things our way.

We also have a tendency to love someone’s life or what they have.

Jealousy is sometimes in the put we call our opinion.

Paul went and was sharing his message about Jesus.

Rather than listening to what he was saying, a group of people weren’t happy with the fact he was talking about Jesus.

So they did this in said in Acts 17:5…

“But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.  They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.”

They were ticked and unhappy.

They didn’t like Paul and the message of Jesus, so they went on the attack.

Ever feel like someone has went on the attack on you?

When jealousy overtakes us, it keeps us from growing and becoming the people we are meant to be.

Rather than listening to what Paul had to say this certain group of people (I’m not saying Jews as a whole, because this was a small group of people with this faith) created a riot.

Do you think we are a society that is quick to judge and give our opinion, why?

In Facebook, people give their opinion and they like you as long as you say and believed what they believe.  I f you disagree, they are the same ones that say you aren’t loving, caring, showing grace, and judgmental just for not agreeing with them.

We get bitter, protective and possessive when people sometimes don’t agree with us.

I will admit, I will get like this at times and it’s a trait I am trying to improve on.

Do you find yourself being jealous, judgmental, hateful, over opinionated or u loving?

You don’t have to be this way.

You can be a different person, more loving, caring and graceful.

Which would you rather be known for?

Being jealous and judgmental or loving and caring?

Today, you choose.

Make the right decisions.

Though it all, Jesus loves you!

Have a great day!