I heard Mark Driscoll preach once on the difference between religion and the gospel:
Religions says that if you obey, God will love you.
The gospel says that because God loves you, you can now obey.
There are few better succinct summations of the gospel that that. We don’t earn our right to be loved from an ego-maniac God who gets his kicks playing hard to get. Scripture is clear on that. Yet for a long time, I still followed a sort of Christian Karma doctrine. It went like this: if something good happened, it was because I had been a good Christian – I prayed that right prayer or something like that. If I had a crap day and everything went wrong = well, it must have been because of that sin, or not praying, or being a bad Christian. Suddenly, its all about me again.
Karma and eastern mysticism have no place in living a life following Jesus. Our actions still pull consequences, though. The consequence from giving into a sin isn’t God waiting behind a corner like Batman to punch me in the face because I was stupid. But it can certainly effect my intimacy with God when I’m honoring desires that He hates.
on November 30, 2007 by karlo
Yes, I still have my childhood obsession with dragons. So what? This is simply the coolest thing I’ve seen today – monster stockings!
Tagged: links on November 23, 2007 by karlo
There’s something about Black Friday that always makes me think “pirate”. I think it goes back to me as a young kid being absolutely in awe of pirate stories. My dad used to read to me every night when I was a kid, and the first book that I actually remember him reading me was Treasure Island. I remember the terror that struck when someone received the dreaded black spot. I had that same feeling when I woke up at 4:40am this morning to go to Best Buy and get a washer & dryer. Usually if I see 4:40am it’s because I haven’t gone to sleep yet.
Today I’m thankful for Mouk (sounds like, well, mook). Even though I think he’s worked there maybe three days, he hooked us up with what we needed, didn’t try to sell us something we didn’t want, and took us to the customer service counter completely skipping the line that wrapped around the inside of the store multiple times, and had us on our way. Sweet. High five, Mouk.
The rest of the shopping I’m doing online. Take that lines.
on November 23, 2007 by karlo
In uncategorized on November 19, 2007 by karlo
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Hebrews 4:25 (ESV)
I’ve heard this verse a lot over the years and struggled with it, especially in high school and college. I’d be told, “take heart – Jesus knows what you’re going through”. So many times I thought it was a load; I had so much trouble really making sense of it. Jesus was tempted and never sinned, but he didn’t really have to deal with the things I deal with today. He didn’t have a computer, so looking at sites he shouldn’t have wasn’t an issue. There weren’t HDTV’s and sweet electronics to want, so no problem there. Society was completely different, problems were different. How can the Bible say that Jesus was tempted just like we are?
I heard Mark Driscoll say once that “root sin leads to fruit sin”, and it finally made sense. So many times we see an issue and try to fix it by picking and throwing away the fruit when the real sin issue is rooted deeply. Picking the fruit is a topical, temporary fix for a deep growing problem. If we never move past the fruit, we’ll be picking it all our lives.
It’s not looking at the webs sites or the cable stations – the real issue is lust, and Jesus had some pretty strong things to say about that. It’s not about the things that I want – it’s about the greed and coveting in my heart. If you’ve ever tried to get a tree stump out of the ground, you know how hard it can be, how widespread the roots can be, and sometimes the damage that can happen to the ground around the roots. If you ask God to do some surgery in your life, he may move with great efficiency but with few painkillers. But we’re being drawn closer to Him, and eliminating the deep rooted sin in our lives that seems to plague us over and over again.
- it snowed this morning. we really did skip fall this year.
- i was reminded today that i stink at pool. love the game, stink at playing it.
- lead worship today while Spence was out of state. while it’s been a really stressful weekend – i’ve felt two steps behind since thursday – it was a great morning. i love leading worship.
- it was still snowing this afternoon.
- my new guitar strings felt like chicken wire. yeah, i’ve been playing a lot more electric lately, but man. same strings i’ve always used, but my fingers hurt! might be time to hit a lighter gauge.
- low turnout at youth tonight due to the weather. we called a bit of an audible, but i still shared a bit for our mythbusters series. i touched on the cycle of sin & temptation.
- it’s still snowing. just wish i had some hot chocolate to go with it.
- watching the american music awards on tv. not real impressed.
- how did justin timberlake get nominated in both the r&b AND pop/rock albums genres? maybe i’m missing something…then again, maybe not.
- looking forward to turkey day on thursday. oh yeah.
on November 18, 2007 by karlo
My family has never owned guns. None of us are anti-gun, we just don’t hunt and honestly have never lived in an area where we felt it was necessary to have one. Being married, though, and now living in a city for the first time I wan to make sure that my wife is protected. This may be the answer I was looking for…
It just may also satisfy my inner William Wallace.
on November 17, 2007 by karlo
So stats are a cool thing sometimes, right? Apparently today I reached 3600 views of my blog. If there were an award for this, I would totally now be in the running for it. Yes!
on November 15, 2007 by karlo
In uncategorized on November 13, 2007 by karlo
I’m sitting in Wegman’s, the Metropolis of grocery stores, waiting on the pharmacy and thought I’d grab something from the coffee shop. I told you it was a literal Metropolis. Figured I’d try something new and saw a green tea latte on the board. It tastes fine. Not great, but good. It seriously looks like I dredged something from Dirty Jobs and dropped it in a cup with a cardboard sleeve. I should have left the lid on.
on November 9, 2007 by karlo
In Uncategorized on November 8, 2007 by karlo Tagged: quoting
“God saves you all at once, but He changes you little by little.”
~Steven Furtick
Yes, I’ve quoted him before…a couple of times. Yes, it would make my year to meet him. Yes, I’ve actually had a dream where he called me to have lunch, and I had a great day because of that dream. So what? Back off.
I heard this from a sermon series titled When Truth and Life Collide. When I first listened to those 6 messages it rocked me. I appreciate so much hitting that topic head on. There are some other things I’ve been thinking about in terms of this quote for a week or so now, which may emerge next week in a series of posts.
If you haven’t seen some of the things Elevation Church is doing to impact Charlotte, NC – check it now.
