Mark 1:35

Mark 1:35

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed.”

Its pretty well known that I don’t like mornings. My poor family had to deal with it for almost 18 years as each morning I would wake up and glare at anyone who tried to have a conversation with me. My mom once told me that everyone had decided to not talk to me for the first hour after I came out of my room. Yikes. Honestly, it’s the dumbest thing. I mean, what reason do I really have to wake up and immediately be mad? The Lord’s mercies are new every morning and that alone is reason to have a good attitude about being awake. But if I’m being totally honest, I think the biggest reason why I hated mornings so much was because of their focus on me. I didn’t want to wake up, so I snoozed my alarm as many times as possible. I didn’t want to face the responsibilities of that day so I stayed in bed until I absolutely could not avoid getting up. I didn’t want to be real with people so I used social media as a way of escape before I even got out of bed. The list could go on, but that’d be boring. My point is that my mornings were so filled with self that I could never just enjoy the life the Lord gave me. The joy I should have had wasn’t there simply because my eyes were on myself and not my Lord. Doing a devo every day was a habit before Ignite, but it was never ever done early in the morning. Ever. And considering that in my house, 7 people live together, “desolate place” is a foreign concept to me. No matter which room you’re in, at least one other person could walk in at any second. However, since being in Ignite, the Lord has been changing my heart towards mornings. While I still don’t like them and would rather start my day later, I now see value in being up early in order to spend time with the Lord. For any reason other than being with Jesus, I still think being up early is dumb. But like I said, there is value in waking up to spend time with the Lord before your day starts and the benefits of that far outweigh the cost of losing some sleep. 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

Yikes. Where do I even start? Okay, so I’m gonna do my best to break this down in a way that sort of makes sense but honestly who knows how this will go down. First things first. We’re all running a race. For Christians, the race is run on the path that God chose for us. He set up the track and the dates of the race, all we have to do is show up and stay on the path. Now, running isn’t passive or lazy. When we run, it has to be a whole-hearted effort. No half-hearted running allowed! Correct me if I’m wrong, but, to run a race and not try to win is a waste of time. It doesn’t make any sense to enter a race and then not give it your all and try to win the prize. For Christians running the race, what is the prize you’re trying to obtain? Paul tells us that our goal is not a perishable crown made by human hands but an imperishable crown in heaven. I think the coolest thing about these crowns is that they aren’t going to stay with us in heaven, we get to throw them back down at the feet of Jesus, giving Him all the glory and honor for what He has done. Because, while we may be given a crown… it wasn’t really our strength or efforts that allowed us to obtain it. So, to keep it for ourselves makes no sense. Okay and then we’re told that Paul doesn’t run with uncertainty. He knows the steps he has to take, the obstacles he’s going to deal with, and what’s waiting for him at the other side. The fact that Paul kept running the race is pretty incredible, honestly. Life for him was kind of awful a lot of the time. And yet he saw the eternal perspective of his sufferings in a way that allowed him to have joy and peace that couldn’t be explained in earthly terms. He knew how to be uncomfortable and still have joy. His life preached the gospel whether he was comfortable or uncomfortable, safe or unsafe. 

1 Timothy 4:8

1 Timothy 4:8

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

Honestly this verse is just so practical, its amazing and a bit ridiculous. So last night 3 of the guys were working out and yeah, that effort is going to profit them. Their bodies will be stronger and healthier because of the work put in to build up muscle and the endorphins that kicked in made their moods temporarily go up. The effects of working out are ones that you generally want. But, when they’re old men sitting in their rocking chairs on the front porch, is the exercise they do now going to serve them? Probably not. As much as they hate to admit it, by that time their bodies will be weaker and not able to do what they do now. But what I do know is that these guys aren’t just seeking to build up their physical bodies. They are seeking the Lord and storing their treasures up in heaven before they ever think of working out. So, while the physical exercise is good… the godly character they are building is the more profitable thing. Those 75 year old men will still be able to draw from the spiritual lessons they’re learning right now. So what does this mean for my life? I don’t really like working out so its not like there’s some huge danger of that becoming an idol in my life. But, there are plenty of other things that I love doing that require time and energy to be good at. For example, I love painting. But if I don’t do it regularly my ability to do it well goes down. I have a choice to make. Take the time I have to pour into painting or take that time to draw closer to the Lord. Again, I am not saying that having hobbies is sinful. But motives behind these things can be. So if you work out, do it in a way that honors the Lord. When I paint, it needs to be to honor the Lord. Because, if these things are done for the sake of me… they’re pretty much useless. 

Philippians 3:11

Philippians 3:11

“…If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

The longer I do daily IBS’s the more I am convinced that the essence of the simple gospel is the most important thing. I’ve always known it, but complex doctrine definitely interested me a lot more than simply knowing Jesus more. I would do random word studies for fun or read different peoples’ opinions on certain doctrinal issues just to see different sides to things. While there is nothing wrong with knowing these things, it is so easy to get caught up in the details that you forget who they point to. Its almost like using a microscope to look at Van Goh’s “Stary Night (is that how its spelled?)” Yes, you’re going to learn a lot about the tiny little brush strokes and how the paint blends together but you’ll never experience the beauty of the full picture. What a tragedy to never just sit back and enjoy the beauty and splendor of the big picture. In Philippians 3:11 Paul and Timothy are saying that there is no price too high for the sake of following Jesus. Not that there is no price too high for Calvinism, arminianism, old earth theology, or any of the million other things the church divides over. “Any means” is a statement that covers everything. It includes leaving home, your comfort zone, family, friends, job security, etc. “Any means” includes persecution and tribulations. Resurrection from the dead is Christianity’s war cry because if the victory over death has already been won, no other victory is impossible. 

Philippians 3:10

Philippians 3:10

“…That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”

This verse has two aspects to it. In the first half you see this incredible victory that was given to Christ when He resurrected. He defeated death once and for all, not just for Himself but for humanity. No longer is death and end but merely a beginning. Death in the law meant separation for eternity, but through Christ it is the beginning of perfect communion with God. God is just. This is so evident even in that Christ’s death is the only substitute for our sin. His perfection is just that: perfect. If perfection is the standard then the only thing that can be offered in our stead must be perfect. I feel like this makes no sense, so to sum it up… Perfection is the requirement. We can’t offer that, so Christ came to offer the only thing good enough: His perfection. I know I’ve said this a million times, but the power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. We belong to that same God! Okay, second half of the verse doesn’t really have the same mood. But its still so important! When we suffer for the Lord, we are not left on our own to wallow in a self-righteous misery. He meets us in the wilderness with words of promise and comfort. Yes, suffering is inevitable. If we are passionately pursuing the Lord, we will experience it. But that doesn’t mean that we are being punished for that time we messed up. Suffering is how we are “conformed to His death.” When we know what it is to die with Him, we can know what it is to live with Him. Through death comes true life. 

Philippians 3:9

Philippians 3:9

“…And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”

This verse reminds me of chapter 11 of Hebrews. This chapter is well known as the hall of faith which is fitting since, well, its all about people’s faith in God. The second verse of Hebrews 11 tells us that it was by faith the elders obtained a good testimony, not by their righteous works or obedience to the law. The God of the Old Testament is the exact same God of the New Testament, so just as it was Abrahams faith that was accounted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), our faith in Jesus is what makes us righteous. It is a humbling thing to have God show you your lack of righteousness. We know in our heads that there is nothing good in us, but to have that knowledge become a reality is completely different. Everything in our human nature wants to do it on our own and prove how capable we really are. We act as if going to church and doing outreaches is enough to live up to God’s standards of perfection. But to give up even trying to acquire righteous and taking Christ’s gift of righteousness instead is the ultimate sacrifice of control. You aren’t just giving up your ability to be enough, you’re giving up your ability to pretend to be good enough for God. Once you’ve accepted Christ’s righteousness, all masks have to be dropped. Deceiving yourself is no longer an option as your own sin is revealed to you. Pretending to be anything other than what you are with other people isn’t possible. Being real becomes the only option.

Philippians 3:8

Philippians 3:8

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”

Giving things up for the sake of knowing Jesus is something everyone in Ignite has been learning how to do. We all left our normal lives to live a radical one for a year(but the idea is that this radical life will never end). A prime example of giving something up is giving up ownership of our personalities. I realized today how much we’ve all changed since we first got here and how much more we’re going to change during our 6 months of field time. For me personally, I was so sure that who I was is who I would be for the rest of my life. I acted like God isn’t big enough to change me and mold me into His image. “Me” became what was normal. But now I have no clue what normal is for me. I don’t know what personality traits make up “me” anymore. I used to know, but God has completely stripped me of all of it. When I surrendered my life to God’s plan, part of that was giving up my right to define myself. I am not what I think I am or what I define myself as. I am a child of the God who made the heavens and the earth. I am chosen and accepted only by the power of His blood. He knew me and set me apart before I was even born in order to love and serve Him. In light of what he has declared me to be, how dare I try to decide that I’m something else? To live as anything other than what He has made me to be is the biggest tragedy I could ever cause. Nothing else would leave me as lost and purposeless. So yeah, Jesus gets to define me. Not me. Because I just mess it all up.