Ephesians 2:1-10: The Gift

I'm writing this from our back porch of our new house. There are birds a-singin and a crisp cool breeze. The only thing that taints it even a little bit is the fact that Marley and Melvin had me up at about 5:30, and I haven't been able to get back to bed since.

I thought about not doing the bible study blog today. I left my good bible at the office, and I took the morning off to attempt to recoup the lost sleep from this whole week. But first of all, this thing is starting to get habitual for me, and that's good both for my writing and for my faith walk. And secondly, I have the entire internet as my accountability partner, so I figured I'd be hearing from you guys.

That all had me thinking about the teaching I did last night at Veritas. I don't know if it was just that I was having an off night, or if it was the subject matter was a bit weighty, but the kids seemed to be lost in what I was teaching. We were working through what it's like to live as a Christian both in church AND in our normal, every day coming and going lives. We talked about what kind of movies we watched, and what king of music we listened to, and what kind of words we were more comfortable saying outside of the church than we were inside the church. And as I was looking out over the crowd, I realized I was seeing a lot of blank faces.

I wonder if we too often put too much emphasis on the works of our faith. I mean yes it's important that we get ourselves into spiritual disciplines, and it's important that we live like Christ followers in the communities we've been called to live in (work, school, etc...). But as I was reading this morning's passage it occurred to me that maybe we don't focus enough on Christ's REMARKABLE gift of grace. In Ephesians 2:8-9 spells it out pretty excellently: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not the result of works so that no one may boast.

This isn't to say that there isn't some response to the grace of God. There surely is. But as I keep replaying the tape in my mind from last night, I wonder if we established that the way we live our lives is meant to be a response to God's grace, not a means by which to earn it. I wonder how many times I remind our youth group kids that the grace of Christ is enough to overwhelm us with love, that he chose to redeem us and loves us enough to give himself up for us (more on this later I think...). And I think sometimes I get even a little caught up in my performance of my "works," to the point that I forget that I am a redeemed child of God.

So today, as you spend some time with or thinking about your students, pray that you could show them the gift of Grace in some remarkable way. Chances are the best way to do that is simply to be overwhelmed by the grace that God has offered you.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check out a new coffee house in town. Let's do 2:11-22 for tomorrow!

Godspeed,

Jason

An Open Letter

Hello Penguins,

It's been a while since we had one of these chats. Frankly, I've felt like you haven't needed me in a while. We're in first in the Atlantic. We're in second in the east. Only that dirty Russian and his buddies have an edge on us, and let's face it they've been playing their butts off this year. That's ok. From a humble 4th place last year we went dancing with Stanley. Imagine what we can do two seeds higher!

But there's this thorn in our sides.

Oh Marty. In years past, we had your number. We used to be able to chase you right out of that net you were minding. Sid delighted in making you look like a fool on national TV. But these days you have vexed us, and we are dumbfounded before you.

Pens, take a look at that RIDICULOUSLY large ring on your finger. You are the Stanley Cup Champions. He's just a man. He's a man that essentially pooped his pants on the international stage this year. Plus he'll be wearing a different mask. Maybe he won't see as well.

Let me speak to a few of us individually here:

MAF:
What gives? You've been cookies all season against just about every opponent. Something about those Red jerseys has been sending you around the bend. Let's put a stop to this tonight! You are the Flower (a nick name that simply cannot instill fear in the heart of anyone). You've gone over a year without a shutout. That ends tonight. I'm callin it right now. You keep your eyes on that puck and keep it out of your net. If someone's messing with you in the crease, you know what to do. Put an end to this nonsense.

Oh captain my captain.
Marty told me you played like a girl at the olympics. Doesn't that make you mad? Don't you want to go crazy and have a 5 point night? Tavares did it. You don't want that little punk showing you up do you? Go get 'em tiger!

Ponik...Ponikar...can I just call you Poni?

Word on the street is you're being given a shot on Sid's wing. Are you kidding me? Lesser people would be made kings on that line. You need to prove to every single Penguins fan in this city that you were worth the almost nothing we gave up for you. I'm thinking a hat trick ought to do the trick. Seriously, just put your stick somewhere near the net. Sid will figure out the precise angle the puck needs to hit it to make it into the net.

They've had our number all year boys. That comes to an end tonight! Go get em!

All business.

Ephesians 1:15-23: Have you heard?

Good morning bloggers!

This morning we're taking a peak at Ephesians 1:15-23.

I was struck right off the bat at how Paul had heard about the faith of the Ephesian church from a great distance away. How do you suppose that happens? How does the reputation of a community as a body of believers spread itself across oceans and great distances? I mean, if you find yourself the leader of a youth ministry, wouldn't the absolute best compliment be to hear from someone else that your students have a reputation of being Christ-like?

I'm sure our logo does that...

If we're honest in our approach to the ministry we're called to, this should be priority one. To have a group of students who are living as Christ has called them to live. I'm not at all impressed by numbers or cool youth rooms any more (well I am, but that's beside the point). What impresses me is when I see a group of students collectively living as the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World. That's when I know I've done my job.

Paul even takes us a step further toward showing us how to accomplish this goal in our youth ministries, and that is to pray for the church (or in our case, our youth ministries). I think this goes much bigger than just praying that we have a big crowd on a Wednesday night or that no one gets hurt during the dodgeball game. The line that really resonated with me in this passage was that Paul prayed for a spirit of wisdom that they may "know what is the hope to which has has called (them)."

How much time do we spend praying not just for our ministries, but for the students who make them up? Do we keep track of the joys and concerns that are offered up in our youth groups?

Take some time this week to pray for your ministry. Keep a little notebook or something in your pocket during youth group this week, and just listen to what everyone is talking about. Write down some things you need to pray about for your kids. Maybe then our reputations will grow as Christ followers in our communities.

I don't know about you, but I'm having fun with this! We'll do 2:1-10 tomorrow!

Godspeed,

Jason

Ephesians 1:1-14: Already There

Alright, J-Blog Bible Study: Here we go!

Have you ever been driving, completely lost in your own thoughts, and wind up where you were going without remembering the details of how you got there? This happens to me all the time. I don't know if it's some distraction caused by the number of thoughts in my head, or if I just get way to into a song on my iPhone or something like that. But it happens with frightening regularity. I wonder if I've ever hit any pedestrians... (that's not funny!)

Now imagine you find yourself in this situation. You planned to go from point A to point B, and after stepping into your car you come out of your hazy dream-filled state at point B. You're there, but you can't at all remember how you got there. You don't remember doing the work involved to get from point A to point B. So, as you stand directly on point B, you reason that because you don't remember traveling the distance, you must not be at point B. There's no way! You can't have the reward without having done any of the work.

It seems silly in that example, but there are times in my life where I do that with Christ's grace. I stand as a forgiven child of God, but I don't really remember doing any of the work involved in getting here. I don't remember giving up my favorite sins. I don't remember giving up some of the key decisions in my life. If I haven't done the work to be redeemed, I obviously must not be redeemed.

Paul would slap me silly...

These first few verses seem to put the rest of the book into perspective. We're already there. We've been "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" through Christ. We were "chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love." "In Christ, we have also obtained an inheritance." Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it doesn't seem like there are instructions for how to accomplish these things, they're already done for us through the blood and redemptive love of Christ.

I think sometimes we as Americans can get extremely caught up in trying to earn our salvation. I think youth workers have it even more so. We feel like if we aren't gunning at full break-neck speed, that we aren't going to be as worthwhile or worthy to Christ. That line of thinking is a lie, and we need to eliminate it. Jesus will not love you more if you plan one more lock in. He won't be more impressed if you increase your weekly attendance from 45-50. You will be no more or less redeemed if you fail. You are simply a beloved child of God. We're already there.

So take a few moments today to reflect on that. Set your to-do list aside, turn your computer off, and let yourself be loved. Let Christ speak to you through this passage, and let him remind you that you've already been saved and redeemed.

Tomorrow we'll rock out 1:15-23. Later gators!

Godspeed,

Jason

Everyone Else is Doing It!

Ok, let's start here. This photograph is among the first to show up when you type in "peer pressure" for Google images. Does that guy even look like HE enjoys drinking? Unbelievable...we could break that down for a while, but there are bigger things to get to here.

As I was thinking about how the blog has been essentially ignored for the last little while, I realized that a lot of the blogs I read have some sort of daily devotional. Basically, the author of the blog reads through a book of the bible, and gives their comments on it. As I thought about it, this makes a tremendous amount of sense. It gives us something fairly regular to talk about here on the blog, plus it will keep me in line with my scripture reading.

Here's how we're going to do this around here. I'm going to read through Ephesians (I've been meaning to go through it for a while now), and add my comments here on the blog. I think what I'll do is just use my trusty NRSV Bible, and read from heading to heading rather than trying to tackle a chapter a day. If you've got a NRSV, feel free to follow along with me!

But then we're going to take a specific twist on this study. Let's take a look at how the Bible speaks to us as youth pastors. I've long said that we can learn how to do our job a touch better from what the Bible says, so let's actually do it! Are there gems in there that we can mine and learn how to minister to kids better with? I think so!

I'll have other posts too. Wouldn't want the worship leader stuff to get forgotten. And who will post youtube videos if I disappear?

So watch this afternoon for the first segment! We'll read from 1:1-14, so if you have a spare minute today and you'd like to take part, read along!

More later today!

I will blog more...starting NOW!

Good evening friends!
Man alive, there are so many things going on in my world right now! It's insane! I've been doing tremendous amounts of ministry and worship leading at Westminster. I've been playing gigs with Tree Anthem. And I've been working on some writing projects with some pretty big name folks (more on this later). But In all of that, I've felt like the blog has been ignored. SO...I've resolved to write at least one blog post a day.

But this thing is supposed to be about you, the readers! So while I'm working on some thoughts of my own, I was wondering what you all want to read about. Are there issues in youth ministry or worship leading or Pittsburgh Sports or really anything in life that you would like some clarity on? Not promising I have any clarity to give away...

Let me know in the comments. Then keep tuning in!

Godspeed,

Jason

Testing out some new software

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Hello friends.

Just testing out some new software. New blog post could be coming later today. Or not, depending on my mood!

Godspeed,

J