Back To The Basics of Fellowship

I just watched Francis Chan's Basic.Fellowship. This stuck out to me over all the other Basic videos because Francis talks about how this kid who went to his church to get baptized stopped going because he thought it was going to be like the gang life. When he was initiated into the gang, he had people who cared for him, and had his back. When he was baptized, however, people were only behind him on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights. They didn't care about him 5 out of 7 days of the week.

I don't know if it's just because all of my friends have forgotten about fellowship, but it seems that my entire group of friends that I had 2 short years ago have all faded away. Myself included. They aren't sharing in fellowship with the occasional exception of Sunday Morning, and MAYBE at Wyldlife. Whenever Christ is not the center of focus for anyone, they seem to forget Him. At school, mostly at lunch, we aren't asking each other about how we can be praying for each other, and we wonder why no one wants to go to Young Life or other things with us. Because we have allowed ourselves to become like the world, and started living to the world's standard. I don't know about any of the other guys, but I'm sick of it. People aren't going to want to go to things unless they see that we are real about it, and Jesus told us in John 13:35  "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If you ask me, we do a crappy job of loving each other. My friends and I suck at it. We used to have some of the best fellowship ever, and I still believe that Roanoke has the best, but between my friends and me, we are not doing well at all. They probably don't think that this is so, because they can just go hang out with each other at will.  I don't know if it's different when I'm not there, but I've been with them outside of school, when they are around just each other. There is no change. It seems that we have forgotten that even though we are not in the center of our ministries, we are still in the mission field. People hound on Christians for not acting out their beliefs. So basically my friends and I should be hounded like no other for it, because we suck at it.

Chan's video said that the gang that boy was in did a better job of showing family than the church did. There is NO reason a GANG should be a better family site than a group of believers. It's not acceptable. I don't see why everyone who is a believer sits back and watches this happen. We need to call each other out on this, (With love, not anger), because it seems that because there is no way that we can recover from this if we are unaware. There is also no way we can get stronger from this unless we are pushed by each other to actually make something of it. I view this just like I view football practice. There is no way that a player can get better at football if he isn't being pushed by his teammates. Neither can we get better with not falling to temptation, or loving lost kids, if we are not pushed by other believers to want to get better. We have a team in this fight. It's the body of Christ. We are all in this together, so I don't understand why we think that we have to go it alone. There is no reason that we should be okay with just going through life without Christ, or even without the body to help us through. In the Basic video, Francis says that we were not made to go through this life alone. We were made to have fellowship with other believers. Our teammates are meant to be there for us to the very end. Just because we are different ages, or anything like that is no excuse. I don't believe that my friends and I have done a very good job of pushing each other to be better Christians.


Just something that has been on my mind, and was confirmed when I watched the video.

I love you guys.
TJ

Closer to Love

Yesterday morning, I was riding with my friend, Michael to have some breakfast with a few other people. As much as I love having fellowship, and as much as I will brag on Roanoke for having one of the closest families in Christ that I know of, none of that is what I want to talk about.

What I am actually here for tonight, is to point something out that I know I am guilty of, and that many other people are. I know what I will say is kind of an unusual way to look at it, and that it's not always just that easy, but  it's still something I would love to experience again.

Michael and I were listening to Star Country, one of my favorite radio stations, and there was a song that came on. I thought it was a completely different song, but then I heard Michael say "Man, this song is depressing", or something like that. At that point two things happened in my head, 1: I hoped he would not change the station, cause I was curious, and 2: why it was depressing.

So the words come up and the first line goes "The young girls parents never took her to church, never spoke of His Name, never read her His word." At that point I figured it was going to be a song that was all about Christ, and in fact it turned out to be much more.

The song was a story about how a little girl whose parents never once mentioned the name of Christ to this little girl eventually got to a point where the dad was in a drunken rage and killed the girl's mom, and then shot himself.

This next part is the main reason I am here right now.

Towards the end of the song, there is a line that says "I know that man up there on that cross. I don't know His name, but I know He got off. Cause he was there in, my old house, and He held me close to His side. As I hid there, behind our couch, the night that my parents died."

I got to that part, and of course I got to thinking about how this little girl, who had never been told a word about Jesus, never had the Bible to read, or even listen to. Never been told a thing about the Lord, could believe that Jesus was there when her parents died, just from the sole fact that she was staring at a picture of Him at Sunday School. I was amazed.

Then of course I got to thinking about my own life. Why couldn't I still believe that Jesus is THAT evident when I need Him. This little girl had never known a lick of Him, and knew it the second she saw the picture that it was Him, and then openly told people about the fact that He was holding her, just like He does for each and every one of us. As compared to me, someone who basically grew up knowing the overall message of the gospel, and hearing the "Jesus died for your sins" thing. Even before I was a believer, I knew more about Christ than that girl had ever dreamed about, but yet it's easier for her to believe the very first time she sees Him, than it is for me on the thousandth time. I don't think that makes a lot of sense.

I know that it isn't always that evident. Jesus doesn't literally, flesh, blood, and all that jazz show up and hold us. I believe that He is always there though. I last experienced this over summer, when I was worried about the place that I was going to live and where I was going to school. One day, I was just sitting there, becoming mildly-depressed and on the verge of just giving up everything that my life had been about and just going through life like I had before I even met Christ the first time. Then I literally saw Him, sitting with me. He just sat there, comforting me, even though there was nothing I could do about what was going to happen. My fate was in other people's hands. Or so I thought. My fate has been, and always will be in His hands, but that's a whole 'nother story altogether.


I wish I could experience this kind of thing all the time. I never literally see Him in what seem to be my "down times" I have to know that I do not live a life by sight. I live my life by faith, and those times when He literally reveals Himself to you are the times that I wish I could have a lot more. I'm not saying I want my life to be harder, but I do want to have so much Christ welling up inside of me, that He is evident not only to me, but to everyone I talk to.


Heck, if a little girl, who was never given the chance to know who Jesus is by her parents can believe like that, why can't I? God gave this ability to each and every one of us. I want to know, that no matter if I'm happy, sad, angry, or scared, that the Lord is sitting there with me, comforting me, telling me He loves me, and that nothing bad will happen. At least nothing that He can't handle. After all, He is God. He already knows what is going to happen to me, so why should I worry about what is going on? He is a timeless God, and what has yet to happen to us, has already gone through for Him. He knows the outcome, so I should just continue to look to Him, and as John 15 says, remain in the word, and in His love.



I hope this motivates you to, as Lecrae says "Go hard for the Lord". Chase after Him with all that you have, because nothing bad that can happen to you is too much for Him to handle!


I hope you get to encounter Christ in this way as well. There is nothing more exciting than to literally see the Creator sitting next to you. It is an amazing feeling.


I love you guys!
TJ

Enthusiasm Is Key

Last night, we played our cross-town rival. We had more enthusiasm going into this game than we did for every game we have played thus far, all combined. I do believe that it was important.

We probably played the best soccer we've played all year because of the enthusiasm that went into the game. We were ready, because we know that the winner of this game gets more than just 3 points that go into the district seeding. It was about bragging rights, and showing who was better. Sadly, the game ended in a tie.

Going away from sports, I do believe that we should have a raging enthusiasm for the things that we do for the Lord. When we just know that the Lord is calling us to something, why aren't we hopping enthusiastically for this? The Lord wants to use you, so why don't we jump at the first chance we have to do this for Him? If the the Lord wants to use you, go! It's a great privelage to be able to go and build a relationship with someone because of the Lord.

Enthusiasm helps greatly when it comes to building relationships. When you go into something with no enthusiasm, people will notice, and their only assumption will be that you don't actually care about what you're doing. When you come into something with a lot of enthusiasm,  people will notice that you are doing something that you are passionate about. When you have a passion for the thing that you are doing, people will see it. People will know that you mean what you say about it, and people will know that you have a heart for what you are doing.

This kind of convicted me last night, because I tend to only get enthusiastic for things when I get there, when I should be enthusiastic for every single game, every single practice, and even more so, I should be enthusiastic about every single day that I get to spend, looking to the Lord, hearing His calling for me. I'm tired of going out every single day with no energy. I need to start being more enthusiastic with my time, and that enthusiasm will bleed through to everyone else. It only takes one catalyst to be like a virus to spread the ethusiasm to a group of people. Honestly, when we are enthusiastic about something, it will cause others to become enthusiastic about the thing that you are.

I hope that this will help you to see that enthusiasm is one of, if not the most important thing to have in life.


I love you guys!
TJ