The Necessity of the Gospel

Before you consider the cross of Christ consider the impasse that existed in the universe. You had sinned. You had violated God's law. You had disobeyed God. God told you what you were supposed be and you had failed to be it. The violation was clear. There was no denying it. You could beat around the bush maybe but the fact of the matter was that a crime had been committed. There was no way around it. There was no justifying yourself. Any self justification merely added weight to the sin that had already been committed. You could not hide because God sees all things and weighs the human heart. He knows all things. He knew you had sinned against Him. You knew you had sinned against Him. You could not put up window dressing to hide what had happened. You. Had. Sinned.

God is just. He is completely just. He is completely righteous. All His ways are perfect. He does not in the least condone fraud, deceit, or trickery. He is bound by the very essence of who He is to punish any, every, and all evil in the universe. God and sin cannot coexist together. God is light. Sin is darkness. Light destroys darkness when it is shone into a dark place. God cannot overlook any sin. In any way, shape, or form. If the sin is big, God cannot ignore it. If the sin is little, he cannot sweep it under the rug. God is righteous. Sin is not righteous. If God is in a place, there can be no sin. He cannot tolerate it. He is bound by His very nature to completely do away with sin eventually. Every conceivable sin and every conceivable instrument of sin must and will be destroyed. Every person who sins must, by God's very nature, be cast away from His presence eventually.

God is merciful. He delights to show mercy. Mercy is another part of the very essence of God. He is merciful and He is gracious and it brings Him immense pleasure to show love to people. He wants so much to restore what was lost in Genesis 3 and to gain His beloved back to Himself. He wants so much to show her mercy. He wants so much to delight in her and to see her filled with all the fullness of His Spirit. He longs to forgive and to love and to redeem and to lavish His grace on His people. Forgiving brings God such great joy and He wants more than anything to show this attribute of Himself for the rest of eternity.

So you see... there is a complete impasse. Man has sinned. God cannot condone sin in any way. God longs to forgive. His very essence dictates both that He punish eternally and that He also forgive. These are both essential parts of who God is. Two things God delights in: showing His righteousness and showing His love and grace. It's a dead end. There is no way God can do both of the things He delights in. He must either punish sin without mercy or show mercy and sin profoundly against His justice and righteousness.

If it hasn't sunken it yet just how absolutely hopeless any thought of resolving this absolute theological quandary, reread up to this point and meditate on how irresolvable the whole situation truly is. You must see no hope in the situation for the cross to be seen in all its beauty. If there is any hope of another solution the cross will appear dull and unimportant. God's people will not see the beauty of what God has done unless they see completely how truly, devastatingly hopeless the entire situation is without it! So when you think of the cross of Christ think of this situation from which there was no escape and that our God made a way where there WAS NO WAY!

My 43 Things

Found this great website! www.43things.com is an online community for goal-setting/ encouragement. I've had some of these goals for a while but the website itself inspired a few more. I highly recommend joining as it is free and a great way to think about where you want your life to go! So after creating a list of what I want to do in my life I decided to narrow it down and categorize the time frame I want to accomplish them within. Some of these are really nebulous goals but I feel they still inspire me. My next step will be to make an action plan towards reaching each of them that are clearly reachable. Hope this challenges you to define your life more clearly!

Goals:

For 2011:

1. Just jump on a bus to some city I've never heard of to see what's there

2. Limit my time on the computer to 3 hours a day

3. Memorize the book of Romans

4. Get my weight down to 150 pounds

By 2015:

1. Read the Bible in 1 month/ 6 times in a year

2. Send a postcard to Post Secret

3. Eat caviar

4. Memorize the Gospel of John

By 2025:

1. Visit/ backpack through Switzerland, Germany, and France

2. Skydive

3. Climb one of the Alps

4. Publish an anthology of poetry

5. Get my Master of Fine Arts degree

6. Own my own house

7. Visit Ireland/ Scotland/ England

By 2030:

1. Become a professor

2. Attend seminary

3. Make a contribution to Pixar

Indefinite/ Out of my control

1. Not care what other people think of me

2. Take one large, God-glorifying risk every year

3. Desire God more than anything else in life

4. Fall in love/ get married/ have a family

5. Sacrifice something important to me to make someone genuinely happy

6. Judge people less and enjoy/ love them more

My List of Fives for 2010

Stole this idea from a fellow Changwonian!

2010 has been a year of great change so I thought it would be cool to document my favorite things in a variety of topics.

Favorite Movies:
5. Shutter Island
4. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (I know it didn't come out in 2010 but it's one of my favorite fairly recent movies. So sue me.)
3. I Am Legend (See above re: not 2010)
2. Inception
1. Toy Story 3

Favorite Musical Artists:
5. Michael Buble
4. Sovereign Grace Music
3. Indelible Grace
2. Shai Linne
1. Jason Mraz

Most Memorable/Butterflies in the Stomach Moments:
5. The climax of Toy Story 3
4. Saying goodbye to Sabrina Hall
3. Meeting up with Ben Taylor and Dan Martinez in Washington, DC to say goodbye
2. Signing my contract with GnB
1. Saying goodbye to Dad at Dulles as I left for South Korea

Favorite Foods:
5. Kimchi
4. Seaweed
3. Shabu Shabu
2. Korean Chicken on a Stick
1. 5 Guys Burgers & Fries French Fries

YouTube Videos:
5. Simon & Garfunkel - I Am a Rock

4. Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (technically 6 videos)
3. A Call to Anguish - David Wilkerson
2. John Piper and the Prosperity Gospel
1. You Think Paul Washer Preaches Works? "NO", "NO", "NO".

Favorite Scriptures:
5. Philippians 1:6
4. Psalm 125:1-2
3. Isaiah 41:10
2. Zephaniah 3:17
1. Ephesians 2

Biggest Blessings:
5. Hanbit International Christian Fellowship
4. Sabrina Hall
3. Mike Arbige
2. Dad & Donna
1. A God who loves me just as I am and has lavishly provided for all my needs

Feel free to steal this idea from me! It's a lot of fun! :-)

Obedience vs. Sacrifice

The Lord sometimes brings scriptures to my mind despite my greatly lacking meditative life. It happened this evening as I was on the bus to City 7. The scripture in 1 Samuel 15 just suddenly came to me where Samuel told Saul that obedience is greater than sacrifice. I realized that this completely flips human thought on its head. Humanity says EXACTLY the opposite. And the vast majority of the time I MYSELF think this way! My Christian walk feels like a failure when I haven't done something great or been able to emotionally testify of God's great power in my life or give a great deal of money to a godly cause. It is so tempting to think to oneself "I must get out there because Jesus died for me to do GREAT things. I was bought at an exorbitant price so I must serve exorbitantly! I must SHOW the gospel to be true through GREAT acts of love and compassion and sacrifice! We equate God's great act at the cross with how great our love should be shown towards Him.

Indeed, our love should be great towards God! We should exorbitantly love Him! But we cannot and MUST not judge our spiritual progress by how greatly we have been sacrificing. We are not constantly provided with opportunities to sacrifice but we ARE constantly provided with opportunities to OBEY!

"We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands," John the apostle says. He does not say "...if we sacrifice greatly and passionately." He says "if we obey." Just obey. Why is this so hard for us? Because we so deeply want the grandeur and hugeness of having sacrificed. It seems SO much more significant than mere obedience. God does not see it this way though! God loves it when you obey! It means so much more to Him than great sacrifice without obedience! God rejoices so much more when you simply stop watching a movie that's causing your mind to go places it shouldn't than when you have just given hundreds of dollars to a church or a Christian organization and then go and drink a few too many beers. We must get this through our heads! God is thrilled when we obey! He sings and dances because it is one of the ways our love toward Him is proven! So go your way today and obey! And know that God rejoices over your obedience!

Live or Freeze?

Something just passing through my mind this evening. I don't think any of us really can grasp how deep and vast the human soul and heart are. There are no psychological tests with which to measure the greatness of a single human heart. There are no tools to measure the depth of the soul. We cannot chart or graph the potentialities of our family, friends, or loved ones. The closest we can come to an accurate estimate of the value of a single human is to look at Calvary and see what God thought a human soul was worth. Look at Luke 15. There are three parables here. One with 99 sheep and one lost one. The next with 9 silver coins and one lost one. Finally, the famous story of the older and younger brother. Why this order? I believe it is to show something about the way God thinks. To him, the 100 sheep are not merely a flock of sheep. Each one, in His eyes, is as important as both of the sons in the last story. We see the same thing in Luke 7:11-15. There are multitudes surrounding Jesus but Luke takes the time to record this singular interaction. Jesus looked at this woman and his heart went out to HER. We see it again in Matthew 9:36. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Jesus sees each person as of great importance. We are great sinners but we are greatly loved. C. S. Lewis puts it this way:

"There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours." (The Weight of Glory)

How does this play out in our relationships? If our Lord and Savior treats each person as worth so much, how can we think differently? If we are being conformed to His image, must we not take each and every one of our friendships and relationships as of immense importance? The idea of snubbing or hurting another person should move us to fear. Seeing a good friend hurt moves us to anger but how often do we casually take relationships? Look at the way Jesus deals with people in the gospels. It should cause us to cringe at our comparative indifference to those for whom Christ died.

Knowing this truth changes the way we live. Yes, ever person who crosses our path could have either a Josef Stalin or an Apostle Paul buried within them somewhere. Every soul can be truly great and God does not see us as we are but as we will be. So should we be petrified with fear that we will hurt one for whom Christ died? With everything we say or do we are having an effect on a person's potential. We either draw them closer to God and cause them to rise above where they are and make them a better person or we push them away from God and make them worse. So do we simply withdraw ourselves fearing that we will hurt them? Or do we boldly strive to draw them closer to God?

The answer is prayer and trust. Yes, each interaction is of enormous importance. Yes, a foolishly spoken word could have disastrous consequences. Yes, it is healthy to fear hurting another human being. No, we cannot withdraw ourselves or allow that fear to paralyze our friendships and relationships. We were created to be in community. We were created to interact with others and to have an effect on their life. We must simply learn to really believe that we have a loving, trustworthy, SOVEREIGN Father who is guiding human history with his nail-pierced hand. We must believe that He will not allow anything to happen that will not result in greater glory for Himself and that no mistake we make will surprise Him.

So go out there and accept that mistakes will happen, people will be hurt, and sin will be committed. But don't live recklessly or carelessly. Live in the fear of the Lord and submit to one another. Love and serve and give and forgive. Be Jesus to a lost and dying world.

A Message

I feel this thing in my heart that I feel the Holy Spirit is wanting me to say. Do you realize what you are in Christ?! How dare any of us go out into this world hanging our heads?! YOU are a child of God! Do you realize what that means?! Your Father runs the universe! Jesus Christ loves you so much that He DIED for you! He died, was buried, and rose again and then He stepped into the control room of the universe and He is working ALL things together for your good! How can you be discouraged?! How can you be dismayed?! Your Father loves you with a deep, indeed an INFINITE love, and He reigns over everything you see! It pains God to see His VERY OWN CHILDREN going out into the world like they were insignificant, mediocre, worthless, or unimportant. You are absolutely individual! There is NOBODY just like you in the entire world! Yes, of course we sin! Of course we make huge mistakes sometimes! Of course we struggle and hurt and don't perfectly exhibit the greatness of God but NONE OF THIS changes His unfathomable, passionate, intimate, furious love and passion for you! If you are on fire for God, don't make the mistake of thinking you are more excited about your relationship with Him than He is! Yes, Jesus calls us to absolute commitment but NOBODY is more committed to their relationship to God than God Himself is! Don't EVER be discouraged! NOTHING that happens to you anywhere or anytime was engineered to discourage you or frustrate you! Isaiah 41:10 says "Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." There are 2 commands in this verse and 5 reasons to obey!

Command #1: "Fear not"
DO NOT BE AFRAID! Do you know what the word "Fear" meant in the original manuscript? It meant FEAR! As children of God we have absolutely no right to be afraid! NEVER be afraid! Not in any circumstance! No matter what situation we face! No matter how people treat us! No matter what our boss says or what our friends say or what the news reports say or what we hear or see anywhere! God has commanded us "Fear not!"

Command #2: "Be not dismayed"
DO NOT BE DISMAYED! Never be discouraged! Never be frustrated! Never be overwhelmed or anxious or downcast or depressed or joyless! Never! Never ever! No! Not Ever! NEVER be dismayed! No matter if you get fired tomorrow! No matter if all your friends walk out on you! No matter if your significant other says they are leaving! If you lose all your money and your house burns down and everybody looks at you thinking that you are an absolute idiot and you find out you have cancer and you get injured in a freak accident! Not under any circumstance! God says, "Be not dismayed!" DO. NOT. BE. DISCOURAGED.

Promise #1: "I am with you..."
GOD is with you! GOD is there for you! GOD! The One who stretched out the corners of the universe and planted all the trees of the forest! Who set the stars blazing in the nighttime sky! Who loves you with a deep and everlasting love! Who says "I will never leave you nor forsake you! Who forgave your depraved, wicked, degenerate, filthy, God-awful rebellion and said "I want you to be my child!" THAT God. The one who knit you together in your mother's womb! Who sees your past, present, and future! Who knows every sin you have committed, are committing, and will ever commit in the future and still says "I love you!" Who sees your best deeds as filthy rags and still says "You are my beloved!" HE is with you! Emmanuel! God is with us!

Promise #2: "I am your God..."
He is not just with you. He is YOUR God. You have a personal relationship with Him. He does not say "That guy there!" when He refers to you! He says "My child [insert your name]" He is YOUR God. You are HIS child! You have a personal relationship with God Almighty who is so far above you in every way yet chooses to relate to you in a personal, intimate fashion! He does not distance Himself from you emotionally. He has clearly defined a relationship that exists between you and Him! He is not just God. He is YOUR God!

Promise #3: "I will strengthen you..."
He is with you! He is YOUR God! And He says "I will strengthen you!" Do you know how much energy God has??? Well, you really can't put a number on something that is infinite! Infinite. We sometimes forget what that word means! God strength has no beginning, it has no middle, and it has no end. There was never a point in time where God did NOT have limitless energy! He never climbs out of bed and has to get a drink of coffee to get his power flowing again! He does not have to lift grogginess with anything! He never has to do something in order to get his energy running full force. His energy never began! His energy has no middle! There is never a point in time where God is MORE able to do something than at other times! And His energy has no end! God does not get tired! He does not hope for Friday to come around so He can take a break! He never has to recharge His batteries or get an extra shot of espresso to keep Himself going late into the night! God's power is INFINITE! And what does this promise say?? "I will strengthen you." When God says He will strengthen you, watch out! This means there is NO situation He cannot put you in! You may find yourself in some REALLY difficult circumstances and situations! When God says He will strengthen you it means there is NOTHING He cannot ask you to do! There is no situation you cannot face! If EVERYTHING in your life falls to pieces and the bottom falls out and your existence turns into absolute misery, GOD will strengthen you! Never be discouraged! Never be afraid! Never be dismayed! Never be downcast or frustrated or angry or bitter or bummed out! God will strengthen you!

Promise #4: "I will help you." You can't come up against anything that will frustrate God. He does not get discouraged or upset or downcast or dismayed or bitter. "I will help you," He promises, you have God inside of you strengthening you, and you have God working in your situation to help you! "You are my child! I took you into account when I laid down history and decided how to engineer your circumstances!" He will help you! Within and without HE is on your side! He will never give you too much to bear but will fit your circumstances to your level of faith AND will strengthen you to bear difficulty and pain that you would not be able to handle otherwise! "I will help you," says the Maker of Heaven and Earth!

Promise #5: "I will uphold you with my righteous right hand!" You will not fall! Your situation will not overpower you! At the end of the battle, YOU will still be holding your ground because the LORD God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that is in them will hold you with His victorious right hand! You are on the side that will win the war! No matter what device of hell may be leveled against you, you may laugh for you serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! NEVER will He let you go! NEVER will He let you be overwhelmed! NEVER will His righteous right hand fail! NEVER! NEVER EVER! NOT EVER! NO! NEVER! NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! No power of Hell! No scheme of man! NOTHING will ever pluck you from His hand! If you are His child, you will never ever ever ever ever slip away from Him! You are IN CHRIST! You are in the Fort Knox of Fort Knoxes! "I will uphold you with my righteous [victorious] right hand!" says God.

Hope you've been blessed by this! I've been blessed in the writing of it!

Things I Have Learned About Classroom Discipline (So Far)

Here are some of the lessons I've learned about teaching English in Korea since I got here:

1. Classroom discipline is not an exact science. It's impossible to think that things will go swimmingly 100% of the time. Some days, the students are just bad no matter what consequences you affix to their actions.

2. In order to maintain classroom discipline you must go in with the presumption that you hold the control and have all the power. Classroom discipline is you figuring out the most effective way to use it. If you let students have any power they're going to walk all over you and you will be left frustrated and stewing with anger inside.

3. You cannot come up with a long list of rules and expect students to follow all of them all the time. Start small. Have very simple, broad rules and be unswerving with them. For example, when I made rules I came up with 10. Students were breaking them left, right, and center at first and there was literally no way that I could catch every infraction and apply the punishment I installed. Students picked up on this and saw it as a game of risk. Would I catch THEIR violation or miss it in favor of someone else's. You overwhelm yourself when you come up with more than 2 or 3 rules and at the end of the day you feel completely inconsistent. And you ARE inconsistent if you don't punish all of them. So start small with only a couple of rock solid rules and punish the violators without mercy.

4. Find something that the students care about and you find your power source. For instance, in most of my classes, they care about getting stamps that they can exchange for coupons. But in some of my classes they could care less about getting stamps. So I had to find something else that they DID care about.

5. Have both punishment and positive reinforcement in place. It's the same in God's economy. Students will either be punished for disobedience or rewarded for obedience. Under no circumstances will absolutely nothing happen. This way, the students will not see you as either a softy or a cruel dictator in the classroom. Those who are punished cannot accuse you of being mean and those who are rewarded cannot form the opinion that they can get away with things behind your back.

6. Don't take disobedience personally. The students want to get under your skin and they often will but you MUST not show it. Treat them as though you could care less how they behave and simply apply the reward or the punishment previously decided to the situation. If they see that they are getting under your skin it will simply make things worse. You must not allow them to affect your personal life. At the end of the day, some students are just rotten. They are rotten to you on top of all the others. Don't take it personally.

7. You're never going to have it perfect. At least not for the first long while. Students are students. They are in your classroom with 2 duties: learning and being students. Contrary to what people may tell you, these are not the same things. Every teacher I know wishes their class came with only the first duty but it's just not that way. Being a student means being a person and whenever you put more than 1 sinner in a room there are going to be social problems. We just have to deal with it!