Unexpected.

These are the sermon notes from Sunday at the Summit Church, by J.D. Greear.

Unexpected: what it was like for people when they met Jesus.
He left people in a dilemma: they could either hold on to their ideas about God and deny or redefine Jesus, or accept Jesus for who he is and redefine how they see God. He used the story of a man who made a monster and a bed, and it turned out that the bed was too short for the monster. So instead of changing the size of the bed, he cut the monster's legs off. The moral of the story is "Don't shorten the monster, lengthen the bed!"
Matthew 7:13-27 is the Scripture reference. In this, Jesus is talking about people who have done the ritual but never really knew Jesus.
Jesus gives 4 word pictures: roads/gates, sheep and wolves, fruits, and houses. All can be taken to see the difference between false and true Christians, directed toward religious people, and both sets think they're on the right path. It is only inward in which the truth comes out.
Observations:
1.) There is a huge amount of falsely assured Christians (v. 13-14)
2.) On the outside, false Christians look very similar to true Christians (v. 22-23). The people Jesus is referring to actually believe that Jesus is God (can tell from the Greek word used for "Lord" - implies deity). They say his name twice ("Lord, Lord"), which in their culture implies an emotional attachment. These were Christians in minstry. Both trees have fruits - one is good, the other is poisonous.
3.) For most, that they are false Christians will come as a complete surprise to them.
4.) Jesus gives the 4 marks of false Christians:
a.) They had no firsthand knowledge of Jesus (v. 23) - God was like a certain kind of conduct they had to follow. You need surrender and love.
b.) Jesus is not fully in control (v. 23 - "lawless") - Jesus is Lord of only some parts of their lives. If Jesus is not Lord of all of your life, he is not Lord at all. Jesus' claim on your life is total. Faith that doesn't produce good works isn't real faith. You are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.
c.) Outwardly religious, inwardly ravenous (v. 15) - they are empty, trying to fill themselves up at all costs. The Greek word can mean extortion.
d.) They have no foundation. Their commitment to Christ alters with life's storms (v. 27). Real Christians have a foundation in Christ that carries them through any storm. False Christians' commitment to Christ goes up and down depending on circumstances.
There is no quick-fix for this. Go to Jesus, let him be your Savior, King, and God. Surrender to him.

This caused me to look into James. In verse 2:26, he says that faith is dead without good works. This does NOT mean that we are going to be judged by our good works, or that what we do gets us right standing with God, because we are saved by grace and grace alone, but you experience true grace, those good works will stem from that experience, and a moral life and good deeds will flow from the faith you have. That verse and the accompanying theology behind it has frequently come up in my life in the past few years, when people try to ask why it matters what they do, or when people I know act like it doesn't matter what they do. Admittedly, I am no saint and I definitely do things that do not represent my faith, but I do try. This semester has been really hard, and I've had many challenges with my beliefs and faith in Jesus and Christianity, and this sermon from Sunday really made me think about, basically, my life. It reminded me that I need to rely on him to carry me through these challenges that I have faced. My roommate said everytime she goes to the Summit she hears what she needs to hear, and that's how I feel about it, too. For the past couple Sundays I've been to the Summit, we've had a few minutes after the sermon to pray and reflect on what we've heard, and then we worship again. I really like that. It gives me a chance to, actually it makes me reflect on the message and search my own life to try to apply it. Then, this Sunday, we sang one of my all-time favorite songs, Mighty to Save. Very fitting.

Everyone needs compassion, a love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a Savior
The Hope of Nations

Savior, He can move the moutains
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save
Forever, author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find me, all my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow, everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save
Forever, author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King, Jesus!

It's for the Kids.

This past weekend I stood up for 24 hours. It was Dance Marathon weekend, number 11. Dance Marathon is a year-long fundraiser for the For the Kids Foundation, associated with the NC Children's Hospital right here in Chapel Hill. The money we raise goes to help the families of children in the hospital, from anything to phone cards, to parking, to meals, to things as big as monthly rents. From Friday at 7pm to Saturday at 7pm 2,000 people stood (and danced!) in a symbolic stand for those families. It was so hard but it was so worth it. It definitely was one of the most awesome weekends of my life, despite the fact that I am still sore and not caught up on sleep. Not only did we stand, but we danced and played games and had awesome times with each other. We seriously danced for over 12 hours throughout the time. Talk about not needing exercise! I'm not exercising for the rest of the month (which does only happen to be a week, but whatever).

The hardest part was during the middle of the night, when WE HAD NO CAFFEINE!!!!!!! What were they thinking? I have no idea. This is my friend Nicki, who made a sign saying "Will dance for caffeine." The first thing with ANY caffeine we got was around 4am and it was just Coke. Finally, coffee after we went to Kenan Stadium for the sunrise.









We did get coffee then, but it was only black with no sugar or creamer and it wasn't good quality coffee. That's okay, because my friend Lindsay brought us some Starbucks (around 11:30am!!!!).
She is awesome. In any case, we had an awesome time, I'm still walking around dancing, and we ended up raising almost $400,000!!!

One more thing - I have to do a debate for my New Testament class, and I've been assigned to the topic of homosexuality in the New Testament. I'm on the side that is arguing that the New Testament condemns modern practices of homosexuality. So if anyone has any suggestions or passages I can look at, or any good books to scan through, or any advice or opinions whatsoever on the topic that would be sooooo helpful! Thanks dudes. :)

25 is...a quarter of a century, 5 squared, the # of years my mom's been at our church...

My list of 25:

1. I get lost in books and movies. Tell me a story and I will live vicariously through it. I’ll never leave that world.

2. I like to romanticize things but I’m not a hopeless romantic – I’m a definite realist, until I fall in love. I prefer the romantic stories of true love in stories but know that it’s not how it works in real life.

3. Music is special to me. I always have music on and would be perfectly ecstatic if my life was a musical, with people singing and dancing at random times.

4. My iPod consists of every kind of music there is. From classical to movie scores to movie and Broadway soundtracks to country to rap to rock to punk to pop to Christian to choral music. And I’m content listening to any of those. I especially love songs that get big and loud at the end at the bridge, with a choir coming in – that is happiness.

5. Disney World, Chapel Hill, New York City, Salisbury, and Ireland have my heart. I want to live in Ireland at some point in my life, and would never turn down an opportunity to live in Disney World.

6. I regress to my childhood when I go to Disney World. I really feel like I’m 5 again, and I like it.

7. I turn 20 this year and I don’t want to. My college career will be half over, I won’t be a teenager (not that being a teenager is particularly awesome…), and I feel like I’ll have to grow up – I’m Peter Pan. One of my favorite movie quotes is from Benjamin Button: “I want to remember us, just as we are now.”

8. I’m quite open with my friends about bathroom issues. I like to see which people that makes uncomfortable.

9. I’m currently applying to the Radiologic Science program at UNC, and my interviewwas today. If I get in, I’ll learn all about medical imaging, and eventually do training for Radiation Therapy.

10. My practical dream job is the one I am going to do – radiation therapy. My ultimate dream job is a Professional Traveler. I wan to travel all over the world before I die. I definitely have the book and the calendar "1000 Places to See Before You Die."

11. Cancer research/treatment/prevent

ion is a passion of mine. I know far too many people who have been directly or indirectly affected by cancer and it takes lives too early and too much. I plan to devote a large portion of my life and money to this cause.

12. I have dreams of living in a big city while I’m young and living in Ireland. But I also want to live in Salisbury to be close to my parents and to my best friend. I want to be extremely involved in her and her childrens’ lives, and that would not be possible if I were to live far away.

13. I love to dance. I love the way it makes me feel. I forget everything else when I’m dancing. Afterwards, if there ever was a time to feel great and miserable at the same time, that’s it.

14. I feel like I’m always in the middle, never on one end or the other, always the middle road. And I don’t like it.

15. I’ve been single for a while now and am okay with that. I feel like if that were to change, all my big plans might not be realized. It’s my life and I don’t know if I’m ready to share it. Though of course, if an opportunity came along I would NOT turn it down.

16. I’ve been blessed with a great group of friends at home and a great group of friends at school. I love both Salisbury and Chapel Hill and am perfectly happy at either, but I don’t like having to go back and forth.

17. I still watch the Disney Channel and old Disney movies when I get the chance.

18. I would rather wear jeans than shorts. I wear jeans in the summer.

19. I wish I could pull off looking cute in a t-shirt and sweatpants, because that is my normal outfit. But I feel like I have to dress up more than that.

20. I love sunflowers and want them to be the flowers in my far-off future wedding, if it happens. There is a sunflower field in Salisbury and it makes my heart happy.

21. My fears are spiders, throwing up, snakes, and being lost alone.

22. Julius Peppers is my lover. I’m sad he’s leaving the Panthers but trust he is making the best choice for himself, and I will follow him (meaning my support) wherever he ends up.

23. On top of living in a big city and Ireland treating cancer, I want to have a Dachsund.

24. I’ve considered many careers in my life, but the one that competed most with radiation therapy was architecture. I LOVE floor plans, interior design, etc. But I wouldn’t be able to get into a school of design.

25. I would rather be active than doing nothing all day everyday. That bores me. I want to go places, learn new things, experience new cultures, see new sights, take lots of pictures. The best way to know about something is to EXPERIENCE it.

<3

We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again

Quite a few of my friends are studying abroad this semester: Lennon in London, Hollister in Italy, Emma in Spain, Erin in Madagascar (where there have been riots this week). It makes me want to travel sooo badly. My dream job is to be a professional traveler. I bought a tear-off calendar of the 1000 places to go before you die. So far, I've kept Australia (Cradle Mountain, Uluru, Daintree, Kakadu), Diving in the Red Sea in Egypt and Israel, Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India, Chobe National Park in Botswana, Kennedy Space Center and Disney World in Florida, The Bay of Islands in North Island, New Zealand, Kandersteg in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. I just want to go all over the place. But especially, IRELAND.



This is the Hill of Tara. It's known as the royal seat of the Irish High Kings, who presided over a lively national assembly held every 3 years to pass laws and resolve disputes. The last assembly was held in A.D. 560, and it is said that 242 kings were crowned on the hill. It is also featured in Gone With the Wind, and moreso in the sequel, Scarlett, which is one of my all-time favorite books. My heart sings whenever I think about Ireland and its beauty, heritage, people, customs, and everything else about it. It makes my life.

Kind-of-serious Question

My Hebrew Bible class has brought up some interesting questions this semester. As I knew already, there are seemingly irreconcilable contradictions in there, which I have found to actually be reconcilable, when you take into account the beliefs of the authors. However, there are some passages which the Christians interpret one way, and apparently the Jews interpret other ways, which we have been studying. It is completely true that when you read something, you're going to interpret it in a biased way, depending on your personal beliefs and preconceptions about the material. For instance, I read many of the passages in the Bible to look forward to Jesus. But when they were written, Jesus had not come yet, and therefore many other people interpret them to be talking about Israel as a nation, or a future messiah king. My TA, who is a Christian, does not read these passages to be talking about Christ. So my question is, does salvation require you to believe in the Bible? I understand in the NT, Paul (?) said all Scripture is God-breathed, or inspired, and therefore is the word of God, and obviously we should believe it. But we are saved by grace, not anything we do. How do we reconcile that? I believe that believing in Jesus and what he did brings us salvation, and everything else stems from that. But if those other things don't follow, what does that mean? Are you really not saved and only fooling yourself? Or does it matter to your salvation? I'm pretty sure that's something I'll never know.

Cool quote of the day:
**Live life like it's going out of style**

The Predicament of the Youngsters

The youth in America today are between a rock and a hard place. With the election coming up, most of us have already voted because early voting seems to be the trend here. But who to vote for? On the campus of UNC, you would be led to believe that the entire world is in support of Obama. Is that really the case? I don't know. But the problem with this first election that many of us are able to vote in is not exactly who to vote for, it's why we're voting for them. If we grew up conservative and end up voting for McCain, people say, "Oh, you're just voting for him because that's what your parents are doing." On the other hand, if we vote for Obama, people say, "You don't really believe in what Obama is doing, you're just rebelling from your parents because that's all you've known." The same goes for people who grew up with Democrats for parents. If they vote for Obama, it's because they're just following in their parents footsteps, and no one wants to do that. But if they vote for McCain, they're rebelling from what they've grown up with. [this typically seems to be the case, though, for those of us who have grown up with Republican parents]. What to do? I honestly don't know. I do know, though, that our choices should be made by ourselves with our own judgment and not influenced by any outside source. Whatsoever. If we make the same choice as our parents, it will be because we are educated about the issues and the candidates and have chosen for ourselves to vote for that particular candidate. If we decide to vote for his opponent, it is because we have educated ourselves and chosen the other person all on our own. We should not consider ourselves, or be considered by anyone else, to be "educated" if we now differ from our parents, nor should we be considered "uneducatede" if we make the same choice as that of our parents. We live in an individualistic society, and that's how it needs to be. "Such blind obedience to a single candidate or ideology is dangerous and inimical to healthy democracy. This attitude transforms individual and free-thinking voters into a group of mindless automatons. It is not too late to reverse these trends, however, and it is up to our generation to do it. Please, when you vote, do so because you support the policies and issues that a candidate stands for. An uneducated vote is worse than no vote at all." (Brock Baker, DTH)