I'll assume for the moment that most of you have at least seen the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe", if not read it. I really recommend reading it if you have the time, as well as the other six books in the series. I remember reading them when I was in third or fourth grade, and have made a point to read them every few years or so since then. I find that when I read them now, I appreciate them more than I did back then, because I'm able to pick up on things that I didn't when I was younger.

One of my favorite scenes in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is where Aslan goes to free the statues in the Witch's castle. These statues were actually centaurs, lions, fauns, and other creatures who opposed the Witch and whom she then petrified (turned into stone). When Aslan reaches them, he breathes on them, and they become alive once more. I really enjoy this scene, and others like it throughout the other books, because it conveys a deep concept about God. That Aslan's (who, as the son of the Emperor-Over-Sea, is a representation of Jesus Christ) breath is life-giving, and is the only thing capable of saving those who were petrified.

A few months ago I was reading the book of Habakkuk, who was a prophet several hundreds years before Christ was born. Habakkuk lived in a culture where people made images from wood and clay, decorated them, and worshipped them. Habakkuk didn't understand this, especially in light of all that God had done for his fellow Israelites and the fact that God has specifically said to not worship idols. To all the people around him who were worshipping these things they had made, Habakkuk had this to say:

"Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him that says to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold an silver; there is no breath in it." (2:18-19, NIV)

Rob Lacey, in his "Word on the Street" translation, puts it this way:

"Bad news with no driver at the wheel, hurtling towards those who say to bits of wood and stone, "Live, won't you?" Do inanimate objects give good advice?! OK, so it's been sprayed with gold or silver, but it doesn't breathe; it can't talk - it's dead!"

Both of these translations use the concept of "breath" or "breathing" to explain the difference between a living object and a non-living object. Both of these translations use the concept of breathing to explain that some things are worthy of worship (God), and others that are not worthy of worship (everything else).

In the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan's breath is transforming; it brings the non-living to life. But he is the only breath-giver there is, he's the only one that's deserving of worship. Likewise, God is the only one that deserves our undivided worship. There are many things in our world that we can choose to worship- money, friendships, technology, etc... But Habakkuk's point is that while these things might be nice, they aren't worthy enough for our worship. I might really enjoy my laptop, but it's certainly not deserving of worship- ever have a computer crash? Yeah. Nothing that we can make is deserving of our full attention and devotion, only God is. We have to re-order our lives based on this simple truth. What do we want to give our attention to? Schoolwork? A website?

God is the only one that can create life, and He's the only one that makes life worth living.

Oh, come on. You know you've got something like that somewhere in your house. Maybe it's not a sweater from your great-aunt, but maybe it's a knick-knack or present from some relative that you knew as soon as you saw it that you'd never use it and you've been looking for a way to get rid of it ever since. Truth be told, I've got several of those lying around somewhere - we all do.

And that's what makes the Rummage Sale so fascinating. I spent most of my day Friday and again Saturday morning at the Rummage Sale. Now, I've seen some church Rummage Sales before, but never one that took over the entire building and took a week to set up. But, as vast as this one at LUMC was, it didn't fail the test; a lot of the things I saw fit perfectly into the description above. I can't tell you how many t-shirts and sweaters and games and puzzles I saw that I thought, "Wow, were they colorblind? Did they not know as they knitted that sweater that their grandchild would get beat up for wearing it? Didn't they know that game hasn't been cool since 1987?"

I leafed through shirts and old shoes, books and shellacked records (do you know what a record is? Or how a shellacked record is different than a vinyl?), and saw so much, well, junk. And don't you know, there were people lined up at 7:30 am just to buy cart-loads of that junk. Smelly ol' shoes? Broken suitcases? Just junk. People lined up to buy boxes and boxes of junk.

...but that's kind of like what Jesus Christ did for us. Paul writes in his letter to Christians in Rome: "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I think the key part of this phrase are the words "still sinners". Why these? Well, because "sinners" talks about the very nature of who we were- the driving force behind what we used to be. Without Christ's death and resurrection, we would've remained these hopeless creatures who constantly sinned. We'd be like that crusty sweater from your great-aunt: intended for good, but all dirty and nasty from what we've done and where we've been. But even when we were junk, Christ paid for us. The fact that we were broken and messed up didn't put God off- we didn't have to do anything to earn His affection. He didn't care if we screwed up, He wanted to have a relationship with us. He didn't care if we were a crusty ol' sweater, He wanted to buy us anyway. That's pretty amazing. That's powerful! That's love. Unconditional, undeserved, but phenomenal love.

There's this great song that I first heard when I was a junior in high school. It's called "Dandelions", and it's by a now-defunct Christian band called Five Iron Frenzy. I think it says a lot about how God views us. It doesn't say we're perfect, 'cause we're not. We are sinners in need of saving. But, it shows how God sees us compared to how others might judge us, or how we sometimes see ourselves.

For the last few days, I've been reading one of Peter's letters that he wrote to Christians in what's now the country of Turkey. Now, I still have one chapter to go, but the main point of the first four chapters is something that we kind of shy away from in the church, but which I thought was so important to keep in mind that I thought I'd write about it a little bit.

Now, 1 Peter is chock full of awesome stuff as it is (I've got at least a page of notes per chapter), but the main story of the first four chapters is what appears to be a Biblical Principle: it is good to suffer for doing what is right.

That's so important that I'll say it again: it is good to suffer for doing what is right. Peter thinks it's so crucial that he spends four chapters talking about it. Even Christ Himself had something to say about it:

Now, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound that exciting. I mean, Jesus said that we should suffer just like the prophets did? Have you read about Jeremiah? They threw him in a well! You know about Hosea? His wife constantly cheated on him. That kind of suffering is supposed to be good? Why in the world would I want to be like them?

But that's the kind of thinking that we hear every day:

Why would we want to do those things? Isn't it just easier to do what's wrong, instead of getting knocked-around for doing what's right? Why would we want to do that? Well, Peter has things to say about that. Peter uses several different examples, ranging from a husband and wife to a slave and his slave-owner, to get across his point: you underestimate the power you have been given. See, you make impressions on people all the time, no matter what you do. So if you do what's right, even when it's hard and causes you pain, that affects people. If you do what's right, even when it causes you pain, it makes people think to themselves, "Why would they do that?" What Peter says throughout these first four chapters is that having the courage to do what's right, even when it's hard, can bring people to God. You can bring people to God. And yes, it's hard. You might have to endure some pain. But look what your faith and resilience can do! It can bring people closer to God. Christ said that's worth it.

In fact, He said this:

"...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

People will see you doing what's right, even when it's hard, and praise God. That's pretty awesome.

I've had this song stuck in my head for a long time now, maybe since the CCYM Retreat in February. I finally broke down and bought a copy off iTunes, and have played it over 30 times in the last few weeks. Aside from it being catchy, I find this to be a profound statement of faith. Whether in good times (in the land that is plentiful), or bad (in the desert and wilderness), the songwriter claims that he will still praise the name of the Lord. Whether in the midst of suffering or blessings, he'll praise God and His glory.

That seems to clash against what we learn from our culture. We're taught, whether we realize it or not, that we should thank someone when they do something good to us and get mad at them when we're not doing as well. Basically, we're taught that our circumstances determine our treatment of others (and most importantly, God).

But that's not what we find in the Bible. Job was a man who was very successful but then lost everything. Here's what Job says after hearing that his children had just died: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart from this world. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." (Job 1:21)

Whether good or bad, Job praises God's name....... why?! Is that something you would do? Do you treat anyone like this? Your parents, teachers, elders? I'm really curious to hear what you all have to say on this topic. Does God deserve to be praised, even when bad things happen to you?



Jr. High: Do you remember what the coach said about winning and losing in the movie Facing the Giants? If so, put it in the Comments section.

This morning I was reading through the last chapter in the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah was a prophet who lived between 600 and 700 years before Christ. God spoke through Zephaniah to the people of Jerusalem about changing their bad habits. Through Zephaniah, God spoke these amazing words in Chapter 3:

"Woe to the rebellious city [Jerusalem]! ...it does not trust in the Lord, it does not draw near to its God." (3:2)

Well...it's not really amazing news for the people of Jerusalem. They spent their time worshiping pieces of wood and stone that they carved instead of worshiping the Lord. Despite all God had done for the people of Israel, they rebelled against Him and did everything they weren't supposed to do. The great part of this mess is found in the above verse: even though God could've been upset with them for all the bad things they were doing, what God was most upset about, the thing that really got Him angry, was that they stopped trusting Him. God was upset at the people of Jerusalem because they felt like they didn't need God. They abandoned their trust in God, and spent no time trying to "draw near" to Him.

The take-home message from this verse in Zephaniah seems to be pretty clear: God wants a relationship with you, and part of that relationship is you putting your trust in Him. Every day when we wake up we have another opportunity to get close to the God of the universe. I don't know about you, but that's something I want to strive for.