Romans 13:11-14 - Awake My Soul

11... the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime ...(and) 14put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

I feel like so often I struggle with the state of being awake. To feel like I am mentally present in a world that moves so fast... After suffering with insomnia for many of my teenage years I felt so frequently that I just existed, that I woke in the morning and floated through an inanimate world with impersonal people. I waited for the light, for someone to pull me out of the abyss, out of my induced slumber, but was saddened that after so great and long a time that I never surfaced. God calls out in this verse to wake up, "Wake Up!" As in I am commanding you to "wake up", as in "I would not be asking you to do this if you were not able to do so," as in "You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you" and that this Christ has already empowered you with that which you need to rise and thus your time to rise is now. With the appropriation of all that one could possible need to escape, obscurity becomes a choice. The state of constant (and I stress here constant and not momentary, for all will feel at some point overcome) opacity is not because God left us, or somehow stopped loving us, but because we, and particularly me, have chosen in our blind-arrogance to fuel our own affirmation.

The water is a place we will find ourselves thousands of time, we will take our eyes off Christ and we will feel the pain that comes when the water floods our faces and Christ seems no longer close at hand. But in the saving act of Humanity and the words from Ephesian 2 the true nature of our King is shown, "But God...". We choose to take our eyes off Christ and we fall into the water rightfully so, but God stands waiting to catch us, reaching his arms out to tend his lost sheep, waiting and Knocking: waiting for us to realize his great love for us, and knocking by hitting us with the waves that fill our lungs and cause us to understand that we are sinking. The water is the only place one can realize the sadness felt by the prodigal son, the darkness of the sea is the only placeholder that exists for a Follower who forgot that he was meant to follow, the cold inebriation exists not to punish the redeemed but help us comprehend sobriety. There exists a God waiting for us to let him love us, he stands with arms wide open reaching to embrace us, we just need to decide first that we want him and not the abyss...

A Different Outlook

Tonight is the first time that I have been able to post since I got back to campus. College life, although many things, is especially time exhausting and I post tonight for the first time tonight for about a month. And with that perspective in mind, I have decided to change my plan around for this blog. My original plan that I posted at the beginning of January was to complete a series through the 21 chapters of John, although I was looking forward to this and I am sure it would have been a great experience for me to write it, I have decided that the best option for me to keep a regular posting schedule is to, rather than following a outline, is to simply post about the relevant topics that are currently affecting my life. It will be much easier for me to post a message that God revealed to me during my daily Quiet time, which already takes a large part of my free time, than to do a Quiet Time and write a lesson about a different part of scripture in addition.

I Believe that these changes will both help the quality and quantity of these posts and I hope that you enjoy as well as learn from what is yet to come.

Sincerely, Jacob Schieber

What will it take? - John 1:43 – 1:51

John 1:43 – “The Next Day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ “

John 1:48 – 1:49 –Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of    Israel!’ “

            As humans we enjoy independence, we enjoy the feelings of freedom associated with the knowledge that we are our own master. We go to school for years and years all to make ourselves “self-sufficient” and yet often the curveball almost always comes when we find out that we are just not quite good enough. With the knowledge that a savior has come who can truly save us, we are forced to admit that we are just not good enough to succeed though our own efforts. Christ promises us in scripture that he will give us the strength we need to conquer this world but he ask us to first answer his call to follow him. We are taught our entire lives that the biggest choice we will ever make is what we must do to independently follow our own dreams, but I come today to tell you that it is in deciding what it will take for us to make our dream following Christ indefinitely.

            These verses, and in fact all the verses regarding Christ choosing his disciples, are some of my favorite verses in scripture, for in them you see exactly what each disciple needed to see of Christ in order for them to choose to follow him. For Philip he simply needed to be called, Christ came to him picked him out of the crowd and said “follow me.” Philip needed nothing more than the recognition of worth in that Jesus wanted Philip to follow him for Philip to choose to do so. But with Philip’s confidence, comes Nathaniel’s uncertainty. With Nathaniel’s words “How do you know me?” Nathaniel showed that he was not going to follow anyone reluctantly and questioned the very divinity and authenticity of Christ in the process. Nathaniel did not simply approach Jesus out of the blue without any knowledge of Jesus’ identity, but was brought to him through Philip’s beckoning.  Nathaniel knew a messiah would one day come via his knowledge of the scriptures, he had been told by his great friend that this messiah was here, and yet when he meets this Christ and is called by him by name he responds with a question that asks much more than “How do you know me” but “by what power do you know my name?” Nathaniel’s knowledge of the Christ was not enough for him to choose to follow him with blind ambition, he would need to see Christ act. Although Christ eventually proved himself enough for Nathaniel to choose to become one of his disciples, we are asked by Christ everyday of our lives ourselves, “what will it take for you to truly follow me?”

            Choosing to follow Christ with out whole heart is not a guaranteed sidetrack after our prayer for salvation. Even after we have chosen to follow Christ we are continually called by him to follow him closer and closer and to place the things of this world that we are so desperately clinging to at the foot of the cross. The true unadulterated pursuit of Christ is giving up all that we possess to gain a personal relationship with Christ. To give up our worldly ambitions and to set our eyes on our savior is not an easy choice and honestly it will probably be a choice that you will have to re-pledge yourself to over the years, but it is a choice that we are called to make now nonetheless. Christ is calling out for you to follow him completely and I ask you today “what is stopping you from giving him everything?” This is a question I cannot answer for you, but one that only you can answer for yourself. For most of us it is often only through prayer and Christ’s help that we are able to truly understand and give him all that we have. In this passage Christ goes on to say in verse 50 that we will see great things if we decide to follow him, of this you can be assured, but before our relationship with Christ can ever truly draw us closer to him, we must first decide to truly follow him.

The Battle For Success - John 1:4-1:18

John 1:5 - “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

           

            Success is a word used so commonly by our society that we often forget what it entails. Money, power, sex, prosperity and everything that makes one feel good are often the determinates used by this world to decide whether or not one is successful. Success, at least through the world’s definition, is what comes to you after the work has been completed, Christ changed everything when he came into this world and said that success is not the outcome of successful work but the successful nature of the work itself.

            We endure times of failure and success every hour of everyday of our lives. We work a full day at the office, we get the grade we hoped for and maybe even get the significant other we were searching after. But in our constant and blind hope for success it is often easy to forget to what we, as Christians, are truly winning from. So often we read the words, “in whatever you do, do all for the glory of God” and wonder how one could truly glorify him in all things. I write to you today to tell you that we can do this through the same means that allow for us to successfully understand how Christ viewed success in the first place.

            We live in a very spiritual world but often choose to make ourselves ignorant to what that truly implies. Terms like “guardian angel” are used to express that there is a spiritual realm closely entangled with ours, yet so many in our culture view demonic activity as a mere jest. There is a spiritual battle that entangles our world on a constant basis and as the writings on January 4^th pointed out, we get to choose which side we want to fight on. John 1:5 tells us that Christ will never lose the battle and thus neither will we if we are able to fight on his side without waver, this is the success that Christ talks about. This is the victory in Jesus we so frequently sing about, choosing to follow Christ even when the world stands as an army before us. But even after the enemy has temporarily been defeated, we often find ourselves confused as to why the world’s definition of success does not likewise follow.

            With Paul’s words, “To live is Christ and to die is gain,” we can begin to truly comprehend what success is, a growing relationship with Christ. All things of this world are falling away and the only thing we can bring with us to heaven, with the exception of our Christian friends and family, is the relationship that we built with God and the moments we got to serve him down here on Earth. This world tricks us into believing everyday that success is an immediate outcome and thus can be measured by the feelings of pleasure that follows after, regardless of whom you needed to follow to achieve it. Christ came into this world and changed everything when he said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but through me.” We are called to follow Christ alone and to sever any ties that pull us away from that call. Success in Christ will often appear as humiliation to the world and thus will be one of the hardest things we will ever strive for down here on earth, but it is only when we are able to successfully do so and find our affirmation through him alone that we will ever truly be able to find our success in him.

The Beginning - John 1:1 – 1:3

      “In the beginning was the word...” has there ever been a better way to start off a series than with those six words? In the beginning was Christ, in the past was Christ and in the future Christ will forever be held exalted over all things. We live in the universe of the ephemeral, and thus in a time where neither life, limb nor possession are guaranteed to last the night. Although this knowledge can often come to us with a negative overtone, it can often provide us with great personal gain. The knowledge that our friends and family are a temporary treasure allows for us to truly cherish only that which is truly important. But with the ability to acknowledge the importance of things with great value, the potential of idolatry is always quick to follow.

     I ask you today a question that you have almost indefinitely been asked to think about before. What is most important in your life? After being asked this question many Christians, regardless of their maturity in Christ, will respond with the same answer, “God.” It is an impulse, something we have been taught to say since many of us where just kids. But today, because I am neither going to hear your answer nor be able to judge whether it be true or evident in your life, I ask you again to take the time and ask yourself, what do you make out to be most important in your life. Having a hard time deciding? Then ask yourself this simple question, “What do you give the majority of your time and money to?”

     The gospel of John goes on to say in verse three that “all things were made through Christ.” Christ does not want his children to suffer, he would not have gone on to make this world a beautiful place and put humans in it if he didn’t want us to enjoy what he had created. But in our enjoyment he does call for us to enjoy it with and through him. We have been gifted with a beautiful world, the knowledge that the things of it are temporary does allow for us to properly cherish it, but it also shows us a lesson that we often forget, that in the end most of it will mean nothing.

     What we take to heaven is not the TV shows we enjoyed or the high scores we got playing spider solitaire, but the people whom we helped lead to and experience Christ. This world was made for our enjoyment, but it provides only a mere glimpse of what our heavenly home will one day have for us. An idol is anything you have in your life that you choose to make more important than your relationship with God. We are called all throughout scripture to serve the Lord, take heed that in realizing that this world is finite, that you choose to serve the creator that will stand forever and not the creations that are all passing away.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” – Joshua 24:15

A New Journey

     It has been well over two and a half years since my last post, but I am very happy to say that God has called me back to writing on my blog. The last two years have taken me further away from my home than I ever thought I would travel and grown me closer to my creator than I ever thought possible. From the tides of the Galapagos islands to the slums of the Twin Cities, Christ has just begun showing me the riches of his great love and the relationship that he wishes to have with not only me, but to all who are called into his marvelous light.

     It is my hope that this blog will go on to cover much of Christ’s teachings, but as for today, will start with the beginning of a journey through John. Over the last few weeks Christ has really gifted me a great insight into this wonderful book and I can’t wait to begin sharing much of that insight with you. After the first post which will follow directly after this, I hope to post at least once a week or as often as time allows. Because Christ has also been calling me to finish a book that he began leading me to write over a year ago, and because I will go back to college on the 24th of Januray, I may not always be able to write as much as I hope, but I pray that the work that I am able to accomplish will be both a blessing to those who read it and a gift towards me as I work on further developing my writing skills as I continue my life as it heads towards a career in ministry.

     I pray that the writings and insights I write to you bless you and fulfill the purpose to which Christ intended for it when he called me to write it and that through this blog God can help me, as well as all of those who read it, grow closer and closer to the calling to which he has called all of us.

God Bless and Happy New Year,
Jacob Schieber

Watch Your Six

Today as I was relaxing I decided to watch TV. So I searched through the TiVo and decided to watch “Royal Pains.” The plot of the show was normal, basic and overall unimportant, but at the end of the show one of Hank’s clients said, “watch your six” to Hank’s brother. This simple phrase although very cliché struck me because I instantly saw a connection between it and our daily battle against sin.

In Exodus 31 and 32 Moses is called to the top of Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God. At this meeting God explains many of the Laws that he gave to the Israelites. Because there are so many laws, it took 40 days upon the top of Mount Sinai for God to share them with Moses. So the Israelites assuming Moses had been killed by God told Aaron to build them a golden Calf as an idol. Aaron obliged and according to Exodus 32:4, fashioned and carved a golden calf from molten jewelry.

When Moses returned he was furious. He condemned the Israelites for turning from the Lord. When he reached Aaron the High Priest at the time to ask how he could have allowed such an atrocity to be committed all Aaron had to say was, “I threw [the Gold] into the fire and out came this calf.” Did you hear that? The man who fashioned and carved the idol said that he just threw the Gold into the fire and out popped a Calf.

In our lives things pop out of the fire all of the time. We get too preoccupied with something, and “poof” out comes this pile of sin. Because we have accepted the message of the Lord we have been joined into the army of Christ, which means we are directly fighting against the army of Satan. And sadly enough, Satan’s best tools to pull us down are some of the same things we use to pull ourselves up. Fun healthy things like sports or games can be used by Satan as fuel to create sin in our lives. Even a game of Basketball can quickly turn into a heated battle for Supremacy and anger when handled badly.

Because Satan is the ruler of the this world, the world is going to constantly be crashing down on us. But the thing is, even if Satan is producing a massive amount of sin in our life, we may never know it because it happened slowly over time and came from safe things. The only thing that we can to do fight Satan from creeping up on us is the same thing that was given as advice at the beginning of this story… “Watch your six.” As you continue to spread and grow in the word of God you must continually watch your back for sin. Even the worst of fires all started from a single small match or spark that was allowed to burn for too long. “To Walk the Christian Walk” you must not only continually grow in the Lord, but also continually check that you are not falling back into sin.