Seananigans

Brother Jed and his sidekicks have kicked up quite a stir as they have been "preaching" the last 2 days on peoples assured condemnation to hell. Many arguements, many debates, many other people standing up to speak on their beliefs. They have been claiming to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

There is so much one could comment on about this but I'll try to be somewhat brief. This has brought about many arguments, many discussions, many protestors and the like.. but i'd like to spell out some specific points I believe are important.

1) It is good that he is here.

"What!? Why would you say such a thing", you might ask. "Are you not listening to what he is saying?"

I am listening. He is preaching the Word of God. What he speaks about the Bible is from the Bible, and I want you to consider this:
Philippians 1:15-18 "Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I (Paul) have been put here for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. WHAT DOES IT MATTER? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice."

-> Those are some pretty powerful words. What Paul says is that it does not matter if Christ is being preached out of love or for other reasons (which seems to be the case), as long as Christ is being preached. It doesn't matter if Christ is preached without love - it says it right there in the Bible.

Also, Dan Reiter expressed it well in his email. We have three distinct choices:
a) We can ignore him completely and try to avoid the situation at all costs.
b) We can argue with him and try to prove ourselves to be right (which you will only talk in circles) OR
c)We can use the OPPORTUNITY that has arised because it draws so many people. We can talk to people INDIVIDUALLY, learn and know who they are and share the message of Christ with them in LOVE.
*If you look at this as an opportunity to talk to people it can be quite a good outreach. The people are already there. You just have to force yourself not to focus on Brother Jed.


2) My second point is that brother Jed is NOT preaching out of love.
This is my biggest objection. If you want to present the "whole" gospel then you must see that you need to do it out of love. What his style of preaching does is automatically create a division between the audience and himself. No one wants to listen because they are filled with hate. They don't like what he is saying, and mostly they don't like HOW he says it. People feel judged and condemned.

While condemnation for sins is a part of the gospel, it is not the whole part. God is love, and God wants a relationship with you. But unfortunately we have this sin that gets in the way. And the only way to bridge that gap, is through putting your faith in Jesus Christ that he died for our sins/mistakes/failures and turning away from that sin.

While speaking with brother Jed he failed to:
1) communicate truth in love
2) admit his own sin (he said he was sinless)
3) communicate the whole gospel (not just the condemnation side).

So to wrap it up, it is good that he is here. It doesn't matter that he does it out of false pretenses. It also allows us the opportunity to talk to people about God individually. So take that opportunity.

Post your replies too. What do you guys think about Brother Jed?

Do you know the people around you?

There is a lot more than what meets the eye. There is a lot more than the surface level friendships we have. I have.

I think often I get caught up in those surface relationships. It feels good to be sort-of liked by many people. Often I think I feed off that. But quite honestly it is completely self-centered and shallow.

Let me explain. Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the organizations I'm involved with. I know a lot of people in CRU. Guys and Girls. I see them frequently - say hello and hi, and make jokes... but I don't know most of them. I mean I 'know' them. But I dont KNOW them.

What happens, in my case, is I get caught up and focused on the attention I get from the many. I think a lot of people percieve me in some way, so I think I often feel I have to live up to that or act in a certain way. Often unconciously I think. I know this might sound like a personal journal, but it's intended for hopefully some others to identify with.

Surface, shallow relationships. I have enough of those. I don't want it to be about me anymore. I want it to be about you. I don't want it to be about the 150 people in CRU, I want to get to know a few of you better. Then maybe get to know a few more better. Then a few more.

Don't spread yourself thin, as I try not to oversell myself. All it is is self-glorification. It is image. That is what the Pharisees acted like. Great on the surface, but dead inside.

And that is how I have felt.. in so many words. I don't like to think of myself as a Pharisee, but I can identify with acting like something on the outside, that is not at all truly representing what is on the inside. Which is often a lot of hurt, amoungst a lot of happiness, amoungst many other things. But it is a lot more than what is on the surface. And I encourage everyone to look past that - in others and in yourself as I try to.

Think about how different your life would be without your friends in it..

I was standing outside near the electronic billboard in the Quad the other day, when I got into a conversation with a group of people I knew from CRU and BSM. We started talking about roommates and such, and I realized something interesting.

All of us said that we would be much different people without our roommates.

It made me think about my own life, and how much different it would have been had I never met the guys that I live with. This could be a story about grace as much as it is about friendship.

Coming into college I had really no friends. I left Wimberley High School with a bad group of friends (that is a much longer story), and all I knew is that I wanted to escape that. So I come to Texas State not really knowing anyone (even though Wimberley is literally 25 minutes away) except my older brother and his friends.

After a year at college, I somehow get into a conversation with some cool guys from Falls Hall that I knew on the way to the Rec Center, and they tell me how they are looking for another roommate to live with. Somehow, and the details totally elude me, I end up getting an apartment with these guys-Reid Fisher and Chris Quarve (also this other guy named Justin Nelson)-and we move to then-called Jefferson Commons apartment complex. I really don't know how I got hooked up with these guys. This is why I say this story is about grace as well. Because it just fell into place. I did not "make it happen", I did not "take the initiative", I didn't do anything. I just got into a conversation with these guys, and the next thing I know I move in with them.

Well, this "decision" has probably had the most profound impact on my life. I've lived with Reid Fisher for about 3 years now, and now I have two new roommates-Trey and Ryan-and just living with them, being under the same roof, seeing the lives that they lead, has made such an amazing impact, and something that I know that through-out my lifetime I will never forget. The story of their lives could contain volumes.

But the point of all of this is simple.. Just think about how much your friends, or roommates, or parents (PEOPLE), have affected your life. For me and the people in the Quad today it happened to be our roommates. But I can think of some minor relationships that have made a tremendous impact. Interactions with others have such a big impact that you can never fully know. So think about the people you know who have impacted your life.