Archives For Jesus

The Kingdom of God is like a Dandelion

May 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

The Kingdom of God is like a Dandelion! That’s found somewhere in the gospel’s right?  Oh, it’s not?  Hmm… So maybe it doesn’t say, Dandelion, but Jesus does say that Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.  Check it out the whole story in Matthew 13:31 and following.  He is explaining to His disciples just exactly what this whole Kingdom of God thing was all about.  What does it mean to be apart of the Kingdom of God.  What is the mission of the Kingdom of God.  In fact, it might be a bit different from what these disciples were counting on and hoping for.

This is one of my favorite descriptions that Jesus uses- the parable of the mustard seed.  I don’t think that I have seen very many mustard plants in my day.  But I do know that I have seen tons and tons of dandelions.  In fact, my backyard is riddled with dandelions right now.  They are popping up all over the place.  This past Saturday all three of my kids were picking them and collecting the ‘pretty’ flowers in buckets.  Who knows where they come from, they are an unstoppable force in the overall landscape of my backyard.

I think that if Jesus were with us today, if he was hanging out in my neck of New Jersey, he would say, “The Kingdom of God is like a dandelion.”

What an exciting thought.

The Kingdom of God

Jesus alludes to the fact that the Kingdom of God is going to be popping up uncontrollably all over the place.  There is nothing that you can do to stop it.  What does He tell Peter?  ”You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it.”  I’ve lost the battle with the dandelions.  The best I can do is try to contain them.  Satan has lost the battle with the Kingdom of God.  The best he can do is try to distract people from realizing it.

I love the book of Acts.  It is a story of Dandelions sprouting.  They are popping up all over the place.  Imagine the disciples, now the apostles in the book of Acts getting together and just reminiscing… “Remember when Jesus told us the parable of the mustard seed?  I get it now. Look how this Jesus movement, the Church, is growing!  It’s out of control…”

I hope that the next time you look at a dandelion you can’t help but think about Jesus, and the Kingdom of God.  It is exciting to be apart of and experience what God is doing in this world!  I see the Kingdom of God popping up right here in NJ.  It’s happening all around us.  I am excited about seeing more dandelions come up around me in my town, Scotch Plains, and in Mountainside.  Where have you seen the Kingdom of God popping up?  

~Peter

(click here to download the Dandelion Themed Desktop Background for Free!)

In Faith , , , ,
permalink

Who Is More Famous Jesus or You?

November 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

Jesus Leadership

Where in your life are you trying to make yourself something?  What if we spent more time trying to make God something in our social circles.  What would that look like?  What would you change in order to do this better?

Who is more famous, you or Jesus?

~Peter

In Footsteps , ,
permalink

Missionaries Cleverly Disguised as Neighbors

August 1, 2012 — 1 Comment

Renew Community, Lansdale PA

A few weeks ago, I watched this video that a good friend of mine J.R. Briggs made about the community that he lives in.  J.R. is a pastor of a church in Lansdale, PA.  You need to watch this video.  Click over here to see it.  It is very challenging.

After watching that video, I couldn’t help but wonder how much I knew about my own town that I live in.  I was asking myself the question, how well do I know the people, the business owners, and my neighbors?  Tiffany and I have only lived here in Scotch Plains for a little over a month now.  So the truth is, we know very little right now.  The goal is that we will know a whole lot more in the days, weeks, and months to come.

One of the things that J.R. once told me is that he teaches his church that we are all missionaries.  Sometimes we are just cleverly described as neighbors.  That thought is running through my mind right now on a regular basis.  I have just entered into a new culture, a new community and I am looking to figure it out.  What is going on here in my little “world”?  So one of the things that I have been doing is to get to know people who I will interact with on a regular basis.

Missionaries Cleverly Disguised as NeighborsI began to list them out on a piece of paper in my office that I keep on my desk so that I can be reminded of who they are as well as pray for them when I think about it.  I know that it may seem funny to remember the guys name who pumps my gas… but he literally is across the street from my house 6 days a week.  The recycling guy may not seem important to many, but I know that he is a figure in our community… The list can go on and on.

When I think about the great commission, I can’t help but think that it starts here with me.  It starts here in my town, and it spreads out.  I have a part to play.  You have a part to play in your town.

God has us knit together in a beautiful way to love and serve our communities and our neighbors.

How well do you know your neighbors?  Are you purposefully and intentionally trying to build bridges into their lives so that you can live the Gospel of Jesus Christ out for them to see?  As J.R. says, some people are called to be missionaries over seas, but we all are called to be missionaries right here in our backyard, we may just go by a different title: Neighbors.

~Peter

 

In Categories , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Teaching vs. Reaching, Seats to Streets- A RESPONSE…

July 23, 2012 — 2 Comments

coffee talkI love conversations…  Especially a conversation over a good cup of coffee.  It’s true.  I love to sit and chat with people.  One of the funniest criticism’s my wife has given me is that I don’t know how to end a conversation.  There is no off ramp for me…  If someone wants to talk, I can sit there and talk all day.  Now this may be a problem when my three kids are tired, worn out and hungry and we need to go!  I recognize this!  One of my goals of my blog is to have a place to encourage conversations about three things, Faith, Family, and Footsteps.  I want to respond to a comment that I recently got from one reader on this post.  I was realizing I was writing too much for a reply comment…  So, here is his comment.  My reply is below.

Blog Comment

Kenny, that is a good question.  I think that you can go to far in both directions. I know that churches can swing to far on the teaching side where they never encourage service.  Yet at the same time, I know that there are churches who swing to far on the doing side that they neglect any and all discipleship.  I think that this is the issue found in James 2:14-17… There is a faith and works issue.  For years people have aligned themselves on either side of that topic.  I wasn’t aiming at any one church or denomination in my original post.  I think that my heartbeat was towards motivating people to live out their faith- to apply the works aspect of the faith that they already have.

Anytime we use the word works in a conversation like this every evangelical’s neck hair stands up on end.  Our ears pick up on it and we get nervous.  At least this is true for me.  But as I am in my road of recovering from living according to the law, and now living in the glorious grace of Jesus Christ I find that we must deal with the fact that Jesus says we will be known by our fruit.  (Matthew 7:16)  Even more challenging is what Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Love is a verb, (at least John Mayer thinks so…) it is an action.

To answer your question, I am interested in not leaning.  Maybe that’s impossible, I will give you that.  But there has to be a balance and seasons.  There may be seasons where a church has to do more, and a season where a church has to grow more.  Every church has a life cycle just like our children, they start off growing tremendously.  During the growth stage that my kids are going through I am not expecting any of them to mow the lawn, but there will come a day when that glorious reality hits.  However, if Noah is 35 living in my basement playing video games and working on forging his own Lord of the Rings Sword, I will be greatly disappointed.  The time came long ago for him to get out of the house and start working and living his life and obeying what God has for his life…
In short, I don’t think that one direction is better than another.  I think both are necessary.  Anytime we obsess in one area we are neglecting another.
Thanks for your thoughts Kenny!  I appreciate them.
What about the rest of you.  What do you think?
~Peter
In Categories, Faith , , , , , ,
permalink

The Untouchables: Aids

May 24, 2012 — 2 Comments

Liquid Church DropletTomorrow something really exciting is going to take place.  This weekend a crew of 215+ volunteers are going to descend upon the New Jersey Aids Service (aka the Eric Johnson House) and get cracking on an extreme makeover.  Why you might ask?

That’s a great question.  Pastor Tim Lucas, lead pastor at Liquid Church, explains that best.  You can watch it here.  Or you can download the audio version here.

In Luke 17:11-19 we see Jesus interacting with some people who were untouchable in His day and age.  These were the lepers.  They were the social outcasts who no one wanted around.  No one even wanted to be near them.  But Jesus did.  In fact Jesus loved the untouchables.  The question is, Do we?

The modern day lepers are those people with HIV Aids.  This weekend we are going to break into our community with nothing but LOVE for a select group of people who most people think are outcasts and untouchable.  Most people wouldn’t go near them with a ten foot pole.

IT’S TIME TO BREAK SOME POLES!

Check out the promo video below of what is going to go down in just a few short hours!  There are still spaces available to sign up and join us.  Sign up here.

Remember, “It is not a sin to be sick.”

~Peter

UPDATE:

We now have 293 volunteers!  INCREDIBLE!

Check out these articles written about the outreach over at

In Church, Outreach , , , , , , , ,
permalink

You complain about WHAT???

May 15, 2012 — 1 Comment

Garden Gate to GethsemaneWhile I was in Israel, one of my favorite places that we visited was the garden of Gethsemane.  This is the recognized location where Jesus went to pray on the night that He was handed over to the authorities to be killed.  There was something amazing and beautiful about this location.  The garden was well taken care of, so that added to the beauty.  But there was something even more beautiful that cannot be captured in an image.

Garden View of Gethsemane

It was incredible to think of what the Bible tells us happened here some 2000 years ago.  The Church has placed a church on this location and inside of this church there are some incredible mosaics depicting the time that Jesus spent here that night.  Can you even imagine what Jesus was thinking, and going through that evening?

Inside the Garden of Gethsemane Church

Jesus in prayer

Thomas a Kempis tries to help us think about what that would have been like for Jesus.  What I appreciate most about this is that he tries to help us get a better baseline on our own condition too.

When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need.  He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn.  He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything?

~Thomas a Kempis – Imitations of Christ

I have been commuting 90 minutes each way for the last two months to get back and forth from home to Liquid’s office.  It has definitely taken a toll on me.  I loose three hours a day to my car.  Let me tell you, this is not fun.  I find that I can slip into periods of lengthy complaining and think nothing of it.  I may grow agitated because I hit traffic on the way home, or the price of gas puts a death grip on my budget.  Kempis provides a new baseline for me.  Jesus was willing to suffer and die for me, and He did not complain.  What basis do I have to complain about traffic being slow?  It certainly puts things into perspective.  My Lord was crushed so that I could be spared.  It is time for me to pony up and quit complaining so much.

Okay, there you go.  I spoke first.  Your turn.  What do you need to stop complaining about?

~Peter

bonus… Here are some pictures that I took at the Garden of Gethsemane and in the church.

In Israel Trip , , , , , ,
permalink