As a strong believer of the bible, I believe that we are wired to live life in our community, and I believe that there are biblical one anothers that we must fulfill. One of those one anothers, being to love one another and to be there for one another. That being said, I do not want this blog post to have the result of “oh poor pitiful Ryan”, and I do not need text messages and e-mails and phone calls from people asking me to talk about this. I’ll take your support, and I would love your prayers; that is all I want and that is all I expect from you.

So to start, the last two weeks have been hell for me. Last Monday I received a phone call from my mother at 8:30 am. If you know me, to call me before noon, the world must be ending. And with the news that this phone call brought, my world seemed like it was ending. My mom informed me that my parents were splitting up. No warning, no signs, just a separation that will eventually end in a divorce. It was a gut wrenching call because my mom was hysterical. I hope none of you ever have to take a call where you feel so helpless and so shocked and so upset because there is really nothing you can do to make the other person feel better. Saying “everything is going to be alright” sounds so cliché because after the last 25 years of marriage, to split, everything is not going to be alright.

Sure down the road life goes on and moves on. You rediscover who you are as a person and you learn that there is life outside of your spouse. But those facts don’t help today; they didn’t help a week ago. I said a prayer with my mom over the phone; hung up, and just reflected on the past, shocked at the news I was just told. Life goes on…

So I spent the week reflecting, keeping myself busy working on the Youth Foundation and hanging out with close friends whom I talked things out with. Christina and I spoke often on the subject and reflected as well. I imagined I could keep this bottled up by just releasing the steam every so often to close friends I know I could talk to. That attempt has failed today.

Today I got news that a friend of mine from Thomas More College, was killed in action in Afghanistan. I haven’t seen him in 5 years but, as I’ve stated to many people before, one death brings back so many memories of people before him. I really miss my friend that died many years ago. I keep thinking to myself that I’m over it, that I’ve moved on, that I can deal with losing someone so close to me at such a young age, but I’m not there yet. And every death of a friend since, I am reminded of that. He’s the reason I do ministry. He’s the reason I counsel people. He’s the reason I am who I am.

The third part of my troubles is that my very good friend is moving in June. Although I do not know where he is moving to, he isn’t sure yet either, it could be a very far distance away and seeing him will be very difficult. I’ve had plenty of come and go relationships and we always end by saying “we’ll stay in touch” or “we’ll still see each other” but that never comes to fruition. It’s very sad to be losing such a great friend, but I know that the opportunity he is going to will be such a great thing for him. Just with all of these other difficult things ongoing in my life, it’s difficult to imagine not having him to turn to when I need a friend.

So, I guess you can consider this my cry for help. Not as drastic as most but, I need your help. I need your prayers. I need your prayers for my family, for my parents, for my sister who is up north and isn’t here during this family changing time. I need you, to be a friend to me because as we know… life goes on, and time will continue to turn. My birthday is in a week and I don’t see much to be celebrating. But, because I have great friends like you, I’ll make it through this troubled time. I appreciate you, I appreciate your friendship and because God doesn’t give someone more than they can handle, I know, I’ll only become stronger because of these experiences.

With Love,

Ryan

A lot of people have asked me over the last two years why I do what I do. Why I go and do ministry at NKU, why I write this blog, why I minister to kids in City Heights. Why do I do all of this without getting paid… My question is always, if I don’t do this, who will?

Did you know, that in 2007*, in our three NKY Counties of Boone, Campbell and Kenton, that over 6,000 kids were affected in a negative way by adults. Did you know that 1,731 kids were victims of neglect, 593 were victims of physical abuse, 211 were victims of sexual abuse. Over 3,000 kids were charged with offenses! And all these numbers are higher than previous years.

What are we as a community doing to make this better? What can we do? These questions are what keep me going. These questions are what keep the 10 Board of Directors for the Northern Kentucky Youth Foundation passionate about making a difference in this community.

Perhaps the hardest hit during this time of economic crunch are the young people, who often lack after school supervision and cannot afford extracurricular activities. This combination can create victims of peer pressure; a slippery slope often leading to drugs, violence, crime and even loneliness.

We are making a difference one young person at a time. Words cannot express the amount of gratitude I feel for all those that have helped and continued to help make what goals we had, become reality. The Northern Kentucky Youth Foundation is launching this Monday because of all of you. I may have orchestrated this, but you made my dreams, reality.

A letter is going out on Monday to over 2,000 individuals and businesses in Northern Kentucky to ask for donations to this wonderful cause. Together, as a community we must work at bringing our numbers of neglect, abuse and criminal activity lower than they ever have been before. Together, we must work to look after our young people; they are our responsibility.

For the full letter, to make a donation, to get involved or to sign up for the NKY Youth Foundation mailing list please visit: http://www.nkyyouth.org.

Here’s to the future,

Ryan Courtade

*For the full statistics package visit: http://www.nkyyouth.org/media/Statistics_Final.pdf

1. Economic strain will force churches to go primal.

With a national dept that is catapulting toward the unstoppable, it’s only a matter of time before the United States goes bankrupt and the “new” new reality hits Americans and American churches like never before. I am convinced that the current recession is just an appetizer to the main course of soup lines, increased joblessness and the impending bankruptcy of the United States.

I’m no economist, but I can do Kindergarten math. Financing two wars + universal health care + a government that is growing faster than a baseball player on steroids = probable bankruptcy, not just for the nation, but for a lot of Americans and the ministries they support.

Is this inevitable? Of course not! Congress could choose to attack the deficit and get this nation right side up before it’s too late. But, even if they don’t, is this all bad news? No! I believe that, if or when the economy of America collapses, that many churches and ministries will go primal in their purpose, priorities and programs. Bigger and better church buildings will become a thing of the past and loving one’s neighbor by engaging, serving and introducing them to the Lord Jesus Christ will become central to the focus of thriving churches.

In his book Primal: Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, Mark Batterson writes, “Our generation needs a reformation. But a single person won’t lead it. A single event won’t define it. Our reformation will be a movement of reformers living creatively, compassionately, courageously for the cause of Christ. This reformation will not be born of a new discovery. It will be the rediscovery of something old, something ancient. Something primal.”

Hooah! Count me in Captain Batterson sir!

In light of shrinking donations churches and parachurch ministries will be forced to re-evaluate the reason for their existence. The ones that survive, and then thrive, will have the advancement of the gospel through peer-to-peer evangelism and love-your-neighbor campaigns as their new bull’s eye.

Pastors, youth pastors and ministry leaders of all stripes will scour the New Testament, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, to rediscover their calling. Armed with “the weapons of righteousness” in their right hands and in their left, ministry leaders will become elemental in their focus and re-engineer their churches to look more and more like the book of Acts and less and less like the typical church of the first decade of the 21st Century.

2. The new spirituality will leave “that old time religion” in the dust.

According to the book UnChristian 40% of those between the ages of 16-29 in America consider themselves outsiders to the Christian faith. That’s up from 23% among baby boomers! The historic Christian faith is losing trajectory with the younger generation and is being replaced by an “all roads lead to God” type of quasi-spirituality. This kind of philosophy is more eastern than western and more Buddhist than Christian. And, in my estimation, this spiritual point of view will accelerate across every corner of the United States over the next ten years.

Just last year I had the opportunity to watch a reality series called Gospel Journey which featured a Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Seventh Day Adventist and an evangelical. Most of these participants were in their late teens or early twenties. Instead of tribal challenges they tackled tough issues like the existence of God, the problem of evil and the purpose of life. They had amazing conversations on a boat, at the top of a volcano, on the beach, and, finally, in a leper colony. Every participant shared what they believed from their religious point of view.

What surprised me throughout the week, other than the evangelical and the Muslim participants is that each one of these young people had developed some altered, watered-down, Americanized version of the religion they claimed to follow. Each one had dressed their individual religion with whatever accessories he or she saw fit. Most of them presented their beliefs with a kind of “this is true for me but not necessarily for you” qualification. It became clear to me that they were more alike than different in their worldview, even if their religions differed on the finer points. This overarching spirituality was really the one religion that united most of them at their philosophic core. And it is the same spiritual philosophy that will dominate in the next decade.

This belief system is hard to nail down doctrinally because there is no formal creed. But it has something to do with being nice and tolerating others. The only thing that won’t be tolerated is any belief system that claims to be the exclusive way to God. I believe that this will lead to a growing tension between those who espouse this philosophy and those who embrace the historic Christian faith. This inevitable tension leads to my third prediction for Christianity and evangelism over the next ten years.

3. Evangelism will become a hate crime in America.

Maybe evangelism will be considered a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony, but I’m convinced that sharing one’s faith, with the intention to convert that person to Christianity, will be outlawed in the good ole’ US of A. The First Amendment will be “contextualized” for a postmodern culture by postmodern judges and, as a result, any speech or actions that seem intolerant will be considered intolerable.

Is there anything less tolerant than telling someone that they are on the highway to hell unless they change their way of thinking (i.e. “repent”) and put their faith in Christ alone for the salvation of their souls? Strip away all of the fancy trappings, snappy gospel tracts and cool conversation openers and that’s exactly what evangelism is. Even when we say it nice we will be told not to say it twice. Why? Because we will be sharing a message that points to Jesus as “the way and the truth and the life” to a generation that has no patience for narrow minded thinking. And does it get any more narrow minded than to declare Jesus alone as the narrow path that leads to life everlasting? As one sage put it, “All roads lead to God…most to His judgment, one to His forgiveness.”

Two millennia ago in the Roman Empire if you said “Jesus is Lord” you were dangerously close to signing your death warrant. Jews thought Christians were blasphemous because they were assigning deity to a man. Romans thought Christians were treasonous because the man they were assigning deity to was a poor Jewish carpenter and not the mighty Emperor of Rome.

The same brand of treasonous blasphemy that got Christians killed thousands of years ago will get Christians arrested in America over the next ten years. Hate speech will be the law that triggers the trials. As Alan Sears, President of the Alliance Defense Fund, once told me, “The persecution of the 21st Century will be prosecution.”

A milder form of this persecution is happening right now in secular universities and Hollywood studios. How many evangelical freshmen in philosophy classes across America have been taunted by bowtie wearing, atheistic professors? Too many to count! How many unflattering caricatures of evangelizing Christians have been painted in movies and television shows? Too many to count! And when the ideals of the secular university and Hollywood studios trickle down to the working class, a legal predisposition against evangelism (aka “proselytizing”) will be the result.

But maybe that’s just what the American church needs…a swift kick in the “but I preach the gospel without words” to trigger the actual proclamation of the gospel to friends, family, neighbors and strangers. Maybe when evangelism becomes illegal we will do more of it.

I love my job now but I think I’ll love my job even more over the next one hundred and twenty months. As someone starting an organization that mobilizes teenagers for peer-to-peer evangelism, I may get to, not only train teenagers to please God by sharing their faith, but to promote something illegal at the same time! When teens begin to realize that they could get thrown in jail for sharing their faith it could lead to an unstoppable movement of relational, relentless and rebellious evangelists who sweep the nation with acts of love and the message of Christ!

Maybe I’ll get to start a prison ministry as a result…from the inside.

4. Missions organizations will work together for the fulfillment of THE Cause!

What has been known for three hundred years as “The Great Commission” will get rebranded as “The Cause.” Why? Mission organizations will realize that the TGC term was popularized by missionaries centuries ago with the express purpose of mobilizing young people for world missions. As mission leaders realize that most Christian young people have no clue what The Great Commission is they will begin to reframe the call of Jesus to “make disciples of all nations” as a cause rather than a commission. Because it is no mere cause it will be called THE Cause.

More and more of these organizations will begin to synthesize strategies, coordinate efforts and share resources to get the last and lasting mandate of Jesus accomplished. As they do their efforts will be exponentially accelerated as key organizations push the giant flywheel of world evangelization in the same direction.

Missions work will become more and more about training indigenous people to contextualize and evangelize their own people rather than missionaries seeking to do all of the evangelism themselves. We see the apostle Paul switching to this tactic midway through his missionary career.

When Paul evangelized in Ephesus Acts 19:8, he went into the Synagogue and preached the gospel there. This was his usual approach when coming into a new city. As a result of this strategy several Jews in Ephesus trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior. But in verses 9-10 Paul changes his tactics. He took the people who had trusted in Jesus at the synagogue to the School of Tyrannus, a local community college, and trained them every day for two years so that “every Jew and Greek in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”

How did every person in this vast region hear the gospel in such a short time? The men and women the apostle Paul equipped at the School of Tyrannus evangelized everyone in the province of Asia! They were able to do collectively in two years what the great apostle could not do his entire life, reach every person in such a large region with the gospel!

As mission organizations take hold of this School of Tyrannus strategy they will see the same results as Paul did. Entire countries will be evangelized by their own countrymen as missionaries focus on mobilizing (inspiring, equipping and deploying) those they lead to Christ to make disciples as opposed to trying to do all of the disciple making themselves.

Churches and youth groups in America will get in on the action too. Effective stateside ministries will focus more and more on seeking to be Schools of Tyrannus that train their people to reach their spheres of influence with the gospel as opposed to just inviting them out to “the synagogue” (church, youth group, outreach meeting) so that the person upfront can do the work of evangelism for them. This approach will lead to the exponential spread of the gospel in America and across the world, which leads to my final prediction for the next decade.

5. An army of youth evangelists will unleash holy havoc across the globe.

To bolster this worldwide evangelism effort, I believe that God will raise up an army of youth evangelists (both in and out of high school) who will embrace the gospel as The Cause and spread it to the ends of the earth both online and face-to-face. The average teenager has over one hundred online and face-to-face friends and, according to one survey, these teenagers have one hundred times more influence on their friends than a stranger does.

As Christian teenagers are equipped to evangelize their sphere of influence in compelling ways that gospel will spread in powerful ways. As a result even more persecution will take place. This will inspire aligned and united missions organizations to mobilize persecution-hardened, cause-inspired young people for global outreach. As some in Thessalonica said about the early Christian evangelists in Acts 17:6 they will say about these young world changers, “These…who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here…”

In ten years I believe there will be disciple-multiplying teenagers in every one of the 67,342 high schools and middle schools in America. The coming, inevitable revocation of The Student Bill of Rights (a bill signed into law by Bill Clinton which gives students the rights to evangelize on campus) will only inspire more teenagers to engage in reaching others with the controversial message of the gospel.

Youth groups and churches will begin to grow as a result of new converts being added to their rosters at a rapid rate. These churches will start to gauge their effectiveness, not by how many people go to their meetings, but by what percentage of them came to Christ as result of their personal evangelism efforts.

A FINAL DISCLAIMER

What makes me qualified to make these predictions? Other than the fact that I met George Bush once, absolutely nothing. Sure I used to be a youth leader at a church – I’m pretty much just a guy with a Bible and a blog. I could be totally wrong about what is going to happen to Christianity and evangelism over the next decade. But, even if half of my predictions come three quarters true, this has huge implications for the church, youth ministry and world evangelism.

Talk to me in ten years and you can either slap me in the face or pat me on the back.

It’s been a very difficult battle, a battle that has seen a lot of unexpected fronts. As times have been changing around me the last several months, decisions have been made as well.  Because of this change, I feel that there are different paths to go down, and I feel that I am being led to follow another journey.

Every ministry feels that they are doing God’s work, and not every person may feel called in that direction. With my sights always on the future, members of the Northern Kentucky community and I will be working together to start a Youth Foundation in this area. While our goals are just dreams, and our dreams are large, we are at this time in the preliminary discussions of such a center. We plan on holding our first formal discussion meeting the first week of January. I would like to welcome anyone to attend, for additional information please contact me.

Every ministry’s calling is to bring people to Christ. My support is for all these ministries – that we may work together to conquer Satan’s power.  

Ryan Courtade

What we are doing, what Christian writers do, is so important. You can’t just go to church on Sunday and call yourself a Christian. We no longer need backseat Christians, we need people that can step up, that can make a stand, and that know about the purpose of life. And the purpose of life, if you are wondering, is to spread God’s message, so that all experience God’s grace and word.

I have added a rating widget into this blog. Please take your time to vote, you don’t even have to register. I want to know what posts you like, and what you don’t like so that I can keep posting what popular opinion wants. Also please comment! Give me your feedback. It is so frustrating to post 18 posts and only have 3 comments between them. Let me know that you are reading them. Let me know if you love it or hate it. You aren’t going to hurt my feelings.

And WRITE! Have a post or seen something that goes along with the idea of this blog? Send it to me, add a comment. I want all the information that you have so that we can post more than just every Wednesday. I will also be inviting other writers out there to add content to the site. Christianity is not just a Sunday commitment, and as Christians we are called to speak up. Help this place be a place where we can speak out. This place will only be great because of you.

Ryan

As I was sitting in the bed, I asked the nurse if she knew any good doctor jokes?  Then proceeded to share with her a few of my favorites:

Doctor: I have some bad news and some very bad news.
Patient: Well, might as well give me the bad news first.
Doctor: The lab called with your test results. They said you have 24 hours to live.
Patient: 24 HOURS! That’s terrible! WHAT could be WORSE? What’s the very bad news?
Doctor: I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday.

Doctor: “I’ve got very bad news. You’ve got cancer and Alzheimer’s.”
Patient: “Well, at least I don’t have cancer.”

I think deep down we all have a side to us that imagines being a doctor.  Think about it…as soon as most people feel out of sorts, they cruise to WebMD.com or Google their symptoms before they schedule an appointment. And don’t we love to try to assess and diagnose our friends when they are ill:

Friend: *cough* *cough*

Me: Uh oh, sounds like that could be Swine Flu, or more accurately, the H1N1 virus. Or, maybe you have a rare disease called sarcoidosis.

Friend: What, are you a doctor now?

Me: No, but I watch House, so that’s pretty much the same.

Have you seen House? It’s the critically acclaimed series about an insolent, cynical genius who nails diagnoses like an expert investigator.  Sort of a medical CSI meets Sherlock Holmes.  Week after week, viewers get to pit their mad internet knowledge against House and watch him unravel the seemingly impossible medical mystery at hand.

House’s ill-mannered character got me thinking about another type of disease, one that is spiritual, not physical. And to many, it’s the biggest mystery of all.  The symptoms are loneliness, depression, feelings of worthlessness, and broken relationships.  People who suffer from this condition “will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.  They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.  They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God” (2 Timothy 3:2-4).

Wait, is that a description of House himself? It seems that the diagnosis for the worst disease ever has evaded even the most brilliant doctor. The mystery of this spiritual disease is due to the misdiagnoses and incorrect treatment it’s been given over the years.  For centuries, supposed spiritual “experts” have put the blame on poor parenting, bad environments, and chemical imbalances, so the treatment must be therapy and drugs (vicodin anyone?).

But that’s about as effective as House deciding to put a Band-aid on a massive tumor. The heart of the problem lies below the surface, in the heart of House…and you…and me…and everyone on the planet. It doesn’t show up on a PET scan or MRI. The Bible says it looks like this:

Medical Diagnosis

Fallen World Syndrome
100% FATAL!!!

Test results:

For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23).

No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.
 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one (Romans 3:10-12).

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth (I John 1:8).

This deadly killer not only debilitates and destroys your life on earth; it has eternal consequences as well—separation from God for all eternity.

But there is great news!  The true and permanent cure for our condition is available, and it’s actually a simple process:

Treatment

1. As in most illnesses, the first step towards recovery is to recognize the reality of your condition. You have said wrong things, done wrong things, and thought wrong things, and because of that, you are separated from a perfect and Holy God. (Dear God, I admit I am a sinner…)

2. Acknowledge that your current condition is fatal. (Father, without Your forgiveness, I have no hope in this life or the life to come.)

3. Acknowledge that only the Great Physician’s treatment is curative. (I believe Jesus’ death on the cross on my behalf is the only way to receive Your forgiveness.)

4. Take your medicine. (Father, I accept what Jesus did on my behalf…I trust in Him as my only hope of salvation.)

If you’ve been cured, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s like coming out of a dark and cold tunnel into a beautiful sunlit paradise where the air is clear and you sense an overwhelming feeling of love and forgiveness.

If you’ve trusted Christ, congratulations! In a spiritual sense, you are now a doctor—an even better one than House. You know the spiritual disease everyone has and what terrible consequences it carries…so what are you waiting for, doc? Get out there and tell people about the cure, before the disease of sin wreaks more and more havoc on the ones you love!

Take all of your wasted honor,
Every little past frustration,
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations.

Say what you need to say.

Walking like a one man army.
Fighting with the shadows in your head.
Living out the same old moment.
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you only could . . .

Say what you need to say.

Have no fear for giving in.
Have no fear for giving over.
You’d better know that in the end.
Its better to say too much,
Then never say what you need to say again.

Even if your hands are shaking,
And your faith is broken.
Even as the eyes are closing,
Do it with a heart wide open.

Say what you need to say.

These are the words from a John Mayer song called (as if you couldn’t guess) Say. It was also the closing song/video from the movie The Bucket List.

Go ahead…watch the Bucket List and tell me it didn’t make you cry. Even if you’re a mucho macho male full of manly manliness… you’ll still tear up. But you can tell people you had something in your eye.

Unless…you say what you need to say. That’s why I like this song so much.  Are you getting the same vibe from Say that I am? To me, it sounds like Mayer is encouraging people to be honest. Not mean or immature, but if you have something bottled up that needs to get out – let it out!

Do you need to stop acting like a ‘one man army’? Are you ‘living out the same old moment’? I have some great news for you…John Mayer is spot on – because when you say what you need to say, you feel as free as a bird. Let me share my journey of saying what I needed to say:

When I was in 10th grade, I realized I needed to say something to God. I was at a summer camp, and the ’speaker guy’ shared two amazing Truths from the Bible:

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16).

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18).

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It was seriously like a light that switched on in my head. I needed to say something to God – and it went like this:

“Jesus- you came into the world to save people, and I need saving. I believe in You and trust in You as my only hope of salvation. I believe that I am saved by grace alone, and I receive the free gift of salvation.”

Yep – when I said that to God – I found a whole new life that has been nothing short of amazing.

One more thing – there are opportunities every day to say what you need to say. Be honest with God about how you are feeling, what you desire, and when you need to confess your sins. Then you can say what you need to say to others – like:

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

I believe in you.

I need you.

God loves you.

Jesus died for you and for me.

When you say these things to others, life takes on shades of freedom and peace you probably have never seen or felt.

The last thing I need to say is this:

Don’t just read this post…act on it. Before you go to bed tonight, tell your parents you love them. Make things right with God and others. Tell a total stranger hello. Say ‘please’ and ‘thanks’, and don’t hold back your honesty – because:

Even if your hands are shaking,
And your faith is broken.
Even as the eyes are closing,
Do it with a heart wide open.

Say what you need to say.

Tell me this question gets you thinking, or at least pondering this concept.  As you know, this video game has taken the world by storm, outsold Guitar Hero 5, and thousands, if not millions, of teens are being introduced to the Beatles magic that stormed the world the first time nearly 50 years ago!

To recap, 4 mop-topped lads from Liverpool, England, put a little garage band together and within a few years, were the first group in history to play in sold-out stadiums around the world.  John, Paul, George and Ringo became household names and to this day, we can see the continued ripple effects from the incredible splash The Beatles made when your parents were infants.

Yes, I think Jesus would play The Beatles: Rock Band and here’s why:

There was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold 20-30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions.

When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over.  “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”

This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in Him (John 2:1-11, NLT).

This was the first miracle Jesus performed and it revolved around keeping the party going. How?  Well, wine in that day was symbolic of joy and celebration and if the groom’s after-wedding party ran dry, it was a serious offense – in fact the people could have had him arrested!  Notice that Jesus not only attended the party, but He made sure the joy and celebration continued – which tells us several critical things about God’s one and only Son.

First, it is obvious that Jesus loves to connect with people.  When He wasn’t preaching or teaching, He was hanging out at social events that seriously offended the stuffy stuck up religious folks.  They weren’t mad because He went to parties; they were ticked because He had such a great time at them! Can’t you see Jesus and the disciples laughing it up over a video game if they had a 1st Century xBox?  I sure can…only the lyrics then would have been “God loves you, yeah yeah yeah.”

You know what else? This account shows us that the reason Jesus went to parties and hung out with “sinners” was not to judge or condemn them – in fact, it was just the opposite.  Jesus got involved in people’s lives so He could let them know there is a way to find true and lasting joy and celebration that isn’t found in a bed or a bottle.  This kind is guilt- and consequence-free, and the freedom it brings turns the bitter waters of life into a spiritual wine that never runs out.

And guess what? Jesus offers the same miracle to us!

He can he turn depression into joy…

He can turn fear into hope…

He can turn emptiness into contentment…

He can turn sin into grace…

Most importantly, He can turn death into life.

The Beatles brought a feeling of happiness and enjoyment to a world in need of an escape from the turbulent 1960s, but I’ve got a feeling you too would like to say hello goodbye to yesterday and get back to feeling fine.  The same Jesus who turned water to wine can quench your spiritual thirst and bring joy and freedom that no rock band has ever known.  Trust Him for salvation and don’t keep the good news to yourself.  You have friends that need more than just a little help – they need the true message of salvation.

Here comes the Son!

I guess the love comes from the ‘rags to riches’ storyline that intrigues all of us who occasionally daydream about getting on a game show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and making enough serious bank to never worry about finances again.

Or perhaps the semi-worship of Slumdog lies in the ‘boy finds girl at all costs’ sort of thing. After all, doesn’t every guy want to rescue a lady in distress? Isn’t there a desire to be valued and liberated in the heart of every woman?

So yeah, cool plot line, action, adventure, romance – and (in my mind) perhaps a more deserving winner than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a.k.a. ‘Forrest Gramps.’

Then there are the haters of Slumdog Millionaire. Why? Well it really isn’t a film thing, plot thing, or even an acting thing.

It’s a religious thing. Slumdog apparently portrays Hindus and Muslims in a ‘negative’ light. There are scenes of religious riots in the slums of India where people are killed in the name of a conviction… and it appears that this doesn’t settle well on either side of the ‘my god can beat up your god’ conflict that rages all over the planet even as you are reading this.

I have a friend who tells me all the time that the world would be better off without religion. That the bad parts of religion outweigh the good and it is simply a power play for the powerful to control the weak.

And I agree. Religion wars are the shame of planet earth and religion is simply mankind’s unsuccessful attempt to earn back a right relationship with the Creator God of the Universe.

That’s why Jesus Christ was so harsh with the religious people of His time. Check out His view of the folks who used the name of God to chase their own agenda:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hellyou yourselves are!

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,but you ignore the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs -beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?” (Matthew 23:13-15;23-24;27-28;33).

What do you think? Picking up Jesus’ disgust with religious hypocrisy? Which is exactly why Jesus came to earth to fulfill the most difficult truth in the universe: one must be perfect to enter heaven.

Not religious, not good, not even a decent person. God’s standard is perfection, which is why our attempt to reconcile with God through religion will never work.

But here is the best part. Jesus lived a perfect life to earn a way for us to go to heaven. He paid the ultimate price on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to prove to the world that He is God. All we need to do is trust in the Person of Jesus Christ to take us to heaven on His merit and not ours.

In other words, Biblical Christianity is all about a relationship, not a religion. I know we get lumped in with all the religions of the world but hopefully you now know that every other faith belief is about ‘doing’ – do this, do that, and you *might* make it to heaven. Christianity is all about ‘done’- Jesus has already paid it all and all people on earth can obtain eternal life simply by trusting in Him for salvation.

In a way, Christianity is just like Slumdog Millionaire. Jamal could have worked his whole life and never earned a million dollars but because he had the right knowledge and acted on it, he received the reward as a gift.

God wants you to go from spiritual rags to riches. Put your faith in Christ for salvation, and you’ll never know spiritual poverty again!

Here is a sample platter of what I’m talking about:

In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, ‘Ow, I hurt my leg. I can’t run. A lion eats me. I’m dead.’ Well, I’m not dead. I’m the lion. You’re dead.

I come from a long line of fighters. My maternal grandfather was the toughest guy I ever knew. World War Two veteran killed twenty men and spent the rest of the war in an Allied prison camp. My father battled blood pressure and obesity all his life. Different kind of fight.

Jim Halpert: Dwight, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Dwight Schrute: I can travel anywhere, except Cuba, and I will travel to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor and I will hike Mount Doom.

I have been Michael’s number two guy for about 5 years. And we make a great team. We’re like one of those classic famous teams. He’s like Mozart and I’m like…Mozart’s friend. No. I’m like Butch Cassidy and Michael is like…Mozart. You try and hurt Mozart? You’re gonna get a bullet in your head courtesy of Butch Cassidy.

The thing that strikes me about Dwight is that even though people think that he is a few hamburgers short of a happy meal, he still just sticks with his quirky personality and obviously different view of the world.

And then I thought – you know what? Christians in the world are a little like Dwight! No, not in the ‘looney tune legend in his own mind’ sort of way – rather that Dwight takes teasing, insults and general social rejection and sticks with who God made him to be.

And so should we, folks. You must remember that to say ‘yes’ to following Christ is a simultaneous ‘no’ to being accepted by the world. This is a promise from the very lips of Jesus Christ:

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you (John 15:18-19).

It’s not that we should go out of your way to be rejected; it’s just that when you pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ, you get voted off the island.

Why? Because now you’re no longer a part of the self-seeking, pleasure-driven, materialistic culture that permeates our entire world. Suddenly you’re saying no to things that displease God and probably coming off like you’re better than everyone else. And even though you’re not better than them – and you know that – others won’t quite see it that way.

So at that point, you have two choices. You can back down on your commitment level and play Christian when there is no risk…or stick it out and find hope in these words from Jesus:

What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way (Luke 6:22-23).

So if you are feeling like a ‘Dwight’ in ‘the office’ of this world because of your loyalty to Christ, take joy in the fact that you’re on the right team. You may not be the bomb diggity with all the folks around you, but you can be sure that one day Jesus will look you right in the eye with a proud look on His face and say:

”Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

To me, that is worth being a Dwight for the rest of my life!