Pray for Haiti
January 25th, 2010 by Ryan Courtade 1 comment »Calamity…
Do you know this word? The dictionary defines it as:
“An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster” (www.dictionary.com)
As you know, the earthquake in Haiti was a calamity. A catastrophe of nature that is responsible for death toll numbers that are beyond shocking and impossible to get our minds and hearts around. The images coming from the already impoverished nation crush our spirits and even disorient the foundations of our worldviews.
But…having our worldviews disoriented is not always a bad thing. Calamities change our perspective and drop us to our knees. Disasters refocus our priorities and more clearly define our vision for life. The earthquake and subsequent loss of life, disease and homelessness should at the front of our prayer line, and most of all, we beg God to empower the gospel to go forth and bring millions into His Kingdom.
I would encourage one more thing…
Remember that calamity is always a possibility coming our way. It’s easy to feel safe when you don’t live near a fault line or along the hurricane belt, but trust me…that feeling is a false sense of security. Disaster can strike anytime, anywhere, and as someone once said, “Nobody gets out of life alive.” That should cause us to think about issues more important than physical disasters.
That is why the Bible is abounding in warnings about a spiritual calamity, including a very clear admonition from Jesus Christ:
“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:35-36).
Another version of the Bible phrases that last sentence this way:
“All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.”
Jesus is crystal clear in His warning of imminent calamity for those who haven’t trusted in Him as Savior. The original word for “judgment” actually means “punishment,” which is why life without Jesus Christ really is a repeated cycle of “angry darkness” from the God of the universe.
Am I trying to scare you? Yes! God’s wrath is something we all should be afraid of, but there is great news for those who have trusted Christ for forgiveness:
“Because God’s children are human beings – made of flesh and blood – the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Hebrews 2:14-15, NLT).
The Bible makes it clear that God loves us, but because He is holy, His righteous anger against sin rests on those who refuse to accept the free gift of salvation that cost Jesus His life. But what amazing news that believers are “set free” from the “fear of dying”!
In reality, you can divide the entire human race into two parties and two destinies. There are those who have humbled themselves before God and realized they can’t be good enough to please God and enter heaven. They have kneeled at the foot of the Cross of Jesus and trusted Him alone for salvation.
Their destiny is forgiveness, restoration, and paradise.
Then there are those who run from God, even though His presence is seen and felt as clearly as a hot sun in mid-July. They refuse to let go of their pride, because they have placed themselves on the throne of their lives.
Their destiny is calamity, despair, and punishment.
Ironic, isn’t it, that it takes a heart-wrenching catastrophe to wake us up to the real nature of life on this fallen planet? Even more ironic is the fact that many Christians are more willing to jump on a plane and fly to Haiti than they are to bring up the gospel and the question of eternal destinations with their friends.
Pray for Haiti and give till it hurts, but let this horrible tragedy remind you that there are spiritual earthquakes happening everyday in the lives of your friends who don’t know Jesus. You are the relief worker called by God to share the gospel and rescue them from God’s wrath.
Are you ready for the rescue mission?
The Farmville of Your Soul
January 12th, 2010 by Ryan Courtade 1 comment »It started as just plain and simple “Farm Town”…and you already know what I’m talking about, right? Its popularity skyrocketed and now there are over 73 MILLION people *digging* this game, happily clicking their mouses (mice?) on:
FarmVille!
If you don’t own a farm yet, you probably know at least a few folks who are completely addicted to the latest Facebook crack and trying to persuade you to be their “neighbor” so they don’t feel like a loser.
Of course the million dollar question in my mind is…
Did Old MacDonald have a FarmVille? Ee – i – ee – i – NO!
I guess I get the attraction: anxiously awaiting your prized pumpkins to sprout in real time and passionately seeking out the golden chicken so you can shame your friends…but seriously, if you really want to work on a farm and make real money, maybe try a trip to Kansas or Iowa?
Perhaps there is something else fascinating about planting a seed and seeing what happens – especially knowing that growth will equate with profit.
Did you know that Jesus was a “farmer” too? Facebook wasn’t around in His day, but He still planted seeds:
He went back to teaching by the sea. A crowd built up to such a great size that he had to get into an offshore boat, using the boat as a pulpit as the people pushed to the water’s edge. He taught by using stories, many stories.
“Listen. What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up, it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled among the weeds and nothing came of it. Some fell on good earth and came up with a flourish, producing a harvest exceeding his wildest dreams.
“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them,
“The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.
“And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
“The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
“But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams” (Mark 4:1-12; 14-20).
Interestingly enough, Jesus uses a FarmVille illustration for what impact the words of the Bible have on people. What He is saying is that everyone’s soul is just like a plot of soil, and when the good news about Jesus and His death on the cross enters their ears, that message is planted – and the result of the news on that person becomes evident in real time.
Result One: The amazing idea that this person can be freed of guilt and sin and find eternal salvation by trusting Christ doesn’t even make it past the first day, because Satan uses doubt, fear, and lies to steal away the message.
Result Two: This person trusts Christ and gets excited about serving Him, but the first time they are ridiculed or come to the realization that being a Christian is costly, the seed of the gospel withers away.
Result Three: Being a Christian sounds like a great idea to this person, but soon the message that they can be free of their shallow, materialistic culture is choked out by the attractive weeds of media, music, and friends.
Result Four: This person allows the message of Jesus to grow from the core of their soul. The rocky soil is broken up, the weeds are pulled, and life is never the same in their spiritual FarmVille.
I bet if I asked you about your plot on FarmVille, you’d have an immediate answer. But let me ask you a more important question…how is your spiritual soil? Are you rife with plant life or dry as the Saharan desert? And imagine this – what if everyone was as excited and motivated to tell others about the gospel as they are about FarmVille? Ironic, isn’t it, that we want neighbors in a game, but we sometimes don’t care about the people who may or may not be our neighbors in heaven.
So the next time you’re plantin’ and harvestin’ your crops, remember that there is a much more important activity going on. This one doesn’t get you coins, but it does “produce a harvest beyond wildest dreams.”
Get involved in the spreading the seed of the gospel in the lives of the teens you know. You will reap amazing rewards from the growth of those seeds!
