Why Do I Even Try?

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

Sometimes people come by the office to talk and tell us about some of their theology. I recently had a discussion with a gentleman who held one Scripture verse higher than the rest. This was the lens through which he interpreted the rest of the Bible. It got me thinking about my own lens. All of us do this somehow, whether we know it or not. For some of us it may not be an actual verse, but more of a theological concept. But it is the primary lens and filter through which we see God, our relationship with Him, and the rest of Scripture.

Here is mine, it is called the Sh'ma: 
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." - Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Just reading it makes it clear how important it was for the Israelite people. But how could I take an Old Testament Scripture as the lens for my relationship with God? Surely Jesus felt there were more important concepts in the Bible right? Here's what He said: 
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:37-40

So often we hear people say that the Bible is an instruction manual for life and we should look to it to see what to do. And I feel like this so perfectly sums up the first and most important thing anyone who loves God should do. It is the basis for our relationship with God, and according to Jesus, our neighbor. Why is that? Because if our actions are not a reflection of love towards God they are empty.

Most of my examples of God's love and grace come from my kids, and it's not just because they wake me up at 2am. But think about this for a second; last Sunday was Father's Day - I heard my daughter get out of bed and immediately run to my bed, to jump on me and say "happy Father's Day Daddy!" It came from her heart, it was genuine, it was passionate, and it was one of the best feelings a father could ever experience. On the other hand, if my wife had to force my daughter to hug me and she only did it because she felt like she had to, it wouldn't mean nearly as much. (And yes, I am well aware that when she becomes a teenager there is a strong possibility that this will become reality...) I'd still accept her hug and appreciate it, but deep inside my desire would be for her to want to hug me, with all or her heart, all of her mind, and all of her strength.

Want Biblical examples? David is the perfect one. Look at his life, he messed up more often and more dramatically than any of us will ever do. And yet God had a special place for him. Why? Because he loved God passionately and let it show. And it guided much of what he did in life. Maybe not perfectly, but it was the starting point. God wants us to give Him our hearts. Look at the rich young ruler and where his heart was; I wrote about it last month, you can read it on the Crosswalk website.

How does it all match up? God reiterates that the most important thing about our relationship with Him is to love him. Not just a passive, "what have you done for me lately" love, but a passionate "I can't hold it back" love. At Crosswalk, our mission is to passionately demonstrate the love of Jesus. Read that again, to passionately demonstrate the love of Jesus. Not because we have to, but we because we want to. As a response to God's love for us. Passion can't be forced or faked and still be genuine. Which is why it begins with God, He is in love with us. He is in love with you. Think about that. The creator of the universe is in love with you. He is so in love with you that He sent His one and only Son to die for you. Respond to that. Love God with everything you are. Loving responses are not passive: They are passionate. They are bold. They are unrestrained. They are unrelenting. They aren't held back by a legalistic view of how things should be. Take a look at your relationship with God, do you love Him passionately? Is that the basis for your relationship with God? Surrender to it and give your heart to God completely.

Trying to follow,
Mark Juanes

PS, if you are having a barrier in your relationship with God, in loving Him with your whole heart, in being passionate; feel free to talk to us. That is what the church leadership is here for. We have a staff of pastors and our primary job is not to get things done, but to work with you in constantly building upon your relationship with God. 

Beyond Judgment

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

This week's message about judgement brought up some bad memories, and it also got me thinking. If you missed it, you can listen to it on Crosswalk's Website. One of the things that hit me was the video of people telling their stories of how they were hurt by the church - which you can watch on YouTube. I think like many of you, I could relate to a lot of what they shared and had my own experience. I loved it, but there is something I wish the video did share: what is going on with those people now? How has God healed them? And how did that come about? There are many things about the Church in general which needs to change, and it is good to be aware of it. But we can't simply focus on the negative. Pastor John spoke about how we can move forward in healing. That is what I want to focus on today, how we can build upon our strengths.

Here is where I am going to be very vulnerable to you today. Some of you may know this but I went through a divorce about ten years ago. I'm not proud of it and I was ashamed of it for a long time. But more than that, being in a failed marriage hurt me badly. I felt like I had failed God, failed in my commitment, and failed my community. The details were irrelevant. I fell into a depression for a while, but I also felt convicted to not give up on my relationship with God even though I felt like I had let Him down. I was attending Crosswalk the entire time; my Life Group knew I was going through struggles in my marriage and they were the first ones I contacted when it ended. Instead of condemning me, they embraced me. They were there for me. One couple just got engaged and yet they were more concerned with making sure I felt ok then of celebrating their engagement with the group. The staff felt horrible for me, counseled me, tried to help me reconcile, and never once did I feel like they were rejecting me. Church friends took me out to lunch to talk about it. Some of you might remember Bill Ray who was a longtime member. Well he was my next door neighbor and had been married for over 70 years. Of everyone, I was the most afraid of telling him about it. And I'll never forget as I sat down and told him, he just put his arm around my shoulder and prayed with me. He knew that going to God could do more than any condemning words could. He knew that my relationship with God was more important.

The problem with judgment is that we look at people's sins and, in our eyes, that is what defines them. So often in this Christian walk we hear about how we are all sinners. And how can we judge others to condemnation and really believe that? I wouldn't want to be defined by one particular part of my life. Not many do. We can't let one aspect of a person's life define who they are. This is a big part of why God healed me at Crosswalk ten years ago: people knew me deeper than a few hours on Sunday. They didn't let "divorced" become a big label on me, or let that become who they saw when they spoke with me. We now live in a postmodern world which values individuals. Getting to know people, building connections and trust with them is what we should be seeking. I wrote about some of my experiences with this on a previous e-mail.

When you build a relationship with someone, the results are twofold: First, you have genuine compassion and caring for them and any conversations about sin come from that place instead of a place of judgement. And second, they know that what you are saying is not in judgement but rather out of genuine love. Kinda like that Jesus guy. He recognized that all of us in general were sinful, and he ate dinner with the worst of the bunch. He got to know them better and didn't let their sins define who they were as individuals. Let's be known as the people who are like that. People who are more concerned with healing and compassion. People who spend the time to get to know others instead of making snap judgments about them.

What Must I Do?

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

There are three things I often think about when I write these articles: listening, changing mindsets, and the Kingdom of God. Why? Well, look at the teachings of the prophets and the parables of Jesus and it is clear those are pretty important things. But they aren't just important to think about. They are important to cultivate and be changed. God doesn't want us to merely be convicted to do something, he wants us to change into people who do good things naturally. In other words, God doesn't want us to DO good things. He wants us to BE good people who do good things. He wants our hearts. 

It is so easy to get caught up in serving and all the things that we think we need to do. And those things are good, but we do them as a response and reflection of who we are as Children of God. Look at the rich young ruler in Luke 18. Along with Abraham, I see it as one of the best illustrations to show that God wants our hearts. When the man asks Him how to inherit eternal life, Jesus responds in a typical Jesus fashion. He mentions the Commandments. Notice how Jesus is not telling him what he needs to do? He just brings up the Commandments. The young man responds with legalism. He has done all these things. That is the way the Pharisees thought. He thinks he has done everything he needs "to do" to get into heaven. Jesus hits him with "sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor..." Is this what Jesus calls all of us to do? No, that would be a new legalism. That would just be saying that the Pharisees were following the wrong set of laws to gain their way to eternal life. The point is not to put those things before God. Following God is the priority. God wants our hearts. 

Look earlier in Luke 18. Luke frequently places stories together based on topic and to accentuate the common meaning. Here he places the "Rich Young Ruler" together with the parable of the "Pharisee and the Tax Collector." That's when the Pharisee brags about how righteous he is, how much he's done. Then the tax collector confesses that he is a sinner and that God is in charge. Which one was justified? Only the tax collector. Only the one who recognized that we are sinners, not law-keepers. The two stories go together. When we do good things, it's not with motives of getting into heaven, it's because we belong to God and that is what He wants. He wants our hearts. 

And here is the tough part. How do we respond? What does it look like when God has our hearts? It's in the Bible. Read Acts, it is my favorite book in the Bible because they were regular guys that God used. Just like you and I can be. God had their hearts. They pursued Him and His will. I'm not talking about a three year old saying she wants to give her heart to Jesus. I'm talking about on your knees bawling, life changing, never-be-the-same again, giving your heart to Jesus. Do you think the rich young ruler's response to Jesus was to say "I was really convicted by your message today, Jesus!" and then go on with his life? Do you think Jesus would have been satisfied with that? Jesus challenged him to give up what he wanted and pursue what God wanted. Because Jesus loved him. And he couldn't do it, and went away sad. He couldn't put God first. 

That is why when I read our vision, to passionately demonstrate the love of Jesus, I see the "choosing sacrifice" part and think "wow, that's tough." Choosing sacrifice is not about helping other people, at least not directly. It's about giving up what we want. Its about bringing it to God and letting God be the leader. It's about giving our hearts to God and not just doing the things He wants us to do. It's being the people He wants us to be, and doing those things because we want to.

Setting Your Roots

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

I think we all have a verse we often "go to" and find encouraging. Which do you find most encouraging? Mine is not the usual: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. James 1:2-3 (NLT) I am drawn to this verse because it doesn't sugar-coat things. We are going to face trials in life. We are going to have struggles. We can't be sheltered, shelter our faith, or shelter our loved ones from trials in life. But there is good news, God gives us strength from our struggles.

You may have already heard the story of the trees in the Arizona Bio-dome. The Bio-dome was a project where scientists tried to produce an isolated and yet self-sustainable environment fully enclosed in a dome. There was a pond, fish, plants, and some trees. What they found however, was that after a few years some of the trees would mysteriously fall down. It turns out that inside the controlled bio-dome environment there was no wind, and without the wind to shake the trees, their roots did not dig in as deep or develop as well to help support the trees. The trees needed to be tested for their endurance to develop. The trees needed the wind to test them and push them to become stronger. The same is true of seeds planted indoors. Gardeners recommend that seeds planted in places where they are sheltered indoors be "hardened" before they are planted outside. Hardening involved placing the sprouting plants outside for an hour or two a day. As the plant is exposed to direct sunlight and wind, it grows stronger. Each day it is left outside for a longer period of time and after a week it will be strong enough to be planted outside.

When I think about some of the things I have gone through in my past I see how God formed me as well: my first job out of college was as a supervisor for a trucking company. I was a scared, shy, kid with little self confidence. Suddenly I was in a situation where I was in charge of 20 angry teamsters who wanted to argue and intimidate me because I was the one giving out job duties. It really challenged me and there were times when I didn't want to be there or dreaded going into work because I knew there was going to be complaining and arguing. But after time, I realized how God used it to make me stronger mentally and able to diffuse angry people.

According to James, this happens with our faith as well. He breaks it down in verses 9-15. Being poor is a blessing because it makes you stronger. Being rich is a blessing because it is an opportunity to test your humility. If you can come through temptation, you will be stronger. Not saying to throw yourself into the path of temptation or trials; James makes it clear that although it is an opportunity to be stronger, that does not mean it is from God. But think of it this way, if we shelter ourselves from trials, will our faith have the opportunity to truly grow? Sometimes holding yourself away may be victory, but sometimes you need to have the confidence to address trials and temptations. When you do, consider it a blessing knowing you will come away stronger.

Listen to Me for a Minute

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

Raising two small children and observing them has really helped me to differentiate some things that are human nature and others which are taught. Now that my kids are four and two, I feel qualified to say that listening is a learned skill because it certainly does not seem to be something which comes naturally. Or at least being a good listener. Which leads to the question, what is a good listener? It is not just someone who can sit there quietly and nod their head. It is not simply processing information. Good listening also involves knowing how to respond appropriately.

Listening is such a simple thing, yet why is it so tough to do? Let me give an example: Asking kids to wash their hands before dinner seems reasonable right? When I ask my kids to do that I expect them to listen to me and as a response, wash their hands. But how would you feel if you asked your kids to wash their hands and as a response they came back to you saying that they memorized what you said? That they did a word study and learned about the historical context of hand washing. That they can now say "go wash your hands" in Greek and Hebrew. Hey, those things are fantastic but I could care less if there was still dirt on their hands. What if they completely ignored you and pretended you weren't there? Or ran away to the other room? Or turned the TV up so they couldn't hear you? Or even said "yes I'll wash my hands" and then got distracted by toys on the way to the sink? Get where I am going with this? Unfortunately, these are all responses my kids sometimes give me when I ask them to do something simple like wash their hands. And for many people, this is their response when it comes to listening to God.

But there is good news, we can learn to be different. We can learn to be good listeners. My personal prayer life was revolutionized as I learned to listen to God instead of throwing everything I wanted at Him. There was nothing wrong with the things I wanted, it just wasn't what God wanted. Being a good listener, as easy as it sounds, isn't something which happens right away, I had to learn how to shut off my own junk. I had to learn how to listen when I prayed, listen when I read Scripture, and listen to counsel from brothers and sisters in Christ. And then, if it went along with the teachings of Jesus, I had to learn how to respond appropriately. Not to respond by saying "wow, that was powerful" or "I really feel convicted" and then do nothing. I responded by taking action. By following where God led me. My life is completely different than I would have predicted ten years ago because I let go of my own dreams and listened to what God desired for me. Listening in prayer frees us, it frees us from our own hopes and desires. It lets us get past the things that we want and get a perspective on the bigger picture of what God wants. Go and practice listening in your prayer, not asking God for something you want, asking God what HE wants.

It's that simple: listen, and if it is reflected in the teachings of Jesus, go do it.

Pastor Mark

Productive or Fruitful?

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

Do you have a garden in your backyard? My family started one this past year and we have had a great time with it. It has forced me to be more patient since no matter how hard I work I can't make the fruit grow any faster. I can see why so often in Scripture, the analogy is about farming, gardening, or growing. But for many of us, our lives are just the opposite. American life, especially in Silicon Valley, lends itself to a lifestyle of "production." The problem of course is that when we have a lifestyle geared towards production, we tend to view our spiritual life along those same terms: if I try harder and work harder i can be more successful spiritually. At my old job in the transportation industry, my success was measured in how productive I was. Even on the weekends when I wasn't working, it felt like the same mindset penetrated my day: a good Saturday was about how many of my tasks or chores I was able to check off my list. Spiritually, I wanted to get closer to God so I threw myself into everything I could: school, reading books, volunteering for everything I could. But in the end, it didn't really work out so well. I wasn't really fruitful because I was focused on what I needed to do.

In my experience, Spiritually works very differently. The goal, like in gardening, is to be fruitful, and there is only so much we can do to get that to happen. No matter how hard we try, we can't control the process. We can't force the Holy Spirit to work in us or through us. What we can do is cultivate an environment where we can listen to what God is saying. We can prepare ourselves by recognizing that God has control, not us. What God has in store for us is a mystery, we need to learn how to partner with that mystery. When I garden, I don't know when it will rain, or how the frost will hit my plants. What I need to do is to learn how to recognize and be in a situation where I can respond appropriately. How different is that from our Spiritual lives? We don't have control of what God is going to do or send our way. What we can do is put ourselves in a position where, when given the opportunity, we know how to respond and our response is automatic. A few months ago, Pastor John showed this video of a bus driver who noticed a woman on an overpass and stopped her from jumping. Noticing the situation and reacting appropriately are not traits which the bus driver "just has." It is a compassion that has been cultivated in him for a long time so that when opportunity arose his response was automatic and natural.

Cultivating such an environment means we are not waiting for the Holy Spirit to do it all for us. It does not mean that we take it all on ourselves. It means that we have an ongoing relationship with God so that we can listen to what He is saying and partner with Him. Such a partnership makes us stronger than we could ever be on our own. Our relationship with God, as with any relationship, grows and changes over time. We have to be intentional about cultivating an environment for the relationship to be healthy, we have set aside time to spend together in the relationship. We don't look for short term results but rather an overall healthy partnership for the long haul. That is what I want to encourage you to do today; to approach your relationship with God as you would in planting a garden: cultivate a healthy environment, realize that you have limited control, and remember that the goal is fruitfulness, not production.