What is Christian fellowship? I hear it prayed so many times by my brothers and sisters in Christ when we are gathered, "Thank you for the fellowship tonight" or "allow our fellowship to bring you glory Jesus." But what happens after the prayer is usually a night full of fun and laughter, but not much depth. We all joke around with each other and eat and have a good time, but is this really true fellowship between believers? Is there anything happening that is strengthening us as Christians and making us more in love with Jesus? These are questions I have to ask myself after a tiring night of much laughing with great friends.
Perhaps there doesn't seem to be much wrong with the things listed above; after all, what is wrong with having a good time with your friends? So let me clarify my angle: how deep do we actually go with our friends when expressing our faith? Does it only come out when we get dogmatic? Is the only time we mention Jesus when we talk about the mere semantics of theology and Biblical doctrine? Is there still a "Jesus wall" of defense up when we converse over topics that require compassion and emotion? This is where I am coming from. I found out about two years ago that my relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ was really superficial. We talked about movies (quoting them extensively), food, sports, and school...but when it came to Jesus we barely scraped the surface. And then it occurred to me that for having such a deep and complex God, we sure do have shallow and unexpressed affections for Him.
I wonder sometimes how we can read the Bible and still act the way we do in groups. How do we waste nights with the Church body present and never touch on anything spiritual? How do we never confess the thoughts we have about Jesus? The Bible is clear on how the apostles thought of fellowship. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul talks so much about how much joy the coming of Titus produced in him. And not only that, but Titus was filled with joy because he had just come from being with the Corinthian church and they had made him joyful. So not only does Paul rejoice in the coming of Titus, but he also says "we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all." So he is rejoicing in Titus and in Titus' joy. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed fellowship like this only a few times. Sure, we can argue that Paul was desperate to be with a brother considering he was being persecuted heavily; therefore it is obvious that his joy would be great. But that explanation doesn't match up with other passages in the Bible such as Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37. (If you read them you'll know what I mean!) For some reason, having this kind of joy and fellowship in our day and time has been labeled "Brady Bunch" or "not real", and I am pretty tired of it. Our hearts must be completely open with each other when it comes to rejoicing in the Lord, or expressing hurt, or doubt, or depression, or whatever. I think that we have closed our hearts to each other in the modern church (I speak from my limited experience). I have rarely had a brother express love for God like David did in the Psalms - "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!" Sure there will be language differences, but the heart is the same. Our desires must be after Jesus and Jesus alone. And when our desires are such, they must be expressed amongst believers that we may rejoice with each other in fellowship, or hurt and mourn with each other in fellowship. So basically what I mean is...I do not have a working definition of fellowship, but I know we must grow from where we are now into what was meant to be.

I wonder if we have been humbled by the hand of the Lord yet? I know I wasn't until last night. My friends and I had been preparing to be hit by the hurricane considering we are merely and hour and a half away from Houston, which was originally thought to be where the hurricane was going to make landfall; that is, after it wiped out the entire island of Galveston. People in College Station were panicking and everyone was buying out the water and bread in H-E-B, and not to mention the gas. Well, it ended up that Rita turned a bit more northeast than expected and College Station was spared from everything except for weak gusts of wind and sprinkling rain. At first I was a little disappointed because the whole town was going crazy and then nothing even happened. I was counting on seeing how amazing the weather really can be during a storm so large. I quickly realized my sentiments were wrong and should have praised the Lord for sparing us and much of Houston. Then, last night, my fiancee made the statement, "It's funny how humans are so cocky and arrogant, exulting in their own accomplishments; but all God has to do is send a hurricane our way and people are running scared to escape its path." And it is true. He sends a hurricane (passively or actively...either way he is sovereign over it) into New Orleans, and people are devastated. A tsunami into southeast asia...and people are brought low, wondering how something like this could happen. But I think we need to acknowledge that God has purposes in everything he does, even the hard things. In fact, most of the hard things God does are meant to humble us and bring us low that we might "seek him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near." Even if we did not get hit by the hurricane, we saw it's damage and have been affected by it. There will be many Christians pointing the finger and saying things like, "New Orleans was a center of much sin. They deserved it!" Which may be true when considering God's righteousness and justice. But all our lives have, at one time or another, been the center of much sin. When Christians see what happened with these hurricanes, we should thank the Lord for his mercy (whether we were hit by it or not) and posture ourselves to seek his face. God is sovereign over all things; if he sends us calamity we can not boast that it is undeserved. And if he sends us safety, it is out of his abundant grace and mercy.

We'll do one more CD while we are at it. This band has not taken off as much as I expected them to as of yet. They played at a DiscipleNow that I had the pleasure of being apart of in the Woodlands, TX. Worshiping with these guys was amazing. The lead singer - Josh White - was completely open and honest with us about his life as a lost man and how the Lord pursued him and called him into salvation. He has an amazing story. Along with this, the band is incredibly talented and their music is a great blend of acoustic/sort-of-euro rock. Josh would preach as they played and it was such a blessing to find out that his music was as God-centered as his preaching. He really loves the Lord as I'm sure the rest of the band does. So...check out this CD, and if you don't like this one, then check out their last one - "The Beauty of Simplicity" - because it is just as good if not better.

(Yep...Zach does CD reviews as well. But here's one he can't do yet, because it's not out!) What's that? Yes I know that the new Crowder CD has not come out yet. But somehow, a copy made its way into my hands and my ears have been feasting on Crowder's creativity throughout this 21 track masterpiece. I dare say that the David Crowder Band is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to Christian music. This album somewhat takes up where Illuminate left off style-wise. It is a broad mixture of slightly techno background effects mixed with rock/acoustics, which all blend together to make a style of its own. One thing that is great about Crowder's songs is that you come away from listening to it, knowing that the man who wrote the songs is genuine in his faith. His words are often simple, yet provoking and - I don't know about you - but they lead me to be more vulnerable with Jesus...that is, forgetting about putting on a show for the Lord and coming clean and being real with Him. IT IS GOOD STUFF!! So, on September 27th when it comes out, buy two copies and give one to someone else. It is that good!

The Beginning

I feel out of place, first of all. Most of these blog thingies seem to be for "artsy" kind of people who say great things (or not so great...?) and keep them up weekly; perhaps even daily. I would not consider myself artsy, nor do I have the time to be consistent with the updates for these things. Basically, I get the urge to write sometimes and my friend Zach started one of these bad boys, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Hopefully, profitable things will be written on it, so that those reading it will not consider it a complete waste of time and I can release my writing energy. (Zach's blog kills ten birds with three stones...I guess mine is only two with one. Zach wins again...) Most of the time what will be written are merely things that I am currently learning from Jesus, the One who miraculously pulled me from death into life and occupied my life with the worship and enjoyment of Himself.

I feel the need to explain the title of this blog. I was trying to think of an original title without trying too hard to be deep like most current bands do as their minds brew up an ingenious band name such as the "Lost Prophets" or "Screaming Monkeys". However, the title comes from the gospel of Mark, chapter 10 and verse 25: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." In context, Jesus had just confronted a man with the reality that his material possessions were his god. The man had asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, yet he was not willing to give up simple things such as his wealth. The state of this man's heart, coupled with the teaching that we must forsake everything and follow Jesus, leads a person to one of two thoughts: 1) Receive Jesus as the greatest treasure in the universe and give your life to Him forever, or 2) I hope I can find either a tiny camel or a really large needle. Trouble is, the latter will leave you hopeless and without a new life in Christ. TRUTH is, Christians tend to think the second thought more than the first. We are called to a life of making Jesus our supreme treasure, ruler, friend, lover, sustainer, object of worship, Father, Savior, and Helper...but we try and hang on to our lawful, unprofitable, worthless worldly possessions in order to satisfy our desires. This is what I battle daily along with millions of other Christians. Sometimes we live as divided people, "unable to do the things we ought, and doing the very things we hate." What is posted in this blog will be things that the Lord is using to win that battle in my life; whether it is through rebuke, correction, encouragement, or deliverance.