Thirteen Jews Walk Into a Bar - The Relevancy of the Gospel

A year ago I came up with a corny joke. "Thirteen Jews walk into a bar. What happens?" "Everyone gets saved." Its funny in that weird, stupid way. Well, when I moved up here to Morning Star this joke kept coming back to me. And the Lord told it to me one day and I answered and He said, "Exactly. They went to where the people were, the related the Gospel to their own time, to their own culture, and to their own ways."

At every conference or religious event I always see non-Jewish people wearing Jewish stuff. I saw this tent at a conference recently that was selling shofars, Jewish music, prayer shawls, and really ridiculous stuff. Not to say that the Jewish culture is ridiculous, but if you are not Jewish, then you shouldn't be masquerading yourself.

Religion isn't bad. Without some sense of organization we would not get anything done. Religion to me is this; how you do something. I tell jokes. How do I do that? I say really weird and abrupt things. To me, the way I tell jokes is a religion.

The same applies to the Gospel. If you go to an indigenous tribe on the Amazon and tell them, "Your God's little sheep." They won't know what you talking about, because they don't know what sheep are. You cannot tell them Christ is the Lion of Judah. They haven't seen a lion and they don't know who Judah is.

So how do you preach the Gospel to those who don't anything about the Bible? You find how Christ relates to them. It says in Colossians 1:17 that all things are in Christ.

So the lesson is kids, be who you are to who they are, and say what you need to say so they can understand it. Preach the Gospel and if you have to, use words.

Stuck... or Refusing to Move Forward... or Maybe I Just Like It Here

So... sometimes our callings, our destinies, our fates, our hopes, dreams, longings, heart's desires, get a little improperly categorized on the list of importants. I tried to have an interview with a guy about how he got into management and to see how I could begin to pursue that for my own life. What happened, instead, was that he was busy and then I was busy and I never returned a phone call and so a month has gone by without me even thinking about my vision.

It came to mind while thinking about finding myself a hobby. You see, even in the midst of living around roughly forty to fifty people you will always be bored without there being some kind of stimulus. When you are bored the only thing to do is think and I thought about how I need to occupy my time or else I will again suffer the curse of public school.

I first thought, "I'm just stuck." Well, if your stuck you cannot move at all, and you never even chose to be stuck. If you are stuck you put there by some outside force which then makes you wonder about your own freewill. When asked how he felt about fate Neo (from "The Matrix") responded, "I don't like the idea that I'm no in control of my own life." If your stuck then you were not strong enough to take care of yourself and if you cannot take care of yourself then you have to be under somebody elses power and control. That sucks so rethink about your circumstances.

...Or maybe I just like it here. Why would you like not having anything happen with your life. If you do I think its fear. Fear is an immobilizer. If something or someone can get you to afraid to do something that needs to be done for something else to happen then again your being controlled and you cannot take care of yourself. Fear is what keeps you stuck... sometimes. Sometimes its circumstances, however, you can avoid those too.

I think I was refusing to move forward. Maybe our accidents are our choices and maybe our position in life was given to use by ourselves and maybe we are our own fears, because we really suck at living. But how do we do "good" at living? Well, Jesus was given the best seat in heaven and He showed us how to live like Him... so maybe that's a good clue.

Anyway, second chances are around every corner. Maybe your second chance is another path. If the one path led you off a cliff why try that one again. Try something different, something new, something inspiring and innovative and creative.

I'll meet you there,
KJ