so, there are a couple of things i have realized. you know how in at summer camps we usually feel pretty good about ourselves. we're ministering! woot! that's great and all, but it struck me, romans 12:1 calls us to be a living sacrifice. that means, our lives are sacrifices. everything. It isn't that we're doing some great deed at summer camp, that is the norm. I do realize that ministry takes on many forms and pursuing things that i honestly believe are glorifying to god, like education, work, ect, make ministry take on many many different forms and all, but i realized something. the early church was considered so radical and different because of the massive community it made. seriously, when you start to read the reasons for the explosion of chrisianity the main reasons are the radical community it bred that was so, well, confusing. Realizing that there are ways i could raise money, i had a grant offered to me if i would take the initiative to start a house that would do what i am planning to do.

my brother and i since we were kids have been frustrated with the lack of hospitality in the church. i mean, in the past week i have had several friends from highschool, who are in the visible and invisible church, that need a few months help to get their life in order and get established in a new city. the church hasn't done anything. i want that to change, so, i have to change it in myself first before i can say anything. So, my brother and i are buying a house soon with the specific intentions of making it a place where guys who need a few months help, getting a job, rent, place to live, a community can come. Do realize, we're choosing not to label this as a " ministry" or as a " community service" even though we could get money and financial help for doing that. The reason why is this: we're not doing anything out of the ordinary. that type of hospitality is expected that type of hospitality is supposed to be normal. we see it as praise worthy and exceptional. that is what is sad. This is supposed to be the norm in a church.

Also, we wonder why people don't see jesus in our lives sometimes. i know i do. In the song of solmons, the last chapter, he talks about how if you want to find him, he'll be in his fields reaping his fruit. Why do you think spiritually you feel so close to jesus when you're serving at a summer camp? it isn't just the community, it is because you are serving. This changes neighborhoods, this changes people and communities. It is the clearest representation of jesus and Jesus is present in the midst of it all. This semester i am attending all the same services, worships, and volunteering the same as i did before. That didn't change my relationship with jesus. daily service for the sake of jesus changed me.

Please don't confuse what i am saying by making you go take on something that burdens you for the sake of service. God doesn't require anything at all from you. nothing, nada, crap. His grace and relationship was and is a free gift with nothing expected, at all, in return. that is what motivates me to serve him though, the nothing i am required to do. since i mean, christ didn't just put me at neutral, he put me at perfect and gave me a spot on his throne as the brother of jesus and the son of God. For me, service is just showing people that gift. before you serve, don't do what i did for so long. Serving doesn't help your righteousness. with or without your works, you're just as screwed or blessed either way. Your works don't define you or give you any source of identity, your faith in jesus gives you an identity and hopefully works flow from that. if you're just serving trying to fix things, you'll break. i broke. don't do it.