burn high school blog

I have to admit, I like to be in control of things.  Especially my surroundings, my car, my yard (I hate it when the weeds try and take over).  So yeah, sometimes I can be a control freak.  And when it seems like life is out of control, or things are just going haywire, I kind of freak out.  But as I was reading God’s word today, I came across this verse -

Matt 11:28-30 (The Message)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Even though I can be a control freak at times, if I’m honest, most of my life is out of my control.  And really, sometimes having to be in control is stressful.  Seriously, it’s a heavy load to carry.  I often forget that ultimately, God is in control.  I can make all the plans and stuff that I want but really, it’s up to God (see Proverbs 19:11).  See when I try to control things and rely on my self, I usually screw up pretty royally.  See my plans are usually flawed, because I’m not perfect.  Big surprise there huh?  So when I try and do things my way, especially when I know it’s not what God would want, that’s when I get stressed, worried, and in trouble.  But when I submit to God and live the way I know that He meant for me to, things usually go pretty good.  God tells us this in that verse “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

But that doesn’t mean bad stuff doesn’t happen.  We still live in a broken world, sometimes life goes in a direction you didn’t expect, or that you don’t like.  How do you respond when that happens?  Do you blame God, or do you stop, realize that we live in a world where bad stuff happens.  There’s hurt, there’s pain, there is suffering, but God promises to always be with us. As rough as it may seem, He will use those situations for His good, even though we may never know it.

Do you trust God?  Do you trust Him enough to believe in His promise that He won’t lay anything heavy, or ill-fitting on you?  Sometimes it feels good to not have to be in control.  Sometimes it feels good to just trust.  I’m learning to live more freely in that trust, and I hope to trust Him more and more each day.  Because I know He cares for me, Jeremiah 29:11-13 tells me so.

So join me on this experiment, trust.  Let go.  Lean into God.  Give Him control.  Learn to live freely and lightly.

love, live, burn.

Kerry

Right up front, let’s be completely honest.  If we are going to do this thing called “walking humbly with God” there are some things we need to deal with.  Today let’s deal with this idea of forgiveness.  Not the fact that you and I are forgiven, but something else.  Our forgiveness of others.  If we truly desire to walk humbly, we need to waive our rights to constantly be vindicated, or proved right.  We need to stop waiting for those who have wronged us to come to us and ask us for our forgiveness.  What is it in me, in us, that feels the need to have someone approach us and ask for forgiveness when they’ve hurt us?  Is it this desire to be proved right?  Is it power, stature, or something else?  There comes a certain joy sometimes when someone admits to us when they’re wrong.  Even if we don’t want to admit it.  It makes us feel good, and maybe a tad bit superior.  Am I alone in this?

But here’s the thing.   Jesus didn’t wait for us to come to him to die for us.  He went through the agony, pain and humiliation of the cross, so that you and I could be forgiven, long before you or I would ever live.  Pure innocence paying the penalty for my future sin.  Forgiveness offered long before the trespass.  Thomas Merton once defined humility as this, “If you forgive a brother who has injured you before he himself asks pardon.”  What a beautiful thing to think that when we come to Christ and ask for forgiveness, His response is “I’ve already forgiven you” before we can even admit it.  What a beautiful thing it would be if we could forgive (truly and honestly) one another in the same way.  I’m not talking about being a doormat, I’m talking about being a humble type of person that is willing to waive our right to be “right” and to forgive before the person even asks it. What would our relationships and lives look like if we lived as people who truly forgave one another like that?  Bitterness would have no chance to set in, friendships would not have too many “misunderstandings” or hurt feelings.  Instead we would see active grace in this idea of preconceived forgiveness.  Who are you waiting on to come to you for forgiveness?  Who can you forgive right now who hasn’t asked for it?  What are you holding onto that you can just let go of?

Forgiveness, is beauty in action.  It’s a preemptive strike on bitterness.  Forgiveness leads us deeper into a humble walk with God.

You cannot have an encounter with the true and living God, the Creator of the universe, without being profoundly altered.  2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” In my early church days, some well meaning people encouraged me to write out my testimony.  The short version was in the summer of 1989, I prayed for and received Jesus as my savior.  It didn’t take me long to realize how little that testimony meant to a non believer. There was this guy that was blind.  After Jesus healed him, he got called into court.  They asked him about theology.  He told them he didn’t know anything about that, “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” He had an encounter with Jesus and was changed.  It did not require religious arguments, It was his simple testimony.  Read the 9^th chapter of John slowly, it’s an awesome story.  Take the time to think about what God has changed in you. A woman named Hagar was thrust into an unbearable position.  The angel of the Lord came and talked to her.  After her encounter with God, she gave him a new name.  Gen 16:17 says, “Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her.  She said, ‘You are the God who sees me.’”  (Another cool story to read.) How about you?  If God asked you to give him a name, what would it be? I’ll gladly share my answer, but you’ll have to ask me in person. rick

The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body. – Proverbs 26:22

      Words have an ability to cut deeper than any knife; through our flesh and bones, down to the core of who we are.  They cut through to our soul, gossip makes its way to our heart in damaging and sometimes irreversible ways.  When someone spreads rumors or gossip about you, it can feel like poison in your veins, arrows in your back.

      Cut open a feather pillow on a windy day.  Let the feathers blow and spread with the wind.  Now try and pick up all those feathers and put them into the bag and make the pillow exactly the way it used to be.  It’s impossible.  The same thing is true with rumors.  Once they spread, you can never repair their damage, you can never make it right, or the way It used to be, ever again.  The damage is done.  Like flames, gossip can start off as a small comfort for one or two, but quickly grows out of control, spreading past it’s boundaries, and becomes an all consuming fire, destroying everything in it’s path.

      Proverbs 26:20 tells us that fire can only exist if it has something to feed on, something to burn.  In the same manner, rumors and gossip can only exist when there are people who will give it fuel to burn. “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.” Verse 21 says, “Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”

       Sometimes it’s easy to read these verses and acknowledge the fact that we have been the targets of gossip.  That we have been hurt by it, that we know its sting all to well.  But do we ever read these verses and apply them to our own lives.  Do we let the word of God penetrate our hearts and point out areas where we need correction, or when we have been wrong.  Are we often found on the receiving end of the knife, or the giving end?  Are we more often being cut, or holding the handle? 

      In Ephesians 4:3 it says “Try your best to let God’s Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace.”  We are called to be the reflection of Christ to this world, we are His representatives, we are His ambassadors, sharing His goodness, mercy, and grace to all we meet.  When we give into gossip and rumors the message of Christ is obscured, and so is our ability to show Christ to those around us.

      Nothing can kill the unity in the church, a community, family, or friendships, faster than gossip and rumors.  If we are to be the church, and the church is supposed to be God’s hands and feet, if we are to show the love of God to this culture and this world, then we need to be unified, and focus on the things that build each other up, and build up the body of Christ as well, not tear it down.

      I hope you always remember the damage that can be done with a whisper.  I pray you never have to feel that sting, and pray we will less often be the one to deliver that painful blow.  Jesus tells us to love God with all when have, and then to love our neighbors as ourselves.  But to often, that juicy, too good to keep to ourselves, gossip overrides our ability to remember those words.  The next time you’re tempted to share something, or tell someone something about someone else, or hear someone else saying things, I hope you don’t add fuel to that fire.  I hope you bring cooling water to help extinguish those destructive flames. 

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless – James 1:26

love, live, burn

- k

On my garage, I have a Red Sox flag flying proudly. All my neighbors know that I am a Red Sox fan, because of the banner that I fly. All througout history, banners have been used to loyalty or allegiance. When someone raises a banner, it can show many things; what team you root for, what country you fight for, or what you are advertising. Armys fly their flags for kings and countries. Like I said, all my neighbors know that I am a Sox fan, but what about the more important side of me? Do they know that I am a Christian? Am I flying that flag and raising that banner? I mean not physically, but does my life carry the banner of Christ? Is it evident to them where my loyalties and allegiance are? We don’t physically carry around a flag that says “I follow Jesus” on it, but our lives should declare that statement just as loud and clear… Check out this proclamation from an African martyr. It was found on the wall of his prision cell just before he died…

So here’s the deal. We have a “flickr” page, where you can go and check out all the latest photos from burn student ministries! And we need you’re help.

I have set up a new set called “Camera Phone Life” and I want your pics! I want you to take pics on your camera phone and you can text them to love64fool@photos.flickr.com and I will put them into that set. Now there are a few rules…

1.) They must be YOUR original photos.

2.) Nothing crude or gross!

3.) No crazy self pics – no shots of you throwing the peace sign, or making a silly face…nothing like that.

4.) Only 2 Camera Phone Pics per person, per week! That’s right, we don’t want 7 different photos from the same person for everyday! We love you, but we want this to be a community effort!

5.) Include in your message the title of the pic, and any info you want included in the notes.

6.) Last thing, take pics of everyday life. But try and capture some meaning or beauty in it. If it’s a beautiful sunset, or someone holding hands, the shape and patterns of the lunch table, whatever, be creative!

This should be pretty cool, so let’s see what you come up with! So set the email address in your contacts and get texting your pics to love64fool@photos.flickr.com – Remember, Kerry and the burn staff have final say over all photos posted. Let’s do this thing!

love, live, burn.

kerry

Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Im really anxious right now. My wife Robin and I are expecting our first child any day now, and I can’t wait. I mean, I’ve been praying for, preparing for, and waiting to meet this child since January! It’s about time for it to get here already! If I’m honest with myself, I get anxious about a lot of things in my life. Will the Red Sox make it to the world series? Will they win it if they do? I don’t feel good, is it serious? What will I do tomorrow, what will it look like? When my child arrives, will I be a good dad? Will I be able to provide for my family? What if I let down my church, or my family? There’s another word for being anxious, it’s called worry. It’s something I do quite often, and I bet that you do to. I’ve been there, things like “What does my future look like?” “What college will I go to?” “Are my grades good enough?” “Will I ever get a date?” Things like that are things we carry with us all the time. But we don’t need to , God tells us that we are to give our worries, our burdens and our concerns to Him, cause He cares for us. But often times I don’t.

But my struggle to rely on God for all of my needs isn’t because I think I can do things all on my own, but because I refuse to live out the fact that He is Lord over my life. I used to turn to this portion of scripture whenever life got crazy, or when I needed God’s word to make me feel better in a rough time. I turned to it when I finally admitted that I needed God’s help. It was always made me feel good to read the line in about how God cares for me more than the gress!

But even though that verse makes us feel comforted, it is not the main point of Jesus’ teaching. It’s the result of what happens when we obey Him and do His will. It’s what happens when we live our lives for His glory, and not for ours. It’s what happens when we live our lives burning to be consumed, not being a consumer of God. This passage starts with the phrase “Therefore I tell You…” What? There’s a reason Jesus is about to tell us this stuff. You see, if you check out the verse before this passage (verse 24), it says “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

The thing Jesus is trying to get across to us, is that when we worry about our problems, when we stress out over things, or when we get anxious about things we can’t control, we miss something.  The reason we worry, isn’t because we have a weak faith, it’s because we are weak in our service and devotion to God. There’s something in our lives that we’re serving, that were more devoted to than God. It could be a sport, school, a job, friends, a boyfriend or girlfriend, family, T.V., internet, whatever… When we worry, when we’re anxious, it’s because we’re focusing more on our own selves rather than on loving and serving God.

Do you want more peace, more patience in your life? I know I do. Let’s examine our lives, what’s taking the lead, what is our top priority? Is it God or ourselves? I challenge you to spend more time with God, than you do on the phone. Spend more time with God than you do on the internet. Spend more time with God than you do standing in line at Starbucks!

This choice to spend more time with God, to seek Him first will have a HUGE impact on your stress level, on your anxiousness, and on how much you worry.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

love, live, burn.

Kerry

Check out the Burn video’s page on You Tube, or check out the vid from the spark on Tuesday night right here!

love, live, burn.
kerry

So, let’s get some discussion going on here…  I would love to hear your answers!

If you are / were a part of a small group, why?

What are the benefits to you personally?

Do you have a story of how being a part of a small group has helped you, or brought you closer to God or to other students?

Anything else you’d want to say about small groups?

Let’s hear you!  Leave a comment!

k

Thank you so much for the gracious gift card you presented Kerry and I this past Sunday! We have been truly blessed by our church family during this new chapter in our lives! I can’t wait for you all to meet Baby Snyder! Stay tuned……..

Love,

Robin