The Purpose of Tuesday Night and Necessity of Eighteen22 Small Groups/Bible Study

Hey Eighteen22,

First off, thank you so much for being a part of God's ministry to the college-aged at WEAG. I am so blessed by your participation in our community and am even more blessed by your graciousness in allowing Jeremy and I to lead you in it. Secondly, thanks for taking the time to check out this blog post! This post is kind of a prep for the sermon that I'm going to preach this Tuesday in our "Spiritual Unrest" series. I want to present some ideas for y'all to be tossing around in your mind before you get there on Tuesday and also I'd love for you to respond and talk in the FB and Blogger comments. Let's talk about this stuff! Ok, soooo here goes the blog, haha.

Like I said above and Jeremy said last week, our new series on Tuesdays is "Spiritual Unrest". Jeremy and I decided to do this series because it sounded like everyone we were meeting up with during the week for lunch or coffee were experiencing a "spiritual funk" of some sort. We all struggle with that to some degree, but it sounded very widespread. Luckily, God has given us 4 main tools in Scripture to combat that and to give rest to our souls. Those 4 things are His Word, His Church, His Son and His Spirit. This Tuesday I'm preaching on His Church.

The first question my sermon raises is how do you define "church"? Take a second to think about before reading on, what is your primary definition of that word? Of course it has many definitions, especially depending on how literal or contextual you wanna be. But I believe the most important definition of "church" is simply "the meeting up of believers to intentionally live out the Christian life together." If that's your definition of church, than church no longer is just on Tuesday or Sunday mornings. It's Monday afternoons when two Christians meet up for lunch and talk and you can imagine all the other scenarios.

To add to that definition, I believe intentionally living out the Christian life demands authenticity and time. So the next question becomes: Are we (you and me) authentically and intentionally meeting up with other Christians to live our our faith?

Something that I've realized over the past year at Eighteen22 is that Tuesday nights only partially serves  that definition of church. We have come to determine that the purpose of Tuesday nights for us is the celebration of the Gospel together with our peers. This does not replace the celebration of the Gospel with our multi-generational church body, it supplements it. So with that goal in mind we structure and plan Eighteen22.

So honestly, that means there isn't as much time for "church" in the definition I've given above. Yes, "church" as I've defined above does happen on Tuesday nights and we do set aside time for  it. That's what our dinner time and hang out time after the worship service is for...but not everybody comes/stays for that.

For this reason is why we've found a new passion for small groups and Bible studies at Eighteen22. We NEED to set specific time aside to do the authentic meet up part of church. Because that's where Gospel-inspired change can be discipled and shaped. But there are problems with that. A lot of us Eighteen22ers are honestly busy. We have school schedules, work schedules, serious relationships, family situations that make it difficult to make time for anything else. Is it really worth it re-arrange my life for another kind of "church"?

On Tuesday, we'll have several testimonies in addition to my own on why we believe it is. The main text I'll be preaching from will be Hebrews 10:24-25. Take a look at it sometime before Tuesday night. And PLEASE feel free to comment on this blog or if you can't, back on FB. Let's wrestle with this together. To all my Eighteen22 homies, I love y'all, pray for y'all everyday, and am SO thankful for you.

-Jamal

When the Lights Went Out...

   This post is specifically for our Eighteen22 community. I felt the Spirit leading me to say a few words based on the powerful moment we had last Tuesday night when the power went out. I'm sorry if you weren't there, i'm not gonna give much background to the specifics. I want to give an insight, and encouragement, and a challenge to our community after such a moving night.

   First, the insight: The reason why the majority of us were so moved by the Spirit that night as opposed to other nights was because there were no distractions keeping us from Him, let me explain myself. Anthony and the crew work pretty diligently to make worship an experience; the lights, the music, the lyrics, the lyric graphics, the transitions, the keys. And in it's best form, the experience we create by worship invites and prepares us to receive the Holy Spirit and experience God in a unique way. But at it's worst, all of the same things that enable worship to do that, can sometimes be a distraction. This normally comes as individual fault or struggle of the worshiper. There are countless times i've found myself not really listening or watching for God, but just being a spectator to the band. This normally also comes out of just things becoming negatively habitual, that's why we switch up the order of service every now and again, to keep it fresh enough to keep us from routine.

   But last week, our routine was utterly and unexpectedly altered. The best part about it was, we all knew that it was a "God moment". None of us could control the power going out, heck, we didn't even know what caused it! (a snake apparently bit into the power lines...random I know). All that we knew was God did it, and that he wanted something for us through it.

   Now to my encouragement: Eighteen22s persistence in worship and obedience to the Spirit's leading is remarkable. There was barely a pause in worship (kudos to our worship team last week) and yall barely stopped singing. You continued in the attitude of worship even when confusion came into the picture. Not only that, the prayer time that followed after those couple acapella songs moved my soul. Unfortunately, I wasn't as in the moment as most of you, because I was gettin info from the higher ups on official protocol and such, but I was in and out and was soooooooooo encouraged by the prayers being shouted to our God. It's funny, I've always felt like our group didn't enjoy or respond well to "open prayer" in that style, but that night proved me so wrong. People who i've never heard pray, prayed that night. It was an incredible blessing to my soul and the places you are at with God. Also, props to Jeremy for doing it sermon by candlelight! Such a priceless moment, and thanks to everyone who instagramed it for our picture archive, haha.

   Now, my challenge: We should not dwell on this moment, but appreciate it for what it was and move forward. This might sound harsh, but the temptation to say things like "man, why can't every week be like that night..." or "we need to try to recreate the feeling we had that night again..." aren't the kind of language that "spurs one another on towards love and good deeds" as the Apostle Paul encourages us to do.  What we need to do is to simply remember that night, and cherish it as a moment God moved in our midst. Maybe, at the most, we refer back to it as a sign of encouragement. If you're feeling down about God or Eighteen22 as a whole, you can say to yourself: "I know God is real and is working in my life, because this one night at church the lights went out and..." or "I know God is doing something in this community, that night when the lights went out showed it". These kind of words encourage us, and build each other up in my opinion.

   For Biblical evidence of this, look to the moment in Matthew to Jesus' transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13). Jesus does this miraculous sign, brought freakin Moses and Elijah back to life! Peter, like any good Jew wanted to make a moment to remember and commemorate the moment. And what did Jesus say? "Don't tell anyone what you've seen until the Son of Man is raised from the dead". Basically, here's what Jesus was saying: Yes, you've seen a miracle, another bit of evidence for you to use to prove that I am who I've said I am. Be hype on it, but don't let that distract you, keep moving and keep following me. I believe that's what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in this moment.

   So we move onward. Strengthened, encouraged, astonished, blessed, and amazed by the power of our God. Will we have a more stripped down service again in the near future, yes. Will we try to repeat verbatim what happened last week? No. If you look closely to Jesus' miracles, he never does two miracles exactly the same. If we remain hungry for God the way we are now, The Spirit will move among us again, just as powerfully and just as evidently.

   Eighteen22, I am so blessed and proud to be among your leadership. God has taught me so much through yalls witness, more than maybe any of us will ever know. Thank you, let's keep chasing after God together. Amen?

-Jamal

Self-Awareness #1: Selfishness

So i'm about to graduate from VCU this spring (yesssss), and about 2 semesters ago, a classmate I had told me I might enjoy taking a Social Work class based on my career goals. So I did, and now I wish somebody had told me that earlier so I could of gotten a Social Work degree instead of the Psychology degree I will be graduating with, oh well. The VCU Social Work program has several emphases, and this idea called "self-awareness" is one of them. Self-awareness basically says that until you really know yourself (positives, negatives, biases, heritage, etc.) you won't be able to counsel or help others to the best of your ability. And that idea really makes sense to me, if you become a pastor or Social Worker and aren't willing to acknowledge and deal with your prejudice against "dead beat dads" because yours was, then when one walks into your office asking for help how are you going to be able to fully extend grace and help to them?

So I've taken two social work classes (sooo wish I could take more) and self-awareness has been pounded into my head. The more and more I thought about it, the more I got kinda uncomfortable. The saying "ignorance is bliss" really applies here. I don't really want to look myself in the eye and pull out all the darkness inside my heart to confront it. That's really messy, and difficult. But I understand also how humbling and freeing it will be...so i'm gonna try to take at least the rest of this year (if I actually follow through with it, haha) to become "self-aware". Scripture I believe also calls us to become self-aware. The Psalmists often pray for God to make them self-aware: "Search my heart Oh Lord, and show me the sins that plague me". Paul encourages (or maybe commands) in 1st Corinthians to "evaluate ourselves" before we take communion, and to confess whatever sins we need to before we accept the bread and wine. The Apostle John in 1st John encourages us to "confess our sins to each other" and James the brother of Jesus says a similar sentiment throughout his epistle. Sooooo, without further ado I guess here I go.

I struggle with selfishness. It really sucks, but I do. And what's even worse is that I thought for a long time that I was a selfless kinda person, and then the blessed union of marriage showed me otherwise, haha. With friends, I was able to let my wishes be overlooked a lot of the time because it was all about things that I didn't really care about. "Yo, what movie are we gonna watch? No, whatever you wanna watch is great with me!" Or "Oh, you wanna play video games instead of skate today?" Stupid little situations like that, I always could put the wants of the other person before my own. On top of being insignificant topics to me, it also was only a couple times a day I had to do so. Then, when Maria and I got married I saw in other little situation, I was being a total jerk about stuff like that. Maria and I have different tastes in bread, she likes the healthy wheat stuff I like the chemically saturated white bread. At first, I refused to eat anything that wasn't white. Maria rightfully won that argument in the end, wheat doesn't taste as bad as I thought and it's sooo much healthier, she's totally saving me from a pre-mature clogged artery. But in little things like that and more, I refused to put Maria's cares and wishes first. Obviously, I've had to with a mix of will power, schema changing, and the power of the Holy Spirit learn to be more selfless with her.

It goes further back and bigger on this topic also. I'm always that guy at parties who takes the rudely big plate of everything before everyone has gotten some, and the list could go on. I especially remember being soooo selfish with things when I was living with my parents. I always thought the things I was doing or wanted to do were the most important in the house, so I would wail, complain, and justify until my parents couldn't take it anymore and would let me do whatever I "needed" or was asking. I now see how all that is just so wrong.

It's even worse because Scripture calls us to express "agape" love to everyone we come into contact with. Agape is the defined as " a self-sacrificing act of the will, to put the thoughts and needs of another above your own". Philippians 2 calls us to "have an attitude like that of Christ's"...which was one of humility and selflessness, it's that attitude that brought him down from heaven to become a lowly (to Him) human and redeem us by the cross. Dang, how the mess can I do that? I can barely hold off from eating all the pizza at Eighteen22. Becoming anything more like Christ is called sanctification, and sanctification I believe starts with us and is finished by the Holy Spirit. I can try my hardest to be selfless, but eventually my carnal desires will win, unless the Holy Spirit is giving me fruit of the spirit to combat them. That's what I pray for, and acknowledging and confessing these aspects of myself I hope as they say is "half the battle".

-Jamal

"The Image of the Invisible God"

I've been really fortunate as of late, because God has been giving me more and more opportunities to spend time with people outside my "Christian bubble" of relationships, which has been a really good thing for me. If you don't have friends who believe differently than you do, I highly advise you to get some, it'll hopefully encourage you to better understand what you really believe yourself. That's definitely what it's been doing for me.

So, in the conversations I've been able to have with people who aren't involved in the Church, I kept hearing similar reasons why they weren't. One conversation I had with a regular at my job really struck me. He was saying that he grew up his whole life as a Christian, and still would consider himself one even though he doesn't go to church often. He said the thing that really inadvertently turned him away was the relationship he had with his girlfriend. She was "more religious" than he was, and he got the impression that she looked down on him for that. As time went on, he said that Christianity ended up being the thing that broke them up. Because of the judgmental and down-putting nature of their relationship, he got a bad taste in him mouth about Church. He still believes Jesus is his Savior, just he's not really trying to get burnt again by church people.

That story breaks my heart, mostly because at one point I was just like his judgmental girlfriend. I remember having relationships in high school where I looked down upon and really mistreated people because they weren't as "religious" as me, and I know almost for a fact that I've ruined those people's view of Christ because of it. What was wrong with me? Did I really think that looking down on someone because they aren't as spiritually mature as me is actually spiritually mature? Do we actually think that abruptly and bitterly ending relationships with non-Christians is the best way to interact?

I've been reading through Colossians recently (thinking about preaching through it actually), and Paul says in chapter 1 verse 15 that "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God". I know i'm taking that verse out of the context of Paul's intended message, but I can't help but relate that verse to Christians as a whole. We are now "the image of the invisible God". For a lot of our non-Christian friends, we might be the closest thing to Jesus they'll ever see. So later in Colossians (chapter 4, verse 5) Paul says "live wisely among those who are not believers...let your conversations be gracious and attractive...". Are we being gracious and attractive when we interact with our non-believing friends, co-workers, and family members? You should definitely strive to be, because believe it or not in everything we do we are supposed to model to them what Jesus is like.

Yes, we all mess up, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But I think with the power of the Holy Spirit in us, some individual awareness, and some accountability between us we can actually show people what Jesus is truly like...love. "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciple." (John 13:35). Amen?

-Jamal

Birthday Bloggin (turning 22!)

I have this habit of always getting reflective in or around the month of March, for obvious reasons. Even though my most recent blog post behind this one shows, I'm not a consistent blogger, I do consistently journal. I have stacks and stacks of notebooks filled with journal entries, and it's always fun (and a little embarrassing) to look back at them around my birthday time. As I have been doing that this year, I saw a couple interesting facts.

It was about two years ago in the month of March that the former Ms. Maria Claire Moore popped up into the pages of my personal and prayer journals (yes, in my prayer journal, she was so special I knew I couldn't get her by sheer good looks and whit alone). It was about one year ago in the month of March where God was doing an intense round of character breakdown on me, he was softening my heart and opening up my eyes to people and places who I never cared for or thought much about before, i.e. his Great Commission and the "least of these". Also, I can remember that in March 2011 my then fiancee Maria had just moved into our future first apartment together, a place and moment of time that will always be special to me.

Now to look at the present, Ms. Maria Claire Moore has become Mrs. Maria Claire Jones, God's Great Commission is at the forefront of my mind "as I go", and God is definitely doing another character breakdown in my life (maybe those are more frequent than I thought...). Being a husband is the most fulfilling role I've ever played in my life, but it's also the hardest at times. I have a lot of sins to confess and walls to let God break down, but God is always faithful in those situations. Plus, I have the greatest wife to work with me through all that. I'm graduating college this May, and God is leading me to a new phase of preparation for His calling for me into life-long ministry. I don't know where that's going yet, i'm just praying and waiting to see what he brings.

So, the future is unknown, the present is moving one step at a time, and the past has more or less shaped it all. God is overall doing a good thing in me, and I hope i'm letting Him do a good thing also through me. I totally back journaling, blogging, and reflection of any kind. Because it's so amazing to look back over your writings and to see God's provision. Times could of have been bad for a season, but you can see how God brought you through it and redeemed you in it. You get to look back at unique moments (like falling in love!) and remember every corny sappy thing you were saying and the songs you were listening to. I love that mess, haha.

Anyway, thanks be to God for being here 22 years, and I pray that every year following is again filled with stories and memories of how good He is. Amen

-Jamal

Rob Bell's "Love Wins" review

first, let's get a couple things straight

To dispel some rumors about the book/Rob Bell

1. "Love Wins" DOES NOT claim that everyone goes to heaven in the end.

2. Rob Bell's books are FULL of Scripture

-somebody told me that they "heard" Bell doesn't Scripturally back up his claims in his books. That's 100% untrue, stop spreading lies people! Haha. This will be the second Bell book I've read. They've both had Scripture references and expounding on every single page.

3. Rob Bell is definitely a Christian, and nothing else

Now to let you know a little more about my stance in this blog

1. This review is slightly bias, I admit it. I like Rob Bell

2. I read this book like I thought he was a heretic

3. Don't take my word for it. Read the book for yourself

So, to start the review I wanna try to summarize Bell's take on Heaven from the Scriptures. The key passage Bell expounds on about heaven is Jesus' words to the Young Rich Man (Matthew 19:16-28 NIV). The man asks Jesus how to reach eternal life, but Jesus doesn't give the answer that most modern day evangelicals would of think he should give. In fact, Jesus tells him how to "enter life". Jesus and the man weren't talking about heaven as we think of it when we die, they were talking about the "age to come". So the man's question of "eternal" doesn't mean exactly the same as we often think it does. Jesus talks about this "age to come" in Luke 20, Mark 9, Luke 21, and Matthew 28 as well. The greek word for it is "aion", which refers to a period of time with a definite beginning and end. So there is the age Jesus was in, and there will be an "age to come" after it.

This age to come is spoken about by the prophet Isaiah as "The Day of the Lord" where everything will be restored, and there will finally be peace on earth. You can find the beginning of his words on it in Isaiah 2:12-18. Biblegateway.com those verses real quick...don't they sound like perfection? Paul also briefly talks about this time in 1 Thes. 5. I know things always get a little fishy in interpreting the OT, but i think it's obvious at least in that passage that Isaiah is talking about the future, a time of perfection on earth through God. So heaven at that point won't be "up there", it's gonna be down here (according to Scripture). Heaven is gonna be God cutting away the divisions and merging with earth and bringing it into his perfection. It checks out pretty well.

Now, the attempt to summarize Bell's thoughts from the Scriptures on hell. In his book, he references and deals with every mentioning of the word "hell" in the Bible, and even some of the words/passages people think are referring to "hell" (kudos to him, that's good persuasive writing right there). Scripture clearly states that hell is suffering, because you are choosing to be separated from God's incredible love, but how long you will be separated seems to be the question.

An important thing about hell Bell notes,The greek word we call "hell" is really the English word "Gehenna". Gehenna is a real place, that basically was the Israelite trash dump. They stuck their trash there and burnt it, dogs fought over scraps and their teeth made horrible gnashing sounds while fighting (sounds familiar?). I can see where we got our image of Hell from, but it's not necessarily underground and reigned by Satan. Jesus related to torment of separation from God to a horrible place nearby of people he was talking to.So it feels to me that the image most of us get of hell isn't from the Bible, it's from Dante's Inferno (gosh I hated that book, i read the whole thing in high school).

One of verses that kinda makes that idea real is Ezekiel 16:53-58, God through Ezekiel says "I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters...return them to what they were before...". Wait, what?!?!? God is gonna restore Sodom and Gomorrah? We all remember how bad they were, but God in the future is gonna give them a second chance? So....maybe even God's judgement of separation isn't forever...

Still on hell here, but look up these verses please

-Zephaniah 2:6

-Micah 7:19

Bell lists a whole page full of verse just like these. Those probably a several dozen more continue to talk about God's redemptive desires and extreme love for all his people. That's God's desire, to bring EVERYONE back to him. Don't get me wrong, Bell asserts that the ONLY way to get back to God is through Jesus (pg. 155 of Love Wins), but do you think even after "The Day of the Lord" and all is renewed, God is gonna lock the door on his love to those who honestly come in repentance for it? The Day of the Lord idea leaves out where people go who aren't with God, i can't remember if Bell addresses that, i'll re-read to look, but they are somewhere having a miserable time probably. But if they run to the limits of God's area and scream and cry in repentance, do you really think God is gonna say "sorry, if you had come maybe like....5 minutes earlier I could do something for you, but you're late. So you can no longer have my love". That doesn't sound like the God of those verses above and the rest of the NT, does it? I've kinda been convinced it doesn't.

So now you're probably kinda pissed or confused at this point. When I was talking to Maria about this she then brought up the question, "Well then what's the point of living for God now if you can get another shot at it after you die?" When she asked it we both stopped and came to the next point Bell makes. If being a "Christian" for you is mostly about a "ticket to heaven", then odds are you probably aren't going...rough isn't it? Well, I struggle with that to. In fact, the majority of the time when Jesus was talking about "hell" he was talking about it to the very people everyone for sure thought weren't going there! If i remember correctly, Matthew 25 (Sheep and Goats parable) fits that description. Being a Christian is about taking the invitation God gives us through Christ to be apart of his restoring of all things. Yes, heaven is a benefit of it, but it's not the main point. God wants us to be a part of his stuff, and to take joy in it. Yes, there is suffering involved (Paul tells us about it the best in 2 Timothy), but in the end there is JOY! There should be some deep rooted joy! That convicted me hard, because often i'm bogged down by how "hard" my life is. All of this "Jesus work" I gotta do. I gotta feed the poor, i gotta mentor youth, i gotta preach. Poor poor me. If you're like me in that, we're missing out. We need to revamp our feelings for God. He's not a slave-driver, he's a love and joy giver.

The best example of this idea is found in the Prodigal Son parable. We all know the story. The younger son comes back thinking the dad is gonna punish him, but he gets love instead. The older son is pissed about the party for his jerk of a brother, but he's always had love, dad tells him to celebrate. Both boys thought their fathers love was dependent on something or another, how good or bad they were. But it doesn't, their dad's love just.....IS! Isn't that great?!?!?!?! God's love for us just is. It's UNFAIR, it's UNDESERVED. IT. IS. GRACE! So yes, the fact that anybody can possibly just come to God at anytime in this age or next and get love is extremely unfair, but I really feel like i'm ok with that. And that's basically the book. In the end, LOVE WINS.

There are of course downsides to this book, but they aren't really even worth talking about I feel. The general message overshadows them.

The key phrase for his thoughts in the book are on pg. 115. Bell says:

" Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? These are tensions we are free to leave still as tensions. We don't need to resolve them or answer because we can't, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires"

Thanks for reading this, it's waaaaay too long i know. But i left out a lot of stuff that would be really helpful in explaining his view. Bell totally expounds the "Lazarus and Rich Man" story, his full explanation of the Prodigal Son story is brilliant, and so so much more. But for time and practicality I stop here. I might blog about those other pieces later. Please feel free to leave comments below and we can discuss more there.

My advise is to please read the book, I think it'll be something special for ya. Amen? Amen.

The Virtuous Life

this quote from an early church leader I feel like sums up reason and aim for why Christians do their best to live "good" and "clean" lives.

This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because like slaves we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some business- like arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful and consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This, as I have said, is the perfection of life.

- Gregory of Nyssa

Proverbs 22: Don't make a check your tush can't cash!

v. 26-27 "Don't agree to guarantee another person's debt or put up security for someone else. If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you"

"Don't make a check your tush can't cash Short Man!" The first time i heard this saying was in my all-time favorite cartoon series Hey Arnold (one day i WILL own the entire series on DVD...). His Grandpa, who i would say had loads and loads of wisdom, was advising him to not make promises or agreements that he couldn't fulfill. And reading this chapter it finally hit me that this idea is a re-curring sentiment in the Proverbs. Every couple of chapters Solomon throws in a quick word about keeping your vows, if you're paying off a friends debt to make sure you do it or there will be consequences. Keeping promises is a huge character trait that i'm sure many of us strive for, but the less strived for virtue in my life is only committing to what i can.

A lot of times i make grand promises, or plan to meet with somebody, knowing i honestly don't have the time or even the ability. That results in let down youth or me running late to a group project meeting. Honestly, that looks bad on us, but it also looks on God. We're always, ALWAYS representing God, in EH-VE-RYthing we do. So if we're late, or don't come through when we say we will, than that makes God look bad, doesn't it?

So in solution, before i ever make a promise or agreement, i will realistically ponder if i really can carry it all the way through. If i decided that i can't, then i straight up won't let the words come out of my mouth. But if i decide that i can and do say i will. imma do everything in my power to carry it out. That's gonna take some prayer and discipline, but i hope the Lord will help me. And if i fail (which i probably will every now and again no matter how hard i try), i'll beg for forgiveness like i should, haha. Amen? Amen.

I like Heather's prayer request idea, here are mine:

-my Psych 317 research paper (the hardest assignment of my college career)

-more of the Holy Spirit in my life

Proverbs 11 and my Wisdom struggles

First, as I was reading todays chapter, I thought to myself, "after near 11 days of reading Proverbs how much have I learned about Wisdom?". I have learned a lot, but do I really "know" it yet, no. And will we ever truly get Wisdom, idk, it's one of those really lofty topics to me right now. A definition one of my Bibles gave me for wisdom was "the ability to make good use of knowledge", that's basically what the Proverbs are trying to make us do, right? That knowledge we have is of God, and it's all been about how to use that knowledge well. Right? Haha. Chapters 10 and 11 are these couplet like statements about pretty practical responses to Wisdom, what Wise people do. One of my favorites being verse 19: " Godly people find life; evil people find death". Wow, that's difference between good use and bad use of the knowledge of God: life and death. That's crazy, but totally right.

My biggest struggle these days seems to be the use of my time, i'm so dang busy. Using my time well and putting it where it needs to go (this false under the umbrella of wisdom, right? haha). It kinda surprises me that there isn't more spoken about time in relation to Wisdom, maybe there has been and i've missed it? The best example i can find is in Chapter 10:4 "lazy people are soon poor, hard workers get rich", being lazy and hard working is kinda a time management issue. I just continue to pray to God (when i am disciplined enough to give him the hang out time he deserves in my life) that he will give me the Wisdom to say yes to doing the important things in my life and no to the unimportant things battling for my precious time. Also to help me discern which things are which.

I'm soooo rushed for time today. This week has been rough on me. A little bit of that bad time management janke has thrown eh-ve-ry thing off. So i'm racing to get back on track. It definitely doesn't help that i'll be going on a retreat this weekend....oooohhhh Lord. Please God, help a brotha out, haha. I know He will.

Proverbs 8:Preeminence of Wisdom and Rewards

Dang, I've had a crazy couple of days! haha. Some really exciting stuff happen like finding my future apartment for me and my future wife and beginning to move stuff in, and having some sleeping/tiredness/school problems. But, God's got my back, so i'm alright. But those are all the excuses why i haven't blogged in a while, plus i've decided to not blog over the weekends. I totally still read though, and Chapter 5 has been my favorite so far! Quick thought; I find it really cool how Wisdom is being personified in the Proverbs, that maybe it isn't just an idea or concept, but a real being along with the Trinity. Most scholars think so. One scholar Marcus Borg (super liberal theology, but still very helpful) tells us that Wisdom is a feminine persona, translated to Sophia in the Hebrew. "Sophia" is the word for wisdom in Hebrew, but as we all know it's also a name. That's kinda cool

But anyway, on to Chapter 8. The thing that really rocked me this morning was reading verse 22-31.

"The Lord formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else. I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began" v.22-23

"I (Wisdom) was the architect at his side. " v.30

This is really evolving my thoughts about Sophia/Wisdom. She isn't just a concept God created along with everything else. She isn't like goodness, or judgement, or faith. No, in fact, Sophia maybe HELPED CREATE those concepts! This Proverb is telling us that Wisdom was the FIRST thing they created, and they created her as a persona kinda like them, whom i'm gonna call Sophia throughout the rest of this blog. This Proverb is basically adding more detail to our view of Creation. In Genesis 1, there definitely is a "we" involved in the creating, but we use to just picture God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But now we have to add another person to the list, it's God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and Sophia! Sorry if those last three sentences basically said the same thing over and over again, but it's something i'm trying to fix into my brain. Sophia was there in the beginning, she's seen it all, and that has to mean she had a hand in creating me. Sooooo, if I ever had doubt in the power or cred of Sophia Wisdom Christ (that's my poor attempt at giving her a full name, haha. that wasn't blasphemous was it?) then I betta recognize! She knows what she's talking about. As these first couple chapters have been asking, i just need to humbly submit to her and like a student be taught by her. And the whole thing brought up about fearing the the Lord, that's heavy in my mind as well.

In this chapter i also feel like Solomon listed the rewards of listening to Sophia, i wanted to list them, to kinda get a sense of what i'm striving for in this (verses 12-21):

-good judgement

-knowledge

-discernment

-common sense

-success (the Christ centered kind)

-insight

-strength

-riches (again, the CCK)

-honor

-justice

Dang yo, that janke is tight! I want ALL OF IT! This for me right now, is a total "it's so fluffy i'm gonna die!!!!" moment. I love God, I love Sophia, and i want to make them proud and represent them right in our world. So I continue to pray that as I seek, then i will find them both (there's that paradox again Heather, i feel it!). And i promise, I didn't put that list up there because i think yall are dumb, this honestly is the way that i take notes for my personal memory. If we weren't blog sharing our thoughts, i would of done the same thing in my personal journal. I'm not sure if that's good or bad....haha. Yessssssss Lord

Proverbs 4: Being Teachable

I feel like i'm sensing a kinda pattern to how these Provbers are being written: The first couple verses deal with that chapter's main point, then he talks about how awesome that point is to Wisdom (it's rewards for you), then he warns you about the consequences if you don't adapt his main point, and then finishes with practical things to do or not to do in order to attain the main point. So far i've always felt like the most important verses to me were near the front of the chapters, and i was like "dang, i really am reading these things! Why am i not finding such impacting in the middle!" And this pattern i've thought up is probably wrong, just an observation i believe i've mad.

The main point of Proverbs 4 is the challenge to be a good student of Wisdom, to be teachable, like a son is taught by his father. We believe that some of these Proverbs are Solomon writing directly to his son, giving him words to hold on to for the future so he could also be a God-fearing and hearing king. I don't think it worked out so well, i'm pretty sure that Scripture tells us Solomon's son that takes the throne next turns out to be a really bad dude. But anyway, Solomon says in verse 1 "listen as your father corrects you. Pay attention and learn...for I am giving you good guidance". If i'm not mistaken, in Jewish worship, the scriptures were read aloud in huge chunks at a time, so i believe this call to refocus was good and helpful. Imagine being in church and somebody was reading to you Proverbs 1-5 straight through, not stopping or expounding. I feel like even i would even start to let my mind wonder. But at this point, whoever is reading should be shouting a little at you these words "Listen!......Pay attention!....I am giving you good advice!". Cause it is, obviously. I think we, especially as young people brush off good advice for a lot of different little reasons. Because somebody we don't really like said it, or because we've heard it too many times. None of those things make it any less good and helpful, so we need to refocus on it. I mean, isn't it true that sometimes when your parents give you advice and you'll think it's crazy and not listen, but somebody else could say the exact thing and you'll realize (most often angrily) your parents were right all along, and you just didn't wanna admit it?

So if we are humble enough to be teachable, and be good students in Wisdom class, then we'll be crazily blessed by the Lord (not in the lotta money lotta stuff way, but the Holy Spirit kinda way). I love verse 7, i read the NLT, and it translates that verse as "Getting Wisdom is the wisest thing you can do!", haha! that's an exact quote from my Bible, no lie. How awesome is that?!? Solomon urges us to "take hold of my instructions, don't let them go". Dang yo, not just in Wisdom, but in following Christ as a whole, if we did that...the way God would work through us to impact the world would be intoxicating.

Practical application of this point i believe is just to really be listening and learning from all the "teachers" you have in your life, spiritual ones for sure and the good just life coaches that we have. That could mean parents, pastors, good friends, or even your actual school teachers (yeah right, everybody knows only some college professors are really that cool) ;). I totally believe in the power of tutorship, and being mentored. I am soooo blessed that God has put a dozen different people in my life that i can learn from. I often say that i'm a "student of many rabbis", mostly because i especially need that to grow, but also i guess because Scriptures wisely advices us to. Find a mentor of some sort, make it legit, and follow through and learn from somebody. Amen?!? Amen

Proverbs 3 (and a little 2): My First Tension

I had a crazy Wednesday, so I didn't have time to post my thoughts on chapter 2, but i'll keep it brief. All throughout the chapter it was talking about all the things that Wisdom will save us from; evil people and bad situations basically. And idk if i'm crazy, but this automatically made me think about testimonies. I grew up in the church, and all other church kids like me always say "man, i have a lame testimony". And we all envied the books our youth leaders would make us read about these people who had to hit rock bottom personally before they ever turned to Christ, and then from then onward they lived these exemplary lives. We ignorantly said to each other, "man, their hard times were soooo cool, that's a good testimony". I actually think that Chapter 2 lets us know that God doesn't necessarily want it to get that bad before we turn to him. Not to discredit anybody's spiritual journey, but i think if God had a choice, he would want us walking as closely to him as we can, taking on his Wisdom so we can avoid some of those dark experiences. Church kids will have their own struggles that will build their faith, take pride in your testimonies, they are important to God and to your evangelism later in life. As a psych major, i'm cooking up this analysis of the different cognitive experiences of Christians who have grown up in the church vs. Christians who have not. It could be good, it could be bad. TBD on that one, haha

Now, Proverbs 3. Reading this chapter i experienced some of the tension i was talking about in my first post on Proverbs. So please all yall reading, correct me if i'm wrong. But do verses 1-2 sound a little misleading to yall from our Christian standpoint?:

"My child, never forget the things i have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years and your life will be satisfying." NLT

Really? Following God will bring me long life and satisfaction? Yeah, it will, but i'm not sure that's necessarily the promise God gives us through Christ. What about Jesus' words in Mark 10:21-22:

"a brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved."

That doesn't sound too "satisfying" to me. And didn't almost all of Jesus' disciples suffer young and gruesome deaths? Scripture tells of James being stabbed to death (Acts 12:2) and Stephen being stoned (Acts 7: 59-60). If you wanna see how hard the Apostle Paul's life was, take a look at 2 Timothy. You'll see Paul, the spearhead of the early Jesus movement, sitting in jail awaiting his execution alone, and although full of faith and purpose in our God, a little bummed (2 Timothy 4:9-18 gives you a good intro to his situation).

I know that was a lot of stuff; passages taken a little out of their contexts, and ill formatted, but I put it there to remind us of the suffering that's involved with following Christ. I have no idea what a Korean Christian felt reading that passage in Proverbs, when a dozen of them are huddled together reading one Bible that they all share because Bibles are illegal in their area (or at least one time were, it's been a while since i read about the plight of Korean Christians). And that if ANYONE saw them reading it, they would be shot dead on the spot. Ya know? Of course i'm not saying that Solomon is wrong in his sentiment here, that would be prideful of myself. But i'm asking us ponder how to reconcile verses like Proverbs 3:1-2 and Mark 10:21-22. If we as Christians believe that following God equals "long life and satisfaction", what would that make our Christianity look like?

Instantly the thoughts that came to mind were, well it's just a difference between Jewish and Christian thought. Or maybe it all depends on what you mean by the word "satisfying", because of course giving of yourself and sacrificing for God definitely is satisfying to those who love Jesus. Or maybe i'm thinking too hard, and misreading this point of wisdom. I've thought through a million possibilities already. So I've been and will be thinking all day about how this sentiment from Solomon is applicable in my walk. So yeah, please, tell me....what do you guys think about this?

~Jamal

Proverbs Project: My thoughts on The Proverbs and Proverbs 1

Disclaimer: I'm typing almost exactly what i thought about this morning so i can better remember it, so i'm not going into so much detail cause i think you guys don't know it, i just really wanna remember how i felt this morning! haha

So, whenever i read the Proverbs, i think it's important to remember a couple different contextual things about them to get the life application out of them. Like, they're all written from a Jewish perspective, so i feel like a lot of our important Christian principles of course get left out of the writings (like evangelism, see verses 1:8-19). Also, the words of the Proverbs are conventional wisdom, idealistic wisdom, "wisdom of the perfect world" as i often think of them. And since we don't live in a perfect world, a lot of the time i personally feel a tension when reading the Proverbs. Like "i'm sorry Solomon, i'm not sure what it was like when you were alive, but that's not how things work out for me!", as if i'm really worthy of questioning anything Solomon says, haha. The main mistake i've made in reading the Proverbs is at times i treat them like a formula, that if i do exactly what they say that will automatically lead me straight to a deeper relationship with God, which isn't true. Relationship with God is multi-faceted, similar to relationship with the important people in our lives. But what the Proverbs are is a insight into the life changing wisdom of our God, which if we take seriously in studying and acquiring it amongst other things in our spiritual lives will draw closer to our Creator.

Now, onto what i thought about Proverbs 1. The most striking thing i read in the chapter was right at the beginning where Solomon says that the purpose of these writing is for people to live "disciplined and successful lives" (1:3 NLT). Discipline, it's something that so many of us (including myself) are lacking. Most people get angry about discipline with God, they say things like "you can't make my relationship with God about "obligation". Let it flow!". Now, take that sentiment and apply it to your girlfriend or boyfriend or spouse. "Honey, what's wrong? You mean, I HAVE to call you everyday? I'm obligated to be with and talk with you on a somewhat regular basis? I'm supposed to defend you in a fight? Whoooooaaaaaa, just let it flowwwwwww" Doesn't sound like such a good plan, does it? Whether you are aware of it or not, you have discipline in your close relationships. Don't you have a sort of schedule of meet ups and hang outs with your friends? Do you have a friend who lives in a different city, and you try to talk at least once a week or see each other every other weekend? If we think about it, most of us do. It's not a negative sense, it's just a natural way of keeping close to our loved friends in our crazy hectic lives. So doing the same with God is important, because a lot of the time if we don't then he'll fall to the wayside. There are several different list of spiritual disciplines: the obvious like prayer, solitude, Bible reading. and the more obscure like celebration, strength through suffering, and sexuality. Stephen Poore is doing a really good series on the Spiritual Disciplines, and that's what i've been concentrating on for the past month. Again, it's not to figure out a formula, but just to get familiar enough with my God to where his Spirit can properly and easily move in my life and i'll be aware of it. And it gets me hype that Solomon tells us that discipline is part of the path to wisdom, cause I definitely need some wisdom in my life to help me through life's obstacles.

my "why i deserve this scholarship money!" essay

I am extremely proud to announce that i won $500 of scholarship money this week! Merry early Christmas to me! It's through a student financial aid assistance group called "The College Place", and they have them at several colleges including VCU of course. The solitary essay question to answer was "why do you feel you deserve this scholarship?", which i think is very awkward. "Ok scholarship people, this is why i'm more broke and more charity worthy than the other people applying to this thing...". With the help of Maria, i think came out is a good goals list for the next 5 years of my life,wanna help me keep them? Here is the essay i wrote for the committee:

Dear Last Dollar Scholarship Committee

I would like to be considered for Last Dollars scholarship because my future educational and career pursuits would be greatly enhanced by it. I am planning on becoming a vocational pastor working primarily with inner city students, which requires a lot of tuition dollars that I am unsure of how I will be able to afford. I have already been blessed with several grants and loans , which is aiding me in finishing my undergraduate time at VCU with a double major in Psychology and Religious Studies in the spring of 2012. Immediately after undergrad, I am planning on enrolling in a four year seminary to earn my Master’s of Divinity.

My family works hard to support my educational ambitions and every grant I’ve received has been extremely helpful. Whenever I receive a scholarship we move as much money as we can from the undergraduate funding to the prospective seminary savings. The Last Dollars scholarship will enable me to continue on the path towards my goal of serving others.

This money will be going toward what I believe is much bigger than simply education, but to the encouragement of the next generation to do bigger and better things. Having grown up in inner-city Richmond myself, I am fully aware of the struggles these children have. However, I am also just as aware of their potential. From some people we are encouraged to tap into our talents and passion to create social change for the better, while some pessimistically show us the “reality” of where we come from and who they thing we are. I vividly remember a conversation with my high schools sports director; he told me that black inner city kids would only embarrass themselves playing soccer against the more affluent county teams, he had no real interest in providing the money for us to have acceptable field conditions and equipment. As captain of the team, I shared this news with my teammates. At first we were incredibly discouraged but we decided to do everything in our ability to have a functioning soccer team. We cut our field’s grass ourselves; we paid for our uniforms and necessary practice equipment out of pocket. When we took to the field we impressed and earned more respect before our peers than anyone ever expected to give.

Through Christian ministry I hope to tear down the low expectations put on the inner-city children of the next generation, and help them realize their full potential even greater than me and my high school soccer team did. This scholarship would be a great aid in the pursuit of this dreams, I hope you’ll be a part of it coming true.

Sincerely,

Jamal Jones

Staring the Poor and Jesus in the Face @ VCU

One of my favorite parts about going to VCU is living downtown in an urban environment. I absolutely love the city, Richmond especially, but any city for that matter. Yeah, stars are beautiful. No stars is the major downfall of city living, but the greater person per square mile number and ease of transportation totally makes up for it in my opinion. As i venture and prepare for hopefully a lifetime of ministry, i know/hope that my heart's desire is to do inner city urban ministry.

So as i'm walking from my dorm to my first class this semester, i'm crossing the street and see a familiar site in downtown VCU, a beggar. Once i saw him i said to myself: "oh boy, welcome back on-campus Jamal. You don't have any cash to spare this guy, so just avoid eye contact at all cost and keep walking.". I peaked ahead real quick to read his sign, which said "Hitting hard times, God is good, anything helps". When i actually crossed his path, i did exactly what i said i'd do and passed him with ease.

I'm doing this new thing, where every morning (and all throughout the day) i pray for God to help me love him more. And as i walked by the beggar, it hit me. Wait a second, i'm praying to love God more, right? God thoroughly loves the poor, so in turn that means i should love the poor as well, is how i acted towards that beggar how you treat people you love? Obviously not.

I hear so many people talking about how their either scared of the homeless downtown, or they don't wanna have anything to do with them. I once had a mom (from church mind you) tell me how she didn't want her child going to VCU because she was scared of the poor people and homeless that can walk through campus and endanger her kid (yes, that's a fear, but really?!?!). When i think of that perspective on the poor (or periods when i have it myself), it reminds me of these verses Jesus spoke from the Bible:

"Then these righteous ones will reply, "Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? when did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will say "I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

-Matthew 25:34-36

So me ignoring that man down on his luck at the corner of Cary and Belvidere (according to Jesus) is like ignoring Jesus Christ himself...wow, i'm a jerk. So to me, that verse means that when we see the poor, or the homeless, if we love Jesus, then we should be compelled to bring some love into their lives. I understand if it's 11 at night, you're a freshmen girl walking home from a friends dorm alone, and you see a homeless man sleeping maybe you don't necessarily want to engage him fully, i get that. But in appropriate situations, we can show love in many varying ways. If you have money to give, then give it, it's not really yours anyway, it's God's (sooo hard for me to remember, btw). If you'd rather not give money, then how about buying them some food from the nearby 7-eleven, or using your dining dollars to get them some Chick-fil-a. If you're feeling so bold get a group of friends to sit down with the man and listen to their story. If you're in a rush, then at the least give them a smile, a wave, and a word of encouragement. Anything to acknowledge them and show love.

This is something that's becoming more and more a desire for me, the more and more i ask God to help me love him more. It's hard to live out, but God will definitely help us do so. Jesus is always with the less thans, the have nots, the outcasts. And if we wanna be where Jesus is, then we should be there too. Right?

~Jamal

Rethinking the Golden Rule

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
-Matthew 7:12

Aka the Golden Rule. I've always known this principle to be in the Bible, but i've most often refered to it as a societal principle. So ever since first hearing this as a young child in Sunday school class, i've resorted to it in times of uncertainty. I would say to myself:"when in doubt, think of the thing i would want somebody to do to me in this situation, and do it to them. it can't fail right?" Depending upon who you are, you've either nodded you're head at the computer in agreement or you've laughed out loud at my niavety. I would lump this principle from Jesus as a piece of traditional wisdom (similar to the principles given to us in the book of Proverbs). In a near perfect world, the Golden Rule would work 100% percent of the time; but in our fallen and sinful world, sometimes the Golden Rule doesn't easily apply.

Implimenting the Golden Rule in daily life comes with many assumptions of the person applying it and the person it's being used to deal with, mostly character traits. For example, what if you are a very blunt person, therefore desiring that those around you are brutally honest all the time. What if that person decided to apply the Golden Rule to another brotha or sistah in the faith who doesn't share that same character trait? Well, trust me, i've seen it happen before (aka, i've done it before, haha). And the scene of a well intentioned friend speaking strong words of truth in love to a more fragile homie can end up being a waterworks show filled with crushed feelings. Mix and match the different character traits, and even contexts of each conversation, and you'll probably find many situations where the Golden Rule falls short in it's real world application.

This phenomena mimics the psychological theory of enacted vs percieved support. Enacted support is the giver's perspective of helping out a friend, while percieved support is the reciever's perspective of that help. Psychologists have determined that percieved support is EVERYTHING! It doesn't matter how nice, or good, or honest, or helpful your words are gestures are, if the recipient percieves them as hurtful or dangerous, then you've officially wronged them. Another example maybe; you are cleaning up your dorm room, and while you're at it decide to clean up your roommates side as an act of kindness. But your roommate comes back and is extremely pissed that you moved their stuff around and they can't find anything they need. As you absorb their hysteria, you're wondering to yourself: "how could this be? if i were them, i would of loved the kind gesture from a friend." Enacted support vs. percieved support my brothas and sistahs

Wow, i've come to the end of my thoughts on this topic, and i really don't have much of a solution. Maybe it's the fact that it's 1:11am, or the fact that i feel as though i've written long enough. As people who love Jesus Christ and are praying for Him to begin to change our hearts to love the things He loves and desire the things He desires, how do we effectively avoid the pitfalls of poor human perception and nature to apply the Golden Rule properly in our daily lives? Anybody got any words of practical wisdom for me?

~Jamal

Well, you never asked!

Ah, these ill-fated words, haha. As a dude with a girlfriend, whenever these words come out of my mouth i know two things; 1) i'm in trouble and shouldn't of said it at all, and 2) one of us has made a basic communicating error. I feel like people nowadays (including myself) make asking for stuff so difficult. Whether we're scared of the answer we're gonna get, to proud, or feel embarassed; we ask up, down, and around the question when it really just needed to be hit straight on. When we're asking for advice, it's always "hey, umm, well, my friend is having a problem with the boy she likes..." or "well, i, er...was like...maybe could you possibly do this kinda for me?" Gosh, how often do i make things way too difficult and awkward this way?

Right now, i'm reading the book "Crazy Love" with the family life interns at WEAG, and it's absolutely rocking my world. For maybe the past year, i've just been wondering if i'm really doing this Jesus thing right, ya know? And the answer was a resounding "NO!", haha. For all that the term "doing Christianity right" could mean, i believe that if our lives show an obvious love and daring chase after the things of Jesus, that is the difference between true Christianity and 'lukewarm Christianity".

But anyway, back to my main point. I'm reading this book feeling so convicted (for the first time in a long time), and saying "yeah, i really don't love God like i should. How do i fix it?" And like any good book, the answer came on the next page:
"The fact is, I need God to help me love God, something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives"
~Francis Chan, Crazy Love

I keep reading, and Chan basically tells us that if we want to love God, all that we have to do is ask. Just say, "God, i need your help, so help me to love you more, help me want to be closer to you." WHAT?!?!? It's that simple?!?!?! I often am occused of making things more complicated then they need to be, and i'm starting to believe it myself now. For the longest time, i've just been praying in repentence, and kinda saying to God, "Lord, i know you've asked so much more from me, and i'm going to try harder to do it". Which is totally the wrong approach, in His word he says that if we ask, and it is in His will, it will be given to us. And i can't think of anything else that would be more within God's will than for me to love him more, so that means God's gonna do it! It's like we're sitting here, struggling to get rid of our addictions by ourselves, our depressions by ourselves, or hard times by ourselves, and God has the answer and solutions. He's like, "geez yo, why hasn't he just asked me for help?!? why won't he just ask!"

I'm gonna try to wake up everyday, praying diligently for God to help me. To give me more of His love and His Holy Spirit. Not only will God bring me out of my funk, but He will then use me in ways i've never imagine, or thought were possible. He's gonna give me true joy, and true love. The life of passionately follow Christ is the only real way to live, am i right? I feel so realieved and excited, cause i think once and for all, the lesson that i can't ever do it without Him has finally sunk in, haha. I hope you guys do the same :)
~Jamal

My Thoughts on World Cup Futbol

I write this blog in haste and in a mix of sadness and excitement. I'm about to leave for a missions trip to Long Island, Bahamas to put on a vacation bible school for the youth group kids of a partner church to my home church WEAG. Which i'm sure is going to be fufilling, insightful, and Holy Spirit filled; but this very trip takes me away from viewing the World Cup 2010 final live. I've been dreaming of this game since 2006 when the last final ended. i feel really good right now since part of my dream has actually come true, the Netherlands is in the final! Anybody who has talked with me about soccer at all knows that i'm in love the the Dutch national team, and that's who i'm calling to win the Cup, therefore beating the highly favored Spain. So in my (kinda) extra time, i figured i'd lay out some of my other thoughts on "futbol".

1. Why i spell it "futbol"
I spell it (and say it) this way because that's what the rest of the world calls it, and most soccer fanatics also call it this. But when talking to the average viewer, they would confuse it wtih "american football" (i still don't know why it's called that, but that's for a whole nother blog). So to help with the confusion, i spell it as the hispanics do, and give it a foreign accent, so people don't get it twisted.

2.Diving is ALWAYS cheating, but not every time a player hits the ground writhing in pain is a dive
"Diving" or "simulation" is the practice of exaggerating or making up the pain of contact to recieve a favored call from the ref. Yes, some players do this, and EVERYONE in the futbol community sees it as cheating and disgraceful to the sport. It's something that the powers that be are working hard to get rid of, but cheating is always going to be a hard thing to get rid of. Diving isn't "just part of the game", it's a disgrace and at times have robbed people of the titles and results they deserve. For example, an Italian player took an obvious dive to get a penalty kick in the dying seconds of a semi-final game in the 2006 World Cup, they scored the penalty and won the game because of it. They robbed their opponents of the opportunity to fairly play onward, especially since they were playing better. Italy went on to win the World Cup that year, but i and the rest of the futbol world i believe should be very ashamed of how they did it.

And on the contrary, sometimes a player honestly is hurt! Haha. People (especially people who don't know futbol that well) watch the games and scream foul at ever player down. Well, the more i've researched each player, find out that players come into the World Cup with injuries, and when those players are hit in their healing body parts, they go down and down hard and don't get up for a while. If you just had knee surgery the month before, and get the slightest kick to the knee, won't it hurt a little more than normal? Also, the exhaustion the players are under lends them fall and take longer to get up as well. Other sports, players get periodic rests, but not in futbol. You've been running (and hard) up and down a 100+ yard field for almost 90 minutes straight, that foot tripping you up will send you flying, and your exhaustion alone will give your body a deeper shock. there are a bunch of different scenarios and exceptions like that, so the taunting of a diver is harder to judge. And the stereotype of professional futballers as wimps and actors is very untrue.

3. The team playing the most beautiful futbol, should ALWAYS win.
This is my most charished thought, haha. With Elliot and Ese, i have this saying: "in the perfect world..." and fill in the blank. Futbol is about pretty passing, strong tackling, effective defense, and putting it all together to score goals. Futbol is NOT about diving or acting to get a call. Futbol is NOT about playing a stratedgy of 99% defense to hopefully get a lucky goal before the clock runs out. Futbol is NOT about bullying your opponent off the ball and throwing weight around. Spain and the Netherlands both play what i would consider beautiful futbol, but i personally like the Netherlands style of beautiful futbol the best. It's faster, flashier, more dangerous, and consuming. Every player on the Dutch team is determined to go forward, each player is capable of goal scoring, and each has the ability to play any position on the pitch. I really hope the Dutch pull through, especially for their long history of being WC runners up, but if they lose, i really hope that Spain played the most beautiful futbol that day. Winning doesn't always equal beautiful futbol, but i wished that beautiful futbol always equaled winning.

Those are all the points i have time for. I can't stress enough how these are all in my very humble opinion, that i totally can understand if you disagree with. But it's from the words of Eric Cantona and Joga Bonito i got my futbol education and it's on those words that i have named my blog. So in that spirit, i hope the Netherlands and Total Futbol win the World Cup 2010 trophy. And if they do, remember me. And my large negro smile :D

Purpose of Preaching?

I'm not sure how many of you know this or not, but i wanna become a pastor when i grow up. I enjoy public speaking, i love the scriptures, the study of them and pulling life application from them, and i love caring for God's people. Haha, as i read that short list, i'm not sure if i've convinced myself that i wanna be a pastor for good enough reasons, so i won't be mad if you yourself are also skeptical out there. I have gifts and talents that i believe have led me to the desire to work as a pastor. So "preaching", "speaking", and doing "talks", whatever you wanna call it, i suppose is part of the job description. I came to my realization of career path several years ago, and from then on decided i would kick start my learning and preparation on giving sermons by paying close attention to those done by the pastors or my church.

So for the past couple of years, i've browsed books on how to write sermons, how to format them, their structure, and most important of all, what a "good" sermon sounds like. So whenever i sat in a service and a sermon was given, i would sit and specifically breakdown the goods and bads of each speaker i heard. Then i came across one book, that reminded me of the purpose of preaching altogether, which is "to encourage people towards life change based on the Word of God". Life change, that is the real purpose of preaching, wouldn't you agree?

So often, i'd sit through a sermon, and instead of trying to find and act out the suggestions towards life change for Christ the speaker was trying to bring me to, i would simply critique them and leave thinking "yo, he used a three point sermon, who does those anymore?!?!" or, "his stories were tight, he kept my attention the entire time". That's messed up, i've come into a service, been challenged from the scriptures to action for my Lord that i say i love, but i hear the challenge and basically ignore it. Leaving no different than when i came in

Looking at it from the perspective of the listener, it's important for us to really bring our attention and brains to the time where one of our own shares God's Word. I believe it as our job to do whatever we can to understand the application being given by our speaker (good speakers make this part easy ;) ) then, acting upon it. Regardless of how good or bad the speaker is, it's our job to do something with whatever we hear. I've found that just because the style the speaker choses to convey their message is bad, doesn't neccesarily mean the message itself is bad also. We shouldn't be so selective maybe, only choosing to internalize and carry out the messages of good preachers, right? maybe?

And from the perspective of the preacher, if we aren't getting up there with the purpose of preaching for Christocentric life change, then maybe we should re-consider preaching at all. There are exceptions though, i believe it isn't blasphemous of me to say (PLEASE correct me if i'm wrong) that not every single verse of the Bible lends itself to life changing or challenging application.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:
"All scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the people of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
So different scriptures lend themselves to different things, some are more useful for plain teaching (which make me think more of making you think or revelation), some are for training (which makes me think more towards life change possibly)

I spoke @ Eighteen22, and right now we're in a Psalms series. Trying to stick to the range i was given, i read through Psalms 15-35 vigourously and panic filled. In my mind and understanding, not a single one of them were capable of drawing any life change or application, they all just were for "teaching", as i would put it. So i was having a mini-meltdown, i was freaking out saying "oh my gosh! should i even speak this week? ughhh, there's not point!". Yes, there was a point, that week and with those scriptures, i was supposed to simply teach the Bible, and that's ok sometimes.

But if we're getting up there every week, and just entertaining our congregations, or just teaching them the Bible, is that the best way to lead God's people into outward good deeds and inward change? We are saved by faith and the love of God, but that faith and love should stir up in us the desire to do the good that God dreams for us to do. For us to be a part of his mission in the world, bringing it back to Him and spreading His love. Loving God like crazy, loving others just as much, and making more disciples who will do likewise.

I struggle with all of this soooo much, as an aspiring speaker myself, as a weekly listener, as a full time Christ follower. I myself and trying to let the words of my pastors and friends who sharing their insights from God's word with me, to honestly begin to change me inward and outwardly. That's how it's supposed to be, right? Cause let me know if i'm wrong, haha.
~Jamal

me and Dustin Kensrue wrote a melody together

This blog turned into more than i expected, haha. if you want just the part the title suggests to, skip down to the all caps first sentence paragraph. :)

For those of you who don't know, i really like song writing, my favorite lyric writing. I write songs for myself and others all the time. When i was in middle school, i formed a band called Alteration 64 with some good friends of mine (Peter Klemm, Matt Ingram, Beau Medas, and Tristan Dougherty) and i was the lead singer/rhythm guitarist. I got in the band because i really wanted to write songs, i absolutely love lyricism. I loved those songs, and even submitted them as a project for school! Cause i submited our songs for school we even got to play at one of my school events! All of my friends and loved ones like Keith and Joni Garrison and the Ingersoll's came! I love you guys so much for coming, i will never forget that night! Especially cause Jim reminds me monthly how horrible of a singer i was, and that i should never sing solo again, haha. Thanks Jim, i promise, i won't ;). I feel like none of the other guys really cared about or even like our band as much as i did. No, me and Peter both loved that band, Matt could care less, Beau might as well not of been in the band, and Tristan cared but was too good for us/didn't like our style. I really appreciate Tristan being in it for as long as he was, cause he helped us play a battle of the bands, i'll never forget that day. Peter's mom drove us up there in her van (cause we were too young to drive), with our little guitars, practice amps, no pedals, soooo ghetto. Gosh, Mrs. Klemm has done sooo much for me over the years, i need to send her a thank you note. So we're like 13 year olds, everybody else is 18 and up, and have such nice rigs. We were a mix of embaressed and hype all at the same time. We did the battle and were judged, and placed dead last by like 20 points! haha, man, i still have our scores you guys! Remember that! I'll never forget that day, so thanks Tristan for being in the band to make that happen for us, i really appreciate you. One of the judges's only good comments was "YOUR BASS PLAYER ROCKS!" Props Tristan. But the band definitely didn't like my singing. I'm not bitter at all, but i'm loosely quoting Matthew Ingram: "your voice is so bad Jamal, that it will be the reason people don't like our band". Haha! crazy right? i guess i was/still am a super bad singer, but i hope/think everybody liked my lyrics ok.

Lyricism is one reason why i love rap and hip-hop so much. The bests rappers are above heads and shoulders better wordsmiths and lyricists then the best rock song writers, i would say that to anybody and any band. Since i'm not in a band writing original music right now, i guess this is a good place to post all of the song lyrics i write and have no real use for.

Me and Maria both love rap, and writing rap songs. Maria Moore is a rapper yall! she even has a video out! haha, it's on youtube, i might even put it at the end of this post. Maria always thinks up clever lines, and soon we're gonna start writing them down to compilate into the greatest rap song EVAH! Hey Maria, maybe we can post and keep track of your lines on here? haha.

ANYWAY, TO WHY I NAMED THIS POST ME AND DUSTIN KENSRUE wrote a melody together. I've fallen in LOVE with this band. Props to Callie G. who handed their entire catalog, i'm loving my life right now. But anyway, i came across this one song, "Daedalus", and i hadn't even heard the lyrics yet, but the end melody struck me. So freestyled, i sang out

"Oh! These words don't mean anything to me

If all these words are real, then what's in between?"

They don't even really neccesarily make sense, but after i sang em, i wrote it down. They kinda explain how i've been feeling recently, but am in a way coming out of. A lot of the time recently, when i've sat down to read the Bible, i finish the section and have learned or realized nothing. The verses i read were just words on a page. i'll sit and think, but nothing will make sense or have any meaning. That's a problem right? If this is God's living Word, and i'm praying for guidance and his messages, then why am i not getting them? There are a million different reasons why i wouldn't, and i know that sometimes that's just what's gonna happen when you read the Bible. But it was happening so often, that it was frustrating me. After reading the bible every day for 2 weeks and got getting anything out of it, it makes me wanna just stop reading all together. Which i know is wrong, but that's just how it makes me feel. I'm pulling out of it now, which is good, God's speaking to me through his Word more and more. Which i think is a causal relation to my increased serving (which i will save for another post). But yeah, that sums up those lyrics

Here are the lyrics that Dustin is singing in that same section:

"Oh God! Why is this happening to me?

all i wanted was new life for my son to grow up free

and now you took the only thing that meant anything to me"

I promise, i didn't have a clue what he was really singing, but we kinda came upon the same concept. The story he tells on that song is heart wrenching, and beautiful. Dustin Kensrue is a top class rock lyricist, he grabs at my emotions and forces me to feel what he feels. Him, Sujfan Stevens, Jesse Lacey of Brand New, and Matthew Theissen of Relient K, and Claduio Sanchez of Coheed are my top rock lyricist. The most important thing to the Character of Dustin's song was his son, and he lost him, and now he's pissed at God. The most important thing to me are my revelations from the Bible. It has been for a long time, a little bit of that is rooted in pride, but i'm trying to tone that down. But in the same type situation, when the revelations stop coming from God, i kinda turn and get pissed at Him. Which is lame, and dumb, but that's kinda what i am at times, lame and dumb, haha.

I love God, and he's always faithful, so he does, has, and always will bring me out of those dry spells. He did for Moses, David, and Joseph, so he will for me and he will for you. Amen? Amen. thanks so much for reading!

here are the links to the Thrice song Daedalus, listen to it and try to find "our" melody refrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgbOUVJbNA

Thrice is soooo good, talented instrumetalists, beautiful vocals and lyrics.

p.s., i am a HORRIBLE speller, and am way to lazy to fix them, spell check doesn't seem to be working. so i apologize for all my errors, there are many i'm sure. please no spelling edits, haha.