This week at camp, our theme is EIKON, which is the New Testament Greek for image or likeness.

Romans 8:29 says: For those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

When reading this verse, most people get caught up on the words "foreknew" and "predestined" and become sidetracked with the issues of God's sovereignty and man's free will. But to do so is to do a injustice to this verse. The point of this verse is not to explain how God's absolute sovereignty works with man's apparent free will. Rather, Paul is trying to convey the sense of honor and privilege that comes with being a child of God. In essence he is saying, "you were hand-picked for a purpose."

Wow. God has hand-picked me, and he has hand-picked me for a specific purpose. What is that purpose? To be conformed to the image of his Son. This begins to make more sense when you consider Genesis 1:26-27 which says: Then God said,"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In the beginning God created man and woman in his image. But we rebelled and the image of God was shattered. If being made in the image of God means that we reflect him in some way as a mirror reflects an image, then The Fall has shattered that mirror. 

It's in this context that Romans 8:29 begins to make sense. God created us in his image, but we rebelled and shattered that image. Now in Christ, God has begun rebuilding that image. He has hand-picked us to be conformed to the image of his Son. If you are a follower of Jesus, God is working in you to restore what was lost in The Fall. He is rebuilding his image in you. That's what the Christian life is all about.

I was reading the other day through the book of James when a verse that I've read many times before suddenly shot straight to my heart like an arrow. I was reading and studying early one morning in my living room and when I read this verse, I literally said out loud: "Ah crap!"

James 1:26 says "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."

Wow. Worthless. That word hung with me for the rest of the day. Anyone who knows me knows that I sometimes have trouble bridling my tongue. The question, "Is my religion worthless" plagued me throughout that day. 

I became a little more intrigued the next day as I read through chapter 3 of James. In that chapter, James once again deals with the tongue, this time in a little more detail and depth. 

James 3:8 says, "But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison."

"Well," I asked myself, "if it can't be tamed then what hope is there? Is my religion doomed to remain worthless." In chapter 1, James tells me that if I don't bridle my tongue my religion is worthless. In chapter 3, he tells me that it is actually impossible to tame the tongue. WHAT THE HECK??? It was meditating upon these passages and this predicament that I remembered what Jesus said about what comes out of our mouths. In Matthew 12:34, he said that it is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. 

This is why you can't tame your tongue! It's not possible! In verse 4 of chapter 3, James compares the tongue to a ship:

"Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires."

The rudder, of course, is the tongue. The point of the verse is that although the tongue is small it boasts great things. But here's something I haven't noticed before. If you want to steer a huge ship (like an ocean liner) you don't go down to the rudder and try to move it directly. That wouldn't work! You can control it from there you have to go the the source of it's direction: the helm. The helm easily controls the rudder. 

It's the same with the tongue and the heart. The heart is the helm of the tongue. You can't tame the tongue. It's like trying to manually turn the rudder of a huge ocean liner. You have to go to the helm: the heart. If you have a filthy mouth, you don't have a tongue problem, you have a heart problem. If you gossip a lot, you have a heart problem. If you insult and put people down all the time, you have a heart problem. If you brag a lot, you have a heart problem. You have to fix the heart issue. If you try to tame the tongue, it will never work. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been taking a hiatus from blogging. I was waiting until I could come up with a plan to stay on top of it. Now with a plan fully in place you can expect to see blog updates from me about 3 times a week. 

Check back Friday for my first real blog in over 2 months entitled: "Your Tongue Sucks."

Don't miss it.

Josh Via's new album "The First The Last" hit iTunes today. I know that I'm maybe a little biased, but simply put: it's amazing. 

Right now as I post this blog, the album is listed at #27 in iTunes' Top Christian/Gospel albums! That's right, this independently released album is currently beating out albums such as Hillsong's "This Is Our God.

I'm on a mission to make this album reach the Top 10 before the day is out. If you plan on buying this album any time soon, you need to stop what you are doing, go to iTunes and buy it now. The more interest we generate, and the more downloads that happen today, the faster it will climb to the top of the charts. If you usually just copy other people's music or download illegally, don't. Please go purchase it on iTunes. It's only $9.99 for the whole album. You're not that broke.

I've been listening to it all day as I study and prepare to teach at a beach retreat this weekend. Josh's remake of the song "When God Ran" is hands down the best version of that song I have ever heard. As I was listening to it today, I was suddenly and completely reduced to tears in a public place. Such is the power of that song and the entire album. It is an anointed project and will bless you in your walk with Jesus.

Go buy it now. Seriously. I promise you won't regret it.

1. When it comes to personality conflicts, remember to elevate the mission. It's not about you. It's about Jesus and helping others connecting with him.
2. Your role is not just to fill a position. God has gifted you to be a part of this team and your role has eternal significance. 
3. Don't forget our team meeting on Sunday, April 25th at 1:15! We need you all to be there.

I think there is a grave problem rampant among Christians today, and I don't think that most of us even realize it. I know for a fact that I have been guilty of this problem, and it has only recently come to my attention.

To what am I referring? I am referring to the fact we are often looking for God to excuse our sin rather than forgive it. Think back to your recent times of confession. You might have said the "right words" but what was the motive of your heart? When you confessed your sins to God, did you also mention several reasons as to why it happened? 

"God, I'm sorry I lusted after that woman jogging, but I just couldn't help it. She ran right in front of me!"
or
  "God, I'm sorry that I blew up at my co-worker. He just made me so mad. I can't take his crap anymore!" 

Are you beginning to see what I mean? Listen to what C.S. Lewis has to say about this.

I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself quite carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says 'Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology, I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.' But excusing says 'I see that you couldn't help it or didn't mean it, you weren't really to blame.' If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive…

If you had a perfect excuse you would not need forgiveness: if the whole of your action needs forgiveness then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call 'asking God's forgiveness' very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some 'extenuating circumstances'. We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. 

The next time you go to God in confession, I pray that you will be mindful of what you are doing. Are you seeking forgiveness or are you merely seeking to satisfy yourself with your own excuses?

 Well, since it is St. Patty's day, I thought it would be appropriate to break out an old segment which I haven't done in a while on this blog: Great Prayers of the Past. You can see previous ones by clicking here.

Before we get to one of his prayers that I wish to feature in this post, here are a few things about St. Patrick that you may not know. 

First of all, he wasn't a beer drinking leprechaun like my image here suggests. Okay, you probably knew that one already, but this next one may come as a shock, so you need to prepare yourself… Are you sitting down? He wasn't even Irish. I know that comes as a shock for most of you, but it's true. St. Patrick was a Romano-Briton. In other words, he was British. The last thing you may not know about him is that he was a missionary. You see, here's what happend. When he was 16, he was captured by Irish raiders and taken back to Ireland as a slave. That's right, he was a slave. He remained a slave for 6 years until he somehow managed to escape and return to his home. Sometime after he returned home, he became a Christian and was later ordained as a bishop. It was then that he decided to return to the very people who had enslaved him, this time as a missionary. This guy had a serious love for Jesus, and some serious balls.

I have a huge amount of respect for this man, and knowing who he was and what he did provides some context to the prayer below. Perhaps it was prayers like this that gave him the courage to preach Christ to the very people who had enslaved him. You can also see his passion that every aspect of him preach Christ to the lost.

Christ, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Christ.
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

- St. Patrick

Several weeks ago, I wrote a series of blogs entitled "Naked and Hiding" about the fear of God. I almost hate to revisit that theme after doing a whole series on it, but I'm going to anyway!

Recently I've been reading through (again) A.W. Tozer's "Knowledge of the Holy." His chapter on divine transcendence has provided some insight for me on why "christian" people no longer fear God as the once did. Perhaps it is because we misunderstand the transcendence of God. You see, all of us would admit that God is transcendent, but when we say that what we mean is that he is the highest being in a succession of beings. For instance, on our scale we would probably have single-cell organisms on the very bottom, then just above that would be middle school students. As you continue to move up the scale you would probably have insects, then mammals, etc. Near the top, in our minds, are humans, then maybe angels, then (of course) at the top is God. The problem with this thinking, however, is that it places God on the same scale as us. Of course, he's at the top, but he's placed on the same scale nonetheless. Listen to what Tozer has to say about this.

We must not think of God as highest in ascending order of beings, starting with single cell and going on up from the fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub to God. This would be to grant God eminence, even pre-eminence but that is not enough; we must grant Him transcendence in the fullest meaning of that word. Forever God stands apart, in light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite. The caterpillar and the archangel, though far removed from each other in the scale of created things, are nevertheless one in that they are alike created. They both belong in the category of that-which-is-not-God and are separated from God by infinitude itself.

In order for us to regain an awe-inspired fear of God, we must regain a proper understanding of the transcendence of God. Listen to what Tozer says about the fear of the Lord.

When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesitation. The fear of consequences is no deterrent when the fear of God is gone. In olden days men of faith were said to "walk in the fear of God" and to "serve the Lord with fear." However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful. This idea of God transcendent runs through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of the saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty. 

This week as you spend time with God and when you pray, may you have an appropriate understanding of the gulf that separates you from God. May you have a renewed vision of the transcendence of God. And may you find a renewed awe-inspired fear him when you find yourself in the presence of God the Almighty. 

Our church recently helped S.O.S. (Share Our Shoes) collect and box a TON of shoes to take to Haiti. S.O.S. collects asks for people to take their shoes that are not being used and just taking up space in their closet, and donate to the people of Haiti. Jennifer Pierce, Founder and Director of S.O.S. personally delivered these shoes which numbered over 300,000.

Here is a video of just one of her experiences. Notice the shoe that she holds up to the camera. This is the shoe that she just removed from that little girl's feet. 

My wife and resident hottie, Kelly Via, has a blog that she keeps private. So when I saw her most recent post, I asked her to share it here as well so that everyone else could read it, because she makes me sound pretty awesome. Here is her write up on a recent endeavor that Journey Students just started working on.

My husband has a gift for working with students. I love to watch him as he creates relationships and figures out how to best minister to his students. He is definitely not your typical "Youth Pastor," and I think that is one of the most refreshing things about him. He's real. He's genuine. And he seeks out what the students need – and finds relevant ways to minister to those needs. Did I mention that I am his biggest fan?

On Sunday evenings he leads/directs "Uprising," which is a worship service for middle and high school students. Jonathan and his student leaders have been seeking to 'remix' Uprising for a while now, at the students request. They have been praying and seeking out what changes need to be made for months. This past Sunday was the first of several services that will be called "Uprising:Remix." These will be a series of trial services to see what tools, music, topics, atmospheres, etc. will be the best fit to lead our students in worship.

For this first Uprising:Remix we had worship leader (and my bro-in-law) Josh Via come to speak to our students. The atmosphere was simple, coffee shop style. There were no gimmicks. No games. Just Josh, intermixing his {incredible} songs with their explanations and some great words from scripture. And the students…well…to say they loved it would be an understatement. 

Once again, our God has given my husband the wisdom and clarity to start tweaking things to better reach our students in this ministry that He has given him. I am grateful that Jonathan doesn't just do what "every other" church does to reach students. He goes out on a limb, he dares to do what others do not. He is creative and wise. And in it all, seeks Christ in each decision he dares to make.

Did I mention I am his biggest fan??

Keep Remixing it, Babe!!

-Kelly Via