When People Meet Jesus series

Loving God "With Your All"

One of the teachers of the law came and heard Jesus and the religious leaders debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

-Mark 12:28-31

When Jesus was asked to summarize EVERYTHING that God has asked of all the people that He created, Jesus picks just one statement as the most important commandment of all of them. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:5, and it says: “Love the Lord your God with all of your Heart, with all of your Soul, with all of your Mind, and with all of your Strength.”

I don’t know if you’ve looked at a Bible recently, but it has A LOT of pages! It is chock full of amazing stories, challenging commandments from God, powerful statements of God’s love and support, and interesting quotes that really change the way you think about things. Throughout the ENTIRE story, Jesus takes just one sentence and uses it to summarize what it looks like to be a follower of God. Pretty easy, right? If we want to be people that really follow God and show love to our Creator and Savior, it seems we just simply ought to follow this very clear verse…Well, maybe not so easy.

See, it is so easy to quickly pretend that we know what we’re talking about when we say we LOVE God. “Oh, you just need to pray and read your Bible and go to church and be nice to people…right?” Well, that’s partially right. See, this statement from God illustrates a picture of LOVE that is WAY bigger than just a few actions.

When you really break it down, what does it mean to LOVE God with our mind? How about LOVING God with our strength? With our Heart, or harder yet, our Soul? When we say we asked Jesus into our Heart, what does that REALLY mean?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll dig into these questions to ask what it actually looks like to LOVE God with our all! I hope you are as excited about this as I am!

See you all on Wednesday,

-Brandon

For you commenters out there, here are a few questions:

1) What is the name of your favorite pet (current or in the past) and what is a way you show/showed them love?

2)   If you could create your own super pet by combining any three animals, what would it be?

3)   Of these four (Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength), what is easiest for you to Love God with? What is hardest?

About Me: A Search for Identity

We’ve been covering quite the interesting and important topic recently…the question: Who are we?

Behind our favorite musicians, the type of clothes we wear, and our favorite colors, it is important for us to go deeper into understanding who we are and why we’re here. The way you answer this question will decide how you live.

Though it seems easy to fill out a bio on our Twitter or Instagram accounts, major identity issues are experienced by many around Jr. High and High School years. People often feel worthless, prideful, closed-off, bored, on their own, purpose-less, and confused. The world around you may offer you value or attention only if you fit into its box (wear the “in-style” clothes, have the “in-style” friends, talk about the “in-style” things, like the “in-style” bands, etc.), and many people buy into this and are hurt by it. God has a different story…

You are:

>God’s Masterpiece: You were created in God’s image as His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). Check out Genesis 1-2 to find out about the value that isn’t based on what you do/don’t do or what friends you have/don’t have. You have incredible value formed into your very skin! So, understand your value and live in light of it!

>Dependent Sinner: You turned away from God and are dependent on Him for help (1 John 1:8-9). Check out Genesis 3 to find out about how we have this tendency to turn away from God. Though we are His masterpieces, let’s admit we’ve got problems and turn to God for His help!

>Under Construction: You are a work in progress as God works with you and in you to shape you more and more into the image of Jesus (Philippians 1:6). Check out Philippians 3:12-15 to hear Paul write about the journey he is on with God. God doesn’t want to leave us in our problems, He wants us to follow Him on this exciting adventure of improving and becoming more and more like Jesus each day!

>A Piece of the Puzzle: You are a part of a much larger community, you are not alone (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Check out 1 Corinthians 12 to hear about “the body of Christ”, the community that must work together to function correctly. We were not designed to be alone, and the story is not all about us, we are one part of a bigger story and a bigger mission. Let’s live like it isn’t all about us, being sure to turn to others to build up and be built up!

>An Ambassador of the King: You have a mission that is so much bigger than you (Matthew 28:18-20). Check out 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 to hear about the incredible mission we have to help “reconcile” the world back to God. Following Jesus isn’t just about our own salvation, it is about sharing Jesus’ love all around the world. Let’s remember that our identity is not just who we are, but what incredible things God has for us to do for Him!

I hope we can continue to find our identity in God’s story, building a foundation that will hold no matter the storms ahead.

-Brandon

For all of you commenters out there, a couple questions:

1)   If you were to define yourself with a color, a type of food, and an animal, what would they be?

2)  Which one of these topics are you most excited about? Why?

Hullabaloo 2013! Disciple

“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ So, leaving everything behind, Levi got up and began to follow him.” –Luke 5:27-28

Hey all!

I’m going to keep this short. Hullabaloo 2013 was incredible! We spent time in quiet with God, we asked for healing, we learned. Then, we jumped on trampolines, we took that next step, we followed Jesus in His call even though we didn’t fully understand why (like Levi the tax collector and Peter the fisherman). We stayed up most the night, and when we woke up on Saturday, we went out ready to impact Rancho. We cared for the elderly and the young, we taught, we listened, we hiked, we ate, we prayed, we shared Jesus with those around us. Then, we took it to our schools, the main battlefield where we spend most of our time. We prayed, we chatted, we drew, then we drove, prayed some more, made videos, and planned ways to bring a taste of heaven to the schools we are a part of through the power of Jesus.

I’ve got a question for you, students:

1)    How is that Jesus Revolution going at your schools? What steps have you made to make your school look a little more like heaven? Have they worked? What challenges are you facing?

2)    Have you met with your Hullabaloo crew at your school since Hullabaloo? If so, how?

And as you reflect back on this Hullabaloo goodness and have gotten some sleep, here’s one more question I’m super interested in hearing:

3)    What was the most fun moment of Hullabaloo? What was the most impactful moment of Hullabaloo?

Sweet! Comment away, I’m super interested to hear your thoughts!

For Him,
-Brandon

The Kingdom of God...what exactly is it?

“Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel, saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” –Mark 1:15

Have you ever been going about your day and have been stopped by something amazing happening? Maybe it is a gorgeous sunset that seems fake. Maybe it is a puppy so happy and joyful it seems out of place. Maybe it is a person running up to someone that dropped money out of their pocket to hand it to them. Maybe it is that super cool kid at school hanging out with that student who has special needs.

These things seem wonderful, beautiful, yet strange to us, I think because they represent something that is other than what this world normally offers. Nothing we make can look as beautiful as a sunset. Puppies are able to be so carefree from all of the worries of the world. People normally would keep the money for themselves. That cool kid could hang out with so many different people, why choose that student?

Jesus came and proclaimed the GOOD NEWS (what the word “gospel” means) about this thing called the Kingdom of God. Though I always thought this meant the place I’ll go after I die (heaven), the Bible seems to point to more than that. Check out what Jesus says in

Luke 17:20-21:

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

So, if it is “already among you,” that means it isn’t just the place you go after you die! If you’ve been at Rewired or Infuse over the past few weeks, you’ll know where I’m going with this. You see, the Kingdom of God is a revolution against the broken, sick, dark things of this world, all started with Jesus. Those moments that we see something beautifully different that seems against the ways of this world (selfishness, sickness, brokenness, loneliness, boredom, etc.), I think are moments we see God’s Kingdom transforming this world. These are moments where this world starts looking more like heaven!

The revolution is still going on, and Jesus asked you to be a part of it. When he taught his disciples to pray, he added a pretty cool line you may recognize: “Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Pretty rad, right? Let’s keep thinking about this over the next few weeks as we look at all that Jesus said and did.

See you all soon!

-Brandon

For you blog posters out there, here are a couple questions:

1)   What is something crazy awesome you experienced this week that seemed like a bit of Heaven here on Earth? (something you saw, ate, did, heard, etc.)

2)   If you could change one thing in this world with a snap, what would that be?

3)   How can you continue Jesus’ revolution in a real way?