The Box

I'm back in Redding after a great trip home to see my wonderful cousin, Alexandra Richard, marry Andrew Canada! It was a fun weekend of getting to know new people and celebrating with friends and family:

The beautiful bride and her good-looking cousins

I'll never get tired of looking at clouds from a plane, and I took this shot as we broke through the cloud barrier that covered Chicago. It reminds me that even on the cloudy days, the son is still shining above us:

Insert caption about how God is the same way

The latest news in the BSSM world is that today was the official day when mission trips for the Spring were announced. I'm going to South Korea! We'll be in Seoul training Christians, ministering to celebrities, and releasing God's Kingdom in a country that is home to some of the largest churches in the world (Yoido Full Gospel Church, for example). I'll send out a letter later with more details, but if you want to come alongside of me to help make this happen, you can give here. Pretty much the whole school will be covering the globe at the end of March, so please pray that people experience Jesus in radical ways.

We've also been training for our city service projects. These are practical ways that we are investing in the city of Redding to see it become more whole and filled with love. I'll be helping to lead a kids' program in our neighborhood every Thursday. We've already met many of the kids here so we're excited to see them meet the power of Jesus!

There are a lot of references here to the box that everyone carries. It basically signifies our understanding of God and how he works. If we hear or see something that's not in our box, we question it at first because it's not what we're used to. Everyone is born with a pretty big box, but it shrinks under the extreme pressure of the world and our experiences. As we grow in faith, our box gets bigger and we're open to newer and crazier things that God wants to do. Jesus had a very big box but the religious people he spoke with usually had tiny boxes. In fact, religion has a way of making the world's smallest boxes.

I love that Jesus doesn't try to shove his message into everyone's box. Like when he tells the people who are following him to eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:54). He had just fed the 5,000 and walked on water and was running a pretty great ministry in our eyes. But after this statement many people abandon him because the teaching was too hard. In their box, they wanted a king that would destroy their oppressors and be awesome, not cannibalistic. But the 12 disciples stayed close because they new that he carried "the words of eternal life."

Jesus also told parables to hide things from people who didn't have a big enough box to receive his message. Jesus says "I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand'" (Luke 8:10). The humble and hungry people who truly seek out Jesus to learn more are the ones who understand his messages. Proverbs also says that "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings" (Proverbs 25:2). God likes when we search for him.

I've noticed many times that I try to bend and fold the gospel in such a way that it will fit into someone's box. I think it comes from a good heart, wanting everyone to know the truth, but God doesn't need us to make him look good. It's his nature. Sharing his love and power with people will always sow a good seed, and that is more important than we may think. Just keep sowing.

Here's a new song that I like: Shores by Bryan and Katie Torwalt from Jesus Culture.