Jesus was just a man...

I don't want my life to be forced or fake. The Lord has been teaching me so much about how I am supposed to live as a follower of Jesus. I say it's "so much" but really, it's just one thing over and over: that I can't do it in my own strength. I'm not supposed to. Yet that is totally the opposite of how I've grown up. My whole life has been about toughing things out, dealing with pressures out of my own mental and physical capacities.

From the words I need at any given moment, to decisions that need to be made, to even simply riding in the car, I realize that I am filled with God's Holy Spirit and that is the state I move forward in. But I confess, it's so easy to slip back into my old way of doing things. Like silent snow flakes falling and hiding the ground underneath them, my old thoughts pile up on top of the simple truth that I have an alternate power source to rely on.

This is part of what Jesus meant when He said we could do far more on earth than He did.

In John 14:12, Jesus says this exactly: "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

It's not that Jesus expects us to perform miracles of healing and changing water into coke or even to simply convince people of His existence by our own ability. He is expecting that if you believe in Him, you too will be filled with God's Spirit.

This leads me to another amazing concept that the Lord is helping me understand--Jesus was 100% human. Let me say it again in another way, Jesus Christ was God embodied in human form, but He was completely and utterly a man. He was no superman with a magical touch like a fairy or some kind of super hero. He gave up his "God card" so to speak. He could have done those miracle transactions on earth and put them on His "God card" but He didn't.

This is what Paul begins to unveil for us in Philippians 2. Jesus, "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Maybe your mind is sharper than mine and you're already thinking what I'm about to say...

If Jesus was simply a man, if He gave up His "God card" and was completely human, how did He perform those miracles?! (This is where I always get goosebumps.) Jesus Christ never dipped into His deity but instead relied on God's Spirit, prayer, and the Word. "Jesus was man as God intended man to be." (Ian Thomas) Jesus possessed all the qualities of humanness except sin and was able to have perfect communion with God. When Jesus asked the Father to change the water to wine, God did it. When Jesus prayed over the loaves and fish, God multiplied it to feed thousands. (If you want to learn more about this "hypostatic union" as the theologians call it, may I suggest this article by Dann Spader. I learned much about this concept from him and he offers many other resources at the end of the article.)

Let this settle in your mind for a moment. I hope I don't offend you when I say Jesus was just a man. Obviously He wasn't "just" anything, He changed the entire course of human history. But it's worth saying it that way just to knock you off your balance for a moment.

Knowing this truth can shed a great deal of light on ourselves as human beings including a couple of specific conclusions:
1. The resources that Jesus used are still available to you and me.
2. Jesus is our perfect model for life! (Hopefully a more achievable model for you now.)
3. We underestimate what God wants to do through us.

Thank you for reading this far, if you made it this far.

"So many people minimize the obedience of Christ by saying, 'of course Jesus obeyed, He was God and had God's nature in Him; He had no choice.' Scripture does not allow us to draw this conclusion. It presents Christ as a man who faced every temptation and succeeded, not because He relied upon His divine nature, but because He relied upon the Word, prayer, and the Spirit. And He succeeded all the way to the cross--even death on the cross."
Dr. Bruce Ware, Southern Seminary

a new addition to our family

We have a new baby!






...Did I trick you? Sorry. :o) We got a new baby bunny! His name is Charlie and he's about 8 weeks old. He's so much fun, he's even trying to type with me right now. Here's a few pictures of him. You can find many more on our Flickr site from the link on the right side of this page. We love him already!

"Stuck on the hill"

Yesterday there was a snow storm on campus at SFU and hundreds of people were either sliding down the mountain in their cars, walking down on foot, or stuck on campus for the night sleeping on pads laid out in the gym. SFU is located at the top of Burnaby Mountain and on a clear day you can see all the way downtown into Vancouver.

Yesterday was not such a day. As I was trying to leave campus around 3:30, it was a beautiful, quiet winter wonderland. It took me about an hour to go 100 yards on the road around campus to the main exit road. As cars and SUVs slid around and pedestrians weaved in and out trying to avoid those ballet-ing vehicles, I sat wondering if I'd ever make it down the mountain. Meanwhile, the buses had stopped running (meaning no one relying on public transit could leave), cars were sliding, coming to rest facing wrong direction, and two fire trucks were stuck in the snow.




The pedestrians made it down the mountain faster than anyone in cars... and the expensive cars (e.g. BMWs, Jags) slid around like penguins into the ocean. I'll just let the pictures tell you the story. These amazing photos are the work and property of txberiu and are borrowed from her site at Flickr.com.

...back to the races

So life has been going full steam ahead since last May.

Seriously.

We counted the number of flights we took last year and realized we'd flown various places 9 or 10 times throughout the year. That's a lot when you're supposed to have a full time job in an office! However, this year things seem to be a bit calmer, thankfully. We got back from being the states for Christmas and went almost directly to our AIA staff training. But since then, we've had all of our weekends to ourselves!

At the end of last semester, I began to feel pent-up and easily overwhelmed. I knew that's not how God wanted things to be and soon realized I was going through a burn out. This also led to a very dry, dark time spiritually for me. But being home for Christmas, being able to turn my mind off and just enjoy the people around me, and being reminded of my Savior's birth were very refreshing for my soul. Though, it wasn't until just recently that I began to feel healthy again.

Health is something God is teaching me a lot about and I'm just beginning to incorporate new things into my life. You have to be alive in order for God to use you. How useful am I going to be to God down the road if I have lost my health and my mind!? So, I'm trying to be mindful of what I'm eating (and consequently what Brian is eating), how I'm sleeping, keeping my home clean and tidy, getting at least a little exercise, and most of all spending quality time with the Father.

Oh how organized and put-together I sound! Ha, I'm still learning. While I've been trying to stock our pantry and fridge with organic food, we still have the occasional Wendy's. And Brian's a bit hesitant to try new things like organic milk and free range eggs. And he's not to keen on having more than one vegetable with each meal, but he's going along with me!

I want my life to be a picture of health and balance. While ministry is important, it's not everything. That's the thing I have to remember and not feel guilty about. Jesus was not a superhuman. He didn't wear a cape, have a big red S on his chest, or have a magical, tingly touch. He was a man. He just understood how to really rely on the Spirit for strength, sanity, and asking the Father to intercede and perform miracles for His glory.