Be-attitude #7

Peacemaking - wouldn't it be nice to live in a world of peace makers? Well, we don't. We live in a world of feuders. And it is not a 21st century thing. From Cain and Abel on, civilizations rise and fall because of fighting. Most people on the planet want peace. "Dude, seriously, I just saw a VW van plastered with peace signs run over a stray cat." Ok, not funny. But the point is, we want everyone to get along. Stop the fighting already. It is not accomplishing anything.
The peace that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5 is not just getting along. It is internal peace. The kind that you can have only when you are not holding any grudges or bitterness. And the desire to see peace in every relationship and in every situation becomes a constant passion. Blessed are those who bring peace.
Somebody reading this will wish that I stopped right here, but I have to take it another step, maybe a leap for some.
Peace can only happen in my relationships if it first happens between me and God. There is a war, a spiritual war, that rages for the souls of mankind. The root cause of this war is personal sin. A holy God must punish those who fail His standard and we all fall far short of that. This same God also loves us and has provided an a substitute to stand in our place, to take the punishment we deserve. When we accept this generous offer, there is peace, ultimate peace.
The war is over, live like it!

#6 - pure of heart

Pure is a difficult concept in our world. We can get fresh, organic, or shiny new, but still contaminated. My orange juice says it is pure. The chocolate bar says "pure" right on the package. But I saw the 20/20 special when they stick that candy bar under the microscope they find all sorts of "contaminants" in there. Gross! I'm gonna lose my appetite just thinking about it.
Let's move to a more palatable example, eyeglasses. I don't wear my glasses very often and when I do I clean them every time. It drives me nuts to have smears and spots. But I have seen people who wear glasses every waking moment and they are so dirty, I can't imagine that they can see anything! The contaminants on the lens hinder clear vision.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
When contaminants are allowed into my life, my view of God gets cloudy. When my motives are selfish, I am not like Jesus. When my music, movie, tv, book selection is less then sanctified, I invite contaminants. When I lose my temper, fail to forgive, hold a grudge, or speak a harsh word, my view of God is not clear.
If my view of God is clear, then my heart will be more pure. As my heart becomes more pure, my view of God is clearer. From my clearer view of God, I desire to clean up my heart even a little more. And that my friends is the process, call it sanctification if you want, whereby I become all that God wants me to be.
p.s. not even sure that "whereby" is properly used in that last sentence, but it sounded cool.

Be-additude #5 - mercy

The Greek word for mercy is eleos and the meaning is really a pretty easy thing to understand. Mercy is the altruistic attitude of a Christian, empathizing with the unbeliever, doing everything possible to help them understand God's grace. Ok, maybe I just muddied up an easy to understand word. How about this - mercy is loving people into heaven.
Why do missionaries give up the "comforts of home" to go to an unknown place, maybe risking everything? Because their are people who need to hear that Jesus loves them. That is mercy.
Why do pastors work ridiculously long hours, often sacrificing time with their own family to study, preach, visit, counsel, comfort, challenge, plan, and more? Because their are people who need to hear that Jesus loves them. That is mercy.
Will you risk a little? Are you willing to work kinda hard? Do you know anyone who needs to hear that Jesus loves them? Show mercy. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

hunger and thirst for righteousness

Be-attitude #4 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
When I think of hunger, I think of the moment just before I decide that I want to go to the Pizza Ranch buffet. Because in that moment, I am hungry. Hungry enough to eat a dozen slices of pizza, a huge piece of fried chicken, salad, one more piece of pizza, and then desert pizza with ice cream on top. And so I do. And then I am not hungry any more, in fact I am beyond uncomfortable and close to sick.
This is not the kind of hunger that Jesus is talking about. He is trying to create a picture of constantly wanting more. Unsatisfiable hunger. Have you ever twirled a little kid around in your arms? What do they say? "Do it again!" So you do it again and they say, "do it again!" So you do it again and they say, "do it again!" So do you get the point or do I have to do it again?
The Greek "hoi" means to be satisfied yet want more. What Jesus is teaching us is to desire His righteousness, experience it, and want more of it. The closer I am to Him, the closer it makes me want to be. I am satisfied, but I want more.
And I want a piece of desert pizza.

Be-attitude #3

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Meek is not the same as weak. Jesus gives the best example of "power under control" when He interacted with the Jewish religious leaders. He very strongly confronted their pompous religiosity but without sinning. So even in conflict, Jesus loved the individual with appropriate words and actions. Proverbs teaches that "a gentle word turns away wrath."
This third beatitude is another striking example of the backwards and upside down nature of God's economy compared to man's. It would seem logical that the bold and ferocious would inherit the earth. But God says that the inheritance belongs to the mild mannered. Speaking of mild mannered, how about Superman. There is a picture of power under control. I'm not sure I am ready to make a theological parallel here, not just yet.
Next step - hunger. Is it time for lunch?

Be-attitude #2

If we use the word picture of a ladder, then the beatitudes or be-attitudes, would work like this. The top of the ladder, the goal, is to be "characterized by the attitudes of God." In other words, people should look at our lives and think, "wow, they are the spitting image of their (heavenly) Daddy." So that is the top. The bottom rung on the ladder is "blessed are the poor in spirit" because the first step is admitting "I am a sinner and I have nothing to offer a Holy God that makes me worthy of forgiveness."
The second rung from the floor is "blessed are those who mourn." The issue that we are to be mourning over is our sinful condition. This is the attitude that causes us to be increasingly grief stricken and intolerant of our sinful nature. As we become more and more like Christ, we become more and more aware of how bad our flesh is. I want to attend the funeral of my selfish sinful ways, mourn that I ever thought that way, acted that way, believed those lies. I love righteousness and I really really don't like sinfulness. It makes me cry.
God, please forgive me for my sin. I justify and rationalize all sorts of things that I know are wrong. I don't want that to be true of me any longer. I want the darkness of my sinfulness to be drown out by Your brilliance.
Next step - humility.

be-attitudes

This morning I had the privilege of sharing everything I know about Matthew 5:2-12. It obviously is not much, because I threw in a couple jokes and stories and still finished in about 20 minutes. I did get some nice compliments though, so I thought it might be worth putting onto paper.
I like to refer to these statements as "be-attitudes" because they describe the attitudes that should be evident in my life.
The passage is taken from the "sermon on the mount" which ends with these words at the end of chapter 7, "...the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority and not like their teachers of the law." Not only was the content of the "speech" solid, but He clearly understood how spirituality works. The "teachers" at that time, and maybe now too, give their best advice based on their limited understanding, but the God-man, Jesus, spoke with authority. So the "blessed are those who" statements are not just good ideas, they really fall more into the category of the 10 Commandments.
The goal - to have the attributes of God evident in my life
"Blessed are the poor in spirit" is not talking about those who mope around feeling sorry for themselves. There are two Greek words for poor. One means "I ain't got much." But the word used in this verse means "I got nothin.'" It is important to understand that the first step towards spiritual maturity is admitting that when it comes to the relationship between me and God - I have nothing to offer. He offers me the free gift of salvation. I can't earn it. I can't be good enough. I can only admit that I have nothing to appease the almighty God and beg for mercy. Now God is full of mercy and eager to forgive, but I have to admit I am really, really poor when it comes to spiritual things.
Step one - confess that I am a sinner in need of God's mercy

New Website!!

Our new website just launched today! Horray, Horray! Today! oh, yeah!

www.twinlakescc.com

New Website

We have been working on updating our website for weeks, but it feels like years! I had no idea that it would be such a gruelling task. The concept is simple - provide an outlet for information, easily accessible, intuitive... But the amount of time put into editing information, researching other websites and trying to grab the best ideas, and working out the bugs - unbelievable. Can you tell that I am tired of the process? Anyway, enough whining - the site is almost done and will likely post in the next day or two. And it is sweet. The look is totally new and fresh. We are working on some branding around the "fun place to get serious" tag line. So the site has some fun elements, but still provides easy access to information. Check it out. www.twinlakescc.com

This is just SOME of what took place during Wintertainment at Twin Lakes Bible Camp this past weekend!
-Polar Bear Dipping into ice cold water on North Twin Lake
-Ginormous bon-fire at night on the frozen lake
-hot breakfast with friends
-laughter, sharing stories, getting to know new friends
-toasty warm beds after a great day in the winter snow
-chapel sessions with high energy worship
-being challenged with God's Word
-small group conversations with purpose
-DiscoICEteka~!!! (the kids know)
-We were blessed to have Stan Hayek and The Salt Company from Ames. God used them!
-Feedback was excellent: Many made comments like...BEST camp ever!! or most awesome winter retreat of my life. In fact, the word “awesome” was used in 14 camper comments!
-During small group time - a hardened heart was softened...and Jesus was invited in!! There were MANY more heart changes!!!

Here is what happened:
God has given us a great facility. God has blessed us with a staff who did an EXCELLENT job. God gave us counselors who care about the kids. God allowed The Salt Co. & Stan to be with us.
God used ALL OF THOSE key pieces to come together for one, great weekend with the campers. See the common denominator: God!!! God is at work here!!!! HE is!!! It's exciting to see.

If you were a camper - we miss you already and we will look for you this summer.
If you are a parent of camper - thanks for letting your child come!
If you were here to help - God used your willingness.
If you did not come - you are wanted next year.
If you support this ministry - SEE how God is using your support!! Thank you.

Please be watching for BIG NEWS coming next week!
In the meantime, stay warm on the inside,
Scott Larsen (for the whole team)
Twin Lakes Bible Camp

getting started

The decision to blog was really forged out of necessity. I really don't have anything new to say, but I need to keep saying the same old things. Camp is such an incredible to Kingdom building tool, that it would be ridiculous to stay quiet about it. Obviously it is God that changes peoples lives, but He chooses to work through human hands. Camp strategically presents the Gospel in a tangible way using genuine counselors and staff in an environment saturated with God's Word. Is it any wonder that so many people look back in their own lives to a camp experience as a pivotal part of their spiritual journey?
As the days and weeks pass, starting in 2010, these posts will hopefully bring glory to the Almighty God, by chronicaling His work in our world.

Scott Larsen - Director of Twin Lakes Christian Center