Jake grew up in a Christian home in Greenville, WI, playing soccer and watching a lot of Star Wars. He moved to Madison in 2008 to attend the University of Wisconsin and pursue a degree in Secondary Education-Broad Field Social Studies. He started attending Blackhawk right away during his freshman year and got involved with various campus ministries including CAM. He spent the summer of 2009 doing an urban-plunge in St. Louis which radically transformed the way he viewed his Christian faith (Ask him about it!) With one year left to recieve his education degree, Jake is now interning with Blackhawk for the summer as he continues to consider the role of ministry in his life. He loves people, loves to dance, and likes a good adventure!

Something that has been on my mind lately is how to “take delight in the Lord,” and see God as our “all in all.” On the one hand, it cans seem pretty simple: be happy for who God is.  But on the other hand, this seems to take a concious effort to take time and praise God….a little more challenging to do all the time. 

I think what God is revealing to me, however, is that He really is in everything.  We sing the song ”All in All” that has the line “You are my all in all” in a peotic description of how important God is to us, but do we ever take the time to meditate on how vast and powerful that phrase is?  God means everything in all situations, all stories, all ideas, all of creation!  And we are to recognize and depend on God truly in all things.  God is our satisfaction for all of our desires.  ”All in All” starts to take on a deeper meaning when we start to grasp at this idea.

One product of this meditation process  for me has been trying to be more thankful for all God has created and all he is doing.  So whenever a thought crossess my mind about anything, I have been trying to express my thoughts to God by praying a simple prayer for whoever or whatever God puts on my mind.  It has been a good practice for me to try and praise God for things like tasting food, beauty, feelings, the people in my life, having a job, being alive, etc.  This practice has helped me focus more on God throughout my day and see how He is at work in our world.

Peace.

Hey guys,

I have had a number of comments on the talk I gave last week about Fearing God in relation to the apparent conflict between fearing and loving God.  A passage that has been brought to my attention that I think is important to consider is 1 John 4: 16-18.  It says “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, becuase fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

So right here it seems that we have a contradiction where those who fear are not made perfect in love.  However, what I want to call attention to in this passage is that the fear John is addressing is a fear of “the day of judgment.”  There should be no fear of God’s judgment because genuine love confirms salvation.  In other words, if we have a genuine love for God and accept His love for us, we should not fear death and judgment. 

This then, does not undermine Fearing God.  Our fear of God should be a natural, humbling response to His awsomeness, not a fear of condemnation.  The Fear of the Lord is rooted in understanding His power and is a necessary foundation to experience the fullness of His love and purpose for us here on Earth.

Hopes this helps a bit.

Peace

Hey all,

Thanks everybody for coming to CAM last night!  It was great to see so many people : )  I wanted to write a little more on the video series that we started using last night and give a little more explanation.  I had a few people come up and ask me what the deal was with the girl almost drowning in her bedroom.  It was kinda a weird scene, so don’t feel incompetent if you didn’t get it.

So I did some research on the creators of the Basic video series Flannel (http://flannel.org/) and watched some “behind the scenes” footage that was on the DVD we watched last night and I found out a little more.  As I mentioned in my talk, the goal of Basic is to transform people’s mindset about God and more specifically Church.  They want to have people understand that instead of going to church, we should be the Church.  And the very name “Basic” is used to give people an understanding of what Church is and what its supposed to be at a foundational level.  With each video, they want us to take away one simple truth.  So with Fear God, the obvious thing was that “if you saw Him, you would fear Him.”

The series takes a look at 3 different characters (one that we saw last night with the girl) and follows them in a very creative way for people to hold on to an image along with the message.  So the girl drowning is supposed to be a visual metaphor of what they want to get at: Fearing God.  According to the film director its supposed to be a, “simple, basic metaphor that shows an aspect of fear.”  So there you have it.  Nothing too complicated I guess.  Artsy people, I guess you have to help the rest of us out here on this one : )

Just another heads up then; there will be more of these “artsy visual metaphors” to come as we continue on in this series.  Please post your thoughts if you have any deeper interpretations of what was going on, or if you have any questions.

Thanks guys!

Peace

My first attempts at blogging…..ever.  This could be the start of something beautiful, or a short lived venture.  I guess we shall see. 

Last week I started a political science class here at the UW that is a study on “Ancient Political Thought.”  Basically we are reading Plato’s Republic and discussing his philosiphies on justice and the inner-self.  It seems to be an interesting class so far, and I have enjoyed the lofty discourse that we have had to a point (However, after 2 hours discussing the meaning of “good” your head starts to hurt).  I would have never guessed what happened last Thursday.  My proffessor started a conversation by asking, “Is anybody a Christian?”  I rose my hand looking around the room and observed my other 9 classmates looking right back at me; each with their hands down.  “Ok,” my teacher started, “tell me about John 1.”  Out of nowhere, I was put on the spot to discuss my understanding of the Bible and how it relates to the Platonic understanding of knowledge gained through reading.  Later, the professor asked me to give an account for the Christian understanding of free will and evil in the world.  Dang!  I mean, it was still the first week here people! 

But this is the reality that we face as Christians.  We are living in a world that is unpredictable and can ask difficult questions.  The Bible’s response to this situation?  Not to say, “Well, I will just leave that one up to God because I just don’t know” (Not to say that some things are absolutely beyond our comprehension and that can be the only response).  Rather, Peter urges Christ followers to “set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Chirst may be ashamed of their slander.” – 1 Peter 4:2

I have prayed on a number of occasions for opportunities to be used by God.  This is an important step in being a witness for God, but the next step that is also important is being prepared.  As Peter assures us, we are giving an answer for the hope we have. God is already by are side and throught the Spirit, He can give us the answers we are seeking and pick us up after failing miserably. I am both thankful and anxious for this opportunity in my class.  Hopefully through the Spirit and the wisdom God gives me, I will be able to communicate my understandings with gentleness and respect.  Who knows what kind of conversations will come about from this.

Peace