It is finished...

It happened, just how He said it would. He was arrested, tried and falsely convicted. They saw Him beaten, forced to carry a cross and nailed to the cross. They saw Him raised up, mocked and forsaken by God. He took the sin of the world on Himself and died. Jesus is dead. They carried Him to a borrowed tomb and watched as the Romans rolled a stone to seal them out, posting guards by the door. There's confusion and chaos everywhere. It seems that no one knows what to do. So they go back to the last place, the last place they met and they pray. They pray for wisdom, for peace, for understanding but mostly they pray for their Rabbi whom they had followed giving up everything. They followed Him homeless, hungry and in doubt, but He always had a plan and their needs were always met. Already they miss His teaching and His way of pulling things together. Judas is hanging from a tree, Peter is in disbelief that he actually denied His Lord and thinks He's doomed. The only thing "good" about today was that the prophecies had been fulfilled. There was no doubt in the mind of these 11 radicals that Jesus was the Messiah. They had witnessed history be changed forever. History was no longer customs and traditions, it was now His story and they were going to change the world.
It's not over...

The Silent One

Have you ever seen a speech delivered by Adolph Hitler?  Being of German descent, I have to admit I have no idea what he's saying.  However, due to history, I know that it isn't good.  That isn't really the point though.  The point is Hitler moved people.  What he said and how he said it had a way of connecting and moving the people into following him by the masses.  Ghandi, Churchill, Lincoln, Stalin as well as a few other political and religious leaders could move people as well in this magnitude.  Let's face the music though, we all can't deliver a speech to such a mass amount of people such as these people.  We can, however, have a huge impact.  I want to look at the life of who I consider to be an often overlooked disciple.  I give you none other than Andrew.

He was formerly a follower of John the Baptist.  He met Jesus before actually being called by Christ.  In Luke we read that he brought his brother Cephas (Peter) to meet the Messiah.  This played a crucial part in Peter's later announcement to Christ that he was the Messiah.  He returned to being a fisherman and it is believed that almost a year passed before Christ came to the shore side and told Peter and Andrew to follow Him and He would make them fishers of men.  I believe that Jesus to these two because he knew what Peter would do in the future of establishing the church and reaching countless people.  He also saw that Andrew was the one who would bring people to Him.  We don't see a lot of Andrew throughout the Gospels, but his small appearances make a huge impact.

The next time we see this quiet apostle is at the Sea of Tiberias among a multitude of hungry people who were following Jesus.  Phillip, when asked by Christ how to feed such a large amount of people, was frightened and even said it was simply impossible. Then Andrew spoke up and begin asking what sort of provisions there were.  He then led the boy with five loaves and two fishes stating that it wasn't much, but it was all the boy had to provide for all these people.  If you're unaware of the remainder of this story, Jesus performed a miracle by using those five loaves and two fishes to feed the large crowd of people.

Next, when Andrew shows up, the disciples and Jesus are on the side of the Jordan.  There were some pagan converts who were in Jerusalem to worship God during the Passover.  They approached Phillip asking to see Jesus and Phillip delegated the task to Andrew.  Andrew took the request to Christ, and though it was not said if Christ met with these converts, I believe that Christ would not have turned them away.  However, they received a tremendous surprise.  Jesus responded in John 12:23-29, and it reads:  23 Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.   24 “I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.[g] 25 The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. Where I am, there My servant also will be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.   27 “Now My soul is troubled. What should I say—Father, save Me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name!”[h]   Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again!” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said it was thunder. Others said that an angel had spoken to Him. (HCSB)

While sitting on the Mount of Olives, Jesus, Peter, James, John and Andrew took part in an event with Christ that upset every Jew tremendously when Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem.  In Mark 13, we read that Jesus was asked to reveal when this will take place and what will be the sign.  Jesus' reply proceeded the question, and you can read that for yourself.

The next time you hear of Andrew occurs after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  The disciples met in the upper room, full of anxiety about what was coming next, to pray.

It's neat to look at the other disciples and their personalities contrasted to the personality of Andrew.  He wasn't outspoken like Peter, he didn't ask for special status such as James and John.  But more curious and unusual is the fact that our Lord Himself let Andrew stand by in silence. Jesus had not called him to a place of superiority among His disciples; it was his brother Simon, who owed his acquaintance with Jesus to Andrew, whom our Lord had called to be the leader of the apostles. But would not Peter's brother also have been capable of holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, even more fit than the impetuous Peter? And it was not Andrew whom our Lord permitted to rest on His bosom, but John. Did Andrew therefore love his Master less than John? No. He too experienced with John the joy of the "tenth hour."

Andrew simply did not belong to the circle of the entrusted three whom our Lord especially had chosed to witness the most important hours of his life; at least not directly as did Peter, James, and John. When Christ was raising the daughter of Jairus to life, certainly this apostle was waiting with the other eight outside the small room. With them he remained behind also when our Lord took Peter, James, and his brother John and ascended Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration. Even in the Garden of Olives, Andrew had to remained with the other apostles; he was not permitted to go off a distance with our Lord and the privileged three-although he might have been the only one to keep a watch and pray and not fall asleep.

The fact that Andrew was sometimes with the three "elite" apostles and sometimes with the other eight is clearly shown to us throughout the Gospels.  Jesus didn't consider Andrew less important than the first three apostles. Think about it though, what seems to be an oversight on the part of Christ is a great act of trust and confidence I believe. Andrew was the first one to be called. Between Jesus and him there was an understanding.  He is loved even when there are no special favors. This, it can be rightly judged, was the relationship between Jesus and Andrew, a silent understanding and love, a real happiness.

One of the lessons we are taught through Andrew is that the one who holds a place of honor must not always be the one to speak; and if he is the first, he should also be as the last. It is easier to fall from a high place than from a low place. Andrew showed that it is possible, though difficult, for a great person to practice true humility.

Another lesson I believe, is that we may not be our brother (Peter) and reach thousands upon thousands of people, many at the same time.  However, if you look at Andrew, he was constantly bringing one, two, three people to Christ.  My point is, we may not be the next Dr. Graham, we may not be the next Peter or Paul.  We may, however, be the next Andrew and a constant, steady flow of people to Christ.  The church of today should have this picture and hang on to it.  While it's great to bring in thousands and thousands of people to Christ at one time (I might add that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's completely Biblical), however I can't help to think that most of us don't have that spiritual gift.  Most of us will be bringing the one person, the two people and so on.  If you are part of a church that has say 100 people, your fellow Christians as well as yourself should have no problem reaching thousands of people.  

The moral of the story: instead of being a mega star, be humble, brave and silent while leading people one at a time to the Rock Star. (That's JESUS)

I'm a Saint

I hope you like the new look.  I really liked the idea of making my own banner for the site, so I made one.  It's right up there, yep above this.  I hope you like it!

I'm a saint.  There, I said it. Saint Nate is my name and well, my game is pretty lame.  Sometimes rhyming gets on my nerves so I'll stop for the sake of you as well.  If I had to choose my saint name though, it would definitely be Saint Liechtensteiner or something cool like that.  Nate will suffice though.  So I know I talk a lot on here about Christian hip-hop, but I am very impressed with these men and their influence on urban culture.  The subject of this is really based off a song by Christian artist Tedashii titled "I'm a Saint". These guys have recently released an album entitled Man Up.  This album by a group of these guys called the 116 Clique is a great charge to urban men and even includes a Bible study and ways for men to "Man Up".

Back to the scheduled program, I am a saint.  No, sainthood has not been granted to me by a church, religious organization or country, but by Christ who gave His life for me.  When He came to earth for me, he saved me from my filth.  It doesn't stop there, and that act wasn't a free ticket to heaven and eternal cloud surfing.  I had to reach a place in my life where I realized that without Christ's forgiveness, I would be eternally doomed.   When I reached that place, I had no idea about the work but joy that came next.  A lot of people and even pastors think that saying a little prayer will get you riding the clouds.  Wrong!  The key to salvation, which is a far cry from cloud surfing, is repentance.  When Christ died, He became an atonement for our sins.  What is atonement you might ask?  The best way I've ever heard it defined is like this: at|one|ment.  When we turn away (repent) of our sins, filth, bad habits, etc. we become at one with God.  We don't become God, but Children of God.  The key there is we have to die, yes die.  We have to die to all our wants, dreams and selfishness and totally give ourselves to God.  We have to want His will and we have to give up sin.  That's the only way to go to heaven and eternally give praise to God who sacrificed paradise to come down to earth and suffer, be beaten, mocked, humiliated and die to raise from the dead and defeat death for our sins.  So, being a child of God, this has put me into the status of sainthood.  Not so I can boast, but that Christ can get all of the glory and praise.  I am second...

Check this out!

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Business vs Ministry

I think I'll take on the area of churches operating as businesses. I've seen a lot of things that even my own church has done that, while making perfect sense as a business practice, have absolutely no logic to it ministry-wise. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should be bad stewards of what we have been given, or that we shouldn't try to bring money in. I'm saying that the money we bring in as a church, should go back out and invested in the eternal lives of people.

When we look at our church finances and begin to make cuts because we are worried that the money may not come, we have essentially taken God out of the picture. There isn't any faith in that, so what are we teaching our congregations? Again, great business decision and a poor ministry decision.

I recently read an article about a band who were beginning to set up a live recording of one of their concerts live. I love live recordings, they are artistry at their best. However, when creating a set list they were faced with omitting a song that their church worshipped to in a remarkable way because it wasn't really a record selling song. They had to ask themselves if their purpose was to sell records or facilitate worship. They chose to worship, but how easy would it have been to sell more and essentially make more abandoning their call and purpose? How easy is it for us as believers to forget our call and purpose?

I was taught as a child to never question your elders, pastors, or church staff. I didn't listen very well and I will do my best to never teach that. Even in the Bible we are told to have discernment, and to test spirits. So, I encourage you to test everything. Your pastor, Sunday school teacher, myself, the bands you listen to, everything. If nothing else, you will learn more about God's word and additionally, your own faith.

A Bedtime Snack

Hey everyone! I hope it's been a great week.

I'be talked to a lot of people recently about culture and how it relates to the church. Some believe cultural relevancy does not belong in the church. Some believe it has everything to do with the church. What do you think? Here's Nate's opinion....

I believe that the church must be culturally relevant to be effective. Jesus talked to people in their culture and in a way they understood. Don't believe me? Read the stories of Jesus ministering and see how He presented Himself in regards to where He was. Do I think most churches are effective? No. We've become fat sheep that will either fall over or be eaten by the wolves. After studying Acts and the early church and studying the ministry of Jesus, I see that we're doing things pretty opposite. Church today is referred to as an empty building most of the time. In Acts, the church was the people, regardless of their location. The early church moved and didn't wait for people to come to them while they were getting fat. They went out looking for people to bring in, give their story to, build a relationship with and lead to Christ. Then they discipled them and send them out. We do that as a church body maybe twice a year. Look at the Great Commission. It says "go" there isn't a maybe or wait, but it says for us to go. When was the last time you went and followed God? When the disciples were called, they had to drop everything right then and there and follow Christ no knowing where they were going, what would happen to them, or when and if they would come back. The church should follow Christ in the same way. We should sit around and constantly be fed. We should be going out into our communities and seek out the lost. We should meet for discipleship, but that's it! The Bible says we should watch for the Lord's return and when we watch, there's an urgent sense and so we should be urgently trying to get all the people we can to go to paradise with us forever. I know this isn't popular, mostly because we are comfortable, but Jesus was anything but comfortable here on earth. Also, we should be building relationships with lost people and eating and hanging out with then. The pharisees criticized Jesus for doing that, but He is our example. Jesus did this so they would listen to Him as a teacher and friend. He didn't come in and yell at them and tell them they were condemned. He instead talked to them and then shared the Good News that He was the Messiah.

My question is are we fat sheep or are we sheep that are ready to travel?

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A few minutes to talk

Hello all, I hope you are having a fantastic week. I had a great father's day this past Sunday as I spent all day with my wife and kids and after church, just enjoyed them. My band Restored just finished a fundraiser concert with some local and not so local artists and it was great, but I am very glad it is over. Along with us was Sarah McCoy, Winston Holder, and Katy Kinard. Katy came from Nashville, Winston from Charlotte and Sarah is a hometown girl. I want to talk about some local options for hearing and being exposed to local bands and venues to see such bands within the contemporary Christian genre. First, is probably my favorite place to spend a Friday or Saturday evening in downtown Asheville, strategically situated between two bars and that is Creature's Cafe. It's a great and family friendly place to go hang out, meet people and listen to some great music. Bands from all over the area come and play there, and their windows are huge and swing open so anyone walking between bars are likely to hear some great Christian music. They offer "mocktails" which are non-alcoholic drinks, coffee and the likes as well as some amazing cheesecake. Go check them out, they are right off of Patton Ave. in downtown Asheville beside Tupelo Honey Cafe. Also in the area is Rodney's Auto on Main St. in Weaverville. While it is not a typical concert venue as through the week it is a functioning auto repair shop, it is great for the family to enjoy some outdoor music while cruising along Main St. in Weaverville. Every third Thursday night is bike night I believe, and so you can hang out, look at cool bikes and hear great music! I might add that Restored and Relentless Flood will be playing there August 13th!

Now for some local musicians/bands that I love. Mainly because I know them and I know their heart, but also because they have some great music! First of course, is my band Restored. We play mostly praise and worship music with some southern classic rock influenced in there. You can check us out at www.reverbnation.com/restoredband Second, is a band called Relentless Flood, they are from the Spruce Pine/Newland area and are some great friends of mine. They tend to play more rock music, so if that isn't your thing, I have told you. You can check them out at www.reverbnation.com/relentlessflood Third is the lovely yet hard rocking band Bestowed. They are a little more heavy than the previous, but their message is awesome. You can check them out at www.reverbnation.com/bestowed

There are tons more that I could talk about, but it is that time yet again...time to get the kids ready for bed. Maybe I'll make a part 2 soon!


Nate