Chittenango Falls in HDR

December 22, 2011

Go West, Young Man

August 30, 2011

I just returned from a trip to Colorado Springs, Co this past week. I do have to say that the mountains are a beautiful sight to see. I was in Colorado for a conference with other new workers in the C&MA. The conference was refreshing to say the least and it truly helped me see the bigger picture of what the C&MA is all about. I got to meet some fantastic people that have a real heart for the lord. Their love for God was so palpable during our conversations that it was hard not to be awed by the way God is working in their lives. But conference ramblings aside, (I could go on for a long time about how great it was) I was inspired by something I saw while out in Colorado.

Now it would be cliche for me to write about how inspiring it was to wake up to see the Rockies every morning so I posted a picture of my hotel room view to satisfy your appetite for majestic scenery. Instead I want to talk about something else that inspired me while I was at the foot of the mountains.

Flying into Colorado Springs I expected to see rolling hills that lead up to pine tree covered mountains, lots of rivers and lush green land. Maybe I was jaded by the image of CO from playing Oregon Trail in fourth grade. I expected something different than what I did see that day. Instead of green hills I saw, what looked from the airplane, to be flat desert land. When we landed it felt like a desert, the air was dry, the ground was dry, and not much looked like the green hills from home in central NY. Now I must confess, I have never traveled much, and I have never been to a real desert (you know, the ones with sand dunes and cacti) but I feel like this was fairly close, I did after all see a cactus growing in someones garden in their front yard.

But what all this dry ground made me think of was of my studies on spiritual disciplines. It is hard for one to study spiritual disciplines without coming across stories about the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Women and Men who left the civilized world to seek out simple lives in the solitude one can only find in the desert. I am not confused as to why they chose the desert of all places to seclude themselves to, they chose the desert because it is one of those places on earth where a reliance on God is completely necessary. Few resources are found in the desert, and the ones that are found there are precious. Everything that was given by God in those places must have been a precious gift.

It makes me think of those dry moments in our own lives. The desert moments where we feel like God is far away, and our lives feel dry. I think it is those moments when we must continue to press into God, truly seek God. I am constantly struck by Psalm 88. At first glance it is easy to have questions about how something so unsettling could be included in the scriptures. After all, aren’t all psalms supposed to be happy and uplifting?

When I read Psalm 88 I picture a man whose life is in the desert, a dry place void of the living water that Christ offers us John 4 but what I see in Psalm 88 is not someone who does not want the water but, nor do I see a someone who is not seeking the water. I see someone who both longs for the water and is searching for it. I don’t know the outcome of what happened to the psalmist who wrote Psalm 88, but I do see the bigger picture framed by the scripture. I do know that Psalm 88 is not the end of the Psalms, and that the very next Psalm begins with a turnaround from the mood of Psalm 88. If Psalm 88 is spoken from of one who is seeking God and his love, then Psalm 89 is spoken from one who has found both of those.

Desert times are not void of good, however bad they may feel as we walk through them, but know that many have walked through the desert before us. And those that made it out of the desert found God was with them the entire time, and they were strengthened by their time in the desert. Perhaps we to should be more like the Desert Mothers and Fathers, and intentionally seek out the desert so that we may grow in our faith. Perhaps we will come out with a greater appreciation for the Water we receive at the end of our journey, and a greater longing to share that Water.

-MJM

A Lesson on Obedience: From The Parable of the Prodigal Son

May 24, 2011

One of my favorite stories in the bible is the parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus shares in Luke 15:11-32. I have heard so many sermons and read so many things about the story that my mind is filled with different ideas about what Jesus was trying to say.

I can’t be certain when the first time I heard the story was. I would guess it was early on in my life as a Christian. I can assume that it was during some sort of lesson or sermon, as I truthfully wasn’t that into reading much of anything at that point in life. (It was middle school, and I would much rather watch the movie than read the book.) But I am still struck by how many different interpretations this simple story has. So many views, so many opinions… I may not know what the correct interpretation is, but I can at least add to the conversation. So I want to share a simple theme that I find in the story of the Prodigal Son, the Faith Son, and the Waiting Father.

The simple theme is Obedience.

The prodigal son’s representation of obedience is easy to see. In his case it was disobedience that was clearly exemplified in his actions. He was not obedient to his role as a son. Instead of being obedient to what was his role, he chose to walk away, separating himself from his identity as a son. It was this act of disobedience that cost him everything

The Faithful Son represents obedience in almost the complete opposite way than his brother does. This son assumed that his obedience would be enough. He did all that his father told him and he obviously thought that deserved some reward for all he did. But because he was simply obedient and never sought anything other than to do what he was told, he never experienced anything exciting. Perhaps this is why he was so jealous of the party thrown for his brother, when no parties were ever thrown for him. But the truth is that his obedience gained him everything his father had, which he merely had to ask for.

We also see obedience in the actions of the father. We often are quick to place the God card on the father, while at the same time we fail to see how human this character is. He was obedient to his role as a father,through that he was able to reflect his heavenly father. It was through this obedience that he was able to share forgiveness and love with his son, regardless of the the things his son had done

The Prodigal Son learned that his disobedience cost him greatly, so he to returned to his father, and he was welcomed home. The Faithful Son, through his obedience, gained all his father had. And the Father’s obedience to his title, gained back the one he lost.

I came across a quote from The Screwtape Letters a few weeks ago, and it struck me as something very in tune with this theme. C.S. Lewis Writes,“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy’s [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” Our obedience speaks to the very core of who we are in God, and though at times we feel like his presence is far from us, our willingness to obey shakes our enemy [Satan]. Obedience is one thing the parable of the prodigal son speaks clearly on. And it teaches us that obedience  leads us to God and his righteousness.

“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:16-18 ESV)

When Iron Sharpens Iron

April 1, 2011 — 1 Comment

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the verse in the book of Proverbs, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”(27:17) I returned this week from the North Eastern District Pastors Conference for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The conference was an assembly of most of the Pastors on our district and it got me thinking about this verse.

Now from my experience so far in this denomination I have seen that the Alliance is made up of pastors all of whom share the gospel message of Christ in common but still come from a vast expanse of theological backgrounds. This is exciting to me because it shows how different we all can be, yet we all share in the common call for us to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”(Matt 28:19)

I see this verse in Proverbs as an essential part to understanding how these different views work together towards a common goal. We as Christians are called to sharpen one another but I don’t think we understand what this means all the time.

My pastor once said to me, “We are called to sharpen one another, but sometimes we forget that when iron sharpens iron there is friction, and that kind of friction makes sparks.” I have not been able to forget that comment because so often I discuss with others a different view point with others instead of making each other sharper we make each other blunt.

I don’t want to be responsible for making my brothers and sisters in Christ blunt because of our disagreements. I want to sharpen them on the truth that we both hold together. We must realize that in our faith and believe systems there are beliefs that are essential and then there are ideas and concepts that are secondary. The essential beliefs are the ones we need to sharpen ourselves with, the secondary beliefs are used only to adorn already magnificent blades.

Sometimes we as Christians want to make every sword in our armory look the same… But if we all carry the same style blade we can only fight in one particular way. But some of us need to be longswords, rapiers, or claymores, while others are meant to be daggers, katanas, or sabers. Each one has its different purpose and use but each one sparks when it is sharpened by the other.

We need to come to the understanding that we are not against each other just because we hold a different view on some aspects of our faith. We simply have a different blade that we are using to fight a common enemy. But the sharpening, with as much friction as it causes, and as many sparks as it makes, brings us further in the advancing of the Kingdom of God.

After all, that is what we collectively pray for as the church: “let your kingdom come, and will be done.” So we too should continually pray that God would help us to sharpen one another so that we can be useful in the advancement of His Kingdom, and to not become dull because of our differences.

Vital Momentz Has Moved.

February 28, 2011

In a search to more easily convey my thoughts the former Vital Momentz blog of www.VitalSignz.org has now moved to WordPress. This blog will feature more personal thoughts as well as the devotional thoughts that were previously a part of the Vital Momentz blog. Please follow the new blog here on WordPress to keep up with whats going on with the ministry of VitalSignz, iMpact, and the thoughts that run through my head.

Sincerely,

Michael Mastronardi

Freedom From The Blinders

February 28, 2011

In a recent reading from John 8:31-38 I noticed a few things that really stood out to me. The passage is always quoted using the cliche notion of “The truth will set you free”, but there is so much more than that in this passage.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word,
you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never
been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin
is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son
remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that
you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds
no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what
you have heard from your father.”

(John 8:31-38 ESV)

The one thing that stands out the most to me is the line that the Jews say to Jesus. They respond to his offer of freedom with, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” What stands out is that these Israelites seem to think they have never been enslaved.  Its funny how they seem to have forgotten the time they spent in Egypt, and in exile with the Babylonians. And more so they seem to not see that their country is occupied by the Romans at the very time they say these things. It’s no wonder most Jews at the time didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah because they didn’t even realize they needed to be delivered from anything.

We must take our blinders off and realize that when we sin we are indeed enslaved. But Jesus comes as one who will save us from our sin. Jesus offers us freedom. Sin puts us in slavery but Jesus frees us from the slavery of sin.

The problem is that when we are freed from sin, we are not free to sin again. Paul writes in Romans 6:18 that once we have been set free from the slavery of sin, we become slaves to righteousness. The truth is that if we are not slaves of righteousness we are still slaves to sin.

The good news is that God’s grace is what we need in order to become slaves to righteousness. Without help that comes from God we can not overcome sin. The common mistake we make as Christians is that we try to Undermine the consequences of our sin with the application of grace. The truth is that we can never undermine the consequences of our sin, even with grace. The good news is that we can overcome the consequence of sin with the application of grace

Again I say, We can overcome the consequences of our sin with the application of grace!!! And that is good news.

The choice that we must then make is whether we will take our blinders off and see the sin that traps us. Then we can choose to accept our Messiah and allow him to set us free.

For No Apparent Reason

February 28, 2011

If you don’t learn anything else about central NY, where I live, know this… We get lots of snow… Now I am not saying that we get more snow than anywhere else, I’m just pointing out the fact that we get a lot of snow… It’s a normal part of our every day life during the winter. Along with that realization is the fact that we are presented with a seemingly never ending winter task of removing the snow from our driveways. (believe me, when you have to do this multiple times a day, with a shovel it becomes a daunting task) Which leads me to the topic of this blog entry.

In the midst of one of our larger snow storms here I got bogged down in a super hectic schedule at work(Like its something new for all of us to get to busy). I believe I was away from my apartment more than I was there this particular span of days, but I managed to make it home for lunch one afternoon… Now I had put off shoveling my driveway because I was so busy and quite a bit of snow had accumulated. As I finished my lunch and prepared to leave I could hear a snow blower outside. I just assumed it was my neighbor cleaning off his driveway but upon opening the door to leave I realized my neighbor was snow blowing my driveway.

Now this, for most people that have a good relationship with their neighbor, would be just a nice neighborly gesture. But for me it kind of floored me. Aside from barely knowing his name, (we are on a first name basis only) I think I have seen him, in the last 6 months, about 6 times… I was floored by the fact that he was willing to do such a kind act for no apparent reason. I truly was struck by what he did. He offered to me something for nothing. As I reflected on what he was doing my immediate thought was, “What can I do to repay his kindness?”, I was perplexed to say the least.

This speak volumes about how we as humans respond to the gift of grace. We immediately try to come up with a way to repay God, as if when we fail to work hard enough to meet God’s standards he will withhold grace from us. This mentality goes contrary to what scripture teaches us. Scripture tells us, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:20-23 ESV) The gift is free, meaning we don’t have to do anything for it except that we must receive it. We don’t need to work for it, as a matter of fact we can’t work for it. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We can not work to be saved, it is pride that tells us otherwise. Our pride makes it hard for us to receive grace.

So today I pray that God would remove my pride, so that I can receive God’s grace as it was meant to be received. As a gift, not because of what I have done, but because of the love that God has for me. What hinders you from receiving God’s grace today?