“The closest thing I can compare the church to is Frankenstein’s Monster.”

So how is the church like Frankenstein’s Monster? Well first we need to understand the story of Frenstein and his monster… The story goes like this:

A scientist, grieving the loss of his mother, seeks to find a way to bring inanimate bodies back to life. As part of his experiments he creates out of parts of other bodies a dead person and is successful in reviving the dead body. Frankenstein is horrified by his creation and flees from his lab and the monster escapes.The Monster seeks refuge in a country cottage for a year to observe a family, from a distance, and becomes educated and self aware. After a while he tries to approach the family but they are terrified by his appearance and chase him away. The Monster then encounters a small boy who he hoped would not fear him for his appearance but when the boy screamed and threatened him The Monster tried to silence him but accidentally kills the child. The child was the younger brother of his creator.The story continues as Frankenstein chases his Monster because of the destruction he caused and eventually along his journey Frankenstein dies. The Monster begins to understand the destruction he has caused after the death of his creator and ultimately he decides to lay his own life down.

How does the Church relate to Frankenstein’s Monster? Like Frankenstein’s Monster, the church was created from dead parts. We were all once dead because of sin but because of Christ we were brought to life. “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life.”(John 5:24)

So we were once dead and now we are alive if we choose to place our faith in Christ and what he has done for us. But that does not mean that we automatically know how to live. Scripture is full of references like Amos 5:4 where the people of God are reminded how they need to continue to seek God in order to live. Or Romans 6:12 where Paul reminds us that we are not to let sin continue to rule us.

We as Christians are not perfect. We are, throuout our entire lives of faith, learning to be more like Christ and growing in his image. As a church throughout history have caused some terrible things. I am not trying to say we are all terrible, but because we are bearers of the name of Christ in some way we carry the weight of consequences for those actions even though we are not directly responsible. We are after all still learning and growing. But the church has been painted with an ugly pattern of persecution and indifference to those who are different from us to the point that we have alienated ourselves and exiled ourselves to the insides of our churches and away from those who need us most.

For many of us this is a daily struggle, we find it hard to love everyone that God has put into our lives. It is hard to reconcile our morals and values with those who willingly choose to live different lives than we do. And in our effort to learn to be what we were created to be we hurt people. And we need to learn how to lay our lives and our opinions down so we do not hurt others any more.

Am I saying we give up on the truth and lay it aside? By no means! I am saying that the truth of the scripture is love. And we will continue to be like Frankenstein’s monster, destroying everything in our path, until we learn how to lay our lives dives and let Christ live through us. To let Christ love through us.

-Michael

It is not a perfect app, there are several limitations in brushes and color choices but it is very simple and intuitive. I like how clean the app interface is without having so many options that it becomes overbearing.

The app adds it’s own unique voice to your artwork and makes it simple to create something unique with every brush stroke. I recommend getting a stylus to use with the app as it feels a little unnatural to use the finer lined brushes with your finger.

I think the app is a great way to express your creativity, no matter how limited your skills are. If you have an iPad check it out, it is free to sample but there are extra features available for purchase in app.

Hope you enjoy creating with paper as much as I have.

-Michael

From Death To LIfe – February 2010

Today I stumbled on the measuring system of life… As I read the words from 1 John 3:14 I was awakened by the fact that life requires love.

Let me share the verse from The Voice translation of the Bible: “We know we have crossed from death to real life because we are devoted to true love for our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love lives among corpses.” (1 John 3:14 TV)

Death is where we dwell when we are surrounded by things devoid of love. The more we interact with death the more we run the risk of becoming dead ourselves. Avoiding death means we have to embrace love.

Today the challenge is not only to love, but to live… What does John mean by love? John’s definition is found 2 verses latter when he writes, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters”(1 John 3:16 ESV). In order to love we must lay down our own life.

John reminds us here that life is more than just a beating heart and breathing lungs. John’s challenge for us is to find the true value of life by giving our own lives in submission to God’s call.

This call beckons us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind. This first step to living involves loving our creator. The second step to living is loving our neighbor as ourselves.(Luke 10:27 ESV) When we give our love to God and our neighbors, we in turn are graced with the gift of life. But if we chose to withhold our love we attain nothing more than death.

So the questions becomes: Are you living amongst corpses? Or is today the day you choose to live, really live?

With Life,

-MJM

Ex-suicide…

Now I want to begin my reflection with a disclaimer. I am not suicidal. Please don’t send me frantic emails or call me wanting to shake me out of some deep depression. As a matter of fact I am not remotely depressed. Which is quite possibly why I am so intrigued by this quote.

I think this term has all sorts of beautiful implications about the way we live our lives especially when viewed through lenses of a Christian perspective, considering how we view the implications of sin in our lives.

I want to pause and bring up something a friend had written to me about the topic… His comment was based on the fact that suicide when completed is permanent and thus there is no return from that state. His recommendation was to use the term ex-suicidal but I fear that the beauty of the phrase is lost in this correction after all when I see ex-suicidal I imagine someone who has battled deep depression and suicidal thoughts and has overcome them. This then is not what I mean by the term ex-suicide and therefore ex-suicidal does not work as a replacement term.

Being an ex-suicide implies making a choice… The choice is choosing the alternative to suicide. The choice of suicide is death, but it also implies that death was chosen by the one who dies. To be ex or no longer death means to be life. Which concludes that someone who is an ex-suicide has chosen life.

This makes for an interesting relationship between a person and sin. Scripture certainly makes a point to tell us that that “the wages of sin is death”(Romans6:23 ESV) Which means that each time we choose sin it results in death. So each time we sin we are in a way committing suicide, perhaps not in a literal sense but more so in the figurative sense.

Christ offers freedom from sin which means we are offered an alternative to suicide. In His letter to the Galatians, Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 ESV) The yoke of slavery he is referring to is that of sin in our lives. Paul is reminding us that we have an alternative choice and that choice is to choose Christ or sin.

To become an ex-suicide means simply that we choose Christ. It is not some complicated process, but simply a choice to experience Christ and his love over our choice to sin.  We are constantly bombarded with this choice  between Christ and sin, and have the ability in Christ to turn from sin… from death… from suicide… To choose Christ, to choose love, and through him receive the fullness of life. To become a people who are truly alive. To receive the good news that is knowing that Christ died so that you do not have to, that he loves to show us how to love, and that he lives to show us how to live.

To be an ex-suicide.

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:19 NLT)

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

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)

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.

Sincerely,

Michael Mastronardi

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.