Remember: Ryan the Warrior

Ryan was the other side of this APUSH triumvirate. I also met him Junior year. The difference with Ryan was that Junior year was his first year at our school. Prior to that he had spent his time at a local public school but made the transition for his remaining two years. Transfer students that late in the high school cycle, especially into small private schools, tend to just float along and aim to just graduate. It is hard to break into a social class that has already been firmly established for years–there were some groups that had grown up since kindergarten together. Since I already had a close group of friends, I was not really looking for any new additions, but APUSH changed that.

If Ryan were telling you this story, he would say that our friendship started with me turning around and inviting him to come over to my house to jam on guitars. This is funny looking back for two reasons: I rarely play guitar now and he is an unbelievable guitar player. He must have known going into it he was going to blow me away; I, on the other hand, had no idea. To be honest, I do not even remember that conversation taking place. That does not mean it did not, it is just that kind of extrovert invitation is not normal for me.

We jammed a couple times, hung out in class, and eventually he started playing guitar for Axis on Wednesdays. I got to see him more and more and really got to know him more and more. He was part of a core group of guys that started a ritual of killing zombies on Xbox together about once a month. We would meet up at my house, drag the TV upstairs from the basement, hook up two Xboxes, and play until the wee hours of the morning then crash until the afternoon. Those were some of the fondest memories I had in high school, and Ryan was at the center of all of them.

The Beauty of the Cursed Tree

I think that it is all too easy for Christians to read through the Old Testament and feel a certain disconnect between the time period, the application, and the stories. Most Christians are not Jewish, therefore, much of the history of the Jewish people seems to be good stories about how God did some cool stuff.

I also think that it is all too easy to over analyze every verse to extract a New Testament insight that is not there. Many comb through the Old Testament like it is a treasure map, examining the pages this way and that, hoping to stumble upon a goldmine of insight that illuminates an entirely new facet that changes the way people perceive the teachings of Jesus.

While I confess I am capable of the latter more often than not, I have been really pushing to put myself in the shoes of a Jew who was receiving all of this information for the first time. I have been trying really hard to look at the Old Testament with new eyes while trying to understand the meaning it had to it’s original audience. It has been a refreshing experience thus far.

With that said, there are passages that appear to directly refer to the life of Jesus–this passage in Deuteronomy, for example–without mentioning Jesus. It is such an obvious aside that clearly parallels Jesus’ death on the cross but does not mention him explicitly.

God states that any man who is hung on a tree is cursed. Simple as that.

The primary means of execution was stoning –and death by sword if you were in combat. The practice of hanging –at least to my knowledge– was not a common practice in the Israelite culture. The time in which it became most popular was during the reign of the Roman Empire in which crucifixions were a commonplace throughout all regions.

There is no way this is coincidence.

Jesus was crucified on a wooden cross. Jesus was cursed by God. He became the embodiment of sin itself on that moment on the cross.

But the beauty is so much deeper than just that. Not only was the Man cursed, but what the Man stood for was cursed. Sin was condemned that day on Golgotha never to have any power over any person any more. What the Man symbolized hung on that tree and was cursed for eternity.

Paul echoes this passage in connection with Jesus’ crucifixion when he writes to the church in Galatia:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ”Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
- Galatians 3:13-14

Just another piece of evidence that God has a larger, redemptive story at work that He has orchestrated even from the beginning.

You are Chosen

Jesus speaks more in the Gospel of John than any other Gospel. If you have a Bible that has the words of Jesus in red, then the majority of this letter is red. While the other Gospels read like a highlight reel, John shares what Jesus says. He shares as many teachings as he can. While this makes it tough to follow a plot line of what was said when, he allows a glimpse into a deeper part of the heart of Jesus.

Nestled in a long discourse about love, Jesus says these words:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you…”
- John 15:16

Look back at the stories where Jesus called the disciples. Every story Jesus tells them to “Come, follow me.” Jesus chose whom was going to follow him. Of course, there were crowds that chose to follow Jesus, but the core group of disciples were hand-picked by Jesus.

This was a group of radicals, liars, cheats, fishermen, rebels, loyalists, and priests; they were a pretty dysfunctional of followers, but Jesus picked them regardless of their past. He chose a group of misfits, rejects, and runner-ups to carry out His ministry.

God chooses messy, broken people to accomplish the impossible.

Do you understand that? GOD choose, not us.

God chose you. God chose me.

How much does that stretch your mind? All the time I’ve grown up in church I’ve been persuaded with the language to “choose to follow Jesus.” But what I learned –and was reminded of in this verse– is that I can choose God, but God first chose me.

Instead of this story being about us, and how “we” chose to follow Jesus, how about we refocus on who this story is really about: Jesus.

Be aware that God is calling you to follow Him . Be reminded that God uses messy, broken people to accomplish the impossible. Be encouraged that God believes in you, even when you do not believe in yourself.

God chose you.

Remember: Jonathan the Artist

I have known Jonathan since high school. Although, I do not remember actually being friends until Junior year, and even then, it was a slow friendship because we had both already established ourselves in groups of friends. Two classes brought us together though: AP US History (APUSH) and Axis. APUSH bridged the friendship and Axis cemented it. I am sure we were in other classes, but if it were not for those two classes together, I would have never met one of my closest friends to date.

To understand why those two were important you have to know that our high school has just about 1000 students K-12, 300+/- in the high school, and 109 in my graduating class. It was not like Jonathan and I had not had classes together. Because we had. It is not like we never saw each other. We had. The reality was I had a lot of older friends and was busy with some leadership opportunities in school; Jonathan was busy with running and tended to keep to himself. Our lives never intentionally intersected until APUSH and Axis.

APUSH was a small class, so we were forced to know the people around us. This was the catalyst that formed a three-way friendship that between Jonathan, Ryan, and I that still hold as the closest friends to date. We all complained about reading, the workload, the tests, and the teacher together. But more than that, we began to realize we shared other things in common, most importantly: Star Wars. That was all it took.

Israel: Lake of Galilee, Capernaum, Golan Heights, Caesarea Philippi, Mount of the Beatitudes

I had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving break in Israel. This was not a mission trip, outreach trip, or anything else other than a sightseeing tour. But, it ended up being more than just sightseeing. I spent almost a week with 16 other people who were in some way or another associated with my high school, Providence Christian Academy. The trip was led by two of the most influential men in my life to this point who mentored me throughout high school and continue to speak into my life today. The next few posts will catalog the trip the best I can. There is no way I can write down everything we did, saw, or experienced, because I could probably start an entirely new blog of just pictures, videos, and stories from the trip. However, I will do my best to show as many pictures and videos and keep the narration to a minimum. I hope you enjoy these glimpses into Israel and, whether you have been 100 times or never step foot in the land where Christianity was born, it helps the Bible come alive in a new way for you. Enjoy.

Day 3

Our hotel in Tiberias overlooked the Lake of Galilee. You will notice I refer to the Sea of Galilee as a “lake.” As our tour guide, Moshe, pointed out, the word “sea” denotes a body of saltwater; the word “lake” refers to a body of freshwater. Because the Sea of Galilee is a large, freshwater body of water, it is considered a lake not a sea.

The Lake of Galilee: Our view of the sunrise from our hotel room on the Lake of Galilee.

We began our first day in the Galilee on a boat ride. Our plan was to take a boat from Tiberias (on the east side) to Capernaum (on the north side). We started out about 8:00 AM and all piled on the boat for the ride. The Lake of Galilee is 8 miles wide by 13 miles long. It is no small body of water. While on riding on the lake, it is easy not only to see how this area centered around fishing but also how a storm can pick up and the weather can change abruptly. Luckily, the waters were calm while on our way to Capernaum, but it was still wind still whipped around us nonetheless.

We arrived at the shore of Capernaum and walked into a museum almost straight from the boat. It was a museum that told the story of a 2000 year-old boat found in the mud of the Lake of Galilee. It had been excavated, extracted, and preserved and now sits in a museum near the site where it was found. We have no idea whether this boat was one Jesus sailed in, but it does give us a better idea of what a normal fishing boat would have looked like during the time of Jesus.

2000 Year-Old Boat in Capernaum: This boat was built from 12 different kinds of wood and had to be submerged in a chemical bath for 10 years to harden the wood to keep it from disintegrating when interacting with oxygen.