Sam Prellwitz

As a youth pastor, I've become very good at telling students how they should live their lives. I get a certain amount of satisfaction when I 'enlighten' some student to the 'ways of following Jesus with their life' I've got the road-map down pat. It flows from my mouth like water from a garden hose. And that is a problem. The moment I start speaking about this life more than living this life is the moment that I become inconsequential. I'd rather that not happen.

Philippians 3:10 "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (NLT) What does it mean to know that mighty power? Is it visible to us? Is it experiential? Is it something we can understand today? Is it speaking in tongues and witnessing physical healing? Is it emotional healing? Relational healing? And what's this stuff about experiencing the resurrection one way or another? Should we desire suffering? Do we need to suffer to share in his death? I think deep theology and authentic Christian living lies somewhere between good questions and better questions. We may never have the right answers, but I think we can get closer to asking the right questions.

I was reading the Catalyst blog the other day. I read an article titled "Keeping My Options Open Spiritually." You can find it here: http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/JUN11--keeping_my_options_open_spirituality/ The author, Joel Triska, said one thing that caught me off guard. He said, "The fact is that most people don't think about God or Jesus as a person. They see him as an idea. A doctrine. A philosophy. To be a Christian is to believe something, not to be faithful to someone." That was incredibly difficult to hear. I know for certain that I, more often than I'd like to admit, treat God like an idea. And if I'm really honest, the personhood of God is frightening. Relationships with ideas are easy. You can shape and analyze and distort those ideas without much effort. But a relationship with a person... the weight and depth added to a person's Christian faith when that person's perception and understanding of God is switched from an i...

Remember back in grade school, when the teacher would ask you a question and you would repeat back, word for word, to him/her the answer you found in the text book? Remember how good it felt to be right? Fast forward a few years into middle school or high school. Remember that nagging teacher who would force you to change that perfectly worded answer you found in the text book into your own version of the same answer? Your teacher would normally say something like, "Now Billy, put that answer into your own words please." That's normally when Billy would let out a big groan. Why wasn't the answer from the book good enough? I think that's a valid question. It's made me think recently about why people continue to compose new songs, give new sermons, write new blog posts, paint new paintings... Our Christian faith has a rich base of writings, hymns, and art. There is no shortage of artistic expression with our God as the subject. With that in mind, why do we need ...

Tonight I get to talk through one of the stories that show Paul being persecuted. He finds himself, along with another, in jail for casting out a demon. After being beaten and imprisoned, they spend the night praying and singing hymns. I'm not saying that they were happy in that moment, but it sure doesn't seem like they were complaining. Somewhere they found the gumption they needed to continue praising God. My thought is this: whatever master we serve (material possessions, lovers, our own bodily comfort, etc.) becomes the joy we find. These two men served Christ and found that even in the worst of times they could find joy in Him.

I'm scared of this word. It conjures up all kinds of thoughts about my past. Typically, when I realize I'm being tempted my response is to run the other way. And in a way I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that there are certain things that I've, by God's grace, trained myself to run from. Certain things just aren't healthy. Recently I found out that my next sermon is on the topic of temptation. It's been making me sick to my stomach ever since. I feel like it's an invitation for temptations to come surging in during the weeks of preparation.  I'm scared that I'll find myself running from it and won't be able to do an adequate job of addressing it. That's made me realize something. It's exhausting to run from something. You're constantly haunted by it, feeling as though you're never able to let your guard down. It makes you rather uptight. I'd say that uptight is a fairly unattractive quality. So how do you run from s...

Sometimes I get to talk to people who say that they want or need something. When I hear what they’re hoping or asking for I often cringe, because I know that  what they say they want isn’t what they really want, it’s just what they think they want. Those situations can get uncomfortable. It makes me really enjoy the time I get to spend with people who have given honest and humble thought to what they need or want. (I think the humility part is key) My question is this, should you just be patient with those people who think they want what they really don’t want, hoping time will eventually sort it out for them? Or do you give them advice and try to change the state of their heart?