Sidetracked, but much needed post.

So I still have a lot I want to write about what I'm studying in Revelations, but I have an awesome night of eating crow and I wanted to share what I learned!

This was teh second Sunday for me in Alberta, and I ended up going to the same church I went to last week. We are allowed a period of three to four weeks to try out the churches in the area, and then we pick one and stay with it (I love that concept btw). We were about a half an hour late to church because the girlies slept in, and it was snowing like a blizzard outside so I was distracted with that I guess, and I was in a hurry to get to the car with shoes and breakfast in hand. I just had put my things down at my chair at the church when I almost automatically got a check in my spirit about the pastor. Something was weird about him, and I was totally distracted. The whole service I was thinking about nothing else than the check in my spirit about this dude! We was extremely loud and he would come down from the stage and he had a little in-our-faces attitude. Most of the interns went to this specific church this morning so at the end we were all meeting in the back figuring out lunch plans. The pastor then comes up to us to meet us and ask us where we were from and all that jazz. Nomally, this would be an awesome gesture, and I would really appreciate it, but because for some reason I had it out for the dude, this just made me more upset. We then left church and had lunch at one of the families houses, and then I got dropped off at my house.

The rest of the day went on like normal. We attended a youth service at another local church that we all really love. We again got there a bit late, but still in time to catch a bit of worship. For the announcements they played a Miley Cyrus song and for some reason AGAIN I was feeling cynical ( I REALLY do not like being that way, or people who act cynical...) and I couldn't understand how mainstream pop music about partying could fit in with church. Then the youth pastor gave a message that really smacked me in the face!

The pastor talked about Judas, and betrayal. He has a very unique outlook on the whole story and I thought I would share it. The context of the night was out of Matt. 26 where is talked about the woman with the Alabaster jar of perfume. For those of you reading with no Bible, I will give the reference (kudos to Biblegateway.com):

The Precious Ointment

⁶Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.

⁸But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste?

⁹"For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor."

¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.

¹¹"For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.

¹²"For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.

¹³"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."

Judas's Bargain

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.

¹⁶From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"

¹⁸And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."'"

¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

Now I want to highlight verses 13-14 for one sec. I had never seen it like this before, but Judas went to the chief priests right after the disciples were lovingly corrected by Jesus concerning the woman with the alabaster jar. Judas was the same as all the other disciples, loving and following Jesus with whole-hearted abandonment, seeing/ witnessing miracles and lives being changed by the thousands. In that split second between being lovingly rebuked by Jesus, and betraying him, what was going through Judas' head? Probably the same kind of stuff that goes through my head when I am lovingly (or not so lovingly) rebuked by a pastor, or Spiritual leader, or even by the Spirit. WHOA! That hit me like a ton of bricks. Partially because of my perpetual problem submitting to the leadership put in front of me, and partially cause of my nasty attitude all today towards every pastor/ leader!

See, the other 11 followers of Jesus did not fall away after Judas betrayed Jesus. They stayed passionately, radically and whole-heartedly after the preaching of the Gospel and sharing Christ's love with anyone they could! And they ALL died serving. So if all those disciples didn't let Judas' HUGE mistake distract them from focusing solely on Jesus and their ministry, why the heck would I let other people's "mistakes", or even a pastor's teaching decision, distract me from loving and praising my Jesus? It shouldn't!! Who am I to judge how a pastor does something! I have NO idea how to lead a youth group, or how to preach, let alone run a whole church! I immediately realized and repented for my horrible attitude of cynicism. I am going to now focus on ME, and MY problems, and I will practice living out the Beatitudes silently, by example. Then when pigs fly, and I am perfect, will I be able to look at someone and judge or mentally correct their actions.


Thanks you, Lord for showing me where I need to work on. You are so faithful to come alongside us and help us grow to be more like you. Thanks for showing me how much I NEED you, how much I NEED to learn, and how much I will NEVER be perfect. You are the perfect one, Jesus. I will forever live to be more like you.


Goodnight and amen!