Where Have We Gone?

After reading one of Christine Caine’s, a powerhouse author and writer, books, I was reminded of a trip I took to New York last September with my girlfriend and her family. It was my first time in the Big Apple and thus I had to see every single thing that it could offer. This included the infamous Time Square, a giant M&M store, Central Park, and the breathtaking St. Patrick’s Cathedral. While I absolutely was enthralled by Central Park’s beauty, little could compare to the high lofted arches, and the golden, ornate decorations and designs that were elegantly crafted and infused into the walls. It must have taken years upon years to build a cathedral as sublime as this. It must have taken the laborers hours of hours of back breaking efforts to lay each brick. Brick by brick, they toiled to build the cathedral that has stood solidly throughout the ages. Why? Why would they spend their lives slaving to make this creation?

They didn’t build the cathedral to build a church; they built it to house the church.

So where have we gone? 

Where have we gone that now hundreds of people pass through these wooden doors as tourist and not as a community of worshippers? Where have we gone that now hundreds of years later the work of the builders has gone more towards making money than making joy a reality to the bleak hearted. When did this place stop being a place where people gathered to worship God and instead become a center for visitors to gather?

I doubt the brick layers were ever concerned about the stones and mortars, or that their main concern was even the four walled building that they constructed. They got out of bed and hit their work day after day after day in hopes of creating a place for a community to encounter God and see His work at play in the lives of the people of New York. It was and still isn’t about the building. They built it as monument to God’s glory not as a testament to their own ingenuity.

Sadly this story seems to be the predominant story concerning Christianity nowadays. More and more churches are becoming defined and known as a certain building rather than a group of people seeking to love their neighbors as themselves.

The Church has and always will be about reaching out to others.

It’s time for the Church to leave the building.

Merely,

Chris Gerac

"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" Ephesians 1:22-23, NIV

His name is Jesus

The following was inspired by a student in one of my religion classes. He inspired me to bring attention to this.

Did we forget that His name is Jesus?

It’s not simply the King of Kings, the Lamb of God, The Good Shepherd, The Prince of Peace, or Son of Man, but Jesus. 

Christ isn’t His last name, it is His role.

It may seem self-evident because we hear His name so commonly used. We hear a “Jesus Christ” here in a moment of frustration, and a “Jesus hallelujah” there from religious exploiters. Everywhere we turn it seems that some form or another of His name reaches our ears. But while we can easily hear His name, we’re missing something else far more important…the power behind it. By His name, by the utterance of Jesus and not Lord, not Prince of Peace, not King, and not Good Shepherd, but by the name of Jesus, yes just Jesus, the disciples healed the sick, raised the dead, and cleansed the lepers. And by the name of Jesus, we have been set free to do even more than this (John 14:12). 

You see, we often go around and act like we think Christians are supposed to act, but never mention the name behind it. Plenty of times I have done something nice and yet let the meaning behind it go silent.

How backwards is that?

Without His name, we subject ourselves to assumptions and misunderstandings.

If we don’t mention the name of Jesus as the reason we eat, sleep, and breathe and do everything in between, then we’re not following God; we’re following good morals. I don’t drink, I don’t party, I don’t do a lot of things but it’s not because I am a Christian (this mindset is what gets us labeled as hypocrites): I don’t do these things simply because of Jesus.

I am not called to look more like The Prince of Peace, or the Lord of Lords, I am called to look like Jesus.

Silence brings you “good morals”, epithets bring you religion, but the name of Jesus brings you to the heart of God.

His name brings power that can shake the heavens and create the universe.

His name brings grace that can cover over the deepest sins of pain and self-disgrace.

His name brings love so strong that even the hardest of hearts melt like wax before Him.

His name is Jesus.

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:14, NASB

My testimony of the power of community

Where to begin… Where to begin?

I guess I could begin with how most of the students in my high school disliked me, how most of the students in my high school hated the arrogant and womanizing manner in which I carried myself, how most of the students in my high school saw a cocky and flirtatious boy pretending to be a man. I could start my story with the blatantly arrogant and lustful sinner that I use to be. I could easily recount my days before college of going to church on Sunday, leading Bible studies on Wednesdays and lusting after women all the days in between. I could do it you know, for those days of masquerading as a man with everything together weren’t that long ago. The pain I inflicted upon others in my selfishness and the loneliness I inflicted on myself, I could tell you that story.

But I won’t.

Because for me, my story doesn’t start with a sinner in the darkness; my story begins when a sinner found himself to be transformed into a saint by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

For you see, my story definitely may have a prologue rivaling in length to the ancient Greek poems, but the real story doesn’t begin until I found a community of men and women who had been set free from their sin by the power and love of Jesus. It was through this group of faithful and loving men and women that I began to gain a deeper understanding of the character of Jesus, and began to feel a fiery passion inside my heart that the flames of the Enemy can never extinguish. When I came to Baylor, I had been walking fairly straight for over 2 years. I even had spent my senior year of high school leading other students in Bible Study. I had long since given up the idea of being arrogant or being known as a flirt, but I still was fighting the feelings of isolation and loneliness. To me, it felt like I was the only one around for miles that was trying to live a life for the purposes of Jesus. I was falling to one of Satan’s more subtle tactics: believing a lie.

Coming to Baylor was the fresh breath of community that I needed. In Life Group for the first time I felt like people cared for me more than just for my leadership skills. I found more than a community in Life Group; I found a home. A home that has helped usher me into the presence of God on a regular basis. While I by no means am perfect, the 2 wonderful and powerful years that I have surrounded myself with my friends met in Life Group have drawn me closer to the heart of He who is perfect.

Because of the very tangible love of Jesus that has been shown to me, I intend to continue my story by church planting in Boulder, Co in order to show Him to those who have become jaded to the Gospel, and I plan on doing this in the very same company of men and women who I am with now. The Gospel was never meant to be solely an experience felt by you and by God, but by the rest of the world. My experiences being a member and now leading a Life Group have taught me the importance in laying down your life for the sake of His.

Without community its hard to withstand the waves of the Enemy

We were created to be refined by one another

If you’re wondering how to stay afloat, then you need to find a community who will pursue Jesus at all cost.

Even David had his Mighty Men.

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17, NIV