A Link to my Sermon: Surprising Jesus

http://gallery.me.com/joshcallow#100000

This is my sermon from June 6, 2010 on Luke 7:1-10.

Make Jesus marvel at your faith. Admit your personal need, acknowledge His authority, and glorify God!

All Things Working Towards Good

Romans 8:28 says, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

So you or somebody you know loves God and you can't understand why bad things keep happening... your family member died, you lost your job, you got dumped... What sort of benevolent God would allow these things to happen? Well, I believe the answer is a God that not only loves you more than you could ever imagine, but also one that knows what is best for you. He sees the big picture and He is faithfully working all things towards good in your life.

I have heard it said that this idea that all things work together for good is somehow a cop out, that its just something people say to keep you from sulking. But this couldn't be farther from the truth. God is so perfectly good that He can bring good even from evil. In the Old Testament we read about Joseph who was hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, and later put in prison for false charges. Yet Joseph found that those seemingly terrible things led him to a position of power in Egypt, second only to the pharaoh. When a famine came to the land he was able to save thousands of people by distributing Egypt's stores of food. Among those coming to him in need were the very same brothers who had sold him as a slave so many years earlier. Joseph understood that God's providential hand had been at work and so he said to his brothers, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today -Genesis 50:20.

If, like Joseph, we recognize that God is moving in our lives then we can have a peace in our hearts no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in. We can thank God that He is in control and trust that in the end, all things are working towards good. Romans 8:32 says He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? So the next time you find yourself questioning what possible good could come out of a difficult, depressing situation; give praise to your benevolent God, that even though you may not understand his processes, you know He is doing a glorious work of good in your life.


Heavenly Father, we put our lives in your hands. We accept that You are indeed working all things towards good. We may live peacefully, resting in our faith and love of You. Thank you Lord.


He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it - 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

Christian Hedonism

First off, life is good. God is good... Coincidence? I think not.

A new quarter at school means new classes, one of which is Hellenistic Philosophy -a course studying the philosophy of the ancient Greek Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. As with most philosophies, things quickly boil down to the question of what the ultimate goal or point of life is. Epicurus thought obtaining happiness through pleasure was the end all be all of life. As such, he advocated a certain type of hedonism in which one simultaneously aims at satisfying the 'natural-necessary' desires while also eliminating 'empty desires' and avoiding pains.

There is a lot to be said about Epicurean hedonism and the other philosophies of the time but what I find fascinating is that though the means of achieving the ultimate goal of life varies from thinker to thinker, they all seem to agree that a sort of 'happiness' is what human beings seek.

I just began reading John Piper's Desiring God which looks quite promising so far. He quotes from the writings of Blaise Pascal saying "There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself ". Basically, we have a God shaped hole in our lives and trying to fill it with good food, good conversation, or good music is not going to bring the happiness that we are seeking, sorry Epicurus.

Piper argues that "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever". He coins the term 'Christian hedonism' to describe this idea and I must say I find it compelling. The Christian hedonism vs. Epicurean hedonism comparison is an interesting one: While Epicureans tried to manage simple pleasures to achieve their goal of happiness, Christian hedonism advocates enjoyment or happiness as a means to the end goal of life -glorifying God- rather than as an end in itself. The concept may seem bizarre at first but it makes perfect sense.

I see so many people wandering from hobby to hobby, relationship to relationship, city to city thinking that the next thing, or person, or place is going to fill that void in their life.. hoping that it will take away that sadness, that emptiness. What if we all just said, 'You know what, today I am going to just enjoy God!' I believe that we would not only find that our thirst for happiness was satisfied like never before, but that we would be fulfilling the true purpose of our lives -to Glorify the true living God. If you think earthly pleasures are going to make you happy you will find that they always fall short. For only God Himself will never disappoint, never fail to meet expectations, and never leave you feeling dissatisfied.

God wants us to be happy. It is not surprising that fulfilling our purpose in life is done by finding joy in Him. Praise the Lord for that! So being that we can all agree that happiness is a good thing I leave you with this advice:
in the words of Paul the Apostle,

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice -Phillipians 4:4

The Divine Artisan

We are witnesses to the magnificence of the heavens and the beauty of creation. From the pigment of the robin's breast to each crease made in a smiling face's skin, not one detail is unaccounted for. With our eyes we see all of this and are able to imagine that we are but specs of dust.

The sound of rain bouncing of the leaves of trees and the pleasant tune flowing from the reverberations of strings strummed and plucked beg our ears to listen to what the sounds might say.

We are given warmth and comfort in the arms of our loved ones. Cool blades of grass tickle our backs as we lay outside and take in the fresh Spring air. These tangible qualities push us towards a wonderful consideration.

The tastes and aromas dance along the palate bringing to mind sensations of sweet and sour, bitter and savory. The fruit of the earth is found in such delicious forms as a gift to us.

In fact, all of creation sings to the glory of our Creator. And our creator is a God of love.

What foolishness we speak in attempting to attribute a masterpiece to anything short of a Divine Artisan. Who are we to ignore the testimony of the mountains and the stars, or the declaration of all living things?

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork -Psalm 19:1.

Yet even if we would ignore such things as nature's proclamation of a Creator, the truth is written on our hearts.

Praise be to God for his awesome power and the beautiful creation that He has allowed us to be apart of. Lord I ask that you would forgive us for destroying what you made as good and for creating evil through our sins. Thank you so much for giving us your grace through Jesus when we deserved only wrath. I pray that we would hear the song of creation, singing of your glory.

Surgery and Recovery

I went in for my nerve graft surgery on January 29th. As I sat in the small, colorless pre-operative room in my stylish hospital gown, I did not feel particularly excited about what was about to take place. I was not very nervous either... almost ambivalent... mainly eager to have it done with so I could go home. I had confidence that God would do whatever was best for me, but what that was I did not know. So, I continued to pray that no matter what the outcome, I would be at peace with it.

Before I knew it I was waking up in the recovery room. The surgery had been more extensive than planned: The doctors were forced to take all of the donor nerve from my leg in addition to the nerve from my arm because of the upredicted amount of damaged area. My peck muscle had to be detached and reatached in order to access the location. They had also found another schwannoma tumor in the process and removed it. The surgery had gone on for four and a half hours, almost two hours longer than expected. I was to be kept overnight for pain monitoring. Admittedly, I was a little sad that the surgery was a bit more rough than one would have hoped and that I would not be going home right away; but overall I was at peace with what had happened. I thought of the dozens of people that had been praying for me. It was truly amazing to see God's love in their hearts.

However, I began to face another issue: pain. The operation had left me feeling a variety of unpleasant things of which I will not go into great detail. My body was constantly exhausted and so I fell asleep often, and when I was awake I was irriatable despite my best attempts to appear thankful. My prayers became half hearted. I tried to read my Bible but I could not concentrate on anything and it just resulted in frustration and aggravation.

The two or three days following the surgery were the worst and it was during that time that I virtually gave up trying to maintain my relationship with God. I was not angry with God. I had not lost faith in God. But the pains and frustrations I faced were enough to cause me to become unthinking about God. This was something new to me. I did not feel right about it, but yet I felt helpless to change it. As more time passed and I began to feel healthier each day, I returned to the Lord and asked his forgiveness. I resumed my praying and Bible reading and my disposition became more cheery. It is truly amazing how faithful God is.

I am not proud of those days in which I neglected God but as I reflect on them and their cause I feel that they helped me to grow spiritually. Previously, I had believed that those with faith in Christ Jesus should be able to withstand any troubles that might come there way. And if they couldn't, they must be doing something wrong. For it is obvious that in times of suffering we need to seek God more than ever, not turn away from Him. Although I still believe that to be the case, I now realize that sometimes it is easier said than done. All it took was a little bit of soreness and exhaustion to cause me to stumble.

I thank God for this experience because now I can share with others about my own trials and my own time of broken communication with God. I can let them know that it does not make you a bad person to falter, it just reminds us that we are indeed only human. And when we do neglect our relationship with Jesus, because of whatever current pain is distracting us, our Lord remains faithful and will be there through thick and thin.


God, You are so wonderful. Even when I stumble, You remain faithful. Forgive us for our transgressions and let them become opportunities to grow spiritually. You are perfectly good and sovereign and so I put my life in your hands and have faith that you will take care of me.


Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds -Psalms 36:5

My Testimony

Today I gave my testimony at church. It was a great experience. I would like to share it with everyone.

"I am the last person that should be on this stage. My family is not Christian, I had no Christian friends, I had no desire to ever become Christian, and at times I actively spoke against Christians for what I saw as ignorance and hypocrisy. I was an agnostic through and through. So even just eight months ago, if you would have told me I would be sharing my testimony with a church, I would have thought you were crazy and probably laughed in your face. It is by God’s grace alone that I am able to stand here in front of you.

This past summer I went back home to Central California only to hear that my best friend from high school, Kyle, had “found God”. This guy had not just been my best friend, but also my partner in crime when it came to trying to make our Christian peers feel stupid. So it came as quite a shock to hear this. Immediately I called him, convinced that somebody had gotten their facts wrong; but sure enough, he affirmed that he was seeking God. As much as I wouldn’t have admitted then, even to myself, a spark of excitement and hope was put in my heart—If Kyle could accept this, maybe it wasn’t so far fetched. But, being who I was, I set out to do some research that might disprove Christianity and remind my friend why we believed what we believed. It was here that my journey really started.

For me personally, one of my greatest issues to overcome was what I saw as intellectual barriers to Faith. I was convinced that my agnosticism was the only smart choice and that everybody else was just misinformed or irrational. With so many religions out there, why should Christianity be anything special? It was going to take some straight forward facts, and sound logic to even get me to the point where I could consider Christianity an option. So, when I went to spend the rest of the summer with my girlfriend Natalee in Oregon, I took hours upon hours reading apologetics and theology trying to pick out their factual inconsistencies and faulty logic. But after reading thousands of pages (including Case for Christ and Case for Faith by Lee Strobel) I was stumped. The gospels are historically accurate, their sources are reliable, and their message is specific. No amount of scrutinizing could argue with what was placed clearly in front of me –there is one true God and He is Jesus.

I had thought getting past that intellectual hurtle was impossible, yet there I was on the other side, faced with the truth about God. But the battle was not over and I ran face first into some serious problems: namely my sinful nature and the terrible habits that I had formed. I lived life in whatever way I saw best. I lied when it was convenient. I got drunk if I felt like it. I had a lustful heart towards women. I was often selfish, not willing to help others if it didn’t help me somehow. I judged people and talked badly about them. Most damaging, I was very proud and arrogant. Even as I changed my outward behavior, my great sin of pride caused me to have an attitude of “I’ll do this because you said so God, but I still think I know better than you”. I had a heart of stone and I needed Jesus to replace it with a heart of flesh. I begged God to forgive me of my sins and open my heart so that I could accept his love.

I started going to a church where people had a passion for Jesus and the Bible. I found that fellowship, prayer, worship, and hearing the Word gave me great joy. They preached the gospel, and one Sunday I stood up and answered the call to be baptized. That day I said, 'Jesus is my Lord' for the first time. I was saved. I died to my sin and became a new creation. I had turned away from God for twenty one years and yet He received me with open arms and perfect love.

A short time later I heard the story of Paul the Apostle who had ruthlessly persecuted Christians until Jesus himself confronted him to stop. Paul then became one of the greatest advocates for Christ: preaching the gospel and planting churches everywhere. I was inspired knowing that even with the evil Paul had committed, once he gave his life to Jesus he was able to do great good. And so I thought, maybe I can be more than just a wicked soul who was saved; maybe I can do good in the name of the Lord too. So here I am today. My life is nothing like I thought it would be. I have decided to go to seminary when I graduate and work towards becoming a pastor. I am engaged to a wonderful Christian woman name Natalee. I have purpose beyond myself.

For those of you who are seeking, or were dragged here against your will, and think ‘it will never happen to me’, or those who are believers and have friends or family members that you are discouraged about because they are set in their ways, I hope my testimony makes you think twice before giving up. Because like I said, I am the last person that should be up here, and God’s grace is not too small for anyone."


Jesus, you are so good. You forgive us of our sins and give us the gift of your mercy and redeeming grace. I pray that my life would always serve as a testimony to your power and love. Let my story open the hearts and minds of the people.

At a Loss for Words

It has been awhile. I have not written anything in quite some time. Today I had my sabbath, a time of rest, reflection, and communication with the Lord; and so I had a great desire to produce some unified idea or truth based on all of the prayer and Bible readings from this afternoon and the past week. As much as I pondered and stared blankly at the screen, nothing came to me. I simply did not know what to say.

So too, we may have times when we feel we are at a loss for words. Maybe you want to talk to a friend or co-worker about your Faith but are afraid that you won't be able to answer all of their questions or say the right thing. It might be that you become so worried or nervous that you are incapacitated and simply never act. Who are we to speak of such glorious things anyway?

Good news! As Jesus prepared his disciples to go out into a world full of sin and hostility, 'as sheep in the midst of wolves', He said this:
you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you -Matt 10:18-20.
Indeed it can be scary to try and share the gospel...up against unbelieving, uninterested, and unrepentant souls. But be comforted, for you are not alone. The Holy Spirit is in you and will put the rights words in your mouth when the time comes!

Praise you oh Lord! Your Spirit resides in our hearts. We can be comforted knowing that we do not face doubtful eyes or difficult questions on our own. I pray that you would continue to use your Spirit to guide us as we further your Kingdom. When we are at a loss for words, speak your message clearly and effectively through our mouths. Thank you for this gift. Let us use it according to your will. Amen


[written 1/16/10]