shawnw

Image by Kent.

From Matthew 26:

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here, while I go over there and pray.37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.38 Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, So, could you not watch with me one hour?41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again

Have you ever had friends that you were sure would be there for you, but at the most critical time, in your hour of desperate need, you were alone?

Jesus experienced this as he was praying to God to “take the cup” of crucifixion from him. Jesus was so distraught he was sweating blood (a known condition called Hematidrosis), in complete anxiety over his impending death.

You may be in the same position as Jesus. All alone, with no one to turn to.

Let me encourage you by saying, Jesus knows what you’re going through. He needed friends to be close as his death approached and yet he weathered his last moments on his own. Jesus knows what you’re feeling.

Turn to him, confess your troubles, open your heart to him, tell him everything. He hears everything you say to him. And remember, no matter how you feel…

You are not alone.

This post was originally a guest post for @inprogress. I’m reposting as I find it to be more and more relevant to today’s church.

37 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.38 This is the great and first commandment.39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. -Matthew 22

Do you love your neighbor?

Who is your neighbor?

I see people who, because they can’t define their neighbor, choose not to love their neighbor and, instead, do nothing at all.

There are even people who hide behind Twitter and Facebook and the television instead of going out and risking by having “breathing the same air” relationships. We have nerves in our skin, people – we’re meant to rub shoulders with other humans.

While the Bible doesn’t define our “neighbor,” allow me to do that for you so you can get to work loving them as yourself (just in case you’re not sure who your neighbor is).

Go out your front door. Do a 360 degree turn all the way around. If you can see a door, that’s your neighbor.

For those of you who live in an apartment complex or dorm, just consider your floor (or, for smaller venues, the whole building) your neighbor. If you live out in the country, expand your radius to 1 or 5 or 10 miles.

So, stop reading this post, get up, and go out your front door. Right now. Go take a “neighbor inventory.”

(cue the Jeopardy theme – you can hum this while you’re looking around if you want)

Now what? How do you love your neighbor as yourself?

42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. -Matthew 5

Start with your immediate, literal next door neighbor. If you don’t know them, go introduce yourself. Ask them out for coffee (your treat). If you do know them, slap together a casserole or some cookies and drop them by. “Hey, just wanted you to have these.” No strings attached. Give them the food and exit.

Be intentional and check in on them from time to time. I’m terrible about remembering to do this so I use Google Calendar’s recurring events function regularly to ensure I keep up with my “neighbor.”

Then, make a dinner date. Get to know them. Find out where they’re from, what they do, what they love, what they hate, how they play, how they’re suffering, and how you can pray for them.

Sure, you can ask them to church. Try developing a relationship first, though. They’ll feel more like they’re trusted than just a trophy.

The most important thing is that you’re consistently being in relationship with them. Consistency shows them they matter to you, and ultimately to the Christ you serve. Christ is there for us every day. Shouldn’t you model that same trait?

It’s as if we’ve lost the simple art of being human. Instead, we’re absorbed with having an intimate relationship with this Creator but we forget why he became flesh. He died so that we might live, and that we might share that good news, that gospel, with the world.

We who claim to follow Christ are to be his hands and feet while we walk this dirt and we need to have intimate relationships with the Creator’s creation while we’re here. Being friends with “church” people, going to Sunday worship and pot lucks and Wednesday night bible studies just isn’t enough.

It’s time to start living outside our comfort zone, to start living in discomfort, so the world can come to know the Comforter.

Ninjas can be invisible.

Christians should be invisible.

Do all things so Christ shines, so He gets the glory, and we fade into the background, hiding in the shadows, doing the servant’s work so the Master is made famous.

Can I get an amen?

From the Twitter blog:

When we tweet what’s happening around us, we share not only our thoughts, but also web pages, photos, videos, location…anything. Mobile phones are increasingly part of our lives, and we seem to be doing everything but making phone calls. Reading the news, watching a YouTube video, and taking photos at events like the World Cup are things we expect to do on mobile phones – sharing our experiences on these little screens should be just as easy and fast as on big ones.

When apps work well with each other, sharing becomes as second nature on machines as it does in person. The Android platform is really good at that, and we’ve worked with the Android team to make it super easy to share what’s happening. Today we are excited to announce that Twitter for Android is available in Android Market!

I’ve been using this off and on over the course of the evening and I must say, it’s very polished. It doesn’t support multiple accounts but other than that, it’s fast, seems to use few resources, and looks great.

Scan the QR code on your left there to get it free from the Android Market now.

Click the app name to be taken to a page with the QR code for easy download. Here we go:

• YouVersion – the best Bible app for Android
• Seesmic – for Twitter. Free, fast and easy to use.
• Vignette – the best photo app out there, period.
• Barcode Scanner – for scanning product information and QR codes
• Listen – integrates with Google Reader to pull in podcasts to your phone automagically
• bTunes – duplicates the iTunes on iPhone music player experience. Yes, Apple got this right.
• Pandora – quality streaming radio
• Advanced Task Killer – kills those tasks that eat up battery life
• 360 Live – for keeping track of my friends on Xbox Live
• Bedside – the best alarm clock app out there
• redbox Codes – use it to find codes for free rentals at redbox kiosks
• EasyTether Lite – free tethering app, get online anywhere you have 3G!
• Not Call Log – sends you back to the home screen or the dialer after a call instead of the call log (where it’s easy to accidentally call someone)
• Simple last.fm Scrobbler – so you can scrobble what you listen to in bTunes
• SugarSync – keeps my files synced between my computers and my phone

What are your “can’t do without” apps? Tell me here!