I have had some pretty cool roommates in my 26 years of life. I was extremely fortunate growing up to have two amazing parents in the same household, my mom and dad are absolute ballers and are a huge light not only in my life but in the lives of others. My sister, is one of the most beautiful and intelligent people on this earth; those three made awesome roommates growing up. The man who was my best man at my wedding and I had some great times together through college as roommates and I guess living with my wife now is pretty cool too? 🙂 But possibly the best roommates I have ever had live off a small dirt road on the outskirts of Waco, Tx. and are no where close to my age. They are 2 and 5 years old. Without a doubt the cutest girls you will ever see. “What is he talking about?” is probably where your mind is at right now reading this, that’s good. Moving on; in the months leading up to our wedding Maggie and I lived in different cities, I lived in Bellville and she was in Waco. During that time she stayed with our friends Lauren and Anderson, twins who have the two beautiful daughters I am talking about. The twins are night nurses, so Maggie and I would keep the girls when the twins worked nights. That’s why I consider them roommates. A little on their family: Anderson is now married to Jeff. I was asked to officiate their wedding, the second coolest thing I have ever done besides get married myself. I was so blessed to be asked to share in that special, sacred day with them. Their daughter is 5. Lauren is dating a man named Ben who I have been so lucky to be able to get to know over the last few months. She is the mother of the two year old. I love this family. Anderson, Jeff, Lauren, Ben and their little girls are a huge light in my life. Maggie and I joke that one of the hardest parts about being married and living in Tyler is not being able to spend every day with them.
When we would stay at the twins’ I wouldn’t really get great sleep. I was always worried about how the girls were sleeping and when one woke up Maggie and I would take turns going back in to their room (adding to my baby fever that I already have, but seriously) and pressing play on their DVD player, they love to fall asleep to Monsters Inc. When the movie would end the lack of noise would wake them up and they would cry and yell for us until we hit play to start the movie over. They LOVE Monsters Inc. I mean, I do too so I’m not complaining, who doesn’t love that movie?
Once again you may be thinking this story leads to no where, well, not entirely true. Remember when I said this blog was not about tiny homes but about Jesus, that was your warning. Here we go, open your heart and mind and get ready to dive in to some awesome stuff.
Maggie and I have found a church home in Tyler called House of Faith, we love it. A few weeks ago he started talking about the book of John. Chapter 1 one week, chapter 2 the next week, 3 the next but then, 3 again, and 3 again. Why? Because John chapter 3 gets extremely confusing. We all, regardless of what we believe in have heard John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But there is so much more going on during that quote from Jesus than we think. In my bible right above the big 3 to introduce the chapter it says in bold lettering “The New Birth.” So, weird stuff. Even Nicodemus asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Lets skip down to Chapter 3 V. 13: Jesus says, “No one has ascended into heaven, but He (Jesus) who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.” So Daniel, the pastor of HOF goes in to this. No one has ascended in to Heaven, and seen it how He has, except the the one who came down from heaven, Himself, who is standing in front of a man named Nicodemus at the time of this conversation. This is part of the new covenant that Jesus brought to us today. We have to be baptized by the spirit, which is the full entity of God, in order to see the things that God intends for us to see. Without being baptized by the spirit we only see things how they are on earth. Jesus says, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe when I tell you heavenly things?” See there are 2 realms we are living in, no not like Harry Potter. But look at Jesus’ death: Mathew 27:51, “and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.” What is this referring to? We have all heard songs that talk about a flood, a tidal wave crashing, a violent crash. Those were the realms of heaven and earth crashing into one another. Like a tidal wave does when it hits land, it is violent, it covers all, it drowns us. This is what Jesus’ death did. The realm that could only be visited by Saints a few times a year, the very portal to the Kingdom of Heaven, was once covered by that veil. When that veil ripped Jesus’ love, grace, mercy, that very realm in which He sits at the right hand of the Father was able to be accessed and be seen by us. Each and every one of us, we do not have to be a Saint, we do not have to be special. We can simply enter to this new covenant at any time.
These realms that have now been opened to one another provide a little more life in to what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Jesus is in Heaven as well as with Nicodemus on earth. Now we have The Holy Spirit. See we were made, we are meant to be able to walk in this Spirit openly, look at Adam and Eve, they walked with God, literally. That is what we are made to do and what the ripping of the veil, the new covenant allows us to do. Let me break it down in to a super simple example, back to my 2 and 5 year old roommates and Monsters Inc.
The movie starts with Sully and Mike, happy go-lucky dudes, they work hard, treat others well, and seem like some cool peeps to hangout with. They work gaining screams in another realm to power their everyday life. They go about their days, Mike even goes on some dates and Sully is just the good ole boy working hard to help others. Then something happens. BOO! Boo happens. Boo scares this monster world, she flips it on its head. The monster world is thinking there is no way that this human can be here! Sound familiar? In John chapter 3 Nicodemus is so confused of who Jesus is. He knows he is directly from God but he can’t seem to put his finger on it. Jesus throughout his life turns this world on its head.
Mike and Sully don’t know what to do, do they tell anyone about Boo? Get rid of her? Well, for those of us who have seen the movie we know that they get to know Boo, then fall in love with her, then follow her, to where though? They take a chance and realize that there is something more to her than they can see. You see, Boo was able to show Mike and Sully a new way to live. They were stuck sneaking around a veil (doors) to get their fill to give to the world (screams). Are you following this? Much like Saints had to do before Jesus. Then Boo opened up a new way; laughs…. she made a way to where not just the “top scarers” could have this power but all monsters would be WELCOME in to the human world. They could get laughs which gave them SO MUCH MORE POWER THAN THEIR OLD WAY OF DOING THINGS. These realms were able to coexist and the monsters were able to thrive because they were now getting their identity from the RIGHT SOURCE!
So whats the wrong source? Randall… poor Randall. His ability to transform in to his surroundings is pretty cool but that sounds familiar to christians too right? The world looks good, the enemy knows our weakness’s and is able to dress things up, make them look good and we stumble and fall. Randall focused on the wrong thing. Screams. He never realized that there is a better way. There is another way that we can live in order to thrive. Randall in the story represents our carnal brain. Humans are without a doubt the smartest creatures on earth but we are faulted, we are broken, always have been. Screams were a great source of energy for the monsters. Just like our lives may seem good, we have a good job, a nice house, we’re comfortable. Our brain says why change these good things up? Never fix a good thing right? Wrong. Guys there is a better way, His name is Jesus. You see Boo had to come in to the monsters world and meet them in their lives, then bring them to her world to make them see that things are better on her side. Jesus does the same thing with us. He came down from Heaven, lived as a man and then called us to go with Him and see that things are different, there is more to this reality than we see. Just like the monsters only saw screams we can only see this world, until we follow Jesus.
So where do we go from here? How does the story end? It ends with Mike Wazowski, the green dude with one eye. Mike was not a main character in the world of screams, BUT HIS IDENTITY CHANGED when Boo opened the door between realms. Mike had a talent but it was hidden, not tapped in to because the world told him it was useless, he was funny. Maybe thats you. Maybe you have a great life in this world but feel stuck, sad, depressed, or even just feel that there is more out there. Well, there is. In Jesus YOU ARE A NEW CREATION. In Jesus you are healed, held, and whole. You have a purpose.
The world we live in is more broken than ever. As we have seen with the election people are crazed around this country and around this world. They’re looking for something, anything to fill them and make them feel like they matter and they have an identity. Y’all the veil has been broken, you are free to enter into the kingdom of God and sit at His throne; it is there where you will find your identity. Go there… Talk to Him…
Keeping Up With The Koehn's 