jasonbrueckner - Tumblr blog

[jasonbrueckner]

Jesus Himself says, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness...' In a way that reflects the battle between light and darkness found in Genesis 1-2, Jesus positions himself, as light, over the chaotic and mysterious grip that darkness holds. Light reveals the truth and overpowers darkness. Jesus is the Light of the World.

Read more of my writings at http://www.faithmentor.com/index.php/category/jason-brueckner/

[jasonbrueckner]

Jesus never called himself King, though mocking him to death was a famous ironic phrase, “Jesus, King of the Jews.” Before Christ, the world expected to witness a powerful, authoritative and righteously aggressive coming of God. On the contrary, Jesus came in meekness, obediently offering himself as a sacrifice on account of the sins of humanity. Though coming humbly in human form, Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven where he continues to rule and sustain all of creation (Ro. 8:34; Col. 1:17). Christ is both the servant and the king, the lamb and the lion, human and the divine. Christ is King.

Read more of my writing at FaithMentor.com.

[jasonbrueckner]

What is a "successful ministry"?

What does a "successful ministry" consist of? What does a "successful ministry" look like? What are components that a ministry cannot be without?

[jasonbrueckner]

19 Things To Stop Doing In Your 20s

1. Stop placing all the blame on other people for how they interact with you. To an extent, people treat you the way you want to be treated. A lot of social behavior is cause and effect. Take responsibility for (accept) the fact that you are the only constant variable in your equation.

2. Stop being lazy by being constantly “busy.” It’s easy to be busy. It justifies never having enough time to clean, cook for yourself, go out with friends, meet new people. Realize that every time you give in to your ‘busyness,’ it’s you who’s making the decision, not the demands of your job.

3. Stop seeking out distractions. You will always be able to find them.

4. Stop trying to get away with work that’s “good enough.” People notice when “good enough” is how you approach your job. Usually these people will be the same who have the power to promote you, offer you a health insurance plan, and give you more money. They will take your approach into consideration when thinking about you for a raise.

5. Stop allowing yourself to be so comfortable all the time. Coming up with a list of reasons to procrastinate risky, innovative decisions offers more short-term gratification than not procrastinating. But when you stop procrastinating to make a drastic change, your list of reasons to procrastinate becomes a list of ideas about how to better navigate the risk you’re taking.

6. Stop identifying yourself as a cliche and start treating yourself as an individual. Constantly checking your life against a prewritten narrative or story of how things “should” be is a bought-into way of life. It’s sort of like renting your identity. It isn’t you. You are more nuanced than the narrative you try to fit yourself into, more complex than the story that “should” be happening.

7. Stop expecting people to be better than they were in high school — learn how to deal with it instead. Just because you’re out of high school doesn’t mean you’re out of high school. There will always be people in your life who want what you have, are threatened by who you are, and will ridicule you for doing something that threatens how they see their position in the world.

8. Stop being stingy. If you really care about something, spend your money on it. There is often a notion that you are saving for something. Either clarify what that thing is or start spending your money on things that are important to you. Spend money on road trips. Spend money on healthy food. Spend money on opportunities. Spend money on things you’ll keep.

9. Stop treating errands as burdens. Instead, use them as time to focus on doing one thing, and doing it right. Errands and chores are essentially rote tasks that allow you time to think. They function to get you away from your phone, the internet, and other distractions. Focus and attention span are difficult things to maintain when you’re focused and attentive on X amount of things at any given moment.

10. Stop blaming yourself for being human. You’re fine. Having a little anxiety is fine. Being scared is fine. Your secrets are fine. You’re well-meaning. You’re intelligent. You’re blowing it out of proportion. You’re fine.

11. Stop ignoring the fact that other people have unique perspectives and positions. Start approaching people more thoughtfully. People will appreciate you for deliberately trying to conceive their own perspective and position in the world. It not only creates a basis for empathy and respect, it also primes people to be more open and generous with you.

12. Stop seeking approval so hard. Approach people with the belief that you’re a good person. It’s normal to want the people around you to like you. But it becomes a self-imposed burden when almost all your behavior toward certain people is designed to constantly reassure you of their approval.

13. Stop considering the same things you’ve always done as the only options there are. It’s unlikely that one of the things you’ll regret when you’re older is not having consumed enough beer in your 20s, or not having bought enough $5 lattes, or not having gone out to brunch enough times, or not having spent enough time on the internet. Fear of missing out is a real, toxic thing. You’ve figured out drinking and going out. You’ve experimented enough. You’ve gotten your fill of internet memes. Figure something else out.

14. Stop rejecting the potential to feel pain. Suffering is a universal constant for sentient beings. It is not unnatural to suffer. Being in a constant state of suffering is bad. But it is often hard to appreciate happiness when there’s nothing to compare it to. Rejecting the potential to suffer is unsustainable and unrealistic.

15. Stop approaching adverse situations with anger and frustration. You will always deal with people who want things that seem counter to your interests. There will always be people who threaten to prevent you from getting what you want by trying to get what they want. This is naturally frustrating. Realize that the person you’re dealing with is in the same position as you — by seeking out your own interests, you threaten to thwart theirs. It isn’t personal — you’re both just focused on getting different things that happen to seem mutually exclusive. Approach situations like these with reason. Be calm. Don’t start off mad, it’ll only make things more tense.

16. Stop meeting anger with anger. People will make you mad. Your reaction to this might be to try and make them mad. This is something of a first-order reaction. That is, it isn’t very thoughtful — it may be the first thing you’re inclined to do. Try to suppress this reaction. Be thoughtful. Imagine your response said aloud before you say it. If you don’t have to respond immediately, don’t.

17. Stop agreeing to do things that you know you’ll never actually do. It doesn’t help anyone. To a certain extent, it’s a social norm to be granted a ‘free pass’ when you don’t do something for someone that you said you were going to do. People notice when you don’t follow through, though, especially if it’s above 50% of the time.

18. Stop ‘buying’ things you know you’ll throw away. Invest in friendships that aren’t parasitic. Spend your time on things that aren’t distractions. Put your stock in fleeting opportunity. Focus on the important.

19. Stop being afraid.

-Thought Catalog 

[jasonbrueckner]

Making God in Our Own Image

So man creates God in his own imagine, in the image of man he creates God.

If you believe in the word and work of Jesus Christ, and you aren't hush about a belief that has repeatedly proven to cause disjunction between men, than you now exactly what I mean when I say that I am tired of people wanting nothing to do with our God out on account of our faith.

"Your God is selfish."

"Your God is ungracious - it shows no mercy and his judgmental eyes burn holes through people's unholiness."

"Your God is irrelevant. Dated. Expired."

If there is anything, the God of the Bible is neither obtuse nor is He careless about humanity. On the contrary, it is the people of God who have wrongfully painted His unimaginable beauty. It is the Christian academy who has mistakenly attempted to annotate His indescribable brilliance. To what lengths have we gone to theorize Theos? We sit and talk about God, over a cup of coffee until our minds have tired and our caffeine buzz has waned. This is no issue on the surface until we realize the prideful act we have committed.

 We beckon God to our conversing entertainment and our eternal salvation as if we own Him. We ask of God His service, to til the soil of the earth, to ready His harvest, as His Kingdom is spread abroad. As a friend of mine so eloquently worded as he put me in my place, there is more to God than "theology mumbo jumbo." 

 I like books. If you do not know that by now, shame on you (and scoot over to my site, thebravereviews.com). Recently, I picked up a new book that a library was giving away. Francis Schaeffer, 25 Basic Bible Studies. As I set it down on the table in front of me, someone looks at me and says, "Aren't you glad that no matter how much we study and write, our God is still the same?" At the time, what he said struck a nerve and I wanted to rebuke him for belittling Godly research and the people who devote their lives to it.

 I've since let both his comment marinate and my pride dissipate. I am truly glad that the road does not go both ways; I rejoice at the fact that God's Word transforms us and our word does not change God. I praise the consistency of God's character, of His endless love, mercy, grace and justice. I have reason to worship His goodness.

And in my worship, I am reminded of my place in the story of God and humanity. My place is of service. My role is within His Kingdom, and my vocation, will either hasten or pull on the reins of His eternal reigning. That being the case, our "theological mumble jumbo" ought quickly turn to action. We are living in a time when being present carries more weight than being correct.

What are your thoughts?

[jasonbrueckner]

1 Praise the LORD! Let all that I am praise the LORD. 2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath. 3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. 4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them. 5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God. 6 He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever. 7 He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners. 8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down. The LORD loves the godly. 9 The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked. 10 The LORD will reign forever. He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations. Praise the LORD!

Psalm 146 (NLT)

[jasonbrueckner]

Brave Reviews takes a break

I have been getting an immense amount of attention since launching Brave Reviews. In just around eight months time, I have connected with tens of publishing houses to help promote their books. I have recently begun a series of blog posts that provide a tour of Accordance Bible Software and I plan to continue that tour with BibleWorks as well as Logos Bible Software. Not only have I learned a lot through the process, I have begun to open up doors for others to review books too through the recent partnership with Malone's Center for Theology & Ministry. This is a lot of really exciting stuff -- and, like I said, Brave Reviews is still a new born!

So, why the break?

I feel as though too many moving pieces are going in too many different directions, and I would like to slow the machine down a bit. I would like to keep the basics just that, the basics. I would like to clean up the site a bit and take a step back from the heavy amount of reviewing that I've been doing.

Not only that, but also as a reminder, I do this reading and these book reviews strictly on a volunteer basis. I believe that literature about Christ (or "Christian literature") is extremely important and this is just a small means to promote these excellent resources. I work three other jobs; I work as a Starbucks barista, as an adjunct faculty member at Malone University, and as the Young Adult Ministries Director at MissionView Church. I need this month off to devote my attention to these other areas. Some have chose to support Brave Reviews, if you would consider donating financially to the work that is being done at my site, you can do so through this link.

These are many exciting things to come in the future - but I will be taking the month of June off from reading for the sake of posting reviews. I do have a couple of commitments to fulfill for the end of this month, but I will be back in July -- I look forward to what is ahead!

Grace & Peace,

Jason

[jasonbrueckner]

Giveaway Winner !!

You're correct --

Brave Reviews has not had a giveaway for a few months, but I've been hosting a giveaway at another website of mine that is just getting its feet off the ground. I have had a number of new faces join in the giveaway as they learn about the expansion of Brave Reviews that is taking place at www.jasonbrueckner.tumblr.com.

The winner of the giveaway did not know what he was going to receive - all that he/she knew was that it'd be books. I thought I would tailor the prize package to the winner, in hopes that the books would be more encouraging and that the giveaway winner was not left with books that he thought were super lame. All that said ... the prize package [read below to see what is included!] of this giveaway goes to ... Matthew Kratz! Matthew is a pastor of an evangelical congregation in Ontario (finally, some friends in Canada!). He's married and has two children. He introduced himself by letting me know that every "truth" that he reads is set to the ultimate standard, which is the very Word of God. He doesn't desire for our opinions to tell us what Scripture says, rather, place the Word center-stage and allow the Wisdom of God to tell us what to think. I think, especially with the array of topics and texts that I'm in at a given time, too seldom do I let Scripture speak for Herself. We always let others speak on behalf of the Word when that is not necessary. So I'll let Matthew speak for himself, 

"I always start with the praise or critique based on an adherence to the text of Scripture. If a book/testimony/argument does not flow from Biblical justification, then it is mere opinion, speculation or experience. If it is one that cites Biblical reference, then it is one that should be carefully considered."

God is so good and I pray that these texts exhort you, Matthew, in your study of the Word, in your understanding of this world, and in your personal walk with Christ. Matthew will be receiving:

- Larry Richard's Bible Answer Handbook

- Garry Morgan's Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day

- Richard Foster & Garyle Beebe's Longing for God 

[jasonbrueckner]

Bible Software Tour

I have been knee deep in reading books for a wide variety of publishers, but the reason that I have launched this site is in order to allow there to be a virtual space to combine my passions. I teach, I workout, and I have also partnered with three of the largest bible software organizations, Accordance Bible Software, BibleWorks, and Logos Bible Software. Each company has seen my book review website grow and is excited for my mission. Each company also understands the importance of grounded biblical studies, and that is why they have committed themselves to what they do (that and the growing age of technology has made possible what they're doing).

Now you can have thousands upon thousands of books available online or offline, right on your laptop. You can do lexical analysis, historical background searches, and simple side-by-side translation comparison. I cannot imagine where we will go from here with biblical studies, but for the time being, we have got incredible tools at our disposal (and it makes me wonder the accountability we will have later on as church leaders).

If you are a church leader, or if you are a college professor, who has devoted his or her life to understanding and preaching/teaching God's Word, and you are not familiar with these three platforms, than stay tuned because we will be doing a walk through of each from the ground up.

I have included tabs to each platform or you can just follow the Bible Software Tour as a whole. Bless you and I pray that this is an encouragement to you and to your congregations and classrooms.

Grace & Peace,

Jason

[jasonbrueckner]

close your mouth.

close your eyes.

just listen.

[jasonbrueckner]

New giveaway has been posted -- you might want to check it out of you know what's good for ya!

[jasonbrueckner]

We either turn and run or we bow down and worship.

David Platt, #Verge13

[jasonbrueckner]

Give a look at my book review website. I seek to provide unbiased reviews of Christian literature. I would love to hear your feedback! I will be integrating my book reviews with a variety of other topics on this website.

[jasonbrueckner]

Greetings!

This is just a test to see how the new format looks. I am excited to start the new, more comprehensive site! You can hover over the pencil to the left and share this with your friends -- or visit the page itself and join in on the conversation that will unfold. I think that a lot of really good things will come over this website.

It will be even better once I figure out how to upload some music!