bombay reflections

for a good time i've felt led to embark on several "mini-journeys" in search of answering questions that lay beneath the surface of the hearts of us all. i believe that people, no matter their theology, their race, their gender, their religious beliefs, all have questions that never go voiced.

just the idea that people have questions that they won't ask bugs me. it doesn't bother me because i want to know what question "so and so" has or because i need to know i'm not alone. it bothers me because if you never voice those questions, you'll never search for God through them.

that sounds a bit hazy, i'll see if i can clear up the water a little. if you have a question that you've always been curious about and you might have even studied scripture, read some commentaries, looked up the greek but you've never raised the question to anyone else, i would argue that you are missing out on a critical part of sanctification.

you are missing out on a piece of discipleship.

if you notice in the Gospel accounts, things were done in groups.

there were the 12 who were the Apostles. then there were the 3 who seemed to be a little closer to Christ. it was almost as if Christ took the three men and walked with them a step deeper.

isn't this the way our friendships are? we have a larger number of people who we would call friends but there is that small core group of people who we would say we are closer to, we are more connected; our bond with them is deeply rooted unlike other friendships.

it is with this core group of men and women that you share your lives on a more intimate level.

let's hop back over to the first century briefly before we ask a few questions... as i read the gospel accounts, i see Christ doing daily life with the people who followed Him. These men and women were his good friends.

i can see Him laughing with them at dinner. staying up to the wee hours of the morning telling stories about each other, about their lives before Christ, eating good food, drinking good wine and sharing pieces of themselves with each other.

i can see Christ hugging and crying a young man after losing a loved one. embracing him in his grief with no quick Bible quote but just the comfort of his arms.

i can see Jesus getting fishing tips from Peter, talking about philosophy with John, walking through questions that keep coming up with Judas and much more that isn't recorded by the four books we have today.

do you ever think that the part of life we miss out on the most is in our lack of conversation with each other?

think about it. we get together and go to the movies, to a ballgame, bowling, to play pick up basketball, to go shopping, to go to the park, etc. we do all of these things and there is little to no conversation that goes on. and the conversation that does go on is small talk, much like that on a sunday morning. we are lacking substance. we need substance. our souls, and our minds need to be stretched and challenged. we need spiritual and mental exercise.

to pay my way through school i bartended. you know what i miss about not being a bartender? the conversations. i've never had better conversations anywhere (outside those with my dearest friends). the job was amazing and the people were what i was there for. i had many regulars that even today i can remember where they sat, and what they drank. there was one particular man that comes to mind. his name was john and he was a retired university professor.

he wasn't a very tall man by anyone's perspective, but what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in intelligence. the man was a wealth of knowledge. he would walk in once a week, usually thursdays, and sit down with some sort of reading material. each time he sat he had the same drink, sapphire martini with a twist of lemon, but he always had a different book or magazine than last week.

we would often discuss politics, current events, etc. in one particular discussion i asked him why he was always reading and he said, "when you exercise, you keep your muscles healthy, in good shape, and hopefully growing to be in better shape. your mind is the same way, so if you don't exercise your mind, it will lose strength and become weak. i'm determined to not let my mind go first."

do you ever feel spiritually weaker than you did yesterday if you didn't "exercise" your spirit recently?

there are times when in-depth conversations come easily but most of the time outside of Bible study classes we don't have spiritual conversations. WE NEED THEM TERRIBLY.

if you want to grow, you must start down a path where you can search for the heartbeat of God in hopes to become more like Christ with other people. you must ask the questions that you've always wanted to ask. raise the question even if it seems questionable. how can you ever learn if you never begin to question.

i want to challenge you, if you've read this far, to begin a "mini-journey".

here's is what i'm urging you to do: find two or three (keep things small) other people who desire to go deeper and are willing to invest time in reading, talking, studying and praying individually and together. once you've found those people everyone "put a question in the hat" and pick one to start. this question can be about anything. it could be about the old testament laws, war, peace, salvation, life, love, relationships, anything. take that question and look at what scripture would have to say about said topic, then share your findings. do it over dinner or send out one email with a question and everyone reply. hear or read everyone elses responses thoroughly. not to find something to prove them wrong with, but find something that makes you think. discuss each others answer with an abundant amount of love and encouragement. once you've discussed thoroughly, go to the next question.

the key is to keep searching

keep walking

keep reading

keep praying

keep loving

keep encouraging

keep your spirit and your mind sharp

you don't want your spirit to be the first thing to go.

may you find people around you to journey with more intimately

may your heart be pushed to new depths

may you have more questions than answers


read the rest of this blog:.

the odd couple

a week ago today millions of families and friends sat down together and ate. we sat down with people we love deeply and broke bread. what a sacred event.

my closest friends will tell you that for years i've been saying, "good things happen over food." i truly believe that if more people took the time to sit and eat with each other, the world could be a different place. sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? i'm convinced that breaking bread together can change the world.

just think about the idea of thanksgiving and how your heart feels on that one day. even the idea of thanksgiving is about coming together over a feast and recognizing your blessings.

on that one day, we realize what is most important in life -- family, friends, love, grace, community.

for many of us we are reminded that all the things we've been chasing aren't what matters. we realize that what matters are the people in our lives, the community around us, the love from friends and family, good conversation over good coffee. hopefully we realize that what truly matters isn't something that we buy, but rather the very things that can't be purchased.

life is sitting down with people, listening to their stories, talking, laughing, crying.

life is walking along side people, loving them relentlessly.

life is helping people up who are at the bottom.

life is cooking simple meals and sharing them with others.

life is giving away clothes to people who need them more than we do.

life is building relationships with people founded on the love of Christ.

i think we can all agree that life is about the spiritual connection between people and what is birthed from those connections become the important moments we must savor.

thanksgiving is a reminder that life is here in front of us at all times, in our families, friends, and neighbors.

what's strange is that we can absolutely be on cloud 9 of spiritual revelation and understand that everything that truly matters in our life is living and breathing in front of us, but then turn around and pursue things that don't matter at all.

in today's world, thanksgiving is coupled with another day....

i know you all know it.

That's right -- "Black Friday". the greatest day in the world (note sarcasm). day of all the big sales. the day that every store under the retail sun opens hours before light breaks the horizon.

black friday is the day an entire nation flocks to store after store to spend money for the upcoming christmas holiday.

what's insane about this is the transition of our mind, not to mention the amount of money spent in one day, by one nation.

our mindset on thanksgiving is focused on enjoying what we have and even being comfortable for what we don't and finding it within ourselves to be thankful for where we are at in life. then black friday rolls around at 4am and we forget about being thankful for where we are at in life and the fact that material possessions aren't what makes us happy.

we trade in thankfulness for wanting more stuff.

it's as if we can't be happy with what we have for more than one day. we must go out and buy more for the people we love, because we want them to know how much we love them.

for some of us, we rely on the gifts we buy on black friday to show people how much we love them. so we went from the day of the year where we get in touch with what matters and we trade it for a day of greed. i don't want to sound incredibly negative but as a whole, we are a greedy nation.

our never ending pursuit of bigger, better, faster, stronger, newer stuff is something that scares me. there are a few things that the New Testament message is very clear about and one is the evidence of Christ in our hearts shown through our lives. Different authors tell of it in various ways but one of the passages that scares me personally the most is found in 1 John.

1 John tells us that "if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

the phrase, "has no pity" can be better translated as "shutting off the heart". just think about that.

the person who sees someone in need and does nothing has had his/her heart shut off and is in question of even having Christ in their lives at all.

is that scary to just me?

think about it...

poverty has ravished our nation, our inner cities, our world. we have all seen the need. there is no way to say that we haven't seen the oppressed, the downtrodden, the needy. some of us see it daily with our own eyes.

if we have seen the need and the magnitude of the need, why are we spending billions of dollars in one day on junk that we have convinced ourselves we "need". in all truth, what more do we really need.

we have a house, with heat, we have food in the pantry, and jobs to help make all this possible.

do we really need the giant TV's, and sound systems?

do we need four cars?

do we need a house with more rooms than we can fill with people?

just think about walking by the homeless as you move from store to store spending a $1000 on people who already know how much you love them. you've seen a need right in front of your eyes over and over again and we (myself included) do nothing.

to steal an analogy from one of my professors, it's as if God is trying to tell us something and we're the little kid that sticks his hands over his ears singing, "la la la la la la la la i can't hear you". God is trying to get our attention and we won't even look his way.

when do we take our hands off our ears so that we can hear God?

this passage scares me because sometimes i feel that christians in america are more in love with capitalism than the gospel.

are we unwilling to live on less so that we can give more?

i can't justify a good reason to God for this. i have a hard time coming before the creator to explain why i need more comfort when so many slept outside last night.

God, give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear you.

may we take our hands off of our ears and listen.

may our lives be transformed in such a way that we only want to serve you.

may the Gospel be exhibited through our actions.

may we see a need today and meet it.

read the rest of this blog:.

eat more work less

i had the opportunity to sit in on a Bible study class on Sunday and there was one comment that stuck out to me. it wasn't bad or made outside the lines of context, or wrong by any means. in fact it was terribly revealing. the class has been discussing Donald Miller's message called Free Market Jesus and a young lady said we shouldn't be trying to sell anyone Christianity.

i totaly agree, but my mind began to have a flashback similar to what you see in a movie complete with surround sound and i heard people of my past talk about christianity, the church, God, Christ, the Holy Spirit. they spoke of them as pieces of a program. this program they spoke of is one that "works" for whatever purpose they were going for.

in my ears i began to hear words that were words of the business world. they were words that people use to pursuade others to following.

words of a salesman.

if you tak an outsiders look into church, do you see
institutions?
do you see businesses?
or do you see a movement?
do you see a revolution?

have we taken christianity and put it inside the walls of denominational doctirne creating a well oiled institution?

have we taken scriptures and put boundaries on them in order that our church or program might provide a service to our customers that aligns with what they want?

when did christianity move away from being led by the Holy Spirit and replaced it with Vision Statements?


last week a question was given to me that i've been fleshing out since i heard it.

imagine that you are shipwrecked on a deserted island. you can read, you know of the outside world but have no past experience with church. on this island you find a copy of the scriptures and you begin to read. for the next five years you read the scriptures over and over, totally immersed in the story of these men and women. after five years you are rescued and taken back to the states. as your feet hit the ground, you begin to swell with excitement about being a part of this body of believers.

the question i want to pose to you from this story is, "what would you expect the church to look when you got back to civilization?"

think.

what would you expect to see?

what would you NOT expect to see?

how would the spiritual leaders act?

what would the church's focus be?

how would followers of Christ live?

what would they be concerned with?

what would "church" look like?

what it be about a building and where believers meet?

if Jesus was "pastor" at a church would anyone want to go there? would you go there?

these are all big questions and i realize that. i have hours of contemplation and conversation up on you about this. my good friends Sheldon, Evan, Jacob and myself had a great conversation that lasted almost 2 hours, and before then, Sheldon and I had a pretty intense, conversation on these issues so i've got some time on you. now i'm handing the questions over for you to ponder.

i want us to think about this because we have the responsibility as believers to do be the church. and being the church means doing things scripturally

so, this week we will leave the newsletter open ended for you to think.

if you've read this far... i ask YOU to respond to the big questions as well as sub-questions.

get together with others who aren't believers and ask them. you want honesty, go to the lost.


Go
think
talk
discuss
ponder
pray
meditate
write
talk
pray
eat
conversate

after you've done this.... email me what you're thinking.

let's dive in and ask God to reveal Himself to us.

but be ready, God may just ask you to change something, remove something, tweak something, step up, lead, teach, disciple, or give something up.

i ask you to prayerfully consider the question at hand and let your heart be poured out.

i'm excited about what God WILL reveal to you.

peace be with you.

read the rest of this blog:.

breathe HOPE

last week i told you that we would look at Hope during this edition and it shows how remarkable God's timing truly is.

just days ago, we the people, voted in an african american man for our president elect. regardless of where you sit on the political front, it is a great testimony to the progress of a nation in a positive direction. a direction that has been long overdue. we aren't going to discuss policies or any sort of political programs but we are going to discuss HOPE.

this change marks a monumental day of HOPE for all people.

imagine if you can -- a television in the heart of the projects is tuned in to watch a man speak to the nation. in front of this TV, a young african american girl sits, eyes wide with amazement, and ears intent on listening.

she watches and listens.

the speech is finished. her heart swells with something she can't describe. her mom, fresh home from a 14 hour day, tells her, "go to bed. you've got school tomorrow." she runs and jumps into her bed, excited about tomorrow because she has seen that her dreams are a possibility. she just watched a man who had the same skin color as her become a leader, but not just any leader.

suddenly she has HOPE again. HOPE not given to her by a man, not from a nation, but HOPE from God.

her morning, when she awakes, will be brighter than ever before. her cereal will have never tasted better.

HOPE does funny things to people.

it makes them speak out against injustice knowing great resistance lies ahead, if certainly not death.

Christ knew this HOPE. without HOPE driving us to pursue our heart's cry, we have empty motivation.

just over 45 years ago a pastor stood in our nation's capital and called the nation to HOPE. he called the world to see that there is still HOPE in the souls of people and he would ask them to change.

this pastor proclaimed the Gospel message that we must cling to and it's this message that brings our nation HOPE.

a message that all men are equal.

a message of raising up the oppressed.

a message of Love.

we are on our way up to the mountaintop that Dr. King spoke so passionately about. HOPE in what could be drives us to take the next step up that steep climb.

forget politics. forget where you align as a "conservative" or "democrat" and raise up HOPE again in our nation.

a HOPE founded in CHRIST. don't place your HOPE in policies or law to change the hearts of people. put your HOPE in the restoration that only CHRIST can bring.

regardless of whether you are ecstatic or beside yourself with the results of the election, You and I are called to be outside the lines of political parties moving to change the world from the ground up; one person at a time. this is our HOPE. HOPE that all people will know Christ.

christianity isn't political; it never was meant to be. disciples didn't overthrow the Roman Empire through government, they overthrew the message of the Empire and focused on the people around them.

christianity is a movement.

it's grassroots.

it's done on the ground, in our workplaces, and in our homes.

following Christ changes the lives of people around us. it changes their soul. this is what the disciples put their faith in -- the HOPE of the atoning blood of Christ revealed to people by God. trust in the sovereignty of God and put your HOPE in the Gospel message of love, mercy, grace, peace, kindness, and joy. it should be this HOPE that moves us.


the apostle Paul tells us, "through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have HOPE." before this Paul was talking about helping the weak by shouldering some of their failings on ourselves. then he tells us that all that has been written was for them to have what they needed to go on and that should give them HOPE.

he continues in this chapter in romans to urge us to accept one another as Christ accepted us, and that the HOPE of all people is found in Christ.

Paul then says, "may the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirt."

HOPE is rooted in Christ.

HOPE will not fail you.

HOPE is not false.

HOPE is what we must cling to.

HOPE that people will come to know the beauty of a relationship with Christ.

HOPE that believers can unite to serve God regardless of their denominational affiliation, gender or race.

HOPE in the revealing Word of God.

HOPE in our weaknesses and our failures.

today may YOU SEE HOPE IN ALL THINGS.

may your words be spoken with Love.

may your thoughts be intent on Christ.

may HOPE drive you to do more.

in all you do

speak HOPE

teach HOPE

breathe HOPE

read the rest of this blog:.

personal holiness

i have been reminded this week why i want to tell people about Christ, about His Love, about His Peace. i think it is different for everyone, but for me, it's HOPE.

next week we will look at HOPE but this week i thought it would be good to step back from time to time and allow other people use their gifts to encourage us, push us, and motivate us to stay strong in our pursuit of God.

so, an old friend of mine who i roomed with at Texas A&M will be your author. he is an amazing man who seeks the face of God whole heartedly. God has used him in my life in more ways than he will ever know. his life is an encouragment to me and a living, breathing testimony of the Gospel.

enjoy.


Personal Holiness
by Clint Kirby

The doctor reluctantly thumbed through the patient's file muttering something about a missed tee time. This surgery had been looming for weeks and he had exhausted every option of getting out of it. His nurses did their best to avoid bumping into him as he stood in front of the door to the operating room.
The patient had a rare disease and this surgery was his last hope. The doctor was going to try a difficult procedure that could yield a miraculous result, but more likely, a quiet exit from the world. The doctor's reputation as a competent, successful doctor was in the balance, but so was the patient's life.
The doctor closed his eyes and massaged his temples with his thumb and forefinger.'Why in the world did I agree to do this? This probably won't even work. How is this going to look to the other doc'

"Dr. Graydin. Excuse me, Dr. Graydin. We are ready for you."

Do you value your personal holiness over the lostness of others?

This question was posed to me recently and I have been wrestling with it ever since. Do I care about how I am performing as a Christian more than I care about people hearing and receiving salvation in Jesus Christ?

According to the book of 1 Timothy, we are to be "above reproach" (especially deacons and elders). However, I think we exempt ourselves from relating to the lost in the name of being "above reproach." Instead of engaging people who desperately need the love of Christ where they are, we pray for them to miraculously want to come to church on Sunday. I am not saying we shouldn't pray for the lost to come to church, but shouldn't we be doing something to share the love of Christ with them the other six days of the week?

If you think about people in need of Christ, what kind of people do you think of?

Where do they hangout?

What do they do for fun?

Here's the bigger question: How are they getting access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

The apostle Paul asks this question in another way in Romans 10, "How can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

The model of Jesus Christ in the New Testament shows Jesus going to the people in need. I am sure Jesus had some sort of home, but from the Gospels we can't really glean that he spent much time there. Why? He was in the homes of the tax collectors and sinners: the most reviled sort.

In that day, it was a big deal to eat a meal at someone's home. You had to be careful about who you dined with because you would become associated with them. Jesus was well aware of this because he was known as a "glutton...drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34)." A good question to ask is, knowing the ministry of Jesus, would we consider Him "above reproach?"

Now, Jesus was "above reproach" because we know that he was without sin (1 Jn. 3:5).Therefore, his tactics to reach the lost were not sinful. So instead, I think we should view his tactics as our example.

What is keeping us from trying to build relationships with the people who need Christ the most? When the disciples were asked about Jesus' approach to ministry, Jesus responded, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." Could Jesus have said it more simply?

In the story above I tried to show how much the patient had to lose versus the doctor. The patient was going to lose his whole life if the doctor did not go through with the procedure. However, the doctor was more concerned about losing his name and prestige.

Where do your coworkers go after work?

Would it make you uncomfortable to go there with them?

What would your Christian friends think?

Could it be that God has strategically placed you in the midst to be the light of the world?

Think of the most sinful place in America. If Jesus were here today, he would probably be ministering to those there. Why? Because that's where the sick are.

Who are the tax collectors in our context?

How are we going to reach them?

Are we more concerned about our reputation in the Christian community than the lostness of others?

read the rest of this blog:.

morning reflections

this week has been a reminder of the brevity of life. i was reminded that i need to take better care of myself. i was reminded that we never know what tomorrow will bring.

last night as i talked with my dear friend, jerry newton, on the phone i was confronted with the reality that we aren't guaranteed tomorrow. jerry told me of how our good friend passed away wednesday morning. at one point i could hear jerry getting choked up and it made the tears in my eyes build up before spilling over the levee.

i sit here this morning watching the horizon change from a deep onyx blue to vibrant orange. as the color emerges revealing more vibrance, more passion in it's voice, the soulful voice of ray lamontagne sings a plea to the heavens,

"Trouble...
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble
Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born
Worry...
Worry, worry, worry, worry
Worry just will not seem to leave my mind alone"

i reflect on my life...

for me, when death strikes close to my heart, i find myself wondering, "am i living the way God called me to live?"

is my heart's cry being answereed by my actions, by the relationships i build, by my daily focus?

or am i simply submitting to my selfishness, to what i think needs to be done?

am i living for God or for me?


am i investing time in people or stuff that won't last?

am i putting others before myslef or am i stockpiling material things for me and my family because i've bought into the lie that i deserve more than than the poor because i have an education or i've "worked hard"?

these are the questions that i ask myself today. i can feel the love of Christ move through them even when the questions are at their most convicting, i feel God's Love. the hard questions bring change; they bring rebirth.


what matters in the end?

it's not our bank account.

it's not the house we live in.

it's not our retirement plan.

it's not the cars we drive, or the clothes we wear.


in the end, will you be able to answer a resounding "yes" to Jesus when He asks you,

did you visit me when i was in prison?

did you feed me when i was hungry?

did you clothe me when i was naked?

did you love me when i was unloved?

did you lift me up when i was at the bottom?

did you take me in when i was homeless?


there is a skewed view of reality in the world we live in. we have been raised to think that giving our can of food to the food bank at thanksgiving is our duty. now please don't hear me say that giving to a charity is bad, it's not. the attitude i'm weary of is the attitude in which we give to a charity to rid ourselves of guilt. i'm not sure Christ ever said, "when i was hungry you gave food to the food bank and they fed me."

we shouldn't be indirectly effecting change, we should be direclty effecting change.

don't forget that we are to imitate Christ. we are to strive everyday to be more and more like Him. Christ was a servant. scripture points that out clearly. Old Testament prophets point to the Messiah as being a humble servant. then we read of this son of a carpenter emerging in the desert winds of the first century and He doesn't fly through the roman empire striking down all who get in His way. instead, He walks along the road with thieves. He eats in the house of prostitutes. He gives Grace to the beggars. He spends insane amounts of time with men and women we avoid at all cost.

if this is the lifestyle we are supposed to imitate, how do we fool ourselves into thinking we deserve more than anyone else? how arrogant have we become? how deeply is our idolatry with pursuing the american dream going to go?

for many of us we don't want to be confronted with our depravity, but we need to be. because without being shown what we are moving towards, we might never realize that we are traveling down the wrong road.

when issues like the ones mentioned thus far are brought up, we automatically think the writer or speaker is telling us that we need to give all of our money away and live as the poor lives. that's not what i'm saying, yet it is. i don't want you to tell yourself that I think less of you because you have much. i do believe whole heartedly that the more we have, the more we should give. i do believe that believers should live below their means so we can give more. i wonder if the first thing we think of is money, then maybe that's what our heart is holding on to too tightly.

maybe that's the one thing we know we can't give up?

guilt is not why i write this to you today. i share what God is calling me to share. i have been called to challenge believers to live outside of our lives of comfort, outside our lives of mediocrity and move to lives of risk, lives fueled by passion for Loving God, Loving Our Neighbor and Putting Others Before Ourselves.

we fool ourselves if we beleive that sunday morning is all God has for us.

we fool ourselves if we think that life is all about us taking care of ourselves and our family.

there is so much more that God has for us, but we'll never see it if we aren't willing to serve.

Christ, the humble servant He is, knows that if we put others before ourselves, change happens.

if we put others before ourselves, the misconceptions of the church go away because we are actually giving grace to people instead of condemning them.

if we put others before ourselves, the world changes, revolution begins.

what is your heart's cry for your life?

look deep with yourself... what is it?

forget money. forget power. forget comfort. forget retirement plans. forget your dream house.

remember that true religion is caring for the orphans and widows and keeping yourself from being polluted by the world. james said that.

don't forget that at the root of everything Love must exist. if we don't have Love as our foundation, then all is for not.

Love is the beginning.

Love is the end.

may we see that we are here for more than we ever expected.

may we realize that our life is not about us.

may we come to the full knowledge that everything is about Him. it's about God and nothing else.

may we be shown our brokenness and may that brokenness compel us to serve others; to put others above ourselves.

may we remember life is today

not tomorrow

not yesterday

life is this moment

this instant

may we not waste it.

peace be with you

read the rest of this blog:.

God Save The Queen

i would have to say that my favorite book in the Bible to read is the book of Jeremiah. it's emotional, it's raw, it's dark and hopeful all at the same time. the characteristics that i see in the heart of Jeremiah, in his words and his passions, i can identify with. it is in Jeremiah that i was given my call. it is in the God breathed words spoken and written by the prophet that i felt God say to me, "this is what you were created for."

feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit directing you specifically to something is a big deal, so my ears perked up, my mind sharpened it's focus and i listened.

in Jeremiah 2 there is an incredibly emotional word from God that strikes deep into my soul. it's as if God is looking at his people, after all he has done for them, and He is crying out to the nation of israel, "do you remember the days that you loved me? remember when you followed me any where i went? you were like a bride then. i protected you. i took care of you. i provided for your every need."

please hear this with the emotion that is coming through the pages of scripture. this is raw, emotional love. God is using the parallel of a bride and groom, like he does so often in scripture. He wants us to remember what we felt like when we first fell head over heels in love with our spouse.

He is asking His people to remember how that felt.


then God says to the people, "when did I lose you? we had something great going here. i provided for you, you did the same, so what happened? when did i lose you to these other idols? we were so connected, then you ran away from me? wasn't i everything to you? weren't we in Love? you have pushed me aside to pursue what? you had the spring of living water and you left it to go dig your own cistern. and the cisterns you have -- they're cracked, they don't even hold water."

this is a little too much reality for me.

it's too much reality for me, because of who Jeremiah is speaking these words to...Jeremiah is speaking to the religious leaders.

he is talking to the church.

Jeremiah was speaking to the church.

don't miss that.

God is using Jeremiah to tell His people that they have exchanged the one thing that gave them life, the very thing that sustained them, for something else. the people saw the water running, they had tasted it's refreshment and they said, "no thanks. it's good, but i need to do my own thing. so i'll dig my own cistern to hold water that i find elsewhere."

but the sad fact is that these religious leaders were so consumed with their own lives and providing for themselves that they didn't realize everything they were pouring in was leaking out. nothing they did lasted. all of their work, all of their worship, all of their prayers, just leaked out through the cracks. the tragedy is that the people didn't even realize it.

the church had become religious.

the people had lost their first love

and all God was asking for was their heart.

God was crying out to save His bride.

in the new testament a man by the name of Paul becomes a follower of Christ after a long, strict upbringing in the Jewish faith. we pick up with stories about Paul in the book of Acts, a book filled with God crying out for His people; for everyone.

an interesting point brought to my attention this week was who Paul approached first about this new way of life.

Paul went first to the religious leaders. he first went to those people who had exchanged God for their own ambitions, for what they thought was best for them.

Paul went first to the religious leaders.

but why?

"because he knows that if the church gets converted, the whole world will follow."

Paul is trying to help God call His Bride home.

far too many people who are faithful followers of Jesus have forgotten what it was like when they were young and in Love.

we (and i include myself in this "we") often exchange the beauty of our relationship with God for comfort, for convenience, for our need to uphold the lifestyle we have convinced ourselves we "deserve".

God is crying out for his people,

his church,

for you

and me

to come back to that relationship that looks more like a bride and groom's life together, than a boyfriend and girlfriend's on again, off again romance.

God is callin us back.

have we forgotten what His embrace feels like?

would we rather fill our own cisterns with worldly accomplishments that we spend years striving for, rather than serving others?

what does True Love look like?

True Love is selfless.

how can we be selfless today?

may God show us the beauty of walking along side Him in such a way that we can't let go of His hand.

may we stop pouring our lives into broken cisterns and be refreshed by the spring of living water.

may we be consumed with the kind of relentless Love that a bride has for her groom.

may we remember that we are the bride and Christ is our groom, our King.

God save the queen.

peace be with you


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one cross, three wedges

over the course of my 28 years of being in church i've noticed quite a bit about people who claim the name of Christ. some of these people produce great good for the kingdom and therefore the world, and others tear people down and cause massive chasms of division.

some of you might know that i started walking with Christ when i was 20, in January of 2000. at that point in time life was beautiful, there was nothing that could bring me down off of my spiritual high. nothing could stop me from growing.

and then one day, i walked away from all of it...

church

God

Christ

anything that had a religious label i pushed away.

a couple of weeks ago i was watching some stand up comedy, which i love to do from time to time. now this particular stand up featured one comedian by the name of dennis miller. i love dennis miller. he's witty, charming, honest, and quite often brash.

he made a comment that i've been pondering for the last couple weeks and then as i was talking to one of my college professors last night, he said something that solidified my thoughts and where they were going.

dennis miller said that we always seem to make the small things out to be bigger than they actually are, or they actually need to be.

so, the past two weeks my mind has been on this thought pretty frequently. during this time, i've been preparing to help lead a discussion on one of the most debatable issues in christian thought -- war. what made the past few weeks terribly difficult is that God has begun to change my mind on a couple of issues dealing with the topic of war, and it has been a tough pill to swallow. i began to write down all of my questions and answers this week that came from my study and i felt myself thinking "how could i have thought this way for so long? have i been wrong the entire time i've been walking with God?"

last night i get an unusual phone call from my professor and mentor (he probably doesn't think of himself as a mentor, but he was). he began to encourage me about thursday night. we had been corresponding this week about the topic, which definitely helped in the preparation. i won't tell you all that he said but one of the most influential things he said was to not allow the topic to get people out of sync with the heartbeat of God because once our conversation has gone away from Him, we've no point in talking.

he also told me that people are all at different points in their journey with Christ. if our walk was marked by "points" and each point was a letter in the alphabet, some are at point "C" while others are farther along the path at point "Q". and perhaps these issues that people at point "Q" understand and have had the time to sift through, pray through, and come to a decision on are there because they've had the time, life experiences, etc. that are needed to get them to such a point. on the other hand, those believers at point "C", might not be ready to hear that argument yet. their faith might not be strong enough.

so is the person at point "Q" considered "right" and the person at point "C" wrong, because they are each able to come to a biblical decision based on where they're at in their journey? i don't think so.

too many times people debate, argue, fight, and in cases of history, shed blood all in the name of Christ over interpretations, thoughts, ideas. for us today, we don't think of shedding each others blood, we just tear down the church from the inside out; we cause division.

caleb rosier sent me a quote from the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis, in which a senior devil is talking to a junior devil on how to cause destruction of the human soul, and it basically says that if they (devils) can get people to be preoccupied with our ideas to such an extent where we then fall into the cycle of letting our "faith" play the role of supporting an idea, then they have us. at that point where our faith becomes the agent to back our small mind's ideas that we deem best, we've lost God and our religion of being "right" has become idolatrous.

i stepped away from God after i became a Christian. isn't that weird. it was the time when i was supposed to be diving deeper into His Word, Loving my neighbor, and caring for the ones who can't care for themselves. i stepped away because all i saw was christian men and women arguing with great conviction and passion that one side was right and the other was wrong.

it wasn't over issues that determines someone's salvation. it was over calvinism, arminianism, baptism, homosexuality, alcohol, war, music, books, movies, smoking, worship style, healing, tongues, prophecy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. what i saw happen was christians becoming enraged at other christians over topics that have been debated for centuries and yet they thought their view, which was based more from their upbringing and culture rather than scripture, was right.

but the cherry on top, so to speak, was when a local church in our area split because people within the church body spread talk that eventually drove a giant wedge in the church and that was all that was needed to divide.

i wonder how much of our time, or how much breath could be saved if we sat down with others and talked through issues instead of running away from them or getting so worked up and convinced we are the ones that are "right".

what if we decided to do the Biblical thing - humble ourselves, sit down with a person and discuss our grievances. or what if we simply walk alongside them, loving them, rather than trying to convince them that we're right and they're wrong.

we might actually come to find out that this "giant" issue that was once a massive wedge divinding us, keeping us from serving God together, was actually something so small we could flick it away like an unwanted bug crawling on our arm.

what if the big issues really aren't that big?

what if the debatable topics that are keeping us from serving together as one body, one community, aren't that important in the grand scheme of things?

what if we become less concerned with being "right" and more concerned with Loving others?

may we not be the one that creates division

may we see the world through Grace-filled eyes

may our hearts desire to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unloved, and visit the imprisoned.

may we love those around us with the Love and Grace of Calvary.

peace be with you

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Pieces of me

i've always felt like God asked me to do more than i was comfortable. at times it seems to be what He does most. it's as if He knows something will come out of my willingness to do anything he asks.

sometimes it's good to look back and see what God has told us in the past. to see where He was taking us two years ago and see where we are today. this is one of the reasons i think journaling is important to walking with God.

i journal to commune with God, to vent, to think, to document what God is teaching me, what i'm learning, and what's going on in the world around me.

when i go back and read my entries, i discover that my future is in my past. God reveals Himself in ways that we miss. so today i share pieces of my past with you. these are portions of a few journal entries i share with you because i want to give you a piece of me.

sharing ourselves with one another is one of the most beautiful things about community, about fellowship, about walking with Jesus together because we were never meant to do it alone.

April 11. 2005
Lord, it feels like my addiction just seems to constantly being getting the best of me. Father, help me to be above reproach. Help me to not put myself in a situation to fall under temptation's spell. My heart and my mind cry out to you, but my flesh seems to overpower me. Today, God, may i decrease and you increase. My heart, mind, soul, and flesh are yours today. May i die to you.

May 28. 2005
i want to be crazy, insane, out of my mind for you. please God, drive me there.

June 12. 2006
over a week and still no sleep. the morning really is a beautiful time of the day. a couple of days ago i could hear birds beginning their day about 5:30. it was as if they could see the black horizon becoming lighter and they couldn't wait to get going.

??? Undated
i think i'm going to read "walden" again. i feel like i'm getting too connected to worldy things. i pray that God will use it to bring my mind back to the state it needs to be in. Thoreau does a great job of putting priorities in their place. he says, "what a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate." this is what we've talked about lately in house church.
i just walked for 40 minutes to get to a bench where it was dry and i could read my Bible and write in this journal. isn't God wonderful! i proclaim His Beauty and marvel at His Grace. thank you for a life that is gloriously beautiful. i pray that our church continues and it proves to be a time dedicated to you and not just the time we spend worshiping here but the time that we spend on our way to this place. take heed good servant and listen for the Heart of God. Listen for your masters voice. he will call on you and seek you. He loves you and wants nothing more than to be with you. i think it's time for us to stop allowing God to chase us and it's time to walk to Him.

March 17. 2007
God has renewed me today. He has reminded me and possibly for the first time caused me to realized that i need to allow myself to be weak and not focus on endurance. FORGET ENDURANCE. DELIGHT IN WEAKNESS.

July 24. 2007
it is pouring rain as i write. I'm sitting inside the front entrance of a small chapel with the door open letting fresh, rain-filled air mix with the damp staleness inside this room. it's funny how when i walk with God more closely, He shows things to me. well, maybe He has been showing me these things and i just started noticing them. perhaps our lives are like this room that i sit in and write. our lives are damp with the haunting of our past, damp with recent sins committed so effortlessly, damp with regret. and all that God would like us to do is open the door and let the fresh scent of His purifying, rejuvenating rain breeze into our dark, stale room. Maybe Christ understood that if we would only open ourselves up to Him, He could change everything. He wants us to be fresh. He wants rejuvenation for us. will we open the door and let Him change the total atmosphere of our lives?

March 11. 2008
oh how i've been in need of feeling and knowing God's Grace lately. Satan has plagued me with self-doubt, self-hatred, and riddled my thoughts of past sins that disgust me. He has caused me, on most days, to hate myself, but i feel the Grace of God pulling me away from this self-hate. Christ is showing me a piece of Himself in a me. it's crazy to even think about God being a part of someone who perceives themselves as being incredibly wicked and dirty. tonight, oh tonight, Grace is upon me, washin me clean and pure -- not because of me or my mind but because of my weaknesses, my short comings, because I NEED GRACE.

June 12. 2008
my heart is filled with an indescribable feeling. at first i thought it was loneliness, but as much as i think, loneliness is only a small part of it. i believe the rest is grief. TONIGHT I'M GRIEVING. i grieve for the people who's head get between them and God. i grieve for men and women who occupy our church seats who don't want Jesus. sadness overwhelms me at this hour of the night. will this grief be my driving force, a drive that urges me toward the oppressed. God, point me to the oppressed, the marginalized, and may they be the next generation of believers that changes everything.

may we pour out our hearts and souls to the world.

may we show people that we are just as broken as they are.

may our lives be lived with adoration of a God who brings us out of the dark places into the light.

may we come to see that sometimes sharing a piece of ourselves with others is one of the greatest ways to express our love for them.

peace be with you



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She Was An Amazing Priest

for some of us location has great significance.

location of a business.
location of a house.
location of a church.

where we are at can affect how we hear a message. it can effect how we view the world around us or the people we encounter.

it is the location of our childhood that has a tendency to attach baggage in our lives that acts as lenses we have to look through to see our world. sometimes these lenses distort truth and reality, but other times these lenses help us see things more clearly. it is up to us to discern which is occuring -- distortion or revelation.

in the book of exodus, the people have just left the oppressive powerhouse, egypt and are following God to a place called sinai.

sinai wasn't claimed by a nation as it's capital. it wasn't a central point for commerce or a location where east met west.

sinai was neutral.

God and moses communed on "neutral" ground.

in exodus 19 we learn that moses went up on the mountain to God. it was here that God told moses what to tell the people, so he did. moses went back down the mountain, "summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak." the people responded in agreement to do everything God would say.

so, moses took their answer back to God. God in turn told moses to consecrate the people. moses did just that. he got down the mountain and consecrated the people, then he told them, "prepare yourselves" and he "led the people out of the camp to meet with God".

it was there on holy neutral ground that God speaks to the people. to His people. the very same people that God declared to moses would be His "kingdom of priests and a holy nation".

according to The JPS MIQRA'OT GEDOLOT Commentary this act of God speaking to a group of people all at one time has nevered happened again in human history.

what's interesting is that God doesn't choose to do so in a city, or back in egypt.

God speaks to a massive group of people in the wilderness. He does so on neutral ground and not one person or nation could claim ownership. God did it for the world to hear.

remember God said earlier in exodus 19, "although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

how can the world hear if God only speaks this to the Israelites?

i think the answer lies in the word "priest".

what does a priest do? what is their role?

a priest is the mediator between the people and God. they are the "middle-man" so to speak. a priest is your connecting point to what your god is and is not like.

if you've ever seen other religion's priests, they are the physical representation of whatever god it is they are representing.

what the priest says
what the priest does
what rituals they perform represents that god.

everything the priest does helps us get a grasp on what their god is about.

glancing back to exodus. when God tells moses that the people will be a kingdom of priests for Him, do you think God is inviting the people to show the world who He is and what He is like?

God announces to the people on neutral land that He wanted them to be His presence to the world.

don't miss that God wasn't simply talking to the men. often we hear the word "priest" and we think "men", but God is speaking to the "nation", to the entire israelite community --men, women, and children.

God calls us all to be a kingdom of priest.

if we think about that word, "priest", and we realize, as we mentioned earlier, that a priest is a mediator; the person people seek to be connected with God. what does that mean for us today?

we usually don't think of ourselves as being priests. we usually think of ourselves as being christians or followers of Christ, but never priest.

scripture clealy indicates that we are priest in the Kingdom of God. we simply need to find out what that means.

what we say

what we do

how we worship

how we react to situations

all give people the visual perception of who God is and what He cares about.

a priest (you and me) is the human representation of God.

in 1910 a young girl was born in albania who would one day become an amazing priest.

it was at the age of 36 that she realized what being a follower of Christ meant. recalling her call she said her purpose was to "help the poor while living among them. it was an order. to fail would have been to break the faith."

four short years later, she created a mission to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." this endeavor began with 13 members and today it has more than 4,000 people being the representation of Christ to the unwanted.

if that wasn't enough, she saw another need and five years later she opened an orphanage.

what began with 13 in 1950 now numbers around 5,500 across the world, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 different countries.

mother teresa took the call of being a priest to the fullest and yet most would say that she was just a nun. i think she truly understood that the way we act, what we say, and who we love shouts to the rest of the world, "THIS IS GOD.

THE GOD OF PEACE.
JOY
HOPE
LOVE
AND GRACE.
THE GOD OF RESCUE.
THE GOD OF LIBERATION.
THE GOD OF REDEMPTION."

are we being a true representation of God?

can we be called "an amazing priest"?

my hope lies in Grace. in the Grace of God, He works through my folly.

may we love the unloved.

may we seek out the lepers, the dying, the depressed.

may our perspective change today.

may we realize that we stand, called, on neutral, Holy ground.

may we be a great Kingdom of Priests.
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Just You And God

the busier our schedules become, the quicker we lose track of the things of lasting importance. in the mix and madness that is our lives we often forget what having a significant relationship with someone looks like.

jobs. hobbies. everyday run-of-the-mill errands. worries. kids activities. going to the gym. and many more that could be listed are some of the things that fill our calendars.

the majority of these aren't bad in themselves but when we do all of them all the time we begin to lose ourselves in our "to do" list. i'm all in favor of being organized, but it came to a point in my life where my list was running my day.

most of christianity today has embraced the concept of a "quiet time". this is a crucial time for anyone desiring a more intimate communion with Jesus. we spend it at our kitchen table, at a coffee house, in our car, in our bedroom, on the back porch, and we strive to read and pray. this time is meant to be shared with God, immersed in His Word, reading, praying, journaling, or whatever it is you do that best connects you with Him.

to be honest the normal "quiet time" set up never worked for me. with accoustic coffee house guitar playinging in the background, i used to beat myself up when i felt like God wasn't revealing anything during my time in the word. the more it didn't feel "good" or "moving" the less i did it.

i eventually stopped having a quiet time in the mornings because i never felt like God was with me. but what i discovered was that God was with me eventhough i couldn't hear him amid the music and noise of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

many of us struggle with finding time to commune with God. we can't get up early enough or we can't stay awake late enough. our lunch breaks are too short or filled with a business agenda. our mind is clouded; noisely cluttered with the "to do" list of our lives.

aren't we all guilty of being able to rise at the crack of dawn to get into work earlier so that we can do this or that, or so we can finish this project or work for a promotion, but we don't think to rise early for time of prayer, and meditation.

well, some of us do think about rising earlier, but it's just not very practical - is it?

one of the things in the Gospel books that i've been amazed by is that Jesus intentionally sought out a time of solitude with His Father. it was as if He knew that seeking out time with God away from the noise of the crowds and questions from his disciples was not a good idea, but a necessity.

the stories seem to convey to me that he lived with a different mindset than we do today.

when we first hear that Jesus made time to escape from his hectic life to commune with God, some of us might think, "He lived in a different time. a different world." --this seems to be the most popular argument for many teachings of scripture that we would like to avoid or discount as "non-applicable to today's world". -- don't fool yourself into thinking such a thought.

Jesus didn't have kids or soccer games to attend. He had swarms of people constantly pleading for a miracle. Pharisees with an endless list of questions. disciples who were young and said things that teenagers say and argued about things teenagers do. religious leaders that actively and publicly despised his exsistence. He had to walk miles upon miles just to find shelter to lay His head; no car, no plane, no bicycle, just hand-made sandals and the power of his legs.

in the midst of His restless life, He saw importance in solitude.

why would there be importance in solitude?

in Matthew 14 we find Jesus seeking solitude. He sends the disciples ahead of Him in a boat to cross the sea and He sends the multitudes away. He then "went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary." notice in the next verse that time had passed. the author makes it a point to tell us that "in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea."

He made time away from the masses and even from those who were closest to Him an essential part of His Faith.

i wonder, would Jesus have known that the disciples needed Him if he wouldn't have gone up to the mountain to pray in solitude? i'm not trying to discount the all-knowing nature of Christ.

i simply wonder if we don't hear who God is calling us to rescue because we never find time for solitude. we can never seem to commune with God without having 20 items waiting to be executed.

making time for solitude with God isn't a "good idea" it's a Biblical principle we can't miss.

we find time for our favorite TV shows, but struggle to find time to go deeper with God through absolute focus on Him.

we find ample time to teach our kids to throw a baseball and go to their games, but our time with God is one of the first to be trimmed to fit our schedule. it should be our Joy as parents to spend more time teaching our children about Jesus than how to throw a baseball.

solitude brings us into a state of mind in which we can concentrate on God and what He is whispering in our ear that we need to shout from the rooftops. i truly believe that if we made time for solitude with God everyday, our lives would look remarkably different.

our families would benefit.
our friends would benefit.
our community would benefit.
our country would benefit.
the world would benefit.

our goals would no longer be our own; it would look like us seeking God's will for our life.

the focus of our priorities would shift from "me" to "others".

our speech would sound more like scripture rather than the world.

our ability to meet the needs of the oppressed would increase while our need for more stuff would decrease.

getting away from all that occupies every minute of every day is essential. i PRAY that you make time to commune with God more purposefully, with the intent of completely focusing on His voice. when you do, He will begin to change your heart to look, love, act, worship, and pray more like that of Christ.

do you want to allow Jesus in your life fully?

may we delight in time alone with our Father.

may our hearts want nothing more than to hear His voice every morning when we rise.

may his Love, Peace, and Joy remind us that He wants to spend time with His us.

may our time with God pull us closer to Him, becoming more in tune with the Spirit with every breath we take.

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Sculptures of Jesus

most of us are familiar with the story in exodus 32 in which the hebrew people make for themselves a golden calf. often the scene runs through my mind of a charlton heston-esque moses running down a mountain for the sole purpose of throwing the ten commandment tablets onto the sculpture of a golden calf. as the tablets hit, sparks and flames erupt in an explosion.

that is the story i've always pictured in my small mind. as i read the story again today, a question popped into my thoughts -- was their motivation for sculpting the calf based out of their fear of God? and if so, what were they afraid of?

in exodus 20 we learn that God had come upon mount sinai in the visible form of smoke and fire. scripture tells us that the mountain was covered in smoke and God spoke with sounds of thunder, flashes of lightning, and sounds of a trumpet. in verse 18 and 19 of chapter 20 we learn that when the people see and hear the presence of God, they moved farther away from the mountain.

the people even tell moses to speak to them because they believe if God speaks to them they will die. i think that we miss the beautiful response from moses because of our focus on the idolatry of the people. moses tells them to not be afraid, but rather to understand that God has come to instill in them awe and wonder within their souls so they won't sin again.

as we follow the story, we come to the scene in exodus 32. moses is up on the mountain communing with God, receiving instruction for the hebrew nation. the masses are at the base of the mountain awaiting the return of moses.

i would assume that the people grew tired of waiting for moses to come down and share the word from God. i'm sure some even thought he might have died. it had been 39 days since they saw him last. out of their desperate impatience, they approached aaron, asking him to "make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

it's interesting to note that the word they use here for "gods" is the plural form of Elohim, one of the names of God. most often we are taught that the sculpture of the calf was an image of some new god for the hebrew people to worship, but what if that wasn't the case?

from further study, i wonder if the people weren't making an image of another god but rather of God Himself.

if they made an image of God that appeared more acceptable for their minds, then they could worship. they needed an image of a god that didn't act, appear, or speak like God did. God spoke through thunder and lightning in dramatic fashion. He didn't appear like anything they had been used to.

the people are coming out of a very religious culture who had a god for everything. the egyptians not only had multiple gods, but the pharaoh himself was a god. all of the gods the hebrew people had been surrounded with in the egyptian culture for the last 400 years could be seen and they had human or animal traits. they needed to see God differently than the way he presented Himself.

do you think we ever do this today?

do we ever create our own portrait of who God is that fits our feeble minds?

do we create an image of Christ that is easier on the eyes? easier to understand? easier to follow?

don't answer to quickly. think. dive into your soul and search yourself.

does the Gospel look like an american way of life or a radical way of living opposed to all that is worldly?

we, as humans, have a tendency to sculpt a Jesus who teaches ideas that support our own thoughts and beliefs.

we have painted a Jesus that looks and thinks more like a 30 something, white, upper-middle class, republican rather than an earthy, jewish rabbi.

it is much more comfortable to take scripture and say that it supports wealth and selfishness, rather than seeing that scripture calls us to regard others higher than ourselves and take on the status of a slave (Philippians 2).

it is much more comfortable to take scripture and read that God simply wants us to believe rather than seeing that God desires for us to change the world with our actions, not just our words (James 1 & 2).

it is easier to think of God as someone who thinks and acts like we do, rather than a God that is not limited by our minds and cultural baggage.

all too often it is the culture that we are raised in that influences our perception of God the most.

it's easier to think of God as a God who supports american ideas because we're american.

it's easier to think of God as a God who supports republican ideas, because we're republican.

it's easier to think of God as a God who supports democratic ideas, because we're democrats.

it's easier to think of God as a God who aligns with baptists beliefs, because we are baptists.

but what happens when God doesn't fit into who you have Him sculpted Him to be?

do your thoughts, beliefs, and the way you live change or do you step back from the mountain and say, "you go to God and tell me what He says."

will you step up to the mountain and look deeply into the heartbeat of God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you? if you do... be ready to change, because as soon as you ask God to reveal your depravity to yourself, He will. and there is much that we can all change.

the question is: are you willing to see God for who He is and not what you've created Him to be?

may we see that God is bigger than us.

may we understand that God is more than we've sculpted him to be.

may God show us a little more of who He is today.

Father, reveal Your Truth to us in such a way that we are in absolute Awe of You.

free us from our religious and cultural baggage.

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Anonymous Christianity (inspired by Francis Chan)

from the moment we begin our day we are bombarded with choices. choices of what to wear, what to eat for breakfast, where to get coffee, what to eat for lunch, where to buy groceries, clothes, shoes, etc. it is a never ending cycle of abundant choice.

just take a look in your closet and notice how man pairs of shoes you have. how many shirts (even though we only wear our top 10)? how many belts, purses, watches, rings, coats, do you own?

we can't escape from these choices. everywhere we go these choices are an arms length away. if we don't like a pair of shoes by this company, then we can walk across the mall and look for a different pair, and if that store doesn't have it, there are a hundred more stores that sell a hundred different shoes for us to choose from.

we are spoiled by our abundance in america. anything we decide we want -- we can find. we can find anything we want specifically designed to meet our "needs" and preferences at any time, day or night.

what you might notice is how this consumerist lifestyle effects us. we don't like what products this store provides, we simply find a different store that meets our wants and expectations.


we've made our walk all about us.everything in america is about "me". what can you do for me? how can you provide this or that for "me"? this is "my stuff". it's "my life". my hopes. my dreams. my job. my money. my spirituality. my future.

american has become a place where people are isolated bringing glory to themselves.

what happens when we start following Christ and we try to marry these two mentalities?

the mentality of "everything is about me" infiltrates the church. too many people today walk into the doors of churches across the nation on sunday morning with a checklist of wants, desires, and preferences ready to be checked off as they are met. what's crazy is that we expect churches to cater to that mentality. we expect our local church to create a "better program" for our children, "better" music for us to sing, "better" facilities to meet our standards, et cetera. we expect our church to cater to our "church shopping list" and we'll go to such church that meets the greater majority the items on our list.

if the church we attend can't meet those expectations, then we leave and go down the street.

our mindset becomes, "i come to church for me. what did the church do for me? are my kids catered to? did i like the service today? i'm not sure they took care of me. when will they have this for me? was the worship to my liking? did the pastor preach like i think he should?" it is all about ME. it's all about our individual relationship with God and how the church can bless us.

in 1 Corinthians 3 paul speaks of "you" being the temple. This "you" written here is a plural form. in other words, "we" are the temple. it is a collective "you".

not one person i've ever spoken with, no matter how holy, has seen God. but if we love each other collectively, then there is this physical manifestation of God on earth.

the new testament teaches that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. the world can't see God, but if we actually serve each other with Love and Grace, then there will be a physical manifestation of Him on earth that the world can see.

it's not about us as individuals when we begin walking with Christ. God tells us in the old testament that we are a nation. how many of us look around and tell people, "i am a nation." we don't do that. we are a nation together.

God is involved in something so much bigger than you or me as individuals. it's about us.

have you ever thought of why it's so tough for an atheist to be convinced that God exist when it's a one on one conversation? have you ever been able to show someone that God forgave you when it's just you and them talking? no. we can't show forgiveness by ourselves.

but when people are sitting and talking, gossiping about the latest drama and your name is thrown in the mix and they begin to slam you left and right and the things they are saying are just terrible. then a couple of weeks go by and you hear about what one particular person, who you know, has been saying about you, what do you do? most of us would dismiss them, or set them straight and then never have anything to do with them again. but what if you displayed forgiveness by sitting down, talking through things that were said and trying to restore the relationship and you begin to pursue that person again as a friend.

people see this and say, "how are you forgiving them for what they said about you? did you hear about all of it? why are you still pursuing them? why are you still friends with them? are you crazy? who does that?"

GOD DOES THAT!

suddenly the world sees a love, forgiveness, grace and mercy that is supernatural. they see a picture of God.

it is our actions that best represent God today. in a world where everything is being exhaustively explained and analyzed, words have lost some of their power. actions are our most powerful representation of the Gospel.

the younger generations today have heard the church talk but have yet to see them love one another in such a way that the church becomes the temple and displays the transforming Love of Christ. the only thing people in america have seen the church do well is divide.

this is why it's crucial that we understand that it isn't about us as individuals anymore; it's about the collective "us", the body united as one. God didn't call one israelite alone to declare His glory. He called them as a nation.

in Deuteronomy 4 God tells His people that He gave them the law so that other nations would "hear about all these decrees and say, 'surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" and the new testament doesn't differ. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that we are one part of the body of Christ. God desires for us to work together to point the world to Him.

what the world needs to see more now than ever before is a people group working together serving the world. we display God by our actions as a family, then by our actions together as a community, and finally by our actions with our local church body.

we should be the people leading change, not watching change.

we should be the people directly effecting the world for good, not by just our words, but by our actions.

we must be the people leading social reform.

we must be the activist.

we must be the people ridding our communities of poverty.

and we must remember that it has nothing to do with us as individuals, or what the church can give me, or how i will be blessed.

we should want to be anonymous.

may we understand that in order to create change in the world we must first live radically different than the rest of society.

may our hearts be challenged to grow together for the Glory of God.

may we come in to church on sunday and ask, "what can i do to serve others?" rather than expecting to be catered to.

may our hearts be broken.

may You take everything from us that we don't need so we can see you more clearly.

God, make us uncomfortable.

make us anonymous. read the rest of this blog:.

a gnostic hangover

i've begun to notice that we have this obsession with declaring certain things in our lives as spiritual and other things as secular or "non-spiritual".

some of us work in the secular world, others in ministry. we have "christian" music on "christian" radio. forget the fact that the christian band plays pop music or rock, it's no longer either one of those genres; it's simply christian.

many of us today stamp things like journals with a fish or a cross or an incredibly spiritual verse from our favorite chapter in 1 John. does a cross or a fish stamped on the front of a journal make it safe?

even in our discussions we speak of our "spiritual" lives; by default grouping our non-religious activities into some other "non-spiritual" category.

as we grow up with this mentality that certain things are spiritual (like David Crowder Band) and other things aren't spiritual (like Led Zeppelin) we begin to put everything in our lives into one of the categories -- "spiritual" or "secular". perhaps we do this in the beginning to protect ourselves from falling back into the ways of the world. but at some point we must realize that this method of perceiving the world in categories might be a specious process.

my question is -- where did this mindset come from?

my parents have it, their parents had it, and from talking with my grandparents they would say that their parents had it. but where did it start? is it a biblical idea or is it hindering our walk?

Genesis 1:31 says, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." if all things were created good, we are free to use art, entertainment, music, work, et cetera, even if they aren't stamped with a fish or the "christian" label. the fall didn't take God out of his creation. all things were created good.

Scripture seems to suggest in Isaiah that we should be able to see Jesus in everything and therefore we should be able to worship Him in what we see and how we feel led to worship. worship is how you live, not how your church leads you to sing on sunday.

so we should be able to see the Truth and Light of Christ in all things. we should be able to see Him in the songs of an atheistic musician, in a muslim author's writings, in a lesbian poet's prose, or in the spoken words of an agnostic political activist.

for some that thought process is teetering on the line of blasphemy. it sounds absurd that we could get something of spiritual significance out of a book written by gandhi or some non-believing pagan, but scripture would tell us that we can.

"All thins are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God" 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

there is truth in all things. there is truth in math, history, philosophy, poetry, even though it isn't stamped with a christian label. stamping only choice things as christian is part of our gnostic hangover.

in the first century church a dangerous teaching began to surface within the body -- gnosticism. gnostics believed the universe was divided into the spiritual and the material. (please note that this is a simplified description of gnosticism.) they believed that the world was evil and that God would not have inhabited a material body because of it's fundamentally evil nature. they also believed that if the world was evil that God and all that was spiritual was the presence of good.

even though this teaching was fought by the early church, effects still lingered. people began to teach that in order to live a worthy life one must withdrawal themselves from the worldly activities and only participate in the ones deemed "spiritual".

Paul fought this head on. in the book of colossians paul tells us that whatever we do, do it in the name of Christ. in his letter to the church at corinth, paul tells them that whatever they eat or drink or whatever they do, do it for God's Glory.

the significance of these two statements is that paul is trying to tell us that all activities are spiritual activities. "whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." -- 1 Corinthians 10:31. he is telling the gnostics that all things can be done to bring Christ glory. he is trying to get people to see that there is no such thing as "a spiritual side of life". he is showing us that through God we have Truth in all things.

our gnostic hangover is that we haven't been able to move into the reality that we shouldn't separate things into spiritual or secular, christian or non-christian.

the deeper you dive into scripture, the more you might see that there is no distinction between the spiritual and the secular. the men and women who walked the dusty roads in the first century would have not understood the question, "how's your spiritual life?" they wouldn't have understood why there is a distinctively spiritual side of life when they considered all things spiritual.

how do we come to the understanding that our lives are totally spiritual?

when we understand this truth, how is it going to effect us?

as you realize that everything you do is spiritual you begin to live differently. think to yourself how you would do things differently if you lived as though EVERY ACT WAS A SPIRITUAL ACT TO BRING GLORY TO GOD?

would you show more love, mercy, and grace towards your family?

would you show more love, mercy, and grace towards the oppressed?

would you take care of the earth by recycling and using less energy?

would you speak less and listen more?

would you eat differently?

would your conversations be different?

would you spend your money differently?

what would change?

may we see that God is everywhere.

may we realize that Truth lies around the next corner in the most unlikely places.

may our eyes be opened to the beautiful reality of our world being a spiritual world.

may we change our lives where Christ is asking us to change, not out of obligation, but rather out of pure, unwavering LOVE.

may we change because we understand that our lives are spiritual and we desire to live in such a way that changes the world for God's Glory. read the rest of this blog:.

staggering reality

as i sit and allow the new coldplay album to flow through my ears, i begin to think about all of the places that i've seen God move, all of the places i've seen people experience God's healing by His Grace.

you'll find, if you haven't noticed already, that my heart gravitates toward the outcast. my heart and soul are pulled by a divine force to the people who spend their nights in bars and their days in offices pretending like all is well. i am pushed to people who would never step foot in a church, for whatever reason that may be. i grieve for those pushed into the margins by christians, so that it is easier for us to come home to our plush couches and huge tv screens to watch our favorite sitcom. i mention "christians" only in the previous sentence because i can't be upset with the lost for not helping the oppressed. christians are accountable for the widow and the orphans, as scripture would put it.

we can't blame the lost for acting like they are lost. it's funny how we get offended by the lost for the language they use, the gestures they make, the anger in their hearts. it's as if christians expect the lost to miraculously "get it" and act accordingly.

we (christians) are called to take care of the poor, the oppressed, the outcast. the oppressed doesn't have to mean "the homeless". the oppressed can be a 50 year old business man who makes 250K/year but struggles with depression and needs to be freed from that bondage. but oppression can also apply to the woman who has been addicted to cocaine for the past 10 years and somewhere along the way fell into prostitution to support her addiction.

the oppressed are the men and women who are held down by something whether it be poverty, addictions, depression, slavery, etc.

do we take care of these people who are not in a position to take care of themselves, whether it be by choice or circumstance?

many of us think that we can't make a difference on a large scale, but we can. let's just take a minute or two to grasp the reality of the oppressed and how we factor in...


a few statistics for you:

the amount of money americans spend on "black sunday" (the day after thanksgiving when all the sales are going on) could totally wipe out the world wide clean water epidemic. (ONE DAY!)

last year americans spent $455 billion during the holidays

americans spend approximately $12.4 billion on cosmetic procedures every year

wood consumption a day: world average -- 4lbs U.S. -- 14lbs.

80% of the world lives in substandard housing

New home size in sq. ft. :
Ireland -- 930
U.K. -- 815
Japan -- 1000
U.S. -- 2349

2 billion people in the world have no electricity

1 billion people in the world cannot sign their name

1% of people in the world own a computer

1% of poeple in the world have a college education

an estimated 22 million people died from preventable disease in 2001 -- 10 million were children

4 out of 5 american adults are high school graduates -- 1 out of 4 children worldwide have to go to work everyday instead of school

9.6 million people, including 3 million children go without meals - daily

33 million americans continue to live in households that did not have an adequate supply of food

over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year

on average, american households waste 14% of their food purchases. 15% of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened

the wealthiest 1 billion people in the world have an average income of approximately $70 a day -- 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. 1 - 2 billion people live on less than $2 a day

the 3 wealthiest people in the world are American (this stat changes almost daily). their combined wealth exceeds the GNP of the world's least developed countries (over 600 million people)

12% of the world population uses 85% of its water

40% of the world lacks basic sanitation facilitation

1 billion people are without safe drinking water. americans consume 26 billion liters of BOTTLED water annually

Every 16 seconds somewhere in the world someone dies of hunger.

2 out of 3 americans are considered overwieight.

U.S.A GDP is 21.4% of the world capital.

americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world does on ALL goods

8% of people in the world own a car. 1/3 of american families own 3 cars

leading oil consumers in millions of barrels a day: U.S.A. 20, China 5.6, Japan 5.5

20 million barrels, if lined up in 1 gallon cans, would encircle the earth at the equator almost 6 times -- 147,000 miles of cans

the US accounts for 25% of global oil consumption. US has 3% of its reserves. in 2001 US imported 54% of its oil

2/3 of the worlds oil suppliers are in the Persian Gulf

in 2002, 20% of all oil imported in the US came from the Persian Gulf

US hold 42.8% of weapons worldwide. in 2002, the US spent more on defense than the next 18 biggest spendors combined

when asked about the these facts the government responded with this quote: "The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation."

my question for the body of believers everywhere is -- is it up to our local church, food bank, shelter, or soup kitchen to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless?

or is it up to the body of Christ?

why are we waiting on a church "program" to get us involved?

i don't ask these questions or share these statistics with you to guilt you into feeling like you should do something. i give them because they shocked me and my heart grieves for my sins of not reaching out more and for the sins of my brothers and sisters in Christ who sit idly by doing nothing; waiting on a fun trendy missions weekend to help.

today my heart is saddened but joyful. i'm saddened by the blatant reality of the situation many people face. it was far greater than i imagined. i'm joyful because i know that Christ is revealing these things to me, to us, so that we might change the world.

we live in a consumer driven society and we must break ourselves from this cycle of spending almost all we are blessed with on us or things that benefit us.

we need to free our mind of our own selfish ambitions.

we must become selfless.

forget all that we've been taught to hold dear and give more than you ever have before.

if you've ever looked into the eyes of a homeless man, you'll never forget the desperation you see.

we need to be aware of the desperation of the world around us and realize that we must do more.

may God show you where to give more.

may God ask you to do things you never thought you would.

may God take your priorities and throw them into the wind so we realize that we are not in control of what we have.

may we see what it is like to give beyond the boundaries we set.

may we be the body of Christ in plain sight to the hopeless. read the rest of this blog:.