Take This Cup From Me; Yet Not

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  Luke 22:42-44

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

Interesting twist in the story.  For you churched people, you've heard this story several times.  But, just to be thorough, I want to give the context of this scripture. 

Jesus, at this point of the story in Luke, was very aware that the time had come for him to be betrayed and crucified.  And what you find, Jesus who was fully man and fully God, is showing a brief moment of vulnerability.  His fully man side was showing, revealing distress about the upcoming events.  The idea of dealing with the beating, and the accusing  and the nails, and the crown of thorns, seemed to be for a second overwhelming---so much that He needed strengthening to deal with the death headed his way. 

Why am I sharing this?

Well as always, I have a question for you.  How do you respond when your God given calling requires pain?  

Let me ask it this way.  Are you still willing to go through with God's calling even if you have to endure pain?    

Up until this time, lets stretch a little bit and say Jesus had it easy.  Not in the context of His lifestyle was easy, but just actively walking out His God sent calling was easy.  I mean, He was healing people, raising people from the dead, teaching and preaching, walking on water, performing miracles, all with seemingly effortless obedience to the Father. And please hear me, I'm not trying to make light of those beautiful moments in Jesus's ministry at all, but what I am saying is that up until this point, He had never had to pray in this way.   But here we see, Jesus asking for God to reconsider the plan.  I don't know about you, but I like this side of my Savior. 

So what I've learned from this and my recent life experiences is the question, what if God places you in a place that may hurt you for the sake of others?  

With our selfish culture, psh, hard to accept eh?  "If I ain't getting anything out of this, I'm not wasting my time." Says you and me.  

But what if God does it to you?  What if He puts you somewhere that you think is a waste of time because you're not benefiting from it?  

It would be like a guy in a race, being brilliantly talented, laying himself down between two connecting cliffs to allow the slower and less talented runner to finish before him. What's even the proper word for that?  Grace? Love? Selfless?  Stupidity?  

But what I see is Jesus is willing to be obedient to God, no matter what He has to to go through for the sake of us--which is the gospel.  Jesus, already in Heaven, already the Son, already in God's glory, came to die for us...... for....what?  It wasn't for Him, it was for us.  He already was with God, so this wasn't some works based thing Jesus had to do, but He did for the sake of us.  So, maybe there's more to this persecution thing?  

What if God leads us through some suffering in order to help someone else?  That there are somethings in your life right now that you may think sucks, but God has you there to bless someone else.  What if God has you in relationship with someone only to help them, and you get nothing you want in return?  

If I dare to be vulnerable with you.  I feel like I do a lot of pouring out and giving away of myself to others.  And in a lot of cases, always seeing the good in others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, always being sure others needs are being taken care of, always wanting the best for others.  And as of late, I feel a floating question is lingering in the back of my mind that is getting louder, "God, what about me?" I don't necessarily like the question, but I'm very honest and real with my feelings.  

"I mean, God, you seem to be enjoying taking care of everyone else through me, but what about me?" 

And the question I love to even ask myself when I start talking like that is this one, "What am I really after?  God's glory or my own?  Am I doing all of these things for something in return?  Why can't I love first?  Serve first? Lead first?  Grace first?  Forgive first?  Change first? Submit first?  Didn't Jesus do it for me?  Didn't He do it for you?  And I love my Savior's response to distress in His life, "God, I don't want to go through with this, is there anything else we can do? Yet...."  

Come on somebody!!!!!  Jesus said Yet Not -----my will, but yours.  

In that yet not, Jesus was realigning himself with God, saying "Yet not my will, yet not my way, yet not my glory, yet not my emotions, yet not my desires being satisfied.  God, it's all about you! Your will be done!  Your way acknowledged."   He realigned himself with God.   He realigned himself with the cross.  And------as will I.  

My dear, dear friends...

As will I.  

Live Deeply

 ^"A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,  for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"  Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

I've been studying the book of Ecclesiastes.  Along with listening to teaching on it as well by Pastor Matt Chandler at The Village Church in Dallas, I've dove deep into understanding the underlining message of King Solomon in the text.  So this blog has a chance of being very similar to the Pacifiers and the Death Bed Question blog I wrote last month.

So, let's do some groundwork first.  First of all, you have to believe that God is for your joy.  Like, you have to, just have to, believe deep down in your heart that God is for your joy.  And that He's not withholding things from you, that He's not keeping you from having fun, but He's ultimately for your joy.  If you disagree with that, then, this blog may not carry the weight that it has the potential of carrying in your heart.  For anyone to truly feel the weight of this blog and this text, we have to agree on some things.  First of all, ALL THINGS were created by God and for God.  Secondly, sin is simply a perversion of design, meaning that when we are disobedient we are not behaving how God designed us(James 1:23-24), and when we abuse things that are given by God and using them in the wrong ways, that's what sin is.  So in that, I say that sexuality, marriage, sex, money, pleasures, friendships, all these things are created by God, His design.   And since they are His creation, He knows how its supposed to work.  

Are you with me?  

All things are created by God, so therefore can only be fully enjoyed when done how they were designed.  We can't fully enjoy our new sleek iPhone trying to use them as spatulas to flip burgers. So, let's go.

So, living deeply is this new idea and life philosophy I have of enjoying things how God designed them.  It's a response to the book of Ecclesiastes in which it talks greatly of how EVERYTHING is vanity and meaningless.  That all things will come to an end.  That all of our pursuits can be vane to a certain degree.  "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."  Ecclesiastes 1:14 

Claude, this blog is not very encouraging. 

Hahaha.  Keep flowing with me.  So in response to all things being vanity, the message is, MAKE IT COUNT. 

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT. 

Now, there are some filthy messages out there that seemingly say the same thing, like YOLO and "You're Only Young Once", but those are taken out of context and perverted.  King Solomon is not saying that at all, but what He is saying is this, ""A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" Ecclesiastes 2:24

So the YOLO principal can be applied, except in the realm of IN GOD.  So you only live once, so make it count, IN GOD.  Enjoy pleasures, IN GOD.  Enjoy fun and laughter, IN GOD.  Enjoy sex, IN GOD.  Because what I submit to you is that IN GOD is where we will find the greatest fulfillment of all these things.  If God is for our joy--- and He his, aggressively, ----then we will find great joy IN Him and be able to fully enjoy these things IN Him.  Do you see the common denominator here?

IN HIM.  IN GOD. 

So yes, I am saying if you're not IN GOD then you're not living.  You're missing out on greater things, or more immeasurably greater things.  Yes, I am saying you are cheating yourself of thinking you can enjoy creation without the Creator.  Yes, I am saying you are the person desiring the pigs pods when God is offering you the fattened calf.  Luke 5:11-32.  Yes, I am saying you are desiring shallow things when God wants you to enjoy things deeply.  Joy is deeper than happiness.  Yes, I am saying you are wanting Ramon noodles when God is grilling steaks.  Sin is beneath you, God is the best for you.  You are cheating yourself, selling yourself short.  Desiring Oldsmobile when you have the Ferrari. 

Are you getting my point?   

Deep friendships. Having friends that know you and love you and challenge you and pray for you.    Deep relationships.  Having relationships that honors God and passionately seeks to serve one another and die for one another. 
Deep sex.  Having the companionship of a deep friend in a deep relationship.  An undeniable spiritual connection and physical connection and deep affection for this person, and you're engaging in a beautiful act that brings you two together as one.

God wants you to enjoy these things, but we've figured out ways of settling for the least, such as porn and lust.  Men, God wants you to long for a woman and her body, Adam responded the same way.  Don't feel bad that you desire women, but allow God's word to transform you in realizing that we shouldn't pervert that desire by wanting ALL of them, and even desiring the one on that porn site.  Women, God wants you to long to be a wife.  Don't allow pastors and singles coaches to make you fear that desire.  God wants us to enjoy relationships.  So stop letting the devil convince you that ALL men are the same, and that ALL women are the same.  All men are not dogs.  All women are not manipulators.  God wants us to enjoy deep friendships.  So stop letting betrayal in the past keep you from making new friends.  Being vulnerable SUCKS when it's abused, I know, I've been there.  But there are people out there that will love you for you, that you will be able to trust, that you will be able to allow to love you.  So come out of that brokenness and enter into a new realm of understanding that God is for you, and in Him you will find healing.   

GOD IS FOR YOU. And He's screaming, ENJOY ME MY CHILD. 

SON, ENJOY ME.  BE WITH ME.  LIVE IN ME. 

DAUGHTER. ENJOY ME. BE WITH ME. LIVE IN ME. 

Readers and friends, let's live deeply.  Enjoying life. Soaking up God given pleasures.  Realizing that His law is for my joy, so I delight in something being so concerned about my joy and my well being.  That a God cares enough to delight in me and want what's best for me.  Drink deeply from the well of fulfillment. Smile. Heal. Love. Risk. Dream. Drink. Eat. Laugh. Sleep.Work. Rest. Trust. Be Still.

Live Deeply my friends.  Live Deeply.   

You Are Mine

Hello readers. Welcome to my heart. Let's begin.

Thanks for reading this blog today.  I'm encouraged to share with you the heart of our God. 

I know that some of you may have an issue with authority.  You may have had a person in authority who abused it.  You may have seen the countless reports of dirty cops and dirty principals abusing their authority.  And on heading towards an election, I'm continuing to witness a deep fear of putting someone in leadership with any sort of flaws or character deficiencies that we disagree with.  And of course the blatant fear of, "What if they're lying to us just to get into office?" 

In any sense of the term, I think as a culture we fear authority. And understandably, we've had sucky authority.  However, in this fear, we miss out on experiencing a beautiful truth about God.

As you saw, this blog is called You Are Mine.  Meaning, we are God's.  His possession.  His creation.  Created for His glory.  Not for our own glory, but His glory.  So that His name will be known among ALL of the Earth.  He created all things for Himself to enjoy.  He, the infinite of infinites.   No one knows how He got there, but He's there.  He's here.  He was here way before us.  He will be here way after us.  The Alpha and the Omega.  The beginning and the end.  The first and the last.  No other god is before Him.  The God of all gods.  The King of all kings.  The Ruler of all rulers.  Nothing happens without His knowing.  He's omnipresence.  He's everywhere at once.  He's omniscient.  He knows EVERYTHING.  He's omnipotent.  Limitless power.  He saves who He wants to save.  Judges who He wants to judge.  Does what He wants to do.  Move when He wants to move.  Is quiet when He wants to be silent.  He's above all creation.  The ultimate being if He can even be described as a being.  The majestic.  Incredibly mighty.

A little intimidating huh? Well, hang on to that feeling.  Let's do a little work here.

The same weight you feel right now, the same weight of God's ultimate authority and mighty power and the fear of the truth in that He can choose to flex His power whenever He wants, let's put that weight on the truth that He loves you.

Yes, He loves you.

Shall we run through the gospel? Just, quickly.  Let's go.

Adam and Eve sinned, which brought sin into this world and fractured the order of God's design.  So every time we have sinned it is a very directed jab at His authority and rule.  And people, His creation, continue to run away, hide and ignore the warnings and signs of His wrath which are in itself acts of grace.  Because He could just wipe His hands of us, write us off, but for some reason He doesn't.  Then Jesus, who is God in the flesh, so is fully God and fully man, comes to Earth to be the sacrifice for our continual rebellion---to fully satisfy the wrath of God for our sin for breaking His law.  So IN Jesus, we are reconciled and justified legally for our sin in response to breaking God's law.  Not because of anything we've done, but FULLY because of God's love for us.  And we run from His authority, but only someone in authority such as He can make a call such as this---to fully pay the tab----to fully pay the debt! 

I love the thought that God Himself satisfied His own wrath by coming as Jesus.  In His omniawesomeness (every way awesome), the idea of something in the position of just, glory, as God is and would remove Himself from His throne to be with us, is in itself delightful and greatly weighty to my soul.  And in this truth, we find the covenant He has made.  That for those that are IN Christ, there is no condemnation. (Romans 8:1)  No condemnation. Approved in the sight of God.  No punishment for your sins.  Redeemed.  Which means bought back from the consequences of our sin.  He bought us back for ownership. so if you're in Christ, you're His.  Shall I repeat it?

WE -----------------ARE---------------------- HIS. 

He has created the very essence of who you are, and born into inherited sin already apart from Him---He has taken great pleasure in bringing us back to Himself by adoption through the death of His Son Jesus. (Ephesians 1:5)  So, that intimidation you felt earlier, yeah, that's coming from something that's saying I love you enough to die for you.  And I WANTED to do it.  I TOOK PLEASURE IN IT. 

My grace is sufficient for you.  Why?  Because I'm infinite.
My mercy is greater than any of your sins?  Why.  Because I do what I want. 
Nothing can separate my love from you. Why?  Because no other god is above Me.

You are MINE. 

Get over yourself children.  You are not gods. You do not run anything.  You have no control of nothing.  You do not know more than me.  I am God.  I am He.  I am the One.  IT ALL ENDS WHEN I TELL IT TO.  Your opinions does not matter, ever.............. even when your opinion tries to tell you that you don't deserve me.  I didn't choose you because you're awesome and had it together, I chose you before you were even created.  Flaws and all.  Broken and well.  Crazy and smart.  Slow and dumb.  Angry and wicked. 

YOU ARE MINE. 

Get over yourself, and get to ME.

You ARE MINE. 


 

The Death Bed Question

"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting,  for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.  Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."  Ecclesiastes 7:2

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

The book of Ecclesiastes has been rocking my world these last few weeks.  Here's a little back-story of the book.  

The writer, King Solomon, was the wisest man to ever live on the Earth-- and also the wealthiest.  So I'm sure in that alone builds his credibility for him to be able to teach us a thing or two about life here on Earth. In the book, he actually tells us, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure." Ecclesiastes 2:10

So, the "Death Bed Question" was derived by yours truly when playing this game called "Hot Seat" with some friends of mine.  The game Hot Seat puts one person in a chair and the entire group asks them probing questions.  It can be a very dangerous game if played with the wrong crowd, but in our case, it was the right crowd.  So in my deep desire to hear people's hearts, I thought of this question, the "Death Bed Question". 

"If you were on your death bed, what is one thing you would want to look back and say, 'I'm glad that I did that." 

This question is usually a challenging one, because it makes people become vulnerable with disclosing their hearts deepest desires.  I think two it reveals even to themselves the things that would concern them most, and possibly be the cause of deep regret if they're fortunate enough to die in this expectant way.  

But from the question, I've gotten some very interesting answers.  Because when you get people to think about their death, you hear very interesting responses.  So, let's unpack this verse.  What King Solomon means is that it's better for us to go to the house of mourning, or the modern day term would be funeral, because of the effect death has on us.  Many of us can agree that when we're faced with the reality of death, a special concern for our lives arises out of nowhere.  Some common responses to death is that a person desires to make a lot of things right, usually with God or with family or with things in their lives.  A lot of people attend funerals with this realization that life is short and death is real, and their decisions should be taken more seriously.  So there's something about death that wakes us up, makes us realize that we're possibly not living to our fullest potential or capacity of enjoyment and fulfillment, or a term I like to us, living deeply enough.  All of life's shallow pursuits seem very meaningless when faced with death.  No one is thinking about their next drunken night or next sexual partner or disobedient action when sitting at a funeral.

And our wise brother Solomon is saying that it's better for us to realize that you're guaranteed death.  "For death is the destiny of everyone."  There's a lot of things in our lives we're unsure about, but death should not be one of them.  Whether it's tomorrow or when you're 30, or when you're 78, death is the end of us all.  So in this truth that it's unpredictable, and no one knows when they will die, King Solomon is saying enjoy your life and live deeply in God.  "The living should take this to heart."  

Better to be in the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. Feasting in his culture and for the most part still in ours, usually happened at parties.  And there's a cloudiness that happens to us at parties or when we're enjoying life that we forget that we're fragile.  Have you ever noticed this shift in attitude?  When you're feeling 100%, you're not worrying about your health?  You're eating McDonald's every day and fried foods and walking out in traffic and jumping off roofs---but let that same person get sick.  They get more fragile with their health.  Every decision is carefully weighed.  Let that person have a near death experience, they're more fragile with life.  It's like in the midst of enjoyment and life is working well for us, we get this indestructible attitude.  But when death happens close to us, we're reminded that we're not so indestructible.  No human is.  

This is the response Solomon is wanting to communicate with us.  In times of feasting, it's easy to forget the fragility of life.  In times of fun, it's easy to lose the knowledge that it will end.  So here's what I'm submitting to you.

I'm not telling you that feasting is in itself wrong, or enjoying life in itself is wrong.  I'm saying whatever the product of your hearts desire when faced with death, enjoy life doing that.  If when faced with death you think about people, then enjoy deep relationships and friendships.  Be intentional with them, love them, serve them, give of yourself for them, go deep with them.  If when faced with death you think about making things right with God, then know this that you can be made right with God by receiving Jesus into your heart. Jesus is your righteousness and justification and how you're able to be made right with God.  Hey, and after that, enjoy your Savior.  Don't let religion sucker you in thinking you've signed up for a new lifestyle---no no no---please hear me.  You're signing up for life.  Yes, I'm saying if you're not living in Christ then you are dead.  You're not enjoying life foreal because you're not even alive.

So, this is to "the living".  Which means I'm talking to you because you're reading this.  Take heart that your destiny is death.  And if that scares you right now, that's the beauty of that text.  Now, don't ignore it, but respond to whatever turns up in your heart.  And remember this verse, also from the book of Ecclesiastes

"A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"  Ecclesiastes 2:24 

This verse is a reminder, that all pleasures and desires are from God.  So how can you fully enjoy the pleasure without the enjoying the giver of it?  So if you think you're enjoy life as dead, just imagine if you were to seek enjoyment in being alive?

So I'm asking you now.  If you were on your death bed, what is one thing you would want to look back and say, 'Hey, I'm glad that I did that.'?  Once you answer that, get to the root of those desires, and pursue it.  Stop wasting time missing out on enjoying life.  You're cheating yourself.

Without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  

Pacifiers

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

If you all haven't noticed yet, I like to probe.  I like to press and wonder.  So, let me just probe and provoke a little bit. 

I'm learning that I'm on this quest, a journey with Jesus and I've reached a new patch of ground without any footprints to follow anymore.  And I'm exhausted with always have to trailblaze my own path, but I forget the main point of the journey is that it's with Jesus.  Is that not enough? Lol, that's the point of this blog. 

What is my true goal?  To enjoy the journey or to reach the destination?  I've been reading the book of Ecclesiastes and...let's just say King Solomon can sound a little nutty.  He almost sounds suicidal, with his exclamations and slippery slope fallacies showing up consistently throughout the book.  I even had a discussion with a friend of mine and she agreed that the book sounds like a serious joke.  But let us not forget that 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  So even though King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes sounds a little bit cuckoo, the scripture is God-breathed and is useful for us. 

With that being understood, I feel like underneath the surface of King Solomon's words, his deep frustration is in the realization that nothing in this world is worth the fuss we make about it.  I've carried on countless conversations with people about their lives and watched people beat themselves up trying to figure out the unknown.  But let me speak from my own heart.  I've noticed how I can be so up and down and beat myself up about the unknown.  I can be on such a great spiritual high, nothing can touch me, Jesus is awesome and King, Lord of all, crying in worship, blogging, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I'm back with the worrying about my future and my future wife and bills and money and school and whatever.  And this thought hit me,

Why? 

Why does my faith fluctuate?  Why does our commitment to Jesus fluctuate?  Hey, we are happy to be on His team when things are going well with us, but when it gets a little challenging, we're quick to run back to our old ways of worrying and wrestling within ourselves. 

I was listening to my coworker talk about her misery here in Auburn and how she wants to move to a big city and have her life start and this negative thought came into my brain, "You'll be just as miserable there as you are here." 

But is it not true?  Nothing really brings us joy like we expect it to.  I've watched people in my family want so badly new furniture for their homes, or the new iPad, or new cars, and you can see the hope and excitement in their faces and then when they get it, they're so excited and thrilled about life and have a great purpose and perspective on life, and then a few weeks later, not even a long time, but a few weeks later, they're back realizing the same struggles exist even with the new furniture or when whatever they hoped in proved that it was just a pacifier.  This truth hit me the other day.  I'm so hoping in a new season of my life and things will be better, but is that really true?  Because just like I have worries now, like right now, I couldn't see these worries last year.  So every season of your life has worries and discomforts, so maybe we should stop looking for seasons to make us better, or pacifiers to soften the hunger. 

Pacifiers.  These are the temporary things we find and seek to satisfy our real issues.  A pacifier is given to a child to make him or her think he or she is actually eating or it's used to ease and comfort his or her crying-----truth is reader, we are all hungry for something!  We're all crying out about something!

Aren't we?

Are you not hungry for something?  You want your life to change so bad its killing you isn't it? It's driving you insane, you're crying out desperately, Please Jesus, where's my husband? Where's my wife? Why am I so broke? Why God why!?  And, here is what cracks me up about us, is that we have no idea how to change it. 

I've had countless conversations with people, and you can even give them like a slide show presentation of what to do next and they still won't do it.  The truth of the matter for pastors is that so many of the people listening to him will not heed his words.  I've seen time and time again every semester, Pastor Chris, (my pastor at Church of the Highlands) tries to emphasize small groups as of great importance just so people can leave the church that day and never even think twice about the message--or joining the Dream Team only for people just to ignore the truth of the call of getting plugged into the local church. 

What is this all about?  I wonder have we gotten so used to the pacifier and the benefits of sucking on it that we've forgotten how starved we really are. 

There's something all of us are missing.  I think this quote from C.S. Lewis sums it up. 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” --C.S. Lewis. 

Stop being content with the pacifiers.  Let's eat from the fullness of God. 

To be continued.......

Carry Your Name

 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. Acts 9:15 

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

First of all, this story cracks me up.  God has always been interesting in who He chooses to use.  Like in this story in Acts, God chose a murderer of people proclaiming His name to proclaim His name. Hahaha. That would be a person known to be killing Americans is now the president of the United States.  But, that's not the focal of this blog.  Here's my thought for this blog.

How would our lives change if we walked around wearing a T-Shirt that said, "I am a follower of Jesus Christ"? 

What kind of convictions would we carry around with us if we wore a shirt like that?  Where would we go? How would we talk? How would we react?  What would we say?  

During 21 Days of Prayer at my church, I've had a lot of different issues to sort through and pray about.  The most recent and a continual prayer has been me asking the Lord to help me with sharing my faith more.  So one morning, I was praying about this specific topic and the church was playing Christy Nockles "Carry Your Name", and I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, "Son, just carry My name".  And this rushing illustration exploded in my mind.  

Son, carry My name.  Since your sins are hidden in Me, (Colossians 3:3) let your identity be Me.  Wear Me on your chest, in public and in private.  Around your friends and strangers.  Believers and non-believers.  BE ME. REFLECT ME.  You have died to yourself, (Galatians 2:20) so don't carry your identity, carry Mine.

I had this thought.  I've consistently heard from a lot of Christians that they're idea of evangelism is better when a relationship is formed first.  Now, there is truth to this, but it's not the only way to evangelize.  It cannot be the only way we evangelize.  And I'm slowly beginning to notice that this relationship thing can be a justified sellout response.  Here's why I feel that way.   

I think we take pride in our own ability to love someone.  We can love a stranger and share the love of myself, but refrain from sharing the love of Christ?   

Who are you? 

Are you not just a wicked sinner with an inherited rebellious sinful nature that always and consistently pulls you back towards your own selfish motives and agenda?  With your corrupted heart and sinful ways and desires, you can love someone?  Is your love not conditional?  This stranger hasn't offended you yet, so yeah, it's easy to love a stranger. It's easy to love a homeless person, because a part of you knows that they will be grateful for your kind gesture.  But what if they're not?  Where is your love then?  Will it still be there? 

I don't doubt that you can love someone on your own ability, I'm just saying that your love is no where compared to God's love.  Because most of the time your love is very conditionally.  Let that one person pull out in front of you on the highway, where is that "love for people?"

All I'm asking mainly is do we actually carry Jesus's name everywhere with us?  Would it be a little bit more convicting if you had a shirt that confessed for you who you were?  There was no way to hide your faith, could you carry Jesus's name? And I'm not saying run around and throw Jesus in people's faces, because scriptures point to the us loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

So, my thoughts, and I haven't fully figured this thing out yet, is that we must figure out this balance of loving people with the love God gave us.  And recognizing that it's God given gift to us, so us hiding it could possibly be us holding back something God wants to do in the persons life---because again our love is very conditionally.

This is the only way a husband is able to love his wife like Christ loves the church, (Ephesians 5:25).  He is unable to do it on his own strength, so he will have to rely on Christ to love his wife through him.  So I believe if we tapped into this recognition or dependency on God to love for us, we could do it how He is calling for us to. 

So, let's carry Jesus's name, not ours.  Let's love how Christ loves, by letting Him love through us.  Let's reflect Him, present Him to others, not ourselves. 

Just Be A Man

Hello readers. Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin. 

Male insecurity---DUM dum dummm-- I will say is possibly one of the deadliest issues men have to deal with.  This problem is consistently seen throughout all the motives of men.  If you've read my Male Dilemma blog, I've somewhat touched on this subject.  But this blog will be from a different angle. 

God's been dealing with my heart lately on the question, What am I really after?  In my pursuit in growing as a leader at my church and as a man, I've been asking myself what am I really after?  To answer this, I've had to really weigh my heart to be sure I am pursuing godliness and holiness for the sake of possessing it, and not for the sake of popularity and influence in the church.  This is why, I believe that the new age pastor has become the new star quarterback in high school.  Let me explain. 

So, since I've been in the "ministry world", I've noticed this common pursuit of people wanting to be pastors, or they're wanting to be the main guy speaking on stage or have this great influence, but my question is starting to be this, "Do people really know what they're asking for?" 

What I fear is happening is that the pastor is becoming a coveted position in the church.  Men are seeing these guys with great popularity and influence, and they want it.  It's a "honorable" pursuit, because instead of wanting to be the star football player, we want to be a pastor and change the world--so we say.  But deep down we're only looking for our own glory----all because of a male insecurities. 

Here's the dilemma.  Men are still looking for their worth in their popularity and influence rather than in their Creator.  My worth should not be attached to my role at Church of the Highlands, but instead to the fact that I am a son of the living God. Honestly.... to that alone.  And it burdens me when I see men finding their worth in their jobs, in their talents, in their roles on their football teams---- because all of those things are fleeting.  We shouldn't be finding our identities in fleeting things.  Do we ever build things on quick sand?  Or do we prefer to build on solid rock? Can I sum this thing up?

A lot of men look at guys like John MacArthur, or John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Chris Hodges, Steven Furtick, or whoever we idolize in the Christian world, and we want to be like them.  But I guarantee you that many of them will not want to do what it's taking to be guys like them.  Like no one is willing to study how these guys study.  Timeless hours of devotion and dedication to the scriptures. I can sum up this entire blog in this one phrase,

Don't try to be like men of God, BE men of God. Men, let's stop coveting leaders and be leaders.  You don't have to have the influence of these men to feel important. Know that you're a a son of a Holy God.  If you don't understand the weight of that, I beg you to begin to read your word and I pray that the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to you what your Father is saying to you. 

As a leader in my church, I'll admit it feels good to be considered that.  It can easily stroke my ego from time to time.  But when the behind the scenes reality hits me, the men that are in it for the right reasons are discovered.  When the purifying fire begins to burn away those strokes of the ego----in times like when I'm stressed out when 20 extra people shows up for Motion Night unannounced, or the times when I have to go into battle for the students, or the times when I have to address an angry parent, or the times when I have to make an announcement that is bound to cause hysteria------when all the glory falls away, does the man stand? I promise you, in those moments, my ego is not being stroked. 

Guys.  Please hear me.  Let's be willing to do what it takes to be these leaders.  I'm not doubting your calling to be a pastor or whatever.  All I'm saying is be in it for the right reasons.  Let's become these men of influence.  It's a great thing to want the influence, but BE the man of God in the influence.  It's a great thing to want the popularity, but know that once you get it, your walk is no longer just about you, it's about whoever you've impressed with your words of encouragement or the message you've preached.  When you walk up on that stage that you so desperately want to be on, know that the people listening to you is counting on you to be real about what you're saying. 

Before I spoke at our college ministry this past spring, my good friend Jonathan said this statement to me.  "You do know that once you get up on that stage, you have the influence of 600+ people.  It's no longer just the 25 students you've been pouring into, but now, it changes.  And it changes immediately." 

And what was shocking about that statement was that I hadn't even thought about it.  I was so excited to preach that I didn't think of what happens in the hearts of everyone listening in the audience. 

So, men, what I'm saying.  If you want the popularity, BE ready for the influence.  I remember hearing a rapper being blamed of being a reasons in the decay of the urban culture, and his response was, "I didn't start rapping to become anybody's role model."  Well sir, you settled for the half truth of wanting to be that glorified rapper.  You wanted the glory of being a rapper, but you didn't want the responsibility of the influence.  Men, don't want the glory of wanting to be like a man of God and don't want the responsibility of the influence.  LET'S BE MEN OF GOD, and take responsibility of the influence and change the world. 

Just BE a man. 

Oh, and a side note.  Men, you were divinely given great influence by the design order set in place by God.  So...might as well take the responsibility. 

So yeah, this isn't even optional.