Too Proud To Kneel?

Many of us like to think of God as our father or our friend, our savior and our provider. However, sometimes it's harder to wrap our mind around the fact that God is GOD, the creator of every single thing that is, ever has been or ever will be. For some, even that part may not be so hard. It's when you throw in the part that God deserves our complete praise and worship at all times that gives some pause. Oh sure, alot of people give lip service to the fact that they worship God and praise His name, but when it comes down to it, our human ego and pride sometimes stands in the way when we think of bending our knee to anybody.

In church a couple of weeks ago, the pastor said that God didn't create this world for our pleasure, convenience, comfort and enjoyment. He created it for HIS pleasure and for His own glory. My human pride kicked in for a minute when he said that and I thought "That sounds like God is pretty egotistical and selfish". "Why is it all about Him?", I thought. I think part of the problem is that we try too hard to humanize God and make Him like us. But God is not like us. In the Bible He tells us "My ways are not your ways". In our quest to make God our father and friend, we lose sight of how majestic, holy and magnificent God really is and how insignificant we are in light of His glory. How dare we even compare ourselves to Him? We could not even gaze upon Him directly without dying because of the overwhelming power of His presence.

Satan is intent on convincing us that we are equal with God. That anything other than an equal relationship with God is supercilious and conceited on His part. This was the basis for original sin and it is just as powerful a temptation today. We are not equal with God and should never expect to be. God Himself causes our very hearts to beat and our lungs to breathe in and out. It is only by His good grace and mercy that we exists at all. We exist for His pleasure and to magnify His glory. It is only when we live outside of a relationship with God that we can truly believe that God is selfish, conceited or egotistical. For when we walk with Him in a daily relationship of trust and surrender, realizing that we can truly accomplish nothing on our own, we see God is infinitely loving and extremely generous in His gifts to us. His ability to have such patience and mercy with us when our actions are so far beneath His expectations and don't even come close to His holiness and perfection, exemplifies what an amazing God He is and is just one reason He is completely deserving of our total devotion, worship and praise.

So my friends, fall to your knees often and praise your Lord and King in the manner He deserves. Don't compare the Lord God to any regular person because there is no comparison. Never be too proud to kneel.

Mere Men

I've just finished reading C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" and I must say the last several chapters really spoke to me and seem to "coincidentally" fit perfectly with the spiritual threads of conversation surrounding me the past few weeks. First, he does a great job of explaining the concept of the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. I won't get into that whole conversation yet since that is a really deep one and my church hometeam is about to start a whole study on that topic anyway. What I will say on that topic however, is that Lewis seemed to underscore for me the idea that God (and Jesus) are on a completely different dimension from me, live in a completely different world from me, and are a completely different kind of being than man. So, the concept of three different things being simultaneously one and the same thing is just not something common to man's world and really cannot probably be completely explained and understood in terms common to this world. Jesus even said once to Nicodemus that if he (Nicodemus) could not understand what Jesus was talking about when Jesus was using earthly terms, how would he understand if Jesus were to explain using heavenly terms.

So, we are different beings from God/Jesus (Duh! Right!?) God is life eternal; we are doomed to die. God is good; we are incapable of not sinning. God is perfect, we are imperfect. The Good News is that we have a choice about all this! If we remain tethered to our natural life as "mere men", we will never attain what we are searching for, we will never be able to do enough or act good enough, and eventually we will die. We are, in fact, already dead to all that matters. We can try to be good moral people and do the right thing at all times and we should try to do that. But the fact is we will always fail at some point because our natural wishes and desires for comfort, pleasure, wealth or other things of this world will override our attempts to "be good".

Our pastor, Ed Young, talked about all this last Sunday in church. Is that a coincidence that he spoke on this topic and then I happened to read the very chapters in one of Lewis's many books that just happened to say the very same thing? I think not! Lewis (and Ed Young) says that our whole purpose in life is to become like Christ. To become little Christs. Following Christ toward a spiritual life is both harder and easier than just living a natural life. Christ says we have to take up the cross just as He did and that we have to travel the narrow, more difficult road. And yet, He says that with Him His "yoke is easy and the burden light". Trying to live a moral life as a good person is very hard because Lewis says the more we follow our conscience, the more our conscience demands from us. The fact us, Jesus wants us to be perfect. No one, you say, can be perfect except Jesus. I don't even want to be perfect, you say. I just want to do the best I can and it's ok if I "slip" every now and then, we say. Jesus doesn't accept that line of reasoning. If we accept Jesus into our lives and we surrender control of our lives to Him, He WILL make us perfect. Our perfection will not be completed in our natural life on this earth, but He will be pushing and shaping us continually. Yes, we will fail along the way, we will mess up, we will sin. But if we allow Him to be, Jesus will be right there beside us to catch us when we fall, perhaps disappointed that we yet again stumbled in our attempt to walk with Him, yet at the same time proud and delighted as a father with a toddler at our feeble attempts.

Jesus wants to raise us from being "mere men" to being sons of God. To do that, we have to do like the characters in Ted Dekker's "Black", "Red" and "White" trilogy and dive deep, breathe the water into our lungs, feel the sting and the pain of dying completely to this world, trusting completely in God to breathe new life into us as completely different creatures who may still exist in this world, but are no longer interested in the goals this world sets for us. This CANNOT be done without Jesus. It can only be done through Jesus because Jesus came to our world and became a man Himself. As the only Being who has ever been fully human and fully God, He is the only one who can teach us how to rise above being merely human and to join Him in being one with God.

Lewis calls this "good infection". If we actively try to draw near to Jesus, we will be infected with His goodness and with His ability to truly live and to transcend evil, sin and death. So what does it mean to draw near to Jesus? Lewis says it means to act like Jesus acted. Since many of us would respond that we don't know how to act like Jesus, Lewis says to pretend as if you do. The Big Book of AA (which more and more I truly believe was an inspired writing by God) says it this way: "Fake it until you make it". In other words, "putting on Jesus" like a costume is sometimes the first step needed to truly learn how to be like Jesus. As you begin to "dress up" like Christ each day (figuratively), Jesus begins to turn your pretence into reality and the mask becomes a real face, the "mere man" becomes a transformed, spiritual man of God. Lewis says that, in a sense, not only are we doing the pretending, but God is also pretending with us by pretending that we are not deceitful, conceited, selfish, sinful beings, but instead pretending that we are, in fact, already perfect creatures. In so doing, He raises us up to our fullest potentials, much like a teacher who treats all of his students as if they were A+ students.

Jesus will help us become A+ students. In fact, He will accept nothing less. He doesn't just want us to pass; He doesn't just want us to be good enough; He doesn't just want our eyes or ears or mind or heart; He wants ALL of us. Not just the branch, but the whole tree. When we give Him all of ourselves, He gives us all of Himself and we are able to bear our daily crosses. But we don't just learn to bear the pain, we learn to transcend it and to live!! We start to turn from just "mere men" into extraordinary spiritual beings. Life with Christ will sometimes be hard. But because He loves us, He won't stop challenging us until we are fully matured and ready to live eternally in God's presence. I am continually astounded that God wants us to be with Him that much. Help me Lord in my daily surrender, help me to die to this life which is only a mere shadow of life with You.

The Struggle Between Good and Evil

I've been reading some C.S. Lewis lately and also Christian fiction novels by Ted Dekker. Almost all of Ted Dekker's novels have focused on the central theme of good and evil, especially the Circle Trilogy novels: Black, Red and White. I've always found this subject fascinating and a bit confusing. My original thoughts were, like many, that God is good and perfect and made us also as good and perfect beings. Therefore, even though we have free will to choose evil, we all begin as innocent children who are innately good. I believed that as infant souls, we are still very close to God because prior to birth, our unborn souls were with God and at birth and early infancy, still so close to our recent separation from God, we are, by nature, good beings with the capacity to choose bad. Not that we are born perfect, but that we are essentially born sinless, perhaps incapable of not eventually falling into sin, but nevertheless sinless at birth.

Now, I'm beginning to believe more that the original fall into sin by Adam and Eve left us all "doomed" to be sinners from birth. While I cannot logically see a newborn infant as a sinner, I'm not sure that it matters. We live in a world that is ruled by fleshly, not spiritual, desires. The environment of the world we live in, hugely separated from the spiritual realm in which God resides, and heavily influenced by the selfish arrogance of satan, makes sin an inevitability no matter how "good" we may have started out. This makes it impossible for us to return to God's presence on our own because God's pureness cannot be tainted by the presence of sin and His righteousness demands that sinners be punished and completely abolished. This is beginning to sound really hopeless!! But we have to remember that God created us originally in complete perfection and without sin, but in His ultimate love and fairness gave us the choice to love and trust Him or to abandon and doubt Him. We chose the latter by listening to the great deceiver and liar and believing that God was keeping some great thing from us. God, our Creator and the One who loves us more than anyone ever could was completely heartbroken by our lack of trust and faith in Him. Determined not to abandon us to our just fate of death for our sins, He created a plan to save us from ourselves. He came and lived among us as one of us, tempted daily by the same fleshly desires of this world as we and He did it perfectly without succumbing to sin, and then allowed Himself to be killed, a perfect sacrifice to attone for all the sins of the world past, present and future. That is a beautiful love story. Never before has anyone and never will anyone love us that much.

Dekker's books, like Showdown, remind us of how tragically lost we all are, of how easily we are led down the path of lies and deception by worldly pleasures, and how utterly incredible it is that we are forgiven for our intolerable and unappreciative behavior. We are so fortunate to have such a loving, giving, merciful and forgiving God above us. So many in this world believe that this world is all there is, and in so believing they give undue value to this world's principles. Colossians 2:8 says "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ". For many years, I believed in many of the pop spiritual beliefs that abound in our world, many of which contradict the Bible or try to add things that aren't there. These "spiritual" meanderings usually left me more confused and unsettled than I was before. They left me with a lot of "well.....maybe this, or maybe that". Matthew 5:37 says "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Seven months ago Jesus spoke to my heart personally and all of these texts that I had been reading in place of the Bible became meaningless and empty to me. I completely lost my desire to pursue them. I began to pray more and read the Bible more and to simply talk with Jesus more on a daily basis, and I believe the evil one's hold on me was greatly lessened as I surrendered myself completely to Jesus. Not only is Jesus far better than any pop spirituality I have ever encountered, I need Jesus for my very salvation. I want to be reconciled with God and have a chance to be in His presence again and Jesus is the only way.

As many of those readers who are more mature in their walk with Christ can tell, my posts are very basic stuff and probably mostly what is expected of someone very new to Christ. I embrace that and hope that there are others out there who are also new in their walk with Christ who can identify with my shaky, slow but progressive maturation process and will take heart that they are where they should be, no more no less. I still have lots of questions that I have yet to understand. For example, it appears to me that there were really two Falls from grace. One in the earthly realm with Adam and Eve and one far before that in the heavenly realm with Satan. Apparently heavenly beings were created with the same gift of choice as well? Is evil necessary for us to fully appreciate true goodness or even to identify what is good? Perhaps I'll tackle that in my next post. Until then, my prayer is that my Father in heaven will continue to open up my hardened heart and will fill me to overflowing with His love and goodness and teach me to walk always in His ways each minute of each day and to resist and overcome the evil that surrounds me. I love you Lord!

Is Anger Controlling You?

My friends, I have a confession to make. I have been controlled by anger. My anger is generally the quiet kind, but nonetheless deadly, both to me and those around me, especially those I love the most. I've been tortured by anger for years. Where does it come from? I don't know for sure. Certainly there were instances in my childhood growing up with an alcoholic, physically abusive father that probably contributed, but I have to take full responsibility for my anger as it exists right now today. Some days it is almost non-existent. Other days, the smallest things irritate me to no end and I tumble in an ever-increasing moodiness that I cannot seem to break free from. There are resentments over things I think should have happened but didn't, things that did happen that shouldn't have. There are the small slights of he/she did or said whatever to me and hurt me. There's irritation that people won't leave me alone or that people won't pay me any attention. There's anger that people did exactly what I expected them to do or that people haven't done what I expected them to do. There's bitterness. There's jealousy. Many times anger is a justification for me to separate myself from others. I know how to do anger. I've begged God to forgive me and now I publicly beg for those of you I've wronged in anger to forgive me also. Eventually, I'll have to make amends privately and in person. First I have to learn alot more about tolerance and forgiveness.

Pastor Young taught us in church this past week that all sins, including anger, come from selfish pride. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I have no doubt whatsoever that my anger stems entirely from focus on my self rather than on others. I'm trying so hard to learn how to die to the self and live totally in Christ, to live in this world but not of this world. For if the things of this world were not so important to me, there would be little for me to be angry about, except for those things that deserve righteous anger because they deal with legitimate wrongs against others. The words "anger" and "angry" are mentioned in the Bible almost 400 times, mostly in the Old Testament, and mostly in reference to God's righteous anger. But the Bible clearly teaches that "the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20). Like all sin, man's anger only serves to separate himself from God and to give the "devil a foothold" (Ephesians 4:26-27). God has a will and a purpose for our lives and when we react in selfish anger, we are, in essence, telling God that we reject His will and plan for us.

We are commanded to respond to everyone with love. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs". So how can we live this out in our lives when we are consumed with anger? How can we "rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips (Colossians 3:8)" and "let your gentleness be evident to all (Philippians 4:5)? How can we remember that "the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful (2 Timothy 2:24) and "not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing (1 Peter 3:9)?

An article I found at http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/Topics/Anger/Anger04.html says there are six steps:

1) The first step is acceptance that we have a spirit of anger within us and that we want and need God to help us overcome this sin.

2) We must deal with our anger by confessing past anger and repenting from present anger. This means amends need to be made both to God and those we have wronged with our anger.

3) We must be totally willing to die to our old selves of anger, bitterness and resentment and begin to live in Christ in a spirit of love, tolerance and forgiveness. Galatians 2:20 says "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." This requires daily commitment to this task.

4) We must break the stronghold of anger by taking total responsibility for our anger and not minimizing or justifying our selfish anger. This means overcoming our pride and admitting that regardless of what happened to us in the past or is currently happening in the present, we have an obligation to ask Jesus to change us from within, not change somebody else.

5) We must replace anger with acts of kindness. Ephesians 4:31 says "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

6) We must make a daily commitment to deal with each day's anger as it occurs. It is important not to let our anger smolder and simmer until it gradually reaches the boiling point and scalds someone close to us who does not deserve it. We have to constantly pray for tolerance and forgiveness and resolve anger before we go to sleep at night.

My friends, these are all things that are easy for me to understand and easy for me to write, but very difficult to put into practice. Please bear with me as I undertake this journey and pray hard for me to be touched by Jesus loving hand as I struggle with these issues. Please know that I love you all dearly and I pray that the Lord will help me to focus on loving you all more in the near future.

Are You Eaten By Envy?

Do you ever struggle with envy? Do you ever resent the successes of others? I must confess that I have done both. The fact that I know that I am not alone in that struggle, that I know without a doubt that virtually everyone around me has this same confession to make, does little to relieve my feelings of guilt for sinning in this way. Why do we envy what others have? I think it is because we all do battle everyday with our human nature which is all about self-love, self-gratification, self-needs, self-absorbedness, self-delusions and self-obsession. This is why Jesus message was so clear and so emphatic that the greatest commandments we are to live by is to love a power far greater than our self, God, and to love OTHERS as we would have them love us.

Many of us have been blessed with so much in our lives and yet when our eyes are focused on the things of the world, we are never filled up or satisfied. It is only the focus on the growth of our spirit, which is only accomplished through service to God and to others, that brings everlasting and true fulfillment. When we are in the presence of Jesus, in daily communication with Him and acting as He would act, there is nothing more we could want. The Holy Spirit has the power to satisfy us and complete us in ways that no house, no car, no job, no title, no person, no amount of money ever could. As Jesus told the woman at the well, He provides a never-ending spring of fresh, life-giving water that will quench any thirst we have.

But we live in a world where money, power and possessions reign and this makes it difficult for us because we are weak as men. God's perfection, however, is made manifest through our weakness. The mighty on earth are humbled and the humble are made mighty. Though we may not have vast earthly treasures, the treasure of everlasting spiritual fulfillment through a personal connection to the Source and Creator of all that is, was and will be is mightier than all the transitory"riches" available in this world. There is a saying in our society that to get ahead is all about who you know. I don't know or have any personal relationships with any celebrities, mighty politicians or rich moguls. I can't name-drop any powerful or well-known people that I've had dinner with. I don't need to, because there is no more powerful name to drop than the holy name of Jesus. Yes, that's right, I spend each and every minute of every day with the most powerful, the mightiest king of the universe, the Creator of all things. Are you envious? Don't be, because I can introduce you to Him personally and He can be your personal friend too.

Father, forgive me for my envy and resentment. Thank you for the many blessings you have poured out on me through your mercy and generosity, even though I've proven time and again to be unworthy. Help me to keep my sight on those things that are worthy of your blessing and strengthen my resolve to turn from my sinful nature. Help me to take my eyes off of my self and to lift myself above the things of this world. Help me to realize how mighty it is to be humble.

How Does God Speak To You?

I think God has personalized ways of speaking to each of us. By praying and talking to Him everyday and then allowing time to LISTEN, I think we begin to learn when God is talking to us. This is one of the most important things we can learn so that we can be assured that we are listening to His direction and acting according to His will.

Sometimes God puts multiple "coincidences" in our lives, synchronistic events, and if we begin to take notice of the theme in these events, then we can begin to receive His instruction and guidance. Sometimes we "randomly" find ourselves reading a particular passage in the Bible that speaks to our specific situation in a personal way. Sometimes words or images may come into our minds with a special kind of force or emphasis that separates them from the millions of other words and images in our minds. Sometimes God's very words are spoken through the mouths of our children, our spouse, or close friend.

However it happens, I think it is universal that there is an underlying feeling that goes with the communication. This feeling is hard to describe and would probably be described differently by each person, but I think we all know that what we are feeling is the presence of the Truth. We are built to recognize the Truth when we see it, hear it, or feel it. This is what some people call a gut feeling or intuition. Of course, our minds can intellectualize ourselves out of acting on our intuition and so we have to learn to recognize when we are in the presence of Truth and not let ourselves be swayed from it. Acting on the Truth is not always pleasurable, but ultimately it feels right and we are at peace when we are following it.

When should we ask for God's direction and guidance? Every minute of every day. There is no decision so mundane that God is not willing to give you direction if you are willing to surrender to His will in all things. After all, our lives are not made up of a few major events, but an endless series of "small" events that color and shape all that we do and become.

Are You Using Your Talents?

In Matthew 25, Jesus relates a parable about a master who leaves three of his servants in charge of various amounts of "talents", which was a word used in that day for an amount of money. Two of the servants invested their talents and reaped great profits, doubling or even tripling the original investment. However, one of the servants was afraid of losing the one talent he was given, and so he buried his talent in the ground so it would not be lost. This was not pleasing to his master. Similarly, I believe God has imbued each of us with individual and unique talents, skills and abilities that He expects us to use and invest further in His service, and I believe He expects to get a return on His investment. Everything we are given by God is intended to help further God's Kingdom and to bring more people into His love and grace.

Some people believe that they have not been given any talents or abilities, that because they cannot sing, dance, play piano, build furniture or give dynamic public speeches, they are not blessed by God with any unique gifts or abilities. This is incorrect in my opinion as I believe that we are ALL blessed with an ability to do something, and to do that something well. When you really search and look at yourself and your life, you often will find that there is always some little thing that you just seem to have a knack for, that seems to come naturally for you while others struggle more at that thing. It doesn't have to be something as noticeable as being an incredible singer or performer, it can be something seemingly small such as having incredible patience with very small children. Whatever it is, pay attention to it and find ways to use that skill or ability in the service of God on a regular basis because when you do so, you are expanding God's spirit further into this world.

In fact, it is when you are engaged in one of these unique God-given talents that your spirit is most in alignment with God's spirit and miraculous things begin to happen in you, in others, and in the world in general. Fervent use of your unique abilities is a form of worship and prayer. When you are working with children using your incredible patience, or crafting a new chair outof a piece of wood, or listening empathically to the problems of those around you, or crunching numbers on a spreadsheet, or whatever is your particular ability, if you are in communion with God while you are engaging in this activity, an aura of peace and wonder and spiritual presence will surround you, those around you, and that on which you are working.

Unless you have a very obvious ability or talent however, you may have to really search within in order to find out what it is you are gifted with. If you look closely though at those areas in your life that you are most successful and those activities which give you the most satisfaction and peace, it will not be hard to soon uncover your unique talent(s). In some instances, God calls us to stretch ourselves beyond what we think we are capable of, and in so doing we find our particular talents in places we never thought we would. God has a history of taking individuals who appear to have many barriers and limitations in their life and revealing incredible talents in them. Moses, for example, was said to have a profound stutter and yet he was called upon by God to speak before kings and to lead huge groups of people. Stephen Hawking has a degenerative disease that has caused him to be completely paralyzed, even to the point of having extreme difficulty with speech, and yet he is one of the world's most respected and gifted scientists who has changed the way we think of the nature of the universe. What if he had chosen to hide or bury his talents in his "disability" with an "I can't" attitude?

So, rejoice and be glad that God has most certainly blessed you with some unique skill, ability or talent. God's will and purpose for us is to expand His kingdom here on earth, to love one another and to live in communion with Him in all that we do. When we exercise our unique talents in His service, we are better able to put our spirit in communication with others' spirits who are far from God. When we exercise our talents, we are performing acts of love that pervade everyone in our vicinity. When we use our God-given abilities, we are acting in obedience to God's will for us and we can feel and benefit from His loving smile upon us.

Who Are Your Friends?

For the past several months, I've been praying to God for some male Christian friendship. I have several people I call friends and a few in particular that I consider to be good friends, but most of my good friends live many miles from me and have schedules and family lives that don't seem to coincide with mine. Now I admit, I'm a pretty pathetic prospect for a male friend. I don't play or keep up with any sports (as the guys in my church hometeam know now that they've seen me play golf!), I don't know how to do anything mechanical, I'm not a thrill seeker, and I'm not very funny or good with jokes. The fact is, I'm more introverted than extroverted and I'm a deep thinker who's not very good at small talk. So I'm a challenge! But I know that with God all things are possible.

My need for a male Christian friend is a very egoic thing in my opinion since when I am in complete alignment with God, I have no needs. But sustained alignment with God is not something I've yet achieved and, therefore, I continue to have these worldly needs. Did Jesus have the need for close friends? I think He enjoyed human companionship but I'm not sure He needed it. And like most celebrities, I think He had a hard time finding anyone in this world that He could really relate to. He was the Messiah, the Teacher, the Savior and those around Him were the flock, the students, the disciples, those in need. Everyone wanted something from Him because He was their leader. Sure He had James and John and Peter who He seemed to be the closest with, but was there really an equal exchange between them as there is in a regular friendship?

I think even though Jesus may not have had the same kind of need for friends that we have, I think He would agree that Christian fellowship and friendship is a very necessary activity to help us grow, strengthen and sustain our faith and our character. Good Christian friends can help lift us up when we are low by reminding us that God is always there to hold us up and keep us from falling if we simply turn to Him. They are there to reinforce our decisions for doing the right thing in a world that often values getting ahead at any cost. Friends give us perspective when we are in a negative state of mind or on an inflated ego trip by showing us we are not the only ones with problems like ours and by keeping us grounded in reality. But mostly I think, friends give us the opportunity to learn to serve others in a safe environment. Being a friend involves commitment and sacrifice, two things that many of us are short on. So our friendships give us the chance to practice being committed and sacrificing with people who will probably still be our friend even if we mess up a few times. I had the honor to witness this type of behavior among a group of guys from my church hometeam on a recent "guys only" trip together out of state. The commitment to service and sacrifice was evident in each one of them and I learned alot from them.

I should say that it is good to also have some non-Christian friends in your life. These will not be your closest confidantes most likely, but they provide us with opportunities also to grow and strengthen our faith. Jesus was our model for hanging out with all the "sinners" who were far from God. I reminded my 16 year old daughter of this recently when she and a friend of hers hosted a pool party at our house. The friend of my daughter invited several people from another school who, as it turns out, were mostly interested in smoking and doing drugs and wanted to leave when they found out that wasn't happening at our party. Even though my daughter knew she was doing the right thing, she felt the sting of rejection. When she stated that these individuals should never have been invited, I reminded her that Jesus tells us to invite the poor, the oppressed, and those far from God to our feasts, parties and activities. How else can these wayward children of God be reminded of what they lost and return to their Father? So, friends who are far from God are a good thing too, but I have plenty of those in my "poker ministry".

So, if you're not quite like Jesus, like I am not, and you still feel the need for Christian friendship, just be a good friend to everyone you meet and surely God will lead to you one or two close brothers or sisters in the Spirit with whom you can commune on the issues closest to your heart and share in activities that you both enjoy. Even more important though, talk to your friend Jesus everyday at all times in all things, for there is no one who knows the issues closest to your heart better, who feels your pain and revels with you in your triumphs, who needs nothing from you and is willing and already has given His all just for you.

The Challenge of Change

Jesus asked the man sitting near the healing pool, "Do you really want to be healed?" The man had been sick and paralyzed his entire life and could not understand the question. He felt like saying "Duh! Why do you think I sit here everyday?" Instead, he said, "I cannot get into the pool to receive healing because I have no one to carry me there and everyone crowds ahead of me". In other words, I am a victim of circumstances and there is nothing I can do about it except hope and wish that things would get better. Do you ever say things like that or feel that way? I do, all the time. Sometimes, many times, my mindset is one of "I'm just not lucky enough, or skillful enough, or brave enough....... to have what I want, what I need". And by thinking so, I confirm my fate.

By thinking this way and answering in this way, I'm almost defending why my life must stay stuck. Some might observe that perhaps I want to stay unhappy. Some might even venture that I LIKE being unhappy, that I get some kind of sick pleasure out of misery. I believe that this is certainly possible in the case of many individuals, myself included. Sometimes there's just nothing like a good "crying in one's beer" because "misery loves company". We have many sayings in our country that point to this fundamental identification with enjoying our self pity and the pity parties it engenders. This all points back to the false self and false importance of self that we have created.

Jesus told us what is important: loving the Lord God with everything you have and loving everyone else as much as Jesus loved us. So, love, obedience and service to others, that's important stuff. Everything else is small stuff. Paradoxically, when one does those things that Jesus says to do, abundance flows into one's life and there is little to be miserable about even if one were to regress to that point. Ironically, accepting and surrendering to whatever situation or circumstance God has brought into our lives at the moment; embracing the "bad", "difficult" or "challenging" things in our lives; moving toward instead of away from those things that upset or scare us or anger us, inevitably lifts us above the things of this world, especially if our focus is on those things that started this paragraph. Instead of blaming the darkness for your plight, bring in the light.

So, how would you answer Jesus' question? Do you really want to be healed? If so, desire that it be so, have faith that it will be so and it will be so. Do not harbor anger, resentments, or self pity. Accept your situation without making it your identity. Allow yourself the possibility of healing. Accept the forgiveness freely offered to you by your Father in heaven and let the healing begin!

The Power of Prayer

Do you believe that prayer really works? I believe in it more and more everyday. Especially when your prayer is directed toward helping someone else as most prayer should be. Just last night as we were returning from a concert, a guy flew past us on the highway on his chopper motorcycle going at least 100 mph with no helmet or other protective gear. In the past, I would have thrown out curses and resentment at this person for being such an "idiot" and cutting me off and endangering everyone around him. This time I prayed sincerely for God to do something, anything, to slow this motorcyclist down. I kept praying as he disappeared in the distance. About 5 minutes later, we passed the motorcyclist pulled over on the side of the highway. He looked fine and I praised God that the prayer was answered and this man had slowed down and possibly saved his and maybe others lives. Now as I think about it I think that possibly we should have stopped and offered assistance, but I guess I still have fears about stopping to render aid on a highway at night with someone who might be armed or otherwise bent on causing me some harm. At any rate, I was glad that he was temporarily slowed down and grateful, and frankly surprised, that my prayer had been answered.

This type of thing happens everyday. God really does listen to us when we talk to Him. Jesus says God loves to hear the sound of our voices. I know that sometimes, many times, what I pray for, even though it is something good for someone else, will not necessarily come to pass. That is why I always try to remember to pray " If it be Your will". My puny mind cannot possibly understand all of the implications and situations around what I am praying for and God may have a better plan in mind. It really helps me to think of God as Father and address Him in that way as Jesus did most of the time. I know that my Father knows what is best for me and what I ask for isn't always what is best for me so I have to surrender my will to His and expect that He will do what is right in my behalf.

The prayer I have on the top of my list right now is to help me learn to serve others better, think less of myself, and also to draw people to me who are far from God and allow me to be a conduit through which they can take a step toward a relationship with the Father. I'm a very selfish individual and I think far too much about my needs and wants and I get angry and resentful when my needs and wants are not met. This is very un-Jesus-like. I'm currently reading the book "How to Be Like Jesus" by Pat Williams and through this reading I'm getting a much more personal picture of what Jesus was like. The book takes most of the stories involving Jesus in the Bible and and clarifies the context of what was really going on. I tell you, this has tended to make me even more in awe of the way Jesus spoke and acted. As the book says, it is impossible to truly be like Jesus and yet paradoxically, this is exactly what we are called to do. Of course it is all summed up in the commandment to love the Lord God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as Jesus loved us. If we all did that every minute of every day, the world would not have the problems it has. Even though loving the Lord our God is the biggest commandment, it seems to me that it is the second part of that, the loving of one's neighbors (meaning everyone esle in the world) that really makes the difference. There are many religions around the world that claim to love God fiercely to the point that they are willing to sacrifice their lives in suicidal deaths because they think this is pleasing to God. What they are not doing though is loving their neighbors. Why not? Because they believe their neighbors are Godless and heathens and deserve to be destroyed. This is not how Jesus lived. Time and time again, Jesus socialized with, served, loved and helped those who sought to destroy Him. He was full of nothing but compassion for them and never gave up on the possibility of their redemption. Some of his closest apostles were in this category.

Today in church, we saw videos of church members telling their stories of redemption. One of the most moving to me was the beautiful pageant queen who was disgusted by the "ugly" guy in the store who had many tattoos and piercings and black makeup, etc.. Although she originally rejected him, through God's guidance she realized her error and went back to that store and saw him as Jesus did, as a child through a parent's eyes, and felt love and compassion for someone who was obviously hurting. So she told him that Jesus loved him and cared about him. What courage that took!!! I'm still trying to get that kind of courage. Today, in my attempts at poker ministry, a guy at my table about halfway thru the game apologized for his bad play because he said he was drunk. This was about 1:30pm so most at the table ignored him or said "So what?, You're in a bar, what do we care?" But I also heard him say that he had been drinking all morning. I knew at that moment that this person was deeply troubled by something. Yet all I could think of to do was to look at him in the eyes, hold his gaze, smile and say "It's going to get better...... whatever is going on in your life". He seemed to acknowledge that I knew he was troubled, but that was it. Why didn't I offer to pray with him or give him my phone number or the name of the church to call later? I don't know. I was afraid that everyone would think I was bringing church to the table and it would be too much. I should have done more and that is my prayer, to help me do better in situations like that. I know without a doubt that God listens to my prayers and so I expect to get better as each day progresses.

If you have trouble remembering to pray, don't think of it as prayer in the formal sense. I try to just talk to God much as I would if I were just talking to myself. But rather than just aimless self-talk, I try to speak to God with intention and ask for His assistance in ALL of the things in my life day to day, even the seemingly small and inconsequential things. He listens, and he loves to hear our voice. So talk to Him!!!!

The Power of Love

I've been constantly astounded by the power that love has to heal. My boss has been saying for years that the way we help our substance abusing clients to recover is by loving them. I used to think that was possibly idealistic and maybe even naive. Now I've seen this force at work firsthand. What does it mean to love someone? Does it mean saying the words and giving hugs? Does it mean taking care of all of their needs? Loving someone in an authentic way means doing away with one's own ego, one's own needs to be loved, and simply giving of oneself even when the other person doesn't recognize your efforts or actively tries to push you away.

I've recognized this incredible power lately especially with my children, both of which have pushed me away and been decidedly "unloveable" on several occasions. What I've tried to learn is that I don't always do what my children want me to do or give them what they want, but I never stop letting them know that I love them. Kids are good at sniffing out whether your love is authentic or just an ego ploy. When I'm able to convey sincere love for my children, or anyone else in my life, despite the circumstances, miraculous things happen.

Turns out this is what God is all about and what, I think, our life lesson is. Many people ignore their Creator, curse at Him, push Him away, and completely go against His wishes. And yet, He still loves us. Recognizing this persistent, unyielding, sincere and authentic love that God has for us in the face of our complete disobedience is often what finally reels us in. It's the same with our friends, co-workers, teammates and complete strangers that we encounter every day who are far from God. Persistent, unyielding sincere and authentic demonstrated love for others, especially in the face of rejection and sometimes outright hostility, is how we model for others what being a follower of Jesus means. Lately I've ben reading Evangelism Without Additives and the message is clear. Love those around you. You don't need to preach. Your loving example is enough. God will not require of us anymore than we are capable of. All we have to do is demonstrate our love for others in any and all circumstances and He will do the heavy lifting for us. Like my "poker ministry" in sports bars, the book advocates helping others, giving away free attention, and listening with intention, even with people that you might consider to be the "enemy" of Christianity. When your so-called "enemy" sees you loving them, their opinion of you and what you represent as a follower of Jesus is often turned on it's head. Next time you feel like preaching, criticizing, or labeling someone for their un-godly actions, try loving them instead and watch the miracle begin to unfold.

Faith, Surrender and Sacrifice

Most of my posts apparently have something to do with faith, surrender or sacrifice. I guess this is because these are the issues I struggle with on a daily basis. Somehow i doubt that I'm alone in this. Most recently I've been led to believe that God is telling me to stop engaging in an activity that I completely enjoy. The fact is I haven't enjoyed the activity as much lately because of the incredible lack of success I've had of late. My bad luck in this area can only be described as supernatural. Now I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that God purposely fixes things so that a person will fail at it, but I do know that when you are not following God's plan, it's like ramming into a brick wall. Well, I've hit that brick wall so hard and so often that it is impossible to believe that it is "just bad luck" or just circumstantial or coincidence. I believe it is God's voice pounding at my door and His voice has simply gotten louder.

Now, my first reaction is to be angry and resentful. What's so wrong with this activity? Why can others do it and be so successful and I have to quit it? Will I have to quit doing everything I enjoy in order to follow God's plan for my life? The only way to get past all of that is by surrendering in faith. I've taught this to alcoholics and addicts for over 15 years. Just follow the program laid out for you and even though it may feel awkward or scary at first, just do it anyway and have faith that it will work if you work it. It's certainly much easier to tell others what to do than to follow your own advice!

90% of the time when we ponder whether we should or shouldn't do something, we already know the answer. We are only struggling because our ego has some investment in one of the decisions. So we have to listen with our heart and not with our minds and the answer is so clear, though not always a comfortable one. God's way is the only way my friends. Surrender can actually bring peace and end your anxiety. Does surrender mean becoming an automaton with no ability to think? Absolutely not! God gave us a brain for a reason but there are deeper parts of our brain, more primitive parts I believe that are much more adept at communication with our Maker and far more intuitive than the brain we currently use. Our ego, which runs our thinking currently, is entirely a creation of our own and it is imperfect. The brain that God gave us, however, is perfect and if we think with it, it will lead us down the straight and narrow path that we all seek. The brain that God gave us is what we commonly call the heart or our intuition.

Intuitive thinking comes from faith, surrender and prayer. Don't ask God "What should I do?" unless you're willing to follow His answer.

It's A Question Of Faith

Sometimes faith seems so easy, like when you are in church listening to a particularly inspiring sermon, or those times when you feel the Spirit of God speaking to you. For me though, I am continually plagued by the workings of my mind, by the world's wisdom. My mind will question the interpretation of something in the Bible or I'll read something in a FICTIONAL story of all things that brings up nagging questions for me and my faith wavers. My faith in the existence of God or Jesus? No. My faith that Jesus worked miracles or died and rose from the dead? No. But little things that get me to thinking "maybe that part's true, but that part may not be true", especially things in the Bible in relation to modern day life. And from where, for me, do all these doubts stem? From what I have spoken of before, FEAR. Mostly fear of being wrong, of being stupid, of being naive, of being bamboozled. This I think is one of my biggest faith challenges; I don't like to be wrong, I don't like to look stupid, and I like everything to make sense.

But maybe it's deeper than that. Today in church the talk was about healthy marriages and how we live in a disposable society where we throw away anything that doesn't give us exactly what we want when we want it. Many aren't willing to work hard anymore for anything. We want things to come easy for us. To put it simply, many of us have a hard time fully committing, and especially if committing means compromising or surrendering in some way, because this seems to mean we are weak. I can convince myself that I'm actually quite good at commitment; after all, even though I'm on my second marriage, I was with my first wife for about 15 years (9 of it married) and have been with my second wife for about 12 years, and have worked at my job for almost 8 years and 10 years at the job before that. I'm committed to being a good follower of Christ and a good husband and a good father. But what does that mean? Well, it means not only do I have to be good at sticking and staying, but I also have to be willing to surrender and sacrifice. Jesus showed us how to do it when he totally surrendered to God's plan even though he knew how big a sacrifice he would have to make.

The identification with the mind, the ego, the self is what I have to be willing to surrender. Like Jesus, I have to be willing to let God pilot my life, TOTALLY, and when I do that I will inevitably be giving up selfishness for God's selflessness. Surrendering to God totally takes faith. But what if He wants me to do a bunch of stuff I don't like or I'm not good at? I have to have faith that God will put me exactly where I need to be and give me the tools to carry out His plan. But how will I pay all my bills if I tithe and give money to charitable causes? I have to have faith that God will do as promised and will take care of me when I step out in faith in His name. How will He do that? I have no idea. Will I end up doing stuff that doesn't make sense to me if I step out in faith? Yes, most probably. 1 Corinthians 1:19 says "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate". And further in 1 Corinthians 2:5 I am reminded that my faith must "......not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power". I hear and read many of man's "truths" everyday and my worldly mind/ego likes to latch onto them and chew on them and tries to question God's word. I have to have faith though and listen not to man's truths, but to the spiritual truths whispered in that still small voice by the Holy Spirit sent to me by my heavenly Father to guide me on my path. Sometimes I have to listen very hard. Oh, but when I do..... when I really listen with my heart and not my puny little mind, it is so worth it my friends.

So, I pray to my Lord in faith to challenge me to step out of my comfort zone each day, to open myself to selfless possibilities to be there for someone else just when they needed someone to be there as my God is there for me when I need Him. I pray the Lord will help me be a better listener to spiritual truths and to carry them out in action in my life. For faith without action is no faith at all.

Answered Prayer, Faith and Questions

I had to learn again this past week that God always answers our prayers, though not always in the way that we expect. I asked God to help me be a better father and soon after this, my ex-wife called to say that my daughter needed more attention from me. My ego rejected her words while my heart knew her words were true. It wasn't that I thought her words were untrue, it was the sting of hearing it from her. But after more prayer, I came to realize that her call was sent to me from God in answer to my prayer and I needed to heed the message, despite not being comfortable with the messenger.

This led to further exploration into the nature of what was really needed from me by my daughter (and I'm sure others in my family as well). In the book "A Case For Faith", interviewee Peter John Kreefe says that in human relationships, lovers don't want explanations, they want PRESENCE. I have lots of explanations for why I don't always spend very much time with my family, but no one cares about those shoddy reasons, they just want me to be there for them. For my daughter, it's an occasional conversation, a dinner out, help with a school problem, but mostly just BEING with her. I've had similar problems with my son recently in which I did not know how to initiate a conversation with him that wouldn't sound like a lecture. I thought and thought about the right words, but they never would come, and so I just avoided him. Recently, I realized though that the only words I needed were words of love, compassion, empathy and concern for his well-being. Just saying "hi" when he walks in the door and trying to BE there with him. In the Bible, it says that in the beginning there was the Word... I think the original Hebrew word "logos" for "word" actually is translated as "word in action". So, my words alone are meaningless without the action of PRESENCE and BEING that goes with the words. At the end of the book of Job, God speaks to Job, but it is not God's words that Job treasures, but the fact that God showed His PRESENCE to Job.

Sometimes we question whether God is really present in our lives and whether He is speaking to us, answering our prayers and acting in our lives. I can assure you that all you have to do is simply ask God to work in your life, surrender fully to His loving and wise control and then sit back and have faith that He WILL work in your life in amazing ways. He does for me everyday.

How Do We Know If We Have The Holy Spirit?

When I was a teenager, a group of young missionaries came to our church and I was absolutely riveted by their faith, their "cool-factor" while being an unashamed witness for Christ, and mostly just the fact that they seemed to be filled with "spirit". One of these young people stayed at our house that week and so I had a chance to observe him and ask him alot of questions. I was also curious because he (like several of the others) had the gift of speaking in tongues. Bottom line: I wanted what they had and wanted to know how to get it. My houseguest said that what I was observing in him was the Holy Spirit and that all I had to do after accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior was to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to allow myself to be totally open to it happening.

Well, I did ask...... and ask..... and maybe that's part of the problem. Jesus says to ask and then BELIEVE that it has been given and we will receive what we have asked for. I think perhaps I did not then, and perhapsI haven't yet now, completely surrendered to God taking complete control of my life. While doing an Internet search on the topic of this post, I ran across a sermon by a preacher who voiced alot of the things I've been thinking. He said that alot of people ask for the Holy Spirit but then are apprehensive about what that might really mean and thus there is ambivalence in their asking and, therefore, ambivalence in the giving. He said that having the Spirit of God take up permanent residence inside of us and be given complete control of our lives is very scary to many and, frankly, many don't want to give up certain aspects of their lives or control over certain aspects of their lives. In other words, having the Holy Spirit is a form of responsibility and many don't want that kind of responsibility. On the other hand, living under God's complete control gives us access to His unerring direction, constant support and love and lack of desire to engage in things not of God. This makes the responsibility a partnership and responsibility is always easier when it is shared with another.

The preacher I found on the Internet also says that having the Holy Spirit is not always (and maybe rarely) a case of being thunderstruck with overwhelming joy, immediately being able to speak in tongues, or being able to perform healing miracles at one's merest touch. Rather, one may know they are filled with the Holy Spirit by the deep sense of peace and serenity they feel on a regular basis, the feeling of being drawn to those things of God and away from things not of God (or beginning to love those things of God more than those things of the world) and hearing God's direction in that "still, small voice" in our everyday practices.

So, when I ask myself if I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I am going to answer yes because I do feel myself drawn to the things of God on a much more constant basis. I find myself praying and talking to God and wanting to talk to God on a regular basis. I find myself wanting to read more and more about God and his word. I feel more serene and peaceful than ever before. I find myself relinquishing my addictions to anger, resentment, jealousy, self-pity, and revenge. I find myself in a state of forgiveness and love more and more often. I find that I am craving the company of other followers of Christ and am less satisfied when around those who are not Christ followers. The preacher I spoke of earlier also says that he believes receiving the Holy Spirit is a process and not a product or result. I like that and believe that I am in the process of daily receipt of the Holy Spirit in my life. I don't have all the answers (in fact I have no answers except that Jesus Christ is my Saviour), but I don't need to have all the answers because God has all the answers for me and I need only ask Him to guide me in the right direction. I simply ask for God to help me be in a state of complete surrender (faith) each and every day and to give me the courage and the strength to do the things He wants me to do out of His love for me and concern for my growth.

Love and Sacrifice

It is Easter time and I can feel the presence and power of God around me and with me. It was especially strong in church today and I felt so happy and so alive. This is the time that we are all reminded of God's great love for us and His manifestation of that love in the form of The Great Sacrifice. While, as usual, my feelings don't strictly follow traditional Christian doctrine, I do believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that His special mission here on Earth as one of us was to challenge our perceptions about God, religion and the nature of our lives in general.

One of our (my) perceptions throughout the old testament of the Bible was of a punishing, vengeful, jealous God who had a lot of hoops to jump through in order to gain His acceptance and very few found themselves worthy. Jesus came and shook all that up and told us that God is love, and since God is everything, love is everything. The most important thing in the world is to love the Lord God with all your heart and second only to that is to love your neighbors as yourself. Jesus, as God's Son, let us all know that God loves us THAT MUCH, that he would sacrifice His child to show us how much He loves us.

I believe that Jesus showed us that it is possible to have a personal relationship with God. Not an Almighty Creator of the Universe Bow At Your Feet relationship, but a friend to friend, brother to brother, father to son, mother to daughter kind of everyday living relationship. Jesus taught us that God has put everything we want and need at our disposal if we simply have faith in Him and His true love for us. Jesus says if a son asks his father for an egg would the father give him a snake instead? Of course not! God wants us to live in abundance and has made all things possible through Him if we only believe, believe with the innocent faith of a little child.

Jesus also taught us that, while it may sound paradoxical, true abundance and riches and fulfilment come from sacrifice and service. When we give truly and completely of ourselves in an attitude of servitude, all that we could possibly want or need comes pouring into our lives. Often we find that it is ALL in the giving that provides our joy and receiving "things" is not such a big deal anymore. So, while on the one hand, the pain and suffering that Jesus underwent on the cross for us was immeasurable and incomprehensible to us, for Jesus it was probably also one of the most joyous events in His life here as He was blessed with the opportunity to give fully of Himself as very few ever have or ever will.

It's not always easy to have faith that doing the hard stuff will ultimately bring us the most joy and fulfilment, and it is this lack of faith which is the only thing that separates us from God. This, Romans 14:23 says, is what we call sin; anything that does not come from faith. Jesus showed us the ultimate in faith and in this He was perfect. He showed us that He had total faith in God's ability to defy death and showed us that, like Him, we can all defy death through faith in God, by becoming a daily living sacrifice to the service and love of others, and live eternally in God's perfect love.

Sin, Salvation and Grace

For someone who in the most technical sense possible has been a Christian for a very long time, I feel like a complete infant. I'm still flailing around, not even walking, maybe barely crawling. Although I believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is Lord and that he died a sacrificial death in human form and was resurrected as the Son of God that He is, I still find myself questioning alot of other things in the Bible. I still, for example, find it hard to believe that God spoke directly to the authors of the Bible over 2,000 years ago and has not spoken directly to anyone else since then. That's why it's easy to conceivably believe that God or Jesus actually did speak to the authors, as they claim, of books like "A Course In Miracles" and "Conversations With God". There is much in these books that seems to have a ring of truth to it, but ultimately, I cannot give my whole support to the fact that these books came from God. While I have some of the same problems with the Bible, I continue to support its long history and support from millions worldwide as the Truth, even as I continue to struggle with it. Admittedly, I can't say that I've really studied the Bible enough in earnest to fully come to any kind of understanding of it.

A good friend reminded me that the Bible is a living word and for me that means that when I read passages from the Bible while in communion with God, understanding and meaning will flow forth as it applies to me personally. My God is a personal God and I know that His greatest desire is to have me come to know Him more and more, not to hide or withhold His truths from me. One good idea that came out of the first few pages of "Conversations With God" and that I think is supported by the Bible is that God reveals Himself through inward experience not outward appearance. Although God is everywhere and in all that I see, I won't find God outside of myself. God is deep within me, in the very fabric of the cells that make up my being, and always has been, just waiting for me to invite Him to be an everyday part of my life.

Paul says in Romans, before Jesus there was the Law, and the Law seemed to enhance the fact that we are sinners (which to me simply means that we are all prone in our earthly human state to act imperfectly) by pointing out to us what sin was. Though the laws were good and meant to bring us the life we were incapable of having as long as we engaged in unrighteous behavior, it also emphasized the fact that we were slaves to sin as the temptations were too great to resist while we fought the slavery on our own. Reminding me of one of my previous posts ("Why Are We So Afraid?"), Paul also says that being a slave to sin means being a slave to fear. In other words, the world had us all in its lethal grip and we were dying as it was virtually impossible to live the laws while in the grips of slavery to sin.

But God's perfect plan and grace brought forth a perfect balance in the universe in that, as Paul says, one man's act of sin (Adam) brought forth the condemnation of many but one other's obedience (Jesus) made righteousness of many! Jesus, through God's grace, made a bridge for us to God so that we are no longer slaves to sin. God's Spirit tempers our sinful natures and leads us instead into loving and righteous behavior which allows us to experience LIFE! When I think of the wages of sin being death, I think more of spiritual death than the corporeal kind and, indeed, a spiritual death is far more devastating to me. By being corporeally alive but spiritually dead for an eternity is to know there will never be any hope, any love, any companionship, any peace. But spiritual life through Jesus means joy, pure and unending love without boundaries or limitations and serenity on a scale that I can't even imagine.

Leading When You Don't Feel Like You're A Leader

Recently our church, Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, had its leadership conference with great speakers like Mark Driscoll and Bishop T.D. Jakes. This got me thinking since I mentioned in previous posts that I felt led by Jesus recently to "preach the gospel" and was further led to understand that at this time that meant via this blog. As I told Jesus at the time, I'm no preacher, I've never been to seminary, my Bible knowledge is rudimentary at best, and I've only been back in church for about 2 years after a 20 or 30 year lapse. What in the world do I possibly have to teach or share with anybody? But Jesus just said do it anyway and don't be afraid because I'll help you. So watching and listening to the aforementioned speakers, who do have all of the credentials I don't have, really helped to comfort me when they reminded that EVERYONE has a sphere of influence. Whether it be family members, co-workers, staff, friends or a church congregation, we all have people in our lives for which we have the potential to be influential. Since my own kids don't listen to me, I'm not entirely sure who those people are in my life, but I'm sure there are some somewhere.

The point is that it is not all about how great your knowledge base is or how extensive your memory of Bible verses is, but more about the example you provide in your day-to-day life. I believe that simply being closely connected to God and having a very personal relationship with Him on a daily basis will by its very nature make you a person to whom others are drawn. This is because God's pure and perfect love will shine through you so brilliantly and so strongly that it will envelop everyone you come into contact with. They will want what you have and begin to follow you just to be close to the essence you project. ALL OF THIS WITHOUT HAVING SAID A SINGLE WORD!!!!!!! When Jesus first begain gathering disciples, the Bible says that all He had to do with most of them was walk up to them and say "Follow me" and they went because they were drawn to Him in a way that I'm sure they could not understand. This shows me that all of us can be leaders for Christ simply by leading with the power of our example and our convictions.

Recently, in thinking about my "sphere of influence", I started thinking about all of the people I have come to know and who know me in the amateur poker league I belong to. The league has free tournaments where people come together and play poker, usually in local sports bars. Like any bar, one is likely to find individuals who are heavily drinking, smoking, cursing, acting out sexually, etc.. What better place could there be for a ministry?!!! So, I've begun to just try to be an example of loving one's neighbors, being kind and courteous, not using foul language, being a gracious loser and winner and offering when possible to serve others. I hand out invitations to my church to the people playing at my table, but I don't "preach" in the conventional sense and I don't think I have to. I think many times all we have to do are those things listed above and Jesus will handle the rest. They may not choose to go to me to talk about their problems and about wanting to come to Jesus. That's ok. I play poker with them every week so I may be too close for them to do that, but possibly my behavior and my invitation to church and the magnetic attraction of God shining through me is enough to push them in the right direction. Of course, if they ask me directly for help I will definitely tell them about Jesus.

So don't worry about the question of "how in the world can I preach the gospel". Start with "preaching" through your example and let God talk in His way. I think God's way of communicating is much more efficient and much more clear than any fumbling preaching I could try to do out of my mouth using conventional human methods. Remember, many people followed Jesus because of his example and his Presence as much as they did because of His words. A good leader does not lead by force, fear or threats. Jesus didn't have to threaten people with hellfire and damnation; they simply followed Him because of what they saw in Him. He couldn't hide his glory and didn't try to, neither did he flaunt it. Even a recent Ft. Worth Star-Telegram article talking about networking said that the best way to network is to simply serve others. Find out what others want/need and help get it for them. Jesus was our best example of the perfect servant. By serving others, he glorified His Father and by serving others and loving others so we too bring honor to our God and to ourselves. Serving others engenders trust and trust is necessary to lead people. This is how those of us who don't feel like we're a leader lead.

Why Are We So Afraid?

I've been thinking about this alot because it appears to be the basis for alot of our "sinful" behavior. I've been fearful about the fact that I sent this blog to alot of people that I know and not all of them know that I am a Christian ( I also feel a little ashamed about that). Even the ones that know I am a Christian have never seen me "turn it on" this much and I have fears that people will think I'm a little freaky. I've even had some fears that my talks with Jesus were really just talks with myself. When I asked Jesus about this ("Am I just talking to and answering myself?"), His response was "Of course you are talking to yourself in one way, as I am in you and part of you and ultimately you are in Me and we are one in the same". I don't like to argue with Jesus but I don't feel I am in any way remotely similar to Him. He assures me that it is impossible for me not to be like Him. He is Creator, Father, Brother, Friend, all in one!!! My role is to believe that, truly believe it, share it with others, and by extension know that everyone around me should be treated by me the same way that Christ treats me, which is with absolute love, courtesy and caring.

But back to fear. Jesus tells me there is absolutely nothing for me to fear because the only thing that is real and that matters is our relationship with each other (Jesus with me and me with everyone around me). What about hell and satan? Shouldn't we fear them? Jesus says again, "fear nothing". However, as long as we live in this world, there will be satan and hell. Satan, for me, is just the lie that the world tells me that I am separate from God, that God is not real in any tangible sense, and that there are many real things that can make my life here (which is hell if separate from God) good and worthwhile. The world (satan) is loud in this respect and very deceptive and titillating. What's wrong with indulging in a few "harmless" things of the world if it makes our time here a little easier? Maybe nothing, but ultimately anything that is not about our relationship with Jesus is just another barrier. We do these things primarily out of fear. Fear of boredom, fear of loss, fear of death, fear of life, fear of failure, fear of success, fear that we are really nothing and our lives are meaningless. Living in close constant communion with Jesus (I'm not there yet) releases you from all of these "needs" and fears. There is no drug, no caffe latte, no vacation, no mate, no sex, no amount of money, no job that even comes close to the high you feel while in close communion with Jesus.

So don't fear Jesus and don't fear that talking to Jesus will make you crazy and don't fear what people will think of you when they find out you talk to Jesus (I'm telling myself all of these things). DON'T FEAR!!! Give yourself permission to believe the truth, to love yourself and others fully and know that no matter what you are doing now or did then, Jesus CANNOT STOP LOVING YOU! It's impossible! Stop trying to pray the right prayer and simply TALK to Jesus. When Jesus tells me to stop on my way to a meeting to pick up a salad at Jack-in-the Box, that I have time, and I need the nourishment because I haven't eaten, I am amazed and practically driven to tears that my CREATOR cares that much about me to guide me on that personal of a basis (by the way, I've never gotten a salad at Jack-in-the-Box in my life, but I was guided to eat healthier; He even told me to slow down and chew when I got the salad and was wolfing it down before my meeting).

Ok, do you think I'm crazy? I DON'T CARE!!! :-) Because I'm not afraid of what you think of me at this moment and I'm going to try my best to convince you to put away your fears and join me in the only sane activity you will ever do, talk to your friend Jesus and let Him help you out. Give it a try.

Does Jesus Talk To Us?

I've sometimes wondered about this and yet I'm starting this blog (something I've never done) because I believe Jesus spoke to me and asked me to do this. Funny I used the word "asked" in relation to Jesus, one who many might think doesn't "ask" us to do things, but commands us. I don't know why but I don't think Jesus has to command us to do anything. When Jesus asks you to do something, somehow you want to do it. Are we free to say no? I think we certainly are free to do so and that many do that very thing.

But back to the original question of this post; I believe Jesus (some people might rather say the Holy Spirit) talks to us ALL all the time, both believers and non-believers. I think some will take exception to this as the common belief is that one has to ask Jesus to come into one's heart in order for him to be there. If I believe that Jesus talks to me and I believe He does, then He has told me that he lives ALREADY in all of our hearts but that most of us simply deny that He is there. Asking Him into our hearts is really about coming to a true belief that He exists there already. I did that many years ago as a teenager, but then "forgot" again for most of my life thereafter that not only was Jesus there, but I NEED him everyday to help me with my life. I've always been very intellectual and analytical and made a bunch of questions for myself that don't matter at all. All that matters is that Jesus exists in me as He exists in all of us and that He will guide me if I let Him. He will guide us and WANTS to guide us in everything going on in our life, not just the "big" stuff. There, of course, really is no big stuff aside from letting Jesus be in our life everyday.

How does one who doesn't believe come to a belief in something that he cannot see, touch, smell or feel? The easy answer is through faith, but why should I have faith? Most people are not going to take a step of faith like this until they are so down that they feel they will try anything to not be so down. Some will take this step out of fear. Jesus is not about fear though and I think one's fear can actually keep him from knowing Jesus as the friend He is. Did I just say "friend" in relation to the Divine Almighty Creator of all that exists? Yes, that is the miracle for me. Jesus doesn't need my praise. He needs me to accept His love and guidance. Does a child's parents need the child's praise? Of course not. As a parent, I only want my child to accept my love and guidance. So it is with Jesus.

So, Jesus does talk to us. He told me to "preach the Word". What?!!! I said. Most people who know me know that I don't even talk that much, much less preach about Jesus. I wouldn't even know how to start I said to Him. He said, "write a blog". Writing I can do and so I've started on this journey and I don't know where it will take me. But I encourage anyone who is reading this to not fear Jesus and don't feel like you have to spend all your time telling Jesus how great He is. He just wants you to know that He loves you very much and He wants to spend time with you. How can you refuse that when the rewards are so great. Jesus doesn't command it; He humbly asks you to do this. I personally recommend you give it a try.