In the Beginning...God

Strangely enough, I remember even as a 6 year old boy, how incredible it was to hear that there was something more to life than riding my bike, etch-a-sketch or trying my hardest to avoid getting cooties from the opposite sex.

Even at the ripe age of 6, I distinctly remember that the concept of a loving God who so badly wanted a relationship with me that He sent His only Son to die for me so that He could, wasn't all that difficult for me to grasp. In fact, it just plain made sense–of a lot of things. 

What a tremendous perspective to know that long before I ever even existed, before my parents, parents parents even existed, God was–and He had a plan. His plan was to create human beings in His likeness with which to share all of creation. Mankind would be given dominion and authority over the earth to rule and reign in life.

We all know the events which transpired that ultimately led to the condition of the world we see today. Yet what I see going on all around me almost every minute of every day is a society dead set on fabricating their own self-serving version of paradise. Perhaps a more fitting view would be that if we don't quite have it in us to pursue something beyond our own existence, at the very least we can surround ourselves with a sufficient level of distraction to pacify our appetite for close encounters of the God-kind. 

We've been blessed beyond measure with 5 physical senses with which to experience, encounter and enjoy all of God's creation, yet we allow our desire to feed our fleshly appetites to subvert anything God may be trying to do in and though our lives. 

While we may not even notice, instead of beginning and continuing our lives in and with God, realizing that His desire is to bring us into a level of experiential Christianity that we never thought possible, we allow ourselves to become so distracted by the world around us, that we default to merely ending our life on this earth in God (somewhere between our deathbed and our last breath), as though our life on this earth actually represented the true measure of our existence. While in fact, it is merely a gateway into eternity. (Which from what I hear is a really long time.)  

About every two or three years I find what I believe to be true about God comes full circle. At the same time, I always tend to experience some level of regret for shying away from what I know, instead of pressing further into the things of God. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant in Revelation when He talked about coming back to your first love. When you're in love, that person consumes your thoughts, affects your words and dictates your actions. Your day begins and ends with your affections toward that person on your mind.

My prayer is that was all learn to trust God with abandon, have faith like a child and begin to truly see God for the loving Father He really is. Imagine the sheer joy we bring to God's face when He catches a glimpse of His kids understanding and operating in the dominion and authority He created us to walk in and enjoy. 

The Looney Toon Gospel...

When I was a kid, I just loved me some Looney Toons! I distinctly remember one episode where Elmer Fudd was hunting wabbits. (No surprises there.) Upon one shoulder sat angel Elmer, and on the other shoulder – devil Elmer. Unfortunately, Elmer then had an epic dilemma on his hands. Though a part of him truly wanted to do what was right, another part of him just wanted to kill that wascuhwee wabbit! If I recall correctly, I'm certain the devil eventually got the best of him, but despite his best efforts, Bugs Bunny was still too much for him to handle. 

As childish as this scenario may seem, it's a script that plays itself out one way or another in all of our lives on a daily basis. You see, Elmer's body played a neutral role. His body was neither for nor against hunting wabbits. His spirit was all for doing what was morally right or "righteous", while his flesh, or the "old man" if you will, just wanted to kill that wascuhwee wabbit!

As I attempt to plumb the depths of profound spiritual truth from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, I submit to you today that the reason the devil always got the best of Elmer was because he made the same mistake we've all made from time to time. When we fail to renew our minds to the truth of who we are in Christ, we will inevitably find ourselves reverting to our former, flesh-ruled lines of thought that eventually lead to our former, flesh-ruled behavior. 

Paul said in Ephesians 4:20-24:

"But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy."

Paul said that we are to allow the Spirit of God to renew our thoughts and attitudes to His thoughts and attitudes. Ultimately, what we find ourselves doing (or not doing) is merely a reflection of the primary influence(s) we've allowed to form the core of what we believe to be truth. 

This simply means that we must be intentional with what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear. Why? Because eventually, life will squeeze us and temptation will  come our way, and when it does all the little things we've been feeding on will come out.  It's the little things, wrapped up in our daily habits that will either bring us closer to our destiny or push us further and further from who God intended us to be!

Will we give in to temptation or will we resist the devil watch him flee? The choice is ours!

Living By Design and Not By Default: Part 2

The gist of Part One was simply to realize and understand that God as Creator knows more than we as His created do about the nuts and bolts of life, who we are in Him and how we act and react to our circumstances.

I find it interesting that so many times we try every conceivable avenue in our own strength to figure out our circumstances before we turn to God in prayer as a "last result". Another way of putting it would be to say that for whatever reason, sometimes our true beliefs are characterized more often by our lack of action than by the precepts we'd like to think we embrace.

Unfortunately, the very root of what we're saying to everyone around us through our actions is, "do as I say, not as I do." James had this very discussion in his epistle when he essentially said, "I'll show you my faith...by my works!" In other words, people should be able to look at our lifestyle habits and know what we believe without us having to try and convince them one way or another with the words of our mouth. 

What would anyone in their right mind find appealing about a Christianity that is characterized almost exclusively by, "We don't drink and we don't chew and we don't run with girls who do?" Our success in life shouldn't be a testament to our ability to avoid certain habits and practices as much as it is simply a byproduct or the end result of a Christ-centered, biblical worldview. We are something, and therefore merely reflect the thing that we are. 

(Note: You have already been doing this since the day you were born. Who you think you are has EVERYTHING to do with how you portray yourself to the world around you!) Cue "All He Says I Am" by Cody Carnes. 

Let me put it this way, Jesus said a lot of things during His time on this earth, but if you REALLY want to know what He believed about you, look at His actions. He said that He loved us, but then He willingly sacrificed His life to prove it. We say that we love Him...

Living By Design and Not By Default - Part One

Sometimes it's comforting to know that even the Apostle Paul said that he finds himself doing the very things he knows he shouldn't, and the things he knows he should be doing, he often neglects. If the very person who admonished us to, "put on the new man", found himself occasionally defaulting to his B.C. (before Christ) thoughts and patterns, there may still be hope for us all!

How many times do we find ourselves engaged in the same behaviors, thoughts and patterns that reflect our old man, our old nature or our old way of doing things? For whatever reason, despite our best efforts, it would appear that we have been programmed with this default setting that seems to bypass what we know in our heart is right. We wind up engaging in activities we know are wrong, yet we do them anyways. 

I know many Christians who have struggled with certain areas of their lives for so long that they eventually end up adopting a passive attitude towards God altogether, simply resolving themselves to the idea that true freedom will never be experienced on this side of eternity. More often than not, they've thrown the baby out with the bath water before they ever really understood the Father-heart of God. 

I do believe that God gave gifts unto men (apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, etc.) but unfortunately this issue is uniquely symptomatic of people who depend on a person to facilitate their personal encounters and relationship with God. Those "in the world" often assume that all church-going people are merely mindless zombies, who blindly follow anyone standing behind a pulpit, wearing a nice suit. Sometimes the very reason people don't go to church at all (Or believe in God for that matter) is because at some point in time, they visited a church where the packaging just didn't appeal to them. 

We've become a culture that claims that we're in search of truth, only we're careful to include the caveat that whatever truth we find needs to cater to our personal tastes and preferences. The "Inconvenient Truth" (pun intended) is that not all truth will actually be convenient, or cater to our personal preferences. 

When I was growing up, I thought it was very inconvenient that I had to ask my parents for permission every time I wanted to go spend the night at a friend's house. However, the more inconvenient thing would've been to not ask them, do it anyways and get a woopin when I got home! (Prepare for paradigm shift in your thinking. Starting in 3...2...1...) Did you know that consequences for your actions whether spiritually, physically or mentally don't magically disappear just because you're all grown up and you've moved out of your parents house? 

People have been making it up as they go along for years, but the end remains the same. Destruction. Ruin. Defeat. Any good parent provides rules and boundaries for their kids, not because they have a god complex, but because they care for their children and want what's best for them. The world we're currently living in is merely a byproduct of raising a generation with no concept of self-control. 

Could it be that God is the same? Could it be that God has guidelines and perimeters set up for His children because He knows what we need more than we do? What if we don't like His rules any more than we liked not being able to spend the night at a friends house whenever we wanted to? Whether we realize it or not, what we think, say and do are constantly revealing what we believe to be true about God. Our checkbook, the words of our mouth, the condition of our body and how we treat our spouses or those in authority are a genuine reflection of what our beliefs really mean to us.

Part Two Coming Soon! 

     

Drive Friendly...The Texas Way?

So this one's going to be on the lighter side today, but will reflect truth all the same I promise. 

I've lived in Texas since 2007, and having lived nearly all over the continental U.S., I can confidently say  that there's nothing remotely "friendly" about the way Texan's drive or any other state I've lived in for that matter. In fact, the ratio of 1 ton pickups to passenger vehicles can flat out make you feel a little uneasy on the open road. 

We all encounter less than cordial drivers when we're on the road, people who will take us to the very threshold of losing our salvation. People who are so utterly oblivious to the existence of anyone besides themselves, who make you so mad that you wonder if Paul the apostle ever encountered rush hour traffic when he said that God's grace is sufficient. You wanna see a thorn in the flesh Paul? I'll show you a thorn in the flesh! I digress.

What is certainly a universal frustration for all of us got me thinking, I wonderful if some of us have a tendency to drive our lives much like we drive our cars? Allow me to explain.

First up, my personal favorite. Have you ever been driving on the freeway, and someone cuts across 8 lanes of traffic in order to reach their exit in time? I'm sure that their are legitimate reasons for the occasional necessity of not noticing your exit until the very last minute, but I can't help but think sometimes of the lack of vision people may have in their lives when they can't seem to prepare far enough in advance just to merely exit the highway. 

How can we ever concentrate enough to visualize and obtain our goals, our destiny or our future if we fail to notice what's going on right in front of us?

Next up, the Nascar drivers. These are the folks that are constantly weaving in and out of various lanes in an apparent attempt to reach their destination before everyone else on the road. Aside from the occasional woman in labor or a crazy bad case of diarrhea, what this communicates to me is that where you're going must be more important than where I'm going, so much so that you're willing to put everyone's life in danger (including your own) to get there.

The irony is that I will inevitably see you at the next stop light, and for all your intense efforts, you will most likely end up right next to me or maybe you may have earned the spot right in front of me.

Although the moniker, "I wanna go fast!", makes for an utterly hilarious movie quote, as does any phrase with the word "spider-monkey" in it, this isn't necessarily the best motto for how you live your life. Just look at the mess Ricky Bobby's father made for himself. (Yes, I did just use a plot point from Talladega Nights to teach a valuable life lesson.) Selah.

Next up, the red light runners. Sure lane crossing and cutting in and out of traffic can be dangerous, but none so dangerous as the red light runners. Aside from the fact that you are breaking the law, this is where so many traffic fatalities occur on a daily basis. Habitual red light runners simply have no regard for rules. This tells me that you have no commonality or basis with which to reason. It's not that you don't recognize the merit of divine order and principle, it's just that you choose to ignore it, thus placing the lives of everyone around you in danger as a result. This is obviously no way to live your life. 

Lastly, for the sake of not making this blog the encyclopedia of all blogs, we have the texters. These are the folks that you can spot from a mile a way. They are either having extreme difficulty staying in their own lane, maintaining a consistent speed limit or both. Or perhaps you happen to notice that a tree or another vehicle has abruptly and oh-so-irreverently interrupted their texting time, thus perhaps necessitating the need for a new vehicle all together.  

Honestly, I don't mean to be a fuddy duddy (sp), nor do I mean to take any of these instances lightly. In my opinion, the worst one of these examples I've given is the texters. Why? Because this communicates the worst of all human ailments. It tells me that we've lost our ability distinguish, delineate and discern what's truly important in life. If someone sends you a text and you happen to be driving, I'm sure they'd much rather see you again sometime (alive) than know that you remembered to get their orange juice when you went to the store, what time an event starts or what was up and stuff.

See that? I relieved my vehicular frustrations AND communicated some valuable truth at the same time! My mother would be proud. Thanks mom for teaching me some good ol' common sense! 

              

The More Needful Thing (The Deceptive Art of Distraction)

For those of you who know me personally, you'd most likely know how I work for the devil. There are so many horror stories, it would require more than three different hash tags for #leadershipfail because if I were to tweet them all, the world wide web would certainly come crashing down from complete system overload thus resulting in the rapture of the church or a zombie apocalypse. Ok. So that's probably a bit of a stretch. Zombie apocalypse first, rapture second. I digress.

I have a confession to make. Today was actually my last day at my less-than-completely-awesome place of employment. You wouldn't believe how much sweeter strawberries taste, how refreshing the 100 degree, non-existent wind gusting Texas air is and how much my life seems to have slowed down to snails pace less than an hour after I turned in my key card.

Last night, as I was watching The Incredibles for the hundred-thousandth time with my son, I pulled him close to me, gave him a big hug, kissed him on the cheek and told him I loved him as though it may have been my last chance. What I realized in that moment was that I had allowed my not-so-desirable job situation to steal my joy for an entire year of my life. I had allowed it to rob me of the opportunity to enjoy my family time, steal my health, cloud my mind and bring untold elements of anxiety into my life. In some ways, I even allowed it to change me.

I was on my way to church to film a 60 second internet spot to introduce a class I'm teaching this fall at my church, and it hit me, I was put on this earth to help people, teach people and grow...people. What in the world was I doing for the past year of my life? Why did I wait so long to find something else? Then it hit me, like a lightening bolt of wisdom and knowledge that almost split my brain in two. Distraction. One word. Plain and simple. Distraction. 

We've all heard the story about Mary and Martha when Jesus came to their house. Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha was whipping out the Pine Sol and the Swiffer Duster ready to take down dust bunnies like Clint Eastwood in a bar full of baddies. Martha thought it was so unfair that she was doing all the work, that she told Jesus to tell Mary what for! Jesus responded to Martha by saying that Mary had chosen the more needful thing. WHAT???

If that's the case, then that means that sometimes WE allow OURSELVES to be "cumbered about" with many things. Could it be that by choosing not to do anything about my job situation, that I was the one responsible for neglecting what is needful? I believe so. I also believe that this is one of the toughest pills to swallow in our culture because we avoid assuming responsibility for our faults or failures like a red neck at a beauty pageant. 

Jesus Christ, Who He is, what He did for us and who we are in Him are the most important things in life. Everything else is secondary. Learn from my mistakes. Don't allow external situations to rob you of your time with your family, rob you of your peace or ultimately rob you of your destiny. Take a moment right now to examine your life. 

Are there things that are stealing your joy or robbing you of your peace? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify those things and eliminate or change them for the glory of God. Refuse to allow things to distract you from what is needful. Tell your spouse you love them more, hold your kids tighter, take a deep breath and make it a point to enjoy your life rather than stress about it. 

"Faith Pants" and other life lessons...(Yes, you read that correctly, I had pants that were full of faith...or were they?)

Several months ago, I was shopping at the mecca of commerce we here in the States call, "Kohl's". They happen to have a brand that I particularly love called, "Rockin Republic". The only downside to this brand is that you have to be slightly more svelte than the current version of myself. Be that as it may, I laid eyes on a pair of jeans that I couldn't pass up. 

Aside from the fact that they clearly won't fit (which on a side not means that I'm virtually buying a pair of pants that I cannot actually wear.), I decided that the deal was too good to pass up. I would merely lose the amount of lard necessary to fit into them. They shall be my "Faith Pants"! (Cue inspirational music, begin Rocky Balboa fitness montage.)

Fast forward several months and for whatever reason, my "Faith Pants" have found a new home at the bottom of my drawer. The reason? Up until a few weeks ago I had failed to realize the seriousness of my dilemma. I knew that I was overweight, I suppose I just didn't realize "how" overweight I really was. 

I was on vacation visiting my family when picture time came around. We all got together for the family photo and I realized that I had the biggest boobies of anyone in the picture. If I were a woman, I might have thought differently about this predicament, but being the man that I am, this news was very disheartening. How in the world did I let myself get so fat? Just 5 years ago I had lost 80 lbs. and got down to 183, and in 5 short years I had allowed myself to gain almost all of it back!

My problem was that I had failed to accurately access my current situation or my starting point. When I looked in the mirror, the reflection may have been a slightly smaller version of Chris Farley, but what I actually saw was more like Arnold Schwarzenhoweveryouspellhisname...only his face looked different...and he didn't have all the muscles.

When we fail to accurately access where we're really at in certain areas of our lives, those areas continue to spiral out of control simply because we lack the necessary vision for those areas of our lives to take their proper shape and form. For me it was my body, but it could be your job situation, the real condition of a relationship you're in or a host of other things. 

Zig Ziglar once said, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time!" This is what I was doing with my body and my career. I had yet to conceive any clear vision for those areas of my life. I had much more control over those things than what I had realized, yet the only control I exercised at the moment was to allow those things to spiral out of control. 

Luke 14:28 ESV says, "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?" 

An integral part of counting the cost is being able to accurately account for where we currently stand in the area of our life needing improvement. It's interesting that whenever I use SIRI on my iPhone to tell me how to get somewhere, the first question she asks me is if she can use my current location. What she's telling me is that in order for me to get where I want to be, I must first know where I actually am.

Taking a good, hard look at where you are is only going to increase your effectiveness in attaining the object of your affection. One day, I will fit into my "faith pants", but that journey didn't begin until I was able to accurately discern my starting point. 180 here I come!!!