Reboot

When I write, I often wonder who will read my words, and how it will inspire them. Since I am such an influential person, and tens of well... tens of people have read this blog, I envision that I must be really important. I received a bit of a gut check earlier today, and figure I may as well write about it... who knows, maybe it'll help someone.

My wife and I have been struggling in our pursuit of Debt Freedom, ala Dave Ramsey. The last month in particular was crazy because of mom and her choosing to go on Hospice and then expiring little over a week later... but really for several months now we have been all over the map with our money. Then, yesterday, in Sunday School, I was praying with a friend who is also trying to follow Dave's plan. I uttered something to the effect of feeling like I am just sitting here waiting for God to do something to accelerate this process. I managed to shift the blame! When I later recounted this to my wife, she commented that, with the way we've been financially living, there isn't much of anything for God to accelerate.

That idea stung me enough as it was, but I followed it by re-reading some of my earlier posts and came across one about waiting on God. In this post, I railed against people who sit around and wait for God to do something, instead of joining God in what He is already doing around them. Never thought those words were going to be meant for me.
Then I bumped into a very recent post regarding feeling like God was telling me to get back to the things He called me to get to work on in my own life... weight loss, and debt freedom. This ran head-long into a conversation I had recently in which I told my wife that I felt like my mom was nearing her death, and that God had been laying on me that I needed to get our finances and my health in line... I just feel like there is so much that is in store for us that we need to be completely prepared for it and that I needed to lose some of the excuses I would use.

Took me back to 3 things:
1) I am to be in a state of Missional Living, being always ready (physically, financially, emotionally) for whatever service God calls me to

2) I am to set the example of this lifestyle in my home

3) The only thing stopping me is myself

With that said, we are embarking on new weight-loss strategy (starts tomorrow), and getting back to business with Dave Ramsey! After receiving the news of an anonymous donor clearing our Church of debt, I am reminded anew why I was so stirred by Dave's words in the first place. It also reminded me that God is going to use our church for bigger and better things, and I am to be a part of it... so I gotta get crackin'... time to reboot and do it right

Pray for me and my family as we recommit to these goals in our lives so we may better serve Christ, and lessen our excuses.

God's perfect timing

Shortly after my mother departed this life yesterday afternoon, Z looked at me and told me to look at the date... June 25th.

June 25th, 2011

Had our daughter been carried anywhere near to term, her first birthday party would have been yesterday. June 25th was her original due date, and the fact that it fell on a Saturday would have made that day the day for the party had she been born anytime within a week or so of that date. But God, in His perfect timing and in His perfect knowing, did not allow that to happen. My little lady was born nearly a month early. The days that followed her birth were the most frightened and stressed out days of my life. Her stay in the Intensive Care Nursery was nearly unbearable. At the time, I struggled with understanding why it was that God was putting me through such a time. I know why now...

Because God loves us, and because He alone knows what each day will hold, my mom was able to see her granddaughter turn 1. She was able to give us an awesome memory, and a tribute to her strength and love of family. Mom, with the assistance of Dad, and her doctor (and unknown by the nursing staff) left the hospital to be at this birthday party. They said they just felt strongly that she needed to be there. She got to hold this youngest grandchild on her first birthday, and watch her eat cake. It would not have been this way, without the pain and fear of an early birthday.

None of this was coincidence, or happenstance... it was God's perfect timing

I hope that today, as we head to churches, or golf courses, or lakes, or whatever it is that you do... you'll think twice about the love God has for you, and the importance of Christ in your life.

Sunday morning convictions- June 12th

Alot of us do not care for conviction, it hurts, and forces us to rethink the ways we do things... and it may even make us change! This past week has involved several nudges and kicks that culminated this morning with a couple of convictions that I needed to address.

There are a couple of pursuits in my life that I started 6-8 months ago, and have not been progressing the way they should be. I have been feeling for the last week that I need to retool and step back up to the plate. The first of these involves our personal finances. Z and I started the Total Money Makeover last September, and we have done well. However, the last few months, we have become much more laid back and have lost our intensity. We started because we knew that we were not treating our money the way God calls us to do so... but we became complacent and lazy. We need to step it back up, and get back on the wagon!
The second endeavor, weight loss. I know that it seems strange to feel God calling us to lose weight, but I really do feel that way. Why? Because I believe that as part of our call to be living missional lives, and remain in a state of readiness to carry out what God calls us to do, we must be in a physical state of health that allows us to complete the mission we are called to. It boils down (for me) to the fact that I know myself well enough to know that sooner or later I will tell God, "God, I wish I could join you in this mission to do/help _______, but I just physically can't" I feel that it is important for me to get myself into shape, in order to erase that potential excuse.

These are two things in my life that I know I started because they are in line with what God wants for me in this life. I wish I could say that I started them, and followed through with fervent obedience. I wish this post was to share the awesome progression that has been made to reach these goals. Here's to rejoining God in the work He is doing in my life, and I hope that we can all do the same... here's to obedience, and keeping Christ as our priority.

Fast as you can

We were challenged this week in our men's class to choose one meal on Monday to fast. Sitting in a room with a handful of other guys in the 20's-30's at a Baptist church, fasting is pretty much as vulgar an idea as you could find. (Thanks to Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation, and Compelled by Love)

I entered Monday, planning to fast for breakfast. I would be asleep through lunch and didn't think fasting before work would be a good idea. Then I ate pancakes... fail
This defaulted me to trying to decide when I would try to fast at some other point this week. I can't say that I consciously chose to fast for dinner that night, it ended up happening by default. I also failed in spending time in the Word. I was driving to work before I fully realized that I hadn't eaten in about 9 hours. I wasn't hungry, and realized I had been spending most of my afternoon in an open-ended prayer. I prayed more that afternoon than I had in awhile. I thought, wow... I inadvertently fasted!

So, I wanted to just say a few things about this spiritual discipline:
First- The Bible, when mentioning fasting, speaks of "when" we fast, not "if"
We are supposed to do this, we are supposed to place our faith in God, not
our stomach.
Second- One thought that stuck out in my mind was that I kept trying to make it
about me. When would it fit into my schedule? Does one meal really count?
What am I going to gain by just 1 meal, is it really enough for God to speak
to me? The questions continue... and the conviction that kept hitting me in
the gut? I am not to fast for me, I am not supposed to GAIN anything! It is
purposeful and outward expression of worship to a God that is fully able to
sustain my EVERY need.
Third- I keep trying to define God, to find a way to sell God. I apparently think
He needs my help... instead of taking time to just worship Him. He is
powerful enough to make me fast, even when I wasn't going to. He showed me
He is bigger than me, and when I focus more on Him than I do on me... obedience comes with much less thought and effort.


Thanks to people who challenge us to do things differently.

In the way

I often say things that make me sound much better than I am. I often make comments about how I wish I were as filled with the Spirit as Paul was. I often tell people that I have a passion to live for Christ. Most days though, those comments are a lie. They are a lie for the simple truth that if I truly meant them, I would live my life differently than I do. If I allowed God to work through me in the ways that I say I wish He would, my life, and the lives of those around me would be radically different, and so much better. Its strange, because I sincerely do want to be the guy I say I am... so why do I struggle so much? One answer than has been swatting me in the gut repeatedly as I continue to ponder that thought has been something Mark Driscoll said concerning living like Christ... to paraphrase, he said that we often do not live the life we say we wish we could live because deep inside there is still a part of us that does not believe that Christ truly lived, died, and now lives again. My initial thought was something along the lines of, "man, must stink to not have confidence in that." Then I realized, that if someone else were to look at my life, especially if they could see and hear my thoughts, I live like I don't believe.


This has been getting better in my life over the past year or so, and I am prayerful that it continues and that more and more I will get out of God's way.

4/20/11- Jon Acuff

For those who are unaware of who Jon Acuff is, I hope you take some time to check him out. I am hoping this link works properly, it should be a quick profile on him. He is absolutely hilarious, ridiculously honest about the issues that come about when we take Christianity too seriously.

As we are working though the study "Compelled by Love" on Sunday mornings, and we learn more about the love of Christ and what it should mean to us, I am constantly reminded of what Jon talks about in this video. In reference to the rock that everyone is holding, how true is that? How often do we run into a person who is clearly clenching a rock, looking for an excuse to unleash it through the window of our Christian life? Why are we so willing to give them this excuse? Why don't we focus more on the love of Christ flowing out of us to those we come in contact with? Why not be transparent in our relationships, understanding that to do so will make us vulnerable?

4/6/2011- Homosexuality and Christianity

I want to preface this by saying something... I have friends who practice homosexuality and they are some of the best people I know. They are truthful, loving, nurturing, and absolutely beautiful people. Some of them attend church and are very active in the Body of Christ. My hope is to write this without judgment. I firmly believe that God loves these people just as much as He does me, and do not make any claims to know anything beyond that. I sincerely hope that any who read this will consider it as simple discussion on what is a very big topic in Christianity today...

I want to start by saying that I can't stand the fact that I have to put that kind of disclaimer on this. It just goes to show the harm done by "Christians" who long ago forgot that Christ came to love everyone. We as Christians today need to understand that it is not up to us to judge sinners. We are called to judge and support fellow believers and to confront them on their sins, and we are called to do so in a spirit of gentleness and humility. We are to understand our our shortcomings and weaknesses, and are to be prayerful in our pursuit of Christlike-ness. I want to start by apologizing to those who have been hurt by the actions and treatment given to some people (such as homosexuals) in the name of Christ.

That being said, here are my thoughts and convictions concerning homosexuality in Christianity:

A study was published several years ago (forgive me for forgetting where and when it was) in a scientific journal concerning the anatomical structure of the brain. They were comparing the brains of male and female humans to decipher the difference between the two in hopes of figuring out why men and women think and act differently. They were looking for structural deviations that would explain why our minds do not work the same way. While doing this research, they discovered that the brains of some men were much more feminine than others. It appeared that there were a few male brains that looked not fully female and yet not male. They inferred from this that these male brains would have belonged to someone who was more likely to have actions and thought processes that were much more effeminate than normal. They touted this discovery as proof that a person is born homosexual and that it is not a choice.

I remembered first hearing this information about 8 years ago in an Abnormal Psychology class. I was a Christian, but hadn't exactly been close to God for a little while. I was living with a guy who was a practicing homosexual, and as such had been bombarded with the idea of being born this way, etc. When I heard this lecture, I came out of it thinking that there was proof that my roommate was telling the truth. Ever since then, I have had this recurring conversation in my mind about the validity of these claims. Here in the last year or so, I feel like I am finally coming to a conclusion...

We are more than willing to accept, as Christians, that we are born sinners. We are born with two natures, as Paul says, the nature of God and our sin nature. We accept that we are born with certain tendencies and attributes that cause specific problems for us. Yet, we reject that a person could be born with a homosexual tendency. Why? The research here clearly shows that there are men born whose brains are much more female than male. Does that not prove that they have no choice to be gay?

No, it doesn't. Here are my convictions on this matter...
Homosexuality is a sin, plain and simple, the Bible is pretty explicit on this topic. It is listed right along side lying, cheating, slander, murder, stealing, jealousy, pride, and the list goes on and on. The argument that it is not a choice to engage in the sin of homosexuality can be substantiated by saying that none of us have a choice but to engage in whatever our sin of choice may be (to be clear, we have the choice, what we lack is the strength of faith to choose to abstain). This does not make it right or ok! I have heard some argue that it can't be a sin because they have felt this way since they were 6... yes, and I have been able to decode a person, manipulate them, and cause them harm with my words since I was somewhere around 6 also... still a sin. We are all born sinners, no matter the sin, they have been there since birth.

Other findings in the previously mentioned study were that in some brains, there were larger numbers of synapses in the pleasure centers of the brain, and in some, larger amygdalas, and so on... what this tells me is that there are anatomical differences in each of our brains that lead to our tendency towards different kinds of actions and thought processes. When we pervert these processes and actions, and when we choose to act on them in ways that are directly against the Word of God, they become sinful. The fact that we are wired a certain way does not dismiss our sin, it simply shows why were are more prone to certain types of sin.

We are called to admit these sins, recognize them, and repent of them. Salvation hinges on our acceptance that Christ died for our sins. He tells us to lay them down, turn from them, and run to Him. Even following salvation, we will continue to sin, God does not require perfection. He requires repentant souls. So, can a homosexual have salvation? I believe they can, but they have to be willing to admit that their actions are sinful, and truthfully turn away from them. They must ask forgiveness for their actions and attempt to live the life that Christ called us to... just like all the rest of us. There is no difference when it comes to salvation, sin is sin...