In the Name of the Father

On a Boat

2009-06-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

There I sat after a long night of fishing with my two sons beside me. We were just headed back to the house after a long night of fishing. I had always loved these late night fishing trips with my two teenage sons. I knew on day they would take over my legacy as a fisherman. It was a good job, I got to own my own business and spend time with my two sons at the same time. Just us and the nets and a nigh of fishing. It was a good job, with a steady income and lots of good hard work.

We were just heading back in the morning, just needed to mend the nets and then off to get a little bit of much needed sleep. That's when I saw him coming down the beach. This carpenter they have all been talking about, the one who has been causing all the fuss around town. He was walking with two of my sons good friends Peter and his brother Andrew. Those two knuckle heads always had a knack at getting my boys into trouble. They were nice boys but unfortunately none too bright.

I thought to my self what have those two boys gotten mixed up in now with a trouble maker like this Jesus fellow. they were all coming down the beach toward us. I looked down the beach and saw Pete and Drew's boat was thrown up on the shore and turned over.

As they came closer the rising sun was in my eyes and all I could see was the foot prints in the wet sand as he came closer to us. In a few minutes they would pass my boat and my boys and I could get back to work. As he passed our boat he looked at my boys and said come with me and we can catch men together.

I thought what is he rambling on about, my boys aren't going with him anywhere they have work to do here with me, and you can't just drop everything when there is so much work to be done. That is just not how the world works.

To my great surprise from behind me I heard the sound of my boy's sandals hitting the wet sand with a plop. where the heck do they think they are going. James looks over at his brother John and they both look at me and say "what do you think dad lets go".

"Absolutely not. we have work to get done. What does this lunatic mean fishing for men." To my great dismay I watched my boys walk away. Just then I thought about going after them and dragging them back from to the boat. Then i thought better of it to myself "No Zebedee let them go. It won't be long before they realize you can't make any money fishing for men or whatever they are about to do, they will be back in less than a week, with all of this silliness behind them."

I just sat there in my boat all alone, watching my boys walk away. Soon all that was left was their footprints in the sand. The tide was coming up and soon even those would be gone. Well for me all there is to do is get back to work fixing my nets.

When I think about this bible story found in Matthew 4: 18-22 I think there is a man who life was changed forever by Jesus. Not the two boys who left everything they had to follow their destiny in one of the worlds greatest adventures, but the man who was left behind. The man who could have gone too but was to preoccupied with his own life to start something bigger.

Through out the rest of scripture, he never comes up again. His boys are referred to as the sons of Zebedee but his legacy is forever as the man who was called to follow Jesus but ended up staying where he was, safe ans secure in a place where he knew. His sons went on in history as an elite group of Christ followers, while he was left sitting alone on his boat.

We have all gotten this same invitation, to follow Him and leave the safety of the boat and be part of something bigger or stay where we are. I choose to leave my foot prints and the sand and walk with Jesus. What are you going to do?

God doesn't drive a rascal

2009-05-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo (the painter, not the turtle) I would say is partly to blame for this problem we have. This view of God as a sweet old man. The man painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a sweet old man reaching down to his creation, as Adam lounges around and does nothing in particular. God is reaching down to Adam with one hand, and for his glass of Metamucil with the other.

For so long we have viewed God this way as the old man, who is still around and who did some great things in his time, but not is better suited for playing shuffle board all day, and taking our occasional calls when we still need Him.

He putts around all day in his cosmic retirement home, thinking about the good old days and waiting for us to come and visit him maybe once a week maybe, or only on the holidays like Easter and Christmas.

The problem with this view of God, is we have reduced him to a commodity that we have at our disposal but is not part of our fast paced lives. As long as we view God as this old man we can convince our self he would have no relevance to the world as it is today. As Long as God is an old man He won't understand all of the things we go through in the world today. As long as God is an old man, His book is old and outdated, nothing more than stories of His glory days.

Here is the problem...God is NOT an old man. He may be referred to as the Ancient of Days but he always has been and he always will be not as a old man but as a very real Part of the world today.

New Label or New Life?

2009-05-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hypocritical
Too focused on converts
Anti Homosexual
Sheltered
Too political
Judgmental

I have lately be re-reading a book I read while I was in school called Unchristian by David Kinnaman. In this book Barna, a research group, have taken studies of people's views of Christians from the perspective of people outside of the church. After all of this research the six themes above stand out above all of the rest of the six most promenet views of people inside the church as seen from people on the outside.

As an insider these labels hurt me with in, not because they are false because all too often they are true. Not because that is what we teach or really who we are but it is because, that is what some of us have become, unfortunately.

I think our problem is deeply embedded in the very core of what most people believe it means to be a Christian. Outsiders look at our efforts to convert people the Christianity as just that a conversion process. Think about it in these terms, when a person from the united states drives into Canada they no longer judge their speed in miles per hours, instead they have to measure in Kilometers per hour. The only way to adjust to this in many American cars to do convert Km per hour into miles per hour. 1 km/h = 0.62137 mph

It is a rather simple conversion the only problem is a conversion is only changing the label not the speed. you are going the same speed whether you say you are going 20 miles and hour or 32.18 kilometers an hour you have changed nothing but the label.

The same is true if you convert a non-Christian to a Christian all you have done is changed the label without changing anything important. That is why people need to quit trying to convert people to Christian and start transforming people into Christians.

The first step is getting people to realize they need Jesus, that is where it has always started. Even the thief dying at the cross, it was all he needed to be saved, which is why Jesus said "today you will be with me in paradise." And that's all it takes to enter the Christian faith, with no questions asked no services rendered, shoot he never even went to church. But when did this starting point of the Christian faith become the substitute for Christian discipleship. We need to get away from the choose to convert label and approach and realize it is an all in or all out mentality that will radically and dramatically influence your life in all it facets. To change you from with in and make you the best and most glorious person God has always seen and expected. This is not a ticket to perfection but it has to be a lot more than just changing the label.

Pursuit of happiness

2009-05-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

What is the meaning of our lives? Why are we here? What makes us happy? What is the point of our life while we are here?

All of these questions can be answered very different, I don't care how you would answer them. What I want to address is how I see other people addressing it. I see a whole world trying to address this need for a point in their lives with living for a life of pleasure.

They replace the need for meaning with the need to fill the voids in their lives with things that will make them temporarily feel better. This is a very common at at time effective tactic of avoiding addressing the meaninglessness of life here on this earth.

Solomon often in his writing says to the reader there is no point to this life we live on earth and urging the reader to look beyond this existence to what is to come. Because the only life worth living is a life lived for God.

Living life for pleasure instead of living life for God has its high costs. Let me stop here and preface this. Pleasure is not evil by itself. It is one of the great gifts God has given us to enjoy our life as we live it for him. The harm comes when you live your life for pleasure, when you seek it over God. This is why people who seek pleasure don't understand when we refrain from pleasure, why we don't go to certain parties, or avoid the harmful side of pleasures. "they think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you" (1 Peter 4:4)

Living for a life of pleasure distracts us from what really matters. Because that's what it means to live for a life of pleasure to distract your self from seeking a life with God. In the end seeking a life of pleasure leaves you as empty as any other thing in life apart from God.

Living for pleasure also makes you a slave to that pleasure. Your happiness and sense of being fulfilled is bound by the next opportunity of pleasure, you will always want more. More Alcohol, more drugs, more TV, more sex, more video games, more sleep, or whatever it is your are squeezing as relief. You will become a slave to it bound by it and tied to it. "at one time we too were foolish ...enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures." (Titus 3:3) Eventually you will sacrifice everything "He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich." (Proverbs 21:17)

Living for a life of pleasure hurts out relationship with God. Eventually if we keep living our life for pleasure. It is going to start to impact our relationship with God more and more, and eventually it can destroy it all together because we start putting things between us and God, distancing our selves from him.

Live your life for God and enjoy the pleasure of life that comes your way. The evening of laughter with friends, the good days in the sun. The wonderfulness that is life. Don't ruin the ride by being caught up in these moments enjoy them and let then pass a good memories. Don't let the lure of pleasure distract you from a life that truly matters.

Live life until you die, then that is when things really matter

Consistency

2009-04-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Consistency: Reliability or uniformity of successive results or events.

What does it means to be consistent. It means to be the same all of the time. It means when you trow a ball once or fifty times it hits the same spot.

There are a thousand books on spiritual growth. You can go on amazon right now and find over a thousand hits on books and tapes about spiritual growth. My system I think is better than all of the rest. they all include a strict regime of prayer, bible study, service, and community(duh). I don't think I would call that spiritual growth I think I would call that be a consistent Christian.

All of these spiritual growth curriculum deal with spiritual growth as if it happens in this perfect atmosphere. But it doesn't spiritual growth happens in the world. In a imperfect world. So spiritual growth has to be consistency in an inconsistent world.

Take one look at the book of Corinthians Paul is writing to a church and is addressing :affairs, lawsuits, divorce and separation, idol worship, selfishness, egos, jealousy, sexual promiscuity, and getting drunk on the communion wine. and all of the while giving this little church a glimpse of what Christ looks like. He is trying to get the point to them, that Christianity is not about what they do when they get together but also what they do while they are apart.

We all talk about love and how important is it but consistency means learning about love by love the unlovely. It means being the same person around your church friends as you are at school.

I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do. sometimes in our search for being consistent it means occasionally we will miss that's OK, its going to happen. But it does mean trying our best to be consistent.

This is a lesson that has taken me a long time to really understand. For years I was the guy who was the perfect little church boy while he was in church, but at school I was the same as every one else. I would justify it by saying i was still a Christian but people just didn't understand. I always told my self i could make fun of that kids like every one else, it didn't make me any less of a Christian did it. I didn't understand what it was doing to me, and more importantly every one else. It told every one else Christians are no different than any one else so why would they become one. And to me every time I let go of who i wanted to be, to be the guy who fit in it was a set back in my spiritual life because I was always struggling to get to where I was instead of moving forward.

"I'm not saying that i have this all together, that i have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--- to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."
-Paul-
(Phil 3: 12-14)

2009-04-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our heavenly Father know us completely. No tale bearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.

-A.W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy

There is a story in the Bible called the Woman at the well. To give a little back history Jesus is walking through Samaria a place to the north of Judea. While the Samaritans there believe in the same God and worship just the same they are looked at as half-breeds and a disgrace to the Jewish people, not even fit to worship in their temple so they had to build their own. It would be unheard of for a Jewish man to go and openly talk and consort with a Samaritan woman.

This didn't stop Jesus. He went up and talk to this woman, he sought her out knowing who she was and all that she had done with her life. This woman was a disgrace even among her own people. She kept getting divorces time and time again, and is now living with a man who was not her husband. she had lived a torrid life of sin and shame, and was alone at the well because no one wanted to be around here. But Jesus didn't care. He still sought her out and showed her love because its is what she needed.

Jesus doesn't want our past to be what defines us. He wants us to confront what we have done and just leave it with him. He wants us to live for the future and to dwell in his presence in the present. Not live in shame for the past.

It is no wonder after talking to Jesus this woman dropped her bucket and went screaming into the city, about this man Jesus who told her all she had done. She was no longer ashamed of her past, she embraced it and left it with Jesus. She knew she was not a respectable woman but Jesus respected her. Jesus doesn't see what the rest of us sees in our selves and in other he see the best of what we can be. He sees the redeemable teachable people beneath the past and the sin, and he knows when that is all lifted away what we are underneath.

The mess we have made in our lives, can be the place where we meet Jesus. Our daily lives is where Jesus walks up to us and says "It's OK, go and sin no more"

Unfinished

2009-04-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

UNFINISHED- incomplete, imperfect, in process, in progress, under construction

Unfinished is how spirituality should always remain. No person is ever done cooking, no spiritual giant is ever done growing, and no one can remain an infant forever.

I have once thought as a child it was only a matter of time before I grow up and become the person I have always wanted to become. I thought if only I reach 18, I will be an adult, or if only I make it to twenty on I can be done, because I will be an adult. I have found a person never stops growing up.

It is OK not to be finished, it is OK not to be the person you want to be as long as you are growing towards that goal. Its OK as long as you are unfinished. I feel if you are happy with where you are with Christ it is only because you can't see where He is anymore.

What better way to describe your walk with God than unfinished, it is to say you are a work in progress, you are always trying to get better and become more, trying to be closer to where God is.

When God enters your life He starts a change in your life, but it then takes the rest of our lives for US to finish it. He begins the construction site in our souls but it is our job to finish building, its OK if the work isn't going as well as we like as long as we are still working. Because finishing a job like this is a more-than- a-lifetime process. One that will never be complete, but one i'll be working on until God tells me I'm finished, and what a day that will be.

The author of Hebrews wrote"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." 12:2

He was trying to say it is God alone who is the perfecter of our faith, not ourselves, not our church family, not our friends but God, who can tell us when things are done. because he is the perfecter and the finisher of our faith.

And we know Jesus was OK with imperfection and a work in progress because look at the twelve he brought along side of him. Twelve kids who never seemed to get things right but tried so hard. They weren't finished when Jesus left them to continue his work, they were scared and a little stupid, but they wanted so bad to do all they could to get it right even if they never did. They faced a life time of trying to finish the work he started and you and I do too.

Never the Same

2009-04-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered how people can say they are Christians and remain unchanged from the person they were before. It seems to me that when a person has close contact and a relations ship with the Father God, the maker and sustainer of all things I feel as though that should make an impact on who a person is and I think that should be a change every one can see.

Look at the other people in the Bible who have come in contact with God. They were forever changed for the better. For example look at Moses, he was an orphan who became a prince, and a prince who became a runaway then was contacted by God, and this runaway became the leader and the rescuer of all his people. And all of this from a man who had a studdering problem, and a man who didn't like to talk in front of people, and look how he changed after God got a hold of him.

I just can't see how a person can stand in front of me unchanged and say they know Jesus, because some one who does, will never be the same, they will be a person totally changed by the face of Christ.

God is not a sedative that dulls our senses and keeps us calm, he is quite the opposite, he is the only things that makes it so we can truly live. God is a revolution.

God has created us to live with our eyes wide open. He has created us to truly live life to its fullest, to watch every second as we go through this world he has created for us and to see who He is and what He has done. That is what it is like to be changed by God to have your eyes opened to the world he has around us, and I'm telling you right now its the best sight in the world.

So I just don't see how a person is not changed by the spirit of God. It was a force that touched and changed my life, in a way that cannot be explained.

When the spirit of God evelops your soul,
your spirit comes alive,
and every thing changes for you.
You are no longer the same.
And those who cannot see the invisible,
to those who refuse to believe he exists,
the path you choose,
the life you live,
may lead them to conclude that you are simply no different but insane.
People who are fully alive look out of their minds to those who simply exist.
(Erwin McManus)

I'm just as confused as the rest of you

2009-03-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

So when started this Blog I decided to myself the purpose of this blog is to let you all in on the spiritual journey I take as i walk through life and try to let you in on the revaluations of just cool thoughts i have about God along the way. Up to this point I have talked about the things I have realized along the way. This Blog is about what I see from where I am today.

I have walked with spiritual giants. Every day for four years I went to college at a Christian university in hopes the spiritual greatness of the people's books I was reading, (and for the most part not understanding)or the professors I was listening to would rub off on me at least a little bit. Well I'm here to tell you I still don't know squat. I still don't think I can even hold a candle to any of those people, but what I have realized is God doesn't care.

I realized God didn't design me to be a theologian, he designed me to be the person I am. He designed me to be too ADD to be able to pray for hours on end with out getting distracted, shoot I'm lucky if I can listen long enough to figure out the gist of what God is getting at. But hey, this is who God made me to be.

I'm a mess, but I'm just who I need to be to help God out with his plan.

I'm not trying to tell you I will ever stop trying to get better, because God deserves the best of what I can give Him. But He doesn't need me to be perfect now. If he needed me to be perfect He would have made me that way, but He didn't He made perfect for my purpose, which just happens to be a total mess.

So if anybody else out there seems like sometimes they just don't get it. Or can't be that perfect Christian every thinks they should be, its OK join the party. We are who God made us, do what you can when you can to the best of your ability, the rest is up to God

He who thinks he is finished is finished, how true.
Those who think they have arrived, have lost their way.
Those who have reached their Goal, have missed it.
Those who think they are saints, are demons.
-Henry Nouwen-

The point is we all still have growing in Christ to do, never settle with where you are, and never despair with where you are because Faith is a climb up hill and when we reach the top we are already dead, so smile climb the best you can.

Cosmic Cop

2009-03-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

So every time I get in my car I always have the same fear. It is the fear that somewhere out there there is going to be lurking in the shadows the the highway that silhouette of a sedan with a man pointing something at me that kinda looks like a hair dryer and it will be the very moment my concentration has lapsed and may be going a mile or two or seventeen over the speed limit.

so the same thing always happens to me when I do inevitably find this dreaded figure along the edge of the road. I always panic sure that I am doing something wrong even if I don't know it yet. I check my seat belt using only one hand to make sure it right where I put it. all of the time watching the rear view mirror every 2.1 second to make sure I'm not being followed and hoping someone nearby was doing something worse than me. trying to recall in my head where in the Mary Poppins bag I call a glove compartment may lay some thing that looks like a registration or insurance card. And all of this happens regardless if I was doing anything wrong, its an instant reaction.

some of you reading this may have never gotten a speeding ticket or pulled over by the cops at all but I am here to ask you to at least read this and understand the depth of this fear that I feel most drivers have. My wife often makes fun of me because of how many tickets I have gotten (few less than her I may add). But none the less this is a very real fear.

When people do get caught one thing is very certain they cease to be them selves. they turn into mad men and crazy women. just watch cops and you'll understand. very nice little old men become ranting lunatics and mild mannered women become foul mouthed sailors. Not to mention the one who can shed tear after tear and wail in the hopes the cop may feel sorry for them for their transgressions.

See for myself, I take a whole different route. I am the most mild mannered person you have ever met, I am very kind and polite, trying to act as innocent and surprised as the officer himself I could have ever done such a thing. the only anger I show is towards my speedometer for being so sneaky as to not notify me I had been going to fast like the fault of the crime rested solely on its shoulders not mine.

this kind of fear is great a entwined in our lives I wonder if it is because it stems from something much greater than the fear of a speeding ticket, but how some people view their own personal faith experience, as God being this cosmic cop waiting around every corner to add one more tally to their eternal permanent record. and that no matter whether you think you are doing something wrong or not. this is the God some people know. The one waiting for them to mess up.

God is often portrayed to us a children as an authority figure over us, one to fear, one who lays down the rules for us to follow period and one waiting to smite us if we would even consider getting out of line. This fear based faith is something that happens way too often and is sometimes hard to get over. To go from the idea of a God of rules the the God of love.

But that is what he is a God of love. He is not the Cosmic cop waiting for us to mess up. He is a loving father waiting to help us when we have hurt ourselves. He's not a God waiting to knock up down but a got waiting to pick us up after we have fallen down.

Point blank, God is a God of Love. In the Old Testament God was looked at as a God of Rules and the people that would enforce for him were the Pharisees. But them this guy came named Jesus and he was trying to change that view of God to the people. He pointed out that people shouldn't be stoned if they messed up they should be loved because we have all messed up and it not our job to worry about it. It our job to love God back. Which means doing all we can to stay close to him, and not do things that come between us and God, this little wedge called sin. He not there to punish us for our sin because our punishment for our sin is pushing ourselves away from God. He's just there to help us when ever we ask. And He does it all because He loves us.

From Institution to Movement

2009-03-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

This will be a painfully short but direct entry. the church of tomorrow needs to be the church of today and the church of the Christ. The only way this will be possible is for the church of today to revert back to what it once was. We have to go back to being the Bride of Christ. we have to be more than an institution struggling with its own survival and go back to a Movement.

We have to become a wave of our own belief and love. The church in Acts spread like wildfire because the believers were bold and ready to move. when the apostles were scattered to the different nations they just starting a movement there and continued spreading the love and the hope that is the message of the Life of Christ.

When I see a church in a community that has not had a new a new face in months, I think what are those people doing. It is not the pastors fault their church isn't growing its not their job to get people in the seats. The sole responsibility lies in the hearts and the minds of the people sitting in those seats, week in and week out. If they can't their friends hear and see the love and joy they have they are doing something wrong.

The church needs to be a movement not an institution. An institutions preserves culture and a movements makes culture.

The spirit of God moves like the wind, It leaves nothing but still silence where it once blew, but stirs where it is now blowing beckoning us to where it now is not where it once was. (Unstoppable Force)

As the church we need to put up our sails and ride this wind to where it takes us and where it whats us to go, not sit in the silence remembering what the wind felt like at our back.

stand in the wind, feel the movement.

Lessons Learned From Climbing Trees

2009-03-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

So about two years ago I had to do an intern ship for my youth ministry program in college. I ended up working for a friends of mine by the name of Nate Gibbons in a little church in south east Ohio. I am a country boy through and through so one day Nate needed a little help with trimming a few branches off one of his trees that hung over the porch. So since I was more agile and have more experience climbing trees (and just an intern) I was the one who went up the tree with a hatchet and a saw.

It was all going well and I had trimmed many branches, when there was one branch that was hanging out right over the porch and blocking what was quite a beautiful view of the landscape, if you wanted to enjoy it from the leisure of the porch swing, so it was my duty to rectify that problem.

The only snag to this was the only way for me to reach the protuding limb was to walk out on another limb albeit very small, so small there was indeed a chance it would not hold my substantial weight.

As I eased my way out on the limb Nate started to object ( i assume he didn't want to lose a perfectly good intern)that it wasn't safe and I should just come down and use the ladder. I decided since i was already this close I could go a little farther. Just then the limb gave a little creak. Nate was instantly worried I was going down but I assured him trees did that all of the time but I was still in no real danger.

SO I eased out a little farther, because I could almost reach the base of the limb with the hatchet. Then limb again moaned from the stress but held solidly. So still not being quite long enough I eased my way out again. This time the limb did more than just groan it gave a full out snap, starting to give way but still held on. At this point Nate is a wreck and telling me its not worth it. Me being the savvy tree climber I was, stood firm to my belief the limb would hold and eased out further because the hatchet would only bounce off the limb and would not cut it.

I knew if I could only cut off the limb it would relieve some of the pressure of the limb I was standing on and I would become more safe. At least this is how I rationalized taking yet one more step out into an already dangerous situation.

Why do we do this?
Why do we always see how far we can go?
Why do we push things so far?

This is just a real life illustration in my life about me pushing things too far but we do this every day, we push to see how much fun we can have and how many rules we can break and still stay just on this side of sin.

Wouldn't it be a much better idea just to get down and walk away. Would it have been smarter for me to have gotten down and got a ladder, yes but still I pushed my self to that edge away from what I knew was safe a right, just because I wanted to see how far I could push that limb before it snapped.

I even tried to justify going further because that might make things better instead of worse when I knew in my head the chance of things getting worse were much greater than getting better.

I urge you in your daily walk not to see how far you can push boundaries before you run into sin. Why risk it, your never going to know how far you can go until you have already gone to far.

to end my story I did cut off that limb but Nate has never let me forget it. He always reminds how stupid it was and how I could have hurt my self. When you hear the creak turn back, don't wait for the snap because after that its only a matter of time before the pop then its too late. Don't push the boundaries of sin instead stay on the righteous path, don't give into the pressure but stand firm to you beliefs.

Why do They Hate Us

2009-03-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

so over the last few months I have noticed more than before a hostility toward myself and other Christians. In the news and in the media it seems like we are under attack, and a tick sucking the life force out of our country. I don't understand this nor do I like it. As I have dug deeper into to cause of this. I started to realize on some level they were right. The church is getting a bad rap not just because the culture is changing and we are failing to keep up (which is part of the problem) but also because as the church we are not even holding to the central message we claim to be our driving force.

Research by the Barna group have noticed a decrease in the approval rating for the Christian church in North America from just ten years ago eighty five percent of people with no religious convictions (those out side the church) believe that Christianity had a positive influence on society as a whole. The current numbers of people who think Christianity has a positive influence on society has fallen to a mere 16 percent. and another 45 percent who say it has no effect good or bad on society. this is a huge problem, remember these are the people out side of our church we are trying to reach and they don't even think we are doing good things.

how can the church which was built on love and hope, where all of the church sold all they had to help support and work for one another to be strong and to welcome all who were willing, to a mere religious entity with no positive effects on the world around it, at least by an outsiders perspective.

when people out side the church were polled to see what words best described these three words came up , anti homosexual (91 percent), Judgmental (87 percent), and Hypocritical (85 percent). why are these the words they used to describe who we ae and what we are doing. It is because these are the Christians they see very day.

Because the people they see every day
are not being the Christians they claim to be
they are not living up to the hope and the love
that is supposed to be accompanied by a love of Christ.

this is what I see to be the central problem that is surrounding this issue. I am not going to claim to be perfect have I been known to falter and mess up and let other see it, yes I have. Do I make a conscious effort to be the same man on Sunday that i have been the rest of the week, yes. I do it because our religion is not a mask we were or a personality we put on for a short period of time, it's a relationship with our Lord and Savior. It's a commitment to stand firm and stay true to the message he gave us in his holy word

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age."
Matt. 28:19-20

So I say challenge your self every day to stay true to who you are and the commitment you made as a Christian and maybe we can start to turn this thing around, because if we don't do something soon it might be too late.

In the Name of the Father

Atrophy

2009-02-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

Atrophy (n) 1. a wasting away of the body or of an organ, as from defective nutrition or nerve damage; 2. degeneration or decline as from disuse; 3. a decrease in size, a wasting away, deterioration, or diminution; to waste away, wither or deteriorate.

Unfortunately this one word is one that describes the church I see around me today. The church is see before me is one that is wearing away and dying because she refuses to touch the world around her. The reason for this is every church I have ever been to anywhere has the wrong goal in mind, their goal is to thrive or possibly even to survive.

This is far from the message Jesus left behind for us. What if it would have been Jesus' goal to survive. I think the world would look a lot different than the world of today. Jesus came to serve and to love the world. Shouldn't it be our goal to do the same to love and serve our world as the church.

We have to get out of a survival mindset we are so concerned about keeping all of the food we have we are afraid to eat it. There is a reason the word for Martyr in Greek is the same word for witness. Yes they may have died serving the Lord but at least they died facing in the right direction.

the problem we are having is we have too many Christians out there who are so very concerned about getting fed, but far too many of those same Christians don't then in turn want to exercise their faith.

how have we gone from the church whose motto was "here I am the church, here to serve a lost and broken world" to what we have become today to "hello my name is the church what can I do for you today"

The belief of the people of the church today is the church exists to serve their needs and be there for them when in reality the church was put in place by our Lord to serve the needs of this world and to be a radical world changer and so where between this point and that we lost that mission, the church today is much happier trying to support a mission than to actually be a mission and do the work. it would rather watch and wait for others to do it.

This is a call for all church goers to stop being part of that problem and start being the solution to stand up an Go. To start being part of the mission that every church should be.

Don't be afraid don't hold back, "the purpose of the church cannot be to survive or even to thrive but to serve. And sometimes servants die in the serving."(Erwin McManus)

Once upon a time in the history of our church, the church had a real and serious impact on this world. It used to shape society. It used to be the moving force that dictated the direction and the trends of culture. It is a dangerous turn of events when culture has started to shape the church instead of the other way around.

Welcome to the future, if your going to change why not make it today.

lesson learned from my journeys

2009-02-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

For so long I have wondered what it will take for me to be able to focus all my passion on the one true God and I came to the realization. If I want to focus my passion and my heart in one place then I needed to only focus on that one thing and run headlong towards it. stop trying to figure out which path I have to take to eventually go the direction I want but to step off the path and Go just Go.

One thing you have to realize when you set out into the woods. You always have to be ready to tackle the unforeseen. When I got out in the woods for a hike or a hunt I never know what i may encounter. Many times too many times I have been caught unaware. So when I depart on an adventure I always make sure I have every thing I may need. some times everything I may need can be quite the burden. Like the simple act of deer hunting, what do i take with me..... the answer is just about everything. I take my gun of course, and a hip pack full of every shooting supply I may need, a back pack, with all the extras, another larger pack with all the things in it to make myself comfortable for a long cold sit, not to mention my heavy winter boots and enough clothes to venture in the arctic (did I mention I hate being cold).

And all of this just to go less than a quarter mile from the hunting cabin, that I'm going back to for lunch anyway.

So a while back I decided I wanted to try a new adventure back country hiking and backpacking. In case you have never been the idea is you just leave everything behind you can't carry on your back and you just go into the woods, trail or not and just leave. You get out in nature and survive and thrive on only that which you bring. If you have never gone its sometimes a rough trail to take and your pack is always getting heavier (or so it feels). Your first trip will be the toughest thing you have ever done at the time and it will hook you for life. As hard as things may get the trip memories will only be filled with the adventure. You will gain more memories of the views, and the wildlife, the fun times and the accomplishments, than you will of the blisters or the cold rainy days.

One thing I have learned is you don't always need all of the extra weight holding you down to survive what you may come up against. lately I have been into a new kind of backpacking. It's called ultralight. The goal is to only take the most basic elements for survival and move as lightly as you can taking only the smallest amount of what you need. For example instead of taking a flashlight or a lantern all you take is a 1 led headlamp one that provides just enough light to get what you need done but only weight one ounce instead of 8 or 9 oz like a flash light. It may not seem like much weight but when you do it for all you gear you go from traveling with 55 pounds to 35 pounds or less. this makes any journey much easier to travel, but also makes other things much harder when you don't have what you need when something comes up.

I have started to realize I need to do this to my life, to stream line the things that are slowing me down to reaching my goal. My goal of following Christ to my greatest potential. There are some things I still can't leave out of my back all together but I can downsize, to make my travels lighter. Example: If I have friends who are holding me back, the proper response is not to give up all my friends, but be more selective how much time I spend with them, or what impact they have in my life.

there is nothing I give up or downsize in my life that is worth not following God to my greatest potential. When I step off the path and go i just want to get here as fast as I can. So why let these less important things hold me back.

In the bible in the book of Numbers God is about to divide up the inheritance to all of the tribes of Israel. All of the twelve tribes got portions they were due expect for one. there was one tribe special from the rest the tribe of Levi. These people the Levites were not given the same portions as the rest. they were to be given the greatest gift of all they were to be given God himself. The Levites were to be the Priests the keepers of the tabernacle and the servants of no one but God. But in return for their service they were given even more than they lost but not receiving the inheritance.

The LORD said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.

"I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' " (Numbers 18: 20-24)

when the Lord said "I will be your inheritance among Israel" He was really making Aaron and his people (the Levites) richer than all of the rest.

The things we lose or the things we give up in no way compare to that which we will receive by following God .

"Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing,

for he now has it all in God,

and has it purely, legitimately and forever." (A.W. Tozer)

Stop wandering around the different paths and streets if they are not taking you where you want to go, and go straight to the source of your desires, follow straight after the Maker of your course.

A Prayer for you:

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.
I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.
I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with your longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed.
Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.
Say to my soul, "rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered for so long.

In His name,

Amen

Risky Business

2009-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

When I hear people talk about church sometimes I think they are a little off base. They talk about church like it is a magical place where you go and all your troubles and worries go away. I don't think this is what the church talked about in the book of Acts was all about. It was not a band aid for all of your worries or fears, it was a place to find purpose and happiness for you life. To follow the will of The Father no matter where it would take you. I hate it when people blindly follow religion when they should be following Jesus. Never should your church or your religion get in the way of the true and personal relationship you have with your maker God. I have once heard a person say the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I can think of a number of people that would beg to differ with that. People like Stephen (Acts 7:59) who the crowd stoned for being in the center of God's will, or Paul who for his entire life was persecuted and beguiled, and injured for being in the center of God's will.

2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (New International Version)

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

I don't know about anybody else but this to me doesn't sounds like the safest place Paul could be, but it does sound like the place he was supposed to be. Paul was right there, right were God wanted him to be and sometimes he went through hard times, more hard times than I have ever had to face for following my God and he went joyously and willingly. This is how I want to live my life, without fear, without regret ,and being right where Christ wants me to be no matter what hardship I may suffer in The Name of the Father.

Before Paul radically changed direction in his life he was a Pharisee. He was the bad guy. He did to others the same things that started happening to him. He knew full well what he was getting himself into when he made his change for God that his life was going to be harder, that he would be hunted just like the people he had hunted and killed, for preaching the same sermon he was about to preach. He knew what he was doing, he knew it wouldn't be easy, and he did it any way.

I say whether its the safest place in the world to be or one of the most dangerous. Either way I think in the center of the will of God is where I choose to be. Please don't make me stand there alone, but I will if I have to.

Unleash the Untamed Faith Within

2009-02-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

when Jesus came to each of his disciples He said the following words "follow me". He said these not with a question mark but as an imperative. He was saying come and follow me. not will you follow me. he said this to his followers and they embarked on the most wondrous of journeys to follow the Christ though his life, and through his death, and amazing resurrection.

One more than the rest stand out to me. The story of Peter. A man who was not so remarkable until met by the Lord. For three years he followed Jesus and for three years he tried so hard to really get what Jesus was trying to say but he failed time and time again.

He vowed to follow Jesus to his death, only to turn around hours later and deny even knowing him. (Matthew 26:31-35) He wanted to fight for his Lord with the sword, but that to was not the way to follow Jesus. (John 18:10)

Finally and only after Jesus' death did Peter realize what Jesus was asking for. The way to follow him was not out of anger or violence, hatred or spite. The right path is one of love through sacrifice and servant hood.

Peter finally realized this, but it was not to late, the Father still had a plan for him. Later Peter was able to follow Jesus. When Jesus returned from the grave he had a story for Peter:

"I tell you the truth, when you were young you dressed yourself,
and went where you wanted;
but when you are old you will stretch out your hands
and some one else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go." (John 21:17-19)

He said all of this to Peter to indicate the kind of death he would eventually suffer. to be stretched out and died on a cross like his Lord. That one day some one would lead him to his death, some where he did not want to go. After telling Peter to follow him, meant his death in an awful horrible way he said "follow me", again in the imperative. To let Peter know He had a path for him, and only one. Jesus didn't water it down in hopes that Peter would follow he just said the words, and told him how it was. (excerpts taken from The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus)

For me this means so much for my daily walk. to stay on task and to remember its OK to choose the dangerous road when it comes to following Christ, when sometimes I know it means doing something I don't want to do, when it means I may be uncomfortable or shot down, because there was this follower before me that knew where is road was taking him and he walked down it anyway. Peter knew what he was doing and where his path was leading and for him it meant death. If he can take the path God had for him knowing it meant his death, then I can walk the path God has for me, no matter where it goes.

ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost

Frost was deffinately on to something here with taking the road less traveled by. The path of following Christ is sometimes not the easiest path nor is it the main trail through the woods its is a Path only for those who truely want to seek what is at the end. And it has made all the difference

For me I dont know where my path will end or what road God will take me down but if I follow everyday to the best of my ability truely his will then I will stick to my path. It is sure in involve both sacrafice and servanthood and I dont know if I will be able to do it, but if I fail I know God will have another road ready for me to start again.

Why in his Name

2009-01-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog. This is my first attempt at making a blog that is really worth anything and I hope to add insight and depth into the life of any who read this.

first the reason for this blog is really in its name "in the name of the Father". It is a bit of a personal motto of mine and is really how I want to live my life I want the purpose of my life to be lived in the name of the Father. For many years now I have taken this upon myself to spread this idea to as many people as I come across. I am not always as effective as I would want to be but none-the-less it is my intent.

For me what it means to live in the name of the Father, is to model your life after The Almighty, the King of Kings the Lord of Hosts. the Creator of the world and of each and every one of us. We can never live our lives to the perfect standard Jesus has modeled, and he doesn't ask us for perfection he asks us to try. I will not delusion anyone by saying i live in the name of the Father but only that I try, that I make a real effort every day to live as my Lord would want.

I think it is a real disservice to God for us to forget to live every minute of every day for him, to be on fire for his love and truly seek and love after him. We are not just his followers of disciples but we are his army his fighters the people he has placed on the ground to do his work.

in the words of the great insirational speaker
Mick,
But then the worst thing happened
that could happen to any fighter,
you got Civilized.

Mick to Rocky (Rocky III)

On this blog will be the start of a journey, a journey for me to go with you and explore day to day month to month what it is looking like to live in the name of the Father. I will tell you my thoughts and how life is going and try to share and inspire you, not to live like me for that is no worthy aspiration but to live as the Father and to live you life in his holy name.

Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight." 2 kings 20:3