Liar

How would a person fare in this world if they told the truth 100% of the time? No sugar coating, no flattery, just the truth. It doesn't mean he speaks without tact or love, but just tells the truth all the time. I don't think that person would be very popular to be around. I think people like to be lied to. Not just the big things like, am I ugly, or am I stupid, but the little things like some random story that never really happened. The Bible says people loved darkness rather than the truth. It also tells us to buy the truth and do not sell it. I think that is the heart of the problem with us. Many of us have sold the truth and have bought this fluffy and apologetic version of it.

Many would feel uncomfortable around a person that never lied. They somehow wouldn't trust him. They wouldn't trust him because they have never met a person that doesn't lie. This person would be foreign...an invader to our normal way of ignorance and bliss. Really honest people lie in the subtle ways. They lie with their eyes when they feel it necessary to save the other person's heart from breaking. Really dishonest people lie with every breath they take. Their entire existence can be a lie. Both are no where near the truth. Isn't that disheartening? To actually want to be lied to? Is it less of a lie if the person tells it with good intentions? Do you want them to lie to you if they are doing so with a good heart? Temporarily, I say yes, because it may save me hours of agony. Eternally, I say no, as it can cause decades of bitterness and hatred. Did Jesus ever lie to save a person's feelings? No. He called out his best friends for allowing the devil to speak through them when He directly said to them to "Get behind me Satan." for simply trying to comfort Him and tell Him they weren't going to let anything bad happen to Him. It didn't seem as though Jesus valued anything that wasn't true.

I think I am going to try harder to never, ever lie. To tell the entire truth....IN LOVE....whenever asked anything. It is important to note that this doesn't mean you need to open your flap every single time you have an opinion. Try telling the truth when asked. This is a good start I think.

This is the project of humanity to bring the truth to everyone's eyes.








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Thanks for reading...Z

Tantrums

I wish I could remember the tantrums I used to pull when I was a kid. From my mom's stories, they seemed pretty staggering. I do remember one that I had during church. I was crying for some dumb reason, probably because I hated church and wanted to leave. My mom used to threaten the spanking when I was acting like an imbecile, but usually the threat was enough. Not this time. I was obviously pissed off about the guy shouting at me from the podium and could not take it any longer. She took me to the bathroom and reluctantly gave me the "What have you." But while she got her workout I thought something brilliant. This would be the ultimate "Got you sucka." I didn't even think about it, I just screamed "HELP!" As loud as I could toward the bathroom door. I wanted them to think I was being beaten for no reason. In my head, I saw them nodding their heads in shame at my mom as she shrunk lower and lower in shame. Instead on my way out of the bathroom, with tears in my eyes, I watched them nod with excitement and recognition at my mom. As if to say, "Nice one, you actually got him to cry for help." It was the 80's, don't judge. Of course I needed no help, I needed to stop being a jerk in church. I needed to stop making it hard on my mom to raise us in the right environment. But that is me. I will make nothing easier for you.

Sometimes I still have tantrums. I still have my moments of overreacting to something and someone else has to come along and say, "Hey man, let's hug it out." It isn't the loud ones that end my rage, it's the quiet ones who don't usually say much. They say the very thing I cannot argue with and make me feel like a dumb kid that just threw a tantrum for nothing.

A few months ago, I was doing something I was supposed to be doing and I was questioned by a person that had no idea what she was talking about. I picked my son up from school and went to this place and did what I was supposed to be doing while my kid played with all of the cool things there. When on my way out to put something in my car, this person who had no idea what she was talking about approached me and accused me of doing something she knew nothing about. I got really mad. I proved to her that I was right and she was wrong empirically. I got into my car and drove off to my house. About three quarters from my home as I was patting myself on the back for being so awesome and owning this ignorant women, I realized it was awfully quiet in the back seat. I took a quick look. Then another. CRAP!!!!!! I did leave my oldest son at that place where that ignorant women was. I had to go back. Knock on the door. Go in. And try to covertly explain how I had left my oldest son there.

I had a tantrum. That's how I left my son there.........Humbling.







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Thanks for reading...Z

Funeral

Mark 14:3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?  5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. 6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.  7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.  8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.  9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Now her brother Lazarus is sick and dying. The family is in chaos and desperate. Mary and Lazarus had become very dear to Jesus. They went to the only place that hope truly lives, they went to Jesus. In all of their turmoil, Jesus says this: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Imagine the comfort they felt. Imagine the weight lifted. But then Jesus does something unexpected for a Savior. See when we imagine a Savior, we imagine this Superman-like character who swoops in just in time to save the damsel in distress. This mighty muscle man that keeps everyone safe from the things they don’t want to ever happen.

Jesus waits.

When he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.  Two more days the hero stays put. Now imagine the panic as Mary and the rest of Lazarus’ family watched him deteriorate. They went home with hope after speaking with Jesus and now they watch Lazarus close his eyes and breath his last breath. Meanwhile as Jesus is walking with the disciples, He stops and says John 11:11b“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”  13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,  15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Jesus makes the less than 2 mile trip and upon arrival, he finds Lazarus dead in his home for the last 4 days in the Israeli desert. Less than 2 miles. He only had to travel 2 miles and Lazarus would still be alive his families cries. Instead, he strolls in 4 days after Lazarus has died. The very thing He told Mary the story would not end in. It would not end in death. Mary was so upset that she didn’t even come out to greet him as He arrived. Martha wailed and cried and wept in anger. Jesus looks her dead in the eyes and says, your brother will rise again. Of course he will, there is a resurrection in Heaven, that does us no good right now. No, Jesus says, He is getting out of that bed. He sends her to get Mary, and she comes running and falls at His feet upset with Him for allowing her brother to die. Jesus looks at her. He sees her grief, he feels her heart beating with His and they are both broken. So He weeps.

This is a passage that has always intrigued me. It is the shortest verse in the entire Bible, but at further study reveals such detail about the character and heart of God. Jesus knew what He was going to do. He knew He was gonna walk into that room and tell that guy to get up out of that death bed and walk right out for all to see. Jesus isn’t grieving for the death of His friend. He isn’t weeping because of any lack of faith his family had in him. Jesus tested their faith by not showing until Lazarus had died. Jesus wept because of what God named Him. God named Him Emmanuel, which means God with us. God named Him exactly who he was and was going to be. God, in the flesh with us. Jesus wept because he felt the pain of loss and sorrow with Lazarus’ family. Jesus was sharing in their suffering as He would later ask us to do in His.

John 11:43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”  44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The point of this story among the sheer fact that there is nothing too powerful than God, even death, is not that death happened. Lazarus was risen from the dead, but he died again later in life. The point is that death happens. It is the curse of sin on this world. But the point is that Jesus is with us. Sharing in our sufferings as we share in His. At a time like this, it is common to feel alone in you grief. It is common to be angry. It’s ok to be angry. You didn’t see Jesus rebuking Mary or Martha for their grief. You saw Him weep with them. Jesus is here with us as we weep. Jesus is offering His presence. You can bang your head against the wall without hope, or you can rest your weary heads on the chest of God and find real comfort.

Photo credit to: http://coffee-milk.deviantart.com








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Thanks for reading...Z

Shutting Your Idiot Mouth

What is at the heart of the disagreement?

This is what you have to ask yourself whenever you find yourself in battle with another human being. Ask yourself, "Why am I so offended by the way this person believes?"

I stopped arguing. Well, almost. I still find my idiot mouth involved in arguments from time to time, but nowhere near the me in top idiot form. I say I was an idiot because of the way in which I would disagree. I was not taking the time to understand where the other person's thoughts were coming from. I would be harsh and drop bombs and stand back grinning and patting myself on the back watching the aftermath that undoubtedly was going to escalate the situation. Then I would take a step back and try to turn it around on you and make it about your anger. Idiot. Eventually I got sick of it. I noticed myself keeping up the argument even when I knew I was wrong, never admitting defeat. That is when I decided to shut my idiot mouth and listen. When I disagree, I try to listen to everything the person is saying and understand where they are coming from. Why is this an important thing to do? Because you are probably speaking to another human being unless you are in the habit of arguing with inanimate objects, which means you are further gone that expected. People see things because of past experiences and beliefs, even if the thing they believe is completely false. We have to understand that our emotions are tied up in our beliefs. Very often, this is why we believe what we do...because our emotions drove us to conclusions that helped us cope. So when we go on the offensive and hurl hate at another of God's precious creation, we hurl insults at God Himself.  Arguments almost always end in anger and resentment.

There is another way. Love. If a belief is wrong, it is probably based in emotion. If you want to help change the belief add emotion to the desired belief. Love is always desirable. Come to a person with respect, dignity, and love and watch them listen to what you have to say. Let the Spirit of God lead them in the direction of truth as you may not have the truth either. But what we know for sure is that God desires we love all people.








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Thanks for reading...Z

Boxing

Every punch produces a counter punch. You get hit, and strike back. You may fall, but you get up and stare your opponent eye to eye in the center of the ring. Your eyes bleed blood never expressed through words or ink. You bleed through rage, and fear, and will. All of the sudden your past becomes the fault of the person standing right in front of you and it doesn't matter how tough they are. Or you are. It matters what you have inside you.

Why does a guy go to church his whole life while still doubting the existence of God? Because he is trying to find a way to fight back. Because life has beaten him down and he is out of ideas. Out of punches. Out of time to recover. He sits in the benches of that church looking for something that will help him battle. He finds it every Easter when they talk about a beaten Jesus rising from the dead, but loses it again, when the pastor speaks about forgiveness. Is there a happy medium to rage? Is there this amount of hate that is Ok to harbor, as long as it fuels you to fight?

Jesus said 70 times 7. I think that means 490. I think that means as much as you get punched...forgive.

This isn't an easy passage for me to live, even as I tell 16 year old kids to forgive their family who has stolen everything from them. I still remember my hate. It doesn't go away easily. It fights just like you, because it has you believing you need it to survive. It has you believing that it has kept you safe for this long. But it hasn't has it? It has broken your heart too many times. You hold on to it like a dying daughter, but it stings you like a viper when your guard is down. See, we are fooled into believing our strength is in what lies deep and sometimes dormant in our hearts. All along, it was a not so silent God giving us what we have needed. Not vengeance, but God. We mistake the two very easily. I have to find a way to let go of what people have done to me and so do you. Christ reigns in all things. Christ heals all things. Christ is involved in you. We too often are involved in us too. Let go!


Photo credit to: http://bosslogic.deviantart.com 







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Thanks for reading...Z

Religion

What does the church mean to you? What role does it play? What does it mean to be religious?


Church in our culture has really been considered the center of the Christian faith. One may ask you, do you go to church? You may say yes, and they may take on the notion that you are religious. You may say no and they may assume, you are not. Church has taken the hierarchy of many Christians in Western culture. But was it intended to be?

To be religious means much more than putting on a suit and tie and heading off to church on Sundays. It means more than your day of baptism or your first communion. To be religious is like this according to the Bible:

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

There isn’t much written in this passage about pure and faultless religion about attending church every Sunday and observing special religious holidays. These things are NOT bad things, however, they are not at the core of what true religion is intended to be. Religion is more about the point of Christianity...Love. Service. Sacrifice. Church is a beautiful thing. A church service is a really great way to express your faith and share in God’s Word together with your family of Believers. Go to church...period...even if your meeting with your brothers and sisters looks different than the traditional church. The Bible says not for forsake the gathering of the saints, so don’t. But church isn’t intended to be the end game of religion. It is a supplement. Religion begins the moment you open your eyes and ceases the moment you close them. Everyday. Sundays are a really refreshing way to allow others to hold you up and for you to be someone’s shoulder.

Usually when someone says I am religious, I cringe in the very pit of my stomach, because I have always hated religion. I was basted in it growing up and from what I saw, I had had enough. So I walked away. Ran really. I hated it because unknowingly I was experiencing the rot of the Biblical church. I was witnessing church becoming the idol that people worshipped while rolling around in money. I witnessed the evil one perverting what should be a thriving meeting place for His followers who have been working their hands to the bone for God all week long. Church for me was more about building funds, little tin plates being shaken under your nose, and the endless battle to stay awake through the very long and predictable service. I believe Jesus would have run from those churches too.

The church should be alive with the power of the Holy Spirit, whom God said was to our advantage being sent in His place. The Spirit of God being more advantageous for our faith than Jesus himself dwelling in flesh here. I never saw a church that showed any real evidence of being alive until now. Not that my church is the THE church or something to be revered, but I think that service to those around us is the point and in that, our mission is focused. We may meet in a high school and may NEVER get a building, but I think that’s just fine with God. Maybe, we need to keep working our hands to the bone. Maybe this is what God wants from us, not to get comfortable in a building and subsequently comfortable in our faith. Comfort in our faith, I believe, is the enemies most effective attack on the church. When we are comfortable, nothing happens, which is exactly what the one in the red suit wants.

We should look different. We should upset people. We were meant to be attractive and exciting to the world around us. We weren’t meant to have to soup up the Gospel of Jesus to get people to listen. Getting the people to listen and understand is the job of the Holy Spirit alone. This is not our lot to cast or load to bear. Our lot is obedience. We cannot compete with popular culture and why would we ever want to. Why would the church want to cover a Lady Gaga song to get people into the seats or excited about what God is doing in our lives? We have the Holy Spirit of God among us. We have the most unique attraction the world has ever seen dwelling right in our midst when we gather together in His name. We have God Himself.

What is the point?

“Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law” Matthew 10:34-35

If you are living the life that follows Christ, you are going to make people mad. Jesus did. John the Baptist did. All of the disciples did. You will too. We are called to be loving, but do not make the mistake of fooling yourself into believe that means you need to be timid and silent about what you have witnessed Christ do. This is a mistake. God gives us a bold spirit, not one of fear. People reject Christ and will reject you, however, people are looking for a Savior in a crippled world and the way they see it is in the light that shines in those that are vessels of God. Many will be drawn to Christ through our Christ driven lifestyle.

Buying all of the aesthetics and furnishings for your building made of bricks, tar, and mortar may draw people to it’s seats, but it will never lead a person into a deeply committed religion. This is the job of The Holy Spirit. The aesthetics can very easily serve as a distraction to what God is really doing by making the church service a spectacle. Religion may or may not ever happen there.







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Thanks for reading...Z

Day Changers

If the horse were leading the cart, it wouldn't slam into trees.

Christianese language and attitudes can be very baffling. I was raised in church my entire life and have heard so many awe inspiring and motivational talks, mostly surrounding being a "World changer" or a "Warrior" for Christ. It can get you hyped up and ready to take on the world with the power of Christ in your right hand and the vengeance of past hurt in your left. But does anyone ask themselves whether or not God is calling them to be a world changer? He told the disciples to be fishers of men and to go and make disciples of all nations. These were to be the people that started the entire church. Normal, average guys like us were used to change the world. This is one of the most wonderful aspects of God...that He uses who He will use.

What kind of attitude are we in danger of having?

^{Mark 10:35} Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” ³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. ³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  ³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” ³⁹ “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

 Too many people have been filled with pride trying to change the world. It is easy to do. We get a few things accomplished and set our goals high, so it is a natural (sinful) thing to do...to consider yourself as good. Except Romans tells us no one is good, not even one. People go off to seminary or devote themselves to studying God's Word, but completely forget about the foundation that faith is based off of in the first place. Maybe God isn't asking us to be world changers, maybe that is a product of what happens when we aspire to be day changers. I cannot impact this world right away without becoming infamous. I can impact it the way Mother Theresa has chosen to. She has never aspired to change the world, but to change the conditions in the area surrounding her. We should aspire to change the day for the people at the water cooler and the ones holding out cups for change. 

You simply cannot positively change the world with anything you say. It will always take long suffering actions. I think in the passage above, the disciples were guilty as you and I have been of thinking too highly of themselves and forgetting the point of what we are trying to accomplish in the first place. Jesus wasn't prescribing them to change the world in a single swoop. He used the work of fishing as his illustration. Fishing takes patience, silence, and purposeful luring. So does fishing for people. If you want to see Christ reign in the lost around you, we must be patient and long suffering, prayerful and purposeful. We must love the way Christ loves us. This is the very base of Christianity. Read every book about faith and religious history, but it will mean nothing if you aren't actively and purposefully acting out love in your every day life.

A day changer can very easily become a life changer which can very easily become a world changer. But love (Jesus) has to lead. 

Photo credit to:http://dippedfeather.deviantart.com







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Migrate.







Thanks for reading...Z