A favorite verse for many Christians to quote to other Christians is Romans 12:2.  It is a beautiful hammer to swing down on the heads of those not conforming with a lifestyle choice mandated by the swinger.  Isn’t it great, who can fight back.  Noone wants to (at least outwardly) go against scriptures with their lifestyle.  1 Point awarded to the Pious Christian, and the peasants rejoice.

But WAIT! (oh no, Kurt is about to stir the pot)  The crux of the matter is who is defining what.  For complete clarity, here is the actual text of the verse: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”(NIV)  Seems pretty straight forward.  Don’t live like the world, be changed by renewing your mind, that way you can figure out what Gods’ will is.  (KSV- Kurt’s Summary Version)

The problem that arises is, who gets to determine what living like the world means?  I know some of you say, “Well that is just common sense, it means x, y, and z.”  At the risk of sounding judgemental, doesn’t relying on common sense to determine our morality seem… well…  a bit worldly?  For you, common sense might mean wearing a bikini is wrong, but for the Amish man, common sense says that wearing zippers is wrong. (for the record, dudes wearing bikinies, thongs, or speedos is wrong on a level that transcends the spiritual.)  So whose common sense is correct?  Whose common sense spiritual living do we follow?

WHOA!!! I shout through a megaphone.  Hopefully for those of you riding on your high horse of judgment, your horse has now halted.  The reality is, most that are riding their high horses would never read this, and those that did certainly stopped by the second paragragh.  But if there are a few still with us, and for those of us who are more likely to be trampled by the horse than ride it (though I have on occassion been known to jump in the saddle), why don’t we see what scripture has to say.  I know, it is a novel idea to define spirituality and morality by scripture, but why don’t we take a poke at it.  Just for kicks, or maybe just so we can correct our theology a bit.

In Matthew 22 :36-40 we see- 36. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38. This is the great and first commandment. 39. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Most of us are familiar with verses 36 and 39, but the crux of our topic today lies in verse “40.  On these to commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, all God’s moral yardsticks and code can be summarized back to love God and love others.  So if someone wants to judge the action of another, they also need to judge their heart.  Probably a good question to ask from atop the high horse of judgement is, “Is it possible to love God or others by doing what that person is doing?”  Or better yet, instead of riding your high horse, why not climb down and look at your own life.  Because I think we can all agree that riding a high horse of judgement is typically done out of love for self.  Plus only God knows a man’s/woman’s heart/motives.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying live and let live.  I completely affirm the need for brothers and sisters in Christ to come along side one another and at times smack each other upside the head and tell us to straighten out.  However, from my experience the Dark Riders (please don’t read anything into the fact that this term is the representative of the essence of evil in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, somewhat completely unrelated/hyperrelated to my opinion of the Dark Riders) will not come along side you, but come at you if you are lucky.  I say lucky, because then you can at least try to educate them out of their ignorance. 

More than like though, the Dark Riders will challenge you because you believe x, y, and z is ok, and not whether you do it.  The very fact that you believe it will shake them to the core and cause them to saddle up.  Or even more likely, they will just ride down to the stable and talk about you to the other Dark Riders.  But it is ok for them to gossip about you because after all they are the Dark Riders, they determine morality, they are the judge of the spirit, heart, and motives.  Only they are pure enough to ride and ride high.  To help throw a cloak of spirituality over it, they may say a prayer for you to come out of your depths of worldliness. (I hope the intended sarcasm came through the written word, if not reread it in a sarcastic tone)

After rereading what I have written, I seem to have quite a negative tone to my writing which I don’t like.  Also, I find my self being a Dark Rider against the Dark Riders which I don’t like either.  I guess I am fed up with people trying to determine morality by what people do instead of who people are.  Only God can determine what is moral and what is not.  The rest of us should probably just try to what He says  instead of creating extra rules for people to follow.

Technorati Tags: christ, dark, faith, judgement, law, love, matthew, riders, world

Yes, it is I, the phantom faith blogger. It has been far too long. It is one of those situations where it went to long, then it just kept getting longer, then you start feeling bad, but you keep pushing it off, then it gets almost laughable, then you feel even more bad, then you finally get back to it. So here I am.
Over the next few weeks, I will finish out this series. One more after this one at least. And I will also update you on the church planting front.

If you remember way back to the first article in this series, the third element of the Acts church was meeting the needs of others. More specifically, they were living communally, and if a need came up within their church family, they met it. However, I imagine, because they were following Christ, I believe they would be caring for orphans and widows.

See aside from all the other things God wants us to do, He has boiled it down to just two commandments. Do you remember Mark 12:29-31? The most important commands are to love your Lord and love your neighbor. This is all we have to worry about. If you adhere to these, all the other commands will take care of themselves.

So if we act like the Acts church and truly start loving each other and loving our neighbors, what would this do to our church? Would we see dying churches? Would we see a world heading to hell in a handbasket? Probably a lot less so.

I know we have talked about it before, but I cannot say it enough, start loving.

And finally, let me be the first to say, “Welcome Back.” To myself.

Technorati Tags: acts, church, faith, love

Admittedly, it has been a bit since my last post.  I am happy to report that during this time, I have finished my tax preparation for my accountant.  Now that I have that behind me, I can refocus once again.

To recap where we were, we are looking at the three legs of the Tripod For Church Success.  (In your head, imagine that last part being read by the guy who does the movie preview voice overs.  It will sound much more dramatic)

The second leg in the Tripod of Church Success is the leg of fellowship. I honestly believe it is one of the most underdeveloped legs in the American church, and this underdevelopment has had a powerful impact on the impotency of the church.

What is fellowship? Let’s first look at what it is not. Some erroneously believe it is one and the same with church membership. If you are a member, you are part of the fellowship. Others believe that showing up at church every time the doors are open equates to fellowship. People are sometimes admonished regarding their church absences that they should not be forsaking the fellowship of believers. Thus equating attendance with fellowship.

Let’s take a moment to honestly look at our individual church experiences. I can name multiple ‘members’ of different churches who were recluses. They are members, but to most in the church they are strangers. Many who attend church every time the doors are open are the same. As soon as they are open at the end of service, they are the first to bolt out the door, and you best not be in their path, because you will probably get run over.

So, after all that, what is fellowship?

1. Fellowship is deliberate and takes time. It is more than just the hey how are you that typically takes place after church service.
2. Fellowship is the vehicle by which we are drawn close to each other to care for each other and to hold each other accountable. I cannot care for you well if I barely know you, and I cannot hold you accountable or you hold me accountable if we do not have a relationship deep enough to allow and survive such interaction.
3. Fellowship is sweet. When God’s people fellowship, they should feel like they are in the sweetest place on earth (even sweeter than Hershey, Pa). When we fellowship we are acting as God’s family and therein lies the sweetness.
4. Fellowship involves openness. If I am in a relationship with you, and I am not open with you, I can never feel close to you. Why? Because without openness, I never really know if you accept me for me. Think about your relationships. The more open you are with someone, the closer you will feel to them.
5. Fellowship is God’s design. This is why we are admonished not to forsake it. The question is, are you willing to risk your time, your heart, and your agenda to truly experience God’s best for you?

So what is our leg challenge for this week?

As individuals, we need to evaluate how much true fellowship we are getting. Are we building relationships with our brothers and sisters to a level beyond casual. Some of us are great at this, some may need some work. Only you can tell. Maybe it is time clear some spots in our schedule God’s relational agenda.

As churches, I think there is a temptation to overlook the degree of importance this has in the life of a believer. I think it is time to consider having church functions that do not include a Bible study. One where fellowship is the top priority. Christians dedicate a lot of time to the functions of the church, and I believe the church needs to do a better job of deliberately creating environments for the third leg to develop. Some people will not do something unless the church has a function to do it in. Realizing this, we need to meet people where they are, and use this wonderful aspect of Christian living to take them to the next level.  The church needs to treat fellowship on equal status with doctrinal learning, and not like a red headed step child.

Technorati Tags: acts, church growth, fellowship, taxes

Last week, I laid the foundation for looking at how we act as a church and how these actions affect our impact on our world around us.  I call the three most important activities we should engage in, The Tripod of Success.

All of you are familiar with a tripod.  You put your video camera on it, and it is supposed to help compensate for your lack of video skills by keeping things steady.  Now, imagine if you cut off one of the legs, what will happen?  Imagine if you cut off two of the legs, what will happen?  Clearly, without three legs, the tripod is unstable at best.  The tripod is weak and impotent when it comes to its job as a camera stabilizer.

Looking back at last week, here is what we see:

If we look at Acts 2:42-47, we see that they church was engaging the three basic activities, and through that, God was adding to their numbers.  If you boil down these verses, you can see the following three activities:

1. They were devoting themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.
2. They were eating/fellowshipping together daily.
3. They were helping anyone in need.

This week we are going to look at the first leg.  Now I have trouble imagining a ‘Christian’ church in America that does not teach at least some of the Bible.  Some churches add to it, some subtract from it, but most would claim as their basis the Bible.

Most churches I am aware of pride themselves in getting the first leg correct.  Many churches have Sunday School, Sunday Worship, Sunday Night Service, and Wednesday Night Churches.  Throw in a week of revival services now and again, and the opportunity to be devoted to the Apostles teaching is constantly within reach.

And now, with youtube, church’s websites, and other internet services, we can fully immerse ourselves in the teaching of the Bible.  Bible, Bible everywhere.  In fact, thanks to the Bible, a luxury the early church did not have by the way, you can devote yourself to the Apostle’s teaching anytime and anywhere.

So what is the challenge?  What is the church growth challenge?  Honestly, this leg of the tripod is the most sound.  Yes, there are variances throughout different churches, but the opportunity for exposure is there.  So what is our challenge?

In college, and in select classes in some churches, I have taken classes on the technique of studying the Bible.  These classes should be constantly in front of the people of Christ for their consumption.  Why are they so important and what are they about? (no need to ask, I ask the questions for you.)  The purpose of these classes, also known as hermeneutics classes, is to study the Bible is such a way that we understand better what the author intended.  In other words, we let the text tell us what should happen in our lives rather than using our lives to decide what the text means.

For example, imagine 2,000 years from now, and the Borg have taken over our world.  They assimilate the internet, and find a on some remote server this blog.  In the blog, I write, “It is raining cats and dogs today.”  Now, 2000 years from now, in whatever Borgian language this translates to, a young Borg may actually start looking up each time it rains, waiting for the cats and dogs to start falling.  Context is everything.  Knowing and understanding the context of Biblical passages is key to understanding the teachings of the Bible.

So that is our challenge for this week, as a people and as the Church.  For the people, learn to study the Bible properly.  For the Church, go beyond teaching the Bible, and teach people to study the Bible properly.

That is all for this week, next week we will look at the second leg.  Until then, Love God, and Love your neighbor.

Technorati Tags: bible, church, faith, hermeneutics, study, tripod

Ok, now say the title 5 times fast.

“…And the Lord added to their numbers daily.”

I find this little phrase tucked at the end of Acts 2:47 indicting against the churches in America.  How many of you can say that new believers are coming to know Christ through your church on a daily basis?  Weekly?  Monthly?  Hopefully at least annually, but I imagine in some cases this is not even true.  I would venture that if you exclude from your numbers children of current church members the outlook is even more bleak.

I know I am not the first to wonder why we as a church have come so far from this exciting beginning.  To be fair, the message was new, and these were the apostles preaching.  And the apostles had actually walked with Christ, so there is that.  Oh and there is also….. wait a second, it says the Lord was adding to their numbers.  hmmm.

If we look at Acts 2:42-47, we see that they church was engaging the three basic activities, and through that, God was adding to their numbers.  If you boil down these verses, you can see the following three activities:

1. They were devoting themselves to the Apostl’s teaching.
2. They were eating/fellowshipping together daily.
3. They were helping anyone in need.

You see, they basically had a tripod of success.   Over the next few weeks, I want us to examine each of our own churches for each leg of the tripod.  My goal is to write a post about each leg, but honestly I may get carried away next week and do it all at once.  We will see.

Till next time, live you faith, and love your Lord.

Technorati Tags: acts, church, faith, growth, numbers

I want to extend a loving welcome to the Atheists (they claim it, not I.  I say this because of the site you are coming from.) who have started reading my blog in recent days.  If some of you are in fact agnostic, I welcome you as well.  I appreciate the feedback and your honesty.  My only request is that we keep it on an intellectual level and not degrade it to name calling or character judging.  This does nothing to further the conversation and only feeds negative stereotypes.  Besides that, I doubt any of you actually know me, so you are in no place to judge my character.

I look forward to answering some of your concerns shortly.  I will explain the delay below.  I also plan on posting this on the blog you are all coming from to ensure you get a chance to see it.

An update for everyone:

The reason I am not addressing the comments or even posting a deep post for the past two weeks is preparation for the Church Planting assessment which is next Thursday.  Half of the work was due yesterday, and the rest when we show up.  Hopefully I can get it finished this weekend, but we shall see.  Please keep my wife and I in your prayers as we walk down this road.

By next Friday, I should be able to dedicate more time here to my writing.

One other word of caution to those readers who claim the name of Christ- There are those who claim Christ and angrily condemn and attack others when they are discussing things that seem to be attacking their belief system.  Please do not fall into this trap.  This is not how Christ would respond, and neither should we.  People who respond this way give all Christians a bad name.  God loves those who have different opinions than us, and so should we regardless of how they respond to us.

That being said, any comment that is contrary to me and my post will be allowed to stay unless it is does not adhere to the standards of a polite society.   You know what I am talking about.  Any comment by a Christian that starts attacking those that do not agree with us will be deleted as soon as I can get to it.

Let’s try to keep all discussions intellectual and not emotional.

If you are not aware of what I am referring to, you can visit it here.

Technorati Tags: atheist, atheists, athiest, athiests, christ, church planting

A few readers have questioned where the promised men’s half is.  I apologize for the delayed posting.

The reason this has taken an extra week to deliver is because at many parts I feel like a hypocrite writing it.  I just want to make certain that you know that as I write most of these posts, I am sharing with you the lessons God is teaching me.  I am merely saying, this is the truth that God has shown me, walk with me this direction.  I am not in anyway trying to give the impression that I have arrived and have the answers, and here they are.  Just because I see the truth, it does not mean that I am great at following it.

These past two weeks, either God decided to see if I was serious, or God let Satan test my resolve.  I will let that argument for the theologians.  We will go back to Ephesians now, and hopefully we can convince our young man to go to California.

In Ephesians 5:25-28, men are given two directives.  We are to love our wives as Christ loved the Church, and we are to love our wives as we love ourselves.  There is a little more detail added, but that is the summary of what we are to do.

To be honest the second half is not that difficult to put into practice.  If I love watching football, I should force my wife to watch football so that I am loving her like I am loving myself.  If I hate taking out the trash, I should convince my wife to hate it as well and that it does not need done so that I am loving her like I am loving myself.

Ok, Ok, I admit it that is quite twisted interpretation, but at least if I felt like being a jerk, there is enough of an opening there for me to twist things around and justify.  However, God took it up a few notches, and this is where myself and many other husbands miss the ticket.

We in our Christian marriages have the responsibility to model for the world around us the relationship the Church has with Christ.  Unfortunately, we as men have the role of Christ in this little drama.  We are to function as Christ and as the head.

I know there are some of you that are saying, “That’s right, I am the head, I am the boss, I need to be obeyed, blah blah blah.”  You are correct that we have a place of leadership, but you are forgetting something.  I cannot make my wife do anything, and neither can you.  The only person I can change is myself with the grace of God.  So what am I to do?  Am I to be a king in my kingdom with my wife as my serving wench?  This is the model many in previous generations have espoused.  However, if I set myself up as king, I have missed my job.  I am to love my wife as Christ loves the church.

So lets look at some of the ways Christ loved the church:

1. Christ died for the church even when it was his enemy.  Some of you out there are saying, “I would gladly die if it gives me the sweet release of death from the presence of my enemy.”  You know all to well this was not the love of Christ.  Christ’s love in this action was to pursue the church and draw her to him.  To redeem it.  So men, when your wife as acting like your enemy, contradicting everything you say, are you pursuing her?  Are you so desirous of a love relationship with her that you are willing to suffer just to draw her to you?  That is what Christ did/does.

We men have a natural tendency to withdraw.  Look at the condition of the American family.  Many of the problems can be traced back to men withdrawing and not engaging.  Even if our wife is the contentious nagging woman of proverbs, we are still to pursue a relationship with her.  Sucks doesn’t it?  You pursue, she bites you, you pursue, she assaults you, you still need to pursue.  Not for you, not for her, but for the testimony you are to the world.

2. Christ sacrificed himself for the church.  Sounds a little redundant, but it is not.  Men are naturally selfish, and we wear that selfishness out loud when were are given a leadership role.  We typically run to one end of the spectrum or another.  We either withdraw or we turn into dictators, but Christ was neither.  Christ sacrificed himself out of love for the church.  Are we sacrificing, or are we demanding?  Regardless of whether or not your wife submits, you still need to sacrifice yourself.

To bring it full circle to my friend in CA and her husband, regardless of whether she went, regardless of what precedent that may set in your marriage, regardless of how she may have royally screwed things up for you, be Christ.  Pursue her with a passion.  Pursue her like Christ.  Go West!

Back on topic, Christ is love, and we are to love like Christ.  Unconditionally, sacrificially, and…. oh yeah, why don’t we go to I Corinthians 13 and look at what Love is.

Love is patient; are you patient with your wife?  Love is kind; are your kind to your wife?  It does not envy; do you get envious of your wife?  It does not boast; are you boastful about your ‘authority’?  It is not proud; are you humble in your relationship with your wife?  It is not rude; isn’t it rude to only make time for your wife during commercials of sporting events?  It is not self-seeking; whose will are you seeking?  It is not easily angered; oh no, now we cannot have a temper.  It keeps no record of wrongs; so does this mean I cannot point out to my wife all her screw ups of the past 5, 10, 15, 20 past years? yep.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; this one is pretty self explanatory, but I have spoken with some who it is not reality.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres; do you protect her, do you trust her, do you have hope in your marriage, do you persevere through the crap?  Love never fails; don’t fail men, the future of Christendom is built on the family and the cornerstone of which is the marriage.

It is time to step up to the plate men.  It is time to model Christ to the world.  We are told to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as our self, so loving our wives is not an option.  It is not always easy, it is does not always feel good, but it is what we should do.

Women, if your husband is a sweetie pie or a dictator it does not matter, you are to submit.  God does not give you an out.  The Bible does not say submit when you agree, it says to submit in all things.

Men, we have no out either.  Our wives may be the least or the most submissive woman in the history of the world, and we must still love them.  There is no out in the Bible.

The reason there is no out for either party is because it is not about us, it is about Christ and showing him to the world.  Keep that as our focus, and it makes it a little easier to stay on target.  Stay on target. (sorry slipped into a star wars mantra there).

My friend in CA, submit, go home, be the church to your husband and return regardless of how he acts, what he says, or what he does or does not do.  Husband of friend, regardless of what she does or does not do, pursue her.  Chase her like Christ chases his bride.  Be the model, buck the trend, shine for Christ.

Last of all, husbands and wives, pray for each other, not only your spouse, but the other couples you know as well.

Technorati Tags: husbands, love, marriage, wives

Well, now you are halfway to knowing everything you need to know about being a Christian.  Ok, not everything, but the essence of everything.  The foundation that all the rest hinges on.  Hopefully by now, you have all read part one. If not here is the first secret:  Being a Christian is all about love.  It is that simple.

Part one was about your internal self, part two is about external.  Part one is about being, part two is about acting.  Young people, if you are wondering what God’s will is for your life, I am going to reveal it here, so pay attention.

God’s desire for us can be summed up through two passages of scripture.  The first is James 1:27.  True religion is caring for orphans and widows and keeping ourselves unstained by the world.  The unstained part we will look at in the future, because there is much false teaching in the church regarding this.  Today, we are going to look at the caring for the orphans and the widows, because this is an echo of what Christ said in Matthew 25: 31-46.  In this passage, Jesus states explicitly that your access to your inheritance in Christ is based on how you treat those less fortunate than yourself.  I am not kidding, it is right there.

An easy assumption would be that I am advocating a works based salvation here, so let me be crystal clear, I am not.  No man has ever worked his way into salvation.  The Bible is very clear on this, because then we could boast.  So what is Christ saying?

It goes back to Matthew 7:17 where Christ is saying that every good tree bears good fruit and every bad tree bears bad fruit.  What we do for those less fortunate is not to earn anything, it is a reflection of who we have become in Christ.  You want to know if you are saved?  Consider how you feel about those that are important to God.  A future post will be regarding the flaw in how we in America (my world reference is limited, and I cannot speak for other parts of the globe) present the gospel.

Remember, salvation is not claiming a train ticket, it is a life changing belief.  It is granting Lordship.  It is full submission.  It is loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind.  Remember, many will call Lord Lord only to be sent away. (Matt 7:21-23).  These are people who believe they are Christians, they thought they had bought there ticket, and Jesus reveals to them that it is counterfeit.

If you look at your life, and if your body, mind, and soul are not transformed into looking more like Christ every day, then you need to check your relationship.  You need to fall on your knees and repent.  Christianity is not about tickets, it is about transformation.

Therefore, if you have been transformed, you will meet the needs of those less fortunate.  If you are like me, one of the struggles in America is coming in contact with those who are truly needy.  We are so insulated.  Most of us make over 200 times what over 50% of the worlds populations makes (according to some stat I heard, but do not remember the source of.)  How can we have true/pure religion in America?  Where are the less fortunate?  I can help, you can donate to me, do you see the google donate button to the right?  Just below the dancing elf.  Ok, there is no button, because God has truly blessed me, but I do have some answers for you.  Oh, btw, there is no elf either in case you are still looking.

In America we have prisons all over the place, get involved with a prison ministry.  Sponsor a child overseas.  Most of us could sponsor at least 2 for what we spend on our cell phone bills each month.  Give to soup kitchens.  Start a soup kitchen.  I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.

One thing that God has allowed me to be involved with is Feed Your Family Feed The World. Myself and my business partner built this to have a direct impact on orphan children in Africa.  We believe that not everyone can afford $30 a month out of their budget.  Especially now.  However, we also believe that there are few in our country who do not keep food on their family’s table.  With that in mind, we built a vehicle where every time you buy something for your own table, a child is guaranteed food, clothing, medical care, and education for a day.  In less than a year, God has used his people to guarantee that Ornella is sponsored for more than four years.

Keith (my partner) and I deserve no accolades for this, we are merely conduits and caretakers.  This is a testament of what God does when his sheep hear his voice.  I not putting this out there to inspire you to buy something, if you do great, if not great.  That is between you and God.  I put this out to you as an example of what God creates with willing hands. Be willing.

Do you remember the old western movies where inevitably someone puts there ear to a train track so they can know if a train was coming?  This is what Christians need to be doing, but not our ear to the track, but our knees to the floor.  We need to tap into the source and put ourselves in his hands.  We already know what he wants us to do, now it is just a matter of figuring out how.

If you find yourself reading this, and are confused; you have no burden for those hurting in the world, confess it to Christ.  Ask him to transform your heart.  Jesus is very clear that when we give to the needy, it is the same as giving to him.  None of us would deny Christ food, but every day people die of starvation.  None of us would deny Christ a drink, but every day people go thirsty.

Imagine if all the so called Christians in the world had their lives transformed by Christ and starting caring for the needy.  The world as we know it would never be the same.

In summary, love God, love others as Christ loves them, and care for those in need.  If you just do those three things, your life will be radically different.  As for me and my house?  We will be sheep, not goats.

Teenagers, young adults, are you looking for purpose?  Do these three things and you will look no more.

Technorati Tags: africa, christ, faith, goats, orphan, sheep, sponsor

After much study, prayer, and meditation, I have boiled down the essence of Christianity into two themes.  The first I will look into this post, and the second I will save for the next post. Probably by Thursday of next week, but who knows maybe sooner

Love God

The first half of Christianity, and the most important is to Love.  It is that simple, but also that difficult.  In Mark 12:30-31, Jesus gives us the two greatest commands.  Love the Lord with everything, and Love your neighbor as yourself.

Saying it is simple, applying it is difficult.  It is easy to say I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and mind, but do you really?  Looking at my last post, do you love the Lord enough to stay in your unhappy marriage?  Do you love him enough to keep your pants on during a dating relationship?  These are issues of the heart.  Does your heart love your happiness or the Lord more?  Does your heart love sexual pleasure or the Lord more?

For parents, do you love the Lord enough to spank your child? (now that is controversial)  In my mind, spanking my child seems wrong.  So who will I love more, my personal opinion, or the Lord.

Any point in your life where you choose your will over God’s, you are not loving God.  It is that simple.  Whether it be finances, relationships, parenting, anything that conflicts is a choice against God.  So in essence, each time we sin we are violating at least two of God’s commands.  One for whatever we are disobeying, and two for not loving the Lord.

Love Others

If Jesus had stopped there, I think most of us could make a good effort towards it.  If we humble ourselves, how hard is it to love the creator of the universe?  How hard is it to love the one who gives us life?  In reality, if we humble ourselves it would not be too hard.

However, Jesus did not stop there.  He went on to say that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and pretty much described our neighbor as anyone.  Now, I can say I love my neighbor, but do I really love them as myself?  Lets look at some hypothetical choices we will never have to make, but answer them honestly as if we did.  You see, if it came down to it, I would rather have heat in my house than yours.  I would be happy to invite you over for dinner, but I would like it to be my house.  This will sound cruel, but I rather your kid die than mine.  I would rather you get hit by a car than me.  I would rather you go bankrupt than me.  I would rather you get mauled by a komodo dragon than me.

Our natural tendency is to love ourselves a little bit, or a lot more than our neighbor.  Christ flipped that.  I need to want to be mauled by a komodo dragon instead of you.  Your well being should be just as important to me as my own.  I should love you as a love myself.  For me, this is the hardest part of Christianity.  This is where the rubber meets the road.

Love Your Enemies

Unfortunately, Christ went even further.  In Luke 6:27, we are told to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.  What?  This is not right!

When I was in High School, I mentally maintained a ‘black list.’  This was the list of everyone who had wronged me who I must exact vengeance upon.  To be honest, some of it was in fun, like the house toilet papering wars we had with some classmates. (ahhh good times)  However, there were others on my list that I placed there out of hatred, not good hearted fun.  However, this made sense.  They had wronged me, so I was justified in putting them on my list.  Logical isn’t it?

Then Jesus comes along and switches things around on me.  Now I have to love people who are my sworn enemies?  The odd thing is, now that I have been loving more, that list has dwindled down to zero.  I need to work on getting more enemies so I can practice loving them.  I have do good for those who hate me?  This list I am not sure the status of, if you are on it, please let me know so I can do good for you.

Once again, looking at my last post, can you love a man who raped you?  Do you plead on behalf of the person who stole your care?  Are you loving your enemy?

The first half of Christianity is pretty simple isn’t it.  Love God.  Love Your neighbor.  Love your enemy.  Why is this important?  Because this is how we light the world.  In John 13:34-35, Jesus explains that people will know we are his followers by our love for each other.  Not by our knowledge of doctrine, not by what activities we refrain from, and not by the fact that we go to church.  Those things are the thinks the Church gets their panties in a bunch about.  The world will know us by our love, so start loving or I will put you on my ‘black list’

One final thought:

I John 4:7-8 says that if we do not love, we do not know God.  It is that simple and that profound.  A great love test is to read I Cor. 13 and wherever it says love, insert your own name.  How quickly do you have to stop reading because it is no longer true?

Tune in next time for the other half of living out our faith.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, faith, love

I want to take you on a quick vacation in your mind.  Due to the current economic turmoil, a mind vacation is the most I can offer at this point.  I hope you enjoy it.

Since I am your tour guide, we are going to visit my families favorite vacation spot.  You and your spouse have decided to go to Bethany Beach, DE for two weeks of rest and relaxation.  The grandparents will be watching the children if you have any, so this will be two solid weeks of just you and your spouse enjoying life.

Saturday morning bright and early you pack up the car and are off.  You arrive in Bethany on Saturday afternoon and set up residence in the house you have rented two blocks from the beach.  You walk out on your patio and can hear the waves rolling in.  This is a life you could get used to.

Sunday morning rolls around and you and your spouse decide to check out a local church.  You always enjoy seeing the culture in different churches, and decide to find one in the yellow pages.  The one you choose offers a 9 am service with light refreshments afterwords.  “Perfect,” you think, we can enjoy the fellowship time, and still hit the beach early today.

You arrive about five minutes before nine and you and your spouse find a seat in the middle of the auditorium.  The church family seems a little more rambunctious than you are used to, but this is why you enjoy checking out new churches.  The worship leader takes you through the singing and offertory, and then the pastor steps up.

To word it nicely you are shocked.  You can tell just by looking at him, the pastor weighs in at over 300 lbs.  What is even more shocking is the fact that he is clearly drunk.  Not just a little buzzed, but definitely smashed.

What is even more shocking is that no one in the congregation seems to care.  The pastor slurs his way through his sermon.  After a couple times nearly falling over, he finally wraps things up and staggers back to his seat.

When the service is finally over, you follow the masses to the refreshment area.  Once more you are shocked.  You are beginning to think that the biggest financial contributor at this church must be Budweiser.  Everywhere you look, fat people are not only enjoying a beer, but getting drunk.

You and your spouse hastily exit this scene and head for your car.

Will you be back next week?  Does this action and lifestyle of the Pastor and congregants bother you?

Increasing Faith Time

Lets rewind the story, and retell it that they were not drunk or drinking, just overweight or obese and eating.  Would this bother you?  Would you be equally offended?  Judging by what I have observed in the many churches I have had the privilege of visiting, this is acceptable.  For some reason in our minds and faith we seperate gluttony from drunkenness.

God does not, but we do.  In the Bible, depending on your version, gluttony is mentioned approximately seven times.  Of those seven times, five times it is coupled with drunkenness.  God does not differentiate between overindulging in alcohol and overindulging in food.  But we Christians give the food a pass and not the alcohol.

I think this is partially because most of us, including myself, are guilty of gluttony.  How can I, a man whose BMI just fell below obese into the overweight category, speak out against this?  Wouldn’t this make me a hypocrite?  Yes it would which is why the silence of the church is deafening on this front.

The funny thing is, it is a lot easier to spot someone who struggles with gluttony than it is someone who struggles with drinking.  So why don’t we do something about this?  How can we?

Make A Difference

The first thing to do is to slay the demon in your own life.  Conquer this weakness so you can help others with their weakness.  Many of you who know me personally know I have recently embarked on this step.  You can read more about it here.

The web is replete with resources to help you.  A few I am aware of are-

Fat Loss For Idiots

Top Secret Weight Loss Tips!

Master Cleanse: Ten Day Diet

We as Christians need to inspire each other to better health.  We are caretakers of this temple, and we need to treat it as such.  Pray for each other, pray for me as I work to conquer this, pray for the overweight pastors in America.

The time to change is now!  Stop being drunk on food!

Technorati Tags: alcohol, diet, drunk, food, gluttony, increasing faith, pastor, weight loss