God is good. All the time. The other night, I was working. 'Cause that's what I do. I work. Gotta make a living. (I have to confess that when I work, I generally don't look for God to do much. He's there. I thank Him for my clients and my work. But I don't generally think about ministry while I'm designing a web page.) And yet. He is there anyway.

So, as I was working, I checked facebook. I try not to, because it ends up distracting me. But I did this time. And I got a message from a friend. We'll call him "John". He had questions about God. Now, "John" and I go way back. We go back to high school, more than ten years ago. We used to party together. Now, I'm a Youth Pastor. So "John" from high school has questions about God, and God uses me to answer some of those when I am supposed to be working. I'm posting this to show that there is never a time when God can't/won't use you. We must always be listening.

I won't post what was said. I will only say that a changed life gave rise to a question about why I changed. The cool thing is, this is not the first time someone from my past has asked why I changed.

There are many things that will serve to evangelize, but few are as powerful or as irrefutable as your testimony and the sign of a changed life. If your faith is true, your life will show fruit of that faith. The fruit of my faith is a changed life in Christ Jesus, and a testimony of the things He has put out of my life. And God uses that testimony again and again.

Wherever you are. Whatever you are doing. Know that God can use you. Even more, that He wants to use you. And it's awesome when He does.

Be rad for Jesus. And be ready.

Labels: Christian, evangelism, love, questions, testimony

  ¶ 22:02 0 Comments

  To those who struggle... (by unfallenbrian) Struggling with sin.  We all do it.  And, in a way, the struggle is good.  Don't give in. Fight for your righteousness. Fight to stand in Christ, and let Him put your sin to death. Let your King take your entire broken flesh and put it to death. 


But death is painful. And it feels like a loss. Like an end. In those times, and in the times when it seems like the flesh has risen up and conquered your will, maybe this will help.


This is something that God placed on my heart as I texted with a friend one night. And then I sent it to someone else who struggled. And it turns out that God had something to say here. So if you struggle, read on and find some encouragement and peace. And hopefully victory.

Pray. And be strong, God wants repentance, but not in a despairing kind of way. He wants you to turn back to him and give him glory. Let the Light shine on you and remove the darkness. It's the devil's trick to make us not lift our eyes to God in times of struggle.

I know. It's hard enough to fight the temptation when things are fine. But then it goes south and you slip.

But be strong in Christ. He did not vainly hang on that cross. Christ did not get up there in weakness. Your God is strong and mighty. He conquered in ways deeper than battles and wars. Run into the arms of LOVE in those times. I know the pain of disappointment and betrayal, but those things are soothed and forgotten in the presence of The Almighty King who conquered even death itself to save you from your sin.

And He saw this day when He hung on that cross. And he died for you knowing full well this day. He died to forgive you for this day. And all others!

In victory, stand! And be clean in HIS righteousness.

If you take on the burden of this, and all the world around you, it will crush you. So, as you enter the presence of the King, know that His grace and power is sufficient. And he has a future for you. He Has plans of blessing and glory.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart And you will find REST for your SOULS. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Mat.11.28-30

May you find peace and rest in the presence of Jesus. May you find freedom and righteousness in His love. And may you find victory in death, as you are transformed from glory to glory in the life of Christ.

Be rad for Jesus.

 

  ¶ 12:28 0 Comments

  GRACE: free to receive. (salvation and broken chains) [by brianlucas] Grace was once defined to me as: "when God gives us that which we do not deserve."

It is by the grace of God that we are saved. Our salvation has been given to us freely. We do nothing to earn it, and nothing we do in thanks can ever repay it. This is the gospel; the Good News. "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen." (Gal.1.3-5) This greeting from Paul to the Galatians sums it up perfectly. Jesus gave himself up for our sins. It was the will of our God and Father. To Him be the glory. There is nothing in there for us to take credit for. All I have to offer in that is that those were my sins. I contributed to the reason Jesus was nailed to a cross. The forgiveness was a free gift. I had nothing to do with that part, and get no credit.

But I do get to reap the benefits. I am forgiven. I am free. I am free to cast off my life. I am free to walk away from sin. I am free to live in the glory of God, because He sent his son to die for me. And He has set me free.

There are those who would question the "free-ness" of the gift. "There must be something we have to do," you might say. Read on in Galatians 1: "⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!" Not only is salvation a free gift, but to claim otherwise is to deny Christ. There is no other way. There is no other gospel. Christ died for you. Nothing else.

And, so what? Well, look at how this plays out in life. I like the way Thrice puts it:

Come All You Weary | The Alchemy Index vol. iv | Thrice
"Come all you weary, with your heavy loads. Lay down your burdens; find rest for your souls. My YOKE is easy and my burden is kind; I'll take yours upon me, and you can take mine. Come all you weary, who move through the earth; who've been spurned at fine restaurants, and kicked out of church. I've got a couple of loaves, so sit down at my feet; lend me your ears and we'll break bread and eat. Come all you weary. Come, gather round near me; find rest for your SOULS. Come all you weary; you crippled, you lame. I'll help you along; you can throw down your canes. We've got a long way to go, but we'll travel as FRIENDS. The light's growing bright; further up, further in."

Matthew 11:28-30 [NIV]

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

The song is obviously based in the words of Jesus as Matthew records them. "Come all you weary." Jesus says this as he is speaking to a huge crowd. He says: "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (mat.11.27-28)

Jesus came to take our burdens. He came to SET US FREE from the sin that holds down our souls. Jesus wasn't here to praise the efforts of the religious elite; but rather to heal the sick and wounded, and to raise the dead. Not only in the physical, but in the spiritual sense as well. Jesus preached grace and freedom; healing and salvation. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near [here]." (mat.4.17) Turn your eyes to heaven. There is nothing we can do, but come to Christ. He takes our burden. We don't earn it off. We don't pay it down. We come to him and he trades us. He takes the sin and weight of the world upon himself, and gives us his yoke. What is this yoke? A right relationship with God the Almighty Father. His yoke is FREEDOM.

Paul, again in Galatians, elaborates on the yoke of Christ: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Gal.5.1-2).

We are set free, to be free, and it was done for free!

As Jesus said to Nicodemus (who came to find out what Jesus was really all about), "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (john.3.14-17) Jesus came to save the world. And how is that salvation administered? Through the belief in the savior. Just like Moses lifting the snake, the healing comes with the simple faith to look to Christ for salvation.

Check it out:
"They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." (num.21.4-9)  The people's actions earned them death. But the Lord's deliverance required only the sight of salvation. All they had to do was see the bronze snake and it would save them. There is nothing they could do for themselves but believe.

It is the same with Christ. He came to save the world. Not by telling us how to live right and earn it; but by showing us God's salvation once again, and all we have to do is believe. THERE IS FREEDOM from all sin, all burdens, all sickness, and all death. For when we believe in Jesus as our Lord, our Savior, we have eternal life with God. And all the sickness, pain, suffering, and death the world has to offer cannot overcome that.

So how does that play out? How does being set free actually change me? How does it happen?

Through the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would be our counselor/guide/helper. It looks like this: "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. The are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." (Gal.5.16-18) Live in the Spirit. Let the Spirit of God fill you and lead you to a new and different life. Our human nature, the thing that makes us sin, will make us sin. But if we allow the Spirit of God to lead us and change us, not only are you free from the law and its penalties of death, but you are free to live in the Spirit.


But what does that look like?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." A life in the Spirit is full of these nine things. If you see this "fruit" begin to grow and develop in your life, then you are on your way. A life that is free in the Spirit is free to love and be like Christ.

WE ARE FREE IN CHRIST.

May you find peace and relief in the loving arms of Christ, as he imparts the saving love of Almighty God through the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. All you must do is believe, and let the Holy Spirit of God take care of the rest. Amen.  ¶ 01:58 0 Comments

  The Jesus you share will be the Jesus they know. (by BSoltis) My buddy Dennis shared a quote with me from one of his teachers in seminary.

"The Jesus you share will be the Jesus they know."

Some people have told me before that I am bold about sharing my faith and one of the things that spurs me on is this quote. As a Christian, if you don't share with others about Jesus then whom do you think will?

A lot of times we think that we're doing our part simply by inviting people to church. We think that if they reject our invitation then we can just write them off as a heathen. It's always good to invite people to church, but think of it from a secular perspective. If one of your buddies invites you to a bar and you don't drink, would you go? If they are Muslim, Jewish or Wiccan would you go to temple with them? Probably not. This means that the best influence you can have on them would be to show you are a man of integrity. Show them through your life/lifestyle what it means to be a follower of Jesus; an ambassador to Christ; a Christian.

Also, take time to listen. A lot of times people are talked AT, but few are talked TO, especially by Christians. Brush up on apologetics and ask your friends/strangers about their faith and learn the differences. More often than not, people can remember the false encounter they had with a "Christian" who didn't know their material. This is yet again another reason why we need to be reading our Bible daily.

Here's another solid quote.

"It's not about trying to win an argument; it's about winning a soul."

I think that was taken from Mark Cahill's book "The One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" (a book about evangelism). Mull these quotes over and check out this definition of integrity. I think it goes hand-in-hand with this theme and should be applied in our everyday lives.

in-teg-ri-ty (noun)
1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

Have a heart for the lost and view others as God would view them. Call one another out in TRUTH and in LOVE.

Make sure you're reading your Bible to hear all that God has in store for you. God bless you all!

Labels: Christian, evangelism, jesus, love

  ¶ 13:52 0 Comments

  Been Here Before (by Homespun Reality) Hey wait, I recognize you...I've seen you here before
And with that simple thought more is revealed of me than of you
Because I don't know your story, but I know why I keep coming back
And it's the terrors inside my head that drive me here when I have nowhere else to go

But I won't expose you because I'd hate to expose myself
And all of that's because I'll be vulnerable and this life's about saving face.
Don't worry about how you really feel inside
Because all that matters is the plastic smile plastered on your face

Here we go one more time saving face and saying that we're fine
Why can't people just accept us for not being okay?
Not every day does the sun shines brightest and forces the rain clouds away
But it's not like that matters much 'cause I'm still here saving face

I won't tell you precisely what I've done to bring me here again and it's because I'm afraid
Perhaps it's my pride covering up my sackcloth attire underneath it all
All in all, I will leave this as a cliff hanger glimpse into the real me
Because I know otherwise I'd be judged seen differently in the end

So now we'll keep this secret that we both recognize each other here
For I know sometimes the pressure is too much and the shadow's call during lonely nights
And I lack the strength to right now to turn and flee so I accept my choices
And I leave this unanswered, put on my plastic smile and continue saving face

Labels: homespun reality

  ¶ 12:21 0 Comments

  Dying to Get Inside by HomespunReality

People are outside looking in

Seeing the lights, the crowds and hearing the voices inside

But it’s all too familiar of a sight for tired eyes

So they keep on walking because they’ve been in there before

Oh, so long ago they remember being inside of those doors

Amidst a group claiming to be so loving, but all too human for the rest

Trying to be inclusive to anyone willing to walk in the front door

But can be as exclusive as a Hollywood nightclub to those on the outside

Some have been there, sat in the back and were acknowledged once

Others came in scared and alone, sat in the seats among the rest, only to leave unchanged

Seeking for the secret that brings such masses together, but finding a cliché

Seeing outsiders in your circle is sometimes so hard to do, because we get into routines

You come in, take the bulletin and find your seat

Casually talk to the people around that you have seen before

Sing along during the songs and listen quietly during the message, maybe take some notes

Only to leave just like you came, passing so many others just like yourself

And it repeats like this week after week, or at least that’s the pitfall

We get into a routine where we come to be fulfilled, taken care of and healed

And listen week after week to another message about loving others and God’s love for us

But too often we get caught up in ourselves and miss the outsider stumbling in

Forgotten and alone they sink to the back of the crowd

Are casually greeted and then left alone for the rest of the time

They’ll be lucky if they are talked to again before they walk out the doors

Only to realize that these insiders are just like the people outside these walls

Why would they be any different?

So, they walk out the doors and leave disappointed

Cursing God and calling us hypocrites because we don’t practice what we preach

And we wonder why there are so many people just like them who despise us

Giving us bad names because of one bad experience they had and didn’t choose to return

So I end with this for anyone who’s been left out and forgotten about

I am sorry for the way that you’ve been treated, it shouldn’t have happened but we’re all human

We really didn’t mean to overlook the fact you’re new, forget you or just plain leave you out

And we’re trying to get it right, but we’re still human after all

And when the times come that we can’t reach you, God’s still there

He’s reaching out with loving arms continually to you

He’ll never leave you or forget you even when the church makes mistakes and overlooks

He’s still watching and waiting, all you have to do is ask Him to rescue you

  ¶ 21:56 0 Comments

  the devil hates you. by (brianlucas) "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1peter.5.8-9:

i was thinking about how much the devil sucks and tries to destroy us, and how he even hates the part of us that enjoys sin. he hates us completely. he seeks to devour you. not just to tempt you, or to lead you to something not as cool as God. but he seeks the utter destruction of your soul. he wants you to sin. not because it makes him happy, or because he wants your worship. the devil desires your attention because it breaks God's heart. the devil doesn't care about you at all. he only wants God to hurt, and hurting us does that more than we can imagine.

but God loves us. even the part that enjoys sin. He wants to see that part fixed, healed. He wants to see us turn toward the light and let it shine out the dark spots. Darkness cannot exist in light. God desires for us to get closer to Him, and allow Him access to our hearts where he can sanctify us. He desires for us to know His love, and share in it with Him.

There is an enemy who seeks to destroy.
There is a savior, who created us for love, and wants to heal us so we can be loved and love better.

Seek creation. Not destruction.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" _2corinthians.5.17

Be in Christ. Be in love.  ¶ 10:30 1 Comments