Waiting....

I hate waiting.

It's not that I'm not patient, its just that I'm worried while waiting the thing that I'm waiting for will never come.

Whether it be waiting for the microwave to ding for my food or just standing on something that God has promised me. The suspense kills me.

Waiting is the time period that we really see if we can trust God or just give up.

It would be easy if things were instant, but then we wouldn't really have to trust God for anything. We would just know.

Maybe that's just it.

Nobody wants to trust anybody these days. Why should God be any different?

Trust is a tough thing to give, but if you can't give it to somebody you can't get in return.

Just saying.

It's okay I can wait for your answer.

Why you need to leave your church...

Got ya! This article is not really encouraging people, but to list the reasons why you should never leave your church. It seems that no matter how much you say your committed to your church, there are moments that you think of leaving to go to another church. Switching churches should be an infrequent activity, as our responsibility as followers of Christ to to build and support the local church. Surely, from both a biblical perspective and a practical perspective it is impossible to achieve any level of effectiveness if we're changing churches every few years. If you do find yourself at a crossroads of switching churches, or feel God is leading you elsewhere be sure to answer these important questions.

1. Am I upset or offended by anything?

Even if it is time for you to go, if there is someone who has offended you in the church, deal and make that right, before you even think of leaving the church. Being offended is the most common reason of leaving the church, and the worst way to leave. If you don't deal with things in your current church, where you know forgiveness has been achieved in its fullest form in your position, you will find your problems will follow you to a new church.

2. You disagree with leadership

Beyond a MAJOR change from biblical morals, having a different opinion from leadership is normal and is also no reason to leave a church. It is easy to submit and honor when you agree, but the real test of your honor is if you can submit through difference of opinion.

3. The church doesn't have the right programs for you or your family.

Remember, how the church exists to reach and save the lost. Let it be about that for your family and not whether there is an incredible youth or children's program. Teach your kids to be leaders in their on right and to focus on reaching their own friends and not whether the church has something to offer them.

That's it, if you pass these three tests you should be prepared to move in. Except that it seems that this rules a lot of people out. In fact, maybe a better way to think of your church is like a family. You would think long and hard about leaving your family, right?

Dear Anti-Prosperity Preacher

I try to not get too fired up, about what people do in other churches.
I really believe that like minds attract, and the diversity of churches will be the key to attracting people from all walks of life into the kingdom.

Yes, not what I’m talking about in this blog, but I kind of like the idea of different denominations and movements.

Anyway, generally everyone has their own ways of doing things and that’s fine with me. Oh, and I think God supports the idea as well.

But....

Nothing makes me slam your book faster, stop downloading your podcast, or generally get fired up if you knock prosperity.

If I’m really honest, and I can be, because it’s my blog, it just makes you sound stupid.

Do you really think you can reach the world without money?

Think about it world hunger is a multi-billionaire dollar problem. Do you really think we can solve it by praying about or sending out young adults to blame the rich for the problem?

That’s right....sometime like if all the richest people in the world gave their wealth we would solve the world’s problems.

Not sure if you were aware, but the biggest donors to the world’s problems are the rich, and it’s not because there rich. Extreme generosity attracts wealth.

That’s not even the whole deal.

Preachers that criticize prosperity preachers fancy cars, or so-called lavish lifestyles.

Why do you waste you time?

Paul said it best that if your conscience is clear with it, let it be.

When your criticize it, it only makes everyone look bad to the world.

I’m just saying.

It takes a lot of money to reach the world.

Stop criticizing people that have it, and go make some.

Quit Blaming Hollywood

If I get one more advertisement from any organization or read another book about how Hollywood is killing young people I'm going scream. Do you know what movies, television, and media do? They sell what sells. So, really their not really influencing anything. They're not setting a culture, they are just responding to what consumers are buying. It's not that I think everybody in Hollywood is an example of incredible christian values. I think Hollywood is neutral. If tomorrow, Christian values became popular in western culture, the media would change to reflect that. It's about making great art and big profits. Those goals in itself are not immoral or wrong. Make no mistake the content that evolves from these goals is often less than pure, but considering that most of Hollywood is an entirely secular culture, do you really expect them to all of sudden be championing Christian values? Remember the verse, that the gospel is foolishness to those who don't believe. This probably applies to this situation. Now, wait a minute, what about those young Hollywood celebrities? You know, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, are they really good role models? Well, no. But, why do they need to be role models? Because, the men, women and parents in church are too busy blaming Hollywood, that they're not being the role models. How would you feel if just because your teenager has some skills in some areas there whole life becomes the standard on which all teenagers are measured by? Can you imagine the pressure? I'm not sure that most young people would be able to handle it? It might cause them to make some poor decisions. Especially, if they were not instilled with great values before, which most don't. I wonder if we make it easier for them to constantly be criticized. I doubt it.

It's not that I'm pro-Hollywood, well, actually I am. I think that God wants us to reach them too. So, stop blaming Hollywood, start spending time with young people, and see if you being in their life has a bit more of an influence than how many times Lindsay Lohan enters rehab.

The Main Thing

People get so distracted in church.

They have problems with money and giving. No time to serve. They disagree with the leaders. Don't like this. Don't like that. Who cares?

If the main thing is the main thing, then it doesn't really matter.

If we really first value reaching people and seeing them become radical followers of Christ. Then everything else is really secondary.

We can't get offended and stop going to church. Why? Because, no matter what the local church is the place in which people are able to become disciples of Christ. So, if its really about the main thing, then we got to still keep showing up at church.

Talking about money shouldn't make us mad. Why? Because the money that is given to the house of God is used to reach people. You know? The main thing. So, if we really care about the main thing then we have no problem giving.

Leaders of a church want to reach people, right? Or do people become leaders in church, because of the lucrative salary packages or short hours. Of course not? They want to reach people, so if they want to reach people doesn't it make sense to honor their leadership. Unless, we really don't care about the main thing.

Just saying, shouldn't it be about the main thing.

Let me get the rulebook

I laughed when I recently saw someone try to to find the loophole in an employee handbook that would cause them to get promotion. The only problem is the person they were trying to appeal to wrote the book.

Christians are kind of like this.


We don't want to sin if we're going to get punished. But, what if the bible doesn't say anything about it, its probably not wrong, right? Or maybe something is only wrong if you go all the way and not if you do everything, but? So, we live our life doing things exactly what the bible says and nothing else, but that's our rulebook.

This is all true, but sin's not that simple. Sin is not really about exactly what we can find in the bible. Imagine explaining to your wife that you weren't technically cheating, you weren't doing anything that wasn't clearly stated as being wrong in your marriage vows. It wouldn't change the feelings of betrayal and hurt. Yet, we do this to God all the time.

You see, when we really love God it stops being about "technically" and starts being about "because I love God". I do things and not do things not because I'm obligated to, but because I love God, and I want to do things that please him and don't hurt him.
In fact, if we just thought this and believed this we'd probably save a lot of debate over what's right and wrong.

This motivation alone, it would change everything. Everything.

Grace: It's Not What You Think

Grace is a hard concept to figure out.

Here's what I know so far. Man sins. Man sins again. And again. It starts out that God makes people atone for their sins by offering sacrifices in the form of food or dead animals, but after a while it's clear that the compounding problem of sin, cannot be made amends by a few meek sacrifices. So, we change the rule book. Jesus comes down to earth, takes a brutal punishment, and makes amends for every sin that has been or will be committed. Done. Well, I guess. Except that there are still questions like, why even be good at all it's all forgiven? Is there something that can't be forgiven? Can I sin too much?

It seems necessary that the only way to understand grace is to understand relationships. Do your purposefully try to hurt or let down your spouse, kids, or family? Most people would and should give a resounding no to this question. But, that doesn't mean that we don't still let down and hurt the people we love. In a healthy relationship, we forgive and move on. There is no amount of times that it's too much, and even though we're forgiven we rarely desire to repeat the situation. Perhaps, this is the same attitude that we must take with God. Do we desire to let him down? Do we desire to hurt him? If we really love God, we will do the things that make him happy! However, the great thing about grace is that those time when we do make him unhappy, he forgives and keeps no records of wrongs.

I understand all this, but maybe the issue if I'm honest is that when I'm sinning I don't think about how this is hurting God. In fact, I'm pretty good at separately God from parts of my life. But, that's the issue. If I really loved God I would let him into every area of my life, and I probably would have a harder time sinning, knowing that I'm hurting God.

Grace is being able to have second chances that make us able to do something differently the second time.

Jesus said "If you love me, you'll obey my commandants"

So, maybe it's not grace or sin, but being able to realize that the more we have God in our life, the easier it is to give and receive grace. Grace is the gift that God has given to us, but to fully understand it we must focus on learning to love God, then we will truly know what it means to be forgiven.