Monthly Archives: September 2013

Religious Roadblocks

Last night a tree fell across the road to our house. It had snapped about 15 feet up and part of it was still attached so it wasn’t an easy removal. We called for the county to send out a crew to remove it. About 30 minutes later, a truck pulled up and a man got out. I thought, “How is one person going to move this?” He walked all the way around the debris looking at it, thought about the best way, grabbed a chain, wrapped it around the fallen trunk, tied the other end to his bumper and tried pulling it off the road and from its connected trunk.

It did not easily separate from the base. It took several attempts of squealing wheels on the pavement to finally break it free. He kept driving once he had momentum and drug it off the road. He took a chainsaw and cut off any branches that were sticking out towards the road. We cleaned up the debris that was on the road and then took a look at the bare trunk that was still standing. It was clear that it was hollowed out. From the outside, it looked healthy and vibrant, but on the inside it was hollow and rotten.

It reminded me of the religious Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They blocked the roads of others with unrealistic rules in the name on religion. They appeared to be the only ones who could uphold these rules so they looked down on others. There was no real way anyone could fully live according to all the rules they had subjected the people too. They took what God intended as a way to communicate with people and put up road blocks separating them further from Him.

Jesus saw them for what they were and it made Him angry. In Matthew 23:27 He said, “Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside, but filled with dead people’s bones.” They appeared to be healthy, but like that tree, they were hollow and dead inside. Nothing made Jesus more angry than people who traded a relationship with God for religion. Relationship with God is empowering because it creates communication with Him. Religion separates you from Him through shame and failure because there are rules you can’t follow.

Jesus came to restore the relationship that the rules of religion had severed. He was the one person God sent with the power and ability to remove the tree that was blocking our ability to get to Him. His desire was not to condemn through rules and regulations, but to save us through relationship. He was about empowering us to live godly lives not to shame us because we couldn’t live up to the standards of religion. The religious leaders hated Him for it. He took their power grabbing scheme and exposed it for what it was. They ended up killing Him because of it not realizing that when they did, they had cleared the path for relationship.

Have you viewed Christianity as a list of rules that you could never follow? Have you seen God as the king of thou shalt not’s? That’s not who He is. Man took what God intended to create relationship and put in rules that separate. If you’ve been separated from a relationship with God because you thought Christianity was about a bunch of rules, I encourage you to leave the religion behind and build a relationship with God through Jesus. It has been His intention to have a relationship with us since He created us. Get rid of the roadblocks of religion and embrace a relationship with Him today.

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A Church Full of Hypocrites

Sometimes I think we all forget that the church is made up by people like you and me. It’s full of imperfect people who, despite being forgiven of their past, still struggle to escape it. There are people who go, not because they are Christians, but because they think it’s good to go. There are people who go only because they want their children to be exposed to it. There are people who go in order to find absolution for something they’ve done that they can’t forgive themselves of.

There is no one perfect in any church. Not the pastor, preacher, priest, rabbi or person sitting next to you in the pew. Somehow, we expect them to be because they are Christians. We expect them to always say the right things, do the right things and to drop everything to pay attention to us. When that doesn’t happen, we label them hypocrites. We say the church is full of people who are fake. Yet, we don’t go look in the mirror and hold ourselves to that same perfect standard.

If the church was truly full of perfect people, why would anyone want to go there? I’m glad the church has hypocrites, liars and cheaters in it. That means that there are people there who know they don’t have it all together, but they know the place where they can go to get help. They recognize they don’t have all the answers so they go to the place where they can find some of the answers to their questions. The person up front doesn’t have all the answers either. They’ve just chosen to be an imperfect person who has submitted to being the one whom God could speak through.

So many of us have left churches or church all together because we’ve held an imperfect person to a perfect standard. It’s a standard that not even we ourselves could ever live up to. I’ve been on churches all over the world and I’ve yet to meet a person in one of them who ever claimed to be perfect or had the ability to always say the right thing. I’ve learned to cut people a lot of slack for things they have said or done that have offended me because I need that same grace from them. I say and do things that offend others too because I’m not perfect. The fact that I go to church doesn’t somehow prevent me from doing that.

This Sunday is “Back to Church Sunday”. If you’ve ever left the church because you were offended or held an imperfect person to a perfect standard just because they were a Christian, I want to invite you to go back this weekend with a different set of lenses on. Go in with eyes that recognize the people in there are just like you. They don’t have it all figured out, they might be hypocrites, they might be liars, but know that they’re there in order to change from those ways. Put aside your pride and offer them the same grace you want them to offer you.

I look forward to seeing you in church this Sunday. If you’re looking for someone who is perfect, you won’t find them. But if you’re looking for a friendly face on an imperfect person, I’ll save you a seat next to me. I hope that you’ll give church a second chance this weekend.

Click here for a short video that I saw earlier this week about “Back to Church Sunday” that I think you’ll like.

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Busy For God

Have you ever been rocked by a single question? There was a question asked last night that I’m still wrestling with the answer to. It was, “Are you just being busy for God or are you fulfilling your calling?” It’s a very humbling question. When you think about it, how much of what we do is just busy work and how much is truly fulfilling our calling? I believe each person has a calling on their life to do something. Each person was created unique for a reason only they can fulfill.

God is not pleased when we’re just being busy for Him. His desire is that each of us fulfill His calling for us. I think of Martha and Mary and how Jesus came to visit them. Luke 10:40 says, “Martha overly occupied and too busy was distracted with much serving. (AMP)” We can get to the point that our business for God becomes a distraction more than it is a help. Martha’s was serving Jesus, but that wasn’t her calling. She was busy, but not productive.

Another story from the Bible that came to mind was from I Samuel 14. Saul was outnumbered by the Philistines and wasn’t sure what to do. His son Jonathan got his armor bearer and decided to go attack the entire Philistine army themselves. While Saul prayed and acted busy for God, Jonathan went to fulfill his call. When Jonathan attacked, Saul and his men didn’t know what was happening. They took a count of everyone and found Jonathan was missing. Saul called decided to pray again while the battle raged. He finally joined his son once the Philistines were running.

We can use prayer to keep us from doing what God called us too. We can use serving in God’s house to be busy for God while running from our calling. There are a number of things we can use to be busy while not fulfilling our calling. Just because we don’t get in a boat and head the opposite direction like Jonah doesn’t mean we aren’t in the same boat as he is when we are busy doing things for God instead of doing what He told us.

I know it’s scary to think about what God called you to do. I know there’s lots of questions you have about how, when and where. Don’t get so scared of your calling that you hide behind being busy instead of following that call. God isn’t pleased with that. That’s not what you were created for. You will never be fulfilled in that role and you will grow weary. Chances are you won’t be very productive either. Martha wasn’t. She wanted Mary to leave her calling to come help her. She was busy serving, but not productive. Saul was busy praying, but not productive. Is serving important? Yes. Is praying important? Yes. But you can’t hide behind them when God said, “Go!”

What things are you using to be busy for God instead of fulfilling your calling? Are you truly fulfilled doing those things or do you feel like there’s more? You can serve in the house of God and still not fulfill what you were called to do. Remember there are others who are waiting on the other side of your obedience. They can’t move forward until you do. Leave those things that you’re using to be busy and start doing what you were made to do. No one else can do it because that’s why you were created. Live a fulfilled life by following your calling.

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Always Remember

“Always remember” became a rally cry after the initial 9/11 attacks. Today, my Facebook feed is full of people remembering where they were that morning. They recall what they were doing and how they felt. Each of us who were alive that day have a story of when and how we found out. For one day out of the year, we share that story and post it for all to see. I can’t help but think what would happen if the world’s Christian population did the same thing with when and how they came to know Jesus. What would our Facebook feed look like then?

Imagine the testimonies that would be read on such a day. Think of those who you’ve never told about your faith, but wish you had the guts to. Something like that could change lives forever. I go to church with lots of people, but I don’t know most of their testimonies of how they were called out of the life they were living. It would be so encouraging to read the ways that God reached into someone’s life and brought them from despair to hope. It would be incredible to see how many were raised in church and stayed true to the faith they were handed down.

I know it’s kind of a pipe dream to think that we would all do this one day, but I also think dreams are how things get started. When is the last time any of us shared our testimony publicly? When is the last time we let anyone know what God did for us? Why do we keep silent about it? When it first happened, we couldn’t shut up about this amazing feeling if redemption and forgiveness. Now we scared to open our mouths even among fellow believers to share what God is doing. How did that happen?

For me, I was raised in church. I first gave my heart to The Lord at 7 during a children’s crusade given by a former biker who used the loss of limbs from an accident to become Captain Hook. He shared of God’s hidden treasure and how we needed to seek Him like that hidden treasure. I knew then that I wanted to spend a lifetime seeking that treasure. When life got complicated, I quit searching for that treasure. I got lost in the cares of this world. Things in my life went from bad to worse. My wife left me and I lost my business.

After that, I went to a bar every night 7 days a week to help me forget the pain and to help me sleep. One night, a guy I knew from high school sat down beside me at that bar and asked why I was in a bar. I told him everything that happened. When I looked for sympathy, he gave me none. He stood up and said, “I’m not going to sit here and drink with you. You’ve given up and that’s not the Chris I knew. I don’t want to see you like this.” He got up and walked out. All of a sudden everything became clear. I was in a rut and hiding from the God who was seeking me.

I left and never went back. I began seeking that treasure once again. I owned up to the mistakes I made, dealt with my past and started to move forward. I rebuilt on the foundation that had been laid as a child. I will always remember that night when God used that man to call me out of darkness and back into His light. I’m thankful that I wasn’t left wallowing in self pity. I could have wasted more years of my life not seeking Him, but God wouldn’t let me.

That’s mine in a nutshell. What’s yours? If we can’t fill up Facebook with our testimonies, maybe we can share them here. I love hearing how God called each person individually. Always remember what He did for you and never be scared to share it.

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A More Powerful Spiritual Life

If spending quality time with God is the way to having a quality spiritual life, then fasting is the way to having a more powerful spiritual life. Giving up our time shows God we are making Him a priority. Giving up food shows Him that we are willing to sacrifice our physical comfort for spiritual gain. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that I’m afraid too few Christians engage in. Either we don’t see the purpose or we don’t see the value, so we don’t do it. When we skip fasting as a spiritual discipline, we miss out on strength needed to overcome certain things in our lives.

In Mark 9, there is a story of a man who asked Jesus to heal his son who was possessed by an evil spirit. In verse 18 he said, “I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” They had spent quality time with Jesus, but hadn’t been fasting and praying so they lacked the power to heal him. Jesus told them in verse 29, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting.” He inferred that there is more power in fasting.

When you are in need of more power to overcome a temptation, to find the right direction or to get through a situation, I encourage you to fast and to pray. Your fast should be between you and God. Don’t make an outward show of it or tell people you are doing it so they will feel sorry for you. Jesus said that if you did that, you have your reward. I’d rather have the power of God than the approval of man. It’s our choice when we fast.

In Matthew 6:16, Jesus said, “When (not if) you fast, don’t make it obvious.” He knew that our human nature likes to receive sympathy from others. We like to play to the crowd and to get others to feel sorry for us. Fasting is not about that at all. It’s about showing God you have brought your body under discipline and are denying it what it needs in order to gain what your spirit needs. It shows Him we are willing to feed our spirit instead of our stomach.

The Bible talks of many different types of fasts and lengths of fasts. How long, what you fast and why you fast are between you and God. I always feel like the more challenging the fast, the greater reward. If my fast costs me nothing, that about what I’ll get in return. The greater the need in my life, the greater the fast I do. Some are mentally challenging, but all are physically challenging. I usually seek God on what He wants me to fast and for how long. Once decided, I pray for the need every time I have a desire for what I’m fasting. I’ve learned that giving up what I want for what He wants changes me for the better every time.

What are different fasts that have challenged you physically, mentally and spiritually? How often do you think that Christians should fast? Should it be just when we need something from God or should it be something we do on a regular basis? I’m curious to hear how God has called you to fast and what He’s done through your fasting.

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Dealing with Distractions

I always seem to get distracted during my prayer time on Monday’s. My mind tries to think through the week ahead starting with the meetings today. I catch myself going down rabbit trails in my mind when I should be praying. It’s hard to concentrate on what I’m reading in the Bible when I’ve got other things popping up in my mind. When I try to be quiet before The Lord, songs, music, thoughts on how to resolve situations and schedules start to cloud my mind. Not to mention, it would be nice to sleep a little longer since it is Monday and the weekend is officially over.

Do you ever go through this? Do you find it hard to keep your mind focused on God when you’re supposed to be spending time with Him? I think most of us do. Our minds are problem solvers and are constantly thinking through how to fix things in our lives. It happens in our prayer times because that’s the only time we’re still enough to let our minds work. We force ourselves to stop and concentrate on God, but our mind has other plans.

If we look in the Gospels, we see that Jesus made it a habit to get away from everything, go off to secluded places and spent time with God. Many of us would love a secluded place just to get away from the kids, noise, obligations, phone calls, text messages and emails! But to spend time with God, we need to find that place to spend with Him, not just to escape our daily life. As a kid, I remember that any morning I got up early, if I went to the living room, I’d find my mom there with her Bible and a cup of coffee. That was her time.

Each of us have different schedules, different obligations and different situations. There’s no one size fits all approach to spending time with God without distractions. I wish there was. Instead, it takes a conscious effort on our part to find that time and place where we can spend uninterrupted time alone with God. It’s up to us to turn off the phone, get away from noisy distractions, find a secluded place and to get alone with God. I struggled for years with this. I didn’t prioritize my time with Him so I allowed the distractions to take over that time.

Now, I’ve made a decision that I won’t let anything interrupt that time. The only time I found on my schedule to do that was my commute to work. When a thought other than one that is God-centered pops in, I check it, push it out and quiet my mind again. I turn the radio off, keep my eyes on the road and treat it as I would if I were having a meeting. Doing these simple things have helped my spiritual life to grow more in the past two years than the previous decades combined. It all started with the decision to make it a priority above everything else.

I’m curious to see how others have found time in their busy schedules to spend time alone with God. What do you do? What best practices do you have that help you stay on track with your quality time with God? How do you keep other thoughts from distracting you? How do you make time when there seems to be none? Please share so that all of us can benefit and find ways to improve our own quiet time with God. If we learn to spend quality time with God, our lives will have more quality.

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A Call to Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to truly love people. As Christians, we are called to love others. Jesus said that the world would know we are His disciples by our love for others, but is that what we are known for? I’ve been reminded a few times this week through conversations and quotes I’ve read that we need to learn to love more than we are. We spend more time judging than we do loving and that’s a problem.

One of the quotes I read this week came from Mother Teresa. It said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” We have to fight against our human nature with this one. It’s easy to sit and judge, but difficult to go and love. Loving others requires us to act and it’s not an easy thing to do at times. Judging simply involves talking and requires little effort. It’s up to each one of us to consciously keep our mouths closed and to show others love instead.

Another quote I was reminded again came from Peter Strople. He said, “When in doubt, love.” If you aren’t sure what to do in a certain situation, ask yourself how you can show God’s love to that person. If you were the on,y one who had the opportunity to show God’s love to them, what would God ask you to do? Don’t pass the buck. You may be the only person who can show them God’s love and He is waiting on you to act on His behalf. Mark Batterson said, “Inaction is action. Indecision is a decision.” By not doing anything, you are telling them everything.

I also read an article about Uncle Si Robertson from Duck Dynasty this week. He was asked what his favorite verse was. He said, “John 3:17. Everybody knows verse 16, but nobody looks at verse 17.” In the Message it says, “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help.” Jesus didn’t spend His time judging sinners. He spent His time building relationships with them. Why aren’t we following His model?

I’m writing this today to myself as much as to anyone else that bears the name Christian. We are known more for judging than for loving. We are known for pointing fingers instead of helping hands. We’ve been so caught up in being in the world, not of the world that we’ve built walls between the ourselves and the ones we’re called to help. It’s no wonder that church growth is comprised mainly of switchers instead of new converts. We spend time and money trying to build a better service than the church down the road instead of spending time and money on things that help to build the relationships needed to truly grow the Church.

It all comes down to love. It’s not our minister’s job to do it, it’s ours. They can’t touch as many people as we, the body, can collectively. We can’t grow the Church because we’ve separated ourselves from those who need God’s love in an effort to stay clean. Jesus hung out with leppers, prostitutes and the worst of sinners because that’s who needs His love the most. It’s time we followed His example, built relationships with unbelievers and showed them His love in action. Don’t sit in judgement behind walls. Get your hands dirty and love others.

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Changing Routes

When I lived in the Middle East, the U.S. Embassy would often tell us to change our routines and the way we went to work. We were told to find a different path, go in at different times and to be unpredictable in our routes. It was easy to take my route to the church each day. I would ride my bike over the flyover, go up a few blocks, turn left for one block and then go right. I waved each morning to the men at the bakery. I said, “Good morning” in Arabic to the furniture makers. I nodded at the guards at the intersections. I was comfortable in that route.

I think we love routine because we feel there’s safety in it. We can do it without thinking and it’s easy. We see the same things each day and they become ordinary to us. Changing routes and routines throws everything off. There are new sites, new people, and new patterns that cause us to have to be alert and to pay attention. We as Christians should be doing this in our lives often. Not only will it give us a heightened awareness of what’s around us, it can increase our circle of influence.

I pray each day for God to open my eyes to see what He wants me to see, but I keep the same routine and wonder why I’m not seeing anything. Changing routines and routes in our lives changes our perspective. It forces us out of the mundane and into the extraordinary. It allows God to reveal things to us that we couldn’t see from our old perspective. It helps us to see other people who need our help that weren’t in our path before. It keeps our lives fresh.

I’ve heard it said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. How can we expect God to move in our lives, open our eyes and change our perspective if we just keep doing the same old things over and over? We have to get out of what is familiar to us. We have to quit asking Him to put people in our path and start asking Him to put us in their path! If we want to grow, we have to be willing to change.

I’m not a person who likes change, but the company I work for believes in it and I’ve learned to adapt. Being comfortable doesn’t help you to be the best. It helps you fall into a false sense of security. It makes you think that what you’re doing is enough. The rich, young ruler who went to Christ was comfortable. He had kept all the commandments since he was a kid. He did what was right. Jesus asked Him to make a radical change to his routine and route. He couldn’t do it and walked away sad. He wanted different results while doing the same thing.

What routines and routes do you need to change? What is God asking you to do differently than you’ve always done? Are you asking Him to put people in your path or to put you in their path? Changing isn’t easy and doesn’t produce immediate results always. It isn’t comfortable so we typically run from it. Don’t be afraid to ask God what paths, routines and routes in your life you need to change. Once you ask, have the faith to make those changes so you don’t end up like the rich, young ruler.

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Right Words at the Right Time

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I believe in the power of words and in paying it forward. I was excited to see a news story out of North Carolina that combined the two. A family went to dinner at a pizza restaurant and their child with special needs started to get rowdy. People started looking and I’m sure it was embarrassing for the parents. A waitress walked over with tears in her eyes and said, “Another customer has paid for your dinner and wanted me to give you this note.” It read, “God only gives special children to special people.”

At a moment when these parents were upset themselves over the situation they couldn’t control, someone else saw through the temporary and gave them hope through words. Proverbs 25:11 in the Message says, “The right word at the right time is like a custom-made piece of jewelry.” The customer who sent over the note had no idea that this family needed those words at that moment like they did. The mom said, “Little did he know what struggles we had been facing lately and this was surely needed at that moment.”

The mom also said that this one gesture outweighed all the other rude and negative comments they face every day. Proverbs 18:21 says that the power of life and death are in the tongue. Each one of us wields a powerful weapon. How we choose to use it matters. The easy thing in this situation is to roll your eyes and ask why they brought the child into a public restaurant in the first place. I’m sure most of the patrons in that restaurant fit into that category. Thank God for one person who had the boldness to not only say the right words at the right time, but purchased their meal too.

That’s where paying it forward comes into play. I believe paying it forward is scriptural. Most of us had to memorize the Golden Rule as a child: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There probably isn’t anyone reading this who wouldn’t love to be at dinner and to have the server come over and say, “Someone has paid for your meal.” We would love that, but have we done it for someone else? The Golden Rule doesn’t say, “Do unto others as they have done unto you.”

You may not be in a position to buy someone’s meal, but you are in a position to speak life into someone. If you see someone having a difficult day, give them an encouraging word. If you see someone struggling where you’ve been, offer a helping hand and words of advice. A saying I heard a while back still rings true. It says, “When you share in someone’s sadness, sorrow is divided. When you share in their joy, it is multiplied.” We all have days where we would love to have our emotional load divided with someone. Why not pay that forward today and help someone else out?

If you’d like to read the article I’m referencing, click here.

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The Other Side of Obedience

Years ago, I made a lot of mistakes. I’m not saying I still don’t make them, but the ones I’m talking about were life altering mistakes. I’m still paying for them a decade later. I knew I was still paying for them physically, mentally and emotionally, but I hadn’t really understood how I was paying for them spiritually. Once I sought God’s forgiveness for those mistakes, that aspect was taken care of, but there was more to it than my need for forgiveness. There have been barriers that I’ve built up because of it that have caused me to limit God’s ability to bless me.

I feel like I’m a pretty blessed person as it is, but over the last few weeks, I’m realizing that God desires to bless me more than He has been. Recently, my wife and I have been working together to tear down a wall that was built years ago from those mistakes. As we pull it down brick by brick, it’s been like cracks in a dam. Blessings have been gushing out at us. We look at each other in amazement after each incident and wonder, “Could we have experienced this years ago had we tried to tear it down then?” I think the answer is yes.

God has several principles or laws in place that if we were to simply obey, we’d reap the reward on the other side. One of those laws is “give and it shall be given to you.” We’ve mainly heard this applied to the Church, but I believe it applies to anyone. If you give to others, God opens doors to bless you. I’ve heard it said, “If God can get it through you, He’ll get it to you.” I’m finding this to be true in my own life. The more we’re willing to give to others, the more God is willing to give to us. That said, giving in order to get is the wrong motivation.

When we give in order to bless, God sees our hearts and is willing to open up the windows of Heaven to pour out blessings on us. I think those blessings are intended to keep the cycle of blessing others going. If we hoard the blessings that God pours on us, then the cycle stops. We become like the man in the parable who hid his talent. What we have will be taken from us instead of us giving it freely. God trusts us with the ability to bless others, but we fail to trust Him to do His part. We’re afraid to let go because we have too little.

What I’ve found is that even my “little” can be a blessing to someone else. When I released that “little”, God released more to me. When I released that amount, He poured out more. Now we are enjoying the cycle of blessing. Just last night, my wife said, “I’m excited to see how this next blessing will take place.” God gave us a blessing yesterday and now we’re actively looking to see how we can give it away. It’s not because we’re expecting God to turn around and bless us again, but because being a blessing is so much fun. Acting on God’s behalf is the greatest blessing there is.

Our friend Mike always asks, “What has God placed in your hands?” It may not be much in your eyes, but it is a lot to someone else and even more in God’s eyes. Whatever God has given you and told you to release, let me encourage you today to be faithful to God with it. If He asks you to release it, then release it. You will be tearing down a wall that has been holding back blessings just waiting to be released because of your obedience. Look around today and be a blessing to others. You never know what’s on the other side of your obedience.

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