A life more abundant

God calls us into life. At some point we get purchased by God and actually become a Christian. Later, through any number of things we decide that we've been called in a deeper way than we previously realized. At this point we have to decide, "What does deeper mean?"

I think the first step at this point is to lose the shame. As christians we have a gift, Jesus sacrifice that has redeemed us. But it is a socially awkward thing. People look at us like we are crazy when we talk about it in anyway other than purely logical. So we hide it. We pray that it doesn't come up in conversation. We try to avoid the topic. Even to the extent of denying it all together when we are asked (don't worry, you aren't the first to do that). if we can get over the shame that comes along with the gospel, and truly embrace it as the good news that it is we will be well on our way to having "life more abundant."

The second step, is to really embrace knowing God in an intimate way (prayer helps with this). We have been invited into a relationship, not a religion. If we skip this step and go right into deep philosophical study, we may never recover. Intimacy with God (or Jesus) usually comes from a group (shared intimacy with other Christians) it's good, but keep your bible nearby, you don't want to embrace things that aren't true.

The third step comes from study. I know, school sucks, but this is a different kind of study. God likes to show off, and if you spend time in his word, he will surprise you with his sense of humor and attentiveness. He likes to meet your need, and he always has. In the past, you marked his desire to provide for you as Coincidence. When he has the opportunity to talk to you, he will prove that it's him and that there are no coincidences.

The fourth step, is ministry, God loves a servant heart and uses the times that we serve to show us his heart and draw us close. Don't be afraid to serve, when you get to this point, you will be called and you'll know when it's happening. It takes courage to step out, but you can do it. Rest assured, he will never ask more of you than you can give. As we become more like Jesus, we become more capable and more useful. Keep in mind that these steps don't replace the previous step, the are each in themselves a life long part of being a Christian.

He wants a deeper relationship with all of us. Ask for it and seek it, you will be amazed.

god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

Day 1

Today in church, I'm pretty sure God talked to me. He said to me that I should life my life in a new way. He called it "day 1" and the thought behind it is that yesterday doesn't matter, and tomorrow doesn't either. Today is important. The condemnation or price of yesterdays mistakes aren't welcome in this place, and the long reaching plausibly attainable but not yet strived for goals of the future have no place here either. Today is important, how can I live for Christ today? What can I take a chance on? Who can I influence with the love of Jesus? Today is day one...

Bruised

Its been a rough day, it started with me bruising my back. That bruise caused nausea and has thrown my whole day. The usuall lack of tact from my friends, who usually don't need it, was hard, and really hurt. What is it about a consistent minor pain that ruins our defenses.

There's no easy place to start, some things just aren't safe. When we were young, we were bruised, not necessarily in a huge way or intentionally, but we were bruised in a very real emotion, spiritual, and most likely a physical way. Because our parents aren't able to be 100% attentive and nurturing, we were from time to time let down. In some cases, more so than in others. But those bruises never fully healed, and when something so much as lightly grazes it, it hurts like it's new. It has the potential to destroy our day.

That's why it's important that we grow in character. Character is how we deal when things are hard. The boy scout motto comes to mind, we ough to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curtious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Those traits are a sign of character. And if we can display those things genuinely on a bad day, then we will be able to call ourselves people of God.

god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

One thing at a time

If I were to pick the main bane of mankind, I'd say it is our inability to remember whatever it is that we were just doing and apply it to what were are doing now. We as humans have a hard time remembering where we've been and the lessons that we've learned. The Jewish people throughout their history have been chosen, provided for, blessed, cursed, rescued, and then they forget who God is and grumble and it happens all over again. "we are starving god, feed your people. we are sick of mana God, give us meet. we are sick of quail God give us mana..." it's hard to hear, but that's us, we enjoy our days of being blessed and then when we are faced with a challenge we ask, "why me God?!"

My favorite character in the old testament is a prophet named Elijah. He's a great man that trust in God, sometimes. So, Elijah is in a place called mount Carmel, don't let the name fool you, it is indeed a mountain, but there is no candy there. Anyway, Elijah is there in a contest with the many (many!) prophets of Baal, (Baal is a rock.) the terms of this contest are simple, an altar will be built. then a sacrifice will be placed upon the altar. then both Baal and Yahweh (the Jewish name for God) will be called upon to light the fire to offer the sacrifice. Easy right?

Elijah encourages the Baal worshippers to go first which they do. The pray and dance for hours and while they are doing this, Elijah is teasing them. He has so much faith in God that he feels he can openly mock the prophets of Baal, (God doesn't call us to be peaceful to people who worship false gods. Just FYI) he says things to them like, "maybe he's asleep, you should pray louder", and " maybe he is indisposed, (going to the bathroom) pray louder, and dance harder" which they of course do. After many hours of this they give up, and Elijah gets his turn. Not willing to simple meet the terms of the contest, he makes it more complicated, he has a ditch dug, and the altar put inside it. Then he has the ditch filled with water (a lit of water) the wood and altar and sacrifice are fully submerged, he ask the Baal worshippers to help him do this, they do, probably laughing the whole time. The Elijah says a few simple words, and heaven opens up! A pillar of fire flings down from heaven, it burns up the water, the wood, the sacrifice, the altar, and leaves nothing but charred earth. Having won this contest, he stands in front of the awe struck Baal worshippers, and what do you think he does? He runs for his life because he has heard the Jezebel, (the ruler at the time) has order him beheaded. In a very short window of time, Elijah sees the awesome power of God, then forgets how powerful god is and runs and hides.

We all do this, we have such a hard time retaining the glory of God. Sin has stolen something from us, our attention Span. And it's getting worse every day. God help us to remember your glory.


god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

Fear and performance

It's our driving focus, whether we want to be good or bad, we want to be good at it. We are performance driven, and if we fail to reach our goals or the goals that are being set by the people that we give authority over our lives to, than the drive to perform becomes the worst of all motivators. Fear. It's a terrible thing to let fear run our lives, but it so often does. Either we don't try because we are afraid, or we try to hard to be good at the wrong things for fear of being neglected, abused or abandoned. And then this world becomes a scary place.

If you've lived "this" abused life, like I have, you know what happens after years of trying to live up to someone else's (inappropriate) standards. I failed. And I gave up. My fear of under achieving became a fear of being judged, and that became a fear of trying. The thing that really hurts in that situation is that my fear of waisting effort sometimes prevents me from trying to have things that are healthy for me to have. It stifles my relationships and it keeps me trapped in places that I shouldn't be, for a time I led to problems with pornography. A picture couldn't judge me and find me wanting. But anyone else could, and I felt like every one did.

In reality, no one had authority to judge me unless I gave it to them. And even if I gave it to them, I could find just as much wrong with them, but that's not good for me either. God is the only one who has the authority to judge me and he found me guilty and inferior and sub par. But he redeemed me anyway.

God loves us so much that any judgement that we can make against ourselves, any judgement that the world could make against us, just doesn't matter. The greatest price is death and it's been paid by Jesus in our behalf. He loves us that much, even in our broken, failing, not good enough state. And when we trusted him as lord and savior, We gave up the authority in our lives to him, no one else can judge us, he is our authority, we can't even judge ourselves. And when he sees us, he says, "it is good".

god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

-adam
p.s. what the heck does p.s. stand for?

Sloppy wet kiss

John mark McMillan wrote a song, The David crowder band made it popular because they are so very awesome, but for fear of Alienating the contemporary music genre and it's fans, they changed one line. "and heaven meets earth, like a sloppy wet kiss" became "heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss". Why? The average christian is afraid of being in a relationship with Jesus, because the worldly view of relationship is for lack of a better word "slutty". It's always been this way, read the old testiment, God's chosen people are always cheating on him, our "slutty relationships aren't the problem, our conviction over what we allow in our lives make us guilty, so we don't compare the two. Super expressive words like "sloppy wet kiss" paint a picture that doesn't fit into the conservative Christian worlds image of who Jesus is and how they relate to Him. What image pops into your head when you think about your relationship with Jesus? Is it a cross, or bowing before a throne, or a dude in a white robe that stands triumphantly on a cloud? Likely. He is those things, but so mich more. Is he a guy that you hang out with? Is it you and jesus chilling watching a movie, telling dumb jokes? Probably not. But why not? In the bible, Jesus was a relational guy, hanging out around a fire, reclining with friends, going to party's and weddings. Jesus was that guy, he wanted to be in a fairly intimate relationship with everyone he met. Why do we treat him like he's... Anything but. Our god longs for us, he became a man to be with us, he died on a cross to buy us, and he rose from the grave to keep us! Why are we cheating him out of what he wants by embracing rules. That's not the life more abundantly that he says he wants for us. And the phrase of that song, sloppy wet kiss, it means with out reservation or embarrassment, a fully committed expression of love and devotion.

god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

-adam
p.s. what the heck does p.s. stand for?

Love and hate

my goal is to talk to you about love and hate, and darkness and light. these topics have been on my mind for awhile now. it seems to me that God Hates sin, and loves sinners. and though we are sinners born into darkness, we get to stand in his marvelous light. which doesn't seem to make since. when you go into your house and turn on the light, there isn't suddenly one lit spot amidst the darkness, the light completely dissipates the darkness, so that there is no darkness left. You might say that the light conquers and destroys the darkness. and this all happens in an instant. it doesn't take minutes or even seconds for the light to battle that darkness and rise to power, just "boom" light.

yet we are walking in the light in a dark world. i find this metaphor very confusing. maybe we are more like the moon... which is hidden in darkness behind the earth (lost in sin) yet when the earth finally releases its eclipse over the moon, it shines with verocity. The full moon sometimes so bright as to cast shadows at night. so, maybe we are no longer of this world when Jesus ransoms us, but we are pulled far away, so that sin can never have us again. but even though the moon is far away, it affects the tides, it reflects the light of the son, i mean sun.... and can be used for navigation, for those that are still lost, it is a beacon of what is to come. just as we are a beacon of what god can do in the life of a sinful man, (or woman) and a spark of hope to the world that slumbers in darkness.

i may be way off, i'm just kicking around metaphor "up in here." tell me what you think, if you are impressed, don't be to impressed, it took alot of work, if you are not impressed, (because i'm wrong...) be gentle i spent, (waisted) a lot of time on these ideas.

god bless you, and keep you rockin' (like you do)

-adam
p.s. what the heck does p.s. stand for?