Real living.

When I was thinking about what to blog about this week, I decided to look through some of my favorite verses to see if there was some wisdom in there that I was missing. Romans 5:1-11 struck me in a way that it hadn’t before. Verses 6-8 were especially new to me for some reason. It reads:

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

When it speaks about how it is unlikely that anyone would die just for Average Joe, it struck me. I’m average Joe. I would not by any means be considered righteous; I would not be considered an evil man either (I hope). No one would consider dying for me. But Christ died for me, so that I could become righteous and approach His throne. Something I love about Jesus that we so often forget is that Jesus would have died if you were the only person on the planet. He died specifically for you. Do you get that? HE DIED FOR YOU! 

How often do we forget that? 

We talk about it every Sunday, but we don’t talk about how personal it was. God would have sent Jesus if only one of us would have chosen to follow Him, if we were the only one person were going to meet Him in heaven. God was going to give that shot to any and everyone, even if only one person took the risk.

So how do we take this? This week, live like you have a new lease on life, live in a way that radically shows how important Jesus’ sacrifice was to you.

Live—like someone you know and love—died for you.

Westboro Baptist Church

Before I begin this blog, let me apologize for all quotes and sign statements that I repeat. I do NOT in any way agree with the teachings of Westboro Baptist Church.


I was just watching 20/20 while drinking a milkshake with my mom (cute right?). They began talking about 13 year old boy who climbed Mount Everest, which was really cool, but that is not the subject of this blog. The subject is Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). After the neat story about a teenager doing the impossible, they moved to a radical group of "Christians" that spread hate around America. Seeing the story on 20/20 brought about two feelings in my heart: anger and sadness. I was brought almost to tears, first because I wanted to hurt many of their members, and second, sadness because of their ignorance and that a family would abandon a child because they believe differently.


The reporter was playing with the children of a young family from the church and the son told him, "I don't think you'll go to heaven, I think you'll go to hell." Prompting the reporter to ask, "why?" Obviously the 6 year old boy did not have the answers, but his dad went on to talk about why they think that "God hates fags...America...and soldiers." 


I almost punched our coffee table. 


Right now, I need to say that I am trying not to begin a raging condemnation of what these people are doing. I am not God. I do not choose what is right and what is wrong. Condemning WBC and the actions of it's members would make me no better than one of them.


However, I cannot for the life of me understand how these people could use scripture to say those things. It looks like blasphemy to me (again I'm not the True Judge). It is obvious from Scripture that our Savior loves sinners enough to spend time with them (Luke 15). Jesus said, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (Luke 15:7)." I don't think that any member of WBC could say that Jesus alienated a single sinner by condemning him (except maybe the Pharisees). God wants the lost to come to Him, but telling those people that they are going to hell is the dumbest form of "proselytizing" (yes, dumber than those brochures that people have hanging in the foyer of their church buildings) I have ever heard of.  


Their hatred is alienating to all the "sinners" that they talk about. They act like they have never done anything wrong. I wonder what they would do if a "sinner" actually repented and entered their church. Would they accept that person? I'm telling you that God's grace is enough for ALL sinners. I am a sinner. I struggle with porn. I battle everyday to become clean and honor God with my thoughts and actions. Is my sin any worse than that of a homosexual, kleptomaniac, rapist, or soldier? Is it any better? 


I'm not exactly sure what I am asking, I've done a series of posters contradicting the type of hatred these people are spreading. If you are not a Christian and are reading this blog, please know most Christians are NOT like WBC, we want to love people who are struggling with sin.


I know that most of you would be very uncomfortable if a homosexual, prostitute or ex-con walked into your church, but I know that God loves them, and our goal as Christians should be to love and nurture them, and help them grow closer to the Awesome God who saves. 


Going back to WBC, I find it very hard to believe that I worship the same God that they claim to worship, because I don't think He's the same. I know that the God I worship sends people to hell, it's the sad reality of sin--becoming separated from God. However, I also know that we are on this world to find God, and to worship Him, and that we all have a shot to get to know Him. 


This post has been quite scatterbrained, most likely unintelligent, but I hope I've put this in your mind. Love people, that is my simple request. 

Spirit Led

Last week Gary Neal (preacher at the Levy Church of Christ) brought up some great points that resonated with me for this entire week, and it all keys in on two verses in Galatians. Galatians 5:24,25 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” The reason this resonates so clearly with me, is that I forget so much that I have the Holy Spirit living in me (whether consciously or not). This passage is just so overlooked in our lives. Everything that we struggle with, every pain, every sin, is nailed to the cross, end of story. Now the great part of this is that God can rescue us from these problems, He is not just an old man who wants to watch us suffer. It’s been a major focus in my spiritual life to let God rescue me from my sinful desires. God loves us, and He wants more than anything for us reach out to Him, and to allow Him to help us. To think that God can’t help us is limiting God (Daniel 6:27); to think that we can overcome ourselves is extreme overconfidence. The message here is simple: the next time that you are tempted, tried, coerced, or pressured, ask for God to rescue you. We know that He will not give us more than we can stand (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we know that “the LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still,” (Exodus 14:14). 

The Rich Man

Luke 18:18-29 is one of the toughest passages in all of Scripture to me. Before I left Lipscomb, I heard a man named Dave Clayton preach on this very passage (shameless plug, check out his podcast on iTunes, Ethos Church); and I hated the message. He talked about how it wasn’t necessarily the fact that he was rich that was keeping him from God. Or maybe that doesn’t communicate clearly enough, because it was his riches that was keeping him from the Kingdom of God. The point was that riches did not necessarily apply to everyone. What is keeping you from the following Jesus may very well be riches, but it could very easily be anything else.

So what is keeping you from God?

I’m not going to write out a list and suggest that you tell everyone, and tally up your weaknesses. I do believe that for most Americans, in this consumer driven society, money is going to be one for all of us, but with all that we have, we can have more distractions. Look at how busy we are?

I don’t have a clear-cut suggestion on how this will affect your Spiritual Journey, whether this week or beyond. I can’t tell you how to get rid of these “idols” or “hindrances,” or whatever you want to call them.  All I know is that there are things getting in the way, and Jesus wants us to follow Him. When we became Christians we committed to a life of loving Christ, believing that He saved us, and that our love for Him would be above everything else in our lives.

If Jesus literally asked you today to follow Him into the mission field (wherever it would be), what would be your excuses?