Burned Alive

I have always been one that has been intrigued by the imagery of fire and light living as a Child of God.  The imagery ranges from "we are the lighthouse standing strong in the storm to guide and direct others" to "in order to start a burning in someone's soul with the Gospel, you must first be lit" and more.  I have just always been inspired by the power of these ideas and how effectively they convey  the overwhelming impact God has upon our lives and how we live it.

Well, life led me to meet a person with a Jeremiah 20:9 tattoo with a flame around it, so obviously I had to check it out.

Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV)
⁹ But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.




When I initially read this it gave me the shivers.  For a moment, I want you to close your eyes and picture a roaring camp fire, popping and cracking heat through the night.  Now imagine what it would be like if that was inside your bones.  Crazy right?  When Jeremiah says these words, he is saying (it seems) that God's Word is so powerful and contagious that when he tries not to speak the Gospel, the Gospel just burns inside of him like a fire.  Now the message from this section is two-fold.

Firstly, the obvious: speak the Gospel.  When we chose to let Christ become the Lord of our souls, we also chose to let His entire presence inside of us (the fire).  If you turn on the oven and keep the door closed, it will just keep getting hotter and hotter.  Jeremiah is "weary of holding it in".  Well...the short answer is this...don't.  If the obstruction of the salvation of mankind is causing you pain, then stop obstructing.  Let it loose.  Go find the highest point in your area and shout to the world what the name Jesus Christ means.  You say you do not have that fire...yes you do...you probably have not been tending to it.  When the power and presence of the Lord is upon you, it takes your best to not just unleash everything.  Point One:  kiddle the fire and let it loose to start a forest fire.

Secondly, the less obvious: God will get you.  While vs 9 may be a very popular verse, the previous two are probably not so much.

Jeremiah 20:7-8 (NIV)
⁷ O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
⁸ Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.




Jeremiah the prophet is complaining to God about his life situation.  He was "deceived..and...overpowered". He is "ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me".  He is referring to the fact that when God called him to be a prophet, he did not feel like he had a choice.  Jeremiah's situation is so bad that even when he tries to share what the Lord has given him (which is usually violence and destruction...not a good way to become well liked), he has to cry out.  He cannot even calmly share like a sane man...no, he has to "cry out" like a mad man.  The prophet feels like God forcibly put him in a very un-ideal position.  "So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long."  Point Two:  if God wants you to do something, you will do.  Point Two (again): what He calls you to do will often mean terrible things for your emotional, physical, and societal health.

This is God's world, and we are just living in it.  People who spew fire so that they may be lit and burning are called arsonists and criminals.  Being a christian and a prophet, the actions and the results are no different.  You are called to be a spiritual arsonist.  You will be treated like a mad man crying out and (in many places now and everywhere soon) a criminal.  You are filled with the fire of life...the fire of love...the fire of everlasting peace.  Time to share.

Just Boring Old Life

Life is…life.

Sometimes we as humans expect life to be jammed packed with these incredible, pulse-pounding moments, worthy of stories that can be told generations from now and still be funny, entertaining or inspiring.  Truth is your pulse is pounding all the time and thus every moment of your life is worth a story.  It just depends how you choose to look at it.

In the beginning of Mark 9, we see one of those “epic” life moments.  Jesus took Peter, James, and John up with him to the high mountain and he, get this, reveals himself to him.  Now we now that Jesus is God but for the last 33 years he has been residing in the very boring and dull form of a homosapien (If you think about, humans have to one of the blandest, least visually stimulating beasts in all of creation) but here in verse 2 and 3, he transfigures.  “…His garments became radiant and exceedingly white”.  The dude was shining like the sun that He helped create, and the Three Stooges are standing there in person to witness it.  And it gets better.  Vs. 4 says that Elijah and Moses appear before them and start chatting with Jesus.  These are probably the two most influential men in Israel’s history and they appear (probably also shining some) next to brilliant Son already radiating in glory.  Now skip ahead to vs. 7, “Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!’” God!  God himself showed up!  These three mere men were privy to probably one of the most indescribably fantastic awe-inspiring moments in the history of ever.  Elijah, Moses, radiating Jesus, and speaking God…this is epic and awesome and note worthy and every other poorly understated human description of the situation.  This is definitely one of those moments that you tell people later on.

But what do these disciples do in the moment with all this glory being unveiled before them?  They ask to build Jesus, Elijah, and Moses tents.  Peter says, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.”  No duh.  But even if we look beyond this moment of wisdom and basic brain operation, after all seeing dead people and a glowing man and a talking cloud can be pretty overwhelming, we need to see how they handled themselves later on.  In vs 31, Jesus tells them that He will be killed and then raise three days later.  Cool.  The disciple’s reaction: “But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him”.  Not all were there for the transfiguration but even the three that were did not get the point.  They SAW the Son of God and they missed the point.  I mean Peter later denies that He even knows Jesus.  He saw Jesus light up like a light bulb, talk to (the long since dead) Elijah and Moses, and be engulfed by the presence of God (beyond all the other miracles that he saw) and yet he still did not get.  These men had probably one of the greatest dinner party stories to tell ever, and they squandered it.

We in life get so caught up in that next great moment or story.  We want that next spiritual surge of guiding a friend to Christ or feeling some godly buzz at a worship service.  We are hooked on the big time.  Well Peter, James, and John got the big time and it did not seem to affect them much.  

Here is a secret...everyday of your life is the big time.  It may not be spectacular or adrenaline inducing but you are living with the presence of God inside of you and all around you every moment.  You get to walk out that door and go to work and radiate like the sun because the Son is in you.  I have had conversations with my family about where we are in a walks with Christ and several times the words “Nothing too crazy is going on” or “I am just living life” are used.  First, God (you know the dude that created the ENTIRE UNIVERSE…that dude) lives inside you.  Second, life is God.  In Genesis, He breathed life into us, us the ones He made in His own image.  Those salvation stories are great and the spiritual highs are stimulating but so is life.

Enjoy life because life is the breath of God, and He lives in you.  That is about as epic as it gets.  It would be incredible to see what those three disciples saw but we are already seeing pretty cool things…just open your eyes.  Realize the intricacies of your body and Creation as a whole.  Realize the magnitude of the calling to save the lost sheep.  Realize how epic your life is.

So may your life be…life.

A Pile of Crap

There is a rather popular contemporary Christian song, for which I cannot remember the name, that contains the lyrics "let me reach the unreachable, teach the unteachable, and love the unlovable".  I think I get what the artist is trying to say.  He wants God to give him the strength and courage to reach out to the people for which it is difficult to reach out to.  He wants God to provide the ability to love those that society say should not be loved or the parts of society that do not want to be loved.  It is overall a great idea for us all to go beyond our own personal boundaries to witness to and be the love of Christ the world.

But then this nasty little thought popped into my head the last time I heard this song on the radio, "This is a bunch of crap."  I understand that the song is coming from the humanistic view of love and how and to who we show that love but the whole concept that we, as Christians, could ever say that there is anyone that is unlovable is a bunch of crap.  I may just being getting overly technical with the wording of this song but come on...we can do better.

So what if a co-worker ignores you or thinks that you are a little strange.  So what if your classmates find you awkward.  2 Timothy 3:12 states, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted".  If you want to live as Christ you will be persecuted.  Loving on mean people is almost a prerequisite for being a true follower of Christ.  It is a must...not an option.  Calling someone unlovable is like an Olympic hopeful saying training is impossible.  They want to get there but have put up a giant immovable wall with their mentality.  John 3:16 does not say, "For God so loved the lovable that He sent His one and only Son...".  NO..."For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son (to die a miserable death and be PERSECUTED to an extreme degree) so that ALL (every person to live ever including the really stupid and jerkish ones that do not deserve the air to live) that might believe in Him shall not perish (spiritually) but have everlasting life (spiritually)."

People may think that I cannot say, "God loved everyone so we have to love everyone," because that would be comparing us to God.  You are right.  And one of my favorite verses is the biggest slap in the face in history: Matthew 5:48 - "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Unlovable is not a word allowed in the Christian conversation.  Unlovable = Persecution = Blessings.

 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV) 
⁹ But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Time to change your vocabulary and get rid of that pile of crap called "The Unlovable" that is keeping you from running your race for God.  Embrace the persecution.  Embrace the pain.  Embrace the Rage.

No more crap.

Loved

Love.

We do not understand this word.  Proverbs 5:18-20 is a very interesting section scripture.  It is very sexual in its nature.  It tells men to take delight in their wife and rejoice in her love and exhilarated by her breasts.  Again, to some this may see a rather crude and unnecessary passage, especially to talk about with friends and strangers.  Vs 20 asks the reason for the sons of man the logic behind feeling up a stranger when you have such a joy at home waiting for.  Vs 19 says “As a loving hind (deer) and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love.”  Being the 22 year old male that I am, the first thing that comes to my mind is sex…God is telling us to take physical pleasure in our wives and to take pure carnal satisfaction in her body and person.  God created sex to be beautiful and he is telling us here to keep our joy within our wife and our wife only.

I have read this scripture before and naturally only noticed it because of its obvious sexual nature.  Well this week when I re-read it, I got something more.

First, I saw the passage beyond the physical nature of the images.  This is God talking about the beauty of the relationship between a man and women.  The complete fullness of the love that is unwritten in these verses struck me.  God made man as relational creatures.  He made us to be together.  In Genesis 2:22, God created women of man and thus they will leave the families to become one in flesh (sex).  But a funny thing happens when you are connected in flesh (so I have been told), you become connected emotionally and mentally as well.  Vs 25 says Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed.  In the book “Looking for God Knows What”, the author explained things like this:  The were unashamed because they were loved.  Why do you think people love to be loved?  If someone loves them, then they feel they can be justified in themselves.  And guess why they need that confirmation?

Beyond my desire for my own earthly relationship, I got an insight into the relationship that matters.  Man was unashamed of their nakedness because God loved them.  Think of the grandest scale of a boy telling a girl that she is pretty.  For that girl, nothing else matters because her lover says she is okay.  She feels free to do whatever and live without inhibitions because there is only one opinion that matters.  Now put yourself in Adam and Eve’s shoes.  If the creator of the Universe said “You are perfect and loved”…are you going to have any insecurities?  NO.  The reason people play games, dunk, have awards is so others can tell them how good they are.  When we sinned we lost that perfect love and we have thus been trying to fill that whole with the insignificant approval of men.

God refers to himself as the bride groom and the Church (us) as the bride.  The earthly marriages that we are in are made to model this bigger relationship.  In the same way that we are to only find satisfaction with our wife’s breast, we are only to find confirmation and value in our Heavenly lover. 

Men…love your God and love your wife in the same manner.  Rejoice in your wife alone…physically, emotionally, mentally.  Rejoice in your Loving Redeemer alone…soully…that means everything in your being.

You are loved.

The Bible is Funny

The Bible is funny.  

I am serious…read it sometime.  I recently started a plan to read the Bible in a year and it has me starting in Genesis.  The boring part about Genesis is that Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Lot, etc, are the stories that we have grown up with since we were two…been there heard that.

 

The interesting part is that we have heard and not read.  I have only within the last month started a regular devotional and Scripture reading habit and I am the twenty-two year old son of a pastor that went to a Christian college.  I have heard the stories my entire life but never read them for myself.  Here are some examples:

What I heard:  God made His covenant with Abraham by having all the males circumcised.

What I read:  How do you explain to all your adult sons and slaves that they have to take a sharp rock to their unmentionables?  You want me to do what to my what?  Ch 17

What I heard:  Sodom was a bad place.

What I read:  The men of the city wanted Lot bring out his two male guests, who happened to be angels, so they could rape them…what happens if you try to rape an angel? (Ch 19)

What I heard:  Lot was an idiot.

What I read:  Lot and his two daughters were hiding out in a cave…just the three of them…in the middle of nowhere…no one else around, and yet he gets drunk enough that he sleeps with both of them on separate occasions (Ch 19).

In Chapter 22 verse 2, God tells Abraham to take and sacrifice his son, Isaac, to Him.  Verse 3 goes like this, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey,”.  No questions…he just does it.  The list of incredible things in just the first part of Genesis is incredible.  Here is one for you…Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the patriarchs of Israel, God’s Chosen People.  A people that were described five times from Chapters 14-30 as either as numerous as the stars or the sand on the beach, not including other forms.  This was the bloodline through which God was going to change the world by sending His son.  The three main wives of these great men, Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel, were ALL BARREN.  God built and saved His people through three barren women.  Granted there were other wives, concubines, and maids but three barren women.  I knew about Sarah but Rebecca and Rachel were also unable to have children until God opened the wombs.  God can do whatever He wants to accomplish whatever He wants.  There is no such thing as the unusables.

This is the novice insights of an uneducated young adult on a fraction of one book of the Bible.  How much are we missing out on in life, in love, in God…because we have already HEARD IT.  If the Bible was meant to be purely heard, it would be not have been written down.  READ IT.  It is the LIVING WORD of the ALMIGHTY MASTER of the UNIVERSE.  Do not settle for what you have HEARD.  There is so much more waiting for you.  As a new reader, I challenge you to find a time (5 minutes), a place (your bathroom), a section (a chapter a day), and start living for yourself rather than getting it second hand from someone else.  I am not saying that preachers are not important (what do you think I am doing?) but the comparison is equivalent to riding a roller coaster and having the experience described to you.

Strap yourself in.  READ.

Everyone has Armor of Light

Romans 13:11-12 (NASB)
¹¹ Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
¹² The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

I found this verse while I was at camp.  Its power struck me.  The first part is instructing us to do "this", to love.  "Knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep;"  It is time to wake up and love.  The time of God's coming is sooner than we know and we must be ready.  Why sleep through the night and ignore those that God has placed in our lives.  The day is coming...the light is coming...the time of action is now.  We are to no longer to live shrouded in the darkness of the world and its mediocrity put to "put on the armor of light".  That is so cool.  My boys at camp were given football pads to wear as muscles...they wore their armor everyday because it was the coolest thing ever.  Now, no matter how cool armor is, armor of light is bloody fantastic.  I have seen Tron and and left really wanting a light suit.

Paul is calling us to stop napping in our lives and start putting on our armor...of light.  This not a covert sneak around battle that we are engaged in but a "Hey, Devil, I am over here...come get some!"  

So here is your to-do list:

1. Wake the heck up from your slumber.  Start living life rather than letting life happen to you.

2. Put aside the darkness and its deeds.  Live up to the potential that God has embedded into your life.

3. Put on your armor of light.  PUT IT ON.  It is game time.  It is time to start chugging those spiritual energy drinks (the Bible and Holy Spirit) and gear up for war.

Have a nice day.

It is Finished

It is finished.

I am not trying to make a Jesus reference here but camp is finished.  After 126 hours with and preparing for the kids, I am back home (which it is weird to answer with the fact that I am from Henderson and not Gretna…I AM AN ADULT).

I got both my boys back that I have had the last two years.  E (I cannot use their real names because of confidentiality) was pretty much the same but J got some meds switched or something and decided to revert back to his behavior from two years ago which means lots of running and punching.  The theme for the camp was Royal Olympics so we had muscle day, sports hero day, and lots of Olympic themed activities.

Oh, for those that do not know what Royal Family Kid’s Camp is it is a camp for children between the ages of 5 and 11 that have been physically and/or sexually abused.  The goal is to pour as much love and life into these kids as possible.  We want to show them how to play, how to be loved, and how to heal and make up for the years lost to abuse.

So camp is a fantastic event.  Beyond the opportunity to pour love into kids that desperately need it, during lots of crazy things: go-karts with attached water cannons, chasing pigs, water fights, swimming, giant slip and slides, water bottle rockets, fishing, archery, obstacle courses, dressing like muscle men, superheroes, gentlemen, hippies, and sports heroes, eating every hour and a half (not a joke), piñatas, etc., and the constant movement and singing, camp is a paradise.  It is about 100 adults living together selflessly without regard to self-promotion and with 100% dedication and submission to God’s Will.  For a week, there is no politics or bills or wars, there is only God, Satan, the kids, and you.  It is difficult to put the entire week into writing but here are some samples.

Scene: Little boy fishing on the edge of a pond catches a fish and his counselor is trying to get it off the hook.  Boy – Hey, it’s a female!  Me-How do you know it is a female? Boy – I can see its uterus.  And look…there is its pee-hole.

Scene: My boy, who has a bad habit of pinching, punching, or grabbing anything that he walks by, sees the last water balloon of the water balloon fight in the arms of an elderly gentlemen talking to his Parents-in-law.  Problem: Boy grabs water balloon…water balloon pops, drenching the man…the man happens to be the husband to the director of the camp.  The boy laughed about what he did until I revealed the man’s identity.  The boy knew the fear of God that day.

Scene:  Young boy, about 6, has been so badly sexually abused that he cannot control his bowel movements (This is one of several at the camp) is having a long day having pooped his pants four times.  Clean up and time spent walking back and forth kept him out of most of the activities but they got back in time to chase pigs.  He was too scared to get them himself (they were bigger than himself) so he comforted the piglet as I carried it to the bucket.  He excitedly runs out of the pen to counselor and says, “I had so much fun because I wasn’t pooping!”

Scene:  Young autistic boy smells bad after playing with pigs and counselor is trying to get him take a shower and makes the mistake of telling the newly adopted boy, “You smell so bad that your parents might kick you out of the house.”  Boy – (panicked) Do you think that they would do that? Counselor – (recovering) No, no they would never do that, I was just joking.  Boy- Would they really do that?  Counselor- No, they love and would never do that (still trying to get his foot out of his mouth).  Boy – Well, if they did, would you take me in?

I have many more funny, sweet, and sad stories from camp but an outsider cannot understand them.  This week of camp is the definition of “Standing in the Gap”.  These kids have been claimed by Satan and he does not easily let go.  Our job is to take back that ground and to do that we must stand in the gap between the Devil and these kids.  The funny thing about gaps is that they are the only opening and everything, if it wants to get through, must go through the gap.  So…if Satan wants to get to E and J, he must go through the gap, me and God.  It is a difficult week.  Camp was almost cancelled because of a broken well; an already short staff was whittled away by sickness and injury, kids cancelled attendance, and on and on.  Standing in the Gap is not easy but it is necessary.

YOU need to come to camp.  I do not care who you are, what you do, or if you like kids.  YOU HAVE to come to camp.  If you want to physically the healing power of God’s love, come to camp.  If you want know what unconditional love is like, come to camp.  If you want punch the Devil in the face, come to camp.  If you want to have the most fun you have ever experienced, come to camp.  If you want to be broken so that all selfishness and pride are stripped so that all is left is the will and strength of God, come to camp. 

Stand in the Gap.

If you would like more information about being involved with Royal Family Kids Camp in donations (monetary or supplies or time) or as a staff, please contact me.