THE PROVERBIAL PURSUIT: Seduced...Men's Edition

It is no secret that our culture is struggling from a lack of masculinity (see feathers, sequins, and spandex...all unfortunately present in the Winter Olympic Games!)...and the lines of biblical manhood, at best, are quickly eroding. This is not at all a statement advocating the oppression or abuse of women...as a matter of fact, any man who abuses a woman in any way or oppresses a woman in way whatsoever should be (at the minimal) beaten...I'm still looking for a verse to back me up...I just know it's in the Bible somewhere! What I am talking about is how I see men, who profess to be Christ-followers, that are lazy instead of being hard-workers...men, who profess to be Christ-followers, that are selfish instead of living sacrificially for their wife and children...men, who profess to be Christ-followers, that are spiritually neglectful toward their family instead of being the spiritual head of their family...men, who profess to be Christ-followers, that are spiritually stagnant instead of spiritually growing.

I believe that many men find themselves where they find themselves in life (or in the lack of truly living) because they have not INTENTIONALLY lived otherwise...all the while, their enemy, Satan, has INTENTIONALLY sought to steal life from them, kill them, and destroy them. Satan has done this, in many cases by using his favorite weapon in his arsenal: LUST. Because of lust, some men have been convinced that they have been disqualified from living the abundant life that Jesus came to offer (past failures)...while others, because of lust, have/are choosing the temporary pleasures of lust over the life that Jesus has prepared for them (present entrapment)...either way, lust has taken them out!

In the Book of Proverbs, Solomon gives great space to the issue of lust and warning against the destruction caused by adultery (chapters 2, 5, 6, and 7). As a matter of fact, their is no other topic addressed in Proverbs as much or as in-depth as the issue of lust. To me, one of the best passages in Proverbs to examine, in regards to this subject and how to overcome this temptation is Proverbs 7:6-27...

"For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, and saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner; and he took the path to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night."


"And there was a woman who met him, with the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. She was loud and rebellious, her feet would not stay at home. At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking around every corner. So she caught him and kissed him; with an impudent face she said to him: 'I have peace offerings with me; today I have paid my vows. So I came out to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you. I have spread my bed with tapestry, colored coverings of Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home on the appointed day.'"


"With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with her flattering lips she seduced him. Immediately he went after her, as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would cost his life."


"Now therefore, listen to me, my children; pay attention to the words of my mouth: do not let your heart be turned aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths; for she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men. Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death."

We read this passage and say to ourselves, "What an idiot...did you not see that coming...how did you expect things to turn out?" I wonder if this guy, on his way to the woman's house, said something stupid like, "You had me at 'tapestry.'" The fact of the matter is, if you're a guy, then you have the potential to be this idiot every day...the fact may be, that you are currently this idiot right now. Some reading this may be in the middle of an affair...whether that affair has turned physical or not, it is an affair nonetheless. Some reading this may be in the midst of a battle over lust and your thought-life. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'you shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.'" (Matthew 5:27-28). You see, to Jesus the heart and mind really matter...a lot!

So the question is, why would any of us fall for something so devastating to begin with? Well, the enticement and temptation has not changed all that much since Solomon watched this guy from his porch. Look a little closer at the false promises of this woman and you will see the incredible similarities of modern-day excuses for living in lust.

• It will not cost you anything.
• "...I have peace offerings with me..."
• This woman was telling this man that she had her own money, she did not need him to pay her anything...in other words, what she was offering him was free...it would not cost him anything
• In reality, lust will cost you everything!
• It will not affect your relationship with God.
• "...today I have paid my vows..."
• This woman told this man that she had already gone to the Temple and given at the door and was therefore alright with God...and if she was alright with God and he was alright with God, well then, why not be alright with God together?
• In reality, lust will absolutely wreck your walk with God...when Jesus called his disciples, He did not say, "Hey, Peter, believe in Me" or "Yo, Andrew, behave like Me" instead Jesus said, "Follow Me." If we are walking down a path of lust, how in the world do we expect to be following Jesus when we are living on a completely different path?
• It was meant to be.
• "...and I have found you..."
• This guy probably really thought, "Man, she gets me; much more than my wife understands me...how could something that feels so good be wrong...God bless the broken road that led me straight to you." Okay, Proverbs-guy may not have quoted Rascal Flatts, but you get the point.
• If you mean, "it was meant to be" in terms of Satan has intentionally sought to steal the lasting joy and purpose from your life, kill hope in your life, and destroy the plans that God has for your life...then, okay, it was meant to be. However, you mean "it was meant to be" in terms of God bringing you two together outside the boundaries of your marriage vows and wants to bless what He calls sin...then, no, it is not, nor ever was or will be, meant to be. 
• It is sustainable.
• "...let us delight ourselves in love..."
• The promise of this woman to this guy is "this is the real deal...I'll never leave your side...it's you and me forever." Who knows, maybe she even wrote out the Middle School math equation of "2 hearts + 2gether = 4ever!
• The promised pleasure of every temptation is always a mirage...and always comes up empty. 
• It is safe.
• "...for my husband is not home..."
• The false promise was "no one will ever know...this is our secret...this is private."
• For a reality check, ask Tiger Woods how that's worked out for him lately.  

So how do we overcome this temptation?

1. INTENTIONALLY realize that you are are in the midst of war...you have a very real enemy who is very intentionally seeking to wreck your life, so you better intentionally wake up to the war!
2. INTENTIONALLY ask God's protection on you each morning for each new day...pray something like, "God keep me close to You, keep me clean for You, and protect me so that I can live the life You have designed and planned for me."
3. INTENTIONALLY patrol your thoughts...Paul wrote "...bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:5)...this means really give time and consideration to what you give time and consideration to...thoughts morph into meditations, meditations morph into actions.
4. INTENTIONALLY avoid "tempting situations"...you don't have to pray about whether or not it's okay to look at pornography, the answer to that is a resounding "no"...what you do need to be aware of are the lack of checks/balances/accountability in your life...do you spend time on the internet with the door closed, do you spend time on-line after everyone else's in bed (because just like Proverbs-guy knew the way to the woman's house, some of you know exactly the way to "that" site), do you take an alternate route to get to the break room at room just to "check up on her (the "her" not being your wife) and see how she (the "she" not being your wife) is doing, etc.?
5. INTENTIONALLY use your passion to know God and make Him known...many of our problems are not caused by having passion, they are brought about by misplaced passion...remember, your passion will either grow you in Godliness or destroy you in sin: your choice!  

I would also throw out a challenge to the wives of men: If your husband's a guy (I hope and pray so...if not, you both have much deeper problems!) then know that he struggles with this temptation...he's a guy. You, as a wife, should become alarmed when your husband no longer struggles, but has given up the struggle and given in to the temptation. So, pray that God will watch over your husband, protect your husband, strengthen your husband...and then enjoy your husband.

THE PROVERBIAL PURSUIT: Temptation On the Terrain

Every one of us struggles with temptation. Let me restate that...every one of us REALLY struggles with temptation. If we have been exposed to any type of Christianity...whether on a Sunday morning at church or by a 2:30am TV evangelist rocking a Heaven-sized combover riding his white stallion asking for your money (Jesus is not a fan of these people...in case you were wondering!)...you have probably heard a lot about sin (the 2:30am TV evangelist pronounces it "si-en-uh"with 3 syllables requiring spit to fly from your mouth for correct pronunciation) and temptation. The truth of the matter is, temptation is nothing more than an opportunity for me to attempt to short-circuit God's incredible plan for my life.

At this point, we probably need to back up a little bit and ask the obvious question, "What incredible plan?" Jesus told His followers, that He "came to give life--life in all its fullness (John 10:10)." Later on, Paul tells the people of Corinth that "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2:9)." I believe that too many people have taken these two promises and have tragically misapplied them...they act and live as if these promises only come into play after we die. I do believe that these promises speak of Heaven, but that's only half the story. I don't believe for an instant, that God looks down on a mopey, dopey, Eeyore of a Christian and beams with pride, "That's my boy...liven' life just like I designed it to be lived...no fun, no passion, no excitement, no joy...just endless pipe organ and church services until I say it's time for a funeral!" Jesus did not come to rob us of life, He came to give us life...after we die, yes; but also while we live here on earth. While we still receive our mail here on earth, know that God has an absolutely incredible plan for you! For those that are single, God has an absolutely incredible spouse in mind for you. For those that are drowning in purposelessness, God has an absolutely incredible way of doing life in mind for you. God wants to use you to do things you never thought were possible for you, take you places you never thought you would ever go, place in the midst of people you never thought you would be around...all for His glory! So, we come back to the nutshell definition of temptations: "Opportunities for me to attempt to short-circuit God's absolutely incredible plan for my life."

I know for me, it would be a whole lot easier if the temptations in my life didn't look, well, so tempting. I really wish that they were unattractive...it would really make following Jesus a lot easier! But I also find some of the most encouraging words in all the Bible to be I Corinthians 10:13...


"The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who       will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, He will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it."

I find this verse so encouraging for several reasons:

• I'm not sure why, but it's good for me to know that I'm not the only one struggling. Have you ever walked into a church or been around other Christians and feel like the "black sheep" of the group...the only one struggling...the only one that doesn't have a perfect life...singing in your head "Which One of These Is Not Like the Other, Which One of These Does Not Belong" and you think that song is about you? Well, good news (in a strange way)! We all struggle. You are not the only one tempted with what you are tempted with...which also means, like others have (or are in the process of doing), you too can overcome that temptation.  
• I also really like the five words toward the beginning of the verse, "...but you can trust God..." Know that God knows exactly what He's doing. He does not seek to rob us of life, but rather to give us life at its absolute best. And as the author and creator of life, He is more than qualified to define what life at its best really looks like.
• This verse also removes some crutches for me. The crutches I like to lean on are "the-temptation-is-too-great-for-me-to-say-no-to-it" crutch under my right arm and the "I'm-only-human" crutch under my left arm. But Paul writes that God knows exactly what I can bear before I break, and in His mercy, God will not put too much on me...even if I think I'm about to break. In other words, God knows that I am stronger than I think I am, and every time I withstand temptation I start to see in me what God already knows to be true about me.
• But without a doubt, when facing temptation, the part of this verse that is most amazing to me is that part about God always providing an "escape-hatch" for me when I am tempted. This escape-hatch may be the first really "mystical" experience that you have had with God, and its around us every time we are tempted...we just have to look for it. Let me give you an example, have you ever noticed how many times that when you are in the midst of being tempted by something, the phone rings, or there is a knock at the door, etc.? You really think that's coincidence? I, for one, don't have that measure of faith in coincidence to chalk it up to coincidence! God has the very best in mind for you and knows the devastation of attempting to short-circuit His plans for our lives, so as a loving Father, He provides rescue in the middle of potential disaster.

So how do we overcome temptation when (not "if") if comes our way?

1. Begin each day with a prayer asking for God to protect you...this does not eliminate temptation, it simply makes us aware of God's presence and promise in our lives as well as keeps us on the look-out for anything that might attempt to short-circuit God's plan for me that day.
2. Make every effort to avoid "tempting settings"...for example, if you are struggling with materialism, the mall is probably not the best place for you to kill a few hours in the afternoon! If you are struggling with lust, being alone on the internet is not the wisest choice you can make! If you are struggling with gossip, spending hours on the phone is really not the best idea! You get the point.
3. When you are tempted, ask God to show you the escape-hatch...I guarantee you that He will and you will be amazed!
4. Just because you see the escape-hatch, that doesn't mean that you've overcome that temptation...you have to intentionally choose to walk with God (and use the escape-hatch) and intentionally choose to reject the "alternate route"...the temptation.

Overcoming temptation is a life-long endeavor...however, life is a choice-by-choice choice...so, start rejecting any opportunity for you to attempt to short-circuit God's plans for you; and live well as God unfolds His absolutely incredible plans for your life.

THE PROVERBIAL PURSUIT: The Fork In the Path

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
                 -Yogi Berra (former New York Yankee and Hall of Fame catcher)

Every choice, every decision is, in essence, a fork in the path...if we choose one way, our path veers in one direction; if we choose another way, our path veers in that direction. Evidence of God's love for us is given by the fact that He allows us to make choices and decisions knowing that these choices and decisions always lead somewhere. Often times, however, we make a choice that sets the trajectory of a path that ends in a lesser than desirable destination. We make a decision about our marriage, that has damaging consequences...we make a decision regarding our finances, that lead to further stress and anxiety...we make a decision on a situation at our workplace, that instead of making the situation better it actually makes it worse. When we realize that we have made a mistake, the wise will try to do an about-face and ask God for forgiveness.

...But what if there was a way to live life in such a way that instead of having to constantly retrace our steps and having to constantly keep coming back to God and ask for His forgiveness, we live life making headway and, with solid traction, actually blaze new trails realizing that righteousness is a choice-by-choice choice. Too many Christ-followers do not live with this realization and that is way they feel caught in a cycle of repeating the same mistakes over and over again, that is why they feel like spiritual failures, and that is why they always live reactionary instead of the revolutionary lives that Jesus offers (John 10:10).

The key to this realization, the key to this type of living is Proverbs 3:5-6:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." 

Immediately, we can see the choice of every choice:

• I can choose to "trust in the Lord with all [my] heart"...
• I can choose to "lean on [my] own understanding"...  

What makes "leaning on my own understanding" so appealing is that it gives me some feeling of independence and allows me to take credit for the results. For example, if I "lean on my own understanding" to make financial decisions, then when I become filthy rich I can look back over my choices with an "I did it" type of attitude. The problem with my "leaning on my own understanding" is that I have an incredibly finite view and perspective of time...I only know what I know about the past (which in incredibly limited), I only know what I know about about the present (which is incredibly limited), and I only know what I know about the future (which is absolutely zero). God, on the other hand, has an infinite view and perspective of time...He knows everything about the past, He knows everything about the present, and He knows everything about the future. From a financial perspective, God is the ultimate "inside-trader"...He knows everything that happens before it ever becomes our history. On a common-sense level, if "my own understanding" is so great and spectacular, why is it then that I find myself always coming back to God and asking for His forgiveness and guidance in the end anyway? That's a rhetorical question!

The second facet about this key is when Solomon writes, "...in all your ways acknowledge Him..." he is not talking about kneeling down and pointing up when scoring a touchdown, or singing along with the radio "thanking the keeper of the stars," or even thanking God for your Grammy (award, not grandmother)...instead "acknowledge Him" is referring to the choice behind every choice...in others words, there is a motivation behind every decision that we make:

• Understand that my choices matter to God...He has a plan for me and therefore every decision has repercussions on that plan coming to reality in and through my life
• Understand that my God matters in in my choices...at the end of the day, what speaks most loudly and clear about our view of God is what decisions and choices we made, how we went about making those decisions and choices, and why we made those particular decisions and choices (in other words, was there any "acknowledgment" God in our decisions?). 

Solomon ends this life-altering passage with some of the most freeing words ever spoken or written, "...and He shall direct your paths." Did you pick up the freedom of that statement? It is not up to you to determine where you are going...that's God's job! Most of us lose countless hours popping countless Tums worrying about countless scenarios when, in the end, God wants to bring about His plan for your life and He will make sure you will get there. Think about it, do you think for an instant that when Moses is on the backside of the middle of nowhere tending sheep, that he makes his "bucket list" and it reads, "I, Moses, before I die want to return to Egypt where I killed a man and lead over 2,000,000 Israelites out of the world's most powerful empire to the banks of the Red Sea where I will lift up my stick and make the water part and the ground dry so we can go to a place that I will call the 'Promise Land'? Do you think Paul, while on surveillance on a hunting expedition for Christians, really sat down to re-evaluate his life goals and concluded that it was time for a career change...instead of hunting down and killing Christians, he would become the greatest Christ-following missionary this world has ever known? Certainly not...we would say that these were ordinary men that God used in extraordinary ways...and we would be correct! The point is, stop living life as if it were up to you! The question then is, "If it is God's job to get me where I am supposed to be, around the people that I am supposed to be around, doing what I am supposed to be doing, on the scale that I supposed to be doing it; then what is my job?" The answer to that question is one word: "surrender." Going back to the example of Moses, take some time this week to read through the Book of Exodus and note how many times you run across a phrase like this, "...and God said to Moses..." The significance of that phrase cannot be overstated...Moses did not have a clue what he was doing or where he was going...that is why over and over we see phrases like, "...and God said to Moses..." No one studying the Bible would ever say that Moses was a clueless leader, though...just the opposite, we can look at the life of Moses and see a man that was used mightily by God to accomplish massive God-size things...but never think that Moses was great because of Moses, Moses was great because his surrender to his God was great. The same principle applies to us...if our surrender to God is weak, then we will live as if life depends on us and our inadequacies are so great that, at best, we simply exist...exist within a failure-ridden, reactionary cycle. However, if our surrender to God is pervasive in all areas of our lives, then we will live in the freedom of knowing that God is directing our paths by opening and closing doors, the peace of knowing that God is in control where His power is on full display in and through us...we will find that life happens, but the way in which we live is not dictated  by what happens to us, but rather where our God is taking us and what our God is transforming us into...and that is truly revolutionary!

So, turn over the keys, turn over control...intentionally chose to intentionally surrender...God will not let you down, ever! 

Blind Melon and the Bible

   Have you ever noticed that the best music was the music that was played while you were in high school? This would explain my dad's love of Steppenwolf and Creedence Clearwater Revival, while at the same time explain why, to this day, I believe that Hootie and the Blowfish (especially "Cracked Rear View") are still incredible and that Better Than Ezra, Gin Blossoms, Matchbox 20 and Weezer all still rock! There was another song that was very popular when I was in high-school called "No Rain" by a group named Blind Melon. I don't think I've ever met anyone who knew all the words to this song, but nearly everyone remembers the video: strange little girl dressed up as a bumblebee dancing on a grassy hill...there is no proof to my knowledge to substantiate my next comment, but by seeing the video, I'm pretty sure that the band smoked a little of that grass from the hill while coming up with the idea for the video! This song (or the words that you know of it!), however, is one that gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave.

   As I was looking back through the passage that we discussed yesterday in our EVERYDAY ELIJAH series, I Kings 18:41-46, it hit me that the song "No Rain" would have been a perfect soundtrack for this particular part of the Bible. The context of this passage is that God, through the prayers of Elijah, stopped up the rain over Israel until they turned back to Him. Perhaps the strangest verse in this passage is "Then Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.'" (vs.41). This is strange to me on two different levels:

1) If I am Ahab, I'm not going to go picnic on a hillside, I'm heading for shelter...but he did not.
2) It seems as if Elijah heard "the sound of abundance of rain" and Ahab did not.

Unless God used some kind of "prophet-doggy-whistle" (a whistle that can only be heard by a prophet due to its high-pitched spiritual frequency that far exceeds the normal hearing and discernment range of the ordinary layman)...which I do not think happened...something else happened that can explain this strange occurrence. That something else is...drum-roll, please...EXPECTATIONS! Ahab had little, to no, expectations that God would lift the rain-ban on Israel. He had been present for God's show-down and victory over the 450 prophets of Baal. Ahab was witness to God sending fire from heaven and consuming the sacrifice, the the water, the rocks, and the dust around the altar. And Ahab stood by as the nation of Israel proclaimed, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" Within a matter of moments, Ahab had all the proof in front of him that he could have ever needed to convince him that God can do anything He wants to do...because He's God. However, Ahab, somehow dismissed the "sound of rain" and came up with some other excuse for what that sound could have been...why? Expectations! To Ahab, God was a god to these people and on that day that god did some pretty stuff, but at the end of the day, that god had little to nothing to do with Ahab's life or the way in which Ahab lived...that god is someone else's god.

Now follow me, one of the greatest traps that Christ-Followers can fall into is the trap of Low-God- Expectation Syndrome...thinking, "God did what He did in that person's life, but He could never do that incredible work in my life" or "It's amazing how God is using that person, but He could never use me like that." or "God's doing mind-blowing things over there, but that could never happen here [insert your address, the name of your neighborhood, community, church, region, state, nation]." Where does this come from? Expectations! Elijah trusted the fact the if God said that He would allow rain to fall again when Israel gets right with Him again, then rain would fall again when Israel got right with God again...and when Israel got right with God again, Elijah KNEW [insert the word "expected"] that it was only a matter of time before the National Broadcasting Service would be interrupting everyone's favorite TV show with that annoying buzzing alert followed by directions of what to do in the event of an emergency! Elijah actually expected great things from God! This explains why when Elijah hears a distant rumble, he knows that God is about to bring a thunderstorm...this explains why when Elijah hears from his servant that there is a lone cloud on the horizon no larger than "the size of a man's hand," he gets ready to outrun a flood.

Expectations usually determine results. For example, have you ever had to go somewhere that you really did not want to go but you had to go...and you had the expectation that you really were going to hate being there? Guess what? The time that you had to spend at that place was probably horrible! On the flip side, have you ever looked forward to going somewhere...and you just knew [insert "expected"] that that event was going to be incredible? Guess what? I bet that event was even better than you expected it to be! The strange thing is, really, that place you had to go or that event you were looking so forward to attending played just a minor role in your outlook. Let me explain, you know that place that you had to go to and it was horrible because you didn't want to be there? Guess what? There were other people at that exact same place that were living at their heart's content! And you know that event that you just couldn't wait to attend and it will go down as a fantastic memory? Guess what? There were other people at that exact same event who hated every moment if it! Same place...same event...different perspectives, due to different expectations!
 
This has immense and profound repercussions on the way we live life! If we expect little from God, we will see little of God, and we will live little lives. However, if we expect great things from God, we will see the great things of God, and we will live greatly because of God. I dare you to begin expecting great things from God! I dare you to settle for nothing less than seeing God at work all around you. I dare you to expect to hear from God when you read the Bible, pray, and go to church. I dare you to be so bold as to expect that God can pick up the pieces of your life and launch you beyond your wildest dreams...taking you places you never thought you would go, placing you around people you never thought you would be around, doing things you never thought you would be doing, living life in a way you never thought possible!        

Wavy Mullets Optional

As I look through the Bible at the type of people that God used to do incredible things for Him, it is easy to get discouraged for several reasons:

1. I am able to read in the Bible about the person's life in its entirety...I know how the story ends and how that person's life was used for future generations later on in the Bible.

2. Because that person is in the Bible, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that he/she had real struggles, real heartache, and was human.

3. My insecurities kick into to overdrive when I place my life up against any of these people.

As I look around me at a 2009 world, I see so many distortions of what a person must be/look like in order to be used greatly by God and for God.

DISTORTION #1:

To be used by God...men, you are not required to wear oversized toupees...women, you are not required to dye your hair pink.

DISTORTION #2:

To be used by God, you are not required to rock the latest in "Christian fashion."

DISTORTION #3:

To be used by God...women, you are not required to wear the Belk's makeup counter...men, the same goes for you!

DISTORTION #4:

To be used by God, you are not required to have perfectly white teeth coupled with a masterfully sculpted wavy mullet.

GOOD NEWS!!! All of these things are optional!

To me, the most encouraging verse in the Bible is James 5:17 "Elijah was a man just like us." Elijah was the man who commanded the rain to stop, raised the dead, prayed that fire would fall from Heaven...and it did, and was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire....no burns, no funeral. On the surface, it would seem like Elijah was so far out of our league, to say the least! Yet, James writes, "Elijah was a man just like us."

The question is not so much, "How much God do you have?" but rather, "How much of you does God have?" The fact is God WANTS to use each of us for His purposes. The variable in the equation is not God...it's us! This is the exact point where religion about God and a relationship with God dramatically part ways. A religion about God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and seek to "be better," "do more," "look the part," etc. These reactions are all about you and your adequacy...which will always come up short. A relationship with God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and respond in utter dependence upon God and complete surrender to God. These reactions are not about our adequacy to please God...or for that matter even our inadequacies...but about God's sufficiency in our lives. Elijah was a man who counted on God for everything, and God came through (as He always does!) far beyond anyone's (even Elijah's) expectations.

It is quite convicting to think that sometimes God does not use us more powerfully because we do not trust Him most fully with our moment-by-moment lives. Of course, today is a new day with new opportunities to be utterly dependent upon God and completely surrendered in every area of our lives to Him...but, that ball is in our court.

P.S.

To my Westside Jacksonville, FL friends and all the others I attend the Monster Truck Jam with every February...keep sculpting those mullets as you constantly and consistently give more and more of yourself over to God...I'll be with you soon cheering on Grave Digger and booing Maximum Destruction!

Twists of Irony...Halloween Addition

For the longest time, Christians and churches have dealt with the "issue" of Halloween...is it a day of evil, do we celebrate it, is it okay to dress up as Obi-Won Kenobi?

Many churches, in a twist of what I believe to be irony, have used Halloween as an opportunity to host an outreach event on their campuses (as a side note, many churches "require" a biblically-based costume in order to attend and participate...which screams "church kids only, go back home and change out of your Obi-Won Kenobi costume and wear something more appropriate...like a nice Hezekiah-inspired garb if you want to get our smarties or various flavored toostie rolls!"), while at the same time proclaiming the evils of Halloween. Twist of irony #1! The reason you have a "Fall Festival" is because of Halloween. This is very much akin to the fact that if you go to any LifeWay Christian Bookstore, they do not sell candy-corn in little baggies but they do sell "harvest seeds" in little baggies. What's the difference, you may ask? One is called "candy-corn" (and is obviously dark and evil) and the other is called "harvest seeds" (and is obviously good and holy)...same orange and yellow, same waxy taste, just a different name...and don't even get me started on the "testa-mints" or the t-shirts that say "Yoo-Woo is who He died for!" I am NOT saying that churches should not do outreach events on this night...I am saying do not think of yourself as being super-spiritual in that endeavor and be more focused on those outside of the walls rather than inside the walls.

I believe that God made each one of us who we are (uniqueness, not standardization...quirks, and all!), when we are (He did not create us in the Vikings era...the real ones, not the Brett Favre ones!), and where we are (my street, my workplace, my Larry's Giant Subs!) and based on all that INTENTIONAL designing by God, we will...when we die....give an account to God based on how we lived as the people He created us to be, around the people that He created us to live around and brought into our lives. Much in church, and rightly so, has been made of Jesus' words to the 11 Apostles (Matthias had not yet won the game of Yahtzee to take Judas' place...that comes in Acts 1:26) in Acts 1:8, "...you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." It is no secret that the three locations/regions that Jesus named are strategic circles...Jerusalem is base, Judea is further out, Samaria is even further out, and the end of the earth is the furtherest ring. This strategy of starting where you are, then moving outward is biblically mandated. In steps twist of irony #2! The one night a year that our neighbors...those people that God created us (individually and uniquely) to be around at that exact time that we are living where we are living...actually come knock on our doors, we are intentionally not there because we are at our churches celebrating "not-Halloween." To make matters worse, our neighbors are not at our churches celebrating "not-Halloween" because they are on our empty doorsteps.

As a church, we have strategically decided to stay home (or go to other more strategic neighborhoods)...not to protest Halloween, but rather to live biblically mandated lives: to reach out to our neighbors (even if for a second on our doorsteps or in our driveways), to ask and wonder aloud with the man or woman down the street why they call them "Fun-Size" Butterfingers when they are obviously much smaller and therefore are not more fun regardless of what the wrapper may say, to dispel your neighbors' notions that you are Ned Flanders and are in fact a real human with real problems experiencing real peace through God, to spend a little more time building relationships with our "Jerusalems."

As an ending comment, God does not condemn Obi-Won Kenobi costumes...He does condemn Jar Jar Binks costumes...because Jar Jar Binks nearly ruined the entire Star Wars Saga.

Have fun, be safe, meet new people, meet previously met people...invest life into them, and always strive to know Him and make Him known wherever you are!

Sweat Moments

Before I begin, I thought of another word that I HATE:

Hearty- (as in "That was a hearty meal.")
Again, I really don't know what I have against this word...I just can't stand to hear it spoken, and, in fact, to even think about it is, to me, the equivalent of fingernails on a chalk board.

Now to the new post...sorry about the elapsed time in between!

Have you ever been in a situation where in an instant you just begin to sweat...where one second the temperature in the room goes from fine to seemingly sweat-inducing hot? The other night I had such a moment. Let me say before I go any further, I enjoy good hygiene (my own and especially that of others that I come in sniffing distance of!), but I am not "metro"...if you don't know what "metro" is then that's okay, you won't accuse me of being what you don't know...if you do know what "metro" is and you know me, you know that you probably have not used that adjective or tag to describe me. With that out of the way, I've been getting tired of having to deal with my hair lately. I have more cowlicks than a salt-block in a pasture in south Georgia, without gel I fro, and when grown longer I resemble a hybrid between my dad and Elvis. So, the other night, I decided to go short...clipper short. The next night, I came home and as I was looking in the mirror, I saw that there was a small area on the side of my head that was a little bit longer, so I decided to take care of it. Simple, good idea. Bad idea to "take care of it" forgetting that the guard was not on the clippers! This is the point that my sweat glands went to DEFCON 1 alert status! Once you "take care of" a patch of hair without the guard on, there's no turning back. As I write this, my scalp is exposed to nature's elements! I must say, that I have never really seen my scalp in full like this before. I have discovered that I do have a nicely shaped head, though! My dilemma now, every morning, is the question of do I use more face wash to scrub my entire cranium, or do I use the same amount and couple that with shampoo just for the sake of principle...I have chosen the extra-face-wash-route. To the surprise of all, I kind of like it...one less thing to worry about! At the very worst, I have a funny story!

My greatest long term fear is to look back on life and have no interesting, significant, world-changing story to tell. Looking back through Hebrews 11, which is tagged as "The Hall of Faith" chapter (which if really understood, should be tagged as "The Chapter About People Who Should Not Even Be in Scripture Had It Not Been Because of Their Faith in God") is all about people that had no earthly qualifications to change their world in their day...Abel (second born and therefore would not receive the family inheritance and blessing), Enoch (not much known about this man), Noah (old and hardly a boat-maker in the desert), Abraham (do you really think that God called him to move because of his extraordinary ability to walk long distances to unknown places on the senior circuit?)...and on and on. Hebrews 11 is filled, not necessarily with people, but the faith/risk lives of these people in their God. In other words, we know these people by their faith (the way they lived), and by their faith (the way they lived), we know their God. Their faith was not a "sit in a chair or a pew and raise your hand and affirm a religious belief" type of faith, but rather their faith was life on the move...uncaged, unsafe, non-prudent, not boring.

Isn't is strange that we trust God to take care of us when we die, but fail to trust God to take care of us as we live...and I do not say "take care of us as we live" in meaning "devoid of pain and suffering, skipping down the yellow-brick road." We must understand that there is a stark difference between existence and significance...without living faith/risk in God day-by-day, moment-by-moment we are confined to our own natural limitations and will inevitably find ourselves existing...because, let's face it: we really have nothing to bring to the table that changes history in and of ourselves! But through faith/risk in God, we are set free to unlimited possibilities because we are empowered by all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present God.

In the years to come, when someone asks me about my story, I pray that it will be a little bit more than school, marriage, home, work, a the best chili dog I ever ate...I pray that it will be a story about exchanging the limited for the limitless, a story that is not caged, not safe, not prudent, not boring...shaved head and all!