I am going to leave you to your own thoughts on these, but I find them enlightening and downright hilarious.
Funny Jesus 1
Funny Jesus 2
Jesus Freak Out!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Check this out!
This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. Give it a minute and you will see what this really means.
The Truth Spelled Out in Contradiction
Jesus Freak Out!
The Truth Spelled Out in Contradiction
Jesus Freak Out!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Pass the Grace, Please
Lately I have been learning a great deal about the grace and mercy that God bestowed upon us when he died on the cross. As long as we would simply claim aloud that Jesus Christ is our Savior, it's the free-est gift in the world (I know, free-est is not a word but it works here). There is no other gift in existance here on earth, or anywhere else for that matter, that comes with no strings attached and a love so unconditional.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul goes into the reasons that he sent Titus back to the Corinthians with this second letter. It was to complete an act of grace that Paul had been wishing for some time. "So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part." Paul sent Titus back to show the Corinthians that no matter what, he was gracious towards them and that he loved them unconditionally. God has bestowed His grace upon those who will BELIEVE AND FOLLOW Him. Note, that doesn't only say believe.
Now, for those of us who have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, and for those who have committed our lives to following Him, we have one other thing to do with that grace: Pass it on to others! God's grace does not stop with that which he gave through our Savior Jesus Christ. It STARTS there! Now it's our job to extend that grace beyond as a testament to the grace God has bestowed upon us. Did Jesus turn His back on the prostitute, or the blind man, or for that matter the Pharisees? No. His grace extended to all who would receive it. But, for others to receive it, it must be given. So, as Christ followers, we must be willing to extend the grace of God to those who are hurting, to those who are in the ditches of life, to those who are misguided by this culture. Who are we to hoard a gift when someone else could use the same gift. Share it, and share it generously.
Working to pass it on,
Jesus Freak Out!
In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul goes into the reasons that he sent Titus back to the Corinthians with this second letter. It was to complete an act of grace that Paul had been wishing for some time. "So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part." Paul sent Titus back to show the Corinthians that no matter what, he was gracious towards them and that he loved them unconditionally. God has bestowed His grace upon those who will BELIEVE AND FOLLOW Him. Note, that doesn't only say believe.
Now, for those of us who have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, and for those who have committed our lives to following Him, we have one other thing to do with that grace: Pass it on to others! God's grace does not stop with that which he gave through our Savior Jesus Christ. It STARTS there! Now it's our job to extend that grace beyond as a testament to the grace God has bestowed upon us. Did Jesus turn His back on the prostitute, or the blind man, or for that matter the Pharisees? No. His grace extended to all who would receive it. But, for others to receive it, it must be given. So, as Christ followers, we must be willing to extend the grace of God to those who are hurting, to those who are in the ditches of life, to those who are misguided by this culture. Who are we to hoard a gift when someone else could use the same gift. Share it, and share it generously.
Working to pass it on,
Jesus Freak Out!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Who's #1?
Throughout my journey as a Christ follower, I have had many people ask why I believe the things that I do: Do you really believe that Jesus was a real person? Do you really believe that the Bible is fact and not a collection of fiction writings by men bent on controlling others? Do you really believe what the Bible says and that it doesn't teach fear? Do you believe ALL of the Bible or just some?
"Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom 1:5 NIV).
It's hard for someone who relies only on themselves to have faith in anything but them. This world teaches total reliance on #1. But in the life of a Christ follower, #1 changes its face. That face now turns from a broken down wreck of a person who could do nothing, as hard as they might try or think they are doing it right, into the image of one who laid his life out for the sins of the world and died on a slab of wood. #1 turns into the face of Jesus Christ. Our life now depends on the faith we have that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, not on the faith we have in ourselves.
Many so-called Christ followers struggle with this everyday. Faith must shift from our own abilities to His abilities. It must shift from the things that we can do to the things that HE can do.
So how do we get it through their thick skulls about our faith? We might as well bang our heads against a wall if we think that we have anything to do with it. We are just the planter, not the seed or the water. Jesus Christ has everything to do with it, not us.
Judge our own faith first, before we judge that of someone else.
Heart Searching,
Jesus Freak Out!
"Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom 1:5 NIV).
It's hard for someone who relies only on themselves to have faith in anything but them. This world teaches total reliance on #1. But in the life of a Christ follower, #1 changes its face. That face now turns from a broken down wreck of a person who could do nothing, as hard as they might try or think they are doing it right, into the image of one who laid his life out for the sins of the world and died on a slab of wood. #1 turns into the face of Jesus Christ. Our life now depends on the faith we have that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, not on the faith we have in ourselves.
Many so-called Christ followers struggle with this everyday. Faith must shift from our own abilities to His abilities. It must shift from the things that we can do to the things that HE can do.
So how do we get it through their thick skulls about our faith? We might as well bang our heads against a wall if we think that we have anything to do with it. We are just the planter, not the seed or the water. Jesus Christ has everything to do with it, not us.
Judge our own faith first, before we judge that of someone else.
Heart Searching,
Jesus Freak Out!
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Shoulder
I was talking with my wife last night about what a dork I was in high school. I was (or should I say still am) the geek who befriended all the girls, yet never dated a single one of them. I was always the one they would turn to with their relationship problems because obviously I was not a threat or someone they thought they could ever date. I became the wet shoulder. I became adept at listening and not solving the problems for them, just suggesting. I also got myself deeper into some problems than I should have and probably made the situation worse over better.
Fast forward about 14 years and now we are in today. I got a bizarre call last night from someone I have only met once. I am not going to go through the circumstances of who and what and where, but let's just say the people involved are a young married couple facing some tough challenges that are not insurmountable, yet worse than anything I have had to deal with or understand from the first person. I was the one that both basically turned to, including one of their parents.
Over my years of being the shoulder, I have learned some hard truths about being a listener: don't put yourself into the situation-it's not yours to fix; and don't get emotionally attached-you will end up the bad guy some how, some way.
The simplest scripture I have is this: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31 NIV). In other words, would I want someone walking up to me and asking me intimate details about a life problem if I did not already entrust them with a certain level of intimacy or privacy? There are men that I would trust to come up to me and challenge me with the hard questions and we should all have these people in our lives, but there are other men whom I would not. It's finding those key people in your life and being that person in someone else's life that makes the difference. Lastly, remember to temper all advice with the wisdom of God's word, and not that of this culture.
Drying my shirt and praying for someone's salvation,
Jesus Freak Out!
Fast forward about 14 years and now we are in today. I got a bizarre call last night from someone I have only met once. I am not going to go through the circumstances of who and what and where, but let's just say the people involved are a young married couple facing some tough challenges that are not insurmountable, yet worse than anything I have had to deal with or understand from the first person. I was the one that both basically turned to, including one of their parents.
Over my years of being the shoulder, I have learned some hard truths about being a listener: don't put yourself into the situation-it's not yours to fix; and don't get emotionally attached-you will end up the bad guy some how, some way.
The simplest scripture I have is this: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31 NIV). In other words, would I want someone walking up to me and asking me intimate details about a life problem if I did not already entrust them with a certain level of intimacy or privacy? There are men that I would trust to come up to me and challenge me with the hard questions and we should all have these people in our lives, but there are other men whom I would not. It's finding those key people in your life and being that person in someone else's life that makes the difference. Lastly, remember to temper all advice with the wisdom of God's word, and not that of this culture.
Drying my shirt and praying for someone's salvation,
Jesus Freak Out!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Budweiser Clydesdales
Imagine watching the Super Bowl commercials coming up this weekend. There on your HD TV (of course I still have a tube jobby), you see the beautiful Clydesdale horses toting the Budweiser wagon across your screen. Just as the last row of horses comes into view, their's a jackass (no, not Johnny Knoxville) tied to the last harness. That would look kind of odd wouldn't it? It just doesn't fit together.
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers........." (2Cor 6:14)
What does yoked mean? Well, think back to the days when people used oxen as their trucks. They had to yoke multiple oxen together to get the goods where they needed to go. They needed a team that worked off the same principles and towards the same goal.
Some people see this verse and go, "So I can divorce my wife now who doesn't know Christ and marry that good looking women I have been talking to at church?" WRONG.
Still others see this verse and go,"So this means that I have to dump all my friends who do not know Christ because I am now at a higher level spiritually than they are?" WRONG again.
God was not talking about the unbelievers in our lives with respect to who we socialize with. Those people still need us. God was referring to those whom we choose to minister with. Do you think that it makes sense to start spreading the Truth to teenagers with someone who believes that oral sex is not sex because it is not specifically quoted in the Bible? Do you think that it makes sense to try and minister to a divorced man with another man who thinks that it's okay to divorce because sometimes people just don't get along? That's crazy. It doesn't make sense. This verse goes on saying:
"For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Now that right there makes some sense. These things don't go together. I'm not saying that we get it right all the time and there won't be disagreements among us. But, we must not compromise what we know to be true just to stay on someones good side in the church. We're not doing God any favors.
Cinching up my harness for Christ,
Jesus Freak Out!
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers........." (2Cor 6:14)
What does yoked mean? Well, think back to the days when people used oxen as their trucks. They had to yoke multiple oxen together to get the goods where they needed to go. They needed a team that worked off the same principles and towards the same goal.
Some people see this verse and go, "So I can divorce my wife now who doesn't know Christ and marry that good looking women I have been talking to at church?" WRONG.
Still others see this verse and go,"So this means that I have to dump all my friends who do not know Christ because I am now at a higher level spiritually than they are?" WRONG again.
God was not talking about the unbelievers in our lives with respect to who we socialize with. Those people still need us. God was referring to those whom we choose to minister with. Do you think that it makes sense to start spreading the Truth to teenagers with someone who believes that oral sex is not sex because it is not specifically quoted in the Bible? Do you think that it makes sense to try and minister to a divorced man with another man who thinks that it's okay to divorce because sometimes people just don't get along? That's crazy. It doesn't make sense. This verse goes on saying:
"For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Now that right there makes some sense. These things don't go together. I'm not saying that we get it right all the time and there won't be disagreements among us. But, we must not compromise what we know to be true just to stay on someones good side in the church. We're not doing God any favors.
Cinching up my harness for Christ,
Jesus Freak Out!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Moved by the Spirit
I have a story to tell about how the Spirit moved me the other day. This feels like one of those stories you only see in your e-mail, but I must say that I never felt this moved by God before in my life. It's a little long, but bear with me. There is no great climactic scene of someone coming to Christ, just a cool story about what it's like to really do as God has moved us. By the way, thanks to BH for letting me know this was a bigger deal than I really thought it was:
It was this past Sunday and the unpacked boxes from our move were starting to annoy me in the garage. So I decided it was time to get rid of them, as well as some of the Goodwill stuff I had been meaning to deliver for about 2 weeks. As I was breaking down the boxes to put in my truck, I was still debating whether or not I should wait and take them to the closer trash dump on the next major street over when they opened Monday morning, or just take them over to my old Dunedin stomping grounds. My wife looked at me and asked me what I was going to do and I had to think for a minute. And another minute went by as I started thinking of other things I could do with my time instead of driving all over Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for 2 hours. Then our awesome God laid something on my heart: go to Dunedin because there is someone I want you to talk to at the recycle place. So I did, not thinking that anything would really happen.
I got the truck packed up, tucked Ethan into his car seat, and headed to Goodwill and then on to Dunedin. It was cool to see the old hometown. We pulled into the dirt lot where the recycle bins were and started to put all the stuff into its respective bins. As I was putting some of the newspaper into the dumpster, I noticed an older gentlemen thumbing through the old papers looking for articles of interest. I had 2 office paper boxes full of old magazines so I proceeded to ask if he wanted to thumb through them and take what he wanted. He obliged and we walked over to the bed of my truck. He wasn't interested in most of them because of their aviation nature, but he took the TIME magazines. As I took the rest of them over the proper bin, the old man offered to help me with the boxes and we struck up a conversation. He told me how he was from upstate New York and about the old dairy farm that was turned into an airport near his childhood home. We exchanged pleasantries over jobs, and background, interests and family. I thanked the man for his help and went about my task fo buckling my hyperactive son back into his car seat.
Just when I finished this task, I told Ethan to hold on for a second. I had to go over and talk with the nice man for just one more second. God was still pushing. I wasn't done with Steve yet. I grabbed one of the invite cards to our church out of my wallet and walked over to the man again. I asked he had a church and he said he did not. I asked if he was married and he said that he was not. I told him about our church a little and that we would love to have him join us this weekend. He knew the area where it was and seemed to be pretty receptive to coming on over. What's more important, he seemed very happy to talk with someone. I felt content with myself: the operative word being MYSELF.
Then I started driving. About ten minutes down the road to see the grandparents, I realized something: God pushed me to do something earlier didn't he. Wait a minute, he laid it on my heart that someone was there to talk with me and I didn't even realize it was happening, I just followed as I was lead! Whoa. This doesn't happen to me. I "follow" God all the time and he doesn't necessarily listen. Or is it the fact that I am following my own inhibitions and God is waiting on me to do what he wants, not what I want?
What happened on Sunday shook me up and made me start REALLY "listening" for the Spirit. What about you?
Turning up my spiritual hearing aid,
Jesus Freak Out!
It was this past Sunday and the unpacked boxes from our move were starting to annoy me in the garage. So I decided it was time to get rid of them, as well as some of the Goodwill stuff I had been meaning to deliver for about 2 weeks. As I was breaking down the boxes to put in my truck, I was still debating whether or not I should wait and take them to the closer trash dump on the next major street over when they opened Monday morning, or just take them over to my old Dunedin stomping grounds. My wife looked at me and asked me what I was going to do and I had to think for a minute. And another minute went by as I started thinking of other things I could do with my time instead of driving all over Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for 2 hours. Then our awesome God laid something on my heart: go to Dunedin because there is someone I want you to talk to at the recycle place. So I did, not thinking that anything would really happen.
I got the truck packed up, tucked Ethan into his car seat, and headed to Goodwill and then on to Dunedin. It was cool to see the old hometown. We pulled into the dirt lot where the recycle bins were and started to put all the stuff into its respective bins. As I was putting some of the newspaper into the dumpster, I noticed an older gentlemen thumbing through the old papers looking for articles of interest. I had 2 office paper boxes full of old magazines so I proceeded to ask if he wanted to thumb through them and take what he wanted. He obliged and we walked over to the bed of my truck. He wasn't interested in most of them because of their aviation nature, but he took the TIME magazines. As I took the rest of them over the proper bin, the old man offered to help me with the boxes and we struck up a conversation. He told me how he was from upstate New York and about the old dairy farm that was turned into an airport near his childhood home. We exchanged pleasantries over jobs, and background, interests and family. I thanked the man for his help and went about my task fo buckling my hyperactive son back into his car seat.
Just when I finished this task, I told Ethan to hold on for a second. I had to go over and talk with the nice man for just one more second. God was still pushing. I wasn't done with Steve yet. I grabbed one of the invite cards to our church out of my wallet and walked over to the man again. I asked he had a church and he said he did not. I asked if he was married and he said that he was not. I told him about our church a little and that we would love to have him join us this weekend. He knew the area where it was and seemed to be pretty receptive to coming on over. What's more important, he seemed very happy to talk with someone. I felt content with myself: the operative word being MYSELF.
Then I started driving. About ten minutes down the road to see the grandparents, I realized something: God pushed me to do something earlier didn't he. Wait a minute, he laid it on my heart that someone was there to talk with me and I didn't even realize it was happening, I just followed as I was lead! Whoa. This doesn't happen to me. I "follow" God all the time and he doesn't necessarily listen. Or is it the fact that I am following my own inhibitions and God is waiting on me to do what he wants, not what I want?
What happened on Sunday shook me up and made me start REALLY "listening" for the Spirit. What about you?
Turning up my spiritual hearing aid,
Jesus Freak Out!
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