We are all in this together…

Sorry I’m a slacker and haven’t posted recently. I’m sure you have all been waiting intently hitting the refresh button hoping something new would pop up… well refresh no more! Today’s post is a short blurb on a realization that I had during my morning Bible Study.

One of the most basic forms of sharing my faith that I was taught growing up was the Romans road. It is fitting to use the book of Romans as an evangelistic tool since in it Paul lays out Christianity thoroughly in a very systematic way. The problem that I have had (and you may can relate) is that because I have only heard the single verses used in this technique repetitiously. While there is truth in these individual phrases, there is so much more.

I have recently been reading through the book of Romans. When I got to chapter 3 I found all to familiar verse 23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” My only thoughts for this verse for most of my life have been that it was used to show that we are all sinners, and that was it. When I widened the scope of my reading I found that by looking at the verse in the context of the surrounding passage that there was so much more that could be learned.

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The verse is not just trying to say that we are all sinners. It’s saying that we are all in this together, through sin and salvation. This includes not only now, but the Old Testament. That is a huge thought when you realize that for most people, then or today, working to earn our salvation seems like the only logical way to God. In the following chapter, Paul even teaches that it was Abraham’s faith that was what was counted to him as righteousness. The law only pointed to the need for a Savior, but all it accomplished was to condemn us.

In a world where so many people attempt to say that God can be found in any way, we must remember that we have been given the ONLY way to attain Salvation. The tough part is, it is out of our hands. Nothing we can DO will save us, only our faith in what has been DONE.

It's election day!

My plan for last week was to write a catchy, pointed, political post with today’s election in mind. For some reason that post never came together. I was going to make points about how if the church were doing its job, there would be no need to even have a debate about nationalized healthcare. I was also going to point out man’s true need is to rely on God instead of its political leaders. I still believe that, and would be happy to discuss the issue, but for some reason my heart has shifted a different direction this morning as I write without having planned ahead.

God is in control.

Again.

God is in control.

It does not matter what arguments I could give to defend a political party or a style of government. Whatever He wants is exactly what He will get. The part I struggle with remembering is that is also the best thing for me. What may look bad to me is both good and right if that is God’s desire.

I am reminded of that way the Israelites cried out to God for the kind of king they thought they needed (sounds familiar). God gave them that king and he led them into sin. Even though there would be good kings, Israel always seemed to find a way to lose sight of God and fall out of his will. God put Israel into some very “bad” situations all to bring them back to their knees.

One of the single worst events in the history of the church was when Constantine made Christianity the mandated religion of the Roman Empire. Until then the church had been persecuted, and yet was still growing at an alarming rate. Tertullian even said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” God used difficult times to show his power and reveal Himself as the only solution to the problem.

It pains me to say, because I love a good political debate, but if it takes socialism in America to grow the church, that’s exactly what we need. If God knows what will “light a fire under our butts” He needs to do it. Our faith is not in who governs us, but rather who is sovereign over us. He picks and chooses our leaders. We do not need to know His reasons. We need to trust Him and grow closer to Him.

As a side note, I have changed the comment section to allow anyone to post without needing to log in. Let’s talk!

Don't underestimate...

Hey! This is my tenth post, so I thought I'd do something a little thoughty.

One of the things that I have realized more and more as I have looked at what the church has become today is that we way underestimate the power of sin as well as the power of God. I myself have been guilty of this. Words like “depravity” make many of us feel uncomfortable. This is because we do not like to relinquish control, even over our sinful state. This does not mean that there aren’t problems on both ends of that spectrum.

In Romans 3 Paul explains just how powerful the grip of sin is. Paul includes a large group of Scriptures from the Old Testament that describe the “depravity” of mankind. Words like “no one seeks God,” “all have turned away,” and “there is no one who does good” seem to imply that the effects of sin’s curse overwhelms the soul totally.  Mankind is so taken by sin that it cannot even do good on its own.

We as believers must be able to admit this to ourselves. If we allow our minds to tell us that there are good people out there, and that they just haven’t done good for the right reasons yet, we have already lost the battle. We cannot assume that people are in the world looking for God, and that all we need to do is make Him easy to find. Before we were saved we, like them, were at war with God. We fought Him with every “good deed” done because it was for our own glory. Apart from salvation we could not be righteous. But our sinful, depraved state is not the only effect on our lives that we have underestimated.

In a Wednesday night Bible study that I co-lead, I often like to throw out difficult to answer questions that spark some form of debate. One of those questions seems to fit right in as a counterpoint to this discussion of depravity. Knowing what we know about our sinful state, is it possible that, as true believers, there could come a point in our lives where we finished out our lives without sinning anymore? Initially most people quickly react by saying no, and that they know they still sin so that could not be possible. As much as we need reminding not to underestimate the depravity of an unbeliever, we need to be careful not to underestimate the grace of God.

Romans 6 provides many of the answers that we are looking for:

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

It seems almost noble to say that one could go on sinning to help God’s grace look even better, but part of being saved is also becoming a new creation. When we became believers we essentially “died” and were “resurrected” into a new life, which was symbolized through our baptism. The old us did not literally die, but rather we now have been enabled to live a wholly new type of life. As such, we should live in a new way, with new intentions.

5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Furthermore, since we die to ourselves with Christ in His crucifixion, so also we are resurrected with Him into a new life. We are no longer slaves to sin because death frees from sin. We cannot overlook the enormity of what this means. WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES TO SIN! Paul, in fact, goes further by saying that we are now slaves to righteousness (Rom. 6:18).

Does this mean that once you become a believer you are perfect? No, Christ was perfect for us. Is this “sinless” result something that will be recognizable? No, I don’t think we will be able to understand our hearts this side of heaven. Then why does this even matter? We should not accept that we will just go on sinning for the rest of our lives and cheapen the unmatched grace of God. If that grace is powerful enough to release us from sin, it is powerful enough to release us from ALL sin. We can do as Peter says in 1 Peter 1:15, “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” God’s grace has made something that was impossible, possible.

This is a message of encouragement. I am not saying that I have attained some level of sinlessness that I can boast in, but I am encouraged to strive for it. If Christ should so miraculously grant that I fully become that “slave to righteousness” that Paul mentioned, it is only by Him and for His glory that it would be completed. We can be free from sin completely, and should not be afraid to know it.

Charlie Hall certainly seems to understand how
to enjoy grace AND take a picture.

I’ll leave you with this:

Sin has lost it's power,

death has lost it's sting.

From the grave you've risen

VICTORIOUSLY!

Into marvelous light I'm running,

Out of darkness, out of shame.

By the cross you are the truth,

You are the life, you are the way

                       Charlie Hall – “Marvelous Light”

It's football time in...

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to celebrate my anniversary with my lovely wife, the weather cools down, and it’s college football season. The NFL is great, don’t get me wrong, but the overall stupidity level of fans makes the passion, people, and the atmosphere of the college game so much more enticing to me.  Fortunately for me, the only real football left in the country is in the southeast where I live. If you did not know, I am a huge fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide (if you aren’t, we welcome you to the bandwagon at any time). My wife, however, is a Vol fan, but I’ll save her some day.

I am not here, however, just to talk football. I would rather focus on fans. What is the most thrilling moment of a football game? Scoring a touchdown. What is the typical reaction when your team scores? We leap to our feet and throw our hands in the air. Raising your hands is such a perfect reaction that the officials signal a score with uplifted hands.

Why, then, do so many of us, myself included, feel so uncomfortable raising our hands when we are worshipping with the body of believers? Below I offer some suggestions.

We aren’t actually all fellow believers.

This may sound surprising, but it is possible that not everyone in the church building is actually a believer. Some people may not understand the need to raise their hands to God because they do not know Him. We should not be so quick to assume that because we see someone every Sunday morning that they are saved.

1 John 3:9-10; Galatians 5:22-23

We don’t understand the purpose.

How often do leaders in the church explain why raised hands are important? Not very often. What is the international response when someone has a gun pointed at them? They raise their hands. But, why? It is a sign of surrender and submission to the authority of the person in power. Likewise, when we raise our hands in worship that act does not accomplish anything, but with the right heart is representative of our heart of surrender to God. We humbly submit to Him.

We don’t feel comfortable.

This is the area that I struggle with the most. Raising my hands in worship has always been something that made me feel uncomfortable. Part of me feels like everyone’s eyes would go straight to me if I did it. I also am never sure if I am raising my hands for the right reasons, whether for show or worship, and that scares me as well. Whatever the reason, this is a common response. Raising hands pulls us out of our comfort zone. It makes us vulnerable and open before the church and before God.

We think others are fake.

T-Pain certainly understands that when everybody's
hands go up... They stay there.

Sometimes during worship I can become very easily distracted by others around me. Often I find myself looking around the room and seeing the way they worship. Many times it appears they are just raising their hands for show, something I have done from time to time. It is easy to convince ourselves that we must raise a hand to fit in or make our worship count, but God does not require any particular work to legitimize our worship of Him. While there are certainly others around us who may not be worshipping honestly or are over-exaggerating their worship because they feel they must, we must remember that God looks at each heart individually. We should worship freely without care for those around us. We must be bold.

While that was certainly not exhaustive, I do think that covers some of the major reasons there is little expression during worship. What are the reasons we should raise our hands? Again this list won’t cover everything.

·      It’s a sign of surrender to God. We are letting Him be in charge.
·      It’s a sign of personal sacrifice. We offer our hands to Him.
·      It puts us in a vulnerable position, which is a healthy place to be when standing before Almighty God.
·      It’s mentioned in the Bible as a valid form of worship and therefore is acceptable and encouraged.
·      It’s a natural response of praise and should be directed toward our Creator.

After all of this has been said you may still ask, “That doesn’t mean I HAVE to raise my hands, does it?” I suppose the short answer to that would be no, but I would ask one question. Why would you not want to? If you are so busy legitimately worshipping God in other ways that you simply do not have time to lift your hands to Him, please continue. But if you are looking for a reason or an excuse not to raise your hands, then that may be exactly what God wants from you. He desires that you are willing to sacrifice your comfort and control that He may be praised. He looks at your heart. Is your heart completely His?

Below is my prayer for myself this week. If you would like to use it as well, please feel free.

May my prayer be set before you like incense;

       may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

             Psalm 141:2

Day Five: Learning what it all means…

I am grateful that I am
the way God has made me

Over the last several days I have talked at length about some of the most important parts of my life. These are certainly not the only times I have seen God working in my life, but in these I have seen the most profound changes in myself. These experiences would be worthless to me, however, if I did not realize what was to be learned through them.

Every single moment of my existence has been orchestrated by God to lead me to where I am. By even changing one decision or one reaction, I could be a completely different person right now. If God had not allowed me to become lazy with my schoolwork in the 7^th grade I might not play the guitar today. That would drastically reduce my coolness factor and likely have made me utterly uninteresting to my lovely wife, who has better standards than that.

If God had not allowed me to become selfish and break up with my lovely wife while we were dating. I would not have had the time to mature and fully grasp the concept of the Biblical role of a husband. It would have been far less painful immediately, but so much more later on.

Even if it can become
embarrassing

By changing any one moment I would not be the person that God has created me to be. I praise Him everyday for each good or bad thing that continues to mold me into a more passionate worshipper who seeks to bring Him glory in all I do. I hope that by reading this you will see how seamlessly God has strung my life together up to this point. He has proved himself faithful over and over again. He can do the same for you if you will let go and let Him be in control.

Question of the Day: Why is it often difficult for people to let God be in control of their life?

Day Four: Learning how to love…

Still with me? This is the portion of my life that I most love to tell. At no time in my life have I been more drastically changed than in the story to follow. Even though I believe I was saved quite young, this period is when I think the Holy Spirit truly opened my eyes, and I finally “got it.”

I have dated only one person in my entire life, and I dated her three different times. I don’t know exactly why, just to be unique I suppose, but by the time I had made it to my sophomore year in high school I decided I wasn’t going to date until after I graduated. That said, it took me all of… a month, maybe… to start dating that summer. I had no idea how to be in a relationship at that point, and after a little more than a year, thought I should break off the relationship. I didn’t believe that she was the “one.” On top of not knowing how to be in a relationship, I didn’t know how to break up either. Basically we kept hanging out just the same, but didn’t say we were dating. A few weeks later we were back at it.

After a while longer I again became restless with our relationship. This time I decided that we would break up and make a point not to hang out. I thought a clean break would make all the difference. What made it even worse was that we broke up just before opening night of Star Wars III, and she had purchased the tickets! Needless to say, that was an awkward evening.

After several months of uncomfortable passes in the hallway and me not being able to shake thinking about her, God punched me right in the mouth. I don’t remember the chapter title, but I know my pastor was preaching out of the book The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg. He was speaking on pride, or at least that’s what God was talking about to me. I realized that when we had broken up, I was purely caring about myself more than her.

Knowing I had hurt her deeply I knew the only way I could apologize to her would be with more humility then I had ever mustered before. I hand-wrote her a letter and had it given to her that evening at church. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but amazingly it was like all the tension between us just vanished. We had a real, mutual conversation among friends for the first time in months. Several days later we hung out at the same friend’s house for an evening. That was the night that God was like, “DO YOU GET IT YET?” I had this brand new feeling that I had never experienced before. I couldn’t sleep that night. All I could do was see what it was going to look like the day I asked her to marry me, something I knew was going to happen. I knew that I wanted to take care of her more than myself, and that God wanted that too. We got engaged on the floor of my graduation amidst all the new grads taking family pictures and were married in September of that year.

Question of the Day: What is a time in your life that God drastically changed you in a way you were unable to change yourself?

Day Three: Learning to be a computer nerd…

One more day… one more story about ME! Well… it’s more like one more story about how a merciful God has shown me His power. Today we are exploring the way the hand of God has led me to the present in my professional life. It still amazes me how one decision led to another, and yet all of those decisions have worked together to turn me into who I am.

I don’t know how it happened, but it turned out that East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN had one of the best Digital Media programs in the country. I really don’t remember when I decided that was the program I wanted to be a part of, but for some reason I had this tug to head in that direction. It is basically a rule that whenever anyone enters the DIGM program they must have overinflated expectations of how they are going to do 3D animation and work for Pixar. I learned very quickly that I desired more to stay near to home, have a life, and actually get a job. I found that my passions were actually to do video and web design.

I looked quite attractive driving
 this beast around

After placing most of my study in these areas, I graduated from ETSU and found a job… as a delivery driver for Office Depot. While I continued looking for a “real” job I wondered why it was I was there. It turns out this was a great job for me at that time because it taught me how to function as a “grown up” and get my work done. It also showed me that I needed to rely on God and not my own plans. He had me at Office Depot until a specific job was ready for me.

This is the student activities page
that I got to design

While they didn’t realize they designed the job just for me, I was the first person ever hired into the position of Web Developer back at ETSU. When I had graduated I had hoped to some day be able to come back to work at the university, God actually wanted me back right away. One of the best benefits of working for the state is that they will pay for graduate level courses. This is what has allowed me to begin studying at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking my M.Div. degree in Worship studies. This is something I could never have planned. God gave me a desire to enter a field that would eventually pay for education in the other field I am passionate about! Examining the path that has brought me to this point is a constant reminder that He knows best, and I do not.

Question of the Day: What has God done in your life to place you where you are?