Bars, Jesus and Beer

I wrote this post about a week ago.  I felt strongly when I wrote it, but then got scared as I thought about posting it.  People will think I'm nuts.  I will totally be judged for posting this.  I can't let anyone see this God...  Then two days later my friend messaged me this video.  It was complete confirmation that I needed to share this on my blog.  The next few posts will be the essay I wrote last week. Comments welcomed.

Us Christians have it all wrong, ya know?

I’ve spent my summer really listening to people.  Teenagers, old folk, twenty-somethings.  They all tell me the same thing.  They are sick of religion and they have tattoos to prove it.  At the same time, they crave the raw, real relationship their Father gives them.  They want love.  They want the Lord.  They want renewed strength from Jesus.  They long for a glimpse of his hair and a feel of his robe.  They want all this with everything they have in them, but they have all come to the conclusion that church is not the way.

At all.

And I get it now, they’re right.  Really, really, right.

At church people feel judged.  They scrounge around for hours looking for some form of 90’s button up apparel that makes them look like their grandparents dressed them.  They comb their hair over and straighten their back, closing their teeth and hiding their crap.

Then they panic, sweat, and breathe heavy as they try to walk through the front doors of the church, the holy dwelling place of God’s people.

What will they think of me?  What will they say?  Will they accept me?  Am I dressed too formal?  Crap.  Why is he wearing jeans??!

Many of these people walk out in the middle of the sermon, never to return again.  Others barely make it to the pew before some smart Christian slips a lip.

Others suck it up, die on the inside, and resolve to thinking that’s all there is.  They hide their sin, week in and week out, and live sad lives wishing there was someone, anyone, who understood.

Funny.  When I think about it, people reacted the opposite way to Jesus.

They fled to his garments.  They wanted just a touch of his hand, a glimpse of his eyes, and a piece of his healing powers.  They wanted to watch him cast out demons, raise the dead, and heal the blind.  They clung to his love and powers like none other.  They DESIRED him.  They didn’t feel uncomfortable, judged, or stressed.  In fact, they came just as they were…dirty, beaten, and bleeding.  Addictions, imperfections, and shortcomings were widely welcomed.  They knew he wouldn’t care.  And you know what, he never turned a judgmental eye, never turned them away, never thought twice about their character or hair style.

"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out."

Proverbs 20:5

"While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the 'sinners' and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners'?"  

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Mark 2:15-17

Spiritual Gifts 101.2

As I said in my post, Eagerly Desire the Greater Gifts:

"The way I understand it, each member of the body of Christ is given a special gift from the Holy Spirit.  The gift is not just for the individual to soak up in their own life, but to be shared with others members of the body.  In this way, if every member is living out fully what they were called to be--obeying and trusting God with every spiritual move--then the entire church would be functioning as a body!  

If those who were called to evangelize would go and evangelize, and those who were called to pray would pray without ceasing, while those who are called to teach would teach faithfully, I think every member in the body would benefit from unity, working together, and therefore grow closer to Christ in love (Ephesians 4:16.)"

Do you understand what this means?  You were given a specific role to play in this great big story about God and his love for creation.  He CHOSE you to play out a distinct part in His grand scheme!  

What are you gonna do about that??

Well, as Paul puts it, "...If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging. let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." --Romans 12:6-8

In other words: GO DO IT!!  Let the love and grace of Christ bubble up in you so much that it has to flow out of you all over the place, or else you are going to explode!  As a true believer in Christ, you should desire to do this already!  Yes, sin gets us off course from these desires, but if you truly understand grace you will come back to your senses, crave God, and serve him.

That's the trick.  If you aren't fully sold out to God, you aren't going to want to use your spiritual gift all the time, because you will be operating out of your own strength, which is an instant fail.

In fact, the one rule we are given in exercising these gifts is this: It must be done with love.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells us that exercising our gifts and preaching and teaching and everything else is absolutely WORTHLESS, have we not love.  

And 1 John 4 tells us that God is love, and therefore we must put him first and foremost before everything else.  Matthew 16:33, 27:39-40.  

Spiritual Gifts 101

So in last two posts I really focused on painting a picture of who the Holy Spirit actually is.  I feel like this is foundational to understanding spiritual gifts.  As the name suggests, spiritual gifts are given to us by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7.)  It is a unique "gift" that each of us receive when we make the choice to allow God and his spirit authority in our life.  


Their are several different spiritual gifts, although most theologians have differentiating views on which are truly on "the list" of biblical gifts.  From personal Bible study, here are the gifts I have found in scripture:

• wisdom
• knowledge
• faith
• healing
• miraculous powers
• prophecy
• discernment of spirits
• tongues
• interpretation of tongues
• apostleship 
• teaching
• helps
• administration
• serving
• encouraging
• leadership
• mercy
• pastors

The first set of gifts (in black) comes from 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.  Although some of the gifts in black are repeated throughout the other passages, I highlighted those that were in addition to the 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 gifts.  Therefore the purple gifts come from 1 Corinthians 4:27-30, the red gifts come from Romans 12:6-8, and the blue from Ephesians 4:7-13.

Again, out of this whole list, many are repeated several different times throughout the different passages, I just highlighted them to help you differentiate a little.

So here is my Bible-based list of gifts we may receive from the Holy Spirit.  These are each wonderful and amazing gifts within themselves, and I plan on exploring them individually at a later date.

Now because of several different reasons, I believe that we can have a mixture of all the different gifts.  Many of the actions reflecting these gifts, come purely out of a heart that knows and loves God, and thus bears fruit (Ephesians 5:22, John 15.)

I also believe that we can pray and ask God for strength in different gifts, so we can better glorify him (1 Corinthians 14:1, Psalm 37:4, Matthew 7:7.)  

However, I also believe that God has specifically given each of us one very distinct gift, to which he bases our works and duties around (Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12.)

As 1 Corinthians 12 describes, we are each given one particular role to play in the whole body of the church.  This is the coolest and most exciting part!

Did you know you had a role to play?  How does that make you feel?

What does it make you want to do?

Do you know what your spiritual gift is?

Born to Break the Chains

I heard a song the other day while listening to my favorite radio station, K-Love.  I'm terrible at understanding lyrics with just my ear, so I always catch parts of a song--missing the point of it until I later go home and google the lyrics.  Well, this was one of those songs.  The artist was singing about birthdays, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what birthdays had to do with Christianity.  So I looked up the lyrics, and nearly fell to the floor as I understood the meaning of the song.  It's absolutely beautiful.

If you get a chance, look at the lyrics to Casting Crown's "Just Another Birthday" by clicking here.

Then take a moment to watch this video featuring the lead singer, Mark Hall:

What a precious Daddy that young girl has.  Mark was right when he explained we all need a loving father figure to pour into us, making us feel secure and safe.  This truly is one of the staples to a solid life, and those without it are far more likely to crumble.

In the lyrics posted above, we walk through a young girl's life, up until the age of twenty-one.  She first tells us of how heartbroken she was when her Daddy never showed up.  Then we see her again a few years later.  She has tried to fill this huge void in her heart with everything possible--sports, friends, alcohol, boys, even sex.  I for one can't blame her for doing this.  She used logical sense to turn towards the things that the world says "make it all better."  She is trying to fill her desire for a father.

At the end of the song, this young mother is watching her daughter laugh and play at her birthday party.  Thanking God for his grace and redemption, she whispers softly to herself, "You are my happy birthday, and you were born to break the chains."

This young girl may or may not know her father either, but her mother has a heavenly hope that surpasses all question and doubt that this young life will survive.  Her mom found the way to peace and restoration, and through that she will train up her child.  This is breaking the cycle.  

You see, the young mother in the song faced many choices throughout her life.  One of those choices was to keep her baby or abort it.  Another could have been to accept the bible study invitation her friend extended to her.  And one of the most important decisions she had, was the one to choose God.  Not just the safe, Americanized Christian God who asks us to go to church on Sunday and be nice to one anther.  No, this woman chose the real thing.

She wanted a God with passion and intimacy.  A God who wants to love her through and through to the very depths of her soul.  A God whose grace humbled her to the point of brokenness, so broken, in fact, that she remained that way until he walked her through the long and bitter-sweet healing process.  

This is the God who filled her void.  This is the God who made her whole and new again, the God who gave her hope and life to pass on to her children, regardless of her circumstances or income.  This woman chose to be a cycle breaker.  She chose to break the cycle of fatherless homes in her family.  No longer did she want to follow in the mistakes of those before her.  This time, she would choose differently, and she would choose right--a decision that will affect her family for generations to come.

Rise up cycle-breakers.

How will you choose?

Healing is a Choice: Book Review

When I look around, I always see sick, hurting people who crave love and attention.  That's why we share our deepest thoughts on Facebook for the whole world.  That's why we talk to our friends for hours on end, and that's why our culture is obsessed with dating and connection, yet we are the loneliest generation that's ever hit the planet.

Stephen Arterburn has it right when he explains that these deep hurts and unfulfilled desires within us are placed there for a reason.  This suffering and pain shows us that we need something higher than ourselves or our neighbors.  We need a God that knows every part of us, every painful situation we've been through, and every wound we possess.  When we submit our needs to this great God, he will in fact heal us and make us life-riskers and adventure-seekers once again.

In Arterburn's book, Healing is a Choice, he lays out 10 simple decisions that will help heal and transform your broken life.  Along with every decision, is a big lie that Satan tries to throw at us and stop the healing process.  Arterburn combats each lie with the truth of scripture and God's love.  These choices and applications are what lead individuals to deep healing through God's grace.

Stephen Arterburn is the founder and chairman of New Life Ministries.  He also leads an XM radio show, New Life Live.  Some of his closest friends and colleagues are Dr. Henry Cloud, and Dr. John Townsend, authors of a book I recently reviewed, Boundaries.  Arterburn is also the founder of Women of Faith conferences and has written over 60 books.

What sets Arterburn apart from other Christian authors, is his extreme transparency.  Throughout the book he strongly relates to healing and suffering by speaking out about his painful but biblical divorce with his first wife.  This is why I would highly recommend this book for someone who has been divorced.  I would also recommend this book for anyone who has been sexually or physically abused, or who has experienced deep rejection from a parent or family member.

While the book contains all of the answers to hope and future, the real-life results vary depending on the reader.  As the title suggests, healing does not come instantly or because we want it to.  It is a choice we must chose to take on our own.  It's a journey we must venture into on our own will.

I'm not sure if all versions of the book include the workbook too, but my revised and updated edition did.  I really enjoyed having both books in one place, and highly encourage readers to take advantage of both.  This book can be useful for a wide audience.  I would say the age level is more appropriate for late teens and up however.  Check out Newlife.com for more information on Stephen Arterburn and Healing is a Choice.  

Thomas Nelson has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it.  I am not required to give a positive review.  All my opinions are my own.


(This review first published on BlogCritics.com)

Baggage

God has really laid it on my heart to share this video with you all.  I haven't seen it in a few years, but last night it was laid strongly on my mind.  I really pray that you watch this and think about the baggage in your own life.  Where did come from?  How did it start?  Are you still carrying it?

I hope you sincerely feel the weight of the baggage we carry around.  Soetimes these pains, hurts, and failures get so stored up that they come out as anger.  Other times they are released when we do physical harm to ourselves.  And sometimes we take this baggage to other people and ask them to fix it.  Often times it is a boyfriend or a girlfriend who we try let heal us.  

The truth is, all of these attempts at healing and breaking free from the baggage are failed.  Although it may seem right at the time, we do in turn, end up picking up even more baggage. 

So today I want you to do something for yourself.  I want you to sit down and make a list of all the "bags" you've picked up.  Start with the biggest, deepest hurt in your life.  Where did that come from?  What other bags did it lead to?  Write them down specifically.

Then, I want you to take each bag individually and pray through it with your savior.  If it was pain from the words of your parents, ask God to give you the grace to forgive  them.  If it was being bullied in elementary school, pray for those bullies (Matthew 6:44) and let Jesus take away the bondage you have to them.

Work your way through the whole list, giving each specific bag to God.  Allow him to heal you and make you whole again through this process.  There are two rules to this activity.

1.  After you give the bag to God, you can't pick it back up.  

Satan will try to give it back to you undoubtedly, but this is when you are to be on guard and pray against it.  Pray that God would remind you that he has it under control.  It's not yours anymore.  (Philippians 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7)  Let go.

2.  You cannot skip bags.

As badly as I want you to be free to dance in grace, I don't want you to do this at all if you aren't going to lay down every single bag.  If you skip one, it is most likely because it is the hardest one to let go of.  The cut is so deep it has defined you.  You skip over it because letting go is too painful.  Well guess what, that isn't going to heal anyone.  

Jesus said, "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

His life, Jesus said.  Not just a few things here and there, but everything.  You see, the call to follow Jesus requires your everything.  He never once calls for pieces of our obedience or faithfulness.  No, the Lord commands our all if we are to truly experience freedom in him.

So don't skip that bag.  Take a long extended amount of time to be with God and work through that tough bag.  It will make all the difference.

Take Me Into the Beautiful

Take Me Into the Beautiful-Cloverton (lyrics at bottom)

I've heard this song on the radio a thousand times and I've always claimed that I loved it, and it is indeed a great song.  The last few days God has been really working in my heart showing me things here and there that I need to work on.  As he's been leading me through a healing transformation process, this song has been playing in the back of my head over and over.  Usually that means something, especially because I couldn't even sing the words (I only knew the beat and "la la la la something about Beautiful.")  I also hadn't heard the song in a week or so, so I knew it had to be of God.

This morning I sat down and listened to the song while reading the lyrics.  Wow, so powerful.  It really captures the essence of a woman, and how she was made in the image of God, his softer side.  Many of you have read the book Captivating by Stasi and John Elderedge.  If you haven't read it, you really should.  The book's subtitle is "Unveiling the mystery of a woman's soul," which is exactly what God has been showing me lately.  Yes, I've read the book 5 times through, I found my identity in Christ largely because of it.  But God showed me something altogether new this time.  It started in my daily life and led me back to this old book of mine.  How important this lesson was.

Around chapter 4, the book explains that each and every one of us have been wounded, hurt, and broken throughout our lives.  This wound usually takes place at a very young age, as we grow up this wound becomes the biggest lie of our lives.  We walk by the definition of this lie instilled in us as young girls.  Now, I won't go into great detail about where the wound comes from or how it effects us, because that is precisely what the book is for.  Rather, today I am going to emphasize the importance of letting Jesus heal our wounds.

A woman healed is vulnerable.  I do not mean this in a sexual way, nor do I mean to contradict everything I've said about guarding your heart.  When I say vulnerable, I am speaking of a softness that comes from a woman who has been healed, sanctified, and cherished by her loving father and creator.  Look at the first verse of the song we just heard:

Take me into the beautiful, won't You take me back again
With a love unexplainable, come fill up this dry land
Let it open our eyes to see a world we've never seen
Let it open our hearts up to feel You inside of us
You're here inside of me.

This beauty, this vulnerability, love, and mercy comes from God.  When we are set free in his love, we are set free to love others with an open and unrestricted heart.  Do you love like this?  Is your beauty flowing out to those who most need love?  Do you show people the mercy of God through your actions and words?  Perhaps you need to heal a deep wound.

"Living Chocolate"

Last night I was hanging out with a girlfriend of mine when we started discussing what we as women go to for comfort rather than God. Obviously the first thing on our list was men!

You know the feelingof security and protection you get from being around a man—whether he is a good man or not, the fact that he is a man speaks something to a woman’s soul. It’s like we need that stability of someone stronger than us in our life, and so we run to the first thing that halfway fits that description.

Because of this action, our hearts and then mutilated and shattered when that man shares his protection with other women, or when he takes away our security by moving around to a different female.

Second on our list was chocolate. I think we all know what I’m talking about. After your heart gets stomped on by the fake security of a man, who’s the first person you turn too—before your best girl friend even…CHOCOLATE!

Where the idea that chocolate makes you feel better came from, I have no idea—but I’m not going to fight it. We all know how that sweet taste of Hershey’s tastes when you need it the most. Like heaven in your mouth, everything gets a little bit better…for about 30 minutes. Then you wake up and realize you still feel like crap, your heart isn’t fixed, and on top of that now you’re gaining weight!

…At this point in our conversation we were supernaturally hit with the best t-shirt design/ life quote EVER!! “Living Chocolate.” John 4:14

Some of you may have instantly understood that, others of you are probably looking at this computer as if it were a middle school boy telling a joke that isn’t funny. Either way, let me explain. In John chapter 4 Jesus is at the well with a woman who has seen more heartache than a soap opera.

This woman was similar to many of us women today; she never found her security. All her life she fled from man to man, searching for that protection, that fulfillment, that something to give her happiness and meaning. However after 5 husbands and 5 divorces she was still completely miserable and unsure of what true love looked like. Her whole life had been fed with lies, pain, and heartache. If she were with us now I’m sure she would tell you she had more than her share of double chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (which obviously never helped much either.)

It is at this point in her life where she reaches true desperation. She searched everywhere, tried everything—and now she’s at the end of her rope. No husband, no money, no meaning in life. She bottled all of her misery up inside her and continued in her daily routine as if nothing was wrong.However it was in her dreaded daily routine that something amazing happened.

As she was miserably pulling up a heavy bucket of water so her thirst might be quenched, a man from the other side walked up. She sees this man and knows it is against social rules for a woman from Samaria to speak to, or even associate with his kind. Decidingly, she keeps her head down and once again hides her shame and pain. But at that moment the man opens his mouth and says, “Will you give me a drink?”

Confused, she snaps back with the phrase, “Why are you talking to me?? You’re a Jew; I’m a Samaritan...ew.” With a heart breaking for her Jesus replied, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Not understanding the power of his words, she begins to ask questions—frustrated with this man interfering with her daily routine. She had finally gotten this part of her life down. Show no emotion, share no feelings, and do the daily routine—now why was this guy trying to complicate things? The last thing she needed was a lawsuit for talking to a Jewish man!

In reference to her confusion about the “living water,” Jesus points to her bucket and says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

After further debate and discussion the woman began to understand. She got it. Broken hearted and sobbing with a desire for righteousness, she looked up to Jesus and said, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” And Jesus went on to heal her and give her true life.

You see, as humans we tend to put our heart, life, and meaning in the hands of other humans—which always leaves us hurt and disappointed. Then we try to fill that void with shopping, food, or of course chocolate—which only helps temporarily. But the good news is that Jesus wants to be your everlasting comforter. He wants to be the water that fully satisfies you forever. He wants to be your “Living Chocolate”—a chocolate that satisfies eternally, heals your hurts, and eventually brings others to the goodness of its powers.

Not a day goes by that God doesn’t look at our broken hearts and say, “Daughter, let me hold you. I want to fix the broken pieces for you. All you have to do is ask me and I will.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4a

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles…”