10 Commandments

There are cultural barriers that Jesus has to face when interacting with his people. Two of the most dichotomous are the Jewish culture and the American culture; they are completely different! The Jewish people love rules and boundaries so much that hundreds were added to the already existing Levitical law. This culture is bound by these laws and rules to such extreme that it seems they fear their own free will. On the other hand, we [Americans] are radically opposed to boundaries, rules and limits, because we are the American people, of course. We bear little consideration for personal preservation, conviction or consequence, and place most of our fulfillment on the “freedom” to seek gratification in any moment.

Jesus, while alive, faced the cultural opposition of trying to bring freedom from the rules, how do we communicate the same truth and need for freedom from ourselves, and relationship with the creator to the other extreme, which despises such restriction?

As American Christians, we face an entirely different set of objections than Jesus himself faced. As well as our brothers and sisters who are doing their part to “make disciples of all nations’ while inhabiting the rest of the globe. We could look back historically and see there were numerous statements made and worldviews adopted based on how Jesus interacted with his culture, the Jewish culture, which could quite possibly be the polar opposite of our American culture. One aspect of living out my faith that I am very passionate about is that of relate-ability and relevance. Not relevance like wearing a Christian t-shirt that looks like a secular t-shirt, or listening to a Christian hip-hop song that is written to a secular track. But, actually being relevant: willing to engage, connect, and be an active part of the lives of people in the subcultures we live in. [I was searching for "Cheesy Christian t-shirts" on Google and was so embarrassed that I decided against putting on up where this text should be!]

This is the part of life that I believe we miss the most as Christian men and women in America. I carry my belief mainly because I have seen more Christians turn into the Jewish people who Jesus came to redeem and restore, based on the rules we make and ignorant boundaries we set up in order to keep ourselves safe. There has been a total perversion of the idea that we are in this world but not of this world.

My understanding is that we ought to not find our comfort, fulfillment and identity from the things of this world, but rather from the God who created this world. This is what sets us apart, which is another thing we are called to be, holy and set apart for the good work that aligns with the good news.

The gospel.

A narrative of freedom and redemption, for all who seek to bring heaven to earth, in the way that we are commanded to live, the way that was perfectly modeled by Jesus Christ.

The Way…

Jesus was so widely known by this title that we were historically and publicly identified as followers of “The Way” before the word “Christian” even existed.

As a man or woman who is following Jesus, allow me to encourage all of us to either join him in shedding blood, sweat, and tears as we pave the way, or, get out of the road and stop making it more difficult for the rest of us.

That may sound harsh, however, I see it like this: Jesus already did the redeeming, he is the way to freedom, and he doesn’t need our opinions, discomforts, theological views, or selfish pride to help him finish a job he’s already done.

We are called to love, serve, sacrifice for, and even die for humanity so we may all experience the gospel. This is your opportunity to check you heart, this is between you, Jesus, and anyone else you trust who you may need to process with. I’ll end with a portion of a Psalm that literally saved my life:

Psalm 139:23-24  -  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

You know the feeling; that overwhelming experience of loneliness, pain, lethargy, or any combination of the three. As if they had all three decided to jump me, I was successfully getting my ass kicked by the reality of being single alongside my desire to be a good husband and father, the memory of my father’s death, and a momentary desire to not fight for all the Lord has put in front of me.

While uploading the new Twitter background, I was surfing the waves of tweets over the last couple of hours, and as if God Himself decided to speak through Donald Miller [again] I read this, “Loneliness isn’t a destination. It’s just a place you pass through. Hoping a lot of folks keep moving tonight.”

Because temptation and frustration can be static at times, like a snowy TV [if you can remember the 90's] that has no reception, I was still fighting to be distracted amidst my multitasking. As I read …Hoping a lot of folks keep moving tonight, I thought, “fuck yeah, Don! Tonight is to fight, not retreat”

And so it is…

With a playlist on shuffle, and the obnoxious sound of cars spinning their tires trying to make it through the snowy parking lot of my apartment complex, I am asking the Lord to heal me. This is where the fight comes in; half of healing is white-knuckling it through the action[s] that have left you scarred in the first place. Loneliness, is one of my least favorite feelings, because it is the one I am the worst at managing.

If you don’t already know these things about me, then enjoy some insight…
I am a huge fan of attention, I’ll blame this one on only child syndrome.
Generally, I don’t have to spend much time alone if I don’t want to.
There is a reality of pain and loss that I refuse to separate myself from.

The three facts listed above often lead me into situations where I end up walking away bruised, or scarred. However, there is more to me, a self-worth I protect, proclaim and possess through every situation, but this one. Rather than giving in, I am in pursuit of healing from my attention addiction, which makes days like today difficult, and make me all the more thankful for S#!t Donald Miller says…

If you aren’t very familiar with Donald Miller, I suggest you start here.

It’s not commitment until you’re commited.

This may seem simple, and even a little trite, but it is so true!

I am currently Facebook chatting with a friend of mine who started our conversation with this question, “does commitment scare you?”

As we have gotten a little deeper into the conversation, it isn’t the idea of committing that has her wigged out, it is the idea that she may settle for less. She may allow the feelings of a man to manipulate her in to being “committed” to him. She may look back and regret this moment where she made a choice to commit, rather than allowing her heart to make the connection.

Amidst the culture of dating here in America, we have concluded that entering a relationship is committing to this person. While there are surely aspects of this that are true [or should be] such as, faithfulness, trust, vulnerability, I think it is an unfair pressure. Your commitment to an individual starts when you emotionally, logically, and mutually make a decision that there is no other person you’d rather practice [and hopefully succeed] making babies with. Clearly there are other important factors to getting married, but let’s be honest, baby-making is kind of a big deal!

If you’re in a relationship where you don’t see a future, get the hell out! Don’t make excuses, or try to make yourself love someone. And if you’re single, then take this advice before you end up breaking someones heart.
A few ways to stop yourself from getting into this mess [again] are:
Know who you are.
Know what you want [without trying to recreate a Disney movie].
Don’t settle.

•DG•

It got more attention than I was anticipating, but I guess that’s the great part about words; they always have the ability to inspire!

Allow these words to inspire you however they may, but for the sake of conversation, here is what inspired me to write them…

This morning, I woke up with a wandering mind, which isn’t necessarily uncommon, but this morning it was revolving around some specifics.

Identities.

Whether they be sub-cultural, relational, spiritual, political, or professional, I often see a lack of conviction to the things that we claim. This observation has led me to think that people are far less of what they actually say they are; for whatever reason this is a lack of being. And unfortunately, when there is a lack of ownership behind the words spoken about ourselves, there is also a lack of explanation behind them.

This is a call to introspection and self-evaluation!

If you’re going to claim it, be willing to be it. If you’re going to be it, be ready to explain why.

There is some level of trust that I believe the Lord wants us to have in His voice, which should create a willingness to say, “The world of the Lord is…” With this we should try to rid ourselves of the fear that we’re relaying the enemy’s word, which has us say things like, “well, um… I think it might be, but I’m not sure and feel like…” Just stop there.

In my last post I explained the process of intimacy with God in conversation. As Christians we are “filled with Holy Spirit”, and His role is to be the communicator and mediator between the Trinity and humanity. If He actually dwells within us, that means He is talking, whether we listen or not. This is a spiritual reality that we [as followers of the Way] should not be ashamed of, or timid about. When the Lord speaks, own it and relay it!

As most good things have, this has been tainted by manipulation and control. There is something very attractive about confidence, especially when this confidence revolves around God [or god] and exists in a realm that we can not see. What I’m saying is, when you say, “The Lord says…” people will listen to you! Please, for the sake of the thousands of people who I have met that “used to be a Christian”, but have left because another human has injured them in the name of the Lord, do not misuse this beautiful gift! This means do not get your way by using God, and do not blame your jackass fears or decisions on God either.

The main point is to own it!

Own your sin.
Own your fear.
Own your decisions.
Own your interaction with God.
And most importantly, own the weight of being a messenger for the creator.

To some, the idea that humanity can hear from God is completely arrogant! To others, it is the only way they can manage to get through each day.

Those are two very dichotomous opinions about one topic, and I believe it is a topic worth discussing.

For years of being a Christian, I put myself in situations where I could experience different avenues of living out faith. I’ve sat amongst the most conservative Lutherans, as well as the most expressive Pentecostals. I was honestly freaked out by the extremes on either side, but the most frightening was the camp of believers in the Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Full Gospel churches.

Tongues, really?
Healing, really?
Miracles, really?

I mean, I “believed” that I served a God who could “do anything”, but why would He ever choose to do those things? They’re weird, right?

Yeah, they are kinda weird, but I was most afraid of how manipulative the actions were. It seemed to me that Preachers who led “Spirit filled” churches also led financial telethons, grandma guilt trips, and conferences where dollars were equivalent to spiritual blessing.

So, rather than take the time to get to know God on a spiritual level, I kept him at a logical arms reach and clung to the more conservative side of Christian expression. Well, just over a year ago, God broke through my stiff arm and dove straight into my heart with truth, freedom and experience!

This ignorance on my part kept me from a certain depth of intimacy, and the worst part is that I didn’t even know I was missing anything because!

Just over a year ago on a rooftop in Spain I sat in a white, plastic lawn chair with my elbows resting on my knees, my head resting on my palms and I was rocking back and forth. The rocking was because I was scared to death of becoming “one of them”.

A “tongue talker”
A “Carazymatic”

 “Lord, please give me strength and freedom to explore life in the spirit!”

I repeated these words over and over until the moment happened; I tried to turn off the English that circles words through my mind and I just went for it… “SHO-TO-KO-SA-TA-RRRRA”

Then I started to feel weird… because it’s kinda weird!

Due to my weird feeling, I finished praying in English and didn’t revisit the action of praying in tongues for a couple weeks… Since then, it has become a pretty common aspect to how I live out my intimate relationship with God the Father.

A few weeks after fighting with the issue of praying in tongues, I was faced with prophecy, defined as: hearing from the Lord to encourage someone’s heart.
It was explained to me this way:
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we are told that our physical existence is “full of the Holy Spirit”.
If you are full of something that means it is within you.
The major role of the Holy Spirit is to be “mediator” between God and man, which means He is the communicator!
Since the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and He is communicating with me, He is likely to speak to me in the voice that I am most familiar with… mine!
And one thing that I didn’t believe is that God is always speaking, and wanting me to hear His voice and respond to Him.

All of this means the following… If you have ever given your heart to Jesus [this does not mean holding your hand up in church, walking down to the altar, or making a social or emotional decision for those watching] then the Holy Spirit is communicating with you, far more than you’d probably be comfortable with.

There are a few implications to keep a pure heart and not become one of those assholes who says “God told me…” or “The Lord said…” in order to be manipulative!

1. There should be a peace in your heart about what you are “hearing”.
2. The Lord is going to speak words of love and grace for you to share with someone.
3. Discernment is probably the most important thing in using the words, “The Lord said…” Please get to know the particular tone that Holy Spirit speaks to you in… He always calls me “son”, and will probably have an intimate way of making His voice known to you also.
4. He will never speak against the truth written in the Word.
5. Once you have the confidence to tell someone you heard His voice, make sure your heart is in check, so you don’t manipulate someone and blame it on Him.
6. Understand that you won’t always hear correctly, which means you’ll be wrong from time to time… and that is ok!

And he is brilliant!

Jeff is a writer who writes about life, by writing about being a better writer, a ballsy writer, and a writer willing to take the risk. Through our short, but intentional friendship I have learned a lot about myself, by talking about writing. He recently released two e-books that will likely change your entire life, if you read them.

He has been kind enough to let me share a coupon-code with all of you… Whether you are a writer, or an artist, or a barista, please take advantage of this, you will not regret it!

Check out his most recent post that has a link to these wonderful e-books HERE.

When you get there… use ‘stopstalling’ as your coupon code.

Stop Stalling.
Take a Risk.
Initiate.
Follow Through.

Stop right there!

 Your lack of discipline isn’t the reason you didn’t follow through with those “desires”, and it wasn’t your lack of drive either. You didn’t follow through because you didn’t actually desire those things.

They just sounded like a good idea.

And in the defense of the good ideas in your brain, they are likely beneficial things for your life. Now, in your defense, not all good ideas are the right idea; even the best idea at the wrong time in life can be disastrous.

Rather than going back and dissecting the last two, eight, even fourteen years of your life, just make it easy and accept that you’ve failed more than you’ve succeeded. Then move forward!

First determine what your true desires are during this season of life. It might be a desire and need to [re]organize your finances. Maybe the holidays put a few extra pounds around your waist and you want to get that beach body ready for June. Or, what if that idea for a bakery, a blog about your view of human interaction, or your plan to feed and clothe the homeless in your city is ripping you apart from the inside, like a tornado showing no mercy on a trailer park?

Fear can no longer be your excuse, because it’s not that you’re afraid; your level of desire just hasn’t reached desperation. When you arrive at this stomach turning feeling of desperate desire, then you must ignite discipline.

Desire and discipline must run hand in hand, if both are present. Allow discipline to guide your desire, while your desire fuels the discipline necessary to accomplish the task.

Dig deep.
Start fresh.
Create a routine.
Build a support structure.
And please…
DO NOT TURN BACK.