I Killed Jesus

Today I am writing to you about a T-Shirt that I own. I get more looks when I wear this shirt than any other. Today, I had about half a dozen people comment on it and at least 50 people read it then glare at me as they walked past. The problem is they see "I Killed Jesus" written in white and can't read the rest written in gray. This shirt, made by Not of This World (NOTW), is an amazing conversation starter. More than that, it is a statement of truth.

The shirt actually reads, "I killed Jesus & Jesus died to save me ...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. 1 Tim 1:15" This is one of my favorite versus, written by one of my favorite authors. It is written by Paul, who had something in common with Prince as they were both formerly known as something. Paul was the Christian formerly known as Saul. He had once been the scourge of Christians. He hunted them down, persecuting and killing them for their believes. He was bad news.

Then something happened. You can read about the road to Damascus in Acts Chapter 9. He goes from following Judaism and hunting down Chrsitians as Saul of Tarsus in the first couple of verses to his conversion to Christianity then full circle to a conspiracy by the Jews to kill him. He accepted Christ and traveled all over the country, going from city to city proselytizing. What a change the Holy Spirit makes!

Every time someone comments on the shirt, it tends to go like this. Someone says,"So you killed Jesus, huh?" To  which I reply, "Yes I did. Jesus died to forgive us of our sins and I am a sinner. So are you. If not for our sins Christ would never have had to die. He died because of us." To which most walk off after saying something monumentally profound, such as "Well that makes sense."

The truth is Christ's crucifixion is the greatest thing that ever happened to man, and yet the worst thing man has ever done. It is the definition of the Taoist Yin Yang, an equality of good and evil. Christ died so that our sins could be forgiven, a one time sacrifice that changed the outcome of our lives. That death gave us grace, unmerited favor for while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Yet killing the only perfect person who had ever lived, the son of God and son of man.......that is a pretty bad deal on our part.

Yes, Christ died willingly. Yes, it was actually the Romans that killed Him based on the request of the Jews. But He came here to die for a reason. He came here to die for our sins. If we do not sin, He never has to be the sacrificial lamb who was slaughtered. Since He died for our sins, by proxy we killed Him.

So did I kill Jesus? Yes, we all did. Romans 3:23 tells us that, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Not just me, not just you but everybody! He died for us all, so that we could one day know eternal life. Now I want to give you something to think on. This is food for thought for today, and I want you to really think about it today as you chew on it. I know that it really struck me today when I thought about it.

When Christ died, it was to not only redeem us but to remove us from the bondage of sin. When we come to Christ, we are healed. Sin is a sickness, and the wage of sin is death (Romans 6:23). With his own life Christ paid that debt for us. BUT every time we sin we drive another nail into Jesus. We kill Jesus over and over again every day. When is enough enough?

So I only have one question for you today: Hasn't Jesus suffered enough?

Good Friday, Easter and worship music

Today is Good Friday. I worked, then I went on a 20 mile bike ride. During the bicycle ride, which was on the Greenways in Springfield, I enjoyed nature. I looked at God's creation, and it was good. I saw squirrels, rabbits, birds, trees, flowers and a lot of people. How anyone could possibly look at all that I saw today and think it all came from nothing. That there was a time that space, time and matter didn't exist and it all came into being from a "singularity" or that it just all existed just so and now we have life springing from non-living matter without the guidance of a master's hand is beyond me......and totally irrelevant to this blog.

Instead, I want to look at what I did when I got home on Good Friday. I came home and have spent the last 3 hours in front of the computer signing worship songs. I love to worship, and I have listened to my favorites tonight: Brandon Heath, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Third Day, Sanctus Real, Tenth Avenue North, Matt Maher, John Waller, David Crowder, Jeremy Camp, Newsboys, Chris and Conrad, Kutless, Chris Tomlin, Finding Favour and Jonny Diaz. Hillsong and Sidewalk Prophets. I am sure that I left some out, and as for the women and rap worship that I listen to.........I just can't hit the notes or rap well enough to sing on a night of worship.

I just want to share a couple of songs with you that really stood out to me. It is not on me to judge anyone, but there are a lot of people that have forgotten what it means to be a Christian. They have forgotten what Good Friday and Easter are about. Christ died for us, and yet we are afraid to look different to the world. We may go to church, we may tithe, we may raise our hands in worship. That does not make a Christian. Are you cussing, fornicating, drinking to inebriation, drugging, lying, stealing, gossiping, etc. I ask you to listen to this Matthew West song and ask if it describes you. Are you going through the motions:

So, are you just going through the motions? If so, you don't have to anymore. You're past sins no longer matter. God is a God of love, and He loves you regardless of what you have done. He loves you anyway:

Jesus loved us so much, that He did not want us to be bound to death. He wanted us to have the opportunity to be forgiven:

How could He possibly remove the debt of sin that we all owe? He paid the ultimate price for us. Jesus paid it all:

But that is not enough. It was not enough for Jesus to simply die for us. Many have died for others. What He did was come back from the dead. For us, He is risen:

Jesus died and came back three days later. Today we remember His death. On Sunday we celebrate His resurrection. Because of His sacrifice and resurrection, we are changed once we accept Christ. He gave us amazing grace and our chains are gone:

So in closing, we are created new because of the Grace that was shown to us not only when Christ died, but when He was resurrected. Because of that I am a new person, I'm not who I was:

What I really want you to focus on as we approach Easter Sunday is that we were born into sin. God loved us so much that He sent Christ to die, so that we could have eternal life. The problem is that most of us take the Grace we were given for granted. We continue to live our lives as the world does. Christ said that they would hate us as they hated Him. We are not on Earth to fit in, but to shine like a lamp on a hill. You are no longer who you once were, so live like it! If you truly believe that Christ died for you, show it. Your attitude of gratitude should set you apart from the world. Your life should do one thing, like a beacon in a world of darkness it should shine:

The Beast in the Back of My Head, pt 1

I have a beast in the back of my head. Sometimes I call it sin, usually I call it my addiction but I always refer to it as Satan when I put a person to it. You see, the beast in the back of my head came into my life with barely a whimper. For my first sin it was stealing a toy I really liked from my neighbor when I was 4. Actually it was probably lying to my parents when I was 3. At the time not that big of a deal as I cannot even remember it. For my addiction it was taking that first hit off of a joint when I was in 7th grade. Honestly when it comes to my addiction it was probably taking that first drag off of a cigarette when I was in 5th grade. I can remember that one.

Little did I know the sins that would follow and where they would lead me. If I only could have been shown the depths my addiction would take me to and actually believed it would happen, I might never have smoked that first cigarette. Strike that, I probably would have. After all, I was warned about where it would lead in some cheesy way or another several times in school. The problem was that I never heard it from someone who had been through it that I could relate to. And I never dreamed how big that beast would grow to.

That beast started out as a pup in the back of my head. It was something that made me feel a little better, and when I would pet it or pay it some attention it would purr at me. There was a little chemical release in my head that would occur, and I enjoyed the way that felt. I went from being abused at a young age feeling like I fit in no where to having friends. I went from being shy and introverted to being a brash, outspoken extrovert. I went from being depressed and hating life to being happy and loving life.

If it would have stopped there, it would have been great. I would use or "liberate" things I liked that were of no real value on rare occasions and I would feel better. But, the pup that I was feeding continued to grow. As he grew, things in my life got worse. My addiction grew too. I no longer used for the chemical release, but now I was compelled to use because my body had became dependent on nicotine. That pup grew into a beast without me realizing it had changed. I still saw it as it once was, cute and harmless. The people in my life who cared about me saw it as it truly had become, dangerous and spiraling more and more out of control.

Nicotine was no longer enough, so I tried marijuana and would occasionally do a line of cocaine. I could rationalize my use. Marijuana was from the ground, all natural. So was the beer that I would drink at keg parties, and it was legal. I may have been doing a line of cocaine on occasion, but I was not smoking it and was not shooting it up.

I tell you what, that beast in the back of my head was cunning. It would always tell me what I wanted to hear and make me feel how I wanted to feel. Soon, I was introduced to methamphetamine. From the moment I tried meth, my life was over. I would only do it on occasion, but I was compelled to do it more and more frequently. Soon, my body was dependent on methamphetamine. I was no longer compelled to do it. Meth was now demanded by my brain. Keep me numb and keep the chemicals coming if you want to be happy, and who doesn't want to be happy.

I was hooked, and suddenly just doing lines or smoking it in a bubble was not enough. I was shooting up. Once I shot up, I realized how much better that was. Suddenly, if I could put it in a needle I was putting it in my blood stream. That pup that was once so cute was now the beast that is currently in my head. And that beast will never go away, that beast is in the back of my head forever.

Back in the Swing of Things After a Relapse (Food, Drugs, Alcohol or Sin)

Here it is, Wednesday, and I am weighing in again. This Monday was the first week that I have really decided to get back on Weight Watchers since my cruise. I have tried several times and several ways to get back on track, but it has been difficult. I allowed myself to relapse on food during the cruise with a guarantee that I would go back on Weight Watchers when I got back home. I have not yet been able to get back on track. The more I looked at how difficult it was, the more I remembered how hard it was with my other addictions.

The funny thing is, this is only counting points. I am still allowed to eat unheatlhy on occasion, and yet I was still failing until this week. I did really well with it until the cruise, then I allowed myself to slip. Now I am reminded of the mantra repeated in group, "One is too many and a thousand is never enough." Once I opened the door to let bad eating habits in for a week, the door never closed.

Our lives are not only this way with food. Our lives are this way with alcohol, drugs, pornography, lying, cheating (tests or partners), stealing, gossiping, flirting, etc. If we give ourselves permission for a little, a lot can happen. We may justify it, but it does not change what it is. A relapse is a relapse, and it can quickly spiral out of control. No matter what we say about it, that is what it is. A white lie is still that, a lie! Flirting can get out of hand really quick, and innocent words can still destroy a relationship.

I am reminded of a quote from Romeo and Juliet, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." When Shakespeare said that he meant that no matter what you call something, it is still the same thing. Renaming a thing does not change what it really is. To cut down on confusion, I have a rule that changed my life you can apply here. I will share it in depth in the next week, but here is the gist of it. Ask yourself two questions before you do an action. If the answer to both is yes, then do it. If either of the answers is no, you do not do it.

Question 1 is this, "If my child (or significant other) and God were standing next to me, would I still do this?" If you answer yes, than you ask yourself this question, "Is this something that I would want my child (or significant other) to do. If that answer is also yes, then you can proceed. If either question is answered with a no, then you cannot do it. It is that simple, and yet it helped save my life.

So what door have you opened to sin, thinking that a cracked door will not harm you. "I am strong enough to do it only once." If you let yourself wander to one porn site on the computer, that is still cheating. You may not look at it that way, but the Bible does. Matthew 5:28 says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Tell me that we do not look at porn sites, or flirt with anyone, without some form of lust. Gossip is the same way. 

In fact, any type of sin is that way. A sin is a sin, no matter what I call it. Just because I say it isn't water doesn't mean I won't get wet if I jump into it! Furthermore, it tends to hurt not only us but we also hurt others. We need to remember what was talked about last week in my blog on loving your neighbor as yourself. Treat others better than you would want them to treat your children. Would you want someone on a site ogling your son or daughter? No, then do not ogle someone else's son or daughter.

So, examine how we treat others and how we treat ourselves. Realize that there is no difference between our spiritual time and our secular time. If I would not do it or say it in church, I should not do it or say it outside of church. I'm not judging, I'm just saying. If only God can judge me, I can still judge myself too. I know right from wrong, and I need to examine all that I say and do so that I do not give the Devil a gateway into my life.

Once Satan (sin, alcohol, drugs, porn) gets into my life, he is difficult to get back out. If I give him just a little, he is sure to take a lot. Many of us who have relapsed have found out that it generally picks up worse than when we stopped using. We need to insure that we are doing all that we can to keep the door shut for good. If you look back to my posts entitled Iron Sharpens Iron you can see that even the places that we frequent and the company we keep can be open doors for our defects to take back over.

You always have a choice, but will you make the right one? Only you can answer that. I guarantee you that the Holy Spirit will guide you in the right direction (positive people, positive places, positive choices) if you allow it to!

Jonah and the Big Fish/How I Know God Exists

We talked about Jonah and the big fish in church on Sunday. This was a discussion that quickly begin to lower itself. Major thematic points.

1. God loves you and is relentless in His pursuit to fashion you for his good pleasure
2. God's grace is extended to you because it is His nature to love you and bring you to repentance
3. Prayer sometimes changes the situation, but it most assuredly changes us
4. God is the God of the second chance
5. God wants you to have a heart for people like His heart for people   

So, getting to the first point, that God loves you and is relentless in His pursuit. Dan Call, our pastor, likened God in this case to Pepe Le Pew. Do you remember the skunk in the cartoons that would always chase after the cat, declaring his love for her? That is how God is for us, He will pursue us no matter where we go. He will give us His grace (read His grace as saying His favor) no matter where we have gone. Prayer does have the power to change us. God will give us a second chance, but it is up to us what we do with it. Finally, God wants us to love others as He loves us........whether we deserve it or not, and whether other people deserve it or not. I can and will vow to the first 4 points.

You see, in my past, I had felt that my sin had led me to a place where God could not reach. I knew that because of my criminal conduct for 20 years and my drug and alcohol abuse that began in 7th grade and lasted until I was 37, that I had walked away from Him for good.  I found out that kind of thinking was fallacious. I truly was the prodigal son, who figured he had removed himself from his father's good graces. I knew that God would no longer want me. When I came back to Him, after 27 years of agnosticism and 25 years of drugs and debauchery, there He was waiting to comfort me. He took my hand and walked me out of the haze of my addiction and into recovery overnight.

There are many out there who would tell me that my experience with the Holy Spirit was only imagined. There are atheists and agnostics that would tell me I have lost my mind. There would be psychiatrists and psychologists who in the past would have told them that they were right, I had gone crazy.....in the past. To them I have a reply. If you have ever been in the depths of addiction, you would not say that. I have been in the depths of my addiction. Everyone has a different rock bottom, here is mine:

1. I have shot up ice water, because the batch of meth was not ready or I was waiting on the person to get back from filling their morphine prescription.
2. I have woken up at 4 AM in a urine soaked mattress to get up and drink a couple of shots to put me back to sleep and stop the shakes.
3. I started smoking cigarettes in 6th grade and had never been able to quit.
4. I had been to county jail often enough that I would stay in for several weeks to catch up on sleep when I had the cash in my wallet to bond out.
5. I had slept with enough women that I was in the mid-triple digits. I would go to parties and sleep with 2 or 3 girls when I was a drug dealer.
6. I was drunk 30 minutes after I got out of prison, and spun out on methamphetamine that night.
7. I dealt drugs and was involved with the manufacturing of methamphetamine for over a decade.
8. I had been to rehab, but the longest stretch of sobriety I had since I was in the 7th grade was 3 months.
9. I had been diagnosed with Bi-Polar with Psychotic Features, borderline personality, antisocial personality, sadomasochism, generalized anxiety, major depressive and substance induced psychosis disorders.
10. I used the "F" word and cussed every other word even when I was happy and in normal conversation.
11. I have been found passed out in my own blood after slashing my wrists and rushed to the ER.
12. I have totalled 5 cars drinking and driving (including flying a car off of a cliff traveling 97 feet and getting 32 feet in the air) yet continued to drink and drive every night.
13. I have overdosed on several occasions and yet used within 24 hours every time.

I do not say this to brag. This is simply the truth. I want you to know where I was in my life, in my addiction, in my slow suicide when God found me. One night, it was finally too much. As I have discussed before, I began to pray to God. I put it all on the line. I was ready to try it His way, because my way was killing me. I was living in misery. Since the night I prayed to God and asked Him to take all of this from me, I have had a complete life change. I have not used drugs or drank, I have not smoked a cigarette, I have not had premarital sex, I have not been to jail and I am on no medication for any mental illnesses. I have not cussed since I do not know when. If all of that is not proof of God, than I ask you what is?


I had tried counselors, psychiatrists, drug rehabs, interventions and Narcotics/Alcoholics Anonymous, all to no avail. I had worked the 12 steps, but it was never quite enough. I came to Him in prayer, and He gave me a second chance. That was all that I needed to do, truly turn my will and my life over to God. I had tried using a random higher power, such as the community in 12 step groups, and it was not effective. God was!

I like how Dan saw God yesterday. I see how He can be like Pepe Le Pew, but He is so much more than that, too. I see God much as my wife sees Him. God is like Yoda. He is this wise, mild, unassuming person that has the ability to draw us to Him from other galaxies. He is mild, but acts with conviction when it is warranted. He sometimes stands by and lets the war happen, and other times he intercedes and fights. And when it is time to fight, there is none more able or more passionate in battle for what is right than He is. Yeah, my God is not a jedi, my God is the Jedi of all Jedis. Trust when I say that "the force" is strong with this One. You can have your little "g" gods, mine is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, mine is the one and only BIG "G" GOD!!!!!!                         

The Temple of God......more like a shanty

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple."

Our body is God's temple. That is said because the Holy Spirit lives in us. But do we live our lives that way? For the most part we do not live our lives as if we have even read the Bible, let alone as if we are a temple for the Holy Spirit to live in. A lot of us treat our bodies more like a garbage disposal or an amusement park. If we cannot control our consumption habits, how can we possibly control other habits such as lusting, lying or being a gossip?

When I say garbage disposal, what I mean is that we will throw any and all trash into our bodies. This ranges from junk food to eating too much food. Just because we have mega-Churches springing up does not mean that we need to have mega-waist sizes so that our personal temple matches the one we worship at. This is called gluttony, or overindulging.

Ever heard of gluttony? I hear that it is a sin! The Bible has a few things to say about gluttony. Proverbs 23:21 says that the glutton will come to poverty. Proverbs 23:2 goes as far as to say "put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony" and Phillipians 3:19 says that those who will come to destruction will treat their belly as their god. Does not sound like gluttony is a good thing. It sounds like gluttony is something to be avoided. Maybe this is something we as Christians should attempt to focus on. After all, sin is sin.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

Now we will look at treating our bodies as amusement parks. By that I mean we smoke cigarettes, have premarital sex, overindulge in alcohol and abuse drugs. Is that honoring God with our bodies? I should certainly hope not. That may be honoring the little "g" gods, not the big "G" God that I worship. We tend to take the path of least resistance and focus on what we want to do and what is popular and cool. This is not how we are to live, though. We are to live like the Holy Spirit resides in us, because it does. We should desire what God wants us to do.

Romans 8:5-6 says, "Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace."

Somewhere in the course of our lives we have to ask ourselves if we are living as though our mind is governed by the Spirit. Are we doing as we have been instructed to do. I would argue that we are not. The way we live our lives shows that we have no self-control, which is a very important thing. 2 Peter 1:6 says we are to supplement knowledge with self-control, and Galatians lists self-control as one of the fruits of the Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit, then we will have self-control. If we have the Spirit, you will know it by our fruits.

We may have trouble acting with self-control, but there are ways that we can build it. We need to acknowledge that when Christ died he brought us salvation that allows us to deny our worldly urges (2 Titus 2:11,12). In order to take advantage of this salvation, we must be baptized (Galatians 3:27), cleanse ourselves from the impurities of flesh and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1) so that we can pursue peace and holiness and through them see God (Hebrews 12:14).

We show that we are truly following Christ by doing several things. In Acts 8:22 the Bible tells us that we should repent and pray so that our hearts can become right with God. Prayer and meditation will open us up to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Just because it is there does not mean that we use it. As an example, I use public rest rooms all of the time. It has been my experience that almost every one that I have ever been provided both a sink and soap to wash your hands. Yet, I frequently see people walk out of those bathrooms without washing their hands. So it is with the Spirit, accessible to us but left unused.

Another thing that we need to do is surround ourselves with people who are living their lives led by the Spirit. There is a reason to do this. Birds of a feather, flock together. The Holy Scriptures also tells us that not only does bad company corrupt good behavior (1 Corinthians 15:33), but being around positive  Christians who are like-minded allow us to be built up and encouraged (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

When we get rid of the negatives in our lives, we need to replace them with positive things and people. If we do not, then bad things are surely going to seep back into our lives. I would rather be in relationships with healthy people than those who are living in sin, positive Christians as opposed to those who continue to make negative choices and accept no responsibility or hold themselves accountable for their actions.

In my life, I have decided I need to make some changes because there are areas of my life that I could improve in, that I do not have self-control in. The area is gluttony. I overeat all of the time, I do not know moderation when it comes to food and that has began to add up, leaving me with a waist that is almost as big as my chest. I will keep you updated on my progress as I attempt to overcome my last addiction, which is eating pleasure food in abundance, and drop 55 pounds and keep it off.

What I have decided to do is join Weight Watcher's, because it is a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet. I have tried juice fasts for a week, and the Daniel Fast for 40 days, but I have always returned to my addiction to food after it was over. I do not need a phase, but a permanent change. I need a change in lifestyle and a community to support it. I have done that with my other addictions, choosing to attend church for the community it provides, removing myself from those who were engaged in the lifestyle I was trying to leave behind me and actively associating with people who are accomplishing what I am striving for.

That is what Weight Watchers offers me: support, hope and encouragement. I know several people who are active Christians that are also involved in Weight Watchers and have been successful that can offer me support and encouragement in our journey. I will win in the battle with obesity and overeating, because my God is an awesome God. Don't forget what it says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength."

How to be a GO Christian

When we think about being a "Go Christian," what does that truly mean to us? Do we think that it is knowing the Bible, attending church, going to small groups, tithing, wearing a suit/dress to church, sitting in the front row and singing the loudest with your hands raised in worship. I would call these ingredients that we can use in our life, but not the recipe for being a go Christian. 

In order to say go, we have to say no! We have a cross to bear, and that cross is to say no to ourselves. We have to deny ourselves the immoral and worldly things in our lives. Our nature is to sin, and we have to be willing to deny our baser instincts. We have to try to become dead to sin, or have a death before sin lifestyle. The early Christians did. Many of them were tortured and executed for their beliefs that they would cling to in the face of death. Sin is bad, and to think of sinning is bad too. So do not do it. Christ did not try His best to die on the cross, He accomplished it. Why should we be happy if we do not give our best. 

That is where I may lose some. Some may say that I am talking about not being able to have any fun. If this is how you feel, than you do not understand what I am saying, and you truly do not understand the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross. We will have joy, we will have eternal life. We are honestly giving up very little for so much. 

We also have to be willing to talk about Christ and our beliefs even when it is not popular. We need to stand up for what we believe in. They say you have to stand for something or you'll fall for everything. We have to take a stand for our faith everywhere we go: home, school, work, sporting events, restaurants, vacation and in our neighborhood. If we do not do this, we will be open (fall) for all kinds of sin to come into our lives. 

When we take up the cross we become dead to the world. Before I was a Christian and entered into a relationship with God, I was a sinner. I lived to fulfill my will, to make myself happy. I smoked cigarettes, drank to inebriation, fought all of the time, had premarital sex, lied all the time, cussed as much as I wanted and listened to music and watched movies that would make a sailor blush. I was going to college to prove to everyone that I was right and they were wrong. I lived for me, I was all about worldly achievement and self-fulfillment. That got me drunk almost every day and I was an example of how not to live your life. 

I did not know Christ then. Since the day that I got saved and gave my life to Christ, I have not smoked a cigarette, gotten drunk, had premarital sex (even though my wife and I dated for a year before we got married) or gotten into a fight outside of a ring. I now only listen to worship music because it puts me in a great mood. I pray in between sets at the gym on a consistent basis, and I wear worship shirts almost exclusively. I read the Bible daily and pray all of the time. I am by no means perfect, but I make an effort every day to not succumb to my sinful nature. It is a start, and I can build on that. 

Being a go Christian means that I will never do or say anything that I will look at my son and tell him not to repeat it. It means that I do not have to be a hypocrite. Being a go Christian means I realize I represent my church, my son and wife, my employer, my deceased father, my pastor, Celebrate Recovery and Jesus Christ every where that I go. I will not get caught up in gossip, I do not cuss (maybe twice in traffic in the past year), I do not yell, I don't lie, I talk to others about the changes that the Holy Spirit have made in my life and I live like I love Christ to the best of my ability. I hope that this is not seen as boasting, but instead as me saying that I could not live this way were it not for the Holy Spirit in me and the sacrifice that Christ made. 

Is it always easy to love Christ and live to show it? I would say yes, that it is now. But it took me over a year at church before I was saved, and that was a nerve racking year. During that first year I thought that it would kill me to live life different. The cross symbolizes pain and suffering, yet we think that Christ wants us to live in comfort and ease. Our lives should be living sacrifices to Christ, and that is not easy. That said, since the night that I turned my life over to Christ and gave control away it has gotten a lot easier. 

So ask yourself these question to see if you are a go Christian: 

1. Is my life about self-fulfillment or Christ fulfillment

2. Do I live as one in this world or one who is of this world

3. Am I ashamed of my faith, or do I profess the gospel to all who would hear it

4. Is my life a living sacrifice to Jesus

If you answered yes to these questions, then congratulations. You are a go Christian, keep it up. If you did not answer yes, then I would recommend a lot more prayer, meditation, reading of the Bible and spend time with those who are where you want to be, not where you already are. God bless you in your journey!!

Matthew 5:14-16

The Sermon on the Mount has some powerful words in it. Jesus was letting people know what will be important in the heavenly kingdom and how we should conduct ourselves while living in the worldly one. In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus lets us know how we should present ourselves while we are in the worldly kingdom when he says, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

To begin, why would we need to be light in a world that was already lit brightly? The first part of verse 14 lets us know that this world is shrouded in darkness. This is not visual darkness, but a spiritual and moral darkness that covers the world. When there is darkness, there is only one way to remove it. Since light is the absence of darkness, the only way to remove darkness to add light. That would be us as Christians.

What does it mean to be the light of the world? We know Christ and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Due to this, we as Christians have had the spiritual veil lifted from our eyes. We know longer live in darkness. More than not living in darkness, with the aid of the Holy Spirit in us we have the ability to glow like beacons of hope to others.

We glow like beacons by living for Christ. That is easily said, but what does living for Christ entail? This is the difficult part. We live for Christ by being the city built on a hill, the lamp placed high upon a stand. That may sound like an ambiguous answer, and it is. This means that because of the light that we have been blessed with, we should stand out from the rest of the world. We should not blend in with everyone else. Our light should shine before men!

My light shines before men in many ways, and there are many ways we think cause our light to shine that do not. First, going to church twice a week does not make my light shine. Getting dunked in some water by a pastor does not cause my light to shine. Doing the right thing out of obligation or guilt isn’t the way to brighten the world, neither is living my life well so that I can look down upon or pity others. Sitting in the front row/pew, having the Bible memorized, singing the loudest and raising that hand in worship do not cause light to shine on those around me.

If I want to illumine those in the dark, I must live dynamically. Dynamic living is getting yelled and cussed at, yet talking back to the person in a calm tone. It is not joining in the gossip at work during lunch, but instead putting an end to the gossip when it occurs. It is saying something nice about everyone, and if you can’t not saying anything. It is not judging someone by how they look or dress, or what they have financially. It is saying a kind word to the person you least want, to because they need to get accolades too.

If I live dynamically, I will apply the golden rule. Do not treat others the way that you think that they will treat you, or even the way they have treated you in the past. It says treat others the way you want to be treated. I would challenge you here and say treat others BETTER than you want to be treated. That is stepping out on faith, and I think that if we apply that then the way that others will improve.

Being dynamic is being open and honest about my relationship with Christ. Living dynamically and having a personal relationship with Christ that I keep to myself are diametrically opposed ways of existence.

I can no more hide my relationship with Jesus Christ than you could hide that city on a hill in broad day light, and why would I want to. I want others to know the incredible power of change, of optimism, that comes from the Holy Spirit. Yet, we have to make it sound and look appealing. If I am always miserable, than my light is dimming and others cannot see it.

Sin also begins to extinguish our light. Thou shall not lie means that we should not even tell little white lies, and thou shall not steal refers to cheating on our taxes too. It is still fornication when you take matters into your own hands. It is still adultery when you watch pornography. Lust is cheating. Pride, greed and coveting almost seem like the American way. Here is the clincher, the sin of omission. DOING NOTHING!! Inaction is a huge sin. When we see a wrong and do nothing to make it right, that is a sin. Being silent about my faith when it is my duty to be vocal and lead by example, to always be the bigger person when a situation could go south, that is a sin.

If we are the light of the world, we should let others know what that light is. In truth, they may actually come up and ask us about it. “Why are you always so positive” is a question that I have been asked before. My answer, “I am positive because I know even if I live 30 of the most miserable years here on earth, I have an eternity of bliss awaiting me. I always have something to look forward to.”