ON STARTING MY 48TH YEAR

There Are Worse Things Than Getting Older...

 

A 48 year old fixing a faucet.

    “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy New Year!  My birthday isn't the first of 2012, but the thirty-oneth of December.   I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing up my visit to my cousin and her husband, and drove home.  I got home at about 7:00 PM on Saturday, so I spent a lot of my day in transit.  I've had 47 birthdays before, and there is little new, so traveling was actually a nice change for once.   I have two short years left before the big FIVE-ZERO, but I've learned quite a bit in my short 48 years of life.  I'll share eight of the greatest things God has taught me in 21 years of being a believer...

• Jesus really does overcome our sin and our sin natures.  He does this by taking us to death on the cross with him.  When Paul writes, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me," he isn't kidding, he is dead serious.  God gives us a new nature, one born of his own Holy Spirit.   Die daily to self, build up the new inner person, allow Christ to indwell you through the Holy Spirit, and Christ living in you will overcome your nature.  Jesus says, "...I have overcome the world."  Invite Jesus to enable you to die, and then invite him to live his life in you.   Try it, and see what you get.   "...We know it when we love God and obey his commands. ³ Here is what it means to love God. It means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not hard to obey. ⁴ That's because everyone who is a child of God has won the battle over the world. Our faith has won the battle for us.  ⁵ Who is it that has won the battle over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."  1 John 5:2-5 (NIV Reader's Version)

• If you screw up, God can and will fix it.   I do not know what it will cost for God to fix it when you screw up, but when you screw up ask God to fix it, and see what you get.   I'm not you so I can't tell you how God will deal with you when you screw up.  It may be the worst sin in the world, from your perspective, but God can fix anything we screw up.  It may cost you something, it may cost you a lot, and it is assured you will be humbled.   God will fix your screw up, if you will only ask, and willingly do whatever he tells you to do.

 

• God still speaks.  Yes, he speaks most often through his written word, but sometimes there isn't a verse of Scripture from which to speak.  God isn't going to give you some new revelation; you're not going to be adding to the Bible.   How do I know God still speaks to us, even outside the Bible?  Simple, because the Bible tells us so...  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."   John 10:27.   You may say, "Today God only speaks through the Bible," but you are only depriving yourself of God's voice.   Only a fool would dare tamper with the word of the living God in such a way.  Do not attempt to limit God, for you only succeed in limiting his power in your life.  God still speaks, but are you listening?

"...early Christianity was not a 'religion of the Book,' but rather 'the religion of the Spirit and the living Christ'"

~ The Biblical Canon, page 33.

"I think that, for the most part, evangelicals have taken the easy way and chosen to chase the Holy Spirit into the Bible."

~ Roger E. Olson, Professor of Historical Theology

{Thank you, Cousin James, for these quotes!  And Happy belated Birthday on the oneth!!!}

• Hatred wins nothing.  Christians may say, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner," but these "christians" are almost always dishonest (I can say, without fear of correction, that everyone I've met who used that quote was lying!!).   Those I've met who said, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner," showed they only loved hating the sin, if not blatantly hating the sinner as well.  Jesus tells us to love our enemies, because when we love our enemies God is able to show us they are really just a reflection of ourselves.   The only way to overcome hate is with love.  Jesus says of our enemies:  ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Do you see that?  Jesus says,  ⁴⁴ "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven."   Loving our enemies proves we are the children of God!   And what is the last statement Jesus makes,  "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Jesus absolutely connects love for enemies with the perfection of God!   Jesus isn't making an empty statement, he's commanding us!!   Of course it is impossible for us to be perfect, so Christ makes us born again, and then indwells us, so that he may perfectly love as our heavenly Father does in and through us.  Still angry about 9/11?  Still angry with Muslims?   Still itching for revenge against the people's the United States has made war against?   What does Jesus tell you to do?   What is Jesus' command?  What is the proof Jesus requires of those who are God's true children?

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

“That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

• God heals your relationship first with himself, then with those in his and your born again family; the Church.  Finally he pours out his Spirit upon us that we may offer healing and wholeness to a hurt and dying world.  Don't shove your own relationships under the rug, in the name of "helping others".  Allow God to reach in and begin fixing you, your relationship to him, and then the relationships in the Church.  The family of God is where we learn to love; our Christian brothers and sisters are the guinea pigs, before we approach a hurting sin filled world!    Today nearly everyone in the Church is as broken and dysfunctional as the world.  How can the broken and dysfunctional fix a broken and dysfunctional world?!   Reaching out to the world is a part of your growth and healing, but get some house cleaning done in your own house, before tackling the world's mess.

• Jesus Christ's own definition of a Christian is "one who is obedient".  Don't believe me?  Then you've not been reading the Bible, because Jesus is very clear.  Jesus own words:  ³¹ "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:31-32.  Honestly, how much more does Jesus have to say?   Jesus says, *IF*, **IF**, NOTICE JESUS SAYS,  "IF"...."If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples."   What do you think it means "IF" you don't hold to his teachings?!   "IF" means, "IF you don't hold to my teachings, you are not really my disciples!!"  1) Die daily to yourself, your ways, your selfish desires and pursuits, "put off the old self along with its deceitful desires..."  2) "Put on the new self, created to be like Christ".  3) Ask God to enable you to obey him, and 4)  Obey the teachings of Jesus.   Which teachings of Jesus do you obey??   Start with:  "Love God and your neighbor as you (already) love yourself."   "Do to others what you would like them to do to/for you."   "Love your enemies." (see above.).   "Love one another; just as I have loved you, you must love one another."   "Go into all the earth and make disciples of all nations."   Obey these lessons, and God will give you understanding as to how to keep all the others.  

• Give of your income and of your time in service.  Don't give me any of this nonsense about tithing isn't for the Church.  I'm not talking about keeping a law!  I'm talking about a very central part of God's own character.   The greatest verse on giving in the Bible is not in the Old Testament.   The Christian gives because of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,..."  God gave ALL of his wealth; God gave ALL of his treasure!  For what could God give or create which would equal the value of his only Son??!!   Giving isn't law, it is the heart of God!   Start out with 10%, but don't ever stop there!  Give offerings to any in need, and it doesn't have to be an established ministry of some kind.  You can give offering to a homeless person in need.  You can give offering to a family whose house has burned down.  You can give offering to the person who has a flat tire and no spare!   It is God's heart to give and this is the only reason you ever need to give.  Do you want to know and have God's own heart beating within you?    THEN GIVE TO STRANGERS WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING BACK, AND WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!!!   10% is only the beginning...

• Temptation is not sin.  I'm tired of hearing "christians" whining about their struggles and temptations.  Being tempted or having a terrible thought, pop unannounced, into your head is not sin.   If you pursue the temptation, and/or allow the thought to take root and become your thought, then you are in sin.   "Everyone born of God overcomes the world..."  "If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation; the old has passed away.  Behold everything is made new."   "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."  "But we have the mind of Christ."  "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."   Get it?  GOT IT?  GOOD!!  Temptation is going to be there for the rest of our lives, but that doesn't mean we have to accept it, or allow it to define us and control us.   Satan doesn't have a weapon to use against you if you are in Christ; a Christian.   The Holy Spirit once told me to listen to the language of temptation.  I'd always thought pictures would pop into my mind and that was the extent of most temptation, but as I obeyed the Spirit, and actually listened I learned something very important about temptation.  Temptation is a backhanded accusation.  Indeed a picture would suddenly pop into my head, but then I carefully listened, and sure enough there was a snide whisper along with the picture.  I could hear, "You know this is what you really want,"  or  "Take this, you know it belongs to you."   NO!  Sinful thoughts do not belong to me!  Why don't sinful thoughts belong to me?   "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed away..." 2 Corinthians 5:17.   I am a new creation in Christ, and I DO NOT think sinful thoughts any longer.  Sinful thoughts do not come from the new nature born of God's own Spirit.  The Holy Spirit indwells my new born spirit, and it is impossible for such thoughts to begin in my mind.   Ephesians 4:22-24:  ²² "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.    NOW SEE HERE!  If you can't "put off your old self,"  why does the word of God say you can!?!?  If you are stuck with a messed up sinful mind then why does God's word tell us, "...be made new in the attitude of your minds..."???!!!  If all you are is a "sinner saved by grace," and you have no choice but to sin, then why are we told "put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."???!!!  IT IS IN THE BIBLE BECAUSE GOD HAS MADE YOU A NEW CREATION, AND THE OLD HAS TRULY PASSED AWAY.    1) Put off the old self.   2) Renew your mind with God's holy truth.   3) Put on the new self, created BY God, TO BE LIKE God, and walk in the Spirit, so you don't sin against God!   IF IT ISN'T POSSIBLE THEN GOD IS A LIAR!!!   And we know God is not a liar...."Let God be true, and every man a liar."   If you aren't going to believe the truth: A) that God has made you a new creation, B) seated you with Christ (right now), and that C)  because God has given you a new, born again spirit, made to be like Jesus Christ; and that God is right now conforming you to the image and likeness of Christ; and God has created you anew, so that you overcome the world...then perhaps, just maybe?, could it be possible?, you might want to consider... you do not have faith in the overcoming power of Jesus Christ and that would leave you:

   D)   Dishonoring God!  Doubting the power of God's grace!!  Denying the sovereign power of Christ to overcome sin!!!  

JUST SOME THOUGHTS 

 

 

GOOD WILL TOWARD MANKIND

I'll Be Working

       I had a lady in the checkout line at about 4:30 AM Friday morning get her panties all in a bunch.   She wasn't upset over merchandise shortages, sale prices not scanning, or because we didn't have her brand of cigarette.  No she was upset because I would be working on Christmas.   Mind you, I'm not the least bit upset, and more about that in a moment.   First let me also tell you about an email all of our stores received from Corporate.   We made the "naughty" list at the American Family Association or AFA.  The AFA sent out a poisoned Christmas message to boycott my company this holiday season.  It seems my company is politically correct and only allow our associates to use holiday greetings like, well, like, "Holiday Greetings", or "Happy Holidays".   This was news to us, because we are absolutely allowed and actually encouraged to say "Merry Christmas".  Every year I wear my "Merry Christmas" tie, and my decorated moose antlers.  And I go a little further, with the holiday greetings, and say, "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays" in the same holiday wish.  I throw in the Happy Holidays to flush out the "Christmas Nazis".   When I say the Happy Holidays part they pounce on me verbally.   Everyone in line gets a great education about what true evil looks like when these "christians" start spewing anger, and hatred toward anyone who dares say anything other than "Merry Christmas".   I give people one little phrase and they bite; pumping out more venom than a rattle snake.  

       

      As I said, I am working this Christmas.  I'm looking forward to it.  Why would I, a professing Christian, be glad I am working instead of being where I OUGHT to be?   First off I have a job!  I am very happy and thankful to have a job this year.   But of greatest importance: I'm a Christian.  Who else, besides a Christian, do you want folks to meet?   Do you want a pissy atheist to face the harried, tired, hurting, lonely and stressed Christmas shopper?   Who else is going to give folks "Good will toward mankind?"  I'm keeping Christmas by allowing the Holy Spirit to show God's good will toward the corner of the world he's put me in.

      

        Do you think I'm somehow unaware of the part I play in the evil plan of the "money grubbers"?   I'm aware of how materialistic Christmas has become, and that my working on Christmas is in service to corporate America.   It doesn't matter, because wherever I am Christ is, and Christ overcomes the world.   I'm not looking to make money, I'm looking to serve people, and offer a warm, loving, funny, Christ filled guy who helped bring a smile to what may be a bleak and lonely time.   Honestly who else should be in front of these folks?   The problem isn't that my company took "Christ" out of Christmas.   Only Christians can truly take Christ out of Christmas.   Keep Christ in Christmas, by simply allowing him to shine through.  Serve wherever you are, and so honor and promote the power of Christ to overcome the world.  I can't express to you how much I am looking forward to working this Christmas!  I'll be praying, loving, and serving, just as Christ would have me behave.   What, honestly, should a fellow Christian expect of me at Christmas??   

How will you be serving, loving, and shining so the world can see Christ in Christmas?

     

THANKFUL FOR...

Enemies, Discipline, and Challenges

"If we'll trust God he'll reveal our reflection in our enemies.  If we'll trust God, he'll show us how he can work through us to do good, both to our enemies and ourselves."

"give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

We're all thankful for the obvious things health, gainful employment, family, life, liberty and the right to pursue happiness, and many more.  But when was the last time you stopped and thanked God for those who hate you, or for discipline and challenges?  We're told to give thanks in all circumstances, but do you realize God is behind many of the circumstance we'd usually say are "bad"?  I'm not saying God would send someone to harm you, or steal from you.  Not every bad thing comes from God.  God doesn't send murderers, rapists, thieves, or hoards of pillaging barbarians to harm people.  But there are situations and circumstances God will place us in which don't feel good.   Is it possible your mean boss; cursing neighbor; thoughtless, careless, always late, employee; smart mouthed teen you teach in Sunday School; out to get you co-worker or teacher; stressful season at work or home, are all gifts from God?   I know we don't like to think anything from God could make us feel bad, but we're told in Scripture, in both Old and New Testament, that God disciplines his children.   We're told God's discipline is necessary or we are illegitimate children, so those things which hurt are good things.   We should remember that God doesn't promise us happiness.  God's desire is to conform us to the image and likeness of Jesus. 

 ⁷ "During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him."  

Hebrews 5:7-9

 WOMP! THERE IT IS!  WOMP! THERE IT IS!  

I've been receiving some real opposition from every direction in my life lately.  You know what helps with the frustration and anger?  I say, "God I thank you for this circumstance, I accept it as discipline, and know you are using it to help conform me to the image and likeness of Jesus."  The pressure lessens when we accept that what we're enduring is a tool in God's hands for our good.   So today, along with the food, family, and fun I'm thankful for coworkers who work against me.  I'm thankful for the clerk I have to babysit and endure his ridiculous excuses.  I am thankful for the family who know the buttons to punch to send me over the edge.  I'm thankful for the boss who refuses to see the issues with my clerk, who works harder at getting out of work than just doing the work.  I'm thankful for the boss who tries to pressure me to do my clerks work for him, instead of working so hard to make sure my clerk is doing the work expected.  I'm thankful for customers who puke, bleed, and poop on my floor; use my bathroom sink for everything but washing their hands; open packages of everything to remove a quarter or half the contents, and throwing the box behind other merchandise on the shelf.  I'm thankful for the customers who blame my employees for their own stupidity, and that I have to stand there in the face of their stupidity and say, "Gee, I'm so sorry for our mistake," all the while thinking silently to myself, "You suck, but I'm apologizing, how is this right??" 

So, what are the things you can't feel good about, but, for which, you should recognize God's good hand and purpose?  What circumstances are you not thanking God for, but you should be thanking God for, because through them God is doing you eternal good?

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

This post was originally posted on another blog site.  "Such_were_you", was the name of that blog.  It is now shut down and cannot be accessed.  I started a new blog on this other blogging site, but with a completely different name and approach.  Sorry for the confusion this post will create.  I'm too lazy to rewrite it to fit Blogger...

 

The Greatest Problem With American Christianity:

Christians Don't Truly Believe Jesus

What's wrong with this picture?

EVERYTHING!

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

James 1:22

BIGGEST CONFESSION YET:

Would you like to know what frustrates and enrages me most about Christians?  Would you like to know why I was so harsh and downright mean toward Christians in so many of my "Such_were_you" blogs? 

Every time I got comments like, "Wow, Lonnie you sure have great insights,"  and/or "Wow, Lonnie your testimony of life in homosexuality and new life in Christ is powerful!"  Those comments and comments like them used to really piss me off!   BUT the kind of comment that sent me through the roof, and into a hot as hell rage was, "Could I send someone who is gay or struggling with same-sex attraction to your site, or may I email a copy of this post to a gay person I know."   Another common comment which sent me over the edge was: When I'd finally get fed up with Christian or so called "struggling" [with same-sex attraction] Christians, and shut down one of my sites, someone would say something like, "Would you leave your site up, so we can use it as a resource."   I used your names in vain, like you can't imagine!  I would not be surprised if some of your ears burned for a couple of days.

Why so angry???  I don't need anyone patting me on the back, or informing me how good my insights are.  I know the insights are good, they come right from God.  I obeyed the teachings of Christ, and every single spiritual insight I have comes directly from believing what God says, and obeying his teachings.  DUH?!?! 

Jesus said, "Do what I teach, obedience makes you my true follower, as you walk with me obediently you will get to know me better and better, and knowing me (the truth) sets you free." 

(The Bad Penny paraphrase of John 8:31-32).

I know exactly what I'm talking about because I did what God told me to do, and that is all there is to it.  If any of you had really believed I knew what I was talking about you'd have done the things I told you to do in my blogs.  I don't need anyone of you to know I know what I'm talking about.  I NEED ALL OF YOU TO KNOW WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ME!  The only way for you to know what Jesus taught me is DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO.  See if you had obeyed what I told you to do you would have run right into Christ.  And there are a several things you would learn for yourself  1) If you'd done what I said you'd have learned it really came from the Holy Spirit and not me.  2) You'd have learned that Christ is the only source of wisdom you needed, and all I told you to do was merely a stepping stone.  3) You'd have been able to really and truly trust me, because you would know, beyond any doubt, what I said came from the Holy Spirit and NOT by applying my own intellect.  4) The Holy Spirit would teach you things he never taught me, and you could have come back and taught me what God showed you. 

The greatest truth God would have taught you is:  The greatest problem of the Church is that it has the same exact problem LGBT people, porn loving people, shacking up people, cheating on their spouses people, pedophile people, and the rest.  The greatest problem of the church in America especially is you are relationally broken people; The American church has the same "plank" in our eye.  This is why the Church cannot understand or reach sexually broken people like LGBT people or Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction...God's cure for the problem of sexual immorality is RELATIONSHIP!  Why is it that no one seems to know that?  Why is it the Church condemns, accepts, or does nothing with sexually broken people???  We cannot see because we are blinded to our own broken relationship with God.  If you've ever met someone with your own character flaws you will dislike, avoid, criticize mercilessly, and/or excuse them altogether.  This is the truth I was never able to tell any of you, but I so wanted to bring out into the open.  Why didn't I just come clean?   The truth is something you have to learn through obedience, in the same way God taught me.  I am not God, I don't make the rules.  I'll say it again...WHAT DOES JESUS SAY???   WHAT DOES JESUS TEACH???

"Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, 1) living out what I tell you, 2) you are my disciples for sure.  3) Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."

John 8:31-32

[Numbers and bold print are my additions]

The church in America can't help herself, because we've taken away obedience to Jesus Christ.  Without obedience there is no relationship with God.  Don't take my word for it, it's only been in the Bible for thousands of years!! Until Christians get out of their pews, and Bible studies and DO what Jesus teaches we will never know Jesus, and we will never see clearly our own broken relationship with God.  AND STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE, "We haven't done anything, because we don't know what to do..."  God knows exactly what to do!  Remember what God said to Moses?"   "GO!"  Moses didn't know how to free the Hebrews from slavery to Egypt.  If Moses had known what to do he would have been God.  You don't know what to do with those who struggle with sexual immorality?!?!?   GOOD!  If you did you would be God.  The command is "GO!" cause God knows, and God will show you all you need to know!!  Ignorance isn't an excuse, in fact, like Moses, the true reason the Church won't go is because you don't want to go.  Do you really think, Christians, you will stand before God and he'll accept, "We didn't know, so we couldn't go?"  SERIOUSLY?   WON'T THE ANGER OF GOD BURN AGAINST US, JUST AS GOD BURNED WITH ANGER TOWARD MOSES!?!?!?!?!?!?   Church you better wake up and smell the coffee!!!

THE "SUCH_WERE_YOU" AGENDA:

To set up Christians to succeed and run smack into Jesus, (and you would have, if you'd applied what I taught in my blogs).  Still I knew full well, you would never EVER listen or do anything I taught.  Ministering to so called "same-sex strugglers" was never the point.  If you'd bothered following a half dozen so called "strugglers" blogs, for about 6 months, you'd have quickly learned nearly all of them come to accept a homosexual identity.  They never grow.  They can't grow because they don't know how God has relationship, and if they did they wouldn't be online hanging out with the so called "strugglers".  It didn't matter if I was nice or harsh with so called "strugglers".  They won't ever listen no matter how truth is delivered to them.  They don't want the truth of God which frees them.  All they want is to excuse their sinful feelings, and figure out a way to create god in the likeness and image of their feelings.  They want to fulfill their lusts, but want God to approve of them.  Their "orientation" is the god they continue to serve.  

It wasn't ever ministry to LGBT persons either.  In fact I was harsh to LGBT persons on my site, so that all of you could see, clearly, how easy it is to defeat gay arguments.  Oh, the house of homosexual junk science looks like a substantial house made of solid bricks and mortar.  I made confetti of "gay science" with a verbal 188mm., high velocity, Howitzer.  It all looks good, but gay excuses are a poorly stacked house of cards.  You didn't need much education to see that for yourselves, if you'd ever bothered.

DISCLAIMER:

I need to say at this point a few of you, wonderful Christians, did listen, to a couple things.  You are wise if you apply the truth of God to your lives.  You will be wise if you reach out for relationship with the sexually immoral in the midst of your own church bodies.  God will open your eyes to the needs of the Church.  Stay to the truth and sound doctrines found in the Scriptures, but stay open to God's leading.  The Church in America must repair her relationship with God, or there is no hope for the American branch.  Where are the Churches of Corinth, Ephesus, Laodicea, Philadelphia? They no longer exist, do they??? 

    

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

A New Trend

"All we like sheep have gone astray;
      We have turned, every one, to his own way;"

Isaiah 53:6

Not long ago, I was enjoying one of my, former, favorite hobbies/past times.  I was complaining bitterly at God about HIS Church; HIS Christians; HIS greatest problem, and my greatest (perceived) problem.   A thought suddenly sliced through my well tread litany of ever growing, and oft read list of Church sins, "THEY REALLY ARE LIKE SHEEP, AREN'T THEY?"  I know when The Holy Spirit is speaking to me.  It should have shut me up, but God was, finally, agreeing with me.  I felt so relieved that God was getting on board with my view of things...Yeah right!  God gets on board with my agenda!?!?  What a total joke!  God will never get on board with my agenda and my way of doing things!  Still I jumped at God's bait, "Not just sheep God," I said, confidently, "but STUPID, uncaring, even hateful sheep!"  "YES," came the response, "...LIKE SHEEP GONE ASTRAY."  I was so excited God was on my side!   Then the other shoe dropped, though with God it's more like he drops a whole shoe store..."SHEEP GONE ASTRAY...IN NEED OF A SHEPHERD..."  Imagine standing on an airport landing strip, and getting hit, right in the kisser, by a Boeing 747 wide bodied jet.  The Holy Spirit's conviction landed on me full throttle!   The simple phrases which entered my thoughts don't, at first, appear to be capable of conviction.   How can statements such as, "Like sheep gone astray...in need of a shepherd," possibly be considered convicting?

God's conviction came because he's called me to be a pastor two decades ago.  God has always operated in and through me to minister to others.  Ministry for me is and has always been very natural and organic.  For years and years I really didn't understand it is simply how God is creating and conforming me to the image and likeness of Jesus.   God conforming us to the likeness and image of his Son is of greatest importance, not the call to ministry.  Never forget God can speak through a donkey if he so desires.  I shake my head at people who make their life's pursuit "the ministry".   "My ministry," never has been, and never will be mine.  The ministry is God's from first to last.  God simply works ministry in and through me, as I walk and serve in the Spirit.  Still I have always dragged my feet...okay that's not truthful...I didn't drag my feet, I always dug my heels in, until all forward progress stopped.  Then I started walking backwards.   I never fully ran away from God, but I've always kept ministry, more than less, at arm's length.  The simple answer for why I've always dug my heels in is because the Church hates and rejects me and people like me.

And let me be completely clear about what I mean, when I say, "The Church hates me and rejects people like me."  I'm talking about a Church hijacked, run by, and centered on human beings.  Church as business; Church as human institution; Church as Political Action Committee; Church as "us" against "those people"; Church as self-help/12 step program so we can control our sin, feel better about ourselves, and build up our self-esteem; Church as get rich quick, and have a "happy" life, because God is our "Celestial Sugar Daddy"; Church as Lord High Pimp for The American Dream.  And before anyone starts thinking I think I know the "right way" to do Church, let's get this straight, "I don't know how to do Church "the right way."'  I don't know how to do Church the right way, because I am not God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.  I have some "right" ideas and ways, but until God is operating in and through me fully as a pastor, I won't know what Church should look like.  I never wanted to be a pastor, because I can't be what I've always seen in churches and ministries.   What I never understood is God isn't calling me to be what I've always seen and experienced in churches.   God isn't calling me to "fix" what I've always seen and still see as serious life killing practices and beliefs in the body of Christ.  And doing ministry differently doesn't mean completely reinventing the Church either.

What I'm really talking about is Holy Spirit revival.  I'm talking about God's own Spirit coming into our midst and bringing us back to being the body of Christ, Father and Jesus desire for us to be.  One of my friends, who is a pastor, was in a staff meeting where a former Muslim, now Christian pastor, spoke to the leaders of my friend's church.   This former Muslim said this about the evolution of the Church: 

"In Jerusalem, the Church was family.  By the time the Church came to the Gentiles it was a community.  The Church in Europe was an institution.  In America the Church is a business."  

I believe God is calling us to a new reformation.  I don't have 95 theologians to nail to a church door, and I hope it won't be necessary (I'm joking).  I don't have to go around telling everyone, "I'm right, you're wrong, and God likes me better," because I don't believe this is how God desires to work in and through me.  God is right, and we've all got it wrong somewhere.  God started his Church, He can and will bring it into order, and under his Lordship.  I am called to serve God's purpose however God desires to work in and through me.  I don't have to serve what has been in the past, but can serve God in new or renewed ways.  It is my conviction that God is working to free his Church to be the family he started 2,000 years ago, in Jerusalem.  Not a family according to what the world calls family, but God's family centered completely on Jesus, his call and work in the world.  I can serve God as he always intended without serving what God is causing to pass away.  I don't have to "make" anything happen, all I have to do is faithfully serve what God is making. So there will be a great deal more to come from a reluctant, but contented, shepherd.

Blessings,

Lonnie

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

Hearing What Jesus Says

Vs.

Changing God's Word For Our Purposes

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

~ Jesus of Nazareth

Do you remember the last time you heard a sermon about the preservative nature of salt, and that part of the Church's work is preservative?  I've heard several over the years.  The problem is when Jesus speaks about salt he is very specific about the quality of salt he's talking about.  "You are the salt of the earth;" (Matthew 5:13 NKJV).  Now if this was all Jesus said, about salt, we could argue he meant salt as preservative.   But Jesus continued explaining the specific quality of salt he was focusing on, "but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?"  Jesus tells us very specifically "...if the salt loses flavor, how shall it be seasoned?"  Clearly Jesus is speaking of believers as having a distinctive flavor.  He is not speaking of salt as a preservative.  The response I sometimes get from fellow believers is, "Yeah, but salt was used extensively to preserve meats, since there was no refrigeration."  Saying salt is a preservative, and what Jesus says about salt are very different, subtle, but still very different.

 

There is an issue few people see when reading this passage of Scripture.  Salt cannot lose its saltiness; not ever.  If you take the time to study the culture Jesus spoke to, you get what Jesus is talking about.  At the time of Jesus sojourn in Israel, salt was harvested from the shore around the Dead Sea.  The salt is so concentrated in the Dead Sea it leaves huge salt deposits along the shoreline.  People would go and take the salt off the shoreline and bag it.  It was a "buyer beware" situation when buying a bag of salt.  One might get a bag full of mostly salt and a little sand, or one might get mostly sand and a little salt.  When Jesus talks about salt losing its flavor he is saying, "If believers are mostly sand (full of the world), and very little salt then they don't have the unique flavor of the Holy Spirit, and do not serve the kingdom of God, i.e. "It is good for nothing..."  

If Jesus had been speaking of salt curing he would not speak of salt losing its flavor.  Meat is cured in a water and salt mixture.  Salt is absorbed into the water, thus separating the salt from the sand.  The salt will soak into the meat, but the sand will be left behind as a residue.  You could use several bags of mostly sand with a little salt, and the meat would still cure.  It might take many bags of salt to get the desired salt level, but the sand can't stop the meat from drawing the salt and water mixture.  Were Jesus speaking about salt for curing the amount of sand is irrelevant.  The sand poses no problem, other than the fact you need more of the salt/sand mixture to get enough salt for curing.

   

The greatest problem with the "salt as preservative" angle is that salt doesn't save meat for life.  Salt curing is done to save the meat, by keeping life out.  The bacteria which cause spoilage can't live in the heavy concentration of salt in the meat, so spoilage is greatly reduced.  Jesus says, ^"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  In Jesus there is no death.  We are not hunks of meat kept by salt, until Jesus Christ returns.  We are preserved alive by the Spirit of Life dwelling in us.  Salt curing keeps bacterial life away from what is dead, for a time, but the salt levels are so high in the cured meat it is inedible by everyone, and everything not just bacteria.  Before eating much of the salt has to be removed.  If some of the salt isn't removed eating the meat would be akin to drinking sea water.  Drinking heavy salt water has the same effect salt curing does on meat.  If you drink sea water the salt will actually draw whatever water your body has out of you, dehydrating you, or salt curing you as you die!  So what picture does Jesus draw for us showing how too much of a good thing, like salt, is death dealing?

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself." 

Matthew 23:15

Every time I read this verse I am reminded of salt as preservative.  This is why Jesus called them "whitewashed tombs".  They looked good on the outside (preserved with religious salt),  but inside they were really just an old dead piece of meat... too much religious salt. The religious person settles for a salty old piece of dead meat.  Jesus came to us that we might have eternal life.  The way he preserves us is with, "rivers of living water gushing into us, and out of us to the world." God doesn't preserve by keeping life from us, as salt does.  God preserves our life for eternity by placing his own eternally living Spirit into us.  The world doesn't need preservatives which keep life out.  A dead world needs to be preserved for eternal life, by being made born again and filled with the Spirit of Life. 

Those who belong to Christ have the unique flavor of salt, but they are preserved by the Holy Spirit living in them.  Giving the world a salt bath in religion only insures NO life will get in, including the Holy Spirit.  Allow God to make you flavorful, but the work of preserving belongs exclusively to the Holy Spirit. 

     

  

THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN:

The Moses Principles:

C) Obedience Gives Us Eyes To See God

And Fills Us With A Greater Hunger For Him

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

~ Exodus 3:12

 .

I love that verse of Scripture!  Exodus 3:12 is one of my "Bible throwing", verses.  The first time I read it in the Bible I threw my Bible at the wall.  I threw my Bible at the wall, because I knew in my heart, this is the way God works.  Don't ask me how I knew at that moment, but upon reading Exodus 3:12 I knew God works the same way with his Church.  What God is saying to Moses is, "When you have completed all the work I've sent you to Egypt to accomplish, and you are back here, on the mountain, then you will know I sent you."   That is crazy!   Who needs signs when the journey is over?!?!  What if I asked you to come visit me at my house and said to you, "Hey when you get here I'll give you all the directions you'll need"???   You would never bother making the trip.  You would think I didn't really want you to find me, wouldn't you??  But look more carefully at what God says, "I will be with you."  God doesn't offer outward signs and confirmation.  Moses is going to have to walk by faith.  Remember what God says about faith, "We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Hebrews tells us a great deal more on the matter:

“But my righteous one will live by faith.  And I take no pleasure
   in the one who shrinks back.”

~ Hebrews 10:38

It is God with us enabling us to live and do.  God doesn't post road signs like the huge green ones, with huge pointing arrows, we find on Interstates.  Faith in God isn't by sight, hearing, tasting, touching, or smelling.  And faith doesn't come from human wisdom.  People who say, "I'll believe it when I see it," will never see God.  So, once all was said and done Moses would, finally, completely understand all that God had done; as we like to say it today, "Moses had 20/20 hindsight."  Can you see why I threw my Bible at the wall?  (Even if you don't agree with my actions).  I NEED big, bold, easy to read, signs!!  I need a turn by turn and inch by inch GPS!!  Why doesn't God understand my needs?!?!?!  MY BLANKEY???  WHERE DID I PUT MY BLANKEY???  Er...uh...um...that old thing I just needed to find it so I could throw it away!!!  Look! See? In the trash can it goes!

But what happens when Moses obeys God?  What happens with Moses when he and the freed Israelites  get back to the place of the burning bush?

 ¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

 ¹⁹ And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

~ Exodus 33:18-19

There should be two things which stick out from these verses in Exodus 33.  First, Moses has been obedient, and God is pleased with him.  Secondly, God says "I know your name."  What does God mean "I know your name?"  God is saying, "I know you because you have obeyed me."   Obeying God is love for God (1 John 5).  When we love God, or obey God, we are intimate with him.  When God says he "knows our name," he is saying we've obeyed him, are intimate with him, and we please him.  And what is Moses' response to God??   "...Now show me your glory."   WOW!!  WOW!! WOW!!  Moses wants more of God!  Moses is filled with burning desire to see, and know, and have more of God.

The Apostle Paul says it best of all:

 ⁷ "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them shit, that I may gain Christ

~ Philippians 3:7-8

Paul has obeyed God!  We know Paul has obeyed God, because he says, "I have Jesus Christ, and next to him everything else is a steaming, stinking pile of shit."  Yes, the Apostle Paul, under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, says, "Everything NOT Jesus Christ is shit."   The more we obey God, the more clearly we see and know God.  We may not understand God better, but we know him through the intimacy of obedience.   And the more we obey, the more we hunger, thirst, CRAVE God, and he alone will satisfy!!

When Christ followers stand before Christ, with the "goats" to his left and the "sheep" of his flock, on his right, there will be many sad surprises.   What is the keys to being in right standing with Christ, and therefore in the flock on his right? 

1. When God calls, tell God, "Lord God I cannot possibly fulfill, perform, or achieve your call."
2. When God calls, tell God, "Here I am Lord, your unworthy servant!  I will go, as you command."
3. When God has finally brought you through, you will say, without any doubt, you will proclaim, "O LORD GOD! HOW GREAT YOU ARE!  ALL I WANT IS YOU!"

It's all right there in the Bible.  It's been there for thousands of years!  There are no excuses allowed.  There is either, "Yes, Lord I will obey," or "No, Lord find someone else."  

Any questions?

Lonnie