We Are Not Meant To Be Mannequins

At the conception of life we become a fetus and grow till we are old enough to enter the world outside of the confines of our mother. From that time on we grow up, each day learning and experiencing new things until we are able to start accepting responsibilities. Eventually we turn eighteen and are faced with the realization that we are to be a man. Our time of preparation is over and we must take full responsibility of ourselves.

God does not just call us to be a man, but He calls us to be a godly man. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Being a godly man is much more than our earthly age. We can lay in that casket without ever being what God has called us to be. We shouldn't be mannequins who are just an image and figure of what the world says a man is. The world has a "perfect" image of what a man should be, but it's all based on how the outside looks. He should be muscular, well-dressed, have money, girls, and nice cars, but on the inside, he's hollow. We should be real men who love the Lord and deeply desire Him above all other things.

The big question is; What is a godly man?

I. A godly man loves the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Mark 12:30 (Speaking of the greatest commandment) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

II. A godly man is constant in repentance with humility knowing it's not by His power He reaches godliness. Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

III. A godly man strives to become just like Christ and live like Him. 1 John 2:6 Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

IV. A godly man seeks the Lord's wisdom in all things through reading the Bible, meditation, and
prayer. Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.


V. A godly man humbly serves God wholeheartedly, going wherever He calls. A godly man is after God's own heart, he doesn't live out his own will, but the Father's will for his life. 1 John 2:16-17 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 

From my research I found these five points to be a basic template for how a godly man lives out his life. However, I can't just tell you what a godly man is and leave you with that, but I will try to show you how these five different actions are applied in life.

I. Your heart is your emotions and deepest desires, its what creates the reasons for your action or inaction. If you love the Lord your God with all your heart that means that you are completely infatuated with Him, your utmost desire, what is there in your heart is to serve him.
The soul I'm still working on figuring out what it is, but I do know that your soul is everything your body is not. Your soul is merely connected to your body till you die and depart from your human frame. Your soul is alive when it is in Christ, it is dead when it is in the clutches of death because of sin. To love God with all of your soul you must give it to Him. He is to be the one in control of your soul.
Your mind is what is in charge of all things that you do, it contemplates, solves, and makes decisions. If your whole heart loves God, your brain is then what contemplates and decides to put that love and desire to serve Him into commands for your body to fulfill.
Your strength is your muscles and all your physical abilities. When you love God with all your strength you are using all your physical abilities to serve Him.

All of theses different parts are separate, but they all influence each other and are connected in some way. Your heart puts emotion behind who is in control of your soul and what your mind contemplates and decides. Lastly you mind is what controls your body movements. So ultimately what loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength is loving Him with all that you have, all-of-you.

II. Repentance of our own sin is very important because we must die to ourselves to live for Christ. We must die to sin for God to come in an give us His righteousness. Submitting ourselves to the authority of Christ in our lives is a big part of growing in godliness. Without repentance and humility before God, how can He come into our lives and start shaping us to be more like Him? We've got to humbly give ourselves up to Christ accepting Him as our redeemer, our salvation, our King, and we must die to our sin in repentance and live as the Holy Spirit leads, presenting our bodies and everything we have to God the Father in ultimate sacrifice living out our love for God. Then God can start to shape and refine us in His Godliness.

III. To become like Jesus we need to learn who He is and what He did. Jesus is our example of godliness. The more time you spend with someone the more you will find yourself becoming like the other. The more time you spend learning about Jesus through reading and hearing the Word, worshiping Him, and talking to Him through prayer the more you will find yourself becoming like Him.

IV. Since God is all knowing, one of the ways you live out your life to become a godly man is simply learning the wisdom and knowledge of God that He has given for us to learn and living it out. This is however, no less difficult to pursue and do than the other three points because often we want to figure things out for ourselves.

V. The fifth point is really about dying to ourselves and living for Christ. Romans 6:13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Do you think its possible to be a godly man when we still live our life to achieve successes and pleasure? A godly man doesn't live for himself, but for God and to accomplish His will.

It isn't easy to become a godly man. Its not easy to kill the flesh and set your mind and heart on the things of God. Repentance may be the hardest and first step. However, the truth is that there is great value in becoming a godly man. Do, we waste our time trying to become men by the world's standards who are just hollow mannequins? The world will eventually fade away, but the man who lives for God will live forever with Him. I hope that we all as men would start to live in profound love and desire for our Father in heaven, searching for godliness with humility. For it is not by any work we do on our own that makes us Godly, but it is only through the help of God and His work refining us that we can come anywhere close to godliness.

We all try to be manly men including myself, we all wish to be grown up, but are we turning into godly men who grow up to be who God wants us to be? Godliness is beneficial and of value to a Man on earth and off of the earth.

This is the question I will leave you with; Who-do-you-seek? Because this question gets to the root of godliness. If you seek the world you will become like the world, but if you seek Jesus you will become more like Him by His work of making you His holy bride. Which isn't something you normally tell guys.
                                                                                                                    -Grace and Peace-

The Art of Sacrifice - II

The Art of Sacrifice was posted a few months ago explaining how sacrifice is really the ultimate way to express love. Once again I'm explaining the art of sacrifice, but in a different way. I want to explain why and how we sacrifice ourselves to Christ.

Not too long ago during City Challenge I wrote down this phrase in my notebook. I must be willing to give up what I love to put God first in my life. The whole beginning of the week I had been struggling with not wanting to let go, I still loved God, but my unwillingness to let go of what I loved was keeping me from really connecting with Him. See if I'm to follow Christ and have a true relationship with Him I must be willing to sacrifice all that I love for Him. We must give up what we love to live for Christ. Now this does't mean that He will take all those things or people away from us, but we must let Him do so if its His will. We can't follow Christ without first sacrificing everything for Him.

Luke 14:25-27 
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Before I try to explain the first part of the verses let's first look at the second part about bearing our own Cross. I've often wondered what exactly that means, so what did it mean for Jesus? For Jesus what he did on the cross was sacrifice all of Himself to be able to fully love those He created. Through that sacrifice the vail separating a righteous God from us who are unrighteous was torn. In the same way we must sacrifice all of ourselves to Christ so that we can fully devote ourselves in love to Him.

Understanding the second part of these verses makes understanding the first part much easier. We don't need to actually have an intense dislike or hatred for our father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and our own life, but we need to sacrifice such people and things to be able to fully devote ourselves to Christ in love. A blog post I was reading recently explained it this way; Your love for God should be so great that in comparison your love for your father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and own life will look like hatred.

Ephesians 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 

The profound reality is; Christ gave up His life to gain those who He loved. We give up what we love to gain His life. Ultimately it is the art of sacrifice that allows us to be in communion with Christ. First we sacrificed lambs as atonement for sin for a little while, but then the lamb of God was sacrificed to atone for all sins. In the same way that Christ sacrificed Himself to sanctify us, we must sacrifice ourselves to Him for Him to fulfill His work of sanctification in us.

Failed Efforts To Love

I presume that I'm not much different that many others, but I must say that I find it hard to love some people. There are people in my life that I just don't know how or don't want to love.  However, what I have been recently taught and learning about is that loving others is extremely important. In the new testament Jesus talks about the two greatest commandments. The second one after loving God is to love the people around you and the people you meet as much as you love yourself.

Mark 12:30-31 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

I would focus my attention on the first and greatest commandment, but that is in another blog post that is to come. Instead I want to look at the second commandment Jesus stated. When Jesus talked about loving your neighbor He didn't mean just the guy next door, but Jesus was talking about everyone around you and those you meet. Even what is said in 1 John 4:21 brings to light how loving others is very important, actually fundamental to our relationship with God. 1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

How do you go about loving your neighbor? In 1 John 4:19 it states that we love because we have been loved first by God. Therefore, we love others because God loves us. See, we only know what love is because God loved us at the very beginning. When Eve was placed beside Adam in the garden I'm sure they knew nothing of love between each other, but they knew of the love that the Father had for them.

How do we show the same love the Father has for us to others? I don't feel as though I have a clear picture of this and I'm sure most of us don't, but this is what I have found. 1 John 4:15-17 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 

If we first love God then a direct result of that love will be a love for our neighbors. It very well may take a long time to develop, but when we love God we start to love the same people He loves.

In conclusion making an effort of attempting to show love to others isn't the answer. That is what we are called to do, but if we first learn to know and accept the love the father has for us we are then able to express that same love back to Him. Once we love Him the more we grow closer to and love Him the more we will begin to love others around us that He loves outrageously. Its a profound reality of one act causing the other to follow, we don't completely focus on loving others, but first love God.

COMMunity

I suppose that I could say that I've been aware of the fact my whole life, but in reality I don't think I really understood how important it is to the walk of a Christian. What I'm talking about is the importance of being in community with other believers. Most of us would consider this to be church, but it doesn't even need to be a spiritually related meeting. If you are truly in love with Christ you will find yourself talking about Him even when your just hanging out with your friends.

Community is so important, we need other believers around us to encourage, strengthen, minister, be accountable for us, pray for each other, and worship with. Today I was just thinking about how hard it would be for me to go out into the world and make a difference alone. Yes I do have the Holy Spirit living inside of me, but having others there alongside you with the same mindset and goals is really profitable. When your around people who don't have a relationship with Christ for an extended period of time its easy to become very tired spiritually. We really need our brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage and be there when we need someone to talk to.

They encourage us to keep on following, pressing hard to serve, love, and follow Christ.
They strengthen our walk with Christ by offering advise, sharing verses, and through encouragement.
They minister to us as pastors, by sharing sermons, verses, and allowing God to talk through them.
They can hold us accountable to our commitments to Christ.
They pray for us when we are in need of prayer.
They can be the ones who play and sing the songs that we worship God with.

Christian love is a reminder and display of the love that Christ has for us. The same love that we experience and develop around our brothers and sisters is the love that we are to show and give to others who don't know Christ's love yet.

Community with other believers is so important because if we aren't able to love our brothers and sisters like Christ loved us how do we expect to show it to our neighbors? Our brothers and sisters uphold and encourage us, pray for us, bless us through acts of service, and minister to us. This is our very act as missionaries; We encourage others through words, pray for them, bless them by doing things for them, and minister to nonbelievers through scripture and teachings. The importance of community with believers is that it profoundly helps us to be in community and witness to nonbelievers.

In the Middle of a Calm Storm

I was on a road unsure of where it led with three of my best friends walking and running through a constant wall of water. It was one of the craziest storms I have ever been in. Even now as I try and put the situation into words I'm unable to fully write a clear picture of it all. It was one of the best times of my life, but at the same exact moment one of the scariest times of my life.

In most situations I'm in control of the circumstances. Whenever I go to try a new trick on my snowboard I'm scared of the possible consequences, but throughout the whole time before I drop in to try the trick I have control over the situation. I can either go for it or decide that it may not be in my best interest. However, when I was on that road in the storm I realized how little control I had. Could I control the rain, could I control where the lightning would strike, could I be sure that we were going in the right direction?

Its in a moment like the storm I was in that you really realize how dependent we are on God's mercy. It is also in such a moment that you can be reminded of God's faithfulness and love. What God has been teaching me and reminding me of lately is His faithfulness to His children.

We were all aware that we did not have the wisdom and power to get us out of possible harm, but we knew that even in the middle of a storm, especially in the middle of a storm, God is still King. God is still the one controlling all things, he has wisdom and power over all things in the universe. The truth of the matter is that until we find ourselves unable be lord of our own life, Jesus can't become Lord of our life and show us His amazing love, grace, and faithfulness.

God is faithful to protect and help those that are His own. Yes, bad things to happen to us, but He is still faithful and true to love us even though we may not see it at the moment. We can be angry and curse God for the storm that He has placed us in the middle of or we can be thankful that God has chosen this storm for us, for this moment, to show us something about Him.

God was the one comforting us, strengthening us, and protecting us in the storm. He was the one who gave direction, lead us back to the car, and calmed the storm. After it all I realize that was the most beautiful storm I have ever been in. God showed Himself, His love, control, and faithfulness to us in that storm. The profound reality is that a storm becomes calm when you are aware of God's faithfulness, love, and care for His saints. God is the one who calms the storm. The worry and strife will turn to rejoicing when you put your trust in Him and reach the end.

Deuteronomy 7:9 
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Temporary Satisfaction Vs. Unending Fulfillment

Since graduating I have been thinking more about what my future may look like. The more I look at what I see possibly happening in the future the more I realize that my life won't be easy. See, ever since I decided that I'm going to die to myself to live for Christ I have submitted myself to His will. If you look at Paul in the Bible his life wasn't some joyride. Yes, he was constantly renewed in spirit buy the power of the Holy Spirit and encouraged by the growth of the church. However, he went through some really difficult trails for the sake of Christ.

If you didn't know I'm going into missions for a year at the end of August. As I said earlier about my life, its not going to be easy. There will be lots of things I won't want to or won't feel comfortable doing when in missions. However, I know that through it all Christ will always be there to help me and give me strength. The whole point here isn't that I should be unhappy with the trials I have in this life, but be waiting in anticipation of the life and joy I will be given in heaven.

The big question is; Are you going to await the pleasures of the heaven, be willing to sacrifice your earthly pleasures, and follow the Lord's will?

In this day in age everything is so immediate and if its not immediate is it worth the trouble? The quicker we can get somewhere the better, the faster the internet the better - "Oh, what would we do without fast internet?" Its not quick enough to have something tomorrow, but we are of that mindset that we need things now. We need our pleasure now, the quicker we can get our emotional happiness the better. However, as those who have decided to put away the things of the world and follow Christ we should be willing to forgo the pleasures of this world to later receive real treasure that is not temporary.

Now, I'm not saying that as Christians we are not allowed to have fun or enjoy the things we have been blessed by God with. I'm saying that we should be willing to be content with leaving our earthly enjoyment to follow the leading and will of Christ in our lives. 

As I start to move on with the rest of my life I pray that I will develop the endurance to give up pleasure and the things I desire and instead live out the desires of Christ for my life. What is your decision, will you live temporarily or profoundly choose to endure with the help of Christ with eyes looking at eternity in heaven?

Fakin' Maturity

In recent times I have been thinking about my personal maturity. I have been asking myself questions about whether or not I'm mature enough for certain things in life. I've wondered if I'm a mature man that is ready to move out west and get my own living. I've wondered if I'm ready to start dating. I've wondered if I am ready to support a wife or family, can I really see myself being able to do that in the future?

I have started thinking that I should soon be ready for these things, but instead I have realized that being eighteen doesn't make you a mature adult, it doesn't make you ready for certain things in life. I have realized that I may be fakin' the maturity of an adult. Am I really ready for the things that I say  or think I am ready for?

I think our culture has developed a false idea of maturity. See its not that people who turn eighteen are then able to handle smoking, voting, tobacco, or porn. The truth is that your not mature because you can do these things, but that by the time your eighteen you should have learned to be mature. Mature enough in your thinking and decision making to make the right decisions about these things in life.

Society seams to have created this identity where your fakin' your maturity. When we have started to put the measure of maturity into thing such as guns, big muscles, women, and money we are fakin' maturity. It is the respect and correct use of such things to benefit people and fulfill God's will that is maturity, not the possession of such things.

So, what is real maturity? I would say that real maturity is when you live out of a love for God and a desire to glorify Him. Maturity is when you live in concordance with the Word of God and let your life be a fulfillment of His will.

The profound reality isn't that maturity is something you acquire. Maturity is a result of experiences changing and giving wisdom to your way of thinking and living. Maturity is best strengthened when your realize that; Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10:39

Fix My Eyes

This past week I heard a new song that was just released by for King & Country. I decided to look the song up at home and ended up playing the song over and over because its really good.

Fix My Eyes - for King & Country

Hit rewind
Click delete
Stand face to face with the younger me
All of the mistakes
All of the heartbreak
Here's what I'd do differently

I'd love like I'm not scared
Give when it's not fair
Live life for another
Take time for a brother
Fight for the weak ones
Speak out for freedom
Find faith in the battle
Stand tall but above it all
Fix my eyes on you

The things of Earth are dimming
In the light of Your glory and grace
I'll set my sights upon Heaven
I'm fixing my eyes on you
I'm fixing my eyes on you
I'm fixing my eyes

Its really quite interesting how now that I think about what my latest blog posts have been about, they are quite similar. My recent blog posts all point to how life with Christ as our Lord and savior is of such worth that its worth more for us to give up our identity, our self-worth, our everything to follow and serve Him. Once again I find myself thinking about the same thing. I feel as though I must be constantly reminded that Christ is all, He is everything I will ever need. If Christ has us is His care all other things of this world, things not of God, will become pointless endeavors to us.

Only, now I am getting older. Only now am I learning to put childish things away. Over the past years in high school I have learned so much, but still I'm learning such things about life.

I would love not afraid to sacrifice myself to God because He sacrificed His all for me.

I would give to those who don't deserve to have anything given to them because Christ gave me Mercy over the death of which I deserve.

I would live my life for God instead of living out my own selfish desires to gratify my own pleasures. I have learned that a life lived for myself still ends in death.

I would take the time to be around my brothers in Christ to build them up when they are struggling. I would take the time to really pray for them when in need.

I would fight for those who don't have the strength to fight themselves. I would lift up those who are put down just as Christ did.

I would speak of the Freedom of life in Christ. If we don't have freedom in Christ are we really free?

I would trust God when I am down and don't know what to do instead of relying on my own knowledge and strength. God knows all that we need and if He loves us so much to save us, wouldn't He give us what we need?

I would speak out and stand for who I trust and believe in instead of being timid about proclaiming the name of my Savior.

However, the most important thing I would have done is fix my eyes on Jesus more than just some of the time, but all of the time.

The more I think about fixing my eyes on Jesus the more I realize how important it is to do so. The more you or I fix our eyes on Jesus the more the aforementioned things will become the case in our lives. If Christ is at the center of our vision the profound reality is, all the other things that Christ has called us to pursue or be will follow as a result of that focused vision on Christ. Fix your eyes on Him.

Identity Theft

A while ago I was watching a video from Blimey Cow which is a youtube channel I watch. They always bring forth good topics and give great advise to people. In the video the guy talked about how we should not put our identity in whoever we are in a relationship with. If our identity is in the girl or guy we love when that person no long is a part of our life, what is our life? Do we know who we are?

Is your life based off of love? I would say that is a bad thing to do, but it isn't. The worth of making your life based off of love is really dependent on who you love.

Ultimately what or who you love most is your religion. If you love money most, your life is built around the gain of money. If you love girls most, you will build your life around attracting women. If you love security, you will do whatever you can to save yourself from harm. If you love God most, you will serve Him with all you have. If your life is based off of loving and living for Christ you are living as you are indented.

See, ultimately its not just a problem when we put our identity in our girlfriend or boyfriend. When the thing or person we love most doesn't fulfill our idea of what we need, or abandons our reach we lose who we are. When your identity is put into something or someone and that person or thing leaves you, you no longer have your identity.

However, when your identity is in Christ your identity is constant and secure. Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. You will never find one day Christ to not be there to comfort you, love you, or save you. If your identity is in Christ, if you greatest love is for Christ, you will never lose that identity.

Don't put your identity or your love into the things of this word. The world passes away, is imperfect, and will leave you for another, but Christ has no beginning or end, is perfect in every way, and will always stay with you. Christ's love will profoundly never end or run out, therefore your identity is true and constant if it is in Christ.

More Precious Than Silver or Gold?

Last year in January my family and I went down to Honduras to work on building an orphanage down there. The one day during morning worship and devotions we sung this hymn.

Lord, you are more precious than silver.
Lord, you are more costly than gold.
Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds. 
And nothing I desire compares with you.

While we were singing this song, I was hit with a question. Do I really believe what I'm singing? Is what I'm singing true for me? I wondered if God, is really worth more to me than, silver, gold, diamonds, or anything else I desire? Would I give up wealth, fame, friends, even my family to praise, glorify, and follow Christ? Is Christ's love, mercy, and presence worth fighting against the word? Is He worth giving up the world for?

Philippians 3:7-8
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 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 garbage, that I may gain Christ

Paul gives quite the answer. Everything else other than the life of knowing Christ, Paul says is garbage in his eyes. How come? Because Christ gave His all so that we might know Him. In Christ we are given unconditional love, grace to cover the worst of all sins, mercy to receive what we do not deserve, righteousness to be able to live in Christ's presence, joy to endure all things, peace to take away all fear, and life to endure past the end of time without end.

What is silver and gold in your mind? Is Christ worth more than all of that? Is knowing and living with Christ your greatest desire? Christ's worth is so profoundly great that all things that seem to have worth have no ability to compare. Will you throw away your gold and silver to live in the presence and glory of Christ?

Living in the Spirit

Over the past few months I have been hearing a lot of teaching based from Romans eight. In the whole chapter there is one thing that has really stuck in my mind because I feel that it holds a place of high importance. This one thing is living according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:5-11
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. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

The reason that I have found living according to the Spirit to be so crucial is that every time I'm not living as I should its because I'm living by the flesh. When my mind is on the things of the flesh, I start to have fleshly desires. Instead of desiring to live as God wants me to, I find myself living for myself and my own desires.

What is living according to the Spirit? I have asked myself that very question often. Let me explain it this way; There are two ways to live. The first way is to live as we are born and continue in that manner of living in the flesh. The second way to live is to die. You die to your own fleshly desires. The things of the flesh only rot, and disintegrate back to dirt. You die to live not your mortal life, but Christ's eternal life that is given to whom accept it.

Living according to the Spirit is much more than accepting Christ into your life, it is the release of all selfish and personal desires to then live as Christ leads you in His perfect plan. When you start to live according to the Spirit you start to realize how empty and worthless all fleshly things are. Life in the Spirit is profoundly giving up what is natural, to live not of the world, but God's will. 

Open Your Eyes

Over the past few weeks there has been a new song that I've been listening to. I really enjoy the music in the chorus, but when I finally listened to the lyrics I saw what the artist was trying to tell people.

NEEDTOBREATHE – Slumber
Days they force you
Back under those covers
Lazy mornings they multiply
But glory's waiting
Outside your window
So wake on up from your slumber
Baby, open up your eyes

All these victims
Stand in line for
The crumbs that fall from the table
Just enough to get by
All the while
Your invitation
Wake on up from your slumber
Baby, open up your eyes
Wake on up from your slumber
Baby, open up your eyes

This is a call to all who don't know what its like to have their eye's opened by the Gospel and power of the Holy Spirit. The Glory is waiting. Its waiting for you to see and taste of the Glory of God. 

When you don't know the love of Christ it is much like a slumber. You live your days unaware of any beginning of dawn. You don't know that there is a beginning to light and life. For me to be able to see, to be able to know that there is truth and real purpose in life is one of the greatest things ever. Do you want to wake up, do you want to see what you eyes can't see?                

If your tired of living with just enough to get by, if you wish for a life with hope, love, peace, and joy Christ is calling. He is calling with His arms wide open ready to show His great love for you. He wants to wake you up from the slumber you are in. He wants you to open up your eyes. All you must do is ask Jesus for a new life with Him.

There is a great profoundness accompanied with the opening of our eyes. You begin to see the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and truth. I pray that you would open your eyes. 

Self Image

As a whole I think that our society has become obsessed with creating our "perfect" self image. I feel like we are not really who we are, but who we want others to think we are. In the words of a gangster were just frontin', we are just putting on a show that we are better than we really are. We don't want others to know that we actually don't have it together, we are afraid to let others know that we are not perfect. We think that if they know we are not perfect, how can they ever like us and want to be our friends?

For example, what pictures do we post on Facebook, how much time do we spend making ourselves look good before we open that door? For some reason we have bought into the lie that if we pretend, if we act like we have the best life, the best friends, the best possessions, or the best looks we will become popular and loved. Love is not gained by being someone your not because they are loving who you are trying to be, not who you actually are.

As Christians we even do this. We think that if we confess our failures and sins to others that they will think less of us. The truth of the matter though is that they struggle with sin and mess up too. It may not be in the manner that you do, but sin is sin nonetheless.

We try to put our self image out there as perfect and nice as possible because we want to be like others who seam to have nearly perfect lives, clothes, bodies, or whatever. However, we are not perfect our lives are not perfect, sin was cast onto every single person who was and will ever be born. As Christians if we are trying to make our self image look good, how is that right? It is because of our sin and failures that we need Christ. If we are trying to fool people to think that we are perfect and righteous, we are lying to them. We are not righteous by anything that we do, it is only because of Christ's righteousness in us that we are made righteous.

Christ is glorified through our failures because people can easily see what Christ has done in and throughout us. If we are putting up our own "perfect" self image over those failures, how can people see that God has done amazing things inside of us. Besides what is our own self image worth? We are to be image bearers of Christ, not of ourself.

Our image is not to be perfect, but to be the profound image of Christ living in us.

The Art of Sacrifice

One day I was thinking about friendships. A good friend of mine and I were discussing the different qualities good friends and this got me thinking about myself. I started to wonder if I had those qualities and if I was exhibiting them. See one of the qualities I said that all really good friends have is the willingness to sacrifice themselves for the other person.

Now I don't mean that best friends must sacrifice their life for the other if need be, but the sacrifice of time, convenience, and comfort is exhibited by best friends. If you think about it the ultimate expression of love or caring for another is the art of sacrifice.

The art of sacrifice is an interesting thing because its really quite against our nature. We would rather live comfortably and for ourselves, why would we take on someone else's problems? As part of the fallen world and offspring of Adam it is not natural for us to deny ourselves, but to live with a selfishness. The art of sacrifice is really an act of selflessness and love.

Jesus Christ came to earth to sacrifice Himself for those He loved before they ever loved Him. Even though His immense love for His creation brought an extreme expression of love through sacrifice, Christ pleaded that the cup would be taken from Him. It wasn't easy to go through the pain, the suffering, or death.

Sacrifice isn't easy, that the very reason that its is a sacrifice. If to sacrifice your time, your comfort, or maybe even your life was easy or not really a big deal, would that be sacrifice? I think not.

Another great example of the necessity of sacrifice in any full and true relationship is in marriage. In marriage its not about you, its not about what the other person can do for you, but what you can offer and do for them. When you commit to living with someone for the rest of your life you have got to make a lot of sacrifices. Your sacrificing your abilities, your time, your comfort, and well pretty much everything for the sake of an amazing and beautiful relationship with an amazing person.

To try and put some sort of conclusion to the art of sacrifice the question I ask myself and you is; Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for your best friend. Do you love that person so much that will put their desires above yours? The profound art of sacrifice is, giving up so that you can then give.

Live BOLD

How do we live when we wake up in the morning? Are we living for Christ, are we boldly proclaiming His name to the world?

Jesus is the best example of boldness. Jesus did not live and talk as if He had nothing to say. He claimed to be the Son of God, the Bread of Life, Living water, and more. What He said was by no means any distance from the truth, but was truly the example of truth. As humans we will often rather live with the problems that arise than to put ourselves out there and state what we know to be truth. However, when Christ makes us new how can we, but profess the truth!

Zone Out - KB
I’ve seen the Lord, the same I’ll never be
Some say they’ve seen the Lord but live on casually
I don’t know what-what you saw but the Lord ain’t what you seen
Once you really seen the Lord, you’re obsessed with what you see

As Christians we are to be bold. We are to live boldly for Christ, shouting His name from the rooftops. Now, don't think that I have this down and figured out. Personally, I am not at all bold about showing Christ's love so I'm saying this to you and myself.

Christ suffered and died for us, there are no other bold attempts at expressing great love that come close to what Christ did. Shall we not in the same way attempt to express the great love of God for the world to those around us boldly?

Talking about Paul in - Acts 28:31

He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

Are we living boldly for Christ? I know for myself it is not easy and am often scared to do so. It is not easy living like Christ, to be like Him is not out nature, but we have been changed by His grace and love. The boldest display of love. Do you profoundly live boldly for Christ? Do we profoundly proclaim boldly our Life in Christ, cause thats what its all about. Life in Christ.

Righteousness Through Christ

One day I was looking outside a window at the snow falling to the ground and started to realize something. Snow can be used as a picture of virginity coming down from the sky. Snow is formed from pure water and becomes a beautiful crystallized white structure as its formed.

Then again, falling snow can be used as an analogy for Christ. Christ came down from heaven as a virgin, He was without sin. He was blameless before God and men. Jesus came bringing the hope that we can through Him become new, that we can become pure and clean like fresh snow.

In this analogy, we are the ground. We were made out of the dirt, Christ is the one who came down from above, from heaven to defeat what we could not ourselves. Ever since the time when sin entered the world we have been unable to become pure. No matter how hard we tried we still were stuck playing with our dirt, our sin.

Since we are stuck in our sinful nature we don't really mind being sinful. We sometimes like getting more and more dirty by doing deeper in our sin. It is until we are shown the beauty and righteousness of Christ that we see how dirty and unclean we are. The problems is, we must be either cleaned up or thrown into the fire.

It is not in our power to clean ourselves up. You can't clean dirt by human attempts, soapy water only makes soapy mud. We may smell a tiny bit better, but in reality our attempts at cleanliness make no difference. That is the very reason we needed someone with supernatural power and complete righteousness to some down and make us new and clean. It was not because of anything that we could do that made us clean or loved by God.

Ephesian 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

When we are cleaned by Christ, it is like snow that falls and covers the bare, dirty, and ugly ground. However, unlike snow which just covers the dirt, Christ wipes away our sin forever. When Christ wipes away our sin we are made righteous and blameless before God. Instead of being like dirt, we become like fresh snow. There is nothing we can do to clean ourselves up, we should know it is by the profound power and work of Christ in us that makes us clean.

I Signed Up To Die

A few years ago when I first was getting into christian rap and was learning that it was actually full of solid content, I was introduced to Thi'sl's music. One song that I really liked was called I Signed Up To Die. The song talked about people who were persecuted for Christ and how they didn't disown Christ because they signed up for this, they signed up to die. Even though I don't really know what facing persecution for the faith is like its so cool hearing how these people stood up as they were being beaten and knew they were alive in Christ whether or not they were alive in their body. To be a martyr for Christ you have to be all for Him, because in reality what more can you lose than your life on earth if you know Christ?

Thi'sl -I Signed Up To Die
I signed up to die
Death don’t have a hold on me
So death don’t put no fear in me
I don’t think that you hearin’ me
I signed up to die
When I lay down on that bed
I’m gon’ open up my eyes
And my Lord gon’ be there
I signed up to die
Death don’t have a hold on me
So death don’t put no fear in me
I don’t think that you hearin’ me
I signed up to die

I know we are not living around religious persecution and don't have much perception of what that looks like, but I think we still have signed up to die. To live for Christ we must give up everything, we must die to ourselves to live for Him. We can't life for Christ and for ourself. Its either life with Christ or ... not.

As a martyr for Christ you know that when you choose your life you choose death, when you choose death you get life. In America we know that we don't literally sign up to die, but we must still die to our  flesh to live in Christ. Because we have signed up to die, death has no power over us and we shall see our Lord face to face. Profoundly, I have died to my own life and now instead live for Christ. Have you signed up to die?

Mini-post Sunday - Snowboard Competition

Around a month ago I went to Ski Sawmill's slope style competition they have held yearly for a few years. This was my third year competing in the competition and I all the years before I never got into the top three. I knew I was better than last year, but so would everyone else.

This year I have grown a fair amount and I have been learning to try and give God the credit for things. When I think about it, who is the one who gave me the passion and desire to get better at snowboarding? God. Who has allowed me to be able to improve my skills? God. Ultimately God could either put me on top of the podium or at the bottom and off the chart.

If God is the one who is controlling my life, He is then the one who should get and deserves all the credit. As a result, instead of trying to win the competition to prove my abilities and hopefully gain status as a snowboarder, I tried to give glory to God through the competition. Even though I was unsure of how to glorify God while snowboarding, I prayed that God would somehow show me how to do just that.

I ended up getting third place, not that was anything really great, but it did give me a lot to work with. Instead of trying to take the credit for myself and saying that I was good. I could instead try and give all the credit to God.

Who are you giving credit to and glorifying? Yourself, or do you realize how God profoundly deserves all the credit and glory?

Desire Fame?

I think most of us want to be famous. Well, maybe not famous per say, but known, liked, and seen as good at something. Personally I wish I famous enough to become a professional snowboarder. However, is fame really as good as we may think it is?

Fame - The condition of being known or recognized by many people.

Fame is something that some people can handle well and others can't. In reality its quite a burden. When your famous its easy to become prideful, lose sight of what is important, and even depressed. 

Either you take in the praise or shove it away. When you take in the praise you typically become prideful and maybe even addicted to it. Fame can feel like a buzz, to hear you name called, written, and exclaimed all over does not feel like normal life, but surreal. If you get addicted you will keep on doing what can you do to get more and more praise until you end up where you never thought you would. You will find yourself doing things you may have promised yourself you never would. And then either you find that even fame doesn't fulfill you or the fame will run out and you will chase that buzz in other things as such as drugs.


If you shove the fame away, you seclude yourself because you feel oppressed or don't know how to react. When one doesn't like the fame its easy for them to shut the world out, but its nearly impossible when they have so many people wanting to see them.

Either method of living with fame doesn't seem any good, but I didn't mention the one other way to live with fame. Instead of taking in the praise for ourselves or trying to push away the fame we can direct and give it to God. God deserves all Glory and we are to give it to Him. When you know that it is God who has given you everything you have no reason to have any sort of pride in yourself.

As Christians, no-matter what people say about us or how famous we become we know that its really not us or about us. We know that we are only good because of Christ in us and we know that we are only at the very place we are now because of His perfect plan.

Do you still think you want some fame for yourself or do you wish to give it to God who profoundly deserves all praise?

Are you living It?

I have mentioned this one good Switchfoot lyric before, but this time I mean to look at it differently. It goes; This is your life, Are you who you want to be? Even though this is a really good self evaluating motivator I think that as Christ followers we should probably look at it a little differently. What we should maybe ask instead is; This is Christ's life, Are you living it? See, as disciples of Christ we are trying to become more like Him and we have given our lives up to Him. So in a profound deepness the life we "have" is really Christ's life, but are we living it?

Are we living for Christ? Are we living the life He has for us? Are we living the life that Christ lived? He taught those who would listen and those who would not listen about the Father and eternal life. He cared for the sick, the poor, and the cast outs. By cast outs I mean adulterers, stealing and dishonest tax collectors, and the unclean lepers. He cared for them because He loves them and He knew that they could be made new, that they could receive eternal life and a relationship with Christ. He got dirty and laid down His time, His life to serve those who needed saved and to show the way to the Father. He glorified His Father with everything He did.

Once again I must ask, are we living as Christ did? As Christ followers we are trying to become a mirror image of the one who made us in His image? Do we love the destitute, the poor, the sick, the lonely, the adulterer, the lier, the drunkard, the dishonest salesman, the homosexual, the man next door, the annoying one, the creepy one? Yes I know its not easy to love those people and we probably don't want to. However, we must realize they are just like us except for one thing, they don't have Christ in their life. They don't have the Spirit of God inside of them. Only until you see them as they are will you  start to love them. When you realize that they are just like lost sheep trying to find their way in life. They don't know their full purpose in life, but we do. We are living for Christ and we know that it is all worth it. We have experienced and felt His amazing love. We have tasted the living water, we know what it means to really live.

They don't know true love, they don't know true life. Are we going to show it to them? God is the one who possesses and grants the love and life, we are merely the ones displaying the glory and love of the Father just like Jesus.

This is Christ's life, are you living it? Are you living as Christ profoundly did, are you glorifying God, are you displaying His love to the nations?