Who told you?

Kids are some of the funniest people I know. Every single day I have a conversation with a kid at work or at church and I end up laughing with them about something. This may be because I am a big kid and tend to get along with them as if I were their age. Kids can provide some of the most wonderful blessings in your life as they grow up. One reason that they are so funny is that they are so inquisitive, and they are always learning. Sometimes they are learning a new sport, new words, new jokes, or even new things that they might be good at. It is especially rewarding when you are able to see them enjoy something new for the first time, them watching their first NBA game, or them scoring their first goal, or making their first good grade on a test. It is especially rewarding when they let you in on their excitement; running to you not being able to contain the joy of their good news. However, one of the most heartbreaking things to watch is a when a child learns about shame. As we grow up, or at least as I have grown up, I have ignored the shame that has existed. It has become something to cope with and not something that needs to be taken away. We learn cover it up. We put calluses around it so that we do not have to deal with it and we conjure feeble attempts to protect ourselves against it. In other cases we are overtaken by our shame and we compensate for our shame by indulging ourselves in vices in order to numb the shame we experience. We are familiar with guilt, with right and wrong. Sometimes shame comes from this, but shame is different in that it can come from something else. It can come from a lie someone else has told us, or one we have told ourselves. Shame puts us in bondage, limits us, and inhibits us from becoming our full selves. One story in particular from working with kids plays itself out when I think of this. Every little girl wears their pretty little dress that their mother picks out for them. They are so excited because that day they are beautiful. However, sometime during that day they are lied to and I have found them in a corner hiding. Crying. I go up to them to make sure that they are ok; to make sure they are not hurt. My first thought is that they fell down and scraped their knee or that someone has hit them or pushed them down. Often it is far worse, they have learned about shame. They have been fed a lie, that they are not beautiful, that they are ugly, plain, dirty, stupid, rejected. That she is not loved, that she is somehow repulsive, that she is unwanted. It is in those moments that I find myself at a loss for words. It is at these moments that I am let in on their pain. What can I say? Someone has just taught this young girl shame. We all have known shame, the feeling of being reproachful and unwanted, rejected. Who told us? Who told you that you are unlovable, not beautiful? Who told you that you are not masculine enough, that you cry too much? Who told you that you can never be the woman your sister was, that are not girlie enough, or that you are too girlie? Who told you that you would never be wanted or desired by another? Who told you that you could never have dreams, that you are a failure? Who told you that you would never amount to anything? Who told you that you are not good enough for first class, that you are dirty, that you are ugly? Who told you about shame? Who told you…? God asks this question to His first children after they were lied to. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and ran in hopes to flee from the face of God and embrace the sepulcher of shame. They realized that they were naked. When God found them the first thing that he said was not condescending, or condemning. It was a question. Who told you that you were naked? At that moment shame entered into humanity and stole our affirmation from our Creator. It stole our value and made us feel reproachful, unlovable. We now need someone to take our shame. We need someone to give us a new identity, to tell us a greater truth about ourselves than we have been told so far. We need a Shame Thief. One who has come to steal back shame and its vices. One who will absorb our reproachfulness in order that we might have acceptance, value. Someone to tell us we are loved. If I were ready for when this little girl let me in on her shame I would ask her, who told you? I would tell them that someone has lied to them. That the lie that they were told is not the truth they should believe. I would tell them of one who accepts them, who loves them. I would tell them that someone has come to take their shame, and has told them that they are beautiful.

Radical Together

Just finished this book.  It's kind of Platt's sequel to his book, Radical, extrapolating the same ideas to a church body.  The book report is set to release October 1st.  Be looking for a picture to upload to facebook with my face, a guitar, and some sweet aviator glasses that will have "October 1st" and "Book Report" strategically located on the picture.  Until then (get hype!) I want to let some amazement out. 

How can people read this stuff and not be inspired, excited, and moved to leverage all that they have for the Kingdom of God?  To join the movement that He has started and will finish?  To quicken His coming by resourcing the church to take the gospel to unreached people groups in our backyard and around the world?

I'll tell you how.  We have to get it through our heads that this life is a story.  You, me and the bourgeoisie are all a part of a grand narrative, and there is a shocking twist to this story that many people are missing.  Surprisingly, we are NOT the main character in our own life story!  In every story being told on earth right now, represented by all 6 billion of us hanging out on the planet, God is the main character...in every single one!  Romans 11:36 says, "For from him, and through him, and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!" 

Not only does every individual story have God as the main character, but all of these stories are working together in His grand masterpiece.  God is giving a free gift of life to humanity, which is dead in its sin, through the sacrifice of his one and only perfect son, Jesus.  Don't be overwhelmed, we know as much from John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life."   So, if our own personal story is really about God, and our collective story is really about God saving as many as will believe, then what on earth are we doing holding on to "our" stuff?   

Let it go!  If we do not love our eternal Father enough to let go of these temporary safety nets, these temporary pleasures, things that moth and rust will destroy, then what love do we have, exactly?  Some of us are all too ready to "hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters" in relation to our love for Christ.  But our love for personal satisfaction, happiness, or comfort leaves us disastrously chained to things that will pass away. 

"No one can serve two masters," so Father I pray that we separate our identity from our possessions and securities that will fall away, and rather we would anchor our souls in your promise of Life.

Priesthood of the Believer

After discussions with Matt on posting I have been informed that no topic is too controversial, and since the most controversial topic we’ve had thus far has been about race, I figure, its about time to get deep on in it!

I’m talking about Priesthood of the Believer.

For those who are unfamiliar, “Priesthood of the Believer” is a historically Baptist/Protestant doctrine that states that every individual is their own “priest”. This principle was a driving force in the Protestant Reformation.

The doctrine comes with the following pieces:

1.) Each believer has equal standing before God. While the scripture clearly calls us to respect the authority of our leaders, ultimately, there is no distinctive between clergy and laity as far as their ability to receive instruction from God or to understand and apply Scripture.

2.) Each believer must stand before God for themselves at judgment. This is self-explanatory, but no one else other than Jesus will stand with us in Judgment. It doesn’t matter how much my momma prays for me, it ain’t helping me once I’m dead.

3.) Each believer has direct access. A fundamental tenet of Protestantism is the ability to pray directly to God and Jesus and not through any other person or object, living or dead.

4.) Each believer has the right to interpret the Scripture for themselves. Being a priest with equal standing as others under God, having direct access to God through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, and our own ultimate responsibility to God for our life’s work brings the logical conclusion that we each have the freedom to interpret Scripture as the Holy Spirit moves in our lives.


In my opinion, it doesn’t get controversial till piece 4. The right for believers to interpret Scriptures for themselves cast a lot of gray areas and perhaps even more shadows on the topic of the “Priesthood of the Believer”.

I agree with this theory in part. The biggest reason I give, is the topic of alcohol. The Bible does not condemn the intake of alcohol, only the abuse of it (i.e. “too much wine”). In fact, in order to settle his stomach, Paul recommends Timothy partake of a little wine. Yet, many theologians make it a point to absolutely condemn getting near it. Southeastern Seminary mandates that none of its students even look at it. I recognize that some people may be more tempted to become alcoholics than others, and I believe that with prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit, God may say to some “don’t do this at all, you don’t want to open that door” and to others, it may simply be the Biblical directive of “not too much”. At this point, I agree that the priesthood of the believer allows for individuals to determine what God’s will is in their life on their own.

However, there is a slippery slope here that I fear, and it’s a quick trip into moderate theology. It becomes easy for a congregation member to say “I’m reading Scripture and to me it says that taking care of my family is of top priority, but I really can’t afford kids right now, so getting an abortion is okay because I wouldn’t be able to take care of it as the Scripture’s request”. Or “Jesus is certainly one answer for salvation, but I know that God is love, so He wouldn’t be so exclusive, it must mean that all religions lead to God”.

Without having a firm set of doctrine that gives you a standard of historically understood Biblical truth, the “Priesthood of the Believer” becomes almost a hall-pass to believe whatever you want since each believer is just as “correct” as the next.

For a Pastor in a church whose congregation believes the extreme of “Priesthood of the Believer” your sermons must devolve into touchy-feely speeches on being a better person and how to promote friendship. Knowing that everyone will interpret Scripture differently means that it can hardly be used to preach authoritatively from, in which case you can only barely mention it in passing as you move on to discuss why God wants you to recycle, or not recycle if you don’t feel like it. Ugh, who would want to sit through that garbage?

On the flip side, there are pastor’s who become so dictatorially authoritative that they try and govern their congregations choice of vehicle and tell them what to believe or not believe.

So how should the doctrine of the “Priesthood of the Believer” be rewritten, or "re-understood", to address the concern of individuals reaching up to God in a one-on-one relationship while respecting the volume of church history and understanding of what certain passages mean?

The Good Life

The Good Life

I want to live the good life, or at least a good life. More specifically, I just want the good things in life, to have them and experience them. Who doesn’t? I think that if given a choice, everyone will not choose bad things for themselves. Even if what they choose is bad, it has to be perceived by them that that it is good for them, even if they admit that it is “bad.” So I took it upon myself to evaluate some of these good things in life. What is it that makes life good, or gives you those good moments in life?

So in thinking about all that is good in life, the first place that I landed is at Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Now, to all you healthy people: do not judge me. I might get to the goodness of sports later. Anyways, the Krispy Kreme doughnut for some, is all that is right with food. In fact, it is all that is right with America. It in and of itself is why I love and hate this country equally at the same time. And I’m not talking about just any doughnut at Krispy Kreme. Forget the cream filled or the chocolate iced ones. I’m talking the warm, fresh out off the conveyor belt, dare I say moist…doughnut. It’s temperature is combined with the perfect amount of icing.And they do not come alone. They bring friends. If you are real lucky, they come in 12’s. They make their way into a nice spacious box that elicits the perfect amount of warmth on the way home in your lap. Your self control wavers, and you find yourself fumbling at the tab that keeps the box closed. And we haven’t even gotten to the taste yet. Oh the taste! … Sorry, I know yo just had a moment. You take the first bite and you get the immediate feeling to powder your face with its sweet goodness. It just melts in your mouth. Before you know it your eyes are closed and you are inviting another into your mouth because they are just that good. They are smooth; man are they smooth. If you are not careful a half dozen can make their way into the bottomless pit that is your stomach. You sigh and think to yourself, “I hope heaven is this good.” A roommate may ask you for one and at that moment, you know what jealousy is. How dare they ask for your Krispy Kreme! Krispy Kreme has embodies all that is good.

But…

These little Turkish delights have their consequences. By the way, you are awesome if you just got the reference to Turkish delights, and no that does not mean doughnuts from Turkey… I still refuse to look up the nutritional value of these things. Once you get to the end of however many you eat, you are more than full (We all know we can't have just one. I once asked a Krispy Kreme employee if they ever sold just one doughnut. She laughed). They contribute to a big gut, thunder thighs, and a big ole badonkadonk. (Yes that is how you spell.) Your hands are sticky, and sometimes the napkin you wipe your hand with sticks to the tips of your fingers. You are too lazy to take the box out because of what is settling in your stomach so the box collects dust beside the trashcan in your house. Which of course reminds you how much you need Krispy Kreme later. By that time you forget all the consequences that came with eating them. Finally, they end, they run out, they expire, they do not last. At the end of the day you are left with an empty box or bag, and a gluttonous filled stomach. Let us not mention where full stomachs empty themselves. They promise to be appetizing at least for a while, but they leave you completely empty and longing. They pose as little angels of light only to leave you wanting. They end in high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart attack and death. Not always the perspective we have when we are thinking about the wonderful promises that Krispy Kreme doughnuts will give us as we watch them come off the conveyor belt. Their goodness runs out. Now I am not saying that we should not ever eat them. I am probably saying less is more. But this is an illustration has more implications than just doughnuts.

In the right time, doughnuts have their purpose, and there is some element of them that is good, I think. But they were created as a means, not an end. Good is not sustained in them. We could go to any other area of life and break it down and show how it can leave us wanting. Exercise can leave us unsatisfied, frustrated, or vain.

Friends are good right? People to experience laughter with. People to lean on. Someone that at the end of the day, you know you they have your back. But friends have let us down, intentionally or unintentionally. They, at some point will frustrate and fail to meet your expectation. What about family? The idea of family and what it represents is good right? We all know that there is something in our family that is not perfect. We all know families that are broken or split. And even if they are not, the tension that exists leaves the environment hostile and undesirable. Not always, but it happens. While a father and a mother is supposed to be loving, comforting and safe, yet there have been fathers who have abandoned families, mothers who have hated their children. What about love? Everyone believes in love. Sometimes, in its pursuit, you are hurt. Some fall in and then out of it. It is perverted and abused. Some rob and scar others making them afraid to ever love themselves, so they prostitute themselves in exchange for false comfort. Or they retreat and become unbreakable, hard, and callused. They forsake the one thing they once had faith in and become self-serving and then steal the idea of love from everyone else because they think they are not allowed to have it. To the extreme, they isolate themselves and end their lives because a life alone is not life at all. For all intents and purposes, they died when the idea of love died in them. Friends, family, and love are good. But they can be perverted, broken, and marred.

Something is radically wrong.

Good things are not always completely good. We are trying to live the good life but these good things do not guarantee it. Sometimes the absence or perversion of these good things can be a major source of pain. How can good be sustained? We have seen glimpses of it. But it falls away when it does not meet our ideals. Why is it that even the “good things” in life let us down?

I have an answer. We have made idols of those good things and they have let us down, and that idolatry has separated us from the source of good. When we put hope in these good things and not in the One who is good; we fail to see where good comes from or what good truly is. We are left longing, wanting, empty, and dying. This problem goes back to the original idol, the desiring of knowledge and the lack of faith in the goodness of God. We thought we could be the source of our own happiness, that we could be good. But we were created to be in a relationship and from that relationship goodness flowed to us from the One who created it. We severed that relationship. The result of that was evil, death.

There is good news.

It does not end here. Creation has cried out from that point on for a restoration of good. The reason that all of those “good” things let us down now is because we seek them without their Author. God is good. He is the embodiment of good. It is through Him that things were made and created and it is only through Him that things can be seen and experienced as good. Not only that, but He has gone to universal lengths to restore goodness to us. He entered into humanity as Jesus, took up our death and put it on Himself in order to make a way for us to once again experience a good God. Through Him, we have access to the goodness of the Father. God took it, and is taking it, upon Himself to restore goodness. In Him we hope for the restoration of that which was severed.

It is here that I find hope, and that I have peace. Jesus is restoring me and giving me a good life. He is the only one that can give a good life. He is the source of it. There is no reason to look for good anywhere else, because goodness lies in Him.

There are good things in life: friends, family, and love to name a few. These gifts are a pale reflection of the richness of the peace in Christ. With Christ these good things can fall away and our world will not be shattered. It is with Christ that when these things are shattered, they can be put back together. It is only in knowing Christ that we can recognize good things to be truly good. In Christ, everything that is good finds its meaning.

Need we say more...

"O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O Church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive!"

Praise God!

The Gospel, Grace, and Race

I guess it's fitting that the black guy pull out the dreaded "R" card. Yep. Race. My brothers, isn't it amazing how a something created in such a awful time in U.S. history has been adopted to stay away from each other on perhaps the ONE day in the week (at Least) where we should be coming together. And if it's not separated by skin tone and preference, it's through theological differences. Now I am not saying that we should Rob Bell on 'em and say everyone is going to heaven, nor am I saying go out and find you a black/brown/white/etc friend, but I am asking for a little bit of Voltron/Power Ranger Unity (by the grace of God). Learning to hang out with people of differing races, and to a certain extent, some like minded Christians from different backgrounds, allows you to see God from a different facet. It troubles me when people can only see that their church is the only one in an area doing something with the gospel, like they've got a hold on what God is doing. It can start to sound like the Jews for a minute, who thought they had dibs on what God is doing and everyone else was "unclean".

This thought process has been brewing for a minute after pastor JD referred to the minorities at summit as heroes for putting aside their personal preferences for the sake of the gospel. I was conversing with another brother and he suggested sarcastically that I was a "hero". Due to the nature of my brother's comment, it seemed to me that he missed the bottom line of what JD was saying. For example, being black, a couple of months ago, had I just stayed for praise & worship, I probably would have dipped. Let's be honest-it's just not my style. However, I am glad that I stayed to hear the Gospel for the first time. It wrecked my world, and I don't think that I have been the same since. It has altered my though process in dealings with other people, especially with my wife. Matt A. and Ninjattitude are great brothers, and I pray that we would continue to draw other brothers that don't look like us, but are drawn to the glorious message of the gospel. This is the only thing that can bring us together. God gets glory when anyone comes to trust in Him, but what a picture to share the gospel with people who look like you, and don't look like you! When we get outside of our comfort zones and preach the gospel to ALL nations, our Pop in heaven goes crazy! So I pray that we would continue to spread the message of the gospel, that draws people from different backgrounds, racial, ethnicities, people groups, and nations.

"He's got children of many colors, He goes hard in the paint!"- Sho Baraka

Mike B.

The Process

I do not think anyone would disagree that we live in a society that is obsessed with what they can get now. It seems at least in the western world that everything is driven and designed to make things happen immediately, and if they cannot happen immediately then as quick as possible. From the “get rich quick” schemes to even the downloading of information, we do not really want to wait or fight for much of anything. I mean no one likes getting stuck behind a slow driver because it delays wherever they are going. No one has the patience to really slave in the kitchen to cook a good meal. But that is ok because if you don’t get stuck behind a slow person on the road you can have your food now. Someone just sticks his or her arm out a window and you just drive by and swoop it up. It seems that in everything there is a short cut to get to where we are going because we want everything now. All day long we are bombarded with ways to get what we want now. What I am getting at here is that instant gratification and the desire to have everything now removes us from the process.

Have you ever noticed during Christmas time you can’t wait till Christmas morning? Then when it comes it is gone very quickly and not really as good as you thought it would be. However, if you look back at the process leading up to Christmas, that is where all the hype came from. You got caught up in the process. The process was the Christmas lights, the music, and the anticipation of being around family. Lets not forget about the making of Christmas cookies, the shopping with family, the fat ham, and the weighted gained. The process was the best part not the end result. When we skip the process and are so focused on the goal and so focused on what we think we need now, we miss all the nuggets of truth and revelation the process has for us. It is really in the process that all things take place. Because once you arrive at whatever it is that you had to have now or had to learn now it is gone and something else has consumed our thoughts to obtain now.

I am going through the process right now. I am living in Mijas, Spain serving at G42 Leadership Academy. When I came I did not think I would be sweeping the floor and being the maintenance guy. In this process there has been greater growth for me in humility and servant hood, than there would have been if I had been put in a leadership position from the onset. I am also learning that in this process you can serve your way to greatness. Jesus said in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So what processes are you’re currently in that you are trying to skip over? What are you trying to get right now that could have a process involved? There is much joy in the process. I will end with this quote from Donald Miller, “love the process more than the results.”