The following lyrics are from one of my favorite bands on the planet, Project 86. Some of you might think this is too radical, but is it?
I think not.
As Christians our old person is dead and the flesh is dying anyway. As the song states, "I’ve erased all of my fear of the grave." Thanks to the Holy Spirit and His power we can live fearless in this world.
It is time to stand up for our Savior. We need to have the following attitude in all we do for Christ as the song states, "You’ll never kill Him (Holy Spirit) that lives inside of me." I am so glad for the life that our Lord and Savior has given to me.
Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the following song and lyrics.
You can hear the song at the following link. Follow along below. It is a very powerful message to read the lyrics while listening to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KM21wwYOSM
Project 86 - The Butcher
This man came to me he was looking for action
Pulling a blade to my neck
He said, "Call me the butcher cause that's my trade
And you know that I’ve come to collect."
I said, "Hit me now
And we’ll see where it leads
Cut me out if you think I will bleed
Strike me down if you think you’re a man
Cause I know that you don't understand"
Because there is no weapon
There is no blade
You wonder why I’m not afraid?
There is no weapon
There is no blade
You’ll never kill Him that lives inside of me.
He looked into my eyes. All he saw was conviction.
Dropping the blade to the earth
I said, "How could you think that I’d ever retreat?
You know that I’m already dead."
I said, "Hit me now and we’ll see where it leads
Cut me out if you think I will bleed
Strike me down if you think you’re a man
Cause I know that you don't understand"
Because there is no weapon
There is no blade
You wonder why I’m not afraid?
There is no weapon
There is no blade
I’ve erased all of my fear of the grave.
There is no weapon
There is no blade
You wonder why I’m not afraid?
There is no weapon
There is no blade
You’ll never kill Him that lives inside of me.
2 Corinthians 5:1–10&17
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
I also want us to remember Philippians 1:21: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Serve Jesus in all you do. So what do you think?
Once there was a woman whose homemade pies were continually stolen from her window sill while they were cooling. She obviously became frustrated with putting such time and energy into making them only to have them stolen. Finally, she devised a plan to teach the pie thieves a lesson.
She decided to make a pan of brownies. She took extra care to make sure that these brownies would be the best, using high quality ingredients to ensure that they were tasty and succulent. Once they were baked, she put them on the window sill to cool. Then she hid to see who came to take the brownies. To her shock, she saw an upstanding community leader and church member in her congregation swipe the pan of brownies!
The next Sunday morning at church, the woman wanted to mention the brownies in conversation with this leader. While she was talking to some friends, the culprit approached the group and joined in the conversation. She knew this was her chance. So she said, “You know how I’ve been having problems with someone stealing my desserts while they are cooling on the window sill over the last few weeks?” The group nodded, and one younger lady asked, “You aren’t still dealing with that are you?”
The woman replied, “Well, I think I finally took care of the problem.” With the thieving church member listening, she told the following story:
“I really didn’t know what to do, so I thought I would make that person a nice pan of brownies. I used the best ingredients money could buy, took extra care to make sure they were mixed just right, and then I added the final secret ingredient . . . dog poop.” All of the faces reflected shock, except for the culprit’s: he looked mortified. She continued, “I placed the batter into the pan and then went outside to find two pieces of dog poop from the neighbor’s cuddly cocker spaniel and added them to the pan. I cooked it and then placed the pan on the window sill. Then, like clockwork, the brownies disappeared.” The group laughed hysterically, but the community leader quickly excused himself and went to the restroom.
She never again had another baked good stolen.
How many of us are like the person who stole the brownies? How about this for an answer: All of us are guilty of this.
You might be saying, “Now Jason, not me! I don’t steal, and I wouldn’t eat a pan of brownies with poop in them.” You may not be a thief, but I bet you have had some “brownies with poop” in them before. You might even have had them last night before you read this blog. Let me explain this rather strange metaphor.
When surfing the internet, which is often an appealing “brownie,” have you ever visited a site or partook of something you knew was “dog poop” — something impure or inappropriate? When watching a great movie, which was an awesome brownie, did you shut it off or fast forward when it had sex, violence, or crude jokes in it? Or did you eat that dog poop too? How about appealing brownie music? Do you consume the dog poop with that brownie? Or did you discard music that is lyrically immoral and only partake of pure, delicious, untainted brownies? There are many kinds of quality brownies available.
Or maybe you go to church and worship God on Sunday morning, only to turn during the week to the dog poop of consulting your horoscope and listening to mediums and spiritists, such as Sylvia Brown or (dare I say?) Oprah and the like. Have you partaken of the incredible brownie of sex only to experience dog poop because you are not married to that person? Have you become so gluttonous with food that you are gaining weight on a monthly basis?
Scripture is clear that everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Take Adam and Eve as an example. God loved them so much that He allowed them to go their own way and disobey Him. However, in His love, he had warned them that if they went their own way, they would die. We still have consequences today for our choices. You can do as you please but there is dog poop in some of the brownies. We are taught how to live a godly life, but God allows us to choose our own way. If we choose to stray from Him, His heart breaks.
I know because I am a father too. When my children obey me, their lives, for the most part, are productive and good. When they decide to go their own way and make a decision against what I have told them to do, they experience unpleasant consequences for their actions. Many times I don’t need to discipline them because they already realized the trouble and hurt that they caused themselves or others.
James 1:21–24 says, “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." Are you like the community leader in this story? In what areas of your life do you partake of moral “filth”?
For further study, please read James 1:19–27 and II Kings 21:1-19.
Questions to ponder:
1) How can today’s church often be like the Israelities during King Manasseh’s reign?
2) How are you being like the Israelities in this scripture?
3) Of what moral filth do you need to rid yourself?
4) How do you plan to get rid of this moral filth?
5) How will you let the Holy Spirit help you stop returning to this lifestyle?
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Does that sound like the headlines we read today? It amazes me that the more this world changes, the more it remains the same.
Jesus, as well as many other prophets, warned us about circumstances that are happening today. In II Peter 3, Peter warns of the last days and writes about the world being destroyed by fire. He also states that scoffers will come and deliberately forget that the world was once destroyed by a worldwide flood. Hmmm… Doesn’t that sound a little like the events happening today?
Regardless of what happens in this world, our hope needs to be in Jesus Christ — not in people. Unfortunately, we so often put our hope in people and in a politically correct mindset. What comes to my mind is the most recent vote in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) allowing practicing homosexuals to be ordained as pastors. This principle can be supported nowhere in Scripture. Even the ELCA knows something is amiss, as is evidenced by their very own actions. Why can I make such a bold statement? Because people that are living together outside of marriage and practicing sexual relations cannot be ordained in the ELCA. They know that such a sexual relationship is a sin.
I believe that we have allowed sin to creep into the church, and now we don’t know what we believe. Read I Timothy 3 to find out what kind of people should be in leadership in the church. We have bent this Scripture to the breaking point, and until we are willing to rectify this problem, we will be nothing but hypocrites in the world’s eyes. We have put Pharisees into church leadership. We well know what Jesus said to and about them. We have also allowed false prophets into the church to speak for God. Check out II Kings 21 to see the effect that false prophets have upon the church. I believe this damage is occurring in today’s church.
You have to live as though you believe what the Bible says — even when acting upon Scripture is the difficult thing to do. Until people see that a relationship with Jesus actually works in the real world, they won’t want to come to Him. Case in point: I once had a friend who talked a good talk but didn’t walk the talk. He claimed to be a Christian but was actually lying to me and others. He even lied to people who didn’t believe in Jesus Christ. (Some witness that was.) As his Christian brother, I confronted him on this matter. I even told him, “Just tell me the truth, and I will forgive you no matter what happened in the past.” He told me the truth, and I forgave him. However, he continued lying to me and others. This person, as well as a person who sins and has no repentance (turning from one’s wicked ways), should not be in leadership in the church. Other people saw my friend’s hypocrisy in action, and I had to attempt to mend the bridge in those relationships.
I do not write this to condemn but to challenge each and every Christian: live out your faith in Christ! I Corinthians 15 is a great passage to read about actually living our faith in view of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Christians, aren’t you tired of eating table scraps? Our faith is found in Jesus Christ and no other. Let’s start living what we believe so the world can see the truth. This will not be easy, but if you are in the center of God’s will, you will have peace of mind. If you want safety, then please STOP following Jesus or claiming to be His follower. You are giving Him and His followers a bad name. Being in the center of God’s will is not safe, but it is an adventure!
More reading: Genesis 6:5 – 9 (How was Noah known among the people of his time? How can you begin to live that way?), Matthew 24, The Book of Haggai, The Book of Habakkuk, almost any minor prophet.
If you read my previous blog about Mort, my teacher, mentor, and football coach, you know that he taught me the importance of standing my ground even in the face of adversity. He also taught me the importance of being a man of my word with individuals and in a group. Mort also taught me the importance of a great work ethic and the fact that great people are built in the face of adversity.
Yet there were still many more lessons that I learned throughout my high school football career. As you may or may not recall from the earlier blog, during my sophomore year of high school, our football team’s season finished 3 – 6. I was on the scout team appropriately named “The Hamburger Squad.” Every week, we would get pummeled by the starters on defense and offense. Being a part of that taught me the importance of “sticking to it” even when times are tough. I also realized that helping others improve often makes you improve as well.
My junior year was more of the same: we finished 3 – 6 again. It was a tough year with little reward. Despite our continual efforts, the losses just piled up. During my senior year of football, we continued to work hard but figured it would be another typical year.
Then . . . much to our surprise, we actually won the first game of the year! We never won the first game of the year. It had always been a heart-breaking loss. During the next game, our team began to meld together as we all realized, “I need to trust my teammates to get their job done.” Our team captains along with some juniors stepped up to lead, and we won our second game of the season.
Our next test was against the 10th ranked team in the state, the Mora Mustangs on their home field. They were dominant! They had won state titles two years in a row and were looking just as tough as ever. I will honestly say that before the game even started, I didn’t think we could win. But the juniors who led the previous game seemed to not understand who we were facing. They were either brave or simply naïve, for they were fearless.
These same juniors had started a new tradition that year. As our team would leave the locker room in two single file lines, one person would shout almost at the top of his lungs, “Nothin’ But!” Then the whole team would shout back in unison, “Torture!” It still gives me goose bumps remembering it! The team chanted this walking ALL the way to the football field:
Nothin’ But!
Torture!
NOTHIN’ BUT!
TORTURE!
(On a side note: The word “torture” back then had a lighter meaning than it does today.)
Anyway, since I was on special teams, I was always out on the field before the rest of the team. Therefore, I always got to witness the team walking out on the field. It was an awesome, intimidating sight. Our team chanted this to the 10th ranked team in the state — on their home turf! Did I mention that they had to walk right through the fans of this team? There was no way around them. Cups, candy wrappers, profanity, and other insults were being hurled at our team as they calmly (at least outwardly) walked to the field chanting, “Nothin But . . . Torture!”
It was an awesome sight, a memory I will never forget. It was quite a rush for a 17 year-old young man.
We ended up winning the game 21 – 13 and began to believe in ourselves. We realized that with even more hard work we could accomplish something great. The fans also began to believe it. That year we defeated a team that was ranked #3 in the state and finished the year 9 – 2. Our only two losses were to the state champions twice.
I learned many lessons over my high school years of football that have stayed with me throughout my life. Throughout my senior year in particular, I learned the importance of teamwork and of having a great leader. Every game we played that year had a different hero. I also learned that just because you are older, you may not necessarily be wiser and may not get the glory and credit. Sometimes you need to let others lead. The juniors on our team during my senior year stepped up to lead and did a phenomenal job.
You might be wondering what this has to do with faith in Jesus Christ.
Do you have decisions to make? Or are you going through hard times right now? Then focus on Christ and stick with it. Pray and seek His guidance. Listen to His Holy Spirit and do His will. It may be hard right now, and you may never have peace and comfort in this lifetime. But you need to be okay with that. Do you really believe the Bible or not? If you do, then remember your reward is in Heaven. So live like you believe that!
“Don’t covet your neighbor or friend’s life and stuff. That is a sin! Instead, do the will of your Father who is in Heaven.”
For Further Reading:
Psalm 1
I Corinthians 13
Haggai 1 (focusing on verses 5–7)
If you call yourself a Christian, do you actually do what the Word of God says? Sure you read it, pray, and go to Sunday morning services, but do you actually live out the Word of God? Do you only try to be a good person and just get by doing only the easy things it teaches? Are you seeing or living out Acts 2:38-47?
Are you living out God’s dream or the American dream? Maybe living out your dream has nothing to with God’s dream for you. I ask this question because once my family and I started seeking out God’s will with all of out heart, mind, soul, and strength and quit worrying about what people thought of us, the real adventure began.
I think there are people out there that know what God wants them to do, but they are afraid to follow Him because of what their friends and family might say or think. Also, some people are not willing to give up their comfortable lifestyle.
My family and I don’t really buy a lot of new things anymore, but we do share with a lot of people and they share with us. A great example of this was the other morning we ran out of milk. I was just about to go buy some when a friend showed up at the door with 3 gallons. It was like 8:00 in the morning! We’ve also been given clothes that others have outgrown or no longer need. Some of these clothes are nicer than what we would have bought new for ourselves. We give clothes to others as well. It is really incredible to see God bless His children through His people.
Another way God blesses us is through our health care plan. We belong to a co-op called Samaritan Ministries. It is a group of Christians that help pay for each other’s health care costs. We pray for each other and share the load financially. We send our monthly check to someone in need in the co-op. For example, my oldest son needed to go to the emergency room for care at our local hospital. We let the need be made known to the co-op and we received checks from our Christian brothers and sisters to help pay for the emergency visit.
I want to encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to rethink how we do life here on earth. If we really believe this earth is not our home, we need to have a kingdom perspective and build up treasures in heaven rather than treasures here on earth. I encourage you again to read the book of Acts 1-4 and start living what you are reading. If we put our faith in God and not man, our example will be seen by all.
Fear God and not men. This essentially means respect our Father God. He deserves it.
For further reading check out Joshua 24:15 and Romans 3:21-31.
(Note: Before reading the following blog please know this story is about trusting and obeying God. It is not about health insurance being bad. But we do hope it gets you to rethink some things through in your life.)
Over two years ago when my family and I begin our journey in starting Worldview Warriors, we needed to head down a very difficult yet rewarding path on which we had many difficult decisions to make. These decisions would affect our whole family. One of the most difficult decisions at the time was what to do about health care.
You see, we had been trained, probably a lot like you are, that we needed and deserved health insurance and needed to have it since we have a family of 8 people. At the time we definitely didn’t have the money to pay for something called COBRA, which we could have gotten for a time to have some, “peace of mind” but it was far too expensive for our income. So, we went without health insurance for about a month.
One thing you don’t know yet by reading this blog is that my wife was pregnant with our 6th child at the time and she was due in October of that year. We definitely needed health insurance (or so we thought.) We even went through the hoops and paperwork to get the government health insurance that is available, but we knew deep down this was a mistake. We knew God was not calling us to use this government service. It was a difficult time for us because we had unknowingly been trained to think inside of this man-made system and to not have health insurance at the time seemed like utter foolishness. If you will, we had been trained to trust in human ideas and not in God and His ways of wisdom. God was calling us to obey Him and trust Him. So, we cancelled the government insurance and relied in God. This was about 6 – 8 weeks before our daughter was born.
About one month before she was about to grace us with her presence, someone contacted us and told us these words, “My husband and I have been praying and if we don’t pay for this pregnancy, God told us we would be sinning.” My wife and I were shocked, dumb-founded, and amazed! We hadn’t told anyone of our need and yet this woman of God was telling us that God had told her that they needed to pay completely for this pregnancy. This included all doctor visits before the birth, the birth itself, and any check ups with the mid-wife right after the birth.
God spoke to this couple about our situation. They heard Him and obeyed. Even though it was hard not to have health insurance, God blessed us immensely for our trust in Him. He is our provider.
Are you willing to completely trust in God? Are you willing to trust the God who gives you life? Take time this week to read about Abraham’s faith in Romans 4 and challenge yourself to live as he did. I encourage you to start following his example and see what adventure God has in store for you.
Next week I will continue this story and our journey of trusting God and His people completely. My family and I are continuing to learn not to trust in human ways of thought, but in God’s and God’s alone. Remember, human ways are not God’s ways. Man’s wisdom is utter foolishness to God.
Further Reading
1 Corinthians 2:14 - The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 1:17-19 - For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
Matthew 7:13 - 23
Acts 2:14 – 4:37 (Read just one chapter a day over and over. I encourage you to live life as the early church did.)
Years ago, I sensed that the Lord was leading me to read biographies of great people in history. For instance, two people who came to mind were Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
I bought a few biographies that piqued my interest but never read them, for, as life goes, I became busy with other things that crowded out my reading. However, within the last six months, much has changed — thanks to God using an incredible man from Lima, Ohio, who is discipling me. He challenged me about four months ago to form a board of directors. I told him, “Worldview Warriors already has a board of directors in place.” He responded, “I mean a board of directors for life.”
He explained that when I am faced with decisions throughout life, I will often need to sit down and have a “meeting” with my board of directors. He said, “You may even want to sit down, place all the books you’ve read from these people in front of you, and consider what each person would do in this situation. Learn from their wisdom and mistakes.”
He insisted that one of the books must, of course, be the Bible. He also encouraged me to read the biographies of Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and Ghandi. He said that the biography of General Patton should also be on the list. “He will teach you how to not give up your position,” he said.
Thus, I obtained a biography of General Patton and General Rommel (who was in the German army during World War II). I have learned so much from both of these men already, and I am only one fifth of the way through the book!
I am telling you this for two reasons. First, leaders are learners, and we all need to grow, no matter where we are in life. Even my discipler, who is in his 60s, told me, “I’ve never thought of reading about General Rommel. You’ve taught me something today.”
Secondly, although I didn’t read these biographies years ago, as God was urging me, God didn’t forget what He wanted me to do. I had forgotten, but He didn’t allow my distraction to divert His purpose. God is faithful!
Here’s my challenge to you: find a biography on a great person in history. Do you have a hero or someone you’d like to learn more about? Buy a biography on that person and read a little each night. I think you will be surprised at how much you will learn from the past. If you can’t make up your mind or don’t know where to start, I suggest that you try a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, General Thomas Patton, or Mother Theresa. Then pray every day that God would help you to daily implement what you are learning.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” You can learn throughout your life. Let God train you.
