When I first started this blog I wanted to say a few things and hopefully start some discussions about the Kingdom of God and the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us.  There are only two sides in this war.  Gods and Satan’s.  All of us are serving one or the other.  Some might deny this but it is true.  My hopes were that some of the ones serving Satan, whether intentionally or not, would find this site and join in the conversation.

I used to serve Satan even while denying he existed.  A lot of people do.  I was an atheist.  I know how some of them think and the questions and arguments some of them have.  I want them to join in here so a dialogue can be initiated.  So far there have not been any, except possibly one early on, actually post any comments.  But there is a lot of traffic so maybe, some day.

Some of you who  mainly read are wondering why a lot of what is written is so controversial and confrontational.  It is because of something I found out when I became a servant of Jesus.  I found out that we do not all agree and we have many different opinions about a number of theological issues.  Now some of you might think that I should tone this down so that the non-believer will see only unity.  But what are the ramifications of that?

Lets say we all put on some kind of front and someone actually comes to visit one of our churches.  It won’t take long for them to ascertain our subterfuge and feel deceived and betrayed.  We will be exposed as liars.  No, it is better for them to see that we do not agree on all things but we do agree on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is Lord and even though some see that a little differently than others, I believe that all the main contributors here, the ones some of you readers may think agree on nothing, do agree on this fact.  And it is the most important fact of all.

When someone like I used to be stumbles onto this site, they will possibly find that there just might be other answers to some of their problems with our doctrine and beliefs.  This will be beneficial for any who dare take the plunge and dive into the discussions.  I wish I could have found a site like this when I was on the other side.

To sum up; this blog exists for the sole purpose of hopefully reaching a lost soul who has problems, who has skepticism, and who has questions.  I hope they find it.

And it is fun also.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Belief, blog, Church, Conversation, Discussion, God, Hope, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Servant, Spiritual Warfare, Theological

I have been praying and thinking a lot lately.  There are a few decisions that have to be made soon concerning life in general and my placement in the ranks of the army of God.  I have not written very much because I am very concerned about being a stumbling block or an instrument of offense.  Some seem to think I have been the instigator of division in the Body already.  So I have waited, prayed, and pondered.

I thought that I wanted to see my church grow.  I was wrong. What I really want to see is transformed lives.  My true desire is not just to see more people in church, not just to add more to the number of inwardly focused bodies sitting on pews, but to see instead a radical group of servant-soldiers interested in what God is interested in.  And willing to fight for it.

I want to see the arms of the Body of Christ reach out to grab, hug, hold and comfort a dying world.  I want to see the legs of the Body of Christ start running to get to the place where those trapped in service to our enemy are, wherever that may be.  I want to see the eyes of the Body of Christ constantly gazing beyond the walls surrounding our assembly to seek those desperately in need of a new Lord.  I want to see the lips of the Body of Christ speaking the words of love and acceptance that the lost and lonely want and need to hear.  I want to see the heart of the Body of Christ beating passionately for the mission that is being sidetracked by selfishness.  I want to see the tears of the Body of Christ that should flow from our current inability to effect change in the community around us.

I want to see the atheist become a believer, the sinner become a saint, the unchurched become attendees, and the disillusioned become enlightened.  But what I want the most is to see the self-centered become sacrificially concerned with the harvest of souls all around us.  We must stop being so concerned with our own comfort and desire and turn those concerns towards the ones that Jesus is concerned about.

When ‘church growth’ is mentioned anymore it is usually about figuring out how to get people to switch from church A to church B or how to get more people like ourselves in the pews.  We have become a double minded and apathetic church.  Double minded in our wonderful but empty words about growth and apathetic in our solicitude towards the lost.

I feel that I have not been effective in my service to the Kingdom.  As a teacher I believe that there should be a lot more evidence of transformation in the lives of those that have been entrusted to me than I have seen.  I believe it is time for me to re-evaluate my position in the Body to make sure I have not failed too badly and am in the right place.  I hope and pray that I have not caused irreparable damage.  I have no one to blame and am not looking for consoling words.  This is a struggle in me to determine what steps I may need to take next.

I am writing this to let all of you who do care know some of what is going on.  I am saddened but still at peace.  I struggle for answers but I rejoice in God’s grace.  Serving Christ is always sweet but I have to say, it is also sometimes bittersweet.

Pray with me.

Love you all

Tags: army of god, atheist, Body of Christ, Church, Grace, Hope, jesus, Kingdom, mission, Self, Selfishness, Servant, Service, Sinner, Trust, War

I am constantly amazed with the way God seems to enrich my life.  I have played a small part recently in the development of a young adult fellowship in my church.  It was sorely needed so that relationships, growth, and  discipleship could be established among the few couples and singles that we have in attendance.  A few of them did not have a lot of opportunities for these things in church because of worldly interference such as work and children or mission interference such as working in the children’s departments and ministries.

The new group has a name and it is The Bridge.  This name was chosen because a bridge is something that connects.  A few people in my church have looked at this new group with concern, having let their minds go to thoughts such as division, separation or even revolution.  The Bridge has none of these things as an agenda.  The Bridge is a place for fellowship, for accountability, for biblical discussion amongst peers, and simply to celebrate our King in a way that is relevant to their age group.  As a bridge it is decidedly connective.  Connecting the individuals in this group to each other and the group to the lost in the community of like mind and interest and finally to the older generations in our church are the main goals we have in mind.  As one of the group, Wayne, put it; The Bridge is an addition and not a subtraction in our church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25NIV

As some of you already know, I used to be a loner.  I was introverted and pretty much hated everyone.  Then I met Jesus and entered his Kingdom as a child and servant of God and started the process of change.  As all of us know, God sometimes makes supernatural changes in us in certain ways immediately but he seems to do this in various ways.  Some may be miraculously delivered from addictions to tobacco for instance while another may not.  One way I was not changed was in my attitude towards assemblies, groups, fellowships, and even church.

I immediately started going to church but only for the Word of God, not for the people.  I would be the first to my vehicle when church was over, waiting sometimes not very patiently for my wife to finally be ready to leave.  I did not need anyone but Jesus and that was fine with me.  The roles have now reversed.  My wife often is waiting on me.  Somewhere along the line in my concerted attempt to love everyone, a bridge was built.  I was connected to the rest of the Body.

As the verse in Hebrews states, we all need to be connected to each other and never stop meeting or assembling with each other.  Why is this so important?

The main reason is, of course, the mission.  We are not a bunch of spiritual Rambo’s, furtively making our way through the jungles of life attacking all the spiritual forces we find aligned against us.  We are instead part of a unit of elite, trusted soldiers that must train, fight, and rest together.  The enemy is out there and he likes nothing better than finding one of us cut off and alone.  We cannot make it alone, even if God is there with us, simply because God decided long ago to work through us.  And the work he does through us is for others, not ourselves.

Another reason is the thing that brought this post about.  We need each other for the joy it can bring.  The relationships between believers enrich us, fulfill us, and mature us.  I was pretty good at being alone at one time.  But most of you probably don’t need to be told, being alone is not very fun or fulfilling.  Some of you also know the terrible, depressing feelings that come from loneliness.  I no longer fight depression.

And love is simply amazing.  Not the emotion but the true attribute called agape.  Intentional love, as it grows from being something we make ourselves do, to something we want to do, and finally to that thing we just do, does so much good for each of us individually and for the Kingdom that it just naturally spills over and flows out.  It is contagious.  It is life changing.  It is life enhancing.  It is rewarding and enriches not only ourselves but others, and especially the Body of Christ.

We need each other and even more so as we see the Day approaching because the enemy’s activities are ramping up.  I believe the final onslaught is here.  For our adversary, it is all or nothing.  We must stand and even more, continue to advance the Kingdom and we cannot do it or make it alone.

Build a bridge.  Be a bridge.  Protect your bridge.

Blowing up bridges is one way all enemies seek to divide and conquer.

Love you all

Tags: accountability, Believe, Body of Christ, Church, Enemy, Fellowship, jesus, joy, Kingdom, Life, loner, Love, mission, peers, Relationships, Relevant, Servant, Trust, Work

We are all different and amazingly, God will use us right where we are.  We all have a story, and my story is a part of His story, because He wants it that way.

So I want to talk about my first prayer. Three days and seven years ago, I was a little like Robinson Crusoe.  That is a story with part of its focus being about how Robinson, a man shipwrecked for 28 years, becomes closer to God, not through listening to sermons in a church but through spending time alone amongst nature, with only a Bible to read.  He gets close to God through Communion with God and through prayer.

There I was, castaway on my island, alone in an apartment in Hoover with no one but God for three days after the incident where He introduced Himself to me.  The alcohol was gone, the wrestling with who He was, was over, the long phone conversation with Tammy that afternoon was finished.  I was finally sure of who He was.  And at some time I simply fell to my knees in that apartment, on that hard carpet covered concrete floor.

I did not quietly ask Jesus into my heart and seek His forgiveness.  Instead, I slammed my head into the floor a number of times, crying and railing out at God for doing this all now, at this time, when I was alone and was done with life.  Why wait for so long to come and reveal Himself to me.  Everything I worked for was gone.  The one relationship I had cared about was over.  Why now?  I can’t even remember all of the words that I yelled, or all the questions I asked, but I did start to cry at some point.  Tears soaked my face and covered my shirt.  I had never cried like this and had actually not cried very much at all for most of my life.  It was like all of my tears had been dammed up and now the dam was busted wide open.

At some point, I knew that He was there with me.  God had shown up and I realized He was not really giving me answers but He was there to wipe away the tears and get an answer.  I gave Him one, I said yes.

Those early days were filled with prayers.  They were answered prayers.  It was like when a newborn baby cries out and the parents respond as if life depends on it and it does actually.  Newborns are helpless.  Even a little thing like getting too chilled can have life threatening impact on their small fragile persons.  We are that way also when we first enter the Kingdom.  Born again as new spiritual beings we are newborns ourselves.  So fragile, but our Father is nothing else if He is not the proud, protective Father that is there to make sure nothing comes against us.

As I aged a little and started to learn things prayer became a little less rewarding or fulfilling.  It was because I lost some of the childlike simplicity in which I viewed prayer.  I started to feel that it was time I learned to do prayer right.

Then, as we all grow up, or start to, we become like teenagers.  We know it all and don’t feel the need to learn from our Father.  We stop praying as much as we used to and when we do, it is usually just to get something.  All teens rebel to some degree.  Even the best of children defy their parents in some small way with most going much farther.  We do it with our heavenly Father also.  We come to a point where we only look to Him for what He can provide.

But then we hopefully come to the place where we once again see him for who He is and appreciate Him for the simple fact that He loves us and we love Him.  This is where we all should be today.

Some of you may be struggling to pray.  Some of you may not even see the need to pray, except maybe at church.  Some of you may feel that you have what you need, so why pray?  All of these things come from a misunderstanding about what prayer is and how necessary it is, for us personally and for the story of creation and the Kingdom to advance.

What is personal prayer?

As we look across the landscape of scripture, we find many examples or personal prayer and we find many ways of praying.  Who are some of the major pray-ers in the bible?  Remember that prayer happens in a number of ways.  Adam had conversations with God in the garden, Abraham bargained with God, Moses argued, Job railed, Jacob wrestled, Samuel listened in the quiet of the night, the disciples talked to Christ face to face.  We can look in the bible and what we find mostly is personal prayer.  The records of group prayer or church prayer just don’t come close to the amount of people we see on their faces before God individually.  Look at Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel or any of the prophets.  Look at Jesus and the Apostles.  Especially look at Paul.  All of his writings show us a man who prayed.  Sometimes in the middle of his discourse he would break out in prayer.  All of these examples show us something about this relationship with God.  They show us that it is real and it is dynamic.  Not only does he want children, friends, servants and soldiers, he wants partners.

History and the bible show us a God who gives away or shares his power.  Even in the Old Testament we see a God who waits, intervenes, then waits some more for his people to do or make the right choices.  Even today Gods Spirit whispers instead of shouts, trying to align us with the program.

God has partnered with us and has ordained prayer as the means to discuss His will and achieve His will on earth.  That is why ultimately we should pass from a childlike prayer life, utterly depending on Him, to that of requests and petition as teens do, then  to a relational type prayer where we want fellowship with the creator, and finally to a place where His will is what we ultimately want above all else.  We achieve this level when we get to the place where we truly realize who He is and become the partners in creation He want us to be.

Ever since God created and placed Adam in charge of the garden, He actually seems to do very little in creation without the likes of you and me.  When I used to ask, “What is God doing?” I should have asked, “What are Gods people doing?”  Do you realize that according to scripture, those we pray for, Christ prays for?

Although the reformed people would have us believe that God does not change, or ever change his mind, the bible actually shows us that He does and is always willing to if we ask.  Look at Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah, look at Moses and numerous times while leading the Israelites, look at Jonah and Nineveh, look at Hezekiah and his request for additional years of life.  God even told Jeremiah three times to stop praying because He did not want to change his mind about the rebellious nation of Israel.

Prayer works and prayer is important if any of Gods will is going to be achieved on this planet.  We should be praying like our life depends on it.  We should be persistent and relentless in asking God to bring about His will and His purposes on this planet.  This is how we become those partners, those workers in the fields that God not only so desperately wants, but that He actually needs.  Our persistence shows God we are serious about a thing and that we are willing to do our part.  When you really want something, what do you do?  Are you that persistent in prayer?

It is easy to be a child of God.  Are you ready to become a partner in His-story?

Love you all

Tags: alcohol, Conversation, Creation, Father, Fellowship, jesus, Kingdom, knees, Personal, Prayer, relationship, robinson crusoe, Self, Servant, Work