Tag: alone

God’s Not Dead

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized5 Comments

My wife and I were watching the movie again.  I love the picture of a young man standing strong in the face of great opposition, defending God, believing no matter what.

I don’t find myself liking the movie very much.

Yep, I’m still a Christian.

The scene that kills it for me is the final argument between the mean, atheistic professor and the noble protagonist.  He asks the villain, “why do you hate God?”  And when he finally gets his answer, he finishes off his foe with one fell swoop.

We see him as standing against an intellectual Goliath.  I see him as winning an argument against a twelve year old boy who lost his mother to cancer.  And, I think Jesus would have handled it differently.

I also am bothered by the fact that the end is summed up by our hero receiving the praise he is due, being lauded from the stage by both a big name band and a video from Willie Robertson.  Now my appreciation of the Robertsons and the News Boys should not be diminished by the fact that this is simply not how it normally happens.

When we stand for Jesus, we stand alone.  The movie producers caught that part.  What they didn’t catch is that we fail our classes too.  We are mocked and shamed and no one stands with us in the end.  We die in the arena.  We are beaten, burned, broken.

It is the blood of Jesus that flows through our veins and pours out on the ground that stands as our witness to a dying world.  It is our life given up that gives life to those around us.

And we shouldn’t expect anything else.

Please don’t miss the blessing of what God would do because you’re waiting for man to tell you, “well done.”

God’s not dead.  But we are crucified.

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Home Alone (The Christian Caper)

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized, Worship23 Comments

What do we do with our moments alone?

I talk to lots of people throughout my day, throughout my week.  Everyone struggling, fighting, kicking, sometimes winning, often losing, worried, harried, stressed.  I am too often right there with the masses.  A big question on everyone’s mind is, “how do I get ahead?”  The lottery is such a draw because it gives an option, it provides a hope that things will not always be so difficult.  We envy those who have made it, questioning their morals, their scruples, what it took for them to achieve their status in our eyes.

It comes down to one question.  What do we do with our moments alone?

The guys who sell their souls and families to pornography, to prostitutes, to drunkenness, these are glaring examples of wasted lives.  The soap operas and gossip columns seem so innocuous as to be laughable in comparison.  Romance novels, eating, bingeing, purging, sports bars, internet, video games, revenge, bitterness, hating, fearing.

What do you do with your time?

See, the bible says that satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy.”  All the things that we do fall into two categories, those things that make us better, those that make us worse.  And even that is often determined by how we process, ingest, the things that we see and hear.  We have a choice with what we put in and we, at certain levels, have a choice about how it will affect us.

But don’t be deluded, satan doesn’t care if you have fun.  He doesn’t bring things so that you feel better.  My flesh doesn’t crave only what makes me better.  He wants you and me destroyed, burned up, broken, ruined, mutilated, bleeding, crushed.  My flesh just wants more self, more, more, more.

Strange that God would provide so many good things by the cross, by our daily taking up our cross.  Satan provides honey glazed, sugar and sprinkle coated cow shit that only was designed to kill us.  My flesh gives me empty cravings that can never be satisfied but leave me more empty, more hollow.

And it all depends on what I do when no one is looking, when no one is around, when no one sees.

I say we set up the booby traps of prayer and fasting.  I say we surround ourselves with others in pursuit of God.  I say we fight till our hearts come under the submission to His will.  I say we make the choice to be who we should be, even when we’re all by ourselves.

Then it will be our turn to say, “You guys give up or are you thirsty for more?”