Purity is an innocent child, smiling, angelic. Or maybe it’s a virgin girl, untouched, not sullied by sex, the touch of a man.
Men are off the hook. No one expects purity from even little boys. No one except God.
But we’re wrong.
We paint the picture of a “holy” man with his hands clasped in prayer, a halo behind his head, a somber, emotionless face.
He certainly is no soldier, practically not a real man. A real man is tough, strong, sexual. Impurity is just how it is; boys will be boys.
But we’re wrong!
How do we change this devastating status quo? Can we be more but still remain dudes? Fishing, hunting, gun toting, car driving, work with our hands, women loving men?
It’s more than possible! It’s imperative! IT HAS TO HAPPEN!
Two resources that have been very successful are the “Conquer Series” videos (conquerseries.com) and f3 Nation (f3nation.com). Get in a group if there is one in your area. If not, START ONE!
Do the things you know are impossible but you know are right. Work on disciplines, brand new habits, new mindsets. Believe in a christian brotherhood and a faithful God who has NOT given up on you and who WILL walk through the battles with you.
If you’ve tried and failed, try again. Get on your knees. Pray for your family and that God would raise up a warrior within you.
The book of Philippians says, “Do not be anxious about anything…”
Right now, my chest hurts, my skin itches and my digestive tract is in knots.
I am stressed out.
Work, car trouble, financial woes and don’t get me started on the dumb things I do.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
So God, transmission died. Work is piling up on me. Seems like I work all the time but always feel like we don’t have enough to pay for everything, let alone have much fun. I make so many mistakes at work I’m gonna get fired and I can’t seem to keep my mind and heart fixed on you.
Thank you for my children, they are really great people. Thank you for my wife, she’s awesome! Thank you for how you always provide, always see us through. You’re pretty awesome too!
That simple!?
“And the peace of God, which goes beyond all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I shamelessly try to come up with titles that will get people to read my blog.
Sometimes…
It’s all just so I can introduce people to my King!
You want to talk about friends with benefits? Wow!
Forgiveness. Eternal life. In heaven. Holy Spirit power! Gifts and promises!
And, He is someone I can talk to any time, about anything! I can yell at Him and He listens. I can whine and complain, and He cares about my hurts. In Him, I find peace, safety, a refuge.
All other friends, no matter what the benefits, do not even compare!
In this day of drugs and vaccines, therapy, machinery, politics and police we are made increasingly aware of our NEED to have someone fix our problems.
And I’m no different with God.
I go through these vast seasons of prayer wanting God to make me a better man, a better husband, father, human. And, to be sure, I need fixing.
Problem is, I can’t be fixed.
And to blow your mind like it did me, God doesn’t want you fixed.
Yeah, I thought that was the whole point, go to church, read your bible, pray the right prayer, sing the right song and all will be made holy and whole.
Those things have failed, all of the, in so many lives.
Here’s what I know, if I married my wife thinking I could fix her, use the bible, good verses and teaching, to make her be better, I simply push her further and further away. If she thinks she can manipulate, condemn, deny and berate me into being better, she will only succeed in ruining what could be so beautiful. Marriage was not designed for this.
Conversely, if I come to her with the hope that she’ll fix me, if she thinks that I will solve all her problems, we will both be vastly disappointed.
Marriage is about two very flawed and broken people learning to love each other despite and maybe even because of their issues.
Side note: I am not including abusive relationships. There is evil in the world and there are evil people. If we understood Satan and his purposes in our lives, we would see that abuse is his realm.
But God does not treat us this way, either with abuse or manipulation or condemnation or any of the other tactics we tend to see His love through. The “LAW” can never save us. He just came to be with us and make a way for us to always be with Him.
He designed us uniquely, placed us in our specific family and environment, knowing our future and everything about us. And He loves us, right there.
And if we never get better, He will love us anyway.
If we can see His word as guidance and truth from a loving Father, to keep us from hurting ourselves and others and not rules and regulations to bludgeon us into perfect behaviour, then we will know Him more, His heart more.
And that will bring more healing, more peace, more life than any drug, vaccine, therapy, machine, politician, or police can ever hope for.
We hear the statistics on divorce, abuse, suicide. Some of which I believe is augmented to support a certain message.
I’ll stop right here to state that yes there is a huge problem with these three areas. Problems that require our prayers, our focus, our pursuit of God – the only one with power to heal.
I just question the use of data that is outdated, truncated and obtained by dubious methods.
For example, the statistic has been thrown around for years that fifty per cent of all marriages end in divorce. When a more accurate depiction would be seen through the statistic that ninety-five per cent of all marriages end in either divorce, suicide, abuse or apathy.
A statistic I just now made up.
But I come with, not just made up statistics and seemingly, overwhelmingly hopeless agendas. I come with a message no one wants to hear and very few will take to heart even if they hear it.
Do you really want to see your marriage healed? Do you really want to find hope and purpose to go on living? Do you really want to end the cycles of sexual bondage, addiction and despair?
Good!
Now you have a choice.
We are designed for two things and two things only.
Number one is that we are designed, hard-wired, programmed to be complete, fully human, whole and healed in a relationship with God Almighty. And that relationship is ONLY possible because Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead.
If I look to any…
I’m going to say it again.
If I look to ANY human, earthly, physical, mental, spiritual resource, other than the King of Kings, Jehovah Jireh (look it up), I will lack, I will starve, I will be ruined and disappointed.
That includes my wife, my parents, my church, my work.
They cannot meet my needs.
The second truth of our design is this, we are designed to meet the needs of others.
“Whoa, wait! You just said…”
Our perspective is SOOOOO screwed up. We expect others to meet our needs, deep, spiritual, emotional, mental NEEDS and ignore God. Then bypass the whole reason for us being placed on this planet.
If the only thing God wanted was a relationship with us; our praise, worship, adoration, I would argue that He would’ve been better served keeping is with Him. But, in the act of becoming His fingers and hands, His arms and feet and heart, we truly become “like” Him, truly become “created in His image.”
Does your life suck? Your marriage? Your job? Your school? Your family?
Flip it. Approach God as the only thing that can complete you. Ask Him to meet your needs for love, purpose, hope, understanding, every need you have. And then go into your day looking to meet the needs of others, a divine laying down of your life for those around you.
Guaranteed you won’t get it right. Without a doubt you will still struggle, problems will still raise their ugly faces, life will still occur. But don’t give up.
Give it a day and peace will be there too. Give it a week, and joy will be easier to find. Give it a month and the adventure begins. Give it a year and you’ll never be the same. Give it your life…
Well I’m still waiting on that one.
But I know it’s got to be better than the suckiness of waiting for everyone to meet my needs.
There seemed to be a weight on him. My friend seemed to be struggling and I wanted to help but not pry.
“I know I’m not much of a Christian,” I said, “but if there’s anything I can pray for you about… Just know that I’d be glad to.”
I rambled a bit more and then had to keep moving, keep working.
I thought about what I said, keep thinking about it.
I get that in the grand scheme, comparing myself to many others, I’m not much. But I also think that’s a lie.
In the eyes of heaven, the eyes of my Father, broken and messed up as we all are, every voice lifted in prayer, every heart that cries out (especially for the needs of others) is mighty, powerful, amazing, awesome!
Our enemy lies by showing us only the image of our humanity, our sin.
The Holy Spirit negates those lies with His presence inside us, the gifts He gives us. Jesus negates those lies with His blood that washes over us. Almighty God negates those lies by choosing us, bringing us into His Kingdom, His family.
Can we strike a balance between humility and Godly confidence? Can we find a way to see our greatness in Him and know that it is only because of Him?
Christianity, REAL Christians, are the umbilicus that God chooses and empowers to bring His life to this world.
Something about a guy asking for directions and an old guy making that statement.
I feel depressed and frustrated.
Life always feels so distant from what I wanted it to be. Happiness, contentment, peace, joy, love seem so elusive, mirage like in their ability look so close, appear as possible, only to evaporate as I grasp at them.
I try to be a better husband, better father, better man. I try to love more, hate less, not cuss. I try to help, not complain, not be a jerk.
But I fail. Over and over.
I talk to God. “Can’t you make me better? Can’t you make my faith stronger? Can’t you make me want to try?”
And I hear Him say, “you can’t get there from here.”
All religions (including “christianity”) are based on the idea of trying harder, becoming “better” people. And they all fail. We hold up saints and monks and zealots and clergy as examples of how religion succeeds, ignoring the reality and embracing the legends we’ve made up. Destroyed and disillusioned when we find out they were human after all.
And most watch us and shake their heads, knowing we pursue a lie that no one can attain.
You can’t get there from here.
Can’t we just backtrack? Go back to the good old days? Maybe there are multiple paths, maybe all religions have the same ultimate goal.
But the cross stands over us. Not as a way to make us be better but simply to open a door.
Paul said his righteousness was as filthy rags (menstrual cloths to be precise). The prophet Isaiah agreed. Our best efforts, though nobly given, don’t make a crack in the wall that separates us from what God intended.
Somehow, I have a feeling that the lonely single mom, the addict, the father who worked everyday in a nowhere job, all the “losers” that pursued Jesus, through failure, through the valleys may receive a heartier “well done” than all the preachers combined. And when we stand before Him, there will be no shame, no disappointment, only a realization that He was always there, always with us.
I’m still sad that I’m not “better”. But, I think I’ll quit thinking about me so much and just fix my eyes on Him.
Let’s back up and differentiate between physical, externally induced pain and emotional pain, that which is inflicted on our soul, our identity.
On a clinical level, physical pain can be treated, healing can take place, the pain can be tolerated. And often, pain has to be overcome for healing to occur.
Emotional pain is more difficult, if not impossible to diagnose and treat. Despite what it says on their signs and in their pamphlets, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists, along with their array of drugs, represent a pitiful arsenal against the issues we face today.
There is commonality in that physical pain can produce deep seated emotional pain and emotional pain can cause very serious physical pain.
But why did God allow it? Why do we have pain?
I want to know because I see so many people doing really stupid things, wasting insane amounts of money and resources, and causing more pain than they could ever hope to heal, all trying to make it go away.
I have pain of my own that I can’t seem to ever overcome. And it is nothing compared to what millions face every day.
The short answer is that it’s because of the fall. Adam and Eve sinned so we have pain. But if we make it so simplistic, it leaves us with the only solution being to, “suck it up.”
The exciting thing for me in asking this question is that I know my God. My King is a healer. My Lord is moved by every tear, every broken and contrite heart. When a child dies through abortion or cancer or abuse, no one sees it more, feels it more, knows it better.
The issue of pain is often and the center of the atheist’s arguments (knowingly or unknowingly). So it seems like we need to understand it better.
I want to hear back. Why do you think we have pain?
Oh sure, birthdays, Christmas, something special waiting.
Some say they enjoy the surprises of a scary movie. The horror waiting in the closet, the monster jumping out and eating someone.
We can appreciate the stimulus from the safety of a theater or our couch. We certainly would not like it if it was real, if it was really happening to us.
We want to know, to be prepared, to have assurance of victory.
So then I read in Numbers how, as the children of Israel get close to the Promised Land, God invites the to send out spies to check things out.
I wonder why He did that when He knew they would get scared and ruin everything.
Sure, they would want to know, to be prepared. And, a couple guys actually benefited from that. But most were overwhelmed.
Now I look at my life. How I have let fear and the magnitude of a task overwhelm me. I still want to know, to hedge my bets, minimize my risk.
And He won’t tell me.
He doesn’t give me the “plan”. He doesn’t let me know that I’ll be safe, that I won’t get hurt, or fail. He promises good things. He assures me that He’s right there with me.
But, it’s not enough.
So today I want to try something new.
Lord Jesus, surprise me!
I would like to know, to be prepared. But You know. You’re prepared.
Help me to be faithful. Help me to honor You. I open my heart to you. I trust you.
When I was young, I thought I wasn’t very smart. Read through the bible a few times and got my degree and, all of a sudden, I’m the smartest guy in the room.
Then I meet a kid who is explaining advanced differential equations to a PhD. I hear a pastor saying to his staff that God has revealed himself to the pastor in a way that they couldn’t handle.
May not be the smartest, but I’m not the dumbest.
Only then do I realize that my arrogance, the arrogance I see revealed in others and our collective intelligence is pitiful in comparison to the true smartest guy in the room.
Yet I hold on to my pride, my shame, my fear, my self-sufficiency and rage against my God who sees through it all. And then find myself on my knees, claiming dependence, my desperate need of Him.
And, He sees through that too.
I can’t argue people into heaven. I can’t impress them with my intellect, my giftedness, certainly not my spirituality. I have no delusions about condemning others or criticising their efforts to understand.
But can I introduce you to my friend? He’s funny and amazing. He really wants to meet you.
The Healing Worshipper 