Power of Words

It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Mat 15:11

The power that our tongue has is one that is hard to understand. How such a small part of our body as a whole has so much power that it is a constant warning throughout the entire bible. This is something that I did not understand until after I began going through counseling and preparing for Deliverance Ministry.

The topic of Deliverance Ministry is a touchy one for a lot of people, but it is one of the reasons I’m doing as well as I am doing right now. During my life wandering spiritually I spoke many things that harmed me and my soul. There are things that I allowed for the sake of understanding, knowledge or power that wounded me deeply.

I profess with my word that these things were wrong and I know that now, but when you are wandering in the dark it’s hard to tell friend from foe. My first steps were in tests. If this flame will change color then there is truth to these words. I wanted to see a response, and I received one. Well if that worked what else will work?

Down the slope I went until I began to allow spirits, demons, into my being. I swore oaths turning myself over as a vessel for the evil ones to use. With these words I allowed them to do with me what they would. It was depravity after another as I carved out sections of who I am and who I was becoming to allow them to do with me what they will.

For my seeking I did receive knowledge and wisdom through my folly. However, by knowing the names of demons, they also learn yours. As you go deeper and deeper into the abyss you see things that you cannot unsee. You learn things that you cannot forget. And you do things that you cannot undo. I had become a man filled with Hate, Lust, Anger, Destruction and filled with dreams of a truly violent death and being happy with it.

I am very glad that things happened when they did. God is good. He warned me to turn away, but I would not listen. Who knows how many demons where walking around in my flesh at any point in time. Was I hearing voices? No… just thoughts. Was I schizophrenic? No… Possession is much different from that. When you open yourself up to the demonic host, you get what they want… not what you want.

All of this was done with words. I swore oaths. Dedicated myself to thoughts and uttered blasphemies. Many of them I can still bring to mind even now. I have not spoken those words in over 5 years, but I still hear them. I denounced my salvation, my right and privilege as a child of God. But even with that, God did not give up on me.

I was the wayward son, lost in the depths of the ocean. He was waiting on me to make my choice and to say the words that he told me to say. All I had to do was ask for forgiveness.

As a fool’s tongue leads to strife and folly (Proverbs 18), only with wisdom gained from folly did I see how much of a fool I had become. I had to be put in a situation where there was nothing to distract me from the truth. I needed my Grey Door.

Upon my release from my Grey Door, my journey was only still beginning. I was a new child of God once more, but my tongue had still opened doors that were not yet closed. I had not done this alone either, and because it was with a union of souls with my wife. We had to be separated for God to begin working on us.

We began receiving counseling. We had a church that supported us as we were a challenge to the leadership of the church. Thank God for Providence Road Church of Christ (http://prcoc.org). We were going to Celebrate Recovery on top of the therapy. Our counselor quickly realized that we were outside her area of expertise and had found someone in the area that works on people with Occult pasts.

Clay Barnes met with us. He was the one that shined the light of the true power of words. In the first session I found myself renouncing oaths with the same verbiage that I used when speaking them. They had to be the same in order to close the doors that were opened. He too felt that we needed something rare. He suggested Deliverance Ministry.

We went into it and again had to be separated. The spirits within myself and my wife could not be removed is we were together. We went through six one-hour long sessions before we were turned back over to Clay. It was a very long process and we came a long way. Still It’s been three years since we finished with that and only now am I speaking about the power of words.

Still now, still so young in Christ with everything that I have seen and gone through. James knew what he was talking about:

“So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is places among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell” James 3:5-6

So what’s next? It is time for the truth to spew forth from my mouth. With that said. Mind your tongue; do not let it become wild and untamed. My journey is not one I wish any of you to follow. I was Christian, then nothing. I then became Wiccan then a practitioner of Witchcraft. From there I became a Satanist. I became a leader for the enemy. Then I became nothing once more, which was better than what I was, and then once more a Child of God. I came back home and the Father was waiting for me.

If I can blaspheme his name, renounce his gifts, spit on his image, walk with those that would stand against him and make friends among the demons of hell and he forgives me…. I know he would forgive you.

Change of Season

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.Matthew 16:24-27

As summer gives way to fall, we enter a change of season. The term change of season is something that we can overlook fairly easily, but what does a change of season in one’s life truly mean? I have been talking and praying about a lot of things in my life. Upon writing this I have been a Christian for 5 years, and God has done so much for me during this time.

Has this five years been easy? No, but they could have been much harder. Something has begun stirring within me over the past few weeks and it goes back to my trip to visit my parents and the place I called home for years. It was a good reminder for me to see where I came from once more and see just how far God has taken me. Much more than that; it was pointing to me just how far that I still need to go.

We each carry with us stories about our faith, our lives and who we are. These stories are parts of who we are today and who we have come to be in Christ. However, they do not define us. They speak to who we were and the journey that we have traveled. It is how all of these come together and what we allow God to do with them that truly begin to define us.

Even then it’s not a true image of who and what we are and who and what we are to become. Only God knows the path that we are to walk and still with that, we have the choice to go forward or stay where we stand. Each crossroad that we come to can potentially become a change of season within our hearts and souls. Each person that we come in contact with is another chance for us, or them, to do God’s work. The trouble that many of us have is seeing the path in which we are to walk, or even hear that we have something to do.

God speaks to us in many different ways; sometimes it is bold and loud and cannot be ignored. Other times it is a mere whisper. How do we know? How can we tell what is our own mind and what is the voice of God? For that sometimes we have to go back to our roots. Sometimes the only way forward is to look to the past.

Looking to the path that I have traveled; to reading the words that God has blessed me with before; has helped me focus on the journey. I look to my parents. I look to my challenges in life. I look to the times that I failed. I looked to the times I thought I had succeeded. I have looked and realized that some of my failures where not truly failures, but they were things that God put in my path to help build me to be the man He needed me to be. The same goes for successes, influences, people, places, experiences and even when I became a Satanist.

All of this has purpose, all of these things built upon the prior to help shape me as a person. As I bear the cross that is my sins of the past, those sins that I have been forgiven of, but I am still held against them. The world is of Sin and will hold onto sin as long as it can. I have something the world does not have however; I have the Grace given to me by God. I also have a rare experience that many do not have, and with that it gives me a rare responsibility.

It is not an unusual thing that we are given an interesting path and story to help do the things that God wants us to do. God will use these things to lead others to him. With this also comes a truth. We all must face the demons we know to bring light to those in the darkness. We all must take up our cross and follow God. It is a command that was given to us by Jesus to become his disciples. I have a great group of Christians around me to provide me encouragement and guidance. One of these men was a man that reached out to me when I was locked away in Jail and was trying to relearn who Christ was. One of the biggest things he speaks about is dying to yourself.

You must die to yourself to become more like Jesus. You deny what the flesh desires to look at things more like Christ. It is great advice. But with this comes another truth. When you die to yourself, you must not forget who you are either. Your identity in Christ is very important, because it is who God has made you to be. Sometimes it is harder to find out why God has made you go through things like he has and even harder to accept it. Harder still, seeing the path that you must walk to do what God wants you to do.

Sometimes all we can do is Pray and delve into God’s word. Through this attunement we can see and hear God’s voice and plan a bit better. All of this comes together to build the world around us. What has God blessed you with? What skills have you been given? How can you use these gifts to do what God wishes you to do? I leave with a quote that holds more than a little truth for me, and if one truly thinks about it, it probably does for you as well.

“The path to paradise begins in hell.” ~Dante Alighieri

Where's Your Seed?

The old parable that calls back to me on many occasions is the one about the three different kinds of soil. You have the seeds cast in with rocky soil; thrown among the thorns; thrown to the way side, and then finally you have the good soil. The parable has always been taught to me to be about the condition of someone’s heart when you or someone approaches them about the message of God. For me I get a little bit of a different message about this passage.

Something that always rang to me is how much tending needs to be done to make the soil good soil. For a long time I have seen myself to be the seed that was thrown among the thorns. It’s got good dirt, but the thorns make it difficult to grow. Looking through life that is how much of my life has been. I get a good spell right after the garden’s been weeded. Go for a while then the thorns grow right back up around me.

Let’s be clear, none of us were gifted with the perfect soil. Everyone that has started a new garden will know that no patch of ground is perfect. Things were growing there before, there are rocks in the dirt and many times it takes many years of tending before you have good dirt. Now that is not to say that it does not help to have the soil prepared for you. I see this as people that were raised in good Christian homes. That does not mean that your seed cannot fall to the wayside, and certainly doesn’t mean that if left alone that thorns and weeds cannot creep back into the garden.

The biggest issue with good healthy dirt is that it is good healthy dirt. Thorns and weeds love to grow in the same place as fruits and vegetables.  You must always tend to your soil. But back to what I’m talking about today. Each of us has inherited this plot of soil that is who we are. This is our heart, mind, body and soul. There are many things that factor into how hard, rocky, thorny or good our soil is. A strong seed can grow in nearly any condition. It’s just harder.

Why is it important to know what kind of dirt you have? Well once you know what you are working with you will know how much work will needed to be put into it. Also the more work you put into it the better it will grow. Any dirt can become good dirt. It takes TLC. The worse your dirt is the more you have to do to fix it. That is part of how we grow as Christians, and as people for that matter.

I started out with really fertile soil, yeah there were plenty of rocks in it, but it had been worked for me for a few years to start out life. The problem is, it was left untended for a good number of years. By the time I first walked to Christ, I had plenty of rocks still there and the weeds had taken over. But the dirt was fertile.

The seed took root and grew. The weeds had been cleared out enough for this one seed. That wasn’t enough. The weeds liked the dirt and grew back up. Well then I began to ignore it even more and threw more junk in the garden. Bottles, cans, distractions, magazines, people and many other things were thrown in this place. I then realized how much of a mess all that had become wanted to pave over it with something else.

Shopping around I found the thing that was as different from the garden as I could. The salesman was good, “You want knowledge, wisdom, understanding and power… I’ve got all that for you. All you got to do is add a little water, mix it up and poor it over all that and you’ll never see it again. Once you’ve done that you can do whatever you want. Risk free! Satisfaction Guaranteed! No conviction, just pleasure and indulgence.”

“Hell yeah, where do I sign!” was my reply.

Hell indeed. So now this fertile ground was covered in a slab of concrete. When I fell I hit this concrete and it did not give way. Jesus then showed up with a sledgehammer and a shovel. You’ve got the dirt down there, all we have to do is get back to it and get it cleaned up. Here I’ll help. Jesus then began breaking the concrete.

If you have read the “Grey Door” then you know this portion of the story. For 115 days Jesus pounded away at the concrete. Somewhere in there I began to help. We got back down to the soil and started clearing it out. Man it has been hard work. Still 5 years later, people still see all the junk in my garden. Those that do not know Christ says, “Man what a mess you are. I can’t help you.”

This is not my concern though… The story that I have to hear to keep my strength is with the ones that look at my garden and say, “Wow, you’ve come a long way. You’ve got a ways to go, can I help. If you need another shovel just let me know.” These people are my brothers and sisters. My garden is still a mess, but it’s a work in progress. Luckily God loves works in progress just as much as he loves the well-tended gardens.

Mark 4:3-9, Ecclesiastes 4:7-12, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, 6:12-16

Won't Back Down

Have you ever had those moments that struck very powerfully in your mind. Today I had one of those moments. Standing in church singing and praising the Lord with all the horrible sounds that I could muster, when I closed my eyes to pray as I sang along. A line from another song came to mind and an image stood clearly in my mind.

The song was “Won't Back Down” by Tom Petty. The line of course was, “You can stand me up at the gates of hell and I won't back down.” Powerful words, but paled in comparison to the image that joined it. A truly scary image, scary for what it symbolizes.

I saw myself standing in that dark cavern that I have traveled through in my mind so many times in my past. Standing there at the threshold, at the gate was myself standing in chainmail with a very large white shield with the red cross on it. Cross helm and white sir coat with the always known red cross. Standing there I plunged a flag into the ground with and stood very strong and proudly. It was so impressive looking so large and strong and powerful. I looked as if I were a human wall with a look upon my face so sure that nothing held behind that gate would get past me.

Images similar to these have not been too far from my face in recent days. They come in different forms and shapes, but still with this power and strength that I do not possess. That is what is so scary about this image, the strength that one would have to have to stand there like that knowing what horrors await. Strength that no mortal possess. It is so humbling to see these images for me.

The Lord makes all thing possible, this truth I know. I have walked through those fires and seen their faces and know their names. Through this darkness they too know my face. My name. They know the pride, the anger that once was held within me. They know the weaknesses of my flesh. They know my lusts and desires, they know me better than I know them. They know that I once toasted a glass to their honor and their power, and stood as opposition to God.

In the end their promises of power were without ground. They could provide temporary strength, only for periods of time that God allowed. Through my own desires to be more than a human, my body mind and soul were torn asunder. I look at who I was then and do not recognize that face. They made a monster out of me and I relished in it. My faith in them was strong, so strong that I thought, no I believed that I could walk into heavens gates and tear God from the throne.

Talk about delusional. They do not have this power and they cannot give it to any man, woman or child. And now with this image in my mind. I was too weak to stand that vigil for the demons of hell. This is the same flesh, the same bones and the same blood. How can God expect that of me?

God knows my heart and he knows the good that I would love to do. He knows that I weep over the hurt that I have caused in the past. Even though I am forgiven for it, I still weep knowing all those lives that I helped destroy. The pain that I have caused to my family, friends and those that looked to me as a leader. They looked to me to guide them and give them strength. I lead them only to destruction, the same road that I was going down.

How then, in such a short amount of time, can I stand so strong for the Lord? Am I strong enough to do this? Only God knows. That is the message here. It is not about me and my past, but know this. Through all the bad that I have done, God is now getting the Glory just as he will. God's hand was the only one that could reach down and pull me out of the flames. Only his grace in good enough and strong enough to break my heart. He wrestled me and made me give it all to him.

Do I have the strength to stand at the gates of hell and not back down? Do I have the strength to stand vigil as someone to bring hope and courage to those that have none? Do I have the wisdom to know what to say to those that are going down the road I traveled? The answer is simple, No.

No, I do not have this strength. My flesh is weak and is built in sin, there is no strength in these bones, blood and mind. That is where the wicked fail. They believe that these temporal forms can bi given the power to combat things that are eternal.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” Romans 6:5-11

Only through Faith in Christ Jesus shall we know the strength and power that God will grant. That power is through knowing that we stand with the one true God. Through his grace mercy and peace will we be empowered to do things that are far beyond what we may do. This is not a cry to say that if you want power become a Christian. No on the contrary, through realizing how weak we are, we learn that the power of God through Christ is insurmountable.

Will I stand so vigil? With the Lord of Heaven and earth beside me, behind me and in me. Of course I will. So long as I don the armor of faith and stand on the pillar of faith that is the foundation of all that we are. God is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, he became flesh in the Son Jesus Christ, whom lived the perfect life and sacrificed himself for those that could not live perfect.

Even Aristotle said that perfection is akin to a force that cannot exist here in this world even for a second. This world is broken and to be perfect you will transcend to something more and beyond all that we know. In our lives we will see these moments within ourselves for only seconds when we stand beside ourselves in disbelief. In those moments, Praise Lord that you have received the grace and glory to do his work in all you do.

I stand in opposition of what the demons in hell wished for me. If they had their way, I would probably be with them now, dead. Through that death my soul would forever be lost and held beneath. But God pulled me from that hell, and placed me here. He redeemed me and Justified my actions and made me upright. Not perfect, just as flawed and broken, but upright. There is a difference.

Those of you that feel as if you are being swallowed by the flames of hell. Know that I have stood in those flames. I willingly walked into those fires and am being prepared to possibly do the same, with a different agenda. Only God knows what he has in store for me. But I will stand with you if you ask of it. Give me your hand and together we can find a road back to more solid ground. I'll walk with you for a while, until I can get you to someone that can take you the rest of the way.

The fires became a home for me once and I stand against them now. Lord give me the strength that I do not possess. As you prepare me for what is to come, help me become more able to stand with those that are hurting. Guide me to know what to say or where to go, so all those that have lost their lives around me can have a little more hope, and find peace in you. Too many have died not knowing your love or feeling abandoned by the world, or their pride kept them from reaching out. Lord you know my heart, I know you are preparing me, I know that you will use me. Lord give me the strength that I do not have.

I leave with the prayer for the full armor of God:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore Take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ~Ephesians 6:10-17

A Question of Human nature

I have always thought much about people and why they do what they do. It was always hard for me to imagine how for so long that pain and suffering has existed. Receiving the question of why do people write viruses over and over, for me there is many answers, but it comes down to one. The answer is, because they can.

It is the same answer for many things. Why do people hurt one another? Why do people steal, when they do not need it? Why must the strong always oppress the weak? Why must there always be a struggle? Humans are greedy people. We want what we do not have, and, by nature, are not happy with what they have.

Greed is the root of so much that is wrong with our lives and our world. The world is a big place, but each day we try to make it a little smaller. Someone once said, in response to the question of why World Domination will never occur. The answer was, “The world is too big, and the people are too different for any one group or ideal to dominate it all.”

Many have also said you cannot change the world, but you can change yourself and help change the things you touch. Now from this point your mind could be going in many different directions, but primarily along two different paths, negative and positive. So is the reason the world becoming smaller is so someone can control it? Or as we touch so much more and so many more people, can we not more effectively change more that we touch?

But what does this have to do with viruses? How to viruses spread? Everyone knows how a cold spreads, through contact. Viruses the same way. Ideas are humanities greatest virus. They spread as one to the other. If an idea takes hold, a notion, it can spread like wildfire. We see this every day in every facet of our lives. The idea that certain clothes look cool to the idea that this diet will work for you, to the idea that this person or that person knows what they are talking about.

These ideas build our society, and society, a lot of times, define our world. We are in an information age, so now more than ever is the concept true that Ideas are some of the most powerful and dangerous things out there. We have seen this in popular culture going back for some time. Inception was not the first, and neither was the Matrix. George Orwell's 1984 showed us an idea of control.

We flash back quite a way to the ideas that changed the world. From, “Fire good!” to Jesus might know what he's talking about to, E=MC2 is a good recipe for a weapon, to if we hook computers together they are much more powerful, to hey what if I could take my phone with me. Ideas change and shape our world and our lives.

Hey if a man letting himself get struck by lightning can change the world... why can't you? I mean really think about it, Ben Franklin, indisputably one of the most revolutionary men in history really shone with the great idea of being able to harness electricity, but what did he do. “Hey guys watch this! I'm gonna tie a key to this kite to prove that electricity is real.” I mean seriously, how could ANYONE think that was a GOOD idea?

If ideas such as leaving fruit juice out too long will and drinking it will get you drunk can be accepted not only as good ideas, but major industries. Why could more fruitful ones take hold? Well they can, but the trick in this age is getting people to take on ideas that they will not make a profit and will not get them more attention. How many of you, honestly, would not jump on board with an idea that would without a doubt make you a millionaire in a year with no consequences?

How about this one, taking on the belief of an idea that would get you labeled crazy if it promised you eternal life? I bet you would for sure if you didn't get this eternal life after you died. Death is scary for most of us. Here is the problem, we want to see that there is proof of this good idea before we will take it on ourselves.

This is understandable, it is a rare kind of person that wishes to be the first to do something that could be labeled as a bad idea, but man we all want to be the first to do something that is considered a good idea. All reward with No risk. Sorry life is not so easy. Yes you can live life in such a fashion, always taking the safe road and sticking with the status quo. The Status Quo does not equal change however. If you want to change things, you really have to be willing to take that step out there and be the first.

If you want to change yourself however, this is even more difficult. You have to be willing to change how YOU do things, and do things that are against the routines that you have developed. Anyone that has been addicted to anything will tell you how hard that can be. Our bodies are influenced by our environment. Part of our environment is our history. We learn how humans have existed for as long as we have been, and we accept that is the way of things. So what if you want to believe something that is contrary to what you were taught to believe? That's hard.

Pearl Bailey had a wonderful quote, “You cannot belong to anyone, until you belong to yourself.” Now for me, what this means is you have to know who you are and be yourself before you can truly know why you believe in what you believe in. You have to develop your own idea of how the world is, and how you are. You have to walk through these fires before your faith can truly belong to you and it's not just borrowed from someone else. Only then will your walk be true.

So moving to the heart of things. What do you want our world to be like? Loving, accepting, one without war and strife? You want a world without oppression? As Michael Jackson said, “You have to start with the man in the mirror.” World change begins with you. You want others to desire to be a Christian, give them reason to with your walk. “Faith without works is meaningless.” “May they know that you are my children because they see me in you.” If you really treated others with love and you loved them as you loved yourself... most of us wouldn't call anyone anything horrible. Now if you are like me and have a bad habit of talking to yourself... well I can be less than kind to myself, but hey I still love me every chance I get.

How about we start walking with the love of God instead of trying to do his job and walking with a yard stick to see how everyone else just doesn't measure up. May God be with you in your heart and your soul. And let's keep taking that red pill and see the world for what it is, so we can begin to make it the world that Jesus would love it to be. We have to be in this world, but not of it.

Inclusive or Exclusive, the Christmas spirit

The holidays bring out a lot of things in a lot of people. For many it's a time of joy and cheer, for others that cheer has turned sour with hurt and loss. For those that are alone it can be a time of great pain. For us Christians it is supposed to be a time for us to reflect on the birth of the one that died for all of us.

During this time of reflection, it is easy to get caught up in what Christmas is NOT about. Shopping, greed, everything but the spirit of Christ. It can also make us loose sense of purpose and why God left us here and think that this is our time. No one else that does not worship this time for the same reasons as us do not deserve it. This is a big reason why there are not more of us.

This is a time for us to celebrate and truly get into the spirit of giving, it is not about consumerism and it is not of elitism. It is a time to be with family and friends, it is also a time to reach out to those that are hurting because of this time. Those people need a reason to make this time of year something worth celebrating. Times are turbulent, as they always are, we do not need more fighting, war and strife. We do not need any more lessons in greed, coveting, lust and deceit. What I call for is for each of you to reflect on one thing. Was Christ inclusive or exclusive?

Jesus was a man that none of us are capable of being, but we should not stop trying just because it's hard. It's easy to have friends that are like you, it's hard to spend time with people that you are not like. Look in the bible and reflect on the places that Jesus had dinner at more than not. He spent more time with the lawyers, tax collectors and thieves when he was living his ministry. He lived by example, he wanted all to walk with him. He lived and died so we could be with him. So why have we, as Christians, for so long shunned, killed, hurt and cast aside those that were not like us?

When I was not a Christian one of my biggest reasons for not was the crusades. We Christians went into the middle-east and slaughtered millions because they believed differently from us, to take the holy lands away from the people that had lived there for so long. We continued to oppress others that did not believe like us. The conquistadors, the people that settled right here in the US, the natives that were here had what we wanted and we took it from them. This oppression pushed me away from Christ, especially when I was told that I had no place at church when I listened to rock music, when I dressed like that, when I was not just like them.

I am a Christian and I would still wager that I am quite different than the vast majority of my brothers and sisters, but that's how I was built. God loves me for who I am, his brush painted me and that is who I am. I'm still an unfinished work, just as we all are. Lessons in the bible that really mean a lot to me are the ones that make you reflect on life and how one should live as well as the stories about how we are all his people. Jesus told the disciples to go make disciples of the world.

He also spoke to the world as the nation of Israel. Now this is an interesting thought, we are all one people under God. We are all citizens of one global country in God's eyes. Why can we not live like that? Why is it that we have to concern ourselves with what country we currently live and how it compares to others? All of them are broken because they are not all one. As long as we as a race of people fight God's plan and design we will never truly know what happiness we could have. We have the resources globally to take care of all of the people of the world, but we will not share it. We want to hold it tight and are so worried about running out.

Where is your faith? Did not your God take care of you? Did he not see you through the darkness? Did he not provide for his people in the past? Faith of a mustard seed... Until we wake up and break down these walls that we call borders and live as a whole people we will never see his plan. Here is my challenge to you, if you do not have a friend that is not a Christian, I challenge you to expand your world. If your faith is strong enough, then this is not a challenge, stand beside the sinner because we all are. Show them that Christians are not all judgmental exclusive people. Show people the Love that God has shown you. Let us begin to break down these borders and walls around us. We are a global people and our survival depends on two things, first God letting us stay here and second our ability to look beyond how we are different and see how we are alike.

Be more like Jesus, Love people, and love ALL people no matter what holiday in December they celebrate today, they could be standing with you at church if you can get past that. Remember, the healthy are not the ones that need the doctors. If you only live with the healthy and help those that are healthy, the sick will continue to die away. Two commandments is what he gave us, Love God with everything we have and Love each other as we love ourselves. I don't know about you, but I only pick on myself for so long before I get tired of it.

I love you all, and may we see a brighter future through hope. This is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who would have gave away all those gifts on that very day if he wasn't in such a weak form. For those that are hurting, I am sorry for your loss. I cannot bring back your lost ones, but I can stand with you and be a light in the darkness. I know that I have a lot of brothers and sisters that can do the same in this Holiday season let us walk like Christ.

Standing for Beliefs

“If you do not believe in something you will fall for anything.” That quote is one that I’m sure everyone has heard more than once. It’s sound advice. We all also have heard stories of people that stood up for what they believed in no matter what the cost. Some of these stories appall us, others yet, excite us.

The moments that really take hold are the ones that inspire awe in us. These range from Rosa Parks to Ghandi to the founding fathers of this county. They also go to people that are less known such as the monks that set themselves on fire in protest, to the man in Gastonia, NC that robbed a bank for one dollar just to get medical treatment. They can be figures that will be remembered for ages to come like Jesus Christ, to the man that will be forgotten tomorrow.

As Christians we are told that by our faith we shall be known. We are told there is a way that we should act. Look through the first few books of the New Testament and we are slammed with expectations. Jesus tells us to be more like him each and every day. To do that we must go against the grain of society, culture and modern thought. To go even further, we have to go against the policies of the companies in which we work for. But to do that costs. We have to go against injustice, reach out and help people.

Paul went to jail for the rest of his life, when with a few simple words, he could have lived as a free man. Jesus went to his death with Pilot trying to get him to phrase “Truth” in an angle that lead to un-truth, when he could have so easily said something to set him free. Rosa Parks could have given that white boy her seat. What kept them from taking the easy way out? It wasn’t right, it was against their ideals. They stopped accepting, “Well that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Just because that’s the way it was done does not make it right. Today the world is in uproar. Look all over the world and there are protests and people fighting for change because things today are not right. When a man is turned away from a hospital because he does not have the money to get the surgery that he needs, that is just not right. But yet we support the systems that make this possible and accept that is the way of it.

I understand the concept of obeying the laws of the land, but do we have to accept them? What if a law goes directly against something we believe in? What if it goes against a teaching in the bible? Do we still accept it? We give unto Cesar what it Ceaser’s, but when do we do like Moses and make them let out people go? How many of you do not like what is on TV these days, but still have cable? If you do not like something, but you accept it and continue to let it come into your home… who’s at fault?

The world is not our own and our bodies are made of sin and are of this world. Newton’s laws of physics proves that change takes action and is hard. “An object at rest will remain at rest.” Even bigger than that, “An object in motion will remain in motion until it meets equal and opposite force.” So, if we are in a routine of sin, it takes at least as much effort to stop. So what does it take to turn us in the other direction? To change what we are doing instead of just stopping, well it takes more. You have to put in more effort to make a life change than the force effecting us in sin.

 That is why I believe that as Christians many of us continue accepting the way the world is. Think about how hard you would have to push back to get the entire world to change from the way it is currently going? That would be humanly impossible, alone. That is why we have another idea ingrained in our heads. We are each part of a greater whole. We cannot be as big of an impact as Jesus by ourselves, it requires all of us working together to make this change.

This change that I am talking about it not just a single change, no it is a complete change. We must stand up for our ideals, our beliefs, and more importantly for one another. “This fight is one that we cannot win alone,” said Dane Johnson. He is exactly right as well. We are fighting a world that wants us to accept the way things are. It wants us to be a cog in the machine and just live life according to the way things are planned out for us.

I mean we have our lives plotted out for us in a simple checklist:

Go to school, get good grades, graduate, go to college, get a job, get married, get a house, have a family, send them to school, make sure they continue to do the checklist, pay taxes along the way and die.

Along the way we get little add-ins that society tells us we have to do to be accepted. Dress a certain way, eat certain things, get credit cards, go in debt. I mean even as we look at the way the financial market is right now. We have to have credit to buy a house, a car or even to have certain jobs. Yet the bible tells us PLAINLY to not lend nor borrow. As we get in debt, we use it to live beyond our means, which leads us to more debt.

So are you a Christian? Do you live by these models? Why?

I am tired of hearing Christians say, “It’s the way society is, and we can’t change it.” I say that if we are going to be more like Jesus, YES we can change it. Do not accept that the world is broken and just “Paint over the wallpaper.” We are being that are told to go into the world and make disciples of the world. If the world were disciples then the world would change.

Do not accept the status quo. Do not accept that’s the way things are. Do not do it because I said so. Do it because it is what Christ asked us to do. Help your fellow man, and help see the love of God. We can change the world; we have been as a people for thousands of years. Let’s not stop today, let’s not stop now.

If you do not believe in Corprate Greed, stop Supporting It! If you don’t want crap on your TV, stop Watching It! If you are against the Debt System, stop using it! If you do not like a company, stop shopping with them. Do not accept that’s the way it is, or I have to because society tells you to. Take a step closer to Christ. If we continue to support the system that is degrading society and pulling it further and further away from what God would want, we are just as guilty when we fall into line. Make a change starting with the person you look at in the mirror each morning, then to your home, then in how you live your life.

Make changes in your life, and make a difference in the world. Opinions always welcome.