Erase me... It's the only way you get glory

I have been dealing with a phrase the past few days that I believe embodies everything that is essential about serving the Lord. This one thing is the rise and fall for many believers and has become the most daunting task as of late for me as a minister, a preacher and a child of God. The phrase in all of its three-syllable glory rings like this… “Erase me”. I want to lay this out so you get it and keep it and hopefully die to yourself today. Think of it like this. You know how you could write your name in huge letters on an old black chalk board and then erase it and your name be gone but the residue of the chalk be left in a big white smear? I hope you got that visual, because it is a beautiful parallel to how our lives should be in Christ. We should be erased into his presence in such a way that when we are looked at… in every area of life people no longer see you and I, but a life smeared and erased into the presence of God. So in turn they look and identify us as being Godly, Chosen, and Different. It is the only way. I mean this with complete love and humility but for you and I to be productive for God means that you and I have to become less and less. It was said once like this… “ I pray that some of us go to our own funerals tonight…and that we die to self… that we pick up the cross that God has called us to carry…it is the only way that God can get glory from a human”. The cross that God has called us to carry is one that screams for selflessness, compassion, humility, and abandonment of our own desires. It is a cross that demands our time, passion, energy and gratitude. It is a cross that demands our lives. The bible says that no one in their right mind would build a house without first counting the cost. Count it. Before you pick up the cross you understand and know that to be successful at following Christ you have to learn to die…every single day. Can you handle that? In place of your name is His. In place of your wants… His, in place of your dreams… His. I have this to say with absolute confidence. When you give your life to the cause of Christ, His dreams become your dreams, His wants become yours, and his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead become the most exciting thing you’ll ever speak of. In confession I will say this. I have not obtained a perfect life of dieing to myself. Everyday I want my way… I mean it is my nature but cannot be my excuse. The remedy. I MUST decrease so that Christ can increase. If that does not happen then talk is just talk and words are just words. In lieu of that statement I am off to carry my cross. Want you join me?

Don't loose the specificity of the Gospel in your un-satisfaction for "Church"

Be thou my portion for that which I am is fading fast into that which I dread:
Take me I’m dead:
Buried at the cross I died but not the dead in a coffin kind:
I gave it up:
I drank the cup:
I share in your grace cause you shared in my pain:
Doesn’t seem fair:
Why don’t they care:
I mean you poured out yourself like a tipped over pot you fell from the shelf:
By your own doing, by the choice you made:
Beautifully broken ransom paid:
So that I, that we, that her and him… could conquer death…yea laugh at sin:
Now I’m here this sinking boat:
We lie to ourselves and call her the church:
Supposed bride who lookes like a whore:
Taking whatever knocks at her door:
Every doctrine, every wind:
She’s blown away and trapped in Sin:
Giving herself to everything… can you imagine the Fathers pain:
So still it rings the calls the same:
Stand up, please stand up evoke some change:

The call is for you and I. Why in the world do we let the church tell us how church is suppose to go. Why do we sit in Sunday service and subject ourselves to worship the way every other person in the church is worshiping. Some of you love to stand and lift your hands in the presence of God, but when we are in class and He makes himself known, we sit, in Sunday service when no one else stands we sit, scared to worship the way we were made to. Maybe it’s not standing, maybe you’re a dancer or painter or writer or runner or a student… Why are you letting preachers, teachers, parents and classmates dictate how you worship? Why are we letting them beat us into a round hole when God has called us to be square pegs? Why are you not out there right now worshiping?

Leave!
Now!
Go and be the unique wonder God created you to be.
And breath every moment in like it's your last chance to worship.

This is truth, this is life… this is the word of God.

I have been struggling with the idea that we are wrong. That here in this overly spoiled selfish country we have taken our eyes off of Jesus off of what we are called to and we have fixed our eyes on things that don’t shine so bright on our sin. We tend to look at other peoples lives to judge our own. Since we aren’t as bad or as dirty as others we feel like we have our hands wrapped around this thing, like we are truly good Christians. I guess today my mind just keeps going back to the Word. The word of God is the only thing that we can judge our lives by, it is the only work of Art, which is completely flawless, divine, and inspired by God. I know the response of some would be like this, “Tj, creation is divine and inspired by God”. Right, but it is not flawless and that’s why it is imperative that we as Christians go to the Word of God for counsel, instruction, and for it to be the mirror we stand in front of to examine our spiritual lives. The bible says this… “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you”. To me that’s one of the strongest verses in the word. We hear so often that salvation can be found in a prayer but clearly salvation goes so far beyond prayer into a daily lifestyle. So much so that we can hold our lives up to the light of the word and see if we are really in the faith, if we are really following God. Like this. When a bone is broken you hold the x-ray up to the light and every crack, every weak and broken spot is exposed. When we hold our lives up to the light of Gods word the same thing happens. Every piece of our lives that has been worn down by this world is exposed and we can’t help but see it in it’s beautifully broken state. See when compared to the word of God we are poor, wretched and blind… oh and don’t forget naked. The most beautiful thing is this. The Light that exposes the brokenness and nastiness of our lives is the same light that can heal and restore. Jesus, in his entire splendor is the Light, the Word, the Mirror, the Healer, the Teacher and the Promise of salvation. My hope is this. That today you take your life and hold it up to the light of Gods word and allow him to shine on you. Take a few minutes and pray that he would shine in like never before, that he would truly expose you in His presence. In this you will find that there is no hope of putting the brokenness back together outside of His grace. You will also see that there is a loving, powerful God who is faithful to forgive you when you ask. He has come to give you life and life to the full. So please allow the light to shine, allow yourself to be exposed. This is truth, this is life… this is the word of God.

To share the faith… is to die in place

I have a strong feeling that this will resound in the hearts of pretty much everyone that reads. I am at sometimes terrified to “witness”. You know? To go up to a perfect stranger and say hey Jesus loves you or hey if you die today are you going to heaven or hell. I am somewhat lost in what to say sometimes or what to do or even whom to talk to. I also have this problem with one on one communication… some of you know what I am talking about. Give me a stage and a guitar or a group to preach to and I’m all talk, but when it’s just me and one or two I clam up. Just one of my quirks I guess. The point of this isn’t my quirks but the urgency to share the gospel of Christ. What if today was someone’s last day and you’re the last one to pass them before they drove head first off a cliff? What if you had the opportunity to share the hope you have inside and you didn’t? I am writing with conviction knowing I pass up a million opportunities every day…See, we live in a culture that says we shouldn’t worry about it, you can always tell them tomorrow. I cry that you hear this! Tomorrow may never come and if it doesn’t then today will be what we stand before God with. What does that look like for you? Have you given him your day, your conversations, your affections, and if so have you shared with someone else that which he has done with it? Today is a day of questions I guess. I want to know why we are so reserved. Why in the world do we bottle up inside of us the most beautiful gift known to man. I want to challenge you and myself for the next five days to share the gospel once a day at least once. Pray and I will pray with you that God opens the door for you to share his love. Paul says this… “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation… to whomever believes”, before that Jesus said “if you deny me before men I will deny you before my father in heaven”. I have to stop here and say this. That freaks me out. How often do we deny Jesus by sitting through that movie filled with perversion, listening in on that joke, or running back to the same sin day after day? I know those things are easy to write off like this…”well everybody watches it… we love each other… it only has one nude scene… I only do ______ occasionally…God is love and full of grace he will forgive me” All of those may be and are probably true (the bold is entirely true) but in reality every time we give in and fall into sin, whether we say it or not we deny that we believe the Grace and Love of God is big enough to keep us from that particular sin. Dc talk once said this “ the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyle. That’s what an unbelieving world find unbelieving”. Wow, I definitely did not intend on going there but here we are, so take it as you will. Share your faith but by all means keep your mouth shut if you don’t live it. I write because I love you and want to see heaven full.

I hope that by the end of this you are utterly offended and quite ticked off, so much so that you ask God if I’m right. I’m not writing this for the sole purpose of offending… I just hope it does. I hope that you are so mad that you want to track me down and punch me in the face. I truly believe that’s what it is going to take to make some of you see that we are the lamest most stereotypical Christian’s… Ever. Today I watched a guy named Paul Washer and he reminded me of sermons I preached with urgency and passion months ago... To be honest the last few months or even year my life has lacked in the passion and fire area. I won’t blame it on the church completely but man do they have a steak in the storm that God is bringing me through. I am completely convinced that half or more of the southern Baptist community is headed straight to hell… and Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic and anyone who claims Christ and acts the opposite of their profession. I am arguing if there is no change in your life or the lives of those who call themselves Christians then there is no Jesus. No matter if there has been a prayer prayed or a church membership signed. There is an urgent need for the understanding of salvation to be proclaimed in my generation and I pray God forgives me for my dormant quietness over the past few months. Listen, if you can get along with the world and watch their movies, listen to their music and thrive in their culture then there is a problem. I know what your thinking and right now you want to say something like this (Tj, Jesus hung out with the sinner’s man… I mean they were prostitutes and drunks, murderers and rapist… he ate with tax collectors and the outcast.) I agree, Jesus loved on and hung out with the dirtiest of dirty, but my friend listen, they did not stay that way. After being in the presence of Jesus and following him they were radically transformed. They started talking like Jesus, walking with Jesus and several of them died like Jesus. They became preachers, teachers and servants to the body of Christ. They sold all that they have so that the name of Jesus could be lifted high, so that all of mankind could see that he was worth losing everything, but not to us, not the average American Christian.