Epiphany of the day

The biggest misconception of the 21st century church is that "church" is an event or a destination...when it is truly a personal identity.

Let it marinate, folks.

How resourceful are you

     David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord,

'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.'" - 2 Samuel 24:10

It just seems to be human nature. As we grow in wealth and ability, our confidence moves from complete trust in the Lord to trust in our resources.

    King David decided one day that he needed to know how many fighting men he had in his army. This was a grievous sin in the nation of Israel. God always made it clear to the nation that He, not their army, was their source. It was against the law of God to number the troops. David's general, Joab, knew the serious nature of such an action.

But Joab replied to the king,

"May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?" (2 Samuel 24:3)

Joab knew that David was treading in dangerous waters when he brought up the idea to him. But David had it in his mind that this is what he was going to do. And he did. The result: God judged David for this sin by smiting the nation with a plague that resulted in the loss of 70,000 lives.

Recently, I was having lunch with a former stockbroker who lost everything in the 1987 stock crash in the United States. He made an interesting comment.

"You cannot know how to fully trust the Lord in the financial area until you really have to. When I lost everything, I was forced to trust Him when I knew I could not pay my next bill unless God provided. This was the time I learned to trust God. I never had to trust God before I lost my money because I had plenty. We don't willingly enter this level of trust with God."

I, myself, have experienced this very same teaching moment with God. I went from a beachfront condo, BMW, more money than I could need, custom tailored suits every week.....monogrammed custom shirts...complete home recording studio....to being car-less, homeless, friend-less, jobless and hopeless. I lost everything including my fiancée 2 months before the wedding all back to back to back. All while serving in the church and heading the music ministry.

   I wouldn't trade those very recent 2-3 years for anything in the world. I survived an attempted suicide and severe depression. I had no where to turn but God. Nowhere.  After years of knowing about God....we really became family. He was no longer a deity, alpha and omega....the point of thousands of sermons I've heard.....not just my Savior who died for me.....He became MY DAD. The birthing of that relationship (not religion) destroyed all fear of anything, anyone, anywhere and anytime in my life. It's an incredibly liberating way of life that is beyond all description.

Ask God today to keep you from trusting in your own resources. Ask Him how to balance trust and blessing

Your past & present pain MUST equal your predestined purpose

"If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." - 2 Corinthians 1:6

"God must love you a lot! He doesn't allow someone to go through the kinds of adversity you have experienced unless He has a special calling on your life." Those were the words said to me by two different mentors at two different times within a three-year period. Later I would learn another related truth from a respected man of God - a man who lives in another country, a man whom God uses throughout the globe. "The depth and width of your faith experiences are directly proportional to your calling." What were these men of God saying?

They were describing a process of preparation that God takes each of His leaders through when He plans to use them in significant ways. A "faith experience" is an event or "spiritual marker" in your life about which you can say, "That is where I saw God personally moving in my life." It is an unmistakable event in which God showed Himself personally to you. It was the burning bush for Moses; the crossing of the Red Sea or the Jordan River for the nation of Israel; Jacob's encounter with the angel. It was the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples. It was the time when you saw God face to face in your life.

If God has plans of using you in the lives of many others, you can expect that He is going to allow certain faith experiences to come into your life in order to build a foundation that will be solid. That foundation is what you will be able to look back on to keep you faithful to Him in the times of testing. Each of us must have personal faith experiences in which we experience God personally so that we can move in faith to whatever He may call us. Do you need a personal faith experience right now in your life? Pray that God will reveal Himself to you. He delights in doing that.

Is being moral enough?

I recently heard someone use the phrase “moral Christianity” to describe what they believe is the current temperature of faith in America, and it grieved me. Moral Christianity points people toward godly—or moral—answers without pointing them toward God. It shows people how to live by good rules without showing them how to be disciples of the Good Shepherd.

Don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with teaching others to live by godly principles. After all, God’s Word is an instructional manual for a successful, godly life. It’s a light for one’s path (Psalm 119:105). But there is something wrong with teaching “moral, do-good Christianity” without showing others how to connect with the Savior. If we simply do what’s right without being disciples of the Author of Life, we may look more like the unbelieving Jews than the disciples.

I’m sharing this because lately I have been convicted about this, I have been asking myself, does what i share cause others to want Jesus, not just want to do the right things or have a better life so they can be more comfortable?

If I only offer up moral Christianity without pointing you to Christ, what good am I honestly doing?

In John 5:39-40 Jesus said to the Jews . . .

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Knowing truth and knowing the Author of Truth are two entirely different things—and only one of them leads to the life we desperately need.

At the end of January, during a quiet moment with the Lord, I scrawled these thoughts, which I believe He gave me, in my journal.

Knowing the right answers will not transform you. Going to church alone will not transform you. Being religious and even memorizing Scripture will not transform you. Only being in right relationship with me while you experience these things will transform you. The Jews in the New Testament knew the answers, but they didn’t know Me. They did not have a love relationship with Me, therefore their hearts remained unchanged. Knowledge of the truth alone cannot transform. It’s My love working together with truth that transforms.

People who are experiencing war overseas, divorce in the United States, and death in their families don’t need to know just good principles without knowing the Prince of Peace. They don’t need to know how to live unless they know the One who gave them life. To give them truth without pointing them to The Truth is dishonoring to the Lord—and offering a balm to the wounded that does not heal.

So what does this have to do with you? A lot, actually. Just like me, you are preaching a sermon with your life. You may not be standing in a pulpit or putting words on a page. But every day, you are a witness for the Lord. Will you only show others what it means to be a moral Christian—or will you demonstrate what it looks like to intimately walk with the Savior?

Capacity

Maximum capacity....

      Exactly what is our capacity? Have you ever felt like you've had "enough"? When everyone else seems to be happy with life as it is? A ever growing rumble of discontentment? Not sure why because everyone says you are fortunate? But itlike it's all just stale? Feel as if you're settling? Everyone says you should be thankful and you're being ungrateful. Could be your job, your relationship, your marriage, your church, your friendships....even your house or city you live in.

     I'm going to be transparent about my own experience. For this purpose you should know I am not religious but I am in a relationship with God. I am not a christian by choice....I am a disciple of His by destiny.  So do understand there will not be religious rhetoric but I will refer to the way my life is governed by His principles.  (No worries if this confuses you. Most christians don't get it either.)

     I've always known that I was meant for more. To make a difference in millions of lives. Although never encouraged as a child by a bitter single mom, my grandmother encouraged my big dreams. But with every accomplishment and every misstep...I knew there was more. I found purpose as a minister of minister for several ministries in my lifetime. Unfortunately I have discovered that with every ministry I have been blessed to be a part of, there has always been an overwhelming tendency of those working with me to assume that I had arrived to stay. I tend to believe that most in ministry, instead of seeing people with gifts and talents as trees to be cultivated, grown, and sent out to replicate.....they see them as wood to be cut down to build up their vision and dreams.

Here's a little nugget: If the departure of any one person would cause any discomfort in your business, church or organization....you have placed too much weight on that one beam. They should never be a load bearing wall....but a tree in a forest of flourishing people....providing shade and fruit.

    But I disgress, I have been on this road of uncommon destiny for a decade now. I'm used to not being understood.  The unrest in my belly has been building for 15 years. Its to the point that I can't physically stomach mediocrity. I prefer not to have any conversations with the small minded. It feels as if I'm dishonoring the minutes of life God gives me by wasting it with those that choose to remain superficial.  I'm of two minds about it all. I recognize that I must extend grace to those that don't quite "get it" yet because there's a whole heap of things I don't "get" yet. But where is the point where you start sacrificing your purpose, destiny and dreams to stay stuck in the mediocre crap heap that everyone else seems perfectly happy to wallow in? God plainly said to me, "Enough is enough...time to move and stop being their crutch." So I did. 

The Bible says in Joshua 24:15  (KJV)

15 "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

The generally accepted interpretation of this scripture is "choose between the devil and God". But that's the lazy interpretation of someone who doesn't want to be accountable for their own life. "gods" is lowercase because people serve all sorts of gods. Including christians. I will not serve anyone else's "god" of interpretation of what "church" looks like. I will not serve a denomination. I will not serve theology. I will not serve popularity. Not a hot band. Not having a great sounding praise team. Or a hype service. Nor emotional junkies. All "gods". Whether we want to admit it or not.....they are. I will not serve the god of fundraising. 

     Quite simply, how can I claim to serve the all powerful God, claim special access to Him, say I am an overcome (as a black man and a christian); say I am made in the likeness of a God of abundance and live in abject poverty (less than 60k a year) and a life of insignificance? And be surrounded by people who actually think that's ok? I cant. I wont. Not any longer. I can't look my daughters in the eyes and expect any better of their future husbands. Any one with any common sense can't do the same....not honestly.

    I've been blessed to acquire relationships with people that share my discomfort with the ordinary. I am so excited to move into the unknown with them. I love those I've had to disconnect from. But they've made their decision by their actions.  I will always have an extended hand to help them up. But I will not help decorate a house built in the squallor of mediocrity.

      I refuse. I will not disappoint God by misrepresenting Him. He is love. So will I be. He is grace. So will I be. He lives in abundance which He shares with others.....so will I. He has destined me for a life of significance on a global scale.....solely for one purpose.....to show the world what is possible with the kid that made all the wrong choices....told he would never amount to anything....and written off by all.....

I refuse to live and die....nothing more than a great musician.....good organist.....good producer....good preacher....good friend....Good dad.....a good church member.....i was meant for more....so much more. The word christian means "Christ like". Its a cliche nowadays. A catch phrase. What it really means is to experience what Christ experienced here.

The Bible says in Matthew 5: 10-12

10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."

Seems to me...I'm on the right course. Because I have reached my capacity for mediocrity. And the only ones upset are the ones my gifts are no longer availiable to. It's called sifting.....separating the wheat from the tares.
The ones that see my destiny applaud my growth and having been pushing me to move....and there's the other group.

   Real talk....it might be time for you to take inventory and dare to be about the faith you've been singing and spewing but not living. Find out who's really about you reaching your destiny or about you reaching into your pocket to fill theirs.

Are you at your maximum capacity for mediocrity?