Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Grace after it ends badly
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Show me your "nub"
Mark 3:1 "And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.
4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other"
I'm a southern boy. Born and raised in the segregated and still racially divided deep south. With that being said, we call things just like they are. No political correctness, no, as we often say "beating around the bush." We never described an amputee's infirmity as a "physical challenge"....a "handicap",...a reach deficiency. No, in the south....we called it a "nub". The amputee called it a nub. We called it a nub....and no one was offended. For the purposes of this article.....neither should you.
(My family will still call the amputated limb...a nub)
This speaks to the power of this verse. Today in the climate of political correctness and desperation to be sensitive to everyone's feelings....we have cultivated in the modern day church a tendency to treat our fellow parishioners like a first or second date. We do everything we can to show our best faces around those we actually call our "brothers or sisters in Christ".
Why then are they the ones we are consistently the most fake with?
"I'm not fake!" You go to work or your mothers house not really concerned if you have a bad hair day.....but you'll miss Sunday school to get your hair right. We'll keep the child out of wedlock on the down low claiming it's no one else business.....won't admit our lights are shut off to your "supposed" family. But I digress.
Notice the 5th verse. Jesus said "stretch out thine hand.."
He never asked for the good hand or the withered one.
If He had asked any of us....
We would've shown Him our good hand!
Why? Because we're more concerned with the damaging of our reputation by exposing our withered hand than discovering God's restoration!
When will we learn? His strength is made perfect through our weakness.
Here's your nugget: We would rather make temporary infirmity a chronic life long handicap by masking it in spiritual religiosity rather than being transparent enough to let God use our "nub" for a testimony.
We make a temporary illness intended for a testimony into a chronic handicap.....why?
PRIDE.
LET IT MARINATE FOLKS.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Infiltrate, Not Isolate
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. - (1 Peter 3:9)
Far too often it seems that Christians don’t want to have any contact with unbelievers. Maybe they don’t want to talk to them for fear of being polluted spiritually. But the church needs to infiltrate, not isolate. And to reach our culture, Christians must go where people are.
I am not saying that we should spend time around unbelievers and stay silent about our faith. We should speak up for Christ when the moment is right. At the very least, we should live a godly life as an example of what it is to follow Jesus Christ.
We see Jesus demonstrating this as He adapted His approach with the people He spoke to. With Nicodemus, who was powerful and affluent, Jesus told him that he must be born again (see John 3:1–17). With the immoral Samaritan woman, He reached out to her and engaged her in conversation (see John 4:1–26).
Before we can reach people, we first have to care. And I think one of the reasons we don’t share our faith more often is because we don’t care. We might think another person’s eternal destiny is their problem. If an unbeliever argues with us, we tend to think, Forget it then. I am going to heaven. You can go to hell if you want to. It is not my problem.
But actually, it is our problem, because they need someone to engage them. They need someone to share the gospel accurately with them. So we need to pray that God will give us a burden for people who do not yet know Him.
The great commentator Alexander MacLaren said, “You tell me the depth of a Christian’s compassion, and I will tell you the measure of his usefulness.”
How deep does your compassion go?
I believe these two pictures accurately describe the difference between the modern day church's focus and mission (we're persecuted)
And Jesus' mission and purpose on earth. (Seek and save the lost)
How can we follow someone and be so far off from his heart and purpose?
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
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.
WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE LECRAE’S BACK
WRITTEN BY DAVID DANIE
Guess which rapper is unashamed to call himself a Christian, talks to God in his music, raps to change lives and his greatest critics are in his own demographic.
“That would be me,” laughed Lecrae.
The Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist suits this depiction perfectly. However, Rapzilla had another artist in mind to whom this description applies just as well: Machine Gun Kelly (MGK).
“I am a Christian,” the Bad Boy recording artist said before his Mar. 8th concert in Silver Springs, MD. “I’m a really God-fearing man. I make music about God. It’s just scary, that’s all, ‘cause my talks with God are a little more intense.”
Lecrae, familiar with MGK, had heard no evidence of faith in his music. The Reach Records rapper admitted he was shocked to hear the Cleveland-born rapper had claimed Christianity.
Lecrae is so unashamed of the gospel that he’s labeled as gospel while MGK admits he would never be mistaken for a “Christian rapper." Despite that difference, their life stories are stunningly similar.
Both MGK and Lecrae were raised in broken homes: Lecrae never met his father; when MGK was nine, his mother cheated on his father and abandoned them.
His depressed father failed to be the anchor MGK needed throughout a childhood plagued by bullying, homelessness and throat polyps, which nearly took away the one last thing he had—hip hop.
Both he and Lecrae turned to drugs, alcohol and women to numb their pain. Since then, they’ve both turned their own and—more importantly to them—others’ lives around.
“Because of [MGK], I'm gonna walk someday, because of his message,” said a disabled fan from his wheelchair in September of 2011. “’Cause I know he came from nothing, and I’m coming from nothing too.” That December, the fan walked across the stage into the artist’s arms.
Both MGK and Lecrae are heroes: their music changes lives.
Tragically, while Lecrae’s divinely-inspired music possesses the potential for eternal impact, as a spiritually confused artist, MGK is only capable of touching his fans’ earthly journey.
MGK is a wild boy, dividing his time between smoking weed and having sex. Richard Baker, the artist’s real name, knows there’s more to life, and his listeners can hear it in his lyrics.
“Save me Lord, save me Lord, what the (expletive) is this curse you gave me, Lord?” says MGK in the first verse of the track “Halo.” “Everybody think I finally made it Lord, but all I am is now is a slave, my God.”
He explained to Rapzilla that his song “Save Me” is a cry to God for help. Crying out to God, or at least praying to Him, isn’t a rare occurrence for MGK.
MGK (Machine Gun Kelly)
“We pray before every show,” he said. “We leave a lot of decisions up to Him.”
MGK claims he’s supportive of Christian hip hop. As a self-proclaimed Christian, he wasn’t aware of any reason for him not to “agree” with it, although he admitted that he hadn’t heard of a Christian rapper besides Lecrae.
“I’m a very God-fearing person,” said MGK. “God just knows my lights are a little bit darker maybe than the average Christian rapper.”
Lecrae got saved after a friend invited him to a Bible study. A friend like that has either not shown up in MGK’s life or has yet to make a visible impact. MGK is one of countless artists who are open to Christianity and could be one influence away from surrendering their life to Jesus.
“That’s exactly why I’m [in the mainstream],” said Lecrae. “The only reason why I’m there is to have influence and opportunity to share Christ with the people in that world—that’s it. And hopefully I can be that for the MGKs of the industry.”
The Christian hip-hop scene still doesn’t know what to make of the radical shift Lecrae has made in his music since his album “Rebel” to his more recent “Church Clothes,” rapping less about the gospel and more about relatable happenings from a Christian worldview. As a result, he’s been accused of selling out for money and fame.
Essentially , all he’s done is left the pulpit to be a missionary .
The importance of Christians in the mainstream can’t be understated because artists like Lecrae—and Sho Baraka, J.R., No Malice, Mali Music, Dee-1, S1 and others—are able to build relationships with rappers like MGK, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T. and Tech N9ne who are open to Christianity. Those believers could ultimately be the one positive influence whom God uses to turn the religious willingness of those admittedly confused artists into relational willingness.
If MGK surrenders his life completely to Christ, hundreds of thousands of his fans outside of Lecrae’s target audience would be listening to a Christ-led artist, perhaps for a first time.
Don’t assume that Lecrae possesses a ploy to convert as many people as possible. This means much more than a spiritual roster.
“Everybody that I have relationships within the industry—I respect them and I never want them to feel like projects,” he said. “I never want them to feel like I’m leveraging their name or I’m only hanging out with them because they’re my project and, ‘I’m gonna get you saved buddy.’ I really do want them to know I genuinely care about them.”
Kendrick Lamar & Lecrae
Kendrick Lamar is one of Lecrae’s closest friends in the mainstream. Staying true to form, Lecrae refused to shed light on any spiritual growth that Lamar has had since they formed a relationship.
“The Lord does what the Lord does,” Lecrae said. “I wouldn’t dare trace anything back to me in terms of my conversations and dealings with [Lamar]. I’m just available and if the Lord sees fit to use me, praise God.”
Critics in the church will question the need for Lecrae to enter the mainstream. They’ll ask, can’t he build common ground with artists in the industry while still making pre-“Church Clothes” music?
Lecrae met Lamar, Don Cannon and Lupe Fiasco before “Church Clothes.” He knows it would be difficult to continue to build common ground with mainstream artists while still being labeled as a Christian artist.
“You do Christian hip hop? That means your music is for Christians. That’s what people think. I’m out here with them all the time—that's what they think,” said Lecrae, explaining why he’s been so adamant about avoiding the “Christian rapper” label. “As a missionary, I don’t want any hindrance.”
Monday, March 10, 2014
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