Exercising Your Spiritual Muscles

After a long and well rested break from blogging, we're coming back with a bang. Hopefully, everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's with family and friends!

This week's blog is going to be about how strong we are and how we can become stronger and closer to Jesus in our every day lives. As some of you know me very well, you know that I LOVE to workout. I mean, I REALLY enjoy working up a sweat, ripping muscles and becoming fit. Some of you think that is probably slightly on the insane side, I say at the end of the day I'll feel 100% better about working hard and trying to be healthy. Working out, in the grand scheme of things, is a pretty simple concept, think about it, the more you exercise (and do them properly) and work on having a healthy eating habit, the stronger you'll become and the better your body will perform in all areas of your life, including immune system. On the other hand, if you never work out, don't really try to practice healthy eating habits, your body's muscles are more weak than they should be, you probably get some love handles and a belly on you, maybe some pudge right there around the triceps, and you're more opt to getting sick and to be injured as well when you do get physical. To me there is nothing more satisfying than seeing my body transform on a weekly basis (sometimes) to reach my goal; which is to have a lean cut body.

The same is also true for my spiritual muscles. If I'm not getting my daily dose of God's word and applying it to my life the best I know how, praying continuously, and even talking to other people about Jesus, whether they are believers or not, my spiritual muscles become weak. Let's unpack this a little bit. Personally for me, I love reading my bible, like, I freaking LOVE reading my bible. There is so much knowledge and wisdom to be taken from it, and Jesus has pretty good sense of humor, dude makes me laugh. I also love reading other books on growing in my faith. I thrive to learn and never want to be complacent in my walk with Christ. When I am CONSISTENTLY reading God's word, actually studying it and applying it to my life, my spiritual life will become stronger, and healthier. If I don't, it becomes weak and I become distant from God. The good news is, you can be as close to God as you want to be. But, there have been times in the past when I hadn't read my bible for a few days, and I noticed things; my attitude was more negative, taking my thoughts captive becomes nearly impossible, I'm almost a different person. I just simply struggled, some of the things that I fight the most, (like lust, along with every other man) became easier to give into. Now when I say fight, I'm saying I don't surrender to whatever sin is in my face at that time. A little hint, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, sexual impurity will harm your relationship with Christ more than you can possibly imagine, trust me.

It is very important to understand that if you want to have an amazing relationship with

Jesus, and other people, the amount of time you spend with Him, the stronger you'll become.

Like any other relationship, you can't get to know someone unless you spend time with them. You're

life will dramatically change the more time you spend pursuing Jesus. Another great way to grow

in your walk with Christ, attend church! The people around you that also love Jesus will have a

greater impact than you might think. If you're feeling distant from God, don't think that you're

supposed to be waiting on Him to blow your mind and life changes drastically. He might be

waiting on you. Know that He WANTS a relationship with YOU! And He is ALWAYS faithful! Allow

His love for you to draw you closer to Him.

Have a great week and I pray ths week's blog has helped! God Bless!

Sex Sells Pt. 1

In this day and age, the world screams sex at us. Sex is as normal as eating food through out the day. We see it on TV shows, movies, magazines, hear it in music, even from a lot of our friends. The porn industry is one of the top money making businesses in the world. People have turned sex into something it shouldn't be. In Genesis 2:18-25 we see the first relationship that God created between Adam and Eve. They both had a relationship with God first then God brought Eve to Adam, then they got married, anything out of that order, the relationship gets jacked up, BIG TIME. But in todays world, people claim having sex outside of marriage is ok, it's no longer a big deal. The problem with this is that it IS a big deal. Sex outside of marriage will damage your relationship with Christ (1 Cor 6:8-10), and with the person you're having sex with. Take it from someone who's experienced it. On top of that, God commands us to FLEE from sexual immorality, that means run from it! (1 Cor 6:18). Listen, don't be a fool and ask, "what's sexual immorality?" You know what it is, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to pursue Jesus and be having sex with someone you're not married to (1 Thes 4:2-4). It's not worth it. There are consequences that follow sexual impurity, physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual. You may not believe me when I say that, but trust me, if you're having problems with your boyfriend or girlfriend and you're having sex or sleeping together, whatever the case may be, that's probably the root of the problem. Yes, the world wants us to give in to what "feels good" and to do what we want to do. But when in the heck has that ever lead to great decision? Drinking five whiskey sours will make you feel great for about 10 minutes and then you're more than likely puking and insanely drunk, waking up the next morning feeling like someone swatted you across the face with a bat. Now how do you feel? Oh, can you remember what happened as well? Probably not. Listen, fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim 6:11-13). Jesus doesn't command us to flee from sexual immorality AND any situation where the temptation might arise for no reason. When you pursue Jesus, you pursue purity, doing both leads to a joyful life. In the latter part of Acts 15:29, we are told we will do well avoiding sexual immorality. When the Bible repeats itself over and over again...it's probably really important to listen and do what it says, why put yourself in bondage? Sexual impurity will leave you empty inside, Jesus is the only thing that can fill us with everything we need. Challenge yourselves by following Christ daily, He never said it was going to be easy. Stay tuned for next weeks blog, I'll be opening up my heart with you and sharing my past, the things that I've done wrong dealing with sexual impurities, how following Jesus Christ has changed my heart, mind and soul. Fight the good fight of the faith!!!

Religious People Vs. Christians

There may have been a time when someone has asked you, or you've asked, "Are you a Christian?" And you, or that person, may have had a cringing response. Why? People look at Christianity as rules: you can't do this, can't do that. It has the "I'm better than you", "I'm God's greatest gift" attitude. To tell you the truth, there are people that are Christians that have this mindset and attitude. They may not even realize they are acting a certain way that Jesus would bust you over the dome piece (your head) for. That's why by the grace of our loving God, He's after our heart, not our behavior. But that doesn't pardon our behavior either. In Revelation 3:1-3 Jesus is rebuking the Church of Sardis for their "good deeds". They were so focused on doing what every other Christian thinks is righteous: reading your Bible, praying, attending church, doing a food drive or whatever. They quit walking with the Lord! Just going through all the motions, whistling to themselves I'm sure, and trying to make people think they're insanely spiritual and godly. And for the love, don't boast about your deeds either (1 Cor 5:6-8, Eph 2:8-9). A part-time attender of church is usually a part-time follower of Christ, but a full-time attender of church can also not follow Christ at all (Matt 7:21-23). You can't follow Christ and stay the same. Seriously, it's impossible. See some people think that Christianity is like a, "Get out of jail free card". In other words, go out and do whatever you want, and you can be forgiven. The problem with that is when you focus on exactly what Jesus did for you and me, you become overwhelmed with His love and then you have the desire to do whatever He wants you to, not what we want to do (Rom 5:8). God's one and only Son, died on a cross, naked and bleeding, so that you and I could live an eternal life and be reconciled with God. Jesus doesn't make bad people good, he makes dead people alive! There's nothing extra that comes along with Christianity, it's Jesus Christ, and only Him, follow Him, everything else means nothing (Phil 3:8). A religious person seems to get that part backwards, they think it's works based. You don't gain your green card to heaven by sticking your nose high in the air and thinking to yourself, "Look how good I am because I do all of these wonderful things for God." How empty a person must be when they think of themselves higher than others (Phil 2:3-5). But how easy it is for anyone, including myself, for us to get into that mindset that it's all about us. Maybe that's how people become "religious" rather than sold out for Jesus. Believe it or not, God wants us to have a joyful, fulfilling life (John 15:9-11). Fully sell yourself out for our Lord Jesus, and your mind will be blown. I can't even begin to explain what I've seen happen in other peoples' lives, as well as mine, when they become true disciples of Christ. The overwhelming joy and love you gain is incredible, and ALL of it, is from Jesus, nothing I have done entitles me to take credit for anything. Now go young padawans, be challenged!!! I DARE YOU!!

Taking Your Next Step

So the last couple weeks at house church we've been discussing our next steps as a church. We've been challenged to dream big and become prepared for our official launch of OneSpring Church.

We watched two sermons from Craig Groeschel discussing the book Nehemiah, taking steps and facing opposition and what to do with both of them. The exciting thing, personally for me, is that the past few weeks has challenged me with my personal walk with Christ. Figuring out what my next steps are and how I need to handle the opposition that comes along with it. In order to make an impact in our church, I need to be taking steps in my own time with Jesus. That means prayer, reading God's Word, applying God's Word and what He tells me I need to do, as well as, talking with people about the things going on in my life. Yes, I'm talking about an accountability partner.

It is ESSENTIAL to have someone to talk to who is a believer about the personal and difficult things in your life. And you need to be honest and open with them as well, we need help from other believers in order to grow in our faith and continue our walk with Christ. God calls us to have those close friends. (Proverbs 11:14, Proverbs 19:27)

Swallow this one...you can't follow Christ and continue to be complacent. What if we became so overwhelmed with God's love that we became desperate to know Christ more and more every day? What if we stopped worrying about impressing people, our own ridiculous reputation, and lets face it, our reputation can't stand up with Christ's, so give it up. We should be more concerned about repentance than reputation. Stop pleasing others and lets just do what God wants us to do.

So, what's your next step? Is it to find an accountability partner? Maybe pick up your Bible and dig into some Scripture? Don't forget you need to apply what you read as well. What is it that you need to do to build your relationship with Christ? I can't stress it enough that your own personal walk with Christ will affect everything you do and everyone you interact with. Get pumped about Jesus saving you!!!

Life in Perspective

This past weekend a friend of mine, while mowing his yard, had a heart attack and suddenly went to be with the Lord. He didn’t know it was coming nor did his family, his friends or people he worked with. We seem to think we are invincible, that something like that will not happen to you or me.

God’s word tells us in James 4:14, You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. Francis Chan in his book, Crazy Love, likens our lives to one fifth of a second in a movie seen. What are we going to do to make a difference for the Kingdom in that amount of time? Psalm 39:5 says this, Look, you make my days short-lived, and my life span is nothing from your perspective. Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor.

Since January 2 of this year, I have been wondering if starting OneSpring Church was a good idea. Satan has a way of making you question the decisions that God clearly instructed. Well after the events this weekend, I know without a doubt, it was the right decision, it has reaffirmed and stamped a big exclamation point on that decision. I’m ready more than ever to make the most of my speck of a life and tell people about Jesus. We need to change the way we think and the only way to change is knowing Jesus more. The more you know Jesus the more you will mirror Him. The only way to get to know Him is to open His word daily and pray. Yes, daily! It is our responsibility, we don’t need a program or to wait on someone else to start a bible study to read God’s Word. This one is on you and me. Life is way to short to wait on someone or something else to feed us when the food is right in front of us. Let’s stop making excuses and start doing something for the Kingdom. We need to pick up the cross and carry it, not someone else. Yes, I am fired up, and no I am not going to apologize. This is what God has laid on my heart.

Pick Up Your Rocks

Just wanted to share one of the main points from this past Sunday that really hit me. Pastor Perry said, "The I AM is bigger than the what ifs". This was the week 6 in the Make War series and it was about taking the next step that God has for you. He used the example of a 47 year old playing in the kiddie pool with floaties on. At some point, you need to learn how to swim and because, well...it's just creepy! We can't stay where we are and become what God has intended us to be.

If you haven't listened to the message from Sunday, "Pick Up Your Rocks," yet you can find it here.

Join us this week at 11:00 as we wrap up this incredible Make War series!

Focus

About a year ago, I was listening to Pastor Perry. As he spoke, he posed two questions: Are you tired of the program? Are you caught up in the process? Those questions really stuck with me then and even now.

Many times, we put the program and process of doing church ahead of Jesus. We start to think that it is the program and process that changes lives, and our focus turns to details. The only way for lives to truly be changed is for them to meet Jesus. If the process gets in the way of people meeting Jesus, then there is something wrong with the process. When people meet Jesus--that's when real life change happens.

So I ask you this question: What are you focused on--the program, the process or introducing people to Jesus.

Life is Short

I just wanted to share something that God has been stirring in me this week.

Life is short!

Psalm 39:4-5; James 4:14

You and I have one shot at it. What are you and I going to make of it. Francis Chan, in his book Crazy Love, likens our lives to being an extra in a movie and we get only 2/5 of a second on screen. Our way of thinking should not be, "God can you please help me with my messed up life," but rather, "God, what do you have for me today?"