Its the first Friday of the month… That means poker. Man, Im really excited about it. I haven’t been able to come in quite sometime and I’ve been awaiting this day for about a month now. Well, probably multiple months… but its only been a month since I knew I was going to be able to make it to this one.
Its great because even if I lose I win. Because I get to hang out with people I enjoy. Its a win-win. Win-wins are amazing because, well, you cant lose. I hate losing. Loosing is about the worst thing that can happen to a man. It just destroys all that pride we like to carry around. Though I guess thats a win in Jesus eyes… I don’t know about mine though. I enjoy my pride. Not anyone elses though. I would gladly spend 5 dollars to hang out with these people. Would you? Not only that There is the possibility I will win more than 5 dollars which is absolutely spectacular. Call me if you want to lose 5 bucks?
I was listening to Rick Warren recently and he said something I wish every pastor in the world could hear. Maybe you wont think its anything profound, but I believe it is the key to everything Jesus is about. He was talking about his first years in ministry and after his last sermon on the last Sunday in Saddleback’s first year of exsistance, he took a vacation. After being so worn out, and burnt out, he took sometime to be alone. As he began questioning himself, and letting the spirit talk the Lord told him to “worry about growing Gods people and God would worry about growing Gods church”.
I post this because I absolutely agree. Yet it does seem atleast to me that the popular church questions these days are How many people do you have at church? How do we get people to come to church? How do we reach the masses? How do we grow the church?
Maybe the answer is as simple as building relationships with people. Not passing out flyers, or cool advertising, or edgy messages. Just make some darn and friends and tell em about Jesus. It was always a heart thing with Jesus and if your heart just wants to get people to walk through church doors to hear about Jesus I think your heart is a little screwed up. I think you are destroying a much more beautiful, intimate, relational, aspect of what Jesus had in mind.
Jesus didn’t seem to care how many people followed him. He did care however that the people that did follow him went all out. That they cared about their neighbors, whether their neighbors cared about Jesus or not wasn’t the point. The point is caring about people makes it alot harder for people not to care about you, and care about the things you care about.
So I was recently watching an absolutely stunning documentary on the National Geographic Channel about weapons in prison. It was fascinating… Simply because I was stunned at how men and women behind bars find ways to make lethal weapons with things like paper. Obviously, prisoners especially in maximum security prisons like San Quentin don’t have access to much. In one instance a man made a gun capable of shooting a 30 mm round out of the plumbing materials in his cell. Thats Incredible. Thats creativity, ingenuity!
Now, Im not real good at the creativity thing… I’ll just be honest and on some level it kind of bothers me, and it always has… I just wasn’t sure why.
As I was watching I began to wonder how criminals could be so creative. I mean seemingly these people cant be extremely bright… Their in prison and Im not. Then the answer hit me like a ton of bricks. These people are creative because they are forced to be. They are put in elements that leave them no choice but to protect themselves by any means necessary… or die. They know what the reality is. Be creative or be abused.
It made me think long and hard about my own creativity or lack there of. It convicted me a lot simply because there is a large part of my spirit that doesn’t understand the reality of the Gospel. The gospel hasn’t penetrated deep enough to force me into an element of creativity.
So this year… well, I guess now its last year… I feel like I’ve been sick alot. Atleast twice in the last six months not including the cold I currently have. Im slowly but surely coming to the realization that there is a direct correlation between my health and the amount of excercise or physical activity my body gets. Not to mention I looked in the mirror a few days ago and realized I had gained that pudge in my belly that you can still notice even if you suck in your tummy. This means I have to change. Things weren’t like this last year… I was in shape… I wasn’t sick alot… I ran or biked everyday… even when the temperatures dipped into the single digits. I have exchanged health for a thickburger and Im certainly getting thicker.
So I’ve realized I have an issue. There seems to be this epidemic that some pastors have and it kind of bothers me. It bothers me when I hear pastors stand up in front of people and preach on how streaming glory from heaven has changed their life. Now, I hope I don’t sound like some young ignoramous who has no clue as to what hes talking about, though most of the time thats the truth. The killer for me is when they say things like “I cant explain it” “I don’t know what happened” “I just prayed a prayer and Jesus changed my life”. It drives me nuts to hear these things. To be honest Im not sure if Im guilty of this or not but Lord if I am here my cry of repentance!
It bothers me number one because honestly no one cares about how Jesus changed your life, they just want to know why He’s not changing theirs… So why don’t you explain. Number two, no one believes you. Number three for the love of Christ don’t tell them to pray a prayer. Tell them to die to themselves and all of that bull in their souls from the pit of hell and make sure they understand the power and divinity of the Holy Spirit that lives within them.
Number four: If Jesus really did change your life why do you need to tell everyone? Usually when things change there is a difference. Something has noticeably changed in your life. Maybe not on the outside (like your not a shiny vampire like Edward Cullen) but if you actually took the time to build relationships with people, maybe they would see the difference. Deep down.
I’ve realized salvation is always dependent upon the relationships in which people carry on. So please stop talking to your friends and start walking with them. Stop telling them, and start teaching them.
And please remember that what Jesus has changed in your life doesn’t mean jack unless its changing the lives of others.
