Life City...Part 2

The second branch that should be implemented into your life to dethrone your own authority comes in two parts, and is represented by the Legislative Branch of the government, which also has two parts; the house of representatives and the senate.

The first part is the Church; (corresponding to the House of Representatives) After all the church is a house full of Christ's representatives. It is important that you have a home church where you are fed and taught the Word of God. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we should not neglect meeting together. And why is that? What is so important about being around other people? First of all, it will be very difficult to distribute power away from yourself if no one's around you. The church is a place to receive guidance and encouragement. If you would be honest with yourself, you would agree that there will be times where you will encounter situations where the right decision is not clear; and it is in those times that you need godly counsel and wisdom. The church is also where we recharge our spiritual batteries, and refuel our motivation.

The second part of the legislative branch is the Senate; which helps us to remember to "Hate Sin". This is a huge step that many people overlook in their pursuit to be free of sin. The Bible tells us that all who fear the Lord will hate evil. (Proverbs 8:13) Paul tells us to hate what is wrong and cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9) The culture of the American Christians is one that embraces the world instead of shuns it; and skips around the fuzzy gray boundary lines instead of avoiding even the appearance of evil.

My wife hates snakes. Hates! I can't think of a stronger word, or I would use it. She won't go near even the cage of a snake at a zoo. She is a very compassionate person, but feels that one less snake on the earth is a step closer to heaven. You know, I think if Eve would have treated the serpent in the garden with the same type of hate and disgust, she would have avoided her sin. Her first mistake was not taking a bite of the fruit; it was talking to the snake; giving it her attention and her time. People in the church today treat sin more like a cute pot belly pig in a petting zoo, rather than like a deadly poisonous snake that wants to kill them.

2 Timothy 2:22 "Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust."
Ephesians 4:27 "Do not give opportunities to the devil."

There may be some huge holes in the walls of your life that you need to patch up, that the devil has been using to get in. What do those patches look like? How do you practically keep the devil out of your life city? Here's a great place to start: remove the access to immoral material. Filters on the internet, filters on tv, or no tv. We don't even consider that an option in America, but when it's all said and done, what is more important to you, your soul or next week's sidcom? No alcohol in your home. People get in long discussions with me about how the Bible does not condemn drinking alcohol. That's fine, but the difference between Joe Drinker and I will be obvious when we're both having a bad day, and Joe turns to his cabinet two feet away full of alcohol to give him relief, but I won't be able to do that; not because I'm better than Joe, but because I didn't allow alcohol to even be present in my home. I have eliminated my power to choose drunkenness as an escape by fortifying my home beforehand. Eliminate power to choose wrong decisions by narrowing down your available options to ones that are pure.

Last of all is the executive branch, which is one person; the president. There needs to be one person in your life that has veto power over your decisions. Someone who is close and knows your life and sees things from a different perspective. Someone who will ask you the tough questions, and give you a much needed slap in the face every now and then.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."

Ecclesiastes chapter four explains how two people are better off than one. They can help each other stand. We all have bad days and days of weakness, and the devil knows that. He won't attack you with temptation while your in a deep devotion time with God. He waits for the opportune time; and your emotions are raging the wrong way, and you are most susceptible to making a wrong decision. Your friend will probably not be going through the same emotional valley at the same time as you, and will be able to help you think clearly and steer you through the dark valley until you are back to normal. We all need it.

Distribute the power in your life to these different areas; the authority of the Bible, the encouragement and direction of the church, narrowing down your options, and an accountability partner. Do these and your life city will prosper.

Life City

When the founders settled in their new world, there was one crucial ideal they were determined to never duplicate; a monarchy. It was the unrestrained free reign of one man, able to legislate his disposition and fleeting emotional desires, that caused hundreds of people to risk their lives sailing to an unknown land, so they would never be twisted into unwanted positions like a helpless child in the grasp of an abusive father.

It was their experience that pride inevitably comes with power, even to men of humble beginnings; and if freedom was ever to become tangible, then power would need to be split and given in bite size portions. It was from this understanding that the United States Government was formed, with three branches of power; the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The three kept each other accountable, able to overthrow any foolish ideas or leaps toward oppressive power from one of the other branches.

To this day, as long as the constitution and the original design of our government is upheld, the United States Government has been the most successful; and Americans have been the free-est people on the planet.

The Bible refers to our spirit as a city. “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” (Proverbs 25:28)

If your life is like a city or a nation, is it a monarchy or a democracy? Are you the boss that answers to nothing and nobody? The person who forgets history is most likely to repeat it. Remember what too much power does to a man. There needs to be a structure in place in your life that prevents you from making all of your own decisions, because when you have complete unbridled control in your life, it is a very dangerous place to be. There will be times when you don’t know the right answer, when you don’t have all the facts to make the right decision, or when you are emotionally tied to a wrong decision and deceived by your own heart. (Jer. 17:9)

How can you implement a three branch structure in your life (city) to prevent yourself from running wild and free? First thing is you have to want it. There were many people that tried to make George Washington their King after they defeated the English, but he refused; he was trying to escape monarchies, not make a new one. He was not interested in power, but freedom. What about you? You are in the position of Washington, with a crown in your hand. Do you become the king of your own life, or do you willingly distribute power away from yourself?

If you want to succeed as a Christian, you cannot be the king of your own life. So here’s a nice three branch structure you can implement to dethrone yourself.

The Bible: (Our Constitution) which represents the Judicial branch, whose responsibility it is to uphold the constitution and the law. We should filter every decision through the words of Scripture. This means reading it often; every day. When a day goes by without reading the Word, I see it as an opportunity missed to take a step closer to God. It is an opportunity I will never get back; that time is gone. Never see time spent in the Bible as wasted. It is very simple to forget the importance of reading Scripture, so what I did is implemented the “5 stone” system.

When I went to Israel, there were times that I stooped down, picked up a stone, and slipped it in my pocket. Some of these stones are from areas that Jesus walked thousands of years ago, and may have touched the very stone I have in my possession. Those stones are precious to me. But at the end of the day, they are just stones, and even if it were true that Jesus touched those stones 2,000 years ago, having them is nothing in comparison to spending time in His presence right now.

So to remind me of the great importance of being in His word, I have my 5 stones on my bookshelf. And if ever I go a day without reading, I throw one of the stones away. So if ever I feel that God’s presence is not that significant, I remember that I have to throw away a stone; and it suddenly dawns on me that I’m more concerned with a stone than the presence of God. It’s a way to keep the mind in check, because it often likes to roam freely, constantly disorganizing priorities.

Is there something in your life that you could use as a check system for keeping your priorities in the right order?

On top of reading it, we should be memorizing portions. If the Bible is your spiritual gun, then memorized Scripture is your bullets. Jesus used memorized Scripture to combat Satan’s temptations.

“I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8) Setting the Lord always before you is a great way to keep your spirit from being lulled to sleep by the world. To keep the Lord before you try hanging Scripture on the walls of your house, on the wallpaper of your computer screen or cell phone; have Scripture on your jewelry and clothing; restrict yourself to vertical music, movies, and books. (Vertical meaning it turns your attention to heaven). You must take the initiative and place the Lord before you.

Next time, I will cover the Legislative and Executive branches of your life city. Be watching.

Taste God

There are people in the world that eat dirt.

Yes, it's true. Some of them do so for a lack of certain nutrients that can be found in soil, and therefore crave the earth like a fat man craves a whopper. But others eat dirt simply because they have no other source of food.

Imagine if dirt were the only thing you had ever tasted for your entire life, and then one day, while you are dishing up a clay pancake; a complete stranger walks up to you bearing gifts; a white box in his hands. He opens the box to unveil rows of chocolate covered donuts, glazed and warm. You grab one, and take a bite. Your mouth explodes with flavors that you never new existed. You eyes widen, a grin uncontrollably forms on your face, and you're filled with excitement.

The Bible says to "taste and see that the Lord is good..." (Psalm 34:8). David is beckoning us to come and taste of the goodness of God and see for yourself how great He is. Salvation, in a way, is like experiencing the best cuisine the world has to offer. But it is a mental tasting, one achieved through understanding. The first ingredient to God's salvation recipe is understanding the problem; we are all sinners and the price for sin is death. The second ingredient is understanding God's mercy, unconditional love, unmerited favor. One can hear of these things a thousand times, but there comes a point in a person's life when it sinks in, past head knowledge, into a deep understanding of the heart. It's at this point that a person tastes God. And when a person tastes God, it's like taking a bite of a chocolate covered donut for the first time in your life, when all you've ever had was dirt. That bite is the beginning of a craving for more of the same; a yearning for more of God, for there is nothing sweeter in all the world.

Psalm 119:103 "How sweet Your Words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey."

1 Peter 2:3 "Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord's goodness."

Heavenly Perspective

I always was fascinated by the magic eye images. To this day, I can't quite figure out how it's done. It's very strange to think that there is another image hidden inside the picture above; one that you cannot see unless you look closely. In fact, the way I was taught, is that you look passed the picture; focus your eyes beyond it, and the image will appear. How? well...I still don't know.

Many times, we run into situations that feel as chaotic and messy as a magic eye puzzle. We can't make sense of it, and we're filled with questions, and doubts, and anxiety, and fear. We study it and study it, and try to understand, but it never comes.

The problem is our perspective. We focus our full attention on specific situations and troubling circumstances, trying to figure them out. But what if we looked passed it? I'll wager that we will never have answers for why God allows certain things to happen, but if we'll look passed those 'certain things' and trust the heart of God; that he desires that none should be destroyed, but that all should be saved, and that nothing can happen without His permission, it may bring some clarity to the jumbled disordered mess your in.

If we would elevate our view to a higher position, we may find out that things look a bit different from God's angle. Remember, the purpose of life is not to be comfortable, in fact, it's not even this life; but the one to come. Maybe God is more concerned with the broad picture of your eternal destiny than the tiny imperfect brush stroke of your uncomfortable situation. Because it may just be that tiny imperfection that redirects the course of your eternity. And to me, even a lifetime of misery is worth enduring if it gains me an everlasting embrace in the arms of God. And it may be that God's longing for your embrace in eternity is what administers His permission of uncomfortable situations around you. If you would redirect your perspective, I'm certain you would feel the same way.

Faith without works is useless

There are three men that are being pushed toward the edge of a tall building. Two of the three men believe in gravity, the other does not. Maybe he’s from outer space and never experienced it before. None the less, he doesn’t know of gravity. As the three are pushed to the edge, they all react differently. The one who does not believe in gravity, sees no need to worry or fear, and simply watches as he topples off the edge and falls to his death. The next man, who does believe in gravity, never takes notice that he is being pushed toward the edge of a tall building; instead he is distracted by an airplane in the sky. And so, he too, topples off the edge to his own destruction. The last man, who also believes in gravity, sees very plainly what is happening, and begins to fight and wrestle with the person pushing him. As he gets closer to the edge, his stomach gets that fluttery feeling as he looks down and he goes into total panic mode. He bites and screams and scratches, and finally breaks free and runs as far as he can from the edge.

In this analogy, the belief in gravity is very important to survival. In fact, it is the most important element. But belief in gravity alone isn’t enough to prevent falling off the edge. The belief must be accompanied by action. You see, the last man was motivated to act because of his belief in gravity.

James 2:14 “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”

James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”

We are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ, not by our works, but a true faith in Jesus is not just a mental ascent to His existence; a true saving faith will naturally motivate one into service for the King that saved.

Shame

When I was younger, I was into Lord of the Rings. I was the nerd King of Middle Earth. Me and a handful of friends would even play the Lord of the Rings trading card game, and when we got together, we came unglued into complete nerdness.

I had another group of friends that wanted nothing to do with fantasy nonsense; and rather enjoyed sports and outdoors. If we all went to town, half my friends would go to gamestop, the other half to Academy. As a result, when my "Academy" friends came over, I put up all Lord of the Rings Paraphernalia, took off my pocket protector and acted like a good old fisherman, because, after all, that is what they liked. The last thing I wanted was for an "Academy" friend to walk in on our Nerd Time; that would be the epitome of shame.


Unfortunately, this is how many of us treat the Good News of the Gospel. We live two lives, because deep down we are ashamed of the Gospel. And the reason we are ashamed is not because we don't believe it. We truly do believe it, and frankly we like it alot! But we think of it as an option and not a necessity. 


Whether you say it out loud or not, most of us American Christians view Christianity, and the gospel message as if it were a flavor amongst others that must be decided by each individual's personal preference, instead of as a medicine to your sick and dying family and friends.

Just like my Academy friends didn't "need" to like Lord of the Rings, and they didn't want to, so there was no reason to ever bring it up. Maybe our biggest set back as Christians is that we don't fully believe that people "need" the gospel.


Romans 1:15-16 "I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving those who believe."


Paul viewed the good news of Christ as the very power of God working to save people from an eternal punishment. He saw it as the only Solution to a big problem, not one option out of many to fill people's desires.


The good news is not a fairytale, it's not a hobby, it's not a way. 
It is a true story, The Solution, The only way.


Next time your tempted to be ashamed of the Gospel, remember "what" the Gospel is; the power of God at work, saving those who believe.

Holy of Holies

Isaiah 6:1-7 "It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”"

Our God is a holy God. Set apart; a step above and beyond anything else in the created universe. He is so holy and pure in fact that He cannot even be in the presence of sin. That’s bad news for us since we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23).

Before Jesus came, the presence of God dwelt in the Jewish temple in a placed called the Holy of Holies. Only one person could enter that room one day out of the year. He had to be ceremonially clean, and without sin to enter into the Holy of Holies. If he was not, he would drop dead the instance he came into God’s presence. It was an honor of the highest sort to be the person to enter into the glorious Holy Presence of the God of this universe. Only a handful of men for thousands of years had ever gotten that privilege.

And it is in this time that Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw God sitting on His throne with angels around Him, and immediately he knew he was in trouble; for no sinner can be in the presence of God and survive. He realized that his destruction was sealed, for he knew too well that he was a sinner.

But God’s response was not to kill Isaiah, nor did he allow Isaiah to stay in His presence with the stain of sin. Instead God ordered His angel to burn off the sin and guilt from Isaiah with a hot coal. Now his trespasses were gone and he could remain in the presence of God.

Today, we don’t make animal sacrifices and we don’t perform ceremonial cleansing before entering church, but we do worship the same God as Isaiah. Each of us has the privilege to walk into the Holy of Holies and be in the Holy Presence of the God of this universe. This great honor that was so limited before has now been granted to all of us by the blood of Jesus, which works in us in a similar fashion to the burning coal that purged Isaiah, that allowed Him to be in the presence of God. The blood of Jesus sears our sins like a fire burning up the dross of silver (Proverbs 25:4) and makes us qualified candidates to enter into the Holy of Holies.

Cold Love

"...and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."  --Matthew 24:12

A lifestyle of lawlessness produces a cold, dead love.

What is lawlessness?

"Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." --1 John 3:4

Pretty straight forward. But what is sin, exactly? Disobedience to God. Any act that is contrary to God's will is sin. So, in essence, disobedience will quench the fire of your love for God.

Think of Cain and Able. The offering required of God was that of blood. That was pretty easy for Able, being a shepherd. But Cain (being a farmer), decided to bring a portion of his crops as an offering. It was a small act of disobedience; one that is often overlooked by us. Because after all, he did at least bring an offering to God. But it was the wrong type of offering, and God refused it. What started as a seemingly innocent act of compromise, such a small dash of disobedience toward God, completely destroyed Cain's love toward God.

He became angry with God; he murdered his brother; he spoke to God with complete disrespect and arrogance, and lied to God as well. All from one small act of disobedience.

Disobedience is putting a crack in the door to your spirit, and Satan will take full advantage, barging in and ruining your love, respect, and fear of God.

The opposite of lawlessness (sin, disobedience) is righteousness (obedience). --Hebrews 1:9 
It seems to me to follow that if disobedience destroys your love toward God, then practicing righteousness (obedience) will rekindle that love again.

Run the Race

If you've ever been to the city of New Orleans, surely you've noticed (or even taken a spin) on the horse drawn carriages that roam the streets. It's pretty amazing to me that these horses are so well trained to obey their masters and ignore the crazy traffic and crazy people. Part of this seemingly soldier like focus is due to "blinders". The horses are equipped with two shields, one for each eye, on the outside of the eye, to block their peripheral vision. This way the horse is not distracted by cars and crazy people that run around on the side of him waving their arms and so forth. Check it out next time your in New Orleans, if you don't believe me.

They use these same blinders for the horses in horse races. It keeps their focus on the goal in front of them (running the race, one hoof in front of the other) rather than being worried about the other horse that's sneaking up on the side of him. It's an amazingly useful tool. In fact, We should make human blinders.

Have you ever considered life to be a race? The apostle Paul did.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 "All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should."

In Hebrews chapter 12, he hints to the blinders I spoke of earlier.

Hebrews 12:1-2 "...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus..."

The race we run should be with ever more endurance and enthusiasm, as it is for an eternal everlasting prize that we run for. Every step we take, each decision and every pursuit should be advanced only with much purpose behind it. Every worldly distraction, immoral or not, that slows us down or trips us up, should be trashed, erased from our minds by the blinders of Gods motivating love to see His will come to completion. In every pursuit, let His face be your goal, and His love be your fuel.

Think on These Things

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

Our culture is saturated with lies, disrespect, immorality, impurity, hatred, violence, bad news, laziness, and depression. It's in every single sit-com, on every nickelodeon cartoon, on every news media, on every magazine rack, on every movie, in every book. It seems like you can't get away from it. It's almost as if you cannot function without being infiltrated with a culture mind bomb.

The sad part is though, most of us don't really care. We've grown immune to the culture bombs. They've already done their work in our minds, and hardened our hearts, and we suck it in willingly every day we turn the tv on.

As people of God, we need to learn how to filter out the culture mind bombs from our life, and to "dwell" on the proper things. Unfortunately, this means a large sacrifice for most people; their favorite television shows, magazine articles, news outlets, movie genres.

We don't understand as much as Paul did the effect of what you place your mind on. And media has the magical ability of placing your mind on what it wants. Luckily, you have the ability to choose your media outlet: so choose it wisely, knowing that it forms the way you view the world, the way you think and feel, and the way you make decisions.

The Source

Maybe your wondering why this group is called the Source. The Source of what? Is the group a source of something, or are they looking for a source? What in the world's going on? Well, let me shine some light.

The Source is a youth ministry in a small "village" in southwest Louisiana; Maurice. We are determined to be more than a social club, we want to be involved in more than just having meetings. You know, the meetings where one guy talks, and everybody else sits around and stares until he's done, then they all go home as if nothing ever happened. That's the definition of a lot of youth groups...but not this one.

God is our source. He's the source of a lot of things. He's the source of hope (Psalm 119:114), the source of joy (Psalm 43:4), the source of comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3), the source of our righteousness (Isaiah 45:24), the source of our spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4), and the source of our salvation (Hebrews 5:9).

In fact, the best representation of God being The Source, is to consider yourself as a branch. As long as a branch is connected to the trunk of the tree, it gets the nutrients it needs to produce fruit, and to stay alive; but the moment the branch is removed from the trunk, it loses it's "source" of life, and will eventually be good only as a nice addition to your scolding fireplace.

Jesus says in John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."

That pretty much sums it up.