Roadblocks

If you know anything about business and charting growth on a graph then you know that, very simply put, it should look like this:

If your growth chart looks like this ^…then your business is growing steadily. Sure there will be ups and downs, but it should be a steady rise. If your business growth chart is stagnant, like the line below, then your business has ceased to function properly. You are no longer serving your purpose as a business.

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If I asked you to chart your growth with God, what would it look like? Would it look like the successful, growing business, or the stagnant business? It might even be going negative, losing ground. The one/two question/s that have for you are this: 1) Are you closer to God than you have ever been in your life? If the answer is no…why not? Why are you not closer to God than you have ever been before? Just like the stagnant business, if your walk with God is stagnant, then you have ceased to function properly and you are no longer serving the purpose that God has intended.

Chart your growth. Just grab a scrap piece of paper. On the left side, start with your choice to follow Jesus. Form there on, what factors and events in your life have either helped you grow spiritually or brought you down? Move your line up and down. Chart your growth and be honest with yourself. What has shaped your walk with God? When were you closest to him? What’s stopping you now? What’s getting in your way now? What are your roadblocks? What’s preventing you from growing closer to God now? We all have something that is holding us back. We may have 2 somethings or 10 somethings. Just like with a business, you need to identify the roadblocks and get rid of them. We are created to grow toward God, and if we stop growing toward Him, we will cease to function properly. 

Between You and Jesus

A long time ago…in a country far, far away…there was a wealthy young guy. He had everything that he could ever want; all the stuff that anyone could ever want and more. He followed the rules and was a good guy. He didn’t sleep with his neighbor’s wife, he didn’t kill anyone, he never stole anything, he wasn’t a liar, and he honored and respected his mom and dad. He was a wealthy man and followed the rules.

In case you didn’t catch on to the story…this was a brief retelling of the first half of the story of the rich young man from Luke 18. The man came to Jesus and asked him what he had to do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to keep all of commandments, to which the young man responded, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.” I can picture Jesus in my head smiling and nodding and then quietly saying, “Yea…but you have this one thing standing between you and Me. Your stuff.” Jesus told the man to sell all of his stuff and give to the poor. Then he could follow Jesus. He made it very clear what needed to be done, and yet the man walked away from Jesus with sorrow. Jesus didn’t turn his back, the man walked away from Jesus.

The problem with the man was that he didn’t really want Jesus. He wanted eternal life. He probably came to Jesus expecting to hear, “Hey good job, you’ve kept the commandments, you’re in good shape!” But instead Jesus challenged him and said, “Hey…what’s consuming your life? Your stuff? Okay, now get rid of it and follow me.”

Jesus knew this man’s heart. He knew that his stuff consumed his life. If you aren’t willing to give up what’s most important to you in order to follow Jesus, will you enter the Kingdom of Heaven? This man let his stuff keep out of the Kingdom of Heaven. He let his stuff get between him and Jesus. What stuff are you letting get between you and Jesus? What’s consuming your life that isn’t Jesus? If it were you that came to Jesus, what would he tell you to give up? Would you give it up…or would you walk away filled with sorrow?

Somewhere Else

Yogi Berra was a baseball player for the New York Yankees; one of the greatest players in the history of the game. However, he is perhaps more widely known for his witty and sometimes ridiculous quotes. While some of his quotes are nothing more than confusing and goofy, some of them are extremely truthful and deep. One of these quotes is this: “If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”

The best way to end up where you don’t want to be is to begin by not knowing where you want to go. This can be applied to all areas of our lives. If we do not have a plan for our lives, then we might not end up where we intended to. If you unpack Yogi’s quote, the problem begins with not knowing where you want to go and it ends with you winding up somewhere other than where you planned to be.

Satan is so good at distracting us Christians from where we want to be. He forces us off the path where we lose sight of Jesus, who should be our ultimate goal. We get so caught up in our problems, sins, and enjoyments that we forget where we are going, and end up somewhere else. Our tendency to focus on our own problems and ourselves rather than on Christ, is forcing us down the path to somewhere else. It doesn’t really matter where somewhere else is to Satan as long as it isn’t Jesus.

We should make a conscious effort to know where Jesus is so that we can follow him. To know what we are striving for and who we are chasing after. To focus on Christ rather than ourselves. And to know where we are going so that we don’t end up somewhere else.

Falling to Walk

When was the last time you totally wiped out while you were walking somewhere? Don’t kid yourself, you know it has happened, probably this month, maybe even this week. You were walking down the hall or the sidewalk or in the yard and you completely biffed it. Ate the dust. Punished the ground. As much as it hurts to fall physically, it hurts even more to become aware of the fact that you have been walking for decades and still have not mastered it. The emotional pain of tripping outweighs the physical pain many times. Your friends all laughed….and THEN offered to help you up…maybe…or they just kept laughing. They caught it on video and now you’re an internet sensation.

 The point is, we were all taught to walk at some point in our lives. When our parents were teaching us to walk, it was a grueling process. We fell. And we fell. And we fell again. And we cried. And every time they helped us up, wiped away our tears, and set us back on our feet. They let us hold their hand and when they thought we were ready, they let go. The glory and splendor of successfully taking those 3 steps prior to the next wipe out made the next try worth it.

Our walk with God is the same way. We have to learn how to do it and we have to be taught how by our Father. It is a grueling process. We will fall and fall and fall again. We will weep and cry. And every time God will be there to pick us up, wipe away our tears, and set us back on our feet. He holds our hand until we have regained our confidence and strength and then he lets us go.

The key is the letting go. He wants us to learn to walk on our own without him doing it for us. He loves us enough to let us fall and he loves us enough to pick us up every single time. If he never allowed us to fall, we would never learn to walk. 

Shallow Christianity

Do you remember the moment that you “became a Christian”? I put that in quotes because it has lost its real meaning. What I mean is, do you remember the moment that you gave your life to Jesus in order to follow him? The moment where a person chooses to go from self-focused to Christ-focused is where the change occurs. The problem is that few “Christians” ever make it past the shallowest level of Christianity.

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Churches today are teaching people about God. They teach his names, his attributes, his characteristics, and even stories about what he has done. What is not being taught is how to develop a relationship with God. While he does want us to know about him, what he wants more than anything in the world is to know him. To know his person. To know him intimately.

When you first decided to follow Jesus, you were probably doing it to avoid hell or because you were afraid of death. If your faith and understanding of God never grows deeper than that, you have a problem. In CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape writes this of a new Christian to Wormwood: “What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At the bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit-balance in the Enemy’s ledger by allowing himself to be converted.” The “Enemy” here, because it is written from demon to demon, is referring to God. Lewis points out the reality of the early life of new Christians. Until a certain point, it is all “parrot talk” no matter how sincere a person comes across to other people. We believe that the good things we do and our choice to follow Jesus, is earning us points. Like we are doing God a favor by fake following him.

This is not where Christ following ends. It is a lifelong process of growth. The more time we spend with God, in conversation and in community with believers, the closer to him we will grow. The more we will know God, rather than know things about him. Just a few pages later, Screwtape writes: “You will be helped by the fact that the humans themselves do not desire it [God’s presence] as much as they suppose.” If you don’t know God and don’t have a real relationship with him, then you don’t want it bad enough. You have to want it. You have to truly desire it. And you have to give your life to follow him in humble service. Only then will you break free of the bonds of shallow faith in a God who you don’t really care about. 

Altars

Beginning in Genesis, people throughout the Bible built altars to God. Altars are built to worship God. They symbolize holiness and reverence toward an awesome God. An Altar can be inside a building or part of a room. Outside or inside. They are built to commemorate what God has done for us, to connect with God during times of trouble. Altars were also built to perform sacrifices for the atonement of sins in the Old Testament.

Because of Jesus’ redeeming death on the cross, we do not need to perform sacrifices today like the Old Testament biblical characters did. In fact there are several verses in the Old Testament warning about building altars. The guidelines for building altars have been set by God so that we do not turn the altar into self-worship as opposed to God worship. Biblical characters built altars out of uncut stones in order to prevent them from being proud or boastful of their own handiwork, which might result in self-worship.

The purpose of altars is to connect us with God in holy worship. Whether that worship consists of thanking God, commemorating what God has done, or simply praising God for who he is. The art of connecting with God through real, reverent worship has been lost. The solution is not to physically build an altar to God. It is not necessarily the practice that has been lost, but the principle and the purpose. We get so busy and so focused on ourselves and we have stopped giving credit where it is due. We have stopped worshipping God simply because he is God. We might briefly sputter a “Thank you God” when something good happens to us. We serve a living and powerful God who is worthy of worship. Altars are reminders of what God has done and who God is. Sometimes we get so busy with ourselves and we have done and what we are doing that we completely forget about who God is and what has done and what he is doing.

Break free of the chains that are holding you back and run straight into the arms of Christ. Thank him for who he is. Remember everything that he has done. Thank him for what he has done. Connect with him like you think you have forgotten how, and worship him simply for who he is. There is nothing greater on this earth than to experience and connect with God. Stop focusing on yourself and fix your eyes upon Jesus. 

Here Is Our King

This song is called “Here is Our King” by the David Crowder Band. Listen to the lyrics.

All of lyrics are phenomenal but I want to focus on the chorus. As I was driving back I came to a point of tears when I actually thought about what the lyrics were saying. “Here is our King”. Those lyrics are so special because they are pure truth. He is our King and he rules over us. It is recognition of position and power. It’s a reverent way of addressing the powerful King that God is. We so often think of God as our friend. Our “homeboy”. Or our father. He can be and is all of those things…but he is also the ruler of the universe. The King of the world. He holds the world in his palm. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is everything and everywhere. He is the King, and it is important for us to recognize him for what he is with reverence.

“Here is our Love”. Not only is he the King of everything, he loves us more than anything in the world. The Creator of the universe and King of the world actually loves every single one of us! He knows each of us and every hair on our heads and wants us to know him. He desires a relationship with us. We would all freak out if our favorite celebrity wanted a relationship with us. He is our Love, our King, desiring a relationship with us and pursuing us in the midst of our sin. These two statements together make an even more powerful statement, he is our King and he loves us more than anything.

And finally, “Here is our God who’s come, to bring us back to him.” Our King, our Love, our God has come to bring us back to him. When we stray from the path of righteousness he chases after us to bring us back to him. He pursues and follows and lovingly persists to bring us back to him. This is where I got choked up… That my King, my Love, and the ruler of the universe has come to bring me back to him. Out of everyone and everything in the world, he cares enough about me to focus on me bring me back to him. Not just me, but us. He loves you just as much and has come to bring us back to him.