08.24.08
Posted in God Centered, relationship at 12:25 am by Administrator
I once heard Steve Sample, the president of the University of Southern California, speak at a conference. He joked that his pastor was going to kill him for saying this, but that he had been an Episcopalian for 44 years and a Christian for 25. The thought slammed into my mind like a runaway train filled with explosives and diesel fuel. How true is that statement? If we think not just for him, but for all of us, we find ourselves living lives where we have all the religious trappings upon us but the insides are hollow. The prophet Ezekiel referred to this as “when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash” (Ez 13:10). Jesus referred to Pharisees who were like this in Mt 23:27 as “whitewashed tombs”.
I have always said that it’s not about the ritual, it’s about the relationship. However today I heard a great presentation, by a fellow named John, who had prepared it for an upcoming Men’s Emmaus Walk for the North Houston Emmaus Community. He asked “Do we have a religion or do we have a relationship? Do we have a God or do we have a Savior? Do we merely believe in God and not fully believe God at work in our lives?”
This poses a great question for me. How do we know when we just have religion without the relationship? The answer is that we looked at how God is working in our lives. It really comes down to what our intentions are. So are we for real or are we just a thin layer of whitewash covering up a broken wall?
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08.22.08
Posted in God Centered, relationship at 12:22 am by Administrator
I recently ran into a guy that I met at Taft Street Coffee in Houston. Now he and I really don’t have much in common, especially on a socio-economic level. This fellow one day had just walked up to me and began telling me his story about how he had found God. As he told me the story about how he had been addicted to meth and how he had wandered into the coffee shop looking for a glass of water. He told me that he had found so much more. It showed me that we need to be aware of the people that we meet and those that cross our paths.
Now 4 months later, I have realized how much I have in common with this lower classed, former meth junkie. At the time we met, he showed me his former track marks and I commented that I had my scars too but they resided on the inside. Every time we see each other, it seems we were made to help each other out. It is eerie how similar our struggles are despite how different we are. God had provided both of us a person who truly cared about the problems that we had and who would listen and give aid. It is sad that in my former Christian life I would have just walked away from someone like this who has been such a blessing in my life.
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08.15.08
Posted in relationship at 9:59 pm by Administrator
I was talking with an old friend yesterday and I noticed on his profile that he said he was an atheist. I asked him about the story behind that. It sounded like he had a spiritual crisis in graduate school and he mentioned how he really disliked people who used Christianity as a tool.
That really got me thinking about other people I had talked to and my own personal experience. My own experience was that I was completely turned off by a group of Christians that were castigating people without trying to build up their brothers or sisters in Christ. What was happenning in the groups these people were in on the premise of building better Christians was that those that were perceived as “sinful” were cast out and the others congratulated each other for purging the “sinful” nature in their group. It didn’t matter that many of these people had their own “secret sins” found in their lives. They were quick to throw stones. Did they love on these people, no… Did they show these people how they were being “sinful” through interactions with them and coming along side them? No.
So what is the result of this kind of action? People like my friend and others leave the church, never to return. Many want to know God but are turned away from doing so by self righteous christian types. I always thought to myself that people who were divorced or addicted to internet porns were usually the first people to throw stones at the homosexuals. For me both sides are not holding up to God’s word.
So I ask myself. Should we not seek out the lost and the hurting and embrace them with love? Should we not live our lives in honoring God and others in relationship? Shouldn’t we live our lives so that we shine the light of Jesus wherever we are? Should we take the light of Jesus to those who are far from it?
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