46664

Nelson Mandela (Madiba) was imprisoned on Robben Island in 1964, and was the 466th prisoner to arrive that year. The prison administration’s scheme of numbering prisoners was to follow the sequence number of the prisoner (466 in his case), with the last two digits of the year (64). This number was imposed on him by the prison for over 25 years, until his release in 1990. “Prisoner 46664” continues to be used as a reverential title for him and has also been the title of a song by U2 and inspiration for a series of concerts to combat HIV/AIDS.

Like most people I was taken y surprise when I heard the news Madiba’s passing. I understand he was 95, but death always seems to take us by surprise. As I watched the coverage my mind quickly began to think of all the history that this man had seen and been apart of. Additionally, I began to wonder what I have not been told about Madiba. The first thing I always wonder when someone passes is about their life in relationship with Christ. I always found the level and [seeming] completeness of Madiba’s forgiveness to be unique to Christ but I never heard of his spiritual life outside of a baptism when he was in primary school.

Ultimately here is what is most puzzling to me is the change that happened while in prison, from a Malcolm X figure to a Martin Luther King type figure. Mandela was arrested, tried, pleaded guilty to on 150 counts of terrorism and ultimately sentenced to Life in prison between ’62 and ’64. This is the same time in our nations history that the Civil rights movement was running its course in our country. Yet our two context have had completely different, though parallel paths. We were both dealing with entrenched racism which broke the back of our countries, yet our laws and forced integration have not solved the problem. Simultaneously, South Africa’s apartheid became even deeper entrenched and without hope for change. In February of 1990 Mandela was freed and the fate. Of a whole nation began to change in seemingly and instant. Over the next 4 years he led them from apartheid to a new constitution and a republic not all that dissimilar to ours. The difference is that what it took our country over a generation to accomplish was done, in a more hostile environment, in about 4 years.
This brings up a couple of questions:

Whats the difference between the 2 countries?
Which model should we follow in the church?

You see the American church in the 21st century is still dealing with 20th century problems and race is a huge dividing one. Honestly, I am not too worried about our country of South Africa’s but I am concerned about the issues surrounding the Kingdom of God.

So I would love to hear you thoughts, which model do we follow to solve this HUGE problem within the church? U.S. desegregation, Mandela’s or something else?

Blurred lines

The problem with drawing lines in the sand is that with a breath of air they disappear.

I remember driving around Kansas City with some friends while in college when I was first encountered this question that had plagued me for the entirety of my Christian life, “what is the difference between Christian and secular music?” You see on my radio I was listening to “secular” music and my friend was becoming continually and visibly agitated with it. When he asked me to change it, the question was raised by another friend. Although it seemed an initially obvious answer, I did not immediately know that answer. Actually, the more I thought about it the more I realized I am not sure. Was it that a Christian song had to mention Jesus or God? If that is true then what do we do with the books of Esther and Song of Songs (which do not mention either)?

Unfortunately, this is a dilemma that is not unique to the sphere of music. We live in a world where the divide between Secular and Sacred is constantly and adamantly being drawn by both Christians and non-Christians alike. We are frequently labeling things “Christian” that I suppose we fear otherwise might be confused for something else.

Christian schools
Christian groups
Christian movies
Christian books
Christian bands, etc.

If our music, our schools, our groups, our books, our actions do not point those around us to Jesus, and serve to redeem a broken world, then are they not indeed unchristian? Instead of creating clear bright line, like we would like, Christ blurred the lines between secular and sacred, seemingly implying that the division the ritualistic religion of the day had crested a false division. If All things are God’s, all things are in fact sacred? IS this going to o far? Why? Furthermore, He was criticized for almost everything he did because he acted as if things such as the purity and impurity, pious and impious, Jew and Gentile, powerful and weak, rich and poor did not exist as the world saw them. When Paul came on the scene he preached this as he proclaimed in Romans there is no division, but “all are one in Christ Jesus.”

Is it easier to know who is in or out? Is it that we wanted to be able to sit at the table with drunkards tax collectors and sinners, as long as we knew who was who? Honestly , I’m not really sure, so I put the question to you, is there a Sacred/ Secular divide?

Some additional thoughts from this weekend

Most people don’t know but the amount of information that many pastors compile for one sermon is MASSIVE. We have researched, read, prayed for weeks on end and find ourselves to edit and cut that information to around 30 minutes (in our context). That being said I still wanted to share some thoughts that I wanted to share but were left on the editing room floor. I hope this additional information is fruitful you as it was with me.

How do you handle a victory? We said first of all,

I. With every great work, give glory to God (Neh. 6:15-16).

With every victory we have ultimately, all the credit goes to God. It is great to pray that in our lives, we pray for a God-thing. God loves to get all the glory! Nehemiah in Neh. 6:15 does give the glory to God as a token phrase (like you hear at an award show). God had birthed a burden in his heart, broke his heart with the burden, helped him persevere as he waited for God’s timing, answered prayer with the King, encouraged him when he arrived among opposition, gave him confidence and courage to rally God’s people, encouraged him in the midst of ridicule, the halfway hurdle, gave him boldness to confront sin and helped him focus among distractions.

So it is not unusual for the soul who has been dependent on God in everything to grant Him the glory when God accomplishes a great work. The more you abide with the Lord, invite him to every aspect of your life, the more you will see His fingerprints over everything. If God does a dozen things with every good work, we may see only two things. However, the more we have been with the Lord in the small things, the more we see Him working in the bigger things. Secondly we said:

II. Guard great victories, because they can be followed by great failure (Neh. 6:17-7:3)

How do you guard your victories? We said first of all, it requires us to:

1. Faithfulness (Neh. 7:2)

Hanani was Nehemiah’s literal brother (Neh. 1:2). Remember him? He was the one who told Nehemiah about the problem in the first place. Hananiah was a governor “of the castle charge.” This “was a fortress in the temple area, guarding the north wall of the city, which was especially vulnerable to attack.”[3]

Nehemiah says the reasons he picked Hananiah was because he was faithful and God-fearing. Faithfulness is “doing what you said you would do.” Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., often said, “The greatest ability is dependability.”[4] Can you be depended on? Paul says, “It is required of stewards that they be trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:2). Pastor Steve Cole in Arizona provides four ways to develop faithfulness:[5]

Recognize and define the responsibilities that God has given you to do. If you are a husband and/or a father, you have to provide basic needs of your family. If you are part of a church body, you are responsible to serve God in some capacity. It is hard to be faithful if you are foggy about what you should be doing.
Start with and don’t neglect the small things. Pay your bills on time. Keep your appointments. Jesus said, if you are faithful in the little things, you will be entrusted with more (Luke 16:10).
Keep your relational priorities straight. This means your time with Jesus, your time with family, your accountability relationships and your relationship to others in the body of Christ.
Learn to use your time more effectively. This is huge. I need to write down my priorities down. Are you spending excessive amounts of time on the internet, video games and television? We all have the same number of hours entrusted with us and a good sign of faithfulness is how we use it.

2. Fear of God (Neh. 7:2)

The fear of God is the dread of displeasing Him. It is not to be afraid of God, but your desire to please Him takes precedence over everything else. We have talked about it a lot in the previous weeks, so I am not going to belabor the point. It comes out of knowledge of God. The more you know Him, the more you want to please Him. Solomon says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7). Wisdom is the ability to make the most God-honoring decision in any situation. Anyone need that? I certainly do! The way it starts is to ask God to give you such a dread in hurting Him with the choices of your life. This is the fear of God. But it is interesting that he connects faithfulness and fear of God together. I believe the more you fear God, the more faithful you will be, because you will have wisdom to make the best choices in every situation.

3. Watchfulness (Neh. 7:3)

So character is built by faithfulness, fear of God and lastly, watchfulness. Knowing these guys feared God and were faithful, they were asked assigned the job of watchfulness (and to delegate it to others). What he is saying here is that they need to be vigilant. Lazy guards are no guards at all. The Hebrew is tricky here. But I think he means to be on watch, even in the hottest part of the day, right in the afternoon, around lunch time, when we can tend to be lax, we need to be on guard. Remember some people had worked on the wall near their homes (Neh. 3:10, 23, 28-30). Now Nehemiah wants them to realize that they need to protect what was accomplished.

I think the lesson here is that unless we protect what was accomplished for the Lord, the Enemy will come and take over. This is why Paul said, “After you done everything, stand” (Eph. 6:11). This is why so many schools which were once started on godly principles are now as secular as secular can be. Look at all the churches now once so solid in preaching the Gospel, now fill their pulpits with people preaching “another gospel.” Beloved, we are simply one generation away from destruction, and so need to be watchful. Living hope can easily be dead hope!

There is a fine line between watchfulness and compromise. The reason why compromise happens is because we are not watchful. It all comes down to a character issue. If Tobiah’s wife and family had been watchful in not having any relationship with Tobiah, the compromise that now resulted into the next generation, would have been avoided. Here are some things we need to guard:

Our heart (Prov. 4:23) Guard carefully what you allow in your life that will ultimately impact your heart and soul. Watch out for sharing intimate moments with people who are not your spouse.
False doctrine. Paul tells the church in Corinth that Satan comes like an angel of light, disguising himself as “servants of righteousness,” preaching a false gospel (2 Cor. 11:14-15). I have seen churches and people destroyed because this was not taken seriously.
Our private time. Guard your times when you are alone, tired, overwhelmed or bored.
Recreation and Media. Check with pluggedinonline.com or christiananswers.net before renting or watching a movie. Use an internet filter for your computers.

The point here is that we need to guard our victory times because it can be followed by great failure. But keeping our priorities straight (keep worship and the Word central), avoiding any small hints of compromise, and keep working on our character (like faithfulness, a growing fear of God and being ever so watchful) will help us. All of us know what it is to put our guards down when things are going well. Let us decide now and pray, “Lord help us protect what you have accomplished.”

What do we do?

I have to admit that when it comes to the conflicts over seas I am tired. Tired of being the “police of the world”, tired of “spreading peace” and tired of fighting for the wrong kingdom . Yet over the last week I’ve wondered “What should we [as Christ followers] do in this world”?

Right now it seems like it is open season on our Christian brothers around the world.

Seventy-eight Christians were slaughtered Sunday by twin suicide bombers at a historic church in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
Less than 24 hours earlier a group of militants (some allegedly from the U.S,) murdered at least 68 workers and shoppers at a mall in Kenya, allegedly shouting for Muslims to get out of the way so they could specifically kill Christians.
Coptic Christians in Egypt also have been targeted recently by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Christians in large numbers have left their ancient enclaves in Iraq and the West Bank after churches there were attacked or Christians were threatened.
In late May, International Christian Concern, an evangelical ministry to the persecuted church, released to Christianity Today an anonymous open letter from a “trusted Syrian source” that explains why many Syrian Christians support Assad’s regime.

Many Middle eastern Christians feel that the government was bad [under the former regime], but they were at least safe. After researching what has happened in historic churches in places like Aleppo and Homs I know that we must do something but the question in my mind is what? Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of the Syrian Catholic church in Damascus said in May that Christians are so frustrated with Western policy, which he believes is fomenting Islamic radicalism and anti-Christian hatred, that they may give up on the West altogether.

“I believe there will be a time coming when Christians of the Middle East will no longer look to the West for support and perhaps to better strengthen their roots with the Eastern culture and civilization … [to] Russia, to India, to China,” he said.

So in light of this [and many other things] I wonder, [as Western Christians] what do we do?

I’m really looking forward to your comments and ideas.

We are fighting for the wrong kingdom!

“It frustrates me how church people discern truth using their politics instead of their Bibles, and it frustrates me that they don’t know the are doing it.”

– Reverend Dr. Derrick Lynch, Blue Valley Baptist Church

As an American and also as an evangelical Christian, I can hardly bear to watch this nightmare unfolding. It’s bad for Christianity, heck it’s bad for America. Here is my take on the sorry spectacle of Christian politics — and how to fix it.

Politicians continue to use and abuse the language and symbols of Christian faith in order to win political support. They speak of God, Jesus, Christian faith and Christian values. They bow their heads in prayer at a million chicken dinners. Then Christian voters — perhaps flattered, perhaps reassured — think that these evocations of Christian symbols and terms actually mean something. Living in the Midwest I I see and hear this kind of foolishness daily. This version of Christian politics is inherently corrupting to Christian faith, ethics and witness. It confuses the message of Christianity with that of the politician of the moment. I’m not sure about your baptism but I do not remember getting handed a card to a particular political party. This conflation damages the moral witness of Christians in culture, it makes it harder for millions to even consider the claims of historic Christian faith. It drives many away from God altogether. Don’t believe me? Let me give you an example.

The whole Obama rodeo clown debacle is repugnant. Some people at the fair see the rodeo incident in which a ringleader taunted a clown wearing a mask of President Obama, played with his lips as a bull charged after him was neither racist nor disrespectful. The hooting and hollering from the crowd that night was because of a fundamental dislike of the president. Immediately we had “Christians” on the Left and Right claiming a foul and I do not want to get into the details but there are somethings I want to point out:

“… but they did it to President Bush”. Again, I don’t know about you but my kids would get into trouble for making an asinine excuse like this.
“[Political Party] is just the lesser of two evils”. Just remember that you are still advocating for evil.
“[Political Party] is closer to my values”. Yes, and they are trying to setup there own [Political] kingdoms that compete with God’s.

Here is a wake-up call:

Rush Limbaugh hates Jesus.
Sean Hannity hates Jesus.
Rachel Maddow hates Jesus.
Mark Levin hates Jesus.
Kieth Olbermann hates Jesus.
Piers Morgan hates Jesus.
Anderson Cooper hates Jesus
Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and whomever else I missed all hates Jesus.
Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and [fill in your political party if it was not mentioned] parties are ALL antithetical to the Kingdom of God.

I know you agreed with some of the list and others you disagreed but I want to ask you this, What kingdom are they fighting for? When you listen to them talk/ advocate for their position who are they talking about? A Political party, an ideology, or Christ? Better yet if someone were to listen to you talk/ advocate who would they say you are talking about? Unfortunately, we have sold out to these fiefdoms while the Kingdom of God (you know the one that Christ died in establishing) loses ground. Do not allow your voice to be co-opted by your allegiance to an earthly kingdom or party. We have prostituted ourselves out so much that the outside world does not know the difference between Christ many political parties and that is a shame.

We are fighting for the wrong kingdom, let’s start fighting for the right one because all of the other ones are just [really] ghetto idols. It’s not that much different than when my son puts on my shoes and marches around the house trying to be me. Though its cute, he is a far cry from filling the shoes he’s trying so hard to handle.

Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church: A Response to Rachel Held Evans

Recently, I was given a recent CNN article “Why Millennials Are Leaving The Church” by Rachel Held Evans. When reading the post it becomes evident that (in my opinion) she is not talking about the “holy catholic church,” but a narrow subculture of conservative American evangelicals but the conversation is afoot none the less. Unfortunately, her post does not [seem to] address why young adults in America are leaving the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, broad evangelical, nor mainline churches. I must admit that her post has struck a chord with a larger swath of readers (see the thousands of comments below her post). She is addressing a perennial topic of conversation among church leaders and church goers: what will happen to the next generation.

Like Rachel, I’m in my early 30’s, right on the border of the millennials, and many of the questions and doubts I hear from the millennial generation resonate with me too, but the analysis offered from Trevin Wax below differs somewhat from Rachel’s.

I guess the questions is simple, If you are below 30 why are you leaving (staying) in the church? I look forward to your comments below.

Rachel’s Analysis

Rachel thinks millennials are leaving the church due to the perception that evangelicals are

“… too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

She’s right to decry a vision of Christianity that reduces repentance to a list of do’s and don’ts. I too have noticed that many millennials desire to be involved in mercy ministry and support justice causes. And I couldn’t agree more when she says “we want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.”

The Church’s Response.

How has the church responded? Rachel sees church leaders trying to update their music or preaching style, and thereby running up against the “highly sensitive BS meters” we millennials have. We’re not fooled by consumerism or performances when churches cater to what they think we want.

Rachel writes:

“What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.”

I agree with that sentence for the most part, although I would tweak the last line to say “What millennials really want from the church is substance.” Not a change in substance, necessarily, just substance will do.

Too often, our churches have offered a sanitized, spiritualized version of self-help therapy, and Jesus has been missing. And that’s the problem. Like every generation, she says, “deep down we long for Jesus.”

Here’s where Rachel and I part ways – on what communities following Jesus look like in our culture.

Read the rest of the article here…

Shamefully, my bravest post yet!

I have been out and about for the last few weeks and I asked for a friend of mine to write a post for me. Unfortunately, because of the state of the church I have chosen not to reveal my guest name but I will say that shamefully, this is my bravest post yet. Please take a few minutes and read some of the bravest and honest post I have read in a while and then lets please begin this conversation. I look forward to your comments below.

My father sits across from me. He points at me, and his voice makes it clear that he can’t imagine the possibility, even as a joke. “You’d better not be one.”

He doesn’t know.

Two older men in church, whom I respect greatly, nod in solidarity. “I wouldn’t allow those people as members.”

They don’t know.

A dear, kind woman looks at me in shock. “You don’t believe in that, do you?”

She doesn’t know.

My own convention expresses its ‘continued opposition to and disappointment in’ the Boy Scouts for allowing boys like I used to be membership.

They also act with great care to declare their love in Christ for people like me… regardless of ‘perceived’ sexual orientation.

They don’t know, but now you do. I’m a firm follower of Christ, and I’m also a homosexual man. I’d like to talk about how I feel in the church, and why I believe the church should be doing better.

A few years ago, in response to an increasing number of homosexual teens committing suicide, the “It Gets Better” campaign was started. The message was a simple one: offering hope, in the form of promises that the pain those teens were going through was temporary, and that life got better. It was a tremendous success, and that phrase has become a byword for anyone facing bullying and rejection.

Contrast this to my experience with some parts of the Christian community. Shame seems to be the dialogue objective, focusing exclusively on that one facet of life. With the usual combination of selective Scriptural sniping and heated argumentation, the Christian seems to desire driving away the listener, rather than drawing them closer to Christ.

Christians have forgotten that sin can’t be shamed out of someone. They have confused changing behavior for changing hearts, and the disapprobation of the Church with the conviction of the Spirit.

The world offers pride and celebration, the church shame and rejection.

We have to change that. We have to be a place where anyone can show their imperfections and temptations.

It works. Despite the above conversations, there have been those, like my pastors, who have welcomed me in church, who honor the difficult choices I’m being asked to make, and who will be there when times are rough. Their love in Christ is based on who I am, not who I am perceived to be.

Let’s start there.

Should we move on?

Since Sunday night I have been trying to put into words my feelings on the trial of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. The disturbing interview from Juror B37 further added to my want to comment but I found myself without a strong voice. Our system spoke, the prosecution made mistakes, George Zimmerman is a free man. The problem is that many people in my world think that this is where the conversation ends and I would submit that this is where it has to begin, especially as Christ followers. I ran across an article from Trip Lee that does a great job helping explain my heart without jumping on the guilty/ not guilty bandwagon. Please set aside your bias and just read this mans word, he has much more wisdom than most of the commenters on social media and the media and I really think it will be worth your time.

I’ve kept up with the Trayvon Martin saga from the beginning. Like many of you I watched the news coverage, read the articles, and talked about it with friends. It dominated public conversation and provoked a much needed discussion about race in America. The ugly reality of racism was pushed in front of our faces, and even those who like to pretend it doesn’t exist were forced to talk about it.

Over a year later, Trayvon’s killer has been tried and found not guilty. Does that mean we should move on from the issues? They found him innocent, so these “race issues” must not be as real as we thought they were, right? That couldn’t be further from the truth. I have no intention of arguing about the facts, Trayvon’s character, or the verdict in this tragic situation, but I do think some discussion should continue. The trial is over, but the conversation shouldn’t be.

Why the Interest?

I know there are many who wonder why this particular trial has captured the attention of so many. Others wonder why some black folks are so quick to sympathize with Trayvon Martin, despite the fact that he had issues of his own. After all, none of us were there and we don’t know exactly what happened. While that’s true, I did find myself emotionally invested in the whole ordeal. I can’t speak for everybody, but I can tell you why I found myself sympathizing with Trayvon and the Martin family…. for the rest of the article please click here.

Saying “N****r” shouldn’t get Paula Deen fired

**I try hard not to speak about current events as anything but an observer, but this one has just become out of control. So this week I want to comment on the Paula Deen debacle and lend some clarity.

Warning, there maybe some language in this post that could be considered offensive.**

I have a guilty pleasure, cooking shows. I love “the Food Network (FN)”, “Top Chef” and others. I have learned so much that has served to advance my cooking skills. Paula Deen has been among the host that have given me a better understanding of Southern culture and cooking. I was initially surprised as the next person to hear of Mrs. Deen’s comments, use of the word “Nigger” and subsequent firing by the FN and other sponsors. What further concerned me was the instant “I support Paula Deen” Facebook pages and multiple post showing support for a women who used a word that, as a society, we have considered repugnant for many decades (though in my humble opinion not long enough). Additionally, I began to laugh when I read post from my friends comparing Deen’s situation to movies that say “Nigger” or “nigga (not that this word is much better)” a ridiculous amount of times (e.g. Django Unchained). I truly believe that Paula Deen should not be fired for admitting that she called someone a nigger 30 years ago but you should really read the deposition for yourself. The whole thing is now out and it is a pretty long read and damning read, here are some of the highlights (lowlights) and why I believe she was really fired.

She was accused (in a lawsuit) of only hiring only Caucasians to work in the front of the restaurant:

“Bubba [her brother] and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is or what is between your legs, it’s what’s in your heart and in your head that matters to us.”

The transcript mentions employee complaints about Deen’s brother looking at pornography at the restaurant during operating hours and forcing other employees to look at it as well. In direct response to questions about this, Deen said:

“I know all men in my family at one time or another, they’ll tell each other, ‘look what so and so sent me on my phone,’ you know. It’s just men being men.”

In response to questions about whether or not she’d have a problem with her brother looking at porn at work, Deen said:

“If somebody sent him something and he pulled it up and looked at it, no, I would not persecute him for that. … Bubba, I don’t think, would ever do that if he thought there was somebody in the room that he — it would insult.”

She did respond to a question about when it’s acceptable to use the N-word and Deen said:

“We hear a lot of things in the kitchen. Things that they — that black people will say to each other. If we are relaying something that was said, a problem that we’re discussing, that’s not said in a mean way. What about jokes, if somebody is telling a joke that’s got —It’s just what they are, they’re jokes.”

The continuation of this line of questioning is rather disturbing. Even Macklemore and Eminem understand that in today’s America there is not a nice way to call a African American a nigger, yet Deen proceeded to find that medium. This her response to the lawyer asking her to give and example of how to use the word nigger in a nice, joking way after she state that she could:

“That’s — that’s kind of hard. Most — most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks. Most jokes target — I don’t know. I didn’t make up the joke, I don’t know. I can’t — I don’t know.”

There is not a nice way to tell a joke with the word “nigger” in it, trust me I have heard my fair share and not one of them is funny.

The most repugnant part of the deposition was Deen’s description of a “[pre] Civil Wars style Southern plantation wedding” she wanted for her brother. She was reportedly inspired by a restaurant with nicely dressed, middle-aged black waiters dressed up as slave caricatures. When asked by the questioner in the deposition whether the race of the waiters mattered, Deen said, “Well, that’s what made it.” the very suggest that slaves could be a quaint scenic touch at a wedding is deplorable to say the least.

Listen, if you really want to please go and read the whole deposition . After i did I came to the to the conclusion that as a private company I would not want someone who acts in the manner that she has and continues to defend it to represent my company. What about forgiving and forgetting? Honestly, I am all for forgiving but I also understand that we all must deal with the consequences of our actions (good or bad) and unfortunately we must let Mrs. Deen and her brother walk that path. She is a public figure and she has to deal with this publicly. If you want to talk about the numbers of celebrities, actors, pastors, politicians of all races that make stupid comments I will submit that you are deflecting from the real reason for her release and ask you to please read the deposition.

As I began I really meant what I said, I do not think she should be fired for calling a robber a nigger 30+ years ago while working at a bank but I the more I dig I see a national and cultural conversation that need to happen, especially within the church. I think another blogger said it the best when she said, “If our country ever wants to heal from the racism of our past, [we have] to stop denying that it’s still an issue. We need to own it. To step up and start a national conversation about race. That starts by being honest.”

Honestly, these are just my thoughts and opinions, what say you? I look for ward to the conversation!

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a really dirty confession…

I moved into (the greatest school on earth) Kansas State University in August of 1998, in Marlatt Hall (room 456, not that you really care). It was an amazing time in my life and I quickly lost my ever-loving mind, but that’s a post for another day. When we finished battling the crowds and getting setup in my dorm room I remember putting on a set of white patterned sheets on the extra-long twin bed we had in the room and I proceeded to not change those sheets or wash them all semester (I apologize for those who just threw up a little bit in your mouth)! i can assure you that i do not keep that practice today and look back on it as a purely rebellious and sick practice of an 18 year old boy.

Throughout the semester I actually thought about washing/changing them but I figured I took my showers at night, so how dirty could they really be (sickening isn’t it)? Besides, changing them would take a lot of time and energy. No one really ever saw my sheets, so it was not a big deal, right?

Can you EVEN begin to imagine how gross those things were? Just take a second and think about it…

If you are not a teenage boy then you know that it was and is gross! Do you think that it was wise not to change the sheets? i do not either. However, I see so many people do that every Sunday in churches and I feel the same way. We will show up every week, listen to a sermon, and then go home. Sometimes you may think, “wow, I should do something about what I heard today.” But often times they decide against it because doing so would take a lot of work; after all, who is ever really going to see the area of their life that needs to be changed? I watched it this weekend as I preached and asked people to respond. I see it in peoples eyes but we seem to be more scared to respond to the Father. When God deals with an area of our lives He isn’t doing so because He has nothing better to do but rather He’s doing so for our own good, yet we fight so hard against His work. WHY?

If He is wanting to change something, then that something needs to be changed. I am learning more and more as a follower of Christ. He is constantly changing me, my thoughts and my attitude by making me more aware of who He is. Becoming more aware of who He is really does make me want to be more like Him and in order for that to happen I have got to “change the sheets” when He clearly points out things in my life that cannot continue the way they are going.

Will you change the sheets of your [life’s] bed?

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