God forgave Israel at their darkest moment, but it did not let them off the hook for their actions. We must find a balance here. Just because we forgive, everything is not suddenly “fine, just fine,” neither is it right to continue to hold someone’s offense over their head. Ahh, yea, easier said than done.

Sometimes i hear someone say they are upset or angry when others do something wrong according to them, saying the wrong thing, or acting in a way we are sure is inappropriate. It’s ever so easy for all of us to become critical, aiming our ever-ready judgmental fingers which, by law, may be technically correct, yet many times we arrive at the wrong conclusions. We should ask ourselves concerning those who offend us, “Who can guess the intent of your neighbors actions?” Can you guess what was really going on in that persons heart? How can you tell your conclusion was correct? Did they share with you or are you simply filling in the blank because the truth is, you don’t actually know anything?

Let’s see the big picture: take a moment before we judge; step back and carefully consider before we react. God asked us to use common sense, dividing right from wrong, not condemn any who don’t fit our model of rightness. Did we actually investigate to gather data, or did we merely read the news, which is often no less than passing rumors, and filling in the blanks according to their agenda? What does God say about the offense of our neighbor, and what does God say about our reaction? We can’t preach love and grace out of one side of our mouth, then spit fire and condemnation out of the other. i think that’s called, “speaking out of both sides of your mouth.”

Often our hasty reactions are wrong reactions. Often we live out the statement, “Mercy for me, justice for you,” holding others hostage by our lack of forgiveness, reminding them of their actions and withholding affection, but yet we, ourselves, expect full forgiveness and even acquittal. Many times, even though the other person admits their guilt and asks forgiveness, we may smile and say we forgive, but in our hearts there still lives woundedness and a grudge.

There is not one person who hasn’t done themselves and others wrong in some fashion or another. All have fallen short of the glory of God. If we hold others hostage for their wrong doing we deny them relational trust, which God has so liberally extended to us as seen in His commitment to our welfare. Did you get that? “Relational Trust”. You need to know there are two kinds of trust: Transactional trust, and relational trust.

Guy Harris wrote that “transactional trust” is trusting another person to do what they said they would do, and “relational trust” is trusting another person to listen to and understand us and our emotional state.

Also, we really need to forgive, not for the other person but for ourselves – as long as we don’t forgive we stay chained to the other person in our circumstance of offense.

When we ardently remember the wrong of our neighbor we deny them re-entry into right relationship with us. If all our wrong doings were suddenly the topic of tomorrows newspaper, there may not be enough pages in the daily news, so who are we to exploit our neighbor? Do we need to be validated so bad we allow ourselves to be compelled to put our foot on our neighbors’ neck in order to feel important? Isn’t it enough God has spoken to us?

What will it cost us to allow people room and time to rethink their actions or words? Now listen up, that may take a while so we’ll also have to practice some patience and grace if and when they come to a better conclusion. If we are the Christians we say we are, pray for your neighbor instead of accuse your neighbor. Face it, many people aren’t going to apologize like we want them to. Many people truly don’t know the words, they’ve never crafted a good apology, not necessarily because they are mean and resentful, but because they don’t have words yet, and may not even be aware of their actions. Sure, they may have an idea, but it is truly unusual to find someone who actually knows the value of saying or even how to say, “I was wrong,” and then tell the details of it all. Lend the world your ear, not your critical, aiming finger, after all, most of the time they are acting like us. Let us be swept away with the goodness of God rather than the badness of our neighbor.

What if we actually gave people time to come to us, while we refused to carry the hurt or offense of the situation? We may have to actually engage them and be willing for the conversation before they address the issues themselves. Again, it is possible, you know, that the other person may not be aware of an offense they’ve caused?

Peter asked Jesus, “How often can my brother do me wrong and i must forgive him? Seven times?” And Jesus told him, “What? Seven?! Hardly! Try seventy times seven”. (Matthew 18:21) Real forgiveness does not keep track of offenses. The rabbis taught that people should forgive those who offend them—but only three times. Peter, trying to be especially generous, asked Jesus if seven (the “perfect” number) was enough times to forgive someone. But, as we know, Jesus answered, “Seventy-seven times,” meaning that we shouldn’t even keep track of how many times we forgive someone. We should forgive others, no matter how many times they ask. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t practice good boundaries, but it does mean we absolutely may not leverage fellowship and affection against their admission of wrong doing, like, “i’ll love you if you’ll repent, but otherwise, i’ll treat you like the scum you are.” Gosh, that’s ugly, isn’t it? That’s not right.

Everyone needs hope, especially today. A flicker is an inconsistent fluctuating light. A glimmer is to shine faintly, but is more consistent than a flicker. God’s light in us is more than a flicker or a glimmer, it’s a glow.

Learn to see that flicker or glimmer in others, but don’t let offense create a blind spot in your own eyes when the opportunity is in front of you for a Godly response. People are condemned enough in their own mirror and don’t need our judgment and finger pointing, they need encouragement and hope. We’ve got it, so let’s give it!

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name.

Good evening! Here we are again, on the cusp of the close of the day, pondering what the occurrences or non-occurrences of things in our life, and looking forward to the developments of tomorrow.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the deck of a rural cafe’ which overlooks the banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, wide, cool, and deep, always on its way to further destinations somewhere south of here. i believe a lot of folks are at a crossroads between what God says, and what they think and then they tag, “God said…” on the end of their thinking, putting words in God’s mouth to justify their own unscriptural stance.

A bank teller handles lots of money every day. How do we think they learn how to tell a counterfeit from the real thing? Is it by handling a lot of fake bills? Actually, no, they learn to recognize the counterfeit bills by handling the real thing, and the more they handle the real thing, the more obvious the counterfeit is. Are we any different when it comes to the Word of God and hearing His voice? We learn to know His voice and understand scripture, not by looking at the lies, but by looking at the truth, and the more we handle the truth, the more obvious the lies get. In the same vein, we don’t recognize spirit-killing-religiousness, or super religious churches of that type, by immersing ourselves in all that’s dead, but by being part of what’s alive where the presence of God is, and the farther we get from religiousness, the more obvious and unattractive it is.

Here are two things to ponder: Secular Drift – how the world has invaded the church and we’ve allowed it , and The Weight of Secrets. There is a relief which comes when we stop participating in lies, stop propagating wrongness of character and hiding it in front of our peers so we appear righteous but, honestly the weight of our secrets keeps us bowed to the ground.

What do i mean by secular drift? In your mind, what do you imagine by that term? Take a moment and imagine with me … see yourself standing by a calm lake in the early morning before the sun comes up. It’s just getting light. There is a stillness over everything that is intoxicating. From the lake begins to rise an ever so faint mist and the air starts to move ever so slowly from the lake to the shore. As you’re standing there, drawn in by the serene beauty of the landscape, you don’t really give attention to the mist which has gotten thicker around you. Suddenly, you notice the landscape has become obscured and now all you can see is a few yards in any direction because the once faint mist has gotten more dense, you are in the midst of it, and by now it is thick enough that your skin even feels damp. Before you know it, the mist has drifted in and you’re in the thick of it.

The world and its godless ideas have invaded the church in a similar fashion. We are often swept away by lesser problems, a mere crumb tossed to us by the enemy of our souls in order that we don’t address our own permissiveness, we don’t read God’s word but prefer to read a book about the book, with the book being the Bible which is God’s exclusive counsel and revelation of righteous life, hope, and salvation. We don’t notice the heart postures and lose thinking we have adopted in order to just “get along” in society, there by slowly relaxing our grip on what is right and wrong and where our real focus should be. Secular drift has clouded our reasoning and thinking, and many no longer see a clear path to Christ like they used to.

In light of the topic, “Secular Drift”, for many of us, it should first prompt a question of “what is it?”, which is always a great place to start. It’s pretty difficult to deal with something which we have no internal definition for, and if we don’t call it what it is, how can we possibly deal with it effectively? According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word secular means, “denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.”

And to explain it a little better, secularism says that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without any objective meaning, purpose, or essential value. To have secular thinking annunciates that all we do goes nowhere and does nothing. Yea, isn’t that ugly? What has invaded the church is this subtly invasive idea, almost running parallel to the gospel, that there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator, no need of God or “right morality”, therefore, life has no truth, and no one action is known to be preferable to any other.

All too often, especially in the younger generation, when you can get a straight answer, on one hand comes this socially acceptable church-ianity answer, filled with all the right Christian-eze, just sticky sweet and all about Jesus. But if you continue the conversation, asking some potentially pokey questions, suddenly there starts appearing a very opposing viewpoint from the same people which says “You can believe what you want and it’s correct for you, and if you really believe eating tuna every day is what gets you into Heaven, then, for you, it probably will get you into the presence of God forever more, eating tuna and being happy.”

James 3:11, “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?” Think about it. A while back in a couple programs, i asked the question, “Who’s side are you on? God or the devil?” i didn’t ask that question for nothing. It was asked for us to carefully consider and come to a conclusion. Are you going left or right? One way leads to Christ and the other leads to hell. How do you choose? … and choose you must.

I have come to the conclusion that there are believers in the church who say they are Christians, while, at the same time, upholding and even defending value systems that are secular. Friends, there is no such thing as “secular Christianity”, it is totally contradictory. It is like saying “righteously evil”, or “positively negative”, and both are a total contradiction, similarly, “secular Christian” is completely contradictory. To be a “secular Christian” is to be sugar-coated with spirituality and outward peace but have foundations that reflect we don’t need God and we are sufficient in ourselves.

The secular view says we are our own beginning and end, our own mother’s and father’s. This thing called “secular drift” has invaded the mind and heart of the church, and is slow moving like a morning fog, just drifting along, appearing innocuous, inspiring people to become passive sheep being led to the slaughter, all the while loving that they’re getting along, being nice and agreeable ad naseum, or till the stomach turns. The church suffers from “false-consensus” which is derived from our desire to conform and be liked by others, and within our own church group, because no one disputes our perception, we tend to think everybody thinks the same way. We’re watered down, clouds with no rain, we’ve become real milk toast about God, deceived about the enemy of our souls. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Jude 1:12-13, “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Does that sound like someone you want to be? Who in their right mind actually wants to be “twice dead” with no fruit, pulled up by the roots? Nobody, not even the worst of us! Let us turn back to the word of God and take Him at His word. There is nothing God says which is an idle word which just fills space while He thinks of something else to say.

           “Secular drift” turns our “God said” into something which isn’t all that important; it turns our “God did” into “maybe not”; our “never leave you” into merely “probably never leave you” and our “always with you” into just “mostly with you”. It turns God’s “I will give you rest” into “I might give you some relief”, and our promise of tomorrow into only a wisp of possibility.

In our “selfie” obsessed culture, appearance, status, and popularity with friends is often pursued more than understanding the heart and fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.  Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

When we care more about what people think of us than respecting the ways of God, then we have become mired up in secularism. Often we harbor perceptual errors that lead to biased interpretations of the Bible, allowing public opinion to validate us, causing us to cease trusting our internal, Holy Spirit inspired moral compass. Once we start down that path, devaluing ourselves quickly becomes our constant default position, and then we over-value ourselves to compensate. We play “wish-craft” games, assuming we are more powerful than we are. Oh, and heaven forbid anyone should disagree with “secular Christianity”, oh man, then the claws come out and the vicious comments just roll, many seeming to automatically assume that if someone disagree’s with them, they, yes, they must be defective somehow. i think more than a few church folks suffer from two phobias: Atychiphobia, which is a fear of failure or of being wrong, which is absolutely pervasive in our society, and socialphobia, fear of being closely watched, judged, and criticized by others. Those two invasive fears are instant gateways for the “secular drift” to just ease on in and find room and board in your ever so available mind. This ought not to be.

Only when the love of God breaks over the horizon of the hearts of people do we begin to escape a world which says “I don’t need God.” His word, blood, counsel, and salvation break off the thorns on rose stems. We don’t war against our neighbor but against the one of old who has come to steal kill and destroy. Our society has invited darkness in our homes and we have allowed it. In all our internet stuff there seems to always be the thread of secularism which invites us to “Have it your way”, subtly repetitively telling us, “you rule”, and God, if He is real, is merely someone in the distance somewhere.

Nevertheless my friends, as long as birds still fly gracefully over war torn nations, as long as the sun still rises to a new day, as long as babies laugh and the sound of children playing echoes in our ears and heart, so long as the trees still grow, and the stars still shine in darkness, let us stand our ground in Christ, hold our place with the determination to not be moved, and cling to the gospel of Christ with all our heart until we breath our last and go home to be with Jesus.

The word of the Lord isn’t up for grabs, so to speak, it isn’t something we can “opt out of” if we find parts of it difficult, non-compliant with our agenda, or against public opinion. His heart is from cover to cover and no part is to be excluded, ever, at the expense of another. i’ve mentioned before about the woman i met at church who had blacked out parts of the bible she didn’t like. Yes, she was reading a redacted Bible. What she didn’t seem to understand was just because she had blacked out certain parts of the word of God, didn’t change anything. The word of the Lord is the word of the Lord, and once He has spoken, it doesn’t cease being said, even if we don’t want to hear it, His word still stands … forever. Psalm 119:89, “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.”

He does not change His mind about His precedents, statutes, or judgments. Let us stand firm on the word of God and chase the “secular drift” from our places of worship and out of our minds, pushing the enemy of God backwards into his own gates. Stand up church! Let us stand, with all power, on the word of God, and even if the enemy calls for a blitz all night long, don’t you give, not one more inch. Hold the line friends, hold your ground.

           The second part of this evening’s program concerns the “Weight of Secrets”. i believe secret keeping in relationships and marriage is absolutely devastating, disabling, and emotionally debilitating, regardless of your reasons. Let me say this straight out: If you are in a relationship, and it’s a secret, something is wrong, very wrong.

There are all sorts of secrets, some good, some not so much, and there are a lot of reasons for keeping a secret, some good, some not so much. i’m not talking about the kind of secrets parents keep when wanting to surprise their kids with something for their birthday, nor am i talking about the kind of secret a husband and wife keep from the rest of the world, those kinds of intimate secrets are no one’s business but their own. The Lord reserves the right to veil some of His purposes, and He has purposely hidden some of His reasons, only to be found out after we are home to Jesus. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things…”

What i am talking about are the kind of secrets which are a violation of trust,  traitorous, contemptuous secrets which destroy the covenant and loyalty of pledges of friendship, and marriage vows, the sort which destroy our integrity, diminishing and dishonoring us if anyone found out. Secret sin will eat …us…. up, and every secret of this nature becomes a burden which eventually breaks the back of the secret holder. Those are the kinds of secrets which are often hidden with a storm, like dark clouds and rain conceal the mountains. The opposite of secret, or to conceal, is to reveal and make known.

Over the years i’ve been gathering a list of truths about secrets. i asked the Lord to reveal insight about them, and over time, He’s done what i asked, except, i had to live each one out in order to find the value. Friends, secrets consisting of irresponsible behavior and criminal actions have a way of not staying secret, they inspire lies, and often, begat more secrets. The more we hide, the more we have to hide what is hidden. They tend to rise to the surface eventually whether we like it or not. Even among criminals with the most terrible past, only the most determined criminal keeps their secrets all the way till they die. It weighs on them, they break down physically, mentally, and emotionally when carrying the weight of darkness like that. You can literally see it in their face and eyes. We could easily conclude from that observation that secrets are very costly. i don’t believe secrets get better with time, nor are they easier to bear, and if nothing else, they tend to isolate us, sometimes to the point of instability, loneliness, burdensome sadness, and even for some, a failure to persist. If you’re living with things hidden in your heart, whatever they might be, if you are alone, just you and your secrets, you are not in good company. If you’re suffering in isolation about something, reach out, get help. When all your secrets weigh you down, you’ve got a choice, you can reveal them to someone trustworthy, and between the Lord and that person, begin to unravel your secret life. Or you can just bury the hatchet, so to speak, and keep digging in the same hole until no one can find you anymore, and maybe you can’t even find yourself. Friends, do something about it.

Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever conceals (keeps secret) his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

Those of us who harbor destructive secrets in our hearts must, simply must find some closure on those things. We were not designed by God to continually be non-disclosing about our dark deeds, we can’t keep skipping over our wrongness in hopes it will go away. Our secrets will persist until we deal with them. They are like keeping a rotting, dead body hidden under the carpet in the living room, and every time we pass by, it calls to us saying, “Deal with me and be done with it.” The longer we let it lay there, the more it begins to infuse itself in our foundations, persuading our faith, influencing our speech and thinking. Destructive secrets are contagious.

           i’m going to say this again in hopes any of us who have destructive secrets going on will take it to heart: If you’re in a relationship and it’s a secret, something is wrong. If public opinion is what validates you to such a degree, you hide yourself away in your heart, the “Weight of Secrets” will cut you in two. Consider Job 31:33-34, “…if I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my iniquity in my heart, because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors — ”

Here is a repeat of what was previously mentioned, just condensed:
Secrets build fences, confession builds bridges.
Secrets give the enemy leverage against us, secrets are power and leverage.
Secrets begat secrets.
Secrets have a way of not staying secret.
Secrets are very costly and a challenge to our wellbeing.
Secrets weigh more than we can bear.
Secrets tend to isolate the secret keeper.
This list took me several years of observing myself and other criminals, some incarcerated, most others at church. Yes that’s right, at church with the very people who speak in spiritual terms yet harbor many unresolved problems. The Lord had me live each one in order to gain real workable wisdom and understanding.

We need bridges not bigger and better fences. Bridges of peace in Christ between ourselves, our spouses, our children, family and friends. Be a bridge builder! If fear of failure or of being wrong is so invasive within us, if we persist to “make a face”, or keep a facade, none of that will resolve anything, it just makes the fear grow to be more ingrained, giving that fear more power than we ever intended or imagined. By allowing ourselves a facade of “everything is just fine” when beneath the street we are in real trouble, the longer we allow the facade to persist, and the longer we wear the face, the more we become the face. This is why most undercover operatives are required to come in for a period of “re-centering”. Even the world knows the longer they wear the fake persona, the more they become the fake persona, until eventually, even the operative can’t tell who’s who.

James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

Keeping destructive secrets hidden in our heart is a contagion in the body of Christ. Let’s understand contagion a little. In the dark ages, when a cruel lord of the land caught a criminal on their property, and the decree of punishment was death, it was not totally unheard of that the cruel lord of the land would elect to dig up a recently dead body and tie it to the living person, making them to wear the dead thing day and night, until the dead flesh in full contact with live flesh began to eat the trespasser up, eventually dying of the terrible diseases resulting from dead flesh against living.

Contagion is disease spread by close contact of one diseased person to another. Similarly, it is the spreading of harmful ideas or practices by remaining in close contact with godless doctrine and evil, like the contagion of disgrace. i believe disgrace and dishonor can be as contagious as secular drift enters the mind and heart of a believer or a church body. Slowly the disease of disgrace and dishonor become less offensive until, finally, we become accepting, numb to the pain, thinking “things aren’t so bad”, and we capitulate to the creeping mist of secularism, keeping a terrible secret in our hearts of sadness, disappointment, isolation, and grief. Slowly, we begin to learn to operate in the chaos, telling ourselves if we just try a little harder, believe a little better it’ll all go away.

The weight of secrets is crushing, we must DO something about the hidden sin in our hearts, and no, i’m not going to make a list, it’s not for me to point out, it’s for you to discover.

It takes real courage to uncover ourselves, but there is great relief, GREAT relief in disclosing the destructive secrets of our heart. David cried out in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way, everlasting!” Ask the Lord to help you find the courage to get out from under the weight of secrets, no longer being passive about the contagiousness of disgrace and dishonor. When we let disgrace and dishonor keep taking up space in our head and heart, we diminish ourselves to becoming no better than mere dust. Think about it.

Secular drift and the weight of secrets go hand in hand, one seems to thrive on the other. Now listen, i’m not saying to go and dig up a bunch of imaginary sin because you want to be sure nothing is unturned or hidden. Haven’t we all, at some point or another, felt compelled to not only confess to the Lord the stuff we knew about, but just in case we missed something, we start naming off things we’ve never done or even thought about. God is faithful to bring to our remembrance what needs resolution when it’s time to do the work. He is faithful to get us where we need to be when it’s time to be there. Trust God.

i knew a man who said when he first met the Lord, he made a list of 10 things about himself which he felt God really needed to address. He said that nearly 50 years later, the Lord had only addressed two of the 10. What the Lord felt was important was different than what he thought was important.

Ask the Lord to help you clean house, taking the world’s influence in your head, church and community out to the trash and leave it there. And don’t go digging up that dead thing once it’s been reckoned dead. Dead is dead so leave it in the ground.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, contemplative conversation, just for you in these probable last days. It’s good stuff to think about. Let the Lord open your eyes to scripture and Himself. Seeing the counterfeits amongst us is noticed by handling the truth first and foremost. The more you know scripture the more obvious the counterfeits become.

This evening support was by a generous donation from Lance Lumber Co. on Pine St., Living In His Name Ministries, Dot and Elisa at the Opportunity House, Alan, Kevin, and Tommy of the Mebane Freedom League, and Jeff and Karen of Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.

Let us route out the secular drift which permeates our minds, and learn to not only get rid of our secrets but stop creating secrets which keep us bound in chains in the dark. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead so we would have life more abundantly, no longer to be slaves to sin, being held prisoner by ignorance and shame any longer.

Come go with me, let your heart sing to the Lord, buy someone a meal this week, open your hand to the poor and don’t worry about how they came to be that way….by and by, the Lord will change their heart, for if He doesn’t transform their heart, it simply won’t be done.

Be strong and courageous this week, drive carefully and know, we’re almost home. Amen? Amen!

Now this is serious, no satire or funny stuff. Way too commonly, i meet believers who “put on a face” just to get along, but underneath, it’s simply not what’s really going on. By saying “put on a face” i mean they offer us one face of smiling, sweet words, saying all the right Christian sounding words, but underneath, they are wrestling within themselves with struggling with seemingly unshakeable bad attitudes, grumbling, wrong judgement, woundedness, and feelings of pointlessness and being unworthy … unheard, unseen, and unimportant. Often, what’s going on with others is typically not at all what we think. As a result, listen. This is important. i want to hear the victory stories from the “Real life of a True Believer”. Are you that overcomer?

Find your courage my family, you, as Byron would say, the people who keep company with God, find your courage. i’d like you to practice restraint, of course, but also be willing to stand on what you believe and what is true, not just the facts, but what is true according to God. Be willing to sort out what is going on with you to see Jesus. Find your courage to gently but firmly, say what’s on your heart. You don’t have to yell, or scream, and it can be said with an unscowling face. Often, it’s not “what” we say but “how” we say it. You’ll be surprised what comes out of your mouth, sometimes right, sometimes not, either way, you found your courage to talk about what’s really on in your heart. What you’ve got to say concerning what’s going on with you may not make others happy, they may even slight or minimize you in some way from here on out, but we’ve got to stop pretending everything is just wonderful, and everyone is just “so amazing”, when really we don’t think that at all. i realize some of what we’ve got to say isn’t nice nor is it necessary to be said, that’s where discernment and restraint comes into play. But if we’re always “making a face”, which is the definition of being an actor and a poser, we are destined to become our facade, which would be “making a face” on top of “making a face”. Remember, the longer we wear our facade, the greater our chances are of becoming our facade. Oh, and don’t i know well what it’s like digging out from under my many acquired false faces.

Ask the Lord to give you discernment and make that call, talk to the person there’s conflict with. We don’t have to be mean and pointed about it, instead of blasting them, why not start, kindly and gently, with a heart to resolve the conflict rather than inflame the conflict. Ask them if they wouldn’t mind a couple questions. If they agree, let the scowl leave your face, using your best “let’s figure this out” voice, ask them what they meant when they said “such n such” or did “thus n so”. Give them a chance to answer. First: listen. Second: listen intentionally. Third: really listen. If you need to pause, breath, think, and find your composure. Take a moment to find your balance. Even if you’re trembling inside when it comes to being honest and about as transparent as you can stand, find your courage to state yourself. Think about what you’re going to say before you get there. Think about what outcome you want before you get there.

Realize, you might be wrong. You may not know it until the words escape your lips and your ears hear what your heart is saying. But if we keep all our thinking, all our feeling, and all our breathing to ourselves, telling ourselves we’ll only tell it to the Lord, but never really get around to telling Him our heart in a detailed conversation, it is as good as being severely constipated.

When we are spiritually and emotionally constipated, we end up with some spiritual problems which are highly likely to manifest themselves in our physical person. Our skin becomes so thin we are put-upon and wounded by anything others say, maybe even just the way they look at us hurts our feelings, and we’re steadfastly sure it is a slight aimed at us. Either that or we become so callous we become very uncompassionate to a dying world. Someone with too many secrets, unspoken doubts, and unresolved conflicts carries a very heavy burden which will bow them to the ground, weaken their knees, and float them away on a wave of suspicion while operating under clouded thinking. They easily become swayed by confusion or “contrary winds”, which is a Hebrew idiom meaning a wind which pops the ships sails back and forth, whipping forward and backward. It’s truly is literally a picture of confusion. We become so thin skinned, everything hurts, like a broken tooth with the root hanging out. Eventually, everything hurts.

Find your courage. In my distant past, i had unspoken doubts that our system of Christianity actually worked. From the pulpit, from the stage at conferences, all the “easy 5 steps to freedom” books, and especially on TV. All of those people seemed so sure of everything. They said, “believe this and you’ll be filled with peace, hope, love and purpose.” “Trust God and it’ll all just be OK.” “If you’d just tithe more God would bless you.” The pastor at the front was so believable until he went tooth gritting, raging angry at his kids and wife in the hallway of the church. Add to that my having gotten slammed around at home, not measuring up at school, and generally falling short in life. i had so much stuff hidden in my heart and head. Unspoken, unresolved, not daring to speak it to anyone lest i look different than my peers, it all began to morph into indifference to God’s preferences and standards. My careless alienation was soon to give way to anything which gave power to my flesh over my spirit, and that was not good.

One day, when i was down in the ring, caught in a headlock by sin, i thought i was done, down for the count, then Jesus tagged in. He got the devil in a headlock, then picked him up over His head in a spin, slammed him to the mat, and took him down for the pin.

Jesus said, “…come unto to me all you who are burdened and heavy laden, and i will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Neighbors, find your courage. There are things we, the church, simply must begin to talk about, and speaking sweetly and “making a face” while the truth is we’re just churning inside isn’t helping. Let’s talk about what you do after you believe.

What do you think?

When i was a boy, more than a few times, in frustration, i would hear my dad say, “Boy, i tell you what, when i get to Heaven, i’ve got some questions for God. My entire life all i’ve heard is what He could have but wouldn’t, might have but didn’t… and He never explains anything.” Although my father never went to church, never read his Bible, never went to any meetings having to do with the Lord at all, nor did he read any books about him, he seemed continually disappointed and bitter towards all things God. i grew up with no knowledge of the Kingdom of God other than messing with the King of Kings was a waste of time unless you wanted to be frustratingly mystified and always disappointed. There was always the implication of “just don’t look to God to help you out. You’ll only be disappointed.” Churches looked to me like rules on top of rules which no one could keep, nor would they want to, in hopes of relating to someone impossible to know or understand. Rule keeping doesn’t gain us a relationship with God who is the very person we need to know above everyone and anything in the universe.

You know, i’ve met Jesus, personally, up close, eye to eye, and all that i learned about God as a boy totally isn’t true. At all. i suppose for my dad’s entire life, the sum total of what he’d been told was how “God is going to get you”, “watch out boy, God will strike you down”, and “you’re just a sinner, boy, and you’ll never be anything more than a poor old nobody, barely scraping into Heaven.”

Well, i have been reading my Bible, and i do go to church, and i avidly read books about the Great I AM. i’m astounded at all the promises of hope, health, healing, connection, and relational redemption the Lord makes. i have not found a world of won’t, don’t, can’t, and shall not’s like many rule keepers keep at their fingertips. Jesus, the Son of God, came to us, in the flesh, and got eye to eye with mankind for the first time ever, and in John 16 all by itself, He gave us a list of “I will”, “I have”, and then explanations of “because”. So much for the idea that God never explains anything, because He does. Anytime Jesus said, “I will”, “I have”, and “that you might have”, it strikes a mood of possibility and potential for us to be involved with the Lord and possess all God promises. The key words are “be involved”, not just keep rules. Remember, it’s not rules to keep but more someone to be. When Jesus said, “because” He was explaining intentions and actions. God is interested in the conversation and He wants us to understand, and because we may NOT understand doesn’t mean His explanation isn’t real. Keep it simple. i really believe we totally over think much of what God said and says, often trying to make it say more than it says. Jesus said “might have” four significant times. That you might have life, that you might have life more abundantly, that you might have peace, and that you might have joy. If we could not possess it, the Lord would not have struck a mood of possibility and potential for us to know we can own and walk in all He says.

We need to know that the Lord works within the amazing boundaries of righteousness, considering He, Himself, is the standard and personification of righteousness, and will not violate Himself to give us evil desires. Jesus said straight away in John 16:1, “I have spoken these things”, then He explains saying “because” or “for the reason of”. He’s saying “i have spoken these things” in the sense of “take note” “pay attention”, and “hear this and don’t miss it.” He admits in vs25 that it’s true, in the past He had spoken in perplexing parables and metaphors, but then He promises, saying, “From here on out, i’m going to be plain with you.” In other words, He really wants us to get what He’s saying, but He also wants us to be interested enough to pursue Him for the understanding of it all, not being lazy children who wait on the parent to just tell them everything, with the children putting no personal investment into their own knowledge and well being. When i was young, occasionally i would ask my mother the meaning of a word. She would tell me “Look it up.” i thought she was being mean, but in her wisdom she was inspiring me to take action and pursue the answer for myself rather than depend on someone else to inform me because i was too lazy.

In John 16 Jesus said “i will”, “i have”, “he will”, and “because”. He leaves us with His personal promise by saying “I will”, and He’s letting us know what is already set in motion with “I have”. He promises us the Holy Spirit who will teach us, and He said, not “IF” He comes, but “when” He comes the Holy Spirit will do this and that. AND….Jesus says why, using “because”, again, meaning, “for the reason of”.

God is not required to explain Himself to anyone at anytime, but He does so as a courtesy, for the reason that He is interested in a dialogical exchange with us and He wants us to grasp what He’s saying. He does, indeed, talk to men, and He truely does regularly offer explanations. Are we interested to listen? There are more far reaching promises of “yes and amen” than the rule keeper’s mindset of “do not”, yet so many people see God as the God of “watch out, be careful, and don’t”, and that’s not His heart at all. Of course, God has boundaries and warns us of potential problems, but we, ourselves, are the ones who often look like the law on two legs to the world around us because we’re always talking about what we don’t, won’t, and all that we’re against. Well, friends, what are you in favor of within the bounds of righteousness, right morality, and Godly ethics? After you have believed Jesus is the Lord, then what are you gonna do? It’s more than fire insurance, and God has an entire world of amazing possibilities and potentials for us, but we do have to be interested in Him enough to pursue His goodness towards us.

What do you think?

i realize this is a story previously spoken of, but the Lord has illuminated to me the value of it again. A little definition is necessary to set the stage here. A moral is “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.” And ethics are “that which governs a person’s behavior.” So, in light of that, we’re supposed to be modeling to the world the character of Christ. Jesus was honest and transparent and calls to us to be as He is. We can’t be how ever we want to be, tag God’s name on the end, and honestly call it “being like Jesus”. Our greatest strength against darkness is to come into the likeness of the Son.

i was at jail, church to be exact. Tony and i were in charge of the meeting that Thursday evening, in a room of 8-15 inmates who were taking a break from their exciting evening of doing nothing in order to attend. We prayed to open as we always do, then i got “the nod” to begin. Somewhere in the story of myself as the “True Life of a Real Believer”, there arose the idea of living with a loose belt of truth, a poorly cinched breastplate of righteousness, and a propped up helmet of salvation, all of it pretty much just hung in place, making sure it all didn’t fit too snugly, thereby making room for my own personal agenda to arise under the guise of being a Christian.

i love taking little surveys, simply because it is a nice cross-sectional view of where people are, that is if you ask the right questions and they are honest. Yea, asking a good question and getting an honest response is absolutely key as to the value of any survey. i asked the inmates a question: If there was a nickel on the table, would you put it in your pocket, knowing no one saw? The inmates almost unanimously answered, sure. Second question: If there was a $10 bill on the table, would you put it in your pocket, knowing no one saw? Some hesitated but most said, “No, what do you think? i may be a drug addict with poor morals, but do you think i’m a liar and a thief?” Laughter and silence followed but i knew they weren’t just making a joke. The room paused as the silence hung, and i said, “Yes. We’ve already established there is a morals and ethics issue concerning stealing the nickel, we’re just finding your boundaries, and where your line is pertaining to how far is too far and how much is too much.” Oh.

i went on to say, “Regardless of if it’s a nickel or a 10 spot, the problem is mankind has issues at the basic platform of faith, at the heart level, our ground zero place. At first we tell ourselves it’s ok to steal the nickel. It’s highly likely that shortly the boundary will expand to be a dime. Then we graduate it up to a dollar and beyond, rethinking each time how far is too far and how much is too much. Being in jail is almost always indicative of undealt with conflict and poor choosing. It’s not that God isn’t working in our lives, but more we’re choosing other things to be more important, and the more we ebb away from the Lord, the harder it is to hear Him when He calls. By the time you get rolled up and hauled off to jail or prison, you’ve long had a morals and ethics issue which started with being willing to steal a nickel.”

About that time, one fellow said loudly, in all seriousness with the straight face of revelation, he said, “Well, i’ll tell you, i’ve got pockets full of nickels.” We all laughed, but it was nervous laughter, as in, “Oh my gosh! i’ve got pockets full of nickels too!”

Friends, think about this. The difficulty isn’t the nickel or the 10 spot, but the fact that we’re willing to allow our own belt of truth to be a little lose. i hold that if we confess our sins, as in lip service, without the conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit, we’re just going through the motions to be part of a club. We press people who have offended us to be honest and transparent, and when they are honest and transparent we use it against them to punish them. When someone is humble, honest, and transparent about their transgression, it isn’t an opportunity to beat them up and make them bleed, it’s an opportunity for us to be honest and transparent also and stop the bleeding. It isn’t an opportunity to cut them deeper so we can feel smugly justified in our moral superiority, but put a tourniquet on the wound and stop the bleeding.

Take heed here, i didn’t say anything about not dealing with the moral and ethical issues because deal with them we must, but i am encouraging us all to be responsible for ourselves and our own actions. Get the log out of your own eye before you take it upon yourself to start digging around in someone else’s eye looking for a splinter. Whoa to the man who tries to control someone else when he cannot control himself. i have left craters man, craters in other people’s lives because i thought i saw a speck in their personality, then went and got serious excavating equipment to extract the flaw in them. i was stealing a nickel, manipulating on how i could get the owner to give me the $10 bill so i wouldn’t have to own my personal moral and ethical issues. If i could get them to give me the $10, then i couldn’t be, exactly, accused of stealing. Hear what i’m saying here, those who have ears to hear.

Approximately 5 times in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “Follow me”, which means do as i do, say as i say, and be as i am. His use of the phrase “Follow me” literally means “accompany I AM.” The closer the Lord gets to all things, the more all things become like Him.

Neighbor, how many nickels do you have in your pockets? Undealt with issues which drive you rather than lead you?

What do you think?

After reading a Charisma Magazine article about how many pastors leave the church every month, which is approximately 1500, I think I’m beginning to realize, from what I can hear and have read, that they’re leaving probably because they had the illusion of some possible personal benefit somehow. i’m confident there was also a dream that they would be benefiting people and the community, which is indeed a noble thing, but somehow the dream seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of life.

i need to mention that i found a few pastors here and there who left the church and i interviewed them as much as they’d allow, so this isn’t a lot of conjecture and assumption on my part but their actual words. They said that, aside from hoping to impact the community and the world for Kingdom purposes, they also hoped people would love them, endorse them, and (my summary of their words) “pat them on the back”. Upon graduating seminary and then subsequently being hired by a church body somewhere, by having a title and position they would be more effective and there would be hopes for a future serving a church body, but at the core of it all, the magazine article reported they were likely looking for some kind of self-benefit.

i think you and I know something that we have learned the hard way: if we’re waiting on people to congratulate us, pat us on the back, give us a hand clap, or even slide a dollar or two across the table, we will be waiting a really long time. If we are not doing ministry exclusively for Kingdom purposes we will be crushed under the weight of broken expectations and disappointment. You and I know people rarely respond, they just don’t; we know, factually speaking by looking at the weekly donations, that 10% or less actually, monetarily, support 100% of the work of most churches. We know sheep bites hurt and indeed, they bite a lot. For myself, i’ve had several published articles that were popular, for a moment, and a couple went over a million engagements, likes and comments and shares.  But truly, i found out the hard way, if I was waiting for kudos or some monetary increase in order for me to be encouraged and feel ok about myself, I would have long ago died. Out of all of the people who read, follow, and listen, in all this time, less than a handful have actually written to encourage or have given one thin dime. Good thing i’m not holding my breath. I’m not saying that begrudgingly, absolutely not, but what I am saying is, again, if we are holding our breath, waiting from some payoff of some sort for our efforts other than the blessings of God, or hoping for some kind of payoff besides the goodness of God in our lives, then we will be crushed under the weight of disappointment and broken expectations. Jesus is our reward and He indeed is beyond the beyond of any self-benefits hoped for. In light of that …

From Colossians 3 there are four things which are imperative and four persistence’s that are necessary. It is a command (imperative) that we seek, set, reckon, and know:

We need to:

1. Seek what is above, Colossians 3:1.
2. Set our affections. Colossians 3:2
3. Reckon ourselves dead, and that we will stay dead. Romans 6:11, Colossians 3:3.
4. Know we are hidden in Christ, Colossians 3:3, and at no time do we stop being hidden. In the verb “know”, there is an “on and on” motion, implying we don’t stop the process once we know we are hidden. It’s not a “one and done”. Also, as a side note, the Hebrew word for “knowledge and to know” there are 6 investigative words attached to it: what, where, how, which, when, and why, and all six point to the process in the concept of “to know, knowing, and shall know”.

There are four persistences we need to press towards regardless if we get a pat on the back or gain something for ourselves:

5. Persist putting to death, not just desires but what kind of desires but evil desires.
6. Persist to putting off the old man
7. Persist in wearing the new man
8. Persist to not lie

Do you see it? Persist, persist, persist!

Let us, diligently, every day, yield to God and allow his words to persuade us that we would cease being “sons of disobedience” or “being disobedient”, meaning:

stop being obstinate, unpersuadable, and contrary with a heart full of “lip curling don’t want to”.

With every step and every breath, we honor the Lamb, that the Lamb would have the reward of his suffering regardless if those around us endorse us or not. Our focus is Jesus. We do the intricate dance of inductive, exegetical Bible study in order to give/get a right and more clear view of the Christ, in honor of the Lamb. We lay hands on and pray for the sick, maimed, and blind that the Lamb would have the reward of his suffering, for He is worthy of all glory and honor and Power, which means He gets it all and we get none, yet we are included because the Father honors the Son and the Son includes us by the blood. The greater includes the lesser … that the Lamb would have the reward of His suffering, thus we persist and honor the Lamb with every step and every breath. We sing to God in the night hours in honor of the Lamb. We persist and present ourselves to the Lord, like Moses did, early in the morning in honor of the Lamb. We persist and pray our consistent prayers in honor of the Lamb. The Father honors the Son for His sacrifice and He requires all honor and glory and power and dominion be given to the Son, in honor of the Lamb. No other deserves the honor but the Lamb. We persist and give our lives for our wives as Christ gave his life for the church in honor of the Lamb with every step and every breath, that the Lamb would have the reward of his suffering. We persist and breathe His name in honor of the Lamb, we strike out for unknown places with God in honor of the Lamb, our purpose is not to know our purpose but our purpose is to know Jesus in honor of the Lamb, that the Lamb would have the reward of His suffering, with every step and every breath, “omni gradus omni spiritus”, “all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present.”.  All our thinking all our breathing, all our power, and all our forward momentum, that the Lamb would have the reward of His suffering, in honor of the Lamb with every step and every breath. Persist, persist, persist.

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries

Now, i’m not going to go down the longest list you ever heard concerning examples of heroes, the list would go around the earth several times. But what i do want to convey is that you, yes you, are a hero and a champion if you are in Christ. And yes, i do stipulate the “if you are in Christ” part simply because being a hero is about more than just an action. In God’s book it starts with the heart, after all, terrible people can do really good stuff, but doing a really good thing, a hero does not make. It is when our heart, mind, and soul surrender all in the moment and abandon ourselves, we throw ourselves into accomplishing the task in front of us.

At that, let it be known, God doesn’t ask us to do anything we can do on our own, He only uses broken things. So not only do we do what we cannot do, but we are, in Christ, who we never could be without Him, and through Jesus we can now see the unseeable and hear the unheard.

God is the true preliminary model of a hero and champion from which all other forms of heroes and champions are developed and copied. This is the foundation for 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” There is a precedent set in 1 John 4:19 which is Jesus is first in all things righteous. Jesus was the first to fulfill Matthew 22:38 concerning the first and greatest commandment. Jesus was the first to fulfill Mark 9:35 in that He made Himself as the servant of all, thereby setting the precedent of how we should conduct ourselves. He was the example of Proverbs 18:12 in that humility comes before honor and Jesus was the most humble and therefore gets the highest honor. Jesus is the personification of wisdom and James 3:17 testifies that the wisdom from above is first pure. Jesus is first in wisdom, first in honor, first in strength, first in courage, first in humility, first in power, first in resurrection, and first in authority. Always and every time. And if we are born again and Christ lives in us, we have our fingers on the pulse of infinity who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Revelation 1:17-18, speaking of Christ, it says, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

You, yes you believer in Christ Jesus, you are a hero and a champion because Christ lives in you. Don’t misunderstand, your circumstances don’t represent your standing with God. You don’t just survive, you prosper. You are not just “any person”, you are “that person”, specific and named by God Himself. You are not one to conform to the world but one who stands with your arms raised, with hands full of stories of overcoming and becoming. Your roots run deep, in fact, all the way to Heaven, first born blood relative to the Son of God. You’re not a conformer, you are a transformer, and when the fire is at your feet, remember how God promised that when you walk through the fire you will not be burned, nor will the smell of smoke cling to you. When you think you are just done, that you’ve really bought the farm this time and the vultures are circling, declaring doom over you, telling you, you’ve run as far as you can … i say get to your feet and stand up! Friend, you are no mistake or accident, there are no extra or left-over people in the Kingdom of God. When the enemy thinks they’ve finally got you pinned down, reduced to a scrap of crumpled waste paper, you’ll find your Holy Spirit second wind to rise up in the face of insurmountable odds, because that’s what heroes and champions do, and baby, that’s you, yes you.

Victory is in your veins with every pump of your heart. We are the people who stay conscious and present in the room when chaos swirls and contrary winds blow.

There are violent fires burning in our society. Drug wars, AIDS, child abuse, murders, corporate stealing, homeless people, and oh so much more. Just like God is on the move, so darkness is marching too. But just like in Judges, chapters 6 thru 8, during the Midian oppression, God called a mighty man of valor to be a deliverer. Judges 6 declares his call and his commission. The name “Gideon” means “to cut down.” He was called to cut down the oppression caused by the Midianites. Isn’t this what Jesus came to do as the ultimate conflict revolutionist? To do justice and to cut down oppression? According to Acts10:38, He came “healing all who were oppressed by the devil”, don’t we have a similar call of God upon us also? God has not called us and made us heroes and champions for nothing. Friends, we are not conformers, we are called to be transformers because that, THAT is what heroes and champions do.

i certainly hope you take these words to heart, roll them around in your head and let the word of God persuade your heart and mind.

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries.