Cut It Out

This past week I underwent surgery to cut out the pre-patellar bursa in my right knee. For those of you who do not know what the bursa is, it is a sac of fluid that protect the knee cap and allows for the skin to slide smoothly over the knee cap. The bursa in my right knee has been inflamed for sometime and has hindered my mobility, particularly in the athletic arena. I was not able to lift, condition, or recover the way that I wanted to. It was slowing me down, keeping me from being all that I was capable of being. So, the doctors went in and cut this bursa out of my right knee. Once it recovers, the knee will be as good as new. Throughout this process, God has really been speaking to me. Telling me something that i really need to hear.

Hebrews 12:1 ".... Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Much like the bursa was setting me back from training from football, sin sets us back from running the race of Faith in our lives. Look at the metaphor that Jesus presents here. He uses the words weight and ensnares with run, endurance, and race. These words do not go together. You see who runs an endurance race with an extra 10 pounds on their back? Who goes and runs with snares set up along the path? Nodody that I know of. Most people run when they are as light as they possibly can be, and along a path that is as free of hazards as they can possibly make it.

Why do we treat or spiritual lives differently? We burden ourselves with doubt, worry, fear, guilt, shame, money, relationships, the world. We get caught up in the snares of sin such as lust, gossip, cussing, etc. We say that we a running toward God with all of hearts but how is that so when we are so weighed down and trapped that we can do nothing but barely take a step. We need to Cut It Out to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us." Why? Because then we can run towards God with all that we have. We will not be weighed down by all of the extra stuff that means nothing at all. We will not be caught up in our sins that separate us from God. We will be "Running to his arms" where "the riches of his love will always be enough."

What is weighing you down friend? What is the sin to so easily ensnares you? I pray to we all have the courage to lay these things aside and run towards God with all that we have. Is it going to be easy? Heck no, but I know that it is going to be worth it. Let's make it our personal goal to run towards God with all that we have, leaving behind "every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us."

Matthew 11: 29-30 "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

A Writing from the Heart

This is something that is a lot different than the other stuff that i have posted in the past. I wrote this a couple of months ago and it has been really fitting in my life lately. I hope you enjoy, came straight from my heart.

My heary cries out full out doubt
All the time thinking Your love I'm without
I didn't stop, never listened, only lived in fear
All the while Your love was nothing but near

You were in my heart, but I couldn't see
How in the world You could love a sinner like me
Have faith my dear loved one, look up to Me
I showed you My love when I died on that tree

Every beat of my heart, let it beat for You
For without Your love my life is nothing but through
There's no reason to doubt, or live in fear
Because all the while Your love will be nothing but near

I will rise from these ashes, I'm set free from these chains
My eyes are on You, heart set on heavenly gain
As I walk, As I talk, let Your love shine through
So that all may see My life, I gave to You

Galatians 6:14 "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."

Don't Hide and Go Seek

This is probably the most personal post that I have written up to this point, as it is strictly everything that God has been telling me for a long long time. You see, at this point last year I was heavily doubting my salvation in Christ. And for a good time afterwards the doubt was still there. It was constantly there always tugging and pulling at my heart. I prayed and I prayed, but I never did anything... I hid. Never put any effort into seeking God, but put plenty of time into hiding because it was the only thing that I felt that I could do. However, this could be nothing further from the truth.

Jeremiah 29:13 states "And you will seek Me and find me, when your search for Me with all your heart." When you play a game of hide and go seek you have a person counting and everyone else is hiding. When the counter gets to a designated number he begins to seek the people who are hiding. He does not just simply run around like a chicken with his head cut off, he searches with a purpose. A purpose of finding those who are hiding. That is how our relationship should be with God. We should be like the counter seeking those which are hidden. Our purpose seeking God But you know what the great thing about our God is? He is not hiding. He is literally inside of us. His book is right in front of us. We do not have to search for Him, He is right here. We just have to open our eyes and put forth effort.

 Looking back on the times when I doubted, I was doing the opposite of seeking God. I was hiding from Him. Never seeking Him, never putting forth any effort and wondering why I always felt the same way. He lead me to the verse in Jeremiah and began to speak. Saying Josh, what are you doing man. I have done everything for you brother. I have given you my life, my blood, everlasting life. What have you given me? I was stunned. All I could say was half-hearted praise. Everything less that everything. At that moment I realized that reason I was doubting is because I had not given God everything. Right then, right there I did. That's where this Blog came from. That's where Bible study came from. In one moment I went from doing nothing to doing something. From doubting to shouting out Christ in all areas of my life. Am I perfect? Heck NO. But with God in my life I am imperfectly perfect.

I like the way the Sidewalk Prophets describe seeking Christ with your whole heart "Recklessly Abandoned, Never Holding Back." What does reckless abandoned mean? It means everything, like a kamikaze pilot headed straight towards Jesus. The only mission we have in life is Jesus. To seek Him, to serve Him, and to love Him. To give Him everything because he gave us everything. To seek Him because he first sought us Luke 19:10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Are you out there hiding? He is searching for you friend. He desperately wants you, wants to hold you. Wants to call you one of his own. Will ya let him? It will be the best decision you have ever made. Are you serving God with your whole heart? Are you willing to Seek Him with your whole heart in order that you find Him? Don't be like me and hide, go seek God with your whole heart and He will take care of the rese.

Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore bretheren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Certainty Amidst the Uncertain

There are times in life when we are uncertain about actions, thoughts, or decisions. If we are to be totally honest each and every day we face a multitude of things that we are uncertain about. For instance, many times we are indecisive and uncertain about whether the clothes we are wearing look good, whether or not we are driving on the right roads, did we do the right thing, is the answer A,B,C,or D, am I where God wants me to be. In my life I have been uncertain about my salvation, where I should go to school, what is my purpose in life. My current life is not without uncertainty and confusion as I am uncertain about what God wants me to do with my life, about the choices that I am to make, and about certain relationships. However, amidst all of the confusion and chaos there is a God who rises above and beyond all of the confusion and chaos.

In the middle of all of the confusion and uncertainty in my life God has been telling me I am here, I will take care of you, it’s not for you to understand it’s just for you to follow Me. I will guide you through this. Many times we are uncertain about things because we are scared about the outcome, we see that it might not be safe, we do not understand it. In Proverbs 3:5-6 the Word states “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." We have a Lord who says trust in Me, and I will direct you paths. Do not lean on your understanding, because our understanding is temporary. It only sees what we know, see, and feel. Whereas God's understanding reaches from the beginning of time to the ending of time. His understanding encompasses the will that He has for our lives Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts I think toward you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Even in the confusion and uncertainty that fills our lives we have a God who is absolutely certain about where we are headed. The storms, indecision, and restlessness are there for a reason. To draw us closer to Him.

Psalms 18:28-33
"For you will Light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in HIm.
For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feel like the feet of deer,
And sete me on high places."
.

The Lord will light up the uncertainty, the darkness in our lives. If we trust Him and are in Him He gives us the strength to do the things that he has called us to do, no matter how uncertain it may seem to us. The way that the Lord has for us is perfect. Although everything around you may seem like it is uncertain, trust in the Lord and his perfect way because well... It’s perfect. He protects us from all things with His shield and nothing will overcome HIs shield because he is the creator of all. He is God, He is our Rock. The Lord will provide us with the strength to pull us out of our confusion and uncertainties and guide us down his perfect path. After all, where God guides he always provides.

If you are living amidst confusion and uncertainty in your life Trust in the Lord. Do not lean on your own understanding, lean on the everlasting arms of Christ. He has you there for a reason, a reason that we cannot see the majority of the time. Trust in His path, His way because it is without flaw. It is perfect in ways that we will never know or understand. When all else is uncertain we can find certainty in Christ Jesus. Our God, Our Rock, Our Creator, The One Who Guides us down His perfect path

Psalms 18: 30-31
"He is a shield to all who trust in HIm.
For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?"

The Peril of Adultery

This will be the hardest blog post that God has laid upon my heart to write so far. It is on an issue that has and is consuming many people in our world today. And to be completely honest with you, if I'm not careful it consumes me. Adultery, a word that many believe to be a physical act of sexual infedility. However the Bible clearly states that "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28. You see our world has sugar coated the world adultery with the word Lust. It's ok to lust after someone, afterall nothing will ever become of it. That could be nothing farther from the truth. You see it starts in the mind, you perceive these images, these fantasies, and you start to believe them. You start to live in them. It becomes who you are, it becomes what you want, it satisfies you, it leaves you wanting more. Eventually you pursue that next step. That's why the amounts of teens having sex these days is at a startling high. Do you think they just all of a sudden wanted to do the do? NO, it was a process that started as "lust" and led to more.

You know the Bible is straight forward in its approach to this issue. 1 Corinthians 6:18 "Flee from sexual immorality..." Not just stay away from it, but run as fast as you can in the other direction. RETREAT. The Book of Proverbs talking about an adulterous woman states "Remove your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house," 5:8. I really feel that this verse is full of applicable wisdom in our lives. "And do not go near the door of her house." What does this mean? Do not put yourself in a situation where these thoughts of actions occur. Do not go near them. In other words if your computer causes you to participate in adulterous activity do not use it. If watching certain movies causes you to have adulterous thoughts quit watching them. If a certain girl causes you to engage of think in an adulterous way, leave. Do Not Go Near the Door of Her House. Why? Because its sin, it comes in between us and God. It consumes us, it takes us away from the Best that God has in store for us. Well you say this is radical, do you really expect me to do these things? To give up the computer, a relationship, or certain movies? I don't expect you too but the word is clear Do Not Go Near the Door of Her House. Afterall, was it not radical that our Savior was Crucified, that He gave it all up for you and Me?

In the Book of Matthew Jesus says "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, that for your whole body to be cast into hell," 5:29-30. Get rid of the things that cause you to fall into the trap of adultery. Jesus himself said this not me. Is it going to be a struggle? Dang right it is, an everyday battle. You see Satan has filled this world with signs and signals that prompt us towards adultrous thoughts. TV advertisments, television shows, magazines, clothing, and the list goes on and on and on... But you know what, Our God is Greater, Our God is Stronger 1 John 4:4 "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world." Our god is greater.

There is no doubt someone out there who is reading this and is struggling. Someone out there who needs help. Someone out there in need of the Love and Forgiveness that only Jesus Christ can provide. The Bible says that God is love and in 1 John 1:9 the Bible states "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Not just wipe away our sins, but cleanse us of our sins. Take us to a heavenly bathtub and wash them away, send them down the drain. You may say, You have no clue what I have done? To which I reply you have no clue what I have done. But what I do know is that God forgives all of all because he gave us His All. There is no partiality. Are you willing to accept his forgiveness today dear Friend? If so, ask him for forgiveness, receive his forgiveness, Repent/walk away from that sin, and Give It all, and Live it all for Him.

Romans 8:31 "What then shall we say to these things? If our God is for us, who can be against?
Phillippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Our God

Stumbling Block

I’m sitting with a friend of mine one night casually talking amidst a large crowd of people. We were discussing everything from football to sunrises. Suddenly the talk turned to religion and the exact words from his mouth were “You know I don’t get Christians. They say all of these things and you know look over there those two girls are the drunkest two at this party. They are no different than I am.” Unknowingly to those to individuals, they had become a stumbling block in the life of my friend.

In the book of Romans God offers gives us some advice Romans 14:21 “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.” You know I like what my friend tweeted on this subject matter when she tweeted “ So being a Christian, yeah sometimes you have to give up what you love the most in order to obey Christ and in order to keep others from stumbling. “ You see Christ is telling us here that we are not to do anything that will come in between another individual and Christ. Instead, we should be paving the way to Christ. What exactly is a stumbling block? It’s any action, word, deed, activity, attitude, or image that a Christian does that repels or trips individuals up who are on their way to God. A person can stumble by hearing the way we talk, the jokes we make, the attitudes we have, the things we drink, the things we do. You see anytime we are not whole heartedly seeking God we run the risk of being a stumbling block to others.

You might say well God is asking me to give up things that I really love, things that define me, things that make me who I am. Well I’m here to tell your friend that Jesus gave it all for us. He nailed his life on the Cross for you and for me. He loved us enough to give away the thing that kept alive, his life in order that we could have eternal life. You see he being infinite suffered in a finite period of time what we being finite should have suffered in an infinite period of time. He loved us enough to do this for us and if we have accepted Him we are His, we have been redeemed, and we are called to love Matthew 27: 37-39 “Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” You see because we love God, we love people. And in order to Love people we must mold ourselves after God. He gave up His life in order that WE COULD BE SAVED, therefore we are to give up the things in our lives that do not bring him Glory, that cause or could cause others to stumble in order that others MIGHT BE SAVED. To keep our witness in check. You see nobody wants to told about Christ by someone who they see living in a way that contradicts what they are saying. They will not listen when they are stumbling. Do you want to cause someone to stumble, to keep them from coming to Christ? I certainly don’t.  You know the word states this “Greater love has no one that this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends,” John 15:13. God has laid down his life for us, His friends. Are we willing to lay down the things in our lives that cause our friends to stumble?

Spiritual Spell Check

About two weeks ago I was reading through the blog a noticed the tremendous amount of spelling errors that were throughout all of the posts. I was and still am embarrassed by the amount of errors that were on the page; however I learned a deep lesson through this process.  We have this modern invention these days called spell check, which looks over our writings and helps us to correct the mistakes. It serves as somewhat of an editor; it judges our writings to keep us from making foolish mistakes. It saves us from getting a bad grade on our English papers or looking like a retard on blogs. The unfortunate part about this technology is that it is not readily available everywhere you type on a computer, just Microsoft Word in my case.

 All I had to do to keep my work spelling error free was use this software, let down the feelings of spelling invincibility and help myself out. Immediately following this episode with the blog, God really began to convict me at a personal level (which is why I have not posted in a while). Ever heard the phrase “you better check yourself before you wreck yourself?” That is exactly what God was telling me. Just like not using spell check, I had failed to evaluate my life, to look for sin, to judge myself to see my weakness, to see areas in which I was struggling and not honoring God. I was wrecking my relationship with God by be careless and doing whatever in the world seemed right. Thank God for his conviction and guidance.

In the Bible study that I lead we discussed Judging and that familiar passage came to my mind during that time Matthew 7:3-5 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother Let me remove the speck from your own eye; and look, the plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Let me preface this by saying that I was in no way judging anyone, I took this passage in a whole other context. You see, God has given us a spiritual spell check here. He is saying look into your own life for sin, listen to the conviction of my spirit, follow my guidance. REMOVE the PLANK from YOUR OWN EYE. You see as believers we are to constantly look at our lives to find areas that we can improve upon. We are to see where we a weak and exposed, areas where sin is beginning to creep into our lives. We are to be proactive instead of passive in this process. Why? Because it will keep us from having a long, hard, and great fall. 1 Corinthians 11: 31 “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.”  Judging ourselves helps keep us on the path that God has for our life, it keeps us from straying too far away on the path of sin. It keeps us spiritually grounded in the faith.

The only part about judging yourself is it’s just like spell check, you have to use/do it for it to work. It just does not miraculously happen one day as your walking down the hall; it is a practice that you must apply. It is a discipline that requires a knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, being in sync with the spirit. Being willing to be truthful with yourself in order that you can face the harsh issues, it takes open ears to be willing to listen to God’s voice and conviction and a willingness to change. It is human nature to see ourselves as being perfect and keep on living the same way, but it is Holy submission to be willing to change in order that God can receive the ultimate glory from our lives. Take it from me dear brothers and sisters, Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”