So I broke down and I went and saw SALT tonight. The person I admired most in the movie was Salt's husband. The guy made a statement that blew me away.
First off, the movie starts with Salt captured by North Korea. Turns out that's how she met her then boyfriend. The boyfriend does everything he can to obtain her release from the North Koreans. He hits newspapers, does interviews, basically anything to get her freedom. Salt's fellow agent calls him "relentless". He generated so much publicity that the government had to act. As she is bruised and walking towards him, he can't keep his eyes off her.
The U.S. then makes a spy exchange with North Korea and Salt is delivered back to our government after being horribly beaten. As Salt and her boyfriend are riding in the military vehicle, she comes clean about what she does. She tells him that she's a CIA agent and says she can't be with him because they now know who he is. She tells him that it's not safe.
Then the greatest line in the entire movie hit home with me and really got me thinking. After she tells him it's not safe for him to be with her, he says, "I don't want to be safe. I want to be with you. I don't care what happens. I know you and want to spend the rest of my life with you." What a husband!
How many want a safe faith in Christ? Would we walk away from our faith if our lives were on the line? I don't know about you, but I'm at a point in my life where I want to follow Jesus with all that I am and I all that I have. My heart leads my actions at the moment, but my hopes are that my actions catch up with my heart.
I don't want to be safe! I don't want to settle for an easy life that takes no risks as it pertains to my walk with Christ. I want to be relentless! I don't want to stop. I want to die to myself and live for God.
I think there is a common belief that our goal is to arrive safely at the end of our lives with a great retirement plan in place. Personally, I'm over it! What's the point in that? Is this really the objective, or is there something more?
A quote I heard from Braveheart once really puts it all together.
"Every man dies, not every man really lives."
I'm done with a Christian faith that costs me nothing. When I look at the Bible and those that followed Jesus, their faith came at a price. I believe there's more danger in calling yourself a Christian and doing nothing about it. I don't see anyone in the Bible that settles for that after giving themselves to Jesus.
By the way, Salt's husband? He paid for his love with his life. Terrorists shot him because he was her husband. Could I do the same for Christ? I really hope if the time ever came, I could stand or even die for my belief.
Please don't settle for a meaningless faith that has no value to you. Don't settle for safety when God is calling you to so much more. Just because you are breathing doesn't mean you are alive. Be relentless in following after Him and You will know what it means to live!
Who knew I'd pick that up from Salt?
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
He Knows My Name
It wasn't too long ago that my wife and I had a weekend alone. My wife, was listening to a song I heard, but I did not recognize the singer. The song was "Fields of Gold" and I had heard Sting sing it, but honestly, the lady Michelle was listening to blew his version away.
After my wife listened to the song, she started over. It wasn't enough for her to hear it once. She listened again and again, which is not like her at all. Actually, Michelle listened to the song all weekend, over and over. I realized finally what was going on. She told me it was Eva Cassidy who had such a beautiful voice. Eva died a few years ago of melanoma.
Here's the song:
My wife spent the weekend mourning the loss of a person she didn't know through her song. Michelle didn't cry, but in her own way, she celebrated this person's life and the beauty of the voice of Eva Cassidy.
I got to thinking how beautiful life is. God makes something special about us all. There is no two people on the earth alike. Your DNA and your life experience make you different than every other person that has ever lived. God's infinite creativity is enscribed on each unique person.
I've known lonliness in my life. I've known insignificance when I reflect on my years. There were seasons when I felt that hardly anyone cared. But now, I know that was never true, even when I thought it was.
I found this verse today:
Luke 12:6-7
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Do you get what God is saying here? He knows every detail of all His creation. Each sparrow is half a penny and then they throw in an extra sparrow for free. God cares about the worthless free sparrow. That free sparrow is wonderful in God's sight. And so are you.
In these two passages, God declares that you are worth something great to Him! How could the Infinite Creator of the Universe see value in me? But He does! During that season I spent alot of time alone and thought that no one cared about me. However, God knew every detail of my pain and when I felt worthless, He saw someone of worth to Him. Then He sealed His love for me with the covenant He established for us all in His Son's own blood. If we really believe these verses from Luke, they change everything!
Just as my wife saw value in a life she didn't know that had passed years ago, God loves and sees worth in you. However, with God, He knows you. He knows your name, your likes, your dislikes. He knows the good and the bad.
Look, I don't know what you are going through or the mistakes you've made in your life, but I know that God cares. He knows every detail of your pain and your trials and even your joy. He sees you as someone worth dying for and that should give us all a reason to live. Even if we feel worthless, He just doesn't see it that way.
After my wife listened to the song, she started over. It wasn't enough for her to hear it once. She listened again and again, which is not like her at all. Actually, Michelle listened to the song all weekend, over and over. I realized finally what was going on. She told me it was Eva Cassidy who had such a beautiful voice. Eva died a few years ago of melanoma.
Here's the song:
My wife spent the weekend mourning the loss of a person she didn't know through her song. Michelle didn't cry, but in her own way, she celebrated this person's life and the beauty of the voice of Eva Cassidy.
I got to thinking how beautiful life is. God makes something special about us all. There is no two people on the earth alike. Your DNA and your life experience make you different than every other person that has ever lived. God's infinite creativity is enscribed on each unique person.
I've known lonliness in my life. I've known insignificance when I reflect on my years. There were seasons when I felt that hardly anyone cared. But now, I know that was never true, even when I thought it was.
I found this verse today:
Luke 12:6-7
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Do you get what God is saying here? He knows every detail of all His creation. Each sparrow is half a penny and then they throw in an extra sparrow for free. God cares about the worthless free sparrow. That free sparrow is wonderful in God's sight. And so are you.
In these two passages, God declares that you are worth something great to Him! How could the Infinite Creator of the Universe see value in me? But He does! During that season I spent alot of time alone and thought that no one cared about me. However, God knew every detail of my pain and when I felt worthless, He saw someone of worth to Him. Then He sealed His love for me with the covenant He established for us all in His Son's own blood. If we really believe these verses from Luke, they change everything!
Just as my wife saw value in a life she didn't know that had passed years ago, God loves and sees worth in you. However, with God, He knows you. He knows your name, your likes, your dislikes. He knows the good and the bad.
Look, I don't know what you are going through or the mistakes you've made in your life, but I know that God cares. He knows every detail of your pain and your trials and even your joy. He sees you as someone worth dying for and that should give us all a reason to live. Even if we feel worthless, He just doesn't see it that way.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Why Do We Fear?
As a kid, I used to be able to walk to school. Sometimes we didn't even lock the doors. Now we lock the doors and turn on the house alarm. Things have changed. If you're old enough to remember, have you noticed the change?
I never thought of death until recent years. Today, there seems to be a lot of deaths happening and not necessarily by natural causes. Whether from earthquakes, floods, natural disasters, wars, street violence, genocides, disease, you name it, there seems to be plenty of ways to die and we really feel less secure in our lives today than we ever have.
Afraid yet? We have every reason to be if we look at what's going on in our country and in the world today. But as I turn to God, there's a verse that really addresses this. If we really understand:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18a)
It makes all the things I'm afraid of nothing. But how much do I believe this verse? Where does that fear I feel come from if I am trying to embrace this verse for my life? Why do I not feel really safe until the car alarm, house alarm, doctor visit, (insert dependency here) is set or done?
Am I really trusting God? Even more specifically, do I trust His love for me or am I substituting trusting Him with trusting other things? I don't think doctors, alarms, weapons and smart decisions are unwise or evil and they are needed in some cases. But what am I trusting really?
A lady and her family began to follow Christ after being athiests almost all their lives. The mom had cancer and was dying. At the cancer center in the newness of her faith, her mom told her daughter on the phone, "There are alot of Christians here with cancer, but I can't understand why they are so afraid. My God is greater than my cancer." What a response! Sometimes, child-like faith (no matter the age of the person) can remind us what we have forgotten over the years. But why do we forget?
I want to trust that God's love can overcome anything I face, even if I lose. I don't want it to be only lip service. In the deepest part of my being, I want to trust His perfect love to drive out all of my fear and live each good and bad day that comes my way trusting Him.
God bless,
Dave
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Choosing Love
Romans 1:28-32
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Man, if I was going to write a warm and fuzzy blog entry, this would not be the way to start it! I read this verse and I cringe. I probably cringe for a number of different reasons.
For me personally, there was a time in my life that I knew "of" God. I grew up in church, but I chose to live life the way I wanted to. Everything was open to me if I could afford it or get my hands on it. I didn't care about what God thought on the matter. However, I always had God in the back of my mind when I did those things. I realize now that God let me see that what seemed so inviting on the surface was really destroying me. I think when we are at our darkest, it is so easy to see the light of Christ. Many come to Christ at a very low point in their life. Once they do, they try to change and follow Him.
However, many then think that they are not good enough to stand before God or other Christians but if they clean up a few things first, then maybe they can step foot in a church. If someone walks into a church and the people there act like they are perfect, then that someone should run screaming from that building and find a church with real people in it. A pastor once said that if there is a perfect church, none of us could go there. We'd break the track record.
As I think of the verses above and when I look at the definition of "depraved", there's no real surprise:
de·prave /dɪˈpreɪv/ [dih-preyv]
–verb (used with object), -praved, -prav·ing.
1. to make morally bad or evil; vitiate; corrupt.
2. Obsolete . to defame.
At some point, if we fight God, God will let us have exactly what we want, even if it's not Him. You see, God understands something deeper when it comes to our relationship. God does not want us to be robots. He could force us to obey Him, but God wants us to love Him.
Zola Levitt, in one of his books, made the comment that the Nazi soldiers could get a Jew to do anything by using force. However, there was one precious thing the soldiers could not make a Jew do. A soldier could never make a Jew love him. No amount of force could make that happen. In the pictures of piles of dead Jewish bodies, the one thing a Nazi could not rob from them was love.
God does not need us to accept Him nor does He force us to follow Him. His motive is that He loves us and He wants our love. We can choose depravity or we can choose Him. He will not force you. You will have to decide to give your love to Him. He will never take it. But I promise you, if you give your love to Him, He's worth it and you will never be the same.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Man, if I was going to write a warm and fuzzy blog entry, this would not be the way to start it! I read this verse and I cringe. I probably cringe for a number of different reasons.
For me personally, there was a time in my life that I knew "of" God. I grew up in church, but I chose to live life the way I wanted to. Everything was open to me if I could afford it or get my hands on it. I didn't care about what God thought on the matter. However, I always had God in the back of my mind when I did those things. I realize now that God let me see that what seemed so inviting on the surface was really destroying me. I think when we are at our darkest, it is so easy to see the light of Christ. Many come to Christ at a very low point in their life. Once they do, they try to change and follow Him.
However, many then think that they are not good enough to stand before God or other Christians but if they clean up a few things first, then maybe they can step foot in a church. If someone walks into a church and the people there act like they are perfect, then that someone should run screaming from that building and find a church with real people in it. A pastor once said that if there is a perfect church, none of us could go there. We'd break the track record.
As I think of the verses above and when I look at the definition of "depraved", there's no real surprise:
de·prave /dɪˈpreɪv/ [dih-preyv]
–verb (used with object), -praved, -prav·ing.
1. to make morally bad or evil; vitiate; corrupt.
2. Obsolete . to defame.
At some point, if we fight God, God will let us have exactly what we want, even if it's not Him. You see, God understands something deeper when it comes to our relationship. God does not want us to be robots. He could force us to obey Him, but God wants us to love Him.
Zola Levitt, in one of his books, made the comment that the Nazi soldiers could get a Jew to do anything by using force. However, there was one precious thing the soldiers could not make a Jew do. A soldier could never make a Jew love him. No amount of force could make that happen. In the pictures of piles of dead Jewish bodies, the one thing a Nazi could not rob from them was love.
God does not need us to accept Him nor does He force us to follow Him. His motive is that He loves us and He wants our love. We can choose depravity or we can choose Him. He will not force you. You will have to decide to give your love to Him. He will never take it. But I promise you, if you give your love to Him, He's worth it and you will never be the same.
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Best Complement & A Lesson
Most of you know that my son is a teenager. Recently, he and I had a pretty blunt discussion on my worldview vs. his developing worldview in some areas. In frustration and trying to mock me, my 13 year old son said to me, "Dad, you sound like Jesus!"
I know this was meant to be an insult, but really at that moment, he made me feel good even though I didn't necessarily thank him for the attempted "poke".
We continued to talk about the topic and he said something else to me that really made me think for awhile actually.
I responded to his comment and he said this, "Dad, why do you always give me the 'Christian' answer?" I had to think for a second, but only a second. The answer was, "Son, I gave my heart and life to Jesus and I think it should not be about chosing Jesus with one area and not with another, but everyday, I choose Him."
The conversation ended with me wrestling him into a headlock as we were playing and I was hoping to choke some of the teenager out of him. So after he yelled uncle, I sent him off to bed and his statement haunted me.
How often do I really do what I told him? If I'm honest with myself, I don't always choose Christ in everything I do. I know I want to, but I don't always. I remember Paul's verse:
Romans 7:15
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
My heart longs for Jesus! I long to be with a group of people sold out for Christ with God moving among us in a way like the Acts church. The Acts church was not perfect, but God really moved in their generation and people were sharing the Gospel and really bringing glory to God with their lives.
I long to be sold out to Christ walking side by side with brothers and sisters sold out for Christ. However, "what I want to do, I do not do." And also, "what I hate, I do." So why do my actions and my heart's desire sometimes seem so far out of whack?
I could give you a church answer on a general sense and talk about flesh and spiritual battles (I'm sure that's there too). I could make excuses with my lack of time, fatigue, other priorities and responsibilities or whatever. But really, I see my heart as my pointer and my actions as proof that I'm not there yet.
I'll leave it at this: I believe we have to let our hearts point us to Christ. I think our hearts will always be dragging our actions along with us. But luckily, our hearts have help.
God will help your heart drag the rest of you along.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Don't be discouraged if you fail, but strive to be the person your heart longs for you to be in Christ!
God bless,
Dave
I know this was meant to be an insult, but really at that moment, he made me feel good even though I didn't necessarily thank him for the attempted "poke".
We continued to talk about the topic and he said something else to me that really made me think for awhile actually.
I responded to his comment and he said this, "Dad, why do you always give me the 'Christian' answer?" I had to think for a second, but only a second. The answer was, "Son, I gave my heart and life to Jesus and I think it should not be about chosing Jesus with one area and not with another, but everyday, I choose Him."
The conversation ended with me wrestling him into a headlock as we were playing and I was hoping to choke some of the teenager out of him. So after he yelled uncle, I sent him off to bed and his statement haunted me.
How often do I really do what I told him? If I'm honest with myself, I don't always choose Christ in everything I do. I know I want to, but I don't always. I remember Paul's verse:
Romans 7:15
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
My heart longs for Jesus! I long to be with a group of people sold out for Christ with God moving among us in a way like the Acts church. The Acts church was not perfect, but God really moved in their generation and people were sharing the Gospel and really bringing glory to God with their lives.
I long to be sold out to Christ walking side by side with brothers and sisters sold out for Christ. However, "what I want to do, I do not do." And also, "what I hate, I do." So why do my actions and my heart's desire sometimes seem so far out of whack?
I could give you a church answer on a general sense and talk about flesh and spiritual battles (I'm sure that's there too). I could make excuses with my lack of time, fatigue, other priorities and responsibilities or whatever. But really, I see my heart as my pointer and my actions as proof that I'm not there yet.
I'll leave it at this: I believe we have to let our hearts point us to Christ. I think our hearts will always be dragging our actions along with us. But luckily, our hearts have help.
God will help your heart drag the rest of you along.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Don't be discouraged if you fail, but strive to be the person your heart longs for you to be in Christ!
God bless,
Dave
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