I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
People have the right to express their desires and feelings. People also have the right to disagree with other people’s desires and feelings.
A tall man has the right to feel like he’s a short woman. However, his feelings don’t make him short, and they don’t make him a woman.
A man can say he’s a woman and a woman can say she’s a man, but their words don’t magically make it so. The physical differences between male and female are fundamental not incidental. Those differences are determined by our chromosomes. Denying that biology determines who is a man and who is a woman is like denying that height determines who is tall and who is short.
Throughout history male and female roles have been set by society. However, as equal human beings gifted with free will, we all have a right to choose our lifestyle. Two female roles, however, are determined by biology: giving birth and breast feeding. One male role is: fertilizing an egg so a human being can be conceived. No matter how much we change our lifestyle or alter our body, we are still what our chromosomes say we are.
Instead of showing people the presence of the risen Jesus church too often presents a religious show. Church should be a Jesus reveal meeting always presenting the presence of Christ.
The religious establishment tends to train people to snuggle into and wear the self-righteous mask of pious rituals, rules, and routines — the I’m-holy-wardrobe. However, Jesus is searching for the lost — the real and the raw who know they are needy now and aren’t just hoping for a someday pass into Heaven.
Before I encountered and surrendered to the risen Jesus, I believed the lie that I was a good person because I was outwardly moral and wanted to follow the rules. However, when Jesus entered my life and I began to devour the Bible, He began to show me my great need for His presence, mercy, deliverance, healing, forgiveness, and empowerment.
By the grace of God, I’m now aware of my great need to be continually clothed with Christ. I agree with Jesus. He said: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” I feel the reality of those words every day. Yet, I’m also aware of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I’m ever amazed at how He speaks and calms the storms in me moment by moment and keeps me afloat when I would surely sink without His presence!
Let me introduce you To somebody That nobody Should ignore: Here’s Jesus!
If you revive
Your awareness
That Jesus is alive
You'll be filled
With peace
And have no need
To strive
Or conive.
1) Where do you open up and connect heart-to-heart with other Christians?
2) Where do you spontaneously pray aloud with and for other Christians?
3) Where do you humble yourself, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from your wicked ways as stated in 2 Chronicles 7:14?
4) Where do you open up to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and let them operate in and through you?
5) Where do you obey the 50+ New Testament “one another commands?”
6) Where do you read the Bible everyday with an open and humble heart?
7) Where do you overcome the devil by the word of your testimony? (See Revelation 12:11.)
8) Where do you “consider others better than yourself.”
9) Where do you listen to and obey “Christ in you” and let His Spirit lead you?
10) Where do you pour out your heart in praise, worship, and adoration for the living, resurrected Jesus?
Christians need to be Christ-controlled not church-controlled. It’s much more important to focus on connecting with and staying connected to the risen Jesus than it is to join a religious organization.
Teaching Christianity with sermons is like teaching swimming with lectures. Most sermons box up the Bible like a boxed lunch that is quickly forgotten. The essence of Christianity isn’t sermon-hearing; it’s listening to and obeying “Christ in you.”
Here are my answers to the 10 questions:
I open up and connect heart-to-heart with other Christians in homes, in cars, in parks, in small groups on the phone, online, and sometimes in restaurants.
I spontaneously pray aloud with and for other Christians in the same places as number one.
I try to follow 2 Chronicles 7:14 wherever I am.
I try to be sensitive to and open up to the gifts of the Spirit anywhere and everywhere.
Wherever I am with other people I try to obey the one another commands.
I read the Bible everyday mostly in my living room.
I overcome the devil with the word of my testimony any chance I get to tell someone about what Jesus has done and is doing in and through me. I frequently testify about Jesus on my blog and on social media.
This one is difficult to succeed at, but I try to consider others before me anywhere I am.
I seek to let the Spirit lead me everywhere I go.
I pour out my heart in praise, worship, and adoration most frequently when I’m at home. Both my wife and I love to ask Alexa to pray anointed worship songs and then we passionately sing along with them. Some of my favorite Alexa requests are: Andre Crouch, Selah, Rick Pino, The Maranatha Singers, Jesus Culture, and All Sons And Daughters.
The ancient Greeks had the secret to maintaining a movement. Jesus borrowed their word for it!
Spiritual movements happen when people spontaneously open their heart to one another as equals and to Jesus as their daily Lord. Institutions don’t maintain spiritual movements. They box them in and suffocate them.
The best time to be aware of the presence of Jesus is now. You can’t see Jesus with your physical eyes, but if you open your heart, you can with your perception. I see Jesus with the senses of my heart and I’m ever in awe of Him!
Learn to recognize and obey the promptings of Christ working in you. The kingdom of God begins in the domain of the invisible and the immaterial. It starts to manifest when you recognize and obey Christ’s promptings within you.
Jesus wants His body to be built around a meeting that is open to revelation and can indefinitely sustain a movement. There was such a meeting occurring regularly in Jesus’ day — the ancient ekklesia that met in Greek cities and maintained the Greek movement of non-hierarchical democracy where any citizen could speak as they felt led.
Referring to the supernatural revelation that Peter received that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build My ekklesia. During the first three centuries, Jesus’ Spirit-led ekklesia gradually transitioned into a programmed meeting planned and controlled by a human leader and turned Christianity into a structured religion rather than a spontaneous movement of God. In the 21st century, it’s time to make church ekklesia again!
Being suspicious of people because of the skin they’re in is to judge them by their color instead of by the content of their character.The color of a person’s skin is never a shameful thing, but corrupt character content always is.
For centuries skin color was seen as an excuse for abuse. Today it’s still often used as an excuse for suspicion. Skin-shaming creates a climate for injustice. Skin color is never indicative of a person’s character or intelligence.
A “My skin is better than your skin,” attitude is dangerous.If someone truly believes that all skin color-shaming is gone, they will have no skin color preference.
History that minimizes (or ignores) some people’s accomplishments and suffering because of their skin color is inaccurate Until history is taught without regard to skin color and simply seen as what people did to people, our view of the past will be skewed. People should never feel shame or pride because of their skin color.
A colorblind reading of history evaluates historical figures by all their beliefs and behaviors. It neither excuses nor blames them because of their skin color.Regardless of the skin-shaming in history, all skin color is equal. It was in the past. It is today. It will be forever.
Jesus said, “What you did to the least of these you did unto Me.” Skin color has never been a valid excuse to mistreat people.The sin of skin-shaming is so subtle that it can influence us below the level of our awareness.
I had no choice. I was born in the skin I’m in. If you’re either proud of or ashamed of the skin you’re in, you’re focused on something that you had nothing to do with.
It’s not easy to get centuries of skin color-shaming out of a culture’s structures and belief systems. However, after centuries of black-skin-shaming, Black History Month invites all people to discover the greatness of African Americans. This can help erase the racial myths left behind by skin color-shaming.
I once thought Jesus Was an absentee Far away from me. Then I opened my heart And now Christ in me Fills me with glory And inner victory.
Jesus invites people, “Come unto Me.” He doesn’t want to be An absentee In your life.
Jesus is an absentee From the tomb So He can live presently With and within you.
True Christianity isn’t about an absentee Jesus left behind in the 1st century. It’s an ongoing demonstration of the risen Jesus in the 21st century.Jesus wasn’t an absentee from creation, “Through Him all things were made,” and He doesn’t want to be an absentee from you, “I am with you always.”
Maybe people’s desire to have human control and programming in church is because they think the risen Jesus is a Sunday absentee. When we make Jesus an absentee landlord looking over church services from afar, we overlook His glorious presence and reality. If Christ is in you don’t treat Him like an absentee.
Every day that you make the living Jesus an absentee in your life is a day that you reject His love and His help. An absentee Jesus isn’t the Bible Jesus. The Jesus of the Bible is everywhere. When Jesus is an absentee, a mere historical (or even personal) memory, our spiritual engine is running on nothing but religious fumes.
Jesus seems absent to absent minded Christians who neglect to focus on His presence. A Christian who feels the absence of Jesus needs to focus on Christ’s inner presence and begin to be daily led by the Spirit.
Somewhere in history churches lost the powerful sense of Christ’s immediate presence and began to treat Him like an absentee.Churches have trained Christians to follow an order of worship. Now it’s time to train them to follow the ever-present Jesus!You don’t learn to follow Jesus from sermons or Sunday school. You learn to follow Jesus by becoming aware of and obeying His inner promptings.
Since those “led by the Spirit are the children of God” (Romans 8:14) it’s essential that we learn to be Spirit-led. Jesus is alive! Be a tentmaker bent on serving and obeying the present Jesus no matter what you need to do to support yourself. Don’t be a stranger to the presence of the living Jesus! It’s time for Christians to stop relying on clergy and to begin to trust the living Jesus to empower us to encourage and minister to one another.
If you’re feeling Spiritually dead, The cure is to learn To be daily Spirit-led.
Many of Jesus’ teachings, healings, and miracles were in response to interruptions. Perhaps by shutting down interruptions churches shut down Jesus.
Roof altering (miracle manifesting) interruptions? (See Luke 5:17-26.) History shows that an eruption of revival and spiritual awakening will always interrupt and disrupt church programs. Interruptions disrupt two things that churches depend on: scheduling and control.
Jesus allowed and even welcomed interruptions when He was speaking. Paul told the body of Christ in Corinth to allow interruptions. “If a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop for you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.” Even the formalized religious Pharisees would interrupt Jesus with questions and challenges.
It seems to me that somehow, over the centuries, churches shut down the freedom to interrupt that Jesus so freely embraced. Without the freedom to interrupt, the Holy Spirit is confined to a program. His leading and serendipity are quenched. The roof always stays nicely fit together and paralyzed men and women stay stationary in their seats. Even when it is obvious that people are falling asleep during a sermon, no one dares to interrupt.
I woke up this morning with this thought on my mind: “The body of Christ should be a fountain of many wide-open faucets all freely flowing in God’s Spirit together.” Perhaps it’s time that we begin to follow Jesus’ model and to welcome interruptions by seeing them with the eyes of faith. Christians allow their phone to continually interrupt their life. O that we would let God do the same!
The body of Christ is built through loving relationships, not by hierarchical authority. It is built on heart-to-heart community, not compulsory unity. Church is a fountain of many faucets all shut down but one. The Spirit’s rivers of living water should be freely flowing from you, not just trickling from a preacher. A well-ordered church service can easily disrupt what Jesus wants to do in and through His gathered body.
If we don’t let the risen Jesus frequently interrupt us, it’s easy for His followers to fall into a powerless religious lifestyle.Though out my Christian life, I’ve often discovered that a church service interrupts what Jesus is saying and doing in my heart.
Don’t interrupt God when He is interrupting a sermon. When I was a nominal Christian God interrupted a sermon and spoke words in my heart suddenly showing me that I was only playing church and eventually leading me to a powerful life-long relationship with the risen Jesus. Church doesn’t become what God wants it to be until He is allowed to interrupt.
Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It’s in the Spirit I go Letting Jesus freely flow And interrupt my day!
When the religious roof starts falling miracles happen! Here’s what I mean.
The various forms religious establishment have something in common. They all want to be followed. But Jesus said: “Follow Me.” After Judas caused the roof to fall in and the religious establishment had Jesus executed, He rose, ascended, and returned as the invisible Spirit–“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Today helping people follow the invisible Leader (the risen Jesus) is simple. It doesn’t require weekly lists of explanations, theology, and steps. Simply identify the Leader. Then step aside and let people open their heart to Him to listen to and obey Him together (instead of following their self-focused desires or fears) as they seek first the kingdom of God and His right living.
Jesus’s teaching about self was simple. He taught deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me. He also said that if we lose our life, we will find it. Self wants to find and maintain comfort. It fears the religious establishment and feels great pressure to conform to its form of godliness that too often ignores the invisible Leader. By setting aside the demands of self, people are empowered to focus on and follow the invisible Leader together.
If you’ve ever played “follow the leader” you get this. It’s so simple that lectures that load people down with instructions are redundant. There’s no need for a lot of verbal directions. It’s hands-on learning. People are taught to play “follow the leader” by getting them started, allowing them to play, and offering caring oversight (like a basketball official) to help keep people focused on the leader.
My heart longs to see pastors and other church leaders begin to allow follow-the-invisible-Leader sessions in their services. That’s what I think awakening might look like in today’s complex context. I can fathom it because I frequently experience follow-the-invisible-Leader sessions with other people where we listen to and obey the living Jesus together. Those sessions are always amazing!
It doesn’t require weekly lectures from a religious “rocket scientist” to follow the invisible Leader–the risen Jesus. It can even be done in groups of two or three. Try it today! The closer I get to Jesus the more I see His light inside me and coming out of other believers.
To learn about Jesus Without Hanging out With Him Will not overcome Your doubt.
Following the invisible Leader
Gives me a window seat
As I ride planet earth
Through the Universe
So I can watch
The morning light
Replace the darkness
Around me
And give me His hope
To face the day.
If Jesus has touched your life that’s good. If it’s been a while since He touched your heart, you may be running on empty! Jesus offers free gas for your heart-tank. Let Him fill you daily!
A Christian who keeps Jesus in the past tense will be tense, but one who focuses on the presence of Jesus in the present will have great inner peace. Experience the touch of Jesus every day. Don’t let it become a distant memory. A heart that rejects the daily touch of the risen Jesus misses out on life’s most glorious and incredible journey.
Jesus touches my heart throughout the day and keeps me amazed at His presence and power!When Jesus touches my heart, I find myself DUI —Delighted Under the Influence of Christ’s presence.Jesus is touching my heart, right now. As I write this I am delighting in His presence.
A heart touched by Jesus once has a powerful memory. A heart touched by Jesus daily, regularly enjoys His glorious presence!Talks about Jesus are never as powerful as direct heart-touches from Jesus. Jesus wants to touch you; don’t settle for a talk.
Jesus, the Creator as a human being, isn’t confined to Sunday sermons or theological study. He demonstrates His presence to any heart that is open to Him.A mind trusting in understand theology is never as spiritually secure as a heart being continually touched by the risen Jesus.A life lived online with, aligned with, connected to, and in touch with the risen Jesus is glorious!
The presence and the touch of Jesus continue into this now moment and every now moment to come. He remains ever-present and willing. Perhaps the only thing missing is people who are consciously overwhelmed by their brokenness and alienation, face down and begging for His healing. I saw hundreds of people in that condition on the final morning of the Seedbed New Room Conference last year. What I saw and felt then continues to burn in my heart and to overwhelm me to stay face down crying out for the risen Jesus. “Lord Jesus, I behold that you are willing. The question is, am I?”
Why do human hearts need a touch from Jesus? Good and evil are fighting in every human heart — dueling desires, warring wants, and a conflicted conscience continually contend for control. A heart that rejects the touch of the risen Jesus becomes closed, hard, and cold.
Marriage is a powerful tool to open our heart to Jesus. I see marriage as a man and a woman committed to a lifetime of daily following and obeying the risen Jesus together.
I end with a heart-warmer: Every breath is a gift. Take each one in with gratitude to Jesus!
Unbind The boxed-up Jesus. He’s been too long confined And entwined By the human mind. His presence is Too often declined And removed From life’s daily grind. As humankind We are designed To be continually defined And refined By Him And aligned With His presence. Don’t toss Your Boss. Make Jesus your daily Lord!
Church too often gathers Without giving people The opportunity To experience the healing unity Of unboxed Spirit-prompted, Open-hearted community.
Some Christians only like Jesus if they can keep Him in a Sunday religious box and far away from daily life. As long as the new wine of God’s Spirit is kept boxed-up in religion, Christianity will only be a faint shadow of what God wants it to be. When Jesus is all boxed-up and neatly put away, we’re only pretending to be Christians.
Jesus is out of the grave and out of the box and He doesn’t appreciate people trying to return Him there.Boxed religion, handed out and consumed on Sunday morning, does little to change the world during the week.I need to let Jesus box me in His glorious presence, not try to box Him in my desires, feelings, and opinions.
Praying outside the religious box unlocks the power of God. Let the Holy Spirit carry your prayer to where you directly connect with the living Jesus.
Too many sermons are like boxed lunches — mass produced, bland, and quickly forgotten. The Bible doesn’t belong in a sweet religious box. It belongs in your heart where the living Jesus can ignite it!
Today Christians need more than Sunday preaching. We need one another’s spiritual and emotional support. Make church a Christ-led support group. Because human desires are often deceptive and destructive, we need discernment to decide which desires to delete and which to develop.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 