Wake up!

I received a email for prayer from John Eldredge the other day [no, we're not tight buddies - I've only met him once. It was a form email to those who have been to a Wild at Heart retreat and said they would pray for the ministry]. It was really interesting and I wanted to share part of it with you.

“Yesterday was the feast of Epiphany, the date traditionally set aside to commemorate the Magi arriving to bring their gifts and pay homage to Jesus Christ. Epiphany means revelation, beholding, “O, now I get it!” An “ah-ha!” moment. We need a lot of those, living in the Matrix as we do. Moments of clarity where God shines through again. I pray that he reveals more of himself to you, even this week.”

Ever had one of those weeks, when your head is in a fog? You have no clarity and can’t see God anywhere in your lives? You’ve turned into a drone robot and are just making it by? You just plod by; hour by hour?

Let us not forget who we are! We are sons and daughters of the living God. Heirs to the Kingdom, given a task. Take the charge and run with it. Take your identity back from the enemy! You are not meant for this drudgery! Wake up, God is waiting to be found. He isn’t elusive, he wants to be revealed. It is only the enemy that hides the Glory from us. Wake up, take a breath, and let the color bleed back into your souls.

For the past while, I’d had this problem waking up. It’s like there’s this weight upon me when that alarm clock goes off and my body says ‘no’. What’s interesting is that my days are dramatically different if I wake up early. So this is my New Year’s Resolution – to wake up early – butt crack early.

So, I’m up… early. I’ve had my quite time and I’m on my way for the day.

As I was awake, and praying, I was reminded of St. Patrick’s Breastplate which is a prayer for protection. I share it with you today as you rise and walk into your days. 

So rise up, you people of God and walk into your destiny. Remember who you are. Live like you’re redeemed. Live like you’re loved. Live.

Read the prayer here.

Posted this a while back and thought it time to post it again.

I blogged a while back on Hollywood pursuing the Christian dollar. And after hearing about it again this morning on the news, I’m just mad. What have we done as Christians to be viewed as a dollar demographic of people?

Is it even good that we’re viewed as a demographic. It makes us sound more like lambs for the slaughter than roaring lions. We are no longer viewed as dangerous individuals tirelessly pursuing Christ and giving our lives over to saving a lost world. No, we’ve become a buying class of people. Are we dangerous? No.

How does the world percieve us? Well, we’re PG and family wholesome. We buy nice clean things that make us feel nice and clean. We have let ourselves become stereotyped and neutered.

Where are our Christian testicles!?! They were lopped of long ago. I want to be a scary hairy smelly man crying out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. I don’t want be Ned Flanders.

Hollywood sees us as just another group to market and milk for cash. They don’t fear the message we have to offer. The smile, nod their heads and then give us what we want as we call it a victory for Christians!They set the trends (take the cash) and we dutifully follow.

The guys at the XXXchurch.com website use the phrase, “If Satan’s a pimp, don’t be his hoe.” Well are we hoe-ing ourselves out for a better life? To fit in? To be comfortable?

What has been lost? Too much.

How do we get it back? That’s something I’m trying to figure out, seeking it in prayer and practice.

So how about you? How does this make you feel?

A recent survey compiled the worries of working Americans.

They are as follows:

34% Being able to retire comfortably

30% Rising cost of health care

11% Stagnant paycheck

10% Losing job

10% Job being outsourced

Now,  even though America sees itself as a Christian nation, we’re really a Secular Consumeristic one. But I know that in this survey it’s laced with a fair amount of church goers. I’m going to run with a tangent on this one, so bear with me.

We worry about comfort and stability. We work hard to make sure things are easy and smooth sailing. But if we call ourselves Christians, we can have none of the above. I believe that the Gospels are here to completely mess up or lives. If we are truly changed by the redeeming power of Christ, our life can’t remain the same. Our desires can’t remain the same. Our worries can’t remain the same (or even remain at all).

So who’s willing to buck the system in the name of our Lord? Who’s willing to put a nail in the coffin of the American dream? Because if you truly see yourself as a follow of Him, you should.

And I’m not alone. Craig Gross notes:

“Christians must take risks and get out of their comfortable pews and classrooms and do something for God. If we don’t, who will?… God did not create you to be a scared, irrelevant Christian!”

Scared. Irrelevant. You could also add worrying or busy. We are busy because we’re worried that if any of the plates we’re spinning drop… we’re toast. I’ll let you in on a little secret. God wants the plates to drop – if they’re more important to you than He is. You say no? How much time do you spend, worrying or being busy on things that don’t matter? I mean things with no eternal value? And then look at how much time you spend with the Lord.

You see that’s our problem. Focus. The things that don’t matter, eat up our time and our lives. The things that do matter, get brushed aside.

So ask yourself this when you’re caught up in the business of life. One hundred years from now… what will it matter? We forget to look at things through an eternal perspective. And when we forget to do that, we miss the entire point.

Why worry? I don’t know. There’s too much time serving the Kingdom to bother with it.

“The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyle. That’s what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Brennan Manning

This quote really hit me hard. We are all guilty of this. We are all hypocrites and Pharisees. We are so eager to throw rocks and judge. I know I’m guilty of this. I somehow forget that I’m in the same sin boat that all of us are in.

So what do we do to change this? The first step begins with realizing that we’ve walked fundamentally away from the mission that Christ began. We’ve built buildings to keep the good people in and the bad (undesirable) ones out. 

People in the world today see the lines we’ve drawn and realize that they’re on the other side of the fence. I remember how I used to feel when I was in Junior High. There was a cool crowd and the rest of us dregs. We were all looked down up and had our lower status constantly shoved in our faces. Sure there were kids that longed to be cool, but most of us just grew to resent the cool kids. That’s the message we’re giving the world today: “You’re not good enough.” And the world hates us for it (and I understand why).

Sure we preach Christ’s love but we don’t walk it out. We say one thing and do another. We can say “I love you” to someone but if we’re kicking him while we’re saying it – I don’t think he’ll get the point.  

So why do we act like this? Well, I think it’s because we all look for a place to be safe. Church looks safe and nice. The streets? Dirty and scary. We don’t live like God matters. Stay safe and pray he blesses us while we stay in our little boxes. But God doesn’t want us staying safe.

Sometimes I wonder, if Christ returned and dwelt among us, what the church’s reaction to Him?  What would his reaction be to the state of the church today? Would he produce fear and anger from the church leadership? Would they point out how he associates with the undesirablesand condemn him for it? Would they want nothing to do with Him? I believe that same treatment that Christ recieved from the church in the Gospels would mirror how he would be treated today (at least in North America). Am I wrong?

We live much like the Pharases. We do “good deeds” and follow the rules, but we live like God doesn’t exist. We don’t live lives like the men of Bible did. Following a wild God because we were compelled to. Becasue any existence otherwise couldn’t come close compete with it. We’ve become comfortable and decided that we’ll take the melancholy of the American Dream overshadows the call and mission of the Gospel (and Great Commission). Where is our passion for life? Do we believe Jesus when he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Who’s living their lives to the full? Or at least who’s trying to?!?

Who believes that the power of Christ can change this word completely and without any of our help? If you believe that, then imagine that even though God doesn’t need us, he loves us and includes us in his Kindom and the advancement of it. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (Matt 11:12). I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of that last verse. It makes me feel alive. It makes me want to be one of those forceful men laying hold of the kingdom of heaven.

If you belive any of this? If anything from this stirrs within you? Then make a decision here and now to start living this out. 

If you haven’t given your life over to Christ and are interested in changing your life forever, follow this link. If you have any questions or would like to talk about anything, please feel free to email me: sdelony@yd.org