Next Week, and thensome

I'll be preaching at Little Hill United Methodist Church. the passage to be preached will be Acts 2...

it's gonna be called Tongues of Fire and Common Men..

it's amazing how God can use just about anyone to fulfill His purpose.. He used Nebuchadnezzar and even the mouth of a jackass to speak to Balaam. the kingdom of Christ was not accelerated by religious leaders, even the ones that followed Christ... but it was common men.. fishermen, tax collectors, shepherds... that spread the word and changed people's lives...

this means we can all be used by God.. in one way or another...

what bothers me the most is when people who claim Christ in their lives, live like He's not there... they try to get people "saved".. but act like they're going to hell with everyone else... there is no fruit... no reason for people to even see a change that will want them to take up this radical belief.. i've been guilty of this... but i know the error of my ways..

Clayton King wrote in a book that he drove past an old church... it was 200 years old and had seen countless revivals and acts of God... but as the years wore on.. politics and less spiritual things came into it.. and eventually.. the church was dead.. . he was sad at first.. but then realized... if it was no longer effective for Christ.. it needed to die.. so others may grow..

people that make God a mockery... would be better off dead than living their ineffective lives... being a stumbling block to those that are actually seeking Him..

harsh, yes.. but Christ said that if anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble.. it would be better that they have millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the sea...
there is no such thing as a Grace Period when you know that you're not living for God.. its' a deception period where you're in the devil's sights... do i lack compassion? probably.

but i think the church as a body lacks committment and values.. we all wait for the big time preachers to cause change.. and then persecute them when they collapse under pressure.. we commit sexual sin and then burn the evangelist in effigy when he gets caught doing something that we were worse with...

i'm a hypocrite... deal with it.

if i were dead

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

i'm dead.... (not really) Current mood: artistic Category: Religion and Philosophy (before anyone gets all screwed up about this blog.. i am NOT suicidal.. this is not a cry for help.. it is how i am dealing with something that i never got over... ..) [i had wanted to write a letter as if this was my last day on earth.. and the words that i would wish everyone to know] Dear Friends, Family.. and almost lovers.. the journey has ended and i am with God. i have not lived a perfect life but served a perfect King.. even tho i did it in imperfect ways.. tho my work has not been finished, my job is done, and i pass the gauntlet on to the next soul that feels God's call to take it up. to my family... i am sorry for the shame i brought. to my friends.. i am sorry for using you. to my almost lovers.. i'm sorry i wasn't more... in death i will find peace and the spiritual battles will be ended.. i will stand before God and praise Him in His holy temple.. in my life all i ever wanted was for you to know that Jesus Christ was love... that .. my words.. even tho masked with death and destruction, were meant to love.. and never hurt.. there is nothing i can or could do to make you believe me. i could only live the way i knew how to live.. will i call you out by name? no. you know who you are and you know where you stood in my heart. you know where you stood in my life. i may never speak to anyone ever again.. but i pray my words ring loud and true in your ears.. the words i spoke or wrote by God's urging... death has no hold over me.. and has no hold over any of you that are born again in Christ's forgiveness. the world has nothing to offer but pain and grief. posessions and status only create ways to fall from grace and into oblivion. too many times i and my loves ones have cared more about what others think, than what God thinks... i pray for our forgiveness. i pray God's redemptive blood over our vain souls. i wish there had been a way to go back in time.. to see the ones i loved.. the ones that have gone before me... and tell them of Christ.. and tell them of His love.. and show my love... but i was too busy with my own agendas... and i had lived in regret. i did not truly die to self and in turn.. they died before me.. so i go on.. praying.. and hoping that maybe someone else reached them... that someone else picked up the gauntlet beyond where i dropped it. and i pray that you who read this... will know that what i have believed is not just a phase.. not just a delusion, but something i know is real.. My God was not and is not and never will be a magic 8 ball.. He is not the amazing kreskin, nor is He santa claus that gives us everything on our list of wants. He is the King and Creator of the Universe and He holds the powers of death and life... He sent His Son to correct a corruption that occurred. rather than destroy everything and everyone, He chose to save them. no more redos.. no more drawing boards.. just a patch that.. when accepted, was a fix for eternity... to those that never believed.. never understood.. i wish you well.. to those that do know and understand.. i will see you on the other side... in my dreams i have seen the visions of the life i had lived.... and the hurts and joys brought before me... every hurt.. every passion.. every joy.. created me... formed me... and as i am gone...my God lives on... and i will only be remembered as a name.. in His Grip Bones