Back to the Basics

It has been over two years since I last appeared on this blog.  My life has seemingly come unraveled as of late.  I can only blame myself for it.  I am on a quest to get my priorities back where they belong.  God must come first, my wife second, my children third, and everything else will get figured out in the process.  This is a much needed process because when my life is unordered I become selfish and forget the most important things in my life.

The first step I am going to take in this process is to learn to know who God is and how my story connects with His.  I am going to find all of this out by going back and questioning everything I have been taught with the goal of having an authentic faith in the end.  I look forward to this but am scared at the same time.

So here I go.........

Content with God alone

I was sitting in my therapy session tonight (yes I am a therapist who gets counseling go figure) and my therapist asked me the weirdest question. He asked me could I be content in this life if all I had was God. I could not have family or friends. I could not be important or significant in any way. I could not be someone that others looked up to. It had to be just God and I. I must admit this question threw me for a loop because it had never been asked of me before. As I sat there and pondered this question for a bit I came to a scary conclusion. I am not at a place spiritually yet where I can be content with God alone.

Some would say that I should be ashamed to verbalize that thought much less write about it. I am just admitting to it so that I can be honest with myself and begin to know what part of my spiritual life needs to be strengthened. Many people will say that this part of spiritual formation is easy for them, but how many of us can truly say that we desire nothing else but to have God in our life. It would be difficult to be alone and not have the relationships that we have built on earth. I believe God calls us to this mindset, but it is a journey that takes some time to complete. It is my prayer that I will become more comfortable with God in a way that He provides all my needs. I want Him to solely provide the affirmation, praise, and support that
I need so that I will not seek it in a selfish manner.

So where are you in this journey? Are you content with God alone? Am I the only one who admittedly has this problem?

Discipline of God

I come from a family full of military people. My father and younger brother are Marines. My older brother is in the Army. Each of them has stories about boot camp that they love to tell. These stories describe hardship and pain that they volunteered for. This borders on masochism in my eyes but each of them felt that they matured because of their experiences. I have often wondered why they went through all that pain. Why did they march several miles a day regardless of the weather? Why would they practice the same drills over and over again? Why would they allow themselves to yield to a grueling schedule that they did not come up with? There must have been some motivation. My father informed me that everything was done so that they would be prepared. You have to be trained in order to be a soldier. You cannot expect to go into battle and automatically know what to do unless you have first disciplined yourself to react in a certain way. Every drill, routine, or exercise, regardless of its difficulty, is used to discipline the recruit. The recruit does not have the right to complain about the discipline because it is necessary if he plans on being a soldier. The process of discipline is vital to the military if it wants to be successful in the combat that it engages.

The Bible discusses the topic of spiritual warfare on several occasions. Ephesians 6:12 is a reminder that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This means that Christians are at war! Just like the military there is a need for preparation and discipline if we want to survive this conflict. Proverb 3:11 states that we should not “reject the Lord's discipline.” This discipline will result in our spiritual lives being more like Christ. Hebrews 12:1-13 shows the effect this has on spiritual formation.

“...Throw off everything that hinders…”
Athletes usually train with many weights on their body in order to become stronger. On the day of the game the weights are removed so that the athlete can perform at their best. If we want spiritual formation to take place then we must examine our lives and see what is holding us back from serving God. We are given some difficulties to go through in life to strengthen us. Many people fail under pressure because they have areas of their life that are hindering them. Career, family, homes, money, attitudes and many other things can keep one from progressing spiritually because of an unwillingness to get rid of the dead weight. It will be impossible to keep up with where God is leading you if some serious self evaluation is not completed.

“…Run with perseverance…”
If you want to run in a marathon you cannot stop after 15 miles and expect success. The runner must be motivated to endure even when their body does not want to go any further. This type of drive will benefit the runner every time. Spiritual formation cannot be attained by giving up easily. The disciplines have to be approached with the mindset of long term grown. I cannot pray for wisdom tonight and wake up the next day expecting it to be there. We must cultivate a faith is “steadfast and immovable” (1 Cor. 15:58). When this is accomplished then giving up because the discipline is hard will never be an option.

God is able to make this requirement of us because He is faithful and full of perseverance. Countless times in the Bible He redeems His people and did not give up on them. This model set by God must be responded to it with the same vigor in which it was given.

“…Consider Him…”
There can be a temptation to feel that the discipline commanded by God is too difficult. It can be easy to complain when we do not feel like going through with what He has asked of us. The comfort given is to remember that Christ died for our sake. Christ took following the will of His Father so serious that He gave up His life for it. Because of His dedication I cannot look at my discomfort and think that it is unbearable. The discipline that I personally go through can never be compared to what happened on the Cross. It is because of this “consideration” that we have the hope that things can and will get better because Christ has already traveled this path ahead of us.

“…it produces a harvest of righteousness… for those who have been trained by it..”
The discipline we receive from God has a purpose. It is God’s intention that we receive the blessing of righteousness if we have received the proper training. It is through this training that God shows us how we are to respond to this world. If I am successful in being discipline by God then I will not have to worry about anything. I will live an existence of peace because I will be ready for anything that comes my way. This is the exciting adventure of spiritual formation that God has called all His believers to partake in.

So how will you respond to God’s discipline? Will you continue to carry extra weight around or discard your extra baggage? Will you give up when things get hard or persevere till the end? Will you consider what Jesus has already done sacrificially or think about your rough experience? Will you produce a harvest of righteous that leads to peace or continue to worry because that is what you are accustomed to? Your answers to these questions will determine the outcome of your spiritual formation.

He Wants It All

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:27 (NIV)

Since I was a child I always had a picture of me dragging a cross around for the rest my life in order to follow Jesus. This did not sound comfortable and I'm sure my teacher didn't mean to leave that impression, but that is what I believed. Maybe it was because of some bad teaching I experienced, but I believe Luke had something else in mind when he wrote that. I knew that following Christ would be burdensome and difficult, but somewhere in the mix I was definitely missing the point.

Our society, Christian and secular, have commercialized the cross. It has become a symbol that represents "religion" and not necessarily the lifestyle that Luke was eluding to. In Jesus' day the cross represented shame. You would not want to tell anyone that a family member was crucified. Crucifixion was reserved for criminals. The fact that Jesus was crucified with other criminals shows you what they really thought of Jesus. So basically you would not want anything to do with the cross.

I find it interesting that Jesus would tell people that if they wanted to follow Him that they would need to pick up their cross in order to be his disciple. What was He thinking? Did He not know that statement had the potential of turning off everyone who heard it. I struggled with this passage a bit and have come to this conclusion. In order for me to follow Christ I will need to do it with everything I have even the areas of my life that were dirty and shameful. I have known people (and at times have been the person) who only wanted to present God the positive things in my life. I figured that if I gave Him good stuff to work with then He could use me. The problems is that Jesus already knows all the shameful things about us. Until recently I did not realize that the things that have brought me the most shame in my life are the things that He can use to His glory. When we can share our struggles with others and how Christ is helping us overcome them then true discipling is possible. Those shames can be turned to strengths when they are given to the Great Physician who knows how to heal every illness. This is what allows us to "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need "(Heb. 4:16). I get excited just thinking about this process.

Are you ready to give it all to Him?

My Story

I am a second generation preacher. My father has been a minister for nearly 40 years now. He has been preaching at the same thirty-member congregation for over 30 years now. Growing up I witnessed the abuse and troubles that he went through because of working “for” the church. My father never encouraged my brothers or me to preach because he wanted us to make our own career decisions. I made up my mind at a very early age that preaching and “ministry” was not for me.

I accepted Christ and was baptized for the remission of sins at the age of 10. This was an exciting time for me, because I was beginning to understand my sin and how it separated me from God. My parents were excited about my decision, but did not pressure me into it. I knew that I was taking a big step by doing this, but was unaware of how strong the pull of sin would be in my life. I considered myself to be a good child. I always listened to my parents, was active in church, made good grades, and was not in trouble that much. I am not sure if I was “good” because of my desire to follow God or the fact that I did not want to make my father look bad since I was the preacher’s kid. I did my best to follow the Bible and my parents until I left for college.

I began college life at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. During my two years there I took it upon myself to experiment with sin. I knew what God’s Word said about my life, but I did not have a faith of my own. I had spent my entire life living through the faith of my parents. This was apparent to me because I truly could not fathom grace or the fact that God truly saved me. I was lost spiritually and did not care about my soul. My sins were overwhelming and many, if not all, of my life choices were headed for destruction. I was living a lifestyle that was heading me straight towards hell. It took me getting fired from my job to help me realize that I was not headed in the right direction.

What happened to the little boy who prayed every night? What happened to the young man who won an award for being the best Christian example in his youth group? The person I looked at it in the mirror was a far cry from what he used to be.

It took the prayers and encouragement of some close friends and family to help
me to repent of my sins and rededicate my life to Jesus Christ. This time though things were different. I found myself truly searching for God. I began asking questions that I had never asked before. I wanted to know why we worshipped every week. I wanted to know what grace really meant. Why was Christ’s death so important? Who is the Holy Spirit? These questions and many more flooded my mind. I seek these answers daily. I will not act like I have all the answer to all my questions, but the acquisition of this knowledge is why I remain a Christian today. The fact that God continues to answer me has helped me to strive to be like Jesus.
I eventually began college at Freed Hardeman University and began some relationships that have helped mold me into the Christian I am today. It was at FHU that I began to take my spiritual life serious and have the desire to help others in their walk. I was only able to do this because of the grace I received from God and others.

I believe today my life is different because of the mistakes I made. It was through these mistakes that I learned what the prodigal son went through. It was through these mistakes that I was able to return to my loving Father and realize that I was important to Him. It was in these experiences that I was able to enjoy the fellowship of believers because I was welcomed back lovingly. Spiritual formation actually means something to me today. It is more than words. It is an experience of coming to God and allowing Him to use you regardless of where you have been or what you have done.

Spiritual Influences Part 2 (Dana Jones)

My wife Dana and I have been married for eight years now. She has been a great example to me and shown me the grace of God in so many situations. She patiently lives my my personality and many shortcomings. Dana realizes that we are both broken. She knows that neither one of us is perfect and that we never will be. We have been broken by sin and will not be whole on this Earth. She is constantly searching for God's will in her life and helps keep me accountable when I am not active in my search. She has always challenged me to seek God's calling and has followed me all over the U.S. in my attempt to do that. I know that my actions frustrate her at times, but she continually shows me the grace that she has received from God.
I had the opportunity to "grow up in the church" due to my father being a minister. Dana, however, is the only Christian in her family and came to know Christ in her late teenage years. She was introduced to Christ by a close friend and has been growing ever since then. Her determination to know God and seek His wisdom encourages me and has strengthened my faith in God. I am glad that He has put her in my life and I feel it to be a honor to be her husband. I look forward to growing old, growing spiritually, and growing our family together.

Spiritual Influences

God has put people into our path who will inevitably help us to see His glory more clearly. I have been influenced by so many people, but have never taken the time to express what they have done for me. I will be using my next few posts to talk about my Top 5 spiritual influences. They will not be discussed in any particular order, but I feel it necessary to share how their lives have helped mold mine. I will obviously leave out SEVERAL people who have been influential in my spiritual formation, but my intention is to highlight those who have challenged me the most. I pray that you will be blessed by what you read and encouraged to think about the people who have influenced your spiritual life.