PORN

As a foreword I want to say this is written to guys from a guys prospective so if your not a guy I certainly mean no disrespect but proceed with caution.

I’m betting there isn’t a man around that hasn’t at sometime had the desire to look at some porn.

But as Christians, it’s how we deal with that desire that really matters. Yes women are beautiful! And as men we enjoy looking at them. And let me say right up front that I have been just as tempted as the next guy. But when we have the urge to look at women, who are probably the most wonderful of Gods creations, in an unholy way or fantasize about them in a way that we know in our hearts is improper there are a few things we need to remember.

First of all they are someone’s Daughter (not to mention Gods daughters). I have two daughter’s myself  and honestly I’m afraid to even think about the dark place I would go to if I caught some creep dehumanizing a child of mine in this way.

For the second one, maybe you’re not a father but you may well have a sister. I don’t personally but I would imagine that my reaction would be much the same as if it were my Daughter. She would still be a close female relative and my desire to protect her would be just as strong.

For the third one, in today’s sick world she could very well be someone’s mom. Or if not some day she probably will be a mother. Mothers are hands off! Even a lot non porn movies like to joke about this subject now days, but think about it, would you want your mother in this situation?

Last on my list but certainly not the least are wives. Most wives probably fall into all or almost all of the categories listed above but dude, let me tell you if you want to piss me off try disrespecting my wife. I’ll turn into a cross between Liam Neeson and the incredible Hulk. My wife is the female I love the most on this planet and I will not stand by and let your sin degrade her. But then that also comes right back at me, if I give in to the temptation and go to some websites,  I’m doing just that to her myself.

Guys the women I have talked to about this subject really don’t understand the desire that most of us as males have to look at porn. Shoot I don’t understand it myself. All I can come up with is it’s  satan wanting to ruin our lives. And I really don’t want to let him do that to me. But It’s so easy, you’re on the internet doing something completely innocent and then that thought pops in your mind. In just a few key strokes you can be seeing, well almost anything.

You and I have to learn to resist that temptation. One good way I have been taught is to get a running partner, someone who you can trust to keep anything you discuss between the two of you (and you have to be willing to do the same). Having someone (and it needs to be a dude if you’re a guy and vice/versa) you can share your victories and your failures with really makes it easier to make the right decisions when you are on your own.

And make no mistake you are going to be tempted. Sexual temptation is almost everywhere you look now days. I mean from just the commercials, it doesn’t seem that Victoria really has that many secrets. And that’s only one of the way satans has figured out to attack us. But then again it’s also nothing new just ask King David (2 Samuel 11) he let it get him in all kinds of trouble and he didn’t even have the internet.

I could go on and on about this. I keep thinking up more stuff but ultimately it’s about simple respect, respecting the women in our lives, respecting ourselves, and above all respecting God!

Love Daniel

Lost Of Communications

           

 I started writing this the week before and I swear I had no idea it was going to be the  topic of Erik’s Talk for that coming Sunday it was amazing to sit there and listen to Erik and realize that God was sending a message. 

  So I did something this morning that happens about twice a year. I left for work and forgot my cell phone.  The panic that came over me as I realized what I did, first thing was to look at the clock in the car and calculate if I had enough time to dash back home and retrieve it and still get to work on time (no). Then I start creating alternate plans in my head. Number one priority is that I need to establish a line of communication with my wife, Lisa who is at home trying to recover from her third round of chemotherapy. If she needs me, nothing is more important.

When I get to work I have a work cell phone I carry all day so she can contact me on that I just have to let her know. And since I share that phone with a guy who works another shift I don’t store any personal numbers in it so I need to get her number. Thru ways I won’t divulge I was able to log on to my Sprint account and get her number then I messaged her on how to contact me. And then I also started on a list of important numbers that I can keep in my wallet.

Nice little story but what’s it got to do with God?  As most of you may know, right around last Thanksgiving we found out that Lisa has Breast cancer, and I have blogged in the past about how I struggle with prayer, it’s not because I don’t want to pray but often it’s because I’m just lazy. But since we got the news about Lisa I have done a lot more praying, still it seems like all I’m doing is asking God for help, not communicating with him. I’ve lost touch with just talking with him and spent all my time bombarding him with requests.

I consider this blog as one of my way’s I talk with him. When I’m writing this I’m focused on him and his word, I’m thinking about him, talking to him, studying his word. Another way I also have is that a good buddy and I do a weekly study, but between the holidays and the stuff going on in each of our personal lives it’s been more than a month since we have gotten together to focus on Gods word. And I can feel the effects of not working on my end of the relationship.

(This next part was wrote at a later date after the Talk on Sunday) 

So I get it now. It’s time to get back to work with God, My buddy and I did finally meet to study and we actually read the entire book of Esther in one sitting. Not a huge accomplishment but it was a good start back. And man what a story! If you haven’t read it, or read it lately, I highly recommend it. Anyway all I can say is I’ve got a lot of work to do in my relationship with God I’m just glad he sends me reminders when he see’s me slipping. What an Awesome God we have!

Love to you all,

Dan

Running On Empty

Prayers

I’ll pray

Praying

These are just a few of the responses I use a lot of times when people ask for Prayer on social media. And as I write this it occurs to me that I spend a lot more time on the book, than in The Book, and that’s a whole other problem.

In reading Matthew today, and by the way I’m currently really into using The Message version, I read this part,

    Empty Promises

^33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

That really got to me, I embrace technology, I love gadgets, and like most of us my favorite toy right now is my smart phone. Thru it I’m in constant contact with my kids, I’ve reconnected with old friends, some who are spread all over the country, and I’ve made a lot of new friends, many who share a background of having served in the military. Let me tell you if there is one thing old sailors like to do, it’s tell sea stories, (their a lot like fish stories, they just keep getting bigger and bigger). But almost everyday, be it on the Churches page, the families’ page, or one of my friend’s pages, someone asks for prayer.

And I spring into action, I type in a quick answer that I will, and then I’ll rush thru a quick prayer that takes about the same amount of time typing my one word answer does. Then I mentally check that box off and resume what ever stupid crap I was doing. But I’m a good Christian right? I mean I prayed for my friends need, and God knows more about it anyway. He doesn’t need me taking up his time trying to explain it to him. I don’t embellish it with religious lace, or use a smoke screen of pious talk, so I’m good right?

This has me starting to question myself now, is a quick prayer always a genuine prayer? If I truly care about my friends needs, am I doing them justice by praying in this manner? Or even though I’m not whipping out the King James style prayer with all the extra fancy words, am I really just running on empty promises by not stopping what I’m doing and devoting some real time to this prayer. After all it’s for a person who is in need and I’m publicly announcing that I care about them and their need. (Could typing “prayer” be a new kind of religious lace?)

Man I’m starting to feel like all this technology isn’t making things easer at all, but is making life much harder. But that’s ok, I can see now that I need to slow down. Nothing I’m doing can be more important than supporting someone in prayer, so I am pledging right now to make a conscious effort to show more respect to both God and those in need and not pray at a 4G speed anymore.

Once again I am amazed at how God is always talking to me, and when ever I actually take the time to listen, it makes my life so much better.

Love,

Daniel

Another Strange Blog Post

I went down a weird path the other morning; read an article about a mega church pastor that has recently resigned. That led me to do some research about him and his beliefs, and the type of church he founded, then that led into a whole bunch of stuff about different types of churches, and man does it get thick and confusing fast.

Stuff like the Emerging Church movement, Alternative worship, Cafe church, Postmodern Christianity and Progressive Christianity these are just some of the terms that came up in the reading. And as I’m reading thru all this I catch myself trying to figure out where the Church we go to fits in, but finally it occurs to me what does it matter? Time spent trying to figure out what box I fit in as a Christian, is time wasted.

Seriously, and feel free to call me out if you don’t agree with what I’m saying, but does the bible say that we are to choose to subscribe to a belief system designed by a group of humans in order to worship God? Or does it say something along the line of, love God, love one another, and spread Gods word? In my research one thing that stood out to me was the silly amount of large words used to describe ways to worship, here’s some examples, Communitarian or egalitarian ecclesiology, Missional Morality, and contextual theology. I have no background, no education to understand what these are talking about.

Don’t take me wrong I’m not anti- education, shoot I’ve helped pay for four undergraduate degrees my point is when it comes to a personal relationship with God, that’s what it is, it’s personal. I have to study the word and listen to what God is telling me, just as my wife and kids had to study to get their degrees. If I were to subscribe to someone else’s interpretation of God’s word just because it’s easier than trying to figure it out for myself, then what happens when I’m standing before God and they are not there to explain on my behalf that I was just doing what they told me to do, in God’s name, but not necessarily listening to what God was trying to tell me personally. How’s that going to work out for me?

Now I’m not to good to talk to or listen to someone if I’m struggling with something, (and I’m always struggling with something) for instance current events often are upsetting to people, Ebola, ISIS beheading people, sermons being subpoenaed, these are hot button issues and can generate a lot of discussion, and fear. But as I shared this with a friend the other day, I told him how I just don’t really care, I know as a Christian what the final outcome is going to be so why bother getting upset about it. His advice was, don’t say that I don’t care, but instead say that it’s ok. And that’s true because I do care about the things that are going on in this life, but I know that God has a better life planned for all of us. So it’s ok.

I’ll try to keep moving forward, work on my personal relationship with God and share God with as many people as I can. And in the end as far as types of churches or styles of services I feel that as long as they are spreading God’s word and not causing harm with a bunch of man made views or requirements then they are ok.

And there are lots of Pastors I can learn from, men and women that have studied the word far more than me. But my thought is, when they write a book or sermon, really that is their opinion, it’s a starting place for me to study the word and figure it out for myself, not to just take their beliefs or idea’s and make them mine without researching on my own. I feel that God speaks to us thru wise teachers but satan doesn’t miss any tricks and loves to try and cause trouble where he can. But the word is the truth, and by studying, living and breathing that word we will be set free.

Love, Dan

Tennis with God

So the other night I got to watch a live action version of Rocky IV, sort of anyway. A buddy of mines son plays High School Tennis and is in the sectional playoffs. His opponent in the match that I got to watch is an exchange student from somewhere in Eastern Europe.

I should tell you that I know very little about the game, probably about thirty five to thirty eight years ago I learned a little about it in gym class, but that’s all long forgotten. It was the antics of the exchange student made it a very exciting match to watch. The guy put on a classic demonstration of poor sportsmanship, from yelling loudly words, that I can only assume were swear words, in language none of us understood, to complaining frequently to his coach, demanding to take a break when he was behind, and upon his defeat he not only did he refuse to shake hands with his opponent but he destroyed his own racket on the way off the court.

My friend’s son on the other hand stayed calm, maintained his composure and didn’t let situations rattle or distract him. He kept focused on his goal and in the end achieved it.

This makes me think about my relationship with God in a couple of ways. How often do I act like the exchange student did in our relationship? Behaving childish and silly as God patiently waits on the other side of the net for me to get my head back in the game.
And why do I insist on playing a game with God anyway? Its God’s rules and God’s game what right do I have to complain or get mad if I don’t think it’s going the way I want it too.

It’s a patient God we serve, thankfully, and he is in every situation if we look closely, I pray that young man who reminds me of the way I often act my self, learns to model his behavior after God, just as I need to also. And I thank God for not giving up on me and showing himself to me in a situation that sure did not expect him to.

Love, Dan

CHURCH IN THE RAW

Naked and Dating, what the what? I’m scanning the menu on the TV the other night and noticed the new low VH1 has sank to in order to catch our attention. Last year Discovery Channel came out with a show called Naked and Afraid where two supposed survival experts, try and survive in a remote location, sans clothes. I’ll admit to watching the first episode, but first of all as far as survival shows go it wasn’t impressive at all, so I’m assuming they were counting on the nudity factor to be the big draw.

Secondly even thought they were required to blur out the body parts, the first thing the contestants did was find some leafs and stuff to make clothing out of. It was not really a show that I thought was worth watching a second episode of. Now they have a show about people dating in the nude? They can call it a reality show, but in real life who goes on a date in the buff?

So now on to my title, Church in the Raw, NO I am not advocating that we go to Church in the nude. That would not be a pretty sight, by the term “Church in the Raw” what I mean is, what I think our leadership does a great job of, giving us a stripped down, bare version of Gods word and biblical truth. Have you ever sat thru a sermon where you didn’t have a clue what the Pastor was talking about? Fancy theological words are great for theologians but for the most of us, it’s more important that we understand what God is trying to tell us. There is an old British sitcom called Father Ted, it centers around the lives of three Irish Catholic Priests who live on a small island off the coast. The oldest of the Fathers was drunk and asleep most of the time but when ever they would wake him up to ask him a question he would reply with, that’s an ecumenical matter. (Yea I had to look up the definition, it means” involving people from different kinds of Christian churches”). I myself, enjoy a Talk where I understand the words and what they mean, I guessing Christ spoke the plain truth to the people and didn’t just try a dazzle them with language they wouldn’t understand.

I believe until the Second Vatican council in the mid sixties Catholic Mass was conducted in Latin. Talk about your “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” baby, I sure wouldn’t know what they were preaching about. And Protestant denotations have a lot of their own strange little takes and traditions, my personal favorite to pick on is the King James Version only group, how they have decided that this is the only true translation of the bible, when it’s often so hard to understand is beyond me. But if that’s what gives them comfort it’s not my place to judge.

The raw word, the naked truth, the bare facts, that’s what God wants us to hear and clothe ourselves in. I suppose until Christ returns there will be stupid TV shows produced with blurry nude people running around, and my guess is it’s only going to get worse. satan is going to throw every temptation he can at us, distractions that sometimes we don’t even realize for what they are, until it’s to late. His goal is to keep us away from God’s word. As for me I’ll be there Sunday morning, fully dressed and ready to soak in the raw truth of that word.

Love,
Daniel

That 70’s Church

Churches to the left of me, Church’s to the right, but here I am going to Revolution with you. Remember Stealer’s Wheel’s song from the 70’s Stuck in the middle with you? For the Revolution Community Churches Retro series we have built Altars in the 1950’s, then we talked about Corporate Worship in the 1960’s and next we are heading into the water to be baptized in the 1970’s (and from what I’m hearing it’s going to be as crazy as the 70’s were).

The other Sunday after finishing setting up equipment at the Merry Max Theater, (our temporary home during a remodeling project) I stepped out the back exit of the building. It was a beautiful to just soak in the glorious morning that God had made. If you looked to the left, above the trees you could just barely see the top of the church at the west end of the block, and to the right was the parking lot of the church on the east end. It struck me funny for some reason that here, between two churches that you could almost hit a rock was our temporary location.

My family spent twenty or more years driving from Logansport to go to Church in Kokomo and probably drove by at least twenty churches on the way to get there, and more than once as we were getting out of our car in the parking lot the family that lived right across the street was getting into their car to head to the church they attended. Is any one church better than the other? Yea, not going to touch that one, But I have had the privilege to celebrate God with other Christians in corporate worship all around the world from an Easter sunrise service that about five of us had on the back of a U.S. Navy warship floating near the Persian Gulf to some of the most famous cathedrals and abbeys in Europe. I’ve celebrated mass in the Philippines and attended services in buildings big and small all over our country.

Where is this going? Corporate worship can take place anywhere two or more gather, (Matthew 18:20) from a ship in the gulf, to a mega church in Detroit, it doesn’t matter where the location is, it’s about where you heart is. For my tastes R.C.C. is perfect, We don’t have to dress up, the music is on the loud side and towards the Rock and Roll end, and the people are real, if they are having a problem they are not afraid to share it, almost every week someone on work release is getting their paper signed by a pastor, I’ve met new friends and within five min. they are telling me about their addictions. None of us are perfect, we are just people and to be able to gather together as group and praise God is such a beautiful thing. Sure the churches on our left and the right are fine churches but I’m glad (as Stealer says in their song) I’m stuck in the middle with you.

A WEEK WITHOUT SOCKS

God’s got a sense of humor, if you don’t believe me just look at me feet. But they are usually hard to see because I hide them in socks. This year I bought a pair of sandals for the first time in a long time. You see my feet can be ice cold in the middle of July; well actually as I wrote this they were and it was the middle of July. It’s supposed to be a side effect of my blood pressure medicine. So for me to go a week just wearing sandals is a personal challenge. But I spent a week in school so it was a rare week in my life when I don’t have the footwear requirements of the factory where I work.

What does any of this have to do with a Blog about my Spiritual journey? I have no idea, but I did Google the question of, Did Jesus wear sandals? And I actually got some results. It gave me the scripture Luke 22:35 where it mentions sandals or in the King James Version it says shoes. So there was some kind footwear involved in his time.

Here was my week in my new footwear,
Monday 7/14/14 8am , warm but a little rainy, feet getting wet
Tuesday 7/15/14 8am, walking to class this morning and its 58 degrees
Wednesday 7/16 14 8am, 60 degrees REALLY?
Thursday 7/17/14 8am, 64 degrees Not bad, maybe I’m adapting………

Adapting, changing, could it be my feet are were getting use being out in the open with no socks? And what’s it going to be like when I go back to work and have to put on the old socks on again? I’m starting to see where this is going now; my walk with Christ is like my walk in general, it changes, when I was a baby Christian I was on fire but I really had no idea where to go with it, but as time goes on I’ve started to see the path, but its not always a easy one, or even one I’m always willing to commit to go down. And as I continue to try to live as a Christian there are ups and downs. Sometimes I hide my Christianity like I hide my feet in socks. And sometimes when I feel more daring or braver I throw the socks away and grab the flip flops, (not really, I hate that little piece that goes between your toes).

When I started writing this I really had nothing more than a stupid title to start with. But now I can see that God’s using this to tell me to get out of my comfort zone more. When I thought up this silly no socks challenge for myself I didn’t think it was a big deal, this is my third year of taking this summer school I’m in. And in the past it’s always been in the ninety’s with high humidity. So I brought shorts and tee shirts and of course my sandals, I didn’t expect temps in the fifty’s. So why should I expect following God to always be comfortable? There are going to be times it’s challenging, and times I get cold feet, but stepping forward and continuing my walk with God is what is most important in my life. And I hope it is in your life too. (By the way I made it the whole week with no socks, and now the temps are going back up in the Nineties and I’m back in work boots)

Love,
Daniel

Fair God

My wife and I helped at the booth our Church sponsors at our local county fair the other night. When we first arrived at the fair grounds we didn’t know exactly where the booth was located (totally our fault) so we walked thru the two exhibition buildings to find it. My first impression was man it’s hot, and my second was that every couple of booth’s or so was another Church.

Every flavor of belief you can think of was represented, with all their takes and spins on Gods word. Here they were all gathered in one space to reach out to their fellow man as God instructs us to in Matthew 28:19 (look it up) It was actually kind of neat now that I think about it. But I’m sort of anti- denominational myself, that’s just me, (the little red head want- to- be rebel) I understand the need for some form of structure and titles in order to accomplish the goal of spreading the Word; I just think that is a very slippery path that satan often uses to cause distractions and tension among God’s people.

Still we are all unique and see the same God in different ways. I had one conversation with one friend of mine that walked thru, I invited him to join us some Sunday but he replied that he couldn’t because he’s Catholic. I came back with that’s cool so was our Executive Pastor. His answer to me was well then he’s not Catholic anymore. We made a little more small talk then he disappeared back into to the crowd.

As I thought about that conversation later I started to realize how awesome that statement was. He’s not Catholic anymore! He’s just a follower of God, plain and simple, yes he has a title but that has to be to identify him to those who need his help or guidance on, or onto Gods path. He never flaunts it or makes a big deal out of it. None of the staff do. We are taught by the world to label everything. But in my opinion that’s not nearly as necessary as doing what the Father wants us to, and spread his word and his love.

I’ve kind of developed a couple of simple rules for myself, they are,

#1. No man tells me how to worship God. They can make suggestions or teach me things, but to demand I follow their rules based on their idea or their denominations idea’s of what the scripture says in order to be a part of their club, well that’s just not for me.

#2. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, I say this as a joke, kind of ,but no matter what the situation in life is, if you start letting someone else do your thinking for you, your going to end up in trouble. In the end it’s going to be you, by yourself standing before God and he’s going to ask YOU if YOU followed HIS commands. Not if you followed someone else’s idea of what he wanted you to do.

But he is a Fair God, and if we show his love, in our lives’, and in our actions, it doesn’t matter what building we go to on Sunday mornings.
(But I do really love the Church that he has me serving at)

Love you all,
Daniel

REBOOT

If you use modern technology at all, and I guess you wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t. You’re probably quite aware of the term or act of rebooting. As a maintenance/ tech guy it’s something I do a lot, sometimes our assembly machines where I work, with all their high tech safety guards and sensors get to a point that they are so confused that rather than operate in what would be an unsafe condition for the operator, their little computer minds just freeze up and won’t do anything.

At this point my amazing abilities as a maintenance man with almost 30 years of experience comes into play and with great skill and knowledge, I pull the plug.

The act of rebooting a machine is usually simple, from the old Ctrl/Alt/ Del on a computer to simply taking the battery out of your cell phone. But it’s interesting how this simple act allows the electrons to get back in their proper places and start functioning the way they are suppose to again.

A friend and I have been reading a book together called Sixty Six Love Letters from God by Dr.Larry Crabb and it’s about how in the authors view, and I agree with him, that each book in the Bible is actually a love letter to us from God. We haven’t gotten very far into the book yet but something I’m starting to see already is that God knows that we as humans, who although we are trying to live life as he wants us to, sometimes need to reboot our walk with him.

From the kid who grew up in Sunday school, but got distracted by life when they got older, or the newer follower who is struggling to wrap their mind around all this, to the person who has never missed a Sunday morning at church we are all humans and we get a little sideways in our walk from time to time. I want to share some stuff I found with you.

Romans 7:14,15
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Wow it’s like Paul is talking right to me. I get what God tells me thru the Bible but man can I go the other way in an instant. I’m cruising along thinking I’m going to really let my light shine, me and God we are tight, then boom I’m drawn into a sin before I even take the time to realize what I’m doing. Man I hate that. Thank God that he allows me to go to him in prayer and reboot my walk.

But once again Paul says it way better that I,

Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.

Is this blowing anyone else away? I didn’t do tons of research before I started writing this, to be honest I have some guilt over some sins I recently committed, and was thinking about how praying for forgiveness was a way of rebooting my walk with God, but thru a couple of quick internet searches for scripture God is speaking to me big time. I think it’s time to get off here and spend some time praying and rebooting my soul.

Love to you all,
Dan