Are you tired?

Have you reached the point where you are tired of “bucking up”, “acting better”, “manning up”, and “doing better”?

I mean we hear people all of the time tell us the words above and we start to play the game.

We man up for a bit and then fail.

We act better for a short time and then fail.

If we are honest with ourselves we play this game all of the time…and we’re tired of it.

We’re tired of being someone we are not.

Listen, the Christian life is not about acting better or doing better.  Read my words very carefully:  the Christian life is not about acting better or doing better.

When you accepted Christ you became a completely new creation.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”

Will acting better accomplish what 2 Corinthians 5:17 accomplished?  Will manning up accomplish what 2 Corinthians 5:17 accomplished?

Or how about this verse…Colossians 1:22 says “But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him”

Will acting better accomplish what Colossians 1:22 accomplished?  Will manning up accomplish what Colossians 1:22 accomplished?

Jesus said in John 10:10 that “A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

The Christian life is about so much more than sin management (manning up, doing better, acting better, and bucking up).  You, my friends, are a new creation in Christ.  Christ has changed you completely and is constantly changing you into His image.

My facebook buddy and author John Lynch describes it this way (I’m going to paraphrase):  If you take a caterpillar to a scientist and ask him what the caterpillar is the scientist will tell you that this caterpillar has all of the DNA that makes it a butterfly.  No matter how much it doesn’t look like a butterfly.  Yelling and berating the caterpillar to look more like a butterfly will probably only hurt it’s little ears.

Friends, our DNA is that of Christ…He turned us into a new creation at the moment of our salvation.  We may not look like Christ yet, but friends God is changing us into what we already are.

Maybe it’s just me but that is some great news!

My first featured article has been published.  It’s on the website right now and will be printed in the November issue of atCarmel.

It was a learning experience to say the least (I’m not much of a newspaper writer…).  I cannot wait to interview more churches and share how they are impacting the city of Carmel in love.  Visit www.atcarmel.com to read my article about Northview!

I’ve had the opportunity to eat at Ben’s several times and have had a great time every time!  If you are in D.C. you gotta check them out…their chili dog’s are the best!  The owner of Ben’s Chili Bowl, Ben Ali, passed away last night.  Here is an article about his death and the restaurant.

From the Associated Press:

Ben Ali, the founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl diner, a landmark in Washington’s black business and entertainment district and a frequent stop for politicians and celebrities, has died. He was 82.

Ali died of natural causes Wednesday night at his home, restaurant manager Maurice Harcum said Thursday. Ali was born in 1927 and opened the restaurant with his wife, Virginia, in an old movie house in 1958, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and integrating public schools.

It became a longtime fixture in the black business community, serving up bowls of chili and its trademark chili-covered half-smokes. The smothered sausages became Washington’s answer to the Philly Cheese Steak when rivalries flared between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles.

Ali’s family posted a statement on the restaurant’s Web site thanking people for an outpouring of support.

“Family, friends, and countless fans of Ben’s will sorely miss the energetic and unforgettable personality of Ben Ali,” the family wrote. “He was a true hero of the people and a great example of someone who actually epitomized the American dream.”

Ali was an immigrant from Trinidad who moved to Washington and studied at Howard University.

The newlywed couple opened the restaurant on U Street, then known as America’s “Black Broadway” for its thriving black-owned shops and theaters. Jazz greats Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole performed along the strip and were known to visit Ben’s.

More recently, Bill Cosby has been a favorite guest — joining Ali to celebrate the diner’s 45th anniversary — as well as President Barack Obama in January. After the 2008 presidential election, the Ali family put up a sign: “Who eats free at Ben’s: _Bill Cosby _The Obama Family.”

Before that, only Cosby ate for free.

D.C. Council chairman Vincent Gray called the landmark a meeting place for the D.C. community and said Ali was an “iconic figure” in the city.

The restaurant has survived tumultuous times, including the 1968 race riots, years of urban blight and recent gentrification in the surrounding neighborhood.

Virginia Ali, who oversaw the business with her sons Kamal and Nizam in recent years, has said the family didn’t want to move. She said the business survived because of community support. Ben’s celebrated its 50th anniversary in August 2008.

D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown called Ali a civil rights pioneer and entrepreneur.

“Through the best times and the worst times in our city’s history, Ben was eternally optimistic,” Brown said in a statement. “It was 51 years ago, with the sale of Ben’s first hot dog, that a place was created that to this day transcends cultural, racial and political divides.”

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with the Publisher of the new atCarmel:  The Carmel Community Newsletter.  The call went great and I was asked if I would write a monthly feature column!

Starting in the November, when atCarmel:  The Carmel Community Newsletter arrives in your mailbox, you will see an article profiling a Carmel church and their outreach!

I am absolutely ecstatic to start interviewing local churches and learning how they are venturing to reach the community of Carmel and beyond!

In the coming weeks you will probably hear me talk about this more, but in the meantime check out the premier issue of atCarmel when it arrives in your mailbox this week and be sure to check out atCarmel’s website: www.atcarmel.com

I must preface this blog post with this statement:  I am not simply writing a blog post to be critical…you will see in this post that it’s more of a bigger picture that I’m trying to get at.

In Grace College Chapel the other day the speaker was really pushing the point that the reason we don’t bow down, with our face on the ground, when we worship is because, we as American Christians, are too prideful.

Really?

To be honest I had never thought about the reason why I stood up or sat down when I worshiped or prayed.  I can tell you truthfully that it wasn’t because of pride.

Now that this speaker has come and told us that it is because of pride that we stand when we worship, does that make it wrong to stand?

Should I now feel guilty or shameful because I don’t fall to the ground in prayer or worship?

Could this be what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5:1-6:

Christ has liberated us into freedom. Therefore stand firm and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.  Again I testify to every man who gets circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace!  For by the Spirit we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness from faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

I consider the “you are not bowing because you are prideful” statement to be pretty enslaving and law oriented.  In our new covenant with God we are given a commandment to bow with our face to the ground when we worship!

So am I saying that it is wrong to bow with your face to the ground?  Absolutely not!  On the contrary, I am saying we are free in Christ to worship bowed down, standing up, sitting down, and upside down!  As long as it is in faith.

Worship in freedom!  Don’t submit to the yoke of slavery!

Found at www.wheresbillymays.com (the site was started by Billy Mays III…Billy Mays’ son).  On the site you can also send in for free Billy Mays stickers…I sent in for mine…you probably should too!

I found this over at www.treehugger.com.  It’s called the “Cardboard Recession iPhone Skin.”

Treehugger says it’s the case is great for several reasons:

1. You can make it yourself.
2. It prevents phone theft…because it’s ugly.
3. It’s durable, recyclable, and compostable.

Should I make one for my iPhone?

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein read (interpreted) by Brennan Manning

I plan on posting my thoughts on The Giving Tree later (About how I think this relates to God and us…).

I’m excited to begin my second year at Grace College in the next couple of weeks.  This year I will begin taking my “Major” classes.

For those who don’t know, my current plan is to double major in Biblical Studies and Intercultural Studies.

For my first semester of my sophomore year my four Biblical Studies textbooks add up to 1,785 pages.

For some, the amount of pages I just listed may mean nothing (I know those in Seminary have thousands and thousands and thousands of theology textbook pages that they have to read) but I feel like God is showing me that this whole thing is beyond the textbooks.

It’s simpler than whats in the theology textbooks,  though it’s more intricate than what man can teach.

It’s about love.  But try to explain love.

It’s about forgiveness.  But try to explain forgiveness.

It’s about grace.  But try to explain grace.

It’s about peace.  But try to explain peace.

It’s about the Cross.  But try to explain the Cross.

It’s about Him.  But try to explain Him.

Paul in 1st Corinthians 2:1-5 explains in perfectly:

When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness, in fear,  and in much trembling.  My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.

It’s not the textbooks power, but about His power.  It’s almost as if Paul is saying “Clear the stage of all this stuff.  Don’t have faith because of my words/wisdom/programs.  Have faith because of God’s power.”

I gotta say this and I’ve been thinking of a way to try to say this non-offensively for over a year now:

You are not getting any closer to God because you read a textbook about Him.

You are close to God because He is close to you.

Period.

Hear me out.

You are close to God.

Period.

Because He is close to you.

Period.

That’s it.

Reading 1,785 pages will not get you closer to Him.

You are close to God already!  Because He is close to you right now!

So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,

Ephesians 2:19

To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.

Jude 1

For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God.

Colossians 3:3

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39