The video comes right out of the gate with a bold statement, ‘Jesus came to Abolish Religion’. I agree to that but I disagree with that as well. The issue is the millions of people who will watch this video and say, oh cool I don’t have to be part of a religion to love Jesus. If Religion is defined as ‘outwardly practicing religious rituals for the sake of appearing to be self righteous’ (Col 2:23) then Bethke is right. Jesus came to abolish false, self-centered, religion. Jesus called out the Pharisees and Sadducees for this throughout Scripture but Jesus did not come to abolish religion in the sense of a set number of specific beliefs and practices. In fact, Jesus came establish religion in that form. Jesus came to establish His Church (Matt 16:18). Jesus created ritualistic events like meals (Matt 26:26-28) and gatherings (Acts 2:42). Jesus may have rewritten religion but He didn’t come abolish it. Jesus was a Jew. He went to services held at the synagogues (today we call our local church). My fear is that the 13 million and counting views that this video has gotten will leave you with the thought that you can love Jesus but hate religion and you can’t.

Screenshot of the Old Header for My Blog

My own conviction falls into this here cause I have a slogan for my blog for I don’t know how long that says “Ignoring Religion for The Sake of A Relationship”. My fear is that this expresses the same thing that Bethke tried to convey in his poem. For me, his poem rang true in many ways. It was a great way to articulate what I have felt in the past and what I thought I felt today but, again, I think that it puts out there too cloudy of a message for people to completely understand. Let me explain it another way.

Being Religious
I am religious about many things. In fact, instead of calling in religious, people may call obsessive compulsive but let’s use the terms synomously in this case. My wife and I got married in 2007. What if I had left it there. What if I didn’t practice any “religious rituals” since our wedding. For instance, I am religious about saying ‘I love you’ before we get off the phone on every conversation. I am religious about hugging her when I walk in the door when I get home and kissing her before I leave. I am religious about eating dinner at our dinner table with our boys and all the screens off. I am religious about a lot of things when it comes to our marriage. Can I say that I love my wife but I hate the religious acts of marriage? How ignorant does that sound? Further than that, what happens if I say “these religious acts are stupid and I don’t need to waste my time with them” then just stop doing them. How much further does our relationship last? I have to ask the same question about Jesus. When you stop doing the religious acts with Jesus, like going to church (Hebrews 10:25), reading your bible, praying, or being joyful, what happens to your relationship with Christ? I have to think that the same thing that would happen in my marriage as my relationship with Christ. It would begin to deteriorate. It would rot away anything of significance that I had. If I love my wife as much as I say that I do then the religious acts become second nature because of my love for her. It shouldn’t take a nuclear chemist to figure out that the same applies in any relationship even when it comes to God. We can’t constantly bash religion and say we aren’t religious but we love Jesus. If we truly love Jesus, we are religious. Religion is our way to connect to God through our daily, weekly, and second nature acts just as my religious mannerisms towards my wife shows her how much I truly love her. To conclude, I will no longer shout from the rooftops that I am ignoring religion but I will declare that I am embracing religion for the sake of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
¹² Brothers and sisters, we ask you to have respect for the godly leaders who work hard among you. They have authority over you. They correct you. ¹³Have a lot of respect for them. Love them because of what they do. Live in peace with each other.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we are asking you to warn those who don’t want to work. Cheer up those who are shy. Help those who are weak. Put up with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back one wrong act with another. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Give thanks no matter what happens. God wants you to thank him because you believe in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Don’t put out the Holy Spirit’s fire. ²⁰ Don’t treat prophecies as if they amount to nothing. ²¹ Put everything to the test. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

²³ God is the God who gives peace. May he make you holy through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept free from blame. May you be without blame from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ²⁴ The One who has chosen you is faithful. He will do all these things.

²⁵ Brothers and sisters, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all the believers with a holy kiss. ²⁷ While the Lord is watching, here is what I command you. Have this letter read to all the believers.

²⁸ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

***Updated*** 01/18/2012 @ 10:42am
One of the blog post that I was referring to that I thought was a good post but very intense was the one that was written by Kevin DeYoung that can be read HERE: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/13/does-jesus-hate-religion-kinda-sorta-not-really/

Thanks to a friend of mine Joe, he informed me that there has been a follow up post by DeYoung that is fairly amazing! I would suggest you reading it here as well: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/14/following-up-on-the-jesusreligion-video/

Rick Reilly of ESPN.com

I just read this post by an ESPN analyst, Rick Reilly. It has already landed in the archives of ESPN so I wanted to post it on my blog so people could read it. I have no inclining of an idea of what legalities entail behind using it but here it is none the less:

However, some of you may not know that there is actually a rule in football called ‘The Tebow Rule’. The NCAA instituted this rule after the national championship in 2009, where Tebow wrote John 3:16 on his eye black. The NCAA adopted a new rule outlawing any writings on eye black. By the way, within the next 24 hours ‘John 3:16’ dominated the search engines and was Googled over 90 million times. I personally think it’s awesome that Florida embraced the signature eye black when they created his statue in front of the other two Heisman Winners & National Champions (Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel) which are standing in front of Gainesville’s The Swap.

Tim Tebow is a Sinner

⁸ Suppose we claim we are without sin. Then we are fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us. ⁹But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, he will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar. His word has no place in our lives.
-1 John 1:8-10

As TebowMania sweeps the nation I have seen several comments that are very funny but after thinking about them (maybe too much) they become disturbing. The funniest that I read from an outspoken Atheist said, “I can no longer root against Tebow in case he is the Messiah.” I saw that and laughed out loud cause I thought it was funny on so many levels but then I have begun to see how some people are now escalating Tebow to Messiah levels. Some articles out of Denver have coined him as the ‘Mile High Messiah’. Here is the problem, although Tebow is an amazing role model and something we want our kids to look towards to see how Christ can be glorified we can’t pass off Tebow as Jesus. This happens to often in our culture and mostly in our churches. Last year a pastor that was very instrumental in helping plant churches, grow churches, and spread the message of Jesus Christ came out about his affair with his secretary. It destroyed his ministry and there were many people that have a warped view of Christ because of those actions.

Tebowism

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
-1 Corinthians 10:14

It is because we get so caught up in one person that we don’t focus on God. When that person lets us down, we relate that to God letting us down. People will disappoint you not God. When we start basing our religious beliefs on a person it becomes idolatry not Christianity, following Christ. It is a very dangerous situation. People leave churches. People turn their back on God. People go to Hell because they had so much faith in their grandparent, parent, or friend and they made a mistake or a bad decision so they relate that to God being a wavering God. We, as Christ followers, are called to reflect Christ at all times but we don’t; we can’t. We aren’t perfect but we should strive to be. For us to uplift someone to standards that they can’t attain is what I refer to as The Christian’s Edition of The Tebow Rule. Whether it’s (in this case) a sports figure, a pastor, a friend, or a family member we can’t elevate them to the level of Christ and expect them to maintain. Not only are we setting them up for failure, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. So as TebowMania sweeps the nation, I have to ask where does your faith lay? Does it lie on the arm of an unorthodox, left handed QB that’s the biggest player in the backfield? Does it fall directly on your spouse? (For women this would be more true cause the man is called to be the spiritual leader and the man will be held accountable for leading his family but that is another blog post.) Does it lie squarely on the man who stands on stage or in the pulpit each week?

Pulpits Don’t Make Perfection
***Do not warp, twist or miss what I am about to write. Read it. Reread it. Keep it context.

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.¹¹ The Bereans were very glad to receive Paul’s message. They studied the Scriptures carefully every day. They wanted to see if what Paul said was true. So they were more noble than the Thessalonians.
-Acts 17:10-11

Some Pastors give the impression that to question them is insubordination. I would immediately question the health of that church. Not only is it not insubordination, it is exactly what the Bereans did in Acts 17 and the bible tells us they were more noble than the Thessalonians who just accepted it an went on. Can you imagine standing before God on judgement day and you say, “well… my pastor… he said…” oh boy!

¹² My dear friends, you have always obeyed God. You obeyed while I was with you. And you have obeyed even more while I am not with you. So continue to work out your own salvation. Do it with fear and trembling. ¹³ God is working in you. He wants your plans and your acts to be in keeping with his good purpose.-Philippians 2:12-13

That’s not going to be a good day. In Philippians 2:12-13, the bible tells us to work out our own salvation. In 1John 4:1 it warns us to put spirits to the test and warns us of false prophets.

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Put the spirits to the test to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² How can you recognize the Spirit of God? Every spirit that agrees that Jesus Christ came in a human body belongs to God. ³ But every spirit that doesn’t agree with this does not belong to God. It is the spirit of the great enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy is coming. Even now he is already in the world. ⁴ Dear children, you belong to God. You have not accepted the teachings of the false prophets. That’s because the One who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world.  ⁵ False prophets belong to the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view. The world listens to them. ⁶ We belong to God. And those who know God listen to us. But those who don’t belong to God don’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of lies.
-1 John 4:1-6

I would go as far as to say that if a Pastor is not open to you asking honest, truth seeking questions then you should find a church that has a staff and/or a pastor that will cause, again, I question the health of that church but be sure to read more, further below. Pastors are called to lead their church and they will be held responsible for that in the end. But I think that God uses the analogy of a shepherd and sheep so we can’t over think it. Pastors are shepherds of flocks but a shepherd can’t lay down with every sheep, tear up the grass and push it down the throat so that it will eat the right amount of calories for its diet regime nor can a pastor do this with each “member” of their congregation. Now their maybe a time when a shepherd has to care for a sheep in that capacity or a pastor has to care for one of his congregation in that manner. Personally, I think that falls more to the staff and leadership as well but that is my opinion and mostly based on Jethro’s advice to Moses.

¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing isn’t good. ¹⁸ You will just get worn out. And so will these people who come to you. There’s too much work for you. You can’t possibly handle it by yourself.

²¹ “But choose men of ability from all of the people. They must have respect for God. You must be able to trust them. They must not try to get money by cheating others. Appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²²Let them serve the people as judges. But have them bring every hard case to you. They can decide the easy ones themselves. That will make your load lighter. They will share it with you.

²³ “If this is what God wants and if you do it, then you will be able to carry the load. And all of these people will go home satisfied.”
-Exodus 18: 17-18, 21-23

But overall a Pastor that is called to lead can’t be blamed for us not following God’s Word. He will be held responsible by God but not by you or me.

Don’t Be Stupid
As I disclaimed earlier, don’t be ignorant. For many years and in one case I was, in essence, denounced from the church cause I asked a question in midweek service (How do we know the bible is real? I’ll blog about that later) but the bible tells us to do so. But we also have to check our attitudes, egos, and self righteousness at the door. If we are going in there with the notion to blast our pastor because some car salesman wrote on his blog some scripture to prove that the bible says to do it then you are just ignorant and don’t have the heart of God. Learning the scripture and understanding it in context is not your intentions and for that I wish that the local church would staff some MMA fighters to deal with you accordingly but again, that’s my opinion and not very biblical. You also have to be open to the notion that your beliefs for upteen amount of years may be just basic traditional beliefs and not be biblically based. You must be open to that cause a Pastor may sit down with you and ruin your view of a “fluffy, prosperity for everyone Jesus”. But and I mean HUGE but if you are seeking understanding, if you are seeking knowledge and looking to gain confidence in your faith and working to improve your relationship with Jesus Christ by learning more about Him and the magnitude of God then any right minded church, church staff, and Pastor will welcome you with open arms.

Sunday afternoon, we jumped in the car to head to Atlanta for Passion 2012 where Louie Giglio would open up the event from the book of Luke. His message was parallel to Rodney’s on Sunday talking about the fact that we need to Rise Up or as Rodney put it, “It’s Time To Get Up!” All this goes hand in hand with my New Years Day post about the desire to become bolder about what God is doing in my life and how I can be more passionate about sharing that with others. I want to pursue the great commission more and more and working through what that looks like in practical ways is what I hope to share in my blog. I am more excited about this Sunday in attending OneLife. If you are curious why, read here.

This week I would wind up hearing messages brought by John Piper, Francis Chan, Beth Moore and a few others as well. I would experience a worship environment that would have leaders like Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band, Lecrae, Christy Knowles, and Kristian Stanfill. As I joked with some people from OneLife about they have a big shoe to fill this week cause I am expecting a lot coming off this week, I was quickly reminded that the worship experience doesn’t matter who the leader is but rather than the condition of your walk with Christ. It the sea of 45,000 other people, I found myself letting my guard down in my worship and just pouring my heart out through song, through praise, and through worship. We’ll see on Sunday how that boldness that I pushing for translates with that room a little tighter and about 300 in the crowd. Too often times we want to “maintain our reputation” being cool and not too overly emotional. We want people to think we have it all together when we come into the church instead of coming in and just pouring our heart out and letting go. I, and we, have to quit viewing the church as a social club to realize that the church is for hurting people. So as I will lay my guard down this week, I encourage you to as well and let God just blow your mind.

I can’t wait to share more as I process all that has happened this week.

Get Healthier: Physically, Mentally, Financially, & Spiritually – 1^st Resolution

Diet Starts Monday
I know physical health is at top of the leader board with the number of resolutions made but it will be one that I pursue passionately. My goal is 2012, is to lose seventy-two pounds in hopes to become healthier physically for myself, my wife, & my boys.

What About Bob?
The movie staring Bill Murray has warped many minds of men thinking that if we seek counseling or go to a therapist then we are crazy but I started this process several months ago and will continue on this path. We have dealt with issues of control, rape, religion, ministry, and many others and I can’t be more thankful for starting that process.

Slave of Debt
This past year I didn’t realize the amount of biblical truth there is about debt. Currently we are working on our issues through financial coaching as well as moving to get out of debt. I hope to blog more about this journey in the year to come.

Ignoring Religion for the Sake of a Relationship
Above is my new “slogan” for my blog. In my past, I have found myself going through the motions in many cases doing what we are always taught to do for the sake of the religion. I have come to find that just because our grandparents called what they did religion doesn’t mean that it was right. In the past year, I have went deeper in a relationship with Christ and fallen more in love with Him than any point in my life. The example of Grace and Mercy displayed from my family in the past year has presented a new found light on God and my relationship with Christ.

Be Bold & Biblical – 2^nd Resolution

Where, When, Why, What, How
As I have blogged before, I want to switch gears in the direction of my blog. It started out wanting to be transparent about my walk with Christ. From there, I think it slide into just being a soapbox for me to share limited truth, beliefs, and opinions. I hope to be more bold in answering tough questions about my beliefs. So if you have questions, put them on me by commenting here or email me and I’ll try to answer them in a post. Previously, I wanted to just rub really religious people the wrong way and show them that a relationship with Christ could be different but I now know those were the wrong motives. I am sure with this I will still offend some people as I discuss topics like: sex, pornography, homosexuality, adultery, masturbation, addiction, debt, victimization, abortion, etc.

Be Christian About It
This is one phrase that drives me crazy! Being raised in the south, I hear it a lot. It’s the same philosophy that swept the world when the WWJD bracelets became the fad. To often times we think “being Christian about it” means just let the world run over you cause you are suppose to reflect Christ and Christ is love. I just want to direct your attention to the Revelation Jesus in chapter 19, who comes in on a horse with a rob of dripping blood and a tattoo on his thigh that reads “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”. Look it up right here, I have a verse. I guarantee it wasn’t written in Sharpie marker. Although Christ is love and we are suppose to reflect him, that doesn’t mean the world can use Christians as doormats. I hope to increase my boldness in handling situations but doing so in a loving manner.

Penn Jillette (from Penn & Teller), who has multiple videos calling the bible a load of hazardous fecal matter from a bull says this: “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” He goes on to say in his YouTube video, “If I believed beyond a shadow of doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it. But that truck was barring down on you, there is a certain point that I tackle you and this is way more important than that.” Penn goes on to in another video to intentionally commit blasphemy by denouncing the Holy Spirit but yet previously makes a phenomenal point. How bad do we have to hate someone not to share the love of Christ if it’s what we truly believe? So if we aren’t sharing Christ with others, I have to question, one, are they true followers of Christ or are people just going to through the motions only to be misrepresenting Christians or, two, do those people truly understand the meaning of a relationship with Christ. James 2:19 says: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” So simply to believe doesn’t change a thing. The devil believes in God but yet wants to be above Him. When we become confident in who we are in God and what He has done for us, we can begin our ministry and sharing how God has worked in our lives.

Go Make Disciples
Matthew 28:19, right after Jesus comes back from the dead. Yeah, pretty powerful stuff, huh? He gives some final orders to his disciples. He says, “So you must go and make disciples of all nations.” If we aren’t producing other disciples that produce other disciples then we are just becoming a bunch of obese Christians that want to show up for church each and every Sunday and Wednesday for the buffet in hopes of “getting fed” more and more. Then when the pastor doesn’t feed us the right amount of sugar coated, sweet prosperity messages, we leave and say “that church isn’t right for me”. Truth is that the pastor is doing what God called him to do and taking his flock to green pastures so that they can grow rather than feeding them sugar cane for the entire lives until they die and go to Hell. I will say this for now, if you like everything your pastor says and you think his “preachin’ was good every Sunday” then you should find a new church cause God didn’t call us to become Christians, get comfortable, and not be challenged to grow any further. But blaming the church is easy, right? I mean that is religion. Religion, defined by Reference.com, is “the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith” and if I am honest, if we aren’t reproducing disciples that reproduce disciples we are merely practicing each and every day of our lives or being ritualistic about our faith which won’t lead to lifechange for anyone around you much less for yourself.

So, although I have never been big on resolutions I have decided to make a few this year. Like I wrote before, in the past year, I have found a deeper understanding of Christ and my relationship with Him. I hope to be bolder in my blogging, stronger in my walk, and healthier in my life so that I can share my experiences with confidence of who I am in Christ and fulfill what he called me to be.

Glorifying God Through Santa
I have struggled recently with the idea of explaining Santa to our boys. At 3 and 1, it’s not an issue this year but as I have found with many of my peer parents, what do we do? You usually have one of two options. You either raise your kid as the one “that ruins it for the other kids” or you reveal them that you lied to them a few years later. The lying, for us, isn’t an option nor do I want the smarty pants that is forcing his knowledge on other kids. I don’t want to begin teaching my kids about Santa and God then to sit down with them when they hear from their friends at school that Santa isn’t real. They then approach me to find out that their friends are telling them the truth while mommy and I have been lying to them. I think that swings the door wide open for years later when their friends tell them that God isn’t real and that bridge I want built without any cracks in the foundation. Am I overthinking it? Maybe but maybe I’m not. I also have issues with raising with the concept of two omnipresent (all knowing) beings so that are of Santa’s legend we won’t embrace in our family. But when the time comes to explain to our boys, we will tell them the truth. Santa is real.

Is Santa Real
You can walk into any shopping mall, sign onto the majority of websites, or watch TV this season for any short amount of time and you will see something about Santa. You will see a jolly white-bearded man in a red suite. In case you didn’t know, that is Santa. My wife brought up a good question when we discussed this a few weeks ago, “How do we explain Santa to our boys?” I immediately asked her, “How do you explain Mickey Mouse?” To often times we [Christians] seem to think it is okay that Elmo is real to our kids but Santa can’t be. Typically it is because we want to see Santa as demonic. It is sad the amount of Christians that think this is true. The biggest reason because Santa has stolen the spotlight of Christmas from the true reason of the day of celebration being Christ’s Mass or the birth of Christ. The legend of Santa couldn’t be less demonic than anything I can currently think about. Sometimes our religion gets in the way of our parenting. It seems okay to let our kids watch Elmo or Mickey Mouse because it stirs their imagination and we want them to have that but we don’t want them to imitate a guy who loves Jesus so much that he frequently gave gifts to the poor without wanting any recognition in return. Isn’t that the direct definition of God’s heart? This year we told Keagan that he gets to “play Santa” as we went Angel Tree Shopping for the Salvation Army. We need to get our religious mumbo jumbo out of the way and point our kids towards Christ instead of warping their minds even further by introducing them to wish-washy topics at 5 or 6 years old. We can point them directly to Christ, being Christ-Like, and having the heart of God as a giver by using the imagery of Santa or Saint Nicholas.

The Legend of Santa
The story began from a boy named Nicholas. He was born in a very wealthy set of parents who raised him to have the heart of God, to be a giver. Nicholas’ generosity is where the legend began. It migrated from Myra, where he would be named a Saint (thus good ole’ Saint Nick) and a Bishop, then went to Holland where the legend would migrate into calling him SinterKlass. From there it landed in America as Santa Claus. To our boys, much like Daddy’s real name is Brad and Mommy’s real name is Crissy, Santa Claus’ real name is Saint Nicholas. People all over the world have Mommys & Daddys and people all over the world love to wear a costume to dress up like Santa but his real name is Saint Nick (or Saint Nicholas). They dress up like Santa because they look up to him and how much he loved Jesus. Saint Nicholas was a devout Christian and generous cheerful giver. That is how we will embrace Santa this year and many years to come. We will give gifts by signing ‘Santa’ on them because we want to imitate a man who loved being generous without recognition. We will teach our boys to give gifts in Santas honor because of his love of Christ.

Greatest Gift
As we use Santa to point towards Christ, we will also use a tradition that started many years ago by Christians. Today isn’t Jesus’ actual day of birth but we will embrace the tradition started many years ago by celebrating his birth and life today. We will share the story of Mary and Joseph. We will tell them about how Jesus was born to die. How he was sent here on one mission and that is to bridge the gap of God and man. Most of all, how and why God loved us so much that he made that sacrifice and gave us the greatest gift of all.

As many people, I am glued to the internet, the television, blogs, and other media outlets submerging myself in this scandal that has captured the attention of the college sports fan. Most of the time I am in disbelief of the events that were alleged to have happened and some of the time I am lost in the idea that this could have really happened. I am not writing this post to debate whether the events are true or if they are false nor am I writing this with the intent of choosing a side of whether or not Joe Paterno should have lost his job. I have realized that in this day and age, you can create an instant debate over three things: abortion, politics, and JoePa’s firing. That is not the route that I want to take on any of those issues even though I have a strong stance in two of those areas and I hate politics. There is a few things that we can learn from Paterno and you can read that post by clicking here. I am in complete agreement with number four on that post that states I could be next and hold fast to the verse 1 Corinthians 15:10.

As a sports fan, a father, a husband, and a follower of Christ, I have watched the dismantling of a career and a legacy for that matter of Joe Paterno through many different lenses. Rather than crucify JoePa like many media outlets, students, and other people are doing, I would like to learn from his mistakes. Now, I have my own questions so don’t get me wrong. Why is McCreary still on staff when he did seemingly the same thing that Paterno did? McCreary and Paterno both reported to their mentors. They both followed protocol and seems like they felt that was good enough. Hindsight it appears like ‘get the monkey of my back’ mentality but nonetheless Paterno is unemployed and McCreary is still the recruiting coordinator.

Men can learn a huge lesson from Paterno’s position.
In 2001, after Paterno finished his season 4-7, the president of Penn State had a meeting with Paterno and asked him to step down as Head Football Coach of the University in which Paterno stated “No.” How does that translate into our lives as men? God has issued a direct, crystal clear point of emphasis calling the man to take leadership of our families. We are responsible for the physical, mental, emotional, and most importantly spiritual well being of everyone in our household much like Paterno was entrusted the well fare of the student athletes of Penn State’s football program. Paterno has been deemed the lighting rod of the incident and some think that it was unfair of what happened. So be it, but if we look at history then we know how God views that leadership and who he holds directly accountable. Look at Genesis 3:9. Now up until the 9^th verse of Genesis 3, basically the serpent goes to Eve (not Adam) and convinces her to eat from the only tree that God instructed them stay away from. This would later go on to be called ‘The Fall’ because it is where the clear disobedience of God had entered into the picture called Sin. But look at verse 9, “But the Lord God called out to the man.” Come on… God is not dumb. It’s not like he didn’t know what just happened. Any parent knows when there 1 year old is being too quiet or when their hand is just inches from breaking some family heirloom and then you have the fact that God is all-knowing so that doesn’t help that argument. God already knew what happened and he called out to the man. He summoned Adam, not Eve. Eve ate the fruit. Adam was called to the principal’s office. Why? Much like what happened this week with Paterno. Paterno was the Head Football Coach. He was Penn State. In 2001, he proved that point in case when his boss asked him to step down as the coach he simply said no thanks. Much like Paterno was positioned in a spot with great influence as well as great responsibility, God has placed the men of this world in the same position in each and every family. It was his design from the very beginning. This isn’t to degrade women in their roles for the mere fact that when God created just man alone it was the only time recorded that God seemingly second guessed himself in Gensis 2:18 when he says “it’s not good for man to be alone” so God went on to create the animals and then a helper for Adam.

A Man’s Platform
God has positioned men as the head of the house and that platform is not to be taking lightly much like I have taken it for granted in the past 5 years. I will be posting more on the subject of marriage and men’s roles in those marriages in the upcoming days. I am very enthusiastic and passionate about this topic because of Crissy and I recent battles with our roles, responsibilities, and how we approach marriage. Through seeking out what God’s word says about marriage, through counseling with professionals, and through grabbing some friends to go through this journey with us, we will be able to come out of all of it with a more clear understanding of what our marriage is and what it is all about. I can tell you this one thing for sure. A marriage is not for one or both of the spouse’s direct benefit. God doesn’t place two people together so that they can live happily ever after. If you are curious what I mean then stay tuned to my upcoming posts.

Here is some of the back story of what happened. He requested me as a friend on Facebook and I am not stuck up and in the in crowd so I accept anybody’s request as long as they have clothes on in their profile picture. The very next day he wrote me a concerned warning about “promoting” the church I attend.

You should be careful promoting that church you go to so much. They don’t do everything by the book, I have had some friends tell me about how they do things there and I definitely don’t agree with it. I just wanted to let you know because you seem like a good guy.

Much like he did in this situation, he didn’t gather all the facts and only made assumptions based on a very limited amount of opinions (not facts). I have come to find out through our conversations that he doesn’t agree with drums, bass, and the different “feel” of the church I too often promote being OneLife Church and I can understand that. It sometimes very easy to accept different opinions on different ideas or concepts but for some reason, in our culture, when it comes to church or ministry it must fit into a small neatly wrapped box with a bow on it. If we look at it, there aren’t many other realms of our lives that we do this with. My example to him was about hamburgers.

After Facebook stalking him, I noticed one of his wall pictures of him beside his grill throwing down some mean looking hamburgers so I asked him a loaded question. Do you like hamburgers? Of course he responded with yes and we began to compare how he makes them. He is actually much more knowledgeable about the grill and meats than I am but nonetheless we both love grilling and what it represents in our lives. I explained to him that I have had friends that told me “This is the best hamburger in the world” based on my wife’s marinade and cooking it at proper temperature for so many minutes. He agreed, “Me too!” Then I asked him, “Which one of our friends are liars?” He didn’t understand but you may be ahead of me already. In many aspects of our lives we are okay to have different flavors of hamburgers that we like and don’t like but yet when it comes to church we can only have one flavor because the bible is so clear on that… not really, but that is what we justify yet we can’t back it up biblically.

Imagine going to a restaurant and ordering your food. I am an OCD fanatic. I don’t like my food touching. I don’t like mixing flavors. There are certain things that just don’t go together and I hate crunchy items. Imagine if I try to pass that concept off as the only way that people that hang out with me should eat. If I told my wife or friends, “Don’t get those chips, they are too crunchy.” Or “Don’t get tomato on your sandwich cause of the texture of it… GROSS!” But yet when it comes to church not only do we do this, we accept others doing it. I would quickly run out of options of people to eat with if I was this way and deservedly so.

As I explained to my friend on Facebook, the church isn’t a business. It doesn’t matter where the hype is or who is marketing what church. The bottom line is about their relationship with Christ. I have been guilty of this myself in the pride issue of ‘my church is better than your church’ mentality before but if you want to get biblical about it we are all on the same team. We are all eating at the same restaurant. If drums, bass, electric guitar, and a great communicator that strongly suggests practical applications of the how the bible applies to our lives is your thing then come to my church. But if hymns are your thing and you really enjoy the fellowship of certain people and that challenges you to grow at a different church, by all means go to that church. Compared to everything else in your life, your relationship with Christ is the only thing that matters and whatever church you go to that heightens the ability to grow that relationship is good. Let’s quit pushing our own personal agendas, like my church verses your church, and focus on our relationships with Christ and how that effects the people in our lives.

People will read this story about Terrell Owens (commonly referred to as T.O.) and be judgmental. They will question why he would contemplate suicide. They will completely miss the fact that his identity has been ripped from him. He is and was one of the most flamboyant wide receivers but yet one of the most dominating of his time. Beyond our opinions for his off the field antics that was critiqued on a weekly basis. He is a Wide Receiver in the National Football League and will be in the Hall of Fame in Ohio one day but today he is suicidal. This week T.O. held a workout in hopes to land another contract to play in the NFL. Sources say that he would play for the league minimum which only solidifies my point. His identity is as a football player and right now he is out of a job. Not only is he unemployed, after a failed reality TV show, a failed workout in which no NFL teams showed up to scout him, he felt he was at the end of the line so apparently he tried to take his own life (for the second time since 2006).

I think T.O. deals with an issue that many of us today deal with but, again, it’s hard for us to understand because he is a “superstar” and that concept doesn’t work for the pedestal that we place these guys on. It’s also hard to for us to look at his actions and deem him with low self esteem. But his actions scream self esteem issues if you really look at it. Many of our battles today coincide with the fact that we place our identity in the wrong things. In fact we place our identity in things that can either be squandered away, lost, or even die. I have had this battle most of my life and only by recently finding my identity in Christ am I able to really see what he has called me to be. I can identify with T.O. because much like him, my identity was as an athlete at one time in my life. Like T.O. an injury would strip that away from me which makes it even harder to deal with because it feels like you aren’t in control of it. The fact is that we aren’t in control of anything. Until we give up that control, it is then we can find true peace.

Many of us will put our identity in our marriages. One day your marriage will end. Hopefully it’s not through divorce but one day one of you will die. It’s harsh but it’s the truth. Many of us crazy parents put our identity in our kids, just watch Toddlers and Tiaras or go to the local youth sports event and watch the quakes go crazy. One day your kids will pass away or leave and there you are left with your own real life identity crisis. Let’s put our identity in our secured investments. Ask anyone today how their 401k is doing. They will quickly turn the subject. Our identity cannot be based solely on our professions, our marriages, our kids, our portfolios, or relationships. Our identity can only be based on what the God of the universe says about us.

To find out what he says, you can do one of two things. I recommend the bible. Look up what God says about you and how much he truly loves you. It’s the only thing that won’t change when you die. The second thing you can do is look at science. I have been on a science vs. religion kick lately so I will just give you some things to think about. As you are sitting there do something for me. Place both of your hands face down on your lap. Take your right index finger and touch your nose. There are over tens of thousands of muscle, blood cells, tendons, ligaments, and many more things that happen for that mere act. Think about walking, or running, or just reading this blog. Just think what it means to read the words on this screen that you can see them with your eyes which sends the signal to your brain that develop what this screen say by the mere way black lines are laid out in a symmetrical manner that we call language. You can merely read a sentence instantaneously, knowing what it says and yet we want to question God and the magnitude of the things He thought about when He created us. Instead of placing our identity in what people, parents, employers say about us or what our resume says we have to begin seeking what God says about us. I will be posting more about this topic in the days to come so check back as this was just a quick post when I heard the news of T.O.

 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” -1 Peter 2:9