I’m recently dealing with a situation that I desire so much to hear the voice of God on, to understand what step He wants me to take, where I should go, what I should become. But I’m caught in a dilemma: either I’m hearing the voice of the Lord and I’m making excuses and totally denying it, or I’m just so confused on what I’m hearing, I don’t know if it’s my voice or God’s voice.  This is a very hard problem to work through….especially when you’ve been struggling with it for more than a day…let’s try, hmmm…about a month.

Thoughts?

Okay,

What do you think?  Is God more concerned about us being separated for the sake of sanctification…or is He more concerned about us being relevant to culture?

Rules: The answer can’t be BOTH.

Tip: Think broader definitions on separate and relevant.

…..and begin.

Today begins the new journey of a new series called “What about you?”  Basically the idea is for me…P.J….to share a personal subject, idea, or struggle that I’m dealing with, and then you tell me how you feel the subject, idea, struggle relates to your personal life.  Simple enough?

1st up on the discussion board: 

“The majority of the time I feel that I’m trying to show God that I love Him rather than allowing Him to show me that He loves me.”

…..and begin.

Wow, I don’t even know how to start this one off…so I guess Ill just go with it.  

I have noticed something over the course of my Christian life.  I have noticed a problem that I have, that I feel that I most definitely should not have…especially when engaging other believers.   The more and more I encounter other people, whether believers or non-believers, I find myself watching my “Christian-language”. Especially when it comes to talking about the Holy Spirit.  In the process of growing up in the church, going to Bible school, and running with a crowd who tends to lean more on the “relevant” style of ministry, I must confess, “I have become a little ashamed should I say?…of my confession of the moving of the Holy Spirit.”  I asked the Father to forgive me and it’s still a working process…but I just can’t get over…why?  

     I don’t know if it’s because I encounter so many Christians with so many different church traditions all the time that I don’t want to freak them out.  Maybe I’m scared they will think that I am that crazy Christian who, in the words of Perry Noble, “sees a demon in every bush.”  Maybe it’s because I do want to be relevant in a sense….I don’t know.  If you know me personally, you would say, “there is no way that that is a struggle for you”…but let me tell you friends…it is.  I honestly have to work at proclaiming a member of the Holy Trinity because I think many people view Him/Her/ It as some type of mystic, hocus pocus spirit that takes control over one’s life and makes them act crazy, say crazy things, and just seem completely and totally out of their minds!  

I don’t know why I have this mindset…but the Lord is telling me it must change.  When it comes to people with other traditions than the one in which I experience God, I have a strong belief that the Spirit is able to move in these.  Whether liturgical, contemporary, charismatic, or whatever…the Spirit of God is free to move however He/She/It pleases.  So I have no problem with that.  I guess what I am confessing that I have a problem with is in my own confession of how I experience God.  

I recently took a new job at a church in Augusta, Georgia called Stevens Creek Community Church.   If you know anything about this church you may think…”woah, if you struggle with this issue, then it must be only worse when working there.” …just to give you kind of the DNA of Stevens Creek, the church tends to lean more on the “seeker” style of ministry.  Though I do struggle with this here (not the seeker, but the confession)…I think my gratefulness far outweighs the struggle at hand.  The reason being is because this church is doing what every other church claims we should do, but never puts it into practice…they are a collection of many traditions that drop denominational barriers at the door.  We have people from Lutheran backgrounds, Methodist, Baptist, Church of God, United Pentecostal, and Catholic that come through our doors each and every Sunday.  This is the image of the church that I have always hoped to have seen and have always desired to be a part of.  I believe it also is the church that Christ wants to see.

But…and this is not a but to knock Stevens Creek (don’t fire me Kevin), with all of the beauty that I see in the members of this church…their traditions, their worship styles, their encounters with a Holy God, their spiritual development…I most definitely want to and will respect them.  But at the same time, I cannot forsake what God is doing in my own heart….how He is teaching me what it truly means to be baptized and live in that baptism of the Holy Spirit…what the purpose of speaking in tongues is…how He loves to see me dance in worship…how He loves to see me go after Him with every ounce of passion that I have!  I cannot forsake this for the reason of being….relevant.

God encounters and changes people in many different ways.  I cannot be shy of how He chooses…and how I desire…for Him to do so with me.  

This is a call of confession on the web…and I will live it out even louder in my life…”Holy Spirit, forgive me.  Forgive me for the shyness, for being ashamed, for being scared.  You are my helper, my strength, my power.  I will not act or move in you for a prideful attempt of being rebellious against those in authority over me, or for the sake of hindering someone else from coming to know you Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Rather Holy Spirit, guide me, teach me, love me…and I promise…I will love you back.  I will proclaim of you…of your goodness, of your beauty, of your baptism. You are my God.  Thank you.”

This post is not against the Church as a whole, or any particular organization, group of people, or tradition of faith.  It is a confession and statement of faith and promise against a mindset…a mindset that the devil wants me to have…to be fearful of those around me…for being offensive…for being crazy…

My pursuit of God is not found in the fact that I speak in tongues, dance, or show any other type of outward response to our God.  My pursuit is found in what Christ is doing in my heart, and in return, showing those around me the love that He has so freely given to me.

Much love,

P.J.

Here’s the statistic: There are 8760 hours in a year.  A parent spends about 3000 hours with their child.  The church spends about a total of 40.  Should the pastor be the main discipler of the student, or should the parent?  

The statistics pretty much give a no-brainer answer to this question.

These numbers are something I will be working through this summer in figuring out how to equip parents in effectively discipling their children at home.

Let the creativity begin!!

This by no means is some exploitation of what God is doing in my heart and what I am currently wrestling with…I just want to vent a little and maybe get some responses of what you guys think.

Isaiah 58:10 says, “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”  The next couple of verses go on to talk about God blessing you like crazy in everything you do…..but my my focus is on the first portion of this verse.  It says to “pour yourself” out for the hungry.

With the growing trend of “social justice” in both the secular and Christian circles, I have found myself jumping on to this bandwagon…but what is interesting is that as time passes, this idea of serving the poor isn’t a trend for me, it’s becoming a heart issue.  The struggle that I have with it though is “how much should I give?”  How much should I give of my time, money, resources.  This verse in Isaiah says to Pour yourself out for the poor.  That sounds to me a whole heck of lot more than giving the guy on the side of the street a couple of bucks or going and helping out at Habitat for Humanity for a couple hours a month.  I know we need to start somewhere and at least doing something helps more than doing nothing…..but what does it mean to pour myself out?  I don’t think I have struggled over 1 question more in my life than this one!  I want to be poured out for God and His kingdom, but how should I go about that?