Living, or Living

I want to be a dead man
I want to preach to dying men;
Every man is either dying in his life
Or dying in His Life.
Ever man is either living this life
Or living for Christ;
There is no in-between.
You cannot live for the world
And for Jesus at the same time,
But you can be dead and alive
At the same time.
Dead with Christ
Alive in His resurrection
ALIVE!
Crucified,
Dead,
Buried,
Resurrected.
All together one
All together separate.
My sin is with Christ.
I'm dead with Christ.
Christ left me and my sin in hell
I live now
Only as much as Christ
Lives in me.
AND CHRIST LIVES POWERFULLY!

When We Find Our Knees

I left my old self
On the shores of the Jordan
The waters swallowed death
And I was reborn
The life before was
Dust and ashes
Until You looked my way and breathed
Now I'm standing in the masses
When I should be on my knees

I look all around me
See half-dead men and some stopped breathing
Others are alive but sleeping
We're all just waiting for You to say the Word
And You're waiting for us to start weeping
We want a movement for the ages
We want to be that generation
Who tastes not death until You we see
And You're patiently waiting
For us to find our way
Onto our knees

Have I ever thought I was the one
Who took the cross and won the war?
If the answer's no
Then why are my knees so fragile
And my feet so worn?
I ran away from You for miles
Now I'm asking that You let me join
As my will bends beneath the
Weight of the Heaven knowing Lord

Because my kingdom's crashing while
I've yet to see Yours come
Lay to waste my best intentions
Drain corruption from my lungs
That I might not breathe
Unless You teach me what that means
No more will I sing about Your love
Unless I live it in the streets

Chase You Down

"Chase You Down"

I am standing here in need
Of a Savior of a King
I am down on my knees
Begging for You to meet with me

It's not enough to say
That You're enough for me
So I lay my life down down
Down at Your feet

You set me free
I'll spend forever chasing You down
You took my sins on that tree
I'll spend forever chasing You down

It's not enough to say
That You're enough for me
So I lay my life down down
Down at Your feet

I'm on my knees
Only getting up
If it's to chase you down

I'm standing here redeemed
Staring at a King
That I'll spend my forever
Chasing You down

(May 30 2008) R.g.

A Dead Man Living

Will I die to myself and follow this kamikaze Rabbi? Well, how do you know when you're dead?

Ask yourself this: When was the last time you saw a dead man react to the intentions of the world around him?

A dead person is unresponsive to the ways of the world.

Jesus will bring us to life and when He does, we'll react the way He would react.

We will weep over the things He would weep over.
We will pray the way that He would pray.
We will know the Word the way He knows the Word.
We will turn over tables in temples perverted, because 'Zeal for His house will overcome us.'
We will make our way to our final destination of sacrifice
Carrying the cross that He gave us to bear.

The best part is: We won't have a choice.


-rg.

The Needy Church

John 2:16-17 "And he told those who sold the pigeons, 'take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house a trade.' His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'


-----------------------------------------------------

(The Needy Church) *tentative title*


God will never call you to a church to mock it or critique it. God is either calling you to a healthy church to serve, a sick church to help serve it and make it well, or He's not calling you to that church. But He will never call you to a church to critique it and leave it in the same helpless condition in which you came to it.


-rg.

What Would Jesus Say to the Lost?

Luke 15:4-7


This passage of scripture can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. The way I’ve always thought of it was that Christians are a group of 99 sheep, and we are willing to sacrifice the other 98 sheep with us, or go as a group of 99 after one that has strayed away from the faith. God has recently taught me a deeper meaning to this scripture, and shown me that He is the Shepherd, and He is the one willing to leave His flock and go after 1 lost sheep.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Jesus poses this question in such a way that it seems like the answer is, “any Shepard would do this.” And the way I’ve always understood it was in this manner. The truth is that no Shepherd in his right mind would leave 99 capable sheep to search after a single lost sheep.

The question that we get asked on many occasions is “why are you doing this? Why would you waste your spring break toting around drunk people from club to club, hotel to hotel, and so on?” The answer is simply, “because Jesus would.” Jesus would risk losing every sheep He has in order to find one sheep, willing to surrender their will back to the Shepherd.

And do you want to know the best truth that you could hear right now? Jesus is on this van, in pursuit of your heart, because His will is that none should perish, and that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). I know that there is so much controversy surrounding Biblical teachings, and the Biblical text. But the one thing that is certain is that Jesus was a lover. If He wasn’t God, He died in such a way that it would be worth following in His footsteps, because He’s the only one that has every truly loved. Jesus believed that He was God, and He loved humanity so much that He surrendered Himself to the most horrific death in order to save the life of everyone whose ever lived. If He wasn’t God, then he saved no one. However, if Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life; and if Jesus was in fact God, He is a Shepherd that will leave 99 of His sheep to seek out one that is willing to turn back to Him. That is crazy love.

If Jesus were standing with you right now, He wouldn’t notice that you were about to spend your evening in a club soliciting yourselves to the desire of your hearts. He wouldn’t point out how much alcohol you’ve had tonight. Jesus wouldn’t remind you of the person you slept with last night who didn’t love you, and who you didn’t love. Jesus wouldn’t take the drugs away from you. He would simply remind you how much He loves you. And He would ask you to fall in love with Him so that you could be freed from your chains of bondage. So that you could be free from your addictions. So you could be free from your struggle with self-esteem. So that you could find peace in your spirit in this corrupt life that we live.

If I told you that I am NOT in need of Jesus since I’ve already accepted Him as Truth, I would be lying. Jesus saves me everyday (1 Corinthians 15:31). Jesus reminds me everyday of the love that He has for me. He reminds me every time I slip up that I don’t love Him as much as I say I do. But He has enveloped me. He has gripped me in such a way that to breathe without Him burns my lungs. That His love is caught up like a fire in my bones, and to keep His word inside of me cremates my insides (Jeremiah 20:9).

So this is the Truth that I leave you with: No matter what your opinions about Jesus are, and no matter what you decide to do tonight, Jesus will be there with you. Jesus did not come to make bad people good. If He had come to make bad people good, then the fruit of His ministry has been a failure for 2,000 years. There is no one worthy of the love of Jesus Christ, not one. But there are billions of people who are desperately in need of the love of Jesus Christ, and that’s true. If Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, what then? Jesus came to bring dead people back to life, and He does that by His truth.

This is not a plea. If the intentions of your heart, and the actions of your life continue in such a way that they oppose the truth of Christ, that will be okay. Jesus doesn’t need you. He desperately wants you though. The remedy of Christ is not for those who think they’re okay it’s for those who know they are not okay. We’re all in need of a doctor. This is your prescription for life: Jesus has overcome the world. Resist Him and you resist freedom. Accept Him and you accept freedom. Who doesn’t want to be free?

The Modern Thinker v. the New Creations of Christ

I was listening to a Ravi Zacharias message tonight entitled, "Reasons Why I'm Not an Athiest." There were many points that he touched on that would create tangles in the mind of any athiest.

The three main points were:

Without God,
1. There's no moral law
2. No hope.
3. No existential meaning.

If the athiest is wrong, he has no recovery. With God, we have all those.

It was an incredible message, but the biggest thing that stuck out to me were these two poems from different men in different scenarios, and different points of time. One comes from a secular journalist, and the other is from a man in the shell hole during the Vietnam War.

This one is humorous at one end of the spectrum, but very sad at the other. It's a satire of the modern man's way of thinking, and it's funny because it's true, but sad because it's true.


Here is the creed for the modern thinker:

We believe in Marx, Freud, and Darwin. We believe everything is okay as long as you don't hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your definition of knowledge. We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage. We believe in the therapy of sin. We believe that adultery is fun. We believe that sodomy is okay. We believe that taboos are taboo. We believe everything is getting better, despite evidence to the contrary. The evidence must be investigated, and you can prove anything with evidence. We believe there's something in horoscopes, UFOs, and bent spoons. Jesus was a good man, just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves. He was a good moral teacher, although we think basically his good morals were really bad. We believe that all religions are the same, at least the ones that we read were. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation. We believe that after death comes nothing, because when we ask the dead what happens they say nothing. If death is not the end, and if the dead have lied, then it's compulsory heaven for all except perhaps for Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan. We believe in Masters and Johnson, "what's selected is average, what's average is normal, and what's normal is good" We believe in total disarmament, we believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed; Americans should beat their guns into tractors, and the Russians would be sure to follow. We believe that man is essentially good, it's only his behavior that lets him down. This is the fault of society, society is the fault of conditions, and conditions are the fault of society. We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him, and reality will adapt accordingly; the universe will readjust, history will alter. We believe that there is no absolute truth, except the truth that there is no absolute truth. We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought. If chance be the father of all flesh, disaster is his rainbow in the sky. And when you hear "state of emergency," "sniper kills 10," "troops on rampage," "youths go looting," "bomb blasts school," it is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

(by Steve Turner )


The final statement of this poem is gut-wrenching, and it goes hand in hand with one of the coolest things I've heard this year, and that was "every man will spend eternity with his God." This carries so much truth with it, and I hope it brings us to our knees in desperation for Jesus.

This is the second poem written by Hardy Shaw after a night in a shell hole where bombs had been dropped. This is a contrast to the previous writing, and is just a beautiful picture of a heart that has been penetrated with Christ.

Lord God, I have never spoken to You,
But now I want to say, "How do You do?"
You see God, they told me you didnt exist
And like a fool I believed all this.
Last night from a shell hole I saw Your sky,
I figured right then they had told me a lie.
Had I taken time to see the things You made,
I'd have known they were not calling a spade a 'spade'
I wonder God, If You'll take my hand
Somehow I fell that You'll understand.

Funny I had to come to this Hellish place
Before I had time to see Your face
Well, I guess there isn't much more to say,
But Im sure glad God, I met You today.

I guess Zero hour will soon be here,
But I'm not afraid since I know You're near.
The signal!...Well God, I'll have to go,
I like You lots... I want You to know.
Look now this will be a horrible fight,
Who knows I may come to Your house tonight.

Though I wasn't friendly to You before,
I wonder God, If You'd wait at Your door?
Look Im crying...Im shedding tears,
I'll have to go now God, goodbye!
Strange now since I met You Im not afraid to die.


The writing of this is elementary, but goes hand in hand with accepting the Gospel like a child. In the final line the poet talks about his fear of death being removed, and it makes me smile because of how truthful it is. When you stand toe to toe with Christ, and He shows you a truth that is immovable, death almost becomes a longing so that you can be literally grasped in His arms. Not only that, but the death of self becomes necessary in order to put on the fullness of His truth.

This illustration is very alive in two books of the Bible, Galatians and Colossians. In Galatians Paul talks about a crucifixion we undergo with Christ, and at the resurrection we are no longer alive, but Jesus becomes our mediator between our heart and this world. Obviously the crucifixion we endure is not physically literal (in most cases), but spiritually literal, and there are times when it does physically feel like Christ is removing certain parts from our lives that will only bring greater glory to Him. Often times this is painful, but when we have to stand in the face of Christ one day, we'll be glad that we dropped those parts of our lives, so that we'll have an open hand to grab ahold of His.

In the books of Colossians Paul talks about it in another way, which involves the process of a circumcision. "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead." (2:11-12)When I read this a few months ago I actually visualized it as our skin being cut off from around us, and a new skin being put on over our skeletal frame. The circumcision allows for Christ to become our external makeover that goes along with our internal death.

It's strange how contradictory the truth of God is to the ways of our world. The fact that childlike is to know more, that death is life, and that last will be first. As we begin to seek, our lives will change. As Paul Washer says, "If you told me you were late to work because you got hit by a logging truck going 120 miles per hour, I'd say you were either a lunatic, or a liar. But isn't God bigger than a logging truck?" If you've had an encounter with God there will be change. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.Jesus is freedom.


-R.g.


Seek first the Kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33)

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31b-32a)