Today's Thoughts

If you know me, you know that I can be outspoken and I do tell you what I think. I am not real articulate with speech and maybe I should be, but direct speaking makes a point. I do not sugar coat. Some like it, others don't, but I am what I am, and I believe I was made this way for a purpose. I guess it is the evangelist in me.

The purpose of this post comes from the fact that God is pushing me to change even more. The change is to be even more radical. The radical change is not what would be considered radical in perspective to the Word of God, but would be considered radical to the standards of the church in America today. I was at a multi-church rally a couple weeks back here in Kenosha, and after Ron Auch and I baptized people in Lake Michigan, as my wife and I walked back to our vehicle, we walked by some passers by. A man said, "must be a bunch of Jesus freaks." My first reaction was real Christian, I thought, "you dope, if you only knew." I was reprimanded through my spirit with a, "that was unchristian." It was. This man had no clue. I was passing judgement. I should have prayed for his salvation, which I eventually did, but he like many do not know the truth. I thought about what he said. "Jesus freak." Years ago, the Jesus freaks caused a huge movement in our country. The followed the Word by loving others where they were at no matter how they were treated. It wasn't about them. It was about those who where not free. Hmmmm. We need that today. Am I a Jesus freak?

Back to me. Radical. I pray and study the Word, but do I do it for habit to say that I do it, or do I do it for purpose? I want to draw closer to the Lord, but what really are my intentions. I want to walk in the gifts, but again what are my intentions? I am 51 years old, and I look back, (which I shouldn't) but I see so many missed opportunities, and lost time. Time....... something we have so little of in this very short life. Our lives are like the blink of an eye. We are here, then we are gone. What am I to do with this short time left? I don't want to stand before God with a bunch of missed opportunities due to my short sightedness, laziness, or not setting priorities.

Radical. God said, "Be ye Holy". What is Holy? I wonder how many people in the church of America can even answer that question. What is holy to me? How am I holy? What do I do to become holy like the Word means it? Man has his sense of what holy is, but it is so far short of what the Word means it to be. What does "walking in the light" mean? How do I walk in light? What does, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me", mean? What must I do? Matt. 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself." How do I love the Lord my God? What are my actions? How do I love my neighbor? I must do the first to do the second. All questions but the answers lead to completeness in Christ.

1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

What is the "world"? Worldliness. I must abstain. I must move away from it. I must shelter myself from it. I must wash myself from it. I am in it only to save those out of it. To much of the church this is radical. The church is so much part of the world they do not even see a line anymore not to cross. It has become blurred. I am not one that says that you should hide. I believe that you should be seen. You should be seen walking in the power of the Almighty. That what you possess, can not be removed from you and that those seeing you should want what you possess. Weak Christians stay from individuals who are unchurched because they are afraid. They make excuses for their lack of power because they have not made a stand, and are not walking in power because they do not have a right relationship with God. Maybe that is better that they don't. That just don't need to talk about those they do not want to rub shoulders with. The issue is that if they had a relationship, more people would believe. Jesus hung with those who did not know the truth. He did not live they way they lived, but showed them how they should live. His life brought freedom. We should do the same. If we are living in freedom, individuals will want that freedom too.

All this babbling brings me to this point. One of my future endeavors will be to lead a small group of men who will want to walk to the beat of a different drum. Men who will be radical in a sense that they will turn their backs on their former life and live their lives totally different. They will abstain from those things that do not honor God. They will strive to be Godly at all costs. Be Holy. Love the Lord their God with everything in them. Love people the same way. Pray for power to minister, and walk in that power. I am looking for men who want to be generals. Will I find them? Let's hope so. People are dying with no hope. Who will rescue them if we don't?