The American Dream Stolen

It is true! The American Dream has been stolen and replaced by one of success, fortune and fame. It is not only true about the American society as a whole but it is also true in the Church.

It seems everyone is dreaming of a bigger home, a faster car, more powerful ipod, iphone, or laptop. It seems that success is measured by the clothes one wears, the car one drives or the home or area one lives in.

Let's look at what the founding fathers of the United States saw as measurements of success.

From the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The United States Constitution was written to protect the people from their government taking away those rights.

The American Dream is really about being free and having the security that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness protected.

The American Dream is not found in a bigger home, a faster car or even wealth. Our founding father's knew that a home can burn to the ground, wealth can disappear over night and those can be replaced but freedom true freedom is much more valuable than any material thing.

Today we find mega-churches and other church organizations preaching a wealth and health message instead about the freedom found in Jesus Christ. I believe God is not against good health or even wealth but He detests a life that is focused and measured in those.

I am reading a book by David Platt that encourages us to "Take back your faith from the American Dream". The book is called, "Radical" and is all about Jesus teaching about what it means to follow Him. I encourage you to get this book and read it with an open mind. Let God show you where in your own life you have abandoned Jesus idea of what being His follower is all about. Then if you are Radical enough make the changes to become His disciple.

WARNING!!!! To be a follower of Jesus will mean buying completely into His teachings and selling out to His way of life.

David Platt is the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, which is a 4,000 member congregation so I think he knows what it means to get caught up in the thrill of seeing numbers as success.

A Friend Loves at all Times

A friend placed this on his FaceBook wall. I believe this demonstrates my idea of Accountability better than any words I can share.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

A true accountability partner will help you back on your feet and follow you as you struggle in your battles.

Breaking the Chains

First I want to share that I wrote a new post at A Community Chaplain  about 180 days of waiting and I hope you will go and read my first post about that subject which was written February 3, 2010.

The following post was inspired by a sermon by Mark Warner, Lead Pastor at Vineyard Church in Overland Park, KS.

Do you feel like you are bound by chains? Chains of greed, being a workaholic, pornography, lust, anger, drugs, alcohol, or any other thing that keeps you locked up. 

Are you managing your sin? If you are it will eventually come back and be even stronger. 

I am going to show you through this post that you can break the chains that have you bound to some addiction.

The keys are not found in some self-help book although there are many good books that can help you manage your sin.

I believe one of the things God is calling me to do is found in Luke 4 which Jesus quoted about Himself but I believe it is also a calling for His followers.

Luke 4:18 (New Living Translation) 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,

During the 180 days  of not being involved in a leadership role I learned that my most important calling is to help men discover they can be free of those things that keep them bound.

I claim the following scripture in my life and I claim it for any man who desires to break the chains that have them bound.

Galatians 5:1 (The Message) The Life of Freedom
1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

Here is my role in you being set free: I am here to encourage you and point you to the one who will set you free, Jesus.

John 8:36 (New American Standard Bible)  36"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

How refreshing it is to know that I am not the one who will lead you to freedom. The reason that is refreshing is I am just as likely as you are to fall into relapse but Jesus is our perfect example. It is He that will live in us through the Holy Spirit and help us gain freedom by breaking the chains that bind us.

 If you want to hear more about breaking free I encourage you to listen to the sermon, "Hope for the Sexually Broken", by Mark Warner, Lead Pastor at Vineyard Church in Overland Park, KS.

I you are struggling with something that is keeping you in chains I believe God can and will break those chains. Here is what you must do:

1. Admit you are bound.

2. Lay it before God.

3. Get into His Word and pray.

4. Seek an accountability ( or what I call an Encouraging ) Partner.

5. Realize it will not be a quick fix but a process.

6. Thank God for breaking each link as you journey along the road.

7. Use what God does for you by serving another guy who is struggling with being chained. 

Galatians 5:1 (The Message) The Life of Freedom
1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

John 8:36 (New American Standard Bible)  36"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Begin to live the life of freedom found in Grace of Jesus Christ.

Amazing Grace from Northeast Christian Church on Vimeo.

The Struggle

While on our vacation in Colorado my grandson decided to climb up this sand hill. As I watched him I got the idea for this blog. The first photo is of him moving up the hill  shot from below. I moved around to  get a different point  of view which is where I got the idea for this blog.

From my first view point I was down below him and I was just watching his struggle. Have you ever found yourself watching someone else's struggle as if you were below or above them? Your vision of what was going on was from either being above or below what was happening. Because of that you approached their struggle from that prospective.

As I moved around to get a photo from a side view I had to struggle up the adjacent hill. Now the struggle my grandson was going through I was experiencing in my own life.

When we have friends who are struggling with an addiction or some other major problem in their lives we can better understand it if we get intimately involved. What I mean by that we better understand if we have struggled with a similar problem or if we take the risk and come along side of them as they struggle. Getting our hands dirty in their lives and giving them our time and attention.

As my grandson struggled up the hill we were on another hill yelling encouragement to him as he moved up the hill. The struggle got harder not easier as he reached the summit but because of the encouragement he did not give up and eventually reached the top.

Your friend that is struggling will receive new strength when they hear your words of encouragement from you. 

As a Christian I believe our true strength comes from the involvement of the Holy Spirit in our lives but God almost always works through the lives of other  believers.

 

My grandson reached a point higher than the rest of us and as he came down the hill it showed on his face and walk. The same will take place in your friend by hanging in there and by not giving up they will reach the summit. and then they will celebrate with you the victory. 

I encourage you to not move away from a friend who is struggling. Move toward them and risk getting involved in the mess of their life. You could be just the person God wants to use in helping them gain victory over their problems.

If you do you just might share in their celebration of freedom.

We are Called to Minister

A few years back I had a person speak into my life and they spoke these words over me: Luke 4:  18-19 "God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, This is God's year to act!"

I know that I have been called to minister to the addicted, the afflicted and the rejected. I also know that I am to do that through a ministry that sets high standards for accountability and integrity. I will not be satisified with a position just for the sake of having the title of pastor. God has called me to minister but it has to be done in connection to an organization that is accountable to those who contribute to it. I would rather not serve than to have a position or title and minister without integrity and accountability. That calling does not have to be found in a positiion with a church or organization. It could be right where I work.

I found these words in "Without Walls" by Randy White and they describe what the church should be doing today: "Our job is not to build a church but to impact a community." and "We must be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium." Without Integrity that comes through Accountability we cannot impact our community by freeing the people who are stuck in the aquariums of alcohol, drugs and deception.

This is God's call to the church: "God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, This is God's year to act!" Each of you have the opportunity to touch the lives of hurting people who work right beside you at your place of emplyment.

I encourage you to take the time this week to listen to God as He speaks to you about someone who is hurting and in need of the help only you can provide. 

Let's Get Real

Are you tired of hiding?  Are you desiring to reach victory in overcoming the things that hold you in bondage?  Today is your opportunity to lay before God the one thing that causes you to hide or that one thing you need victory from.

I hope that my story will encourage you to lay it all down before Jesus and accept His grace and mercy.  I am going to share certain events that shaped who I became.

When I was three my mom ran off with another man.  My dad had to care for my brother who was seven years old, me and my sister who was six months old.  My dad owned a construction company and he had to travel each week to the towns where the job sites where.  I remember fearing that one day he would not come home.

When I was in the second grade and again in the fifth grade I had a teacher humiliated me in front of the class.

When I graduated I had a teacher tell me I would never amount to anything but average and that I was not smart enough to go to college.

Soon after graduating from high school my girl friend became pregnant and we were married. Within a month of getting married I joined the United States Navy and went away to boot camp.

When I graduated from boot camp I was given orders to the USS Kitty Hawk which was participating in the Vietnam War.  On the trip to the Kitty Hawk I stopped over at an Air Force base and one of the non-commissioned officers invited me to go to town with him.  That night he sexually molested me.

After thirteen months overseas I returned home to a nine month old child and a wife who proudly admitted that she had repeatedly cheated on me while I was overseas.  Despite letting her be free of commitments to me she divorced me.

These events left wounds deep inside of me that I hide.  I was afraid of being abandoned and I feared having male friendships.  As a result I began to use different things to medicate my wounds and cover my fears.  I tried to escape the pain by using alcohol and pot.  After turning from those for medication I turned to the greatest male medicator, pornography and would spend hours escaping into fantasies.  My fears of abandonment and wounds of life kept me from being anything but average.  I never accomplished anything because I was constantly running away from commitment.

I became religious and still no victory over the things that held me bondage.

Then one day about severn years ago God got my attention while I was attending a men's conference.  The pastor giving the message spoke about our purpose and how God would use our life events to show us our purpose and our mission in life.  I had men who barely knew me pray that God would use me to touch other men.  The next day the pastor asked us this question, "What is that one thing that keep you from being used for the purpose God had for you?"  I tried to hide from answering that question.  As we got into our small group we sat there silent with no one wanting to break the silence.  All of a sudden my hand shot up and I was shocked.  Out my mouth came the words I know what keeps me from achieving my purpose.  I am addicted to pornography.  The men in the group were shocked and I was could not believe I said it.  But an amazing thing happened as one of the men placed his hand on my shoulder and prayed for God to bring victory into my life.  That day was the beginning of a process where God healed wounds and moved me to repentence and change.

For thirty-three years I was fearful and a man who had no true friends. Last night as I sat in our men's group called REAL Men RoCK I realized I was sitting with a group of guys who liked me and who saw me as someone more than average.  I sat there knowing that what I could not do God has done.  I am who I am today because of the events in my life and because of the Grace and Mercy of my savior Jesus that covers all of my fears and sins.  

My question to you is what keeps you from moving forward toward your purpose?  What holds you back from achieving victory?  Do you want to experience freedom?

All you have to do to begin the journey is to lay it all at the feet of Jesus and ask God to send His Holy Spirit to comfort and strengthen you on the journey.  I cannot promise you instant deliverance but I can promise that one day you will confidently say Jesus covers all of my sins.

I encourage you to get real with another guy and let God work thorugh him to help and encourage you.  

Father, Send Your Holy Spirit to that guy who is reading this and needs the assurance that he can achieve victory.  In the power, the authority and the name of Jesus amen

Freedom

Happy Birthday United States of America

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence knew that at the moment they put the pen to that document they were signing their death warrant.  They were willing to put everything on the line for the most important words since the first century AD.  The entire document is important but these words stand out:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Over 2000 years ago Jesus also made a declaration but it was a declaration of dependance.  He said in John 8: 32 that the truth would set you free.  The concept of being free was God's idea not man's.  

All men are truly created equal in the eyes of God and none are better than the other.  That is what God said through Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that is what the men who signed the Declaration of Independence believed. 

The problem is unless we are guided by and yielded to God's Holy Spirit treating each other equally is very difficult to do.

Today in America we celebrate freedom and each Sunday we should also celebrate our freedom found in Christ.

Let Freedom Ring.  It is not grant by men but given to man by God.  What man grants he can remove but what God gives never is taken away.

If you are looking for freedom leave me a comment and I will go deeper in how you can have the true freedom found only in Jesus.

Marbles and Grapes

Last night I attended a leaders meeting at New Life Family Church in Louisburg, KS.  It was a planning meeting for the move to having services at the Louisburg Middle School and one of the leaders used marbles and grapes to demonstrate what can happen when people mix together especially in a new situation.  

The marbles rubbed against each other in a rough, noisy manner but the grapes smashed together with out much noise but they also broke.  The picture we got was how we can be either like marbles or grapes when tense situations arise.  

I saw another picture as well.  If you mix the grapes with the marbles and shake them the grapes will still get broken but they will muffle the roughness and noise of the marbles. That is how followers of Jesus can be with those who are missing His peace in their life.  

Any time followers of Jesus (the grapes) get around people who do not have a relationship with Jesus (the marbles) they are bound to get bruised but because of the grace and mercy of Jesus they respond with love.  The juices of the grapes represents the Holy Spirit coat the marbles and sooths their hardness.

In "Naturally Supernatural" author Gary Best says this: page 31 "Next in Mark's account, Jesus encounters a leprous man, one of the untouchables in ancient Near Eastern society.  Yet Jesus, moved with compassion, touched him and embraced him, restoring him completely.  Further shock waves ran through the whole community - how much better could this get? This continues throughout the Gospel of Mark and all the Gospels: This is what Jesus came to do."

Isaiah 61: 1 The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.  He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. (Message)

As followers of Jesus we will continue His ministry and touch the broken and free the oppressed. It will be messy and we will get bruised now and then but the Holy Spirit will heal our bruises as He heals their woundedness through our touch.

If you are reading this and you are wounded please leave a comment and if you are one anointed to reach out to the wounded please respond with words of encouragement.  

Break Free!! or stay in your stuff. It is your choice.

Men are you tired? Tired of being enslaved? Tired of not developing that intimate relationship with your wife? Are you tired of fighting the battle as you lose the war?

If you are reading this blog and you look at pornography once a week, once a month or even every now and then I want to encourage you to do three things:
1. Visit Heart to Heart Counseling Center site on sex addiction and consider the list of questions.
2. Download Covenant Eyes
3. Find another man you trust and respect and ask him to become your accountability (Encouragement) partner.

The following was sent to me by Covenant Eyes

Men if you are tired of being enslaved to PORNOGRAPHY? Then stand up and find another man you can share with and then both of you get Covenant Eyes set up so you can hold each other accountable for the goals that you set.

My goal is to get 100 men holding each other accountable and on Covenant Eyes. To be honest with you I make a small commission on the fee from men who sign up through my link at REAL Men RoCK Mall so if you would rather sign up and not go through me just go to this link: http://www.covenanteyes.com.

Here is my offer: If you are having a hard time finding a guy to partner with you and want to take back what pornography has taken from you then contact me. I will add you to my accountability list and if you are open I would even give you a call each week.
"Slow Fade" by Casting Crowns

Father, I thank You for the men who respond to this post by taking back the territory pornography has taken from their lives. I thank you for the marriages and relationships that You restore as these men bravely step out to admit they have a problem. I thank You the outpouring of Your Holy Spirit in their lives and the freedom You are giving them over pornography. I thank You in the name, the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. amen

Become a Slave to Gain Your Freedom

Slavery is a word that stirs deep passions in people. When we think of slavery in the United States we think of the injustice our ancestors did, both black and white, during the younger years of our nation. We think of the civil war that brought about the freedom of the slaves in our country. We think of the long struggle of blacks to earn the right to vote.

A side note here is these events where brought about by the efforts of Christian men and women. A good movie to watch on this subject is Amazing Grace the story about William Wilberforce.

Let's look at the definition of Slave from Dictionary.com
1. a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.
2. a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.

Back to the title of this post. Are you willing to become a slave to gain your freedom?

Before we tackle that question let's look at the history of slavery.

From Wikipedia

Slavery is not a new to the world it has been around since the dawn of time. Slavery traces back to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution.^[1] Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations as old as Sumer, and it was found in every civilization, including Ancient Egypt, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia,^[28] Rome and parts of its empire, and the Islamic Caliphate. Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves.^[29] Records of slavery in Ancient Greece go as far back as Mycenaean Greece. It is often said that the Greeks as well as philosophers such as Aristotle accepted the theory of natural slavery i.e. that some men are slaves by nature.

According to Wikipedia
Some argue that the Bible condones slavery in Ancient Israelite society by failing to condemn the widespread existing practice present in other cultures.^[73] It also explicitly states that under certain circumstances, slavery is morally acceptable.^{[74][75][unreliable source?]} The Bible emphasises often however, that slaves are to be treated fairly by their masters.[NKJV Bible, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-4:1] There are also scholars who argue that Islam condones slavery,^{[76][unreliable source?]} although the institution of slavery has largely been outlawed in the Muslim world.

The Bible mentions several reasons people find themselves in slavery. When nations were conquered by another nation they usually either killed all of the males and made the women their slaves or they killed the warriors and made the rest of the people slaves. They formed a Suzerian-Vassal Treaty which is not a treaty between equals, but between a lord and a servant. It required complete loyalty and obedience from the servant who benefited from the provisions and protection of the lord.

According to Wikipedia
Suzerainty (pronounced /ˈsjuːzərənti/RP or /ˈsjuːzəreɪnti/RP) (/ˈsuːzərənti/ GA) is a situation in which a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which allows the tributary some limited domestic autonomy to control its foreign affairs. The more powerful entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the head of state of that more powerful entity, is called a suzerain. The term suzerainty was originally used to describe the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and its surrounding regions. It differs from sovereignty in that the tributary has some (limited) self-rule. A suzerain can also mean a feudal lord, to whom vassals must pay tribute.

Slaves in the Middle East were often consider to be part of the family and were well cared for. Many slaves became slaves because they could not afford to pay off their debts and became enslaved to the one they owed to pay off the debt.

The Africans who became slaves in Europe and America were sold to the white men by other Africans who had either defeated them in battle or raided their village and hauled off the young men.

Today in America we still have slaves and here is a short list of those caught up in slavery:
Drug addicts
Alcoholics
Porn Addicts
Greed
Welfare - For info on this read Star Parker's article Moving back to Uncle Sam's plantation
Pride
Power
Sex Addicts
Workaholics

These people are in bondage to their addiction and cannot break away without the help of a friend and the power of the Holy Spirit. You might be surprised by the real solution to their becoming free from being enslaved to whatever they are in bondage to.

In order for them to truly be free of their addiction they will have to surrender everything to the Creator God and become a slave to Him and others. It is much like the Suzerian-Vassal Treaty of the old ages. If we will submit to our conquering King and Lord then He will provide all that we need.

Matthew 20: 25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

2 Corinthians 3: 5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

1 Timothy 4: 6 in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have bee following.

My question is: "Are you willing to become Christ's slave in order for you to truly be free of the bondage you are under?" If so your King and Lord will fight along side of you and take back the ground that has been taken by the evil forces of this world. You can choose to have your King fight for you and deliver you from bondage or you can choose to fight by yourself and win a battle now and then as you continue to loose the war.

I want to encourage you to become a slave of Jesus Christ which will require complete surrender and you will, through the Spirit of the Lord, gain your freedom.

Freedom

This is the last week of 2008 and Thursday marks the beginning of a new year. As we look back over the past year some of us will notice that there were times we were in bondage and some of us will notice that we had been freed.

I live in a country that values freedom. At the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” The United States of America stands as a beacon of hope to those yearning for freedom. But does this country offer the best hope for freedom? As far as human governments is concerned I would say yes but there is a greater hope for freedom not found in human government.

For years I was addicted to pornography and in bondage to self-doubts but through the encouragement of others I found release in a relationship with the Savior of the world, Jesus.

In Matthew 11 Jesus made a similar call to what we read at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
28-30 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."


My country offers physical freedom but my God offers spiritual freedom which frees the whole person.



As 2008 ends and 2009 begins I invite you to move out of control of anything that holds you bondage and into the freedom. You will not find that release in a church although a church might be used, you will not find it in a government agency although a government agency might be used. You will find true freedom only in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3: 17
And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us!

May 2009 be the year you gain your freedom and may you use your new freedom to help someone else discover the freedom found in Jesus.

Father, bless all who come to Your Son, Jesus, with freedom. In the name, power and authority of Jesus we pray. amen

Freedom, Liberty and You!

What do these two statements mean to you?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

If you have 35 minutes listen to this message by Bob McEwen

"http://liberty.edgeboss.net/wmedia/liberty/cpo/2008/20081027_convo_bm.asx

I apologize but I could not get it to embed.

I look forward to reading your comments.