Everybody's Hungry

When you’re hungry, everything starts to look good.  Things that you otherwise overlook begin to grab your attention.  I’ve caught myself thinking about how good bread would be with Mt. Dew on one such occasion…even the cans of soup that are pushed waaaaaay to the back of the cabinet start sounding good.

What is true of the body holds true in other parts of life.  If someone is hungry for love and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Little girls giving themselves away to boys at a young age.)  If someone is hungry for attention and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Kids bullying others to feel like they matter.)  If someone is hungry for identity and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (People falling into corrupt groups of friends, gangs, etc.)  You know all of this.  I don’t need to spell it out for you.

We know the problems and would probably agree on a lot of the root causes.  Undoubtedly THE root cause to these, and every problem, is people being void of a relationship with God. Many of you would call me crazy, or too simple-minded for thinking that, but that’s ok.  I’m not actually here to debate that today.

I want to look at one specific issue:  truth.  Just like anything else, people hunger for this.  Even if it is only on an unconscious level, every person alive in some way values truth and wants to reap the benefits thereof.  Let’s look at it from the other side:  if you say you don’t really care about truth, then that means you don’t care if you get ripped off at the supermarket, if the government does as it says it will, if the water company decides to not give you water, if serial murderers are allowed to walk the streets, if 2 + 2 = 4.  Underlying all of these things are principles of truth.  Without something being counted on as true, then all of the things built upon them crumble…food prices can outrageously shift overnight, the government does as it pleases, your water can cut off at any time, a serial murdered goes on killing people at will, mathematics and anything remotely involving numbers falls apart.

If any of these sound familiar it’s because underlying truths are being deteriorated.  At some point, at some level, truths started being exchanged for lies.  We may not agree on where it started, but we can agree this is the reality.

So let’s examine the exchange of truth for lies in one specific area:  spiritual truth.  Again, whether people explicitly express a hunger for this or not, they want it at some level.  People want things to make sense.  People want the comfort of knowing there is something underlying everyday life that is more important and bigger than what they may be experiencing.

Now, just like everything else, if people are hungry for spiritual truth and do not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger with whatever is presented to them.  Think again about your physical body.  Those things that don’t look appetizing at all, that may even repulse you, start to look good once you get hungry enough.  The same holds for spiritual truth.  When there is a lack of good stuff, people will take anything!!!

We Christians wonder why, or how, people could be led into thinking things that are so unconscionable to us.  Let me tell you:  because we are not presenting the truth.  When presented with the real truth, and presented with a shadow of the truth, real truth prevails!  Truth is heavy.  When you weigh truth alongside lies, truth wins.  Lies, perversions, manipulative teaching…they are all left wanting.

A major part of why so much of the world is disillusioned right now and has been tricked into thinking all sorts of lies is because The Church (i.e. the people) hasn’t been boldly and faithfully telling others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’m not only referring to the story of Jesus, but also to the healing that is in His Name, the love that He has for us, the mercy that is there for us, the hope that we have found in Him, the peace that is ours for the taking.  We have been mediocre at doing what should come naturally:  telling people about what is good in our lives.  When we tell people the real truth of Jesus Christ, the relationship that we have with Him, and what He has done specifically for us, through us, and in us, then the Gospel is genuinely spread and things change!

All we can do is present the real truth.  If people reject it, then we pray for them and try again.  But I am convinced that nothing compares to the love of God through Christ Jesus.  All imposters, all fakes, and all lies cannot stand next to the absolute truth and be victorious—they will all be found wanting.

So let us no longer wonder why people are going after so many things that are impure shadows of the truth.  They are only doing what is natural to satisfy their cravings for spiritual truth.  If they know the Gospel and have rejected it, then we pray for their hearts to turn; however, if they have not been presented the truth, the REAL truth that is Jesus Christ, we must endeavor to serve up something that not only looks appealing to the eye, but satisfies once they taste it.  And, my friend, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!  Amen!!!

Be You Cause People Want Truth

I just had some good time with Jesus. I just sat in His presence for a little while. Prayed a little, worshiped a little, praised Him some. Then I got something I feel needs to be shared, so here I am writing it. The thing I want to tell you is simple: be true to yourself because people want truth.

Does that make sense? It’s a big deal, and you need to get it. It’s two-fold…#1 be true to yourself. You gotta be you. God made you in a unique way, so much so, that nobody else can do you like you can. The way you think, the words you use when you talk, your set of abilities, etc.

#2 people want truth. This I find to be truer every day. People want something true in this world where so many things are fleeting, deceptive, and disappointing. They are bombarded with lies from the time they leave their house in the morning until they get home at night. Then through the wonderful medium of television they can tune into whatever they choose so that until they go to sleep they can very easily be further flooded with ideas and images that are far from true. This is the world in which we live, and people are hungry for truth.

This is how the two ideas go together. When you aren’t being you then you aren’t being real, you aren’t showing truth. By not being true to yourself, you are robbing the world of who you were created to be. At the core, this is one of the biggest lies you can tell. People want you, NEED you, to be you! We do not want you to be like anyone else; we just want you to fulfill the fullest potential of who you are made to be by Your Maker.

This whole thing came to me as I was in my prayer closet. Yes, I have a literal closet I go sit in sometimes when I want to get away from noise or distraction :) So, there I was and I had already had a few good minutes of Jesus time and I was thinking about how earlier today I had urged some members of our church’s worship team to get some personal time with God. And then I was thinking how I could tell them I had some good alone time. That is when the idea behind this blog actually hit me.

You see, I started thinking about how I was gonna tell them about it. Ha. I thought about saying, “I felt led” to go my “prayer closet” and that I got a “revelation” from the Lord. You know, use all these Christian words that we love to throw out there. And then, I could sound all holy and whatnot in front of these worshipers. But that is when I thought, “Why?!” Why dress this genuinely good experience up with a bunch of crap that does nothing to really add to the message? Why do I feel it necessary to make something seem like more than it is? Why attempt to impress people with fancy words and an inflated portrayal of a real experience? My Jesus time tonight wasn’t a hear-the-angels-sing kind of thing, nor was it a completely life-changing encounter with the Lord in the traditional sense; but it was some good time with Jesus, the lover of my soul. And that’s enough.

So I’m sitting here writing this blog, eating ice cream, watching an Austin City Limits of Mumford & Sons, and being completely real with you. That’s my big revelation for the evening ;) I want you to be you, other people want you to be you, and I KNOW God wants you to be you. If you aren’t sure who you are yet, that’s ok—pray to the Lord and ask Him to reveal to you what He had in mind when He created you. Here’s a good place to start: you are a child of God! A son, or a daughter! And if you want some more Scriptural stuff to look at concerning your identity in Christ, check out this previous blog.

That’s all I got for tonight. Gonna finish this ice cream and hit the sack. Much love in Jesus Christ to all!

adam

Be More Faithful

Don’t you hate it when people tell you they will do something and then don’t follow through? Or they commit to doing something, but then they back out? Or how about when they say they’ll be there at 7pm, only to show up around 8 or 9…how mad does that make you?

I know that kind of stuff kills me. When people continually break promises, back out, and show up late it makes it very, very hard for me to place any kind of confidence in them. Not only that, but it also makes me wonder if they value my time at all. I’ve heard it said before by people much wiser than me that if someone is habitually late then they consider their own time more valuable than everyone else’s; that is, whether that person realizes it or not (doing it intentionally, or unintentionally), they place a higher premium on their own time than they do yours. Ever known a person like that?

Ok, next question: how often are you that person? How often do you break your commitments? Back out? Reschedule? Show up late? Are you the one that is making a habit of placing your own time above other people’s time?? If the answer is yes, then it is time for you to change!!

As Christians, we should constantly be pursuing after the character of God. That means we should seek to emulate His ways and His characteristics so that we will be more like Him. It seems that we focus on certain characteristics like love, patience, and kindness—which are all wonderful—but neglect other parts of His character. Is God not also faithful?! Does He not remain true to His Word?! Why should we work on ourselves in all these other areas but not strive to be more like Our Father in this area?

Let me be blunt with you today. If you are a Christian, you should be faithful. When you give your word to do something, you should follow through. When you say you’ll help with something, you should show up to do it. When you say “7pm”, you should be there at, or before, 7pm. It is very simple really: your “yes” should be yes, and your “no” should be no.

As humans, we will screw up, and we will let people down. Only God is 100% faithful, 100% of the time. But we can be more like Him in this respect. I’ll leave you with 3 simple tips today that can help you be more faithful:

1. Consider before committing. Before you say “yes”, make sure that you are up to the task. Check your schedule, check your bank account, check your personal commitment level to this particular thing.

2. Learn to say “no”. If you foresee potential conflicts, don’t bind yourself. Although it may be hard to say “no” on the spot to someone, it will be much more beneficial to you both than if you cancel later.

3. Leave early. If you really want to get better at being on time, leave at least 15 minutes earlier than you normally would. It is human nature to underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something…we don’t take into account little things like the time it takes to gather our stuff before we head out the door, unforeseen traffic, parking, time it takes to walk from the parking lot to the destination, etc. If you arrive early, then great! You are showing the other person that their time is valuable to you.

May we all be more like Him every day. In Jesus' name, Amen.