Human just like me

Oh my goodness, what has the world come to?! Gay marriage is becoming law and Phil Robertson is being fired from his show and and and..

And what? What are we supposed to say? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to act?

We should stand up for our beliefs and tell these homosexual  heathens what for!! We should wipe them off the face of the map like God did with Sodom and Gomorrah!!

Really, is that what we should do? Why do you think that’s the best action?

Because they’re sinning in our faces and making fun of and persecuting Phil Robertson, that’s why!

Whatever happened to 1) Love God with all your heart, soul and strength and 2)love your neighbor as yourself? That’s what Jesus taught.

Yeah but, you don’t understand! I saw a guy walking down the street with his hand in another guys back pocket and that’s wrong!

So, love them anyway.

But, I saw a girl kissing another girl the other night outside of a club!

So, love them anyway

But GLAAD and A&E shut down Phil Robertson for believing in what I believe in!

So, love them anyway and rejoice, for if one is persecuted in His name’s sake, great is his reward in Heaven

So, your saying that we should be all about “love” when the world turns against us?!

Yup

How could say that?!

Because God said it before I did. Read your Bible little Thumper! We are going to be persecuted by the world but that doesn’t give us an excuse to stop spreading the Good News and loving on those who don’t want to listen.

When Jesus was hung to a cross and the whole was sinning against Him, did he look down and say “One day, all you fools are going to be so-rry!” NO, He prayed for them, for their salvation, for their souls! He knew that if He wanted too, he could look down at the lot of them and fry their faces off like in Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Instead He, king of all, humbled Himself and TOOK the punishment we deserved and that is where the heart of a true follower of Christ lies!

So, we should be ok with homosexuality?!

Absolutely not! But we should be ok with the person that commits to it. We should be loving to those who don’t believe or follow God’s word. Look, I’m no better than a murderer or a pedophile, but only by the redeeming grace of God am I made whole again. Am I free from sin forever? No, my flesh will battle me and keep on battling me for the rest of my life, it’s in it’s nature to do so. That doesn’t make me any better of person then the people who are LGBT. We are all HUMAN created by the one God! Who are the righteous to judge the wicked? No one, but God. Who can forgive and forget sin? No one, but God. You see Christian, we have forgotten our fundamental roots laid up with the one who has ultimate power! We have forgotten what his ways are and what He has said. He has set us up to be a city on the hill for all the world to see and we decided to turn the lights off! Let’s turn them back on by showing each other love, care and affection. Pray for those who persecute you. Love those who hate you. Resist the temptation to boast your own beliefs and triumphs over others and instead, humble yourself to serve those who despise you. Be quick to listen and slow to wrath. These are the things the Bible teaches. I have gay friends and I don’t judge them for their actions or their sexual orientation, but love them for the people they are.

Because they are human, just like me.  

Crosswalk

What does it truly mean to walk with Christ? How do we know and show that we are on the right path? How can we show Christ’s love for the lost through our walk with Him? Questions like these have been on the hearts and minds of Christians for centuries and I know I have had my bout with them as well. Here are some tips and pointers to hopefully ensure or enlighten your path.

#1 LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL HEART, SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH

God doesn’t want to be second in your life, He wants to be first! He doesn’t want you to be part way in it, He wants you fully committed. Our relationship to God is like a marriage, you can’t be sometimes married and sometimes not, no, either you’re married or you’re not. And yes, you can have a relationship with God just one on one. Do you think the creator of all things is not powerful enough to get to know you? That he is so limited on his power that he can only communicate through a prophet or priest? NO! And just like He wants to know you, He also wants you to know Him. This is fundamental to being an effective Christian. Once you have grasped that relationship with the true and living God, you’ll want nothing more in life than His will. Let’s discuss what it means to give and want His will with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

First is your heart. Don’t put other things and objects over your heart before God. Have you ever been passed over by another employee at your work, even though you know you did more work than they did but the boss still chose to promote the other? That’s how we treat God when we put our wants and needs over Him in our hearts. You see, God doesn’t want just part of your heart, He wants the whole thing. He’s worked hard in your life to bless you. He doesn’t view your heart as a time-share where He is there part of the time and then it gets turned over to someone else. God sees your heart as His home. He wants to dwell in there and have full reign and authority in your heart. If you allow God to reign over your heart, your soul will follow close behind.

Speaking of soul, that is the next topic of God’s greatest commandments. But, what is a soul? Because nobody has seen a soul or know what it looks like, makes it very hard to determine what we are talking about. I have heard some people say that your heart is you soul but I would have to disagree. God distinctly separates the two. I believe, and this is my personal belief, that the soul is more like an engine placed within ourselves. I believe it is the breath of God in our lives. We have a fleshly body here on earth that is susceptible to the elements and nature of the earth and when we die, this body will return to the earth, for it is made up from the dust of the earth. While a soul, is the life that God has given us. And like the heart, we can decide whether to let if follow God or not to follow God. God gave us full control over our bodies and what goes in to them as well, including our souls. The actions we take and the life we lead are directly linked to our souls. If we allow our souls to pursue the path that God has called us to, our lives will have no choice but to follow that path. And our minds will help keep our souls on that path of righteousness.

The mind is the weakest part of the four that Jesus said to follow God with, and because it is so susceptible to the things of this world, it is the first to be attacked. We never know when the enemy will rise against us or how. He may even rise in our most vuleranble state which is sleep. He pollutes our thoughts and dreams with lust and violence to distract us from keeping our mind on God. This is when we need to focus on the spiritual warfare that is going on around us. Reading Ephesians 6 is a good way to get our heads back in the game and back on God and his will. God will strengthen us for the battles to come when we are focused on him.

Strength is a hard one to describe. When this word is mentioned, we automatically think of a physical attribute. The world’s strong man competitions come to mind or an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the 1960’s Mr. Universe. However, strength doesn’t just rely on body mass and muscle, but in the sense that Jesus used it, it relies and determination and will. The enemy wants not to keep pursuing the things of God so he puts money in our way or lust or other things of this world in hopes that we will turn aside from following God and pursue that which is in front of us. This analogy always brings to mind of a dog with a stick on his back hanging over his head and at the end stick is a bone. The dog will follow the bone even if it means he falls of a cliff or crosses a busy road. We are like that dog when the enemy places our bone over our faces. We need to take back a moment and really get a good grasp on the bigger picture. When we find ourselves in trouble, we need to think and pray about whether we are following the bone, or our we determined to pursue God. God will get us out of trouble if we turn and rely on Him.

#2 LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

This commandment is simpler to understand, mainly because it’s so blunt. But I find that is harder to follow than the others. I think because we don’t know what our neighbors are like. So many people in America don’t know who they are living next to, what their names are, if they have kids or even what their hobbies are. When we don’t know who our neighbors are, how then can we love them? In reality, we are afraid to get to know our neighbors for fear of popping our little bubbles that we built. Well, I believe Jesus was a bubble popper. He destroyed the notion of the Pharisee’s being righteous. He threw out the notion of the money changers. He shuck every thought and concern about God for the rest of the time this world will be around. So yes, we too should pop our bubbles and get to know our neighbors and love on them despite what we differences we have. If your neighbor is gay, love on them. If neighbor is Musilim, love on them. If your neighbor is Aethist, love on them. For if you love on your neighbor, how much more will God love on you? Show them that Jesus didn’t just die for you, but forever one. He didn’t do it for fame, fortune and glory. No, he died for the love He has for everyone. Show them that love and and plant a seed for God to use in their hearts.


So, I hope this helped. Keep yourself to God always and love on everyone. May God be with you always, Amen.

Back stabbed

Have you ever been stabbed in the back by someone you thought you could trust? Well, grab a number because that's happened to all of us. Whether it's our spouses, children, family members or even our "best friends". We will, at some point get offended about something somebody said but, we should let it not effect us.


Jesus says, "if someone strikes you across your cheek, turn to them your other cheek". I think he would also say of someone stabs you in the back, turn to them your front. I think more and more, when we get lashed out against, we want to strike back and that's not what Jesus wants. Instead he wants us to simply love on each other as he did. When Jesus was asked, what the greatest two commands of Moses were, he simply replied, "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. And love your neighbor as your self." Even if that same neighbor stabs you in the back.

Now, is that to say that we should open ourselves up for further attacks? Absolutely not. Instead, we can love our neighbors as ourselves and learn not to go back or allow them to hurt is again. For example, a former alcoholic knows that in certain situations, he will be prone to drink. So when his buddys call up and invite him out to the bar, he can simple say, "no, I don't I want to go there but thank you for the invite."

See, we can set up boundaries for ourselves and others but not lose the love we have for each other. We know that when we get stabbed in the back, that whoever did the stabbing, should not be allowed that same situation again. Because when allow them back into that situation again, we are not being followers of Christ but rather a stumbling block for them. I personally know people who like to gossip, so I choose not to divulge a lot of information to them but i still love them no matter what.

I believe this is a path that God would approve of and one that a lot of followers for Christ should take up.

Spring in your step

Wow, just read a blog from a passionate man of faith! It was truly inspripring to step up my game and live out there for Christ. No more excuses, no more looking back.

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, a day in which we remeber the day Christ bore our sins to the cross and died for them. Most people think that people need to clean our act before we can come to him but, he went to the cross before you decided to follow him. He died for your sins, that's like hiring a maid and cleaning before she comes over. THAT'S HER JOb. But we truly can't clean out our souls, not on our own strength.

So, we put on a face. A "holier than thou face." A "Halleju-me" face. Aface that tells everyone else that we are normal just to be accepted, but accepted you before you knew who you were. Why try and hide things. Yes, I was an allcoholic. Yes, I was addicted to pronography. But God, through the healing blodd of Jesus, as freed me from all of that. I am made new in his eyes. I am re-newed in my soul. I am born again. And Praise God For It.

That is the spring in my step. That I am no longer bound by the sin I caused, because Christ already paid for that. I no longer need the crutches I needed. I don't need the things that drug me down and made me heavy burdened. Christ said that His yoke easy and his burden is light. That is the spring in my step.

Graduation

This Saturday marked a sad day for us. Little Tomas Hollenback graduated into glory after a long hard fight with a brain tumor. He graduated into Glory and heard the words “Well done good and faithful servent.” We are praying for the family. Tomas was a good kid and had such a heart for Christ. In times like these, we often want to blame God or shoot him down. We want to curse Him out but we must remember that it is His plan, not ours. Instead we should give thanks and praise. WHAT?!? Give thanks and praise for a kids death?!? YES! Now, don’t get me wrong, it is hard. But what would you do if you didn’t have that loved one at all?

It was hard for me to grasp this mentality, just read Testimony. When I lost my grandparents, I cursed God. But we must remember, when we graduate, all things will be made clear. Sure we all have questions for God now. But we are still thinking in a fleshly state of mind. If God wanted us, he would call us up. There is nothing we could do to stop Him. All that we can do is praise Him and thank Him. Praise Him for he is a just and righteous God. Thank him for giving you the time that you got to spend with the loved one you just lost.

Toby Keith wrote a song called Wayman’s song where he states that he is not crying for you, he was crying for himself. For he had just lost a good friend and was feeling sad for he knew his friend had graduated into glory and that Toby had to stay behind. If we must be mournful, it should be that we must stay behind but keep in mind, that there is a day that we will be called up to be with our lost ones and with God. I often think about that day and I see myself dropping to my knees and balling my eyes out as Jesus approaches. What a day that will be.

For Jesus said he is going to prepare a place for us. To me that is amazing, that Jesus, is preparing a place for me. We just have to wait untill he calls us up. Little Tomas is up there just relaxing in his mansion that Christ prepared and most importantly, he is cancer free!

Lose is only temporary. We must keep that in mind. One day very soon we will be up there just basking in His glory. Just like little Tomas is doing now.

Severe the flesh

This weekend was painful for me, literally. I split my thumb open with a hammer while building a banister for my grandmother in-law. It made me realize that despite pain, we must keep faith in Jesus. And when something comes along to cause you pain, don't blame God be rejoice! Don't ask why did you let me stumble like this? But, thank God. I know it is hard to thank God for the hard times but remember, you are going at it for Him. And at the end, when you have gone completely for God, you sit there and praise Hallelujah!

Remember, when Joseph and Mary lost Jesus and looked for him for three days. Finally when they found him in the synagogue they asked. "Child why do you treat us like such, we have been looking for you." Jesus said, "Why were you looking for me, do you not know that I must be about my father's business?" -Luke 2:49. Just like Jesus, we must be about our Father's business. If you are going to do anything, make sure it is for Jesus and God.  Keep your eyes on Him and not on what you think you should do.

It is hard to do that in today's world. Everything is bearing down on you. The news and social networks plague our minds and force us to think in worldly sense and not in a Godly sense. When you think in a Godly sense, everything that didn't make sense suddenly becomes sensible. And, everything that was sensible makes for complete confusion. I couldn't even think the way I used to before I was saved, nor do I want to. God had extremely changed the way I thought and acted. I still slip up every now and then and its three steps forward and one step back but you're always moving away from where you were.

Praying is a good start to living in the light of Christ. So many people that call themselves Christians have forgotten this fundamental aspect of walking with Christ. We as a chruch should be praying. Praying takes you straight to the throne room of God and brings your worries and doubts and fears straight to Him. Have you ever had a situation where you just needed someone to talk to but didn't know who? I know I have had countless times of that.  When that happens, start praying. God is right there to listen to you. Every morning I thank God for giving me another day and forgiving my sins. Now, He will not forgive them unless you confess them. You have to say what you did and ask for forgiveness. But here is the cool thing with God, when you're praying and confessing your sins to him, he doesn't only forgive them, he forgets them. Have you ever done wrong with somebody and just wish they would forget the whole thing? I have.

If you are praying, GREAT KEEP PRAYING!! But if that is all that you are doing, then I dare to take it one step further and start serving. To a lot of us that is scary. It means devoting time and money and dealing with people you don't know. But trust God, I can tell you, when you are scared about doing the things about God, that's when he shines through the brightest. He will come and guide you through ministry. You just have to trust in Him. That's the biggest part.

Testimony

 

tes·ti·mo·ny/ˈtestəˌmōnē/ Noun: A formal written or spoken statement 

March 22, 2009 - Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City - The moment that changed my life forever

It has been almost 3 years since that divine appointment. But, to give this proper perspective, we would have to start in the beginning.

Growing up, life wasn't always the easiest for me. For my dad, was abusive to my half brother Brandon, who in turn always took out on me. There has always been the sense of hostility that I have felt from my brother and like was from me. I am not sure if my dad was abusive towards me, He certainly didn't show it later on in life. But my mother and brother faced the ugly end of my father. I cannot remember the date nor the hour as to the night my parents separated, but I do remember the fighting.

I remember sitting on the stairs alone while my parents duked it out in the next room. My grandmother on my mom's side came into the house. I guess my mother must have called her. My grandma immediately comforted me and then relieved my mother to dish it out with my dad. I remember my mom clinging to me as though it was the last time she would see me. I can recall very clearly my dad yelling to the both of them to get out and that he was going to call the police. He actually said judge but police fits better in this context. The next thing I know, two officers are there. One was comforting and watching over my mom and grandmother. I had an officers play set that I very proudly went and got to show off to him, oblivious to the fact that my family was falling apart.

After the police settled the situation, my mother and brother and I went to stay at my grandmothers for the night. I spent the next 6 months bouncing between my mother and father, not really having any stability in my life. Then one day, my dad sat me down and said that he was going away. He found a house and job in Sacramento California where he was moving too. I was 5 years old.

I spent most of my life in this continuous state of travel. I would spend my school months with my mother and my summer months with my father. They would alternate Christmas and New Years visitations every year. That was pretty much my childhood from the age of 5 to 16. When I was seven, my grandmother passed away. I took this hard. Harder than my cousins who were my age. My mom decided that a funeral wasn't the best thing for me and put me on a plane bound for California to stay with my dad and other grandma. Both of my grandfathers passed away before I was born and I never met my grandmother on my father’s side before. So, my grandmother on my mother’s side was the only grandparent that I grew up to know and to love. She died December 23 1992.

I grew to know and love my grandmother on my father's side very much. We would watch the "Price is Right" and play chutes and ladders all day long. She would occasionally catch me sneaking into her Reese's Peanut Butter but she never really took it away. I very fond memories of my grandmother growing but sadly, she would not live long enough to see me into adulthood. She passed away December 12, 1997 due to marrow cancer in her hip. One of my fondest and one of my last memories of her was asking her to play chutes and ladder. The cancer her pretty much spread throughout her entire hip and wasn't about to stop. Even though the pain was excruciating for her to get up and walk over to the dining room table, she did it anyway, just to play chutes and ladders with me one last time.

After the death of my grandmother, I decided to blame God for it. My heart hardened for the things of God. I had never been to church nor read the Gospel. In fact, just getting a hold of the Gospel in Salt Lake City was hard to come by. I didn't know God and I didn't care, I hated him all the same.

I maintained that mentality all throughout my teen years. I had tampered with smoking when I was ten and then picked it up when I was thirteen. In seventh grade a snuck a full bottle of Smirnoff in a Gatorade bottle to school. My friends at the time and I got toasted at lunch and went back to class. As I grew older, my distaste for God grew stronger. By the time I was in High School, I would often flip off God and curse him out when something went wrong. I had gotten to the point that I would tell people that I was indeed going to Hell and taht I was going to take it over and then asked my firends if they wanted to join me. Asking friends to go to Hell with you is very twisted and I am currently praying for those who I asked. I watch their lives today and cannot help by feel that I am to blame for it.

By the time I left High School, I was drinking more and more, I had stopped smoking but picked it back up a year later and I still hated God. Not much changed going into college. When I was half way through my associate’s degree, I met Audra at McDonalds. She was working there at the time. This was February 23, 2007. By this time I had turned into a horny gambling drunk where that best places to find me were either at the bar or at the strip club with my friend Brett. Usually after night of drinking and ogling over naked women, we would go to McDonalds between 3 and 4 in the morning. I asked Audra to a date via text message. I have always been shy around women. We went out the next night to Reno 911 and then to Denny's. Oh boy was that romantic. We finished the night at my mom's watching Saw III. I was just trying to get a quickie out of Audra but God had other plans for us and thank God that he did.

Audra and I started dating more and more and getting more and more adventurous with our relationship until August of 2007. Audra found out she was pregnant. She had already left Utah and moved back with her family in Northern Colorado. Months seemed to have ticked by like pouring molasses in the winter. Each day dragged on without end. Until April 11 2008, Kelly Wave was born and I knew that I had to take off my playing clothes and put on the daddy suit. I went back to Salt Lake and started to get ready for a place to bring my new family home to. Well that didn't actually happen until January 2009. 

I was still drinking heavily but the hatred for God had turned into a vague feeling for him. I didn't know it then but I was on the fence about God. The Christmas of 2008 had me thinking about Him. We had tried to find a church in Salt Lake. Now Christian churches in Salt Lake City and far and few to come by but we noticed that there was one only a few blocks from where we were living. It was back in an industrial area of town but something drew us there. Audra, my girlfriend at the time, met me there for a Wednesday service on March 22, 2009. A day I will never forget.

We were greeted and shown around the facility and checked both of our kids in and proceeded to the sanctuary. We picked up two Bibles because we didn't have any and found a place to sit on the south section of the church. Right as soon as we sat down, this kid with a fo-hawk, tattoo sleeves and big gauged ears walked right up to us and introduced himself. His name was Tony and he talked about a college and career group that met every Saturday and that we should go. We said maybe. Now if I were me back then, I would have gave Tony a huge hug and shouted "YES WE WILL THERE!! ARE YOU KIDDING!!" Instead we said maybe. Well at this time I saw the man that was going to convict me. He was going to guilt-trip me. He was going to humiliate me. And I would later thank him for it. His name was Pastor Terry Long. 

He then went into a service about the thorn in the flesh. I cannot remember what was exactly said, all that I remember is a feeling of a longing, a hoping, a searching, an emptiness filling up inside of me. I remember feeling something moving, it was changing, it was re-shaping how I felt and how I perceived God. God wasn't this bully with a magnifying glass. He wasn't this person that wanted nothing else but to make my life the worse it could be. He was caring, loving, compassionate, and merciful. He was everything I wasn't but everything I wanted to be.  The Holy Spirit was moving in me and I felt satisfied. For the first time in my life, I was satisfied. I was filled. At the end of the service, Pastor Terry asked that if we didn't know Christ, to pray "Lord, forgive me of my sins. Come into my life. I am yours. And he will meet you there." I said that prayer and felt an empowering that I had never felt before. That night, I stayed wide awake and prayed and cried and laughed. I had never felt so peaceful before in my life.

Later on Audra and I got married,  ee had another child, and named him Timothy which means "God's Honor". We moved out of Salt Lake and into Northern Colorado were I volunteer at the NOCO Cowboy Church youth group called Impact. God has blessed us abundantly and we are so in love with him. I have slipped up since that divine appointed night in March but He remains faithful. I am praying daily for those that I have crossed and for those who I upset or offended or led down the wrong path. And this testimony isn't about "Oh look at how I turned my life around! Hallelu-me!" No, it's about what God has done. That despite 11 years of hatred, 11 years of cursing Him, 11 years of bitterness whipped away in one prayer. Don't under-estimate the power of prayer and don't under-estimate God. He will use you, shape you, mold you, and make you a better person than what you were yesterday and today. Don't reject him, accept him. God will meet you wherever you are. No matter how much you think you screwed up, He will meet you there. He doesn't care what you have done, give it to God and walk right by Him. There is so much Joy and happiness in this Journey if all you do is just believe in Him and let him take control. Thank you for reading this and God bless.