Hope Lies In The Desert

I recently took a week long trip to California to speak at a great little church called Tithemi. My good friend Eric Gregson is the pastor there and what I found upon arriving in Redlands CA was a community of believers that are hungry for God. It was a week filled with hopeful conversations, spiritual awakenings and fellowship. I was able to spend time discussing ways to improve church unity as well as ways to defeat spiritual strongholds with in the body of Christ. As I went through the week I took in the scenery of Southern California and though beautiful I could see the desperation and poverty that resides there. Not just a physical poverty but one of spiritual emptiness. The town of San Bernadino seemed to be a desperate place. It cried out from it’s barren landscape in a way that was all to clear. The immense poverty mixed with pockets of consumerism and promise made me feel for this area. It is a place of hardship and of dispair. Luckily I saw signs of hope on a spiritual level.

I had many discussion with Eric about the strongholds that seem to effect this town as well as many throughout the United States. It was something about the dry heat mixed with a barren landscape that made this place an even more vivid reminder of how much God’s love is needed in our world. There was real beauty in it. The people I saw carried weights on their backs but also a glimmer of hope for tomorrow. Then there was the community of believers which makes up Tithemi and another church called Savior’s Place that reminded me there is something good happening here.

I was blessed to be able to share my stories with the people I met and also preach on Sunday evening to a larger crowd than normal. It was not me they came to see but actually the premiere of a video made by the band Sleeping Giant who are from Redlands and Tithemi. The funny thing is while this particular Sunday was set up for a special event we had no idea that God would show up in such a real way. During the worship time, a band called Winter/War started playing. Their music was heavy, instrumental and intense yet it was meant for worship. After a few minutes people realized that this was a worship band and not just a performance. It was very moving. What happened next was something that changed me in a real way. The churches normal worship leader challenged the church to forget about what the normal worship style is and just be free. In this moment I must admit I was a bit leery of what could take place but in the end I saw the beauty of pure worship. Though most people were singing or dancing or playing drums, which I found quite tribal in it’s sound, there was a sense of community. This was not the chaotic worship I have witnessed in other places, this was a time of praise to our God that was individually displayed but in total agreement with each other. I have never seen anything like it.

After about an hour of just beautiful honoring of God I was asked to share. I did and God used my words to bring hope, encourage and I believe bless some people. It was a night in which I believe God showed up, his spirit was in control and people were touched. I was completely spent by the end of the night but felt a bond with those I shared my faith with. I felt a oneness that I often pray for with in the body. In those few hours I feel I could see what the church could be if we put aside our differences and just let God take control. It has little to do with the style or the way this all went down but in the fact that everyone seemed to be in agreement about what we were doing. There was no judgement of those who sat quietly and worshipped or of those who were crying out. It was just a unified effort to honor the Father.

So I returned to Pennsylvania with a new outlook on many things. I felt I was able to leave a lot of my struggles, fears and burdens in California. My soul felt lighter and I experienced real joy. I had some amazing encounters with God and with the people I met. There was just a feeling of contentment. I was blessed beyond what I had dreamed.

So in closing I would have to say that I saw the desert in which man can wither away but in the midst I saw a hope that shines brighter. I saw in the eyes of my new friends a passion for God’s love and it’s transforming power. There was more than just church going on. The time of playing church and building Christian empires seems to be winding down at least with in the few of us that were able to share in the beauty of God’s presence that weekend. The Kingdom of God was evident and made very real. It was a glimpse of Jesus but a vivid one at that. Perhaps it was just a fleeting moment or maybe it was a spark that could create a fire with in not only Southern California but perhaps in the world? Maybe on that Sunday night many more around the world experienced God in a very similar way and his out pouring of Grace and Love was overpowering many? I can only hope that was the case. This is not a testimony of how we should all become charismatics or seek signs and wonders. No! This is a testimony of how awesome our God is and how if we put aside our petty disputes about theological matters and just focus on the one true God we can become one. Maybe even for longer than a 3 hour period on a Sunday night? That seems like a great idea to me? May God continue to challenge, encourage and strengthen us as we walk through this life of ups and downs. Jesus is real and we need him more and more. Lets begin to unite under his name and leave the rest behind. Praise God for what he has given us and for the way he makes himself available to us.

Amen

Have we lost our way?

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” – Collossians 2:8

Unfortunately this pretty much describes what has happened to Christianity and the culture that surrounds it today. Look at what is going on in the name of Christ. How our faith is marketed, packaged, politicized, nationalized and put into boxes. How pride and greed have taken over. I think we all are guilty of it. We are a church of “me” and we do what we want. We don’t like the way God was taught to us when we were coming up so we change it. This is not always a bad thing because this corruption of the Gospel has been around since Jesus left this Earth. The issue is that we as a body have become selfish little brats who want to make our faith about us and not about Jesus. We are foolish and prideful people. I am not talking about pushing morality on our beloved church, that is already being done. I question those who do that as well because the morality that is American by design is not the morality of the Bible necessarily. To say no more sex, drugs and rock n roll is the answer is not changing a thing. The answer lies more in what we are offering than in what we are prohibiting. Lets look at some areas we might be as a body have become dependent on human traditions and the principles of this world.

The first most obvious one would be our dependance of pride that drives us. We are a country built on individuality and personal gain. Our entire philosophy in America is be the best at everything we do. It is a competitive model that drives us to achieve the highest we can and to make us focus more on our own personal gain than that of our neighbor. This is a system that has made the United States the power that it is today. It is a great system for building personal wealth, building a company and for building a nation that is powerful. It however is not a model for the Kingdom of God nor is it a good model for the church. We are not called to be individuals as much as we are called to be a body. We are not told by Christ to strive to be the best and to get all we can while we are here. No, we are told to love one another, be humble servants of each other and of God. The idea of being the best and leaving the rest behind is everything Jesus was not. He was not a fortune 500 guy at all. Jesus was a simple and humble person. The example of Christianity yet we have allowed pride and greed to fuel our lives. It is not even a conscience thing anymore. It is our way of life, the rat race so to speak. Who can get through the maze to the prize first. We are taught this in school, in college and in the work force. While it works for business it is not working for the church.

Than there is politics. This is a dirty word when it comes to Christianity. Throughout time our faith has been hijacked by politics and also attacked. Since the time of Caesar until today our faith has had a bad reputation with sleeping with political ideology. It was Rome making Christianity a state religion and thus allowing corruption to flow freely in the name of God. It also happened in England, in Spain and throughout Europe. Whether Protestant or Catholic, politics have brought corruption, greed and violence in the name of God. In Northern Ireland peace is a shaky thing due to a political fight that has been going on for years. At the center of the fight is religion. It is a fight between Catholic and Protestant political groups. It has nothing to actually do with God but it is what holds the too sides together. It is a sad example of politics ruining our faith. Then in our own country we are in political turmoil. The church has become a divided and very nasty place because of politics. The terms conservative and liberal are now rallying points and also used as insults. The Bible has become a weapon against one another and it is tearing our beloved church apart. One side is clinging to morality and traditional values that are soaked in nationalism and patriotism. The other side is pushing a jumbled message  that sounds more like a 1960’s hippie rally than the gospel of Jesus Christ. The problem is bot sides are wrong because they have let political ideology and man made ideas corrupt their approach to the Gospel. Is morality important? Yes of course but biblical morality and cultural morality are different. I do not cling to American values but I do cling to Biblical ones. The point of being a solid Christian is not based on prohibition but in obedience. It is not the job of the Christian to legislate morality to a secular world. Our morality as Christians is based is our devotion and worship of our God. We do and don’t do things out of an act of worship and love. It is not a set of regulations and laws, Jesus already came to fulfill that. Paul spent his whole ministry fighting to get people to wake up to the fact that we are no longer slaves to the law. Yet we are allowing Pharisees to push legalism with in our church today. Paul would have a lot of harsh words for both sides of the Christian political game. Whether it is morality, health care, poverty, war, or other things we as Christians are looking in the wrong direction and have been for centuries. We are so untrusting of God that we still look to men to solve our problems. If you read 1 Samuel 8 Israel whom God had rescued over and over still wanted a king to rule over them. Samuel was against it yet God told Samuel to give the people what they want but also to warn them that once they have a king the problems that come from it our theirs and he is not gonna step in. They got their leader and they got plenty of problems and as I look at politics today those problems still exists. Even so God’s people still rely more on politics than they do on God, instead they simply ring the name of God into the political realm and thus make it Christian. That is not what I think God had in mind for us. We are the kingdom of God . Our devotion, allegiance and obedience should lie there. God has already told us to take care of the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the sick. Yet we as a church have passed that on and here we are years later hoping man is gonna bail us out.

The other areas that the church has seemed to fall into captivity is by making God who we want him to be. We have created our own versions of God based on many variables. Sometimes we have nationalized God by putting his name on our country. We have decided what God looks like by rendering him a certain race. We have taken scripture and used it to justify or condemn groups of people, lifestyles, sins, theologies and truth. Christians have split over theories instead of unifying under one truth. We debate over things to the point that churches have split, pastors have been fired, and ultimatley individuals faith have been damaged. Now we have a church that is splintered into a billion denominations and sects. There is nasty words thrown between Calvinists and Arminians over things that only God can know. Theologians debate and at times make some lofty accusations towards those who do not share their conclusions. We have movements that come and go that often times elevate people to God status and we see Christians ollow them right into dissilusionment. Whether we are from a mainline denomination or a new emergent style church I guarentee you have seen the way man messes up things.

The problem is simple and yet complex. The simple part is that we are no sticking to the word of God and we have not been obedient to God. That is just the facts. None of us are good at being good when it comes to our faith. We like God to be what we want and we do not like being wrong. This makes us a bit selfish in our approach to how we present, accept and view the Gospel of Jesus. I run a church because I saw a need to reach people who don’t like church. Bottom line is I am walking a thin line between doing what God wants and doing what Jeremy wants. I also am struggling always with doing what God wants and doing what my congregation wants so they will love me. I beleive it is a struggle for all pastors. When we speak the truth about Jesus someone is gonna get mad at you. When you compromise to make people happy someone is gonna get mad at you! It is a catch 22 but in the end I would rather some people  get red in the face over what I do than my father in heaven. We are living in a poeple pleasing society preaching a Gospel that is not in line with how the world works. The world is not about loving people, lovng enemies, forgiving, sacrafice, suffering, hope, serving others and being humble. The problem is the church has become less about those things too, it is time we start fixing that.

Here is were it gets complex. The fixing of it is hard and is often times painful. It requires obedience to God, forgiveness, love and admitting we are wrong. We have to first realize that while we were pointing out how off base this new hipster church is we were losing members like a civ because we lost focus on what we were doing. It is important also that while my church is saying those mean old churches don’t like us outcast types we are so close minded to them that we become judgmental. Just because we are uncomfortable with someone praising God loudly doesn’t mean that everyone should sing hymns reverently. The same goes for the other side. There is a place for us all in the body because while there is truth in the word there is also room to worship in our own way. There is not a set way to do “church” but there is a very set Gospel of Jesus. This is where I do tend to agree with the more stuffy believers out there. We must agree on the Gospel of Christ which is Jesus is the only way to salvation. We must agree that he came, died and rose again. We must believe that his death was the sacrifice for all human kind so that we can become reunited with God in heaven. We must believe that to be saved one must ask forgiveness of our sins. Now after this we can argue about what Grace really means, what is repentance, what is heaven and so on. The main place we must return is to where we can agree that man was separated from God by sin, that we were pretty much screwed. Then God sent is only son Jesus as a sacrifice as ransom for our souls. That he rose from the grave as a symbols of hope for us that we too shall live again and through him we are saved. Everything else can be debated and picked over but that must remain the center.

So in closing I would like to encourage all of us to examine our spiritual lives. Are we being obedient to the word of God or are we following mans philosophies and traditions? Have we lost our focus on being humble servants and become prideful success driven people? Are we offering the world hope or just complaining about how bad it has gotten? In the end we believe we know the truth so we should be living like it. We need to turn off our cable news shows, stop focusing on the negative and start living lives of hope. We need to start encouraging others to get back to their faith but do so out of love not through accusations and belittling. Stand up for what is right but also pray for those who do wrong. Forgive the people who hurt us sincerely.Do not buy into the trends that come along in our faith. Do not buy into those who attach politics, nationalism or any other religion, creed, or idea to Christ. Christ stands alone and we should also stand alone with him. Do not become bitter or angry with the world instead have empathy, sympathy and love for it. Do not worry yourself with the troubles of the day because we are living with hope of better days. Finally admit you are wrong about some things and try to humble yourself. Pray for clarity, question Church leaders and pray for them. We are no different than you, just a bunch of sinners in need of grace and mercy, we need your prayers. I love my church, Hold Fast Ministries and the global church, and I hope that even when I am wrong my core is right and when I am right that I do not come off arrogant or prideful. I pray that God builds in me and in you all a fire for his truth and a passion for his mercy. This is a dying world and Jesus is the only hpe it has. The awesome part is we are his hands on earth and it is our job to share that hope. So while we are off base, wishy washy, too political, prideful, stupid, arrogant and full of ourselves God loves us anyway and he uses us everyday to do his will. That is awesome!

May God bless you throughout the days of your life!

Amen

A Couple Shows For You!

These are two shows I filmed. the first was the first one I ever filmed and the second was filmed by my video company Floating Boy Media.

Crashdog at Cornerstone 1996

NIV, A Love For Enemies, Bloody Sunday and XLooking ForwardX from 2005

Overcoming Our Fears

Fear is something we all have dealt with throughout our lives. From the fears of the boogie man as children to our fears of failure as adults, we live in fear. Often times our fears are nothing more than irrational thoughts but then we have experiences that breed such terror. Some of us live proud lives that claim to have “no fear” and in essence we still are fearing that our fearless rep maybe challenged by something that scares us. So my point is everyone fears something and everyone lives in some sort of fear. So what does the Bible have to say about fear?

Well first of all we have all heard of the “Fear of God” that we are supposed to have. Now luckily this is not meant to scare us but it is meant to encourage us to rely on God. This simply means we are to respect, admire and be in awe of his power, his mercy and his love for us. In Proverbs 1:7 it gives us a great example of the benefits of having this fear of God. Things like wisdom and self discipline are just a few. Later in Proverbs it talks about it bringing peace and comfort to our lives. It also describes the fear of God as a mighty fortress in which we can take refuge. This is the beauty of the fear of God, unfortunatley it is often used improperly to sell a “Turn or Burn” type message. That we should be afraid that God will cut us down if we do not repent this instant! That is simply not what this term is defined as in this context. So now we have an understanding of the first type of fear that the Bible talks about. Let’s look at the other types which would be fear that hits us everyday. This could be our anxiety about tomorrow, financial fears, irrational phobias, our fear of failure, acceptance or even death. Jesus spoke rather clearly about fear in Matthew 6:25-34 where he said

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life]? ”And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Jesus explains that is the God we revere as all knowing and all powerful can care so much about the flowers to make them so beautiful and the birds to make them so colorful then why would he not take care of us. He encourages us to not worry about tomorrow because God will provide and take care of us. He knows our needs more than we do. Do we not call him father? The father’s job is to take care of his family. This is what Jesus is trying to get through during his sermon. We are only fearful because we do not trust that God will and has provided for his children. So do not worry about tomorrow because as Jesus said “Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.”

So what causes our anxiety and fear? Honestly it is a number of things. We ive in a fearful society in which we are constantly finding new things to be afraid of. The media thrives on it whether it is the network news telling us that the Swine Flu or Bird Flu is ging to wipe us out. Stories about murder, arson and other crimes top every news cast causing us to be afraid of cities and urban areas. We buy guns and lock our doors because we are afraid of what might be outside waiting to come get us. Now we fear Muslim extremists where in the past it was  the commies or some other enemy of the state. Our radios and cable news networks are full of talk show hosts that breed fear through spouting conspiracy theories and telling us that one side of the political spectrum is out to destroy our American way of life while the other side claims that they are the ones destroying things. In the end what do they really know? I bet it has more to do with getting ratings then the truth. Then of course there is the fear that has bred centuries of racism, bigotry and hatred towards different races, nationalities, religions and cultures. Our fear of the unknown and ignorance has caused many to fall into hatred.

Then of course there is the Christian fear mongering that goes on. Churches that preach a “turn or burn” style message with out any focus on forgiveness, grace or mercy. I heard a story of a church where the pastor preached on putting names in the book of life and also having an eraser! That fear turns people to legalism and also keeps them feeling guilty their whole life. Then there are people like Fred Phelps, while irrelevant to most, he breeds a fear that Christians just might agree with his “God Hates Fags’ messages. There is also this fear of the end of days that has sold millions of copies of books about the second coming of Christ, the coming of the Ant-Christ and the tribulation that has scared the socks off many a Christian and even some non-Christians. In most cases it is all based on perception and individual interpretation but sold as solid truth. In many ways those who produce or say these things may not think of it as using fear to get peoples attention but it is. It is playing on the insecurities and anxieties of our society. The other way that fear seems to seep into Christianity is the culture that surrounds it. There is a lot of fear of the outside world. A world jesus came to save and encouraged us to go into and preach the Gospel. Yet many Christians rather hide within the bubble that is American Christian culture. They rather surround themselves with church 7 days a week, Christian TV, Christian radio, Christian schools, and so on. You can have a child and raise them from birth til they graduate college within this bubble. Sending them to Christian daycare, elementary through high school and eventually Christian college. Or even homeschool them to keep them from being corrupted by the world.  I myself attended Christian College and my brother was home schooled so obviously those were blanket statements.  I know there are many who choose to remove their kids from public schools for other reasons but I really think we should examine whether fear is one of them? If it is, is it really what God wants? Jesus told us not to fear the world because we are merely “in it not of it” and yet we are scared to death of everything that is secular. That is maybe one of our biggest failures as a church, our cowardly approach to living life on earth. Are we too afraid to truly live the Gospel with in a secular society? Are we closing ourselves off and hiding what God has given us?

The issue of trusting God is probably our main reason for our fear. It is difficult for us to trust God to protect us and better yet our children from the world. Perhaps we do not trust God in our own lives enough to even extend that to our loved ones? We do not trust God enough to provide because of our own impatience and sometimes selfishness. We expect magic tricks from God, like money to just rain down because we “want” something yet most times when we are patient and go about our lives he does get us what we need. God is not an ATM or a convenient store, he is God! Thus he does not break his promise to us but he operates in his own time. Therefore we do not always get what we want but we will get what God knows we need. Sometimes that is not always the most fun way of doing things but it is the way it works. So how do we get passed these fears? The answer lies with the Holy Spirit that dwells in all of us who believe. In 1 John 4:16-18 we are given an answer of how to overcome our fear.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.

This verse tells us that our fears our not from God. God’s love has no room for fear because we no longer need it. We have been saved from all we should fear. The judgement of God! The love of God has taken away our reasons to be afraid of what is coming and what is here today. The Holy Spirit gives us courage to face our fears and defeat them. Whether it is our fear of death or something as trivial as our fear of spiders, we can overcome it because of our faith. The reverent fear of God, that respect we talked about earlier, is our refuge. It is the mighty fortress in which we can take shelter when afraid. That is our weapon against what we are afraid of in this life. Be it spiritual, physical or mental we can debate what cares us most. Look at what overcoming fear has done throughout Christian history. In the Biblical stories overcoming fear and trusting God helped David kill Goliath, helped bring the walls of Jericho down. It helped the Apostles preach the Gospel even when facing persecution and eventual execution. It was the courage of the Holy Spirit that help Martin Luther nail his Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg Church door in 1517. In more modern times it was the courage that led people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to stand up for civil rights and also to do so with a message of peace and God’s love. When we conquer our fears we can stand in the face of hate, racism, bigotry, legalism, judgmental attitudes and oppression with the courage that comes from God. Remember the story when Jesus asked Peter to join him as he walked on the water? Peter jumped at the opportunity only to nearly drowned after he took his eyes off Jesus and let his fears take over. Let us learn from that example and keep focused on Jesus. No matter what challenges we may face, Christ’s love for us should be where we have our focus. We can fight back against our enemies with a weapon more powerful then any made by man, the Love of God. It is that love that conquers all fears, that frees all men, and that will restore all things. We MUST start to trust God and begin to overcome this world with his love.

Amen

Cornerstone 09 Review

Cornerstone 09 was many things to me. It was a break from the grind of real life. It was a spiritual retreat to recharge my spirit. It was a family reunion. Al of these things make Cornerstone what it is. I have not attended for the music, which there is some good stuff, in many years. This marked my twelfth festival and one of the better ones thus far. While last years was full of personal revelation, scene revival and spiritual renewal this years was different. There was still a buzz about the place concerning last years happenings but this year had a different feel. This time around the focus seemed more geared towards worship, discipleship and bringing forth the Kingdom of God. I imagine some of you just thought it was a good music fest? To each their own I suppose.

So my associate pastor Chris and I traveled West to Illinois with different expectations. I being a veteran of the fest expected good and bad things. I predicted bad weather, bad music, and some un-nerving conversations with critics of Grace. Chris on the other hand expected to see bands he loves, make friends and have a great time. So we ventured out in search of our expected outcomes. After a short stop in Cleveland for some home cooked food, a ballgame and some sleep we were Bushnell bound. The total drive was 16 hours give or take and we were pleased when we reached the gates. Unfortunately that was as far as we got. They were closed until the following afternoon which meant we were stranded in a pick up that we had just spent the better part of two days together in. So after some phone calls we were let in early and set up.

The next day the weather was amazing and the festival was starting though most of our friends had yet to arrive. By Tuesday afternoon people were there and the great weather continued, Praise God. Once the family was there the week began to fly by full of conversations, hugs, prayers and a lot of needed fellowship. I saw some great bands play and heard some awful ones but that is here nor there. What is important is the way God moved during the week. There was some miraculous things that occurred and some sketchy ones too. There was healings of hearts and even some physical healing. There was a relationship started and even more rekindled. God was there and the Holy Spirit did come with a mighty fury. Love seemed to be on people’s minds instead of legalism and judgment. That was refreshing.

Overall it was a great fest. It ended for me with a trying night in which spiritual warfare took center stage. I prayed with some friends who felt the same and though it tried to ruin things it ended up strengthening us. So the rain started to fall in more ways than one and we packed up and headed home weary but alive. Again we stayed over in Cleveland before heading home to Harrisburg and our family at Hold Fast Ministries. This past week was the good, the bad and the ugly all wrapped into one but all in all I feel God wanted me there as well as pastor Chris. We have been blessed.