Overboard Holiness

Christians have become passive about pursuing holiness. That is a blunt statement, but there’s really no better way of putting it. Christians everywhere have become skilled in the art of arguing why they’re okay doing exactly what they’re doing and weak in the realm of killing sin. We are a culture of Christians content with convincing ourselves of our own personal holiness without ever chasing Jesus and striving for the real thing.

            

A comment often heard among people who claim to strive after Christ is, “Don’t go overboard. It is good to try to follow Jesus, but make sure there’s balance.” Ephesians 5:3-4 says, “But among you there must be not even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” I don’t know what your personal definition of overboard is, but God seems to have no problem with going overboard in this culture’s definition of the word.

           

Now obviously those two verses don’t encompass EVERY possible aspect of holiness, but they touch on some very hard and sensitive topics that collectively create many of the things that this culture worships and deals with on a daily basis. Immorality, sex being thrown around, gossip and lack of restraint in speech, lack of intelligence in speech (including social media stupidity), innuendo and other jokes you probably wouldn't tell your grandmother, and the like are mentioned.

           

One of my favorite authors and vloggers Skye Jethani recently tweeted, “If imitation is the highest form of flattery, than Christians have become pop culture’s most devoted admirers.” Daily I am around Christians who are content with keeping their holiness in check with culture and the sin that comes with it. They are fine with where they are in their faith and are very good at persuading that God didn’t really mean “not a hint” when talking about the previously mentioned topics. They reason that God can’t expect them to get rid of all innuendo-because c’mon...it’s sometimes clever-, get rid of all gossip (especially about that really obnoxious person), and as long as you don’t go all the way in a relationship before you’re married, it’s not REALLY sexual immorality…right?

            

What so many Christians miss is that holiness isn’t something we half-heartedly pursue, a side hobby when we feel like it. Radical holiness and pursuit of Jesus is something that should consume us. When God says, “not a hint”, He absolutely means it! Obviously as an innately sinful human you will slip and fall, but falling to temptation is not the same as condoning the sin. It is all a matter of perspective, attitude, and what you choose to pursue. If you fall, you get back up and keep fighting for the prize, but you can’t win the prize if you never enter the fight.

            

This flies blatantly in the face of culture, and many people (including Christians) would be ready to mock someone who pursues holiness at the expense of getting rid of things in their lives that cause them to compromise that holiness. But…why should we care? If you know Jesus, you know how worth getting rid of the things of this world that compromise our holiness would be. We shouldn’t be scared to be referred to as “such a Baptist” or “boring” or “goody two-shoes” (I know, stupid terms, but you get the picture) because as a Christian, you know the truth. Why should we be afraid to follow that truth and radically pursue holiness at the cost of being looked down on for it?

            

It takes boldness to be able to deny the things of this world to be able to become holy like your creator. I’m sure the majority of this post has seemed like I’ve been lecturing, but these words are exactly what God has been drilling into my own heart, and it’s something I’ve been learning daily. It truly is okay to not talk about someone behind their back, not laugh at the coarse joke that all your friends crack up at, and choose to cut out the sexually explicit music from your playlists. God is continually teaching me that holiness is worth more than the acceptance of people, the approval of this culture, and the cheap tricks that allowing sin brings.

           

So this year, my goal is to take God seriously when He says “not a hint”. I will daily choose to follow Him and rid myself of the things that take my eyes from Him, even if it costs me the approval of my peers. He is so worth going overboard for. Radical holiness is beautiful.

            

Transformation of a New Year

Why does the start of a new year seem to hold so many possibilities? We don’t get as excited over the start of a new day, new week or even a new month, so why is the beginning of a new year so huge? I think that above all the other new starts on a calendar, a new year screams of transformation.

            

We all want transformation in our lives, to the point that some of us obsess over it. You see the craving among the avid gym goers, the ones determined to have a great love life, the people on the job hunt. We seek to make our lives different, to keep moving forward, and to transform.

            

The beautiful part is that our desire for transformation is God given. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Coming to Christ is the ultimate recreation that leads to continual transformation as we choose daily to walk in Him.

           

Goals and resolutions are awesome things; it is always great when we seek to better ourselves. I am a planner to the core, so I make many of these each year (and sometimes I’m actually successful, which is always cool to see). Although I have many areas of my life that I want to become better in this year, I want my main focus to be on the One who brings about ultimate transformation.

            

What good is it to meet my gym quota every week if I become spiritually weak? What am I gaining if I compose all the new music in the world and become a stellar guitarist but don’t use it to worship the God who ultimately gave me the talent? I crave the power of transformation above many things, so this year I want to look directly to the source.

            

So this year my most important goal is both extremely simple and extremely complex: I want to be like Jesus. I want to focus on spiritual growth and becoming a godly woman. I want Jesus to shine through me in my relationships, the work I do and how I live my life. I want the focus of my year to be on Him rather than on me because when you’re all about living for Him, that’s when you’re truly able to be transformed. 

The Heart of the Homeless

"Out of the darkness, He reached for a piece of clay..."

I started to choke up as I listened to the next few lines, detailing intimately how God has created man and recreated those He saves. The words came slowly but joyfully out of the mouth of a homeless man named Lyle. The words came to Lyle when he was out in the woods by his camp praising the Lord. He can barely write, but by God's grace was able to scribble the words down on a piece of paper. It was the second thing he has written in two years. 

I have always had a passion for the homeless. Ever since I was young, they have been the people that God has really placed on my heart to go out of my way to love and care for, and recently I have been able to do just that. I have become involved with a homeless ministry called The Thankful Leper that is focused on caring for the homeless in downtown Des Moines, and helping in the work they have been doing has been a blessing. 

Before I started volunteering, I always thought that I would be blessing the homeless. However, now I can see that is not exactly the case. I can give my time and possessions, but every time I have the fortune of being around these people, I walk away in tears, inspired and in awe of what God is doing in their lives. They truly bless me. 

The passion and joy for the Lord among them is like nothing I have ever seen. Very rarely do you come into contact with people who tell you horror stories from their past just to have a smile chase the sadness of their face as they say, "But praise God, because He is great!" Their joyful hearts are in stark contrast with how bitter my heart can be, and that fact is brought to light and emblazoned into my brain every time I talk with them. 

Although God has been using the homeless in Des Moines to convict me of a bitter, self-centered heart, He has also been convicting me of how selfish I can truly be. I constantly think "I need, I need, I need" when I have been supplied with more than plenty, more than enough to be radically generous, yet I rarely am. The people that The Thankful Leper helps to supply are more than grateful to have enough food to get by, or for a donated pair of boots.

When I met Lyle this afternoon, I knew that God was gently pointing out my own selfishness to me. I had donated a scarf that I had made, and although there was no way that Lyle could have seen me carrying the scarf, he walked right up to me and said, "If this scarf is the only thing I get today, I will be more than happy. I'm just happy to be here." 

I almost started crying when he told me that. Generosity is something that God has been teaching me lately, and this was such a blunt lesson that there was no way I could write it off. God has also been working on my heart through His word. Right now, I'm reading through 1 John with the leadership team I'm on. 1 John 3:17-18 says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

I still have a long way to go, but day by day God is altering my bitter and selfish heart to look more and more like His, selfless and generous. The homeless people I have the joy of being around are most definitely a catalyst. To close this story, my statement for you is the same on that God has been telling me: "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

The Jesus We Create

He does not show any emotion, looking like his face transcends any human feeling or passion at all, perfectly serene. He pays his taxes, is generally nice to people (except for those he doesn't like, people who are different and the gays [those sinners!]), is very moderate and stays comfortably in the middle. He thinks that following him on some things cuts it and is willing to look the other direction when we do not obey what he has said. 

This is the Jesus we create in our imaginations, and this is the Jesus that many of us want to follow. We hear 1 John 2:6, "Whoever claims to be in Him must walk as Jesus did," and get uncomfortable. To fix our lack of comfort, we look to our imaginary Jesus and remind ourselves that compared to him, we're doing pretty good in life! We look around at other Christians (whether they are actually people who follow Christ or if they just label themselves as Christians and do their own thing) and think that we are doing pretty good. Brothers and sisters, this should not be! 

I just finished reading Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos (phenomenal book by the way, and even better author, he's my favorite and I recommend all his work). He brings about our twisting of Jesus in our own image in a amusing but shocking way, and shows the true idolatry of it. We tend to take characteristics of Jesus and run with them, creating them in our own image so that we get Political Power Jesus, Passive Jesus and the like. 

I am completely guilty of this. Looking up from reading in the Book of Mark last week, I looked up from my Bible startled. Was I actually finding the life of Jesus...boring?? I set my Bible down for a few minutes and thought about it, and I realized the reason stemmed from me reading the story of the man I described at the beginning of this post, not Jesus himself. Shortly after, I penned the following paragraph...

"I just realized how much I've limited Jesus to my brain. Some pale guy who was calm and tame. NO! Jesus was Jewish, zealous and passionate! He deeply and vigorously cared for the people he loved, and was so very in love with the other members of the Trinity and the things of the Kingdom and it was evident. He was a story-teller to all, captivating to all."

Although that small paragraph is not nearly enough to capture the true Jesus, it shows the spill of my heart realizing how beyond my wildest dreams Jesus actually is! So all of this post has led to my simple challenge for you. Open your Bible to the Gospels, and read it keeping the real Jesus in mind. The Jesus that had real emotions, real passions, loved boldly and was completely radical. Let this change your perspective. 

You Jesus-Loving Jerk

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." {James 1:19}

I have struggled with being a mean person my entire life. Now, when I say mean, I'm not talking about cheesy sarcasm or friendly teasing, that just means that I'm friends with you. No, I'm talking about the cut-you-to-the-core mean, brutal comments and a temper that reminds me that even though I am indeed forgiven, I still have a disgusting sin nature. 

When I decided to wholeheartedly follow Jesus the summer before my freshman year, God slowly started breaking down the walls in my heart, showing me that my anger was worthless and disgusting compared to the light I walk in when I act like Jesus and hold my tongue. I have come so far since that point, but I would be lying to you if I said that fighting the temptation to be a total jerk was not a daily struggle. 

My devotions lately have been convicting me even more. I've been reading in 1 Peter (if you need a book of the Bible to read, you should read it...so thought provoking). 1 Peter 2:1 says, "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind." A chapter later, in 1 Peter 3:8, it says, "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble." 

One of my favorite verses is 1 John 2:6, "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." I've spent some time connecting the dots between those three verses (there are more I've been thinking about too, I just figured I'd stick with three). If we claim to be Christians, we've gotta walk like Jesus. Jesus did not walk around cutting people down, making power plays, and having snippy comebacks when He was impatient or wanted something to get done His way. I know that example sounds stupid, since He was a perfect Savior, but just think about that image. Are we walking like Jesus? 

Are we getting rid of malice and the nastiness and evil language that pours out of us? Are we sympathetic, compassionate, and loving towards people? Do we treat people with the dignity, respect and brotherly love that Jesus would have had towards them, even if they are "strange" or "not cool"? 

Or do we cut people down with our words, brushing them off as if they are worthless? Do we treat certain people better than others? Go read the beginning section of James 2, obviously that isn't biblical. Are we loving Jesus while acting like complete jerks at the same time? 

This was honestly less of a post than a rant God has put on my heart. I would like to apologize as well, I am not necessarily fond of people, but lately I have been impatient, bitter and brusque to the point of being sinful, and that's not okay. This spoke to my heart, and hopefully it speaks to yours as well. 

Simple challenge: love people like Jesus, all the time, every minute. It doesn't matter whether it's the grocery bagger, the President or the kid that people like to make fun of in youth group (because sadly, hypocrisy reigns in the church). Be different, be the Christian that actually acts like Christ, and people will start to take notice. 

The Disgusting Eye Opener

*IMPORTANT NOTE*'

If you don't feel like having a weird image of me stuck in your mind or you gross out easily, I would not read this post. :) If this hasn't scared you off yet, read on...

Today, God showed me some spiritual insights in one of the weirdest ways I've ever experienced. I woke up at 5 this morning with a stomach that felt like it was on a roller coaster (that is, I was pretty nauseous). Preparing for the inevitable, I pulled myself out of bed, wandered to the kitchen, and grabbed a bucket (I'm pretty sure you know why). Hold on to your seats ladies and gents, because this is where I manage to gross myself out with my own story. 

Well, as it turned out, my stomach was reallyyy messed up, and I threw up so hard that we think I wasn't getting oxygen, because the next thing I know, I wake up on the kitchen floor. There's really no way of putting this delicately to get my point across, so essentially, I found out that even when you pass out, you don't stop throwing up, so I woke up completely disgusting, because you obviously can't hold on to a bucket when you are passed out on the floor. 

By now you may be cringing and completely grossed out, or wondering why in the world I would tell you this. Well, here's the part where God used this total mess to get me to see some realities. I stood there, trying really hard not to cry (come on, you would be in the same boat if it was 5 am and you were covered in nastiness). That's when God laid something important on my heart...

I would be cleaned up. My mom would jump out of bed and start cleaning my mess up while I took a shower. Then, she would tuck me in and I'd go back to sleep. Yeah, I would still be sick, but I would have comfort, the presence of a loving caring family, meds to help me feel better...and Gatorade. Can't forget Gatorade. 

Millions of people around the world would never be comforted when they were sick. That might seem like a simple fact, but it struck me pretty hard this morning. They would not have Gatorade and a comfy bed. They would not have a shower to clean themselves up in, or maybe even family to love and care for them. Something as simple as the flu or food poisoning (or whatever I have) might not just be extremely uncomfortable and sad, but it could easily kill them since they are already malnourished and living in total poverty. 

This simple realization hit me hard. My heart broke a bit. I've always had a heart for people that live in poverty and hopelessness, and this reaffirmed my wish to just make people feel better, and point them to the love and hope that is found in Christ alone. 

That was the immediate thing I gained from that not so pleasant experience. As I thought about it, I realized something else later. That was me before I knew Christ. Covered in my own sin and ugliness, helpless, he took me in, cleaned me up and showed me love. 

Thanks God. Even though it took me being sick to really get these points across, I'm happy you did. Hopefully this post does something other than just completely gross you out, hopefully it makes you think about what Jesus has done or can do in your life, and how you can love the ones who need it. 

With Arms High and Heart Abandoned

I am the type of person who raises their hands while worshiping. Well…after that awkward statement, let me keep explaining. I used to think people who did that were freaks, but as I grew in my relationship with God, being the physical touch oriented person that I am, it seemed only natural that praise would come from not only my mouth, but also my hands and body (hence the reason I’m in Souled Out…but anyway).

I always kind of wondered why it just feels natural when you’re engaged in worship to lift your hands to the Lord. I was reading the Word yesterday, I came across a verse that in an out-of-context and random way, made things click in my brain. Psalm 28:2 - Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

Could the reason it feels so right to raise our hands be because we are surrendering to the Lord? Reading that verse, it made me think of someone who realizes they can’t do it by themselves, and are crying out to the Lord, surrendering to Him as their rock. So maybe there really isn’t a deeper meaning behind lifting your hands in praise- maybe it’s just an extra expression of worship, but from now on, when I lift my hands, surrender to God is going to be the first thing on my mind.