I Know I’m Salty…

What if I told you that within you is the very ingredients and solutions to life that your generation needs and is searching for? What if I told you that those solutions are in a simple two word statement that should be true of the characteristics of every Believer? You want to know what that statement is? Cool, I’ll tell you. That simple two word statement is this: Be Salty!

I know that sounds weird, and it might not make much sense, but that’s actually the solution: Your Saltiness. Don’t laugh, I’m serious…OK… well maybe you can laugh a little bit, because it does sound funny. But check this out: Christ actually calls us to Be Salty in our generation. Matthew 5:13 says we “Are the salt of the earth….” Now in this day and time to be salty isn’t a good thing. To be salty today means to be someone who is tripping on something, or in a bad mood towards someone else. Their emotions are shot and they are just not being an enjoyable person to be around or deal with. They are being “salty”. But that description is not the true description of what it means to Be Salty as a Christian. Christ’s comparison of His Believers to salt is from a totally different perspective. To Be Salty as a Christian means to be living out your full potential and ability in the earth and having maximum effectiveness in your generation. I will say it as many of my young people say: To Be Salty is to be Doing The Most with yourself and your Christianity.

The question I asked myself, though, is this: Why Salt? I mean, one of the things I love about reading the Bible is the revelation of God that we discover as we read. The Bible is full of topics and titles that tell us about our God. Who He is and the different aspects of His character and persona. It tells us that our God is Holy (Psalm 99:9); that He is Righteous (Psalm 116:5); that He is Love (1John 4:8), and that makes sense to me. It is a natural expectation that in God’s book, He would talk about Himself. That’s cool. It is a privilege to get to know our God through His Word. On the other hand, one of the things I also appreciate about the Bible is how God is willing to take out time in His book to tell me about myself. It says things like I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14); I am made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21); I shall be the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13), and it says I am a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). Man, I love that! He cares for me enough that He, as a good Father, is not slack about sharing with me my true identity relative to who He created me to be. He uses much of His book to tell me about myself. But I will be honest, I understood it when He said to be the head and not the tail, and when He said to be royal and holy. That stuff is awesome. I mean who doesn’t want to be royal? But when he said be salt, I was like “OK, now you are not making sense God.” Think about it. Why salt? That does not sound royal to me… Or holy for that matter. Now, it is obviously implied that when He calls us the salt of the earth He is talking about the impact and influence that we are to have in the earth. But why use salt as the similitude for the Believer? Well, allow me the opportunity to share the answer I gathered, and hopefully after reading this you will find yourself open to being more Salty than you ever have before.

So, I started looking up uses for salt and I saw that there are thousands of them. These uses range from health and beauty uses, to kitchen uses, and even cleaning uses. Salt is very useful. This is actually one of the first points that I gathered about being salty: Your Usefulness. This in turn is relative to your purpose. Salt can serve many purposes and those purposes make it quite useful. To be the salt of the earth means to be maximizing your usefulness by walking in your true purpose as a Believer. Let me ask a question: What is your purpose? How are you most useful? One of the immediate purposes of the Believer is to be ministers of reconciliation; reconciling men back to God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). That is one of the most important ways to Be Salty. Tell people about Jesus! Your generation needs your Savior more than anything. If we are not willing to Be Salty about this then we are doing our friends and loved ones who don’t know Christ a great disservice.

Another significant use of salt for me is in its flavoring ability. Salt makes food taste better. I can’t stand McDonald’s fries that have no salt. Their taste is not the same. In similar fashion this world would not be the same without you. There are people you can reach in this world that others can’t. That is why I love the different personalities Christians have. There are Rocker Christians who reach rockers, there are Thugged-out Christians who reach thugs. There are Wealthy Christians who reach the wealthy, and there are Scientific Christians who reach the scientific. The Apostle Peter specifically ministered to Jews. The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, had his heart set on reaching non-Jews, or the Gentiles. All of these are forms of saltiness for the Believer; ways that God commissions us to be the salt of the entire earth, and it is important for us to be the salt that we were created to be. The reality is pepper does something totally different to the taste of french fries than salt does. Trust me, it’s not the same. Salt does what it does because it is what it is. You have to be who you are, because you are a part of what makes this earth what it is. You are the salt of the earth, and if you ever stop being you, then you take away from this world a great resource and necessity of its well being. The latter part of the scripture in Matthew 5:13 talks about what happens if salt loses its flavor. If it stops being salt it loses its purpose and men have no need for it. You can never stop being you. We need you. That’s why God created you. The world tastes much better with you on it. So be you…Be Salty!

My final significant use of salt is that it is a preserving agent. Salt is placed on raw meet to help it last longer and keep it from spoiling. How many of your friend’s lives can you preserve just by being the Christian God called you to be? How many of them could benefit from the life, health, and strength that is in our God? What great impact you can have in the earth when you start sharing with people about your Savior who can heal hurts, give wisdom on family issues, raise self esteem, remove depression, expose gifts and talents, show us how special we are, and guarantee us a future and a hope? All of these are issues of this generation, and all of these have a solution in Christ. That solution comes to the table when you start walking in your saltiness. Oh the lives you can preserve when you start Being Salty! I would even go deeper to say that Christian perseveration is not just relative to the longevity of time, but is relative to the everlastingness of eternity. When you start sprinkling your salt on people’s lives, then you start influencing them with the powers of eternity, and as they receive Christ they begin to be preserved with eternal life. They live forever. That is the very point stated in John 3:16. Listen, to Be Salty is powerful and its impact is eternal!!!

So go figure! Christ actually knew what He was talking about when He called us the salt of the earth. He knew the impact salt has on His creation, and He knew that impact was very similar to His goal for Believers in the earth. You are doing the most with your life when you are being the salty Christian Christ called you to be. You can clean things up as salt. You can beautify lives as salt. You can preserve life as salt, and you can make the taste of life all the more better as the salt of the earth. This my friend, is why we should strive to Be Salty! Now there may be some who will look at you and make claims or give critiques about you being salty. That’s fine. All you should say is this: “I know I’m salty, but I can’t help it. I’m Christian.” Be who Christ has called you to be. Be Salty!!!

Blessings,

Pastor Steven

Qualified

I am an avid basketball fan. It is my favorite sport. I played a few years in high school…well… it was more like I watched from the bench a few years in high school, because I was not good enough to get much playing time. Nonetheless, that did not change my love for the sport. One day a few years back I was watching footage on the NBA draft that was taking place. It was an exciting time as it usually is with the draft because of all of the expectations and anxiety surrounding the fresh new talent that would enter the NBA. One of the most interesting things about the draft to me was the player evaluations that took place. The evaluations discussed the players, their strengths, and successes on the court that obviously showed why they would be great additions to the professional league. But the evaluations also discussed the player’s weaknesses, and things that the players would obviously have to work on in order to be successful in the NBA. Then I realized something: A player’s acceptance to the league was not just based on who they were, but who they could be once they improved. This means their qualifications were not just presently based, but based in future expectations as well. I mean think about it: John Wall is a great player, but think about who he is going to be a few years from now once he is improved by the extensive training of the NBA; its tools, its resources, and support will do great things for his athletic career. He will be a powerhouse in the NBA.

Eventually this made me think about our calling and what God actually views as qualifying material for His call. I came to the conclusion that I am not qualified by who I am or any success I have obtained alone, but simply by His call first, and  secondly by who He knows I can be once I am improved by the extensive training  from His Holy Spirit in me. My qualifications are the result of a divine evaluation that took place concerning who I was and who I can be. As a matter of fact, much of my experience is the result of a journey that I am on with God; a journey that is taking me from who I am, to who I am called to be. That means when I got here I did not have it all or know it all. I still don’t. But God does , and I am confident in His ability to process me on this journey and make me who I can be, in spite of who I many times see that I presently am.

Think about Moses and his call from God in Exodus chapter 4. When God revealed to Moses that he was the chosen deliverer of Israel, Moses said (in my own words), “God, you are tripping. I think you have the wrong guy.” And then he proceeded to tell God why he was not the guy that God wanted.  He told God about his stuttering issue, and his feelings of inadequacy. But God did not flinch. He simply pressed the conversation forward and said to Moses (again, in my own words), “I hear what you are saying, but I am still saying: Qualified.” Then God took Moses, his insecurities, shortcomings, and excuses and began to patiently walk him through a training session or boot camp as it were, on the backside of the desert that took Moses from who he was to who he was called to be. He dealt with his confidence first in God and His ability to use him to save His people. God would be His greatest resource as He is ours today. Then he gave him the tool that would be his main instrument of operation which was his rod. For us our greatest tool is God’s Word. After that he surrounded him with the people to support him on his mission, which were Aaron and his sister Miriam. We have the fellowship and support of our fellow believers in Christ. They stand and fight with us in the faith day in and day out. Ultimately, God knew what Moses could do once he was given the right tools, resources, and support to get the job done. It was within this base of knowledge that God was able to say to stuttering Moses, “Qualified.”

Many times we overrun ourselves with the pressure to perform as leaders in the Kingdom because we think within ourselves that we are called to a place or position solely based off of what we have obtained and become presently. We think we are called to preach because we are good preachers, or we are called to pastor because we are the best with people, and to a certain degree that is true. Yet while this thought is true it is not altogether complete. I would even say for myself, I have had more revelation of who I am not, and what I cannot do since the call, than who I am and what I can do. The truth is when God called you He did it based off of an overall evaluation of who you were; your strengths and your weaknesses, your good and your bad. Then He thought about who you would be once you were able to go through His boot camp and were able to receive His tools, resources, and support that would be necessary on your journey. He didn’t just think about who you were, He thought about who you could be once improved. And after that extensive evaluation, with all of your ups and downs, good and bad, strengths and weaknesses He chose to say to you “Qualified.” And you have been on this journey ever since. From one perspective you could say that all He did was qualified you to get better. Therefore this is what you should strive to always do: Get Better. You won’t be perfect. You won’t have it all figured out. But you will get better. And if you improve on your ministry with even a 5% increase that’s still 5% more people who are being blessed in the Kingdom. That is a 5% better chance that you have of truly making an impact through teaching and preaching, through service and fellowship. If you were already awesome before you got drafted, what does that look like for you now that you are in the League of the Called? Who are you a few years from now? If you walk this journey faithfully and take this process seriously, you will do some amazing things in the Kingdom.

The qualification is always a mixture of the present capabilities and the future hope; with the greatest point for you being what you do in between the time it takes for you to go from who you are now, to who you are capable of being once improved. In the meantime give yourself a break and relax. Pace yourself and let this journey process and perfect you over time. If you do this right you will be poised to be a great mover and shaker in the Kingdom, like John Wall is poised to be in the game of basketball.

 Blessings,

Pastor Steven

To Date Or Not To Date? That Is The Question…

I don’t believe that dating is wrong, per se. I just believe young people can be so frivolous in their approach to dating that they don’t always allow themselves to be objective, discretionary, or even logical within the process. This in turn makes dating look bad on the young person, because the principles that tend to guide the experience are faulty at its core. Yet, I do believe that there is hope in the possibility of young people genuinely having healthy dating relationships, hence, the many adults whose husband or wife was also there high school sweet heart. The possibility is there. But the wisdom needed for healthy dating experiences is not always a possession of the young mind. Therefore, I want to help refine the concept of dating for young people in this blog, and deal with some common issues I have become aware of in conversation with my youth. Now to the adult these issues may seem shallow, or silly, but for our youth these are things that they dwell upon and deal with on a regular basis. Dating and relationships are a huge part of the teenage life and is actually a part of their process of growth and self-discovery. So, I would like to offer some words of wisdom to help my young family navigate the rough waters of dating and relationships. Hope you enjoy, but most importantly I hope you apply these points to your process.

1. Date Who You Are Dating…

I believe the vanity of young love comes from an infatuation with the thought or idea of dating rather than the person being “dated” (if I can say it that way) at the time. It is possible to only concern yourself with dating in general and give less attention or credence to who you are dating when you are only influenced by the idea of dating. This is not good. When you just want to “date” you will pick just about anybody to do it with. That is a great mistake, because you risk compromising your own standards and beliefs, which should guide your whole dating experience. You have to allow yourself to still be objective about who you are dating as much as you desire to date. Therefore I say: “Date who you are dating and stop dating ‘dating’ itself.” (Hope that makes sense.) Don’t date just to date, but date because you have found someone you are genuinely interested in and would like to pursue a relationship with. This means you have to think with a clear head and not one that is clouded by the shear excitement of saying I have a boyfriend or girlfriend. You know you are ready to date when you are able to ask yourself “Is this someone I WANT to be with?” Or, “Is this person a good person for me to be with?” And, if not, “Am I willing to say no even if it means not enjoying my precious dating experience?” The goal of dating is to connect you with SOMEBODY not with an IDEA. So, think through your dating choices, and be driven by the person of interest, not by your interest in dating itself.

2. But I like Him/Her….SO.

There are many times someone will ask me “What if my friend smokes, steals, or flirts with my friends? Should I still date him?” And I will say in big bold letters, “NO.” Then they will say “But I really like him.” And my answer, in big bold letters is, “SO.” Just because you like someone does not mean you need to be with them. That person has to qualify to be in your life and you have to qualify to be in theirs. If they don’t meet the criteria, which should go far beyond your feelings for them, then you have to keep it moving and keep them out of your life.  Don’t get it twisted, it is possible to love someone that is the worst person for you, but you have to look beyond the emotional fluff and make a mature decision to leave them where they are. The next response is: “But I think I can help them.” My answer, in big bold letters is “NO YOU CAN’T.” That is God’s job not yours. If I am going to be with someone, then I want to be with them; not counsel them, coach them, or train them, but be with them. And they need to be able to be with me. I’ll conclude this with words from Bishop T.D. Jakes. He says, “I don’t want to be pulled down, trying to pull you up.” Amen and Amen….LOL.

3. Leave Your Friends Alone…

A young lady is walking down the hall with her boyfriend. All of a sudden someone pushes her from behind and begins to laugh. Before she could get upset, she turns around to see that it is her BFF Toya. She smiles and says “Hey girl!” Toya responds, “Hey Tiffany.” Then she looks over at the young man and says, “Hey Roger.” He glances at her and says in the coolest way he can, “What’s up?” They all stop and chat for a bit, and Tiffany remembers that she has a meeting that she needs to make it to. So, she rushes off and leaves Toya and Roger in the hall alone. They smile at each other, make a few silly comments and then proceed to walk around the corner Holding Hands…. Now this may make you say, “Oooooooohhhh.” But, there are many times when I see unhealthy interactions between friends who are boyfriends or girlfriends of other friends which leads to the damaging of friendships. (I know I said friend a lot right there but stay with me, this is going to bless you…LOL.) If your friend is with someone then that person should be off limits to you. I am saying this for your friendship’s sake, and not to ruin your love life.  Be mindful of how you interact with boyfriends or girlfriends of your friends.  Leave flirting, lengthy communication, secret interactions, and phone conversations out of the picture. Let them be with their boyfriend/girlfriend, and you stay out of their relationship, unless you come in as a mutual friend to both. You may be attracted to the person but respect your friend enough to leave them alone. Once they break up, then Maybe you and your friend can work something out as far as the Ex having a relationship with your friend. But prioritize your friendship first, not a could be relationship. Too many times we abandon friendships for temporary excursions with people that don’t even last. We trade loyalty for dating and that is not wise. Don’t be so anxious to be with someone that you jeopardize a good friendship. Especially when that person is someone your friend is already dating.

One more note on this: Be mindful of sharing too much about your relationship with friends, as well, because you might stir up feelings within your own friends that produce an attraction to your man or woman. Yep… I’ll leave it at that.

I constantly get asked questions regarding relationships and these are some that were on my heart that I felt the need to write about. I will throw some more pointers out there in the future as I continue to pursue this thought of refined dating in the teenage life.  See you in the next blog. Blessings…

A Quick Word…Well, Maybe Not So Quick

After the last blog I told myself that I would do everything I could to keep this next blog short and sweet. So, for this one I thought I would keep it simple give you a brief peek into some study that I was doing from one single scripture in the book of James chapter 4 and verse 7. It says this:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

(James 4:7) 

Now, you don’t have to be a Christian long before you deal with this issue of resisting. Especially with the enemy that we are dealing with, and especially since the things the enemy tempts us with, the things that we now have to resist, are things that were ok for us before we knew Christ. We call that time B.C. (Before Christ). Think about it, B.C. It did not matter who you hung out with. B.C. It did not matter what party you went to. B.C. you and Johnny (Or whatever the boyfriends name is) could have had a good relationship. But now, you have standards, now you try and respect your curfew, now you don’t allow Johnny (Or whatever the boyfriends name is) to touch you as he did before. Now you are not comfortable with everything that goes on at the parties, because now you have Christ in you and He gauges your lifestyle on a totally different level. Soooo (that’s how I put my emphasis on a word, bear with me. LOL) you have to become acquainted with this term called resisting. The devil is prepared to tempt you, you have to be prepared to resist. But, I want you to look at the scripture one more time and I will submit to you one thought, followed by three points, and then I will be done with this blog.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

(James 4:7)

Before the scripture says to resist the devil, it says to “Submit yourselves to God,” which suggests that resisting goes hand in hand with submitting. Many times the reason why we fail at resisting is because we overlook this first requirement of submitting. Let me tell you this: There can be no resisting where there is no submitting. Therreeffoorree (again my emphasis) if we are to submit to God along with resisting then we must also become acquainted with this term called submitting.

To submit in and of itself means to come under the power of another person or thing. So, when we submit to God we come under His power and we allow His will and desire for us (The standards that have been set forth in His Word, and the convictions and leadings that come from His Holy Spirit) to govern our lives, thereby creating not only the need to resist, but the passion to resist just so that we can stay in obedience to God and keep Him happy. So, here are three simple points to help acquaint you with submitting and help you better process resisting as you walk in your relationship with Christ.

1. To Submit means to Admit:

You have to admit that God’s way is right above all other ways. This inherently means seeing yourself and the devil as wrong. Admitting of this sort is not easy because you have to judge things within yourself that you thought were right, or you thought was ok, and you must conclude that they are not sufficient enough to produce the type of life God intends, therefore they are wrong. But not wrong in the sense that they mean nothing but just wrong in the sense that they mean nothing. Selah… The bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). And when it comes to this spiritual journey upon which our feet presently tread we have not an ounce of resources adequate to satisfy the requirements necessary for success in this most glorious realm of righteousness. (Sorry, I got carried away with that sentence, again, bear with me.) Because we have not what it takes to succeed, the only option worth pursuing is submission. It is at the point of submission that I am forced to admit how incapable I am.  No matter how good I maybe to others and to myself the truth is that I, like the Apostle Paul, have to admit that “in my flesh dwells no good thing” (Romans 7:18). Even if it seems right to me the Bible says “there is way that [always] seems right to a man, but the end is death” (Proverbs 16:25). And please understand that admittance is not just about renouncing your way as much as it is about seeing it in a different light. It is about revelation; revelation of our horrible sin contaminated lives, revelation of the death that is associated with our own way. And when that revelation hits then we start coming to different conclusions as it relates to what we should do. Read Isaiah chapter 6 and you will see the overwhelming presence of God produce a cry in the prophet Isaiah that caused him to admit things about himself that even as a good man he could not cover up. He came to God’s house to kick it with Him and worship Him for a bit. Right in the middle of his worship he caught a revelation of God that exposed a reality in himself. He needed God. Even as a worshipper, even as a man who sought God, he had things in him that made him unworthy of what He experienced in God’s presence. You know hanging with God will do that to you. You will see yourself in reference to God’s divinity, and compared to Him you will realize how unworthy you are. And like Isaiah you have to humble yourself before God and admit that you are unclean. Isaiah was not afraid or too proud to admit it. He needed God, and he couldn’t fix himself. He had to submit to God. The moment you can humble yourself to admit that you are wrong is the moment God can come in and make you right. Submission starts with this admittance, the admittance that says “of all that I am and all that I can do, God I am nothing without you. Annnddd (I hope by now you are used to me) there is no way I can fight this enemy, let alone live this life unless I do it your way.

2. To Submit means to Commit:

Once you have admitted God’s way as right, then you have to commit yourself to walking in that way. When I married my Wifey (That’s what I call her, isn’t it cute?) I pronounced my love for her, but in pronouncing my love for her I had to take certain vows that said “I will be with you in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, until death do you part.” These vows explained not only the level of love that I have for my wife, but the degree that I have to commit myself to her. I soon realized that I would have to make good on this commitment from the start of our marriage. Life’s storms hit us pretty early on. From money problems, to family problems, to personal problems that became our corporate problem, we fought hard. And we not only had to fight through those circumstances, but we had to fight to stay committed to our vows to each other. Saying the vows was a cinch, but committing to those vows was harder than breaking three blocks of wood with your bare hands without a lick of martial arts training. (OK, that’s the southern boy coming out in me.) Committing is tough. One reason it’s tough is because committing means change, and many times it means changing things about yourself. It means changing relationships that don’t line up with God’s way. It means changing mindsets, conversations, and attitudes that are inconsistent with God’s way. Committing means doing things differently. Committing comes from a mentality that says “no matter what I will do what it takes to stand on my word,” or in this case, “God’s word.” It says that it trusts God’s government and truly believes His way is right and therefore it will submit to that way by committing to it even when it is tough to do. But remember that when you commit you are not only committing to stand on God’s word, just like I committed to stand on my vows to my Wifey, but you are also committing to God’s best for your life. Listen, His way is His best for your life. When the devil tempts you, even though it may feel right, even though it may seem right, even though you may be comfortable with it, you must remember that it is not God’s best for you. Knowing that can produce the level of commitment that influences your desire to resist the enemy, because you know in the end, the enemies way is doable, but God’s way is best. His way ends in life and the enemies way ends in death. I want that life not death. Commitment is tough but I implore you to commit because it is an important ingredient of submission. At all cost commit to God, and your enemy will flee.

3. To Submit means to Forfeit:

To forfeit means to surrender, and ultimately to surrender means to give up. Here is where the essence of submission lies. Oswald Chambers would say that “we must give up our rights to ourselves” in order to walk successfully in God. You have to give up your rights in order to walk in God’s power. Your rights to yourself is the difficult part because we like to fancy ourselves as entitled and privileged. We deserve to fight for our rights, no one should have control over us completely, that’s not viewed as morally, or humanly just. But when it comes to submission to God you have to give up your rights. I would suggest that much of what we battle with is the result of what we have been holding on to and refusing to give up. The things we have been trying to obtain in our own strength when God is saying just give up. You’ve been forcefully trying to maintain your relationship with Johnny or Susie (You know what I mean), convincing yourself you can handle it, but you have already gone too far. You continually lie to your parents about the nature of your relationship. You make promises to yourself to never again go that way, or do that thing, and yet all remains the same. Just give up. Your family has been your place of comfort and if the family is cool with it then so are you, but God is leading you in another direction. Just give up. You have been friends with someone for a long time, and B.C. everything was fine, but after you gave your life to Christ things have been totally up and down like a roller coaster at Six Flags. Just give up. It’s time to forfeit your rights to yourself. Cease to function in your own strength. Give up. Submit to God. Here is where the power for resisting rises. Here is where the enemy backs up. Here is where you get your life back. Where God arises and His enemies scatter. When you let go, then you allow God to be God in your life. Annndddd (See you didn’t frown that time) where God is present no evil can prevail (Romans 8:31). Submitting is all about you getting out of the way so that God can have His perfect way in your life. That means coming to a simple resolve that first admits to His way above all others, commits to His way above all difficulties, and forfeits your rights to give way to His righteousness in your life.

It is when this level of submission is accomplished that resisting the devil becomes possible, because then you walk in the power of God’s Spirit that empowers you with the strength you need to resist the enemy adequately and effectively in this most glorious path of righteousness that our relationship with Christ has placed us on (There I go again). Always keep this thought in your spirit: The enemy cannot stop a person totally submitted to God.

OK, so this wasn’t as quick as I thought. It definitely was not as short as I thought, but I do believe it will be sweet to your Spirit. Blessings to you and I will see you at the next blog.

War Strategy…Life Strategy!

We went to play paintball this past weekend and it was a blast! I remember getting ready for our first battle. We made the two teams, walked over to our respective sides of the field and waited for the OK to start the battle. As we waited our team huddled to form a strategy on how we would fight this great battle. We had a pro on our team, so he was giving us instruction and we were taking it all in like sponges. I don’t think anyone wanted to make a wrong move because that would not only get us put out of the game, but would also be very painful as we were hit by the paintballs. The problem was that while our pro was talking, the game officiator was talking as well, and right in the middle of our brief we heard a loud cry that said “3,2,1… Start Fire!!!” Immediately we saw paintballs whizzing past our heads and bouncing off the walls and barriers. We all screamed… some whimpered… and ducked for cover. I said to myself, “Oh man, it just got real.” In a split second we went from talking about battle to fighting one with no warning or prep time, and that is where the idea for this blog started. Let’s Go!!!

Life can be the same way. In split seconds we can go from rejoicing to weeping, from praising to mourning; celebrating to grieving, and many times this comes without warning. With our current economic situation families have seen themselves go from well to do circumstances to being in the worse circumstances of their lives. The loss of jobs, insurance, and pensions have brought people from being up and over to being down and out. In a single day their entire life’s strategy had to change and they had to develop a new battle plan for their new set of life circumstances. While we were playing paintball, there were a lot of methods and factors that we had to consider in order to be victorious. These factors, as you will see, are not only effective in paintball battles, but in the battles of life, as well. I call them M.O.’s which means Methods of Operation. There were a lot of M.O.’s we adopted while we played. I will share a few of these war strategies with you and you can use them as your life strategies for obtaining victory and success.

M.O. 1: The Team Factor (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)

The best battles are fought with a team. There are times in life that you will feel like you are better off alone, but the reality is no one makes it in this life by themselves, especially, when you are in the heat of battle. It is a blessing to be able to fight with others. The sad part is that times of intensity have a tendency to put strains on the team unit. Communication flops, pressure mounts, and it is tough to see eye to eye. As a result we lose sight of who our enemy is and begin to attack our own teammates. If we don’t change, eventually the team core fails and everyone ends up fighting alone. But you have to remember: when you go in to battle with others your success depends on their success. You win based off of how you all fight both individually and collectively. While we were playing I got shot in the middle of the battle so I had to leave the field. I threw my hands up, shouted to the top of my lungs, “I’m Out, I’m Out,” as I ran off the field hoping no one would shoot me as I exited. When I got off the field, I exhaled briefly because I was safe, and then became upset that I couldn’t fight any longer. Yet, the reality was that as long as I had teammates on the field, I still had a chance of winning. So I stood outside the netted wall, cheered my team on, and eventually our team who started out with eight, ended up with three left on the field. We kept cheering because as long as we had teammates on the field, we had a chance of winning. Those three fought diligently until they were the last ones standing and we won. Did you hear that, I said, WE won. Our entire team got the victory because three members of our team out shot and withstood our opponents. We won. We started together, we fought together, and we won together. In times of intense battle, don’t ever leave your team. Your team could be your family, your church, or your sports club. Whoever your team is, you have to remember: your victory must come collectively and not separately. All members of the team need each other. Start together. Fight together. Stay together. Win together.

M.O. 2: The Strategy (Habakkuk 2:2)

Contrary to popular belief, paintball is more about strategy and planning than it is about shooting. There was a team of professional paintball players who were at the paintball coliseum with us. They played on one field and we played on the other. The interesting thing was listening to their shooting style as compared to ours. Theirs sounded more like pat….pat pat……pat…….pat. Ours was more like pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat…… pat pat pat pat pat pat pat. You get my drift. We were just shooting wildly and aimlessly. They were shooting strategically; picking their shots, waiting for the best ones, and positioning themselves to get them. That’s what strategy does for you. It positions you for victory and puts you in the best place to accomplish your goal. You should never go into battle without a plan, because victory in life comes through more than a just run and shoot mentality. When we won our battles it was because we talked through them. We gave directives for the battle, and everyone followed. We worked together, but we also worked the plan. In life it is the man who lives with no plan that loses. Yes there are unawares and random things that come up, and you have to adjust your strategy on the spot, but it has been said that there is no such thing as bad weather, just people badly prepared for it. You need to develop a strategy for your life based off of your dreams, goals, and objectives. Don’t say I want to win, and expect to get there by randomly running and shooting. Think it out. Write it out. Talk it out. Walk it out.

M.O. 3 The Experience Principle (Romans 5:3-4)

The best fought battles are fought with experience on your side. Like the reason why the Dallas Mavericks won the Championship this year. Sorry, I had to throw a shout out to my Dallas family in there. Sometimes experience makes the difference. We had some really experienced people playing with us and they were Beasts on the field. Their experience made the difference. The problem with being young is that you don’t have much of the experience that comes through life, so you have to get your wisdom from those who came before you, and lean on the experience of those around you. That becomes a problem because many times the people you have to lean on you don’t always respect. Such as parents, teachers, authorities, etc. But if you can gather an appreciation for those who came before you, then you can gain the wisdom they have learned from their life’s battles without even going through what they went through to learn it. It is said that a smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. When we were playing our team had some pros on it, and even though I was the person running the event, when we picked team captains, I did not make myself a captain because I did not have the experience to do it. I would have led our team to an all out slaughter, honestly. So, I put it in the hands of the experienced pros and they led the teams and did a great job. I knew that if I trusted their experience, listened to it, and followed it then I would be very successful during our battles. This also means you have to humble yourself and listen to somebody else sometimes. As long as you fight with a “You can’t tell me nothing” mentality, you will lose in life all the time. Experience does not have to come from your own life. You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t need to be the best all the time. Just trust and follow the One who is the Best in this life (that’s Jesus) and you will find yourself walking in the same victory that He walks in. That’s the hope we have in Christ. Listen, it is possible for you to prosper from the experience of others. Even as your experience improves you still won’t know it all to the extent that you rely solely on yourself. Trust the experience around you and let it impact your life’s battle. Receive it. Listen to it. Fight victoriously because of it.

M.O. 4 The Fear Factor (2 Timothy 1:7)

Years ago, when I first played paintball I went with the young men’s ministry for our youth group in Dallas. It was all fellas and it was fun. As we drove to the paintball facility we talked the usual smack that men talk. We put on our macho faces and stuck our chests out because we were men, and there was no way we would be intimidated to play some measly paintball. Oh no, some of us grew up hearing constant shots from real guns firing throughout our neighborhoods. Paintballs were nothing. Until we started our first battle, and we realized the balls were more like rocks coming at us, and felt like rocks when they hit us, especially if they didn’t pop when they made contact. Oh, every manly muscle we had went out of us and we realized that this sport was more extreme and gangsta than we thought. So we scarily hid behind our barriers, afraid to even peak our heads around them to see where to shoot. Some claimed to be snipers so they would sit behind the barrier and pick people off while the rest of the team advanced forward. Let me go twitter style on this one: #Yeahright! The truth is they were paralyzed by the fear of being hit by those paint bullets and didn’t have the courage under fire to expose themselves. But eventually there was a boldness that got in us. We developed this fearlessness that made us tell ourselves I don’t care anymore. We were not going to waste our time in fear and we all found ourselves charging for battle like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. We wanted to fight. We wanted to win, and we knew there was no way we could do either of those without taking the risk, putting ourselves out there, and going for it. Sometimes in life all you can do is just go for it. Let go of your fear. Let go of your doubt. Let go of your worry. Encourage yourself and say no matter what I’d rather lose by fighting than lose to the fear of never having tried at all. There is a fearlessness you have to possess in order to win in life. Sometimes that fearlessness does not come outside of fear, but in the face of fear. You have to fight afraid, shoot afraid, charge afraid, but at least you are doing it nonetheless. When you deal with your fear then you will find yourself enjoying the adventures of life, even in the most daunting of circumstances. Just Go for it. Confront it. Deal with it. Fight through it.

M.O. 5 Fight No Matter What (1 Timothy 6:12)

There were some who came with us who chose not to play paintball. For whatever reason they just wanted to be there, and that’s fine. But I sincerely believe the ones who had the best time were the ones who came and played. You see, the battles best fought are the ones fought altogether. You have to live with a fighting mentality. Success does not come to those who sit. The enjoyment of life does not come to those who watch, it comes to those who get involved and fight. You must remember: any life worth living and worth having is worth fighting for. So, the children if Israel was promised a land by God that was flowing with milk and honey, but the stipulations of them possessing the land came from a thing called dispossession. They had to take the land from those who were there first in order to enjoy what God had promised them. There were many reasons why God decided to do it this way, but whatever those reasons, you will see that the Israelites possessed whatever they fought for and thoroughly took from their enemies. If they did not do this then they could not take full possession of God’s promise, and sadly it was that way for some. But for those who chose to thoroughly fight, through their pains, in the face of giants, in the midst of storms; to those men was the award of God’s promise and blessing in their life. They got involved and did what they had to do to get what they desired to have. Check it, life was meant to be lived not watched and you should do whatever you have to do to live it. Choose to fight no matter what. Choose to live. You will find yourself, even in the midst of your battle, smiling, laughing, and having a wonderful time all because you chose to get involved no matter. Choose to do it. Live through it, and enjoy it.

There are many other points that we could draw from and maybe one day I will share them with you. For now, I pray you would take these few Methods of Operations in to your battlefield of life and use them to the best of your ability so that you can see the victory, success, and enjoyment of life that God wants you to see.

Blessings,
Pastor Steven

The Life Of The American Teenager Part 1

I like to call teenage life The Teenage Bubble. I call it a bubble because it represents a separate world or culture in which young people live. I call it a bubble because it is an isolated environment in which youth experience things that no one else experiences on earth. (Well at least that is what I think.) I also call it a bubble because what takes place in this bubble has the ability to determine where you go in life like a bubble being carried off by the wind after being blown by a child in the park. The reality is the decisions made in this bubble can become determining factors as to where you go, and who you become. Therefore it is important to gain insight and understanding about these years of your life so that you can learn how to manage this bubble with success. I will be sharing with you a series of blogs that help provide some insight on this Teenage Bubble. Here is part one. Let’s Go!!!! (Laughing to myself…)

The Bible says in all your getting, get an understanding. (Prov. 4:7) I say anything worth being or doing is worth understanding. And since you have to be a part of and do teenage life for the next few years of your life, it would help to understand what you are going to be dealing with. The more you understand it, the better you can manage it. Here is the first thing you want to understand:

You must understand the specific issues that approach young people today. These are issues such as social networking, relationships, school life, home life, bullying, substance use and abuse, personal image and identity, media influence, partying, and sexuality. When I asked my youth what they felt like they deal with, these were some of the main topics that they brought up. I actually thought it was interesting that many of them really emphasized sex, drug usage, and partying. Some of these issues are good, some are bad, and some depend on how they are used. Now, will all these issues be the defining issues of all young people? No, but at some point most young people will be exposed to or confronted with them, because these issues are the issues that shape the culture. Moreover, you cannot manage what you don’t know about. So, the more you become familiar with these issues, the more you can develop ways to properly manage them in a healthy manner.

Take partying, for instance. Our kids told us that there are parties every weekend. Jokingly I asked two questions afterward: Why? And How? Ultimately the responses given were based out of boredom. There was nothing to do in Denver and they NEEDED something fun to do. (I had to emphasize “needed” because that is how my youth expressed it.) Now who can blame a person for that, though? Even God likes celebration; hence the many great feasts of the Bible. Yet the issue is not that there is a desire for something fun to do, it is how you do it. When you evaluate what goes on at teenage parties it is quite scary. But when you evaluate why it goes on you get a different perspective. It is ultimately kids trying to have fun without boundaries, and that is the point where things go wrong. There is an internal conclusion amongst youth that if we are going to have fun we have to do it this way, and many times that way is dangerous, unhealthy, and ungodly, and unnecessary. Now I am not saying that you keep yourself from having fun, but I am saying to not allow the culture to convince you that if you have fun you can only do it with drinking, sex, alcohol, and in hostile environments that are mostly broken up by the police, or that are so outrageous that they cannot be shared with an adult, they remain the secrets locked up in the bubble. No, don’t allow yourself to settle for what the culture says is fun. Know that there is a way to overcome your boredom, have fun, and do it in a respectful, healthy, and guilt free manner. It’s just waiting for one young person to stand up, take the challenge, and set the standard for what their lifestyle will be, and set that standard according to what they know will glorify God. You see, knowing these issues and accepting them are two different things. When you know these issues you can better understand what to accept and what not to accept about your bubble. When you know these issues you can even know what needs to be changed about your bubble. You should find something in you that says, “This is what society says I am, but this is who I am determining to prove that I am.” Then with all of your might you show this culture that you are the controller of it, and the controller of yourself is God; anything that does not look like Him will not be associated with you. When you see that something confronting you in the culture is not a positive, godly reflection of who you are to be, then you as a child of God should stand up and live above it, or, if need be, burst the bubble and create a new one.

Listen, what you don’t know can hurt you, and having knowledge of the issues that shape the Teenage Bubble gives you an edge in the culture; but knowing how to properly apply this knowledge does you one better, which is actually part two of this blog.  I’ll end this one by saying this: Knowing and accepting are two different things. You can know all things, but you always have a choice as to what you should accept. Knowing the issues of the culture should be followed by what you will choose to accept or push to change about your culture. I’ll catch you in the next blog.

Blessings,

Pastor Steven

Becoming A Mind-Bender

We have had a very cool conversation that is centered on a series called Becoming a Mind-Bender. This is a discussion on the mind, which is the center of our mental processes of thought, feeling, and reason. Mastering the mind is one of the most important aspects of our spiritual growth and development in Christ. It is relevant not only to determining what we think about, but how we think those thoughts through; and how we think is relevant to the type of life we live, and the type of person we become. We are as we think. So, we must ensure that the way we think is in line with God’s will for our lives. In order to do this, we must become Master Mind-Benders. I know that sounds weird but just stay with me.

One of my favorite cartoons to watch is Avatar, the Last Air-Bender. This show is about four nations who have persons within each nation that are able to perform an ancient art called Bending, where they bend either air, earth, water, or fire. The nation that a person is a part of is determined by the element that they control or bend, and the nations are the Air Nomads, Fire Nation, Water Tribes, and Earth Kingdom. Now with the ability to bend these elements, they can control and move them however they want to, but each person can only bend one of these elements. The main character in this show is a kid named Aang who is called the Avatar. The Avatar is the only person in the land with the ability to control all four elements. He is the protector of all the people in the land, and must keep balance between the four nations. But his supreme ability is one that must be learned and mastered. Which means even though he is the greatest Bender in the land, he cannot fully function as such until he has practiced on and mastered all four of the elements. He must learn how to properly use his skill, and not just be content to have it, in order to keep balance in the land. So, the entire show is about young Aang’s journey to master his ability and restore balance and peace between the four nations.

You know our minds work much the same way. They have the ability to determine the balance of our lives. The bible states that a double minded man, or a man that is unsure in his mind is unstable, or out of balance in all his ways. (James 1:8) The mind must be bent, as it were, into proper shape and form in order for us to effectively use it to its fullest capacity, and cause peace and balance to come to our lives. There is nothing like being a balanced person, or a balanced Christian. This balance comes when we master our minds. The bible tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), which suggests that when God begins to change us He starts with our minds. Spiritual transformation begins in the mind. It suggests even that God can change our entire lives simply by changing the way we think. When we properly bend our minds, lining them up with God’s will and His way, then we begin to see our experiences change for the better. And we will prove that God’s will is good, it is perfect, and it is acceptable for us (Romans 12:2). It’s a simple thought: If you change your thinking, you will change your life.

Just as Aang worked hard to master bending the elements, you have to work to master bending your mind, and your mind can be bent through mental conditioning. It can be taught how to process thought, and that training, or conditioning affects your decisions, which affect your actions, which then become known as your life. How you think is important to your life. So let me give you a few points to help you in this mind-bending process.

1.    Check Your Download: Your mind is like a big computer. It processes whatever software and information is downloaded to its system, and trust me when I tell you that your mind can download anything. If you are going to master your mind, you have to master what is downloaded to it. If we are as we think, then what we think is as we put into our minds. There has to be a process in which you manage the thoughts that are coming into your mind. The predominant way to do this is by reading God’s Word. (Psalm 119:11) If you constantly download God’s Word into your system then you will be pouring into your mind the type of thoughts that produce a healthy and balanced life in Christ. As you do this you will find your life conforming to the type of Word-based thoughts that fill up your mind. Thoughts that say you “can do all things through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:13), or you are” more than a conqueror through Christ who loves” you (Romans 8:37). These thoughts bring hope and peace to your life by building your confidence in Christ. When your mind is conscious of Christ’s presence and participation in your life, then anything becomes possible for you.

2.    A Good Defense Creates a Great Offense: You have to make sure that you have a good system of defense, because every now and then you may have to defend your mind against foul, evil, and deceitful thoughts that are not Godly. The Bible says to put off the former conduct and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:22-23). This means that there are some things that you cannot allow your mind to process or entertain; you just have to cast them off. After that you have to renew your mind through spiritual reinforcement. This allows your defense to make room for your offense. Because your nature is born in sin and shaped in iniquity, it is prone to sinful things, and when those sinful things try to come into your system through your mind, you have to cast them off; (That’s defense). We are to cast down all evil imagination and every thought that is against the knowledge of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). But you can’t just cast down a thought without renewing your mind with a fresher, newer, and better thought that honors God (That’s offense). This actually leads me to my final thought.

3.    Think How not What: The greatest enemy to mind-bending is how we think, not simply what we think. Bending is a way of using a tool given to us by God in order to live the life set up for us by God. He gives us the tool of the mind and then pursues to show us how to use it for maximum success to take place in our life. So, we have to control how we use our minds as much as we control what goes through them. Casting down and then renewing is a method and mental process, and we have to renew our minds to new methods of thinking in order to walk effectively in Christ. We have to monitor what thoughts come into our mind by managing how we process those thoughts. Here is what I mean: Take the word “but.” It is a word that is used to describe one thought relative to another. For instance if I say: It is beautiful outside, but I am stuck inside. The beauty of the outside is connected to the issue of being stuck inside, and the thought that controls the mood of the sentence is the one that comes after the but. So, no matter how nice the weather is, you will mainly focus on the issue of not being able to go out and enjoy it.  See, you have to be mindful of what comes after your but. (No pun intended.) Because that final thought that comes up behind your but is the one that controls the mood of your life. And the enemy is always chasing your buts with thoughts that shape mood that shape decisions that shape life. As a master mind-bender, you have to learn how to move your but; not taking away the word, but changing how you use it. In this process, it matters how you use it. Watch what happens when I move my but: I am stuck inside on a nice day, but I will make the most of this time I have to do some work. My life is not the best life, but I will do my best to enjoy it to the fullest. My Mom and I don’t get along, but I will continue to work at our relationship because I love her. This class is hard, but I will study hard until I pass it. What’s the difference? How I use my but. Simply put, in this process of mind-bending, you have to keep your but moving. The moment it stands still is the moment it can be taken out by processing a thought in the wrong way. Your life can be frustrated not by what you think only, but how you think. You have to master your how.

Now, these are just a few points in the mind bending process, but if you will be faithful to work at these then you will find yourself becoming a master of your mind. (See I just moved my but again.) As you journey in this process you will come into new ways and methods of mind-bending; and as you become a master of your mind, then you will see your life become transformed in God. You will be able to put on fresh new experiences, and enjoy a level of peace, prosperity, and balance in this life that is like none other. This is Gods good, perfect, and acceptable will for your life. (Romans 12:2) Master your mind and you will become a master of your life.

Pastor Steven Cartwright is the Youth Pastor at The Potter’s House of Denver.