The Ultimate Mentor

"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1:11-12 ESV

     Over the past several years I've become acquainted with a few key people that have shaped my life in many ways and opened my perspective and awakened my wisdom regarding many topics about life. One of my most recent mentors that has become one of my dearest friends to my wife and I is Jered Day, and to her, his wife Jenny. If you lined up all those that have been impacted by Jered throughout his ministry and his leadership, you could surely fill a stadium. But don't take Jered as the stadium type though, he's the one that truly takes time, one on one time, to teach and lead you in the direction your heart leads you, your Holy Spirit filled heart. I could go on about his mentorship but I would have to say that neither him, nor Paul or any of the great men of faith, could truly change my life like a revelation from Jesus does.

     In these couple of verses, Paul makes it clear that Jesus is the ultimate mentor. People can guide our perspective on life and making the right decisions but true encounters with Jesus can't be "taught". I was never taught the gospel by a man, the true gospel, Christ always revealed that to me through His words or the words of a man. You see, the gospel is just  God's word to us and He uses it to teach us but how many times have you heard the gospel but never let it sink in? Many times for me. Many Sundays too. Jesus uses the pourous material of the Holy Spirit to let His word sink in. You can teach me stuff all day but until I am ready to sit down one on one with Him over a cup of coffee, or in deep prayer, I won't truly learn anything. In those times is when He reveals the gospel to me. Yes, He may use sermons and messages or mentors, but He uses the material we hear or read to speak the gospel we need to absorb into our hearts.

Do you understand? How many times have you sat in church and not heard a word but waking up after a Sunday nap had a huge Jesus revelation? Maybe not that exact example but you understand my point, Jesus is the one that teaches us the gospel through a revelation from Him and that is what Paul is trying to say.

So, the most important aspect to take away from this post is the fact that you always need to be listening because He speaks to you more than just on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Others Glorify God Because of You

(Google Images: Hooked On The Book.com)

     In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul speaks on his journey through the religion and life of Judaism and the change that happened inside of his own heart. Paul speaks on the fact that one of his sole purposes was to destroy the church and what God was trying to accomplish while he was a follower of Judaism. This region Paul is coming into in Galatians was only visited by Paul a few times and they only knew him of his past reputation.  That is a minor snippet of the backstory but I want to focus on just one verse and that is Galatians 1:24. In this verse, Paul makes a statement about what people think of him now that he is entering back into this region as a new man of God. This is the verse:

"and they glorified God because of me." (ESV)

What does he mean there?

Paul is entering into this environment as a new man and that change is so evident from the old Paul of Judaism that people can see it in him. They can actually see and understand the message Paul is portraying. Paul's message and overall body language and demeanor is so strong and evident, and his love for God so noticeable, that it actually changes people.

Let me ask you this uncomfortable question that I receive personal conviction on.

Does your love of God change people? Does your light make people glorify God?

I mean, the "city on a hill" verse in Matthew is true. We want our light to shine to others so they can see Jesus but does our light actually make people glorify God? Paul's heart transition and transformation made people glorify God! Another amazing fact is that this group has seen Paul less than 5 times in their life and on this time his heart change makes them glorify God? Do you make your coworker that you see every day glorify God because of your love for Him?

Boom. That hit me hard. You?

This is such a personal conviction of mine because I think about what kind of manager I am. Yeah, I don't cuss like the rest of them. Yeah, I try to be kind and considerate to all, but do I go to work and actually cause people to glorify God because of the fact that I am just radiating His already existing Spirit inside of me? Absolutely not.

Think about this with me. We need to find our strengths, and let God take care of our weaknesses (an upcoming post) and let His Spirit take us over and show others what He looks like. I want others around me, and you do too, to say that not only is it evident that he has Jesus in Him, but his demeanor and attitude about life, work, and everything else makes me want to glorify God just because of his life! I have that goal and I charge you to make it yours too.

Ye Lazy Christian

     In Sunday school this morning, we talked about laziness. It is actually one of the seven deadly sins, often referred to as "sloth" within that reference lens. We discussed several charges of this behavior within the lesson and talking points. We talked about us as a society and pondered on if we are actually a working society as a root or a lazy one. All political entitlement points aside, I received a personal charge that many of you may agree with me on. 

     Let's look at our Christianity productivity levels in 2015. No, this is not some end of the year mantra or pledging for 2016 mumbo, this is solely a frame of reference as we are nearing 2015's end. In reflection, I see my Christian faith on a 12 month point scale as I ask you to do. Within the last 12 months, how many of those months would you say that you are a "model" Christian? In other words, how many of the months would you say you were a disciple, and how many were you, well...lazy? I would say in 2015 I was more lazy than not, you? On that scaling I may be a 8:4 scale, where the left side of the ratio is my lazy months and the right is my "model" months. 

     My charge to you is, what does your ratio look like?

     12:1?
     3:9?
     8:4?
     2:10?

     I think this gives us a personal charge to do better in our next time frame of reference.

     It is interesting when many of us Christians turn to the news and want to jump on the "lazy America" bandwagon when we tend to be lazy in our own faith. Paul was charged with bringing a new ideology along to churches that were lazy. God gave him authority to be one of the leaders of the working movement and get Christians on the right track to societal contributions, and all other types as well including providing for their families and the church. God gave him that charge and authority as a disciple and worker to take on that title of leader. God has given us that charge as well. We have the Holy Spirit in us as Christians giving us that authority, yet we are the first to mock those that are lazy on the news and refuse to better their own lifestyles, when we are the owners of one ugly ratio. As a Christian faith of believers we have to fix our own laziness before moving onto others and condemning them for it. 

     "But Evan, I work and provide for my family and I surely am not lazy."

     How does your ratio look in regards to your faith though?

     Honestly, we as Christians have got to be better within our faith. It may be hard to be that 12 month disciple and not be lazy one bit throughout the whole time frame, but I think it is possible to be better because we all have room for improvement.

     If Jesus called us into His office for a performance appraisal, I think laziness would be one of the top talking points. He would most likely charge us with hypocrisy because we are the ones ashamed of our fellow humans that beg for $15 an hour at McDonald's, while seriously showing our lazy side in regards to our own faith. If we figure out this laziness thing within our faith, then we have the right to model it to other people who are not believers. We cannot be that person on the news deciding to not work and call ourselves a Christian; there are verses all over Proverbs regarding that mindset, you "sluggar".

      I want someone to know me for my character, willingness to work, and can say I am a Christian in my work environment without having to constantly remind them how much I go to church or sing or have lead worship before. I want my productivity as a Christian to outweigh my laziness as a believer so that others may see what a true model behavior looks like. 

     I want a better ratio.

Lying "An Ethics Class Response"

In my ethics class, we are discussing the topic of "lying" and I made the statement that all lies are wrong. I discussed how being a truthful person builds the heart, the character of the individual and the image of the individual in front of peers and in their community as well. The professor of the class, in typical philosopher type form, responded to my post (which was longer than the summary I just gave) with this scenario:

To this I replied:

Professor,

Of course I mean no disrespect in the following post as it is for discussion sake. Thank you for replying and challenging intellect.

Overall, nice question but you dug deep for this scenario to prove a point, did you not? It is okay because I think I have an answer and it is deeper than just yes or no and I think this helps for the sake of discussion about "arguments" in general and if not that then the whole of morale. 

When I speak about the heart and lying, and truth telling to build character, and I understand you do this for discussion sake, there are always instances where the opposing party digs so deep and finds a scenario or proposition that somehow "seems" to blow the whole of the case for the other person. The opposing individual would ask themselves inquires such as "am I just digging for questions to try to prove him wrong, or do I truly disagree with his whole proposal"? That is like asking "why does God allow evil and wars", etc., when that question is truly unanswerable. His ways are not our own, and that does not mean that there is no God, but many times that question is asked by an opposing party to try to disprove that very thing of existence. When operating with the statement for truth is always the way, I believe that a truthful person builds a stronger heart and the deceitful person destroys marriages/relationships and strong bonds with close peers because of lying. I truly believe it is a heart problem and one that is a destructive life to lead. 

Now, to your question. In the time of Jesus, if a disciple were asked if he was harboring the Savior in his home, would the disciple lie or tell the truth? That depends on if the individual is supposed to, in God's will, tell the truth in that instance or not. In history, if Judas would not have sold Jesus out to be captured, then would the plan of Jesus come to fruition or not? Sometimes deceit has to happen, or sin on Judas' part, (a.k.a. A bad thing), to bring about the will of God. It makes absolutely zero sense to us humans but it does not matter if it makes sense to our finite brains anyways.

Honestly, I most likely would lie to protect an innocent person. Does that mean "Evan retreats upon his word so that shows a hole of deceit in an argument"? I would hope not because I still believe the "meat" of everything I said to still be true and that in 99% of instances, unless something is this rare as you have stated, telling the truth is still better than a lie. That is what I would do. And I would stop Hitler from happening altogether, and Stalin, and death in general, but that just cannot happen. I feel like I would have done that, but maybe that is not what was suppose to happen because it did not happen that way in history to many people. Is it a terrible thing? Yes. On the other hand, everything has happened, in my belief, for a reason and a purpose leading to this very moment, even things as horrid as death. 

I may be babbling now but I hope I got my point across. Thanks for the question! Questions like that, even in few sentences, always seem to bring out the essays in me.

Blog readers, sometimes it is hard to defend our faith and true values but in any circumstance we must always try our best to somehow defend what we can only barely understand ourselves. 

Actual vs. Budgeted Christianity

http://www.shellblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Graph.png

     In business we have certain lingo to describe our sales and our hours scheduled. This is Actual vs. Budgeted. I'll break it down a little bit for you.


     If I have a schedule of 40 hours a week, that is what I am "budgeted" to work. In other words, I am projected to work for this amount of hours this week. If I end up working 37 hours, that is my "actual" hours worked. Make sense?


     God has budgeted us a certain lifestyle in His word. We are called to spread the word in the Great Commission to pretty much live a life like Jesus in all of our ways. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

     Good news is that in retail, if we do not follow budget then we are not fired, but maybe we are gotten on to, like a slap on the wrist. If we go under hours that is a benefit because that saves the company money, but if you go over budgeted hours then someone is getting overtime and then that costs the company more money to pay for that employee.

     If we live up to the guidelines that God laid out for us in His word then that is great and we will live life more abundantly and filled with joy and blessings because we follow His word. If we fall short and are still saved by His grace and a follower of Jesus and only in that way, we are not "fire"d but instead we live life a little less blessed and receive a little slap on the wrist from God (The Holy Spirit) disguised as a conviction of the heart. That means that we feel guilty, as a good adjective, for going against His word and commandments.

    God wants us to live by budget. He wants us to thrive in life and live according to His word and guidelines laid out so simply for us in the Bible.

God budgeted a life for us that is summed up very well in this verse:

     "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. -1 Thessalonians 5: 16-22

     So, walk in freedom and abundance living in the life God budgeted out for you in His word. It is a difficult life, but a blessed life and highly favored in the eyes of your Savior. 

Defining Success: God's Way

Success means many things to many people. I'm sure hundreds of books sit on a plethora of shelves all housing scores of information all defining what it means to be successful. I will not take the time to address the role of gender and give my definition of success for the man and for the woman, although it has a lot to do with family, I will rather elaborate on success in general. 

I'll start with a quote from a book I'm reading called "The Circle Maker", and it reads as follows:

"You need to circle the goals God wants you to go after, the promises God wants you to claim, and the dreams God wants you to pursue."

In other words as the book also suggests, success is not circumstantial because it is less about "doing" God's will and more about "being" God's will.  

People get high and mighty over what they want to achieve in life. Your job ultimately determines your success, or maybe your money. Whatever it is, most of the time there's a blank to fill in and an overwhelming percent of the time it is something tangible. Let me give you an alternative: 

Try filling in the blank of what defines success with something intangible.

Most of my life and even now I'm in a battle, as are most of you out there, and if you're not you may be in denial, about what path I want to go on in life and if that direction is right for me. There's a problem with that. I'm defining success in terms of something tangible. Will my job be right? That's tangible. Will my place of location be right? That's tangible. Will I choose the right house? That's tangible. Why can't we define success in a different way?

Here comes the part where I tell you what I believe and following this I'll give you a challenge. I believe success is defined by your character and respect in life. Both of my grandfathers hold weight as respectable men in business and both of my grandmothers as amazing supporting women in the home. Are either of those roles something outstanding and highly achievable positions by people in America? Maybe so, but most likely not. Success for them was defined by their character! The respect held for them by everyone around them, family or not, determined their success. They only cared about being famous in their own homes, and to them that was their greatest fortune ( that last line paraphrased from The Circle Maker). 

Let your success be defined by how you raise your children, how you treat others, how you are respected, the reflection of your character and MOST importantly for us believers, how you are BEING God's will and not just doing it. Do not be held captive to the motions of just church alone, or life in general, but rather be the will of God in your life. Show others Jesus wherever you're at. Show others Jesus in whatever job you're meant to be in, carrying out that specific potential God placed on your life. 

Now for the challenge. After reading this and reflecting on your own, grab a piece of paper and pen, or your Notes app, and write this question:

How do I define success?

Answer that honestly and compare that to God's definition which is the way you show the world Him. Compare your own personal acts of justice and the respect your family, peers and everyone who comes in contact with you in whatever area of life you're in, have on you. See how that compares and change anything tangible to things meaningful and also Godly. 

Having A Wholly Committed Heart

"It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him." - Henry Varley

     We keep our hearts to ourselves don't we? My heart is something I hold dear and because of my past I want to keep it very private, and maybe even put up a wall to others, and sometimes even Christ. I sometimes like to keep my own heart locked up in a cage only accessible to me. But as Christians I don't think we are meant to keep our hearts all locked up only accessible by us. 

     We are built for community. We were made for each other. When we go through life and encounter certain situations, we aren't meant to go through them alone. We are meant to find those we trust, fellow Christians, those true friends that add the light of Christ to our lives and share our hearts with them. We make them our accountability partner if we have to. I know about being burned. Sharing your hearts with those that betray them isn't fun. But we aren't meant for that. We aren't meant to keep everything in our lives caged up only accessible by our own selves. Keeping our hearts caged up keeps us from being completely whole with God because it makes us less willing to give up our own will and take on His. That leads me to my next point. 

     As Christians, God owns our hearts. It is Him who has come and made a home in you, by sending His Spirit. So the last thing God wants is for you to keep your heart, now housing His Spirit, locked up only to yourself and to hide your feelings and needs from God. Just like your heart is built for communion and fellowship with others, those accountability buddies that you highly respect and trust, God is the holder of your heart so holding things back from Him in your own mind is naive for your own self, and for the fact that He knows your needs already. Hiding things from God only hurts you because He knows all things even when you're trying to be private and sneaky. 

Share your heart with your friends, those true Christians you look up to or those you use as accountability buddies. This will begin to opening up your heart to be fully committed to The Lord because holding it all in only restricts your spiritual growth and keeps it all in your hands, which is a place it isn't meant to be. 

2 Chronicles 16:9 

"The eyes of The Lord range throughout the  earth to sterf then those whose hearts are fully committed to him."