Worship seems like one of the most lopsided aspects of serving God. How does God expect us to worship Him when everything around us is so dysfunctional? How is it that God could seem so arrogant in His directive to bow before Him in worship and reverence when everything around us is a mess? What’s worse is that He has not lifted a finger to deliver us from our issues even though it’s well within his power to do so! Really God? I mean really? I paid my tithes but now I’m broke! I helped the poor, but now I’m one of them! Really God, now you want me to worship you? Where is my help God? Where is my peace? Where are all the promises found in your Word? In my continual decline am I suppose to be thankful and reverence you? What type of mess is that? You get what you want; worship, and I get nothing but more problems and broken promises!

Super deep folks should probably stop reading here. Honest folks that can admit that they have been in this type of mental and spiritual state or some facsimile of it should continue on as we might be able to understand a few things together. Worship is not as much about God as it is about us. God is not so audacious that He needs to be reminded of Who He is or what He is capable of. It’s arrogant of us in fact to think that the Creator of creation would need or even want to hear from us regarding His greatness. We really need to get over ourselves when we think that worship is simply our way of appeasing the living God! In fact what some of us are doing when we think we are in worship is actually placating our God. God is not Zeus from the movie Clash of the Titians. He does not need our prayers and love to survive (I did like that movie though, I know I’m a geek. 300 was better, now that’s a man-man movie!).

Worship is the act of paying homage and reverence to God. Both of these words share a common synonym “adoration” which could also be define as “amore” or “love” in Italian. The real purpose of worship is the ongoing relationship development with God that acts as a reminder for us of Who He is and what He is capable of. God uses worship not as a way to grow His ego; for goodness sake all He needs to do in order to grow His ego is look at the harmony of His creations out side of disobedient man. Instead worship is a reminder to us that God is able to deliver us from every problem we encounter. In fact worship is strengthened when its done in tribulation. When I consider my own life and people that I love the most, it’s normally because of what we have been through together and what we have overcame. Love is made perfect when it endures opposition. Love that is not tested is weak and unproven and can easily be defeated (James 1:2-4).

Worship is the activity of Love making with God. Exodus 20:3-4 teaches us that we are not to have any other God’s before the Lord our God. Worship therefore is the kind of love that we only express to God Jehovah. It’s the intimacy that we share only with God and the source in which all other intimacy we experience should be birthed from. The only selfish aspect of worshiping our God is that He does not want us sharing it with anyone else but him (See Exodus 20:5 & Judges 2:17). Worship is passion with God and creates an inseparable bond with Him. Consider, Who and what we are bonding ourselves to. Through worship God allows us to bond ourselves to all His power, all His strength and all His riches. And when we find ourselves in trouble worship acts as the ingress point to the assets we needed to deliver us out of the trouble and further solidifying our bonds to our God. It’s imperative to our spiritual and carnal success that our perspective of worship is that it’s the shared intimacy with God that is unique to us. It’s the conduit used by God to deliver His power and goodness in our lives.

Pray with me: Devil, you’re an idiot! My trouble only strengthens my bond with my God. Since you have the nerve to even get in my face I’ll have the nerve to worship my God more than before! I will use what you devised for my destruction to be more fervent in my admiration of my God. Watch me as I engage Him in intimacy like never before. I know you want me devil but you can’t have me so consider yourself rebuke as my Abba crushes your plan to steal me away from Him. He has plundered you and given me the spoils. You are liar and I don’t associate myself to liars, only the Truth! My confession is and always will be that all power belongs to my God and He is more than able to deliver me.

My Pastor often makes it a point to reiterate the need for saints to be more transparent. Often times we Christian make salvation look so hard. From the outside looking in it looks almost like hard labor. Noses in the air, quick to judge and condemn. I wonder how many souls are lost through the general observation of church folks. I wonder how many people the enemy has been able to convince to turn back into the world because the people in the church are so well put together. I’ve been in the church since I was a kid and I still look around sometime thinking to myself these people are perfection personified. The truth of the matter is that we are the complete antithesis of perfection. Our facade of perfection is wining souls for hell.

Over the years I have slipped and slide, skated and tripped my way through my Christian walk. There was a time during my walk where women were my stronghold. I’ve never been one to sleep around with a lot of women. I’ve always been a one woman guy. But if I’m honest it only takes one woman for me to sin against my God (come over here Sampson, David and Solomon lets talk about it). Not until I hooked up with a brother that was honest with me about his previous struggles was I able to get my own issues under control. He had the road map that would rescue me from my sin. Had he been a pretentious saint I might still be slipping and sliding my way through my salvation.

We never go through our struggles for ourselves. God knows beforehand the various encounters that we will have throughout our lives. We can use our previous issues to show the goodness of our God along with His healing power. For this to take place we will have to lay down our pride and pick up love. Love caused Jesus to bare the cross for our sins. Sure He was the King of kings but he humbled Himself that we may be the redeemed of God. If we Christians are suppose to have the same mind as Christ shouldn’t we be willing to share with others what His death has brought us from. The souls of men and women are perishing because no one wants to lay down their egos long enough to rescue those stumbling to their own demise.

There are people wounded and in pain because of the torment that the enemy is putting them through. Regrettably, the enemy uses our cockiness to further his agenda. People are in spiritual bondage not able to comprehend hope, a way out and believe that they are all alone. Satan is reinforcing that thought and the vainglory of the saints prevents us from revealing the truth to God’s lost sheep. Think of it this way, consider all that God has done for you. Look around and count your blessing. Now look at things from Gods vantage point. He knows all He’s done for us. But we are too uppity to reach down and pick up one of His sheep that are lost. In other words, what is most important to God, lost and suffering souls, is less important to us than our own inhibitions. We don’t want to get dirty for God so we stay perched on top of our mound of insolence. What’s most distressing is that Jesus got down out of glory, dirty on the way to His crucifixion and got bloody on the cross so that we could be rescued.

Our past experiences, short comings, struggles and strongholds can be turned around for the good of others. We should strive every day to show the love and transparency needed to connect with someone’s wounded soul and allow God to use us to heal them. God is the Surgeon and we are His operating tools. You were shaped by the fire you went through, perfected by His love and now you can be used for salvation purposes.

We read about Him, we study Him, we pray to Him, we observe His ways and observe His Word. All of this is great but how often do we talk to Him? God is looking for conversation not just observation. There are times when Daddy just wants to sit with you and have a little dialog for no other reason than to hear your voice.

It’s an amazing thing that God with all of His greatness wants us to keep Him company. There are angels and kings and presidents that He could talk to but He wants your company. He wants us to set aside one on one time with Him. No distractions, no music, not even gospel, just your voice and His. There is something intimate about conversation such as this. When two people engage one another simply because they enjoy each others company. This activity builds a bond between the two. Through unabridged conversations you develop admiration and fondness for an individual. You deepen your relationship with the other person and even fall in sustainable love with them. That’s what God is looking for with us.

Many times when we are lonely, it’s actually God segregating you and making a request in your spirit for some Father and child time. That lonely feeling is actually God bringing our attention to what our soul has been missing, engagement with Him. We make the mistake of looking for company from other people when God wants to keep us company. And just like the time we spend with our earthly family and friends, the conversation does not have to be deep.

Now quite alone time does not mean God time. Real alone time with God takes discipline. During your quite time with God there will be an interloper, the enemy. The last thing he wants to see is you engaging your God in intimacy. Have you ever really wanted to get to know someone only to be rejected and see them with someone else? That the same feeling the enemy gets when he sees you engaging God. He will start flooding your mind with random thoughts. Perhaps even bringing memories of former good times. Nothing necessarily sinful, but enough to keep your focus off God. Be very mindful of these distraction tactics. It’s all a set up as those thoughts will eventually birth more loneliness and more pain.

There are people that come around me only when they need something. If you have lived long enough I’m sure you can say the same. I really appreciate my friends that call just to say “what’s up, just checking on you bro”? Get this, God likes to be checked up on by His children as well. He likes for us to speak to Him in terms of “Daddy I just want to say I love you. Nope you’ve been good! I have everything I need, just want to say I love you”. Don’t be a nomadic child to your God. Engage Him in simple pleasant conversations as often as you can. By doing this you will find yourself closer to your God than you’ve ever been.

It seems like every time I get into a conversation regarding sin and its results as articulated in the bible the conversation always zeros in on one particular sin, homosexuality. Normally the conversation switches gears with this analogy , ” so you’re saying that a person can do everything good, feed the poor, take care of the sick, walk on water and God would still send them to hell “just” because they are gay?” My response is always the same, yes. We dont serve a politically correct, status quo God so our answer must be direct and seasoned with lots of love.

However, why do we limit this answer to homosexuals. Why is homosexual behavior always compared to murder and rape? Yet if someone is a lier they’re just that, a lier. Normally they wont be compared to being a murderer or child molester. When we find out about a heterosexual man that sleeps around with several women, we never equate this equally grave sin to the other taboo sins. In this way homosexuality gets a bum wrap. Meaning it sits in this unique category of sin by itself when there are other lifestyle sins that should be joining it. Unfortunately, many times we Christians give a free pass to behaviors that are as destructive as homosexuality.

Jesus talks about this very topic in Matthew 5:21-28. According to Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. We have to stop treating one sin worse than the rest. When we respond to one sin more severely than another it alienates the sinner from the source of their potential healing. God hates homosexuality but not homosexuals. The same can be said for all the other sins that we commit. In the eyes of God there are no second class sins. In light of this Jesus died on the cross as a remission for everyones sin. If we are to have the same mind of Christ our perspective has to be the same, hate the sin but not the sinner.

To conclude, as I said a lifestyle of homosexuality will send someone to hell. Any lifestyle governed by any sin including lying, heterosexual promiscuity, covetousness, stealing, etc will send you to hell. None of us made the rules regarding what behaviors will send a person to hell. Conversely none of us bore a cross to save a soul from hell. That right belongs to God. Our job as presented in Proverbs 24:11 is to “rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering towards slaughter”. Remember, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” ~Romans 3:23

Its been a while since Ive blogged but I havent felt as though the Lord was giving me anything to write. So instead of sounding like an idiot trying to articulate something spiritual that God hadn’t given me I decided to wait until I received something. What I want to avoid is my own arrogance causing a disjointed relationship between me and my God. I only wish I could have been this disciplined in the past with God and with relationships.

Being a single christian man one of the most destructive and disjointed relationships that I have ever entered into is one with a woman that I am unequally yoked with. These disjointed relationships are spiritually, mentally and physically draining. Many times we christians find ourselves in these sorts of relationships because we approach them the same way the world approaches relationships, superficially. Meaning, while we may take into consideration the spiritual character of person that we find attractive, its not always the prominent assessment point when we determine if we should even say hello to that person. Instead we go by what we can see, touch, smell and feel. Even if we discover that an individual is a good person the very next assessment we need to make is if they are a good person for the purpose that God has for us. Always keep in mind that the enemy will use good people to distract us from our purposes unbeknownst to either party. Yes, spiritual disjointment can occur between two good people.

Proverbs 11:22 teaches us that “A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout”. Now you can easily and appropriately change the gender in this scripture to reflect the appropriate sex my sisters. The point of the manner is simply you need to do a complete assessment before you even begin investing any thought into another person. Let me mention that the investment of thought is the most critical part of your decision making process. The more you think about an individual from your own perspectives and not with the discernment of God the more you will find yourself willing to compromise and rationalize. Seek God’s discernment on any person of interest and trust that He will reveal anything that is not kosher or if that person is a partner in your purpose. By the way the same approach needs to be taken in friendships as well. In either case, dont rush it! Find out if an individual has the intellectual capital to invest into your life, the emotional maturity to grow with you and spiritual aptitude to support you when your soul grows weary. Dont let the desires of your heart supersede the importance of these attributes.

Now with regards to courtship relationships, inevitably someone will ask, what if God sends me someone and they’re busted. Okay, Ill be transparent on that matter and feel free to quote me, I do not believe that God is going to send me some unattractive woman that I will have to completely depend on the Holy Ghost for me to love them. God has a sense of humor but its not a cruel one. I can biblically prove my perspective by looking at the relationships between the patriarchs and matriarchs in the bible, show me one ugly one in the bible, save Leah. The point I am trying to drive home is not that God is going to send you Halle Berry or Idris Elba as a wife or husband. Instead what I am trying to convey is that God our Father knows what we need physically, spiritually and emotionally. Furthermore and perhaps more importantly He knows who we need to partner with us in our purpose in Him.

~I want to thank my sister L and my very beautiful friend who is to shy for me to mention her name for inspiring me without knowing it.

Do you remember the movie Night of the Living Dead? The basic premise of the movie was that some biochemical agent was introduced into the environment that caused the dead to rise again. Not only were the dead raised again they also had the ability to infect the living turning them into zombies as well. The result of becoming a zombie is that the infected person becomes a mindless corpse driven by a single motivation, to consume the flesh of the living. Now doesn’t that sound familiar? Jesus teaches us in John 10:10 that “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy”. That is the exact purpose of the zombie sins we might have in our lives. How do we defeat them before they accomplish their goals?

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The analogy of the traffic light to describe someones progress in a given situation is a pretty common one. The most commonly used traffic light colors in an analogy are green and red. Likely because those mean stop and go. If God has you at a green light you are moving forward. If the spiritual light is red you know to stop. But what do you do when God has you at a yellow light? Now, I have to admit if I were to handle this like I do while driving I would speed up and try to fly through the light before it turns red. More often than not when I do that I find myself either just missing the red or actually running it. I digress, but if there are any law enforcement reading this I would just like to remind you that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

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So it seems that I was posting so much on FaceBoook that a few of my friends started to push me to create a blog. I don’t necessarily consider myself a writer but I guess I have thoughts that I enjoy sharing. I especially like to share the thoughts that I have related to my Savior Jesus Christ, exposing the tricks of the enemy and articulating the truth about living a Christian lifestyle. After some prayer, prompting by friends and my desire to connect with other godly brothers and sisters I’ve decided to start BlogYourFaith (BYF). I have to tell you the truth I’m extremely excited! Not because I think I’m going to be heard but that I can engage and learn from the brothers and sisters in the kingdom that God has blessed with tons wisdom.

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