The Confessions Stand

After spending years living in Daytona Beach, Florida I guess I could be accused of having a fried brain or at least a warped mentality occasionally. Of course I'm not sure if the perils of hot sunshine can be blamed for my makeup or way of thinking. I like to believe that maybe I'm just wired with 110 or 220 volts that helps stimulate anyone who may want to listen to me rant and rave about life, sports, government, a little about sex, front page news and, of course, about a guy named Jesus Christ who has radically altered my life.

Actually for me having a relationship with Jesus is the only way to go. I've been on the side of the do's and don'ts, and the venture there was more then my heart, mind, body, and soul could handle. Ever party came to an end-- and I am thankful I am alive to write about it. Today I celebrate life in a different way. I call it my just about SANE way. O.K., so I admit to still have a little insanity left inside my head. At least my relationship with Jesus helps keep me from crossing forbidden lines that are tempting, but self destructing in the end. Notice I didn't say I was having a religious experience going on. Anyone can be religious and not make much spiritual progress in this life. I quit having religious relationships with Jesus a long time ago. I prefer to have just a relationship. One that is daily and one that is life changing.

Now just wait a minute this doesn't make me a spoon fed religious freak! But then again doesn't everyone get their freak on at least once in a while? Before you tar and feather me, I have a quick question for you. What do you eat your cereal with? A spoon right? See being spoon-fed is not necessarily a crime. Okay, Another question. What kind of cereal do you like to eat? What's your brand? In life we all have our own spoon-fed brands. These brands concern what we wear, what we buy, what foods we eat, to what religion (or should I say relationships) we choose. For some having no religion is having some religion. Either way you slice things we all believe in something--religiously. The hollering, spitting, and jawing about who has it really going on, will always remain open for debate. What brand is best will always be open for discussion.

A little evaluation never hurt anybody so it may be time to take a quick peek see in the mirror of our souls. What spoons can we be seen holding everyday? Who can be found spoon feeding us? Or better yet, what are we allowing ourselves to branded with? Tattos or not we are carrying around our own personal brands. Let's evaluate what sponsorships we have decided to promote on the side and inside of our cars (lives). Sorry for the lame NASCAR analogy!

Maybe we should stop asking each other our names first, and simply ask; "What's your brand?" We're all branded by something aren't we? We are definitely spoon feeders and world breeders.

Just like any NASCAR race, there is a start and a finish. So everything in between matters. One of my chosen brands is Jesus. What's yours?

Jerry Springer really needs no blog introduction so I won't give him one. This cultural and civic icon has been "showing" off his talents as a t.v. personality for 16 years. In his former life he was a two term mayor of Cincinnati, lawyer, award winning newscaster, and international emcee. No I am not kidding about his credentials.

Jerry is best known as a riveting talk show host. Some of his recent line ups included Hot Headed Hillbillies and Mom Stole My Jailbird Boyfriend. Springer continues to be excited with the opportunity to offer the nation a progressive voice.

I thought it may be worth it to throw some of my own progressiveness into cyberspace by meddling a little. There are several ways to get on Jerry's show and the Lord knows people find those ways. Here are 5 ways you can to stay off the JS show if you really want to:

#1 A God (good) make-over.

#2 Honesty is the best policy (just don't tell Jerry).

#3 Take a time out (and run to the bathroom).

#4 Be willing to navigate (in the other direction)

#5 If you fail to plan you plan to fail ( plan to never return Jerry's calls)

There you have the fab five so I never want to see you on the Springer show ever again!

Life still serves up surprises as babies keep being born and obituary columns keep adding names to its endless list of the unsuspecting. Elvis left the building many moons ago, while recent news headlines revealed that Jerry Falwell duplicated what the "King of Music" had done. He died! Passed away! Checked out! Left the building!

For all the Falwell faithful there has been the tears, grief and heartache.There is no secret that that the angels in heaven are having a Liberty Baptist celebration. Jerry's smile can be seen in the heavens if you look close enough. The smiles of his critics can also be seen all across America. For some the world's loss is heaven's gain. For others heaven's gain means no more rain. The rain of Jerry's beliefs and conviction.

There is the passionate saying that says, you never really appreciate something until after it is gone. In the passing of Jerry Falwell the Christian camps better start circling the wagons. Because if your Baptist by birth or not it is high time to pray for someone other then Jerry to help make up the hedge and fill in the gap. There are some big shoes to be filled here.

Admitedly I was never a tourist to Liberty Mountain or a regular viewer of the Ole Time Gospel hour. But as I took a look in my rear-view mirror this week I could see the trail of influences JF helped orchestrate within the spiritual and political arenas. Like him or love him, hate him or despise him, Jerry Falwell has left the building. Now it is time for another "Jerry" to step back inside the building and get back to work.

According to the Associated press today only 25 percent of those surveyed say things in the U.S. are going in the right direction, confirms an AP-Ipsos poll this month. That is about the lowest level of satisfaction detected since the survey started in December 2003. Only 1992 polls showed gloomier days.

So what does this do for our country, our families, our communities, our churches, and our morale? It makes one wonder if we are facing a conclusive; is the glass full or half empty epidemic. Even in the church world we are plowing through the normalities and abnormalities of life. Some can be found wearing tattoes of honor and others wearing badges of uncertainty. Neither one can be flogged for their confidence or their concern. The optomist and the pessimist belong in the same room. If you don't believe me then it would do the heart good to read about the Davids, the Jobs, the Peters, and the host of others who grace the pages of that wonderous historical document called the Bible.

Yes, we can look through the keyholes of life and find an array of magnificence and fecal matter splattered around everywhere. There is the inviting smell of honeysuckles and the aroma of honeydippers (sewage collectors). Reality is reality. Life is life. We move forward or we sit still and stagnate like others in the world. The choice obviously is ours, yet often it is true, that we don't always get to vote on our destinies or outcomes. If you differ with me then I want you to play Bobby Fisher in Chess. The ole guy can still open up a quality can of Whup-Butt.

There is a sense of mystery behind hope. I know without it we cower in corners of unrest or crawl into messy closets of darkness. With it we can at least take baby steps or possibly drag ourselves along for the ride until we can start driving our own cars (lives) again with some assurances. Hope brings encouragement and encouragement helps restore life in the midst of brokenness and loss.

I am human just like the next guy. I get bored with life and bored with the battles. The bored I am talking about isn't the hum-drum of living. It means to be "weary". If you think my english language needs repaired then check out Mr.Webster's dictionary. I spend a great deal of time being bored. But I know that I am far from being alone in this department. There are people BORED in the bars, on their jobs, in their homes, walking down the sidewalk, sitting in a park, driving in a car, or even singing in the choir on a sunday morning. People are BORED everywhere. People are WEARY.

Polls usually are good indicators or indicators of liars who want you to believe their own propaganda. As for the Associated Press poll it may very well be a good indicator of the pulse involving a nation. Quite frankly poll or no poll, just check out the neighborhoods and police blotters, the confession booths, and altar calls. People are experiencing gloomy times. I am just glad we don't serve a gloomy God.

The guy who wrote that book titled Hebrews I am certain had a personal 'brewery" of his own. He must have understood the pollsters of his time and the effects life could dish out. He appears to keep things honest and real. He remains on the down-low. After I finished reading the front page news of our local paper I picked up a copy of Today's Good News. Its headlines read "God On Board The Chew Chew Train."

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for God has said, I will never leave you, or forsake you. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man will do unto me." Hebrews 13:5-6

Enough said!

It has taken me a good amount of years to figure out that critics are a special breed of wannabes. They wannabe pains in the butt, they wannabe seen and heard (and seen and heard), they wannabe enemys of the soul, they wannabe someones worst nightmare, they wannabe the center of correction, they wannabe thorns in the flesh, they wannabe the gauntlet that makes heads roll, they wannabe the voice of justice, the ringtones on phones, the images on billboards, the hooded commentator on televison, and they wannabe living until they reach 100 so they can bellyache about the poor service from their retirement (rest) home.

God bless the lives of every critic alive. For most of them they need more mercy and more love then the normal human being. Why? Because they often are the most miserable and pathetic, (sorry I meant to say prophetic), nemesis on planet earth. Don't you just love em?

Now before anyone accuses me of being nescient (ignorant) I have to admit that critics are a most necessary condiment. They remain the relish and seasoning for what makes the world turn. Come on you've got to love em! Alright so you hate them. Hate doesn't mean you suddenly become non-Christian. It just means you dislike strongly those who dislike you strongly or dislike how you live, think, eat or breath. Hey there doesn't have to be any love loss here. Well maybe just a little.

A good conclusion to dealing with well meaning critics, is to accept the fact that critics will never become endangered species. There is no denying this, so we are better off to quit remaining in denial. These folks reproduce, mutate, and mutilate. The reproducing and the mutating we can't do anything about. What we can do is stop allowing ourselves to be mutilated. I don't know about you but for me things have gotten really messy over the years. Emotionally it's hard to keep trying to piece your body parts back together when someone has tried to involve you in a Chainsaw Massacre.

A final word to the wise. Even though critics will never become endangered species--neither should we.

I am going to make a noon hour confession. I love to read. No I mean I really love to read. Especially when I am sitting down to eat something for breakfast, and lunch or dinner. That is if I am eating one of these meals alone. My wife has always had first right of refusal when it comes to reading and eating at the table. Fortunate for me I get most breatfast and lunch meals private and alone.

This morning I made my way to the kitchen to whip up a bowl of cereal with banana on top and ready myself to woof down a toasted english muffin, then it struck me. I was left sitting at the table without my newspaper and fetish of reading the sports page. My mind began to grimace in pain. I started to begin biting my fingernails when a bright light shone around the room. I heard an inaudible voice say, "go forth and find your paper outside the front door." Man you would have thought I just became the cat who swallowed the canary.

I raced down a flight of stairs, opened the front door and to my amazement there she was. My paper all wrapped up and waiting for my embrace. O.K. so maybe things weren't that dramatic for me, just please give me a break, I'm the one having to write the story.

With paper in hand I ventured back to our diningroom table and preceded to follow my ritual and routine; that of reading the SPORTS SECTION and eating food at the same time. Thank God my wife was missing in action. The main sports headline read, Dwight: Fans deserve well-behaved players. Veteran says comissioner right to clean up NFL's image. After reading this I had an intriging thought for a headline:

Jesus: Humans deserve well-behaved humans Veteran says God right to clean up WORLD's image

NFL veteran receiver Tim Dwight, stated, "were a product, no matter if it's in between the sidelines or outside the sidelines. Our society is becoming such me, me, me, me," Dwight said, "I'm this. I'm that. I'm bigger than whatever."

I read this and say to myself, hey wait just a minute. The ME generation is not some new fad. The me, me, me, and more of me has been around since the beginning of time. The Bible points out that the veteran Jesus himself has been pleading with mankind to clean up their act. Much has been to little avail looking at the spinning-out-of-control world we live in. Jesus has shown us proof that God has the right to clean up the world He indeed created.

New NFL commissoner Roger Goodell has sent a clear message. Those who aren't willing to play by the rules risk suffering Goodell's wrath. Hmmm and where have I seen that similar message before. Oh yeah in the Bible For Today headlines.

So now I am left to myself wondering. Who died and left Roger Goodell king?

Normally life doesn't crawl at a snails pace unless there are reasons that create speed bumps large or small. For example maybe there is an illness that confines someone to a bed, or a child is placed into a time-out, someone is found relaxing on a beach, is facing jail time, or some other reason that impedes progress (in the fast lane). Life may not be moving literally at lightening speed, yet people sure seem to be. That would be you and me.

I am sure you can identify with pulling over to the side of life's road and slumping over the steering wheel more then on one ocassion. Or pulling your shoes off and falling on the couch exhausted from the movements of the day. Or feeling so beaten up by frustration, stress, and depression that the idea of a sleeping pill crosses your mind. Here we have good ole life in the fast lane. At times the pace is unbearable.

Jesus gave us some advice on how we can cope with life in the fast lane in Matthew 11.

11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
11:30
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Then in Isaiah we find the following message on how to slow down life in the fast lane and take the nearest rest stop exit.

40:28
Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching of his understanding.
40:29
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
40:30
Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Starting this Sunday I am joining some others at home and abroad who are going to start enjoying life in the FAST LANE for 10 days. The fast lane I am talking about here involves taking the next 10 days to embrace a biblical fast, which simply means to set aside ourselves for the purpose of drawing closer to God.

I am not prescribing how to do it. However, I am recommending a fast of some sort. You might want to fast from television, sleep, or the newspaper. You might want to fast from food or fast from fast food. This is between you and the wall (God).

Remember fasting is simply giving something up for the purpose of seeking God.

Think about this. What would happen if we prayed through for ten days with no real or absolute agenda other than seeking God, praying for each other, our churches, ministries, for lost family, friends, and our nation? There's only one way to find out.

The utimate quest is taking time to set aside TIME beyond the norm and entering into the PRESENCE of God.

We can actually enjoy life in the fast lane. Enjoy the journey!

I have jumped on the "fast" train with some others around the nation and already am experiencing the awesome presence of God. For those of you who are wondering what this is about then check out my blog entry titled Enjoying Life In The Fast Lane.

Sunday which was (Pentecost Sunday) was the day many in the body of Christ have chosen to "fast" for 10 days. When I threw my life into the ring I decided I'd rather become a Fastaway (a word I made up) then to have a Jonah moment and run away from the presence of God--ending up a castaway on a ship. Then things got worse as Jonah went airborne and landed in some deep blue sea on a rainy day, eventually ending up swallowed by a fish designed by God.

The moral of the Jonah story for all practical purposes: Don't be a dummy and run away from the presence of God. The smart thing to do is run toward the presence of God. If you want come and join the pack of fastaways (meaning start a biblical fast of your own) and don't stay like Jonah the historical castaway. Like my friend Jason said when I asked him to join me on this ten day venture--I'm down with it. You can be too!

Has anyone ever asked you the question, "What were (are) you thinking?" Well all I want to ask you today is-- How do you think? How are you wired? What's your mind-set?

Are you just a horizonal thinker or are you a vertical thinker? Or are you both?

A horizonal thinker only sees the wisdom (ways) of the world and follows these ways just like one would a set of road maps.

A vertical thinker sees the wisdom of the world but also checks in with God's wisdom found in the Bible. Here sets of road maps can still be found--except with better routes to follow.

Have you had a vertical check-up lately?

This week I have been preparing to speak on Sunday in one of our local malls. The subject is The Money Pit. Kind of an odd title since I will be inside a place where money is King and cash registers go Cha-ching!

I just couldn't help myself but get into this frying pan of a message since my thought process was that The Money Pit easily hits home--and not just at my home I might add. Recent debt statistics reveal the following:

*Over 43% of US families spend more than they earn. (Federal Reserve).

*Americans carry, on average, $5,800 in credit card debt from month to month. If one were to make only the minimum payment on that debt every month, it would take 30 years to pay off - and include an additional $15,000 in interest.

*On average the typical credit card purchase is 112% higher than if using cash.

*96% of all Americans will retire financially dependent on the government, family, or charity. (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

*Almost one out of every 100 households in the United States will file for bankruptcy.

*Only 2% of homes in America are paid for!

*According to the National Association of Realtors the average homeowner stays in their home for 7.1 years. With an 8% mortgage, they will sell their home still owing over 90% on their mortgage. If they were to continue this trend they would NEVER pay off a mortgage in their lifetime!

*On average, Americans can expect to receive just 37% of the annual retirement income they will need to live comfortably.

Newsweek magazine once selected the picture of a couple buried under credit cards with a headline, Americans are Drowning in Debt: Are You Maxed Out? The article revealed that Americans had been borrowing in records amounts and home equity debt had soared past 330 billion dollars. Bankruptcies were up 20%. Most people were spending more than they made.

This article hit the news stands over 3 years ago. Do you think much has changed since then?

The Money Pit challenge for this week is to take some time and sit down for some checks and balances at home--your home. Christian families in debt rank just as high as non-churched families. Or do they? You do the math.

Proverbs 21:20 paints this reality, "Unwise people spend their money as fast as they get it; the wise man saves for the future."

How will your home stack up to The Money Pit Challenge? As for me I am fixing to find out.