Category Archives: Spiritual Disciplines

McSandwiches

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With all of the hubub flying around about the return of McDonalds’ McRib sandwich, I decided to post a video exploring the different types of McSandwiches, and how each one relates in some type of way to your sexual conduct.

A few questions we should all ask ourselves:
1. Am I a McSandwich? :)
2. What will it take for me to be the McSushi?
3. Why should I strive to be the McSushi?

I could go into great detail explaining the benefits (spiritual and non) of waiting for sex until marriage. But instead of typing your ear off, i’ll leave you with a few resources that I find helpful:

WebMd: Happier Marriages, More Satisfying Sex Among the Perks, Study Finds

Boundless.org: It’s not about waiting

Waitingtillmarriage.org: A whole host of resources, inspiration and encouragement for those who’ve chosen to wait

What’s Really “Good”?

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Every now and then, usually in the midst of complaining about a failed relationship, I’ll hear a man refer to himself as “a GOOD man”. He’ll then rattle off a list of attributes that he thinks make him a “good” man. The list usually goes as follows:

  • I have a job
  • I have a degree
  • I have my own transportation
  • I don’t have any illegitimate children
  • I don’t live in my parent’s basement
  • I don’t have a criminal record
  • etc,

Every item on that list is ego driven and has to to with status, material possessions, and how a man is perceived by himself and others. And while, in the world’s view, all of these qualities are nice to have, they do not  make a man”good” (at least, not by any standard that matters).

The real criteria for a “good” man are humility/submission driven, and have to do with the way a man perceives God. If he is truly making God bigger than himself and his own agenda, he’ll more than likely possess these qualities:

  • truthful
  • gentle
  • self-controlled
  • faithful/reliable
  • avoids excess
  • admits when he is wrong
  • etc., (catch more qualities in proverbs)

Note that none of the qualities in this list can be achieved with money or self-reliance. In order to posses the qualities of a “good” man, you must continually rely upon and submit to the power of an inherently good God.

I have my own transportationavoids

Priorities

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This is just a quick reminder (mostly to myself) that Christ and our walk with Him should always take first priority. Life is so complicated nowadays. There are so many opportunities to get sidetracked or caught up. We worry about our finances, jobs, politics, love lives, health, happiness, ect. On top of that, we spend tons of precious time and money buying and doing things that are ultimately irrelevant.

The real crime isn’t worrying about your lack of finances, or buying yourself that new flat screen tv or spending entire Saturday watching Netflix. These things only become a problem when they take priority over God. I Corinthians 3:11 states “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ”. In other words, the only life of any significance is that lived in and for Christ. So the next time something’s weighing heavily on your mind or taxing heavily on your time, ask yourself if your priorities need to be reworked.

The Big “C” Part Two– All Christians are Hypocrites

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Welcome to part two of the “Big C”, a series of posts examining the reasons most young adults (and older ones too) give for not going to church. In this post we’ll tackle one of the MOST widely used excuses for not attending church:

“All Christians are hypocrites”

Ahh, the dreaded H word. Just so we’re all on the same page, lets start off with a definition. According to Mirriam-Webster, a hypocrite is:
1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

Now… I’ll proceed to poke holes in your flimsy excuse with my pointy stick of truth.
Nowhere in the above definition does it state that the word “Hypocrite” is to be applied only to Christians. In fact, I’m willing to bet that almost all of us have fit this description at some point in time. That’s right, you, me, uncle Joe, errrrrbody. We all try to appear more virtuous than we actually are. We all contradict ourselves from time to time. The phrase “Actions speak louder than words” wasn’t coined specifically for Christians. The only person who’s NEVER said one thing and done the exact opposite is Jesus Christ himself. We’re all hypocritical. Therefore, saying all Christians are hypocrites is like saying all Buddhists have skin.

There are plenty of people who label themselves Christians simply because it sounds good. But, there are also many people who see Christianity as a lifestyle and sincerely desire to have a relationship with God. This brings me to my second point: Never make vast sweeping assumptions about an entire group of people unless you’ve personally encountered the ENTIRE group of people. Every cop I’ve ever met has been a complete jerk. Does that mean all cops are jerks? Of course not. Does that mean all cops are perfect? Of course not. The same goes for Christians. Jimmy Swaggart is a Christian. So am I. Does his hypocrisy make my faith any less credible? No, because it’s MY faith.

Thirdly, even if all Christians were hypocrites (and we’re not); what difference should it make to you? Do you have a severe allergy to hypocrisy? Would you die if you were forced to sit next to a hypocrite? I doubt it. Could it impede your spiritual growth? Maybe (we’ll deal with that in a later post). The point is to START growing! Besides, as I said before, there are plenty of real, non-hypocritical Christians out there. You just have to get off of your lazy butt and go find them. I did. And, give or take the normal ups and downs of the exploratory process, it’s definitely payed off!

Chastity

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I was listening to an interesting conversation on the radio one morning last week. The DJ posed this question: “Is it still considered wrong to sleep with a man on the first date?” You’ll be surprised to know (or maybe you won’t be surprised at all) that the majority of the people who called in didn’t think there was anything wrong with sex on the first date. In fact, three of the women who called in said, not only did they sleep with their partner on the first date, but that they’d been happily married to that same man for over 10 years! Only two people advocated waiting until the 2nd or 3rd date and, of course, no one mentioned waiting until marriage. I’m ashamed to admit that my immediate thoughts were “You see God? YOUR way is backwards. Lust works. Chastity sucks.” I’ve since been convicted.

CHASTITY DOES NOT SUCK. SHE IS WONDERFUL, SHE IS BEAUTIFUL AND I’M PROUD TO BE HER FRIEND. SHE MAY NOT BE POPULAR BUT SHE IS FAITHFUL. SHE MAY NOT BE FLASHY OR EXCITING… AND SOMETIMES SHE FRUSTRATES THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME, BUT SHE’S HONEST (BRUTALLY SO). UNLIKE LUST, SHE MOVES REALLY SLOW AND AT TIMES IT’S HARD TO SEE THINGS FROM HER POINT OF VIEW. NONETHELESS, WE’RE FRIENDS, AND, IF YOU KNOW HER, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELF BLESSED.

I’m not bashing non-virgins; I would then have to bash myself. I am not putting virgins on a pedestal; purity does not equal salvation and chasteness alone does not constitute a relationship with the Most High. I’m simply writing to give Chastity her props and let her know how much she’s appreciated.

What about you? Have you been friends with Chastity from the very beginning? Did you start hanging with her after your “friend” Lust sold you out? Are you and Chastity even on speaking terms?

Open Wounds

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We’ve all been emotionally wounded at some point in our lives. Some of us have been lucky enough to escape with minor flesh wounds. Some of us incurred 2nd and 3rd degree lacerations. For some of us, the damage was so severe that we chose to become emotional amputees, cutting off the damaged parts and living as cripples. Pain happens, right? It’s a part of life.? A problem arises, however, when we choose to let our past pain dictate our future faithwalk.

2nd Corinthians 5:17 states that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! But none of us really believes that (or at least, we behave like we don’t). Instead of taking hold of emotional healing and conducting ourselves as “new” creatures in Christ, we choose to limp around, agonizing over our open wounds, bleeding all over the place, making a mess of things. The blood loss causes us to suffer from spiritual weakness. We loose proper spiritual perspective because the only thing we choose to focus on is our pain.. Like wounded animals, we go into self preservation mode, so everything we do is driven by a perceived need to survive and a desire to avoid vulnerability. This makes it very difficult to cultivate the kind of sincere, loving relationships that are essential to growth.

When we let our wounds go untended, it isn’t only to our detriment, but to the detriment of those who need our help. Think about it. Would a surgeon be allowed into the operating room? if he were bleeding from an open wound? Of course not! He wouldn’t even be allowed to scrub in. He would first have to have his own wounds stitched up before he performed surgery on anyone else. If the surgeon enters the operating room without first getting stitched up, he becomes a danger to himself AND his patient. The same concept applies to you and I. We cannot properly minister to anyone, if we ourselves are in danger of bleeding out.

In closing, let’s self assess. Are you an emotional bleeder? A spiritual hemophiliac? If so, be pro-active. Therapy is underrated! As I’m writing this, Ron Artest is thanking his psychiatrist… and he just won the title! What could therapy do for you? Prayer? Spiritual council? Y0u owe it to yourself to do whatever you can to stop the bleeding.? Put a band-aid on it homie.