You can tell a lot about a person and the condition of their heart by the words they speak. I hate the fact that I have to write about this, this should be kinda a common sense thing for most mature Christians, but yet I see it plauging the Body of Christ.

You may think I am judgemental for what I am about to say, but I will back up everything with the Word of God…

If you wear the Name of Christ and walk this earth as a blood bought child of the Living God, you are His personal representitive, His ambassador. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

We are to represent Him in all areas of life, including the words we speak. I am sick and tired of hearing Christians cuss and talk perveted and think it’s okay! It’s NOT okay! You are a redeemed child of God, not a heathen!

It is NOT okay to be talking dirty or telling perverse jokes to your friends or co-workers.  It’s NOT okay to be cussing!

(Eph. 5:4 Amp.)

“Let there be no filthiness (obscenity, indecency) nor foolish and sinful (silly and corrupt) talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming; but instead voice your thankfulness [to God].”
We are representing God when we speak and when we talk like the heathen, how are we shinning light unto the world?

(Eph. 4:22, 29)

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.”

“Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it.”

It’s just simply not okay and by the verses listed above that should be more than enough proof. But let’s talk about what the root of the problem is. If you have a hard time controling your tougn, it really comes down to an issue of the heart. (Matt. 12:34)

“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

So if cussing is a problem you have to look at your heart. A lot of it comes down to what you are allowing in…

Are you watching movies full of cussing and perverse talk? I just recently had a talk with a group of kids that lead worship for a local youth group… They were on their way to see a “no so good” movie and they knew it. Well, I had to say something. (I’ll spare you the conversation)  After talking with them I looked up the movie and one of the first things I found about the movie was it had over 165 “f” words! Hello! What are you allowing in you?

You can’t be watching, reading or listening to crap and think it wont effect you. It will!

We are called to be seperated from the world, we are supposed to act different than the rest of the world. Because if we are acting just like them, what would they see that they would want? You’re just like them…

Let’s make it a point to represent the Lord the way He deserves. The world doesn’t need to see a bunch of compromising cussing Christians. They are just waiting to see the real deal, the ones the walk in true power and purity of the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

Make what the Lord did at the Cross count in your life.

May I also add, you do have the right to tell others around you that they need to knock it off if they start cussing around you. Christ is in you, you should protect that.

Keep moving forward.

It’s a interesting thing when you come to a crossroad in life, when you are faced with a decision to do a hard thing. I think about when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane right before He was taken by the guards to be put to a brutal death. He was praying so hard, with so much weight He sweat blood. He asked the Father if the cup could pass from Him, but if not, His Will be done. It was a bitter cup that Jesus faced… a horrible cup! But yet, He was willing to drink it if that was what the Father wanted Him to do.

Sometimes in life we are faced with a bitter cup, we are forced to make a choice to either do the easier thing or do what God has set before us. We might not understand why God would put such a horrible things infront of us or why doing the right thing would hurt so much. But, nevertheless, we must lose site of our own opinions, our own desires and be obedient to the Lord.

Even if it doesn’t make sense, we must be obedient and be willing to drink of the cup! It’s easy to make excuses to drink it, it’s easier to find a different cup, but we must lay our lives down just like the Jesus did in the garden.

When we have our Gethsemane time in life, we must push harder and dig deeper into the Lord. We don’t need to ask the question “why is this happening?”, we just need to know the Lord is bigger than our mess and He will get the glory.

So if it’s not your time for the cup to pass, make a chioce that you will drink of the cup nomatter how bitter it may be. Christ gave the perfect example. May we follow His example everytime.

God bless.

As we are coming upon celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I started thinking about what Paul said in Phil. 3:10

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

I encourage you to let that be the cry of your heart this Easter weekend. Don’t let your celebration be in vain. Paul walked in such a deep spiritual knowledge and I find it interesting that the three things that seemed to be the most important was Knowing Him, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

So many don’t want to stand up for what is right, they don’t want to share in any affliction. They seek power but not the Lord, they run from conflicts of faith and righteousness.

What an amazing priviledge we have to share in His sufferings. What an awesome priviledge to have the resurrection power inside of us. In Romans 8:11 tells us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us. Praise God! We have the power to rise above doube, fear, compormise and worldy mindsets! We must never let that lay dormant in us, the world is looking for Christians to be the people who allow the living God to have His way. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us! We don’t have to be like everyone else, we can be like Christ!
Which leads into the first thing Paul mentioned… “That I may know Him”. That word know is not a knowledge that you get by reading history books. This knowing is an intimate knowing that ONLY comes by spending time with the Lord, getting into the Word. There is no greater privilege we have than to have the opportunity to know Him.

Don’t let that privilege slip by. Make it is point to die to yourself a little more than before, to spend time with Him and know Him intimately. To walk boldly in the power of Jesus Christ, changing lives around you wherever you go.

May you all have a great Resurrection Sunday.

Have you ever felt like you had a big red bullseye on your back? Like no matter how many right things you do, the more people come against you…

I remember growing up watching WCW Wrestling with my grandma twice a week. I still have great memories of that. Unfortunately, sometimes life as a Christian reminds of WCW, where every week best friends become enemies and partners were broken up and teamed up with their enemies.

Isn’t that sad?! The body of Christ was never meant to operate like that. The past month or two have been rough when it comes to relationships. With one conflict after another with fellow believers, what are you supposed to do? After a while you might even start to question if there is something wrong with you.

When this kind of stuff starts to happen we must continue to seek the Lord and make sure we are walking in agreement with Him. Once we know we are walking in agreement and dead to ourselves, we must continue to stand. We also must remember our battle is NOT against fellow believers but against rulers and principalities in high places. (Eph. 6:12)

When we know this we can respond to the conflict differently, we don’t need to get offended and take it personally that someone is talking bad about you. You don’t need to worry about petty things that people will bicker about. Your job is to pray and stand.

Your job is to go to war against the enemy and pray for those who are being blinded and used by him. Then you continue to stand from a place of victory! You continue to stand against things that offend the heart of God even if it means “offending” the other person. It’s not worth getting caught up in the drama that people will try to suck you up into. This is war and we must use wisdom in the battles we fight and how we go about the fight.

We cannot support strife and division in the Body of Christ. There is a lost and hurting world waiting to see a real Christian empowered by the living God! That’s not going to happen if all they see if a group of bickering, backbiting people.  We as Christians are supposed to be different, we need to be different!

So continue moving forward making Christ your everything and not the words and actions of man! Don’t give up ground to the enemy, take it back from him! Don’t cater to the devil….kick his teeth instead!

It always seems to happen when you least expect it. You don’t even know how you got to where you are. All you know is that if you knew how the turn out was going to be, you would have done things differently.

About six months ago, I had a conversation with a girl who was a worship leader in her youth group. She had told me she was waiting for some friends and how they were going to go to a old boy’s home. Over the years I had heard bad things had gone on there and now people were saying the place was haunted. Knowing this, I asked her “why on earth she was going to go?” From what I remember, she said “it was going to be fun”. I remember seeing her the next day and asked how things went? She told me it was extremely freaky and how something was there and how she had seen blood on the mirrors and how something flew by and knocked her driver’s side door mirror off.

Today, she is not a worship leader and can be found hanging with all the potheads. She doesn’t want to hear the Truth and is completely unhappy with her life…and it shows.

How does someone find themselves in such a bad place? Just like the song “It’s a slow fade” by Casting Crowns. It’s so very true…

I’m not saying it’s because she went to a demonic infested place out of sheer stupidity, now she is where she is. What I am saying is, it happens in baby steps and if she had been in a place where she saw how stupid it was to go there, she would probably not be where she is now. That’s how it happens slowly getting desensitized by influences around you. When you start giving the enemy ground in your life, he is happy to take it and continue to take more and more. Just like the song says, “people don’t crumble in a day”. It’s true, you think watching those movies with all that crap in it doesn’t effect you? It does! And if Christ is in you, then you should have a real problem with it!

I have had multiple conversations this week about a movie that just came out that I want to see. I have asked many Christians that have seen it, if there is anything bad in it. First couple said “no”, some others said there was some language in it and that the Lord’s Name was taken in vain once. That’s NOT nothing! Since when is it ok for the Lord’s Holy Name to be taken and run through the mud!? It’s a slow fade…

I encourage you to spend some time before the Lord and ask Him to reveal anything that might seem okay, but offends Him.

Keep moving forward in Him.

In life we can find ourselves in many different situations, some good and some bad. It’s a horrible thing to suddenly find yourself in a place that seems to be void of God, you feel numb or even dead…

The worst part is, you don’t even know how you got there. This is when situations and people can dictate who we are and how we feel about ourselves, which then dictates how we think, act and live. What a terrible thing.

But, there is great news! In Phil. 3:8-10 says:
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Paul seems to sum it all up for us…

What a beautiful picture that is painted, “to be found in Him” and to “know Him”. When you are found in Him, your current situation doesn’t control you anymore! When you are found in Jesus, you aren’t controlled by people’s words and actions because you know who you are in Him and who He is in you.

So let’s break these verses down…

Paul says, he counts all things a loss for the “Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus”. I’m thinking this is a big deal, to count ALL things loss, all things is a LOT of things! Paul had some insight here, all things are as dung compared to the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ. This knowledge is not a knowledge you get by reading a text book or going to school, this knowledge comes from spending time with Him and Him alone. It comes spending time with Him and getting to know Him. You know what He likes and how He feels. When you spend this kind of time with the Lord, something changes inside of you, His word is sealed upon your heart where you know that you know that you are found in Him…. And there is no better place to be found!

Now let me say, there are many that seem to think Paul is cussing when he uses the word dung. Now I realize what the Greek says, but I will argue that Paul was NOT cussing, if he had, he would have contradicted all the things he said in all his letters about the words that come out of our mouths. So if you find enjoyment in thinking Paul cussed, you better check your heart because there is nothing funny about it. And don’t be using that as an excuse to say whatever you want either!

When you are found in Him, there is nothing in you that would want to cuss either. As you continue to abide in Him, He shares His heart with you and you feel what He feels.

Now Paul also mentions something else that is key. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Once again this “know Him” is an intimate knowing. But now, it’s also about knowing the power of His resurrection through sharing in His death and living a crucified life. As you do, you are transformed into His image in all areas. As you are dead to yourself and the world, you walk in the power of His resurrection. In newness of live with power and authority. It’s a beautiful thing!

When you combined all of the above to your own life, you don’t have to worry about what people are saying or thinking about you. You don’t have to conform to the situations around you. All you have to do if keep standing firm in the confidence that you are found in Him, worshiping Him every step of the way.

Sure, there is more we could talk about, but let’s make it a point to live a life that is completely hid and found in God!

Until next time, God bless!