Time for War

As you can very clearly see, this place does not look the same one bit.  I've decided to refocus this a touch. I came out of a fast last weekend and I had one thing really shown to me. The direction for this blog. Thanks to a few friends I'm bringing this vision to life now. I want to share this vision with you all to give you some idea where this is headed.
Originally this blog was just a general thing. I posted lessons, insights, random things etc. I'm taking the focus off me now though (which is why their is a title change and more) and I'm directing this towards a ministry. I want this place to be a place where those saved or unsaved can come with questions and be able to get answers in safe non-condemning way. Maybe a believer has a subject or an idea they don't know much about and would like to learn more about it. They are free to ask it or it could be something they are afraid to talk to a pastor or someone they know and want the truth. Others may come looking for answers to the questions of things in their life and they want to know the Gospel. I'm glad to help. I want this to be able to have open conversation and dialogue among the readers in the comments discussing the things talked about. I want those who want to learn, grow or explore, to have a place that they can come and ask questions and get a biblically truthful answer to put it in a nutshell.

There are plenty of ways to ask questions. You can reach me via facebook, email, twitter, the comments or in person if you are around me during the day. It's my goal to hopefully be able to answer every question. Whether that means a series of questions to a post or a whole post for just one topic and question. I do still plan to post lessons occasionally, after all this is a learning environment. You also can't exclude the occasional poem.

Now as for the title. Waging War with Lions. I look at it this way. All of this comes down to spiritual warfare. In this war, we have two lions. The Lion of Judah. Our Savior, our Redeemer, our Hope. The other is the prowling lion. The one we do battle with. That's why the title is such. Waging War with Lions. Satan uses ignorance, stubbornness, and condemnation against us yet this blog would wage war against him by exposing our doubts and weaknesses. We turn our ignorance into knowledge and understanding. We shine light on stubborn views. We take the high road and rather than condemning others, we choose pray for and to help those in need with love and gentleness. We flip the script on the idea of war. No longer a physical, earthly war, but a biblical war. A spiritual war. A war we are in at this moment, regardless of your beliefs, whether you like it or not. We are choosing to wage war on Satan and ourselves with Christ as our commander. Make sense? The perfect verse came to me while I was thinking over the title, Psalms 91:13:

You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet.

That's our motto you could say, or maybe battle cry would be more appropriate?

Anyway be looking over the next week or so for some new content about The Trinity, and some talk on the End Times. Please get in touch with me with your thoughts, ideas and questions! Thanks!

Much Love,
Luke

The Heart of Worship

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I personally had a great one. I found out some really crazy, amazing news. I am going to be a brother again! As I've mentioned before, my Dad remarried in May, and I went from being an only child to having a 14 year old step-brother, 17 year old step-sister, and a 20 something step-brother (Sometimes I don't add him to the count because I've seen him once at the wedding and once at Christmas). Friday I found out that I'm going to have a new sibling. I'm extremely excited. This sibling will share the same blood that runs through me, which to a guy who's been an only child, that's a mind-blowing concept. I don't know the gender yet and while I'm hoping for a little bro (as is the rest of my family), I'll be extremely thankful either way. The crazy thing is I'll be 37 when this kid turns 18. His or her's birthday will be sometime in August. All I gotta say to that is go God! =D He is good.

However, down to business! I want to give you an idea of how I came about this post and how I've come about a few others, because it's one of the most enjoyable times in my week. I work in a certain ministry called MOTION. Which is where the students use dancing, singing, instrumentals, Step, and a few other things to witness to others and share the Gospel. I myself however am highly uncoordinated and instead found my use in the tech crew, helping set up and tear down for the band and running the sound board for them. The best part of this is, while they are practicing, I have free time just sitting behind the board. Across the hall people are dancing, a few rooms down people are singing, and here I have this band working hard trying to perfect the music to glorify Christ. Everyone is doing their thing, but all with a common goal in mind. Glorify Christ, Bring others to Him. It's great. So while I'm sitting their in this amazing atmosphere, I like to spend time there either reading or memorizing Scripture, or letting God speak to me about this blog. Now Sunday, I was doing all 3 and I came to a verse. Jonah 2:8. It caught my eye and since then I haven't been able to leave it alone.

"Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope for steadfast love"

It's interesting I found this verse when that morning the song during worship that took me the most was The Heart of Worship:

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus 

This coupled with that verse is incredibly compelling to me, because of the fact that it's more relevant today than ever before. It's one of society's biggest issues now. I want to ask you a question, so that you will really ask yourself it. What idols and vanities are you worshiping?  Take a moment if you will and think about it. Is it your job? Maybe a boyfriend\girlfriend\spouse? A sport or team?  Inward things like looks, opinions and talents? Maybe T.V. or maybe like my amazingly cool sociology teacher was kind enough to reply to my question with: Facebook. You see it doesn't have to a big thing to give it too much place in your life. I struggled far too much with giving my last girlfriend too much love. I worried more about that relationship than I was about my relationship with Christ. People are often times far too caught up in the small stuff. Atheist hate to admit it, but they too worship things. Whether it be themselves, Atheism or any cause. We are built with a nature to worship. The problem when you don't worship God is you worship something that won't ever be enough. Any other thing will eventually fail us, all will pass away, and none will ever fill us. In the end it will leave us feeling empty and burnt out. Relationships can be an emotional roller coaster ride, our bodies can't keep a sport forever, our looks eventually wither. Opinions from others are fickle and you have no control over them, leaving you at their mercy (which usually there is none). Talents go out when we do, if not sooner. T.V. everyone is willing to admit is killing our heads to some degree. Facebook, everyone who has spent plenty of time on it find they have times of burnout with it. We were given that need to worship, to worship the One who will fill that need, never fail, and always be here.

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John: 4:13-14

 How's that for filling?

The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32:4

How's that for never failing?

For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. Psalms 48:14

And how is that for being eternal?

Why would we ever want to worship things that are so incomplete? Why worship the creations when you can worship the Creator? It's like Solomon in Ecclesiastes where he is constantly saying "This too is vanity." Be thankful to God for all that He has created but don't get caught up in the things He's created. I promise you, God is way more interesting than the creation could ever be!

Much Love,
Luke

“Popular culture is the new Babylon, into which so much art and intellect now flow. It is our imperial sex theater, supreme temple of the western eye. We live in the age of idols. The pagan past, never dead, flames again in our mystic hierarchies of stardom.” Camille Paglia

Here I Stand

Here I stand at a well known place,

surrounded by the cold morning chill,

I'm walking the road where I accepted Your grace,

leaving behind a life of prideful thrills,

its this path where I was told all my pain was erased,

all because You so gladly were hung atop the hill,

with that You took my hand like a father with an assuring embrace,

You whispered that no longer would my mind and soul be ill,

Yes, I walk this way to remember You've pardoned my case,

some days my eyes close and I can feel the worries bringing me still,

You know well, Friend, the struggles of this race,

where every battle is all uphill,

its clear that only through You, I'm able to keep pace,

no matter how far I run, without Your hand it all adds up to nil,

if I lack You, I'm as lost as a boy gazing up in space,

the hardest lesson though to instill,

was that all this world has to offer, is just a mere chase,

with realization, I decided, no longer Your guidance would I kill,

instead I accept the provision you give of an eternal base,

no, my future will never depend on my skill,

Instead, Your heart will be to my soul, a welcoming brace,

in this life I ask for no frill,

for rather, I know your words will speak soft as lace,

I'm waiting and longing for the day, I walk with You by a quiet rill,

its joy to me, as I know I'll sing out praises to You with heavenly bass,

So here I stand Lord, at the end of the road, I pray, You do with me, whatever You will.

Amen.

Ask for Miracles!

Ahh, I'm updating on my Grandma's ancient early 2000's desktop. You see I had one of the fastest laptops in the world before, but I'm lending it to a friend temporarly, so it was this or drive to the library. I love it though. I like "roughing it" like this with technology, it always makes me feel closer to my work that I do with it. Anyway, I have two posts to show. I figure you'll end up reading this one second, but oh well! One is that poem that I nearly went insane over, but still managed to thoroughly enjoy making and this one is just another post. =D So let's begin shall we?

I'm hoping to have a less intense topic this time round. I want to talk about coming to terms with God's infinite nature.  I realize we will always fail to truly comprehend the true scale of Him, that its beyond our minds' capability. We can though, strive to remember that fact. It seems to me from my experience as well as the experiences of those around me, we tend to underestimate our God, and in doing so, load blanks into one of our greatest weapons: prayer. My church's worship band had their ministry set around a single idea: God is bigger. Anything we face, do, don't do, think, ponder, misunderstand, believe, see, etc. God is bigger than all of it. We still manage to underestimate Him though. We underestimate what He is capable of, what He is willing to do, and how He's willing to do it. Here's an example from the  book: "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day"  by Mark Batterson. Which is a great book by the way. You know Elisha?  Elijah's assistant? Guess what his first miracle was. Making iron float. He was around  laborers near a river. One of the guys' axehead flew off and fell into the river. Now the laborer mentioned how it wasn't his and he was obviously considering it lost. Elisha had other plans though and I bet he started praying. Now if I'm Elisha, I'm hoping for at best that either the guy he borrowed it from won't be mad or that he'll manage to get a new axehead. Elisha though, I figure, would be praying bigger. Once he was done, he throws his stick in the water and then, up pops the axehead floating on the water. Iron is unbelievably heavy. Trying to make it float would be a big task. Yet God is bigger. We need to pray to the infinite God, not a tiny god. You can't underestimate him, because he will always flip the script. We have to stop boxing in God. Maybe the reason prayers are often times unanswered is because we choose to limit them! Let your prayers be filling! We have to start believing that with prayer we are talking to the same God who built us from dirt, brought pillars of fire, brought city walls crashing down, gave rain in a drought, healed the lame and sick,  fed thousands, and sent his only son, the holiest of all things to earth to the most degrading death so that we could find peace. We got to trust and have faith with that. We are talking to GOD! Think about it! I keep saying it, but I don't think everyone is getting it! Now he might not grant all our prayers, because we don't always pray according to His will, but he does say:

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

Is that at least not enough of a reason to take everything before Him? Your wants, needs, fears, failures, doubts, sins, hopes, dreams, ideas, all of it. He already knows it, so why not tell Him anyway?

I'll admit, sometimes these posts may seem basic, and down right obvious, but you know what? I don't believe where we are as believers can handle anymore than that. I believe our current situation as a whole requires us to return to the elementary principles. We've been trying to much to one up one another with new ideas that we've forgotten the basics. We may seem to know how to do these things, but knowing and putting it into action are two very different things. Prayer isn't a wish list. Prayer isn't an emergency 911 button. It's a daily, constant connection between you and your Creator. You speak and He listens AND you listen while He speaks (I think we forget that last part a lot too!). Guys we have to live by the basics of faith, we can't handle more than that. We need to have faith, simply. We can't keep on adding on to things to appear new! Nothing is new! We have all we need and let us stick to it! Think it over and PRAY over it!

Much Love,
Luke

"Common sense as well as common values all lead us. Our future depends upon it and our present is going to be vastly better when we get back to these basics." - Joan Blades


"I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals." - Julius Erving

A Call to Urgency

Hello everybody! I've been working on a poem for English about God that well has had me stumped and so I've been diverting a lot of time to that, still haven't gotten it finished yet but I did manage to take some time to get a new post ready. This one is one I might bring up a lot. It's one of the biggest things on my heart. Urgency. I have an unbelievable urgency about things. Also thank you to everyone with your kind words at school, on facebook and on here, they mean so much. Please tell others about the blog! But I digress...

It's time we get our priorities straight. It being a new year, now's a perfect time. Friends tell me all the time, you are doing too much. Your going too far with the Word. Sincerely, I don't believe I've gone far enough. I can't count the number of times I've decided to go back to sleep, rather than having a quiet time with God. So many times I've seen where God is commanding me to be obedient, yet I refuse. Either out of fear, anxiety, pride, apathy, or laziness. To say I'm going too far with the Word is ridiculous. We can never go to far with it, we all can and need to go further in fact, and it all begins with your priorities.

Look at Colossian 3:1-2:

  "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, no on things that are on Earth"

Those two verses are a great start, we have got to take in the big picture. Ask yourself is it necessary, and if not will it matter later on?  If no, then ask what might I be doing that matters more? I'm not talking about what matters an hour from now, or a week, month or even a year from now. I'm talking about what matters on the Day of Judgment. What will that extra hour of sleep really matter in Heaven? Instead couldn't that hour have been spent having time with the Lord? Who knows what he might of revealed in that time. The possibilities are truly endless and they DO matter in the Kingdom. Is the football game essential? No. Will it matter later on? Probably not. Is there better things I could be doing? Surely.

Now believe me, I'm not saying don't have fun and relax. Scripture tells us to enjoy life for instance:

"There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God." Ecclesiastes 2:24

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly"  John: 10:10

 What I am saying though is don't let the pleasures of life get in the way of your focus and priorities on the One who made it possible for you to have those pleasures! Christ never guaranteed us happiness or fun. He did promise us the ability for joy though. This is to our benefit. We need to be reminded by our issues, pains and problems that we only have so many seconds on Earth left. We need to make the most of every single last one of them. Every second we are here is for a purpose greater than ourselves. What are we doing both individually and as the Church to pursue that purpose? This is NOT something to say "I'll get to it tomorrow"  or "I'm not ready yet" or " I might screw up" No. It's time to do whatever we can however we can, with whatever we have. Do those in Haiti have until tomorrow? The people who are blind to the Truth in China? What about the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers of our own country? Do they have until tomorrow? I'll tell you right now. This country DOES NOT have until tomorrow. If this message sounds desperate, it's because it is.  It's nothing new, it's the same message Paul has preached and many other men greater than I since him. It's still just as urgent. As Paul put it: The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.  Now I can't possibly tell you what God is calling you to do. Maybe it's surrender to ministry, or give to help those in Haiti, or maybe come back closer to the Lord, or any number of things. I don't know. It could be anything.  Part of your purpose in life is spent figuring out what it is!  Hebrews 12:1 says to

"Lay aside every weight and sin that easily entraps us, and run with perseverance the race that is set before us."

All the sin, the fears, worries, insecurities, distractions, misconceptions, judgments. We have to lay them down to God and start running. Right. Now. We can't have them hold us down today because that's all we will ever have. Today. Yesterday is only in our heads and tomorrow never comes. All we will ever have is this moment. It's a very true, yet ironic fact that as Christ followers, we are naturally a desperate people. We only have so long to let our light shine before men.

If it's possible I'm going to break down this whole thing to as simple as I can make it. Whatever it is you do, let it be to the benefit of the advancement of the Kingdom of God, to your relationship with Christ and to God's glory. We are the children of an Awesome, Infinite, God. Not only that, but we are co-heirs with that God. It's time we dress the part as well as act it and put aside our deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Be an ambassador for YOUR kingdom, everyday until you return to it.  So focus, and get your priorties straight.

Much Love,
Luke

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."  - Leonardo da Vinci

Through Hell and Back

I'm going to tell you a particularly dark and tragic story from a time in my life to help get a point across. This story is about my childhood, but before I began to tell it, I have to first go back a generation.

My mother has had a rough life, to put it VERY nicely. Her real father was a mean and cruel man. I don't know the full details but he wasn't kind, but to to get the idea though, when he was dying in the hospital, my mom, who had been taking care of him up to this point was late getting there. Some of his last words were cursing her not getting there in time. That should give you an idea of him. He and my grandma got a divorce when my mom was very young. She remarried to another man. This man was nice, but he abused my mom for years. I'll leave that part at that, I think you get the picture.  My mom at 16 ran away from home and hitch hiked barefoot from either Arkansas or Louisiana up to South Carolina.  By 19, I believe, she tried to commit suicide once. My mom had some demons, most of them she managed to hide away and lock up tight. Fast forward a bit and she meets my father, and marries him. Fast forward even further and I'm born. Finally fast forward to about the time I'm 4-5 years old. This is where things get real ugly.

Now before I jump in though, I want to put a disclaimer, this is only a portion of the things I dealt with, the full story would be a novel. Also I don't remember everything that had happened as it went on for such a long time and started at such a young age. For the most part though this was a weekly occurrence with many nights a week having episodes. 

Shhhhh... Be Still and Listen

I've had a verse in my head for a few weeks. It was on one of my previous posts. It's Exodus 14:14.

"The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still." 

This is such a sweet thing. Our Lord will never let us down, instead he will fight in place against sin, persecution, Satan, the world or anything else that stands in our way.  THe thing is we have to be still. We can't fight him, period. If the Lord chooses to in a certain directionwe need to have the courage to follow. Sometimes the Lord likes to move in such a far out way as to test how bad you are truly wanting Him. You say you want Me to break the addiction, but how badly do you want that? Are you really willing to do whatever it takes to change it? I believe God says yes to our prayers more than we really think, however I think we turn around and say never mind right after He answers.

That's only one side of being still though, we have to be still for another reason: to sense. When you don't move, you have a greater view of your surroundings. You aren't moving or taking your attention to focus on your body. Instead you have the ability to hear more and see with greater focus and your body is ready to react. Apply that to this verse. God will fight for us, but we need to be focused so that we can hear what He wants of us.  Whether that be to run from danger, to go forward boldly etc. If we are too busy running around to hear what He wants us to do, then how are we to expect Him to fight?

Finally, We need to be still, humbly. I see too often in myself as well as others the problem where we ask for God's intervention at some place in our lives, He intercedes and once we see a bit of improvement we take over. We say thanks, but think we can take it from here. We got it under control. It's foolish, it's prideful, and it's certainly not being still. How can we really be so dumb sometimes to think that we can take over and finish better than the crazy, awesome God we have? The God who only made EVERY single thing in the universe, oh and don't forget the universe itself! He is THE Creator, THE Reconciliator, THE All in All. How can we be so prideful to try and finish what he starts, ourselves with no direction or influence from Him? I believe all of us always have some part in our lives where God is calling for us to be still. It's one of those things if you do it right, God will show you things you never thought possible. You do it wrong and it may just well break you.

Here are some things you can do though:

1. Ask God to make it known where to be still in your life. If there are things in your life troubling you, lay them down to Him and let him intercede, follow where he tells you to,  reevaluate your movements when He shuts doors in your life.

2. Most of all try to really look, listen and feel what God has to say to you. Focus less on the results and more on the journey and the insight that comes from it.

Much Love,
Luke

“Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.”  - Aldous Huxley