Just scanning through Luke, I read over the passage where Jesus talks about the man building the tower who could not finish it. (Luke 14) Do we really realize Jesus is here talking about a commitment to Him?
What do we think about when Jesus says, "If you want to follow me, consider it at length, don't just jump in, I'm not some rumbling bandwagon for the cool kids, I won't be just another cool design on your t-shirt, this is life changing, life breaking stuff we're dealing with here." What we as Christians must come to terms with, especially when reaching out to others to tell them the Good News (and by all means, let us do this much more) that this is what we're asking of others and hopefully ourselves. This isn't a once a week chore. This isn't so you can look cool, be cool, think you're cool. This is about the breaking apart of everything you once were.
Jesus says to the crowd listening to him, many who would soon be denying they had ever owned a "Jesus is my Homeboy tee", if you're not able to go the whole way, don't start, because if you do, and you can't everyone's going to look at you and laugh. "Hey look, there's that guy with only half a house!"
Yet we all try real hard to look good in our half finished castles. It leaks a little, but if you look at the right angles, it seems really great! That's what we're doing with our lives. That's what I'm doing with my life.
A lot of us on hearing Jesus tell the rich young man to sell all his possessions to the poor or else he just can't come, like to immediately start doling out the excuses. "It's only because that was his god, I don't love my stuff as much as he did so I can keep it all." Was that really the heart of what Jesus was saying? And if it was, how many of us really aren't that attached to our stuff? How many of us flip the channel when the starved, beaten, and destitute children come onto the television? How many of us have more than one of those televisions in our house? But, we need those right?
Many of you are probably pointing your fingers at me right now, listing everything I have. And to that I say, thank you. I need to be reminded of my own personal hoard as much as the next guy on the pew.
Jesus told us, if you live like he lived you would be hated, persecuted, and even brutally murdered. In fact he went a step further and said, if everybody around you likes you, compliments you all the time, and everybody at work asks how the kids are doing, you better watch out because you're likely messing everything up.
Let's stop making excuses for ourselves and for others. Jesus certainly won't give or take those excuses and we all know it. Can we rally as a body of brothers and sisters and hold each other accountable? Can we point out, in love, saying, "You need to love your wife more, you need to stop gossiping, you need to give more, take less". Can we be mean enough to love each other?

Today, let's truly live like Jesus. Our homeless King of Kings.

The Fox's Hole, the Lily's Dress

Many of you will read the title of this blog and a couple pieces of Scripture will come to mind. These scriptures both covered what many people consider to be the basics of life. Shelter, clothing, food, and drink. About shelter, the man many of us claim to follow, had none to call his own. On sustenance and clothing for our nakedness, he told us never to worry or fret over, it would be provided as his Father provided for the birds of the field and the lilies of the valley.
Funny thing is, how many of us have actually taken him at his word? How many of us are worried about the clothing we put on this morning? How many of us, after waking looked at our full fridges in despair crying, "I have nothing to eat!" How offended God must be.
What I want to cover here a lot are the basics of life and how they relate to God. Everyday things that we don't connect to him out of ignorance or neglect. Things like the food in our refrigerator or the clothes on our back. I want to discuss the things we ask of God and the things we think we can handle deciding ourselves.
I hope to also talk about the deeper things of God and apply them to daily life, as I feel any good lesson has an application. If you believe in predestination, what effect does that have on your daily world, does it effect anything at all? If you believe in miraculous healings, what does that change? Is there just war, can a Christian fight, if so what for? These subjects and many more I hope to cover, always attempting to link them to our life.
For the few people who might glance at this occasionally, I hope I can make it worth your while. Feel free to comment and critique as need arises. My point is to apply the Scriptures to our lives, and to hopefully with those points make changes to my own and anyone who will listen's life.
"And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'"
Luke 9:58

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. "
Luke 12:27-31