I had a good talk with my brother Jeff this morning. It had been a while since we talked. Why? Well simply I have been busy but even more the reason was because I was really exhausted. Exhausted from work, school, family activities, active children, even exhausted emotionally. As I take inventory of my time and even the time of us Westerners we are so busy. Our electronic devices doesn’t make us more efficient, it makes us more busy and as we become more technologically savvy and advance I can only see us being even more busy.

This is an anti-technology post. This isn’t a post about slowing down. Actually quite the opposite. This is a post about being exhausted for Love’s sake. I was reading the Gospels and the story of Jesus telling the disciples that He was tired. He had taught, fed, healed, touched, loved and ate with 1000′s if not tens of 1000′s. And His physical body was tired. But read that again. Jesus was tired because He was exhausted from loving others. However, if you look at my list of things that led to my exhaustion, outside of active children, it was really for my own personal gain.

So back to my conversation this morning. It is so funny how God works, during my commute, I meant literally 30 seconds before Jeff’s call I had just said to myself, I am too busy to love others. I am exhausted, to the point where I don’t want to deal with anyone. I don’t want to talk on the phone with anyone, I don’t want to encourage anyone, I don’t want to help anyone. I just want to mind my own business and do my own thing and have my own space and let the chips fall where they may. Not to mention dealing with people is hard and I get NOTHING from it. Read that again. I am tired of having to deal with people and getting nothing from it. At least with school and work I am climbing the corporate ladder, getting promoted, winning my management over, gaining a reputation of excellence. Getting an MBA will only increase my marketability while simultaneously gaining me some notoriety! Right!???

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians about his current state of life (and no I am not saying we have to live like Paul or should aspire, but we can learn from him). He was hungry, tired, naked, threatened, beat all for the Gospel. He had no notoriety, was not climbing the corporate ladder, was not chasing more education or a higher paycheck, actually he says in another letter “I count it all a loss”. Paul once he met Christ decided to forfeit those things I have decided to exhaust myself for them. While he decided to be exhausted for people, I have been exhausted for stuff. Stuff will burn, loving people builds eternal value. I am exhausted for the worthless, Paul, exhausted for the priceless.

I am sorry Lord! This is what spilled from my mouth. Once you make the final commitment to love people to the point of exhaustion (and thus be like our Master) the risk of being used, abandoned (see Paul in prison), taken advantage of, and maybe even the forfeiture of personal aspirations are almost inescapable. The risks greatly outweigh the immediate benefit, and by immediate I mean this life and however long God grants you breath. Such a thought makes me scared, it intimidates me, firstly I don’t want to be used, secondly I don’t want to possibly give us so much of myself. However, if the Gospel is true, and I will be raised from the dead, what does it matter?

I am not talking about reading your bible more, or becoming more invested in religious activities at church. I am talking genuinely putting yourself at risk to love and serve others. That may be a call to someone who gets on your nerves, it may be a dinner with some people who treated you badly recently. It may be to help that person who is a leech or a user (this doesn’t mean allowing them to not do their jobs, or fulfill their obligations). It is that thing pulling at your heart and when the lights are off you know you didn’t do what you were supposed to do because it was uncomfortable. You know what I am talking about, but only you know. I know what it is for me.

Being exhausted is almost inescapable but if we must be tired, if we must stretch ourselves thin, if we must be stressed out, let it be for loving people. As Paul says even our momentary affliction is building a priceless reward for us in heaven. Jesus was tired, why not join Him?

I will tell you last night was the first time I have conversed with God with any real meaning and expectation to hear from Him in some time. I have not read a page of the bible in a few months, I have not sacrificed any of myself in a few months and I honestly struggled with the fact of being a Christian. Why? I don’t know. There were a combination of events that just snatched my affection away? I got too religious, too practical, to pragmatic and too self reliant I guess. I said “I am tired of serving others, I am tired of loving others, I am tired of people, they just take from you and abuse you”. I thought, “I got mine, best get yours”. And finally I actually meditated on the notion of “God help those who help themselves”.

Pride, lust, self-centeredness and self-righteousness has dominated my heart for at least the last 5 months. Last night, the Lord reminded me of His grace and it broke me down. Even as I type now there is a lump in my throat.

Believers it is God’s great grace that gives us the ability to do anything. Yes you may work hard, yes you may obey His commands, yes, you may burn the midnight oil, yes you may have made personal sacrifices that are coming back to pay dividends; however, it is God’s grace that allows such thing. I actually scoffed at the idea (over the last few months) about the notion of “without the grace of God will go I”. I said “humph… it is because I do the right thing and make better choices”. I no longer believer that brothers and sisters. I can no longer look at the fallen with anything but a depressed heart and eternal joy that it was my Savior who renewed my heart”. I can no longer look at the drug addict, the prostitute, the molester, the drug dealer, the homeless, or the alcoholic with anything other than brokenness in my soul.

I am as fragile as an egg being held 2000 ft in the air. My entire existence depends on a Sovereign God holding it together with His very word. I am product of grace nothing more and nothing less. It is God through Christ who sustains me. I am but dust! I am but a mist! I have no value or worth outside of a Creator imparting His Spirit within me, creating me in His image, waking me up daily.

The last few months have been terrible spiritually for me and it is because I took my eyes of of Grace. I was easily offended, almost getting into a physical altercation, I was snappy, impatient, unforgiving, self-righteous and downright nasty at times. I had a disposition of apathy and self-centeredness. I had opportunities to really put the Lord Jesus on display yet I used the opportunities to walk in pride and to flaunt my ego and “masculinity”. I am sorry for that and sorry to my brothers and sisters, who I misrepresented rather known or unknown (we are on in Him).

I am humbled by grace, and now can beat my chest with only these words “without the GRACE of God will go I”.

God bless.

Over the past few months I have had a lot of time to think about stuff. I actually have thought about a lot of stuff come to think about. One of those things is “life” and what it means. You see void of any spiritual aspirations, life is just life. I started to ask to myself without God what is life and what value does life have.

I have come to a few conclusions in my own self-reflection, I Lionel Woods would be a mess. Here is what I mean, at one point in time of the last few months, I began to put God on the back burner. Actually maybe more than that. Putting God on the back-burner actually lead to me not wanting to write and taking a break. I slowly began to turn inwardly and pursue my own self-interest. I started to contemplate, “what if this whole Jesus thing is the greatest trick of all” you know sorta like the movie “The Last Temptation of Jesus”.

Paul writes the most provocative statement in all of scripture in Corinthians when he says “If Christ has not raised from the dead we are to be the most pitied of all men”. This statement is true. He goes on to say “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”.

Let me ask what is the pursuit of life outside of Christ? Why work hard? Why be honest? Why love, why be tender? Why sacrifice? Why take care of your children? Why love your spouse, heck why even get married? Why workout? Why keep a job? Why give to others? Outside of Christ, eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will die and that is all! Everything over the course of your life was a huge waste of time. Everything you have attained will mean nothing, everything you valued is now worthless to you, all the good you did (even if it carries on) will reap you no reward, you will become dust, a forgotten tombstone, a hole in the gr0und in which paper and debris will blow over and that is all.

I started to dwell on things that hurt me in the past, and people through whom such pained entered. I started to despise them. I withdrew emotionally and said, I rather walk alone. But over the last few months my heart started to drift the other way. I started to really think of Christ’s life. We see the eternal Son emptying Himself (Philippians 2:1-13) and becoming a man. We see Him walking among us, displaying compassion, tenderness, living sacrificially, caring for the rejected, rebuking the arrogant, chastising the self-righteous. We see Him ultimately taking our sins upon Him, though being innocent, then being abused, betrayed, abandoned and ultimately murdered and even more importantly bearing our sin punishment. And we see Him do it all not for Himself but for us.

We see the Son do this with what the bible calls “for the joy set before Him….” He didn’t go complaining, he didn’t come complaining, He didn’t ask whats in this for me. He did it out of love and ultimately if we turn to Him we too can partake of this love. This love compels us to forgive, to love, to surrender, to give, and to ultimately lay down our lives.

Little slogans like “its all about me” sound cute and innocent but they are detrimental to experiencing the joy of ETERNAL LIFE. I am not writing this to point fingers but to just share that outside of Christ life is meaningless to me. I don’t want to be a good person I want to live for my own self-interest! Why? Because this is the only life I will get and might as well enjoy it till the end, whenever that comes. However, if the resurrection is real and my life is now hidden in Christ, then I have every reason to be overjoyed, to live for others and to share this love i me with everyone I come in contact with! Why? Because I am going to live forever with God and those who received His free gift of grace. Can life get any better than that?

“You are saved by grace through faith”

Today because we live in a country where the vast majority claim to be Christian we have now become afraid of Grace. The apostle Paul wrote those words above to a group of individuals who were not living as those who have become new in Christ.

Today it is the type of church you go to, the type of music you listen to, how “holy” you live, how much theology or bible you know, and what type of theology you affirm. When we read the letters of the Apostle we see it written to a group of people who looked exactly as we did today. We have this romantic idea of the early church. Often times I hear and read stuff about how righteous they were, but history (and the bible) proves that idea absurd.

You see the Corinthians are called brethren and from what I can gather from the two letters they were jacked up. When I read the letter to the Thessalonians their theology was a bit shaky, if I turn to Colossians, they were having problem with Christ’s identity, go over to Philippians and they can’t get along, we can go on and on but you get the point.

Simply put, none of these things, rather behavioral or theological prevented Paul from preaching radical grace. Whenever you see Paul wanting Christians to change or to stop doing something or to start doing something, he always put Christ (grace) in front of them. “Christ did X and you are in Christ and now so should you”, never “you better do this or else”. Paul never threatened the church because he knew that grace would be the only thing that motivates Christians to love and love is what motivated God to crush His Son.

We can not be afraid to preach radical grace and plead with the people of God to put on Christ. It is not are job to separate the wheat from the chaff, it is not our job to bring conviction or condemnation, it isn’t our job to strong arm people into Christian compliance. It is our job to love, preach Christ and to proclaim grace and allow the chips to fall where they may. Yes people will not look like we want them to look or live like we want them to live, but allow the Master to handle that. Whatever happened to grace? You tell me!

1. If I believed in the resurrection, the American dream would be appalling.

2. If I believed in the resurrection I would support missions wrecklessly.

3. If I believed in the resurrection I wouldn’t be embarrassed about Jesus.

4. If I believed in the resurrection I would forgive as I have been forgiven.

5. If I believed in the resurrection my image would be the least most important thing in my life.

6. If I believed in the resurrection I would not fear persecution.

7. If I believed in the resurrection I would love my neighbor as myself.

8. If I believed in the resurrection death would be welcomed.

9. If I believed in the resurrection I would trust Jesus with my “life”.

10. Finally if I believed in the resurrection I content!

Hate to do this again but I will be breaking from blogging for a little while. School, work, gym and dance class (yes taking dancing lessons) will consume my time. Not to mention children! So I don’t know when I will be back but it may be a while this time. I also have to build a blog and refine the group I work with serving the elderly and homeless.  Hats off to Alan for building the logo for me for the group. Anyway thanks for interacting and I will be posting any comments that are made. God bless.

Another positive thing about being in simple/organic expressions of church life was the giving. Why? Well simple, we didn’t give to the “church”. You may say “whats good about that” or “well you guys weren’t giving” which are necessary questions.

Yes we gave. But we gave to people or to specific organizations that the Lord had burdened our heart for. We didn’t collect money as a church and make decisions that we feel that they should have the obligation to make. We didn’t want to take the responsibility of giving away from them and so we didn’t collect money and house it. Whats good about that? Well simply put, God directs your giving and holds you responsible to the command of being a giver. Not only that, you should be interacting with people, listening, being compassionate and from there show forth God’s love by meeting real, urgent, pertinent and specific needs.

Where I struggle with traditional churches is in the area of money. They often teach those who are members to give to them and from their they make get to make the decisions on who is qualified to get a need met and who isn’t. Often times overhead is the area where a good portion of the money goes. Some even teach that you have tithing which is 10% of your income that should always go to them and then any giving above that is offering which may or may not be given to them that can be used for other things.

That leads to this question. When I read the New Testament, it seems that every penny that was collected was for the sole purpose of being given away not to save up for a rainy day or to extend the building or to upgrade the audio systems or…… Now I am not nitpicking or trying to cause a fight. However, to make a youth wing, or expansion of a building that will 99% of the time only be used by the church for its own purposes, doesn’t seem to qualify as a real need. When I read Acts, Philippians, Corinthians and a few other places it seems to me that money was collected and it went to meet an immediate need and there were always immediate needs.

Today there is a host of red tape that one must go through to receive help from a local church, there were even a few times where I heard “they are not members here so we can’t help them” or “they are not in good giving standing so we can’t help them”. Wow! The church of the scripture (as far as I can read) didn’t seem to have this philosophy.

Now I know things are different. Today we own land, elaborate buildings, state of the art equipment, great HVAC systems and so forth. I know today we have multiple people on paid staff, from the youth pastor to the teaching pastor to the business manager and so forth. However, I argue that does things are not only unnecessary, they actually have no foundation in scripture whatsoever. They are man made modern “positions” created to institutionalize and incorporate the body of Christ.

Think about this. Do you know what percentage of your money goes where? Not only that. If the church is setting money back, couldn’t you or even shouldn’t you sit that money back yourself until a real need comes up? What if they have plans to expand but you see a neighbor going to be foreclosed on? Can you decide to not give to them and to given to the needy neighbor? Can you ask for the money you gave back so that you may give to that neighbor? See where I am going. I personally believe that a Christian right has been taken away and cloaked in theological jargon that has no real basis in scripture. Especially if I see how money was raised in Acts, Philippians and Corinthians. Think about pledge cards and all of that stuff and what they are for. They are never to help people but always to help the organization and the growth of said organization.

Your giving is your responsiblity. To sit by passively and allow someone else to make that decision with your money (as I often here I gave it the church and what they do with it is their problem). God has called you to make disciples just as well as the church. James is calling individuals to provide for the widow and the orphan not organizations called churches, though the church can collectively do this. Before you right your next check or click that paypal button, think about immediate needs you have heard about and do what Christ has called you to do.

Often times I am overwhelmed by the needs I see and hear about. What makes matters worst today is the fact that technology puts information that you couldn’t even think about at your fingertips and only second to the speed of light.

You hear about Haiti, Australia, earthquakes in China, earthquakes in Pakistan, flooding in China, droughts in different parts of Africa. Not to mention all the stuff that just happens in your own backyard. From houses catching on fire, to people dying in car wrecks, to families losing their jobs, to sicknesses that insurance refuses to cover, or for sicknesses that happened to the uninsured. This doesn’t even include the things I get from missionaries and missionary organizations monthly.

To be truthful I am often overwhelmed. To be even more honest I am often stricken with guilt that I have so much at my disposal while others have little to nothing. Sometimes I am about to put up  a defense mechanism to cope with this fallen world, other times I often brought to tears by the tragedy I see everyday.

However, I would like to challenge each and every one of us to meet a need. You can’t fix the world. You can’t alleviate poverty everywhere. You can’t stop every foreclosure, there are times we should enjoy the fruit of our labors (and each man must determine this on his/her own). But sometimes we can do small things that make a huge impact. We have been fed the lie that ministry is for the paid we even call these people “ministers”. Sometimes you feel because there is so much need out there that you should just bury your head in the sand. However, I want to challenge you, even if it is $15 a month or 1 hour per month get out and do something. Trust God with the outcome but you just move your feet and watch how God moves and even if you don’t put a dent or scratch the surface, whoever you just served is better off with the little bit than the absolute nothing.

Often times we praise Paul, but Paul was human like us. He saw the need for the Gospel and he left on a boat heading somewhere God didn’t want him to go. However because he moved God used him mightily. Don’t point to Paul and say “look how God used Paul”. Don’t point to these organizations and say “look how God is using them”. Let God use you even if you think it is something small and frivolous. Let God use you. If He can take a few fish and a few loaves and feed five thousand, I am sure He can take our few pennies, our little free time and do the same. He is the same God.

I wasn’t going to post anything today. As I have not written anything in the last few days (the post are on auto-publish just changing the dates and times). This is a live recording

I am trying to smile as I regret posting this but I have to put this out there. Every since the resurrection of Christ false teachers have sprung up in all shapes, colors and sizes. Some of these false teachers are obvious. They look, smell and sound like wolves, you can see  ’em coming  miles away. You know to put up your young. To lock the gate. To sound the alarm. To head for the hills. To load your rifle. And to shoot when they are in gazing range.

However MOST false teaching does not come that way. I actually believe those big wolves are just a smoke screen from our adversary to slide in the ones that look, walk, sound, act, talk and graze on the pasture just like the rest of us sheep. For all intents and purposes you really can’t tell the difference.

We currently live in a society that is saturated in easy quick fixes. We don’t think critically, we want to be so politically correct as to not offend others. We want to blend in and not cause disruption. This is especially the case for us who aren’t the loud mouth bull horn Christians who tell everyone they are going to hell. Or the over religious Christian who is one face covering away from a burka, or those who enjoy our liberty in Christ, who have little conviction about things that aren’t in scripture. Our variety of Christian have a hard time saying hard things.

Finally we lack discernment. We have the most bible versions on the planet earth. We are the most free nation in this regard yet we are practically biblically illiterate, except for a few key cliche verses. I could line up the first 100 Christians and start to ask them about books of the bible and what that theme may be or what was the writers point (even in opinion) and most people will give you blank stare. They know who is sleeping with whom. They know sports stats, they can tell you the last 100 episodes of their favorite shows. They know all the latest gossip and with the popular people are doing (even guys are buying into this crap) but they have little to any understanding of the bible.

That preface leads to this. There are many false teachers who are disguised as “angels of light” as Paul would say. There are many false teachers that Jude warns about, who looks like us and talks like us and would even attempt to make you look like the guilty person. They are very good and very deceptive. Mormons for an example. They will say they are Christians, just not “protestant” or “evangelical” they will tell you they are talking about the same Jesus you are and serve the same God you serve, just a little differently. THEY ARE LIARS!!!!!!!!! They are not your brothers and sisters in Christ. They are of the lineage of a false prophet and though you should never be rude, you have to tell them that you are not serving the same God. Then we have the Jehovah Witnesses. They will tell you that you serve the same God, they just got a different spin on Jesus. THEY ARE LIARS!!!!!!! Don’t believe them.

Finally to bring this matter to heart. Jon Paden is a FALSE TEACHER!!!!!! He continually comes to this blog attempting to slide in a host of doctrine that is not Christian. He isn’t a confused Christian. He is a false teacher. The reason I have said this is because EVERY Christian on this blog (some a little more mean than others) have attempted to correct him. I have talked with Jon personally about this matter. He even attempts to employ the deceptive tactic of defaming me and making me look like the guilty party. No Soup for Jon (in my Soup Nazi voice).

Listen to me people. PRAY FOR A SPIRIT OF DISCERNMENT!!!!! Please. Pretty please, pretty pretty please. Most people aren’t out here being buttholes. The MacArthur’s, the Sprouls, the Hortons, the Mohlers, the Pipers and so forth may have things I disagree with but I would entrust you to those guys because they have something called discernment. Even the guy Driscoll (took a lot to type LOL). Please let no one take you captive. Paul is always fighting false teaching. Peter is combating false teaching. John is combating false teaching and Jude is combating false teaching. It was a problem 2000 years ago and it is a bigger problem now because of technology.

I regret to write this post but it is necessary. Please use discernment. Please!!! A minor tweak can redefine the Gospel of Jesus Christ just read your bible and you will see!

Imputation, Justification, Propitiation, all of those are transactional in their definition. I want to write about something but don’t know how to fully explain it without sounding like a heretic. But I am going to try and let me know what you think okay? Okay!

Because of the protestant reformation, our Gospel has become very transactional very abstract. Actually the Gospel is actually reduced to a list of facts. For the last…. I don’t know 6-7 years I have believed it, fought for it, would argue until I was blue in the face for this position. But, I think I am starting to drift away from that perspective and even more lately as I have been discussing some things in the last few blog post.

So… whats the Gospel? When that question is answered especially from a Reformed perspective. It is narrowed down to a list of facts/beliefs/cognitive recognition. And if you get those right and can articulate it clearly and with passion, my friend you have the Gospel and are justified… However, I think the Gospel is more than that and here is what I mean.

Often times when I read the Gospels I am uncomfortable. Why? Well simply put Jesus’ words are not transactional at all. When you read passages like Matthew 18:21-35, or Matthew 25:31-46 or Matthew 7:1-23, Luke 14:25-33, Mark 8:34 and a host of other texts you can often get a funny feeling in your stomach (at least I do). I then immediately run to the epistles and how I have been taught to interpret justification and salvation by grace through faith and so forth as a balm for the scrapes and bruises I got from the Gospels.

When I wrote my post about MLK and the Reformers the same question came up repeatedly. That is “what is the Gospel then”. I will say this upfront so you really understand it. Any Gospel that does not carry with it the obligation to love your neighbor as yourself (also your brother) is not a Gospel of the scriptures. Let me say that again… any Gospel that lacks the obligation to love is not a real Gospel. Now will I get in trouble for that? Sure. Will someone delete me or write me off? I am sure they will at least for some time; however, I say this with no reservation.

If we look historically, the way we get around loving neighbor as self is by applying a transactional Gospel. This is how we can say men who would participate in the slave trade, the kidnapping of another human being or their children and selling them for profit and those who supported these ventures through insurance, manufacturing boats, capital investment and even purchasing them could have been Christians. The reason is simple, they can articulate the facts with great accuracy and this gives them a pass to violate almost the entire New Testament.

This is how a group of men can set up a state where those who don’t agree with them could have their goods confiscated, imprisoned and even executed. Why? Because it is simple get the facts right and there you have yourself a Gospel. This is how you can have an entire nation absolutely hate another group of people simply because of complexion and features while simultaneously walking in a building to “worship God”. We can make excuses for them because of the facts. We can say they were just a product of their day; however, Jesus says “any man who doesn’t hate his mother or father… isn’t worthy of me” or “any man who does not pick up his cross and die daily…” you see. Jesus talks about the Spirit that brings conviction the writer of Hebrews talks about the New Heart and Paul talks about a Spirit that indwells us that breaks us free from the power of sin (hatred and racism included) in Romans 8, yet somehow getting the facts right holds precedence over these text.

The Gospel isn’t a list of facts the Gospel is a person who we are now in and now lives in us good works seems to be an essential component and the work of love the greatest of these.

What makes it even more odd is the double standard. For some reason we are much tougher on people today than we are on those of the past. Let me be clear about something and I hate to beat this horse. But it isn’t like someone didn’t say “what you are doing to me is wrong and does not bear the fruit of Jesus Christ”. These men heard this numerous of times, even had it explained from scripture (check Frederick Douglas, the Anabaptist, Martin Luther King and even back to the 5th century). These men just ignored these people and did whatever they wanted to do. It is as if they were just oblivious to their acts of hatred. We need to get that clear. These men just ignored the Gospel command to love. Jesus says “a new commandment I give you, that you love one another”.

So whats the Gospel? Depends on who you ask.