Sell Your Posessions

Mark 10:17-27 is the story of the Rich Young Ruler. It’s probably the most popular story outside of the Sermon on the Mount for the new movement of Christianity that has been titled “The Emergent Church”. This movement emphasizes a deep commitment to God that is lived out by loving others… especially others who are less fortunate. In my opinion, it’s a great thing! I’m not sure when Christianity and social justice parted ways, but those words should be synonymous with one another and the Emergent Church is leading the way in reuniting the two.

Within the past ten years or so, this movement has crept into the Evangelical circles as well. Guys like Francis Chan and, more recently, David Platt, are now teaching these values. I think they are doing a fine job of merging the Evangelical emphasis on obedience to God’s laws and the Emergent emphasis on social justice. The stereotype usually goes that people who obey God’s law are legalistic, demanding, and inconsiderate, while people who want to love others are wishy-washy, willing to bend the rules, and not too concerned about God’s wrath/judgment.

Anyway, back to the Rich Young Ruler. I’ve read this story a lot. Almost every book I’ve read recently has mentioned it at some point. The preacher at my church has even referenced it several times in the past year. So recently, I was very challenged by the idea of actually selling everything I own to help others. Couple that idea with the idea that God will provide for your needs if you seek his kingdom first, and my mind was going nuts about how I could apply this to my life.

Right now, we are in the midst of raising money for a mission trip to Arizona to serve the Apache Indians in Whiteriver, AZ. We have a yard sale coming up where all of the proceeds will go toward this trip. So I’ve been trying to decide what I could sell at this sale in order to donate money toward the trip. My mind started thinking big… sell the living room furniture, sell my awesome TV, sell my lawn mower, sell my truck (which I am trying to do anyway, but not for the purpose of donating to the trip). I even thought about selling my entire wardrobe and starting from scratch.

The idea of unloading all of this junk started to really sound appealing to me! It almost seemed like I would be free from a lot of responsibility and pressure. Pressure to watch my TV in order to justify spending so much money on it. Pressure to wear all of my nice shirts instead of wearing the same ones every week. Pressure to play my video games, use my paintball equipment, keep our lawn looking immaculate… all of these things felt real. The more I read scripture the more I began to think that my life is way out of balance. After all, my mind doesn’t start to slip into worship of God when I’m watching my favorite sports team, play XBox, or building relationships with people. However, when I worship God, my mind will often slide into what’s going on with all of those things.

So I finally made a decision. I decided that I would sell my Xbox on craigslist, buy a cheap DVD player, and donate the rest of the money to the mission trip. And that is what I have done. But instead of feeling free, this is what happened to me…

As soon as that money hit my hand, I automatically began to think about what I could use it for! I starting realizing all of the “needs” I have. I starting dreaming about what a new Blue Ray DVD player would look like on my awesome TV instead of the cheapest one I could find. I had every dime of that money spent in my mind within a matter of seconds! And then it became a temptation to buy all of those things and rationalize a way out of donating it to the trip. I even thought at one point, “It’s my money, it wouldn’t be wrong to spend it on myself.”

Selling my Xbox was one of the smallest things I could have done, and it was SO HARD! Buying the cheapest DVD player at Walmart was SO HARD when all of those fancy ones were staring at me. I was even tempted to buy the next level up, which was about $10 more, just because it looked cooler… it didn’t have anything to do with how it functioned… it just looked cooler!

This experience has made it very obvious to me that consuming things has become an addiction to me and probably to our entire society! We are constantly looking to upgrade our lives! We need the newer car, the bigger house, the nicer DVD player, the better looking sofa… we NEED them! We ARE ADDICTED!

Here’s the saddest part of this story. I am actually somewhat proud of myself for following through with my decision to buy the cheapest DVD player. That was a major step for me! Isn’t that sad? I feel like I’m a better person because I sold one of my possessions and I took part of the money from that possession to give toward God’s mission and then kept part of it for myself to get another possession.

In other words, if I were the rich young ruler who approached Jesus, and Jesus said, “Go sell a possession of yours that you value but haven’t really used that much in the past two years. Then buy a new possession and give the rest of the money to the poor. Then you will be saved.” If Jesus said those words, I would have struggled with it! AAAHHHH!!! GOD HELP ME!!!! Who of you can blame the rich young ruler for walking away sad?!?!?!? Someone, in reference to this passage, said the other day, “Jesus doesn’t expect EVERYONE to sell all of their possessions and give the money to the poor. But chances are, if you are thinking that Jesus isn’t talking about you, he probably is.”

I'm going to jail!

With all of the evil and hate going on in our world, I want to give you an opportunity to do something worth your time and money. Tomorrow, i will be going to jail in support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, or Jerry's Kids. My goal is to raise bail money to get out of jail. Anything I raise will go straight to MDA and sending a child to one of their well-run summer camps.

If you would like to help support this effort, you can donate moeny at: https://www.joinmda.org/spartanburglockup2011/JD

Thanks in advance for your support.

The Devil Works in Obvious Ways

Recently, I've been trying to stay more intune to the Spirit at work in my life. I've been reading the Bible and other books a LOT, I've been praying, I've been trying to meditate, and I've practiced other spiritual disciplines that help me stay in touch with God.

Because of this attempt to stay in touch with the Spirit, I've been able to see God's work in my life. For example, my wife and I were having a discussion the other day about where we were going to get the money to buy spring and summer clothes for our children becuase they are both a lot bigger this year than they were last year. We talked about Matthew 6 where Jesus says to seek first God's kingdom and things like food and clothing will be provided for us. So we agreed to do this. That same day, a friend of ours called Megan to tell her they had lots of clothes that their son had grown out of that would fit our son. That Sunday, they brought us four boxes full of clothes... way more than our son will ever need! God is at work in our lives.

However, staying in touch wit the Spirit has also allowed me to see Satan at work in my life as well. Last week, I made a commitment to give up all caffein for Lent. It is a daily struggle not to drink coffee or Dr Pepper. I crave it all day long! Sunday night, at our youth group meeting, we had a cookout, and the only thing that was provided was 2-liters of soda. Satan at work. Then yesterday, I received THREE separate coupons in the mail from Coke offering me a free 20-ounce coke. They came from playing McDonald's Monopoly last October, but they just happened to arrive right in the middle of my fast from caffein. Once again, Satan is tempting me.

I've seen Satan tempt me in lots of ways recently. I've come to the conclusion that Satan works in obvious ways! He really doesn't have much variety to his attacks on us. He finds a weakness that we have and the hammers it over and over again till we give in. If he hits on something that we aren't tempted by, he will give up on that and move to something that we are tempted by. Once we give in to that temptation, it gives him an anchor and he will continue to attack us there till our walls cave in and we become consumed in our sins.

The only reason we don't see this happen regularly is because Satan has convinced most people in our culture that he doesn't do this sort of stuff. We don't like to think about it. It scares us. So we live our lives either completely oblivious or completely ignoring what he's doing. This just makes him that much more successful at what he does.

It's time we wake up to what Satan is doing! I've found the best way to recognize his work in our lives is by staying in tune with the Holy Spirit. If I am praying constantly or practicing other disciplines such as study, fasting, meditation, service, worship, etc, then I all of a sudden become very aware of what Satan is doing in my life and I am that much more prepared to resist him.

Empty Your Life

This morning I was driving to work and a strange thought came into my mind. If Jesus came down and took over my body, what would he do first? In other words, if Jesus were to actually start living in my body, with my life the way it is currently set up right now, what would be the first thing he would do?

I’ve been thinking about this all morning now and I came to one answer that I believe he would do first. I believe he would start emptying my life of all the stuff in it that’s getting in the way of me connecting to God. In fact, I think he would probably do something similar to what he did to start off his ministry on earth. He would probably go to the wilderness and fast for 40 days. Because I don’t think Jesus would be able to survive in this world as the Son of God if he were this disconnected to God and SO connected to so many other things that he would probably call gods in my life.

So my next step of thinking was to ask the question, “If I were to go to the wilderness today for a 40-day fast from not just food but from my entire life, what would I have the hardest time being away from?”

Once I asked that question, I automatically started coming up with all the excuses why I can’t possibly do something like that in my life. Here is a taste of my inner thoughts about this:

“Well I certainly can’t do that in my life right now because I have too much responsibility at home with Megan and the kids. Megan would kill me if I were to leave her for 40 days to be with God. And I would DEFINITELY miss food the most! My body isn’t ready for a 40-day fast. I would need some time to prepare my body for something like that. I would probably pass out after the first 24 hours. And how on earth would I be able to do my ministry at Central? I would get fired if I tried to abandon my responsibilities at Central or at the Children’s Home for 40 days! And if I got fired, how on earth would I be able to pay all of my bills? I have a mortgage, a car payment, loads of student loans, and all sorts of other bills. I would be late on all my payments. And anyway, what would I do for 40 days by myself? That would be miserable! I would be bored stiff after the first day or two and then I’d probably go crazy. Could I at least bring my laptop and find a retreat center that has Wi-Fi? What about my I-Pod or a few books to read? It’s March… I would miss all of March Madness! Ohio State is ranked number 1 right now. I can’t miss watching them in the post season!”

I imagine if you were to go through this same mind exercise, you would probably have a similar monologue about all of the things you would be missing out on. But did you notice one thing missing that never really went through my mind as I went into a panic attack? I never once thought anything about God in all of that. I never thought, “Will I at least get to bring my Bible?” or “That would really be nice to spend so much time in prayer and meditation. I would probably get really close to God.”

What does all of this say about me and where I’m at right now? Is God optional for me? Could I go 40-days without reading or praying to God and not really notice it? I don’t ever think of my family, food, my job, my money, or my electronics as idols. I do think of Ohio State athletics as an idol in my life and it is something I’ve fought for years. But the rest I don’t ever see as idols. But when there is a threat of emptying my life of things, those are the first things I worry about.

Today starts an important part of the year for Catholics and some Protestants. Today is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lint. The idea of it is to empty ourselves from something in our lives that we normally can’t live without. I challenge you to join me and millions of other people in participation of this ritual in an effort to move God up the list of necessities in your life. For me, I am going to give up all caffeine. I stopped drinking coffee a few weeks ago but now I am going to cut out all caffeine in my life and whenever I get a craving for it, I will seek God instead.

If our goal is to be like Jesus, then our goal should be to cut out everything in our life that keeps us from being close to God so that if Jesus were to take over our bodies today, he wouldn’t need to change much about our lives in order to be close to his Father in heaven.

Resident Aliens

Carson Palmer has recently requested to be traded from the Cincinnati Bengals. He has expressed his distaste for the Bengals organization to the point that he said he is willing to retire before he puts on a Bengals jersey or steps foot into Paul Brown stadium again. He hates it there!

This is not the first time Palmer has expressed his disgust for Cincinnati or the entire state of Ohio. In fact, a few years ago when Ohio State played Southern California, Palmer bashed not just Ohio State fans, but Ohio in general.

As an Ohio native, this drives me crazy. I want the Bengals owner to force him into retirement and never let him play football another day of his life. I want other bad things to happen to him as well. I want him to be walking into a restaurant in Cincinnati and the manager refuses to serve him. I want people to refuse to buy his mansion so that he is forced to live there, or at least own that property for the rest of his life. In my heart, I dislike Carson Palmer VERY much.

However, recently, this dislike of Carson Palmer (and his mutual dislike of me) has stirred up other thoughts and emotions within me. I have begun to wonder why it is that I feel so strongly about where I’m from. Why am I so passionate about Ohio, and specifically Ohio State? I’ve lived in other places and I like living in other places. I am currently living in South Carolina and I love that. In fact, the only time I don’t love living here is when I meet people who were born and raised here and have to listen to them talk about “The South” as if it were God’s gift to the world. But seriously, why do I take offense when people bash Ohio? Am I that egotistical?

This random wondering of mine has led to another question that I think is more significant. Will I like heaven even though it is not Ohio? In heaven, will I feel like it is my home or will I feel homesick for Ohio the way I get homesick for Ohio now every once in a while?

I hear people down here all the time who say, “I could never leave the South.” Really? Do you understand that heaven is not going to be the South? Do you understand that heaven will be made up of people who are from all parts of the world? Do you understand that Jesus himself was not southern?

I hear other people talk about America as if it is God’s gift to the world. We pledge allegiance to America as if it is OUR HOME! We sing songs about America as if this plot of land were something special. We try to keep immigrants out of this land because we feel like they aren’t good enough to exist here (even though most of us come from families who used to be immigrants). We take pride in the fact that lots of people from other countries want to come here!

We sing an old song in our churches every once in a while. It goes like this:

“Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you.

If heaven’s not my home then Lord what will I do?

The angels beckoned me from heaven’s open door

And I can’t feel at home in the world anymore!”

Do we really mean that? Do we really feel a loyalty to heaven more so than we do to the place that we grew up or the country that we live in? Do we feel completely homesick for heaven? Do we feel helpless at the thought of having to make our home somewhere else?

I don’t. I can’t sing that song honestly right now. I have too much pride built up in where I was born and raised. I despise people like Carson Palmer for trash-talking my home state. It makes me want to take cheap-shots at his home state of California. I get genuinely offended at southerners who talk about the South as if is so much greater than the North. And they get even more offended when I even hint at making fun of their home.

This needs to change. If we are Christians, we are aliens in this world and we should act that way. We should sing songs like the one above and we should stop singing songs about a place that we don’t even belong to and shouldn’t be able to relate to.

I want to be homesick for heaven. I want to understand what it means to be “in this world but not of this world.” I want to know what the culture in Heaven is like so that I can model my life in that way instead of modeling my life to fit the culture of America or the culture of South Carolina or the culture of someone who was born and raised in Ohio and now lives in South Carolina.

What would that look like?

My First Post

Welcome to my first ever blog site. I don't really know how much I will use this or what it will turn out to be. I don't typically feel like I have a lot to say to people that is worth posting on the internet. However, sometimes I get an idea in my head and I feel like I need to share it with others, but I don't have a great forum to do that. So that's what I will probably use this for the most.

Thanks for checking me out and I hope that this site can be of use to you in your search for God.

God Bless,
JD