More 4 Me Than U

Isle of you

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:08:51 -0400

Isle of you

Photo

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:17:10 -0400

travelling-like-the-sun: accras: A baby on his father’s back...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:14:15 -0400

accras:

A baby on his father’s back while he washes clothes — so much beauty in this.
(source: Howiviewafrica)

So precious!

Prisoner of your own apetite

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:14:00 -0500

“Grossly over weight, Reynolds [a fourth century duke in Belgium] was called by his Latin name which meant extremely overweight. After a violent quarrel, Reynolds’ younger brother, Edward, led a successful revolt against him. He captured Reynolds but didn’t not kill him. Instead he built a room around the Newark castle and promised him he can regain his title and his property as soon as he could leave the room. This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near normal size; and none of them were locked, and none of them were barred. The problem was Reynolds’ size. To regain his freedom he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, so each day he sent a variety of delicious food. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Reynolds grew larger and larger. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty. He had a ready answer, ‘My brother is not a prisoner, he may leave whenever he wills’. Now Reynolds stayed in that room for ten more years and was not released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year. A prison of his own appetite.”

A story from Three Edwards found in Thomas Constantine’s history.

Have you ever considered fasting? If you don’t control your desires, your desires will control you.

“Our flesh says feed me so that I can destroy you…Drawing closer to God always requires spiritual discipline. Prayer, fasting, worship…sanctification is God’s job, obedience is ours…discipline your body…. Avoid rules without relationship, obedience without brokenness, and ritual without humility.” Shane Idleman.

Our flesh apart from God can never succeed. Knowing that we cannot conform to the idea that we cannot fast, that we cannot withdraw from the things that hold captive our attention, our focus and desires. Even if it’s an addiction God can take it away or walk us through it. But we must surrender ourselves to God, willingly yield our burdens and desires turning to him for all our needs.

Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:06:24 -0500

We all know them, the kids who were raised in church. They were stars of the youth group. They maybe even sang in the praise band or led worship. And then… they graduate from High School and they leave church. What happened?

It seems to happen so often that I wanted to do some digging; To talk to these kids and get some honest answers. I work in a major college town with a large number of 20-somethings. Nearly all of them were raised in very typical evangelical churches. Nearly all of them have left the church with no intention of returning. I spend a lot of time with them and it takes very little to get them to vent, and I’m happy to listen. So, after lots of hours spent in coffee shops and after buying a few lunches, here are the most common thoughts taken from dozens of conversations. I hope some of them make you angry. Not at the message, but at the failure of our pragmatic replacement of the gospel of the cross with an Americanized gospel of glory. This isn’t a negative “beat up on the church” post. I love the church, and I want to see American evangelicalism return to the gospel of repentance and faith in christ for the forgiveness of sins; not just as something on our “what we believe” page on our website, but as the core of what we preach from our pulpits to our children, our youth, and our adults.

The facts:

The statistics are jaw-droppingly horrific: 70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from High School. Nearly a decade later, about half return to church.

Half.

Let that sink in.

There’s no easy way to say this: The American Evangelical church has lost, is losing, and will almost certainly continue to lose OUR YOUTH.

For all the talk of “our greatest resource”, “our treasure”, and the multi-million dollar Dave and Buster’s/Starbucks knockoffs we build and fill with black walls and wailing rock bands… the church has failed them.

Miserably.

The Top 10 Reasons We’re Losing our Youth:

10. The Church is “Relevant”:

You didn’t misread that, I didn’t say irrelevant, I said RELEVANT. We’ve taken a historic, 2,000 year old faith, dressed it in plaid and skinny jeans and tried to sell it as “cool” to our kids. It’s not cool. It’s not modern. What we’re packaging is a cheap knockoff of the world we’re called to evangelize.

As the quote says, “When the ship is in the ocean, everything’s fine. When the ocean gets into the ship, you’re in trouble.”

I’m not ranting about “worldliness” as some pietistic bogeyman, I’m talking about the fact that we yawn at a 5-minute biblical text, but almost trip over ourselves fawning over a minor celebrity or athlete who makes any vague reference to being a Christian.

We’re like a fawning wanna-be just hoping the world will think we’re cool too, you know, just like you guys!

Our kids meet the real world and our “look, we’re cool like you” posing is mocked. In our effort to be “like them” we’ve become less of who we actually are. The middle-aged pastor trying to look like his 20-something audience isn’t relevant. Dress him up in skinny jeans and hand him a latte, it doesn’t matter. It’s not relevant, It’s comically cliché. The minute you aim to be “authentic”, you’re no longer authentic!

9. They never attended church to begin with:

From a Noah’s Ark themed nursery, to jumbotron summer-campish kids church, to pizza parties and rock concerts, many evangelical youth have been coddled in a not-quite-church, but not-quite-world hothouse. They’ve never sat on a pew between a set of new parents with a fussy baby and a senior citizen on an oxygen tank. They don’t see the full timeline of the gospel for every season of life. Instead, we’ve dumbed down the message, pumped up the volume and act surprised when…

8. They get smart:

It’s not that our students “got smarter” when they left home, rather someone actually treated them as intelligent. Rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and atheists treat our youth as intelligent and challenge their intellect with “deep thoughts” of question and doubt. Many of these “doubts” have been answered, in great depth, over the centuries of our faith. However….

7. You sent them out unarmed:

Let’s just be honest, most of our churches are sending youth into the world embarrassingly ignorant of our faith. How could we not? We’ve jettisoned catechesis, sold them on “deeds not creeds” and encouraged them to start the quest to find “God’s plan for their life”. Yes, I know your church has a “What we believe” page, but is that actually being taught and reinforced from the pulpit? I’ve met evangelical church leaders (“Pastors”) who didn’t know the difference between justification and sanctification. I’ve met megachurch board members who didn’t understand the atonement. When we chose leaders based upon their ability to draw and lead rather than to accurately teach the faith? Well, we don’t teach the faith. Surprised? And instead of the orthodox, historic faith…..

6. You gave them hand-me-downs

You’ve tried your best to pass along the internal/subjective faith that you “feel”. You really, really, really want them to “feel” it too. But we’ve never been called to evangelize our feelings. You can’t hand down this type of subjective faith. With nothing solid to hang their faith upon, with no historic creed to tie them to centuries of history, without the physical elements of bread, wine, and water, their faith is in their subjective feelings, and when faced with other ways to “feel” uplifted at college, the church loses out to things with much greater appeal to our human nature. And they find it in…

5. Community

Have you noticed this word is *everywhere* in the church since the seeker-sensitive and church growth movements came onto the scene? (There’s a reason and a driving philosophy behind it which is outside of the scope of this blog.) When our kids leave home, they leave the manufactured community they’ve lived in for nearly their entire life. With their faith as something they “do” in community, they soon find that they can experience this “life change” and “life improvement” in “community” in many different contexts. Mix this with a subjective, pragmatic faith and the 100^th pizza party at the local big-box church doesn’t compete against the easier, more naturally appealing choices in other “communities”. So, they left the church and….

4. They found better feelings:

Rather than an external, objective, historical faith, we’ve given our youth an internal, subjective faith. The evangelical church isn’t catechizing or teaching our kids the fundamentals of the faith, we’re simply encouraging them to “be nice” and “love Jesus”. When they leave home, they realize that they can be “spiritually fulfilled” and get the same subjective self-improvement principles (and warm-fuzzies) from the latest life-coach or from spending time with friends or volunteering at a shelter. And they can be truly authentic, and they jump at the chance because…

3. They got tired of pretending:

In the “best life now”, “Every day a Friday” world of evangelicals, there’s little room for depression, or struggle, or doubt. Turn that frown upside down, or move along. Kids who are fed a stead diet of sermons aimed at removing anything (or anyone) who doesn’t pragmatically serve “God’s great plan for your life” has forced them to smile and, as the old song encouraged them be “hap-hap-happy all the time”. Our kids are smart, often much smarter than we give them credit for. So they trumpet the message I hear a lot from these kids. “The church is full of hypocrites”. Why? Even though they have never been given the categories of law and gospel…

2. They know the truth:

They can’t do it. They know it. All that “be nice” moralism they’ve been taught? The bible has a word for it: Law. And that’s what we’ve fed them, undiluted, since we dropped them off at the Noah’s Ark playland: Do/Don’t Do. As they get older it becomes “Good Kids do/don’t” and as adults “Do this for a better life”. The gospel appears briefly as another “do” to “get saved.” But their diet is Law, and scripture tells us that the law condemns us. So that smiling, upbeat “Love God and Love People” vision statement? Yeah, you’ve just condemned the youth with it. Nice, huh? They either think that they’re “good people” since they don’t “do” any of the stuff their denomination teaches against (drink, smoke, dance, watch R rated movies), or they realize that they don’t meet Jesus own words of what is required. There’s no rest in this law, only a treadmill of works they know they aren’t able to meet. So, either way, they walk away from the church because…

1. They don’t need it:

Our kids are smart. They picked up on the message we unwittingly taught. If church is simply a place to learn life-application principals to achieve a better life in community… you don’t need a crucified Jesus for that. Why would they get up early on a Sunday and watch a cheap knockoff of the entertainment venue they went to the night before? The middle-aged pastor trying desperately to be “relevant” to them would be a comical cliché if the effect weren’t so devastating. As we jettisoned the gospel, our students are never hit with the full impact of the law, their sin before God, and their desperate need for the atoning work of Christ. Now THAT is relevant, THAT is authentic, and THAT is something the world cannot offer.

We’ve traded a historic, objective, faithful gospel based on God’s graciousness toward us for a modern, subjective, pragmatic gospel based upon achieving our goal by following life strategies. Rather than being faithful to the foolish simplicity of the gospel of the cross we’ve set our goal on being “successful” in growing crowds with this gospel of glory. This new gospel saves no one. Our kids can check all of these boxes with any manner of self-help, life-coach, or simply self-designed spiritualism… and they can do it more pragmatically successfully, and in more relevant community. They leave because given the choice, with the very message we’ve taught them, it’s the smarter choice.

Our kids leave because we have failed to deliver to them the faith “delivered once for all” to the church. I wish it wasn’t a given, but when I present law and gospel to these kids, the response is the same every time: “I’ve never heard that.” I’m not against entertaining our youth, or even jumbotrons, or pizza parties (though I probably am against middle aged guys trying to wear skinny jeans to be “relevant).. it’s just that the one thing, the MAIN thing we’ve been tasked with? We’re failing. We’ve failed God and we’ve failed our kids. Don’t let another kid walk out the door without being confronted with the full weight of the law, and the full freedom in the gospel.

Marc

Note: Images used for #3 and #4 are by a talented artist named Allie at: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Photo

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:12:43 -0500

"Walking the dawn-wind, with Jesus, Heavenly Lover. In the still beauty of the waking morn, unveil..."

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:59:16 -0500

“Walking the dawn-wind, with Jesus, Heavenly Lover. In the still beauty of the waking morn, unveil Thyself to me, and with that vision shall come the strength for trials yet unborn.”

- Amy Carmichael, twentieth-century missionary to south India

Strengthening my wings

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:37:52 -0500

I sometimes find myself overwhelmed with anxiety. Though my life dilemmas pale in comparison to some, my burdens are just as real. As a result I am learning to understand the purpose of pain and suffering. The scriptures say “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:3-5). When you hope you have an expectation for good, but when you’re anxious all you can think of is the worst. I know the word says not to be anxious in anything, but truth is, that is easier said than done. I am realizing that God has placed me in this situation to strengthen me. God is like an eagle who hovers over her young, carries the infant birds and drops them out of their nest and catches them just in time before they plummet to their death. (Deuteronomy 32:11) Repeatedly doing so, to strengthen their wings. I know God wants to strengthen my proverbial wings through trials, however, it is difficult not to succumb to self-pity and anxiety. But the power of faith is so much greater. The assurance I receive from my faith in the promises of the word of God, the assurance I draw from my relationship with Christ makes an unbelievable difference in overcoming life circumstances, challenges and doubts. “Who is he that makes me happy, who is he that brings me peace? Who is he that brings me comfort, turns the bitter into sweet? Who is stirring up me passion, who is rising up in me? Who is filling up my hunger with everything I need? Created God he is Yahweh!”

Photo

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 07:22:31 -0500

emptyblueprints: Above: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 09:44:40 -0500

emptyblueprints:

Above: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Commonwealth Lecture 2012. “Connecting Cultures”

“I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel.

I told him that I had recently read a novel called American Psycho, and that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.”

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist, editor, and lecturer and winner of the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction for Half of a Yellow Sun

True

RETHINK Prayer

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 09:56:40 -0500

A friend of mine sent me the following, and thought I’d share.

Hi Guys,

So for the past week and more my slacking has been horrible. Finally I have decided enough is enough and I need to set a foundation for my life and the ministry I hope to have one day. I went back to the source, God and His word. I was reading Genesis a book I always start will but somehow get lost and stuck in Exodus. Nonetheless, I’m in Genesis. I’m reading familiar stories and I came across something new. Here it is:

I have been engulfed in movies and neglecting studying and even investing in lives of others. I constantly say I want to be a missionary, but I refuse to prepare myself. It is times like this I get fed up and tell God I will seek you. I continued my pursuit of the Most High by continuing in Genesis, a book I read entirely many times before, but we really do find new things each time we go back to God’s word.

You know how I love the names of God and when I pray I often insert them. The thing is I have been using Jehovah Jireh selfishly. I ask for things because I know he has riches in glory. What I am realizing is not to just read one verse, but to understand that verse in the context of the entire chapter and the entire story. Jehovah Jireh was used when Abraham was about to give it all up for God, his only son. God had asked him to go and make a sacrifice and not having a lamb, he tied his only son Isaac which God had given him. He was such a man of faith and believing the promise that God made to him that he was willing to give his only son. The thing is God told him “I will make you a great nation and your descendants will be as the sand.” So he knew that if God took the life of his son whom the promise would be used to fulfill then God would supply him with another. Besides that the beauty is in the new testament Jesus speaks of despising your mom, dad, brothers and sisters for his sake. In Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.” This is what God wants and Abraham did that. In the beginning of Chapter 22 it says Abraham was being tested. I often tell God I love him, but I haven’t been tested. A pastor mentioned if what you are giving God is not sacrificial and doesn’t cost you anything you have yet to prove that you love Him. Back to my Jehovah Jireh. It means the Lord our Provider. You see it was when Abraham, the son of Terah the great grandson of Shem the son of Noah (You see faith and giving it all was passed down from Noah) gave it all that God provided. God was called Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider not because He made Abraham rich, which he did. Not because when Abraham needed money he gave him, not because He was dying and he saved him. But God provided when Abraham was walking in obedience. He walked in obedience to the point of sacrificing the only thing which he cherished above any other thing, his only son which would make him a great nation, Isaac. This convinced me that even before the 10 commandments in Exodus that our God is a jealous God. But He is a loving, God is rewarding to those who put nothing before him. It burdens me because I ask myself, “Can I lay it down for Christ.” I haven’t suffered in life yet. I haven’t had to lay it all down and be a martyr for the gospel. God emphasized that Abraham, you were willing to give you only son. This pleased God and in that very moment, God was called Jehovah Jireh. He provided a ram instead of Isaac for Abraham to sacrifice.

RETHINK PRAYER. My pastor said, “worship is a response to God’s self-revelation of himself to us.” I think blessing is a response to our sacrificial obedience to God. I do not wish to say we deserve our blessing. NOT AT ALL. We are mere mortals with hearts that are desperately wicked, but we have a God who responds to our worship and whole hearted devotion. When we humble ourselves to nothing then God can bless us. Sacrifice and obedience reveal to God our humility. We are able to tell God, I am nothing, my passions and family mean nothing in comparison to you. I lay it all down not with mere words but deed. Then like He responded to Abraham He will respond to us. Genesis 22:17-18 “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” There is more to be said of course. Our obedience goes to bless the generations coming after us and Abraham laying down his only son as a sign of love foreshadowing God’s own sacrifice of sending his only begotten son for our sakes and much more.

RETHINK PRAYER = RETHINK LIFE. What am I sacrificing for my God? Am I walking in obedience of Him? When I pray Jehovah Jireh, I no longer will pray selfishly. My desire is that He will provide what is necessary to bring glory to His name and His name alone. The Lord Will Provide = Jehovah Jireh. Abraham was willing to give it all having faith that The Lord Will Provide. He had no back-up plan and no alternative he was completely dependent on God.

May the Lord bless you exceedingly, drawing us back to His words which have hidden treasures and revelation of this Awesome God in which we serve.

P.S. Send to anyone you need to, just don’t use my name. The Lord reveals for the edification of His people not for the praise of the vessel.

Video

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:37:49 -0400

The Choice

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:24:39 -0400

The Choice

The formula

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:53:26 -0400

So I attended a Pan African Conference at my church and what the speaker said really challenged me, so I thought I’d share :). I warn you it might sound choppy (I swear my high school English teacher taught me well!) and riddled with side commentary, this is just what I jotted down as he spoke and I can’t be bothered to make it academic paper worthy. He was an adorable and funny Kenyan man. He started by saying how you may have all the ingredients to make a cake and not have any cake to eat because you don’t know how to make cake (and yes God already convicted me for my lack of affinity towards the kitchen so all side mental comments aren’t necessary :P lol). He said some people are looking for a miracle, but what they really need is the ‘formula’. As it says in 2 Peter 1:3 God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness. From there he laid out ‘the formula’. He spoke on how God had set for each of us ‘boundaries’. Boundaries being the place were you manifest your calling and purpose in life (a word choice I found interesting, because I wasn’t sure if what he meant was translated the same in western culture but I think it actually works because you can’t do more than your purpose… or can you? I digress). For example, God has called some people to be worshipers. But worshiping alone isn’t enough. Perhaps if we were to step further we could heal people through worship or bring people to salvation, etc. etc. etc. (can’t say that without thinking of the movie the King and I, but again I digress, and the reference may be lost on some of you…). He said there are three things you need to reach your boundaries.

One: Set your OWN standard. You can’t live your life based on other people’s standards (Gal 6:3-4). El bible says we are to be vessels of honor, if you are a vessel of honor you have to take care of yourself like one and that means you have to live by a standard. This also means in interactions with people you don’t return hate for hate, for example. (This is the part I may not articulate well enough to give the man’s words justice). He shared how the bible talks about how some are vessels of gold and others vessels of wood. You don’t refine gold with wood but wood with gold. The vessels of wood can be used to test, or refine those of gold and when they are done doing so they are left for ashes (hmmmmmm). Most importantly, setting your own standard involves realizing who you are, the calling on your life and the grace of God on your life. He also shared a tid bit on the importance on fasting and praying to realize change and produce results which left me wandering the last time I fasted (he made reference to when the disciples attempted to cast out a demon and failed and Jesus was like such things are only accomplished through fasting and praying).

Two: Fill your cup. He spoke on spiritual perseverance. You have to press on until you ‘fill your cup’. Because when the ‘cup’ is filled up, manifestation will come. You don’t want to give up just before you reach your final destination (can you say waste!). You have to pray for continued grace and strength. And remember to fill your OWN cup, don’t compare yourself with others.

Three: Increase. You have to increase and continue to increase. This is often done incrementally. Before you get to your boundary you have to increase. Increase in prayer. Increase in faith. Increase in love. Increase in giving. Even when you are doing things you shouldn’t, your calling has not change. What we need is for the anointing to work out what we were wired for at birth. The scriptures says “By now you ought to be teachers” increasing implies spiritual growth. We should be further today than the day we first received salvation. We must increase in holiness. Increase in every area of our life. The pastor challenged me personally when he said if there is no increase how can we “possess the land”? There is a land that God wants to give you, but you can’t have it until you increase. Increasing can also mean an increase in sacrifice, which can take many forms. He urged us to meditate on what God requires of us to take us to our boundaries.

He closed by sharing on how there are levels of anointing. The first being salvation, the second ministry (understanding why you are called and actively living out your ministry) and the last, dominion. It is in the anointing of dominion that we enter our boundary and DOMINATEEEEEEEEEEEEE (yeahh boyyyy…ok he didn’t say ‘yeah boy’). He said you don’t get to this level when you are first saved but you must increase. He challenged us to pray that God will give us grace to arise into our boundaries. He condemned the spirit of stagnation, and prayed that God would give us the anointing to move forward. To remove the spirit of complacency as there is ‘land’ to be possessed. The word does says ask and he will give us the nations. Like take that in the NATIONSSSSS. Yet, sometimes our prayers are for minor things. ASK FOR THE NATIONS!!

Anyways. Thought I’d shareeeee.

Peace. Love. Joy. Zaga zahhhhhhhh (that’s my patois coming out, we had a wicked Afro-Carribean worship service so my inner Jamaican is still lingering..no linga no lingaaaa okayy WAYYY off topic here. I rest.)

Will Smith on success

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:13:35 -0400

Will Smith on success

"Being realistic is most commonly travelled road to mediocrity."

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:10:53 -0400

“Being realistic is most commonly travelled road to mediocrity.”

"Don’t tell me the sky is the limit if there are footprints on the moon."

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:01:45 -0400

“Don’t tell me the sky is the limit if there are footprints on the moon.”

Photo

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:05:52 -0400

Video

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:02:52 -0400

Video

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:02:33 -0400