Brutal faith

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:3-5)

Paul wrote this to Timothy 2000 years ago, but I'd say that we're living in that time right now.  Conventional wisdom demands that we never tell anyone to break out of their comfort zone, it's so insensitive.  Never rebuke, challenge, or even suggest sacrifice.  It's just not politically correct.

God's principles state:
Spiritual forces manipulate this world, and fallen angels that were cast out of heaven millennia ago, are still at work on this earth today in real and tangible ways.

Conventional wisdom dictates:  Healing and the casting out of demons "were for then, not for now."  We live in a modern world.  Any talk of demons is silly and medieval.  If we stretch our imaginations to believe that it may exist today, it must exist on a very philosophical level, nothing concrete as our daily lives.

God's principles state: My Word is living and active.

Conventional wisdom dictates: The Bible is negotiable.

God's principles state: Lose your life, sacrifice yourself to God, become His slave, and you will find it.

Conventional wisdom dictates:  Believe, but don't lose yourself.

God's principles state: Unless you hate your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even your own life—you cannot be My disciple

Conventional wisdom dictates:  Family first.

God's principles state:  The honor and worship of tradition over the honor and worship of God is idolatry.

Conventional wisdom dictates:  Anyone who breaks traditions, especially those cloaked in religious overtones, is being hateful and such a person is tantamount to a reprobate.

Anyone who says that Jesus is all about love and kindness, knows only half the story.  The love and kindness of God is only fully available to those who are ready to wage war against evil - even at the risk of losing their family or their lives.  The path to God's love and kindness begins in loneliness and sacrifice, but the power and authority that is imbued to those who go through it is priceless.

True Christianity is radical Christianity.  True faith is brutal.  And the true results are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

This thing about intelligent faith

We recently finished a monthlong series of classes on negativity here in Katy with over 100 people in attendance. I learned so much about myself, my faith and the subtle ways that negative thoughts were sabotaging me.  Though I've known God for years, I'm still learning. I love learning!

Whenever I counsel someone at church, as I verbalize the advice I give them and go through the tools that we teach about, I am also speaking to myself.  I feel God opening my eyes to what I need to put into practice.  When you give out of faith, you always get a greater return, and I have found that to be true on a daily basis.  The negativity course was great because it pushed me to think in different ways, approaching faith in different angles.

But strangely enough, a number of traditional Christians, (who would rather die than consider themselves traditional) saw these classes as having nothing to do with "real faith."  In their mind, real faith means singing loudly, clapping their hands, being involved in lots of activities, shouting amen at the preaching, and putting on an air of busy Christianity.  To them, a course like Negativity 101, is just filling minds with information.

These are their unspoken assumptions:

1. Calm, rational learning is weakness.
2. Loud aggressive action is strength.
3. People do not need more knowledge
4. People just need to do what they're told and don't ask too many questions

Negativity 101 was created to stimulate intelligent faith, to get people to fight against their problems and reject the evil in their lives, and to know God.

Doesn't faith begin with our reason?  Doesn't faith begin with rational decisions to believe in the impossible, and only then take bold and risky actions?  If faith is meant to be intelligent, then it only makes sense to start with our thoughts and move on from there.

Of course not everyone is the same.  Some people can get overwhelmed with large amounts of information, while others just drink it up and are thirsty for more.

Our courses are meant for the drinkers, the thirsty, the ones who want to get down to the nitty gritty of how to live, to act, to decide, to choose what is right.  Drinkers need answers and to feel free to ask questions. But once they've grasped it, there's no stopping them.  They know what they believe, and can answer anyone who tries to challenge their faith, because they have grappled with their doubts and overcame.

Saying that learning is just "fluff," is like saying Jesus' parables were just fairytales. If true faith is intelligent, it's worth the effort to dig deep and lay that foundation from where radical actions of faith
can be launched, like spiritual ICBMs.  Don't know what an ICBM is?  Look it up!

Knowledge + action = miracles.

Rewire Your Mind

Send out this video to the ones you love who struggle with negativity!

Negativity 101, a course of 12 sessions over 33 days, offered only at Succeed in Life Center, Katy TX. Negativity101.com 

Negativity 101

What do you think is the biggest open door for problems in people's lives? Negativity.  It's the starting point for doubt, lies, hatred, depression, unbelief, worry, abuse, addictions, defeat, you name it.  The devil has found such a cornucopia of ways to use it to his advantage - it's just that good of a tool in his hands.  Find it thriving among good-hearted Christians, and just as much among hard-core God-haters. It can morph into so many forms and be equally as deadly to our spirit.

The course to beat it is coming up in our church at SiLC - only in Katy, TX, and will blow you away.  Read all about it at Negativity101.com I'm not being proud about it, just not being negative!

Check out just how much our folks at the Katy SiLC are into getting out the news about the course.  Here we are handing out flyers at the local Walmart this weekend, roasting a bright pink in the Texas sun, and having a lot of fun!!

And enjoy one of our videos:

The prophet that makes me laugh and learn

I would love to have met Elijah in person.  He was a tough go-getter, fearless to face down a bloodthirsty queen and her pack of Baal worshipping priests.  That story of fire from heaven is one of my favorites.  But Elijah had his weaknesses, just like the rest of us.

After the fiery standoff with the Baal worshippers, he was riding on an emotional high.  He had been a part of two amazing miracles (fire from heaven and rain after a famine), a slaughter of the prophets of Baal, and a victory for God under his belt, all in just one day.  But Jezebel the queen acted just as arrogant and hell-bent on killing Elijah.  So he ran miles away and hid in a cave and wanted to die.  What??

After all that amazing power manifested by God through Elijah’s faith, how could one woman turn him into such a weakling?  Emotionalism – that’ll do it every time.  Ride high on your emotions, and you can count on being tossed into the dirt face-down soon enough.  Elijah had forgotten that his trust was in God, not in his ability to convince Jezebel to back down or repent.

I love what came after that.  The Bible says that God told him to come out to the edge of the cave and stand in the Lord’s presence:

“At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”  (1 Kings 19:11-13.

We all want to see the spectacular, the amazing, the stupendous earthshaking experience and say, “Wow, look at what God is showing me!”  But God wasn’t interested in talking to Elijah through any of that.  It was that soft whisper; that still small voice that asked, “Hey Elijah, what are you doing here?” It makes me laugh every time I read it!

Elijah went on to give God a slightly exaggerated sob story about how he was the only one left who loved him, and as always, God was so gracious and wise.  He didn’t pity him, and He didn’t rebuke him, just gave him a mission to go and anoint a new king and prophet and to know that there are thousands of others who still do love Him.  “Now go!” He said.

So the solution to Elijah’s depression and self-pity was:

Stop being emotional
Stop worrying about convincing people to listen to you
Calm your self-centered feelings so you can hear His voice
Get up and DO what you know He wants

The moral of the story?  God speaks to us all the time.  ALL the time.  Yet we have the dullest, deafest ears to hear him because we are so attracted to special effects.  Whatever exciting shiny thing appears before our eyes, we want to stare at it.  Whatever gripping emotion settles into our hearts, we want to dwell on it – even if it’s destructive.  And of course the devil is more than happy to dress up all his temptations like a Hollywood set, with lots and of fancy emotions and imagery.  Meanwhile God says, “Go, do what you know I want, and that’s when you’ll see my power.”

Unstoppable: the Christian movie meant to answer life's tough questions

Advertised as a movie that “answers some of life’s most difficult questions about suffering and explores the victory of the Gospel throughout history,” we couldn’t help but be curious to see Kirk Cameron’s “Unstoppable” production that aired live simultaneously in 700 movie theaters around the US on Tuesday night. In his trailer, Cameron stated that he had traveled across the country, and had gone through an emotional and spiritual “meat grinder” searching for answers.

Dave and I both grew up in traditional protestant churches and are more than familiar with the reasoning Christians offer of why good people suffer.  I asked questions like this so many times in my own life…why can’t I be healed, what’s wrong with my faith, are you punishing me God, don’t you even care, why does life have to hurt so bad? I asked and asked and sought for answers, and the ones my Christian friends and counselors came up with were vague and philosophical. I had to conclude that nobody knew the answer, that I was supposed to hold on to God for dear life, and when I died and went to heaven, it would all make sense.  God was still good, God still loved me, God was still in control, even when depression and fear were swallowing me into a bottomless pit.  I was wrong to demand or expect anything from the perfect all-knowing God who chose to leave me hanging by a thread, because somehow it was all good for me.  That was the best anyone could offer me then – and that was all the “Unstoppable” movie had to offer as well.

Since the live showing at 7pm was sold out earlier in the day, we found a cinema in a neighboring town that would air it again at 9:45, so we planned for a late night.  The late showing wasn’t packed out, but a good number of good Christian Texans filed in and patiently waited as the movie technician tried to figure out how to fast forward the recording to the beginning of the show.  His ineptness was funny and exasperating as the audience started to shout, “No, no, more, more!” and “Stop! No further back! No! Keep going!”  It finally got under way half an hour late, and we were already tired.

The movie that claimed to grapple with earth-shaking themes, began with a whimper.  Cameron appeared onscreen and introduced two guys with personalities as exciting as their grey suits.  We discovered we had to endure a long monotone speech by the president of Liberty University, the film’s sponsor and host, on the wonders of his institution. It even looked like some of their student film projects got to be a part of the production, adding to an amateurish feel to the show. I felt like getting up and leaving at that point, but the tickets were too expensive and we had committed to seeing the whole thing.

Next a variety show began with the singer Mandisa, performing in front of 10,000 Liberty U. students who filled up their school stadium.  A Vietnam vet shared a rapid-fire and hard to follow testimony about losing his legs in a landmine and turning to Christ, then a dad of one of the Secret Service agents who died in the Benghazi embassy attack talked about how Psalm 145 comforted him.  Nothing wrong with people saying how God has helped them through tough times, but I felt like I had been tricked into paying $15 to watch a TV church service.  The only piece of the variety show that was truly original was Warren Barfield, the writer of the theme song, “The Time is Now.”  With a simple acoustic guitar, he performed an amazingly good song with a great message, which I have now purchased on iTunes and highly recommend.

When I thought this was all it was going to be, the actual movie finally began.  The tough questions.  The hard-hitting answers. The meat-grinder... (read the full review here)

Elizabeth - mother of a revolutionary

Enjoy our study of Saturday Sept. 14th at SiLC 59 in Houston:)

https://soundcloud.com/ehigginbotham/elizabeth