Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

A New Challenge

I started a challenge yesterday. From the outside, I am torn. Part of the challenge seems really straight forward, and somewhat easy. But it also seems very daunting at the same time. Writing is something that I have enjoyed for a long time, but I just never seemed to develop enough discipline, writing on a regular basis. That is what this challenge is all about. Brandon Kelley, the author of Crucified to Life that I wrote about yesterday is the one that introduced me to this challenge.

What is it? It is a challenge from an author by the name of Jeff Goins. The name is “My 500 Word Challenge”. Basically, I have committed to writing at least 500 words every day for the next 31 days. The challenge started for me yesterday in my review of Crucified to Life, but I wanted to publicly announce my decision to pursue this challenge today.

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Over the next month, I am committing to writing at least 500 words daily. This is on top of any writing I do for sermons. Most of what I write will be posted here as Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak, but there may be some times that I work on something that will not be ready for public consumption right away. What do I mean by that?

The whole reason I am taking this challenge, other than my love of writing here on my blog, is that I am wanting to become more disciplined in my writing so that I can accomplish something that I have wanted to do for a long time. In other words, I am starting the process of attempting to write my first book. So there may be days that my 500 words are part of that book, and if that is the case, then obviously that will not be posted on the blog.

This is somewhat of a scary process. 500 words is not that much, but when you commit to write that much daily for a month, it can seem daunting as I stated earlier. But it is going to make me a better writer, and it is going to help me develop a habit of writing so that I can write a book, possibly more.

As part of this process, I am going to attempt another major life style change. I am naturally a night owl, meaning I stay up late, and only wake up right before I need to be somewhere the next day. The problem with that is I do not have the energy or brain power in the evenings once the work day is over to write (or read, which I want to do more of that as well). So, starting next week, I am going to try to turn myself into a morning person, as nasty as that sounds to someone like me. I am going to start getting up around 6:00 AM in an effort to write before I have to be in the office.

Why am I writing this post today? It is simple really. By putting this out publicly, I am hoping that you will help keep me accountable in my commitment to writing, and to getting up in the mornings. Believe me, I am going to need all the help I can get in both. If you have not seen a blog post in a few days, reach out and ask me. It may be that I have written, but just not anything that I can post yet, or it may be that I got distracted. If you see #My500Words on anything in the next 31 days, that is part of this challenge!

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Oh, and if you want, jump in and take the challenge with me. You can sign up here!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, God

What Does Abundant Life in Christ Look Like?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a different kind of post on here than ever before. I had the honor of reading an advanced copy of a book about preaching that had just been released, and while I had no obligation to write a post about it, I chose to because of the great content it contained. You can read that post here.

Since then, I was chosen to read an advanced copy of another book by one of the authors of Preaching Sticky Sermons. Brandon Kelley just released his second book, and just like the first, I have nothing but great things to say about the book. Preaching Sticky Sermons is a book that has a very specific audience of those of us that write and preach sermons.

Crucified to Life is a book that has a much wider audience. It is written for any of us that want to live our lives as a Christ follower in a freer and more abundant way. But it is more than that really. It is also for those that have not made the decision to follow Jesus with their lives yet, but want to know what being a Christ follower is really all about.

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I am 33-years old as I write these words. I was baptized at the age of 11. Being a Christ follower has been the majority of my life (2/3’s so far if you need help with the math). One thing I can tell you from my experience in this time; while being a Christ follower is something that I have always wanted out of my life, I did not always know what that meant.

Christianity, if looked at from the outside, on a surface level, seems like any other religion. A list of do’s and don’ts that you control your life. A way to be a better person in the eyes of who you try to follow. But that is not what Jesus came for. He came that we might have abundant life, and that is what Brandon lays out so eloquently in Crucified to Life.

If you are looking for a book that you can quickly breeze through, but not really get a lot out of, this is not the book for you. This is a deep, thought-provoking read, but one that is very much worth the time. In fact, part of the process of getting to read an advanced copy is agreeing to provide a review on the Amazon listing for the book. We were not required to leave a positive review, just an honest one. Here is what I wrote as my review: “Challenging. Relevant. Deep. Just some of the words I can write in regards to this book. Brandon is an outstanding author with a great understanding of the challenges of the Christian life. Give his words a chance to open the freeing and vibrant life that only following Jesus can provide.”

I mentioned Christianity earlier as a religion, and that is what it is if you look at it on the surface. But Brandon does a great job of explaining that it is so much more than that when you really get into it. What is different in Christianity than any other religion? You have to sacrifice yourself in following any other religion, but Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we can be a Christ follower.

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That does not mean that we do not have sacrifices to make in our own lives. We are called to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow Him. Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25; 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Brandon deals with this issue directly in the pages of his book.

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Other religions say that we have to do enough good in the name of our religion to outweigh all the bad that we have done in our lives. Christianity says you can never be good enough on your own, and that is why Jesus came; to pay the price for our sins. You are never too far gone for the love of Jesus to cover you. This life of being a Christ follower, and the freedom and abundant life that is attached, is open to all.

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It is my prayer that you will be blessed by this book. Crucified to Life is one of those rare books that is deep and challenging, but it is also so relevant because in today’s world, we often miss the point. We think of life as a checklist; Yes I need to do that, no I cannot do that. Jesus is saying, follow Me. Lay down your life and become the new creation that only I can make you through you denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following Me with your whole life.

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What about you? Are you Crucified to Life?

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Life, Ministry, Newspaper

When Relationships Drift

Last week, I was sitting in my office working on my sermon and something happened. Usually if I am working, I have music going. It helps me focus for some reason. Dead silence allows my mind to wander in a hundred different directions. That, or I find myself nodding off to sleep even if I am not really tired at the moment.

So, back to the story. I have music going and a song comes on that I know by heart. It’s one that I have heard and sung countless times. But it is also one that every once in a while, I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard the song and what I was doing. This particular time, it made me flash back to the first time, and remember a friend that because of distance in miles and just differences in life have caused us to drift apart.

And this is a close friend. He was the best man in my wedding for crying out loud, and I could not tell you the last time I even spoke to him, or even texted him. He played the song in question the first time I ever heard it, and it was that memory that came flooding back when I came through my speakers last week. I stopped what I was doing and immediately texted my friend 1,400 miles away, telling him that I head the song, it made me think of him and the first time he introduced to it at a week of church camp, and that I missed him.

It is funny (in a sad way) to me how we let close friends slip away sometimes. Yes, this particular friend lives back in Tennessee, so we are separated by 1,400 miles and two time zones. But with today’s technologies of cell phones, social media apps, and e-mail, the drifting of friendships really boils down to a lack of commitment on one or both parties.

In other words, we let life get in the way, and someone we were once really close to, we realize that we have not spoken to them in years. My fear (and realization) is that we do this with God as well. Life gets in the way, we get busy, and before we know it, it has been days, weeks, months, or maybe even years since we have spoken with Him. We have drifted in our relationship with Him, and that closeness we once had when we first started the relationship has slipped away.

And it is all on us. We are the ones that have the lack of commitment because we let life get in the way. My guess is we never even meant to, but it just happened. But here is the great thing. We have even better tools than technology to rekindle this relationship. We do not need a cell phone, social media apps, or e-mail. We have prayer, and we have God’s word at our fingertips in the form of a Bible. He is there, waiting for us to communicate with Him again, but we have to be willing to reach out to Him. Pray. Read your Bible. Recommit to working on a relationship with Him, the most important relationship you could ever have.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Preaching

Thick Skin

Every time you turn around anymore, someone somewhere is being “offended” over something. I put that in quotations because I think we have lost sight of what is truly offensive in this world anymore. It seems that you cannot even express a difference of opinion with someone without someone taking offense at the fact that your opinion is different than theirs. And i am honestly sick of it. I am tired of feeling like I have to “walk on egg shells” because someone might not like what I have to say. It sickens me that I start to write something on here, and talk myself out of it because I might “offend” someone.

Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing to do with purposely going out of my way to write something offensive. But I am tired of feeling like I cannot have an opinion on something because if I differ with someone then they might get their feelings hurt. Since when did everyone have to agree with you for you to like them?

If you know my mother-in-law at all, then you know one thing. She is one of the strongest Christians I know, and tries to live that life as well as she can. I have never heard a “cuss” word out of her mouth, and rarely hear anything negative come out of her mouth at all. I bring all of this up because the other day she shared a photo on social media of a pun. There are a few of us that like to share puns between us. It is just something that we get a laugh out of and a way to stay connected during our busy lives.

What she did not realize at the time was that the group that originally shared that particular photo had the acronym “lmaof” in it. I will not spell it out here, but if you are not familiar with that acronym, some of the letters stand for cuss words. She did not see it before she posted it, I did not see that after she posted it. That is until she commented on the photo apologizing if she offended anyone. I saw that comment and started asking what was offensive, because it was just a clever little pun that did no harm. She pointed out the acronym and said that someone else pointed it out to her.

In other words, because of a little acronym that she obviously had not typed or posted herself, someone else was offended by it and pointed it out. Like I said earlier, if you know my mother-in-law at all, you know that she was not the one that posted the acronym. She shared the photo because of the pun, and that was it. But because someone was offended by it, she felt the need to apologize about posting a funny photo.

Guess what Christ followers. We live in a world that does not know Jesus, and because of that we cannot expect the world to live by our morals. There is going to be things going on around us that we do not always agree with. People are going to use language we do not like. People are going to drink, listen to music we do not like, watch things we do not agree with; and that is ok.

Stick with me for a minute here. Yes, we are called to try to live righteously, and that is something that we should strive for. But the way we do that is through a relationship with Jesus. If someone does not have that relationship with Him, or is very new in that relationship with Him, then they are not going to have everything in their life cleaned up. Guess what? I have been a Christian for over half of my life at this point, and I still do not have everything in my life the way it should be. This is a daily struggle, and a decision we have to make daily to trust Jesus and let Him clean us up.

If we, who are trying to follow Jesus and be Christ followers, do not have it all together yet, how can we expect the world around us to live it out.

Here is what I am getting at. Instead of being offended by the foul mouth neighbor who seems to cuss every other word, why not get to know them. Build a relationship with them. Learn to love them because Jesus loves them. Then, once you have a relationship with them, maybe, just maybe, you can introduce them to the one that has changed your life and taken away your sin. I am not saying that we have to agree with and condone bad behavior, whatever it might be, but if we are truly living our mission out on this earth of introducing others to Jesus, then getting offended every time we turn around and see something that we do not agree with cannot be the best way to share Jesus with someone. Let us all get on and stay on a Life on Mission.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Life

Know Your Audience

Many of you remember a few months ago when we started handing out pens that had “Central Christian Church” printed on them along with the address of the church. The idea behind it was to give out the pens to friends, family, and others that we come in contact with to get the church’s name out in the community. We still have a bunch of pens left, so if you need more to hand out, please let me know, but that really is not my point in this article. We ordered the pens from a company that specializes in advertising through things like pens, notepads and various other small gifts like that.

Since we made the initial order, the company has sent numerous samples of items they are trying to get us to purchase with the church name on them. Most of them are not cost effective for us, so nothing has happened since the pens. Another sample came in the mail just earlier this week, and I got a really good hard laugh out of this one. I opened the envelope, and saw, with “Central Christian Church” printed prominently on the product, a “deluxe bottle opener with cork screw”. This is something that you would easily see in a bar, but that I just could not see a church giving away in the community.

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Don’t get me wrong. I know there are reasons for a bottle opener, whether you drink alcohol or not, but it isn’t something that I would ever expect any church to give away. My point is this; this company forgot something very important in sales (and in sharing your faith with others). They did not keep their audience in mind when they created this sample (at their own expense) and sent it to churches. I’m guessing grocery stores, bars, and other similar businesses would have been more receptive to something like this, and possibly even purchased some of the bottle openers to give away.

Here is the bigger point I want to make. We are in the middle of a sermon series right now looking at living a life on mission. That mission is sharing Jesus with other people, as much as possible. This past week, we talked about connecting with others, building relationships with them. In other words, getting to know someone before we share our faith. That’s what we can learn from this company not understanding their potential customers.

We have to know our audience before we know how to share our faith. The message of Jesus and God’s love does not change. But how we share that can change depending on who we are talking to. Jesus was great at knowing His audience before He shared with them. He taught mainly in parables, or stories, and they hit on subjects that would have been very familiar to those that were there to listen to Him.

Paul even did this. He would start at different subject areas depending on whether he was talking to fellow Jews, or if he was talking to mainly Gentiles. All we are asking each other to do in this is to live a life on mission of moving people toward Jesus. Get to know others that don’t know Him yet, build a relationship with them, and once you know your audience, tell your story of what God has done in your own life. Let’s get on mission!

Christian Living, Life, Newspaper, Preaching

Life on Mission (1-21)

Have you ever asked the question, “What is my purpose in life?” Or maybe you have asked what you mission in life is. That is a common question, but there does not seem to be an easy answer to that question sometimes. If you are a Christ follower, however, the answer to those questions becomes a little easier to answer. Unfortunately, even as a Christ follower, we can get distracted and not realize that we have a mission in this life.

That is why we are starting a new series this Sunday at Central Christian Church, called Life on Mission. It is based off of a book by the same name, written by Tim Harlow. In his book, he lays out a very simple premise. Basically, Harlow says that if you are a Christian (or Christ follower), you have a mission in this life. But it is up to you whether you accept it or not.

What is our mission? It is simply building relationships in the community, in an effort to earn the right to tell others about who Jesus is. In Acts 1:7-8, 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus stated that we would be His witnesses. A witness is simply someone who observes something, and then tells other people about what they saw. The problem is that we take another message from Jesus and think if we are going to tell others, we have to go somewhere overseas. Matthew 28:19-20 states, 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Yes, there are some people that might be called to go overseas to spread the name of Jesus, but we are all suppose to spreading the name of Jesus somewhere. Take the passage from Acts above. Jesus said that we would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In other words, we need to start in our own back yard. Our community here in Carlsbad become our “Jerusalem” if you will.

We all have a mission in life. Are you going to choose to accept or ignore the mission as a Christ follower? Join us at Central Christian Church as we dig into this series over the next six-weeks.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, Life, Newspaper

Make Some Changes (12-31)

As we are closing out 2016 and entering the brand new year of 2017, I have been thinking a lot about new starts. It is no secret that 2016 has been a year of turmoil, and I think we can all agree that we hope for a better 2017 all around. Just as every other year, as we close out one year and jump into the next, people everywhere are talking about their New Year’s Resolutions. Whether it be getting healthier with eating habits and exercise (I really need to get back to the gym), trying to be better with your finances, improving your relationships, or whatever else you can think of, New Year’s Resolutions are very popular.

The frustrating thing for me, however, is that no matter what resolutions I try to make, they never seem to last past February (sometimes not even that long). My guess is that you can relate. Think about it. Gyms are packed in January, but over the next month or so, space frees up more and more, because people just drop out. Why? Why do we make these resolutions to make major changes in our lives at the start of a new year, and then not follow through?

Do not get me wrong here. I am not arguing against making resolutions. What I am getting at, however, is that we may need to make some changes in why and how we make those resolutions so we can finally stick with them. In all honesty, we need a change in perspective in how we see the world and our motivation in doing anything.

We make these resolutions because we want a better life. We want to lose weight, get out of debt, have better relationships, or advance in our careers by strengthening our work ethic. None of those things are bad. In fact, you could argue that they are really good things. But if your motivation is only about being a better version of yourself so that you feel better about yourself, then that may be why we fail at sticking to the changes we set out to make. Think about it. If you are making changes for selfish reasons, the minute something gets difficult, it is easier to stop. Our motivation runs out.

If you are a Christ-follower (or even if you are not yet), there is a shift in perspective that can help us all make changes for the better in our lives…and actually stick with them. Now before I go any further, I want to point this out. This is not “magic”. It will not be easy to make this shift, because our human nature will fight it. So it is something that you will have to work at (I am still fighting the battle to make this shift myself).

Paul writes in Colossians 3:22-25; “22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.”

Do not get caught up in the word slave there. When we are doing things for ourselves, we can become slaves to selfishness. What I want you to focus on is verse 23. Basically, the shift I am writing to you about today is starting to do everything we do for God not ourselves or another person. When we can make that shift, our motivation and our perspective changes, and maybe we can finally start making improvements in our own lives as well.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement

New Year, New Outlook

We are moving into a new year. 2016 has gone by really quickly, and 2017 is just around the corner. As you can see, with the new year upon us, we have redesigned our newsletter. What better time to redesign and start fresh than the new year?

2016 has been a year of turmoil, anger, destruction, and violence in this country. It is my prayer that 2017 will not follow suit. And we have the power to make sure that it does not, at least in our own lives. I came across a picture on social media a couple of weeks ago that I had seen before, but for some reason this time it stuck out to me. It read, “I don’t care if you’re black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, rich or poor. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Simple as that.”

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On the surface, I like what it is saying. But for some reason when I saw it this time, something clicked. The person that shared it is a friend of mine that I know is a Christian. He truly tries to live his life following Jesus, which is something we can all strive for. When I saw it this time I realized that as Christians, we cannot put a condition on being nice to someone. We need to be nice, no matter how someone else is treating us.

Now I know that is not always possible, but it is something as Christ followers we need to be striving for. Paul writes in Romans 12:17-21, “17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

So we need to live at peace. That does not mean that we just roll over and let people walk all over us, but being nice to someone should not be prefaced by how they treat us first. We have to live by the principles of the Bible, and when we are confronted by someone who is wrong, we need to correct them, but it has to be in love. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes in chapter 16 verses 13 and 14; “13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.” So we are to stand firm in our faith, but do everything in love. I realize that is much harder said than done, but it really should not matter how someone is treating you for you to treat them in love (now I realize that pointing out to someone that they are going down a dangerous path could be the most loving thing you do).

If you examine the life of Jesus, you will find He was great at this. He confronted the Pharisees when they were wrong, but He was doing so to correct their thinking. Jesus did not retaliate (which He could have easily done) when they crucified Him.

What I am really trying to get at is this: we should treat everyone as nice as we can, regardless of how they are treating us. More importantly, however, we need to treat everyone in love. So as we enter 2017, change your thinking. No longer look at how we treat anyone with a conditional statement, “If you do this, then I will do this”. Make 2017 the year that we as Christians take steps to follow Jesus in an even greater way than we have before. Who knows, we might just see more people come to know our Savior! God Bless!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

God, Ministry, Preaching

Sermons That Stick

Back in October, I had the opportunity to do something that I had never done before. The guys at RookiePreacher.com were in the process of having their first book published, and were asking for preachers to review the book, and be on the launch team. It was going to be a book about improving your sermon prep and delivery, so they were looking specifically for a group of preachers to promote the book.

So, I was given an advanced e-version of the book. This is the first time that I have ever been able to read a book before it was published. Let me tell you, I was honored to be able to read the book, but once I got into it, it got even better. I was blown away by the practical information contained within the pages of Preaching Sticky Sermons.

The chapters are short, specifically designed to be an easy reference guide for specific topics, meaning that you can easily turn to a chapter and quickly find the information that you were looking for, without having to scan through a lot of information. The whole premise of the book, however, is what really intrigued me. It is about developing sermons that stick with people. In other words, it is about finding a way to preach memorable sermons.

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The book is finally available as of today. You can pick it up here. The great thing about it is that it does not matter how long you have been preaching. There is something in this book for everyone. Different chapters will resonate with different people. What has helped me the most is the chapters about utilizing Evernote for sermon prep. I am still in the process of implementing that in my own prep, but I know that it will be very useful in the future.

I do not get anything out of promoting this book, but I think this book will help you develop your sermon prep and delivery. Preaching is a calling, and it is something we should all strive to improve in no matter how long we have been doing in. In “Preaching Sticky Sermons”, Brandon Kelley and Joe Hoagland do a fantastic job of giving practical information on how to improve your sermon prep and sermon delivery. I highly recommend this book for anyone who preaches, whether you’re just out of Bible College, or have been preaching for years. Give it a look. preaching-sticky-sermons-final-cover-copy