After spending the morning in prayer I realised it’s a lot like that in our ‘Christian’ walk. If you look around in Churches all over the world you’ll see there are far too many spiritually obese Christians. Let me explain this statement. If I eat all the food in my kitchen and drink everything I can but don’t do some kind of exercise after I will very quickly become big and will need to buy some new clothes. I would suggest that many of us have been like this with the services which a church or community can deliver and we don’t end up doing anything. We sit on the side eating all the worship, sermon etc and then go home and don’t do anything with what we’ve received and as a result end up spiritually obese.

I know there’s been times in my life when i’ve been spiritually obese. I’d hear these amazing sermons but then it doesn’t lead me to do anything. I sit here thinking about all the opportunities i’ve had in the past to share Jesus’s love with someone but never took it because I wanted the confortable option. I sit here dreaming about what Schools, Communities and Churches would look like if we all got off the sofa and decided to be uncomfortable for the sake of the people around us who need to experience the Love of God.

May we all as the body of Christ choose Action over obesity.

I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”.

What a bunch of BS.  ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.

Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than 1 thing.  We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t worth a nickel.

Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around.  How many were/are there ? Why did you bounce from one to another ?  Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions ? Or if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success.? Was it the passion or the effort you put in to your job or company ?

If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.

Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you .

Let me make this as clear as possible

1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.

2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.

3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it

4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.

Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it.

Like I was saying, you can’t help but hear about Bieber in the news at the moment and all these rumors that he got some girl pregnant. Now I want to make it clear, I am in no way going to say if i think it’s true or not and to be honest i’d rather focus on something which i know will be refreshing for a lot of you younger folk out there but hearing these kind of stories from “Christian Celeb” is becoming more common.

I remember a time when I told certain members of my friends that I wouldn’t have sex until I was married and I remember their response really clearly “that’s weird” and ever since then they’ve called me “Virgin Child” even after 8 months of marriage. I’ve really been thinking about what it means to be a Christian and after a few months of thinking about it, i’ve finally come to a conclusion.

We’re called to be weird

Now, before you all go off and wear some really bad christian t-shirts (not including the XXXChurch in that statement) and decide never to wash, let me explain that statement.

Everywhere we look around us we see our people getting drunk, consuming drugs, sleeping around, getting in debt and divorcing so much so that all those things are becoming the normal. Most of us are entertaining some of those things above or know of someone who is. This is classed normal. So if all those things are classed as normal surely it means that the people who don’t do those are obviously classed as ‘Weird’.

I think we are all called to be weird. I think weird is good. Whenever we look in the bible there are many stories that we could call weird, but it those weird stories that’s changed us. We look at the parting of the seas, a virgin women giving birth to a baby and ultimately Jesus dyeing on the cross. We can look at those stories and think “wow those are some weird and confusing stories” but it’s those stories that’ll change our lives and the lives of other if we allow them to.

So if what we read about Justin Bieber, Britney spears and even our friends is the normal I DON’T WANT IT!!! My dream is to see a generation of young people to grow up weird, that wouldn’t flow the flock and would be a real testimony of what it means to be a christian in todays world.

So, now I’ve got some extra points from my wife, let me share a little about some of my experiences concerning married life and the importance of solid examples and role models in our lives. I’m sure there’ll be some people reading this who will leave comments like “You’ve only been married for sevent months, your in a honeymoon phase, wait until it gets difficult”. If that’s you, I want you to know that any reference to marriage etc is from my experience or from the bible and also this technically isn’t a blog about marriage but the lack of strong marriage examples in our lives.

Firstly, I need to say that my parents divorced when I was very young so as a result of the divorce I know what it’s like to feel unwanted, hurt and even feel its all my fault. More and more in our society we hear of many families being split up and as a result I believe it’s having a huge effect on the younger generation and their image and concept of marriage,which in turn is having a knock on effect on their preconception of sexuality.

I would suggest that our society actually does a very good job at preparing us for divorce. Let me explain that statement a little. Many young people move in with each other and put their toothbrush in the bathroom, once things get difficult we pick up our toothbrushes and find someone else. I would suggest this is a message that has been demonstrated to the younger generation and I want to suggest that it’s not what God has called us to.

So, God’s called us to something different. Something that changes and shakes this earth and yes that means staying with our spouses through thick and thin. I’m wanting to be 100% straight up and honest with you, when you get married you will have some issues. It’s not like what we see in the movies, but please don’t be discouraged. Embrace it. I’m a firm believer that when ever we go through a difficult time no matter if it’s in marriage, relationship or just life in general, I believe God uses that time as an opportunity to shape us into the the person He’s calling us to be and in turn draws us closer to Him if you’ll let Him.

My wife and I haven’t had it easy, we’ve had to learn things about ourselves and also unlearn stuff about us but by putting Jesus at the center of our marriage, we can’t fail (just a heads up, putting Jesus at the center of our lives doesn’t mean running 100% into your ministry but you need to be aware that your ministry is your family, and that we all have a responsibility to grow together). We’ve only been able to learn this by surrounding ourselves with people who’ve been through it and can help us grow.

Marriage and relationship is nothing like we see on tv shows like Skins, Inbetweeners or MTV. Marriage and relationship is about loving your spouse in the great times, embracing the difficult times, letting God shape the both of you and constantly serving each other. My prayer is that we start to see a movement in the younger generation, which turns to Jesus in the difficult times even when it seems easier to pick up your toothbrush and run. May you find some positive examples of marriage in your life and allow God to teach you more about having Godly relationships and marriages.

Question: How do you rebuild intimacy with god

This is a question I’ve received many times from people and the way i’m going to answer it now is the way I reply to everyone and hopefully it’ll help your out no matter what you’ve been struggling with.

Firstly we need to clear up the meaning of Intimacy.

Intimacy – a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.

I really want to focus on the “loving personal relationship” part of the definition.

Firstly I’d like to highlight that there is a big difference between sex and intimacy. I hear many married people say they are having some sex problems in their marriages and it really confuses me. I would argue that when people say they are having “sex issues” in a relationship I would actually suggest that in the majority of cases there aren’t any issues with sex, but rather there are issues surrounding intimacy.

I would like to suggest that we all require intimacy to some degree. When we don’t experience intimacy we feel alone and we go searching for intimacy in other things such as drugs, idols, porn, sex etc.

I think it’s very clear that we were all created to experience intimacy with God and a lot of the time i think we can get the wrong idea of intimacy from our culture and the society around us and I would suggest that’s why many of us struggle to experience intimacy with God.

So hopefully we’ve cleared up the meaning of intimacy so now I can go one and explain about rebuilding intimacy with God.

The only thing we need to know about rebuilding intimacy with God is that there’s only one thing we need to do and it’s to trust Jesus with our salvation. As I read back at what I just wrote I’m very aware that it’s easier said then done. I’ve highlighted a few things that have really helped me to rebuild my intimacy with God. It’s worth me highlighting that these aren’t the only options but I promise you that if you attempt these things you will very quickly regain that intimacy with God that you’re looking for.

You need to know that it’s already been paid for- If your wanting to regain intimacy with God then I guess it’s safe to assume that you’ve fallen short and messed up along the way, well I’ve got news for you…. Me to. We’ve all messed up and once we’ve realized that we come to Jesus and he wipes it away and makes us perfect. We must realize Jesus has paid the cost.
Read the bible – it sounds like a very obvious thing and very cliché but it really is an amazing thing that will draw us close to God.
Prayer – I remember when I used to work with children and we used to teach them a song which highlighted that “prayer is like a telephone for use to talk to Jesus”, now while that’s a child’s song I totally believe we can learn something from it. If I never talk with my wife then we’ll never grow in our relationship and it’s the same way with God.

So, my challenge is that we come to the realization that everything’s been paid for by Jesus hanging on the cross, may we lead a life full of prayer and be rooted in the word so that we can really walk in the true intimacy that we were created to experience.

This time of the year nearly every Church in the world will be covering the story of Jesus and him dying on the cross for us. For us Christians this story is the foundation of our faith.

I couldn’t think of any greater act of love.

So when I hear stories about Christians who go out and do some unspeakable things in the name of God, where are they getting this from?

Recently heard about some Christians who would burn people who don’t agree with their views and beliefs and then recently I heard about a couple of pastors who burnt the Koran and a Church in America who are telling people they are going to hell. These are just a couple of ideas of the stuff that is going on today and if we look back in history we see a countless amount of dictators and people who believe they are on a message from God to wipe our a whole generation of “unclean people”.

Hang on…. JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS

Like I mentioned above Jesus dying on the cross is the most earthshaking thing that could happen. When Jesus died on the cross it means all we have to do is repent and say I messed up and let him into your life.

I know for me when I first became a Christian I was always judging people and thinking things like “oh, he’s a Christian and doing this” or “why’s he getting all the good stuff when I’m the one who’s being a real Christian”. Now it’s very easy to pick up that mentality many people who live by this kinda mentality are normally people who have a me focus rather than a Jesus focus.

This year just like every year I sat down and watched the passion of the Christ and every time I Jesus was being whipped and beaten I just heard Jesus whisper to me “I went through this for you”. Jesus Hanging on the cross is the biggest act of love that I could ever imagine.

So why do so many ‘Christians’ get it wrong and do some stupid things in the name of God? I’m going to start a series which is called in the name of Love. In this series we am to challenge you to do things in the name of Love because it’s then people will really meet God.

So I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to come to an understanding of what Jesus is trying to tell me. I’ve experienced some very tough and upsetting situations and I’ve also been blessed to experience some amazing healings and some people wanting to know more about my amazing God.

As summer was coming to an end all I heard about in the ‘Christian world’ was about Todd Bentley and his separation to his wife. Todd Bentley and his ministry were heading up the Lakeland Revival meetings in Florida, United States. There were thousands upon thousands coming to one place from all over the world to receive healings, miracles and breakthrough. I believe there were around 20 verified resurrections, countless amount of people being healed from cancers, sicknesses, strongholds, deafness, blindness of which have been proven by doctors to be true.

HOW AMAZING IS OUR GOD?!!?

As amazing as that was people were continually asking whether it was from God. This was the case even more so once the news broke concerning Todd having an affair. I’m not sure what is true and what has been made up but it is really upsetting.

Then a month back I heard a story from JonJolly about a pastor from the Planetshakers Youth Church in Australia who had told everyone he had cancer when it was really just a publicity stunt. Mike Guglielmucci from a young age was addicted to pornography and was battling with that area ever since. He actually became ill which is meant to be linked to stress, which was due to hiding the lie of the pornography battle. At the time of Mike becoming ill he decided to tell people he had cancer. Ok, so cutting a long story down….. he was telling people that he had been healed from cancer. Mike Guglielmucci was actually involved with the latest Hillsong Live DVD and was performing a song called ‘Healer” which I believe was written by mike about his “healing”. Once the news was out concerning Mike having faked the healing Hillsong called back all the DVDs and decided to re-edit the DVD and remove him from the DVD. I have also heard of a lot of worship leaders and churches that are no longer going to be using the song.

These are two very upsetting and sad pieces of news but if I’m honest I’m not surprised after all we are human. I’m not saying that what they done was fine or that it’s justified in any reason but we know that people sin and I also understand that there is no greater level of sin. Over the last few months I’ve been asking myself one question and I’ve only just got the answer. The question is should we not believe what took place, or not use material of someone who decides to sin? The basic answer is NO.

Now for the justification of that answer. Jesus came and died on the cross and took all the sin and carried it all and as soon as we accept Jesus into our life our sin is all forgiven. I have some news for some people out there….

We all have sinned!!!!

If we decide to ignore or not use the material of someone who sins and in this case we’re talking about a song then where would the church be if that’s the case. I would love to challenge some of you to have a look at some amazing characters in the bible called David. Peter and Paul and the list could go on. I could go on and talk about what they done but to be honest most people would know them for the amazing people they became. I mean if we decided not to use any of the Psalms then what sort of state would the current church be in. I believe that the Song ‘Healer’ is an amazing song. Every time I hear the song I can feel the anointing all over it, but at the same time i do understand Hillsong’s reason for pulling the guy from the DVD after all the DVD did have the guy playing with an oxygen tank (he did go too far).

Obviously Todd and Mike did something which they shouldn’t have and I do believe that taking a break for a good few years and getting some help is the right move. I also believe that maybe there should have been some better levels of accountability but I am not going to forget about the revival and I am not going to stop playing a song. I think the best thing that we as a church could do is pray for them both and for others in leadership.

And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

For most people just that bit of scripture is a clear as day and would penetrate through our un-forgiveness but if you carry on reading just after the lords prayer is finished you will find the follow scripture in Matthew 14….

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Wow, that can be a bit of a slap in the face to some of us Christians who have been walking around for all these years with that burden.

I came across and amazing video about a guy who confronts his Father who has killed his mum and while we all haven’t been in a place of having to expreience forgiveness to the same level as this guy, i challenge all of you to watch this video and ask yourself… What am i holding onto….

Jesus came to set us free, I don’t know about you but i want to make sure that Jesus is getting everything he paid for. There are too many Christians who have some deep un-forgiveness which is eating a way at them. Maybe now is the time to let go of it….

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.

The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn’s Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn’t quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don’t know Jesus.

Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, “God is not a monster.” Maybe next time I will.

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.

At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, “I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ.” A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That’s the ugly stuff. And that’s why I begin by saying that I’m sorry.

Now for the good news.

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it’s that you can have great answers and still be mean… and that just as important as being right is being nice.)

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it… it was because “God so loved the world.” That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven… but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our “Gospel” is the message that Jesus came “not [for] the healthy… but the sick.” And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God’s Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” On earth.

One of Jesus’ most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan… you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I’m sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine… but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.

It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David… at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.

After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: “The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you.” And we wonder what got him killed?

I have a friend in the UK who talks about “dirty theology” — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man’s eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay “out there” but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, “Nothing good could come.” It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society’s rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors… a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, “I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you.” If those of us who believe in God do not believe God’s grace is big enough to save the whole world… well, we should at least pray that it is.

Your brother,

Shane

Read more: www.esquire.com

The first person who’s really been helping me out is John Saddington from Tentblogger.com. This site really is the go to place when you need any advice with writing your blogs, launching a new site, fine tuning your focus for your site, coding or anything you could think of. This site has helped me highlight some areas of my site which i needed to change and as I write I’m a couple hits away from doubling my current record of monthly hits to my blog and I’ve already doubled my subscriptions via RSS feeds and emails. The reason for this is the advice I got in terms of direction of my posts and being consistent with my posts. Before I stumbled across tentblogger.com I would post maybe 3 blogs in a day and nothing else for a week or two. As a result of reading a few blogs from tent blogger I decided to aim for 3-4 blogs a week with them all being on different days. This has really helped with bring more people to the site and it seems easier to create new material.

The other person who’s been a huge help to me in my blog mentor Matt Snider from geekforhim.com. He’s been very helpful in directing my time. Where there’s been times I thought it would be a good idea to do a redesign or change certain things, he’s really helped to keep me focused on my writing and things thats going to make the most difference right now, which has just been posting regularly. You should head over to his blog as he has some very interesting posts too.

So no matter if your a newbie to blogging or a seasoned professional I recommend you head over to tentblogger and geekforhim and see what cool advice you can collect for your blogs and start creating some great material.

Also Jon Jolly should get a mention as he’s helped me out over the years with my writing and recently with the technical side of running my site.