The rubber meets the road—here

                                        Cartoon source: mightymag.org

As a new Christian, I`ve learned a lot about our Lord the hard way. Like so many others, I thought I knew God, Jesus, and what church and religion were all about. I had scales over my eyes and a heart that was fooled into a false sense of security. This is indicative of those that don`t get into the Word enough to know better. That was me. As I continue to walk with the Lord, I continue to see and hear more of his word with ears that hear and eyes that see. My heart of stone has been made into a heart of flesh and I cannot ignore the truth about the way that Jesus calls us to follow Him as a disciple.

One of the hardest things in life is to let go of the human ego. I`ve come to believe that there are two necessary victories in the Christian walk if we are to be more like Jesus: to love the unlovable (and our enemies), and to have no human ego (true humility). I think these two battles are at the core of almost every battle we face in our Christian walk. It`s hard to turn the other cheek when you have busted heads your whole life, or when you have been abused in the past and don`t trust people. It`s hard to love those that hurt us or hate us for no apparent reason beyond the imaginary voices in their heads. Resentments are like our own personal teddy bears that we love to snuggle and hold. It`s so much easier to resent or remain angry than it is to love. We nurture these resentments. We cling to them like a treasure chest. In reality, we drink a poison that we hope kills the person we resent—it kills us, not them.

“But what if I`m right,” you say; this one is the hardest of the hard. I`ve seen people that have been Christians for decades that cannot take an honest look in the mirror and see their own flaws; however, they are darn good at seeing flaws in others. Even if we are right, even if we have been wronged, we must forgive. We don`t have to forget, but it sure helps in the forgiveness department. Justifiable anger is a tough customer; it`s where the rubber meets the road. It`s the hardest thing to forgive someone when we have a justifiable reason to be angry with them. Jesus shows us that this is a true test of maturity. He says even the tax collectors love those who love them (Mathew 5:46).

Jesus says many things about forgiveness. For example, He says we must forgive seventy times seven (Mathew 18:21-22). He says that we shall be forgiven in the same way we forgive (Mathew 6:14). In addition, He left us with two things before He ascended to the Father: we are to share the gospels throughout the entire world (the great commission), and we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbors as we do ourselves (The new commandment).

If we are not able to do these things, we are not truly living in the will of the Father or the freedom of Christ.

I`ve had to take a hard look in the mirror at myself. I`m not ashamed to admit this. I`ve been called to share the Gospels of Jesus. I`m a writer and I`ve asked God to show me how to glorify His Kingdom with my writing. His answer to me was to share truth. I`m to share experiences and thoughts that I have dealt with in the hope of helping another brother, sister, or someone that doesn’t know Christ to relate and see the truth.

The wonderful thing about a life of pain, and over indulged pleasures, is that on the other side—when Jesus saves us—we have a lot to share. Our greatest tragedies become our greatest assets in winning people to the Lord. I have been particularly rebellious in my life so I have a lot of mistakes to share. I`ve been through a lot of mine fields and I can show others how to step past the mines in the fields of life.

God has called on me to look in the mirror and make sure that I learn, above all else, to love those who persecute me and to drop my ego at the foot of the cross. Humble pie is very tasty once you see its true nutritional value.

Most people enjoy giving advice; however, they detest taking advice. They like to hold a mirror up to show you your much-needed changes, and yet, they hate to look in the mirror themselves. Being able to admit we are wrong is a great show of maturity in our walk with Christ. Then, when we have learned to use this act of humility to find our true selves, we begin to learn to be more careful to hold our tongues and to watch our actions. We get tired of falling on our face before God asking His forgiveness for the same old garbage and we change our behavior. He is patient and kind. His mercy is beyond my comprehension.

This has been my walk. I`m in the midst of learning how to forgive those people that I may never like but that I have to love. I`m learning to forgive those that have wronged me and to smash resentment. I`m seeing that the only thing that matters in this world is my relationship to Jesus, my wife, and my family; the only goal worth pursuing is to share the Gospel with others. Lord…strip me of all other desires!

To those of you that read this—God bless you. I love and appreciate you. I hope this helped you as much as it did me. I hope you`ll share this post with others. SWB 

The spirit, the flesh, and emotional upheaval

2 Corinthians 10:3

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete (ESV).

I remember early on in my life of going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings I heard a guy say, “Feelings aren`t facts.” I thought nothing of the statement at the time; I was too busy banging my proverbial head against the wall with the same old mistakes.

When I was in AA we never really addressed the issues of the flesh, at least not head-on. In my humble opinion, the whole “alcoholism is a disease” thing has made addiction an excuse rather than a spiritual and physical malady as the AA founders once described the problem.

When I became a Christian, the world became coherent. Everything made more sense to me. Life`s answers were suddenly more apparent and real. I adore my AA friends and I still attend some meetings on occasion to see my friends and remember my roots: however, I needed the dark red meat of Christ in my life—the spiritual soup one finds in the rooms of AA was becoming a “mother`s milk” in my spiritual walk.

In my Christian walk I have come to understand the real battle in life—the flesh. We can call it alcoholism, addiction, over-eating, gambling, sexual addiction, etc., but the truth is that it all boils down to a battle between the flesh and the spirit, just as the Bible describes.

I do believe that addicts have a particular propensity to fulfill the desires of the flesh and a peculiar repugnance of the spiritual answers that exist. That is why I believe God set forth the circumstances that led to the founding of 12 step groups (starting with AA).  That being said, the 12 steps deal with the flesh, but not the issue of Christ as the messiah—the truth, the way, and the life.

The Bible tells us, as we all well know, that if we walk in the spirit we will not fall prey to the flesh. This is the real battle line in life. I have found another link to this hot button, or to this issue of the flesh and its ability to prey on us as humans. This link, this weakness, this doorway to the flesh is found in how we deal with emotions (remember, ‘feelings are not facts’).

If I look at my weakest moments—the moments I find myself falling prey to the flesh most often—it is found in those moments that I allow my emotions to become over charged, i.e.—anger, fear, jealousy, etc. It is in these moments that I will generally default to my old behaviors if I`m not on guard.

As my Christian walk continues to grow and mature, I have found that I must learn to deal with my emotions in a proper and sane fashion as an important key to my ability to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. The purpose of this blog is to share my personal walk with Jesus, to promote Christian issues, scripture, motorcycle riding, and other Christian news. I have not “arrived” at perfection and I never will. My intent is to share from the heart—not from a pedestal. God bless. WP