He Came Near

Tangible joy launched into the world, for the worlds hero has come. Let us erase all political, geographical, racial, religious, caste, and societal boundaries and let everyone receive the leader, the King they've been waiting on. Let every beating heart open up to receive a pure liquid love brought by this hero, king, inventor of love that satisfies all longings. The whole earth, trees and mountains, streams and fountains, beetles, bald eagles and blue whales, rabbits, reindeer and rainbows, walruses, waves and waterfalls, stars, galaxies, and even angels seen and unseen that come to and fro all singing in excitement of this new shift in the destiny of the world. All singing with joy of the Hero, King, Inventor coming close to be with and save the world He loves. 
-(Joy to the World in my own words)

The Absurdity of Christmas

More than 1,000 people flooded into the Civic Center yesterday at 11:30 am. It was the Holiday Feast. A massive dinner provided by Bethel to treat some of the homeless and less fortunate in our community to a meal they deserve.  It was packed. Below is just the main floor, there were also tables along the sides and in another back room serving hundreds more. It wasn't just a meal. People/kids could get their pictures taken with Santa, they got a little present, could have a picture drawn just for them, and live music and a choir sang to them during the meal. Afterwards they went to a tent outside to pick up some clothing and blankets.

As I walked around and drew people pictures, I couldn't help but think about what happened later. This is awesome now, but what happens in a few hours once their done. If it's like our Christmas dinner after you eat, you sit around and talk about how much food you ate and crash. Could they stay a little longer? Was it cool if they lingered inside where it was warm and dry (as it began to snow yesterday)? I wouldn't mind cleaning up around them if they wanted to hang out for a little while longer. But the clothing and blankets out in the tent drove most of them outside earlier to make sure they got something. 

Where I love activities like this, yesterday I was soberized again as to the reality of "you can't leave this." When I was in China and visited one of my student's (Grammar's) houses in the winter time it was -20 degrees outside and probably 35-40 degrees inside. I was there for a week and after the second day when I got sick, I was just counting down the days and hours of when I could leave. I wanted a hot shower.I wanted to not be wearing 3-4 layers all the time inside. I wanted food I didn't have to excessively chew for it's uncertainty or food that I didn't have to swallow nearly whole because I didn't know what it was and couldn't stand the texture. As much as I gave up coming to China, my apartment at school was HUGE...and boy did I miss it. I couldn't wait to leave and get back to normal. Then it occurred to me, I looked over at Grammar and realized. This is normal. I have a week here. He has another month before returning to school. This has been the last 21 years of his life. With 6 months of winter in Changchun, it's not something you can hold your breathe through.

It takes one level to serve people who don't have as much or as great of provision as you do (or think so). It takes another level to actually go to their places where they live. Then it takes another extreme level to not visit them, holding your breath through, waiting until you can return back to "safety", but to actually live there with the people. To understand when this meal is over, I'm going back outside and it could possibly hurt worse than before because now I've thawed out. To understand there is no better food later, there is no pushing through. To understand this is life, awesome for you who can come and go, but this is me, here, now. 

Meals are done here.

Family gatherings are done here. Family dinners are done here.

Doing book reports and homework is here.

"Brush your teeth and go to bed" is done here.
"I'll tuck you in" is done here.

"It's okay, you're home safe now" is done here.
"I'll check under the bed and in the closet for monsters" is here.

Romantic evenings are here. Babies are made here. Babies are delivered here.

Baby's first steps are here. Teething is done here. Potty training is done here.

It takes a whole other level to live here. Not to see it on tv, not to send money, not to visit it on a mission trip, not to live nearby and go and visit, but to actually live like the people among the people for the people's sake. It's the craziest thing.

I had a friend of mine tell me how him and his wife, who are from Egypt who escaped to Quebec and now went back into Cairo)  wanted to reach the people there. They decided they wanted to give up their freedom and convenience and go back to their people. They went in and realized the trash people were being overlooked. So they went in and everyday they would serve them. They began spending evenings and nights there. They submerged themselves in their living and culture. She found out she was pregnant. They began making travel arrangements back to Quebec for the last few weeks of the pregnancy and the delivery. Then they realized if they wanted to really be like the people, they would deliver the baby out in the dumps with them. No doctors. No medicine. No sterile...anything. No clean anything. Using rusty scissors to cut the cord. A "clean-er" shirt to wrap the baby in once delivered. Breast feeding behind a pile of newspapers or soda cans. Awesome.  They were questioned by many people, but they wanted to prove they were like them to reach them.

Don't you see the absurdity of Christmas? No wealthy business man would do this. No president would ever do this. No king in history would ever do this. Yet, the supreme being over the universe came close to the trash dumps and has His Son be born in these conditions so that He could show the people He was all for them. It wasn't a publicity stunt. It wasn't an event that happened, then 3 hours later they took them away to normal hospital for good care. It wasn't a just push through the first month to say we did it, then we can move on. It was this idea that "I will live with you. I will be like you. I will go through everything you will, and I will use none of my Daddy's resources to make things easier on me. In fact, I'll go through everything you have to and everything others have to go through too, just to make sure I don't miss anything. I'll go through everything and more - because I'm THAT invested in you." 

I'm afraid if this doesn't mess up a little bit, we've been in church too long. God, may this never lose it's touch and power in our lives. Let it drive us to invest in God this much and invest in His heart this much.  This is the absurdity of Christmas - the incarnation.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." John 1:14

Recognizing God's Desires and Mine - The Mirror

This isn't a blog series about separating what I want with what God wants. This blog series about understanding they're the same. A few quick passages to just set the standard:

"Delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalms 34:7 (Aka: we've got new desires, the old evil ones have died, the new ones are good.)

"The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one." -John 17:22, see also v20-26

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." - Gal 2:20a

It's interesting as a husband loves his wife, his desires become more of what she desires. The wifes desires, as she loves her husband, becomes more of his desires. They begin to favor one another and what the other person enjoys doing and in so doing that - they actually enjoy the thing because it makes the other person happy. I just find this interesting that in loving relationships (romantic or not), you find yourself wanting what the other person wants. I had this event this morning...

It's been a rough week of mornings. Each morning as I wake up, I feel in a fog or haze and can't connect very well to God. Sometimes it breaks early and other times it takes an hour and half or so to break. Last night it came back again as I was going to bed and was here this morning as I woke up. I tried reading my Bible, focus, praying (although it was all over the place), I began trying to think of what I didn't do that I needed to do so that God would turn His affections towards me and I could connect with Him and share my affections with Him. Ever done that? I realized this was performance. I was trying to perform for His affections. So I rebuked the spirit of performance and it was as if the lights became brighter in the room. My heart could come up more and my mind engaged with the Word more. After a few chapters, I still felt kind of 'ehh.' So I put down my Bible and just started talking honestly.

God, I'm tired of feeling this way. I'm tired of just getting up reading, reading, laying down. I get up and worship and I give what I have but I'm not connecting with you any more. I read more, I'm ministering to people, I'm pouring out, You're giving me words and pictures for people when I really seek after it, but it seems more like my life is a series of events (going from one to another) rather than just living life fully with you and things happening. I don't want to try so hard, I just want it to flow. 

Then I realized, I had become/was becoming a minister rather than a son. I was doing everything I should do, but I was doing it rather than just being a son. My conversations with God were all about more of His Word or encouraging someone else, or differences in churches and how to help them - all good things, but I wasn't being real with God, i mean really real with God about what was going on inside. I was afraid to bring it up because I didn't have time to deal with it to get everything done - or I was just afraid of it. 

I began singing "I Belong To You" by Derek Johnson and went to wash my hands. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt like God was saying, "I want to enjoy you. You are mine and I want to take some time to enjoy you." As my eyes danced around my face and neck I heard Him say, "I made that for a purpose. I made that for a purpose. I made that and for a purpose. " My neck. I made that.  The mole on my neck. I made that and for a purpose. The beard hair on my cheek. I made that and for a purpose. The stray hairs of my mustache that needs trimmed. I made that one too. Everything I looked at good or what I saw as not as good, He said "I made that one too." 

The big idea for the morning was, I made you. You are mine. You belong to me. I belong to you. We share each other. Slow down and enjoy me. Get to know me. I am yours so come and unpack that and just enjoy. You are mine so let me unpack and just marvel at you now and every layer and detail of you. You are mine and I want to discover you and each layer of you. (I know He knows every part of me already, but that's how it was explained because I'm discovering me and I love discovering and unpacking people and finding layers and layers of awesomeness and sweet mystery - thats what He was doing with me to me.) I left after about 4 minutes of doing this to continue reading my Bible but then felt the urge to go back. So I went back for another 5-10 minutes just staring at myself and enjoying God and letting Him unpack and peel back layers on me and show me every hair he made and likes it there. (BTW: This is big because normally, I look in the mirror and think "eh." and start thinking of things I would fix or correct or twist and change then hearing ideas of how good of looking others are or that I wasn't. So this is  new!)

So if you get the chance, go stare at yourself in the mirror and just start unpacking your heart and let God show you what He thinks of you and how He's made you. 

Recognizing God's Desires and Mine - Love and Respect

This isn't a blog series about separating what I want with what God wants. This blog series about understanding they're the same. A few quick passages to just set the standard:

"Delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalms 34:7 (Aka: we've got new desires, the old evil ones have died, the new ones are good.)

"The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one." -John 17:22, see also v20-26

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." - Gal 2:20a

So Christ and I's desires become one, as my old self has been killed and I delight in Him, they become one just like Jesus prayed for - and who is Jesus to not get what He prays for? It was His plan from the beginning.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Gen 1:27

Love & Respect
I first started taking note of this during "Relationship Week" last week when I realized that men want to be respected and women want to be loved. (We've all heard that before, maybe.) Women want to be loved and cared for and shown affection, but men would rather be respected and well thought of. If we don't understand why, women can think men are arrogant and prideful and men can think women are needy and clingy.

Here's why though. Gen 1:27. Being made in the image of God, God created both genders to show His desires and needs as well. God wants to be both respected and well thought of (as shown in the by defending His people and His name in the OT and His high code for Holiness) and He wants to be loved and  adored (as shown by calling us His bride, and pouring out love and affection towards us then asking for it in return.)

I feel that many churches do a good job of giving God one of the two.
A-Some churches know the fear of God and they know how great and high and mighty He is. They can tell you vast numbers that try to explain His size and our galaxy's size. They'll explain the OT and His raw power and might and bring up passage about falling down with fear and trembling before Him. They have very clean respectful churches and want to wear their "Sunday Best" in before God to His Holy House. They do an excellent job of respecting God as a supreme being and ruler.

B- Other churches know the intimate heart of God and how it beats. They will talk about "Daddy God" or "Papa God." They will explain how they were talking to God about bubble gum flavors and His idea for new inventions made out of clouds. They'll talk about cuddling up in Daddy God's lap and laying their head on His chest. They'll use Song of Solomon and John to explain the intimate affection that God/Jesus brought and that we can have. Their church services are more relaxed and free flowing fun. They enjoy God as a lover and as a Daddy and do an excellent job of loving God.

Unfortunately, sometimes Type A churches will look at Type B churches as irreverent, blasphemous, and just too girly to be actually worshiping the true God of the Bible. They may accuse them of being more "new age" Christianity rather than the real "Bible Believing Church" they are. Type B Churches will look at Type A, and call them cold, distant, and dying. They may accuse them of living out of the Old Covenant and still trying to work their way to God rather then enjoying the freedom of Christ to run to God. I've noticed Type A churches tend to have more old school (rough and tough) masculine leadership, where Type B churches have either masculine (not the rough and tough kind) of leadership or more female leadership.

Basically, Type A churches show off God's desires to be respected and Type B churches show off God's desire to be loved. Great Job! ...except...there's a reason He made man AND women. They were to become one, compliment each other, and display a fuller view of God. Ironically, that's why one of Jesus' last prayers before the cross was "make [the Church] one, as we are one." So just like men don't fully understand love or their desire to be loved, and women don't fully understand respect or their desire to be respected until men and women interact with each other and get married, so too doesn't the Church fully understand the other side of God's desire to be Loved AND Respected by His children. I think, this helps unify the whole Bible more and understand it well.

God commanded us to both fear Him and love Him. Without respecting how BIG and Holy God is, we will make Him into our own powerless, do whatever we want teddy bear; without loving God as intimate and careful we will make Him into a "being" out there rather than an intimate Father who interacts with us. We can have all the power or we can have the closeness, but without having both you have a lifeless teddy bear or a distant power who doesn't care. Thankfully, we have a God who created time and physics and who ripped time in half by sending His son to be clothed in human flesh to come near to the rebellious people He loved. This same Son, Jesus commanded seas and storms, trees and ruling authorities before allowing a teenage boy to lay back against His breast and rest at dinner time. The Jesus who destroyed and stripped all evil and death of it's power with His bare hands and voice, then put on a royal robe and threw the most romantic wedding ever in the history of time. He's a warrior and a poet, a conqueror and an encourager, the creator of galaxies and the holder of tears - He is God. He is both tough and tender. He desires to be loved and respected both.

Relate.

The ability to relate is one of the most vital keys to communication. I would say there are 3 keys to communicate well: clarity, the ability to relate, and vulnerability. If its not clear, it can be the best message in the world but the others just don't get it. If they can relate it, they have a hook to hang it on and can take in so much more of what you're saying rather than trying to grasp an idea. The first two are how you're saying the message, and the last is what you're saying with the message. We've all heard someone speak and they're very protected with their speech by talking in generalities so you're not really sure what's going on or they talk so heartlessly it seems like a sales pitch which no one really wants. 

But the idea of relate is what stuck out to me today. Paul's explaining how he's been working and how hard he's fought. We're probably familiar with the passage: to the Jews I became like the Jews to those under the law- me too, those not under the law- me too, those who were weak- me too so that I might save some. I began to wonder what this would look like in modern day conveying our message of love and grace and the cross of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Jews: the culturally religious people who grew up hearing the stories and know the right actions but don't know the point or the heart of it. They will say, "well i grew up in a Christian household, but..." For them, we'll do the right actions and come along side and explain the reality of God made near. That relationship is possible to hear from God and talk to Him and show how He interacts with us on a daily basis. Pray for them to encounter God and not the idea of God for later.

Under the law: these people love Jesus a lot and are trying their hardest to make Him happy. They read their Bible everyday and pray and often fast, yet feel guilty and burnt out because there's always a little more they could do for Him. We can encourage them with the fact that God can't love them any more or less. If they pray, read, fast, and lead 20 people to Christ or if they sit on their butt and play video games all day- God loves them the same. Grace is what they need. Radical ocean of grace. Pray that their greatest encounters with God would be while not doing religious things. Let it be while eating or using the bathroom. Tell them how much you appreciate them and love them in the middle of times you'd never think about it. The times when they are just being and not doing anything. It messes them up because they think, "why are you saying that? What did I do to provoke that thought?" They need to know Gods proud of them and satisfied with them not because of what they do but because of who Jesus is.

Apart from the law: these are the atheists (angry or ignorant), the people who say "yeah, I think there's something bigger or greater...maybe," the people who don't really have a radar up for spiritual stuff. They're made as spiritual people, they just don't know it so we can start by talking about the "basic heart condition" of humans. I'm not saying evil, I'm saying the longing for something bigger. The longing to love and be loved. The longing to have a close family/community/group of people who love them. The longing to be beautiful and accepted. A desire to get rid of their guilt and shame somehow. Explaining the inner yearnings of your heart (vulnerability requires) because they'll be able to relate to that. From there discuss if everyone felt this way, then there must be a reason. It makes sense to me that we were made this way to be fulfilled. Then discuss how Gods intimate relationship and design fulfills those. We can pray that those longings get stirred up then God meets and fulfills those right where they are before we try to plug something else in to temporarily satisfy.

Weak: we would probably call these people "broken" more today. Notice in the passage he never says strong, just week. This is basically everyone without Jesus or some with Jesus who are being restored. We can lower ourselves. Ask more questions than we give answers. Most broken people don't need fixed, they need someone to care, listen, and empower them to get out. We can pray for love to encounter their core, improve their confidence, and heal what's been hurt. They don't need to know their problem, they need to know a way out. Sharing stories from your life of similar circumstances (requires real vulnerability not cheap broad details) and then explaining how God has walked you through and healed these areas. You may need to help walk them through prayers of forgiveness to other people or situations. Vulnerability and sharing your own hurt and process is most key. We can pray Gods love would transform and He would give us the right words to empower and lift them up. Pray that we could go low and be real without getting caught in their funk or lies from our past.

Finally, the motivation. I don't want us to go trouncing off to save the world with our ideas, patterns, plans and formulas. First off, just pray for Gods heart to be given to you and you would understand it. I try to minister to people all the time, I pray for miracles, for headlines, for words from God directly to their core- but finding that its when I stop trying and just let my heart love them where they are in that situation, its when God then gives me the words, ideas, and I can pray genuinely for them. God prefers to love people than to show off of what He can do. Paul explains that the love of Christ compels us. (2 Corinthians 5:14) That's exactly what I desire and pray for you and I. That the love of Christ would compel us, consume us, and overwhelm us today, tomorrow, and every other day that ends in -y first for ourselves to be full, then for us to overflow onto others. Blessings and wisdom. Amen.

Separating

My fear is in the west or at least America we separate the spiritual from the normal. Just as we often try to remove our emotions from our thoughts and only allow one or the other to be used at a time- so do we with the Spiritual and natural/normal.

When talking to a person you are not simply addressing their body, but also their soul (mind, emotions, and desires/will) and spirit at the same time. We recognize this to an extent as you talk to someone: you use 1) your body language to express yourself and read how the other person is following, 2) your mind to express your thoughts in a way their mind can cognitively understand, 3) you consider their past and their emotions that are tied to it and their dreams as to know what they will find interesting and how to explain it. Whether of not we consciously do this, we all do it, some better than others, as we learn to communicate well. We consider there's more to the person than the body.

I propose there's more to the life that's going on than what we can see or explain. Examples: How is laughter contagious? How does a smile lighten your heart? How can you feel a "thickness" in the room as its awkward?

I thoroughly enjoy science, psychology, and biological psychology, but I think that sometimes these things are censors of what's going on rather than the cause of them. You can't read colors with a thermometer nor can you measure radio-waves with a camera. Although these are excellent censors, there are certain areas of life that can't be measured unless you have an instrument with that receptor in it. A few hundred years ago, they didn't have instruments to monitor global weather patterns. It's not that global weather patterns didn't exist or would be useful to know, it's that we had no way of monitoring that and being able to record it well. Very few people even considered the idea of how global weather patters affected their life. So it is with spiritual atmospheres. Like weather, they exist all over the world, few people take note of them because we don't have a way to record and dictate them. I believe there's more than what we can consciously or scientifically note.

In the west, we have a very intellectual view of life. It comes from our Greek and Roman backgrounds that devalued emotions and anything that could not be cognitively explained. We see this today with the idea "People are afraid of what they don't understand." We're always using our minds as the filter and final say for something. Especially in our male led culture where men are excellent in logic and reasoning, but don't display emotions and feelings as well as females. But we can all agree that there are ways to make decisions or live beyond your brain's leading. (Even in that statement, many people will tense up inside) Let me give you examples of what you already know works: a mothers intuition that she knows what's needed, where things are, or when something happens to her child when she's not around. It's not her intellectual mind that signifies these things that she doesn't know, it's her soul or spirit. Also, we describe things we know beyond our mind as a "gut feeling" when you don't know how or why you know something, but you just know it or can tell. A third example is when you dream at night, when your body is at rest and your soul and spirit are still working or dreaming. In the dream, you're in your house with two of your friends but the house isn't a place you've ever been except somehow you know, it's your house. In the next scene your friends become different people you haven't met before yet you know who they are and what they're doing. Cognitively, these dreams don't make sense. As you try to explain them intellectually (with logic and reasoning), you realize that it doesn't really make sense, but in your dream it makes perfect sense. That's because your mind is not leading the rest of you.

So that explains how we often snag on how it has to intellectually make sense, but how we are already moving beyond our brains. Now, well look more into beyond what's "normal."

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "You do not have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body." The Bible confirms this idea that before our body's had been made, we (Christians or those going to be Christians) were already saved (Ephesians 1:4)(God exists outside of what we know as linear time). It also explains that after our bodies die, we will live on (2 Corinthians 5:1). So we are more than our bodies and we are more than what is tangible.

Unfortunately, many times we, as Christians, live only by what's tangible. We address people as physical people rather than souls/spirits. It's ok, that's all we've ever really seen modeled or all we knew was possible. But now, I suggest that we can live more with our grounding as souls living in the spiritual realm with our feet on the ground than physical beings with our arms occasionally in the spiritual realm.

So what does any of this matter? I say this for a few reasons:

1) If we don’t realize we are more than physical bodies, we will not fully realize the life we have been given. (2 Cor 5:16-17) We have been reconciled to God through Christ. We’ve been given new desires, new dreams, new wants – these are no longer bad or wrong but now they’re good. Christ now lives in us and He wants to get out of us and onto other people. This means we'll do the things that Jesus did (John 14:12): we take care of the poor, we proclaim the kingdom, we heal the sick, we raise the dead, we cast out demons, etc.

2) We often get caught thinking "that’s not possible because we’re just humans, just bodies, just tangible things." But if we're souls/spirits first, then bodies more things are possible. God has taken our whole self (body, soul, spirit) changed it so it will affect the inside and outside. The word in the Greek for “saved” is “sozo.” It’s used in the new testament to describe eternal salvation to heaven from hell (Romans 10:9), physical healing (Matt 9:22), and deliverance (Luke 8:36). So as we see Jesus saving, healing, delivering, restoring, and doing everything it’s beyond what is just physically seen.

A great example is recognizing the sin battle/death/victory. We’re free from sin and all of it’s temptations (Romans 6:18). Many times we miss this because we only believe what is seen and that is all Christians will continue to suffer until they physically die. That’s a slight fallacy because that makes physical death the end of sin and not the blood of Jesus on the cross. When we can understand that things happen beyond what we can physical see, we can begin to walk in the unseen truth and reality. We also will be able to realize that unseen demons or angels can tempt or hurt us and it’s not ourselves. If you note the right enemy, you’re chances of victory are much higher.

3) In the same way, you can help people better by seeing what the true problem is.  They may say their struggling with having enough money, homosexuality, rage, or lonliness but rather than trying to help treat their spoken problem you realize they’ve been told or think they’re not worth much and need to be healed in that area and the rest will be taken care of.

4) The last issue is what I see in most American churches. Sunday Christians or Christians who feel guilty for not doing more due to time constraints.  I think both of these come from a core of not realizing that God is life andthat the spiritual and natural arne't seperate. People will come on Sundays and do the right thing so they’ve marked off that part of their life and they feel good about themselves or like they’ve fulfilled their spiritual part of their heart. The guilty Christians are the ones who feel like they should do more, help out more, pray more, read their Bible more yet they find themselves getting burnt out cause there just isn’t enough time in the day.  Both groups of people have separated their life into “religious/spiritual/Jesus stuff” and “my life.”

Here’s the way I realized this. By asking people who already come to church on Sunday morning and night, and Wednesday night if they want to have a small group/family group with people in their church/neighborhood just to help do life together on Tuesdays – they’ll hesitate and say yes. Then ask if they want to do a prayer group on Thursday evenings – “um… well maybe. Sometimes, when I can.” Inside, they think, “Oh man, I’m losing my life by doing all this church stuff. When am I going to be able to just live and do my own thing?” I know this because I’ve thought it and wrestled with this as people asked me to be more involved. My problem was I was separating the things I do for God and “the rest of my life.” There is no distinction though. When you become married to someone you do all things with and in relation to that person. You shop together, talk together, eat together, you let them know you’re plans and listen for theirs. You have things that are fun that you enjoy, and things that he/she enjoys. You have time with the guys/girls and vice-versa with your spouse. But everything’s now changed. Being married isn’t part of your life. It is your life. (I don't mean to imply that to do things with God means you have to do things with or at the Church every night. You do your whole life with Him in mind and with Him.)

One example of seperation is King Saul: Saul was a farmer’s son, anointed as the first king over the Israelites. He knew was explained to what a king should do and had Samuel to be his God reference and help keep him on track. Due to their enemies evil actions, God told Saul via Samuel to annihilate all of them: man, woman, child, infant, ox, cheep, camel and donkey. (1 Sam15:3) Saul went and killed most of them, but saved some sheep, calves, lambs and all that was good to give as a sacrifice. When Samuel confronted him about why he didn’t destroy everything, we see Saul’s heart revealed: Saul said, “they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” (15:15) Even though he had the Spirit of God on him (11:6) and served Him, he never made God his own. He was still living his life as it was by what he saw and was tangible, and doing the appropriate amount of spiritual stuff to satisfy that part of his life. He never made his life about God. He didn't submerge his life into the Spiritual, but kept it in the natural. God then removed His Spirit from Saul and anointed another who would be obsessed with God above anything in the kingdom. He chose a man who made his life to be God and His presence, will, heart and dreams. A man after his own heart – David. David wasn’t a shut off monk. He was one of the most successful kings, warriors, and worshipers of all time.

In conclusion, I propose that there is more to life than what is simply seen, that we are souls/spirits that we have a body. Our minds are great ways to carry out the things of our spirit, but they are not great leaders. God has designed us to be more than bodies and has more in store than our minds can comprehend. So let our souls be swept away, completely enamored with Him, and let our minds and bodies follow to the giver of life. From that place, let us continue to walk in the Spiritual world with our feet just enough in the physical world for others to grab onto. They are not separated, but united. So let us live united and in the complete united reality not a partial, seen one -for there is more to life than what meets the eye and it's our pleasure to display it.

Soaking

It's okay to sit and let God minister to you.

"Minister to" - when someone pays attention to what it is that you need, want, long for and gives that to you.
Pastors do this all the time, they look at a person and see what it is they need or how they can help and then work to get that to that person. Somehow we get locked into thinking that spending time with God is reading our Bible, praying, and talking to others about God. Lately, I've found that there's this thing called soaking. It's so revitalizing to the soul. This is the way I see it, there is a great difference between:

and 

The top is what we usually do. We get filled enough to go pour out to other people. The bottom is soaking. It's stopping, shutting up, and just spending time with God. Usually, you put on some music and you just soak in His presence. Think of it this way: sometimes in a conversation you talk a lot and the other person listens, and sometimes the other person talks a lot and you listen. Sometimes, with good friends, neither person says a thing but you walk away like it was the best conversation you've had in a long time.

They key to soaking is you shut up. You don't talk, sing, journal, consider what you can do for God, or what's needed to do the rest of the day, don't even come asking or seeking answers.  You simply sit down, put on some calm music, and let you be the attention of God's affection.

That's the whole point: come to be the desire of the Father. Come just be the object of His affection. 

If you don't have a lot of time. Set an alarm for 10 minutes, then close your eyes and sit back and relax.
An Invitation: Come Away - Jesus Culture This song is 7 min. You need no alarm, but can just sit and invite Him to come in and enjoy you.

Please try this sometime in the next day or two. See what happens and let me know.

Other Places You Can Soak:
Music (Instrumental or Songs): http://soaking.net/
24/7 Live Prayer & Worship - International House of Prayer (IHOP)

Believing Gravity

How was it that you believed in gravity?
Someone told you the concept and idea, you looked around at the evidence: things seem to be staying grounded on the bottom. They have some ability to be lifted off the ground or move, but ultimately fall or get pulled back down.  Yes, that makes sense. You agreed to it and therefore structured your life after the idea that gravity is real and you will live expecting it to always be real and that way.

How was it that you believed in Jesus?
Someone told you the person and idea, you looked around at the evidence: this world is very complicated. Some being smart and complex must have made it. They say Jesus was God's son, died, and came back to life so people could talk to these supreme being. Those who believe this seem to be guilt free, happier, and have some sort of extra-human ability to love and live. Yes, that makes sense. You agreed to it and therefore structured your life after the idea that Jesus is real and you will live expecting Him to always be real and that way.

Sometimes we forget that it was simply by hearing and believing that we were saved. Or maybe we believe that then think, now it's our job to read our Bibles, pray, seek God, and witness to others SO THAT we are made more and more perfect and make this supreme being happy. Those things are good, but that's not what makes you perfect or Him happy. It's by you believing what He says.

"Let me ask you only this: did you receive the Spirit (become a Christian) by works of the law (doing all of the right things) or by hearing with faith (hearing and believing it to be true.)? Are you foolish? Having begun by the Spirit (listening and believing God talking to you), are you now being perfected by the flesh (working your butt off to do the "right Christian" things)?... Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law (you doing all of the right things and making Him happy), or by hearing with faith (hearing and believing it to be true)?" Gal 3:2-3,5

I think sometimes we try too hard rather than just listen to God and believe He's good and God and what He says is right. Gravity - believe and walk in that reality. Jesus - believe and walk in that reality.

In between...

As I've been learning more about the old covenant and the new and listening to and following the Spirit/voice of God a new passage stuck out to me that makes me have to ask where we are as a church? My answer seems to be in between. 

Before I share the well known verses - I share my thoughts so when you read it, you can see it from a different perspective.

Now that the law is fulfilled, we don't have to worry about keeping the law anymore. We don't have a list of things to do and not to do. Instead, we are now amazingly overwhelmed and get to hear the voice of God. We get to have His Spirit IN US and let Him work in us and through us and minister to us and teach us "all truth" (John 16:13).  This was a radical step for the disciples and the first century church because only a select few people got to have the Spirit in the OT. So the transitional point for most of where the NT is written is explaining to people that you don't have to worry about fulfilling the law anymore, actually if you try to do any of it, you have to do all of it (Gal. 5:3). The new teaching was, you now have the Spirit of God living in you, you can hear His voice, and you should just follow Him. 

Wow! That's 1) Awesome! and 2) so much simpler. Don't worry about doing all of these list of things to be a good "Christian" but instead just talk to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. When you listen to Him, He will lead you to all truth and into a righteous way of living.  Notice the focus is not on "away from sin" but "into righteousness." It's now you're new life, to  listen to and follow the Spirit daily and hourly. If you don't hear the Spirit of God, then you look at the Bible as still a list of things to do and not to do, and you pick and choose which ones you want to apply as best as you can. Basically, if you're not hearing from the Spirit, you're living life the way you want...as best as you can. (It sounds harsh, but hang on.) You'll find yourself kind of stressed out or uptight or proud of yourself when people say things like "the will of God" or "walking in righteousness." The point was never to do good things to be a good Christian: read your Bible, pray, go to church, witness to others about Jesus, go serve homeless people, etc. Those are all good things, but those are still a list of things to do so that you feel good about how good of  Christian or person you are. The whole point was that Jesus fulfilled all lists and now invites you into a relationship with Him where you talk to Him and He talks to you. You just do those things that He says. (Reading through the Gospel, you'll notice Jesus teaches and heals people in a numerous amount of ways - why? Because He hates formulas and likes relationships with people, where people know Him and not His pattern. They want to know His voice not His business plan to replicate His ministry.)

We could go on, but the point is all about hearing from the Spirit and following what He says or in other words "walk by the Spirit." (Ever thought about what that really means? It's more than just doing what feels right and not doing what feels guilty. Those are bumper lanes of behavior not an active relationship.)

If your mind is like mine, then you automatically freak out a little bit. Wait. So we're not telling people how to be a good Christian anymore? About Church? The Bible? Witnessing? You're just going to turn them over to listen to "the voice of God" and they can do whatever? The answer is "Yes but no." That same fear hit people already in the NT. Yes, we are turning them over from our list of things that they need to do to be a good Christian and entrusting God to be more powerful than we are and more concerned about their life than we are. (We often think it's our job to be sanctified now that Jesus has saved us - He saved us, we work hard to flesh it out. WRONG! Jesus still cares more about it and will get you there than you ever could or would.) But there's this fear of just letting people go. That's why we have many of the New Testament scriptures that are "conduct scriptures" (the ones that tell you what to do or how to do it). 

Follow the Spirit. (People start getting worried or start dreaming of what they could do and blame it on the Spirit.) Then, they clarify. You can't be filled with the Spirit and do __________________. It's not possible. That's not the Spirit I introduced you to, the one you were filled with when you accepted Jesus. When you ARE listening to the Holy Spirit (the good Spirit) then you'll naturally do these things... You don't have to go chase after them, this is just a gauge that's a sign you are listening to the right Spirit. This helps guide people and prevents them from going off and killing someone, having sex all the time, getting jealous over what they have or not, dividing your church over "theological differences" and then blaming it on the Spirit of God, saying "He lead me to do this." Ehhh. Nope! It will actually look like this__________________.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:16-23

So this is how I find us in between. Most of us know to stay away from witchcraft, orgies, adulteries  and getting drunk. We water down and struggle some with rivalries/comparing ourselves, division in "cliques" or "viewpoints" in the global or local church, and some impurity. Yet, I don't see is fully being characterized by "radical joy and this crazy love flowing from us. I don't see patience overflowing from us and such continued faithfulness that people ask what's up?" Some people, I know have it and I see it. At large, I don't see this joy.  Francis Chan questioned this in His book "Forgotten God"

But look over those traits right now and ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree.  Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know?  Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends?  More peace than Buddhists?  More joy than atheists?  If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn't you expect to be different from everyone else?

 So I find us in between, rejecting the bad stuff but not fully walking in the good stuff. My conclusion: I think we're still trying to be good Christians rather than stopping being "good Christians" and following God's Spirit. I love reading the Bible in the morning, but sometimes I find myself doing it so that I feel good about myself and like God's happy with me because I did it. God's happy with me because 1) He made me so He likes me, then 2) Jesus saved me and is in me so that I will fully be what He made me. At times, I find the Spirit leading me not to read my Bible in the morning but to stare out the window and just talk to Him, to draw, to write, to send an email, to lay in bed 20 more minutes and keep dreaming about possibilities. The point is not for me to have more of the Bible in my head, but for God to live in and through me. When that happens and comes out it looks like love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and faithfulness and self-control and kindness. It looks like these things because those are everything that God is. It's not me mustering them up, it's just God coming out. We can't make joy, but He can't help but be joy. We can't make love, but He can't help but be love. When He lives in me, He naturally flows out as Joy, Love, Goodness, Self-control, Peace, etc. 

So I encourage us to, let go of doing the right things (the law), and instead enjoy Jesus and listen to His Spirit. Just ask "Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do right now or what do you want to tell me?" and listen. It may be an audible voice, it may just be a random idea in your head, and it may be a yearning in your heart. Listen and go with that. Keep asking the question. If you're wrong, there's grace and He's happy you're trying. He'll let you know too. Don't doubt, but celebrate that you are literally hanging out with the creator of the universe. Seriously?! Yes! I pray today that you get to hear His voice more and get to really enjoy hanging out with Him!

Celebreate to Guard Your Heart

Lately, I've been praying for my heart to be guarded and some females that I'm around as well as my wife. It's getting that time and I'm excitingly nervous. There are so many awesome beautiful girls here who just love Jesus, but at the same time I know I need to guard my heart and theirs.

My understanding of this was to withdraw. To hide and protect my heart like a treasure where no one can get to or see. Until I read was flipping through my Bible this morning and "guard your heart" stuck out to me...

He is saying to celebrate everything, not hide from it. Enjoy and celebrate everything how God has made it, then your heart will be better guarded.

It doesn't seem to make sense at first, but follow the thought. If you're rejoicing in everything that God has made how He has made it. Your heart is consumed by Him and His pleasure in us, in them, and in His own creation. He gets a kick out of us. He delights in us. How do I know? He created us! Why would He create something He didn't enjoy? Rather creating something He enjoyed, He invites us to celebrate all of it.

When we celebrate all of it, our hearts are flooded by His goodness and this peace that no one can explain comes over us. We realize what grace is to not have to be 100% detail oriented perfect, but instead are empowered by grace to walk in perfection. So we go enjoy Him and His creation (no not worshiping His creation, but worshiping Him through His creation). We enjoy everyone and everything He has created as it shines this hint of glory that captivates all of our senses.

So how are our hearts guarded? Because we've raised the standard of what is enjoyable. If we hide from everything, eventually one thing is going to carry a lot of God's awesomeness in it and it will attract us. If we celebrate everything, we enjoy it all, and our standards are raised even higher, expecting more of God, and celebrating and building up everyone we're around.  C.S. Lewis explained this idea in his book, "Weight of Glory."

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

So may you today be captivated and enjoy to celebrate everything, rather than trying to hide from the creation He made for you to enjoy. Celebrate everything. Give heartfelt thanks. Keep praying for what you deeply desire and you'll have unexplainable peace and your heart will be guarded. Go enjoy.

You're now Righteous.

Blows my mind.

When you accept Jesus - not when you do something right, become a "good Christian," do enough good things, walk with God and be faithful, pray for others, witness or any of that stuff that is good in place - God hears you. Step one, realize you're not perfect and that you can't be perfect as long as you try. Step two, realize that Jesus is a real dude and really is God's Son. He is perfect and died so you could be perfect. Then He came back to life, so that you can live beyond death. Step three, decide you want that plan rather than your own plan of sucking at life and struggling. Um...  Yes? It's not a trick question, it really is that good of a deal.

Ok. Yes.

BAM!
Instantly now you are on the same level as Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Francis Chan, Bill Johnson, Mark Driscoll, St. Francis of Assisi, Paul the Apostle who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, Mary - Jesus' Mama, Moses, Abraham, Adam (first and original), John (dude who got to go into heaven to see end of the world), Elijah, and a man who radically revolutionized the world... Jesus. Yes, you now have the righteousness of Christ. Instantly, God hears and answers you. How does that happen? It's impossible to earn grace, so it's grace given to YOU! No one earned it, so everyone's on the same playing field. We've all been given the same invitation. There's front row or nose bleed section - it's all equal playing field of the Righteousness of Christ put on us. Instantly we're transformed.

Let me share a story to illustrate my point. It's from Chris Overstreet's book called "A Practical Guide to Evanglism - Supernaturally."

Years ago in South Africa, we prayed for a family who all received Jesus into their hearts. One of the younger brothers had a problem in his stomach and needed prayer for healing. I asked his older brother, "Would you like to pray for your brother? You just received Jesus into your heart. And the Lord Jesus hears you just as much as He hears me. It's normal for believers to move in power. So go ahead and lay your hand on his stomach and command all the pain to leave." 

As He did that, all the pain left his brother's body. This story illustrates to us that as soon as a person becomes a believer, they can operate in the Kingdom and demonstrate God's power in miracles, signs, and wonders. 

How awesome is that? How normal should that be? Ok, now you've got Jesus inside, go be moved by His love and show more people His love in all of it's variety. We don't have to learn more or be equipped or "walk with God" for so long. No it's because it's not about you or what you've done to prove God's faithfulness. It's about Christ's faithfulness and Him now being in you. So don't worry about what you have or haven't done or how "equipped" or "knowledgeable" or "faithful" you've been. Just let Jesus be Jesus in you and go.

Answering before.

Israel Houghton was visiting a friend, Bishop Garlington, and began telling him about his morning apologies to his wife. Israel said every morning, he'd roll over and look at his wife and say, "I'm sorry." She asked what for? He would explain, "Well, I know throughout the day, I'm going to do something that upsets or offends you on purpose or on accident, so I thought I'd just go ahead and say 'I'm sorry' now before I do it."

Bishop Garlington laughed as he told us this story last week. Then, he gave that kind of chuckle that says "Boy, I didn't know what I was getting into." A few days after this original conversation, Bishop woke up and God said, "Say 'Yes.'"

Confused, Bishop asked, "Say 'Yes' to what?"

God replied, "Sometime throughout the day, I'm going to ask you to do something, so just say 'Yes' now and we'll go ahead and get it out of the way." So Bishop did, and so God did.

The idea is that our lives our His. He invites us to join Him in the fun, but most of the time we are frustrated with life because of 1 of 2 reasons. 1) Satan is trying to pretend he has authority in our life and we believe and empower him to mess with us, or 2) our lives our divided. We've got one foot in one wagon and one foot in the other and the wagons are trying to split. Saying "Yes" at the beginning of the day moves you over into one wagon where you can enjoy the ride. Many times we'll say we want to hear God or do what He says, but when that time comes we really have our own plans and dreams that we'd rather pursue.  So lets make our live easier and just say 'Yes.'  I'm around awesome people who are doing incredible stuff for Jesus. What makes them special or unique? They just keep saying 'Yes.' That's it. So my challenge to you for today or tomorrow. Just tell God 'Yes.' Before we start, "Yes."

Different Creation - That Red Bear.

A man named Ron Dubren walks up to a yard sale and starts looking around for what "treasures" he can find. He goes through the toys first, then the electronics, looks at the movies, considers the lawn equipment and meets his wife over at the clothes section to see what she's picked out for him. As his wife continues to barter, he wonders over to see what there little boy is looking at. Of course, the toys. He picks up one toy at a time, tries to figure out what it is, then determines if he should put it in the box next to it or his little pile he wishes to take home. He stops and gets confused by one red bear. It's a red stuffed animal looking bear. It had a child-friendly face with big eyes and a button nose, although one eye is now missing. The fur is a little dirty but that's not what catches his eye. The child has noticed that the bear has a hard place in it's right paw. From his other toy playing experience, he knows it's a clicker, something that will make the bear do something, but what will it do? He clicks and clicks. Squeezes. Presses the buttoned hand. He shakes it a bit. Even tries to open up the back panel to see if there are batteries in it for this toy to come to life. Nothing. So he tosses it to the next box and begins to reach for the next one. He catches his father's guiding view beside him and grabs the red bear back. "Dad, what is this? It won't work. What's this supposed to do? Help it wake up."

It's interesting how when I was a kid (now I feel old saying that), a bear was just a bear and it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. Be a bear and it was up to you to make it come alive. But the point of the story is that the boy knew that there was something else to it. If the hands and belly would have been plush, he would have known it was just a bear and that would have been enough. But he noticed something about the bear that wasn't normal and knew it had to do something else.

You can know what something is based upon what it originally did. This little boy knows that something is different about this red bear because there are pieces in it that don't make sense - just being there. So he begins to try to figure it out. Why does it have these pieces? What do they do? What does it do?

What I love about the little boy is that he's curious and he doesn't just pass things over as broken. He thinks and thinks and tries things out that he knows. Then he takes it to his dad and asks Him, "what's this supposed to do?" He knows it's something good. He knows it's something fun. He wants to enjoy it and he knows his dad will know.

The boy's daddy, Ron Dubren, is a toy inventor. He's created or been a part of creating numerous board games for the last 20 years, and other inventions like the Looney Tunes PEZ dispensers, and of course, everyone's favorite red bear that laughs when you squeeze his hand - Tickle Me Elmo.

Perhaps you can already see where I'm going with this. "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, everyone one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you." - Ps 139:14-18.

Man, I know I'm different. I know that I have things in me that need to come alive. I have boxes in my hands, feelings in my heart, natural desires for certain areas of life. I know there's something there. I know it's good. I know it's fun. I know it's for a purpose...but I have no idea what to do with it yet. I'm learning, but I'm also finding out more and more that a toy maker delights in the toy. He enjoys the toy. Yes, it's for a purpose, but he just straight up enjoys it. No inventor makes a creation for himself he doesn't enjoy. He created us awesome. We may be or have been that messed up red bear at the yard sale, but he can take us home, give us new fur, a new set of eyes, and put new energy in us to make us come alive. God was in a good mood during creation and delighted in us. Through Song of Solomon we have this repetitive idea of "delighting." Through out the NT we see Jesus restoring things back to their original intent: blind eyes restored to work like they should, lame legs restored to work as they should, people restored into relationship as they should be, Paul's zeal restored to be used as it should be, the disciples fisherman based heart restored as to what it should be, marriages restored to what they were supposed to be, men returned to their real masculine role, women returned to their real feminine role,(don't take that bad, it's a good thing), soldiers learning restored and learning to re-aim their warfare, philosophers restored and learning how to use their brilliant minds accordingly, it's stories of hundreds and thousands of people being restored and using the way they were naturally wired, now re-calibrated back to the original settings to glorify God. "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." - John Piper. We were made to be enjoy God, be enjoyed by God, and do what He created us to do naturally.

Now we get to be that little boy and go, "Dad. What is this? What's it supposed to do? Help it wake up." Then, be enjoyed by God for simply just being. Where we don't have to try to do something, we just do what we were created to do - be with Him, respond how we're wired, and laugh when he tickles us.

Jesus is into Resurrections and Life

"Jesus is into resurrections more than seeing things die." This is the idea I woke up with.

This is a little long, but it's a lot of course correcting and explaining arguments before their made. 

This is the idea that in the church, we are passionately following Jesus to the cross, but we don't really celebrate the new life of the resurrection. I've heard many people comment on how the Catholic crosses keep Jesus on the cross, but protestant crosses have Jesus off of it because He's resurrected. I'm afraid we have Him off the cross but forget to live life out that way. Since the Spirit makes us look like Jesus (Romans 8:29) and we received the Him after the cross, when Jesus was resurrected and glorified, then we too are conformed into THAT image of Jesus (post cross, not heading towards it). We don't have to drudge towards the cross in a daily dying life cycle, we have already died with Christ and now are resurrected and alive with Him.

Old Way of Thinking:
I won't lie. This process hasn't been an easy one for me and I've argued with lots of people against this because of what I had been taught, raised, and how I understood God. The big idea was that I thought was "You were a sinner, Jesus died and saved you. Now you're a sinner saved by grace and Jesus will continually free you more and more from your sin, and ultimately you'll be free from sin when you die then get to see Jesus face to face." Perhaps this is what many of us understand. I'm staring to see some scripture that disagrees with this and some fallacies in this process. I think we would all agree that the Bible has to explain our experiences, not our experiences explain the Bible.

Fallacies:
The first fallacy is that physical death is the solution to your sin problem, not Jesus payment on the cross. Waiting to die to be free from sin, means that sin is what sets you free. "Thanks be to God...[for we] having being set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18).

The second fallacy is that eternal life is thought to happen when you physically die. "I'm excited to die so I can see Jesus face to face." is a common expression I hear people say as if they can't see/know Jesus now. Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Jesus said eternal life is knowing God and Jesus - which starts the day you become a Christian. (Examples of knowing Him and His will Eph 1:9, 3:3, 3:5). Also we see multiple people getting to encounter Jesus when He wasn't physically on earth such as Isaiah, Saul/Paul, John (revelation). Jesus died so we could know God, not so we could go to heaven when we die. "Know" is not a head knowledge but a "know" like a husband "knows" his wife. They experience and intimately interact each other. Same way we are made to experience and intimately interact with each other - that's eternal life.

The third fallacy is identity. You are not a sinner saved by grace. Either you're a sinner, or you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, then are no longer a slave, but you are a friend of God (John 15:15), and now made a son or daughter of God and a co-heir to the throne with Jesus (Romans 8:14-17). You are now royalty. You're a Prince or Princess to Father God/Abba Father/Daddy God/Papa God/King Dad/Daddy.We are made into Christ's image to be Servant Kings and Servant Queens. This means we act like Kings and Queens who serve, not as slaves who are playing dress up for a time but have to take it off at the end of the day and return to reality. The earth is your inheritance. If you really know Jesus, you don't care a lot about getting the earth though, you just realize it's at your disposal as a resource to love and serve Him and others well.

You're dead. Now Alive.

Onto the fact that you, as a Christian, if you have accepted Jesus, are no longer who you used to be. (2 Cor 5:17)  That person is DEAD and you have been resurrected, made alive in Christ. (Romans 6). You can't be that old person anymore. Those tendencies have died, stop going back and bringing them back to life. Lets look at Romans 6 notice the death and alive parts to sin and the verb tenses (past, present, future).

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus whoever baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life.

 For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the dead he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Note: not a future "once you die" idea, but a current lifestyle change.)

 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey it's passions. (It's been killed, don't let it pretend to come back.) Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness  but present yourselves to God as though who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but grace. - (Romans 6:1-14 ESV)

Can you see his point? You and it's power in you has DIED. Die - to cease to exist.  So Paul is saying, now that that part of you is dead, don't allow outward forces to make you do what you don't want to do anymore. You don't have to you're dead. He goes on to explain now your natural tendency, your slave behavior is to do righteousness - it's to do right.  "Thanks be to God, that you whoever were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the teaching church you were committed." (6:17) 

I'd really like you to go through Romans 5-8 and note how many times it says death or dead - I think it's like 44 times. He's really driving home this point that you're dead. I challenge you to read it, but not in the way you've been taught it. Imagine, just humor me, reading it in a way saying that when Christ died on the cross, He broke sins ability to control you anymore. As soon as you accept Him and He comes in you, you have the ability to refuse sin and not do it. That Christ on the cross broke every chain and stronghold. Don't listen to your experience that tells you "but I keep sinning even after I'm a Christian and I can't stop it." Try to separate yourself from that thought, and read the Bible. (You'll notice when he write to Rome, he's been around the block a few times and knows all the usual arguments. He writes and sets up an argument then destroys it. 5 Explains how it's through faith and through Jesus we're saved. 6 explains we're dead to sin. 7 explains the law wasn't good enough. 8 tells us now where we are.) 

Question: What about Romans 7 - the "internal struggle"?
Isn't Paul talking about our who natures dueling it out? No. He said you're old nature is dead, finished, kaput, ceased, no more. That's not you anymore. 

So in the beginning of 7 He switches from "dead to sin" to "dead to the law" and explains that "while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our  members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive..." (7:5-6) So he clarifies. "Wait, the law is good. The law told me what is good and Holy, sin then jumped on that and made me want to do the opposite of it." Then he elaborates "I know the law is good and I want to do good, but my flesh always wants to do bad and the sin. So what can I do?! Who can help me?!  Jesus! Jesus can save me. My mind wants to do the law but my body wants to do sin. (Don't stop at the end of chapter 7). SO there's no guilt or condemnation or shame in Jesus. The law was supposed to set me free but it couldn't because it was weakened by the flesh, but Jesus did what it couldn't. (The chapter break throws things off but he's discussing how the law is inadequate to change his desires and tendencies, but Jesus is and did.) If someone is in the flesh and it'll lead to death, but if they're in the Spirit and they'll have life and peace. (Notice: 8:5-9 he is objectively stating what happens. Then verse 9, he switches back to talking to the Romans directly.) "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Aka: You're in the Spirit and free if you're a Christian. You don't have to sin anymore. It's not normal for you to do anymore.)

But I still sin... 
Yes, you can. But it's your choice, you're not forced to. "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (6:16) He's saying, yeah, you're free. "So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." (7:17) Sin is separate from you. It's not you. You are not sin. You can do with your body whatever you want. This means, you can actually go a time period 5 minutes, an hour, multiple hours, days, weeks without sinning. Jesus is that strong. But, if you keep listening to the lie that you're sinful and you can't help but sin, then you stay in that relationship doing that thing. It's like a woman who's in an abusive relationship. You can get her out of the house and away from the man so she can go free, but if she continues to believe the lie that "he loves her" or "no one else wants her" then she'll freely go back into that house and be abused. Don't listen to the lie that you're not free, that you have to do it, or that death will set you free. No. Jesus set you free and is calling you to greatness, not to just be sinless. Don't confuse "Holy" for "sinless" it's so much more. It's actually not a pull you out of the negative, but a "set apart" launch you into greatness. 

Don't feel guilty - that's also not from God. It's the idea of changing from being "sin conscious" to "righteous conscious." Feel loved and free and begin to dream of what possibilities God can do through you. Instead of saying "don't sin, don't sin, don't sin." You say, "what good can we do today?"  Run after those. If you stumble, then you tripped. You're above that. That's not who you are anymore. Move on. You didn't shackle yourself back into the house with the abusive man. Jesus broke those chains so it's impossible to be shackled again even if you wanted to. Go free. Enjoy freedom. Grace is not just a nice term, it's the empowerment of God in your life to change. You've been given grace to not have to listen to that lie or stay in there anymore. You're free now, go be free. It sounds too good to be true, it's because it's God. He is too good to fathom. Jesus really did set you free from sin. It's not just an idea and it's not for heaven. He's that good, that powerful, and that awesome.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10

The point is life. It's not death. It's not sin. It's life. It's for freedom. Go live life free and abundantly. It's been given to you. Walk in it. Walk in Him. Walk with Him. Go enjoy and live life. You've been resurrected. You don't exist anymore. It's now Christ in you. (Gal 2:20). Live life and live life fully.