Cheap Grace?

I was driving the other day near home, when I passed a church sign that read, “Free ticket to heaven. Details inside.”  While I drove by it, I thought, what a catchy statement and the further I drove away from the sign the more and more mad I became.  I do realize that the grace of Christ is what allows us to live eternally with him, however I think many people think free and they think CHEAP.  Well it may be free, but it is far from cheap.  For instance, if someone gives you a free ticket to a concert that they received from venue putting on the show, the venue is losing (COSTLY) revenue by you getting that free ticket!  Well the same goes for this SO CALLED Free ticket to heaven.  It sounds like we are riding on God’s wallet, rather than understanding it COST way more than his wallet, it COST him his only son!  I understand that this church may have meant well, but I feel like our biggest problem as a society as a whole is we are looking for the easy way out of everything and we may fail to realize it cost someone their life for the free ticket to exist.  I am pretty sure your free concert ticket didn’t cost a life, but your opportunity to share life with Christ did.  Our works don’t get us there, but as written in scripture, show me your works and I will show you your faith.  Works/sacrifice is an overflow of our understanding that GRACE IS NOT CHEAP and should spur us on to cost us!

I think the following song lyrics wrap up my idea best (ONE OF MY FAVORITES ALL TIME):

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Need To Breathe

So what, it has been a year! It has been crazy how the year has passed, but it is time I get back to putting my thoughts on paper or in this case blog!

There is a story told about the philospher Socrates about how he was lecturing to a group of students around a body of water. One of the students posed a question to Socrates, “When, great teacher, do I know when I am truly seeking knowledge.” Without answering the student Socrates got up and walked over to him, he then pushed the students head underwater and when the student finally tried pushing up for air Socrates let him go. When the student had collected his composure Socrates said to him, “when you desire knowledge as desperatly as you were desiring air to breathe you know you are truly seeking knowledge.”

This can be applied to us as Christians; when we desire God as much as we desire air to breathe, only then can we be assured that we are seeking his will.

Are We Really Faithful in Prayer?

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

This has been a verse that has meant a whole lot to me during my life and especially over the past few years.  As I read this verse again today for probably the hundredth time, it hit me a lot more than usual.

Paul writes first on JOY and HOPE.  He says to be joyful in hope, which by definition would seem to mean to experience pure happiness while wishing for something with expectation of its fulfillment.  As believers we must not only wish that God would make His name famous, but we must EXPECT IT TO BE FULFILLED.  This should give us INTENSE HAPPINESS knowing that God will reign now and forevermore.

Secondly, Paul tells us to remain or be PATIENT in AFFLICTION.  This is why I can’t stand hearing the prosperity gospel, because no where in scripture did God say it was going to be peachy for us our whole life.  We aren’t going to get what we want and sometimes we aren’t even going to get what we desire.  This is because we are sinful by nature and many times desire SIN rather than CHRIST.  However, Paul tells us to be PATIENT = ENDURE pain/difficulty knowing that it is for the sake of CHRIST that we live and die.  Life is going to be hard and it is when affliction comes that people see whether the believers that say they believed and HOPED for His fulfillment were really being faithful or just wasting their life pretending.

Finally, Paul tells us to be FAITHFUL in PRAYER.  It is real easy to be FAITHFUL = Remain loyal or true in prayer when we endure affliction, because that is the time we ALL run to Christ, even those who don’t live for him daily.  However, true loyalty and faith in prayer comes when you thank Him both for the good and the evil/affliction in your life.

Do you believe that God is worth hoping for? If not, do you have a relationship with him?  If you don’t please ask someone you know who you think might!

Do you endure affliction? I know it is easier for me to write that then do it, so it is my job to GO DO IT! Endure it for HIM!

Finally, are you faithful to God in prayer in all areas of your life and all seasons? If not, why?

HOW DO YOU SEE THE WORLD?

Do you see see the world as a place where people are suppose to live to serve or make much of you, or do you see it as an opportunity to give your life as a sacrifice for their souls to become right with the one who is longing for their heart?

Today I had a realization as I do most days and that is that I am more about being discovered than sacrificing my life for the sake of even my worst enemy!  See I lost sight of the purpose of my life when I thought my actions became my righteousness rather than the sacrifice of my heart for someone who never knew or has ever heard of the GRACE of our Savior.

I heard this the other day and I felt like it has reigned true in my life in this example, “Right action, without the right heart is worthless to God because it lacks joy and worship!”  See the day we think our actions are good enough is the very day that we have given the devil a foothold in our lives for pride to raise up its ugly head and rule our hearts.

Read this today and thought I would share: “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 18:12

I think that verse as well as this one speaks for itself on where I go wrong so often:

“All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord WEIGHS the heart.” Proverbs 21:2

So what is it going to be, because either way our JUST God is going to weigh our hearts rather than our actions! Do you see the world as an opportunity to sacrificially give of your whole heart in worship of our God or do you see it as an opportunity for yourself to gain fame for only a lifetime?

Remember lives are DATED, but SOULS are ETERNAL!

Life Is Short

Stumbled across this today and it rocked my world!  REAL FAITH in CHRIST will!

Reign In Us by Starfield

This second bridge has been kicking my but and is my prayer over the past few weeks!
God may you reign in us, so that the world may know it!

"So, reign please reign in us
Come purify our hearts, we need Your touch
Come cleanse us like a flood and send us out
So the world may know You reign you reign in us"

It is our job to plant and water, not GROW!

First post in a while, but it has been hitting me like a ton of bricks since returning from St. Louis this past thursday!

WHY IS THERE NO CHANGE?

I know this may offend a couple of my Clemson folk who may read it, but I am not talking about anyone specifically that went on the trip.  Close to 400 Clemson students went on a mission trip to St. Louis this week and it had to have been one of the most incredible times in my life to see growth and excitement about Christ, however I came home feeling like for some it may have been missed and that was discouraging.  The whole trip back this was all I could think about and many wondered what was wrong with me as many do when I am quite, but it was this simple thing.

WHY IS THERE NO CHANGE?

Actually as we were pulling up in Clemson Megan (Sorry if you read this and it is Meagan) from another group came up to me with a huge smile on her face asking me if I was glad to be back and my response was actually NO!  I don’t think she knew what I was thinking and I am pretty sure she thought I was just grumpy from driving 10 hours with little to no break, but it was actually because I knew for some their lives would remain the same as before they left.

WHY IS THERE NO CHANGE?

I get so frustrated and it is not from my wanting to be Christ himself, because that is where satan went wrong, but it is from the passion to see people as Brad would say (NOT), “Bust hell wide open”!  I want so badly for lives to be changed and lived soley for Christ, but the response I received from him in prayer is that “IT IS MY JOB TO DO THE SAVING”, and it is YOUR/OUR job to do the telling!

“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Cor. 3:5-9

This scripture came to mind to comfort me in knowing that my job is to do my one purpose the best I can and leave the rest in God’s hands….after all, I am not the one that does the GROWING/SAVING!

Prayer:  Lord, grant me peace in knowing that my role is to serve your people/you with all I have and presenting the gospel with integrity by the way I live my life, that you may never be shamed!  PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND THAT I CAN’T MAKE PEOPLE CHANGE, BUT THAT I CAN SHARE YOU WITH THEM THROUGH THE WAY I LIVE MY LIFE, Amen.

Trying My Best To Be…..ME!

So after spending the last week perplexed even how to say this, tonight made it real to me! I was asked if I played baseball and I said that I used too, but that I coached it now and that persons reply was, “Sorry not as impressive!”  I feel like the FAKE PEOPLE of this world ruin it for the people who are just trying to be REAL!  I am not saying I am perfect, because I am far from it, but I wish people could see right through us the way God sees us.  I know I am not the next Jeff Francoeur, but I did give it my best shot.  I know I am not the next Chris Tomlin, but I do love to play guitar.  I know I am not the next Billy Graham, but I do love to speak to people about what God has been doing in my life.  I know I am not the next best actor in Hollywood, but I do love acting out this thing they call life.  I know I am not going to be David and slay the next Goliath that walks through the door, but I would stand up for Christ and give my life for Him or you.  See all my life I feel like I have looked at the world around me and tried to be the person I was not created to be.  However, over the last few years I have tried to be the best Evan I can be and I know now why no one wants to be who God created them to be.  It is because everyone is looking for FAKENESS….stuff that isn’t REAL…no one is perfect except for the one who died to clean us all.  It is tiring to try and be the man or woman God has called you to be, but don’t stop, don’t ever stop being REAL when the world tells you to be FAKE!  I know I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be, but guess what, you won’t find someone trying harder to be the man God created him to be! Girls don’t seek it so guys don’t try it…plain and simple!  Thanks God for reminding me that FAKE is CAKE and I won’t to be a man after your own heart, even if it cost me my life.  So dudes get over yourselves and girls keep wishing, because the guy your looking to be or find died 2009 years ago and now lives in ME! BOOOYAAAHHH!

“I know that sounded like I was mad, well my disclaimer is that I WAS!”

FREEDOM or Death?

Two days ago I was eating in the cafe and looking around and observing everything around me, like I usually do when I am eating with no one and I saw I guy wearing a shirt that had the following statement on the back:

“FREEDOM OR DEATH”

I started thinking about those two words and how ironic that they were given as choices.  Not only how ironic they were given as choices, but the ONLY choices.  I started to think about that biblically and how THAT choice will be the most important one ever made in any ones life.

Paul writes in Galatians, to the church of Galatia, an apologetic that defends his position as an apostle and the Gentiles, who were not circumcised and did not follow the law to legalism, as Christians – Christ Followers.   It is by grace through faith alone that people are justified, and it is by faith alone that they are to live out their new life in the FREEDOM of Christ.  He writes the following in Galatians 5:1:

“It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Meaning:  Christ died to set us free from the law or the old covenant, because we could not satisfy it.  We were imperfect people living by laws that required perfection.  We couldn’t carry the burden of being perfect, because we started imperfect.

He writes in the book of Romans 6;22-23 however this:

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So you have one of two choices: You can go on sinning and choose DEATH or you can receive CHRIST as a pardon for where you could not be perfect and you can live in FREEDOM from bondage….What is your choice?

Christ died so that you could be set free and love HIM enough to give your life for HIS sake and that is for HIS name to become famous!

Prayer: God I pray that we would stop making the choice of death when you have already chosen that and carried it out in your life before you rose from it to give us the life of FREEDOM.  God I pray that we would see that there is no in between.  We have to make one choice or the other.  We can’t sit on the OR fence and think that we will be “GOOD ENOUGH” to make it in your kingdom for eternal life.  Lord, change our hearts to be more like you and praise you for the choice of FREEDOM you give to us!  ONE LOVE, amen.

Dude that’s not a Horse, that’s a BULL!

So, this may have been one of the craziest nights of my life and I luckily lived to tell about it, so here it goes.  Tonight we had a scavenger hunt for one of my friends birthday parties (Deni!).  We had a couple of hours to go around and take digital pictures of clues given in a list.  Each clue had a certain number of points.  When we got near the end of the clues, one was written in code and I figured out that it meant to find a horse outside of the city and take a picture of it.  Might I add that it was already 11:15pm at night and very dark.  Well, my team and I, drive out into the middle of nowhere and I think I spot a horse way out in a pasture in the pitch black dark night.  Miles (my roommate) and I jump the fence and walk about 300 yards into the pasture with a camera that I was going to take a picture with the horse.  I was leading the walk and as we got closer this object got bigger and bigger until I realized it was not a horse and was probably bigger than your normal sized cow.  About that time (30 yards away) the object gets to its feet and I realize it is a BULLLLLLLL! Miles turns and makes a b-line and I see it stomp and start to jog towards us and at this point without the camera in hand my first instinct was to turn and run with Miles.  All the while I could hear the thing snorting  behind me!  I do believe I might have set a record Usain BOLT couldn’t break! I know this wasn’t funny to read, but if you had been there it felt like the 1st Annual Rock Hill Running of the BULLS!!

I really wanted to add something biblical to this blog, but the only thing I could come up with was not running like a man that runs aimlessly! I am pretty sure the only thing God would have said is, “Evan you are an IDIOT, but thats why I love you”! Haha! Hope all of you get a kick out of the story and remember God calls us to run into pastures in search for horses to find a bull that helps us beat our bodies so that we become slaves to Him, so that we won’t be disqualified from the race! 1 Corinthians 9:24-27…you better believe I got the prize…A great laugh!