True Grit Christian Low fat Christianity with no unnecessary fillers

Christmas 2011

At midnight I went outside and walked around under all of God's creation. I looked deep into the star studded sky and asked Christ to return. I explained the many situations with family, friends, and acquaintances telling Christ it would be a good time for his return.  The stars twinkled and glistened and the vapor in my breathe disappear into the fog of the Milky Way. Under the chilly blanket of midnight blue I waited and I waited staring into the dark ready to see the sky torn. I longed to see the Heaven break open upon the Earth and His Glory shine down to save all mankind at long last. Not yet though, not yet there's still more work to do.

Jesus came to us to save, not to condemn. He didn't take any group of people sorted them out by color and said those on the right you're okay and the left you're going to hell. He didn't say "only those of you that can understand my language are saved." He didn't tell any blind man "because you can't see my you can't see my father" or "because you can't walk you aren't worthy."

You are not measured, weighed, or inspected.  Your inherent value isn't in you or in any of the things you have ever done. Your value lays within Christ.

Jesus Christ came to save.

The Project

God really spoke to me that one Sunday. I walked out of one nice and well established Church feeling empty got out in my car and drove away.  A quarter mile up the road and the God directed me into a literal underground Church. You can read about what transpired that day here: Spectrum

How can any Church be content in itself if another Church is suffering? Christ is going to shake a lot of shingles loose and that gold plated Jesus will never hold value in the Kingdom of God.  It's very important for you as a Christian to understand this. It's very important that you as a Christian to see there is a need that you can fill right now.  I found there are real needs out here in our own neighborhoods and it's some incredibly painful to see so many unloved when a Church steeple is in view. When I challenge churches I'm met with claims that the Church is doing something. But is doing something equal to doing enough? We have to save them faster than the world is able to destroy them.

This is not circumstantial. There are no prerequisite.  It's time for you to Care for Your Neighbor. It's the most basic off all our commandments. I said this before, Love and Honor God and all these things will follow.

I didn't intend to write all that just to say this,

Over the years I have taken thousands upon thousands of photos. I've been very strict about not sharing them until all this occurred. It's the only option given to me by God that I know can make a immediate difference. And I love it!  I'll be selling my photos through a photo printing service, you can get prints on paper or canvas wraps and just about anything else you could want a picture on. All profits from sales will go to provide blankets and other items to the needy. Men, Woman, Children, poor, homeless, and lost.

There is more to life than living- Make a wave and change the world.

Here you can find my gallery:

gallery.truegritchristian.com

Prayer

 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

 And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.'"

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

 

Ever since my grandmother was suffering from diabetes and then went into the hospital I've had a different outlook on prayer. My grandma was in considerable pain laying there in the hospital bed. I remember her lips trembling because the morphine couldn't block it all.  That night I prayed for God to take her, a 14 years old boy and all I wanted my grandma to be set free of all this suffering. She went ahead that night.

We need to change our relationship with God. We're like little birds always begging with our mouths gaping for any tidbit that might fall our way. We beg and plead like a child wanting the pack of gum at the checkout and will not stop screaming and kicking till we get it. We gripe and groan protesting and demanding our fair share and our equal treatment. "God why does he have that nice big house and fancy car and I don't?!?!"

Proper prayer begins with knowing your place. You're opening lines to talk to God, not your broker.  You must have reverence above all things.

God already knows what you need so don't pray for what you want. Reverence above all things.

You need to come expecting two way communications, talk to God, tell Him your problems and concerns. And remember, Reverence above all things.

Then when you begin to pray, pray for understanding and the strength to accept God's plan, not for God to accept your plan.

I know people will have lots of arguments and questions and I know you will want answers. Please, take a moment and post a comment below. I will reply.

Spectrum

Today I decided to visit the largest Assembly of God Church in Cedar Rapids. I arrived a few minutes late and I'm glad I did, the music was so incredibly loud and any longer and I would of left with a throbbing headache. They finished their final song and a guest missionary showed up with a story of their travels in India. But before she spoke they played a video on the 3 massive projection screens.

She was commenting on the video as it played, saying things such as "This is Braj, he's 8 and was born to a drunk father in a grave yard because his father was the caretaker. His mother is dead and now lives in a orphanage."  You can see her mission here: http://www.gatewayindia.org/

Then when she was finished telling her story they took up a promissory collection for her. I hadn't been in the seats 30 minutes and already been asked for money twice. While at the same time I see these massive projectors, screens, multiple high end HD cameras, lights, everything had to well exceed $500k.  The building alone had to be valued over $1M.

And you want to know what I seen when I walked out of the service? Yes a run down trailer park. My heart was breaking for people while WE ignore the suffering to keep the photons flowing and the sound waves pounding.

As I was driving back to my hotel God brought this small run down looking building to my eye. All I caught was "† Solid Rock".

I told God, "Okay, Let's see."

I went inside this run down building with only 2 cars parked in front and I see a collection of rooms setup with rickety plywood dividers and bookshelves. To be honest, it smelled like cats and Lysol. But I knew God had me make a U turn to see something.

Down a narrow walkway a older man peaked around the corner and waved at me, and I looked into one of the "rooms" and there was 5 guys, I figured this was my spot. I stepped in, nodded my head in greeting and sat down while they talked. This collection of men wasn't well dressed, didn't have nice shoes and the cloths they wore was probably one set of two. A few guys had twerks and jitters and missing teeth that spoke of drug abuse and all round bad luck. They talked and shared when another man walked in and told us that someone had given him a brand new bed and he wanted to know who it was to thank them.

Now I want you to understand this is why I do not like "ornate" churches.

The sharing session was over and everyone started to shuffle towards the back of the building. Down some somewhat shaky but carpeted steps and into the cold basement/garage area. Sewer pipes, concrete floors and purple painted roll up garage doors. All in all there was maybe 15 people here and me wearing blue jeans, moderate long sleeve shirt and black dress shoes stood out like a politician. That man that wanted to thank someone for the bed came up front and started to speak.

He told us that for the last month and a half he had been sleeping in a one room apartment on a cold concrete floor with only a single blanket to his name. The landlord removed everything because there had been a bad bed bug infestation and never replaced anything. Then yesterday a man named Craig showed up with a trailer attached to a bicycle carrying a mattress.  Knocked on his door and told him it was his, paid for in full and brand new.  He was so grateful standing before us and it tore at my heart because only an hour before I watched this great irony where the needy was projected on a silver screen and the well fed sat and now here, in great contrast, I sat while the needy stood around me and projected God.

A nice lady gave a good message based on her grandfather and Jesus's parables and our need to be able to tell these parable like Jesus did. After she was done they started singing, one nice dress man played the electric piano and sang. All 15 men and women praised God and there was more presence there in that old run down building than I have ever seen in all my life.

There was more Faith, Thanksgiving  and Love in 5 dirty old castaway men than in all the ranks of all other churches I have seen.

So next time you decide to go to Church and you are clapping and swaying to the music remember there is a man in Cedar Rapids Iowa praising God for the bed his is able to sleep on. It's important to have humble buildings. It's important to give not to build a steeple but to buy a blanket. It's important to not be inside the building to see the needy. And sometimes, to see the Glory of God, you might have to walk into a old worn down building with some shaky steps, sewer pipes, and a purple garage door.

You want to know something really amazing? This church has 7 people doing missions work in Haiti right now.

The Wine

For the last few months I've got on somewhat of a wine kick. It started when I was told I had high blood pressure and the doc gave me a gambit of pills. I'm not much for pills and I recalled reading about the health benefits of red wine. I purchased my first bottle of wine and although it was okay I wanted to explore the different brands of wine that was out there. One thing about wine is I don't drink it lightly, like someone would pound down a beer. I have to be content and relaxed so I can enjoy the time and quality put into making the drink. And although I don't always show it, I always think of Christ when I drink the wine. From communion to His first display of power by turning the water into wine.

I talked about this the other day on facebook about how one day I hope to be there with Jesus, to sit with Him and drink with Him. To drink the wine He made that remembered day. I find it remarkable really.

John 2:1-11

New International Version (NIV)

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,  and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so,  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

My View

I don't know if I am alone in how I feel about God.

Do people see God the same way that I do?

Do they keep God bound between the onion paper and faux leather bindings of a book printed and sold for profit?

I don't want to know a God that is defined by man made ink. I don't want to believe in a God only told of through stories thousands of years old.

I won't be limited to God and God will not to be limited to us.

My God is ALIVE. Every breathing ever living. Talks with me and grieves with me. Love me in ways that I can't define and lifts my spirit to see his light. I see God as my Father. He assures me and encourages me, gives me motivation to do right by him, shows me the beauty in everything from weeds to stars and holds me close when I need to be held. I see His hand in everything living or not and between every blink I can acknowledge his existence. My views on life have been changed, from Birth to Living to Death. I'm not afraid of death in the least. I'm not quite fearless but I know the ride isn't going to compare to the destination. My love for God supersedes all my own desires. I want to be invisible to all and all of him seen in my stead. If I help anyone Oh lord I don't want my name remembered I only want Christ to be remembered. Just let me share the living every meeting love that He brings to me. Though challenges may come to change my faith, those that tempt me and sway me -please- let the one thing that stays firm- stay my foundation. Many see Christianity as being a slave to God. God does not want that in the least bit.

Do you remember when you was young and you took so much care placing that dime store macaroni on red construction paper? You took your time making sure every piece was properly glued into the right place. Then you took the magic markers and started to carefully draw hearts and figures and using the best handing writing you could then wrote out your name. You took your masterpiece out the school doors, down to the bus and protected it on the bus ride home. Walking slowing home you came inside relieved that your hard worked made it home safely. Moments later you greeted your parents with bright wide eyes and big smile in your very best and most pure love. That's the love God is searching for! Given freely with love behind love lifting love for the sake of love and as genuine as it can be.

Update

Sorry for the long break between post. After I returned from my last deployment things didn't quite return back to normal for me. I was stuck mentally in a deployment mood and felt like I was still isolated. Many things was feeling bland and boring and I was having trouble sleeping and didn't really want to eat. I felt like I was stuck behind a glass wall and I didn't want to get close to my family. I wasn't sure what was going on I just was depressed and emotionally confused. I made myself an appointment with the Mental Health Clinic on base and after a few visits the doc diagnosed me depression and gave me some medication to help chemically balance my brain. I'm doing somewhat better now but I do occasionally fall back. This has made it very hard to sit down and concentrate on writing. I know I needed to understand how depression feels and I hope that I can relate this to help others. Life is a journey and if along the way we can make the road easier for others then we should. Thank you all for your prayers and understanding during this time.

Dory

It Rains in Heaven

Some people don't like rain. It really drives the humidity up which plays quite the havoc on my women's hair. It makes driving dangerous with slickened roads that are ever increasingly hard to see at night. When it down pours my backyard can pool up and my basement will leak in odd places. Mowing the grass is impossible and when it's done raining my yard looks like tropical grassland with a growing number of vermin taking up residence. Rain can undo a freshly finished car wash that you worked all day on and cut short any time from enjoying the outdoors. It can delay planting of crops and in extreme circumstances, destroy homes with devastating flood waters.  Bugs and pest seem to be invigorated by the rains with millions of mosquitoes searching us out for a quick snack and grasshoppers wiping crops causing markets to go unstable.

Up until a few years back I didn't really appreciate the rain until I took the time to see what the rain was. It brings us life sustaining waters. With out it we would have drought and water tables would drop leaving vast deserts over increasing growing areas. Lakes and reservoirs would dry up while creeks, streams and rivers would cease to flow.  Seeds wouldn't sprout and crops wouldn't grow. Fish would die off and pollution would concentrate into deadly pools. All life would soon cease to exist because the Rains bring us cycles of life which is all part of God's operational Earth.

I so miss the rains. The patter of drops striking the cold hard glass of my bedroom windows. The gently fragrance that saturates my senses as I breath deep and close my eyes. The cool winds preceding the the first folly of precipitation. It almost seem to drive up the goose bumps and force a shiver to race along my spine. The flash of the lightning and the crack of the thunder that make my heart race and my eyes widen in awe.

But it all falls silent.....

.....when I compare to the power of God.

Yes my friends it does rain in Heaven and we will dance with overwhelming delight when it comes.

The Mold

Talked to my mom the other day and I found out my uncle has leukemia with perhaps only a month left.

I love my uncle. I've only know him to be rugged and jovial person that I looked up to with admiration. Doctors said, one morning he just won't wake up and there, I wondered of his fate.

I think of my own.....

Inherently I am evil. I will be angry with God. I will despise my birth. I will loath my children and curse the earth. I will lust for women, envy others and lie to save my own skin. I will deny Christ and kill him countless times in my sin. All this with out even a second thought of myself or anyone else. I know, rarely have I went to sleep without damning sin counting against me. And if I was to die before I awake, I know that I deserve, with no doubt, to be apart from God.

In bitterly sharp contrast I love Christ with all I am.

The thought of pleasing a perfect Creator would lead one to think an impossibility. The God like "mold of perfection" that we assume we must fit into... can not be obtained. None of the disciples, no kings, no slave or free man, no woman or child, all- from birth to death we are condemned. No one you have ever know, no one you have every loved, is deserving of life and peace eternal.

Now answer me this,

WHO MADE THIS MOLD?

Who said I must be perfect? Who said my life was going to be easy by following Christ? Who said my I would not face hard times? Who said I would not see people I love suffer?

The truth is this. God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit each of one love us each as one. Judged not on stain of sin washed away over and over again but of the fight we wage to defeat it. The Grace of God, oh the Grace of God met by our motivation. Our motivation is in Christ Jesus who did not die for us but in truth lives for us. A dead man is a dead man and my Jesus Christ is not 165 pounds of flesh on a battered cross but He is my God and my God will never die. Jesus Christ did not die for your sins but PAID for your sins.

Many will want to argue with me over that last paragraph. Quit reading your Bible line for line. People spend so much time studying the Bible and pulling line after line out and scrubbing it down to where it is no longer part of the biggest picture but a bland, colorless,  meaningless, washed out collection of words that would be better served on the inside of a cheap cereal box. You've become limited to your idea of God.

Here is an example: 

Now click on the extract to see the Big picture.

Yes I am weak. Yes I will fall. Yes I will fail. Yes I will stumble. Yes I run when I should stand. Stand with your devotion not only through words but also actions. Lean forward and never back. If you fall back don't fear, the Grace of God is always given to us. Grace so immense no room can contain it, no earth can hold it, no sky to limit it, no universe big enough to observe it.

Busy

Just a small post to let you all know where I stand with the website post. I was deployed last September till January 2011.  Two weeks after returning I deployed again for 2 weeks. Now less that a week after coming back I stand on the brink of deployment for a undetermined amount of time. This is due to Qaddafi deciding to kill off any opposition in his little world. I'm really really tired of my life in the military and will retire out in late 2012.