A Mirror-holder is someone who’s willing to always be honest with you, show you what you are doing wrong, and reflect back to you how you are coming off to others.

 A Hand-holder is someone who will be there in tough times, not to condemn us for what we’ve done but to love and support us as we deal with our difficulties.

Usually we cannot have one person be both of these for us.  Most of the people whose personalities cause them to be great in one of these roles will not allow them to be the other.

We need that honest person who will say the hard things, has been through tough times themselves and can share their story in warning as they see danger in our lives.  We also need that compassionate person who will give us a hug and always take our side.  Such relationships help us stand and make us stronger.  Putting people in these places in our lives can be valuable at all times and essential in times of struggle or sin.  These relationships are not simply people to be used by us, but to be support for us.

I think accountability is crucial for pure living and a mirror-holder and hand-holder are just the kind of relationships you we seek.

Though we do not know when God is going to lead us to move forward with the new church, we are already accepting contributions that will be there to support the church whenever it is launched.  This month we are connecting the church and the book to create a special offer for anyone who would like to read my book but for whatever reason has not bought one.

By following this link you can make a credit card or paypal donation to our church plant.  Anyone who makes a donation of any amount anytime during the month of December will be emailed a Word copy version of my book.

Thank you for your support!

While John did require those he baptized to confess, he did not require them to repent.  I think this is because repenting is a work and Christianity is not built upon the works of man.  If repentance is turning away, then that is a work, and a difficult one at that.  It is a work that is so difficult it requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to empower one to make such a life change.  John knew that those coming to receive salvation did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling them yet and therefore may not have even been capable of turning their lives around before coming to God.

My defense is…………….I was wrong.

To be honest I heard a speaker say this one time and I was simply repeating what I heard inaccurately taught about this passage of Scripture.  Doing so is poor research on my part and I now realize I was wrong.

My point about the passage was that it is not a ‘fix-all’ for Christians to repeatedly quote so they can be guilt free while having unchanged behavior.  Though my application was wrong my stance on this is still the same.  The verse is not a model for repeated confession.  I feel it is often taught in a way that says we’re all going to sin, but thankfully if we just go to God and confess our sins then it’s all good.  Being able to say this verse was meant for non-Christians fit with my agenda so I put that spin on the verse.  Again, I now realize this was wrong.

However, I still do not see 1 John 1:9 as a catchall for present sin.  The verse is usually quoted out of context but the chapter of 1 John 1 very clearly has a ‘looking back’ theme.  The writer is remembering what has been given.  He is listing what the believers have done.  He uses a lot of past-tense wording.

In that context I think verse 9 is saying that if we have (or since we have) confessed God has forgiven.  The verse is not a mandate to be in continual confession as to receive continual forgiveness.  John is teaching a promise.  He is telling his readers that if (assumed) they have confessed then God has forgiven.  They do not need to wonder if they have been forgiven or fear that their sin will be held against them.  No, if they have confessed, then they have been forgiven.  That attitude is consistent with the verses immediately before and after verse nine.

In looking at this chapter closer and reading better commentary on it I have to admit I made a mistake before and I hate that it went to print that way.  My point though was to show that 1 John 1:9 is not saying Christians must continually seek forgiveness.  I was trying to say that forgiveness occurs just once.  Repentance is continuous.  You are forgiven and become a Christian.  Once you are a Christian you will realize your need to repent on a pretty regular basis.

Our motivation for this is not forgiveness though.  It’s purity.  It’s holiness.  It’s a relationship with God that cannot exist while habitual sin is present.  God has already forgiven us of that sin, but allowing it to stay in the picture keeps us from enjoying all the blessings of His forgiveness.

The first has to do with the nature and place of repentance.  Someone wrote me a message on facebook after reading my book and pointed to a section of chapter four in which I state repentance is not necessary for salvation.  The person who wrote me on this went on to say that we cannot turn toward God and salvation until we have turned away from self and sin.  They said that what I wrote was dangerous and misleading.  That’s why I want to talk about it in more detail here.

I realize that stating repentance is not necessary for salvation is certainly bold and perhaps I should have more accurately wrote that repentance is not required at the moment of salvation, though I do not believe my original statement to be unbiblical either.  In clarifying the definition of repentance (page 66) I address the meaning of the original Old and New Testament words translated into our English word repentance.  Any proper definition of these words portrays them as acts, works or deeds to be done on our part.

Repent means to turn.  A more expanded translation would be to feel such regret and sorrow that you change your mind and turn to a different set of actions.  It is something we must do.  It’s an act.  It’s a work. It is work!  It does not happen immediately or easily.  So when people say that the first step in salvation in repentance, they are saying that salvation is based upon a work you do.  This is completely inaccurate!

Such understanding for the term repentance is common in contemporary and traditional churches alike.  In the conservative, Baptist church I grew up in I heard the pastor preach something along the lines of, “you don’t have to make yourself clean before you come to God.  You come to God as you are and He will make you clean.”  To me, that is the exact point I was making in the book!  To say repentance is an essential for becoming a Christian is to say you must have already turned from your sin and be acting like a Christian to become one.  That would be a works-based salvation.

I believe the misunderstanding comes from a confusion over terms.  Certainly if you are actively running from God you are not in the position to become a Christian.  At some point you must at least be open to Him and want salvation.  Acknowledging that need is confession.  Making the conscious decision to work toward a changed life and do things differently than you did before is something completely different; that’s repentance.  (By the way, the entire second chapter of my book is spend noting the differences between confession and repentance)

You see, repentance is work.  And it’s hard work at that.  The Message Bible sometimes translates repentance as “life change.”  Perhaps the hardest thing to do as humans is change.  That’s why I believe God desires to, through the Holy Spirit, help believers in repentance.  The Holy Spirit comes into the life of a believer at salvation and is then able to lead and guide them through a time of life change to become more like Jesus.  Saying repentance must come before salvation leaves non-Christians on their own to do this difficult work on their own as they try and become good enough to be saved.

Another common misunderstanding here is that repentance is not a one-time act.  It’s not something we do on the front end to be accepted by God and then we’re done with it.  Because repentance is a turn or change in our actions, away from self and toward God, it is needed over and over again throughout our entire lives.  We consistently sin against God.  We continually turn our back on Him and the desires He has for us.  Each one of those times requires some degree and form of repentance.  Sometimes this means a long, drawn out, public repentance that is worked out over time for a ministry leader who has had a major failure in their life.  Often it is a quick realization of the wrong we have done and an immediate action to end that sin and pursue something better.  Either way, repentance is work.  And it’s most successfully done with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

For more on this, I would encourage you to check out this book! 

Well, it seems as though I am at that place again.  God has recently convicted me very deeply of a habit I have developed.  I continually pray for God to show me things He wants to change or remove in my life and just this week He answered that prayer.

I have fallen into the bad habit (and sometimes sin) of speaking out.  I have a blog.  I have a twitter account.  I’m on facebook.  I’m in a small group.  I have friends.  I’m in church planter networks.  And sadly, the people associated with me through any of those means know my opinions on almost everything.

In the last few weeks there have been major, controversial things happening in the realms of politics and Christianity.  I have quickly spoken up and spoken out so others would know where I stand (whatever that means).  In doing so I have offended some, caused conflict with others, criticized, got upset, and perhaps pushed away some who disagree with me.  This is not how God wants me to live.

God pointed out to me how unhealthy it is to be boldly putting my opinions out for others who do not even know me to see.  This causes them to judge me by my opinions and not who I am.

While I was in college I overheard a group of professors sitting at a table in the cafeteria.  They were discussing theological things and were doing so wrongly in my opinion.  I wanted so badly to walk over and set them straight.  Immediately though the reality set in that most of them didn’t know me, didn’t see me as an authority on the issues, and would quickly disregard any point I had no matter how valid.  I realized people were not going to respect what I had to say until they had come to respect who I was as someone they would want to hear from.  The same is true today but somewhere along the line I forgot that.

I became truly broken when I realized I get more upset and defensive about someone who disagrees with my politics than I do with someone who disagrees with me on how to get to heaven.  Not that I should ever get defensive about any subject but as someone who is a church planter, a missionary if you will, should not my entire focus with people be to point them to Jesus, not my political bend?

I’m sorry!  I apologize!  I repent!  To any whom I argued with, got bad at, was hurt by, etc.  I’m sorry!  God has spoken and I was wrong!

I’ve heard it said that when it comes to controversial issues you can either win the argument or win the relationship.  Well from now on I’m dedicating myself to only trying to win the relationship.  This will mean I have to bite my tongue from time to time.  It will mean others may assume I believe something that I do not.  That’s not what’s important.

Trying to always speak up as though your opinion is actually going to change anyone’s mind is a trap!  And I fell into it deeply.  Thankfully God brought this to my attention now and I was close enough to hear Him.  My life is now being devoted not to what I have to say but who I am to be.  If I focus on being someone of integrity who shows love to others perhaps the time will come when my opinion is sought out.  At that time it will carry much more weight than the times I’ve thought everyone needed to know it and vomited it out into cyberspace.

In my book I quote the song I Repent by Derek Webb.  He discusses many things that I allowed to become part of my life.  Please read this and know it is how I feel.  I repent.

i repent of my pursuit of America’s dream
i repent of living like i deserve anything
my house, my fence, my kids, and my wife
in our suburb where we’re safe and white
i am wrong and of these things i repent

i repent of parading my liberty
i repent of paying for what i get for free
the way i believe that i am living right
by trading sins for others that are easier to hide
i am wrong and of these things i repent

i repent judging by a law that even i can’t keep
wearin righteousness like a disguise to see through
the planks in my own eyes

i repent of trading truth for false unity
i repent of confusing peace and idolatry
of caring more of what they think than what i know of what they need
and domesticating You until You look just like me
i am wrong and of these things i repent

Self promotion has always brought out my insecurities.  I’m usually embarrassed to talk about the book when someone else brings it up.  But I recently found a reason to plug the book and not be ashamed to do so.

A few months ago my church, Rock Bridge Community Church, began a new missions initiative to aggressively engage in overseas missions.  Through partnerships, finances, and mission trips, our church is trying to fulfill the great commission.  We have done well at serving our local community and are now realizing the bigger picture of God’s will and how we can be a part of it.

As I heard my pastor lay some of the specifics of this plan out, my heart became extremely burdened.  I was specifically burdened for a project the church is doing to send a team of church members to the Ukraine to help start a local church in one week!  God really told me I need to be a part of this project in as many ways as I can.

So not only do I plan to go to the Ukraine and help plant the church, but every penny I am making off the sales of my book are going to fund this mission! If I truly want to reach people for God I cannot be limiting that to one city or one area or even one nation!  So if you have bought my book or choose to do so now, every cent that I receive from that sale will go to help start this new church in the Ukraine where people there can meet and begin to worship Jesus.

Here is the info on all the missions project at Rock Bridge Community Church

You can click here to buy my book from Amazon.com or click here to find it at Barnes & Noble if you want to compare prices.

Also, if you would like an overview of the book, please check out this promotional video my publishers did.

Thank you for joining me as we try to be a small part of what God wants to do all over the world!

I never understood what the Bible meant when it told us to die daily to ourselves.  How do we die to ourselves?  And why daily?

I got a little insight today when at lunch with my restoration team.  We were talking about avoiding temptation and that it is an ongoing thing.  We must be at all times guarding, avoiding, and being prepared.  We must at all times be making choices not to give in to what we may be tempted to do.  If that’s constant why does the Bible say to die to ourselves daily?

At first I thought it was just a figure of speech, saying that we can’t make a once for all decision to avoid temptation.  Bu in that culture any amount or part of a day was counted as a day.  That’s why Jesus dies on a Friday, was raised on Sunday, and was said to be dead for three days.  Any part of Friday was considered one full day.  Even if He rose at 12:02am on Sunday, it would still have counted as a day.

So if we take that rule and apply it to being tempted, then to fall at any point during a day would be to have messed up for that day.  So literally, it is saying that we must deny our temptations at every moment of every day because the smallest, single wrong act means we did not die to ourselves for that whole day.

In short, the answer is yes!  As a matter of fact, before I ever finished writing Repentance and Recovery I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed the writing process and began files for ideas on about five different books.  Since then I have continued to gather resources for those ideas and arrange them in order of which I would like to write them.  Obviously with being a newly-wed and working toward becoming a full time church planter, who knows when I will actually sit down to outline and begin writing the project that is next on my book list.  But the idea is there.

I have yet to determine the title, but the idea for my next book is to compare the things I find unattractive and dysfunctional about the church to those I dislike in American culture.  I know, I know, it’s almost a fad today to write a book, song, or lecture where you criticize and “call out” the church.  But this idea came to me almost two years ago and my hypothesis, I believe, still stands.  I hope to take a different approach by pointing out the trends of American culture and how the church pretty much follows suit and then takes heat for being so secluded from the culture when actually they are mirroring it.

For example, Christians act like a minority.  I am in no way racist or prejudice.  I believe in equal rights for all minorities.  But many minorities in our culture seem to complain that they are treated differently while at the same time refusing to break away from their minority culture and be fully assimilated into public society.  Christians mimic minority culture in many ways, such as having their own language and terms, being easily offended, and being quick to criticize any of their own who break away from accepted minority culture.

I also plan to involve others in the writing process.  My idea is to have a cookout, get-together, etc. with 8-12 people who I know have had bad experiences with the church and brainstorm ideas on not only how to express our disappointment with how some American churches are functioning, but also provide simple advice or solutions.  Way too many who criticize the church do just that, providing no positive direction and leaving their audience to believe there is no hope for the church.  I want to do just the opposite.  I also want to be sure it does not seem like I am only speaking against a certain kind of church, such as “Traditional,” “Contemporary,” “Emerging,” etc.

I have considered titles such as My case against American Church or America, quit killing my church but think both of those sound more political than the book will actually be.  I’m more than open to your suggestions and thoughts regarding the title, content, or just a story you have that may be helpful.  Please share those with me either as a comment or through an email.  I’m really excited to begin writing again soon but also look forward to involving as many voices and different views as I can.

Last night I had the privilege of doing an interview on the Shirley Thomas internet radio show.  You can listen to the interview by clicking this link and finding the August 9th episode.  The show was mainly to promote my book, Repentance and Recovery, and be able to share the thoughts and ideas behind it.  It was in some ways difficult for me because I was to present myself and my book as the ‘best thing ever’ so others would be interested.  I tend to be more of a thoughtful, sometimes quieter type and self-promotion is not something I am very comfortable with.  I mean, I felt guilty even sending out a twitter message announcing I would be on the show.

While answering one of the questions though, I expressed my heart, in that my motivation for even writing the book and now sharing it is that my story has connected with people.  When I was going through a time of repentance, I was very open and vulnerable with others about how I was feeling.  And that seemed to connect with people.  I came to realize that every day I walk among people who are burdened by guilt, shame, and condemnation.  Whether that burden was placed on them by their families, the church, or themselves, it still holds them back and causes them to see themselves as second class.  For a while I felt that way and it took God moving in my life to deliver me from that.

For that reason, it hurts me to see others living with more guilt on them than God would ever want them to carry.  Realizing my message is one of being set free and returning to God allows me to be bold in promoting it.  The traditionalist side of me pushes back when I think about desiring to share my message with many, but I have weighed my intentions and acknowledge that my desire is to see people experience freedom and acceptance in Christ and that in sharing that message I hope to be greatly used by God.  I don’t think either of those things are wrong.  As a matter of fact, I believe they may be what God wants as well.

I hope you will be faithful and obedient in sharing your story, your struggles, and your wisdom in pointing others to God.