On The Brink of Depression, But He Brought Me Up Out of the Pit

I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.

He put a new song in my mouth –
Praise yo our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.

Psalm 40:1-3

As I look back on my life, I can remember certain events (a car wreck, a tumor, a kidney stone) that were extremely challenging for me, but no period of time can compare with what I have gone through in the last year (and even the last 18 months, really). But beginning in March, things began to slowly get better for me.

The darkness began to disipate and things began looking up.

Some things that really helped this happen included:

• Reawakening some friendships that I had allowed to become dormant, through Twitter/Facebook as well as in real life
• A determination to seek God through fasting and prayer
• Spending more time reading and listening to the Word of God and sermons/podcasts/blogs about Christian topics

Now these may seem pretty basic to all of us (myself included), but it gets so easy to drift away. We get this sense that the little things may not matter so much, or what we aren’t really all that useful or necessary in the kingdom of God.

The thing is, no amount of excuses or justifications or whatever suffice. On the flip side, no amount of determinations to do the right thing suffice either.

But it’s not about doing any one thing or another. It’s about passionately pursuing our Lord. The thing that I have been lacking for the last few years has really been a clearly defined goal.

You are my portion, O LORD;
I have said that I would keep Your words.

I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.

I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.

I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.

The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have no forgotten Your law.

At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.

I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.

The earth, O LORD, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.

Psalm 119:57-64

Look at verse 60 again. “I made haste, and did not delay To keep Your commandments.” Though I have been keeping God’s commandments lately, I can’t say that I have made haste in doing so. Just because we don’t seem to be living a victorious life doesn’t mean that we are out of the will of God. Through this whole year, that one truth has stuck with me, despite other people telling me otherwise.

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry,
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king.”

1 Samuel 15:22,23

Obedience ushers in the blessings of God
My pastor likes to say that “Obedience ushers in the blessings of God.” I often hear that, but it gets so familiar that I overlook it at times. Something else to draw from the above verses: delayed obedience is the same as blatent disobedience.

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seatr of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

Day and night…

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither,
And whatever he does shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

Whatever he does shall prosper. Who has this guaranteed prosperity? The person who delight to meditate on the law of the LORD day and night.

Brothers and sisters, that is the real prosperity gospel! None of this name-it-claim-it, blab-it-grab-it, bossing God around like a genie in a Bible business. That stuff isn’t scriptural.

It’s exactly the same as what God told Joshua when Israel finally entered the land:

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:7-9

All this to say that I read a couple of blog posts today that really jumped out at me.

• How Can Pain Be Good? (The Blazing Center)
• You Are What Your Tweet (The Blazing Center)

Fasting, Prayer, and Affliction of the Soul

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your houyse the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”

Isaiah 58:6-7

This spring, I began to feel really impressed to spend more time fasting and learning about fasting. I’ve done it for up to a week a few times with some really good results. I’ve also fasted for a handful of days in the past with minimal results. So this year, I have been praying and learning quite a bit about denial of the flesh.

My pastor often says, “We all have ungodly altars in our lives.” I think some of those ungodly altars that we have allowed to be set up can most effectively be overturned by prayer and fasting. I think about when the Philistines stole the Ark of the LORD and put it in the temple of Dagon from 1 Samuel 5).

Can you imagine the power of God overturning some of the strongholds that are in your life in such a way that they submit fully to God? I know from experience that such things can happen, and that powerful deliverance can come about as a result of fasting and prayer.

So why don’t I do it more?
The Bible rightly refers to fasting as “affliction of the soul.” It’s never easy to sacrifice. Anything. Especially food! For me, most of my sturuggles come about when I fast but don’t focus on the and prayer aspect of it. Without Christ filling the emptiness that my stomach feels, the flesh isn’t getting weaker, only more irritated!

Actually, I think any pursuit of holiness should be more about adding holy practices into our lives rather than removing unholy things. As light comes in, darkness will flee. If we simply remove the darkness, more (and possibly worse) darkness will enter in its place (cf. Matthew 12:43-45).

So what are the results of fasting and prayer done from a pure motive?

Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousnessshall go before you,
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.” 

Isaiah 58:8-10

Amazing stuff, isn’t it?

But wait a minute…
So there can be these tremendous results and breakthroughs that we experience in our lives as a direct byproduct of fasting. But is that the purpose of fasting? Do we fast to twist God’s arm and sort of force His hand? I don’t know that this is what God has called us to do.

When we  fast, when we afflict our soul, I see it as more about drawing close to God than trying to get something or acheive a breakthrough. Now I know there are a number of different fasts outlined in the Bible, and about 10 different reasons behind them. With all of them, however, the end result is to draw closer to God.

Maybe I’m the only one who does this, but I sometimes find myself fasting just to fast and going through the motions just to go through the motions. It is at this point that the real challenge comes in. Either I give in and let my flesh win, or I press in and let my spirit win. If I do nothing, just continue fasting and being complacent, I don’t believe that I gain any benefit from the fasting.

So I’d love to discuss your experiences with fasting…care to share?

Moved My Blog (Again)

I have had this domain name for a while, so I figure I’ll use it.

The blog is now officially located at 6three3.com.

Why 6three3?
Matthew 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

Psalm 63:3

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

As I was praying a while back about starting up a local Bible Study, these two verses came to mind as foundational for any efforts that I was going to begin. As a result, I decided that I would call the study (if it ever gets off the ground) 6three3. So I got the domain name more than a year ago and I’ve pretty much had it sitting around doing nothing. One side benefit to moving my blog here is that I get the cool logo and favicon that I had installed on the site. Like you care.

With that being said, I am coming to a deeper place of fellowship with God at this point in my life and I think I am going to be spending more time writing on here. Anyway, I have been tweaking the site layout a little bit and think I have it pretty good. At least for now.

Twitter Anyone?

I know a few of you guys use Twitter and have connected with me on there. I also have been learning about it quite a bit lately, as it seems to be growing like crazy and seems to hold a lot of potential for development in the future.

But what is it? I didn’t know much, other than that it simply let me do status update things like Facebook does. So why do I need Twitter?

With a background knowledge of Facebook (and an almost immediate realization that its usefullness is far more than MySpace will ever be in its current form), I found a few articles that helped me out. I also began spending some more time, adding some friends, and just seeing what some of the more popular tweeters post. It is amazing. Here are a few of those articles:

• The Misunderstood Uses of Twitter and Facebook: Are You a Friend, Follower or a Fool?
• Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One?
• Ten People All Twitter Beginners Should Be Following
• 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners
• 5 Steps To Model Successful Twitter Users

Although some claim that Facebook will kill Twitter, I personally don’t see that happening. I follow people on Twitter that I don’t want to befriend on Facebook. I like the anonimity that Twitter allows me to have, while still allowing my Facebook friends to actually see pictures and personal information about me.

So do you tweet? If so, add me…

How To Preach Without Results

I was going through old papers and throwing a lot of stuff away today. In the process, I came across this great satirical article by Charles Finney (paraphrased by Keith and Melody Green). I searched for it online and found it here. I love the picture at the top of the page too.

Let your supreme motive be to increase your own popularity - then, of course, your preaching will be suited for that purpose, and not to convert souls to Christ.

Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the carnal mind, lest they should say to you, as they did of Christ, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” (John 6:60)

Make no distinct points, and do not disturb the consciences of your hearers, lest they become alarmed about their souls.

Avoid all illustrations, repetitions, and emphatic sentences that may compel your people to remember what you say.

Avoid all heat and earnestness in your delivery, lest you make the impression that you really believe what you say.

Address the emotions, and not the conscience, of your hearers.

Be careful not to testify from your own personal experience of the power of the Gospel, lest you should produce the conviction upon your hearers that you have something which they need.

Do not awaken uncomfortable memories by reminding your hearers of their past sins.

Denounce sin in general, but make no reference to the specific sins of your present audience.

Do not make the impression that God commands your listeners here and now to obey the truth. Do not let them think that you expect them to commit themselves right on the spot to give their hearts to God.

Leave the impression that they are expected to go away in their sins, and to consider the matter at their convenience.

Dwell much upon their inability to obey, and leave the impression that they must wait for God to change their natures. Preach salvation by grace, but ignore the condemned and lost condition of the sinner, lest he should understand what you mean by grace, and feel his need of it.

Preach the Gospel as a remedy, but conceal or ignore the fatal disease of the sinner.

Do not speak of the spirituality of God’s holy law (by which comes the knowledge of sin - Romans 3:20), lest the sinner should see his lost condition and flee from the wrath to come.

Make no appeals to the fears of sinners, but leave the impression that they have no reason to fear.

Preach Christ as an infinitely amiable and good-natured being, but ignore those scathing rebukes of sinners and hypocrites which so often made His hearers tremble.

Encourage lots of church socials, and attend them yourself.

Make it your great aim to be personally popular with all classes of your hearers.

Aim to make your hearers pleased with themselves and pleased with you, and be careful especially not to wound the feelings of anyone.

Especially avoid preaching to those who are present. Preach about sinners, but not to them. Say “they,” and not “you,” lest anyone should take your subject personally, and apply it to their own life, securing the salvation of their soul.

Disagreements In The Church

I heard this excerpt of Wretched Radio. Thought it was worth sharing.

Disagreements.mp3

Debt Is Dumb

I foresee 2009 being one of the best years of my life.

As I stand here looking at this year, the thing that strikes me about what is about to happen is one solitary word.

Discipline
Discipline is a good thing. In fact, it is a wonderful thing. I am not talking about punishment, but discipline.  You know, discipline:

Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.

So what specific character or pattern of behavior do I want to train? It’s actually going to be a lot. I’ll focus on fleshing out some of the plans over the next couple of weeks.

To begin with, I am going to focus on debt.

Theologically, debt says that I want now what God has not seen fit to give me yet. It God’s sovereignity and places my own wisdom above His wisdom. It says that I know better what I need than God does. Ultimately, debt gratifies my flesh and denies the Spirit.

Maybe you disagree. That’s fine if you do.

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender. — Proverbs 22:7

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. — Romans 13:8

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt. — Benjamin Franklin

What I plan on doing this year is to live as frugally as possible, and put as much money as possible into debt elimination. I am going to be following Dave Ramsey’s plan.

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give!
   Invest in mutual funds and real estate

I’ve been fully aware of him for around three years. I used his strategies to eliminate around $10,000 during the first two years. Then 2008 came.

I bought a used truck in February, but the payments on that have substantially slowed me down. I have had dental work done (root canal, and two crowns), my dog was hit by a car which cost me around $500, and some other minor “emergencies” have come and gone. Plus I have spent about just as much money as I make. So it’s time to get this all under control.

This is the first part of my discipline adventure!

What If You Actually Talk Like A Normal Person?

Hey brother. I went to the, amen, I went to the grocery store, hallelujah, the other day brother. The first thing I did, amen, was to pray one of the sisters working there to find me a shopping cart. Amen? And lemme tell you, she was a tremendous blessing. She told me, hallelujah, to go over to the area where all of the other people were getting their baskets.

Now I didn’t want to go back out, amen, because it was kind of cold outside. But God gave me the strength to press on and go. It was awesome to see all of the people out there giving and receiving the baskets. I felt the presence and unity so strong there, amen, but I knew there was much labor yet to be accomplished. Amen?

After I had braved the cold, praise God, it was preordained that I would find myself on the seventh aisle. As I stood my ground, The Enemy overtook me and I had a tremendous fight with temptation. Right there on the seventh aisle. Amen? The struggle was between the bread of life and the bread of death. But what can I say, I live in this miserable flesh! Amen? Praise God that He has forgiven me despite my continue disobedience.

Another way to tell this story would be:

I bought some Twinkies yesterday at the grocery store.

Think about the words you say when you pray and when you talk to others. Are they normal, or are they “churchy” words?

Rock Your World

I am expecting 2009 to be one of the most influential years of my life. I am ready to have my world rocked. Listen to this excerpt from the Dave Ramsey Show podcast.

While Dave Ramsey is a financial expert, this “rant” applies to far more than money. It could very well be the best 13 minutes you spend in December!

Sure It Does A Body Good, But First You Have To Taste And See

In We’re Not Like That Church Down The Street, Richard points out that most churches believe that they are less watered-down than all the rest of the churches.

As a matter of fact, in a particular consulting season, I asked about ten churches in a row if they considered themselves “deeper” than the other churches in their community. Ten out of ten, despite being from different denominations and of different sizes, all claimed to be “deep”. Go figure! Maybe those are just the churches that hire marketing consultants :). Maybe it’s that we all value depth and feel as though we’ve nailed it. Either way, we might just be missing it if we feel we have a unique claim on truth—or assume that others fall so short.

Recently Ryan addressed this issue as well in Neglecting The Weightier Matters.

I think it rather comical/ignorant that so many Christan’s  in the first category think that the Emerging church is taking over and that liberal/humanistic and social theology is on the rise. Yet, if they visited  any churches at all in America or just in the south, they would not hear anything about change at all towards being emergent or social, they would hear the same old thing they’ve heard for years, with a little bit of church growth techniques thrown in every once in a while.

With all the discussion about Calvinism and Total Depravity going on lately, I realize that the church seems to be divided into a few different camps.

1. Focus on Church Growth (Evangelism)
2. Focus on Spiritual Health (Edification)
3. Focus on Temporal Needs (Missions)

There is value in all three of these, but there must be a balance involved as well. More than balance, we need to remember Christ’s primary mission.

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” — Luke 19:10

Salvation is the principle work of the Bible. The entire Bible is a love of story of God’s heart to redeem miserable, fallen humanity.  Too often we get bogged down in service, and forget to learn.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away.” — Luke 10:40-42

How many times do churches read that and then try to pass along the guilt trip to those who aren’t serving, because if they helped out a little bit, the busybodies wouldn’t be so bogged down.

But they miss the whole point.

The busybodies don’t need less to do, they need to do less.

So it’s better to sit at the feet of Jesus than it is to serve?
At times, it is better. But we must also remember that if all we do is sit around, we will lose our ability to do much else. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1).

We know that love is not merely an emotion, but it is a state of mind. It is action.

Love sufers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

So it’s important to evangelize. It’s important to grow spiritually. It’s important to serve help the poor. But all of our service to God and man must be done with love at the core.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. — 1 Corinthians 13:1

Paul is saying that if we exhibit great external signs for all the world to see and yet do not have God-given love, we are simply making noise.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:2

Paul is saying that no matter how much we edify and strengthen other believers, if it is done for anything other than purely selfless motivations, there is no benefit to us.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:3

Again, if we devote our lives to meeting the physical needs of the poor and needy in this world, and yet are not doing it out of a loving heart, we miss the whole point.