Giving up because of you

It’s all on you. Imagine if the good and the bad of people was blamed on you? People weren’t afraid to say you are the reason someone else isn’t held in high regard. What you did and how you act effects other people. This is true with faith. What if instead of a person it was God?

If you say one thing and do another it makes people question you. I was in high school and still trying to figure out what faith was all about.  I attended several different churches and talked about faith with several different friends. One friend invited me to church and infrequently I would go with him.

Seeing this guy at church and outside of church was a different world. This was a guy who drank, smoked, did drugs and would have sex with any girl he could. Once we got into church it was a different world. We were in a class and he was the one people looked up too. He had scripture memorized and would quote scripture as he talked. People would come up to him and tell him how amazing it is that he takes his faith so seriously. These same people would give me the dirtiest looks at church. A major reason I thought all Christians were hypocrites was because of friendships like this, people that lived one way and did another.

Paul calls out the people faithful to God at the time. In this case, if you were a follower of God during this time (Esp. before Jesus came) you were a Jew. Jesus was a Jew too. Romans 2 has some harsh words about these people that claimed faith but lived a different way. He said this in Romans 2:24, “As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

God is not lifted up among those without faith because of you. More and more studies show that most people have attended church for a while when they were younger and give it up after high school. One of the main reasons, Christians are hypocrites. They live one way Sunday morning and completely different during the week. When people know you are a Christian you represent God wherever you go.

Some people don’t mind representing God and are good examples of Jesus others are not. A while ago I talked to a student whose parent always talked down to them. This parent would say why aren’t you like Jimmy, Susie and Johnny (Made up people)? The student wanted to tell them because they drink, smoke and have sex all the time. This parent thought the people they mentioned were great Christians, but they had no idea. Little did they know their son was one that did none of the three.

We all make mistakes and misrepresent ourselves at times. As a Christian, I have done things that have turned people away from faith, I am not proud of that. I screw up and honestly don’t represent Jesus well at times. Yet Jesus forgives me and can forgive you too. Church was never meant for the perfect but the imperfect. The home of Jesus is meant for everyone no matter how righteous or unrighteous you are.

If someone has caused you to turn your back on God because of them, I’m sorry. Give God, Jesus and the Church another chance. What other place can you seek forgiveness like the Church? Don’t give up on Jesus because of the actions of a Christian. We can all make mistakes and God is a graceful and forgiving God. Jesus loves you.

Have a great day.

The past does not decide your future

I remember it like I remember a kid stealing my lunch money in elementary.

What high school do you go too?

“Everett,” I replied.

An extremely shocked look came across the face of this guy at a Western Michigan party.

“Dude, I can’t believe you go there,” he replied.

“Why?” I replied.

“Man, there are so many fights, drugs, weapons and guns there.  I couldn’t imagine going to school there.”

“It’s really not bad, I like going to school there,” I stated.

Still shocked, he stated again he couldn’t imagine going to a school with so much crazy stuff going on there.  He followed up telling me this story…

The only bad thing that happened at Bath was at a party/bonfire was a guy was drunk and got into his dad’s gun collection.  He was joking around with a shot gun; it went off and killed one of our friends.  That guy went away for a little while but we heard the year he was going to come back to school the next year.  So me and some of my friends went to the school principal and told him if he steps into the school we will kill him.  He didn’t come back to school that next year and it was a good thing, we would have killed him.  That was the only crazy thing that happened at Bath, but man, I could never go to Everett.

Needless to say, I had an extremely shocked look on my face.

I said, that incident was crazier than anything that happened in all of my years of going to Lansing Public Schools.

He couldn’t believe me.

The past does not decide your future.

Just because your parents might have done wrong things like abuse, drugs, excessive alcohol doesn’t mean you will or give you the right too.

Some of my parents (I come from a multiple divorce family) struggled with alcohol and other forms of abuse.

It doesn’t mean I have too.

I have been reading through the book of Acts.

In it Paul went from not believing in Jesus and actually standing up to kill Christians.

Yet his life changed, Jesus changed his life around and soon he was sharing the Gospel message with people.

From killing Christians to become a Christian, Paul had a major change in his life.

In Chapter 22, Paul told his life story and said some harsh words towards a group of people at the time.

They wanted to beat him.

As they got ready to flog him, he mentions he was a Roman citizen.

It’s stated in verse 29…

“Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately.  The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen in chains.”

At the time you were not allowed to harm a Roman citizen without a trial.

The commander could have been in major trouble.

Paul played a card from his past.

He was a Roman citizen, but he was so much more.

It is not bad to remember the past.

It does not make our future.

When I got married my dad (Who was on his third marriage) told me this…

“You know how marriage is not supposed to look.”

Such powerful words.

Can you be someone who learns from others mistakes?

I loved the fact I went and graduated from Everett High School.

I will take all the weird looks and bad things that people say about that school.

It helped shaped me to the person I am today.

Same with the bad situations I went through as a kid.

I might have come from an abusive household at times, but it doesn’t make my family today.

Remembering the past is not bad, learn from it.

Mimic the good from the past and change the bad to make it better.

If you have fallen into the same problems of the past, today is a new day.

Jesus gives everyone another chance.

How do you want the future to be?

What can you do today to start working for that improvement?

If Paul can change his life from a man of killing to a man of grace and mercy through Jesus, you can too.

Have a great day.

At the Car Wash

I have a hidden and weird desire.

It’s to wash my car.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why I love to get my car washed.

If I could, I would get it washed every week.

It’s really too bad I can’t.

We usually get our vehicles washed about twice a year.

There is just something about having a clean car that looks nice to me.

It’s great to get all the dirt away and look nice and shiny.

Even when it’s a town and country minivan with 210,000 miles on it.

It’s nice when it’s a vehicle but it’s even nicer when we get clean.

I am talking about more than a shower or cleaning dirt off.

There are sins and mistakes that we are bathed in.

We are people that struggle, continue to make the same mistakes over and over again and move forward.

Peter told this to the people that doubted in the man that was healed in the first section of Acts 3 and how they were full of mistakes.

Just like us today, they were people that were stuck making mistakes.

This is what Peter said to the people in Acts 3:19…

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that ties of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

Sins being wiped out.

It makes me think about a windshield wiper cleaning off a ton of bugs on the windshield.

Sometimes it takes three or four times of spraying and wiping before that bug is not there.

Imagine if it just took one cleaning in order to be clean.

This is what Jesus offers us.

Repent is turning away from sin and those previous mistakes.

Turn to God, focus on him instead of the problem.

Sins are then wiped away.

Now you are free.

Faith can be so complex sometimes but this is pretty clear.

Turn away from your problem, turn towards God, problems in the past are gone and live a new live.

There isn’t that many people that have a standing offer to change you for the better if you just accept them.

Jesus offers that opportunity.

I would like to get my car wash.

More importantly, I would like to clean up my life to make it better.

What about you?

Could you use a second chance?

A chance to make things right?

To improve and not hold guilt in?

Today is a beautiful day.

Carpe diem.

Knowing and not rejecting

What we know can hurt us. 

I love food.

Burgers, pizza, black forest cake, cookies, ice cream and fast food is awesome.

The foods I love can hurt me and cause major health problems.

What are some foods that you love?

One fast food meal can have as many calories that I am supposed to have in an entire day.

I know it is bad, and sometimes I still indulge in it.

We sometimes like what is bad for us.

Even though we do things that are wrong, Jesus still cares for us.

The Samaritan women who Jesus knew everything about and how she has been with multiple guys, was not feeling guilt from what Jesus said to her, instead she did this after her conversation with Jesus in John 4:28-29…

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.”

The women had her sins exposed by Jesus, she did not feel guilt but wanted to tell people.

Jesus came to show us that even when we do things that are wrong, he did not come to condemn us but to show us love.

Sometimes, what we do is harmful to us.

God loves us and wants us to improve.

The women did not leave feeling guilty but exited to tell other people from him.

We know we are not perfect (hopefully) and make mistakes.

Jesus still loves us and wants to see us improve in life.

Just like some foods are bad for us and we still love it.

We do things that are wrong and Jesus still loves us.

You are loved.

Never forget that.

Jesus loves you.

Have a great day.