Public Enemy #1: Jesus

My Belief

I just recently finished a trip with a First Officer of Middle Eastern descent. He is a very arrogant man that is loud and set in his beliefs. At first I thought he was Muslim but later he explained that he is more of a cross between Atheistic and Zoroastrianism.  He explained to me that his country was taken over by Islam in 1979 and as a a result he has a deep hatred for God and religion. He explains to me that religion is stupid and anyone who believes there is a God is a fool. His view is that a person must use logic and common sense to live life. The thing that struck me was how angry he got when talking about faith based issues. One of his comments was, “I’m good, on my death bed I will just pray to Allah, Jesus, and Buddha on the way out so I will have all of my bases covered.” Bill Maher is who he claims as an example of how people should think.  He then went on to say how ridiculous it is to think that Jesus is the son of God. He got on a “soap box” tangent about how can God have kids and where are the rest of his kids…

At times like these I sort of feel like Peter. I’m not sure that is a good thing either. I’m not one to back down from confrontation. I would probably be the idiot that was dumb enough to call Mike Tyson a sissy if you know what I mean. So, I sort of squared up with this guy and gave him my whole spiel on faith. How everything in the world points to God if you just care to look for it. I also told him that he has more faith than I do because I have evidence to base my belief on and all he has is a big arrogant attitude problem. I turned his words around on him and told him, if your so logical than what evidence do you have to prove the Bible is wrong. He had nothing! I then told him perhaps you should do your homework before you shoot your mouth off. I didn’t say any of this in an angry tone of voice either. Everything was completely matter of fact. I told him that I don’t hate him for disrespecting my belief and that actually I would love to be his friend. He was not so into it. He thought I was dumb for putting my faith in Jesus and more or less let me know so. We would chat on and off for the rest of the trip, but I could tell he didn’t like me. I could see an air of superiority in him. He thought I was part of the religious Jesus freak nut jobs that were ruining the country in his opinion. As we parted ways I prayed the Holy Spirit would soften his heart and I thought of how one day soon Christians will be openly hated just like this all over the world.

Scripture

John 15:18-20  

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰

Application for life

Even though he was not found of me, I tried to be a friend to him. Jesus called us to love our enemies. This is how we can shine light in a dark world. He thinks I am in a dream world where Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are real. Well neither of those are, but Jesus most certainly is. Soon every eye will see Him and ever knee will bow and those of us that have followed Him will be given the life we have hoped for. I can see the world turning against the cross more and more every day and it is my prayer that God will give me the strength to stand firm for Christ when ever the opportunity presents itself.

   

Jesus Junky

My Belief

I had a hard week this week. It was a tiring long week of flying, but that was not the worst part. The hard part was I felt like I kept “tripping” in my walk with the Lord. I flew with a pretty “rugged” crew this last week. They are hard drinkers that love to play with the ladies. They have no interest in Jesus, but know how much I do. Even so, I felt bombarded with profanity and the discontent that comes with living a life for yourself. Both my First Officer and Flight Attendant are firmly rooted in their evil sinful lives. I could see plainly how it destroys all of their joy and relationships, leaving them unsatisfied in life. They hate their work, they don’t have enough money, they want more and new girlfriends, everybody is in their way, and everybody pretty much sucks to them.

A couple days into this trip I started noticing my own joy had started to fade. I did not allow myself to be pulled into their trashy conversations but I had gotten involved in some of the other complaining. I had allowed myself to start getting upset about the economy, our work rules, and some of our rude passengers. It crept in suddenly and then started to grow. I found my own happiness was a little dimmer than it had been before. Toward the end of the trip I sat in the shower to pray and felt empty. I felt like a junky that had not had any narcotics for days. I needed my Jesus! I needed to feel the joy that comes from meditating on the Lord and His promises to me. Nothing this life has to offer can satisfy my addiction to Jesus and when I don’t walk with him daily I feel like I am going through withdrawals. I feel like all my happiness is gone and I am trapped in an ugly world with no hope. I am a Junky for the AWESOME, POWERFUL, SAVING HOPE that is JESUS CHRIST.

Thankfully God heard my prayers for forgiveness and restored part of that joy to me on the last day. I had NO chance to share Jesus with my First Officer, but my Flight attendant listened to me for a little while after he had been drinking. He opened up and shared his brokenness in life with me. He did not embrace the solution of Jesus that I was telling him about, but at least he heard it. My prayer is that he will continue to recognize his need to become a “Junky for Jesus” just like me.

 

Scripture

John 17:15-18 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world

Application for Life

This world is hard and evil. It is like destructive ivy with tentacles going everywhere. We must live by means of the Holy Spirit ALL of the time in order not to get snared by these vines. It is important to stay in the WORD and put on the full armor of God so that we don’t become victims ourselves. I fully believe we need to be armed to the teeth with what God has given us and then jump right into the trenches. With this boldness God will free others who have been tangled up for years. It is important to remember where we are though. We have to remember we are in the world but not of the world.

 

Spiritual P90X

My Belief

I love P90X! It is an awesome total body workout that is always “Changing”. It consists of 12-15 different workouts that you do in different orders. The idea is that by always changing your routine you will confuse your muscles. Confused muscles work harder because they never get into a routine. They can never get into a rut because they don’t know what is coming next. There are studies that show that people that do the same workout all the time do not benefit that much because their progress levels off. Also, when you do the same thing all the time your heart is really not in it. You are just doing the same old lifts and squats over and over again. I’m telling you all of this because I feel that my prayer life is the same way.

I CAN’T pray for the same thing everyday! I have so many things that I want to talk to God about. I want to pray for my family and for my own issues. I want to pray for all the lost people that I have had the opportunity to share my trust in Jesus with. I pray for my church, my pastor and ministries that I am involved in. I pray for friends and small groups and on and on and on… When I try to pray for all of these things in a single day it becomes routine. I feel like it becomes something I don’t mean. Sure I am sincere for a few weeks or maybe even a month, but after that I feel like I am just telling God the same “mind numbing” thing I told Him yesterday. Quite a while ago I STOPED doing this! I started breaking up my prayer life. I started using Sundays to talk to God about lost people, Monday has become my own issues, Tuesday is for my church, Wednesday I pray for friends, Thursday is for small group, Friday is for family, and Saturday is for specific needs. My prayer life has become a changing process that is never the same old mantra to the Lord. Now I feel that I can come to the Lord with that thing that weighs heavy on my heart that particular day. It has become a system where I can get real results and see positive change as the Lord works on me in prayer.

Scripture

Jeremiah 33:3 ³ ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Application for life

It does not matter how you pray it just matters that you DO pray. God wants us to come to him with all of our issues. The big ones and the small ones. The thing that has always separated powerful men and women of God from all the rest is their dedication to bring everything to the Lord in prayer. By praying to God we are telling Him that we are trusting Him with everything that we are. I recently heard an interview with Billy Graham where he was asked what he would have done differently in his life and his response was simply, “I would have spent way more time in prayer”.