Walking in Faith

There is a great post (entitled Throwing Stones) over on more fire.  This is a very convicting message and I felt compelled to write about the topic myself.

I am convinced that people come to Church on Sunday and bring their best “Sunday-go-to-Church-face”.  That is not at all what we are called to do.  We should be real about what is going on in our lives.  We shouldn’t be embarrassed if we aren’t have a good quiet time, are struggling with prayer, having a hard time dealing with pornography, etc.  People seem to forget that everyone else a human as well.  We sin, we fall, we do stupid things.  Instead, we should come asking for help — for support.  The Church should be a group of like-minded people that love Christ and love one another.  If your mother or your spouse or your child came to you and told you that they were struggling with pornography, would you cast them out and past judgment on them?  No!  You would support them and do everything you could to help them with that struggle.  And so it should be within the Church.  Nothing makes me feel more real than when I get together with other Christian believers and we talk about our struggles together.

On Wednesday night, I was meeting with two other men doing a discipleship study.  As we discussed our quiet time, we all confessed that we were struggling with consistency in our quiet time as well as meaningful prayer, connecting us to God.  It was encouraging for all of us to know that others were having the same troubles.  I felt convicted, walking out of there, to do better on my quiet time — not because someone had passed judgment on me but because they supported me and made me feel cared for as well. 

I love listening to Todd Agnew and his spiritual worship music.  The song “My Jesus” is precisely the message that I feel hits the core of this topic.  God bless everyone who is reading this and may the Lord encourage you, speak directly to you and help you deal with your troubles.  Remember — you aren’t alone and you never will be!

My Jesus

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we’d recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despised the proud
I think He’d prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!

Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I’m tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I’m not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus