For the 2nd year in a row the Providence Baptist Youth’s attempt to attend Hell House in Tyler, Texas was thwarted. Last year our bus broke down and this year we experienced inclement weather.
At this point I wonder if it is not meant to happen. Are the few youth that attempted to go just cursed to never attend? Was it merely a coincidence?
Last year we barely made it past Texarkana but this year we made it to Tyler and because of lighting we could not go thru.
Is it a sign that we just needed this trip for fellowship? We have had a pretty good time on the bus but still we are disappointed!
Baptist Youth Weekend
So I am at Wild River Country with my youth right? Before we left we made sure the girls and guys alike had a shirt to wear in the park or a cover up. Well it seems very few youth ministers felt that it was necessary. It really bothers me that some girls are walking around in barely any clothes and they see nothing wrong with that. Do teenage girls not understand the power lust has is a young teens life. Better yet do youth ministers not know that? The bible teaches us to dress modestly. Since when does modestly mean a bikini that barely covers anything? It begs the question what are we teaching our youth? I know the power lust can play in a young mans life I have struggled with it for years. Do these teens not understand the way they dress tells me they are flirting with worldly passions…I can tell the depth of their walk with God by the amount of material that covers their body…
Why I Hate “Church”
What are our Churches doing in our world today. I am of the belief that our churches are causing more people to die and go to hell than any other thing out there. I am being completely honest with you when I say if I was a non-Christian, and I use the word Christian lightly here, I would not ever step thru the doors of a church.
When we look at how Jesus was treated in the bible when he was here on Earth I believe that if he was to come back today and live like he did then that we as a Church would treat him far worse than they did then. People that attend church every week would ridicule him far worse than he ever was when he was here on this earth.
I believe that if Jesus was to come back right now and live he would be completely disgusted with the Church. I believe he would look at us just as he looked at the scribes and Pharisees of that day. I do not think we are any better they they were. We preach and teach how bad they were without realizing that is exactly how we are today.
What do our churches have to help those who struggle with addictions, who are completely lost in sin, who struggle with depression. We do not help these people we cast them away and think if only they would pray more they would be delivered. Stop and think about that we are just like the Pharisees. Anyone who is different from us, any one who struggles with sin, struggles with addictions, depression, lust, pornography, alcohol, who by societies standards are worthless. We cast them away, we reject them from our churches. We may not say we do not want you here but thats how we treat them. Jesus embraced those people, helped them. Yet we judge them.
What is your Church doing in the world today. I want you to go next time your church has a business meeting and just look at your church budget. Look how much money you take in over a given year and how much you budget for everything. Now I want you find how much, if any, you budget towards missions. I would venture a guess to say that right now you feel ashamed. We build multi-million dollar buildings. Budget hundreds of thousands of dollars. But send so little out to missions.
Ok now look at how your church actually handles the Great Commission. Ok most churches send a small amount to missions. A lot of churches have a few members who go on a mission trip for a week or two. I want you to open your bible and read what the Great Commission commands of us. It does not say go and witness to everyone. It says go and make DISCIPLES of all people. Yet we as a church are not in the business of making disciples. We make ourselves feel good about going on a mission trip to witness but we never make those we witness to disciples. Now look at your church is your church making disciples within itself. Or do we simply train the next generation and every generation present that the role of a christian is to go to church, be baptized, go to sunday school. We are teaching that their role is to fill a seat. We are not however making disciples.
Ok, now I want to focus on one age group for a moment. Look at the 18-27 year olds in your church. What do you have to offer them. Do you realize it is this group that feels they do not belong in our churches. If your at a church and see very few this age there is a reason for that. We do not have ministries for this age group in many churches. On top of that we raised them to just fill a seat on Sunday.
Ok, moving on again. I want you to look at your church next Sunday morning. Look out at the people, really look at them. How many people do you see that are different than you. I am talking racially, ethnically, socially, economically. I would be willing to bet you can count those people on one hand. Do you realize the world see us and knows that we do not welcome those who are different than us. Take Hope for instance. The largest attended church averages over 300 on Sunday morning to the best of my knowledge. How many different racial groups do you honestly think are represented. The vast majority are all the same. Why do we have churches that are so racially divided. Look at the economic and social backgrounds of those you see. They are for the most part just like you.
When you look at the rate of divorce in this country it is disturbing. When you look at how many people have affairs. When you see how many people cheat on their taxes. When you look at most statics out there do you realize the Church is no different. The rate of divorce among Christians that last I heard was higher than the rest of the world. The amount of people in our churches who have affairs is no different. So I ask you this how are we any different than the world. What do we do that causes the world to stop and say “Those Christians are different, I wonder why?”
We as a church have become religious with out ever becoming a true disciple and a true Christian. I was honest when I begun this and said that if I were lost I would not walk thru the doors of a church. There are times as a Christian when I look out at our churches and think “I do not want to walk thru the doors” and I am a Preacher.
I am sick of the people in our churches, I am sick of the traditions we follow, I am sick of how in every church their members look the exact same. Where is the Church Jesus founded when he was here on this earth? I do not see it.
Turning Off Your Brain
Have you ever stopped at the end of a day and tried to rememeber all of the things you had done that day? Have you ever stopped and tried to simply remember if you had thought of anything important during your day?
Every now and then someone will ask “what are you thinking?” and more often than not my response will be nothing. Is it possible to not truly be thinking of anything?
How many times have you sat in a class or church then as soon as you walk out the doors forget everything you just heard? Do we truely listen or do we train ourselves to turn our brains off?
There have been days in which I have gone to school or sat in front of a tv and never really thought of anything of importance during my day. How many times have you been sitting somewhere with nothing to do and became bored. 50 years ago people used their imaginations. They used their brains and were not as bored as we are today. Is this a result of modern technology and instant communication? Are we at the point in our world that there are no more great thinkers? How often do you sit down and contemplate anything of significance?
The only times I ever feel I truely stimulate my brain are when I occasionally read a book. This is something that needs to change. We need to expand and use our minds to the fullest. Yet it seems I use mine less and less as I grow older. What do we have to do to change?
Politics
Just to start out I would like to say I Love Politics. With that being said most people try to steer away from politics in everyday conversations. Many get so irate when it comes to talking politics that it is ridiculous. In the past couple of months I have remained mostly silent when I have heard people discuss politics. Why you ask? Because the people I have listened to are blinded by their dislike of a person or party they refuse to be open-minded or listen to someone with an opposing view.
I think after listening to what people have had to say over the past few months that there are extremely passionate people out there who are truly uninformed in both parties. One thing that really bugs me are people who talk before they have all of the information. What a lot of people seem to do is state things they received in emails and presenting them as truth before checking their facts. I saw this during the election and continue to see it now.
Another thing that bugs me is that everyone seems to be so intent on blaming Obama for everything Congress does. Do you realize that congress are the ones writing the bills that become law?
On another note a lot of people disapprove of the health care bill, the federal bailouts, student loan overhaul, & and many other policies. What do they suggest we do allow millions who really need health insurance go without it. Allow the major banks and automotive companies to go under and kill the economy. Keep allowing loan companies to charge outrages fees and interest and hurt financial many college students. No these people offer nothing but criticism. Why are so many people opposed to theses things? Because they are socialist in nature. When has that stopped millions from cashing in on social security? The people who complain the most are the Americans who aren’t being affected.
Flashy Lights
Ok, so I am at Hot Hearts and I look around at what is a pretty good worship service and wonder how much of what we do in places like this is just off of emotions or just for show. Are we sincere and real when we come to a place like this and sing loud, raise our hands, clap, and amen everything? It seems to me a lot of what I see is for show. I ask myself how many youth here act like this at their home church. Maybe they are truly worshiping and I say praise God if they are. But what if what I see all around me is merely a show. The response we have to the flashy lights and loud music of the bands. Does the concert type music detract from the speaking of the WORD. Jeff Magnum really challenged us last night but I wonder how many actually heard him?
I got to look around the youth room here at First Baptist Moores Lane and let me tell you, it is pretty amazing. Their stage is bigger than my youth room at Providence. They have a huge game room with like seven tv’s all with a different video game hooked up. They have like 5 other flat screen tv’s and even have a little cafe style area with computers with internet access. But I find myself asking if any of this is necessary. Or does it really take flashy lights to get the youth to come.
All of these things are good do not misunderstand me. It is a wonderful thing to be blessed and be able to have nice things like these. But i just wonder do the things we have and the “concerts” we go to as christians make us better? Do these things cause us to be stronger in our faith? Do they help us to witness to others? Or are they merely flashy lights that attract a crowd. Do the youth speakers at a church like this have to be exciting and goofy or can they merely just preach the word of God. Does preaching draw the crowd or do the lights I see? I hope and pray someday that maybe I can be a part of a church that can provide so much like the one I see here. But I also hope and pray that I do not have to use gimmicks to get the kids to come. I hope I do not get distracted by the stuff we can have or the stuff we can do. I hope that my focus in my ministry is always first and foremost the Word of God.
Flashy lights are cool but they do not bring about a radical lifestyle in our youth of today. All they see from us is it is ok to be like the world as long as you try and live the Christian life. We are called to be radically different than the world. We are called to DIE in order to LIVE. That is crazy. We have to die to self but all I see is a constant feeding and thriving of ourselves. In the words of Jeff Magnum there has to first be a crucifixion before there can be a resurrection.
Do we DIE to ourselves or do we live our lives and maybe make time for God. Do we get distracted by the flashing lights or do we focus on a radically different life than we live?
Life the Poker Game
Life is in a lot of ways just like a poker game. You may be sitting there thinking Bro. Cole what in the world are you talking about? In life we make calculated risks. Everything we do, every decision we make is calculated. We calculate the win/lose possibilities in every decision we make. One decision after another one hand after another and hope they pay out. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. Some of the hands that could have won for us we lay down before we ever start. Looking back they were the best hand but for whatever reason we choose not to play them. Maybe the calculations we made said there was to great of a chance for failure. Life just like a poker game is a gamble. We are dealt a hand and we try and try to make the best out of it. When sometimes we know that we are bluffing (lying) to make people think that our lives are so much better than they truly are.
In life the decisions we make as a child for the most part have no big consequences but as we grow older the decisions we make have greater and greater consequences to them. The same is true in poker at the beginning of the game the blinds are low and the risk is small. The consequences for losing are not that big. But as we get farther and farther into the game the blinds go up, the stakes are raised, and the consequences, the risks, are so much greater.
In poker there is a thing called the all-in moment. We hedge everything we have, we put everything on the line for some huge payout. We do the same thing in life if you stop and think about it. Think about marriage for some you bet everything you have on your marriage and you hope and pray that you win. But for others, for over 50% of American marriages people lose. It is nothing more than a coin flip in the world around us. But nevertheless we put everything we have on the line hoping to win.
In poker many times players put up a poker face and say that we have everything together, we bluff. Sometimes we are caught with cards that do not hold up. But other times we bluff our way thru the hand and make ourselves appear stronger knowing that truly we are weak. That is not that much different than the lives we live. We put on a face when we go out in public, we act as if we have everything together even tho we are dying on the inside. Sometimes we get caught and people call us on our bluff but sometimes they don’t.
We play hand to hand. Decision to decision. They pay out they don’t. Many times we go thru life with no plan, with no strategy. We are short sighted and focus in on a singular decision a singular hand. We don’t think about the long game we have before us. We don’t think about the life we have left. We for the most part never think about the consequences of our decisions until they are made.
Mush
Sometimes I find it hard to separate the clutter that goes on inside of my head. It is hard enough to try to stay on task in class or in life in general. But when it comes to writing a blog for me it is pretty hard to stay on topic. It is hard to take the clutter apart in my head and form sentences. It is hard to figure out what exactly I want to say when I want to say it. I love to write blogs about witty things in life. I love to write just about life. I love just sitting down typing what randomly comes into my head and I find during those random sessions the best stuff comes out. Maybe because i unhook the filter I have on my mind and just let everything go and write. But here lately all I seem to have going on is mush. How do I overcome the mush and push past it to the awesomeness I know is there?
2010
Ok something has bugged me ever since New Year’s Eve. I hate the fact that everyone is saying that we a in a new decade because we really are not people. Do the math the first year started Jan. 1st 0001 add ten years to that and the decade closed in 0011. So keep adding the decades and the current decade actually ends in 2011. I just had to set the record straight for everyone who believes we are in a different decade. Not that it really matters but I blame Y2K for the mix up. Everyone assumed that 2001 was a different decade. Also VH1 shares part of the blame with its best of the series…
Christmas Eve
So it is officially Christmas Eve and the wait for Santa Claus grows shorter. Tomorrow children everywhere will awake to presents under the tree. Kids will go crazy and play with the toys they receive for a grand total of like 2 weeks at most. It seems to me that for the most part the things we get on Christmas day as children are a total waste. I find it funny that Christians everywhere celebrate Christmas for the birth of Jesus but at the same time we continue to spread a huge lie. Now I would imagine that if your reading this Blog then your old enough to know the truth. Santa is FAKE!!! We as Christians preach that thou shalt not lie yet every year we tell our children that there is a Santa Claus when there really is not such a man. Yes, historically speaking there once was a St. Nick but he no longer exists. Now I am all for the spirit of Christmas and I am not even advocating not telling children to believe in Santa all I am doing is pointing out that fact. I personally find it funny that we do that year after year. We can tell our kids there is no Santa and still give them the presents every year and as far as they matter it would be the same. Ok now off of my little soap box. I love Christmas time and everything it represents to us as Christians. I love winter it happens to be my favorite season and I only wished that I lived in a place where it snows every year on Christmas. That is the only thing that would make Christmas better for me. I love being able to spend Christmas with family and friends and just being able to take a break from school or work. I enjoy the Christmas cheer that is spread and for a few brief moments this dark world show me the kind of people we are capable of being. We are capable of being so much better if only we allow ourselves a reason or a purpose to be better than we are. So as you gather with family and friends this Christmas season remember that this doesn’t have to be a temporary season of good cheer but that it can and should carry over with us each and every day. So I leave you with “Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!!!!!!”
Behind The Keyhole 