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I have lived my entire life behind walls I constructed in order to protect myself from the pains of this world. At a young age I came to believe that it was better to keep everyone as far away from my heart as possible rather than letting them get the chance to hurt me. I made an observation that I am warring against to this day. “People leave.”

My parents got divorced when I was about two, they remarried and then divorced those spouses. I lost step parents, step grandparents, and step brothers and sisters. Along with this, I changed schools a lot between the third and seventh grade which meant losing friends, making more, and moving again. Now these moves and changes had positive effects along with the negative. I learned to be outgoing, charismatic, and extremely friendly in order to never be fully “alone.” However while I was making a ton of new friends I never really let anyone beyond the walls that I was building in order to protect myself from the next move, next divorce, or next loss. There are some obvious problems with this. In the end I felt like no one really knew me, so I began to try and share myself.

God has been very gracious to deliver me from a great deal of sin and pain in my life and because of this I find it rather easy to talk about many things that most would struggle to share. I have always been able to talk about the pains of growing up in a broken home, struggling with addiction, and my constant need to be in a relationship. However this sharing of my struggles and dark past never brought me the satisfaction in relationships that I thought it would. I found that while I was able to go deep in conversation with others, I still felt… unknown.

I once had someone say to me that the first thing Satan will do when he is attacking you is get you away from everyone and everything that will point you back to the one person who has the power to deliver you from your troubles. Scripture affirms this saying, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The interesting thing about lions is that they never attack the main group head on, but rather attempt to get a single victim away from the protection of the herd in order to take it down alone, when the prey is the most vulnerable. Likewise Satan often attempts to get us alone when we are at our weakest in order to devour us.

I think that most of us can identify with this. I remember in high school, I was attending a teen community bible study that met at a local church. I found that the nights that I least wanted to go were usually the nights when I probably needed it the most. When things weren’t going well at school, or work or with my family I dreaded the idea of going to that bible study. Satan was keeping me in that darkness, away from everyone that would point me back towards Christ.

This is one of the biggest places that modern American Christians have left the door open for Satan to attack in their lives. I of all people understand that “organized religion” and “church” has been responsible for some very wrong and ungodly things. However, simply because some people got it wrong along the way doesn’t mean that we should simply abandon it all together. Rather, we should take in to account how people have messed it up, gotten it wrong, and gone astray so that we can make sure that we do not follow those paths.

Scripture makes it clear that the Christian faith is NOT an individualistic belief system. We are called as a body. The word church itself comes from the Greek word ekklesia which means “the called out ones.” We are, as a group, called out of the world to be the image bearers of Christ in a world that is so desperately searching for His love and truth in their lives.

We are called as a body…

Paul writes about this over and over in his letters in the Bible. In Ephesians chapter 4 Paul writes,

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace… Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

We all have been given gifts and talents by our Creator and each have a specific role to play within the body of Christ. You are important. You are important to the body of Christ.

I am tired of people saying that they believe in God but don’t believe in organized religion. The writer of the book of Hebrews in the bible actually speak against this mentality. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

We were created to be in community. From the very beginning in Genesis 2, God says, “It is not good for man to be alone…” So don’t tell me that you can do it on your own without the fellowship of brothers and sisters walking along side you. I tried and I will tell you now that it doesn’t work. We are all members of one body, and there is no way that a foot can do what it is supposed to do if it is not connected to the leg. There is no way that an eye can do what it is supposed to do without its place in the head.

Now before I go on, I think its important to address some of the reasons why we hesitate to take our rightful, God-given place in the body of Christ. For some of us, we are afraid. We have done things that while we know that we are forgiven by Christ, we do not believe that our brothers and sisters will be able to forgive. But 1 John warns us against fear. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” The idea here is that we all have fallen short (rom 3:23) and that we all have been saved from the same judgment that we deserve. Fallen brother or sister, let me encourage you that whatever it is that you have done, if Christ has forgiven you (and he has) then you have nothing fear. There is no judgment for those saved by the everlasting, abounding, and steadfast love of our Lord Jesus Christ. I, like you, have sinned and spit in the face of God, and like you have been graciously forgiven… Be freed from your shame and take your place in the body of Christ.

Others may find themselves in a situation like mine. I have always been so afraid of being abandoned that I would never let anyone near enough for me to get attached. However, this again leaves me in a very vulnerable place when it comes to Satan’s attacks. I have had to learn through counseling both professional and spiritual, that I HAVE to tear the walls down and let people close to my heart. I’ll admit that I have had a very broken understanding of what family is growing up. I saw a group of people bound together by obligation and tradition, and even that didn’t ensure that people would stay together. However, the apostle Paul paint’s a different picture of what God intends for family, both spiritual and relational.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

God’s family is one that bears with one another through our weaknesses and flaws. It is a family that goes out of its way to build one another up, challenge one another, and encourage one another. It is not bound together by obligation or legal bonds, but rather is held together by love. It is important to note, however, that it is not our love that holds it together. It is the perfect sacrificial love that Christ demonstrated on that cursed cross that allows us to love one another beyond ourselves. Do you understand what I’m getting at here?

We must allow ourselves to be broken and weak with one another in order to share the healing love of Christ in each other’s lives. So if you’re like me, afraid to open up, afraid to be weak, I challenge you to really evaluate what it is that you are afraid of losing. If you are anything like me you know that living behind the walls, while bearing the illusion of safety, is a very lonely and dark place… Allow the walls to come down and step into the beautiful light of the fellowship of Christ.

John writes, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

On that cross, Christ allowed himself to be weak, naked, and broken. He shared all of that with us, so that we may come to him in our weakness, our nakedness, our brokenness and not feel ashamed. For as says it says in Hebrews, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”I have recently begun to tear down the walls of my heart with great vigor and passion, only to find the grace of God flooding through… I have found new meaning in relationships. I have found new beauty in life. I have found a new appreciation for my place given to me within the body of Christ. My prayer is that would you step beyond your fear, out of the darkness, and tear down your walls in order to find Your place among the body Christ. He has called you by name… Come, my dear child…

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

When I look back on my short life and try to figure out how I got to where I am, to be who I am, and how I got through the things I did, I cannot help but see God working throughout my story. My life has been rocky to say the least and to say that I got here alone would be the biggest lie I’ve ever told. When I look at how God worked (and continues to work) in my life, I see that He always placed certain individuals along my path to guide me, correct me, and teach me in what it means to be a man of God. And whether they know it or not, they were used by God to mold and shape me into the man I am becoming…

In last couple of months I have been working my way through the book of 1 Samuel in the bible. It’s a really interesting book to see how faith travels through generations and how God connects people’s lives. Within this book the writer tells the story of David and how he becomes king and the opposition that arises on his journey. Saul, the king David is to replace, ends up hunting David down in an attempt to protect his own kingship. However, Jonathan, Saul’s son, choses to protect David from his father’s rage. When I reflect on everything that I’ve read out of 1 Samuel, the thing I keep coming back to is this relationship between David and Jonathan.

From the moment that David and Jonathan meet (right after that David and Goliath business) the two have friendship and bond that, as I mentioned, eventually saves David’s life. Scripture reads:

As soon as [David] had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

Later the two realize that Saul is out to kill David and Jonathan tells David to run…

Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’”

Allow me to first paint a broader background picture. Jonathan is the King’s son. He is in line to be king, but in his humility he recognizes God working in David’s life and desires for God to be glorified. Unlike his father, Jonathan is truly a man of God and proves this on several occasions. He is able to look past his own personal gain to see how God is working in the lives of those around him. I think that this makes this relationship all the more powerful…

the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David…

There are so many people that have been in my life for just a short season yet still had a profound impact on me. I can go years without seeing these people and reunite without even realizing we’ve been apart. God has given me these relationships where the path of my life crossed with someone else’s and for a moment, just a short moment our souls connected. I carry these people with me in everything I do. In the darkest moments when all seems lost, there always seems to be someone there… And when the relationships seem like distant memories I know that God will never leave me alone.

In the New Testament of the Bible there a letter written by Paul to the church of Colossae which is to be later passed on to the church at Laodicea. It’s one of my favorite books of the Bible. Now Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter so it had a been a while since he had actually interacted with the believers in these cities and therefore he wouldn’t know everyone, but he writes this note of encouragment…

I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone. I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.

Another translation of this passages reads, “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love…” Paul, a former Jewish teacher would have been very familiar with the story of Jonathan and David. He takes the strength and power of that brotherly love and applies it to us as Christians. We are called to be knit together and to love one another as we love ourselves…

Too often I feel like people in our world and society are in constant search of marriage. We are eager to meet our spouse, to get married, to “have someone,” but it seems that we are so focused on finding that one “special” relationship that we ignore all of the God-given friends we have around us. For me, it has taken years and years to even begin to learn this lesson. Relationships take time and effort. We must open ourselves up and pour ourselves out into one another. It’s not an easy task, especially in a culture that has come to trust no one, but we have to step out and trust one another.

We are not alone on this earth. All of mankind was created to be a child of God. You were created to be a child of God. Yet we lost our way as children and Jesus came to restore the relationship and teaches us what it really means to embrace our Father. The relationships that we build with one another through the love of God, ends up intertwining with those around us creating this master piece, a “tapestry of love” as Paul writes.

My prayer is that you would realize that you’re not alone. Whatever you are dealing with in your life, there are others that know what you are going through. When you’re lonely and the world seems full of strangers, I pray that you would come to realize that we are all members of one body, one family. Then, I pray that you would begin to find or develop relationships in your life in which you experience God’s love. I hope that you would come to find yourself knit to your brothers and sisters around you. And if you don’t believe that you have any brothers or sisters, even if you don’t know me, my heart cries out to you. Contact me and in whatever way I can, I will be there for you. And I can only offer this because God has gifted me with so many people to carry my burdens with me.

Imagine, just for a moment, what it will be like when we can love one another as our own souls. When, like Jonathan, we can see God moving in the lives of those around us and be a part of that.

God’s word also says

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

All this to say, I pray that we would all take a moment to thank God for the relationships in our lives, and that we might come to realize how precious a gift a true friend really is…

p.s. the name Jonathan means Gift from God…

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

Truly one of the greatest joys that I have found in my short 20 years of life is that of meeting new people. Ever since I was really young I have loved making new friends. I have come to realize that every person in the entire history of the world has a unique story, everybody is on their own adventure, and every single person has a different perspective in the universe around us. And honestly, this is the single biggest reason why I love my job so much.

I work as a barista at a coffee shop just south of downtown Dallas located on the basement level of a prominent loft building. Because most of our customers live in the building we have a really diverse customer base. There are all kinds of artists such as painters, jewlrey makers, and musicians as well as personal trainers, accountants, teachers, ect. There is practically every profession imaginable represented and each person comes from a very unique walk of life.

Now there have been several different times that I really wanted to quit this job. I had gone as far as to talk to people really close to me about quitting and had the support that I needed, but for some reason in every situation I just couldn’t bring myself to quit. Now as time continues to go by I really have begun to realize that the reason I can’t leave is because I love my customers so much. I have really developed some good friendships with a lot of the people in the building and I really would hate to lose touch with them. There are a lot of days whenever I don’t want to wake up and get out of bed, but do simply because I am excited about seeing my customers.

There have now been a good number of times when I have really been able to have some fairly serious talks with customers about their lives and the things they’re going through. I have even had a couple of people ask me to pray for them. I cannot tell you how honoring it is to have someone you barley know come to you and ask for prayer. In both situations as soon as they left the shop I went into the back and fell to my knees and prayed for them. Now let me clarify, I’m simply saying this to describe the depth of some of the relationships I am building.

I really couldn’t understand why these people would come with their issues to some kid serving coffee. But then I realized that it just showed how much they were reaching out into the world for something, for someone, for God. Since then, there has been another customer that I have gotten close to in the past couple of weeks. He has come in pretty much everyday I have worked and we have never really talked, but then the other day we just struck up a conversation. I found out that he was a Christians and that he was really struggling with a couple of different things. Before he left that day I told him that I would be praying for him. When I said this he seemed surprised but then very genuinely thanked me.

My point in all of that is this: we should be excited about the relationships we have in life. Honestly I really believe that life is the culmination of relationships that we develop throughout our time on earth. God created Adam to have a relationship with Him and then He created Eve that Adam might develop a relationship with her through his relationship with God. Our relationships with other people are to mirror that of our relationship with God and until we get our relationship with God on track, we will never be able to really handle our relationships with each other. And it is through our relationships with people that we are to show people God’s love.

Jesus in the book of John is talking to his disciples and says,

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

Jesus was speaking in a time when legalism was practically everywhere when it came to faith and religion. The people’s faith had diminished to simply keeping a list of rules and Jesus was trying to tell them that it was really supposed to be about so much more than that. It isn’t just about not doing bad things or always doing good things. Jesus was saying that we all have been called to love unconditionally because that’s how God loves us.

1 Corinthians 13 describes God’s love for us. It goes through and lists all of these amazing qualities of God’s love that the writer, Paul, knows to be true. But he goes on several verses later and says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” What he is saying is that we only see parts of God’s amazing love acted out by all of us in the world. None of us can portray the kind of love he describes all of the time. He isn’t saying that we shouldn’t try, but simply that we are still living in a fallen world and because of that we cannot fully show this love. But he does see hope. Paul writes that one day we will know this love fully because God showed us this kind of love through His Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” I pray that we all will begin to appreciate the relationships that we have in our lives and realize that it is through these relationships that we are to shower the world with God’s love. God loved us so in return we keep his command and love one another to show Him our love. As confusing as it all is the point is this: Love unconditionally without restraint or reservation in every direction without end.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

Do you have someone in your life that you could tell anything, that could brighten the cloudiest of days, that you can depend on and trust, that would be there no matter what, or that would give you a shoulder to cry on?

When it comes down to it, relationships make life what it is. It was God’s desire to have a relationship with us that He created us. It’s why He reaches out His hand and calls to us, longing to be with us. It’s because of His love in us that we are able to love one another. Rob Bell in his book Sex God talks about how our relationships with one another are supposed to both reflect and resemble our relationship with God. He says “this is always about that.”

I was thinking about this the other day and I had a somewhat interesting thought. Everything in our society tells us we are supposed to be independent and self-sufficient. Reliance on another equals weakness. Now maybe this is a bit extreme, but I think you see what I’m getting at. Personal privacy is demanded by everyone. Our secrets are our own. We hide so much of ourselves away from the world in the fear of being rejected. We put on facades and masks in an attempt to be who we think that everyone wants us to be. So we learn very quickly how to hide our secrets from everyone and we get pretty good at it. But then society still somewhat holds up this tradition of marriage, a uniting of two people completely. It’s a union where two people share every bit of themselves with each other. And we wonder why so many marriages don’t last these days. How are two people conditioned to keep parts of themselves hidden, supposed to suddenly share everything with one another?

Marriage is a God instituted tradition that is a symbol of God’s union with us. It’s about a love being shared between God and each one of us. Privacy isn’t… that came with the whole forbidden fruit fiasco. I’m not saying that we should start walking down the streets shouting all of our inner most feelings. But I am saying that if we could start sharing with one another what we are dealing with, maybe we could overcome our problems. Then maybe others could learn from what we’ve been through without going through it themselves. For a very long time I lived a double life. I was always talking about the work that I was going to do for God someday. Then when it came to the way I lived my personal life, I did nothing that supported my words. Many people saw me as huge hypocrite. It took me a long time to realize the damage I was doing to my relationships.

I know that deep down inside everyone of us is looking for love and acceptance despite our problems. I know at least I do. Imagine how wonderful and inspiring it would be if we could all come together and share everything with one another, loving each other despite our issues, despite our pasts, despite everything. The reason its so inspiring we come together like this is because it’s God seen in this world. It’s heaven on earth because “this is always about that”. And what could possibly be greater than that?

Just Sayins All…

Rusty