If You just Read Your Bible, Go to Church, Believe in God, and try to be a Good Person, YOUR DOING IT WRONG.

Let me ask a question. What does it really mean to be a Christian? Because if it means we are 'good people', go to church, read our Bibles regularly, pray regularly, and share our faith with others... we are MISERABLY FAILING.
Yes you heard me right... MISERABLY FAILING! Now I might add that not all are, but from the many 'Christians' I know, interact, hear and see there is only a small handful that do that, and there is even a smaller handful who do more then just the 'required steps to being a Christian'.
I look at us Christians who say, "We need to walk in the footsteps of Christ" and pretty much walk in the complete opposite direction. You see reading your Bible, praying, and going to Church on Sunday, that my friends is the BARE MINIMUM of what makes us Christian, that should just be assumed in a Christian, that's the pre-programing already set in the coding of Christianity.
So may I ask, WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN.
Recently I have been in some conversations with individuals who are tired, frustrated and fed up with the kind of 'Christianity' that seems to be the norm of today's Christianity. They look at the people around them and see fakes, liers, and falling shorts. Oh yeah and that 75% that leaves the church when they go off to University, a lot of those people are my friends, and believe me when I say it's not because they listened to some new age philosopher and don't believe in God anymore, nope not one bit. For the majority of them, they have noticed the indifference between 'Christianity' and the Bible and are done with 'Christianity' but not the Bible. Unfortunately I would go as far as saying even those people cannot call themselves true 'Christians'...why? BECAUSE THEY LEFT.
You see this is the frustration my friends and I have, we see the issues being addressed but we see either ignorance or walking away happening. I am sorry to inform you but if there is something broken, YOU NEED TO ADDRESS, ASSESS AND DEAL WITH THE ISSUE. Not ignore it or walk away from it.
So here is what I am saying, if you are a 'Christian' and you barely read your Bible, you pray over meals and sometimes when the going gets tough, you believe in a divine being, and you go to Church on Sundays. YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. And if you call yourself a 'Christian' and you even do all that stuff YOU STILL ARE DOING IT WRONG.
"Wait?! What do you mean Nathan? Both are wrong? But how?"
Here's how, even if you are doing all those things, those are just the foundation of a whole Kingdom, the starting blocks for a building to be built upon! Those are natural reactions, that yes, time and discipline needs to be put into, but also those are just the start of what it means to being a Christian.
Take John the Baptist for example. This guy seems to be a big deal at the beginning of pretty much all the Gospels. Now something you need to understand about John, the dude was the son of a Priest, and not just any priest but a Jewish, Jerusalem, Lamb sacrificing, Scapegoat making, Torah preaching, Holy of Holy walking into kind of Priest. Basically the dudes dad was a big deal, and had the means to live like he was a big deal as well.
That gives you a bit of a background on John. But when you read about John you notice something. He didn't live in pleasure, he didn't following in his father's career path... he in fact lived very simply. He chose a life of complete separation from society, he had long hair, and a long beard, probably didn't smell too great, not bad, but not great either, he wore animal skins, not cloth, or silk, he ate dried bugs and bees honey. His day job became his life job of preaching and dunking people who felt bad about their decisions in a dirty body of water. The dude was in fact kind of weird... well really weird. He yelled and warned of a king to come who would bring a kingdom down to earth from Heaven. He yelled so loud and was so weird that the priest's and Jewish leaders went to see what all his yelling and warning was about.
This guy was in any definition a RADICAL. Now not a weirdo, hypocritical, judgmental, "your going to burn in hell for being a faggot" radical. But a radical in the sense that he DEVOTED HIS ENTIRE EXISTENCE TO TELLING OTHERS ABOUT JESUS' COMING.
Now I sit back and read that at the beginning of the Gospels and say to myself... "Am I doing that? Am I devoting all I have, all I am, socially, emotionally, spiritually, economically, culturally, financially, spatially, and mentally, to God and to His proclamation upon this earth?" If the answer is no then I either A) need to drop out of the whole 'Christian' thing and continue living my normal life, or B) I NEED TO START BEING RADICAL IN THE JOHN THE BAPTIST WAY.
"But Nathan, people will stare, they will think your 'different', you will be yelled at, screamed at, hated, laughed at, you will loose friends, maybe family, you are just taking it way to seriously"
Am I though? and really are you so worried that you will loose your social life that you wont commit all to God? Do you realize what you are saying now, especially if you are a Christian? You essentially are saying the Bible is false. Yes I just accused you of not submitting to the Authority of Scripture... and here is why:
Able died for giving all to God, Noah was laughed at and an outcast for giving all to God, Abraham left his family to give all to God, Issac was almost sacrificed for giving all to God, Jacob lost his wife by giving all to God, Joseph was left for dead and sold into slavery by giving his all for God, Moses lost his political, social, financial, economical, and family status for giving his all to God, Joshua wondered in the desert for 40 years and lead a complaining, doubting and disobedient people for giving his all to God, Gideon almost lost his life for giving his all to God, Samson lost his hair and eyes and life for giving his all to God, David gave up his security and was made a international outlaw for giving his all to God, Jeremiah lost his nation for giving his all to God, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Zechariah put everything they had on the line for God, Shadrack, Mecshack and Abednigo (totally spelt those wrong) were thrown into a furnace that killed the men who stood beside it for giving their all to God, Daniel was given to the licking lips of Lions and accused of National treason for giving his all to God, John the Baptist gave up his wealthy happy life for giving his all to God, Peter left his home and reputation and business to give it all to God, Paul left his Religious status, and economical power to give it all to God. And those are only the big names, there are COUNTLESS PEOPLE in the Bible who gave IT ALL UP FOR GOD. WHO WERE RADICALS.
"Yeah but Nathan that's the Bible, those people were different"
UM HOW? You show me one thing that made them any different then you are? They prayed more? SO CAN YOU! They knew Jesus? Did you know it took the disciples to realize who Jesus was 40 days after he died! THEY WERE NORMAL PEOPLE.
The world has changed economically, socially and religiously by normal everyday people, JUST LIKE YOU AND ME! who simply said, "I am giving it all to God" and they changed the world. They reformed the church, they traveled across America bring people to God, they wrote books and started organizations that defended the faith and brought millions to spiritual freedom. NORMAL PEOPLE! CHRISTIANS, not 'Christians', but CHRISTIANS!
We should be the kind of people that others look at and ask, "WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM", not by what we say, not even by what we do, but by WHO WE ARE! That we look, smell, and show that we are Christians, that the minute we walk into the room, get onto the bus, step on the subway, pass by on the street, drive past in our car... PEOPLE GO, "THERE IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM, AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT!?"
Yes you will be laughed at, rejected, spat, mad fun off, pushed away, BUT SO WHAT?! Jesus died on a cross, NAKED, in front of EVERYONE! Crucifixion was so humiliating Roman Law said if you were a citizen you weren't aloud to be crucified no matter what horrible, inhuman crime you committed! Paul was stoned, imprisoned, and left to die in a ship wreck, all the disciples except for John were killed! those are only 14 people out of THE COUNTLESS, who gave their all to God and were spat out by this world... and you are worried about loosing some friends and you social life?
What does it mean to be a  true Christian, really? Are you one? If not, what are you going to do?

The Elephant and the Mouse.

This morning I was watching a video by the Bible Project people, amazing videos by the way, go and look them up! But they emphasized a certain story in the Bible where a Centurion comes to Jesus and asks him to heal one of his servants. For some reason I was drawn to this story, so I spent a good amount of time reflecting on it. I looked it up, found the passage in Matthew 8:5-13 where it talks about this. And It was amazing.
You see I had always known the at passage from a young age but it suddenly just clicked for me. In the Bible Project video what caught my attention was they had made Jesus just look like a normal guy and the Centurion this huge hulking figure... and the contrast between Jesus and him was like a mouse to an elephant, and then the Centurion bows before Jesus... the elephant becomes lower then the mouse. This was the first thing that caught my eye, as a visual learner it really spoke to me. When I looked it up it made even more sense.
You see the Centurion approaches Jesus right after healing a leper, and it says that there was a great crowd following him. Verse 5 shows that Jesus had just entered a city, which was even more crowded, and out of the crowd comes this "big Roman Pagan bady" the symbol of Roman Rule and authority basically. I can just see everyone holding their breath, the Elephant is about to stomp on the mouse, is probably everyone's thought but something happens, SOMETHING HUGE.
The Centurion, a Roman Military official opens his mouth, and what are the first words that come out of it, "Lord". A word of authority and knowledge. He then asks, not commands but humbly asks Jesus to come and please heal his sick servant. Jesus says he will come. Still shockingly the Centurion says,
"Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof"
I AM NOT WORTHY! This guy isn't even a Jew, he doesn't know of the Messianic prophesies or anything. He is a Jupiter, Caesar worshiping Roman non-Jewish Gentile. And he not only recognizes Jesus' authority but submits to it.
Jesus sees this and what does He say in response, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith". Out of everyone Jesus says this Centurion, the symbol of Roman oppression, a Gentile has more faith in Him, ultimately God then any Jew. WOW.
That stopped me and made me think... what kind of faith do I have... do we have?
Do I have faith like the Centurion? or faith like all of Israel?
Look at your faith? Who do you find yourself, TRULY, being in?
"TRULY, I TEL YOU, WITH NO ONE IN ISRAEL HAVE I FOUND SUCH FAITH."
  

Lent, a new, old perspective

So if any of you have grown up either in the the Catholic church, with Catholic background, or you were the weird protestant like I was and went to a Catholic elementary school you will know of the practice and recognize the word "Lent". Now when I was younger I never gave much thought to it, I thought, as most of you probably do, it was just another "weird" Catholic tradition. But recently I have been led to look at it differently, from a new perspective that is actually an old one!
To begin to introduce you to this perspective we have to first know that every Tuesday morning a meet with a friend of mine at school and we discuss readings from a book we are working through called "The Imitations of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis (as a side note if you are a God fearing, and Christ seeking Christian I highly recommend this read). In our weekly discussions we frequently discuss the topic of "a higher standard". This last Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent in the Church Calendar, Sam (the guy I meet with) mentioned to me that since his time as Tyndale (now three years) he has been intrigued with the true idea of Lent and so regularly practices it. Like wise he then challenged me to implement the practice into my life this year, as a spiritual discipline.
Now if you have no idea what I am talking about, like the good Catholic shunning Protestant you are, let me explain what Lent is now, and what it was originally meant to be!
Lent in the Catholic tradition is a time where an individual gives up something for 40 days prior to Easter. These sacrifices tend to be chocolate, T.V. or junk food in general. Now this has become, like a lot of things in the Catholic faith, an obligatory tradition that is done in repetition each year.
Now what is Lent meant, and supposed to be? Lent was a practice adopted by the early church to represent the 40 days of fasting in the desert that Jesus took prior to his mission work, (Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:2). Why this was adopted was to help the individuals of the church offer something up to God (notice I did not say sacrifice) so that the individual(s) could come closer to God and grow in His will.
This original practice however due to time and lack of real education on it has been lost to tradition, obligation and sacrifice. The meaning of it has been lost and is either practiced for the sake of mere practice or not done at all (aka protestants).
Now as I have said earlier, Sam had challenged me this past Tuesday to take on the practice of lent as an offering and time to grow closer to God. And so I have adopted it into my own life and faith Journey. This Lent season I have given up my individual alone watching of Netflix and use of social media on my Phone (Snap chat, Messenger, mobile Facebook and messenger) instead of meaninglessly wasting my time with these I am replacing the time in growing either closer to God individually or growing in community with my brothers and sisters in faith. It has almost been a week and not going to lie I have felt, like Jesus was, tempted in this spiritual "fasting desert" to give in to my offering over to God. But in this process I have gained a new perspective of offering, prayer, and my own walk with God.
And so I would challenge you to start your own offering and "fasting in the desert" process in this Lent season. We are a week in but that doesn't matter, do it to benefit your spiritual walk with God. I would then challenge you to please post your offering and fasting decision down below in the comments!