Amy would rather play music than do her homework, so she needs to form a Christian band! Jackie enjoys gorging herself on chocolates, so she needs to start a Christian chocolate lovers home group! Joe likes drinking and picking up chicks, so he needs to launch a Christian dating ministry! These are the worlds familiar to them. These are the people they’re being “called” to reach. Right?

God certainly wouldn’t punish these enthusiastic folks by calling them to give up their passions, leave their comfortable lives, or simply live a simple, obscure life. God wants us to be happy – and famous! God wants us to have successful ministries!

What are ministries? Why are we concerned with having them? Jesus and the apostles didn’t emphasize the need for every Christian to have a personal, tax-exempt ministry relevant to their culture. He gave us very simple directives… Love God, love your neighbor, preach the Gospel, and make disciples. These should be the personal “ministries” of every Christian.

Don’t know what ministry God is calling you to? You don’t need to wait on the leading of the Holy Spirit to know that God is calling you to love Him, love your neighbor, preach the Gospel, and make disciples. Jesus was clear about all of those things. He calls all Christians to do these.

I don’t know about you, but I barely have enough time to do any one of these things – much less all of them. Why would I need to spend what free time I have creating more work (read: ministry) each day?

If you and I focused on loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we wouldn’t have time for ministry. If we loved our neighbors as ourselves, our calendars would already be full.

Who do we spend the majority of our time with? Where is the bulk of our energy spent? If the answer is the Church or other Christians, then our priorities are off.

You don’t serve Christ by separating yourselves into Christian ministries and engaging the world from the perch of a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, or from within the confines of an isolated church building or home group (geographically in the community, but practically absent & non-existent). You serve Christ by serving your neighbors – both the wealthy neighbors (aka big donors!) and the “least of these” (Matt 25:40).

What is your personal ministry? Is it based around a personal interest? Is your dedication to that particular interest distracting you from fulfilling God’s command to love Him, love your neighbors, preach the Gospel, and make disciples?

If you’re more concerned with how much money your ministry raises, how many people attend your meetings, how well your marketing efforts are going, or how fulfilled your ministry makes you… maybe it’s time to ditch your ministry.

If you’ve never met your next-door neighbor, invited them over for dinner, or planned a neighborhood block party… maybe it’s time to ditch your ministry.

If you don’t spend time every single day reading the Bible and praying to God, learning more about Him, and worshiping Him… maybe it’s time to ditch your ministry.

Quit using your ministry as an excuse to disengage from the world and from God. Be ready everyday to be interrupted by an opportunity to serve or get to know your neighbors, or to go to God in prayer. Life already has too many distractions. Don’t get caught up in the logistics of “ministry.”

Click image for higher resolution…

It would be very easy for me to fall into a small depression over this large chunk of lost money. But I’ve been constantly reminding myself that it wasn’t our money to begin with. It was God’s money. We are simply stewards of the resources He’s given us. We tried really hard to be good stewards of His money. We kept our pride in check and purchased an old, inexpensive car for my wife. We shopped around and did research online. We enlisted several people in our car search and sought godly advice. We followed the “Dave Ramsey plan” in that we bought a “beater” so we could get out of debt faster. We did everything right.

But our best-laid plans are laughable to God. Our wisdom is foolishness to Him. Our perspective is so miniscule and limited, that we can hardly expect to understand why we go through struggles. However, we trust God that He’ll work everything out for our good.

As I waivered on the fulcrum of depression, I began to contemplate the fact that, as a Christian, this is as bad as it gets. My car could break down every week, I could lose my job tomorrow, I could even be beaten and killed next month – but the struggles I face during my few years here on Earth will be as bad as it gets for me.

When I die, it gets infinitely better. Upon my death, I will enter into the presence of God. There will never be pain, sorrow, broken down cars, or financial worry for me ever again. For Christians, our “hell” is our time on Earth. This is as bad as it gets. I could lose everything, and it would be nothing compared to the eternal judgment awaiting those who have rejected Christ.

I thank God that I will never experience true Hell, because Jesus has experienced it for me. He took my place, so that I could live forever with Him.

About a week ago, I was on the train heading to work. A young man was sitting directly in front of me, and a mother and her young daughter was seated behind me. The man, probably no older than 25, spent the entire train ride talking loudly on his cell phone about very personal things to his girlfriend. Though I was not seated in the “quiet car,” where you are not allowed to talk or use electronic devices, no one else in the train car was talking. So everyone was forced to reluctantly listen to this young man’s conversation.

Throughout the conversation, the young man used vulgar profanity. I could feel the mother’s censorious gaze burning right through the back of my seat and feared my hair might catch aflame. I buried my head into the book lying dormant in my outstretched hands, but could not concentrate well enough to read with comprehension.

When we arrived at the penultimate train stop, the mother and daughter ascended their seats to leave. As she passed, the mother turned around and scowled at the young man. Unfortunately, his relentless conversation made him oblivious to her unsubtle, nonverbal feedback.

I tried to think of something to say or do to the man, once I arrived at our destination to express the train car’s collective and unspoken aggravation with him. But ultimately, I could only think of these words… “‘Vengeance is Mine,’ says the Lord, ‘I shall repay.’” I decided to let the whole episode loose from my mind and have faith (albeit blind) that the Lord would somehow, at some unforeseen time, correct this young man’s imprudent ways.

I didn’t at all think I would have the privilege of ever seeing such godly correction or discipline myself.

This morning, after getting off the train, I discovered that this same young man was walking directly in front of me, wearing the same smart suit he did last week. When we exited onto the streets of DC, up went my umbrella. The skies were open, and rain poured down upon the city with unrelenting ease. Though surrounded by thoughtful commuters toting a multitude of umbrellas in myriad colors, this man had no umbrella. He walked briskly down the sidewalk, dodging pesky impending pedestrians – his fine suit the only protection from the descending shower. To my bashful delight, he missed the crosswalk signal and had to wait with the rest of us by the street corner.

I considered how evil I was to delight in this swaggering, young man’s dilemma. But I also considered how wonderful it was to witness what I believed to be God’s vengeance in a most modest matter such as this.

This might be hard to believe for some who know me. There was a time recently when I was trained to be a pickup artist. After the mid-2000′s, I was certainly capable of meeting and attracting women. And I often did – on my own, or in groups of like-minded men. Prior to that time, I had the nerve, but not the game (not at all, as other friends can attest to).

One or two years ago, at the height of my pickup days, I would have been totally embarrassed to admit that I was still a virgin. But not today. I’m neither proud, nor embarrassed of the fact – though I am tremendously relieved. Relieved that I have never gone far enough in any previous relationship to lose the “V” label.

Previous girlfriends wanted to have sex at times when I was determined not to. When I was willing, the girl wasn’t. Etcetera. Even during my pickup days, I wasn’t interested in having sex. I wanted to simply improve my social skills and get over the fear of talking to strangers. It was all a lesson in social dynamics for me, not a shortcut to sex.

Now that I’m engaged and two days away from my wedding, I’m so thankful to God for keeping me from this particular sexual sin. Never in my marriage with Megan will I be able to compare her to other women from my past. I imagine that’s an important ingredient in a happy marriage.

Many gifts will be given on Saturday. But for me, there’s no greater gift I can give my wife on our wedding day than my sexual purity.

We tend not to be bold in our sports predictions, because we’ll lose face if we’re wrong. But if we knew for certain who would win, we would tell the world who we were rooting for, bet all the money we had, and be the proudest, wealthiest person in the world when our team wins it all.

Well, here’s a news flash… God wins in the end.

Jesus WILL return and establish His Kingdom. He WILL separate the wheat from the chaff and throw the chaff into the fire. This is a fact. This is what is going to happen when Jesus returns. Every Christian should know this with 100% certainty.

The problem is we don’t have faith in what the Bible says to be true. Though we think Jesus triumphs in the end, we don’t live our lives in a way that expresses this belief. Instead, we look around us and see a world that does not believe in Jesus or obey Him as Lord, so we become bashful and keep our beliefs to ourselves. We certainly don’t want to go out on a limb expressing these beliefs, then find out we’re wrong. That would be embarrassing.

We also see life as an 80-year process. It’s a long road — so we’ll get to the religion stuff towards the end. Assuming we live that long. Because EVERYONE dies of old age, right?

Well, here’s another news flash… The end is near.

Does that sound fanatical? Do I sound like a crazy person on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign? That’s what John the Baptist sounded like — and we see what happened with his prediction.

Faith is being bold about a truth only you seem to know. Being willing to be perceived by those around you as a crazy person. Accepting the fact that you will be mocked and discriminated against — and being okay with that, because you know, in the end, you’ll be on the winning side.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:38

How differently would you live your life, if you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow? What would you stop doing? What would you start doing? If He was coming over for dinner, what would you discard from your house? If He was going to review your personal finances, what expenses would you try to hide? How much more would you tithe? If He asked you how you spent your time, what would you honestly say? What would you like to say?

Here are two certainties: 1) You are going to die, or 2) Jesus will return before you die. Either way, the end is near. You have about 80 total years on this earth to know God, obey Him, and make Him known to others.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to go all in.

In the same way, a human life is only as valuable as what someone will pay for it. Couples pay twenty thousand dollars to adopt or artificially conceive a child. Wealthy relatives pay millions to ransom their kidnapped loved ones. And an individual will make any payment required to get the surgery he needs to stay alive. In fact, there’s probably no more valuable object in this universe than a human life.

But the world sometimes forgets this and puts the value of selfish comfort, business, natural resources, land, and politics above human life — which has been the cause of wars and bloodshed throughout history. In these cases, human life doesn’t really seem valuable at all. It seems that life is valued on a relative scale. Sometimes it’s of value, and sometimes it’s worthless. Is there any way to know for sure the value of life?

I believe so. Again, the value of something is based on how much someone is willing to pay for it. One Man paid the ultimate price in order to save the lives of many.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to Earth in human form in order to live a perfect life, die a physical death, and pay the ultimate spiritual price of receiving God’s wrath upon himself, so that you and I could be freed from the penalty of our sins and live eternally with Him in Heaven.

In John 3:16, it says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” It says in Romans 5:8 that, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Don’t miss what that verse in Romans says… “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That means when we were still hostile towards God and religion and couldn’t care less about Jesus, He still died for us.

Do you want to know what your value is? While the people you walk past in the mall, or the people driving on the highway beside you, or even the country’s government all seem to see you as nothing more than an obstacle, nuisance, or money source, there is Someone who values you above His own life. As unlovely as you and I feel each day, there is Someone who loves you immensely — a Friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Jesus loves you, even when others don’t.

You are more valuable than you know. Jesus didn’t die for a political cause, or to acquire land, wealth, resources, or power. Jesus died for you. So that you could live.

You’re that valuable.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
- Matthew 11:28-30

The next 90 days will be a lonely time for me. Not to say the past four years haven’t been. But to be so close to having godly companionship in recent weeks makes its imminent absence all the more potent.

I will be forsaking dating for the next three months. Not by choice, but by necessity. And while the prospect of going it alone is disappointing, I am encouraged by the fact that I’ve so recently flourished during a 4-month abstinence of worldly pleasures and can only hope this 3-month time of solitude will yield similar results.

I don’t believe God is done working with me. I think the circumstance I find myself in today is just another test of faith He’s placed in my life this year.

Since May, He has tested my commitment in many areas of life… my material possessions, my finances, my time, my church attendance/membership, my accountability to and fellowship with members of the Church, my struggle with lust and covetousness, my vocation, and my daily communion with God through Bible reading and prayer. One of the last areas in my life that has not been under the authority of Christ has been my dating life. And that seems to be the next step.

Like Abraham, God provided me with my heart’s desire after much prayer and sacrifice. But it was only to show me how He could bless me, if I made Him lord over everything in my life. Today, when He asked me to forsake the very thing I desired most for a season, I felt like Abraham did, when God told him to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac — the one thing Abraham loved most.

I can only hope that I’ll show the same faith Abraham did, when he trusted God and was willing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. I believe the next 90 days is my time to sacrifice my hopes and dreams and trust God that, in the end, he will provide.

It may seem today like the next three months will be a lonely time for me. But looking at the past year, I’m confident God is eager to use this time to sanctify and shape me into a more effective servant. After stripping away all the distractions in my life, I am forced to turn completely towards God. I have no other option but to spend time in prayer and reading His Word. He’s left me with nothing else.

If I can focus on God, I’m confident He’ll have something abundantly greater than I could have hoped or dreamed for on the other side of these 90 days.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
- Ephesians 3:20-21

I thought this would change once the NFL preseason started. For the first Redskins game of the preseason, I turned my TV on for the first time in 4 months, watched a couple of plays, then turned it off promptly once the first commercial began to roll.

Being away from television programming and advertisements for 4 months has made me very sensitive to the purpose and affect of advertising. I couldn’t even stand to watch one commercial, because it seemed so contrary to the life and worldview I’ve been establishing and fostering for the past 4 months.

My life this summer has been all about detaching myself from the love of material possessions, living a minimalistic lifestyle, and finding complete satisfaction and fulfillment from knowing and serving God.

The whole point of advertising is to make you dissatisfied with your life. Advertising takes advantage of your materialistic tendancies — the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life — all things the Bible warns you about.

Advertising promotes exactly the wrong things in life. Especially the advertisements you’ll see during football games. Whether it’s sex, cars, or wealth/retirement, these advertisements have nothing to offer the Christian man or woman, but hindrances to their spiritual walk.

And it’s only after being away from it for 4 months, that I can see advertising for what it is. Which is why I encourage every Christian to take an extended break from television — a “fast” if you will — to break away from the psychological hold advertising has in your life.

Not only will a fast from advertising help you be more content with the life you have, but the absence of television in your life will free up your time for other — more noble — things like family, reading, and prayer.

I didn’t set out to take an extended break from television. But I’m glad it’s turned out that way. I’m going to try and increase this 4-month blackout to an entire year. Yes, that means I’ll miss the NFL season, and yes, that means I’ll miss my favorite shows. But the time I’ll now have for daily Bible reading, prayer, friendships, and family will be more precious than anything television has to offer.

- Matthew 19:16-22

In this passage, Jesus comes across a rich young ruler, who is enthusiastic about “earning” his salvation by doing some great task. Jesus asks him if he’s kept all the commandments, to which he replies, “perfectly.” Then Jesus says good, just sell everything you own and give the money to the poor and follow me. To this, the young man turned away sad.

Basically, what Jesus did was show how the man had not even kept the first commandment — You shall have no other gods before me. To the rich man, his wealth and possessions were his god — more important to him than following Christ.

Jesus later warns that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven for this very reason — rich men tend to put their faith and trust in their wealth and material goods. Which is a distraction from the faith and trust they must have in Christ’s sacrifice alone to save them.

Salvation isn’t gained from any task we must perform — as we will never be able to keep every commandment of God perfectly. And since perfection is required for salvation, no one will every achieve salvation by following the law. It’s a fool’s quest.

Instead, our only hope is in the perfection of Christ. If Christ’s sacrifice paid for our sins, then we are considered perfect in God’s eyes. So, the question is, how do we get Christ’s death to apply to us? That’s easy… Faith. Believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that his death is the only way you can be saved. That’s it. Just believe it. Then cling to Christ and follow him from now on.

There’s no task you can do. Just believe.

I’ve always had a problem with this story in the Bible. From childhood, I’ve been a collector of every possible thing I could collect. I was a pack-rat of sorts, determined to get every item in a series, whether it be comic books, music CDs, or Blu-ray discs.

I’ve always struggled with materialism. So, when I read of the rich young ruler in the Bible, I have great sympathy for his dilemma. If I was ever asked to sell all I had and follow Christ, I don’t think I would be able to do it. For all of my 33 years of life on this earth, I never thought I could do it.

Then last month, I felt compelled (or called) to do just that. Sell everything I was collecting. Every possible collection had to go.

First, I started selling off all the books and DVDs I didn’t want. Surely, that would be enough. But after getting rid of a few thing, I noticed I felt like I didn’t need some of the stuff that was left. Wave after wave, I sold off everything except my “must haves.” Then when that was through, I trimmed more, and so on.

Pretty soon, I had sold all but a handful of Blu-ray discs, CDs, and books. I had gotten rid of 3/4 of my possessions — not stopping with collectible media. I sold all three of my video game systems (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii), several of my cameras, and every single comic book I still owned (I donated those to a friend).

At this point, my condo looks very modest. Yet I am still compelled to sell or give away more. Who knows where this will end?

But the benefit of having done all this is that I now enter my home and have a completely blank slate of how I wish to spend my time. No longer is there an unwatched Netflix movie, or an unread book, or a hot new video game demanding my attention. I come in, sit down, and have absolute freedom.

Now I can turn my attention where it belongs… to Christ. My life is now structured in such a way that I can easily find time to pray, read the Bible, and write down my thoughts. It’s perfect. I may even find time to make exercise a regular part of my day.

I couldn’t do that before. With all the junk that was squeezing shut my days. I’ve cut out almost everything in my life and am wary to add anything back in.

Things are different now. And I’m excited to see what Christ has in store for me, as I begin to follow him wherever he wants me to go.

9. Join a small group.

8. Teach a Sunday school class.

7. Kick a ball.

6. Break up with a girlfriend.

5. Sell all I own.

4. Invite a complete stranger to church.

3. Put a “Jesus fish” on my car.

2. Give up a profession.

1. Openly blog/tweet about 10 things I never thought I’d do for Jesus.

The boot camp was probably the hardest of the three situations I mentioned. There’s nothing harder than trying to win over an audience that is hostile towards you. Beautiful girls in bars have a defensive shield around them, and they’re skeptical of every guy who talks to them. They rightly assume the guys are hitting on them. Which makes engaging them in an entertaining conversation that much more difficult.

Karaoke was the easiest. All you need is the boldness to get up on stage. You don’t have to worry about what to say, because the words are scrolling on the teleprompter. You just have to be willing to put yourself on display and, in the worst-case scenario, look like a fool in front of your friends. I had no problem doing that.

Improv was somewhere in the middle. At the first class, I was hesitant to put myself out on display in front of 10 strangers. But after a few classes, I began trusting my classmates and actually liked them a lot as people. So performing in class became very easy. And to be honest, I just acted like myself during skits – so it wasn’t very difficult. Performing in class was very comfortable, because both the other students and the teachers are rooting for your success. They want you to do well. It’s a very positive audience.

That changed a little when I was asked to perform in front of a real audience last week during the FIST competition. I didn’t have a problem saying yes to my teacher, who asked me to join her 3-person team on the eve of their performance. After all, improv was much easier than the Charisma Arts boot camp – and if I could survive that, I could survive any performance situation.

I also had something within me during the FIST tournament that I didn’t have in those other past experiences. I had a calming faith that it would all work out well.

Those who know me well know that I’m a committed Christian. Those who find out I’m a Christian after getting to know me well are often surprised.

Not long ago (maybe a month or so), I decided to unplug from many of the distractions of my life. (I didn’t do this specifically for Lent – although the timing was perfect.) I unsubscribed from news, technology, and political podcasts. I stopped reading blogs and news sites. I didn’t watch television. I spent much less time on the Internet. And I made other sacrifices.

Instead, I spent my free time exercising and reading the Bible. I wanted to read through all 66 books by the end of the year.

By the time I reached Exodus (the second book), I had already found several parallels to my experiences with improv. There were many instances where God told people to go somewhere inconvenient to accomplish some task. And not only that, but the circumstances were so unlikely that the task could be accomplished, that the only explanation could be that it was God who made it happen. Noah and the flood. Abraham having a son. Joseph becoming the governor of Egypt. Moses leading Israel out of Egypt. God accomplished impossible tasks through people who were willing to go.

When I was asked to fill in for a member of my teacher’s improv team in the FIST tournament, I said yes. I didn’t make excuses that I was just a beginner, or that it was really inconvenient for me to get to DC multiple times a week. I just said yes. Here am I.

Even though our one & only practice — a few hours before our performance on Saturday — started off very badly (we even considered forfeiting), we eventually gelled and felt good about going into the evening’s performance. As we stood backstage ready to run out to perform, I didn’t feel anxiety. I just kept talking to God saying, “You brought me here for a reason. I came, but this is your show. Put the words into my mouth, and I’ll say them.” And I had faith that God would take care of me – that I had nothing to worry about. I also knew, without a doubt, we would win.

We weren’t great, but we did win. And it was awesome. We were congratulated and met with smiles from everyone backstage and everyone associated with WIT.

It was an impossible situation… A team who hadn’t practice together prior to the day of the performance (and included two total beginners) could go out and perform better than a level 3 team. It was awesome.

And all I had to do was go.

We didn’t win the next round. Everything seemed kind of off that day. Or rather, everything seemed normal. We felt like a team who hadn’t practice together more than two days. We felt like a team that included two total beginners.

Our second performance really put the improbability of our first victory into perspective. Which made the reason behind our victory much more obvious to me.

After all of this was over, I read a passage in Exodus that sums up my view of faith’s integration with improv…

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

- Exodus 4:10-12

“… the righteous gives and does not hold back.” – Proverbs 21:26

I spent the morning helping Harley pack up her apartment in Arlington. I know how hard it is to get people to help you move (especially during normal work hours), so I felt her pain. I felt compelled to lend a hand, when she posted a bulletin on MySpace pleading for help. I don’t really know her, but I couldn’t help but remember the verse where Christ says to “give to everyone who asks you.”

No matter how inconvenient.

I had to take the morning off of work and will lose the pay for those hours. But that’s okay.

Giving a tithe (or tenth) to God doesn’t just mean money. He wants us to honor him with a tenth of everything. One hundred percent is his, and he only asks for a tenth back. And it’s not just giving to the church. It’s helping those in need. Lending a hand. Lending your time to help.

Serving others is the new tithe.

As I was perusing the other choices, I noticed that Crunch Berries now had a bunch of other color berries in it (not just the red ones). I noticed that Cherios were now multi-colored and looked like Fruit Loops. Pretty much every cereal I saw looked pretty much the same as the others. They were all multi-colored O’s or balls (like Trixx).

After years and years of promotional stunts—adding new flavors & colored marshmallows—the end result is that there is very little uniqueness in the cereal aisle.

And it’s not just cereals. I wanted to buy a bag of Starburst and discovered several choices of Starburst. There were the normal flavors, sour flavors, and jellybeans. Don’t even get me started on M&M’s. They have like ten varieties!

I don’t want to sound like an old fogey, but you can’t beat the originals. They were the best. They were really good, unique products—then some new marketing exec comes into the company and tries to temporarily raise sales by making some minor change to a stellar product. As turnover takes place in the company, and the business units fail to find other ways to increase revenue, more marketing execs decide to tinker with the product—adding more marshmallows and flavors.

The end result… Loss of uniqueness. A watered down brand. They’re mallowed-out.

Aside: I know there’s a universal application to this somewhere…

The same thing has happened with Christianity. You started with a stellar, unique “product” like the Gospel message. It’s simple and compelling.

Then you get all of these ministry leaders (aka marketing execs) trying to make the simple product more appealing to the masses. They add some new gimmick or technology/practice into the mix in order to seem more relevant or unique. But after years and years of tampering with the product, we’re left with multiple church denominations and a mass assumption that Christianity is relative and emotion-based.

If you ask a random person to define Christianity, they’ll probably say something like, it’s a bunch of Conservatives telling people how they can or can’t live. Or that it’s an emotional crutch for people who want to feel better about themselves and about the things that happen in this world.

The Christian world is filled with marshmallows.

If you break it down to its original, simple message—you get something so shocking to today’s world, that only a very small minority is willing to communicate it in public.

God created man perfect. Man sinned and fell. God requires man to be perfect to enter Heaven. Since man cannot be perfect on his own—and since God loved man so much—God sent his perfect Son, Jesus, to earth to pay for the sins of mankind. Jesus died for man’s sins, thus giving man an imputed perfection—which will allow man to enter Heaven. The only way for man to have Jesus’ sacrifice applied to his account is to simply believe & have faith in Jesus’ sacrifice as the sole means of salvation.

It’s a very simple, step-by-step process.

That’s what Christianity is in a nutshell.

So, how did we get from this simple message to bombing abortion clinics, boycotting Teletubbies, and burning Marilyn Manson CDs?

The answer is…

Marshmallows.

My Christmas will include spending time with all the people I love—friends and family. I don’t even care about the gifts involved. I just want to hang out, have fun and fellowship. And at some point, I’ll want to take time to consider what it meant for Christ to become a man. Even the Bible doesn’t make a big deal about the birth of Christ. The emphasis is on the life and death of Christ. What did it really mean for a holy and sinless man to die for the sins of the guilty?

Christmas is about freedom—freedom from obligation. God sent us his Son to grant us freedom. And God’s gift is free. Not in the sense that it didn’t cost Him anything (for it surely did), but in the sense that he doesn’t want anything in return for it. Salvation is free. And that’s the true spirit of Christmas.

People give gifts to one another—hopefully not expecting anything back. Once feelings of obligation come into the picture, the whole spirit is ruined. I shouldn’t feel obligated to send out cards or give out gifts. I’m giving gifts to my friends and family out of love and appreciation. But even so, that gift-giving should not replace the honor and appreciation I should show to Christ, who is the real reason for the holiday.

Merry Christmas.

On my belt was my Walkman, feeding a collection of slow Johnny Cash songs into my ears, as I swept up piles of leaves and sticks and loose garbage into each bag with my bare hands. A neighbor appeared with his child, disappointed that there would soon be no mountain of leaves for his child to play in. The harvest of leaves was great, but the workers were only one. I cut my forearm in several places, but the most severe wound came on two of my fingers. Blood was shed on my jeans and on the handle of the rake. The dirt and dust mixed with the blood, and I pressed on with my work. I knew the task was great—the amount of leaves was overwhelming. They littered the lawn like grains of sand—like the stars of heaven. But I pressed on. Little-by-little, bag-by-bag. They would all be accounted for. Every leaf, every hair, every lamb.

I touched the ground, and collected the leaves. I toiled with the ground that is cursed because of me. And in the end, all I did was move dirt from one place to another. My toil is meaningless. My work is futile. Vanity—all is vanity. But I press on. I obey. It’s the only thing to do. Who am I to know God’s plan? Who am I to know the fate of my work? When God says go, I go. When He says do, I do. What else can I do?

I touched the ground—my future home. The dirt of my life. The dirt of my legacy. Everything inside the house will one day be dirt. And I will have nothing to bring with me—but dirt.

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

God calls us to action—He calls us to obey His commands. However, because He doesn’t force us to obey Him, we think we can get away with not doing so. Christians may even believe they have the freedom to disobey Him, because our salvation is already secure and that His laws don’t apply to us anymore. We would rather concentrate on enjoying life and interacting with people than worry about rules or what God wants us to do. I think we’re scared that God wants us to go and do something completely foreign to us—that He wants us to leave all of the things we love behind: our family, friends, possessions, home…

Society (and the devil, I’m sure) has ingrained in our culture the idea that no action is worthwhile without the emotion to back it up. If we aren’t motivated by the right reasons, we shouldn’t do what it is we’re thinking of doing. Emotion first, then action. Don’t do anything, unless you mean it.

But God says differently. He says, “Obey me.” Period. Your love for Him and the duties He’s given you will come later. Whether we feel like it or not (and I assure you—we won’t), God wants us to obey Him—pray to Him, study His Word, serve Him, obey His commands. We do it—not because we feel the urge to do so—but because we love Him enough to obey Him. We serve Him because we love Him—not because we want to.

Due to the very nature of my human body, I don’t feel like praying before going to bed (or any other time of day). My body wants to sleep at night. During the day, it can’t stand still long enough to have a meaningful dialog with God. I don’t have time to read God’s Word, because I have to get ready for work in the mornings, and after I come home, I have to get stuff done before going to bed—not to mention my Internet and TV time. I can’t go on a mission trip, because I only get two weeks of vacation from work. I would rather use those weeks to go to the beach. I can’t quit my job and do full-time ministry, because I can’t possibly make enough money doing that to pay the bills. I have a future to plan for, after all, and I want to stay in northern Virginia, make lots of money, and have a nice house with a nice family.

Forget all that. God wants us to obey Him—to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. No excuses. “If you love me, keep my commandments. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” He doesn’t say, “Obey me, if you feel like it or if you have the right motivation.” He just says, “Obey Me. If you love me, obey Me. Follow Me. No excuses.”

I don’t really feel like shuffling my life around, but there’s only one thing that’s important in this world. My money and my time should be devoted to it. Stop screwing around and wasting your resources, Michael. Go to God, figure out what He wants you to do, and do it. Doesn’t matter how I feel or what’s motivating me. Maybe it’s pride that motivates me. Maybe it’s shame. Maybe it is in fact love for God that makes me turn to Him now. It doesn’t really matter. As a fallen man, I will never be able to do something out of purely good intentions or pure love for God. It’s impossible. There will always be sin mixed with everything I do. But the point is—that shouldn’t stop me. That shouldn’t stop you. God knows our motivations are messed up. That’s why He makes it really easy for us. Obey Me. That’s it.