I’ve heard it said that Jesus taught more on money than on any other worldly topic.  I haven’t done the research to back up that claim, so I’m not staking my reputation on it, but I do know he has a lot to say about it, so it sounds plausible enough.  Mostly, the New Testament seems to deal with giving, with an implication that God will show his blessings to us if we do that.  Well, “implication” might be too vague of a word . . . “Give and it shall be given unto you, press down, shaken together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom,” is a bit more definite than a mere “implication.”  On the flip-side, we have also find some pretty dire warnings concerning money in the scripture – that the love of it is the root of all evil, and that a fool and his money are soon parted.

I’ve made no secret of the financial hardships that I and my family endured just a few years ago.  I never spoke much of the bad times. . . but they were pretty bad, wreaking havok on our marriage, and bringing us, and me in particular, to our knees (finally.)  And God delivered us in ways that could only be described as miraculous . . . practically giving us a house and property for next to nothing (seriously . . . our house payment is half of what my last car payment was), and bringing us to a place where, although we still have a pretty tight budget, we can pay all of our bills on time.  16 months of unemployment makes you appreciate little things like that.  One question that went through my mind all the time was something along the lines of, “Why are you doing this to me God?!  I pay my tithes, I’ve given . . . I live my life for you, and they’re coming to repo my car tomorrow!”  I got pretty angry.  And attempted, in vain, to try to make something happen for myself . . . improve my life on my own.  God, again, didn’t allow me to do that, and everything I tried came crashing right down around me.  I got pretty bitter . . . and then, with my pride and ego finally broken, I asked a life-changing question:  “God, please show me the sin in my life that is bringing this destruction on me.  Please show me where I’m wrong.”

And I saw the truth:  a fool and his money really are soon parted.  I had the idea in my head that being a “good steward” of the money God gave me meant that I had to pay my tithes . . . give every once in awhile, when I felt like, and . . . well . . . and that’s pretty much it.  Otherwise, I lived my life for 3 things:  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  Now, saying those words brings to mind all kinds of debauchery that was simply not the case with me.  I spent my money . . . and when I ran out, I just used credit cards.  If I wanted something, I got it.  I withheld myself from nothing.  Expensive clothes, the coolest new gadgets, top of the line computers, the nicest apartments in town.  Those things are fine, I suppose, if God has blessed you with the income to acquire them in a financially and spiritually responsible way.  I just used credit cards.    I made decent money, but not enough.  I occasionally felt guilty . . . or at least stressed . . . to have so much debt.  But when I got it paid down some, I just charged it right back up again, as soon as there was space to buy something I wanted.  God HAD to bring me to a place where I couldn’t depend on my job, credit, or anything else for provision . . . only Him.  And while it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through, it was the most profitable.

I’ve said before that I find myself defending a “prosperity gospel” that I don’t totally agree with, in order to the defend a truth that I do believe in: Biblical teachings on prosperity.  I think we’ll find that if we’re handling money in unGodly or irresponsible ways, God can’t bless that.  But while a fool and his money are soon parted, a Christian will find that he and God’s money are quickly drawn together.  I’ve found myself recently pretty disheartened with my job, when promised raises and benefits didn’t materialize.  But when I began to give freely to God, and trust in him for my provision, I can honestly say I’ve been pretty shocked to see money coming in, business projects coming in, and God’s provision working in my life.  I’m not rich, and may never be, but I know, KNOW, now that I never have to worry again about making ends meet.  God provides for those of us who follow him in our money, as well as our lifestyle.

On that note, I’m pretty excited to have a whole string of posts about finances and financial planning coming out soon.  Before my current position, I was a financial advisor for several years, and have real practical knowledge about finance (my degree is in Finance, by the way), as well as many more hard-learned lessons about managing our finances in Godly ways (still learning!).  And who knows…maybe I’ll even make them into their own blog soon.

I recently read a great article at the Christian Post relating the findings of a survey studying how many young people we’re losing from our churches, and the possible reasons behind it.  I have to say, I agree mostly with what is being said, but I think they only skim across some of the most important issues.  Things that a survey may not be able to find.  As one of the rare 20-somethings in church (although I’m only 20-something for one more year ) I think I have a pretty decent understanding of where my generation has fallen away, because I’ve seen my friends among the fallen.

The fact is, we are bleeding.  Most mainstream denominations have shown a decrease in membership over the last decade, or so.  It’s a problem across evangelical Christianity.  With the exception of Non-Denominational Pentecostal / Charismatic churches, who seem to show slight growth, the body of Christ is growing older and older.  A few problems we can see evident from the survey:

According to ARG’s survey, 95 percent of 20- to 29-year-old evangelicals attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years. Only 55 percent went to church during high school. And by college, only 11 percent were still attending church.

We’ll discount the 5% of children not attending church regularly, for now, because we must also assume that their parents don’t attend church regularly, and since 10 year olds can’t drive . . . well, enough said.  Only 55% of teens attend church regularly during high school?  Problem #1 is evident: the parents have failed, and failed miserably, in raising their children to serve God.  In my upbringing, I wasn’t allowed to not attend church.  When I started looking for a part-time job at 16, I wasn’t allowed to get a job that interfered with church.  My parents, following a Biblical principle, trained me to put God and church first, and that God would bless and honor that sacrifice, and when I was older, I did not depart from that.  If the Bible is always true, and we must assume that it is, we have that promise from God.  Simply “giving up” on your kids’ souls and allowing them to stay at home and not attend church as teens (still children) is tantamount to burning the scriptures in front of them.  We reinforce a wordly and sinful mindset: “If salvation was as necessary, God as good, Heaven as sweet, and Hell as real as the Bible says it is, then why would Mom and Dad just let me stay at home?  It must be just some good moral teachings, and not real.”  Who wouldn’t think that if raised up that way?  We make them take baths, brush their teeth, study, get good grades, don’t eat too much junk food, etc etc. . . all great lessons that are necessary for life and health and wellbeing, but we shy away from making them attend church?  We’ve started the problem there.

The article rightly goes into poor teaching in Sunday School, and the concept of teaching Bible “Stories” . . . a term I’ve always had a problem with.  Sunday School is a great place to teach the foundations of faith, apologetics, why we believe what we believe.  But instead it focuses on the seeker sensitive trends of relationships, emotional issues, morality, and “stories from the Bible.”

All of these are great pieces of the puzzle, the the parental lack of concern for their children’s souls is the largest piece, but I think the article misses the largest over-arching problem – our kids have never had an EXPERIENCE with God.  It’s my experiences with God that I turn to when I go through seasons of doubt, trial, and even disbelief.  There are tons of theories questioning everything about the Bible – if I’m going through a bad situation in life, and feel discouraged, there are plenty of people telling me that I can turn from God, because he may not even be there anyway.  But it’s the experiences I had, and many of the most important ones were as a teenager, that keep me in the body of Christ.  I was blessed enough to attend a church that moved its youth group from a fun / game -centered experience to a place for teens to encounter God, and have Him work in their lives.  But the trend is the opposite.  I see youth “ministries” with X-Boxes, Playstations, sports, games, and FUN FUN FUN, but very little Jesus.  They don’t want to “turn kids off,” and want to give them a “positive” place to come and have fun and fellowship.  Fun and fellowship is great, but should be a secondary concern.  Will youth groups shrink if the focus shifts from super fun awesome times to Jesus?  Sure.  But if 50 kids leave, and 1 child comes to Jesus as a result, I think it’s worth it.

I feel that Youth Pastors’ success is judged on the size of their youth groups, many times, instead of things like how many kids get saved, or how many kids are involved in ministry.  That’s such a tragic mistake.  And I’ve met tons of youth pastors who have the spiritual depth and Biblical knowledge of a Lebanese child who has only heard the name of Jesus as a by-word in conversation.  They’re focused on nurting emotions, at best, and on just playing games, and being a kid for the next 10 years, at worst.  They are far from spiritual role models who exude holiness and righteousness as a lifestyle to look up.  Quick question:  Have any of you met a youth pastor (or pastor for that matter) who can come close to being able to say, as Paul did, “Follow me as I follow Christ?”  Me either.

While the responsibility for raising Godly children rests on parents, ultimately, I believe a major shift can happen to reverse this trend if churches would change their youth ministries to focus on giving teens an experience with God, instead of just a fun time.  Those experiences will guide them back to the faith, if they leave.  God called it the incorruptible seed, which gets planted in them.  The games, rock concert services, and worldly mentalities are just turning kids off to Jesus, if not the youth group.  Jesus said if he is exalted, he will draw all men unto him.

Problem solved.

2:08:43 PM cheeringsalmon: Play him off, keyboard cat.
2:08:51 PM Casey: LOL
2:08:55 PM cheeringsalmon: I believe you.
2:09:06 PM Casey: I know…right.  Keyboard cat rocks my face
2:09:21 PM cheeringsalmon: Keyboard cat is my best friend.
2:09:24 PM cheeringsalmon: Forever.
2:09:32 PM Casey: What?
2:09:41 PM Casey: Keyboard cat is cheating on me with you?
2:09:44 PM cheeringsalmon: Uh
2:09:45 PM Casey: I will cut you
2:09:47 PM cheeringsalmon: I
2:09:54 PM cheeringsalmon: I thought that you were okay with open relationships.
2:10:27 PM Casey: I spent $25 on fancy kitty litter for her!!!  #*$*#$& it!!!
2:10:41 PM cheeringsalmon: She appreciates it. I know she does.
2:11:34 PM Casey: Maybe I can still return it.  She looked like a whore in that blue coat anyway.
2:11:45 PM cheeringsalmon: I’ll keep her.
2:11:47 PM cheeringsalmon: Thanks.
2:12:03 PM Casey: no no, thank you.  I’m allergic anyway.
2:12:23 PM cheeringsalmon: Awesome. I have a broken picture telephone.
2:12:36 PM Casey: I’ll bet you do
2:13:32 PM cheeringsalmon: Alriiiiiight.
2:13:44 PM cheeringsalmon: I just saw two elephants get married.
2:13:47 PM cheeringsalmon: What did you see?
2:14:06 PM Casey: It’s not nice to call fat people elephants.
2:14:11 PM cheeringsalmon: ><
2:14:16 PM cheeringsalmon: Sorry. . I forget. .
2:14:41 PM Casey: salmonbot, your conversational skills have improved since we lost spoke.  I’m very impressed.
2:15:03 PM cheeringsalmon: Thanks. I’ve. . upgraded my code.
2:15:17 PM Casey: Alright, talk to you later.
2:15:21 PM cheeringsalmon: Bye.

When it comes to fiscal responsibility, Bush and I have a lot in common. And we’re both just as likely to be shocked-and-awed when we realize how much money we’ve spent, as we are to employ strategic misdirection in order to make it all look like — Oh no look! WMD’s! Budget deficit? What?

I’ve tried out a number of “services” designed to help me get better control of my budget. All of them seem to suffer from a few basic flaws:

1. I am lazy




2. I do not like balancing my checkbook




3. I do not like paying bills

Unfortunately, none of those seem to address that problem.  And while a few made noteworthy attempts, they all suffered the same fate – no updates, and inaccurate data.  I’ve written before about Microsoft Money, which came the closest to what I needed.  It downloaded statements from my bank account, reconciled transactions, and kept track of bill due dates.  But that was about it.  Oh, it included tons of fancy-schmancy features for people who were already saving and have investments and multiple accounts . . . but I didn’t use them.  It’s biggest problem was that it required me to come home, sit down, and manually enter in transactions in order to keep them it up to date.  It was a hassle.  If I got off by a few days, and missed things, it quit reconciling right.  Some transactions were lost, some duplicated.  It was a nightmare.  For the 2 months I used it on free trial, I deleted and set back up my accounts 3 times, because they got all messed up.

After trying out Quicken, and then Quicken Online, I gave up, and went back to an old fashioned check registry written by hand.  At the time, Quicken Online cost $5 a month, and didn’t have my bank in their list of institutions.  I tried to use Mint.com to monitor my spending habits and create a budget…but while it worked easily, since I didn’t have to update it, that was also a huge drawback.  Checks and debits that hadn’t cleared, but soon would, couldn’t be tracked there.  And let’s face it, that is a huge area for problems with keeping track of spending.  Recently, Quicken Online turned into a free service and launched a free iPhone app.  This seemed too good to be true, so I decided to try it out, hoping against all hope that my small rural bank was on the list this time.

I had a trial account that I logged into . . . oh . . . twice a year ago.  I added a credit card, which it also lets you track just like any other account, and requested them to add my bank twice before giving up.  I was able to log in with the same name and password, and I saw my sad little credit card, still sitting there, quietly chastising me for not paying down the balance quicker.  I went straight away and attempted to add my bank.  The first negative I will say about this experience is that their search function SUCKS.  Especially for those of us whose banks begin with ubiquitous phraseology like “First National Bank of . . .” or “First State Bank of  . . .”  And forget about typing in your town or state, to search by that.  It only searches through the exact lettering.  If you patronize the First State Bank of Montana, you can search for “First State,” or just “First,” but searching by “Montana” will get you nowhere fast.  Add to that the fact that my bank opted for going by “FNB” instead of “First National Bank,” and you have a recipe for disaster.  To be honest, I have no idea if my bank was on there on my first login.  I searched a few different way, and then requested it to be added.  3 times.  Just in case . . . ya know?  Eventually, I decided to just scroll through to double check.  I clicked on the letter “F” and then did a “Find” for my town’s name on the page in order to find it.  A pain?  Yes.  But someone who didn’t get what was happening in the search field might have given up long ago.  They need to add the ability to search for any match, or search geographically.

Once you’ve added your accounts, though, the magic starts.  While most features are ones you would expect, like downloading bank transactions, and monitoring your budget (things Mint.com does just as well, if not better), Quicken Online allows you to add in your new transactions by hand, and it will automatically reconcile them with your cleared transactions when they come through.  For me, this is a non-negotiable feature in financial software.  The auto-reconcile is a nice bonus, though . . . and it happens daily.  I’ve run into a few odd errors, with some things not reconciling properly.  This is usually due to naming inconsistencies.  If you type in your gas purchase as “Gas – $25″ and the transaction clears as “AC – Exxon 1235-jh12″ then you’re going to have to handle that manually.  Also, a donation to St. Jude’s reconciled as a monthly insurance payment, and automatically added itself to my monthly bills.  Which was a minor irritation.   That being said, there are plenty of other cool features.

Home Page

When you log in, via website or iPhone app, you’re greeted with a simple and informative homepage.  Which may be something you’re not quite prepared for, if you’re a bury-your-head-in-the-sand person like me, when it comes to budgeting.  You get a quick list of balances on the left, with a giant box in the middle, stating your predicted balance, once everything has cleared, and all bills due before your next paycheck are paid.  Below that you get indicators of your risk of Overdraft and risk of Low Balance.  Mine were a disturbing, bright-red, capital lettered “HIGH.”

Crap.

Transactions and Accounts

The next two tabs are for managing your accounts, and viewing your transactions.  The accounts tab is pretty self-explanatory.  You can see each account you have linked with Quicken, and what its current balance is.  In the transactions tab, you can see, for each account, up to your last 90 days of transactions, with pending / uncleared transactions that you enter yourself, along with entries for your next regular paycheck and next regular bills.  It’s useful in that you have an at-a-glance look at not only everything that is going on in your account, but everything that will be going on, forseeably, in the next month.  You can categorize each transaction for reporting and spending trend tracking, and put notes for each transaction.  Just like a regular check registry!  Only way more Web 2.0-ey.

These transactions are updated automatically daily, and can be updated at any time by clicking “Refresh.”  For some reason, this is a necessary morning ritual for me, because it seems my bank doesn’t update the previous day’s cleared transaction until after Quicken does it’s nightly check.  It’s way too obnoxious to not have the simple feature of specifying a time for the auto-refresh.  No excuse for that omission.

Goals

While the ability to set budgetary goals, or limits, is nothing new, I’m pretty fond of how well it integrates with the rest of the package.  Mint.com has this feature, and arguably does a better job of tracking your spending, allowing both categories and tags.  With Quicken, you’re limited to 1 category per transaction.  You can’t split payments between categories, like on desktop Quicken either.  It’s simple, and slightly limiting in that regard, but simple means quick and easy for me.  Having the ability to track multiple tags and categories is great.  But that’s where my eyes usually started swimming with desktop Money and Quicken.  I want to
get everything categorized correctly, especially come tax time, but the truth is if it takes too much time to categorize and tag, I just won’t do it.  And many of you are no doubt the same.  One category for the transaction = quick and easy.  These categories are used in monitoring your budget.  You can set an overall spending budget, and household or grocery budget, entertainment, etc.  Nothing there to blow your socks off, until you start approaching your limit – when you get a text message telling you to slow down on your spending.  Some may find that to be too intimidating . . . I love it.  I don’t have to worry too much about monitoring how much I spent on eating out, because I know I’ll get a text message when I’m approaching the limit.

The down-sides to relying on this feature are obvious.  Some of purchases in the budget don’t lend themselves to this type of monitoring.  For instance, grocery shopping.  We typically have one large grocery shopping trip per week.  Sometimes we do a really big trip that lasts two weeks, with an extra trip to the store for bread and milk in the mean time.  It’s nice to track that budget on Quicken, but it’s conceivable that you could go from way underbudget, and far away from a warning text, to over budget in one shopping trip.  There’s no way around that that I can see.  But it’s something to mindful of.

Mobile

Quicken Online tied up its spot in as my #1 financial tool with its mobile features.  It has a free iPhone app that replicates nearly every function of the full web page.  You get the same predicted balance with Overdraft and Low-balance indicators.  You can get up-to-the-minutes goal / budget tracking.  You can see all your transactions, and easily add in a new transaction while you’re swiping your debit card at the check out, to keep everything up-to-date.  Those text message warnings about going over budget…they can be configured to notify you about all kinds of things, like low-balances on your accounts, or when your credit card is approaching its limit.  The iPhone app also has a virtual “Wallet” that allows you to track your cash transactions as well, so that you can get a truer picture of where allof your money goes.  If you’re one of those sad archaic types that still carry cash.  Quicken gets all “cloudy” by instantly syncing your transactions as you add them on your iPhone back to the website, and vice versa.  This is way more than just getting your account balance, and keeping up with transactions.  You can get real-time updates on how much money is left in your budget for anything you want to track, and have all the information you need at your fingertips to make a financiall responsible decision anywhere you’re at, before you spend the money.  That’s been invaluable for me.  Since I so rarely made financially responsible decisions.

Wrap-up

Quicken Online is a great and solid financial planning tool for simple check-book balancing and personal budgetary needs.  If you need features for business expense tracking, split transactions, multiple categories, or complex tax informations.  It’s probably not the best tool for you.  If you’re a savvy investor who wants to keep track of a portfolio: ditto.  But if you’re looking for a great tool for integrating “check registry” features with bank account monitoring, budgeting, and expense tracking, with auto-reconciliation, then I think you’ll be hardpressed to find a better tool, especially if you’re an iPhone user, with the iPhone App.

I’m happy to admit when I’m wrong, especially when what I’m wrong about is something like the disturbing news I shared regarding the alleged schism in the Assemblies of God.  General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, George Wood, sent me an email to set the record straight, with a well deserved admonishment to double check facts before reporting a story such as that.  My apologies to my readers.  While I did do some double checking with local contacts on this account, it was my error for not allow the A/G Headquarters to respond directly to what my sources were accusing.  According the Superintendent Wood,  “Nothing could be further from the truth.  There has never been a resolution to change our views on these matters; and if there were, they would be resoundingly defeated.“

In all honesty, I’ve never been more happy to be wrong.  As I said in my previous post, I’m no longer a member of the Assemblies of God, but I actually have a copy of the 16 fundamental  truths in my house, and hold the positions taken by the Assemblies of God as a standard to judge my own beliefs by, after the Bible of course.  While many churches are being swayed by the false doctrines of the seeker-sensitive movement, I’m very happy to see that it hasn’t affected the doctrines of at least one denomination.

If you’re a church-going person (and even if you’re not), chances are you got some form of marriage counselling from your pastor before he/she agreed to join you in matrimony.  And if you’re much like me, you look back and find that marriage counselling session to be woefuilly inadequate for the great challenges you began facing . . . oh . . . about a day after you got back from your honeymoon.  I feel like my session was much better than most people get, and really did equip us for some of the struggles we faced, with very practical, if simple, tools.  My favorite among them, is the deceptively simple, “The way you don’t end up getting a divorce is simple: don’t get a divorce.”

I’m not sure what most churches do, but most that I’ve seen around here have one conselling session with a pastor, who typically discusses the importance of following God together, and living a biblical life.  Then it’s down the aisle you go.  These brief sessions don’t scratch the surface of the many issues you will face together.  To remedy this situation, I am proposing a series of Marriage Counselling Sessions, that I hope many of you will adopt in your churches.

1. Session 1 will be held individually with each person, and will be entitled “Men/Women are actually much crazier than you previously thought.”  Topics in this session will include what to do with an angry and hormonal wife.  How wives should approach a husband who wants to play video games/ watch sports all the time, and not spend time with them.  Bonus topics will include defensive postures for protecting yourself against flying remote controls and cordless phones.




2. Session 2 brings the couple together to discuss finances, the single greatest cause of marital problems, in a lesson entitled “Women Are Expensive.”  Men are very unprepared on their wedding day for the expense of frequent gynecological exams and mall shopping trips.  This lesson aims to familiarize men with what they will face as provider for the family, and help women understand that men rarely have any of these expenses.  Topics include the ridiculous regularity with which women:
   
   
   
   1. Go to the doctor

   
   

   2. Buy shoes

   
   

   3. Buy Makeup

   
   

   4. Buy more clothes to match their new shoes

   
   

   5. Buy more shoes to match the new clothes

   
   

   6. Get medical tests run

   
   

   
   




3. Session 3 delves deeper into financial issues surrounding marriage with a lesson entitled, “No Really . . . Women are Really Very Expensive.”  The shady ways in which hospitals and clinics bill multiple times for the same things will be discussed, as long as financial planning help for men to begin early to prepare their budgets for their new-found debt bliss.




4. Session 4 entitled “And just wait until you have . . .” is a relatively short lesson, due to budget constraints of the counsellor.  He didn’t have the money to finish this topic on having children.  But the point should be easy to articulate by this time in the limited amount of time you have before your interview for a second job.




5. Session 5 has been cancelled, in order for the counsellor to take on a second job to better pay for his own children and wife.

At this point, the betrothed couple should be marginally better prepared for the circumstances they will soon be facing.  “Oh!” you may say, “but this will discourage young people from getting married!”  Why yes, good friend, I believe you have the point exactly.  If someone gets married after these effective lessons, they are either A) Wealthy enough to circumnavigate most marital problems, or B) Very committed to becoming a Godly couple, and working hard together through touch times.  Either way, you should have no problems marrying them.

This valuable addition to any Pastor’s counselling plans is available for the affordable price of 2 pairs of shoes, 1 Doctor’s Visit, and 2 Outfits for young children.

Whose side are you on?

I’m a big fan of comic books.  I grew up reading them, and to me, DC Comics was always my favorite.  For the unintiated, DC Comics is the home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman – basically all the characters we think of when you think of iconic superheroes.  I occasionally picked up a few Marvel books, playing around for short times with X-Men and Spiderman, among a few others, but the characters and the stories never resonated with me much, so I stuck with DC by and large.

It wasn’t until adulthood, when a post by Jeremy Pierce got me thinking about it, that I realized what the fundamental difference in the two universes is, and perhaps what that says about people in terms of how they view themselves in the Kingdom of God. (It’s a stretch, I know . . . humor me)  There are tons of other differences, and tons of exceptions, but the basic fundamental difference is this: in DC Comics Superman is Superman, Clark Kent is a facade.  Superman is the core of who he really is.  In Marvel comics, the masks and tights is the facade.  Spiderman is really Peter Parker, at his core.  He’s just a kid trying to make it, and help some people out along the way.  A good kid, but Spiderman is a mask for him to do good works.  Ponder on that a minute, and let’s continue.

[Read more...]

I always know when God is trying to show me something about myself, that I’m uninterested in seeing.  My showers get much longer in the mornings, so I have to rush through Bible/Prayer time.  My prayers get very “surface” and short.  I decide I should read a book about how to live for God better, instead of seeking God for what he wants me to do each day.

This pretty much sums up the last few days.  Apparently I also get irritable, since I’ve been accused of being in a bad mood not a few times since the weekend.

I’m generally what I would call a “closed” person.  I like people… so long as they leave me alone.  I like them as long as they don’t interfere with my plans or encroach on my life in any kind of bothersome way.  I can see personally that this is obviously not the way to live, if I also intend to live my life in a way that shares the love of Jesus with people.  I certainly don’t recall Jesus ever saying, “What?  You want me to pray for what?  It’s 8:00 at night, I worked all day, and I’m tired.  Don’t bother me.”  Because that’s the way I view people: bothersome.  When all of this was working it’s way into my attention, my wife frustratedly exclaimed, “That’s why you don’t have any friends.  People are scared to talk to you.”  My quick and rather hateful response back was, “I have NEVER complained about not having friends.”  Upon saying it, I realized that I take a little perverse pleasure in every time someone says that people find me intimidating or unapproachable.  I found myself smiling when my wife told me that people are scared to talk to me, because they think they’re bothering me.  For some reason, I’ve developed an attitude that people are to be kept as far away as possible, at all costs.  And the more foreboding and intimidating I can be, the less I actually have to talk to any of them.

I recall, as a child, a particular incident where someone I considered a friend said, “Nobody likes you because you’re so smart.”  It was elementary school in the 80′s.  I was one of the few kids that had a computer, and my dad had found some silly program that let you make crossword puzzles.  I thought it would be neat to make one of some of our vocabulary words, and had him make it, so I could take it to class.  Teachers are typically very thankful for anything that helps pass the time in a class, so she copied it and passed it out.  A lot of kids thought it was neat that I (my dad) made it, and some didn’t.  Looking back, I can see that perhaps my little friend was jealous of the attention, or perhaps hated schoolwork, and didn’t want to do the crossword puzzle.  Maybe she just enjoyed being the “good” student in the class, and I had taken her out of the spotlight.  Either way, those words stuck with me.  Nobody likes me because I’m smart.

Now, I know many of your are reading this and thinking, “Really?  Get over it.  It was elementary school.  You’re an adult now!”  But in order to change the person we have become, I think we have to take a long look at what made us this way.

I’m not bragging about my intelligence here . . . I consider myself to be of relatively average intelligence, however sometimes people make me reconsider that idea.  I did make straight A’s in school, and generally enjoyed (and still do enjoy) learning something new.  Anything new.  I rock at Trivial Pursuit.  But the perception was there, at least for that little girl, at that moment.  And at that moment, I embraced a very dangerous way of thinking, to ease the pain of the idea of nobody liking me.  I embraced superiority.  People didn’t like me?  That’s fine . . . it’s because I’m smarter than them.  She said as much.  It may be lonely at the top, but it just means I can look down on everyone else.  That began the wall building project in my heart.  And it didn’t stop for many years.

Now, I didn’t go around acting and claiming to be smarter than anyone.  It was the window through which I viewed the world.  Who needs friends and other people?  Not me.  Why would I?  I don’t need their help.  I was, and still am, for a large part, an island unto myself.  The foundation was laid for the walls around my heart.  And we know that our enemy took every opportunity to continue building them.

I never made friends easily.  I was pretty shy.  But probably as a result of this self-righteous and arrogant view of the world, many of them parted ways with me.  Each time adding another brick to my wall.  I remember when I was 15 having a friend that was one of the few I had personally gone out the way to make throughout my life.  On a school trip, his entire attitude changed towards me.  To this day, I’m not sure if or what I could’ve done to illicit that type of response from him, but we never spoke again.  We sat next to each other in a few classes.  The next day at school I turned around to try and see what was wrong, and he told me to never speak to him again.  Ever.  Ouch.

I did finally find some good friends, that I’m still friends with today.  So this isn’t a total pity party.  More of a “bringing you up to speed” explanation.  By the time I was an adult, however, I typically preferred being alone, and enjoying whatever things I found to pass my time.  My walls were complete.  Few came in.  The gates were way too guarded for that.  Too afraid to be hurt, too proud to open the gates, and walled in from all other sides.

Which brings us to today.  I’m a know-it-all.  But I’m seldom hurt, because few people get that close.  I can even admit to holding my wife at arm’s length occasionally.  The situation, at this point, requires more than my decision to go out and be nice to people.  I need God’s help to tear down the walls that I’ve built up.  It’s ugly to see myself as an arrogant, self-righteous smart-alec who believes he is never wrong.  I’m ashamed of my attitudes towards other people.  But I’m thankful that God showed me this in prayer, and is giving me the opportunity to change rather than causing circumstances to come about in my life that would force me into it.

I’ve let the cares of the world choke out the love of God in my heart.  It’s still alive in there, just small.  But luckily, if I let it, there’s nothing that can keep something that powerful walled up.  Now . . . I think I have a few relationships to mend, and perceptions to change.

I’ve been working on some new features for the main site, and haven’t really had much time to sit down and collect my thoughts recently.  If you’ve followed me for long, you know how fervently I strive to be a “witness,” whatever that may entail.  And as a self-professed geek, I feel that these internets can and should be used as a tool for evangelization.  The question is: “How?”

I teach the Teens’ Sunday School class at my church, and have a mission for it that I believe is somewhat unique to a class of that age-range: to teach them how to read and understand the Bible for themselves.  Somewhere along in my life, I got a pretty decent understanding of the Bible, how to study it, etc. . . and that was before my brief and disappointing stay at a Bible college.  So, we go through a book of the Bible, taking our time, reading, and learning how to take the story, and apply it to our lives, how to read it in context so we don’t get wacky with things, how to study a topic throughout the Bible as a applicable one arises through our reading.  Most of the kids didn’t even realize there was a concordance in the back of their Bible before it started, and they’ve really learned how to dig in and find answers to tough questions in the Bible.

We recently began studying the book of Acts, and while we’ve only talked about 2 verses in it in depth, so far, it’s really started changing the way I view my witnessing activities.  In Acts 1:8, we see a mandate that represents an almost insurmountable slew of cultural barriers.  Not only should the disciples witness to their own kind, but to the Samaritans (gasp!) and eventually even the Gentiles!  We’re studying the book in this light: as a manual for reaching across barriers and winning the lost.

In my class, I used  the example of me and a redneck.  I am, at my heart, a city boy.  I don’t hunt.  I don’t fish.  I don’t really even like to be outside, except for perfect, cool days, with no bugs.  I like the hustle and bustle of a city.  I don’t particularly care for country-style fried foods (they do fry everything…ever had a fried twinkie?  I have).  I don’t like football.  Basically, it’s nearly impossible for me to connect with the traditional southerners of small-town Arkansas.  However, I have the mandate to do just that, to spread the Gospel.  And to be effective, I feel, I must do it in a way that is relevant to the person receiving it.  I think, here, is where we lose a lot of effectiveness has Christians today.

Paul famously (infamously?) said when he was in Rome, he did as the Romans.  That he becomes all things to all people, in order the spread the Gospel.  I think I can surmise, that this means if I’m going to witness to rednecks (and I don’t use that term derogatorily) then I have to “become one” . . . so to speak.  I have to be willing to show them I care about them, and that usually means showing that I care about the things they care about.  That I “get” them.  I mean . . . seriously . . . what country fellow, who hunts and fishes, and loves the outdoors and all the stuff in it, is going to take a look at a pale, pasty, computer nerd, who is never parted with his iPhone and think, “This guy really gets where I’m coming from . . . and I should listen to what he has to say.”  I’m not saying be fake . . . I’d be ridiculed pretty fast if I went around with boots talking about shooting animals in the woods.  But I can engage Mr. Redneck in areas where we can connect.  I can show I care by saying, “Hey . . . you been fishing lately?  Catch anything?”  I think the working premise here, is that I care enough about him to engage him in his culture, if I can’t engage him as part of his culture.  Maybe even go fishing with him.  Believe me, he’d only invite me once.

We’ve become so accustomed to “church-centered” evangelization, that we miss out on the true secret of church growth in Acts: personal evangelism.  They were at each other’s houses, breaking bread, and believers were added to the church daily.  That means that on a daily basis, regular believing Jews would have to go out of their way to befriend Gentiles and Samaritans.  To love them.  Care for them.  Looking at churches today, we’ve evolved into our own brand of Judaism.  We don’t reach to the world, we look down on them.  We don’t go to the lost, and pull them up to where we are, we look down on them and expect them to come to us.  I believe that the relevance of evangelistic crusades for this generation just isn’t there.  Basically, we’ve gotten a little too self-righteous.

So, for today’s generation, the internet is obviously a relevant way to engage them, but I haven’t seen it used effectively (yet) to reach anyone.  I have an idea, but I’m interested in hearing your opinions.  Leave some ideas in the comments, or share a new way to engage anyone in a way that is relevant to who they are.  One way I think the internet can excel, for us, is to provide a place for us to encourage each other to go out and win the lost.  To share ideas, stories, and testimonies of how to be an effective witness.  That’s why I started TheLimitless.com, and that’s especially why I opened it up to a community of bloggers to host their own blogging site on, or share their current blog with a new audience.  Hopefully, we can all help each other become real and true witnesses.

I’ve been noticing the trend lately, amongst the charismatic/pentecostal circles to focus on something our movement has ignored for quite some time: service.  Full Gospel denominations and movements have had their voices overshadowed, intentionally or not, by the mega-preachers.  The Benny Hinns, Creflo Dollars, Joyce Meyers, and (God help us) the Joel Osteens of the world.  I’m calling it today, and we’ll reconvene in a few years to see how right I am (Hint: very).  While we’ll probably see Benny’s giant hair, Joyce Meyers man-pants, and Joel Osteen’s impossibly large teeth for on TV for quite some time, I believe their influence on modern churches is waining.

Recently, I was encouraged to hear Dutch Sheets really ripping into modern churches today, and he said something I found incredibly interesting, “It’s my goal to keep as many people out of the pulpit as possible . . . from what I do . . . it’s my goal to ordain lawyers, and doctors . . . to go out into the world and share Jesus.”  According to Matthew 11:10-13, we are a kingdom at war.  We’ve always been at war, and we will continue to be, until Jesus returns, sets things right, and hands the Kingdom over to his father (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).  We can’t win a war with the troops sitting around marveling at the equivalent of super-solders showing off their strength by ripping phone books.  We win a war by training and equipping soldiers to fight, and then sending them out to defeat the enemy.

I believe this celebrity-focused Christianity we’ve experienced thanks to TBN and the like over the last few decades has created a dangerous set of circumstances in the church.  We have people praying for hours, to get deep revelations, just for sake of praying for hours and getting revelations.  To impress friends and church members.  To share with other Christians, who are also sharing their “deep revelations” to the same group.  Never leaving the church… never venturing outside to a world in need of salvation.  We have more and more dramatic church services, with people being slain in the spirit, getting one deliverance after another.  It’s bred an inwardly-focused body of Christ.  This is clearly not conducive to gaining new converts, winning the lost, or impacting this world for Jesus.

But, during this time, I’ve also noticed a movement among young people and college students towards what I’m calling here, “new-radicalism.”  They have an understanding that the ministry is not about being in a pulpit.  That revelations are practical knowledge from God for one purpose: to aid in preaching the gospel to the utter-most parts of the earth.  These young people are embracing something I did several years ago: you don’t have to have a ministerial license, or a theological degree, to be in the ministry.  We’re in the ministry because we’ve accepted Jesus Christ, and have committed our lives to serving him, and spreading his Gospel everywhere we can.  I work in the business world . . . a place many traditional preachers can’t reach.  I meet people regularly with very comfortable lives, who are seldom confronted with the Gospel.  How do you show someone a need in their lives, when they believe they have every need met, and plenty more laid up in store?  A preacher can’t . . . but one of their own can.  Doctor’s are notorious know-it-all’s.  But who can reach a doctor?  A better doctor.

So, while I’m boldly proclaiming that the era of Mega-Preachers is over… I do expect to see them on the Television for several years to come.  But always catering to the same crowd…an aging crowd…a self-indulgent crowd.  And as they die out, and retire to their mega-mansions and yachts, I believe we’re going to see a movement dramatically rise to fore-front of Christianity that is starting right now – a movement of regular people, in regular jobs, who are sold out to God.  A movement of regular people who boldly preach the Gospel on streets, brokerage floors, board rooms, hospital rooms, court houses . . . the list can go on forever.  I believe this is a group that won’t compromise with the seeker-sensitive movement, and will call sin sin.  I believe this group will be empowerd by God to do greater works than the televangelists ever thought about.  I expect healings, miracles, signs, and wonders to happen…in ordinary lives, in ordinary circumstances . . . through extraordinary and yet totally average people.

The next time you see Joel Osteen’s grin…the next seeker-senstive service you attend…the next time Joyce Meyers tries to make you believe it’s okay for women to look like men…just smile and realize that they’re on the way out.  A revival of a church similar to the Book of Acts is happening.  And I’m joining in.  Are you?