Christianese

So this is the first of a "series" that I want to do on words and phrases we use as Christians.

So I have been thinking about things we say as Christians. We tend to have our own language and one that in reality we don't understand. We are like children, we say things because we heard someone else say it in a similar situation but it doesn't really hold any meaning to us.

One of these phrases is "Following God" or "Seeking after God". Many times it will be in a conversation and it will go something like this "Yeah I am just really trying to seek after God right now, you know all I want to do is follow Christ!" But what does that mean?!? If you were talking to a professional football player about their life and daily schedule and they said "Usually each day I just try and be the best at football and that usually takes up my day" You would be confused and completely unsure of what they do each day.

Same thing goes for following God. It is not ambiguous. It has concrete actions. You could even say it is being legalistic. When a athlete is trying to be the best at what they do they usually have a strict routine, they wake up at a certain time, eat certain foods, do specific workouts etc. They have structure and that structure is there to accomplish a goal. So why do we think that having a relationship with God is any different? The way we follow God is to set a plan and work on it! If I want to be a better husband to Amy I don't just think about it I have to work on it! I have to set reminders to pick up flowers, put notes on my phone to remind me of the gift that God has given me in her. I have to DO THINGS! 

For me to grow in my relationship with God I need to put reminders on my phone to pray, to memorize scripture, to be loved by God and to love others. I have to be purposeful about being purposeful to "seek after God". 

Why? Because he is doing this for us. He didn't just "happen" to send his son to die for MY SIN. He planned it, he knew I would sin against him and so he prepared from the beginning of time the way in which to repair what I had destroyed. If God plans things for us to better our relationships with him how much more do we need to do the same? -> answer: WAY MORE!

Food for action

One who is not even close to doing this very thing,

Keegan

I was wrong and I am sorry.

So story time,

A few years ago I lived in the Sullivan Hall while I was going to school at N.C. State. During this time I lived with some awesome guys. One night as we were standing around talking Josh Clemmons and I got to talking about what defines good literature. As you can understand from the seriousness of this topic and the depth at which we are both versed in it (<- Sarcasm) the conversation quickly got out of hand. After a few hours I was making up "facts" to get my point across and sure enough Josh called me out on it. I got defensive, lied some more and we continued the argument which concluded in both of us saying some things we regretted to each other. So we left it at that and went to sleep.

The next day Josh walks into my room somewhat early on in the morning and apologizes to me about what he said to me the night previous. This shocked me! Saying sorry? Saying your wrong? Admitting defeat (this is how I saw it)? This was a foreign concept to me.

What Josh did took him maybe 2 minutes and it not only quickly repaired any damage that had been done to our friendship but it was an amazing example. I learned that day how to say I am sorry/I was wrong and that it is one of the best things you can ever say. The crazy thing is when he told me that I realized what I had said and done and told him I was sorry and that I had lied.

Neither of us yelled at the other or got mad at each other. At this point your thinking "Well duh!" but isn't that how we think? We think that if we "Admit Defeat" by being wrong or saying sorry that we will be made fun of for it, or that by doing so we are giving someone power over us. The beautiful thing is thats not true. From that day on I have tried to say these words more, I haven't been perfect at it and I probably don't do it enough but it has helped my relationships with people so much and it is not as scary as I thought it would be.

My challenge to you today is to say sorry, even if it's a long time coming. Start admitting that you are wrong and you will see how it takes stress away and gives you some freedom. Don't let selfishness control your life today!

Someone who has done many wrongs,
Keegan

Being Vulcan

So this post is a long time coming, I have talked about this with quite a few people but I realize I need to gather my thoughts and do this. So here goes!

Something that I feel really strongly about is being in control of your body, this covers physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Today I am going to talk about the last one, simply put Being Vulcan.

In our society (this is talking mostly about "christian" society but all society is included) there tends to be a lot of emphasize on our emotions. How we felt in a situation usually determines what we say and how we react to others. We basically let our emotions take charge and follow them blindly, the problem is two fold 1: we don't realize and refuse to realize when we are allowing our emotions to take control 2: we don't really want to change.

Reading through the book Meaning of Marriage they had a quote from Jane Eyre where basically a man who has a mentally ill wife falls "in love" with Jane and asks her to be his mistress:

"... while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. "Think of his misery; think of his danger --- look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair -- soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for YOU? or who will be injured by what you do?"

She recognizes the different facets of her soul crying out and realizes how she could be sucked in by them and she responds:

"Still indomitable was the reply: "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more the friendless, the more the unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad -- as I am now. Laws and principles are not made for the time where there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth -- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane -- quite insane: with my veins running firse, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."

I did."

She understood that though she was having these thoughts they were from an insane mindset, one that was tilted by her emotions.

James 1:19 
"This you know my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger" 

James is saying here that we can control our anger and WE SHOULD.

Proverbs 16:32
"Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."
2 Peter 1:5-9
"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins."
1 John 2:16-17
Eph. 4:1-32
Gal 5:17


The list goes on and on Scripture COMMANDS us to put our thoughts and emotions before God and do what he has asked us to do not what our flesh desires.

Are we putting stock in how we feel or are we being obedient?

John 14:23
"Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'"

Our view of Quiet Time

So in the past couple of weeks I have come to realize two things:
1. My view of the purpose of quiet times was wrong.
2. How I did my quiet times was also wrong.

So first off let's handle the view, I viewed my quiet time in the morning as my time to hear from God. I didn't actively think in my brain "Ok now is my one time to hear from God for the day" but that is how I acted.  When after my quiet time I struggled with something later that day I would think "but I had a quiet time earlier why am I struggling?"

This idea was that I basically only read the Bible at one point in my day and that that was somehow sufficient. That I only NEEDED to read God's word once a day.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)

 ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

If we understand who God is and what the bible is we will spend as much of our free time as possible hearing from God's word. When we have a moment and we don't really need to do anything else we will use that moment to hear from God. We will be listening to God 10-20 times a day meditating on his word and relaxing in his presence. We will be reading as we stop for lunch, go to the bathroom, step back from our work for a second, or walk out the door. We will be making excuses to read God's word or to meditate on what he has said.

So second of all the how, I viewed quiet time to = read the Bible and pray some. Is this really what it means to have a quiet time?

Luke 21:1-4

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”


God wants what we cannot spare not what we can. When we go to spend time with God he wants us in totality not partially. I had found myself reading and praying while thinking about other things not giving God restricted (restricted only to him) time of devotion. God wants our all when I say "well I didn't have time this morning" I am reminded of this Martin Luther quote "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." WOW he had a correct view of God and this world. Do we?

Spend some time each day completely focused on God without any distractions and really seek to be in the presence of God. This is my challenge to you and myself.

Men

So today me and James Wilson were talking about some of our struggles and life as men. One of the things I shared was my desire to see men own their spiritual responsibilities. Within that I have this desire to re-awaken the fierceness that as men of God we are supposed to have. Please take the time to read this passage from 2 Samuel 23

⁸ These are the names of David’s mighty warriors:

Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter.

⁹ Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim^[d] for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, ¹⁰ but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.

¹¹ Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. ¹² But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory.

¹³ During harvest time, three of the thirty chief warriors came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴ At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. ¹⁵ David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” ¹⁶ So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the Lord. ¹⁷ “Far be it from me, Lord, to do this!” he said. “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” And David would not drink it.

Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors.

¹⁸ Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. ¹⁹ Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.

²⁰ Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. ²¹ And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. ²² Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. ²³ He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

These men were not passive, these men were not timid, these men were Godly, these MEN WERE FIERCE. These men understood God as one who FIGHTS for us, they lived in the knowledge that they were servants to David who was a servant of the Most High God. If they served God on high who had they to fear?


In this day and age men are taught to be lazy to be meek and mild and not take charge of anything. If we study scripture we see that this is wholly a lie, Jesus burned with righteous anger at the defiling of his Fathers house and flipped tables, and drove people out with a whip. He took his Father seriously and defended his house seriously.


I struggle with this because I am not sure of how to be fierce for God's sake and not just for the sake of being fierce. Sometimes I do things that give me a glimpse of God's warrior face and it is great but it greatly frustrates me because I do not know how to walk in that. Many times I will do stupid and reckless things to feel that sense of the Warrior but it is just treating a symptom. 


Those Men who are reading this I urge you to spend time in prayer struggling through this and asking God to teach you how to be fierce for his name's sake. Ladies I ask that you would pray for the men you know to be fierce and to learn how to embrace God's warrior aspect in their lives.


One who is not worthy,
~Keegan

This Generation

This post is a little different than my other ones, more of a outpouring of my thoughts and such. Let me also say before you go any further this is just my thoughts and feelings nothing I say here should be taken as solid THIS WILL HAPPEN type of thing.

So over the last 21 years (aka my life) I have had this feeling that something drastic is going to happen. Over time it has narrowed and focused to become a basic thought. The thought is "God is going to reclaim my generation (those within the 1980 - 2000 birth range) and in specifically America we will see triumph and persecution on a scale that we have never before seen in America" So this is my prayer. That we would see victory? Yes, but persecution also.

Why persecution? Well one of the things I desire most in life is the True Gospel being proclaimed every where. By this I mean the fall of westernized religious christianity. The reason believers are persecuted in other countries is because the message that they bring is so life changing so amazing that it causes problems, big problems.

Acts 17:6 "When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, 'These men who have upset the world have come here also.'"

They were shouting, they were mad, they were furious. Because MEN who loved God and had a burden for the lost went OUT OF THEIR WAY to proclaim to them the Gospel which demands an answer. Either we accept it and as such change every aspect of our lives, or we dismiss it. There is no middle ground and that is what is missed so often.

Most people when asked if a gun was put to their head and they were asked to either reject Jesus as Lord or die respond with "You can't really know unless you are in the situation". Well maybe for you, but for me I would simply say "You ask what I cannot give for when I asked Jesus to be my Lord that was not a situational or temporary commitment but an everlasting placing of trust"

Romans 8:35-39 " ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:
   “For your sake we face death all day long;
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
 ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So in that situation I would die. For God chose me and accepted me into His family as such I cannot and will not reject Him. Are we situational believers? or are we eternally sons and daughters of the most high?

The Course of a Lifetime

I have been a student at the great North Carolina State University for 3 and a half years now. Over that time I have gained so much both in class and in out. Friendships have turned into me gaining brothers and sisters of the deepest kind. I have even been blessed enough to meet a pretty amazing woman. I have been able to spend time with some of the wisest and most Godly men I have ever met. God has done a work in me here that has forever changed the course of my life. I am most thankful for what God has given me and allowed me to do.

With that being said some things are changing, about a month ago I went on a leadership retreat (mission USA) to South Carolina. Tom Short led times of prayer and teachings and it was fantastic. The thing that struck me most was not what was said by Tom or any of the other elders but what was shown. These men have been chasing God together for over 20 years. As I saw Berk, Tom, Ed, Robbie, and other elders interact and listening to them talk about how they started, it built a fire up in me. I decided then that I wanted to spend my life reaping in the blessing that is found in serving with other Men of God. I have resolved in my heart that I want to serve God as the main thing that I give my time and energy to.

Currently I am studying Computer Science Engineering at NC State University, for those that don't know that is basically software design. I am 2 semesters and a summer session from graduating, by finishing out my degree I would double my current debt and graduate in December of 2012 with a BS in Computer Science. After seeking wisdom and guidance from some leaders of my church and my parents, I feel like it is more wise for me to instead finish a degree in computer programming at Wake Tech. This will allow me to get a degree in less time and spend the time I would have used at NC State building up web development skills and paying of debt so that I can eventually go on staff with Great Commission Ministries.

I am very excited about this and think that this is where God is leading. I would ask everyone to please pray for me in this as it is not easy and is very scary for me.